33 Reasons Why 2015 Was Great:

1. Started recording again and began building my next album

2. Watched an orchestra perform the music of John Williams in front of me for a night

3. Worked my first women's maximum security prison for an entire weekend and saw so many women's lives be restored

4. Saw mewithoutYou in concert for the 5th time

5. Reached year 11 of surviving brain trauma

6. Went to Eureka Springs for the day just because

7. Explored the hallways of America's most haunted hotel

8. Became an aunt for the very first time

9. Went on my first tour with the band

10. Discovered I could ride a bicycle and picked up a new favourite hobby

11. Turned 23

12. Jumped off some big rocks

13. Got weird and dyed my hair silver (thanks Olivia)

14. Went to the fair

15. Saw beautiful Colorado again

16. Went to Iceland

17. "Swam" in a lagoon

18. Stood in a waterfall

19. Went caving for the first time

20. Watched a geyser erupt

21. Saw approx 70+ waterfalls (including the largest one in Europe)

22. Found the ruins of an old plane crash I had been dying to see

23. Saw iceburgs and a glacier

24. Saw the Arctic Ocean


25. Spied on Greenland

26. Dressed like the Tin Man for a day

27. Got to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my whole immediate family for the first time in years

28. Shot some big guns

29. Released a Christmas EP

30. STAR WARS

31. Got to hold approx 13 worship services in the Dick Conner's Correctional Facility in Hominy and the Tulsa County Jail

33. Learned a little bit more about being present and a lot more about setting self aside, and what an enabler my God is

The Abandoned Journal: Empty town

I decided to begin sharing a tiny morsel of my obsession with abandoned places and things by using my blog to post some of my adventures amongst them, for all of my fellow explorers out there and those on the internet hungry for a good discovery or history lesson.

Place: Ghost town

Location: Skedee, OK

Year established: Late 1800s

Year abandoned: Late 1960s (currently only 51 residents)

History: "Skedee was one of many communities that sprang up after the 1893 land run. Originally called Lemert, the name was changed when a post office was established in 1902, as the name Lemert was too similar to another town. The name Skedee was taken from Skidi band of the Pawnee tribe. The town was never larger than about 300 residents, but supported several hundred farmers and ranchers in the surrounding area and boasted a fairly large railroad yard for its size. 

Skedee's decline was typical of many small towns of the era. The economics of the great depression, dust bowl, and farm consolidations started a steady downward spiral. The bank failed in 1931, and the town struggled on through the 1950s, but shrinking populations and new road projects which bypassed the town hastened the process. The cotton gin closed in the late1950s, followed by the post office on August 2nd, 1963 and finally the school in 1967, consolidating with the nearby towns of Ralston and Pawnee." (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp6_lXr0KLs) 

Not 100% certain on which building this used to be

And here we have the busy, bustling high school

Serious detention

Yikes!
Why is it that most abandoned places always seem to have some sort of creepy doll lying around? (Also often either naked or with an eye punched out)

The hauntingly beautiful high school auditorium








Unfortunately, my camera battery died after this, so the rest of these were snapped from my phone

Backstage

Gulp. Well...merry Christmas to you, too.

If it weren't already unplugged, I'd say these people abandoned this home mid-sandwich, because the refrigerator door was standing wide open as such