Goodbyes

I hate goodbyes. In any way, shape, or form I am not a fan. Whether for a few minutes, hours, weeks, or years I struggle with and try to avoid them. I hate the uncertainty they bring, the gap of time where anything could happen, the feeling of being left, and the questions that haunt my mind about the way the goodbye went and the terms that person and I were on when they said it (were they secretly annoyed,but pretending to be nice? Did I say something that may have made them mad and they couldn't wait to get rid of me? Did I sound dumb or act like a fool?)

Case in point: Goodbyes are a dreaded, hated thing for me. They are even worse when you have to say goodbye to your best friend.

Three days ago, I had to do just that. I had to say goodbye to Brittany, one of my best friends because she has decided to go to college about 6-7 states away.

I will miss her dearly. Her silly sense of humor even when she was making fun of how short I was. Her eagerness for anything and the way she made even the most mundane tasks fun. Her line of promises and bets about how she will read so many books that she never did find the time to read. Her talk of movies and the list she continuously added to for me to watch. Her encouragement and kind words, and how she always knew the right thing to say. How she always left a glass of water sitting in the same spot in my room. How hard it was to end a conversation to make time for sleeping when one of us slept over.

Most of all I am just going to miss having my best friend around - everything about her will be missed.
All of us at her surprise going away party: Rochelle,Katie,Brittany,Jamie,Me,Lizzy. Poor Britt got caked by Katie!
Lizzy, Me, and Brittany right after her party.
The last time I saw her, when I left her house from spending the night on her last day here.

Brittany I will miss you dearly. I hope that you keep in touch and that our friendship still continues to grow even with 6-7 states between us. I hope that you have an amazing time at college and that you don't forget about your friends here. I hope that you always know I am here for you and that I'll always be your best friend.

Thanks for everything you've done, I wish you the best.

I wish this was my last goodbye for this week, but its unfortunate to me that it's not. Jodi and the girls will be leaving here in a few days, for a few days. They will be four hours away. I have spent almost everyday with them this summer, and its going to be pretty hard to see them go. Even more so because that leaves me with 2 best friends gone, and the other one at work. What will I do? I hate being bored and lonely!

Oh how I hate goodbyes...saying goodbye to two best friends within a week and having all three of them busy? This stinks.

Love,

These summer days are flying by.

I hate how fast summer goes. Another week has passed and that puts me another week closer to losing my freedom. Its really just very sad!

This week was a very good one, filled with fun activities and that's just the way I like it.

It started off with Mikaylas t-ball tournaments. Its double elimination and they lost the first two games they played so they were done pretty quick. But for them it was a good thing- they were ready to get their trophy and be done!

Mikayla is so little they usually put her as the catcher. Her wearing the gear is so funny, shes just swallowed up in it! She likes being the catcher because she actually gets to get the ball and throw it frequently, keeps her busy and happy!
Here she is posing with her bat- to cute! She loves posing for pictures and i love it that she does!
Later in the week we went to the park, the girls played and Jodi and I talked as they played. It was very nice, and of course I got some nice pictures!
Love this picture of them. They are showing off the sunglasses I bought for them. The funny thing about this picture is they look so happy and loving with one another but right after I took the picture they both shoved each other away and glared at one another! So funny, they are in that stage where sisters are not cool I guess!

The beautiful Taylor giving me a quick smile before she ran off to play.
Mikayla, striking a pose for me!
Taylor and IMikayla and me
Me and my favorite girls: I love them so very much!

Oh, and here's one more thing before you go:

Something else fun happened this week, but I don't have pictures, just a story. So here it is: Jodi and I went shopping. Now Jodi hates shopping. Hates it with a passion. So when we go, I try to make it as fun as possible, and it works. Both times we've went together we have had a blast! We act crazy and laugh about everything. And just so you know, our craziness in stores doesn't just help us have a better time: I am fairly certain I heard more than one person laugh at us as we walked down the isles. Some even made a joke or comment as we walked by. And I think the checkout lady may have peed herself. We even had the checkout lady next to us laughing. I certainly think shopping may be fun for Jodi now, and I also believe that we have officially put a visual to the following quote: "You can always tell when two people are best friends because they are always having way more fun then it makes sense for them to be having"

And on that note, I'll end here ;)

Love,

Hey there cutie!

I have a confession to make: I never thought I would get into photo editing. I didn't think it would be fun and my view on it was "I should be able to take a good enough picture that it shouldn't need edited"

Well since then, my views have changed. I love turning on my itunes, rocking out, and editing pictures. I love changing a mediocre picture into an excellent one. I love tweaking an excellent picture to make it look even better. I love changing the look of a picture into something way different then it had looked before, I love looking in awe at what different effects can do to a picture. Either that or I just love the fact that it keeps me busy ;) My new view on editing "I can take good pictures but editing can make them look better!"

I have fallen in love with photo editing, and I like it almost as much as I like taking the pictures. It helps when I have the most adorable models who are used to me pointing the camera in there face.

So here are a few pictures, the originals and then one of the edits I did on them-

So, what do you think? Am I doing a good job? Any type of comment is much appreciated!

Love,

IheartFeet!

No, I am not crazy (just don't ask my friends..) and no you did not read the title wrong. It does indeed say I heart Feet and it is indeed right. This week over at I heart Faces they are mixing it up a little and focusing on feet instead of faces. Here is what I decided to enter..

This is a picture of my cousin painting her toe nails. This happens a lot around my house due to the fact that I mostly babysit girls. Its also the reason why my carpet isn't all one color anymore (you think they could keep them over the box, lol.)

Thanks for checking out my entry, to see more or to enter your own head on over to IheartFaces by clicking HERE

Love,

My poor puppy.

I think it's about time I introduce you to my dog,
This is Denae, our lively, crazy, jack russell terrier. Isn't she the cutest?? She's a funny dog though, and I do believe she does not like getting her picture taken. She always runs or turns her head when I have the camera pointed at her even when I bribe her with treats.

Oh, and her name it had to be a name that started with a D because all of our names stared with a D (Don,Donna,Deanna,Dea,Donald,Dana) and we could not leave her out!

And now that you know some random information about my dog here's what I really wanted to tell you about her, last night she met one of these...And it was not a nice meeting. The nasty thing sprayed her: right in the mouth! And she got a good lap or two around our house before we realized the smell was not coming from outside, but from her! And oh boy, it was worse than when you smell them outside! And the smell was everywhere and in every room! I think about how bad it was for us and then I realize my dog had to taste it! The poor thing.

You know, you read about these things in books and watch them in movies never thinking it will happen to you (especially when you live in town.?!) but then it does and all you can do is laugh and blog about it, but the good/bad news is we just realized the skunk is dead and rotting outside by our fence. So hopefully we don't ever have this kind of issue, ever again.

On a better note, I re-did my blog, what do you think? I really think I love the new layout, such fun, bright colors and a not to busy design. As for the header, I like it but somethings missing from it I think. But that's something I will do and redo when I find different pictures I like. And because its something fun for me to do. So I am sure you will be seeing that change frequently. But you should let me know what you think, I value your opinion ;)

Love,

Don't Blink

I have a bright flash that causes people to blink. Usually when you tell them, they try harder not to the next time. But if you tell a four year old to try not to blink, she tries harder to do so. And then it quickly becomes a game with all the children in the room. They thought it was rather amusing...And I quickly saw it as amusing as well when I took a look at the turnout. Their expressions of laughter as they tried to blink, so cute.

Love,

Iheartfaces:Sports in action & Pets!

This week over at IheartFaces the themes are Sports in action and Anything goes-Pets.
The only sport type pictures I have are from tball/coach pitch games. I love watching the kids play and trying to get good pictures of them playing. But its harder than I thought- my old camera had the zoom but not the clarity. My newer had the clarity but not the zoom. In the end it came down to one question: Do i enter the picture that qualifies as a good action shot but is missing the clarity or the picture that is clear but without nice action? In the end, I decided on this one-

I went with the less clear action shot because I adore this photo. This was taken last year, Taylors first year playing tball. I love the expression on her face as she concentrates really hard to catch that ball.

The pets category was an easier pick. This is a picture of my dog, Denae. I put it in high contrast black and white and liked the turn out.Thanks for checking out my photos please let me know what you think! To see more or to enter your own photos go on over to IheartFaces by clicking HERE

Love,

If you play with fire,

you will get burned. Translation: If you try and take pictures of fireworks you will not get the wonderfully perfect picture you desired.

That would be what happened to me this fourth of July. I decided to try and get some awesome firework pictures with that new Nikon i got. I thought, how hard can it be? Then Stephanie posted some tips and how to set your Nikon on her blog, so i set up my camera using her recommended settings and set off with a big smile on my face.

Then we got to the place where we would be viewing them from. My first thought: its kindof far, but o well. So me and Randi set up our cameras and prepared for the show, both of us, still smiling ear to ear, expecting some great shots. Then the fireworks started and we started shooting, or should i say, we tried. Very quickly our sounds of cheer turned into "arghhhh" and "ughhhhs" and "ahhhhhs" and "OMG i missed it, its blurry, how come it wont take!!!!"

And when the fireworks came to their conclusion, you could see Randi and I watching, with our cameras nicely packed into the case, talking ourselves into thinking it was the distance that caused us so much trouble and not our skills. ;)

On that note, would you like to see some of the pictures i did get out of this not so great experience? ha ha, that's what I thought! So here you go- my attempt at fireworks, year one newly retitled- "It was my first try so its no big deal that I failed I mean the camera is new and all and I need to get used to it better so maybe next year I will get better ones...."


This first picture is not cropped at all so that you can see how far we were from them. My standard lens was zoomed in all the way and that's as close as I could get.
All the rest have been cropped in picnik.
My picture of the grand finale.Fireworks at the "after party" And i think i actually like this one, lol.

And last but certainly not least: My favorite picture of the night, the ever so cute, Landon!

This year was a pretty fun fourth of July, but next year when I play with fire I hope to be more prepared, as so I won't get burned ;)

Love,

Dear

Taylor,I just want to let you know that I love...

...How when I asked you for a hug, you gave me one, and wouldn't let go.

...How when I tell you that I love you, you say that you love me more, even if I tell you that you that I love you more.

...How when I sit next to you, you cuddle up to me and rest your head on my shoulder.

...How when I am even a little bit sad, you rub my shoulder, flash me a smile, and tell me that everything will be okay.

...How you reach up and grab my hand so that you can hold it- even though I am in the front seat and you are in the back seat.

...How you try to give me your snack, just to make sure I am not hungry.

...How when you see me coming, you run and yell my name then greet me with the biggest hug known to man.

...How you tell me that I am your best friend.

But most of all, I love it that you love me...

...so please don't ever let go, I will always love you more, my shoulder will always be there to lean on, you always make me feel better, my hand is always here to hold, I will always have snacks to share, your welcome to greet me that way for eternity, and I will always be your best friend...

Because I love you to.

Mikayla,

I want to let you know that I love...

...how you ran off the field during your game just to give me a hug, and how you didn't want me to put you back down.

...how you pull me aside just to tell me silly little secrets that aren't really secrets at all.

...how you threatened to beat up the little boy who hit me with a ball just because he was not nice to me (even if we were playing a game)

...how as soon as I sit down you crawl up on my lap even though there are plenty of chairs available

...how you dressed up just to come to my house

...how you want me to carry you everywhere, even though you can walk

...how you make me laugh with the goofy songs and stories
...how you get mad because Taylor says I am her best friend, because I am yours as well.

But most of all, I love it that you love me...

..so I don't want to ever put you back down, I will always be here to listen to your secrets as well as those not really secrets, I will always fight for you as you had wanted to fight for me, you can always take a seat on my lap no matter how many chairs there are, you will always look cute whether you dress up or not, I will always be here to carry you, your goofy songs and stories can always make me laugh, and don't worry I will be your best friend to...

Because I love you to.

Love,