Because I am overwhelmed. Still. A week later.

Enjoy the gorgie-poo decor… and the delicious food… and the beautiful hearts of the men who served … and the genuine laughter on the faces of a few girls who really love each other.

The song is Home by the most wonderful Dave Barnes. And when this song drifted from the speakers into my ears during the party, I stopped, listened, and teared up. Because these lyrics say it.

Photography by the dearest Skip Hopkins. He not only captured the beauty, he captured the emotion. That’s a gift.

I’ve tried to write thank you notes, but they fail to tell the depths of my appreciation for what my friends did for me. Even as a writer, the English language is failing me. I just know that my heart was massively moved by this night.

I will never be the same.

If you watched last night, you met Roberto’s mom.

If you’ve seen Roberto’s mom, you have met my twin.

I mean, truly. Look at this.

That pretty much looks like my face. Bi-za-rro.

Also. Forgive me, my hair is dirty and it was 10:45pm, so I’m not looking my freshest.

So we grabbed an iPhone that records video. [Because I didn't have my flipcam. WHY OH WHY did I not have my flipcam!??] Hence the less than awesome quality. I am so so sorry. More than you know.

We attempted to show you the similarities but I have never. no not ever. gotten so giggly while trying to make a video. We were laughing. So very much.

Enjoy.

Above all else, I’m celebrating 30 years of God doing beautiful things.

So I thought that I’d let Gungor sing to us for my birthday.

I heart this song. Mucho.

[Gonna take a little bloggy break through the weekend. See y'all Monday!]

I spent the weekend in Kansas City for the wedding between one of my favorite dudes (Jules) and the sweetest girl, Bethany. The fun times did not stop. I laughed, heartily, multiple times. The wedding was gorgeous- as soon as my technology quits revolting against me, I’ll upload some pictures and show you.

And hanging out with my friends. Oh. It was such a great weekend of people who have known me for a long time and love me anyways.

Okay. And speaking of revolt, I had tons of time to blog yesterday until I had the most unbelievably frustrating vlogging experience of my adult life. Truly. See, this cool Nash-blog called OnNashville has different bloggers talking about Nashville each day in April. So I decided to make a blog video about the patios in Nashville.

Should have been easy, right? I make videos all the time. Should be short and sweet and fun.

Here was the projected timeline-

• 2pm-4pm : film video
• 4pm-6pm : edit video
• 6pm : email the link, take a bow and applaud myself

And here was the actual timeline:

• 2pm-5pm : film video [no big deal- taping sometimes runs long]
• 5pm-6:30pm : try to transfer pictures from camera to computer [total fail] then from to friend’s computer to my hard drive to my computer to iMovie.
• 6:30pm : insert an almost complete breakdown at this point. I could feel my systems shutting down and my emotions freezing. It was a lot of things, including NOT AWESOME.
• 6:30pm-7:30pm : friends talk me off the vlog cliff and I continue to transfer clips
• 7:30pm-11:30pm : upload and edit
• 11:30pm : realize I should probably ask Dave before I use his song, so I do. He says yes. Luckily. Cause the video was already done.
• 11:30pm : upload video, but the quality is horrible.
• 12am : lay down in the bed, computer by my side, and frown
• 12:15am : can’t sleep cause of vlog fuzziness issues, upload higher quality video that will take over an hour. So I set my alarm and snoozle.
• 1:30am : wake up and email correct link to video. Decide that applause is not necessary.

So. 11.5 hours for a 5.18 video?

Impressive. Or amateur. Sheesh.

HERE’S THE LINK TO THE VIDEO – The best 11.5 hours of my life…. or something like that. I hope you like it. I do.

But.

Not as much as I like Dave’s new video. Wowsa. I could watch it over and over again.

GOD GAVE ME YOU VIDEO. Watch it. Share it. Love it.

See y’all tomorrow.

[there's a video here, my subscriber friends, just in case you can't see it.]

Because I left my pride in 2009, I thought I’d post the clip of my segment from this weeks Get Fit Challenge. It’s the first one where we filmed at the gym. So. Obviously. I’m very proud.

But seriously. I really do love this clip. The producer, Jenny, has become a sweet friend and I enjoy getting to talk to her. And our trainer Lisa is seventeen piles of patient with me and truly inspirational.

I am aware that the picture they post at the beginning isn’t me. No biggie.

And just so you know, they had me do the moving rock wall as a kind of joke and then BOOM they used it for real.

I’m pretty sure Jenny bamboozled me on that one.

Fool me once, I climb a moving rock wall.

Fool me twice, and I …. uh…. I don’t know what’s worse than that.

And 4:28? That was especially for you.

Annie just moved to Denver [whah whah]. I just moved to a new house in Nashville. And it is weird not knowing where she lives. And it is weird that she doesn’t live in Nashville, but that’s neither here nor there.

But by the miracle of modern technology, here is Annie giving us a tour of her new digs.

[Hey subscribers, there's a video here, so click over if you can't see it.]

I’ll be honest, the first time I watched this, I cried. Because I miss this girl in my life somethin’ serious. And just look at her- so happy and beautiful and so at peace and at home. Ugh- I love her to pieces.

I gave her a tour of my place as well. If you’d like to see my video and my home aka Casa de AnnieBlogs, head on over to Hootenannie and it’s there for your viewing pleasure.

Oh, and by the way. Annie and I make some awesome videos on our own. BUT. When we put our powers together…. it gets nutz.

Proof #1

Proof #2

What. A. Pleasure. Now you can imagine my deep sadness at her migration out west.

[Oh. And if you LOVE the new music from Matt Wertz that I used in my video- get ready. Awesome Wertz/Barnes giveaway coming on Friday!!]

But yay for my blog-boss Lauren for fixing it!

So all’s well now. Moving right along…..

Believe it or not [I think that saying is dumb], I have not one, not two, but THREE videos for you today.

I know. It’s like Hanukkah -5.

First of all, I have a video blog up at SheSeeks today. About ice cream. Sorta. Check it out, yo.

Secondly, Mocha Club is doing this cool thing next week where Dave Barnes, Matt Wertz, and Brandon Heath are going to do a live online concert. They will be singing some of their songs, interviewing each other [prepare. to. laugh.], and talking about clean water in Africa. HERE are all the details. And here is the promo video.

Funniest part to me: at 0:21 when Matt can’t figure out what to do with his hands. That’s humorous.

So, I’d love you for you to join us next Tuesday. I’ll be there guarding the twitter stream and picking out the questions for the boyz to answer. I’m tellin’ y’all. It’s gonna be a good time.

The final video is a Grammy update. Here’s the first dress fitting, post alterations, with Pattie the seamstress, Amber the stylist, and Lauren the… uh… funny one.

Music for the videos was provided by Seth Philpott, Dave Barnes, and Adam Agin (in that order).

Really. Don’t panic about the black dress. It’ll fit perfect in a week. Ladies, you know how this works.

Sorry that all my videos are the same, a pattern if you will. Music. Black screen. Words. Pictures. It’s boring, but it’s all I know.

Happy Thursday.

A few things:

1. Thank you to Lyndsay and Lauren for coming over at midnight to help film this.

2. I actually managed to do 3 things from my list in this video:
a. fold a fitted sheet
b. make myself laugh [normal- happens all the time]
c. make my friends laugh

3. I did not, however, read a book from start to finish in this video.

4. I usually don’t make videos longer than 4 minutes, but sometimes tutorials are a bit lengthy. Sorry bout it.

5. Don’t judge my bookcase. I know. It’s a sickness. But I’m a writer. It’s my “job.”

6. Thanks to Janet for teaching our group of friends to fold a fitted sheet and for teaching us that other thing too [regarding my lip and wax and let's not talk about it]. I will always consider you a sensei of sorts.

7. I got a FlipCam for Christmas! No more lisp when I make videos! Yay!! [though I don't know why it's wide screen. rude.]

8. This was kinda fun. What other video blog ideas do you have for me? Bring it.

I just have some links for you, and thinking you might enjoy a little play on words, I went for it.

Forgive me if you are offended.

First of all, today is my day to post over at (in)courage. And, because I tackle the deep and moving topics, I’m talking about footy-pajamas. [photos included, you are welcome] I hope my cousin is still speaking to me after he sees this.

Also, yesterday, I had the privilege [a word that I CAN NOT SPELL correctly for the life of me] of making a video for Christmas Change.

Here is a link to the post I wrote.

And here’s the video. But do check out the post so you have some sort of mental scaffolding to work with.

And because, seriously, this may be as famous as I ever get, I have to link you to our CBS station here in Nashville.

Because, y’all.

I. WAS. ON. TELEVISION.

Was it my lifelong dream to have my own cooking show?

Almost.

And by “almost,” I mean “not at all.”

Regardless, read the article and watch the video clip to the right- it’s all about Help-Portrait.

And did I mention that I was on TV? Because I was. At 6pm and 10pm, but who’s counting.

Of course, Jeremy was on CNN, but whatevs.