Flarp

Shoot it is hot here! Today was probably the worst I have ever felt it. Plus, I went outside for about 2 minutes to take a picture and came inside with about 12 giant bug bites on my legs. Cody has been holding my hands back and keeping me from itching all day. But, when he turns around, I get all the itchin in I can :)

Who would have thought that the last band member would have been hiding right under our noses?! Jon, Steven's twin, has joined the band on the bass and is kickin some serious butt. They are taking band pictures tomorrow and then getting the myspace up soon after that. We are starting to apply to some gigs and really excited about that! Still working on a band name though... small details.

Update

Wow. I am officially awful at keeping up with this.

As far as the flood, we were very blessed. We saw a lot of damage and homes completely destroyed. We got close to 5 feet of water in our basement, which was fortunately mostly vacant. If you look down from the top of the stairs leading into the basement you could see about 2 or 3 stairs with the water and there are about 9 stairs total. It was rising pretty quickly, so we decided to go out to try and find a water pump (bad idea #1). Almost every road we took was eventually blocked. When we got on the freeway, the other direction was flooded and starting to spill over the median into our side and a LONG line of cars were stuck there. Praise the Lord we didn't try to get on that freeway. We came to this intersection that looked like a river took it over (picture). There were some workers stuck on the roof of one of the businesses and they had just finished doing some boat rescues to get customers out.

We then went to McDonalds so Cody could get a cheeseburger (bad idea #2) and continue our quest. Heres our next stop...

These pics don't even come close to the things we saw and heard about by the way. We finally went to Home Depot and settled for some hoses to try to siphon the water out (bad idea #3), which was very unsuccessful after hours of trying. So we opened our window and starting scooping it out with a bowl and throwing it out the window (bad idea #4). We lost count around 40 I think and the water level was not budging at all. Then our landlord showed up with a pump! Took several hours to get it all out. At 150 gallons per minute, Cody calculated about 10,000 gallons were in the basement. Yikes! Heres the water flowing out...

If you didn't get to see a whole lot on the news, check this url out and other youtube videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFjaQoOdJvI

What is amazing is the incredible attitude of Nasvhille. People interviewed on the news were only grateful to have their lives and many were praising God despite their homes and everything they have being destroyed. What a great city to live in! The relief efforts have been amazing. So many people have volunteered and helped each other out. Cody and Ben volunteered to help out, but when they got there they couldn't do much because there were so many volunteers. I think that is just unreal.

God has been providing for us so much. Cody and Ben have been working as 'Brand Ambassadors' doing promotions for various companies. They worked promoting Quiznos in Kentucky, a Chevy test drive event, and now they are working at the CMA Festival promoting Oceanspray cranberries! They dress up in waders and stand in a bog of cranberries (just like the commercials) and talk to people as they walk by. Haha. All of the jobs last just a few days and pay quite well, which works great giving them an open schedule for music. And they love being able to work together, so cute. haha.

As far as music, they are working on starting a cover band as well as working on the originals for an EP (extended play). And welcome to the band, Stephen, on drums! He's a good guy and very talented. They have chosen 25 cover songs to perfect and have performance ready and they are sounding pretty dang good. The goal is to be able to start booking gigs for the cover band in about a month or so. Can't wait! I'll get some of the music posted up here as soon as I can. The planned studio time in April didn't quite happen unfortunately. But, they finished a recorded version of 'Nathan's Song' and it sounds great! Looks like it will be a bit longer than expected for recording, but that's ok. I am so excited to see what is in store for them.

It's an absolute zoo over here with CMA week. I feel so out of place not having cowboy boots or a cowboy hat. I am still waiting for my Carrie sighting. My friend saw her at the mall a couple weeks ago. Its bound to happen to me soon...

I am very excited for my family to visit next week! Mom, Dad, Jacki, Grandpa, and the girls are all coming over for Connor's boot camp graduation. Can't wait to see them and we are soo proud of Connor!

We miss everyone and can't wait to come home in July and see Audrey and Collin get hitched!!

God is good!

Well, today was a great day the Falkosky duo!!!!!...

#1) The realty company called and told us we got approved on the house we wanted to rent! Its a beautiful older house that has been completely redone inside. It has a very large music room that the boys will use for music with glass french doors, the main perk to the house. But it also has a GORGEOUS kitchen including a built in wine cooler... (maybe we'll throw some apple cider in there lol). I uploaded some pictures at the bottom of the page that I snapped from my phone when we did a walk-through. Now we just need to find some really cheap furniture! We feel very blessed and are so grateful. We are also very thankful to all the boys in Ben's house for letting us stay for a while.

#2) Hannah got a job!!! I will be working at the Captiol Grille (4 star/4 diamond) inside the Hermitage Hotel (5 star/5 diamond) in downtown Nashville. If you copy and paste the URLs below you can see what they look like if you want. It is a beautiful fine-dining restaurant. Because I don't have any fine-dining experience, I will be starting as a host and food runner and then moving up to serving. I'm very excited!! Looks like I might have to have to start sipping tea with my pinkie out, and maybe give the ol iron a whirl. haha. I have a drug test and background check tomorrow and will hopefully start soon!

Cody and Ben are still workin on perfecting the songs before they go into the studio here in a few weeks. They were working on a new one the other day that I think sounds awesome!! There is also a possibility of them playing in a benefit concert for Haiti. They still have to audition and stuff, but that would be a cool thing.

Well I'm about to go make a giant pot of Lasagna soup and some cornbread for hungry boys. And then its packing time! Love to all.





http://www.capitolgrillenashville.com/
http://www.thehermitagehotel.com/site/

Hello Narshville!

Well this marks the beginning of our blog! We arrived here in Nashville on Friday, Feb 12 around 6 pm after our 4-day journey across the country. We left Gresham at about 4:00am on Tuesday and drove straight to Eden, Utah where we stayed at a beautiful Trendwest resort. It was set in the mountains by a ski lodge. We had dinner, made some cookies and drank milk by the fire while we played a card game. Wednesday we woke up and hit the road, driving through the beautiful mountains, and ended up in Kearney, Nebraska for the night. Thursday we made it to the Lake of the Ozarks, despite the bickering of the TomTom and Garmin. This was another Trendwest resort and it was beautiful, set on the edge of the lake with a great view. It was definitely off-season because we were the 7th guest to arrive that day when we got there around 9pm. After a workout and a shower we headed to the Wobbly Boot BBQ for an awesome dinner. Friday we finished the trek and made it to Nashville. Praise the Lord we had no flat tires, no car problems, no speeding tickets (although a couple close calls), no accidents, and no running out of gas! We are very thankful to my (our) parents for driving along with us and enduring the driver leg cramps and honey in the hair. It was great to have them along for the ride. We went out downtown Nashville with them on Friday night to a blues place with some good live music and also to the Opryland Hotel on Saturday. We hope that helped convince them to come back and visit!

Well Cody and Ben are super excited to start working on music and get their EP done. We went to the Belmont Rock Showcase last night and saw some great groups! I'm really excited to see what God has in store for them. But as for now, we are house hunting, job hunting, and amp hunting. We looked at a few houses today. There was one that I fell in love with and Cody hated. Haha. Isn't that the way it goes. It is in the process of being fixed up so it was kinda messy and I understand why he didn't see the good in it. It's an older house and needs some decorating, but I think it could be great! And it has a large room that the boys could use for their music and leave everything set up all the time.

Im off to get ready for my Valentines Day date with my hubby... going to Germantown Cafe for dinner! To our Oregon friends and familiy (and WA too), we miss and love you, thanks for your prayers!

-Hannah