What A Difference A Year Can Make!!

It was a year ago today that I started leading an entire worship set at Life.Church.

At the time, I had been doing background vocals and leading a song here and there for a little over a year and a half, but to lead the entire worship set was a totally different ballgame! Singing comes natural, but leading and talking needed some time to developed! I.was.so.nervous!

Let's stay on that thought for a moment...I think being nervous is a good thing, maybe not in the moment, but it means we are out of our comfort zone. We are being stretched and we are growing. And that is EXACTLY what has been happening this past year. It is crazy to think where I was a year ago and where I am now. And I'm still learning every day! I think the biggest area where I have seen myself let go of control and depend on God is talking between songs and leading during songs. If I'm being totally transparent, I used to think through and write down word for word what I planned to say between songs. I rehearsed it over and over until what I was saying didn't sound rehearsed, but sounded authentic. I still think it was authentic, just thought out ahead of time. I finally had to surrender that to God and just allow Him to use me in the moment. I still think about what I want to say and the message I'm trying to get across, but I'm also open and willing to say whatever God puts on my heart, even if it's in the moment and totally not rehearsed. It's honestly so much less stressful when you give God the control and trust that he will provide in the moment because you are willing and open to work for Him. That is a lesson that I have had to learn multiple times in several areas of my life!

I absolutely LOVE my role on the worship team! As many of you have read before, I quit teaching so I could continue to do this every weekend. Well, I quit teaching so I could be the best version of me as a mom to my sweet little boy, but it also allowed me to continue leading worship and doing what I love.

Thank you to the BA band for supporting me as I continue to grow in this position! You all make Sundays one of the best days of the week!!

SPRING BREAK!

I had one of the best breaks and we really had nothing planned. I got to sleep in (I woke up every day around 7, but that is totally sleeping in when you are used to getting up in the 5 o'clock hour), see lots of friends, clean my house, make dinners, relax, etc. I just did exactly what I wanted to do!

Here are some of the highlights!

• The biggest thing that we did over spring break was work on the crib. Okay, I really didn't contribute much at all, but my hubby is working his tail end off to get this beautiful crib built. Here is a sneak peak...I will post more pics when it is complete. 

It is seriously BEAUTIFUL!! I cannot wait to share it all! I also can't wait for sweet baby m to sleep in it! What a treasured item that we will have forever! 

• I did lots of shopping! This baby bump is getting bigger and bigger every day, so I did some shopping for some clothes that will hopefully get me through the school year. I even bought a pair of maternity pants and maternity shorts. I honestly felt defeated walking in that store, but once I tried them on, they were so much more comfortable than what I was working with, so I knew it was time to buy them. 

Here was my snapchat the other day! This baby thing is getting serious! 

I got to hang out with this sweet face!

Haircut day!! He is seriously a new pup when he gets a haircut!

I think he was sad on Monday when I had to go back to work.

• I did some crafting. We bought new curtains at IKEA just the other week when we made our random trip to Kansas City and our curtain rods were just not the right color. 

BEFORE: It's hard to tell because of the sun light, but they are a light silver color.

I used a deglosser and then spray painted them Burnished Amber

AFTER: Again, kind of hard to tell, but they are now a dark bronze color. 

• On my shopping adventures I couldn't help myself and I stopped by some baby stores...I even had some self control and I didn't buy a thing...but look at these cute things!

These might be beneficial for church :)

Look at that adorable hat and those boots! They also had the boots in pink in case it's a girl! :) I think my future sister-in-law is making baby m something like this, so I held off on purchasing these, because I'm sure whatever she whips up will be so adorable!

• We went on LOTS of walks!! Seriously, our pups were spoiled over Spring Break. The weather was AMAZING and we took full advantage of it! I can't wait for the weather to stay beautiful!

• Our last adventure was on Saturday. Trevor worked quite a bit over Spring Break, whether it was on the new business (I'll save that for another blog), working on the crib, or at his normal job. So, on Saturday we had a fun date day. I have been talking about wanting to go to The Purple Glaze on Brookside so we could get crafty, and Trevor must have remembered me talking about it because he definitely surprised me. 

I made a dog bowl for Winston. Hopefully this will be his new food bowl and Trevor made a mug with his new business logo on it. Once they are fired they will actually look a lot different. We don't get to pick them up until Thursday, so I will post an update then! :)

• I also sang at church both weekends. I seriously LOVE getting to do this every weekend! It is such an uplifting place to be and I have made some amazing friendships over the last couple years. If you are looking for some place to attend church this weekend for Easter Sunday, I would LOVE for you to join us at LifeChurch in BA!

• I mentioned awhile back that my amazing g-phi friends bought me a subscription to Le Tote for maternity clothes while I am on this fun adventure where my clothes don't fit. Well, I am officially large enough that some of my clothes aren't fitting...seeing as I mentioned earlier having to buy maternity pants! Well, I got signed up and my first box was delivered! Look at this cute dress...

Please ignore the unmade bed and Whiskey laying in the background! :)

 It actually makes getting dressed in the morning fun! Since Spring Break is over, I've got to have something to look forward to! :)

Well, that was my Spring Break in a nutshell! I told you it was not that exciting, but I definitely enjoyed it!

What a Weekend!

This weekend was truly amazing! It's been stressing me out for a few weeks, but once it finally got here, well, everyone is still alive, so I guess it all went okay!! First up was Friday night. On Thursday we were given free tickets to go to an event called Tulsa Wine and Roses. We initially were planning to do nothing Friday night because Saturday was such a big day, but we couldn't turn down free tickets. The event was at the Tulsa Garden Center by Woodward Park and there were about 40 different food/distributors around the Tulsa area and it was amazing!!! Seriously, we ate so much food! My favorite food was from Tallgrass Prairie Table and my favorite dessert was from Nothing Bundt Cakes. We went back for seconds! If you have not tried this place...holy cow! It was amazing! 

That night we went home and got straight in bed for our busy busy Saturday!! Saturday we woke up around 5:30, stretched, got dressed, and headed downtown for Race for the Cure. The race started at 7:30. I have been doing the couch to 5k app since the first week in August and Trevor had just run a handful of times with me the last few weeks. My only goals were to run the entire time and to beat my past times and I succeeded on both, so I sure was happy!

Trevor's time was amazing! He did it in about 28 minutes and I was a little under 35 minutes. Yes, I am well aware that I run at the pace of a turtle. 🐢

After the race we headed home to shower and get ready for the day and we went to breakfast with Trevor's mom and step-dad. We went to Cafe Savannah's at Forest Ridge. If you have not been there, I highly suggest it. We have been there twice for breakfast and you get an abundant amount of food and it's really inexpensive and delicious! Anyway, we went to breakfast and then headed to Trevor's dad's to celebrate his birthday. I wasn't able to stay but an hour or so because I was asked to lead worship on Saturday night. I.was.super.nervous!! To be completely honest, I almost backed out on running the 5k because I put a lot of pressure on myself to make everything perfect, but Trevor made me stick to my goal of running...so I just did it all! So, I hung out at Trevor's dad's for a bit and then headed to the church. I had such an amazing time leading! I was definitely nervous, but I just continued to pray that God would give me the words to speak. And HE IS FAITHFUL! Everything went really smooth, better than I ever could have dreamed! Plus, I literally had the best, most encouraging, talented band/music techs up on stage with me! It almost brought tears to my eyes how gracious they were to me! Thank you all for making my first time leading such an amazing experience! 

Trevor and my amazing, supportive lifegroup came to the 6:30 service and Trevor got a couple pictures! 

After church we all went to dinner together at Charleston's. I seriously have the best friends! I can't imagine my life without this amazing lifegroup!

We went to bed super early Saturday night because I had church again this morning and Trevor went to help his dad with hay bales. I was also soooo excited because my best friend, Nichole and her boyfriend, Stephen got to come to the 11:30 service. Although I didn't get to hang out with them for very long, it was so sweet of them to make the time to come and see me and talk to me for 30 minutes after the service before the next service started. She even took this sweet picture!

Seriously, WHAT AN AMAZING WEEKEND! I think Trevor and I are going to have a relaxing evening at home tonight! Netflix is calling my name, so is pizza! 🍕🍕

Time Flies!!

I was on Facebook yesterday and I realized that Silver Dollar City's last day of the season was yesterday. It seems absolutely crazy that my last day there was already 2 years ago! I had such an awesome experience there and absolutely loved every person I worked with. I still keep in touch with many of them and consider them all great friends!! It was so much fun getting to do what you LOVE for a living! Not that I don't love and enjoy teaching, but performing is just an absolute blast!

Here are some pictures of my amazing experiences there:

Here is a throw back video to when I was performing there:

http://youtu.be/4E5nwYCTMKE

I hope you all have a great Christmas Season!!

Theatre Kids

As I begin this post, I really have to stretch back and give you a little history. Some of you know, but most of you probably don't know that I used to sing in a group in elementary through high school. The group consisted of 4 girls and we traveled around Oklahoma and the surrounding states and performed every weekend...one weekend we performed in 7 different cities in 2 days doing 1-2 hour shows at each place! Needless to say, I was a performer growing up and it CONSUMED my life! (Maybe I'll blog about all that one day with photos! haha!) At one point we had a personal choreographer that choreographed all of our songs. Her name is Kathy Grufik and we have somewhat stayed in touch through the years. Her husband is head of the entertainment at Mayfest, so I always talk to them around that time when I perform there. I was so excited when they were able to make it to mine and Trevor's wedding. And most recently, back in March, Kathy asked me to teach a vocal music/musical theater class at the camp that she has been in charge of for years. So for the past 2 weeks, that's what I've been up to!

The camp is located at Henthorne Performing Arts Center (It's what used to be Clark Theater and Heller Theater, but they are now combined). I had SO much fun being able to teach in a more creative way (math isn't always exciting and not all my students are like these crazy theater kids!) Speaking of theater kids...they haven't changed a bit since I was in school. I definitely would not consider myself a theater kid-I didn't exactly hang out with that group in school but I was always friends with them. And I definitely was not as outgoing as the majority of them! (For the most part I did so much performing outside of school that the last thing I wanted to do in school was sing, but my senior year I decided I wanted to be in show choir, so I became well acquainted with all the "theatre kids" that year!)
Here are a few ways to describe theater kids: they sing everywhere they go-loudly, they all LOVE to be the center of attention (duh! spotlight/stage), they are dramatic over any situation, they are usually wearing shirts to advertise their next production, they have an abnormal amount of inside jokes with other theatre kids, they spell theater-theatre, they are obsessed with a LOT of musicals, they are at school at odd times-late at night, early in the morning, weekends, they have no sense of awkward boundaries around other theatre kids, and they just LOVE to perform...do you know any or are you one yourself??? Anyway, they are so much fun to work with and I'm going to miss each and every one! Luckily, a couple of them will be joining me at Union 6th next year and I'm hoping they are on my team! :)

A student made me this, so I hung it in my room for the week!

So, onto the last couple weeks. There are 40 kids total at the camp and they are divided into two groups of 20 by age. So technically there is a younger group and an older group. We don't like to call them that during the week, so we let them come up with group names. The younger group decided on Tie-die Snowballs and the older group decided on The Sparkling Pigeons (don't ask about the weird names-it's a theatre kid thing, remember?) The kids go to classes during the day and then at the end of the two weeks they put on 3 performances for parents to come and watch. The students go to an acting class, a dance class, and a musical theater class. (I was in charge of musical theater). Each group goes to each class 2 times a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. I started brainstorming awhile ago what I wanted to do with each group and I decided on an Annie Medley for the younger group and a Motown Medley for the older group. They were both great choices because the students LOVED them!
Here are a couple photos of lunch time...

 

During the second week, the students tie-die shirts for the performances. Each group decides on 2 colors they want to use for tie-dying and they perform in those shirts. The older group decided on purple and navy and the younger group wanted purple and red.

getting their shirts ready

soaking in the first color

The Sparkling Pigeons' shirts

The Tie-Die Snowballs' shirts

Starting on Wednesday, we start piecing together the show, choose an order for the singing/dancing/acting to go in and then we run the show over and over!

Awe, they are just too cute!! I can't get enough! Well, I did record one of their run-throughs, but I couldn't get it to upload on here...you will have to check back later if I can get it uploaded!
I had so much fun choreographing the songs, working with the students, teaching singing and breathing technics, watching your hard work turn out looking great on stage...it was really neat! As the students went on stage I was getting little butterflies for them! :) My mom, dad, aunt and grandma got to come to the show on Thursday night. I loved that they came to support even though it wasn't me on stage this time.

After the show we went and got dinner together at Ricardo's (my fav restaurant!)

On Friday the students did an afternoon show and an evening show. The afternoon show was probably the best and the evening show got a little hectic. One little girl ran off stage during the first number because her stomach started hurting, so she went home before the 2nd number. Also during the first number a girl fell and her hands were stepped on, so there were lots if tears! But the show must go on...

Here is a group picture with all the campers and me:

And here is a picture of the session 3 teachers:

I also got this awesome shirt...

As I said earlier...this was life as a child!

Such an awesome 2 weeks! Hopefully I will be able to do it again next summer!!

My first time teaching music was a success...I can't wait to see what's next.