*Insert sigh of relief here*

This is all I've seen the last few days....

and I won't even subject to you to what I've had to listen to....

Oh finals, how I love thee. (This is sarcasm, in case you didn't know)

But I love thee even more now that your over. Which also means Music in the Western world is over to. (Unless I failed....lets not go there.) And Principles of Health and Fitness is over as well, you know the class I completely blew off so I could pass the other one? Yeah, that one. lol.

Now I can have my life back!!!!!!!!!!!!! =]

Until next semester..... =[

But, I doubt anything could be worse than having to listen to ridiculous music from long dead composers and having to identify it...or learning about other old music stuff that I have no need to know.

We will see I guess but until then, I am going to enjoy the much needed and deserved five day break. Its not much but I will sure enjoy every minute of it!

Love,

Don't worry, I'm still alive.

Although, I'm not sure how much longer that statement will hold true. Something is eating me slowly from the inside out taking every inch of life I have. Okay okay, so its not that bad but some days I do believe it will be the death of me. What is it? Well its simply:

Ah ha. Yup, that's a music appreciation book for my Music in the Western World class. Now your probably thinking "Seriously Dea. Now why the heck would you be saying such drastic things about this class? Its just music, it can't be that hard I mean, don't you like music?" And the answer would be that yes, I do indeed like music- music of my time that I can turn up loud and rock out to. Not music like I have to learn about in that class. And its not just listening to music, your actually supposed to know things about music.

Which, I don't. At all. I mean I was the kid in choir who just pretended to sing. And although I played an instrument (and not well, if you want to know) I still know not one thing about the way music is written or anything like that. I am not musically inclined and I am pretty close to the music failure category. I can't even stand to hear myself sing so the music always has to be louder than my voice.

Is this becoming clearer to you now? Does it make sense why this class will be the death of me? Or do I have to tell you about the 65% I received on my last test? Well, I'll spare you that because I think you got the point.

And just so you know, that class is also mostly the reason I have not found the time to blog. Instead I am spending that time listening to clips of Bach, Mozart, Handel and all the other dead musicians whose music I have to identify. As well as making flash cards, reading over notes, and freaking out about the next tests.

Thank God I only have a week left in that class. (If I pass it anyways....)

Moving on, would you like to know whats been going on besides ridiculous music classes and boring school stuff? No? Then go nicely to the top of this page and click the little red X. Yes? Then good, you can keep reading because that's whats coming next.

So, two weeks ago - cringe, I know I am very behind - I took on a project that made my knees knock together and my teeth chatter because after I said I'd do it I realized that I have a tendency to have to much confidence in my wanna be abilities and sometimes I find out those abilities are non existent. Turned out pretty well, didn't it? I surprised even myself! I made it for my neighbors boys 4Th and 1st birthday party and I am pretty sure they loved it! One thing I didn't know what how much time and effort these sort of things take..wow! Props to the people who do this sort of stuff often!

That same weekend Whittney, Kelley, Me, and Whitts cousin Rachel went to a hotel to celebrate Whittneys Birthday. It had an indoor pool with a slide and other cool water things. We had a blast!

She might kill me for putting that picture up but its my favorite one from the trip- Whittney was being goofy and acting like a cat and Kelley was laughing hysterically in the background. I love how it shows that even though we are all adults its nice to be silly and act like kids once in awhile (and boy do we do that! Keeps us young lol)

All of us together!

Despite my classes taking up all of my free time I've managed to squeeze in a little time to whip out my camera and take a few shots. I've been itching to get out there and spend some quality time with my camera but that hasn't happened.

I love the way the sun glints off the icicles. Its so pretty!

I got this cylinder of gumballs in a gift exchange and as soon as I opened them I couldn't wait to take pictures of them! I've been saving them for a day that was bright enough for me to use natural light and its been so cloudy here lately..and that's why there is only about half left. haha.

Friday night I had an epic movie night with six, yes six! of my friends. Its the biggest movie night I'd ever had. Whittney and Kelley came, as did four of my friends from college. Luckily we were all able to find a seat. I haven't asked permission to show pictures of my college friends on here so here is a picture of Kelley, Whittney and I from that night:

aw, my best friends =] We had another movie night last night at Whittneys, but I don't have pictures from that one.

And that pretty much wraps up whats been going on around here. I hope that once Jterm ends I will have the time to start blogging more, but I also realize I've said that before and it didn't work out to well. I guess we will have to wait and see!

Love,

I♥faces Birthday Celebration Continues!

i♥faces is celebrating their first birthday with many special activities! This week its the special Best Face Photo and i♥faces is bringing back 18..yes 18! Of their previous guest judges.

Its going to be an exciting week and I am going to get started by entering my photo. The stipulation for this weeks theme is that is has to be a photo taken in December or January- no digging around for older photos that meets the theme this time. This was pretty good news to me since I did just do a photoshoot with the girls right before Christmas: I set up a black sheet and borrowed my neighbors flash and got my Nikon ready and went snap happy that day so.. it was hard to choose from all my favorite shots but of course I wasn't going to miss out on the celebration, so here's my entry: (Click to see larger)

I love this picture of Mikayla. I love the way she is laughing in it and just how relaxed and natural this shot turned out to be. No fake smiles or awkward poses. Its simply Mikayla, and I love it!

Now that I've entered mine I am going to go and check out the other entries- I am sure they are going to be amazing this week!

Do you want to join in on the fun? Be sure to head on over by clicking the button at the top of this page and entering your own photo!

Thanks for viewing!

Love,

The celebrating can't stop yet!

As you know, the holidays are over- the tree has been taken down, all that's left of the cookies are empty containers and crumbs, the presents have been unwrapped and safely tucked away in their own corner, Christmas specials no longer play on T.V., decorations are packed away until next year, schools are starting back up and people have put away their party pants and slickly slid back into the sluggish winter routine.

But that's not how it is in my neck of the woods. The celebrating can't stop yet!! Because why? Its my best friend Whittneys birthday and that, of course, deserves celebrating!

And what better way to start the celebration than writing a nice, heartfelt post to the best friend I speak of? Well, I can think of better ways but...someone so near and dear to my heart deserves a special post for her birthday just as the others I have posted for.

But once again I'm stuck. Its hard for me to express through words how truly special Whittney is and how much I appreciate her as a friend. And once again I will say how I will never be able to express those such things in their full context.

But I still try, so here I go:
Whittney,

First things first- Thank you for being such a great best friend. You are always there when I need you -no matter how big or small- I know I can count on you. Your humor makes even my worst days great and my bad mood disappears almost instantly when you start with the funny things you say. The crazy things you do makes every time we hang out an adventure and if the more you laugh the longer you live then thanks to you I will live forever! Your like an older sister to me and not only that but an inspiration to: Your tough skin and it doesn't matter what they think of me attitude makes me rethink and do things I normally wouldn't do because your right: it shouldn't matter what they think. Your way of thinking outside the box and your strong will inspire me as well. Keeping these things in mind you have helped me not only by being there for me when I needed you but my inspiring me to be a better person so that I have started working towards the things you have taught me which in turn has helped me out in more ways than you know- even when you are not around you are still affecting my life in so many ways.

I am so thankful to have you as my best friend and I don't think you have any idea how truly thankful I really am because words can't express the amount of gratefulness I feel. You really are the best friend a girl could ask for and I hope we stay the best of friends for a long time because I want a huge selection of ugly purses for when I grow old because then I can sell them on ebay as a vintage ugly purse collection =] Well okay maybe the real reason is because I like having someone around who always understands and someone who I can tell anything to and who is just the greatest person ever....but if anyone asks its because I have a knack for receiving ugly purses as gifts ;)

Here is a quote because I couldn't put thoughts into words as well as this person could:

"I don't know what I would do without you.
You are the most incredible person I've ever met
& I just want to thank you for everything you've done for me.
From the littlest things to the bigger things.
You are the most amazing friend a person could ever have
& I know I can talk to you whenever anything is bothering me.
You are reliable & trustworthy & so much more.
Having a person like you around brightens my day.
You always check up on me & see how I'm doing.
You always seem to make me feel better
& let me know that you care.
I know no matter what,
you won't walk out on me,
& all I can really do is thank you
& return the favor.
You mean the world to me
& whatever it is that you need, I'm here.
I'm gonna be here to talk to if you ever need me;
I'll try my best to give you advice,
or just be the person to lend a shoulder to you.
You are my best friend
& I just wanted you let you know how special of a person you are.
Thanks for everything."

Hope this year is all that you wish it to be and filled with many great memories!

Happy Birthday Whittney! Love ya girl!

Love,

Happy birthday i♥faces!

i♥faces is turning one and they have some special stuff going on to celebrate! The first is a special contest where the theme is..drum roll please.... i♥faces of course! You are allowed to enter five photos but they have to have the logo somewhere in them! You can put it there naturally or by editing but it must look somewhat natural.

To be completely honest with you I was very hesitant to enter this weeks challenge. I had no idea what to do. The only thoughts I had were mediocre and already used. I planned to be original and try to put the logo on there without editing it in because unless you count picnik premium I do not really have any sort of mega photo editing program. But that didn't work because I couldn't think of anything to do that didn't require nice weather..and nice weather we do not have here.

So I then decided I will pass on this weeks challenge. But then I got bored and decided to try editing in the logo some how...and then I saved some photos..then I decided that I might as well try- just for fun and maybe the judges will like my effort =]

Place or not at least I can say I tried! So here they are....

How bout an i♥faces band aid? Better than a finding Nemo or Barbie one I'd think ;) Or an i♥faces inter tube- makes for a wonderful flotation device in the summer (and you could use it for sledding in the winter) Or if your tball team was endorsed by i♥faces? How cool would that be? Talk about good luck and with that brings wins!
Or you can just leave it to the crazy kids that write on park benches..at least they picked something cool to write on it! The cuss words will have to come off but i♥faces can certainly stay!
I have no witty caption for this next one but FYI: not having good editing software did not make this one fun to create...it took forever to do the heart like that!

“I am submitting this photo into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.”

Well, I tried and thats all that counts right! lol. Make sure you check out the other entries by clicking on the i♥faces logo at the top of this post!


Love,

Christmas Part Three: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve day started out pretty normal, we all just kinda hung around- baked, cleaned and just enjoyed the spirit of Christmas.

Christmas activities started by Jodi coming over. I gave her the rest of her gifts which I hope she loved! I didn't get any pictures of her opening them that night nor one of us together (although she promised me one at a later date, because she said she didn't like her hair that night lol) but I can show you what one the gifts looked like, it was a picture frame with three openings and the pictures in it were these:

How cool is that!! I am pretty certain she loved it, or at least I hope she did! I was so proud of myself for pulling it off without her knowledge ;)

After that, Jodi curled my hair for church then we said our goodbyes. My family and I then went to church and enjoyed a really cool candle lit service. It was really pretty, except for when the hot wax went through the wax catcher and burnt my hand, that wasn't so cool, lol.

After church we returned home and exchanged gifts from each other. We do that every Christmas eve and its so hard to wait until after church because we are just ready to open something!

My brother and I picked some cool things out for Dana, but she really loved the bracelet we got her!

I tricked my brother: he wrote no clothes on his Christmas list so I taped the gift card to the box lid and put clothes in the box. He was appalled- Are you kidding me??? He said.

But then he got a good laugh when he finally found the gift card, after putting the lid back on, mind you ;)

Then it was time to go to bed so "Santa" could come....

Our tree Christmas morning.

Us in front of the tree Christmas morning, even the dog got in on it.

Dana got very excited about her new chair!!!

Denae loves to open gifts, even more so when they are treats for her!

Tony got what he wanted!

My mom opening one of her gifts!

haha, look at her face. Got to love an excited kid on Christmas!

My dad very excited about his new...jeans? lol.

My mom got a beautiful ring from my dad, and I zoomed up on it with my new camera lens!!! ;)

This Christmas was certainly filled to the brim with wonderful activities, happiness and love..and the gifts were a plus to. I really had a great holiday and I hope you did as well!

Love,