i'm alive!

so, i think it's about time to resurrect this blog! my sisters have been nagging me for, oh, 1 and a 1/2 years now (whoopsie :P), so i think it's about time...school, soccer, family, friend, camp and other things *coughfacebookcough* have seemed to have stolen my time...but i'm alive! really and truly i am! i'm also updating my photography blog, as i'm getting more involved and immersed in photography (and more interested in doing it professionally), i thought it'd be a good idea to kinda re-think my "brand" or whatever you want to call it...i'm also contemplating (ooo big word ;]) combining this blog with my photography blog...but i'm still thinking about it...SO, go check out my new photography blog! hopefully i'll be more faithful to this one as well :/ but for now...goodbye tori dutt photograph and hello ria grace photography! :D

happy birthday punt!

happy birthday to you! happy birthday to you! happy birthday dear ashlee!! happy birthday to you!
have a wonderful day! i love you! :)

song...surrender

sooo, as many of you may know, i've been at berea for the past week for staff week (which was awesome!). it was an amazing week of really growing closer to God and realizing different things about myself and bonding with the other staffers and learning my job, etc. one of the things i really loved (other than everyone on staff!) was chapel time. the speaker was really good, but i really enjoyed the singing. i loved how everyone's voices sounded together and how everyone was actually thinking about the lyrics and meant what they were singing. one of the songs that i really liked and that really made me think was this song called "surrender," so i thought i'd share it with you all. just actually think about the lyrics, they're so powerful and meaningful...

surrender
by marc james

I'm givin you my heart
and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of you, my King
I'm givin you me dreams
I'm layin down my rights
I'm givin up my heart for the promise of new life

(Chorus)
And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, Lord, all to you

I'm singin you this song
I'm waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
The sake of knowing you
the glory of your name
To know that lasting joy in sharing in your pain

take my quiz!!

haha, i saw this on ashlee's blog, so i decided to make my own!! :)
check it out, see how well you know me...or how well you think you know me... :)

Take My Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com Can you Ace my quiz? Yes! No Let's Find Out!

they're over!!

exams are over!! [for this year, at least...] now just one more day....then it's up to camp for 3 weeks on staff [please pray for that, too, i'm kinda nervous....]...yeay!! i'm gonna miss all my friends from school, but next year will be here before we know it!! anyways, thanks for the prayers!!

i put up some pictures from my sisters' soccer games on my photoblog...go check it out and let me know what y'all think!!













[click the picture]

new stuff...updates...

so, i just wanted to leave that post about the chapmans up for a while (if anyone was wondering why there was a posting drought...). please keep praying for them everyone. i'm sure they're still hurting and it'll take a really long time for this to fade a little. so just remember to say a prayer for them once and a while...anyways, here's a graphic i made for them...(i sorta stole the idea from ashlee's blog, great idea punt! love ya!)...














on a different note...i've updated my photoblog quite a few times with a bunch of random spring pictures and some pictures of naomi...check it out [click on the picture]...and let me know what you think!! :)













soooo, school is almost over!! yeay!! :D i am experiencing ambivalence (thank you mr. talkington...) over the end of the school year. i'm excited that it'll be over and summer will be here, but i'm also sad that it's over...see, i'm a remembering freak. maybe that's why i love journaling (thanks to jaina) and i freak out when i forget something and why i love photography. i mean, seriously, if i could video tape my while life, i would seriously jump at the opportunity!! (it would be a ton of film, but i think it would be worth it!) i also hate change (or most change....if someone wanted to change our bathroom or possibly build us another one, be my guest! i would welcome that kind of change!), so i don't want to let go of this year. i don't want to loose any of the friendships i've made this year...i don't want to give up my locker!! [i love my locker!! don't take it!!]... i don't want to forget a thing from my first year at "real" school...
anyways, so, all that to say that we're almost done with school...our official very last day is next thursday. today was our very first day of finals (*shudder*) but thankfully, we are now 1/3 through exams!! yeay!! if you all could pray for me and everyone at my school that we would remember everything and not be nervous, all that good stuff, that would be awesome!! thanks! today was literature and math, so it's nice to have those out of the way (especially literature...). monday is physics and history (i'm most nervous about history) and then tuesday is Bible and french (that should be the easiest day...i like both subjects! [i'm really going to miss my french class... :(])...sooo, if you could be praying for us as school winds down, that would be wonderful...
i think that's a brief overview of what's been going on lately...don't forget to be praying for the chapmans!!

maria chapman

hey everyone, i don't know if anyone's heard about this, but we really need to be praying for the chapman family right now. their youngest daughter, maria (she just turned 5), was killed in a car accident on wednesday. here's the story from steven curtis chapman's website--

© 2007 Tucker Photography.
(Left to right Will Franklin, Maria, Steven, Shaoey, Mary Beth, Stevey Joy, Caleb and Emily)

MARIA SUE CHAPMAN, DAUGHTER OF STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN, DIES IN ACCIDENT AT FAMILY HOME

NASHVILLE, TN...5/21/08... At approximately 5pm on the afternoon of Wednesday May 21st, Maria Sue Chapman, 5 years old and the youngest daughter to Steven and Mary Beth Chapman was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN. Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family’s six children and one of their three adopted daughters.

More than five years ago, Chapman and his wife MaryBeth founded The Shaohannah’s Hope Ministry after bringing their first adopted daughter, Shaohannah, home from China. The ministry’s goal is to help families reduce the financial barrier of adoption, and has provided grants to over 1700 families wishing to adopt orphans from around the world. Chapman is a five-time GRAMMY ® winner and 54-time Dove Award winning artist who has sold over 10 million albums and garnered 44 No. 1 singles.

it doesn't say this, but one of her older brothers was driving the car (i'm not in any way whatsoever blaming him).

so, we really need to be in prayer for their family, and also for the brother. i cannot even imagine how they feel. we need to lift them up in prayer, and be praying that their family will be strengthened by this tragedy, and that they will cling to Jesus, and that they will use this horrible tragedy to lead others to Christ. we also need to be praying for the brother. i cannot even imagine what he's going through right now. be praying that God will just draw him to Himself and that he can be a testimony before the world of God's faithfulness and love.

anyways, i just wanted to share that with y'all and ask for prayer for them. so please be praying!

dear Lord, i lift up the chapman family to You now. i pray that You would strengthen their family and just draw them to Yourself during this difficult time. please bless them now and help them to know that You're in control, even though we have questions and don't know why something like this would happen, help them know that You have a plan that's so much bigger than us. please just hold them close to Yourself and make Yourself real to them at this time. Lord, i pray especially for maria's brother. please help him to realize that it's not his fault. show him that You have a huge plan for his life, and just hold him tightly in Your arms. draw him close to You and his family through this tragedy and help him to see how You're using him. make him stronger through this, and help him to be a testimony of Your love, faithfulness and forgiveness through this. thank you so much for always hearing us, and just be close to the chapmans now. amen.

"the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." -psalm 34:18

one of his (steven's) songs that is really appropriate (he has a lot of great songs, another one that's appropriate is his song "cinerella".). this is "God is God"--

narnia: prince caspian

weelll...everyone else seems to be posting their reviews for caspian, so i might as well say what i think, too (lol!) [i was planning on doing this earlier, but school is insane!]...i don't think i can give a really good, complete review at the moment, i think i have to see it again to and really think about it [the first time watching it, i was in this blissful haze...thinking "i can't believe i'm finally watching this!! it's been what, 3 years?!" yea, we've been waiting for a while!]. throughout the movie, ashlee, naomi and i randomly whispered to each other about random details, which i'm sure the people behind us deeply appreciated [yea right. *rolls eyes*], but that made the movie more enjoyable for me! lol! like i said before, it's gonna be hard for me to really write a review, so i'll just mention a couple things i remember [warning::spoilers!!]...
first of all, the actors/actresses did amazing jobs!! i was a bit skeptical about ben barnes, but he was just awesome (although i don't quite get how spanish accent=telmarine...yea...). my personal favorite character in this movie was edmund. he was just stinkin' awesome (go skandar!!)!! he matured so much since lww, and he was great in this movie! lucy (yeay georgie!) was great, too! i loved her faith in aslan, and how she grew up in this movie (i also liked how they made her a lot like the book.)
o.k., some of you might not like this, but to tell you the truth, i thought peter and susan were somewhat of a let-down. they did have some great scenes, and anna and william are great actress/actor, but they weren't my fav. i didn't really like how they weren't really like the book. for example, i didn't like how peter's faith in aslan was really shaky during almost the whole movie. and i didn't like how susan acted rather snobbish at times. (i think this is what i remember, but i still want to see it again...) don't get me wrong, i loved the movie! there were just a couple things i didn't like. for peter, he was great during the fight scenes (especially his duel with miraz!), and did anyone see the hair flips?? those were soo funny!! one i found especially amusing was during the duel with miraz when i think peter's been knocked down, he gets up, does a hair flip and has this really determined look on his face that's like "you think it's gonna be that easy? think again." :)
i liked the scene with the white witch (even though it wasn't in the book...). i thought it was really interesting...one of the things that disappointed me was how after peter pushed caspian out of the way, and then he basically took his place (he seemed really easily swayed in this movie). i loved how ed saved the day, though! that was awesome! :)
o.k., i'm almost done, but there's one more thing i have to talk about--susan and caspian (you knew that was coming, didn't you?). i think it was totally unnecessary. i think the director said something like how you see susan and caspian and you think they go together, or something like that. what i heard that, i was just like, "ummm, NO! no no no no no!!" idk, obviously they aren't ever going to see each other again, but they didn't have to do that (even though susan's lines after that were pretty funny!). anyways, yea, i didn't really like that part...
sooo...hopefully that somewhat made sense, i loved the movie [even though it seems like i just focused on the negative, hopefully i'll be able to write a more complete review later...], and can't wait to see it again! :)
oh, and one more thing, reepicheep totally rocked!
the end.

meg and soph's photoshoot!!

hey everyone!! go check out the rest of the pictures from meghan and sophie's photoshoot, and don't forget to let me know what you think!!













[click on the picture, as usual!]

poll

sooo, i had to poll running for about a month over on the sidebar. the question was "which is better, sambas or converse??" and, the poll is now closed, so i can reveal the results (even though you can kinda already see them)...*drumroll please*...the winner is....SAMBAS!! sambas won 19 to 11. although they won in points, i'm kinda thinking that it was rigged, because every time my siblings went on my blog, and could vote, they did, and they voted for sambas. sooo, i'm not sure who really won, but oh well, they were close!! and my personal opinion is that sambas rock way harder than converse. period. end of discussion. done.

votm--may

"The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." --psalm 45:11

whoopsie...i'm a little late... :p

wow...it's been a while

sorry everyone...it's been quite a while since i last posted...sooo sorry 'bout that...life has been crazy! for some reason, teachers decided to pile on homework and tests for the past 2 weeks...strange, i know! so, what's been going on in my life lately (not that anyone actually cares or checks my blogs anymore, but oh well!)?? well, last weekend, i went to the authentic beauty conference with a bunch of my friends (and my lovely sister), and it was awesome!! the speaker was bethany needham, our counselor's name was melissa, and they both rocked!! it was bethany's first time speaking at a conference, and she did an awesome job! :) she talked about the lies we girls believe and how we need to attack them head on with scripture and disprove those lies that satan is feeding us! a couple of her favorite verses were--
pslam 45:11- "The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." (talking about God to us!! He's enthralled with your beauty!)
psalm 139:17- "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" (God thinks about you all the time, and His thoughts towards you are precious!! how cool is that?!)
sooo, that's what happened last weekend....it was awesome!!
today was kinda crazy, i had a math and physics tests, and a Bible paper due! i was dictating my schedule for this week to sophie on sunday, and she was typing it into her phone (don't ask me why...), and all of it didn't fit!! that's one way to know your week is too full-- it doesn't fit in someone's phone!! :) anyways, then after i got home, i had an interview for camp (woop woop!)! mary is awesome!! hopefully i'll get to work there this summer, i'm so excited! :)
yup, so that's what's going on with me...tomorrow, my dad has surgery on his knee (please pray!) and friday we're having a group come to do skits and bekah's favorite church is coming, too, although she won't be able to see them because she's going to be flying to thailand (you can pray for her, too! i'm gonna miss her soooo much!!)

i think that's it...oh, and i put more pictures from sophie and meghan's photoshoot up on my photoblog (i finally got them all on the computer, edited, and ready to share!), so you can go check those out and let me know what you think!!
have a great rest of the week! :)

i'm a Christian

i saw this on sophie's blog (hope you don't mind me posting it on mine, too, soph!), and i thought it was really good! :) it is so true!! as Christians, we are no different from other people, other than we're saved by God, and we're trying to live differently according to God's word! :)

Christians - By Maya Angelou

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin".
"I'm whispering "I was lost, Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong.I'm professing that I'm weak
And need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not holier than you,
I'm just a simple sinner
Who received God's good grace, somehow.