Lord of the Rings 30 Day Challenge - Day 9

Day 9 - Favorite Hobbit

As I've already said in my first post, Sam is my favorite hobbit and character in general and since I've already given a fairly detailed reason of why he's my favorite, I decided that I'd go with my

second favorite hobbit, Pippin.  Pippin is just adorable which is probably why I first started to really like him, but aside from that he's just funny, compassionate, kind and he has this carefree innocence that I love.  I also feel though that he's one of the characters that really develops and grows up throughout the movies.  He starts out as this very carefree, mischievous fellow, always following Merry around and inevitably getting in trouble.  And then he's suddenly thrust into this adventure.  There's a part of me that's always sad to see him changing and maturing because I think part of what I love about the hobbits is just how carefree and unconcerned they are.  But in his case, Pippin had to outgrow that.

He and Merry had no idea what they were getting into when they joined Frodo and Sam or when they joined the fellowship.  All of a sudden, the world got a whole lot bigger and whole lot darker,

they didn't really know what hit them.  So throughout the first movie and most of the second one, Pippin starts growing up some, though he still does and says a lot of stupid albeit usually funny stuff, but there's still that kind of innocence which I really notice after Treebeard says the Ents will not help in the war.  When he tells Merry that maybe they should just go home, I feel that that is him thinking that they'll be safe at home, that they could just go back to their carefree lives and not have to deal with all the death and destruction that has surrounded them almost from the moment they left the Shire.

And its here that I think he really starts to mature and think for himself when Merry tells him they

won't be safe in the Shire, that if they don't do something to stop Sauron and Saruman, the Shire will burn along with everything else.  Not long after, Pippin's the one who tells Treebeard to head south and in so doing shows Treebeard the remnants of the trees that Saruman had destroyed.  Pippin, who always followed along and never really seemed to think or have any ideas for himself, is changing.  And once he and

Merry are separated, all of a sudden, Pippin starts getting things done and thinking for himself.  He

lit the beacon of Minas Tirith, he saved Gandalf from an orc, saved Faramir from being burned alive, and at the end he charges straight into battle with what remains of the fellowship.  I really love the the scene between him and Faramir where he tells Faramir that he is strong like Boromir, but his strength is of a different kind.  Wow, Pippin's gained some wisdom and insight too along his journey.  And at the end, again, its obvious that Pippin has changed, but he's in essence still himself.  He's seen a lot, experienced a lot, he's not quite so carefree, the blind innocence has gone, but he's still Pippin; kind, compassionate, loyal, and funny, and that's why I love him.

Lord of the Rings 30 Day Challenge - Day 8

Day 8 - Gondor or Rohan

While I think both kingdoms are absolutely fantastic and amazing, Rohan definitely wins this one.  As someone who has been in love with all things horses since she was really, really young, the horse lords simply have to win.  But more than just the horses, I like the simplicity of the way the Rohirrim live.  For me, Gondor is more like the city life which I hate, though don't get me wrong, I would not hesitate to live there if I was given the choice.  Rohan is more like the country life which I love and miss terribly.  Besides that, the country is just so beautiful!  I mean all the plains and mountains and forests and rivers and lakes, that is totally my kind of place.

Lord of the Ring 30 Day Challenge - Days 1-7

So I realize I have been really bad about keeping up with this blog.  Honestly, I simply have not had the inclination to blog about anything for a while or to write anything period.  But, I think blogging is actually good for me because it makes me express myself and get out of my shell more than I normally would so I figured I should really get back into it.  Once I decided that, well, of course my mind went blank when I began to think about what I wanted to blog about.  I had some ideas but when I started trying to write, I found that I was not expressing myself or describing things the way I wanted to.  Naturally, I turned to Facebook and Google+ for inspiration, because, you know, that always works. ;)  In this case, it actually did, because as I was randomly scrolling through Google+, I found the 30 Day Challenge above.

Now, as you probably already know, I am a huge, huge Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fan.  I saw the Lord of the Rings movies when they first came out back in 2001 and I have been in love with them ever since.  Same with the Hobbit movies.  I've been to the midnight premiere of the past two, once in costume, and I'm planning on going to the midnight premiere of the final movie in costume as well.  The Lord of the Rings movies are my favorite movies of all time, nothing comes even close to trumping them.  So with the final Hobbit movie getting ready to come out and all, I thought this would be a fun way to get back into blogging because it would be something I would really enjoy writing and sharing.

The final Hobbit movie comes out on December 17th, so I decided that I would make it so I finish this challenge on the 17th.  So today is going to be a combination of days 1-7 so I can finish by the 17th and then I'll do one a day starting tomorrow.  With all that being said, here we go!

Looking at Life

This past weekend my family went on our first family vacation in about two years.  For me it was the first time I've really been out of Albuquerque and the general surrounding area in that same amount of time.  I know I've mentioned it before, but I am so not a city girl.  We went up to northern New Mexico, kind of north and west of Taos up into Carson National Forest.  Let me tell you, it is gorgeous up there!  So much cooler and greener.  I did not want to leave at all.  We were gone Thursday through Sunday and it was nice to have two full days to just relax.  Friday was my parents' 26th wedding anniversary so we enjoyed celebrating that with a steak linner (you know, too late for lunch but too early for dinner: linner).  Busted out the wine and everything.  It rained most of that day so we pretty just lounged around, napped a bit and played some games.  Saturday was clearer so we went for a 2 mile hike which was fun and then my dad and I went for a drive while mom stayed back and read.  Dad and I saw some really pretty country and just enjoyed getting to explore.  Sunday I got up early to make the 4 and a 1/2 hour drive back to Albuquerque so I could continue filming with a friend who's making a pretty epic movie.  So that made a fun, but exhausting day.   One of the things I really enjoyed on our camping trip was getting back into some photography.  I really haven't used my camera much since my family moved back into Albuquerque so it was a fun opportunity.  There were some really pretty flowers we saw on our hike and with the rain we were getting most of the plants were covered in drops of water, something I've always wanted to photograph so I took advantage of that.

Try

So, I'm back!!  I realize I've been AWOL for a good while so my apologies for that.  Life's been a bit crazy lately working to get some stuff figured out but hopefully I'll start posting on a more regular basis now.  Yay!

Earlier this month Colbie Caillat released a song called Try that created quite a buzz.  Instead of a song telling girls that the key to being pretty is to be thin, or wear a lot of makeup, or be rich, or have a ton of clothes, the song says that you're pretty just the way you are.  And instead of being one of those songs that says all the right things like that and then shows only girls who are pencil thin and photoshopped gorgeous without any makeup on, there are real girls in the video and not just teens, but you have middle aged and older women as well.  I also loved the fact that, being a big girl myself, there was one big girl included in the video as well.