Seaside Photography

The Epic Photograph:


Photography by Stephanie and Afton Fullmer:



































Photography by Kelli LeBaron:

I'm home.

Sorry it's taken me so long to write! I have been very very busy in the last few weeks. And life has been crazy! I hardly even have time for a social life these days, which I guess is a good thing. I'm either at work, school or studying. It's quite hectic. But I've got it figured out for the most part. The only hard part is that Im going to have to take my car into the shop to get it fixed, which means ill have no transportation to work and school, etc. Which is going to be very hard to work around! Ugh.

Anyways. This weekend, Ryan [Afton's boyfriend] and I decided to drive up to Camas, WA to visit our beloved friends. And my beloved homeland. It's wonderful to be back! We got here early Saturday morning, then that day drove down to Seaside with Afton, Ryan, Stevie and Turner. We made a quick stop and did a photoshoot on our way. I'll post those pictures in another blog.

Anyways, it was a fun filled day. Then later on, we went to Portland to Voodoo Doughnut, then came home and slept.

Today, we went to Sushiland with Jeremy Robeson, Stevie, Afton and Ryan. Then visited my beloved photography teacher, Doug Huegli at the high school. Who showed me some really amazing photographs he took. Thennn, we went to Bubble Tea after, [sorry mom!] haha. It was good to be back to those favorite places of mine. I miss that.

Anyways.


I now must continue to say how absolutely obsessed with The Bealtes I am right now. I've been listening to them non-stop for the last three days. They're so incredibly amazingly talented. That's an understatement. I recently downloaded the Across the Universe Soundtrack. It's simply amazing. If no one has heard of it, check out the website for the movie. It comes out this friday, and Im pretty sure I want to be at that midnight showing. It's going to be epic. I'm so so so excited. And anyone who is a Beatles fan, needs to purchase the soundtrack the day it comes out, which is tomorrow. haha.

Anyway, I'll be posting those pictures soon! I hope everyone has a good day!

Intensity.

So some major events have happened over the last few days.
Yesterday, I got into a car accident- not my fault despite what most people would commonly believe. haha. Basically I was driving down the street and a car was coming from the opposite direction, and she had her blinker on to turn left into her driveway. Well, I guess she didn't see me, because she started to turn, so I slammed my brakes and she smashed into my front left headlight, causing it to dislocate, and for my turn signal to smash to the ground. I called the cops and we both filled out accident reports.
I just so happen to have the best luck with cars in the history of luck.

Anyway. Then some other things happen that kind of made my day really stressful. Buuut then I saw my beloved Kali Harris. Who I have not seen all summer and has neglected to callll meee. haha. but maybe ill forgive you, Kal.

But on a lighter and happier note, I got a job at Nu Skin Enterprises in the food services department. I work as a cashier making 9 dollars an hour. And Im soooo excited about it. And I think that if I keep working there for a long time, I can really build up, and maybe work as a receptionist, then slowly go up from there. Its a very promising job and I'm very grateful that I got it. So now along with my math and english class and my job at Bath & Body Works, I have that. This semester's going to be a crazy one! But I love the feeling of being productive. It's positively the best feeling in the world. So I've never been more excited.

Anyhow, I'm thrilled about the fact that in one week from tomorrow, I'll be driving to Washington. Im sooo excited. And then at the end of September, I'm headed to California to see my grandma. Overall it should be awesome.

But yes, that is my update for now. More to come soon!

Update!

So my internet is currently out of order. And it’s been awhile since I’ve written. I’m all moved into my apartment now. And I absolutely love it. It’s a completely different experience to live on the back side of Raintree. It’s a lot less social. And there are some girls that live next door that we know from the summer semester. We’ve all tried to be really hard to be nice to them, but they’re really actually fairly rude to us. So we call them the plastics, cause they’re really nice to any hot boys that show interest, but rude to everyone else. Haha. It’s mean…but it just kind of happened that way.

Anyways. Mylena, aka Michelle [her real name is Lena Michelle Phipps] but everyone calls her Michelle. Annie and I call her Mylena, moved in on Sunday finally! After 6 months of waiting for her to move back! Then Kristina and Erin moved in. They both have boyfriends, so Erin’s always gone with hers and Kristina’s always here with her. I absolutely love all my roommates. And though I technically am dating someone, I’m home a lot of the time with my beloved roommates. So Anna, Mylena, Annie and myself all get along perfectly. It’s so much fun. But I am forced to do my math homework at school because it’s impossible when you live with your best friends. Plus, my apartment’s A LOT cleaner and nicer. I absolutely love it.

I also got a job interview yesterday at Magelby’s and I’m hoping I get it. So I’d be working at both Bath & Body Works as well as Magelby’s. And then school too. I really need to be more constructive, and as soon as my car is in proper condition again, life will be much easier.

Oh, and I think my Euro trip is being postponed until the summer of 2009, and instead, Annie, Mylena, and I are flying to Hawaii and staying with Hali, Po Hei, and Leo. Which would be awesome. Aaand I won’t feel like a tourist!

Oh, I also really love my classes I have. They’re awesome. Especially my math class. I’m pretty excited about everything in my life right now. A little stressed, but things are working out well! But that’s my update for now. I’ll write more another day. Gooodbyyye, friends and family!

Music.

I don't know how I've gone so long without finally posting a blog about music. my music. because that's a lot of who I am. I don't know how I ever excluded it. But I'm finally doing it. As a lot of people know, almost anyone knows, music is a huge part of who I am, what I believe and what I stand for. It brings out the emotions that I can't express without the lyrical and melodic therapy I recieve from it. In the last year, I opened my eyes to so much more music than I ever thought could be possible. I didn't even know that there was so much music to be heard, or so many genres. The thing with music is that it tends to define who you are. In high school, mostly. But in general as well. I hate how people get to stereotyping with music. Which is why, when I moved here, I'm so grateful I met the people I did. Or that I was raised the way that I was. In high school, I sort of ended up hanging out with a emo/hardcore group of kids. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it never allowed me to open up musically. Take my dad for instance. As many people know, my dad and my interests are very similar in every sense, not just musically.

I never realized this until our roadtrip to California when we listened to good old Billy Joel. It reminded me that I don't just have to stick with hardcore music to fit in with a crowd of people. The type of music I listen to is my business, but it's nice to relate to someone musically as well.
I think that's the reason I get along so well with people. I've come to a point where I listen to every type of music. Not just because it leaves me neutral with the rest of the music world, but I actually like sharing the same taste in music as everyone else.

About 4 months into living here, I met a kid named Jason Widdison. He was the first person I had met in Utah who knew what good music was. It was refreshing, and so incredible to finally increase my knowledge musically. Then I met Brandon Leavitt, who enhanced that knowledge even moreso. And it wasn't even just new music that they liked. It was the Beatles, the Eagles, Sleepless in Seattle Soundtracks. Absolutely anything and everything.

Since meeting these people, I've grown to have a newfound appreciation for music. Music is so versatile, and it brings people together. It increases and decreases emotion. It calms me and hypes me up. I honestly have no idea where I would be without it. To know that someone in the world has been in the exact situation I have, with the exact feelings I feel.

In conclusion, music is a part of who I am. And it brings me closer to other people. And I'm pretty sure I'd be lost without it. It's what makes my little world go round.

Moving.

So I haven't been online in 24 hours. That is a pretty good record for me. The past two days have been so so hectic! I haven't had any time to spend time with friends whatsoever. I feel pretty anti-social, but it's something I needed to do! Yesterday I woke up at 9:30 and from then on, worked until 4:30 the next morning with no breaks whatsoever. I didn't realize how much work it would take to pack, move and clean the apartment. It was intense. I don't think I realized it until the end of the day, but I had about 4 cans of Dr. Pepper. Which resulted in my system completely crashing at 4:30 am.

It was actually a lot of fun, suprisingly. I was really stressed at first, but I really like having things to do to keep my mind focused. And in the end I feel really accomplished. Usually when I have a lot on my mind, I like to sit back, and relax and set my life in order. But I feel like working for 19 hours straight was actually a lot more useful. Not only that, but in the process of helping myself move, Annie got me in this service mood, where we went and helped other people who needed help too. It was a really good overall experience.

It's been really nice to not have to socialize a lot either. Sometimes it's good to have your mind focused on one thing and to get it done. At around 11:00 last night, however, Annie, Heather, Karem, Zoey and I realized how incredibly hungry we were. Up until that point I had forgotten that I'd only eaten a bowl of cereal in the morning. So we ran to Sonic to find that it was packed, which was sad, because I was really craving sonic. So instead we went to Wendy's. Which was very yummy and though I had a lot to eat, it wasn't as filling as I'd hoped. After I get everything fixed up with my apartment and I get my check in the mail, the first thing I'm doing is buying food for myself.

Anyway, I woke up this morning at 10, because cleaning checks were at 11, so we cleaned everything up, and moved all the leftover stuff to my new apartment. And then I worked for about 4 hours in my room, setting things up and organizing. Then Anna came home so I helped her move all her food to our apartment. And now I'm finally relaxing at 5:30 pm.

School starts tomorrow. And I'm really hoping I can get my car fixed. Bahhh. So much to stress about, but I figure if I just remain calm and organize my goals, things will get done faster.

Oh! I called a certain someone yesterday and finally forgave him for what he did. He told me how sorry he was and what an amazing friend I've been to him, and that he was sorry he never showed me how much he appreciated our friendship. I don't know if we'll ever be friends again, but it's good to have that grudge off my shoulders.

Anyway. I have no idea what I'm doing tonight. Meeting new people in the ward I suppose? Eh. Meeting people is getting so boring now. Haha. But anyway. That's what the last day has been like! I'll write again soon. Byee.

Kelli's sunday.

Well, this morning I woke up with a sore throat. I didn't feel too good, so I asked a co-worker to take notes at the meeting for me. It turns out that Sharon, our manager, is in England [that's where she's from] for the next two weeks, so hardly anyone went to the meeting. Which means that they basically just went over how to do demo's on people. Seeing as I already know how to do that, I wasn't missing out on much.

All day today I've been pretty anxious and a little out there. I'm pretty sure I know why, but I'm going to not focus on it and just hope that the feeling goes away. I had church at one at the new building. At first it felt really strange and foreign. But Jon wasn't there, so I had a lot more room in my mind to focus on the sacrament. Which was really nice. Overall, the spirit was really strong today and I learned alot in church. It was a really good meeting. But I still don't know how I feel about the fact that it's at 1:00.

The lesson in Relief Society was on keeping the sabbath day holy. And listening to it inspired me to really do so. So when I came home, it was kind of weird to have Kendra [my roommate who stole my beatles sweater, but then i stole it back] and Amber deep cleaning the apartment while listening to loud annoying music. I asked her to turn it off so I could listen to the Prince of Egypt Soundtrack. She was kind of negative about it, but in the end, Prince of Egypt won. yay.

Then I ran to the park and met up with Anna Buzan, who I haven't seen in a year or so even though we've both lived in Provo the whole time! We caught up on alot, but then I went back and ate spaghetti with Annie, Karem, Jessica, and Zoey. It was fun.

After, Jeremy, Marci, Will [her boyfriend] and I went to American Fork to attend Lucy's 2nd birthday. It was way fun and it was awesome to be with the whole family again. I love when our family gets together.

We came back and went straight to ward prayer, and Sam asked me to bare my testimony. I loved it, and I'm really glad I got the chance to do so. Anyways. Now I'm back here in my empty apartment. It's nice to have the peace and quiet. It gives me time to clear my mind and think. Even though there are some things I don't want to have to think about right now. But anyway. In response to the keeping the sabbath day holy lesson, I'm just going to pack tomorrow and move in on tuesday. I'll probably go read Eclipse, and go to bed. It's only 11, but I think I need to start sleeping earlier if I'm going to be waking up earlier. Plus, I need to start practicing responsibility. As my dad told me today when he saw that I posted a blog at 4:20 am. haha.

Anyways. I possibly have work tomorrow. Then I'm packing like crazy. I'm sort of hoping I have work just so that I have something else to think about for awhile. Welp, it's off to bed for me. Goodnight, everyone.