After seeing Miss Jocelyn's beautiful photography & photo editing, I decided to try it myself.

I took this, a photo I took last summer:


... and made it into this:

All around us, photo edited or not, there is all sorts of beauty God created for us to admire. I love photography because it teaches me to treasure the little things in life. So look around you. What do you see?

Edited: I have made an icon that you can use on your blog. You can link back to this entry if you want. :)





Edited: I am considering doing a 20-Day Prayer Challenge each month, something like MJ's Feelin' Feminine Challenge. If I did do it, would any of you be interested?

**** This entry contains spoilers about the movie Prince Caspian. I would not recommend reading this before you've seen the movie.****

Today, Prince Caspian officially arrives in theaters!!! (in America, at least.)

I received tickets last month for my birthday. So, earlier today, my brother, dad, and I attended the earliest morning showing of Prince Caspian. I was so excited! Yesterday I was going crazy knowing that around the same time tomorrow, I'd be at the theater!

I slept rather late, so when it was time to go we were pretty rushed. I just had time to put on my cape that my grandma made me for my birthday. It is a beautiful strawberry-red color, and so pretty! It's very Narnian, too. Hopefully I can post pictures soon. Anyway, I loved wearing it to the theater! I felt just like I was Lucy or Susan.

The drive to the theater felt like a long time. But, though I didn't know it then, the wait was definitely worth it.

If I had to pick one word to describe the movie, it would be AWESOME!! Although we were worried about how the movie turned out, I think we really underestimated the production team & Douglas Gresham. They did a wonderful job making everything flow together. It is especially incredible how well they made things work, because of how hard the plot must have been to adapt.

That to say, there were some down sides to the movie. Caspian & Susan do kiss; and there is some rivalry between Peter & Caspian. However, it is not as bad as we made it out to be. The Caspian/Peter rivalry shows how Peter has reacted to coming back to Narnia after hundreds of years. And although I do not particularly like the kiss, it is not *so* bad since it reflects Susan of the way she'll become in the Last Battle. The fact that Susan is the one that initiates the kiss is of some comfort. In the theater it was a bit hard for me to differentiate what was going on, because there are many scenes filmed in the dark.

It was definitely a LOT more intense than LWW. There is a ton of action; it almost never stops. There is also a scene where a hag, a were-wolf, and the White Witch appear, which was a bit frightening. There is a long battle at the end, as well. I would not recommend the movie for younger children.

The characters were quite memorable. I loved Reepicheep, although his voice wasn't *quite* what I would have picked. He was valiant and chivalrous, and funny. Trumpkin, Trufflehunter, Nikabrik, and all the rest were created beautifully. I must say I was mad at Peter more than once because of his pride issue, but overall he still proved to be loyal to Aslan in the end. Susan was more grown up than the last movie. She had a different attitude... she wasn't as cautious as she was in LWW. Edmund was definitely more of a hero in this movie. He came from being a bother to his siblings to helping them. Caspian was well cast; he pulled off the role well, although he was older than he was in the book. Miraz.... Can you say evil?! It's hard to believe that Sergio Castellitto is really a kind-hearted man; he pulled off being a villain so well. Dr. Cornelius was good, but not exactly how I'd pictured him. Queen Prunaprismia was good also, but I wish she'd had had red hair like in the book. And that brings us to Aslan.... He was bigger and better! His eyes showed such compassion and love. When the DVD comes out I am going to make a new template that features Aslan.

The movie has its quirks like all movies do, but Prince Caspian is a wonderful movie that I really enjoyed. I believe it sticks true to the spirit of Narnia and C.S. Lewis's original intentions. I definitely will be seeing this movie again, and I encourage you to see it too.

I would like to ask you to pray for two families who are doing with a lot of loss right now.

The first family is a friend of ours. They currently live across the country from us, but they used to live near us and are still good friends of ours. They were with us and supported us when we dealt with tragedy, and now it is really hard not to be near them to support them in theirs.

Last Friday their only son died. We are not sure of exact details, but it was after complications from a minor surgery. He was 6 months old. They have three girls, ages 7, 5, and 3, and they really loved their little brother. It hurts my heart to think of what they must be feeling right now. It was all extremely sudden, and all of us are still really in shock right now. We never got to meet the baby since they moved before he was born, but it is enough to know that they are grieving.

The next family is a blogger family some of you might know: Dixiecajuns, Dixiefiddler, Dixiebeauty, Ryansgirl, and LivingfortheKing. Sunday night their father & husband was killed in a car accident (more details are in this post). I do not personally know this family, but my heart goes out to them and grieves for them. Even if you don't know them, please stop by their blogs and tell them you are praying for them. I think they can really use your support.

Please keep both these families in your prayers. Right now, that's the best thing we can do: Pray, pray, pray. Praying is giving your requests to God and letting Him take care of the rest.

Thank you so much!

For the 20 Day Prayer Challenge, I have decided to pray for Haiti and India. I know it is not required to pray for two, but I feel like I should pray for both of these countries. They are both really in need of some prayer.



I first thought of praying for Haiti, because we know of an orphanage over there. Also, I don't know much about Haiti, and I thought that it would be neat to learn about a different country.



But then I also thought of India. I think that India could use a lot of prayer, for many reasons. One of my main ones is because of the peoples' blindness to the truth. So, since I did not want to choose one over the other, I am going to pray for both.





Here are some things I am going to pray for, for both countries:





* Important events (wars; etc.)

* The country's leaders

* The people of Haiti & India

* The non-Christians & the deceived; that they would accept the truth

* The missionaries in those countries

* That Satan would not be allowed to influence and thwart the plans of God

* That the every day people would see and feel God’s love.







I think the biggest thing I feel led to pray for is the non-Christians and the deceived. I really have a heart for them. It is so sad how many people don't know the truth, or don't accept it. I am hoping that my prayers will make a difference in that area. I also especially want to pray that Satan would not be allowed to thwart or influence the plan of God.



My family is joining me, too. My dad is praying for the United Kingdom, my mom is praying for Iraq and also helping my sister pray for New Zealand, and my brother, TQ, is praying for Ireland and Israel. This morning we all gathered together and prayed for our countries, which was nice. My sister later said: "I'm going to pray for the baddest, troublest place to be gooder." ;)





Please sign the Mr. Linky with the link of the post and also with what country you are praying for along with your name. Thank you for joining us!