Some of my Favorites of the Recent Past....

Getting a new $150.00 dollar rug for $40.00.

Decorating the house with said rug and a sundry of other small items I purchased.

Exploring to the depths what God is trying to teach me: what it means to truly, unbiasedly love everyone and what it means to be a follower of HIM. Which means stripping away the laws, the rules, the imposed Christian standards and resorting back to how the Bible shows we are to live and how Christ lived.

Saturday I was able to see most of my family. My birthday gift from my parents was an Ohio State quilt and it is finally finished. My mom is GREAT at a lot of things. One of them is quilt making. Another is making homemade pizza. I was fortunate to be a recipient of both that day. I also got to spend some time playing with my nieces, Grace and Bekah. Then in the evening I traveled to Columbus to watch some of my other nieces and nephews, Logan, Lauryn, Lanie, and Lucas.

Leeland Concert on Friday night. Best Christian concert ever. Leeland, has an amazing voice. But more importantly he comes across with such a sincere humbleness when leading worship. (See above picture).

Watching a documentary on PBS about George H.W. Bush. I learned a lot about his life I didn't know.

Finding amybutlerdesign.com. Love her fabric. I want to be her...but not in the weird stalker way...but in the I really admire her from a really far safe distance....

Discovering my love for Patty Griffin's lyrics and music.

Enjoying an evening of great friends, great food, and a horrible, horrible reality show, which shall remain nameless because I'm embarrassed that I waste my time watching it...(but I'm SO MAD at Jason for getting rid of Jillian.)

I renewed my love with legalsounds.com. You pay only $0.09 per song. The only downside is you first have to purchase a $25.00 credit.

Road Trip

On our flight back from a ski trip in Jackson, Wyoming, Jen (Littlefoot) and I stopped off in Dallas. Jen had moved down to Texas in February. (I like to refer to it as the great mistake of 2008.) She couldn't live without Rita's italian ice, the Thornburgs, and myself, so she moved back in the fall. (Okay, I think that her parents living up here might have played some kind of role...) However, her furniture and some of her belongings were residing in Dallas. So with the help of her friends, we packed up a Uhaul and early Monday morning headed back to Ohio. Over 1,000 miles later, several deplorable restrooms and really shady and small gas stations we made it home. Here's a rundown by state of our trip.

Texas: Boring to drive through. But rather enjoyable if you're in the passenger's seat sleeping.

Arkansas: It's state motto is "the natural state". ..Didn't really find anything natural there... Except for natural hill-jacks. Jen was also pulled over by a State Trooper for going left of the yellow line. Really??! On a ridiculously windy day?? Driving a big uhaul?? You're going to tell me that you can do it perfectly without ever crossing over a line? Jen and I were split up and both interrogated. Here are a sampling of questions: "Where did you live?", Where do you live now?", "How do you know her?", "What job did you have in Dallas?", "What were you doing in Wyoming?", "Why are you're pupils constricted?", "Have you been taking drugs?", "Do you have any drugs or firearms in the back?", "Are you crying?" For the record, Jen wasn't crying, her eyes were watering from standing out in the blasted cold wind. Luckily, she wasn't ticketed....and they didn't open the back to find all the illegal immigrants we were smuggling. Hey, they never asked us specifically....

Tennessee: Within 30 miles of entering Tennessee, I passed 10 different Highway patrolmen. It's evident that Tennessee hasn't felt the brunt of the economic recession, because the Troopers ride in tinted, pimped out, unmarked, white or black SUVs. Out of our trip it felt like we were in Tennessee 15.5 of the 16 hours that we were actually on the road. We also got stuck in dead stopped traffic in Nashville for over an hour.

Kentucky: By the time we rolled into Kentucky it was 9p.m. and it seemed to be when Jen and I had the most energy and were the most alert. But who wouldn't want to air guitar and seat dance when FREEBIRD is playing??? We drove right through the line of the ice storm that happened five days prior. It was so eerie to be driving on the interstate and see so many downed trees.

Ohio: Such a beautiful thing to be back in Ohio after being on the road for a straight nineteen hours.

Conclusion: No accidents. No fights. A couple of good conversations. One broken iPod that catapulted us into the fate of the deplorable Clearstation radio empire. Resulting in Two ridiculous Creed songs, three Tracy Chapman songs, countless plays of "Love Song" by Taylor Swift and "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz (which coincidently, I have loved for sometime, but since am now contemplating NOT being his.)

I love taking road trips with friends, especially where silence can be shared and it be okay. More importantly, I love my friend, Jen Troyer, and am happy she's completely back in Ohio.