it's ok, i'm with the band

I've had the priviledge of traveling with the band a few times now. A few weekends ago we went to a suburb of Chicago, Naperville. My Grandpa went to seminary there back in the day). Bus call was at 11pm and we slept the whole way there and got to the church around 9:30 am. All the guys were thinking I wouldn't be able to sleep on the bus. Little did they know, I can sleep through anything and a moving vehicle is a tranquilizer for me, so needless to say I slept well in my little coffin. Here's my bunk, smaller than a twin bed and about 2 feet tall. There are 12 in all on the bus and they're stacked 3 high.

The guys loaded in in the morning and had the sound check from hell, it took them 4 hours! Ridiculous! They had some sound board issues and were testing out some new sound guys, so the combination was no good. After that we rushed to the hotel to shower and come immeadiately back for dinner and the show. (My second cousin Jenny lives in Wheaton which is really close and she and her boyfriend, Luke, got to come to the show. It was so fun to see her and meet Luke. I'm so glad they were able to come!) The guys had a good show and we all got free t-shirts and hoodies-yay!! Here's a shot of the band on stage.

As soon as the guys were done signing autographs we loaded up and headed back home. Again and drive through the night, so we all slept til we got back to Nashville.

Then this last weekend we went to Ohio to World Harvest Church where Rod Parsley is the pastor. I had never heard of him, but he's pretty famous and has been all over TV and stuff. He's a pretty dynamic speaker to say the least. This time the bus ride was during the day, so it was pretty boring! This is what the bus looks like, although this is not their normal bus and we all found ourselves singing the smurf theme song. The bus was really really blue.


This is the front lounge, the bunks are in the middle and there's a smaller back lounge.

The church had a concert the night before the guys played so they had to wait for that band to load out before they could bring their stuff in. They didn't get done with sound check this time until 2:30 am! Then the hotel was 30 minutes away and we had to be up again at 6:45 to be ready to go in the morning. I didn't realize the life of a traveling musician included such little sleep!

The sanctuary at World Harvest is the biggest I've ever seen. It holds 5300 people and if you walk the length of all the pews it's 2.5 miles! Craziness.

So as we're waiting in the green room for the guys to go on stage, guess who walks in?

That's right, Stephen Baldwin! He was giving a little talk that morning. He was very nice and introduced himself to everyone. He also tried to fix my camera to no avail. I broke the flash when I dropped it earlier that day. Oops!
Anyway, that's a look into the traveling band life!

let's paint!

Well, when Justin travels, I paint! He was in California last week and I decided to do a little project. My friend Rana had the great idea to paint the area around the window seat green. And so while Justin was away, I started to play (if you want to call painting play)! Rana came over and helped me put the primer and two coats of paint on the walls and ceiling. Let me just tell you painting a ceiling is not fun!
Side rant: I explained to the paint guy at home depot what I was doing and that I was painting a fairly dark green over a khaki. Well he said I should prime it first because I was painting dark over light, and so the lighter color wouldn't show through I should prime it so I would only have to paint the green once. He assured me that with the grey tinter primer, I could get only 2 quarts of green instead of a whole gallon and in the process save both time and moneyh. WELL... first of all, the primer ended up being a lighter color than what was already on the wall. We had to do 2 coats of the green and I had to go back and get more paint and I wasted time AND money! Argh. I saw the same guy when I went back to get more paint and he was so nice and apologetic I coulen't be mad.

Anyways...I think it turned out great. Thanks Rana!!

Surprise!

Last weekend Justin and I were both in Kansas. Justin was playing with Jamie Fox and I was visiting family. We didn't actually get to see each other except for a few hours at the scary ghetto car show that Jamie played at, before Mom and Dad took me back to the airport.

Well I decided it would be fun to surprise everyone and not tell them I was coming. It was Dakota's 2nd birthday on the 5th and I had them all thinking I wouldn't be able to come. I surprised Adam, Abbe` and Aaron on Friday night, Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday morning and everyone else at Dakota's party on Saturday afternoon. It was so fun to see the expressions on everyone's faces when they saw me. I was also able to see Ben and Kristin Duell for a while on Saturday night and get all caught up with them. That weekend was the weekend with all the storms and even though there weren't any tornados near KC, my flight was delayed over an hour and I didn't get home and in bed til after 1:00am. Needless to say, Monday at work was a long day.

It was great for Justin to be able to play in Kansas too. He got to see his family and they were able to see him play for the first time since we've moved. He's had such a busy schedule lately. First he played the weekend in Alabama with Jamie, then he left for a week long cruise with Sonicflood. He got back from the cruise at 2:30 and I picked him up, then he dropped me right back off at 4:00 for my flight to Kansas. As soon as he got his bags, which were much later coming than he had hoped, he left for Kansas with Jamie and the band. 5 people in a Kia Sportage was probably not the most comfortable ride they've ever had. They played 2 shows in KC on Saturday night, And 2 in Wichita on Sunday. On the way back to Nashville Jamie dropped Justin off in KC and he was picked up and driven to Lake of the Ozarks for a week long recording session. His flight got in from that at 7:30 on Friday and the bus call for Sonicflood's Chicago gig this weekend was at 11:00. He's been a traveler for sure! I got to go with him this weekend to Chicago and it was really fun. (more on that in another post)

Anway, here's some pictures from Dakota's party. We had lots of fun!!


We got him a Vandy shirt and hat. Gotta support the work place! :)


Little cheese ball modeling his new hat.


He loves his firetruck from Aunt Bobo (Molly) and Uncle Austin


Best friends playing with the firetruck


Isn't Abbe` beautiful!?


Mom and Uncle Kevin, pretty dang good picture if I do say so myself.

Riley

Well, I thought I'd start the new blog with a couple of pictures of our beautiful dog. Here she is!


Hanging out on the front porch. She's learning she can be outside with us only if she stays on the porch. She's learning very quickly even though it's hard for her to not chase squirrels and birds.


I love this look!