Overall life here has been fairly normal, but the past few weeks have been filled with fun "Alaskan" things. We saw the Iditarod Restart, watched the Northern Lights, and I went on an outdoor women's retreat. Besides that, we have just been looking at houses, getting things like car insurance switched over, and hanging out. Sunday, March 4, Cody and I went to Willow, Alaska to see the Iditarod Restart. They have a ceremonial start in Anchorage on Saturday and then the real start Sunday in Willow. The race starts on Willow Lake, which is completely frozen. There were 66 teams competing this year. It is not a huge event with lots of things going on, it's just watching 66 different mushers take off at 2 minute intervals. Here are some pictures from the afternoon.
Here are a few of the Northern Lights pictures I took last Thursday, March 8. That was when the "solar storm" was going on. We went outside and there was a big streak all the way across the sky and then more streaks appeared. Those streaks moved across the sky and kinda danced around. Then they faded and disappeared. It only lasted around 5 minutes, but it was pretty incredible. Next time hopefully I can get better focus with my camera.
This past weekend I went to the Winter Becoming An Outdoors Woman Workshop (BOW) put on by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Outdoor Heritage Foundation. It was a Friday-Sunday retreat where I was able to take classes in different outdoors Alaska activities. I took classes in snow shoeing, snow machining, cross country skiing, and bow fishing. We went snow shoeing for 2.5 hours, in 3 feet of snow in parts, and snow machined 30 miles. Here are a few pictures of me snow shoeing and snow machining (It's NOT a snow mobile. Alaskans get mad when you call it that.).
Snow Shoeing
We walked up that hill you see in the background in our snow shoes.
Snow Machining
Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I got to babysit the three Whitson kids. Their dad works for Alaska Missions, a missions organization up here that does lots of ministry at Alaska events and to native Alaskans. He was in Nome doing ministry with the Iditarod, and his wife is a nurse and had to work at the hospital, so I hung out with the kids for 2 days. We colored and played and went to the park and set up a movie theater in the house. Here are a few pics I took of the kids.
I haven't blogged in a while, and it should probably be about something besides media, like an update on my life, but my Alaska friend, Melissa, asked me about music and magazines I like and it got me excited about them. So, enjoy. It's probably more exciting than reading about the latest wedding details anyway.
Music
My mother has had a large influence on my music exposure and, to a lesser extent, my tastes. In college I was surprised when people talked about going to their "first concert." I didn't understand the concept. I went to all kinds of concerts all the time. Not always huge concerts with thousands of people and pyrotechnics, but sometimes. I went to lots of small coffee shop or outdoor concerts. I also went to a lot of Christian concerts with the youth group. My family went to Merlefest quite a few years in a row. There I saw The Dixie Chicks before they made it big, Nickel Creek, Dolly Parton, Allison Krauss, and lots of other people you have probably never heard of like Donna the Buffalo, John Cowan, John Lauderdale, and Gillian Welch. Experiences like Merlefest gave me a slightly different range of musical knowledge. I am still not a big true bluegrass fan, but there are segments of the folk/acoustic genre that I really enjoy. So, in honor of those experiences, here is an eclectic, folk, soulful mix of songs. Some Cody shared with me, but they are all in the same spirit.
The Waybacks are incredible musicians. They are kind of a goofy bunch as well. I am not sure when I first heard them. It was either at Merlefest or at a concert they did in my hometown. Check out their album 'Devolver.' I went to see them in concert a few years ago and once there discovered that a few of the members had left and their sound had changed. They weren't bad, they just weren't the same. So, I was disappointed with their new sound, but another band, The Duhks, performed and they put on an incredible concert. See their song below.
The Duhks are great musicians and have great voices. Like I said, their concert was amazing. Very high energy and fun. Here is their song 'Travelin' Shoes' off their self-titled album.
This is a group called The Rankin Family. They have a celtic/folk sound. I enjoy them. Their album 'Collection' is a good one. I also like their song 'Roving Gypsy Boy.' This song is 'You Feel the Same Way Too.'
I haven't really listened to other songs by Sandi Thom, but this song is good and fun. Here is 'I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker.'
This is a guy named Joshua James. This is the only song I have heard by him. Click on 'Playlist' and click to listen to 'Coal War.' Soulful. I like the clap/stomping sound and harmony.
This is 'Hymn 101' by Joe Pug. Cody is a big fan of Joe. This song is good. He has an interesting voice. I like it.
Magazines Melissa also asked if there are any magazines I read regularly. My mother subscribes to all the good southern magazines - Better Homes & Gardens, Southern Living, and, my favorite, Country Living. I also recently acquiesced her request to use a Groupon to get her a subscription to Garden & Gun magazine. It sounds like a slightly more redneck southern magazine. When I would come home from Baylor or Mississippi College, I would catch up on all the gardening, housing, craft, and travel ideas. This summer I have been able to read them when they come out. Really, I just want to live in a Country Living magazine. I love the antique decorations and beautiful kitchens and huge gardens and renovation projects. I love the community parties and family trips and big porches. It feels like home. It is similar to my parents' home and is what I want my home to be like. I want it to be comfortable. I want people to come over. I want to have dinner parties and make amazing food and have stories about things I own. I want to grow my own vegetables and do DIY projects. I want to eat at quaint restaurants and take interesting trips. Mostly I want to involve other people in my life and do fun things.
M...TV Shows
So, there's no way to make TV shows start with M. At least not that I can think of at the moment. But that's okay. Here are my favorites.
Bones I became addicted to Bones after moving to Mississippi. It came on TNT from 6-10pm every weeknight. I didn't have much to do at that time having just moved there, so I watched a lot of Bones. I am currently working my way through all the seasons on Netflix. I have actually not watched very many episodes lately, but I will catch up to the current season by the end of the year. I like Bones because the characters are interesting and it makes you think about the world differently. A lot of crime shows are mostly about the crime and there are personal story lines kind of interwoven to keep the cases tied together. I would say Bones is almost more about relationships than crimes. The characters all have depth and complex relationships. Booth's "moral," heart-based way of thinking contrasts with Bones' literal, scientific mentality and it makes you think about the way we think and view the world. It makes you question what is really most important - truth or relationships, or a host of other things. I like it.
Royal Pains I like Royal Pains for its MacGyver-esque nature. It combines business/entrepreneurship, healthcare, innovation, and fun. It's a light-hearted, fun show to watch.
Pushing Daisies This show is ridiculous. Completely. But, like most things ridiculous, you can't stop watching. There are all the parallel names - Boutique Travel Travel Boutique, the Darling Mermaid Darlings, Coeur d'Coeurs, etc. There is the tension of Ned and Chuck being in love but unable to touch. There are the ridiculous mermaid aunts and their cheese fetish. There are strange murders of weird people. I don't even really know how to describe this show. It's fun and surreal and you should check it out. It's like a combination of real life and Willy Wonka, but better than both. Psych I'm seeing a theme - crime and ridiculousness. This show has both. The main attraction of this show is the clever dialogue and extensive pop culture references. Most of which I do not understand. But I imagine they are clever and funny. And Gus is just a good character that you can't help but like.
I also watch White Collar and was sad when Monk ended, but my tv attention span is exhausted, so I will wrap it up.
I should write a paragraph wrap up, but I'm blogged out. So, here goes:
I think that's all the media I can talk about. It's good stuff. You should check it out. Let me know what you think.
Father's Day is on Sunday and I have a pretty great father. Mainly since going to college and having discussions with friends have I realized the extent of the impact having a good dad has had on my life. He has always loved me, supported me, challenged me, and given me such a variety of experiences. He has always told me, and still tells me, that he loves me and is proud of me. He holds me close and lets me go.
As kids, he told us "Alley stories" in the woods and took us to see the "Woodsfairies" by the creek. He built a 100 foot waterslide on our property -complete with water pumped from the creek, industrial padding and plastic, and a pool at the bottom. Redneck, but so much fun. We rode the tractor with him, picked and ate cherries from the trees in the pasture, built fences, and fed our farm animals. He bought us baby calves that we bottle fed and raised, brought home box turtles from the side of the road until they took over our chicken coop. He bought me a mule that we hitched to a wagon and rode in the 4th of July parade every year. He made tree houses and forts in the woods with my sisters and I. He filled our "schoolhouse" barn with classroom desks for us to play "school" and let us keep the stray cat who had kittens in the barrel in the corner. One year we picked up pecans, bagged them, and sold them at the intersection near our house. There were a few years we loaded up the baled hay from our land, advertised, and sold it (I drove the truck pulling the trailer at around 11 years old). One night we all got up at 3am to drive out in the middle of a field to watch a comet streak across the sky.
(**Disclaimer: He also spanked me and made me pick up sticks in the yard so he could mow the grass and got mad when all of us girls had no clue what he was drawing in Pictionary. But, it's Father's Day, so I will give him a break on those stories.)
My dad took me on birthday dates, went with me shopping for a formal dress, and bought me nice jewelry for significant birthdays. We danced in the kitchen to The Drifters. While running errands we stopped to get homemade milkshakes and didn't tell anyone else when we got home. We learned about constellations at a series of astronomy classes held at the local university. He took me on a business trip to Williamsburg, Virginia where I hung out in the hotel while he went to meetings and we went to Colonial Williamsburg when he was done. He taught me how to look people in the eye and give a firm handshake. He bought me a car the summer before I turned 16. As it has gotten older, passed 300,000 miles, and had some "minor" issues arise, my family members have given me a hard time about my attachment to the old car. But mostly dad just provides sympathy (slightly sarcastic though it may be) for their comments and replaces the battery cables or has the tire plugged. I hand him the tools and find the screws that fall under the car.
When I wanted to be a sociology major in college he wouldn't let me. Turns out that meant I found something I liked a lot more. When I wanted to go on a mission trip to Ecuador after my 9th grade year he said he'd think about it. He signed the papers when I gave him the already filled out paperwork a day later. When I woke him and my mom up at 12:30am two days before my high school graduation and told them I decided to go to Baylor, he had me wake up the rest of the family and we went to Waffle House at 2am to celebrate. When I went to Kenya he told me he'd recreate the movie Taken if he needed to. When I told him I agreed to date Cody Sherman he said he was disappointed. He soon called back to apologize and say he was always proud of me and he was only surprised I found a guy I would say yes to.
Especially when driving, my dad always gives commentary on life - driving skills, the difference between men and women, successful business ideas, church dysfunctions. He has told me to invest in retirement early, that nice things aren't that great if you never use them, and that you can live a life of fear, or take chances and live a worthwhile life. He explained to me the stock market and taxes and why paper mills smell worse when it rains. He tries, awkwardly sometimes, to ask me about my relationship with Cody. Regardless of my answers, he always responds with relational advice. Usually his life advice and commentary are valid. But he has also taught me to think for myself and I feel free to form my own opinions, and frequently exercise this freedom.
Obviously, with the coming marriage, our relationship will change and grow in new ways, but I will always have these memories, and will always be my daddy's little girl. He cried when he left me at Baylor and I'm anticipating more waterworks as he walks me down the aisle in a few months. But, when he gets to the altar I know he will pass my hand. Because while he often holds me close, he always lets me go to pursue great things.
Life with my dad has been an adventure. And a story. And there have been lots of Character Developments along the way. Here's to dad, and to more of all of the above.
We have a wedding location!!! Yay! This has been the most difficult part of the wedding planning process so far. It's obviously one of the first decisions, so I don't have a lot to compare it to, but I think in the end it will rank towards the top. The main problem has been that I am 7 hours away from where I'm getting married and churches in east Tennessee don't always have websites, and when they do, there aren't pictures. Also, churches around Benton are small. Like 100 person capacity small. And churches with 100 person capacity expect about half of that to show up based on the size of their parking lots. Also, I really wanted an outdoor reception. So, I needed to find a church that either had an outdoor area to have a reception, or was close enough to a place for an outdoor reception.
We looked at every church in a 20min radius of our house. It's the Bible belt - that was a lot of churches. Mom, Shannon, Cheryl, and I went driving on a Sunday afternoon. We stopped at every church we passed. We peeked in windows, tried locked doors, met pastor's wives, came across birthday party carryovers waiting for the evening service to start, sneaked in through a door that was open because a sink was being installed, and compared every church to our church and all the other ones. We especially looked at carpet colors. I think carpet stores give major discounts to churches who buy green carpet - the bolder the color, the cheaper the carpet. Mom and I also drove to an area 45min away and followed every little white sign hiding in the grass around stop signs that pointed to a place of worship. We saw a lot of interesting places. George (my GPS who speaks in the voice of George Bush) took us on some interesting shortcuts. But ultimately we found it true that the prettiest place is in your own backyard. Or your neighbors' backyard...
We are going to have the ceremony at First Baptist Church in Benton where my parents attend and the reception in our friends'/neighbors' backyard. Buddy and Cheryl live up the river from us and have a pretty place down the hill from their house with a pavilion by the river. So, I am very grateful they are willing to let us use it, and very excited we have that all settled. Now to the rest of the checklist.
As for other non-wedding related things, I've found some music I like. I first heard about Adele from one of my RAs when I came to interview at MC. Only recently did I actually listen to her. I listened through a concert of hers and these are the songs that stuck out to me. She has such a powerful voice and evokes strong emotions. As Cody would say, she's got soul.
The first song is Rolling in the Deep. I really like the video as well. The imagery communicates so much emotion - passion in the dancing, anger in the dishes, anticipation in the glasses, and the build-up in the city. I really love the progressions too - the powder on the floor and sparks on the paper city. The background vocals and percussion of the song are awesome too.
Also so good - Someone Like You
Another song I love is If I Die Young by The Band Perry. I love the essence of the song. Something about the whole sound just connects deeply with me. I really like the video of this as well. I think if I fully embraced the artistic, hippie, dramatic, free spirit part of me, I would be the girl in the video. I love the nature and vintage setting. Agh, it's just so good.
In other media news, I am reading the book Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. She's been called the female version of Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz). Traveling Mercies reminds me a lot of another book I read recently called I'm Perfect, You're Doomed. I'm Perfect, You're Doomed is about a girl raised Jehovah's Witness. It's about her childhood in the faith and how she questions it and about all her exploits. She gets involved in a lot of bad stuff - drinking, sex, a terrible teenage marriage, eventual self-mutilation. She kind of leaves the Jehovah's Witness faith, but still is kind of attached to it. I expected the book to eventually describe some kind of turning point in her life, but it ends with her in pretty much the same situation, except divorced by the end, I think. It was a disappointment. Not that every autobiography needs to have the person come to Jesus, but at the end of the story you would kind of like to know that the author isn't going to keep drinking and cutting herself, or is at least going to try to stop or get help. This book didn't give any hope of this. So, I'm left with the idea of some lonely 20-something girl sitting in her apartment drinking herself useless by noon, cutting, and experimenting with comedy and beat poetry, while living off of royalty checks she gets from her book. But, I digress. The point - while these books seem similar, I'm hoping Traveling Mercies turns out better. It actually already is better. Anne Lamott does come to a point of being willing to believe in God and she stops drinking. Now she's exploring how God plays into the daily struggles she faces as close friends die and friends' kids are sick and her own son faces the possibility of a disease. I'll let you know how her story turns out.
Today in Sunday school we were talking about King Jehu (2 Kings 9-10). To sum up the story - God tells Elisha to proclaim Jehu king over Israel. Once Jehu is king he kills Jezebel, Ahab's family, and all of the servants of Baal as a cleansing of Israel, according to God's will. But, he doesn't stop the worshiping of golden calves. God tells Jehu because he has done his will completely regarding Ahab's household and other areas, Jehu's descendants will sit on the throne of Israel for four generations. After that Jehu was "not careful to keep the law of the Lord," but God still kept his promise and Jehu's descendants were on the throne for four generations. It reminded me of David. He was called a man after God's own heart, and yet had an affair with Bathsheba and had her husband killed. It's comforting to know that even the guys with huge faith and who pleased God screwed up sometimes. We feel like it's ok that we mess up sometimes, since they did. We can even feel better because most of us haven't had an affair, or murdered someone. We aren't that bad. But, how many of us have defeated Goliath or led an army to victory or carried out a risky mission for God? We might not have as low of points as David or Jehu, but we don't have as high of points either.
We live like this:
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
And David and Jehu live like this:
/\ /\ /\
/ \ / \ / \
/ \ / \ / \
/ \ / \ / \
/ \/ \/ \
Which does God actually prefer from us? Radical obedience and faith with occasional really bad mistakes, or small faith with small mistakes? Judging from these 2 guys and Moses, I would say the former.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG){kind=link}