Tuesday, May 31, 2011

30 in 30 Progress

So, my 30 in 30 challenge has been a little bit more difficult than I anticipated because the weather has TOTALLY thrown me for a loop. I thought we were on to warmer weather, so I planned my 30 Days of clothes around summer weather. Instead, it's been raining and frigid since last week.

Anyway, as some of you asked, I have been taking pictures...even though I don't love looking at pictures of myself at the moment. And the door without trim drives me nuts, but it's the only location near something that I can set my camera on to take a self-portrait.


Wednesday 5/25
Heading to a Youth Event at a church where the band was playing
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Thursday 5/26
Running errands. I changed into jeans and a t-shirt after working out around noon, but after that we just went to Justin's softball game anyway.
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Friday 5/27
Hung out and then took the band photos
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Saturday 5/28
No picture, but I actually did wear clothes from the plan. We had band practice and then visited with Justin's parents. I wore jeans and the pink C9 shirt. And my black fleece 'cause it was freezing.

Sunday 5/29
Headed to church. Threw in a second pair of jeans due to being tired as heck of the first...not sure whether they'll be one of my 5 "extra" pieces or just a cheat item.
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Monday 5/30
Visiting with my parents. I changed into black shorts for part of the day.
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Monday, May 30, 2011

Push It

So, the band has a couple of big shows coming up and needed a few new promo pictures. On Friday, the weather held out long enough to do a short shoot. Let me tell you...it is HARD to take photos of that many people. I shot over 500, and only ended up with about 40 where someone wasn't making a weird face/had their eyes closed/wasn't doing something stupid.

SecondBest (1)

SecondBest (6)

SecondBest (14)

SecondBest (22)

SecondBest (12)

SecondBest (5)

SecondBest (11)

SecondBest (10)

SecondBest (13)

SecondBest (2)

SecondBest (3)

SecondBest (18)

This was kind of a fun opportunity to push myself and do something outside the norm since the shoot was for a band and allowed for more high-key and "edgy" shots. On the other hand, because these pictures aren't really my norm (both in terms of needing to be more posed shots than I usually do for the purpose of promos, and in terms of the editing), I'm also less confident in the shoot than I am of some of the others I've done in the past...but they're growing on me.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

30 in 30--My Own Special Way.

Many of you are probably familiar with the 30 in 30 Challenge from Kendi Everyday. Essentially, you pick out 30 items of clothes and re-mix them for 30 days. I believe that Kendi usually includes shoes, and other challenge hosts include accessories as well. I'm about to embark on my own special version of 30 in 30--with a few tweaks that I think will help make this more enjoyable for me personally, since it really isn't about fashion per say for me.

My goals in doing this are many:
1- To recognize the abundance with which I've been blessed ('cause let's face it...even only 30 items of clothes is an abundance).
2- To make getting dressed simpler by limiting my options to things that I love.
3- To help me see if there are any holes in my limited wardrobe that absolutely need to be filled.
4- To help me be creative with the ways that I put outfits together.
5- To cut down on my laundry, including from the clothes that I try on, elect not to wear, and then sit on my bedroom floor for a week until they're so wrinkled that I have to wash them again.
6- To give me incentive to actually get dressed.
7- To make packing for upcoming trips easier. 
8- Because maybe some day someone from Old Navy/Target/Kohls will come across the blog and say "Hm, we should offer a greater variety of clothes in tall sizes."

So, without further adieu, here's my wardrobe for the next 30 days, minus several items that are currently in the wash, which include 1 pair of jeans, a pair of black dress capris, a black 3/4 sleeve cardigan, a black long sleeve crew neck shirt, and a red ribbed tank.

StartList

And here's some of the modifications to the original challenge that I'm making for myself, to help keeps things fun for me and less stressful:
1- This is supposed to be fun. If it ends up making me cry, I reserve the right to stop or take a day off.
2- If an item is legitimately no longer the right size, I can replace it with another item that is. Same goes for any item that gets ripped or stained.
3- I am not including shoes, accessories, swimwear/cover-ups, workout clothes, or undergarments (which for me includes camis) in the count. Some days I might end up wearing my workout clothes all day long before I actually get a moment to work out...oh well, bonus outfit for me.
4- I have not filled a few items on the list. Some of these are for items that I don't own yet but intend to purchase (like a pair of shorts). Some I'm just leaving open, and may pull from my existing wardrobe as needed. Because it's my project, and I may do as I wish, the end.

The Easiest Way to Get Beachy Curls--No Curling Iron Needed.


You guys have to check out this video from thelipstickdiaries that shows a quick way to get natural looking waves/curls overnight with no heat. I tried it the other night and really liked it, but I would definitely recommend heeding her suggestion to wait until your hair is 80-90% dry before doing it.

Now, even if you can't watch the video, jump ahead to 7:02 to see what the hair looks like when you're finished. The first night I tried this, I didn't tell Justin what I was doing, and I was a little worried that he would think I was insane with my hair rolled like that, but he didn't comment at all and make fun of me tons. Yesterday, I was telling my sister about this new technique and told Justin, "Yeah, that's why my hair looked weird when we went to bed last night."

He responded, "Oh, I hadn't even noticed."

Awesome. 

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Potty Training Post

 Fair warning--if you have no interest in reading about potty training and/or baby poop and pee, now is a good time to stop reading.




Okay. So I feel totally unprepared in the area of potty training. We don't have one of those little chairs. I have no idea when you're supposed to start, or if it depends on each child, or what the signs are to look for.

What I do know is that Lizzy has started consistently telling me when she goes to the bathroom, and immediately wants her diaper changed. Kait asked me yesterday if we had thought about potty training and I said that I haven't thought about it at ALL. Maybe I should because she's starting to talk about it, but 16 months seems really early, doesn't it?

How did you do it/How do you think you might do it? What "gear" do you need? Any advice?

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Random Things That Made Me Smile

Here's a collection of random things that made me smile this morning. Most I discovered on Pinterest, which I still have not joined but manage to spend lots of time on, LOL.image source




Kathrine Switzer at the Boston Marathon in 1967--at that point, women weren't allowed to run the marathon because it was considered to be too dangerous. This gentleman (a race official) famously yelled "Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!" while attempting to tackle Switzer. Her boyfriend shoved him out of the way and the two finished the marathon. Still, it was another 5 years before women were officially allowed to run.



image source

Hope one of these might have made you smile!

Monday, May 23, 2011

BQOTD: Veggie Garden

Today's BQOTD: Do you have a vegetable garden? If so, what do you grow? If not, why don't you do the veggie garden thang? 

We do have a garden--this year we have already planted several varieties of tomatoes, green pepper, yellow pepper, Anaheim chili pepper, (we will also plant jalapenos, but I forgot to start them, so I'll have to buy some starts!), sugar snap peas, radishes, green beans, lettuce, yellow zucchini, spinach, cucumbers, basil, dill, mint, chives, and oregano. We also have a raised bed and a planter of strawberries!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Book Review: If I Stay


If I Stay is a Young Adult novel by Gayle Forman that centers around a 15ish year old girl named Mia. Mia is left in a coma after a bad car accident, but can still hear and see everything that's going on around her. Shortly thereafter, Mia realizes that she has the power to choose whether she lives or dies, and the next 24 hours are spent chronicling her choice.

First, let me say that while YA fiction is not usually my first choice of reading material, I have often enjoyed YA books, even if they do tend to be a bit melodramatic sometimes. However, even trying to think back to my teenage self, If I Stay was hard to relate to for me--at 15 years old, I certainly wasn't telling my mom, 'Hey, my boyfriend and I are going upstairs to my bedroom to have sex, but I'm all out of condoms, could you buy me some?' At 15 years old, I wasn't allowed to take overnight trips with my boyfriend. Not only was I not allowed to, I just had no desire to. My life at 15 was spent playing basketball and with my nose in books. Mia's life at 15 felt so different from my life at 15 (or even in college).

I can understand how and why so many teens love this book--I suppose there are a good number of teens who ARE allowed to take overnight trips with their boyfriends. And I suppose that a good number of those who aren't are probably wishing that they'd be allowed to do the things that Mia does, or even that their life presented such opportunities. For them, it might be nice to imagine what a life like that might be like. But for me, I guess it came down to the fact that I couldn't relate to Mia at all, and because I had a hard time relating to her, I didn't really care about her either. Towards the end of the book, I didn't find myself rooting for her to live, as callous as that sounds. I had no investment in her as a character, and didn't really care what choice she made.

There's A Bird In My Wall, Dear Liza, Dear Liza.

Oh, you read that right.

Somehow (don't ask me how), there is now a bird stuck in the wall behind our stove. And it spends a LOT of time flapping its wings and tweeting. Oh, and scratching at the wall and scaring the living daylights out of me.

Yesterday, Justin thought that it had fallen into the vent in the roof for our over-the-stove microwave. With much screaming and protesting from me, he opened up the space above the microwave. I had visions of a rabid bird flying around our house, unable to be caught....but the bird wasn't there. It's still squaking away from the general stove area, but apparently isn't in the little alcove that we thought it might be holing up.

How exactly would one go about getting a bird out from behind your walls before it dies and stinks up the whole house? Preferably without taking a sledgehammer to the kitchen cabinets. Why does this stuff always happen to me?!

In the meantime, Lizzy and the bird continue to have tweeting matches to see who can tweet the most loudly.

PS, in totally unrelated news, I had a dream right before I woke up this morning that I ran a 5k in 16 minutes and 47 seconds. HAHAHAHA! I apparently qualified for nationals, and then cried while saying, "But I don't even LIKE running!!!"

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Newborn Shoot #2

I got to do my second "tester" shoot for newborn photos yesterday! This time, for a 14 day old baby girl named Landrie along with her big sisters:


Landrie (30)

Landrie(15)

Landrie (40)

Landrie(12)

Landrie (19)

Landrie(33)

Landrie(16)

Landrie (14)

Landrie (28)

Landrie (26)


I needed this post. It's hard to have a bad day with sweet innocent baby staring you in your face.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Who Says, Who Says You're not Crafty?

* Title should be sung to the tune of Selena Gomez's new song. Wait, what do you mean you don't know Selena Gomez's new song? You don't have a husband who DVR's every episode of Phineas & Ferb ever made and has watched the latest "new" episode three times in the span of two days? Oh.

Usually, I tell people that I'm not very crafty. Indeed, I have had some crafting/DIY mishaps:
-Worst cake EVER
-Disco Pumpkin

However, I've also had some crafting successes:
-Mary Jane Baby Booties
-Headbands
-Heck, I even made ceiling tiles into wall art, as can be seen in this post.

So, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not inherently not-crafty. I CAN be crafty, especially when I'm following some sort of tutorial or have something specific in mind. I think the real issue is that since I'm only a sometimes crafter opposed to an all-the-time crafter, I just don't have the crafting STUFF.

For example, I am dying to make these glitter flats:

{photo and tutorial from We Are Not Martha}

However, it seems like such a big investment to me because I don't own Mod Podge, I don't keep glitter on hand. When people suggest framing scrapbook paper or whatnot...well, I don't own scrapbook paper. Heck, I don't even own any of those little foam brushes. So while y'all are like, "Hey I made this for free with things I already own!" I'm thinking, "That would cost me $50 to buy the materials...and then what if it doesn't turn out?!" 

Anyone out there with me? 

I think it might be a good idea to slowly start stocking up my crafting supply, because I'm sure that most things (like the glitter and mod podge) will be used again and again in doing crafts with Lizzy. Maybe I should just plan to buy something craft related every month. And actually add craft stuff to my one other recurring item on any holiday shopping list (Old Navy Gift Cards is the other).

I'm gonna do it. Heck, I'm feeling emboldened after painting a newborn cradle turquoise (more on that later). I'm gonna glitter up some shoes. 

By the way--every single person I know calls mod podge "Modge Podge"--but there is no extra "ge" in Mod on the package and it drives me CRAZY.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Carmel Apple French Toast Recipe + Bonus Fruit Dip Recipe!

So, this morning I found myself browsing on Pinterest. I have avoided actually joining because I could totally see myself sitting down for coffee in the morning, logging on to Pinterest, and then suddenly being like, "Wait, it's noon?! WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!" Instead, every so often, I log on to the main page and browse for a few minutes.

This morning, while browsing, I saw a recipe for Carmel Apple French Toast. It sounded good, and I promptly looked up several other recipes for future reference. Well, future reference came sooner than I thought when I couldn't think of one single thing to make for dinner with the ingredients that I had on hand. It was a sort of celebratory evening for us anyway since Justin had placed well on the apprenticeship wait-list, so I figured what the heck, and came up with a recipe based on several that I had checked out.

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Note: This is supposed to be an overnight French Toast recipe--or at least start it in the morning if you're making it for dinner like us. If you don't, it will be crunchy on top and a little soggy on the bottom. We didn't mind that, but I can see how it could be better if the mixture was more soaked through the bread.

You'll Need: 

-About half a loaf of bread (I used wheat), cubed. You'll need eight cups of cubed bread total.
-1/4 and 1.5 cups milk
-1 block Neufatchel cheese, softened (cream cheese is okay too)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup sugar
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-5 eggs
-2 apples (I used Granny Smith) sliced and cubed (I left the peel on, but you can do whatever you prefer)

First, add half the bread cubes to a greased 9x13 pan, and then layer the apples on top of the bread. In a separate bowl, mix together the neufatchel cheese, brown sugar, white sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/4 cup milk (Here's your bonus fruit dip recipe: in my family, we use those very same ingredients and proportions of neufatchel cheese, brown sugar, sugar, and vanilla--NOT the milk-- creamed together to make a fruit dip that is to die for. It's also a great frosting for brownies/cupcakes). Pour the carmel mixture that you just made over the apples. Next, add the other half of the bread cubes to the pan. In a separate bowl, combine the 5 eggs with 1.5 cups milk and 1 more tsp vanilla extract. Pour the egg mixture over the entire pan. Pop in the fridge and let sit for several hours. Remove from the fridge 30 minutes before baking and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

We baked for 50 minutes and the dish was still a little soupy, but obviously cooked through. Again, I think this issue would be solved by letting the whole thing simmer for a few hours to allow the bread to soak up some of the liquid. We also topped with a dollop of whipped cream.

After we ate, Justin said, "I think this qualifies as a dessert more than dinner!" It was good, but very sweet, and neither of us even used syrup. Of course, Lizzy went absolutely gaga over it. It was good, but definitely should be a bit of a special-occasion thing, I think!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Book Review: Little Bee

The back of Chris Cleave's Little Bee says the following:

"We don't want to tell you what happens in this book.
It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. 
Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it, so we will just say this: 

This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again--their story starts there...

Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds."

The back of the book is exactly right--I don't feel that there's much I can tell you about this book without ruining the story and the way it all unfolds. I can tell you that it deals with hard subject matter, and wasn't always pleasant to read, but was also important to read because of how uncomfortable and sad it made me. Also, it was somehow still beautifully written through and through. I can tell you that I finished it in two days, and probably drove Justin crazy by carrying it around with me everywhere we went and reading it every spare minute I had.


Goodness sakes, I'm thrilled at how many awesome ratings I've been able to post recently. I've truly loved most of the recent books I've read in the past couple of weeks!

Snippets + De-Lurk

-I'm kind of on a book roll. I started and finished Little Bee over the weekend, which was horrific and hard to read but also beautiful. I'll have a whole review post up sometime soon (do you guys like the book reviews?). I have a stack of library books to go through as well, and I'm hoping that I'll enjoy them as much as some of my recent reads.

-I am so wishing that the weather would warm up! I've been holding off planting our tomato plants because there's still the danger of frost. I'm definitely ready to get them in the ground! Also, everything that *is* planted already isn't doing so well--it's getting seriously wind-burnt!

-Lizzy gets up almost every single day at 6:30am on the dot. It doesn't matter what time she goes to bed, she's up by 6:30am. Except this morning...when she's apparently sleeping in. However, my body is so used to getting up at 6:30am now that I absolutely CANNOT make myself fall back asleep! How I wish I could!

-I don't know what's up with me lately, but I am seriously craving cheese. All the time. Cheddar, Gorgonzola, Blue cheese, Gouda, Havarti. Man, I love cheese. Too bad it doesn't seem to love me as much! And no, just to clear things up, I'm not pregnant, and this is not a pregnancy craving. I just like cheese.

-Our softball team is doing awesome this year! So far, we're 3-1, and the only game we've lost was a close one. The rest of the games have been called after 4 innings because we're ahead by more than 15 runs. I like to play no matter what--even last year when we only won 1 game the whole season, but there is just something really fun about when the teams wheels are clicking and everything works like it is supposed to!

-After my last post, I just wanted to clarify something--a LOT of foster parents are amazing. It wasn't my intent to convey that kids should automatically be placed with relatives because relatives won't give them back and foster parents will. I hope the last post didn't come off that way, and I apologize if it did. I was just (a) fired up that yet another set of kids had been given back after being adopted, and (b) sometimes I do think that some foster parents get really upset when child welfare initiates a relative search--almost like it's a personal insult. But really, it's a step that child welfare takes with the hopes of protecting the child. In my opinion, based on my experience, it's a good step in the process. However, it CAN also be frustrating that the "system" doesn't allow much wiggle room for looking at things on a case-by-case basis! As with anything else, there are no universals...

-Lastly, I've noticed that there are quite a few new readers/followers lately--thanks for stopping by! I'd love it if everyone, new and old, would take a few minutes to "de-lurk". In the comments, please tell me and everyone else:

1. Your name
2.One interesting fact about yourself
3. If you have a blog, tell us what it's about in 10 words or less
4. And give us your blog's url

Hope you all have a fantastic Monday!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Let's Talk Adoption...An Insider's Point of View.

On Wednesday, Lizzy and I stopped by my old workplace to say hello. I don't know that I've ever explained about my old job on the blog before, and some information about what I used to do will probably help give the context for this post. When I worked, I worked for a non-profit called CASA--Court Appointed Special Advocates (aka Guardian Ad Litem). Essentially, CASA volunteers are appointed by a judge to represent the best interests of children whose families are involved with child welfare. Sometimes those children are in foster care, sometimes they are still with their parents in residential drug and alcohol treatment, sometimes they are placed with their parents at home and are just being monitored by child welfare. CASAs have full access to all the case information and visit the child at least once a month. Then, they make recommendations to the judge about their physical, educational, emotional, and medical needs. Since CASAs are not state agencies, they aren't bound by any sort of bureaucratic red tape, and truly are able to advocate for the kiddos.

While at CASA, I oversaw about 35 volunteers and their cases, which worked out to be 80-100 kids. For some time, I was also in charge of all the children who were waiting for a CASA volunteer (technically, it's written in the statute that every child involved with child welfare is appointed a CASA, but there weren't enough CASAs to go around, so we had to triage the cases). Needless to say, I saw and read all sorts of horrific situations.

Anyway, when I left CASA to stay at home with Lizzy, I had the privilege of training my childhood softball coach to take over my position. She had been a long time foster and adoptive parent, and between her biological and adoptive children, she had seven kids. On Wednesday, I asked her how everyone was, and she gave me updates and then told me that she was just about to adopt three more kids--kids that she had been a CASA for many years ago--because their adoptive placement disrupted.

Disrupted....the word does not even begin to adequately describe the situation, which is that the adoptive parents gave the children back. I know. Let me tell you, I was *shocked* at how often I saw adoptive placements "disrupt" during my time at CASA. I truly had no idea how frequent an occurrence this was.

Even typing this now gets me all sorts of fired up about the topic. I suppose that maybe I shouldn't judge until I've been in their shoes, but I just CANNOT fathom a situation in which it would be acceptable to give back a child that you've adopted. It infuriates me.

Anyway, because of the frequency with which adoptive placements "disrupt", child welfare has increasingly begun to look to placing children in relative placements (even very extended relatives) over stranger foster care....because the cold hard truth is that I can't think of a single instance in which I saw a relative adoption "disrupt". This is not a popular thing to say, but this is something that has been documented often by child welfare--relative adoptions "disrupt" far less frequently than non-relative adoptions.

The searching for very extended family is often a point of contention for foster parents who are looking to adopt, and of course, I understand why--it's easy to be concerned that the "apple doesn't fall far from the tree." It's easy to be worried that the family will hand the kids right back to the parents as soon as child welfare is out of the picture. It's easy to be frustrated as a foster parent about having to hand over a child that you've raised, loved, and want to be part of your family forever. It's easy to wonder why that third cousin didn't step up to be a foster parent from the beginning.

However, after working at CASA, I also understand why child welfare does it. First of all, when child welfare does extended family searches prior to finalizing adoption, it's not uncommon to find healthy family that has absolutely no idea that their relative is in foster care. Perhaps the extended family unit didn't have much contact with the child's parents due to their drug use. Then, when the child was put into foster care and the parents were asked to identify relatives, the parents were too embarrassed to list their cousin Susan (she was always so judgmental anyway), and so child welfare wasn't aware that she even existed, or that she'd be a potential placement resource.

I recognize that from a foster parent's point of view, it's HARD. It's frustrating. It's infuriating. But please understand that child welfare's heart is in the right place--they are simply trying to protect these kids who have already been through SO much from being let down by yet another set of adults who may promise that they'll be there, and then don't follow through.

If you're a foster parent reading this, it isn't my intention to insinuate that you would treat a foster or adoptive child as anything less than a biological child. It isn't my intention to insinuate that if things got rough that you'd give your adoptive child back. It IS my intention to tell you that this very thing happens often enough to make your stomach turn. It IS my intention to plead with you to try and have some patience and understanding with the search for extended family, as hard and as frustrating and as emotionally charged as it is.

Most of all, I just hope that I'm able to bring another point of view to the table, and that you'll accept it for what it is--just my point of view based on my experiences.

Friday, May 13, 2011

I Met A Newsboy (And Other Fun Stories and Photos)

Newsboys (16)


This is a bit of a long and complicated story, so I'll try my best to simplify it a little bit. Last night there was a concert in Southern Oregon that featured Disciple, Kutless, a speaker named Bob Lenz, and the Newsboys. My sister Courtney happens to know one of the guys that does booking and merchandise for Bob Lenz (his name is John), and he told her that if the concert wasn't too far away from where we live, that he'd leave her free tickets for her and a friend. At this point, Justin was still out of town, so my parents agreed to babysit Lizzy so that Courtney and I could go.

Earlier in the day, John called and asked if Court and I could pick him and Bob up at the airport along with all their gear and then drive them to the venue. We said sure, and so we did. When we arrived at the venue, we helped carry in all of Bob's stuff through the back band entrance, when the drummer for the Newsboys came over to say hi. It was kind of fun to say that we met a rock-star...but I have to say that I was pretty surprised at how short he was--he was like chest high on me! We helped schlep stuff in and said hello to all the security people as we did.

Then Court and I went and had dinner at Subway (THEY HAVE THE ORCHARD CHICKEN SANDWICH AGAIN!!!!), and headed back to the concert. She and I ended up helping at the merch table for Bob, which was a ton of fun.

I brought my dslr camera with me, but figured that they probably wouldn't let me bring it in or would ask me not to take photos since I didn't have a press pass, but figured it was worth a shot anyway on the off-chance I had the opportunity to practice concert photography. So, as Kutless was playing, I decided to try and see if I could get closer to the stage to take some photos. I'm not sure if it was the "fancy" camera, or the fact that security recognized me, but no one stopped me as I got closer to the stage.

Kutless2

I always enjoy hearing Kutless play--Strong Tower is one of my favorite songs, and their set is a cool mix of concert and worship. Also, three of their band members are from Southern Oregon, so it's cool to see the "local" guys make it big. Anyway, I snapped a couple of shots, and then headed back to the booth because I knew that it was almost time for Bob to speak.

BobLenz2

If you're not familiar with Bob Lenz, you should be. He's an awesome speaker, and he has a great book out called Grace: For Those Who Think they Don't Measure Up. Last night, Bob was also partnering with Compassion International, which is an incredible organization. I would LOVE to do one of their blogger trips someday. 

{Another fun tidbit? Bob's doing Insanity, and John told me that he's lost 70 pounds doing it!}

Anyway, after Bob, the Newsboys came on stage. I'll be honest--I wasn't sure that I'd enjoy their concert. See, they have a new lead singer. I've seen them live with their old singer, and just wasn't sure that anyone could like up to Peter Furler. That said, their new lead singer (Michael Tait) won me over with an a capella version of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Also, they came out singing Usher's Hey-Oh, which was kind of hilarious. 

I decided that since no one stopped me before, I should see if I could get even CLOSER to the stage to take some photos of the Newsboys.

Newsboys (8)

Oh, hi Jeff Frankenstein. I don't mind if I do stand two feet away from you to take your photo.

Newsboys

Newsboys (2)

I was right up in front of the stage and no one said a word. I can only assume that they thought I was supposed to be there. I've kind of decided that I was.

Newsboys (13)

Concert photography is REALLY tricky. Especially since I was going at it with nothing more than my Nifty Fifty lens. I had a lot of fun experimenting though!

Newsboys (14)

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After about two songs, I headed back to the table with Courtney. It was so fun getting to spend the evening with her!

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We had a great few of the hydraulics that the Newsboys use from the table.

Newsboys (15)

We had been telling Court how the drummer not only goes up in the air, but then starts spinning upside down. However, his hydraulics were broken, so she didn't get to see the upside-down drumming this time.

Newsboys (17)

But it was still pretty amazing!

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