• You Gonna Fly – Keith Urban
• Winter Night – Little & Ashley (download free for a limited time)
• Why Wait – Rascal Flatts
• We Will Shine – Matt Papa
• Tracks in the Snow – The Civil Wars (download free for a limited time)
• The Time (Dirty Bit) – Black Eyed Peas
• Rhythm of Love – Plain White T’s
• Only You – Matthew Perryman Jones
• O Holy Night – Future of Forestry
• O Come O Come Emmanuel – The Civil Wars (download free for a limited time)
• No Big Deal – Steadman (download free from the band)
• Merry, Merry Christmas Everyone – Jon McLaughlin
• Dynamite – Taio Cruz
• Christmas Lights – Coldplay

What I’m Watching: I’ve been watching a lot of Christmas movies as of late, still holding out on watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation for just a little while longer.

What I’m Reading: After seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 this past weekend, it encouraged me to re-read the books. I’ve just finished the first book and starting on the second.

What I’m Looking Forward To This Week: I’m hoping to do some fun Christmas-y stuff this weekend, we’ll see if it happens!

Quote of the Day: “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” – Mother Teresa

What I’m Watching: I finally finished watching all seven season of Adam-12, what a great show! Now I’m getting caught up on How I Met Your Mother and Psych. I try not to watch a ton of TV, but with the weather getting colder, I have been.

What I’m Reading: I’ve been slowly reading a book called Blue Blood by Edward Conlon, I’ll finish it eventually.

What I’m Looking Forward To This Week: I’m just pretty happy that I’ve finally decorated my office.

Find of the Day: I was walking through Whole Foods today when I came across Matt’s Cookies out of Chicago. We used to sell these at Marsh back in the day and I think they’re so good! They’re soft and have real ingredients. Glorious!

Also, I’m pretty sure that these cookies are lactose-free, so you can give them to people who can’t have dairy products. Like I said, I found these at Whole Foods, although you might find them at other groceries in Indiana.

Quote of the Day: "Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are." – Bernice Johnson Reagon

• We’re All In This Together – Ben Lee
• I Like it – Enrique Iglesias
• All Will Be Well – Gabe Dixon Band
• Blind Monkey – Gaelic Storm
• Notbroken – Goo Goo Dolls
• Ave Maria (Schubert) – Jackie Evancho
• Need You Now (iTunes Session) – Lady Antebellum
• Falling in Love (With My Best Friend) – Matt White
• Secrets – OneRepublic
• Rhythm of Love – Plain White Tees
• With or Without You – Sarah Darling
• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot – She & Him
• Modern Nature – Sondre Lerche
• Mine – Taylor Swift

What I’m Watching: I think Netflix Instant Queue updated their catalog, so I’ve been watching some reality shows that I watched when I had cable: American Pickers, Parking Wars, The First 48, Ice Road Truckers, etc.

What I’m Reading: I found a book at Barnes & Noble on Saturday called Blue Blood by Edward Conlon. It is written by a former NYPD cop and details his time on the force. I have a feeling I’ve read it before, but still enjoying it.

What I’m Looking Forward To This Week: I really don’t know! I’ve spent the past week dealing with allergies and other illness that I’d really look forward to this week if I wasn’t sick!

Quote of the Day: "It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well." – René Descartes

What I’m Watching: I’ve started to watch Psych at the recommendation of my friends, Chad and Andrew.

What I’m Reading: I’m not reading anything at the moment, but I did receive a copy of The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns and hoping to start reading it soon!

What I’m Looking Forward To This Week: Fortunately this weekend is fairly low-key, although I do have a lot of meetings. So I guess there’s nothing to really look forward to, ha ha! I’m hoping I’ll get inspired to do some writing this week or some photography!

Quote of the Day: "Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see Life with a clearer view again." – Alex Tan

What I’m Watching: I’ve been watching a lot of old-school "Adam-12" and "How I Met Your Mother."

What I’m Reading: Return to the Little Kingdom: How Apple and Steve Jobs Changed the World by Michael Moritz. I’ve read a lot of books on the history of the computer industry, particularly Apple Computer, Inc. This book tells the same stories I’ve heard over and over again from a different perspective. I’m enjoying it.

What I’m Looking Forward To This Week: Getting on the Monon Trail and trying out my Dad’s road bike. I really need to get prepared for the team triathlon.

Quote of the Day: "If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking." – General George S. Patton

What I’m Watching: Colin is letting me test out his Roku box, which allows me to watch Netflix-on-Demand. I’ve watched a few documentaries and some episodes of Dragnet 1970… man, I love that show!

What I’m Reading: I’m trying to find a book to read when I’m on vacation in Florida. I might re-read one of the books on my shelf… we’ll see!

Highlight of the Past Week: I guess it would have to be seeing all the family on Monday for Memorial Day.

What I’m Looking Forward To This Next Week: I’m really looking forward to having lunch with two awesome ladies today, one of them is a former mentor of mine… she’s awesome! Second thing I’m looking forward to is going to Florida. It’ll be nice to get away and see some family.

Quote of the Day: “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” – Albert Einstein

Clouds to me are a reminder of perspective. This thought first occurred a year ago when I was riding shotgun with Jake who was flying a plane above the clouds at an altitude of around 6,000 feet. As I was looking out the window, I could see where the clouds were blocking the sun from shining on a particular area of land. Yet all I had to do was look a few miles over and the sun was shining down with no clouds to block its rays. 

Sometimes when I picture my life, I think of it from the big picture… from 6,000 feet above. There are days when I look down at my life and it’s nothing but sunshine, not a cloud in the sky and those are the days that I thank God for. However, there are some days when people or situations (the clouds, if you will) float in the sky blocking out the beautiful sunlight that gives me so much joy.

As I began to think about it, I realized that I can do what I can to make it a “sunny day,” but ultimately, I don’t have control over the weather. People and situations will come into my life that may cause a few clouds in my otherwise sunny sky. When I realize and accept that this is a normal part of life, then I can begin to adjust my attitude to deal with such things. Nobody promised us that this life would be easy or that we wouldn’t have troubles. The one thing we can truly control is our attitude and perspective.

For me, I’ve had to learn that storm clouds will roll in… the trick is knowing how to weather the storm and realizing that our troubles, whatever they are, won’t last forever.

“Are you upset little friend? Have you been lying awake worrying? Well, don’t worry…I’m here. The flood waters will recede, the famine will end, the sun will shine tomorrow, and I will always be here to take care of you." - Charlie Brown to Snoopy

Since I started this blog, I’ve written almost 300 posts, that’s a lot for me! Lately, I’ve found myself in a season of life that hasn’t permitted me the luxury of having time to write and photograph life as I see it. Which sucks, because it’s extremely therapeutic for me!

I’m coming to the end of my college career, so in order to focus better, I’m going to take a break from my blog for the months of April and May. During my free time, I hope to work on a new blog design and come up with some cool stuff to write about when I return in June. Thanks so much for all of you who have been so encouraging and commenting on the blog, it’s been great.

See ya soon!

What I’m Watching: I was reminiscing the other day about movies I watched during my childhood. My Grandma Hicks used to take VHS tapes and record movies for us to watch when we’d come over on the weekends. Well, there was this one movie that I could vaguely remember and I finally realized what it was… Return to Oz! It was a "sequel" made in 1985 to The Wizard of Oz, but it doesn’t really do that great of a job for being a sequel. But as I watch it, regardless of how good or bad it is, there are scenes in it that I vividly remember from my childhood and it makes me smile.

What I’m Reading: I’m not really reading much, except stuff for school. But I’m hoping to read a book called Emotional Survival in Law Enforcement. I probably won’t get to it until after April once I get stuff done for school.

Highlight of the Past Week: Going on a ride-along with Carmel PD!

What I’m Looking Forward To This Next Week: Hmmm, my niece’s birthday party is this weekend. Other than that, it should be an easy-going weekend!

Quote of the Day: "Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." – Dr. Seuss

We said goodbye to my Great Aunt Rose today, she finally passed away at the age of 88. Although if she were able to have her say, she’d say, "you can’t bury me today, it’s too damn cold outside!" That was her in a nutshell, very particular and very feisty.

The funeral was one of the shortest I’ve been to, we pulled up to the cemetery around 10:30 a.m. Some snow had fallen overnight and it was 22 degrees out. The hospice chaplain talked about his brief encounter with Rose, he read Psalm 23, and we were done. It took no longer than 5-10 minutes, just the way Rose would’ve wanted it. Afterwards the family went to Bob Evan’s where we had lunch and talked… I think she would’ve enjoyed that.

After spending some time at GrandDad’s house, I decided to head back home. The cemetery was on the drive back so I stopped by her grave. Freshly turned dirt was placed over where her casket lay six feet under, with flowers on top. And as I stood there, I just looked at the mound of dirt and thought to myself, "where has the time gone? Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was at Grandma and GrandDad’s being told, ‘get out of Aunt Rosie’s chair so she can sit down!’"

That memory resounds in my mind as I sit here and watch old family videos. Yup… there’s Micah sitting in Aunt Rosie’s chair. "You want to sit with me?" she asks Micah. And as she tries to sit down, she realizes it can’t be done and Micah moves. A few minutes later in the tape she takes a plastic bag and starts folding it when Eric and I grab the other end and try to pull it from her. Aunt Rose lets us win for a couple seconds and just yanks it, sending Eric to the ground and leaving me laughing watching this event unfold twenty-one years later.

She loved us very much. In recent years I would go over to her house after family gatherings and just sit there and talk with her. I loved it because I got to see a side of Aunt Rose that I never saw growing up. I learned more about her, her side of the family, and she even told me stories about my GrandDad when they were growing up.

She was so proud of her son, Ronnie. She was proud of her grandson Rick for becoming an officer in the Navy. She would BEAM with pride talking about one of her great-grandkids CJ who did exceptionally well in school (even with long hair). I laugh because she always used to tell me, "you know what? If having long hair is the worst thing he does I’m fine with it, because he’s a good kid."

I remember her telling me a story of my GrandDad when he was really little. Apparently my GrandDad used to swear a lot when he was younger and on his birthday, the cake (or something near the cake) caught fire. My GrandDad, being two or three at the time screams out, "JESUS CHRIST, THE CAKE’S ON FIRE!" Just the thought of it now makes me laugh. And just so you know, my GrandDad stopped swearing after being in the service, so you don’t have to worry about him using the Lord’s name in vain.

If you had ever visited Rosie at her house, she’d have you sit down in the kitchen while she sat there and talked while smoking a cigarette. In the later years she traded in her cigarettes and ashtray for oxygen. But other than that, not much changed. We’d come in and she’d share the letters and pictures from my Great Uncle Bill (who lives in California), her son Ronnie (who lives in Florida), and the great-grandkids (who live with Ronnie down in Florida as well).

Every year on the Fourth of July we’d go to Rosie’s house because she was a couple blocks away from the parade route. It was also within walking distance of the park, which was perfect for us kids who got restless and wanted to get away. Every year she’d move her car out of the garage and set-up tables with food on it and then we’d take shelter under the big tree in the front yard.

I’m thankful that I got to see her when she was in the hospital. In fact, my last memories of her are from that time. My first visit was when she was first admitted to the ICU. She wasn’t happy about it, but knew it was necessary. I sat there talking to her, trying to listen as best I could, even with her oxygen mask on. She loved to walk around, but we kept trying to tell her that we couldn’t move her because of all the stuff she was hooked up to. She was still feisty, "wait until Ronnie gets here, he’ll straighten things out."

My last memory of her was two weeks ago. They had moved her out of ICU and was getting ready to transport her to the nursing home. When I walked in, she was sleeping and the TV was on. I didn’t want to disturb her, I just wanted to be in her presence. So I walked over and sat in the chair and just read my book. Occasionally I’d look over, pray for her, and watch her sleep, realizing it may be one of the last times I’d see her.

Many people have told me, "sorry for your loss," and I greatly appreciate the sympathy and prayers. But I know that Rose wouldn’t have wanted such a big fuss made on her behalf. She lived a good, long eighty-eight years on this earth and if she needed to have bags packed for this journey to the next life, she would’ve had those bags packed years ago.

As I sit here watching these old family videos, I wish I could go back in time and relive those moments I’ve had with her, but I can’t. All I can do is sit here and enjoy watching what we’ve captured of her life and be thankful for all the years spent with her.