Rockapella sing

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything on the blog, but I think it's about time to start up again. There's been a lot going on since March when I last posted the AKAfellas songs, so I'll just start with the most interesting events and fill in from there.

Greg heard that Rockapella was going to be in Indy again this October, so he and I and Paul & Leslie got tickets to go. Greg was coming back from a business trip after being gone all week, so I was really looking forward to seeing him. They performed at Hamilton Southeastern H.S. in Fishers, where lead singer, Scott Leonard's father is the former superintendant. The first time I saw Rockapella live was at Butler University at Clowes Hall in Indianapolis on Nov. 14, 2003. That was before Greg and I were engaged. We went with his quartet, the AKAfellas, and their respective wives/girlfriends/finacees. It was a fun time and a great performance by Rockapella. Anyway, I digress. Back to the concert in October.

So this was the first time for us to see the new group perform: the Three Tenors, Scott Leonard, Kevin Wright, and introducing John Brown, A.K.A. JB, and new bass, George Baldi, and their vocal percussionist, Jeff Thatcher. Of course we were impressed and just thought that getting some of their performance on video would be great. We had our little Casio Exilim digital camera that could capture as much movie and pics as there was room on the disc, so we started "filming" when they were singing "My Girl." Well, you can watch the rest. Anytime there's a break in the video, it's b/c Greg was taking a picture.

Songs

The AKAfellas recorded again in February to see how things have improved. Thanks to Scott Wilder, we mixed the songs, added reverb and put it on a CD. Greg's Grandma D'Ann loved hearing her grandson on the CD, since her son Chris Bayman is already a professional guitarist heading up the Chris Bayman Quartet.

I think this mix is good, though, keep in mind, singing is not their day job. They're 4 engineers who like to sing for fun. :) It was cool to hear them all on a CD too.

I wish I had a cool picture of them rehearsing, but since Scott's wife, Kathie, didn't think we could stay quiet enough, we went furniture shopping instead. However, Lori, Doug's wife, did get a picture of them rehearsing at their house way back when, and she's posted this pic on their myspace. Greg and I were there the following week to mix though, and that was like looking at their voices through a microscopic ear, if that's possible. 'Twas fun and many thanks to Scott and the other fellas, Doug, Matt, and Paul.

For your listening pleasure...listen at your own risk. j/k ;) http://www.scottwilderweb.com/page1/page7/page7.html

Amy's 30th

We went to the Claddagh for dinner and then bowling for Amy Riego's 30th birthday party. The food was good, and the Bailey's cheesecake was beautiful!

Greg liked the plaque in the party room that he thought his mother would like. She never knows a stranger, always making new friends. :)

At the bowling alley, I didn't capture Greg's many strikes on film, or the 3 times he had to rescue my ball that got stuck in the gutter. But I did catch Amy blowing out the candles on her cake. She needed some help from her cousin Nancy.

It was a fun, yet exhausting night. Who knew you had to be in such great shape for bowling? With Greg's great coaching, I threw 2 strikes in 2 games! :) WooHoo!! I think I've overcome my fear of bowling from when I was 9 yrs. old at the bowling alley in Mosquite, TX, w/ my dad and the 9 lb. ball slipped off of my hand and I flung it backwards into the seats where his friends and their kids were sitting. I was SO embarrassed, I didn't want to ever bowl again! No mishaps like that one this time, but I only used a 10 lb. ball. :)

Girls Night Out

Tonight we're going to Broad Ripple to Mama Carolla's for some good Italian cuisine. I can't wait! This wet weather needs some warm comfort food to keep me smilin'. I hear it's romantic. Maybe Greg and I will try it sometime.

My Johari Window

Arena (known to self and others) friendly, helpful, intelligent, observant, self-conscious, sympathetic	Blind Spot (known only to others) able, caring, cheerful, complex, dependable, energetic, giving, idealistic, independent, kind, logical, loving, nervous, proud, reflective, relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, sentimental, tense, trustworthy, warm
Façade (known only to self)	Unknown (known to nobody) accepting, adaptable, bold, brave, calm, clever, confident, dignified, extroverted, happy, ingenious, introverted, knowledgeable, mature, modest, organised, patient, powerful, quiet, self-assertive, sensible, shy, silly, spontaneous, wise, witty

All Percentages

able (15%) accepting (0%) adaptable (0%) bold (0%) brave (0%) calm (0%) caring (38%) cheerful (38%) clever (0%) complex (15%) confident (0%) dependable (7%) dignified (0%) energetic (23%) extroverted (0%) friendly (30%) giving (15%) happy (0%) helpful (23%) idealistic (15%) independent (7%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (30%) introverted (0%) kind (30%) knowledgeable (0%) logical (7%) loving (15%) mature (0%) modest (0%) nervous (7%) observant (46%) organised (0%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (7%) quiet (0%) reflective (15%) relaxed (7%) religious (38%) responsive (7%) searching (7%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (7%) sensible (0%) sentimental (30%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (23%) tense (7%) trustworthy (15%) warm (30%) wise (0%) witty (0%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 9.3.2006, using data from 13 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view pollyannabay's full data.

Johari Window

The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.

You can get your own Johari Window, or contribute to pollyannabay's.

Once I get responses, I'll post the window here. Here's my sister's window.

Throwing on the wheel

In my pottery class on Wed. I got my first opportunity to sit at the wheel and form a piece of clay. It takes a lot of strength of your arms and shoulders and hands, and it's not as easy as it looks. I kept pulling the clay off of the wheel, while I was trying to keep my hands at 3 and 9 o'clock to "cone" the clay. Finally, I was able to poke a hole in it and then it came off the wheel again. Some others had similar troubles as I did, but one student was able to make her first pot after sitting at the wheel for just about 30 min. I guess it helps to just have fun with it and not try to be a perfectionist at getting the technique just right. After little instruction and few mistakes, she was able to poke the hole, and pull up the sides of her pot. It was pretty good for her first wheel throwing experience. Now I need not compare myself to others who get the hang of it quicker than I do, since I spent most of my time practicing on the wheel.

Next week, it's coil pots. That'll be fun b/c it's another free-forming pot that you do by hand. :) Can't wait to see how my first glazed salsa bowl turns out. The colors of the glaze are different in the bottle to how they turn out in the kiln. The underglazes, which I painted on before at Latest Glaze in Bloomington, retain their color from the bottle to after firing. We'll see how my pink and green pot turns into blue and turquoise.

All in all, it's a relaxing experience and I do better at the wheel when my eyes are closed. Looking forward to creating my first thrown pot. :)

Resilience

Puppies are such resilient little things. You wouldn't have even guessed that Chuy had been neutered if you'd seen him on Tues. or even today. He's just as playful as he has been, almost a little too playful to handle. I guess after that full day of rest, he was rarin' to go. If you ever need to spay or neuter your pet, I recommend scheduling it for the month of February, Pet Over-population month. It took our cost down 50% and I was able to get all the pre-operative blood work and pain meds total for less than the cost for the neuter alone, had been done it in Jan. or March. Chuy will be 6 months old on Feb. 18th, so he's just at the right age to have it done.

Speaking of resilience, I just started a pottery class last night and it's SO fun! What a great creative release and stress reliever. I am looking forward to next week when we get to work on the wheel. Last night I made 4 pinch pots, by hand, and 3 ornaments for the Christmas tree. Once they get fired, we can paint them and glaze them and fire them again. :) Greg has his quartet rehearsal on Wed. nights so that's his male bonding time w/ the guys. This class is all women, who'd have thought, and they're all from post college age to grandmothers and some people sit and gossip, but I mostly focused on my creations and keeping my thoughts in my head. It was my way of sorting through the day while doing something creative and constructive. Pinch pots are made by manually turning the clay in your hands while pinching it from the inside out. This is how the Indians used to make their pottery.

When I started kneading the clay in my hands and began to form a pot, I couldn't help but think of the Potter and the Clay. We are the Clay and God is the Potter. He is forming us in His hands. I was amazed at how a lump of dirty clay can become something useful and beautiful in the Master's hands. Each pot I made got better, though the last one was a bit abstract or "organic" as they like to call that type of art, but they still weren't as good as the teacher's example. Though she makes pinch pots 20,000 times a day, being an art teacher at the HS, our work as humans still isn't perfect. However, when I made something that didn't look right, or when I poked my thumb all the way through the bottom of the pot, I balled it up and started over with a new pot.

And then it made more sense. God never wastes anything. At first I was going to make a clover leaf pot, but it became something else, I realized it would be better used as this abstract little dish with three sections. I didn't really like clovers that much anyway.

God can take a person who might have thought she would have been a teacher, but make her a singer instead. Or He can take an engineer from GE and make him a math teacher in an inner city school, where his ministry was greater for God and where he could touch the hearts of so many young people in an after school Bible study. Did that "change" break the person? No, because God also created us with such resiliency that we are sometimes surprised at the difficulty and trials we go through and come out on the other side even stronger than before.

God never gives us more than we can handle. Like the pottery, I could have cut out the walls of a votive candle holder with cookie cutters last night, but the clay was too soft. It needed to dry more and harden a bit so that it was leathery and strong enough to withstand the pull of gravity on the holes in the walls so that it would not lose its shape. God won't give you a trial to destroy you. He knows you're strong enough to handle it. If you think you're not, lean on Him and He will give you strength in weakness. He is the Potter, we are the clay. We are created for His glory. We are being formed in His hands into His image, and into the man or woman He wants us to be.

Home Again Snow Again

Woke up to about 2 inches of snow the day after Groundhog day. You can see the amount piled up on our patio table. I think snow that sticks to the trees like this is so pretty.

Chuy was excited! He hadn't played in snow since, well, since the last time it snowed in 2005. So we played in the back yard with Chuy and I had to take some pics of the boys.

Today, Chuy is at the vet, and he just got neutered. I pick him up tomorrow. They said he's doing fine. Good thing he got to run and jump in the snow before all that. He won't be jumping for a while.


It's so pretty outside today though. The sun is shining, though it's 24 degrees. I miss Chuy already. I hope he has a good sleep in the animal hospital tonight.

Gong Xi Fa Chai! Happy Chinese New Year!

In honor of the Year of the Dog, Chuy wanted to wish you all a Happy Chinese New Year!



When my mom visited last week, she bought us 2 bouquets of flowers for Chinese new year. I wish I had some Hong Bao "red treasure" (little red and gold envelopes filled with money that elders give children for Chinese New Year) to give Chuy, since that's more appropriate for the celebration than the carrots he's eating, but he's wishing it just the same.

Puppy's First Christmas

Chewy was overwhelmed with the outpouring of our loving family who came to visit him this Christmas. Mom and Dad Bayman and our niece, nephew, Greg's sister, and Grandma Bayman all came to visit and take care of Chuy while we were visiting my parents in New York. :) More pics will come later, but I had to throw this one in of our Cheerful Chuy!

Our Puppy has a name!

Chuy 10 and a half weeks old. I finally got him to look at the camera.

When we first saw our little Golden Retriever on Nov. 6, we knew we liked him because he was the runt of the litter, so small and cute. We bought him that day after playing with him in the little room for an hour and a half. We knew we were going to be gone for 3 days that next weekend, so we opted to pick him up in 1 week, on Nov. 13th.

At first we couldn't think of a name, and we thought and though. I can't even remember names that we thought of, because when Greg said, "How about Chewy?" I thought, "perfect!" It's cute and it's a moniker that recognizes his favorite past time... chewing on EVERYTHING! And so we slept on it. We didn't want it to have anything to do with Star Wars and Chewbacca, so we thought of alternate ways of spelling it. Chooie, Chewie, Chewy, none seemed right...and then I thought of my favorite TexMex restaurant in Austin, TX --Chuy's! Perfect. We both LOVE TexMex food, and Chuy's so cute, it's also just 4 letters, so it's easier for engraving purposes. And that was the beginning of our puppy living up to his name.

So the next day when we went to the store to visit our new puppy, we called him Chuy, and he started learning his name. The employees called him Chuy from then on and when we picked him up that next Sunday, Chuy was ready to come home with us!

These were taken Thursday night when Greg wasn't able to come to the store, so I took some pics of him so his daddy could see how he was doing.


See how small he is next to the chair?


Chuy loves playing with his rope.


"Pose for Daddy."

Chuy, the Wonder Pup!

I finally have the CD of pics of Chuy from Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'll post more later, but I wanted y'all to see what our little bundle of joy looks like. :) He's MUCH bigger now than in these pics, and well, I wish he would stay small forever, because he's so cute this way!

Chuy helped me to string the Christmas lights on the tree.
He liked the warm lights.

Chuy chewing lights because they're there.

My little helper

Here's the finished product. Not bad for a pup.

Family Photo Thanksgiving 2005

Good Mornin' Good Mornin'

"...We talked the whole night through
Good Mornin
Good Mornin
to you."

Singin' In The Rain has now become one of my all time favorite movies! We watched it last night, and I just love watching the dancing sequences over and over again! Gene Kelly is really a gifted dancer, and Debbie Reynolds is SO cute! I love to watch them tap tap tap away. Donald O'Conner is just hilarious and an avid dancer himself. Cyd Cherisse is such a talented ballerina though she dances lyrical and jazz in this film. It makes me want to sing and get out my tapping shoes again.

I highly recommend this movie to families and folks young and old. We got it for some family members for birthdays this year and they're in for a treat!

I just got back from walking Chuy in the rain. It was fun, but cold. Chuy's asleep now. How fun could that number have been for Gene Kelly to dance all that in the pouring rain! What a scene.

Cooking Lessons

This Christmas I got Rachel Ray's new book of 30 min. recipes, 365: No Repeats. I've been reading it to find something great to make for Greg, but instead, I've made things that I remember my mom making when I was young.

Modifying Greg's favorite Chili recipe, I took the leftovers and made Haystacks. It's fun for kids to assemble and healthy too. Here's the recipe.

Haystacks: Serves 2
Prep time: 10 min. Cook time: 2 min.
1 1/2 c. Fritos (R) Corn chips or Tortilla chips
1 c. Salad mix, lettuce, or fresh spinach (finely chopped)
1 Tomato (diced)
1 c. Cheddar, Colby-Jack, or Mozzarella cheese (shredded)
8 oz. of your favorite Chili (heated) or 1/2 lb. browned ground beef and onions
2 teaspoons Sour Cream (if desired)

Heat the chili in a microwave safe bowl for 2 min. stirring halfway b/w cooking time. On each plate, or in a bowl, pile the Fritos (R) in the middle for a little mound. Spoon the warm chili on top of the Fritos and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Sprinkle the lettuce and diced tomatoes on top. Add a dollup of sour cream at the very top if desired. Serve with a fork and spoon to shovel that "hay".

Fun for a casual group dinner or for kids too. Have the ingredients in separate bowls and have guests build their own Haystacks.

Now for Greg's favorite Chili recipe. Greg's Mom and sister were kind enough to teach me how to make this chili for our New Year's Eve party, and it was a hit! I wish I could have said I made it, but other than stirring and pouring, Deb and Mom did all the work! We had 2 crockpots full, but it's ready to serve right from the stove.

Greg's Favorite Chili: Serves 10
Prep time: 30 min. Cook time: 25 min.

2 large (53 oz.) cans of Brooks brand Chili Beans (hot or mild or both)
4 lbs. of Ground Beef
3/4 of 1 white onion (chopped)
2 cans (12 oz.) of tomato soup
2 Tblsp. Chili Powder (or more to taste)
Tabasco Sauce (if desired)

In a large skillet, brown ground beef, drain. Add onions and sautee for 10 min. or until onions are fully cooked and mixed in well with the beef. Pour half of the beef mixture into 1 crockpot and half into another. Turn the crockpots on High. Pour 1 can of Brooks hot Chili beans into one crockpot and stir. Pour 1 can of Brooks mild Chili beans into the other crockpot. (If you want both pots to be medium spicy, half the two cans into both pots.) Pour 1 can of tomato soup into each crockpot (2 cans total) do not add water. Stir. Add 1 Tblsp. of Chili powder into each crockpot, stir. After 15 min. turn the crockpots to Low. Taste and add more chili powder or Tabasco sauce if desired.

Having the Tabasco on hand at the party is good for those who want the extra "kick." Serve with shredded cheese, Fritos, Tostitos, Sour Cream all on the side and be sure to have cold drinks ready.

I served a salad in a large bowl, w/o dressing and more than 2/3rds of it was gone after going into the second crockpot of chili, so the lack of dressing didn't matter. It wasn't planned, but an oversight on my part. We also had summer sausage, crackers and cheese, Gardetto's pretzle mix on the table. It was heavy on the proteins and starches, so I'd have added a veggie tray if I had it to do over again. The desserts were at the second house in our "Progressive Dinner Party," hence the lack of sweets, though a guest did bring some delicious mini carrot cake muffins. Yummy!

Reflections

What a year has gone by. I thought that on my birthday last year, I'd be able to take a moment to reflect on all of God's blessings: where He's brought me, what He's helped me to overcome, and look forward to years of promises ahead. Well, I just took that moment now, more than 2 weeks after my birthday, because I sent a greeting to another friend. Do you ever find that you love to give advice to others, but find it hard to heed yourself?

My birthday came and went without much reflection or celebration because I was miserably sick and my husband was too. We're both just about rid of the many viruses we caught in the month of December, but I am just now taking time to realize that it's not the circumstances that one is faced with, it's how one handles them. It's the attitude that one takes to the situation and the choice one makes to be happy.

I look at my puppy and think, he must have a great life. He doesn't have to work, cook, clean, buy things. He just eats, sleeps, and poops. But then again I think, well, he depends on his owners to walk him, feed him, clean his cage, bathe him, clip his nails, take him to the vet, play with him, love him. He has "worries" too, like, "will they let me outside before I have to relieve myself?" Sometimes, I take for granted the many privileges I have to make my own decisions about what I'm going to do on a particular day. How I'm going to react to certain situations, and what I'm going to tell my husband when I give the daily report. He's good at giving me the gist of things, or leaving it out all together, and I have a tendancy to rehash all the details. That's part of our compatibility and frustration at the same time.

Well, I hope you take the time to reflect on God's grace, mercy, and blessings for those of us who know Him. And if you don't know Him, I pray that you would. It's so easy to think that we don't need God when things are going well, or if we've gotten ourselves into a rut because well, we'll just have to get ourselves out of this mess too. But He knows our every thought, our every heartache, our every desire. He wants to give his children good gifts, He just asks that we receive it, and not squander it saying, "Thanks, but I could have gotten that on my own." What a slap in the face, what a harsh rejection to a loving gift poured out for the world. I do hope that you can realize your need for a Savior and stop trying to be a hero all the time, feeling sorry for yourself when things don't go right. But instead, seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and all the rest shall be added unto you as well. Nothing you could ever have done is too terrible for Him to forgive. Just ask, wholeheartedly, expectantly, and believe on Him, and He will give you eternal life.

Congratulations Horns!

Congratulations to our Texas Longhorns for winning the 2006 Rose Bowl, last night, defeating USC 41-38.

Vince Young said it best, "Don't you think that's beautiful?" Yes we do!!!