a sneak peek!

So..remember how I told you I went to Duluth this past weekend? Well I took lots of pictures, and I mean lots. So it might take me some time to edit them. (And as you all know I don't have very much time..*ahem*). So I will be posting them as soon as possible. So here is a quick sneak peek!

garden

Let the songs I sing bring joy to you, let the words I say confess my love.

I want everything I do to bring joy to You, Jesus. 

You're the reason I'm here. You love me unconditionally. I pray that you will help me do everything in honor of You. 

Just recently my uncle came to Christ. He loves this band called NeedtoBreathe. I've come to really like this band too. Especially the song, Garden.

Listen to it. It's powerful. :)

Thank you Jesus, for everything. Help me to be one of a kind, and different than everyone else. 

I'm living this life to glorify you only. 

Have a wonderful week. :)

Garden.

update

Sorry for my week long absence. I even told you in my last post I would post every other day. Please stick with me here! :)

I will have lots of pictures to show you when I get back from Duluth on Sunday! I'm leaving in just an hour or so, so I better get packing!

Thank you all for your sweet comments on my last post. It made me smile. :)

Have a happy weekend! :)

photo credit::Haven

P.S. Like my new design?

thoughts

I'm sitting here, smiling, thinking. I hear the laughter and screams of my crazy brothers and my two little cousins. Right now? Life is good.

We just came back from my brother's baseball game, he pitched in inning three. He did fantastic. It's so fun to be able to see my brothers succeed in what they do. It brings a smile to my face.

Sitting in the van, turning up the heat, eating salami and cheese sandwiches, extra cheesy goldfish, granola bars, and a soda. Watching a movie, and watching my little cousin laugh his head off at my silly faces, it's so much fun.

Waking up to my mom turning on my light, I curled my hair just a little bit, put it in a side pony tail, put on a red beaded necklace, and a black and white striped shirt. I was ready for church. One thing I love about my church is that my aunts and uncles go there, and my cousins. My grandma also goes to our church. Whenever I go, I get to see everybody. It's lots of fun. :)

School? Craziness. I come home every day with loads and loads of homework, and I need to practice my instruments. I now play two instruments. The flute, and the tenor saxophone. Yesterday I practiced my saxophone for two hours straight. Band is one of my favorite things to do. In case you didn't already know that. :)

Well, I better get back to my homework. It is Sunday, tomorrow is Monday. Oh, and in case you didn't know the next day is Tuesday, then Wednesday. Wow. I need to get off this computer. But first, I need to ask..how's life for you?

Have a great week friends!

xoxo

photo contest finalists

Wow. Feels good to be back. Even though I was only gone for five days..it feels like forever. Can I just tell you that if you are in eighth grade in a public school you have no life, you have hardly any free time. It really stinks because I love to blog, and I love to photograph. But school takes away both of those. I'm sorry for my absence, but I plan to get back into blogging at least every other day. 

I'm pretty ecstatic with the amount of entries I got in my 'anything' photo contest. 19 entries! That's awesome! Thank you all for entering! Also, I put up a poll to see what all of you're favorite classes are in school..apparently you guys like english! :] So on with the photo finalists! :]

by Gloria A.

Probably my favorite this week. Love the lighting the focus, the horse and people in the background. It's just a wonderful picture. :)

 by Lauren.

I just love the simplicity of this photo. I love the green in the background, the colors, and it doesn't look too over edited, or even edited at all. Great job Lauren!

by Mary Ann.

I love this picture because of the lighting, the colors, and it's something different. Great job Mary Ann! 

by Allison.

I love this picture because of where she took this photo, and how the sun is shining through the trees! Great job Allison! :)

by Lily.

I love his because of how soft, and simple this photo looks. Great job Lily!

Now go on over to the side bar and vote for your favorite! The winner will get one week of advertising on my sidebar! :) Good luck!

photo contest|anything

Well, hello there! Guess what? Today's Sunday, so that means school tomorrow. I hate to say this, but I doubt I'll post at all this week..so I think I'll have a photo contest. It's pretty easy..just link up a picture of anything. You have until Friday to link up!

My new shoes. I love them! :]

Rules

-Picture needs to be taken by YOU!

-Only one entry per person

-Blog hop around and comment on at least 2 other entries

-Please add my button to your blog post!

-You can post your entry on flickr or your blog!

-All pictures need to be appropriate-or I will disqualify your picture

-Have fun!

P.S. Go check out my new poll on my side bar!

<a href="http://livinmylife4jesus.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/z7Vqz.jpg" /></a>

there's something about...

best friends. 

My best friend never seems to bail on me. She's always wanting to talk to me, and always is loving, caring, helpful, sweet, and just plain awesome.

Since my best friend is awesome, she gave me a picture frame for my birthday. It's a picture of us when we were like 3 years old. It's the cutest thing ever. So I took it outside and took pictures of it. 

She also gave me this necklace. I really like it. I think it's really unique, and every time I wear it I think of her. :]

I hate how there is a reflection right on Haven's face. But I still love this picture. Look at my face. Isn't that hilarious? ;]

sunsets. 

They're just beautiful. And the fact that every time there is a pretty one my dad will yell to me: "Ali! Look at this sunset! This one is worth the picture!" And every time the picture turns out not so good..just seeing it is amazing. It's like one of those, "you had to be there" type of moments. 

birthday cards.

I got so many birthday cards from so many people. And every time I did I would put them on my nice, new, white shelf in my room. I love all these cards, they're so sweet. :]

school.

Why do eighth graders get so much homework in the first four days? I believe they're giving out too much homework. Last night I didn't eat dinner until 8:30 because I had so much homework I didn't have time to stop doing it. (By the way..as you probably can tell I haven't been taking very many good pictures lately..I've been so caught up in homework I'm like forcing myself to get my camera out and take pictures every day for my project 365. So sorry about that..)

books.

Whether it be my brand new bible I got for my birthday, or the Sierra Jensen Series. I love books. But, especially the bible.

my readers.

Did I mention how awesome you guys are? Well, you are. And thank you all for reading my blog, it means a lot. :] Oh, and right now I have 79 followers! That's awesome..but guess what? Only one more until 80! 

Have a fabulous weekend!

first day of eighth grade.

Today was my first day of eighth grade. 

I met all my teachers, and saw who was all in my classes.

It was really fun actually.

Some of my teachers were totally awesome.

Some were..well..I don't know how to say it. Weird? Boring? Not cool?

Today I found out my friend has back issues. She went to the doctor today, and turns out she might need surgery. She texted me and asked if I would be there for her when and if it does happen. Prayers?

Learning spanish this year. That should be fun. In spanish we get to pick a spanish name. Mine is Ana. I picked it because my name is Ali, obviously..and they're both three letters, and both start with an A. So I got home and my mom told me that her name in spanish was Ana also. How funny is that?! ;]

This year should be fun..and I'm hoping for it to go as well as my past middle school years did. I'm excited to be the oldest in the school..and to learn lots of new things. Wish me luck! ;]

What grade are you going into?

state fair 2011.

So the other day my family and I went to the state fair. It was crazy busy. I kept trying to get a good picture of how many people were there..but they never turned out. So just trust me. It was craziness. ;]

So first we went straight to the miracle of birth center. It's so cool to see all these brand new baby animals. :] There's so many people that were there that just drooled over those baby animals. They loved them, because they were so cute. 

I can not stand blurry pictures, but the chicks are so cute!

These little guys were born like just a couple minutes before I took this picture. Aren't they cute?

As for food? Amazing french fries, a yummy corn dog, $2 root beer, an ice cream cone from the dairy building and cheese curds. As for my favorite out of all these? The french fries. They were deelish.

You know what I always forget to do? Take a picture of my ice cream cone before I lick it. :P

These John Deere tractors were so cool! :]

I hate how this picture is blurry..but I just wanted to show you guys how cool these butter sculptures are! Yes, they are made out of butter. And these are the princesses. :]

Then we went to go check out these cool horse shows. It was really cool! :]

My mom and brother after a long day at the fair. 

Do you go to your state fair? :]

fourteenth

First of all, thank you all for wishing me a happy birthday in my last post! Some of you girls even emailed me! It meant a lot, and in case your wondering, I had a really great day yesterday! I can't believe I'm 14. I feel so old. ;]

So for my birthday yesterday, I had Haven come over for the day. We hung out in my new room, and we biked to Subway for lunch. Came home got all dressed, and did our hair all pretty, and waited for my other friends to arrive.

 I also took just a few pics of my room. A lot of you asked for pictures of it, so here are just a few. :]

See that frame? Haven made it for me. It is adorable! :]

So I had six girls come over for pizza, ice cream, and a bonfire. It was really fun! Here's a picture of all of us. :]

The girls all made a bowl full of whoop cream and chocolate and surprised me by putting it in my face when I turned around. haha. I didn't get any pictures of that. But, If I did it would have been pretty funny. :]

I'm a crazy fourteen year old. ;]

So mad this is blurry. :[

Hope you all have a great rest of your weekend! :]