Anne Russell

An Open Letter to the Blimey Cow Team

Jordan, Josh, and Kelli,

First of all, I love watching your videos! They are funny, creative, and helpful. Your videos have helped me in several areas, but the biggest area is talking to people. Three years ago, I didn’t talk to anyone outside of my family. As I started talking to other people more, “Messy Mondays” helped me have confidence to “just do it,” and eventually enjoy talking to others.

The Messy Monday videos have helped me, and your other channels have as well. I have watched Jordan’s channel since it started. I’ve enjoyed getting to see him experiment with new things and various content that he posted. Largely because of Jordan’s channel, I started posting on this blog regularly because it gave me confidence to have fun, even when I didn’t know if other people would enjoy it. (I also recently found Movie Trailer Trash, and I enjoy seeing Josh talk about something he is clearly passionate about.)

One of the things that you taught me is caring less about “the numbers.” Since I’m just starting to post content consistently, I don’t have many views yet. However, after watching your video “An Apology to Our Audience,” I felt less discouraged about the “small amount” of viewers. You taught me that each view is a person that took the time to look at my content, and to appreciate them more.

Thanks, Blimey Cow. You guys are awesome!

With exceeding joy,
Anne Mary Russell

(Sources: Blimey Cow Youtube Channel and Jordan Taylor Youtube Channel)

My Cover of Heartbreaker by Dolly Parton

Here’s my cover of Dolly Parton’s “Heartbreaker.” Enjoy!

You and I/Story of My Life- My Cover of a Cover

This mashup was originally performed by the group Anthem Lights (one of my favorite bands). This song is really special to me because it reminds me of one of my best friends. We’re completely opposite in many ways, and this song reminds me of the effort it takes to have a solid friendship, and of its benefits. I hope you enjoy it!

Also, here’s the Anthem Lights original mashup:

What I Believe

We all sin (disobey God). There are obvious sins, like murder, and “smaller” sins, like gossiping. All sin, regardless of how bad it seems, separates us from God. Because of our sin, we deserve death.

Because God is perfect, and cannot leave sin unchecked and unpaid for, one sin separates us from Him completely. We cannot earn our way into God’s favor again. At the same time, He loves each of us and wants us to have restored relationship with Him. To save us from our sin and satisfy His righteousness, He sent His Son, Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life, and died for our sins, paying the penalty for our sins. Jesus was dead for three days, and then God raised Him from the dead, defeating death’s power over those who are in Jesus. Those who are in Him will be raised with Him to heaven to live with Him forever, without sin.

We are in Jesus when we repent of our sins (turn away from them) and believe on Jesus’s payment to save us. When we do this, we have a fixed relationship with God through Jesus’ work on the cross, and receive the promise of eternal life with God, free from sin. Believing on Jesus doesn’t make all of our problems suddenly disappear. It doesn’t mean that we are now perfect. We will continue to fight sin until we are with God in heaven. But now we fight sin out of gratefulness for what Christ has done to defeat sin, and out of a desire to be more like Him, not to try to earn favor with God. We are sealed in salvation.

God is the most important thing in my life, and I want to live more and more in way that honors Him. Not to earn favor, not because I feel like I “have to,” but because I love Him and am thankful for what He has done, and want to grow closer to Him. If you ever have questions or want to know more about the gospel, please email me at noteofalltypes@gmail.com. Or, if you know me in “real life,” feel free to talk to me in person. I love you guys, and I would be honored to talk to you about Jesus.

Hillsong Giveaway

I recently went to a presceening of the film HILLSONG- LET HOPE RISE, which comes out Friday, September 16th. I don’t listen to Hillsong United a whole lot, but I thought this was a great film to get to know the band better. Because I liked the movie so much, I am doing a Hillsong Giveaway. On behalf of Grace Hill Media, I’m giving away two electronic movie vouchers for HILLSONG- LET HOPE RISE, and a copy of the official movie soundtrack. To enter to win, just comment with your favorite Hillsong United song.

Here’s the trailer for HILLSONG- LET HOPE RISE

My Cover of Forward Motion

Guys, I’m a little frustrated with myself. Two weeks ago I attempted to cover Ed Sheeran’s song “Photograph.” I was having some sound issues, which turned into a “behind the scenes” video where I repeatedly attempted to start the song and gave up. Last week, I decided to try to cover it again. My sound issues got fixed, and I was pretty proud of my cover. I uploaded it to YouTube, convinced that this was one of my best covers. Then the video began glitching so that viewers could only see the first four seconds of the video.

So, for this week, here’s Relient K’s Forward Motion. I thought it was appropriate for my feelings.

Confessions of a Family Photo Shoot

Today my family and I went to the park and smiled a lot. I had a good time. We got some great pictures. There were lots of laughs. There were also a lot of tears. Here is the behind-the-scenes of trying to coordinate eleven people for a photo shoot:

We somehow got our entire family out of the house, color-coordinated, and fed (or with a packed snack for the kid who “wasn’t hungry) by eight in the morning.
About an hour into the picture taking process, it was about ninety degrees. In the woods. In nice warm clothes.
My younger sibling who tried not to panic during the photos wasn’t nearly as freaked out as me last year over photos. I need serious help.
The best photo was of the “big kids” posing while the younger kids fought.

Basically, we have issues. We fight. We cry over smiling (mostly younger Anne Mary). We get annoyed at one another for touching each other when we’re tired. Despite our issues, however, we love each other. My parents and siblings are awesome. They are patient with me. They are all unique, and funny, and they are my favorite people in the world. I’m glad that when we have stress, we can work together and deal with each others’ faults. And also, we can laugh at each other, and with each other. It helps us be a little less high-strung, and I need to be less high strung.