Wednesday, December 30, 2009

New Blog Up and Running!!

Hey all!

Just wanted to thank you all for reading and I wanted to let you know that I also started a new blog. I will keep this one for personal stuff. But my new one is something that I have always wanted to do. Music is a huge part of my life, and I wanted started a blog about certain songs, lyrics, or whatever that mean something to me at the moment. Music has a way of inspiring a person whether they notice or not.

Please check out and add Sing A Song to your friends!!!

Thanks, all!
~Mindy

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

All in Good Time, Mindy. All in Good Time

Is it sad of me to say that I am jealous of my friends with families? I want one so bad. All my sisters and brother are married and have kids. Most of my friends are married and have kids. And here, as one of my friends from younger years said, "Here we always thought Mindy was going to be the first to settle down with a family."

I think it really starts to get to me hard this time of year. All the cute little kids in their holiday outfits all dressed up ready to go to church then to come home to find Santa stopped by while they were out. All the babies, having no idea what they are in for when they grow up, cooing and jibbering as they crawl or waddle about from Grandma to Grandpa to Auntie to Uncle.

Reading a friends post this morning on facebook really did me in. Her mom had commented on how she is in love with all the nesting that is starting to take place at their house with the little one's arrival right around the corner. "How awesome God is."

Yes, how awesome God really is. But, come on. Can he cut me a break soon here?! I'm not getting any younger and I want to hold a little one in my arms soon. I want to start a family. I want to play in the dirt, kiss a boo-boo, hold them till they fall back to sleep and tell them it's okay-The boogey man can't hurt you.

I want that.

But when will God put that certain someone in my path. Or is he, and I haven't even opened my eyes yet. Or-maybe God still thinks I still have some things to accomplish before I settle down.

I don't know, but it's so hard to trust Him sometimes. Nevertheless, I still do. I try waiting patiently to His still small voice, but I get distracted ever so quickly. so many things flood my mind at one time.

Then I hear God calling to me- "All in good time, Mindy. All in good time. My plans for you are set. They are in motion. Trust me and you will see them through. Even when you waiver, I will guide you back on that path."

So, jealously shouldn't be what I feeling. I should be happy for them(which I am by the way...) and trust someday, maybe God has that in my plan as well. Or, maybe something bigger and better than I could ever hope or dream up!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

"See the Star in the sky....Gently leading the way"

I love Christmas. I love the sights, sounds and smells. I love the home-y kind of feeling that you get when family and friends gather to share stories and sit and have dinner together.

What I love most about Christmas is the music and concerts. Yes, I celebrate Christmas all year long with remember Jesus' birth, death and resurrection, but there is something special about the time God's Son came to Earth to humble himself and become like us. And Christmas concerts do that to me.

I went on Sunday, December 6th, to see the Bethlehem Skyline with downhere, Jason Gray, and Lanae Hale. I got to help run the merch stand and meet some great new people. I got to finally meet Lanae. She is one sweet lady! I also got to meet and work Merch with Walt. He works with Centricity as well as played bass for Lanae on her set on the Skyline tour.

We had a meet and greet before the show and since I had an extra pass, I thought that I would just randomly pic 4 kids out of the crowd. I picked four very sweet little girls who seemed to enjoy every minute of it. I wanted to pick kids, because meeting "rockstars" at their ages means alot to them. One of the girls said she didn't know what to say to them! I told her just be yourself and just start talking about anything. They are all great and they love meeting their fans!

I had too many memories before and after the show to even write here. If you are on the downhere messageboards, you can see the stories there.

But the concert itself was awesome. I didn't get to see Lanae's or Jason Gray's set because I volunteered to watch the merch table so the other volunteers could go and see the show. That was alright. I could still hear the music and I was having my own little concert up at the table.

I got to head down to see downhere and the first couple songs of the show were upbeat, fun and familiar. I was bouncing around like a normal "obnoxious fan" then out of nowhere, I just sat down, closed up, and didn't sing the rest of the night. I could barely look at the guys even. I found myself focusing more on the screens with the words. Something strange happened to me.

During soundcheck early in the day, I got to hear a snippet of Silent Night, and I know the song off the How Many Kings album, so I knew what I was in for. But nothing prepared me for what happened. I tried telling myself I wasn't going to get emotional, but I couldn't help myself. Every ounce of energy I had trying to hold the walls up, broke down.

Silent Night was always my grandma's favorite song. She and I were really close when I was little and the more I grow up, the harder I am finding myself with her passing. Yes, it's been almost 20 years since she has gone, but being 9 you really don't understand what has happened. I have so many great memories with her. Every Friday I would go to her house and hang for the weekend. Our Saturday morning ritual was make scrambled eggs, I would bring her her coffee, then we would watch Gunsmoke or Bonanza, depending on what time we got up. And depending on the time of year, we would go shopping or rummage saling.

I remember when she got sick and was in the hospital. She was in a coma but she still squeezed my hand. Mom told her we would be back later that night to see her. It was about a half hour after we left, and the hospital called. Mom brought me into their bedroom and told me. I screamed. It couldn't have happened.

Every year gets harder, so I think with downhere releasing How Many Kings and putting that on there was really really hard on me. I remember listening to it with Liz on the way home from our downhomiepalooza back in July of this year. I couldn't even make it through the verse line of the song without weeping.

But I am grateful for tears. Tears of joy, tears of sorrow. I have many great memories with my Grandma. I still wish she was here. I know that she would be proud of me, but I want her there in the front row watching me perform, I want her to be the first to hear a song that I wrote. And I know she is sitting with me as I write them.

This blog has taken a completely different turn than I wanted it to. But maybe I needed it. I wanted to tell you about my wonderful experience about the Bethlehem Skyline tour. But in a sense I think I did. This tour means a lot to me. It brings back wonderful memories while making new ones with family, friends, and "rockstars" that I consider like family.

So here are a few pics from the show. You can see more of my pics at: mindyracal Flickr If you get the chance to go, please do! Check out the tour here at the Bethlehem Skyline site.






























Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Motivation

Why is it that when you wake up in the morning, you suddenly feel unmotivated? What is going on in your mind? I think I know what it is. It's the "easy" way out. I think that's why I am so far out of shape. Just the simple little thought, "Oh, I'll do that tomorrow," plays a big part. We are such procrastinators. We want everything NOW, but we always wait to do it "later". Then it never gets done.

Today I proved to myself that I could do it. I woke up this morning, feeling blah, knowing it was cold outside and didn't want to freeze my lungs. Then I made an excuse saying I w ill burn all those extra calories tomorrow at Zumba, so I won't do it. Plus, I am starting to get a nasty cough like I had at the beginning of November. I hope it goes away fast; I have a "date" with downhere, Jason Gray, and Lanae Hale coming up Sunday and I need to be in tip top shape to help run merch and be a strong supporter for them.

So, as I was preparing my morning tea, I rearranged my running/walking playlists and just decided to plop the headphones in and go. So I did. I dressed up, stretched and headed out.

I did my C25K for 20 minutes. I slowed down when I felt my lungs start to get fuzzy. I didn't run as much as I did last week, but at least I got a good amount of running in to still keep up with the schedule. AND, I still got up off my butt to run :)

I am learning every day that it takes a lot of discipline to refocus your brain. It's so easy to just not do something. But if you want results, you have to make an initiative and do something about it.

Ahoy! Thanks for stopping by. Sometimes life should be an open book and here you will find that true. My mind is always on full speed and I will be heading over many waves. I hope this journey is as much of an adventure for you as it is for me~ ~Mindy