gotta take the bad with the good in life...

weird title maybe, yeah. i'll explain. last night, friday, was an awesome night of fun and music. i did a music gig with my bro and friend bryan at a church coffee shop. needless to say we had a lot of fun playin and singin :) and probly got a lil crazy at times. but it's all good. it kind of amazes me how even if we're playin off the cuff and totally flying by the seat of our pants on all the songs... we can still pull it off. brian and i had practiced all the songs beforehand so that helped a TON, but bryan who played bass, hadn't practiced with us at all, and probly only knew a third of the songs that we were gonna do. and the songs that we practiced in our half hour "rehearsal"? he probly forgot just as soon as we were done playing them. now being able to do that just shows that bryan is a really good bass player... but i think it has a lot to do with the chemistry the three of us have as musicians too. anyways, it went really well, we had a lot of fun, and just for a heads up? we'll be playin again there on the 26th of august... just in case, roger, you wanna randomly show up again :) thanks for comin by the way. it was an awesome surprise to see you walk in. anyways, back to the reason behind the title... last night was a blast, as i've said, but this morning didn't start good. i found out this morning that my boss's husband passed away this morning due to complications with a brain aneurysm. he had surgury to bypass the aneurysm on the 14th, and since then has progressively gotten worse. friday the doctors had to induce a coma because his lungs were severely damaged due to blood clots brought on by his body fighting to breath on it's own (they had to put a breathing tube in about a week ago cause he wasn't breathing on his own), and his diabetes. then this morning... his body just gave up. i'm close to both my boss and her husband, so you can imagine it was a blow to the stomach. i do not believe he was saved prior to any of this, but i hope and pray that God shown His light into his heart before he died. it made me stop and think of how much we take for granted every day. even our every breath. at any moment we could be taken out of this world. in a car crash, gunshot, heart attack, whatever, you name it. and are we ready to meet our maker? am *I* ready? i know i'm ready as far as being covered with His blood and knowing that i get to spend eternity with the Most High God. but, have i done all i can for the advancement of the kingdom? am i ready to go with no regrets about what i've done, said, or thought? have i made peace with everyone in my life? do they know how much i care about them? it's kind of ironic, i just wrote a song about this a few weeks ago. well, i won't preach at you guys, but it's just something to ponder. and if i could, can i ask for your prayers for my boss? her name's Patti. my heart just aches for her right now.

well, the day was good other than that shocking news. the past week or two things have kind of changed around our house. my parents are adding a master bathroom onto their room, so we have a hole in our house into a roughed in addition that will be the new bathroom. my dad and brother have been doing all the demo to save a lil money, so i've witnessed and helped take out their old bathroom, rip the shingles off the roof, dig a trench thru our hallway for the new plumming, and take out the cement so the plummers can do their thing, and they can lay new cement for the bathroom. today amanda had the crowbar and rake, brian was manning the wheel barrow, and i got the very masculine job of breaking up the cement and shoveling it into the wheel barrow for brian to haul off and dump :) amanda goes, "melissa, you're gonna have a really big beach ball if you keep this up". if you don't know what that means.... ask me later :) i'll demonstrate. or i'll find someone who can demonstrate. i know a bunch of them. so yes, the end of our house is quite the mess. for me to get from the kitchen to my room, i have to walk OUTSIDE, thru the addition, thru the demo in my parents room, thru the hallway with the foot and a half wide trench, and into my room. cause my parents have the entrance from the hallway into the living room blocked off with plastic most of the time. my mom doesn't want cement dust in the rest of the house of course. so yeah, that's been quite fun :) you have to leave the room in the morning with everything you're gonna need for the day so you don't have to make three or four trips. been there done that. it's been fun to see the process tho. we have a really fun carpenter working on the addition too. his name's Eugene, and he's great :) he's a tease... a really softspoken tease, but a tease nonetheless. me and amanda have made him our buddy tho. we're going to make a pact with him so that he can put a lil secret door from our room into the new bathroom :) haha. wouldn't that be awesome? i think so too. bryan's also been out here workin too. and boy oh boy has THAT been the time of my brother's life. haha, those two are just pees in a pod i tell you. the other day we had a war going on with water guns. it started out as just brian and bryan going at it. but i ended up stealing bryan's water gun and got him real good :) then the war was on. me and amanda won of course :) course, you won't hear him admit that, but we all know it's true.

hmm... well, i think that's a good enough update for now :) besides, i can't think of anything else to say. i'm fresh out. have a great rest of the weekend! don't do anything i would do :)
love and blessings.

just for your information...

i'm not dead! woohoo! *everyone cheers loudly... or maybe not*.

ok, just wanted to let you know i was still here. maybe i'll write soon. maybe i won't. you'll just never know will you :)

in the famous words of kip... "peace out".

music finally on the net...

hey all! hope everyone is keeping cool in this humid, nasty heat we're having here. i know i haven't posted in a while, and i'm sorry about that. tho, i didn't know everyone cared so much. goodness. anywho... what's new....
first things first, and of most high importance... i put some of my music on the world wide web! you can check it out at www.myspace.com/melnorman. drop me a line, tell your friends, whatev. doesn't matter. just thought i'd let everyone know :)
hmmm... what else has been going on lately. well, i've had relatives here since friday night. my aunt and uncle and two lil cousins. we've been having lots of fun biking, eating, playing cards, and laughing, and listening to my lil 3 year old cousin rachel sing at the top of her lungs :) they leave tomorrow morning and boy am i gonna miss them. it's times like these i wish we lived closer to family.
la di da... sonshine is two weeks away!!!!! can we say EXCITMENT! i know rachel's in the same boat as me too... she's started a countdown on her sign in name. oh man, it's gonna ROCK.
ok, well, i can't think of anything else that's interesting to say. plus, my cousin matthew wants brian and i to jam for him. it's a lil late... but we can for a couple minutes atleast. have a great day everyone!
peace out.

syndromes, shoes, players... and green for thursday!

la di da... well, my weekend wasn't quite as exciting as sarah and liz's was... but it was interesting i spose. the rents were gone from wednesday to sunday night late, so me and the kidlets had the whole house to ourselves the whole stinkin weekend. it was nice :) tho, i was glad when mom got back home cause the house just doesn't run the same without her. anywho, i had to work a couple days in there, and was out every now and then, but saturday and sunday were our down days. until i had to babysit Connor on short notice on saturday. there was a lil bit of a scare with mindy... but everything's ok. thank God. then sunday we went to fourth baptist in plymouth for church. that was really good. they sing just hymns, and have a piano and organ with a choir, but i didn't mind. i like hymns. and it's always refreshing to go back to them. the Pastor was very good... he spoke out of judges 3, about "second generation syndrome". all about how the israelites followed God and were dedicated to God, then Joshua died, and the second generation rose up and didn't know God as their fathers did, and rejected and forsook Him. he gave 5 reasons why the second generation turns away from God, and the biggest ones that i can remember are; they do not have a personal, experiental relationship with God, they do not have love for Biblical truths, and their history has not been taught to them. he stressed the major importance of private family biblical teaching and worship. and how the parents play a vital role. and while he stressed the importance of parents and the family, he didn't leave out singles who have younger people under them... and how we need to be examples of having love for sound theology and truth, and passion in our relationship with Christ as well. i don't think i've walked away from church challanged that much in a long time. probly not since i heard John Piper preach. which was a while ago. it's amazing how much of a difference a good, sound preacher makes in a church. the music can suck, and be totally off... but if the preaching is good, that's really all that matters. and i'd rather go to a church like that, then one with gorgeous music. the music helps of course :) but a church can always grow in that area.
anywho, sunday afternoon manda and i went to a wedding shower for one of our friends from calvary... mmm, had lots of good food :) then sunday night me and the kids watched ace ventura: pet detective, and ate a whole big bag of baked dorito chips between the three of us. man i felt like a slop... but it's all good :) besides, the chips were baked, so they're healthier. i keep telling myself that :) we were probly quite the sight. brian's drums are off to the left of the tv downstairs, so you can't sit on the left side of the couch, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the tv. so all three of us were squashed on the right side of the couch, eating chips, with our legs sprawled all over each other. hahaha... oh man, i had to laugh. plus we were watching ace ventura, and there's a good laugh right there to begin with. aaaah, good times.
haha, last night was pretty funny. LeAnn and i went shopping at target, and we were there for over an hour. haha, LeAnn was talking to herself, we were bummin around, and being QUITE silly if you ask me. but that's what LeAnn and i do when we get together, we're crazy. i got some capris, a t-shirt, and a movie... and Beans got a bunch of odds and ends... then, i happened to be browsing in the shoe department, and glanced down the guy aisle, when i a "sale" sign caught my eye. they were black, leather, slip on men's shoes... the exact kind that bryan likes so much. well, i know i didn't wanna get him black, so i looked to see if they had brown, and they did... and then i looked to see if they had size 13 (i know, massive huh? i could fit TWO of my feet in there!), and they had ONE left. oh boy. lucky lucky. so, i got em, and beaner and i dropped em off on our way home. oh. my. word. hahaha, he was SOOO excited. there were some other guys there from the youth group helping him and his dad with their hotrods... and everytime a guy would come over, or his mom, he'd yell... "LOOK! i got new shoes!" oooh, man, what a kook. i can see him telling everyone he knows for the next two weeks that he has new shoes. he said he'd pay me back, but since it took him almost two whole weeks to pay me back for the pillar concert... i don't think it'll be for a while :) i also got my bro a button down shirt. it's striped with light green, blue, yellow and black. it looks pretty snazzy on him too. i think anyways :) he was pretty excited when i gave it to him too... cause i had told him about the shirts, and we had looked at em a while back, but they were still full price. so i told him he should wait till they go on sale. well, they happened to be on sale last night, so of course i had to get one. he was all excited, "melissa... i can wear this to church on sunday eh?" with that lil twinkle in his eye. uhhh, my brother's a player! where did he learn this........ don't say it, rachel! i KNOW what you're thinking!
well, now that you know all the VERY important facts of my life... sarcasm duly noted?... i shall bid you all farewell. everyone have a wonderful thursday! enjoy the sunshine!

"pretty bird!"

wow... it's been a long time since i posted last eh? sorry bout that. things have been quite busy. i don't even remember what was happening when i last posted... and i don't even want to think of all that's happened since. i do remember mentioning the gig at the coffee shop tho. and it went REALLY well. we had a blast to say the least. no major gliches, or trainwrecks. we just went up there and did our thing, and had fun doing it. it was really layed back, which is always nice. and in a coffee shop, you don't have to worry about talking that much, or holding the audience's attention the whole time, cause sometimes they're busy mingling and eating and what not. it's a very relaxed atmosphere. which i like a lot. anywho, we had fun, and sounded really good according to dad. a bunch of people came up afterwards and said they really enjoyed it too. i think the most people we had at a time there was about 20, 25. it was a good crowd. we made 83 bucks in tips too! it blew me away man... i NEVER expected that much. i wanted to give everyone a hug. i felt so unworthy of it. but incredibly thankful too. i think we'll be playing there again, i'm not sure when tho. i'm sure Al's got it booked for a month or so out, so maybe sometime again in july or somepin. God's opened a couple more doors as well too. i have the opportunity to play at a church coffee shop here in Mound. and possibly another cafe in wayzata. i really hope i can do gigs more this summer. it's a lot of fun for me, and a great way to get my music out there, and more importantly the gospel message. people asked me if the coffee shop here minded that i was a "christian" artist playing in a nonchristian environment. and i was like, "i don't know if they cared or not, but hey... i'll play my christian music if they let me".
what else has been goin on.... i house/pet sat this past weekend for 5 days. that was fun :) i liked being out of the house on my own. i could definitely get used to it. it's kinda nice to be back too tho. i had to take care of a bird. a spoiled, talking bird. it wasn't horribly bad or anything. all i had to do was make sure it had food, and fresh water, and talk to it periodically throughout the day. boy did it like to talk tho. it would go, "pretty bird! pretty pretty birdie! hi birdie! hi sweetie!" ya know, trying to watch a movie with that going on in the background is not exactly the most fun thing in the world. that's when you get out the blankets and cover it up :) smackdown. anywho... quite the weekend i had. i worked friday, saturday, then sunday was church, becky and andy's for lunch, out with kevin, amanda, brandon and rachel.. then home by 11 or whenever it was. i didn't spend a whole lot of time with the bird, so come monday i stayed there pretty much the whole day and i think she appreciated that. not that birds have feelings. i watched three movies on monday :) not all in a row mind you, but enough to make me feel like a slob. then tuesday i slept in (mmmm, that felt good), vacuumed their house, then got ready for work. now i'm home sweet home, and mom's leaving tomorrow mornin to meet dad in cali so me and the kidlets get the whole house to ourselves until monday morning. parTAY at the normans! rock on! :)
well, i could let this post get a lot longer than it is by filling the page with mindless ramblings... but i think i'm gonna go. i started writing a song last night, and i wanna finish it before the inspiration fades. have a fantabulous day guys! peace out.

of sith and jedi

hello everyone! or as Connor would say... "'lo?"
first off... happy graduation to skip and steve! wish i could be there! and i'm sure rachel and kelly are in the same boat.
so i saw star wars thursday night. brian and i went to the late showing. it was a good idea and all except i had beep up since 6:30 that morning, had worked for most of the day, done a guitar lesson, then went out to brooklyn center to see the kidlet's orchestra concert. AND, i had to be up for work the next morning as well. it's been a long past couple of days. but, the movie was good... better than i was expecting. and lucas did a good job of connecting III with IV. if you're any kind of star wars fan, or have even just watched the movies... you gotta see it. the graphics were incredible, the fight scenes were amazing, the acting was alright... and the "love scenes" between Padme and Anakin? *GAG*. it doesn't help to think that she's like 10, 12 years older than him in the story either. it's just sick and wrong. but, anywho... yep, i think it was worth the 7 bucks. then friday night LeAnn, Bryan and i went to see Robots at the cheap hopkins theater. hahaha, that movie's hilarious! uhhh, there are some good laughs in that one. then we stopped at cub on the way home at like 11, and had quite the time. bryan was being really loud and obnoxious, LeAnn and i were being really stupid while looking for juice and cookies, and then bryan paid for part of what we got in quarters. that's right people, quarters. he had like, 4 bucks worth. and they almost went down in the rolly thing at the check out line. good times at cub in the late hours of the day. i remember doing that another time not so long ago... :) only that time we got skittles. aHEM.
my car smells really funny now. LeAnn put a melon scented candle air freshioner thingie in my car friday night... and so now it smells like bananas, melons, and the previous smell from the cleaner guy. it's quite the combination. it kinda makes you woozy. which isn't so good when you're driving :) but, then you just roll down the windows, turn up the pillar really loud... and thump down the road. it's all good :)
well, i don't really have any other interesting things to say... not that anything i said was interesting in the first place. but i got you to read it anyway! ha! i win! wow, i think the cheez-its are getting to me.
until next time...

wowZERS

ok, since it's been for ever since i posted last... and you all are BEGGING me to write something... it's high time i spose. i don't know if i have anything uber fun to talk about, but we'll fly by the wind... things always turn out interesting that way :)
the past week or so i've been workin on getting music together. i have a gig next thursday night at a coffee shop here in delano, and i need about 2 hours worth of material. now, if you know me... that's not really a problem. i've got TONS of music. but, i really want a mix cause it's not a christian enviroment. i won't be playing just secular or anything... but i do wanna play a bunch of the good acoustic songs out there. like, "daughters", and "don't know why", and "come to Jesus", and "when you say nothing at all"... ya know, all those good ones. plus, i've been figuring out a few of the good christian acoustics too. it's kind of time consuming to listen to a song over and over to figure out the chord progression and riffs. it's fun tho... it's good practice for me :) i can remember my guitar teacher last year. i brought in the song "indivisible" by pillar, and he figured it out almost on the spot. and those of you who know the song... it's not the easiest ever. so, its been good ear training for me. anywho, so that's been filling up my time lately. i'm getting closer to knowing for sure what songs we'll include, and the order for the set. then comes practice! woohoo. i think we'll be flyin by the seat of our pants mostly. but that's ok, it's me, becky and brian and we've been playing together for who knows how long. and ya know, it's that sibling vibe thing. we can look at each other and know what the other is thinking. and we know how to work dynamics with just a look or body language. it's great. and besides, it's a coffee shop... who's gonna be listening THAT closely? and if they do, they won't care. so it's all good. ya'll are invited ifn you wanna come out. i don't exactly like playing in front of people i know... but, thought i'd give ya the chance anyway :) it's next thursday, the 26th, and we start at 7 and go till we don't have voices anymore. haha, just kiddin. probly 9, 9:30.
this past sunday morning i went to westwood community church. it has three services on sundays, and the one that i went to, the second one, was packed, so i'm thinkin they pack out all three every sunday. the church is pretty huge too. i can't imagine how many people go thru the doors every week. it's gotta be a lot. the music was pretty amazing. they had had a full ensemble with drums, bass guitar, electric guitar, french hornes, bassoons, violins, flutes, clarinets, and a piano... and then a 50 person choir. it was really cool. they did a prelude, and then we sang WITH the choir and chamber the hymns and choruses. i've never sang choruses with that big of an ensemble. so it was a new one for me. i didn't like the preacher tho. it was quite fluffy. he never asked us to turn in our bibles, he didn't use many biblical references in his sermon, and most of it was life experiences, or personal application and lessons. i didn't get much out of it. so, despite them being very talented and gifted in the music area... i don't think i'd ever go back. it's very important to me that we dig into God's Word every sunday morning to see what it has to say. not just take a few verses and make them say what you want them to say. so... if any of you wanted to know what Westwood was like, there ya go :) now you know. vedy vedy interesting.
la di da... brian just made me pinkie swear at the dinner table that i would go to "revenge of the sith" with him tomorrow night at 9:45. ugh, why do i get pulled into these things? ha, he asked me when i wanted to go see it and i was like, "oh ya know, we can just wait till it goes to hopkins" (when a movie gets to be two or three months old then it goes to that theatre and it costs 2 bucks). he didn't think that was such a great idea, of course :) i'm sorry, i just don't really have that much of a desire to see it. episode I and II royally sucked... and i can't see this one being any better. but, i spose... ya gotta see the last one to tie everything together eh?
welp, bri and i are gonna practice for a while, so i'm gonna run. stay dry everybody!