les misérables & ice cream

On April 24th, Chad and I got together with our team of juniors (go Red Penguins!)  and went to support one of our teammates, Mikey Sandgren, in Les Mis at Horlick High School. The musical was GREAT! There was so much talent in the cast...they did an absolutely wonderful job, and they sounded amazing. Mikey was a star! We felt privileged to have our teammate start a revolution. ;) Sara Sandgren, Brianna Murray, and other "EUMers" were also in the show also did a great job as well. Way to go!

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new look at a pepper

As I was preparing dinner Saturday night, I couldn't help but notice the intricacies of the inside of the green pepper I was slicing. I was so intrigued by the bright, fresh color, the tightness of the seeds, the emptiness of the middle and the texture in the outsides. That was that: my next photo subject, hands down.

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there was a party in heaven!
"We cannot keep quiet about what we have seen and heard." --Acts 4:20 (CEV)

On April 11th, our best friend made the very important (and exciting!) decision to turn his life over to Christ. Praise the Lord!! We enjoyed an evening of conversation, tears, hugs & prayer together. Two things are incredibly humbling to us in this situation: witnessing our prayers being answered and recognizing that we've played a role in God's plan.

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take me out to the ball game

Last Saturday (the 10th), we went to a Cardinals v. Brewers game in Milwaukee. Our friends Nicole, Matt and Mike came with us. It turned out to be a gorgeous day! We hung out in the parking lot for a while earlier in the day enjoying the sunshine, grilling turkey burgers & eating amazing guac, fruit salad, and more. When we found our seats on the second deck (near the left field foul pole), we definitely met some "entertaining" seat neighbors (what's up drama? drink much?).

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i'm your spouse. have we met?
For the last three weeks or so, our evenings have been go-go-go without much rest. Over the weekends, if I was around, Chad wasn't and if Chad was around, I was out of town. Yesterday was Good Friday - and a good friday it was, indeed! Chad and I both had the day off of work and we were looking forward to hanging out with each other and just enjoying each other's company.

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miracles happen: $40,308 raised

God never ceases to humble us & amaze us. Today our church hosted our ninth annual Dessert Derby and Dinner. This is our ONE fundraiser that we do for our youth ministry for the whole year. It helps fund scholarships for retreats, mission trips, camps and other events, as well as general facility & curriculum needs. We are incredibly blessed with a congregation who truly cares about the future of their middle school & high school students.  $40,308 was raised for our youth ministry today in just over 2 hours!!! PRAISE GOD! He is so good to us...

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amber is 26 today!
That's right, folks. It's my birthday. I generally don't make too big of a deal when March 12th rolls around. But this is the BIG 2-6, people!! It's different!!!

Ha. Ok, not really. It's sort of that odd in-between age where you suddenly just feel "over 25" and "not quite 30, but on your way". It doesn't really feel any different... especially since I actually had to pick up a calculator the other day to subtract 1984 from 2010 to figure out how old I was.

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ice slab hike

Hey guys, remember me? I'm Amber -- the slacker who has not been posting to her weekly photo blog. Sadly, I have been SO busy over the last month that it's been tough to find time to go through my photos and enter a post. My weekend posting time has been dominated by other events & travels. Rest assured though... part of the reason I have been so busy is that I've been taking pictures non-stop on youth retreats and on my own time (usually early in the morning before work). It's been a blast! Confession: 2 different weekends in February I actually had a sore forearm, wrist & hand from holding my heavy camera so long!

Check out these crazy, cool ice slabs...​

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portrait practice

Meet Rusty. He's Dale & Stephanie's cat. On Friday night, he was as cuddly as could be and very interested in hanging out on the couch with me. I decided it would be perfect to get my camera out for my third photography class assignment. This post marks his entrance to the world of fame.

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