- It's Thursday, my very favorite day. A day without a car, allowing me to be home ALL DAY!
- Clearly Vocal is going to Denver!!! We were officially invited to compete in the Rocky Mountain Harmony Sweepstakes coming up on March 13. We need groupies! Click here for tickets. You can also find a link from our CV website. They sell out every year! Here's the link to the competition info.
- Tomorrow, John and I are flying out to Los Angeles to represent Clearly Vocal at the Los Angeles A Cappella Festival on Saturday! We look forward to reconnecting with people that we met at SoJam and keeping our name out there! Don't worry Glenwood peeps; we'll be back for church Sunday morning. We're taking the midnight flight out of LA, so go easy on us if we look a little bleary-eyed!
- I'm making good progress on getting rid of the Christmas around my hips using the Lose It! app. FYI, Christmas weighed about 10 pounds this year! Ouch!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Just so excited
Here's why:
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thoughts and Updates
Not thinking particularly linearly today.
Peder Karlsson is amazing. He's the baritone from The Real Group, and we (Clearly Vocal) had an hour and a half webcam workshop with him this morning. We got out of our comfort zone. He gave us some great exercises that will apply to our entire repertoire. He said we were good! He was very impressed with the technical side of the workshop; said it was the best audio/visual he had ever seen/heard when doing one of these webcam workshops! Big thanks to John who set it all up and to Andy Luster who helped with that. We "found the floor and ceiling" in dynamics and nasal vs. covered sounds. Sang our most beautiful, quiet song loud and ugly and learned that some of that technique can and should be carried over into the softer version! We felt the groove and he wouldn't let us continue a song until we all felt it together. We sang our original song, Pulse, and he liked it! He doesn't like competitions or American contemporary a cappella staging. Good. Neither do we! He said to be who we are, sing what we want and how we want to sing it, and we will feel the most rewarded. What a great morning.
The weather is absolutely amazing today. Have been so ready for this for what seems like a long time.
Cut back on the running, sort of. Instead of 6 or so miles 3x per week, went to 3 miles M-F. Found Thursday to be the hardest day this week. Not used to running every day. Wanted to be able to be done running by the time the kids woke up. Not willing to get up before 6! The stars have been amazing these past couple of clear mornings. And the God whose hands created the stars did not spare his son for me? I scarce can take it in!
Bison will be 8 tomorrow. He's so fat.
Group Therapy played at KE Cellars for a great crowd last night! Sang Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" for the first time. One of the country songs we've worked up to be ready to go back out to Ben Wheeler tomorrow night. It was a little too fun to sing. :)
So yeah, we play out at Moore's Store tomorrow night from 7-10, $5 cover, for those who are coming. Clearly Vocal will do a 30 min set beginning at 8. Very much looking forward to putting into practice what we learned with Peder today!
The Rocky Mountain Harmony Sweepstakes selection committee meets tomorrow morning to decide which groups will be competing in Denver in March. We sent in our audition, so hopefully we'll know something in the next few days. I'm only a little nervous!
Clearly Vocal is also doing singing telegrams for Valentine's again this year! You can actually order and pay for them online! Head on over to our website for more details.
OH. Have you seen our new website? If you haven't you've GOT to go see it. It's way cool, if I do say so myself.
We're heavily planning for this year's ladies retreat! It's a silent retreat and my Aunt Karla (Dr. Karla Hale Gerdes, Ph.D.) is going to be our guest speaker! It's the weekend after tax weekend, for you planners, and info will be posted at church soon!
We still have three children, I think. Johnathan, Kalleigh, and ... um ... right, Jonas. We are blessed to have wonderful babysitters to take care of them while we're out singing. We also try to schedule our gigs on bath nights. It's been a while since I've given my children baths. I have a night with all three of them to myself while John has a dinner meeting to run, so I think we'll try to do something fun. I don't know, make a memory or something. Ideas?
Johnathan has been playing Upwards basketball. The first game was ... oh my. The second game was much better! He's a great defensive playing, even while on offense. ;) And I most certainly did not promise him a toy from the dollar store for every basket he scored. (We got a toy!) Game tomorrow at 9! Go Zips!
I feel I'm on the verge of something big. Maybe nothing. Maybe something. I'll keep you posted. Ever get those feelings?
No, not THAT big. I'm not pregnant, and I don't plan on being so any time soon. Probably ever.
Good afternoon world. If you've had a day half as amazing as mine, you've had a great day!
Peder Karlsson is amazing. He's the baritone from The Real Group, and we (Clearly Vocal) had an hour and a half webcam workshop with him this morning. We got out of our comfort zone. He gave us some great exercises that will apply to our entire repertoire. He said we were good! He was very impressed with the technical side of the workshop; said it was the best audio/visual he had ever seen/heard when doing one of these webcam workshops! Big thanks to John who set it all up and to Andy Luster who helped with that. We "found the floor and ceiling" in dynamics and nasal vs. covered sounds. Sang our most beautiful, quiet song loud and ugly and learned that some of that technique can and should be carried over into the softer version! We felt the groove and he wouldn't let us continue a song until we all felt it together. We sang our original song, Pulse, and he liked it! He doesn't like competitions or American contemporary a cappella staging. Good. Neither do we! He said to be who we are, sing what we want and how we want to sing it, and we will feel the most rewarded. What a great morning.
The weather is absolutely amazing today. Have been so ready for this for what seems like a long time.
Cut back on the running, sort of. Instead of 6 or so miles 3x per week, went to 3 miles M-F. Found Thursday to be the hardest day this week. Not used to running every day. Wanted to be able to be done running by the time the kids woke up. Not willing to get up before 6! The stars have been amazing these past couple of clear mornings. And the God whose hands created the stars did not spare his son for me? I scarce can take it in!
Bison will be 8 tomorrow. He's so fat.
Group Therapy played at KE Cellars for a great crowd last night! Sang Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" for the first time. One of the country songs we've worked up to be ready to go back out to Ben Wheeler tomorrow night. It was a little too fun to sing. :)
So yeah, we play out at Moore's Store tomorrow night from 7-10, $5 cover, for those who are coming. Clearly Vocal will do a 30 min set beginning at 8. Very much looking forward to putting into practice what we learned with Peder today!
The Rocky Mountain Harmony Sweepstakes selection committee meets tomorrow morning to decide which groups will be competing in Denver in March. We sent in our audition, so hopefully we'll know something in the next few days. I'm only a little nervous!
Clearly Vocal is also doing singing telegrams for Valentine's again this year! You can actually order and pay for them online! Head on over to our website for more details.
OH. Have you seen our new website? If you haven't you've GOT to go see it. It's way cool, if I do say so myself.
We're heavily planning for this year's ladies retreat! It's a silent retreat and my Aunt Karla (Dr. Karla Hale Gerdes, Ph.D.) is going to be our guest speaker! It's the weekend after tax weekend, for you planners, and info will be posted at church soon!
We still have three children, I think. Johnathan, Kalleigh, and ... um ... right, Jonas. We are blessed to have wonderful babysitters to take care of them while we're out singing. We also try to schedule our gigs on bath nights. It's been a while since I've given my children baths. I have a night with all three of them to myself while John has a dinner meeting to run, so I think we'll try to do something fun. I don't know, make a memory or something. Ideas?
Johnathan has been playing Upwards basketball. The first game was ... oh my. The second game was much better! He's a great defensive playing, even while on offense. ;) And I most certainly did not promise him a toy from the dollar store for every basket he scored. (We got a toy!) Game tomorrow at 9! Go Zips!
I feel I'm on the verge of something big. Maybe nothing. Maybe something. I'll keep you posted. Ever get those feelings?
No, not THAT big. I'm not pregnant, and I don't plan on being so any time soon. Probably ever.
Good afternoon world. If you've had a day half as amazing as mine, you've had a great day!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Jonas's "S" words
I think it's pretty common for toddlers to have trouble with their "S" sound at the beginning of words, but Jonas has taken this to a level I've never experienced. He's putting the beginning "S" sounds at the end of the words! I've already mentioned "oosh," for shoes in my recent "Jonas Words" post, but my other two favorites are "poose" (spoon) and "weese" (swing). Illyse boy. :)
Friday, January 01, 2010
Christmas and 2009 Wrap-Up
Christmas was so special this year. We started off in Searcy where we stayed with Mom and got to see John's mother as well. Santa, a.k.a. Craig Jones, also visited the house and delivered presents to everyone!
Christmas morning marked the one-year anniversary of Papaw Curtis's death, so we went out to his grave and sang some of his favorite songs. We didn't stay long, since it was about 29 degrees, but I think he would understand that!
Mom cooked and cooked while we were there, so naturally, we ate and ate! Christmas only comes once a year, right? ;)
We headed to Dallas next where we did Christmas with the Kell family. Monday night was especially meaningful as we lit the traditional lantern and welcomed Keleigh and Westin into the family.
Karla cooked and cooked while we were there, so naturally, we ate and ate! Christmas only comes once a year, right? Wait ... did I just say that? Okay, maybe twice. :)
I am really enjoying these days at home since all of the festivities. We're doing a fair amount of playing and resting, and not much else!
2009 has been so good in many ways. Here's a photo journey through the year:
Christmas morning marked the one-year anniversary of Papaw Curtis's death, so we went out to his grave and sang some of his favorite songs. We didn't stay long, since it was about 29 degrees, but I think he would understand that!
Mom cooked and cooked while we were there, so naturally, we ate and ate! Christmas only comes once a year, right? ;)
We headed to Dallas next where we did Christmas with the Kell family. Monday night was especially meaningful as we lit the traditional lantern and welcomed Keleigh and Westin into the family.
Karla cooked and cooked while we were there, so naturally, we ate and ate! Christmas only comes once a year, right? Wait ... did I just say that? Okay, maybe twice. :)
I am really enjoying these days at home since all of the festivities. We're doing a fair amount of playing and resting, and not much else!
2009 has been so good in many ways. Here's a photo journey through the year:
January -- Kalleigh
February -- Ladies Retreat
March -- The nasty hole in our yard that was a lot bigger deal than we thought!
April -- Easter
May -- Meeting nephew Westin!
June -- Father's Day
July -- The addition of Benson to the family
August -- School days!
September -- Family Vacation to Galveston
October -- 1/2 Marathon
November -- Clearly Vocal "discovered" at SoJam
December -- The year of the flooded roads! What should've taken 5 1/2 hours to get to Searcy took 7 1/2!
What to expect in 2010? Lots of singing, for sure! Clearly Vocal just entered the Rocky Mountain Harmony Sweepstakes in Denver, March 13! Johnathan will have his Kindergarten graduation, the kids will turn 2, 4 & 6, and John and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary!
And I will do my very best NOT to get pregnant.
Many blessings to you all for 2010!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)