Goodness, I tell y'all that I'm gonna get back to blogging and what do I do? I don't. :P Actually, I just haven't been on the computer much at all since I quit Buzz. I regularly check a few sites, update my Facebook from time-to-time and sometimes listen to music and look up some things. I've actually been enjoying a break from using the computer so much.

So, I won't be blogging as much as I planned, But I will be blogging some. Perhaps every week or every couple of weeks.

God bless!

Katie

Oh, The Insanity!

Hello, lovely people who might happen upon this poor, neglected blog!

I've been thinking. I'm gonna try to come back to blogging for a while. I might even do some interesting things on here, like writing some more insightful posts than I have in the past, perhaps posting pictures.

I decided to give up Google Buzz. It was one of those things that was holding me back, but I think if I plan it and do it right, coming back to blogging could actually be great!

However, if blogging doesn't seem to turn out for me, I'll go on a hiatus in September and decide if I wanna continue blogging or not.

Anyway, for an update on life, our a/c is out for like, the 8th time or so this year! UGH! And, this is summer in Texas, the heat is unbearable! Oh well, we're finding ways to make do and stay fairly cool. And hopefully we'll have an a/c guy out here to fix it soon.

And, I got my stitches out, but then just a few minutes ago I stubbed my toe and tore the cut back open... Ugh. Well, I'll make do with that too.

Oh, and go take the tome to go vote for the Whole Hearts Foundation to get a 50,000 dollar grant from Pepsi! http://www.refresheverything.com/wholehearts

God bless!

~Katie K.

Doors Are Dangerous! Use With Caution.

First, I'd like to say HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, EVERYONE! :D

I posted this on Facebook earlier.

Today is Independence Day. The day we celebrate this country and it's wonderful freedoms. (That we are slowly losing.) Let us remember that though our military protects our freedom on the outside, they don't from the inside. It is the choices of each of us, the people of America (citizens and government alike) that will protect or destroy our independence.

Remember that Freedom comes at a price.

My favorite singer posted this quote today and I wanted to share.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed it ourselves." - Abraham Lincoln

--

So, now you may be wondering about the title of this post. Well, yesterday, I opened a door at Sears and accidentally pulled it over my foot, (I was wearing flip flops) and the next thing I knew I was bleeding faster than I'd ever bled before. Typical me though, I stuck a kneenex between my toes to slow the bleeding and quickly continued my mission. However, I was losing enough blood that I went into minor shock and got all shaky and weird. When I got back out to the car, my mom (who'd been circling the mall while waiting on me to get back.) took one quick look at it and said I'd need to see a doctor. Great... So, we talked to the manager at Sears and filed an injury report (we're hoping they'll pay the medical expenses.) and then went to a clinic.

Twelve stitches later and I still held my reputation of being calm and tough wherever doctors and tough situations are involved. But I left blood all over...

Well, that was an adventure!

God bless!

~Katie K.

Hello, Bloggy World!

I hath been absent again! Where have I been? Doing lots of stuff...

I joined a youth group and I'm loving it! I missed such things. I've only been going three weeks now though, so I haven't really made any friends there yet. Hopefully I will soon though! The music is nice, very uplifting, and I like the youth pastor.

We got a new car. Did I mention that? She's dark red and needs a name. And she has air conditioning!! AH! Wonderful! I so missed air conditioning!

My best friend, who lives in another state, hasn't been online much, though I'm chatting with her on g-mail now! Ah, how I miss that lovely girl!

Photographing lightning is hard! I got a kind of stinky shot of it about a week ago, but I'd love something better! I'll keep trying! I'm on a photography scavenger hunt, and one of the things I need to get is lightning. Another thing is body art... Trouble with that is that I don't know anyone nearby that has a tattoo, and I've had a hard time working up the courage to ask some stranger if I can take a picture of their tattoo. Haha.

I edited that song in the post below this one. Shall I post the new version or not? I thought it was a lot better.

Well, that is all for now. I feel like changes are just around the corner, and that cool with me. I like change. Gives me something to talk and blog about. ;)

God bless y'all!

~Katie K.

Stars (Temporary title)

I wrote a new song. It's probably my most unique song. I imagine it being a rather epic sounding ballad. It's temporarily titled "Stars". I think it needs a better name though. I'm not good at naming. Haha.

Let me know what you think!

God bless!

~Katie K.

Dead trees sway,

All around the icy cold lake,

You've reason to be afraid,

Standing there,

Shaking in dread fear,

Voices whisper,

"You could always turn back,

To the realm of black,"

Voices whisper,

"Just follow the shining stars,

To God,"

Grace shines bright,

Like a northern star,

Dancing in the dead of night,

Healing broken hearts,

So theycan once more fly,

Standing at the water's edge,

I know you can cross the waves,

Though there is no bridge,

You're not alone, have faith,

And voices whisper,

"You could always turn back,

To the realm of black,"

Voices whisper,

"Just follow the shining stars,

To God,"

Grace shines bright,

Like a northern star,

Dancing in the dead of night,

Healing broken hearts,

So they can once more fly,

It's starting to rain,

Just take my hand,

And cross the waves,

I'll lead you to dry land,

Voices whisper,

"You could always turn back,

To the realm of black,"

Voices whisper,

"Just follow the shining stars,

To God,"

Grace shines bright,

Like a northern star,

Dancing in the dead of night,

Healing broken hearts,

So they can once more fly.

THIS BLOG IS NOT DEAD!!!!

Augh! Why can't I find the motivation to write! I've got like, the worst case of writer's block ever! How does one cure writer's block? Maybe more followers? *Hint, hint* lol. At least more comments.

~Katie

My Poor Neglected Blog....

I keep starting posts and not finishing. I'll try to get back to really blogging soon! In the meantime I'll see if I can FINALLY get over this stinking illness. :P (Yeah, I've been sick, as has almost everyone else in my family.)

I also need to get caught up on e-mails and other things. I'm so behind! :P

God bless!

(And don't get sick!!)

~Katie K.

"I Won't Hold It Against You If You Call Me Jack."

Edit: My mom says I sounded fussy in this post. Sorry, didn't mean to come across that way. This post was so long that I didn't actually read over it and edit. :P I'll probably work on that later.

Sorry I haven't updated in FOREVER! Like a month.) There's been illness, a new baby, a wedding in which I was bridesmaid, Daddy's been traveling some, and he also had a birthday and I feel like I've hardly been home lately, and well, there's just been TONS of craziness! There's too much to tell, really, so I'll just write about the biggest thing. The wedding!

I don't like using real names on my blog however, so I'll use initials. My cousin who got married is C.F.H., her new hubby id P.H., the maid of honor, C.F.H.'s best friend is A.W. and N.H. is the other bridesmaid. She is P. H.'s sister.

I hope that made sense...

Things started to get interesting Saturday (Apirl 2nd) evening when I got picked up in N.H.'s car and headed to a hotel with her, C.F.H. and A.W.. At the hotel, we snacked on junk, went searching for forks, watched movies and at one point we went out and hung out around the "hot" tub. We talked about boyfriends (I don't have one...) and I fell into the hot tub at one point, after I'd confidently stated that I wouldn't fall. Hehe. We all of course laughed. :D

Because there were only two beds, I slept with N.H., which wasn't too bad. I mean, if you're gonna sleep in the same bed as someone you hardly know, she wasn't bad at all. A very nice girl and she didn't move too much. I didn't fall asleep until like 3:00 AM. Blame it on Alice in Wonderland and me having my usual hard time sleeping in a strange place. Oddly I was the first up that morning. We had the hotel breakfast. I had fried potato chunks, fruit and a carton of milk because it all looked like stuff I wouldn't be allergic to. Those potato chunks were really good... Anyway, after breakfast an Angel came to do our hair. N.H. and I opted to go ahead and have our hair done there at the hotel, but C.F.H. and A.W. decided to wait until we got to the inn that C.F.H. and P.H. were getting married in.

We got our hair done and then headed over to the inn, where we were given the library as a dressing room. We had lots of people just coming in and out of or dressing room, usually without knocking. kinda weird... Especially since one of the people who kept coming in was a photographer! (Did I remember to mention that the photographer was a guy?) I opted to change into my dress in a bathroom. :P

Photographer guy was pretty nice though. I found out that he hates really huge, ridiculous wedding dresses, he liked that C.F.H. had picked a simple, pretty one. I thought it was nice to know that there are other people who prefer simple dresses!

While getting ready Photographer Due took a picture of me putting on lipstick. That was weird... Said is was one of his more unusual putting on make-p-pictures because I'd just stuck a random mirror on the couch. Libraries don't make good dressing rooms. :P

One completely ready, make up on, dress on, hair up, I didn't recognize myself! I looked like someone else entirely! I usually let my hair stay down, don't wear make up, and do the whole rocker/punk style with clothes, to be all fancy like that was weird! And the dress wasn't as modest as I would've liked... :-/ Oh well, it wasn't too bad...

Anyway, I'll get to the actual wedding part. We lined up, then us bridesmaids realized that we forgot our bouquets, and the maid of honor was missing... We quickly found A.W. and our bouquets though, long before it was our turn to go down the aisle. When my turn came, N.H. and I went with the same guy, as there weren't as many groomsmen as bridesmaids. The guy who was supposed to be best man is a marine, and he got sent to Japan, couldn't return to be in his friend's wedding. :P

I remembered to smile the whole way through, even though the groomsman (A rather nerdy guy) seemed a tad intimidated by N.H, and I, and I wasn't terribly fond of him... When it comes time for the ceremony, being a bridesmaid is simple, just stand there and smile. Your cheeks get sore, but it's still pretty easy, even if the sun is beating down on your bare shoulders. o_O

Anyhow, C.F.H. and P.H. both seemed really excited (although P.H., being a rather shy man also seemed really nervous.) and happy. :) The wedding went beautifully, the only slip up being when the exit music played late, so C.F.H. and P.H. were stuck just kind of staring at the crowd, waiting for the music to play so that they could leave. lol.

It was like 1:00 PM at that point, and none of us had eaten since breakfast at the hotel, so we were all starving when it came time for the after-ceremony pictures. Photography Dude made it as fast and fun as possible. N.H. and I left as soon as possible to go get some food, only to find that we needed a refill on the appetizer! AH! And then just as we were about to be able to get food, we got called inside so that we could be there for the Bride and Groom's grand entrance. Then we were finally allowed to eat! Haha.

Photography Dude ate with my parents and I and the other family at our table because the seat wasn't taken and it was a good vantage point for a photographer. The steak was, um, rare... (In other words it was raw and gross!) And the salmon tasted like salmon, which is to say, not very good... I guess I'm just not into fancy foods... And the fact that I went home and had an allergic reaction did not help my view on these things!

Shortly after the meal, there were speeches, and cake! Momma smuggled in some candy so that we'd be able to have something sweet while everyone else had cake. A.W. wrote up a really sweet speech. The best man just kind of said a few words that could hardly be called a speech though. Ha.

We sent the bride and groom off with bubbles being blown all around, shouted and the clicking sound cameras make.

I wish C.F.H. and P.H. only the VERY best with their new life together! I hope that God works wonderfully with their marriage. :)

I went home exhausted, having fallen asleep at like 3:30 AM and awakened at like 7:30 AM. However, I wasn't sleepy enough to miss out on having a moment of rebellion against girliness. I changed out of that fancy dress into my Kutless T-shirt and my rocker jeans. Ah, much better! I also took my hair down, all those pins were getting painful. Ha, there were enough curls and enough hairspray had been used that I looked like I had poofy 80's hair! I found that really amusing.

Anyway, I'm glad to have been in my cousin's wedding! I'm so glad that she and her new hubby are happy. :)

On a completely different note, I've been searching desperately for new music, as I'm feeling a little bored lately. I want something new, something worth getting excited about! I've actually been having an interesting time with my search for awesome new music, and I have found some pretty good stuff, which only makes me want to find more. Haha, so if y'all know of any good rock bands out there, lemme know! I'll look 'em up! (Don't show me screamo or metalcore bands.)

There's a lot more to say, but anything else must wait for future posts.

God bless!

~Katie K.

(I'll be surprised if anyone can guess the meaning of my post title. lol)

This Is My Adorable New Brother

Yes, I'm Alive

Sorry, I guess my blog has started look look a little dead, life's just been going by so fast. I cannot believe that my new little brother is already over a week old, and yet somehow it also feels like he's always been here. Weird, huh? He's soooo cute!

I hurt my leg today. I was being stupid and bruised it up, both skin and muscle bruises. Mostly muscle bruises, from around my knee down to my ankle. I think I jarred the bone a little too, but that's not so bad now. I walked about a mile to get home though. I could've called for help, but I didn't.

Last Sunday I went to my cousin's bridal shower. It was pretty fun, in spite of hardly knowing most of the people there. And making wedding dresses around people with toilet paper is super fun! :D I wouldn't be very comfortable if someone made a toilet paper wedding dress around me though... lol

This Saturday is Hulk's 10th birthday, that'll be a big one! I remember how big and cool I felt when I turned 10. lol. Also on Saturday, hopefully my aunts and cousins will finally be able to visit! I haven't seen these people in years, actually one of my cousins I've never gotten to meet! I miss them so much!

At the end of this month I've got to be at my cousin's wedding rehearsal. Never been part of a wedding before. This'll be interesting, especially with the rehearsal dinner. We're going out to Olive Garden, which I'd think was lovely, but I'm rather wary of eating out because I seem to be allergic to like 80% of foods out there... Corn syrup and sugar are some the worst allergies! Oh well, there should be something safe. :)

And then in early April there'll be the wedding, and all of the craziness with that, so expect me to be busy! If I don't update much, you'll know why.

God bless!

Katie K.

I HAVE A NEW BROTHER!!!!

The title says it all.

However, there is a story to tell, and I know that everyone is curious, so I'll tell it.

At 4:00 AM this morning, Daddy woke Adam and I up and called us to his room. We were told that he was taking Momma to the hospital, not because she was in labor, (she was in pre-labor, but not actual labor yet.) but because Momma wasn't feeling any movement from the baby when she should've been. And it was kind of scary.

Thankfully after a while she stared feeling movement again. However, they decided to continue on to the hospital to make sure that the baby was okay, and Momma was having blood pressure issues.

And then thank God, they found out that the little guy was just fine. They decided to go ahead and do the c-section. So at 9:03 AM, Friday, March 4th 2011, my little brother (not putting his name on here. Sorry.) was born, weighing a good 10 pounds and 5 ounces.

I went to see him this afternoon. Unfortunately, I cannot post pictures yet because we're leaving the camera at the hospital for now, but he's gorgeous! A head full of hair, the sweetest face with a dimple in his chin and big blue eyes! I'm so glad to have him!

Wildchild was excited about him. He kept messing his toes, and kissing him, and stressing that the baby was his baby. Haha, it was soooooo cute!!

Momma and my new brother will be home in a few days. Both are doing well.

Ah, and there's even more insanity... I'm going to my cousin's wedding shower this Sunday, (I'm a bridesmaid, it's kind of important that I make it!) and on Tuesday probably, we've got all kinds of family visiting, and my older brother is getting a dog. (More on the dog later.)

So yeah, life'll be crazy! It's good though, it's all good. :)

Okay, I might be able to drag this post on longer, but I'm tired, not enough sleep the past couple days and lots of excitement, so I'll just try to give more details later...

God bless!

~Katie K.

Pictures from Winter Jam!

Edit: Alrighty! Got it fixed, I think! Sorry that it didn't work in the first place!

Hey everyone. Small problem, I have forty-seven pictures that I wanna upload. There is nooooo way that I'm sit here and post forty-seven pictures one by one. Thankfully, I made the album I have on Facebook public, so I'll just give you the link and let you see the pictures on Facebook. Winter Jam 2011 Pictures.

If for some reason it doesn't work, let me know! I'll have to figure something else out it doesn't work.

If it does work, lemme know what you think!

God bless!

~Katie K.

Winter Jam!

Went to Winter Jam on Friday! I was originally gonna go with Adam, but things changed so I went with Daddy instead.

We took a train there. I'd never been on a train before. I dunno if I like trains or not... We got there nice and early, and though like 20,000 or 21,000 people showed up, Daddy and I were near the front of the line!! While we waited, three members of Kutless came out! Jeff (drummer), Nick (guitarist) and James (guitarist) brought a few prizes out there with them and did a little game of Kutless Trivia with us fans. I was the first person to get a question right and I won a Kutless T-shirt! After that they wouldn't let me play though, otherwise I would've won more stuff. T-shirt was good enough though! I've been wanting one for ages! I would've had to pay $20 to buy it. And I won it straight from the hands of Kutless! They congratulated me and gave me high fives. And complimented my jeans. Goodness, I think those jeans became famous before I ever got inside! Haha, I'd written all kinds of band names on them and song quotes, the main things on them though was Kutless' name, in their special font and everything. (They've also been signed by both Kutless and Sidewalk Prophets!!) Kutless and all sorts of strangers seemed impressed by them. I wasn't expecting that. lol. I got my picture taken with the members of Kutless too.

Then out came Sidewalk Prophets! They let us sign up to win an awesome Sidewalk Prophets guitar and they posed for pictures with us, and launched T-shirts at us. I unfortunately didn't catch any. (They also complimented my jeans! o_O) And when they started to head back inside, Dave, lead singer for Sidewalk Prophets, gave me a random hug. I didn't mind. lol.

Then it was back to waiting. And waiting. And waiting. We waited outside that door for like an hour and forty minutes! It was sooooo worth the wait! And we got pretty good seats. Not that we used 'em a whole lot. Hehe. Seriously, who sits around at a rock concert?

First artist out was...Not Chris Sligh. It was Jason Castro?! They didn't advertise him as a Winter Jam musician... Oh well, he did fairly well. I don't know anything about him other than the fact that he was on American Idol though.

Next out was Chris August. He started out with his worst song... Then he did some silly song about how he loves candy. He ended with "Starry Night".

The last of the Pre-Jammers came out. Sidewalk Prophets! They only played four songs, but it was awesome!! Predictably passionate. :)

Then came RED, and what a show! They literally fired it up. Kinda smoky in there after they got off stage. They were energetic and really amazing live. Lead singer is short though. He was standing on a platform. At least, he was when he wasn't busy jumping and running around like a (maniac) typical hard rock star. I tell you, he's the only guy I've seen who rivals Jon Micah of Kutless when it comes to height of jumps. (The flames were totally epic!!)

KJ-52 never really did a performance. He just popped up every so often between acts ans gave us something to do while the stage was being cleared and set up again. He's better at working a crowd than he is at rapping for a record. And he convinced over 20,000 people to do stupid dances with him! And shake our hands around in the air in silly ways. I'll humbly admit that that in spite of crowded conditions, I wasn't half bad at dancing KJ style... lol. (Actually, it was a real step down from the dancing I used to do. I used to be a worship dancer.)

Then came Newsong. I'm not a Newsong fan, and I shall continue not to be, but they did have their good moments.

The speaker they had, Tony Nolan, was an a really powerful and passionate and amazing one. You could really connect with him. I can't explain everything he said though... Here's my advice, go to one of the remaining Winter Jam shows and find out for yourself! You won't be sorry! Oh, and when he was leading people in prayer to receive Christ as their Savior, I heard someone behind me repeating the prayer after him! It was amazing! People REALLY get saved at Winter Jam!!

Francesca Battistelli came next. I'll confess that I didn't enjoy her performance much, but I'm not a fan of her music and the poor woman was sick, so it would have been terribly difficult for her to put on a stellar show. She and a couple members of her band played ukuleles at one point...

Then out came the David Crowder band! I'll confess that I wasn't expecting to enjoy them, but I did! They're a band I find kind of annoying on their CDs, but they're pretty fun live! They praise the Lord with energy and really get the crowd into it.

And then... Kutless came out!! I did immensely enjoy their performance, (of course!!) but it wasn't their best ever. I enjoyed the Sanger show more, but that one was more intimate and Kutless was headlining it, so they played more songs then. Anyway, Kutless was really good and I can't wait to see them again!

I think it was after Kutless that we were asked to make a donation to Winter Jam so that they could keep going like they do. I was amongst the people who donated, though I didn't give much. I don't have much money at all. *sigh* Can't wait until I get a job!!

So then the band headlining Winter Jam this year came out. The Newsboys! Wow, the Newsboys are epic live. I wish I could have been down closer for them. They all had these amazing rising platforms, and of course their was Duncan Phillips famous drum platform that turns sideways and spins! I never knew I'd get to see that live, but I did! And it was awesome! It blows my mind that he can play the drums like that.

The one time during the Newsboys show that really drove me insane was when they played "Something Beautiful", I love that song, but Micheal Tait was singing it all wrong! I was singing better than he was!

Oh, and it was during the Newsboys' performance that KJ-52 made one of his appearances. This one wasn't so random as he was doing the rap part of "Jesus Freak".

After the Newsboys finished up, the concert was over, so Daddy and I left to go get autographs. Unfortunately, the place was so packed that Daddy couldn't get the Newsboys authographs, but I got them from Kutless! When at the Kutless table I posed for a pic with the lead singer, Jon Micah, and James remembered me by name from earlier when I had won the T-shirt!! He remembered me! *Happiness*

I got an autograph from Chris August for my older brother, and then we had to leave or risk missing the train home. I really wanted to get autographs from Sidewalk Prophets, Red and Newsboys though... Oh well, It was after 11:00 PM when we left and I hadn't had dinner. I felt kinda yucky as a result. Maybe I can get their autographs at a later date.

We got home at about 12:30 AM, had something to eat, and got to bed at about 2:00 AM. Yikes.

Winter Jam was amazing. I'm soooo glad I went! You should go too if you can! I feel like I left out a lot about my experience at Winter Jam, but it would be hard to get every detail on here.

A post with pictures coming soon!!

God bless!

~Katie

Hey, Guess What!

FRIDAY IS WINTER JAM!!!

I'm excited. :)

I'm gonna get to see Kutless again! (Third time! Wooohooo!!) I'm also gonna see Sidewalk Prophets again! (Second time!) And I'll see the Newsboys! I'll get to see their spinning drum thingy! And I'll also see Red, and Chris August! Oh, and there are a few I'm not excited about, like KJ-52 (BLEEEH!!), David Crowder Band (Ehhh.) and Newsong. Then there are the two I know next to nothing about, Chris Sligh and Francesca Battistelli. I guess I ought to look 'em up and listen to a few songs, I might be pleasantly surprised.

I'm gonna see KUTLESS AGAIN!!!

God bless!

~Katie K.

Strange Things...

You know, it's odd, one day you'll be going around in short sleeves and seeing butterflies. The next you'll be bundling up like an Eskimo and trying to make you're way across ice. Those poor frozen butterflies... Watch out for penguins!

I created a snow alien, his name was Fred. He didn't live very long. I accidentally knocked his head off, then I got frustrated and kicked him into oblivion. I guess it was okay though, he didn't like kids much... He had a nice tail and cool hair though.

Last night I went to a movie with my older brother, and on the way there while we were sitting at an intersection waiting for the light to turn green, there was a strange and mysterious sight up in the nearly dark sky. 500 to 1,000 birds flying in these sort of circles over the intersection. They just kept going and going and going....

Movie reviewers don't always do a movie justice. I was led to believe by the reviews that Megamind would be only an okay movie. I came away loving it and wanting to own it. It was great!

When you go to the store to only buy a couple items, you leave with several. When you go to the store to buy lots of items, you forget a great deal of them. Usually.

I used to love monkeys. Blehhhhh.

Freedom of speech is slowly disappearing.

The post on this blog with the most comments is my very first post. It was a test post. It got six comments.

God bless!

~Katie K.

Red - Until We Have Faces (Review)

I've decided to start doing music reviews. Only for Christian rock though. For now at least. I might venture into other genres eventually, but I won't review secular music because I don't listen to it. If there are any albums you'd like me to review, let me know and I'll look into it.

My first review will be for the new album by RED, "Until We Have Faces". I don't really listen to Red previous to their latest album, but I like this album, so I'm going to review it.

Red is a Christian hard rock/metal band.

(For each song I'm giving a link to a youtube video so you can listen to the song. Note: the videos that contain lyrics may not have 100% accurate lyrics.)

Track #1 "Feed The Machine". As I first started listening to the song, I found myself a bit disturbed. The lyrics seemed to be a call to give in to sin and just "give up, give up and feed the machine". I was at the point of wondering why on earth a Christian band would release such a song when at the end, the lyrics changed from "give up, give up and feed the machine" to "wake up, wake up and kill the machine".

So, I think in the end, "Feed The Machine" was not about giving in to sin, but about how easy it is to give in to sin, but you need to still fight it.

Musically, "Feed The Machine" was very hard, probably the hardest on the album. Heavy guitar and drums and a good deal of screaming, but it fades at the end into something with softer music, something like you might expect to hear after the climax in a movie, so "Feed The Machine" had a somewhat dramatic affect.

Track #2. "Faceless". Not nearly as hard or dramatic as "Feed The Machine" but still pretty hard, and it had a good message, about how we we are nothing without God. A very solid song, and it's the one that got me interested in the album in the first place.

Track #3 is "Lie To Me (Denial)". This song is about as hard as "Faceless", but without any screaming. "Lie To Me" seems to be one of those songs that's meaning is best left to be interpreted by the listener. For me personally it hit a place rather close to home.

Track #4, "Let it Burn". Not as hard as "Lie To Me", but still a good solid rock song. The music is almost sad, but that goes with the lyrics.

"(How long) Can you stand the pain?
(How long) How long will you hide your face?
(How long) How long will you be afraid?
Are you afraid?"

Track #5, "Buried Beneath". The song seems to be taken from the perspective of someone who has been running from God for a long time and is now calling out for God to save him before he is "buried beneath". It's a good rock song, and pretty decent lyrics.

Track #6, "Not Alone" is the first slower song on the album. It builds nicely, and sounds kinda pretty. The song is taken from the perspective of God calling out to one of His children who is hurting inside and letting them know that they're never alone, He's always there.

Track #7, "Watch You Crawl". This song sounds good musically, nice hard rock, although the scream in the bridge gets on my nerves... It mostly sounds good though. My problem with this song is the lyrics. They can be interpreted in more ways than one, but the most glaring interpretation is very hateful and vengeful. And considering that Red is a Christian band, I was having a hard time believing that they'd write and release such a song. So I've analyzed the lyrics. One person said that they thought this song was taking the perspective of God getting His revenge on Satan or something, but that doesn't make much sense to me, as the lyrics seem to involve rising above someone or something oppressive and watching them/it "crawl". Finally, I came to a conclusion on what the song probably means. I think it might be about rising above your old sinful self and killing it. I don't know for sure though... I'd love the chance to ask Red themselves.

"The Outside" is track #8. This song like "Watch You Crawl" is pretty open to interpretation. To me, the song seems a bit angry. My interpretation of the lyrics depicts someone who has been used by another and is now basically saying "no more!". A pretty hard song, fairly good sound, I just wish it wasn't as angry sounding.

Track #9 "Who We Are". Another harder song. This one has some pretty prominent percussion. The percussion paired with the lyrics make this a song to really get pumped to. "Who We Are" seems to be about being ourselves and stepping out for God.

Track #10 "The Best is Yet to Come". Finally another softer song, but this one isn't exactly a ballad. The music is good and the lyrics optimistic. And having optimistic lyrics is nice, because most of the rest of the album seems a tad dark.

Track #11 "Hymn For The Missing". The final song on the album and this one really is a ballad, with piano being the most prominent instrument in the song. As the title leads you to believe, this is a sad and mysterious song. In spite of the sadness, it is oddly rather pretty.

Conclusion: Red has never been, and probably never will be one of my favorite bands, but they managed to release a pretty solid album this time. Vocals have improved for "Until We Have Faces", where they seemed to be lacking a bit in previous albums. The musical style is very good. I do however think that the lyrics for this album could have been better. I'd give "Until We Have Faces" a good three and a half stars. An album perhaps worth owning, but not the best out there.

Personal favorites: "Lie To Me (Denial)", "Let it Burn", "Best is Yet to Come", "Not Alone" and "Faceless".

I'm In An Annoyingly Optimistic Mood!

I just got back from a walk. The weather is lovely, music is amazing and God is awesome! Need I say more?

Well, I'm gonna say more, otherwise this would be a pathetically short post, wouldn't it? Hehehe.

The bathroom looks much better now! We have a new sink and a new toilet. Both are nicer and more streamlined than the old stuff. Very good! Amazing that a leak could lead to a bathroom renovation, huh?

I'm almost finished writing a new song. I randomly started singing bits of it yesterday while getting ready to go out, so I wrote it down. It's kinda pretty and kinda sad. Aimed at that friend I just lost... One of these days I'll post one or two of my songs on here, if any of you are interested. Not that one though, at least not yet. :-P It doesn't go with my happy mood!

I'm not really fond of the band Red, but I heard their new song "Faceless" on the radio and liked it a lot, so I started listening to their new album, and I liked most of it. Weird, huh? I may do a review on it, who knows... Actually, that might be interesting if I started doing album reviews from time-to-time...

And, I have nothing more to say... :-P

God bless!

~Katie K.

Everything Has Just Been Insane!

This blog is in serious need of an update. I just haven't updated it yet because everything has been nuts! You'd think that my root canal was enough insanity, but the house just had to start flooding... *Sigh* So, yesterday the landlord came out and he and his daughter ripped the bathroom to pieces looking for the leak, found it, fixed it and and now we have an enormous mess where the bathroom used to be. Of course, it'll be fixed up, but that'll take a few days. In the meantime everyone's been using the master bathroom. Not cool...

Then today, I went to see the dentist again. Everything went well and the dentist is very optimist about my condition! One more appointment and I should be through! Yay! I'll going to get things finished up next Thursday! Which is good, because as nice as my dentist is, I'm not exactly enjoying having all of these problems. At least i'm off of antibiotics even though the infection isn't completely dead. (Dentist said it could take as long as 6 months for it to completely heal! o_O)

Anyway in spite of all of these messes lately, I'm feeling pretty optimistic! So here's to there being fewer disasters through the rest of the year!

God bless you all!

~Katie

Wow, What A Day!

Remember how I had that "slight but persistent toothache"? Well, it got bad. Literally kept me up all night last night. It was hurting a LOT. So, Daddy got me an appointment with a dentist. And Momma took me. We figured that they'd take an x-ray, give me antibiotics and send me home. Well, it ended up more complicated than that. After taking the x-ray, I was informed that I had a dying nerve that had to be removed immediately. Also an infection that was getting into the bone.

He decided that it would be best to give me an emergency root canal to remove the nerve. Which quite honestly freaked me out a bit... Root canals are one of those dreaded things. I tried to stay calm though. They actually gave me laughing gas (why is it called laughing gas??) to help me stay calm. At first it was fine, but after a few minutes, I started shaking really hard, couldn't control it. Thankfully by the time the dentist returned the worst of the shaking was over. Don't think he even knew I'd had a shaking fit. :-P When he got back though there was another problem, I wasn't numbed enough. So he numbed me further, however because of all of the pressure, he was unable to numb me completely. So I could at least somewhat feel everything he was doing to me during the root canal. It hurt. Oh well though, I toughed it. It wasn't that bad, and it was better than the possibility of losing my tooth or letting the infection keep growing. An infection that reaches the bone can become deadly. In spite of the pain, the root canal went very smoothly.

I now have a hole in my tooth that will be filled in about ten days. Right now it needs to drain.

I must say that the dentist I had was really good! Confident, likable, good at what he did and seemed to really respect his patients. He even called not long ago just make sure that I was okay and that all was going well like it was supposed to. I would totally go to him again!

So yeah, I'm exhausted, and I've had an emergency surgery today. Here's hoping tomorrow isn't as crazy!

God bless!

~Katie K.

Half A Month Into The Year And...

..It stinks. For me at least. Hopefully it's been better for you!

Actually, I shouldn't complain. It could be worse. Much, much, much worse. Like, instead of popping my knee in and out of joint and being forced off of my feet for a while, I could've broken my knee and been in a world of hurt!

Instead of a slight but persistent toothache, I could have a serious and persistent toothache that made it impossible to eat!

Instead of a sore throat and stuffy nose I could have... Strep throat and the flu! (Or worse!)

Instead of painfully losing one friend, I could've painfully lost all of my friends.

The list goes on and on, and on, and on...

Yeah, life can seem pretty stinky at times. It kinda seems that way for me right now. Kinda strange though, I know that there are many people who would look at my life and would be happy to trade with me! My life isn't so bad! It's a million times better than dying of some deadly disease. It's a ton better than being abused by someone who should love you. It's better than living in a remote country and starving.

Tons of ways my life could be worse. Actually, even though I'm having a rough time, I'm starting to be quite thankful that I've got such small problems! What right have I to complain? Yes, I know even small things can hurt a lot, I've experienced that pain. Just earlier today I was actually fighting depression! Seems pretty silly now!

Life is full of pain. Some people get more than others. I've been blessed to live a life like mine. There have been genuinely painful moments in my life, and it's okay to hurt, but not to complain. God is good. Let's learn to praise Him even when we hurt.

God bless you all!

~Katie K

Let's Just Make It Official

It would seem that I've been taking a break from blogging anyway, so I'm just gonna make it official. I'm not exactly having a wonderful start to this year so I don't have much pleasant to say.

I don't know when I'll be back, but it should be quite soon.

Have a wonderful new year!

God bless,

~Katie K.