Halloween Pics

Here are some pics from Halloween at our house.....  

Jeff, Candice and Nick came by for awhile.

Then some of the neighborhood girls came by......

Me & Ugly Betty..... I mean, REALLY Ugly Betty.

I'm a Halloween Hater.

Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday. Not even close. I don't like being scared and I have a mask phobia. I never thought about it, but Kari's friend Sara Mac expressed her "mask phobia" the other day and I realized that I have the same condition. Masks are only used by people who are trying to hide who they are, right? And WHY would you want to hide you really are if you are a good, honest human being? OR you are pretending to be something that you aren't. Which I don't like either. Be yourself. Always. Ok, ok..... i know some of you are going, "IT'S HALLOWEEN!! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO WEAR A MASK SO YOU CAN BE SCARY!!" But like I said earlier, I don't like being scared. I don't watch scary movies. I don't like dark places where you can't see where you are going. I don't like evil. I don't like blood. I don't like gore. ALL of that is associated with Halloween. So, I am officially a Halloween Hater. Sorry.

I got sick last night, and am still feeling puny today. I've been in bed all day, and forgot to go pick up candy. We live on a dead-end street, so we rarely have trick or treaters, but I still better have Mike pick up some candy, just in case one or two little creatures stop by. Sam has three friends coming over for a "Halloween/Rock Band" party. I hope I live through THAT.

Bruce

My grandson, Bruce in his Halloween Costume. He's going as the Devil this year......

John and Uma....

... from Pulp Fiction. Don't we look like them???? Our friend Rusty Danmyer had a combination Halloween/birthday party tonight at his house. People kept asking us if we were Bonnie Clyde. SERIOUSLY?!?! I don't THINK so!!! Mike even SHAVED his GOATEE off (which he's had for over 10 years!) Sam couldn't even remember what Mike looked like without it.... and our dog, Django kept giving him weird looks, like he wasn't sure who he was!! Or maybe it was the gun Mike was carrying around that was freaking him out.....??? Possibly.

Road pranks.......

Martin Parker, our wonderful drummer, is living in North Carolina these days.  Since we've been doing most of our shows on the East Coast, he has just been driving to meet us at our gigs.   This weekend, he drove a little Chevy Aveo to the gig.  It's a tiny car.  It reminds me of my old Ford Festiva.  It looked like a little baby shoe..... anyway..... 

..... so Martin drives this tiny car to the gig.  Clay, our evil stage manager gets the idea to hide Martin's car in the trailer that we pull behind our bus.  Our trailer carries all of our equipment, but it was sitting there empty since all our gear was in the venue.   Clay starts trying to figure out how to get Martin's keys....   That's where Jimmy J. came into the equation.   Jimmy had ridden with Martin that day, so he told Martin he needed Martin's keys because he had left something in his car.   Martin handed the keys off without even questioning it.    Clay drives the car into the trailer and closes it up.   

A few minutes later, here comes Martin.  We are all on the bus trying to look out the windows without Martin seeing us.   You see him come out and stare at the spot where his car was parked.  He looks around the trailer.  Then comes back around again looking confused.  Then he heads over to the bus.  We all scatter around the front lounge, trying to look as if we were all busy doing other things and NOT watching Martin out the windows!! LOL    The bus door opens and we hear Martin say, "JIMMY!!!   MY CAR'S GONE!"    Jimmy, trying desperately to keep a straight face says, "What do you mean?"   Martin says, "I mean, my car is GONE!!".... Jimmy walks off the bus to help Martin "find" his car.   We all pile off the bus behind him, again trying to seem oblivious to what is going on.   FINALLY, Martin goes..."Did you guys put my car in that TRAILER?!?!?"    Ha!  He figured it out.....      

Now Clay is worried sick about the repercussions from his little prank.... I'm sure Martin will get him back somehow, someway!!   

The Low-Quality Inn

So, when you are out on the road, there are a few things that make life much nicer and can make a huge difference in your day. One thing is a nice hotel. It doesn't have to be fancy, but a room that is clean and doesn't smell bad, or have stains all over the beds. If you find hairs in the bathtub, or bugs anywhere, it just gets gross and really hard to relax. Believe me, we hit several of those along the way. Ick.

Another thing that is a plus for us each day is a Starbucks within walking distance, a good restaurant, and free wireless internet. Yesterday in Augusta, GA we had all of those things provided for us. A beautiful Marriott, with soft comfy beds and clean bathrooms. A Starbucks right in the lobby (yay!), a great Italian restaurant in the hotel... AND.... free wireless internet! We were happy campers!!

After the show at the Imperial Theatre in Augusta (which by the way was wonderful... awesome audience!) we had a dilema. Do we spend the night in Augusta, or go ahead and drive the 70 miles or so to Newberry, NC. If we go on ahead that night, we can all sleep in the next day. Yes. That sounds like the best idea... so off we go. We leave Augusta at midnight. Around 1:30am, we pull up to the Quality Inn. Oh dear. I have a feeling we should have stayed back in the comfort of our Marriott. This isn't looking too promising. Deanie and I get out our suitcases and drag them across the road to our hotel room. As we are wandering around, trying to find our room, a drunk guy starts following Deanie around. "Hey Baby. What are you doing? Do you work here?" Deanie's looking at him like he's crazy and just trying to get away from him. We find our room. It's around the back and there isn't much light. We hurry into our room to get away from the drunk man. Turn on the light..... and realize we've made a huge mistake. The smell hits us first. Oh MAN!!! We're both thinking the same thing. Maybe we can just leave all our stuff there and go back to the bus to sleep in our bunks. However, then we both realize that if we do that, we will have to wake up early because the bus is going over to the venue for an early load in. It's already almost 2am. We want to sleep as late as we can. We're both exhausted. Deanie smiles weakly and says, "Can we do this?" I nod. We're both too tired to change our plans now. We both lift up the covers in our beds before getting in. You've all done it. You can't just get under those blankets without first making sure there's not a roach or spider or anything moving under there. Yuck, yuck, yuck!! I'm shuddering just thinking about it.

Luckily, we are both SO tired we fall asleep quickly... and don't wake up until 10am. Nice. The next morning, I decide to go down to the lobby to get coffee. I can hear a man singing at the top of his lungs. It's one of the janitors there. He's singing "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" as he's doing his cleaning. Well, at least he's finding a way to entertain himself while he works, right? Later, we leave to find some lunch and when we come back neither one of our keys will let us into the room. Oh BOY! Now what do we do??? All of our stuff is still in the room. Down the hall is the singing janitor..... we ask him if he can let us into our rooms. He looks at us for a minute as if he's trying to size us up. "Are these girls on the level?", he's thinking to himself. "Or are they just pretending to be in that room so they can get in there and steal somebody's stuff?". He finally asks us, "Are you staying here?". Deanie says, "Yes, but we're getting ready to leave, we just need to get our stuff out of the room." The man takes his key and swipes it. Nothing. He swipes it again. Still nothing. Uh-oh. We might be in a real jam now. He says, "I'll be right back." and leaves to go to the main office. We are stuck outside of our room several other shady characters walk around us. Deanie tries everything to get in, but we are locked out for sure. Finally, the singing janitor comes back with a different key. This time it works... Yay! We grab our stuff as quickly as possible and leave....... we decide to wait on the shuttle out in front of the hotel instead of staying in that room any longer than we have to!

The kicker of it all is that when we finally got over to the venue, we saw a beautiful Hampton Inn RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from the Newberry Opera House, where we were playing. Why didn't we get rooms THERE?!?! We ask. Come to find out, they actually HAD rooms there waiting for us, but there was some sort of communications breakdown and we didn't know it. Drat!! I love Hampton Inns. Always clean and comfy......

Anyway, we did an afternoon show here. Then we ate dinner. And now most everyone is taking a nap before we have to do show #2 at 8pm. Then we will head home. Home to our own beds. Beds with no bugs, and clean bathtubs.   I will miss the singing janitor though.   Maybe I can get my hubby to sing "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" to me while he cleans our house.....??    I can only hope.

Sam

My son, Sam just cracked me up tonight. He sat down beside me as I happened to be looking on my computer at this blogsite. He saw the picture of me standing there alone on stage opening for Patty and with horror in his voice he says, "THEY WOULDN'T EVEN GET YOU A CHAIR?!?!?" Too funny, huh? That's my sweet son, looking out for his Mom!!

Opening for Patty....

I got to open the show for Patty Loveless in Morristown, NJ. It was amazing!! The audience was incredible... so warm and accepting of this little singer/songwriter who was getting to perform her own material for them. It all happened so fast that I didn't think about having someone take my picture... so thanks to Ron Wagner, who happened to be in the audience and graciously sent me this picture for me to use!! Pretty cool, huh? :-)

Django jumping a one inch ledge....

Our Yorkie, Django was jumping up over a little one inch ledge on our patio. Obviously, it must've looked MUCH bigger to Django because he was seriously over-jumping. It was cracking us up enough to get out the video camera and video it this morning. GO DJANGO!! I love that little dog!! :-)

I'm a proud wife.....

Sam, Kari and I went to see Mike play tonight with Lee Ann Womack here in Nashville. She was doing a private showcase of her new cd, "Call Me Crazy". It's a great project, produced by Tony Brown. She's got a great band and she sure sings her tail off... but I couldn't stop watching the handsome guitar player. :-)

My friends Cassandra, Kathy, Britt, Wes, and PL's own Pete Finney met me down there for the show. It was good to see them.... don't see my "in-town" friends too much lately, so this was a good reason for us to get together!

Two different lives at once.

It's almost like I live two different lives. I think all road musicians feel that way.

On the weekends you get to travel all over the country and see new and exciting things, play great music, meet all kinds of wonderful new people and get to live with a bit of reckless abandon. You don't have to worry about cooking or cleaning because you are living in hotels and a big bus. You are eating out every meal, or eating whatever catering happens to be at the venue. You have very little responsibility during the days... you can do anything. Walk around the town, go shopping, work-out, lay around in your hotel bed and watch tv..... the choices are endless really. Whatever floats your boat. At least until it's time for sound-check. Then you go to the venue, check your gear, do a sound-check, eat some dinner, get dressed for the show, do the show..... then you pack up your equipment, go scrub off your make-up, put on your pj's and get back on the bus to let it take you where-ever you may be going the next day. Sometimes, it takes you home.

That's when the other life you lead takes over. Suddenly your kids are screaming:
"Hi Mom!"
"What's for dinner??"
"How long are you staying home this time?"
"Did you get me anything?"
" I need you sign this paper for school!"
"You didn't pay me my allowance from last week!"
"The dog crapped in Dad's studio!"
Reality sets in. I am not a rock star. I am Mom.

My husband smiles weakly as he hugs me and says, "I'm glad you're home". I can tell he means it. I think it's much harder on men to multi-task. I don't know why, but i really believe God made men better at focusing in on one thing at a time and women are better multi-taskers.

Mike offers to order Chinese for dinner..... thank goodness. I still haven't un-packed. I need a shower. Django wants to go for a walk.... and I want to catch up on my shows that are backed up on TiVo......LOL I just want to "veg". Whoever made that term up anyway? "Veg"? Anyone? Anyone? ... not a clue.

As I was walking Django tonight, I truly felt blessed. The air was cool and crisp. I could smell wood burning in the air from my neighbor's fireplace. I love that smell!! I could see the pumpkins on our front porch and as I looked into my house from the street, I could see my kids and my husband through the windows. They were all smiling and laughing. I felt so at peace. I have so much love around me. So many amazing people are in my world. My family and friends here in Nashville..... and then my other "family" out on the road. The PL gang. That is truly one bunch of amazing people.

So I better go start some laundry so I have clothes to wear for the week. Tomorrow morning, it's back to car-pooling the kids to school..... meeting with the doctor about my Mom in the morning, reading my bible study chapters so I won't be behind when we meet Tues. morning, and attempting to clean off the stacks of papers on my desk. I have three days home. I have LOTS to do before that big ol bus leaves again on Thursday night.

Two different lives. I love them both.

Garry, Jimmy, Me, Deanie and Tom having some lunch in Morristown....









We did a little walking before lunch. It was a beautiful town and the weather was perfect for getting out and about.



Thanks to everyone for coming out to the show last night.... we had a great time! Looking forward to more fun shows next weekend. Of course, I'll have my camera to document it all!!


We are now on the bus heading back to Nashville....i'm hoping to make it home in time to watch a little of the Titans game!! GO TITANS!!

Sellersville, PA

Here are some pics from Sellersville, PA. We had a great weekend of shows. First, Sellersville, PA, then Morristown, NJ. I got the opportunity to open the show in Morristown and I'm still on cloud nine from it!! The audience was amazing and made me feel very welcome! More pics to come.....

Not ready for National Geographic yet.

So we were riding in the van from our hotel to the gig yesterday. The colors in the trees were so beautiful and vibrant, so I grabbed my camera and started to take some pictures as we were going. I snapped the first one and looked at the image and all I got was a white van speeding past the car. "Dang it!" I try again. All I got was a truck! "Dad-gummit!!" What is the problem?!?!? One more time..... hold your breath... here it is..... "Drat." A school-bus.

Now the batteries are out on my camera... i will send more later.... hopefully it will be of beautiful foliage and not moving vehicles.

On the Road Again....

Well... we are back at it again.....on the road. It's funny how the weekdays fly by and before we know it we are back in that rolling metal tube we call our "bus".



Tom is happy because he got his wireless headphones for his bunk dvd player working!! He is doing a little dance, but actually it looks like he's about to punch me, doesn't it???





Garry and I are in the middle of a fierce Guitar Hero battle (thanks to my son, Sam, for letting me bring the new guitar out on the road!!) .... and Jimmy J is making a silly face.


I'm lucky to be in a bus full of wonderful folks. It sure makes life on the road MUCH easier!!


Tomorrow... Sellersville, PA!!!!

Miss Mary

I'm sitting at my neighbor's house watching her sleep. Sounds odd, I know. But Miss Mary is more than just a neighbor. She's like a Mom to me. Ever since we moved into our little house on this dead-end street, Mary has been a big part of our lives. She "adopted" us. Her daughter, Vicki is my age and like a sister to me. Our families are intertwined, and I'm so thankful for that!

Miss Mary is 76 and has had a hard time lately. Her son, Tom passed away last week. It really got her down. I can't imagine how losing a child would feel, but I pray everyday that I never know. Now she is having some health problems and they ran alot of tests on her today. She is in pain, so they have given her strong pain meds and now she is sleeping. We don't want her to be alone, so while her youngest son is taking his daughter to church, I am sitting with Miss Mary. Watching her sleep. Praying for her recovery.

I am honored to be a part of this amazing woman's life.

I should have known.....

What made me get my hopes up? I should have known that Mom's re-awakening wouldn't last. I mean, did I really think that after all these months, she would come back to us and stay? Just as quickly and inexplicably as she came back to us, she left again. I called her apartment first thing this morning as I was driving my 13 yr. old son, Sam, and his 14 yr. old friend, Drake to school. Dad answered the phone.

Dad: "Hello"
Me: "Hi Dad! How are you?"
Dad: "Well, fine."
Me: "How's Mom this morning?"
Dad: "About the same."
Me: "Can I talk to her?"
Dad: "Yes. Just a minute."

Now, when Dad said, "About the same." I was hoping he meant the "same" as she was yesterday, and not the "same" as she's been for the last few months. I hear him call her...

Dad: "Betty! Marcia's on the phone, she wants to talk to you."
Mom: "Who?"
Dad: "Marcia. Our daughter."

My eyes were welling up with tears before I even heard her weak voice say, "Hello"....

Me: "Hi Mom. How are you today?"
Mom: (long pause) "Fine."
Me: "What are you doing?"
Mom: (another long pause) "Just laying on the couch."
Me: "How do you feel today?"
Mom: (again a long pause) "Fine."

Yep. The little reprieve that God had given us from this horrible disease was gone. That mean, cruel Alzheimer's had taken my Mom away.... again. But I didn't want to accept it. So I asked one more question....

"Mom, do you still want me to come over and help you paint your nails?" I held my breath, hoping that suddenly with the mention of painting her nails, she would remember that she's supposed to be excited about life again. That she would suddenly "awaken" again.

Mom: "No. I don't paint my nails anymore."
Me: "Okay, Mom, I'll call and check on you later."
Mom: "Fine"

I hung up trying not to break into full-throttle sobs while my son and his friend were in the car. I mean, that's the LAST thing two teenage boys want to see on their way to school is Mom bawling like a baby because she misses her mom. Her mom that's still living and breathing two miles down the road. They wouldn't understand, and I sure didn't want to drop them off for their day at school like that. Sam saw the tears quietly falling down my face and he reached down for a kleenex and handed it to me. Then he squeezed my hand and smiled at me as if to say, "Hang in there, Mom.... and thanks for not breaking down like a complete nut-case in front of my friend." :-)

I dropped off the boys and headed to my weekly women's bible study group. I let out the full blown screaming cry while i drove. I couldn't believe that I was this heartbroken. I really thought I had mourned the loss of my mom years ago when she started going down-hill. On top of that, my mom and I had always had a tenuous relationship. It was my Dad that I was closest to. My Dad was my rock. I always thought that it would be my Dad's loss that would have me so torn up. Not Mom. Boy, was I wrong. Now, here I am, headed to my women's group who is studying the book "Nurture" about mother/daughter relationships. HOW am I going to get through this morning?!?!? I almost turned around and went home, but something kept me going. I got to my friend, Lisa's house (who leads/hosts our group). It was Lisa's birthday. Britt had brought coffee cake for breakfast and had candles lit. They were singing "Happy Birthday" as I walked in the door. (I was a few minutes late!) I suddenly knew that I was exactly where I needed to be. Surrounded by strong Christian friends who loved me and would get me through this day. Funny thing is...... I never even mentioned Mom to them. I didn't want to ruin our beautiful morning together. I wanted to hear about their lives. I wanted to forget what was going on with me and hear about them. It really helped. It helped me more than they will ever know.

That's how life works. Sometimes you help someone without even knowing it. Just by being there with a smile and a hug. I'm a big believer in Hugs. They are God's medicine for the heart. I sure needed that medicine today. Thank you ladies. Thank you for showing up this morning at Lisa's. I look forward to next Tuesday!

Alzheimer's is a ...... (insert bad word here)

I'm WORN out! Got home this morning at 5am, went back to sleep @6am, then Mom called and woke me up at 9am. I couldn't believe it when i heard her voice on the phone. I sat straight up in bed and said, "MOM! What's wrong?"... she said, "Well, nothing honey... are you okay?" She said it just like she calls me everyday and that her calling me was normal. Then she proceeded to talk to me about getting her nails done and going to Walmart. I just couldn't believe it. I mean, this is a woman who has hardly talked at all in the last few months. It was as if we had gone back in time about 5 years. I almost cried. MOM WAS BACK!!!!!!! I told her I was coming down to see her and we'd visit more. I jumped out of bed just in time for Sam and Jeff to walk in the house. (Jeff was heading to work and dropping Sam off because he didn't have school today. Parent/Teacher conferences.) I told them about Mom and how I was anxious to go see her in person. So, Jeff said good-bye and I decided to run a few errands before heading to my Parent/Teacher meeting at Sam's school. I'd get all that out of the way so i could spend the afternoon with Mom... and that's exactly what I did. But first....

.... while I was driving to Sam's school, i called Mom's nurse at the assisted-living home. I told her about my conversation with Mom this morning and that I was weirdly concerned. I mean, what makes a person's mind snap back like that? The nurse just chuckled and said, "We've all been talking about her this morning. We can't believe it either! I've been here a year and a half and I've NEVER seen your Mom walking around and talking like this! I think someone slipped her a "wake-up" drug, because that's just what it seems.... like she has woken up!"

I couldn't wait to finish my meetings and go see for myself! When I got to the 3rd floor of the assisted-living facility where my parents live, i saw my Dad down the hall playing bingo with several of the residents. I decided not to interrupt his game and went down to their apartment. I was nervous and excited. Would Mom still be talking?... or would I find her like I have found her everytime I have visited for the last few months, just laying on the couch and barely responsive. I knocked on the door, then walked on in. I looked on the couch... no mom. "Mother!", I yelled. "Yes!", she said as she walked out of her bedroom with a little spring in her step. "What are you doing, Mom?", I said. "Oh, just going through my jewelry boxes and organizing my earrings." I stood there in shock. Mother hasn't worn any jewelry in months, maybe years. "Well, that's nice.", I said. "You know, my watch has stopped. I think it needs a new battery." she said. "You think?!?!", I laughed. She hasn't worn a watch in two years. Not since she entered the assisted-living home. She said, "Come in and sit down and visit awhile." I almost burst into tears, but I held them back. I didn't want her to see me cry. I wanted to pretend that everything was normal. I didn't want to alarm her in any way. So we talked. And talked. And talked.... for three hours. Then it was time for her to go down to her dinner. I promised her I would come back tomorrow and bring fingernail polish. She wants to polish her nails!!!!! I know that sounds silly, but trust me.... this is a MAJOR turn-around. Just the fact that she is aware of her appearance is HUGE!! She's got all sorts of plans for the next few days.... going to Walmart, getting her hair done, re-arranging her apartment and even writing some letters to old friends.

I'm worried that we'll wake up tomorrow and find that she's right back where she's been. That this is a temporary "awakening". I remember in the movie, "The Notebook" that James Garner would live for those few moments of clarity that Gena Rowlands would have every now and then. I guess only time will tell. At least I had her back today. I'm SO glad I was here to enjoy it with her!!

After leaving Mom, I get a surprise visit from my cousins from San Antonio, TX, Nick and Mandy! They are in town for a music competition and came by my house to see me. Unfortunately, our visit got cut short because the phone rang and it was Jeff, saying he had just been in a car wreck!! Sam and I said our good-byes to Nick and Mandy (because they were heading up to St. Louis for the night) and ran over to check on Jeff. Luckily, he was banged and bruised up, but didn't seem to have anything broken. Neither did the lady in the other car. Of course both of their cars were totaled. They were REALLY lucky not to have been seriously hurt! Things like that make you remember how in just a second, a life-altering tragedy can occur. We got lucky this time. So....... Jeff's wife, Candice took Jeff home and Sam and I headed back to the house. "Are you hungry?", I asked Sam. "Kind of" he said. Then he asked, "Mom, how about we have a "Guitar Hero" night?" "You know what, Sam? That sounds wonderful." I told him..... and that's exactly what we did. We played that silly "Guitar Hero" game and laughed alot. I needed a fun night with my son.

I'm heading to bed now. I hope I can sleep. I can't wait to call Mom in the morning!!
Sleep-tight friends......

Partying on the bus.....

.....I'll bet you think that on the tour bus, we are just "partying" non-stop. I probably shouldn't ruin our reputations like this, but here is what we REALLY do on that bus!!

So, i woke up Sat. morning on the bus. I crawled out of my bottom bunk and went up to the front lounge to have my morning cup of coffee. Deanie and Garry were already up....Suddenly the bus door opens and we hear Tom say, "HEY!! Have you SEEN what is parked RIGHT IN FRONT of our bus this morning?!?!" It was the highlight of the day for the boys... and Deanie too! Can you find Deanie in the bottom picture?? Look closely....

Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, NC

Here's some pics from the Carolina Theatre. We played there Friday night. I'm still learning how to use my "night" setting on my camera, so they are a little blurry... sorry! It was a beautiful theatre and the folks there were super nice! Then we headed to Charleston, WV for a day off and then playing Mountain Stage on Sunday.....