Four years ago today

lily constance rockey, june 29, 2007

hannah jane rockey, june 29, 2007

Four years ago today

nathaniel david rockey, june 26, 2007

The anticipation builds

It is no secret that our family has some super mad love for the muppets. This trailer has me more excited than ever about the new film, and quite honestly summoned a bit of moisture from my eyes.

We love our clients, part 1: Hair today, gone tomorrow

What you are witnessing is an almost complete anthology of a three year relationship between the mustard room and westwood student ministries in cincinnati. This fruitful affair was birthed out of our ties to their mighty director, the incomparable mister joshua lemons. Way back in our early days of youth ministry at cgpc, mister lemons quickly established himself as a servant and leader among his peers. The two of us spent the second half of his high school career harnessing his passion and refining his gifts for youth ministry. Clearly it was no surprise that when he graduated from indiana wesleyan university a few years later he would go on to thrive in rallying others to love and care for young people like Jesus. Fortunately, for us, mister lemons reached out to us early on to provide graphics for and print t-shirts for their ministry's retreats and service projects. Not only have they been incredibly loyal clients of the mustard room over these past three years, but their patronage has served to help keep our families connected as well. It has been quite a delight to witness, from afar, the life unfolding before him and his high school lady/wife jennifer.

Three years later, mister lemon's lady has accepted a faculty position at the university of texas, and they have made the difficult decision to relocate to houston as they begin a new chapter in their journey. We wish them all the best, and remember, with great fondness, the collaborative endeavors which we enjoyed during their time at westwood.

Thanks again, mister joshua lemons. The mustard room salutes you!

Say yes to strangers

The first semester of my freshman year of college i lived in a dorm with two dudes who i had never met before in my 18 years of life on this planet. Is was expected that i would share close living quarters with these strangers for the following nine months. I don't want to spin any bad vibes about either of these guys, but let's just say that one of them got intentionally locked out of the room on a particular evening. These are the kinds of shenanigans one can look forward to when being blindly paired with others. Imagine the uncertainty which enveloped me when i discovered that i would be sharing a booth at the indieana handicraft exchange with folks who i had never met in my 35 years on this planet. I nearly backed out for fear of having an ex-high school basketball player wrapped in nothing but a bath towel put his fist through something in a drunken rage accompanied by pantera. Yikes. Not again. Well, instead, i am here to tell you that i shared a tent for over eight hours with two of the most incredibly rad people. They are juli and dan of cordinated, and they make groovy guitar cables amongst other groovy things. We spent most of the day discussing lawn ornaments as defensive weapons, high art, fake and non-fake moustaches, and pants among other things.

Don't judge this cat. He's got his own problems.

Now, before parting for the evening, let me just bid a good morrow one more time to my belvedere-sporting pals from the windy city. Let us join forces again soon. And if you came out to see us yesterday, you are fan-steak-n-shake-tasket.

Livin the dream

Wow. What a week. Or two. To be quite honest, i seem to have lost all concept of time and space. The time loss has been made evident in the fact that i was almost certain that four hours had passed in what my wife informed me was actually closer to one and a half hours. The space loss refers more to that of the entire ground level of our home which has become overrun with projects taken on by the mustard room. Working and dining have become indistinguishable. They now exist as one singular entity. What does science say on the matter? Do not tell me for i fear that theories would cause my face to collapse, and this would be a travesty to my new haircut.

So there's all that. Also, as is the annual routine, our lawn mower stopped working. Our lovely neighbors next door were away, and my inability to operate the key pad to their garage door forced me to break in to the home of our good friends just down the road. After hoisting their mower into the trunk of my granny mobile, i chased a long day of work with a hot stroll across every square inch of our lawn while my daughter painted trees with water. Upon completing this heroic task, i hoped to immediately return the stolen mower to the scene of the crime. I proceeded to squat uncomfortably next to the oily machine and awkwardly wrap my arms around the base in an attempt to heave it back into my vehicle's barely adequate trunk. Did i happen to mention that this was right after finishing the job while the engine was still hot as rocky mountain oysters? Oh, well it was. I don't know the degree of the burn on the inside of my left forearm, but it looks as if a zombie gave me a hickey.

All in all, it's been an eventful few days. I haven't even mentioned how i spent a whole day working on projects for cgpc. Wait a sec, isn't that the place where you got fired five years ago and had your heart ripped out and handed to you on a communion platter. Oh, hyperbole, how i love you so. Anyhoozit, we completed printing the 200+ t-shirts we had taken on for their vbs, and i spent the remainder of the day surrounded by ladies while editing videos. Jealous? Did i mention there was complimentary kung pow chicken involved? It's called "livin' the dream". Deal with it.

Last, but not loveliest, baby jane got sick and hurled twice after spending the day at the kamikaze pizza emporium while informing us several times that her tummy hurt. Woops. She pretty much chilled on the couch for the next 24 hours watching documentaries on oceanic life and cuddling with her mama & papa & baby brother & puke towel.

See you on saturday. Wink.

Get the goods

Mister zippy and myself will be present and representing for the mustard room this saturday from noon to 8 pm at the indieana handicraft exchange. The event will be held in conjuction with the independent music & arts fest at the harrison center for the arts in picturesque downtown indianapolis. 100+ vendors will be selling super-rad, handmade goodies such as this...

Say hello to the new face of refinement: Belvedere. And for those of you who make purchases from the mustard room, you have one of these exciting pieces to look forward to as a bonus...

See you there, party animals.

An aural supplement, episode 14

Running Time: 49:59 | File Size 46 MB

Download: .mp3
To subscribe to this podcast:http://feeds.feedburner.com/ARockeyHomeCompanion

More wet violence from the sky keeps this lone wolf in for the evening. Fear not, dudes and duderellas, for though the rains may come, Senor Laveta is up late with love for sale. Keep your eye on the skeeter's tweeter, y'all.

1. Tom Waits “Walking Spanish”

2. The Monkees "Mary Mary"

3. Big Sambo & The House Wreckers "The Rains Came"

4. Talking Heads "Love for Sale"

5. Jenny Lewis w/ Elvis Costello "Carpetbaggers"

6. Mike & Joel "Not Talking About Husbandry"

7. Nina Simone "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter"

8. Pearl Jam "Red Mosquito"

9. Eddie Vedder "The Wolf"

10. Damien Jurado "Arkansas"

11. The Animals "It's My Life"

12. The Monkees "Ditty Diego - War Chant"

13. Double Dee & Steinski "Jazz"

14. The Beatles "Cayenne"

15. The Civil Wars "Barton Hallow"

16. 7 Worlds Collide (feat. Lisa Germano) "Reptile"

God likes people

After spending another afternoon discussing plans for an epic project over coffee, i am once again so awed by the people i've been privileged to know and work with and call friends. This particular project in question will involve amazing photographs of amazing people who are refugees from burma living on the south side of indianapolis. Without divulging too many details, let's just say that mama jane and myself were given the distinct honour of introducing two amazing friends to one another which is already proving to be quite serendipitous. People are coming together to tell stories which need to be heard. We're hoping, in some small way, to help compel others to hear those stories.

More to come.