Hey y'all!

I just got back a few hours ago from the Steady On concert in Kansas City and it was a total blast! I'm in the habit of writing concert reviews now, so you'll have to suffer through yet another! :-)

My mom, sister (Sarah), and I got to the Marriott hotel in Kansas City around 3:30 on Friday. When we got to our room, there was a message waiting to call Joyce, Bunny, and Laura in their room. We did, and Laura and Bunny came down to our room. We talked for awhile, and then they went back to their room, and we all got ready for the concert.

We all piled into the two cars we had and headed to Joyce's sister's house to pick up Joyce's 21-month-old niece, Kimmy. (She is the cutest little girl! Hehe) Then we drove to Sonic and got some food. It was about 5:45 and the doors to the concert opened at 6:30, so I was getting a little worried that there would be a lot of people there, but Joyce had told me that it was a small auditorium in the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church so I pushed the thought from my mind.

We pulled into the church parking lot around 6 and I went, "Oh my gosh!!" There were a TON of people there already, probably about 250 lined up outside the door. We got at the end of the line, but I was flipping out thinking "We're gonna be in the waaay back! We won't get good pics or be able to see PoG!" But then Tim came up to us in line and said, "I saved y'all seats!" I was like "Praise the Lord!!!! Where are they?" and he said, "Front row left center. They aren't dead center but they are the best I could do." And I was like "It's fine with me!" I was so happy that we were in the first row! We waited outside for awhile (in NICE weather despite Laura's complaints about the cold hehe). About 300 more people lined up behind us before the doors opened-it was *not* a small auditorium! :-)

After a little trouble with our tickets, we got in and sat down in the front row to wait for the show to start. We were literally about 5 feet from the stage. It was awesome! We met Baylee (Grace) from the chat, as well as her mom and her friend. She (Baylee) is super cute and a total sweetie. :-) We also saw Shelley through a door that led backstage and she waved at us!

Around 7:30 some DJ's from the radio station that was sponsoring the concert came out and talked a little bit about the church's music program and how the PoG concert had sold out in only 4 days! They said that was a record for the church, and I believe it. That's really fast for a Christian concert, especially at a church.

Then the lights dimmed and the band began playing the opening notes of "Jesus Is." The door from backstage opened and Point of Grace came walking out grinning amidst screaming and clapping. Heather saw us "groupies" sitting in the front row and winked at us right away. All four of them were smiling at us throughout the concert, especially Heather.

After Jesus Is, they sang Gather at the River without a break. Then Shelley intro'd all of the girls like she always does. After she introduced Denise she said "I have to tell y'all something special about Denise's outfit tonight." And Denise went "You're so mean!" Shelley said "Look right down here, see that spot? That's bananas from her son Spence. And up here, we think that's ketchup or mustard; we're not sure which. Just wanted to clear that up for you people in the front rows wonderin' what was going on with her clothes." He-he...

When Shelley introduced Terry, she explained that Ter was really sick and had been throwing up all day on the bus. She said, "So if Terry leaves real quick during the concert, don't worry. She's just throwin' up and she'll be right back." Terry did this cute little sad puppy face and nodded.

Also, the band had put a fake mouse by the girls' water bottles. It didn't really scare them though. Heather just picked it up and said "Aww look what our band left us. How sweet-thanks Dana." He-he

They also brought out the babies-what cutie pies! :-) Spencer ran right out straight into his mommy's arms. Cole came a little behind him, slowly walking and pushing a little baby toy cart thing. He was so cute! Terry was kind of crouching like "C'mon Cole!" and he was walking towards her. Shelley said "Aww, come on Cole! Go a little faster! OK, and three hours later, this is Cole!" because he was walking super slowly (he just started walking). Then Shelley finally said "Ok that's cute enough. Pick him up Terry. He's bein' too slow." Hehe Shelley tried to get both of them to talk, and when she put the mic in front of Cole, he opened his mouth and sucked on the mic. Shelley explained "He thinks it's an ice cream cone. He likes ice cream, can ya tell?" Then she tried to get Spence to say hi, but he turned his head away. Hehe Spence did wave "bye-bye" though. Then their nannies came and took them. What cute little boys they are. :-)

After that, they sang some songs, one of which was "Amazing." Denise played the keyboards on this song! It was so cute. :-) I didn't even know she knew how to play. I think Nathan (Nockles, their keyboardist and the male half of Watermark) was playing acoustic guitar but I'm not sure.

They sang a bunch of songs from the new CD and a few old ones like Faith, Hope and Love, I'll Be Believing, Dying to Reach You, The Great Divide, etc. They sang Saving Grace, and then Kelly Johnson, a graduate from the Mercy Ministries of America program came out and gave her testimony. Then Shelley talked for a little bit about Mercy, and told a story about a guy who was nearly aborted by his mother, and he met Nancy Alcorn (MM's president and founder) on a plane. She told him about her vision for Mercy and he was so encouraged and touched that he wrote out a check for $100,000 right then. Shelley encouraged people to visit the MMoA table that was set up and added, "We especially want you to visit if you're lookin' to give a hundred thou!"

Then Watermark, the new Rocketown husband and wife duo came out for their set. Their names are Christy and Nathan Nockles, and if you don't have their CD yet, I strongly encourage you to BUY IT! It is a great CD. They sang a song called "Everything," which Christy gave a little background information on. She said that when they were first married, they didn't have a washer or dryer, so they would go to the laundromat for like seven hours and feed the machines quarters. Christy explained, "We do have a washer and dryer now!" and everyone cheered. She paused, smiled and said, "Now we just need a house to put them in. They're in storage someplace." They sang a few other songs, such as Gloria, Take Me There, and Peace. Christy said that "Peace" had taken on a new meaning for her recently, as last month they went through a miscarriage. She said it was a difficult time but she really learned what it meant to be filled with God's peace.

After that, it was intermission. Bunny and I went and talked to Kelly at the Mercy Ministries table and got our picture with her. Bunny told her "Both our names are Bethany!" about me and her and Kelly grinned and said, "Awesome, Bethany's." We wanted to talk to Nathan and Christy, since they were signing but they were being mobbed so we decided to try to talk to them after the concert.

The lights started flashing so we went back and sat down in our seats. Some lasers started flashing all around the otherwise dark room and then the band began playing Steady On. The girls came out from backstage, wearing different outfits, and they were full of energy! After a few songs, Shelley explained that it was time for the customary routine in their concert where they did a parody on popular songs of the decades. She asked if anyone knew what she was talking about, and no one cheered except for us "groupies" in the front row. Shelley looked at us and laughed and said, "I have to let y'all know, we have some special friends here tonight. They're on the Internet every single night in the Point of Grace chatroom."

Then they sang their parodies, which I'm sure you have all heard about by now. They sang Freedom/Think, Mr. Sandman, Walk Like an Egyptian (my personal fav), Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and of course, Spice Up Your Life. :-)

After that routine, Denise said, "Now that we've thoroughly embarrassed ourselves, we'll go back to singing the songs we know we can do." They sang a song (I don't remember which one!) and about halfway through the first verse, Shelley looked down and realized that she hadn't taken her "Baby Spice" pacifier necklace off. She made a little "Duh" face and took it off. I was looking around and Heather hadn't come back onstage! I whispered to Laura, "Where's heather?" and she shrugged. Heather came back on stage just then, and she was cracking up. Denise kind of gave her a "what?" look and Heather said something to her and Denise laughed too. We figured that Heather got stuck in her Sporty Spice costume or something. :-)

Next, Terry spoke for a little bit. She said "That Spice Girls routine gets you breathing hard enough when you're not sick, but I'm up here doing those kicks thinking, 'I'm going to throw up!'" She talked about how the best thing that has happened to her the past year is her little son, Cole and how she and her husband Chris have just fallen in love with him. She explained how God is our Father, and we are His children, and they sang "Who Am I?" It was soo pretty, and I about cried. :-)

Then a couple songs later, they sang "Keep the Candle Burning." Tim handed out little flashlight/candles and Bunny passed out these pink bumbly ball things that lit up. She got them from her work at Pizza Hut. So we were waving them back and forth, and PoG was laughing at us. Hehe

Then PoG said goodnight and left the stage. People kept cheering, and they came back out for their encore, Circle of Friends. Christy Nockles came out too, and Nathan Nockles played the accordion during this song. Heather sat down on the stairs to the stage on the left side right in front of us, and Denise sat on the stairs on the other side.

Heather motioned for Bunny to bring Kimmy up, so she did. Then Bunny was motioning for *me* to come up b/c she felt like a dork up there alone, and I was like "umm" but heather grinned at me and motioned for me to come up, so I did. Heather held out her arms to Kimmy and Bunny said "Kimmy, do you want to go to Heather?" and Kimmy got this horrified look on her face and shook her head emphatically NO! Heather doubled over laughing. It was so funny. :-) Then during the chorus, I was sitting there singing along, and heather put the mic in my face! I only sang about a line and a half but it was really fun. During the bridge, heather said to Bunny, "Do you know this part?" Bunny was like "Yeah!" So heather put the microphone in front of Bunny's mouth and Bunny sang almost the whole bridge all by herself! It was so cute. All these other little girls were sitting around us by then, and there were a bunch sitting by Denise too.

Bunny sat and talked to Heather for a second, because we wanted to know if it'd be ok if we could videotape PoG singing Happy Birthday for Joyce. Joyz's birthday isn't 'til April but since we won't be with her then, we wanted something special for her. Heather said that'd be fine and to just come and find them afterwards.

Joyce didn't know about any of this, and she decided she was going to go take Kimmy home, because she was very tired, and then Joyce was going to go back to the hotel and work on some stuff 'til we came back.

Laura, Bunny, Baylee, her mom, her friend, my sister and my mom and I waited at the very end of the autograph line. Watermark walked down the line, signing autographs, talking, and posing for pictures with fans waiting to talk to PoG. Christy had her hair in those little twisty rows that are so "in" now and a little girl asked her how she did it. Christy was like "Oh it's so easy you just take a section of your hair and twist it and clip it then just do it all over!" and while she explained it, she started doing it to the girl's hair. It was really cute.

We talked to Nathan and Christy for a little bit, and I told them how in a lot of the concert reviews people send me for Grace Notes, people are apprehensive of having to sit through a new group they've never heard of before, but after the concert, everyone absolutely loves their music and can't stop listening to their songs. They were really sweet and posed for pictures with us, as well as signed my Watermark CD cover and Bunny's A Woman's Call to Worship CD. They produced that CD, and Christy sings on it. Nathan was like "Where'd you get this??" and Bunny said, "Bethany *pointed to me* searched the Web for heather Floyd's name and she found a website that was selling it!" and I said, "Yeah but when I went back to the site to order it, it was shut down!" Christy kind of laughed and said, "Shut down, it's gone, it no longer exists, it is no more!" (Actually, it's back up and the CD is really good! Check it out at www.jamismith.com)

Everyone else finally went through the line, and we were up to PoG! Shelley goes, "So where's Joyce, are we singin'!?" right away, and I explained that Kimmy was really tired and had to go home. Denise said "Is she coming back?" and we were like "No, but we have the camcorder to record when y'all sing." Shelley was like, "Kimmy, is that her..niece, right?" and I was like "Yup, isn't she a cutie?" and Terry was like "Very cute." Then Bunny started recording and Heather said a little message to the camera: "Sorry we can't be with you on your birthday so we're going to sing to you now!" and they sang a cute harmonized version of Happy Birthday. When they finished singing, Denise goes, "OK we're going to eat your cake now!!" because we had brought a cake to eat later at the hotel and PoG had it propped up in front of them while they sang. When Denise said that, Heather moved her head like she was going to smash her face into the cake but she stopped right above it and grinned. We were like, "If you want a piece you can have one!" But Shelley was like "No y'all need to eat it." Denise grinned and said, "There is a lot of yummy icing though!" or something like that and reached her finger out and took some icing off the corner of the cake and ate it and said "Yummm!" :-) What a cutie.

Terry said, "So what were those little pink things y'all had up there??" and we laughed and I said "some toys from Bun's work at Pizza Hut." And she was like "Oh how funny." Then we said, "Oh can we take some pictures?" and Denise was like "Sure we'll stand up in a second," because they'd been having people lean in across the table for pics with them.

They stood up and Laura and my sister and I each got pics with just us and Heather, and Baylee got a picture with Terry. Then we each took pics of just each of us with Point of Grace. Baylee's mom was watching, and after I got my picture with PoG she was like "OK now y'all want pictures with me right?!" and I was like "Of course!!" so my mom took a picture of her and me.

Then they all left and were saying "Byeee!" the whole time they walked down the hall. We turned to leave when Denise came back and wanted us to tell KK hi. We were like "Well she's going to be getting a copy of this video!" so Denise said a message for KK to the video camera. It was super cute. Then she waved bye to us once more and we left to go to the hotel.

When we got back we sang happy birthday to Joyce, and yes, we did eat the cake! ;-) Thanks to Baylee & co., Joyz, Laura, Bunz, Mom, Sarah, Kimmy & family, Tim, Kelly, Christy and Nathan, and of course, Denise, Heather, Shelley, and Terry (and the merchandise guy who gave us free posters - but that's another story) for making our weekend so much fun. I love y'all! *hugs*