Thursday, October 25, 2012

Best.Present.EVER!

I think I have waited long enough to blog about this....I didn't want to right away because I tend to be strange about certain things (no comments from those who think me strange in all things! ;) and I wanted to just keep this close for a while I think.  A while back, I really felt God pressing in for me to be a worship leader of sorts.  At the time, I could play a bit of hand drum and I do mean a bit ;) and the tambourine and shaker and that's about it.  Good accent instruments, but lead instruments. :)  I tried to learn guitar 7 years ago when we lived in Hawaii with no success.  I was attempting to learn left-handed because I am and its more comfortable that way for me, but it really never panned out.  So fast forward to the recent past and God leading me into a place of amazing worship of Him and I picked up the guitar at the end of June, playing right-handed and have been going ever since.  Its been pretty fast-paced and I can play pretty much any song God puts on my heart.  Now, I will tell you that I can't bar to save my life...anything with Fs and Bs I steer clear of, but the great thing is I can just transpose it into Gs, Ds, As, Cs...you get the picture..stuff I can play.  I think there will be a time where I will really try to get proficient at playing chords I can't play right now....maybe. ;p  I also want to learn more about the instrument and all the technical terms and all that rigamarole, but I'm okay with that being a little at a time for now.  I also don't strum "normally" or play "normal" rhythm, but the songs sound the way I want them to and that's good enough for me!  Anyway, its been a very interesting so far and I'm loving that I can play while worshipping any time I want.   Its pretty neat!  God has just been so purposeful and gracious in equipping me this way and I'm really very honored and blessed!  I'm very excited to see where He takes me in all of this.  
Okay, now where my new guitar comes in is this...Sam has seen what God is doing with me with worship and he decided to full on equip and support me!  My husband is so great, people!  Seriously fantastic!  So buying me a guitar that is more suited for me was his opening move of empowering me:


Isn't it purdy?!  This is what Sam bought me for my birthday.  He actually bought it for me at the end of August and my birthday is not until November.  He wanted me to have it to play when I and several of the ladies of our home group were asked to lead the worship portion of a special service at a church in Copperas Cove.  I just love that about Sam!  He dreams bigger for me than I do!
Our friend Mel has a Big Baby Taylor and she let me play it and I just fell in love with it.  The wood and the feel of the guitar...just lovely!  I was totally smitten.  Add to that that she introduced me to Elixer Nanoweb strings...Oh, MY!  They feel slicker 'n' snot and they are truly lovely to play!
We had gone to San Antonio to visit and as usual, and with much gratitude from Sam and I, Juan and Donna sent us off on a much needed date while they spent alone time with the kids.  Sam decided it would be fun to go to Guitar Center there and just look to see what we could find.  They had a Big Baby in stock and I took it down and strummed on it for a minute and then... Sam found a MINI Taylor!  Oh, yeah!  I have very squatty hands with squatty fingers and short arms and it is difficult for me to play a full-sized guitar, so we wanted a smaller one for me.  Anyway, we ended up being able to get the same model at our Guitar Center here in Killeen.  I love it!  Plus, though its small, Sam can still plunk around on it and when the kids get older, if any of them want to learn, its the perfect size for that, too.  Its along the same lines as a travel guitar, but it has a full-bodied sound just like a full-size.


And yes, I did bling out my pick guard.  It was necessary, I promise!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Today's pictures brought to you by the letter F

Zekes and Lerlu are learning the letter F and they made a frog and also a fox....here is the artistic process in action:



this is super blurry and completely out of focus, but still conveys the idea...this is what Brea looks like on Blue's Clues a.k.a. crack for babies.