memory lane - some more favorites

when josh and i worked at woodleaf we spent 90% of our time in our editing suite or filming... for the most part... ahem, anyway, this camp actually had REALLY good food. so when it came time for dinner we would go pick some up and bring it back to the office. however, our office was so small that we didn't have anywhere to eat so we would set up a table in the bathroom... no kidding... and eat our steak dinner with broccoli and raspberry cheese cake. no joke. so this is josh and i during a friday night dinner in our office bathroom. - the summer after our last summer there, james remodeled and quite frankly i'm a bit bitter.


this is from one of my trips to disney world. this was freshman year on a 'mystery flight.' we bought plane tickets for $60 round trip and we had no idea where we were going. we were told to arrive at the airport at 5am and we'd find out where we were going when we checked in for the flight. so, we found out... on halloween weekend that we were spending the day in orlando. so we were pumped!! we got there and decided to spend the day in disneyworld. this is ryan and i, in line for some ride. i have no idea why i was so shocked at whatever but i love the picture! we caught our flight home at something like 8pm that night and we were back on campus for bed time. it was INCREDIBLE!


junior year prom. i paid a woman to do my makeup and i ended up looking like a hooker. it was very unfortunate. so then i did my own makeup in about 5 minutes and i look a little goth. i was just excited because i went to prom with someone i thought was so cool. plus i doubled with my friend chris stutzman so that made it more fun. and it was TEN years ago this past month. crazy how time flies. i LOVED my dress but should have rethought the hair... bummer


me and my nephew jacob who is now NINE, at my cousin susies wedding


my grandparents at my cousin jeffs wedding. they are quite the party animals. i believe they rang in the new year with the rest of us.


these are all of the cousins - except kaitlyn - at desert with my grandparents at their 60th anniversary weekend. all the cousins went to desert to hear stories and advice about how you make it 60 years. for the most part their advice was, "never give up" and "have separate bathrooms." and they live by example, they have always kept trying and they've always had their own bathrooms...


so, i'm in a meeting one morning at camp and we were trying to come up with an idea for the summer staff tshirts. we were trying to explain to churches that they were supposed to use us to their advantage. so i JOKINGLY say, "let's just put, 'i'm a tool' on the front of the shirt, that way they know they can use us." sure enough, we printed hundreds. there were some unhappy people and i was the FIRST to admit that it was SO STUPID. but that's just me.


these are all my roommates from the summer of 2001 at woodleaf: kat, liz, amanda, bryan, josh, tim, dave, brent and our boss mark, during one of our weekly dinner meetings at marks house. that was the best summer of my life. some of the best stories and experiences that i still rely on to get through tough days. these 9 people changed my life.


here i am holding the actual oscar from the movie U-571, not a good movie but phenominal sound and they won for the sound. and i'm holding it in a post house in LA in 2003. pretty cool.


meredith and i in london, the day after st. patricks day wearing our tshirts that we won in the pub the night before. okay, we didn't win them so much as ask for them so we didn't have to dance on the bar but it totally worked! the back of the shirt says, "something to eat, something to drink and someone to love." if ever you're in london go to waxy o'connors in picadilly circus. coolest pub in london.


thats right, this is my dog on my jetski summer of 04 i believe. she rode on the jetskis and the boat from the day i got her, and to the day LOVES the water. pretty great actually.


all of the afore mentioned roommates in front of the golden gate bridge. again, great stories, amazing trip to san fran.


another picture from woodleaf. summer of 2000 after a bad day on the lower truckee river while kayaking. it was actually a wonderful day but it started by getting stuck in a strainer (a dead tree in the water that tries to drown you) honestly, probably the closest i've ever been to dying. once josh and i got out and to the side of the river, i threw up everywhere. i think it was nerves but it was probably the water intake. well, i had just applied my sunscreen about 3 minutes before we got dumped underwater so it all washed off and my bottle of sunscreen went flying down the river when the kayak tipped. so, for the next four hours, at a higher elevation in lake tahoe, in open topped kayaks, my legs baked. and this is result. 2nd degree burns on the fronts of my legs. as you can see the red, that's real. no photoshop. three of the girls had burns like this and we were stuck in the house putting some sort of vinegar concoction on our legs for three days i think. it was so painful i can't even express myself. but we lived and that was close to not happening.


this is me and the professor who is responsible for motivating me through four years of college when i truly didn't believe i was capable of doing it. i owe my degree to this man and my mother. plain and simple.


this is my favorite picture from camp adventure when my friends and i were counselors. i just love the photo!


my friends in high school and i took swing lessons my senior year. little did i know that it would pay off come freshman year of college. grand rapids has a 'celebration on the grand' every year downtown and my freshman year they had a ton of people dancing and then all of a sudden a swing band came on and no one knew how except mark and i. it was great!


i took this picture when ben and sarah and i were watching the fireworks at disney world. i LOVE this picture. again, no photoshop!


one of my best friends meredith - who has always had a heart for missions - who is now a 2nd grade teacher in south central LA at LA Christian School. i had no idea that passion would become her profession.


well, if you're not bored, you're amazing! a little trip down memory lane.