A new "Sam" in our world....

I have been reading Pastor Pete's blogging from India....



I have been moved to tears.... but this particular quote KILLED me....

“Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it.”

“Well, why don’t you ask Him?”

“Because I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.”

So.... that's when i went here:

.....and sponsored a child today!! His name is Samraj --- he is the same age as MY Sam and when I saw his picture I just KNEW God was calling me to help this little guy out!!

Please consider looking at Compassion's site! Maybe you will feel led to sponsor a child as I did!!

Mission Trip to India....

I'm so proud of our Pastor Pete Wilson. He's on a mission trip to India right now and he's blogging about it! Amazing stories!! His site is www.withoutwax.tv or just click on the banner below. Check it out!!

Having an authentic Mexican breakfast in New Braunfels with family.

Cousin Jennifer, Aunt Rosie, Uncle Henry and little Allie!

Morning at my sister's.....

Up early this morning to get the girls off to school. I hated saying good-bye to them so soon!! I JUST GOT HERE!! Drat...

Emily, Hannah (holding Wyatt) and Elizabeth!!










....and my sister, Lisa holding Wyatt. She gets "Mom of the Year!"

Meeting my nephews.....

I've been down in Texas visiting family for the last couple of days... here are my two newest family members down in Texas.... Mr. Sean Leonard (my sister Laura's little boy) he just turned one yr. old in March. AND Mr. Wyatt Hancock (my sister Lisa's little boy) who was one WEEK old today!! I am one lucky Aunt!! I have such beautiful niece's and nephews!! I'll get pics of my girls tomorrow!!

Is eating lunch with some mighty big fish!!

My niece in her "zebra" jammies!!!

They said he weighs about 2000 lbs.!!!

Bevo, the UT mascot came to our show!!! :-)

This was the RIGHT call for lunch today!!

Houston!!!

My morning view from the front lounge of the bus

Our trusty bus driver says we are in Lake Charles, LA. So I'm assuming this picture is Lake Charles....??? Anyway, we are still 3 hrs. or so from Houston, so I'm up making coffee. Of course, as soon as the coffee smell hit the bunk area, it woke up Pete, Martin and Tom. So now they have joined me for coffee and conversation this early Sat. morning. Usually Garry is up early with me, but if you see the post below, you'll know that Garry MIGHT be sleeping "it" off today!! ha!!

My bunk is calling me....

Can you hear it? Can you hear it? "Marcia, i'm waiting for you! Come get some sleep!"......

Usually I wait to lose my mind on the way HOME from a gig, not on the way there. This is NOT a good sign.

Someone's getting a little tipsy already!!!

Looks like someone wants to go with me to TX!!

Someone is being a CHAIR HOG tonight......

Crosspoint Dickson is SO cool!! :-)

Putting in the FREE carpet at the new studio!

He's finally feeling better......

.....Django's been sickly. Wouldn't eat or drink and had me really
worried!
But he seems to have snapped out of it as suddenly as it hit him! I
guess dogs can get little viruses too, huh?

Moving the studio...... and embracing a new season.

We've had a studio in our house for a few years now. It was great for awhile. We could work from our home while the kids were too young to be left alone. My last CD, "Life Goes On" was recorded during many late night sessions while kids were sleeping just a few rooms away. It was awesome to have it right at our fingertips at anytime to use. But recently, we realized that it was time for a change.

One thing I am becoming increasingly aware of is that we have "seasons" in our lives. The season for having the studio in our house has passed. Now the kids are older. They have friends coming and going more often, which is great, but also makes for alot more noise around here, which isn't good for recording. We also now have two dogs, who both love to bark randomly at all hours of the day and night. Again, not good for recording. The "Music City Star" started it's daily transportation which added to the train traffic, and since we live right beside the train tracks.... well, you know what I'm about to say. Although I actually love the sound of the trains, I don't LOVE it in the background of my vocal track. We have planes going overhead (we live near the airport), boats going down the river (we live on the Cumberland River too) and cars driving by. Even though we have some sound-proofing, it's still hard to block out all the noise. There are just too many distractions around here, and that combined with needing more room in the house to LIVE in made us decide to move on downtown. My son, Derek found a great little place for us to all share. Derek, his friend Snake, Mike and I are all going in together on a little room down on 17th Ave. Look out Music Row!! Here we come!!

I'm sure we will miss having the studio here sometimes, but our needs have changed here at the house. We need the room for other things now. I think it's going to be good for us all to have a new adventure before us.... starting our own business and watching what God has in store for us in this new season of our lives. It all fell into place VERY quickly, almost as if God was just waiting for us to figure it out and once we did, it was just super easy because He already had done all the groundwork for us!!

Personally, I feel like I'm definitely at a big crossroads in my life. I feel myself entering into an entirely new season, but I'm not sure what it is yet!! I just know that I'm restless and discontent lately, which usually means that God is nudging me in a new direction. He's trying to push me into a better place, but right now I feel too blind to see what is probably right in front of me. I did make a pretty big change yesterday. You all will find out about that soon..... I'm not ready to disclose it yet, but I'm stepping out in faith, hoping that as I "prune" some things out of my life that I don't think are good for me anymore, God will fill those empty spaces with better things for me. Things that will bring glory to Him. That is my hope, and my prayer......

HE IS RISEN!!!

Jesus died for our sins, then ROSE AGAIN......pretty cool, huh?

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!!

Check out our room!!!!

Deanie's getting frisky with what appears to be some kind of furry
thing on our bed!!!

Sat. April 11th, 2009

I love mornings on our bus. I'm almost always the first one awake, so I start a pot of coffee and enjoy the quiet of the front lounge for awhile. Soon, the aroma of the coffee makes it's way back to the bunk area and one by one, sleepy band/crew members starting appearing. Wincing from the sudden light in their eyes and with their "bunk hair" in full form, they stumble into the front lounge and usually the first words they manage to squeak out is the question, "Where are we?". This morning, that answer would be "Somewhere in Alabama".......

We are on our way to Mississippi to perform at Harlow's Casino. I was supposed to "open" the show, and was very excited about that. However, when I got to the bus last night, it appears that there has been a communication issue... There is another opening act listed instead of me.... boo!! I'm bummed. I was supposed to open the show last week in Minneapolis, but that show got cancelled. I'm not having much luck in the "opening" slot position so far. Oh well.... maybe next time. I guess that just means I have more time to play the slots!! ha!!

On another note.... most of you have probably heard that Murfreesboro, TN was hit by terrible tornados yesterday. Murfreesboro is just outside of Nashville..... Here is a picture of a group of wonderful folks from my church who are heading out this morning to help with tornado relief. It was posted by Jenni Catron.....

http://twitpic.com/35ety

Prayers going up for everyone who is dealing with so much loss this morning, and for those who are out there doing the hard work of cleaning up the damage. And as I sit here on my comfy little tour bus typing this, I am reminded how BLESSED I am. Totally blessed.

More later ya'll.....

I'm SO blessed!!

We'll be back on our cozy bus tonight, heading for Greenville, MS and HARLOW'S CASINO! I'm extra excited because I just found out that I get to do a few of my own songs to open the show there!! Yippee!! This is going to be a FUN gig.... hanging with some of my favorite musicians in the world, playing a few slots, opening the show, then performing with the AMAZING Patty Loveless. I'm SO blessed!!

She's wearing a dress made out of WHAT?!?!?!?

Britt Savage and Twange Deluxe
Playing at 12th and Porter on April 15th, 2009
Since that is TAX DAY,
Britt will be performing in a dress she made COMPLETELY out of IRS forms!! Seriously!!
You gotta see it to believe it!! She's the bomb!!!

(Photos by Senor McGuire)

Making a change on "Facebook"....

Changes are hard sometimes. But I’m going to have to make a change concerning my Facebook and I hope everyone understands……

I love people. ALL people!! That’s probably why I have so many “networking” pages on the internet, because I love staying in touch with family and friends. I also love hearing from fans!! It warms my heart to hear that my music has touched someone, so I love having a way for anyone to get in touch with me concerning my music. However, recently I’ve had some issues with the privacy of some family members on my Facebook, so I am closing my “friend” list down to ONLY family and close friends.

I STILL have four different “open” forums for anyone to stay in touch with me…. They are:

www.marciaramirez.com

www.myspace.com/marciaramirez

www.marciaramirez.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/marciaramirez


Just because I choose to live my life out in the open, doesn’t mean that everyone I love wants to have THEIR lives on public display. I want to respect that. So my Facebook will be kept “private” for now.

Thank you guys for understanding my need for this change!

Hugs,
Marcia

Finally home.....

Just so you know, we have arrived safely in Nashville after our marathon trip to North Dakota and back! Yes, we all stink. Showers for all asap!!

Next week... Greenville, MS.. and Harlow's Casino!

I told you we were all going a little nuts..,,

Meanwhile, in an Illinois Cracker Barrell, Deanie has a complete meltdown and thinks she is there for a gardening convention.

Sitting in the jump seat....

Watching the rain heading towards us...... it's actually pretty peaceful right now. Everyone is quiet on the bus, either watching movies or sleeping. Or blogging. :-)

Somewhere in Wisconsin....

From the wings....

....during "My Old Friend The Blues". This songs slays me!

Matt, Deanie, & Garry waiting to soundcheck!

when there's a POLAR bear in the swimming pool.....

.......that's when you KNOW you're WAY up north!!!!

We definitely are NOT in Nashville anymore! Brrrrrr!

Long, long bus ride.....

So we left Nashville at 2:00am this morning. We had a pretty relaxing day and a wonderful dinner at an Outback in Sioux Falls, SD. However, it's 9:30pm and we STILL have 5 1/2 hrs. to travel, so I'm going to hit my bunk and hopefully sleep the rest of the way. Nite!

Uh-oh!! It's starting already.....

..... This is how SOME folks get through a 22 hr. bus ride!!! :-)

Coffee, laptop, good friends....what more do I need?

Bus call....2:00am! WH--aaaaaT?!?!

thankfully they had the bus parked early so we could get on anytime
before 2am.... Unfortunately I've now been on the bus for three hours
and we still haven't left the Kroger parking lot!!!......and we have a
22 hr. bus ride ahead of us! Uh-oh!

Sam's first drum lesson.....

.....we are officially on our way to being "The Partridge Family- a
new generation". :-)