A little ladybug's birthday

There are so many things in life that you will only get to experience once. Turning one, for example, is an event that parents will get to celebrate once with each of their children as individuals. I am so blessed and so happy to have been able to share in that celebration with my best friend, Amy, and her adorable little family. They really are like family to me too, her house was a safe haven in many ways in high school when my family was going through some pretty tough times, and they have always treated me like their own.

Amy and I have been best friends for 15 years, and I can honestly say that we have seen the best times of each other's lives, and also some of the toughest and most devastating times.

Recently some events in Amy's life left her feeling very overwhelmed, and as a best friend sometimes being there really is the best thing you can do for the person you have shared most of your life with thus far as a friend. I couldn't turn down the opportunity, with the help of some very giving family members, to visit and be a part of a very special birthday for miss Madison Rose Pepper. She is Amy and John's first little bundle of joy, and she is nothing less than a sparkle right down deep in the core of everyone's eye. How could you not love a little ladybug as precious and full of life as her? That's how I feel about her anyway, and she isn't even my own.

Amy has always been the type of lady that when she puts together a celebration, she knows how to bring the spread and has just the right touch for all the decorations that make it look so special and so welcoming. Madison's little ladybug birthday party was just that, as special as the guest of honor herself.

It has been a trying couple of months for Amy, John, her dad and the rest of their family involved in the process of praying and supporting two of the strongest men in their family to my knowledge. At about the same time, both John and Amy's dad found out that they had early stages of two very different kinds of cancer. We both spent time talking about the unknown, and sometimes just how downright scary it can be, trust me I said, I know. Having lost someone to cancer in the past, I know that exact feeling. Where you want to be able to do something to change the outcome so that it is how you want it to be, but in the end you just know that here is only One person in control of every situation, yet He hears the prayers of everyone who calls on His name for help and comfort.

And to Amy's relief, and all the rest of her family, both John and her dad Randy are cancer free at this point.

God IS good, all the time. Even if the outcome would have been different, He is still God and I know He still loves us. But we are especially grateful for this outcome, and we were able to all share together in relief with joy and thanksgiving the little precious life that Amy and John have been given in Madison. Here are just a couple of my favorites of her from the weekend.

She got a bouncing/rocking horse, probably her favorite gift, from John's brother Chad. Loving that look on her face as she rides away.

Tonight....

That's the name of Cheatwood's first official Album, which we got today.

We weren't expecting to get the shipment of our first 200 CD's until a week or more from now.

Chas was pleasantly surprised when the UPS man pulled up in front of our house this afternoon just as he was getting ready to leave for work with a package. A package for Cheatwood.

Having a finished product and something to show for all the time and effort you have put into something feels, well, really good. Do I expect everyone to like it? Absolutely not. Do I think we are even remotely famous? NO. I work for the state of Utah for heaven's sake. Pffft.

I am just so so so happy and thrilled beyond words to be able to share in the making of something that Chas and love doing together, making music. We have an incredible band of people and I have absolutely loved being able to sing along side my good lady friend, Kelli Jensen. It has caused growth, change and challenge for me to continue to move forward with doing things that push me to my limits of thinking that I can't do things, only for God to prove me wrong.

If you want to check it out, we would love the feedback. Chas is totally the type of person who loves to hear what people love and hate about things, so bring it on, we can take it.

Interested in buying, check out the purchasing option now available on our website, www.cheatwoodmusic.com

Just want to ear shop? You can also listen to a clip of each song on iTunes.

Either way, we hope you enjoy Tonight.

On God's green earth

I am so excited to post an update on our little growing garden! Things are sprouting and popping up out of nowhere, especially since we have been having so much rain, tomatoes and onions love water! Chas and I were a bit skeptical, we admit, when planting our garden only because it was our first time trying it out and we just weren't sure if anything was really going to grow. But, so far this little box of dirt and goodness has exceeded our expectations, and we feel so blessed to be able to grow our own garden in the beauty of God's green earth.

Here's a little peek at how nicely the plants are growing so far....


Our strawberries are growing, but we are going to have to put something around them to keep the birds off the middle of those sweet, tasty little things. They peck out the innards and leave us with the top and bottom of the fruit, not nice!


Chas is VERY excited that our jalapeno plant is growing our first ever little green pepper. He likes the hot stuff, I will stick to the strawberries and tomatoes.


Speaking of tomatoes, check these little bad boys out! We have two little 'maters growing so far, can't wait to sink my teeth into one of these juicy boys when they are good and ripe.

The tops of our potato plants are pretty huge, about up to my knee......let's just hope there are some nice potatoes growing under that soil...it will be fun to dig these ones up and get nice and dirty in the fall!

And there you have it! We can't wait to show you more pictures later as our little garden continues to grow :)

In a month's time

Hello friends! (and people to happen to stumble upon these ramblings)

It's been exactly a month since my last blog post, so you know what that means....time for an update!

I can't say I haven't posted for a while because I was too busy, but also not because I didn't have anything to write about. Lots has been happening and will be happening this up and coming summer, including some very exciting and fun shows that Cheatwood will be performing for, so cool! Let's just hope this rainy weather clears up since a lot of the shows coming up will be outdoors.

Here is a listed update of some of recent happenings and things to come (gotta love the lists people :)

- Chas decided to recruit me to sing harmonies with Cheatwood a couple of months ago, so now whenever they gig, I gig. So that means more shows this summer. We will be heading up to Idaho Falls this coming weekend for a show with just the trio (Chas, Kelli J. and me). Next up will be the Ogden Arts Festival, a few weddings, some Sunday gigs on the patio at Wolf Creek Clubhouse, and some other smaller shows including at Huntsville BBQ and Savannah BBQ. One of the ones that we are all especially looking forward to is opening for a pretty big show put on by a lady named Anna Wilson. She travels with a full band, including a horn section and the works, and it will also include the sax player from the Dave Matthews Band......so essentially wheat this means is, there is a chance that Cheatwood would get to do a couple of songs with him, that would be amazing. We are still working out the details, but that concert is set for July 23rd. We will also be playing our usual at the Antelope Island Balloon and Kite Stampede over Labor Day weekend. Definitely a full summer of shows lined up for us, which is awesome!

-Our lovely garden, which is a first for both of us and something that we have loved putting together with each other, is growing! However, the massive amounts of rain we have been getting so far this year have limited the tomato plants from growing as much as we would like them to. But not to despair, we still have some starters we kept in the jiffy that are still growing nicely, so we may be able to transplant those in exchange of the ones that sadly have taken a beating with the hail and sleet storms we have had. Our potato plants recently just sprouted out of nowhere and are now 5-6 inches high out of the ground. I can't wait to see if the bean and cucumber plants will sprout!

-I recently have been seeking out a few possible changes in my career. I have loved my job working with youth at the state, and I will be sad to tears when the time comes for me to leave my job, but I have also felt a slight tugging from God to explore other options now that I can put my masters into full use. This is kind of a works in progress, so I will have to update you on some of this later.

- Serving as a worship leader at the Bountiful Heights campus has been such a blessing and a learning experience. Chas and I continue to head down once every two weeks to lead a team, and I will be honest in saying that every week brings a new challenge to face. Recently some of the leaders have made the decision to step down, either due to moving on to other things or feeling the need to help elsewhere, so that has created much change in the direction of the teams and who plays for what team on what weeks. God has really blessed us with willing people who volunteer their time to serve and use their talents to create music that glorifies God every Sunday. Some of the people on our team change, so that brings a challenge. Some are beginning music players, and some can be very timid. But no matter what, I know that this is an opportunity to work along side others and see in what ways God is using these situations to teach me things as well. We are also just excited to see the outreach having a church in the heart of Bountiful is creating for the community.

-Chas and I got to spend some fun quality time with my family last weekend while my dad was here with his wife. My twin cousins graduated high school, which is so crazy to me considering that when I moved here, they were 7 (almost 8). They are two very bright, beautiful and mature young women, and I was happy to be able to be there to support and cheer them on in finishing this chapter of their life. We have had some really good talks together about their upcoming plans, and I am so excited for them to see what is in store for them.

Those are just a few of the happenings, there are a lot more things going on, but I feel that this post is getting long enough, so I will end here.
Maybe I will wait another month to post, that way I have more to blog about :)

How does your garden grow

In March, I started a 30 day blog challenge. After that 30 day challenge, I took a little break from blogging, partly because really, truly and honestly I didn't feel like I had anything interesting to blog about. Let me take that back, that I COULD blog about.
Since then, many new and exciting things have been happening, some happy, some frustrating, some sad, all around me. I am grateful for my friends and the time we get to spend chatting. But mostly I am excited for the new things happening in their lives, and I am thankful that I have friends who are true and honest and real, and feel like they can share the intimate details of certain parts of their lives with me.

I have to admit, there seems to be a lot of women around me who are diligently growing babies. Don't get me wrong, it makes me smile inside. I am so excited for them and the little ones to come. But every once in a while, I get that "feeling". You know, the I-Waaaaaant-one feeling. And then reality smacks me in the face. As cute and lovable a little baby Burks would be, we just know right now is not our time. Like, we aren't even close to being ready to try, time.

So instead, we are working on other things together. In one of the blog challenges I posted last month I discussed a goal to plant a garden. Well, that's what Chas and I have decided to spend our time on together this spring (or still winter, or whatever you want to call it). He did most of the hard work by digging and tilling, and tilling again (there was a LOT of grass to get out of this thing) It is also a little bit bigger of a garden than we were thinking it was. Not huge, just bigger then a 10x10. But we have managed to get it to the point where we are ready to plant! We just need some nice weather to accommodate our desire to get down and dirty in the planting mode. We even started a nice little jiffy of tomato plants which, I think, are growing quite nicely.

Here's to our first time planting a garden...together, and ever!