October 2013

What a month of traveling! I'm exhausted but ready for the adventures that await! October has been busy, as I drove up to Ontario for Thanksgiving and spent 2 weeks visiting family and friends in the GTA (greater Toronto area). It ended with the wedding of Jennifer James and Adesina Johnson, friends of mine from school in Tennessee who got married in the Toronto area. What a beautiful event that was! Overall, I'm a bit tired from all the driving... but I love getting to see new sights, and being in the car is a great way to cover lots of distance while doing so!

Some of my favourite moments from driving during the past 2 weeks have been: seeing a sunset in the mountains/hills of Pennsylvania, seeing some weird/interesting stuff in the countryside towns of upstate New York (thanks Siri for taking me an indirect way to the next major highway!), seeing families pick apples in the orchards near Stouffville, making friends with a sheriff in a podunk Kentucky town (thanks for letting me know where the nearest liquor store was!), and the godsend man who helped me find a gas station in a time of need!

The greatest "take-away" part of the past 2 weeks has been the heartfelt conversations I've had with people who have genuinely cared about what's been going on in my life/heart. My Aunt Rachel has been such an encouragement to me, and I really enjoyed spending a day with her hiking the Bruce Trail and talking for hours over coffee. Also, several people at Jennifer's wedding (people I had just met!) were extremely genuine and friendly and open to talking about spirituality in a very non-judgmental way- sharing their own experiences and hearing about mine. I am refreshed and at a place where I want to stop avoiding community with people and God because of insecurities in myself... and I want to move forward in confidence and joy.

I am CONTENT right now- maybe not exactly at the point I want to be in life, but I am content. Open for new things, for new experiences, for facing the hard questions.

Here are a few pictures from my latest adventures:

 

^ Tom and Emily helping with the bike rack! ^ Kristin and Em (our last goodbye)

^ at Michael and Jess's house with Kristin... we just couldn't say goodbye!

Video link ♥

^ stopped in Kentucky on the drive up to Ontario

^ my cousin's adorable baby!

(a) at Uncle Ed's for Thanksgiving

(b) at Gramma and Grampa's in Barrie for Thanksgiving Monday

^ finally, some pizza pizza!    ^ a Poutineria, how Canadian!

^ my beautiful grandmothers.    ^ a family collage

^ lots of love from Kristin ♥

^ Addison, my cousin's adorable girl!

^ breakfast at Cora's after a swim    ^ found a strong hockey man

^ driving the back roads in Ontario   ^ Al & Rachel's cute pup!

^ hiking the Bruce Trail with Auntie Rachel... so beautiful!

^ pizza dinner to see Trista at work  ^ Falls in Dundas

^ exploring Hamilton's waterfalls

^ and some of us cross rivers the dangerous way! LOL katie!!

^ Katie and Kaitlynn ♥

And the truth is, I miss you. Being here without you is just not the same.

i love this song... it makes me feel so alive :)
thank goodness today got better!

wishing today was over.

New Music

Feast your ears on this!!

 

Asheville, Bryson City, & the Blue Ridge Parkway

Josh and I took a 3-day roadtrip through the mountains of TN and NC...  Here are a few pictures, and I'll post the rest tomorrow!! :)

^ Going swimming at Skinny Dip Falls 

Pisgah National Forest, NC

^ Wesser Bald hike ~ Fire Tower

We hiked on the Old AT!!

^ Blue Ridge Parkway ~ North Carolina

Exactly how i feel...

Lazy Sunday Afternoon at the Ocoee

Josh and I spent late Sunday afternoon lazing at the Blue Hole down by the Whitewater Centre. It was so relaxing...

^ the upper was flowing today!

^ josh at the whitewater centre

^ site of the 1996 Olympics

^ we stopped for the view at Boyd's Gap

^ at Lake Ocoee on the way back

^ the bottom of my mason jar... mmmm hard cider!

May and June 2013

Whooaaaaa! It's been over a month since my last post! How the heck did time go by so fast?! Well, I'm happy to say that I've made strides in my personal life this past month. I made a big move, started a new job, and have been embracing life with an open, thankful heart. It's never been so satisfying.

I now work right near the Ocoee River in southeast Tennessee. It's so refreshing being by the mountains and rivers... nature's beauty definitely puts things in perspective.

This past week I drove to Manchester, TN, (near Nashville) to volunteer at Bonnaroo, a huge 4-day music festival. This year it sold out, with over 80,000 tickets sold. The best part about it? (well... there's more than one...) I got in for free! Yep- volunteers get free tickets! I met the most amazing people living in the volunteer camping area. It was SUCH a fun time of community and great music.

And now I'm in the Atlanta area to visit my mom and Alex. It's Packing Central here, as there's less than 3 weeks left before the Big Move!  Here are some pics from the past few weeks! :)

^ saying goodbye to Lin and his family.

Josh and I cooked them an Italian meal.

^ Josh bought me roses for our 2nd anniversary. :)

^ volunteer check-in at Bonnaroo!!

^ the mushroom fountain at Bonnaroo 2013!

^ Paul McCartney in concert

^ Nicolas Cage showed up at The National

^ some of us cut onions with goggles.

You know who you are.

^ SUMMER FUN ~ ~ ~

Gearing up for a busy week! I am so thankful that I got to spend this past weekend with Kristin Mueller and her wonderful family~ celebrating her graduation and also her dad's graduation from Richmont Graduate School with his counseling degree! Yesterday I came home to spend Mother's Day with my beautiful mother. We had a delicious steak lunch before Dad jetted off to the airport, Randy and Lin jetted off to a Tim McGraw concert, and mom raced off to work. So, naturally, I baked cookies and had a dance party at the house last night. Hehehe.

Onward and forward, my friends.
It's gonna be a great week. :)

GuanYin

GuanYin 观音 ~ Goddess of Mercy in Chinese Buddhism
 ~ She who perceives the world's lamentations

Art to Ponder (Andy Farkas)

This is my favourite piece from an art gallery in Asheville, NC. It struck me as simplistically beautiful when I first saw it, so much that tears welled up in my eyes. The artist is Andy Farkas, an Asheville local. On the painting is a small, silver inscription that reads:

Afterwards, he cried.
And he didn't know why.

I think it's absolutely beautiful. Maybe I'm just at a point in my life where I really relate to the fox, who has just released something into the air. Actually, the Saturday that I browsed the gallery was truly the FIRST day in a very, very long time that I was able to fully let go of some things that had been weighing me down (in both a personal and inter-personal way) in hopes that forgiveness and not worrying would take me to a higher place.

And it has. I am moving forward in love, faith, self-respect, and forgiveness.
It's truly a beautiful thing.

I promise, no matter what happens, we'll be alright.

This is my inspiration for being myself without caring too much about what other ppl think. ;) Haha.

Pretty nice weekend- plenty of sun and warm temperatures. (If only it'd stay like this, eh!) Today I went for a nice hike at Kennesaw Mountain and ended the evening with jumping in the hot-tub with my mom. I'm considering doing a 3-wk trip with some Couchsurfers who are planning a trip out west. It would be camping and seeing some national parks in Utah, Nevada, and California in May. I also applied to volunteer at this year's Bonnaroo festival... so fingers crossed for that!

Goats

I was listening to the radio at 4:30 AM, on my way back from dropping Lin off at the airport. (He's flying to China for Spring Break.) The morning show featured a piece of interesting news from Tennessee about a woman who called 9-1-1 after hearing bloodcurdling screams coming from outside her home. Turns out it was just a neighbour's goat. LOL.

Then, on the subject of goats and their screaming capabilities, the radio show played this audio clip... which absolutely made my day. So hilarious. So spot-on.

Thank goodness I proofread my emails. Almost sent one to a prospective employer saying "i attacked my resume..."

It's almost as bad as a text i sent to an ex-boyfriend: "I love you tom." Thanks autocorrect, his name wasn't tom. That one took some explaining.

We're Moving (soon)!

Well, my title may be premature. What I meant to say is that our house is up for sale! We'll be moving in the summer, sometimes between May and July. My parents are looking at houses in Newport News / Hampton, which is right on the Chesapeake Bay and the James River. I've never been up there so I can't wait to visit! My dad's job is there, so he's already been living up there for a year.

We've had so many house showings since we listed it last Friday... which means keeping every square inch impeccably clean. Every time I have to leave for work I leave myself ten extra minutes to tidy everything. But I love having a clean space! Here's a few pics of my room:

In other news, almost everyone in my household was sick last weekend. (I was sick for 8 days... ugh!) We had a super lazy weekend, napping during the times we didn't have to run off to the nearest coffee shop so realtors could show our house. We're all getting better, although this yo-yo weather here isn't helping. One days it's shorts weather and the next day it's winter jacket time. I have summer fever so bad!!! Take me to the beach!

And, in other random news, look at the size of this Golden Graham I found! Whoa!!