Best Home Remedy - Nail Polish!

Last Friday was our firm picnic and I truly didn't expect it to be that great. I haven't been to a whole lot of company events where I wasn't bored and uncomfortable. But Friday's picnic completely surprised me! Sam Bartholomew, one of the original founding attorneys of this firm, has 180 acres in Kingston Springs with two huge ponds, one for fishing and one attached to a huge covered picnic area with a BBQ pit and a boat launch for paddleboats. Then just across from the pond, there's a good size adorable cabin that was built back in 1780!!! It was the coolest thing and when I first saw it, my response to Brooke and Kacie was "Look! They have their very own Cracker Barrel!" It had a huge screened in porch with rocking chairs, a swing, adorable guest rooms, a big old stone fireplace and in the kitchen you could see over hundred year old newspapers that were sealed into the walls that they had used to patch the holes. I loved this place. Too bad Sam wasn't one of the CEO's I had worked for, cause I would have definitely hit him up for having family reunions out there. Sam took Brooke, Kacie and her boyfriend Dan and myself out on the Gator (which is like a four-wheeler with a flat bed in the back) for a ride out on his property. And it was quite the ride. The three of us girls in the bed of that gator had to have been quite the sight. We were all tucked in and ready for our ride! So off we went and I don't think we stopped laughing for a solid 30 minutes. The picnic was fully catered with the best southern food - ribs, fried chicken, creamed corn, BBQ beans, sweet tea and blackberry cobbler...and if you can't tell, I had a blast. I did take a couple pictures of the property, but I hadn't gotten my storage card for the camera yet, so I could only take 3 pictures. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Kacie, Dan, Brooke & I out on the paddleboat - we were 1 inch from sinking this thing in the middle of the pond. And Kacie and Brooke thought they'd conquer the blow up slide, which in itself was completely hysterical to watch.

I did leave with some souvenirs however, 43 nasty chigger bites. Please don't misunderstand, these things are nothing like mosquito bites. A chigger is a small microscopic bug that bites you and then crawls inside your skin. I googled a picture to see if I could show you all a picture and ended up completely freaking myself out and decided maybe that wasn't such a good idea. When I got home, I didn't feel anything, I just saw some red spots on my legs. Then two days later these blisters popped up on my skin looking like chicken pox. What the heck??? The itching that soon followed cannot be described. No amount of cream could bring the sweet relief I was in need of. I went into work on Monday and immediately had to take off my shoes because of the pain. My attorney Larry proceeded to give me the "Bugs of the South 101" lesson and diagnosed me with chigger bites and then tells me to go buy some clear fingernail polish. Ok what? You lost me at polish. Turns out that clear fingernail polish suffocates these little boogers in my skin, killing the bug and brings relief to the itch so the bite will heal. It is the best home remedy ever!! I'm using polish on all my bites in the future! It doesn't rub off or need reapplying every hour - and it stays on better than a band aid - I love it!!! So lesson learned - if your near the woods in the South, wear bug spray EVEN if you don't see any bugs...trust me, they are there. And apparently every true Southerner has learned this little secret, cause when I've told someone I have chigger bites, the first thing everyone asks me is - you got clear fingernail polish?

The weekend was a slow one for us. We've been fighting some flu bug off and decided to take advantage of the free weekend to get some much needed sleep and rest. It's hit Jason harder than me and he literally slept most all Saturday and half of Sunday before he went into work that night. I took a picture of how peaceful he looked Saturday afternoon, isn't he adorable?

Oh and some great news - I got a raise!! Yeah!!!

Summer...Summer...Summertime!

That's right y'all - we're in the midst of our crazy hot summer here in Nashville and things are starting to heat up for sure! This last week has been a busy one with Jason's parents here for a visit. We packed in as much as we could and a had a great time...and yes, of course we had to do a puzzle! Jason seems to be getting into this whole puzzle thing now, because one night after I went to bed, he stayed up with his mom till almost 4am and almost finished it. I don't know what's got into him lately, but he must be catching the puzzle-bug. Some highlights with Jerry & Sherry that are for sure worth mentioning is having lunch at the Loveless Cafe, dinner at Mortons Steakhouse for Father's Day, (in which we also saw Don King with his entourage), and a Writer's Round at The Commodore in West End with Jason, Jeff Batson and Aaron Sherz performing!! And as a special treat, Jason and his parents were able to drive down to Atlanta to catch a Red Sox game on Monday night.

I had bought a new camera and had planned on taking some pictures, but of course forgot during the most opportune times...dangit. I've got to get better at this!!

Now its back to things as usual, just until we expect our next visitor, my sister KATI!! She flies in on July 3rd, just eleven days from now and I'm starting to get really excited!

Some of you have asked about the status of our hold with Rodney Atkins - well, we're still waiting. It turns out that because his current album is still doing so well, they're going to release a 4th single before starting to record his new album sometime in late August/early September. If you ever feel like you need learn some lessons in patience....Nashville's your town ;-) Jason's a pro at taking it all in stride and trusting God...but I'm still learning. We've been told its a 10 year town - and we're on year number 8. I'm so proud of Jason for sticking in there all these years, most of them on his own, because as I'm fast learning its not an easy business by any means.

In just a short 5 months, we'll be looking to buy a house - yippee!! I can barely contain myself and I try not to get too crazy by browsing through realtor websites, but its just too much fun not to! I've also recently discovered a fun new website for home decor ideas Rate My Space by HGTV.com. I've been in an apartment for the last 6 years and I'm soooo ready to own our house, paint some walls, decorate and then fill it up with family and friends. It's going to be a blast!

I hope your all enjoying some great weather and plenty of BBQ's back home. I'll be up and running with the new camera soon - so stay tuned!

Wow

So many of you know that So You Think You Can Dance has got to be my all time favorite show. And last night was the first episode showcasing the top 20 dancers. I wasn't able to watch the whole thing, but I did see the first hour and oh my word.

Lacey Schwimmer blew my socks off. For an insanely cool performance - watch below

Waiting On Hold

If I could let out a big ol yelp and at the same time remain completely calm, that’s how I would describe my current mood. Crazy I know, but I’m under strict orders not to get too carried away with excitement over Jason having a song PUT ON HOLD!!! That’s right folks – its freakin’ awesome!! Uh…(*clear throat*)…I mean its great news and we hope it all works out just fine.
Out here in Nashville, when you say you’ve got a song on hold, it’s as foreign to Seattle folk as it is to Nashville folk saying, “I’ll have a double skinny no foam cap”. So for those back home, let me break it down for y’all.

Jason and typically one other writer will get together to write a song over the course of a few weeks. Once the song is finished, Jason will then go into the guest bathroom with his guitar and microphone and lay down what we call a “rough cut” (because as we all know, bathrooms have the best acoustics). From there, this “rough cut” is oftentimes taken to our friend Jason Roller and he will lay down all the instrumental tracks – like literally ALL the instruments himself. Roller then mails the instrumental track back to us and Jason will hire a demo singer and schedule a demo session at Aaron Sherz’s recording studio. Once the vocal track gets laid down, we wait a bit for Aaron to work his mixing & editing magic and we end up with a fabulous demo track to pitch to publishers, record labels and artists. These would be the songs that you find on Jason’s MySpace page for example.

At this point, Jason starts to set up meetings with various publishers on Music Row and pitches his latest songs, leaving them with their own copy.

And then we wait….and keep on waiting.

During this time of waiting, whoever has been pitched to, is mulling over whether to put our song “on hold”. You have to remember, there are thousands upon thousands of songs out there being written every day. So getting a call that your song has been put on hold, is not only rare but very exciting when it happens. When a publisher, record label or artist puts a song on hold, it means that we are not to pitch it to anyone else until we receive a decision from them on whether they will cut it or not. This may sound unfair, but let me tell ya – these people have the potential of earning the writer some serious dough, so really, they can do whatever they want as far as we’re concerned. Now if Jason had been signed by a Publisher at this point, then his publisher would be the one pitching his songs and they would be in a better place to call whoever it is that has put the song on hold and ask where they’re at with it. But as an unsigned writer – any hold is awesome and rare and we’re grateful for it.

Now to explain how we got to where we are today. Jason was writing with Aaron Sherz on a song called “That’s How I’d Do It”. Aaron is a signed writer and had shared some of this song to his publisher. His publisher loved it and pushed for them to hurry up and finish the song so he could pitch it. So there we were flying out to CA to see Jason’s parents, and Jason and Aaron are texting one another song lyrics. They eventually finished the song, hired a demo singer and Aaron set about to mix & edit the finished track. The song was done Friday morning. Aaron gave it to his publisher Friday afternoon. His publisher pitched it to Rodney Atkins’ people on Monday and by that afternoon they put the song on hold. The song is less than a week old, pitched to only one artist and we’ve got a hold. Have I mentioned it’s a fabulous song?

Some of you may remember back to the Billy Currington days when he told Jason he loved his song “Right Where We Belong”. Well we waited, but Billy nor his people ever called to put the song officially on hold. The reason being…he decided to write all his own songs for his new album. And can you blame him? Between him and his label, they’ll make all the royalties without having to dish out to a writer their share.

All we know right now is that “That’s How I’d Do It” is officially on hold for Rodney Atkins and that he was scheduled to start recording his album in May. So we should have an answer on whether they’ll want to cut it or not hopefully within the next few weeks….Lord willing. Rodney's doing great as an artist right now as well. He's had two #1 hits recently "Watching You" and "If Your Going Through Hell". and he was also named Best New Male Vocalist at the Academy of Country Music Awards this year.

Please keep us in your prayers. Even if this turns out to not be a cut, it continues to encourage us, because its another positive step forward in the right direction. Jason’s writing only gets better and better and more and more people are sitting up and taking notice. It’s only a matter of time – and the important thing is, is that its in God’s time.

Stay tuned....