{sky zone}

We went with some of our school friends to Sky Zone, an indoor trampoline park, the other day, and being a photographer, I spent almost as much time taking pictures as jumping :)

Hosanna

Here's an excerpt from my journal about what God had laid on my heart about the lyrics of Brooke Fraser's song Hosanna and my thoughts on how the relate to me: 

"Heal my heart and make it clean" - my heart is so full of sin - purify it and make it like yours

"Open up my eyes to the things unseen" - show me the bigger picture - show me what you see - make me aware of Your presence 

"Show me how to love like You have loved me" - You have showed me the most incredible love - give me the will and strength to show others that love

"Break my heart for what breaks Yours" - not just in the world around me, but in my own life.  I want to be broken and distraught over my sin like You are

"Everything I am for Your kingdom's cause" - I want to live for the bigger picture - for You and showing others You.  I don't want to be selfish and think of myself and what I want in the moment, but what will grow Your kingdom

"As I walk from earth into eternity" - show me how to live for eternity.  So many of the things I do don't make an eternal impact, but I want my life to be focused on what is eternal.  i want to be fearless in telling others about Christ, because their eternity is at stake

in which i add culture and sophistication to my blog

Ok so maybe I've been spending too much time reading/watching Jane Austen and the like, because, really, posting a video of me playing the piano doesn't make my blog more sophisticated.  But I'd like to think it does :)  

(I get really distracted when I'm writing blog posts, so I just went to the first blog I ever had... haha... yeah...no... I'm convinced that there's nothing more embarrassing than going back and reading stuff you wrote years ago.  And no, you'll never find the blog, even if you try)

Anyway.  So I have this major obsession with Canon in D.  (You've never heard it?  You poor thing.  Go look it up right now)  If you listen to it and you don't feel the urge to dance/float around the room, then something must be wrong with you.  Which could be a problem since i've decided that I'm walking down the aisle to it, and I probably shouldn't dance down the aisle :)  (The grammar Nazi in me in cringing at that shameful excuse for a sentence, but I'll let it go)  

Well, after having to listen to 53 minutes of Baroque/Classical music in class, Megan and I decided to learn Canon in D and play it together.  Well, I learned to play it; Megan is an awesome violinist, so she already knew it :)  Add my brother on guitar, and you get a lot of fun and a great sound!

After 10 takes and me messing up half of those, we finally got what we were looking for :)

Enjoy!

720p from Mallory Smith on Vimeo.

Happy New Year's!

2012 was amazing.  Hands-down, it was the best year of my life.  Here's what happened:

January: I took this picture, which ended up winning 1st place in a photo contest in our neighborhood!  That's the first $100 I've made off photography!

February:

March:

April: only the most amazing night of my life :)  The guitarist from Abandon (my good friend's brother-in-law) took Megan and me backstage at the Newsboys concert to meet Anthem Lights, one of my favorite bands.  They were in the middle of their workout but they stopped to talk for a while, and they were so nice.  It.was.amazing.

May: I finished my 8th/10th grade school year!  (That sounds confusing.  Because it is.  It was 8th in terms of age, but I was doing 10th schoolwork.  Yeah, it's crazy.)  We went to Philadelphia and New York City.  Our NYC trip was interesting - it was cold and raining, which leads to wet shoes and soaked skinny jeans.  I was drying my shoes in a hand drier in a bathroom and wrapping my frozen feet in napkins at Olive Garden to keep warm and dry.  But it was fun nonetheless :)

June:

July: The month of amazing trips: 4th of July in Colorado with some of our closest friends and our cruise to Alaska with mom's side of the family (most amazing trip I've ever been on).  I also started playing bass in the church band on Sunday morning, which has been so fun :)

August: I started my 9th/11th school year. Aka, the hardest school year of my life. Yeah for physics and pre-cal :(

September: Trip with mom's family to a couple lake houses on Lake LBJ over Labor Day

October: I finished playing organized sports for probably the rest of my life.  I've played soccer since I was 3, but I'm done now.

November: I turned 15!  My family and friends threw me a surprise party, the day of my birthday was amazing, and I got a ton of Vera Bradley stuff in my pattern, so yeah, it was awesome :)

December: We had our annual Youth and Government (debate/ mock legislature) district conference.  Mason and I both got distinguished delegate :)  Mason and I also got to play in our town center one night and on Christmas Eve at our church with the worship team :)

What made your 2012 special?