Whirlwind Weekend (long, but AMAZING story)

Like I said in my last post, last weekend was CRAZY. We have been so busy moving, and unpacking, working, and all that fun stuff. On Thursday I didn't have to work, so I woke up and got started on organizing/ throwing away tons of stuff. There was lots of running up and down the two flights of stairs, and I was ready to fall asleep by 8pm....but I still had stuff to do and just really felt like I needed to get as much done as possible. I do NOT handle clutter well and could feel it weighing down on me. I was feeding the kids and Tyler too much junk food, and slacking off on my motherly duties, and hated it!

So Thursday night at about 9:15 I get a call from my friend Heather....back tract to a year ago. They were new in our ward and she heard me sing in Sacrament meeting. She came up to me afterwards and told me they were really good friends with this amazing pianist. I had never heard of him, but she wanted a copy of me singing so she could give it to him for future reference. I never gave her a copy because my demo is old, and I kind of forgot.  So Thursday night she calls and says "Hey Monica, William Joseph is at our house right now and we would love it if you would come sing for him..." I had missed the call but hurried and called her back and told her how grungy I looked and that I would need a few minutes to freshen up. She asked me to hurry and listen to his song "O, America" that the Celtic Women sing because he may want to hear me sing it.

I rushed and got ready, grabbed some music, youtubed his song and headed over. I sang a church song, and he asked if I would sing another, then asked if I would sing HIS song. I only heard half of it before I left for Heather's house. After I finished singing his song he said "Wow! Ok, Million Dollar question-what are you doing tomorrow night?" He told me he was having a party the next night and asked if I would be willing to sing it there. It was a charity event, and I was more worried about what I was going to wear then anything. I actually cried about it when I got home, haha. No not just that I didn't have anything to wear, but I had to take a dessert to a funeral the next morning, work, find something to wear, find a babysitter, AND I had already committed to watching the little boy I nanny over night and we didn't know if Tyler would be able to get off with such short notice.  I wanted to sing it so bad and was so stressed! 

Side note:  Heather later told me that when she first mentioned me he was really skeptical, and wasn't sure if he wanted me to come over. He has so many people say "I have this singer..." and so he said Heather could have me over but not to say anything about the party because he didn't want to have to tell me it wouldn't work out....but then once he heard me he said he was having a hard time not getting emotional! I wanted to die with excitement!!!! 

Anyway I was able to get work off, and ended up not having to watch the baby over night, and then remembered my sister in law had a dress that would work perfectly. Everything just fell right into place. 

We went to the event and the song went really well, so he asked if I would sing with him again at a fireside that was on Sunday. Seriously it has been an amazing weekend. Oh except for the fact that I got super sick on Saturday (allergies or something) and was so worried I wouldn't be able to sing on Sunday. Tyler gave me a blessing though and I drank lots of water with apple cider vinegar (nasty but so works!), and Zicam and was able to make it through the performance. 

William is such an awesome down to Earth person. He has 3 albums, was signed by David Foster, and one of his songs was almost chosen as the theme for the Beijing Olympics...and he is only 32. Even with all that he is a faithful member of our church. He even put his career on hold to serve a mission, and is a father of three.  You should have heard him speak at the fireside, he had his scriptures on the piano the whole time :).  He is the nicest person and it was so fun getting to know him.

I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to sing with him last weekend and can't wait to sing more with him! 

Here are some pictures from after the fireside:

Nathan thought he was pretty awesome.

HERE is the link to the video from the party. The quality isn't the best, and it sounded better in person- I hate listening to recordings of myself, blah.  I start singing at about 5 mins but you should listen to the whole thing to hear the story of how the song came to be.