Catch Up...

So much has happened since my last post. Life has been crazy (as always) and so this post is going to be a brief catch up of all the major things going on in our lives right now.

1) Since October recently signed an upstreaming deal with Capitol Records. Capitol has been working S.O.'s music in the mainstream market. In light of all of this, S.O. debuted this week on the Active Rock charts at #36!!! That's right, S.O. officially has a top forty rock song!! It is really cool to see Since October right next to bands like U2 and ACDC! More updates to come! I have included a link to the active rock charts below.

http://www.radioandrecords.com/RRWebSite20/Members/Charts.aspx?ChartId=2

2) Luke was offered a sponsorship with Dean Guitars. This means that if he decides to sign with them, Dean will be giving him 3 complementary guitars and incredible discounts on any guitars after that. In exchange, Luke will play Dean guitars at his shows, and will also do some promotional events for Dean. On 3/28 Dean will be coming out to Luke's show in Tampa with Flyleaf to record interviews and the live performance for a promotional piece that will be put on Dean's website.

On Tuesday, Luke and I were invited up to the Dean Guitar headquarters in Tampa to tour their factory. It was one of the coolest days of our lives!! While we were touring the factory we were able to see these extremely large machines making guitars! They would take a piece of wood, and within a few minutes the machine would cut out this perfectly precise guitar shape. The warehouse portion of Dean is incredible impressive as well. The warehouse was about the size of a Sam's club and it was packed full of guitars... floor to ceiling!!

I wish we had been able to take pictures to show everyone just how cool this place was, but Dean has patented machinery and methods that can't be exposed!!

Luke picked up his first Dean guitar on Wednesday, and it is "Stunning" to say the least. When the Dean employee opened the box to show us the guitar for the first time, I literally gasped!!

3) I (April) have been EXTREMELY busy writing the curriculum for Kindergarten and 1st Grade for the "Warrior"Series. This is a series that we are doing at Bayside right now in Main Service, as well as in the Children's Ministry. It is a 6 weeks series on the Armor of God and it is going wonderfully!! Even though it takes a lot of time and planning I really enjoy writing curriculum. The most rewarding part, by far, is that the kids are really getting it!! I see them wearing their Belts of Truth proudly around church and it just makes my heart soar!! I am loving the kids and my Team Members so much! I am so blessed to get to work with these people!

4) Pioneer Park Days has come and gone and I must say that is a HUGE relief for both Luke and I! Luke was such a fabulous husband during that crazy time!! He was so patient with me as I made hairbows for the past 2 months and he was a HUGE help last week in setting up our booth and making my Bow display.

Although Pioneer Park was not exactly what we expected it to be, we still had a great time hanging out with Mom, Ash, Em, and Cadence and we made a lot of wonderful memories.

For example, I don't think any of us will quickly forget this guy...

His booth was behind ours and he had a HUGE "Crack" problem :)

Or Em's "cankles"!! Poor Meme... Florida heat, pregnancy, and 5 days outside and on her feet did not agree with her.

Here are some shots of our booth and displays.

Rage also enjoyed his time at PPD... although he only got to come one day for a few hours, because we were afraid he would "scream" and scare away costumers.

5) One of the best things about Pioneer Park was a visit from Ashleigh and Cadence. Cadence is getting so big and she is such a fun little girl to have around. Not to mention, she is a perfect model for my hairbows!!

Friday night, after Em's shower, Kagan and Cadence decided to dress up!! Cadence makes a PERFECT Jasmine...

And Kagan was a pretty stinkin cute Barbie :)

6) And to finish it up... We also had Emily's Baby Shower last weekend.

Although Liz lives sooooo far away, she was still able to attend the shower via Skype. I love technology!!

So that is what we, The Grahams, have been up to lately. I hope that life will calm down a little and that I will be able to blog more frequently in the near future... but I am not counting on it :)