31 Days of Worship - Bringing It All Together

I've so enjoyed these 31 days. It's been in the middle of me guest posting at other blogs, having guests at my own blog, finishing the Bible in 90 Days, The Relevant Conference, family reunions, and I can't remember everything else. What a journey. I hope the one thing you take from this series is that worship isn't singing pretty songs. I think the best way to sum up this month's posts is this song by Matt Redman..."The Heart of Worship."

You don't have to listen to the song, but please read the lyrics. They express what I've wanted to express in these posts.

Thank you for walking this journey with me.

When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless your heart

I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the ways things appear
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You
All about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You
It's all about You Jesus

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath

I'll bring You more than just a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You
All about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You
It's all about You Jesus

Its all about you
Jesus

31 Days of Worship - Sunday Scripture

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,

always giving thanks to God the Father for everything,

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:19-20

31 Days of Worship - Waiting Here For You

I LOVE this song sung by Christy Nockels on the Passion 2011 recording Here for You. Love it, love it, love it! I thought it fitting to be our last video of the series.

31 Days of Worship - At Relevant

As you're reading this I'm at the Relevant Conference. Oh, how long I have waited to be here! Last year was so overwhelming of God's grace...and I don't think I've ever fully shared how much God did for me over that weekend.

If I didn't learn how to worship after that weekend, I was never going to learn!

I'm guest posting over at Love of Family and Home today, and I'd love for you to hop over and read my Relevant story! When Tonya asked me to share about a time God did something to show His love for me, I knew exactly what it would be about!

Does it have to do with worship? As a matter of fact, it does! (Yes, that tiny person on the far left is me!)
Click here to read the story...

31 Days of Worship - Worshiping with Abandon

Last year at Relevant, I had the privilege of helping lead worship Saturday night. We had had such an amazing weekend, and this was the icing on the cake as far as I was concerned. I was a little apprehensive about how the ladies would respond, but I didn't need to be. They worshiped right along with us! But one caught my eye...and my heart.

Laura is one of the most beautiful women I've ever met, both on the inside and outside. She had introduced Angie Smith, who was the keynote speaker for one of the sessions. Angie spoke about how God had worked in her life during her pregnancy, birth, and death of their precious little angel, Audrey. During Laura's introduction, she shared how she wasn't supposed to be at Relevant...she was supposed to be holding a newborn. But something had gone wrong early in the pregnancy and she miscarried. Heartbroken, she made plans to come to Relevant.

Fast forward to Saturday night. I saw this one woman worshiping...not timidly, either. Hands raised, at times jumping for joy over the Lord. It made me almost not be able to sing, it was so overwhelming. I knew this woman's name, but thankfully had forgotten her story. Sarah Mae reminded me after the night was over about it...it was Laura. Had I remembered her story, I would have been toast. I'm truly grateful for my temporary amnesia!

I shared with her several months later how her worship blessed me, and she shared with me what God had done in her life through that experience. I asked her permission to share it with you.

She told me that she had been so heartbroken that she really didn't want to stay for worship. She didn't want to sing, much less raise hands or anything else. But the Lord prompted her to stay. She said, "I felt Him wanting me to praise Him even when He takes away. It hurt so badly. And yet, it was a balm for my weary soul."

And in her heart, she said, "Alright, God. No matter my circumstances, I will praise You!" So she worshiped with abandon that night.

But guess what happened a few weeks after the conference...she found out she was pregnant! God was holding her hand and knew even before little Kai was a twinkle in her eye that her sorrow was just for the night, ..."but joy comes in the morning." (Psalm 30:5) I will (hopefully) get to hold little Kai this weekend. This precious little miracle of God.

Reading over her story again tonight has reminded me to worship with abandon, no matter my circumstances. Relationship struggles, financial hardship, death of a loved one...it all melts away in the presence of Almighty God.

Worship Him with abandon today.

31 Days of Worship - Sunday Mornings

In yesterday's post I talked about how we get ready for a Sunday service...the main rehearsals. Today I want to fill you in on our Sunday mornings.

We start out the day at 7:00 AM in the "practice room," which is actually the room the guys practice in on Saturdays. We warm up...



Then we go over each song...



And then we head into the sanctuary to rehearse with the band. Praise Team stands on stage with Brent, band behind them, and choir in the "choir loft" which is actually just permanent risers with no chairs. And NO robes. Thank the Lord! We are modest in our dress, and if someone doesn't meet the modest standard, we have asked them to sit out before. We go over each song set twice, take a break, then come together again in our practice room to pray before the service. It's just a time to get our hearts set on why we do what we do. Not for us, but to His name be the glory, as the song says. It's all for Him...we just get to participate.

But hopefully we bring something excellent before the church so they are drawn to hear what He has to say.



We sing in both services but go down out of the choir loft after the music is over. That makes it easier for both the choir and the congregation to pay attention to the message!

And that's how we get ready for Sundays. At least for the singing part. The real worship starts much earlier.

31 Days of Worship - How We Get Ready for a Service

Yesterday I gave you some helpful websites that you might use to get more organized and streamlined if you are a worship leader at your church. For the next couple of days before Relevant (squeeeeeee!) I wanted to share with you how we get ready for a worship service.

Y'all...what I'm going to share with you is my happy place. Other than my own home with my guys, I'd rather be at church working on worship services than any other place. Except the beach. I'm only human.

For today's post, I'm going to talk about rehearsals. When I get an invitation from Planning Center it shows me when rehearsals will be for the week I'm asked to serve. Usually Praise Team and Section Leader practice is on Sunday morning after the music first service. We have about an hour to go over the songs, which is plenty of time for us to eat a sausage biscuit from the cafe and drink coffee (or a Diet Pepsi - the cafe doesn't serve Diet Coke. Bleh.) and laugh our heads off at each other about whatever we happen to be talking about. I love these people. When we finally get down to rehearsing, we go over the songs and each voice part (alto, soprano, and guys) to make sure each of us knows what to sing, as well as teach the choir if we have choir the next weekend. I'll talk about that in a minute. Our Praise Team rotates each week and consists of two sopranos, two altos, and a guy along with Brent, our worship pastor. If we have choir the next weekend, the section leaders are also there if they aren't already scheduled to be on PT. One of the section leaders is also the choir director for the next week.

As we listen to the songs and go over parts, we make notes on what we need to remember or what the choir needs to do. "Repeat chorus twice," or "Praise Team only," or "All in parts." Stuff like that. If I didn't make notes, I'd never survive.

We only have choir every other week, since we have rehearsals on Saturday morning and having choir every single week would be a lot to ask. Our band, however, practices just about every Saturday from eight to ten. Sound Man has to be up there every other week in rotation with the other sound dude. I wish I had a picture of the band rehearsing, but I didn't think to get one the day we had rehearsal.

During choir practice we start out in sectionals with each voice part in a different part of the building. We listen to the cd with each song on it and go over the parts we learned the week before. After about an hour and a half, we all meet together and go over everything.

The weekend I got all these pictures and video just happened to be a weekend I was directing. I didn't plan it that way. I wish Kim had been, actually. Oh, well...you get to see me in all my directing glory. HA!

We have fun as we rehearse, as evidenced by my very loud outburst of laughter. Typical, especially when Greg, Jae, and Timmy are in there. They pick on me. Meanies.

Tomorrow I'll show you how we get ready on Sunday mornings, starting with getting there by the dawn's early light.

31 Days of Worship - Planning Helps

This week, I want to share with you how we as a church get ready for our worship services each week. This is by no means an in depth look, because I don't have an in depth knowledge of everything the music department (at our church we call it the magnification department) does.

But if you help with your worship services, maybe something I share will help you get more streamlined in how you prepare, saving you time, and in some cases, your sanity. Heh.

The first website I would recommend is Planning Center (I apologize for the small size of these screen shots...they are as big as I could get them). I don't think we could function as a worship team without it...at least not as fluidly as we do now. I can't tell you all you'll be able to do on Planning Center because honestly, I don't know. What I do know is you will be able to list the songs you do with the arrangements, lyrics, keys, when you've done them in the past, any notes on them (like "Key of G on cd but we do key of E"), and a ton more stuff. Everything you need to know about that song can be loaded onto Planning Center. Then, once you have the songs loaded into your library, you can choose them for each service and make notes on that particular service like, "Jae leads," or, "Jodi and Cindy duet."Once you get your songs loaded, you can then add the people who will be involved with this service. I get an email each time I'm asked to serve and it lets me accept or decline that particular day.This way the administrators know exactly who will be available. Once you accept or decline, the administrator (in our case, Fay) gets a notification. If you've declined it will give you the opportunity to tell why (I had to decline for Christmas morning because I'm going to my sister's...Fay knew the minute she got the notification email so she can plan to replace me).

There is so much more to Planning Center than I'm sharing here because there is just SO MUCH on there. My advice if you are interested is to go to their video tutorial page to learn more.

Frequency Worship is another planning site that has chord charts, instructional videos of top worship songs, and a blog that has articles relevant to today's worship leaders (it was created by Chris Tomlin, so I KNOW it's good. hee hee. CT is one of my all time favorite worship leaders). Song Discovery is another website that has new songs, free downloads, helpful articles, and more.

I encourage you to explore these websites if you want to make the building of your worship services more streamlined. If you want to know what all is out there for today's worship leader, they will be invaluable to you.

If you've never used anything like this before, just do some research and see if they might be of help to you or your church.

31 Days of Worship - Sunday Scripture

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength.

These commandments that I give you today
are to be on your hearts.

Deuteronomy 6:4-6

Isn't that the embodiment of worship?

31 Days of Worship - The Way to Pray

Yes, this is a video spoofing different ways to pray. So, why would I put this in a series on worship? Watch to the end.

31 Days of Worship - Preaching With Accompaniment

Today I'm so happy to share a post from one of my favorite people in the world. His name is Reid Kirk and he was until recently my son's junior high pastor. His wife, Amber, was in my alto section until they had their sweet little boy. They've recently moved to Texas (Reid will tell you about that in a minute), and my family misses them GREATLY. Here's more about him...

Reid was born in Durant, Mississippi, on May 8, 1981. He has served churches in Mississippi and Texas in both student and worship ministries since surrendering his life to full time ministry in 2000. He is currently serving as the Worship and Student Pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Sherman, Texas. Reid loves encouraging and leading people to an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and desires to see people of all ages taking the gifts God has given them and using them to make Jesus glorified. He received his bachelors from Blue Mountain College in 2004 and his Master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2007. He married his wife Amber on May 12, 2007. They added to their family with a son named Aiden on April 21, 2010. When Reid isn’t hanging out with students or playing music, he is most likely spending time with Amber and Aiden or watching and participating in some sport, hunting/fishing.

On August 8^th, 2011 I started a new role: Worship Pastor. I have led worship numerous times for many years, but this is a new “gig”. I have learned quickly that this is more than just picking a few songs, determining the appropriate key, rehearsing, and then playing these new songs. This is a very draining, daunting, difficult, detailed task (trying to stay in the key of D). I have quickly learned that not all the songs I think are needed in a worship service whet the appetite of every person I am pastoring. Even more so, I am learning that many of those people will quickly tell you this. Some will tell you politely, and others not so much.

Regardless, my eyes and ears have been opened. I have not regretted accepting this call or position, but rather I am learning more about the approach I should take to be the worship leader I was called to pastor.

In the midst of opening up boxes and organizing my new office, I ran across this little paragraph about the role of the worship leader.

The three word job description of a worship leader:

Preaching With Accompaniment

The songs we sing should teach and shape the lives of people. Worship leader, you are thus no less accountable to the Word of God than your pastor. The Word and worship combined is the double-edged sword that scatters the enemy.

While I don’t think this paragraph will cause all negativity to subside, make the rehearsals run smoother, make the difficult notes to come out easier, or will help me remember that F# has 6 sharps (and should be avoided), but it will keep me reminded that I am accountable to boldly lead people to His throne of grace. This responsibility is humbling.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you so much, Reid! I think this post is perfect for where I want to take this series next week. That's when I want to share some practical helps (and some silly videos probably) that we use at our church to plan our worship services. But before we practically plan, we must spiritually plan, and I hope up to now that's what I've helped you do.

Looking forward to next week!

31 Days of Worship - What is God's Love Language?

Today I'm running like a chicken with its head cut off (as we say in the South), but I still wanted to share something with you that touched me to my soul.

My precious friend Brandi sent me this message that was from her pastor, Chris Hodges, in August. I watched the whole thing. It was that good.

We think the word "praise" is just one word, and in English, it is. But in Hebrew and Greek, there are NUMEROUS words to describe worship.

I encourage you to carve out the time to listen, even if you can only watch the first half.

Go watch.

31 Days of Worship - Changing the World

I am so happy that Emily will be at Relevant this year. I can't wait to hear her speak. She's just released a book, Grace for the Good Girl, and I can't wait to read it. I can't wait for a lot of things, it seems. (Just a note, if you click the link and purchase the book, I get a small percentage of the sale. There you go. Full disclosure.)

But one thing I don't have to wait for is reading her post on worship. Emily writes at chatting at the sky, and is in the middle of her own "31 days to change the world" series. She was gracious enough to allow me to share her post. Here you go...

When the idea of changing the world makes you feel small, don't confuse your smallness with insignificance. You exist because God does. Dare to notice every lifting of your hand, every closing of your eye, every word that falls so easy out of your mouth - and know that it all moves because he moved first. He opened his mouth and said Let there be. And so light and creatures and new life came and filled up the whole earth, the earth that is because he said so.

That means we breathe in air and breathe out worship.

Read the full (beautiful!) post at chatting at the sky...

31 Days of Worship - Polluted Worship Part 2

Yesterday I introduced you to Adam Ranck, intern worship leader at Washington Avenue Bible Church in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. Adam led worship for us at Relevant last year and was gracious enough to write a guest post (which I have graciously turned into two - hee) for me. Read from the beginning here. And now for the continuation...

I find it very interesting that God would tell Israel He’d rather the doors to the temple be shut and fire kept unlit than receive their polluted offerings of worship to Him. “For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 1:11).

Jesus’ death and resurrection are the most pure offering to cover our sins. Jesus is our only salvation. But as living sacrifices to God, are we offering the best of our worship and adoration to Him?

God deserves our very best, and desires us to pursue Him and to pursue righteousness (1 Tim. 6:11. 2 Tim. 2:22). It isn’t enough to call on Christ’s salvation, and then live whatever way we want to live. We are offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices. And as Romans 12:1 says, we are called to make this living sacrifice “holy” and “acceptable” to God. It’s not a matter of earning salvation, but of our heart’s true devotion. If we truly love God, we would want to worship Him with the very best of ourselves. You can know a person’s heart by their fruit (Matt. 7:20)

The people in Malachi thought they were doing it right with their offerings of lame and defective sacrifices even though they knew they had better to give. This is why God was un-accepting of their offering of worship. They were careless, half-hearted, and lazy. Is this what our God deserves?

Are you offering polluted worship to God, or are you giving Him the very best of what you can give?

Is this something you struggle with? What are some of the ways you remind yourself to keep giving God your best? Share some of your thoughts in the comments.

WORSHIP LIVING: Here are a couple questions to help you consider this personally and clean pollution out of your worship.

1. When you sing songs of worship to God, are you thinking about what you’re saying, or are you just mouthing the words? Should you be singing those words if you’re not going to live it or do it?

2. Do your actions and lifestyle follow the words and songs you are saying to God or about God?

3. Are you making excuses of why you can’t give God more, when you know full well that you can? Are you being lazy?

4. Are you filling your life with business to avoid giving God more of yourself?

------------------------------------------------

WOW! I told Adam I wasn't going to post this because I was too convicted! This was so good! Thank you, Adam, for sharing your heart. If no one else needed to read it, I certainly did.

Find out more of what Adam is up to at adamranck.com.

Get a Free Glow Glove (with purchase)

I will be reviewing the Glow Crazy Glow Glove soon, but until then, here's a great promotion for you to get it free!

The Details from Glow Crazy:

Buy a Glow Crazy Distance Doodler from Walmart, Toys R Us or any local retailer on Saturday Oct 22nd or Sunday Oct 23rd ONLY, and send in your receipt, UPC from the box and the shipping form (Print your shipping form here) to:

Glow Crazy, 150 Elm Street, East Aurora, NY 14052.

Entries must be received by 11/22/2011.

Once we have received these items we will send you the incredible Glow Glove absolutely free!

For more information:

http://blog.glowcrazy.com/2011/10/get-glow-glove-absolutely-free.html

31 Days of Worship - Are We Offering Polluted Worship?

I'm so excited to share a guest post today from Adam Ranck, who led worship for us at Relevant last year. I was privileged to sing with him and Jen from Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, something I will share more about next week when I'm at Relevant. Woo hoo!!Let me introduce you...Adam is an artist, musician, lover of the Word, technology, and good stories. He's currently the intern worship leader at Washington Avenue Bible Church in Ephrata, PA, serving under his mentor, Mark Burkholder. However, sometime soon next year, he'll be moving down to Lynchburg, VA following the marriage to the most beautiful and lovely Kara Coleman. Pursuing a Master's education is planned, but only God knows the details continuing from there. Pure excitement. You can find out more about Adam at his website, adamranck.com.Now, on to what Adam has to say!

Are We Offering Polluted Worship?

In the book of Malachi, we read about an interesting discussion between God and His people. We hear a nation who is actually arguing with God, saying “How have you loved us?” (Mal. 1:2) God describes to His people how He loves them (God has a LOT of patience), but then prompts an interesting question.

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.” (Mal. 1:6)

The people reply back, asking God, “How have we despised Your name?” (Mal. 1:6).

“By offering polluted food upon my altar.” (Mal. 1:7)

But what does that mean? Lets look a little further to hear God explain.

“When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 1:8) “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.” (Mal. 1:10)

Just to explain a little bit of what’s being talked about: in the Old Testament, Israel would offer God literal sacrifices of animals and foods to worship Him and ask for forgiveness of sins. To offer it to God, they would take it to the temple and burn it on a large altar of fire.

For every sacrifice given, there was a specific ritual or plan that people had to followto do it right. You can find out the details of these sacrifices in Leviticus, starting in chapter one. Understanding this really helps us see how lucky we are that we don’t have to go through all these steps to worship or ask God to forgive our sins. If you’re wondering why we don’t do that anymore, you can read the book of Hebrews to understand how Jesus’ death was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and in 1 John to know Jesus forgives our sins.

However, even if we no longer have to offer sacrifices of animals or foods, God has called us to sacrifice something else. Ourselves. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Rom. 12:1)

So how does this connect?

------------------------------------

Find out tomorrow when we continue Adam's discussion on Polluted Worship. It is such good stuff!

Thank you, Adam!

31 Days of Worship - Sunday Scripture

Therefore, since we are receiving
a kingdom that cannot be shaken,

let us be thankful, and so worship God

acceptably with reverence and awe,
for our “God is a consuming fire."

Hebrews 12:28-29

31 Days of Worship - Desert Song

I LOVE this song by Hillsong. I think it fits perfectly in this series. I chose one that had lyrics...I want you to hear AND see them! :)

31 Days of Worship - It Begins at the Cross

You can't worship God if you don't know Him.

There is no other way to know God than through the cross. Period. Sorry, Oprah.

Why was it there that true worship began? Something that had never happened before in the history of the Jewish nation happened when Jesus was sacrificed on the cross:

"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." (Matthew 27:50-51a, NIV)

"From top to bottom." Why is that significant?

This curtain was about 6 inches thick. Can you imagine how heavy it was? It separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. It was for the High Priest to come in once a year to atone for the sins of the people, where he would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice to pay for their sin.

As soon as the final sacrifice of Jesus' life was made, God tore that curtain in half. He took what was separating us from Him away so that we could freely come to him in worship. No more did we have to depend on someone else's worship...it was ours. Jesus was the last, spotless, sinless sacrifice that God needed to restore fellowship with sinful man. And remember what I said yesterday about having sin that separated my heart from His? The cross is what allows me to come directly to Him!

Have you experienced the wonderful cross? Are you truly able to worship God through its power? I invite you to think about this.

"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known...This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:21-24, NIV)

Glow Crazy!

Have you heard about GlowCrazy? I had not until just a few days ago when they approached me about reviewing a new product they are coming out with. If it is as cool as the rest of their stuff, Kiddo is going to be spending lots of time in the dark. On his terms, not mine. Heh.

GlowCrazy is a Christian-based company and in addition to their new Glow Glove (which I will review later this month), they have launched their free, limited edition Christian-themed stencils for children to incorporate their faith into their playtime each day. The Christian Stencils are being featured on GlowCrazy's Facebook page, and you have to "like" them to be able to download them. The first line of Christian stencils is based on the Noah’s Ark, and the second line of Christian Stencils (launched September 15th) includes Christian Symbols: a loaf of bread, a fish, and a boat. My favorite are the Noah's Ark Stencils. One is the shape of the ark with silhouettes of animals on top, as well as a dove flying off. Cute! They also have a Halloween themed Stencil in the shape of a Pumpkin. These stencils would be so cute using the Glow Wand and Glow Canvas.

Watch the short video (it's like a commercial) on Glow Crazy's website to see how you would use these. Personally, I can't wait to get their new product to review. I've been sitting here needing to do my grocery list but haven't yet because I've been playing with their online Glow Game. They have won several toy awards (you can see the images on their Facebook page) and since they are a Christian company, I'm excited to review for them.

Now "glow" check them out! Hardy har har!

I received no compensation for this review. Glow Crazy approached me and asked for an honest review without anything in exchange, which I was happy to give. The opinion given is my own.

Relevant Top Ten - for My Roomies

When I heard that Brooke was hosting a link up of "Top 10 Things My Relevant Roomie(s) Should Know About Me," I knew I had to whip one of these babies up. I will be blessed with three roommates, as long as one of them doesn't give birth before hand. So, Aurie, Alle, and Stephanie (go put your feet up!), this is for you! *Edited before I even hit publish - Stephanie had her baby boy! Yay!

1. The later it gets, the sillier I get.

2. I snore if I sleep on my back. Funny sounding puffy snores. Please do not let me sleep on my back.

3. I am a night owl. I LOVE staying up late.

4. I sleep with a lot of pillows.

5. I love, love, love to sing harmony. So, if singing breaks out (Alle!) I will make a part up as I go along.

6. I LOVE to talk if I know you. If I don't know you, I will assume you don't want to talk to me until someone breaks the ice. I think that's been discussed as being an introverted extrovert. :)

7. I'm fairly easy-going when it comes to making decisions. "Where do you want to eat?" I don't care. "When do you want to get up?" I don't care. "What do you want to do?" I don't care. I mean, if I REALLY do or do not want to do something, I'll let you know. But by the time we get there, I will just be so happy to be there, I really won't care about the incidentals.

8. I drink Diet Coke like water. Which is why I can't remember anything. Wait...what was I saying?

9. My favorite fall snacky snack is mixing candy corn with peanuts. MMMmm.....

10. I can't wait to meet you for realz.

For everyone else going to Relevant, You can find me on Twitter @Butterfly_Genes and on Facebook, too! I still need just a little bit more help with getting to Relevant (for unimportant stuff like, you know, eating. But only on Wednesday. hee), so it's not too late to purchase a Relevant 11 Keychain!