American Idol...Infinity Dinner

American Idol...can I just tell you how my jaw dropped when I heard that the cast sang Shout to the Lord? I watched the tape which was good...but then the reprise last night was even BETTER! WOW! (Seasons of Love was a different story. Hopefully, someone reassigned that sound technician after that night.) I couldn't BELIEVE who got voted off. What in the world??

Last night we had our farewell dinner for the Infinity cast before their final run-throughs today. It was a lot of fun. I was so glad Sheryl was there! Here are some pics...

The cast with Rebecca (behind me in the black) our production manager, Garris (seated in the middle) our studio manager, and Claire (seated on the end in the black and gold) our choreographer. This cast has been such a blessing. They are WONDERFUL!

Rodney and Claire Williams and us. Rodney does a lot of shows for us--special concerts, industrials, corporate shows etc. He's unbelievable. Claire and I end up getting to work together a lot teaming as choreographer and vocal director. They are two of our favorite new friends. Claire and I are putting a show together to take to D.C. in June. Gary is producing the convention. Toby Mac will be singing in the Sunday portion.

Me, Laura Oswald (from Scotland), Tracey Appleby (from Northern England), and Adam Bastien (from Michigan)

Me, Sandor Jonas (from Hungary), and Adrienne Courtois (from St. Louis)

Daniel Kovalev (from Russia), Micah Henderson (from Florida), Natalie Voorhes (from Florida), me

Tonight we are having dinner with the entire Williamson clan. I've really missed them. It will be a lot of fun! This weekend is Sheryl's birthday weekend. Woo-hooooo! She's amazingly only going to be 25. Isn't that something?

US Business Hall of Fame 2

the cast rehearses
The drum corp rehearses

Claire (pictured here rehearsing the dancers) always does an amazing job with the dancers. In this show our dancers were kids from the American Dance Academy. They were so fantastic and Claire was as brilliant as always. Her husband (pictured up at the top) was also as incredible as always. They are a power couple for sure!

Last night was really amazing! I got to meet and visit with some very interesting people. The Laureates who were inducted into the hall of fame were all very nice people with amazing stories. Darrell Waltrip was our MC.

John Pepper--the big guy at Proctor & Gamble and the Chairman of the Board of the Walt Disney company

JC France--his family founded NASCAR

Robert Johnson--he founded BET (Black Entertainment Television) which he eventually sold to Viacom for 3 BILLION dollars. (gulp) He has many other ventures...including owning an NBA team. He is really SUCH a nice guy!

Al Neuharth--founded USA Today newspaper. Neat guy! His wife owns an adoption agency and they have 6 adopted children under the age of 17 including two sets of twins!

Meg Whitman--she is CEO of a little company called EBAY. Her story of growing companies is really interesting.

Tommy Frist--founded HCA.

We also had some great entertainment from Paul Overstreet and a kids' group called "Fiddle Frenzy". Paul and I chatted backstage about a hilarious day years ago out at his farm when my father walked in on is wife trying to nurse their child. My father didn't notice at first and just carried on a conversation with her (this is where I get it, people!!!! It's inherited!!). The Overstreets are great people and Paul did a fantastic job last night. He sang "When You Say Nothing At All' which he wrote and Alison Krauss made popular.

Bert Hensley did a great job of producing this event! It was a huge success. I will try and post more pictures soon.

U.S. Business Hall of Fame

The Gary Musick Company is producing the annual U.S. Business Hall of Fame dinner at Opryland this week. Bert Hensley has done a fantastic job! Honorees are people like Bill France Sr. who founded NASCAR, Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, and others. Presenters include Darrell Waltrip of NASCAR fame (and Disney's CARS movie), and John Seigenthaler--founder of the First Amendment Center. Paul Overstreet will perform along with a student group called "Fiddle Frenzy".

I am helping stage manage and directing the production singers who will do a couple of numbers. It should be a really interesting and fun night tomorrow.

On a completely different subject, American Idol is becoming more and more interesting. David Cooke was disappointing tonight. In fact, surprisingly, I liked Kristy Lee Cook tonight. (Am I really saying that??) She sang one of my ALL TIME favorite Martina McBride songs and didn't butcher it. I also thought David Archeletta did well.

My Infinity cast leaves this weekend and my NCL Majesty cast arrives. I am looking forward to the Majesty rehearsals because we are getting to do some creative things with the shows. It will be a cool rehearsal process. I'll miss a week and a half of it though because I will be on the Infinity for 5 days and then fly to Los Angeles to meet ZOE for our 4 days in Malibu. Crazy.

I got to sit on the carpet in our den tonight and take turns holding each of my children. It was such a sweet gift. We recently saw home videos where Maddie was Sam's age. I was stunned. Time really does fly. I am trying to take each moment captive and treasure it.

"Let's Rock"

This is the week of final run-throughs for my Infinity cast. They are jammin! Today they did a rough run of "Let's Rock". It was so fun!!

Adam really shines in this show!

Supremes

Jeremy brings the house down

Katelyn (in the blue) is one of the dancers. Ella is CONVINCED that she's really "Jessie" from Toy Story 2... in real life. It's so cute!

Also this week we have the big Junior Achievement show at Opryland. It should be fun.

Mother Judy reminded me this week of a Mother Teresa quote... "We are all pencils in the hand of God." What an awesome adventure we're all on!!

Life

It was so awesome to be home today doing nothing but having conversations with my family. It is one of my favorite things in the entire world.

Tonight we went to the Saturday evening service at Fellowship. It was so amazing. Christy Nockles and Ronnie Freeman led worship and the message was incredible...again. I am loving the teaching there. We're still in Nehemiah and the message tonight was on being purposeful in relationships and Kingdom building. It was so very encouraging!

I got to see an old friend from ACU days, Jeff Roach. I hadn't seen Jeff and Jana in years. They are alive and well and Jeff is still in the music biz and doing scores for films. It was nice to catch up.

Afterwards, Lauren Gingles and Katey Earles came over and we had dinner together and watched a movie Sheryl had rented called "No Reservations". It was a cute movie but it affected me in a weird way. It's hard to explain. Sometimes movies about losing a parent still hit me hard. It's unpredictable.

The overriding feeling of the day is one of blessing though. I feel like the Word of God is coming alive to me in new and exciting ways, I love being with my family and drinking them in, I have amazing friends and the love of God. What could be better?

Gem and Infinity singers

Tonight Sheryl and I had some of the cast members from the NCL Gem and the Celebrity Infinity over for dinner and hang time. It was such a blast! The kids literally waited at the door for them to get here.

I continue to be struck at how amazing the performers are who work for us--talent and heart! What a combination!

My Infinity cast singers. L-R (me) Dustin, Courtney, Adam, Jennie, Jeremy

Courtney and Maddie--their hair is almost exactly the same color!

Jennie and Ella
Jenna (one of the singers from the NCL Spirit) with the kids

Come of the NCL Gem and Celebrity Infinity cast members.


Sam cracks me up in this picture!

Erika is a singer in the NCL GEM cast. Amazing talent with an amazing heart!
Ella loves Jeremy!

Kwame, Jenna and Joe were in the NCL Spirit cast that we replaced last month. Sheryl and I got to know them during the handover. Jenna came down to visit Kwame and Joe today (they are currently in rehearsals with us for the NCL Gem contract). It was so fun to get to spend some time with them!

What a blessing tonight was! We are praying for successful contracts for all of these friends. Moreover, we're praying that God will bless each one personally.

Bits and "Pieces"

Tonight we went to Vanderbilt hospital to see Jackie England (wife of ZOE singer, David). Please be praying for her. She's had a number of health issues.

As we were leaving, Ella got on the elevator while we were chatting with Amy Westerman and Philip Organ. Before we could react the doors closed and down went one screaming child. (I did the same thing in a mall in El Paso when I was her age and remember it to this day!) We went on a hunt for her and followed the sounds of screams. Sheryl found her on the 5th floor in the care of a very nice woman.

Tonight as I tucked her in I suggested that maybe God had sent an angel to watch over her until we could get there. She said, "God is real...we know it because we feel Him in our spirit and if He weren't real, we wouldn't know love!" Precious!

Then, when Sam went to bed he said, "Mommy, can I have a piece of water?"

I love these days!

Infinity and Beyond

Catching up on some moments from last week...

My Infinity cast is simply amazing. Vocally, they are wowing everyone! It is SUCH a treat working with them. And...they all love each other and get along like crazy. THANK YOU, GOD!

Adam and Jenn wail on "Someday" from West Side Story

One of our incredible and talented Russian dancers

Laura from Scotland

Scott (in the red) has worked for us in years past. He took a few years off from ships after getting married and having a daughter. He and his wife met doing a contract for us on a ship. Melissa is from England. They've been dancing together for a while now.

Scott is about to leave for 6 months (so hard!) and so when his wife and daughter came to town last week, we offered to keep Molly so they could go on a date. Molly is absolutely delightful and the girls LOVED her!

One other story from the weekend-- I was in a bookstore in the DFW airport and asked the young woman behind the desk if they had Shane Claiborne's new book Jesus For President. (I've heard it's awesome) She started to look it up in the computer and said, "How do you spell Jesus?"

As they say on ABC's Nightline, "It's a sign of the times."

Tulsa

We flew back from Tulsa tonight. It was a great weekend...although I really missed Sheryl. Darcy Chapman from Orlando, a long-time friend of Sheryl's and mine came in her place. She did a GREAT job! Go, Darcy!! She will also accompany us to Pepperdine in Melissa's place this year. (Darcy and Tim are dear friends--their blog link is over to the right)

We sang at the arena two times on Saturday and then led at Memorial Rd. this morning where Terry Rush delivered one of the best sermons I have ever heard.

As always, we met some amazing people, had an awesome time together and laughed until we hurt. Here are some pics from the weekend--


(Back row L-R) Philip Organ, Zach Wilson, Phillip Duncan, me, Peter Wilson
(Front row L-R) Darcy Chapman, Melissa Kirby, Amy Westerman, Karin Hensley

Sat night at the arena

Darcy Chapman and me. Darcy and her family live in Orlando. We're looking forward to Malibu when Sheryl will be there too--TIM, you SHOULD come to Malibu! We would have a blast!

ZOE guys--Philip, Peter, Zach, Phillip and me. We had sound check at 7am Sunday morning. We were looking rough. Strike that... I was looking rough.

It's great to be home! Thanks to everyone in Tulsa for their hospitality and warmth...especially to Shane Coffman for being a great event manager! Also, thanks to our own manager and friend, ENO!!

Gary and Ellen Musick

It's been a great day---an awesome lunch with Jason McArthur, a great rehearsal today, an exciting meeting at the William Morris Agency about some projects we're working on, and then a fun night with Gary and Ellen Musick. The Musick's came over tonight and we laughed ourselves hoarse. I am so thankful for the friendship we've developed with them over the last year. It is a pure joy to have them in our lives.

God is so good to bring people of great substance and quality into our lives at the perfect time. We feel that way about Gary and Ellen. They have been a true blessing to us. I lay my head down to rest tonight so grateful for God's provision for us over the last 6 months. The Musicks have blessed us personally but I am also SO GLAD to be working there. The morale, the sense of team work, the respect, the sincere love for each other is so astounding. It's a welcomed gift!

Infinity Run-Through

Today my Infinity cast did their first full run-through of the Broadway shows. They were fantastic!!! I was SO proud of them!

West Side Story section

Les Mis section

A Chorus Line--"One"

Thank You, Jesus!

I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe He is the Son of God and that because of His life, death and resurrection, I have a Hope that is indescribable. I believe His mercies are new every morning. I believe God is the author and authority on grace and new beginnings. I believe that no one is beyond His reach. I believe He loves us when we're unlovable and sees us as we could never see ourselves. I am so grateful for the sustaining power of the Love of Christ!

Happy Easter, friends!

Easter Part 2

More Easter pics from Arkansas! Sheryl kept the kids entertained today with more face paint and we all went down to the river to try and catch crawdads! We also had a big egg hunt at Meemaw and Paw-paw's! It's been a fun day! It's so awesome seeing the kids have so much fun with their cousins, Sierra and Canaan.

Easter Part 1

We had "Easter Wednesday" at my mom's house last week since we are in Arkansas this weekend with Sheryl's family. It was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures from that night...



We are here in Arkansas now with Sheryl's parents and sister and her family. We're celebrating life all around us. The kids playing with their cousins, the laughter of family sharing stories and memories, and watching spring break out in colorful blooms and in the warmth of the sun. All creation testifies to the power of new beginnings!

Christ Jesus has paid the debt--we are saved! We are a new creation because of His sacrifice. What a gift!

I Love My Kids!

Here are a few recent pics of kids. The face paint was done by Sheryl!




This is typical Sam....obsessed with Spider Man and shooting webs from his wrists! LOVE IT!

A Whole New World

Last night as Sheryl was looking through the pictures I posted on Blogger she laughed and said, "Have you considered how different your posts must look these days to bloggers?"

After I thought about it, I completely agreed. It must seem strange. The subtitle of this blog is important right now. People who aren't familiar with the arts have their own impressions of what that world must be like. I have to admit, not all of those impressions are wrong. But, what's cool is people always surprise you. There are many truly wonderful people working as performers...people who have big hearts and who are searchers. There are those who are truly giving, truly grace-filled.

Sheryl and I are in a cool place on our journey. We're having conversations with friends and co-workers that we only talked about having before now. God is bringing new opportunities and relationships into our lives...while strengthening old ones. We are maneuvering these new waters...sometimes frightening, but it's an amazing ride when you know Who's driving the ship. (so to speak!)

Meanwhile, I began with my new cast today---the cast of Celebrity Cruise Line's Infinity. We're working the Broadway show this week---big sections of West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Les Mis, and Chorus Line. Whew! Our cast is very multi-cultural with people from England, Hungary, Russia, USA, and Texas (yes...it's a whole other country!!!!!!) :)

Next weekend ZOE will be in Tulsa. I am looking forward to seeing some of you out there. Have a great week!!