Loved this episode. Now, onto more mystery and surprises around every corner…the laundry.

Now with Nyquil!

Oh. You’re starting to see a trend?

The one where I ramble for 20 minutes. A little LOST, a little lost, truffles, and Nyquil.

Forgive me. My eyes are so tired in this video. The day felt long and exhausting. I’m not even sure why. Could it be that I was spoiled being out of school six days in a row?

Also, I call it “Episode 2,” but it’s Episode 3 – “What Kate Does.” Enjoy and share your thoughts on the episode!

I was so excited to read this. I mean, it’s got two things that I love: the Gospel and LOST. Where could it go wrong?

A lot of places, as it turns out. Without getting into all of the theological concerns I had about the book, it just wasn’t the spectacular read I was expecting. It is interesting, but most likely only for those who have a pedestrian knowledge of the series and who haven’t thought very deeply about the meaning of some of the symbolism. What Seay gives us is a very basic look at some of the Biblical symbols used in the series as well as examples of how redemption is a main theme.

I think I got that from the first season of the series, how about you?

The difficulty here is knowing who he is aiming this book at. Clearly, you must have some knowledge of the series before going in, but not too much or he’s going to lose your interest pretty quickly. Maybe this would be good for someone who is in the middle of Season 1 and who doesn’t know much about what’s going on. Then again, it’s riddled with spoilers and it is easy to see that the author put the finishing touches on right after Season 5 concluded. It doesn’t appear that the book will be relevant at all after the beginning of Season 6 (tonight, folks!), much less after the series has concluded.

One thing I hope I don’t see is this book in a religious section of a book store. It is a light commentary on some of the Biblical symbols as they are presented in the series. In no way does it make the deep connections that I believe may be possible to draw between what the creators of this series are doing and the Bible. There just isn’t a lot of quality material here.

Save your $14.99 and do the research yourself. Breaking out your Bible and employing a working knowledge of very basic Sunday School curriculum will provide you with a much deeper understanding of what the author is trying to get at than what he does himself.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for me by Thomas Nelson.

You asked, now I’m answering!

Anonymous asked:
Why do you use the word ‘goddess’?… it sort of comes across as non-Christian. :/
I’m afraid you may be misunderstanding the definitions of “goddess.” While it often means “female deity,” the word also means “a woman whose great charm or beauty arouses adoration.” And if you’ll look, I don’t say I aspire to be a goddess, period, the end. Nope. Domestic goddess. Literally a woman whose prowess in the kitchen and home arouses adoration. I aspire to have the adoration of my husband, family, and future children in those areas.

Where did you get your wedding dress? It’s GORGEOUS!
At a tiny boutique in Oklahoma City called Pomp & Pageantry. I tried prom dresses on there years and years ago. The dress I ended up with was custom made for someone else who decided they didn’t want it. It took a while to figure that one out, but we realized it when we couldn’t find my dress anywhere. It looks like the skirt of one gown with the bodice of another. It’s by San Patrick and is made mostly of lace, crafted in Barcelona.

Becca asked:
What is the biggest surprise to you concerning marriage?
The biggest surprise to me was how quickly everything about being married felt normal. We hadn’t lived together before our wedding so everything literally happened all at once. It was perfect, I won’t lie. We’ve been extremely blessed and I know that we are both thankful for the great pre-marital counseling that we had. So much heartache has been spared by what we learned about communication styles.

Misti (my long-lost, newly found, second cousin) asked:
What was your favorite tv show growing up?
Tough one, but the ones I remember being excited to watch in the evenings were TGIF shows like Full House and Perfect Strangers. ALF, Family Matters, Reading Rainbow, and Mister Rogers were all favorites.

What song reminds you of your husband?
Man, it’s so cheesy, but “Love of a Lifetime” by Firehouse is it. We made it each other’s ringtone when we were dating and, by accident, it was what we were listening to in the reception hall in our first alone moments after the wedding, right before we ran out to the car to leave. With all that birdseed raining down on us.

If you could have a pet of any kind, what would it be?
I would like a goat, but right now I am really happy with my Scoodle (or Scottie Poo, if you like) and brand new guinea pig (who doesn’t have a name yet).

Do you think you chose the right profession in life? What other path might you have chosen or still could choose?
Sometimes I wonder if I should have gone into marketing. I think I have a good head for it. Which is the countrified way of saying that some of it comes naturally to me. I don’t really have a profession. I have had jobs. Writing is my passion and I plan to stay home and raise a family. And maybe sell custom invitations and stationery.

What is your favorite thing about Oklahoma? I’ve only been a few times and it has been beautiful the times I’ve seen it, but I’m not all that familiar with it.
Everything really isn’t an answer, is it? The landscape. We have everything here. The weather. Again, everything. The sense of family that most people in small towns still have. The richness of culture and tradition.

Jennifer (a former teacher at my high school) asked:
What kind of books do you like to read?
Literary fiction. That is my book snob answer. And classics.

What is your favorite book?
I can never answer this. The last book I read to make it onto my favorites list is No Country for Old Men.

If you were to write a book, what would it be about? Or at least what genre would it be? (Of course, you may have already written a book, and I just don’t know it yet.)
I write Southern Gothic. I like to focus on family dynamics, crazy people, secrets, lies, small town culture, and religion. I have written hundreds of short stories, but never finished any of my novels. At least not by my own estimation. Maybe they are all they ever will be. The first novel-length story I made headway on was an 80 (typed) page manuscript that I carried around in black and white composition notebooks in 7th and 8th grade. All I can say is still waters run deep.

Vanessa asked:
If you could meet anyone, from any period of time, who would you choose to meet?
Either Hannah, mother of Samuel or Elisabeth.

Back in late February, I had a panic attack. There was a combination of factors that I believe brought the whole thing on (the primary one is still something I don’t feel comfortable talking about in much detail), but essentially what it all came down to was me doing my normal thing, being an observer, but instead of putting my thoughts and feelings out somewhere I was internalizing. Stewing over a variety of things from the inconsequential to the life-changing. And for some reason on that day, everything exploded.

Most things have gone back to normal. I still get the tingles sometimes, the pains in my muscles that signal an attack is trying to build up, and the occasional bout of unexplained weepiness. That’s only sometimes though. I feel good and I don’t wake up scared every morning that I’m going to deal with the crippling fear of death’s imminence.

There is one thing that has never really gone back to normal though. Something that had been such a constant in my life that nowadays I will have someone ask me about it and I’ll have to answer with an honest, “I don’t know.” And then they look at me like I’ve entered the room riding one of the horses of the apocalypse.

I stopped watching the news. I turned off NPR. Changed my radio presets to Gospel/preaching*—Classical—Soft rock—Oldies—Pop—Soft rock (in that order according to where they sit on the dial. You know, OCD and all). I turned off the TV for the most part and started watching my Dr. Quinn DVDs whenever I was waiting for my next Netflix DVD.

Some of the things in the news had stirred up a lot of emotions in me. A lot of them in roundabout ways (idiots attempting to bait me with simple discussion questions that turned into a knock-down, drag-out debate) and I won’t say that it was totally the content of the news. Just something about it keys me up. I get a thrill and really enjoy watching most news programs over anything else. But now? My love for journalistic reporting has died down to almost nothing. On one had I can’t stand to hear the anchors sing the praises of Obama, on the other I hate that every word coming out of a person’s mouth is condemnation of the president. There is no middle ground that I see. Even if it did exist, I’m not sure that I’d want to be any part of it. It reminds me too much of being “lukewarm.”

I have eased back into TV “news” just a smidge. I do love Fox & Friends Weekend and if I wake up in time I try to watch it on my couch with a cup of coffee. But it’s not the first thing that I turn on anymore. You’re more likely to find me listening to a relaxation podcast than sitting in front of a TV blasting the headlines. It’s been a nice break and I can’t say that I feel like I’m missing too much. If history is any guide, all it would take to get me sitting in front of the set again would be a national tragedy or celebrity death.** But who knows when I’ll be back to my old routine, if ever. I do have a male residing in my home now and I’ve noticed that the amount of time the dial spends on ESPN has gone up by like 5000%…

*This particular preaching is hard-hitting on the mega-church, GospelLite ™, “prosper in all things” preachers that are so prevalent these days. I like that.
**This was written on Wednesday, June 24, 2009. Who would have known we’d have Farrah and MJ the next day…

Tonight is the final episode of ER. While I haven’t been the biggest fan of the past 6 seasons or so, every once in a while I would tune in and find myself weeping by the end. I can’t help it. I grew up on this show. It started when I was 9-years-old and entering the 4th grade and it wasn’t something I was allowed to watch back then. In fact, it might have come on after my bed time. Not that I can remember what that was in 1994. But my mom watched and I remember thinking Noah Wyle’s character was just dreamy (from the commercials).

I first started watching the show sometime later, whenever I was in junior high or high school and TNT started showing it in the mornings. One summer, that’s what mom and I would do. Wake up, have breakfast, and watch ER from 8-10 every morning. At that rate you would go through a season about every 2 weeks, so I’m sure I had almost the entire series (up to that point) covered by the time I started school in the fall.

I began watching it on Thursday nights with my mom and it was sort of “our thing.” Tuesday nights for us were Gilmore Girls (until she gave up on it) and Thursdays we’d plant ourselves in the living room and watch our doctors. I was probably most partial to seasons 4-7, but I carried it a little ways into college and tried to watch it when I could. But those rabbit ears didn’t stand a chance when Heather and I were living on the wrong side of Adams Tower at OU and my consistent viewing of the program suffered.

But here I am. It’s the end. And I know it’s just a TV show. There’s just been nothing like this one for me before. Some of you have M*A*S*H or Seinfeld or Charlie’s Angels. This one is mine. And tonight I’ll cry.

Note: Someday, years from now, if Kevin and I are ever blessed with a little boy, he’s going to need a name. And I can tell you that I decided what it would be when I was 15-years-old and watching this show. When you hear it, you’ll know. But you’re going to have to wait until there’s a little mister to find out this one