The little drummer boy; or How I came to have drums in my basement

Or I suppose I could call this entry "It's all Greg's fault" - but I wouldn't do that. Cause it's really not a bad thing. :)

Ok, let's back up a bit. The "cast offs" that I've talked about before decided that we all kind of missed singing, especially singing together, so Greg and Marie decided to invite us over to start singing together some of the fun, upbeat Christian music we've always enjoyed, especially since they have tons of music equipment in their basement. In April we started having our little "Catholic garage band rehearsals" mostly on Friday evenings. It's been uplifting, prayerful and really a healing experience for us after all that happened at the old church. We've renamed ourselves the "Praise Project" since we're always a work in progress. We'll be singing at the new church we've been going to a couple of times this summer as they told Marie to bring a group over when she's scheduled to play there. We're hoping maybe to go some other places too or possibly some nursing homes. Or we'll just do it for ourselves because we love to make music.

When we were talking about doing this they had joked "well Nate's welcome to come and listen or watch TV or something while we play" since everyone knows that Nate doesn't really sing. Then Greg had an idea.
We came home from running errands one day and Greg had left us a message. Well, specifically he left Nate a message. We assumed it was a computer question, since that's usually what someone calls to talk to Nate for. As I listened to his end of the conversation though I heard things like "Well I played trombone in high school" and "Sure, I could give that a try". The next thing I know, suddenly Nate has become our drummer.

He wasn't able to come the first time we got together to sing due to working late. But the next time he made it and while we sang Greg gave him some pointers and kind of directed him and it turns out, my hubby has a bit of a natural ability! At any rate, he keeps rhythm for us quite well.
Before we had even left their house that night, Nate started looking for drum sets on his I-phone, mostly on Craigslist. At first I was like, no way, no how. We do not have room for drums what with the beer equipment, excess furniture, and well, other junk we have in our house. Weren't we attempting to simplfy our lives? But then we talked and he said he really wanted to be able to practice at home and it was a fun new thing for him to learn. So I softened. We found a set on Craigslist that were being sold by a kid in Anoka and drove out and got them.

So, I now have a set of drums in my basement. There is not much room for anything else at this point, but we're working to eventually fix that. And I couldn't be prouder of my little drummer boy, he plays a little bit each day and it's fun that we're both able to be involved together in this new little endeavor.
No, I don't blame Greg, instead, I thank both him and Marie for having a little faith in my husband and for opening their home so we can still glorify God with the gift of music.

Nate and his new toys