"Focusing" on God's Creation

New Year's Eve 2010

2011-01-01T12:26:00.007-05:00

Hey Everyone!

Happy New Year!! That's totally wrong that it's already 2011... wow. So I thought I'd put some pics up of our epic (yes, this is the only time I will ever use that word haha) New Year's Eve. The Folmsbees+Burtners+my fam+tons of food+guns+hide n' seek in the dark+firecrackers+just plain awesomness= A pretty darn fun New Year's Eve. =) So, the main event of the day (as you'll see in the pics) was a result of a deep longing on mine and Mrs. Folmsbee's part to 1. Stick our faces in a cake and 2. Have a big food fight with our families. xD We and Kayla started planning sometime last week to get our 3 families in on it. BUT we kept it a secret until EVERYONE showed up for the event. =) It was SO fun how everyone jumped right in on the games and all got REALLY into it. We're thinking of trying to make it an annual New Year's Eve event hehe. Here are the pics (oh, btw this is only like 35 out of over 650 pictures taken on just MY camera yesterday haha):

Yep! So that's a brief overview of the day. =) I hope your New Year's Eves were fun and I'd love to hear about them! =D

-Carly-

"Out of the tree of life, I just picked me a plum...you came along and everything started to hummm"

2010-12-22T19:55:00.020-05:00

So I am officially a failure as a blogger. I've been SO busy during the last few months with school and soccer that I haven't found much time to do anything else (at least during the week). Of course I don't mind the soccer part of it. ;) It's been SO much fun! So anywho, I was trying to think of ANYTHING I might be able to do a post about. I went through my pics and found some from when my fam went to my mom's relatives' houses in Starke, FL. And believe me. It's pretty much as stark as you can get haha! It's way out in the cuuntry. Everyone has southern accents, guns, and drinks sweet tea haha it's awesome. ;) I LOVE going there. So anyways, I found some of when my dad, grandpa, and I went target shooting on my aunt and uncle's property. I shot.. ok... lemme try and remember...haha ooh! yeah! A 22 rifle, a 38 special pistol, a 410 shotgun, and an AK47. It was soooo much fun!! It's a new favorite hobby of mine haha Here's some pics.

=)))

Lil Seth with the AK47 haha. Love that little guy

I love this one :D

I love my grandpa <3

My shots

Some of my free time has been being spent at the Folmsbee's. They are such a fun family! They came over for a little bit on Christmas day and I caught Grant sitting on our back porch step with his new guitar. He's a real charmer, that one. =)

Also, I've been thinking lately about how much of my life I've lived in Florida now. Next year (eeEE! It's almost here!!) it'll be 10 years!! CRAZY how the time flies by!! I was looking at old pics from Georgia and I found these oldies from about a year or two before we moved here. =)

God has blessed me so much through moving down here. I couldn't imagine what life would have been like if we hadn't moved =)

Well yeah! This was just about as random as any post can get! hahaha Hope ya'll are doing well!

-Carly-

SISTA!!! (why'd I use an A?? because I can of course!! ;) )

2010-09-27T08:19:00.001-04:00

Ok, so I'm gonna start out with saying HAPPYYY 17th BIRTHDAY!!! I'm still pretty positive they got your birth certificate wrong though. And I gotta say we have a WEIRD friendship.. esp. the part about how we like 'broke up' for a year or two. HAHA! But since we were young then I think we just needed a break for a while cuz we're so craaazzyyy together... Now that we're older I don't think we'll need another break for at LEAST 2 or 3 years from now lol! jkjk Thanks for being such an amazing friend who I can talk to anytime about ANYTHING and you're there to listen and talk with. You're such a blessing from God. It's so scary how similar we are though! hahaha It makes me laugh when we just blurt out the same exact stuff lol! When I think back we've been through and done a lotta (hehe...) things together. Here's a list I've made from the things I can think of:

~Finger Painted

~Tried to Find a possible dead, most likely hurt dog (at NIGHT may I add..)

~Kayaked!! woot woot! We're PROS HAHAHA!!

~Got chased by a wild boar (hey. at least we had our macho brothers with us.. welll back then they were probably too wimpy to protect us)

~Climbed up near a dam and *cough* you *ahem* fell in the mud.... with white clothes on.. wow.. good laughs outta (haha.. ok... i really need to stop.. but it's so naturalll! hahaha) that one.

~YOU *ahem* got a concussion... I take the blame for that one.. seriously.. our theory that that's why we didn't get together for a year or two is probably the reason... we're just too dangerous together haha well I'M too dangerous around you. xD

~Ate a whole big bag of Animal Crackers in one day (no big deal for us)

~Almost got run over by a guy on a 4-wheeler.

~Looked 4 1/2 hours at old granny dresses trying to find some to buy ("Hey Kayla! What about THIS one??" BAHAHAHAHAA!!)

~Had water balloon wars (yesssss)

~Made the Quest Blog (The mildest of our feats)

~Played Parking Lot 3 to work on our driving skillz (yeah. I used a Z)

I probably could think of WAY more if I tried but I'm too lazy to. hehe

I found these pictures that describe how weird we are to everyone lol. Sorry.. this is just gonna be an embarrassing day for you. hehe

Ok well first I found this picture and it really makes me laugh... idk know exactly why... hmm..

Well this is us TRYING to look smart.. After a while Jesse Jarvis had to come up and help us.. he made us all look really dumb, of course.

(no comment.. except for the fact that foot massages are the best HAHAHA)

umm yeaahhh

I love these 2 girlies

HAHAHA!! yeah we're creepers! sorry you have half a mustache Kayla... hey! I have a whole in my head so it could be worse LOL!

Very memorable day haha!

Yeah wow. I can't believe I'm actually putting this one up ;)

We're just cool like this.

I would have put some oldies in here but our computer files are all messed up from switching the computer sooo yeah haha

Well I hope you have an AMAZING day and that this year is a memorable one (in a good way). =) I love you SOOO STINKIN much!!

~Sunshine

Life is a Highway

2010-09-20T16:51:00.010-04:00

Heyy!! Sorry it's been SO long since I've posted anything! Life has been so insanely crazy lately! But here are some things that have happened in the last few weeks or so. =D

1. Soccer season started!! I had to buy guys cleats because my feet are so big (heehee). But they don't look like a guy's, at least in my opinion they really don't. They're bright. I like them.

2. These bracelets are circulating around our church and other churches... It says 'Praystrong' and has Romans 12:12 below it which says, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." It's a great reminder for us and a great conversation starter.

3. I officially love my camera. =) I've learned more about it lately which makes it even more enjoyable to take pictures.

4. I've been fascinated lately with burning things with a magnifying glass.. haha now I know this sounds weird but if you ever just want to let the stress then I recommend this simple little exercise. hahaha oh and btw I was NOT burning this particular hornet-type thing (I think it's a yellow jacket...idk). I just was experimenting how it would look on my camera. lol =P

5. We got an iMac!! I've been having so much fun learning it and trying out different things. iPhoto is amazing.

6. Trying to learn My Immortal by Evanescence on the piano.. we'll see how it turns out (thanks for the idea Stringbean!!).

7. I can not WAIT until it gets cold out! I have all these ideas for things including photoshoots to do w/ Kayla but we're too wimpy to go out in the heat. haha xD

8. I'm actually reading the Chronicles of Narnia series for the FIRST time! I'm going slowly though. I haven't gotten the chance to read a whole lot. =(

9. Our Marine Biology Lab started at our church! =D This is my halfway done experiment of evaporating saltwater.

10. I've gotten into country music. It makes me happy. Rascal Flatts is amazing. =)

I'll try to post more in the future. Sorry I haven't! =)

Happy Birthday Mariah!!!

2010-09-15T08:56:00.002-04:00

AHH!! You're officially 16!! I hope this is a great year for you. =) You're such an amazing person and I'm so grateful to God for putting you in my life. Love youuu!!!

~Carly

VBS 2010!!!

2010-07-15T21:50:00.003-04:00

This has been an AWESOME week!!! I've had SOO much fun with everyone and all the kiddies!! Here's a pic of the whole group. =D =D =D

Some Pretty Awesome Friends with Some Pretty Awesome Mac n' Cheese

2010-06-30T14:10:00.004-04:00

2010-06-20T16:46:00.005-04:00

Hey!

Sorry, it's been a while! So our family just went on this long 2 week vacation to Cedar Point in Ohio, Niagara Falls, NYC, Pennsylvania, and D.C. anndd I'm way too lazy to put up all the pics from it so I think I'm just gonna put up a few for the 'photography' part of this blog (later on). =) Oh, but here are 2 links to Tori's pics on FB (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2064080&id=1166808971&l=cb45526607, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065114&id=1166808971&l=135699a548, I hope they work. Let me know if they don't!). She put up pics almost everyday from the things we did each day. This vacation was AMAZING! We got to hang out with old friends and relatives, ride some of the biggest roller coasters in the WORLD, see Niagara Falls, experience cool weather for a few weeks, sleep out under BILLIONS of stars at a lake in Pennsylvania, see NYC and D.C..... *sigh* the list goes on and on. =) I'm so thankful to God for letting us go on this trip and am so amazed at his beautiful creation.

Carly

R.T. (random thought) The main reason I was too lazy to put up pics was because I would have had to sort through and pick out a few from the 2500-3000 pictures I took. =)

This Past Crazy Fun Weekend

2010-05-10T11:16:00.003-04:00

So this weekend was filled with celebrations, relatives, and plain ol' fun and games. The pictures will probably explain almost everything. Jordan's graduation from Stetson was Saturday morning then we went around to different parties that his professors and friends were throwing. The relatives (including Barrett Nugent who came back from Texas for the weekend) all hung out and played games for the rest of the day. Then Sunday we had more relatives come over and then went on a dinner cruise on this nice paddle boat/ferry (idk what to call it) for my Grandparent's 50th Wedding Anniversary! so yeah... lots of fun! Here are some of my pics...actually a lot. =P

St. Pete Retreat

2010-04-23T15:01:00.007-04:00

Hey!

Sorry again for not posting in a while. I haven't found hardly ANY time to. Anywho, I thought I'd show you some pics from the latest big event I went to. I rode with the Balao's. In all, from our church, there were 8 of us. Me, Jessie, Jordan B., Mr. Balao, Josiah Moore, Nolan Urquhart, Mr. Davis, and Emma Davis. It was soo fun! I only took pics the first day while we were exploring so I don't have ones of any group games or bonfires. =( The meetings were really good and I think I even liked it better than Celebration (*GASP* haha I know.. I'm weird, right?) because it was almost all youth, there were only about 75 people there, and it was very interactive. Throughout the whole retreat (Thurs.-Sat.) they had us all split up into teams. There were 5 teams and about 9 or 10 people on each. I was kinda nervous at first cuz I was the only one from our church on mine but after I got to know the team members more it was really fun! Throughout the retreat we would have competitions between teams like relay races and stuff. Ok, so for the Relay Race I thought I'd just have to stick my hands in a bowl of flour, pull out a gumball, and make a bubble.... boy was I wrong!! hahaha! They called me over to my station I was gonna be at and the lady was explaining it... "Ok, so you have to tag the player from your team at the station before yours, get 2 gumballs out of the bowl, and blow a bubble. Oh, and btw you have to do all this without using your hands"... hahaha! I was like "Ohhhh boyyy...." =P I wasn't TOO worried though, cuz the lady said the gumballs were near the top of the huge bowl of flour but umm.. they weren't.. When it was the Flour People's turn during the relay, my team was standing over my saying "Just shove the flour out of the bowl so you can find the gumballs!" Well I don't think they understood how unpleasant it was to swish your head to get the flour out and in the meantime get flour in your ears, eyes, mouth (it COATED my mouth!!), and nose!! I was practically gagging when I found the first one so they let me get by without blowing a bubble. It would have been impossible anyways to, cuz my mouth was soo dry and sticky! So right after I tagged the next person, I went over to the people next to the water bottles to get a drink. haha I can just imagine me walking over looking like a white ghost and going "umm... can I have some water?" =P This really sweet lady helped me get all the flour washed out of my hair and face. She was so nice!! But anyways we came in second in the relay race. Over all, though, we came in last (haha It was probably our dorky little play we did! lol!). I think my favorite part, though, was on Friday night at the meeting. We had the meeting and then during worship afterwards they had a time of praying for people. I had been praying for 2 people on my team that just didn't seem into the 'Spiritual' part of the retreat. They just acted really worldly and when we were planning our skit and were deciding what Bible story to do they just made some comments that weren't really appropriate. But anyways during the worship time they both seemed really effected and one of them even went up to the youth pastor to be prayed for. It was just a really great time for me to see how God seemed to answer my prayers and I even got to pray for the person next to me. It was just a really amazing time and I REALLY want to go back next year! So anyways here's some of my pictures. It was extremely beautiful there esp. near the lake (well kind of a lake.. the water had gone down a lot and supposedly it was only a foot deep even in the middle. At least that's what I heard. =P).

~Carly~

Fail.

2010-04-06T13:34:00.003-04:00

Sorry guys. I haven't posted in a while cuz life is so crazy busy. I'm hoping to get some pics from the St. Pete Camping Retreat that a few people from our church went to. It was EXTREMELY amazing. What's sad is that I only got some pics the first day of the campsite and everything so I might put them up...idk. Anywho, sorry 'bout not posting in a while. =)

This is what we did... but on a much smaller scale. =P

2010-03-29T19:40:00.005-04:00

All you have to do is add cornstarch to water and stir it until it's the right consistency. It's pretty amazing... If you push on the top it's hard but if you leave your hand there it sinks in. We would take a little in our hands and roll it into a ball (because it would be hard) but the second that you stop applying pressure it turns into liquid and runs off your hand. It's SOOO much fun to play with! I couldn't find a video with English but this is ok haha! This looks a little more liquidy than what we made... but obviously it still works! =) Oh, and sorry, they're talking quite a bit of the time so you may want to skip some of it.

DUMBO IS DA BOMB!!!!

2010-03-20T10:40:00.002-04:00

I had a great time hangin out with you 2, being crazy, and getting SOAKING WET!! hahaha! Good times....Good times.....
Luv you girls!! <3 <3 <3

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!!!!

2010-03-17T13:51:00.001-04:00

Aaaaahhhh.....yuuummmmmm

2010-03-06T22:45:00.003-05:00

2010-03-05T17:09:00.004-05:00

Country Life

2010-03-05T16:25:00.011-05:00

"The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other."
-William Penn
(An English Quaker)

A week in the Life of a Klutz

2010-03-04T19:36:00.004-05:00

These are some of the reasons why I refused when Mr. Folmsbee asked me if I wanted to back his car out of our driveway. =P

(Exciting events that happened from Thurs. Feb. 25 to Thur. March 4)

~I fell down 3 stairs and scraped my knee (made a hole in my jeans in the process) and the top of my foot.

~Scraped my toe on the BOTTOM of the door while opening it.

~Stubbed my toe like....3 or 4 times...?

~Pinched my finger twice in our table (in the same night)

~Somehow got a HUGE bruise on my knee. (hmmm... maybe that was from falling down those stairs.... yeah.. probably.)

~Slipped on my bike petals while riding and slid all my toes on the concrete while the bike was still going, resulting in a sore scraped up foot.

~Burned my arm pretty bad with a pan while getting it out of the oven

~And lastly I chipped my tooth while eating chips. Did you hear that? Eating. Chips. .....yeah

Aren't I so talented?! It's ridiculous...

Prayer Request

2010-02-24T14:17:00.002-05:00

Hey!

I'm taking another photo shoot of Hannah Blonk and I would love it if I got some really nice pictures, so if you guys could be in prayer that the weather would be nice and that the pictures will turn out good that would be really great!!

Thanks!!
~Carly~

If you eat a frog in the morning, nothing worse will happen to either of you for the rest of the day.

2010-02-18T18:58:00.007-05:00

Gorgeous Fridge

2010-02-08T19:07:00.023-05:00

HAHAHA!!!

haha I know, we're weird

Kayla. You'll thank me later. haha

*sigh* wow!

haha

hahaha! Ya look a LITTLE out of it there!

I accidentally shook the camera but Kayla thought it was kinda cool. =)

This is what we lived on all day. Srsly.... we ate pretty much a whole big bag of animal crackers and learned that there are 12 different kinds of animals (IF you count the elephant with the deformed trunk =P).

Rachel Knowle's P-A-R-T-Y!

2010-02-05T13:54:00.003-05:00

I didn't take that many but I thought I might put some up. =)

2010-02-05T13:52:00.000-05:00

Hosanna+Bubbles + Picnik= Amazing Times!!

2010-02-01T21:29:00.008-05:00

I was just playing around on Picnik with editing and decided to put a few pics up.

For Kayla

2010-01-28T11:36:00.009-05:00

I 'shot' a picture of them 'shooting'! haha ok yeah..... very random (oh, and I also 'shot' [a gun] too). =P

He looks like pro!

HAHA! He cracks me up! =P

A Biblical Perspective of what's happening in Haiti

2010-01-15T09:36:00.004-05:00

This is really neat to read. =)

Click here

The Davis's

2010-01-14T22:12:00.002-05:00

Sorry. I don't have as many pictures as I thought.. =)

The colors of Winter...

2010-01-12T16:00:00.006-05:00

So a group went to the Davis's house on Sunday and I wanted to post some pics from that. Mostly ones of Kayla and I freaking out on the swings because it was so cold! lol jkjk... =P I'll hopefully have them up soon. =)

(Oh, and this was from the lake near their house that we walked to.)

(I liked how if you look closely, the rays of the sun make a cross =) )

Random Healthy Food

2010-01-07T16:12:00.004-05:00

I've been trying to eat healthier lately. All I can really think of to say is that people should eat heathier... I can't believe what I see when I glance in some people's shopping carts at Walmart! It's so sad! Now, I am NOT saying that I eat really well at ALL! haha! I'm just trying to resist the urge to eat a lot of unhealthy junk food. =)

Yeah.. that was a really random post... I guess I was just in a posting mood and had to post something.. sorry! haha!

WINTER!! (It's not over yet!!)

2010-01-05T19:38:00.003-05:00

All this week it's supposed to be in the 20's and 30's at night. It feels so refreshing to walk outside and be freezing after the long days of heat!

HaHa!!

2010-01-04T18:36:00.003-05:00

I forgot to add these of Hannah B. . I thought you might like to see them. =)

2009-12-21T11:00:00.009-05:00

I did a little photo shoot thing with Hannah Blonk! I love this girl! She's so gorgeous and has the funniest personality!! =)

Thanks Kayla for helping out! =)

His name is....Harold

2009-12-14T15:14:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving has come......and gone

2009-11-28T21:26:00.005-05:00

I had a great weekend with my relatives!! I don't want to type all of it out (cuz I'm lazy haha!) so I'm just gonna put captions on the pictures. Because they're in order you'll get the basic idea of what my family did the past few days. =)

Christmas is coming!!!!!!!

2009-11-24T16:16:00.002-05:00

Here's the Gingerbread house that I made last week! =P

(oh, and those are Skittles on the roof!! =P)

Pictures!!

2009-11-18T20:16:00.004-05:00

Here are the ones from Biology (actually there's only one from that), the Balao's house, and my grandparent's.

This is from Rachel's party on Friday and the Greek Festival on Saturday night. :)

Now, this is on Sunday at the Family Meeting, watching the kids, and the baseball game.

THE CRAZIEST WEEK EVVEERR!! well kinda sorta...

2009-11-16T18:09:00.010-05:00

Just to warn you this is going to be a really long post! :)

Monday: Did school... pretty boring day.... I can't remember anything else I did.. :(

Tuesday: Did school until about 1:00 then left for Biology. haha so I'll tell you about it more in just a second but I was going to Jessie Balao's house for a week and then to my grandparent's because my parents were gone so I walked into church carrying my big duffel bag, my little duffel bag (note that I WAS doing school that week so I had to have something to put it in :) ), 3 big boxes filled with biology stuff, my purse, camera bag, present for Jessie, and since I didn't have enough room in a bag, my Biology book and folder. HAHA!! I had to have 2 other people help me carry it all in!! Hahaha!! I was laughing pretty hard! sooo anywho, the people in Biology are Kayla, Jessie , (Breanna used to be in too but they moved :( ), Me (well duhhh....), Josh Smith, Jonah Folmsbee, Spencer Schmitt, Owen, Nolan, Zach, and umm... I think that's all.... it's pretty fun! sooo yeah we basically just looked in microscopes at a plant leaf, 3 things already in prepared slides that I can't remember the names of, a mushed up banana with iodine that looked like oatmeal (in my opinion), aaanndd Jessie's cheek cells (hahaha!! at least our group did [Kayla, Jessie, and Me]). The only really interesting thing that we saw was what we thought to look like an elephant with 2 eyes and a trunk :P. It was actually that mushed up banana with iodine but that's what WE think it looked like! :) So after that we just hung out and Jessie and I waited until Josh and Jordan came and picked us up (haha I had to have both Taylor AND Dewey help me carry out my stuff!! :P [btw Taylor, Elishah, Cody, and Olivia Schmitt do Chemistry at the same time so we get to hang out with all them peoples afterwards]). So they eventually came and we dropped Jessie off at ballet and I went home and did the school work that I couldn't get done before Biology. After I got my work done I helped Mr. Balao, who was making dinner, wash the dishes. I love washing dishes at other peoples house so when I told him that he grudgingly decided to let me :P. So when I was done doing that we went to pick up Jessie and then Jessie and I sat and talked in the car while Mr. Balao went in Publix to get some more food for dinner. We ended up having fried chicken, potato salad, and corn. It was all AMAZING!!! It's crazy how food can taste so good when you're at someone else's house (haha I alway pig out there! :P)! After dinner Jessie and I watched You've Got Mail which I had never seen before. It was really good! After that I don't really remember what we did but I think we set up the cot in her room, talked for a while, and went to bed (OH and we ate ice cream!! haha!!). And that ended Tuesday! haha! Ok I need a break from typing. I'll continue this in a minute! Well I guess you didn't need to know that cause it'll all be one long post.... haha anywho....

Ok, I'm back! haha! 3 hours later!!!! :P So yeah, I woke up on Wednesday morning (duhh!!) and Jessie and I ate breakfast and then started school. It's AMAZING how school goes by so fast when you're at your friend's house!! srsly! Sooo Jessie finished ALL her school in 2 hours!!! so I stopped too :P (My mom gave me like less than half of a regular day's school to do and I still had to do reading but it was flexible). We just hung around, ate lunch, and talked to Mr. Balao who had work off that day cause it was Veteran's Day... i think... that's pretty sad.... So after a while Jessie's Uncle called and asked Mr. Balao if we could watch Jessie's little 6 year-old cousin for an hour or two but before we could answer him Hayley Urquhart came (Hayley and Katie Cork were already planning to come so that we could celebrate Jessie's birthday which was that coming Friday). The next thing we knew Mr. Balao had hung up and said that Julia (Jessie and Katie's cousin) was coming over for about an hour. Which was totally fine but it was funny cause right when he said that Hayley, Jessie, and I all looked at eachother and started laughing. You see, Julia is kinda known around us for her umm.. idk.. i guess kinda bosy attitude. :P So anyways she came over and we played hide and seek and a boardgame. It was actually fun and we all had a good time! When she left we took my camera outside and took lots of pictures (I have about 250 pictures from all the things we did last week so I'll post some later). After that Katie came and we hung out. Then Mr. Balao took all of us to Jessie and Katie's aunt's house on Beachside cause the Balao's are watching her dogs. You see she lives in Atlanta and has cancer so she isn't able to take care of her dogs so the Balao's brought them down... They are SO cute! They are Cocker Spaniels (Sadly I didn't bring my camera so I couldn't take pictures) and their names are Cindy Lou and Smugely Grace!! haha! We went to Food Lion afterwards to get stuff to make pizzas and it was SO scary cause there were all these really creepy people around!!! EEKK!! But we made it out safe! Thank you God!!! :) We went home and we made a pepperoni pizza with Julia who had been promised that she could come that night for a little bit. :) We played life and Julia got REALLY crazy which made us look crazy cause we were laughing hard which made her MORE crazy annndd it goes on and on... That girl can EAT!! haha!! She had 1 piece of pizza and a HUGE piece of cake and after that she wanted BBQ beef!!! haha!! After she left we talked, set up the beds in the Living Room, Jessie opened her presents, we played like 2 or 3 hours of Halo (which I thought I would NEVER do in my lifetime!!) and then watched the most freaky movie EVERR called Coraline!!!! AAHHH!!! It was animated but it was still SOOO creepy!!!! haha but Hayley, Katie, and Jessie love it! Hayley want's it for her birthday!! haha! Hayley as always fell asleep during the movie and Jessie, Katie, and I went to bed around 3. (I'm really sorry this is taking so long! Whenever I tell something I have to give ALL the details! I'll try not to on the upcoming days!)

Thursday: We woke up and played Halo forrrr what? 5 hours?? yeah crazy right?? I never though I would but you SRSLY get addicted especially when there are just the 4 of you playing and you get the kill each other!! WAAHAHAHAHAAA!! ok so yeah. Now I understand why the guys can have all night Halo marathons! We then took pics outside and played around cause it was SO cold out!! We cleaned up and then Tori came to pick me up to got to my grandparent's house! Craziness!! :P I love going to their house cause we play card and board games like the WHOLE time!!! My grandma and I watched this movie Time Changer and then I went to bed.

Friday: In the morning I did school and then my grandma and I went out to play shuffle board. They live in this retirement community which is pretty much amazing! They have a club house with and exercise room, pool tables, a library, a huge meeting room, a big pool and jacuzzi, shuffle board courts, and tennis courts! It's really nice! The neighborhood is right next to the intercoastal so they have this boat dock where my grandparents used to launch their boat from.. just few months ago they sold it though.. :( Anywho we played a game of shuffle board that took SOO long! It was really fun though, plus it was cold out so that was really nice!! We went home, ate lunch, and played more games until it was time for them to take me home. They are so amazing!! I love them!! So I got home, got ready, and like 1 1/2 to 2 hours later Tori and I left for Rachel Macmicheal's 80's birthday party. I have lots of pictures so I'll post them soon! I had a great time hanging out with Hayley, Kayla, and Kelsey! It got FREEZING cold out!! We watched Back to the Future outside which I haven't seen in so long! Kayla, Kelsey, and I sat on a blanket and bundled up under a tree to watch it! We got home and my parents were back from their little trip. They stayed at a hotel here in Daytona most of the time but on Friday they went to Sanford to bike (I think). I went to bed at about 1:30 cause I unpacked and stuff.

Saturday: My family left at 8 to go to the church workday (I don't have any pics from it). I got to hang out with 2 of the the little Johnson girls pulling weeds (they are so sweet!) and then Hayley came (wow! I saw her a lot last week!) and she joined us. They ordered Papa Johns pizza for us (yay!) and after that I helped clean the church with Tori. We got home and a few hours later Mr. and Mrs. Merwin came to have dinner with my parents so Tori and I went to pick up Kayla and the headed to the Greek Festival. On our way there we say Christmas songs in REALLY bad harmony! haha It was so fun! Kristen Stemberger, Sarai and Bethany Moore, Josh Balao, Steven Cork, Josh Balao, and Rayna and Sam were there. So they had these people playing Greek music outside on this big patio thing and it was amazing cause all these people (almost all Greek I'm guessing cause of how well they danced together) were dancing in this circle. It TOTALLY seemed like I was in My Big Fat Greek Wedding!!!! All these people were just jumping in and dancing in perfect unison! well.. until Kristen and Kayla joined them! haha sorry Kayla jkjk!! It was SO fun to watch them. I took lots of pictures (a lot turned out dar though) and then later Rayna, Kristen, Bethany, Kayla, and I all joined in and had our own circle goin on! haha At different times these random ladies would come in and join us. This one lady was goin CRAZY and I guess she was trying to show us how the right way to dance was but we never really learned... :P It was SO fun! We just basically watched the people dance after that from this high wall above them. I have some pictures of this group of Greek dancers that did tons of dances! It lasted forever but it was really cool to watch! If you get the chance to you should listen to some of the Greek songs! I love the style! Just be sure that the songs are actually IN Greek! haha! But yeah... I REALLY want to be a Greek! Tori, Kayla, and I were joking about how we really want to marry into a Greek family so we can be like them and REALLY learn how to dance! haha! but srsly! i love them! So anyways, Kayla spent the night and we stayed up late (as usual) talking. :)

Sunday: We had church in the morning and listened to a very good message from Jesse on love and what true Christ-like love should look like and the difference between that and worldly love and passions. Right after church we had a church picnic where all the families bring food and hang around on the church property. Right after THAT they had the church meeting and I helped in the like 3-6 year class room with my mom, Lexi Johnson, Dewey, and Jessie. It was really fun and after we did Thanksgiving crafts we went outside and played on our church playground! haha that thing is getting a lot of use!! :) Straight after THAT Kayla, Hayley (haha there she is again!! :P), and Havi Moore came with us to the sports complex like 1 mile from our house to watch Owen and Taylor's baseball game. Elishah, Taylor Liskovec, Olivia, Jonathan, and Nolan were already there so all of us hung out and watched the game... well, Kayla and I did most of the time... the times that we didn't we were scavenging for food! haha! So yeah after that my mom and I went home and I finally could settle down and read my book that I haven't been able to read in forever!!

Monday (today): I did school the whole day and now I'm writing this.. :P So yeah. Tomorrow I have to do school and then babysit at night. There's caregroup tomorrow at our house too but I'll be babysitting which is totally fine cause I'm usually bored anyways since there are not really any kids to watch... so yeah...now I have a whole bunch of pictures that want to be put up so I guess I'll start working on that soon..... *phew!* that was SOOO long!! haha! You get the Great Friend award if you read this whole thing! (and a hug!!) I'm too lazy to read this whole thing so sorry if it doesn't make sense...

2009-10-29T16:13:00.026-04:00

So my family went to the Burtner's house last Saturday for Aaron's birthday party and Tori, Kayla, and I went to the park near their house. As you've probably read, Kayla got her camera at a garage sale that day too (yay!). I still have a LOT to learn about my camera but I learned some new things from Tori and Kayla that day(yippee!!). I took A LOT of pictures trying out the settings. Here are umm.. quite a few .... ;P

On our way to the Burtner's house there was this AMAZINGLY ADORABLE car with this cute old guy driving!!! Ahh! How cute! I couldn't stop saying I want this car!!!!

I LOVE these kinds of trees!

Tori took this one but I thought it was too good to leave out. :)

Low Exposure...

I love how you can change the exposure!!

Me figuring our Manual focus..

Reilly

2009-10-23T15:02:00.006-04:00

I never put pictures up from the Reilly Concert at Metro a few weeks ago! THEY WERE AMAZING!!! They had 2 violinists a lot of the time which made it just....wow!! haha! They were so cute cause they were married and they'd battle with the violins!! It was amazing! I didn't take that many but here are some...

The lead singer...

He played Electric Guitar and violin!

haha I love them! :P

2009-10-22T14:11:00.001-04:00

Isn't this so cool? I love how it has pink on it!

Ok Guys...

2009-10-22T14:08:00.003-04:00

Get creative. I need a name for him... :) He's kinda cool in an ugly sort of way...

An Adventure in the Wilderness

2009-10-21T18:46:00.000-04:00

So Kayla and I went on this fun little picnic thing on Saturday near our house. It was crazy... something.... idk.... just crazy.... You can just read Kayla's blog post about it cause i'm too lazy to type it all up. :P Besides she's the great writer! xD (you can't argue about that! I bet everyone agrees!). So yeah anyways here are some pics of our adventure... (oh and we went to the Cronje's house on Saturday morning so I have a few pics of the kids.)

2009-10-21T18:25:00.001-04:00

haha! This poor guy!! xD You have to watch it ALL the way through!

2009-10-14T18:26:00.001-04:00

I love her!! She's so gorgeous!! :)

2009-10-14T18:15:00.002-04:00

Aren't these strange? They look like some kind of a fantasy flower to me... :)

Life in the country :P

2009-10-13T16:42:00.014-04:00

peekaboo! :D

This is the weirdest place for a wasp nest! :)

Yay! New Pics!

2009-10-08T18:29:00.003-04:00

*sigh* It felt so good not to edit these! I am so thankful that I was able to get this camera! Here are a few that I took yesterday and this morning.

YYAAAYY!!!

2009-10-07T18:41:00.001-04:00

I finally got my camera!! I am SO happy! I hope to get a few pictures up soon but it might be a few days cause I have to figure out how the downloading onto the computer works... :)

2009-10-03T10:26:00.000-04:00

Yippee!! I ordered my camera on Thursday! It should be here on Monday or Tuesday!! It's a Nikon D3000 that came with a kit for an AMAZING price!! I'm so happy and thankful to God that I am able to get it!!

2009-09-28T16:57:00.002-04:00

I've been doing a lot of research lately and have been trying to find a camera that is a good price. If you could be praying that I find one that is a nice camera for a good deal that would be great. Thanks!

~CArly

2009-09-11T23:25:00.001-04:00

Here's little Genevieve! Already in the praying position. haha!

Baby Genevieve!!

2009-09-10T21:34:00.001-04:00

yay! We just went to see little day old Genevieve! What a cutie pie!!! I am sooo happy for Jesse and Tiffany!!

A couple more...

2009-09-07T21:18:00.001-04:00

Butterflies!!

2009-09-07T14:15:00.004-04:00

Some Wildlife :)

2009-09-07T12:01:00.009-04:00

I've been going outside lately and taking pictures of insects and animals so I thought I'd post some.

That's a snake that he's killing. Mwahahahahaaaa!!

heehee

He was cooperating so I got lots of shots of him. :)

Plain ol' moth. :P

He was awesome!! :)

2009-09-03T09:44:00.001-04:00

Please be praying for the Blonks. Hannah's having her surgery right now. :/

2009-08-29T10:58:00.005-04:00

ok I'm sorry for another flower/plant pic, but I liked this picture... :)

Hannah Blonks Birthday Party

2009-08-29T10:51:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday Hannah Blonk had her 1st Birthday Party! It's crazy it's been a year!! I took lots of pictures but mainly of Grayson so be ready to see a LOT of him. :)

Having fun with editing... : )

2009-08-27T16:53:00.005-04:00

A fun filled week and a half

2009-08-14T12:43:00.012-04:00

Well my grandparents live out in the country. And when I say out in the country I mean it! There IS a Walmart about 10 - 15 minutes from them but that's the closest big store around. It's pretty easy to describe the area they live in. Basically it's just woods... with a few houses, a diner, a produce stand, and some roads in between. Ok, not quite but pretty close. My aunt, uncle, and cousin (7 year-old Emerald) live about 8 minutes away so I get to see them a lot when I stay at my grandparents. It's so funny cause EVERYONE has southern accents. I actually found myself starting to speak like that a few times! :P I do know a lot of other relatives that live around them that are related to my uncle but I usually just hang out w/ my grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin, and also Seth (my cousin's nephew who's about 2 years older than her). I know it's confusing. I've tried to explain it to a few people (as Kayla well knows) but I usually have to stop cause my uncle's side of the family gets too confusing. :P So, anyways basically what we usually do when I stay at my grandparent's house is sit around, play games, watch movies, and eat junk food. Hey! What are grandparent's for??? haha but yeah. They spoil me. :) My grandpa has this 2 person chair that he always sits in to read or watch TV. So a lot of the day I find myself sitting there w/ him talking and crackin jokes. :) Emerald usually comes over a few days or we go over to their house a few times (or both.... usually both). Seth is over at my aunt and uncle's house a lot so I get to play with both of them. They are so cute and hilarious!! We have fun! My grandparents and I also find ourselves fishing at least once every time I stay there. You see, my aunt and uncle own TONS of acres of property and they have a pond. They built a little dock type thing that has a roof so you can sit in the shade while you fish. I'm not quite an expert fisher yet but I've got the basics down. haha ok I don't think I'll ever be an expert fisher. :P We usually catch catfish(which are anywhere from 1-5 or 6 pounders) or brim. We almost always just throw them back. The time before last that I went (in June) we caught 7 catfish though, so I very reluctantly agreed to take them back to the house. Well I'm going to leave out the gory details but basically before he filleted them I thought I could handle it...... I couldn't...... I ran into the house screaming and actually started tearing up a bit. I made a decision then that I will NEVER bring fish home anymore. :) ok, in my personal opinion I do not understand the word fillet. It sounds so mild and humane..... instead of fillet it SHOULD be "Let's go slice the fish open with a nice sharp knife and let its insides spill out! Mmmwahahahahaaaaa!!!" Like seriously but ok that was really gross... sorry..... I really hope you weren't eating anything right then...... :P

But ok, on to the pleasanter topics. My grandma and I also usually find a day or 2 to go shopping. I really need clothes (well... you know, I don't NEED them but it would be nice to have more than I have) and I usually find a lot more near their house than near us. Now I know that that doesn't seem possible the way that I described the area they live in, but we usually go to Gainesville or Flemming Island. It usually takes about 45 minutes to get there so it's not that bad... but yeah. That's basically what I do when I stay there. Oh, and also my uncle bought a golf cart. Now it's not like an old fogey golf cart but one that's jacked up on big wheels that's meant for rough terrain. :P It's sooo fun!! It goes extremely fast for a golf cart. :) But yeah. I didn't take that many pictures as usual but I'll post some. I always enjoy all the old things that my aunt and uncle have. You'll see what I'm talking about in the pictures. :)

well I'm back

2009-08-13T20:58:00.002-04:00

but I have TONS of pictures that I want to post! I don't know how I'm gonna do it all!! Well.. right now I've got to go unpack but I'll try to get some of them up soon (if I can find the time to). Aaahh!! I can't wait for Saturday!! Disney Scavenger Hunt!! I might have pictures from it and I might not. I'm not sure if I'm gonna carry my camera around with me....

Bye Taylor! BYE KAYLA!!

2009-07-31T10:32:00.004-04:00

Everyone's leaving!!!!!!!! well... at least I'll have Kaylee and Mariah to chat w/!! of course I'M leaving for about 1 1/2 weeks on Sunday for Gainesville to visit family.... sorry girls!! :(

Bye-Bye Tori!

2009-07-30T15:38:00.002-04:00

My dad just left to go pick up Katelyn, Sarah, and Mr. Davis to drive them to Metro. Everyone will be heading down to Miami EARLY tomorrow morning and then hopping on a plane to go to Haiti. I THINK I've got that right....

2009-07-30T09:29:00.002-04:00

haha wellll... it looks like I'll be getting braces on on the 17th. It's gonna be interesting......!! :)

Quest Beach Day

2009-07-27T11:53:00.011-04:00

haha. Well.... um I just looked at my pictures from the beach day and I don't have many pictures. And out of the one that I DO have I barely have ANY of people. haha I have GOT to work on that! haha I guess I just think that "Hey! We see people all the time! Why take pictures of 'people' when you can take pictures of little critters or cool plants?" haha ok. well... at least this is a photography blog and not a regular blog. With a photography blog you can get away with not people pics. lol

Kayla! Well. I got ONE picture of a person! haha

Kayla and I explored the beach and almost got lost on these confusing trails. :)

There were 5 or 6 dolphins on the other side of this island type thing that we were exploring.

I FINALLY got a picture of one of these little guys! They hardly ever stand still long enough! :)

2009-07-26T21:54:00.001-04:00

yippee!! The Balaos have the same camera as me so I just borrowed their camera cord today. So I'll be posting soon. I think I'll just do a lot of separate posts instead of one big one because I don't have enough time. :) I'll most likely have a new post by tomorrow. I'll start from the first event I went to that I haven't posted about yet. I think that would beee... umm.... the Quest Beach day. I don't have many but I'll still post a few. :)

haha

2009-07-14T19:26:00.003-04:00

Well... it turns out that Jordan took my camera cord that I use to upload my pictures to Austria w/ him by accident.... :/ yikes!! wellll... that IS kinda cool that my cord can travel to Europe! :P But what I'm trying to say is that I probably won't be able post any pictures till he get's back... unleesss... he can mail it back to me... we'll see.. :)

The Cruise

2009-07-02T10:52:00.013-04:00

sooo.. I couldn't upload the few pictures I had from the cruise onto the computer from my memory card for some weird reason so these are some from my parents and Aunt Shelly's cameras. :) The cruise was really fun. It was cloudy a lot of the time but I guess that was good so that we didn't get boiled alive. sorry pretty gruesome if you think about it. ok don't think about it. :P We got on board the ship in Port Canaveral on Friday mid-afternoon, ate lunch at the cafeteria which had a HUGE buffet, explored, and then EVERYONE had to do a safety drill. Everyone had to put on their life jackets that were in their rooms and go to their station. Ours was in a big room inside the boat while (I think) all the others were on the deck of the boat. We had to CRAM into the room that got hot really quickly and listen to this guy talk about what to do if there was an emergency. I guess it was good that they valued your safety so much that they had you do that, but it wasn't too fun at the time. After that we got ready and went down to a nice dining room for dinner to eat 'again'. :) We explored more that night and then ended the night all sitting down at a table in the cafeteria for some tea, coffee, and pizza (weird combination, I know). The next day we got off the boat in Nassau, Bahamas, and explored the town. It was really cute with really old buildings and little alleyways. Some of the cars and a lot of the little old buses had the steering wheel on the right side and everyone drove on the left side of the road! And they had HILLS there!! :D My aunt, Tori, and I went to this big covered area called a Straw Market. It was really big and had TONS of things to buy, but the weird thing is that people bartered there! I was HORRIBLE at it at first, but after Aunt Shelly gave me some tips it started making sense to me. :) We ended up each getting really good prices on the things we bought! After that adventure we just hung out until we all got ready for the formal night. We went to the dinner that night, took some pictures, and then went to a comedian show. It was really good! My mom, dad, and Jordan all went back to their rooms to go to sleep and my aunt, Tori, and I went to a FANTASTIC midnight buffet out on the pool deck. They made the food look SOOOO beautiful. There are a few pictures of the fruit table in the slide show. The next day the boat was anchored a little ways away from Coco Cay (an island owned by Royal Caribbean) and we took a ferry to the island. It was pretty cloudy and it poured for a few minutes, but after that it cleared up and was really pretty. ah! THE WATER!! It was gorgeous!! Jordan and I snorkeled and we saw this HUGE star fish! it was so cool! We also saw 2 HUGE stingrays that went right by us and a dead puffer fish (at least we think it was a puffer fish). We went back to the boat on the ferry around 3 and I cleaned up while everyone else went up on the top deck to see Jordan climb the rock climbing wall. About 20-30 minutes later I came up and Jordan STILL hadn't gone cause of the line but eventually he did go. He was fast!! :P Then we went to dinner. We just basically hung out the rest of the time... then next morning we got ready, ate breakfast, and got off the ship. Sorry I took so long to explain this! haha! Hope you enjoy the pictures! ;)

2009-06-29T15:28:00.002-04:00

Well we went on our first family cruise this weekend! It was SO fun!! The sad part is that my camera died (yet again) RIGHT before we were about to get off the ship at the Bahamas. So, sadly I only have some pictures of the first day on the boat. hmm.. maybe I could get some of Tori's pictures up here to show you what the water looked like. It was BEAUTIFUL! It was SO clear! We had a great time! :)

Roses!!

2009-06-25T13:12:00.002-04:00

yummy apples!! :P

2009-06-24T15:15:00.004-04:00

This is a REALLY random post...

2009-06-24T14:57:00.004-04:00

Here's a couple of random pics. I just pulled them out of the folder of my pictures. I didn't edit these. (wow. i did a post without any exclaimation points. it's so dull... ) ARRGGG!! I HAVE to use exclaimation points!!! Life would be so dull if we didn't have these little fellers(!!!!)!! ok, sorry about that. Here's the pictures...

Saturday

2009-06-14T17:07:00.012-04:00

Mission X has been at our church this week. It's been SOOO AMAZING!! On Saturday we had a concert at the Bandshell in Daytona. It's basically a BIG open concrete space with a stage that looks a stone castle. Acrobat (some teens from our church), Generation Letter, and Curtis Allen came and played. It was SO FUN!! I had some pics of the bands so I thought I'd edit them and post them. Oh, and just to let you know, Nicole Smith, and Katelyn and Lyssa Merwin made a blog for the events. The website is http://missionxdaytonabeach.blogspot.com/ . Check it out! ;)

Sarai :)

Jeffery :)

2009-06-14T16:54:00.004-04:00

Fall Leaves......

2009-06-09T21:52:00.010-04:00

I just saw these pictures along with all my other pics so I thought I'd edit them and post a few. :) Sorry, their kinda crazy colors! haha! I had fun...

CRAZY colors!!

Sorry, kinda crazy lookin' ... These are the original colors

2009-06-07T22:22:00.005-04:00

This was just a random picture that I took near Christmas. Just to let you know, it's NOT wine!! haha!

2009-06-07T22:19:00.002-04:00

Parsley :)

2009-06-03T15:17:00.003-04:00

2009-06-02T21:07:00.007-04:00

On Friday, my mom, Kayla, and I took the Folmsbee kids for the day so that Mrs. Folmsbee could go to work with Mr. Folmsbee. It was SOOO much fun!! We went to their house for a little bit and then went over to the beach. I LOVE THOSE KIDS!! :D Kayla and I mainly hung out with Hosanna, Judah, and Grant the whole time so I only have pictures of them. :) I really didn't take many pictures but I thought I'd post a few.

Haha! Grant. He's so hilarious! :D

sooo cute! :)

I LOVE this girl! :)

After God's Sprinklers Turn Off...

2009-05-23T11:42:00.012-04:00

Here's some pictures of flowers and plants around our yard after the rains! Well.... I guess the other post wasn't the last flower one! oops! :) Well... Enjoy!

I LOVE this kind of flower!

If you look you can kinda see a spider web in the bottom left corner....

Red leaves on a wild tree...

When It Rains It Pours : )

2009-05-20T22:52:00.009-04:00

Hey out there! Well, it has been raining for the past 3 days as most of you probably know... :) . So here's some pics of our yard!

Our personal lake

The poor little dear... we DID save it, though. :)

A floating ant island made out of ants. CRAZY, huh?
Let's take a closer look at that...

Soooo those are the exciting things happening around our house in the past few days! :)

2009-05-12T16:56:00.012-04:00

Sorry, more flower pictures! I just thought I'd post ONE more of these REALLY beautiful flowers. My mom and I were on our way to my grandparent's house out in the country, kinda near Gainesville. We kept passing these AMAZINGLY HUGE fields of wild flowers. They were gorgeous!

Along the Roadside...

2009-04-27T19:37:00.017-04:00

So I went around our neighborhood and took pictures of simple flower weeds. When we pass by them in a car or on a bike or something we usually don't really pay any attention to them, but if you look closely a lot of them are really pretty. I saw some really cool bugs hidden in them, too. =) It's amazing that you can look at huge things and see God's glory and splendor, but also tiny simple things, too. God is amazing isn't he?

The Beach

2009-04-12T21:01:00.018-04:00

My mom and I went to the Smyrna Dunes Park on Wednesday and I thought I'd post some pictures taken by my now working camera (yay!). The park is mainly just a boardwalk that goes in a circle along the peninsula across from the lighthouse (kinda confusing, right?). Anyways the inland part is basically a desert! It has tons of cacti (is that how you say it? i never know!) in this desert and lots of them were blooming these REALLY pretty yellow flowers, so I got a few pictures of them and some other cool stuff. So here they are! Enjoy!

(sparkling sand)

So. There you are! :) Hope you like 'em!

YAY!!!

2009-04-08T11:00:00.002-04:00

I FINALLY got my camera back! Yippee! It seems like it's working fine after they either replaced or fixed EVERYTHING on it. :D I'm sooo sorry that I haven't posted any pics in a while. I'll try to soon!

I'm sad...

2009-03-25T17:39:00.003-04:00

My camera died last week, so I can't take any pics any time soon. :( I have to send it to Casio so that will take some time. I might post some pictures that I've already taken soon though.

Flowers...

2009-03-10T15:39:00.006-04:00

I love flowers! They make me happy! :D

Random Pics

2009-03-06T16:13:00.007-05:00

Here are some of the pics I've taken recently. :)

Blake Harrision. What a cutie! :) I LOVE HIM!

A cool-fungusy post. Interesting the things that catch our attention sometimes, huh? hahaha...

KITTENS!!!

I love old timey pics! :)

At the Jetty

Ummm... so yeah! I also LOVE to edit them on Picnik.

Welcome! :)

2009-03-05T17:19:00.000-05:00

I like to take pictures, so I thought that getting a photography blog would be fun! I'll try to update it as much as I can. :)