DECADEdent :: II

So this is a continuation of my reflection on the past decade of my life. I thought with a new year and new blogging goals, a little getting-to-know-each-other practice might be nice. Also, most of my new friends here in Charlotte don't really know our story, so here's a continuation. 

BACK IN THE BASEMENT : 02

In '02, I convinced Scott it was time to bid our 70s condo & Napoloen, MI farewell and we sold it and moved to an adorable fixer-upper ranch house closer to town. It was microscopic and cute and had been lived in by a little old lady and her family for about 50 years (which would be a recurring theme for our future homes). We put our bed in the basement (man, I miss basements) and worked on the house for what seemed an eternity. My dad flew out and taught me how to use a tile saw and we ceramic tiled the kitchen floor. Friends helped us paint-inside and out. Jerry Neu (a friend from Westwinds) taught me how to paint the entire interior of a house like a pro w/ no tape (since he was the expert). After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, it was livable and we were living maybe 10 minutes from work. (too bad we ever move from my place in the city...that was our pre-Shane Claiborne days - and also, Scott's condo in Napoleon was much harder to sell than my little house in the city) It was a beautiful thing. I imagined children running around in the backyard someday or playing drums in the basement...Scott bought a Harley and we fell in love with everything biker. We admit being bikers was our attempt at an alter-ego, but we had a blast. We became deeper with our friends in MI- and since our fam lived so far away, our friends there really became our family. The seasons were dramatic, the conversations were lively, and Scott and I loved our jobs and co-workers! Our brains literally hurt from all the books we were reading and how we were being stretched in our jobs @ Westwinds. From our theology to our relational depths, we were being transformed and it felt really really good. Let me also say this. I had not done much worship leading in my life before taking the job @ Westwinds. I had done alot of singing...some playing, some performing...and a tiny bit of leading-  I can't think of a better place to kind of grow up and learn as a worship leader than that church. 

EASY RIDER : 03

I think '03 might have been a bit of an early mid-life crisis for both of us. Or maybe it was the first year I had lived in Michigan and didn't move! I recorded an album at our house with some good friends (not the highest quality, but fun) and Scott got more into the motorcycling thing. We did a road trip with a bunch of friends to Milwaukee for the Harley 100th yr. anniversary...it was amazing! 

We rode from MI all the way around Lake Michigan- the scenery, food, sights, libations, and friends were all marvelous. Sometimes now when I'm throes of my current schedule I'll think back on those days and wonder if that was really me wearing a bandana and a leather jacket on the back of that bike or someone else. It's almost surreal! I can say I saw things at that Harley event I've never before (or never again) will see- people-watching highlight of my life. Note the pictures. I think that also might have been the year that Ted and Shemane Nugent invited me over their house after church one day (they attended our church) and then invited me to sing in their wedding and on Ted's album. It was pretty fun. I know this sounds like name dropping, but really I'm just trying to articulate what kind of unlikely year that was. 

This was also the year that our good friends Matt and Donna O'Neil who we'd known for year, came out to visit. We had a long talk one night about how incredible it would be to all work together again like we did in our WorldHelp days (a humanitarian aid org) and how after we all had now had a few years working in local church, that we'd love to start a church together...SOMEDAY. I believe this was also the year that one of my sister's acquaintances, Matt Shaughnessy, came to play at our church in MI with a band and we were blown away by his ablilties/mad skillz (and he was but a young college student at the time). He came that summer from VA to intern for us @ Westwinds. Once again, we had no idea the significance this sort of chance meeting would have on our future! Then in the Fall of that year we decided it might be nice to start a family. In November we found out I was pregnant and to surprise Scott, I wrapped the pregnancy test in a box and put it in under the tree. Not very original but surprised him nonetheless since we had just been throwing the idea around.  When he came home from a soccer game he opened it (pics below). We had NO IDEA the change that would be hitting us in FULL FORCE the following year. So overview of 02/03: moving, music, motorcycle mania, church-planting fever, Cat-Scratch Fever, Baby Fever.

(pics below: the night we found out we were expecting & random pics from our harley trip...sexy, eh?!)


So, I'd love to hear...what were YOU doing in 02-03?