me part 32....& traveling pants....

yep...the sister of the traveling pants 2 is on here in the front lounge...which is why all the boys are in the back lounge. haha. no shame with luvin' for the chick flicks. no shame at all....

story:

so we're married. we go on our beautiful honeymoon to alaska....spent a LOT of time in our room (muahahahaha)...especially when we realized we were on a cruise ship with a lot of our friends...and smitty fans (they're the best in the world...you can just imagine on your honeymoon you want some PRIVACY!). we moved into our adorable new place above our new landlord...& it was PERFECT. pink carpet...sky lights...a big back deck. we painted the whole thing...got a bunch of furniture off of craigslist, and several things as wedding presents.

life could not have been better.

i decided that being a newlywed, i should probably take some time off from touring since smitty was immediately doing a 3.5 week run to europe and south africa. i wanted to be a wife...i wanted to be a newlywed....even if it meant us being broke.

i don't know anyone in the music industry who has made it right out of the gate. ever singe person i know has a few FAIL stories...if not a handful. by this point, i had made an album...watched nothing happen to it...had several doors slam in my face, had a few doors open....but nothing in the artist department (which is where my heart was). a few of my friends from australia had moved to town and were starting a new music company...sounded right up my alley, so lucas and i joined forces with them to record some new music. i was going to be one of their first artists, and in turn, lucas and i were going to work for them to help the company get off the ground.

ultimately, the match didn't work out, and lucas and i left the company broken-hearted, for a lot of reasons. business and friendships get hairy sometimes....and all i knew how to do was have relationships. i didn't know how to put business before people....it's just the way i'm wired (and thank GOD there are businessmen out there....i'm just saying, i'm not wired that way). it was a very painful time...getting my hopes up for yet another company, another album, just to watch it all go down the drain. but in the meantime, God was refining my heart....and burning away anything that was in the music industry for alernative motives. i didn't NEED the fame anymore...i didn't NEED the recognition. all i wanted to do, was make music that was going to have an affect on people. and i didn't want to have just ANY effect....i wanted to have a positive effect on them. i wanted to write music that would bring life...hope...honesty...truth.

i had never been able to write a love song...mainly because i wasn't in love. i couldn't sing about something i wasn't experiencing....i couldn't write about something i didn't know. so here i was...completely in love...newlywed....broke broke broke (i mean....B-R-O-K-E)...but it was the happiest time of my life.

we shared a 95 camry my parents had given me. we never ate out...it wasn't in the budget. no new clothes...no new music. movie night was blockbuster night. we had a lot of people over since we couldn't go out, and found such a joy in hospitality and inviting people into our home. we learned SO MUCH about relationships....how to communicate, how to find the joy in things without constantly being entertained.

and we might have lived from month to month with our paycheck....

but we were wealthy beyond our wildest dreams. because we had learned a secret...we had learned the stuff that life was made of. we learned that you can have everything in the world, but without love.......

you have nothing.

fame, fortune....they can be lonely places. the REAL victory, is finding joy when you have nothing to show for it. and we had found it....we had found the true secret to life.

we had found.......love.

one of my closest friends, shane stevens, is signed with a publishing company in nashville run by garth brooks manager. he was staying in his guest house at the time....so we went out by the pool one night, and i started telling him about a song i wanted to write.

i told him that because we'd been married so fast, we didn't even have plates or cups....we had paper plates and plastic cups. i had given everything away when i'd moved to london to katrina victims...and lucas was a bachelor, so he had nothing (haha). the boy didn't even have sheets! so we literally started from the ground up....HOWEVER...we were the happiest we'd ever been in our entire lives.

so....i wrote a song about it.

just uploaded it to itunes........hope you like: paper plates and plastic cups (we got love)

WE GOT LOVE
paper plates and plastic cups
this little house don't look like much
but we've got love
yeah, we've got love

empty walls and mismatched sheets, no
they don't really bother me
cause we got love
yeah, we got love

and i may have to cut your hair for a while
and our clothes may be old
but your kiss is never out of style
and i'm finding the world is rather small
to hold all we have
when baby, we've got love
oh, we've got love

when you asked my daddy for my hand
said you couldn't buy a wedding band
but we've got love
sir, we've got love

and people said it wouldn't last
because of all we didn't have
but we've got love
yeah, we've got love

and we may have to eat
ramen noodles for a while
and who needs the movies when you
always seem to make me smile
and i'm finding the world is rather small
to hold all we have
when baby we've got love
oh, we've got love

and we may have to share this old red beat up car
but i don't seem to care
cause it means i get to see you more
and i'm finding the world is rather small
to hold all we have
cause baby we've got love
we've got love

BRIDGE:
oh, if we never had a dime
i'd do it again a million times
cause all these stars are just as bright
as they are in the paris sky
and when your arms are holding me
i'm wealthier than england's queen
with all the diamonds i see in your eyes

paper plates and plastic cups
this little house don't look like much
but we've got love
yeah, we've got love


happiness isn't what you have....or how much money you have, or who you're friends with, or what you see in the mirror. there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for. always. you can turn around a circumstance by getting your mind off the negative for ONE MINUTE....and find SOMETHING to be grateful about. from the world's standards...we were poor.

but we were as rich as kings....

find SOMETHING to be grateful for today. don't look at what you DON'T have...look at what you do. you're entire perspective on everything will change.

love you, sweet friends. thanks for all the signs tonight! it means so much!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxox, sista christa