This is Jon Powers on the drums with Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris on the Hope for Haiti telethon Friday night. Jon is my son-in-law, Dave’s, brother.
Such a quiet, sweet, soulful performance of “Hallelujah,” the classic Leonard Cohen song. Tredessa says I simply cannot write the words to the song on this blog.
There is a family debate about whether or not Elvis once sang this song. Stormie is sure of it. And after she said so, I could sort of hear him singing it in my head, too.
But Tredessa says Elvis wouldn’t have touched this song with a 10-foot pole (due to risque themes)…and I guess it wasn’t even released until some years past his death. But, so, ok. Stormie and I think Elvis should sing it – if he is still alive, as sometimes purported
Do-overs, of course! That is why I write and why I blog. And to inspire, to rant, to rage and to whine unabashedly. I blog to encourage and confess, to get comments (yes, I want comments) and be snippy-if-I-wanna.
I blog to be up close and personal and tell you how adorable my grandbebes are. I like to write about the people I love and write to the people I love. Sometimes I’m mushy. Sometimes I am lamenting and sometimes I have to apologize – publicly! I get to vent, I get to express my incredible opinions, and I get to gripe if I feel like it.
I hope I have made your mouth water with my food posts and infused you with passion or zeal on some amazing topic or another along the way. I mean, after reading Thought Collage, are you anxious to be a grandparent? Do you want to go in deeper in worship? Are you in love with the Word? Do you feel better about your life because I publicly self-deprecate and tell on myself? I hope. I hope. I hope!
I am so grateful for those who wade through the meaningless drivel because they know I have the occasional day of inspired, grapho-epiphanic clarity {you KNOW I made that phrase up, don’t you?} which, I am just certain, causes the angelic choirs to break out into song and lives are changed forever for it. Yeah. Those are few and far between. But they happen. Wait for it!
And, finally, I write because I love the words. Not just any words. The exact words that will capture what it is I really want to say. When, oh, when will I actually find those?….
Stormie asked me what witty banter I would have for my 800th blog post? Could she have been mocking me? Naaaaw…surely not.
I recently saw that people on Youtube do “vlogs!” And I was like {lightbulb moment} Vlogs? You can do that? Hmmmmm….
Gratefulness
Thank-you to Tristan, the s-i-l, who got me up and running here at www.jeanierhoades.com on Novemeber 29, 2006. Where would all these words have gone otherwise? Thank-you for letting me say them and giving me a safe place to keep them!
Stephanie took pictures recently because the little red-headed Kelley kids (the three, sweet grandbebes bestowed upon me by Stephanie and Tristan…and thank-you for them, btw), all got new Converse All-Stars for Christmas and were sporting them simultaneously one afternoon.
Gemma~
Last Sunday morning 2-year-old Gemma accompanied me to the Cafe at church for coffee. The second we got out of The Garage (the edgy, loud worship venue), she darted across the cafe navigating her way in between hundreds of people, sharing her friendly, “hello”s with strangers and friends alike. She nearly ran right in to Pastor Rob, who avoided the near collision and greeted her like the treasured church member she is. He started to walk on past and then realized perhaps some one who is only 2 ft 9in would not be there alone.
So he looked around and saw me racing to catch up to her. “Are you in charge of this?” he asked, pointing the the little curly-headed girl-of-my-heart.
“I’m trying,” I told him.
“Well, then,” Rob had the guts to tell me, “I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but you’re not very good at it.”
Oh, you just wait, Rob Kelly. You just wait!
But the piece de resistance? Once Gemma had strayed so far as to lose sight of me, she turned, scanning the crowd, looking for her Nonna. When we made eye contact, she did that thing she does. She did that adorable thing that melts my heart and makes me beam and makes me look good to the crowds.
She yells at the top of her lungs: N O N N A !!!! And she comes running to me and jumps into my arms and we spin around and hug and kiss.
Yep. She makes me look good…like I didn’t just lose her at church on a Sunday morning.
Gavin & Guinivere
Gavin started piano lessons this week. And Guini is in front of me this second with a microphone singing along to Pomplamooses’ version of “Single Ladies.” If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it; If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it…
The Kelley kids, whom I love with all my heart, were watching Ratatouille. The food critic in the movie said something like, “Not everyone can cook.” To which Gavin responded openly, “That isn’t true. Anyone can cook if they learn.’
Guini mustered up her strength and outdoor voice to add a very decided addendum (sort of Lucy-from-the-Peanuts-comics style?) which caused all of us to jump: BUT DON’T TOUCH THE PAN!
I am surrounded currently, it seems, by young, beautiful and fruitful pregnant women.Surrounded! And while I am so glad, sooooooo glad, that that part of my life is over, there is a part of me that is a little bit jealous, too. For while I endured all the nausea and inexplicable fatigue one goes through at the beginning of any pregnancy as well as the typical I-can’t-wait-to-get-this-kid-out-of-me that happens at 38+ weeks, there is a time in the middle that is like no other! It is called the 2nd Trimester.
It gets good in the middle.
My friend, Jen, and I were having coffee the other day and began discussing all the pregnancies surrounding us, which is how this all came up. We run in the same circles so we started listing off all the younger women we knew who are currently “in the family way.” And we remembered our own baby-bearing years.
I had FIVE 2nd trimesters and can I just tell you? Good times.
Good Times!
Really, all things considered, I think the 2nd trimester of pregnancy may be the most incredible hormonal balance a woman can have.
I mean – you are sort of past nauseousness, but you’re not all popped out and big yet (well, your breasts are, and that is a good thing for most of us), but the rest isn’t so you actually feel kinda glow-y and you have this heightened sense of well-being.
Since you’re pregnant, you are getting attention and people do nice things for you. Then, you’re not having periods, new life is growing within, you’re taking those potent pre-natal vitamins so your hair and nails are strong and growing and your skin is in great shape and your complexion clear – thus “the glow.” You’re still fitting in your jeans even if you have to leave the top button undone, but you can still look pretty cute and have a waistline…even if it is only visible from behind.
I looked up some actual medical facts from the Mayo Clinic about the 2nd Trimester and they pretty much concur. You feel pretty darn good duirng this phase. Pretty good, indeed.
I don’t know, maybe I am just romanticizing the 2nd Trimester, but this is how I remember it. If I could just stay in the 2nd trimester, maybe I would consider pregnancy again. Maybe.
That’s right. This is the kind of stuff I actually think…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: What happens if you’re 50 and you take prenatal vitamins? Investigate. Experiment.
Dave, Tara, Hunter and Stormie spent 2 1/2 weeks in Taiwan and Japan, leading worship, eating amazing food and falling in love with the people there. If you Facebook, you may have seen Stormie’s pictures. If not, I picked a few to share.
“In all my travels past and all my travels yet to come, I’ll never find a better friend.”
~Mr. Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street (1995).
I have a strong emotional response each time I hear that line in the this classic Christmas movie remake by John Hughes. I mean ~ Kris Kringle had to have had a lot of friends and we know he travelled extensively, right? I thought the quote must have come from classic literature, but I am unable to find any reference to it anywhere else (meaning Google).
It just makes me wonder…
How many people in a lifetime do you think you really, actually get to say this to and mean it? And how many people could even say it to you?
{By the way, I MET Santa the other night myself at the Parks and Rec Board Meeting where he received an award for his generous service to the community. And guess what!??! He said he’ll be at Heaven Fest!}
I am working from home. I take a break to get something to eat. I am walking back in toward the coffee table which is pulled up to the couch (where I have been sitting cross-legged as I plug away on the minutia), carrying my 12 Kalamata olives (only for the very brave because they pack a powerful flavor sensation) and my 1/2 avocado which has been sprinkled with torn cilantro leaves, crushed-between-my-fingers Kosher salt and had lime juice squeezed over the top (I mean, seriously – your mouth should be watering right now!).
I smile when I see this:
Because ~ this is what Luke Bodley (genius boy) sees across the table when we are in meetings. What a happy (and pretty darn well-coordinated) pile of stuff!
My theory?
Oh yeah, baby. Luke doesn’t just get his color and design inspiration out of the air! He sees my computer, my pen bag and pens, my Sea & Ski lip stuff, my meeting notebooks, my coffee mug and my planner. And we all see the finished product! I truly don’t TRY to make this happen…these colors just show up in my life these days.
I’m just kidding. He doesn’t need my help. Luke is a genius designer/marketing/festival-producing kid and we just happen to be in sync on retro-modern, flower-child colors right now. Plus he loves that Colorado-blue sky and I love spring-green grass and those things just cause an exuberantly colorful explosion inside…which then appears! I really LOVE his designs!
By the way: The planner is opened to July and there is only one thing on it: Heaven Fest on July 31st!
Do you know why?…Because Heaven Fest is all there is in July!
Although I am very fond of my vintage orange kitchen accessories from Steph and fam (plus an all-new blog design!). And my new work-out pants have revved up my power-walking. I adore the o-so-flattering jeans Stormie bought me: they fit!…did my legs just get longer? Did I just get a needed lift? And DP and Tara and the I-POD Touch…omygoodness. Just waiting for my life’s best song list to get to 7000 or so (well on my way).
Rocky and Jovanie know I need my medium-rare steak and plenty of it. Off to The Outback I shall go, several times (plus the “Jeanie green” coffee cup? Lovin’ it!)! Tre Tre is going to do a photo shoot for me – of anything or anyone I want! It will be a shoot of my kids and grandkids, of course ~ what else??
Little brother, Joe sent me a book on how to talk southern (they do have their own way) that was a family fav in the 70’s and a 2-set LP by The Rambos, THE Moslander-family music-of-my-life. My husband loaded me up with clothes and all the things he knows I love and like to have on hand…
I got showered with lots of great, thoughtful, sweet, beautiful gifts for Christmas. There was way more than I deserved, but I sure love it all.
But really? It is when I have been blessed with something of the giver, a portion of their heart ~ in thoughtfulness, sweet words, a shared secret, a common memory, treasured moments and especially their time – that I know I have been gifted beyond my ability to ever repay or comprehend. To receive something that reveals a part of another person’s heart to me is the greatest gift I could ever hope for.
Thank-you to all of you who share yourselves with me (your dreams, your fears, your hopes and love…and just ~ you). My heart is enlarged in the receiving. And I am…gifted. Grateful.
We just announced the official Heaven Fest ’10 date today in a middle-of-the-night e-blast. Because that is when Luke does his best work. Luke Bodley, btw, is a genius! www.heavenfest.com
We were on the front page of the Longmont Times-Call for the 2nd time in less than 2 weeks (small city, readership maybe 80,000 – but the website comments going on—yowzers!).
I did an interview for that paper last summer and somehow me talking about “God’s Presence” got turned into “God’s presents.” But it was nice overall (and the Presence is such a gift).
image swiped from Joe Vasquez’s Facebook. Thanks, Joe.
Misc. information
The artist line-up is looking good. I’ll let you in on a little secret: Casting Crowns has already confirmed and there is going to be a PETRA reunion! Yes! Can you believe it?? The Lord is opening really interesting doors in some intriguing places.
We are dreaming of huge, creative, generous ways we can give – give – give to orphans and ministries and God’s work around the world. And listening for how and what God is calling us to…
New Look
Heaven Fest 2010 promo
Luke has unveiled the new groovy and much greener look (affectionately referred to by my sweet friends as “Jeanie green”) and things are unfolding in a beautiful God-loves-Colorado fashion! Woo-hoo! And the countdown clock is ticking away at the website. YIKES!
