Little did she know...

I don't want to say it, because I hard eye roll at the overabundance of blame-shifting and down-playing of the Millennial Generation. Every generation has its faults. Every generation is, to some extent, a bi-product of the former generation (y'all, everyone is responsible for their own decisions. Just know I believe that with my whole heart, so calm down). Every generation is impacting the next generation way more than they probably realize.  However, I am going to just put a little rant out there about my generation. More specifically, I am speaking to people in Christian circles. I don't know about you, but I have seen a fair share of articles posted out there along the lines of "Dear Church, this is how you have failed me". Maybe it's coming from the perspective of a "forgotten" single. Maybe it's coming from the perspective of a jaded, ultra-conservatively raised kid.  A lot of these articles that I have read have valid points. Some orga...

The most torturous drive-by tour we have endured yet! We were left gasping over all the rock formations around every corner. Since we were on a time crunch to get back to the midwest, we made the most of it and pulled over like crazy tourists every chance we got. We'll come baaaaackk, AZ. (But first, coffee. duh.)

These guys. Uhg. New album coming soooon! (one of my favorite concerts. see below for a sweaty, cheeser, picture) (PS, Amos was a teeny, tiny babe in my belly. And I forgot my I.D., so I got the X of shame on my hand before we entered the venue. Buuuuut. We also got to stand close enough to get spit on, so ya know. That was a win ;) )  (also, literally no idea who the chick in the floral shirt is. bonus person) 

We had the opportunity to visit my uncle in Arizona back in March. I haven't been to his place in about a million years. The desert was on the verge of being in full bloom. The Joshua Trees were blooming. The sunsets were incredible. Arizona wowed us, for sure. We were hoping to make it to the Grand Canyon, but we didn't have enough time to do it credit, so we got the insider Meadview tour. I'm not mad about. 

Incase you were wondering, I still am not a huge fan of that ol' change business. I don't care if it's a life-direction change or a friend-moving change or a person-I-love-died change. It's not my favorite thing.  " With any change comes loss and all loss needs to be grieved ."  Grief is such a weird and hard and (sometimes) beautiful place to be in. While you are the one walking through your grief, it can be dark and hopeless and such a rollercoaster of emotions. If you are the one walking with someone else in their grief, it can be weird and awkward and uncomfortable.  I was listening to a podcast about walking with students during grief. It really pinpointed my inclination to put clarifiers or permissions on other people's ability to grieve in whatever situations. I want to look at other people grieving what I deem a trivial loss and scoff. "You don't know what real loss is."  I think we see this exacerbated in social media. There...

I remember when my class and I were getting ready to graduate from Bible school. We were a tight group of students, and the thought of impending, "permanent" separation was causing a little bit of anxiety and sadness. I remember writing something in my journal about a couple of classmates to the effect of wishing I could keep them in my back pocket because of their ability to make me die laughing, take me outside my comfort zone, and generally cause life to be much more enjoyable. One of those people was Dustin DeFord.  Today, June 30, marks four years since the fire in Arizona that took his life.  I remember the last time I saw him as he drove to his new hotshot job with the Granite Mountain Hotshots. He showed up unexpectedly with an incredible amount of belongings both inside and outside of his Jeep. He explained his bald head and bushy facial hair, "I have to be clean shaven for my job". #classic  We only got to visit for a short time before he he...

I'm pretty sure I've already been on more hikes with Amos this year than I did in the entirety of last year #shameshame.  1. Little Devil's Tower: probably wouldn't have done this one solo because of all of the climbing up and down rocks. Thankfully I had a team of very helpful friends. Also, true to form, the BH gave us rain and sleet/hail for the last bit of our hike. Amos was over it. 2. Off-roading in Wind Cave NPS: it was earth day and we wanted to check out the sunset, so we did a quick solo hike around the Beaver Creak Bridge area. P.S. Amos' face when he got handed a pine cone for the first time -ded. 3. Sunday Gulch Trail: also probably wouldn't have done this one solo for the first half because of all of the boulders/stairs in the water. That's why I bring my husband along ;)   4. Devil's Bathtub in Spearfish Canyon: I got plenty wet. Amos stayed dry. Win. 5. Cold Brook Canyon trail in Wind Cave NPS: we ...

If you have been reading this blog for longer than two seconds, you most likely have been with me for some pretty painful blogging years (let's be real: they probably aren't over). Those early days -yikes. I have long held to the personal principal that I started this blog for fun, and that's how I want to keep it -however weird it may get at times. I don't want to feel like I have to produce content to keep up the page views or to sell a product or to get some Pinterest pins.  I think (ok KNOW) part of that is due to pride. In other words, if I am not feeling like I have anything to publish here that will be The Best, and get a lot of shares or comments or ... whatever... then I don't want to do it. A lot of what Amelia wrote recently resonated with me in that regard. I read a lot of blogs. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who blog. I am guilty of condescendingly rolling my internal eye-balls at people I feel like are just blogging to get the page c...