I finally talked him into it!!!

.... I've been asking my DH (dear husband) for a big hi- def tv for
awhile now, and he's been resisting. Yesterday, he broke down....yay!

Jesus and The Lions

It’s Thanksgiving morning. I’m up early having some coffee like I always do. I’m so excited about this day that from the moment my eyes open, I am wide-awake. I LOVE watching the Macy’s Parade from New York City. Someday, I think I’d love to be there in NYC, experiencing it all in person.

I also LOVE football. Today the Tennessee Titans are playing the Detroit Lions at noon. My husband grew up in Michigan, so he’s a life-long Lions fan. If you know anything about Pro-football, then you know that he must be a very, very loyal and patient man to continue to follow the Lions. They are terrible. They have been terrible for years now. It’s one of the things that I admire so much in my DH (dear husband). When he loves something or someone he doesn’t walk away when things get tough. Good quality in a husband, don’t you think??? :-)

I LOVE to eat too! … so this IS the day, right?!?! I always cook a big turkey with all the fixin’s and we have a big family feast at my house. However, things are a little different this year. My ODS (oldest dear son) got married this year, so he and my new DIL (daughter-in-law… are you getting this now?) will be coming over tomorrow. Our big meal will be tomorrow. Mom and Dad will be here too. However, that does NOT mean we won’t be having lots of food today as well… DH’s making his famous chicken & dumplin’s. yum, yum. I’m in charge of the sausage cheese balls. They are de-lish!!

Our DD (dear daughter) is in Michigan visiting her Mom’s side of the family. We miss her, but I know she needs to see them too. YDS is here with us. He’s still sleeping. So is DH. That’s okay. I love the quiet time in the mornings when I’m the only one up. It gives me time to reflect. Reflect on how blessed I am. Reflect on the choices I’ve made in my life that have brought me here. Some were good choices, and some were just plain wrong. But thankfully, my savior, Jesus Christ has stayed by my side and guided me through all the dumb mistakes I made to lead me where I need to be. He carried me when I couldn’t walk anymore. He pulled me in the right direction when I was heading for disaster. And He stopped me when I was going too far. No matter now I tried to turn away from Him, He never gave up on me. Never.

I’ll bet Jesus is a Lion’s fan. :-)

The Buckhorn Inn

I can't say enough about how fabulous this place is.... I miss it already!!

Gatlinburg

Mike and I are up in Gatlinburg, TN at the Buckhorn Inn celebrating our 10 yr. Wedding anniversary. Although I always wanted to go to Italy for our 10 yr. Anniversary trip, our schedules didn’t allow us enough time off together to make that happen, so when my friend Sonia Lee suggested the Buckhorn Inn, I checked it out online and I booked three days here. I’m SO glad I did. It’s amazing, beautiful, peaceful, romantic, charming and the perfect place to celebrate together. I am sitting in front of a beautiful fire, while Mike plays guitar on the couch. As a little girl, I used to dream of marrying a wonderful guy who would serenade me on the guitar each night. I finally got it right. Yep, I finally married the right one. He loves me. He loves our kids…. And he loves Ellie, our lab, puts up with Miles, our jerk of a cat, and has even grown fond of Django, our yorkie. He’s pretty perfect. I’m a lucky girl.

Today we drove up the mountain to Clingmans’ Dome. Unfortunately, it was closed because of too much snow and ice. We still enjoyed the drive. We ended up at Cherokee, NC on the other side of the mountain and found a Harrah’s casino there!! Of course we HAD to stop in there for a couple of hours. I mean, really, could this vacation be any more perfect?!?!?

It is supposed to snow tonight. I hope it does. I love snow. That would be perfect on our last day here. Then it’s back to Nashville and reality. Not that reality is bad. Our reality is wonderful, actually. It’s just fun to pretend sometimes too. :-) So today I’m pretending that I live in this little cottage on the mountain and I don’t have a care in the world. Nice, huh?

This pic doesn't do it justice...

....but the view we woke up to this morning from our cabin window was
gorgeous!! I'm telling ya', if you need a little get-away, check out
the Buckhorn Inn online. It's the bomb!!!!

Derek and I on the Opry together....

.....Last night was the first time that my son, Derek and I both played the Grand Old Opry on the same night. It was really special! Derek was filling in for Danielle Peck's guitar player (he normally plays for Josh Turner), and I was with Patty Loveless. Pretty cool, huh? Here are some pics that my friend Ginny took... thanks Ginny!!

More pics later... i'm leaving now for Gatlinburg with my hubby... Yay!!

By the way... Go Titans! Beat those Jets today!!

Sam and I went to the mall...

....and immediately regretted our decision. It didn't look like we
are in the midst of an economic crisis by THESE crowds!!

Saying good-bye to our sweet bus....

....and our great bus driver D.T. at 2:30 am in Lenior, NC. The new
bus arrived to get us and take us home to Nashville. Our bus got
"sick" while we were there and couldn't make the journey home
tonight. Transferring everyone and everything off one bus and onto
another in 20 degree weather in the middle of the night is not fun.
But at least we are heading back home now.

Opry tomorrow night. Better go get some rest.

When you can't find a table backstage....

.....you improvise.

Testing pics.....

Testing 123.....

Ok. Sitting in hotel. Bored. Learning how to mobile blog. Is it
working?

God and My Girlfriends

Every Tues. morning I gather with an amazing bunch of women for a weekly bible study. I really look forward to it, as I haven't been able to go to church much lately (because of traveling every weekend). A few weeks ago, I had a writing appointment with two of my favorite co-writers, Lisa Hentrich and Patricia Conroy right after my bible study. I was running a bit late, so I rushed into the writing room to find Lisa and Pcon waiting for me. Actually, Lisa was laying on the couch because she was 8 months pregnant and could hardly get around anymore... poor thing!! (I remember that feeling!!) I said, "I'm SO sorry, I'm late, but my women's group went over a bit and I love it so much I couldn't make myself leave early." I was telling them about the awesome women in the group, when Pcon says, "Hey, guess what title I brought in for us to possibly write today? God and My Girlfriends!" Of course Lisa and I jumped on it, and it was a quick and easy write..... we were all inspired, thinking of how much our friends mean to us. Of course, we all love our MEN, but sometimes you just need some girl time, ya know??

After we recorded the song, I sent it out to my girls in the Tues. morning bible study so they could hear it too. Well, this past Tuesday, one of the ladies, Teddy Cox gave me the most amazing gift!! She hand wrote the lyrics to "God and My Girlfriends" in the middle of a music staff, then had it framed for me!! She also added some of her favorite bible verses! I was SO touched.... She told me that the song had touched her and this was her way of letting me know!

As a struggling songwriter, it's little things like this that mean SO much. We all need to believe that what we are doing with our lives matters. No matter WHAT we are doing in this life, we want to feel like it's for a REASON. Songwriters have so much rejection.... we write and write and write and most of the time no one even hears the songs we write. If we are really lucky, we might get a song cut and then it has a chance to be heard. But so many of our creations just seem to go into some black hole and never see the light of day. So thanks, Teddy!! Lisa, Patricia and I are so happy that our song made you smile.... and thanks for the beautiful gift!!

Date with Dad

My dad turned 85 this year, but he STILL can hit the town with some hot chicks!! LOL Kim, Britt and I escorted Daddy to the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at The Grand Old Opry this past Friday afternoon. It was a really beautiful show and put us all in the holiday mood!!

Purple Cows

I wanna be purple..... http://tinyurl.com/5h3htc

I saw this link on Paster Pete's tweet today and loved it.

Dare to be different.
If you're not remarkable, you're invisible.

Disrupt your routine.
Change of pace + change of place = change of perspective.

Don't be afraid to offend some Pharisees.
Cause some confusion.

.... and as a wise man said to me this week via email..... "Don't be afraid to let people know what side of the fence you are on."

Yes, i wanna be purple. A great big purple cow. :-)

Kylie Harris

My good friend Kylie Harris had a birthday party last night...... I was glad to be there to help her celebrate her amazing year. She has made a brilliant cd that will be released soon. Trust me, go get it AS SOON AS YOU CAN!! She and her husband/producer/co-writer Marco Giovino have really done some amazing work together on this project. Also, if you get a chance to catch them playing live, you HAVE to go! It's awesome.... and different than anything I've ever seen. Yes, I love them as friends, but i'm also a fan!

Oh! Also, go check out Kylie's video for her first single, "Drive" off her soon-to-be-released cd.... it's on Youtube.com.... here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXIhBYDJFJs

I hope that link works... you can also just type in "Kylie Harris" and you'll find it. Kylie did the video by herself! It's BRILLIANT!!!!

Happy Birthday sweet Kylie!!

Annapolis, MD

Pictures from our little walk around Annapolis, MD today before sound check at Rams Head. I fell in love with this town!!! SO gorgeous!

We ate at a little deli down by the water... it was crowded, but way cool.....

Better go get showered and ready for the shows!!

Not there yet.

Waking up as we are passing through Richmond, VA. Sitting in the front lounge having coffee with Pete and checking our emails. Everyone else is still sleeping in their bunks. I think they stayed up late watching "Spinal Tap". :-)

I love mornings on the bus. It's quiet. The foliage is beautiful up here and I have Pumpkin Spice creamer for my coffee..... It's a good morning.

Heading to Annapolis, MD.....Rams Head. Two shows today....... with a LONG drive home tomorrow.

....I promise, we were SOBER!!!!!!

We got bored on our trip up to Prestonsburg and to pass the time we started talking about our favorite Patty Loveless songs. So we started singing them in the car. Kaci stops and says, "Hey guys. Have you ever tried singing a song that is orginally in a MAJOR key and changing it to a MINOR key.....?? It's pretty fun!" SO.... here is our attempt. It's bad. REALLY bad. Sorry Patty!!!!!!! :-)

Ice Cream and WigWams!!

So my friends, Kaci and Tammie went with me to Prestonsburg, KY this weekend for a PL gig. As we were driving home today, Kaci got a hankerin' for some Dairy Queen, so we stopped at a gas station and asked the attendent if there might possibily be a DQ near by. "Sure!" she says. "Just go over the bridge that crosses over the interstate, then go until you see the 5th light, turn right go a few miles down that road and then you'll see the it on your right." Doesn't sound too bad, so we go for it. As we are wandering down a road that looks like it's leading to nowhere, Tammie says, "Maybe I better turn around". I ask Kaci, "So how bad do you want DQ?"... she says, "BAD!"... ok, so no turning around until we find her DQ Ice Cream!!! We turn right. Head down another long road. Suddenly Tammie says, "Look! Sleep in a WigWam!!".... sure 'nuff. There it was. We couldn't just DRIVE BY without stopping!! We HAD to check it out. I told Kaci that it might be a good place for a writer's retreat. Kaci said, "Sure. Everyone would be in their numbered WigWam and then everyday you would draw numbers out of a hat. Today WigWam #9 will write with WigWam #4, and so on..... then at night we could build a big bon fire in the middle and have a guitar pull!!" It might work......



DQ was just another mile down the road.. success!! Our little detour got us into Nashville a little later than planned, but it was worth it! Ice Cream and WigWams!!