Why I Blog // I want to be here for you

I've been thinking a lot about why I blog. The ultimate reason why I blog is to be a light for Christ. Talking face to face with others about Christ is something I always struggle with and while I still need to work on that I feel like I can do that on here much better.. I want to encourage and help people become closer to Jesus. And encourage me. Lol  most of the time I talk about a particular spiritual topic on my blog is because I NEED TO HEAR IT TOO.
   We all have struggles in life and I just want to be there for others and be an encouragement. I've had many instances where a little encouragement from a friend made sooo such a difference. It's funny how such a small deed means soo much more to that person than we think. I want to do that for others. I want to encourage them in their faith.
   I feel like I haven't been doing much of encouraging and uplifting on this blog lately. Well firstly, I feel like I haven't been blogging as frequently as I used to a year ago. I feel like whenever I finally post it's just about me and what's going on. And that's totally okay, but I've realized that's not my whole purpose in this blog. Although I love talking to you guys about my life and exciting things I want to do more. but I also want to help and encourage you. I want to get to know you better. I want to have a relationship with you. Be a friend to you. Help you with your relationship with God. And it not only helps you but me too.
    And even if I don't get much viewers I won't care. I'll be happy that I could give encouragement to just one person. Cause it means SOO much more than you think, ya'll.
    So there's my little rambling of what I've been thinking about lately. I'm thankful for every viewer and commenter on my blog. Let me just tell you, YOU BRIGHTEN MY DAY UP. Every comment means SOOO much. It encourages me soooo much. Thank youuuu!!
    I hope in exchange I can encourage you. If you just need someone right now, I'm here. I'm definitely not perfect, but my Father is. Everything I say is inspired by Him and He gives me all the words to say.

If you have any prayers or comments I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for reading guys!!
bouncing in to say bye,
                                   Bernie

August Highlights // Saying Goodbye to Summer Break

well hello ya'll* i'm here doing my august highlights a little late but hey, at least it's here. I was literally about to post this and it suddenly deleted ugh so I pushed myself to write it all over again in one setting. so here it is. hope you enjoy.


AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS

last week of summer break - our last week of summer was filled with fun and games ;) it was gonna be bittersweet to start school up the next week so I wanted to make sure we did enjoyed it. Monday, we spent the day with our friends. We played basketball (like usual) then after getting all hot and sweaty we took a dip and king of the dock in the water. (You guys should be glad I'm alive cause that game was intense) Tuesday, we reunited with another one of our friends who just got back from venturing through New York (ahhhhh jealous). It was super nice to catch up, drink bubble tea, play with each others new cameras, and do a photoshoot. Thursday, we roasted in the sun while we played basketball with a lot of our friends. And Friday, we had a lemonade stand at our house. You'll hear more about this later ;) Overall, the week was a blast

the eclipse + lemonade stand - our town reached totality so it was suppperrrrrr amazing to see. our town was also the longest point of totality (uh huh aren't we so cool :P) so tons of people all over were coming over to experience this amazing sight. just a half mile from our house hundreds of people gathered to watch. It was a blast to be able to experience it with all my family and grandparents. Since our town was kinda busy we decided to have a little lemonade stand at our house. Although right by the highway isn't the best place to have a lemonade stand, it was super fun getting to spend time with my family (and friends who came over to support us. I have the best friends ya'll haha) and make a little money out of it. The money went to my gymnastics fundraising so that was cool too hehe.

visited a really cool small business coffee shop - after school my family met my friends at this reaaalllly cool cofeee shop. it was sooooo cool. the iced coffees were served in mason jars (whaat so cool right?!) and the hot coffee was served in a very round cup. It was really vintage with lots of succulents, plants, old books, and old tables and chairs. They also had coffees from different countries like Guatemala and Mexico. after drinking our delicious coffees we took a walk around the town and did a little photoshoot. it had lots of brick walls which made for great photos ;)

our family went to a baseball game - our first one this year (which is unusual. we usually go to more than one by August). it was really fun cause we got to see a grand slam and we were all screaming really loud haha I have the video and it's hilarious. they won the game which always makes the game twice as fun as it is ;)

THE BOMB STUFF

my mom and I have been bike riding at least 3 times a week every month which is super awesome for me cause I love bike riding but no one used to ever go with me. now we're starting to go more again yayyyyyyy

I learned how to play the bass. I'm going to play for a youth event this weekend and I'm really excited.

we went to the science center for sarah's little babysitting kid for her birthday and it was soooooo fun. I love it so much. #childatheart it was also really fun to see how excited they were to go.

okay, so my friend accidentally tripped me while playing basketball and I got a bruise on my knee. who cares about that though. I RIPPED MY JEANS. and before ya'll ask why I was wearing jeans playing basketball, it was because we were at a youth party. I got to look good, cmon. haha *chuckles at myself* anywho, the next day I was determined to go and find another pair to replace my beloved jeans. AND I DID. TWO. I FOUND TWO. One of the them was 6.00 dollars. 6.00 DOLLARS YALL WHATTTT? I still have the price tag on my dresser so I can see it every once in a while and feel accomplished haha. Ik I'm weird.

my friend braid my hair in dutch braids and I never get my hair done like that so I kept it in for literally 4 days. the next morning I took it out and it was super wavy.

I drew that pretty cool flash drawing. kinda just a little proud of myself haha

had tons of photoshoots with my siblings and friends :) yayyyy

GOALS
last months goals were:
have a good last week of school - yessssss
paint the kitchen cabinet - I actually did this in September but ehhh close enough. It was the 2nd day.
stop being on technology so much - yes mainly bc our dad started taking our ipods with him to work for part of the day so we can focus on school.
sleep outside - ugh no but our dad just put our camper down in the  backyard so once it cools down we can sleep there. i'm so excited. my siblings and I have countless memories in that little camper.

this months goals:

not completely die in the first month of chemistry

stop being so nervous at gymnastics (it's a bad nervous)

read a lot more

get 450 followers on my photography Instagram account

get a new blog design (anybody who can do it for me or knows someone who can please contact me. that'd be great)

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS? ARE YOU EXCITED FOR FALL? (I am woohoo!!) WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR GOALS FOR THIS MONTH?

Thanks for reading!! I hope you enjoy your September!!
bouncing in to say bye,
                                    Bernie

My New Camera // What Should I Name my Camera?

   GUYSSSSSS I GOT A CAMERA. yayyyyyyyy. I'm super excited because it's my first camera besides my iPod that I've used most of this time. It's a Nikon CoolPix L830 for any of ya'll who'd like to know lol idk. So yeah it is a beginner camera but it's perfect for me since it's my first kinda expensive camera. What I really like about it is, 

1. It zooms in reaaally far and it doesn't look blurry at all,


2. the flash is amazing (I'm not talking about the show The Flash although it is amazing XD),


 3. it takes really good photos of people. and nature ;) 

   So yeah, basically whenever my siblings are doing cool things I like to take photos of them. And of course I take pictures of flowers and butterflies cause that's my thing ya kno. I'm thinking since I love this new camera of mine so much and since it's my baby I should name it. Right?! haha so what do you think I should name it? 

   A long time ago I got a photography Instagram account and I'm really excited cause I guess you can say I kinda just learned how to get a lot of followers lol. hehe so yeah you should definitely check that out right here and follow me. thankssssss :P and if YOU have an Instagram tell me what your Instagram account is and I TOTALLY wanna follow you. uh huh yeah I do

so yeah I think that's it. hope you enjoyed my latest photos on my new camera and enjoyed me ranting to you about photography.

what should I name my camera?


do you have an Instagram account?

Thanks for reading!!


bouncing in to say bye,


                                   bernie

P.S. ya'll everybody go to Hannah's blog cause she's an awesome kgiveaway!!

My Vacation Part 2 // We went to Florida for the first time ever

(yup those are dolphins)

 

Gymnasts don't leave footprints in the sand, they leave handprints. ahaha get it ;)

yayyyyy I'm back for part 2 of my vacation. I'm really excited because yeahhh all that other stuff I talked about last post was cool but this is the best part. The part where we FINALLY get to our destination.

Tuesday morning, we all slept in after getting home (aka the hotel) really late. Once we finally got out of the hotel and into the car we hit the road to the beach. We were of course BEYOUND excited right as we drove by the Gulf. AND IT WAS AMAZING. The waves we're really strong which made it SUPER fun for boogie boarding. Our past adventure to the ocean wasn't the most pleasant because it happened to be the only week jellyfish were swarming around everywhere stinging everyone, but we definitely received perfect redemption because the ocean was perfect (with no jellyfish stings). After that we went to Chick-fil-a for dinner. (haha so I felt kinda bad eating Chick-fil-a when we could go out for seafood but it was national cow day so cmon. We had too)

Wednesday, we went bike riding. Since I got to plan all the cool events we'd do while we were there I got to select some of my top choices for what I thought would be some cool things to do. It's kinda my thing to bike ride, so I thought I would make a reservation so we could bike around the beach. It was sooooo pretty. And hot. BUT I LOVE BIKE RIDING. I can endure the heat for a good nice workout while enjoying the scenery. I got to admit at the end it was a little hard because it was suppperrrrr hot and I thought dad said the bike trail was only 2 miles and it seemed like way more miles than that, but we survived. There was a bay where an alligator was living so we stayed around for a  while looking around for it. We saw some movements in the water which we think was the alligator but we weren't completely sure. It was hard to tell but I think it was it. (I'm just gonna say it was an alligator ;P) After finally getting done and feeling sweaty and sticky we went to the beach. YAYYYYY and man did it feel reaaaallllyyy good after sweating so much. After going to the beach we showered, (thank God we were all so tired and wanted to get out of our swimsuits) got into some comfy clothes, rested a little, went and got some delicious pizza, and then went souvenir shopping. It was fun trying to find the perfect souvenir shirt to buy ;) It was surely I long day, but super fun ;)

Thursday, we woke up early to drive to Destin, Florida. I know this is totally weird to probably all ya'll...but it was the first time we had been to Florida. (jsyk I won Never Have I Ever SOOOO many times because I always got them on "I've never been to Florida.") The main event that we planned for Destin was so go snorkeling. THAT WAS SOOOO FUN. Our tour guides we're super entertaining. Before going snorkeling they took us around the water showing us cool things like DOLPHINS that were RIGHT by our boat. It was super cool and I took some cool photos too^ Then, we anchored our boat and we were free to snorkel for an hour. It was super refreshing to swim because 1. the fins were super fun to swim with, 2. because we could BREATHE UNDERWATER yayyyyyy, and 3. because we saw all kinds of cool fish. It was amazing!! After snorkeling for fish we took another stop by a beach with tons of shells. We found loads shells that were all unique and SOOOO beautiful. We still have our hundreds of shells just kinda sitting around our house so if there is any cool DIY you know of it'd be awesome if you could share to us ;) When you're looking for shells you have to look REALLY closely to make sure there is not a crab in it. (We accidently took some crabs with us... oops) We also had a crab race in out boat which was really funny. My crab was pretty fast #soproud After snorkeling we headed back to our car for a 2 hour drive back home to our hotel.

Friday, we slept in a little late after getting to our hotel so late, but once again we headed to the beach. It was (sadly) our last day there at the Gulf. It was definitely bittersweet to leave but we had a blast playing in the ocean. I miss it soo much :( but we'll come back soon. After we left the beach we went out for seafood. We had a veryyyy long car ride that night but finally we got to our hotel at 2 and crashed.

Saturday, basically drove all day and then got home!! yayyyyy!

So there ya go! A little detailed post about our trip to the beach. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. :D

Thanks for reading!!
bouncing in to say bye,
                                   Bernie