family
- Blessed Be Your Name
- Be Glorified In Me
- Unfailing Love (a new Chris Tomlin song… very good, very singable)
- Draw Me Close
- Knowing You
- I Will Praise Him Still
A fun weekend...
It was busy busy busy, but it was fun. My brother Andrew is now officially a resident of Cedar Rapids. He’ll be down here at least for the fall, working at Menards and taking a couple of classes at Kirkwood. So he was/is in town.
Mom. Dad, and Aaron came down from Wisconsin to celebrate Laura’s birthday. It’s so hard to believe that my little girl is turning 2 years old this week! We had a fun time with them. Sunday our church had our usual service and picnic in the park. It’s a bit taxing for me, since it means I have to cart out all the sound gear, but it was special this year since Andrew and Aaron led music with me. They both played guitars, and I played bass. I think it went really well.
Oh, did I mention that Laura’s birthday is coming up? Becky and I decided to get her an aquarium this year. She just loves fish, and is glued to any fish tank she sees. So we are now the proud owners of a ten-gallon aquarium. Once we give the water another day to stabilize, we’ll become the proud owners of a few little fish to go in the aquarium. Hopefully she’ll enjoy it - I think I will, too.
Well, that’s the news from Lake Wobegon Hiawatha for the weekend. It’s now Monday and I’m back at work. Joy of joys.
Holiday and Vacation
It’s now been 10 days since I’ve actually set foot in my office. Last week was the conference to Atlanta, and then I took Friday off. Now it’s Monday, and I get today and then tomorrow off for Independence Day. It’s gonna feel weird to actually go back to work… but there will be a lot to be done.
This weekend we have the whole family here at the house; Ryan came in from Chicago, Aaron is back from Panama, Andrew and Dad and Mom came down from Wisconsin, and Rebecca is now in Cedar Rapids but she came over here to spend the night with the family. Good times. Aaron has become a total Caedmon’s Call fanatic :-) and has become very, very good on the guitar. It’s fun to be able to just sit down and sing Caedmon’s or Derek Webb songs with all the harmony and stuff.
This morning after breakfast I went on a long bike ride - probably 15 miles or so. It’s been too long since I’ve been out for a good ride. It feels good; I need to be more active. I gained 5 pounds on my business trip last week; too much good food and too much sitting on my backside.
This afternoon we’ll grill out and then I dunno what we’ll do tonight - Rebecca’s gotta work, but the rest of us will still be here until tomorrow.
weekend, where did you go?
Well it’s long past time for a weekend update.
Becky’s folks have been here for just over a week now (since May 20th) and we’ve been enjoying their visit. They will be leaving tomorrow to continue on their adventure across the USA. Becky’s mom is blogging their adventures, you might want to follow along! But that’s not about the weekend, now, is it?
Friday night my folks, my brother Ryan, and sister Rebecca came to visit. It was great to see them again. Rebecca is getting ready to move down to Cedar Rapids in a few weeks, so we’ll be seeing quite a bit more of her, I think. Which would be a good thing.
Saturday we didn’t do too much; some shopping occurred, and Becky and I went to a graduation party for a young man from church.
Sunday was busy. I led the WT playing the bass for the first time. It went pretty well, and I sure enjoyed playing bass. Wish I had an opportunity to do it more often. But I’m not about to want to get rid of the bass player we already have - he’s awesome. Then at the end of the first service we dedicated Addison. Then the second service was pretty much the same except we had two baptisms, and no baby dedication.
Sunday afternoon we all went out to Stone City to visit the Berberich’s. It’s always a good time. Stayed there until around 6:30. Then late Sunday night Becky, Ryan, Rebecca and I went to see the new X-Men movie. It was pretty good, but not nearly as good as X1 and X2. Still, it was fun to go out on the town and have mom and dad stay home with the kiddos. :-)
Monday we slept in, grilled out, and then my family took off for their homes. So things are finally calming down. But then last night Laura was up 6 times during the night throwing up. She was one unhappy camper. We quickly progressed through all the sheets we had for her crib, and then went to blankets and towels. She was sleeping OK, but just kept waking up vomiting. Yuck. But Becky reports that she’s doing better today, that some food is staying down, so hopefully she’s on the mend.
With so little sleep last night, something tells me I won’t manage to stay up through the whole Suns-Mavericks game tonight…
Happy Birthday, Becky!
Only the best birthday wishes to my beautiful wife who turns 29 today. She is a faithful partner, dear friend, and loving mother to our girls. I am truly blessed.
Becky’s parents are in town this week, so we’ll all go out for dinner to our new favorite BBQ place tonight to celebrate. And, woohoo for me, I knew what I wanted to get her for a gift, bought it on time, and got it wrapped up. Well, sort of wrapped up. It’s at least in a box… Maybe I’m getting this husbandly-gift-giving stuff down finally… :-)
more odds and ends for May 2006
Wow, so it’s been far too long since I posted. What’s been happening? Last weekend Mom and Dad and Reba came down to visit. We had a good time. Saturday we did a little bit of garage saleing and Reba looked at an apartment. She’s planning on moving down here in June. That should be interesting. She’s going to Kirkwood in the fall. They came down Friday night, left Sunday afternoon. It was good to see them again.
Yesterday was supposed to be our first softball game of the season, but it got cancelled due to the weather. It wasn’t actually raining, but it had been raining pretty much solid since Friday night. The fields were undoubtedly a mess. So last night we went out for supper and then went to the library instead. It was nice.
Now today we’re home. After work I took Laura on a bike ride while Becky worked in the garden. I did about 8 miles, which for my first time out this year, pulling a kiddo in a trailer, isn’t too awful. We’ll see how sore I am in the morning. :-) It was nice to be out. Gotta love having the Cedar Valley Nature Trail and the Cedar River Trail nearby.
So now it’s nearly bedtime. Just finished watching American Idol, and Becky is upstairs trying to get Addison to go to sleep. She just fights it so hard. I’m in the process of setting up a blog for my in-laws to use to post stuff about their vacation this summer. The funny part is, they can use my domain (thehubbs.net), and it doesn’t seem strange at all. :-)
Well enough randomness for tonight.
play time
Yesterday, as the culmination of a lot of research by Becky, we went out and purchased a backyard play set for Laura. It was on sale at Toys’r’us. Woohoo for sales! We just barely got the box to fit in the van - we had to remove the back seat and then still bungee the back hatch down. But we got it home in one piece and then got it put up last night. It has a ladder on one side and a slide on the other. It took Laura about 2 tries to get the hand of the ladder, but then she did nothing but climb up and slide down in a circuit about 30 times in a row. I think she enjoys it. :-)
They're back...
Got a phone call from Mom and a text message from Rebecca letting me know that they (and Ryan and Dad) are back safely from their trip to Panama. Sounds like everybody had a great time. I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures.
they're leaving... but they're coming back.
By late this evening I’ll be the only member of my immediate family still present in North America. My folks, sister, and brother are heading down to Panama to visit my two brothers who are already there. Actually, I’m not sure if Ryan is going down today or sometime shortly later… but that’ll leave me as the only one back here in the good ol' US of A. This is a big trip for all of them, but especially for my folks, who haven’t been on a trip like this in many, many years. Dad just got his passport done last-minute, but fortunately it got done. So they’re off, for a 10-day trip.
I’m slightly jealous, but even with cheap (<$400 round trip from Chicago - Panama City) airfare, I don’t think we could quite manage with two kids under 2 yrs old on that kind of trip. :-) We’ll be happy to stay home this time.
Have fun you guys! Take lots pictures and have safe travel. I’m looking forward to all the stories and pictures when you get back.
short on sleep but full of joy...
Yesterday welcomed our little girl Addison Grace into the world. It was a quick labor and delivery; we were at the hospital for a whole 45 minutes or so before she was born. :-) She’s a big girl (9 lbs 3 oz) and seems to be doing well. She’s had a stuffy nose, but otherwise has been happy to just eat, sleep, and fill diapers. Ahhh, the life of a newborn. :-)
She was born at 3:12 AM on the 13th, so we didn’t get much sleep that night. Slept a little better here at the hospital last night. Not the most comfortable bed, but at least we could go to sleep by 9 and sleep until 7 or later with few interruptions.
Laura doesn’t know quite what to do with the baby yet; I don’t think it’s quite registered that it’s our baby… it’ll be interesting to see how it goes when we all get home tomorrow.
Well that’s about it for now. I’ll post some more later.
the blessings of a holiday
This holiday weekend we have left Iowa and headed to Wisconsin to visit my family. Thanksgiving with family is a great time; we have all of our traditional things to eat, games that we play, stories that get (re)told, time spent together. It is a blessing.
Last year when we came for Thanksgiving, Laura was just a 4-month-old baby. Now she’s walking, talking, and generally the center of all our attention. Amazing.
The rest of the family is doing well, too. Ryan generally works long hours and is very busy, which means that when he comes home he sleeps a lot. It’s good for him. He’s so darn funny, too… he keeps us in stitches most of the time. Last night as we were playing cards he made some slightly off-color comment; then he excused himself by noting that he has roomed with guys for the past several years, and, he said “we don’t just push the envelope - the envelope is opened, soiled, and returned to sender!” OK, maybe it’s not so funny in print, but last night we about had to stop our card game we were laughing so hard.
Aaron is the only one that isn’t here; he’s still in Panama working with YWAM. We miss him a lot. He called yesterday for about an hour so we all got to talk to him. He’ll be back home for Christmas - hooray! It also sounds like he’s planning on moving back to the States come next summer. It would be great to have him closer again.
We’re about to head in to Madison to do some shopping. I know, we’re crazy, but we all start to go a bit stir-crazy after being here at the house for a day and a half, so it’s time to go out. Andrew had to work this morning at the lumberyard, but he’ll meet us there once he gets off around noon. I doubt we’ll even buy that much - maybe a new shirt, or a CD, or something in that vein. Mostly it’s the chance to be out and around as a family. Holidays like this remind me that my family is the biggest blessing of all.
Happy Birthday sis!
My little sister Rebecca (the youngest of us 5 kids) turns 18 today! Wow. Now I feel old. :-)
Happy Birthday, sis, and don’t go out and do anything too crazy. ;-)
A nice weekend
Normally I don’t do a lot of “here’s what I did with my weekend”-type posts, but it was a nice weekend, so since I need to update the blog I figured I’d just have to. Oh, first things first: my brother Ryan has decided to start a blog. Don’t know how much he’ll maintain it, but I’ve added it to the list of links on the right.
Anyhow, to the weekend. Friday night we got a babysitter and went out on a date. Nice to have some time to just be with the two of us after a busy week. We went to Chili’s and had ribs for supper, then went to Barnes & Noble to browse for a while. I bought a 2-disk CD album of Thelonious Monk and his quartet, Live at the “It” Club. I’d not listened to any Monk before, but a friend recommended him because of my love for Harry Connick, Jr. I was not disappointed. 2 1/2 hours of live club performance from 1964, digitally remastered so that it sounds great. I’ve been listening to it for the past couple evenings and it’s excellent. Forgot to bring it to work today so I guess it won’t make its way onto my iPod until tomorrow. So, after B&N, we went down to our favorite little coffeeshop and each had a cappucino smoothie. I sat and improvised on the piano for a while and Becky sat and read a book. What a nice way to spend a Friday evening!
Saturday we got up early and worked on an outdoor construction project. Becky has been planning on building some planters back behind the garage for the past several months; the landscape timbers to build said planters have been sitting on our patio for the past 6 weeks or so. Finally we had a free weekend to build. Finished those up by early afternoon. They will be really nice to have.
With the long weekend we got to enjoy Monday off as well. We did a bunch of cleanup in the morning, in preparation for having several friends over in the afternoon. It rained non-stop from 9:00 until 1:30 or so; we were afraid it might be too wet to spend time outside, but no, it dried out nicely and was beautiful. We invited Steve & Amanda and their kids, Ginger came as well (Daniel’s off to Amsterdam today flying freight), and then a new couple that just moved up here, Jeremiah and Rebecca. We had a great time getting to know them - they seem like a lot of fun, hope we can get to know them better. What I wouldn’t give to have them end up making Noelridge their church home… but they’re looking for a home in Monticello (30 minutes away) to shorten Jeremiah’s commute, so I wouldn’t place good odds on them coming to CR for church… oh well.
Now it’s Tuesday and I’m back at work. I’ve got a project certification plan document to update today. Fun fun. But it was a great, refreshing weekend. Thank the Lord for these times to kick back a bit and relax.
Happy Birthday Andrew!
Today is my brother Andrew’s 19th birthday. A big happy birthday to you, bro, with hopes for many more happy ones!
she's graduated!
This weekend was my sister Rebecca’s high school graduation. She’s the youngest of us 5 kids, and the only girl, which means she’s spoiled just a little. :-) She graduated in a class of 8 students from her christian school, and I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t quite proud of her. Anyway, here’s Rebecca the graduate.
Rebecca is normally quite a goofball and lots of fun; here she’s showing her more ornery side…
Andrew (our brother) is only 16 months older than Rebecca and they have always been best buddies. And they’re so cute! :-) (Andrew’s gonna bring the smackdown on me for that comment…)
This next one is all of us Hubbs kids except for Aaron, who is in Panama working with YWAM there. Sure wish he could’ve made it back! We do miss him. (l-r is Ryan, Rebecca, me, and Andrew)
This last one is from the party on Sunday - we had over 100 people at our house for a big party. At one point, we had volleyball, football, and soccer games all going on at the same point. It was a blast. Actually, there’s no games being played in this picture, but Rebecca is having fun with her niece (my daughter) Laura. That’s Rebecca’s friend April trying to duck out of the picture there in the background.
The one person I didn’t manage to get a picture of was Andrew’s girlfriend Amber. I did get to meet her, and I should say some nice things about her since she’ll probably be reading this post eventually. This is the first time I’ve met her, but she seems really nice, and for a girl who’s all of about 5'1", she plays a mean game of volleyball. I only spiked on her a couple times. :-)
Well that’s enough photos for now… hope you enjoyed them. It was a wonderful weekend.
Music, family style... for real.
Well, the long-awaited Sunday finally got here and I got to play keyboards in the worship team at my family’s church with my brother Andrew leading. It was awesome. It was his first time leading a worship band but he did a very good job. The set list was something like this:
Somewhere in there Andrew and Ryan (another of my brothers) and I did a special number, the old Steve Camp song Love That Will Not Let Me Go. It was fantastic.
I really enjoyed getting to play keys and sing backup on the team; I’ve been leading my own team for so long, it was fun to play second-fiddle. It was also really neat to see my brother pursue a dream of his, to lead the team. I’m sure he’ll be doing it again… and maybe one of these days I’ll get him to come down here and play on my team. :-)
making music, family style
OK, I’m excited. I just finished talking to my brother Andrew. He is almost 19, has been playing on the worship team at his church (Richland Center Fellowship, Richland Center, Wisconsin) for a while now, and has the opportunity to lead the worship service in a couple weeks… on the Sunday that the rest of the family is going to be visiting!
We have a musical family. Dad was a music education major, Mom minored in voice, and all of us 5 kids play at least 1 instrument, some of us several. We did occasional special music and such growing up, and I really miss the chances to do stuff with them. We know so much of the same music that it’s ridiculous.
Quick picture to paint: we’re all home at Christmastime, and I’m sitting in the living room just goofing around on my guitar with Caedmon’s Call’s Hands of the Potter. My brother Aaron (age 21) is working on installing a cat door in the porch door, I didn’t even think he’s paying attention, and as I get to the chorus, he just kicks in singing the backup part. It was way too cool.
Anyhow, Aaron is off in Panama doing missions, but Ryan (age 25) and Andrew and I will all be around on that Sunday, and the plan is that we will all help out with the worship time, playing and singing. This is exciting for multiple reasons; first, to get to play music with those guys again is a treat. Second, I’m the worship leader of a church of 150 or so rather subdued worshippers (God’s “frozen chosen” :-)). We’ll be leading at a church of 400 or so more energetic types. Thirdly (and maybe this should be first, priority-wise), I get to help encourage Andrew in his quest to head down a similar path as I’ve gone down, to use his musical talents as a worship leader. That will be the best part, for sure.
I suppose I should get back to work now, but excitement like this needs someplace to be poured out, even if it is just to a window in WordPress. :-)