Bonjour.
The days have turned lovely, and at times tumultuous; it is indeed spring. Summer is just around the corner, peeking into our newfound warmth, and I am settled down to acquaint you all with the past several months of our lives that you may or may not have had a part in. Honestly, October was a long time ago in my memory... and in actuality, and I'm going to try my very best to remember the stories for you. If not, we may become accidentally encompassed in tales of dinosaur invasions and alien abductions. I'll desperately try to keep you away from that possibility. Take a deep breath, sigh, alright, another deep breath, ok, let's go.

October of 2008
After some mucking about in the south, we took a long weekend trip to the lovely state of New York. It was particularly lovely that week. The ubiquitous colors take your imagination to places of deep contemplation where the beautiful possibilities encroach upon the more startling realities. It was an enjoyable weekend. Ames gave us a happy welcome, and we had so much fun. We then embarked on a long trip back home and then to Texas for an elongated weekend there. We spent a day or so in Amarillo, where we had to fix something on the van, I think, and we had to walk a couple miles to the movie theater to entertain ourselves with an intense cinematic experience, which worked out pretty well. Then we stayed a couple nights at Boys Ranch, Texas, a boys ranch that actually has its own township. Pretty stellar. We went hiking around Palo Duro Canyon one afternoon. It was dusty and pretty and we found a lot of treasures such as the Lighthouse, which is rock constructed by our creative God, and a tarantula. I had a great time taking pictures. The rest of October was spent closer to home in the states of Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.

November of 2008
was spent doing concerts in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Emmett went on a roadtrip to Florida with Zach Reinke. They had a little vacation over Thanksgiving staying with our good friend and almost-legally-declared brother, John Stockeland. The rest of us went to Buhler to spend Thanksgiving with Hadley and his pretty little blonde family. I love the holidays: Pumpkin pie, football, walks to the park, tea parties with the children. Then for the weekend Caleb, Audra, and I went to work at the Country Barn in Hastings, Nebraska for their holiday festival, where we worked in the kitchen and at registers trying to stay warm and western. Cowboy hats and all! John Wayne would've been proud.

December of 2008
We learned a Christmas set! When we worked in Branson we got ever so slightly burned out on Christmas carols, having performed them every day for 2 months a year. We finally got back into the spirit of things and put together about 7 Christmas songs. We had so much fun doing them and introduced them in West Virginia after driving a long and arduous journey and being late. We were pretty uncertain as to whether they would go over well, however, I think everyone really loved them. People kept requesting a Christmas album and that's a really good sign. After West Virginia we angled towards their neighboring eastern neighbors who are, simply, Virginians. That Sunday night in Leesburg we were able to be a part of a Christmas myriad of musicians, all sorts of different styles, which is so much fun. Then we journeyed home for the remainder of the year, for the most part. We spent a few days in Nebraska with family over Christmas. We actually spent Christmas night at a movie theater in Grand Island with some of Mom's relations. Movie pick was "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" which got an assortment of reviews from our queue, mine was in favor. I found it to be very intriguing. After much feasting and red and green tinted giggles, we went home to meet up with Hadley and his pretty little blonde family for our own Christmas. I happen to love Christmas. The secrets and long-awaited surprises... Ooh, I can't keep my glow inside. I probably look like a 5 year old all over again.

Time out:
Ok, back to the present to tell you about where I currently am. The majestical state of Colorado! It is so very beautiful here. We are clustered up in a cabin in Lake George. Some dear folks, whom I don't know the names of, have offered us their little mountain house for a few days. In fact, it's not really little, there's plenty of room for all of us. It's so nice, and we've had a grand time relaxing, playing countless games of garage ping pong, also, football and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on Emmett's PS3, Yahtzee--which Mom totally owns at, and hiking up to the crags near Pike's Peak. We have our friend, Adam Jahnke, from Nebraska with us and he and I spent the middle mid-morning taking pictures of water splashes out on the deck with my camera. Apart from feeling rather incongruous with the altitude, we have been having a marvelous time. The view out the windows is simply and intricately breathtaking, there are so many layers of sights. The furthest being the snowy mountains, then the grassy hills, followed by the lake, and then the valley--often speckled with antelope and mule deer--which we are situated in. Tonight we get back to work playing in Falcon, CO, with a (hopeful) stop at a place called 'The Coffee House' in Florissant, which I love. A must-visit if you find yourself scuttling, but not too swiftly scuttling, through these parts. Alright, time in.

January of 2009
The first two weekends of January we were stationed in Corsicana, Texas with an array of concerts throughout our stay. We also discovered Three Doors Down Coffee Shop. Seriously one of the coolest places I've ever been to. They made us sing for them, and then we left with our coffees and they came running down the street after us for another song, which actually endowed us free coffees the next day, so... that really paid off. After Texas we went back to our territory for the next weekend, then off to Alabama and Florida for our southeastern trip of the year. Alabama held several churches and our annual We Care Prison Crusade awaiting some Franz Family music. We were happy to oblige them.

February of 2009
Ah! Then Florida. I've spoken to you before of the many irresistible enchantments of Florida in winter, so I need not linger on that, or mention that it was freezing this year? No joke, it was ridiculous. I'm pretty sure it rained every day. Disappointment dawdled in our brains. Also, we were sick this entire trip, wound up with pneumonia, for some reason. Somehow, Emmett escaped the plague unscathed. I still wonder how he managed that. We arrived back home to an astonishing amount of our trees all over the yard. There had been an ice storm while we were gone, so really the complaining of frigid Florida wasn't too necessary. However, it left us with a lot of clean-up. We spent a day cutting off the fallen down branches and bringing them to the burn pile. Unfortunately, I still had pneumonia lingering in my lungs and after breathing in the smoke all day I completely lost my voice. First time in my life. We were in Bonner Springs, Kansas that weekend and I literally had no voice to sing with, it was a tragic quandary. Not to mention, back in Alabama, my MacBook, which is basically my best friend, completely failed its duties, keeled over and died, semi-permanently. It required serious resuscitation. My life was seemingly falling apart. However, it gathered itself back together in time. I, quite luckily, have a friend (the previously mentioned Adam Jahnke) who is brilliant with Macs and was able to save all my files, which floored me, and reinstall everything. I, however, had only the means of hugs to express my gratitude since my voice was non-existent, thus he was a recipient of, some of you will remember, my once $1 hugs. Yeah, I'm pretty good.

March of 2009
Kansas! Really, really exciting Kansas. Especially in March, can't best it. Haha. Alright, some of you may be fond of Kansas, and thus will not catch the negligible sarcasm I nonchalantly threw in there. I actually really like being in Kansas now because my brother decided to live there and produce a lovely little family, and now it's quite a pleasant experience. We played in his church that second Sunday night in March and were able to spend several days with them between our concerts. They just recently purchased a new house, which is much larger than their last one, and the basement now has enough room for all of us when we come: A rather satisfactory development on all accounts. However, it was recently flooded, and now they have to recarpet and paint the entire basement and replace books and mattresses. So please pray for them to have the patience and funds to finish it entirely. Alright, back to March. That next weekend we were in California. Truly an exciting state, in all sincerity. We drove out there in two days. Two 16 hour days, that seemed to take an eternity. We kept receiving gifts of hours from the establishment of time zones in 1883, and our days seemed so very long. We did finally arrive in Santa Rosa late Saturday night. We were supposed to stay with this gentleman that night who apparently went to bed early, so we just walked into this house, hoping Lola (our GPS) was correct, and crawled into some beds. In the morning we discovered that the man in the kitchen did know who we were and we had slept in the right house. That Sunday was a great start to our trip. We had such a pleasurable tour. We kept driving hours and hours from concert to concert and never seemed to run out of Californian space to drive. One stop I did love was Hearst Castle in San Simeon. It was thoroughly charming. If you ever get the chance, please, please go visit. We only got to see a fraction of the property, next time I really want to see the library, but what we did see was so astounding. There are so many relics and dazzling colors. Ah, yes... Just take my word for it, you'd love it. Unfortunately, all the driving about in the mountains took our van to rot, and it started sputtering in a serious death. The last night in California we knew we couldn't make it back across the desert, so we decided to find someone to help. We really didn't have to search, the people at the church in Hanford took us under their wing and took care of everything: The labor, parts, and cost. We were so humbled and thankful for their ministering to us. We were so grateful to them for the part they played in our ministry. So if you're reading this and you're one of them, thank you again.

April and May of 2009
We stirred about in Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas--where we did three morning services at Topeka Bible Church!, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska--where we engaged in some of our cousins' graduations, successfully making us feel old. Audra and I hung some pretty stellar streamers in our aunt and uncle's garage. So, basically what I'm saying is, if you're in need of some hopping party ideas, you know where to look. Alright, then Michigan and Indiana, again. Kansas, again!

June of 2009
First weekend always finds us in Henderson, Nebraska at the gospel sing, where you will likely find us running back and forth from the school to a Grandma's house, on stage, back stage, or in the sound booth, milling about with friends and family, who are very prevalent in that town. Last night, or rather, very, very early this morning we arrived back home from a two weekend tour in Colorado. Boy, that's a pretty state, as I previously stated to you in a long paragraph somewhere over there. Ooh, Saturday night proved to be an adventure for us. We had Saturday night free so after hitting the cinema in Colorado Springs we headed over to Edson, Kansas to set up for the morning. The church happens to be placed in the middle of nowhere. Imagine a cornfield, running as long as your imagination, and then a church in the middle of it, and that's Pleasant Home Church. Well, they had experienced quite a rainfall, apparently, for the miles and miles of dirt road were miles and miles and miles of mud. (Extra miles because mud slows the progress) We made it to the church and set up, then Mom and Dad went to stay with a couple from the church, leaving us kids with the van to drive back to Goodland where we were spending the night. We dropped off the trailer thinking it wouldn't be much fun to drive through the mud again, and thus embarked following a guy named Ben down the muddy road. After about 30 minutes of driving at a sedated speed, we finally got stuck. Absolutely and horrendously stuck. After establishing three times with Ben the assuredness of our stuck state, we decided to sit tight and wait for him to get ahold of someone with a tractor. Bad deal was that we were in the only spot along the road where we didn't get phone service, so the communication factor was hobbling along on a wooden leg, if you catch my drift. However, after about another 45 minutes, this genial old man came in his tractor to pull us up and over the hill of mucky sadness to the blacktop, a very pleasant sight to us at this time. Although, I have to say, we really were having fun with the situation. We probably looked like we'd been chugging back on some of Grandpa's cough syrup, but truly, we just laugh a lot. We had to wait another 30 minutes for the tractor to free the other car before we could get on our way to our beds again. This life, truly, is an adventure.

Consequently, I have brought you all to the current day of... today. I believe my dad has a special message for you all here at the end. I would like to remind you all that this letter is available online at our website, and there is a newsletter email signup there as well. It would be to our finance's advantage, if you are able, to switch your address to your email and let us know so we can keep things unconfused. Thank you for sticking with me this far. Please, come see us when we're in your area, we love crowds. Enjoy the blistering hotness of the summer as it only lasts for a time. If it becomes overwhelming, imagine yourself knee deep in snow and scalp deep in utter cold in a few months and your body will be automatically thankful for the saturating warmth, let it soak in deep. I hope you will dive into the cool, refreshing freedom of the grace and everlasting love of our Father. It runs so deep, like the underwater stream that feeds every pool and ocean and sea, lining everything with His purpose and His glory.

Much Love to you,
Olivia and the band of Franz

Greetings Friends,
Two years ago we asked for your help to record a project that Ben Isaacs produced for us. Our goal was to get our music out to a wider audience via radio air play and internet. Since that project was released in May of '08 we have sold over 2,000 copies, have been played on radio stations around the world, and our music is available on iTunes, giving us access to listeners we weren't able to reach before.
We have an opportunity to work with a producer who is excited about marketing our music to an even broader audience and helping us reach the next level. Our family has been writing and arranging some new material and we are excited about the possibility of working with some influential names in the gospel music industry, to even further our listening audience.
In order to achieve our goal we need to raise $35,000 to be used for recording, marketing and distributing our project to radio stations and music stores. The album will be recorded and produced in Nashville, TN and we'll be working with some of the top engineers in the music business.
It's been exciting to see the doors God has opened in the last 17 years of our music ministry. We look forward to new opportunities to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ through music.
If the Lord lays upon your heart the desire to help expand our ministry to a world that desperately needs him, we would be blessed and encouraged!

In His Service,
Randy