Sheldon: I made tea. 
Leonard: I don't want tea. 
Sheldon: I didn't make tea for you. This is my tea. 
Leonard: Then why are you telling me? 
Sheldon: It's a conversation starter. 
Leonard: That's a lousy conversation starter. 
Sheldon: Oh, is it? We're conversing. Checkmate.


Case in point ... I want you to comment on my blog posts and start a conversation -- you may care nothing for photography but LOVE Sheldon Cooper. Checkmate!

Sheldon: At my age do you know how I'm statistically most likely to die?
Leonard: At the hands of your room mate?
Sheldon: An accident.
Leonard: That's how I'm going to make it look.

Okay, technically Sheldon can't teach us anything from this but Leonard can!  This would be my answer when someone asks this after telling me that I "must have a really good camera"!  This would be tantamount to telling Paula Deen (:O - did I say that?) that she must have a really good oven.

Sheldon: Penny. 
Penny: Yeah. 
Sheldon: Thanks for letting me stay here. 
Penny: Oh, you're welcome sweetie. 
Sheldon: Okay, I'm sleepy now get out.

Yeah, this is me when I'm trying to process images.  

Sheldon: I am not crazy, my mother had me tested.

*no comment* ;)

Zack: You know, I saw this great thing on the Discovery Channel. Turns out if you kill a starfish it'll just come back to life.
Sheldon: Was the starfish wearing boxer shorts? Because you might have been watching Nickelodeon.

Shut up Dena!  Nobody cares about the connection of depth of field, shutter speed and ISO. :/

Leonard: I know what your doing.
Sheldon: You do?
Leonard: You're using chocolate as a positive reinforcement for what you consider is a correct behavior!
Sheldon: Very good! Chocolate?

Or in my case, "Smarties".  Works like a charm EVERY time!

As you can tell, one of my favorite shows is "The Big Bang Theory".  What's your favorite Sheldon quote?

I'm heading out again on July 12th for another missions trip to Bogwalk, Jamaica.  We'll be there for 8 days and will really appreciate your prayers and support for this trip.  Our heart's desire is to take the gospel of Jesus and hopefully plant seeds that will lead them to accept Him as their Lord and Savior.  I am anxious to get there and see the kids I'll be teaching, but at the same time am dreading the heat, mosquitos and lizards that inevitably come with it.  I know that God will get us through it though and the memories we'll bring home will be irreplaceable.  Since I haven't really shared much about my trip last year, I've decided to tell you a little bit about the missions trip in 2012.

We began our trip with a 2 hour drive to Atlanta, where boarded a plane headed to Jamaica.  We landed in Montego Bay, stepped off the plane and I thought "Wow it is HOT!".  Little did I know ... we all piled into a small bus and thus began our 2 1/2 hour trip up the mountain to Bogwalk.

We drove along the coastline of Jamaica almost to Ocho Rios and then took the tiniest road I've ever seen straight up the side of the mountain.  I would show you pictures but I was to scared to even sit up.  I think I sat with my head on my knees all the way up the mountain trying to ignore Sandy telling me to "Look!".  Ummm, no thank you!  Maybe I'll get my courage up this year to actually look and snap a shot of the view.

The map below shows where we stayed last year.  Bogwalk, Jamaica is a tiny little town located in the mountains of Jamaica.  From Bogwalk, you drive probably 20 or 30 minutes a little further up the mountain to a small church.  We ladies camped out on air mattresses on the stage of the church.

When we arrived and got settled, the kids that went on the trip with us went out to a field beside the church we stayed in.  A lot of the locals crowded around to join in the fun of an impromptu soccer game.  As I sat watching the kids play together, this little girl sitting off to my left caught my attention.  She wasn't playing or taking part in anything, she was just ... sitting.  I often wonder what may have been going through her mind.  Below are a couple of the boys who joined in the game.

The whole purpose of our trip is to teach a bible school.  We have anywhere from 25-50 kids in each class.  This is Mrs. Sue's class.  She taught the 7-12 year olds.  As you can see, the classrooms are made of block and open to the outside.  It had to have been over 100 degrees in these rooms.  But these kids are absolutely amazing.  They are so happy to be here!  Most of the kids walk to the church/school and may wander in at any time.  It was strange to see toddlers up to teenagers walking to bible school (sometimes as much as 3 or 4 miles away).  I'm sure my kids would have a fit if they had to walk a half mile to church.  I absolutely fell in love with these kids ... they would wave their hands in the air and yell "Miss ... Miss" which sounds like "Meess, Meess".    Pictured below is a little boy who came in with a brother or cousin and decided to just stay with the big boys!  He was SO cute!

The gallery below shows my "classroom" and the kids I'll be teaching this year.  The little girl at the end of gallery is Ashanti.  She was so precious and wanted to sit on your lap the whole time.  I can't wait to see her this year and see how she has grown!

Below are some of the kids sleeping through church, lol; Images 3-4 are Mrs. Sandy's class.  Image 5: Tom coloring  Images 6-8: 7-12 year old class

And this little cutie pie here is Shane!  I can't wait to see him again!  This years plan for me is to teach 1-6 year olds and to be able to fit all of my materials and craft supplies into the proper weight limit for my check in bags.  Mrs. Sandy and Mrs. Sue are raring and ready to go too!  We are all so anxious to get back over there.  It's a long, hard, extremely HOT week but it is SO rewarding.  I'm ready to hear those little voices say, "Meess, Meess, Do you have a Swee T?"  Being from the south, Swee T - would be the brown beverage with some sugar added in for taste -- in Jamaica it's candy.  Which we take plenty of to share with these little ones.

I would like to thank my home church for sponsoring our trip costs to Jamaica.  Those costs cover the airfare, lodging and food.  Sue, Sandy and I are responsible for preparing (and purchasing) all of our class materials, crafts and luggage check-in costs.  Any extra money goes a LONG way in purchasing materials and crafts and getting them TO Jamaica.  If you would like to help out with these costs, just click the "Donate" button below.