[[Jodi]]palloooza!

A very important event has approached us, it only comes around once a year and we must be there to celebrate it in its entirety. This event has a significant meaning to me because its brought about a very important person in my life: my best friend.

What is this very important event that I speak of? Why, its Jodis birthday! Well, actually her birthday isn't until Wednesday but because she is so big into celebrating birthdays (not because she thinks she is more special than the average person, although she might be =]) she lets the celebration start today and go on for a week: a week that I have dubbed Jodipalloooza, just for entertainment purposes. And since I think shes special to I have decided to honor her birthday week by posting it at the start of it (but really because my dads birthday is Thursday and I wanted to spread out my posts a lil more, but don't tell Jodi that's why, lol.)

Now for the hard part. What do you write for your best friend on her birthday to let her know how truly special she is too you? How do you find a way with words to express how thankful you are when words could never do your gratefulness justice? The fact of the matter is, you try but you make sure that you don't just write it, but live it. And of course you just put a little memo at the end telling that person that words aren't enough. That works to ;) So here I go-
Dear Jodi,

First of all, I want to thank you for being such a great best friend. Your friendship was an unexpected blessing in my life, its unusual for two people with such an age gap between them to become as close as we are but in our case, its perfect. It has made our friendship all the more stronger. The age difference has given us both benefits and wisdom that is unlike any other friendship I've had and it helps us both in many ways, some of which I am sure we are still unaware of. I truly believe God meant for it to be this way.He made it work and gave us an indestructible bond that i know will last a lifetime. Your always there for me and with a kind heart and helping hand you help me even through my toughest times. I know I can go to you with anything and you wouldn't think twice about being there for me. And I hope you know the same goes for you: I am always here for you as well.

I never would've thought I would find some one who is so much like myself. It is such a wonderful feeling to know you have someone out there who always knows what your talking about and where your coming from. Someone who always understands and knows exactly what to do or say because they are the exact way themselves. It's great to share my dough with such a wonderful person (I'll have to tell y'all that story one of these days). And its great to know that no matter what happens I will always have a best friend in her (and she will always have a best friend in me) because first of all, she can't hate me because we are so much alike it would be horribly ironic because it would be like she disliked herself, and we also know we will always be best friends because nobody else likes us ;)

Like I said at the begginning, there will never be enough words to describe how thankful I am and how much her friendship means to me, but I found a quote in this book once that I think describes Jodi (and my other two best friends for that matter) really well.

"I think about how there are certain people who come into your life and leave a mark. I don’t mean the usual faint impression: He was cute, she was nice, they made me laugh, I wish id known her better, I remember the time she threw up in class. And I don’t just mean that they change you. A lot of people can change you- the first kid who called you a name, the first teacher who said you were smart, the first person who crowned you best friend. it’s the change you remember, the firsts and what they meant, not really the people. I am talking about the ones who, for whatever reason, are as much a part of you as your own soul. Their place in your heart is tender, a bruise of longing, a pulse of unfinished business. Just hearing their names pushes and pulls at you in a hundred ways, and when you try to define those hundred ways, describe them even to yourself, words are useless. If you had a lifetime to talk, there would still be things left unsaid."

Happy Birthday Jodi, Love ya lots!

Love,

Imagination is key.

The new fun thing to do when the girls come over is play dress up. The two of them and my sister get all into it, creating cute lil outfits with scarves and whatever we have in our dress up drawer. Then they pretend they are princesses, ghosts, witches, or that they are in a wedding. Its very fun for me to watch and see what they come up with. A child's imagination is so amazing, I wish I still had the ability to think outside the box like kids do. But since I am "too old" for stuff like that, I enjoy their imagination by taking pictures of the things they come up with. Most of them were taken inside with flash so they aren't the greatest pictures but none the less they are great pictures to have and will be wonderful to look back on.Old lady?

Super hero?
beauty queen? The only picture i got of her before she told me to stop, lol. I really just love this one! How cute is she? =]and this one. what a cute witch she makes!The bride.She was just posing for pictures.All three!

Sorry I don't have to much more to tell you guys right now, but there is a special post coming up- its my best friends birthday here soon! Stay tuned ;)

Love,

Who forgets the bread?

When you think of making a sandwich, the first ingredient you think of is the bread, correct? So who packs a sandwich, remembering the meat and even the condiments, but forgets the bread? That would be my best friend. Shes not normal. But then again, neither am I, and that's why we get along so well.

But that's not the point of this post here, I just wanted to tell you because I thought it was funny that she forgot the bread for her sandwich. I also wanted to document it so I can remember that and laugh about it for years to come. The point here is my computer is back! Its still on the mend but its working, its back in my room, and I can now post pictures. WHOOOOHOOO! So happy about that. I still got work to do in making it back to normal though, mostly figuring out what my screen resolution was because things still aren't looking normal in that area. Other than that a few more tweaks and I should be just about where I was a week ago.

So whats been happening since I've been gone? I'll show you:I got to watch my cousin Claire. Her and my sister are really close and play together all day. Its so funny because I will be sitting in my room and you can here the two of them singing across the hall. The bond they have is awesome and its so nice when they get to hang out with each other.

Of course I've gotten to hang out with my two favorite girls. Mikayla asked me the other day "Dea? Uhm, can't you just be my sister to?" =]

In my down time without my computer i wanted to practice my photography. I did not get much of a chance though due to my sister not wanting to let me practice with her. I did get the opportunity with the girls though. They both let me take a couple pictures of them by the window, which is what I wanted because I wanted to try and create the dramatic look with natural light and turn them to black and white. I need some more practice but this is what I got:

I used the holga-ish action on this one. I think it overdid it a little but it still turned out alright.I just used regular black and white action with vingette border on this one. I think I like the way it worked on this one better, its not overdone.

It was funny because my sister did get mad at me for taking pictures, so I asked Taylor if it was making her mad to. Her answer? "Nah, I'm used to it now" Think I take a lot of pictures of them? I think its obvious in her answer ;)

Well, I most certainly am excited to be up and running again and I have plenty more pictures to show you but for now its off to bed for me. Hope you have a great day tomorrow, and don't forget the bread ;)

Love,

Technical Difficulties.

So, my personal computer isn't working correctly. And it's all my colleges fault (see, they are trying to ruin my life! lol.) What happened is this: My college recommended a virus protection that they give all students for free. I say, what the heck? its free, the college wants us to use it, and I don't have virus software..lets go for it!

Who knew my computer was better protected without this antivirus software? not me, but I do now! The antivirus software totally crashed my computer. As soon as I would log in, it would shut down. After trying to unsuccessfully remove the faulty software in safe mode, my dad decided we will have to restore the computer back to factory settings - which means erasing everything on it and basically starting all over. Luckily, the computer has a backup program we were able to access, backing up all my stuff with the price of 30 (yes, 30!) Cd's or 5 DVDs. So I took the DVD route and Five hours to back up all my stuff.

Now, its restoring everything and I am guessing its going to take another five or so hours given its been going for 45 minutes and is at..ah...two percent. =[ After that, I just have to hope to God I can get my computer back to the way it was before I decided to follow the colleges advice.

Case in point: I just wanted to let you know why I haven't posted (including missing IheartFaces this week, insert sad face here) and why this post will contain no pictures.

I hope very soon to be back on my own computer, instead of the ancient family computer, and to be able to blog like normal again. I hope that I will have all my pictures back and that everything will be back to normal.

But for now I have nothing else to say, I need to go see how my computer restoration is coming...

Love,
[[[[[ Pretend my normal signature is here ]]]]]

August 17th,

Is another special day in my book. Today is my Moms birthday! She turns --- today. Ha, She would not want me to tell you how old she is and since today is her birthday, I will comply. My mom also doesn't like pictures, but I found this one of the two of us taken about two years ago. Mom,
First of all I want to wish you a Happy Birthday and I want you to know that I love you very much. Your a great role model and your always there for me and as your daughter I couldn't ask for more. Your the best there is. I thank you for everything you do for me and continue to do for me everyday. I hope that this year is everything you want it to be and that you find growing older isn't as bad as everyone seems to think but that you'll find things get better with age. But remember one thing: I love you!

Happy Birthday mom, I love you!
Love,

An introduction and a homecoming.

I finally have the opportunity to introduce you to two special kids. I have been babysitting these cuties for about a month now, and I finally got up the courage to ask permission to post their photos on here. All that worry for nothing: their dad didn't mind at all! This was exciting for me because these kids are so cute and so photogenic and I have been itching to share some photos of them with you! So here they are:
This is Madison: She is so cute, and quite the talker! Shes very energetic and so much fun and when she laughs you can't help but laugh to. She has quite the imagination and is filled with curiosity, which leads to questions like "Why does a stop sign have eight sides?"

This is Jackson: He is a lil heart breaker! His cute lil face and those bright blue eyes- so adorable! He loves monster trucks (especially Jodi's) and he wants a pink motorcycle. Listening to him talk is so funny with his two year old hurried speech and mispronounced words.

Aren't they just too cute? I am looking forward to sharing many more pictures of them to come, especially Jackson- he loves having me take his picture!

Now that I took care of the introduction part of this blog title I have to tell you about the homecoming: Jodi and the girls finally returned! After not seeing them for over a week, I was extremely glad to see them return!

Me and Taylor!

Mikayla, Hector (a puppet), and Me!

Its so very nice to have them back, and that's why I've been such a bad lil blogger. I've been hanging out with them and that's why it took me three days to post this! And for that I'm sorry: but spending time with your best friend and your most favorite girls after they returned from an extended trip takes precedence in this case ;)

Love,

Crazy,Silly,Funny Face!

This week over at IheartFaces the mission is to enter a picture with a crazy, silly, or funny face in it! I have plenty of those pictures, kids love to ham it up with a silly face! It was a hard choice for me but I ultimately decided on this photo. I love the goofy face Taylor is making as Mikayla hugs her and the expression on Mikaylas face that just says "haha! I got you!"

I think the theme this week is a lot of fun and I am very excited to go on over there and check out the other silly faces! Aren't you? That's what I thought, so just click HERE and go on over there to check out the silly faces or to enter one yourself!

Love,

Boredom in its highest degree

That would be my slogan these last couple days, as well as today. Tends to happen when everyone you know has something to do, and you don't. And it sucks, I hate being bored. I love to live every moment of my summer, and I tend to get restless and anxious when I don't have anything to do. I am sure your thinking that I could find something to do, and your right. I could find something to do by myself, but its not the same and not as fun as hanging out with your friends!

But my boredom has given me time to blog (yay!) and since I really don't have any good stories or anything to tell that means picture sharing time! (even bigger yay!) So here are a few I'd like to share that Ive taken recently that I really like....
After I got these pictures prepped to blog yesterday, I got lucky and found a couple friends who weren't busy- lucky me! We were able to hang out and I was relieved of my boredom for a few hours! Gotta love them goofy kids you call your best friends!

Kelley, Me, and Whittney!Now I am wondering if I can get so lucky to find a couple more bored souls today??? Its unfortunate to say but I doubt it. Kelley and Whittney are both working. Brittany and Jodi are three plus hours away. And anyone else I can think of? Well they are busy to. I guess I will have to suck it up until tomorrow when Whittney is off work and Jodi returns. Oh man I can't wait, I will finally be able to hang out with my friends and have fun again!

Love,

Today is a special day,

because Mikayla turns 5 today! She has been very excited for this birthday and it's all everyone has heard about the last few days. She has showed us many things she wants for her birthday but the majority of it has been anything and everything pony!

Mikayla has certainly grown in the past year. Although I hate knowing that she won't be little much longer, I love seeing her grow and change and it amazes me how much happens in only a year.

Here are a few pictures from the past year:

August 2008
December 2008
January 2009May 2009

June 2009

Dearest Mikayla,
You are crazy,

And silly,But still oh so sweet. I love you dearly and I hope this birthday brings with it everything you hoped for. You are such a wonderful little girl that I am very glad to know and I thank you for letting me be apart of your life. As you grow, never forget how amazing you are and how loved you are and that I will always be here for you.

Happy 5th Birthday Mikayla, I love you!

Love,