Favorites: Gene Kelly Dances

During the 1940s and 50s, there lived a man who was most popular for his dance. His name? Gene Kelly. If you have heard of him before, you probably will agree with me that he is one genius of a dancer. If you have never heard of him in your life....I am so very sorry.
If you are one of those, then don't worry. By the end of this post, you will know who Gene Kelly is. :)

My sister and I are huge fans. We have a whole collection of Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra movies. In these films, there are at least one or two scenes where Mr. Kelly does some freaky awesome tap dancing. Out of all of those scenes, these are my favorites:

Movie: Summer Stock (starring Judy Garland)

Click this to see video: Anchors Aweigh

Movie: Anchors Aweigh (starring Frank Sinatra)

Movie: Thousands Cheer (sorry for the bad quality...at least you can sort of see it :)

And of course, the one he is most famous for...

Movie: Singing in the Rain

P.S. You know what's fun? Driving off towards the highway with about 3 cars honking furiously behind you because you left your drink on top of your car...
How was your day?

It is not death to die

The service in church this morning was beautiful. I don't just say that flippantly. It truly was moving. This past Friday, a dear lady in our church family passed away. She had been suffering with cancer for some time, and went to be with the Lord on Friday evening. Personally, I was not close to her, but I know that she was loved dearly by many in our church family.
This morning we were given a report on how everything went on Friday. It was truly amazing because there were so many things going on that God was working out so carefully. He was taking care of her and her 9-year-old son with so much care that it moved many of us to tears.
I was reminded how death can be a time of sadness, yet an opportunity to rejoice for those who love God who have gone to be with Him for eternity--with no pain and no grief. What a glorious thought! It is very saddening to see how this fallen world represses the very thought of death and does whatever it can to avoid it. For us as believers, to die is gain! To be with Christ for eternity and leave this world behind--our faith shall be sight and our joy shall be full.
We sang a beautiful song this morning that gave me much comfort. It's called "It Is Not Death to Die" by Sovereign Grace Music:

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones."

~Psalm 116:15

P.S. Something I thought of when I finished this post: How amazing it is that for believers, death truly is better than life.

Favorites: TV themes

There are certain TV programs that have really good openings/theme songs that you don't easily forget. These are a few of my favorites that I find funny, beautiful, or they just put a smile on my face.


The Office:

I Love Lucy:

Green Acres (oooh the memories):

Little Dorrit (the piano is really pretty):

P.S. Happy September

How Firm a Foundation

Something I have noticed lately is that I am slowly discovering the amazing truths in the more traditional hymns that we sing in church. Our church has music that varies from the more contemporary worship songs to the traditional hymns (most of which were written a long time ago). I love all of them, but when I was younger I never really understood the hymns. The language in which they were written was different and I just didn't really try to understand what I was singing. Well, I'm sorry to say that I am just now getting those lyrics! I guess I just never paid attention...
Anyways, all of that to say that there is some AMAZING stuff in those hymns!! I love Chris Tomlin and Hillsong and all that, but I have to say that some of my favorite songs can be found in a hymnbook. The past few weeks I've been meditating on the hymn, "The Love of God." MercyMe did a really good rendition of it. It's in my little playlist on the bottom of this page. Scroll down and check it out!
This week, I've fallen in love with the words to "How Firm a Foundation." They are just SO encouraging!! It was written in 1787, yet here in 2011 we are still singing it. :)
Here are the lyrics for you: (I also have the Sovereign Grace version of this hymn in my playlist if you would like to have a listen)

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said
To you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call you to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
And sanctify to you your deepest distress.

When through fiery trials your pathways shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be your supply;

The flame shall not hurt you; I only design
Your dross to consume, and your gold to refine.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

P.S. The last two verses are my favorites. :)

Something to keep you happy

I first want to apologize for my delay in updating this blog. I have been ill with the flu this past week so I did not feel like doing anything at all except lay in bed and try to situate myself in such a way that I would not worsen the pain that plagued my entire body.
Anyways, I thought I might share a few pictures that I find interesting or hilarious or both. Enjoy.
(credit goes to whoever made them)

My personal favorite:

P.S. This song is amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5CF9OJRKkA&feature=feedlik

Disney Horror Films

When I was younger (approximately from age 5 to 10) there were certain Disney movies that I didn't watch and even refused to watch. Most of them were made very early (1940s), but contain concepts and villains that completely freaked me out as a kid. Here are my top three:

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

By far the scariest movie of my childhood. I absolutely refused to watch any part of it. I never even dared to look at the cover of the VHS that sat in our movie cabinet. There was always this constant image in my mind that gave me nightmares. You could tell me stories about monsters hiding under my bed all day long, but the only thing I would ever be scared of was the possibility that this image might come out of my closet at night or pop up in my window:

I don't think the Disney animators could've picked a more frightening or horrific image than that right there. I would love to meet the guy who came up with this idea, but he's probably dead by now. Gotta give him credit for creativity though. It just so happens that his creativity haunted me for my entire childhood. That's all.

I'm not bitter or anything.

2. Pinocchio

Now this movie didn't scare me so much with horrifying images but rather with the concepts. When I was little, I hated watching any movie/TV show that had kids being captured or tortured (not necessarily physically). In Pinocchio, he wasn't exactly a kid....he was just a living puppet who was captured by an evil puppetmaster and was turned into a donkey against his will. Yeah. That's good for little kids to watch. To this day, I will not watch Pinocchio even if it was the only movie on the planet. No offense to the sick-minded Disney filmmakers.

3. The Black Cauldron

A lot of people have never even heard of this movie before. It wasn't exactly a successful film. It was made sometime in the 1980s I think. Anyways, in our household we used to watch Disney movies aaaaaalll the time. I remember hearing about this movie, but we weren't allowed to watch it and I was never told why.

Well now I know.

I recently found this movie on youtube and watched it (this was about a month or two ago). I will admit WITH PRIDE that I was seriously freaked out. Not even kidding. It probably didn't help that it was really late at night and everyone was asleep but me...and all of the lights were off too. But anyways, that's beside the point.

Just to give you an idea, the plot reminded me very much of the Lord of the Rings. Just replace Frodo with a little boy, the ring with an ancient black cauldron (and a magical pig if you want to get technical), and Gollum with a dog-like animal creature thing named Gurgi. All of this was totally fine, but what really scared me was the "Sauron" of the movie, pictured here:

Yeah...

He is known as "The Horned King," so I was expecting...oh, I don't know, a Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty) kind of thing.

Nope.

The animation combined with the deep scraggly voice and the eerie castle pretty much did it for me. I was sitting there with chills going up and down my spine. It was just plain creepy.

So there we have it. The three most horrifying Disney films in existence. I highly doubt they will be able to top themselves...but then again, they did come up with Pinocchio and the Black Cauldron several years after Snow White. Who knows?

One last look for the road:

P.S. Sweet dreams.

Just a typical Sunday afternoon . . .

Yesterday after church, Anna, Andrew (my little brother) and I all went over to Me-mama and D-daddy's house. That sentence probably made absolutely no sense to you at all if you don't know them. Our friends the Sheppards have grandparents (aka Me-mama and D-daddy) who live very close to us. This is a picture of Taylor and Cody, the two oldest kids of the family:

Anyways, we sometimes meet them at their grandparent's house for lunch on Sunday afternoons. This time we had a very lovely and very Southern lunch consisting of pork and gravy, rice, butter beans, broccoli, and some pineapple casserole that was, quite literally, the bomb. Oh yeah, and some buttered Italian bread on the side.

After our delicious lunch, Anna, Taylor, and I decided to work on their song (they are performing in church sometime soon). Taylor played her guitar and sang, and Anna played her violin. I just sat there and helped them figure out the melody. :)
It was really fun! They played around a bit (we tend to digress from time to time) and we came up with an alternate version of a Tay Swift song. We call it "We Belong With Thee," a more "spiritualized" version. :)
Unfortunately, I didn't get a recording of that song, but I did make a video of Anna and Taylor doing a song called "Next To Me" by Sleeping at Last. It's a really good song. And they're really good singers/ukulele players (as you can see from the video).

In case you're interested, here is the original version:

Personally, I like Taylor and Anna's version better.

But that's just me.

P.S. "Ukulele" is probably the best word ever. God bless the person who invented that instrument.