Lyrical Lavender Life

Vacation : Sun, waves, music and laughs! We had an amazing vacation and I wouldn't trade those times for anything. I'll give you the basics of how it all played out. We had a plan, but it was fairly fluid and ended up working out much better than originally planned. Pictures coming soon, I promise. Thursday - We drove 8 hours to DC, went to Wolf Trap and saw the Indigo Girls and Brandi Carlile in concert. The Indigo Girls were amazing, as always; but honestly I had not heard Brandi before and was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved her sound. She was a great addition to Amy and Emily's incredibly tight harmony. I definitely have a new favorite song- Brandi Carlile's "The Story" is spectacularly raw and intense. I LOVE it! (Apparently it became well known because it was played on "Grey's Anatomy"... with music like that in the background, it must be a great show! Almost enough to make me want to get cable~ lol. Really though, give it a li...

Remember the other day when I mentioned I needed to RELAX and enjoy my summer more? Well, that's what the next 4 days are going to be.... sort of. Ok, so I let go of the idealist notion that I actually know HOW to relax... lol... but I DO know how to have fun and let my hair down on a road trip! So, that's the plan. Indigo Girls concert Thursday night, visiting with some friends Friday and Saturday, seeing an opera on Saturday night and enjoying my time alone with my someone special the rest of the time! I'm SO excited! So, I won't be back on until Monday, but I promise to report everything once I return. Have a great week and weekend!

Thank God for Inspiring Gifts This morning I found a bunch of unmarked CDs mixed up with some software CDs I had in a binder. Upon inspection, I realized that they were all CDs of a singer I know personally. These CDs included a few recorded voice lessons, a couple of performance ready pieces on CDs made for distributing as part of auditioning requirements, and a CD of pictures from a few of her performances. Looking through the pics, I remembered each performance vividly (because I was there for almost all of them). I remembered how many people told her afterwards how amazing she sounded and how inspiring her voice is. Many people say her voice is a powerful gift from God that blesses them every time they hear her, no matter how many times or how often. Her voice brings a sudden chill, then the "warm tinglies" that you feel in those best moments of your life. This inspiring voice is a gift . A gift from God that she cherishes, protects and uses at every opportunity. Listeni...

June 25, 1977 at 6:19pm , I came into this world. Looking back over the last 31 years, I can think of event that stands out from each year. These are a reflection of my life; they run a gamut of emotions, memories and sentiments. These are my life in 31 flavors: If you care to read on, great... If not, I hope you have as many wonderful experiences as I have had in my 31 years. Enjoy life! 1 - Spoiled by my Maw-Maw and a daddy's girl 2 - Sister, Kelly, born on my 2nd birthday! cute birthday present, but she didn't mind me and sometimes I wanted to exchange her ;) 3 - Started taking dancing... quickly grew to LOVE ballet (and still do) 4 - Loved ballet, won many pageants 5 -Bad year... bad things began 6 - Sister, Kayla, was born on my mom and dad's anniversary 7 - Played baseball with the boys team 8 - Mom sick while pregnant, first ballet solo 9 - Sister, Kora, was born two days before my daddy's birthday 10 -Sang in public for the first time at a festival 11 -Learned t...

photo taken by J. Grimes I remember taking family trips as a child. Rather it was a weekend camping, water-skiing and roasting marshmellows, or a two week long vacation that covered six states and numerous famous national parks, monuments, or natural wonders, these were the best experiences of my childhood. Along with exposing me to many different kinds of people all throughout my childhood, I also developed a great love for traveling and learning about other cultures. Thanks to my father's vast knowledge, spiced with his line of bull that was always fascinatingly believable and creative, I was always enthralled to know what happened at each site we visited and what the people were like, or why they were "famous" or "infamous". This became the backbone of my interest in history, which begat an interest in anthropology, geology, geography, civics, sociology and psychology. Looking back on my travels with my family and the uninhibited ramblings, trivia and opinio...