It Must Be Summer (and the rain has finally stopped!)

There is something about the sunshine that gets my creative juices flowing. I love that I can carry my instrument outside. My favorite place to write music is out on my back porch. I grab my guitar and a notebook and I'm off. However, with this constant rain, I have been stuck inside. Although, I must admit, I love the rain. I love the smell, the sounds, the way it makes everything so green (except my tomato plants - they are looking a little yellow - okay enough is enough) But today with the sun out, I plopped my butt down on my porch and started writing. I'm writing a song about "Time". I've found that as I get older, time seems to go faster and faster. The days just seem to fly by and sometimes I feel like I have accomplished very little. I wish I could freeze time (not always, just specific moments), but day after day the scenery is basically the same. This song is about making each day count, not taking anything for granted. Sounds like a good idea, huh? We will see how it turns out. So far, I like it, which is a good sign! This one is going to be a little more upbeat, with a really cool strum pattern on my guitar. It should be fun to play.

LDS Concert Series

I just wanted to let everyone know about my next concert. It will be in Manti, Utah before the Mormon Miracle Pageant, otherwise known as the Manti Pageant. I am performing on Saturday the 20th of June at 2:00 pm, 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm in the Manti High School Auditorium. The concert series runs every night during the pageant, so if you can’t make it to my concert or you just happen to be going to the pageant on another night, there are artist performing each night, including Jenny Oaks Baker and Sam Payne. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for students and $5 for children. All tickets will be $10 at the door. For more information go to their website at http://www.ldsconcertseries.com/.

Check out the article about the concert in the Mormon Times: http://www.mormontimes.com/arts_entertainment/music/?id=8161

I would love to see you there!

Magazine Article

I recently did an interview for a magazine called "Mormon Artist". The article was published this month. To read the article go to: http://mormonartist.net/issue-5/amy-van-wagenen/. Let me know what you think or leave a comment below the article.

We're Expecting!

I love that title. When you post a title like that one, everyone is enticed to read more. Sadly, it's not as exciting as you might think. We have an adorable miniature schnauzer. Her name is Prinsess Mia - yes I spelled that with an "s". Princess Mia was already taken by the AKC, so prinsess it is. She is 2 years old and in a moment of weakness, I decided it would be fun to breed her. What was I thinking? Apparantely, I wasn't! We took her to the Vet today and they x-rayed her very large belly. X-rays are taboo for a pregnant mom, but somehow they are okay for a dog. They saw 7 - yes, 7 puppies. No wonder she is so huge. Poor, poor Mia. Again, what was I thinking? The puppies will be here sometime next week. They are purebred with papers and all. We will be selling them in a couple of months. I have already told myself that I am not going to fall in love with any of these little pups. I do not want 2 dogs - 1 is really enough - seriously! It turns out I am a dog lover. Here's a shout out to all of you fellow dog lovers. At the end of the day, that cute little dog still loves me unconditionally. She never talks back and is so eager to please. I grew up surrounded by animals. We always had at least one dog. We also had... a BIRD, - it flew away several times, but always returned, he was fluent in phone mimicking and he could say my sister's name perfectly, a TURTLE -it got left outside and froze, FROGS -they jumped out of the aquarium and we found them weeks later stuck to the windows in our family room, we even had 2 DUCKS at one time - they roamed the backyard for weeks until finally my dad could no longer stand the mess and we took them to the Hogle Zoo (at least that is what I was told). Animals are a fun part of life, at least in my childhood! Having a dog has been great for my children. She shows them love when they feel lonely or sad. She teaches them to be compassionate and to be responsible. Fortunately, my kids are old enough to clean up her messes in the backyard. Thank heaven! So, wish me luck on my new puppy adventure and I'll keep you posted.

Showcase Concert

Last Thursday was the Mormon Times Showcase Concert.  Yes, I know, I'm a little slow, but I'm still a little euphoric.  It was incredible.  I thought for sure that I would be nervous to perform on stage in front of such a large audience... well, a relatively large audience, and half of them were family members!  But I wasn't nervous - go figure.  I loved being on stage with all the lights and a band behind me, my band did an amazing job.  No, I did not get to meet Donny Osmond, but Brandon Osmond is a great guy.   And although Daniel Archuleta performed that night, I didn't get to meet him either.  I was kinda hoping that his brother David would show up, but no such luck.  I guess he's a little busy these days!  I must admit however, that I was a little disappointed that I didn't win any money:( but I am truly grateful for all the support that I received from all my friends and family.  Unfortunately the Osmonds have more friends and apparently, more family.  I didn't think families got any bigger than mine!   Thanks for all the votes.  They helped me get to the concert, which was really my goal.  All 6 of the finalist were fantastic and it was fun hangin' out with all of them in the "green room".  That was priceless.  I'm also very grateful for the people who put all of this together.  It has been a wonderful opportunity for me to promote my music - for free, no less!  I was even in the newspaper a few times - dorky picture and all.  The results are as follows:  1st place - Brandon Osmond, 2nd place Nicole Sheahan, 3rd place - Truman.  They are great musicians and I wish all of them luck in the future.  They did take pictures and a video of the concert.  I will post them when I get them.  I gave my daughtr the camera for the night and asked her to take some pictures.  This is all I got...

Me and Nicole Sheahan

I don't know what I'm doing here - probably biting my lip (bad habit!)

I think there's actually 2 of me in this picture.  1 is definitely enough!

I am in the Finals!

I made it into the finals in the Mormon Times Showcase Contest. Who would have thought - huh! Thanks to all who voted for me. I am so excited! The final round of voting starts today and continues until March 10th. You can still vote once every day. The winner will recieve $5000 and will be announced at a concert featuring all the finalist. The 6 finalists are myself, of course, Brandon Osmond, Barry Hansen, Truman, Nicole Sheahan and Ryan Innes, so it should be a great concert. The concert will be held on March 19th at the Covey Center for the Arts in Orem, Utah. Tickets are on sale now and you can purchase them by following this link: http://www.coveycenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=4

Don't forget to vote and thanks for all your support. Vote here: http://music.mormontimes.com/contest.php?id=756&nocache=1

Voting Starts Today

Voting for the finals in the Mormon Times contest starts today. There are 12 finalist - Me of course, Brandon Osmond (Donny's son), Due West, Shaun Barrows, Ryan Innes, Aaron Southerland, Maati Maile, Nicole Sheahan, Maxine Soakai, Poli Hala, Truman and Barry Hansen. Every artist is very talented, so the competition is pretty strong. Voting will continue for 2 weeks and the top 6 continue on to the final round of voting which runs March 3 - March 10th. The top 6 contestants will perform at a concert at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo on March 19th and the winner recieves $5000. Tickets for that event are on sale now, but I have no idea who will be performing. They will not be showing a tally of the votes, the finalists will be announced on the final day of voting. I guess that's good for me, I won't feel like a total loser when I only have 5 votes, no one will even know! I would love to make it to the final round and be able to perform at the concert, but we will see what happens. This has been a great opportunity to share my music with a wider audience, and it's provided some great publicity. In fact, there is an article about me and my music in the Mormon Times news this week. You can read the article here: http://www.mormontimes.com/arts_entertainment/music/?id=6164 I seriously don't remember saying most of those things, but I'm sure I was nervous! To vote for my video, you can follow this link: http://music.mormontimes.com/contest.php?id=756&nocache=1