Crashing California

Yesterday (which was Black Friday here in the Almighty America) I spent most quietly at home, with my computer, tidying, cooking and preparing for tracking some vocals for a new song we've been working on at the studio which has become familiar and like family w/ our friend Cedrick at the helm. There is something very sacred, very "alive" and beautiful about the studio experience for me. There is something great to be said about being creative with your whole being, your whole soul, pouring into the digital world, your breath into sound ~ you are an architect for a moment. We spent 3 and a bit hours doing just the verses for our new song (called "peace is"), we needed to come back another day for the more aggressive vocals because I am yet still recovering and my voice can only spill out so much, but it was such good time. I share with you this shot, of where I was yesterday night. The mic is a neumann (pronounced "noy-man") and worth about ...

So, in keeping with some fun stuff ... check out this photo book I made for my mom for christmas (hopefully she won't look on here anytime soon, she's generally not very good at keeping up with the blog, lol, but if she does check, well, serves me right and now you know what you're getting for Christmas mom! I wanted to share tho so you can see my fam =) These pics were taken by my good friend Kristin Genna (our bass players wife) in June when my mom and brother (who I had not seen in over three years!!) came to visit. I'm so thankful we got the opportunity to visit =) enjoy! Click here to view this photo book larger Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

YEARS!! It's been five whole years!! Five years since we left home and hearts to peak out a new life and existence here in Southern California ... guess that means it's sort of this blogs birthday too. Wow, so what can we look back upon over these five years?  An ocean home, a God-gift of a band, music to sing my heart to sleep, def. some new challenges too, but no debt (for us both, paying off loans), new car, new motorbike, and the time just goes on. It's strange how sometimes the years just begin to bleed together, and I can't remember when exact we saw parents last, or how many years we've lived in our beach home (when I thought in the beginning that we'd only be here a couple months cause they might tear it down).  This time here in Southern California has brought so much to us.  Not to mention such a wonderful, and unexpected church home.  Never in a million years would I have thought we'd be leading worship at a small church plant in North Ocean...

Apologies!! man, I can't believe almost a whole month has gone by!! Believe me it's not by choice ... there are many times I've stared at the blog and had the words but not the time. it's been a bit of a rough month. I have been STILL fighting sickies and actually this Monday got hit AGAIN w/ a cold/infection -- I only start of with this information cause it's fresh on my mind.  I am on antibiotics again, in hopes to quash this bug that has had me (in some form or fashion for a month and a half) between this and allergies, I feel like I don't remember what's it's like to feel fully healthy. bummer! But I am patient I guess ... I keep on pushing forward.  I have also, among the physical stuff, been battling emotional stress (at work and family) and the last, oh, 15 hours or so, this electric anxiety that keeps pricking my insides.  I know it's mostly because we have a show tonight at one of the bigger, more important venues in San Diego, and I'm...

Last week we had the intesting opportunity to play a "media showcase" at a local restaurant opening.  The joint, a hip-healthy burger chain called Smashburger, was opening in Oceanside, and my good friend (who used to work at JC, but has since found greener pastures at a PR company downtown called elle communications) hooked us up with the deal. Now I admit, it is a pretty corporate gig. Not something I would have seen myself doing ... but for some reason, this worked.  I can't say I'd want to do it on a regular basis, but it was interesting, met with exceptional reception and we sold more CD's than we have at any other show! We paired down our sound for the event to acoustic ~ and it translated well.  Here are some sweet shots that Kristin, our bass player John's wife, who is an Exceptional talent behind the lens. Enjoy! Till Next Blog ~ love, a.

Yesterday I had a scare of internet proportions ~ I was working away on some freelance stuff ... getting myself in-shape for the very busy and long feeling week. I was sending some emails and all of a sudden, the email quit working ... my password was no longer valid ... not a huge deal, I went to Gmail to try to reset ~ and I got this message that said that my account had been compromised because of suspicious activity (weird) so I reset than went to my home page (which is my, our, beloved blog) and there was nothing there. I'm not even kidding. There was a generic "blogger" page that read: " This blog has been removed. The name (my blog name), is no longer available for use. And that's all she wrote. I refreshed the page a couple times, cause I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but same message every time. I started to panic, and get pretty angry. I mean this is like 5 years of our lives!! Pictures, stories, songs, our lives, just vanished and "re...

So, I need to try to make this post pretty short, as I'm at work and will need to go to our weekly Marketing Meet pretty soon, to hear about stuff that I don't really care about and have no control over, or ownership ~ at least that's how I feel, haha. Work has been a real struggle for me lately, not just because of WHAT I am doing, but just in being CONTENT about things. Oh, how difficult it is to just be content!  Life will always have ups and downs and we are really only in control of HOW we decide to respond to our situations.  I have responded not well in some instances and great in others. We moved our office about 3 weeks ago (well, WE didn't decide, the company did) from our deluxe roomy, cadilac of a space (with windows and freedom and a great creative, peaceful energy) to a smaller, stuffy, green flourescent room upstairs. I have had a hard time with the change and really got to the point where I just needed to suck things up and get over it. I am thankf...