Seeing the Ordinary as Extraordinary.

My favorite pictures to take are of things that most people will just pass by without seeing the beauty in them. I try to take pictures of normal everyday sights, and make people turn their heads and look again. Everyone should appreciate this world and all the different things we were blessed with. I believe a great way to do this is by capturing these things in the moment. Sometimes, I'll be driving down the road and I'll see so many opportunities to take an excellent picture. It's hard to shut off at times. ;) Sometimes I'll make my mom stop the car so I can take the picture. Everythig is beautiful in one way or another. I just try and find that beauty. These are just a few more of my pictures that I took a while back. Sadly my camera is currently broken... :-( It's like a family member was lost. I don't go ANYWHERE without it, and after a few action shots by the pool....it is now dead. But I will still find a a way to take pictures....hopefully. It is one of my favorite things to do, right up there under singing...and if you know me that is saying a lot, because singing is my favorite thing in the world. I look up to Dewitt Jones. He is a world famous photgrapher for National Geographic. His pictures are so insperational. I would love to grow up and be able to take pictures for a living. What is greater then seeing the beauty in something and capturing it in a picture that will last a life time? To me, nothing is greater then that." Creativity is the ability to see the ordinary as extraordinary." - Dewitt Jones

Make-Up Massacre!

Me and Ashtyn were bored the other day and decided to have Jenna and Ali do our makeup...little did we know it consisted of smearing it all over our faces and making us look like fools. But what can I say...it was a good time. Also, we eventually got to do there back....oh sweet revenge. :) It was a great night, and it ended with all four of us attempting to clean our faces of in the same bathroom! The little girls wone of course. So when it comes down to it, never let two little girls do your makeup unless you know what your geting yourself into. ;)

Honors Choir.

Honors Choir this year was so incredible! I met some amazing new friends and sang beautiful new music! For those of you who don't know what Honors is, it is something I tried out for in the fall, and it is the top highschool musicians in the state of Wisconsin. I am so grateful for the oppertunity to be in it this year, and hopefully the years to come. There is something so incredible about being in a room full of people who have the same passion for music as you do. Ya know what is even better? Is that they love it AND they are all really amazing singers! Nobody is off key, or to loud or too soft. Everyone eats, sleeps, and breaths music there. We're all choir nerds and we all are proud of it! :)

Strum.

So, this year I have picked up yet another musical related hobby. I now play the Gee-tar. Kind of. So you see I want to learn songs that sound kinda difficult, but are actually quite simple. So If anybody know of ANY songs from any genre that are fun to sing but still easy to play on the guitar, could you maybe leave the name and possibly artist in a comment? I would really like that! P.S. That picture is another one of my originals. Also something I'm trying to figure out, how to sell my photography. Any ideas for that as well, leave in a comment! Love you all.

Never Play Ultimate Frisbee against a bunch of guys.

So heres how it went down. Me, Abbie, and Andrea, were the only girls. There was Nick, Zak, Alex, Sam, Mike, and Steve also. They decided to play Ultimate. So we were game.....except for the fact that they are all extremely hardcore about it and yeeeah, it ended up being segregated. Teams went as followed: Andrea, Me, Abbie, Zak, and Alex. Obvously those two boys were kind enough to be on our team. Then there was Nick, Sam, Steve, and Mike. Sure we had an extra player, but they had an extodinary team. Nick is ridicuosly good at frisbee, and Mike is crazy tall. Sam can run really fast, and Steve, well he intercept. So we were playing, the grass was all wet and muddy from rain, and we were all diving and sliding and bashing eachother to get to the frisbee. It was intense, not gonna lie. So long story short...it got really humid...the girls(as they referred to us as) bgan to get sweaty and hot. So we finally just handed it all over to Zak and Alex. We lost....but only by a point. hen We all went inside and played the most fun game EVER, called Mafia. :) It was a great night.

Give my regards to Broadway...

New York City...what an amazing place. The people, the lights, the noises, just the incredible energy that city gives off. When I was walking down those jam packed streets I was completley over-whelmed. It was crazy to actually experience what it's like to be in the middle of that. Sure, you see it on tv, movies, but until your actually there you have no idea how awesome it it. The highlight was for sure seeing the Phantom of the Opera. It was soooooooo FABULOUS! It was everything and more. It totally exceeded my expectations. I think I could have stayed there for the rest of my life. :)

Singing.

Abbie, Me, and Andrea always find a way no matter where we are, to go sing and play guitar.(hey that rhymes!haha) We all share the same love for music, and its so great to have friends who enjoy just sitting there and singing. In this particular picture me and Andrea were working on a country song(yes I know....country? Not really fan, neither is she. But the song was cool.) and the harmonies were awesome. :D

Pool Partaaaaaay

My friend Dani, has these really fun Youth Group pool parties at least once a month every Summer. Let me tell you they are a blast! As you can tell by the pictur above we always have a good time. :) They consist of fun pool games, hot tubbing, bonfires, card playing, and really good food. Summer is just whipping by...but you know what they say, Time flys when you'ree having fun.

Fire Hydrant Fun!

On our way back from our ministry sites for the day, we saw an open fire hydrant bursting with water! Of course we couldn't pass it up...so we all jumped out of the van and got a free shower! :D It was so much fun. I mean honestly, who gets to say that they played in a downtown Chicago fire hydrant. This one is going down in the archives, thats for sure.

Pulling an All Nighter!

On the last night in Chicago, me and some of my closest friends decided to stay up all night long and sleep all the way home in the van the next day. So we did. We ended up playing a very amusing game called Mafia, which is much more innocent then it sounds, and going swimming at 5 am when the pool opened. We had a great night of laughing, card games, and trying really hard to be quiet for the sake of all the people sleeping in rooms around us. I couldn't of asked for a better group of friend. I love them all so much! The best part is that we all stayed up for over 30 hours! Well, with the exception of Nick falling asleep within the last hour. :)

Mission Trip

My mission trip to Chicago was such an incredible experience. I became even closer to God, and so many new people, and made a lot new friends. God was able to work wonders through me and everyone else as we were there to help the people in Chicago. I couldn't have been more blessed to be with the people I was with. God has an amazing plan for all of us and I thank him everyday for the life he gave me. :)