*squeel*

Guess what is going to be coming in the mail  for me very, very soon.  A TELEPHOTO LENS!  Hip Hip Hooray!  Now I can stop borrowing Mrs. Jessica's!  haha!  I am so excited about this!  Can you tell?

 I'm especially glad that I am getting this lens before Autumn gets here because I want to take a ton of pictures of wonderful birds and animals.  I always think of them coming out in Autumn for some reason...haha. 
Here's one the pictures I took with the telephoto lens that I borrowed, along with all the swim meet pictures from my last post.  I'm in love...

Hope your day has been as fabulous as my day of painting.  *grin*  Cheerio mates!

swim meet at UT

Ross, Nate, and Kenzie are all part of the local swim team and today they went to their last swim meet at the UT professional pool.  Yeah, you heard me right.  Totally cool!  Nate and Kenzie had meets today and I borrowed my sister's friend's telephoto lens.  Man, do I want one of those things!

Nate's awesome dive.  This picture made me very proud.  haha.

 Love this picture.   The framing is so original!

The pool...and the diving boards, and that massive thing they do flips off of in the Olympics...Farthest pool was 17 feet deep and the other two were 8 feet.  Let's just say that it was VERY impressive.

Kenzie swimming past the flags.

Nate's swim coach telling him...something.  I'm not quite sure what kind advice he could have been giving.

Travis wishing Kenzie good luck.

Kenzie's "oh no" pose.  That big blur just happens to be someone's foot.  It looks pretty cool actually.

 Kenzie's swim coach encouraging her before she went.

 Kenzie taking off.  She came in an un-official first once actually.  It was un-official because she didn't hit the wall where she was supposed to so that the timer went off on her lane.  But it was first none-the-less.

 And I shall leave you with this warning.

AIDA

Before I started cleaning this morning, I was looking for a CD that I haven't listened to in a while and I found this.  The soundtrack to the Broadway musical AIDA.
Encore Theatrical, the theater in my town that I did White Christmas with, did AIDA a couple years ago and it has remained my favorite one they have done.  So, I'm glad I found the CD. 

Here's one of my favorite songs from the soundtrack!

Maybe one day, when my ship comes in (haha,) I can see AIDA as well as The Phantom of the Opera on broadway.  Ah, I'll just dream.

from blah to yeah {from the racks of the GW Boutique}

 My family loves the GW Boutique (a.k.a. Goodwill.)  We don't have the best Goodwill in the world but every so often we come upon something pretty awesome.  Now, I admit that this does not look awesome--in the least.  It is definitely a blah moment.  So, my mom was pretty lost at where my sister and I saw any sort of potential for this.

 It has--ahem, had--these awful shoulder pads. *shudder*  Why those things were ever "in" is beyond me.  Who wants to look like a football player---unless you actually are one?  It just never made sense to me.

 

 It was missing a button as well.

The Plan.

And it was turned into THIS!  Thank goodness we dumped those shoulder pads is all I have to say!  haha.  I wore it as my Fourth of July outfit. 

short+top mixture thing-Goodwill, bag-Liz Claiborne from Goodwill, necklace-Cameo from my grandmother, shoes-Hartstrings

 What do you think about it?

Do you have any clothing makeovers?

Do tell!

more pennsilvania trip

Just a couple more pictures from my trip!

 We visited more than one vintage stores and Goodwills!

 Hayden looking at the sights.

 A super cool church---one of many.

trying something new

While I was in Pennsylvania, I tried my hand at some wedding photography.  My cousin, Joey, was getting married to a very nice lady named Dana.  It was a very nice wedding.  I was pretty proud of my first attempt at wedding photography!

It was a beach-themed wedding.  I loved the bridesmaid dresses.

I think Dana's dress was the prettiest I've ever seen.

The cake was beautiful as well.

cake and kisses

At the reception this cute old lady decided that she was going to teach my mom some of the dances.  Oh, it was so funny.  She was the cutest old lady!

pennsylvania video

Like---me?!  haha!

I got back to my house last night after being away for a week and a half.  First, I went to a camp for five days, which I'll post about later, and then I left straight from there to go to Pennsylvania.  I went for a family wedding, which isn't in this post but will be in the next also.  Then we went to Kennywood!  That was SO much fun!  The next day we went sightseeing in Pittsburgh and then we left for my Uncle Mike's house.  Had a ton of fun and made a video to show you!

Came upon this guy cooking in front of a store in Pittsburgh. 

Went to Mt. Washington, where my mom and her siblings used to live.

Found this sign in Pittsburgh!  Isn't it great?

I've never seen people so into their team as the people in Pittsburgh.  I thought the people in Tennessee were into THEIR team!  

A cool sign!

My next post will tell even more about my great time!

the barbed wire pool and too many braids

My Summer

diving boards and swim suits

interesting dives and cute kids

 jumping up and down

 VBS and sticky tape

a lot of crazy third graders

staring contests

little kids and juice boxes

 two and a half hours worth of braids (27 to be exact)

barbed wire protected pools and interesting faces

very talkative little boys

jumping pictures

and

CRAZY FRIENDS

Went to the mall yesterday and bought a ton of stuff that I'll show you all later.  Going camping tomorrow and I'll be gone until Wednesday.  I'm going to try to capture the fireflies mating in the Smokey's with my camera...I hope it works!  Fingers crossed! 

Cheerio!