time flies

well summer is officially over in Newport News as CNU starts up classes tomorrow and I’m so excited to have the city alive again! Its crazy how much a college town changes during the summer. I can’t explain to you how much I loved college, then how ready I was to be out of newport news, then how quickly I ran back as soon as I left ;0) There’s just something about the area that I absolutely adore which I’m convinced you only really appreciate after you attend CNU. This past Friday night I sat around a table with 10 of my friends, the majority of which entered and graduated CNU the same time I did, and I love that so many of us stuck around here :0) Its crazy to think how much has changed over the last few years, and even crazier how time has flown since college! I drove past CNU today and got excited for all the new freshman who are still trying to find their way around campus, preparing to attend their first college class tomorrow, and already making awesome memories with friends they will have for the rest of their lives. I came home and started looking through all my pictures from college on facebook (which is why the quality is so stinky), and decided to share some of my favorite pictures over those four years here. Its also funny to me to see how my standard of photography has dramatically changed, to say the least! HA! So if you’re a new client please don’t judge me based on these pictures.. keep on scrolling down, I promise they get better ;0) 

Amy, Evelyn, and I one of the first weeks of my freshman year:We spent almost every day in the fall and spring sitting outside on the lawn in front of the dorm hanging out.. i mean, studying very hard… ;0) The four of us were together so often the guys nicknamed us JABE; Jessie, Amy, Beverly, & EvelynAnnual Christmas party! Our absolute favorite spot perfect for evening sunsets, lazy afternoons, and 3AM conversations still one of my favorite pictures of JABE, freshman year at YoungLife sandbridge weekend.. that weekend changed my eternity! thank the Lord! :0) last day of freshman year.. all packed up and moving out :0( Sophomore year! love when the fair comes in the spring! the ferris wheel is the best ride there :0) moving right along… junior year! My awesome younglife teammates, Throupe, Josh, and Kathleen.. these guys taught me so much about loving high school kids in the name of Jesus :0) Lovely roommates all ready for roomie date night!I’ve been singing at weddings waaaaaaay longer than I’ve been photographing them! Not that I don’t love my job, but I l-o-v-e being able to be a  sing at weddings too. My roommate at the time Jackie has an amazing voice, we definitely didn’t sing together enough while we lived together, but our friends Lauren and Lee asked us to sing In Christ Alone at their wedding and this is one of my favorite memories from junior year. Our voices compliment each other so well, and its definitely one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever heard! Every time I hear that song I think of her :0) Oh my goodness this picture makes me laugh every time.. this is Aiden, Sarah, myself, Ryan, and Throupe down at the bottom hangin out at an Orioles game for Ryan’s birthday and Sarah’s first baseball game… Justin’s caption of this sums it up perfectly: “from left to right as it happened….singing new york new york, so happy my first game, im going to lean on sarah cause i dont even know this guy next to me, my jaw is dropped because i just saw how far back the twins are in the al central, and last… i just wanted to see if my nose was clean” yep, thats about right! and now for senior year.. can’t believe how fast it came! I’m pretty sure Ev and I made these christmas cookies in October one night.. we were dreaming of a white christmas (aaand final exams somehow magically disappearing), so we made cookies and watched Elf ;0) another one of my favorite girls to sing with! By far the highlight of senior year was spring break! 7 girls and 2 very brave guys went down to hilton head for the week and i loved every minute of it! one of these days I’m going to round everyone up and plan another vacation.. even though we all have grown up jobs now we should still take a spring break trip.. right?? :0) love this of michael :0) we took a day trip into Savannah and that was one of my favorite days.. such a beautiful place! I could have taken pictures there all day long! so I’m only posting this picture because I love the people so much, I actually think this picture is incredibly awkward… i guess thats why its so funny ;0) these wonderful people are my YL teammates from senior year, this was taken at the end of the year picnic honoring our Warwick seniors.. and since I was graduating too my teammates decided to surprise me too. So no, this is not a wanna-be band picture, just a very candid (and accurately awkward) picture of some of my favorite people ;0) graduation picnic.. one of the best friends I could have asked for! 
graduation day!! i cannot believe how fast it came! mission accomplished! So there you have it, my entire college career in one blog post! I have to say, as much as I loved college and everything I learned there, I absolutely love where I am right now in my life. I love my job, love my community, and love that I get to be a part of what God is doing here in Newport News still! I’m pumped to get to know some of the new freshman at CNU and to tell them to enjoy every moment of their 4 years at CNU because they will be wearing that cap and gown before they know it! 

Hope you had a great weekend!