A few photography tips

I guest posted over at Walk. For all the people who like photography =) You can view the post, here.

-Anna

fifty things

... I want to do before I die [These aren't in any order]

1. meet my best friend

2. go Sky-diving five times

3. ice Skate all day

4. complete Pirates of the Caribbean 'He's a pirate' on the piano

5. write a blog post everyday

6. and actually publish that blog post

7. go base jumping

8. listen to music while base jumping

9. go see The High Kings in concert

10. speak German fluently

11. meet Hailey, Taylor and Emma

12. watch Bleak House

13. drive a convertible

14. sleep on a trampoline

15. meet Hannah Grace

16. fly a plane

17. laugh until I cry

18. go skiing

19. visit Hawaii

20. live in Alaska during the Summer

21. go Scuba diving

22. finish a book I'm working on

23. sit in the middle of the road while its raining

24. learn shorthand

25. watch all three Lord of the Rings movies in one night

26. paint an entire house

27. go kayaking

28. own a grand piano

29. sit and do nothing but read all day

30. ride in a helicopter

31. own a four wheeler

32. ride a motorcycle

33. go to Germany

34. ride in a hot air balloon

35. walk the streets of New York with a snake around my neck

36. yell fire for no reason

37. become a professional photography

38. build a tree house like this or this

39. live in the tree house I built

40. swim in the ocean

41. sleep in a tree

42. say "smock" over and over to someone when they're being annoying

43. play the violin well

44. meet Willow

45. get my own bow

46. have a clean room for one month

47. go camping

48. memorize a book of the bible

49. ride the same roller coaster ten times in a row

50. paint a rainbow on a sidewalk

and now... I'm entering [and sponsoring] a giveaway over at Hannah Grace's blog.

{the questions}

1: Do you write? If so, what sort of things do you write {poetry, short stories, novels, whatever!}

[yep I write. mostly short stories and novels. I've tried poetry, but I'm not good at]

2: What are your five favourite movies?

[oh I have more than five favorite movies.. but I'll just do five. By the way, these aren't in order.

1. The Great Escape

2. Pirates of the the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl

3. The Caine Mutiny

4. Batman Begins

5. The Emperors Club

3: Five favourite music artists/bands? {Not in order}

[1. Tenth Avenue North

2. Frank Sinatra

3. The High Kings

4. Mary Chapin Carpenter

5. Bing Crosby]

4: is there a song that you could just listen to over and over again without getting tired of it? What is it?

[uh huh. oh yes. Love story meets Viva la Vida by Jon Schmidt. {I'm not a big fan of Taylor Swifts "Love Story" but I love what Jon Schmidt did to it.} I suggest listening to it ♥]

5: If you could meet one blogger {that you haven't already met!} who would it be?

[i want to meet... Emma, Hailey and Taylor and Hannah Grace. Yeah that's more than one...]

6: Who inspires you?

[people and such]

7: What are your favourite things about summer?

[hm. other than absolutely hating summer.. Kidding.. Poor Summer. I'm not a big fan of Summer though. Probably Swimming. And ice cream.]

8: What is your favourite season?

[fall or winter. when its cold or freezing.]

9: If you could chose a different day for your birthday, what would it be?

[ well I'm perfectly fine with the day my birthday's on.. but I guess February 29th ]

10: Your three favourite bloggers?

[i have more than three..]

11: If you could change your name, what would it be?

[Either Elisabeth, Ellie, Raine or Skyler]

12: If you could go back and change something about your past, would you?

[oh yes definitely.]

13: Coke or Sprite?

[coke and sprite. probably sprite? though I like both..]

14: Do you play an instrument? If so, what? And if you don't, do you wish you could?

[yes. I play piano and violin.]

15: Are you a city girl [or guy] or country gal?

[i suppose.. country gal. {that word drives me insane}]

alright. that's all for now. notice anything different about this post?

-Anna

Happy {One day late} 9th Birthday Abi!

Yesterday was Abi's (My little sister) 9th birthday. She's been counting down since... July 16th 2010 ;-) Anyway. I'm very sorry this is a day late!

Happy Happy 9th Birthday Abi!

I love you! ♥

[Below are some pictures of her I took in the pool yesterday, she's so cute!]

[Some of you might have noticed, I'm changing my blog around, I'm scheduling some posts, and then going to continue working on my blog template. I'll have an explanation post soon!]

-Anna

And a "Happy Birthday!" to Willow, one of my awesome friends, her birthday was yesterday also. Happy Birthday Willow! Have fun tomorrow =)

*Wow!*

This may not be a big deal for some bloggers, but it is for me. Considering when I check my stats each day, I usually only have around ten page views. I got..... (Look at the picture). That many! (Click the picture to enlarge it) I like that number. A lot.

Another random thing. I'm near to reaching 100 posts on this blog, and I want to do a (Or four or five) giveaway with a photography contest. If I did something like that, would *you* enter?

-Anna

Photography Contest at Life is too short not to wear red shoes

Polka Dot over at {Life is too short not to wear red shoes} is having a portrait photo contest. If you would like to enter, just go HERE. Below are the two pictures I'm entering. (Her button is my sidebar)

Lunar Eclipse and Chocolate. (Lovely title, Eh?)

Two of my loverly friends have posted about the Lunar Eclipse. You can read their post's here and here. I might as well blog about it also. I had a friend sleep over last night. (We had a blast by the way, we're writing a play <3 We watched a movie and had some eggnog, then went to bed. Mom asked us before we went to bed, if we wanted her to wake us up for the Lunar eclipse. Of course! ( We went to bed around 11:00pm) Abi and Rachel ( My younger sister's) were going to sleep on their beds, and their beds are close to the floor, so they could still talk with K (The friend) But my bed is the top bunk, so I couldn't talk and have fun! So we decided to pull out the queen blow up mattress. Now, the funny thing about the blow up mattress is, we didn't get to blow it up all the way, because the pump decided to run out of battery in the middle of blowing it up! So I laid on the half blown up bed, and immediately sank to the floor, ( I could feel the floor on my back) Then K got on, and I was lifted up off the ground, but K was laying on the ground. So after much pushing, rolling and shoving, we lay perfectly still on our backs, and we were both lifted off the floor. The trick was to distribute our weight evenly. That was lots of fun. The idea of staying up all night popped into someone's head ( As it usually does at a sleep over) but I kindly disagreed with that idea. Then the idea popped up to stay up until the eclipse. But at 11:30pm we all were half asleep, and could hardly keep our eyes open. At 1:00 am mom came and got us up. Abi had a hard time getting out of bed, she walked outside, looked at the moon, mumble something and then went back to bed. **laughs** K and I grabbed a blanket just in case it was freezing. It wasn't THAT bad outside, but it was still pretty cold, so we lay on the cold ground freezing and watching the moon. It was fascinating. We watched all of it. After staying out in the backyard for almost an hour, we were freezing and we couldn't feel our toes. ( Being the smart kids we are, we didn't bring shoes or socks out) The last December 21st total Lunar eclipse was in 1638. The next winter solstice eclipse is due in 2094. I shall be gone by then. Now all I want to see is Halley's Comet. That would be awesome seeing it... It arrive in the mid 2061. :-/

Now for the chocolate part of the post. You know, I really am NOT trying to be mean or rude to my readers, but I just can't help sharing yummy mouth watering pictures for the month of December. We do a ton of yummy baking! Hm! Tonight we have a cookie exchange, we were suppose to bring 6 dozen cookies/candies. Ehhh. I said to mom "Please, not mint twists!" Usually when we go to a cookie exchange, we bring mint twist's, but I've made so much this year, I wanted to make something different. So we came up with something else :) We made Lemon cookies dipped in dark chocolate. They are SO very good! We've never made them before, but I will definitely be making them again! And they're pretty easy to make.. Anyway. Here is a picture of them! They turned out super good!

10,000 Miles

Fare thee well
My own true love
Farewell for a while
I’m going away
But I’ll be back
Though I go 10,000 miles

10,000 miles
My own true love
10,000 miles or more
The rocks may melt
And the seas may burn
If I should not return

Oh don’t you see
That lonesome dove
Sitting on an ivy tree
She’s weeping for
Her own true love
As I shall weep for mine

Oh come ye back
My own true love
And stay a while with me
If I had a friend
All on this earth
You’ve been a friend to me

A post for Emma.

If I remember correctly Emma, I told you a little bit about Cheezer in one of my letter's to you. I think I said, once you got the letter, I'd blog about Cheezer, and show you a picture of him! Well, here is Cheezer. (I actually have 3 Cheezer's.... But the one below is the favourite in my family)

(He's waving)
(He thinks he's shy, but he's really not)
(He's getting comfortable)
And that's Cheezer. He likes getting pictures taken of himself ;)

Gott segne und frohe Weihnachten!

Music, Boots and Christmas.

I would say the title says it all, but it really doesn't... And besides, you're probably wondering what I meant in the title. I'll start with Family. Even though it is not on the "list". Micah is handing me receipts from my mom's purse, he like's giving things away, but then he wants them back. Anyway... (*cough* he's so cute) Mom, Dad, Joshua and I all spent most of the afternoon playing cards. My grandparents from Michigan taught us a new game called golf. It has nine rounds, so it get's pretty long sometimes. Joshua was being very, errr.. Sarcastic, maybe? But he was making us all laugh. Then Mom and Dad taught Joshua and I a new game, but I forgot what it was called. Its lots of fun though, little confusing. Heh. But thats what we did this afternoon. We had Christmas music playing and a fire crackling in the background. (But I'm warm now).

Now for the Boots part..... I really don't have to blog about this, but decided I would. I got boots yesterday, but I think most of my reader knew that. I like boots.

On my graphics page I put up some new graphics, seasonal, (I'm not done putting up seasonal one's) They'll mostly be the same size. Sooner or later I'll have "pages" of the different sizes, but that is taking a little while to figure out. Usually I can't just sit down at the computer and design, I wish I could, but I can't. Usually when I sit down someone needs me, or the most adorable little face comes and looks at me with a pitiful looks, and he holds out tiny chubby little hands. Oh yeah, I'd much rather have him, then have all the time in the world to design blog stuff. Doodad.

Ah yes. Christmas. I have almost all my Christmas shopping done. Almost all of it. I just need one/two more things, for my mom. Shhhh. In my family, since there is seven of us kids, we draw names, instead of getting gifts for EVERYONE in my family. Though I do usually get something for my mom and dad. This year I got Abi, again. (I got her last year, and the year before). We were going to keep the names we drew a secret, but somehow they always leaked out. So this year we just decided to tell, and not keep a secret. Its easier that way!

Some of my lovely friends gave me some new book suggestions, I've been enjoying some of their suggestion's. Lets see.. There was "Redwall" by Brian Jacques (There is like 22 books in that entire series!) but I'm liking "Castaway's of the Flying Dutchman" better. (By Brian Jacques also) I like reading new books, but its always fun rereading the one's I own and have read before. One book I love reading over and over is "The Princess Bride" by S. Morgenstern a classic tale of "True Love" and high adventure. *Dizzy* I absolutely love that book. The movie isn't all that bad either, but I enjoy the book so much more. Sheesh. Its making me want to read it again, I'll have to reserve it from the library. I would very much recommend it.

This has been a very long random post. Oh, to add another random thing.. Remember the cat Mittens I blogged about? Well she's doing much better. She's eating a lot, and drinking a lot of water, she is now hydrated! (Hurrah!) She's gained half a pound in two days! She laid in the sun all day today, Rachel has been constantly warming a heating pad thingy, and laying the cat on it. The cat adore's it. Rachel is definitely going to be the cats favourite. But Rachel loves cats like crazy, so its not a surprise that she's been toting the cat around and laying in the sun with it. Hehe.

Well. Thats about it. Hopefully you can bear my long rambling post's. "Tis the season for being busy" or "Tis the season for making tons of Candy" December 16th is National chocolate day/candy making day (For my family!) I must be off to a Christmas party now..

Frohe Weihnachten!

"False alarm! As in, Never-mind!"

Wow. I'm actually, blogging. I haven't made a real post in quite some time. And believe me, this shall be a real post. Horribly long. I was going to do a Christmas template.. But decided against it because I had worked so hard on my current template, and I really like it, and don't really want to mess it up. Heh. If you noticed, I put snowflakes on my blog. Hoping Oklahoma will get caught in a blizzard like last year for Christmas. That was fun. We could hardly cross the street it was so bad. I was sad that we couldn't have our Christmas party and my grandmothers (Across the street) because all my other relatives couldn't make it, it was too dangerous to drive in. Oh well.... I wish Oklahoma would get more snow. But then I'd probably be wishing for less snow if Oklahoma got more snow. So confusing. I'll stop rambling.

Now. I finished NaNoWriMo! With a total word count of : 51,658. **collapses** It was insanely fun, but tiring. I'm taking December off writing, I think. Then I'll continue to write in my NaNo novel until it is complete. And I have another novel idea that I"m thinking about, I have a pretty good plot for that.. So, maybe. If NaNo was closer, I might save my novel idea for NaNo next year, but since its a year away, I don't think I can make it. I'll just start writing in January. But thats about it, as far as writing.

Another subject now. This will be a long random post. Christmas. Today my family put our Christmas tree up. That was fun. Pretty much. I kind of dread putting the ornaments on, because everyone wants to put one up at the same exact time. And mom informed me this afternoon that next year I get the job of putting the lights on the tree from now on. Great. Hopefully I do it right, it seems pretty complicated, from my view.. My mom and I went out this afternoon and went Christmas/Grocery shopping. The grocery store was exhausting, there was so many people there! Thankfully we had already went Christmas shopping before Grocery shopping, or we would have never made it Christmas shopping. We came home and put the lights on the tree, then I talked my dad into taking me to Wal-Mart so I get get my little sister's (Abi) Christmas present. (The rest of it that is). We also picked up a box of extra lights, because my mom needed them. After mom put the lights up we put the homemade garland thingy's Rachel and I had made on it. (A picture at the end of the post) Then.... I got the loverly job of instructing everyone on HOW to decorate the tree. The Five and Three year old decided they just wanted to put all their ornaments on one part of the tree. I secretly spread them around, it was funny. Aaron only wanted to put up certain ornaments, he wouldn't put up the one's I gave him, just the one's he picked. Silly little guy. Anyway. That was part of my day, definitely not all of it, that's for certain. Oh, we also listened to Christmas music and drank eggnog. I love Christmas time. I have so many secrets, and I love celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour.

December 16th is the annual "Candy making day" for my family. Its lots of fun. We make all kinds of candy! We go over to my Nana's house in the morning, and two of my aunts come also. We stay pretty much all day. We make all kinds of candy, such as spiced pecans, toffee, fudge, covered pretzels, peanut clusters, pecan chew, you get the idea, I assume? Its very yummy!

Oh, I wanted to apologize about my graphics page. It doesn't have any graphics on it right now, but I am currently working on some winter/Christmas graphics! So.. I'm sorry about that, and the new graphics WILL be up soon!

I suppose this will have to do. It does look quite long enough. Oh. I wanted to ask you.... What are some of your favourite family traditions for Christmas? I can't wait to get some answers!

God bless you!

(The picture of the thingy's Rachel and I made)

Happy Birthday Emma!

One of my friends, Miss Emma has a birthday tomorrow! So I'm throwing her a little "party" here on my blog :) And here we go!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Your loverly little cake! ( I just had to "make" you two cakes, I just liked them so much! ;D )

Here is the 1st :

And here is your 2nd! :

I hope you enjoy your cakes :D And now, for the party "snacks"!

Lemon Squares : ( Fresh!)

Chocolate mousse!:

Yummy fresh cookies! :

Annnnnd for drinks : Coffee!

And your present...

And I think by now, you already know whats inside :) Enjoy!

Have a wonderful day Emma!

I am very glad to have you as a friend!

God bless you!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Today Rachel ( My younger sister ) is 11! Yes 11! Anyway. Here a few recent pictures I took of her the other day, enjoy!

And..

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Now, for the "snacks" at the party. ( To be perfectly honest, I am stuffed from homemade ice cream and homemade M&M cookies.)

And her cake!

Anyway. There you go! Oh, I forgot, her present.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. PAPER? But this paper has something on. Something Rachel has been BEGGING me to let her read since I started writing it November 1st. Anyone guess?

And also, something she's been wanting forever! ( Sadly, I can not really give this to her.. But maybe someday!

Anyway.. Another "birthday" post will be coming soon!

God bless everyone and Happy Birthday Rachel!

To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is and of what is not that it is not is true

PLEASE don't bother reading the title, I couldn't understand it myself. ^^ Sorry about not posting more lately! The one big post below made me blogged out, if you get what that means..... Anyyyywaayyy. I have a few things I need to blog about. Like... The Fall Festival at Walk in thy truth!

Doesn't that look like fun? I've entered in all her giveaway's and contest's!!!!~ Alright. Whats next. Now that I sit down to think of a blog post, I cannot think of anything to tell you! Other than.... We rearranged the living room. Sorta rearranged my bedroom. I made French Bread and Granola. I'm going to make some Mini M&M cookies tonight! ( Well, just the dough, I'm making the cookies tomorrow ^^)

Oh! Also Miss Emma is having a little guessing game at her photography blog! Right now I can't think of what it is! **is confused** Hmmm. If you have any suggestions for what it is, leave a comment on her photography blog!

The tree's here haven't changed much! Hopefully they will be changing soon! I really haven't gotten any good pictures of some colorful trees/leaves because they haven't changed yet! I love fall! ~ I got some new sheet music recently! I'm hoping I will have it all learned for the recital! But I'm pretty sure I will :) And for Christmas I am playing Carol of the Bells! ~

Anyway. Just a really small random post full of rambling. Gosh. Ohhh! Below are the photo's I am entering for the Fall Festival and also one random picture! Enjoy!

** The Random picture of the Sun through the trees**

Picture #1 I am entering for the Fall Festival!
Picture #2 I'm entering for the Fall Festival!
Which do YOU think is best?

God Bless you!

Yes, I'm terribly sorry, but its another random post.

Ha. Aren't I good at random post's? Wow. I paused at this for 30 minutes, then came back, and now I can't remember a single thing I was going to say. **Frowns and tries to think** Ohh. In the next few weeks ( Two ) I won't be blogging much. Because I'm working on a huge, ( I mean huge ) blog post. :P So, if you think I have disappeared, I really haven't, I'm just working on something awesome :D Now, here is the lyrics to a song I've been enjoying!

Take Me In

Take me past the outer courts
Into the Holy Place
Past the brazen altar
Lord I want to see your face
Pass me by the crowds of people
And the Priests who sing your praise
I hunger and thirst for your righteousness
But it's only found in one place

[Chorus:]
Take me into the holy of holies
Take me in by the blood of the lamb
Take me into the holy of holies
Take the coal, touch my lips, here I am

I promise a longer, better post will be coming in the near future!

Blessings in Christ!

P.S I will be giving hints about this big post, ( They will be on my blog, you just have to find them. If you think you know what it is, PLEASE comment ;D )

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

Dontcha just like my title? I do ^^ I got a new signature from Miss Lucia today :) She makes some lovely signature's! If you go over HERE on her blog, you could "order" one from her! She is very quick at making them! ~ Hmm. Now that I have this all up, I can't remember what I was about to say. **frowns and thinks** Oh Yes! Laura and Miss Eyebright and I have a secret. A secret. Oh yes. Lovely secrets. It'll all be revealed soon though. Very soon. Sorry to keep you in suspense :)

Speaking of Laura ... You should go over to her graphics page! She made some loverly blog graphics! And they are seasonal! I have two of them on my blog. Can you guess which one's? Oh. Emma also has some seasonal one's up! I'm trying to get some seasonal one's up also! So stay tuned ;) ( I sound like a TV announcer when I say " Stay tuned " ) Teehee. ~

This is really, just a short post. I have nothing else to post about,that would be interesting to you. Or me, really. Other than my sister is making hats and scarves. We just got the loom thingy.. I've made one hat to her three O_o She is so much faster at stuff like that. But I have been writing letters also, so you have to remember that :) Annnd, the baby is chewing on the mouse. ( Computer mouse ) So all I can do right now is type, instead of publish this post, or switch to another page. **laughs** He's looking at the mouse saying "Hi" Doodad ^^ Now he's trying to lick off the red light. WMMM is adorable :) **takes mouse from him ** NOW he's laying in the dogs bed. Little Angel :)

Here is a picture of the little angel, just to make you jealous that he's all mine ;)

Ahh! Isn't he a little doodad? He's so adorable. He'll be one in less than a month. **Sniffs and tries not to cry** He's getting so big, so fast!

Anyway.. Another weird, random post just for you!

God Bless!