Friend of Photographers

This past Saturday, my sisters and I took a train to the beautiful city of Chicago.  Chicago is a great town for shopping, sight seeing, and eating.  However, the purpose of this trip was something entirely different.  In fact I would have never made that trip to Chicago if I was not friends with photographers.     

Last Saturday, a couple of photographers met up to have a photography workshop.  I was invited along for the sole purpose of carrying my sister's many belongings and to be the subject of young and eager photographers. 

   Lucky me to be the friend of photographers: 

                      Nicole                            Jack

Alyssa

I had a lot of fun watching the photographers.  It really was quite interesting to watch how involved one can actually get in  taking a simple picture.   Jack practically did the splits each time he shot a photo.  And I noticed for the first time that when Nicole takes her photos her left eye winks each time she pushes the button.  Photographers really are interesting people.

 Lauren and I enjoyed posing

 Jack's little sister Emily also came along for the fun

Alyssa's little sister, Alexis came along as well.

 After a couple of hours of taking photos, we headed to the Grand Lux for lunch.  This was my delicious meal of Chicken Parmesan.

After lunch we headed to the John Hancock building.  The photographers were able to get several excellent photos at the top.  I was content to get a good picture on my cell phone for a new background.

 We continued to spend the rest of the day taking more pictures, editing, and laughing.  I had a great time in Chicago with my sisters and new friends.  On the way back home, I sat contently, happy to   finally let my cheeks rest from smiling so much.  I then let out a sigh and thought I am a lucky girl to be friends with photographers. 

PS: none of the above photos were actually taken by me :) 

Take hold of my hand

So, I decided to join my sister for Memory Thursday.  I will try my best to write every Thursday.  I am very excited about this endeavor.  There are so many times that a memory comes to my mind, and I find myself smiling. 

For those of you who grew up sharing a bedroom with a sibling you know that it can be a blessing and a curse.  Mostly a curse...well that is until it was night time.  The two of us would just lay on our bunk beds.  I was on the top ( because I am older) and she was below me; we talked long into the night.  I recall many a night where my dad would walk by the room and say, "Brooke and Lauren stop talking you have school tomorrow"  or "Girls, quiet down in there!" We would try so hard to lay quietly but then one of us would start giggling and then it would start up all over again.  So, we came up with an idea... Since we had to go to sleep and we had to stop talking, we would try to hold hands all night.  I hung my arm down under the rail of my top bunk and grabbed a hold of my little sister's hand.  We vowed to never let go of each other all night long.  Most of the time my little sister's hand fell to her bed in the middle of the night.  However, there were some mornings where we would wake hand in hand.  Those were also the mornings that we would both wake with sore arms.  Our entire arm seemed to ache,

Memories like that make so thankful that I have the privilege of sharing a room with my little sister.  So many precious memories were made those nights when we were suppose to be sleeping.

Lauren, 

We are a lot older now.  And we have not attempted to hold hands while sleeping in quite a while. However, I just want to let you know my hand is still outstretched.  Not literally like when we were  children.  But rather as you get ready to graduate from highschool, get a job, and enter into college... I will always be here for you...Always

Simply take hold of my hand.

Beautiful in my eyes

Last Saturday I forever parted with a companion that I had known for most of my life.

I remember the day he was first brought home...

I was a nine year old little girl when I first met him...and I loved him that first moment I crawled into the back seat and my feet dangled.  Oh, the places we went in that little green Taurus.  We drove a 24 hour journey to Texas.  We drove to Wisconsin Dells, we drove all over... I was always so proud of my little green Taurus.

When my big sister, Nicole turned 16 she got her learning permit, my poor little car got abused for a few months.  But he was such a good sport, never complaining.  I will never forget the countless times my poor car was forced to go over curb after curb.  This little Taurus even got its side view mirror knocked off the first time Nicole tried to go through a bank drive through. After a year, Nicole improved in driving...a little, bit at least:)  The Taurus got a break from abuse.  A couple years later I got my learning permit....  Once again the Taurus became the car in which I practiced driving in.  All went well.  I must admit I was, and am a very careful driver.  Then the day after I got my licence, it happened.  I decided to drive around the church to pick up my sister, that way every one could see me driving...ALONE...  I proceeded to pull around the front of the church, all the while scraping the side of the car along the side of the brick wall.  Yes, I believe everyone saw me driving that night and my car got a few marks and bruises.

Then my poor little Taurus got scraped by a yellow pole in a parking lot...once again by Nicole... it really is quite a funny story.. She thought she managed without getting a mark on it, she drove home, thanking God all the way that she didn't bang up the car.  Then she pulled, as the whole family gawked at the thick yellow line of paint all down the side of the car.  Thankfully with a lot of elbow grease it came off!

Then just a few months ago...he was driven into a ditch...a deep deep ditch...that was me!!!

But all the while he kept chugging along; faithfully driving me to and from school, work, and church... 

Regretfully, the Taurus became quite ill.  He began to fail emission test after emission test.  This past month he really suffered.  My dad told me to be prepared to part with him.  

It was hard....

But I knew the time had come when he could only go 30 miles per hour down the highway.  I knew the time to part ways was coming when I couldn't push the break for an extended period of time because he would shake so terribly.  I knew time his time was drawing to an end, when I would proudly get out of the car, only to scrape my leg on the rust on the bottom on my car, and then enter work with blood trickling down.  I knew his time was coming to an end when I had to put the car in neutral for it to be in drive, and drive for it to go in reverse.  

  

But in spite of all its faults, I had a bond with that little green Taurus.  After all, it was a part of my family for almost as long as I can remember, it was the first car I ever drove, it was the first car I ever banged up, and it was the first car that I truly developed a lot of good memories with... 

It was the first car that I had to say goodbye to. And you know when I said goodbye, I was actually really sad.  I had Nicole go and take a few pictures of him just so I can always remember my little green Taurus, a beautiful car in my eyes:

Then we replaced him.... 

with a dashing black Chevy:

 I look forward to making many more memories

with him!

Where have I been

So,  haven't written in a quite a while.  But you see, I have been very busy.  The school year is slowly coming to an end... just about a month and a half and I will be done with my junior year of college.  

The past few weeks have been filled with reports, speeches, a debate, sewing, and teaching!  Let me expound a little...

For my Persuasive speech class I did a three on three debate to a group of about 100 retired folks.  I was on the affirmative team debating that drinking three or more cups of coffee a day was detrimental to one's health.  And guess what..my team and I won!!!  And I actually succeeded in even persuading myself.  I am sure my belief is pretty unpopular with most of you.  However, I am fully convinced that drinking too much coffee has bad effects on one's health.  I would love to go on and on.  However, I am not trying to persuade you that too much coffee is bad but rather that I have been too busy to blog.

Last Thursday I was able to teach a high school history class.  That was a lot of fun!  I was able to teach on anything from the 20th century.  Pretty broad time period, I know.  I choose to do a topic that I knew very little about, and would like to know more about.So I did the Hindenburg.  It was actually very fascinating!

 Do you realize how massive the Hindenburg was?  It was 804 feet long and 135 feet wide.  It was almost as large as the Great Titanic!  It weighed approximately 240 tons! Now isn't that amazing!

 Did you know that Hugo Eckner (the man who designed the Hindenburg) was forced to put the Nazi symbols on the tail fins.  He spoke out forcefully against the Nazi's brutal ways.  Because of this, the Nazi's made him a "non person."  This meant his name could never be printed in the paper, and he could never have his picture taken.  If Eckner didn't comply to put the Nazi symbols o the Hindenburg, the Hindenburg would become the property of Germany.  Thus Eckner complied...

 Did you know it only took 34 seconds for the Hindenburg to burn to nothing but burning wreckage.

Now the fact that is most amazing to me.... 97 souls were on the Hindenburg when tragedy struck....and 65 of them survived.  Now, that is fascinating!

Today, I finished making my culottes!  I am actually pretty impressed!  I made them without too much stress too! :)   I now feel like I could make them again and again without a problem!  

Showing off my creation!

Yes, I have been pretty busy with school work.  But, I will do my best to keep my blog updated.  Now, I must go write another report and prepare for another speech...