Inception

It's no secret that Inception was hands down the best movie I've seen all year. (So good we're going to go back to see it again. I haven't done that since high school when two separate groups of friends wanted to see Van Helsing!)

What I'm also loving are the amazing faux-trailers being done that meld Inception with other movies. I found this first video on Dusty's cousin's Facebook feed and the second one from a blog I read, both today. They're so well done, and make me think that with epic enough music, you can convince anyone of anything.

End of Summer

July is almost over and that means summer is in its death rattle. This, of course, comes in the form of angry heat waves bearing down on most of the country that leave you irritable with your loved ones and trying to mask the sweat dripping down your back while in public.

I was struck by a startling thought a few days back on my drive home from class: This is the free-est I will ever be.

And it's true. Dusty and I have been able to spend so much time together lately, doing whatever we want, whenever we feel like it, however we want. We literally have no one to worry much about besides ourselves right now. We're out from under the (loving) thumbs of our parents and don't have children to weigh us down.

Summer 2010 has been a really sweet couple of months.

In Which Gabby Swings

Long story short: Sunday morning Dusty preached, his parents and Gabby came, their car broke down, we fed them lunch, Gabby tore up the house so we decided to brush the spider webs off the swing out back and let her have at it! And she's just the cutest thing you'll ever see!

Snarky Grammar Post II

A Facebook friend recently took the "What Type of Teenage Girl Are You?" quiz. (Sadly, yes, such a thing exists.) Here's a screen shot of her results:

You want people to understand you, quiz-maker? Buy a dictionary.

Just Sitting Here With My Cat

I feel like I'm in college again.

Oh wait, I am...

That must explain why I am up at 1 am writing a paper that I'd rea

lly rather not be writing while Dusty's snoozing away in bed.

I'm taking a break from the other ten kajillion things I need to be doing (thank you, red squiggly line for telling me that kajillion is, in fact, spelled wrong) to write a random little post about nothing. So here goes:

I am currently reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck. This book is challenging me in that sometimes I want to be as environmentally friendly as I can and other times I feel like it's a lost cause.

Here is a picture I took recently:

Dusty never, never ever ever looks serious in a picture. This look says, "please don't but if you do don't put it on your blog." Well the joke's on you D!

Has anyone started Christmas shopping because I have! Notice I did not say "purchasing" I have not gone Christmas purchasing, just shopping. I have a list of things I want to give people and I'm working on finding the best deals.

Speaking of, I sure did make some people at the bookstore on campus mad today:

Bookstore Lady: "May I help you?"

Me: "Oh, no thanks, I'm just looking up ISBN numbers so I can get my books cheaper online."

Bookstore lady: "Hmph!"

GoodbyeGoodnightWhatever

Bath Time Bubble Buddies

Tonight I got to give Gabby a bath, and we had such a fun time!

I was looking at old (and by old I mean pictures from 2008!) pictures of her and ran across one of her first baths:

How funny?!

Tonight we learned the word "bubble." Man, did she love that word! Her process went something like this:

1.) Pick up handful of bubbles
2.) Look at me and say, "bubble!"
3.) Blow on the bubbles
4.) Splash bubbles off in the bath
5.) Repeat--over, and over, and over, and over...
I love, love, love watching her learn and explore! It really reminds me of my relationship with the Lord. I learn something new and repeat it over and over and over. And instead of getting annoyed with the repetition, He delights in watching me learn and explore.

EZ Grammar

I get pretty snarky when it comes to people using poor grammar. Granted, I'm not perfect. I'm sure I slip up occasionally, especially when I'm around someone with a real southern twang.

But when you're advertising a product on the internet please, I beg you, use a dictionary. You can even get to one online.

How Introspective of Me

Today at church B. Dave talked about giving yourself a spiritual self-assessment. I feel like his message was more for those that perhaps have gone to church all their lives but have never really committed to the Lord. And trust me, I've had to work through those issues.

I specifically remember one night in high school visiting my family in northern Ohio. I was laying across the guest room at my Aunt's house just crying out to the Lord because for weeks I had been attacked with thoughts that I was not truly a child of God. And that scared, I mean really scared me. That is, until the Lord directed me to Psalm 116:

Be at rest once more, O my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you.

For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death,

my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before the Lord

in the land of the living.

So I've grappled with that whole issue. But I still think it's valuable for us to assess our walk from time do time. One thing that I started doing a while back is keeping track of all the songs that are really sticking out to me during my daily times of worship. I think the list is quite telling of my "spiritual state," starting with last summer:

1.) "Desert Song" by Hillsong: I remember really listening to this song for the first time on a plane ride home from Orlando. The Holy Spirit just got all over me and I was crying like a baby, discreetly I thought, until the flight attendant come over to ask if I was okay!

Clincher lyric: "All of my life, in every season, you are still God, I have a reason to sing! I have a reason to worship!"

2.) "Encounter" by Andrew Williams (off the Crash This Place EP put out by Morning Star): The end of this song is so prophetic for this season of mine and Dusty's life, because though we've been here for a while, Meade County does not feel like home.

Clincher lyric: "I'm gonna build my life on you oh Lord! You are my shelter, you are my home!"

3.) "Your Love Never Fails" (Jesus Culture): This song is just so encouraging and reminds me that good times are not only coming, they're ripe for the picking!

Clincher lyrics: "You make all things work together for my good!"

4.) "Deliverer" by Vicky Beeching: It's been hard being back in a Baptist church. Harder than I thought it would be. This song reminds me that freedom is accessible no matter where I live or what I'm doing.

Clincher lyrics: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom; where the Spirit of the Lord is there hope; where the Spirit of the Lord is there is healing!"

5.) "Late Have I Loved You" by Gungor. I've blogged about this album before and it's just so good, you really should just do yourself a big fat favor and buy it. This is my most recent song I've been keeping on repeat, mainly for the ending which says:

"You called and you shouted,

you broke through my deafness.

You flashed and you shone,

dispelled all my blindness.

You breathed your fragrance on me...

I drew in your breath

and I keep on breathing.

I've tasted and seen,

and now I want more

cause you breathed your fragrance on me."

This has been a really fun little experiment for me, and I think I shall continue!

Up and Coming

Well! I'm over halfway through my summer classes (and subsequently have decided to never take classes this time of year ever again!) and I had this crazy thought when the first of July came:

We are closer to Christmas right now than we are farther away!

This is an incredibly random thought right?! But it made me so excited! Truth be told the second half of my 2010 year is going to be so much more fun than the first half.

Why, you ask? AH! Well I'm glad you asked!

In August I will be accompanying my mother to Ohio for a visit to the Aunt and Grandma:

After the trip up North I booked us a really nice hotel in Cincinnati and I'm going to take my mother on her maiden voyage to IKEA. I can hardly contain my excitement!

September and October will be a little up in the air: there's a certain concert I'd love, love, love to go to in Nashville (at the Ryman, my favorite venue!) but will we get to? I hope so! But refereeing season can be a little topsy turvy.

In November Dusty and I are going to the National Youth Worker's Convention in Nashville where he booked us a super sweet room for the week. So even if the conference sucks we can swim in the indoor pool right?

Also in November we'll be traveling back to my August destination for Thanksgiving. Black Friday in civilization! (Sorry E-town, you don't count.)

And, the cherry on top: In December my in-laws have just booked our cabin in Gatlinburg. Wanna see it. CLICK, CLICK, CLICK! Notice that green little square to the left? Free pancake breakfast? Could this cabin get any better?! We will be there December 24-31. I've never spent Christmas day in a place that I haven't at some time or another actually lived so we'll see how that goes.

And that pretty much takes me up to 2011. 2011!

Did I mention I'll also be taking 15 hours of class with a combined grand total of 60 field hours? Just reading that sentence makes me tired.

Viva la 2010!

Happy Fourth!

My favorite Fourth of July memory has to be the one I spent in Jordan. No flags, no reds, whites, or blues, no national anthem. Just walking around town that night like any other beautiful Middle Eastern night. It was so surreal!

(me, in Abdoun, wishing the camera a Happy Fourth!)

That was three years ago and tonight we went to a fireworks show with two friends. It was a blast and I got some mighty fine pictures out of it!

Kentucky Love

Sometimes, living out in the country is all right.