The first ever Jam Session Monday!

Everyone needs a little music to get 'em through the week right?  That is why I am starting "Jam Session Mondays".  Every Monday I will post a playlist with some of my favorite music for ya'll to rock out to for the rest of the week!

This week is Christmas music......obviously!  I love old Christmas carols, especially when they have been redone with a modern twist.   What Child is This, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, and Can You Hear What I Hear,  are some of my very favorite carols. 

Hope you enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Verse for the Week

Isaiah 9:6-7
 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

My Christmas Philosophy

I am one of those people that looooooooves the Christmas season.  I start planning for it in June, listening to carols in October, and decorating in November.  If it were up to me we would celebrate Christmas all year round!  In fact, this is something we should consider doing.  Ok so maybe we do need to pack away the decorations and ditch the fatty oh-so-delicious food for 11 months out of the year,  but we should always keep the real meaning for the holiday in our hearts.

Sorry Saint Valentine, but Christmas day is the ultimate love holiday.  What could express love more than an omnipotent God coming to earth as a fragile human baby, destined to die in order to offer salvation to His very sinful, ungrateful, yet beloved creations?  Knowing that I am one of the beneficiaries of His grace fills me up with hope and pure joy, how about you?  During the Christmas season we are reminded of this ultimate sacrifice yet we tend to forget it for most of the rest of the year.  Wouldn't it be great to be full of hope, joy, and peace all the time?!  And to share it with everyone?!!!  I think so!  It is for this reason that I believe we should keep the spirit of Christmas with us all year long.  To spread a little hope and joy, and to let every person know that they are loved.

So let's sing Joy to the World............all year long :)

Loooooong way from home

Hello from sunny California.  Okay, so it hasn't been that sunny the past couple days but who cares?  No one in California obviously :)

I have been in San Jose since November 28th working as a nanny for my Aunt and Uncle who just moved out here.  My nanny-vacation has been great but busy, which is the reason for my long blogging hiatus.  I have lots of awesome pictures of all of my adventures but sadly do not have my camera accessories with me so I will have to post them when I get back to 'Nati.

Here are some things I have learned during this California adventure:

1. Do not book a flight between October and May that has a layover in Salt Lake City, Utah.  It snows there.  A lot.

2. Don't drive around an unfamiliar city with no directions, especially at night.

3.  If you are going to reside in California then you had better be willing to spend a lot of money on everything!  Seriously Californians, a carton of grape juice should not cost me 4 dollars when it only costs me a buck-fifty at home!

4.  Do not tell people you are from Ohio.  They will either give you sympathetic looks, proceed to ignore you, or ask you where Ohio is located.

5.  Don't respond to anything with "Oh that's gay".  You will instantly be surrounded by a lynch mob of homosexuals.

6.  This area is an organic foods/products paradise and I am loving every minute of it.

7.  You can be extremely quirky and eclectic, in fact you should be! 

8.  People out here care more about the environment, conservation, and well being.  I think this is awesome and I hope all of you peeps in the midwest start taking these things more seriously.

9.  Even though I love it here, I miss my home.

Thankfulness #2

Here are some things I am thankful for today.

1. Cream of wheat.  The simplest of breakfast cereals is my absolute fav.  Who would have thought that mush could be so tasty?  I guess its true that anything can taste amazing if you put enough butter and brown sugar in it.

2. Harry Potter of course!  I went to see the Deathly Hallows part 1 last night and it was AMAZING!!!!  Sometimes I like to pretend that I am a part of the Harry Potter world.  Wouldn't it be great to cast spells and ride on flying broomsticks?  Heck yes it would!  But not quite as great as taking a trip to Narnia.

     3. Fuzzy-furry animals.  They are so cuddly!  One of my wishes in life is to have a wombat as a pet.  I am going to name him Percival and build him a den underneath my bed so I can fall asleep listening to his snuffly wombat snores.
                    

Thankfulness #1

Because Thanksgiving day is rapidly approaching,  I have decided to blog about stuff I am thankful for this week.  First up:

Siblings.

What makes siblings so great?

They are there in the best of times and the worst of times.  They celebrate your accomplishments and stand by you when you fall.

Sisters make you smile and they are always game for a shopping trip!

Its especially great when you can share clothes!

Brothers make you laugh and help you with your Basic Music Theory homework.

They are friends "til the end and I wouldn't change a thing about them :)

Verse for the week

1 Chronicles 29:11-13 (KJV) "Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name."

Yagoot!

The best frozen yogurt place ever!  I could eat some every day.  Its tangier than the average fro-yo and is 99% fat free.  There are two year-round flavors, vanilla & strawberry, and then one other flavor that varies by season.  For example, mango in the summer, pumpkin in the fall and peppermint around christmas.   You can get a variety of topping on your fro-yo, anything from fresh blueberries to Captain Crunch cereal! You can also have it whirled into a shake or have a Red Sailor float made by scooping vanilla yogurt into red cream soda.

My fav is the pumpkin flavor with cinnamon Teddy Grahams on top.

Yum!

And they call it puppy love.....

Hello.  My name's Kipper the Dog.  People call me Kipper the Dog.

Name that movie!  Ok so I took some liberties in changing the quote but if you are a fan of the movie then you should be able to guess it.

Anyway, this is my furry child :) I love her dearly!

Here is Kipper when she was about 2 months old.  She is now around 4 months.  Kipper is what happens when your soon-to-be In-Laws' male Sheltie and female Heinz 57 get a little twitterpated in the backyard.  She is the most redneck dog ever.  Her favorite activities are eating mass amounts of puppy chow, eating various kinds of poop found in my parents yard, eating things that aren't edible, and cuddling up on my lap to sleep. 

Kipper is now an official part of our little family and we love to play and hike with her.  She even dressed up with us to take my Lil' Sis trick 'or' treating.  Kipper and I dressed up in Mardi Gras costumes.  Zach dressed up as a redneck.....duh.

Here is Kipper with her BFF Savvy (my parent's border collie).  Savvy was not to fond of Kipper at first, partly because she is a very antisocial dog (we think she's autistic).  But Kipper has grown on her and they are now great pals!

   
   Oh, I forgot to mention Kipper's favorite activity.  She loves to tear apart stuffed animals.  No,no.  Totally anihilate stuffed animals.  I like to call it "surgery" but it is more like mass carnage.  Oh well, I love her despite her faults!

BTW, the movie quote is from Forrest Gump but you should have already known that ;)

More to love about Zachary

Just because I didn't feel like my first list was complete...

6. He respects me and takes genuine interest in the things I love.  Since we started dating Zach has shown that he will do pretty much anything to make me happy.  This involves sacrificing his time to watch me ride horses at the barn, help me bake cookies, go on long walks with me and our dog, etc.  How sexy is that!?

7. He is pure redneck.  Seriously, the man owns 3 cars and one of them is sitting in pieces at his grandparent's farm!  Plus he has a southern accent that is adorable!

8. He is creative and is an excellent handyman.  He can draw, paint, build, and boy can he make a mean snowman!  He is also a chimney sweep.  Like the ones from Victorian era Great Britain.  Only with a Kentucky accent.

     9.  He is a great musician.  He plays guitar, trumpet, and piano.  Sometimes he sings to me over the  
          phone.  It melts my heart :)

    10.  He is just awesome.  Period.

The cheese to my macaroni

This is my man.  His name is Zachary and we have been engaged for 11 months and 25 days.  He is the most wonderful person I know and my very best friend.  I am so very blessed to have him as my fiance and future husband!

Here are some things I love most about Zach:

1. He makes me take life a little less seriously.  We are complete opposites in many ways.  I am extremely Type A, task focused, and I must admit, a bit of a pessimist.  Zach complements my Nervous Nelly tendencies by being laid-back and looking for the humor in all things.  He is a big goofball and I wouldn't want it any different!

2. He is a bigger nerd than I am.  Seriously, he can recite every Star Trek episode from memory.  Ok maybe that is a little over exaggeration but it is close to the truth!  I now know more about Star Trek, Star Wars, and Fallout (a video game for those of you who don't know) than the average girl should!

3. He is in training to become an Army Officer in the Military Police Corps.  I am so proud of him for taking on this responsibility of serving our country.

4. He loves the Lord with all his heart.

5. He buys me Yagoot.  Nuff said!

I cannot wait until we are married!

"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."

Verse for the Week

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. -Jeremiah 29:11-13

Here is a heaping spoonful of hope for the upcoming week.  No matter what frustrating things may happen, no matter how bleak the outlook, God is in control and wants only the best for His children.  So let's fully surrender ourselves to His wonderful plans!

Whats in a name?

It has occurred to me that the title of my blog probably makes no sense to anybody but myself.  Which would be perfectly fine if I wanted to portray a snobby elitist who thinks they are smarter than the average blog reader.  However, snobby elitists do not have many friends or blog followers so I do not want to be one of them.  So get ready to be edumacated, people!

We will start with Allons.  Yes, it is a French word.  Now I have to admit that I used to think French was a rather tutti-frutti language. This may have had something to do with growing up surrounded by staunch republican conservatives, because as we all know staunch republican conservatives despise the French and there liberal European shenanigans.  Anyway, translated into our own language Allons means "Let's Go".  I most likely would have never learned of this term if it hadn't been for the good old US Army.  Back in my Army ROTC days I attended LDAC (Leader Development and Assessment Course).  In my regiment, whenver a Cadet was approached by an Officer, they would salute and give the greeting "Blackhorse, Sir" or "Ma'am".  The Officer would salute back and in return give the greeting "Allons".  This was all because my regiment was affiliated with the U.S. Army’s 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.  Here is a little history provided by U.S. Army Cadet Command:

Organized on Feb. 2, 1901, the Black Horse regiment first saw combat with General Arthur Macarthur against the tribal insurrections in the Philippine islands in 1902. Ordered into battle a decade later, the Black Horse regiment served as the vanguard for General “Blackjack” Pershing’s punitive expedition into Mexico.
The Black Horse colors were next unfurled in combat on the beaches of Normandy. Spearheading General George Patton’s epic charge across France, the Black Horse distinguished itself during the 3rd Army’s unparalleled winter offensive in relief of the besieged 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne. The Blackhorse culminated its valorous war service in participation with Patton’s massive flanking maneuver across central Europe.
At the request of General William Westmoreland, commander, Military Assistance Command, the Black Horse regiment arrived in Vietnam in September 1966. They carried the distinct honor of being the only armored cavalry regiment to see battles in Indochina.
In 1972, the Black Horse regiment assumed its mission of defending the Fulda Gap on the frontier of freedom, protecting NATO’s eastern border in the Federal Republic of Germany. As a result of the disintegration of eastern Europe’s communist regimes, the Black Horse regiment ceased its border operation when the border between East and West Germany opened in 1990.
In May 1991, the 11th was directed to deploy to Kuwait as part of Operation Positive Force. From June to September, the regiment secured the peace on the sands of Kuwait.
Among the regimental honors are the Presidential Unit Citation and Meritorious Unit commendations.
This unit served in Northern Iraq from January 2005 – 17 March 2006 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

 

Allons has become one of my favorite words/phrases.  Life is an exciting mish-mash of experiences, emotions, and relationships.  I believe that we should all live our lives to the fullest, taking advantage of every oppurtunity and adventure that comes our way.  So......Allons!

 

My sub-title or title description (whatever you want to call it) is part of a quote by the actor Sidney Poitier.

 

"If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you're not going to get very far.  You simply won't.  The journey has been incredible from its beginning.  So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness."

 

In reality, we have no control over our lives.  It is divinely driven.  Because of this everything that happens to us can appear to be completely random just because we have no will-power over it.  This can be difficult to accept if you are a Type-A personality like myself.  However, if you believe that everything happens for a reason, whether you planned it or not, then you can see that what appears to be a random occurrence is merely a patch in the large and beautiful quilt that makes up your life!

 

So now you are all a little more enlightened regarding my blog title, my personal beliefs, and the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment!

 

Goodnight!

 

 

So it begins....

For the past year or so I have been contemplating starting a blog.  I have never been a tech saavy person and I definitely have never been the diary or journal-keeping type.  However, I like the idea of chronicling my life in a way that can be shared with others.  So now I have a blog.  And the ability to share every thought that runs through my mind.  Scary.

This blog doesn't really have a theme.  It will not endlessly drone on about breeding Pembroke Welsh Corgis, or cover my nail-biting 3 month backpacking trip through southeast Asia, or contain a plethora of homecooked recipes (ok so there may be some posts about food thrown in, seeing as I love it so much).  Instead, it will be a collage of the random things I do and think about.  Everything from my frustrating search for a job, making my own wedding invitations, and my thoughts regarding global warming.  The latter you probably don't want to hear about.  I will share stories from my past and the adventures occuring now and in the future.  After all, I am only 22 so there will be plenty of material to work with ;)