Roaming Tennessee Girl

pics upon request...

Here are some pictures from the Chicago. I took some and some are the Kellys'...
The Wrigley Field shot
Chicago from the boat tour. The infamous Sears Tower...

One of the many pictures that Kelly 1 took with her arm out:) It is a Deanna sandwich.
Chicago lights...
How cute am I with the boot:)

posted by deanna @ 5:54 PM 2 Comments

my new love:)

I meet someone new a few weeks ago and fell a little in love. It was big and shiny and just beautiful. A few sundays ago I was introduced to Chicago. I love the big city and have since I went to my first true city in 1999. I meet Detroit and have meet many others in the last 9 years. Chicago just entered my top 5 favorite cities:) things i loved....
10. Wrigley Field is a slice of American pie. I am not a lover of baseball and have no team commitments but seeing it reminded me of hot dogs, fans and american family fun.
9. Shopping... there is just something amazing about a city that has a Magnificent Mile of every kind of store you could every imagine. H&M brought back the best memories:)
8. Public transportation... any city with a great train and subway system will always make my list.
7. Hot dog while walking on Navy Pier...Chicago's version of Coney Island...smaller but much cleaner. nothing says all american like eating the best hot dog ever while walking next to the water on a sunny day.
6. Art institute of Chicago...not the best museum ever but i have really high standards. however i am glad i got to have my ferris buelluer moment just the same. and monet always makes me happy.
5. boat ride on the river....we splurged and took the architectural boat tour of downtown chicago. It was the perfect way to enjoy the history of Chicago. Architecture is always a fun subject for me, and i enjoyed being able to learn more about what i was looking at. the guide gave us plenty of info on where batman was filmed also. the captains were pretty cute too:)
4. true chicago pizza...thick, cheesy, tomato mess..it was truly worth the 45 minute wait and walking in the rain to get to perfect restaurant...
3. the last night there...it isn't often that i can say it was a perfect evening but it was pretty close...long and lovely italian dinner, flirty waiter (good thing i have cute friends:), great wine, time looking at the city skyline and drinks at the top of a yuppy club and then our chauffeur arrived to carry us back to the hotel...yeah i know!!
2. Zafar...our first night in the city we were sort of adopted by a lovely pakistan man named zafar. he was our cab driver who took us back to our fancy hotel in the suburbs. we spent the next 3 days traveling with zafar. he picked us and carted us where we needed to go and brought us back safely anytime we needed him. all it took was one phone call and a location and he was there. the car was nice but the conversations and getting know a little about him were priceless (sorry couldn't resist the cheesy line). he made our trip special. if you ever go to chicago i have the perfect taxi driver to carry you around.
1. Last but not least was being able to see chicago with the Kelly's...i am blessed to have two friends with the exact same name and the confusion is well worth it. I can only think of a few people i would enjoy such a trip with, and the kellys are on the short list. they were willing to put up with my planning and were even grateful for the cheesy touristy book that i bought. I love that i got to meet chicago with them. some friends are difficult to travel with but not the Kellys!

posted by deanna @ 4:53 PM 1 Comments

reevaluation

I had an interesting day/moment on thursday. since moving back the states 4 years ago(holy cow it doesn't seem that long!) i have had a difficult time visiting the christian bookstores. in fact the first time i went to one after returning to america i remember commenting that i felt dirty after leaving. the commercial christian world was too much for me. the prayer of jabez (or i says...), testament mints and jesus bubble gum was too much for this new european adapted girl. i hadn't seen that much christian paraphernalia in a long time, well 2 years to be exact. i hated it all. where were the relationships? would jesus really spend all day hanging out here? how many people shop here but don't practice what they are reading about or singing about or researching? did these people even know that there was a lost world outside?

of course i am aware that i was being a tad judgemental (okay read a lot:) but i have always struggled with jumping back into the christian bubble i was so painfully yanked out of in the summer of 2002. i didn't want to get comfortable. the only time i would go to the christian bookstore was in order to find a new song to sing at church. the accompaniment track aisle is the only place i visit, and it is usually done unwillingly.

on thursday i was making my quarterly visit for a new song to sing. i actually found myself wanting to look around. i forgot how many books, cds, and bible studies were out there. it was peaceful place. it was nice and quiet and almost pleasurable. i actually shopped around and visited other parts of the store. i bought 2 other cds just because... maybe that is why people visit the christian bookstore... not to avoid the outside world but for a just a little while to escape it. to know i didn't have to be careful where i look or what i may hear was quite pleasant. at starbucks i never know what i'll hear or see. i will continue to visit my favorite coffee shop more but maybe from now on i won't avoid the christian bookstore like the plague.

posted by deanna @ 9:13 AM 3 Comments

Multi-Colored Confusion

I am not a natural unrealistic colorer. Explanation...when I was a child I always colored a picture exactly like it was suppose to be. Trees were always green and Big Bird was always yellow. I stuck to the 8 basic colors and rarely branched out to different ones. A box of 24 to 64 crayons was too much pressure for me. However my mom always attempted to push me out of the box of 8. She always colored Big Bird purple and trees were whatever color she wanted.

I thrive with organization and plans. I like to know what is going to happen. However for the last 5 years my life has not been the color it was suppose to be. My life is full of confusion. I don't know what I am doing or what I am suppose to do. I have found myself second gussing every single decision I make. Take 8 of your favorite crayon colors and start scribbling all over a with piece of paper and that is how I feel. That is a perfect picture of my life. I am glad my mom taught me to use different color. Life never turns out the way it suppose to be and God is all about using every single color He created.

I am proud to say I never color Big Bird yellow anymore:) I like to change it up.

posted by deanna @ 6:59 PM 0 Comments