Musical Recommendations

Dust and I are currently sitting in our living room watching the movie WILD AMERICA. If you are having trouble remembering this gem of the 90's, I'm talking about this movie:

 

We both just agreed that Dust wanted to BE Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and I wanted to DATE him. I can't even tell you how many times I made my dad drag me to the Video Update down the street just so I could rent this movie and purposely creep myself out by the woman near the bear cave who had scars on her cheek from a bear mauling!

Ring a bell, anyone??

Anyway, since I have seen this movie too many times to count and I also got the sudden urge tonight to crack open my laptop, I decided to burn a CD. One of the best apps I've downloaded on my phone is HANDS DOWN is the Shazam App. Nothing is more convenient than driving on my way to work and figuring out what song I'm listening to just by tapping a button on my phone. I happen to be a huge fan of The Current here in MN, so my songs of choice may not exactly please everybody, but I think this is one of the better mixes I've put together in a long time. If you are looking for good songs to listen to for a road trip, a day at the beach with iPod buds in your ears, or something to blast while you clean around the house, then maybe you might want to give these a shot. 

In no random order:

Give Up the Funk by Parliament

Lucky Man by The Verve (Perhaps you might recognize it from the movie "Marley and Me")

Stubborn Love by The Lumineers(I CAN'T SAY ENOUGH ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS GROUP!)

Busy Bees by Silversun Pickups

Next to Me by Emeli Sande (She's opening for Coldplay in MN this weekend and I am begging Dust to find us tickets...)

We Bought a Zoo by Jonsi (This is what I walked down the aisle to!)

D.A.N.C.E by Justice 

Hey Ladies by The Beastie Boys

Jump Into the Fog by The Wombats (This might be my new favorite song, for real)

You're a Wolf by Seawolf

Look at Where We Are by Hot Chip

Some Nights by Fun (even though it seems to pop up in every commercial on TV these days)

Nightcall by Kavinsky (from the movie "Drive")

Houdini by Foster the People (Granted this was kind of my anthem last summer, but who says you can't repeat?)

Man on Fire by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (I would do anything to see them in concert)

Here are a couple preview videos of my favorites from the group: 

Emeli Sande

Justice

The Wombats

Hot Chip

Go listen to some music.

And for those of you that will get it and have read from the beginning, do so "with that good ol' Mountain Dew." 

Just read.

I get depressed pretty much any time I turn on the TV lately and watch the news. It seems like ever since the Aurora, CO movie theater disaster that every week, every day, headlines pop up of horrible things happening in different parts of the country, or in our world.

I actually drove home from work yesterday in the midst of rush hour (AKA my worst enemy) and noticed to my left a plane flying abnormally low in the sky. I live in St. Paul, which isn't far from the airport, but I thought to myself that plane looks TOO low, TOO far from the airport. I even went so far as to drive out of my way towards the Mississippi to see if I was just crazy, or if there was, in fact, a plane crash disaster. It was one of those moments where I thought to myself, am I completely insane? Why would a plane just crash into the river right by my apartment? Of course I was wrong about the whole thing... and yet I mulled it over in my brain thinking to myself, what would I do if I were ever really a witness to a random disaster? How would I react? What would go through my mind?

Well anyway. Dusty and I decided to get some errands done last night at around 7 p.m. and headed out to Ikea in Bloomington. We were in desparate need of a dresser, nightstand, and bookshelf and promised ourselves that we'd be in and out of there in an hour tops. That, of course, didn't happen because we ended up testing out every sofa in the showroom and then ran into some people we knew in the warehouse. After packing up my tiny car with heavy cardboard boxes, not only were we tired, but also hungry. So, with the Mall of America being conveniently across the street from Ikea, we decided to grab some food.

Dust always parks in the same ramp at MOA because he swears it's never that busy, and I wasn't driving nor did I care, I was just itching to eat something. This was at around 8:15 p.m. now and way past my normal dinner hour. That was when we noticed heading up the ramp that there were several cars parked in the middle of the street with their hazards flashing. A Uhaul van was up ahead about 20 meters or so and something just didn't look right. We were clueless as to what was going on until a girl frantically ran up to our car and asked us for rope or anything that might help to get the Uhaul driver out of the cab of the truck. The driver had misjudged the clearance of the parking ramp ceiling, causing a concrete beam to crash onto the cab of the Uhaul. The driver was PINNED INSIDE the cab in his seat. And he was still alive.

I literally froze while Dust quickly opened our trunk. We had a rope and some bungees and he ran toward the scene to hand them off. A security guard on a bike told him to stay away until he noticed the rope. I then noticed a woman screaming on the sidewalk, hysterical, and she slumped to the ground as Dusty and I tried to figure out where to go from here. He told me that someone mentioned the driver was talking and coherent but after we saw the damage to the cab of the Uhaul truck, we both were sick- there are slim chances for someone to survive a crash like the one we saw. I took a couple pictures on my phone while Dust was handing off the rope.


You can see where the beam hits the drivers side, it is to the right of Dusty who was walking back to our car. At this point there were no police or emergency cars at the site of the accident and the beam had fallen on the truck about five minutes beforehand.

 There wasn't much more we could do beyond just leaving the site of the accident, since by that point, we could hear sirens very closely nearing the mall- not to mention mall security was being pretty adament about not allowing anyone to get near the truck. We parked our car and went inside the mall. We didn't know what else to do. Dusty and I basically just rehashed everything that had just happened- did we really just drive right into the scene of an INSANE accident? Would the driver be okay? Why did the beam fall? Why did this happen at all?
I then started to contemplate the timing of events leading us to that disastrous scene: running late to get out the door, not arriving at Ikea until 7ish, spending way more time there than we hoped, bumping into friends, and deciding at the last minute to go grab a bite to eat across the street. That timeline brought us to that exact moment where we happened upon a horrible accident that neither of us EVER would have expected (nor wanted) to encounter, simply by chance.

After about an hour of being at MOA, still pretty stunned, we decided to leave. It felt so weird to walk around this enormous place full of people who were clueless to what happened outside just minutes ago. The scene walking out to the parking lot was much different than driving in. There were probably 25 police cars, 5 firetrucks, police officers and news crews EVERYWHERE. The lot where we parked was sealed off by yellow police tape and by then, I was glued to my phone waiting for an update on the news from my mom. She called to let us know the driver, a 52 year old male, had died, was still trapped in the Uhaul, and the two passengers who were with him were taken to the hospital for minor injuries. I couldn't help but think immediately of the woman I saw earlier, screaming like I have never heard anyone scream before and then slumping to the ground. It gave me the absolute worst feeling in the world to know that that man had died and we had been right there just a couple hours prior while he was still living and still holding on to some kind of hope, I'm sure. I thought about my stupid car ride home earlier. Would I ever be witness to some disastrous event in my lifetime? By the time I crawled into bed last night, I wished that I had never decided to go eat at the Mall of America. My thoughts raced back to that poor man in the Uhaul who probably had no idea that his decision to park the van would end up costing his life. Nobody deserves to go out like that.

And maybe this post makes me sound epic and all the more depressing... but it made me think back to countless times in my life where I have tried to make sense of horrible things happening to people in this world. Why does it happen? Why does God LET it happen? Even the other night, Dusty and I were watching an episode of Friday Night Lights when one of the main characters converts to Christianity and ministers to prison inmates in a bible study- and the inmates torture her with that question- Why does God allow horrible things happen to normal, good people?

Here's the thing: the character on the show (Lyla Garrity, for those of you who are FNL fans like me) did not have an answer for the prison inmates, and at the moment, I don't have an answer, either. Not only that, but I know nothing about the man who died last night. I know nothing about his life, his family, his faith, or where he's from. I hate not having an explanation for something that just seems so bizarre and unfair.

So as I'm sitting here, contamplating this weird, senseless event, my mind wandered to something that my mother-in-law gave me at my last bridal shower. It's a bookmark from Dusty's dad, Wade's, funeral, which contains an encouraging note written by Wade on the back that literally took every thought I had regarding last night and gave me peace.  I could go so much more into how highly I think of Dusty's dad, and how sad I am that I never got the chance to meet him and know him... but trust me, that is a blog post for another time :) Anyway. Please read it, and if you are ever stuck in a situation like me where you can't quite wrap your head around tragedy, be comforted by these words (this is a eulogy Wade wrote for the funeral of a good friend).

As I walked alongside my friend during his illness, I was forced to ask myself two questions about God. Is He loving and a good God? And is He in control, is He powerful? If the answer is yes- and I believe they are, then it allows me to trust that what He is and does is based upon His love and power. Now I don't presume to be able to understand suffering and unjust death, like that of my friend. But there are some things that I do know to be true. God loves us. God cares for us. God grieves alongside us (as Jesus was God in flesh. I'm reminded of the time in Jesus' life when He was told a friend of His died, and He wept- God is telling us in that, that He weeps with us when He sees the pain of this broken world). God knows what it is like to face the death of a loved one, as He allowed His son, Jesus Christ, to die so that we might live eternally. God heals- my friend is now healed. He does have total and complete healing at this moment. Our prayers were answered, just not in this world.

I don't doubt that today, tomorrow, perhaps several times this week, I won't turn on the TV or read the newspaper and feel great sadness over another tragedy somewhere in this world. We do live in a broken world. However, I can try as best as I can to understand the power and love of God, and to understand that God does not abandon our feelings of pain and injustice. God does grive right alongside us. And yet in pain, suffering, death, whatever may be hurting you at any moment in your life, there is hope in the fact that God heals. Not only does he heal those that have died through the promise of eternal life, but with a faith in Christ, he heals those of us still here on Earth who are left behind in a broken world. God knows. God is with us.

I have struggled more times than I can count with my faith in the Lord. Who doesn't? However, I have also been faced with a variety of circumstances in my life that have pointed, always, at God being the master and creator of all things. The Lord is good, and he reveals that to me even in the midst of something so sad.

So I guess that's my two cents for the day, an explanation of what happened last night, and hopefully the last of depressing blog posts here as typically I enjoy writing much more about happy, random things. Sometimes it's helpful to face the hard stuff, though. Just to leave this on a lighter note, I did spend some time with my amazing husband last night after getting ready for bed watching Robot Chicken on the iPad. I know how big of a dork I am, but trust me, it was good to share a laugh after all that had happened. And it was Dusty's suggestion. Love him.

Why I enjoy (and will defend) being young and married.

Dusty and I have officially been married for one month!

In honor of this occasion, I decided to write today on why I enjoy being young and married.

First of all, after what I can confidently say has been the best month of my life, I have concluded the following about marriage:
-It is FUN.
-It is WEIRD.
-I am more happy than I have ever been in my life!
-There have been a few bumps along the way and also a couple of fights (Don't worry, we still love each other).
-Someday soon, I hope that Dusty learns that replacing the TP roll does not mean you rest a new roll on top of the old empty one, but I will allow him to learn this in his own time and way.

It's been a whirlwind but I am so incredibly happy and confident with where the two of us are at this point. And so I write this post with the thought that it is extremely relevant with where we are, and also with where several of my newly married, young friends are at this walk in life.

The first Sunday after we got engaged, I had to be at church early as I was a member of the newly formed gospel choir (which for me, didn't last long, due to the realization that I don't really enjoy singing, especially in front of a large crowd in a large sanctuary).

By Sunday morning, several people from church had heard the good news that Dusty and I were getting married. I was flooded with warm wishes ranging from "Congratulations!" to "So excited for you!" among the like. I'm not really one for that kind of attention but it really meant a lot to me, and made me feel loved, to have so many encouraging words from both people I knew well and people I didn't know at all.

I was then approached by the church janitor, also a choir member, a middle aged guy who I have known for basically my whole life. This guy is one of those people (and everybody knows one) who often opens their mouth to speak, without really thinking about the words coming out of their mouth before hand.

So with that being said, church janitor decided to walk up to me, look me in the eyes and proclaim, "You are WAY too young to get married."

To be honest, having someone say that to me at one of the happiest points in my life was pretty upsetting. My feelings were hurt. It really made me angry that somebody had the nerve to question my age as being an integral factor in me being able to handle something so amazing as marriage. It threw me into a funk, not just for the rest of the church service, but pretty much the rest of the day. I started to wonder if there were others out there like church janitor who felt that I was not old enough to be able to handle marriage.

This was something that crossed my mind a few times through out the remainder of our engagement. It helped to know and have others surrounding me who were in the same boat- recent college graduates, early 20's, and engaged to be married and happy. That made it a lot easier. However, it was difficult at times not to let myself be affected over whether or not somebody thought I was too young to be doing this.

Recently, a friend of mine introduced me to Thought Catalog. Basically, it's an online forum of articles written by ordinary people, ranging in topic from "The Best Things About Being a Kid" to "Why Adele is the Worst Human Being Ever." There are some really interesting and entertaining articles all over the website, most of them written by and geared towards adults in their 20's.

I was browsing their site yesterday when I stumbled upon "In Defense of Marrying Young" by author Julie Shockley. I have taken the liberty of pasting the entire article below, as I SO resonated with the argument she presents:

"For every person who gets married at 23, there are three people who complain about people who get married at 23. I’ll tell you upfront: when I got married I was 22. My husband was 28.

One of the first arguments a young engaged couple will get is that you, being a young pup in your early twenties, aren’t even a “you” yet, silly! You aren’t even fully formed! You don’t even know who you are! Although most young marries find this statement to be condescending, I respect and understand what they are trying to say. I hope, though, that I am never done changing, never done growing. I would not wait until I reach a point of stagnation to commit to another person – if I did I would be single forever. Instead, I look forward to growing and changing with my husband. That is the beauty of a wedding vow — that you promise to love the other person through all of life’s changes – even the ones that occur within you.



The most irritating argument I’ve come across is, “You haven’t even lived yet! Go out there and kiss a few frogs! Your twenties are for dating around and partying!” What’s most striking is the assumption that we all want what you want.

At a young age I met one of the good ones. Not a creeper, not a liar, not a player, not a loser. We dated for three years. According to your rules of how my twenties should be spent, I should… what exactly? Break up with a person who treats me well, makes me laugh, has intelligence and ambition, who has the same values as I do — I should do this so I can date around? So I can struggle to find guys worthy of spending time with? So I can wade through the dating scene? As much as I sometimes romanticize that phase of life and how passionate and exciting it is, I also know that it’s full of frustration, anger, jealousy and insecurity. According to you I should break up with a good man so I could go search for a man just like him?


Not all of us want to sleep around and have casual sex. I was a little too neurotic and insecure for that game. Many of us date because we are searching for someone to be our partner in life. To create a family with. We enjoy the security of a relationship that has permanence. A lot of people shudder at those things — permanence, commitment, family. I don’t. I want those things, and when I got it, I kept it.

My parents married young and have been together 37 years. My husband’s family married young and have been together 42. I’ll be the first to admit that I view marriage through rosy goggles secured with unicorn hair, but as biased as I may be, equally so are the critics of marriage in general and young marriage in particular.


I do not claim that marriage is for everyone or that family is for everyone. So please don’t claim that young marriage should be for no one."

That honestly may be one of the most well-written arguments in defense of young marriage I've ever come across. The thing I love, which the author nails on the head, is this: just because you don't agree with something, does not make it WRONG. The beauty of this world, this day in age, is that we can live freely with our own opinions and ideas, individual to OURSELVES. And I love using that to defend my young marriage because one of the things that I am most thankful for in my whole life so far, is that I found Dusty when I did. I was only 19, so incredibly young and so immature, and so convinced that I was never going to find somebody who would make me happy. And that was when Dusty Wahl entered into my life. And since then I have been happy, content, challenged, and stretched in so many ways because of him being with me. Not only that, but through out our whole engagement, Dust was VERY intentional about keeping the focus on preparing for our marriage, not our wedding. I'm so grateful because although our wedding day was honestly the best day of my life, and so incredibly memorable, I wouldn't want to go back and relive it over and over again because what has happened since that day is just as enjoyable and exciting. I know that this is truly just the beginning of what will be years of exciting and memorable days together as a couple. This article just says everything I found myself thinking about when I was forced to defend, for myself, the concept of young marriage.
 
The other thing I find noteworthy is that on the flipside, there is absolutely nothing wrong with waiting to get married. Or not finding the right person until later. Or just not worrying about it until you are ready yourself. I love that no two people are alike in their beliefs on something like this, because what was best for me is not necessarily what's best for my dad, who didn't get married until he was 26, or my aunt who found the man of her dreams in her late 40's. Or for friends of mine who have dated their boyfriends for years and don't have plans to get married any time soon because they are waiting for various reasons. I just happened to know that at age 22, fresh off the chartered plane I flew into the Real World, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with my boyfriend of three years, Dustin.
 
So there is my two cents. A thought on what I think about when it comes to just marriage in general. It's amazing, and I love it.

And since I am in a good mood about it, I would like to conclude this post with a little story from the day of our wedding.
 
We had exchanged rings, the ceremony was over, and the reception was to start. Unknown to us, someone (could have been a guest, could have been a nervous musician, could have been anyone for all I know) had thrown up in the stairwell of our church sanctuary. I know, gross. Also kind of funny, because while the rest of us headed to the Fine Line to party and celebrate, guess who stayed behind to clean up the nasty vomit left by an anonymous guest in the stairwell?
 
Church janitor.

Portraits of Married Life

6/22/12 came and went in a flash, but it was an incredibly wonderful day followed by the last three weeks which included moving, adjusting to life as a two-some, friends, family times, the 4th, and this past weekend, cabin time with our good friends the Barrs.

Not yet married.

Our first walk as "The Wahls"

At least it garnered a lot of laughs at the airport

Relaxing in Kauai

Honeymoon activities

About two days after we got back, our friend (and groomsmen) Joe decided to spend the night. Late night games ensued.

Char and Dale got a new puppy- Tess!

Cabin times with CJ and Molly Barr

Hopping off the Supra

Total number of fish caught between the 4 of us: 46!

Doesn't get much better.

The Barrs recently got Banjo, a french bulldog, also maybe my new favorite animal.

Back at it with Grace, who has a new favorite toy.

I made some changes on the blog! I changed the name, web address, and some of the stuff on the side. It had been a long time coming, and I was going to change the name right after getting engaged, but Dusty wasn't quite comfortable with the Wahl Post thing until I was actually a Wahl. Nothing he can do about it now. More changes possibly coming soon. I hope everyone has been having a great, COOL summer. The temp here today is a balmy 100 degrees!