community

last night after the main gathering Scott, who we've been hanging out with a lot up here, lead a 500 person art class called the Cacophony ([kuh-kof-uh-nee] harsh or discordant sound : dissonance 2 ; specifically : harshness in the sound of words or phrases) i had to look it up. Anyway, it was awesome and chaos but really cool to see all these highschoolers get pumped about creating art. One of the projects was creating little houses and building a community of everyones houses. This was my favorite visually cause I like miniture things, especially taking pictures of them.


tonight is our last night here which makes me sad because i don't want to think about going back to work.... i wish i could just hang out and take pictures all the time :) ahh someday, someday

also we picked up this awesome new bible translation that the speaker, Chris Seay (?), has been heading up. Its called the Voice and I love it! You should check it out... www.hearthevoice.com

hangin out

just hangin out up here still. I've been doing a lot of hanging out in the room and learning some camera tricks and taking pictures of stuff

like presents i borrowed from the hotel's christmas decor
also exploring some flash ideas



and the band rockin out

CBNWWYC

just sayin hi from snowy portland! Casey, Val, and I braved the roads (they really weren't very bad today) and made it up to portland an evening early to the Winter Youth Conference where casey and the band are leading worship for the next 4 days.
They are all sound checking and practicing right now and i'm selfishly enjoying the beginning of a much needed 4 day vacation. So far its been a fantastic time. We got here around 6, met some cool people, got our room keys and while casey talked to some important people val and i checked out the rooms.

We stopped and casey and my room first and upon entering we saw it was big and awesome and it had a big trader joes gift basket! We immediatly started jumping on both super soft comfy plush beds. (there may or may not have been some squealing involved...)

(this is our actual bed)

I told casey later that in order to take full advantage of the situation we have to each sleep in our own super soft comfy bed, he didn't really go for that idea... But seriously, the beds are amazing!


Then we had dinner in the staff suite and the band went on the practice, and I went on to watch 2 hours of tv (a real luxury since we don't have TV) while reading a photography book. I have a feeling i'm really going to enjoy this long weekend!

snnnooowww!!!!

i love it, love it, love it

but thats only because i don't have to drive anywhere. Driving alone freaks me out, add sliding around uncontrollably, its just twenty times worse!

But thankfully we live a couple blocks from pretty much everything.

here are some pictures i took on tuesday, my snowy sunny day off!

our street..


some park pictures






sam and joei love the snow even more than i do! We took them out a bunch to play in the park with all the other dogs that came out, it was so funny to watch them frolic like no body's business


and then to top it off, the sunset was absolutely stunning

Baby Evan

this weekend was wonderful, and crrrrazy. There was so much going on, but in the midst of it i finally got some catch up time with Amanda Wise. She and Evan came over saturday afternoon so we could spend some long awaited time together which hadn't happened since we moved away from the neighborhood.

She also graciously let me take some pictures of evan, which i had wanted to do for a while now. It was so fun and different working with a baby! Evan is one of the most joyful babies i know, kinda like the rest of his family!

here are a couple of the shots i really liked, there is another super cute black and white one on my photo blog if you want to see more!

family photos

so i'm doing family photo shoots pro bono this season to practice. Hit me up if you want to pencil something in ;) I'm always looking for models!

here's some out takes from this weeks shoots

pete and jenn, emma was running away an doing something funny..


the wise clan, they were so much fun to shoot! This pic was my favorite, they know how to work the camera..

And they are crazy i tell you!

The Sword Ceremony

This weekend was a big weekend for casey! He and pete graduated from seminary!
Yaaay, go casey! And go pete!

We rode up with pete and jenn to portland on saturday night. There was a nice dinner and then a nice ceremony following where all the teachers and mentors prayed over the graduates. Then they whipped out the big price, a Sword. Each of the graduates got a real live "i can stab you thru the heart while riding on my horse" sword. I think casey and pete should celebrate by having a sword fight.... Here are some pics

The Swords


me and jenn took funny pictures of each other before dinner



Casey graduating


Pete graduating


Bob graduating


The men and their swords!

my regards to the chef...

Thank you whitney and sharon for one of the most amazing meals i've ever had! Friday night we were invited to a dox staff holiday dinner and it was so very delicious and so very fun. Definitely one of my favorite nights of the year. But i have to especially comment on whitney's dessert.... so amazing! I took a picture of it with casey's camera so i wouldn't forget..


the camera phone picture doesn't really do it justice, but nonetheless, a big round of applause for chefs whitney and sharon for their amazing work and love, and waiters jeff and brad for your great service and poetry :) Thank you guys

Some things i've been doing...

now that we don't have a gaggle of friends living with us...

- spending entirely too much time on the internet looking at pictures
(my favorite sites: flickr.com, modelmayhem.com, istockphoto.com)

- Taking vit. D, a miracle vitamin for us SAD prone northwesterners if you ask me..

- Listening to Christmas music!! Yeeeessssss... But mainly when casey isn't home, cause he hates it but i looove it! My favorite is pandora station "snow angels" by over the rhine

-Cleaning, like crazy, including catching up on three weeks worth of dirty laundry

-Working, a lot more, mainly catching up from taking a half week last week to spend time with the jon, ian , and hannah (yesterday was an 11 hr day at the cafe)

Life is back to a slightly slower pace around here, but I still miss my home buddies :( Hannah flew out on friday, back to New York where she is in a dance production, and Jon and Ian drove back to LA on Saturday because Jon started shooting the TV show on monday

can you believe it?

i filled up my tank for $1.71/gallon

Does anyone know what's going on?? It's kinda creeping me out...
$4.50 to $1.70 in a matter of months is a little too extreme to be comforting :(