A night out (Switchfoot and Lifehouse at Ravinia)

This past week I was able to take a little me time. This isn't something I do often... getting to shave my legs is my normal extent of me time! I love my girls and I love being with them and honestly I would rather be with them then just about anyone else most of the time. I like having them around. Lydia is at the stage of getting into everything (I mean everything... climbing the gate, the couch, getting out of the straps in the cart, disconnecting her feeding tube, turning off her feeding pump...) and loves to shove anything she can find in her mouth which makes me feel like a crazy nut as I am finger swiping something tiny out of her mouth at Target. I never thought I would be the mom who would be freaking out over their child getting a little dirt in their mouth but with the girl's aspiration issues I have to be that mom or risk them getting really sick. So I have been drained lately.

Brent and I never ended up going out for our anniversary... life was just too busy in May. So last Friday night we were able to go out. We had a nice sit down dinner were we were able to just talk. It was nice.

On Tuesday my dad and I went to our first time at Ravinia. Music has always been a large part of my life (you can read about that more here) and my dad has been a large influence of that. My parents house is rarely quiet because there is almost always music playing. Growing up we went to a lot of concerts but since having the girls that has changed but when I saw that Switchfoot and Lifehouse were coming to Ravinia my dad and I decided we would figure out how to make this work. My dad took Brent and I and a friend to see Lifehouse in concert when Brent and I had been dating for 4 months (so a long time ago lol) and it was not at the best venue but we got cheep tickets (the saddest part of that night is that Mat Kearney was playing in the bar of the same venue that night but I was not 21 so I could not get in...) and I have seen Switchfoot in concert many times over the years (we figured we have been seeing them in concert since 2003ish). As my dad had the Beatles, my brands are Swithcfoot (and Jon Foreman solo), Lifehouse and Mat Kearney so to be able to see Switchfoot and Lifehouse together was very exciting to me.

Dad and I had a great time. Ravinia is beautiful. The sound is great. Switchfoot was first and they put on an amazing show as always. Jon just has a way of connecting with the crowd. Jon and I also see a lot of things in life very similarly. Our views of the church are very similar. Our views on loving others are similar. Our views of the gospel is very similar. And he understands how to remind a crowd what we are here for and that he cares about other no matter if they look like him, vote like him, have the same religion as him... that we are all brother and sisters. Honestly he is a person I would love to just sit down over coffee and talk with, however the chances of that are next to none so I'll stick to listening to his songs and digging into the lyrics. I like that their songs have depth... so many Christian songs don't, they spell everything out for you or are so repetitive (I honestly don't listen to Christian radio anymore and mainly only listen to the Jon Foreman Pandora station), but in their music there is hurt and joy and depth. At one point he had the entire place linked arm and arm singing together... not in a cheesy way but in a we are all in this together way.
Lifehouse came on and they did a great show. They played my favorites off of the new CD (they played Flight which in one of Jilli's favorite songs as it talks about no more crying, no more hurting... that CD came out the week Brent's grandma died and there was a lot of crying and hurting here and as a 2yr old who was not use to that in her world that song really stuck with her) but mainly they did their older stuff. The stuff of my high school years. It was great.
After the show we headed out towards the booth where the charity that is touring with Switchfoot was located. Switchfoot is very big into giving back and loving one another and Ravinia would not let them set up their charity booth inside of the gates of Ravinia so they put the booth out closer to the train. Well after the show the members of Switchfoot went out by the booth to help get people over there and to share about their cause. A couple of members signed the shirt I bought (it says "I want to thrive not just survive") and then Jon Foreman came out with an acoustic guitar and harmonica and played songs to a really small group of people most of whom knew all the words and sang along. It was beautiful. Jon Foreman is my favorite solo artist. It was amazing.
By the time we got back it was around midnight. My throat still hurts two days later after signing for hours but it was worth it. It was a great night with my dad doing something we both love. Its not something I will soon forget and something I am so grateful for.

But now it is time to get back to real life here. Jilli is playing playmobil at the table (she LOVES Playmobil and I think that is what we are going to ask people to do for her for her birthday and Christmas because it is good quality and then it all goes together and I see more value in that then a ton of random toys) and Lydia is seeing what she can get into. I had to put her in her high chair to finish this post because she was climbing the couch and figured out how to open a water bottle and dump it. So now its time to dive back in!