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Jamie’s Thoughts

 

Why my husband rocks… and why I will too

Wednesday, December 26th, 2012

My husband continues to amaze me.

I’ve been working more and more on my dream of being a musician, and he’s been nothing but supportive. Two years ago, he bought me a beautiful Yamaha acoustic guitar that fits me so much better than the monster of a guitar that I picked out for my first (I had no idea what I was looking for then). I love that Yamaha and play so much more.

Drew’s been talking about getting me an electric guitar for awhile. Even though I’m more of an acoustic kind of gal, I was game. I know there’s more to electric guitar than screaming solos. It can only increase my musicianship. We browsed guitars, but they’re so expensive.

So I was quite excited when he pulled this out on Christmas morning.

I burst out laughing when I noticed this.

For those who aren’t familiar with guitars, First Act guitars are the ones you find at Walmart. In a box. It’s the kind of guitar you buy for your eight year old that may or may not continue playing. Drew had joked about getting me a First Act, but I have my pride. I’m a *real* musician, or at least I’m trying to be.

When I looked at the guitar again, I noticed how nice it looked. He told me the story of why it looked so nice.

He found it at Goodwill, beat up and looking terrible. They asked $15, he offered $5. They gave it to him. Then he took it to a friend that builds custom guitars and asked if he could fix it up. He did. New pick guard, new tuning pegs and all sorts of other electric things that I don’t totally get.

I am now the proud owner of a beautiful First Act guitar. And I’m swallowing my pride, cause as I held the neck of the guitar, I realized how well it fits my teeny tiny girly hands. I haven’t played it yet (Christmas was busy) but I look forward to pulling out the amp and hearing how awesome it sounds.

Yup. My husband rocks.

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Aunt Char’s hand painted ornaments

Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

They were gifts I could always count on.

I think I might have met my Aunt Char once when I was real young. Yet, she holds a real presence in my heart. When my sister and I were kids, we knew there was always a package coming from Aunt Char. We would put the wrapped parcel under the tree, proclaiming, “It’s another ornament.” Then we’d go back to snooping at the other gifts.

I thought they were pretty as a young girl. It was fun to see what she had created this year, but how much attention do you give to a tree ornament when there are boxes and bags of fun toys to play with?

Aunt Char’s ornaments weren’t store bought. They were hand-painted. My sister and I would get similar pieces, but there were always subtle differences between them. Something that made each one special.

Years later, after all those toys have broken or been given away, these ornaments are still alive and well. I can’t remember a single other gift I received the Christmas of 1985, but this ornament has graced every tree since then.

 

I was saddened after the great Christmas tree accident of ’10 to find that this ornament was a casualty. Luckily, the break was clean, and it was easily superglued. She lives on.

The rest of them are just as special. I’m thankful that an aunt who barely knew me put in the time and effort to create such beautiful works of art that make me smile each and every year.

Thanks, Aunt Char. These ornaments are prized and cherished.

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5 Club

Friday, December 14th, 2012

I’m tired but inspired.

I just managed to get myself up early to participate in a Twitter chat. It was the next best thing to being in Nashville and participating in the event itself. Jon Acuff, the famed Quitter author and conference leader, had an idea to hold an event called 5 Club. Basically, a bunch of crazy dreamers in Nashville met at 5 a.m. to dream big. Those of us not fortunate enough to live in the Nashville area joined via the Twitter community. Not quite the same as being there, but at least I could stay in my PJs.

From what I could keep up with via tweets, this was the gist of what they talked about. They identified four things.

  1. Ridiculous goal(s)
  2. The finish line
  3. What a small win looks like
  4. The enemy

I came up with three ridiculous goals.

  1. Finish my book and put it out there.
  2. Record an LP of original songs and give proceeds to charity.
  3. Help fund music education in third world countries.

Goal number one doesn’t feel so ridiculous, as I’ve been working on it for awhile. The closer you get to the finish line, the less ridiculous a goal seems.

Goal number two is exciting to me, but is going to involve a lot of work. Practicing guitar, writing song after song until I find one worthy of recording and figuring out how to afford recording costs. One fellow tweeter gave me a great idea for a smaller finish line for this one: start off by recording ONE song and put it on my website. I think this is a great starting point.

Goal number three is so big and crazy that I have no idea where to even begin. But there it is in all it’s ridiculousness.

Getting up for the 5 Club was good. It encouraged me and also showed me that I CAN get up early. I’m even functional.

Many thanks to all the fellow 5 Club members and all their encouragement. Good luck with all your ridiculous goals!

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The prized reindeer ornaments

Monday, December 10th, 2012

Now that I’m married, it’s been great fun to combine Drew and I’s collection of Christmas ornaments.

Like I mentioned before, we have quite an odd assortment. Nothing really matches, and that’s okay.

Drew doesn’t have the same emotional attachment to his ornaments that I do, but he has several from his childhood that I love to see next to mine. When we were decorating our first Christmas tree together, I was tickled to find that he had a handmade Rudolph ornament made from clothespins. I had made one in Kindergarden and had kept mine all these years. Appropriately enough, his is huge compared to mine. It makes me smile every year when I break them out and place them on the tree next to each other.

For whatever reason, the little handmade reindeer that I crafted when I was five has become one of my treasured ornaments. Maybe because it’s so cute or simply because I was so proud of what I made at a young age (of course, my teacher was probably the one who put the majority of it together). Whatever the reason, when I was growing up, it was always the first ornament I grabbed to put on the tree. When it came time to take it down, I always lovingly wrapped it in tissue paper and gently placed it back in storage.

So when Drew unwrapped his giant reindeer, I was elated. We nestled them next to each other on the tree, his big nosed Rudolph towering over mine. I don’t know how old he was when he made his, or if he even made it himself, but I love them snuggling next to each other on the tree. They remind me of us. 🙂

And they’re usually the first ornaments I hang each year.

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