whew!!

Well...NOW I understand why I had those first couple super relaxing days!! The past couple days have been a whirlwind and almost felt like 4 days in one! It's been crazy! Here is a little recap since the last time I posted: Photoshoot for 7 hours; run back to house and pack; go to a hotel downtown Nashville; go to a 11pm soundcheck; sleep; go to 9:30am concert; go back to hotel for breakfast; go to 2pm concert; head back home; eat; go to an incredible families house to watch two old movies; sleep for a couple hours; and go to church!!! Now we're all sitting on the couch like vegetables! It's great!! :) We did the photoshoot on Friday and it was seriously amazing! The only thing is I won't be able to show any pictures from it until they release them so I'll have to wait on that for a while but thankfully I have some pictures from the two concerts that they did!
I'm so excited to I was supposed to fly out tonight but the weather is really bad in Chicago so I get to stay an extra day!! YAY!! Here is the **slideshow**

Ahh...

The past two days have been absolutely incredible! I thought I came down here to work which I will do in the next couple days but WOW! Yesterday my aunt and I had a super relaxing day, went on a walk around a old horse arena and just sat out in the sun for awhile! Totally what I needed! Then today I got to my cousins house and they were supposed to record all day today but it got put off a little which gave us a day off!! We sat by the pool most of the day and got some color finally!! It was amazing! I can't believe it's February and I'm doing this! Tonight we just got back from an interview that the girls did for a show called Total Axxess and it was hilarious cause their assistant Beka was tallying everything that they were saying during the interview! She is THE funniest person I've ever met so check this out: I love you all! Have a great night!!

Better than a hotel!

Last night my aunt picked me up from Belmont and we headed back to her house so I can spend a day with her! I'm so excited because whenever we hang out it's like there's no age gap it's sooo much fun!
Anyways, when I walked in the house my cousin Keeley who is so adorable showed me up to my room! How could a hotel beat this?? There was a candle and M&M's and to beat all Girl Scout thin mints!! I'm in heaven! :) Plus I woke up this morning and was shocked when I looked at the clock and it was 10am! I don't think I've ever slept in that late! LOL!
Yesterday was such a great day! I woke up pretty early and went on a walk around the campus which was so amazing because it's so gorgeous out! Afterwards, I went and talked at one of Chris's(Sarah friend) visual classes about photography! It was so much fun, this was my first time really public speaking and I had an hour to fill up which at first I was nervous about but after I got going it was like a rush!! I'm so addicted now!! LOL! Yesterday afternoon we went to an awesome art gallery and then did a hilarious little spontaneous photoshoot! Here is the **slideshow**

Nashville!!

Yay!! I just arrived last night here in Nashville! I'm out here for a photoshoot which should be a blast and I'll post about that in a couple days:)
Anyways, Nashville is one of my favorite places to come one because it's just so beautiful but most of all I have the most amazing friends here! I'm staying at Belmont University with my amazing beautiful friend Sarah Chellappa! I always love spending time with her because we can just talk all night long and solve the problems of the world and if we're not talking we're laughing. Sarah's friend Chris when I came down last time asked us how we even knew each other because all we do is laugh the whole time! It's amazing:) Last night we went to Cheesecake factory for dinner and it was awesome except everytime I would get excited about something I was talking about I would accidently bang my fork and it would send whipped cream all over my shirt! I did it about 3 times when I finally realized I should probably put my plate in the middle of the table! LOL! Fun times!

Getting caught up!!

Well after listening to that message that I was talking about in the post below I got super revved up to get caught up with everything in my business and to leave no loose ends. One, because I am going to be gone pretty much for the next month and a half traveling to Nashville, Indianapolis, Michigan, Florida, Louisiana, and the Dominican Republic! Two, because I want to be able to pursue other things too but I have to be responsible with the things God has already given me! :)(I don't think my "respond" inbox has ever been empty!) Anyways, as I am getting caught up I realized that I took tons of pictures at Christmas that I never posted or put them into a slide show for my family! So here they FINALLY are! LOL!
This was the first Christmas that we had at our house because we usually go to my cousins. But this year was super busy for them so we had everyone over to our house. I say everyone but it was really one 4 of the 14 siblings families from my dad's huge family! lol!
It was such a blast and I always love getting together with family! There is nothing that compares!! Here is the **slideshow** I put together for everyone.

My church.

A lot of people ask me where I go to church...
Well that is an easy question! My dad is the pastor of our church and it's called Family Life Christian Center. He's been the pastor there for about a year and a half now and the church is really growing! I'm so excited to see what God does! Anyways, we have bible study on Wednesday nights and last nights message was on writing your vision for your life! This is something that we can all apply to our life and it is really so important! The bible says: "Where there is no vision the people perish." That is really so true! How often do you look around at people and they are just living on this earth just to survive rather than to truly live??? God has something so special for each one of us to do and when we find what he has called us to it is absolutely amazing what he can do through us! The other point in a little message last night is that we are thinking toooo small!! Very true! I realized that I had in my own mind sort of confined myself to photography when I really need to break out of these barriers and keep pressing forward to more!! :) **Listen here** to the message! (the recording is a little quiet since we don't do a real sound system at the bible study)lol!! :) Enjoy!

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Actually it got pretty warm yesterday with the high of 34!!! Wow!! haha!
We always take Mondays off since we never really get Saturdays or Sundays off. So yesterday we decided to go ice skating downtown!! Even though it took us about 4 hours to get out the door it turned out to be pretty fun! I didn't actually skate cause I want my ankle to heal really good before I do that but just being downtown is always so amazing! I just soak it up! Plus spending time with the family is always awesome too! Here is the **slideshow** from the day!

Slightly depressed...

Things in life you just have to take them as they come and even if they make you pretty upset you need to make sure you keep your joy. Things today have looked pretty dim and even though when I first heard about these things I was disappointed I'm pulling through!

Here is the sad sad story:
I was in the kitchen and all of a sudden I stood next to my brother Mark. I got the sudden urge to compare heights just so that I can keep rank over him in that area. To my utter disbelief he has somehow already grown a inch taller than me! I just couldn't believe it! My 12 year old brother is already taller than me and about 5 shoe sizes bigger! I wanted another way to prove that I can still beat him up so we wrestled but alas...I was screaming bloody murder after he tackled me twice. I will make it through this but I may need to go cry for awhile.






LOL

Noise.

My dad just showed me this great little **video** about shutting off the noise in your life. I know I'm guilty of not doing this all the time....my weakness in this area is my computer and blackberry! They are like attached to me but I need to get away from them just so that I can stay connected one with God and two with others!! The more time I stay away the more I can!! It definitely takes self control to do it but it's super important to turn off whatever that noise is in your life to refocus and hear from God!
I love you all! Sorry a lot of the posts lately haven't been photographyish but you will get enough of that coming up:)
PS. the guy that did that video has a new book coming out that I think sounds hilarious!! It's called Religiously Transmitted Disease!! LOL

Kalahari!!

OK...so I FINALLY finished the video that I promised from our little vacation!
Every year for Christmas we get gift cards from my grandparents. Well this year our family decided to combine all the money that we would get from gift cards and go to this awesome place called Kalahari which is this HUGE water park up in Wisconsin Dells. I guess it's the worlds biggest indoor water park which is definitely believable! We had so much fun just chilling, going on crazy water slides, and just lounging on a tube in the lazy river. It was for sure needed for the rest and also the warmth! Swimming in a nice warm pool while looking outside at 15 degree weather is THE LIFE!! LOL! Here is a little video recap of the trip. Sorry I really wasn't able to get any of us in the pool:( I need to buy a water housing for my camera!!
Enjoy!
**CLICK HERE** For the video!
PS. I was going to use You Tube but apparently SimplePhoto.TV is better cause you can upload videos longer than 10 minutes!

No evil.

I was just going through some of my pictures tonight and found this. Yeah. No further comment.

Facing the giants

Last night we watched one of the best movies I've EVER seen!! It's called Facing the Giants. It just came out to video and it is phenomenal! It's all about this coach that has everything wrong going on in his life including the team being super lousy and God turning everything around! I was slightly skeptical going into the movie cause there seems to be an over abundance of sports movies that all have a similar story line but this just totally stood out! I highly recommend everyone to go out and rent it!! It will totally change your life!! hehe! Seriously though it's amazing!
All that to say..it definitely got me in the mood to watch the BEARS win the Super Bowl this Sunday!! Yeah!!!
PS. I know I said I'd post a video from our little trip but I just watched through all like 25 videos so I have alot of editing to do tomorrow before I post it:)