A little goes a long way...

Imagine this... you're sitting at home watching TV with your brothers and sisters, then your parents walk into the room and ask to have a family meeting. The summer is drawing to a close and school is almost here, so you fully expect your parents to be calling a meeting to talk about the new school year. So, you turn off the TV, get comfortable on the couch, maybe stick your toung out at one of your siblings, and the next thing you know your parents are telling you something that changes your life forever... "Mom has Breast Cancer."

Along with many other people, I dont need to imagine this, because it actually happend to me.

These words are said too often. The only way to put a stop to this scary disease is to find the cure.

I recently excepted the challenge to raise funds to support the Komen Portland Race for the Cure on September 19th, 2010 in the fight to save lives and end Breast Cancer forever. Along with raiseing funds, I will be running in a 5k race.

I have made a goal to raise at least 100 dollars. With your help WE can accomplish my goal. Please donate anything from 5 dollars to 100 dollars.

Thank You!

http://race.komenoregon.org/site/TR/Race/PortlandRacefortheCure?px=2001657&pg=personal&fr_id=1130

Spring Break

This year I had the best Spring Break I've ever had. I was able to do so much.

Portland Rescue Mission

This year I joined my school's Interact Club. For those of you who don't know, this club is basically a service club. One of the events that I just recently went to was the Portland Rescue Mission. Katie and I were the only ones there, but we had a blast.

(Sorry about the picture quality. The lighting was terrible, and I didn't bring my regular camera.)

All of the tubes that you see behind Katie are full of donated clothing, that has been sorted by volunteers, such as Interact Club members.

The guy in the back is my dad. He came to help out. The boxes you see are full of gently used or new shoes. Nike donates their sample shoes to the Portland Rescue Mission too, so there are some quality shoes.

Katie has a thing for cows lately. As we were sorting the shoes into boxes, she found a cow slipper. You don't even know how excited she was.

This is how the donations start out. In that pile there are shoes, shirts, pants, scarves, etc. Then volunteers sort everything into male/female, shorts/jeans, dress shoe/athletic shoe... Because of the amount of donations that PRM receives, they only take the best of the best. We are told to keep only the things that we would actually wear ourselves. The rest of the clothing is shared with other homeless organizations in Portland.

There is a massive amount of food that has been donated my Winco. They donate anything that has been sliced with a box knife. Therefore, PRM has crates full of good food where only one of the hundred packages is cut open.

There are poster boards with homeless people on them around the entire warehouse. The first time I volunteered at PRM, I would turn the corner and jump when I saw a fake person. But now that it was my second time, i got to see Katie jump.

Just a little fun with the barrels.

This guy works at the PRM warehouse. My mind is at a blank and I forgot his name, but he's a pretty fun guy.

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!!!

Dinner at Gramp's

My grandpa lives in Portland, so we go to his house for dinner often. This time both Matt and Kristyn came...this made all the difference.

Kristyn, Matt, and Spencer all together at anytime makes it impossible to go for one minute without laughing...or peeing your pants.

This is what it is like when we eat with Matt, Kristyn and Spencer at one table...

Spencer is...different

All I wanted was a good picture of them, but the seriousness didn't last long...

"Sorry 'bout your car Kristyn."