Do you like music?
I do. I'm a huge fan of music, in fact...
I love music.
I love all types of music. (it's the whole child of the 70's, teenager in the 80's, college and whatnot in the 90's and I'm still going strong!)
My favorite music though...is music performed live and raw. With just voices and limited instruments. (must go back to my church camp days...just voices and a guitar)
In August,
Radio Shine, a Christian radio station, had a benefit auction. I think auctions are awesome. They feed my ADD soul like few things do. Auctions offer things to buy, at a quick rate of speed, and the winner is often a surprise.
(Can you tell I'm a big eBay fan. I was actually banned from eBay by Tim because I was winning things that I forgot I bid on!) This year,
Radio Shine was offering a dessert and coffee concert by singer/songwriter/worship director
Justin Unger. The concert was to be in
his home! I was all over that! I had the day marked on my calendar.
This event was not going to go unnoticed! (In fact, it was such a big deal in our home that Tim called from work to ask if I had started my bidding!) There were four ~ two person tickets available. My competitive soul was in high drive. I was going to win! At all cost! And win I did! I ended up with
two of the tickets which meant that I had to decide who I was taking with me. Would it be me and the girls? or Tim and I with another couple? or Would it be Tim and I with Ashley and a friend. Oh, the dilemma of decisions.
Here we all are...standing in Justin Unger's home!
(By the way, all the money earned through the auction went back into Radio Shine. The concert, the gifts, timeshares, and other items up for auction were all donated. Thank you donors for supplying such great gifts to such a worthy cause!)
I gave Ashley first dibs, because I think she's kinda awesome. Since she is currently coaching a U11 boys soccer team, she opted out (she has practice on Thursday nights, and Justin's concert was Thursday) and she is also a great student and she would need time to study before school on Friday. (No ditching for my girl ~ she is so unlike her momma! Thank you God for giving her great wisdom!)
See what happens when she has a late night? This was Saturday...can you imagine if it had been Friday? She might have fallen out of her chair in class! That might have been embarrassing!)
So...I deferred to Tim (please, someone mark that on the calendar for me!) and we asked our friends, Nate and Denise. What is somewhat ironic about all this is Denise and I have been friends for a few years. Nate and Tim have been friends for awhile as well, but we've NEVER done anything together as a couple. (How weird is that?)
We started our evening at Olive Garden. Denise ordered the portabella raviolis. They looked amazing. I would have loved to have tasted it, but it has a roasted red pepper cream sauce (can you say, "YUM!") that looked to die for, but I don't eat dairy. Bummer for me!
No, we did not coordinate. Actually, the guys did all the planning. Poor Denise didn't even know where she was going or that dinner was involved. She was simply told, "We are going to some kind of concert with Tim and Robyn." She is such a good sport. I'm too uptight to have plans left like that. I have to know everything!
We finally made it to Justin's house and we were greeted by his friends, Brad and Kirsten. They directed us to the correct house and the evening was simply wonderful!
We were introduced to both Justin and his lovely wife Fallon. He had an awesome display of desserts and coffee for us to consume. It was a little surreal thinking that I'm in the home of a famous singer!
Throughout the evening, Justin would share tidbits of information with us on where he gets his inspiration (the Bible), some of his background, how he met his wife, stories from traveling, how their dog at one time had a hungering for the Word, and just about anything that popped into his head. He gave us the opportunity to ask him questions as well. It was a truly fun evening.
Me ~ being me ~ took my camera.
(Have you ever known me to be without it?) Well, I was
slightly very uncomfortable not knowing how others would take the
invasion of a camera
(I've found that most people don't like it when there is a camera around.) So, my pictures while at Justin and Fallon's house are limited. I would have loved to have shown you the tasty desserts that they served, the Bible sitting on a shelf, more pictures of us just talking with him, but...I refrained.
(I also didn't want them to think that I was totally stalking them!) Here is a brief recap of our evening...
This is Brad. He is one of Justin's good friends. Brad leads the high school and college group worship at the
Heights Church. I first saw him when we were visiting the
Heights. He was leading worship that night since Justin was in Nashville. Can I say that he is awesome? HE IS!
The girls seem to agree. :)
Fallon graced us with her lovely voice. She sings on a couple of the cds.
Grace.
Dignity.
Modesty.
Generous.
Lovely.
Elegant.
Beautiful.
"Brad, you're so dreamy! All the girls think you're a cutie! Will you please take a picture with me?"
OK - so I
didn't really say that. I was actually telling him a story about when I took one of Ashley's friends with us to
church and during the greeting, she got to shake his hand. It was the "Hand Shaking of the Evening." Oh to be young again....or not.
Of course I took a picture with him. Duh. I have to gloat to Ashley somehow.
I feel so old...
and short.
I think she printed the picture, ripped my side off, and has the other in her locker, on her bathroom mirror, made multiple reprints and is currently selling them on eBay...or maybe she just said, "Wow Mom, You really are a freak." Something like that...
This is where Justin was laying down the law...in no uncertain terms was I to take his babysitter...Brad.
Yep, it's true. Brad is an amazing babysitter. I'm still working on getting Brad's number from Justin, but with another baby on the way...he might be needing Brad more than I do.
The evening ended with gifts...from Justin, Fallon, and Radio Shine.
The "boys" couldn't wait to see what they got! It was so funny to see these two men, who normally could care less about gifts, get excited about what was in their "goody" bag.
Thank you for the awesome gifts Justin!
Silly boys...
The night was made absolutely perfect when I got home and found this...
The twins sound asleep, snuggled in bed with sister...
Tyler snoozing with Mater and Friends...
on top of his bedspread instead of under it...because it's easier to make his bed that way!
Ellie keeping Aiden's bed warm...you know, just in case he wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to sleep alone. Yeah right. That won't happen!
(Yes, the twins do sleep with their beds that close to each other.)
By the way...Justin's new cd..."Some Good Advice" is out...or will be within a day or so...GO BUY IT!
It's awesome!
