Hey guys! Check out Dark Horse Artists page today! I'm the featured Female Artist and my song Not My Will is song of the day.
I need your vote for Favorite Female Artist and you have to be a member of myspace to vote! So...help me out guys! :)
much love~
karen

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=126504178

I just got home from a highschool choir reunion and am I glad I went!  I haven't seen some of these folks since the tail end of the 80's.  SCARY!  We all look a bit older but some things never change.  Some friends are like, I don't know, riding a bike.  You can not ride one for years, but then you hop on one and it's like you've ridden one all your life.  This group of people just made me laugh and laugh...like we just got off of choir tour last week.  I haven't sung in a choir for years so I was a bit rusty at the "site-reading-sheet-music" thing, so i went on my memory. :)

I was a bit of a rebel back then so I think I surprised a few folks and maybe picked up a few new fans along the way.  I was able to sing 3 original songs this weekend and got to hear some of my favorite singers from way back when. I can't believe I almost bailed out and didn't come b/c we were going to have to wear khaki pants and they are SO. NOT. SLIMMING.   :)

Ok...all shallow thoughts aside, it was a great night of praising God and singing old songs that brought back memories.  It's late and since I'm up at this hour writing, you know it was something special. :)

Keep your eyes peeled for my new Hymns album.  Should be ready this fall.  I'm also going to be on Itunes pretty soon and I'll let ya know when that happens.  I love downloading!  who doesn't?  Way easy. :)

God Bless and I'll be in touch soon.

~karen

Hey guys...just added a new song on Fanfaves but for some reason, my computer won't let me add a link to my blog?????
But if you go to my profile and click on the link that says "indieheaven" it will take you to the fanfaves chart. I've added "Anywhere But Here" and you'll find it under either VIEW ALL or genre: Songwriter. :)
Take it easy and let me hear from ya!!!
~karen

http://www.indieheaven.com/fanfaves.php

Hey guys...check out a new song I wrote about my baby Jill...if you have a 2 year old...you will definitely relate! :)

I sang a new song this morning in my home church that I'd written sometime last summer. It was new to them, but not to me. The song is called Beautiful and it's about finding our identity in Christ and not in anything else. After rehearsal my preacher came up to me teary-eyed and gave me a high five. That meant a lot to me. After singing it in 3 services I was overwhelmed by the comments and responses I received.

So here's my point. Sometimes I'm soooo worried and preoccupied with trying to get my music 'out there" and heard and on the radio and listened to by industry people that I forget what's really important. That God gave me a gift to minister to others. Not win contests, hit 1 on charts (although that's way fun!), or impress the big-wigs. But to minister. Sometimes it's very hard for me to see that right here in Midland, Tx God is using my music for His glory. Sometimes i just need a good smack in the face, so-to-speak, from God to be content and blessed by how He's already using me whether my songs ever make it outside of this city or not.

And I'm back to the reason i wrote the song Either Way. I just want to be content with where God has me... and not always pining away for something I may not ever attain. Not that I get lazy and never try to go the next step with my music and ministry, but to not miss the blessings that are right here. This is where I live, this is where God has me. Maybe I don't need to be so caught up in spreading seeds all over creation, at least in this stage of my life ( I have little ones) but to go ahead and bloom where I'm planted....and who knows? Maybe someday God will blow the seeds to other places...maybe...:)

Hey guys! I’ve posted 2 new videos...of the same event. :) It’s from December when I was on Babbie Mason’s talk show. Check them out and tell me what you think! :)
~karen

Hey everyone! Both my songs are at 1 on Indieheaven’s Top 20 and Fanfaves! :) Thanks sooo much. It’s been almost 30 days so my Either Way is probably going to disappear here in a day or 2...but it’s been fun finally seeing 1. Once your song has been on the Fanfaves chart 30 days it is automatically deleted. I’m hoping it makes the cut to the Top 20 for next month. We’ll see...but I appreciate all the votes I’ve been getting. I’m been absent from my computer for almost a week since it crashed last week. But my new iMac arrived today...yippee...now I just have to figure out how to use it...not fun. :( I lost all my songs, email addresses, photos....EVERYTHING, b/c I’m a knucklehead and forgot to back up my files. I’m hoping Mr. Smart computer man at Circuit City is still working on retrieving my files. My $100 I paid him is also hoping he finds it!!!! ;)
Well....just wanted to check in...hope everyone is doing well and be looking for new videos. I have 2 to add, I just need to figure out how!
~karen

Sooo...I take my 2 older yahoos to Lubbock with my friend and her kiddos for 2 fun nights at an Embassy Suites with a heated pool.  Mmmmm...such fun! :)  Well, we decide to go see a movie...and here’s how it goes! (See if any of you  have ever had THIS happen to you???)

First, we wait in line for DECADES in 40 below weather to get $8 a piece tickets to a dumb movie I don’t really want to see anyway.

Next, I wait in the snack line...FOREVER...pay $25 for kiddie popcorns/drinks (4) and a popcorn/drink for myself...of course...:)

Oh...I had my friends 2 girls with me while she had her other 2 watching a different movie, so basically, I had no help.

My kids were already up in their seats saving spots because the Lubbock Juvenille detention center decided to show up with a bus full of (*cough*) sweet kids and see the same movie.  There was a bus load of them, mind you.  Sooo I get all the treats myself. 

I get into the theater, start walking up the steps and BAM...I miss the next step.  Popcorn is flying everywhere, coke is flying, people are giggling to themselves, my kids are mortified...25 dollars down the toilet, a skinned knee...coke-soaked treats...oh yeah..and I’m SOOOO EMBARRASSED!!!!!!!!!!!  and that’s not even the worst part!

I’m totally hacked off...embarrassed...I go BACK to the treat line, wait FOREVER again, and finally get to the front.  I tell the little fella behind the counter the WHOLE story and you know what he says?  He says..well...you can go dumpster dig and bring back the trays and cups for us to refill...WHAATTT??? is he kidding me???? Dumpster dig..??? here??? in this nasty theater...I don’t think sooooo.... Well you can guess...I’m LIVID!!! but when I get mad, I cry. :(  So, here come the tears.  I say, "so basically I’ve got 2 choices...go dig for the trays and get some nasty fungus disease to spread to my children OR ante up $25 more dollars for treats??"  Yep...

Soo..thru my tears I say....Just give me a large popcorn.  Mind you...my knee is KILLING me, I’m crying, embarrassed, BROKE....and then...my fairygod- manager shows up and pushes Junior aside and says..."Tell me what you lost, we’ll replace everything."  What, I say?  everything?  I’m not out almost a hundred dollars for this dumb movie after all???

So the sweet lady replaces my goodies, I go BACK into the theater with everyone watching with anticipation to see if lightening can strick twice...but I made it.  Grouchy, however, and a wee bit thankful for the sweet lady who stepped in to save my day.  Maybe she was an angel in disguise, who knows? 

But boy did God teach me a lesson that day...and that was to...bring my own snacks to the theater!  KIDDING...no really.  I don’t know what lesson I learned but I know He saw the whole thing and maybe, just maybe gave that sweet lady manager a little prick in her heart to save the day for that poor haggled blond lady with mascara running down her face. 

I choose to believe God wants to be involved in all parts of our daily lives...including the snack line at your local theater. :)

Hey!  Well, it’s 50 mile an hour wind here in the sunny town of Midland, TX.  I about had my door torn off while paying 3,000$  for a tank of gas for my supersized SUV!  What is up with the gas prices? (That is sarcasm...since I live in Midland...BIG oil town :)

my point?  Ok...well, I’ve been working hard at learning how to write praise and worship songs.  I’m just a different kind of songwriter.  I love WORDS and LOTS of them....and funky chords and weird harmonies.  Not real condusive  to praise and worship.   BUT...I am proud to say...that after basically giving up "trying" God gave me a song about being thankful.  I find myself complaining most of the time rather than just being thankful for Him and all the little blessings that seem to go unnoticed.

...and as dirt was blowing in my eyes and tumbleweeds were chasing my car...and "datenight" with my husband was cancelled due to monsoon winds...I found myself...thankful.  Thankful that we could just stay home and have movie night...that tomorrow morning there’s no "crack of dawn" basketball game to go to...that I was finally able to pen a song shorter than 5 minutes...

 I think God was nudging me a bit to quit griping and just be thankful!  My mom always reminds me that the Bible tells us..."IN everything, give thanks."  Sometimes we think it’s FOR everything...and how do we reconcile being thankful for so many things that break our hearts?  But IN the situation...we can still be thankful that HE is still the same God that was right here when things were kind of easy... when maybe we didn’t think we needed Him all that much...maybe...??

All this to say...I love how God uses different ways to teach me a lesson...this time he actually taught me one by giving me a song....a short one,even...how cool is that?