Melly's Eggo is Preggo...

My family and I went to Utah for Christmas this year, and we are sure glad we did. The night we arrived at Melissa and Brett's house, Brett seemed anxious for present time. Eventually we started to open presents. It came down to mom opening a gift from Brett and Melissa. While unwrapping it, she froze and looked up at Melissa. None of us knew why she had stopped opening the present. Knowing my sister and Brett I honestly thought they had given my parents a cruse. Boy was I wrong. Once mom showed everyone a mug that said "Worlds Greatest Grandma!" on it, we all freaked out.

After a long wait, Melissa is finally carrying a beautiful baby in her belly. I am extremely excited for this new and first edition to Melissa and Brett's family. I think I might be looking forward mostly for the time that I get to start spoiling him/her. My friend has two new baby sisters, so I find myself over there holding the babies all the time. I know Brett and Melissa will be amazing parents.

(and no we're not drinking wine in the video)

We Will Miss You...

I met Missy Cochran at church, and the first words I think I spoke to her were, "you are just like my 8th grade English teacher...and yeah, that's a good thing."
All of us who know and love Missy know just how outgoing she can be. Missy is one of a kind. I have learned so much from her. I was privileged enough to have her at Girls Camp this summer. I defiantly saw a different side of her, mostly while we played ZipBong :0

Sadly, Missy is moving. Everyone will miss her.

We love you Missy!!!

My Baby...

When asked what brand of camera I want to upgrade to, the person asking looks at me with disappointment when they hear my answer. "My dream camera is a Nikon!" Most, actually all of my friends who are professional photographers have, use, and recommend Canons. One such photographer pushed for my reasoning behind wanting a Nikon. And this is what I said:

It's has little to do with quality, name brand, or price. For me, it is all physiological. It all started with my brother, Spencer, and his passion for photography. Spencer had a nice Nikon when I was a little kid. As my own passion for photography grew, so did my desire to test out his Nikon. He never let me touch that camera. And since he took it everywhere with him, I couldn't even sneak in his room and look at it while he was away at school. Years passed and not once had I held that camera. I never looked at a camera in the same way that I looked at a Nikon camera. My parents had noticed my ability to take good photos with the small, family snap-and-shoot camera we had at home. So they said they would pay half the price if I wanted to get my own camera. I didn't have the money for a Nikon, so I settled for a camera that looked similar to Spencer's Nikon....it was even black like his. A couple more years passed and I had fallen in love with my camera. I had brought that camera with me everywhere. That camera went through hell in my possession (sorry for my choice of word, but it is the closest word that comes to what it was like for my camera.) That camera has been dropped while hiking and rolled down the side of Montana and Wyoming's snow caped mountains. It's been on roller coasters, bike rides, snow boards, and more. Don't get the wrong idea, I loved that camera and took care if it like I would my own child...minus the rolling down a mountain part. It has been with me during the best times of my high school life: my first dance, championship lacrosse game, first trip to the Portland Saturday Market, sister's wedding, and even the midnight showing of Twilight. I never expected to get an upgrade anytime soon. But then I saw it on April 14 2009. The Nikon D5000. Ever since then I would dream of having this camera.

And that was my reason for wanting a Nikon.

Every weekend I would pass the Nikon station at Costco, and have to pull myself away from the cameras so I could go home.

Three weeks, straight, before Christmas I made sure to let my parents know just how much I NEEDED this camera. A line I would often use was "I will never progress in photography if I have the same camera the rest of my life. Do you want me to progress?" When I was feeling bold I would pull the What-Would-Jesus-Do line. I even gave a speech about the comparison that could be made between the boy in The Christmas Sweater novel and my need for this specific camera. ( Read The Christmas Sweater and you'll understand.)

It was two days before Christmas and I was sure I wasn't getting a Nikon D5000 anytime soon. Boy was I wrong!

On Christmas Eve my dad came in from the car and said "Lizzy, will you go get the rest of the groceries from the car?" I went out to the trunk and froze. I was in shock. If it wasn't for the light-headed feeling I wouldn't have remembered to breath. Lying in the back of the trunk was a box, in that box was my new baby.

I ran into the house screaming, and I sat on the kitchen floor hugging the box that held my long awaited treasure.

Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Fun with Friends

A small group of my friends all had their birthdays around the same time, so they planned to have a birthday party during lunch. Thanks to KaitlynO. we would have a delicious ice cream cake to eat. The day before we planned out all of the details. One minor detail was who would be assigned to bring the lighter. I took the assignment.

The next morning I put the lighter in my pocket and went off the school. I arrived and was hanging out in the library when news was brought to my attention.

In the middle of the library, next to a teacher I openly say "Hey Katie, I brought the lighter for the candles..." Katie hushes me with wide eyes and says "Lizzy be quiet. If security sees you with that you're in trouble." It turns out the school rules are that no students are to have lighters on campus. (That explained why everyone stood around silent when deciding who would bring the lighter.) But what is a birthday cake without candles...burning candles.

Once again I thought the rules didn't apply to me. I mean, I'm The Lizzy Fotheringham. Shouldn't that count for something? Despite my thought process, I decide it would be best if I put the lighter deep in my backpack for the rest of the day.

The little party we had during lunch turned out great...and the cake was amazing.

I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture with Katie holding the lighter, because if a fire just happened to start I would have some evidence proving I was innocent ;)

That weekend we stayed up pretty late and, as you can see, when Sarah gets tired she ties scarves around my head to make a turban...It was cold so I had no exception to the added warmth.

We also had to set up the tree. Yes, I said "setup"...fake tree. The year we had a beetle come out of our tree was the year we stopped cutting down out own Christmas trees.

I went caroling with some friends. I'm not much of a singer so I feel sorry for the people I sang to.

Thanksgiving

This year's Thanksgiving was a special one. If I was to describe it with a quote I would say "There is always a first for everything."

I had the opportunity to make the turkey this year....yeah, I'm still surprised my parents trusted me to do it. I was excited up until my dad informed me that I had to pull out the "extras" from the turkeys back side...if you know what I mean.

Bath Time!!!

The turkey was definitely made with love ;)

Spencer and Sarah decided to make a movie for Thanksgiving. Whenever Spencer has a camera and it's a holiday we tend to make movies....some of which have made it on to Facebook. (My first day of High School Freshman year I had teachers saying "Hey your the one in Spencer's movie." Not fun!)

Here's Spencer showing Sarah how to look mad.

I will always remember this Thanksgiving. Not because it was so fun or because for the first time I had no homework over break. But because my dad had our family host a dinner at a homeless shelter. At first I was a little nervous, I had never done this kind of thing before and I didn't know what to expect. The dinner turned out great. The amazing thing about the whole experience was that if the family hadn't told me that they were homeless, I would not have been able to tell that they were. It was truly an eye opening moment for me. Just because someone is homeless it doesn't mean they are worthless. If you think about it, Jesus was born homeless yet he has made the biggest and greatest impact on our lives.

When it came time to cut the turkey I insisted to do it myself. Yeah, that didn't turn out so good. I cut one piece and was frustrated with the difficulty of the seemingly easy task. I gladly passed the task over to my dad.

This year was great!

Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl

There is one special tradition that I look forward to every year. Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl. Who says the guys get to have all the fun playing football on Thanksgiving morning.

This year I thought it would be nice to dress up for the occasion. Spandex here I come.

New Moon, Midnight Showing....

Last year the wonderful Kelly Burton organized a Twilight party for the midnight showing. It was amazing. This year Kelly has done it again.

With boat loads of homework, Sarah and I drove over to Kelly's house for the New Moon party. We watched Twilight and hung out with a ton of friends.

Kelly decorated her house for the occasion...red carpet and all.

Sarah and Shayna with their vampire fangs.

I have never, and will never, read the Twilight books. But I am always willing to stay up till 4am to watch the movies. It being a school night I was dreading the fact that I had 2 hours to sleep before getting up and going to school. I missed first period and I had planned on "missing" second period to get in some more sleep and to try and study for an up coming test. I called it my "rebel" day. But before I could fully experience my rebellion, I had to tell a past teacher of mine about my midnight adventures. After I had shared my thoughts on New Moon, she asked me what class I was supposed to be in. I knew I was caught. She gave me the you-should-be- disappointed-in-yourself talk. I gave her the evil eye and said she was ruining my life. What a teenager response, I know. After "slamming" her class room door, I was still determined to live out my "rebel" day with Shayna. I got to where Shayna was and I panicked. I felt so guilty for skipping class. I called my mom to tell her what I had done. She laughed and said it was fine. Then I got a pass to go to my class. The guilt was gone and I felt good about not totally skipping out on my classes. But I did make sure to tell my teacher how guilty she had made me feel. Next time I feel the need to be a "rebel" I'm staying far away from Ms. GiultTrip.