March

I've taken more pictures this month than usual, so if you would like to see them, you can visit my photography blog.

And here are some that aren't on the photography blog:

This picture describes Dad's morning routine quite well.

The doggy is back! She was missing for a while, but Dad and Chris found her not too long ago.

Yesterday we enjoying hanging out with friends, and while I unfortunately didn't get many pictures, I got this one and the one below. I like happy people.

The Stylish Blog Award

By my friend Willa. Thanks, Willa!

And now I'm supposed to name 7 random things about myself. Let's see:

• My favorite kind of photography is landscape.
• I love chapstick.
  
• I can barely whistle.
• Thumb-drives fascinate me.
• I got on Pinterest. 'Nough said.
• If I collected stuff, it would be dresser knobs. They're so pretty.
• Found out last week that flip-flops are bad for you and no one should ever wear them. I'm getting therapy for this one.

And just because it's stupid/funny:

Found on Pinterest. (Where else?!?)

Amazing internet and travels

I think the biggest thing that's happened in our lives lately is our new high-speed internet!! For years we've had slow and limited internet, so this is absolutely amazing.

A few weeks ago we took a 4 day trip up north to visit friends and go to a Christmas party!

I finally met them! Whoo-hoo! Don't look too closely or you'll see something quite disturbing. :)

 Annnnd, unfortunately I didn't get any other pictures from our time up there. On the way home, we took a detour and stopped at the Arch in St. Louis. Most of us had never been there before, and it was a lot of fun.

So, for some reason I just assumed that the elevator we would ride to the top in would be bigger than it was. It was a tad claustrophobic.

But the view was totally worth it, I think.

To see a few more pictures of our visit to the Arch, you can go here.

And to see pictures of another trip we just went on, go here and here!

October Happenings

Surprisingly, I had never been to Memphis before this month. Strange. Anyway, we were able to go there for a relative's wedding, where we partied and had bonding time in the car. *cough*

No pictures of the ceremony, but the reception was awesome! Real dancing, real food, and classic music. 

:)

And, some of it was outside, which was really pretty.

The next morning we stopped by my mom's cousin's horse farm. It. was. nice. So nice, they had a wedding in it once. Now that's what I call a horse barn.

Mom made a friend while we were there.

Back on the farm and a few weeks later, life, school, and everything they include continues.

And for some reason, Daniel really wanted me to post a picture of him. This is the only recent one I could find.

I looked out my window a few mornings ago, happy to see fall colors everywhere.

Ride hay*

50+ people is a lot of people to fit in a trailor. I like Mr. H.'s quote -"Somebody touched me!"

  Autumn rocks for a number of reasons. It's an excuse for things like awesome drinks, time outside instead of in, and lots of fellowship.

To see more pictures of the hay ride, Laura also posted about it here!


THIS title was brilliantly thought up by my own brother, Daniel.

A month and a day?! And I was going to post more often.

Daniel finds the perfect place to study.

After making stops in India, Germany, Kentucky, and Nashville, my red dress arrived this week! It was totally worth the wait, though. :)

Since my last post, we've started school, and I can honestly say that it's going very well...better than I expected! To see a picture of us on our first day of classes, click here.

Lots of things are on the calendar for the coming weeks and months, so hopefully some longer posts are on the way!

Flair at the Fair

 Title courtesy of Mom. I asked around for a title, and this is the only one I got...from anybody. An alternative title could be "County Fair, 2011", or something else creative like that. But we'll stick with her's. :)

 For this year's Grinder's Switch Idol (singing contest), my sister and two of her friends sang As the Deer accompanied by Mr. H. and his guitar. A lot of preparation went into this event, and they did a great job!

The name of their group is The Black-Eyed Susans, so one of their members, Mariah, got some black-eyed susans to go in their hair and on their shirts. It looked so great!

Caroline

Mariah

Anna

The guitarist!

This may be my favorite picture from the night!

He lost a tooth! In which Aunt Christy gave him a dollar. :)

*love* It was a very pretty time of day to take pictures.

We usually hate pictures of ourselves, so we had a good laugh when we looked at this one. "I...like it!"

Lovely Olivia

2 out of 10.

I failed to get a good picture of them on stage. But trust me when I say they looked beautiful and had great stage presence.

We ended the night at the Mexican restaurant with friends eating, talking, and laughing. It was a fun and memorable night, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Finally, someone who gets it.

Found on a fellow blog. This sums it up completely.

"Celebrate good times...COME ON!"

 Sometime in June, (I'm already forgetting??) we were super privileged to have one of my aunts and 3 cousins come out and spend the night with us, and the following day have a family gathering, minus 2 of the 20 of us.

Cousins.

Mom and her sister are SO similar in a lot of ways, it's entertaining just to watch. :)

And we're all of the opinion that Uncle B. (left) looks incredibly similar to Daniel (middle).

     So, for July 4th, our little town had some fireworks the night before the 4th, and at the last minute about 10 or 12 youth decided that we should drive into town and see them. When we pulled out, they were going to start in 15 minutes, but it takes 20 minutes to get there. Or something like that.

ANYWAY, turns out that we didn't make it in time to see the fireworks. So, we went to Sonic instead,wore 3-D glasses, made a whole lot of police jokes, talked to strangers out the car window, and just generally had a great time.

Without further ado, here a few pictures that don't really do the night justice, but are fun nonetheless.

A huge thank you goes to my mom, the driver and chauffeur for the night.

And for those wondering, I did get her permission before posting this picture. That's how cool she is - she said I could! :) 

i

The glasses got passed around...a lot. 

The straw rapper blower. My neck still has a welt on it. :P I gotta learn how to do that.

Over and out for now. Thanks for reading!

Life.

     In the last several days I've kept thinking, "I should really post something on my blog!" Unfortunately, no pictures for this post. I have been taking pictures, but our laptop is out right now, so I haven't put them on a computer yet.

     Life right now consists of several things; the end of a few things, and the beginning of others. The school year is gradually coming to a close, one subject at a time. I'm done with all time consuming subjects, which leaves me with a lot of time to...

     read! Right now I'm reading a very captivating autobiography on George W. Bush. Doesn't sound very interesting, but I'm learning a lot of things about our nation that I never knew, and it's so neat to read about events like 9/11 from a very different perspective.

     Another thing that I've been able to do a few times has gone swimming. We've had a ton of fun swimming and jumping off of a creek bank into some friend's swimming hole. Why, just yesterday afternoon a friend and I jumped off and waved at each other in mid air, just for the fun of it. T'was very lame, but very fun. I almost drowned because I couldn't catch my breath, caused by laughing so hard. (Only partly joking.)

    We've been praying for rain, and within days we were blessed with several small showers and one huge downpour. Earlier today I went outside to take pictures, and every drop of water on the leaves was gorgeous. Or maybe I'm just weird. Either way, I enjoyed it immensely.

     In the mean time, let's all enjoy the summer by eating chocolate, laughing, and getting incredible sunburns.

     Thanks for reading. Ciao for now!

Parties can be fun!

And I think this one will be. 

I found out about it from Olivia's blog, and like Olivia I rarely participate in these "blog parties". However, there are some sweet prizes and such, so why not?

So now I answer a few random questions!

What are two songs that describe you? Um, wow. Never really thought about it. One that I really like is " The Lucky Ones", which sort of applies to me/us. Nothing else comes to mind, though.

What do you most fear? Snakes, heights, huge spiders, getting my feet caught in a fold-up chair. Not that I would know anything about getting feet caught in a fold-up chair.

What color(s) dominate(s) your wardrobe? Blue. And it's not intentional.

How do you normally do you hair? Lately I've been wearing headbands, for no reason whatsoever. I really need to become more creative!

Do you prefer milkshakes or smoothies? Um, hello? Smoothies are healthy.

Do you like the color pink? Nope, although I still wear it.

What is your favorite flower? Roses. I'm so original. :P

How many states have you been to? Not very many. *sniff*

What is your favorite thing about June? It's the beginning of the end of school, and all the liberating awesomeness that comes with that.

(And we must not forget all of the random summer photoshoots including random burnt paper!)

 
  Describe your "dream wedding location." Some place spacious, big, and preferably either really old, or really old looking.

 There ya have it. And any guy who made it through this thing, I commend you.

Tootles!

For a little over a week now, we've had the privilege of hosting some really special friends of ours'. Despite missing absent family members, it's been a lot of fun.

Homemade strawberry lemonade has became a favorite.

I think it's safe to say that it's officially hot here. And I think it's safe to say that cold water feels really, really good.

Faces of late/Daily dose of randomness

This isn't actually of late. I just like it too much not to post.

This is the "Oh my goodness my ears are finally pierced and it didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would and I'm biting my lip for no reason" look.

I like this one.