happy listening

This was an extra-good music week in Oxford. Last Friday night Drew Holcomb and the Neighbor's played at Proud Larry's, and Thursday night Jenny and Tyler came to Wesley! Two awesome couples who love each other, love the Lord, and make beautiful music. I definitely enjoyed both of their shows and have pretty much been playing their music on repeat ever since I saw them.

Drew and Ellie - "Fire and Dynamite"

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Jenny and Tyler - "Faint Not"

(Special note about Jenny and Tyler - I had never seen them live before Thursday night, but they are seriously awesome musicians and people. I was lucky enough to get to talk with them some after the show and take them to Bottletree Friday morning, and I have tons of respect for what they are doing and how they are doing it. All that to say, check out their music free online but support them and pay for some of it too, because it is worth it. Just throwing a little extra PR out there!)

Happy listening! I hope you enjoy both groups as much as I do.

alphabet game

Ed recently put together a brother-sister-alphabet-magnet masterpiece on our refrigerator. Can you find: Julie Lawson, Katie Smith, Emily Moore, Lacey Gray Stone, Mark Harrison, Richard Blount, Michael Buise, Katherine Saucier, David Thompson, Brady Fortenberry, Ed Wright? Everyone's in there somewhere!

I love these people. But really. I use the word "love" there the way it's meant to be used. Tonight we all (minus DT...darn internship) found ourselves doing the Macarena, Cupid Shuffle, and various other line dances in the Brick House kitchen with around 20 international students. It was very much one of those "Is-this-real-life?" moments, and very much reinforced what I just said: I love my friends. And tonight I'm especially thankful.

P.S. Stay tuned - I fortunately captured some video footage of the dancing tonight and will hopefully upload it soon. Our new Korean friends caught on to some things very quickly, namely the Wobble. Trust me. Hilarious.

by name

This week is trying its absolute hardest to get the best of me.

For whatever reason, this week is dragging on and on. I am tired and overwhelmed. I am confused about law school, I only understand a fourth of what we talk about in my English class, and I have barely seen my roommates at all. I have done very little work on my thesis because I have done way too much work in the Ceramics room. I am so very ready for the weekend. And while I know none of these are even close to real problems or burdens, this is how I feel.

Good thing it matters very little how I feel.

Last night in the midst of all of the thunderstorms, the clouds rolled back to reveal the stars shining very brightly. And as I stopped to look at them, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought that the stars are the same everywhere. (Ok, maybe not quite - in South Africa I could see the Southern Cross, which was awesome. And they definitely don't have that here. But still...) There are stars in Africa, stars in Amsterdam, stars in Sumpango, Guatemala. In Maine, in Kentucky, in New Jersey, and in Oxford. Thousands of them. Billions of them. And there is One who has placed them there and calls them each by name.

This morning I woke up at 6:30, despite feeling exhausted, to go get some breakfast with 2 of my best friends. We concluded that we're all overwhelmed, and all ready for the weekend, but we reminded each other that there is One who calls us by name who has this all under control.

So I am still exhausted and confused and ready for the weekend. But I am so thankful for the One. And I am thankful for stars and friends and a BBB Secret History omelet too - which, though less crucial to surviving an overwhelming week than the One, still manage to make everything better than it was before.

2 more days. Bring it on.

perfect score.

This is just a little something we like to call complete and total domination. I would like to be able to take some sort of credit for this seeing as I am his biggest fan, but seriously. I'm beginning to wonder if he's completely human.

And this was supposed to be the victory lap.

reunited (and it feels so good)

One week in to Spring Semester 2012 and ohhh what a whirlwind it has been so far! It is so good to be back at the Brick House, back with my brothers and sisters, back in the wonderful town of Oxford, etc. etc. etc.

First things first, we kicked off the semester with a camping trip last Friday night! Why sit around and talk inside when you can go outside with a fire, a lake, beautiful stars, and Julie's homemade blackberry wine cake? One minor problem...the severe thunderstorms/tornado watch that occurred around 2 in the morning. Perhaps that was a lack of planning on our part...but what can I say? We were really excited to see each other again after the break.

Milkshake Monday this week resulted in more people crammed in the Brick House than you can possibly imagine. So many best friends, soon-to-be friends, international students who we barely know... If you are anywhere near Oxford on a Monday night, I'm telling you, you have to come. I cannot explain how fun/overwhelming/beautiful it is. You would be amazed to see the ways that sharing a milkshake leads to sharing the Gospel.

Anna and I are taking Ceramics this semester. Not as easy as it looks. Which was to be expected, but still. It's very fun, very time-consuming, very challenging, and probably going to teach me more about life than all of my other classes combined.

I think that's about it as far as back-to-school news is concerned. The rest is just normal life in Oxford: bonfires, brother-sister breakfast, good conversations, me trying to avoid working on my thesis, LOTS of Settlers of Catan, my English class that might as well be National Treasure (ok, that's not normal at all, but more on that another time...), etc.

I always forget how full-speed-ahead life in Oxford is. It's a bit of an adjustment, for sure, but in the best of ways. I want to take advantage of every single second of this semester, and I'm thankful for friends that intend to do the same.