musical, musical: love never dies

The Musical:

I went to go see the 25th Anniversary Phantom of the Opera Live at the Albert Hall in movie theatre's last October with my boyfriend as kind of an early two-year-anniversary celebration and it was spectacular. I cried. I laughed. I savored every moment. And I had the wonderful music of Andrew Lloyd Webber stuck in my mind all over again for days on end, even though I almost always hum tunes from POTO whenever I'm in a particularly good mood (J can attest to this fact, I assure you.)

Needless to say, I was beyond ecstatic when I saw the trailer for Love Never Dies during the previews for The Phantom of The Opera, which is the sequel to POTO. I was so excited I nearly squealed aloud with utter delight at even the thought of getting the chance to have a peek inside the Phantom's world for just one moment more, and I was even more excited when I found out that the American cinema's would be showing the Australian production of Love Never Dies on the Big Screen the following year only a couple of weeks after my 23rd birthday on May 23rd. 

*Momma pre-ordered the DVD of Love Never Dies for me for my birthday too. Seriously, she's the best momma ever.*

 The Venue:

See, The Phantom himself has instructed me to go see the performance of Love Never Dies on May 23rd at 7pm. If I do not obey his wishes the consequences will be catastrophic. So, without further ado, I am going to see Love Never Dies this Wednesday with my love, as per Erik's strict instruction. Nothing could keep this Phantom Phan (ahem "Angel of Music") from attending this auspicious musical occasion, for one must certainly support the arts and watch the Phantom live on, right!?

Click HERE to see if there's a Fathom Events showing of Love Never Dies playing in your area.



The Trailer:




The Soundtrack:

I'm obsessed with this soundtrack. Truly I am. I got it for my 23rd birthday with the iTunes money that I procured from the parentals and I cannot wait to hear the musical scores drift through the theatre air this Wednesday, the 23rd! 

I plan on getting chills and crying all over again, yes, again. 

(The number 23 seems to keep on popping up wherever I go these days...oh, so very strange.)

My Favorite Songs:










If you'd like to learn more about the Love Never Dies Story & The Musical Phenomenon check out the website ^^ above.

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Are you a fellow Phantom Phan? 
Will you be going to see Love Never Dies this Wednesday evening too? 
What are your fave songs from the Love Never Dies sountrack?

My 23rd Birthday + Giveaway Winner



 My little sister made me a super cute and very yummy owl cookie cake for my birthday! 



 I got a new tote bag ( that came with my bottle of Wonderstruck *oh-my-gosh-love* perfume) and thought I'd strut around the house with it on my shoulder before my handsome love showed up to see me.



My sister took a few photos of me outside while I waited for J to arrive. The photo on the right not only embodies me, but it totally embarrasses me too. I'm just a goober at heart...whatev's! 

My sister said I needed a "nude" lip-gloss, just because. Needless to say, I totally giggled at her when she said it because she was sooo serious about it and because I'm just such an adult sometimes. ;-) Isn't the bird ring adorableness on steroids!? I happen to lurve it!


 Momma and Daddy surprised me by getting me The River of Time Series by Lisa T. Bergren. I recently read Waterfall (on my Kindle), which is available on Amazon for ONLY $3.99 for the paperback edition currently, and fell totally head over heels in love with Gabi, Lia, Marcello and Luca. I can't wait to see what happens to the whole gang next!


 Momma and Daddy also got me the Studio Ghibli film Tales from Earthsea, which just so happens to be a favorite story of mine. I adore well done...Hayao Miyazaki films in particular because he's the best of the best...anime films. This film was directed by his son, Goro Miyazaki. I have to say that daddy would surely be proud, Goro. Way to go! Oh, and in case you were wondering the story is from the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. LeGuin. If you love Fantasy books then you MUST READ LeGuin!!

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I used my iTunes $$$ on The Village, Lady In The Water (a few songs), Coraline (only one song) and the entire Love Never Dies (ahem, Phantom 2.0) soundtracks. Ah, good writing music, no?


 The granparents all sent money for me...which is great because I really need some more clothes for work and the summer-time.

 Yes, I'm dopey and had to take a photo of my Wonderstruck perfume bottle because it's totes lovely and smells amazingly wonderful!


 That guy up there, ^^ yeah the really handsome one, well he's my favorite present ever. Just so you know.

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J brought me the most beautiful red roses for "His Red" (as he likes to call me) and two books that I'd been desperately in want need of: Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon and The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry.



My J is such an awesome artist. Look at my nickname written on my card  up there ^^ Awesome, right!? I KNOW!!! And he even sketched a little caricature of himself on the inside of the card with a look of surprise and a very quizzical brow about him...yeah, it's cute.


Yup. That's the crazy-awesome super-cute and totally-true card my love got me for my birthday. ^^

I got my sissy to take a few photos of me and J on the front porch before we headed out of town to eat at Olive Garden (that was the best food I've eaten in a loooong time, people!) and shop around for the day in G-town.



 While the crew (Grandma, Momma, Mary, J) and I were out and about after eating scrumptious Italiano for lunch we decided to go and peruse through ALL of the BLU-RAY movies at Best Buy. I ended up buying TRON: Legacy and The Help with a gift card that a friend had given me for my birthday. Boy, my movie tastes sure are varied, aren't they!? You can't get any polar opposite than the world of the grid  versus the Mississippi, right? Yeah, that's what I thought think too.


I had a dear family friend send me a really cute bird filled e-card with a code for a $40 Amazon gift card. I was beyond excited lemme tell you, because I already knew what I was going to get with that $40: BOOKS! And lucky for me when I went to go place my order most of the books on my list were nearly HALF OFF the original price AND some of them were Hardbacks that I got for half price too. I clearly prefer hardback novels, if you couldn't tell that already. I nearly squealed with excitement when I saw just how many books I could get off my need-to-buy list. Yes, seriously. I guess it was just my lucky blessed day, huh!?

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J, the family and I spent the evening, after we got back home from our outing, eating cookie cake with neopolitan ice cream accompanying it nicely, and watching tons of Blu-Ray movies on J's Blu-Ray player that he got from his parents for his birthday a couple of weeks ago.

 All in all it was a wonderful birthday, filled with love, laughter and quite a few lovely gifts that are right up this restless bird's alley! Oh, and we had running water and electricity and NO STORMS (like last year), which I was super thankful for! =)

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AND NOW....
THE MOMENT YOU ALL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR...
THE WINNER of HIS REVOLUTIONARY LOVE is
..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


Kristin from Sew Technicolor



Kristen commented


“ My most memorable birthday so far was my sweet 16th. It might sound cliche, but it's true. My parents threw me a surprise birthday and invited tons of family, my new homeschooling friends, and my closest friend from public school that I hadn't seen in a long time. The party was Elvis-themed. My cake and cookie-cake featured a record and a VW Beetle. And even though my grandma was sick and I thought she couldn't come, my uncle pushed her in her wheelchair (she lived next door) over to the party for a few minutes. :) It was a wonderful day!  


Congrats on winning, Kristin! 

Ill be e-mailing you soon. 

And

 Thanks for all of the happy birthday

wishes, everyone!

miss restless bird turns twenty-something


Today is my twenty-third birthday. 

I don't really feel all that differently from how I felt yesterday. The only thing that feels a bit different is that I know that my birthday always brings on this little bubbly magical feeling inside of me. The bubbly probably comes from soaking up the love, truth be told. I adore and love every well wisher and happy-birthday-sayer who spreads their love for me through FB messages and wall posts. Oh, and then there are also those deliciously magic filled cards that arrive in the mail and are found to be just bursting at the seams with loveliness and glitter and letters that spell out w-e  l-o-v-e  y-o-u that truly warms my heart. 

I do love those sweet thoughtful gifts that scream "we obviously know and love you like crazy!" too of course. Oh, how they make my heart spin and swoon. I love me some love shown and gifts given! ;-)

Last year my birthday was completely memorable (read about it HERE if you'd like)...ingrained within my mind for all of eternity...and really made me realize what life is all about. In case you were wondering, life is all about His love, given and poured out for you and me. Anyways, my digression aside... We had no power and no running water on my birthday last year (and I had to go in to work), but we had hands to lend to those in need and hearts filled to the brim with love after a storm hit our area. And that's all a girl can really ask for on her birthday right? To be loved beyond compare. 

Today the plans are simple. Italiano for lunch and a bookstore perusal afterward with my most loved ones (sans my daddy...no...can't...cry.) The cookie cake that my little sis made for me is beautifully whimsical. And this girl feels the love and blessings and magic of this day...my twenty-third birthday...all around her.

Maybe twenty-three isn't so old or boring after all. Maybe it's just full of more love from another year flown by. Maybe it's just full of more magic and wisdom and people to love on. Maybe it's another year given to share about my Saviour's love and sacrifice with those I meet every day. Maybe it's about the giving and not the getting after all. Maybe it's all about the love.


So, if you don't mind, I'd love to share some of my birthday love with you too. Yes, that's right, YOU! I just so happen to have a SIGNED copy of HIS REVOLUTIONARY LOVE by Lynn Cowell and I'd love to share it with one of you, dear restless birds! All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me about your most memorable birthday ever, okay? Also, remember to add your e-mail addy into your comment so I can get in touch with you via e-mail after I've randomly drawn a name.


I'll leave this book giveaway open for about a week, announcing the winner next Friday. PLEASE remember to leave your e-mail addy in your comment or it WILL NOT COUNT. (Open to all U.S. residents only please.)

With Much Love,
The Restless Birthday Girl

Really Bad Girls of the Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs


Genre: Christian / Women / Bible Study
Release Date: 2007 (first published 2000)
Pages: 289
Publisher: WaterBrook Press


Tag Line: When it Comes to Badness, There's Nothing New Under the Sun



Summary (snagged from Goodreads):  In her best-selling book Bad Girls of the Bible, Liz Curtis Higgs breathed new life into ancient stories depicting eight of the most infamous women in scriptural history, from Jezebel to Delilah. Biblically sound and cutting-edge fresh, Bad Girls already has helped thousands of women experience God's grace anew by learning more about our nefarious sisters.

And there are more where they came from! With Really Bad Girls of the Bible, Liz reveals the power of God's sovereignty in the lives of other shady ladies we know by reputation but have rarely studied in depth: Bathsheba, the bathing beauty. Jael, the tent-peg-toting warrior princess. Herodias, the horrible beheader. Tamar, the widow and not-so-timid temptress. Athaliah, the deadly daughter of Jezebel. And three ancient women whose names we do not know but who have much to teach us: the ashamed Adulteress, the bewitching Medium of En Dor, and the desperate Bleeding Woman. 

The eye-opening stories of these eight "Really Bad" women demonstrate one really life-changing concept: the sovereign power of God to rule our hearts and our lives with grace, compassion, and hope.



What I Loved: I was so excited when I saw that this book was up for review, for one, because I had been wanting to read a Liz Curtis Higgs book for quite some time now, and two, because I discovered that it was a "novel approach to bible study" which intrigued me. I was not disappointed one bit with my review choice, lemme tell ya! Liz Curtis Higgs' novel approach to biblical study was flawless among her cast of flaw-filled women that she introduces us to in the book.


Each chapter opens up with a novel-esque tone (which I thought to be brilliant!), painting a picture for you of a "real life" fictional woman counterpart of the biblical "bad girl" that is later on revealed about halfway through each chapter. The questions at the end of each chapter were really helpful and thought provoking too, and overall the novel approach to biblical study really grabbed a hold of my attention and just wouldn't let go. It was a fabulous "bad-girl" read, full of wisdom and grace for the modern good-girl, former-bad-girl or bad-girl!


Wow. I learned soooo much about these "bad girls," some of which I'd never remembered ever hearing about before. This whole book really made me think on a much more deeper level about grace and forgiveness and femininity than I ever have before. It is truly amazing to me how God can use us (women), even those of us who feel we have no hope right now, as we are, if we will only let him use our brokenness. God used each one of these eight women to show me a clearly defined picture of how I should (and could/can) live my life out better and bolder and more flawlessly than ever before for Him.



The Women That Are Highlighted (or is it low-lighted?) in RBGotB Are:

The Medium of En Dor 
Tamar the Widow 
Herodias (and her daughter Salome) 
Athaliah
Jael 
The Adulteress 
Bathsheba 
and
The Bleeding Woman 


What I Didn't Like So Much: That I didn't manage to snag the whole Bad Girls of the Bible series all at once. Immediately after I put down RBGotB I just knew that I had to get my hands on Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible and Bad Girls of the Bible a.s.a.p.! 



I'm Recommending This Book... This was such a wonderful book! Highlighting and declaring our flawless God as The Father of those many broken "bad girls" who were filled with a myriad of flaws from the Bible and even nowadays. If you are a woman seeking out His grace and love and even hope then this book is a must-read for you! You will truly learn much, and you will be truly blessed much!





About The Author: An award winning speaker, Liz Curtis Higgs has addressed audiences from more than 1,500 platforms in all fifty states and eight foreign countries. She is the author of twenty-six books, with more than three million copies in print, including her best-selling nonfiction books, Slightly Bad Girls of the BibleBad Girls of the Bible, and Really Bad Girls of the Bible; and her best-selling historical fiction, Thorn In My Heart; Fair Is The Rose; Whence Came A Prince, a 2006 Christy Award winner; and Grace in Thine Eyes, listed in the Top Five Best Christian Fiction for 2006 by Library Journal


Check Out These Other Links...

Author's Website: www.LizCurtisHiggs.com

Purchase Really Bad Girls of the Bible HERE

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group as part of their Blogging for Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255