Gig tonight and this Saturday!

Tonight we’ll be playing at the Starbucks in Glasgow.  That’s the one on Rt. 40 in the People’s Plaza shopping center.  We’ll play from 5-7pm.We’re really excited about the show coming up this Saturday.  We’re opening for Sum of One (myspace.com/sumofonemusic) at the Everett Theatre in Middletown. The show starts at 6pm and seating is limited, so come early! It’s a free show and it’s going to be awesome!Hope to see you this weekend!-Jenny

New CD?

Tyler and I will begin some preliminary recording for our new CD next week.

I know, it still seems like we just released the last one.

But hey, we’ve got new stuff.  We may as well document it.

I have no idea when we’ll be releasing this one, but we’ll keep you posted on the progress.

-Jenny

God of this city!

This past weekend Tyler and I had the privilege of attending the Passion 08 Conference in Washington, D.C.  The experience was phenomenal for so many reasons. I’m going to try to relate just a bit of what happened this weekend, but first I’ll give you a little background about the Passion Movement itself and how I became acquainted with it.

The Passion Movement is led by Louie Giglio and basically exists to encourage college students to make God more famous by taking His name to their campuses, friends, and the globe.   The movement is based on Isaiah 26:8, which reads, “Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.” The verse basically sums up Passion’s mission statement. Passion events vary in size and format, but each event focuses on bringing a community of college students together in corporate worship and igniting them to shine for Jesus in tangible ways when the event is over.  The movement has been extremely succesful-God is moving and lives have changed.

I’m not really sure how I first learned about Passion.   When I was 14 something changed in me, and I began to really pursue a personal relationship with Christ.  This desire for Him permeated every aspect of my life–including the music.  I began to feel most alive when worshiping God through music.  Yes, I am one of “those people” who raises her hands during worship and has a tendency to jump around a little bit.  The thing is, that always came naturally to me.  I don’t really remember seeing other people worshiping that way first.  It just always felt right.  I was disappointed when it seemed like the rest of my church stared at me and didn’t get me at all.

I’m not sure how I got my first Passion cd, but I think it was during my freshman year of high school.  The songs really spoke to me.  In between 9th and 10th grade my family moved to Mississippi.  We became involved in a local church and the youth minister there was taking a group of college students to a small Passion event in Baton Rouge and asked if I’d like to come along.  I thought it’d be a good idea, so I went.

It was amazing.  I’d never felt so free in worship.  Passion events now usually draw thousands of students, but this one only had a few hundred.  Even so, I’d never been in a room with that many people worshiping and without feeling judged in some way.  It was incredible.  From what I remember it was an acoustic worship time led by Christy Nockels and some dude on acoustic guitar.  Louie Giglio might have been the speaker, but honestly, I didn’t even really have a sense of who Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, or any of the people related to Passion were at the time.

So Passion seven years later still does it for me.  I came home this weekend ready to pursue God whole-heartedly with some new worship songs and life changing messages in tow.  Louie shared the story of a girl who through the care and friendship of her roommate went from hating God to committing her life to him in two weeks.  Incredible! I think we have a tendency to box God up sometimes, and without saying it of course, believe that God isn’t big enough to do certain things or to move in the hearts of certain people.  In truth, He most definitely is big enough!

On Saturday night we sang a song called God of this City.  The chorus goes like this:

For greater things are yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.

Greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done here.

Singing that chorus over Washington D.C. was amazing.  To think of all the homeless people living in D.C. and all of the corrupt politicians and stuff that goes on behind closed doors, and to know that God can mend all of that in a second–WOW!

Let that be a word of encouragement to you today.

-Jenny

Ode to Mom.

I was in a BSM staff meeting this afternoon when Tyler reminded me that today is a very important day:

It’s my mom’s birthday.

Mom, I’m sorry, when I called you and said “Happy Birthday” it wasn’t because I am an incredibly thoughtful daughter. (Should I really be admitting this?)  Alas, Tyler is the thoughtful one–kudos to Tyler for remembering his mother-in-law’s birthday.  I mean seriously, do most men remember that sort of thing?

I am blessed with an incredible mom.  When I was very young (think toddler here) my family was stationed at Yakota Air Base in Japan.  My mom was 25 or 26 when we moved there and she had three children all under the age of 4. My dad was a new pilot and flying all the time–sometimes for weeks at a time.  My poor mom lived in a foreign country with two toddlers and an infant, no family, and spent a good amount of time having to take care of us by herself. (Keep in mind, none of this was my dad’s fault–he is also an excellent father.)  Somehow, the Lord saved my mom from insanity, and she managed to keep the house, all three of us, and herself in one piece.  I still can’t figure out how she did that.

20 years later my parents are still together and my mom is still doing an excellent job at teaching me about life and growing up.  Obviously, some things have changed.  I’m married; I’m 22 instead of 2; I don’t live at home; etc.  But she’s still just as encouraging and caring as she was when I was little.  My mom doesn’t pick up my toys anymore or chase me around the house, but she does pick me up when I have an emotional break down and just need someone to talk to, and she and my dad still chase me (now with Tyler!) around from show to show in support of the music.

My mom is the kind of woman I hope to be one day.  She loves her family unconditionally, more often than not sacrificing her own wants or needs to meet our needs.  She is an inspiring teacher (Teacher of the Year in Anne Arundel County, MD 2007!) who strives to love each of her students, no matter how hard it might be to reach them or how much they misbehave in class.  She is a supportive wife, loving my dad in all circumstances, and always willing to follow his lead.  And she’s one of those Christians whose faith consumes her existence (If only we all lived that way).  Her love for Christ and desire to pursue him is present in every decision she makes.  I love that.

So mom, happy birthday to you.  I look forward to the next 20 years and beyond of being “mothered” by you.

love,

jenny

Weekend of shows….

At the close of each weekend I think about each show, the good points, the bad points, the things I didn’t expect, etc, and I plan to blog about the experiences come Monday.  Now it’s Saturday again and I’m realizing that I haven’t brushed the subject of last weekend’s gigs.  And of course, many of the memories have already faded.  Let me see what I can remember.

Last Friday night we played at a Starbucks in West Grove, PA.  Our friend Paul Zimmerman-Clayton came along to play djembe and sing a little.  The show went really well and we met a lot of new people–Tyler even managed to run into an old friend from high school.  I swear, you can’t take him anywhere without him knowing someone.  Some of the evening’s highlights include: 1) Forgetting to bring our mics and frantically calling Sara Manning to ask her to bring them to us. (Sara, Kate Roberts, and Erin Toole all came out to the show and in doing so really saved us from not being able to play.) 2) Tyler breaking his D string within the first 15 minutes of the set.  3) Paul breaking the same D string during the first song of his set. 4) Paul farting so badly in one song that we couldn’t continue singing. (I know, this is terrible to post for all to see, but it really was a hilarious moment.) 5)Loads of free frappuccino samples.  Ladies came around every 5 minutes with a different flavor and I was able to snag a few between songs.

All in all, a great night.

Saturday afternoon came and brought with it a gig at Starbucks in Middletown.  This show was great too.  It’s always nice to see familiar faces. Highlights include: 1) Tyler breaking the same D string as the night before on the first song, while finger picking. 2) Rebecca Terczak (my best friend–we’ve know each other since kindergarten) showing up as a surprise while we were packing up our equipment to leave.  She had the time wrong.  But it was still lovely to see her.

Saturday night we played at a coffee house called Building Bridges Cafe.  This was quite an interesting gig.  We played well (despite being a little worn out from the show earlier in the day), but I must say, it wasn’t what we expected at all.  I was told that this coffee house was aimed at singles in their 20s and 30s.  Boy was I surprised when the average age of the audience turned out to be about 40.  The really funny part was that Paul’s girlfriend Jen brought a bunch of her single roommates.  They hid behind our merch table, and I don’t blame them really.  Highlights of the show include 1) Free dinner and 2) Greg Schmeer (Erin Toole’s fiancee) accidentally pulling some important electrical cable during Plans for Us that left us in the dark.  Greg, seriously.  I thought you were an engineer.

Now that I’ve successfully recapped last weekend, Tyler and I will proceed with the music this weekend.  We look forward to seeing some of you!

-Jenny

oh valentine’s

I suppose I’ve been on a brief posting hiatus, or I’ve just been too tired to think clearly enough to write much of anything useful.  Either way, I apologize for my lack of blogging enthusiasm as of late.

Today is a big day for many a couple in the United States (is Valentine’s Day a world-wide holiday?  I actually have no idea).  Many women awoke this morning gleefully hoping for and anticipating a romantic surprise.   I wonder how many couples will become engaged this evening?  (I’m pulling for my sister–don’t worry her boyfriend doesn’t read this blog, so no pressure there.)

I used to really love Valentine’s Day.  One year I wrote Tyler a poem and framed it.  The next I bought him roses (Tyler’s sentimental, it’s appropriate) and drew pretty hearts on new guitar picks.  When he told me to keep the roses at my apartment and even left the card I made him behind, I realized that Valentine’s Day probably didn’t mean much to him.  So this year, I surprised him with a Valentine’s Day of our own two weeks early.  He loved it!  I honestly think everyone should celebrate Valentine’s Day everyday…but if you want to do something out of the ordinary, don’t do it on the same day as everyone else.  It kinda ruins the moment when you know that half the nation is sharing it with you.

So this year, celebrate your own Valentine’s Day.

Maybe you’d prefer to do so this Saturday at 9pm at Deep Blue.  We’ll be playing!

-jenny

check out this valentine’s day greeting: http://youtube.com/watch?v=81HmfmL1P5Q

dentist woes…

I went to the dentist this morning.

I’ll say it again: I went to the dentist this morning. Going to the dentist is not one of my favorite experiences (as I think many of you would agree) and this morning was particularly painful. So I admit, I’ve been a slacker. I was a little sporadic in my visits to the dentist while in college (it’s hard to schedule appointments and stick to them when you’re traveling, living in different states, and let’s face it, the dentist doesn’t usually rank too high on a college student’s priority list) and I just recently switched to Tyler’s dentist, so needless to say, it’s been a while. But honestly, is a simple teeth cleaning supposed to hurt THAT much?! There were moments when I wanted to cry out in pain, found myself choking back tears, and looked at the hygenist with pleading eyes, begging her to stop scraping my teeth. Somehow she never noticed my extreme discomfort, and subsequently proceeded, relentlessly with her scraping efforts. I walked out of the office with a sore mouth, but no cavities (cavity free for 22 years baby!) and a renewed zeal for flossing as to avoid future discomfort.

I haven’t blogged in a nearly a week, so I thought I’d do a little recap of what’s been going on in the Jenny & Tyler world:

-We watched the Super Bowl with my parents in Bowie on Sunday and were satisfied with the outcome. (We don’t have TV so this was our first football game of the season–I didn’t even know who was playing until the day of the game.)

-We added a few more dates to our March and April calendar.

-Saturday marked a momentous occasion: for the first time since we’ve been married, Tyler & I both had off work and we were in Newark. We celebrated by sleeping in and having breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Yum.

-We began recording some acoustic versions of songs that we’ll be releasing each month. The songs include some tracks from the album and a couple surprises here and there.

-We’ve been writing songs for the next album (which we’ll start working on this month).

Other than that it’s been the usual shows on the weekends/Starbucks & BSM during the week routine. Hope to see some of you this weekend!

remember to brush & floss daily!

-jenny