Here's to the New Year

"I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."- Harry, When Harry Met Sally

Well, here we are in 2012.  As Samantha says it's the first day of the last year of our life...if you believe the Mayan calendar that is.  Anyway, there isn't much to say other than I had an amazing Christmas (except I wasn't able to see my dad).  I got some movies (The Outsiders being the highlight as it's the most difficult to find, but all are ones I love), I received a FSU baseball jersey that was personalized (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10101297295376513), a personalized Tervis Tumbler, two reams of yarn with knitting needles, and the Marc Jacobs Daisy collection.  I really loved not traveling this Christmas and Tallahassee was really nice and quiet. 

Now onto the Resolutions:

• No Soda (except for a Coke or two on my trip to Mexico this summer if I'm able to go)
• No Candy
• I will read a minimum of 1 chapter from my Bible every night (and starting the accountability texting again)
• Walking 2 miles a night in the neighborhood with Mallory and Samantha at least 4 nights a week.
• Not purchasing any movies (gifts are acceptable, but personally buying is out)
• Saving at least $20 a month for savings

Now I'm sure I will fail at some of these, like the no movie buying one, but these are just goals to help me over the course of the next year as I realized I had/have a movie addiction problem.

Anyway, to close today's little blog I am sharing a song that I heard on the radio last night by Colbie Caillat that's a mash-up of The Script's Breakeven and Tracey Chapman's Fast Car.  I hope you enjoy it and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Time Is Here

"And he puzzled and puzzed, till his puzzler was sore.  Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!

'Maybe Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store.  Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more.'"

- Narrator, How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Well I managed to fail my once a week blog already, but let me just say that my work and sleep schedule recently hasn't been the best, especially if you add a gruesome sinus infection into the mix.  Regardless I'm here to let you know that I accomplished all of my Christmas shopping, with the exception of one person today, and plan to get the remaining stocking stuffers, etc., tomorrow morning before the last minute crowds get too big.

I'm looking forward to the holiday as odd as that seems (to me at least).  My mom, aunt, sister-in-law, and niece will be driving over on Sunday after church to have a "small" Christmas feast with myself and Mallory, then Denise will be joining us later in the evening.  I can't wait to hop back in the kitchen to make some bacon mac 'n cheese (inspired by one of the meals from my cruise last month).

Now, in an effort to get a head start on one of my New Years Resolutions (which will be posted in a blog next week [I promise]) I plan on reading through the nativity story from the account of Luke tomorrow night before bed.  Luke just has that little something special that I feel Matthew left out in his account of the Gospels.  Forget reading the Night Before Christmas, let's remember what this season is about...and it's not gifts or food.  Jesus is the reason for the season.

I probably won't post again before Christmas, so Merry Christmas, dear readers, and I will see you again before 2012 knocks on your door.

My favorite Christmas song:

The cute Christmas video:

The funny adult Christmas scenario:

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/6dxd

So this is Christmas...

 George: What is it you want, Mary?  What do you want?  You want the moon?  Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.  Hey.  That's a pretty good idea.  I'll give you the moon, Mary.

Mary:  I'll take it.  Then what?

George:  Well, then you can swallow it, and it'll all dissolve see...and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair...am I talking too much?

- It's A Wonderful Life

Like  most people who are blogging right now, I will make the statement that America, and the world, already knows. It's December, which means Christmas!  Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to say I'm sorry for my lack of blogging over the past month or so...I've had bad case of writers block recently.

Things have been going well though!  Mallory has moved back to Tallahassee and back into McCartney Motel.  I had a relaxing Thanksgiving spent in the Bahamas (Freeport, Nassua, and Half Moon Cay to be exact and photos/additional blog to come soon).  I can't remember the last time I was this excited for Christmas either...maybe it's because all I've done for the past month is Pinterest (www.pinterest.com) giving me TONS of ideas for decorations, etc.

I also know I haven't blogged about this, out of respect for Adam and Crystal, but after a month and a half of them being in Tampa with Kaylee after a tragic family accident, they are back in Tallahassee.  It's so wonderful to see them again and to watch as Kaylee continues to grow and improve daily.  We're all also excited because little Levi is due to come in the next 3 weeks! (Who doesn't love babies?!)

Chelsea moves out in about 2 weeks :( but the good news is she'll be graduating with her lovely degree in French (yay graduation!).  I'm sad because she's been a wonderful friend/roommate and has been responsible for teaching me new music (She & Him) and starting my John Cusack movie obsession/collection.  This means however that I get a fresh start in a new room in the house, as I'll be moving into her bedroom so Mallory can retake claim on her old room.  In the 47 years since the house was built, I will be the only person to ever live in all 3 bedrooms (holla for setting a record).

Before Thanksgiving, Samantha, Mallory, and myself started a routine of cooking dinner together and walking 2 miles every night, only allowing ourselves one "skip" per week in an effort to lose weight and save money.  Since returning from Thanksgiving break, we've continued the meals, but slacked on the walking, which I'm hoping to start up again soon.

I've also been slacking in my Bible reading, which started in the middle of October after I finished Genesis.  I will definitely be starting that up again soon, in the book of John, as well as starting my texting chain again to ensure others have been keeping up with their readings also.  I still think it's strange that for a habit to stick it takes 21 days and I had done two and half months of nightly reading that went out the window in a day.  Apparently I'm the exception to the rule there...but who knows.

Now for Christmasy things!  The quote above is from one of my favorite Christmas movies, It's A Wonderful Life.  This movie helps you feel love, pain, joy, sorrow, and of course, the Christmas spirit.  I just love how you see the life of George Bailey unfold before you, the highs and lows, the love that he has for Mary and how it helps him become a better man.

I'm really excited about the music and movies have yet to be played in the house.  Not only do I have a vast collection of Christmas tunes on my iTunes, but we have the claymation Christmas movies, It's A Wonderful Life, The Family Stone, Love/Actually, and Elf to enjoy in the coming weeks.

For a promise to you, lovely reader.  I will be posting a blog at least once every week for this entire month.  I will also be gearing up for the exciting things to come in 2012 (resolutions, dreams, etc.).

Wordless Wednesday: Music Edition

The Golden Tribe Lecture Series: Elie Wiesel

"Life is not made of years,

it is made of moments.

The song of moments make up life,
and define out entire existence."

-Elie Wiesel

Some of the greatest things we will experience in our life will happen when we least expect it.  Since I was in 8th grade I've studied (from time to time) and written several papers on the book Night by Elie Wiesel.  While some people tend to think that Night is just another piece of literature, they tend to forget it is a memoir, a piece of fact and history.  When I first read the book I realized that Elie was only a year or two older than I was at the time when he lost half his family upon arriving at Auschwitz during World War II.  He was a prisoner of the Nazi government for 2 years before being liberated, traveling to France to study and eventually being a Noble Laureate.

Tuesday night, along with Becca and several thousand others, I had the opportunity to sit in on a lecture by Elie Wiesel himself.  It's hard to believe the life he's lived, it's so inspiring.  While I listened to him I just thought about the amount of work he's done in an effort to help/aide others in his 83 years and the small amount that I've tried to do in my 23 years.  He truly made me consider why I chose to go to Mexico in the summer to build houses, why I'm so mission driven.  While our efforts are vastly different from each other, they have the same reasoning, to better the experiences of life of those who are suffering and to put an end to indifference.

"The Captains under Hitler were all PhDs (...) Cultured people simply cannot do certain things.  People who enjoy a concerto by Schubert simply cannot kill children, but here, they did.  What happened to make culture fail them?"

I don't think that, as a general public, we knew how smart the Nazi leaders were as a whole.  To be so educated and to be so twisted in thought about a group of people they didn't know, or care to understand, is something that is difficult to understand.  How is this possible?  The more educated you are, the more you should research before making such drastic moves.  I guess Hitler was more convincing that I had realized.

The lecture closed with a question and answer session, including what I considered to be the question of the hour: What would you say to someone who denies the Holocaust happened?  Elie's response was simple, "Nothing..."  Receiving a round of applause for this, he continued saying we shouldn't have to justify what he doesn't believe because he will never understand it the way we do.  We shouldn't have to convince someone that things like this have happened or are happening now.

Wordless Wednesday: Best Friend/Vacation Edition

Do You Remember?

"You once told me, our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch. Is that true for everybody, or is it just poetic bullshit?"

- Tyler, Remember Me

Hard to believe it's been 10 years already.  Tuesday, September 11, 2001 has now become Sunday, September 11, 2011.  American lives have returned to normal, unless you're traveling, in which case TSA governs all.  Though whenever New York City, the Pentagon, or open fields in Pennsylvania are brought up your mind seems to wonder back to that early September morning.

Growing up I would hear people recall where they were when Pearl Harbor was attacked, when Kennedy was assassinated, when Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated, what it was like to see the Challenger shuttle explode.  9/11 was one of those days for me.  I will always remember, just like everyone else, where I was, what I was doing, etc.

I remember that day as an overcast day in Live Oak and being with Mrs. Bonds (8th grade) class outside working on a science experiment (oddly enough we were working on recording speed and time for air propelled rockets).  When we walked inside one of the other teachers was in the room waiting to talk with Mrs. Bonds, who, after some brief words, silently walked across the room with tears in her eyes and turned on the television set.  Some of us, as we watched her, thought something had happened to her youngest child as she walked with the tears swelling, before we realized what was really happening miles away.  As we sat there in silence reading and watching the news unfold I realized George W. Bush was suppose to be in Florida on that day.  When it was revealed the Pentagon had been hit and they were most likely going after the President I became worried for my father who was working in Tallahassee at the capital...where Jeb Bush, the President's brother, was also working.  Luckily my mother worked at the Middle School and when I was allowed to go see her she had just talked with my father, who, like most people, was given the rest of the day off.

The rest of the day was spent watching the news unfold, news about all 4 flights that had been hijacked, news about the towers and surrounding buildings that were damaged, the estimated death/injury toll, and who was already traveling to help respond to the horrifying event.

It's funny to have watched 10th anniversary interviews of people who survived or lost loved ones on that day because they recall how beautiful a morning it was, the cool crisp autumn air, the sun rising in the sky.  But I remember the chill, overcast clouds of Live Oak.  It's like the Florida sky knew something terrible was going to happen, while the sky over where these events took place wanted those affected by it to remember it's beauty.

It still scares me that I know people who were suppose to be in the towers that day.  It scares me to think that I was in the towers just 3 years prior, that my grandparents had just flown out of New York City just days before.  This event changed the Nation, and the world.  It changed a societies way of thinking.  What is safe if an airplane can become a weapon so easily?

On this day, the 10th anniversary of the attacks, the Nation has been asked to come together and unite as one again.  We will always remember where we were, we will never forget.  We will have our  moments of silence, we will continue to pray for those who are still suffering from this loss.