ruth ellen tubbs

28th Birthday - 80's Skate Party!

2010-02-26T19:39:00.001-08:00

Mall bangs!

Work it, Tiffany!

Mom being pregnant with me during the 80's!

"Do you want to go to the mall after this? We can pick up the new Flock of Seagulls album and maybe check out the new slap bracelets at Claire's."

Marlee in her lifejacket

2009-05-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

Mississippi

2009-05-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

Brett and I got back yesterday from vacationing in the big town of Sabougla, Mississippi. Brett's parents drove all the way from Summit County Colorado to come with us. Here's some pictures of our trip...

Marlee modeling her new lifejacket.

Any Pine Bluffians remember Hardin Farms? Does the "Pumpkin Patch" ring a bell? We stopped by on our way through Grady, Arkansas.

My father-in-law's family, Leroy and Mary Jo Tubbs.

Baby goose at the farm. He tee-teed on my hand.

Keeety!

This is Turk. Unfortunately, Turk likes the taste of little sweet kittens and baby geese and baby chickens.

Marlee meeting the baby kitten.

Playing with Marlee in the rain.

Chickens on the farm.

Four wheelin' Brett.

Four wheelin' Ruthie and Marlee.

Brett and buddies from high school - Alan, Dustin, Paul, and Brett.

Brett and Marlee in the woods of Mississippi.

Okay, I have way too many pictures to post on here. More to come soon!

First post of the year!

2009-03-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, I've been really bad about updating my blog this year. Sorry.
Here's pictures from our recent trip to Kansas City this past weekend to house-sit/dog-sit for The Norvells.

Christmas!

2008-12-20T19:40:00.000-08:00

These are a little late...

In Love

2008-10-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

New Bailout Plan

2008-09-30T08:20:00.001-07:00

This one would definately be passed by Congress:

Instead of the government spending $700 billion on a bailout plan, they should just give everyone over the age of eighteen $1 million. I can say the first thing I'd do would be to pay off my debt (which I'm sure a lot of people would do as well, which would solve a lot of the economy's bad debt issues), then buy some stuff and put that money back in the economy. With that many people spending that much money, surely it would stimulate the economy enough to bring us out of this.

Sounds good to me! The government should have my address on file to send my check to...

In a year's time

2008-09-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

It's weird to think that just about a year ago I was preparing to move to Colorado. I actually just looked back and on October 1st, I announced on my blog that I was moving to Colorado. Who would have thought I'd come back to Fayetteville with a husband?! I've heard my whole life that God will work in the weirdest ways when you're least expecting it and now I know firsthand that it's true.

Things I've learned in the past year:

1. God is so good!
2. God will provide for those who trust Him, even if it means some hard times.
3. The best way to forgive people who have wronged me is to pray for them.
4. Snow tires and snow boots are essential when you live at 9600 feet.
5. Amazingly there are only 4 things you need to know when driving in snow! (If you're from Texas you might want to take notes): don't slam on your breaks, don't turn quickly, don't drive too slow, and don't be afraid to downshift.
6. Patience, patience, patience.
7. No matter how much snow is on the ground or how tall your boots are, you'll always get snow in your boots.
8. You really appreciate hot baths when you don't get them very often.
9. Good roommates are few and far between.
10. The Rockies taught me that God is a great artist!

God had really brought me and Brett a long way since October of last year. And I have lots of new things to be thankful for, such as my loving husband and wonderful in-laws. It's exciting to see where he'll take us in life one year from now! You never know what can happen in a year...

Forever and a day later

2008-08-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

Changes that have taken place over the past month:

1. Moved from Frisco, Colorado to Fayetteville, Arkansas.
2. Attempted to find jobs. Was somewhat unsuccessful...
3. Got married (yay!).
4. Saw lots of family we hadn't seen in awhile.

I promise I will blog sooner or later....

More tattoos!

2008-06-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

Brett got another tattoo done last Saturday. I like it a lot!

Brett's hand is all swollen in this picture...

BBQ Challenge

2008-06-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday Brett and I rode our bikes down to Main Street Frisco for Frisco's annual "BBQ Challenge". There were around 60 different BBQ places from all over Colorado and some from Kansas City, Missouri, Texas, etc. Me and Brett ate ourselves silly and enjoyed some warm Rocky Mountain weather.

This last picture is at the pig races they had at the BBQ. The people who put it on are from Fayetteville and travel around and do this I guess for a living. Seeing those pigs running around the track chasing an Oreo was really the funniest thing I'd seen in a while! Sorry I didn't get a picture of the pigs running around the track - I was too busy cracking up. In case you're curious about these pig racing peoples here's their website: www.hamboneexpress3.com

More scenes...

2008-05-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pics from mine and Brett's bike ride around Lake Dillon today. It was around 65 degrees today - perfect! We rode through the woods and across some dried-up areas of the lake to a small island that Brett refers to as "Brett Island". We stayed out on the island for a little while and enjoyed the serenity and sun.

For anyone who might be interested, this is the spot where Brett proposed to me!

And this is the stump that I was standing next to when he proposed. Except there was 3 feet of snow on the ground...

This is Peak 1 of the 10 Mile Range. This mountain range continues south to Breckenridge (which consists of Peaks 7-10). This is what you see about 15 feet from where Brett proposed. How can you see that and not believe in God?!

More of the 10 Mile Range.

Scenes from Summit County

2008-05-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

Here's some pictures I took a few weeks ago around Summit County, Colorado. Thought you'd enjoy seeing a little of what I see every day!

(That's the ski slopes in Breckenridge in the background.)

This is Lake Dillon. During the winter when the lake is frozen over, people go out on this part of the lake and kiteboard. Kiteboarding is basically like flying a kite except the kite is much bigger (like a parachute), and you are on a snowboard, so when the wind picks up you "snowboard" around the lake. It looks pretty fun...

In the neighborhood at the bottom of the hill is where I lived up until a month ago. Keystone and A-Basin are just beyond that mountain straight ahead.

Stuff White People Like

2008-04-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

I found a great website today and thought I'd let you all know about it so you can check it out for yourself. I guarantee it will provide hours of entertainment, especially if you're white and have a good sense of humor.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com

For more fun, or if you're an educated black person or asian, check out these:

"Stuff Educated Black People Like"
http://stuffeducatedblackpeoplelike.wordpress.com

"Stuff Asian People Like"
www.thinkunique.net/stuffasianpeoplelike

Fix You

2008-04-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

This song is so good it gives me chills.

How well do I know Brett?

2008-04-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

(These are those random little surveys you get on Myspace, but I thought I'd make it into a blog post.)

His Birthday:
5/3/81

How long have you been together?
4 1/2 months

How long did you know each other before you got together?
2 months

What physical features attracted you to him first?
his eyes and his crazy hair

Hair color:
at the moment, dark brown

Hair style:
Fauxhawk, complete with a little rattail - it's kind of a "punkish" rattail though, not a weird 80's braided rattail. That wouldn't fly with me. :-)

How did you meet?
I moved to Colorado to help his parents with their resort ministry - they introduced me to him. To get all specific, I met him at Fiesta Jalisco in Silverthorne, CO. He was there eating mexican food.

RELATIONSHIP STUFF

How serious is it?
we're planning a wedding

Are you in love?
very much so

Do your parents like him?
yes

Do you trust him?
yes

Does he let you wear his pants?
I don't wear his pants.

Do you have a shirt of his that you sleep with?
Sometimes I wear his Obey shirts to bed. They're really soft.

Do you like the way he smells?
Yes!! That's my favorite.

Can you picture having kids with him?
Of course! I can't wait to make him a daddy.

What bothers you the most about him?
nothing really bothers me

Are you happy to be with him?
of course

Does he embarrass you in public:
not yet

SOME OTHER STUFF

Does he have any piercings?
2 piercings and 2 plugs in his ears, and a lebrae in his bottom lip

Does he have any scars that you know of?
a big scar that runs along his back from heart surgery when he was a kid

Is he a party dude or stay at home kind of guy?
a little of both, but moreso a party dude

Is he Outgoing or Shy?
Very outgoing. He can strike up a conversation with anybody.

Does he love his mama?
yes

Would he hang out with you and your friends?
yes

Does he sing?
yes! He's got a great voice.

Does he snore?
Only when he's really tired.

Do you like his friends?
yes

Like, oh my gosh...

2008-04-03T12:24:00.000-07:00

Like, did you hear about the New Kids on the Block reunion? OMG!! I'm totally going - my parents better let me go! If they don't I'm totally running away...

Ha! So this is the news that's got me all excited today. Not that I'm gonna go out and buy tickets to their show, but it's getting me all cracked up at myself thinking about my New Kids days...

Like the time I went to their concert at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, completely decked out in my oversized New Kids shirt, tight-rolled jeans, and "Joey" hat complete with huge button with their picture on it. Our family can argue to this day about whether I actually "went" to the concert, since as soon as the lights dimmed and all 40,000 teenage girls started screaming at the top of their lungs, I was toast. Heck no, I wasn't going in there with all the noise and screaming and hormones! I wasn't ready for that yet.

I remember writing "I love New Kids on the Block" on EVERYTHING, even on the bottom of my little pink plastic jet ski that my Barbies used to take out on the bathwater.. uh, I mean lake. Their faces were plastered all over my walls (thank you Teen Beat magazine) and I had every dance move memorized (which is forever captured on a certain home movie that shall remain securely hidden). To prepare for that little video me and my cousin Vicki practiced the dance moves to "My Favorite Girl" in my bedroom every morning before school. Yes, we were hard core, we didn't play around.

I can officially say now that New Kids on the Block was the soundtrack to my childhood. Watching that video brought back a flood of memories all relating to that wonderful and awkward time growing up. Ah, good times...

Auto show

2008-04-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Brett and I went with our friends and my roommates Josh & Jacki to the Denver Auto Show. Although I'm not a huge car fanatic, Brett and Josh are so they got tons of pictures of all the cars there. I will admit there were some pretty sweet cars, including Aston Martins and Lamborghinis, of which I'd never seen in person before.

Outside the convention center in Denver.

Us two in front of Brett's dream truck (put on some big tires and a lift and it's a good day for Brett).

This is a gigantic truck. I feel sorry for any girl who would have to get in that truck with a dress on...

I'll be like Charlize Theron in "The Italian Job" cruising around in my rad Mini Cooper.

Can anybody guess what movie this car is from?

Sunny skies and prairie dogs

2008-03-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday me and Brett went to Denver again (we really do a lot of traveling to Denver... I'm surprised I'm not tired of it yet). We got all dolled up in our Sunday best to attend easter services at a big church in south Denver. As soon as we rolled into Denver we headed straight for Krispy Kreme to make sure we got our sugar high for the day. The church was pretty sweet in the fact that it was one of those places where all the ladies wear hats on Easter and cheer on the pastor to "Speak the Truth!" and "Praise God, hallelujah!". But it was not sweet in the fact that it was a little overly ambitious in making sure they asked for our money for their new top-of-the-line sound system and to replace their 7-year-old perfectly nice carpet. I guess I don't really agree with their reasoning for needing more money, but I'm not going to talk any more about that. Anywho, it was really fun to participate in some seriously "worshipful worshipping" and I met some pretty great people. And they played this video. I don't know if you've ever seen it before, but it always reminds me of how amazing my King is!

I must say the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS this weekend - in the 60s and sunny! It sure made me miss the south, but even moreso it made me excited about summer in Colorado.

On another note, I thought it was interesting that their are prairie dogs in the middle of the city in Denver. Just chillin on the side of the road, looking for food I guess. Once Brett pointed them out to me, I noticed they were everywhere, and they had dug holes all over the place, and a few were sticking their heads out of the holes as we drove by. I was pretty impressed since I'd never seen a prairie dog outside of the zoo.

Ha! That's a really big prairie dog.

Music head

2008-03-22T09:57:00.001-07:00

This is gonna be mine and Brett's kid. A music lover from the very beginning.

Say it to Me Now

2008-03-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

Today I was taking a reservation for a lady living in Kansas City. We were discussing room rates, whether or not she could bring her dog, what nights she wanted to stay, etc. when in the background I suddenly heard this song playing. I was immediately put in a good mood by hearing that song. I imagined that family going about their morning - seeing as it was around 9:30am I figured they slept in a little and had just finished breakfast. Over breakfast they talked about wanting to get out and enjoy the fresh snow we got up here, and decided to head into the mountains for the weekend for a little skiing. Maybe they wanted to put on some good music to start their day off good, so they popped in the "Once" CD. Just as they were calling me "Say it to Me Now" came on, which in turn put me in a good mood too. And now I'm sharing it with all of you, hoping it will put you in a good mood too. Good music tends to do that.

This song makes me happy too. Out of all the people who covered this Leonard Cohen song, Brett does it the best.

Church

2008-03-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday me and Brett drove down to Denver to attend his old church. From the moment I walked into the door of the church I could tell it was a healthy church - the people I met were very personable and sincere and seemed to take a real interest in me and Brett. The worship was great, the sermon was great, and both really spoke to my heart. For the first time in months I felt that famililar surge of emotion I would experience so often (say, every Sunday) at my church back home in Arkansas. After leaving a larger really awesome church that I considered my "family", it was really hard to move up here and attend a much smaller church and get to know people. Don't get me wrong, I love the church here and it has played a big part in making me feel more at home here, but it was nice to have a change of pace. More than anything I am grateful for God using yesterday to fill up my soul and encourage me.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rain fall soft upon your fields,
And, until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand."

New look

2008-03-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm not in a very "writing" mood today. If you've been keeping up with my blog you'd notice I'm usually not in a "writing" mood. It's kind of hard to write anything interesting when I'm at work and there's 40 other people holding conversations around me and the phone interrupts me every 30 seconds. Oh, my phone's ringing... hold on...

So that's the reason I usually post pictures and why I don't write very often. So today when I realized I needed to keep myself busy at work so I wouldn't fall asleep I decided to give my profile a makeover.

What do you think?

Good times in Fayetteville

2008-03-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Me and Brett just spent some times in Fayetteville visiting friends and family. Here's two pictures of us that I really liked. The first one was us eating burgers at mom's house, and the second one is us dressed up to see Yo-Yo Ma at the Walton Arts Center.

Happy Birthday!

2008-02-26T17:52:00.000-08:00

Brett's mom made me a Hershey's chocolate cake for my 26th birthday on Sunday. It had 6 Hershey bars and a whole can of Hershey's chocolate in it. Mmmmm!!!

Abby was being really sweet and was cuddling in my arms. She's the perfect size for cuddling.

Here's what God gave me for my birthday: 15 inches of snow in 2 days. I don't know how happy I am about it but I can say I am extremely thankful I drove Brett's truck to work the next morning since I don't think I could have gotten my car out of it's parking spot. Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive! Brett took this picture on Sunday evening (see my car in the top left corner? I barely even got in in that parking spot because of all the snow already piled up.)

I'm headed home to Fayetteville tomorrow morning with Brett. I can't wait to see my family and all my croonies. Me and Brett will be heading down to Mississippi as well to visit his family. The warm weather will be nice for a change!

Good times in Colorado

2008-02-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

Okay so I'm finally posting about mine and Brett's trip to Denver last weekend.
Since I've been living in Summit County, I've really begun to appreciate all the things there are to do in big cities (yes, I now consider Fayetteville a big city after living here). Just to give you a perspective here, here's a list of the fun things to do in Summit County after 10pm on Friday or Saturday night):

1. Go through Wendy's drive thru. Spend twice as much on your grilled chicken sandwich combo than you would at any other Wendy's in the country.
2. Go to the grocery store. Spend $40 for a frozen pizza and a 2 liter of Pepsi.
3. Go to a movie. Expect to get irritated when a group of drunk tourists make annoying comments out loud about the movie.
4. Go to the bar and spend $40 for 2 shots and a Corona. Expect the bar to be filled with tourists and drunk snowboarders looking to get your phone number.

And that's about it. Needless to say me and Brett were really wanting to get out of the county for the weekend so we headed out early Friday afternoon to Denver for a weekend away from snow and boredom.

Brett had rented a storage room in Denver to keep all his things in, so he loaded his truck with stuff and as soon as we arrived in Denver we stopped at the storage room and dropped off his things. Both of us were starving, so we drove to Chick-fil-A and scarfed down some chicken sandwiches and waffle fries. So, you really need to understand now how much me and Brett love Chick-fil-A. In Summit County, whenever we want fast food we have about 3 choices: McDonald's, Wendy's, and Taco Bell. However, you will pay 2x as much at these places than you would anywhere else. Even when the Wendy's commercial says you can get a Jr. Cheeseburger for 99 cents, it will still cost $1.50 up here. Also, Chick-fil-A just happens to have the best chicken sandwiches and fries in the world, so any chance we get to eat that goodness we're all about it.

So after gorging ourselves we drove to Brett's tanning place and I scored a few rays in this crazy looking tanning bed. I felt like I was in a spaceship. After that me and Brett met up with our friends Tina and John. Tina and John are getting married in April and Brett met them while he was living in Denver a while back. Tina was awesome enough to offer her parent's house for me and Brett to stay at for the weekend, since her parents were out of town. We got showered and changed and drove to downtown Denver to grab some food. After parking and walking about 10 blocks, we finally arrived at the Spaghetti Factory for some grub. We had a great time talking and hanging out, trying to pass the time until it was late enough for us to head over to the clubs.

A few hours later we finally made it over to our first stop of the night, which was a club called The Church, which (surprisingly) happened to be in an old catholic-style looking church. Brett used to go all the time when he lived in Denver, and he really wanted to take me, and we both really love to dance, so I knew we'd have a great time. The club consisted of 3 different rooms with different music styles- the main one being techno-style with these rad female DJ's, a hip-hop room, and an "industrial" room (think David Bowie "I'm Afraid of Americans" style music). We stayed in the main room most of the time and danced for a while, watched some guys battle it out with some breakdancing, and even watched a ballerina-style dancer do some sweet moves while hanging from the ceiling (see picture, I really can't explain it).

We left briefly to go to another club, which turned out to be lame, but did have a sweet lounge area on the roof that provided a great view of downtown. After a few hours of dancing and hanging out we finally headed back to Tina's around 2am. Check out the awesome stained-glass windows from inside the club. Definately the coolest looking club I'd ever been to...

Here's the lame club that had the lounge area on the roof with the great views.

The next morning me and Brett headed to Krispy Kreme for some more yummy goodness that we don't get in Summit County. We then met up with John and Tina and ate at this really good Asian food place- I had sushi and curry, two of my favorite foods ever. The rest of the day was spent shopping and driving around Denver. That evening we went to a friend's house who was celebrating her 21st birthday and had some dinner and then went back to Tina's and watched "Transformers".

The next morning me and Brett went to Krispy Kreme (again). You see, me and Brett love Krispy Kreme if you haven't guessed by now. We even made sure to find out when they serve the "hot and fresh" donuts so we could have them melt in our mouth. After donut goodness we went to Brett's church that he attended while he lived in Denver. He introduced me to a few of his friends there, then we headed back into the mountains to get back to normal daily life in Summit County.

If you're reading this and you live in a normal city, this might seem like an ordinary weekend. But when you live in a ski resort town and the only thing anyone does for fun is drink and ski, and when you really don't care too much about either one of those, getting out of town and experiencing something new is completely rejuvenating. I wish we could do it every weekend. So all in all we had an awesome time and I'd say it was one of the funnest weekends I'd had in a while.

Pictures

2008-02-22T09:02:00.001-08:00

So Brett has this picture program on his Mac that distorts the picture and makes for a really good laugh. Here's the results from one of our recent photo sessions.

I love the one where Jack's face is all huge and weird. Ha! Lots of fun.
I promise to make a Denver post soon. I still haven't gotten the pictures off of Brett's camera... Sorry all you 3 readers who are eagerly anticipating that post. Now there's too much pressure! I'm building it up too much! Ahhh!!

Once

2008-02-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

I finally watched the movie "Once" after reading Jana's blog post about it, and fell in love with the music in it. After listening to this on You Tube all morning I've convinced myself to learn this song on the guitar.

Hopefully I'll be blogging and posting pictures within the next day or two about the past weekend I spent in Denver. It was the funnest weekend I'd had in a while so it definately deserves a blog post. Stay tuned...

25 things in 2007 (cont'd)

2008-02-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

21. Moved back in with my parents for the first time in 6 years. Got my old room back for a few weeks and enjoyed having the occasional meal cooked for me.

22. Started painting again for the first time in years.

23. Canoed and kayaked on the Spring River with Robert, Jana and Reko. Got to see Reko canoe by himself.

24. Spent Christmas away from my family for the first time in my life. Spent the day with Brett and his family after working all day. Was reminded of the luxury of having Christmas day off of work.

25. Joined a bowling league. Became a pro bowler and was featured on ESPN.

25 things in 2007

2008-02-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

The following are 25 things (since I turned 25 years old in 2007) that were significant and memorable to me in 2007. I like this little list, it brings back good memories.

1. Worked in a psychiatric hospital. Put my life in danger a few times and learned a lot about crazy people. Gained a newfound respect for therapists.

2. Enjoyed the long-awaited opening of the first Cold Stone Creamery in NW Arkansas.

3. Witnessed a stealth bomber fly over Fayetteville. Had never seen one in person before.
http://ruthieraymick.blogspot.com/2007/09/razorbus.html

4. Witnessed the birth of my best friend's daughter Lillian Ruth.

5. Traveled to Honduras. Met lots of great people. Decided to learn Spanish.

6. Used an outhouse. Multiple times.

7. Hiked through the mountains of Honduras. Decided to get in shape.

8. Shared a birthday with Ladybuggers. Partied hard with our Spongebob party hats.

9. Saw my childhood best friend get married.

10. Moved to another state for the first time in my life.

11. Retired "Lucy" the Honda and bought "Lucy Speedwagon" the Toyota. Was thankful for not having to be on a first-name basis with the Honda mechanic anymore.

12. Skied on Thanksgiving day with Keith, Payton and Mackenzie. Remembered how much fun it is to ski.

13. Acquired a nephew.

14. Took a trip to Kansas City with Jessica and Ladybug. Shopped, ate good food, and had an awesome time.

15. Played djembe with the worship band at church.

16. Saw Rob Bell with Alli in Denver. Had Jamba Juice for the first time.

17. Saw Joel Osteen with Brett in Denver. Crushed on Brett the whole time.

18. Fell in love. Thanked God for good timing and patience.

19. Attended a biker rally.

20. Ran out of time making my "25 things in 2007" blog post. Decided to finish it tomorrow.

Randomness

2008-02-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

I don't really have much to blog about today, but I did take some pictures this weekend so I'll share them with you all.

This is a picture from this past Saturday's Keystone gig. Me and Brett were playing together and I decided to sit out a few songs so I could take some pictures of him playing. We had a decent turnout, I'd say around 30 people or so coming and going.

Brett is a really talented musician in every way. He's really good at improv when he plays - it amazes me how he'll just start strumming away and will come up with lyrics out of nowhere. And I love hearing him play his own songs, especially "Lay Me Down". I can't wait till he can get a band together and finish his CD, but until then we're just waiting on God to put that all together. Sooner or later I'll take a video of us playing so you all can check it out.
Here's a picture of the Mountain House where we have the service. These are some of the people who stopped by that night.

This is Jack (he would be the pit bull) and Brett (he would be the handsome man hovering over him :-) Jack was named after Cap. Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. I guess he's sort of my roommate. Jack likes eating various non-edible objects (such as toilet paper and the occasional pair of underwear), chasing the red laser dot from laser pens, chewing on his rawhide, playing with his sqeaky toy, and barging into my room at various inopportune times (like when I'm sleeping or changing clothes).

This is Jack posing for his picture. He liked having his picture taken.

2008-01-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

Isn't this a great picture? That's one way to move furniture. This picture was on my friends' Joseph & Lindsey's blog. They are currently living in Indonesia and took this picture recently.
That's amazing that that person can keep the bike balanced with that thing on it! That reminds me of once in college when I was riding my bike from campus back to my dorm room. I was taking an art class at the time and had to buy a bunch of art supplies which including this big drawing board. After I bought all my art supplies I remembered I had ridden my bike to campus that day. I couldn't decide whether to leave my bike on campus and take the bus, walk my bike back to the dorm while I carried all my bulky art supplies, or ride my bike and attempt to carry it all. This last option would require me to use one arm to hold onto the handlebars and use the other to hold the drawing board and keep it from banging into the wheel of the bike and making me crash. For some reason, the last option seemed the most logical to me, so I got on my bike and started riding back to the dorm. I was doing okay until the wind hit the board and knocked it into the wheel (just as I had hoped it wouldn't do), causing my front wheel to suddenly swing to one side which in turn made me almost fall off my bike. And of course class had just let out so there were people everywhere. I felt like such a dork. But now I think back on it and it cracks me up.

Love

2008-01-30T07:28:00.000-08:00

I found this picture on Flickr.com today. I typed in "Bible" in the search field and this picture popped up. The guy who took the picture had used his own wedding band as the ring in the Bible. I don't know why it captured my attention so much. Maybe because it reminded me that God and love are so connected, if not the same thing. It says in the Bible that God IS love. So when I love, I'm worshipping and glorifying God. And when I include God in my current relationship with Brett and in our future marriage, I believe God will strengthen our love for each other and our marriage.
It's interesting because Brett and I were talking last night about spending more time with God and putting Him first and each other second. I had the thought that when we love each other we are worshipping Him and when we thank God for each other we are giving Him all the glory and in turn also worshipping Him. So just by loving others around us we can draw closer to God.
So those are my thoughts for today. Sorry if they don't make sense or are jumbled, since I am really sleepy this morning and my coffee hasn't kicked in yet. But it makes sense in my head. :-)

Photo by DerrickB on flickr.com. Check out his pictures, they're really good.

Get Lifted

2008-01-29T11:09:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Brett I've recently started listening to John Legend. If you've never listened to him before, I highly recommend you stop whatever you're doing right now (but after you finish reading my blog post :-), drive to the nearest Best Buy, find one of his CDs, whip out your Best Buy Rewards card and purchase the CD. Don't delay!
Seriously, his music is phenomenal. It's very soulful, with just the right infusion of hip-hop and soul, but the piano is what makes it stand out from other artists of the same genre. And he's got a great voice.
Alright, so you can turn off your computer now and head over to Best Buy. While you're at it you might as well pick up these 2 CDs that I've been listening to lately that rock:

-Weezer "Pinkerton"
-Randall Shreve "The Cure for Yesterday"

Four

2008-01-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

Four jobs I've had:
1. Bookkeeper for an accountant
2. Babysitter for 7 kids
3. Reservations agent
4. Assistant to a glass artist

Four places I lived:
1. Fayetteville, AR
2. Pine Bluff, AR
3. Dillon, CO
4. Dillon, CO again (2 places in three months should count)

Four places I'd like to live:
1. London
2. Kansas City
3. Denver
4. The Bahamas (or somewhere else warm and beach-y)

Four movies I've watched over and over:
1. Tommy Boy
2. When Harry Met Sally
3. Office Space
4. Napoleon Dynamite

Four shows I watch:
1. Arrested Development
2. The Office
3. ?
4. ? (that's about it, just those 2)

Four places I've been:
1. Edinburgh, Scotland
2. Cardiff, Wales (not a very fun place)
3. New York, New York
4. Yamaranguila, Honduras

Four people who e-mail me regularly
1. Mom
2. Dad
3. Joel Osteen ministries (those daily automatic devotionals)
4. Keith

Four favorite things to eat:
1. Cereal
2. Chocolate
3. Cheese dip
4. Krispy Kreme doughnuts

Four places I'd rather be:
1. On the beach (only if it's warm and sunny though)
2. In bed
3. Somewhere warm
4. Anywhere with Brett

Four things I'd do with 1 million dollars:
1. Pay off debt
2. Send all my parents on vacations
3. Buy my sister and brother-in-law a house
4. Donate a big chunk of it

Four things I look forward to this new year:
1. Mine and Brett's trip to Arkansas & Mississippi
2. Jessica's wedding
3. Tessa's wedding
4. My wedding

Yikes!

2008-01-16T09:42:00.000-08:00

The high is -1 today in Keystone. Man, I love it when my boogers freeze on the walk to work! So on the way to work this morning I took a look at the fresh corduroy out on Keystone mountain and decided I didn't really need to work today. So I called in and said I needed to take a "personal" day, grabbed some equipment and hit the back bowls. Here's me tearing it up.

Actually.... that's not me. And I didn't really skip work, and I sure didn't tear up any slopes. But I have been jonesing to get some skiing in lately. I need to take advantage of skiing for free for the whole season at 5 different resorts, when lift tickets cost up to $90 a day! I don't want to look back on this time in my life and wish I'd skied for free while I had the chance. So hopefully when I quit working so dang much I'll be able to enjoy some skiing before I leave Summit County. And maybe by the end of the season I really will be tearing up the slopes.

The Purpose of Prayer

2008-01-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

Lately I've felt convicted to jumpstart my prayer life. As I was perusing over some friends' blogs today I came across this blog post that encouraged me. Hopefully you'll find it encouraging as well.

God already knows what we want and need - the latter, probably far better than we ever will.
He knows Who He is, and how powerful, and how magnificent, generous, kind, just, worthy of praise …. He is not Tinkerbell that He needs our applause to bring Him back from some deathly torpor - for He does not slumber nor sleep. So what is the purpose of prayer?

My best guess is that its purpose is to help us realize how much we owe Him, how much we need Him, how much He loves us and wants to hear our voices and hearts, and see our downcast or upturned faces - however stained with tears or illuminated with joy - yearning to see Him and hear Him and know His comfort.

Prayer is a gift, you see, that transcends any answer He might give to any request we might pose or any praise we might offer or any thanksgiving we might express. It is our connection with God through His Son, through His very Spirit; our chance to touch God the Father, Creator and King - and for Him to touch us. A few moments in His lap each day. Or an entire waking lifetime in recognition of His presence. It’s His gift to us. It’s our gift to Him.

50 things about me...

2008-01-09T07:24:00.000-08:00

1. I grew up in what I like to call the armpit of Arkansas - more commomly known as Pine Bluff.
2. I have 5 brothers and sisters.
3. I recently moved out of state for the first time in my life.
4. God is teaching me patience at this stage of my life.
5. I graduated from the University of Arkansas in summer 2005.
6. I hate the University of Arkansas.
7. I received a B.A. in Psychology.
8. I love psychology.
9. I have actually used my degree in a job - I worked at a psychiatric hospital.
10. I loved working at a psychiatric hospital.
11. Celebrity gossip is a guilty pleasure of mine.
12. I live in the Rocky Mountains but dislike cold weather.
13. I have this dream of selling my car and moving to London.
14. I would love to own my own business. Perhaps a coffee shop.
15. My coffee of choice is a decaf americano with a shot of peppermint (and room for cream).
16. My coffee of choice is the same as my mom's.
17. I have owned only 2 cars in my lifetime.
18. My first car was an '89 Honda Accord named Lucy.
19. My current car is an '07 Toyota Corrolla named Lucy Speedwagon.
20. My future car will be a black VW Passat with tinted windows and heated leather seats.
21. My future husband's name is Brett Allen Tubbs.
22. My future husband's future car will be a black VW Jetta with a diesel engine and leather seats. Or a black BMW.
23. I like black cars.
24. I hope to live near the beach at some point in my life.
25. I want to speak Spanish fluently.
26. I really want to get a dog.
27. I love to sit and watch TV and be lazy every now and then.
28. Jack Nicholson is one of my favorite actors.
29. I majored in Landscape Architecture for one semester in college.
30. That one semester was the funnest of my college career.
31. I considered going pre-med for a while to be an ER physician.
32. I wanted to be an emergency physician so I could do crisis work in disaster areas.
33. The sight of blood makes me queasy.
34. I skipped church on Sunday to sleep in.
35. I was baptized when I was 14 along with my best friend Tiffany.
36. When I worked at Panera Bread I used to go in the deep freeze and secretly eat the sandwiches from orders we messed up.
37. Whenever I made salads at Panera, I would disregard what dressing went on each salad and put whatever I felt like on them.
38. I would hide from customers when I worked at Bed, Bath & Beyond.
39. My first job was a hostess at a posh retirement home.
40. At the retirement home job I once dropped a huge thing of pies reserved for Mother's Day lunch. 10 minutes before I was supposed to serve them. I got in trouble.
41. I am somewhat afraid of the dark.
42. I love playing board games. And chess.
43. I once cursed in front of some of the youth group kids at church (accidently).
44. I want to visit all 7 continents before I die. 2 down, 5 to go.
45. In 2nd grade I had 8 boyfriends at one time. So I thought.
46. I love playing Sim City on the computer. Once I start I can't stop.
47. My favorite concert was The Rolling Stones.
48. I once had artwork displayed and then published in a calendar.
49. I hate flying.
50. I consider myself a Star Wars geek.

A Day in the Life

2008-01-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

7:20am - Alarm goes off. Hit snooze, roll over and go back to sleep.

7:29am - Alarm goes off again. Plan out in my head what to wear to work so I can sleep longer.

8:00am - Decide to get out of bed. Realize I need to leave for work in 2 minutes to make it there on time.

8:15am - Leave out the door for work after grabbing 2 chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. Marvel at the temperature outside - a balmy 30 degrees!

8:25am - Trudge into work and after looking at the clock fight off bout of confusion at how I made it to work in 10 minutes.

12:01pm - Text Brett for the 4th time today.

12:30pm - Start counting down the minutes till I'm off work. 4 more hours and counting...

12:32pm - Look at clock, wondering if I'm any closer to getting off work. Only 2 minutes closer...

12:33pm - Look at clock again. Sigh.

1:38pm - Check myspace and facebook for the 16th time today. Consider getting a dog.

2:16pm - Text Brett asking him to come kidnap me from work.

2:17pm - Get no response back from Brett. Wonder if he's asleep or if his truck slid off the road into Lake Dillon.

2:18pm - Decide maybe Brett's phone died.

4:01pm - Consider asking to leave work early. Get urgent voicemail from Jessica asking me to call her. Fret about what it's all about.

4:30pm - Finally get text from Brett. Rejoice that I'm off work and my boyfriend isn't in peril. :-)

Merry Christmas from Colorado!

2007-12-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

Even though this was my first Christmas away from my family, I had a great Christmas here in the mountains. I worked all day, but was fortunate enough to have an awesome lunch, complete with turkey and dressing, provided free by Keystone. After work I went home and watched some of "Home Alone" (such a good Christmas movie), made dinner, and went to bed around 9:00 (haven't done that in a long time...). It sounds like my family had a good Christmas back in Fayetteville too. Here are some pictures from their Christmas. Sorry, I don't have any pictures from mine... :-)

Meet Brett...

2007-12-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. I'd like you to meet Brett. He's the most amazing man in the world, and he also happens to be my boyfriend. Lucky me!

Let it snow

2007-12-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

I have officially have been initiated into Summit County. The past few days it snowed around 2 feet, which is more snow I have seen at one time in my life. My car got stuck twice in the snow but Summit County folks are pretty good about helping out so it was no problem. It is different here when it snows than when it snowed in Fayetteville. Only here would it snow 2 feet and life would go on as usual. If it snowed even 3 inches in Fayetteville, the whole town would shut down and cars would be stuck on the side of the road all over the place.

It was nice to wake up on Saturday and look outside to see all this, but only because I didn't have to work and get out in all the snowy craziness and instead I could stay in my PJs and watch movies all day.

By the way, in the picture above, that mound of snow with the metal peeking out from under it to the right of the trampoline - that's a car. That's what my car looked like right before I shoveled 2 feet of snow off it.

Buh bye!

2007-11-29T14:49:00.000-08:00

Farewell Houston Nutt.

Music and football

2007-11-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

Work is kinda slow today.
It's a good thing I was anticipating that, because I brought my headphones to work today to see if I could pick up the Razorback-LSU game on the internet. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the game anywhere on the net, but I did realize I could stream the new Benjamin Del Shreve album on myspace. This album is phenomenal, by the way. One of the few albums out there where every single song is good...
Hogs are winning at half time 7-6. If they actually win this game I might just pee in my pants out of excitement. I'll betcha Bubba Hog will go nuts if they win, too. Bless his redneck heart, he cracks me up...

The problem with jeans...

2007-11-19T20:27:00.000-08:00

Can I just say that I absolutely hate shopping for jeans? Because I really do. Here's how this usually plays out when I get a wild hair and decide to get a new pair of jeans:

1. I go into the first store I see that might possibly have decent jeans.
2. I locate a pair. Then I realize they don't have my size.
3. I move on to the next style.
4. I find my size, but realize they don't have my size in longs.
5. I move on to the next style, finally locating a pair that is my size and in long.
6. I look at the price tag.
7. I calculate how long it will take me to pay off that pair of jeans.
8. After pulling out my cell phone calculator, I figure out I'll be paying off that pair of jeans for the next 3 years.
9. 1 hour and 3 salespeople later I locate a different pair of jeans in my size and that will only take me 1 year to pay off.
10. I try them on, only to figure out that I have apparently grown 5 inches in the past 2 months because "longs" are not long enough, or they don't pass the "say no to crack" test, or some other issue that has kept me from purchasing jeans for the past 3 years.
11. I move on to the next store.
12. Repeat steps 1-11 forteen times. 8 hours later I emerge from the mall disheveled and ticked. Empty handed, of course.
13. (Optional, but usually included 99% of the time) -Drive to nearest ice cream store to make myself feel better. Purchase largest size available.

Can anyone else relate to this? I came across this dilemma most recently yesterday on a trip to Denver. I was desperately in need of some jeans after ripping a hole in my favorite pair. The only solution I've come up with for this problem is to just splurge for that perfect pair. This is hard for me, being the frugul person that I am. At least I can look on the bright side and be glad I'm not having to shop for dress pants for work, right? I'm trying to make myself feel better here.
So I've decided to give it another shot and try again tomorrow. Hopefully I'll break my jeans curse and find that perfect pair. Wish me luck...

The Gods aren't Angry

2007-11-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

"This God is not angry because this God is love."

I traveled with Alli to downtown Denver last Wednesday night to hear Rob Bell speak at the Paramount Theater. This was my first time to ever really see Denver (other than what you see from driving on I-70), and my second time to hear Rob Bell. What I really like about Rob Bell is how he presents his message to this generation - it's spoken in a way that, in a society filled with distractions, captures our attention and presents it in a way that we can understand and apply to the here and now. I also like how he educates himself about the history of the world and ties it in to stories in the Bible. Afterwards me and Alli walked down 16th street in downtown Denver and ate at the Rock Bottom Brewery, then headed back into the mountains. Anyway, it was a really good night.

This Saturday my mom, Keith, Payton and Mackenzie are coming into town for Thanksgiving. I'm so excited to see some familiar faces, especially when they're family. I might even just pack a bag and stay with them for the week, kinda like a mini-vacation, even though I'll just be in the next town over. I've been missing Fayetteville a lot lately. Missing my friends, my family, the trees turning beautiful colors, wearing sandals until December, ice cream outings with Jessica (instead of working out), Wal-Mart supercenter (I NEVER thought I'd say I actually miss Wal-Mart...), The Flying Burrito, La Hacienda's cheese dip, riding my bike around campus, Benjamin Del Shreve shows, my old apartment. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving Colorado and the people here. I just wish I could move my family and friends here. So far I have failed at my attempts to move friends here - Jessica declined because there's no beach here, and Kirt almost gave in until New York City called.

We're getting ready to start the Saturday night worship service at Keystone, so keep us in your prayers at we prepare. We will be having acoustic worship some nights and full band rocking out other nights. We usually give out free pizza and have bibles available for anyone who wants them, and we'd like to have people hanging out to talk to the people who stop buy. If you want specifics, please pray for:

-a committed worship band
-boldness
-forming relationships that bring about salvation
-hurting and lost people to be drawn to the service
-protection against attacks from Satan. He hates what we're doing.

That's all I can think of right now. Satan's been attacking a lot, but God's working in Summit County and we always appreciate prayer coverage. Keep these people in your prayers too, who are serving in this ministry - Dave & Carla, who head up Summit Resort Ministries and started this service 4 years ago; their son Brett who will be doing most of the worship; Elston, Becka and Josh who will also be part of the worship band.

More updates later...

Decided to post

2007-11-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

I have exactly 22 minutes to update my blog today and check about 20+ emails, so this one's gonna be short (at least I'm posting, right?). My days lately have been filled with work, cold weather, sunshine (thank God!), and good friends. And I am thankful for every single one of those. I'm also thankful for mail, especially personal mail (keep it comin'), free wi-fi (even though I only get about 2 hours a week to stay plugged into the world), good Thai food, and the awesome people that have befriended me here and kept me sane while I'm away from everything I know and am comfortable with.

12 minutes left...

I started working on the phones yesterday at work and so far am enjoying it. I cracked myself up (and my coworkers) yesterday when I was trying to spell the last name "Funk" over the phone with a customer, and accidentally started to spell another 4-letter f-word that is less than appropriate to say over the phone to a customer (and not to mention on my first day of working, when I'm highly susceptible to taunting by being a "newbie"). And today I wore my shirt inside out for half the day before my coworker decided to be a good friend and inform me of this problem. Maybe getting some sleep might help my recent absent-mindedness.

7 minutes....

Maybe I should check my email now. Let's see how many emails I can get through in 7 minutes.

Moved in

2007-10-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

I finally got moved into my new room. Here's a few pictures.

Small world

2007-10-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

I met that guy Brad who, in my last post, I said I hadn't met yet. Well I met him last night and he's from Texas and has family in Pine Bluff, and has spend time there visiting them. Weird - it's not very often you meet someone in another state who's familiar with Pine Bluff. Allie, Josh, Brett, Brad, and I carved pumpkins last night and had a jam session at the Agape Outpost in Breckenridge. Good times...
I'd post a picture but Blogger's being stubborn, so maybe later.

Amigos

2007-10-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

My new friends in Colorado. Josh, Brad, Allie, Brett. Actually, I've never met Brad. But I'm sure I will sooner or later, and I'm sure we'll be friends. These are awesome people!

Welcome to the Rockies

2007-10-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally made it to Colorado. Dad and Jana helped me move up last weekend, which made it really nice to spend some time with them since I won't see them again for a few months. We left Fayetteville on Friday, where it was nice and sunny and 70 degrees - then to KC, where it was 70 degrees and storming all night and the next day - then to Colorado, where it was 29 degrees and snowing all over the place. So what happened to autumn?! Fall in NW Arkansas is great - beautiful trees and mountains, Razorback football, chilly weather, and I still get to wear my Chacos for a few more weeks. But oh, not here! No more Chacos till next summer.
So I've decided to use my blog to keep everyone updated on what's going on here. So far, I've just been getting moved in to my apartment, discovering things around town, meeting lots of people. Last night I went to a bible study in Frisco and met some cool people. Today I ate a bowl of cereal, got a PO box, opened a bank account (the lady who opened it lives right next to me), and next I'm going to get groceries and try to finish unpacking. I know, not too exciting, but I know Jana will be interested in what I ate today (specifically, Special K with bananas cut up in it). Gotta run!

The Ruths

2007-10-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

This is me and Lillian Ruth.
She's the sweetest baby in the whole world!

Bubba Hog

2007-10-09T21:40:00.001-07:00

I can't forget you Bubba Hog. You were always there for me to cheer me up at the Razorback games. I'll miss you too...

Ode to Fayetteville

2007-10-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

Every year around this time Fayetteville plays host to the fastest growing motorcycle rally in the world, "Bikes, Blues & BBQ". Fayetteville was rumbling the whole weekend as about 300,000 bikers descended on NWA for the event. There were motorcycles everywhere you turned, in every parking lot within a 30 mile radius, and big burly hairy men everywhere you looked. I had the priviledge of meeting up with my dad and stepmom Saturday afternoon on Dickson Street to check out everything and was able to catch the "Parade of Power", where all the motorcycles parade down Dickson Street. All the stuff going on made me realize how much I'm going to miss good ole' Fayetteville. It really is a great town to live in. Although having the university in town has it's cons, I really think it helps keep Fayetteville "young". Unlike some of the surrounding cities like Bentonville and Rogers, Fayetteville tends to be more eclectic and not so suburban, which is appealing to a 20-something like myself. They have a rad music scene, too. Even though most of the good venues like Dave's on Dickson, Chester's, and JR's Lightbulb Club have closed, it's still possible to catch good shows every now and then. Some are big-namers but most are local bands that just happen to rock your socks off. I will miss Benjamin Del Shreve shows were, in my ripe old age of 25, I was still able to rock out and get down with my bad self. I'll miss JTR shows and that one acoustic song he sings that's really sweet. I'm gonna miss hanging out at Common Grounds and drinking their Snickerdoodle Decaf coffee and the occasional Triple Threat cheesecake (ooh, and their muffins - they're the bomb). I'll really miss Noodles and Thai Diner (there better be good Thai food in Colorado or I'm coming back). I hear the closest Chick-fil-A to where I'll be in Colorado is 60 miles away, so I'm kinda bummed about that - so I can say I'll miss their waffle fries with loads of ketchup and their chicken sandwiches. I already miss my old apartment right next to the university, where I could ride my bike through campus to Dickson St. for some grub or to the library to get some movies or CDs. I'll miss going to my dad's house and walking around in his backyard while he shows me what he's been working on in his garden (dad, you better update me with pictures). I'll miss being at mom's house and letting her cook for me, and playing with Fris and Kitty. And going to the Razorback football games and cheering on D-Mac and Felix Jones. And ragging on the opposing team's outfielders while at the baseball games. And so many others as well! But, life must go on, as there is a time and a season for everything, and I guess my time in Fayetteville is up. But I'll still be the same old Ruthie, taking a little bit of Fayetteville with me to Colorado. Just today I bought a Razorback t-shirt to show my Arkansas pride, so I don't forget where I came from. I vow to remain a loyal Razorback fan, forever and always. When people ask where I'm from, I will say "Fayetteville, Arkansas, home of the Razorbacks" then will proceed to call the hogs at the top of my voice. Actually no, I won't do that. But I will say "Fayetteville, Arkansas", give a big smile, and puff my chest out with pride.

Lily's first lemon

2007-10-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

Fishing tip of the day

2007-10-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

If you're fishing for Yellow Lab, the best bait to use is horny head chub.

Firsts

2007-10-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me well know how I am about "firsts". You know, like first time I flew in a plane first time I ever flunked a test. There's a first time for everything, and I like making mental notes about those "firsts" in my life. Last weekend I have the privilege to knock off a couple more "firsts".

First #1: First time to fly alone.

First #2: First time to rent a car.

First #3: First time to kayak (even if it was for a few minutes).

First #4: First time to fly fish.

Okay, that last one is really stretching it because Robert just taught me how to cast, but I'm still counting it.

I also got to spend some good time with my dad and grandparents and aunt, uncle and cousin Ali as well as Jana and Robert and my "nephew" Reko. Reko's such a good swimmer. I'm so proud.

It's official...

2007-10-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

I'm moving to Colorado!
Next Friday I will be heading out to Colorado for a new chapter in my life. God has called me to live and work in Keystone Colorado, and I decided to trust that He had some reason for me there and I am making the move. Not everyone gets called to minister in the Colorado Rockies, so I'm jumping at the chance (hey, it's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it). I got a job working in the reservations department, so if any of you call to set up a vacation to Keystone ask for me and I'll take care of it! I'm not really sure what my role there is just yet, and I don't really have housing lined up either, but that's what faith is all about, right? Like (the great) Mike Yaconelli said, "Jump first. Fear later". Right on...

Razorbus

2007-09-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

And you thought D-Mac and Felix Jones were fast. The Razorbacks have a new mode of travel. Check out the video but turn up the volume.... loud...

New drum!

2007-09-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

After much searching around Fayetteville and on the internet, I have finally picked out a new djembe. I am mucho excited about it and have missed playing ever since my old one was passed on to bigger and better things. I've been able to play a borrowed one whenever I played in worship, but it's just not the same... This one is about the same size as my old one and it has an awesome sound - good bass but also a nice crisp open sound when you play around the rim (my favorite). And it's small enough to carry around easily, which I learned is a good thing when traveling with a djembe! My hope is this will serve as a ministry tool as a way to connect with others. And it's just pretty dang fun to play. Dang, I haven't said "dang" in a while.

Creative bug

2007-08-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

For some reason lately I've had a creative bug. I used to paint in high school and a little in college, but since then I haven't really had a hankering to draw or paint. Recently I started to make greeting cards, and this past weekend I took a trip to Hobby Lobby, bought a big canvas, and did a painting for my living room. Then I got all motivated to paint more, and dug out some canvases from a closet and painted 2 other things for my apartment. I sorta-not-really cheated on 2 of them - I did find a cool painting on the internet and I used it as inspiration, but I changed it up and "Ruthie-fied" it. Now I just have to figure out how to hang it...

New music

2007-08-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

Periodically I like to go to the library and pick out some CDs to listen to. Usually these consist of random CDs I would never actually buy because I've never heard the music before but have heard of the artist - so it's a great opportunity to discover new music. A few months ago a friend from work was telling me about an artist named Susan Tedeschi, and so when I came across the CD at the library I snatched it up. I popped it in the CD player in my car today while running some errands, and I am really digging it! She reminds me a lot of Bonnie Raitt - the voice and the style both, with the slide guitar. So any Bonnie Raitt fans out there should check her out:

http://www.susantedeschi.com/

Buenos dias!

2007-08-11T22:53:00.001-07:00

For anyone interested, I have some Honduras pics up. Check it out at:

www.flickr.com/photos/ruthieray/sets/

Lazy Saturday

2007-08-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

I've had a wonderfully lazy day today and I'm not ashamed one bit about it. I got up around 11 a.m., an hour after I was supposed to go on call for work (oops, my bad - hope no one needed me), then proceeded to not take a shower and instead watched Father of the Bride 2 on TBS in my PJs. I can say that I cleaned my bathroom (it was pretty dirty - now I feel safe taking a bath) and cleaned out some files in my spare bedroom. And I did get called into work for 4 hours, so I wasn't completely useless today. So I came home about 9 p.m. from working and showered (finally) and watched While You Were Sleeping on TBS. I ate a couple popsicles, piddled around on the internet. Talked to Jana on the phone. Now it's 1 a.m. and I'm making coffee. Spanglish is on TBS next - gotta go get my coffee and fix my nest on the couch...

How it happened...

2007-08-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there was a blond-haired girl named Jessica, who, like most women at the ripe old age of 27, wanted to get married. She traveled to the ends of the earth looking for Mr. Right - that tall, dark and handsome man who was going to sweep her off her feet and take care of her and her child. For you see, Jessica was a single mother - she worked hard to provide a good life for herself and her daughter Lady, and she desperately wanted a husband who will not only love and care for herself but for her daughter as well. For many years Jessica searched for that certain someone but was unsuccessful in her attempts. Then one day Jessica met that Mr. Right - the kind of man any woman in her right mind would want to marry - but alas, Jessica was not in her right mind...

Once upon a time there was a young man named Jake. Jake was a straping handsome young lad, who was kind and loving and liked long walks on the beach. He too was looking for a mate, for that certain lady who was going to knock him off his feet. He searched all over for her, and for many years did not find her. Then one day he met a beautiful blond haired girl named Jessica. She was everything he wanted: beautiful, kind, fun, mother of a small furry child, and all those things he longed for in a woman. Unfortunately, as we now know, Jessica was not in her right mind...

7 years later, Jessica came to her senses. For Jessica's eyes were opened to the man named Jake whom she had met 7 years ago, and she realized what everyone had been telling her for so many years: Jake was the perfect man for her. The timing was perfect: after living in the same town as Jessica for many years, Jake was now living thousands of miles away across the ocean in a war-ridden country. And Jessica couldn't have been happier. And her friends couldn't have been happier. And Jake couldn't have been more happier than any of us. And Jessica, Jake, and Lady all lived happily ever after in their beach-side cabana with jacuzzi, hot tub, and outdoor shower.

Lillian Ruth

2007-06-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

Say hello to Lily! She's my best friend Tiffany's new bundle of love who came into the world on May 1. She's a little cutie bear so I'm putting some pictures up so you can see for yourself.

Reko wanted to leave a message

2007-06-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

I'm Reko. I'm a dog. I just got adopted by my mom and dad from the pound, and I just moved to Kansas City, so I'm a Missouri dog now! I'm a good dog (most of the time), and mom and dad are teaching me all kinds of new things. I can shake hands and I just learned how to give high fives (I'm smart, just like my aunt Ruthie). I like water, and I just got my own big kid swimming pool to play in (mom thought it might be better than using my water bowl to play in). I like to play in my big new yard and bark at people walking by on the street. Sometimes during the day while dad's at work, mom will take me walking and I get really excited. I'm usually a good dog, except the other day I peed on the bed and mom got really mad at me and I think I made her cry. I'm sorry I make you cry! I hope you're not still mad at me.

Mom and dad said I'm named after my uncle Rico. I've seen pictures of him and heard about him, that he liked to play golf and he loved grandma Sharon's chicken spaghetti. He must be cool if I'm named after him.

Here's a picture of me and Papaw Kent!

Bye!

Thoughts

2007-06-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything.
Maybe if I have a blog I should actually update it - that's what makes these things interesting!

So, I've been getting ready to head out on a mission trip in July to Honduras. I guess you could say this will be my first "official" mission trip, since the others ones I was on I was more of a chaperone, so I don't know if that counts. This trip will mark a lot of "firsts" for me, which is always fun: first time anywhere south of Texas, first time in a country where the primary language is not English, etc. On most of my vacations I've taken I've managed to make a list of "firsts" that I took part in while on the trip. It seems to make things more interesting and it makes me start thinking about the things in life I want to accomplish. Of course the smaller more "insignificant" things will always be there, like my first time I ever got stranded in a foreign country, my first taxi ride, the first time I ever swam with dolphins or rode a roller coaster. But thinking about the small things I want to do (like go surfing or hike the Appalacian Trail) gets me thinking about the "bigger" things in life I want to do too. Like do crisis work in disaster areas - provide others with their basic physical and emotional needs after suffering tremendous loss from an earthquake or war or famine or tsunami. Or work and live among unreached people for the sake of the gospel. Or go to space (yeah, it's nerdy but I still want to go) or live in a foreign country. Or the desire way back in the depths of my soul to sell all of my belongings and live in forced poverty among others in the same situation for the sake of the gospel. Or even just to take a few months off work and travel around the world. Hopefully one day I'll be able to check some of these off my "firsts" list and then inspire others to do the same - to live a little, to explore this beautiful earth that God placed us on and maybe make a difference in the world.

A domani!

Welcome to 2007

2007-01-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

Hello to all the 3 people who read my blog. Just wanted to let you know I'm still alive and kicking. I rang in the new year with Jana & Robert - we played a sweet game of Risk: Star Wars Edition (highly recommend it to all those Risk fans out there), then watched "The Black Dalia" (highly NOT recommended, unless you like not knowing what's going on in movies). It was the latest I've stayed up in probably a year (an obvious sign I'm getting old).

It's about time for a "Best of the Year" rundown.

Best Album of the Year - Ray Lamontagne "Till the Sun Turns Black"
Beats me why this album didn't get more hype than it did. It's one of the few albums made where every single song is good. There's a good mix of upbeat and mellow songs, providing a pleasurable listening experience.

Best Book of the Year - John Grogan "Marley & Me"
About the world's worst dog. This book proves even the world's worst dog can still be man's best friend.

Best Movie of the Year - "Cars"
In my opinion, one of the best animated movies since "The Lion King". Genuinely good, wholesome, and funny. And 'Mater was hilarious.

Working girl

2006-12-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

Well I started a new job today. I was hired earlier this week by Vista Health here in Fayetteville as a part-time Needs Assessment Coordinator. So anytime someone comes in wanting treatment at Vista, one of the Needs Assessment people sits down with them and determines what level of treatment they need, in what department they should be placed in, ect. That's what I'll be doing. Plus I'm using my psych degree (added bonus). And the substituting is going good so far - I've been able to get jobs every time I needed one and the students have been pretty good.

Continue to stay tuned for a CD review. I'd do it now but there's some people waiting to use the computers and since I'm not doing anything too important...

John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt

2006-11-27T09:31:00.000-08:00

So I just read my sister's music history on her "mog" page (mog.com/janahale). I guess a "mog" is a blog for music fans. But anywho, I was inspired as well to write my own music history. Like Jana mentioned, I too remember belting out Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia" on trips to Louisiana and making up songs about our dog, Greta. Those Louisiana trips hold a lot of musical memories. My first classical music experience I can remember was on one of those trips. We would listen to Mozart and I would make my Cabbage Patch kid, Elliot, pretend he was conducting or playing along with the music. And we sang along to Wilson Phillips and hit my mom every time during that one song on Paul Simon's "Graceland" where it sounds like they're saying "hit yo mamma".

I have some pretty vivid music memories of me and my cousin Vicki - practicing before school our dance moves to The New Kids on the Block's "My Favorite Girl" (which would later become my first musical performance, with the help of Vicki, Jana and Uncle Tim), listening to that thunderstorm record (the one with the freight train) with all the lights out to scare ourselves, and Vicki contratulating me when I finally learned all the words to "Gangsta's Paradise".

There was the Ray Boltz tape I used to listen to in my room on Peggy Ann Drive, the Carpenter's "Christmas Portrait" album my family listened to every Christmas, the Beach Boys' album that played while my Barbies had beach parties and school dances (and occasionally made out). And while every other girl in the world was swooning over Davy Jones, I was crushing on Mickey Dolenz. And later on when every girl was crushing on Joey McIntyre, I had a thing for Danny Wood.

My first tape was given to me by my Granny Jan. It was a single - Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven", and I remember exactly where I was standing when she gave it to me. I used to watch VH1 all day just to see that video come on. VH1 was a pretty big deal back then - they played all kinds of sweet videos, of which I used to record onto videotapes and watch over and over. My first CD was Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Ledbetter Heights", of which I still had up until about 2 months ago.

But I think it all started with those Sesame Street kid records. You know..

"John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt
His name is my name too
Whenever we go out
The people always shout
John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt
Dadadadadada!!"

"There was an old lady who swallowed a fly...
I don't know why she swallowed a fly
perhaps she'll die."

And so on.... Those are the records I will play for my kids. Just the other day I was reminded of my early music days when a 4 year old I was babysitting was singing to herself the "old lady who swallowed a fly" song. So I sang along with her, becoming a 4 year old again for a moment...

What I am thankful for...

2006-11-25T10:08:00.000-08:00

-My family, who love me unconditionally.
-My friends, who care about me and are always there for me.
-For the free gift of salvation, and the One who offers it - who loves me even more than my family does.
-For God's provision, that He allows me to somehow pay my bills even without a steady job.
-For the gift of peace of mind and heart, and that I can have this peace even during tough times. "Do not be afraid or dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's." -2 Chron. 20:15
-My health.
-My car, which has been good to me for 8 years and hopefully for many more.
-For my PEAKS group at church and the wisdom and love they have poured upon my life.
-For New Heights church, which for the first time in my life I actually have a church I truly enjoy going to.

---------> Psalm 75:1

Switchfoot!

2006-11-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

Praise God for this beautiful day! I couldn't have asked for a better day than today. It's sunny and about 60 degrees outside, I have the day off...

I've had a bad head cold all week, and haven't gotten a chance to rest due to the fact that I've babysat 4 kids all week and I can't really sleep because I'm coughing and hacking all night. So I went to the doctor this morning to see if they could give me some drugs to make this cold go away, and she prescribed me some good stuff so I'm happy. Mostly, I wanted to be able to fully enjoy tomorrow without hacking up a lung. Which brings me to my next topic... Switchfoot!

Tomorrow afternoon, Jana, Robert, Payton, Mackenzie, and I are going to Tulsa to Cain's Ballroom to see Switchfoot. I'm excited because this will be the 5th time I've seen them in concert (I'm hoping to surpass my previous record of how many times I've seen Bebo Norman), and they are better now than ever! They can put on a rockin show. Also, it will be Payton and Mackenzie's first real concert, so I'm excited for them. I remember my first real concert... it was Counting Crows and Fiona Apple at Barnhill Arena. I was terrified. I really don't know why I was terrified. Maybe I thought I'd get trampled or lost or beaten up or something outrageous like that...

Stay tuned for my latest CD review. I've officially found the best album of the year. It's gonna be a good 'un...

Welcome back!

2006-11-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back to blogging. I tried the whole MySpace thing, and it's just too addicting! So I'm going to make it a point to keep this thing updated, rather than log on to MySpace and spend 4 hours piddling around....

My job hunt took a turn for the better today. I had a promising interview this morning with Vista Health. And the best part is the job requires a psychology degree, so I'll actually be using my degree which I was beginning to think was pretty useless at finding a decent job in the "real world". Woo hoo! My 5 years in school and thousands of dollars in debt is paying off! Oh, and I was finally able to successfully sign on to substitute teach at the Fayetteville schools (another woo hoo) but when I tried to sign up for an assignment, there no openings. Oh well.

Fayetteville is going to be pretty crazy tomorrow, with ESPN being here and all for the big Tennessee game. I think me and Jessica are going to walk to campus before the game and tailgate somewhere, since we're not priviledged enough to actually go to the game. It'll be a good time, just hanging out and watching all the people.

That's enough for now!

Dallas trip

2006-02-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

Me, Kirt, and Tessa had an awesome time in Dallas this weekend! We stayed with Kirt's cousin Emily in Arlington, and on Saturday morning drove to Ikea in Frisco. Ikea was pretty sweet. It was huge and there was so much to look at and it was kinda overwhelming at first. I think we ended up with 2 flatbeds full of stuff and 3 shopping carts, and Kirt's poor truck was packed! It was like Tetris trying to get all the furniture to fit in there. Not only did we spend an hour at Ikea getting all the furniture strapped in, but we had to take it all out once we got to Emily's apartment and move it inside so nothing would get stolen. Then the next morning we did it all over again! Oh well... So it takes about 5 hours to get to Dallas from Fayetteville, and we made really good time on the way there. However, it took us 8 hours to get back. Why, you might ask? Well let me tell you. Tessa's a sucker for roadside attractions, so we stopped twice and goofed off for a while, one at a Texas welcome center that had a big star in the ground that we just couldn't resist climbing all over like a bunch of kids, and the other was a random grill that we saw in a parking lot that was shaped like a gun. So the trip was all fun and games until at one point I looked back in the truck bed to make sure everything was still there, and discovered one of Tessa's boxes was gone. The sun had already gone down over the horizon, so we knew we only had a little bit of time before it was completely dark which would make it that much harder to find the missing box. So we drive for a couple miles and found it in the middle of the interstate, but amazingly no one had run over it. There was a chunk out of it I'm assuming from the impact when it hit the ground, but it was totally fixable. So that was a relief! Other than that, we (and the furniture) made it home in one piece. I was going to put some pictures on here from the trip but my computer's being a punk so I'll try to do it later on...

Nerds and furniture

2006-02-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

I'm such a nerd. Really, I am. Let me tell you about it. I went to Wal-Mart after work today to get a fan, and somehow I ended up on the board game aisle (I don't know, it was like some "force" was drawing me to it...). So as I was looking around at all the games, this nice little lady is one of those motorized carts started up a conversation with me about all the fun games that she's played, and casually mentioned how she found a Trivial Pursuit game on the clearance aisle. Me, being the huge trivia nerd that I am, meandered on over to the clearance stuff to check it out. To my amazement, they had the Trivial Pursuit 90's Edition (at least with it being from my era I have somewhat of a chance at getting any of the answers right), but they also had the grandfather of all board games - Risk. But that's not all! Not only was it the best ever world domination game, but it was a Star Wars Edition! So not only can I dominate the world, but I can dominate the galaxy! Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot! And it was only $10, so that was pretty sweet too. So now as I sit here eating my M&M's I'm reminded that I've still gotta pack for my trip to Dallas tomorrow. Me, Tessa, and Kirt are leaving tomorrow to go get some sweet stinkin furniture from the best store ever - Ikea. I personally have never been to the actual store, just the website. I'm pretty excited about it - I hear it's ginormous. So far my biggest purchase will be an entertainment center, then I'll probably buy some odds and ends thingys like lamps and vases. And we have a free place to stay, compliments of Kirt's cousin Emily. Okay, for some reason this blogger site won't let me press "Enter" to start a new paragraph and it's really starting to make me mad... So I also have more news. Beginning Monday I'm the new lead teller at my branch! Yay! I now have an awesome work schedule (6:45-3:45) and I get to boss other people around! No, I'm really not the bossy type, but it is kinda fun (and challenging) to be in a supervisor-type position. Okay I think that's all that's new with me so I'm gonna get off here and go watch the Family Guy videos that Tessa let me borrow (thanks Tessa!)...

what's been going on with me

2006-01-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

So I had a neat experience the other day. I was having some inner conflict about what I wanted to do with my life, and I pulled out this book called Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby and just started to read. I had tried to read it a few years ago when the small group I was in at church was doing a study on it, but I could never really get into it. But this time when I read it, it was like God was speaking to me! I think it's neat how sometimes you can have something in your life, such as a book or a friend, that don't really mean anything to you, but at that one point God decides to use that one thing to speak to you. I guess it's just another example of God's perfect timing... So anywho, the book was talking about leading a God-centered life rather than a self-centered life. I began to think about how self-centered I am in my everyday life, and how I just didn't feel that God was using me to further his kingdom. I had talked to my friend Peter recently and he had told me a story about how a while ago he had been asking this guy he worked with to come to church with him, but every time the guy turned him down. And then years later this guy emails Peter to tell him that he's become a believer, and that Peter's persistence in inviting him to church had a part in that. You never know when you're going to plant a seed, you know? So I had this story on my mind when I was reading this book, and it occured to me why I was so unhappy with my everyday life - I wasn't being God-centered and thinking about things with a kingdom perspective. I was so centered on what would make me happy that I had completely forgotten about God. So I decided that from then on I would consciously have God in mind when I came into contact with people and different situations throughout the day. So the next day, my attitude had completely changed about my job! The situations I dealt with and the people I talked to became opportunities to show God to the world, instead of just being things that filled my day. I think that's what God is teaching me lately - that it's not about me and what makes me happy, it's about Him. I didn't need to do anything different for God to use me, I just needed to change my perspective.
Which reminds me, the Perspectives course on world missions starts this Thursday. Sweet!

Merry Christmas, redneck style...

2005-12-26T18:24:00.000-08:00

I had a merry little Christmas this year! It's kinda fun having a big enough family where I get to have 2 different Christmases and I always get to see and hang out with the whole family. Christmas Eve I went to my dad's house and LuAnn cooked an awesome dinner. My stepsis Ashley and her boyfriend Matt were there as well as Jana and Robert. I brought Ladybug with me since Jessica couldn't bring her out to her mom's house because her mom has a wolf for a pet, and I guess Lady would have gotten eaten. So Lady got to be a Raymick for one night and hung out with us. When I was getting ready to leave that night, I realized that Lady had gone into heat, so in the next few days Jessica's going to take her to see her new man Ricky, a black & tan dauchsund, and she's gonna make Jessica a grandma!
I spent Christmas day at my mom & Keith's house, along with Jana, Robert, Keith's parents, his sister and her son, and Payton & MacKenzie. My mom cooked a monster breakfast and I stuffed my face, then we opened some presents. My mom had randomly bought some Billy Bob teeth and put them in our stockings, and I think we had more fun playing with those things than we did opening presents! I think we laughed over those things for over an hour, just taking pictures of each other with them in and cracking up at ourselves. It's amazing how a little 20 cent piece of plastic can cause so much fun...
I had today off work (sweet!!), so me and Jana braved the mall to check out some after-Christmas sales. I found a sweet black wool peacoat for 50% off, then tried to hit up Best Buy, but decided against that when we couldn't even get into the parking lot b/c of all the people.
So now I'm just anxious about tomorrow when I get back to work and there's 300 million people lined up at the bank and I'm back to my normal old routine! I say bring it on - I've had a nice little break, I'm ready for it.
I hope everyone else had a good Christmas! Just remember, there's 364 more shopping days till Christmas '06...

Black Friday

2005-11-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I've managed to get done with about 90% of my Christmas shopping today. I wasn't one of the crazies that got up at the crack of dawn to take advantage of the deals, but I still got some good stuff. And it only took me 2 & 1/2 hours. There was a ton of stuff at Best Buy that tempted me to buy for myself, like seasons 1 & 3 of the show "24" on DVD (for $20 each!!). I probably spent more than that just in late fees from renting them at Blockbuster! Anywho, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a great Thanksgiving lunch that LuAnn cooked, complete with ham and turkey, dressing, 4 pies, and plenty of other good food! After that I cleaned the house a little bit and watched some TV. A nice relaxing Thanksgiving... Well I don't have much to talk about right now so I'm going to get off the computer and watch Jurassic Park 3 on TBS (I love those movies!)...

Book Review

2005-10-30T21:33:00.000-08:00

I'm currently reading an awesome book called "The Heavenly Man". It tells the true story of Christian Brother Yun, one of China's house church leaders, and how he has been able to spread the gospel throughout China despite intense persecution. This book has completely changed the way I think about evangelism and suffering for Christ. Brother Yun was imprisoned numerous times and tortured for his belief in God. For example, the third time he went to prison, the judge decided to break his legs permanently so he will not try to escape prison. He was taken into a room where "...several guard forced me to the floor and made me sit with my legs apart. I begged them not to beat my fractured legs, but one sinister-looking man hardened his heart and pulled out his baton. He struck my legs between my knees and feet repeatedly. He destroyed my legs until I could stand the pain no more. Excruciating pain surged through my body and mind. My legs below my knees turned completely black and there was no feeling in them at all. My entire body ached and I was bruised from head to toe." That's just a small portion of the suffering he went through! And through all of this he spread God's word to his cell mates! My favorite thing about Brother Yun is that he memorized a lot of scripture, and was able to relate different scriptures to certain situations he faced. This morning in church we talked about the armor of God in Ephesians 6 and how we should "take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." I think that sooner or later every Christian will face persecution of some type (maybe not the same as Brother Yun..), and during those times we'll not only need to rely on God to get us through, but we'll need the word of God to protect us and encourage us. I want to be prepared for that time, so I think it's a good idea for me to start memorizing scripture. I think this book is a huge encouragement to me, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to see what happens when you don't put God in a box and you trust him to move mountains.

Ladybuggers!

2005-10-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

I'm going to devote today's posting to a certain fuzzy little friend of mine. She came into my life about a little over a year ago, and we have been inseparable since! She's got brownish\reddish hair, she's really short, and she's got big Dumbo ears. Have you guessed who it is yet? That's right, it's Lady, my roomie's long-haired dachshund! Anyone who's ever met Lady knows how much love she has to give. She loves to give out kisses (lots and lots of them) and more recently she's learned to give out hugs. The most exciting news about Lady is that she's (hopefully) going to have puppies in the near future! We've found her a suitor, a young black & tan long-haired dachshund named Ricky. She's going to be a good mom (she's had plenty of practice with her 2 false pregnancies!) and I can't wait to have cute little puppies running around the house!

Hmmm...

2005-10-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't really had anything going on lately to blog about, so I thought I'd do a little music review since I've bought quite a few CDs lately. Dad, you'll probably enjoy this blog posting more than everyone else!
1) First off, I must say that the new David Crowder album is pretty awesome, although I still haven't listened to all the songs yet. Anything from David Crowder is going to be guaranteed good though.
2) The Killer's debut album is, what can I say, simply genius! This album never fails to release my inner rock star and get me all pumped up. Probably the best album of the year...
3) The new Switchfoot is amazing as well. However, I do miss their great slower ballads that were so prevalent on their first 3 albums. This one rocks out a little more than the others...
4) Paul McCartney's new one is good, and I think it's really going to grow on me the more I listen to it. I agree with dad in that the songs have a Beatles sound to them, but even more so I think they have a George Harrison feel to them. It makes me want to get out my George Harrison CDs and listen to those again!
5) And last but not least, in my opinion the 3rd best band to come out of England (Led Zeppelin being first and the Beatles being second), The Rolling Stones. Need I say more? "A Bigger Bang" is now my second favorite Stones album of all time. I have a feeling that after repeated listening, it might knock "Exile on Main Street" out of my #1 spot! Can't wait to see them in concert!

My sweet doggy

2005-09-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday me and my family had to put our 12 year old minuature Schnauzer Heidi to sleep. She was a good dog and she's had a long good life, and I feel she's in a better place now (yes, I do think there will be dogs in heaven!). But I'll really miss how sweet and loving she was! She could never turn down a good lap to lay in or a comfy blanket to snuggle on. And oh boy, did she love her some milkbones! I think her favorite thing though was to stick her head out of the window when I took her for a drive. She'd stick her head out the window, then climb down onto the seat after a few minutes and look up at me with her windblow beard all over the place and her eyebrows sticking up everywhere. So cute... I'm really gonna miss her.

We had our first cell group meeting tonight! I'm co-leading a group of 6th and 7th grade girls with another youth worker named Shelly. Shelly was sick tonight so I had to do it by myself, but I think it went really well! We ended up playing some games and just hanging out, trying to get to know each other better. I was really impressed at how well the 5 girls got along with each other! I think our group is gonna be really good, and I'm getting excited about seeing these girls grow spiritually over the next year.
I also really enjoyed being able to get to spend some time with my stepsister Mackenzie, since she's in my group this year. She's a talkative and hyper girl, and I never even realized it because I never get to really spend any time with her! It's going to be especially awesome to see her grow this year...

Congrats

2005-08-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my good friend Tiffany on making the Rogers Police Department! She's been trying for years to be a cop, and I'm glad that she's finally able to make her dream come true. She just finished her first week at the police academy (which apparently consists of starting the day at 5 am...). She's gonna be an awesome cop, and I can't wait to be able to ride with her and see her bust up some criminals!

Farewell

2005-08-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I had to say goodbye to my good friend Kirt today. He's moving to Florida, where he's going to be an assistant manager at an Aeropostale down there. I got to thinking as I was leaving his house about all our fun memories together... Many years ago at Springfest was when I first met him (even though he doesn't remember!). I didn't see him at all again until when me, Tessa, and Jacob were heading out of town to go see the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters back in high school. Tessa told me "Don't forget we have to pick up Kirt!" I'm like, "Who the heck is Kirt?! And nobody told me he was riding with us!" But we picked him up anyway and that was the beginning of it all! Kirt's been my concert buddy. Let's see... RHCP, Foo Fighters, countless Paper Hearts shows, Fuel, 3 Doors Down, The Strokes, Rooney, The Sounds (twice... if you want to count catching only the last song both times we saw them!), all 3 million bands that played at Memphis in May, and there's probably more that I'm not thinking about. Ah, Memphis in May. That was a wonderfully miserable weekend. The first night was actually the only miserable day, since we were wet and freezing and tired and sick (sorry I was so grumpy, Kirt). But the rest of the weekend totally rocked.
Oh, and another fun little thing was the time we decided completely last minute to drive 10 hours to Texas to see the Dave Mathews Band. Kirt had gotten some tickets the day before the show, called me at work and asked me to go down there with him. We were planning on leaving as soon as I got off at 11 that night, drive down there all night, sleep in his car, go to the show, then drive back after the show and go to work the next day. But it all fell through when his mom had a bad feeling about it and didn't want us to go. So we went to Branson instead. But we still had fun...
And my 21st birthday, when we went and saw 17 Floor play at Dave's on Dickson. That was pretty darn fun, too.
So me and Kirt have had some good times together, and I'm sure gonna miss him! I wish you the best, Kirt, and I'm gonna come down there and visit you as soon as I can (road trip! woo hoo!).

The Music of the Night...

2005-08-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that The Phantom of the Opera has some of the greatest music of all time?! I was listening to it today, and I was overwhelmed at how beautiful the music is! I just think Andrew Lloyd Webber is a genius.
Thank you for the recipes, Granny Jan! I'm going to copy them onto recipe card and add them to my collection. I'm going to try making the mince meat cookies pretty soon - I'll let you know how they turn out!
I saw a great movie the other day (for the 2nd time). It you haven't seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you must see it! Johnny Depp is great in it. I'm going to watch the old one with Gene Wilder sometime in the next couple of days and see which one I like better...
I'm really excited about all the good performances coming to the Walton Arts Center this season. I'm going to get tickets to see the North Arkansas Symphony perform Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings", as well as their performance of Carmina Burana next April. And "The Nutcracker" in November, as well as Ravi Shankar. All 4 of these are going to be great performances!

Fun in the sun

2005-08-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well I'm finally getting around to posting something on here. I had a great time this past weekend at Greer's Ferry Lake! I learned how to wakeboard, went tubing, got a sunburn, hung out with some old friends, all that good stuff! Here's a sweet picture of Robert getting some air on the wakeboard (go Big Rob!). We stayed in a nice condo in Fairfield Bay, and Randy's brother-in-law was nice enough to let us use his ski boat!
This Sunday I'm going to the lake (again) with a friend from work. This lake stuff is pretty cool - I never get to go to the lake, so I'm pretty pumped about it! Okay I have this really cute picture of Heidi after she got a bath yesterday so I'll put it on here too. Bye!

Zzzzz....

2005-07-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

I'm tired tonight so this one's gonna be short. I had a long boring day at work, but did manage to get in a good work out and some raquetball with my roomie Jessica. We were having a good ole time until some guys decided to watch us play. We got all nervous because we had an audience, and then we really couldn't play good. So we just left. But I do have a fun weekend coming up! I'm going with Jana and Robert to Greer's Ferry Lake to a cabin with some old friends of mine that I haven't seen in a while. We're gonna go fishing and tubing and all that fun stuff! I'm excited, because it's been a while since I've been to the lake.
Okay I'm going to bed!

Welcome!

2005-07-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well this blog thing is pretty cool. This is my first posting so I don't really know what to say. So, hi everyone! I'd like to give a shout out to Dave, for introducing me to this blog thing, so now I have something to do on Sunday evenings when I'm really really bored. And I guess I'll give a shout out to Tessa, because I know she'd be excited if I gave a shout out to her.... Let's see, today I had an eventful day. We had quite a scare this morning at church. A man who had a heart problem lost consiousness in the middle of the sermon and the paramedics were called. I had absolutely no idea what was going on since I was sitting at the front of the church and all the commotion was behind me, until the man preaching informed us what was going on and asked us to all get with someone around us and pray for him. I was reminded of the power of prayer when a few minutes later the man regained consiousness. I even saw him standing up when they took him off to the hospital.
After church I took a girl from our youth group out to lunch and to a play at the University. It was called "Love Rides the Rails" and it was great! It was a melodrama set back in the 1800s, and I was pretty pumped when I found out we could throw popcorn at the villain. My good friend Tessa was in it and she did a wonderful job (as always!).
A domani....