Picture 192 - Psuedo Photo shoot

One evening I decided to go out and take some sunset pictures and A decided to come along. As we were walking down the beach, she said to take some pictures and I figured I take some time to practice. At the end she suggested the "blue steel" look. If nothing else, we had a lot of fun.

Picture 191 - A taste of Hawaii

Each night of beach week one of us was given the responsibility of making dinner. For E's night, she did a Hawaiian themed meal. As I came out of hiding (I had spent about 3 hours up in my room reading) I came down to discover lei's on each chair and a wonderful feast laid on the table.

Picture 190 - magnifying glass anyone?

A magnifying glass might have made this particular puzzle a little easier. As a rule, I'm not a big puzzle person. If it's there, and if I have nothing else to do, I might give it a try. In reality this picture was taken on Sunday, but I didn't begin to work on it till Thursday night. The only reason I started to work on it was because I had heard someone say that it was just too hard of a puzzle for them to do. So of course, I instantly feel the need to step in and conquer what someone else considers too hard. By the time we left Saturday morning, I had managed to finish about a 1/4 of the puzzle. It's currently being stored at S's house. I plan on making myself a nuisance there until it is finished.

Picture 189 - beach week entertainment

The prospect of sitting on the beach for a whole week is a wonderful idea in theory. But when you get right down to it, a whole week of nothing but chasing waves in a beach chair could be incredibly boring. To fight the urge to leave the beach after 10 minutes, a mini-library was brought along. Of course, it was all fluff books, nothing requiring too much thinking, but perfect for a relaxing day. I'm so glad I have friends that are uber prepared. Thanks to Erin for our big entertainment box.

Picture 188 - Round 2

On my return from Michigan I began to feel a "yucky" and crummy. I attributed it to mostly homesickness and the blues, but turns out I had managed to get an ear and sinus infection. I was able to get in to the doctor Thursday afternoon and she gave me some antibiotics because, let's face it, who wants to "tough it out" and let the sickness run its course when you're staying at the beach. I can't remember the last time I had to be on antibiotics, let alone two times in a month, but I'm so glad these medicines are available. Hopefully by tonight I'll be feeling more like myself and be able to walk in a straight line again.

Picture 187 - A promise for the future

I have some very creative family, but when it comes to making things out of posters, no one can top my brother in law. For my birthday, I was given this really cool looking camera. It looks like a camera I would want when I upgrade. I have decided that I will wait till I have earned enough from taking pictures to justify buying such a nice camera. Not only is this a very cool looking camera, it also doubles as a bank. So, now whenever I get paid for pictures, I can just put it in my camera bank for future use. I'm so thankful for family that supports and encourages my hobbies.

Picture 186 - reality check

Well, while I took a ton of pictures while I was home, I did not keep up on posting, so I'm just going to skip ahead to today and keep going from there.

Yesterday evening I got "home" around 9 from Michigan. It was really hard to leave, so today has been a little bit of a roller coaster. I was really tired, I have a feeling I'm getting sick, and I miss being 30 minutes from my family. I know this is where God has me for now, and I am fully aware that in a few days when I see all my friends again, when life settles back into its routine, I will be so glad to be back. But I always know the first days back will be sad.

So, where do the walmart shopping bags come in? After being gone for 5 weeks, I only had a few condiments, yogurt and water in the fridge along with some VERY spoiled milk. I went in to work today, so was not really interested in dealing with the grocery store, but the lack of food and my growling tummy made me go. I happened to be on facebook and was about to update my status to "ugh, grocery shopping, why can't I come home to a pre-stocked fridge?" Just as I was about to hit enter, I realized how whiny and spoiled that sounded. I am so incredibly grateful for the finances to go shopping for food, for stores that carry more than 1 or 2 options, and for a vehicle that will take me to three different stores looking for yellow squash. I need to remember all that God has done for me and choose gratitude instead of complaining.