I love animals.
If I find one, I'll take it in and try to find a home for it. I can't count how many foster pets have come in and out of my life, but these are the ones that have actually been my pets. I thought I should put them all together in one place.

Zach the Cockerspaniel
Kibbles the cat
Rosemary the rabbit
Delilah the evil rabbit
Peepers the chicken
Cheepers the chicken
Squint the mouse
Bits the mouse
Ginger the Parakeet
Gus the kitten I found in a car engine
A plethora of fish and snails
Bastian the hamster
Bison the cat I rescued from the pound
Buckley the cat
Mr. Man the Pekingese
Stinky the Pekingese

Highlights:

Delilah actually growled. She was responsible for the long scar on the top of my right hand.
Gus lives with my aunt and uncle. He's fat and likes to make friends with lizards.
Bison supported my dad as he recovered from chemo and radiation treatments. Now he watches birds in their courtyard all day.
Kibbles was 21 when he died on my 22nd birthday. He was my only sibling, and my best bud growing up.
I still have Buckley, Mr. Man, and Stinky.
I'm obsessed with Mr. Man.

The end :)

Here are some pix:

Mr. Man:


Stinky:


Buckley:


Kibbles:


Bison:

for some reason, when i approve blog comments, they disappear...so, if you commented and don't see it show up, i'm not sure what happened.
thanks for the comments, though!

Tonight is the 39th Annual Dove Awards.
I spent the majority of yesterday and today sitting in the audience of the Opry house during rehearsals, slowly but surely falling head over heels with Switchfoot's new single "This is Home," from the new Narnia film. The song is new.

So, yeah....I snuck into iMovie and recorded a little bit of it so I could listen at home. Jon Foreman's voice just melts me (not to mention that he looks a little Cobain with his bed head blond hair). I'm really into movie soundtracks right now, too. Anyway, I'm listening to it, and I'm like... man, so what if my job means that I will likely get this for free if I want it... I want it NOW. I want to buy it.

So, I go and hunt around online...

Whadafreak?
I can't find it anywhere except other soundcheck/live performance bootlegs. That's right... my recording is one of about 7 recordings in existence (and no, you can't have it). Here I am, a member of the small group of people somewhat rightfully entitled to free musical product and I actually like the track enough to go spend an hour hunting around for a place that I can buy it... only to find that it isn't available anywhere...ON THE NIGHT THAT IT DEBUTS ON TELEVISION.

Digital musical product does not require manufacturing. There are no costs to produce additional copies of a digital piece of product. It is self replicating, automatic, an endless effortless supply.

The music business is now completely a consumer industry. This is not "if you build it, they will come" territory anymore. We must be there like butlers waiting for the consumer to pick and choose what they want from us around every corner. If they come knocking and we don't have what they're looking for, we lose them...in the same way that we're losing people like me as consumers.

I found the song online.
http://wm.allaccess.com/allaccess/switthis.wma

Right there. Yeah, for free. Full blown studio recording on a semi-official looking band blog site. How can we, as music professionals, expect our consumers to NOT turn to downloading product for free when we aren't there to meet them with product for sale when they do take the time to come looking?

Yes, I download music illegally. However, I have rules to my illegal downloading practices. I think they are worth listing.

STEPS FOR DOWNLOADING SONGS ILLEGALLY WITHOUT THE GUILT

1. Spend 30 - 60 minutes fiercely searching the artist's web site, iTunes, Amazon, Google, etc. for the artist/song/album for SALE. If unsuccessful, proceed to step 2.

2. Download that sh*t! Find it somewhere for free. Go and rip it off of a MySpace profile, if you have to. Do it. If you couldn't find that track for sale after spending an hour searching for it, it's not your fault anymore. I step aside and tell you to GO FOR IT, and make a smug "breakin' the law" face while you're at it. If you partake in step 2, step 3 is REQUIRED.

3. Put that illegal track in your iTunes. Every time you listen to it, pop over to see if it's for sale in the iTunes store, just to give your little courtesy nod to the artist who put some heart into makin' it (not for whatever suits who failed them in not getting it up for sale).

If it's for sale: BUY IT

If it's not for sale: listen to your illegal product and feel bad for the artist who made that song and is missing out on the chance to recoup that $ they owe the label so they can actually start makin' some money...then go to their web site and browse for any merch or concert tix just to see if there's another way to give back to the artist and bypass the suits who failed to make the product available when YOU, the consumer, were ready to shell out some cash for it.

The longer we sit on this musical product, the less valuable it becomes.
I don't get why we would covet a piece of our business while we figure out how to market it, when we already have potential consumers willing to purchase it and start the word of mouth marketing for us to give us a head start... how could our egos be so big to think that we don't need consumer enthusiasm to help build our product? Our consumers are our livelihoods...we need to give them what they want. After tonight, we'll leave thousands of people wanting something that we're not willing to give to them.

I wonder how many of them will still be around with their wallets and ears open when we're ready to let them buy it.
I wonder how many people will go out and get it on their own tonight in the same way that I did...people we'll never know even existed...

So, in a couple of hours, I'm headed to the beach. Not just any beach, but a beach in Southern Alabama close to my Mema and Aunt Faye. I haven't been down there in probably almost 10 years.
Funny thing is, I'm going with my best friend from first grade. She and I were inseparable from first through fifth grade. Her mom was a flight attendant for the now defunct Piedmont airlines, and we'd have slumber parties whenever her mom would go out of town. We were in the same classes. We were in girl scouts together. We talked about boys together, played My Little Ponies, watched Disney movies, ate chocolate together. We went to summer camp together. I was with her on the bus on the way home from summer camp when she got her first period. We fought when one of us felt like the other wasn't cool enough to sit in lunch together, when I was allowed to start wearing makeup before her, when one person was invited to a party/event and the other wasn't. We took jazz, tap, and ballet together and did those little recitals. We went to the beach together.
Her father passed away when she was very little, and her mom did an amazing job raising her as a single mother. We haven't really ever talked about it, but because she didn't have a father figure in her life, she was very special to my family, especially to my dad, who made it a point to be a positive male figure in her life as much as appropriate and possible when we were together. In short, he was always a great sport being surrounded by women.
I remember one summer, in particular, we all went to the beach together. It was my mom, dad, her mom, her, and me. Shortly after arriving at the beach, we found out that a hurricane was coming our way, so we hunkered down in the beach condo that we were renting for the night instead of going out. The cable was out, and we couldn't leave to go get movies. We had no board games, and things were quite boring for two somewhat hyperactive 8-9 year old girls. To entertain us, my dad let us dress him up like a woman. I still have photos of him wearing a pop-bead necklace, bright red lipstick, fake eyelashes, two rolls of toilet paper with plumbs on the end of them as boobs. It was hilarious. I still look back on that as one of my most fond memories of how cool my Dad is.

She and I aren't quite best friends anymore since fifth grade, when I transferred to another school and we started having less things in common. As time passed, I honestly wasn't sure that we'd see each other ever again. For all i knew, she was still back in Charlotte, NC, and here I was in another time zone.

Enter the power of the Internet.
Three years ago, I was at my first post-college job working front desk for a music web/marketing company, and had some spare time, so I started Googling her to try to find out what she was up to. It was almost exactly 10 years after we had last seen each other. Somehow, I found a screen name somewhere attached to an aol email address from a message board post that she had made years earlier. I gave it a shot, and low in the hole, she was signed into her AIM account from her mobile phone. She responded with amazement at how I'd found her. We exchanged phone numbers and reconnected.

Come to find out, she was in the military! Talk about going in different directions. I went music business, and she went military. But, the interesting thing was that she was stationed less than 30 minutes away from me. She told me how she was going to be shipping out to Iraq in about two months, so we hurried to spend time together before she left. It was so great to see her.
Then, I got engaged. A couple of weeks later, SHE got engaged! And then I randomly ran into her and her Mom, who now lives in upstate NY while I was modeling wedding dresses at a bridal show. She and her mom were shopping for wedding gowns. It was amazing.

She came back from Iraq slightly over a year ago, and Jeff and I were able to go to her wedding.I never actually thought that I would be able to go to the wedding of my best friend from first grade, but I did.

Shortly after coming back from Iraq, she left the military. In May, she moved here, to Nashville. She lives very near one of my artists, so whenever I go out to his house, I stop by and have dinner with her.

No, we don't really have anything but history and memories in common, anymore. But, she reminds me of my childhood. She reminds me of that time with my Dad in drag at the beach in a hurricane. And here 16 years later, we're 25 and married, and we're going to the beach together again to form more memories of our own.

The past two years have been so full of loss and near loss, but so full of gain that it's difficult to see the loss without straining the eyes a bit.

Life is moving so quickly, that it's hard to not feel a moment or two of that "quarter life crisis" feeling... but there's still so much in store, and Jeff and I are so blessed to have what we have and to have each other.

Off to the beach!

Hey all,
After a year and a half, our episode of HGTV's "House Hunters" is finally scheduled to air! If you really want to see Jeff and I make fools of ourselves on TV, feel free to tune in!!

Show description on HGTV.com

Airtimes on HGTV (check local listings for channel):
8/2 at 10pm ET/PT
8/3 at 2am ET/PT
8/5 at 7:30pm ET/PT

Love,

Morgan

We got basic cable and high speed Internet installed yesterday. Previously, we'd been on DSL and used the antenna for the TV.

HOW IN THE WORLD IS IT THAT WE GOT MORE TV CHANNELS AND BETTER RECEPTION USING THE BUNNY EARS THAN PAYING FOR BASIC CABLE?! What a crock!

Totally gonna cancel that!

Hey, at least this time the Comcast guy didn't cuss at me and compare me to his ex wife!

By the way, for all those who were there for the taping, or are looking forward to seeing familiar faces on the show: Our House Hunters episode is in the queue for being aired sometime around the end of the year. We don't have any specifics, but expect that it will probably air sometime around the end of November or December. We'll make sure to let everyone know when we find out specifics!

-M



UPDATE: International episodes must air.
THEN our episode will air sometime in the Spring.

Check back.

When He says "This too, shall pass..." He wasn't kidding.

I find the most humility and gratitude when I am forced to dwell in the dark places. It is here, that contrast between my darkness and His light is purely remarkable.

Trusting God, simply relaxing and allowing Him to guide my path - this is where I find the most success. Again, the theme for the past year is "Everything I do for myself will crumble....and amidst the shambles, everything God has for me will rise to the surface, far above anything I could ever provide for myself."

I'm learning patience and trust...and it's paying off - in so many ways.

My rather "duh" advice to you, reader:
Don't allow hearsay to govern what you believe to be fact about someone.
You may just end up looking like an idiot when she finally has the chance to defend herself.

____________________
I have spent the past few weeks becoming one with my nerd-self.
I busted out Jeff's PS2 and have been playing Okage Shadow King when he has band practice... I'm addicted! I've even missed two episodes of Grey's Anatomy to play this game.
I'm at the final stage in the game where I have to fight the last Evil King and I'm finding that I need to level up some in order to give myself more strength.  The thing is, in order to level up some more, I have to keep fighting all of these silly little "ghost" characters and I HATE the fighting parts of the game. I just like exploring stuff...totally girly when it comes to video games (I like Pikmin and would LOVE it if there was a Barbie or JEM* kinda video game). Anyway, I've totally given up. I'm too lazy to try to fight like 50 more ghosts in order to level up enough to beat this evil king. There's still this nagging curiosity that there may be some super cool way to explore the whole world and do cool stuff if I beat him.
Hmph.
Here's to finding a cheat-sheet on the web!
;)

ok, i typed out this long blog entry but then my browser crashed and i lost it. i'm not really up for re-typing it all. ok, maybe i am. so, yeah. as of last night, Jeff and i are officially getting married on Saturday, November 26 in Charlotte, NC. we regret not being able to have the event that we were planning so that we could have included all of our friends/family, but we've all decided that this is the best option so that we can be sure to have my dad present at the wedding. oh! the wedding dress that i'd ordered wasn't scheduled to come in until after Christmas, so i don't have anything to wear. if you know anyone who has a size 6 or 8 floor length white/off white/cream/mother of pearl/etc. dress that i can borrow, holla at me. we'll still have the event. it'll just be postponed until dad is done with treatments. that may be 9 months to a year, though. if you just can't wait, we're registered at Target and Pottery Barn under our original February 18 Nashville wedding date! ha! just kidding. we don't deserve any presents. well, at least not until we get some other people some presents. i feel like such a troll! we've been to three weddings in the past couple of months and haven't gotten anyone a gift yet. John & Megan, Peter & Julia, Shay & Steven. we love you guys. i promise we haven't forgotten about you! in other news, we finally became homeowners this week. we're in the midst of moving moving moving. it's funny. we have so much stuff to move, but none of it is furniture. for me, it's all soaps, lotions, paints, paint brushes, clothes, notebooks, books, CDs...for Jeff it's all musical equipment, CDs, books, DVDs, blah blah. but, last weekend we filmed an episode of House Hunters for HGTV. it won't air for a while, though. they still have to come back to film us again after we're "settled." i'm not sure how "settled" we can get without any furniture, so i've taken up a massive painting project painting all of the walls to give the house some variations. let's hope that passes for "settled." if you're in charlotte on the 26th (and i know you) and you want to hang out, we're going to try to hang out with some people after the wedding...just for champagne and cake or something...though we don't have a cake or any champagne! haha. i'm sure we can work something out. we'd just like to see some friends that evening. so yeah, call me or Alisa. dad is heading to Houston the following Wednesday to begin 2-3 months of radiation and chemo treatments. we really appreciate your thoughts and prayers. my daddy means so much to me. i just want him to get well. i tell you, my mother has set the most amazing example far as how she has supported and taken care of him. what an amazing woman. it's a valuable example for someone who is about to become a wife, herself. God is still so very good. so good. i've come to believe that God doesn't make unfortunate circumstances happen to people. he doesn't simply leave us out there alone, either. God is most evidently present in the way that we humans are there for each other in the midst of unfortunate circumstances. i've gone from having complete control over everything from a house, a wedding, my relationships, my finances, everything so perfect and certain...to having everything just blowing around in the wind. it's such an incredible learning experience to find out that the things that we value so highly are so ephemeral and fleeting...and the only thing that we can count on as consistent and certain is God's love and the blessing that He has given us in our friends and family. thoughts like those make it more difficult for me to feel bad about this whole situation. i can't help but be grateful for the opportunity to have a greater appreciation for the blessings that i have - blessings that have been given to me, not the things that i've sought out for myself. i'm learning: to cherish my future husband and the amazing fact that he loves me, to cherish that i have the option to talk to my parents on the phone as often as i like, to cherish my parent's devotion to me and one another, my friends' desire to hang out with me even though i'm a huge nerd, and the fact that my employer thinks enough of me to keep me on the payroll - learning to cherish these things that i've been given, because the things that we are given will take root and will support us when we can't stand on our own. cherishing the wedding, the house, the car, the ring, the hair do, the fashion shows, the bridesmaids dresses, the paint colors, the catering menu, all of things that i've sought out and acquired for myself - that's like always wanting what you can't have, trying too hard to fit in to that "popular crowd" in high school, etc. those things will never be there for you when it counts. the people who love you, they will. by the grace of God, they will. ok. i just convinced myself that it's even MORE important that i make wedding gifts happen for my dear friends sooner than later. i'll get on that when we get back in town. geez. i'm a troll! i'm so incredibly lucky to have the chance to be the wife of such an incredible stud muffin. what a man! yessss!

This past Wednesday, Jeff asked me to marry him. Then, on Saturday, we put a deposit on building a place in downtown. Then, on Sunday, we got a puppy. His name is Mr. Man. He's an 8 week old Pekingese. Next weekend, our parents are coming to town to meet eachother. I have a lot of cleaning to do. I love Jeff.