Tales of What Once Was 7

30 deaths occurred in Birmingham.

"Not SAFE"

with one,

red,

diagonal line.

Are they still alive?

Or are they some of the 30?

Tales of What Once Was 6

My dad and I went to Birmingham AL to take photos of the tornado damage. 

Think,

just think,

about how many people walked in,

and walked out,

of that door,

but now,

there isn't much to walk through.

Tales of What Once Was 5

 My dad and I went to Birmingham AL to take photos of the tornado damage. 

"The Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado during the April 2011 event caused at least 65 fatalities. This tornado had a maximum width of 1.5 miles and a track 80 miles long." - kttc.com

Jefferson Metrocare Health Center...

Patients looked to this place for healing...

But now?

after all this?

With all this broken glass,

and broken walls...

Jefferson Metrocare will never heal anyone again.

Tales of What Once Was 4

 My dad and I went to Birmingham AL to take photos of the tornado damage. 

 The damage is not a cruel as most,

but compared to your broken faucet,

you have much to be thankful for.

 My dad and I went to Birmingham AL to take photos of the tornado damage. I am still trying to grasp the extent of all of the damage that was done. 

For years,

and years.

People moved in, 

and moved out.

Then new people would move in,

and move out.

Now it is ever forsaken.

Tales of What Once Was 3

 My dad and I went to Birmingham AL to take photos of the tornado damage.

See those trees,

they grew,

and grew, 

and grew.

Until they were split in half,

Like the of hearts,

That lost a love one that night.

Tales of What Once Was 2

 My dad and I went to Birmingham AL to take photos of the tornado damage. The damage was... incredible.

A while ago,

Someone would sleep on that mattress,

night after night. 

What do they sleep on now?

Tales of What Once Was 1

 My dad and I went to Birmingham AL to take photos of the tornado damage. There are not enough words to describe the destruction of all of the people's homes.

People were able to have electricity so that they could have lights in the bathroom, 

so that the fridge for the beverages would stay cold, 

so that the store workers would stay cool in summer heat.

There used to be a gas station here,

but it was blown away, 

torn down.

People survived by hiding in the cooler.

Now this is all that's left.

Slam Dunk!

I went to my friend Rodger's basketball game and took some pictures!

I got some super lucky shots!

This wasn't photoshopped, it was just lucky! :)

I laugh every time that I see this next picture.

Take a better look at this picture.

Gerome (#2) is doing some kinda of monkey jump,
Rodger (#20) is doing that odd dance,

And the kid with the ball looks like he's gonna pee on himself!

Rodger dunking again!
He's beast at basketball!

Spitballs...

While I was in Texas with my family for Christmas we went to lunch in the Woodlands with the Vogels.

This is my cousin Angela, who is just 2 weeks younger than my little sister Cameron!

Jonathan... trying to use a candy cane as a spitball.....

.... it didn't work.

Haha!!

This is my favorite!

Jonathan is preparing to throw a spitball at Robert,

who just finished throwing a snowball at me,

WHILE Angela is shoving some pretzel in Robert's face.

...............

I love my family :)

I'm not sure what to call this

Beleive it or not, all of these were taken in my room!

A Not-So-Epic Snowball Fight

Once everyone was all bundled up like we were going to Antarctica...

...We went outside and had a snowball fight with our neighbors the Waterers!

Everyone had fun.

Robert and Jonathan threw snowballs the whole time, literally!

ummmm.... yum?

Even mom stopped making a snowman with Cameron to pitch one or two at dad. 

Cameron spent most of her time making snow sculptures,

but she couldn't resist throwing a few snowballs...
Even if she didn't really hit anybody.

This isn't the best picture, but it's hilarious.....

I think he got hit with one to many snowballs.

After an hour or two of snow we went inside to refresh before the big neighborhood snowball fight.

The day before all the snow I contacted all the neighborhood kids that I knew and told them to meet me the
next day with all of their neighborhood friends for a snowball fight! There were about 15 kids there, and as soon as we got there we went to work building snow-forts. The problem was that the forts were about 30 feet away from each other.
So they really didn't help when the fight started.
IF they were closer together the girls would have totally won 'cause ours was much bigger and better.
But they weren't.
The boys pretty much won from the beginning 'cause they attacked when there were only to girls on duty, me and Kymya.
We were like sitting ducks.
Defenseless.
All we had was a 1ft tall snow fort and some ready made snow balls, which we tried throwing but.... it's easier to miss the target than to hit it.
Then all the sudden they were closing in on us. Fast.
A minute later they got so close that I could throw a snowball with my eyes closed and hit them,
but we were all out of snowballs.
Luckily they ran out of ammunition just before they reached us so they retreated to get some more.
By the time they came back some of the girls had found out what was going on and came to help us. We didn't have much time...
I don't quite remember what happened next...
But it was somewhere between a snowball fight and a fist-fight....
people were grabbing hold of each other and shoving snowballs in the face of their opponent.
We had a few minor injuries, Jonathan scraped his eye or something and AK was nearly choked...
At this point in the story I would like to tell you how all the other girls dropped out, leaving me to defeat the whole male armada.
But that would be a lie.
The girls lost.
As I said, it was pretty much over the minute it started.
But it was fun.

No Phun Intended

So I woke up at like 7 so that I could go outside and take pictures before the snow got disturbed.

I was surprised to find that some people had already driven on the snow.

But who cares it was beautiful anyway!

...... guess what....

I didn't really keep out.....

.... But neither did that person.

I was nearly convinced that some how I got stuck in a snow globe.

God is so creative! everything was completely transformed overnight!

Ice!

Isn't that cool!

..... no pun intended.....