Music

Man, I love music.

I love what it does to me when I hear it.  I love how it sets the tone for an evening.  I love how it can change at atmosphere.  I love how we use it to express ourselves.

I love the lyrics to music.

I love the melodies of music.

I love that Jesus made us to praise Him with music, to praise Him with our voices.

I saw the coolest movie the other day that sparked this thought.

Equilibrium is the name of the movie.  It stars Christian Bale as John Preston, a high-ranking enforcement officer in a future dystopia in which all forms of emotional expression are illegal, and citizens are forced to take daily injections of drugs to suppress their emotions. After accidentally missing one such injection Preston begins to experience emotion; he begins to question his own morality and to moderate his actions, while attempting to remain undetected by the suspicious society in which he lives. 


So after he's missed his injection and his emotions begin to open up a bit, he hears this:





Up until this point in the movie, it has been totally devoid of music.  Bale's character has been so unemotional, it has been so cold, and then all of the sudden those notes from Beethoven's 9th come.


I don't care how you feel about classical music, music in general is so emotional.  I hear certain songs on my iPod that sometimes bring me to tears thinking about my Jessa.  I hear other songs that remind me of home and the Diamond H Ranch.  I hear other songs that remind me of yelling at the top of my lungs driving around with my best friends.


I love music.

And then ...

I had this thought: I would so much rather be some incredible entrepreneur than be famous.

Now I realize that there are many famous entrepreneurs, but it is just different somehow.

After reading a magazine article about Steve Jobs (Apple) and watching a year old dateline about Taylor Swift (awesome) I am very convinced about this whole entrepreneur thing. It is possible that you might be thinking that Taylor Swift is famous because she sings and plays her guitar (GI-TAR) and has great hair but you are SO wrong. Taylor Swift writes, produces, designs, leads, micro-manages successfully, casts vision, and is nice people. I would definitely call that being an entrepreneur especially since her record label Big Machine was just a dream in some ex-universal record employee's head when she signed with him.

Then there is Steve Jobs who has single handled guided Apple into being TOTally amazing. I mean it is because of him that I am able to write this here blog on this here computer.

So if I could somehow combine myself into being a mix between Taylor Swift, Steve Jobs, and Giada Delaurentiis then that would be totally awesome. The world would not know what to do with a blond singer song writer computer genius who single handedly transformed the music, cell phone, movie, and computer industries while also excelling in then kitchen.

I just had to throw Giada in there for her good looks and amazing cooking ability.

Real or Fake?

My view from the front porch this morning. I am far from being a photographer but I just thought this was so beautiful! I just wanted to put this on the blog even though it does not have much to do with the topic today.

Morning Quietness

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Real or Fake?

The last month or so I have kind of been in a little bit of a funk. This funk could be described as being a little disengaged emotionally and content to not do any introspective thinking. While I had this funk "on" I kept wondering why I was like this and I never could exactly put my finger on it, but I decided that it would eventually pass and I would return to my normal self. Which happened this morning - I awoke and just felt new and better and more alive than I have been feeling lately, despite the cold that is trying to attack my body. My first instinct was to blog about making it through those times and coming out on the other side, and then thankfully I realized that is totally lame and very "Christian bubble" like. I do not want to "make it" through anything I want to take advantage of every trial and learn something. Instead of coming up with my own "fix it" lesson for myself I decided to put it before the Lord and listen to what He has to say about it. I have not heard anything yet, but I really want to understand from him what was going on with me before I self analyze. It could be that God wants to change something inside of me and I am kind of uncomfortable with that so I just kind of shut down!!! SHOCKER

I had one of those moments this morning where you discover your own hypocritical tendencies and you yourself are shocked by them yet at the same time are equally glad that God allowed you to discover it yourself so that someone else did not have to point it out for you! Thank you Jesus.

I am way into being vulnerable when things are going bad. Now, I am on my own journey figuring this out and still have tons and tons to learn. It is not an easy journey because then I have to actually apply what God shows me and actually BE vulnerable when things are not all pretty and tied up with ribbons. The reason I have not blogged much in the last month or so about my inner deep things is because I did not want to look myself. Ouch. Yet, at the same time I also did not want to be all fake religious about it either. I was kind of caught in the middle of being real and being fake.

What caught me off guard this morning was how quick I was to want to blog about having just gotten through a tough emotional time (for which I still have no real explanation, other than what I am realizing right now) before I even sat down and prayed about it and asked God about and actually LEARNED what He wanted me to know. How religious of me! Then I started to think about all the times I have received some revelation from the Lord about something and then proceeded to tell everyone I know before I even test it out and apply it to my own life. I don't know about you but realizing all that this morning really jump started my heart and made me really hungry to know Jesus more. On one hand it is disappointing to realize I still have a bunch of stuff to get through, yet on the other I still have a Jesus who is willing to take me through a rough and dry period so I can actually look at the plank in my own eye and move on and grow into being more like Him.

Over the last six to seven years God has really been showing me that the best kind of being "real" is when you least want to do it because that is when you are most weak and God can be most strong. I have yet to walk in this long before I come across some wall that I have put up to protect myself from something and prevents God from healing me or growing me in some area of my life. Usually that wall prevents me from being real and vulnerable in some area of my life, and then I have to go through this process with Jesus where He helps me deconstruct that wall so I can be free. But - that is what life is all about, learning how to live and be more like Jesus and not giving up when you come across a big wall!

What I have recently learned is that you do not have to take all the walls down before Jesus is willing to use you. I always subconsciously thought I had to be perfect before Jesus could "do" something in my life or "use" me in some way, but that is so untrue and definitely what a lot of my insecurities have been grounded on. SO - maybe THAT is what God is trying to tell me right now - just maybe that is the meaning of the journey God has been taking me on - that if I allow Him to Jesus can use me while He is taking down all my walls and I am being real when I really don't want to.

....all so very interesting :)

:::Dog Blog Part One::

I would like to introduce everyone to my new personal assistant and office mate

Giada De La Hill

Giada making sure all her toys are being carefully guarded and protected.

Giada helping me with a little computer work, or rather warming my chair.

Giada got to meet her cousin Jack the Great Dane. She literally attacked him even though he is 200 times bigger than she is at this moment in time. Jack sweetly indulged her for awhile and then very gently put his arm around her as if saying it is time to calm down little girl. I think it was love at first jump. She also wanted to put her head in his mouth - we could not figure that out!

Giada has officially won over my "non" dog loving parents who allow her to come to work with me. It is truly amazing - but I must give a shout our to my brother and his girlfriend's dog Jack the Great Dane who prepared the way.

Now - for everyone who is wondering why did we named our Labrador Giada let me explain. I love to cook and I love anthropologie and I love the food network. My favorite person on the food network is Giada De Laurentiis and her husband is a designer for anthropologie, so it was perfectly natural for us to name our puppy Giada. Some of you still may be confused and feel like that is not a good enough reason, but I am not going to explain further because if you really know me then you understand :)

I seriously cannot believe we waited this long to get a puppy. It has been far better than I ever imagined and believe me I have been imagining for a long time. She can already sit, lay, and come about 80% of the time. She always looks at us as though she could just form complete sentences and tell us what is going on in her head. She also snores which is quite funny.

Please be prepared for many more dog blogs to come :)

The Little Joys of Cooler Weather...

Finally, it seems that the (rather obnoxious) days of 90+ degree October days in Houston have gone by the wayside, and we are actually moving into fall.  All week I've walked outside to my car in the morning to forty degree temps that turn into seventies through the day.  Who doesn't love that?

My goodness I am excited.  So many fun things get to start now!

Some of my favorites:

Drinking good coffee all day long...

You just can't do it during the hot Texas summers,

but drinking coffee all day on a Saturday when it's cold out

is so nice.  (Having a cute wifey to snuggle with

doesn't hurt either. ;) )

House Shoes.

I would like to think that I was somewhat famous in college for my love of the house shoes.  I love coming home from work when it's cold and slipping on my comfy house shoes.

I've had the tan pair all the way through college - literally had to wrestle Wes one time for them.

The darker pair are my "Nice Old Man" house shoes. (They are sort of a source of major pride.)  Jess got them for me last year for Christmas, and they are so nice.

LOOK - if you are a man and don't have a nice pair of house shoes, you are missing out in life.  LL Bean and Land's End have some great ones.

North Face Jackets.

Let's face it, Stuff White People Like hits the nail on the head with this post.

I watched other people bust out their North Face jackets for years before wising up and buying my own Apex Bionic jacket last year.

Waiting before investing in one of these great jackets was an EPIC FAIL.

Pricey?  Yes.  Worth every penny?  You betcha.

As a conclusionary statement to this post, I must relay the Hill family's sincere and heartfelt apologies to Mrs. Theresa Whitney, mother of our dearest friend, Wesley.  

Theresa, you have likely checked our blog unfruitfully 17 times since our last post.  We think that you probably know this already, but we love you to death and think that your son is one of the best things to come about since sliced bread.

Say hi to Big Stan for us.  

Mr. Hill