Joel Try

Have to tell you all how awesome Joel was on Sunday giving the message... if you didn't get to hear him, check out the message on the church website... it was really really good. Then Amy sang a song by David Wilcox called Show the Way and I completely broke down crying... what a beautiful song sung by a beautiful voice... lyrics below.

SHOW THE WAY

You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason
We should dream that the world would ever change
You're saying love is foolish to believe
'Cause there'll always be some crazy with an Army or a Knife
To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life...

Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify
What's stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage
To look as if the hero came too late he's almost in defeat
It's looking like the Evil side will win, so on the Edge
Of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins
It is...

Chorus:
Love who makes the mortar
And it's love who stacked these stones
And it's love who made the stage here
Although it looks like we're alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it's love that wrote the play...
For in this darkness love can show the way

So now the stage is set. Feel you own heart beating
In your chest. This life's not over yet.
so we get up on our feet and do our best. We play against the
Fear. We play against the reasons not to try
We're playing for the tears burning in the happy angel's eyes
For it's...

Okay... I totally want this!! makes me regress back to elementary school age!!

Chris Thile's song

funny video

Okay so I have watched this like a million times already at work - my friend Tom just keeps playing it over and over again... but it is so flippin hilarious and it makes me laugh everytime... especially Will Ferrell... it's got some language, so beware, but it is just so odd and entertaining.

http://sjl.funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=3efbc24c7d2583be6925

Nickel Creek Rocks!!!

Still completely on cloud nine from tonights show... I was smiling ear to ear the whole set!!! Chris looked so handsome and played extraordinairily!! Sarah was feeling a bit under the weather, but despite that a fury on the fiddle! and Sean carried them on guitar like no other... even their touring uprigt bass player blew the crowd away with some soft shoe at the end... priceless joys.

Jeannette and I sat in awe of the amazingness that is Nickel Creek!!! Tift Merritt, who opened for them, starting the night off with some haunting folk ballads... she has a great voice! Then Nickel Creek graced the stage and immediantly when into a new song not recorded and then into "The Fox" - a favorite... I even bought one of their souvenir shirts in homage to that song Then they exploded into the rest of their set... I kept getting caught off guard at the fact that this would more than likely be my last time seeing them live and how much I will miss them.

My favorite show of the night was a new song by Chris called "if you leave me" it basically is a request to all those people who break up with you before you are ready for the relationship to be done... it is light and poppy in style... one of the lines is "who will I take to the grammy's, who will I make out with when I win... if you want to leave me... at least hook me up with one of your friends"... I laughed so hard the whole song... and thought how I would love to be his date to the grammy's if he needed one.

So after the show I promptly made my way up to the stage and got one of the 4 set lists taped to the stage and then Jeannette and I headed to the bus to get a chance to take a picture or two with Chris... To our great luck we got our chance... we even chatted him up about the tour and how he and his new band need to make it out to Arizona on their tour... a very witty exchange I might add... between Jeannette and myself, we made him laugh!! (score!!) Then he signed my set-list and took a picture with me (see above)... it was awesome.

I will miss my Nickel Creek... favorite band is breaking up... but they were wonderful while they lasted! Here is to you Nickel Creek for producing some of the best instrumentation!! and To you Chris for helping me fall in love with the Mandolin.

Tomorrow Night!!!

So overly excited about seeing Nickel Creek tomorrow night... It will a great show!!! I just can't believe that they will be breaking up after this tour! If I am lucky I will be getting to talk to Chris Thile this time as well.

Didn't feel too well today - persistant headache and occasional nausea... but I am feeling better now and about to go sleep very deeply.

Next week I have a massage gig at Southwestern University giving chair massages during their finals week... I did it last semester too and reallly enjoyed it... The funniest thing is hearing them study for some of their finale... stuff said like, "Why didn't Job want to go to Ninevah", "memorize Psalm 91", "Name the old testiment prophets in alphabetical order"... oh christian university! Awesome stuff. I am sure anyone at a massage school during finals week would have an ear full of funny things, "now if a stroke is moving longitudinally distal to proximal on the achilles tendon, what is the action at the ankle joint going to be?"... anyone. But the chair massage will be fun... especially since I am hanging out with my friend Leah as well.

My last few posts have been painfully boring... I know. I just don't seem to be in the groove of posting right now... anyone have anything particular they would like me to post about, please let me know... nothing too excited at the moment in the life of Miranda

I visted my friend Jonnie's church this morning... she attends Mountain Park Community Church on Pecos Rd and 24th street... WAY SOUTH. It was actually a really great church... their sound system was awesome, their musicians are great, and their pastor gave a neat message. Then after church Stephanie and I went shopping. I took her to Chandler Fashion Center (she had never been) and then we hit up Nordstrom Rack and Ross. It was just awesome hanging out with Steph. I got two new pairs of casual shoes - 4 shirts and a box of hair dye... the red washed out again, so I bought a different hair dye brand and we'll try it again. I need to look my best for Nickel Creek this thursday because Jeannette and I are totally going to meet the band whatever it takes.

I am now in my apartment ready for an evening with my TV and new book "Children of Hurin" by JRR Tolkien - it was just released and is a story of middle earth before Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit took place. I hadn't even heard about it until Kevin mentioned it to me yesterday.

Real Life

I found out last night that my friend Jason from work has been diagnosed with Cancer... he went into the hospital complaining of stomache pains and upon doing x-rays they discovered he has a mass near his colon and one near his lungs and another near his kidney... the one near his colon is what is causing his pain so they took a sample of it a ran tests and discovered it is cancer. The good news is he does not have cancer in either his blood or his bones, so we are so thankful for that news.

I am so thankful that God protected him from something far worse... I know God already knows the outcome and I am hopeful that everything will work out well. God is a good God and a soveriegn God... this is all apart of His plan... I pray that Jason would be comforted and his family would feel God's peace.

Be praying for my friend Jason.

These are a few of my favorite things...

I kind of have a touch of a cold going on right now, so yesterday I went straight home after church and nested it would seem... I started unpacking a little more, which has been much needed! I also took some pictures of some vignettes around my place.

my bookcase... I put all my favorite books on one shelf

kitchen counter... thanks michelle for the wine... the basket is for my mail

A touch of paris (the bouquets are mine from Jeannette's and Jessica's weddings; the moulin rouge poster is from Amy's collection)

The entertainment... my iPod radio (70's style) and my movie collection


my dad came over and dropped off my bed frame, so now I have a bed and some storage room underneath it...


Now for the list of what I need for my apartment still:

1. couch
2. plastic office chair roller
3. blender
4. shelf for bathroom (either can hang above toilet or stand around the toilet)
5. 3 or 4 more lamps
6. wall mirror (black frame preferrable)
7. broom and dust pan
8. A couple or side tables for the living room
9. Pampered chef stuff... went to a party this weekend and started a wish list - I'm having a party sometime soon
10. baskets (ones that can sit on a book shelf)
11. picture frames

That's it for now... I think of stuff all the time.

Internet At Last

I have internet... and for all my troubles they expanded my basic cable TV so a have a few more channels at my channel surfing disposal... shhh I'm not supposed to know! they switched my modem and flipped on my internet and I have spent the morning buying foundation online (I hate when product lines stop selling certain products in stores) and updating my netflix queue! Now I am enjoying the fine buzz of working internet!

Last night was incredible! I went down to Florence Arizona with my friend Stephanie to partake in the wonderment that is Country Thunder... just me steph and a couple thousand cowboys... and prisoners (I mean come on, it's Florence). Cowboy hat, comfy jeans, camera, and Reba!!! priceless. Left work at around 6:15pm and headed on down to RA for some Sushi for dinner (we delayed our departure with dinner in order to miss the rush hour traffic heading south on the I-10. I introduced Steph to the delicious delight - edamame... she loved it! Then we drove down almost an hour and a half to the acres and acres of drunk sunburnt people... we caught the tail end of Randy Owen's set (former lead singer of Alabama... he played the hits and some of his new stuff which I had never heard, therefore didn't care about)... then a half hour passed due (11pm) Reba graced the stage! WHAT A SHOW! She was awesome! She sang her hits and her new stuff and closed the show with my favorite - Fancy!! It was so awesome! Besides the show being spectacular the huge amount of intoxicated idiots were also entertaining... a couple of them stumble and squeezed through the crowd till they got right in front of us and then just stopped right in front of me so I couldn't see a thing... So we ushered them to keep moving... politely of course... stupid people. Two guys in front of us actually didn't bother heading off to the restroom area during the show... they just took care of it where they stood - disturbing. And by 11pm everyone is all over anyone they can find so that was interesting... it was truely soddom and gomorrah... and then us. I got home at 2:30 this morning! I had such a fun time. Stephanie and I laughed ourselves hoarse... which I haven't laughed that hard in several months... it was so cool. Stephanie also didn't care that I danced and sang and made a general fool of myself, because she was right there with me doing the same thing... glorious.






















Now for today's activities... I am heading out to grab some lunch with a friend of Jeannette's... we are meeting at Wildflower Bread Company... then I have a Pampered Chef party this afternoon and then I am spending time with my friend Chris whom I haven't spent time with in a whole lot of months. Full day, but fun times!

Harry Potter Knight Bus

only 100 days till the 7th Harry Potter book hits stores and a new press release just came out detailing a tour of the Harry Potter Knight Buss around the nation to different libraries! I AM SO EXCITED! The nerd in me in out in full force and I have already talked to Amy about going down to see it when it comes to a Phoenix Branch on July 3rd... Everyone at my work thinks I am so lame a stupid, but never you mind.

Concerts and cable TV

The cable man is coming again today to fix my modem and I will be getting some free cable with my internet hook-up... the first like 20 channels are free if you have preferred cable internet... which I have.

Also on the docket is to go grocerie shopping... I need cleaning supplies and sun screen. I also will be going to bookmans to check out which DVDs they have used... I realized when I moved out that the only movies I have are chick flicks... my dad got to keep all the good movies (ie. Superman, Xmen, The Count of Monte Cristo, etc)... so I need them in my apartment because I can't keep watching Little Women.

Tyler got his senior pictures taken and they are absolutely spectacular!!! He looks like a model!!!

I am going to see Reba McEntire this friday at Country Thunder... I have never been to Country Thunder before, nor have I seen Reba, but my friend Stephanie wanted to go, so I decided to go with her!!! I am so excited! I am going to wear my cowboy hat and look awesome Country-tastic. Also coming up this month is Nickel Creek!!! They are playing in Mesa on April 26th... I am totally going!! They announced on their website that after this tour they will be taking an indefinite break to pursue solo ventures (which means they are breaking up)... so I have one last chance to see them in concert and this is also my chance to see Chris Thile again... so handsome! I am excited about my month of concerts!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

This one's gonna take a while...

I know you all are completely in withdrawals over my lack of posting... I am speaking to all 4 of you who read this blog. So what I have been hearing from most of you is that my anicdotes about New York were completely overlooked in light of all the pictures... so for the 2 out of the 4 who are reading this... thank you!!

I do have a funny story that will make me look like a complete idiot! I got locked out of my apartment for almost the whole day yesterday! That's right... I stupidly stepped out of my front door without my keys or cell phone or for that fact clothes other than my sweats and shoes... I realized only too late that I had no chance of returning to my home because the landlord was gone... so I walked 5 apartments down to my friends Andy and Carissa Allen's apartment, who were luckily home and hung out for a couple hours... then when they left for work at around 1:30 I visited my other neighbors Jerilyn and her precious little girl Catherine. So from about 11:30am - 4:30pm I got to know my neighbors and totally missed my afternoon class that I was supposed to teach. I know I could have called a locksmith, but that would have cost me $100. I could have had duplicate keys hidden somewhere, but ironically that is what was on my list of things to do this weekend.

I also, if you may not have noticed already, have internet (hence the current posting). The bummer part of that is that in the process of hooking up my internet, they turned off my cable TV (which I am not sure if I was paying for as part of my rent or not). So I have to figure that out.

Okay so for those of you who skipped reading the first part of this post in order to look at pictures... here is your chance. These are pictures of my moving process...

So excited about moving!!
I am such a great delegator... tis picture wa completely posed
My dad drove the moving truck... we are going down the SR-51 toward my new place!!
My living room
The kitchen
As soon as we arrived at the apartment everyone came out of the woodwork to help bring the furniture in... which took all of 30 minutes. Andy and Travis and Shawn (all current or previous residents of Glenwood Terrace gave me tips of how the apartment complex works... awesome!
This is now after a week of unpacking...(the living room)

The living room is really the only room that is settled for the most part so that is all the pictures of have right now... my bedroom only has a mattress and a couple dressers and then clothes either in boxes or on the floor everywhere... the second bedroom (scraproom/office/massage room) is also a mess with papers and books on the floor. So those pictures will be coming later.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures... especially you Aaron... I will have more pictures as more things come together.
I do want you to know that I absolutely am in love with my apartment... it is so perfect and fun. I love coming home and being by myself and watching movies till late without waking anyone up. Everything is mine... all mine... when I put something down, no one moves it. When I buy food, no one eats it but me... it is so fun! I am so peaceful there.

I will probably post stuff that I need (I have a list)... and Nancy I need to come over to look at your stuff, I especially want that hanging light you said you had for me.

But now I have internet... so expect more frequent postings... yay