This past weekend, May 1st-May 4th, I was up in North Aurora, IL hanging out with friends from downhere's message boards and the guys from the band. It was one of the best weekends I have ever had. If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that I've been struggling a lot lately. For the first time in the past two months, I could actually smile and mean it. I was happy and was laughing more than I had in two months. I felt alive again, and it felt amazing! I've noticed that whenever I see downhere, it is exactly when I need it. The first time I saw them, that was the night that I got saved. The second time, it was when my Grandma has just recently been diagnosed with cancer and this time it was shortly after my Grandma had passed away. Funny how God works that out.
This concert was a very special one, though. It was a benefit for a lady on the boards whose husband recently passed away. Saturday night was amazing. It was hilarious, beautiful and emotional. Jason dedicated 'Hope Is Rising' to Ron and I would be surprised if there was a dry in the room. They put everything that they had into this show for Lori and her son Ben.
Speaking of putting everything they had into the show, Marc totally hammed it up for the cameras, and was POSING for the front row, which was filled with photo-ing and video-ing. It was so funny, because it was so obvious that he was doing the things he was doing on purpose just for photo purposes. Maybe that's why so many of my pictures turned out so good. ;-)
Anyways, on Saturday I didn't really get the opportunity to talk to them at all, because I didn't want to be in their way or anything. On Sunday they played at Lori's church and did the worship, which was really really cool. Sunday more than made up for not talking to them on Saturday. I was talking to Jason about, I don't really remember what now, but this little kid walked up to Jason and said "Excuse me, Mr. Jason. Whenever you are done talking, you need to go over there." We both turned to each other and just started cracking up. Mr. Jason was very popular that morning. Marc and I got to talk and joked around a lot, too. He was very talkative that morning. So was Glenn. I had never really gotten the opportunity to talk to Glenn before, so it was really great to have that opportunity. Jeremy was extra super busy that morning selling merch and everything, so I didn't get to talk to him too much.
After they were all done packing up their equipment, Hannah and I were talking about finding little treasures that you wouldn't expect to find, and then right after she said that she found an easter egg that was forgotten from an easter egg hunt. At that moment Jason came over and laughed at us and then we had a pretty neat conversation. I found out that he's a pilot. I had no idea he was one at all. It was really cool to find out things that I had no idea about. Then we had to say good bye to them. It was a good weekend, but it had to come to an end at some point in time.
The moment the first song, "Back and Forth" hit my ears with its debut on MTV's "The Hills", I was expecting good things from Lanae's record. Once I got the CD in my hands, it was no letdown. Just when I thought the CD couldn't get any better, something else jumped out at me on the next song that made my heart jump. When you listen to her music you know that it's completely coming from her heart and soul. It's like it's all written down on the paper for the world to see, and when music is done that way, it brings you to a place that is real and makes you feel the things that you hold inside and hug so tight you don't want to let go. From the quirky little love song "Let's Grow Old Together" to "Here's to the Girls", the album is very well rounded and deep and fun, too. It has a good summery vibe to it, that makes you just want to ride around with the windows down, with your hair blowing in the wind and letting things go and casting your cares to Jesus.
