day 090. [welch boys]

I can't believe that today came just as fast as it did. If you're out there wondering what I mean by this, I'm talking about the fact that today was my last real day in Oak Harbor. Again, if you haven't been paying attention I'm leaving Oak Harbor to head back down to Portland for school. I'm so pumped and ready for this school year, but I'm realizing that I'm going to miss Oak Harbor.

So since most of you have read my encounters with the youth group and the church I'm realizing that I would love nothing more than help out with the youth here in Oak Harbor. Obviously though it's not my calling. I've been called to do some work in Portland! That's what I'm going to do this year. Some honest to God, God work :)

Anyways, to what I did today on my last day in Oak Harbor. I ended up going to bed pretty early last night because my head was throbbing. With that though I woke up around 6 this morning. So I had a pretty early morning. I did my devos and I was also able to catch an episode of Pokemon. Even though I woke up that early I took a nap before noon.

When noon rolled around I headed over to the intern apartment to pick up my buddy Sean Welch. I've had different hangouts with him this summer, and I'm sure you've read them. We went out to China City to eat. We just talked about camp and what God had done through me. It was nice to get to talk to him about it. We also just talked about this upcoming school year. It's so important for me to be back down there. Not just because I'm going to school there, but I was called to be at that school. This seriously might sound weird to some of you guys, but it's the truth - I was called to be at the University of Portland. God had something in mind for me when I chose that school. I've gotta work it this year. I'm so excited!! AHHH!! TOMORROW!!!

Afterwards I knew I wanted to say bye to the Kingma's. So we went over there hoping that they'd be home. With our luck ... THEY WERE!! Well, all of them [Mrs. Kingma and Jordan] with the exception of Mr. Kingma. I love that family so much. Such an awesome family. Sean and I were there for a few hours just catching up with Jordan and Mrs. Kingma. It was so good to see them. To think the last time I saw that whole family, let alone go over to their house, was during senior year. That was two years ago! KRAZY!! O_o

Sean had to get going so I dropped him off home. When I got home though I finally found it in myself to finish packing. Also my last two books finally came in. Around 8 though Sean's little brother ... Steven came by so we could hangout on my last night. On our way to where we were hanging out we picked up Sharmaine because she wanted to hangout with us, haha. We pretty much treated her like the little sister she is. We were just flat out RUDE to her, but in a loving way :D

I could tell you where we went, but ... I won't. I mean I'll tell you we went to the beach and then Safeway, but what good would that do you? Once we got rid of her (haha) Steven and I went to the Donut House to get DONUTS!! We also got Sharmaine one because she made us pinky promise. Well, Sharmaine I had some of my fingers crossed when we made that promise. If you want to see her donut then you can go to flickr to see what we did to it ;)

Well, that was my last night in Oak Harbor. I leave tomorrow. I'm excited. I'm anxious. I could honestly pee my pants right now because it's full of fluids and the pressure on my bladder is INSANE! bahaha. Love you guys :D

PS. Steven did more damage to it than I did :)

PPS. In fact, if you want to see some of the pictures from today, my last day, just check out the flickr.

PPPS. Also, today is the last day of the third month :)

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 031. [sunset]

Wanna know something cool? Today marks the end of the "first month" of this project! 31 days later and I've got one month down and 11 to go!

Anyways, you know how during the summer the one thing EVERYONE wants to do is ... hang out? Well, to be honest with you, hanging out can get old and sometimes I really like to just stay home and just chill and bum around the house.

So that's what I did today, haha. Just did some chores around the house, although I hate chores. I did some more cleaning around my room and just getting rid of old things or packing stuff up so it can go in the garage. I definitely spent some good time in front of my keyboard just playing it and having tons of fun. Of course, because of my new found love for crafts, I obviously did that.

But there's only so much one can do in their house when it's summer. I found myself later wanting to go on a run. So I did, a 2 mile run. Start out small you know? haha. I'm not an XC runner, so I don't do 10 miles as a starter, bahaha. I realized though that I like running. Despite that I do sports where running isn't the main thing, I enjoy running. Something about how my body feels after I run just feels SO good!

I'm more of a late night runner though or early morning runner. Seeing as I woke up kind of late, I didn't do my run until later tonight.

I was able to do my run, but I also caught the sunset at west beach. If there's one reason that doesn't deal with my friends living here, I would come home to Oak Harbor definitely because of our sunsets! They are gorgeous, beautiful, and amazing. I sometimes suffer from Island Syndrome [hating the fact that I live on an island] but the thing is, I have yet to see a sunset anymore gorgeous than the sunsets here! Man, I love being home :)

PS. Ran my 2 miles in 14:05. Got to take photos of the sunset with my buddy Steven Welch. If you haven't noticed, I'm now tweeting. Follow me if you have one!

day 008. [home]

Lo and behold ... The next place my friends and I went was - Oak Harbor! I'm so glad that we're here.

The initial reason why we came up to here was because I needed to get my other DSLR, ha. Long story short - ask me :)

So when we got here we first ended up playing some Mario Kart after we all took our showers, separately. I also surprised Steven by being his birthday present! It was actually a lot of fun playing Mario Kart with more than just Melanie. Although the thing is, having the TV divided into 4 parts was kind of confusing and a little different.

After that Keenan, Melanie, and I went out to 1-2-3 Thai (saw some old band-mates there) to get some lunch food because we were obviously hungry. Then I took them to a park that I grew up playing on as well as taking them on a tour around my elementary school. Memories man! It was a lot of fun just filling them in on the 5-10 year old Rick!! :D

Then we went to my middle school which happened to be right next to Blockbuster where I rented the last two discs of Glee. While at Blockbuster I also bought three movies: I Love You Beth Cooper, 500 Days of Summer, and UP! I took them on a tour of my middle school too.

If you're wondering - I didn't take them to my high school because we just went to my house seeing as my brother was going to take us out to eat. Seeing as we ate though, we were kind of still full, so we all just got dessert because the three of us weren't all that hungry from the Thai.

Afterwards, I dropped my brother off at the house so that the three of us could go out and take some pictures of the sky at West Beach. If there is one thing I miss for sure about living in Oak Harbor is that the sunsets are just amazing. I then decided to go visit a friend on a surprise visit :)

I haven't seen Kristen since Christmas break, so it was a lot of fun getting to see her and just catching up for that little bit we were there. I'll definitely be needing to catch up with her when I'm home for the summer ... for good!

Now the three of us are catching me up on episodes 9-13 of Glee!! YIPEE!!

day 005. [hard work]

First off, I want to say a quick "Happy Birthday" to Keriann Ashley-Chase and Steven Welch :).

Keriann - HAPPY 16th :)
Steven - HAPPY 17th :)

I hope you both had an awesome day!

I realize my posts are getting a bit longer (thanks for calling me out in my comments, Tarra - haha). So I'm going to try and fix that by keeping things shorter and more "highlight" like rather than "recap" like. Does that make sense?

This morning though started out with me reading for history because I never actually got around to it despite what my previous post says. FYI - post blood donation is going well. No soreness. No bruise. No flu like symptoms. I feel good about having given blood and again I'm proud of myself.

BibTrad & History were their usual selves. We did get our exams back today in History like Els said we would. I got on A- on my exam ... much better than my B- I got on my last exam. That puts my average in that class at B+!! Woot! Woot!

Spent some time in the library again doing some research for BibTrad on books I couldn't check out. Then came back to Corrado for Hall Mass. The best part about Hall Mass though is the AFTER MASS SOCIAL!! After mass social's in Corrado for the summer consist of chatting it up with people while eating pizza! Pizza Wednesday's, haha. Some things never change (University of Portland dinner reference).

As for the rest of the night, I've got a history exam tomorrow. I'll be studying for that!