d.russell: journal

today finds me excited about life and love and family and being happy and how i so love joyce meyer and dani johnson and t.d. jakes and so many others who feed me the word of God on a daily basis..i so love being a Christian and am so grateful that the Lord found me, lost and stumbling around in this world with no purpose, just exsisting and trying to get through this life...there is so not anything as precious as a relationship with the Lord. nothing...

hey, all, hope everyone is having a very nice sunday morning. this morning i watched t.d. jakes for my church service.got a lot out of it as usual..i am so God's daughter and i am proud to say i'm a Christian. am i perfect? Lord knows i'm not and yet i am still loved by Him..that humbles me and keeps me at His feet.."He hides me in the cleft of the rock" one of my favorite scriptures because He truly does, i am near Him. i get into trouble when i feel like i am carrying myself or i can do things without His help. WRONG!! WRONG ANSWER, yet He is so gracious and delivers us out of trouble,and situations that we find ourselves in. there is NOBODY like Jesus...nobody...

So, just wanted to let you know what i am working on now. after recording in nashville and preparing to tour and write songs and keep moving forward, for those of you who do not know, my mother had a surgery that almost killed her. she went in for a minor surgery and almost didn't make it. without going into details because it angers me every time i think of it and because the surgery she supposedly had, we were told by her surgeon that it was never done, well, anyway, i have been busy with her doctor's visits and the like and needed to be close to her. having said that, i feel comfortable enough to move forward with my own life. my mom has great siblings who have stepped up to the plate to be there for her when i can't and my sister and brother are rallying around her to see that her care continues..please keep my mother in your prayers that the surgery that she never had for zinkers diverticulum does not rear it's ugly head..because of the awful doctor that she had, she ended up in ohio state university hospital for about 4 weeks in surgical icu..we would sit at her bed for days in a row and she was so sedated she just slept and didn't know we were there.. or so we thought. the nurses said we didn't need to come because she wouldn't remember we were there...but she did!! when she woke up, she asked where her sisters were,she said they were out in the hall..well, the truth is, they WERE there, but not when she woke up. they had visited her when she was sedated and sleeping. IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO WATCH WHAT YOU SAY WHEN PEOPLE ARE IN AN UNCONSCIENCE STATE. THEY DO HEAR YOU, BITS AND PIECES OF CONVERSATION..THEIR SPIRIT IS STILL COHERENT!!

i said all that to say this:i have been working a nine to five job and writing music, concentrating on licensing deals. and the Lord has been faithful. i am writing and co-writing with pat mcgrath in nashville and scheduling concerts for events coming up in the akron, ohio area. will post those soon.
i will have a new website at the end of the month, and i like how it is going to look.i also will be working with a new photographer lisa christine of lisachristinephotography. find her on facebook, her pictures are amazing...they just drew me to her, she's really, really good and captures the essence of her subjects. i don't feel that i am very photogenic and i hate having my photo taken, so if she can capture the essence of who i am, like she's done for her other clients, i will be sooooo pleased!!! i'm sure she'll do a great job..

so, that is what i've been spending my time on and just loving my family, my son john, daughter-in-law stephanie and jersie and kali my "little girls" are my blessings..so love being around them..

as many of you know,my son john is a basketball player and rick reilly from Sport's Illustrated flew into town to do a story about he and LeBron James because they were going to play against each other in the AKRON ST. V- CANTON MCKINLY GAME, John went on to college and played football as wide receiver at Hiram and before jersie was born, we decided as a family to not move to Las Vegas, Nevada where john was going to walk on as a freshman for their college football team. John and Stephanie felt they wanted to be around family while jersie was little so they did but now it's time for John to move forward in his career and he is preparing to get back into the professional level of his sports career and i'm glad about that. he is also working with a very nice lady i know, mary, who discovered ashton kutcher and she and her husband will be working with john to move his modeling forward as well..he made some hard choices to be apart of his family's daily life when he could have moved to nevada and missed a lot of jersie's life. he didn't want to do that.and i know God is honoring him for that decision to stay. so now our families have two beautiful girls,jersie and kali and i know that me and stephanie's parents are better for them having stayed here in ohio for us to be a part of their lives, and i will help my son however i can to make his dreams come true for he and his family...
he is truly a great son, to see the Lord's hand upon his life from an early age, to see the favor of God on him, to watch doors open for him that only the Lord could have opened, is humbling to me..when he was little, i can remember in a sunday morning church service,dedicating his life to the Lord, i vowed to the Lord i would do whatever it took to raise him right and johhny made it easy,though, he was such a good kid! he still is, he calls me to see how i'm doing, gives me a big hug and kiss when he sees me..i tell everybody, he is the best son a mother could have,he really is!!!!
the Lord is truly johnny's confidence and to know that the Lord has johnny's back no matter what..well, honestly,what else could a parent ASK for........
indeed, the Lord is good....

so, the new website will be up the end of the month, with new pictures, performance dates in the akron area, and tv/radio promotion shows coming up too.. i plan to be very busy and my website will be the place to come to find out what i am doing, so make sure i have your email addresses.
thank you for caring about me as a person and as a musician and allowing me to create what i hope is some really good music that plays in the background of your life.
have a great day, everybody!
d.

incredible!! i am so sad that he is gone. so much talent, so much giving..he was soooo giving..
i kept wanting the dvd to keep going and going and i wanted to watch him create and i just wanted to keep watching him in action, he is such an inspiration and you almost forget that there were only a few people in the room, it's like his presence was sooo big...boundless...
what a loss..
i pray for his family..they must miss him so..
you are the best mj...
i remember the songs of yesterday and the pictures of the jackson 5 and i realize he has been in my life for along time...
it's like he still needs to be here..

i'm going to go watch it again.....

what do i say
when i have nothing to talk about?
what do i do
when there are no plans at hand
how do i sit still
when i feel like runnin'....

what do i feel
when my heart longs for the rain?
how do i find my way back
to a town i long to know...

now i remember
where this all began
Lord, i am needing...You.
(c)denise russell 2010

today, thursday feb 25, my beautiful granddaughter kali ahna was born..my son john, my daughter-in-law stephanie and my first grandbaby jersie are all doing fine, settling into their new routine...sandy, stephanie's mom and i were awake for a very long time, sandy for 36 hours straight and me 24 hours awaiting kali's birth and caring for jersie while john and steph were in the hospital caring for kali...so, needless to say, when we DID sleep, we were out!! sandy watched jersie this morning and i picked her up later in the afternoon and she spent the night with me,i love that little girl!!
we got to the hospital around 5 or so wednesday evening and kali was born at 5:10 am thursday morning..children truly are a blessing from the Lord..
watching my son being a good family man and stephanie bonding with her little girl and making sure that jersie is kept in the loop, made me realize how blessed i am to have the Lord be the head of our lives..it makes all the difference in the world..
can't wait to go visit them tomorrow!
"train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he shall not depart from it.."

amen...

first off, i'd like to wish everyone a happy new year!! i know for some, last year was a year of good times and bad, scary and sad, happy and prosperous for some..the truth is every year is that way and the kicker is to just go with the flow, pray for the best and if life is flowing in the way you do not want it to go, SWIM UPSTREAM!!! IT'S HARD, BUT YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!

where i live, ohio, has been very hard on people and yet with a resolve to get better and this area is still a place for great music and musicians...it's in the valleys that you grow...

heading out for a little coffe and shopping. i have a photo shoot tomorrow for press pictures and touring info..still promoting 'disconnected',excited about that...
i've got a lot of music in my soul and i'm layin' it all down on paper, singing as i drive(a very good place to create and sing out loud until someone looks over at you, like, what are you doing??!)..i used to ride around with a panasonic cassette tape recorder and i still do at times, but mainly now i just create voice notes with my blackberry and it works just fine..
the new music i'm creating i will record in nashville again with steve tveit and pat mcgrath at omnisound studios..great friends to work with..i am still so honored to have been taken under their wing so to speak, feels great..
today, is my day to get organized, winter clean, although it feels like spring cleaning, the temperature is sixty degrees, and pick up a couple of accessories for the photo shoot..
have a good day everybody...
d.

today i'm somber. i have watched so many news shows about what happened to michael jackson and all i can think about, is his life is gone, way, way too soon..
regardless of what people thought of him and what I even thought of him at times because of what we read in the media about his life, i still find it awful that he is gone..
"rest in peace"...i don't believe he is, though. i believe that this world is just that..THIS world..i believe that when he took his last breath that he hovered over his body and went to be with the Lord..i hope he's with the Lord..

michael was truly a genius and he did make a comeback..
physically, he is not alive to see it...
if he's in Heaven..he knows he did...

may your spirit live on, michael..
i don't believe you did the deeds you did..for some reason, after watching your life spoken about by those who loved you, your friends and your family..i really believe you were innocent of those charges..and i'm sorry it took your death for me to learn who you really seemed to be..a humanitarian, a father, a friend, a brother, a son.. a little weird, yes, but who isn't i guess..
your concerts would have been a success..
after seeing the clip of your last concert rehearsal, the world has really suffered a tragedy..
you have gone from this earth, michael,
way too soon.....

November 24, 2008 - Monday

LOTS GOING ON!!


wooh, time just FLIES!!! so much to do, so little time to do it all, it seems!!

ok, i'll fill you all in on what's been going on with me. I've been taking it easy,

concentrating on new material. you know how that is, you spend a lot of time reflecting on your life, things, relationships etc., and your music is born out of that. and while you're in the creative mood, other doors start to open and ideas start to take shape and that's what's been happening with me..

my new friend and business associate steve haren, the advertising director at the akron beacon journal, a local newspaper that garners the reputation as one of the best in the country approached me with an idea of bringing my music to the masses. he says he is a fan of my music after hearing'disconnected' as well as his daughter, too!! ANYWAY, we've been kicking around concert ideas and interviews to coincide with an upcoming concert i'm doing on december 12th at 9:30 at the rosarita cantina in fairlawn, ohio about 45 minutes from where i live here in canton, and it's a very nice place i'm told. i can't wait to go check the venue out this week.. so, i will be doing some interviews, have my music be the backdrop of a Real Estate TV Show and at the end of the show, my cd will be credited and a segment of how people can order it will be there as well!! isn't that cool??!!

SO, that's what i've been up to and now the focus is performing and going to nashville to lay down some tracks. i wanted to get there before the end of this year but january is the time i will be there....

i so can't wait to visit with pat and steve and just catch up with them!! can't wait to see stover, either and the rest of the gang there!

so, talk to you guys tomorrow,



peace,

d.

august 31,2008
wow, it's hard to believe we are almost at the end of another year!
kids are back in school and parents are in another season of their lives. i know! i remember when my son john was little and gearing up for another season of school for us was exciting. john(SPUD) was and still is very athletic and was always the star player for baseball, football and basketball for canton city schools, mckinley bulldogs..and while most singers in this industry were traveling to their prospective venues for the evening on either a friday or saturday night, i was happily sitting in the crowd, cheering my son and his team on!!
i will NEVER forget those days and i am SO grateful to the Lord for giving me the wisdom to know that children are indeed a blessing, that raising them right is the highest calling on earth..i had no desire to do anything but raise him..no career or music or anything could come before my call as a mother. it's such an honor..i am so grateful for picking him up from school and going to practices and games and now that he's out of high school, i am a little sad that that part of my life is over!! i am happy that the Lord made it clear to me what was more important, and now He's blessing my music career more than i could have ever imagined, and opening doors that i never even knew were for me to go through!! God is awesome, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, so keep the faith and keep your eyes focused on Him..He'll take care of the rest. i know, He's done it for me!!

i love the fact that i am young enough to pursue my career without any regrets that a lot of fellow musicians have, and that is that they feel they gave up their families for their careers, that they missed alot of opportunities to be with their families...all i can say is, GOD is merciful and he'll restore what you feel you have lost..it's never too late!!
for me, the adjustments aren't too big..instead of sitting at a football stadium with the wonderful smell of hot dogs and onions and sipping on hot chocolate,surrounded by friends and screaming fans, the beating drums of the high school marching band,i will instead be traveling to very nice upscale restaurants that entice me in with their wonderful aromas as i enter, or playing at coffeeshops where my french vanilla latte awaits and where family and friends gather after football games..i will just be playing out a lot more now. and as i find the stage, and lay my guitar in the corner, i'll smile to myself as i see the mic stand..knowing that this, too, is where i belong....
i am grateful to have the best of both worlds...i am a mom and i am a musician....

i am so happy to say that my cd, a five song EP is completed!! yippie!!!! i am very happy with it and i hope you will enjoy it, too.
i am very greatful that you care about me and my music because you are so much a part of this musical journey that i'm blessed to be a part of, too..if you'd like to pre-order your cd,i will personally sign a copy for you.. just send me an email and tell me a little bit about yourself .send a picture of yourself, too,i'd love to see who you are, or go to my myspace page and send me a comment and a message!
talk to ya soon,God bless,

d.