Candace Cameron Bure…
Talks to Rocking God’s House!

For me it doesn’t get any better than D.J. Tanner. I am of course talking about the gracious and very sweet Candace Cameron Bure (#CandaceCBure). For the first time in a long time I felt nervous and jittery to interview someone, even stumbling over my words a few times. She, as well as the rest of the cast of the TV show Full House (#FullHouse) — next to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — were an extremely important part of my childhood. As a matter of fact, just before I spoke with Candace, a Full House re-run came on television. It was the episode where D.J. is babysitting to earn money to get her own in-house phone line (land-line, as we call it now), and the boy she is babysitting gets his head stuck in the staircase. We shared a good laugh about it:

Me: Can you believe how excited you were to get your own home phone line? I wonder how kids would react to that situation now?

Candace: [Laughs] That’s funny — it doesn’t happen any more.

Candace, in her own words, said “it will be a very busy 2015,” and judging by our interview I got excited and a little overwhelmed myself just discussing her future ventures and imagining how someone could juggle all of it — not to mention everything she’s done in 2014. Her newest book Balancing It All just became a New York Times Best Seller, her first book Reshaping It All also made the list, and she told me her third book is set to hit shelves this fall! She recently hosted the KLOVE fan awards in Nashville, placed third on the mega-hit ABC television show Dancing with the Stars, and has several movie and television projects on the horizon.

If all that wasn’t enough, she’s also a proud mother of three and wife to former NHL great Valeri Bure (#ValeriBure), who happened to be in Nashville playing for the Calgary Flames when I saw my first NHL hockey contest, after which I became a lifelong fan of the sport (and of my beloved Nashville Predators). She managed to come out of child stardom unscathed, and as an adult she has balanced work, family life, and her relationship with God with exceptional poise.

And as far as what it’s like to speak with Candace over the phone, she was everything I could have hoped: sweet, polite, gracious, and humble — and all before 10 a.m. in Los Angeles:

You recently hosted the K-Love fan awards here in Nashville. Did you have fun and would you do it again?

I did. It was fantastic. I had a blast with Matthew West. He was so funny, and I had no idea how comedic he was. [laughs] The event itself was great, there were like 22 performances that were all amazing; I liked that, and I totally would do it again — it was a blast.

Can you give us some insight on Dancing with the Stars?

Probably one of the most memorable experiences of my life. It was everything I had hoped it would be. It was even more challenging than I thought — I had pretty high expectations on how challenging it would be. I was absolutely thrilled to have made the finals, which I never thought was going to happen, and it was one of those experiences and opportunities that I am so grateful for; I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I just learned and grew so much from it.

Did you get along with fellow child star Danica McKellar on the show?

Yes I did. We have actually known each other since we were kids. We did a movie together back in the early ’90s, so she is great, and we had a good time together.

The first NHL game I ever saw in Nashville was The Predators against the Calgary Flames, and your husband was playing. Did you ever come to Nashville and see him perform?

Nice! I am pretty sure I made it to one game in Nashville to see him play, and it was a lot of fun!

As an author, how do you capture such wonderful stories and memories and share them with people?

Honestly, I just write from my heart and my books are a lot from my personal experiences, and I am just glad that the people who are reading them can relate to them. Even though I am an actress or celebrity I guess you could say, kind of in the limelight, at the end of the day I am just a regular woman just like every one else: a wife and a mom and just striving to do life well, and that is really what goes into my books. I don’t have all the thrills and frills of life like a lot of other celebrities do, so I think that is why my books are so relatable to most people.

My editor’s wife wanted me to ask you this: she said you recently endorsed the book Love, Skip, Jump; she was curious how that book has changed your life?

Ah I love that, I loved that she asked that question! The author Shelene Bryan [#SheleneBryan] I have known since I was 14-years-old and, gosh, she was even in my wedding, she was one of my bridesmaids. She is one of the most passionate and creative people looking to do things for others, and she loves God so much, and she just inspires me. I am so glad she wrote the book L.S.J. All of the stories that she shared I know them personally, and I have been there through many of them with her, and she is just incredible. You get in the room with Shelene, and you are just captivated because if anyone could get you up off your feet and motivate you to go out and do something big for the world, it is Shelene. I encourage everyone to go out and pick up that book and look up Skip1.org, [#Skip1] which is her non-profit that she founded that I am a huge supporter of; it is really incredible, and she is trying to change the world for the better.

Do you find it difficult to balance life as a Christian and a Hollywood celebrity?

I have been a Christian for quite a while, for almost my whole life, and I have also been acting even longer than I have been a Christian, so the two really for me go hand-in-hand. It had only been in my early childhood that those two weren’t alongside each other. So is it difficult? It can be challenging at times because being a Christian is who I am and I carry it with me whether I am at home with my kids or I am out working doing a movie. I don’t lay that down anywhere, and it doesn’t stop, so I just make the two work together.