Creole Wisdom

a day at the beach

thank you all for your sweet comments, everything is so much better now

Saturday started out really, really well with breakfast at the pancake house. I got the kajafa crepes and Matt had the dutch baby. Mmmm! That place is *so good*.

For a while we've been planning a day out at the beach. We hit up Seaside and Canon Beach. I don't know what it is, but the Oregon coast is just *gorgeous* no matter what time of year it is. Of course it's warmer in summer, but it was still sunny!

It was so windy (as you can tell by our scruntched up eyes and my hair LOL)

I just love these blue telescopes so I made Matt pose for me-

Since it wasn't too hot we ended up going to one of those old fashioned dress up photo places. That was fun! As soon as I get back to school I'm going to scan it, it's simply hilarious!

Matt was so sweet and took me out to dinner at a sweet seafood place (I love seafood). I got clam strips and he had calamari cajun style.

Overal it was a perfect day. Sure I wish it had been warmer, but it will be summer soon enough. I cannot believe I only have a little over a month left in school. My first year of college will be over! Wow!

I can't wait until I can go to the beach for real (in an actual bathing suit LOL)

last night

Lately there's been a lot of tension between Matt and I.

We hardly ever, ever fight and usually get along very, very well.

It all started on Saturday when we went to brunch at one of my dear friend's house.  Many people from church were there.  Matt had been to church once before in the summer, but this was his first time being around people in a more casual setting.

He went home early and I ended up spending the day with my missionary buddies and another church friend. 

When I got back home he was really in the zone- working on his paper.  He told me he was *never* going to go to another "mormon thing" ever again and that he got a really bad feeling at brunch.  I was so shocked literally, my jaw just dropped open.  I just didn't know what to say-

It seems like every day I move closer and closer to the church.  I don't know if I will or will not get baptized, but it'd def. something out there. 

So after having all sorts of thoughs rushing through my head yesterday I basically ended up bawling in the car with him at 11pm. 

I was just so tired and was so scared and worried and everything else.  Matt was being as sweet as he could, but everything is just so frustrating.

Basically I feel like there's this huge wall between us, and we've sort of come to that point in our relationship where we need to go and climb up it and get over it and that wall is religion-

I really love Matt, with all my heart, but there's something else that's pulling at me, too-

a reunion : )

Okay so last year around this time my very dear friend Sister Ott got transfered to another area.

I was really sad.

Not only had she taught me so much, totally changed my life by exposing me to church, but she and I just have this charasmatic bond!

So about three weeks back I was lying in bed, about to fall alseep when my phone rang. Seeing the usual Portland "503" area code I thought it was dad/matt/annalise calling... instead it was SISTER OTT!!!

Seriously. You have no idea how excited I was. Staying in touch had been so hard so... getting a call was just *the best*

We talked for about 2 hours and totally caught up. It turns out she got transferred back into her first area, my local ward. I was so happy. I just couldn't wait to see her during Spring Break. A few days before I'd booked my tickets to go home for the summer. School ends on 5/12, but it was cheaper to get a ticket out on the 11th. So I took it. Well it must of been the hand of God because that's the day Sr. Ott gets off from her mission and her parents are coming to Portland to visit. So not only will I get to see her again, but I'll get to meet her family.

On Saturday I had brunch with a bunch of people from church. I also brought Matt. This was a new experience for him since he'd only been to church once and his parents have major issues with Mormons (more on that later!)

So great to see everyone. Totally felt so loved. So forgot how I misssed it all. So happy I'm moving back home.

Here we are!

I'm here!

I'm so happy!  I'm here, with Matt : ) Of course it wouldn't of been a normal travel day without some airplane drama.  I had a quick 2hr flight from White Plaines to Chicago, but once I was in Chicago everything got delayed because of a huge thunder storm.  No problem, better safe than sorry I say!  However, we ended up sitting on the runway for a total of 2.5 hours!  Grrrr.  Needless to say when I got to Portland I was egausted!!!!

Matt was so cute and had set up a little place for me to sleep in the back of the explorer since he knew I would be tired.  Ha!  I wasn't *that* tired and decided to ride up front with him.  He was so funny: "well if someone I loved was driving I would sleep in the back"  LOL.  Okay! 

I can't get over how rainy it is.  I guess I forgot that.  I miss my New York sun : (

Other than the weather I'm having a great time so far on my break.  Matt let me do a photo shoot of him, but I've yet to get those photos up. 

I've got the sweetest boyfriend in the world.  Whenever I run into other girls they want to know if I'm "matt's girlfriend" and they preceed to tell me how sweet he is and how much he talks about me : )

I'm so glad to be on break!

the todays

today I:

woke up at 9

played around on my computer for an hour

took a shower

eat breakfast!

went and eat lunch with my little buddy from the preschool : ) : )

met up with about 5 different friends!

took some pictures

talked to mom

talked to matt

got out my suitcase(!!!!!!!!!!)

too cute

my new model is adorable!

so I've started to shoot in RAW mode. This has its ups and downs. Def. working through challenges right now. So I've converted them, can upload them to here and 2peas and shutterfly. Can burn them to a disc, but : ( they only show up on macs. So I need to learn to make discs that can work on pcs... Okay okay-

here's a favorite (I have more in my album so take a peak and tell me what ya think!)

good day : )

Today was a good day.

It seems like the more I look through my manual and check out photo help sites online my skills get better & better-

So today I shot at the preschool and this one has got to be my favorite by far-

When I look at this sweet, calm little girl I can't help but really realize that children *truly* are a gift from Heavenly Father. Seriously, does anything get more angelic than those big eyes?

Well I'm busy uploading more photos from today and saving them all (I shot in RAW today). If you want to see more I have two new photo layouts on my 2peas account (see link in typelist) and I'll update my photo section here soon.

I am too happy, I just love this new hobby!

my new *thing*

photography offically is my new *thing* my new obsession : )

I luv, luv, luv it!

So I've been asking a lot of questions and playing around a lot. This machine, this 20D is really intense, but I'm just starting to learn how to navigate it-

Here's a fun shot from today:
Canon 20D
RAW
f/5.6
WB- daylight
ISO- 1/1600

I really am looking forwaring to trying f/11 and f/22 (I saw some great examples on the web of these and am pretty anxious to see what that would look like)

Oh and I learned how to create the copyright, © symbol!!!! If you're a mac girl you just press "option" then the letter "g"

On another note- positive reinforcement, it works.

So last week the kitchen was kept very clean. Three days went by where there was not one dish in the sink. I was very happy.

So on Saturday after working I went by CVS and picked up a pack of cadburry cream eggs. I gave them to all my roomates.

Duh! Why didn't I try this earlier?!? Obviously negative reinforcement was *not* working so I guess it's PR from now on- shesh!

learn a lesson

This time of my life is so funny. Everyone is "grown up," but yet there's so much more learning (and I don't mean book smarts) that we have to go through. Things that we deal with. Things that aren't easy. Situations that teach us.

It's easy to get lost, and then fall into something that can really, really hurt us. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe I just listen and take adult's advice for the truth. Sure I'm not perfect, but my reasoning always seems to be "because that's not good for you."

Matt on the other hand is a bit different. The other night he ended up in a situation far too over his head. It was horrible. Really, really horrible. So, so bad that when he told me about it last night I had to put down the phone and go throw up. He was trapped. Like a lot of people who end up in these type of situations he didn't think it would get that bad-

Still something good came out of the whole ordeal- he realized that even during the more frightening moments he felt God.

I firmly believe that even in the darkest corners of evil and awful situations like these Christ comes through-

I love my Matt and I'm so glad he loves me. I'm happy that he could feel okay to tell me his experience.

Sometimes we learn our lessons the hard way.

hit me with a 20D

Seriously. I am in love (with Matt) oh and my 20D, too.

The light was so pretty today and my roomate was such a good model!

I can't wait to shoot the rest of the girls in our apartement.

For fun I added a photo album as a type list and you can check out the rest of the shots there-

Here's my favorite from today : )