Yea for the first day of Fall tomorrow! I plan on celebrating by doing school with the boys, practicing my finger-picking skills (taught to me by the oh-so-talented Becky Swann) and hopefully (if no other child gets sick) teaching kickboxing class.

Yep, Becky and I are starting ourselves a new little music endeavor and I am stoked about it. Becky is really good on the guitar and I am hoping to learn lots from her. It will be heaven for all of you chick-folk music lovers (think Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch, Indigo Girls, The Weepies, or Be Good Tanyas). I told Seth that he might not really think it is all that great because he finds my favorite music pretty boring. However he said, "You know Julie, it's kinda like this: I don't really like to watch womens basketball, but if you were playing I would come and watch anyways." I suppose that is sweet but I can't get past the fact that he compared my music to womens basketball.

I am pretty sure the sickness has passed over the house now and we are all germ-free. Adam had a low fever today but seems to be alright now. He is so sweet when he is sick unlike his brother who lays around and moans loudly.

Caleb is up and running and Annabelle seems just fine (aside from attitude problem here and there).

If you were Annabelle, where would you put the camera memory card after swiping it from the computer?

That is the question for the day. I have looked everywhere and, though it has no outstanding pictures on it, I am unable to take any new ones right now without that pricey little card! I am dying to change the blurry title picture but really need something recent. So I shall keep looking and you will have to go without the latest images of the Harrisons until it shows up.

Until then, here are a few pictures from the Cheshire Shindig the other night that Amie took for me. It was a delightful evening with good friends, lots of kids, nice weather and a lovely time all around. Thanks so much to all of you that came out. It really meant a lot to me. There were quite a few people that I didn't even get to speak to, so if it was you, I am truly sorry.


I was naturally in heaven as I got to live my dream of being a rock......no.... folk star.

Tim setting up the drum set. He and his wife, Jaime, and little girl, Aubrey came over the next day for dinner. Then he and Seth went fishing while I got hang out with the girls. It was nice to get to know Jaime.....she is really great.

Peter was our fabulous sound guy.

We hope to do it again in October so I will let you know as plans are finalized.

My friend, Kelly, said that they neighborhood folks really liked it and were excited to do it again.

My friends, Jen and Carrie, came over afterward to hang out.

Sooooo, whatcha doing this Friday, September the 5th?

Well, if you are not busy, I would love for you ALL to come out to our GIG that evening! Yep, our band got another gig thanks to my lovely friend Kelly (you know, the one who makes the sweet jewelry) She lives in Cheshire Village and just so happens to be on the committee that organises neighborhood events and gatherings. Kelly thought it would be fun to have our little family band play out on their ampitheatre some Friday evening for everyone. I was delighted at the idea, of course, and lined up for us to be there with bells on.

Here are the details:


FRIDAY, SEPT. 5TH @ 7:00 PM
bring a blanket, snacks, beverages, and friends
be ready to enjoy some sweet old time country and bluegrass music!
located in the center of Cheshire Village of Route 9 in Black Mountain

Will you come? It would make me ever so happy!

By the way, one of our band's greatest struggles has been to agree upon a name. I never realised what a hard task this would be! Really, try to come up with a name for a band sometime that is catchy, not dorky, not too serious, and not already taken. Oh yes, and seven people have to agree on it too! Anyway, we are the Black Mountain Scramblers for the time being......or at least for the Cheshire gig. I like "scramblin" (like instead of "ramblin" cause we are always scramblin' around to find picks or remember chords and lyrics.....at least I am) So the Scramblin' somethings. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

The Benefit Show

I am just dying to post about our benefit Show on Thursday night. Let me just start by saying that it really was the most FUN night of my life. I thought that statement through and I came to the conclusion that it may have not been "the best night of my life" (in Caleb's words), but it truely was the most fun one. (Lorie just informed me that "funnest" is not a word) I got to live out my dream of being a rock star. I mean a old time music star. It was just great! We had a really good turn out and raised quite a bit of money for Dave. I am pretty sure that everyone had fun. (probably not as much as me though!)

Due to the fear of rain, we ended up setting up in the basement of the Monte Vista which is their little bar called The Monte. I was a little disappointed in this at first but then decided that I actually liked it better because it felt more authentic or something as I lived out my musical dream. I got my guitar (actually it is Leslie's) pimped out so that it could plug in. (dad funded that) AND, we had a whole sound system complete with an actual "sound guy". I got a kick out of telling him I needed a little more voice in my monitor, though I forgot to say something like that during the show to seem once again, authentic.

Now all I can think about is how can we do this again?

BTW, more photos and thoughts to come.....................

Adam has told me over and over again that he wants a mandolin. I have been extremely excited about this because I would LOVE for any of my children to pursue playing an instrument. After lots of thought and consideration, I decided to get him a baritone ukulele. They have four strings (mandolins have 8) and the strings are easier to hold down. Baritone ukuleles are tuned the same as the higher four strings on the guitar, so hopefully it will make it easier to transition when he is older. Well, I went out and bought one last night. I went with a more expensive one because I want it to last and to sound good. (and I am an extremely easy "sale") He is so excited and has spent a good part of the day today strumming a G. Caleb and Kiah have played quite a bit too. Adam plays and says, "sing Moma" so I sing something that has a G in there and pretend that it all "goes."






Well, I have not written anything about our family band yet, so this is my chance! Seth and get together a few times a month to play some tunes with my Uncle Larry, Aunt Carolyn, and my cousin Daniel. Well, that is the core group of us but we usually have a few more here and there. We just love making music together and show off our talents at family gatherings and such. Seth and I have both learned a ton from everyone and finally have some music that we can play and sing together. It is lots of fun. During the summer we spent evenings playing on Uncle Larry's porch or by the fire in the backyard. We spent the first part of this winter in our basement but now how relocated to Uncle Larry's and Aunt Carolyn's new timber-framed house in Black Mountain. The acoustics in there are like no other! I will post some pictures from there later. Here are a few from our basement:


I sing and play the guitar.









Daniel sings and plays guitar too.










Uncle Larry sings, plays the mandolin and guitar. Aunt Carolyn sings and plays some tambourine. Seth plays the bass.

I went back to the choir at church this week. It probably isn't what some would call "my season in life" for this, but I decided to try it anyways. It is really hard for me to leave three kids once a week in the evenings, but I think with a bit of planning, I can pull it off...... planning........ I am am not very good at that. We will see.........
My favorite part about coming to Trinity when I was 12, was hearing the choir every Sunday. I thought they were wonderful. Then I decided to join up about 3 years ago and had such an incredible time with it. The next year was more of a heart struggle to be there and then last year I had Annabelle. It was so great to be back sitting on the front row with the other 2nd sopranos this past Wednesday. I can't read music and I don't have much range in my voice, so I don't really add anything to the sound of the choir. I mainly just try to sing along and not mess anything up at this point. I just really love being in the middle of the beautiful sound of the folks around me.