Mad Music Monday

Oh! I bought soooo much music over the weekend that I am very excited about. I'll have to spread it out though!

My music for today is the new (and final) Watermark album. This album revisits a lot of their older stuff, but it is fabulous. One of the best parts is that it is a live album and has special guests such as Chris Tomlin and Shane & Shane. It is wonderful. I think the reason that I'm choosing this album as my choice for Mad Music Monday is less because of the music and more because of the reasoning behind this being the last Watermark album. Christy and Nathan Nockles (I hope I have those names right) have two beautiful children. They have discussed how it seems that too often their children get what is left of them instead of the best of them. They've realized that they only get one shot at being parents to these kids. They can make more music later. Nathan will continue to produce albums, but Christy is devoting all of her time to the ministry of being mom. I can't think of a higher calling. I love that this is a couple with a heart for Jesus and that they want to continue to serve Him. I also love that they can see that by being the best parents they can be to their children, they ARE serving Him.

Favorite Friend Friday

Nope. I cannot post my Favorite Friend Friday on Friday. It just doesn't work. It has to be Monday for some reason!!!

My friend of the week this week is Jessica Simpson. I haven't flaunted that I know Jessica because of all the paparazzi. And I really didn't want to be a name dropper...but because of the divorce and all she's been through, I just think it's time for some good press so I am choosing to highlight Jessica as my friend of the week.

What the heck. My friend of the week is Jessica BROOKE Simpson!! :) Brooke and I haven't known each other very long, but I'm so thankful to Sarai for bringing us together. We have tons of stuff in common and already find ourselves sharing a brain much of the time. We don't have lots of stories to share about memories of our friendship, but we are making new ones all the time. Between camp meetings and camp itself and game nights and IMs and emails and text messages and however else we choose to communicate, those memories are being formed and it seems much of those memories involve laughter. I am all for that! Brooke has reminded me of some things about friendship that I had forgotten or had taken for granted. I feel blessed to have a friend with whom I can laugh and vent and pray and just talk about nothing or everything! I'm excited to have Brooke in my life and I can't wait to see where this crazy life takes us.

Thanks for everything Brooke...especially for knowing that Chicken of the Sea is not really chicken. :)

Thing I Love Thursday

Thursdays.

I love that right after Thursday, comes Friday.

I love friendship.

I love trust.

I love honesty.

I love opening up. Well, no, opening up is scary. I love the feeling right after you've opened up and it all turned out ok.

I love to laugh.

I love tags!!! Which is why, I'm going to do Maleah's! (And Sabrina, you need to do this one too!)

Now, you must remember that I graduated from high school during the same year that these wonderful songs were in the Billboards Top 100 songs of the year:

Baby Got Back
I'm Too Sexy
Achy Breaky Heart
2 Legit 2 Quit
Bohemian Rhapsody


What a great year - culturally I mean.

There were a few good songs too though! And really, more than 5 that we listened to ALL THE BLESSED TIME! So here are just a few:

What graduation party in 1992 didn't play It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday by Boyz II Men?

Amy Grant even made the top 100 multiple times that year with Good For Me and I Will Remember You and That's What Love is For.

Richard Marx (and all his hair) was still going strong with Take This Heart and Keep Coming Back

My man, Michael Bolton, was singing When a Man Loves a Woman andl Missing You Now and even Paula Abdul was Blowing Kisses in the Wind during my senior year.

Genesis described my friends and I and why we decorated for prom, but then went and had our own party instead when they came out with I Can't Dance :)

How Do you Talk to An Angel was HUGE that year as was No Tears in Heaven.

Guns-N-Roses had November Rain which will always remind me of Phil Zinser

Life is a Highway was pretty big that year too but not as big as our hair as Sarah and I would sing along!

We had tons of tunes and loved them all. It was a good time.

Fun wacky tag Maleah! Thanks!

Tell All Tuesday

Hmmm. I get stuck here EVERYTIME!

I guess my Tell All Tuesday will be that I almost never ever ever iron anything. I'm sure you're thinking - we know that, we see how wrinkled you are. And maybe that is the case...and if it is, I think I'm ok with it. I HATE TO IRON! I always lay out what I am going to wear the night before so that when I get up in the morning, if necessary, I can throw those clothes in the dryer with a damp washcloth and then presto! By the time I get out of the shower, my clothes are warm, smelling clean linen fresh, and wrinkle free. In the winter, this works out great. Now, summers are a little less fun! I don't find the need to get out of a shower and into warm clothes. But it is still better than ironing!

Mad Music Monday

And the week begins with the most super short blog entries ever!

Today, I am walking through my house singing "I am Woman, hear me roar. . ." simply because I just fixed my toilet without the help of anyone!!

The problem was easy to diagnose. The toilet kept running and running and running after I flushed it yesterday morning....so I lifted the lid (because after a gazillion years of living in this house and a gazillion more working on camp Truett toilets, I know a thing or two about the toilet tank) and there, floating in the tank water, was the ball. For those of you who don't know, the ball isn't supposed to just float around in your tank. It should be attached to the stick that helps control the water level in your tank. (I'm quite certain that ball and stick ARE the technical plumber's terms for these items.) Anyhow, I stopped at Wal-Mart, bought a replacement ball, and replaced it my own self.

So, the music in my head at this point is, "I am Woman, hear me roar. . ." Sing along girls!

Favorite Friend Friday

Ok, I wanted to hold out even longer on this post - I don't know why I was trying to wait, but I was. And now I'm not.

My friend of the week is Sarai Gilbert. :) Cool last name, huh? The best gift my brother ever gave me was to marry one of my very best friends in the world. (Although, I'm pretty sure he didn't marry her just for me!) What a priceless treasure to know that we are going to be linked forever and to just have that assurance that this person isn't going anywhere!!!

Sarai and I have had a strange past together. I will never forget her in her overalls and pigtails singing Reba songs at camp when Wendy and I were camp directors. Nor will I forget Wendy and I taking her to the basement of the dining hall to ask her if she would come back to camp the next week and work as a Jr. Counselor. I don't really know what we were going for when we did that. Wendy and I just liked to do weird stuff like that! :)

How blessed I have been to work with her at camp ever since then! And then we had our fun Thursday night camp staff get-togethers at my house. Finally, for some strange reason, Sarai started hanging out a little more...oh yes. She started dating my brother! :) And that was great! Marty was living in Durham, but Sarai and I were both here so we bonded over lots of meals and FRIENDS and movies and just fun stuff. We've been through so much mess together. We've vented and cried and laughed and screamed together. I cannot imagine my life without her. The entire Gilbert family has been blessed by her marriage to Marty. In the past week, Sarai has once again come through for me. I know that regardless of what kind of mess is going on, she is always going to be there for me and she is always going to be on my side...well, unless I'm being stupid and then she'll just tell me that and I need that too! It is so great to know that she loves me no matter what and will have my back on any occasion!

Sometimes we go for days without talking. Other times, we talk 45 times during the day. It just depends on what is going on and what kinds of moods we are in!

I love that we share a brain and don't even have to talk most of the time.

I love that we can see something or read something and have the exact same reaction.

I love that she is ULTRA Organized! :)

I just love her!!!!

Poopie! I'm so blessed to know you!!! Thank you for being a friend......




Traveling down the road and back again.....

Ok. Sorry. I'm going now.

Thing I Love Thursday

Butterflies. I love butterflies. This is not a new thing. It's just becoming more and more consuming as time goes on. In fact, on Wednesday we took our kids to the Colburn Science Museum which is on the ground floor of Pack Place BUT on the next level there is another museum/gallery that I MUST go back to because it was ALL BUTTERFLIES! Girls, we must have this cultural experience together, don't you think? I do!!! I'm going to call and see how long it will be there!

The first summer we became new creations at girls camp it was almost impossible to find butterfly things. And believe me, I looked EVERYWHERE!!!! But ever since then, butterflies have been everywhere and I love it!!

Here's a random thought...for one of my high school piano recitals I got to play a simple, but lovely German piece entitled The Schmeterling. It means, THE BUTTERFLY! How great is that? Just thought of that. Thought I would share.

Wow. I'm ADD today....and the fun part is - I still have another entry to go! :)

Tell All Tuesday

Friday. Tuesday. Ah. Whatever!

I don't have much to tell these days. In fact, I've been sitting here for a few minutes and still have nothing very good to share...so, instead of making up some drivel that will entertain no one...I think I'll move on to the next post on which I am also behind!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Mad Music Monday

The song stuck in my head today is Sara Groves' Less Like Scars. She wrote this song for me, ya know?
This song had just come out during a particularly hard time in my life and it was perfect:

It's been a hard year • But I'm climbing out of the rubble • These lessons are hard • Healing changes are subtle • But every day it's... • Less like tearing more like building • Less like captive more like willing • Less like breakdown more like surrender • Less like haunting more like remember • And I feel you here • And you're picking up the pieces • Forever faithful • It seemed out of my hands a bad situation • But you are able • And in your hands the pain and hurt • look less like scars and more like character • •

I'm proud to say that I was the first among many to discover Sara Groves. :) And because I love her SOOOOO much, I've shared her with many!!! But none of them can say they actually have a coffee house version of Past The Wishing, before she actually signed with a production company! I'm telling ya, I'm the winner here! :) (And only Beth and I can say that we went to see her in concert (with like 15 other people in the audience) and ended up feeding a disabled man pizza! Friend Beth, we have such strange stories together!!!)

I'll also say this: She really wrote the entire album All Right Here just for me. I know this because it exactly chronicles my life the year that I felt like my best friend decided to not be my best friend anymore. Which at the time was the most painful thing I had ever been through and has now turned into a magnificent blessing. (There are no hard feelings here - just an understanding of how God uses the painful to produce the spendid!) God is cool like that. And Sara knew it too, because she said it for me: "I'm not God I'm a girl I confess that I don't have sea of forgetfulness • No, it's all right here • It makes me stronger and makes me wince • It makes me think twice when I pick my friends • Oh, it's all right here it's all right here" And it IS all right AND alright!!! I have the best friends I have ever had or could ever imagine having now!!!! I haven't lost anything, God has blessed me with more than I thought I could handle! (Girls. sometimes you are more than ANYONE can handle!!)

Ha! Anyway, my kids are gone to PE, Sara and I are just relaxing. It's a good good time!

Favorite Friend Friday

Someday, I'm actually going to write this post on FRIDAY like it was intended. Whew. Someday.

My friend of the week this week is Sarah James, well, now she is Sarah Caniano, but when we were such great buddies, she was Sarah James. We met in high school for the first time and were inseparable from that first meeting. She and I were both trying to make it as children of ministers and teachers. We both cared little about what other people thought and a LOT about how much fun we could have. We had too many fun times to even begin to mention them, but I will say this: I've never spent more time singing with one person in my entire life. Oh. And this must be said - I will never forget the day we drove back from Wal-Mart in Waynesville (this was in the Pre-Sylva-Wal-Mart-Era) with our heads stuck out of the windows of the truck and getting pelted with a bug in the center of the forehead. It was fun to explain that welt later on!! Sarah and I had a blast and shared secerets and shopping and laughter and yearbook pages! :) We kind of lost touch after she left me here alone to begin her exciting married life across the U.S., but we have recently reconnected and I am sooooo thankful for that. I would love to live in the same area again and get to do all those fun things we used to. Sometimes, this growing up thing really stinks!

Love you Sadie!!!!!!

Things I Love Thursday

I love:
Time to catch up with myself.
Laughing with friends.
Having inside jokes (Go Big Ashe!)
Having that special song (Jesus, Take the Wheel)
Unexpected visits with friends (all ages) at Wal-Mart
Sharing an umbrella with my favorite 4-year old
Seeing the bottom of my "papers to be graded" basket
The purple/pink link
Friends with numbers
Friends who live on my couch
Having a week with few prior commitments
Seeing lights at the ends of tunnels
Learning new ways to serve onion rings
Feeling blessed like I am


Catching up on blogs...even if it IS just a list and no complete sentences!!! :)