repeating old words.

Listening to: Live it Up by Group 1 Crew.
Quote love: “One was a book thief. The other stole the sky." Markus Zusak, from the Book Thief.

I began and finished the Book Thief this weekend. I was in a van on the way to Chicago when I finished. I sat there with the book in my hands for a few minutes before I put it down; I crawled into the back seat and lay there, debating whether I wanted to cry. It was amazing, beautiful, and sad.

I'm head-over-heels in love with Darcy. He's amazing...he works well, takes beautiful pictures, and he's completely amazing. I haven't had to edit any pictures since I've gotten him.

My giveaway. Yeah, that one. You followers are so disappointing sometimes! I had all of two people enter, one of them being my sister. So here's the thing: I'm postponing it indefinitely. I will probably open it up at some future time, but for now, I'm closing it down. Speaking of my sister, Darcy takes great pictures of her. :)

Fall is finally here. I could go over everything again, but I've said it all: Pumpkin Spice Latte, beautiful fall leaves, You've Got Mail, bonfires, wool socks and boots, comfy old hoodies.

I keep expecting this autumn to be like last year. I get tripped up when I realize how different everything is, and how much I've changed. This time last year, all my time was spent at soccer games and church. I would try as hard as I could not to miss a game. We would huddle under blankets and hoodies against the cold and the rain. Every Sunday and Wednesday night I would be at church, and I loved it. I started my sophomore year somehow expecting it to be like my freshman year: before my friendship with someone incredibly close to me shattered. It's different now, but in a good way, I think.

Darcy take gorgeous pictures, and this one is my new favorite. :)

the brand new camera.

Listening to: Jesus Muzik by Lecrea. 
Quote love: “At the end of the day, we got a fish-tank, two fighting fish, and pitted them against each other in what we thought would be an epic battle. Turns out that it was a lady fish and a man fish, and they just kissed on the lips the whole time. Love is a mystery than can only be grasped by the weak and vulnerable."  Matt Theissen

It's here. I love it so much. I could pretend that I know what I'm doing, I know how to use it, and I know how to get the autofocus button to work, but I don't.

It's slightly frustrating, but way more rewarding. The pictures aren't great yet, but they're getting better.

I'm still learning to use the flash correctly and remembering that this is not a point and shoot, and the lenses don't go in by themselves.

I'm still trying to work out the kinks, find what shooting style is easiest, and realizing that my lenses will hit my sister in the eye if I get to close.

I'm waiting for the leaves to change to crimson, and fall to the ground for my brother rake up in big piles. I'm waiting until the temperature goes down from the 90s and it starts to feel like autumn again. And the camera (affectionately named Darcy)? Well, I love it.

love:

It's here. And I love it.so.much. It's absolutely beautiful. I cannot stop smiling....I lovelovelove it. My Pentax k100d. My brother laughed at me when I told him I wanted to name it Gregor. You know, from the Metamorphosis? I liked that novel. I can't wait to take some amazing pictures. :)

happy fall.

Listening to: How to Save a Life, by the Fray
Quote love: “If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Lewis Carroll

My room smells like warm coffee mixed with Stride gum. The old, dusty book smell (irreplaceable to people like me) winds in and out of the heavy coffee scent. On a good day, the outside air comes in, filling the room. It pulls the fresh-off-the-line sheet smell and twirls it through the smell of Redken Fresh Curls that lingers in the air by my mirror. The rain pounding down outside my open window comes in, puddling slightly at the edges of the broken windowsill.

I stand close to the window and run my hand across the screen. The rain is coming in harder now. The countryside comes alive in the rain, the heavy gray sky overshadowing the vibrant greens and reds. This is fall: bright colors, cool days and cold nights, crisp air, bright stars scattered across the sky like so many pieces of broken diamonds. Fresh apples, slowly burning fires, long hot showers, rain pouring down.

very first giveaway!

Thanks to Booksneeze, run by Thomas Nelson Publishers, I received a free copy of You Were Made to Make a Difference, written by Max Lucado and his daughter Jenny Bishop.

I read and reviewed it, and now I'm passing it on to you!

The requirements: 

• follow my blog. 
• comment telling me you want to be entered. 

 Extra entries:

• did you follow prior to the giveaway? good for you; you get an extra entry. 
• blog about it, Facebook it, or tweet it for another entry. 
• add my button to your sidebar and get another entry. 

Total number of entries available: four. that's four different chances to win! please leave one comment for every entry; it'll make it that much easier for me to count out the entries when the giveaway is over.

The giveaway will end on October 4th. I can't wait :)

EDIT: this giveaway is closed until further notice.

the list.

Listening to: Golden, by Switchfoot. 
Quote love: "If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats." Lemony Snicket

 1) booksneeze. thanks to Thomas Nelson publishers, I received a free copy of You Were Made to Make a Difference, by Max Lucado and his daughter Jenna. (Thomas Nelson publishes Ted Dekker and Donald Miller books- both two of my favorite authors.) It's a great program, and who doesn't like receiving free books?

 2) I'm famous in Australia. that may be more than a slight exaggeration, but the article I recently wrote with my dad had good reviews from there. Someone reblogged one of the quotes...thanks so much Dad for interviewing me, and thank you for your kind words about the article!

 3) my day: school; check the mailbox; more school; coffee break & check the mail box; open Google Reader, catch up on blogs; school; check the mail box. I'm realizing more and more how impatient I get when I have something in the mail...recently, my iPod nano 4th gen, Booksneeze book, giveaway prize, and now, the best yet: a Pentex k100 d DSLR. I bought it Saturday night, complete with the stock lense plus another lense. I cannot wait for it to get here. Saturday night I wrote on my best friend's wall to tell her that I bought it, and my amazing aunt commented and asked me if I wanted a film SLR and two more lenses for my new DSLR. Of course! Now, waiting, waiting.

 4) fall mornings are the best. beautiful sunrises, clear air tinged with old bonfires, wind swirling around the fallen leaves and dried grass. It's absolutely lovely.

 

 5) my mother leaves the day after tomorrow. it's the big trip to the Netherlands and England, and I can't express how much I wish I was going with her. Every few days I get a deep longing to go back and visit everywhere I miss. I keep reading Carlotta's blog about her trip in Germany...I miss it there too. It's funny how pictures of even my old country's neighbor make me want to go back.

How has your week been?

it's not going home anymore.

Jacob (2 1/2 yrs.) and I, the day before I left.

I answered countless questions this summer. Where I live, (turns out Indiana sounds a lot like India) how many siblings I have, what kind of school I do, when I was going home. I would tell people that I'd been in the Middle East since the end of May. At the end of the summer, people would tell me how they couldn't believe how long that was for me to be gone. I would tell them that I knew that, but I was going home soon.

I've been back for four weeks on Friday. I love being home with my family, doing normal things again. Youth group started the week after I got back, and we started school two weeks after I got home.

I love being here. I love being able to do everything that I missed this summer, but there's something missing. I have this whole family on the other side of the world, and I miss them. I miss seeing them every morning, playing games with the boys, and talking with my summer mom.

I'm so thankful that I could go to the Middle East this summer. I never ever thought that it would happen, but it did, and I loved it.

discoveries.

Listening to: A Whole New World from the Aladdin soundtrack. 
Quote love: “She took a doubtful step and then undid it.” Robert Frost

1) I was awake in time to see the sunrise this morning. It's a funny thing, being up this early. It'll become normal the longer school goes, but now it seems special, being up early enough to create your day.

2) I finally figured out how to upload new fonts onto Gimp. As of now, I've only edited one photo using one of my new fonts (my little sister's new header.) I can't wait to get more pictures up and edited. Gimp has quit twice since I upload the 80+ new fonts. Could it be because of the fonts? I really hope not.

 3) I wish that I could live in September and October, when the leaves are changing to gold and red and dark brown. The air is getting cool and crisp. We've had an apple spice candle burning constantly for the past few days. My brother had his first soccer game today. Soon we'll go up to an orchard and pick apples. Fall is finally here.

 4) New favorite picture. ^

I'd write him a letter.

Listening to: Hello Seattle by Owl City. Still unsure if I like Owl City or not.
Line love: “The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing...For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

If he was still alive, I would write him a letter. It would be a long letter, and I wouldn't try to sound too familiar because of how much I respect him. I'd ask him how his health was, inquire after any new books he was writing, ask him if he had any suggestions on reading material. At the end, I'd ask some advice. I'd ask him how to write well, how to pull my readers in and immerse them in my stories. I would ask him how I could write like him. I'd end with something polite, telling him how much I loved his books and how much they changed the way I looked at the world. And then I would mail it.


England is a long way away, and it would take a long time for my letter to get there. I would wait impatiently, checking the mail every morning. His reply would mean a lot to me.


Last night I heard a story about a woman who wrote him a letter when she was a girl. She was twelve years old, and he was dying. In his reply, he treated her like an equal. He told her how "us writers" have to stick together. He typed that letter, and included a handwritten note for her. He said that he was terribly sorry that he couldn't write his reply in his own hand, and explained that he was too ill.


I was born about 40 years too late. He died in November of '65.

If I could write him a letter now, I'd ask him if Heaven is like Narnia; if Lucy and Peter and Edmund are there. I would ask him why Susan stopped believing, and I would ask him if he really did meet George McDonald like the main character in the Great Divorce did. At the end of the letter, I would thank him. I would thank him for his books, for all the words that he wrote, the words that inspired so many people. I would thank him for his life.