day 064. [blogging]

Being gone for a whole week meant a whole lot of blogging to catch up on. That's exactly what I did, once I woke up, haha.

We rolled into Oak Harbor last night around 1 in the morning. At that point I was just really tired and wanted to go to bed. Instead I looked through some of the photos from Camp. That just meant that I didn't go to bed until close to 3, which at this point is the latest I've stayed up all this past week.

When I woke up this morning though I knew for a fact that I didn't want to go out or really do anything seeing as I am trying to recover from a tiring week of Kid's Camp. I'm more tired from this year than I was last year! Goes to show how much energy I was putting in this year compared to last year, haha.

Seriously though, I spent a few hours today updating six new blogs that were missing because I was at camp. I've got another week of camp coming up, so that'll be a few more that need to be posted up late, ha. Oh man X)

But yeah, that's what I did for part of today ... blog. It was actually kind of fun writing down what happened this past week at Kid's Camp. If you haven't read them yet you are seriously missing out on some good stuff. Days 058 - 063. Check them out :)

That's about it, ha. I have some more seniors this week as well as a hangout with Calley & Kevin [leaders from camp!]

day 063. [remember when]

The last day was a hard day. Everything our boys were the first day was what they were today. At one point I told myself, "I wish I had gotten sent home early" because I was tired and didn't want to really deal with them anymore (I'll elaborate on that later, haha).

But when the parents were picking the kids up and signing them out I couldn't help but cry. I invested a weeks worth of my life into these boys. As did Kevin and Steven. It was so hard to say bye to some of the boys. Even the ones that caused us so much trouble throughout the week. At that moment I had to forgive them for the stress they caused us three. I had to forgive them for not listening. If I hadn't forgiven them for what they did I wouldn't be the Christian that I call myself.

The hardest part was when Kevin, Steven, and I looked at the sign out sheet and saw that all 15 boys were signed out. To look at the porch of our cabin and see that the only bags left were the leaders, that was hard.

Anyways, it's now time to recap on this past week. Camp is not camp if you do not create those remember when's, and boy do we have some remember when's from this week.
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Here are the Top 5 Remember When's from Kid's Camp 2010 (not in any order):

1. Getting lost on the way to Kid's Camp
Something that made this year different was the leader's didn't ride down to camp with the campers. This was because we all had to get to the campsite a whole day early. Now, if Tasha is reading this she is probably going to hit me or something the next time I see her, haha. Anyways, Tasha, Novella, Vetrica, and I left Oak Harbor at like 3:30ish and we didn't get to Lake Stevens until almost 6:30ish. If you're from Washington you'll know that the trip isn't that long of a trip. What happened was we took a right instead of a left ... took us 30 miles in the other direction. Poor Tasha. You know I love you :)

2. Chase the germaphobe
I met Chase Weholt last summer at Kid's Camp when he was getting ready to go into his freshman year of high school. Now he's getting ready to go into his sophomore year. I wasn't aware that he was as big of a germaphobe as he is. When I found that out, I thought I'd mess with him. I managed to lick his elbow a good 3-4 times in the last two days. Kevin managed to get his face. Calley I think managed to get his neck. If you read this Chase ... I love you and just know that you'll probably want to wash your shirt a good 5 times seeing as when I signed it I also licked it, haha.

3. "Remember when Rick licked ______"
Enough said. Ask me in person, bahaha.

4. Janelle was so angry that leaders about pooped their pants
For those that don't know this was possibly Janelle's last year of Kid's Camp because she moved up to the Ass. Pastor of Living Word. Because of that Tasha came up with a cool idea to go get her flowers from Safeway Thursday night. You have to realize that as leaders we signed a paper saying that we "would not leave the campus." To get the flowers meant having to leave the campus that night. Boy did we fail at being spies, haha. On our way to Safeway we were cracking jokes about how if Janelle ruined her surprise by finding us when we got back. Well, jokes became reality. When we pulled up to the parking lot we we re greeted by Janelle (who was coached on how to be angry) and Ty. What she said to us was:

"Pack your bags because you might not be able to say bye to your kids" (remember, she was coached! haha)


I about pooped my pants as did some of the other leaders. Tasha cleared things up with her, but we ended up having to have a meeting the following morning to discuss whether or not we would be able to stay. We got to stay, but when they were talking to us no one was looking at Janelle or Patty. Some of us were crying. It was just too much.

Come to find out, while Janelle walked into her cabin and the leaders walked into their own cabins she was laughing while all of us were praying that we got to stay.

That morning though at chapel Aaron came up with a story so that we could present the flowers to her ... he called us the "ninja warriors" haha. It's all laughs now, but at the time it was pretty scary.

Did I mention that the 8 leaders were deemed the "Infamous 8" ... YAY! Like Tommy told us at Applebee's though, "at least you don't have rules that were made because of you"

5. God created relationships and moved through everybody at camp
This is probably the most cliche remember when to give, but it's so true. I mean it's Church Camp, so God is going to do something whether or not you want him to. God really did do a lot this week. He brought leaders together in friendship that has brought out support systems for all of us. We now have other people other than those we go to church with to support us. Don't forget though, God is always there to be our number one supporter. Go to him first before you go to anyone else :)

Not only did God build relationships amongst the leaders, but also between leaders and the kids. I would say their kids, but we all built relationships with all of the kids from camp. It took my second year of camp to realize how much of a heart I really do have for kids. To see kids their age worshiping and giving their lives to God is powerful and amazing. But yeah, he definitely built up relationships for some of these kids to look up to. I can only pray that these kids keep seeking out God after this week.

None of this wouldn't have happened through without his movement on that campsite. He moved through every individual that was there this past week.
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God is so flipping amazing. I'm crossing my fingers that I can make it for another year to Kid's Camp. They have a special place in my heart that aches for them to know their Father. Ahh. Gotta love kids :)

Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

day 062. [support]

"Camp is for the Campers" is the motto for when it comes to Kid's Camp, but you know what? After this week, camp can also be for the leaders.

With a week like this week where God was working/moving through the leaders, we needed a support system as well. We're the support system for the campers, as well as each other, but for the leaders we can't go to the kids. So we go to each other and we go to the staff members. Through this support system this past week, friendships were made and there have been tons of remember when's that have come from these friendships that were made.

The reason I bring up support systems though is because of how heavy the message was for the kid's that night at chapel. It was another night of tears and the kids being filled with peace, but what the speaker, Ryan, did that night with the kid's was something I've never done and I'll admit it was once of the hardest things to hear during that night at chapel.

What Ryan did was he had the kid's come to the altar to be in the presence of the Lord. Some cried. Leader's prayed for the kids as they worshiped. What he did next was something that makes my heart break. He told all the kids to go lay down somewhere in the room, but they couldn't be near their friends. The leader's did the same.

As I laid there all I could hear was the weeping from kid's who range from 8-11 years old. It broke my heart that I couldn't get up and pray over these kids who are just as broken compared to me. When I did try and get up anyways God was speaking to me that he needed to put some peace into me before I could even get up and pray for peace into some of these kids. I was for sure fighting God too. When I thought I had enough peace in me I'd try and get up, but I couldn't because of some force keeping me down.

When Ryan told the leaders that they could get up and start laying hands on the kids, it was just powerful what was going on in that room at the moment. Leaders were really being leaders to these kids. God was using us to do his will for these kids. Still though, it broke my heart to see the pain that these kid's were going through.

The whole point of this though was Ryan was getting the kid's, as well as the leaders, to really put their trust and support into God. He is honestly always going to be there. Oh man, a good night for the campers and the leaders.

God wants us to have faith in His Son Jesus Christ and to love each other. this is also what Jesus taught us to do. 1John 3:23

day 061. [holy spirit]

Day 003 of Camp made itself to be one of the hardest days of camp. Mentally, Physically, Emotionally, and Spiritually.

The days seemed to have been repeating themselves at this point, and leaders were almost in constant prayer for their bodies to hold up as well as for other leader's bodies to hold up.

You see, great things happened tonight and the enemy didn't want any of that. People were getting sick, people were getting injured, and some people even got sent home. The enemy is so afraid of what God is doing. He's so aware at how powerful our God is.

God didn't just make this night the night of movement through the campers, but the leader's as well.

I've realized that sometimes we get so stuck in our mistakes and how broken we are, which is why I prayed to God to answer why I was there and why he was even using me through my brokeness. The enemy had obviously gotten to me a bit at that moment. I didn't see the light in myself that God has filled me with.

Later though after the message was given I just stood there with hands up before God. It was then that one of the staff members, Matt, came over to pray for me and even speak the words of our God into me. It was clear that God had answered my prayer from just an hour before. All Matt had to say to me was that:

I am loved and I am worthy.

It all made sense to me right then and there. God has seen something in me to speak his words into these boys. He doesn't care that I'm broken. He loves me and wants to use me to advance HIS kingdom.

What also made this night so special was that two of my boys that I prayed over. You could just tell that there was a presence that filled them. I really didn't want to let go of those boys as I prayed over them. The feeling was too much. They were giving their lives to God right before my eyes. They were giving their lives to God as I held them in an embrace. Probably the best feeling to witness ... EVER.

... May he equip you with all ou need for doing His will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him ... Hebrews 13:21

day 060. [praise]

Day 002 of Kid's Camp rolled along just as Day 001 did.

If I were to pick just one day of the week as my favorite, I don't think I really enjoyed Kid's Camp for what it is. That's why I don't really have a favorite day. They were all my favorite in some kind of way that made them stand out.

One thing that stood out the most during this entire day was the evening chapel's worship. It was powerful and it spoke to the campers. It especially spoke to one of the campers that I had the opportunity to be a leader to.

Anyways, during worship one of my boys is at the altar, just as I am, worshiping and he knows I'm there, but at some point between songs Nick comes up to me and asks me if he could share something during cabin time. Unfortunately, we did not have cabin time that night, which was a bummer. I later asked him what he wanted to share with the cabin. What he said to me blew my mind, only because of the experience he just had.

What Nick said to me was:

When I was worshiping I couldn't hear the other people worshiping, but what I could see was angels above everyone and they were all holding our hearts keeping us safe.

When he said that to me, I wanted to cry out of excitement and joy. Those are some powerful words to say, and that's something that he obviously genuinely experienced. I pray that he remembers that night because it's a night that has changed the course of his life in his journey with God.

He eventually did get to share what he had to say with the other cabin members. Some took it to heart while others didn't, but either way Little Nick was preaching it to boys his own age!

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do" Joshua 1:8

day 059. [spy disguise]

(end of month two!)

Day 001 of Camp started bright and early at 6:45 ... I think, I know that the other days started even WAY earlier than that, haha.

There was some excitement in getting to meet these kids, although as a leader there were a few more things that needed to be done and so meeting the boys didn't get done until all of that had to be done.

Seeing as the campers didn't get to the campsite until 9 that morning, the schedule was adjusted just a tad bit to get the campers to do what they had to do. The very first thing they did this year was a swim test - in a pool, not a lake. From there I do believe we had lunch for a bit before we did some activities around the camp site. Rock climbing, archery, and swimming were what we made to be their activities today.

Somewhere in the day Kevin, Steven, and I realized that our 15 boys we had wouldn't be the easiest boys to handle ... two years in a row for me (haha). None the less though, as leaders we were there to love on these boys and really just lead them to Christ as well as showing them what it means to be  young men, not little boys.

Later in the day all the campers had to attend chapel. It was an eye opener, for me. I'd been spending too many months trying to run away, but wanting to come back to God. I can't thank Janelle so much for her prayers and what she said to me that night as I was breaking down in front of her.

I've got to run this race with God with my head looking towards him. I can't look back otherwise I'm going to run into something and possibly run into people.

What a first day of Kid's Camp!

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

day 058. [cabin 11]

Right away at the meeting on Friday I knew that camp was going to be a little different compared to camp from last year.

The first difference was the leaders had to show up to the camp site a day early. And to be honest with you, I kind of liked it that way. Just one more day to prepare ourselves for the kids.

The drive down was an interesting one at that. Let's just say that the drive down to the camp was one of those "remember when's!" haha. Love you Tasha :)

By the time all of leader's got there it was time for a party to happen! A leader's party that is!! Haha, it involved us getting our beds ready, meeting other leaders, going out to eat with some leaders, and some good worship on the porches of the cabins.

You could just tell that there was going to be some good bonding with the days to come!

PS. If you don't recognize the guy in the blue, that's Kevin from Arlington, but goes to New Life in Everett. He was the other Cabin Leader that joined me and Steven in Cabin 11!!

day 057. [senior photos: steven]

After a good break of doing senior photos I jumped back into doing them today. As mentioned yesterday, the senior of the day was Steven Welch. Who if you're wondering, he is the little brother of Sean (the person of yesterday's photograph).

Up to today I felt that it was going to be a challenge to do Steven's photos, and although it wasn't that big of a challenge that I thought it would be - it was still tough to do some of his photos. Even though he's Filipino and on the darker side, I realized right away that I had to be careful on how much sun was actually on his face. I tried to keep it minimal, so most of his photos are more in the shade, which worked out well for him.

Like Brandon and Caytie, I took Steven to North Campus. Unlike those guys I decided to not really do most of his photos on the brick wall. Instead I did his photos using the stairs. It gave a different feel, and it just worked out better for him that way. Especially with the teal shirt he was wearing.

Before I move on, with Steven we both realized that he was getting some left over places when it came to his locations. In fact though you'll find out that I took him other places that I took some of the other seniors. For instance ...

I took Steven to Fort Ebey. The same exact place that I took James, but the only difference was Steven and I decided to use the trails and really go for the outdoor look. It worked well with him seeing as parts of the trails were mostly in shade. It was also great because we got a hike out of doing his photos over at Fort Ebey!

Afterwards I took Steven to my notorious place of locations: Fort Casey. Instead of taking him to the same places as I did with Allison, James, and Caytie, Steven and I decided to walk around Fort Casey to find a location that the others haven't been too. Let's just say that I found more places there that will work with Senior #8 ;)

Just in case you missed it, I have an 8th ... and a 9th senior joining the bunch of people I'm doing photos for. I'll keep them in the dark for now and their names will be revealed once their photos come up on the pages of this blog. No worries though, 9 is my cut off. If I wasn't going to camp(s) this summer I definitely wouldn't mind taking on at least 10-15 seniors, but seeing as I'm going to camp ... 10-15 is WAY out of the question.

As for the rest of the day it was getting ready for Kid's Camp with Steven. I'm quite exhausted after today ...

Speaking of kid's camp, read this bonus blog that I wrote just for you :) --> CLICK ME!

Also, to see some more of Steven's photos from today make sure to go to my flickr, as always.

day 056. [brothers]

Today was honestly such a good day, ha. The best part was definitely later in the day, which I'll get to in just a bit.

So I started out my day by meeting up with my good buddy Sean; I've mentioned him before. It was another one of our heart-to-heart talks. One of the many we've had this summer. I look up to Sean when it comes to God like things. Maybe it's because he really understands what I went through and where I came from before every coming to Christ. Now, even though it was one of our many heart-to-heart talks ... not all of it was serious. Some of it was just goofy stuff, bahaha. Anyways, seeing as we met early in the morning, rather than later in the afternoon like we usually do, we went to get breakfast seeing as neither of us had eaten anything at that point; good because I was starving!

For breakfast we went to Island Cafe. Really good place to eat. Best part is they have breakfast all day! I'm not going to lie ... breakfast is honestly one of my favorite meals, haha. Good laughs while there.

After he brought me home I went to the auto shop to get my oil changed to find out that my brakes need to be fixed changed. Instead of going to Les Schwab though to get the brakes checked out I hit up the gym to play some good volleyball with a few people. It was definitely good and worth the time spent there!

After that though was when I decided to get the brakes checked. Looks like I'll need to fix the front brakes seeing as they're both reaching the end of their caliper ... I think that's what the guy was telling me. I wasn't really paying attention, haha.

The best part of today though was going to the Kid's Camp meeting at the Everett FourSquare Church. You seriously have no idea how exciting this week is going to be. Seeing old faces from last year definitely was fun. Meeting the other cabin leader that will be joining Steven and me. Honestly though, after tonight's meeting and then the vast amounts of "remember when's" made at dinner, this week will be nothing short of amazing. I'd love to share the "remember when's" but they were also "you had to be there's" haha X)

Praise God for this upcoming week. I can definitely feel that God will be doing some radical movements through not only the campers, but even the leaders. God always does radical things though, but it's just amazing to have this feeling. So excited though!!

Oh yeah. Senior Photos tomorrow: Steven Welch

PS. Both of those plates were Sean's ... he didn't let me eat what I ordered :(

PSS. Today's also the 8th Week!!

day 055. [tie-dye!]

First of all, I can't believe that I'm on day 55, even though that's just barely making a dent in the whole project, ha. Secondly, today was a good day!

I started today off with doing Tie-Dye with what was supposed to be a big group of people, but it turned into just being Courtney, Sharmaine, and me ... ha. It was still a lot of fun.

So here's a story for you all as to why I've been wanting to tie-dye so desperately this whole summer ...

When I was 9 and watching the show Arthur there was one of those arts & crafts segments between episodes; obviously the one time I'm watching it the segment is on doing tie-dye. Since then I've always wanted to do some kind of tie-dye and today was definitely the day to do it ... 10 years later. But hey, better late than never, right? ;)

I definitely wish there were more people that could come out to this, but that just means that Courtney and I will definitely have to do another tie-dye party before people start heading back to college.

From tie-dying Sharmaine and I went to Rocky Point where there was a party/picnic that our mom's work had put together. I'm pretty sure this party has been going on every year, but I just don't remember it all that much. I think the last one I went to I was around 10-12 years old. I'm getting old and time is definitely flying ...

In all honesty, Sharmaine and I were just there to grab a quick bite before we headed out. When we headed back out though we ended up at my house so I could upload the few pictures I took from tie-dying. I also showed her the other pictures I've ever taken it because she was curious and I definitely didn't mind showing her my pictures.

Originally, Sharmaine was supposed to come to dance at Living Word with me, but she went to go see Shawna while I was at dance.

Lesson learned: I'd much rather do contemporary dance than hip-hop.

Just after what I saw and experienced myself, contemporary would be more my thing rather than hip-hop. Granted we only did one kind of hip-hop today, but still I saw Tasha do some contemporary and that would definitely be my thing compared to hip-hop, ha. Dance was definitely fun and I wouldn't mind going again.

I stayed and chilled at the church for a bit because I really do miss just hanging out there. I mean, there were some days last summer where I would literally just chill at the church after donuts & devos, maybe even read my bible more.

After that though I went home and just chilled. I was supposed to go to Starbucks with Audrey, but plans changed; it was totally alright though because I almost forgot, haha. If you read my status on Facebook you'd probably guess where I went next ... the sunset is right! I ended up running into Laura and Caytie there. I had seen them just hours before at dance. Those ladies are pretty awesome!

It's definitely been a nice break from doing senior photos. Tomorrow should be fun at the Kid's Camp meeting!! SO EXCITED FOR KID'S CAMP NEXT WEEK!!

That reminds me, so from July 25 - July 30th I will not be able to post anything because I will be gone at Kid's Camp. If you forget that I wrote this and freak out because I won't be posting for 6 days, don't worry because I'll make a little post to remind those who come by ;)

day 054. [donuts & devos]

I'm not going to lie, I'm going to keep this post short because I really want to head to bed.

I started out my day by going to Donuts & Devos. This has a special place in my heart, if you want to read why it means so much to me, check out my other blog that surprisingly still exists. Trust me, if you read far enough into that lengthy blog you'll find it.

The rest of the day really consisted with me hanging out with Sharmaine, haha. It was tons of fun. We went from Donuts & Devos to Kitz then to Steven's and then finally to Starbucks where I met up with the 8th Senior that I'm doing for this summer. I know!! 8 SENIORS!! CRAZY!!

Afterwards I just took her home and I chilled at home while I met with one of the other seniors at my house. We were going to meet at Starbucks, but in all honesty, I didn't want to drive out there.

Later tonight Sharmaine, Jared, and Fanny all went to the Donut House. I'm not used to being the oldest because I'm usually amongst the oldest. I am now realizing that I have to deal with the fact that I am now the oldest one for the most part ... Weird.

Anyways, then Sharmaine and I went to Safeway and read some girly mags and did some quizzes, haha.

Tomorrow should be tons of fun because I'm hoping the plans for Tie-Dye are still going on tomorrow :)

PS. I've never tie-dyed so I'm super excited!!

day 053. [seniors photos: caytie]

Today marks the "more than half-way point" of doing Senior Photos! YIPPEE!! I'm almost done, but I do have quite a ways to go ... still need to print them, bahaha.

Anyways, today's Senior was Miss Caytie Matthews! The one thing that I really enjoyed working with her was the fact that she does ballet. Just like everyone else though her pictures in the beginning looked ... awkward. But when she started to do ballet poses and move like she would if she was on stage or in front of the mirror in the studio you could really tell that she got more comfortable. When she started to do that though you really got to see who Caytie was.

Just like mostly everyone else, Caytie and I found ourselves at Fort Casey. This was after an obvious fail of trying to find a meadow, haha. But it worked out great because I remembered that there was a meadow out near the bunkers at Fort Casey. It was tons of fun shooting Caytie's "ballet" photos in the bunkers of the Fort. In some of the photos you can't even tell that it's her!! O_O

So after we did the photos in the bunkers we moved to the meadows that were near the bunkers. I must say, she's the first person to not have a place where everyone else has been. Same goes for Allison, ha. When we did the photos at the meadow we did more "smile" type photos. To just have fun though Caytie was just jumping around. Again, she's a ballerina, so she can do that stuff; the others on the other hand, I wouldn't even try to take a photo of them jumping.

We got hungry. We were also tired. So we took a break!

We went to Safeway and got some ingredients for Broccoli Pasta!! :D (If you want to know how to make Broccoli Pasta, feel free to ask my friend Melanie ... or me!). At Safeway I got to see a good friend of mine ... SCOTT ARNOLD!! Dude's a good looking guy, bahaha. So we made the broccoli pasta, and of course ate it.

Taking a break though, we waited until the sun started to ... shine less. Around 7-ish we went to Starbucks to do a "coffee-shop" kind of feel for some of Caytie's other photos. I wish we had more than just Starbucks in Oak Harbor, alas we don't :(

Despite the fact we don't have anything else but Starbucks, we had fun doing some photos! The best part of doing photos of Caytie today was doing some long exposures of Caytie dancing. Remember? She's a ballerina. Well, those failed, but instead we got some pretty sweet shots of her and her shadow doing ballet moves. You'll definitely need to look at those on my flickr! Seriously though, go and check them out, haha X)


You know the drill, to see more click here!

PS. No senior photos until Saturday. It'll be a nice break :)

day 052. [senior photos: james]

Today was another day where I took senior photos. I've got four more seniors to go before I'm done with all of this! Don't get me wrong though, it's definitely been a blast hanging out with seniors from the Class of 2011. It is still a little weird for me to know that they are seniors because some of these guys I've known for some time now. I guess this is how people felt when I was a senior, ha. It just makes me feel old, bahaha.

Anyways, today's senior was James Middleton. You probably can't see this or even begin to guess this by looking at this photo, but James used to be a short and chubby kid. He definitely has not only thinned out, but he's gotten taller too.

Just like Brandon, I took James to the old train station in Anacortes. Unlike Brandon, I took him to a different spot on the train station. In fact, James and I even walked around Anacortes for a bit to get some more shots while there. That was probably the most I'd ever gone to Anacortes without going to the Donut House. For my friends from UP, Donut House is like VooDoo Doughnuts, just not as crazy. The way I say it to people here, VooDoo is like the Donut House on crack ... so just think of it the other way around!

That was some good time spent there, but from Anacortes we went over to Fort Ebey to get some shots in a more "green" scenery. We never even used the "green" that was there. Instead we just found some forts to do photos near. Because Fort Ebey was in the woods, the photos were actually different compared to those at Fort Casey ...

Speaking of Fort Casey, we eventually went there, but before heading out there we went to the docks in downtown Coupeville. Too much sun and too many people = not the ideal place to really do photos at the moment. We did a few there and then left ASAP to head over to Fort Casey. Just like Allison, James is wearing a plaid shirt. Obviously the difference between the two is how I positioned them. James being a guy and Allison being a girl, there were definite differences as to how I'd sit them. Obviously, James would be more straight on to really show how broad his shoulders are (you know, how guys should look - broad shoulders).

Again, it was a good day of senior photos. Doing more of them tomorrow!

Tomorrow's Senior: Caytie Matthews

You know the drill on where to find more of the shots from today. CLICK ME :)

day 051. [flustered]

Seeing as I don't have Summer Deployment or Senior Portraits to put up, I figured I could put up the three-day-late self portrait.

If you're wondering why today's post is titled flustered, it's because that's how I feel right now. Maybe even a little frustrated. It all started with a phone call last night. I'm not going to go into details, but that phone call has made today seem like the longest day ever.

Anyways, I started today by having to force myself out of bed to get ready for church. I'm not going to lie, I almost didn't want to go to church because it would have meant having to see people that would potentially ask me if I'm alright. There would be some people who would know just by looking past the fake smile that something was wrong.

I even told myself this morning that whatever tears that felt the need to surface to my face, I would hold them back. But then Laura (worship leader) said something that pretty much was my cue to let all the tears go. She said something along the lines of how it's hard to go to church sometimes when there's so much going on, but that we have to let it go and give up to him. That was my cue because then I found myself letting all those tears go.

He's teaching me how to be real.

Seeing as I had a break from taking senior photos today, it didn't mean that it was a complete break. I still met with two of the seniors today to help them pick their clothes out. One of them was James, who I'm doing his photos tomorrow. The other was Caytie and her photos are on Tuesday. It should be tons of fun doing their pictures. By the way, more seniors to come this week, so definitely keep an eye out on that!

After picking clothes out, ha, I went to Youth Group. It was another awesome night. Tommy Guns spoke tonight on what God looks like. It was really what I needed. I guess you could say that I'm emotionally broken right now because I've just been in tears today. I've also just felt the need to cry for awhile. What Tommy had to say though was so awesome. He really is preaching the word of the Lord. Love ya Tommy!

As usual, ended up at Applebee's tonight with the Youth Group. I definitely miss the times with these guys, ha.

That was about it for today. Senior photos tomorrow!

Tomorrow's Senior: James Middleton

day 050. [senior photos: allison]

Today literally was a day worth of senior photos. That is, senior photos of Allison Duvenez! Not to stereotype or anything, but girls really are better at taking photos. This was evident when Allison and I sat down to look through her photos, she had a lot of good photos!

The first place we went today was Deception Pass. Although some of the photos came out nice while we were on the bridge some of those photos definitely were warm up for Allison and me. It wasn't until we started walking around on the trails, and found different spots to do photos, did we find spots that really brought out Allison's skin tone.

By the time we finished up at Deception Pass we came back to my house to grab some Asian food seeing as my mom was having a Filipino Party (aka the best kind of parties!). We looked at some of the photos before we set out to Fort Casey and did some pictures within the bunkers and then along the beach.

I'm not going to lie, Allison's best photos came from when we were in the bunkers. The grey stone and the blue from her top just did her skin tone justice. I hope she picks one of those for her yearbook photo! As for the beach photos, we had to do a few to get them right, ha. The problems we ran into was the sun was either casting a shadow on her or the sun was just directly in her eyes. She already has squinty eyes, so that didn't help. Finally we just had the sun at her back, haha.

I forgot to mention, our church (Living Word) was having a picnic at Fort Casey so between the pictures we did at the bunkers and the beach Allison and I went to go visit our church at the campsite they were at. I really love Living Word!

Yeah, that was what happened today. Tomorrow I get a break from taking senior photos, but on Monday it starts back up again!

Monday's Senior: James Middleton

Oh yeah, don't forget to check out my flickr for some of Allison's other shots! Reminder, these are just some of the shots that we took today.

day 049. [senior photos: brandon]

First off: Happy 7 weeks to me :D

Today was such an awesome day :) I got to hang out with the little kids from Summer Deployment, I got to hang out with an old friend from middle/high school (I really miss her!), and I did my first rounds of Senior Photos today, which was really exciting to start.

So I originally had plans today to hang out with my good friend Kristen, who I haven't gotten to hang out with since we've both been back from school. There's seriously something wrong with that, ha. Plans were changed last minute for her, which in the end turned out to be alright because I ended up hanging out with my friend Sarah Newsome. I honestly miss this girl to death. She moved from Oak Harbor to Maine after 9th Grade. We only really became friends sometime in like 8th Grade, but we've been such good friends since then. In fact, we re-did a photo that was from like 9th Grade; talk about 4 years later!

We had breakfast, went to Starbucks, and then had lunch at my house. I then dropped her off to Saiku's house, which was perfect timing for me because when I left his house I got to the church right in time to help out with whatever I needed to help out to get the church ready for the BBQ.

With the BBQ we just got the church set up for all these kids and their parents to come by. It was kind of sad that we didn't have a bouncy house this year like we did last year. In the end though it might have been a good thing because with the bouncy house last year we weren't able to really hang out with the kids. That's a bummer because we spent almost that whole week building these relationships with them and we don't actually get to even continue that relationship to the last day. But not having the bouncy house made it so we actually spent time with the kids, which reinforced the relationship that was built over the week. Having this end though was kind of like a weight lifted off my shoulders, but at the same time I'm definitely going to miss spending a week with some of these kids, especially the ones that don't go to our church.

When that got done I ended up getting myself ready to do some senior photos. I ended up taking Brandon today to Anacortes and doing some shots there before we came back to Oak Harbor to do some more shots. Something about Brandon that I really liked was that he has a Portland-feel to him, which made it easy to shoot some of his shots. At first I could tell that he was somewhat nervous just because this was something new to him. He got into it and we both ended up just having fun with them. He's definitely someone who is just a goofball and I really did try and capture his goofiness in the pictures.

Be sure to check out two other shots on my flickr.

Tomorrow's Senior: Allison Duvenez

day 048. [SD: day 004]

OH MAN!! Today is the 4th day of Summer Deployment. Technically it's the last day seeing as tomorrow is the big BBQ at Living Word!! It's SUPER insane at how fast this week seemed to have gone by. Luckily, I get to go to Kid's Camp for a good solid week with some of the Living Word Kids!

Anyways, worship today was more personal than how we usually have it. We let the kids help out! You could definitely tell that the kids had a lot of fun, and that's one of the things we ask of the kids; that they have FUN!

Today's game consisted of an obstacle course and getting wet. Obviously with the lack of motor skills (haha) the kids took some hard falls and some pretty funny spills, ha. The good thing is that the kids were able to laugh at themselves as well as each other. I'm really glad that all of them were able to have fun with the last game of the week. I even decided to get wet; I obviously gave my stuff to someone so I wouldn't get my camera and backpack wet, ha.

If you've been following, we went to the memory verse station. Today's verse was probably the longest one, but my kids were able to memorize it!! Not only that, but they all remembered their other verses from this past week. That's four verses that they all know, Man! Today's verse was:

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. - Joshua 1:9

Is that not a long verse? Yeah. Proud of those kids. Their craft today was making a boat. It definitely goes with the water theme this year, haha. Speaking of crafts, they got their frames back today with the group picture in it. We look pretty awesome if you ask me. GO 4TH/5TH GRADERS!!

Snacks today was mainly Goldfish and Skittles. Surprisingly when you eat the two together, it's really good.

If you can't tell, as the week has gone on it's been getting low key. There's a bunch of reasons for that. Leader's get tired, but we still have to keep the intensity of the week going. Less kids show up, which makes it not as hyped up. But a lot of it probably has to do with the level of energy.

As for closing up, we had another leader's challenge. This leader's challenge was dealing with who could make the biggest beard using shaving cream. Red Team won ... making it TWO WINS for Red Team!!

Yellow Team: 1 - 3
Green Team: 1 - 3
Red Team: 2 - 2

That's how we roll!
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So I know that every 15th of the month I would post up a self-portrait. Seeing as I kind of had a theme going on this week, I'll have to put up a self-portrait up another time. Probably on a day where I don't have senior portraits up. Yeah! I'll get it up :)

Seeing as Summer Deployment is ending (tomorrow) I will start up putting the pictures of the seniors upon these pages. Tomorrow will be the first of the several seniors I take photos of.

day 047. [SD: day 003]

I showed up late today because I was working. Long story short, today was my last day of work. Ask me in person, text, facebook message, or even a phone call if you want to know what went down. Actually, don't text me, it's too much to really put into a text message.

Seeing as I showed up late I went looking for my kids. What's funny is, I knew they were at games, the game they were playing was a scavenger hunt. Do you see what's funny about that? They were looking for something while I was looking for them. haha. I eventually found them and was kind of in a pissed off mood. Funny what God can do when your heart isn't in the right place. He definitely turned my heart within the first few minutes of being there. It wasn't about me and how I was feeling, it was about the kids. That's what this whole week has been about, them. We ended the games station with Red Rover, Red Rover.

We moved to the verse station where Kristen taught us the verse and then Ms. Janelle took over. While she took over, Kristen and I ate some mango flavored ice cream. Today's verse was:

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still - Exodus 14:14

We kind of had a "You Got Served" moment though with the memory verse station, the side I was on totally versed the other side. WHAT!? WHAT!? Yeah, it didn't help though that on my side we had Ms. Tasha and myself.

Seeing as today we took the group picture today's craft was making the frames so that the pictures could be housed. I honestly forgot to grab an extra frame, if they had any, to make the frame myself. Darn it. But yeah, that was the craft for today. It was simple, the kids had fun making them, and it'll be a great way to remember a great week!

I honestly don't remember what was for snack, ha. During snack time though water guns got pulled out and people were getting wet from the water guns. Best part was when I made Tasha look like she peed her pants. The kids loved it. Ms. Tasha on the other hand, maybe not, but I know the kids loved it!

Today's leader challenge was an awesome one. Some of the kids got to put whip cream on the leader's (Ms. Novella, Ms. Brianne, and Ms. Briana) faces. Then with water guns they had to see who could get their leader's face the cleanest. It was clearly obvious that Ms. Novella's face was the cleanest getting the Green Team a solid win, but Ms. Tasha made it so that it was a three-way tie between the teams. Good job to Green Team though with a win!

Yellow Team: 1 - 2
Green Team: 1 - 2
Red Team: 1 - 2

All the teams are on the board! WOO-HOO!! Only two more days left with these kids, but I get a whole week with some of the kids seeing as I was given the opportunity to go to Summer Camp with the kids!
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As for the rest of the day, it was chatting it up with my good brother Sean Welch. I trust him with parts of my life that I wouldn't trust anyone else with. This is obviously with God aside. I love that guy. Thanks Sean.

day 046. [SD: day 002]

Today was yet another day of Summer Deployment!! Day 002 as I would call it. Just like yesterday we started the day off with some good worship. Ms. Novella, Ms. Tasha, and I definitely got a good workout from that, but it wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday, haha.

Once worship was done Ms. Janelle and Ms. Tasha put on yet another skit to open up the theme of today, which later was elaborated on during the memory verse station.

Working with the 4th/5th Graders today was a bit more manageable seeing as Tasha and I had 5 less kids. You might be thinking that 5 less kids isn't that big of a deal, but remember the kids are around the ages of 9-11. It makes a difference, haha.

Like yesterday our first station was games where they started out with a water balloon toss. After seeing how fast the groups got out, I can see why water balloon tosses don't go over all that well with kids their age. I don't doubt their motor skills, but it's the fact that some of them haven't developed yet ... Let's just say that game lasted for not even close to three minutes, haha. Once the last group was out the next game they played was crab soccer, which inevitably turned into just regular soccer. Soccer that is with a big gigantic beach ball that kept blowing away everytime it got airborne. Smart move on Greg and Joel by putting water in it to keep it from getting too airborne.

Once done with games the group moved over to the memory verse station where Kristen gave the kids some helpful gestures and movements. Whatever you want to call them, ha. First off, I want to say how proud I am of my group. So many of them remembered yesterday's verse! In return they got life savers from Kristen. Good job today guys! Moving on, today's verse was:

Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men. - Matthew 4:19

Yet another good verse and a verse that deals with more water. Hopefully tomorrow my kids will be able to not only remember this verse and yesterday's verse, but their verse for tomorrow as well. Because with verses we have a lot of free time once we've gone through the hand gestures, we always end the station with a game. Today's game was red light/green light. Kids can get a little out of hand I might say, haha.

Crafts was too much fun today. It was simple, but really fun. I in fact got to make today's craft. It was this little boat with a fisherman or fisherwoman in it with the verse of the day. The funny thing is, the verse of the day on the craft is from Mark rather than Matthew.

Side note: Because of what I learned in BibTrad, it totally makes sense as to why Mark and Matthew have a similar passage, ha.

After crafts the kids moved to snacks. I should probably say that the snacks are usually made from other snacks. Most things aren't already brought pre-made. I say this because today's snack was trail mix. It was so good that I ...

1. Had a bag during the memory verse station
2. I had another bag during our snack time
3. I saved the second bag because it was that good.

Because we didn't actually make the snacks for ourselves today, thanks Ms. Teresa, the kids had some more down time to play games. So we did, we played Quack Delioso and Red Rover. Those two games combined were enough time to end the station and bring today to a close.

The leader's challenge today was to CHUG a slurpee. Thanks to Jonah for being here because he represented the Red Team today, which might I add ... WON. Good thing that Sean was at work, haha, otherwise Yellow Team might have come out with another win. Green Team, you'll get that win. I know it. I can smell that win coming for you guys!

day 045. [SD: day 001]

Some of you might be wondering what "SD" stands for. Unfortunately, it doesn't stand for San Diego. What it does stand for is ... SUMMER DEPLOYMENT. I only did Summer Deployment last year, but it was honestly one of the best weeks last summer. That's obviously not counting High School Summer Camp, which I'm crossing my fingers hoping I can go :)

Now that you know what "SD" stands for, I bet you're probably wondering what it is. Well, I grew up, and I'm sure some of you grew up, with it known as something else ... Vocational Bible School aka VBS. I definitely had my fun doing VBS, but I'm having so much more fun being on the other side of it. That is, seeing the kids have fun.

Some of the things we did today was we played games, well the kids that is. They had a potato sack race and an egg/spoon race. Before I get any further I should mention that I work with the 4th/5th Graders along with another leader, Ms. Tasha :)

After games our group went over to the memory verse station. The theme for this year's summer deployment is water, which explains why most of the verses are coming from books in the bible that deal with water. Today's memory verse was:

He said, in my distress I called to the LORD and he answered me! - Jonah 2:2a

As always, with our memory verses we always come up with hand gestures to remember them. When memory verses got over we moved over to the craft station where everyone made little tote bags. When I say little, I mean little. If I were to wear one of them I wouldn't be able to get it past my elbow because they were so small. Some of the kids made some pretty awesome bags and it made me jealous because the leaders weren't allowed to make one :(

I love what our last rotation was ... SNACKS!! They made smores today using chocolate and vanilla icing. It was so good, ha.

Now that I think about it, I forgot to mention that before the different groups go off to their different stations we always start out with worship and a little skit. Worship crew was tough this year for some reason, ha. Too much dancing; it definitely gave me a work out. As for the skit that we had, Ms. Janelle and Ms. Tasha pretended to be these lost nerds who were saved by Lifesaver Red (Ms. Kristen). What Ms. Kristen gave them was a piece of paper that said "Jonah" on it. That's how we sprung into the idea of Jonah today.

Alright, now that that is out of the way, once everyone finished up their last stations all the three groups were brought back where they helped cheer on their leaders in the leader challenge. I'm quite proud of myself because the challenge was one of the kids in our groups would hold some large slices of watermelons while the leaders (Ms. Olivia, Mr. Sean, and myself) had their hands behind their backs trying to get to the rhine. Sean won, I came in 2nd, and Olivia came in third. Good job to Yellow Team! haha. Red Team will definitely be making a comeback tomorrow though!! As for the Green Team, they'll come out of nowhere and get a win in the leaders challenge!

Day 001 was way too exciting. I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of this week :)

day 044. [slurpee]

Coming home at like 2:30 AM and going to bed at 3:00 AM meant that I wasn't going to go to church until the 11:30 service, which is the last of the three services at Living Word. It was awesome to see Jerry Cook giving a message again at Living Word. Some of you might not know, but between Pastor Dave and Pastor Russ Living Word had an intern pastor that was getting us ready for the new pastor. Well, that intern pastor was Pastor Jerry Cook. It was awesome having him around for four months before Russ came in to pastor the church. I loved the message that Jerry gave. It was just one of the many things that God spoke into me today.

After church I went to 7-11 to get a free Slurpee!! I really felt old though because I was with three sophomores and a junior. Well, Jared didn't make me feel that old, but it was Sharmaine, Erika, and Jonah that made me feel old because they are sophomores and I'm technically a sophomore. I thought when they did their free Slurpee's, that it was like the regular size Slurpee's. You see, I had never gotten a free slurpee until this year, ha. Little did I know that the size of the Slurpee was ... down sized. In fact, looking at the cup (it's been washed out and dried) the size of the slurpee was 7.11 oz, bahaha. Oh snap!

I eventually got those guys where they needed to be and I came home to rest and work on day 043's post. After being home I ended up going to Night of Worship back at my church. There were definitely some intimate moments between individuals of the church and God. I myself had an intimate moment that I really needed to have. It was something that needed to happen. He broke me down. I spent a little too much time this past year building up the wall that he broke down two years ago. I needed to be broken. Why? He's going to be able to use me. He's going to be able to work in me. He'll be able to heal the pain that is sitting inside of me. Like I said, it was needed and it definitely was an intimate moment. Tears were worth it.

At youth group Micah spoke on his missions trip to China. It was so cool to hear what God did and spoke to him while he was there. By the way, I want to make it public that I congratulate his mom in having her 10th child. Healthy baby girl. Abigail is her name.

As usual, after youth group we all went as a big group to Applebee's. Before hand though Sharmaine and I went to 7-11 again to pick up another free slurpee! From Applebee's though I went over to my friend Josh's apartment with a few people where we watched Law Abiding Citizen. It was, to my surprise, a good movie. I quite liked it. Not to give anything away ... you should consider watching it :)

We all just chatted for a bit about some random things, but we chatted for a bit, ha.

Anyways, SUMMER DEPLOYMENT is this week. I'm so looking forward to working with the little kids from the church :)

day 043. [univ. of washington]

I'm aware that this is late, but to justify myself, this is only the 2nd time I've been late posting AND I also didn't get home from hanging out with friends until 2 in the AM. I hope you guys can take that as a legit reason as to why this is a late post ;)

Anyways, so yesterday I hung out with a friend, that I've had since the 6th Grade, at the University of Washington. It was so much fun because she goes to UW and I haven't seen Kathryn since I left for school. I'm pretty sure she was one of the last people I went to say bye to that morning I left. Man, bringing back memories from that last day I was here in Oak Harbor. But yeah, Kathryn was just showing me around campus, which is considerably larger than the University of Portland campus, ha. Tons of walking, I'm pretty sure I got a workout and got my tan going on yesterday seeing as it was really hot yesterday. In fact, I now have a gnarly tan line on my foot from my TOMS. If you want to see how bad it is, just ask me ... it's really bad.

Being at UW, I obviously had to take a lot at their library, haha. Go figure. Well, I'll be sure to link you guys to the library blog to see what I have to say about Univ. of Washington's library compared to the Univ. of Portland's library. Also being there I wanted to see the Harry Potter library that looks like the Great Hall from Harry Potter. Unfortunately, during summer quarter that library isn't open on Saturday's. Looks like Kathryn and I might have to go back to UW when it's open :)

I definitely took a few shots there that I want to show off, so keep an eye out on my flickr as well. Also, what was really cool was there were three different weddings going on at the UW Campus, ha. I really do have so much more to say, but it's kind of escaping my memory, haha. Maybe when we go back I'll write about my two visits to UW this past summer. If you're wondering, the picture is of one of the libraries! I love me my libraries X)

When we got back to Oak Harbor, I right of way went to my friend Courtney's grad party. It was really weird because I've known Courtney since she was in kindergarten. Now she's going off to school in Montana next year. It was a lot of fun hanging out with some of the Class of 2010 Graduates. It was honestly the first time I've hung out with a good group of them since I saw them last year after I graduated.

Afterwards I headed over to my friend Alexa's house where our other friend Kelsey came and joined us. Here's the catch they're upcoming Juniors, ha. When the three of us have hung out we always end up baking funfetti stuff. Before baking though we went and watched the sunset at West Beach. I'm starting to realize I can only watch the sunset so many times before it practically is the same one. From the sunset we went to Albertson's to pick up the funfetti where we saw Mr. Matt Poggie!! I love seeing him around. Gave him a good hug too. He's huggable!

When we got back to Alexa's house we had to decide if we wanted to make a funfetti cake. We didn't. Instead we made funfetti cookies! Because of that we managed to have made: Funfetti cupcakes (first time we ever baked), Funfetti cake (second time), and Funfetti cookies (third time). I always have a ton of fun hanging/baking with these ladies. Can't believe they're juniors this upcoming school year. I'm fo'sho going to be hanging out with these two more than just one more time this summer before I head back down to Portland.
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Obviously, I got back too late to update, and because I had church the next morning I just wanted to get to bed. Keep an eye out later for day 044.

day 042. [starbucks]

Part of me wishes that today would never happen again, but then again, it was quite the day, haha.

I managed to go to Starbucks today ... three times. For three different accounts. Well, now that I think about it, I went to Starbucks for the same reason twice, but with two different people.
Note to self and readers: When you have an income like I do, Starbucks should be the last place you go daily. In my case of today, it should be the last place you go multiple times.

I was first at Starbucks today at 11:30 meeting with one of the seniors that I'm going to do photos for. Luckily, I had gone running with Allison yesterday so we kind of got the boring details out of the way. So today when we met up it was just to get ideas out and locations as to where we want to do her photos. While there one of our friends showed up. It was really nice to see Keriann just because it's tons of fun seeing her, as well as the other people that are still in high school.

When I was done there, I went home for a bit to just chill and read. But around 3:30 I went to Starbucks again to do my devos. I re-read Philippians 2:1-4 and got some really good stuff out of that passage. I also read the first chapter of Hosea and got some much needed stuff out of that as well. It's good to know that God will always love me no matter how much, or how bad I mess up. But it was a good time spent in Starbucks.

From there I went to the beach for a bit to snap some shots. I might put them on flickr, but we'll see, ha.

The final and last time I went to Starbucks was later at 8. It was to talk with Caytie Matthews, one of the other seniors, about her senior photos and to just get some ideas out there. It was a good planning and we got some really good ideas for shots down. I myself am really excited because Caytie does ballet so we can do some artsy photos as well as the typical senior photos. But yeah, those are the seniors for this year that I'm shooting. I can't wait for you guys to see some of their photos as they grace these pages. Also, just keep an eye out for them on my flickr page as well.

Alright, so I've got an early day tomorrow. Night everyone :)

day 041. [run, run, run]

I was originally going to spend the day hanging out with my friend Caytie Matthews making friendship/hemp bracelets. That time it took for us to change plans was just as fast as when we made them, haha. No worries, we can plan for another day to make crafts. Because the plans had changed for the day I found myself up early wondering what to do ...

I started with a quick ab workout this morning followed by lunch and then I read part of Crime & Punishment. After finishing The Adolescent, I actually have come to like it. It was surprisingly a good book about how the main character comes to finally meet his real father after having lived with his foster parents. I just suggest you read it to understand the full picture.

After reading though I decided to just lounge around before I went out on a walk. It was yet another GORGEOUS day that I had to at least spend some time in. When I got done walking around though, I just decided to lounge around the house and play on the piano for a bit.

Around 7 I went to Starbucks to meet with one of the five seniors to discuss ideas, locations, and how I price. I'm looking forward to doing his shots. He really has this Portland kind of feel, which I've recently fallen in love with. I can't wait to show off his pictures on here and flickr.

In the midst of everything I did and everything I didn't do today, I really had an itch to run. I did, haha. I'm not one that likes to run alone so I ran with my friend Allison Duvenez. If you've been reading, you'll know that she's one of the seniors that I'm doing senior portraits for. As for running, I'm not one to run alone and I'm definitely not one to run on a track. Today though, I wanted to run on a track just because it's a lot easier on my joints. I don't mind sprinting on tracks, but distance running ... eh let's keep that to running around town or on a trail, ha.

I forgot, speaking of track I guess I can share with you guys a deep old secret of mine, ha. So many of you know me as this big volleyball junky, and that's because I am. But there was a time where volleyball really was just a sport to me. Ok, so here's the deep old secret of mine: When I was in the 7th Grade running on the track team, and even into my 8th Grade season, I dreamed that I would go to the Olympics as a track runner. I mean I had some pretty awesome times for a 7th/8th Grade Sprinter. That dream eventually died by the time I got to high school. Well, it started to change in the middle of my 8th Grade season. Track is now just a sport, volleyball is now my life and my passion. There, that's like one of my confessions that I may make while working on this blog. Who knows, I might confess more things, ha.

Tomorrow is going to be another beautiful day! Can't wait!!

day 040. [photography buddy]

Now, if you've been following you know that a few posts ago (day 024.) I was writing in disappointment in how the first day of summer was a complete utter fail. Well, today was a little different. These past two days have seriously started to feel like summer. In fact, according to my little weather gadget on my mac it's showing that today's high was 80-degrees. It's about 10:19 PM right now and it's a good 64-degrees out. So the sun is definitely coming out, and it will be out for the rest of this week.

What I love most about the sun though is I'm fixing up tan lines that so desperately need to be fixed, haha.

Anyways, on to today! I started today off by going to my dentist appointment. Now, let me tell you something that might blow your mind away, haha. I'm now going into my 20th year of not having a single cavity [knocks on wood]. I'm pretty much the poster child of what dentist look for in a patient. If only I could have been the poster child for braces (should have worn that retainer ...), haha. I'm not going to lie, I was quite excited to hear that I went another dentist appointment without finding a single cavity. In fact I will quote what my dental hygienist, "This is by far the best dentist appointment you've ever had." I don't like to toot my own horn, but I knew it was going to be a good one, bahaha.

Afterwards I ended up just getting my haircut. For some the last time you saw me my hair was just getting over an inch long, for others it might have been a goo 1/8th of an inch long. Well, after that haircut, my hair is back to 1/8th and I quite like it this way :)

When I got home, I had a meeting with one of the seniors that I will be doing portraits for in the next few weeks. We got some ideas down and locations to go. Speaking of senior portraits my number of "clients" has gone up from 3 to 5!! If you're wondering who's photos I'm taking (even if you don't know them) they are:

• James Middleton
• Steven Welch
• Caytie Matthews
• Allison Duvenez
• Brandon Rhine

It's exciting to know that I've got 5 times the "clients" as I did last year. It will be a fun group to take pictures of. Like I said before though, keep an eye out seeing as some of their photos might grace the pages of my blog!

Once Steven left though I decided to take a nap because it was just so darn hot. I took it outside though, haha. But around 5:30ish my good friend Bailey came by to pick me up so we could hang out for a bit. We were also joined by our other friend Christian. It was fun hanging out with these guys seeing the last time I hung out with them it was during my Fall Break last October. So it's been a good more than half a year since I've seen these two. That ended early though because of last minute change of plans, but that was alright.

I spent the rest of the night at the cadre party that was going on at City Beach. If you're wondering what cadre means, it's just the small groups from our youth group were having an end of the cadre year party. After today, cadres are done until school starts up again. I had a blast hanging out with some of those guys because I haven't seen some of them in awhile. What's really cool though is I think I found a new photography buddy! There's something about having photography buddies that makes the idea of photography ten times more fun. What's even better is my photography buddy is Bailey's brother, Matt Poggie! He might tag along when I do James' photos sometime in the next few weeks. That will be exciting. As for my photography buddies they are as listed:

• Pam Dupa
• Brian Dyche
• Matt Nienhuis
• Steven Welch
• Erika Acode
• Matt Poggie

YAY!!! I hope to get the opportunity to work with each of them this summer. It's still a hot day, but I'm going to call it a night and get some seriously needed shut eye. Hope you guys are having great summers.

PS. Sorry that this ended up being so long :|

day 039. [relationships]

Today was a day full of just being around people and growing in our relationships. Be it my relationship between my youth pastor and me, my relationship with my pastor and his wife along with others, and even my relationship with a few of my friends from the youth group.

I was going to start today by going to the gym with my friend Clair Thiel; we have an interesting relationship as to how we became friends. Maybe I'll explain it if this blog doesn't get too long, ha. I didn't feel all that great this morning though, so I passed up on the gym with her. Next time though!!

Sometime in the prevening (Big Bang Theory) I met up with my youth pastor Angel to discuss me sharing my devos on Sunday night at the youth group. It was also just a time where we got to catch up on, maybe not the whole year, part of the year from my freshman year of college. It's sad to know their moving on from little Oak Harbor, but God's got some amazing things in store for Angel, Laura, Josiah, and their little boy that's on the way. If God can use Angel to turn many hardened hearts into the soft, but passionate, hearts they are now ... I know that God will continue to use him in Pasco.

Can't believe their leaving though, man. It was seriously my freshman year of high school when I met Angel and I was this little turd that was running up and down the hallway throwing out f-bombs left and right. I was a little 15 year old that had no self-respect for myself and yet I demanded respect from others. Thanks Angel for turning me around. Actually, thanks God for using Angel to turn me around :)

Can't wait for Sunday though!

Later this evening I went over to my pastor's house. Pastor Russ and his wife Ana invited a few people over to their house tonight. It was just a time that they gave us, as young adults, to get to know each other from the church. Granted I knew who most of the people were, there were a few people that I had yet to meet just because I was gone. While there Russ and Ana were open about their relationship with each other and before each other. Brought some insight as to what it means to me to be a Christian and wanting to pursue a relationship with another person. It was cool seeing how they were comfortable to talk about some of the things they did. I am so glad that God brought this family to our church to pastor over us after Dave and Snr. Veach ended up leaving. Oh yeah! Can't forget to mention that they have the cutest kids ever!! Hopefully someday I'll be doing their braces ;)

Around the time the sun started to set I met up with a few friends out at West Beach. I love these guys so much. As in Ally, Laura, and Jordan, ha. I just love those guys. It's been good to see and hear what has happened in their lives this past year. Some AMAZING things. I'm pretty sure though that in the midst of these amazing things were some times of utter despair. But I know that they were able to get through that. I'm so proud of those guys! I'm excited to see what's in store for them this upcoming school year. I'm especially excited to see what's going to happen in Ally & Jordan's lives seeing as they'll definitely be in a new season of their young adult lives.

It was just a great day today. Oh I forgot to mention one other thing ... B-E-A-U-tiful day!! Sunny all day!

PS. Seeing as this got long, feel free to ask me how come Clair and I have an interesting relationship. I'm fine explaining why it's so interesting, haha X)

day 038. [volleyball]

I'm coaching these days, volleyball that is. I'm also coaching down in Redmond, WA, which is a good 2 hours south of Oak Harbor. That usually means I leave Oak Harbor 2.5 hours prior to needing to be at work. I honestly wouldn't even call it work because I'm getting paid to do something I REALLY love.

It's a lot of fun getting to coach the Junior & Senior team seeing as they just finished up their 2009-2010 season by ending it with a national title! I'm so proud of those guys. They did what we tried to do last year. But hey, a 2nd place finish is not bad at all.

After coaching today though I got back home and right away I met up with a friend of mine. James and I met at Starbucks because we were discussing his senior photos! It's so weird because when I met him he was a sophomore and now he's a senior photos and I feel honored to be taking his photos. In fact, this week is me meeting up with some seniors to discuss their photos that I'll be taking. Keep an eye out because their photos might grace the pages of my blog :)

Afterwards though I went home and literally just sat on my butt watching the FIVB World League and the FIVB Grand Slam. Anyone who's reading this has to understand that I'm such a volleyball freak! I LOVE THE SPORT SO MUCH!! So while everyone is watching the World Cup I'm in the midst of watching what is considered the "World Cup" of Volleyball for both indoor and beach. Funny thing is, while most people are upset that the USA got out of the World Cup I was actually excited because the USA made it out of their pool in the World League.

I just really like volleyball, and it just so happened that today was honestly a day FULL of volleyball for me. If I could, I would play it "for days" (Villa reference). In all honesty, volleyball is more than just a sport to me. It's kind of my life and my passion. If I had to choose between volleyball and any other sport I've played growing up ... I'd pass on all of those sports. I might even pass on the memories from those sports. I LOVE VOLLEYBALL!! Such great memories from club years!

Let's hope that tomorrow has more in store though, haha. Today was kind of a "blah" day ;)

day 037. [america]

As promised, a photo of the fireworks from tonight!

Today's shot is definitely another shot dealing with long exposures. If I were you, click on it to enlarge it :)

Now that that's done, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!! I hope all of you had safe 4th of July's. I know I did, it was a hectic one with last minute planning. If you know me one bit you know very well that last minute planning kind of makes me anxious. Don't know why, but it just does, always has.

I started today, obviously, at church and I must say I miss Living Word. I've got all of my spiritual roots planted into that church that Living Word is the next best thing to my own house. There's definite changes going on, but that's God moving in people and putting them places where they need to be. It's a new season in their lives and we just have to be able to embrace that and be excited for the changes going on at Living Word itself!

When church got over I joined a few friends, seeing as my parents were out of town (again!) for a BBQ. Just like how I have a second home, I've got myself a second family that's always willing to accept me when my parents ditch me ... haha. BBQ was awesome, all of us, for sure, got tired from food. That didn't stop us from going out to eat again at this restaurant called Flyers. Good thing was, there was some separation in time from the BBQ to Flyers.

Now, usually I go to the carnival and walk around, scope out some friends, and occasionally hit the rides. I forgot to add in that I'd visit all the Filipino aunties who had tents set up and food cooking! Free food = the best kind of food! This year was different, no carnival, no walking around, no scoping out some friends, no rides, and definitely no visiting the aunties for free food; not that I'd be able to eat it seeing as I'm all vegetarian now, ha. Instead, I just hung out with friends in a house, a restaurant, and an apartment. It wasn't until close to 10 did we leave for City Beach (aka Windjammer Park) to watch the fireworks. Pretty sweet, kind of the same as many past firework shows, but you know it was good. I definitely got some sweet shots, this is only one of them (obviously). It's late, so I don't plan on putting the other ones up on flickr until tomorrow. Be sure to check that out though!

Again, I hope all of you had some awesome 4th of July's. I'm just kind of glad it's over, bahaha.

GO AMERICA!!!!