Project 1 Word.

Broken.

Country Music...

One of the goals I made for this year of 2011 was: to try my darn hardest to like country music. At least, to SOME extent! So, for this month of January, I've been listening to a lot of country artists, trying to find the ones that I actually really, truly like.

I first started off on Taylor Swift, as I had already tried her in the past and I knew she was FULL country...more pop-country, so I figured she'd be an easy transition from goin "no-country" to "full-country".
I can't say I'm impressed with T.S...I found her music to irritate me, and her voice to be slightly grating. She doesn't seem to have much depth to her music, and the majority of her songs have a similar sound, as well as a similar message. She's either rejoicing in her new-found love, breakin her heart over her lost love, or pining over the guy who SHOULD be with her. Love and crushes are NOT the only thing a teenage gal goes through! I think she needs to branch out more. Of her songs, there were two that didn't annoy me as much as the others. Those being: "The Best Day" & "Never Grow Up"...both being the two non-romantic ones. ;)

After I had gotten a full taste of T.S. (yes, I tried all three of her albums...), I switched over to Carrie Underwood. I hadn't listened to much of Carrie Underwood, other than listening to one of her albums start-to-finish, once. I grabbed two of her albums and loaded them onto my ipod, ready to give her a fair chance with no prior opinion locked. I found her to be one step above T.S. in my opinion...which, I suppose, is making SOME progress. ;)
I did find that she tended to grate on my nerves after a while, so she had to be taken in small doses. Again, her voice annoyed me slightly, and I found many of her songs to irk me as well. Is heartbreak and love all that country gal singers sing about?
Yet, I managed to like a few more of her songs: "Inside Your Heaven", "Temporary Home", and "Change".
Moving on from C.U., I got my hands on one of Lady Antebellum's albums. Ah! Here's where I "struck gold"! I have fallen in love with Lady Antebellum, their sound, and their music. Occasionally, yes, one or two of their songs I won't care for, but for the majority of the one album I tried, I enjoyed it. My favorites being: "Love's Lookin Good on You", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", & "One Day You Will". I am looking forward to trying their other albums.

After Lady Antebellum, I went to "Love & Theft", a band I already knew and loved. Try em...they have more a blue-grassy sound than a true, deep country sound. But they are good. My favorites by them being: "Dancing in Circles", "Runaway", & "Me Without You".


I have now, since, moved on to Rascal Flatts. I've gotten one of his albums, and just started to listen to it today. My overall thoughts, so far, are that I actually like him! His voice is...interesting. So far, my favorites by him include: "Where You Are" & "The Day Before You".

And what is up next? Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, and Miranda Lambert.
Any suggestions for a country-music newbie? Who do you love? Recommend away, peeps! And, no, there is no way you will get me to listen to Miley Cyrus or Billy Ray Cyrus...so don't even go there.

10 Things

Today...instead of posting 10 things that make me happy, I'm going to post 10 things that don't make me happy...just for the heck of it. Ready?

1. Peas. Blech. Blech. BLECH.
2. Being tired. Makes me crabby.
3. No coffee. (It's never, "But why's the rum gone??" but always "But why's the coffee gone??")
4. Glitter...the evil stuff that gets everywhere and sticks to everything. Especially your face. And hands.
5. No texts. :'( Means, no one looooooooooves me.
6. The color pink.
7. Bad eyesight. "Wha? Wha?? Who's there??" "It's meeeeeeeeeeee! Haaaaaaaarry!!"
8. Barney. Evil, evil dinosaur.
9. Bad acting in movies. GAAAAAAAAAAH. Let me pull my hair out. :P
10. Biting into cold stuff. *SHUDDER*

1000 Gifts

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2006/11/gift-list-thousand-things/

1. Memories of leaving my "mark" on the basement wall, beside my siblings.

2. Group chats with four best friends, that make me laugh.

3. Getting an unexpected day off from work.

4. Receiving a 42 page letter from my best friend.

5. Seeing Dad for the first time in a couple days.

6. Wearing matching Pigeon shirts with my favoritest littlest sister.

7. Listening to Christian artists that I grew up on. Michael W. Smith especially.

8. Curling up on a couch next to a dear friend and feelin comforted.

9. Warm fuzzy socks for -4* weather.

Random

Randomity of the day:

- It snowed again. Meh.
- Lots of chores completed, a few left...
- Been listening to "Catching Fire" on my ipod...if only the last book had been as good.
- Cracked up SO hard watching Mom and Dad trying to learn how to: slow dance, waltz, AND swing dance from a DVD.
- Made Challah bread...and secretly added more white flour to it than wheat. Shhhh!
- Worked...slow day.
- Is DYING for spring to arrive.
- Cannot wait to chat with her bestest friend tonight. *heart*

What am I currently reading: "Devil Bones" by Kathy Reichs...first in the series that the tv series, "Bones" was based upon.

What am I currently watching: "Larkrise to Candleford" season 3 with Amy. Love that show. AND! "White Collar" has started up again! w00t!

What am I currently listening to: For an audio book - "Catching Fire", and for music: Michael W. Smith, E.S.Posthumus, and William Joseph. Brilliant stuff. Grew up on Michael W. Smith, E.S.Postumus = epic, and William Joseph is great piano stuffage!

What am I currently writing: Nothing besides journaling and letter-writing.

What am I currently working on: Gloves for my brother.

Ben

Okay. So. I have all these amazing friends, who mean so incredibly much to me, that I've just GOT to tell you about each of them.


Ben wasn't an old friend, but we had gotten close so it felt like we had been friends for much longer than it's really been.
Ben was..."pretty much amazing". Especially lately. I've been struggling with a bunch of stuff, and Ben was there, all the way, ready to listen, ready to give advice, with encouragement and sympathy and offers to pray. I definitely would not have been able to get through this time as smoothly (which, not that it was exactly smooth, but it definitely would've been a lot worse without him...) if I hadn't had Ben there to calm me down, listen to me, talk to me, and make me laugh.

Cuz, yup, Ben made me laugh like crazy. And not everyone can. :P A bit of a tease, but he never pushed me too far. Somehow, even if I started to get annoyed, he'd make me end up laughing and just calling him a dork.

Thanks for being my best friend, Ben.

Fallin in love...

A friend dared me to fall in love this year. And ya know what? It's already happened. He's here with me and He makes me more content than anyone else EVER has. It's puhretty amazing.

Just sayin...

In which Sam is fooled...

Last night, my sister gets home from work, and rushes upstairs with a whole pack of kiddies trailing behind her...just to see me in my room.

Okay. Yeaaaah. A bit odd that she's rushing into my room.

"Look what I got!" she says, with a huge grin on her face. The kiddies are all giggling and grinning like hyenas.
But poor me has just been interrupted from listening to a podcast while knitting. My thoughts are still centered on NarniaWeb's opinions on the latest Narnia film!

My sister holds out a glass jar with a lid screwed on top. It's an empty jar. Ooookay.
She then bangs the top of the jar and a butterfly flutters franticly away from the top of the jar, beating it's wings on the sides.

"What?? Don't BANG it!" I say, sitting right up to get a better look. "Where did you get that?? You bought that??"
"Yes," my sis grins even more. She bangs on the jar even more.
"Stop! You're going to HURT it!" I protest.
At which, everyone...my sis and all the kiddies...break into hysterical laughter.

Greaaaaaaaat. I've been had.

"It's fake! Look!" My sis points out the wire inside the jar that the butterfly is attached to.

Yup. I admit it. I was fooled. It's a pretty cool trick!

~
More random points I feel like making:

- It is snowing.
- Back to work after a long weekend.
- My sweater is NOT done. Meh.
- I totally *heart* "Sense & Sensibility". I can never decide between S&S or Emma for my favorite Jane Austen! You'd think it'd be simple, but it's not! :P
- Hippos are so misunderstood. Just to be perfectly random. And elephants are NOT better than them. *nod*

My day

Just posted a rather snappish post...no worries, it's not directed at any of you, my friends. ;) More towards the people who are trying to drag me down in my life right now...even if they don't read it. :P There's somethin about writing it out that calms me down...it sure is better than freaking out in their faces! As tempting as that may seem at times...

Anywhos! Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and I's got the day off from work. Yayness. Now, let's see...it is currently 11:30, and what have I done so far today?

I:
- slept in
- showered & dressed for the day
- did devotions with the fam.
- made myself breakfast (1/2 tsp of sugar in the coffee today...I am determined to have NO sugar in my coffee by the end of this week...it gets easier each time. :D)
- cleaned my room
- did my own, personal devotions (still reading "Completely His" by Shannon Ethridge...MAN, is it GOOD!), which were puh-retty AMAZING. I'm fallin more and more in love with Him!
- journaled for a couple hours...so, there was a lot to get out, what can I say?? :P
- am now doing this blog post

And what shall I be doing for the rest of the day?

I shall:
- take my pic. of the day for Project 365 and hopefully post it on my photo blog: samanthalaurenphotography.blogspot.com
- FINISH MY SWEATER!! Only the sash and collar to finish knitting, then I can stitch the pieces together! w00t!
- write at least ONE letter.
- package up some books.
- practice piano.
- MAYBE get a jumpstart on my post for StS (sistertosister.wordpress.com) tomorrow.
- FINALLY reply to some e-mails. *sheepish*
- movie night w/ Ducky...Larkrise! Squee!
- And who knows WHAT else! :)

And just to be random...ten things that make me happy today:

#1. Texts from Ducky & HannahBeth that lifted my "spirits" and encouraged me!
#2. Journaling to my HEART'S content! Or at least, until my hand gave out. :P
#3. All three of Bethany Dillon's albums. Good stuff.
#4. AWESOME devotional time!
#5. Sunny skies. :)
#6. Fuzzy purple socks.
#7. Hugses from Juji!
#8. Knitting.
#9. Photos from last spring, reminding me that spring WILL COME!
#10. Feeling pretty darn content. Amazing feeling!

What are ten things that are making you happy today??

Revolutionaries

Many have traveled this road before
I see their tracks in the dirt
But maybe I don’t agree
With where they are leading
And who am I, just a youth
But why has that become the excuse
A monotone voice
In my head saying

They shake their heads
As they drive away in the bandwagon
Didn’t feel like hitching a ride
Oh, but I’ll be fine
Some nights it’s hard to be alone
I want some kind of kinship
But the finish line
It drives me on
When they say.

Dreaming all the time
It’s so foolish
Your flood of empty words
Will drown you in ruin
So we listen
Should we listen

Come with me
They’ll call us revolutionaries
Come with me
They’ll call us revolutionaries
Revolutionaries
Revolutionaries

Dreaming all the time
It’s not foolish
Your flood of life giving words
They will refresh, they will refresh

Dreaming all the time
It’s not foolish
Your flood of life giving words
They will refresh
Should we listen
Revolutionaries.
- Bethany Dillon

Maybe. Just MAYBE I don't want to join your bandwagon. I've got a streak of the revolutionary in me that refuses to blend in with the crowd. Your mockery, your teasing, your abuse...none of it is going to sway me from changing who I am, what I believe, or what I stand for. There is nothing wrong with the way I dress, the way I think, the way I live, the way I LOVE Him. I may be tired of all the poking fun at me...but ya know what? Bring it on. So what, I'm not an average girl? Nothing wrong in that. And if you're making fun of me, do you know what that means? It just means, you NOTICED. And ya know what? I've got someone very powerful who's got my back. Someone stronger than all of you put together, who will back me up on being different. So yeah, go ahead...bring on your worst.

Thought of the day!

Lately I've been reading "Completely His" by Shannon Ethridge...and so far, I've been lovin it! Something I read last week really stuck out to me...so much so that I copied it down in my journal. And I figured I could copy it down here as well, so as to share it with others!

"First, God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called...Second, our fears do not change God's plans, but understanding God's plans can change our fears...Third, accomplishing great things for God doesn't require great talent, only great faith in Him."

- "Completely His" by Shannon Ethridge

And I'm just reminded that...God never sends me anything too difficult to do! I may trick myself into thinking that things that come along in my life are too hard to do...too scary...too something! I can fool myself, but fooling myself doesn't make a thing true. He doesn't call the equipped...He equips the ones He calls!

Bestest fwiends.

Bestest fwiends.

What does that mean??

It means:

- Making homemade popcorn, and shrieking when the grease comes flying out of the pot.
- Making peppermint hot chocolate and discussing drugging one's sister with REAL vanilla flavoring.
- Watching "Roman Holiday" and saying "I'd so do that." when she loses her shoe.
- Stalking cute guys on Facebook.
- Stealing one another's phones and texting the other's friends.
- Pretending to be Pirates.
- Making wacky recordings to post on Facebook.
- Watching "The Importance of Being Earnest" at one o'clock in the morning.
- Lying across from each other in the dark and telling secrets.
- Giggling hysterically about nothing.
- Glaring at each other over a game of Dutch Blitz.
- Hitting each other with a blanket and a pillow or just our hands.
- Interrupting each other in conversations but not caring.
- Trying to out-talk each other.
- Encouraging each other to stay strong.
- Giving sympathetic awws.
- Promising to pray for each other.
- Listening.
- Lying in comfortable silence with no awkwardness.

<3 <3 <3 <3

Curiosities and Work

Reading Owl City dude's blog, his post on curiosities in the house...I had something similar, growing up...the back wall of the house has this "rain"? stain that, I swear, looked just like the head of an indian. Pretty interesting. I'd take a picture of it, but since my childhood, the stain has grown and no longer looks like an indian. Ah well.

So. Since we had the carpet laid down in the children's room, we set up the bookshelves a bit differently from the way we had it before, that way we could fit in two? three? whole extra shelves to expand. We were getting horribly cramped...especially in the "C's" and "S's" and "W's"...so we expanded. And that means that we had to rearrange a bit, moving the books down farther along. Now the "L's" are where the "G's" were, and the "M's" where the "J's" were...very confusing. There I am, blissfully deep in my own thoughts, arriving at work, ready to get down to business. I arm myself with a stack full of books and head over to the bookshelves...not even a quick thought pops into my head about how the bookshelves have changed...I've been shelving these books for the past 4 years...it's now more a thing of habit than anything else. I can quite easily shelve without any conscious thought about what I'm doing. Not so anymore! I shove a book onto a shelf and start to walk away, whereupon I suddenly stop in my tracks. Whoops. An "F" book does not belong on the "J" shelf. Drat.
No worries...I shall get used to it, I shall!

Genuine

A cup of peach tea and devotional time. *siiiiiiiiiiigh* :)

Again, after my daily reading (at the moment I'm in Joshua), I was flipping through the NT and stopped in Romans, because I LOVE Romans. :D And my eye caught the verse, "Let love be genuine..." Romans 12:9
I never really thought about making my love genuine...but if I really think about, I don't always love genuinely.
With God, my love is like off/on. On the good days, I love Him, but on the off days I'm inwardly screaming at Him and yes, even some days, I feel like shrieking, "I hate you." to be perfectly honest with myself. That sure isn't genuine love. So today it's my aim to love with a genuine love.



Oh, and on a side note...peach tea tastes like summer. <3

2011? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

"So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him." 2 Corinthians 5:6-9

Just thought I'd share that passage that really stuck out to me when I was going through Corinthians in my daily devotions...I've moved on now to other books, but I was flipping through the pages in my Bible, stopping now and then to read what I had underlined, and that was one of the passages. It just really stuck out to me again, because I really fail when it comes to making it my aim to please God. Sure, it's pretty darn easy to make it my aim to please ME and generally that's what I do! And at other times, I make it my aim to please other people...be the sort of person other people want me to be, and generally I fail at that. Because my impersonating the person other people want me to be is all a lie...it's not who I am. Thus a fail. And it's a fail that I should just move on from, because I don't want to be who the world wants me to be! Anywho, rambling here...
I want it to be my complete and number one aim to please HIM and HIM only.


On a completely different note...Happy New Year, peeps! Thanks to those and any of you who follow this blog! I had my one year anniversary last month. w00t!
And just how did this gal celebrate New Year's? Heh. Not going out for a drink, even in spite of my 21 years, I can assure you of that! :P I didn't even throw confetti or toot a horn or clang pots together or shoot off fireworks. Yeah, I'm so epicly boring. :P
Instead...on New Year's Eve, I did Bible Study with my bestest friend (which was amazing to say the least...I came away from it GREATLY encouraged. Our serious talks have a tendency to do that, and I love how we can share anything and everything with each other and just discuss it. You're the best, HannahBeth. :D) Afterward, we had a group chat with Ducky (yay!)...and I spent the rest of the evening...up til 12:30ish...chatting with Ducky and Ben. Yup, funness.

On New Year's, we had friends over for church, then after sunset my bro's and my friend, Joy, came over to spend the night. We sat around, watching an episode of "Sue Thomas: FBEye" with the kiddos, before they went to bed. Then we "big kids" watched "Despicable Me" with da parents. Then the parents went to bed, and my sis, Joy, and I stayed up late to watch "Step Up". Afterward, when Krista went to bed, Joy and I got into our "jammies", put up glow-in-the-dark stars, and proceeded to talk until we were too tired to talk anymore...which was about 4:15. ;)

So yeah, I had a great and fun New Year's! What did you do for New Year's?

-Other news "on the front"...the children's room is finally getting put back together. My job will be reorganizing everything today!
-I am doing Project 365 again this year. Done it once before...2 years ago. I skipped last year to take a break. But figured I'd try again this year. I don't have high hopes in my actually accomplishing it, since this is going to be a majorly busy year for me, but I'll do the best I can. Want to follow my attempt? My photography blog is: samanthalaurenphotography.blogspot.com