Until Next Week...

Dear blog readers:

For your general information, I have actually been away from home the past 3 Mondays! Thanks to William's game of tag, I had scheduled posts for the first two, but am in the midst of all sort of busyness and therefore must beg your indulgence in excusing another relievingly eerily silent week-beginning.

Anyway, to tide you over until my next spurt of randomness, I hereby bestow upon you both giggles and quips. Courtesy of Pinterest, of course. :p

I feel for her. I do.

Poor little bunny, lettuce weep for you.

Everyone reads this with three different voices speaking, right?

Just like this goose. See a wet spot, think a lake. We're talking mountains out of mole hills here, people.
In the most optimistic sense possible.

Always.

So live a little.

Watch-It Wednesday: Ice Women

Lauren and I were both nominated for the ice bucket challenge this past week, and decided that right after a run was the perfect time to do it! I'd been slightly perturbed by how many people simply donated to the ALS Association without doing some homework on it, first. Thus, my spiel:

It's always been a dream of mine to willingly stand still whilst being dumped with buckets of ice water - NOT! But anyway, thanks, Katie.  I'm nominating Karen Jenkins, Titus Copper, and Katelyn Dawkins to join the fun. You're welcome.  Please know that the ALS Association funds embryonic stem cell research and is therefore not an organization we as Christians should mindlessly support. You three are nominated to donate to a RESEARCHED organization for any cause for which you have a heart. Ice water and $10, or $100 and no ice water. Ready - go! 

Have a cool Wednesday!

Tag Time! {part 2}

Short. Sweet. To-the-point. These are my rules for part 2 of tag. Ready? Here we go!

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Part II: List 11 random facts about yourself. (If I can think of that many!)

1. I've signed up for my first-ever half marathon! My friend and I have never done more than 7.5 miles, but hey - we have until May to train, so no prob - right?

First training run - done!

2. One of my goals for this fall is to start learning Korean.

3. I was tagged in the infamous Ice Bucket Challenge...and delivered! :p For those of you who love to watch people freeze to death and don't have facebook, never fear! It will be showing up on Wednesday for your viewing pleasure...

4. "Beauty and the Beast" is my favorite fairy tale.

love this picture

5. I have just under 200 books on my easily-accessible shelves, and another massively-sized cardboard box of books from my childhood stuffed to the gills and buried deep within my closet. Also, the overwhelming majority of items on my wishlist from any given website is books.

...but you already knew I was a bookaholic

6. I'm one of those annoying people who is no good at sports, yet plays anyway (much to the chagrin of the pros).

7. Despite the fact that I prefer reading to writing, one of my life goals is to write a children's fairy tale.

8. I'm an avid advocate of kombucha drinking.

Yums!

9. I have a random "disease" called Raynaud's Phenomenon.

10. A confirmed tea snob, I began working at a tea room this summer with a view to someday open my own tea shop!

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11. Here are the things I can see that are red from where I sit: my friends' cooler, a deck of cards, the cover of Balancing the Sword, and the dress of a paper doll.

I think that classifies as an excessively random fact, which means I get double points.

And now I get to ask 11 questions! And pick some people (forget the "11 people" clause) to answer them! I do hereby tag...

Elanee from Elanee's Endeavors! (It was so fab to meet you this weekend!)
Lynnae from Randomness by Lynnae
Red from The Case of the Red-Head JT


Here are your questions:
1. If you had tomorrow cleared of any previous commitments, what would you do with it?
2. What is your favorite book? :)
3. What is the coolest place you've ever visited?
4. Who is your favorite author?
5. If you could learn another instrument, what would it be?
6. What is your favorite sport? {and you don't have to be good at it... :p}
7. Favorite soundtrack?
8. Best movie adaptation of a book?
9. Favorite chore?
10. Most thought-provoking concept you've come across in the last week?
11. Favorite type of tea?

Are you ready? Go! In the off-chance that you've forgotten the rules, just check out the previous post. :D

Happy Labor Day!

Tag Time! {part 1}

Don't we all love tag?? Today, I'm playing the game by the rules of my friend, William. We met last summer during the amazing Reformation Tour (which I just realized I never did a true synopsis of...that will really have to happen at some point)!

Me, Kaytch, & William: first meeting!

 Between him, us three girls, and a few other cool people, we formed the fabulous Back of the Bus Gang.

Back row: Aislinn, Charae, Yours Truly, Kaytch, Lieren
Front row: Stephen, William, Abigail, Noel

I have decided that touring Europe together is one of the absolute best ways to make friends.

Lieren, Charae, Abby & Grace, Aislinn, Moi, William

...here is where I rapidly switch back to the topic of tag to avoid feeling a little homesick for that wonderful month of travels!

SO, the rules of the game are as follows:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog. This feels slightly egotistical toward whomever I tag, but I'm certainly grateful to William for getting to join the fun!!
2. Answer his/her 11 questions.
3. Add to these 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Come up with your own 11 questions.
5. Tag (up to) 11 other blogs (with under 200 followers) to answer your queries and follow the previous 4 steps.

6. Do some mental math and come to the conclusion that, provided all 11 blogs comply, there will be 242 answers/random facts added to the blogosphere, compliments of your solitary blog post.

{confession: I did not do that math mentally}

Shall we begin? Because I love to ramble (apparently), and because I love to play tag (obviously), I'm prolonging the game into two posts. Because I can. :)

Part I: answering William's questions.

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1. What is your favorite type of music?
One of the hardest and favoritest questions! I like to play classical, listen to soundtracks, and sing along to hymns and (some) praise music. Thanks to this question, I now have a theme for this week's Watch-It Wednesday. :D

And...complete honesty requires me to acknowledge that I enjoy some kpop, also.

2. What is your favorite genre of literature?
Historicalfictionfairytalesfantasy(specificallyallegorical)philosophytheologybiographyclassicspoetry.

3. Would you rather read books or write articles?

I know this may come as a shock, considering the 30 Day Book Challenge I did last month, but I'd rather read than write.

{Yes, sarcasm.}

While I really do enjoy writing - when I feel I have something worth saying - I would much rather find an author with a complete mastery of words and read his. :)

4. How many brothers and/or sisters do you have?
4 bros, 5 sisters. For a total of 9 siblings. And yes, I did that math in my head.

5. If you lived 100 years ago, where would you choose to live?
According to HistoryOrb, August 25th held these events:
-German army begins 6 weeks of plundering Leuven, Belgium
-German Zeppelins bomb Antwerp, Belgium
- German troops march into France and pushes the French army to Sedan

Basically, if I was alive 100 years ago, I would be watching the beginning of the first world war. I don't really feel any pull to that difficult and tragic time, so I guess the best answer would be the US, since we hadn't joined the war yet...

6. Which theological subject are you most interested in?
This was a hard one, William, because I've actually never thought of Theology as being divided into different subjects. I had to ask Ben, but his answer was right-on (which is why, you know, he was to be asked). Answer: the personhood of Christ.

7. If you could travel to any one place in the world, where would you go?

Why must you ask a question like this?? Only one place? I can't pick one! I want to go back to Scotland, England, and Switzerland. I want to see Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, Korea, Japan, Greece, Australia, Norway, Finland...Victoria B.C! Arches National Park, the Grand Canyon, Chicago, Disney Land, Maine, Prince Edward Island, Gates of Calypso Iguazu Falls (Brazil), Grand Wailea Canyon Activity Pool (Hawaii), the musical road in Lancaster, CA, and, within the next couple weeks, Frederick, Maryland will be added to the list.
Basically, give me a plane ticket and a suitcase, and I'm off.

8. Why did you start a blog?
Oh, self-absorption, mostly. Feeling a driving need to be recognized on the world wide web, I planned my momentous debut for months ahead of time, researching for agonizing hours what exactly was calculated to instantly draw the masses and grant me the platform I never found to be large enough in real life.

It didn't work.

So I went to Plan B for "purpose." Namely, maintaining an easy scrapbook wherein both grandparents and other family/friends could keep somewhat updated on my life.  Part B of Plan B was that it gave me an outlet for writing and a challenge to write consistently.

That's worked a bit better.

9. Where would you prefer to live: the city, or the country?

 

City for a couple years (and I'm talking city city: apartment downtown sorta thing)...because cities hold such an endless realm of adventures and possibilities, I'm drawn to them. Ultimately, however, I prefer to live in the country with s-p-a-c-e and quiet and flower gardens and veggie gardens and fruit trees and animals...and maybe even a house. :p

10. What is the most influential book, other than the Bible, in your life?
I feel like I keep talking about these books. I don't know if I could pinpoint just one. The Narnia series is so fully ingrained into who I am, that I'm sure I don't know all the influence it's had on me. When I think of truly mind-opening books I have read, they are Surprised by Joy, Til We Have Faces, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, and The Book that Made Your World.

Disclaimer: I'm sure there are tons of others I simply can't think of at this moment. ;)

11. What is your favorite movie?
Oh goodness. Really, William?? :p Short answer: Can't answer. Long answer: well, you asked for it....

Master and Commander, Ever After, Les Miserables, Cinderella Man, Wives and Daughters, Patriot, The Man From Snowy River, North and South, Tammy and the Bachelor, Luther, Sense and Sensibility (with Emma Thompson)...

...these are in no particular order. Some of them are "favorites" because I've grown up on them. Almost all of them are favorites for nostalgic reasons, as much as anything else. I like watching movies just fine, but am hard-pressed to say that I really have "favorites." :)

There now, aren't you glad I'm doing this in two parts? 400 brownie points to all of you who waded through my verbosity. To the skimmers: shame on you, on your family, and on your cow.

Tune in next Monday for part 2!! :)

Camera Giveaway!!!

About two years ago, my wonderful Canon camera died a sudden and final death. It wasn't mostly dead, it was the kind of dead where you start looking for loose change.

Since then, I've had a tiny point-and-shoot camera, which has done the job tolerably well, but is (after a trip to Europe) considerably dented/falling apart.

So when I found a chance to enter a drawing for a new, wonderful, SLR camera, I jumped on it!

Thus, this post, which, rumor has it, will give me 50 extra entry points.

Plus, you know, this picture is something beautiful I'd want to put on pinterest, anyway. :)

Courtesy of: SnapKnot - Find Local Wedding Photographers

Have a photographic Wednesday!