Couple of girls in the youth group asked if I would take some photos of them together before they part ways and go off to different colleges. They are sweet friends and loved they asked me to take such photos. They also wanted their good guy friends to come along part way through the photo shot for some photos with them. The boys say they weren’t bored but part of me feel like they were. They are great guys and were great sports the whole time. I posted a few of the two hundred I have! Its hard to narrow them down when my models are so great. Enjoy!

“I don’t know how I got here. It’s not where I want to be. I feel the walls are closing in and I can’t breathe. Cause I’m feeling like a little girl, lost her way and disappeared, to a world that really doesn’t care and I’m on my way to the bitterness hotel.”
~Martha’s Trouble

“There’s just two ways to lose yourself in this life and neither way is safe. In my dreams I see visions of the future, but today we have today. And where will I find You?

In the economy of mercy, I am a poor and begging man. In the currency of grace, is where my song begins. In the colors of Your goodness, in the scars that mark your skin, in the currency of grace is where my song begins.”
~Jon Foreman

“Everybody here’s got a story to tell
Everybody’s been through their own hell
There’s nothing too special about getting hurt
Getting over it, that takes the work.”
~Glen Phillips

“As the music at the banquet
As the wine before the meal
As the firelight in the night
So are you to me

As the ruby in the setting
As the fruit upon the tree
As the wind blows over the plains
So are you to me

As the wind blows over the plains
So are you to me”
~eastmountainsouth

This afternoon I was going to take photos of two little girls who are sisters. The rain scared them away but I went to practice with a newer to me lens (yay Craigslist). I have this lens in my collection for a while, but its huge and I wasn’t so sure about it. Learning that this type of lens is perfect for portraits, I used it on Saturday at our Senior Video shot and it really did an amazing job. It doesn’t do a half bad job at still life ether. These photos really want to start making cards.

See more as always, on the flickr

I recently started reading the blog Apartment Therapy because a few other blogs I follow had mentioned them, one writer’s apartment even got talked about and shown on Apartment Therapy. I love seeing real life decorating as well, so much better than Domino if you ask me. Now, if I was a good blogger, I would of just added this to my links, which is to your left, on my blog but I havnt touched those in a very long time. Jason mentioned to me how out of date a lot of things on my blog are. Part of me felt like any day my other website was going to be along any day, I kept putting the task off. But since Ive been saying that other site is “coming soon” for over a year now, I should turn my energy to this little corner of the internet I have already poured myself into. A mini-face lift, or more so a little update of me on the internet. I tell you all instead of just announcing all the changes so that its somewhat of an accountably to myself. So stayed tuned for more on that. Going back to Apartment Therapy, its also bad for a person like me who should not go to places such as T.J. Maxx or Ross alone. Just yesterday I was in there shopping for size 11 high heels (it was for a game for youth group) and totally walked out with other decorating things for my house! There went my state tax refund! I couldn’t believe myself, but they have such cool stuff in there to make my living space look like the apartments at Apartment Therapy. And at a very responsible price…I promise I have self control when it comes to shopping. Just house stuff must be my biggest temptation of all, that made need some therapy, or accountability of not being alone in those stores. Do make sure to check out Apartment Therapy, you probably dont have problems like I do.

514 had its first morning service today. It was wonderful to be back in the 514 community knowing it wasn’t becasue it was a holiday off from the youth. I meant to take a photo of it, so bare with me as I try and describe this. A friend of mine drew this amazing modern arty looking tree – or more so an outline of a tree and leaves, with falling leaves around it on a huge canvas of white paper. We (the community) were asked to come up and color in a leaf or part of the tree as the service was going on. Part of me wanted the tree to just be shades of green or fall colors, so I was surprised on my turn to color in part of the tree, to find a whole rainbow of colors. Our tree has blue, pink, purple, and other non-tree colors on it. It bothered my orderly side at first but by the end of the time of our community adding its own touch to it, I loved it. I cant wait to see it completely filled in and someday being on the wall of our own building.
This weekend has been filled of my heart and mind dealing with some things. It was wonderful to be in mist of a Christ-filled morning to help calm and comfort my thoughts. To be reminded that Jesus is bigger than anything and everything. There is so much meaning behind that, but for me, it reminded me of His power. And if I truly believe that He is bigger than it all, that power is stronger than anything. Also, Jimmy (my pastor) said something I just loved. He asked us “Has the gospel messed you up so much that you act differently?” I love looking it like that, the gospel should mess us up. It should tear us to pieces – thats how amazing and powerful it is.
Our Blocs (sort of our churches version of a small group, but they are not at all like any sort of small group you’d think of, so I hate even comparing it to that) had sign ups today, which went well. Im on the Bloc Leadership Team, and it was nice to see the kick off all our planning finally come together. Next week we are having a church wide baby shower for Kai (or more so his parents, Greg and Angie) who is the second 514 baby to come along (Emma being the first). We are having an old fashion picnic themed shower, which Im looking forward to. As much as my Sundays are going to be very full, I feel beyond blessed to be able to be apart of two things that hold my heart so much. I love being with the high schoolers, and I miss them when we take weeks off. But it was bittersweet since I got to be apart of this community who has grown very close to me over the past year. Now, I get the joy of being apart of both.

I dont bake nearly as often as I like. Usually its becasue I dont want a good amount of bake goods lying around to eat becasue I just might eat them all! But when asked to bake something for an event, I love doing it. Tonight Im having a fancy home-made dinner with two couples from 514 and offered to bring the coffee and desert. There was a request for chocolate so I found this cake:

I put the photo of the recipe’s cake to compare, which is probably a bad idea. I dont want to try and measure up to a picture prefect cake (which is probably photo shopped just like anything in magazines these days are). Probably only thing that really bothers me in looks is that I couldnt get the circle of strawberries on top to look like theirs. Whats funny, is that I chose to make this not thinking about the fact I dont own round cake pans. I try not to buy a lot of kitchen stuff since one of my roommates who moved in used to live alone and has tons of kitchen stuff that takes up all the space (which isnt much) we have in the kitchen. We now own two round cake pans becasue I just had to make this cake.

Look at all those yummy looking layers! Its going to be hard to wait…I just want to try a little bite. The description of the cake is that it tastes like chocolate covered strawberries. How could one really pass up on that? I really hope its good!

Photos taken with cell phones that are really quite amazing. A lot of the same phone (and of course one of them is lovely iPhone) but I dont know if I would of been able to tell if they were taken with a cell phone unless told. Enjoy.

This year has not been a good year for me and books. I dont know what it is, I really enjoy reading but its just been on the back burner. I think I read one, maybe two books this past year. That is shameful, maybe two books (that I cant even recall now) in four months? Im happy to report that I think Im back. What brought me back? Childhood. See, a lady named Robin Jones Gunn wrote this great teen series called “The Christy Miller Series”. I read these books as a teenage girl and got every book possible that was connected to my friends in Christy’s world. When Robin Jones Gunn said she was done with Christy and her friends my heart sank a little. Years of accepting the fact that I needed to be happy with the end of those stories I became so close to, I heard that Robin Jones Gunn wrote a series just for Christy’s best friend, Katie. On my way home from work I stopped at the bookstore just to get myself a copy and raced through it over the weekend. It was delightful to reconnect myself to these characters that I know so well after so many years. On my beside table I have a few books to get me out of my rut: “Shopaholic and Baby” (I cant believe this character has a baby! I had to get this book to complete the series and try and understand how this character HAS A BABY!), “Par for the Course” by Ray Blackstock (he writes male-lit and recently got married. Im curious to see how different his writing might be.), and Tara Leigh Cobble’s newest book “Crowded Skies”. Had to mix a little memoir in with all the fiction. We’ll see how this goes.

Thanks to Kendra…

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph – Family reunion – Family photos

Its well into April and I havnt written anything here in a while. Its a mix of having no time and lots to share. You should check out my flickr to see what Ive been up to. I notice I get a lot more phone calls and emails when I dont blog from long-distance friends, I find that interesting.