My Husband is a Rock Star (in more ways than one).

Nearly 10 years ago my mom sat next to my new boyfriend in my high school auditorium.  It was the spring choral concert & she decided to make polite small talk in an effort to get to know this new city boy that I was dating.

(I know, for those of you that know my husband now, thinking of him as a city boy is quite laughable.  I promise, he hasn't changed, but for where I grew up, he's considered a city boy.  I digress... back to the story.)

Her: "So what do you want to do with your life?"

Him: "Oh, I'm going to be a musician."

Yes, my mom had to sit there & play nice & not laugh at this new boyfriend who was 'going to be a musician.'  It's what every mother wants to hear, right?

She swears that she didn't doubt him, but c'mon.  How could you not?  I mean, I'm fairly certain that I doubted, too.

Time passed & he continued to play more & more music.  After we got married there was an unofficial rule that he could do whatever he wanted so long as there was family time & a full time paycheck coming in.  And that's what he did.  He worked his butt off to not only make music a priority, but also to make that an income.

Being a full time musician doesn't mean that you're always playing on stage for thousands of people.  Sometimes it does, but most of the time it means a lot of other work, too.  Lawyers don't just show up in court, they have behind the scenes work to do.

So for most of our married life, Josh has been a worship leader.  Sometimes at one church where he also does music arranging & other related duties, sometimes it was for-hire work week by week.  And for awhile he even played with Richie McDonald (remember that little band Lonestar?  Josh got to play the famous keyboard part to the song Amazed in front of 50,000 people with the lead singer from Lonestar.  If that's not cool, I don't know what is!).

We moved three & then eight hours away from our families in order to fulfill this dream of being a musician (and making a living at it).  His musical talent is just ridiculous.  It's a great party trick.  Play a song once & he'll play it back for you on the piano.  Give him 15 minutes & he can play just about any instrument.

I tell that story to say how proud I am of him.  I mean, who actually gets to make a living as a musician?  He's appreciated for his musical talents.  That's far more than most musicians are able to say.  It's a hard road.

And let me tell you, it's very cool to be his wife.  To know that my husband possesses this incredible talent is amazing.  And sexy.  Nothing makes me prouder than to give him a kiss in the lobby after church & watch him pick up our little girl & swing her around.  I don't know what I imagined my future husband to be like, but I don't think I ever dreamed this big.  A guy who loves God and music?  Dreamy! (Don't make fun... I'm being serious!)

 

Last Saturday he went to Urgent Care because of severe pain in his stomach.  When something medical happens on a Saturday, we treat it immediately.  Sundays are a big deal-- you can't just throw anyone in his position to fill in.  Once he got to Urgent Care, they sent him straight to the hospital.  After several hours & tests they confirmed that it is a gallbladder issue (again).

We left the hospital at midnight, and you know what that joker did?  He went straight to church to double check that everything was ready to go.  He slept, but by 8am he was on stage leading worship.  He worked a full day.  I did convince him to stay at home on Monday, but that was no easy feat.  He slept pretty much the entire day, which made my heart happy.

It's hard to get him to slow down, but sometimes I have to remember that that's what got him here in the first place-- not slowing down when others do.

My husband is a rock star.  And he'll blush when he reads this & insist that I not post it, but that's what makes him awesome in the first place.  :)

Is it wrong to think the worship leader is hot?  Does it make it okay that it's my husband?

Why I Don't Sing with my Husband.

"Why don't you sing with your husband?"

"Why do you & your husband go to different churches?"

"Doesn't it bother you?"

My husband works at a church. He is a worship leader at one of our church's three campuses. Last year I auditioned to sing as a background vocalist & they had an opening to sing at the new campus, but not the one where my husband leads. So I started singing at the new campus & I love it! But I get a lot of questions & people look at me like I'm crazy sometimes.

Photo Courtesy

You see, when it comes to volunteering, it's not about being glamorous or hanging with your friends (or husband). It's not about convenience. It's about serving God & others. It's about being available. When we first moved here 2 years ago I said I would volunteer wherever I was needed. At first, that meant standing out in the freezing cold, collecting cans & packing them in boxes. Then the preschool department called dibs on me so I worked in various aspects there until I finally landed on leading worship for 2-4 year olds. It was fun... even if I did have to wear an orange shirt!

But after a year & a half, I finally got up the nerve to audition for background vocalist. I love singing but I had a few fears:

1) That I wouldn't make the cut.

2) That I was auditioning for the wrong reasons.

Photo Courtesy

I was scared that I just wanted to be in the spotlight. That I just wanted the attention. I love attention & am naturally an extrovert so I really had to dig deep to make sure that I was doing it for the right reasons.

After a lot of prayer, I realized that I really will volunteer anywhere so long as my daughter & family life don't suffer from the time commitment.

So once I made the band, we soon realized that there were not going to be any open spaces on the worship team my husband leads. Not only that, but there is sort of a waiting list for it & I'm 2nd on that proverbial list.

And here I am. Singing at a totally different campus from my husband. And I love it! Don't get me wrong, I'd love to sing with him, but here I'm forced to be out of my comfort zone. I'm meeting new people & enjoying the friendships. Heck, the new campus is actually much closer to our house so that makes it even easier. Did I mention that the stage is bigger, there are more seats, & everything is brand spanking new?

Everything is for a season & this is our season. I'm sure we won't be at different campuses 10 years from now. Plus, it's not like we can sit in the service together anyway, so not much is different other than the building I am in.

And... now I know, in case I had any doubts. I am still volunteering for the right reasons. I will go where I'm needed, not where is fun or where my friends are. It's not about me- its about serving God & others!

Priceless.

Yesterday I decided to put on a little Pandora while getting ready for the day.  Looks like the last time I listened to it was Halloween so I went to look for a different channel.  This is what Pandora suggested:

Hmmm... we'll mark that under "things you never think you'd see."

At least I've got some variety?  Flo Rida confuses me, though... don't know any of his (his?) songs!

What would Pandora throw out for your musical taste?

Nobody loves my quite like my dog does.

I wonder how many seething arguments this song will cause in America.  I laughed pretty hard when I first heard it, but I can only imagine how many wives will want to slug their husbands over it.  :)

Enjoy!

On Being a Britney Fan.

What is it about Britney Spears that makes me want to pull for her no matter what?

She was the pop princess for my generation.  In 8th grade, she was the bomb y'all.  By the end of 8th grade I was cutting my hair in long layers like hers.  Unfortunately, I was a greasy 8th grader without stylists to follow me around, so I ended up cutting my losses (literally-- cutting my hair to chin length) and realizing that I was not a pop princess myself.  It was a tough break.

Then she came out with an edgier video (for the time) like 'Crazy.'  After all, her fan base was growing older-- we were at least 3 months older by this point-- and we needed something to reflect our more grown-up lives.

Then there was the time when it was no longer cool to be a Britney fan.  This was the same time it wasn't cool to be a N*Sync or Backstreet Boys fan... and don't even get me started on Hanson.  just. not. cool.


But finally, thankfully, Britney has come full circle.  She went off the deep end, and then swam back to the shallow end.  I only caught about 20 seconds of the VMA's this year, but it happened to be the 20 seconds that Britney won & started her acceptance speech for Best Pop Video.  I wanted to cry, I was so happy for her!

I mean, really, she's come a long way over the past 12 years, and has done a ton of growing up-- all while the whole US... and sometimes world... were watching.  She's certainly not perfect, but she'll always hold a special spot in my heart.

If you need a good laugh, this is for you!  This was a video our pastor did for this past Sunday's sermon.  If you'd like to hear the whole sermon, check it out here.



What is 'church' to you?

It's Friday, Friday... TGIF

It's Friday!  Or, as we like to call it in the Fowler household-- the weekend!  Josh has off Fridays & Saturdays since he works all day on Sundays. Let me just say that it is a glorious schedule!  We've always been super involved in church so it was a given that we'd be there all day on Sunday anyway.  But now?  We have a weekend again!

But back to Friday.  Friday.  Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend.

Is it stuck in your head yet?

If not, then watch this.  That should do the trick.

But no!  Don't leave!  Then you'll miss this (actually) awesome video.

Have you seen Katy Perry's video for TGIF?  Because it's awesome, and if you are older than me, than you'll enjoy it even more than I do.  Hint: it's set up as an 80s movie, and has great cameos in it!



Love this video.  Katy Perry's talent is just amazing.  Not to mention where else are you going to find the following people all in one video?

Darren Criss (Glee)
Rebecca Black (see link above)
Kevin McHale (Glee)
Hanson (wow-- these guys are still around?  I wanted to marry all of them about 14 years ago.  Mmbop!)
Kenny G.
Corey Feldman
Debbie Gibson

Hope you enjoy-- and hope your Friday night isn't quite like theirs!

Because I think it's hilarious!

I promise I'm actually making a conscious attempt to not post things about babies 5 times a week on here, but it's kind of difficult when that's what consumes my life right now.  But this is at least hilarious and amazing all at the same time!

What he does.

In relation to last week's post, I thought this might be relevant.  If you know me in real life & live in Virginia, you know what my husband does for a living.  If you live in NC, SC, or GA, you probably have an idea, and if you don't know me in real life, you only know what I've written here.

So here... this is what he does.  :)

And if you're familiar with Cee-Lo Green's extremely popular song titled... uh... "Forget You" -- then you'll recognize this little diddy.  I really wish I'd recorded the entire thing.  Even though it's terrible quality, he was laying on the stage by the end of the song-- quite the performance!

Can you tell I'm proud of my guy?  I'm definitely his biggest fan.  

A day at the 'rents.

Once upon a time I went back to my parents house to visit.  Actually, it was a few weeks ago.  Anywho, we're driving home from church and my dad called my brother.  He was already at my parent's house and had rode his horse there.

Okay, so that sounds slightly odd, but not totally, right?  Well, my parents live close to the top of a mountain.  And this horse wasn't used to having someone ride it.  What would be a 5 minute drive in a car was a 45 minute excursion with this horse.  I won't call it a ride because he didn't actually ride it the whole way.  He was teaching it and getting it used to riding so that his daughter can ride it.

And of course Rylie had to ride on it.

And since Rylie & I matched and I'm halfway terrified of horses, everyone thought it would be a good idea for me to get on it.  If only they had video of me trying to mount the horse.  It could be a YouTube sensation-- I'm not very talented and I'm fairly certain I nearly tipped the horse on her side.

And since Rylie and I are wearing matching shirts, we had to get a shot together.

Fun fact:  I did not actually ride the horse. Just sat on it long enough to take a picture and then I bailed.  Like I said, I'm halfway terrified of them!

Rylie... not so much... she loved the thing.  Here you can hear her sweet voice:

But when she got tired of riding the horse she just moved on to pinching the dog & playing the banjo with her Paw.

And in case you're actually still reading at this point, here's one of her climbing the stairs... too cute!

What are you going to be when you grow up?

My mom must've thought he was crazy when he told her he was going to be a musician.  I mean, if your daughter was dating a 19 year old boy who said he was going to be a musician, what would your first thoughts be?

But my mother politely asked more questions.  She's never been one to squash dreams, so she carried on.

Years later she told me about that day.  It was at my last choral concert in high school.  They were making small talk beforehand when she asked Josh what he wanted to do for a living.  She wasn't quite sure what to think about it, except that I had always dated dreamers.  The kind of guy who lived a bit in the clouds. Whose goals were not average, and definitely a bit abstract.

But 7 years later, he's spent most of those years doing music.  Sometimes full time, sometimes part time.  Almost always doing music.

It's what I love about him, and I'm so proud of him.  :)

What's the thing you used to tell people you'd be when you grew up?  Did it happen?  Has it changed?

Yellow: Update

Last week I wrote about how "Yellow" has really helped our marriage.  Every time one of us gets frustrated or annoyed or feel an argument coming on, we say, "Yellow."

We instantly realize that whatever we're talking about is going to cause an argument, and then, it's really just not worth it.

The other day, Josh told me, "You know, the whole 'yellow' thing is really working out."

And it is!  In fact, we haven't had one argument since we started it.

And let me tell you, for two strong-willed people,  that is amazing.  And really awesome!

I did have to call "yellow" the other day when he started singing 'Yellow Submarine.'  I'd seen the album cover and all, but apparently I'd never heard the song.  I love the Beatles-- they're hanging on my living room wall-- but that song is annoying!

A look back at 2010.

Yup... you read the title... I'm doing a look back at 2010.  I went through and chose one (yes, only one!) picture from each month and even linked back to a few of the posts... enjoy!

January.

We rung in the new year with one of our dearest friends, Rebecca.  She's such a strong woman and we had a blast!  To my recollection, I fell asleep before midnight.  :(

February.

February 14th was the launch of Relate Church, which Josh and I were helping out with during their beginning stages. (excuse the crazy editing...)

March.

Rylie joined our family in March!  My brother & his wife have been married 13 years, so it was about time!

April.

In April some of our friends from Atlanta came to visit!  So much fun, and we had lunch at our favorite place in Greenville-- The Lazy Goat.

May.

2010 had many great moments... many.  But being on the Dave Ramsey TV show was definitely one of the biggest highlights! (You can view our portion here) We had been following his principles to get out of debt for 3 years and were finally able to scream We're debt free!! in front of all his viewers.  It felt great to finally be out of debt for good!

June.

You can read this story here, here, and here.  I never intended it to be a series, but it ended up going on for quite awhile. Worst part? Josh was out of town and I didn't have a car to take Max to the vet... so I had to bum rides! I was very thankful for some great friends.

July.

One Friday night Josh & I were looking forward to relaxing as Saturday would start a busy weekend.  Then my dad called and asked if we wanted to come to the Swannanoa Gathering (Part 1 & Part 2). We went, and I'm so thankful. Not only was it a blast, but now that we've moved, we won't be able to do things like that anymore. Carpe diem, eh?

August.

With August came a new job, which was exactly what I needed.  My sister also let me borrow her car for a few months, which was a major blessing!  It did have a few troubles, though... like the door handles fell off!  Thankfully, my dad was able to fix it (Josh was out of town).  But when we pulled the door apart we saw that my brother had clearly done the same thing in the past.

September.

The beginning of September brought a lot of overtime for me, which meant a lot of extra money going to savings.  The last part of September brought a lot of family time... which was fabulous!  This picture was at my parents house when they had to take everything out of their cabinets to run a water line to their new fridge... talk about a mess!  The stuff from the fridge was all in the sink and everything from the cabinets was, well, everywhere else!

October.

What a month of anticipation! Josh resigned from his day job to do music, and was almost immediately contacted by a church in Virginia. I interviewed, and was offered a permanent position at the company where I was a temp. We spent as much time enjoying life as possible, including going to my old high school football rivalry game, and enjoying fabulously free dates in downtown Greenville.

November.

All the anticipation of October came to life in November.  I had to turn down the job offer (which was a dream job) because... Josh was offered the position in Virginia!  I have to admit, it stung a little to turn it down, but we both knew that Virginia was where we needed to be. So we packed up and moved right after Thanksgiving.

December.

At the beginning of the year we were still settling into our apartment in Greenville.  And by December, we were settling in a new apartment 8 hours away.  Funny where life takes you sometimes, but we know that it's where we're supposed to be, and... for the first time... a place where we'll be settled.

Chances are, most of you starting reading this blog within the past year, since that's when I started writing exclusively on here (rather than on a private blog), started working with BlogHerwww.blogher.com, and became syndicated through BlogHer.  I sincerely appreciate your readership and hope you'll stay with me for another year on here!

First day at the office.

This week, Josh began working full time (again) for Fowler Productions.

If you haven't heard his music, check it out on this ancient website.  Or you can look it up on iTunes: Josh Fowler: 'Broken.'  Just a heads up-- that's not his style of music anymore, but you can at least hear how awesomely talented he is.

No really, he is.

Anywho, I came home during lunch the other day to see how his day was going, see how he likes his new co-workers, etc.  To my surprise, he thought they were a bit lazy.

And needy.

He said one even tried to steal his lunch!

But somehow he managed to get some work done.

And use his Google voice number 67% of the day.  The blur in the foreground is his Blue microphone.  Except it's black.

The best part (for me)?  Fresh from scratch guacamole for lunch.

Yum!

Sorry, no picture.  I ate it too quickly!

Catalyst 2010.

It's that time of year again.  The time where my husband begs like a puppy to go to Catalyst.

But really?  How can I say 'no' to this guy?  I've become tough... that's all I have to say.

Especially when he's so excited to get this into certain people's hands.

But the real story starts a few months ago.  We got a brochure in the mail.  And the begging began.  I hid the brochure in our bookcase.  Can you see it?

Out of sight, out of mind.  I forgot about it.  But Josh didn't.

And honestly, I never dreamed he would be doing music full time now.  I knew he could do it, but he wasn't planning on it a few months ago.

But now he is, and so it just makes sense.  Plus, he got a great deal on tickets.

He's as excited as a 4 year old geared up for a McDonald's birthday party.

Do kids still get excited about McDonald's birthday parties?  Do they still have them?  Should I replace that with Chuck-E-Cheese?  Monkey Joe's?

At any rate, this guy will be speaking.  Not that we don't get to hear him every Sunday.  :)

And this guy... who we were blessed enough to hear every Sunday while living in Atlanta.  Check out North Point back in the day.

But I think Josh really goes for the games.  A few years ago he came back with a Whoopie Cushion.

Guess who else will be there?  Anne Jackson (below), whose blog you can read by checking out the sidebar to the right under "My Favorite Blogs"  --->

And Jon Acuff, which I have a blog-crush on.  His blog is so witty and smartly written.  I love it.  I wish it were mine.  Oh, and he works for Dave Ramsey now... is that the life or what?!

So if you're at Catalyst this week, enjoy it!  And make sure you find this guy and say hello:

THE Josh Fowler

I can guarantee you he'll be playing there one day.  It's just what he does.

Spice up your life!

Congrats to those who responded quickly and got a free photo shoot!  I can't wait to get my hands dirty (figuratively speaking) and get some shoots done!  July will be very busy.

Now back to mindless ramblings...

---------------

Josh and I bought this awesome piece of work a few weeks ago.

But I realized tonight...


... that other than "The Beatles," I can't name these guys.


In other words, I have strange men in my house.


But Josh helped me out.

There.  That's better.


Now, please drag me out in the town square and stone me.  I should know who The Beatles are.


On the flip side, I do know who these guys are:

And these cuties (what, exactly, did I think was cute?).

And of course, these lovely ladies.

And yes.  I have seen Spice World.  Why do you ask?


I was busy watching it while the rest of the world was pulling out their old Beatles albums.


Spice up your life!


PS:  I was Posh Spice.  If you are a female in my generation, you know exactly what that means.  Oh, and Chris and Kevin were my favorites.  I like the older men.