Almost two months ago, I took the challenge to blog everyday for the month of November.  With a little organization and perseverance, I was able to do just that and have continued to blog everyday since.  So when I was invited to join the “Blog-a-day for a Year” challenge, I figured, “Why not?”  With four days left in 2007, I’m stretching my fingers and thinking about things I’d like to talk about in the upcoming year.  But let’s get real, as much of a first-born planner and organizer as I am, when it comes to blogging you’re still gonna see the same things… random stories, musical musings, and tons of pics!  I’m quite excited for this undertaking, and if you’re a blogger, too, consider joining me! Let the adventure begin…

I have always loved to read and spent a great portion of my childhood with my nose buried in some book. From Anne of Green Gables to The Little House On The Prarie to the complete Nancy Drew collection, once I started a book I had to read the whole series. The Chronicles of Narnia were easily among my all-time favorites, and you can just imagine my delight when it was announced almost three years ago that these C.S. Lewis classic would be coming to the big screen. I always worry that the movie will not live up the book when my favorites are adapted for film, but in this case, I was not disappointed with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The movie was captivating with its perfectly cast actors and breath-taking scenery. (Dang, I so want to watch it again!) However, an unexpected treasure from the first Narnia movie was the music inspired by the first film. For the past three years as soon as Christmas time draws near, I have found myself semi-obsessed with Reliant K’s In Like A Lion (Always Winter). (It’s nice to see the Reliant K boys slow down for a second and present an amazing ballad.) No matter how you interpret their lyrics or what insight you glean from their rhymes, I dare you to not fall in love with this song. If you haven’t read the books or seen the movie, I’m posting a video below that has In Like A Lion (Always Winter) set to scenes from the movie. Hopefully, it’ll convince you to at least check out The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe movie before the second installment, Prince Caspian:The Return To Narnia, is released in May.

Ask anyone what happened in their lives yesterday… last week… a month ago, and there’s a solid chance that they won’t be able to retell in great detail everything that transpired. In fact, the longer it’s been since the day in question the less you will inevitably remember. Unless, that is, something major happened on the day in question. Take a month ago… off the top of my head I don’t remember anything of any substance taking place. 3 months… nothing. 6 months ago to the day was my 26th birthday, so that’s not truly fair. A year ago? Yeah, that was one of those days of substance. Many of you may remember that right before Christmas last year my 19-year old cousin, Lahrs, was involved in a horrible motorcycle accident where he was clipped from behind and then run over by an SUV.

From the moment that officers arrived on the scene he was barely holding on and soon slipped into a coma. Both legs and his back were broken. His hand was crushed, and by the time my aunt called us they were prepping to amputate his arm. His brain was swelling, and there was no real way to remove the pressure. To put it simply, it was bad… horribly bad. I still remember the helplessness that I felt as we stood at his bedside in the ICU the day after the accident and listened to his mother plead for him to wake up and open his eyes. I remember the road rash, bandages, and countless tubes and wires moving in and out of him, and I remember listening to Zac’s voice crack as he prayed for him. A year ago today, Lahrs future was unknown.

When I arrived home a few short days ago, my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Barbara were there too having arrived a few hours earlier to spend the weekend with my family. Lahrs is one of their children. I hadn’t seen Lahrs since the he was in the ICU and to be honest had no idea what to expect. I knew that prayers had been answered, and miracles had taken place in his life. I knew he was walking… talking… and still had both hands, and as I walked in the house, I was speechless to see my cousin standing there waiting to hug me. This wasn’t the frail teenager I had seen 12 months earlier. No, this man hugged me and almost squeezed the breath out of me. Over the next 2.5 days I spent a great deal of time catching up with Lahrs. We talked about everything from his recovery and struggle to relearn the simplest of things to his disillusion that Jessica Alba’s unborn baby might be his. The simplest of conversations and tasks were reminders at how far he had come. Saturday night he unashamedly showed us his scars left from the pins and rods in his legs, 9 hand surgeries, and removal of his spleen, appendix and large portion of his small intestine. Each scar was a reminder of how close we had come to losing him, and what a gift it was to make pancakes with him or go on a Starbucks run. He was our Christmas treasure, and as his family packed up the car to head back to their home, I couldn’t help but sneak in a few extra hugs as we exchanged cell phone numbers and myspace info. Lahrs still has quite a long journey toward recovery, but I bet if you ask him, he wouldn’t trade his second chance for anything in the world.

Last week, NBC aired a 4 night, holiday season special called Clash of the Choirs. The premise was five celebrity musicians (Blake Shelton, Kelly Rowland, Michael Bolton, Patti Labelle, and Nick Lachey) would lead a choir of singers from their hometown, and the winning team’s charity would receive $250,000. Of course, I taped it each night, and many of the performances and performers were incredible. The one that has stuck in my mind for the past week to the point that everyone I meet I ask if they saw it was Nick Lachey’s choir’s a capella Flight of the Bumblebee. It’s unexpected and brilliant. See what you think…

Flight of the Bumblebee

Imagine soft, wonderful peanut butter cookies with a Hershey’s kiss on top. Made like 87 today. Now you can, too!

1/2 c. margarine, softened
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
2 T milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Bag of Hershey’s kisses

Mix together everything but kisses. Make teaspoon of dough into a ball. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. After removing from oven immediately press an unwrapped Hershey kiss into each cookie.

I’m home… finally! Well, not home as in just walked in the door but have been in town for a few hours and have been happily enjoying time with my family. It’s been a long day, and I contemplated putting off today’s blog until tomorrow. But, instead here I am stealing wireless from a neighbor in order to faithfully post. I left Flagstaff this morning around 10am and eventually pulled into my parent’s driveway just before 6:00 this evening. That means it took almost 8 hours to drive around 330 miles. On a non-holiday Friday it should take anywhere from 4.75 hours to 5.25 hours to get to Willcox, however today was 8 long hours of cruisin’ along at 78mph or sitting in traffic at 3mph. There really was no middle ground. Needless to say, driving alone was just a bit boring. For awhile, I texted Lauren and talked with my cousin Evan in hopes of keeping my sanity but spent most of the trip was spent jammin’ out to the ‘drive home’ mix I had created on my iPod earlier in the week.

Because I suffer from musical A.D.D., the criteria for this mix was simple. They had to be songs that rarely, if ever, get skipped because of their high level of musical awesomeness. I’m sure sharing this list might set me up for public ridicule, but I love and find an immense amount of joy in each of these songs. I’m sure I could champion the merits of each song listed here and beg you to love them as I do, but instead I think I’ll just share the songs that turned an 8-hour drive today into my own personal Laurel-inspired musical. In no particular order, here they are…

1. Rissi Palmer – Anybody Out There
2. Sufjan Stevens – For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti
3. Kim Richey – I Know
4. Willie Nelson – You Remain
5. Colbie Cailat – Realize
6. Damien Rice – The Blower’s Daughter
7. The Format – The First Single (You Know Me)
8. Teitur – Poetry & Airplanes
9. Tony Rich Project – Like A Woman
10. Nicole Nordeman – I Am
Click To Continue Reading…

The peaks looked gorgeous today as I was on my way back to the office…

Usually the days leading up to Christmas are a time of stress and laying awake at night making countless lists in my head of all that still needs to be done. But as I finally sit down and take a deep breath after a long and busy day, I’m not as exhausted as you’d think I’d be. Instead, I’m happy… content… peaceful. I know I have more reasons to be happy than I can count. But, just for tonight… here are a few of my top reasons.

#1) I spent the night with my Flagstaff family tonight. Their daughter is a senior and has a huge math final tomorrow so I went out to deliver their Christmas goodies, eat some free dinner, and tutor Erica. I seriously love this family because they love life and being a part of their family feels so natural. Kim, the mom, is like a big sister to me and is always there if I need a hug or a listening ear; Paul, the dad, is so out of control that you can’t help but laugh at him and egg him on. Tonight, he was pretending to be pissed that his tamales had olives in them. Mine for some reason had none and when I pointed this small fact out he informed me he’d puke on me and make me clean it up if he found another olive in his tamale. Absurd, I know… but you have to just be there to experience this house of love and chaos. Click To Continue Reading…

Every year one of my favorite moments of the holiday season is getting to slow down and spend time baking and creating delicious (my opinion, of course) goodies for my family and friends. This year my goody boxes included peanut butter fudge, fudge with walnuts, mint fudge, peppermint bark, Andes mint brownies, peanut butter blossom cookies, and my all-time favorite… raspberry thumbprint cookies. I thought I’d post the recipe today for raspberry thumbprints in case you’d like to try them. Maybe they’ll wind up as one of your traditional Christmas-time cookies.

There’s this amazing tree out behind my apartment complex that I can see on my drive home everyday. No matter what the weather is like it always seems to form a gorgeous silhouette in the west sky. Last night as I was heading off to meet a friend for dinner, the sun was setting, and I found myself stopping to just stare at the Arizona sunset behind that old tree. As always, I had my camera with me…