Trip (or Fall) 2009

Christmas blog: no. New Years: no. but January 12th, here I am!
Thus far my most exciting 2009 plan (besides graduating) is a trip to the WEST COAST in June. That's right, to have never been further west than Missouri (and that wasn't even a fourth into the state), I will be flying to Seattle and ending up in San Francisco. How did this come about you may ask? From here, I digress.
To set it up: Christmas night, my Uncle's house, four Twilight readers.
I was hanging out with my cousins when the ever brilliant E said we should all take a trip together (Ericka and I were already planning a warm vacation somewhere after this ridiculous winter). We started talking about Twilight and it was said "wouldn't it be cool to go to Forks?" .. from there it became a very large road trip from the Dakotas' to Southern California that has been edited so it's actually do-able. So May 30, I will take flight for the first time ever, from Nashville International Airport, to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (with a stop between for cheapening reasons).
Last night we met to work on planning and see what prices will actually be without trying to romanticize them. Needless to say, it's going to take all the saving (and maybe a bit of scrounging) I can do, but I wouldn't miss this trip. My reasoning for going now is that we can use the "young and stupid" excuse AND we might as well go now before we have some one else in our lives to think about and bills to pay. We're staying in national parks, probably eating poptarts all week, and hoping to get rid of the rental car early (that's the expense that hurts the most). Pretty much the only tourist sight we're paying for is the Space Needle, but it's not like I'm going to do that every year, or ever again really, I just want to experience it once.
We hope to blog as we go (and blog the prep for the trip), so if you'd like to keep up, you can check out: Trip (or Fall)

Bitten

I've been bit. And by a vampire no less. The Edward Cullen bug has struck two in my house. Everyone has been asking me if I've read 'Twilight' yet to which I always responded 'no' for three reasons: 1) everyone else was reading them, 2) I was afraid it would replace my beloved Harry Potter, and, 3) it was about a vampire.. c'mon, seriously? I finally broke when someone said they would lend me the first two. I said sure to finally get people to stop driving me crazy with it, and was ready to go in skeptically as it seems everyone who reads it, becomes obsessed (and after all, it IS all about a vampire). I started when I got home that night and read for three hours, and got 200 pages into it. I didn't want to fall asleep, but still I was very driven to not become obsessed. Thursday I didn't have a chance to read it, but Friday was completely devoted to finishing the first book. It was mesmerizing and I was done for. In my defense, I lasted a few hundred pages into the first book. I can say now that the books are incredible. I know, I know, as if you haven't already heard that. But there's something to be said about a great read, and this is one of them.
Today I'm reading the second, plan on seeing the movie, and am listening to the soundtrack. From one skeptic turned crazed, it's worth your time.

Baptized and Star Wars

My friend and I have been filling in every other week teaching in the second grade class in our children's environment at Grace. It's a lot of fun, and you certainly hear some crazy stuff. This Sunday was our week to serve so while we were waiting to go to the kids worship, I was talking to a boy in the class named Tristan. He told me one of his friends in his class "got baptizized so now he was a christian" the baptizized thing was funny (just like when one of the kids called the ten plagues the ten plagiarisms), but I told him "well Tristan, that's really cool for you friend, but being baptized doesn't make you a christian" to which he looked pretty bewildered (I may have ruined his Church of Christ background), so I told him "we become christians when we believe in Jesus, and being baptized is our way to show everyone we believe in Him" a little less bewildered but then I popped out this analogy which all second grade boys can understand, "you know when you love a movie, let's say Star Wars, and you buy a shirt that says 'I love Star Wars', well getting baptized is like that. it's showing everyone that you love and believe in Jesus" to which he responded in the enthused light bulb moment voice, "ooooooh, ok!". It felt good just to have a small moment of clarity. Kids aren't oblivious, they catch on to a lot more than parents choose to see sometimes, that's why it's so necessary to talk about the important things in ways they can understand. Volunteering for an hour on a Sunday may seem like a small thing, but teaching kids truths that will remain relevant through life is pretty incredible.
My closing statement would have to go to Conner, while talking about previous weeks he explained to his class who this John was, "His name was John.. and he was a Baptist..".

I've been compromised

To pessimist, skeptics, and eye rollers alike, this post is not for you, so just go ahead and skip this one.
I've been compromised. It's true. I attributed $8.50 to the $42 million this movie brought to the box office this weekend. That's right, yesterday, October 26, I watched High School Musical 3. And what's worse? I loved it. Having watched the first and second, it was only natural I should see the third. I liked the first one but didn't fall under the cult obsession. Actually I shunned it for a long time til fate would have it one day I was bored and in need of a film. Watching movies all the time, I was left with the pre-teen collection. This resulted in me watching the original High School Musical and going bananas for it. I wanted to watch it everyday. That lead to wanting to buy the second only having watched it when it premiered. The second really isn't good, just a filler. So yesterday was the day. I wasn't proud to go see it. I thought I would hate it. But this was my favorite of the three. The music was great and returned to it's former glory, the choreography was amazing, and the plot though predictable, had me excited. The idea of having a high school with no drugs, sex, and the biggest problem being is who's cast for the spring musical is less than realistic. But it's idyllic. It's the same as every little girl growing up watching Disney movies waiting for Prince Charming (it was Aladdin for me), now it's the same group of girls, waiting for a Troy Bolton. This is nothing new, Grease was the original High School Musical with just a little more reality. I've discovered I really am a cliche teenage girl. I own Camp Rock (both movie and soundtrack). I own High School Musical 1 & 2 movies (and the first and third soundtrack). And the glue that bonds all teenage girls together, I love the Jonas Brothers. To be fair, I haven't gone crazy for any celebrities since Aaron Carter, I think I deserve to have another round since I was 5. Alright, confession over. I couldn't remain a closet teenager any more. Of course, I'm always skeptical of any Disney movie, (and just to put it out there, I don't watch Disney channel, nor do I even remotely like Miley Cyrus), but there's a little part of me that's a middle schooler all over again. I just needed to tell the world. There you have it. I'm going to perfect my dancing to Status Quo.

Goat herding, and Duh

This morning I've added an accomplishment to my list:
Goat herding.
Albeit, one goat, I took it by the horns and back to it's home aka, the neighbor's. Our neighbor's have four too many pets that always seem to think su casa, is their casa, one of the pets being a goat. The goat's partner in escaping (and maybe life) is a dog we affectionately call, Duh (if you saw him, you would completely understand). The last time the goat and Duh escaped into our yard, my mom and I tried to get them up our driveway by treating the goat like a dog with no avail. We thought you just took a bull by the horns, (which is ridiculously stupid advice), but apparently this also applies to goats as well.
So, the inspirational word today: take the goat by the horns.

Orbdom

The 31 Days of Halloween has begun.
This year I'm really excited for all holidays, having been a fan of Halloween in past years this isn't anything new, although I think this is the most excited I've been in awhile. Savoring the month is really what it's about. We kicked it off with a Ghost Tour. You heard. On our quest to get a picture of orb-gi's (read twice before criticizing), we went to downtown Nashville to visit some of our Capitol's haunting's. It took a little misleading and bribing to get Ericka to go as she isn't nearly as morbidly fascinated with these kind of things such as my mother and I are. (Just kidding, though I did have to tell her a six year old went on it without getting scared, and it wouldn't give her nightmares just as the website says: www.nashvilleghosttours.com). We started at 8 (PM, as if ghost would come at in the AM) at the beautiful Hermitage Hotel (make sure if you go, you go to their bathroom before, it's worth the $15. ghost tour ticket just to go pee there). From there we traveled to the Capitol which was my personal favorite. The grounds were dark and a little menacing (not in a scary way, it's well lit and guarded for the record), and the ghost I wanted to see the most is a supposed haunter of the tower, Rachel Jackson, President Andrew Jackson's wife. Sadly, she wasn't seen by me but not for lack of trying. Anywhere we were in view of the Capitol, I would look at the tower wishing for just a little ghostly glimpse. However, my beloved sister got these fantastic pictures of what is believed to be ghostly spirits*:

*negative logical comments are banned.
Really I'm a hypocritical ghost believer. I know the power of suggestion plays a strong part, and I don't dismiss the fact that there are evils in the world. I just like the idea of Halloween spooks (not really spooky though, friendly spooks, Casper for instance). We're continuing the 31 days festivities by watching Haunted Mansion, Charlie Brown, Tower or Terror, etc. We're also going to Boyd's Pumpkin Patch which I'm really excited about. That's where we got our pumpkins as kids and this year he has a corn maze which I've never experienced due to being an asthmatic child (scarring did come from school field trips to the pumpkin patch where I could participate in nothing but picking my pumpkin, and even that had stipulations!). All this to say, enjoy the holidays with your families! Make them special with the little stuff (candy corn is always well recieved). :)

the pilgrimmage thus far

Coming to ya (on a dusty road), really from an island in Lake Michigan. Interesting, no? That's right I am typing this from Beaver Island, MI (google it). It's twenty degrees colder than it is in Clarksville (maybe thirty today, I've been in fleece and under quilts all day), and the biggest thing in my day is the occasional book, walking to the lighthouse (or downtown that you can walk by in approximately ten seconds.. ok maybe 30, ten if you're a speedy walker), and yesterday some games of horse shoe and wacking my very first golf ball with a seven iron (although I don't really know what that means, I really enjoyed myself though we [ericka and myself] did lose 4 balls to the neighbors weeds). It's pretty great. It took 2 1/2 hours to get here via ferry on Saturday though we began vacation on Thursday, from here, I will digress.
Thursday: left the house at 7:30..ish. Stopped twice. Saw my first lighthouse in South Haven. Started layering clothes. Drove to the end of the earth which happens to be in Michigan.
Friday: started a little grumpy due to the lack of sleep from a person who shall nameless, the ipod couldn't even drown him* out. We drove into Saugatuck (very cute, artsy, lake town), then Holland known for it's tulips and all things Dutch.. it was hard fitting in a different country but we're pretty efficient travelers. In Holland we also saw the light house affectionately deemed "Big Red", she's the most photographed lighthouse in MI and with good reason. There you can walk out to the lights that really do that guiding, it has no rails and the waves crash right into it, that was a very unique and cool experience although not very well worded for lack of knowledge about real lighthouse terms so, I apologize. From Holland we have a good 5 hour drive to where we were supposed to spend the night (to board the ferry early the next day) so we continued in the northern direction to stop in Glen Arbor where the Cherry Republic store is.. we've been an admirer theirs for a few years now. Everything cherry, cherry candy, pop (what we know as soda), wine, salsa, soap, you name it, they have it and it's delicious! From there we moved on to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park - WOW! We spent a few hours there, it was amazing! Pictures can't capture how beautiful it is. We walked on a trail that took you right on the dunes, and dunes that look out at the lakes. Well, that started nicely but what was just supposed to be a 1 1/2 mile walk resulted in myself thinking briefly that I had met my end, yoga did not prepare me for uphill trekking in sand.
Anyway, it was dark when we left there and we had to go an hour south, to travel an hour north (the lake tripped us up). We eventually arrived in Charlevoix where we boarded the Beaver Island Ferry on Saturday, and set out across Lake Michigan. When we arrived to the house we didn't know what to expect other than we knew it was old and from pictures it was the lesser evil from others. Oh man. It was not pretty. I think we all put off bringing in the bags because that would mean we had to stay there but we eventually faced the music to decided where else are we going to stay on an island with a resident total of 600? I can now say that the house has grown on all of us after a little personalizing and time. My family takes HGTV pretty seriously so every where we go, we immediately start with the "well, if I lived here I would paint this.." or "this room would become.." and "I would put this here..". So after hanging my traveling Jonas Brothers poster in my room (no comments, no judgement), Ericka and I were sitting in the living room; the way they had the furniture set up didn't make sense so for the first time, we actually took charge and moved the furniture. I think the owners and future renters will thanks us when we're gone, but we're not in a hurry to tell them [the owners who live next door]. I should also throw in the our beloved dog, Napoleon, who has made this pilgrimage with us, could not be better. Shocking, I know. I was expecting the worst so he would only exceed my expectations and he's been such a good boy, I'm very proud. I'm now awaiting my cheesy guilty teen drama shows, and looking forward to tomorrow! That's it in a very large bushel of nut shells.
From Lake Michigan, this is LG, signing out.

*we do only have one male in our household, I'll leave you to add the clues.