Friday Five

Hello, Lovelies

1. Happy Halloween! I hope all of you are having fun and continue to have fun this weekend. I, on the other hand, don't have any plans for Halloween. No parties, no hanging out, no movies or dressing up or passing out candy. Literally nothing. That's okay, I guess. There's always next year. Maybe I'll go to haunted houses, hang out with friends, carve pumpkins, dress up, all the stuff I didn't do this year. Here's to hoping.

I might go out and take photos tomorrow, but I believe it is supposed to rain. I love the rain, but it's not so great for my camera. 

2. On a positive note, I finished editing Kaitlynn's senior session tonight. I even went to the effort of making a collage of some of her photos. I thought it would be a nice little surprise. I really hope she likes the photos. I mean, her entire family and all her friends are going to see them. It would be extremely beneficial to me if I received positive feedback about them. It has the potential to help me get to the next level with my photography business. 

Anyway, I am dropping off the disc with her photos on them tomorrow. I will also be uploading them to my photography page  on Facebook. So, check that out. I'm excited for everyone to see them.

3. This past week I have been back to baking and cooking. Not a lot, just more than I had been. I tried out a new recipe for homemade apple cinnamon muffins. They turned out pretty good. I did add extra cinnamon to the recipe. I think I am going to have to make them again because my dad really liked them. They have apple in them, so they're healthy, right? His logic. I am also going to be trying out a recipe for pan fried drumsticks this weekend. I have wanted to try out this recipe for a while, and even though I don't eat it, my dad is pretty excited to see how it tastes. I'm also making more delicious zucchini bread! 

4. A few days ago I noticed a video about marriage and waiting for God's time. I clicked on it. Although a bit long, pressing on twenty minutes, I watched the entire thing. From there I checked out the rest of the videos on the Youtube channel by Autumn Miles. I learned that she started her own conference ministry and quite a bit about her life as a Christian. I was hooked on her videos and watched one after another. After a bit of time passed while watching her videos, I subscribed to her channel. While watching I felt something inside change. Part of me was so moved, so encouraged. I grabbed hold on this feeling.

I picked up my bible and followed along to the scripture she was reading. I really thought about what she was saying. I really felt like God had me find that first video for a reason. I was curious and eager to read more of God's word and learn how I should be living. It had been an honest while since I picked up my bible and read. I'm so glad I did. Something in her words and the passages she read spoke to me in a way different from anything else recently.

If you are interested in checking out Autumn Miles' videos, you can click HERE.

5. I'm not sure I have a five this week. But.... I'm super excited for the Christmas season and snow this year. Last year it was snowing on Halloween. Not this year though. Maybe in a few weeks Michigan will have some snow dusting. That would make my day.

HW<3

What's on My Phone?

Hello, Lovelies

Almost everyone in this day and age has a phone. It may not be the latest iPhone or even a smartphone (I'm looking at you, Dad. Also known as: the guy with the flip phone). But hey, it gets the job done.

Along with the greatness a phone brings of being able to contact people from (almost) anywhere, there are also many ways to personalize a cell phone. From apps downloaded to the background photo, to ringtones, you get to choose it all. It can all be very exciting and liberating to have that this-my-phone-and-I-am-in-control-of-this-if-nothing-else feeling. It's great. Really.

With that said, I am going to show you, my readers, just what is on my phone and how I have marked it as my own. Let's get started, yes?

I have the Maxx Droid from Motorola. I got it July 19, 2014 and will have it until at least July of 2016 when I can upgrade.

This is what the front of my phone looks like when I'm not using it. The screen is black, but flashes the time when it detects motion (like when you pick it up). There is also the option of opening it with the lock on the touchscreen. If I have any notifications, they also show up here. I can check them without opening my phone.

 Once open, the lock screen is shown. This screen has the time, date, and alarm (if it is set). The battery, service, wifi, alarm, and notifs are seen at the top. 

Once the correct password is entered, the home screen pops up. Here you see my background set to a tree with fall leaves, a clock, Google search at the top. Starting at the left, I have a folder labeled tools which came with the phone. Help, Voice Mail, My Verizon, Maps, Calculator, Mobile Hot Spot, Calendar, and Settings shortcuts are found here. Then I have the Google Play Store, Google app, and the recently reinstalled Blogger app. The phone, contacts, text messager, and camera are at the bottom and show on all screens. The middle circle takes you to all the apps and widgets on my phone such as Heads Up and Gmail.

Sliding left, I have a shortcut to Google Keep where I keep the grocery list among other lists and writings. Sliding right, I have the apps for Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, Gallery (photos), Goodreads, a folder for books, and the Spotify app. These are my most used apps.

My phone case is just a plain purple. Lately I have been keeping business cards for my photography in the back. I have also been known for keeping money and photos in the back for safe keeping. Well, kind of safe. Safe until I can't find my phone. 

Another way I personalized my phone is setting contact photos as random photos in my phone such as waffles or sunsets or flowers. I have my old high school set as a yawning cat. Get it? Because school's boring. 

Anyway, that is what is currently on my phone. I hope this post wasn't too boring for you. Talk later.

HW<3

Friday Five

Hello, Lovelies

*Oops, this post is late.

1. Wednesday = library

Honestly, I just really love time spent at the library. It is relaxing and nice to browse the books. The librarians are incredibly nice, even a bit funny. Nothing like all the movies with mean keepers of libraries. Also, there are books for everyone. This is not a bad library. In fact, it is probably the best library I have ever been too. I may be a bit biased. This is the library I have been lucky enough to go to since I was little. I came with empty arms and left with a handful of books.

2. Thursday = grocery shopping

Thursdays every other week is shopping day. I enjoy the time at the store most of the time. Picking out ingredients to foods I want to make is nice. I know not everyone feels the same and maybe they aren't very good cooks. That's okay.

This particular trip to the store was great for another reason. I got Chinese food for dinner! I love the vegetable egg rolls and vegetable fried rice. Not exactly healthy but definitely delicious. I don't feel too bad about it though since I don't get it that often. If only.

3. Friday = football game

It was so, so good to socialize at the last game of the season and be back at the field even though I'm no longer performing in the color guard. It was fun, freezing (figuratively), and the home team won. Yay! It was a bit surprising because we aren't known for winning.

I am so glad I went. The weather held out for the most part (only a sprinkle of showers here and there), and I was able to see some people I haven't seen in... a year or more. Wow. I hadn't realized that it had been so long. My sister, niece and dad came with me which was also nice. I even borrowed a flag from a guard member to spin a little.

4. Saturday = fall festival church event

Tomorrow, today technically, I am going to the fall festival at my sister's church. She is volunteering and was begging me to go with her, so I could see the church and get a feel for it. It should be fun, and I'm taking my camera (I take it everywhere). I'm hoping I will get a few good photos while I'm there or maybe of the foliage on the way home. Opportunity awaits. Who knows? Maybe I will really like the church and will ride along on Sundays in the future.

5. Lastly, I thought I would share about why I haven't posted a new video in a few weeks. Here it is: I want to go in a less generic direction with my videos. For me, this means more time editing and preparing for videos. But also, I believe it will be more rewarding. I have ideas I am working on now, but some ideas involve more than I can do now. I should be able to work on them soon (or so I hope). I think it will be good, what I plan on sharing. Anyways, that's where I am with that.

Good night (morning), HW<3

Friday Five

Hello, Lovelies

1. My friend, Cierra, is currently at boot camp. In boot camp? In/at, who cares? Anyways. I am currently in the process of writing her a letter. As of right now, it is mostly a lot of writing about current events about bands we like. For instance, I told her not to fret because Drew (from the Tide) still looks like Cameron Dallas' twin. Real interesting stuff going down. I'm not finished yet, but I think she is really going to appreciate it.

2. Today, my dad and I went shopping. We were looking for some Christmas gifts, a gift for my great grandma's birthday (the party's Sunday apparently), and I needed a few things too. We found a few gifts for Christmas that are really cute. Dad bought a chair. We bought grandma an Olaf soap dispenser. Here's a picture of it:

Bad smartphone photo. Oh, well.

We also bought her some good smelling soap to put in it. Pomegranate scented, I do believe. What do you give a 91 year old lady for her birthday? We thought this would be a hit.

3. Tomorrow I am taking photos of my niece and Kaitlynn and her friend. They asked to do some BFF photos as part of Kaitlynn's senior shoot. We took the majority of her photos Monday afternoon and will be finishing up tomorrow afternoon. I am going to have ton of photos to edit after that. I'm going to be super busy. I already started editing the senior photos from Monday, and they are looking pretty good. I'll be posting photos on my Facebook page soon, so check that out.

4. In other not so important news, I have recently started watching Gilmore Girls again. I just finished watching the first episode of season three. Gilmore Girls is probably my favorite TV show ever. I remember coming to my grandparents house when I was in elementary school, and I would watch it while sitting on the TV room floor. I have seen some of the episodes a dozen times and others only a couple. I don't think it will ever get old. I will be upset the day it is taken off of Netflix.

5. Lastly for this five, I made dinner on Tuesday. I really enjoy making dinner sometimes. There is something really nice about it. I play some music on Spotify, maybe dance a little, and cook. This time I made potato soup, baked chicken (for brother and dad), and corn on the cob. It was delicious. I'm sure I'll be making more potato soup this fall/winter for my family, and maybe I'll post the recipe for potato soup on my blog sometime.

Okay, I'm going now. Need to finish that letter to Cierra.

HW<3

Struggling.

It's 1:30 am, and I am sitting on my bed crying.

I'm here thinking about how I felt like my writing pieces were getting better, and now I'm stuck and don't even want to look at them. I'm here thinking about how I wish my photography was better. I can take a, one, really great photo and the next five are passable but not nearly as good. Sometimes I just hate them all. I'm just sitting here thinking about how I feel like I can't talk to my dad like normal because the past week he hasn't been paying attention when I try to talk to him. It feels like he just doesn't care. I feel like I have no one to talk to at all right now. I'm sitting here thinking about how I don't have a mother who really cares and how I wish she didn't try to buy my love. I'm here getting really overwhelmed and anxious for all that I have going on this weekend, and it's still half a week away. I'm just here thinking about how I'm not a good person, how I'm not nice. I'm thinking about how I'm never going to have the future that I hope for. I'm here thinking that I wish I had just one friend that would listen and understand perfectly. I'm thinking about how fat I feel. I'm thinking that I wish I could be over this stupid breakup with this stupid guy. I wish I could say that I'm over it since it's been over two months, but I would be lying.

I feel like a bad Christian, daughter, sister. Just bad. And I'm struggling with it all at once.

I wish that I didn't compare my writing or photography with others. I wish that I didn't compare myself to other people at all. I wish that I had a better relationship with my family, but I'm just not good at it. I wish that I didn't get completely overwhelmed and completely anxious ridden. And I'm not even in college like most everyone my age as people love to remind me. I just wish that all the things I think of and want to do to help others could actually happen. I wish that I had more patience to wait for what God has planned. I wish I had a friend. I wish I was twenty pounds lighter. I really just wish that I was over this guy, over everything, like I want to be.

But I'm not, and I don't have patience, I do compare myself and my work to others, I do get completely overwhelmed and anxious and feel like I'm going to puke.

I know that time won't stop. I know that I will get through it all because even though I don't feel like I'm able, I have to. I don't have a choice. Life keeps happening and this will just be one little bump in the road. But right now at this very moment, I don't know what to do. I am just one big struggling mess.

So, I'm going to think about all this and cry until I finally fall asleep.

HW

Friday Five

Hello, Lovelies 

1. Okay, so I was having a really nice day. Nothing in particular that made it super great, but I felt good and everything. Then, well, I wasn't having such a good day. The past three and a half hours (it's 10:30 now) were kinda ruined for me. But, I pretty much had this post done before that. So, the rest of it is pretty happy go lucky. So... Read on.

2. Halloween is only three weeks away, and I have got a pretty good start on my costume. I need more supplies for it though. Once I go to Walmart and buy more, I should have it done pretty quick. I will definitely post photos when I finish. I may not be doing anything for Halloween, but I still want to dress up. That's not weird is it? I haven't truly dressed up for the holiday in years. I really just want to for me. 

In other Halloween news, I convinced my dad to buy me three little pumpkins at the store yesterday. They cost three dollars total and make me totally happy to see on my desk. My family never really decorates for the seasons other than Christmas. This is just one little bit that stands out and brightens my day. A couple of quick snaps with my phone:

3. Tomorrow I am planning on a senior photo session for Kaitlynn, ex boyfriend's sister. I am excited but nervous. Also, Kaitlynn was really hoping for the leaves to be colorful. Not many trees have leaves that turned to the gorgeous Instagram worthy red, orange, and yellow colors yet. Most are just green. That said, she might want to reschedule. If not, cool. I also have a few ideas to still get the colorful backdrop she wants. There are a couple of trees in my yard that have turned and would look so great bokehnized. Yup, made up that word. Seriously though. Bokeh fall leaves would be so incredibly gorgeous in her photos. Whichever, rescheduling or searching for color, we'll make it work.

*Update: It's 6:30 and I just got back from her house. We had a really good talk about photography, cats, and other random things. It was great! I'm really excited to take her senior photos. Also, she wants me to take more photos for her throughout her senior year including prom and graduation. Yay!

4. So, I love the fall. It is my favorite season. I can't get enough, but a small part of me wishes it was Christmas already. Every year around this time I get really excited for Christmas. I don't know why. There's just this feeling I get. It's hard to put in words, I guess. I have a confession. I have already started listening to Christmas music a little. I know this is probably making you, the reader, cringe. The other day I was upset, and it was the only thing making me feel better. So, no shame.  

5. I was wondering if my readers had any blog post suggestions. Any video suggestions? I would love to read them. Leave a comment if you want to read/watch anything in particular. If so, I will try and incorporate them into what I am working on now. At the moment, I am trying to do something really special to me, but it won't be up for a while. Anyways. Talk later, Lovelies.

HW<3

Who Sees This?

Hello, Lovelies

I've just had a thought. I wonder who sees this and how you have stumbled upon my little piece of the internet over here. Do you know me from school, are we related, maybe you live halfway around the world, and you happened to stumble upon this blog by complete accident? Is this the first post you have seen on this blog or do you come back to see what I am posting about? I curious. I'm curious about who sees this and where you happen to be from. Am I, an 18 year old American girl, really that interesting?

I would like to do an experiment. If you have stuck with reading thus far, I would like you to leave a comment answering the questions above.

Each post of mine gets at least a handful of views. Some more than others. Are the views from all the same person? Is each view a different person reading from their laptop, tablet, or smartphone? I don't know. But I would like to. Just because I'm curious.

Okay. Go comment. Thanks.

HW<3

Friday Five... On Saturday. Oops.

Hello, Lovelies

1. Happy birthday, Great Grandma Rose! Today (Friday) my grandma is 91 years old. When I asked her how it felt to be celebrating her 91st birthday she told me she didn't expect to live so long. Anyways, shout out to her for being a trooper!

2. Tuesday, I received my yearbook for my senior year of high school. The yearbook cover looked great and was really interesting. It was even embossed. The theme for the Viking Voyager volume 52 was all things travel. This meant passports, postcards, travel themed title pages. The works. I enjoyed that aspect of the yearbook. As for the photos representing the year, not so much.

There were many repeats of photos of people and none of others. This happened to me. For instance, there are three photos of the same two people on the color guard page. The only photo of me on said color guard page was in the very blurry group shot. One of the photos on the page is the same girl on the same night in the same exact spot on the field taken at very similar angles. Another example is the fact that they yearbook staff choose to feature a select few is with homecoming. Normally there are photos of all the homecoming court members. Not this year. They put photos of three of the couples that were on court and none of the rest. There are literally so many pictures of the same couple. It was so redundant to look at.

Anyways, I find it incredibly annoying that the yearbook photographers take the same photos of the same people (mostly their popular friends) all year long, and that is all that ends up in the yearbook. It will always happen though. This is part of why high school and their yearbooks are overrated. In ten years I could be going through my high school yearbooks, and all I will remember is how I wasn't popular or friends with anyone popular.

3. Moving right along, I tried a few new foods this week! First up: butternut squash. I made a butternut squash veggie burger with carrots and garlic. I was hesitant to try this because I had never had any kind of squash before. I became especially so when cutting the butternut squash open because it smelled a bit like pumpkin. I'm not a fan of pumpkin anything food wise. Once it was cooked, I took a bite and it was actually pretty good. Something I think I will eat more of in the future. Next was pomegranate. I had wanted to try pomegranate for such a long time. After learning how to cut it without a huge mess, I was pleasantly pleased with the taste. It is definitely one of my favorite foods now. I even had my dad stop at the store today (Saturday) to pick up more. I eat it like candy. Lastly, tomorrow I am making zucchini bread for the first time. I love the taste of zucchini bread, so hopefully it turns out and my family has another tasty treat to eat.

4. I took photos last weekend of my sister and her daughter for a mommy and me session and the baby's five month photos. The turned out so, so great, and I had a lot of fun while taking them. Now I have to edit and finish them before next weekend. I have a senior session planned. Hopefully the weather cooperates for that (currently a rainy forecast). I'm excited but also slightly nervous since it is my ex boyfriend's sister who I am taking photos of. Whatever. I'll make it great. *stands in superman pose for confidence*.

5. Today was Cedar Springs Red Flannel Day. That meant waking up and going out in the wind and cold to watch marching bands compete. After that there was plenty of walking around to last me through tomorrow. There was... Well, I'll just let you watch my video on Monday because I vlogged.

Okay, I'm tired after such a long day. Good night, morning, whatever it is where you are.

HW<3