My Favorite Television Shows... & Why

I just wanted to do a little blog post about my favorite T.V. shows and why I like them so much. Consider this to be in order of preference, too.


#1: Touched by an Angel



Gahh, I LOVE this show! There aren't many shows out there that explicitly share the message of God and His infinite love like this one does. When I'm having a bad day or just a hard time in my life in general, I like to pop in one of the DVDs into my DVD player and allow the show to uplift me. Plus, Andrew is sooo handsome and sweet, and Monica is gorgeous and freakin' adorable. I think the major reason I love Monica so much is because she's pretty much everything I want to be, all wrapped into one. I guess that shows how lofty my goals are, though, since it takes an angel to be that way. :) I remember watching this show with my grandparents when I was a wee one, and several of the episodes stuck with me through the years. I have so many "favorite" episodes of this show, but one that sticks out to me is "Seek & Ye Shall Find." This particular episode takes place in Mississippi, yet they DON'T portray us as being complete idiots (which is so rare -- but with John Dye, who plays Andrew, being from MS too, I don't think they'd do that anyway). Also, the stunningly beautiful lilt of Monica's Irish brogue carressing the word "Tupelo" (where I was born... as was Elvis. blah) just gets me every time. hehe. Monica loses her memory in this episode, and when she asks for an angel, Andrew shows up; I LOOOOVE that! And she's so attached to him in this episode. It's absolutely precious. Okay, I'm going to stop gushing now. I just adore this show so much!


#2: Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman






















Ah, Dr. Quinn, my new love! I remember watching this show, too, with my grandparents when I was a wee one. The thing I specifically remember most about the show from when I was younger is the scene where Michaela gives birth. haha. I don't know what it is about this show that initially attracted me to watch it again this summer, because I ordinarily would never watch something like this. The single fact that it's in the Western genre is alone enough for me to snub my nose at it, but this show is different. I really love the spelling of Michaela's name. If I ever have a child and it's a girl, I want to name her Iliana/Ileana Michaela. I also like the name Quinn, too, though, so maybe Monica Quinn if I ever have a girl after that? Or maybe I should just get a pet and name it Quinn (though I really am considering Monica as a second girl's name). hah. And I have to mention the beauty that is Byron Sully... WOO, is that man gorgeous! Sexy, even. Oh man, oh man.... Oh, and Jane Seymour is extremely beautiful, too. ;D hehe.


#3: The Nanny

















Yes, The Nanny. :) This is another that I remember from when I stayed with my grandparents a lot, but I didn't really get to watch this one back then because they didn't really like it. I do vividly remember seeing/hearing the theme song, though, and that made me really want to watch it. lol. But I really started watching it back in about 2005 or so. I had never sat down and watched it before then (besides as a child, of course, but like I said, I saw it so rarely that I knew nothing about it), but I definitely knew about it, because it came on Lifetime all the time when I was watching The Golden Girls (which is also one of my faves) on that channel. One day, I turned the TV to that channel because The Golden Girls was about to come on, and The Nanny was just about to go off. It was the Thanksgiving episode when Fran is pregnant and is talking about how happy she is to be married to Maxwell and be pregnant with the twins, etc. I didn't really think much of the show at the time, but that night, I had a dream about the show (which I won't get into -- this is long enough already!). That inspired me to watch the show the next day, and I fell in love with it immediately. Probably my favorite thing about the show is Niles and C.C.'s complex love/hate relationship. If you didn't know any better, you'd think they hated each others guts, but deep down, there was love there. Thankfully, they did get together in the end, but sadly, I felt that it was too rushed, and too much was crammed into that last episode. They deserve more than that! Oh well... That's what fanfiction is for, I always say! ;D

Review of The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead

The title, plot summary, and, admittedly, the front cover of The Skin Map is what initially drew me to the book; the suspense, plot execution, and writing style is what kept me reading excitedly all the way through. This is Book 1 of the “Bright Empires” series by Stephen Lawhead, and if the rest of the series is as great as this first book, then this should definitely be an excellent and quite popular series -- one I would love to follow all the way through. The novel follows Kit Livingstone’s mysterious adventures that begin when his great-grandfather appears to him and leads him to other worlds and times on a quest for the Skin Map. At just under 400 pages, this book is somewhat long, but it kept my attention throughout and was never tedious. I found myself not wanting to put the book down until the end, so length was never a problem. I would recommend The Skin Map to anyone interested in the fantasy and/or mystery genre. This will definitely be a book that I am more than happy to suggest to others! I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a part of their book review program. I was not required to write a positive review; my opinions, therefore, are completely unbiased.

Oh, Goodness...

Well, we moved my stuff back into the dorm today... It's bittersweet, really. In a way, I'm dreading going back to school, but in a way, I'm ready. This is certainly going to be a busy semester for me. I'm continuing work with the research team, as well as beginning an undergraduate internship at a mental health center for people with intellectual disabilities. To be perfectly honest, the internship frightens me, simply because I've never done anything like it before; I don't at all know what to expect or barely even when or where to go (though we did drive by there today so I would know how to get there, since I've never been). I guess that I always get nervous as new school years begin. I'm sure I'll be fine once I get into the routine of everything. I'll be going back to the dorm Sunday evening, since I start Monday, but my roommate won't be coming back until Monday afternoon, since she only has band and her new student teaching internship on MWFs, and her internship doesn't start until the week after. I hate being there without her, but maybe it'll give me some time to get used to being there in the dorm room again, and I can sit back and read, knit, and watch a few episodes of Touched by an Angel. Ooh, just a few of my favorite things! ;D

Review of "Christian Encounters: Anne Bradstreet"

To be honest, I did not know very much about Anne Bradstreet before reading this biography, except for a little of what I learned about her a few years ago in an English literature class in high school, especially including the wonderful poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband.” I don’t generally read biographies, but this one caught my eye because of my desire to learn more about Bradstreet’s poetry and her Christian lifestyle as a Puritan. The book chronicles Anne and her husband’s move to and experiences in colonial America and Anne’s spiritual and poetic lifestyle. I felt that the author of this biography did a great job of detailing the history of the Puritans’ move from England to the “New World”, though I admittedly sometimes found the historical readings to grow tedious at times, particularly during the first half of the book, and I instead wanted to read more about Anne Bradstreet’s own personal experiences. I also found the writing to be a bit bland and perhaps I would recommend this as being more suited to a middle or high school reading level with research purposes in mind. With that said, however, I did learn a lot about Bradstreet and the Puritan life itself in the few pages of this book, and I do greatly appreciate the “Christian Encounters” viewpoint. I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review program. I was not required to write a positive review; my opinions, therefore, are completely unbiased.