Thanksgiving Family Portrait

I'm thankful for our little family.

Two Pumpkins & A Challenge

When I got home from work today Levi was waiting for me with two pumpkins and a challenge...

The result:

Eightweeksandtwodaysiversary

Yes, today is our eightweeksandtwodaysiversary. To celebrate I changed my name. I am now, officially, Levi Aaron Chapman. Juuust kidding - this is Heather.

Anyhow, I had previously changed it at the bank, with the insurance company, things like that, but today I applied for the big one...a new social security card. Wow. What a process that is. Here in Tennessee, you go in and an armed security guard asks what you need, then points you in the direction of a machine that spits out a number. You fill out an application and sit, waiting for your number to be called. In this particular instance the wait gave me the opportunity to people-watch for about an hour and a half. It's an interesting scene, that social security administration office. Newborns, newlyweds, newAmericans - all types of new beginnings. My hope for all of my new waiting room friends is that their new beginnings are as wonderful as mine has been.

Thank you, Levi, for a beautiful beginning.

GOING ON HONEYMOON

guys. wow. i can't even begin to tell you all how grateful we are for all the help, attendance, and gifts you bestowed upon us. i literally have about 30 seconds for right now because we are headed to the airport, but i wanted to say thank you so so so so much, and we'll see you soon.

Levi and Heather

The Bridesformation.

Have you ever seen the face of a groom as it goes through The Bridesformation? If not, here's something to watch for the next time you go to a wedding, whether it be mine or anyone else's.

When he arrives at the church, he is at the end of his rope. This entire week, he's dealt with the last-minute details, the arrival of guests, the meeting of family members, the details, the fact that he hasn't gotten to spend much quality time with the woman that (in just a few short days/hours) he will be making a lifetime commitment to, the details, the little petty things like who will stand where, breaking it to his groomsmen that, no, the tuxes are not covered ("you are my best friend. want to pay $125 to prove it?"), the details, and all the pesky little details.

(granted, and before we go any further: i am putting far less elbow grease into this than she or her family are. Color me not ungrateful. I'm just saying...)

So needless to say, when he shows up, he is probably more than a little frazzled. But he knows that today, of all days, he had better not let his face show anything but sheer joy. After all, 2 families are watching, needing to be certain that this union is secure.

So he puts on his most convincing smile. He will not show frustration with anything, no matter how annoying it may be. He will smile through the last-minute panic, the hustle, the caterers are late, the mothers are making sure he looks nice, the best man has a mullet?

he walks to the front of the church/theatre/venue with this very smile on his face. the impenetrable ceramic expression.

and then, The Bridesformation. This is something that is often missed at a wedding. Everyone has stood, and is turned around to catch the entrance of the star of the show. His victory, his triumph, his queen, the culmination of every ball thrown, every car driven, every flower bought, muscle flexed, bloody nose earned in hopes to impress a girl.... *she* embarks upon her seemingly endless trek to him from the back of the room. And if you look closely at his eyes, you can watch them change from glossed over and hiding to very very vulnerable. The endless battering of details against the hull of his ship have ceased their assailment, and suddenly it is all very clear why it was worth it.

given my emotional state, i'm going to go ahead and say that Saturday is probably not the day to test me and see if i'm right. watch Heather (she's the beautiful one, for goodness' sake.) I'll be okay if her eyes are the only ones to see mine go through the Bridesformation.

plus, if any of you see me crying, i'll totally have to kill you. :)

home sweet home

Exactly one week from right now Levi and I will be married (hooray!). Which means that today is the very last Saturday that my name will be Chapman. EVER. We have an exciting.hectic.too short.too long week ahead of us.

In other good news...we finally found a house in Nashville. Our first home! It's exactly what we were looking for, and we just found out yesterday that we've been approved to move in on August 17th. It's a cute little 2 bedroom townhome - so we'll have room for visitors [as long as you don't mind sharing a room with multiple guitars, keyboards, an accordion, banjo, mic stands, computers and a dog :)].

See you next week!

Today's Shower

I get it now - that term "showered" with gifts. or maybe that was the point of why they named it a shower? which came first? the shower or the shower? i should know these things, as someone who (supposedly) makes a living using his words.

The kind folks at Shepherd's Valley Cowboy Church threw us a shower (the gift kind) this afternoon. It was so nice, everyone sitting there asking us questions about how we met and then giving us generous cards and gifts like some form of reward for our candid honesty. We are now the proud owners of more household items than *I* (Levi, in case you haven't gathered yet) would have ever thought necessary. But you know, the more I think about having a house, and the more blessings we are given, the more I am excited about having our own place.

One of the gifts that we got today was a hand-crafted wooden plaque with "The Home of Levi and Heather Weaver" and when we opened it, it was a moment of "wow, that's going to be true in (at last count) just under 20 days!"

I can't wait.

Thanks to everyone who has deemed us worthy of taking the time to get us something to celebrate our marriage. I don't really know how to process all of the kindness we are being shown. Probably thank you cards will end up being the method of choice, even though I don't think a piece of paper with 'thank you' on it will ever really express how grateful we are for all of the effort.

thanks again
-Levi and Heather (who is sitting beside me helping with this entry.)

it's 2 a.m.

literally. the clock on the upper-right-hand side of my screen reads two zero zero.

I'm in the middle of recording all the acoustic tracks for the new album, and have been doing so for the last 6 hours, with minimal breaks. My fingers now have stripes, and are killing me (tiger-fingers!!!) so what do i choose to do? type? wow.

it's 24.5 days, almost exactly, until Heather and I are officially man and wife. that seems so very long, and so very short, depending on which set of glasses I put on.

THE FIRST PAIR OF GLASSES:

on one hand, I am feeling the pressure of time. Let's give everyone a little insight into my schedule, shall we? I probably won't sleep tonight - I have 6 more songs to do before tomorrow(today?) at 9:30am, when the violin player is showing up.

Then Aaron (you'll all meet him at the wedding, it's a contest between him and Travis for who is the shortest, and also for who has the better voice. it's a toss-up either way) is coming over to record background vocals.

Thursday and Friday I am doing all the vocal tracks. (Hope my voice is ready for 2 solid days of singing)

Then Saturday at 6am (six a.m.?!?), I board a plane for Dallas to be home for the weekend, and the wedding shower. This was originally going to be a one-way trip; staying in Texas until the wedding, but now I have to turn around Monday and fly back to Nashville, because....

Tuesday - Thursday I'm doing mixing (it's the most important part of the record. I have to be here for that)

and THEN (tired yet?) Friday-Sunday, I'm at a family reunion in Colorado.

by the time I get back to Texas from there, we're down to 12 days. Meanwhile
*DEEP BREATH* we still have to decide on a place to live, i have to get my tuxedos ordered, and i gotta figure out why the guy in Guatemala hasn'tgottenbacktomeabouttheplacewe'restayingonthehoneymoon!!! (?!?)


THE SECOND PAIR OF GLASSES

On the other hand... I still have to wait 24 whole days before I can just be married, for ever and ever, to the girl who has proven to me, once and for all, that romance exists, that I am capable of giving my heart away, and that I really do want to be a husband.

I'm just ready for this whole next 575 hours to be done and over with, everything in between done, done, done, so i can just be for her.

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

my fingers seem to have regained their stripelessness. (it's a word.) i'm heading back into the studio (see: bedroom) to finish these songs up. It's going to be good. It's all going to be good.

this is a test post.

Let's see if this little blog thing works.

I AM GETTING MARRIED IN LIKE 26 DAYS.

-Levi