God is good. [not a studio journal entry]

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for all your prayer, encouragement, and kind words. God has truly blessed me with each and every one of you in my life.

As both Mrs. Wells and Jessica commented on my last note, the surgery was a complete success. God pulled me through and nothing could have gone any better than it did.

The cholestoma was gone so the surgery was just reconnecting the two bones.

I am expected to recover much quicker than last time due to the fact that I didn't get sick (they gave me anti-nausea meds before and during surgery), I am not in nearly as much pain as I was last time (we had to stay at the hospital for 11 hours last time, after the surgery, even longer in total), and this surgery only took 40 minutes as compared to the nearly 2.5 hour surgery I had last summer.

I am in some pain, but I honestly do not care all that much. God has brought me through victoriously and I should never need another surgery on that ear ever again.

I also learned more about the cholestoma. If it had come back, the canal wall down procedure that would have had to take place was bad for several reasons.
1) the cholestoma needed to be removed if it was there because those can grow out of control and be fatal
2) canal wall down leaves the patient vulnerable to more ear infections and bacterial growth, thus making more ear drum holes
3) canal wall down greatly effects the hearing of the ear in which it takes place

I am so blessed by the outcome of this surgery and I am in awe of God's great love.

Thank you everyone who either called me, IMed me, prayed for me, texted me, emailed me, etc. It means more to me than you could ever know.

Please continue to pray for me this next month that I will have a quick and safe recovery.

God Bless,
♥ Carl

I need your prayer [not a studio journal entry]

I haven't been completely honest with everyone around me. Even some of my closest friends. I stated some things about my first surgery in one of my first entries in this but I didn't write much about the second surgery because I didn't know very much. Let me reiterate some of the things from my first note.

I have bad hearing and wear in-ear hearing aids.

Last summer I had surgery on my left eardrum because I had two holes in it from an infection.

This surgery was not completely effective because they found a cholestoma (skin growth) on one of my 3 hearing bones.

They had to remove this after reconstructing my eardrum and then disconnect 2 of the bones, leaving me unable to hear well out of my left ear.

I now (tomorrow morning) am returning to the same surgeon to have those two bones connected.

Although this is a much easier surgery, if the cholestoma is back, they need to preform a canal wall down procedure.
(this is a picture of what my ear would look like after that: http://www.susmedicos.com/articulos_otologia_timpanoplastia_archivos/photo_1.jpg)

I have been scared out of my mind for the past week because it's finally here.

I finally told my best friend who is also my amazing girlfriend, two nights ago, just how scared I am.

She told me the best thing anyone could have told me at that point. That God will do whatever's best for me and no matter how it turns out, I need to realize that. She also gave me this scripture: 1 Peter 5:7.

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you"

I love this verse and it has helped a lot, but until after I dropped her off at her house today, I had not done quite this.

On my way home I prayed the most difficult, sincere, painful, intense prayer that I have ever prayed in my life.

But I'm done worrying, my life is in his hands.

Thank you if you read this all the way through, it means a lot to me.

If the hearing aid thing is new information for you...please don't treat me differently, it is the main reason my hair is still long, because I am so self-conscious of them.

My one other request is that you would please pray for me and my surgeon for tomorrow morning.

Thank you so much.
♥ Carl

RECORDING!!!

Well, I am now home from college and have begun to record!!!!

What I did today:

I worked on the song "Dance With Me"
I wrote a new drum part
Recorded the final guitar.
Got the vocals almost perfect.
Added drums and bass (programmed) for feel

I will record bass soon and record Andy on drums...

I'll try to get a taste up soon.

It's really turning out pretty sweet right now and I'm really excited!

♥ Carl

New Stuff Posted!!

There are several new things to find on my myspace page:

1) my acoustic cover of "reinventing your exit" by underoath (just for fun, not from patience) for download
2) "staring at the stars" is back up
3) a newer version of "new song demo" which is now named "by faith, not sight"
4) the cover art for patience!
5) My 2nd top friend "dcworship" (www.myspace.com/dcworship) is devin pogue and my worship project!

Love you all,
♥ carl

Album Art

This is almost done.

:)

♥ carl

Pre-production update

I have almost demoed all of the songs out, there are only a few left to do.

The track list besides the 2 bonus songs are all figured out and are as follows:

"Patience"
by faith, not sight
blinded by the lights
who are you?
dance with me
coffee (copeland cover)
salt & pepper
to the moon!
staring at the stars
honey, I’m home!
so aware, so careless
patience

This is not the definite order and there will be 1-2 bonus tracks at the end

Andy Coad will do most, if not all, of the drums on this CD.
Devin Pogue may appear in one or more songs for backup vocals.
Jessica Wells will sing on one or more of the songs.

I may begin recording this upcoming weekend. Probably only one or two songs at most for now though.
I may put up some demos on myspace soon.

♥ carl

News

I have decided that since I do not use this blog very often that I am going to change it's use.

I am recording my debut album, "Patience", this summer.

This blog will now be used as my studio blog to give updates on recording.

Currently I have demoed almost the entire CD, but that doesn't mean much.

More Info coming soon!

♥ Carl

p.s. expect an EP (or new CD) after this because I have been writing a lot lately!

My Mind Does Not Know Best

It's been a while
Since I've slept so sound
My attempts all fail
They keep me bound

Every second lasts forever
And keeps me far away
From this life affirming slumber
That takes me from today

I long to rest deep and full
But my mind will not stop
My body may have been lulled
But my mind won't let it drop

My mind will not let me rest
Although my body needs to
My mind does not know best
But keeps on pushing me through

My mind will not stop
My mind won't let it drop
My mind will not let me rest
My mind does not know best

----------------------

I've been having some trouble sleeping if you can't tell...it's quite frustrating
♥ carl