Master Blacksten

Three years ago I moved to Nashville to further my education through the Center for Youth Ministry Training. CYMT is a Masters program in partnership with Memphis Theological Seminary. The program is a three-year job placement program that matches graduate residents with partner churches, where they serve as the youth director while participating in the CYMT program and earning a Masters of the Arts in Religion. For my graduate residency I was placed at First Presbyterian Church of Nashville.

It has been a long 3 years trying to balance school and work but it has all come to an end. On May 12, 2012 I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Memphis Theological Seminary with a Master of the Arts in Religion with an emphasis in Youth Ministry.

You may call me “Master Blacksten.”

My time with CYMT has been nothing but enjoyable. I made wonderful friends who have taken this journey with me.

I will be forever grateful for my time with them, playing together, laughing together, and crying together.

We’re youth ministers, what do you expect…

They challenged, encouraged, and supported me as a woman in ministry, called by God. I consider this group of people my family and am so grateful for the opportunity to do life together. I would not be there person I am today without their presence in my life and ministry.  I miss them dearly now that  back in Oklahoma but look forward to reunions in the future. Thank you, dear friends.

Until we meet again,

C

M.I.A.

So, if it seems we’ve been M.I.A. lately, we have been…

This past month was full of packing, traveling, and unpacking! At the end of May, Brandon was in Tulsa for the Oklahoma UMC Annual Conference and two weeks later moved all of our things to our new home in Hydro! I can’t help but feel a little guilty, while he and our family were unloading I was traveling to Alaska and New Orleans on mission trips!

So, my apologies for the lack of updates, things have been a little busy. We’re getting settled into our new house. Once things calm down around here, I’ll post some pics of the house. But for now, it’s getting close to bed time, so instead of writing a long post, I’ll leave you with some pictures from my trips!

Juneau/Hoonah, Alaska (Graduating seniors mission trip)

Our group in Alaska!

Early morning with some of the kids.

Eagles were everywhere.

Forget-me-nots were EVERYWHERE! AMK*AOE

My postcard photo.

Saw some bears.

And a ton of sea lions.

We were SO close to this whale!

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau

Sunset on our last night in Alaska.

New Orleans, Louisiana (9th-12th grade mission trip)

Seniors at Cafe Du Monde.

Pirates Alley!

Beads can be found all year round!

Yellow team leaders.

Spent the first half of the week working at a KIPP school.

Got to have dinner with our homeowner from 2 years ago. So special.

St. Louis Cathedral

Yellow Team

Spent the second half of the week doing demo on a house that had caught on fire. Fashion friendly tyvek suits.

 

Catching my breath,

C

 

We’re moving!

As of May 15th, the Blacksten’s are no longer residents of Tennessee. Well, kinda…

We’ve packed all of our things and the majority of our boxes have already make the trek back to my hometown and are sitting in storage until we are able to move into our home in Hydro, Oklahoma.

That’s right folks, Hydro, Oklahoma! It is a small farm town in western Oklahoma. If you walk about 3 blocks in any direction from our future house it’s wheat fields for as far as you can see. Brandon will be the senior pastor at Hydro United Methodist Church and I am currently looking for a youth ministry in a Methodist church in the surrounding area. We love Nashville but we’re excited to be back home.

Brandon has moved back to Oklahoma permanently but I am still in Nashville to finish out my last few weeks of work at First Pres. I could have moved back with him but I would have missed out on the mission trips I’ve been helping plan for our students this whole year. I miss seeing Brandon everyday but am excited about my upcoming trips. Alaska next week with 50 of our graduating seniors, back to Nashville for ONE DAY and then off to New Orleans with 100+ 9th-12th graders. About 2 or 3 days after I return from New Orleans I’ll make my final journey back to Oklahoma and meet Brandon at our new home in Hydro.

So, we’re kinda residents in Oklahoma but not fully there yet.

Happy Homecoming,

C

43. Mary Poppins, The Musical

Last Sunday Brandon and I went and saw Mary Poppins, the Musical! I had high expectations after seeing The Lion King musical a couple of years ago and Mary Poppins definitely met my expectations. It was phenomenal!

First of all, the set was incredible! They had a house that moved forward and backward, and turned in circles. Each side of the house opened up to showcase a different room. It opened first to the family room of 17 Cherry Tree Lane, home of the Banks family. (Funny, I just realized their last name is Banks and the father worked at a bank.) The house also opened to the children’s bedroom and the kitchen. Another scene was set in the park. It was dull, dark, and dreary until Mary Poppins showed up and turned it into a technicolor wonderland! The chimney sweep set was pretty plain. At one point, however, Bert walks up one wall, tap dances upside down, and dances down the other wall. That was pretty spectacular.

The music was wonderful was well. I am a huge fan of the Sherman brothers. They wrote many of the songs for Disney movies (including Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats), as well as some of the songs for rides at Walt Disney World (some of my favorites include: “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” from the Carousel of Progress, “The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room” from the Enchanted Tiki Room, and of course “It’s a Small World”). Anywho, the music from the movie is great and the musical kept the great tunes. I’ve heard that Walt Disney himself would have the boys (Robert and Richard Sherman) come to his office and play “Feed the Birds,” to him because it was one of his favorites.”Feed the Birds” is a sweet song that reminds us to take care of those who need help. It was sung beautifully Sunday – it even brought a little tear to my eye. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was also great! George Stiles and Anthony Drewe did a great job in adding to the already very memorable song. The cast did a fun little dance to the song and in the end included the audience in singing and spelling it out.

There were definitely some changes that I wasn’t expecting and some things that were left out that I missed. But before I mention those changes it should be known that I haven’t read the book so the changes I am speaking of are derivations from the movie. First, there are no penguins! I was a little sad about that at first but instead of penguins, they have statues that come to life. They dance and sign with Bert in “Jolly Holiday.” In another change from the movie, Mrs. Banks was not involved in the Women’s Rights campaign as she was in the movie. Instead, Mr. Banks basically tells her to find a hobby or make new friends. The musical had no carousel horses, which were another one of my favorite things from the movie. Bert had a musical cart he pushed around instead of his bodysuit of musical instruments in the movie and they left out meeting uncle Albert and floating at the table while singing “I Love to Laugh.”

Quick fun fact: One of our extremely talented friends from college, Tyler Foy, was part of the national tour up until February. I was bummed that he wasn’t in our show but so proud of him and his huge success!

Towards the end, Mary Poppins mentioned that leaving is bittersweet which immediately hit home with me. I’ll be leaving my job of 3 years at the end of June and while we’ll be moving closer to our family. Leaving my students will be so incredibly hard. I will miss them more than I could ever tell them.

Overall, the musical was fantastic, brilliantly adapted from the movie (even though it was missing a few of my favorite scenes), and full of beautiful costumes, dancing, and music. I left wanting to see it again. If you haven’t seen it and it’s coming to your town soon, I definitely suggest you go see it! It’s worth it!

‎”Anything can happen if you let it. Life is out there waiting, so go and get it.” -Mary Poppins

Practically Perfect,

C

79. A Night at the Ryman with Mumford and Sons

As our time in Nashville is coming (too quickly) to an end, we knew we couldn’t leave without seeing a show in the Mother Church of Country Music, The Ryman Auditorium. The venue opened in 1890 as the Union Gospel …

My Funny Valentine

My dear husband made dinner reservations for Valentine’s Day. We’ve never been super enthusiastic about the holiday. I could say it’s because it’s a consumeristic holiday, however, it seems that all holidays have been turned a bit consumeristic. Just go to Target, it’s the day after Valentine’s Day but I guarantee that all the Easter cards and decorations are already out. So, instead of ignoring it, we decided we’d have a date night and go out to dinner.

At least that was the plan.

I coach a girls basketball team for the Nashville church ball league. If you know anything about me you know this is humorous because I’m not in the least bit athletic. I’ve actually never played basketball before, not even for fun. Anywho, our regular season ended last Saturday and we knew the playoffs would be this week but didn’t find out when the games were until Sunday night. And wouldn’t you know, our game was set for the exact same time our dinner reservations. Luckily, when Brandon called to cancel our reservations, he found out they had a later opening so we were still able to go to dinner!

I know you’re all wanting to know two things: 1) Did my church ball team win? 2) Where did you go for dinner?

Ok, ok, I’ll tell you.

YES! WE WON! Our opponents were ahead for most of the game and in the last 2 minutes we came back and won. I couldn’t be more proud of my girls! It was the best game they have ever played and now we’re going to the quarter finals! These girls bring so much joy into my life.

And for our dinner date we went to Urban Flats. We had heard great things about it and had been wanting to try it for a long time. We got the Loaded Potato Dip as a starter and it was pretty darn good! For his entree, Brandon got the Moroccan Flat, which had curried chicken, parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, red onion, Kalamata olives and diced red peppers. It smelled really good and he enjoyed it.

I got the “White Out,” it had mozzarella, feta, parmesan, and oregano with crushed red pepper. Not the healthiest choice but it was yummy!

And for dessert, we split a HUGE piece of cheesecake. It was delicious but way more than we could finish.

So, while not exactly how we had planned our date, it turned out to be a GREAT night! I hope you all enjoyed your evening doing something that you love to do.

XOXO,

C

Watching a Classic, Part I: Citizen Kane

One day into our 101 thing quest, we decided to do thing one – or, rather, part one of thing one. We watched Orson Welles’s classic film Citizen Kane and have now completed 10% of #41 on the List: Watch 10 classic movies we haven’t seen. This wasn’t planned; it was just next in the Netflix queue. We didn’t know much about it other than that it was a highly regarded classic film, so we were unsure what to expect.

Courtney was not terribly impressed, but I rather enjoyed it. After reading Roger Ebert’s commentary, it seems to me that this is a film that rewards multiple viewings. Citizen Kane is an entertaining flick on its surface, and it appears to have significant depths that we were unable to penetrate since we were quite exhausted and not expecting a heavy movie. Or perhaps we are just shallow when it comes to movie watching.

What might have been most fascinating for me is its connection to William Randolph Hearst. Hearst’s life provided an abundance of the material that made up Charles Foster Kane’s story, so much so that Hearst attempted to have the film destroyed before it hit the box office. After this unsuccessful attempt, he barred his news outlets even from mentioning it. I would not have expected a mainstream press in the 20th century to act so shamelessly. Of course, now that I type that, I hope I am not actually that naive!

C. S. Lewis wrote that a classic is a book that people want to have read, but not actually to read. Citizen Kane is a film that I am glad to have watched and enjoyed watching, and I hope I will return to it soon.

One final non-Kane related note: today, we bought tickets to Mumford and Sons at the Ryman Auditorium! So, on March 6, we will be able to cross off #79: See a concert at the Ryman. It will be a great band at a great venue, and we cannot wait.

Only 100.9 things to go,

Brandon

In the beginning…

The Blackstens are jumping on the blogging bandwagon. Call us sell outs if you will but we’re excited to try it out.We’ve been married for a little over a year and a half and have already had so many great adventures and this is just one more. Starting a blog.

In 2 short days Brandon and I will begin yet another adventure – the 101 in 1001 project. If you aren’t familiar with the 101 in 1001 you can read more about it here. Here’s the short explanation: We have made a list of 101 goals to do and are attempting to accomplish them all within 1001 days. Some of the goals are small, some big, some funny, some serious. To see our list click on the ‘101 in 1001’ button at the top of our page. The items in black haven’t been started yet. Green are tasks we’ve started. And items that are crossed off are completed!

We’ll update our blog as we go along (that’s one of our goals) so you can see our progress. Enjoy!

1001 hugs and kisses,

CB