One more small thing......

I forgot to mention something in the last blog that is definitely blog worthy. Last week the kids were playing and I was making lunch. Soijer and Ephram were arguing over a book. I called them to lunch and as we were sitting at the table Ephram says "Soijer, I am going to eat faster than you and get down and take that book and put it in my room and close the door." to which Soijer replies: "Ephram, if you take that book into your room, I am going to get down and go and open the door to your room, get that book, bring it back in the living room, open it up and break it over your head!!". Quite a specific threat from a 2 year old. I was speechless.

whew!!

The holiday weekend is finally over! It was very busy with all the parades and concerts and stuff but was pretty fun. The weather was good and by good, I mean not hot. The parades went well and nobody fell off the trailer as it was rolling down the street ad we got rid of like 10,000 freeze pops. The cookout that evening was fun but the fireworks sent the kids into a complete meltdown. they freaked out completely and had a hard time sleeping even with their white noise cd's blasting at full volume. It doesn't help that the "fireworks" in the neighborhood, (and when I say fireworks, I mean farmer made IED's that surpass military grade high explosive), kept rattling the windows in the house and waking the kids. It finally stopped around 11:00 or so and they got to sleep. The service and concert on Sunday both went well. All that is left is to get up to the church tonight and hook up the sound system and the July 4th 2009 extravaganza will be history.
The new Wilco album is good, really good. Each time I listen to it, it gets better and I hear things that I didn't before. The kids even like it with their favorite song being "I'll Fight". How fitting.
I may have to get off the caffeine. I have been noticing lately that during my morning and afternoon and whenever else coffee, I am getting pain in my neck and shoulders. I am not happy about it. Coffee is one of my pleasures in life. I spend a lot of time and money on it. I am heading to the local roaster to get some decaf this weekend to see if it is indeed the caffeine that is making me tense in the back. Lets hope its just the kids. :)
Azsure and Ephram are going to Springfield this weekend so Soijer and I will have Saturday and most of Sunday to ourselves. I think we are going to do some birthday shopping for Ephram as well as Spend my gift certificates to Williams-Sonoma. Should be fun.
Thats all for now.....

Random update....

A few things going on lately, we are gearing up for the July 4th festivities here in Dorr. The band loads up on a trailer and we blast at full volume as we drive down the road in the parade. Its fun. We do 2 parades on the 4th then have the 4th annual Hedges family cookout for everybody that participated in the parade at our house. We have an outdoor service on the morning of the 5th and then the band is playing at the carnival thing on the evening of the 5th. I am just hoping that my voice will hold out for the weekend.
Azsure and I got a babysitter yesterday and she took the day off and we went to Saugatuck for the day. saugatuck is a very cool artist town on lake michigan. We spent the day wandering the stores, eating great food, tasting wine and otherwise just enjoying ourselves without the kids yelling and complaining. We cam home with four bottles of wine from the Fenn Valley winery. I have felt very refreshed after the trip.
Fathers day was good. I recieved a cookbook from our local tapas bar "San Chez" which I have wanted for a while. I am eager to try some of the tapas recipes especially the Blue Cheese Fritters which we our favorite last time we went out to eat there. I then got the day off while the kids and Azsure played outside. I laid around and didnt have to deal with any fatherly things.
We are having playgroup at the house tomorrow. Lots of kids running wild in the yard. I am also cooking out so it should be fun. Hopefully, it wont be too hot. I have to make cookies today as well as make up the marinade for the jerk pork tenderloin for the dads.
I'm on the facebook now. We'll see if that is going to be a blessing or a curse. I'll report later.
got my ship notification for the new Wilco album. Yes! It should be here in a couple of days. A little over a week later, the new Son Volt album will be out. Then in August, the Bottle Rockets have a new one coming. It is officially my best music summer in years! yay for me! and Soijer, who loves Wilco! and Ephram who loves Son Volt!
out for now!

Stuck in Illinois with the "Ephram's got the barf blues" blues......

So the kids and I traveled down to IL for a week with the grandparents. I needed a break from both full time parenting as well as part time church work. I also wanted some new surroundings to just kinda kick start some creative thought and play some guitar. I made a vow to not think of any church music for the whole week. Not that I don't like church music, but, it is something that is a job to me. I don't sit around and listen to church music unless I am working on finding new songs to play at church. I don't attempt to consume it like I would say, the new Wilco album coming out at the end of the month. Also, while here, I scored some music recommendations from my buddies so I should be good to go for a few months with more albums.

Wal-Mart customer service sucks. ....

The Wal-Martization of Benton IL is complete. You can barely get anything unless you drive to the walmart. I don't know if it is just the Benton walmart or all walmarts but its like the dementors from Harry Potter. If you get to close, you start to get the feeling that you will never know happiness again. It is a soul sucking chasm for which there is no escape and I had to go there just about every day to get something. The greeters might have well have been saying "welcome to wal mart, guns are that way, please bring one back and kill me". They really need the guy from the Grandville Meijer store to spruce up the attitude. With this in mind, I determined to stop whining about the greeting and take a proactive approach. I would give the walmart greeter a warm greeting myself and hopefully brighten their spirits amidst the downtrodden throng of humanity that passes through there everyday. So with my spirits high, I headed out for some road snacks for the trip back to Michigan. I cruised through the door ready to spring my joy on the greeter. Problem, no greeter. Hmmm.....oh well, there has to be someone around in a blue smock that needs a lift. Finally I went to the speedy checkout with my stuff. I waited for the lady in front of me to finish then I sprung. "hi" said the checkout girl. "GOOD AFTERNOON!! HOW ARE YOU TODAY!!" I shouted. She was a little taken aback. "OK I guess" she replied. "FANTASTIC!!" I assume at this point she pushed a button somewhere that alerted the manager or Sam Walton himself that they had a live one. Any way I paid for my stuff then happily yelled "HAVE A GGGGRRRREAT DAY!!!!". She looked a little scared". as I was walking towards the door I spotted my initial target, the Wal Mart Greeter. "yes" I thought to myself. As she looked up from digging some sort of filth out of a cart I yelled with all of my joyous gusto "HAVE A FANTASTIC DAY!!!!!" She smiled. Sweet Victory. Take that soul sucker!
We had planned to leave the wonderful land of Lincoln on Monday morning but Sunday night, Ephram got a really high fever and said his head was hurting from "staying at the circus too long". (welcome to my world boy, I live at the circus) I decided to give him some of the new children s Tylenol I had picked up (wal mart again!) for Soijer earlier in the week. I gave him the suggested dose of strawberry flavored goo , which smelled a lot like strawberry schnapps by the way, and about 2 minutes later, he refunded it all over the carpet at my folks house. Later, I tried again and got the same result but in the toilet this time. Thanks Tylenol, your attempt to make medicine taste just like super sugar candy has burned me for the last time! We switched to the melty tab things the next day and they stayed down. So after an extra day in IL we made the trip back to Michigan without incident. On a side note, Ephram loves to stop in Gary Indiana. Every time we go to IL, I try to time it so we don't have to stop there but he must see the abandoned buildings and crack houses from I-80 and it triggers his urge to pee immediately.
I woke up in sweet cool Michigan this morning, ran a couple of miles and the kids and I set of to play at the park with the guys and kids from the dad's group. Fun was had by all. I am, however, going to most likely have to work the rest of the week to pull the kids back into the fold after being with grandparents all week. I guess that is the price paid for a little respite.

Becoming highly effective and the Swine Flu

I am not terribly effective but I am working on it. Steven Covey is assisting me right now. I don't know if any of you know the Franklin Covey system of planners but you've most likely heard of the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". Anyway, I have been making an effort to establish my roles for the week on Sunday. Roles being things like, father, husband, worship leader, etc. you get the idea. So anyway, one of my roles the past few weeks has been "musician". I am trying to get back into being more creative and bringing back the musician in me. Learning new songs, writing a little and generally beating on my guitar whenever I can. So this weeks challenge/goal for myself was to write a poem about anything. It didn't have to be anything groundbreaking and I'm not much of a poet. Being someone who usually finds the humor in chaos ( Ask me about my song "West Nile Virus Blues"), the recent media blitz and corresponding all around paranoia about the swine flu provided the inspiration.
So here ya go a Guit-Box daddy original poem:

N1H1 musing #1
I Thought it was just a cough.
A lingering cough from the recent weather change.
But someone at the grocery store told me "we're done for"
That "not only are illegal immigrants taking our jobs, now they're killing us"
"No, really, it's just a cough"
I wanted to look up the word "pandemic"
but ended up playing Daily Trivia instead
People freaked out a little
I was just irritated that I couldn't sing
When I turned on the t.v. and there was nothing but static,
I decided to write a song about it.
Actually I decided to write a sonnet, but I couldn't remember the rules.
All I could come up with was this:
"Oh foul swine!
Oh eater of bones and garbage!
In the farmers romantic sight
you are clever and wise!
but to everybody else....
you are pork chop demise!!"

I hasnt even been a full month yet!

When you have your own blog that is seen and read by throngs of people, and by throngs i mean, like, 3, you apparently have to keep up with the writing or you get comments like "time to update your blog" (you know who you are) or how bout some new rants.. Well, here it is: the update. A months worth of goings on all packed into a few sweet paragraphs for you, the fans, the curious, the ones waiting for their (ahem) videos to download. (wink wink)
March flew out and I was happy to see it go. Anything that gets me closer to summer weather is a great thing. Azsure plodded away at rehearsal for the play she is in and I plodded away apparently at the comfort food because before I knew it, I had gained five pounds just sitting around bored eating. Never fear though, I am slowly reversing the process and am happy to report that my pants fit again.
Soijer had her 2nd birthday which was fun. we went to Meijer gardens to see the butterfly exhibit and then came home and ate cake. a person from our church made and Elmo cake which was nice. She got some cool toys and Has been fighting with Ephram over them ever since. Happy birthday!
Speaking of Ephram, he is down in Illinois with the grandparents so the Soi-bean and I have been having a little daddy-daughter time this week. it has been fun. We went to home depot and sears to look at refridgerators.
Yes refridgerators. its time for a new one. Its not that our current fridge doesnt work, it does. everything is nice and cool. But the drawers and plastic stuff is all torn up. I did call fridgidaire and another parts place to replace the drawer assembly and the price quote caused me to utter some random explitive and hang up. So me and Soi-sauce have been out this week looking for a shiny new fridge and there are some shiny new ones out there too. So many that I really have no clue what to get. oh well, I'm sure it will all come together soon enough and I will see a day where I can take a pepper out of a drawer without the whole assembly falling out.
Got the new Wilco DVD the other day. Ive watched the first few parts of it and its good. You should check it out. Jeff Tweedy is a strange individual but he's got the rock and roll in him so I approve. On a random music note. I heard "Ballad of the Kingsmen" by Todd Snider the other day come through the ipod random playlist. Man, that guy spends a lot of time with the reefer. Anyway, the watching of Jeff Tweedy and Wilco gave me the inspriation to pull out my old Supro flattop acoustic and give it a play. I hadnt seen the thing in over a year and when I pulled it out, the freakin thing was still in tune and when i strummed the ultimate rock chord (thats open E by the way) It came out like a warm stew. I was comforted and satisfied to say the least. So I immediatly took it upstaris and pledged to learn a new song on it this week which I have already done. "I'll follow you into the dark" by Deathcab for Cutie for those interested. dont ask, I really dont know how Death Cab for Cutie ended up in my music library. Maybe for the very reason to provide a renewed connection to the Supro. The wood on some parts of that guitar is like fresh pasta dough. now I know why willie nelson still plays that guitar that is more hole that wood.
Azsure's show has started and I went to see it on Saturday. It was really good and very funny. she had lost her voice the night before opening but you couldnt tell at all. shes a pro. Seeing her do the creative thing made me almost a little jealous. Seeing the buzz from the live performance and all. I do get to perform every week at church but it doesn't have the same effect as playing a rock show. I guess it's because the decadent element of the rock show is precisely what you are trying to get away from in a worship set. Its like there are two guys inside me battling it out. One wants to be good and the other one wants to booze it up and kick the other guy out on the street. That is probably the innner battle in most people though.
Saw my first wasp the other day so those of you who have followed the blog from the beginning know that it will soon be time to get out the old cans of wasp killer and make the rounds in the yard warning all of the wasps to not make a homestead here lest the be terminated with extreme prejudice.
Holy frijoles!, I have really rambled on for quite a while about some really boring stuff so I will leave you all to ponder my insight. My Wii tennis skill level isnt going to increase itself.
out.

Eleven years of wedded bliss......

Azsure and I celebrated 11 years on Saturday. I cant really even remember who I was before we got married but I'm pretty sure that that guy would have ended up in a lot more trouble. We went out for dinner on Friday night to celebrate and went to Bistro Bella Vita which is my favorite restaurant downtown. It touts itself as "mediterranean country cuisine" but all I know is that its is good and it is fresh. I had the boeuf bourguignon and was awesome. it had lots of squash and potatoes and green beans and brussel sprouts in a yummy wine sauce. Azsure had a rotisserie chicken in a goat cheese fondue and it was really good too though quite rich. I finished it of with the Tiramisu. all yummy. The thing I like about going to Bella vita is that it is inspiring to me as a home cook. I really like to cook but I dont know how to build flavors. I pretty much need a recipe. i dont know if that is a talent thing or a learned thing but I would really like to know how to do it better. i would like to be able to hit the farm stand and just grab some stuff and bring it home and cook something healthy and tasty for me and the fam.
On a related food note, I have become goldfish cracker intolerant. We rarely have stuff like Goldfish crackers in the house but grandma brought a huge tub of them last time she came and I love the things so I have been eating them along with the kids for snacks. Well, i have come to realize, after a few terribly upset stomachs, that its the goldfish crackers. There is no other explanation. It must be the hydrogenated oils or something because my body is rejecting them.
Speaking of snacks, its snack time....
out