Elise's new website is launched!

Check it!

I had to leave early the day of that shoot (for no good reason, it turned out...long story), but I'm so glad I got to be a part of it! Aren't the dresses and the photography beautiful??

And her Spring 2008 Fashion Preview is this Thursday!

Still trying to decide if this has all really happened to me.

Today went so well.

So well.

We did more footage of the same scene. So many more angles, including the closeup of me saying my line.

Shia and I chatted a lot more today, sharing more about ourselves, and even our views on God and faith and religion. Very cool conversations--he's open & genuine & contemplative. We're buddies. At least we were today.

The sketch we used in the scene--they let me keep it, and someone had him sign it for me (which I was already considering requesting anyway). He wrote to me: You're awesome! Thanx 4 helping us out! SHIA.

He's so precious. Such a great guy. He's definitely going to have a great career.

And the director, D.J., was so wonderful, too. I got to work with a lot of really cool people. The extra sitting beside me on the train was D.J.'s 12 year-old son, Brandon. Also extremely precious. We're buddies too.

So I'm done shooting. For now. And I absolutely loved it.

Only God knows what the future will hold.

If it's more acting...I would be thrilled.

Today I acted in a feature film.

Today went so well.

And they want me back tomorrow.

"We're definitely going to want you back tomorrow."

That wasn't planned. They want me back tomorrow.

So, in the scene: Shia's sketching the picture of me as we exchange a series of (flirtatious) glances, and then after a while I'm the one who gets off the train, not him. So I'm leaving the train, he hands the sketch to me, I look at it and say "What about the rest of me?", he says "Next time.", I get off the train, give him one last look & smile, and cut.

And partway through shooting, Shia writes his character's name and a phone number on the sketch. So now my character has his character's phone number. And they want me back tomorrow.

Pray for me.

I just want to be faithful with whatever God has for me.

I just want to love him and bring him glory and love people.

I am just in awe of what is going on.

The biggest news of my career.

I have gotten a one-line role in the feature film Eagle Eye.

!!!!!

I don't know where this came from.

Except God.

The audition was Monday, I got the call saying that I booked it Monday afternoon, the wardrobe fitting was Tuesday, and I'm shooting it tomorrow.

My character is a girl riding on the el train in Chicago. One of the main characters, played by Shia Labeouf, is sketching a picture of me. When he hands me the picture he's drawn, I say "What about the rest of me?" because it's incomplete. I think he has to cut off the drawing because he realizes he's being followed/chased. That's because he's been unjustly framed as a terrorist. The movie is a terrorist thriller. It's being produced by Steven Spielberg. He also wrote the story. The release date is in October 2008.

This is my first acting job ever. And it's a speaking part in a feature film. And I'm basically playing myself: I am the "girl on train" in real life. (Every time I go to Chicago I spent 7 hours round trip on Amtrak, not to mention taking the El all around Chicago once I'm there.) That's who I am! I do not think I could have dreamed up a more perfect entrance into the acting world. Even if this is the first and last acting job ever: how amazing.

On Tuesday after the wardrobe fitting I had to meet up with the director so that he could take some photos of me to sent to the sketch artists in L.A. for them to get the portrait ready to use in the scene.

Is this seriously happening?

This whole process has felt so spirit-led. This is not about me. I am no one. All the glory is God's. I am his.

Where do I start?

There has been so much going on inside me and around me over the past few weeks. I don't even know where to begin, and I am not prepared to write it all out now.

Pray for me, please.

More to come.

St. Louis weekend: awesome.

It was an amazing weekend. It felt a lot like this picture.

Dictionary.com: Word of the Day.

slake \SLAYK\, transitive verb:
1. To satisfy; to quench; to extinguish; as, to slake thirst.
2. To cause to lessen; to make less active or intense; to moderate; as, slaking his anger.
3. To cause (as lime) to heat and crumble by treatment with water.

intransitive verb:
1. To become slaked; to crumble or disintegrate, as lime.

I like this one. It seems very useful. Can you use it in a sentence?

The environmental impact of eating meat: you may be surprised.

As I'm usually dancing on the border of vegetarianism (I typically eat meat only rarely), and as the daughter of farmers, I found this article very interesting:

New Study Reopens Debate: Are Omnivores Better for the Environment Than Vegetarians?

The Crossing Macomb.

I've been waiting in anticipation for The Crossing to finally open here in Macomb. It's a church plant out of Quincy, IL, and they have been working on their Macomb campus for over a year now. They bought the old Thompson Food Basket building at Jackson & Wigwam (see above) and have given it an extreme makeover. Yesterday was their first service.

I am thanking God. It is a new, fresh addition to the body of Christ here. I worshiped uninhibited in spirit and in truth. I was taught the word of God in a powerful, pertinent way. I had communion with my brothers & sisters. The leaders felt genuine. The people were excited. I'm thanking God.

Keith was at a soccer game @ MSU yesterday, and he won't have a Sunday off for another few weeks, but he is so excited to check it out as soon as he can.

My prayer is that this new addition to the Church in Macomb will bring a fresh movement of the Spirit, and that it will not be about The Crossing but the glory of GOD. As we sang in worship there yesterday, "Not to us, but to your name be the glory." The Crossing is new and different and fresh and young for Macomb, but I pray that they will be unified with the rest of the body and that we would all work together for the glory of God.

"Not to us, but to your name be the glory."

Shawn McDonald.

My latest musical obsession has been Shawn McDonald. Acoustic, worshipful, organic, contemplative, melodic, rhythmic...basically all my favorite things in music. At this point, the album I recommend the most is Live in Seattle.

This guy has a beautiful testimony. Love his heart; love his music.