singing in a shower. kinda.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

Wednesday was a total surprise. My entire schedule changed on Tuesday around 5:30 p.m. when Full Sail called me and asked if I could fill in for a recording session because the scheduled artists canceled. The session was 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 on Wednesday. I almost said no because I’m still on cold medicine and my voice is a little gravely and thin. But, sticking to my “preparation meets opportunity” mindset, I said yes and spent all Wednesday morning warming up, selecting songs and printing lyrics for the session. My expectation was that I would hear exactly what I needed to work on and those expectations were definitely met. There’s one song I do that’s very upbeat, kinda honky tonk and bluesy at the same time. I can get away with so much more in live performance because of the fun lyrics and the energy from the audience, but when it’s just me in a soundproof room – eek. I’ve got some SERIOUS work to do.

FSInstructorEngineer was talking with me after the session, throwing out the appropriate and somewhat obligatory compliments, but I knew he was blowing rainbows. I mentioned that I planned to work with a vocal coach and he made a recommendation that I think I’ll take. This coach has worked with some names I recognized and also works with Disney vocalists. I asked if he would work with someone like me and FSInstructorEngineer yes, so . . . I’ll call and see what happens.

When I asked for a referral for a recording project, FSInstructorEngineer said he would be interested and we should talk. I told him I wasn’t ready and he said I’m closer than I think. I don’t agree. I’m “good enough” but if you know me at all – “good enough” does NOT work for me. If I don’t have the sound, I’m not going to allow someone to give it to me using technology. At some point EVERYone sounds good with a little reverb. I refuse to make a CD that sounds like I recorded the entire thing in a tiled shower.

So, that said. Here’s a clip from one of the songs I recorded yesterday. This is a called a “rough cut” which means that it hasn’t been mixed by a professional. It’s just me and the background music and whatever the students did with it. Which is why it sounds like I’m in a shower.

an mp3 mom meme.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

I’ve been tagged for a fun music meme by Elle at A Complete Thought. Here are the instructions:

1. Put your iPod (or MP3 player) on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag some Moms you admire who could use a laugh and a song.

My mp3 player actually had a dead battery, so my sweet FirstHusband found the power supply, charged the player, and completed the meme FOR me while I put PinkGirl to bed. Here’s the result:

HOW DID YOU BECOME A MOM?
“Changes in Lattitudes, Changes in Attitudes” by Jimmy Buffett (Changes in Lattitudes, Changes in Attitudes)

WHAT DID YOU THINK THE FIRST TIME YOU SAW YOUR BABY?
“Faithfully” by Journey (Frontiers)

WHAT DID YOU DO THE FIRST MORNING AFTER A SLEEPLESS NIGHT?
“Behind These Hazel Eyes” by Kelly Clarkson (Breakaway)

WHAT DO YOU SAY WHEN SOMEONE COLORS ON THE WALL?
“Sweet, Sweet Song of Salvation” by Selah (Selah)

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH A TODDLER’S BODILY FLUID ISSUES?
“Heart and Soul” by Huey Lewis and the News (Sports)

IF SOMEONE SAYS “Can I have a snack?” YOU SAY?
“What Have You Been Doing Lately” by Relient K (The Anatomy of Tounge in Cheek)

IF SOMEONE LEAVES THEIR STUFF ON THE FLOOR, YOU SAY?
“Bad Sneakers” by Steely Dan (Katy Lied)

IF SOMEONE ISN’T SICK TODAY, YOU SAY?
“It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” by Billy Joel (Glass Houses)

HOW DO YOUR KIDS ENJOY YOUR COOKING?
“You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me” by Diana Krall (Love Scenes)

HOW DID YOUR KIDS DO IN SCHOOL TODAY?
“There Must Be a Way” by Louis Armstrong (What a Wonderful World)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHILE SITTING IN CARPOOL LINE?
“Come to Me” by Bonnie Rait (Luck of the Draw)

HOMESCHOOLERS, WHAT IS THE FIRST SUBJECT TAUGHT OF THE DAY?
“The Coast” by Paul Simon (The Rhythm of the Saints)

WHAT DO YOUR KIDS WANT TO BE WHEN THEY GROW UP?
“Goodbye Earl” by The Dixie Chicks (Fly)

WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR KIDS TO BE WHEN THEY GROW UP?
“Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes” by kd lang (Shadowland)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY AS A MOM?
“From Way Up Here” by Pierce Pettis (Tinsletown)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE AS A MOM?
“This Nightlife” by Clint Black (Put Yourself in My Shoes)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO AS A MOM?
“Pushing the Needle Too Far” by The Indigo Girls (Nomads, Indians, Saints)

HOW DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE REALLY A MOM?
“Take it Easy” (Live) by the Eagles (Hell Freezes Over)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MOST OFTEN AS A MOM?
“Walking Man” by James Taylor (Walking Man)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY AS A MOM?
“Little Girl Blue” by The Carpenters (Lovelines)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET AS A MOM?
“I Can’t Love You Anymore” by Lyle Lovett (The Road to Ensenada)

WHAT IS THE BEST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE AS A MOM?
“Same Old Love” by Anita Baker (Rapture)

WHAT DO YOUR KIDS DO THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
“So Many Words” by Pierce Pettis (Tinsletown)

WHAT DO YOUR KIDS DO THAT MAKES YOU CRY?
“I May Know the Word” by Natalie Merchant (Tigerlily)

WHAT DO YOUR KIDS DO THAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
“Honkey Tonk Blues” by Huey Lewis and the News (Sports)

HOW DO YOUR KIDS DESCRIBE YOU AS THEIR MOM?
“Yellow Moon” by the Neville Brothers (Yellow Moon)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
“Weasel and the White Boys Cool” by Rickie Lee Jones (Rickie Lee Jones)

WHAT WILL YOUR MOM OF THE YEAR CERTIFICATE SAY?
“Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” by Willie Nelson (The Essential Willie Nelson)

This last one was FirstHusband’s favorite – but it is a song HE put on MY mp3 player a while back because HE liked it and wanted me to listen to it. But, hon. Willie Nelson? okay. I’ll try.

My favorites?

WHAT IS THE BEST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE AS A MOM?
“Same Old Love” by Anita Baker (Rapture)

and

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO AS A MOM?
“Pushing the Needle Too Far” by The Indigo Girls (Nomads, Indians, Saints)

And I do have hazel eyes.

I’m tagging any of the following moms who might happen to have an mp3 player (and a few minutes to spare) – Stephanie at Scraps, Memarie Lane, Tina at Multiple Mom T, Audra Krell, Mocha with Linda, Sandy at Jesus and Dark Chocolate and Amy at Diaries of a Not So Super Mom

I’m curious to see what’s on your mp3 players!

“. . . therefore I quote” Pausch & Hartman

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

I read, therefore I quote.

“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. ”
— Randy Pausch (The Last Lecture)

There’s a similar quote by Henry Hartman:

“Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity”

My fear is that I’ll get what I’m asking for.

That would be singing and speaking work.

And I’m not sure I want it.

My other fear is that I won’t get any singing or speaking work.

I know. I’m so decisive.

I called my assistant pastor last week and told her that I was available to sing and/or speak at events. For years, I’ve been making myself UNavailable. She immediately had a few ideas and she asked me if I had any recordings of my singing or speaking. And now I’m on youtube.

And now I’m not sure I should be.

One of the youtube clips, “It is What is Is” (Squirrel in the Chimney) was from a Mother’s Day brunch last May. I accepted the invitation because it was local and only a few hours on a Saturday. So much fun! I had a GREAT time. But I had so many other things going on last year, I knew the timing wasn’t right.

A number of years ago, I led music and performed at a weekend retreat and was a key speaker at another. I left Friday afternoon and returned Sunday afternoon. A LOT of work, but a very comfortable fit. LOVED the experience. HATED being away from my family for the entire weekend. I missed EVERYTHING! With a husband who sometime travels and works late, weekends are FAMILY time. I didn’t – and still don’t – want to give that up. We don’t have that many years left until the kids have their own agendas on the weekend. It’s starting with FavoriteSon already.

And with a husband who sometimes travels and works late, evening speaking engagements aren’t really a good idea either. Years ago, we actually instituted a family “policy” about school nights. We don’t participate in activities that required weeknight involvement. We didn’t go to Wednesday night church for years because it ended AFTER PinkGirl’s bedtime. We tried it a few times, but Thursday mornings were HORRIBLE, and on Thursday afternoons after school my children were replaced by their evil, cranky twins.

But now, the kids are older. They stay up a little later. If they stay home alone they actually do what they’re supposed to do – like homework or cleaning up. Okay, they’re kids, so SOMETIMES they do what they’re supposed to do. The point is that FavoriteSon babysits his sister pretty well. She sometimes calls us to tell us NOT to come home because they’re having too much fun.

Now, my family could come with me if I travel. Now, for some reason, I’m thinking that leading a weekend retreat every once in a while wouldn’t be a bad idea. FirstHusband is interested in joining with some other dads at church who take their kids camping one weekend a month. And I would be home all weekend alone. I could relax and do nothing . . . but seriously. Regular readers. Can you see that happening? B O R I N G.

So. I opened a door. Now I prepare, because I believe Randy and Henry.

For me, preparing includes getting my voice into shape. I appreciate the compliments on the youtube videos, but I heard me too. I’ve got some serious work to do. My range is diminished, my breath control is weak and my repertoire is very thin. Since I do better with deadlines, I’m scheduling a recording session at a local school. I’ll be a student project. I’ve done it before and it was a great learning experience. There’s nothing like listening to yourself all alone on a track. eek. I can REALLY tell what I need to work on after that.

Preparing also means putting together some presentations. The hard part is deciding which topics to do first. If someone would just give me a topic, I could just do it. FirstHusband thinks I should create a presentation on “grace based parenting.” hmmm. Is he thinking I need a little reminding? Couldn’t hurt.

Preparing also means updating my website. I’m thinking. I’m learning.

I’m preparing for opportunity.

And hoping it occurs Monday through Friday during school hours.

little known facts & a youtube debut

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

I’ve been tagged for a “little known facts about me” meme by Debbie over at Midnight Musings. I haven’t added to my “little known facts page” (upper right corner) in quite a while, so this is good prompting. I’ve been doing a little recipe research/menu planning lately, so I’ll get some food facts out of the way first.

1. I like “clean” food. Not really a “sauce” person. Especially sweet sauces. Or thick sauces. FirstHusband is a sauce man.

2. I almost ALWAYS order salad with dressing on the side. I don’t care for salad soup, where there’s a puddle of salad dressing at the bottom of the bowl when I’m finished. Instead, I dip my fork in the little bowl of dressing before using it to stab some salad. At home, I can measure and add just the right amount , so it’s no big deal.

3. I love mushrooms. In anything. Cooked or raw.

4. I hate salmon. I went to London on an MBA class trip and was inundated with salmon everywhere we went. My classmates were convinced I would like it if I tried it baked. or grilled. or smoked. or poached. or whatever. I finally said, “How much salmon do I have to try before you all believe I DON’T LIKE SALMON?”

5. Sometimes, when we go out to dinner, I ask FirstHusband to “surprise me” and place my order for me. When I’ve made enough decisions for the day – or maybe for the week – and I just don’t want to make even one more, no matter how small, he graciously does this for me. Knowing my anti-sauce, anti-salmon, dressing on the side and mushroom preferences, among other things, he always does a GREAT job.

6. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a vocalist, but I’ve been too lazy to post any clips. Well, I finally took the time to figure out how to capture video from my antiquated camcorder, convert it to the “right” format and upload it to youtube. FavoriteSon was the camera man and he’s new at it, so we’ll cut him a break. I cut the beginning of this song because there was a dad/kid dispute near the camera which was louder than the music. This is Mary Did You Know, performed by me on Christmas Eve.

My daughter and I also performed a duet, singing Away in a Manger. She sang the first verse, we sang the second together and I sang the third verse alone. Two things of note. First, when she leaned over and whispered into my ear, JUST before we started singing the second verse, she whispered, “I accidentally farted.” (NOBODY tell her I posted that!!!) Secondly, notice her sneaky grin at the end of the song on the last few notes – JUST before she “bunny eared” me.

This last song is one of my favorites, Breath of Heaven, originally made popular by Amy Grant, but more recently by Nicol Sponberg, formerly of the group Selah. My camera man had a little trouble in the beginning, was too shy to tell a guy in a suit that he was blocking the camera in the middle and the tape ran out at the end.

7. I’ve probably mentioned that I also do a little public speaking, but until last year, I didn’t have a recording of any of my presentations. (And I didn’t know anything about uploading videos to youtube). This was recorded last May at a Mother’s Day Brunch. Please forgive the quality of the video, the lighting was not conducive to videotaping, but the audio guy did a great job!

So, Debbie, THANK YOU for the meme tag. It prompted me to FINALLY do this! I was recently asked if I had any recordings of my work and I knew I needed to get that May 2007 video up on youtube, but I was just dragging my feet. done. It’s after 1:00 a.m. – Kristin – are you up?


UPDATE: October 2009 – Uploaded more speaking samples to my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JulieStilesMills

Then Sings My Soul Saturday – Hay Baby & The Greatest Gift

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

One of my favorite Christmas CDs is It Feels Like Christmas Again by Jeff and Sheri Easter. You can hear some clips here at www.christanbooks.com, but it’s less expensive to purchase pre-owned at http://www.amazon.com.

One of the coolest songs is:

Hay Baby – you may need to register with imeem.com (free) to hear it.

Another one of my favorites is this one:

Merry Christmas everyone. My Christmas was late and I’m still celebrating. Just without the stress or the deadlines.

For more Saturday music, check out Then Sings My Soul Saturday every Saturday hosted by Amy at Signs, Miracles and Wonders.

Osborne Family Light Show

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

We went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Family Light show Saturday night. These 2007 videos are good, and they give you some idea of the number of lights and the work that goes into the light “choreography” alone, but there’s just NOTHING like standing in the middle of all those lights, surrounded by the music. It always gives me goose bumps.

Some find it too loud, but to them I say, plug your ears and complain somewhere else.

This is a video from this year, but the camera man tends to move around a little too much, so if you get motion sickness, be forewarned.

he is my density. part II.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

Here’s another example of how well FirstHusband “gets” me. He truly is my density.

So, today was Homecoming for our church and I was asked to sing “I’m Building this House On the Rock.”

Now, I can get my twang on, but this wasn’t just a little bit southern gospel, it was a LOT southern gospel. I rehearsed all week and I tried to get into it, to make it my own, but . . . it just wasn’t happening. Last night, as I was rehearsing again, I stopped, turned to FirstHusband and asked,

“Do you know what I need to really make this song work?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he nailed it.

“Big hair?”

“EXACTLY!”

And that’s what I went for this morning, although I toned it down a little. I didn’t want to scare small children. Reba McIntire would have been proud.

he is my density.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

FirstHustband “gets” me.

His job requires some travel. Some weeks more than others. Last week, he went up to Ft. Walton on Monday and was supposed to come home Tuesday evening. This in and of itself is annoying because there USED to be a direct flight from Orlando to Ft. Walton on USAir. He USED to be able to go and come back on the same day. NOW, he has to fly Delta through Atlanta. We call Atlanta the “Black Hole of the Delta Quadrant.” Star Trek geeks fans will understand.

Unfortunately, he and his traveling companion missed their flight home Tuesday night, so they rented a car and drove home. Instead of coming straight to the house, he had to drive to the airport to get his truck, about 30 minutes past his exit to our house. Then he had to check in the rental and drive about 45 minutes home. He got in the house after 3:00 a.m. The reason he couldn’t wait for next flight out of Ft. Walton on Wednesday morning was because he was flying out of Orlando AGAIN on Wednesday around noon. I had to drive him to the airport on Wednesday because I put my car in the shop and needed to keep the truck.

So his Wednesday through Friday trip was to Knoxville, Tennessee (and yes, I pronounce it “KNOCKSv’ll, TEN asee”). Since I have the truck, I’m supposed to pick him up from the airport Friday afternoon. Then we are off to the varsity football game, hoping FavoriteSon will get some time on the field even though he’s only an eight grader. Friday morning, I’m on a field trip with PinkGirl and the text messages start coming in at 10:36 a.m.:

Him: “Weather problems getting out of Knoxville. I re-ticketed to a flight landing just before 3:00 p.m. If there is a problem there, I’ll have to drive.”

Me: “Drive from where?”

Him: “Atlanta.”

Me: “What time would you get to Atlanta?”

Him: “Not sure. We’re doing the math now on if we’re better off driving from here (Knoxville). If we drive from here now we’ll be home around 9:00 p.m.”

Me: “Get these mutts away from me.”

Him: “I don’t find this stuff amusing anymore.”

Me: “yep.”

It was an immediate and correct response. Like I said, he totally gets me.

Anyone else “get” me?

Hint: We were talking in song lyrics. Any guesses? (Click HERE to find out what song. )

Walkin’ Songs: You Can Call Me Al

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

It’s NOT RAINING!!!!

So I can get back to walking. I’ve been pretty sporadic with the walking but the week before TS Fay, I had logged 20 miles! Then last week – only 3 miles before getting rained out. I have an iRiver mp3 player, but it was too big to take walking, so a couple of months ago, I picked up a little RCA Pearl for $30 at Walmart. (I got a blue one.)

It’s got 1GB of flash memory, which means it holds about 340 songs and it runs for about 35 hours on one AAA battery. The software is annoying, so I just used Windows Explorer instead. I get bored if I walk to the same music all the time, so I skip around quite a bit.

Here’s one of my favorite walking songs (today). This video was so cute! I love the subtle way Chevy Chase puts stuff “on” the drum stand like it’s a table.