Or at least just give us some space. Stephanie and Tristan and the kids (Gavin, Guini and Gemma May) just released their Christmas Greeting 2011.  It is THE coolest!

MERRY-MERRY-Merry Christmas!

Tristan (world’s greatest drummer) recently went in to the recording studio with his friend, Sean Blancherd, and some other guys and here is what I know from the website:

The Thought Process:

Sean Blanchard – Bass

Tristan Kelley – Drums

Brer Rabbit – Vox

Special Guest:

Jon Wirtz – Keys

The Thought Process started as just that, a thought that bassist Sean Blanchard has had over the past few years while playing and touring with some other amazing artists. “What would it sound like if certain styles of music were mixed over the bass grooves that were filling up my computer?” The two styles that kept coming into play, hip hop and jazz. Thus, The Thought Process was born.

Groove oriented story telling, melodies, in the pocket drum and bass, with an intellectual vocal vibe.credits

released 25 October 2011

Available for immediate download today.

I am so {obviously} not the hip-hop demographic, but I wholly love good lyric and jazz just folds me in, melts me a little.

Plus?  So proud of Tristan!

In other music and the arts news…

Dave and Tara have a single or two coming out soon, as well!  We have been waaaaaaaaiting for this!

One of my all-time favorite songs, ”A Million Stars” is going to be such a blessing to you!!  It is to me.

And – my best friend and full-time lover [Dave Rhoades, of course], is debuting in Prairie Playhouses’ “Is He Dead?” A New Mark Twain Comedy.

There are 4 performances scheduled in Oct. and Nov.  Opening night is Friday!  So cultured, aren’t we?    http://www.prairieplayhouse.com/productions/ishedead Hope to see you there (The Brighton Armory).

I love the arts.   I love my {talented} family and God has surrounded me with light and color and melody and song.  The hills are alive with the sound of music….

Congratulations on the very awesome release today, Tristan!

Our very first son-in-law just drummed his way right into our hearts and and still keeps the beat, all these 10 years later, to the soundtrack that is our family-life.

Wow, we got spoiled.  We lucked out.  We got blessed.  We couldn’t have done it better if we’d spent years and years auditioning candidates.  God just knew.  He knew what we needed.  He knew what was missing for us, for you, too.  And He put you in our family, where you are looked up to as the big brother, the musical genius, the technological wizard, the guy who knows everything we need to find something out about.   Ask Tristan.  You’re like our very own, personal search engine.  AskTristanDotCom.  *smile

Happy Birthday to a man we are so grateful to call son, a man who loves our daughter and is raising three of the most amazing little kids ever.  You were born to be a part of us.  We are blessed.  Yes, happy-happy birthday, Tris!

That you are a good man, one for which we can thank God everyday, is evidenced by Stephanie’s success and deepening beauty.  That you are a trustworthy and righteous man is proven by the honoring and great-hearted children you are raising, so loved and so loving, each distinctively developing their own joy-bringing personalities.  Your family, Steph and the kids, look at you in a way that says: Tristan is in his element, right where God created him to be.

We so appreciate and admire your bravery and courageousness in providing for your family creatively.  We applaud the sacrifices you’ve made for the greater good and commend you for good choices in hard times.  Yours is a colorful, thriving, gorgeous family.  All you are doing right – shows.

Your parents got you at birth.  You are their son, the best of the best, the great product of the heritage they have given you.  But then God knew what we Rhoadeses would need.  And He sent you our way as a gift.  And that was a blessing for us.  So we celebrate your birth.  And we thank your parents for the way they raised you.  And we thank God for showing us His favor in this way.

Here is my birthday card for you, Tristan.  It’s a little of what I see and what makes me thank God for you.  Much love.  ~ The m-i-l.

Austria has chocolate and really good pastry (and tafelspitz, and germkenodel). and is where Arnold Schwarzenegger came from.  Julie Andrews made their hills famous as she twirled and sang.  Lots o’ composers were from this little nation (Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms and more).  It is mainly Catholic, but mostly in a traditional, religious way.  And it is a great mission field.

Tris and the worship team take on the castle.

Got to see pictures and hear his experience last night.  The missionaries throw country music into the worship set list because people are drawn to that.  A little Keith Urban here, a little Brad Paisley there.  But they did not “get” Brad’s song, “I’m Gonna Miss Her,” about a guy whose wife gives him  an ultimatum.  They thought they were misunderstanding the translation and asked, “Why would a man choose fishing over his wife?”  Perplexed, they were.  

And it turns out they are NOT fans of “The Sound of Music.”  Tris said they find it campy and believe it paints them in a bad light, to which my husband speculated sarcastically, “You mean because they sided with the Germans?!”    Never-mind him, Tris.  You went.  You played.  You ministered!

And everytime one of Tristan’s photos did show some beautiful hills, it was hard for me not to break into song.  They did get that right!

I doubt this Austrian street drummer knew he was no match for our Tristan.  Ahem.

When my kids go, I stay and pray.  My honor to do so, to share my kiddos with the nations!  And  Tristan is wonderful.  He brought us Mozart’s Balls (chocolate truffles, people) from the land of “singing hills” and coffee, too.  Yum! 

Stormie got baking chocolate.  Mmmm…what loveliness awaits us this holiday season, I wonder?  NOTE:  Careers with McDonalds are available there, it seems.

Wanna hear some awesome Holy-Spirit-anointed drumming by Tristan Kelley?  Right HERE!  Click on “Freedom” (also down-loadable) for 34 minutes of his playing with scriptures on the topic read by Pastor Lewis Brown and Lewis Brown Junior (Proxy).  Very cool!

In other family-missionary travels news…

Mary Jean just returned from 6 weeks Scotland, England, Estonia, and Norway~

That woman travels and teaches!  AND she brought me ART!  A signed and numbered piece called Heart Garden in a series of paintings about the heart (from Proverbs 4.23)…isn’t it beautiful?   There is actually so much to look at in all the details!

Check out the website by clicking here!  You’ll find English translations by scrolling on down.

I don’t need a whole lot of money

But I wouldn’t turn a lottery down…

All I want is a place to lay my head with the woman I love lyin’ in my bed  {editor’s note: we all want to know if, just for your birthday, at least, she let you try sleeping on the other side of the bed!!??  haha!}

Almost 9 years ago you married our multi-prismed, colorful, feisty, yet tender Stephanie.  What a gentle treasure she’d found.  What a trustworthy man, fit to hold her heart and walk along in life with her, covering her.  We were so pleased then and have not ever for one second had any regret or fear about whether or not she’d done the right thing…even though you forgot to ask permission first{we really do forgive you!  haha}.  And you became our son.  A new son – all grown up and finished (thank you Larry and Chyrl Kelley: GREAT job.  Truly!  If only we’d known we may have sent you a few others… ;p ). 

My dreams aren’t that complicated…

I wanna be the one

When all is said and done

Who lived a good life, loved a good wife, and always helped someone in trouble

So, here you were: this new son from different parents, whisking our daughter off to “happily ever after” and being saddled with the burden of helping us become IN-LAWS!  What a load to have to carry – especially when we were such novices and have done it all wrong a  million or more times, I am sure.  Yet, you have always shown us honor and been a man of peace in this family.  You have thrown yourself into the life of our zaniness and odd traditions and trusted us with your babies, who, by the way, are tributes and testaments to the people you and Steph are.  They are the fruit of the life of creativity and love you have chosen to live.  They represent you well even when you are not around to hear it and see it.  The sum of  the three speaks volumes of you and Stephanie and your oneness.

On the day they lay me down

I want everyone to gather ‘round

And say he was a father, brother, neighbour and a friend

He was a good man!

Tristan is Cool

And 30!  THIRTY!  Thirty years old.  Omygoodness!  But you still look 23 with the wisdom of a man in his 70s…not sure what that means?  Haha.

We each had to draw one part of Tris (picked from a selection in a bowl) and see what the collective came up with.  Uh-huh.  Rocky accused me of drawing “big, old eyes staring at you!”

I used to dream of being a rock star

And seein’ the world in style

Used to dream of havin’ a fast car

And driving that miracle mile

But I’ve heard tales those streets aren’t paved in gold

They’re full of pot holes and empty soul who never learn

Love is something you gotta earn

Specialty root beers and cream sodas for the b-day boy.

LOVED celebrating your life the other night (read more about that here).  It WAS a very cool party for a very cool guy: all wood-grainy (I hope that doesn’t take my house-paint off) and red; all full of Tris-triv and drawing you the way we apparently see you.  And it was just such a perfect evening and such a blessing for me personally to sit under the stars by candlelight and just honor some one I truly love and admire so much.

Happy Birthday, kiddo

I wanna be the one

When all is said and done

Who lived a good life, loved a good wife, and always helped someone in trouble

When I’m gone, I wanna leave a legacy

Of love and laughs and honesty behind me

Behind me…

You ARE a Rock Star, Tristan!

You ARE a great daddy and husband.  You love Steph well.  You are a wonderful brother to the rest of the kids and a blessing of a son to us.  You’re a reliable friend and resourceful helper.  You know everything I ever need to know about anything and I appreciate your willingness to teach me all of it.  Your music students love you.  Anyone with whom you have ever played drums or guitar live or in recordings know you are the BEST and as quiet and unassuming as you are, you have managed to amass fans all over the place.  I am so pleased you were born to be one of us.

I wanna be the one when all is said and done

Who lived a good life, loved a good wife, and always helped someone in trouble

On the day they lay me down, want everyone to gather ‘round

And say he was a father, brother, neighbour and a friend

He was a good man…

You are a good man.  Happy Birthday, Tristan!…mom

LYRICS:  “A Good Man” by Emerson Drive…yea, it is kind of a cowboy country song (and you, Tris, are anything but country or cowboy!), but I liked it, anyway.

CHECK THIS OUT!

Tristan recently did an all-drum and the Word project with www.getthewordout.cc  Go to that site, click on downloads and look for the downloadable FREEDOM recording.  It was done LIVE all in one take.  It is Tristan playing drums under the anointing and Lewis Brown Sr. and Lewis Jr. (Proxy the Hip-Hop artist) reading scriptures on the topic of freedom!  So PROUD of you, Tris!  VERY POWERFUL!

Set your DVR and Tivo!

My son-in-law, Dave’s brother, Jon Powers is going to be on Letterman tonight.  He is the drum player for Matt Morris and they went to New York on the media blitz for Matt’s new album, “When Everything Breaks Open.”  Then on to California for the Ellen DeGeneres Show, among others.

The Longmont Times-Call recently ran this article about Jon and another guy we know, Sean Blanchard being in the band.  You can read it here.

So Jon is DP’s brother and is super good friends with my other s-i-l, Tristan, and they used to be in a band with Rocky (and Heath Hardesty: Eveningtide….it was truly a “band of brothers).   Jon is family.  And we are just so proud of him!  Keep up with Jon here: http://www.myspace.com/jpdrumming

Pictured, l-r: Rocky, Tris and Jon catching up, Oct ’09;  Jon at work.

Matt Morris:

Learn more about Matt Morris’s tour, new CD and the band here.

pictured: The sign made by Steph and Stormie with a nod to The Office, naturally.

You are at that age – you know?  The one everyone claims to be when they don’t wanna be the age they really are?  So pretty much, for the next year, everyone will think you are lying about your age.  But you’re not.  Like McCaulay Culkin, you are actually 29.  Which puts into perspective for me the little boy you were so many years ago when we watched Home Alone with our kids, and Stephanie, in particular.

Family.

When you chose Stephanie, when you decided (which in retrospect seems uncharacteristically devilish of you) to pursue Stephanie in spite of a road-bump whose name I shall not bother to mention here, you got us all, the whole loud, crazy, undone and un-in-law-tested bunch of us, lock, stock and barrel.

And we are grateful to your parents for the wonderful son they raised.  We thank God that you were nurtured and encouraged in a godly home, prepared and equipped to be the man you have become - a great husband to Steph and a true daddy to the bambinos.  Tell your mom and dad thank-you for me, will you?  Because they did really raise a courageous son, one who, in spite of the size and girth of the sum of us, is not only equal to the task, able to withstand our faults and failures and shortcomings as much as enjoy any good, but strengthens us as a family, bringing rich character and treasure to us.  Who could have known when you became one of us that one such humble young man’s presence in a family could change our course so drastically?  Tris, you brought  an increase of the favor of God upon us and I can’t remember life before you became our “son.”  We are blessed.

pictured: he must have said something funny at the family party; a shot from the recent Kelley photo shoot taken by Tredessa; the apparent Rocky/Tristan “butt” shot…for their wives only, I am sure.

Food ~ The Glorious Timpano

As usual, we had your annually-requested-birthday fruit pizza (see recipe) instead of a cake (but I really am game to create free-standing drum set someday), which nearly drove several family members into a sugar coma.  And, much to Stormie’s delight, your celebration became an opportunity for her highly-sought-after Timpano ~ as made famous by the cinematically beautiful movie, Big Night, starring Tony Shalub and Stanley Tucci.  The movie is wonderful.  The food they prepare is inspiring.  Stormie’s version is delish!

Frolic.

What a silly family we are, sometimes, huh?  But what great times celebrating each other and just being with people who’ll love you to the end!

Twenty-nine wishes for Tris on his 29th birthday.

1. May the storehouse of good in you always be full to running over!  “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him…”  Matthew 12.35
2. I wish for you to know the deep things of God and to increase in wisdom as He leads you.
3. I hope you and Stephanie will always remain madly in love, and that your life’s pursuits will  keep you running into each other in happy, romantic collisions.
4. I pray that the love you bestow upon your children will come back to you a hundred-fold.
5. Long life!  And may it go well with you because you keep the 5th commandment to honor your parents.  Keep doing that.  You can’t go wrong. 
6. God?  Bless Tristan.  Really bless him! 
7. I wish you 50% off days at Mile-High Comics every Labor Day!
8. I wish for your full talent as a musician to be recognized beyond your wildest dreams and that you be compensated duly.
9. May you get all the best drumsticks and Zildjian cymbals you ever need.
10. I wish for you to have good students: the kind who don’t waste your time and who will really learn from the treasure-trove of musical knowledge you possess.
11. I pray that as you have dared2work at dare2share, you’ll  get credit in heaven for the harvest!
12. Tris, I hope you will always be strengthened by knowing that you are so well loved by our whole family.
13. The time you need with the people you love.  Thank-you for working so hard to provide for your family, for doing whatever it takes, but enjoy time that belongs to you, too.
14. And that secret dream?  May the resources and location come to pass quickly by the divine hand of the Lord.  He is on the look out for you, I know it!
15. Rest.  I wish rest for you.
16. Peace.  I wish peace for you, too.
17. And joy.  I wish an abundance of the joy of the Lord to be your strength.
18. X-box 360 expertise.  As if you even need this wish – may you do reeeeeally well in X-box tourneys and beat everybody (except occasionally let Rocky have a victory since he is your “little brother”)!
19. I hope you’ll…laugh (you thought I was gonna say “dance”, didn’t you?).
20. I wish for your sense of humor to get even keener, if that is possible, so you can keep us laughing!
21. Surprises.  I hope this year will be full of really good surprises for you.
22. I wish increased relationship and bonding between you and all the siblings (the sister you were born to and her husband, and all the ones you have because of Stephanie).  Their lives are so enriched in the knowing of you.
23. Cool t-shirts, the perfect jeans, great hair cuts and shoes that make your feet go “ahhh.”  You have your own style and I wish for it all come to you easily this year!
24. Songs.  New songs.  Lots of them.
25. Beats and rhythms only heard previously in the halls of heaven.  Bring ‘em on, Tris!
26. I wish lots of English toffee for you and other sweet sundries, which I guess can be made possible if I will only get busy.  Sometime between now and Christmas, maybe…
27. I wish more kids for you, but apparently you are not going to receive that little present, but can’t you just see it?  Six or seven more little redheads running around??!  Wouldn’t the world be a more delightful and magical place???
28. I am hoping for lots more conversations with you because I learn so much and am so moved by your insight and wisdom on so many different topics.  You are truly one of the smartest people I have ever known in my life.
29. And finally?  I pray for God to bless you back, in the same kind and with the same measure with which you have loved us, shown respect to us, honored us and become a part of us.  And if He answers that prayer, and I know He will, you will be blessed – on your 29^th birthday and always.  And I am believing for that! 

We love you, Tristan.  I hope you will always know how much.  Happy Birthday to you!…mom (and so honored to get to share that role just a tiny bit even though you already have a wonderful mama)

NOTE TO SELF:  Break out the toffee recipe because Tristan is worth it, even if it isn’t Christmas.

Stephanie and Tristan have been married since December 27, 2001.  I told them, having been a retail store manager at the time of their wedding (they got engaged and planned  a wedding during THE most brutal 4 retail months in an effort, I was quite certain at the time, designed to kill me), that I would eventually forgive them for their timing.  And I can truly say I have.

Tristan told us he could remember church people (at The Assembly of God in Fort Wayne, IN) saying things like, “There go those red-headed Kelley kids,” about him and his sister when they were little.  Maybe they knew, or maybe they were unaware, but that little Kelley kid grew up to be an awesome man.  I am so honored to call him son, so glad he married my daughter and is a daddy to my grand-bebes. 

And the kid can play the drums.  Geesh.  And just about every known instrument in the world. 

Now I have my own little red-headed Kelley kids to chase after.  Ahhhh.  The grandbebes.

Gavin is 6.  He is in the first grade now and if he has his way will never. miss. one. day. of. school.  Not ever.

Guinivere is 4 and knows a secret at all times.  Listen closely and you may get to hear it.

Gemma is 2 and so delightfully good at it!

Stephanie and Tristan are a colorful couple.  He is simply the most amazingly intelligent person in the fam.  We all call Tris about everything.  Everything!  And he knows everything about, well, everything.  He works at Dare2Share by day and teaches music lessons (need some?) and does consulting and building websites in his “spare” time.

Stephanie is hanging at home with the kids these days, planning future trips and vacations to New York and London, their favorite cities.  She is exquisite and unique.  She is passionate, but so level and cool.  She is a suburban mommy with big-city taste.  She is so good at mothering these three, I wish I’d have had her as an example back in the day.  And she loves Tristan.

Tredessa and Stormie did this photo shoot for Steph this summer (a delayed birthday present).

I think they are a beautiful and dazzling family and I am certain there is no prejudice in that!

all photos taken in Denver

Read Tristan’s birthday post from last year here.   I bawled when I wrote it and he may have sniffled a bit when he read it.   We’ll keep it cool this year.

Today Tristan, my first son-in-law ever, turns 28!

Happy Birthday, Tristan, superb son-in-law and waaaaay above average husband to my daughter, Stephanie.   Happy Birthday to you as we celebrate your life represented by faithfulness and trustworthiness in all you do.   Happy Day to a Hoosier who chose rightly to live in Colorado, for it set up a chain of events that made you one of us, a blessing we regularly praise God for!   Blessed and glorious Day of Remembrance for us all as we stop to honor you and the life you lead!

Tristan is a rare find.   Unassuming and humble, you might not notice genius in the room or divine the depth of talent and creativity, nor the well of of knowledge and intelligence if you were passing through a  space with him in it.   You  could be near and yet   miss the wry twinkle of a quiet, but wicked sense of humor, or fail to see the deep thoughtfulness about the powerful issues of the day in politics, religion, worldview.

No.    One might pass Tristan and see a kind person, a quiet man gently playing with his 3 children or engaged in a conversation with family or friends.   A person might say, “Doesn’t he play the drums?”   And not even realize that he is truly one of the best around, sought after by the best musicians, not only at drums, but at all instruments.   You might just see the best of him: an incredible and loving husband and devoted father, and still not get to see the rest of him.

But we, his family, are blessed.   We are blessed to see the giant of a man he is.   Tris is the big-brother of the fam, now.   He is some one we all trust and our go-to guy about anything and everything that ails us.   He knows our secrets, our faults and our failures, and yet, can be trusted with that information.   You cannot buy that kind of character or love.   He is a gift.   We are blessed.

So, today, Tristan, I bless you and I thank God for you.   These are the gifts I want you to open today and throughout this next year:

Grace to you, Tristan, and peace.   Be blessed with provision through your giftings and abilities, both the technological and the artistic-musician sides.   I pray that resources make themselves available and that your resourcefulness will become an even greater and valued comodity!

May you be preserved in blamelessness your whole life long.   May your beautiful wife bring you joy and your children, great delight.   May God hear all your prayers and your secret heart’s desires and answer   you in times of trouble.  

I pray that, while should it ever fall my lot –  I would defend you to the death, may the Lord be your defender and protector and  may He keep you safe on every side.  

I pray that you, planted firmly by living waters, will begin to see the fruitfulness of your faithfulness before God and that this next year will bring blessing on every side, provision, new opportunities and new open spaces.   I pray that we’ll see the explosion of the color of you all around,  for this new time and place and new year for you and you family.  

I am so pleased with you as my daughter’s husband and as the father of my 3 beautiful grandchildren.   They are the proof of the man you are.   I am so pleased to call you son, and thankful to your parents for sharing.   I am so blessed you were born to be a part of us.   I love you wholeheartedly, Tristan!

Happy Birthday, cherished one…Your very own (and hopefully not dreaded)  m-i-l  

NOTE TO SELF:   Make Tris a drum cake next year.

pictured: Tristan in the Hershey store in Times Square on a recent family vacation; Guini helping Tris open his presents yesterday; Tris and my other amazing son-in-law!