Because Your love is better...

inspiration

So on a recent trip to target with my bff I found this small pack of three journals. Immediately I knew I didn’t need these journals, but I wanted them (they were cute mostly) because you just never know when you’ll need blank pages.

One of the reasons I passionately love photography the way that I do is because it inspires me. Now because I’m a dork I actually looked up inspire and it means: to fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. I think inspiration has become an underwhelming word that we throw around a lot when anything slightly creative comes to our mind. But when you really stop and think about it, it’s big. If inspiration is literally filling you with an urge or ability to feel, then it should be overwhelming. That is how I feel about photography.

Just to be clear, I feel that way about a lot of things. I have a very passionate personality and I am often overcome by emotion while watching movies, reading a book, or even watching glee. Often times I wish I could be more focused, but there are a lot of things in this world that I can honestly claim to love. I feel like sometimes that can make my interests seem a little shallow, but I just truly love a lot of things.

 

I love doing crafts. I love youtube celebrities. I love the glee project. I love J.K. Rowling and all she has done with the harry potter series. I love using my imagination. I love art. I love team starkid. I love darren criss. I love writing and reading fiction. I love screenplays and live theatre. I love to day dream. I love journaling. I love cooking. (when I actually get the motivation to do it) I love quirky fashion. I love DIY projects. And although that is only a small list of the million things that I love and could talk about for hours, they all have a common factor: they are making something out of nothing.

Sometimes I try to avoid shows like extreme makeover: home editon, or competition reality shows because I know without a doubt that I will become attached. There’s a reason our hearts swell as they are revealing the house to a family who’s been beaten down and broken by life or when our favorite contestant leaves the glee project (still a sore subject); we love to root for the underdog.

Since I was little, this idea has been instilled in me, mostly because of my Dad. He loves sports, but has never really had a strict devotion to a certain team; he just always roots for the underdog. (and luckily for him, we live near DC and all of our teams are underdogs) There is something so satisfying when we see a regular person overcome the odds and receive achievement or some type of reward for simply being themselves or enduring hardship. I think most of us could agree that we don’t sit around and root for people to fail, maybe sometimes…but not usually. We want to see people succeed because it gives us hope to endure.

 

For me, because of my expressive personality, this happens often. You can usually catch me tearing up during a particularly poignant moment during glee. (And you can bet your life I was about to cry when Cameron left the glee project…I digress.) Tears will often spill over during the final moments of a big musical number on Broadway or when I see that one of my favorite undiscovered musical artists is finally getting their well deserved break. And yes, I sat and watched two episodes of extreme home makeover against my better judgment and cried with the family during the big house reveal. Okay, so now you might just assume I’m just an emotional girl….but hold your judgment while I get to the real point of this.

Photography inspires me in a different way, not in a crying, emotional way, but it does move me nonetheless. And the first photographer I credit this to is Katelyn James Photography. I’m not going to waste my breath coming up with an accurate description because it would not do her justice. But basically, way back in November when David and I were about to shoot engagement pictures, my best friend Elizabeth told me to check out her site for some inspiration. And I wish I had another word, but I was so enthralled and overjoyed by her work. She started her business in college and it went from there. She never knew she wanted to be a photographer, but God blessed her with the clientele and the talent to make it happen. I would pour over her blog every day, reading from the very, very beginning until I made it to her recent posts. She has such a simple and clear style, but it is so genuine and improving every shoot she posts. She also has a heart for the Lord and wants to give back to the industry that helped start her business. Katelyn has ask anything posts and little tips about how she started and works to improve her business. She always encourages beginning photographers the way she was encouraged by Jasmine Star, another photographer who built her business from the ground up, armed with only a DSLR, the internet, and the Lord to help her.

These women, among many others, are so inspiring to me. They fill me with the ambition and the drive to try and make it happen for myself. Why can’t I have a career that I love with my whole heart? Why can’ t I do what I love for the rest of my life? Why can’t my job be to show people how beautiful and wonderful they truly are? I want to build confidence and truth through my photography and Katelyn James inspired me to do so. (check out the about tab for my vision) Scripture also gives me the hope and strength to endure. And so do blank journals…full of possibility and empty pages waiting with bated breath to be filled. I have no doubt I’ll be filling these quickly :]

 

PS: Lauryn Galloway is also a recent find, and most likely our wedding photographer :]

PPS: Glorianna Picini Photography and Meghan Rhodes also inspire the heck out of me. Check them ouuuut please :]

PPPS: If you made it this far you deserve an award.

PPPPS: Look out for more images from a flower shop coming soon. Because another thing that is inspiring is having a best friend that will motivate me to search out inspiration.

jesse part two

Here he is, the sassmaster part two. You may remember me posting about Jesse awhile back. Last spring he asked me to help him out again because he needed some new images. His assignment was to put himself on the cover of a magazine. Below is my original image and then his edited one. Talented, right?

jano

oh laura. most of the time there are no words to describe you. and that is what i love about you most.

Meet my friend laura “jano” janosko. She goes by a host of other names (rompdayard, nosko, janooooo, raja) but i prefer to simply call her “jano.” There are so many things that i could tell you about jano. But none of them would ever come close to meeting her in person. She’s one of those people that you can’t say enough about when someone asks for a description. Should i tell you about her narrow escape from the dollar tree during an incident? Her coined phrase “WEAKKK” meaning that something happens to be hilarious? Her tendency to squeal in the best and most contagious way when she’s laughing? Yeah i probably should, excuse me while i ramble…

Laura is so full of joy most of the time that it is infectious. She also will most likely surprise you when you first meet her. Back in February of 2009, shortly after David and I started dating, he invited me to go play spades with two of his friends from CRU after our weekly meeting. I had never played spades or met the girls we were playing with before. Ironically both of them are my roommates this upcoming year! I was paired with Laura and we quickly had to name our team…somehow we came to the conclusion of the Kamikaze Lizard (and by we i mean laura). We also devoured animal crackers and got into a conversation about nicknames. Laura insisted on being called Nosko, so of course, we insisted on calling her Jano because you cannot just GIVE your self a nickname. (by the way, laura is always giving herself nicknames :]) And what can I say, Jano stuck. Anyways, I remember leaving that night thinking she was crazyyyy in the best possible way.

Many games of spades, weekly meetings, and random outreaches later, Jano was a very present in my life. She came to visit me on duty/cause general chaos a lot when I was an RA my sophomore year. Jano doesn’t exactly know how to control her volume and I would always ask her to turn it down a couple notches. Her response to this was always so funny, she would shrug her shoulders and start loud whispering “you gotta caaaaalm downnnnnn” until something else caught her attention. Some of my favorite Laura memories include long hours watching LOST, playing monopoly (monopsmonday) and various boardgames, and long long talks about our Savior. I mentioned Laura a couple months ago when I wrote about Brittany. I cannot say how thankful I am at how strategically God placed her in my life, to keep me grounded in Him when I didn’t necessarily want to be.

Now that is my favorite thing about Jano, her unswerving faith in the Lord. She is so committed to reading her bible and talking about Jesus and it is truly inspiring. She has a joy that truly transcends understanding and it is beautiful to be around. She loves Jesus with all her heart and she rarely hesitates in letting someone know that. She also knows no fear, she believes that anything is attainable with hard work and prayer and that is just too awesome. I am so often consumed by failure before I even start something and Laura is always the opposite, so motivated to do something and anything. It is a privilege to call her my friend, roommate, and sister.

These are some pictures that we went out and took on her 21st birthday. I feel like they truly show off her stunning personality. There are also some scattered pictures of Brittany. Jano and her were roommates last year and will both be in my house this year. As much as I love them both seperately, they are hilarious and wonderful together.

oh my jobin.

If you made it this fair, I applaud you and thank you so much for reading! If you haven’t, check out the new “about” section. David and I also have a website coming soon :]

maybe this is what it means,
to question You and still believe,
to search and still be satisfied,
to know and yet to wonder why,
to put my faith in things i doubt,
to love what i can’t figure out,
maybe this is what it means

to want a miracle,
something impossible
but have the faith to still believe
when you say everything
that’s right in front of me
is all the proof i’ll ever need

don’t need a miracle,
something impossible
that makes You easy to believe
when you say everything
that’s right in front of me
is all the proof i’ll ever need

-Right In Front of Me, Josh Wilson

fabric necklaces

If you know me at all, you know that I love crafts. I could spend hours upon hours and Michael’s and I usually try to make sure that I make that trip alone so that my friends don’t grow impatient with me. The same goes for Barnes and Noble, but that is a completely different story. I like to browse and be inspired by the supplies. I like to go through every aisle, stare at the hundreds of selections of ribbon or the DIY projects in a box. And yes, I am tempted to buy every single thing. Whether completely impractical or something that I’ve been wanting to try for months, I usually end up grabbing tons of supplies, with no idea how I will use them or no gauge on when I will have time to do said project. Thankfully, I normally exercise self control before I hit the register. But I did once buy a glue gun just because it was cute and on sale…

Anyways, luckily I have found a few friends that also enjoy crafting and Hannah Barrow is one of them. She is super crafty and pursuing an art minor and is also going to be one of my many roomies in the Fall (technically now since everyone is at the Weak House for the summer except for me). Hannah and I also have been known to get sucked into the internet or crafts, and when she came across the site craftgawker.com we were sucked into both at once! We found so so much that we wanted to try, but settled on spending a Saturday making t shirt necklaces. Here’s a short word plus picture description of our process. I hope you are inspired to try this craft or one of your own!

Items needed: XXL T shirt in the color of your choice, thread and needle, and a nonnegotiable is good fabric scissors. Sidenote: Make sure you are purchasing XXL adult sized t shirts; Hannah and I bought youth sized by accident and our necklaces were rather small because of it. :]

The first task is to cut three inch strips of fabric from your t shirt. Make sure to cut your t shirt horizontally (this is wear Hannah and I ran into trouble without good fabric scissors, our fingers were achinggg).

After that you take three strands, sew them together at the top, and then braid them into a very tight braid.

You will also need to sew both ends of the braid together. Hannah and I used a needle and thread but if you have a sewing machine handy you should probably use that and spare your fingers the pain :]

Repeat this process three times, and then finish by cutting out a piece of leftover fabric and sewing it hot dog style around the three braids…just to hide the ugly sewed and frayed ends. You can also double your braids over to have 6 strands and look a bit more layered.

And here’s the finished product!

I am so stoked to move into the Weak House, which I’ll definitely write about in another post (at least to explain the name). I’m going to try to be a lot more balanced with my schedule this year. I’ll be finishing my senior year of school, pursuing photography more seriously, on leadership with CRU, and planning a wedding, so it is safe to say I’ll need to actively plan me time and it will be sure to include crafts. My wedding is going to be totally DIY so look forward to seeing some of that process as well :]

Check out Hannah’s blog right HERE if you wanted to see her ramblings and crafting as well.

faithful

I am so incredibly blessed. Staying home this summer was not an easy decision, but I cannot express how faithful God has been through it all.

For those of you who don’t know, deciding on my summer plans is always an intense process. Spring 2010 I was convinced that God was calling me to Australia on a mission trip with Cru for the summer, but through a series of events I ended up at home. In retrospect I know there was so much purpose in my summer at home, but at the time I felt abandoned; abandoned by friends, the world, and most importantly my Savior. I know to my very core that God loves me, but at that point I felt like an afterthought. Why had God brought all of these wonderful people and passions into my life, why had he encouraged me through the process of support raising, only to let my world crumble around me shortly after, and then leave me at home alone? I spoke a little about this in my blog about Brittany, but I was drowning at home. I wouldn’t let God pick me up, so He used specific people instead. One of these people will stick with me for the rest of my life.

Once I was home last summer, God was pretty quick to provide me with a job at Dominion Valley Country Club as a receptionist. I was paid to answer phones and direct club members and mostly catch up on my reading and internet surfing. Two weeks into the summer and I knew that I was unhappy. I felt uneasiness in my heart every time I thought about spending the next two and a half months sitting at that desk. I was crushed when I came to terms with my best friend leaving in two weeks for the entire summer to go to Africa and have no way to contact me, as well as several of my good friends going to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire for a summer project with Cru. I could not stop believing the lie that my friends were all off doing amazing things for God and I was stuck at home, drifting further from Him everyday.

For this specific reason, the night before my friends left for Hampton Beach, I felt pushed to go with them. After talking with my parents and the project director in New Hampshire, the decision was mine to make. I went into work that day, not knowing if I would quit my job and pack that night, or decide to stay. I sat at my desk that morning and did my usual mundane tasks, all the while praying that God would provide direction or some kind of obvious sign to me. And that is when a boy about my age walked up to the desk and got my attention.

“Do you know about Jesus?” I was stunned. Did he really just come up to me, no introductory conversation, no small talk, and ask me if I knew about Jesus Christ? I responded the only way I knew how to at that second, “Um, yes, I actually do.” This boy, Paul, then began to tell me about how great that was and how happy he was to see me working in his community. He explained to me that the area was in so much darkness, everyone was motivated by money and status and he and his sister were walking around and trying to start spiritual conversations in order to bring the light of Jesus to the area.

First of all…WHAT?? Are you serious? Right as I’m praying for a sign someone literally walks up to me and asks me if I know the Lord of the Universe. Not that God needs to prove Himself, but man did He show up in my moment of desperation. Paul then asked me if I needed prayer for anything, so I told him about the decision I needed to make that day. I told him my concerns and my fears and he urged me to continue to pray and that he would be praying for me as well.

“But, just so you know, wherever you are is your mission. You don’t need to leave to do God’s work.” Um excuse me? I must’ve heard this truth from all of my friends and from the Bible itself in the last couple months but never did it hit so clearly as right then. I thanked him and promised to pray for him as well. I didn’t see him the rest of the summer, but he made quite the impression. As tears of both relief and fear started welling up in my eyes I knew I had to stay home. And it was an unbelievably hard summer, but purposeful nonetheless.

But all of that said a year later I am home again, in the same situation and handling it in a wildly different way. I was faced with the same decision: to go on a summer project, or to stay home and let Him redeem my life here.

One of my biggest concerns this summer was making sure to find a community that could be life giving and encouraging, because I knew that things were bound to be hard. I made up a list of some nonnegotiable factors and two of those were to go to church every week and to find a consistent bible study. And I am so grateful to say that God has provided in ways that I could not imagine. I knew that I could find a church, but not one that fed my soul, and I knew that God could surround me with believers, but I did not expect Him to surround me in the way that He did. Once again I have learned that my feeble imagination is nothing compared to the plans of the Creator of the Universe.

By His power, a friend of mine was brought to faith by the end of the semester at Radford, and of course, He brought us together for the summer as well. I fell in love with Mclean Bible Church’s Frontline service, and quickly met some of the wonderful people I would be sharing parts of my summer with. They even have a summer college bible study where we have continued to meet people and stay long after bible study is over, getting to know each other and having thought provoking discussion.

Frontline has been my favorite part of every week. As most are with a church of Mclean’s size (it could definitely be classified a megachurch) I was hesitant that it would really be presenting the truth and the gospel every week. But time and again I have been proven wrong. The talks are convicting, powerful, and most of all truthful. The pastor has been willing to admit the church’s and his own weaknesses and confronts sin head on every week. Not to mention the worship set is consistently phenomenal. I know these things are only components of a great church, but the people I’ve met through it and the people that I’ve been spending time with there and late into Sunday nights have only confirmed that at least for a summer, Frontline feels like home.

I can only thank God for how things have fallen into place. It is definitely not by my own power that I got a job. (because I applied to about 20 and was given two jobs in mid June when my patience was waning) It is not by the pastor’s or the worship team’s or graphics that Mclean Bible is successful when bringing conviction regularly. And it is certainly not by my own works that I have been affirmed by God constantly that I am in the right place. God has been faithful, and that is the only explanation I can offer.

So if you’re in the Northern Virginia area and you’re looking for authentic community, let me know! We would love to have you :]

Also, I need to offer just a quick apology for the blog being on hiatus for so long. As I’m sure you’ve noticed via facebook, its been a busy couple weeks for me! I got ENGAGED, moved, went to NYC, and have been working a tonnnnn! (all of which I’ll be blogging about super soon) Most importantly I’m engaged, and I can’t wait to tell the story here!

laylabug

So I’m really slacking with blogging….but I thought I’d post a quick picture of David’s puppy Layla just because she’s real cute in this picture. She is one of the many dogs in my life but she is pretty important. My pups are Cooper and Bailey and she is a close third favorite. David got her about a year and a half ago (kind of on a whim). He’d been obsessed and searching through craigslist for weeks everysingleday for the perfect puppy for him. He loves pugs and bull dogs but we’ve always had a thing for puggles as well. For those of you who don’t know, we are in love with the movie I Love You Man. Mostly because it is hilarious, but also because it is where I found his nickname.

sidenote: I Love You Man features Paul Rudd and Jason Segel and is about a guy who is getting married, but doesn’t really have any friends to be in his wedding party. On his mission to find friends hilarity ensues as he goes on various man dates and makes up an array of obscure nicknames. One of these is “Jobin” which is clearly a nonword. (kind of like the word “nonword”) David believes himself to be incredibly skilled in giving out nicknames so he insisted on calling me Jobin, which in turn I started calling him Jobin and it became a game of who could remember to call the other one this weird name. I obviously won because however many years/months later, he is still Jobin and I am still Kaitlyn.

Anyways in this movie Jason Segel has a Puggle who he calls Anwar Sadat, of course because the dog bears a striking resemblance to Anwar Sadat. (see doesn’t it sound hilarious). So anyways, when David found Layla we were so excited. We were told that she was completely free and that she had her shots and was completely house trained. We picked her up in a grocery store parking lot in Christiansburg and immediately started loving her. She is definitely a weird dog, but she is super cute, despite the fact that everything that her previous owners told us was a stretched truth. Even though we have a love/hate relationship, I miss her little squished face when I am at home.

Thanks for reading about Layla and I hope that if I have done nothing else, I have convinced you to buy or at least redbox I Love You Man. Have a wonderful Father’s Day!

elizabeth goodwin

                     

Model status right? Oh heck yes. Elizabeth Goodwin has been with me since the beginning of my journey as a Christian. But like I did, one of the first things you would probably notice about her is her incredible fashion sense. Elizabeth has been pinned as a J.Crew girl by a lot of her friends because she works there, and half of her wardrobe (at least) is from there. But trust me, this is not a bad thing, Elizabeth rocks it and uses her employee discount to get great sales. 

Like I said Elizabeth has been with me since the beginning. I met her and her roommate Courtney the first Sunday at Radford University when the hesitantly walked into my dorm room and introduced themselves. With regular trips to Dalton, Gossip girl, and long nights in the Moffett Hall, we became fast friends. And she was one of the reasons I kept coming back to CRU. She is a Christian and totally committed to God, but wanted to hang out and have fun too. It was awesome. Elizabeth and I loooooved CRU our freshman year, I’m talking, never missed a meeting or a bible study or an event because we just HAD to soak up the community. We just loved hanging out. Elizabeth’s been there for a lot of the big moments: she was the first person I hugged after I accepted Christ (besides Nicolette who led me to Christ), she prayed for me when my friend Shev was killed, and lived with me in my first apartment.

She’s quirky too, once you get to know her. She loves dancing to Jbiebs or Jesse McCartney, being so goofy that she cracks herself up, pretending to be a cat, and talking in her ridiculous voices just to amuse people. Elizabeth and I shared the last year in our apartment together and although we both had busy schedules, it was a relief to have her as a familiar face on CRU student leadership and leading bible study together and amazing when we actually found time to sit down and catch up.

One of my favorite times with her from this year was when we went out to take these portraits. I’d been begging her to model for me (I didn’t need to beg because she was so ready!) for ages and kept running out of time or changing it to a different day. But on a foggy, cold Friday afternoon in March we had a blast catching up and taking pictures for twenty minutes. It is an absolute joy having Elizabeth in my life, and I am blessed to have her around and I hope you love her portraits!

She has the BEST laugh!

That’s some intenseeee eye contact. Love it.

and this last one is my favorite. excuse the watermark. david and i recently got photoshop and are having trouble figuring out how to make fancy watermarks so we were just messing around with something simple.

                  

jesse

I want to start calling Jesse the sassmaster. Because he is super super sassy. And if you know me, you know that I love the sass. Jesse and I met at Radford through my friend Mark Samudre. Mark and Jesse and their other roommates would host Glee viewings in Radford every Tuesday at 10 PM so a big group of us could all watch it together. I quickly started to realize that Jesse and I loved slightly offensive humor, particularly because the character Sue Sylvester set us off. She is hilarious, and sometimes I would notice that Jesse was the only one laughing as hard as me when she said something that was totally inappropriate.

So that’s where Jesse and I’s friendship started. He is a wonderful guy, who loves God, good humor, and has great fashion sense. He was so fun to have in my life this last school year and I miss him a ton already. Jesse was taking a graphic design class and is looking for a career in advertising. He asked me to help him out and take some pictures in March sometime for one of his projects and I was so excited. Let me know what you guys think!

This was his final project. He had to put text somewhere onto the picture so he made them into tattoos! Love love love it.

mark samudre

Mark Samudre. There are not words to describe him. I like to think that the above image could be used for his open mic night one day. I guess one of the first things you’d want to know is that he is a phenomenal musician. He plays piano, guitar, a little bit of drums if I remember correctly and has an absolutely amazing voice. Seriously, he’s awesome. Also he is one of the cheesiest and goofiest guys you will ever meet. In a good way though. He’s a joke re-user, a creature of habit, a Starbucks dweller, and one of my closest friends.

My boyfriend David met Mark about two years ago because they were both English majors (just like me!) and had some classes together. He said walking around Mark was like walking around with a celebrity because he knew so many people. Mark was involved with both Young Life and Phi Sigma Pi, an honors fraternity on campus as well as just being a super friendly guy. I started to understand exactly what this meant when I had a class with Mark during spring semester of 2010. When I walk to the Bonnie (our student center) after class with him, we could barely get through a sentence without being interrupted by someone passing him and saying hi! Not a bad thing, but kind of hilarious. After all, there are like 9,000 undergrad at Radford and it seemed like Mark knew at least half.

I also struggled a little bit getting to that class since it was at 9 AM, or was it 10? Ugh, I need to be more self-disciplined. Anyways, because my class attendance was scattered Mark would randomly reintroduce himself to me: “Hi, my name is Mark, you must be new to this class!” Hilarious Mark, absolutely hilarious. Mark will also tell you that I looked pissed everyday, what can I say, I’m not a morning person. Mark started coming to CRU weekly meeting and getting more involved about a year ago, and it has been an honor to get to know him. He loves Jesus, people, and music and his passion is clear to anyone who meets him. And for the record, one of my favorite moments with Mark is when he sang me an impromptu ballad about Chipotle. What a character.

Last spring break, David and I had an opportunity to mess around and take some pictures of Mark while we were on a service project in DC. We had a lot of down time at night and David and Mark would often spend their time in the worship room, coming up with random songs, which is one of their favorite past times. Mark, thanks for letting me boss you around :]

below, is his intense singing face. you know he’s singing something really great if he looks like this!

see what I mean? cheeseball.

and here’s a bonus because I looove my boyfriend. that’s him playing his guitar he loooves so much.

cake pops

 

Don’t they look delicious? And probably super familiar? Yes, cake pops have taken Starbucks across the nation by storm, but they were not the first to master this treat. I would like to think that my friend Alex was, but I know that that isn’t true either. (read about her in my post about the Moffett family) I’ve known Alex since I was only one year old and lucky for me, she also goes to Radford University. Thank goodness we can still see each other around from time to time even though we both have crazy schedules.

Last winter break, my sister and I went by the Moffett’s and saw that Alex had made these adorable little cake pop creations. At first sight they just looked like little candies, but reallyyyy they were cake balls dipped strategically in different colored chocolate with a ton of skill. Alex had cake pops that looked like little miniature sheep when we stopped by and had previously done ones shaped like cupcakes as well! And not only were they cute, they were also so so delicious. So of course I jumped at the chance to make them again when we got back to school for Spring semester. It was a fun and long process, but so worth it in the end. My friend Maddy came along for the ride as well and experimented with us. We decided to try something a little different than the websites were telling us and invented these birds and bees, but there is no way we could’ve done it without Alex’s expertise.

Alex is working hard to be in the business world one day, but I will always fully support her dropping out of school to open a bakery or sweet shop. She’s a wonderful chef and she’s so so talented :] And of course, a week after we made these, Starbucks started selling them for $2.50 a pop. As usual, Starbucks taking a hidden treasure and making it trendy. Ps: these were sooo yummy!

      

      

      

that poor little guy in the middle was a little bit of a mess.

      

      

little bit of a struggle of a picture, but we had so much fun :] love you alex!

tozer

                               

Oh Tozer. I know what you are thinking…this dog looks like a puppy that you’d get on christmas morning in the cutest family film there ever was. So true. Tozer is one of my best friends Brittany’s puppy and he has such a personality! Before I tell you about Tozer, let me say just a little about my friend Brittany (but I won’t write too much because I miss her like crazy and she is too far away from me right now). I met Brittany probably towards the beginning of freshman year of college, but I honestly don’t really remember her much until I learned we’d both be on CRU’s Sent (leadership) Team for the calendar year of 2010. I remember talking to her for awhile at Radiate and just asking her random questions and her doing the same for me on a walk back from Panera.

Soon after that I learned we’d be leading the Outward Focus Team with another girl Sara (who I also loveee). We definitely got to know each other better that semester and she was a really fun to person to have around. Towards the end of the semester we saw a lot of each other and promised to keep in touch over the summer, little did I know what God really intended to do with our friendship. Brittany and two of my other friends were headed up to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire on a mission trip this time last summer and I was thoroughly convinced that I was going up there as well, but God swiftly redirected my plans for other reasons. I remember saying goodbye to Brittany and telling her I’d be up in New Hampshire with her in a week. Boy was I wrong, but that’s another story.

I don’t know when she and I started calling each other, but we did, and it became pretty frequent: long phone calls detailing our woes of how our summers were not as how we had expected them to be and lots and lots of prayer requests. What Brittany didn’t know at the time is that these phone calls were saving me. Her and another friend of mine (shoutout janoooo) were routinely pulling me out of the darkness while I was slowly drowning at home. These girls loved me and talking about God willingly when I felt like He wasn’t there, they taught me that His love never fails. Even when I didn’t want to hear from Him, he used them to keep me above water, as constant little reminders that God was greater than the storm I was going through at home. Like I said neither of them knew it, but they were just what I needed.

Anyways, that’s how our friendship really started in my eyes. God even blessed me with the opportunity to visit Brittany up in Hampton Beach later that summer where I got to bond with her even more. I learned of her love of laughter, people, and her strong pursuit of the real truth of Jesus. I also learned that Brittany was and is impulsive and always rises to a challenge. For example, her quest to become unpredictable just because she was told that she was the definition of predictable or to become a rabid NBA fan in a couple short months. (only one of which she succeeded at ;]) Getting her puppy Tozer was another impulsive decision, but it was a great one. I’ve seen Brittany step up so much in being the owner of Tozer. She’s learned a lot about responsibility and Tozer has fulfilled her great longing to take care of something and anything. And Tozer has a BIG personality. He gets excited very easily, runs around without his leash on, loveeeees to play with other dogs, and carries himself like he’s channeling a awkward preteen. He is hilarious. And I am both nervous and excited to live with him next year. And Brittany of course. And as usual I’ve written way too much. Thanks for reading and enjoy some cuuuute pictures of her precious pup.

     

      

      

      

      

this is my fav. he’s such a model. is Hollywood looking for a new leading dog? Okay am I a psycho for blogging about dogs so often???

carter james

   

As you should gather from the above pictures, Carter James is absolutely adorable. Precious. Gorgeous. Cutest baby ever. There are not enough superlatives in the world to describe him. He is my best friend Elizabeth’s new nephew and was born on January 7th, 2011. I cannot express how exciting it was to see her get so excited about Carter. It was so clear that she head over heels loved him deeply at first sight. She would say that all she wanted to do was hold him and she wished he would wake up so she could play with him. And even though I only spent one evening with Carter and his mom Sarah, I could see what she meant. He was hard to take your eyes off, a precious gift from God.

I am so excited to see Carter more this summer and I hope you guys enjoy these pictures from his first two weeks of life. Elizabeth, you’re going to be the coolest Aunt ever.

      

    

      

      

      

future youtube celebs. do not judge.

Okay, so this post is a little on the ridiculous side. But, I did just share my sister with you, and this is one of the many ridiculous things that we have been involved in. It all really starts with the Moffett family. When I was around one year old, my mother met another toddler’s mom because I was throwing a fit in my car seat in the driveway of my daycare provider. After that day, Alexandra Moffett and I became close friends, attached at the hip until age 6 where we were separated by school districts. Her younger sister Erica was the same age as my sister, and our families have stayed close since that day our moms first met in Shani’s driveway. My memories of the Moffett family include pool parties at their house, beach vacations, long days spent on their farm in Leesburg, and the occasional extremely ridiculous home video. And even though we don’t get to have time together as the four of us very often, when we do it is as if our conversation picked up where it left off. No matter how much time passes, we always can be our crazy selves around each other. Whether it is hours of disney marathons, laying out at the beach or pool, or filming a music video we have so much fun that it is probably awkward to look in on.

So like I said, music videos…I know this sounds crazy coming from me, but these crazy music videos have been a huge part of my history with the Moffetts. When we were little we all starred in the Harney/Moffett show: a home video of our vacation in Florida. Although we were only little kids, we were hilarious and that video still brings me to tears of laughter to this day. Things kind of progressed from there, Erica got a video camera and we would spend 48 hours straight coming up with plot (scatterbrained but it was often there), music, and costumes for a video that we had no intention of showing anyone. We did everything from a long montage of random oldies, to LaLaine (Miranda from Lizzie McGuire…I know. Throwback), to news show…and all of them included dance and awkwardness. We love laughing at ourselves and being as embarrassing as possible. Somehow this tradition did not die as we progressed to our late teens.

In the summer of 2009, Kelsey and I visited the Moffett’s house expecting the usual. Erica was thrilled to show us a Lady Gaga parody that she, Alex, and our friend Alyssa had been working on. The four of us jumped on the chance to finish the video. Crazy costumes, makeup, and four months later we received a text message from Erica saying that the video was finished. And oh my gosh was it embarrassing. But it was also pretty good. The Moffett’s house was the perfect setting for the video and my family’s baby grand was an amazing addition. Now you guys can see for yourself…but I think it is a pretty successful parody.

This is the link to our parody, but it will make so much more sense if you look up the original music video for Lady Gaga’s Beautiful, Dirty, Rich:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYLek3pBE1w

Now if that doesn’t say potential famous youtubers…I don’t know what does. (I’m only half kidding) Don’t worry viewers, we’re currently working on a parody of Ke$ha’s “We R Who We R”

      

As you can see, it is looking to be almost as accurate and hilarious as our previous work. Alex and Erica are pro’s with makeup and hair. I’ll let you know when the video drops. And thanks for listening to one of the more ridiculous parts of my life.

frying pan park

      

I can’t begin to explain Elizabeth Hughes, I’d have to gear myself up for that one and there would be crying involved and I would just be a mess. So I’m not going to even attempt that right now. There’s a wonderful and beautiful post of her coming up really soon, so you’ll just have to wait until then to hear about how phenomenal she is.

These pictures are from my winter break in January at Frying Pan Park, about ten minutes from my house. It’s basically a local farm that’s open year round to the public. One morning Elizabeth, her friend Paul Yoon, and I stopped by to walk around and hang out before lunch. Little did we know, there was a horseback riding competition that we were enthralled in and it was also absolutely freezing outside. Nonetheless somehow I convinced them to pose for some pictures for me. We had to stop after about a half hour because our fingers and toes were about to fall off, but we managed to get a couple fun shots in.

I hope you guys like them. It was such a fun day to spend with friends, despite the cold, and I can’t wait to spend more time with them this summer!

      

Aw, she’s so pretty.

      

      

As Paul said…Not getting engaged…just posing for me :]

      

      

      

She’s just pretty! And we’ll close with a bestie picture that Paul took.