It's Not Really a Good Day...

One of my goals with this blog is to be open and transparent with what is happening in my life. That being said, today was not really a good day for me. Two years ago yesterday, I lost one of my favorite people in the whole world. My Grandma.

With being on the road for weeks at a time I tend to lose track of what day it is.  I knew that we were going to be on the road on this anniversary (I hate calling it that), but I wasn't sure where we were going to be. I was alright yesterday, but it hit me pretty hard today. We started the day at our friends in Tennessee and honestly it took me a little bit to realize what today was. Knowing that we were going to be heading out this afternoon  I started packing and getting ready to leave not thinking anything of it. Then we sat down for breakfast and I don't even remember what was said that triggered my memory but then it hit me all at once. I'm not the type of person that likes crying in front of people, and quite honestly I didn't feel like explaining myself for being upset so I just kept quite and busied myself with clearing the table to distract my mind a little.

I waited till everyone was done and Bob had gone into the room that we were staying in to go and tell him what was going on. He laid down with me for a little while and just let me cry on his shoulder. He didn't say anything or try to "fix it", just let me cry and get it out. Times like that I really just thank God for giving me someone who understands that he doesn't need to come up with the perfect thing to say, that he just needs to be there to give me a hug and hold me for a few minutes.

Losing my Gram was arguably the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with in my life. I've had a few people in my life be called home, but no one as important to me was her. We all knew that is was coming, but that didn't make it any easier. I watched her health and mind start to go little by little till all she could do was lay in bed and say a few incoherent things. It hurt so much to see her go from the one who would take care of everyone to having everyone take care of her. And on top of all of that watching my Grandad lose his wife and live of his life.

My favorite picture of Gram and Grandad

 As sad as I am that all I have left are memories, pictures and the things she left to me, I know that she is in a

much better place. I know that she is in heaven with God watching over us. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about her. I wear a ring that she gave me everyday to keep her close and have pictures of her so my mind will never forget exactly what she looked like. The things I miss the most though are the sound of her voice and her amazing hugs.

 

To end this out I do have to brag of God a little. In her last days I would go visit her and Grandad everyday after work and spend time with them and the rest of my family that was able to be there. The one day that I was just so tired and drained physically and emotionally, I decided not to go at the last minute was the day that God called her home. When my mom called with the news that night I broke down and bawled till I had no tears left. I started to beat myself up over not going saying that I should have been there. I should have been there for Mom and for Grandad. Then, ever thankful again for my husband, he asked me what good could have come from me being there. I would have been even more of a wreck than I already was. I thought about it for a little bit and then God said to me, "you didn't need to see that." I was upset with myself for not being there, but God kept me home on purposes because I was hurt enough from losing her, I didn't need to see her die. He kept me from more heartache then I would have been able to handle. For that I will forever be thankful.

Until next time, God Bless!

One Week Down

First week of the February tour down and in the books! I can't believe a whole week has gone by already! Its that weird feeling of seeming like we just left but at the same time we've been away from home for a long time. After spending a few hours a day in the car and then spending almost five days in one place they all start running together and I forget what day it is.
 

Let's see... so far we have; driven all the way to Tennessee, got to catch up with friends in North Carolina, spend four days fellowshipping with a great group of people in Tennessee and eat some amazing food from a just as amazing cook, pick up our new singer Cristabelle and have our first show with her. And then today we woke up and were on the road by 4am heading to Mississippi. In the truck that tows the trailer there is Bob driving, me in the passenger seat and Doug and Cristabelle in the back seat. In the other vehicles there is Jim, Lois, their daughter Darla and Gage. Most times I try to stay up with Bob to keep him awake. This time I managed to stay up long enough to write the band blog for next month and talk with him for a while. Then the sun came up and a few minutes later I was out.

Fast forward about an hour and we were stopping to fill the tanks and everyone woke up. It started out pretty quite but as we all started to wake up and talk more things started to get fun and a little silly. Cristabelle would just come out with these random one liners that either went with the conversation or, the more funny ones, they would just be completely random having nothing to do anything except what is going on in her head. We would all just bust up laughing. I got to the point that I started writing down what she said to make sure that I would remember them.

The best line from today was when we were talking about needing to fix something and Bob would have to do it cause its Bob's job to fix everything. To which she said, "Of course because it rhymes. It wouldn't work if you said Doug's job. It's only logical when its Bob's job." We all laughed so hard that we almost couldn't breath. She just comes out with stuff like that the whole ride when she was awake. It made the ride so much more fun.

Well right now we're about to open the doors and start show number two!
Until next time, God bless and good night!

From the Barbershop to the Sunset

Today turned out to be a wonderful day in more ways than I can describe, but I'm going to try. It all started at the barbershop that the boys went to. Who'd have thought that a simple trip for a hair cut would turn into an amazing experience with fellowship, witnessing and ministry.

I wont go into to much detail about all that happened and what was said, but it turned out that trip was exactly what we all needed. The man who runs the shop is a Christian and God gave him and the other men in shop all of the words and conformations that we needed to renew our faith and know that we are on the path that He set up for us. One of the walls in the shop had the scripture Proverbs 11:25 "A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed." Man did we need that.

After that, we had a bit of a girls night! Cristabelle, Lois, the pastors wife Angela, and I took a little trip into Memphis to walk around and do some sight seeing. We started with going into the Peabody Hotel and seeing the famous ducks. Now, I had no idea that these ducks even existed, but they were so cool. There was a guy who trained five ducks to just swim in this marble fountain and then at 5 o'clock the Duck Master will come in and they will play a song and the ducks will line up and march down a red carpet to the elevator to go to their penthouse for the night.

When we walked out, there was a horse drawn carriage sitting there. Well, we just couldn't help ourselves and Angela was kind enough to treat us to a ride. We rode around the town just as the sun was setting and saw all of the old buildings and heard some of the history about the town from the driver. Then we went by the Mississippi River with the sun setting behind it. I'm telling you, God couldn't have painted a better picture for us. We were just in total awe of the view and all that had happened through the day.

We ended the by walking down a little bit of Beale St. and seeing the B.B. King Blues Club. It was pretty cool seeing all the neon lights turning on and hearing music coming out of some of the places. We really looked like tourists taking pictures of everything we saw, but it was so much fun just spending some time with the girls laughing and having fun just hanging out.

Just another day on the road living the dream and following God's plan for us!

Until next time, God bless and good night!

There's a Game on Today?

Well it's Super Bowl Sunday. Now, I don't really watch football. Ever. I don't really care for it. My husband and the guys in the band, however, they were very excited for the game. We currently are in Lynnville, Tennessee, one of our favorite places to be. Half of us are staying with the Pastor Rick and his wife Lynda, pastor of the church, that we have played at before and will be playing at again on Wednesday night. The other half are staying with another couple, Evan and Lynda, from the church. The pastor invited everyone to watch the game at his house on his huge HD TV and have some fellowship time. I for one though am at the other house enjoying not watching the game. I am enjoying fellowship of my own with the lovely Lynda while Bob is at Pastor Rick's with the rest of the guys.

This has been a relatively easy week for us. We left Thursday night around midnight and drove about 9 hours to Hickory, North Carolina. We spent the night there with a family that has become very good friends of ours. Their daughters have a music ministry of their own called Love Collide. We had the privilege of playing a couple of shows with them last year. They are wonderful girls and post on a great show with amazing testimonies. It was nice to catch up with them and rest for a while before the 6 1/2 hour drive to Lynnville. 

Lynnville not only has beautiful sights, it is filled with wonderful people. I love spending time with these people sharing stories and laughs all day long. We are going to stay here for a few days before moving on to the next place. Our new singer, Cristabelle Braden, is going to be flying in tomorrow afternoon and joining us. They are going to have a few days of practice and then the tour will really begin! I am so excited for this tour! I can't wait to see some friends again and to meet new people.

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet and say good night Y'all!

http://www.lovecollide.com/
http://www.cristabellebraden.com/

Welcome to My Life

Like the blog title says, this is me sharing my live. I wanted to share some of my stories from my traveling life, my personal life, my spiritual life and my life as a young wife.

For those who don't know, I recently took a leave of absence from my job at a preschool as  teachers assistant to follow my call to be in a ministry. My husband Bob and I now work for the band Never Forsaken.  He is the sound engineer/tour manager/light technician/Mr. Fix-it and takes care of pretty much anything else that needs to be done that he knows how to do and I am the merchandise manager. The band has been able to travel across most of the eastern coast and into the central part of the country. We also get to meet some of the nicest and most humble people at shows. In particular the ones that have been kind enough to open their homes for us to stay in rather than having to get hotel rooms everywhere we go. I love (almost) every minute of it. It can get very tiring being on the road for a long period of time, but it also is so much fun being able to drive through the country and see everything. It helps that the band really is like a family. I love on each other and pick on each other like a family would. Plus I love that I get to do all of the traveling with my husband and we get to enjoy this part of our lives together.

The first story I want to share about our travels happened on the last tour we did. We were in Winchester, Virgina staying at the home of the woman who had set up a show at her church. We got to spend some rare down time at her home getting to know her and her family and enjoy having time to rest. I chose to do outside by myself for a while and relax by the pond in their backyard. I loved the peace and quite to just read and spend some time away, just me and God. I was just about to go back inside when I looked up and saw a blue heron standing on the other side of the pond. 



Now here is the significance about that heron to me. When my sister and I were younger living in Pennsylvania, we loved to go for walks with our Grandad and we would always look for a blue heron. However when we moved to New Jersey I never saw one again. So, for me, seeing that heron was a little blessing from God saying, "Here's a little something extra for you." All I could really do was stand there at stare at the bird trying to get a decent picture of it. It was a nice way to end my alone time. We stayed with them a few weeks later and even though I knew it was to cold for the heron to be there, but I couldn't help but go and sit for a while hoping that I would see it again. However, it never showed up, though I can't say I really expect it to.

So there is my first little story from the road that I wanted to share. Right now we are getting ready to head out in a few hours for another month long tour down south. I can't wait to get on the road again and see what adventures are ahead of us this time!