High School Muscial in Concert

Well folks...I am the queen of impulse and "fly by the seat of my pants"-itis. I was watching the Disney Channel (shock) on New Years Day and during the commericials of the Hannah Montanna Marathon I saw an advertisement for the High School Musical Concert. I thought...that could be fun I wonder if it's every coming to NY. So I searched the internet and sure enough on January 2nd they were going to be in Toronto and on the 3rd they'd be in Rochester. They were so close....should I go??? OF COURSE! I got online and searched for tickets...thinking for sure the show would be sold out. I found a couple places that had tickets, but they mailed them to you and with the holidays there would be no guarentee that they'd get to me in a day. Bummer. Then I went to the Blue Cross Arena website and searched for 1 ticket. Yes 1, I went by myself. Am I a loser...probably but how could you pass up this opportunity?!? They had a seat stage left, ROW B, SEAT 4! It was CRAZY! And they emailed you the ticket so you got it within minutes! I was so excited! So I planned my trip.

Go to work early on Wednesday morning. 2:00pm leave work. Stop in Buffalo around 3pm to exchange Christmas presents. Leave Buffalo at 4:30. Get to Becca's house in Rochester at 5:30pm. Leave Becca's at 6, get to the arena around 6:20pm. Timed perfectly!!

Here is a picture of the sunset while I'm driving from Buffalo to Rochester Wednesday night...
So i got to the arena. I now know that i'm an official Loser, I'm alone and the oldest kid there without children. I thought about acting a little mentally unstable so that people wouldn't think i was a freak...but decided against it. I tried to not be embarassed, and to sit and enjoy the show.
And what a show!!! This was not a High School Musical play that is sweeping the nation, this was a concert with the actually actors from the movie, singing and dancing all the songs to the movie plus a few solos from the actors that have albums out. I like Corbin Bleu's songs the best!
So now the big dilemma...do I sing along to the songs I know?? Do i dance along to the dances that I know?? I already have parents stare at me when i dance a little. I have kids stare at me when I sing (plus i was so freakin close to the stage that I was wearing my headphones as earplugs to try and deaden the sound of the music and of all the 12 year old girls screaming at the top of their lungs). So i sang a little, danced a little and lived to tell about it.

Afterall, we're all in this together!!

It was a great show. I'm so glad I went. Now i can brag to all my friends who think i'm crazy. Nice.

Turkey Day with the Fam

Thanksgiving is one of my family's most favorite holidays. Some may refer to it as "Christmas with out the presents" or "Thanksgiving is the new Christmas." It's always been a big day for the family full of memories and traditions. This year was a little hard because we were minus yet another family member, my Uncle Donnie to cancer in February. The memories and loss were still fresh in our minds, but we somehow kept the joy and tradition alive.


We had some delicious, steaming hot turkey...
Drank a little alcohol....Loved on the grandparents... (aren't they cute!?!?!)Then, the Saturday after Thanksgiving went all together to pick out our Christmas tree!That's it for now! Everyone is back at their respective homes for another couple weeks, and then you know what time it is..............

The Cry

This weekend was a total blessing to me. Not only was I able to hang out with some amazing people, I got to take pictures and worship the Lord. Not a bad couple days if I do say so myself!

Here are some pics that I took:

Gotta love havin' fun and praisin' Jesus: Teaspoon on the shadow drums:

Jennifer really in the Lord's presence: This was a great picture, and I wasn't even looking! Jesus took the picture...amazing dancers, amazing shot:
Denis in his "white boy" get-up...he still works it on the keys:

Christopher, feelin' Jesus and feelin' very safe with his safety glasses on:A keyboard and a bible...Denis never leaves home without them:
Jennifer again, with a Jammin Ron in the background:

Val moving like an angel:

Thank you CHB for a great couple days and letting me be a part of the band! Until next time....

Happy Birthday to ME!

Wow. I'm 25. A quarter century old. Wow. But a day that puts you a year older does have it's perks every once in awhile.

The day before my birthday was a pretty good one too. I started the 26th up in Buffalo for a Press Conference for work, then meant to meet a few friends to catch up on life. I met my best friend of 22 years for lunch, and had a great time. After that a few of my meetings with friends fell through and i was stuck in Buffalo at 1:00pm not knowing what to do. I had the whole night ahead of me free with nothing to do. So when you're stuck on a beautiful day with nothing to do....you guessed it...ROAD TRIP!

I hadn't seen my friend Rachel in awhile, and last year she forgot my birthday (but i'm over it) so i thought this year i'd make sure she COULDN'T forget and I'd start the day off with her!

Well after leaving Pittsburgh at 7:30am to get home for an 11:30am hair appointment, I was pretty tired, but there was no time to rest!

11:30am my mom and I went to the salon to get a cut and color, and since we needed to have a birthday party, we took some brownies and some Bailey's!

After 2 hours of chilling out my mom and I ran some errands and went home to rest before going to the Casino with my parents and my grandma and aunt.

We got to the Casino around 7, ate at the Buffet and then went into the floor to hit some slot machines. Well at my $21 mark....ding, ding, ding.....JACKPOT! I hit triple 7's and a 5x bonus and I decided to stop after putting $440 in my pocket!!! NICE!

After a great 30 minutes we were back home to have cake and open presents!

After Talking to friends and family it was time to hit the hay...another birthday here and gone...but a great one at that.

Here is a picture of my new hair color and all my winnings!

Still editing...

Wow...this is a lot of work. Taking 2,000 pictures and trying to whiddle them down to a fiesable number. I've been working for a week on them on and off and I'm down to 800. They are all so good....MAN! But it's a great learning process and I wouldn't mind it on any regular week but I've been exhausted going through 2 weeks of working almost 12-13 hours a day for soccer preseason and being out in the sun and all that other fun stuff!!!

Rachel, I told you I'd post some more, so here they are!

Here's one of my macro skill shots:

Here's a great intimate hand shot by Bec:

Sigrid and Isaac had a slammin' slide show, here's one great shot taken by Becca:

Another great detail shot by Becca...

Sigrid & Isaac

So my friend Sigrid got married this past Saturday to a great, Godly man named Isaac. It was one of the most Spirit filled weddings i have been to, and lately that's been a lot!

Becca helped me out, since it was my first time being the primary shooter, but to tell you the truth, she took most of the amazing shots that you will see in this blog! I couldn't have done this withough her, it's such a great time to photograph someone you care about with a best friend who is AMAZING.

Rach..you have been teaching her well...we definately have to do this for a living!

We had so much fun with these girls...here's everyone getting ready in the bathroom!

Here's a quick shot of their rings, very plain and simple but so effective! See everyone, it's not about the bling, but the meaning of the wedding ring!

This is a great shot from Becca, and I know that she was really excited about it! She not only got the beautiful and unique bouquet but also Sigrids Rings (we did the pictures before the ceremony so she doesn't have a wedding ring on yet) and Isaac's arm is also in there too...kudos to you Bec! I couldn't have done this without you!

Here are some more pics of the day...and a little taste of what the day was like if you weren't able to be there.

more pics...

Hey everyone...welcome once again to my blog. We'll start off with another picture taken by yours truly...this waterfall was taken at Letchworth State Park a few weekends ago at a Circle C Staff outing. It was a great time of fellowship, God's creation and Ultimate Frisbee!

After my last post God took a little break from teaching me many things, not that i haven't been learning but He's scaled it down a bit, maybe to one or two lessons a week and not 4 in one week. Here's what i've learned so far:

My last few years at home have made me very comfortable, too comfortable and content. I wasn't being spiritually challenged and my witnessing opportunities with my family had gone down the tube. Enter: camp. Not only am I surrounded with an amazing bunch of Christians, but I am being challenged physically, emotionally and spiritually, exactly what God knew I needed.

I've gotten into the Word more and more, actually comprehending a lot of what i read, i've been getting up early to do devotions so i have the whole day to think about them and apply them to my life. Not too shabby. Still working on the whole "memorizing verses" thing, but it's cool to come across verses that can be used in certain situations, if not for me for others around me.

I've also learned that talking things out with people isn't a bad thing. Yes it might show a sign of weakness, but afterall isn't that what Jesus wants? "For when we are weak, he is strong" Sometimes it takes that person that you're sharing things with to speak Jesus' words to you, and through that problems can be resolved in a matter of days instead of maybe the months or years it can take you to come to that realization just trying to hear God's voice in it all. My pride is knocked down a notch...only 999 notches to go.

I've started making some good friends at camp, some in the most unlikely of places, but it's great none-the-less. Some of the friendships I've wanted are slowly but surely developing, and I am careful not to push things. I have learned that the Lord puts you with the specific people for a specific purpose, so don't wish you were hanging out with someone else, because you might miss the opportunity of getting to know a great guy or girl.

I'm sure there are many many other things that i can share but i'll wrap it up for now. I'm more than halfway though the summer, and I can't wait to see what Jesus has in store for me in the next few weeks. Stay tuned....but until then check out some more pictures from Letchworth!

A not-so short update from the J-Dogg

So I like to start my blog off with a picture, even though this picture has nothing to do with what I have to say, seeing a pretty picture every now and then seems to brighten my day, so I hope it helps with yours. I would also like to add how amazing God is, and how He's worked in my life over these past few weeks.

For those of you who may not know, I am working 2 jobs (what else is new). My regular old day job that's low key but gives me great internet access so I can write and publish this blog, and Circle C Ranch. Now Circle C Ranch is a great Christian Ranch that I have worked at for 3 summers before this one. Since i'm doing the part time thing, it's a little more difficult than I thought, but Jesus did it that way for a reason. Here's a glimpse of what's been going on in my head for the past few weeks:

June 14-23: "Man, camp is awesome...there are a lot of new faces, and some old faces that I would like to get to know better....Jesus is making sure my motives are pure and provided me with no eligible bachelors this summer....I've been though all of this training before, nothing they can throw at me will challenge me any more than I've already experienced, I'll just be around to help those who are struggling....it was a great training week and a half, but i haven't made any great friends, but we still have 7 weeks of summer"

June 26-July 1: "Sweet, i get to lead worship, we have a keyboard player and a drummer, things should be good....oh man the girl keyboard player and the drummer like each other and are making it super duper hard to run through songs and focus for even 5 minutes....oh man they got in a fight, where are their hearts right now?....on Jesus?.....Lord, what am I going to do?.....

Well i'm around some days, I should help in the kitchen....wow these kids are pretty young....lets try showing them how to best be organized....what by the end of the week they still aren't getting it?....Lord, grant me patience....

July 1-July 2: My family is in town, I would like to spend time with them...but I should really be at camp, and I should probably do some work here or there...I can't please everyone, but i'll try my hardest...Lord, this is too much....I can't do everything.......

July 2 (evening): I finally swallowed my pride and talked with my friend Megan. She and I are very very similar, but she's got some great Christian knowledge that i'm lacking...she suggested that I quit trying to do so much and make sure that what I do, everything that I do is exactly what Jesus wants me to do and if i keep my focus on that then I will have more impact on people than I would if i was serving people for my gratification and to not miss anything. She's amazing, because that night........

We added a guitarist and Megan to the worship team. I am still using my gift of music but don't have the stress of leading worship. I was kicked out of the kitchen (but in a good way so the kids can learn for themselves) and am now "on call" instead of going in there every day.


July 3-today: I am now in a routine to get up, shower and do my devotions before breakfast. Go to work and do my thing, get back to camp and just fellowship with who i can find. Dinner then chapel where i'm trying my hardest just to sing for Jesus, we had troubles last night with the computer and not having a lot of practice so we were 100% relying on Jesus and he came through. Then it's games and spending some time with the campers and then lights out. I try and stay up a little longer to read some scripture and pray, and the amazing thing is that the scripture is starting to come alive for me again. Thank you Jesus!

I've learned a lot in the past few weeks, actions are great and can be a great witnessing tool and that's what i've relyed on for a few years, but if you don't have the knowledge and the scripture base to back it up then it's almost pointless. That's where i'm at, I've got a long road to go, but i've started my journey. Not too shabby.