Senior.

Senior year.
Taking college classes.
Getting accepted to college.
Making graduation plans.
Planning college visits.
Senior. year.

Holy freaking crap.

This is too fast.

But I love senior year.

The only thing I need now is less drama.
Solution: delete Facebook.
Done.
Yes, I am now a non-Facebooker.
It's weird.
But I like it.
..and I still have Twitter. :)

Brooke, Banana, BUTT, etc.,
I freaking love you and you need to fail your senior yeasr so you can stay with me forever because we are Brabby, and and we cannot be seerated even if we fight a lot
i love you! -Abby

p.s. Stop being stupid fat and ugly<3 p="p">

Friendship.

What happened to us all? We were all close. We talked. All of us.
We had our group. Just us.
Now it's like I don't even know half of you.
So much has changed. So many of you have changed.
I don't like it. I miss us all being close. I miss being able to have a party and know that there wouldn't be any fights, because everyone got along.
So many friendships have ended. It's not just on person's fault. It takes two people to make a friendship work. It takes two people to end the friendship.
I want things to go back to the way it used to be, but I know that can't happen. You can't change the past. You can't change what's been said. You can't change what's been done, and that sucks.
I want us to all be happy friends again... Why can't it just be that simple?

Trust Me..

Lately, people have been very, very untrusting toward me.
One for a mistake I made two years ago,
and one that is solely based on doubt.
It's kinda hurtful, to be honest.
Especially the second one.
Just because you assume things, it doesn't mean you're always right.
Because of these two things,
I will be spending my summer before my senior year of high school at. my. grandma's. Yes, I said that. Not at home, like any other normal teenager; at my grandma's. Yeah, save me.
Another result?
I can't talk to one of my best friends because her mom doesn't trust us when we say something didn't happen. it. didn't.
I don't understand people.
It makes me so mad..
and upset.
I was so happy when my friend moved here, and now I can't talk to her.
:(

Anyone have any advice for me?
Anything at all...

p.s. Today is officially my last day of being a junior. ): Sadface. But happy about summer... But sad again, because this also means I may not be posting near as much... ): I'm sorry; I'll try to post as much as I can!! <3


Love you all!
<3Brooke!

A day at the park with my best friends-- with pictures.

We all three finally got to hang out! :) We were at my grandma's, then my mom took us to Munson Park for all of these. Enjoy. :)

I took this. :)
Photo credit: me.
Photo Idea Credit: Brooke Trouten.

I really wanted a jumping shot with the girls sooo...

Ashleigh, me, and Abby.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo Idea Credit: Brooke Trouten.

Me, Abby, and Ashleigh.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo Idea Credit: Brooke Trouten.

I love those pictures.

Just saying... we'd make a pretty cute band. ;)

Me, Ashleigh, and Abby.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

Ashleigh, Abby, and me.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

Abby, me, and Ashleigh.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

:)

I love this picture, so much.

Ashleigh, me, and Abby.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Ashleigh Jones.

It turned out great, besides for the random weeds across Abby's legs.

Abby looks beautiful! :)

Abby's beautifulll :)
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

Then these ones.. the first one was cute, but I love when the camera started focusing on the weeds.

Ashleigh, Abby, and me.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Ashleigh Jones.

This one turned out better than I thought.

Ashleigh, Abby, and me.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Ashleigh Jones.

So adorable.

Ashleigh, Abby, and me.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Ashleigh Jones.

One of my favorites.

Ashleigh, Abby, and me.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Ashleigh Jones.

Abby's favorite/her Facebook profile picture.

Ashleigh, Abby, and me.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

We're adorable. <3

Also, we like mustaches.

Ashleigh, Abby, and me.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Abby Yeary.

The shadows turned out pretty cool, so we took this.

Ashleigh, me, and Abby.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

Our feet with the sun above. <3

Abby, me, and Ashleigh.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brooke Trouten.

Abby photo-bombing...

Me and my mommy.
Photo credit: Ashleigh Jones.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

We're cuteee. ;)

Me
Ashleigh
Abby
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Ashleigh Jones.

Me
Ashleigh
Abby
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Ashleigh Jones.

<3

Me and Abby.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

Once again, photo-bombing.

Me and Ashleigh.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

They're freaks.

Ashleigh, me, and Abby.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.

I love this one; it's so cute.

Ashleigh, me, and Abby.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brooke Trouten.

Abby, me, and Ashleigh.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brandy Layne.

This might be my favorite.

Ashleigh
Me
Abby
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Abby Yeary.

Ashleigh, Abby, and me.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Brooke Trouten.

Abby, me, and Ashleigh.
Photo credit: Brandy Layne.
Photo idea credit: Ashleigh Jones.

We had a great day, and took amazing pictures.

I love you girls!<3

Love you all!

<3Brooke!

Summer.

Link-up with Laura @ Our Reflecftion's here comes the summer.

Well, after today, I will have 1 1/2 days left of school, of being a junior.
Then, my favoirte.
Summer.
This makes me happy. :)

Summer means hanging out with friends.
Summer means staying up all night.
Summer means going to camp for a week.
Summer means shorts everyday.
Summer means getting away from life in general.
Summer means amazing pictures.
Summer means checking off a ton of bucket list items.
Summer means going swimming.
Summer means going to the zoo.
Summer means being crazy.
Summer means sleeping all the time.
Summer means more fun, less responsibility.
Summer means Big Ticket Festival.
Summer means being a teenager.
Summer means late nights with the music up.
Summer means my heaven.

I can't wait.

What does summer mean to you??
Love you all!
<3Brooke!

Link-up with Laura @ Our Reflecftion's here comes the summer.

Five Minute Friday.

Linking up with The Gypsy Mama's Five Minute Friday!
This week's topic:: See.

A Five Minute Writing Challenge

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

GO!

I'm sitting in school and I'm seeing how empty it is.
Our seniors are gone.
I'm seeing how few cars are in the parking lot now that they're gone.
I'm seeing how different our school is. Everyone seems so much less mature.
That's going to be me next year.
I'm going to look at the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors next year, and just say "Wow. I see what they mean. You do miss that."
I'm going to see how much younger the freshmen look as they get smaller and smaller every year.
We're the oldest in the school from yesterday until next year.
I'm seeing how fast we're growing up.
It's crazy.
And scary.
I really don't know how to feel about this.
Seeing how all of the seniors affecting everyone here is crazy.
Especially since I only talked to about... two of them.
And I still miss them (even if one of those two lives about a block from me...shhh).
It's weird.

STOP!

Youth group//Did you know...

that I used to always go to my youth group every weekend, without fail?
that I hated missing youth group because I didn't want to miss seeing my amazing youth group leaders?
that I really love my old youth group leaders?

Recently, things have been kind of falling apart.. Youth group has went from 30 kids a week, to just ten.
At first, I didn't understand. We still had a youth group; though Mel and Kev weren't there, it was still youth group.
Now.. I understand. I'm almost in the same position.

A lot of people are disappointed in everyone leaving.. they don't know why everyone's leaving though.
I do.

Melanie and Kevin: they were amazing. they cared. they loved us. they were meant to be youth leaders.

Our new youth leader: He's not a bad guy... I just don't think he knows how to work with teenagers. He is close to about six of the teens. The rest of us are just kind of... there.

And we've also had three helpers for quite a while (using letters instead of names): X, Y, and Z.
I love X. This person is there when I need to talk. I don't really talk to Z, but I still like him/her. And Y..well, I've just been having some issues with him/her with the past few months.
But they were ours.

Melanie and Kevin left August 1st of last year. That's when our new leader took over. X left about a month ago because he/she had two jobs (one of which didn't end until the middle of youth group).  Now, Y and Z are leaving. This Sunday is their last day.

X had a legitimate reason. Y and Z, I don't really believe they do.
And it hurts.
After promises and promises that "we won't leave; we won't leave," ..... what happened to that? What happened to being there for us?

And now we're getting a new youth leader, for the girls. I have nothing against her personally.
But.
I don't know her very well. I don't think I've ever had a conversation with her. How am I supposed to go from wanting to share my prayer requests there because I know and trust all of them, to sharing with her, who I barely know?
I can't. We've had two weeks with both Y&Z and the new leader. That's not enough time. When we got our two girl helpers before, Melanie was there for us to talk to while we got to know them. Now..we have no one.
I feel like we were just kind of an afterthought, honestly. This hurts. You don't even know how badly../:

I just want youth group back to the way it used to be.

Friday's Letters.

Dear summer,

...why is it that you're still not here?!

sincerely, i want to tan.

Dear youth group,

why?...

sincerely, slightly crushed.

Dear friends,

thank you for letting me vent all the time.

I need it.

sincerely, barookacka.

Dear boyfriend,

you make me mad,

you drive me crazy sometimes,

I really want to punch you at others,

but I love you. <3

sincerely, your girlfriend that'll be here forever.

Dear school,

...I hate you.

deeply.

sincerely, can't wait to get out.

Dear new followers,

thank you!!!

I love you all! <3

sincerely, happy girl.

Dear old followers,

thank you for sticking around,

even in my mess of posts...

:)

sincerely, crazy girl.

Dear June 14-16,

come faster.

now.

...please.

sincerely, waiting impatiently.

Link-up to Friday's Letters.

Love you all!

<3Brooke.



Reality.

Lately, I've been brought back into reality.
In particular, the reality of my coming senior year.
In exactly two weeks from today is my last day as a junior.
Last day.
...this is scary.
Next, I'll be a senior, my last year here in my comfort zone with people I've grown up with and know.
This could be my last full summer at home.
I mean really, I have my application to dual enroll next year at the college.
I'm scared...but excited.
Regardless of the complaining from people at my school about it, I love my school.
Love it.
And I only have one more year left.
In a year, I'll be just one week away from graduating.
This is crazy.

Any thoughts on your experiences with this?
They'd be appreciated.

Love you all!
<3Brooke.

my letters.

Link-up with {Ashley @ Adventures of Newlyweds}

My letters::

dear boy in the hallway,

it is not, nor will ever be, cool to walk around with your pants half way down your butt.

please pull them up.

thank you.

sincerely, disgusted.

dear ex best friend,

we had a good friendship while it lasted,

but i'm glad it ended when it did.

sincerely, over it.

dear followers,

i love you all,

and i really love your comments when you leave them!

sincerely, thankful.

dear summer,

please, please, come faster.

sincerely, impatient.

dear best friends,

i love you!

you mean the world to me!!

sincerely, your best friend.

dear blogs i follow,

i love your blogs,

but you people really need to stop making awesome link-ups!

..then i have to do all of them.

sincerely, link-up overload.

Perspective in five.

Linking up with {The Gypsy Mama's 5 Minute Friday} -- Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

GO!

You know, when you think about it, our perspective on everything shows a lot more about ourselves than anything.
It's like the glass half full versus half empty thing.
Depending on which one you see, it shows a lot about your personality, your life, and just you.
Everything could be seen as bad through one person's perspective, and good through someone else's.
Everyone has a different perspective on everything.
It's really cool when you think about it though.
Like a little kid could fall.
One person would be like "Oh, no! He's hurt! Go get a wash cloth, and a band-aid, and Neosporin, and..."
Where another could be thinking "Oh, that's not bad. It could have been worse, and hey, everything happens for a reason. Maybe him falling now prevent him from doing something later could could result in a much bigger accident."
See, your perspective is everything.
You could be that person who sees everything as negative, or you could be that cheerful, optimistic person who thinks everything that happens is for a reason, and not to worry so much.

STOP!

Linking up with {The Gypsy Mama's 5 Minute Friday}

Love you all!
<3Brooke!

Plans for my blog.

sorry for the third post today!!

So I realized that honestly, you guys probably know really know much about me.
So sometime soon, I'm going to do kind of an "About Me" month.
Each week, I'll have a topic, and a post for each of the days.
Example: Week 1: These Crazy People I Call My Best Friends. Part 1: Steven.
And so on.
It'll probably be about a month long (4 weeks) with four topics.
For some topics, like the best friends topic, there will be seven posts for seven days, but other topics may be as little as four days.
I'm already planning this, and I'm pretty excited about it.
I might even have a button made, so if you know anyone who can make me a free button for this, please let me know!! :)

Love you all!
<3Brooke!

Coincedences.

Kind of awesome...
After my post all about kittens yesterday,
my stepmom sends a picture of a kitten.
...It's ours.
I'm happy.
I have a kitty! :D
My sister wanted to name it Jaguar, so we did. :-)
It's so, so cute.
It's gray, and only six weeks old!!
It's not letting me post the picture though! :-(
But I'm so, so happyyy! :-)

Love you all!

<3Brooke!

Cuteness.

I really, really love kittens. They're really, really cute. Like a lot. Anddddd... Pictures! :)





Really now...

They're just so cute...

I kind of really want them...all.

:-)

Love you all!

<3Brooke!

Youth group.

Just realized how little I've posted this month! :-(
Three times..in a month?! :O
This is a problem.
I'll try to post more next month!

But for today's post,
youth group.
People really don't understand what this is, or how important this can be.

Dictionary.Reference.com's definition of youth group:
an organization of young people, as for social purposes, usually under the sponsorship of a church, political organization, or the like.

It's true.
But it's also a lot more than that.
My youth group.
We're more like a family.
I met quite a few of my closest friends there.
We may argue, and some people may not get along, but for the most part, we all love each other.
Our old youth group leaders (Melanie and Kevin), we called them Mom & Dad.
At least half of us are "family" on Facebook in one way or another.

But that's not it.
It's not just about friends, and hanging out.
it's. about. God.

Do you know how many people accept God before he age of 18?
It's much more likely before then.
86% of people accept God between birth and age 14.
Only 14% is after that. That's it.

Youth group is important.
It has a point.
It's not just a place to play games and have fun.
We learn about God, about life, about everything.
We make friends we'll keep for many more years.
We learn how to be leaders.
Best of all, we get closer to God.

Youth group in my own words?
A place to hang out and have fun, but also to learn about God and make lifelong friendships.

If you don't go to a youth group, you should try visiting one, or multiple, because some just aren't right for you.
Try one, please.
<3

On another note,
your youth group leaders can be some of the most important people in your life.
The two I mentioned, Melanie and Kevin, are still two of the most important people in my life, even thoguh they moved to NY in August.
They are two of the most amazing people I have ever met.
This is them::

http://www.kevinandmel.com/
http://kevineccles.blogspot.com/

Another of my youth group leaders, Britta, had her last day at our youth group yesterday.

This is so, so sad for us...

But she was amazing, and I love her. <3

http://brunettecashier.blogspot.com/

Love you all!
<3Brooke!

I have hope.

I would just like to say, that I'm gaining back faith in teenagers..
Regardless of the few shallow, harsh people who says things just to make others feel bad, there are some who ARE trying to turn it around!
Examples?
A friend of mine ahs started a group on Facebook, which is now becoming a school club, called Words Can Kill (an anti-bullying group).
China McClain (the star of ANT Farm on Disney Channel), along with her sisters, Sierra and Lauryn, have made a song titled "Rise," a very inspirational song.

The McClain sisters

Many other artists have been making inspirational, non-bullying songs as well.
Shinedown: Bully.

Lyrics to "Bully"

Mandisa: Stronger.

Lyrics to "Stronger"

Tobymac: Hold On.

Lyrics to "Hold On"

These are such great songs, and I'm happy people are finally starting to realize that what you say DOES matter.
People take things to heart.
Be careful with what you say.
It can hurt.

Love you all!
<3Brooke!

Invisible.

Some days, I really feel invisible.
Today...definitely one of those days.
No one notices me...
No one really talks to me...
When I talk, they don't hear me.
I hate days like this.
So much.

These...
These are the days I'm glad I have my God.
These are the days I need God.
These are the days I need God.
More than anything.

I don't really know what else to say today...

Song of the day? Invisible by Disciple.

Love you all!
<3Brooke!

Frivolous Friday!

{link-up to this blog}

How I treat myself?

Well, usually it's a little something like this::

Check recent statuses, post a status, creep on best friends/boyfriend.
Then once that gets boring,

I read a bazillion tweets, and retweet quite a few of them.
Then...

I check up on recent posts, see if I have waiting-to-be-approved comments, enter giveaways...
Most of this will be while listening to music, such as my favorite band...

Which I love oh-so-very-much.
And then, I'd probably sit there and play around with my pictures (:

I <3 Photoshop! :D


{link-up to this blog}