It's Not a Party 'Til Someone Calls 911

"Charli, are you coming to church with us?" Alyx whispered, pressing her face close to the safety bar of the loft bed.
"Yeah," Charli mumbled. Then she tried to sit up. The nausea hit her like a heatwave. "No."

Yesterday we celebrated my sister's Sweet Sixteen with a 40's swing dance party. The event itself was fantastic. I pumped myself full of nose-spray and tylenol and set up the party with my family while Alyx and a few friends got ready at a house nearby. The party started at five. The first guest arrived at five-oh-three. We finally finished decorating around twenty after.

Despite only three of the forty-some-odd people there knowing how to swing dance, we had a blast stepping on each other's toes and twirling around. Alyx looked adorable. The rest of us looked okay, too. ;)

Out of the blue - or not really, considering DJ Josh had a special announcement for the birthday girl - instead of a 40's song, there came a favorite hip-hop song. The floor was vacated as we could barely swing dance, much less break dance. Alyx and a few friends eventually made their way back to dance in a little circle.

It was then that the party came to an abrupt halt - around quarter to eight - when our dear friend Katie collapsed with a dislocated knee. Since she's double-jointed pretty much everywhere, I honestly didn't see anything out of the ordinary until the paramedics arrived and stretched her out on her back. I have never seen a leg turned completely sideways at the knee.

She's not in much pain now (unless she's lying, which is possible, 'cause she's a trooper). She's got her brace and ice packs and crutches and her sister's wedding to walk down the aisle at on Saturday. I'd volunteer to carry her if I didn't think that would look funny. Oops.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

30 Superficial Things I'm Thankful For

I didn't post at all in November. Not once. Yet I still have the same average amount of page views, which lets me know you guys still checked and probably muttered a bit when there was nothing new. I'm sorry.

Here's a random, thrown-together, totally superficial list of things I'm thankful for on a day-to-day basis:

1. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (okay, this one's not at all superficial, just straight-forward) | 2. family & friends (also not superficial) | 3. cuddly overgrown puppies | 4. pencil stubs | 5. picture frames | 6. guitars | 7. firelogs & coffee mugs | 8. comfy clothes | 9. spiral-bound notebooks | 10. roadtrips | 11. scrivener | 12. sweet smells | 13. cowgirl boots | 14. medieval dresses | 15. cellphones & email | 16. country music | 17. rainstorms | 18. cold weather | 19. blue jeans | 20. sketchbooks | 21. marshmallows (because sugar) | 22. happy memories | 23. celtic music | 24. flipflops | 25. buttons | 26. conversations | 27. fleece blankets | 28. stained-glass windows | 29. clean sheets | 30. blog followers who keep reading despite long absences.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|
{ps - thanksgiving was weird without ben}
{pps - ben's coming home on friday!!!}
{ppps - frozen was a great movie}
{pppps - i dressed up as poison ivy for a youth group thing. boy, was that embarrassing.}

Stuff I Was Too Lazy to Post About

1| (way back in September) Aunt Jennifer came to visit.
We went to City Walk and Bubba Gump's Shrimp Shack, then wandered around IKEA, spent a good deal of time sitting on the couch laughing and chatting, and cried a lot when she left. (moveheremaybe?)

2| (two weeks ago) we celebrated Dad's 50th...
...as a family. Because we're bums and didn't feel like planning anything. Dad said he was okay with it. But we went to Disney (first time without Ben, really weird) and saw the new Fantasy Land and all that good stuff.

3| (yesterday) Church Fall Picnic.
Got a football to the gut and sweet tea all over my pants, but it was fun. Even when we played volleyball. (read as: everyone else played volleyball while I stood in the corner and prayed the ball would never come to me.)

4| assorted random things.
Ben's coming home in seven weeks. I plan on finishing my book before Christmas. There's a ton of sewing that I should be doing instead of messing around on my 'puter. Alyx is testing for her yellow belt in taikwando today. And I am totally lacking the creativity to make this interesting. (Sorry Aunt Jen, Dad, everyone else, for not doing you justice.)

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

I Have an Aversion to Complete Sentences.

First-- a few random notes.

-Rather ironic that the last post - over two and half weeks ago - happens to be about writing. Which, obviously, I don't do nearly enough of.

-I find myself craving Christmas. Honestly no idea why. Well, actually, I do have a few ideas, but I'm not going to share them.

-Also recently obsessed with this song. I've been a fan of the group for ages, but when they came out with this song, I didn't care for it all that much. Needless to say, it grew on me.

-Legend of Korra Book 2 released the first episode yesterday. Not as good as the Last Airbender, but still fun.

-Played guitar and sang with friends at a playground today, shared a bit of God's love, and gave away a soccer ball. :)

-My room is almost clean. Well, you can see the floor. For those of you who have seen my room in its average state, you know what a big deal that is.

-I got my driver's license. And the second time driving without a licensed-adult-over-twenty-one, I hit a squirrel. Many tears were shed.

-I'm back at Freedom Ride. We have a new horse!! But I'm not allowed to pet her yet. :(

-Every word I write in AMT makes it the longest book I have ever written. It makes me giddy and all the more unmotivated.


Second--

Ha. Just kidding. There is no 'second'.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

Pros and Cons of Life In General

+ No more school!!

- All my friends are going off to college or still in high school. Nobody has time to be lazy with me.

+ Possible full-time job coming up that offers incredible pay and late mornings.

- Full-time job means limited fellowship time, severely cut-back hours at Freedom Ride, none of the extracurricular activities that I miss so much, and putting my hair up every morning.

+ "I finished outlining my book - detailed, chapter-by-chapter, I-now-know-everything-that-will-happen kind of outline." Words that have never before come out of Charli Rae's mouth (or been typed by her fingers)... but now they have. ;)

- Back pain is making it hard to get motivated to do anything. Mom keeps saying exercise'll help, but moving hurts.

+ Alyx is probably getting promoted to Lieutenant next Monday. All she's gotta do is go before the promotion board, which she'll pass with flying colors!

- I miss Ben. I respect now that he was a far better older sibling than I - he dealt with me storming into his room and flopping on his bed and demanding that he do something entertaining a whole lot better than I handle Alyx doing the same thing. And nobody else appreciates my random hugs.

+ Mom and I get to visit Ben on FRIDAY. :D

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

Graduation - Part 2

Those of you who know me - or if you've been reading this blog for a while - probably know some pretty straightforward things about me. I have a terrible sense of direction, for one. And I'm kind of obnoxious for an introvert. I can't write on a schedule to save my life. Oh, and I don't dance.

So, because I like to shock people, I broke one of my personality rules at our graduation dance. And there's a ton of proof. Enjoy.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

Graduation - Part 1

I started the day with nerves. Y'know, all the stereotypical stuff - butterflies in my stomach, feeling a bit dizzy - along with some weird things, like my hands hurt. Maybe I fell asleep clenching them. I dunno.

Anyway, my hands started to feel better as the day went on, but my stomach grew more and more upset. A few of the other graduates and I went earlier to the ceremony rehearsal so we could get in some practice for the song we would be performing, where I found out I couldn't play my own guitar because it didn't have a jack, but another graduate offered to let me use his and it was all good again. As we rehearsed, I was reminded about how intimidating stages and audiences and microphones - oh, especially microphones - could be. But we made it through without too much trouble.

The rehearsal for the ceremony was a lot easier; maybe because I wasn't in charge, or maybe because I was too preoccupied with not throwing up or fainting, or both, to care. I had to be reminded on several occasions to 'sit like a lady', which was a little embarrassing. Then we got tossed in a back room and were told to wait.

And wait, we did.

For a long time.

Then we got shepherded out to the lobby and paired off and sent to march down the middle. Boys in nice suits and fancy ties. Girls in nice dresses and fancy shoes. Me in a fancy dress and cowgirl boots.

Time slowed to a crawl as Riley gave a fantastic prayer, some other graduates performed a worship song, and Alex delivered an excellent speech, which was followed by John Stemburger's equally excellent speech. All the while I was fidgeting in my seat, waiting for my little gang to be called up. Boots tapping. Fingers alternately getting pinched in my capo and scrambling for my falling guitar pick.

Finally we were called up. Hannah went to her microphone. I tried to move mine closer to the guitar stand. Sarah sat down at the piano and started to play her solo. The guitar strap fell off as I tried to get it over my head. I was a full measure late to the song.

Otherwise, though, I think it went rather well. I didn't miss the chords I'd been struggling with. Hannah's fears proved unfounded as she nailed the vocals. Sarah did perfect, as always. And Josh - who was graduating with a different school and agreed to help me even when I gave him only a week's notice - made the song special by playing the solo.

The rest of the ceremony was a blur. I almost cried when my parents' recording played over the slideshow of pictures from my growing up. Mom cried unashamed.

And by the way, those of you future graduates who don't know already - they don't actually give you your diploma during the ceremony. I knew that - I really did, don't roll your eyes - but I thought I'd get some cool ribbon out of the deal. I got some flimsy black plastic stuff that comes from the dollar store.

So. Lessons learned. Don't clench your hands while you sleep. Practice a lot before you perform and show that microphone who's boss. Fake diplomas don't come with cool ribbon.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

I'm the Evil Twin

So. I wanted to post something. Maybe because it's been a week since I last posted and the previous post was five days before that one and I finally feel dedicated to my blog. Or maybe it's just cause it's late and I'm bored but not bored enough to go to bed.

At first, I thought I lacked post-matter. I figured surfing through my old pictures would help, but it turns out my new ones worked better.

Ben's leaving in a few weeks. Sixteen days, actually. But probably less by the time y'all read this post. The idea of it is really starting to affect me - and I say 'idea of it' because when he goes off to Pensacola, I'll go off to Washington state... and it's probably not going to fully hit me until I come back to no Ben. And then it's gonna hit me like a train.

We threw a party for him on Sunday - a surprise party, not that anyone devastated-that-they-couldn't-come-and-just-HAD-to-tell-him-how-sorry-they-were-that-they-couldn't-be-there knew - but he didn't catch on until we wanted him to. ;) My parents were shocked that so many people attended. I wasn't. I know how much people love him.

Oi. But hey, when I do come back from summer vacation, I'll be coming back to a room that I don't have to share with anyone for the first time in my life. That's totally worth it, right?

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|
{ps - i have a t-shirt that says 'i'm the evil twin'. people always think ben and i are twins.}

Surprise Blog Break!

Did ya miss me?

Hey, don't be mad. It was a surprise even to me. It's been the lazy kind of hectic where I had plenty of time for blogging but just didn't feel like it. Plus, I've had nothing interesting enough for a post of it's own, but now I can shove it all in one post and be done with it!

What's been happening -

I got a job...
At a barn. Where they don't pay me. But I do get to be around horses and on rare fifteen-minute occasions they let me ride. So now I work up to seventeen hours a week at two very different barns and don't earn a cent.

Four or five unfinished sewing projects...
That you will probably be reading more about later. Like, June-ish. When I'll (hopefully) have them finished.

Ben's leaving in three months...
The day after graduation. He got accepted into Pensacola Christian College's work-study program, so he's their prisoner for the whole summer. And then he starts college. Without me. Yippee.

I'm writing on a schedule now...
Book-wise, at least. Right now I feel very smug because I'm two weeks ahead of schedule, but I can see the dark cloud hovering in the distance - the day when I can't send the chapter out to my readers and they all hate me and I feel like a slacker. Which I am.

Well, this is a lot shorter than I thought. There's gotta be something else...

I guess that's it. Huh. It feels like my head's screwed on backwards and I can't think at all, so I leave you with... four... pitiful... excuses. *ducks behind my desk* Don't hate me!

~Charli Rae

I'm on a Techie Diet

Two hours of textbook reading. An hour for sewing, which might seem like a lot, but some of these projects I was supposed to have done before Christmas (oops). Two hours of writing time, one for my thesis paper (yikes) and the other for my book (yes, book, singular). One hour on the tablet, now my only source of internet -- one short hour to access facebook, blogger, and skype.

That's six hours. Of a +sixteen-hours-of-up-and-about day. Oy.

Needless to say, I'm going to be bored. Healthy. But bored. Who knows, maybe I'll be bored enough to clean the house. We'll see.

In the mean time I'll be writing all blog posts on the tablet, which, aside from having a really weird format, has absolutely no form of spellcheck, so y'all'll get to see what I really write like. There's nothing to tell me that "y'all'll" isn't a word. Nothing to tell me that "mean time" is really "meantime". I depend so much on technology that it scares me.

So, that's all. Sorry for the absense. I can't find my signature on this thingie, so I leave you with a simple--

~Charli Rae

My Crazy Life

It's been a busy week. One that dragged on and on. Some good things happened and some not-so-good things happened. Monday afternoon my parents went up to Jacksonville for Dad's work. Monday night, or Tuesday morning, really, somebody {unsuccessfully} broke into the car. Tuesday and Wednesday were a blur of cancelling outings, trying to make it to some, deciding whether or not Mom and Dad should come home early, and running back and forth with duct tape and trash bags to protect the door from rain.

{officially terrified of car alarms now}

Thursday I went to Freedom Ride and Momma picked me up (I don't think I've ever been that excited leaving FR). Friday, we went to Give Kids the World to volunteer at the Gingerbread House (restaurant) and had a friend spend the night. Saturday we dragged said friend along with us to a CAP open house, and while she spent the night again, I went to a different sleepover at which many strange things happened, so if you hear me say, "Where's my baby?" in a creepy voice, don't be alarmed. Sunday we had friends over after church and I had a bit of a bad attitude for things not related to my friends, but I am very sorry that they had to witness it. :(

But yeah. It's over. A new week has begun.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

I Have Kidnapped My Cousin.

Okay, two statements to make - 1) I have the coolest friends ever, and 2) I am officially a geek.

From left to right: "Adorable Medieval Gal" - Lilly, "Katniss Everdeen" - Breanna, "Merida" - me, "Pocahontas" - Danielle, "Zelda" - Katie, "Susan Pevensie" - Alyx, and "No-one-cool-to-dress-up-as-'sides-it's-too-late-anyway" - Ashley

Saturday afternoon, we went and saw Brave. Awesome movie. Not the best on a Pixar-standard, but still awesome. But, since I refuse to do anything like a normal person, I suggested we dress up. It's kinda freaky that they all listened.

From left to right: "Hawkeye" - Noah, "Robin Hood" - Josh, "Legolas" - Ben

Oh, and another thing - Bethanie says hi. :D

She also says (after giving me a weird look and an "I don't know" and a rather painful headbonk with a book and a "NOO!!!" and another weird look and a bunch of pokes and being temporarily distracted by Alyx's poofy hair), "I loved being Charlenie's surprise! I miss my family, but I like being with the Swansons in Florida. And meeting their hyper and... 'interesting' friends."

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

Hi! Random Spaz-Attack, Here!

Again, I must apologize in advance for the picture-less post. Not that text-only is a bad thing, but it can be a little hard on the eyes, so I'm sorry. :(

So... what was I gonna write again...?

Oh. Right. What y'all have missed.

~June 30th, Saturday. 100+ degrees. Paintballing for a buddy's birthday.
It's just as painful as your brothers have told you, people. Or a lot worse, if your brothers pretend to enjoy it. Or, for those of you without brothers, if someone ever tells you, "It's just like a bee sting - you rub it and it's gone" - stare at them long and hard. If they look easy-going, mark them as a liar and be wary. If they're leaning forward eagerly and truly believe what they're saying, mark them as insane and be very wary.
Anyway, it was fun, don't get me wrong. Ignoring the bruises the size of baseballs.

~July 4th, Wednesday. 90-100 degrees. Beach.
Happy belated 4th, by the way! I totally meant to post and plum forgot. Which is normal. *cough*.
Yeah, anyhoo, we went to the beach with friends. The waves were great until we went back for the boogie boards (yes, I'm aware normal people don't call them that) and then, of course ('cause the ocean hates me), the waves went flat. So we tossed around a half-full water bottle, until somebody decided to fill it all the way up and then somebody else grabbed it, with "no idea", and chucked it. Bye-bye water bottle.
And because the ocean hates me, it decided to knock me over and fill my bad ear with water. Which it still has. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever hear out of this thing again.

~July 6th, Friday. Pleasantly air-conditioned. Home.
Absolutely nothing. :D

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|
{oh, just thought i'd letchya know - there're 'like' buttons now, for those of you who don't comment. :)}

On Rodeos and Dancing

~Friday night was one of the best nights I've had in a long time. Why? Well, as you may have guessed from the title, I went to a rodeo. And not just some random rodeo - Silver Spurs, with two of my best friends.

Performance-wise, it was a little disappointing. The first several cowboys in the steer roping didn't even try. The first several in steer wrestling missed their steers completely. The barrel racers didn't even get under sixteen seconds - they all still did great, but it was a bit of a let down. But, on the other hand, this is coming from a girl in skater shoes with bright neon blue laces.

Still, just being there was fantastic. My back still hurts from sitting on the edge of my seat, my hands are still slightly numb from all the clapping, and my voice is definetly still raw from the screaming and cheering.

(I do have to say - in the junior division of the bull riding, the second kid to go did better than a lot of the men. All I could do was watch with my mouth wide open and count the seconds, growing more and more baffled with each one. When it got to eight, I was like, Okay, you can let go any time now...)

~Saturday night was a celebration! One about graduation. (No, not mine. Still a little early for that.) Some pretty awesome people - such as Christine Subramanyam, who's always full of hugs and sarcastic remarks, Aaron Splitter, my best friend's older brother and a great guitar player, and Miguel Flores, Alyx's-best-friend's-older-brother (whew, mouthful) and a fantastic writer - are leaving homeschool. But not home, hopefully. And, if they continue on to college, not school, either. Kinda backwards, huh...?

Anyhoo, the age requirement for the dance afterwards was fourteen, and since I had a ton of friends graduating, I had no right excuse to miss it. And, as now-fourteen-year-old-Alyx's sister, I was commanded to. So yeah, I went and did the watch-and-mock, which, according to my friend who was trying absolutely everything to get me to dance and win his five-dollar bet, is now a dance. Ha. But seriously, I don't dance.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|
{ps--since we're almost half-way through the year (holy cow!), here's an update on my listy-thinger-ma-bob. 1 is coming along quite nicely, as are 6, 7, 17, and 18. everything else... ha.}

{surprising lack of} April Fools!

Not much went on yesterday in the embarrassment department. I didn't pull anything myself, trigger (or see, for that matter) any physical pranks, and only got hit by a couple "I'm going to tell you something and snicker while you take forever to decide if it's true or just an April Fools!". And then, you know, there were a couple horrendous tragedies and pregnancy hints on facebook, but nothing over the top.

Huh.

On a non-look-out-for-pranking-everywhere aspect, yesterday was a great day. Went to church and heard a fantastic sermon, after which I kidnapped my best friend and took her to the Sun n' Fun airshow in Lakeland. Despite the heat and overwhelmingly-bright sun, it was awesome.

(All these pictures are actually from Saturday--I didn't end up taking any pictures yesterday.)


My sister is the coolest. Just have to brag. She endured the *cough* torture of watching the Thunderbirds zoom overhead in their deafeningly loud planes, performing the most jaw-dropping stunts. Only the thought that one day she will be able to do this kept her holding on to sanity. I can't wait to see it.

Although, after watching the airshow, my mom thinks it should be illegal to have that much fun. ;)

*Grr*... Such People...

I would apologize for not posting anything for two weeks (even though there're at least fifteen new posts in my blog feed from the last week alone). I would even go as far to excuse myself by informing you of the SATs I've had to endure, but to be honest, they were just over the past two days, and I only studied on Monday. *cough*

So no, I'm not apologizing, nor am I making excuses, but I did have to bring up the SATs so this story will make sense.

The first two sections were over vocabulary and reading comprehension. Without too much difficulty, they were over and the teacher called a break, so like many others, I took the opportunity to use the restroom. And there I heard the most awful things.

Girl 1 - "Oh my gosh, I hate reading!"

Girl 2 - "Yeah, I know; I just read the questions and went back and found the answers."

Girl 1 - "I wish I thought of that! I had to read the whole thing."

Girl 3 - "I just skimmed and it was still torture."

After they left, I stormed out to wash my hands. A friend of mine looked over at me, grinned, and patiently stood by to wait out my rampage. I mean, seriously, who not only complains about reading, but has the audacity to hate it?

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

Ramblings - Feel Free to Ignore

This week was/is my mom's spring break. We explored Downtown Disney on Monday, but other than that, we haven't really celebrated her week-of-no-school. Why not? Because, crazy lady that she is, she's spending it studying. No homework, no tests. Just studying.

I admire my mother so much. If I were her, what precious little amount of brains I have would have leaked out my ears by now.

Anyway, I'm sure this comes across as a shock... *cough*intensesarcasm*cough*... but I just can't commit to a book. As soon as the thought, "Y'know, I think I'll try to get 12:10 done this year," crosses my mind, I get a flood of ideas for Riding Orion and its fellow series...es (eek! what a word! how do you say that?!). So how does one react to that? By working on them both, of course. Skatterbrained-ness has to come in handy for something.

But I thought you all might be interested (or not, but please pretend) in 12:10, because... *brrrrrrrrrrbumbadum*

It's a comic book!!

Yeah, we'll see how that turns out. I've only really glanced over comic books (though I'm a huge fan of superheroes) and I have no idea how to write one (well, how could I, when I don't even read them?). But I think that's what makes it so much fun. Not to mention it's about 11/12-year-olds, so I get to mess around with the humor a lot more. And my dad (amazing person that he is) not only loves comic books but used to work for Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. My parents are my heroes.

That said, let's talk about sewing. Or rather, I'll talk about sewing and let you close your browser whenever you get bored (which, if you're smart, was about four paragraphs ago). My medieval dress has gone nowhere. The forlorn pieces are lying in a crate in my desk (that's right, not under - in), waiting hopelessly for me to put them together. But I just... have no excuse. I'm a lazy bum.

But I am going to sew a gauntlet. Not two, just one. For the left arm. Why? 'Cause Ben has a bunch of archery stuff and, while having fun and shooting people (with carefully foam-wrapped arrows), I obliviously scraped the bowstring against my forearm whenever I fired. It left a really big bruise.

Well. I'm exhausted. If you read this far, comment and tell me -- I will stick by you for the rest of my life. Well, until you admit I'm incredibly annoying, at least.

So what do you think? Any comic-book-writing advice? Or suggestions for the gauntlet? Or a way to overcome my laziness and sew that dress?

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

20 things to do in 2012

1. Schedule things out with the knowledge that they probably won’t happen – just to test flexibility. ;)

2. Try out a new recipe at least once a month (just twelve; can’t be that bad, right?).

3. Completely restore the backyard to its former glory (assuming it had some).

4. Get a job. (Joanne Fabrics, a barn… Joanne Fabrics…)

5. Finish writing a book.

6. Sew a medieval dress.

7. Improve guitar skills.

8. Make impossible goals and be insanely surprised that they happen.

9. Train the dog to do something other than ‘sit’.

10. Sing in public without passing out or having a zombie-moment.

11. Become a more avid blogger.

12. Memorize a Bible passage at least once a month.

13. Read a book at least once a week.

14. Perfect an Irish accent.

15. Write/video at least four skits for Purple Ninjas.

16. Talk to people that I don’t normally.

17. Write a song that isn’t stupid.

18. Spend more time studying – and do well without guessing in school.

19. Keep my areas of the house clean… and maybe areas that aren’t technically ‘mine’.

20. And… maybewearskirtsmoreoften.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

*Great* Music

So, this post was going to be about food, wasn't it? Oh, well. I'm very fickle - and I have changed my mind once again. We all know what good food is, don't we? It's a big subject, with lots of opinions, tastes, and varieties. Wanna know something similar? Music. I figure it's an appropriate topic as we enter the Christmas season. :)

Bad music makes you want to squeeze your ears until your head explodes, and, in my opinion (which doesn't have to be shared), is anything that makes your body vibrate with the bass. Good music can influence your emotions - make you happy or sad - and your actions - make you want to dance or cry, or sometimes, better music can make you do both. But great music... well, that's different for everyone.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Influences:

Star of Munster, an Irish reel

For me, great music, the best music, makes my heart physically hurt when I listen to it. It fills me with indescribable joy and sadness in the same instant.

(Just to clarify, we're talking the actual music here, not the lyrics. Great songs can have wonderful lyrics and still be bad music. The opposite is also true.)

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Influences:

"Greengrass" - Irish/bluegrass

The instruments that make up great music for me are fiddle (sometimes violin; yes, I am aware they're technically the same instrument), guitar, bagpipes, and flute. I'm sure there are probably more, and, of course, my opinions about music changes as I grow. But my current favorites fit the criteria for great music. I find myself holding my breath as each song starts. All three are by the same people, Keith & Kristyn Getty, an Irish couple who have amazing hearts for God and use their musical talents for His ministry. Their Christmas songs combine their homeland's most famous reels with traditional lyrics. I absolutely love them - I hope you will, too. :)

Two of them are up; the last won't work. :( It's What Child is This? and has Spanish influences throughout the song. Well, they're the first three songs on the Joy: An Irish Christmas CD; if you want to give someone an amazing Christmas present, there it is. :) What's great music to you?

~Charli Rae 

|Job 39:19-25|

*Sigh*...

{What she knows her blog to be:}

Unimaginative. Irregular. Dull. Stand-offish.


{What she wishes her blog could be:}

Inspirational. Original. Creative. Easy to relate to.


{Problems going from 'is' to 'will be':}

She's lazy. She's unadventurous. She rarely tries new things. She's hesitant to share things for fear that they will be scorned.

{Boy, does she have a lot to work on...}

~Charli Rae 

|Job 39:19-25|