White Man's Overbite

Well, our good friend Krista captured this wonderful moment Friday night in Muskegon, MI. I'm not sure what to say - I know I make faces when I play, but I had no idea they were this bad! Wow...

Jeremy's Week in Review

"Week in Review" - that sounds pretty lame, really. I'll have to come up with some clever title for this like Grandpa's "Weakly Note" - any suggestions, Grandpa? I'm obviously having a hard time hitting the Monday deadline, aren't I!! As usual, we've had a pretty full schedule since I last posted. Let me "break it down" for you:

• Last Friday we drove BACK to Nashville and flew to California where downhere performed at Spirit West Coast in Monterey on Saturday. On Sunday we did a concert in Roseville, CA and then flew back home (finally!) on Monday.
• Tuesday we went to see the Bourne Ultimatum (I'm a big Jason Bourne fan - you can read more about the movie here).
• Wednesday Erin did a Cinderella party in the AM, then we had lunch with some friends of downhere who had travelled in from various places (VA and MI, mostly), and then I was wrapped up in meetings the rest of the afternoon.
• Thursday was spent getting ready to leave town again for 10 days. Erin worked at her part time job and I ran around getting errands taken care of - it was a pretty busy day (and not enjoyable in 100+ degree heat!) and we finished it off with dinner with two other couples from church - so that was great.
• Friday we got up at 2:45am (I'm shaking my head as I type this) to drive to Michigan to play at a festival with Leeland, Jars of Clay, Casting Crowns, and others. Erin's going to post some pictures from the day, and you can read some of my post about the day here as well (we nicknamed them "Jars of Thigh" for the night - need I say more??).

That should be it - we're headed to Ireland next week so it will be probably much more interesting. Hopefully we'll get some down time next week - I'm really feeling like I'm needing it. So we'll see...

Update on the last week

Well, I told Erin I would do my best to do a weekly post on Mondays about what we've done during the past week, and I already missed my first post. How did Thursday get here so stinkin' fast?!?

I'll tell you how... we have been trying hard to just keep things together in the last little bit. Here are some of the noteables from the past week (and a bit):

• we went for dinner to The Melting Pot which was a wonderful experience - a first for both of us to this particular restaurant, and a reminder that we need to pull our fondue pot out of the closet! (Read a more detailed post about our night out here.)
• Thursday we (Erin, myself, and the band) flew to Seattle, WA where we arrived around midnight and stayed with some friends there
• Friday we drove out to Quincy, WA and performed at Creation West. What a GORGEOUS venue (I'm sure Erin will post some pictures from the day soon). The day was definitely slammed - we were on the run all day - but it was fun to share it with Erin's parents who drove out from Montana to spend the day with us. We arrived back in the Seattle area by 1am or so to stay with some other friends.
  
• Saturday we got to sleep in a little bit before Glenn, Erin and I went for a run on a beautiful riverside trail in the Redmond area. Erin had one of her better runs, and Glenn and I did 7 miles at a 7:58 (min/mi) pace - the fastest run I've done at that pace for that distance in a long time. We performed Saturday night in a coffeeshop in downtown Seattle where we were surprised by a visit from two of my best friends (groomsmen at my wedding) Wes Morris and Mike Guenter, who drove down from Vancouver. So we were up until 1:15am that night just hanging out and visiting with them.
• Sunday we played three times at Overlake Church - twice in the morning services and once in the evening - before rushing off to the airport and flying through the night back to Nashville, arriving at 8am Monday morning. We were picked up from the airport and drove directly to Lookout Mountain, GA where we set up to lead worship for a camp all week.

And that's where we've been this week - here in GA leading worship for these kids and taking naps in between sessions trying to recover from the crazy weekend. We're pretty much recovered - just in time to mess it all up again by flying out to CA tomorrow for the weekend. I'm going to have to squeeze in some laundry somewhere... Okay - you should hear from me around Monday again - the update will be much shorter I'm sure. Later!

Images of Paradise!

Swimming with Stingrays in Grand Cayman!!

One of the many towel animals that were on our bed after we returned from dinner. I went to a class on the ship to learn how to make them! I hope I remember!

downhere in concert on the ship.

Awww... I miss it already!

Our room with a view! I so enjoyed sitting on our window sill and just taking in the vast expanse of the ocean.

Formal night with my hunk!

Enjoy this picture everyone...you won't see them this snazzy very often=}.

Enjoying the chocolate buffet!

Paradise... thank you Lord!

downhere's song #1 on KLOVE!!!

Yes folks that is correct. After about 40 straight weeks of being on the top twenty countdown on all the KLOVE stations across the country they have arrived at #1 for A Better Way. You can see for yourself at www.KLOVE.com/music. After traveling with these guys ever since the song was written and seeing how its message has impacted many lives, I am so glad to finally see it get this kind of recognition. Way to go Jason Germain for your creative writing and for being sensitive to the Spirit moving in you to write this beautiful song. Way to go guys! God is good!

You can get your own copy of the song on the album "Wide-Eyed and Mystified" online at downhere.com or at your local Christian bookstore!

This is my proud plug for my hubby's band=}!

Adventures up North... brr!

This weekend we have traveled to Evart, MI by way of Valparaiso, IN. While we were in Indiana the guys from Red Umbrella and Sevenglory put us up for the night. It was great getting to know them and just hanging out with other people that understand our lifestyle.

We then traveled to Evart, MI and are “camped” out at Spring Hill Camps. The moment we drove up and saw an out-of-this-world tubing hill with five snow machines surrounding it and a 1,000 ft. zip line mounted at the top we knew this wasn’t your average “winter retreat”. This is a camp on steroids!! They have a paintball course, four ice rinks for broomball, a heated indoor swimming pool, a gym with bungee jumping (you jump as high as you possibly can on a trampoline while being attached to bungees to help give you a better lift), and a huge billiard room including foosball and ping pong tables. And of course all the tubing you could ever ask for… and these are just the winter sports=}!!

I’m inside where it’s nice and warm typing up this blog and doing some reading. I had my fair share of outdoor activities today as Jeremy and I did a 7 mile run this morning in 12 degree weather…. brrrrr! Actually, it really wasn’t that bad – we were bundled up and kept a good running pace. The sun was out and there really wasn’t much wind…so thank you Lord for a great day to run and the ability to do it! As I write this Jeremy and the guys are outside by the tubing hill judging the tubing races. Then they will join in on the 3 on 3-basketball tournament to warm themselves up a bit. Honestly, I can’t believe… well maybe I can… that Jeremy has enough energy to play basketball after our run this morning.

Downhere really enjoys playing at these kinds of events where we can actually stay in one place for more than a day and get to know some of the kids. We are all staying at a house on the campground… that’s when it really feels like the “downhere family”. We had fun last night staying up late and playing poker with sugar packets=}. That was maybe the second time in my life that I’ve ever played that game so I didn’t have much of a chance at winning. Plus my poker face is way too dramatic…

Downhere is the worship band for the weekend and the stage they get to play on is like none I’ve ever seen. Someone brilliant has designed a stage set that looks like a graphic equalizer and is synched with the sound. So when Jeremy hits the bass drum or Marc hits a high note the lights go all the way to the top. Check out this picture… let me tell you “We Will Rock You” turned into WE WILL ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF!! They would turn those lights off for the worship sets so it wouldn’t distract from worshipping the Lord. (Oh and by the way - on either side of the stage are huge Apple ear buds with lights shining from them...so cool!)

Tomorrow we finish up here and then head off to Traverse City, MI to do a concert. So please continue to pray for safe travels. We have a 14-hour drive to tackle on Monday to get home in time to see Jack Bauer save the world=}. Later!