Leo Tolstoy

When I was growing up we went to Las Vegas basically every summer to visit my dad's family. One year, a cat had left all its kittens in my aunt's sprinkler box. Thinking they were all girls, my parents volunteered to take one home with us (girl cats hunt mice and keep all those other pesky varmints out of the yard). Pirates of the Caribbean had just come out, and we thought the name Poppet, which is what the pirates call Elizabeth if you don't recall, would be cute. Turns out by the time we made it back to Arkansas little Poppet had become Captain Jack Sparrow the cat.

Cap'n Jack everyone:

January 1st the prompt was "today". I ended up taking photos of my mom's good friend's family that day, so I figured that counted, right?

We also got one of the daughter's to take a photo of the girls in my family. It's just crazy to me how fast we've all grown up. Especially that little girl in the middle.

Yes, the first post of the year had to be titled 'resolutions'. I am nothing if not a traditionalist (ask my parents. They can confirm this).

My resolution this year: take a photo every day and improve. So to get me started, I will be doing another photo challenge for the month of January! My goal is to do a photo challenge for every month of the year this year. Let's hope this resolution doesn't end up like so many others before it, and I actually can end strong.

Here's to a new year! Happy New Year everyone!

July 18th: Plate

I remember when my mom bought these plates. Ever the deal-hunter, she found the Villeroy & Boch outlet while living in Germany. Of course we took a road trip there. Of course she found amazing deals. Come on. It's my mom.

I went on an amazing hike today up American Fork Canyon. Can I just say, this was like... the Celestial Kingdom compared to the Telestial Kingdom of Provo Canyon. Not to get all Mormon up in here or anything.

But really.

We hiked for quite a while before reaching Silver Glance Lake. It was quite the reward, hiking all the way up there and seeing this lake at the top. I'm really tempted to go in the winter, because I have a feeling it would be surreal up there. I just have to get over the cold. I think it would be worth it though....

July 15th: Finger(s)

Driving back home from Nauvoo at dusk. Can I just say Nauvoo is one of the most inspirational and humbling places I have ever been. I went when I was twelve, but I don't think you can understand what leaving everything behind is like until you're a little bit older. And I probably still don't understand what that is like. I'm just glad I chose to shoulder the spiritual burdens rather than the physical kind. I know I was chosen to come at this time for a reason, because chances are, if I had had to lug a hand cart through six feet of snow as I hiked over the Rocky Mountains.... it just wasn't going to happen...

July 13th: Open

This seemed to be an appropriate photo to share today. I feel like the last couple of weeks have been about being open. And I have failed miserably at it. Be open to changes, be open to new ideas, "don't worry about it." Where am I going to be in seven months? I have no idea. But I guess I am supposed to be open to whatever it is and just not worry about it. I sure would like to know what His plan is sometimes.

"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.

Ursula K. LeGuin

July 12th: Texture

I have started going weightlifting with Bri in the morning. And I am being completely honest when I say that I don't think I've ever been this sore in my entire life. So I better look smokin' hot in a little while. A killer body in exchange for a (hopefully) few days of soreness.

I think I can handle that...

July 11th: Letter

It has been a crazy week! I feel like I have been running around like a crazy person! Probably because I have been a crazy person trying to catch up in all my classes and move in at the same time. But I am caught up in my classes and the room looks pretty lived in now, so I'm hoping HOPING things will calm down now. We shall see!

I truly believe one of the greatest things about Arkansas, other than the people, is how green it is. I had seen someone do something like this in a photography magazine, so I wanted to try it out, put my own twist on it... literally... I think it turned out pretty cool!

July 10th: My Favorite Color

I will always love flying around Northwest Arkansas with my grandpa. There's something so fascinating about seeing the world you grew up in from an entirely different perspective. It seems.... big.

 

July 9th: Big

Wow... I don't think the photo needs to be this big... Oh well. This is usually where I get lunch. Leftovers are delicious and free.

In other news...

I'm not a reporter, what am I saying? 

Anyway, I leave good ol' Arkansas Saturday morning. I'm pretty excited to get back to Utah, I'm not going to lie. But I will miss being here, like I always do.

This one is pretty straight forward, I would say...

July 7th: Garden

I love hydrangeas. I would use them in my wedding bouqet....

This one took me a while to figure out what to do. Chair.... It seems so simple, but I didn't want some picture of a chair that I would post in my photo challenge, and then forget about it for the rest of forever. And then I remembered a very special "chair"...

July 6th:

I'll admit, I had no idea what to do with this one. Until I was walking around with my camera and noticed Schatzi in her customary spot under the coffee table in the hearth room.

Yes, we call all the rooms in our house fancy things like "hearth rooms". Just kidding. We absolutely do not.

July 5th: On the Floor

Schatzi became a part of the Stoker family right around my mom's birthday in 2001. Eleven years old! But she doesn't seem a day past four or five. She can still give Sophie a run for her money, and Sophie actually is five years old.

Even though she does get a tad... ok really jealous, she is deserving of her namesake. Having just moved home from Germany, we thought the German word for sweetheart would be a cute name for our new dog. So sweetheart is what she was named, and that's just what she is.

My mom knows how to throw a party. That is a fact.

Growing up we always had a party for every holiday, so of course this included the Fourth of July. My mom started the tradition many years ago of having my grandpa, who is a retired pilot with United Airlines, fly over our house in his plane and drop streamer-wrapped candy from the plane window to the waiting children below.

Sort of like a pinata... but way cooler...

So essentially I'm fairly confident no one knows how to have fun like my family does...

I think a lot of people would agree with me on this one:

The best part of the day is when you finally get to turn off the lights and snuggle down in your covers at the end of the day.

Schatzi usually protects me from Samara... eh hem... sleeps with me...

For my mom's birthday several years ago, my dad put in what we call "the courtyard". There's a fountain and a place to sit and eat breakfast. My mom planted ivy next to the fountain and it has been growing ever since. It is now a regular site to see mom and dad outside pulling the ivy off the windows. The ivy keeps us quite busy with it's growing, I would say.

I wrote on here a couple weeks ago that I was doing another Photo-a-Day Challenge for July. I finally finished going through them all, so I wanted to start sharing them on here. And maybe give more of a description than I gave on facebook.

July 1st: Self Portrait

Can I preface this description with an "I hate taking photos of myself. And I'm not too fond of pictures being taken of me." I think the only person I really ever let take pictures of me is my mom... and probably only because she insists. So to have "Self Portrait" be not only in May's photo challenge, but also in this one, I was thinking to myself "What the heck?!" So I sort of cheated. This was originally one of my senior photos that the very talented Anna Jones (my photography inspiration, by the way) took several years ago. You know... when I was a senior. In high school. (How the heck am I already a senior in COLLEGE?! Let alone a super senior....)

In my IB Art class my senior year one of the assignments was a self portrait. So I picked this one and drew it in charcoal.

Then I sort of cheated and took a photo of the drawing of the photo for the photo challenge...

So that's the story!

 

So I am doing another photo challenge in the month of July. I've taken several so far, I just haven't gotten around to getting them off the camera, into photoshop/lightroom, and onto the blog. I will get there sometime soon though. I'm excited!