I Think My Laptop Hates Me...

So...
My BRAND NEW LAPTOP that my loving and awesome father gave to me for Christmas died.
Not even a year after we got it...
Hence the lack of posts.
Kinda hard to write a blog when you have nothing to write on.

*Sigh*
Wanna know the FUN part of this?
ALL of my Highschool curriculum was on there.
My Papers.
My Lessons.
My Projects.
All gone.

I... I can't even...
I'm gonna have to RE-DO all of that...
I'll get back to writing when I can.
Assuming my brain doesn't give out from having to re-do a whole semester of school that it worked VERY hard on...

God bless you all.
May your laptops, E-Readers, phones, Ipads, game consoles, etc. stay running and working well.

Camping And Tooth Pulling and Gaming, Oh My!

I'm so sorry I haven't updated much!
You see, right after I got back from camping in Sullivan County...
I had my wisdom teeth taken out a couple days later...
Eugh, my mouth hurts.

The swelling's gone down, thank you God...
I can't really chew, though.
Upside, slushies are a gift from above.
Mom was kind enough to play nursemaid to my brother and I while we recovered, and I really appreciate her taking over the household chores. I love you mom!

Okay, so a few weeks ago my family, myself, and my BESTEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD went camping, which I LOVE! Camping is something that I look forward to every summer SO BLOODY MUCH. Like, dang. When I was a little kid, I would get packed weeks in advance, plan out what I was going to do when we finished unpacking, decide which books I was going to bring, and count the seconds until it was time to go. I still kind of do most of these things, I'm just a little more laid back about it.(Not)

Okay, some people think that camping in a cabin isn't really camping. Who says? We're out in the wilderness, no internet, communicating with the people there, hiking, fishing, swimming, reading, biking, woodcarving, roasting marshmallows, having fun, and generally are happy just by being there. How does the place we stay in effect that? It really doesn't, though that may just be my opinion. But if you prefer camping in a tent, the place I went to has a really big place for tenting and RVs, so there you go.

Worlds End State Park is an absolutely stunning campground, and it's kind of my favorite place in the whole universe. The air is so clean, with just a hint of woodsmoke which gives it a kind of relaxing quality to me. The water in the creeks is so clear you can see the bottom of the streams and all of the life in them!
All of the surrounding woods gives the place such a calm, yet mysterious quality to it.
There is so much plant life, and so much wildlife, and everything feels like you're just in this kind of fairy tale!
It's a photographer's dream down there, and I got sooooooooo many good shots!
Also, within ten minutes of getting there, I managed to injure myself! What fun!
You see, what happened was, we got our bikes off of the car, and were wheeling them over to the cabin when I thought; "Hey, I should just ride this over, it'd be a lot faster!" So I hopped onto my bike and tried to ride up the stone path to the cabin, but I swerved to avoid bumping into my brother who'd been carrying other things in. Onto the dirt I go. I have to swerve again to avoid going down the slope that leads to the creek aaaaaaand flipped the bike over because I rode over a root...
Faceplant, hooray!
Ow...
Injury tally; One big cut on the hand that I stuck out to catch my fall.
One big cut on my chin.
Bent my glasses.
And bruised my dignity.

Fun times.
OH YEAH.
When I fell, my shoe got caught in the spokes of the bike and went flying of my foot.
And my pants, which have been very loose of late because of the diet I've been on, slipped down to my knees. I am so glad it was just Kateniss there to witness it.

After that, everything went really well. The week was really fun, not much else to really talk about.
I'm so glad I was able to spend a whole week with my best friend before she had to go to college. I miss her so much! But I'm glad she could go, it was a great opportunity.

After that, the aforementioned wisdom teeth surgery happened. VERY sore, but getting better now.
One good thing that came from this is that I'm finally getting to finish Skyward Sword, even though I've had it since it came out! Only problem it that demise keeps kicking my butt...

See ya next blog post!
God bless!

This Has Been CAMP SUMMER For Me!

So, I just got back from my second campout for the summer last night, and soon, I'm leaving for a third! :D
First campout I went on was with a friends Girl Scout troop. We were staying in one of the leader's backyards in tents.

Most of the girls there were around thirteen-fourteen, and they were real goofballs!
I shared a tent with Kateniss, my best friend, and one other girl.
It was a BLAST!!!
Kateniss and I played a round of In A Pickle that lasted about two hours, and all of the cards we placed stretched around us several times. I won! :3

BACON PIZZA FOR DINNER THAT NIGHT, WOOOOOOOOO
We then spent the night in my big tent playing Battleship and giggling at random stupid things.
...
CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES, BACON, AND HOT CHOCOLATE FOR BREAKFAST, EVEN MORE WOOOOOOOOOOO

Kateniss and I helped the troop with a birding Merit Badge, then we went swimming.
Then, she and I went to go sleep over at her house because her Family Reunion was the next day, and she was awesome enough to invite me! That was ALSO very fun! :D

Second campout was about forty-five minutes away, at a place called Christian Youth Fellowship Camp.
A friend of mine, named Juanita, invited me to go, and she even volunteered to pay half of my camp fees!
Uuunfortunately, I still had my tooth ache when I got there... But it went away soon after, thank GOD!!!

All of the campers were divided into four teams, The Prophets, The Fishermen, The Judges, and the Shepherds. I was on the fishermen!
The camp lasted four days, from Thursday to Sunday, hence why I haven't posted anything for a little while.
The cabin I was in was awesome! It could hold five people, and was divided into two bunk rooms, and one big bathroom. No air conditioning, but we had fans.

In the cabin were Rose(Kateniss's sister)

Allysa(Someone I'd never met before this year, but she's really funny and nice)

Juanita(She offered to pay half of my fees, and she also volunteered to do my hair. We're great friends, even though half of our conversations consist of threats of violence to each other)


                                          Emily(Kateniss's other sister. She's cranky. Also funny.)

                              And yours truly! ("The picture of sophistication and grace!")

We managed to get through the weekend without killing each other, a sign that there is a God watching out for all of us! ;)

We did Bible quizzing

 And Kickball(Yes, we played it on a Baseball field)

Softball too!

Not to mention the skits! I HAD TWO PARTS IN MY TEAM'S SKIT. I'd upload video, but every time I try to post it, it says there was an error, and it won't load :/

My team ended up winning every sport, and we got voted best skit too! :D

We all got closer to God in our own ways, and many spiritual battles won at that camp!
I am so very grateful to have a God that loves us and blesses us so, and I'm glad I live in a country where I won't be sentenced to death for loving God and spreading his word.

I was really sad to leave, but on the upside, my team won the first place prize for having the most points at the end of the week! :D

I'm going to Sullivan County soon, I'll post pictures of the beautiful place when I get back!
I am SO looking forward to spending time with my crazy, annoying, AWESOME family!

Where do YOU like to camp, if you like to?
~God bless~!
See ya next post!
*Note*
I did not take a lot of these pictures, as the memory on my camera was full. Many of these were taken by Juanita's mother, or by a friend. 

My Mouth Hates Me.

So...
I tried to go on a bike ride. Uh, mistake.

You see, my tooth has been bothering me for the past few days.
Like, a lot. Enough that I'd rather not eat anything solid. Soup and apple sauce for the past couple days...
(Better than nothing ~Especially since it's more than some people in the world eat, sadly...~ but boring as un-buttered toast. And I can't even eat that. -_-' )

I've been trying to lose weight recently, and since I hadn't really done anything for exercise today, the bike was calling me. It's a really nice bike, rides REALLY well, stops pretty much on a dime etc. etc.
Yeah, anyways... The more my heart-rate increased, the more the pulsating agony in my tooth increased...
It was like someone had taken a rubber mallet and had started pounding on the little thing...

I swear, the entire right side of my head is throbbing...
*Sigh*
 Already have a crown in this tooth, AFTER having a root canal...
Now it's going to have to be pulled.
Fun times.

HOWEVER.
I do know a recipe for a kind of corn meal/gruel/mushy substance called Grits that's really good, especially if you're sick or having mouth problems. Tasty too, which is good as it looks like I'm going to have to live on that for a few days...

Here it is!
 Makes one pretty big serving

•  One third of a cup of Quaker Oats dry Grits(You can normally find them with oatmeal in whatever store you shop at)
  
•  One cup of milk
• One cup of water
• A whisk to stir with
• A small pot

Mix all of the ingredients into the pot and stir them all together on medium heat.
Keep stirring the whole time, until the mush begins to thicken.
It should be slightly hard to stir at this point, when that happens take it off the stove and pour it into a cereal bowl. 

Now you need

• Sugar to taste
• Butter to taste. Margarine is good too.

Mix it all together, wait 'till it's cooled down a little bit, then chow down!
The Grits should be nice and fluffy and sweet!

I hope you like it as much as I do!
Tell me what you think about it in the comments, please!
What do YOU like to make when you're not feeling well? :)

See you next post!
~God Bless~!

How I Got Interested In Photography

Alright... This is my first post, and I'm not terribly good at writing, so please bear with me if this is boring, I'm just starting out... I hope this is the first of many posts as I get better at this in the upcoming years!

Have you ever heard of a co-op? It's like a sort of extra curricular thing for homeschoolers. It can be academic, or it can be more for just learning new fun things, or just doing new activities.
Mine is more for fun, and has three class periods, with a lunch break afterwards.
The people there are all very nice, and I've made a whoooooooole bunch of good friends there. :)

One year, they were offering a class on beginner's photography for second period, and since there weren't any other classes that I was interested in, and Kateniss, my best friend was going for it, I signed up for it too!
My family had an old camera that I used from time to time, although I'd never really had much of an interest in photography.

The teacher was a nice guy, very friendly and funny. He was a pretty good teacher, and I learned a decent bit about photography, like don't always put the object that you're taking a picture of in the middle of the frame, sometimes it looks better if it's more to the side.

That year at Christmas, my AMAZING parents got me a shiny AWESOME new camera for a present! It worked like a dream, the focus was awesome, the clarity was beautiful, and I couldn't ask for a better one!

I found I really enjoyed taking pictures of things in nature, landscapes, flowers, trees, animals, you name it!
But I didn't really have anywhere to post my pictures, so I ended up just stopping for a while, which I didn't like, but what was I going to do with all of these pictures? We couldn't print them, we couldn't afford to buy all of that ink and paper! So, for a few years, my love of photography had to be stifled for convenience sake, sadly. :(

One day, I was on a page I'd liked on Facebook, surfing through the pictures they'd posted. Then I saw a picture that someone had posted from another website, called deviantART.com. Hesitantly, I checked it out,  being paranoid about viruses and all that. Well, I really liked the stuff I'd found on there, so I made an account, just wanting to like pictures and comment, not really thinking about posting anything at the time, thinking that it was a site for paintings only, and I had little interest in that.

I began browsing around on there, looking at all of the amazing things that people created with their various artistic talents. And THEN... I found a photography page! I was shocked, I thought you could only post paintings and digital art on there!(I admit, it had never really occurred to me to check... I never said I was smart :p )

Well, for the next few days, my camera and I were inseparable. Everywhere I went, I had it with me, ready to grab a winning snapshot of anything that crossed my path! Sloooowly, I started getting views and favorites on the pictures, and each time I got a notification about it, I just felt amazing! :D Ever since then, photography has been the love of my life, and I couldn't be happier about being where I am today!

Here's the link to my deviantART page! ; http://linkwannabe42.deviantart.com/
Here's the link to the artist that I was interested in checking out when I first got on!;http://stephanothestatue.deviantart.com/(Sadly, she doesn't update anymore, due to lack of inspiration, but she has a new page right here! ;http://castel-eown.deviantart.com/. I gotta warn you, she swears a lot. Don't go to her page unless you're prepared for some nasty words, although it is well worth it, as she is a great artist, and a nice person!)

What inspires YOU to make art, if you do?
See ya next post!
~God bless~!