Full Circle?

Way back in 1999 when Rob decided to build himself a keyboard case, he used a corner of my garage which was actually a family room at the time. Pretty soon he was building drum cases for the drummer in our (then) band and he used part of the garage and the driveway as his construction site. By 2001, he was building cases full time for local sound companies and businesses like Micron and HP and he knocked out a wall between the garage and the "real" family room and tore out the carpet. He needed every bit of space he could find and it often overflowed into my kitchen where we would end up spray painting caster plates at 3 in the morning. So much of those early days of this business are a blur and a bad memory and I know we did what had to be done because that's what self-employment is all about but I don't think I could do it all over again even with the same result. Maybe, but I don't think so.


Rob eventually grew out of the garage and found a shop in Garden City. It wasn't much bigger, and in 2003 we moved into the warehouse we are in now. He managed to fill up that space as well as the building next door to it that we've had since 2006. As the audio part of the company has grown, the case business has fallen off a little bit, mostly due to the rising cost of case product, so the materials we use take up a little less space than they used to but we have pretty much separated the 2 businesses in name AND by building. Committed Caseworks is in the old warehouse and Committed Events, LLC (since April!) is in the newer building. All of this rambling really is leading up to my point! Our lease is up in January so we've decided to temporarily give up one of the buildings and all of the expenses that go with it. While I really like the idea of saving money, especially in the slow winter, I've been digging in my heels about condensing everything into one space that we grew out of a long time ago. Granted, Kurt has made a huge difference in getting things more organized but we still have too much stuff. Admittedly, my biggest issue is that Rob is moving the case company back home. This feels like a step backward to me but I totally get the necessity of it. Honestly, I can't help but think we'll be painting caster plates in the kitchen again and I just can't get past that visual!! Ugh. A little resentment on my part? Maybe.


That was all a very roundabout way of saying that Rob has been building a shop in the backyard. He started with the foundation on October 20th:

He started back up again on November 5th and has been working on it just about everyday as often as he can:

His dad has been a great help!

Rob had a great idea when it came to putting up the main beam across the top. The building is 20 x 24 with 16' ceilings (yep, a small house) so it was no small feat to put up the beam. . .

It helps when you own lift stands!!

We really should market these to construction companies!!!

Way cheaper than a crane!!

I've actually had to contribute very little to this project. Other than holding a few boards on the table saw or lifting wafer boards up to Rob on the roof, I've steered pretty clear of the whole thing. I want to be supportive but this backyard is the bane of my existence and I've been shoved ruthlessly out of denial way too many times lately. . .

I've managed to take pictures but that's about the extent of it. . .

I do have to say I admire Rob's skills and tenacity. . .

The good news and the bad news here is that Rob is making friends with all of the neighbors. More than a few times I've stepped out and one of the neighbors will be talking to him over the fence, or worse, standing right in the MIDDLE OF MY BACKYARD. . .

Have I mentioned that I hate my backyard?

I do have to mention here that Rob is very creative about finding / purchasing materials for this project. He's been on Craigslist and to the auction, all of which he loves to do anyway, and has even sold scraps and returned items to generate more funds. . . He's even done the electrical work by himself. It helps that our neighbor is an electrician and even inspected Rob's work and passed it with flying colors!

Zach has been a huge help with this project. I think I can safely give him a high school credit for wood shop after this!

Once again the lift stands came in very handy. Everyone should have a pair of these! Not really.

As of November 23rd, the shop is nearly finished. . .

It still needs a door, inside walls and paint inside and out. . .

And then the fun begins. We get to move home the table saw, the routers, the rivet guns, the air compressors, the sheets of ABS, case hardware, tool boxes, etc. It feels like we're coming full circle by moving the case company back to the house. Do I have any hidden resentment about all of this? Nope, it's not hidden. . .

. . . But I'll deal with it. I keep telling myself that the pros outweigh the cons by moving the case business home but I'm not convinced yet. I don't think I'm a pessimist or a glass-half-empty kind of a girl but I'm having a hard time with this one. Good thing I have a blog for therapy. I'm gonna need it.

Well, I Did It. And It Was Good. . .

Before reading any further, you really must click on this link to see just how far I've come since Gloria's very first horse lesson last October.

I think it's safe to say I've made some progress! I was still a little nervous, however, as we drove out to the farm today for my very first horse lesson. Diamond is much, much bigger than the ponies I'm used to taking care of so I was a little surprised when Kim instructed me to grab his halter and bring him into the barn. By myself. It actually wasn't a big deal at all! I brought him in, brushed and groomed him and put on his saddle. Kim came into the barn when it was time to put on the bridle (my least favorite part) but I still did most of it on my own. I led him out to the arena and adjusted the stirrups. Gloria took pictures for me so I could have proof!!

Kim is a very good instructor and she led me through the necessary steps very patiently. I have already learned a ton from going to all of Gloria's lessons and helping out in the arena as much as I can but it's a totally different ballgame when you're up on the horse. There is so much to think about!

I'm sure it was to my advantage to have so much information beforehand and Kim was very encouraging. . .

I even trotted several times!! It was a little painful but I think with a little practice it would be a lot of fun!!

After the lesson I led Diamond back to the stall and removed the bridle and saddle. Gloria gave me a lesson in cleaning the bridle and hanging it up correctly before we left the barn. It was an amazing experience and, for the first time in my life, I'd really like to own a horse. Maybe I'll have to sell my 4-wheeler. . .

My Weekend In A Nutshell . . .

I had a very busy weekend. It wasn't busy with stages and speakers and lights, in fact there have been looong stretches between shows this month. Instead, it was FUN-busy with many of my favorite people.

On Friday night we spent another evening at my in-laws watching the BSU game with the Sacketts. I think Dick and Jeanie have enjoyed spending time with this family as much as I have!! We had a delicious spaghetti dinner complete with apple pie and Laura's chocolate cupcakes and then watched as BSU wiped up the field with USU (52-21). I must have been too busy snacking and cheering to take pictures but I do remember having a good time.


Jered arrived for a quick weekend visit late Friday night and the boys stayed up until about 5 a.m. playing Guitar Hero and catching up. It was great to see him, as usual!

On Saturday we had a youth event at the church with a special speaker from George Fox University. We played a bunch of games including one where my foot was on someone else's head at one point but I won't go into the details. . .


Brad played his guitar for the kids and then played with us during church on Sunday. I'm starting to warm up to the idea of having a pastor that's almost young enough to be my kid. ALMOST. . .

I ended up taking ALL of these kids home on Saturday night for a sleepover (minus Kristin, plus Gloria). . .

It was just like old times except that we really missed Elsie. I'm hoping that she'll get to make the trip next time. . .

On Sunday we celebrated Thanksgiving. Twice. The first time was our traditional all-church Thanksgiving dinner after the service on Sunday and the second one was with Rob's side of the family on Sunday evening. That's a LOT of turkey. And potatoes. And rolls! AND a lot of people that I'm thankful I have in my life.

Gloria and McKenna always have fun together and this time Gloria made McKenna a little cast.

Kenna made the rounds having it signed by everyone. . .

So many blessings. . .

This Weekend At The Egyptian

I'm Actually Gonna Ride A Real Horse!!

I know I've gone on ad nauseum about horses lately but it's become a pretty important part of my life. I mean, of Gloria's life. It's just that it's so odd that I not only enjoy hanging out on the farm with these huge, beautiful animals but that I actually kinda, sorta know what I'm doing. As long as I'm working with ponies like Cookie and as long as Kim is nearby in case a pony gets away from me, I do just fine. My confidence has been pretty high lately now that I'm bringing in and saddling most of the ponies on lesson days so I bit the bullet and asked Kim about their traditional Thanksgiving Trail Ride. I tentatively asked if it would possibly be something I could ride in with Gloria. I need to acknowledge, before I go on, that Kim has been great for my confidence because she has given me responsibilities that I haven't always thought I was ready for and then has helped me to meet her expectations, which I think is the mark of a great teacher. Anyway, she didn't seem surprised at all that I asked about the ride and she even indicated that she was hoping Gloria and I would be a part of the ride. Her only requirement is that anyone who rides needs to have a lesson first. I've been considering taking regular lessons but can't figure out how to fit one more thing into my schedule so I jumped at the chance to have a single lesson on Tuesday and then a Friday morning trail ride with my daughter. I thought about it all during Gloria's lesson. How exciting! Me, on a real horse!


How scary. . . Me, on a real horse.


This is Diamond. See the pretty little diamond shape on her forehead? I'm pretty sure that's where she gets her name. I think she's a her. I didn't look very closely. This is the horse Kim thinks I might ride for my lesson on Tuesday and for the trail ride on Friday:

Diamond is NOT a pony. She's about twice the size of Cookie. Her pen is two gates down from Cookie's and she always walks to her gate to greet me when I go by so I've already gotten to know her a little bit. I feel pretty safe when she's on one side of the gate and I'm on the other. Kim says she is gentle and kind and that she and I will make a good pair. . .

So, I'm actually going to do it. I'm going to ride a horse. On a trail. I haven't been on a horse in about 25 years.

I guess it's about time. . .

Completely Random Information. . .

Just to prove my point about people finding my blog through Google searches, two recent visitors to my sight found me by googling the words: "nimbostratocumulus clouds" and "her arm cut off". The first one I can maybe understand but the second one??


I also wanted to say that, last evening, the Baker family sat down to dinner, all together, at 5:30 p.m. for a nutritious meal of grilled teriyaki chicken, baked potatoes, corn and baked beans. If you know us well, you know that having dinner at 5:30 is nothing short of miraculous, the fact that everyone was hungry and ready to sit down at the same time was way against the odds and, it may be hard to believe that I planned out and cooked a delicious dinner ,but you'll just have to take my word for it. We even had a lively discussion about how many chickens an American eats in their lifetime. I looked it up on Google this morning and this is what I found out about what an average 75 year old American might possibly have eaten in his lifetime:

10.306 cows
2262.4 chickens
25.138 pigs
75.415 turkeys
6.0332 ducks
4273.5 fish
Total: 6652.9 animals
(from YahooAnswers)

It's funny that it also directed me to some one's blog that appears to be mostly about what type of bag every girl needs for the upcoming holiday parties. Gotta love Google. . .

Working With A Legend And Her Crew. . .

. . . wasn't all it was cracked up to be.



I like to think of my blog as a positive, uplifting place to be and I don't ever feel good about saying negative things about a person or a group of people partly because that's just mean and partly because I wouldn't want someone to Google their name and read something bad about themselves that I have written. Because that would be mean. So, I'm not going to mention any names here because, number 1, I don't want it to come up in a Google search, and number 2, I've already mentioned in the blog who we were working with so someone who comes here deliberately will know (or can find out) who I'm talking about.


All that to say, the weekend shows were successful as far as what we provided and the number of tickets that were sold but we were put through the ringer and treated like peons in the process. What I thought would be one of my most enjoyable concerts turned out to be one I'm more than happy to put behind me. On a positive note, no one made me cry and I never threw up even though I thought I might a few times. I must be getting acclimated to this industry. Finally.




I do have to say that the band members themselves were great to work with, especially the drummer.

I did enjoy listening to the opening act who tours with everyone from Allison Krauss to Robert Plant. Here's one of my favorite songs from his set:

And that's all I have to say about that. . .

Test

Wow! Just figured out how to blog from my Blackberry!! Hmmm . . . Not sure yet if that will be a good thing. . .

Minor Mishaps and Baby Sheep . . .

Thursdays have become pretty typical. In fact, all of my days have become pretty typical lately. I've thought about changing the name of my blog from "My Crazy, Beautiful Life" to "My Mundane, Beautiful Life". I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin'. At any rate, the little bit of excitement we had on Thursday helped to liven things up a bit. It started out on the drive out to the farm when my truck started pulling hard to the left. I pulled over and checked the tires and, sure enough, the front left tire was losing air fast. I was close enough to the farm that it made sense to drop Gloria off first before heading to Les Schawb to have my tire repaired. I'm no stranger to nails in my tires due to the fact that Rob is always building something and stray nails, screws and rivets tend to gravitate towards whatever vehicle I'm driving so I knew I didn't have much time before I'd be changing a flat rather than just having it repaired. When I finally pulled into Les Schwab I was informed that it would be about 2 1/2 hours before they could get me in. From the looks of my tire and the fact that I would have to pick Gloria back up in much less time than that, I knew that wouldn't work. I made a phone call and headed over to John's Auto Care where they were able to get me right in. They confirmed my diagnosis: I had run over a stray screw and it had embedded itself deep into my front left tire. Thirty minutes and twenty bucks later I was on my way back to the farm.


By the time I arrived, the horses had already been saddled up and were out in the arena, with the kids, ready to ride. I stepped in and helped lead the ponies around the arena. The kids are all catching on really well and Gloria is starting to look really comfortable in her saddle so, after Kim gave the go ahead for the spotters to step away, another mom and I started chatting and not paying so much attention. At the end of the lesson, the kids do a couple of exercises on the ponies before dismounting. It's kind of like putting a period at the end of a sentence. This time, however, it was more like an exclamation point! As Gloria was doing a scissor exercise where you hold yourself up off of the side of the pony and flip your leg back over to remount, her saddle slipped just enough to get Lacy's attention who snapped around to see what was going on, happened to see Button's rear end in front of her face and decided to take a nip. Buttons kicked and jumped out of the way causing Lacey to spin around, tossing Gloria to the ground. It obviously caught my attention and I ran over but Kim was right there and totally had a handle on it. My fear was that Lacey would step on Gloria while she was still on the ground but in the few seconds it took me to get to the scene, it was over and Gloria was back on her feet. Kim had her get back on Lacey and walk for a minute before dismounting again. Other than a steep rise in adrenaline, no harm was done. I didn't take a single picture in the arena but snapped this funny one of Lacey in the barn:




Meanwhile. . . twin baby sheep entered the world! One of them even arrived just before the lesson started! The kids quickly put away the horses and cleaned their bridles so they could take a good look at the new babies!! One of the babies had gotten separated from her mom and made very pitiful bawling noises as she frantically checked out the other sheep in her mama quest.


The non-mom sheep gently nudged her away which made her bawling even louder! The mama was with the other newborn who was busy snacking so she just watched and listened helplessly to her other baby who was just a few feet away but couldn't get to her.



We all watched the drama unfold (drama may be too strong of a word here) as the baby got closer and closer to the mama. . .

The mama couldn't take it any longer and finally made her way over to the helpless stray. . .

We all watched as Kim and Sarah separated the mama and babies from the rest of the herd and let them settle themselves in their own private pen. . .

So, while it wasn't too much excitement, it definitely made for an interesting afternoon. . .

Cherryholmes at the Civic Center

Last night we ran sound (Rob) and lights (Kurt) for a Cherryholmes concert. It was another band that I wasn't familiar with until I started doing my research and they put on a great show.


Cherryholmes is actually the last name of every band member- the band is made up of 6 family members from the dad and mom right on down to the youngest daughter who is 16. They were very friendly and easy to work with. . .


After the show I arranged to have this lovely picture taken of Hailey with 5 of the band members (Dad doubles as the bus driver, so he was a little busy!!). They were happy to oblige and, except for poor picture quality, I think it turned out pretty good!


www.cherryholmes.com

Here are a few of their videos from YouTube:









Next up: Two days at The Egyptian with Emmy Lou Harris. . .

No More Brace Face. . .

On Thursday, October 25th, 2007, I officially became a brace-face. I had spacing issues and hide-my-smile issues as well as some medical/dental issues so I took the leap and just had it done. 2 years and 15 days later, they came off. This is the very last picture ever taken of me with braces:

Gloria came along to watch the process and even took a few pictures while she was at it. It hurt! Gloria said there was a lot of blood. . .

She even held my hand when it got really bad!!

At the dentists' office, I was handed a small hand mirror so I could see the finished product, but I didn't get a very good look. On the way home, I stopped for gas and then went on my merry way. I couldn't help but try to see what 2 years of torture had accomplished so I kept looking in my rear view mirror to get a better look. I grinned and smiled and made all kinds of faces just to see the difference. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy in the passenger seat of the car next to me trying to get my attention. Apparently I hadn't put my gas cap back on and he was trying to point that out. It was a little embarrassing.

I finally got a good look at my teeth when I got home and was happy with the result. I have to say it was all worth it!!!

Here's my before picture:


And here's my after picture:


It's not completely over since I'll have to wear a lovely retainer for awhile but at least I can chew gum and eat apples again!!!