Still In Love With The Camera

 We went camping this week. I got to really use my camera for the first time and I am loving it!

 I messed with a couple settings for the picture on the left:)

 I thought the picture of the left was interesting. A fork in the road, but you can only go one way. I had to snap the picture for this one.

 I messed with more settings on the right:)

 I've discovered that my camera hates when the water reflects the sun. If there's a setting to fix that I would love to know about it:)

 Creepy spider web. Ew.

 I love this picture! All the pretty green leaves:) I looked up and decided that I wanted a picture of it:)

 I sat my camera on the handrail of the bridge that crossed the creek. Yes, I am pretty proud of this picture!

 The one on the right is looking straight down off the bridge.

 Another tree shot:) I love pointing the camera straight up and snapping the picture:)

 A natural archway:)

Babbling About Introvertedness

Wow! Two posts in one day! Yeah, I'm trying to redeem myself. Let me know when I'm forgiven.

In light of The Notebook Sisters almost recent posts about introverts here and here (upon looking the posts up to give you links, I realized that they aren't as recent as I though they were) I decided to share my own recent experiences with introvertedness- that's a word, right? I don't think spell check likes that word.

We recently joined a new church. We love it. But, a new church means a new youth group. I only knew two out of fifteen of them (Sarah and Thomas). We'd been going for a couple weeks and we decided to go to youth group on Wednesday night. I was a nervous wreck! It went pretty well over all, although I don't think I said more than two words to any of the teens that I didn't know! When I try to talk in front of a bunch of people, or to someone I don't know, my face gets blood red! It's quite unattractive and embarrassing. As if going to youth group on Wednesdays wasn't nerve wracking enough, we decided to go with them on their back-to-school bash. We went to a water park and an amazing restaurant called Lambert's! Four and a half hours, total, on a bus with people you don't know! I was terrified! To help me out a little bit, I dragged five of my friends with me! That helped a lot! The day went great and I had loads of fun, but I still didn't talk to the people I didn't know. On the way home, though, two of the guys (Matt and Beau) decided they wanted to talk to me! The conversation went a little like this:

Matt: Hey, you in the pink, I don't know you're name.
(that there isn't the greatest way to start a conversation with me. I understand that if you don't know my name you don't really have anything to call me, but I'm not fond of "you in the (shirt color)" references)

Me: I'm Jordan.

Matt: I'm Matt.

Beau: I'm Beau. Sup.
(He did that little upwards nod thing that guys do when they think they're soooo cool. I hate that.)

Me: (At this point I think it's safe to say my face was a red as a tomato! I wasn't sure I could form a reply that wouldn't sound A: rude or B: stupid, so I did what I always do when I'm embarrassed: roll my eyes, turn away, and try to ignore it.)

Beau: (jokingly) Oh, I see how you are then!

Me: I don't say sup. (Finally! Words that weren't completely stupid!)

Matt: (Matt had been sitting back and watching with an amused look on his face since Beau said sup, but he took this time to rejoin the conversation) Well then, what do you say?

(I was stumped! I hadn't made any new friends in like, four years, so I was completely clueless on what to say next! Thankfully, Sarah decided to jump in and save me at this point!)

Sarah: She'll say it to me! Sup, Jordan.

Me: (Grinning stupidly and fighting back a laugh at the thought of their faces when I said it) Sup. (I even added the annoying little nod)

Beau: (jokingly) Oh! Now I really see how you are!

After that I left the conversation and let Sarah explain to them that I'm not used to having to talk to people I don't know (I had been talking to her about that a little while earlier), which led to a conversation the next Wednesday between Matt and I about why I'm not used to talking to people. I blamed introvertedness (which I had to define for him) and homeschooling.

Since then things have gone a lot smoother! I've made friends with almost every one! I am super proud of myself for that! I also joined a band! Our youth pastor, two guys that go to church there, and any of the youth that want to participate are in a praise team:) I play keyboard and sing a little:) It's very fun! And practice is the highlight of my week just about every week! :)

I realize that I just did a ton of talking, so I'll post some pictures and be quiet now:)

Never. Not even when I'm old and grey and thirty! Haha!

I love this quote! It's possibly my favorite quote ever!

 

See you soon! Maybe. Probably not. :P

New Camera:)

Gosh! I promised these pictures like two months ago! I cannot get used to this blogging once a week thing! I tried to get myself to do that. We're seeing how that worked out :P

 I am in love with this camera!:) I have been picture happy ever since I got it:) The first three were taken with a old film filter:) I love it. It makes the pictures look old and little eerie.

 I messed with the brightness and other things in the next two. It made the colors look so vibrant:)

Same old film filter on this one:) It looks like a picture from a silent film or something. 

 

Look! A bunny! I have a ton of pics of rabbits!:) We had some living under our shed this year:)

I love tags!

The title says it all. I love doing tags!:) Thanks to Lydia for tagging me:) On to the fun part!

 

 

1. What's your comfort food?

Dad's chili, mom's taco soup, Granny's potato soup, or Nana's beef stew. Basically, if it's a soup or stew and it's cooked by someone special it's my comfort food:)

 

2. Any pet peeves related to blogging?

Not really. Mainly just misspelling. I mean, use spell check people. It's there for a reason.

 

3. Favorite youtubers?

There are so many! Let's see: The Piano Guys for sure, Pianomusiclovr (he's an amazing piano player!), Anthem Lights, Zeldaxlove64 (this girl can sing!), The Gardiner Sister (they're even better than Zeldaxlove64!), and Kylelandry (so many amazing Disney piano covers!)

 

4. What book are you currently reading?

Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter and my friends first draft:)

 

5. Favorite Tumblr blog?

Victoriasnails (awesome nail blog) and theallycarter.

 

6. What movie do you find yourself quoting incessantly?

The Princess Bride, The Avengers, and The Matrix. I have to explain the last one:) In The Matrix the bad guy calls the good guy Mr. Anderson. My best friend's last name is Anderson, so I call her dad that every time I see him.

 

7. Beverage of choice?

Dr. Pepper, pink lemonade, or good ole' sweet iced tea:)

 

8. Favorite book you've read all year?

Easy. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer:) If I can have two it would be Cinder and Scarlet.

 

9. Current favorite television shows?

Merlin, Kickin' It, and Austin and Ally:)

 

10. Favorite blog post you've written?

Pass The Parcel , Wonka Showdown: Original vs. Remake , or Giants, Six Fingers, and a Pig King, Oh My!

 

11. Favorite ice cream flavor?

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE!!!!!!!! Unfortunately, Baskin' Robins is the only place around here who sells it and we don't go there often:( But it's still my favorite!

 

Now on to the hard part: my eleven questions.

 

1. Who wants to know what happened in Budapest? You need to following picture to understand. If you still don't, go watch Avengers.

 

2. Best 2013 movie so far?

 

3. A country you would like to visit?

 

4. Do you play any instruments? If so, what?

 

5. Hardback or paperback? Why?

 

6. Favorite book on your bookshelf?

 

7. What about favorite movie that you own?

 

8. Day person or night owl?

 

9. Youtubers you recommend?

 

10. Favorite joke?

 

11. If you could invite anyone, living, dead, real, or fiction, to a dinner party, who would it be? Why?

 

Jonnah

Caitria

The Notebook Sisters , yes, both of you.

Lana

Tag you're it!:)

 

 

 

 

Vacation, Pictures, and More Randomness

Ahhh! I haven't blogged in forever! Wait, don't I start every post with that sentence? I need to stop that. Anywho, vacation was awesome! Just in case anyone was wondering ;) Pictures will come anytime in the next month. Depends on how big of a procrastinator I decide to be.

 

Anyone seen Oz, The Great and Powerful? What about Jack the Giant Slayer? Two absolutely amazing movies! Anyone seen the trailer for the Disney sequel to The Wizard of Oz? It doesn't look like one of Disney's best.

Wednesday dad got a new truck. It's way bigger that his last one! There's so much more room in it. I got to drive it that evening!:) I did really good! But parking is hard. Parking is very hard.

Friday was Peyton, the monster my brother's birthday. We had some really good friends of ours come over. It was so much fun! There was a total of 17 people there! Nine adults, seven teenagers, and one 6 year old. And get this, ten of the people are all related. A family of six and a family of four related. I got pizza for the first time in forever! I had a total of eight pieces over the course of two days. No regrets.

Saturday we had a yard sale. We were very successful. It was a three family yard sale and we sold most everything. We mainly just had clothes left. I got a new toy that day, too!:) My brand-new camera! It's a Samsung WB100 and I love it! It takes amazing picture, has built in filters, a photo editor, setting for every photography scenario under the sun, 26x optical zoom, and it takes HD videos!. Which  is amazing, because two of my friends and I like to write, direct, act in, and produce out own mini-movies:) Oh, and did I mention the camera is my favorite color?

This post is seriously lacking in pictures, so I have to fix that. Upon searching my computer, I discovered that I have put my vacation pics on here, so here they are:

 

Peyton was convinced the lady was going to jump up!

I'm in the blue in all these pics:) Mom's in the orange, Peyton's in green, and dad's in charge of the camera(aka my phone) because I wanted pics, but refused to let go of the reigns. My horse's name is Art, mom's is Star, dad's is Burrito, and Peyton's in Shameless. I love riding now:) I wish there was a place around we could go ride. Oh, the pains of living in a small town.

Later that day we went to Shaker Village. It's kind of like an Amish village. We got to tour the village and meet some of the people who lived there. It was interesting:) They gave paddle-wheel boat rides, too! Dad is a boat captain, so he easily made friends with the captain of the Dixie Bell. Unfortunately dad is the only one with a decent picture of the boat, so I can't post it until he sends it to me. The pics are of a railroad bridge we went under. At one point in time it was the tallest bridge in the US. 

 The aquarium was fun:) We got to pet some penguins, and I got to get a picture of the otters:) I love otters. Sleeping otters are even better:)


We saw this castle when we were coming into Lexington:) We've seen it other times we went up that way, but I never got a good picture until now:) You can spend the night there, but it's super expensive. I would like to get a room there someday just so I could see the castle on the inside:)

The Creation Museum in last simply because I have more picture from there than anywhere else. I really wish the peacock would have put it's tail up for me. Most all of the mannequins, or whatever you want to call them, moved. It was a little creepy.

Did I mention that I hate putting pictures on here? It took me an hour to get all these position half-way decent, and I'm still not happy with them. Oh well. I guess I better get some writing done before I go to sleep.

Happy Birthday, Impossibilities of Light Packing, and Vacations

Happy Birthday to my best friend, Lydia! I'm a day late on the blog post, but I did "sing" you Happy Birthday on Facebook:) I decided that for the Blogger Happy Birthday I would get gushy and reminisce:) So, those of you reading this, Lydia and I met when she moved into the house next door(But we were both shy so we didn't actually become good friends until later). We both home schooled and had a mutual love for books, so once we got over the initial shyness we became the best of friends:) We've only known each other for a few years, but in those few years we managed to realize we have quite a few things in common. Such as:

-A love for books
-A desire to travel to different countries
-Loving old shows (Andy Griffith)
-Loving jokes (especially blonde jokes, even though my now has blonde in it :P)
-Writing
-We're both home schooled
-We both hate math
-Loving hidden object puzzles:)
-Strawberry Popsicles:)
-Among many other things:)

SOOO, to finish off the birthday celebration part of this post, I will virtually sing Happy Birthday to you, again, in French (Yes, I had to use Google translate) :)

Joyeux anniversaire à vous
Joyeux anniversaire à vous
Joyeux anniversaire chère Lydia
Joyeux anniversaire à vous

Spell check really hates me for that!

By the way, I tried to sneak to your house to steal your cake, but this guy beat me to it ;P

Now to the next part. I've come to the realization that it is impossible for me to travel light! We leave for vacation tomorrow and I have too much stuff. I packed enough outfits for everyday, plus one extra in case we get dirty and I want to change before we go anywhere else, plus two outfits to lounge in at the hotel.
I always pack a backpack when we go out of town. In my backpack I have:

-My kindle which is stocked with samples of every book on my To-Read list.
-Three notebooks
-Four pencils and two pens
-All of my Kindle accessories
-My iPod
-My iPod charger
-Two books
-Accessories to match every outfit
-Three pairs of sunglasses(in case, you know, one of the breaks, or doesn't match one of my outfits :P)
-My purse
-My phone charger
-Candy to satisfy the munchies
-I also added apps that I could put all of my book info and actually write on. Then, I put all the info into the apps.

I definitely can't pack light.

Now I talk vacation!:D We're going to Lexington, KY, Petersburgh, KY, and Cincinnati, OH. Tomorrow we get up no later than 5:00 make the 6 hour drive to Lexington. We will make any necessary stops at Dairy Queen and thrift shops along the way:) When we get there we're going to take an hour-long paddle-wheel boat tour:) Then, whatever else we find to do:) Monday, we're going to the Horse Park:) Tuesday, we go to the Creation Museum in Petersburgh. Wednesday, we get to play with penguins at the aquarium in Cincinnati:) Thursday, we make the even longer drive from Cincinnati back home, with the necessary stops mentioned before, and a stop at my grandma's house in KY:) It's going to be one fun-filled week!:)

Vacation 2013 here I come!!:D