Speechless

Speechless.

Yeah, that's what I feel like when I think about Christmas '08, which was by far my best ever. My grandparents from Michigan were here again for Christmas, which was very nice. (They stayed with us Dec. 12-26). I got many books and clothes, and below are just SOME of my gifts I received:

- An anthology of animal heroes which is really good!

-A new watch with more buttons on it than I know what to do with!

-A VERY nice train book from my great-aunt and great-uncle.

- Mom and Dad gave me a VERY nice set of 6 train cars which we can use for our layout. (By the way, we have actually started working on it now! We have laid the bulk of the track and are now working on the mountain and also the mine.)

-Mom and Dad also gave me my LONG looked forward Human Anatomy textbook. (I will hopefully start it in February J. Yeah, I know its 12th grade work, and I’m still only half-way through 9th grade, but the only prerequisites are Biology 1 (done that in 8th grade!) and Chemistry 1 (I’ll be finishing that hopefully next month. I am almost done with 14 out of 16 modules. I am studying/taking the Mod. 14 test this week.)

- I got a VERY nice Audubon Wildflowers calendar from my aunt in Spain. :D I REALLY like it A LOT! :D

- I also received a VERY funny book called "Food Play" from Lauren's puppy raisers. It is 350 pictures of food carved to look like different things-people, airplanes, fish, dolphins...you name it, they had it! Now I know what my food does while I've turned my back.....:D


- Okay....I'm almost done. I got two really nice music albums from my aunt and family in Florida. I got a CD of the Nutcracker, and a cassette of Jamie Jorge. Jamie Jorge is absolutely extraordinary! :D

-However, my favorite gift was…a DSLR camera! I was speechless when I opened this gift! DSLR stands for Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera. DSLRs are what the professionals use, and I’m only a teen! I just can’t believe it! I got the camera from my Uncle Brian in Arizona and his photographer friend John. John was buying a new camera, and told Brian if there was someone who’d use the old camera, he’d give it away…and so I ended up with it! I am becoming FAST friends with this camera VERY quickly! DSLRs are nice because if you want to have a certain effect when the picture is taken, you can buy and add a filter. (not doing it post-camera on the computer). Some things filters can do you can't do with computer software. Also, you can add or remove lenses-the things that zoom in or out your picture.

- I got money from both sets of grandparents. :D I am going to put most of it in my camp fund, to save and use the rest for a camera case for my new camera.

On gifts I gave: I gave Mom a photo calendar-mostly my creations. (see her reaction above!) I gave Dad a Jamie Jorge CD, and to Alison I gave 4 gifts: $1.00 in 85 pennies, 1 dime & 1 nickel. (so she had plenty to feed her piggy bank, "Squash"!) I gave her two Hot Wheels cars, an activity book, and a you-assemble-it wooden plane which she is trying to get Dad to help her at this moment!:D

Now, usually, people make New Year’s Resolutions, but I’m making an Old Year’s Resolution. My goal is to take 10,000 pictures this year-not such an outlandish goal since as of right now (12/28/08, 2:38pm EST) I’ve taken 9949 pictures! Just 51 to go…I think I can achieve my goal, since Dad and I are going to a New Year’s Eve party for my Youth Sabbath School Wednesday. I think I can, I think I can….. :D

Yesterday we had an exciting experience. We were on our way home from caring for some of our friends' animals. I had brought my DSLR (made by Canon) along so I could take some pictures. Well, on the way home we ended up behind a man with a carriage and horse. We passed them and pulled into the next available parking spot, which turned out to be the Apison Post Office. We parked, and Mom, Alison and I with camera in tow went to the curb to see the pretty horse. When Mom complimented him, he offered us a free ride! We gratefully accepted and enjoyed the ride thoroughly. Included with this article are some pictures from the past few days. Dad also took some of the photos included in this article.

~Photobug

^^Need I explain?!?

^^My first time composing a picture with my Canon DSLR.

^^Grandpa & Grandma W. on Christmas Day. This was one of the first photos taken with my Canon.

^^Horse + carriage=motion!

^^The very pretty horse that pulled us.

^^Alison with her tape and CD, courtesy of Aunt Christa and family in Florida.

Calendar worthy?...I didn't THINK so!

Just a quick note to say that I am still alive! I have been having lots of fun with my grandparents this past week. Not many important things have happened this week, so I'll just wait to post after Christmas, which can you believe is only 5 days away??

Actually, ONE exciting thing happened this week. Actually, TODAY! The Women's Ministries department of our church decided to make a calendar as a fundraiser this year. So about a month ago they asked in the bulletin if people could submit their photos....and I did! They ended up using two of my photos-on the front and back covers! I feel VERY humble and not worthy for this honor! However, I am very happy about it. :) Anyway, included in this post are the photos that the church used. Also My Wonderful Mother bought me one of the calendars, which was VERY nice!!!!!!

~Photobug ^^The photo on the front cover of the calendar, "For the Beauty of the Earth, 2009". You may also remember that this was the photo that won the "Flowers" category in the Fall Foto Contest this year.

^^This is the photo they used on the back cover of the calendar. Both of these photos were taken in my grandparent's yard this summer in Michigan.

Meeting "South Pole Santa" and Other Such Crazy Happenings in My Past Week!

Ahhhh....where do I begin?? This week has been so fun, yet so busy. And so I guess I'll, in the words in one of my favorite movies "start at the top and when we get to the bottom, we'll stop!".

This past Sunday our family went to Southern's annual faculty-&-staff Christmas time brunch. We went to it last year, and it mainly consists of great food, Santa's visit scaring me half to death (last year when he said "ho, ho, ho" I didn't know he was coming and just about jumped half out of my skin!! :P)

This year it was pretty much the same, except that we sat by different people and that I was able to hold on to my skin!! (This year Santa didn't have a microphone when he first came up!) However, this year Santa's visit was different as well. For starters, Santa has e-mail! Then, "Santa" read an e-mail from the North Pole saying that since with the economy the REAL Santa couldn't go everywhere and so he was "outsourcing Christmas!" So we got a visit from the "South Pole Santa"!

Monday night our family visited the house of my photography class teacher, Shirley E. For about 2 months she taught a once-a-week class at one of the local churches on Photography. Mom and I went and it was very good! So at the last meeting she invited the class over to her house in December for a meal and seeing Lannie's (another class member) pictures from Cades Cove (in the Smokies) of deer and elk. So Monday our family went over to her house and again had fabulous food, this time yummy soup and sandwiches. Then we saw some of Lannie's (as always) fabulous deer pictures (we didn't see all of them...there were a total of 1305! Hmmm...3 days, that many pictures....sounds like about 435 pictures a day!)

Wednesday we went shopping, and on Thursday I went to Dad's office to study while Mom & Alison went to Wal-Mart again to get some last-minute items. AND the electricity went out on Thursday for about 2 1/2 hours due to a bad rainstorm. Thankfully, after 3-to-3-and-1/2 hours the power came back on!

Friday was exciting as well. In the evening at about 5:45 my grandparents from Michigan arrived to stay for 2 weeks (including Christmas). They are "snowbirds" and camp out in southern Florida for the first 3 months of the year to escape the cold and yucky weather.

Last night Gpa, Gma and I played my new game of ADRA-OPOLY. It was a lot of fun...even if I had lost! As it turned out, I got practically all the $$$ and 13 out of the 20 properties, which meant 4 monopolies with some others....anyway, it was fun!

Today Alison went up in church in the Adult Sabbath School and sang songs, etc. with her class. She even answered a question! Unfortunately, my testing isn't done....but somehow I'll manage!

(HOPEFULLY!....if you don't hear from me within a week or two....you might wanna send out a search party for me....I might be trapped under an avalanche of schoolbooks! :P)

~Tennessee Photobug

Christmas on the Promenade!

Last night my mother, sister and I went to the yearly Christmas on the Promenade celebration hosted by Southern on their Promenade. If you happened to not be there, don’t worry: add up a dark night; all sizes and shapes of people dressed like snowmen; in addition to pretty music and happy moods, you get Christmas on the Promenade. Of course, don’t forget the WONDERFUL hot chocolate, donut rolls, and peppermints!

It was pretty much the same this year as last-same music groups, plays, manger scenes, food, etc. with the one exception that Santa moved his seat so instead of going up stairs to see him, you went down stairs! At the end of the Promenade there were pretty lighted snowmen and Christmas trees (picture), which of course were fun. Some of the music groups were the local SDA academy band, SliverBrass, Southern Jazz Ensemble (were they ever good!) and A.W. Spalding String Ensemble. Plus in performance there were One Praise Gospel Choir, a bell group named “Southern Ringtones”, and the drama group (I think!) was Eternal Reconcile.

The only problem was that it was super-cold, so we just walked the Promenade and went back. Still, we saw many of our friends, which is always fun! Actually, we got there at 6:30(when we THOUGHT it was beginning) and saw practically no one there, and the people that were there were just setting up. So we walked all the long way back to Dad’s office (we had walked nearly the whole Promenade), and "cozyed" up there until about 7:00pm, when we snowmen (& women) went back out into the cold and had a great time at Christmas on the Promenade.

~Photobug

P.S.-Yesterday I also took some pretty cute pictures of my sister giving her “school report” to Mom. :D Enjoy them (below).

P.P.S.-Sunday our family put up our Christmas tree and decorations. I might post photos of the tree sometime....though I am a very busy high school student!!