Abreviations 101

This photo was taken a while ago at the Page versus Centenial game. I'm pretty sure "Page'en" doesn't make any sense. What it should be is a slang version of paging, which is PAGIN'.
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Doesn't this make you feel all warm and fuzzy about high school education? Erm... not so much.

Senior Portraits

I got my portraits done by McCaffrey Photography.

Senior Tee Shirts

I've been waiting for this day for a long time. Every year the band seniors make matching tee shirts to wear on what we call 'Senior Day' at band camp. (I know what you're thinking; I've heard it a million times. "This one time at band camp...") Only eight of our fifteen seniors showed up, but we managed to have fun anyway. I forgot to get a picture of the finished shirts, but here are some photos of the creative process: Nicolle, Robin and I went to Wal Mart to get supplies. We sort of over estimated on how much paint we'd need, so I suppose we'll be making some returns. Better to be safe then sorry.

Our shirt design was really cool. On the front we painted a magic eight ball because we're the class of 2008.

On the back we drew the blue triangle revealing your fortune with a list of all the shows each senior performed in.

Normally waiting for paint to dry is considered boring, but not with this group. Making shirts was a really great opportunity for all of us to reflect on the past week at band camp, as well as the last three years and discuss what's ahead for us too (namely college).

This is Robin and I discussing the correct technique for articulating on the clarinet. I was trying to show her that I play with the sides of my tongue touching my top teeth and it's the tip that hits the reed, but it was difficult to show her exactly what I meant because I typically don't play with my mouth open wide enough for her to examine the position of my tongue.

Josh is sort of new at this whole marching band thing. Last fall, he filled in for a trumpet player who quit. I think he's happy with his spontaneous decision. I know the rest of us are glad to have him.

This is Morgun demonstrating his Taekwondo skills. Not really, he just uses his hands a lot when he tells stories. Although, I did learn today that he and Rachel did take Taekwondo when they were younger.

Here's one of my favorite people ever, Rachel, wondering if she should pursue revenge on Robin and I after our pathetic attempt to tackle her. We wouldn't stand a chance, even two against one.

Lucky for us, she managed to stay benevolent.

Auggie

This is Auggie, short for August, the newest edition to our family. That's a grape he's eating. Isn't he gorgeous?

College Visit II: ETSU

This was actually more like College Visit V, but it's only my second post about it so II seems fair. I'd written this very lame synopsis about my visit to East Tennessee University earlier this evening, but after coming back and reading it a few hours after I'd published, I realized how pointless the post was. To sum up the important parts, I loved ETSU. After our tour, mom and I spent a few hours getting lost (intentionally) so we could see the area. Johnson City was a really cool place. I'm sort of high maintenance when it comes to entertainment. There seemed to be a lot to do. The residential part of town was adorable. All the houses looked something like this:



As you can see, it's perfect for me. There were lots of flowers and yard decorations. It was very easy to imagine myself reading and writing as much as I pleased in these little homes. I want one so bad, but I'll be living on campus if I end up going to school there.

I'm looking forward to college. Shopping for schools makes me really excited to finally go. When we got to our hotel in Johnson City I created a hypothetical schedule and everything. =) It'll be interesting to learn about a particular topic (my major) in such depth instead of the basic education we get in all subjects at high school. I learn a lot in all my high school classes, but I have to take everything (math, history, science) and when I go to college I'll be able to focus on what I enjoy most (English/Journalism?).

Just because I'm a complete goof, here are the classes I'm most looking forward to: Literature of the South, Descriptive Linguistics, History of Jazz, and Photo Journalism. We'll see if I don't end up changing my mind.

In case you didn't notice, I changed WRINKLED THOUGHT's layout again. Farewell juicy green blog that hurt my eyes.

Grand Hallows Ball

Originally I was planning on going to the Barnes and Noble Harry Potter party because that's where all my friends were going, but luckily the got some sense knocked into them and agreed to go to Borders (like we always do). As much I was wishing I had more time being an ignorant fan not knowing what's going to happen next, I went to the party because there was no way I was going to miss out on the fun.My buddy Robin drove. She looks a lot like Luna Lovegood if you ask me.

We got there early, but we still were some of the last to get the wrist bands that indicated the order of which people would be receiving the book. We were going to have to wait a while.

It was hard to believe in a few hours we'd be holding the book we've been waiting for for so many years. All of us reminisced about how when we read Sorcerers Stone, book seven seemed so far away.

There were lots of our friends there.

And the Borders staff gave us free glow sticks.


We met lots of fun characters from the books; this is Professor Trelawny...

and the Whomping Willow (does the Whomping Willow count as a character?)...

and a young Ron Weasley.

(Wanna know a secret? These release parties aren't really all that fun. We just go because we want to be able to get the book at midnight. We had to keep ourselves busy.) Mark worked on his summer reading.
Cassie tried to catch up on all the things she'd fogotten about in book six.

Ben and Corey discovered this... erm... interesting synopsis of the old testament.

We started to get pretty tired.

But soon enough, the sound of a drum echoed through the store. It was time.

The books were here!

Waiting in line got very boring so Robin and I decided to go pick up our copies at Wal Mart. We imagined the line would be much shorter there. We were right.

And then we got lost in the parking lot.

Mission Trip

Here are some photos (courtesy of Laura Stancher's Facebook) from the mission trip I went on last week to inner city Knoxville TN. We had about 10 youth from our church, St. Andrew, along with 50 or so other ELCA Lutherans stay at St. Johns for about a week and help out serving various ministries in the area.

This is Aaron painting the Volunteer Ministry Center. We also painted the hallway. I wish I would have got a picture of that awful blue color the upstairs used to be.

This is Preston and his biggest fan. This photo was taken at the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission (aka KARM), a homeless shelter. A group went there and babysat the kiddos so the adults could have a meeting. Preston had the pleasure of being the only male coming from St. Andrew. I don't think he minded.

This is my friend Kaleigh and baby Heather at KARM. Heather is two monthes old. Kaleigh is seventeen years. =)

This is Kristen, a resident at KARM, and I. I've spent a lot of time with kids this summer so I left the babysitting up to my fellow mission workers and chatted with Kristen instead. We had fun.

The group did a scavenger hunt and part of our assignment was to take a picture representing a transformation. Our team did baptism, represented by our playing in the fountain. During the race, I had the interesting experience of being held hostage in a bathroom. I took a potty break towards the end of our little competition and found that the door wouldn't open. Another team was holding it from the other side demanding me to give them answers. You'd expect me to be angry, but I actually found the whole event to be hilarious! I about died laughing on the bathroom floor.

Elizabeth (blue shirt) and I met these two lovely ladies at Guy. B. Love, a sort of nursing home. We put on a Christmas in July pageant and then sat down with the residents for cookies. Valarie and Mary were hilarious. They told us all about their favorite Christmas memories and they even sang us their favorite song. I don't remember what it was called. They also asked us to pray that all the demons haunting Guy. B. Love go away.

Here's Emily B. trying on some of the kid ties while we hung up the baby clothes at Angelic Ministries. AM is a place where people can get clothes (for job interviews as well as pajamas), beds, toasters, shoes, strollers and other necessities. They pair each shopper with a guide who helps you find what you need and serves as a sort of spiritual mentor.

This is my youth leader, Sarah, cringing while we go through a series of trust falls.

This one was called "the wind and the willow". Elizabeth looks like she's enjoying these trust falls a lot more than Sarah.

This is me and my new buddy Gavin. He's quite a handful. I met him at the Wesley House, a summer camp for kids from lower income families.

This is a group of us and the Water Wagon.

What's a Water Wagon?

The Water Wagon crew walks around down town Knoxville and serves water to whoever is in need of a cool drink.

The Water Wagon was definitely a high point of my week.

Saint Andrew Lutheran Youth (plus Elizabeth).

WOW week 3.