Remodeling

So I am starting to work on a remodeling project for my new bedroom in the basement. It's going to be a huge project and most of it I want to do DIY style. :)
I have three rooms that I'll be redoing, the bedroom, study room and a bathroom. It's going to be a lot of work, I'll be giving away a lot of my stuff but in the end, it will be worth it.
I'll be re configuring the electrical so I can have more lighting, building a desk, making a vanity table, shoe holder, closet area and many more! I'll be updating on what I make and how I do it. It'll be a big project so welcome to this new journey! :D

Challenges:
Electrical business [trying not to shock myself]
Using the table saw [ .... ]
Keeping it as cheap as possible [thanks virtual yardsale!]
Getting the plans finalized [sometimes I can't make up my mind.. only sometimes]

Vibrams and Fuji's

I've been really busy and not posting much. Mainly busy with school and photography. I have like 16 photo shoots lined up, so I'm packing them in whenever I can :)
I will post more but here are some older photos. :)

Grow

Injuries

So I got injured snowboarding. Haha. I was doing a rail that you had to get speed to stay on since it went up and then back down really sharp. It's like a upside down V.

This is what it was but it was more of a smaller angle. Anyway, I went up that, didn't have enough speed and so I fell off the side and then onto my shoulder. 

So now i can't really move my shoulder easily and it hurts quite a bit. I think i'll get an x-ray to see what's going on there... I'm sitting here pecking away at my keyboard with one hand. #snowboarderproblems #sorry #notsorry 

Futbol.

Here's a video that I did of a soccer team. Just was playing around with some new music and photos that I found. :)

San Francisco

Playing with the shutter speed. :) 

Adoption, Anger, Happiness,

Well, today I talked to some people that have lost people that they love a lot in their lives. It hurt me to hear that because I know that losing the people that mean the most to me would be devastating. I talked with this lady who had an amazing love story. She had met her husband in Seattle during WWII and the rest was history. He died and she is left with only memories. I won't go into too much detail, that's her story, but i feel like life shouldn't be taken for granted. We need to value each day that we have with the people that we love. 

 These pictures are from China. We go over quite a bit. I'm adopted from Yiwu and I have gotten to see the people that took care of me at the orphanage.

I guess it was a bit awkward for me to see the people that might have known my mother. I use to feel a bitter anger against my real mother because I didn't get why someone didn't love me enough and would just throw me out on the street, hoping that I would get rescued. I guess, in a way, i have just put away those feelings. I wish I could say that I have come to terms with the feelings and some of the anger. It isn't a burning anger, it's just the bitterness that I feel from time to time. I mean, a few years ago, I got the note that was pinned onto me when I was abandoned. It was on a red piece of paper. Luck? Who knows, but I know that I am lucky to be in the place I am, being able to take photos, and knowing the people that I know. 

I'm hoping one day that I may be able to talk with her and ask the question that I have been wondering for 16 years. "Why?" It's just one word, but it's like the most common question with me, and with 6 year olds. :) 

I'm lucky to have the mom that I have right now, and sometimes life will take you in different directions. I' glad that the feelings of sadness that I have don't change me too much. I try to be a positive person. I made a goal to myself, to make at least 3 people smile everyday. I think if I can make other people happy, that I will find true happiness. and isn't that what everyone wants? 

I guess that's my deep post for the week. :) 

Thankfulness and shopping

happy thanksgiving. this photo is of mt rainer during this summer. we were driving up to Seattle and decided to take a different route than we usually do. it turned out to be very pretty day and we got a clear view of the mountain.

i did some running today. this post is going to be super short, but im going to do some videoing and maybe post it on here... we'll see. :)

Sad and Thinking

It's banquet season over at the Academy that I go to, which means that guys are asking girls left and right. Some of the proposals are funny, some are cheesy and some are just "Will you go to banquet with me?" type. It can also be super sad. I saw one guy get rejected today. The saddest thing ever. At least high school banquet isn't a lifetime commitment. I feel like some girl needs to surprise him and ask him out to banquet. That would be super cute.

I'm thinking about what I can do to make the world a better place... or at least make someone's day.  I feel, as a high school student, it's really hard to make a difference anywhere, and that can be really frustrating. I decided a while back that with the money that I get taking photos, I would make care packages for soldiers.I got signed up with a organization that does like the adopt a soldier/ adopt a platoon and got some soldiers to send care packages to. I'm really enjoying sending and preparing the packages. I love doing this because I can see the effect that I have really fast. I'm not saying that other things are bad, but with the big organizations, you can feel like your efforts are lost in the other people's giftings. This way, i can make one to one difference with people.

I have a chemistry test today. I'm not really looking forward to it.. I feel like I know everything; and I hope I do by the time the test gets passed out. Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving break and I can be thankful for that.

these photos really don't have anything to do with what I'm writing about. I think they're like "thinking" photos. Ones that you can look at and think of a whole story that goes into it. That sentence was super deep... lol. I didn't know that it would get that deep until i read it again.. Well, that's my "deep" sentence for the day.

I'll close with this:
Losing someone is the worst feeling ever.

Basketball

I love basketball season. Or atleast watching basketball. Soccer is really fun to watch to, and take photos of, but basketball seems so intense. Our team is going to be playing in State this year, which is going to be really fun. I hope that they can win this year. I took photos of a scrimmage that we had last night. It was alumni vs. Girls Varsity, and then Boys Varsity vs. Boys JV. Girls Varsity won and I'm not sure who won the Boys game. They were super close. 

These pictures were taken at the game. The gym  is surprisingly dark and it was a challenge to get any decent photos. You wouldn't know how dark a room is until you start taking photos in it. 

I guess it's just one of those photography things.. 

I really can't wait for Thanksgiving Vacation. I wish that we got the whole week, but it starts Wednesday. At lease we get a long Christmas vacation. Which is going to give me quite a few work days at the ski resort. :) 

It's Wednesday!

It's Wednesday and I can't believe that it's Thanksgiving next week! I can't wait to see all my relatives, eat good food and share stories from the past year. Thanksgiving and the months following Thanksgiving are the best. It feels cozy and pumpkin spice - y. I have a candle that smells like pumpkin spice and it's absolutely amazing and i just love it. :)

I took this picture while I was downtown and decided to play around with the Bokeh craze... The bokeh is basically making it blurry, the light area blurry, like the chandelier lights and diamonds into round dots instead of the tear drops. I think it's pretty, but i like to have my photos clear. I finally came to the happy medium when I was able to get the fence area in focus but the chandelier bokeh style.

Classes have been pretty good, we're in the after test period, where we've just done a test, and the teacher's haven't assigned anything yet. It's like a mini vacation, but I really cannot wait for Thanksgiving break. I'm going to take a lot of pictures during break so I'll be blogging and posting quite a big. Free time = blogging. :)

Today was super cold like 30 degrees in the morning. The day before today when I woke up it was 60. Crazy bipolar weather..

vibrams, snow, warm weather

Well look at that. Today is the day after the 18th and i'm writing here again! Yay!
So that photo is of one of my favourite footwear. They are the toe finger shoes and I absolutely love them! They are different to get use to at first, but it won't be for long until they are like your favourite shoe! I surprisingly do not feel much of the ground beneath. I guess what I'm trying to say is that they protect more than you would think. I got them for about $100 which they were on sale. Really do not regret buying them. I can run in them, although I wouldn't advise it if you have weak arches, because they don't have arch support.

Today was really warm. I woke up and it was 50. I hope the snow at the resort hasn't melted. They have a ways though. They open the 7th in December I'm pretty sure...
Snow dance time! :D