End of the Trail: 2014

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Christmas Jukebox: Dec. 6-10

December 6th: River
Sam Palladio

December 7th: Winter Snow
Audrey Assad

December 8th: A Baby Changes Everything
Faith Hill
I grew up listening to Faith Hill. She is so great. Her Christmas pieces are some of my absolute favorites...in case they don't show up later in the jukebox, here's some of my personal faves....I listen to her Christmas album over and over during the Advent season.
Where Are You Christmas?

Little Drummer Boy

The First Noel

December 9th: Born on Christmas Day
Brad Paisley
I like Brad Paisley for many reasons, which usually include jokes at the CMAs, so when I ran into this song a couple of years ago, I was totally surprised at his maturity at such a young age. I love how he meshes his young performance with today and it really is such a beautiful song....especially for a 13 YEAR OLD BOY to have written! :)

December 10th: Christmas Coming Home
Lennon and Maisy
The TV show Nashville is my guilty pleasure....I LOVE the music on the show. Lennon and Maisy play two young daughters of the main character, and whenever they get to sing on the show it always turns out fantastic. Lennon and Maisy are actually sisters in real life, which makes their talent all the more impressive (to me anyway!). Lennon is maybe 14 or 15 and Maisy is around 11 or 12 (I think...I actually have no idea...that's just how old they look to me). This is one of the songs on Nashville's Christmas CD that the cast made. Love it!

Thursday, December 4, 2014

The Christmas Jukebox: Dec. 1-5

I wanted to start off this jukebox by thinking about Christmas from the different points of view of those immediately involved. I think I'm going to have a theme of sorts for every 5 days, and then will post my thoughts about those 5 days as a group instead of once a day. That is easier for me in this crazy busy time of writing papers and finals coming up with school! Here are the first 5 days of the Jukebox:

December 1- O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Diamond Rio
Version by The Civil Wars
Version by Pentatonix
We are calling for the Messiah to come to us while we are in this period of preparation and waiting. We are earnest for him to arrive.

December 2- When Love Was Born
Mark Schultz

I love this song because it makes me think about what it was like the night Jesus was born. While the physical representation of God's love for us was born that night through Jesus, I think it's a nice lyric to when we were first created.

Starlight shines, the night is still

Shepherds watch from a hill

I close my eyes, see the night

When love was born

Perfect child gently waits

A mother bends to kiss God's face

I close my eyes, see the night

When love was born

Angels fill the midnight sky, they sing

Hallelujah, He is Christ, our King

Emmanuel, Prince of peace

Loves come down for you and me

Heaven's gift, the holy spark

To let the way inside our hearts

Bethlehem, through your small door

Came the hope we've waited for

The world was changed forevermore

When love was born

I close my eyes, see the night

When love was born

December 3- Mary Did You Know?
Pentatonix Version
The Gaithers

December 4- Be Born In Me
Francesca Battistelli
There is an entire album (Music Inspired By The Story) that includes songs from the points of view of the "all-stars" of the Bible. This song is Mary's viewpoint.

December 5- Joseph's Lullaby
MercyMe

Jukebox Junkie:

This is an oldie that I ran across last year or the year before. For some reason, it makes me think about my Dad.....must be the MILK AND COOKIES!! :)

Sunday, November 30, 2014

The Christmas Jukebox

We've all had them. Those nights where you try every trick in the book and wish yourself to sleep, but it just doesn't happen. Knowing you really need to sleep because you have a big day that starts early. And it just keeps eluding you.

I'm a great sleeper, usually don't wake up during the night, and feel rested when I wake up. But...I've occasionally had these nights and sometimes have been able to do schoolwork or planning of the next couple days or "catching up" on some reading. A couple of weeks ago, I had one of these sleepless late nights and decided Christmas music was the cure and I would get a jump on planning out my Christmas Jukebox. Well....three hours and many tears later, I had listened to all of my favorites and decided that along with posting the Youtube links, I would write a few comments about what these songs mean to me (in the blog). I'll just post the songs on facebook and have the commentary on here.

Before I start this year's jukebox, I have a couple of comments.

1) I sometimes have trouble finding a youtube version that I want. I mostly listen to music on Spotify and occasionally have trouble finding the version of the Christmas Carol that I want to share, and have to post a backup because the one I want isn't on youtube. If that happens this year, I'll make sure to share exactly whose version makes the cut for the day. :)

2) The best way to listen to these songs is with your eyes closed (IMHO). You may think this is silly, but I get such a greater appreciation for the music if I've blocked out the distractions of the day, just relax, and take it in. Try it at least once...you might like it.

3) Having done both, it is a lot easier to move away to somewhere with built in friends (Cody) than not (Laramie). I have made some friends and found people to go do things with, but it just hasn't been "home" for me yet. I found an okay church, but it just isn't home either. I haven't necessarily been lonely, but I've had more moments of homesickness than I thought I would.
That night I couldn't sleep, I lay in bed listening to wonderful, beautiful music about the birth of our Lord. I felt such peace and love from the Holy Spirit which reassured me that there is more than one way to worship.

4) With just a couple notable exceptions (I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas and Where Are You Christmas?), I really don't like secular Christmas music. Almost every song in this year's jukebox is a religious Christmas Carol and has moved me to tears at some point or another. You won't find many secular songs here.

5) Just as we prepare our hearts for Easter in the period of Lent, we should prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus during the time of Advent. Advent is a season of waiting, waiting, waiting as we joyfully anticipate the coming of our Messiah. While there are plenty of ways to prepare ourselves for the coming baby Jesus, I use these songs, among many, to feel the joy and excitement that Jesus' birth brings.

Praise be to God.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Family Visit

Last week Mary Catherine came to visit!! YAY!!! It was really nice to have a familiar face come to visit. We went to class on Monday and learned all about the fur trade, After that we visited the Wyoming Territorial prison.

Later in the afternoon we went to Vedauwoo where there are mysterious rock formations that are fun for rock hopping.

It is fall in the Rockies. All the leaves are changing or have changed and are absolutely beautiful. Fall is so different in Laramie than it has been in Cody. I walked into a grove of trees and it actually smelled like fall!! It was wonderful!! There are more leafy trees here so they make for crunchy leaves and pretty colors. I'm enjoying fall here in Laramie.

The next day, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado. We got up to 11,716ft in elevation and it got pretty chilly and pretty windy up on top of the mountain. The views were spectacular.

We heard an elk bugle, saw some marmots and a ton of chipmunks. Rocky Mountain National Park doesn't have a ton of wildlife like Yellowstone does, but it sure has some fantastic views.

I'm so glad that MC was able to visit and we could go exploring in this part of Wyoming. We had a blast.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Starting School

Well, I am about to have my 18th "First Day of Class." We start the semester on Wednesday (which is my busiest day scheduling-wise), which I think will be nice since it will only be a 3-day week.

Wednesday's schedule:

9-9:50 History of Wyoming (Undergrad class that I am a TA for)
10-11:30 Office Hours
1:10-3:40 Comparative Frontiers
7-9:30 Conference on Wyoming and the West

I've been running around getting my books ordered/delivered, my school supplies set up, going to orientation and starting on some reading for the 1st day of class. I'm not thrilled about having homework BEFORE SCHOOL EVEN STARTS, but what can I do? I've also been working on a syllabus for my discussion sections. Progress on that has been a little slow, but i'm confident I will get it finished before we meet on Friday.

Having Mom and Dad here has been great in helping me get settled in. We went to Cheyenne yesterday and toured a couple of museums, one of which had the largest collection of wagons/buggies in the United States. That was pretty neat to see.

Temperatures are getting much cooler and we've had some rain the past couple of days that are making it cool as well. It snowed in parts of Wyoming today (although it was just rain for us) so fall and winter are coming!!

I'm off to do some more reading but will quickly say that UW won their opening game in football yesterday (so did UNC!). GO POKES! I haven't quite mastered the fight song yet, but I do know that it includes the "high falootin' rootin' tootin' son of a gun from old wyoming, ragtime Cowboy Joe"

Friday, July 11, 2014

The Beartooth Highway

Last weekend I drove along the Beartooth Highway. I have a bucket list of things that I want to do in this area before I move 7 hours away to Laramie, and driving the Beartooth Highway was one of them. It is an extremely scenic drive, which you will soon see, that has quite a few hairpin curves that can make many a driver nervous. On one of our family trips out west when I was very little we drove along the Beartooth, but I'm pretty sure I was too young to remember it. I know all the stories that we tell about it, how it has so many switchbacks, hardly ANY guard rails, and they don't let certain types of vehicles on the road because it is so narrow. However, that does not seem to be the highway I drove last week. There were guard rails practically everywhere (at least where they NEEDED to be!) and although it did have switchbacks and was narrow in places, it wasn't quite as treacherous as I was expecting.

It was a beautiful day for being out and about at almost 11,000 feet in elevation. I forgot my jacket (you should always have a spare just in case....it can snow any month of the year on the Beartooth Mountains and in Yellowstone), but luckily didn't need it. The lowest temperature I saw was 59* and the highest was 85* when I left Cody. I saw people skiing and snowboarding, and people hiking in shirtsleeves and shorts. Here are some pictures from the drive...

Along Beartooth Pass

Yes people were actually out there skiing and snowboarding! Unbelievable!!

Heart Mountain from another angle

There was snow up there that was several feet deep in areas where it had naturally fallen and drifted. This particular spot was in a pull-out where I parked and the snowplows had piled it up....it was over my head!!

Can you see the PIKA in the grass there? I talked about them in my tours at the BBCoW last summer.

Mountain meadow environment...

As you can see, snow is still melting and causing raging river conditions. It was so loud and powerful.

I am off this morning to Laramie to look at a potential house to rent during school next year. I'm hoping it works because it's getting to be crunch time in finding a place to live. I'll be back tomorrow and head over to the George's to ride with them to Byron to watch an AMAZING fireworks show. It is the greatest show i've ever seen....this will be my third year. Can't wait!!

Friday, June 6, 2014

It Was Good

I’m on tour!

My aunt and uncle have been so kind as to let me jump on their tour bus and enjoy some of their vacation after they visited me last week. We did the usual Yellowstone stops and had great days in the park. We saw a moose with her calf, a grizzly bear, buffalo and buffalo calves, and the usual antelope, elk, and deer.

The Teton’s were as beautiful as ever.

After spending a day in Salt Lake City, we headed to Yosemite National Park, which is a place I have never been to before. It has been high on my bucket list for awhile, and since I’m headed to grad school, I was not sure when this opportunity might present itself again for me to get to Yosemite. I am so thankful that my aunt and uncle let me come with them for this bit of their trip.

"I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!

If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.

If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night-

but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!

I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!

And when I wake up, you are still with me!"

Psalm 139: 7-18

I have never felt so small in this world.

Yosemite National Park has a grandeur in its beauty that words cannot describe other than to say that one feels unimportant in its majesty. Yet we do matter. We have been fearfully and wonderfully made. How amazing that the sights I have seen were created just for me to look at. All I can say is that God must love us a whole awful lot to create such beauty for us to admire and see his handiwork in. Praise the Lord!

I could go on and on about all the things I saw, but that would take forever and you’d probably just skip ahead to the pictures anyway, so here they are. J

Yosemite Falls (upper and lower)

lower falls

lower falls (with part of the family at the very bottom!)

Tenaya Creek

Half Dome

El Capitan

the first clouds I saw in 2 days...I was amazed at how clear the weather was!

*Now might be a good time to see a map of the park.*

Click HERE for map

We spent the night at a campground in the valley, and went on a stargazing hike at nightfall. Pretty incredible! We did a couple of small hikes and just enjoyed being in the park and around such fantastic views. Our drive into the park was a little hairy in our big bus on a teeny tiny road at 10,000 ft in elevation, and our driver decided we should leave the park a different way, so we got to see the giant sequoia trees in the park.

In the Mariposa Grove, we saw trees that were just enormous. I’ve never seen anything like it. Once again, I felt small, unimportant, and like a blip in the history of the world. Sequoia trees are a part of the redwood tree family that are fire resistant, insect resistant, and can live well over 2,000 years. They don’t really die either…they have a shallow root system in terms of their size, and fall over when they get too top-heavy. Even when they fall down, they don’t rot because they are impervious to rot as well as fire and insects! We saw a huge sequoia that fell over several HUNDRED years ago. We actually don’t know when it fell down….

the Fallen Monarch

the Bachelor and Three Graces

the California Tunnel Tree

Grizzly Giant

There really is no way to describe their size without you experiencing it for yourself. That is such a common theme from this trip. I just can’t describe the beauty and enormity of what I have seen this week and pictures can hardly do it justice. You just need to get there to see it for yourselves. Feel how special you are that all of this wonder was created just so you could look at it. What a blessing.

reflection of North Dome (left) and Half Dome (right) into Mirror Lake

El Capitan, Half Dome, Glacier Point, and Cathedral Spires (l to r)

"And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

Genesis 1:31

Monday, June 2, 2014

Wedding Weekend

I had SUCH a great time in Memphis at Amanda and Matt's wedding. It was fantastic to see several good friends and catch up. Here's a couple pictures from the trip....

I was able to get a super fresh Sundrop!!

Bridesmaids' brunch...

Go Heels!! :)

it's 3/5ths ya'll!!

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Yellowstone Snow

For those of you interested in what it takes to get the roads back open in Yellowstone after the winter snows, here's a couple websites to check out.

Current Status of Roads/Plows

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/plowing.htm

What is actually involved in plowing the roads:

http://www.nps.gov/yell/photosmultimedia/minute_springplowing.htm

Not really related, but a neat webcam at Old Faithful. If you're lucky, it'll be going off when you look at it! Check back periodically and maybe you'll get to see it!

http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/live/live4.htm