In the midst of that, a thousand other things have been filling my mind… not least of all our kitchen…

We had ice-damming back in January and February.  Basically what that means is that heat rises off of the house and melts the bottom of the snow on the roof.  As that water runs off of the roof, it hits the air and freezes again.  The ice builds up and creates a dam that keeps water from flowing off the roof, so instead the water flows back underneath the shingles.

So here is what our kitchen looked like before (they came and pulled down a portion of the roof a few months ago and patched it temporarily)…

Later that day….

And finally today…

We’re leaving in about 3 hours to go to Banff Alberta Canada (one of the most beautiful places in the world) for our denominations assemnly!

Then we are heading straight down south for our CD release Mini tour! I know I”ve been plugging this a lot but it’s been such a HUGE dream for such a long time and i”m just excited that it’s really happening!

All that to say, I LOVED having Cora here, it was amazing…

But His&Hers  will never be quite as good as FOLKA-POLKA

Oh and CORA…you owe me a guest blog.

So for my Canadians, and more specifically for our friend Ian, here are some true blue southernisms. If you’re southern, make sure to add your own to this list!

• A good attitude is like Kudzu – it spreads.
• So buck toothed he could eat corn-on-the-cob through a key hole.
• Nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full o’ rocking chairs.
• So poor he’d have to borrow money to buy water to cry with.
• Slicker than a chased greased hog.
• Older than the mountains and got twice as much dust.
• Ol’ boy’s tough as whit leather.
• He ran like a scalded dog.
• Rough as a cob.
• Just as happy as if he had good sense.
• Cold as a well digger’s tail.
• So dull he couldn’t cut hot butter with a knife.
• Crazier than a run over dog.
• Tougher than a one eared alley cat.
• Scared my mule (when something really startled them)

• Faster than greased lightning.
• Better than snuff, ain’t half as dusty.
• She’s limber as a dishrag.
• So ugly she’d run a dog off a meat wagon.
• Took off like Moody’s goose.
• As scarce as hen’s teeth.
• Purty as a speckled pup.
• Done gone and got yankee rich.
• Sorry as a two dollar watch.
• Slick as an eel.
• Wild as a peach orchard hog.
• Plumb tuckered out.
• Full as a tick.
• Fat as a tub o lard.
• In all my born days. . .

here’s a few more…

Brandon’s papa says, “it made me so mad I coulda ate icecream, but I didn’t have any so I just cussed”

or one I’ve heard lots, “sweatin’ like a whore in church” but no respectable southern lady’d say that one

There’s a WHOLE list of words that we say that we realized outside of the south don’t mean the same thing…

Ill-in the south you say you’re ill when you’re mad at somebody “that lady at the check out made me so ILL”

Barbeque-in the south this is a noun NOT a verb! It means pulled, smoked pork…”let’s go down to the restrunt and eat up some barbque”

there’s a whole lot more but I don’t want this post to be  too long…

BE SURE TO ADD TO MY LIST!!!!

Here’s a little peak into our schedule (not than anyone cept my momma would be interested)

On April 27th we go to Banff, Albert, Canada (only one of the most beautiful places in the world) for a our denomination’s assembly

Then back to P.A. for May 1st

Then we head down to the states for our tour!!! Finally!!!! It’s getting SO close and all the details are coming together!

We head straight to Wake Forest (Raleigh) North Carolina and play on May 6th.

Then to Greenville SC to play at the Channel on May 7th

Then jump over to Spartanburg SC to play at Spartanburg Spring Fling on May 8th.

We plan to spend sometime with my Husb’s awesome family! I’m so looking forward to this because I really didn’t get to see them very much at Christmas.

After a short but sweet few days we’ll head back up the mountain to my hometown of Canton/Bethel/Waynesville North Carolina to play a few shows.

We’ll start at Blue Ridge Book in waynesville on the 13th

Then on the 14th WE HAVE OUR SUPER HUGE CD RELEASE CONCERT at HART theatre in Waynesville!

It’s going to be the best and biggest show on our tour! I hope lots and lots of people come and it’ll be a great chance to see a lot my home town friends and family! If you’re in WNC and you read this…I’d like it to be almost as epic as a Pisgah/Tuscola game

Then lastly I’m hoping to end our tour with an evening show in Knoxville on the 15th but the details haven’t been finalized yet.

If your town is not on this list, I’m sorry, we tried to get shows in lots of places but had to go with venues that responded. Plus we’re having to cut the tour a bit shorter than we’d like because of some changes happening in our church.

I look forward to seeing all ya’ll there!!!

I keep waiting to post until I can put of pictures of our completed bathroom and basement. But that may never happen. the basement is at about 82%-95% depending of who you ask, and if husb is around. He seriously worked SO hard on it! I’m so proud of him! Plus he puts with my crazy. What an amazing human being. So far he is 1 of 2 people that can and will put with me on a 24/7 basis.

The other pair of that duo is my sweet, dear and amazing best friend who I gladly share with Sheila.

Her name is Cora.

She is coming here in about 15 days. HERE. To Canada. For me. I am overwhelmed at the prospect that she would willing submit herself to putting up with crazy, and for loving me. We’ve been friends for a long time and walked a long road together. I can’t wait. I seriously can’t contain myself.

Things I love about Cora.

1. She’s hilarious. No one can make me laugh like she can.

2. She gets me. My soul…

3. She knows about as much as anyone (who isn’t husb) about me and she still loves me. It’s awesome and terrifies me.

4. She is wise. So wise.

5. She is creative and whimsical and thought provoking and I don’t think she realizes it.

6. She makes people want to be better versions of themselves so they can be worthy of her affection. It’s crazy and she doesn’t mean to, but it just happens.

7. She’s wonderfully, brilliantly complex.

8. She’s an athlete and she has been one of my #1 inspirations and motivators in the body/life overhaul. She just ran a half marathon and looks better than I’ve ever seen her look in our almost decade long friendship. I’m so proud of her!

9. She makes an effort. Usually this just makes me feel like I’m the worst friend ever, but it’s not even like that with her. She just lets you be who you are with no expectations.

10. She has a heart the size of Texas, maybe bigger.

I love her. I can’t wait.

I don’t know what this title has to do with the fact that she’s coming, but it’s a lyric I had written on a napkin so I threw it in there.

Drama is not a word that usually husb would inspire in a normal situation. Yesterday was not a normal day. As you know we woke up way too early. Then instead of waking up and drinking his magical (and non existent) happy juice, I freaked him out cause he thought we were running late. The other part of that story is that we are ALWAYS late. I hate it about us, it’s something we hugely feel convicted about, but I don’t know what it is, we are late no matter how early we get started. Yesterday was case in point. We woke up WAY before we needed to be at church at 9 and we were still a tad late. We are almost always the last to leave, so maybe that helps even it out?

After the chicken feather ruckus died down and we realized that we unintentionally observed day light saving time Husb started his getting ready routine. Men’s routines are a mystery to me. Even if I observe every second of it, I still can’t figure out exactly what it is that he does.

So he goes upstairs, he comes back, then he wanders around and goes downstairs and then comes back. Then he commenced to go upstairs one more time to look for something for me. As he was walking upstairs I heard a thump, THUMP, POW.

Immediately hysterics like I’ve never witnessed before, began. He howls, yells at the tops of his lungs, strings together all sorts of insanity and words that don’t exactly make sense. And this is when it all falls apart. His South Carolina comes out. LORD BLESS! His accent gets all crazy and squealy and then gruff and then loud and screamy. He stumbles back down to the main floor where the stairs open up to dining room and flails himself onto the ground. Husb starts moving around and yelling and turning floor circles. So I’m thinking, either he has become extremely charismatic in the last 20 seconds or he’s practicing his break dance moves (which I never knew he had). The screaming and wailing and gnashing of teeth continues for a few more seconds til he calms down a bit. My silly husb then proceeds to turn his head towards me and strain his neck til he can open one eye and peek at me. A little whimper comes. An eye close. Then a strain, peek and whimper. This goes on for another cycle or two til I can control the urge to crack up and in my most delicate of voices can say, “Well, what happened?”

It was HILARIOUS. I’ve known this guy for a little while now and he has never, NEVER been this dramatic. After it was all said and done and I got him to explain to me how it all went down, we sat down and discussed the ridiculousness. He did admit that it was a tad over kill and a least had a smidgen of over reaction but I never could get him to tell what he was puttin on and what was real.

However, today I did have to swallow my giggles and/or pride and apologize for not being a little more sympathetic because it really did hurt and he has bruises on his knee and shin.

Oh man, I don’t think he’ll ever live down the day that he WAS drama. Not dramatic, he WAS (slept, ate and breathed) drama.

apparently he’s been hangin around with me for way too long.

I don’t sleep well. I never have. One of my most vivid childhood memories is laying in the bed counting the ceiling tiles and wishing that I could go to sleep. The only way I sleep well is if I stay up SUPER late, because I’m a night owl naturally and then sleep in super late. I was made for 3rd shift. I thrive at night, I wake up and become alert and personable and even kind of hyper. All that back story is to tell you that if you don’t work 3rd shift, staying up til the wee hours and then sleeping in real late is NOT feasible. In university I used to take naps, but that stopped because cat naps only work for toddlers and college students; and they make it even harder for me to sleep at night.  And I am one of those people who needs plenty of sleep.  Like nine hours of sleep.  If I get four hours or less, I can usually get through the day.  Barely.  And I usually end up with a migraine.  But anything between four and nine just doesn’t work. At all.

So let me give ya a run down of our “typical” evening (we have church events almost every night and we don’t usually get home til 10pm, except friday/youth group and that is a LATE night)

Around 9:30 husb starts getting yawny and comfy/cozy. (he is one of those generally untrustworthy morning people)

10:00 Husb starts getting a little grumps (because he is NOT a night person)

10:05 I start getting silly

10:10 I run around the house singing at top of my lungs

10:20 husb says (in his grumpy gruff voice) “shut that dirty mouth woman” (GUH-RUMP)

10:45 I sit still for about .005 seconds and then start talking a MILE a minute

11:00 husb falls asleep and is snoring, I commence the pranking

Sometime between 11 and 12 I convince him he has lost a limb and needs to go upstairs to retrieve it, he always obliges.

12:00 I try to read, put on bath and body works “sleepy” lotion and then try my hardest to sleep…

7 am Husb wakes up with a crazy grin on his face all happy and generally dis-trustworthy…then I curse. Grump.

honestly though, sleep and I battle. When I go right to sleep, I inevitably wake up 4 hours later wide awake and can’t go back to sleep. When I struggle with actually going to sleep, I don’t get to sleep until way too late and then have to sleep in, also way too late. It’s a weird nightly conflict that I don’t win. I don’t drink caffeine after 5pm (unless it’s an extreme situation), I try to rest and make myself relax, I’ve taken stuff and while that makes me sleep, I don’t feel rested.

A few nights ago, we went to bed super late, and then I couldn’t go to sleep and then I woke up at like 4am! It was crazy!

Then 2 nights ago at a womens retreat I stayed up talking and connecting to some sweet friends and then woke up again about 4 hours later.

Now to the point of this whole post. Last night I went to bed relatively early because I was tired from staying up so late the night before. I need to interject that I also get crazy migraines (and sometimes even have to go to the hospital because of them), and the number 1 triggers are are sleep and stress. Both of which I battle. So, on Thursday I had a major migraine and had to go get shots. So Friday I felt like I had been hit by truck and still had a bit of a headache (never good), then I stayed up super duper late Friday night and then went to bed relatively early last night.

I woke up at ………5 stinkin AM.  I was still really tired, so I tossed and turned for about an hour.  Then I looked at my phone and realized it was after 7.  So I freaked out.  Then I freaked husb out and we ran around the house and chicken feathers were flyin, and we were scramblin, and coffee was brewin, the dog was barkin, the cat was meowin. And then we realized it was only 6.

My phone had apparently updated itself as if we did observe DST.

Also, my husb is drama. I’ll have to update you tomorrow.

I’m crazy hyper and only slept about 4 hours last night because I couldn’t wait to wake up and start promoting the cd release, www.hishersmusic.com, just in case you missed it But that’s not all I got on my mind.

I think you need some back story.

Ten years ago (actually 11 but I can’t admit that rightthissecond because I found a gray hair a few weeks ago and it freaks me out) Ten years ago a little girl wanted a guitar. Her whole family was musical. Everybody, right down to the dog. I don’t know how a dog would be musical, but I’m sure he was. She was surrounded by passionate, talented, God loving people. They encouraged her, taught her, shaped her, gave her a guitar and said GO. So she went.

She started playing and singing at church, soon her youth pastor asked her to help lead worship, then she started putting some words she had written in her bible study journal with the chords she knew. Then she got up the courage to play and sing those words for her youth group, her church, her friend Nicole after a VBS night one summer. Her confidence, love for music and ability to write songs grew and grew. She started playing anywhere and everywhere. Before she knew it people were telling her how God had gifted her and how she needed to “do” something with this.

That’s where pride came in, this little girl felt like everyone was telling her how talented SHE was, how SHE was going to make it, in reality they were just trying to encourage her to use what God had given her, but she let pride get in the way. Her dreams began to grow, a little misguided and full of ego, they grew and grew big. That little girl went from a big fish in a small pond to North Greenville University, nuff said.

And God worked. And He worked. and He worked. He allowed that little’s girls ego to be crushed. He changed her dreams, He showed her what He really wanted from her, which was just to trust Him and to be changed by His love and Word. Then she met her husb. The best guy ever. Seriously, the best one. That guy loved God, he loved her, he was funny and cute and played ALL kinds of instruments. More than anything else, her family loved him. So they got married. It was a great day.

Life began. That little girl was married and had to be responsible and felt like she needed to follow God’s plan for her AND her husb, which was coincidentally not a thriving music career. So she put her songwriting and music on the back burner. She still led worship and played music, she still wrote songs. It just wasn’t about pride or ego or a career, it was about living a life for God.

Then comes the struggle. This is where I come in, the adult little girl. I’m grown up, well kinda, depends on who ya ask. I”m messy, I struggle with the fact that God’s grace is abundant and free. I need boatloads, BOATLOADS of that grace, daily. Life is hard. Part of my struggle was finding out in high school that I had a condition called POF and wouldn’t be able to have kids. Then by a miracle getting pregnant and losing that baby. Our baby.

It was hard. It is hard.

Through all of this, as the adult little girl, I have struggled with feeling like I have no purpose. With a whole bunch of “this is what God has given me, but I’m not doing anything with it”. I think as women we all feel that at one time or another. We wander, we flail around trying to keep our heads above water, more often than not, we sink. We sink into self pity, insecurity, anger, unrealistic expectations. Then Christ swoops in with His boatload of grace and pulls us out of the miry depths.

Here’s what I’m learning, marriage and relationships (not that I have any real ground to stand on because in reality, I know nothing) are beautiful, wonderful pictures of our relationship with Christ and are messy and hard. Husb and I have had a really, really hard couple of years. Losing Cash, our baby, was part of it, but it’s been more than that. Our marriage has been tested. Daily, more than ever before. Honestly since moving to P.A. I wonder sometimes if it’s just because we’re so happy here, and God is moving and working and drawing us closer to Him.

I also think sometimes that it might be a bit of spiritual warfare. I get nervous to say that just because I think more times than not, it’s more of our own sin and rebellion than real spiritual warfare, but maybe the struggle against our own sin and rebellion IS real spiritual warfare. I read in Philippians today that part where Paul says I have suffered the loss of things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. That has to be true. In my life, I HAVE to count my marriage, our financial situation/comfort, my body/image issues etc, my desperate longing for a child, my ambition in music and our ministry as rubbish in order to gain Christ. That’s hard, I’m failing and flailing, but I’m desiring to be that person to join in my suffering with Christ and to be perfected by it.

So after all that, ten years in the desert, putting music and pride aside. I’m telling you today that we are releasing our album. What a journey.

WHEW. I’m sorry I’m long winded today. Not over yet.

I’ve used this blog over the past 3 years as a place to vent, a place to update, a place to share funny stories, a place to share exciting news and heartache. All through the mess, you’ve walked along side me. Thank you.

I was reprimanded and challenged at one point for sharing too much here. For gossiping. I need to ask forgiveness. I was angry, I was hurting, I was grieving. That made me shy away from blogging at all. Then I came back. But I’ve been very guarded. Uncomfortably guarded. I recently admitted to a dear friend that I desire to be more candid. MUCH more candid. So, you can look forward to rightthissecond thoughts and feelings (thank you Heidi @http://www.restinginthemystery.blogspot.com/ for the idea).

I don’t want to slander anyone and I have to protect privacy about a LOT of issues we face in ministry, but I CAN and will let you into my heart. My messy, grace needing heart. Hopefully what you’ll find there is not me at all but Christ.

go order your copy from our website www.hishersmusic.com

We are so excited about the pre-release of our first studio album through Tate Music Group! Listen up fans, friends and family everywhere, we hope to sell 100 albums to help fund our upcoming tour. We need your help and support more than ever! Make sure and get your copy of our long-anticipated album, Two is Better than None by clicking the pay-pal link on our website, www.hishersmusic.com . All purchases will ship in 3-4 weeks. Make sure to check back in for info about our Cd Release May-Mini-Tour happening in a town near you!

Two is Better than None

ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!

This is how I know that I love him, even when we’re “disagreeing” (cough, um arguing) and I flip out, I still worry about him. Like in the midst of me flipping out I’m more worried about how’s he’s going to handle it and hoping that it won’t stress him out. What’s cool about this is that it’s completely against my nature and it’s something he has taught me! Yes, maybe he’s not the most organized, or romantic of people in the world, but I’d rather have a messy house with him in it any day. My favorite thing about is that he never sees the bad in me, he never chooses to remember the negative, only the good and he is the most selfless person I know. He doesn’t just think of himself as second, he doesn’t think of himself at all. I love that, I want to more like him, I mostly want to be more like Christ who makes him that way. I’m so thankful for his sweet demeanor, his selfless acts and his creative, quirky spirit. Plus, we didn’t get to “do” anything for valentines day, so he spontaneously decided that we needed to take a break from our housework/projects and make a trip to Saskatoon for an “Oscars” date.

Love you husb.