Excuse me sir, but you smell wonderful!

Not to long ago I wrote a post about my excitement over my first concert. (to visit it, click here) If you read the post you would know how totally excited I was over getting to go to my first concert and having my first celebrity encounter. If you didn't read that post, let me tell you- I was pumped, like super excited. And that's an understatement!

Who knew it would get even better not even two weeks later.

I went to another concert.

A Chuck Wicks concert to be exact. (He is extremely hott. Just sayin')

At a seemly forgotten fair, where we paid only 5 bucks to watch and could get right up to the stage, if we so had chose.

With only about 40 other people in attendance, it was laid back and well worth the two hour trip.

I didn't think it could get better.
But then it did. Check this out:

An amazingly sexy picture of him? Yes, it is. But look a little closer:

He signed it. Personally.

Then it got even better:

We got to get pictures with him.

I may have been trying not to drool in this picture.

He got close. I touched the man, he had his arm on me, and mine was on him.

I was in heaven. I just got to see Craig Morgan and attend my first concert. Now I was at another one, where I actually got to meet a famous man, get his autograph, and get a picture with him.

I was in heaven. He is such a good looking man.

And let me tell you- not only did he look good but he smelled good to!!

Love,

Hogging up the road with my PPPPP-Plower!

One week ago, I got to go to my first concert. I was so dang excited, I was like a kid in a candy store. All day I waited impatiently to go, then when I got there I couldn't sit still. I was being so silly..pointing to his semi and saying "I wonder if he is in there, right now" and "do you think that is his camper?" I couldn't contain my excitement. Whittney kept on making fun of me for being so excited. I'm nineteen years old and this was my first concert- I couldn't help but be excited even if it was just a county fair concert. I had never been to one or laid eyes on anyone more famous than the local weather people. To say I was pumped was an understatement.

One week ago I got to see Craig Morgan in concert. I was only nine rows away. I wasn't behind any super tall people who blocked my view the whole time (just some of the time). It was loud enough that I could sing and not be heard. He sang the songs I knew and I managed to make it seem like I knew the words to the few songs I really didn't know. He did a few very uhm amazing dance moves that made the concert way more than worth it. I got to experience my first concert with my closest friend. And I got a T-shirt from my first concert. (granted, it was over-priced and not the one I really wanted but hey, it was my first concert,okay. lol.)

And now, for the pictures:

His semi! It looks so cool.
Me and Whittney in our seats waiting (me, not so patiently) for the show to start.

And there he is! He really put on a good show. He was lots of fun. In the middle of one song he started laughing a little. Turns out all he could see was a sign for elephant ears and it reminded him of one of his crew members! lol.

Him again.

The front of my shirt!

The back of my shirt!

Overall, I could say my first concert was way past amazing. It was perfect. I loved it and wouldn't trade it for the world. I had a blast and will remember it for the rest of my life. What a perfect first concert: I am excited to go to more in my lifetime but no matter how awesome the rest of them are none could be as special as this.

Thank you Whittney for buying me the ticket, allowing me to go, and giving me the gift of my first concert: definitely a life moment here. Thank you so much.

Love,

I walked for Dave.

The clock hit 2:30 am and Whittney and I were still working. This was the second or third night in a row of late night working, although we hadn't surpassed 12:30 the other nights. We were both tired, the sounds of our work were the only sounds filling the room, our conversation swallowed up by the tiredness and the determination to get as much done as we could. Around 3 we made it to bed, vowing to make it up early to finish the rest.

Later that morning we made it out of bed and packed all our hard work into the car. We got it to the track and returned back to my house to finish the last details on the banner. Banner complete we walked back to the track- grumpy from lack of sleep and hot and muggy from the nasty hot weather we had. The tent was set up and in mid-decoration when the rain hit. Everything got shoved in the tent to wait it out, except someone left our banner on the grass and most of our hard work got taken with the rain. Once the rain quit it was another hour or so of redecorating and setting things up. It turned out wonderful. Then a couple laps around the track, rain pouring again but helping very little with the heat and humidity.

The storms came back later and all the hard work we had put into this was pretty much wasted since the event was canceled.

But it wasn't wasted at all. We did it all for him. We worked hard for him. We walked for him.

And thats all that mattered.

I was able to participate in the Relay for Life this year. It was so nice to feel that maybe I could help make a difference to people fighting cancer. It was so touching to see all these people out there working towards helping.

The most touching thing were the people with purple shirts. The ones with SURVIVOR written on the back. The people who fought it, or may still be fighting it. The ones we were doing this for.

I walked for Dave. His purple shirt was missing from the crowd of survivors on Saturday because he was in the hospital due to problems related to his cancer. But he is at home now, and doing much better.

I expect to see his purple survivor shirt at the relay next year where I hope the rain doesn't cancel it and where our decorated tent will be even better than this year. And where I will walk for him again.

I want a world with more birthdays. And if participating in the relay is one way I can help, I will. For Dave as well as anyone else who is battling or has battled cancer. I'll do this for you.

Love,

i♥faces photowalk!

This past Saturday I was one of the lucky people who got to attend the i♥faces photowalk across America! I was pretty pumped- I have never done a photowalk or met up with other photographers before and was excited to give it a shot. Although I have a bit of a confession to make... I never would have had the guts to go if it wasn't for my wonderful neighbor and photographer buddy Randi. When I found out about the walk and that it was in a city that is close to me, I thought it would be cool but that was as far as my wishes went. I did not want to go alone...then it dawned on me..maybe Randi would want to go? Lucky for me she did and we bought the tickets the next day.

The photowalk itself was a really cool experience- getting to be around a huge group of people who love taking photos as much as I do, having a beautiful, new place to take these photos and three beautiful models who had the modeling thing down perfect...It was amazing! And despite the nervousness I had the entire time...I would do it again!

Here are some of the photos I took. I took over four hundred photos, but I will just share some of my favorites with you:
That girl was an awesome model. She knew exactly what she was doing and really gave me some wonderful shots. Plus she was gorgeous!

I probably took the most photos of her because most of the other photographers kinda flocked more around the two littler girls and I wanted to get the shots lesser people were getting which lucky for me was this amazing model!

I mostly stuck with the people because that's what I like shooting most but I did get some good shots of the flowers to.

She really was just so much fun.

I like this imperfect flower- sometimes imperfection is beauty!

Of course- being in Ohio it had to rain..... Do you recognize this little girl? =]

This is my absolute favorite shot of the day..I just love everything about it! The lighting was just perfect for pictures despite the rain..I barely edited most of these!

The other model..isn't she just adorable as well!

The prop basket..they had brought plenty of little props for the girls to use!

Have you figured out who this beauty is yet? How about the founders daughter..that's right..

We got to meet and take pictures with Angie! The co-founder of i♥faces! It was so cool to be able to have her lead our walk and meeting her was even cooler! I have met my own blogging celebrity..*big smiles* Living in Ohio that's probably the biggest celebrity I will ever meet (well, I did meet the lady who is on channel 10 news, that was pretty cool) and so I can die happy knowing I met a pretty famous person ;)

Even though the lovely Ohio humidity frizzed and poofed my hair which I had spent the time on to make look nice, I still got a pretty nice photo of the three of us as well as a wonderful experience at the photowalk!

Thank you i♥faces for hosting a wonderful photowalk!

And thank you Randi for being willing to go with me- without you I would have never went!

Love,

PS- I did not watermark my photos so that if the models wanted them they could have them..that doesn't mean anyone is free to take them, so please don't! thanks!

And I still have dirt in my sunglasses.

Like I've told you, I'm a little behind in blogging. Now that it's summer, I was hoping to get caught up and stay caught up. And then I realized that the chances of that are still pretty slim. Nice weather, no schoolwork, friends, and the ever going list of fun activities that I could be doing has kept me away from the chunk of cyberspace that is my blog. And despite the fact that I now own a laptop (yay!) my blog has remained silent- mobility didn't necessarily bring time.

But anyways back to being behind. Last month I got the chance to go with Whittney and her family on a road trip. They planned to leave Friday morning and come back late Sunday. They were going to spend all day Saturday riding quads in the mountains. It was hard for me to decide - skipping school, the cost, the homework- I even made a should and shouldn't list- (sorry, its a cell phone picture)

writing it all out made the choice obvious. (not really, but for this stories sake, that's what we will go with) and so I packed my bags and headed off to the mountains. It was a long drive, but after about oh, 7 hours (and a detour) we finally made it.

Whittney and I got a picture together at the firework store we stopped at before going to the cabin. We matched, haha.
The next day was the special day. We got up really early. You could say we were excited, because we were, but Jeff's snoring was mostly the reason we were up so early. About nine we went down to get the quads- we rented every one they had- and to head off.

We loved the oh so stylish helmets they had- okay we didn't because we are bad kids and usually don't wear them but they were pretty cool and a very good idea when your riding in the mountains.

After getting our helmets we hopped on the quads and spent all day- or about eight hours- riding them in the mountains. I wish I could have gotten more pictures but I wasn't going to risk my cameras life or mine trying to take care of it while I was riding, but believe me, it was awesome and so beautiful.

It had also rained that morning so it was muddy! And we were pretty excited about that! What makes quad riding better? Mud!! There were mud holes everywhere and it did not take us long to hunt them out and ride on through them.

Here is a picture of our lovely muddy quads:

One lesson I learned though was to not wear your good jeans...dust and mud do not come out and it isn't quite the fashion staple either. But I wear them anyways and if anyone asks why my jeans look muddy, I have a good story all ready for them!

Here is a picture of Whittney and I after our epic day of quad riding. And no, we aren't that tan, its dry mud. We had a bit of a mud fight in addition to the mud flying from riding through puddles.

I had an absolute blast on this trip- it was a trip I'll never forget and memories I'll always hold dear. It's so nice to be able to do these sorts of things with people who have turned into family. That's a wonderful feeling to have and I am so glad they think of me well enough to allow me to join them on things like this.

Oh and by the way, I really do still have dirt in my sunglasses, but a little dirt never hurt so it can just stay there and remind me of the awesome time I had.

Love,

So much excitement,

in such a small amount of time! And the only part I've gotten to share is about my camera! But I now have the time to fill you in on what all was going on for me last week!
These are the major(ish) things that happened:
-My mom and sister returned, bringing back my cousins who stayed with us the entire week!
-Jodi and the girls returned bringing good ideas and fun things for us all to do
-The weather spiked up and we got to turn the a/c on, and Me and my three (1 sister, 2 cousins) and Jodi and her two got to pack it up and go to the pool for the day.
-My D60 came!
-My family, friends and I got to work on decorating the place my party was at, which included all my pictures, which is a two day job in itself ;)
-My parents, aunt, and uncle got to work on getting all the food together.
-My neighbor took care of the cake arrangements.
-My mom got me balloons, including at big 2009, which was awesome!
-Then my party happened: which was completely amazing and went better than I ever expected!
-Then yesterday my cousins left =[ which was very sad. They live far away and I just miss em so much!
-But then my sad mind was distracted, Jodi and I went shopping and we had a blast! And she hates shopping just so you know. And ya know what else? I got to hear a fire alarm go off in wal-mart! Have any of you ever been around to hear them test the alarm? Ha ha, I feel special ;)

And that is the summary of the big(ish) things that happened during this last week. There was also lots of little things going on, but I will not bore you with those details, because now i am getting to what you really came for- The pictures!
These cute kiddos are my cousins and my sister. I took them to the park. (This is the only picture in this post that was not taken with my new camera.)Meet Brooke, the older of the two. Shes such an amazing kid, so grown up and to smart for her own good. Shes a natural leader and is always there for you no matter what you need.
Meet Jessica, the younger of the two. This kid is quite amazing herself. Shes got quite the silly side and can always put a smile on my face. Shes got a kind heart and always knows how to make you feel better about yourself.

They are amazing, and they are my cousins. I miss them so much I quite frankly can't even stand it.

Party Time!

Me with my wonderful cake!
Me with Marcia, my cousin, and her daughter Claire, my second cousin.

Me and the girls! Taylor then Mikayla!
Me and my four closest friends!
My new favorite picture ever- Me and my three best friends. I have never had a picture of us all together! I love these three so much and I do not know what I would do without them!
Right before my cousins left: had to get one last picture together.

Well there ya go, the reason why I have not posted sooner. I hope it was worth your wait with all the pictures I put up here!

Love,

I'ts official, I'm done.

I am no longer a high school student, but a high school graduate. After 15 years of school I was able to walk across that stage and snag up that half sheet of paper that proves I met the necessary requirements set by the state. Ahhh to finally be done, a rewarding yet scary thing. Its about time though, going to school for SIX years in a row to keep up my perfect attendance I am so glad I do not have to worry about that anymore.

I still can not manage to wrap my head around it. It does not really feel like its over. It does not seem like I will not see my classmates everyday or eat lunch in that cafeteria ever again. It still feels like, come fall, I will return to that same school, shove my stuff in that same locker, hear that same bell, and take notes from those same teachers. It will sink in eventually but for now, summer is what is consuming my mind ;)

Back to graduation: I have pictures! yay! My neighbor, Randi (to visit her, click HERE) volunteered to take pictures at senior night and graduation, bless her heart! She took some awesome shots, per usual, so without further hesitation, here they are!

Senior night! I won two scholarships. Can you say hooray!
Graduation day! Here is the cover to our program.

These would be some of my closest friends. I wanted a normal picture but the two goofs in the back did not allow for that!
I ranked 8 in my class, which is really good. This is me, Melinda, and Brittany (8,7,6) standing up for the top ten recognition. The thing on my neck is my NHS stole, which all three of us were also in, and the rope is for being in the top ten.
After top ten, they announced scholarships (that were not awarded to you by your college) people had gotten. We had to stand and turn towards the audience when they announced us.

After that I was time to receive our diplomas! I was lucky I did not trip, or shake with the wrong hand.
After the ceremony, outside with my family!

A collage of pictures I took with friends after the ceremony! I took more but I can only involve the people who have given me permission to put them on here, lol.
And finally- me with my diploma (yes, I blurred it out for protection purposes.)

And that's the end of my high school career. Thank you so much to my classmates for filling these years with awesome memories and making high school an amazing experience. Thank you to my family and friends for everything you have done for me: you are much appreciated. Thank you.

Congrats Class of 2009! We're Done!

My Class motto: What we do in life echoes in eternity. Gladiator.

My Class song: Dare you to move by Switchfoot.

My Class flower: White Rose

Love,