Overtaken Sillyness

2011.

2011-01-06T20:38:00.000-06:00

Dearest blog,
I have abandoned you. And I feel terribly guilty. I know, I'm a terrible person. I love reading blogs and I hate when the people I follow don't blog in forever. And now I see that everyone does it. Including me. Shame on me. Anyhoo, I have resolved to blog this year! I want to post pictures and do all that fun jazz. So, dearest old blog, I will return to thee!
I'm not the greatest writer, but maybe with blogging that will also improve!
So let's hope and pray that I DO write on you more often this year!
So until my next post--which will be very soon, I promise!

I Heart Faces: Fix-It-Friday #60

2010-06-25T22:19:00.000-06:00

This Friday (like every Friday) I Heart Faces is hosting Fix-It-Friday! I'm so excited. Except for the fact that the other computer crashed and I totally lost Photoshop. But I'll get past that. So I had to settle for Picnik. And I have to say for me to be editing with Picnik, I really like the result. No offense to Picnik, I've just never been good with them. ANYHOW.

Here is the original picture taken by Susan Keller who is a contributor on I Heart Faces and an amazing photographer OF COURSE.

Then here is my edit. And DON'T ask me what I did because I have no clue. I just know that cross-process is my new favorite effect. (:

I'm totally loving the sun flare. And how cool it looks with his shirt.

Head on over to join the photo editing fun over at I Heart Faces!

I Heart Faces : Week 25 - Celebrating Teens

2010-06-21T09:15:00.000-06:00

Oh goodness. Sorry, blog. I have abandoned you. But now I'm on summer vacation and I can get back to blogging and participating in I Heart Faces, which is what I'm posting about right now.

This week at I Heart Faces is all about celebrating teens! It's pretty exciting because I'm a teen myself! My picture is of one of my friends, P.

She's a cutie! Now head on over to I Heart Faces to check out all the other teens being featured on there.

Have a good day!

The Butterfly Circus.

2010-06-04T21:41:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I haven't blogged in forever. But one of my teachers showed this to us in our English class and I really liked it!

Go check out the website.
Very nice film for it to be a low budget.

Just thought I'd share that!

Of doves and pigeons.

2010-04-26T22:02:00.000-06:00

So maybe smart people know this. But I obviously didn't. Here goes the story:
My dad asked me what pigeon was in Spanish. And I told him it was paloma. But then, I was like oh but paloma is dove. So I looked up the word dove and the translation was paloma and then I looked up the word pigeon and the translation was paloma. I am not a person that is easily confused. But this really confused me. I was like, "How the heck are they the same thing?!" But then I digged deeper, and paloma is the name of the bird family or whatever and in Spanish it just stays the same. Umm, thanks Spanish language creators for not creating a word for dove in Spanish. Or a specific one for pigeon.

So this is a stupid random story that no one cares about. But I thought I'd share it anyhoo. (:

TWLOHA. ♥

2010-04-21T20:52:00.000-06:00

TWLOHA stands for To Write Love On Her Arms. This is like an awesome cause for helping people with suicide issues, and other stuff like that. I'm not good at explaining so head on over there. Today was like TWLOHA day. But I think they have a couple a year or something like that. But today was one of them. And it was awesome because a big part of my very small (60 ish people) had LOVE written on their arms. It was pretty cool, to me at least. You should totally become a fan on Facebook. Or follow them on Twitter.
But today you remember all those people who have committed suicide, all those who have killed themselves because they didn't feel LOVED. (These TWLOHA people do more awesome stuff {which is why you should go check them out!} but the suicide part is what really stands out.) So, go tell someone you love them!

Mouth-Watering Hatred.

2010-04-11T20:25:00.000-06:00

This week over at i heart faces they are doing a desserts challenge. But I'm not going to participate. But the judge is Bakerella and I had sadly never heard of her before. So I went on over to her website and found this. Yes, they are mint-chocolate brownies. Me, being the young missionary kid girl living in Central America that had never heard of mint chips hated myself for even looking at them knowing it would be a while before I could try them. So that is me being a masochist. Oh but just go look at it. And be prepared to fall head-over-heels in LOVE.

I Heart Faces: Fix-It-Friday #49

2010-04-02T10:08:00.001-06:00

It is once again time for Fix-It-Friday over at i heart faces. Every Friday the participants are given a photo that may need a little (or a lot of) embellishment. This week's picture was so adorable that I don't think it needed very much!

Meet Violet (original picture):

Here is my edit:

I did a few things:

Sharpened
Adjusted levels
Ran an action that makes eyes pop!
Lightened
Ran PW's Warmer action
Ran PW's Boost
Ran PW's Seventies at 39%
Loved it and stopped editing!

Head on over to i heart faces to check out everybody else's fabulous edits!

Cute Stuff.

2010-04-01T19:38:00.001-06:00

Some very nice friends of my family (and mine!) are in the country for a visit with their less-than-half-a-year old baby. He is a cutie! And oh his hair. His hair. Gosh, his hair. It's stinkin' hilarious!

Here he is:

I told you he was a bunch of cuteness!

More pictures to come. (Especially one involving the hair I've babbled about!)

Happy Maundy Thursday!

I Heart Faces: Week 13 - Dramatic B&W

2010-03-30T09:52:00.000-06:00

This week's photo challenge over at i heart faces is dramatic black and white. This picture of V came to mind.

She is sooo adorable!
Go over to i heart faces to check out the other 1000+ entries!

I Heart Faces: Fix-It-Friday #48

2010-03-26T22:51:00.000-06:00

It is FIF over at I Heart Faces and this is the beautiful picture we were assigned to edit!

Here is the original:

Here is my first edit:

I sharpened the whole image lightly, and also sharpened the eyes. I ran my favorite PW action: boost. I ran a seventies action at something like a 45%. I warmed the picture up a little and then I added a texture I got from deviantART and another texture from the same person over there.

Now for my second edit:

I ran a PW B&W on my first edit and that was it!

Head on over to I Heart Faces to download this picture and play with it, or just to check out other people's entries! Have a wonderful weekend. (:

Awful-bad.

2010-03-19T21:22:00.001-06:00

I've been so awful bad at blogging lately. I is sorry. I'm not a good writer. I'm a much better talker. I'm not doing much lately. Just listening to the Black Eyed Peas, which just happen to be amazing, and all that good stuff.
Today, I ran around with a bunch of second graders as their treasure hunt guide for my youngest brother's birthday party. So, I learned that I have way less energy than a bunch of second graders. (:
But on the other hand, I made some amazing brownie cake (well something like that) for the party. Everybody said it was amazing. So here goes the recipe. It's wayyy easy! Umm, I got it from a missionary friend back home, but I have changed it a tad.

Brownies.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 2/3 cups of granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 tbsp. water
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. of salt (Yes, half a tsp. is perfect! I can add a tad bit more, because I need enough saltiness with my chocolate.)

Prep:

Preheat oven at 350°F
Mix all your ingredients together in a large bowl.
You may sift your dry ingredients if you please.
Pour into an 8" x 10" pan.
Bake for 15 minutes or until it's the texture you want. Some people like chewier brownies, and some like theirs more cooked!
Enjoy!

So, pictures to come soon. I have spring break in a week. I cannot wait! Just this next week of school and then finally spring break! Here I will leave you with the amazing Oh Africa video by Akon. The song isn't as good as the actual video!

Have a wonderful weekend! (:

Things I Love. ♥

2010-02-27T13:40:00.001-06:00

In honor of the month of February (which I can’t believe is almost over!), I am going to show some pictures of things I really love.

1. My chucks.

They’re just a year old and I love them. They match with everything and are just amazing.

2. Yellow & Black

3. Water

4. My glasses.

5. My friends.

6. My “family”

7. My REAL family

I love about a gozillion more things. But the person I love the most is GOD!

What do you love the most?

I Heart Faces: Fix-It-Friday 45

2010-02-26T11:46:00.001-06:00

It is once again time for Fix-it-Friday over at I Heart Faces.

Here is the original:

Here is my fix:

First, I cropped it until I liked it and ran PW’s Boost action. Then I lightened the picture some. I ran PW’s Seventies action and lightened up her eyes just a tad. I added a texture by sanami276 from deviantART and chose a normal blending mode. I created a new mask layer and with a black brush made the little girl’s face more visible above the texture. Or however it is you are supposed to say that. (:

Head on over to I Heart Faces to join in the fun, or just to look at other people’s fixes!

You Capture - Shapes

2010-02-26T10:25:00.002-06:00

This week, like most weeks at I Should Be Folding Laundry, Beth is hosting You Capture. This week’s challenge is SHAPES. I love shapes. Especially circles. Sooo amazing.

I love how shapes are everywhere. I mean pretty much everything has a shape!

Happy capturing!

Go check out everybody else’s awesome Shape entries!

More Texture. ♥

2010-02-26T09:24:00.001-06:00

Yes, I have fallen terribly in love with texture. I’ve been playing around with some pictures of flowers I took.

Here are the results:

This last one isn’t necessarily my favorite because of the blending mode I chose. But it’s ok.

Hope you like them!

Musical Texture.

2010-02-25T19:55:00.000-06:00

This afternoon, I decided to download some textures and play around with them. I had previously downloaded Jodie Friedman's FREE texture applicator which is super amazing and if you, like me, had never used textures before, you will love this! It takes you step by step, pretty much! So, I downloaded two textures for this picture, both from deviantART. One was just a music texture and the other one was called Vintage Musk.

Here is my picture:

I'm pretty sure it looks overdone. But I was just playing with those specific textures and wanted to see what I could get. I think my smile also looks pretty posed in this picture and I don't exactly love super posed smiles. I like the natural, carefree, REAL smiles.

On another note (bwahaha), we are facing a cold front or however you are supposed to say that. So, we are getting a lot of rain! I loveee rain and I am fascinated by the fact that it has rained pretty much all day today. Even though that is a pretty typical Costa Rican day!

Gone with the Wind.

2010-02-18T19:22:00.000-06:00

We have two little rose bush thingies in our "yard." It's so small I don't think it should be even called a yard, but that's what it's called anyway. Sometimes we just leave the roses there or we pick them and put them in vases. This little bud was left there and the wind blew away all the petals and I thought it was way too cute.

I love this picture. My mom happens to think it is not cute at all. What do you think?

Old goodie.

2010-02-08T17:45:00.001-06:00

Today I was randomly at one of my ex-teacher's blogs.
And I found this picture:

This is me and my classmates in 6th grade. I'm in 8th grade now so it wasn't that long ago, but it feels like it was forever ago! Livz, So, JCook, Yayo, Savanna, Mr. Turkeyman, and me of course! Only three of them are still my classmates. Mr. Turkeyman, Yayo, and Savanna. We've all changed so much since then that it is hard to believe that was us, but it was! (I would never wear clothes like that right now!)

Oh, and I know this picture is like super bad quality, so I'm sorry!

Love to all!

Of Friendship and Love. ♥

2010-02-05T22:21:00.003-06:00

I personally think that February is one of the best months. Ever.
I mean, what could possibly be better than friendship and love? Yes, you’re right, NOTHING! I mean like it’s a Fruit of the Spirit and it’s mentioned all over the Bible. What else could you want?

Lately, I’ve been writing reports about the Boston Tea Party and John the Baptist, reading books about girls who find love in Italy, solving multi-step equations, drawing maps with tectonic plates, and not taking many pictures.
I know, terrible!

So since I’ve been such a terrible, terrible person, I will show you a pretty picture. Hehe.

I absolutely love this picture. The old vintage-ish feel to it is just amazing.

I thought I’d tell you some random facts about Valentine’s Day:

Women buy 85% of all Valentine’s.
In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.

(Head on over to St. Valentine's Day to see the rest of these fun facts.)

“Can I get a ‘Whoop, whoop’?”

2010-01-29T21:39:00.002-06:00

Oh yes, baby! The weekend is here! I don’t like getting up early. Yes, 6:30 is way too early for me. For a lot of other people, too.

This week has just been like every other week. School, school, school.

I promised I would post some pictures from Saturday and Sunday and all those other days before or after.

This was taken at the baby shower I went to with my momma on Sunday. Everything was butterfly themed. (Butterflies scattered on the tables, butterflies on pink bows, etc.)

This was post-baby shower boredom. My parents decided to talk and talk and talk. SO, I decided to beg and beg until D let me take pictures of him. I love of his serious look. And I love the brick in the background with the brick in the ground, as well.

M. Silliness. M is silliness. This was pre-haircut. Sadly, they “trimmed” his hair. I love his hair long. I don’t see the need for “trimmings”. LOL. >.>

This is T! She is a darling. That is sometimes not so darling. It was a SUNNY day! Her gorgeous light brown curls were flying in the wind and her little toesies were so cute in her pink sandals. (You can’t really see they’re pink—so now you know!)

So, can I get a whoop, whoop?!

I Heart Faces: Week 4 - Texture

2010-01-26T16:53:00.002-06:00

This week over at I Heart Faces is all about texture.
I love natural texture. I also really love photoshopped texture but I haven’t practiced with that pretty much at all, so for right now I’m going with natural texture.

I absolutely adore the red brick background in this picture. I love the dark tones.

Head on over to I Heart Faces to check out everybody else’s amazing natural and unnatural texture entries.

Happenings.

2010-01-25T17:21:00.001-06:00

I had a pretty good weekend.

On Saturday, our youth group had their annual formal. It was pretty awesome. Especially when all the gringos started dancing. Yeahhh…

Then, on Sunday, we went to church as usual, and were late as usual. Nothing new here. Later we went to a baby shower. I took a few nice pictures. Nothing to do with the baby shower, though. :)

Ummm. I’ll post those later. I’ve been a bad wanna-be photog lately.

But I promise that very soon I will upload those photos.

School and science projects and other homework have been invading my time lately. Along with some pretty good books.

Have a nice week.

You Capture - Winter

2010-01-16T17:22:00.003-06:00

Check out this week’s challenge at I Should Be Folding Laundry.
Winter.
Uh, not happening here.
It’s sunny and beautiful.
The roses are in full bloom and oh so gorgeous. We had some sort of cold front, but it was not wintery. It was just cold and gloomy. And I happened to love it!

SO!
Have a look at my winter.

Yes, it is summertime here!
The grass is dry and not that eye-pleasing!
But the pink roses are VERY cute.
The sunshine is sweltering hot, but we’re all good.

Enjoy your winter, or summer!

Beauty.

2010-01-16T12:36:00.002-06:00

It’s been a while… sorta. But anyhoo.

I’ve been pretty busy lately. School started on Monday and what with taking two different curriculums it gets busy. I have to take a Costa Rican Spanish curriculum and North American curriculum. So that way when I graduate from high school I can go to college in Latin America or North America.
Yeah. It gets confusing. The most confusingest part is that I haven’t passed sixth grade yet. Haha. It’s all a mess that you really don’t care about. But I’m in eighth grade on the North American curriculum.

That has nothing to do with beauty. But I had to explain why I was so busy and hadn’t blogged.

Now for the beauty.

This is a prettiful flower.
I blurred the background so that I could get just the flower in focus.
My brother likes it. I’m not sure what I think yet.
Other than I love yellow things. :)

I’m glad the weekend is here and I can be lazy and enjoy the sunny days.
We have some good wind and sunshine over on our side of the world. And we are in the 70s. We recently had a cold front, though. Everybody was FREEZING and it was only in the low 60s. Yes. For real.

Have a wonderful weekend!

I Heart Faces: Week 2 – Best Face Photo

2010-01-10T16:12:00.002-06:00

Tuesday is I Heart Faces' first birthday! Happy birthday I Heart Faces!
This week they are having a ton of awesome giveaways and all types of fun surprises to celebrate their 1st birthday!
Make sure to head on over there.

This week they are asking their participants to submit their best face photo taken in December 2009 or January 2010.

My picture is of D. As you can tell, most of my pictures are either D or M.

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of black and white photography. I am a lover of COLOR. But after running a black and white action on this picture, I loved it! So black and white can also be my friend, now.

Head on over to I Heart Faces to see everybody else’s favorite face photo!

Random.

2010-01-09T22:22:00.001-06:00

I think I need to pull out my camera and take some pictures. But it’s nighttime right this second so that wouldn’t be the greatest idea and I wouldn’t get the nicest pictures.

So I’ll do that tomorrow.

So I’m sorry I haven’t posted any good pictures, lately. Other than ones for assignments…

Tomorrow. Camera. Pictures. Editing. Yep!

G’night and g’bye.

I Heart Faces: Fix-it-Friday #40

2010-01-08T10:33:00.002-06:00

It’s Friday! Time for F-I-F over at I Heart Faces.
Every Friday Angie and Amy post a picture for the participants to play with and enjoy editing.
Since their birthday is coming up very soon, they have a birthday picture today!
I use Photoshop CS3 and I have been recently playing around with actions and things like that, but I haven’t started experimenting with textures yet and I need to do that soon!

Here is the original picture:

Here is my first edit:

I ran a Retro action, I sharpened it a little, and I ran “boost” (yes, I know, I run “boost” on every single edit). I just really love the dark tones it gives to my pictures!

Here is my second edit:

I made it a bit cooler, I ran “boost”, and sharpened it a little. Sorry for the bad resolution!

Head on over to I Heart Faces to see other people’s amazing entries!

You Capture – Year in Review.

2010-01-07T13:25:00.003-06:00

So today over at I Should Be Folding Laundry Beth is encouraging everyone to post their “Year in Review” pictures for You Capture, the weekly contest which has had a two or three week break.

Here are my “Year in Review” pictures, some you have already seen before.

Then there is this one that you may have already seen.

Then there is this one which I absolutely love of D! The silly camera case was in the way of his face, sorry!

Then we have this one of M in December.

Now M again feeding fish.

Some ancient architecture that you may have seen before.

This picture was taken in August. Somehow, August seems like it was decades ago.

And the last one, before I go on and on forever sharing pictures. This is my dearest V all pretty in pink!

Go over to I Should Be Folding Laundry to see everybody else’s great entries!

I Heart Faces. Logo contest.

2010-01-06T15:21:00.006-06:00

UPDATE: Go check out the winners over at I Heart Faces! My last photo placed as Amy Locurto's favorite photo that didn't make it to the top ten! Very good for it to have been my first time!

This week over at i heart faces they are having a logo photo contest. They have asked the participants to take pictures and include the “i heart faces logo” in a creative way, whether it’s naturally or “photoshopped.” I wasn’t going to enter, because I’ve never entered an i heart faces contest before, but after seeing everybody else’s entries I thought I might be able to enter too! The first two were taken yesterday and the last were taken today! I know very last minute. So, I bribed my brothers into helping me. They weren’t really all that excited but I got some nice shots, anyway.

I have never ever entered into an “i heart faces” contest, but I’ve been following them since around April 2008. I absolutely love them and have learned so much from their site! Thank you so much i heart faces and happy almost-birthday!

My first idea was to just write i heart faces on a piece of paper and see what I could get. Little M was my model for this one. :) Don’t you just love his little almond-shaped eyes?

And this one…

This next picture is both D and M. I had an idea to spell out i heart faces with Lego's. It took me a while to build it right, but I finally did!

This next picture is both D and M again. This time, I don’t think D was all that excited about having M hanging on his neck and intruding in his picture. (Yeah, I thought he didn’t want his picture taken.)

This next one is my last one. :( M was being silly *rolls eyes* (like always). And I got this cute shot of him!

Head on over to i heart faces to see everybody else’s amazing entries!

Oh and thanks to M and D for posing for me.

“I am submitting this photo into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.”

One more.

2010-01-03T18:44:00.001-06:00

Oh one more picture I forgot to add…

The actual city. Haha.

I love this picture.

I ran boost at 100%, old west at 90%, and a slight sharpen, and slight lighten.

Panama. The city.

2010-01-03T16:08:00.002-06:00

Here are the pictures of the city:

This is a “chiva.” It is a funky bus. It’s painted and they are absolutely gorgeous. Some of the buses are all painted and some just in the front. I couldn’t get a very good picture of the front!

This is a Cuna Indian. They handcraft all these wonderful pieces of artwork.

This building was once part of the old Panama city. Now they have made the “old Panama” a place for tourists (and their cameras :D) to enjoy the scenic, rustic, old buildings.

This here is the Panama Channel. There are boats from all over the world (mainly China, South Korea, Chile, among others) that pass this channel. The toll fees for these type of boats start at around $250,000 and go on up from there, but of course it’s much cheaper than having to sail around the tip of South America.

This is Panama for you.
I loved it so much.
And I’m sure the camera did too. :)
I edited all these pictures in Photoshop CS3.
Just some quick edits using PW's action sets.
My favorite being “Boost.”

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of Panama. And you must visit sometime.

Have a wonderful week. :)

Coming soon.

2010-01-03T13:21:00.001-06:00

I will be posting pictures of our vacation in Panama City soon.

It was really amazing.

A gorgeous city, but very tiring.

And hot.

Wayyy hot.

Like 90something degrees. Every single day.

And humid.

But it’s got high-rises!

Haha.

I will leave you with this.

This is the entrance to the tourist thingy at the Panama Channel.

The channel is sweeeeet.

Have a wonderful Sunday afternoon. :)

New Year.

2009-12-31T23:02:00.001-06:00

Have a wonderful 2010!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Went to Cartagena, Colombia

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No and no...

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes! Vale was born!!!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No!

5. What countries did you visit?
Colombia, Venezeula, United States, Costa Rica, Panama

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
... idk

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 7, went on furlough. August 31, returned from furlough.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Living.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Probably a lot of things.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Uh no.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My black boots. yes, i love them.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

The awesome people who listened to me through everything. Like Mr. IDC

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
#5

14. Where did most of your money go?
Considering I have no money, nowhere.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Everything. I'm the type that gets really, really, really excited about everything.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
From Where You Are - Lifehouse

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
Sadder
b) thinner or fatter?
Fatter!
c) richer or poorer?
Never been rich, never been poor, never had money, so none of the above!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Shared my Father with more people.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Studying, jk. Arguing.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
With some awesome people from my church. And at Mr. IDC's house.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Not really.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Anything Food Network I don't watch very much of anything else.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No, I try hard not to "hate" people.

24. What was the best book you read?
Prodigal Daughter by Patricia Davids.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I have pretty much, absolutely no rhythm.

26. What did you want and get?
Joy.

27. What did you want and not get?
Ha. A lot of stuff.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Hmmm. IDK.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I ate pizza with my family. (I was in Venezuela and hadn't eaten pizza in months believe me I was happyyy.) And I was 13.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not spending so much time away from home. Wherever that is. :)

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Whatever I find that matches and looks decent. Yepp.

32. What kept you sane?
The love of my Father.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Not much of a celebrity fan.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Don't let political issues "stir" me.

35. Who did you miss?
Half the world! All my friends all across the globe.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Arkkkk!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
It takes love to let go.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

I love you I've loved you all along, I miss you been far away for far too long.

Breath-Taking.

2009-12-30T20:53:00.000-06:00

This is the gorgeous view of the city.

Panama City.

I think I love it. Like a lot.

This picture is sorta dark.

But I love the city.

I think it stuns me to live in a city with no high rises.

Like AT ALL.

Too many earthquakes for high rises.

You can see the bay and the cars circulating the avenue.

The high rises are mostly banks. Some are hotels.

Come visit Panama!

It's really amazing. :)

Dahlia.

2009-12-29T19:58:00.000-06:00

Picture taken by me while my parents were making hallacas.

There are so many things I absolutely love about this picture.

I cropped it some to how I wanted it, but I couldn't do very much good editing because I don't have the computer that has Photoshop CS3 with me right now. So for now Picnik will have to do.

I messed with the exposure a little (ok, a lot) and messed with the saturation a little. Yes, just a little.

I sharpened it a tad and that was it!

Now I love it. Or as much as I can possibly love it after editing it in Picnik!

Have a happy New Year!

Three.

2009-12-28T10:45:00.000-06:00

I cannot believe there are just three days left in this year.
I have accomplished so many things this year and have so many more to accomplish in the next.
Through the hardships and the trials, through the laughter and the smiles, through the loving moments and the tearful moments, through all of those He was faithful this year. Thank you, Father. :)
But now as the year comes to an end I can think of a million things that have happened this year.
I have a million things to be thankful for.
I changed a lot this year.
I think this year I became more shy. I used to be wayyy extroverted and loud and silly.
And don't get me wrong I am still loud and silly, but now not AS much.
And maybe that's a good thing.
I am hard-headed. Very very stubborn.
I think I loosened up on that a little bit this year, too.
I learned patience (I still have a lot to learn when it comes to that.)
And I learned love. The love of my life. The love that I am growing more and more in each and everyday. A love above all other loves.
So as you finish off this year, whether it was a tough year or a happy year, thank the Lord for pulling you through.
Thank Him for the things he taught you this year, and for the things you have yet to learn.
Thank Him for His never ending love and patience.

Have a blessed New Year. And may you find joy in Him this next year. :)

This is how it was...

2009-12-25T20:45:00.002-06:00

I had a really amazing Christmas! I hope y'all did too. I got Bob for Christmas. We spent all night and some of the morning at church mostly singing everything that came to our minds with the awesome person over here. I hope you had a delightful Christmas and that you will have an amazing new year!

Isaiah 9:6... For to us a son is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Christmas is a comin'

2009-12-24T14:23:00.000-06:00

At 81°F we are obviously not having a white Christmas.
Outside, the hot midday sun is sweltering. And it is hot as could be.
Of course back home, it is a broiling 90°F.
So, let's be thankful that we're at an 81.

This is our gorgeous Christmas tree.
Yes, it's fake.
Yes, we got it on sale.
If you're wondering...
No, it's not hard to find a real tree here.
And it's not that expensive either.
We have had fake trees all our lives.
In Venezuela, it was impossible to find a real tree.
But here, for our first Costa Rican Christmas we bought a real Christmas tree.
We loved it.
But for some reason we went back to our fake ones.
So each year on December 1, we pull out the Christmas tree and the very small box of ornaments.
We aren't the type to store "special ornaments" over the years.
So we just have last year's ornaments. And lace. And fluffy veily stuff.
Oh yeah and Christmas cards. Cute ones.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas next to those people that you love.
And I hope you eat a lot of very yummy stuff.

Merry Christmas!

Tamales.

2009-12-23T11:05:00.002-06:00

When Christmas arrives on this side of the world, people start making tamales.

Tamales are a starchy corn dough based thing.They are stuffed with all sorts of stuff.
Normally, that stuff would be meat (beef, chicken, or pork), veggies (carrots, peas, onions, etc.), and sometimes rice or eggs. Depending on the country.
In Venezuela, we make hallacas. These are similar to Costa Rican tamales, or Colombian tamales, but they have more icky stuff that I don't like. Like raisins and olives. I know, I know. You can pull those out, but the flavor stays. So I don't like it.
But I have an insane love for Colombian and Costa Rican tamales.
So we buy them at Christmas time.
And while my family is buying hallacas I like my tamales. :)

They disappear so quickly that I didn't even get a picture of 'em!

You Capture - Holiday Decor

2009-12-22T16:41:00.002-06:00

So this is my first time trying the You Capture thing over here.

This week it is all about Holiday Decor.

Here is a cute snowman on our Christmas tree.

It's a bit blurry, sorry about that.

I love Christmas and everything that comes with it. I love celebrating the birth of Christ and I love the joy found in Christmas. I love the decorations and I love how every country is different. I love how Christmas unites families.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas. :)

Uno.

2009-12-22T15:20:00.001-06:00

So, this is my first blog entry. I've never tried blogging before, but since I like going on and on about everything , I'm pretty sure I'll like it. I am just an average girl living an average life. I love to smile. I enjoy finding pleasure in the minimal things. Bumblebees are my favorite, since I am a lover of everything yellow and black. I am a follower of Christ and my family and I are serving Him in a different country. My first language is Spanish, but English is my "first and a half." (: I love taking pictures and I am going to try to display some of these on here since this is what my blog is for. Below is just a picture I took on Wednesday of some random and cute flowers. It is not edited, but I like this picture.