So I didn't make it to Nashville last month. That's okay...wasn't the right timing. But, I did get to my alma mater and say a farewell to my amazing vocal coach, Dr. Parsons, who is retiring this year. I love you Dr. P! It was great catching up with all of my college musician friends and seeing where the last 14 years has taken us all. I love seeing that most of my friends are still involved in music in some way or another. SO...the school year is wrapping up which means field trips, end-of-the-year parties, travel soccer, gymnastics, softball, and lacrosse...and oh yeah, MUSIC! The easy thing to do would be to just wait until the kids are older...but I just can't seem to pull away from it. Fortunately I have a very supportive husband and wonderful children and they realize that this is my passion...and they help me to make it part of our lives. I personally feel like I am a better wife and mother by pursuing my dreams, within reason, of course.  So, the summer schedule is filling up. When I say filling up, I mean about once a week-that's about all I can handle with my other responsibilities. But, I'll take it. There are some really fun events going on over the next few months and we really hope you'll check out the schedule and make it to some of them. We'll be doing a summer concert series at a beautiful winery on the Eastern Shore, adding Sly Fox Pub back into the schedule, a couple of music festivals, and then our regular gigs and private events. Joe and I are finally able to get together this week to work on our originals and we hope to have 3-4 completed and ready to record. It WILL happen...all in the right timing. Thanks to you all for supporting what we do and I hope to see you soon :-)

So I have an amazing opportunity in a few weeks to go to Nashville for a long weekend. I'm really hoping it works out. By no means do I plan on getting discovered or whatever people think will happen when they have 3 days in Nashville...but I think it will be very fun checking out the music scene, meeting other musicians, and just being in the middle of all the action. We'll see! I'll definitely be blogging if I get down there....in the meantime, I saw an amazing artist last night at Rams Head Onstage. Actually, two amazing artists. Madi Diaz and Rachel Yamagata. They both had incredible voices and very intense lyrics (which I love)! And I got to go with my dear friend, Danielle Massarini, who is an incredible local musician and our friend Evan Cooper, the local child prodigy! She is a wonderful singer and he is a genius on the piano, guitar, and vocals. I love being around musicians! Joe and I practiced this afternoon and learned 4 more songs we'll be doing at our April 6 show at Metropolitan Kitchen and Lounge. We always get sidetracked and there's so much to do before the school bus pulls up! Today was especially fun though because my 13 year old daughter and her friend took a go with the mic and sang a beautiful version of "Someone Like You..." it was a very proud mom moment and almost brought tears to my eyes :) Things are really going well on the music front...trying to balance life with 5 kids, Joe's full-time job and family, and booking gigs and private parties, putting together marketing materials, and writing original music...can be a little overwhelming sometimes, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Thanks to everyone who supports what we do (especially our families)! I'll write more soon...hope to see you at Metropolitan on April 6.

So I think today is the first time we've ever had a gig that started at NOON, but I guess that's what people do on St. Patrick's Day! I'm really looking forward to playing at Rams Head Roadhouse this afternoon for a couple of hours (just in time to get Mia to a birthday party and Leila to her gymnastics meet)! Gotta fit it in somehow! I wanted to also say that we had a great time last Wednesday performing at the Wellness House Benefit at Metropolitan Kitchen and Lounge. It feels really great to use our music to help a cause, or just to touch someone who may be listening in the audience. Considering The Wellness House helps people with cancer, this was a particularly personal event for me having lost my dad and my brother-in-law to cancer within 3 years. So, I'm really interested in looking into more local causes to support and figure out ways of helping through our music. Well, song-writing update! I wrote a whole song yesterday in about an hour sitting at my favorite spot, Caribou Coffee. Sometimes the lyrics and melody just come from nowhere...other times, I can't come up with a chorus if it kills me. So that was a good morning-we'll hopefully be trying out this new song on April 6 at Metropolitan Kitchen and Lounge. We also did another new song last week called "Say it Yesterday." It went over really well with the audience! Well, I guess I better run...Ty is smearing chocolate pudding on his new shirt...see you at NOON!

What a great time we had last night performing at Annapolis Idol 2012! I was able to sing with an amazing group of previous Annapolis Idol winners...Danielle Massarini, Cat Stratakis, and Shammara Laster...all incredible women with beautfiul voices, along with our little prodigy, Evan Cooper, a 17 year old piano/guitar playing genius who accompanied us...watch out in a few years I think he'll be the next Adam Levine. I also judged the contestants, which was a little intimidating...what do I know?! Finally, a guy won Annapolis Idol, Rob Spangler...who really deserved it and sounded just like Michale Buble' (spelling)? Joe and I performed a "special solo" before the winner was announced and I think it went over well. We just added another gig to this month's list...Kaufmann's Tavern on March 23 from 8:30-12:00. I think that's about all I can handle for March! I'm really looking forward to our charity event at Metropolitan Kitchen and Lounge...we'll be part of a great evening to help support the Wellness House (helping those living with cancer)...a cause very close to my heart as I lost my dad and brother-in-law to cancer at very young ages. We are trying to feel out our "niche" as local musicians...wanting to do more events/causes...I know it will all fall into place at the right time. I'm sad to say that tomorrow I'll be singing at the service of my father-in-law, Danny Estrada, who passed away last Sunday after a battle with alzheimer's disease. "Amazing Grace" was his favorite song and I hope I can do it justice and not fall apart in the middle of the song. Thank you Joe for making yourself available for this special service. I just want to put it out there that I am really enjoying sharing our music with whoever wants to listen. Thank you for checking out our new website and check back for updates. Everyone, have a great Monday :-)

 Okay...seriously I am going to keep up with this thing!! We have a NEW WEBSITE! Thank you to my amazing friend and guitar player Joe Burcham for figuring it out! Pay no attention to the dates on the previous blogs...it won't let us change them. Well we are actually in the car heading to an interview with Barrett King from 106.5 and it will be aired on whatsupmag.com as the newest "local music spotlight." Let us know what you think about our new website! Unfortunately we only have a second, but I wanted to stop in in case anyone is actually reading this! Check back soon :-)

So, I’m not doing so great with the whole blog thing. I mean, it was just Christmas and as we speak there are 15 ten year olds in my basement celebrating my daughter’s birthday-sooo…it’s been a little busy. But, I finally updated our gig schedule. We are playing 3 times in one week in January, which I’m a little nervous about, but those were the only dates we were available…so we’ll make it work. I’m really excited about this upcoming year. Being that tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, seems like a good time to look towards the future a bit. I have a lot of goals for myself and our duo this year…a new CD with at least 4-5 more originals, uploading our songs onto I-Tunes, and booking new venues…to name a few. I think it’s going to be a great year. Now if I could only figure out this website….

It’s 1:00 in the morning and I’m trying to figure out this website! We decided to have our friend Mike upload a template and fill in the pages ourselves…considering I’m completely computer illiterate, I have no idea why I decided that! So, please be patient with the progress of this website. I’m just glad there’s something up here! I still can’t figure out how to change hardly anything, but I’m very proud of myself and think I’m sort of like Einstein for copying and pasting the youtube links I’m just so excited to have a website and be a “real” singer that the details will have to fall in place when they can!! Check back for updated performance information…or just to read this blog…which I think I might actually like updating…just preferably not at 1 am…children. waking. up. in. 6. hours. Goodnight!