Bradley

First off, I would like to heartily thank the five people that have commented on my blog!  Your comments have been so wonderful to read, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Well, for years I have wanted to get my own dog.  And on Sunday, it happened!  He is a Yorkie mix, though I'm not sure what he's mixed with, and he is the most lovable dog that I've ever met.  His name is Bradley.

It's been a kind of hard adjustment, especially with our other dog, Dillon.  But I think things are starting to get better.

Yesterday some of my family and I took him and Dillon on a long walk to a spot near the river.  It was so lovely and sunny out, but I was in a bad mood.  My camera was acting up again and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get the picture to look as nice as it did through my eyes.  We were settled right by a sidewalk that went under a bridge, and right over the river.  Rocks were piled up on the side and a metal railing went along the edge.  I thought it would be perfect for pictures, but my camera is slowly dying.  I was only able to get a few, and they just weren't working.  So I was grumpy, and sadly, had a hard time having fun.  I look back on yesterday and feel ashamed about my attitude.  I should have just put the camera down, and had a good time.

But despite it all, I was able to get a few nice pictures.

Sun and Hail and Other Camp Adventures

It has been two weeks now since I went to Denali.  Sometimes it is difficult to write about something that's not fresh in your head.  I have so many pictures and words to post, I will go back to Denali another time, and tell you now about why I haven't posted all week.  I was helping at camp.

The last two years, my older, but not oldest, sister has helped at a Christian camp and had a blast.  I really was looking forward to it, though I knew it would be a lot of hard work.  I was with three other girls and our counselor.  The campers were second and third graders, and there were a LOT of them.  The four of us girls and our leader were in charge of serving meals, doing dishes, and cleaning bathrooms.  We also helped with skill classes in the mornings.  But most of what we did was dishes.  At lunch one time, we had over three hours of dish washing!  My feet and lets hurt and my arms and hands got rashes, but it felt good to know I was helping out, and I kept reminding myself that it was all for the glory of the Lord. 

I have quite a few random pictures here to show you.  Not all of them are relating to camp, so I'll just explain when I took them and what I was thinking. 

Clouds!  Sorry, this is such a bad photograph.  I took it through the front window of our car, and I'm afraid the windshield is very visible.  I loved the clouds that day, though.  They looked like they must have been painted up there, along with the sun.  Just happening to have my camera with me . . . I obviously took a picture.

OK so my next pictures will be of camp.  I have pictures of other people, but I don't have their permission to post them on here, so I'll just do the ones of me.  :/

There were a few REALLY incredible things that happened this week.  Like me going horse back riding for the first time!  But mostly, what was different was the weather.  On the first day, we were standing in the dining hall when it began to rain, only it was only raining on one side!  Look out one window, and it's pouring.  Look out the opposite, and it's dry!  And then it got weirder!  On Thursday, we had just finished dinner when it began to pour.  It had been our first sunny day all week, and it still rained!  "Have you ever seen the rain falling down on a sunny day?"  Well yes, actually, I have!  And hail, too!

And after the rain, a banner of magnificent color decorated the sky. 

Denali Part 1

All of a sudden, life seems completely different.  At church last night, the congregation was prayed for and since then, i have felt so much more at peace!  My family hasn't been fighting nearly as much as they were, and it makes the entire household feel joyful.  My sister just got home from a week as a helper at camp.  Being away from her piano for so long, made her immediately play.  I have been able to read blogs with the enchanting background sound of piano music. 

I feel so rested.  It's so nice to feel that way after three weeks of constant chaos.  I have a little bit of a headache, but that's easy to ignore.  So I am now ready to go through the dozens of wildlife photographs I took in Denali, and pick the best few. 

The bus tour we went on was eight hours long.  I wasn't really looking forward to it, and had planned to just fall asleep, but it went by so fast, I didn't have time!  By our first stop, all we had seen was a moose.  Though it was very exciting, moose isn't an uncommon sight where I live.  So I kept praying for for something a bit more exciting.  Like doll sheep, maybe.  We definitely got to see doll sheep.  After our first stop, we came upon a herd that not only was along the side of the road, but ran down, crossed, and ran up the other side of the mountain!  Cameras were out and exclamations of, "Wow!" and "Look at them run!" were heard everywhere.  But God hadn't finished blessing us yet. 

And just in case you were wondering, here's what I look like after riding in a bus for an hour.

There are a lot more pictures here than I thought, so I'll save some till next time.

God bless you!

In the Hayloft For Some Quick Photos

I have so many pictures to blog!  Some I want to post sooner, others I don't know if I should post at all . . . but I have decided to just do them in order.  So the next event on my camera is the quick stop we had at my Great Aunt's barn.  My brother and I took pictures in the hay, while my Mom and Grandpa loaded a few bags into the van.  Afterward, my sweater was so covered in hay, I was picking them out for a couple of hours.  Only one of these is messed with, I think you'll be able to tell which on. :)



Water Splashes and Me

Since I last wrote, I have gotten my driver's permit, gone camping, gone on an 8 hour bus tour, and played in the river with my dog.  But before I go into that, I should finish the first trip I went on.

I only have a few pictures left from the first camping trip my family went on.  My grandpa wanted to try gold panning, so we decided to pitch our tents right next to a stream.  It was really nice having the sound of the running water in the background.  Not only did it drown out the noise of other campers around us, but it just helped me relax.  The best part was falling asleep to the sound of the rushing water.  Since I was sick, I spent most of my time sleeping, but I also liked to just sit by the stream and skip rocks.  I actually got a rock to skip four times!  No, it wasn't the one I'm holding in the picture.  My cousin and uncle took me four wheeling for the first time and I got to drive one. :)  I'd driven a snow machine before but it'd been a couple of years.  It was very exciting for me. 



Jumpled Thoughts That Don't Really Make Sense

To be perfectly honest, I'm feeling a little hopeless.  I look at amazing blogs filled with fashion, ground breaking thoughts and fantastically written phrases.  They live in big cities, or on the country side where there are rolling hills and cotton ball clouds.  I live in a small city that is mostly covered in snow.  It is summer now, and the choke cherry trees are blooming at last, but sometimes it's so difficult to be satisfied. 

But, no, satisfaction isn't the problem.  I just feel a bit discouraged.  My dream is to be a writer.  When I was little, I wrote because my big sisters did.  But then it became a little bit more than that.  I love writing.  And when I get discouraged, I go to a book store and say to myself, 'Picture those books on that shelf being yours!  Imagine your name in place of the author's, and in the back of the book, your picture, and inside the pages, your words, your thoughts, from your very own mind!'

And then I keep writing.  Because I know I can do it.  I'm only fourteen, and fourteen is far too young to be giving up on a dream.  I guess any age is too young to give up on a dream, really.   

O  O  O

Time to switch the train to a different track.  My Grandpa is here!  Though it's much different than I imagined, it's all going well.  I really had no need to be nervous.  We went camping last weekend because he wanted to go gold panning.  Actually, he found some!  Just those little flakes you can get from panning, but it was exciting.  I had a lot of fun 4-wheeling, skipping rocks and sitting around the campfire.  Mom even let me burn some of my school books!  But I took pictures, mostly.  There are a lot of them right now.  This is going to be a long post. :)
First stop: Butterflies

Our first stop during our long drive to the campsite, and look what I stumbled upon!  A swarm of butterflies.  They were beautiful, flurrying around to different places, but they always came back to this spot.  It was hard to peel my eyes away.
Second stop: The Stream

Simple pictures of a simple thing.  Water is so soothing and I'm not sure if I would have made it through this trip, being sick with a cough and runny nose, if this stream hadn't been there.  I could sit by its running water and let it run over my feet, skip rocks, though I'm not very good, and let my mind drift.
Now my next stop is, well, me.  But this post is getting long and I think I will save the rest for a different time.  Farewell, and I hope someone reads this. :)

Pine Cones and Fire--Life and Death

  I must say, I love productive days.  And with the end of school just around the corner, everything counts. 
On the eve of Resurection Day (He is risen!) I sat around a fire in my back yard.  My family roasted marshmellows and talked.  I threw pinecones into the fire and took pictures. 

I find fire fastenating, as well as ash.  They symbolize hatred and death so often in stories and poems and movies.  But fire is so beautiful! 

Just a note: Glowing pinecones are fastenating.

And the final two . . .

And there you have it!  Happy Easter, everyone!