- Opening Day -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

One of my favorite things about St. Louis is the way we pull together during baseball season and go WACKO [or Wacha?] for our beloved BIRDS! 

And one of my NOT so favorite things is working a 12-hour shift the night before AND the night of the Cards' home opener... :( 

...So cheers to sleeping soundly through Opening Day?  But 'tis still the life when the Cardinals bring home a "W" and we get to nomnomnom on day shift's leftover hotdogs! Who knows how long these doggies were out [tray probably delivered around 11 in the a.m. and night shift starts at 7 in the p.m. sooo...?] but can hotdogs even spoil? Nah. Didn't think so.

PS - Still wondering why day shift always gets a spread of food for the smallest of small special events and we get.....nada?  But I'll leave that injustice untouched for now. 

Other week highlights: 

-- Happy birthday, Anna!

- Worthy Is The Lamb -

I always HATED practicing for piano lessons.  I started them at the beginning of second grade [because back then you had to wait until you could read to start taking lessons and...I think my brain growth was stunted or something because now kids learn how to read in preschool but...enn-bee-dee] and every day my mom set the oven timer in the kitchen for TWENTY MINUTES. That seemed like an eternity to sit there and plunk out a page full of black twisted up notes, and I remember wishing on the daily that the piano would just learn how to play itself. [Although looking back, those twenty minutes were probably more of an eternity sensation for my mom and any other poor soul who was stuck in the house listening to the garbled up clunkity-clunk-clunking.  And on total tangent thought, she also suffered through countless hours of my saxophone practicing -- so at least we can smile and be happy that a) the piano was guaranteed to be in tune and b) the piano never emitted any sort of high-pitched squawking.]

Wow that was an intense paragraph and all I really wanted you to know was that I hated piano lessons...

...But now I LOVE that my parents forced me to take them!!! 

Because life rocks when you're a master of eighty-eight black and whites.

*nose up*

*left shoulder brush brush*

*right shoulder brush brush*

Jay-kay.

But not really. 

Almost 20 years of piano playing is securely fastened under my belt now, and it feels good to be able to sit down anytime and pound out a little emotion and make some music in the process. ;) 

Oh, and my mom obvi set that 20-minute timer every day because my grandma set that 20-minute timer for her about 30 years ago and so.......

Check out our latest homemade video:  

"Worthy Is The Lamb" 

Four hands, two hearts, one love for Jesus! 

[Try this link if the video doesn't play.]

Happy Lent/Easter 2014 from my sweet momma [the 20-minute timer setter] and me!

- Dad's Birthday -

Happy birthday to my old man!  50-something never looked so young! ;)  We celebrated with the fam at Texas Roadhouse then had cake and ice cream afterwards at our house. 

Birthday boy got a loud and proud, "YEEHAW!" from the Roadhouse dinner guests but was too embarrassed to straddle or ride the birthday saddle!  Oh well... To each their own.

Happy happy day, Pops!

- Photography 101 -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

So shooting this camera in auto mode is awesome, but it does have a ton of other bells and whistles that I also want to master! I'm not tryin' to be a full blown professional photog here, but I do enjoy a little fun photography as a side hobby and don't want to be clueless when it comes to using this thing in its full capacity!  As mentioned before, Brian has this friend James (owner of Labonte Photography!) who is a genius in the camera world and is a pretty creative and skilled photographer himself. He holds classes in his home and/or studio occasionally when he finds a couple people who are interested in learning, so of course we jumped right on that bandwagon. And "Photography 101" was a huge success!!! Plus after we learn what he taught us in this 4.5 hour session [which by the way, he only charges $35 for THAT ENTIRE TIME], he is gonna schedule a "Photography 102" class! 

^^ Pressure's on to get out there and practice, practice, practice! 

Anybody wanna be my practice victim? Hit me up. :) 

Other week highlights: 

-- Happy birthday, Dad!!!

- The P-Romise [Part II - because just Part I wasn't enough] -

Everyone knows our story of salvation...

...or at least I hope you do...

...but just in CASE you don't, here's a picture-book play-by-play to help you along. [Just in time for Easter, obvi.] ;) 

Background info: I got a new camera + I love a good performance of The Promise...

...and...well here, let me just elaborate slash narrate a tiny bit more because we all know excessive talking/typing is my specialty.

"The Promise" starts off with a local 21st-century family out for an evening walk and then ... they're sitting in the park singing ... and voila! ... all of the sudden all these Old Testament famous figures come back to life and the Bible story unfolds!  2.5 hours later, Jesus has been born and done his ministry and died and risen and...whaddya know, you're left on your feet in wild applause with a smiling heart and a burning passion to evangelize and a renewed sense of God's great love for humanity. Seriously, the final scene damn near brings me to tears, and we all know that I have cried about a total of five times in my life to date.

SO...

From the beginning...

-- My gramps rockin' his part as the Prophet Micah + prophesizing to that local family that "soon there will come a ruler and a leader of Israel, and His name will be Emmanuel: "God with us." He will know to refuse evil and choose good, and He will be great until the end of the world!"  ...And some more lines humble-jumbled in there that I can't seem to remember [but of course he always remembers because he has been cast as the Prophet Micah for 15+ years now!!! ...Quite the patriarch of our family, wouldn't you say? ;) But let's not get side-tracked.]... 

-- [A very pregnant] Mary and [a very loving and supportive] Joseph on the road to Bethlehem... 

-- And they made it just in time for Baby Jesus to be born! The angels are singing and the shepherds are...observing?...and the three kings come bearing gifts.  So sparkly and gorgeous and majestic. One of my favorite scenes! 

-- The grown Jesus starts his ministry and encourages the children to come to Him... Love this pic because the green-dress/blonde-pigtailed girl and the hooded boy to her right are Jesus's real-life kiddos! So sweet. You rock, Raffety fam! 

-- Jesus and Nicodemus gettin' deep into the logistics of being "born again"...

-- Jesus's healing ministry begins! The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the dead are raised to life. I should not even post a pic of this because it is a million times more mighty in the flesh, but this pretty little yellow-gowned soloist is my high-school classmate and friend Libby, and me be proud of her!  Oh, and in the background Jesus is touching the cripple's knee and healing her, so three points for my amateur photog skills occasionally surpassing amateur-ness.

-- Preach preach PREACH it, brotha.

-- The Last Supper...

-- Praying/singing/sleeping in the garden...  Also LOVE the song in this scene; Jesus is singing His prayer for peace, hope, courage, and love: "Glorify Your Son as the cross comes into view; glorify Your Son that your Son may glorify You..." :) Boom.

-- Trials with King Herod and Pontius Pilate...

-- Crucifixion...

-- Holy powerful and beautiful! Ain't nothin' that can keep our Jesus down...

-- Annnnd the big moment everyone has been waiting for: Resurrection time!!!

Several scenes are not depicted, and that is the result of a couple poor excuses: 1) most of the time I was honestly so engrossed and drawn into the setting of the play that I forgot I wasn't actually sitting on a muddy rock during B.C./A.D. era and 2) I was trying not to be overly obnoxious and out of control with the camera clicking. 

BUT...

Anyway...

Wanna come to The Promise next year?! Tickets are FREE and the 2015 dates have already been set:  March 13, 14, 15 and 20, 21, 22! 

Come on, do it. It's gonna be my birthday and I'll even sit right by you.

...And maybe...

...just MAYBE...

...Brian and I could be supplying the Baby Jesus for next year? ;)

- The Promise -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Another year here and gone and another great season of The Promise!!  Sitting in the audience gets a little harder every year [...this big-booty Judy craves to be back on that stage stat!!!], but watching the cast-->who have become friends-->who have become family throw down another flawless performance is so heartwarming! And they are soooo talented. Really...truly actually honestly, it's like God is breathing Spirit through the vocal cords of these peeps and then in turn these peeps are echoing the heart of God and inspiring the 1500+ audience members with their every word and motion and song.  

#powerful 

#profound 

#PERFECT

Thanks for sharing your gifts and talents, frans! You are God's hands and feet and voice and heart and everything in between and I am soooo proud of you! :) 

Check it out: pictures pictures pictures galore of the play this year!  

And of course, The Promise 2013!

...Lastly, I just saw this pic on The Promise website. Me in the cast call as Mary w/ Baby Jesus circa 2005 [??].  BABY FACE!

Other week highlights: 

-- Dinner and catching up [and then The Promise obvi] with long-lost friend Alicia! We don't get to see each other very often, but we pick up right where we left off when we are reunited! Love you, girl! 

- Grammin' the Bday -

I've been surviving and thriving outside the uterus for 25 years now and the factual fact of those numerics is still sinking in because.....

Damn, I'm old.

But then again, oldness = wiseness and what is there to really complain about?  Birthdays are good for you... And statistics show that people who have the most live the longest! ;) 

SO... For your viewing pleasure [and as promised in the last post]: a collection of Instagrams Latergrams to illustrate the funness! 

-- Thursday night birthday eve/movie watchin'/couch snugglin' sesh: "Baby, you're gonna be a quarter of a century here in a few hours!!" [...Yeah, because you have so much room to poke fun, you old coot!]

-- Friday lunch at Mike Shannon's with my two main men! [Mom was stuck at home on her deathbed.....probbbbably feeling just about the same way she was 25 years ago at this time! And Dad was struggling to turn his head from March Madness.....again sounding the same as 25 years ago at this time, right Mom?!  But Illini in the Final Four... A small dose of justification deserved.] 

-- Friday afternoon at the park testing out my brand new birthday gift!!! [Not the coffee.] Brian took the entireeee day off work to pamper the princess. So flattered! ;) 

-- Friday night dinner in St. Louis with my best boos! [And all of our husbands who WERE there to wine and dine but then dodged the camera like it's their job or something.] 

-- Saturday night dinner at Grandma's for the birthday girls!! [Four March birthdays in a row in this fam...just missing Tom and Theresa!] 

 

-- Sunday morning post-Mass breakfast date at IHOP! 

Lots of celebrating and lots of fun!!!

I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY!!

#latergramsforthewin

Bring on my 25th year of existence!  ;) 

- "Say cheese!" x 429 -

I GOT A BRAND NEW SUUUUPER AWESOME DSLR CAMERA FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!

[Yeah, that same one I was supposed to get for Christmas. And when it didn't show up under the tree on Christmas morning, Brian said it must've a) fallen out of Santa's sleigh or b) maybe it was just such an intricate piece of technology that the elves didn't know how to craft it -- which were the only two rational explanations I could ever finally settle for considering I had been SUCH A GOOD GIRL all year long. But anyway. That episode occurred over three months ago and it's not like I'm still bitter or anything. Pouty pout pouting no more.] 

So...

"Say cheese!" 
[First picture ever.]

It takes a lot of pics in a really little amount of time which is just GREAT!! A four-second glimpse into the multiple-personalitied life of Brian Dean Fleming:

After the fun of this paparazzi photoshoot in the kitchen [quickly] wore off I easily and enchantingly conned Brian into taking me to the park because...I mean, he would obviously still be posing for a plethora of photos but at least there would be better backgrounds. And light. Mostly more light. ;)

Skipping off to Starbucks then the park then...

"Do I really have to get out of the car?" 

Yep, so buck it up, buttercup. Jay kay, those words would never come out of my saint-of-a-husband's mouth because his numero uno hobby es pampering/pleasing the princess.

[And finally, the more than three month awaited]

PHOTOSHOOT COMMENCES:

We're working on our modeling poses, but we realized for now our back sides are our best sides...

Zomggg, taking pics is SO FUNNN. Wish the world was more green and less brown, but.....we'll get there soonish.

"Double-yew tee eff, babe?" Stop stalking me.

70 degree weather and being with my hubby all day and Starbucks and spring on the horizon and a new camera and playing at the park and ALL THE THINGS I LOVE. And and and and. Me like my bertday.

At the end of the park date, we had two whole settings mastered: auto and.........AUTO. We plan on getting some lessons from Brian's friend who teaches camera physics and maybe also hitting up some of the Creve Coeur Camera classes downtown! Or if you have some pretty children/any other form of live moving subject victims that I could practice on, I would be ever so grateful. ;) 

I know you're not sad that this pointless post plastered with 429 pointless photos is coming to a close, but be assured that MORE [like multiple more - but actually maybe only one more now that I think about it] boisterous birthday brag posts will be coming soon to a computer near you! I'm sure I will soon be nostalgic to revel in my come-and-gone birthday wonderfulness because.....today I woke up to Brian trying to flick a booger at my face SO.....back to reality.