Adventures by Sarah

Follow me over!

2011-01-02T14:53:00.001-08:00

Hey friends,

I have moved my blog and am no longer on blogspot. www.adventuresbysarah.com used to direct to this blog, but it now directs to my new and improved blog! Please come check it out and subscribe!

If you're subscribed to me here and want to transition over in your RSS reader, please subscribe here instead.

Thanks so much - see you there!

Christmas in my New Home

2010-12-21T18:30:00.000-08:00

The Christmas season is in full swing, and I thought I'd give you all a peek into my home this Christmas - perfect timing, since we just recently acquired living room furniture courtesy of my very generous in-laws! I certainly wasn't going to show my living room with all of our movies and decorations in boxes ;)

My mantle makes me so happy. I love my animal portraits. I love my CB2 candlesticks. I love the colorful mess of melted candles in the fireplace.

Our stockings have thus far been for decoration only. One reason is that the stocking holders we have are rendered completely ineffective once anything is actually placed inside the stockings - they just fall right off of the mantle. The other reason is simple neglect. We need to get the stocking tradition started in our house!!

Here is our tree. (Kindly ignore our Guitar Hero drum set.) ;) People seem to be all about the white lights, but I love colored. They're just so cheerful and nostalgic for me. I've always loved lots of color, and I think it's the perfect way to celebrate. Credit goes to Buddy the Elf for the paper garland and snowflakes. He was my inspiration.

Our new entertainment center. We drove to IKEA in Atlanta and back the Sunday after Thanksgiving to get it. We even assembled it when we got back. It was a rather fun adventure :o) The vintage Christmas tree and bell decorations (on either side of the TV) are courtesy of my BFF, Josey. She's known for finding awesome things at thrift stores and antique malls and sending them to me out of the blue. I pretty much couldn't ask for more awesomeness in our friendship (just a little more geographical proximity).

I love my adorable felt trees from CB2 - not only are they a delight to look at, but they remind me of our wonderful trip to New York City last Thanksgiving, where I purchased them.

I made this wall art - no, it is not crooked on my wall; I just framed the photo crookedly ;)

Our new couch. I LOVE IT. The throw pillows make it, I think. The colors look so great at Christmastime and will look awesome all throughout the year. Love love love.

Someone decided he had to get into the picture and be all cute.

This is my sweet little hutch in the kitchen - all decorated for Christmas!

The gnome potholders came from Etsy. I love them so.

I picked up my mischievous Elf on the Shelf and some cute tins from a local antique store. I LOVE old Christmas decorations and knickknacks. It's so fun to be reminded that people have been getting excited about Christmas for years and years and years.

And there you have it! :o)

Facebreak

2010-11-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

Perhaps you've noticed and perhaps not that I'm no longer on Facebook. I thought I owed an explanation to those who might come by this blog seeking one out.

Without getting too personal, I realized that, for whatever reason, the things that I post on Facebook paint inaccurate pictures of who I am to people. The strange thing is that there seem to be different specific pictures to different people. For example, some people have said, "Sarah, you seem to only post negative things on Facebook. I'm worried about you." Then there's, "Why do you only post pictures of things you want or talk about what you 'need' on Facebook? It makes you sound pretty ungrateful." On a brighter note, I've gotten many, "I love reading your updates! You are so funny!" comments as well.

Funnily enough, the fact that there ARE these three "categories" and more disproves all of the "how come ALL you post is (fill in the blank)?" concerns, but because of people's various sensitivities to certain kinds of posts and my desire to not be viewed as a Debbie Downer or discontent, I've decided to step out for the time being.

But that's not the only reason.

Right now, I don't have a job, and since I'm fairly new to this city, I don't have many geographically-near, in-the-flesh friends. As a result, I was spending WAY too much time on Facebook, sharing things I wouldn't necessarily feel a need to share if I had "real-life" people to talk to about them, letting silly little things bother me when I shouldn't have given them a second thought, etc. Yes, Facebook is wonderful for keeping in touch with family and friends, but I am hoping that this will challenge me (and those people as well) to pick up the phone a bit more often.

My sister and I were talking today about how the longer the world goes on, the more people seem to think that certain things can be substituted - in this case, Facebook communication for real conversation, affection, etc. I want to do what I can to stop this in its tracks, at least in my life. I do not think Facebook is bad, but I also do not think money or Cap'n Crunch is bad. It's just the abuse of it that leads down a road that would be best not to travel. (I need to remind myself of that daily, especially when it comes to Cap'n Crunch.)

Finally, my hope is that people will still stop by my blog to see what's going on with me. I am still on Twitter but like to keep a much tighter circle there than I did on Facebook, and I will still read my "must-read" blogs on a daily basis ;) I hope that we can keep in touch there.

Love,

Sarah

A Blustery Fall Day

2010-11-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

My friend Gloria and I are both semi-new to middle Tennessee (she more than I). We are both currently unemployed and thus have time on our hands for adventure. Today we went exploring a bit. We had a grand old time despite nearly freezing our hands off!

First she took me to a fantastic old graveyard out by where she lives.

The fall foliage here in Tennessee just amazes me.

In the afternoon, we went to a great junkyard/antique shop.

We each found some treasures and can't wait to go exploring together again!

A Sunset Wedding

2010-10-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

My great friends Dustin and Gloria tied the knot this past weekend in Oklahoma. They were married at my in-laws' beautiful ranch just before sunset. I was so honored when Gloria asked me to help take pictures of her big day. I'm warning you all of the oncoming photo overload!

Look at that beautiful girl.

Gloria wore Dustin's grandmother's pearls.

I absolutely love this picture. She looks so hopeful for her future :o)

We had Dustin turn around so Gloria could approach him from behind and we could capture his first glimpse of his bride. Here he is patiently waiting.

The lady approaches...

I'd say he was pleased :o)

Getting married :o)

What a kiss!

Ze cake!

Bekah (or Fred, to a lot of us), the bride's sister and maid of honor, joyfully introduces the couple at the reception. (My mother-in-law, friend Raven and I made the gourd candle holders! Eek!)

I love this! They had a table with pictures of both families, complete with cameos of the bride and groom in the middle (which I also made! Okay, okay, I'll stop bragging; I'm just so pleased with how they turned out!)

They had guests write wedding wishes on quilt squares. Love it!

Glo and her new father-in-law. Precious.

Preparing for the sparkler sendoff!

Gloria and Dustin, thank you so much again for allowing me to play a part in your beautiful day! I'm so grateful to have you as friends and I wish you every happiness!

Oh, let's be honest. I'm just as happy for myself since y'all live in Nashville now! ;)

What I Saw

2010-09-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was finished with work early in the afternoon yesterday, so I celebrated the significantly lower temperature by throwing on a cardigan and going on a drive around my area of Nashville with my camera in tow. This is what I saw.

I am in love with where I live.

He's so Fluffy I'm Gonna DIE!!!

2010-09-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

It was early this morning, about halfway through my cup of coffee. Ryan had just left for work and I was wondering what to blog about today when it happened.

The door opened and Ryan said, "Hey, Sarah, wanna see the fuzziest caterpillar ever?"

"YES!" I sprang up and starting running toward the door. "Oh wait - camera!"

When my pajama-clad self walked out the door, this is what I saw.

Eeeek! Isn't he cute? (I don't know why, but all creatures in nature are male to me. I wonder what Freud would have to say about that?)

Not only is he attractive to the eye, but he also has an appreciation for the arts. Here he is crawling all over the neighbor kids' sidewalk chalk drawing to get a closer look.

"Come to me, and together we will play and laugh and daydream and I really hope you aren't poisonous and won't bite me even though 'death by caterpillar' would be pretty amusing on the death certificate."

He didn't bite.

Bye-bye, caterpillar friend. I sincerely hope I don't walk outside and find you squashed at my doorstep later today. I would cry.

I'm going to tell myself that you will find a pretty lady caterpillar who looks just like you, only pink and purple, and together you will browse museums and frequent local coffee shops on beat poetry night.

Er....Makeover Take Two...and a story.

2010-09-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you all have noticed that my blog looks different...AGAIN. Ever put something together, think, "Oh, this looks so great!" and then find yourself less and less satisfied each time you see it?

I think what bothered me the most is that I was just using a background that another person had made. As I'm tapping further into this part of me that's evidently creative, I'm holding myself to higher standards of originality. Plus, I have a husband who is great at helping out with stuff like this ;) All right, fine. He did it all while I watched.

I had a different background in mind, but while I was taking the pictures I hoped to use for it, Ryan was at my computer and had picked this photo out. He put it up as a placeholder, but I think I'll keep it. I like it because it perfectly matches the colors I picked out for the header, and also because of the story behind it. Wanna hear it?

Back in May, Ryan and I traveled to San Francisco for a friend's wedding. We were exploring the bay area with some college friends and decided to go to Muir Woods (I'M SO GLAD). You'll notice my outfit. Sue me for wanting to look pretty in the pictures. You'd better believe I hiked a mile-and-a-half in that Anthropologie dress and those girly flats, and then walked/skipped that distance back down. And it was so incredibly fun...

...until the (in hindsight) inevitable happened. We were walking along the path, nearing the top, when I saw a thin, light green shape wriggling around on the ground. Now, I can describe how I react around snakes all I want, but you'd have to see it to believe it. Let's just say I was a sobbing, hyperventilating, wheezing, panicking mess. The worst part was that I was absolutely trapped. My instinct around snakes is to RUN as far away as I can, but I was in unfamiliar territory - near the top of our path and 100% needing to go back down the same way. My husband and friends calmed me down and, thankfully, I made it the rest of the way without seeing another snake. But by the time we got up to the top, I was still upset and teary and wishing I could fully enjoy the breathtaking view around us.

My good friend David encouraged me to say out loud, "I'm not afraid." And, as silly as I felt, it worked. I admitted to him that when I saw the snake, for the first time, I could feel a part of myself saying, "Sarah, there's nothing to be afraid of." Of course, the ever-present "IT'S A SNAAAAAAAKE! SCREAM AND SOB AND RUUUUUN!" part took over, but I've had this paralyzing fear all my life and any tiny breakthrough is astounding to me.

So we started posing for photos on top of this little hill to celebrate our triumphant journey together. It is one of my favorite memories.

Oh, and on the way back down we saw a huge slug. It was gross.

The End.

Taking Matters Into my Own Hands

2010-09-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, on one of my favorite blogs, I saw the most adorable shabby, obviously handmade fabric flowers. I asked the author for a tutorial but with four kids and her many creative escapades to keep her busy, she has rather understandably not provided one (so far).

I googled. I surveyed. Finally, I decided that they really couldn't be that difficult to make, so into my crafting room I went.

Materials:

She's not necessary, but she does provide pleasant company.

Not pictured: fabric (duh), felt, button, needle and thread.

Tip: I may regret giving away my secret, especially if you live in Nashville, but my favorite place to buy fabric is in the form of old pillowcases at Goodwill (sheets if I need more than scraps). There are all kinds of solid colors as well as, most of the time, a few lovely vintage prints. And they're CHEAP. So much easier and less expensive (and overwhelming) than going to Joann or Hobby Lobby - which, for me, is thirty minutes away.

The first thing I did was cut strips of the fabric I wanted to use for my flower. I'm sorry, but I did not measure my strips. If you have fabric to spare, my advice would be to start long (18" or so) and trim off what you don't need at the end. The bottom flower will be the longest and widest, and each layer on top of that will decrease in length and width (again, I eyeballed and trimmed as needed).

Fold the strip of fabric in half length-wise and press.

Now. I could have used my sewing machine for this, but after oh-so-carefully folding pleats, struggling to pin each one down perfectly, and seeing how much time it was taking, I scrapped that idea and grabbed my trusty hot glue gun.

On an "appropriate" surface (one you don't mind picking strings of glue off of), put your strip of fabric down and fold a pleat. Mark the area where the fabric overlaps and put a dab of hot glue there. Less is more, as the mean dude in "Angels in the Outfield" used to say.

Press the pleat on top of the glue and hold for a few seconds to let dry.

(I apologize for the quality of these pictures - it is most difficult to craft with one hand and photograph with the other. A 1.4 aperture is usually a beautiful thing, but not when there's so much going on in the photo and so little of it is in focus. I'm much more apt at photographing when I don't have a hot glue gun in my hands.)

Continue folding and gluing. The "tighter" you want your flower to be, the narrower the pleats need to be on top where you're gluing. The pleats should never be the same width on top and bottom because then you'll just end up with a straight line of pleats instead of a circle. I hope that makes sense...

When you've folded and glued all the way around, trim off the extra fabric and glue the ends together, overlapping some. Cut out a circle of felt, put a ring of hot glue on it, and glue it to the flower.

Repeat this process with more flower layers as desired.

Now, when you're finished, you'll have a gaping hole in the middle of your flowers. This is when a cute tidbit such as a button comes into play. Thread a needle and bring the needle up through the felt and through the button holes. Repeat three to four times to make sure the button is nice and secure. Then tie the threads on the bottom into a double- or triple-knot and trim off the excess thread.

Voila!!! She's cute, huh?

You can make your flowers into pins by simply hot-gluing the felt base of the flowers to a pin base, found at Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc (maybe even Wal-Mart, but I avoid that place like the plague so I wouldn't know). ;)

I chose to make my flower into a headband. I measured around my head with elastic and cut it to the appropriate length. Then I cut another felt circle (yeah, by this time I'd given up with the camera) and hot glued the elastic onto it. I hot-glued THAT onto the felt base of the flower.

This is the best picture I was able to get of myself. (Ryan, come home!)

I must say that I was pleased with the way it turned out :o) So I didn't stop there. I made another headband (and resorted to Photobooth with its yucky, unflattering use of unnecessary flash but extreme convenience).

I tried to wear it the way all the cool kids are wearing headbands nowadays, but I don't think the results were very awesome. I think my bangs make it look awkward.

For the "middle" of this flower, I simply took a tiny piece of the yellow fabric, folded it over a couple of times to make it look nice, and hot glued the sucker on there. I hot glue everything. Hot glue, hot glue, hot glue. I should probably just start eating it so that I can eventually shoot it out of my wrists a la Spidey. That sounds like a super-convenient and not at all messy idea!

Elly is HERE!

2010-09-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I posted Colleen's maternity photos. While shooting that session, I kept thinking, "What if she goes into labor right now?!" Well, baby E's due date in late August came and went, and she was finally born, appropriately, on Labor Day weekend. Elianna Joy is here at last, and I had the privilege of going to visit her and snap some pictures of her now that she's home!

Never would I have expected a baby so new to this world to be SO alert and expressive. I expected her to be sleepy for all of the photos, which would have been adorable anyway, but she surprised us all with wide eyes!

Mother and daughter. Two beautiful ladies indeed.

Phil is the definition of "Proud Papa."

Now they are a family!

Cannot get over this precious girl.

Phil and Colleen, thank you so much for giving me the honor of taking sweet Elly's pics. I'm so excited to watch her grow and learn - she's already off to a great start!

Little Eric

2010-09-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

My cousin Margo has the most adorable, most energetic little boy. His name is Eric, after his dad, so they call him Little Eric :o) I love it - reminds me of Little Ricky from "I Love Lucy."

I was in St. Louis this past weekend and Margo asked me to get some pictures of Little Eric for his upcoming second birthday. I was happy to grant her request! We met for insanely delicious pizza and then headed to Kirkwood Park.

Eyelashes, anyone?

So sweet!

Check out those eyes.

Margo, thank you SO MUCH for giving me the honor of taking your precious boy's two-year-old pictures! It was so great to see you and finally meet your little man!

Greyscale Showing

2010-08-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

After years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears (all of which have literally applied at some point), my husband was able to show his movie, "Greyscale," to our family and friends. He has poured so much of his time and energy into this film and I daresay it has paid off.

Well, really, I think it paid off long ago in the form of introducing us to some really wonderful people with whom I pray we will be friends for the rest of our lives.

This past weekend, we drove to Tulsa to show the movie at two different theatres on Saturday. We had an informal showing in the morning and a formal showing in the evening. Both events drew in hundreds of people who had been excited to see the film for quite some time. Friends and family came in from California, New Mexico, Missouri, etc to show their support. It was a wonderful time that Ryan and I both liken to a wedding - only this time I got to be the "groom!" I say that because I got to just show up and enjoy everything while Ryan, the "bride," wrangled specific details.

The movie is still technically in post-production, but only long enough to tweak a few things. Then it's time to find a distributor. The "friends and family showings" were the culmination of so many people's time and effort, and I can't believe we're finally here.

If you worked on "Greyscale," I can't thank you enough for helping my husband achieve his dream. If you came to one or both of the showings, thank you SO much for your support! We love you all!

This is Why the Internet is Dangerous ;)

2010-08-18T11:54:00.001-07:00

I'm taking a break from cleaning (okay, so I've been doing a lot more "breaking" than cleaning so far today) to browse stuff that I can't have. Healthy, huh? But I do think it's fun to be creative, if only in my head, and window-shop. (I couldn't use the "Windows-shop" pun that came into my head because I'm now a Mac - and proud.) I will eventually need to furnish and decorate my apartment, anyway, so I can always get a head start on ideas.

I want to cut this in half and make curtains. My living room window is huge and looks out on NOTHING but a sea of trees. How perfect would that look in my treehouse?

This would look so great in my living room - maybe sitting on a side table or on one of the shelves of the entertainment center we're dreaming of getting (right now our TV is on our coffee table). It'd also encourage me to wander into the wilderness to pick flowers. All I need is a red hooded cape.

I can't get over how wonderful this is. As I become more of a seamstress and acquire little tools that need to be organized, I'm seeing more and more of a need for a little box or chest like this. The small size is so great for placing it on my sewing table, IT COMES WITH THREAD!!!, and look at that raw wood - just begging me to customize it. And the price is great!

Uh, awesome. The light fixture above our dining table is so outdated - it's there, making this unnecessary, but a girl can dream. And it's so fun to look at.

I can't tell you how great this would look on a certain small portion of our living room wall. The walls are painted a light grey. This would just pop. I can see it now.

Okay, enough for now. The reality that is the Swiffer WetJet is calling. Eventually (read: when I figure out how), I hope to have a separate page for fun, inspiring things I find. For now, I hope you had fun imagining with me! :o)

Makeover COMPLETE (for now, anyway)!

2010-08-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

Well, friends, how do you like it? My blog's new look makes me smile. I need to "shout it out" (teehee...most of you won't get that, but that's okay) to my awesome husband who was able to use his coding knowledge to fix things, move things, change things, and customize things for me - and also to www.shabbyblogs.com for being awesome. Everything on that site makes me want to drool. If it were up to me, I'd use a different layout of theirs every day and the sides of my blog would be lined with the buttons and blinkies, but that would obviously be overkill.

I'll continue to make some changes, like adding pages, throughout the next few days. I definitely plan to get back into blogging full-swing now. Let's hope that works out!

Thanks for visiting!

Makeover in Progress!

2010-08-11T07:33:00.001-07:00

Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't noticed (before now) that I've been making some changes to my blog. For starters, it now has a new name - Life in the Treehouse - but it will still have the same web address for now, adventuresbysarah.blogspot.com. After all, adventures by Sarah are a part of life in the treehouse ;)

Now for an explanation. The other day, Colleen and I were out on my screened-in veranda and she remarked that when you look out at the trees, you think you're in a treehouse. Oh, I liked that. A lot. So I decided that my new home is "the treehouse." Never mind that it's actually an apartment in a building with at least five other apartments. Never mind that it is not, in fact, up in a tree. Never mind that you actually have to walk DOWN a few steps to get to it. It is my treehouse, dang it, and I live here and there are chipmunks.

My dedicated perfectionist of a husband worked for over an hour on my new layout last night (mostly on the banner), and I finally had to make him go to bed instead of staying up until he was pleased with how it looks. So it's still a work in progress; excuse us as we change things up, change our minds, and change them again. Hopefully it'll look like the whimsical wonderland I tell myself I live in when all is said and done!

Thanks for stopping by :o)

Colleen's Maternity Pictures

2010-08-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

Phil and Colleen are awesome new friends of ours in Nashville. Colleen is going to have baby Elianna Joy any day now, so we wanted to make sure we got some shots of her while we still could! My goal was to wait to post these until I have given my blog a makeover, but that is still in the works (read: I have NO idea how to make my own blog layout and I have a feeling it'll take a long time to learn) and I didn't want to keep my sweet friend waiting any longer, so here they are!

Phil and Colleen, thanks SO much for being champs! It takes a superwoman to walk around in the Nashville heat and humidity nine months pregnant, climb out onto roofs, etc! Can't wait to meet your beautiful little girl :o)

St. Louis Visit

2010-07-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I made a visit up to my hometown of St. Louis. The drive from Nashville is *slightly* more interesting than it was from Tulsa, as this time I get to switch highways and everything! ;)

Shortly after I arrived on Friday evening, I joined my mom and her friend Karen for a concert in the zoo. The Saint Louis Zoo is one of my favorite places ever. I even had my wedding reception there.

The band was awesome and I enjoyed creepily taking pictures of the people dancing.

This guy in particular was really getting down. He was so fun to watch!

There was a peahen strutting around as well. Lots of us were enjoying getting pictures of her...

Then she looked right at me! (Of course, I guess bird vision is different so I'm not sure whether she was actually SEEING me...)

I snuck away for a bit to visit the sea lions.

Sleepy friends.

My cute mommy and her cute friend! It was a great time.

My Pi at Starbucks the next morning. Isn't he magical?

This is Neville, the kitten Ryan and I got my mom for Christmas. He's growing so quickly!

On Saturday night, we went to my aunt's house to celebrate my cousin's college graduation. Here's the scholar pondering cake.

I had a great time visiting my family and confusing my mom with my obsession with picture-taking. ("WHY are you taking a picture of that?!" It's an art, mom....) ;)

My Kitschy Kitchen

2010-07-22T20:26:00.001-07:00

I have been itching to post pictures of my apartment, but too much of it is still in progress. However, one area is (mostly) finished: the kitchen!

Come on in...

I decided to take advantage of the presence of a chair rail and paint two different colors. I knew I wanted pale blue in my kitchen even before we moved, and I decided on pale yellow for the bottom. I got the baker's rack on craigslist. Yay! It was a great find and perfect for storing my dear keepsakes.

This is my flowery elephant. It fell and its trunk broke into a bunch of little pieces, but I rescued it with superglue. In the background you can see the awesome tile my friend Josey found for me and the matryoshka measuring cups I cherish so much!

My friend Kristena custom-made this adorable coffee grinder cozy for me. I am so proud of it! She never ceases to amaze me.

I found this vintage wall hanging while antiquing in a nearby town. I love it! How appropriate in my kitty-cat-filled home :)

This is another Josey find. She has luck at Goodwill the likes of which I've never seen.

She also found me these great embroideries!

I still need to make a little valance to go over the window, and I realize I failed to get a full shot of the kitchen - I couldn't get a great angle so I'll wait until I feel like finding a wider lens to do that ;)

Hope you enjoyed the peek into my sweet little kitchen!

I'm back...again...

2010-07-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Just call me Slim Shady. Actually, don't. (But have you ever noticed how most of his songs are about how he's "back?" We were discussing with some friends how funny it would be if he got saved, changed his name to "Slim SaveMe" or something else horribly corny, and instead of all his songs being about how he's back, they'd be about Jesus coming back. I digress.)

Well, pretty much everyone who doesn't live under a rock knows that we live in Nashville now. There is a lot of exploring yet to do, but so far, we love it! Hellooooo, Anthropologie twenty minutes down the road! Why, greetings, American Apparel and Z Gallerie and West Elm and ahhhh, I need to get a job....

I wasn't sure what all the switch from nice, new house to apartment would involve. Honestly? I love it. Our apartment allows - nay, encourages! - us to paint, hang things on the walls, etc, which was my main concern - how much we were going to be able to make our new home look like our OWN space. We live on top of a tree-covered hill and it smells so...botanical...and fresh and lovely outside. I can sit in my own living room and hear birds chirping for the first time. My cats love to watch the chipmunks dart around outside our windows. Apartment life has been grand to us so far; we just have to look at the positives. Examples:

We don't have our own yard anymore. HOWEVER, A) we never really went out there anyway and B) Ryan doesn't have to mow in the heat and humidity!

We had to leave our own expensive, high-capacity washer and dryer behind. HOWEVER, our washer had been acting up for months - we had to press "stop" and "start" about ten times before it would go (computer problem), and it would have cost us hundreds to have it fixed. The other day, the dryer in our apartment wasn't working. I called maintenance. I went shopping. I came home and the dryer was in perfect working condition again. That was easy - and free!

We don't have lovely ceramic tile in our entryway and kitchen anymore. HOWEVER, that stuff was horribly difficult to clean and the linoleum in our apartment is an absolute breeze. The Swiffer WetJet with which I was so frequently frustrated before is now the perfect tool for getting the floors clean in no time.

The kitchen cabinets are old and very outdated. HOWEVER, this was the perfect invitation for me to go all out with my starry-eyed dreams of a lived-in, kitschy, vintage feel in my kitchen. Pictures to come soon.

Of course, there is still a LOT to do. Our living room currently consists of a loveseat, the TV on the coffee table, and boxes and piles of DVDs. It drives me a little crazy just to look at it. But we need to paint the walls, save up for new furniture (we gave ours away in OK), and head to IKEA - oh, that glorious day - and then things will have come together a lot more. Only then will I be willing to show you pictures of our apartment. Sorry, it may be awhile. Use your imaginations.

Well, I could have predicted that once we got internet, all of my time would be spent sitting at the computer. I'd best be off to run an errand and start painting. Thanks for reading and have a great day!!

I Made a Headband!

2010-01-24T17:37:00.001-08:00

I'm officially hooked on "Glee," and while watching it the other day, I saw a headband on Emma that I thought was tooooo cute. I thought, "I could make something like that...maybe" and decided to give it a whirl. So this evening, I sat down in my craft room and made myself a cute little headband. Of course, it doesn't look EXACTLY like Emma's - I wanted a different color and a bigger headband because I can't stand it when my headbands "ride up" my hair like hers looks like it's doing - but I am pretty satisfied with it nonetheless :)

My inspiration:

(Sorry about the pixelated image - I'm just glad I was able to get a screen capture at all!)

First, I stitched the headband. I simply measured the length of ribbon I wanted by putting it around my head, then using a small amount of elastic in the back (by "finger-guesstimating" how much I'd need). I left about 3/4" extra ribbon on both sides, folded it over, and stitched the elastic in. I put the headband on to make sure it fit and to measure the length of the second ribbon, the angle at which I'd need to sew it, etc. Then I sewed it. I got really lucky with all of this guesstimating; I am fully aware that it could've been a disaster. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of each step - I only have a pic of the completed headband.

Then I whipped out my glue gun, turned it on the low setting, and glued on my gems.

Voila! My cute headband!

*One last apology - I know the coloring of the pics is really weird. I guess the lighting in my ultra-green craft room doesn't make for the best pictures. So I'll either have to start crafting in daylight or you'll have to expect weird-looking pictures of my future endeavors!*

Next time I will:

1) Try a wider angle (bigger space) between the two pieces of ribbon.

2) Use less ribbon, more elastic. I thought that the more ribbon I used, the prettier my headband would be, but it's really not as flexible as I'd like.

Yikes!

2010-01-19T08:39:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's been over two months since I last posted. I haven't let this blog slip my mind; rather, I've spent a lot of time in thought as to whether I should continue posting on this one, having started my photography blog. And I think I will continue this blog, as I have missed having a venue to say what I want to say (when it's more complicated than a Facebook status allows).

SO. Over the last two months...a lot of cool stuff has happened. I went on yet ANOTHER trip to New York City, where I got to see the Macy's parade. My sister graduated with her Master's degree (can I brag? This girl graduated with her Bachelor's a semester early, moved up to New York City to start her first job in her field and did her Master's program online in one year! So just six months after she should have graduated with her Bachelor's, she had her Master's AND a great, successful start to her career)! I got to celebrate Christmas with my family for the first time since Ryan and I got married. I welcomed 2010 with utter joy and excitement. I turned twenty-five. Lastly, Ryan and I just got back from an awesome trip to Nashville.

It has been a whirlwind - exhausting, but fun. I can't wait to see what will happen in 2010. One thing that I KNOW will happen is that Ryan and I will try our hands at the P90x program. I've heard nothing but good (painful, but good) things about it and I absolutely cannot wait to start it - if only the DVDs and equipment would arrive and this mysterious abdominal pain of mine would go away. In any case, I tell you all this because the more people know I'm going through it, the more I'll want to make sure I keep it up!

So that's been my life as of late. And I'm back :)

Yemma

2009-11-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

Yemma had her follow-up doctor's appointment today. During this appointment, they reviewed the results of a CT scan she had on Monday. I am so happy to report that she is....CANCER-FREE!!!!

I am very happy that all of the cancer has gotten outta town, but also trying to walk the line between negativity and a cautious awareness that it COULD come back. I'm not at all trying to rain on this parade; just being mindful that the more I think, "We're out of the woods, we're out of the woods!", the more devastating it would be if it did return.

However, this is definitely a victory in itself! Thank you, Lord, for this huge piece of happiness, and for always taking care of us.

And thank all of you SO MUCH for praying/thinking good thoughts for my momma.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Hunger

2009-11-07T06:35:00.001-08:00

You and I are both aware that these economic times are tough. It seems like everyone I know is being affected in one way or another. When we have to give things up to save money, it's upsetting and frustrating. We (I know I) tend to think, "Why is this happening to me?" Well, I realized something the other day that I hope will lend insight to my readers.

A bit of background: Ryan was laid off in August and is still without a job. As we try to stretch things a little further and reevaluate what we "need" in our lives, a lot of changes are occurring. One example is that I now bring a homemade sandwich to school for lunch instead of escaping to McAlister's, Bread Co, etc. After a few days of this change, I noticed - I was eating less, but wasn't hungry for more. This tells me that, in short, when we know we can have something, we want it. If we know our limits, we are (or should be) content in those. It's such a simple concept, and probably sounds upsetting to many, but it's given me immense peace.

Do you know how blessed we all are? Do you truly know? A roof over our heads, food on the table, ANY kind of clothing AT ALL to wear - these are not things to ever be taken for granted. We don't deserve any of them. We aren't entitled to any of them, despite what every single marketing campaign in our country tells us. Every little luxury we have is a gift from God. We're not bad people for having what we have, and I hope I'm not making anyone feel GUILTY for their possessions. It's when we seek happiness in them that things get bad.

I have heard so many people joke, "I'm poor now," "We're destitute," etc. I don't feel like it's my place to say this to these people directly, but I wonder if they have any idea what "poor" and "destitute" actually look like. These concepts don't look anything like what myself and my loved ones have. We are all blessed beyond measure and need to recognize it.

I aim not to lecture, to but fill with hope that God has not turned and will NEVER turn His back on us. Just because we have less than what our disgustingly spoiled selves are used to doesn't mean that we aren't among the richest people in the universe. Please be reminded of how much you're provided for, and SMILE. :)

Love,

Sarah

Mary

2009-10-26T19:43:00.001-07:00

Last month, I took an impromptu trip up to St. Louis to take some pictures of my sister. She wanted some "artsy" pictures (the kind of "artsy" that I can't exactly show online, if you get me) - but I will share some gorgeous close-ups! Josey did her hair and make-up. I had a lot of fun doing this shoot; I'd never done anything like it before and it was a good challenge to shoot indoors.

Enjoy!

I hate her, too. ;)

My Pumpy-kins!

2009-10-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

This is my cute little gathering of pumpkins, gourds, etc. I like them. They like me.

And this is the mat that will greet you when you come over to my house.

And this is the wreath that I made.

Yay! :)

The You-Must-Make-This Apple Pie

2009-10-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

As promised, the recipe for "the" apple pie follows. I found it on Clary's website - I frequent her blog because I really like her photography and one day, she posted her own recipe for apple pie. I modified it only by adding cloves because I am obsessed with them. (Do it. Trust me.)

If you make this pie, please let me know! It is seriously amazing.

You'll need these ingredients for the crust:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon KOSHER salt
5-6 tablespoons iced water

For the filling:

1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 teaspoon KOSHER salt
7 apples THINLY sliced (if the apples are really small like mine were, use 8)

For the crumb topping:

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Recipe

For crust: In a bowl stir together flour and salt. Using a fork or pastry blender, cut in 6 tablespoons of butter until pieces are pea-sized. Add one tablespoon of cold water at a time (for a total of 6 tablespoons). Toss with a fork after each tablespoon until dough is moistened. (If you have festive crust cutters like mine, save the rest of the dough!)

*I confess that I ALWAYS buy crusts at the store, but for this I do make my own. I think it's the overwhelming domesticity brought on by picking the apples that does it to me every time.*

For filling: In a large mixing bowl stir together the granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, the cinnamon, cloves and salt. Add apple slices and gently toss until coated.

Transfer apple mixture to the pastry-lined pie plate.

For crumb topping: Stir together brown sugar, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, and the oats. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter or margarine until the topping mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle Crumb Topping over apple mixture. To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil. (Or don't, if you have crust cut-outs - this is the time to place them around the edge of the pie and squeal at the cuteness!)

Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle walnuts. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes more or until top is golden. Remove from oven and let it cool for about an hour.

How to Have the Perfect Fall Day.

2009-10-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

Wake up early and make pumpkin muffins for the road.

Have an extra cup of coffee because you can.

Go to the orchard.

Have a husband who knows to wear corduroy without you even having to ask.

Go on a hayride.

Find a cool bug.

Pick apples.

Climb a tree (kind of).

Pose.

Obtain Esmerelda the fairytale pumpkin (as well as other pumpkins and gourds).

Pose again.

Find a cool tree and snap a picture from the car.

Go to the state fair.

Eat.

See fun animals.

Eat again.

Go home and put those freshly picked apples to use.

The recipe will follow in my next post! Until then...

Obligatory Fall Post!

2009-10-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

I'm willing to bet that if I walked up to every single person I know and asked them what their favorite season is, at least 90% of them would say fall. It's just so magical to all of us. Yes, the temperature gets cooler, the colors are beautiful, cozy time with family is anticipated, and yummy things are cooking...but I think the overall "something" about fall is impossible to describe, which I love because that's what makes it slightly mysterious.

Here are some ways that I've decked my home for autumn.

I love this adorable pumpkin candy dish!

I saw this candelabra in a magazine last fall and I've been drooling over it ever since. I got it this year and am in LOVE!

I love the burnt orange placemats, too. They make the table feel cozier!

Here is a look at my whole table (before we painted the kitchen):

I filled these cute little candy buckets with peanut M&Ms and Reese's. They are mine and Ryan's respective downfalls. (There were more Reese's in the bag than M&Ms. lol)

I found this guy at Ross. Did you know that they really do have AMAZING home decor (sometimes)? And so inexpensive!

I love these cute little throw pillows on my couch!

What's the Halloween season without a little spookiness?

I made this guy by peeling the label off of a jar, gluing on the eyes, wrapping it in gauze, and securing the gauze with glue. Then I painted the lid black. Easy as pie!

These are probably my favorite touches. I got the idea from Martha's mag. I found some cool branches and placed them in vases with cute fillers.

And here is my mantle in its entirety:

What are some of your favorite things about fall?

Yemma Update

2009-09-30T15:12:00.001-07:00

I realized it's been quite awhile since I've updated about Yemma!

We've had some ups and downs, but "sometimes ups outnumber the downs," and that's our case. Good thing we're not in Nottingham.

Anyway.

Over this past weekend, Yemma had an unscheduled hospital admission. She'd been feeling extremely weak and sick to her stomach, so they admitted her and ran tests. Her blood counts were low again, so they transfused her. She has had a lot of transfusions over the course of her treatment, but they help a lot. The minor bump in the road is that because of this incident, her doctor has pushed back her next round of chemo to next week.

However, the good news is....it will be her LAST CHEMO! I can't believe how far we've come, and it seems like the time has flown by. Only one more round of chemo for Yemma, and then she will undergo some tests in the weeks following to make sure that the cancer has gotten outta town for good. I really hope and pray that we can just put this all behind us and that Yemma won't have to deal with it anymore. Her tumor marker is all the way down to 31, which is an extra helping of good news.

Thanks so much, as always, for your thoughts and prayers.

Sick.

2009-09-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

It is no fun being sick. As kids, so many of us thought, "Wouldn't it be awesome if I got sick?! Then I wouldn't have to go to school!" (I say "many of us" instead of "all of us" because my best friend since seventh grade actually HATED missing school. What a weirdo.) However, once we actually caught whatever illness was going around, we realized that it wasn't all fun and games. I really think we take our bodies for granted until they're on the fritz.

I've had a raging sinus infection since last Thursday. I went to work because I thought it was just a really bad allergy day, but my temp started to rise so I went home in the afternoon. I only got worse from there, so I stayed home the next day, too, and went to the doctor. Being the slight hypochondriac that I am, I mentioned that there have been multiple cases of swine flu at all of my elementary schools. However, my doctor pointed out correctly that she could cut off my head and I'd feel better. None of my symptoms were below my neck.

So I've been on antibiotics and sinus washes since Friday morning. She told me I'd be feeling better by day three of the antibiotics. Well, it's day five and I feel the same as I did last Thursday afternoon when I went home from work. Fevers, sore throat, stuffy nose (that has now been "rinsed out" a total of NINE TIMES...HOW MUCH could be in there?! Sorry; that was gross), and sneezes that register on the Richter Scale plague my day-to-day activities.

I went to work yesterday to help out my boss, who was out of state, but I was surprised to find out that I had a 100-degree temperature sitting at that desk. I toughed it out the rest of the day, but I'm home again today. Hopefully some more R&R will get me back into work tomorrow. I hate the thought of letting my co-workers down, and one of them has flu in her family right now, too. When it rains, it pours!

Hopefully this will shape up to be just an EARLY sick season instead of a ridiculously long one.

Boring to Botanical: The Transformation of a Desk

2009-09-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, I inherited a desk from Ryan's grandmother. When our office got way too crowded for it, we moved it out into the living room. However, I rarely used it since I had a laptop - I admit it; I would just veg on the cough with my laptop...well, on my lap.

Getting my iMac, and therefore needing to use the desk again, inspired me to give it a makeover. So I did! I got the idea from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts - a book that I still do not own but through which I frequently browse in Barnes & Noble. (Was it stealing to see this idea in the book and benefit from it? I hope not.)

I might have mentioned before that I'm slowly incorporating a fresh yellow, white and green look to my living room. I transformed my desk with this new theme in mind.

Before:

This is the book that I bought and...gulp....cut pictures out of for decoupaging. It caused me physical pain to cut up a book, but it helped a little bit that I knew its purpose when I bought it. Kind of like my friend who bought two lambs knowing she and her family were going to slaughter and gobble them.

(Sorry for the price tag - I tried to peel it off but it wanted to take the cover with it, and I couldn't degrade my poor book any more than necessary. Besides, now you can see that it was on sale!)

I painted my desk - FOUR coats - and coated it with some polyacrylicdoodlealltheday that the dudes at Lowe's told me would work (it did).

I chose pictures that matched my color scheme, painted them with Mod Podge, let it dry, and cut them out.

Then I Mod Podged them to the desk and voila!

My desk is now fun, girly, and matchy-matchy with the living room! (At least, how the living room WILL look when we paint it.)

I'm quite happy with it :)

Kelly's Family Photoshoot!

2009-09-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

Kelly from Teach and Tickle asked me to take some pictures of her family. I was honored, thrilled, humbled, and....reeeeally nervous! For one thing, I'd never been commissioned to do a photo shoot before. They've always just kind of involved me with my camera and friends or family around. For another thing, the forecast called for nothing but storms, storms, storms all throughout the week.

However, when Ryan and I met up with the family of four on Friday evening, everything went....great. Thank you, God. The weather was mild, the sun was...if not shining, at least glowing...and we happened upon tons of great places to shoot in downtown Tulsa!

I have literally over one hundred awesome pics of this family - and that's not me tooting my own horn; that's me telling you how fun and photogenic they all are - so it is incredibly difficult for me to choose which ones to share with you. I haven't even done it yet. I'm stalling even as I type.

But without further ado...

Kelly, thank you SO MUCH for probably the hundredth time for thinking of ME to do your photos! I am beyond thrilled that it was such a success.

iMactually speechless.

2009-09-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, while I was at work, Ryan texted me that he was going to be going down to Mexico for a few days in a couple of weeks (his dad's company has a branch down there so it wasn't COMPLETELY outrageous, but it still left me confused). I texted back for details and he didn't respond, so I did the typical, lovely "Hello?!" thing. His response: "Something very cool happening. Will call soon."

The possibilities flew wildly through my mind. Ryan got laid off with some others a few weeks ago...had he just landed a new job? Had Caspian learned Fantasie Impromptu on the piano? Was a Hanson TOTALLY in front of Ryan in the check-out at Wal-Mart?! Who knew?

I don't remember how I passed the time while waiting for him to call, but he did. And he told me.

His dad had bought us both Macs.

I was FLOORED! I didn't even know what to say. I think I just kept quietly saying things like, "What? Whyyyyy? How? Oh my gosh....are you serious? Tell him...'thank you'..." (I felt rather lame with that last one. How can "thank you" ever be enough for what he did? I got to say it to him myself, too, of course, but still...)

Ryan and I have a company. It's for his films and other prod

uction stuff. Someday I might shoot photography under it. Who knows. But basically, this was his dad's way of investing in our company. He wanted us to have better machines on which to edit, run the business, etc. Our PCs just weren't cutting it anymore. I can't tell you how many times I have made a "going to choke someone/pull my own hair out" motion with my hands while I waited for a program to start after clicking four times (with about two minutes of wait time between each click). Or how many times Ryan would text me, "Please pray. (The editing program) crashed again."

Suffice it to say, we've wanted Macs for a rather long time. Plus, we have countless creative friends who do similar things to what we do - all of them BEGGING us to get Macs. To be frank, the idea got rather laughable after I took a large pay cut and Ryan lost his job. This generous gift has meant a TON to us.

A few pics from my phone follow.

My new computer! I can't believe I actually have one!

Seriously. I've waited a LONG time.

See how much denial I was in with my laptop?

In its lovely place. (My desk is in need of a makeover, which I hope to get to soon....)

My in-laws even took us out to a FABULOUS dinner at Copeland's. Can I give them a quick shout-out? They seriously have the BEST food. The BEST. Anyway, overall it was the best evening ever.

No, iMac. Thank you.

Yemma's 50th!

2009-09-07T20:26:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, my mom turned fifty last Sunday! Her friends from her small group threw her a great party and Ryan and I were blessed to be able to be there.We had yummy picnic food!

Two of my favorite people :)

Pi is such a celeb.

Yemma's friends chipped in for the bookshelves she's been wanting. She was floored!

My grandparents, my Aunt Lisa, my cousin Jordan, Ryan, and I had so much fun celebrating Yemma's birthday with her. Happy birthday, Yemma!

Ryan at the Museum of Transportation

2009-09-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry sorry sorry! It's been FOREVER since I've posted. (I actually hope that I still have followers to whom to apologize...helloooo?)

Last weekend, Ryan and I went up to St. Louis to be with my family. My mom turned the big 5-0 on August 30th - more on that later!

I took Ryan to the Museum of Transportation. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and he WAS like a kid around all of the trains - it was cute. :) Our time there somehow turned into a photoshoot, which was a blast for us both!

Here are some of my favorites of my rockin' hot husband.
I hope this has been a worthy comeback! Leave me some love!

First Day of School

2009-08-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of school for my district. It was pretty busy - my mentor nurse and I took five trips between schools in order to get everything accomplished. I was able to get a decent idea of the kinds of things school nurses deal with, and though I see that it will be very busy, I don't feel overwhelmed. Each school has a skilled and experienced health aide. I'm told they will be my lifeline, and I don't doubt it at all. The people in the school system work very well together and frequently call each other to ask questions, so I know that my questions will be welcome and everyone will be patient.

I am so incredibly humbled to have this job. I hope that I will never take it for granted. It was such a sweet feeling to see my name outside the health office door at one school today. I wanted to take a picture, but my better judgment told me I'd better wait awhile before I expose my freakishly picture-obsessed self to them ;)

I know that there will probably be days when I will want to cry (or probably actually cry) and pull all of my hair out. But I love my job so far and my mentor nurse randomly told me that she loves this job as well. Yay!

In other good news, Yemma is responding very well to her treatment. When she was diagnosed, her tumor marker was around 360. It is now all the way down to 58. What a blessing! And she's only had half of her chemo treatments! She is in the hospital right now for round number four. We're all looking forward to when this is all behind us. Thanks so much for thinking of, supporting, and praying for us.

The Past Few Days...

2009-08-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

...have been awesome!! Honestly, being out of work and broke for a few weeks was starting to take its toll on my spirits. I don't like feeling like I'm not contributing to the world at all, and frankly - besides laundry and other housework - there's just not much to do that doesn't somehow require money (even if it's gas money to drive somewhere). However, within the last week, I have:

1) Started my new job - I've met the other elementary school nurses and spent some time with them. They are all nice and incredibly helpful. I got to meet a few of the people I'll work with at my three elementary schools, and everyone was overwhelmingly gracious and excited to have me aboard. I found out that for the first couple of weeks of school, I'll be shadowing another school nurse to learn the ropes. I'm very grateful for this time, as I've been told that it used to be that the new nurses got no orientation! The lady I'll be shadowing told me that her mom, who had been a school nurse, had to come help her organize files and show her what to do! Anyway, I am SO happy about my new job.

2) Spent some time with good friends - David and K came to town from Georgia and stayed with us for a few days. We ate out, got sno cones three times, shopped, saw a steel drum band in concert, and relaxed. It was so, so great.

3) Made THIS!

Isn't it fun? Of course, it's not to scale....I'm afraid my cats would be scary mutants if their heads were half the size of ours. And now my mantle is starting to reflect the "fresh yellow and green" theme I'm hoping to have throughout the living room!(Kindly ignore the wire dangling from the ceiling. We had the house wired for surround sound but haven't actually installed a system yet.)

Anyway, with school starting on Wednesday, I'm going to be very busy during the days from here on out, but hopefully I won't be so tired in the evenings that I won't be able to bring myself to blog ;) Thanks for hanging in there!

Vintage Indie!

2009-08-06T15:10:00.001-07:00

The Vintage Indie feature on Kristena with my pictures is up! Please click here to see it! Thanks!

Halfway There!

2009-07-31T16:15:00.000-07:00

As of Wednesday afternoon, Yemma is halfway through chemo! She is feeling pretty weak and tired during the days, but has been having some trouble sleeping at night. She told me that the other night, she was awake until 3am (my mom is one of the "early to bed, early to rise" types so this is really unlike her). She is still able to get out and about, thankfully. I spoke with her while she was visiting one of her best friends yesterday, and it sounded like they were having a good time.

Her boss and coworkers have been extremely understanding and supportive throughout Yemma's illness and treatment. It makes her feel bad to not go to work, but they are making sure she is guilt-free. Yemma has never liked not having much to do so this has been a struggle for her, but as always, she has plenty of loved ones' company to keep her busy.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support!

A Dream Come True

2009-07-27T12:44:00.001-07:00

For as long as I've wanted to be a nurse, I've wanted to be a school nurse. I love kids, and schools always make me happy. I just love to be in any environment where kids are learning, thriving, and expressing themselves. Besides, kids at school are healthier than kids in the hospital, so it's not a sad, stressful environment.

Well, friends....I've kept quiet about this because the more public I made the fact that I applied, the more public I would have to make the fact that it didn't happen if it didn't. But....I sent my resume to my local school district on a whim (I had no idea whether they were hiring) and got a call back from them that very day. Since then, I've been in the application process, and last Friday I had an interview.

This morning, at around 9am, I got a call....I got the job. I am now a school nurse!!! I will be in charge of three elementary schools and I can't wait. (There are health aides at each school so I won't have to be in three places at once - not that I could, anyway.) The man who interviewed me is incredibly nice, and I can't wait to meet some more of my future co-workers.

Aside from the actual job duties (record keeping, seeing kids that come into the office for various maladies, checking up on kids' management of chronic conditions, health screenings, basic education) that I am excited about, there are so many other reasons I'm looking forward to this job: any scrubs I want (hello, Cardinals scrubs at last!), weekends off, every holiday off, summers off, returning to watching the TV screen in anticipation of snow days....it'll be kind of like going to school again!

I am so psyched. Thank you SO much to all of my family and friends. Your love and support surround me and lift me up so much.

Kristena's House

2009-07-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

My friend Kristena asked me to take some pictures of her house for Vintage Indie. They evidently picked up on her insane crafting skills and chic-and-unique taste, and I was honored to be able to help capture it! Plus, her kids made for some adorable photos too.
The quilt was a team effort - Kristena made some of the squares, and some blog friends of hers made the others and shipped them to her. I think that is so cool! Kristena also made the awesome appliquéd art above the bed.

Kids' bedroom.

Sweet Jacob admires the banner that I believe Kristena made.

I LOVE the sweet bunny in the front - another Kristena project! I'd love to be able to make toys for my kids someday!

Quite a unique and quirky art collection on the wall of the dining area.

Lovely Emily enjoys a cinnamon roll....

And eyes another. :)

Childrens' profiles :) By now I'm sure you won't be shocked to learn that Kristena made these, too.

Livin' life. That's the crafting goddess herself in the background (wearing this shirt - also note Emily's dress). I feel like I'm joking, but I'm so not!

:)

This lady is truly all that.

Ain't She a Beaut?

2009-07-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

I got this baby by running into the corner of this:

It only LOOKS innocent with its Harry Potter lunchbox and autographed Matthew Lewis picture (wha what?).

Getting bruises like this always makes me want to watch a certain movie. Can you guess what it is? If you can, I love you for how well you know me (or this movie - or both).

Graveyards, Grasshoppers, Greyscale

2009-07-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I cheated. The bug in this picture is 99% likely to NOT be a grasshopper. But it started with a 'g' so I went with it.

I discovered him right outside my front door last Friday. I like finding interesting bugs around my house (as long as they stay on the OUTside).

On Friday evening, we went to a graveyard to get some pick-up shots for the movie. I love graveyards. I think they're so peaceful and beautiful. The golden light that the sun was casting on everything didn't hurt, either.
So I've gotten into this weird habit of taking pictures of only the edges/tops of things against the sky. They are weird and kind of quirky. They are probably pointless, but I like them anyway.
Graveyard friends!
And that's all, folks!

Photo Phun

2009-07-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Along the country road that my husband and I take to church, there are a few things we drive by that I always think, "I need to get a picture of that some time." Today, since I was out that way mailing a few things, I brought my camera along so that I could finally stop thinking about it ;)

One of the gates at which I like to envision doing a photoshoot really isn't interesting on its own, so I didn't shoot that. Maybe when I have a human subject to work with. But without further ado, here are the shots I got.

I had never seen this tire before. I'm not sure if it was recently placed there or if I just never noticed it. I went a couple of different routes with the editing, but I like the second one better.
I LOVE the patina on this gate. I couldn't get out of the car to take a picture of it because the road was narrow at this point with nowhere to pull off. So I quickly shot this out the window with a very anxious person in the SUV behind me riding my tail. I happen to like the effect :)
I added an antique layer for funsies. I'm pretty happy with it.

Filming This Past Weekend

2009-07-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, the pick-ups, reshoots and additional scenes for Greyscale began. On Saturday, after I slept off working my LAST night (!!!), I joined the crew at this really cool, creepy place where they were shooting a new scene that Ryan wrote.

Okay, I have no idea why this is so disgusting and upsetting to me, but it just...is. It's a bunch of airsoft pellets stuck in a cardboard box. I just think it looks sick!
The building was filled with all sorts of weirdness.
Uh...all right, then.
On the way back from the set was an incredibly YELLOW building. I got a blind shot out the window. I MUST do a photo shoot here. Anyone game?
Later that evening, we went to the Wesley building on TU's campus. That always brings back fond memories. Since it was golden hour, we took some fun pictures.
Okay, so while we were at the Wesley I had to film something very briefly. It required me to wear a long, wool coat. If you live around Tulsa or anywhere that it has been over 100 degrees every day lately, you will understand why, while I waited to be filmed, I was holding my jacket out from my body and doing a little dance. (Well, maybe you won't understand the little dance part unless you know me personally.) Anyway, someone pointed out that it looked "really terrible from behind." We all got a good laugh out of it and decided to take this hilarious picture. (Yes, you had BETTER BELIEVE I am actually clothed under the coat!)
Hahaha. Oh, man. Maybe you had to be there. Moving on...

On Sunday, we got a few random shots that we needed and enjoyed hanging out together all day.
(Ryan was not angry. He was just hot. Ohhh, yeah.)
While they were filming, my dehydrated self sat in the shade and took some random pictures. This is a turquoise bracelet that I bought from a guy that I used to work with (he makes awesome jewelry).
This is the beautiful ring that my father-in-law generously gave to me. It had been his mother's.
The lovely sun shone through the trees.
I tried out a blue tint. I think it looks kind of cool.
Now that I am soooo finished working weekends, I am looking forward to joining the Greyscale crew on the weekends to come!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

2009-07-11T02:20:00.001-07:00

I never traveled tons when I was a kid. Our "big trips" were always to Mount Airy, North Carolina (the real-life Mayberry) at Christmas with our dad, and to Mount Airy/North Myrtle Beach in the summers. They were always big family reunions on my dad's side. I have tons of cousins on that side and each visit was a blast.

I went to Disney World when I was about seven or eight, too. That was the only major vacation I've ever taken with my mom. However, since that was all we knew and since we made so much out of every trip we did take, I'd never really ached to go gallivanting around the globe.

Now I am married to a man who went to Europe when he was six and has also been to Africa, Mexico, Canada, and most of the United States (and back to Europe). Since we got together, I've been to Mexico three times and gone on more trips around the US. Most recently, we went with his parents to Vegas. All of these little vacas have been eye-opening and wonderful, and I totally blame Ryan and his parents for the fact that...I now have a major case of travelin' fever.

It seems that lately, I very often find myself thinking about trips on which I'd like to embark. My imagination is wild and stubborn and, therefore, refuses to think about trivial things that others would call "practicality," "money," and other such pish-posh. So, without the restraint of likelihood, here are some adventures I would love to have:

1) Europe. For MONTHS. Maybe even a year or more. I'm reading Little Women right now and I'm surprised that the pages detailing Amy's and Laurie's prolonged European adventures aren't marked with drool. I would float about from place to place, getting a feel for each city in each country I visited. I would go beyond seeing the touristy sites. I would get to know the quirks and secrets and beauty of every piece.

2) Prince Edward Island. I am a huge Anne of Green Gables fan, and I long to tour the island on which Anne's adventures were based. This trip would also include a visit to Concord, Massachusetts to visit Louisa May Alcott's house (the basis for the Marches' house in Little Women).

3) A long, long road trip down historic Route 66 to California, stopping as many times as we liked along the way (and DEFINITELY staying in one of those wigwam motels). I've never been to California and, as grateful as I would be for any opportunity to go, I think my heart would ache just a little bit if I didn't get to go by car the first time. The days of anticipation would, I think, give me a retro feel for the excitement felt by travelers before air travel was all the rage. (But don't get me wrong; if I were offered a flight out there, I would deal with it quite nicely.)

4) Greece. Coastal Greece. A la Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Mamma Mia! The architecture, the sun, the sparkling sea...'nuff said. (I hate that phrase, but I find it infuriatingly necessary here.)

5) Back to Mount Airy and Myrtle Beach. Ryan has been able to show me so much, and I have a deep longing to show him the Carolinas for the first time. We would drive along the same route that my dad always took when I was a kid. Even as an impatient child, the beauty of the mountains always captivated me and I cannot wait until the day when I get to share it with him. (He's seen mountains, of course, but not these mountains, and I just know it would be special.) Besides, I haven't been in years and would love so much to revisit all of those happy childhood memories.

Have any of you been on adventures similar to these, or any other exciting journeys? I would love to hear about them.

One More Night.

2009-07-10T02:35:00.000-07:00

I sit here at work thinking about tonight. It'll be my last shift at my very first "real world" job.

This is a big step, but it's one that I need to take. See, aside from a few months in which I went insane from dealing with the chaos that is day shift, I have worked nights ever since I got married. On a personal note, this has cost my marriage a great deal. We've gotten pretty used to hasty dinners followed immediately by me rushing out the door to work. Ryan goes to bed alone, then I come home in the mornings and go to bed alone.

I'm so over it.

I've been asked many times - scratch that; many, many, MANY times - where I'll be working next. I don't have the answer right now. No, it's not the smartest idea to leave a job without having another one already lined up. Some things are hard to explain; I can't even really explain it to myself - but it is time for me to wrap up my time at this hospital and turn to the next chapter. I have felt and continue to feel right about it.

Every so often I think to myself, I guess I should be reflecting on the time I've spent here. Then I realize that I don't really want to. Yes, it has definitely been a MAJOR learning experience, and working at a hospital seems to be a sort of necessary evil for new nursing graduates, but I've made a couple of promises to myself that I intend to keep unless I am absolutely desperate: never again will I sign a contract that enslaves me to a company for a certain amount of time, and (a much broader and more "shocking" promise) never again will I work in a hospital. Now, there are some specialty hospitals that could offer me "normal people hours" and not obligate me to work evenings, nights, weekends or holidays. That would be fine. But I feel that I owe it to my husband AND myself to put myself on a schedule that coordinates better with his - as in, is not the EXACT OPPOSITE of his.

I've made some amazing, amazing friends and I'll absolutely die if those friendships don't continue, but the time has come to say bye-bye to this job. On to...well, I don't know about bigger, but hopefully better things. And I don't say that spitefully - who doesn't want the next step in their lives to be better than the last?

Much Ado About a Keanu Reeves Dream

2009-07-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Have any of you read Much Ado About Nothing or seen the movie? It is in my top three movies of all time. I absolutely love it.

Anyway, this is a voicemail I got from one of my best friends recently. I got a huge kick out of it, so I thought I'd post it for you to enjoy.

"Hey, I have a question for you really quick - what is the movie...I thought it was Shakespeare...but it's a movie where Keanu Reeves plays the bad guy and it's, like, the girl is gonna get married to the guy and Keanu Reeves arranges basically to frame her to make it look like she's having sex with another guy the night before the wedding, and so the guy stands her up at the wedding, and so she fakes like she's dead...umm, I can't remember, I thought it was A Midsummer Night's Dream but (my boyfriend) says no, that has fairies and stuff. Anyway, if you have any idea what I'm talking about, give me a call back."

Haha! Hopefully that was half as funny to some of you as it was to me. Now go watch the movie! There's way more to it than that. :)

Bald is Beautiful.

2009-07-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

Late last Thursday night, Yemma was released from the hospital following her second infusion of chemo. Her hair had been falling out all day, so we had Josey completely shave it off after we got home.

We think she looks so cute! Yemma gets hot a lot so she LOVES being kept a bit cooler by not having any hair. Of course, she doesn't plan on being bald forever ;)

Here is a better picture of all three of us:

Independence Day!

2009-07-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I decided to have a cookout for the 4th of July this year. We got started planning it sort of late, so we didn't expect too many people to be able to come. However, this was evidently one of those times when we were given something we didn't know we needed - a house FULL of friends. Our lives have been kind of stressful lately, and this huge turnout reminded us how blessed we are to have a "family" of wonderful people around us.

So many people were there! The house was bustling with conversations, laughter, and adorable children running around. It started off kind of small around 2 in the afternoon, and by the early evening, tons of our friends had shown up. We ended the night by watching fireworks in our front yard and eating popsicles. It was perfect. People didn't leave until around midnight. It was a full day and night of awesomeness.

Here are some pictures!

The table:

My first attempt at pulled pork was a success! I used this recipe in my slow cooker (which I really should bust out more often. It is a working girl's best friend).
I made an American Flag fruit pizza using this easy recipe. So it's not "symbolically correct," but I did my best with the room I had ;)

I, uh, also made this...er...watermelon cake. First of all, it ended up being a strawberry-flavored watermelon cake. I scoured greater Tulsa for watermelon Jell-O. No one had it. NO ONE. They had APRICOT Jell-O, but no watermelon. Of course, the next morning, multiple people from other towns/states told me they'd seen it in their grocery stores. How very ironic. Anyway, it would have been a lot cuter if I had had room in my fridge for the icing. Instead, it sat on the counter and got runny. This is the salvaged version. But I still think it's kind of cute. Kind of.
This is what it looked like when I cut into it - much more watermelony!
A house full of people!

Cute children!
Sparklers and popsicles!
We found this amazing bug on our garage door late at night. We think it's some kind of beetle. Cool, huh?
And that's all! I think I posted a sufficient amount of pictures...hope the rest of you had a great 4th as well!

Meet Me in St. Louie, Louie

2009-07-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

This post is long overdue! A couple of weekends ago, Ryan and I headed up to St. Louis for the wedding of two friends. The groom, Justin, is a friend from college; the bride, Katie, is another story...rather, few stories. I met her through Justin at another wedding during college, but she also knew Josey's brother Gabe through high school theatre, Josey's sister Summer through college, AND my sister's friend Tracey through college. I'm tied to this girl in quite a few random ways.

Joining us were our dear college friends, two of them married couples. It was like a mini TU reunion, only in my wonderful hometown!

We had the time of our lives. Five of us stayed at Pi and Gra's house. On Friday night, we went to the City Museum. If you've never been, I can't really describe it other than to say that it is like a quirky, indoor playground that adults enjoy as well. It also has art and oddities of all sorts. We bought passes to go up onto the newly finished roof, on which there is a ferris wheel and a giant slide, among other attractions.
We were told "NO REFUNDS" when we paid the 5 bucks for the roof passes. We got up there, looked around for approximately ten seconds, and heard, "The roof is closing!" A storm was coming. Nooooooo!

I felt incredibly stupid and guilty for "causing" everyone to waste $5, but we still had a good time inside. We explored caves, walked through a hall of mirrors, climbed a ridiculous number of flights of stairs to slide down a huuuuuuge slide, and enjoyed chatting/laughing with one another.

Then we came back and went to sleep.

On Saturday morning, Ryan and I joined Yemma, Pi, my Aunt Lisa and my cousin Jordan for a special pre-Father's Day breakfast. Great family time was had by all. Great banana crunch pancakes were had by me.

Aunt Lisa is so pretty!

The wonderful honoree.

:)

My cousin Jordan and me!

My maaaan!

Ladies :)

(Gra took our friends out for brunch to keep them entertained. She's hospitable like that.)

That afternoon, it was time for the wedding. I think this was the first wedding I've ever been to where it was difficult at first to decide which side to sit on - however, since all of my friends knew Justin better than Katie, we all sat on his side. My cutie filmed the wedding.

It was a beautiful ceremony. I wish I'd been able to get better pictures, but we were sitting kind of far back. The priest told funny, cute stories about the couple. It was intimate and sweet.

There was a gap of a few hours between the ceremony and reception, so what were we to do? It was a hot day in St. Louis...not really a lot of head-scratching going on for ideas.

Although Ted Drewes is DELICIOUS, a few of our group were needing some "real" food. Next we made our way to St. Louis Bread Co. (I love that I can still call it that up there...) for a late lunch. We sat and talked for awhile, then headed to the art museum for a bit.

I LOVE our art museum. I love that it was around for the historic 1904 World's Fair and I love that it's free. (So is the zoo - the only bad thing about that is that now I think it's preposterous to have to pay to get into a zoo or an art museum.)

Cookieface and I hug a tree.

After we closed the place down at 5, we journeyed to a magical place I'd never been but had been wanting to experience for quite awhile...Bailey's Chocolate Bar.

I knew that it had...well, chocolate...but I didn't realize that it had a full page dedicated to chocolate martinis/other classy drinks and a menu full of tempting desserts and appetizers like fancy cheeses. The atmosphere was so fun! Wow, we ate a LOT that day, but the best food was still to come.

Reception time! Katie and Justin's dinner and dancing reception was at Rose of The Hill. FYI for St. Louis novices - if you hear the words "the hill," that's your cue to salivate. Like Pavlov's dogs. It's a historic Italian part of town in which I could eat every meal every day for the rest of my life and never want for anything else. The food was exquisite, and our group of eight were all seated at the same table, so the day-long fun continued into the night. There was also an open bar that served the best amaretto sour I've ever had in my life. (Wow, this post is making me sound like a drunk...just throwing this out there; I drink MAYBE once or twice a month and rarely ever have more than one drink at a time. I had ONE chocolate-covered cherry martini and ONE amaretto sour that day. So there.) ;)

First dance!

Father/daughter dance :)
Check out the hilarious garter!
This is the single picture of me at the wedding/reception. Have a look at that humidity hair!

Not my best picture. Anyway, Justin, Katie and their families threw a great party. We were fortunate to get to catch up with the bride and groom at our table for awhile! (Now they're on their European adventure honeymoon!) We closed the joint down, then headed back for some sleep.

On Sunday, the five of us who were staying at Pi and Gra's enjoyed a breakfast with Pi, Gra, and Yemma. Then it was off to tour the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, something I'd never done before. I'm not a beer fan, but it was really interesting to see and hear about the whole process.

Horsie!
Inside the stables where the Clydesdales are kept :)This room was FREEEEEEEEZING.
Learning about the process
This room was soooo cool.
I loved the light fixture!
So wait...some people need signs? ;)This reminded me of the room where Veruca Salt's dad is paying all those girls to go through boxes and boxes of chocolate to find a golden ticket.
At the end of the tour, they serve free beer. I had a Mountain Dew ;) and Ryan had a beer just to try it, but didn't like it. I took a sip and it gave me the same feeling as when I drink Emergen-C: like my head was swimming and about to explode. Not for me. But we had a fun time of chatting :)

Shannon had to catch a flight later that afternoon, so we decided to go to Fitz's for a late lunch and to spend some more time together before she had to leave. Unfortunately, we all sat at the bar for time's sake and it was horrible for photos, so we didn't get any.

All in all, we had a FANTASTIC weekend of St. Louis fun!

So I'm up here...

2009-07-02T10:41:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts! I know I haven't been good about that lately.

Well, I was at work when I posted the brief Yemma update and shortly after I posted, I started freaking out. It came on kind of suddenly. I guess I had a bad look on my face because a nurse from across the nurse's station asked, "Sarah, are you okay?" and I started bawling, just like that.

So, in short, I took last night and tonight off work and drove up here after work yesterday. I didn't tell anyone I was coming up. They were all excited to see me, especially Yemma.

Yemma sounds a lot better, but she coughs a lot, especially at night. As I type, we're in her hospital room and she has just another hour or two to go on her 24-hour Taxol drip. Then they'll infuse two liters of Cisplatin into her abdominal port. It'll drip in by gravity (meaning just freely, instead of through a pump that regulates the rate) so it'll only take a few hours, and she should get to go home tonight even if it's kind of late. She's really excited about that.

Last night she got up and I heard her say, "Oh." I looked over and she was looking down at her pillow. There was hair all over it. It was just like in the movies, but it didn't create a spectacle for us. She continued, "Well, we knew THAT was gonna happen." I said, "I'm okay if you're okay" and she repeated it, and we went on about our business (which was watching the Shirley Temple version of "The Little Princess" on my laptop).

I want to thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers. We need them and feel them all around us. As ever, I am SO grateful for the peace that God is giving us through this. My main concern is for those of our loved ones who don't know Him and don't have that peace. It breaks my heart to see and hear of their worry. Of course, like the other night at work, I have my moments - I am human, after all - but Yemma and I have just put this in God's hands, trusting Him completely. In all honesty, I had just seen "My Sister's Keeper" the night before and watching the girl go through the side effects of chemo really stuck with me. So I mostly blame my imagination for my little freak-out session. (Side note - do yourself a favor and don't see that movie if you have a loved one newly on chemo. The book is much better than the movie, anyway.)

Allow me to leave you with this conversation that I had with Ryan on Gmail today:

Me: Eeeeeeeee!!! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25259608
Ryan: hehe
Me: I loooooooooove! It's a journal and it's tiny.
Ryan: It is a death sentence. (Quoting the movie "Kung Pow")
Me: I was thinking someone could have their living will written in there. That way if anyone found them dead, they'd have it on them. Beautifully morbid, don't you think?
Ryan: But what if they died in a fire....
Me: That's why you spray fireproof stuff that I may or may not have just invented in my head on it.
Ryan: You could spray that all over you in that case.
Me: No because it's corrosive to human skin.
Ryan: You need a safer imagination.

Have a great "4th" weekend! :)

Chemo #2

2009-07-01T02:09:00.001-07:00

In a few hours, Yemma will go back to the hospital to begin chemo round number two. We mistakenly thought she'd only have to be hospitalized for the first round - in actuality, all IV chemos will take 24 hours to infuse and therefore she'll be hospitalized each time.

Please pray extra hard for her as she has a raging sinus infection and a low blood count on top of having to endure a second round of chemo. And I know this is selfish, but please pray for me as I'm finding it very difficult to be away from her throughout this battle.

Thank you.

This is the Greatest and Best Pi in the World: Tribute.

2009-06-24T15:51:00.000-07:00

My Gra and my Pi met when my mom and Aunt Lisa were young girls. They had been used to it being just the three girls living together, so when Pi and Gra got married and suddenly there was a man in the house, they weren't too keen on the idea of having more discipline in their lives. Pi worked his way into their hearts soon enough, though, by his HILARIOUS, cynical sense of humor and heart the size of Andre the Giant's (without the health issues).

So when I was born, Pi had been a part of the family for over a decade. I've never known any different than having him as my grandpa. And, because my parents have been divorced since I was five and Pi and Gra have always lived only a couple miles away from us, he's been my "dad" as well.

Let me tell you some things about this man. He is 6'4" and has a white, curly afro. He is beautiful. We call him our unflavored sno cone. Any time we need to find him among lots of people, all we have to do is look at the tops of everyone's heads. He is, to quote Waldo Aloysius Johnston III, "A rare rose in a garden of weeds."

As I stated previously, he is very cynical. He is impatient, sarcastic, generous, brilliant, witty, kind, and gentle. It's possible when you're Pi. He loves children and animals.
He would (and does) bend over backward for anyone, whether it's a beloved family member or a stranger. He is adored by all who know him, particularly me. I even speak Old English to him because it just seems appropriate.

If you haven't met him, you need to. But I will give you this comparison: ever seen the Steve Martin version of "Father of the Bride?" Yeah, that's him. Up and down and all the way around. Completely. I was proud to be on his arm and to dance with him on MY wedding day.

He has never, ever failed to be there for me (or ANYONE who needs him). The most wonderful thing of all is that he won't take credit for any of it. He rolls his eyes and says, "Ohhh, come on" and acts like it's no big deal at all. But it's the biggest deal in the world. I don't even want to know where my life would have gone if he hadn't been in it. He's my (and so many others') Pi.

New York, Baby! - Part Two

2009-06-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

All right, everyone, this post continues and wraps up my time in New York.

The next day (Sunday), Mary and I went to the beach. We hopped on a train at Penn Station and rode about an hour to Long Island. It was a short walk to the beach, and a beautiful day!

Lovely houses!

Mi hermano!

Mi....self!

"Soy tu hermano, tu mejor amigo para siempre"

Serious jumps have I. Well, actually, only this one. None of my other jumping pics top this air.

After the beach, we embarked on an adventure that was accidental - but not "yay" accidental like I like. We had gotten a menu for this place that served a burger with barbecue and hot sauce. Now, a little bit of background info: when I am in New York, I don't eat as much. This is due to A) being so obsessed with all there is to see and do that my mind is not on eating (this is a great thing but it shows me how much I think about eating when I'm at home); B) having only a certain amount of money to spend and wanting to spend as little as possible on food so that it can go toward DOING more things; C) getting hot while expending energy walking everywhere and therefore really only desiring something cold to drink instead of a hot meal to eat.

HOWEVER...when I read about this burger, I NEEDED it. It sounded SO delicious (and by this time I'd been in New York for a couple of days and not eaten much "real" food) that I was determined to get one before we left. I put the address into my phone, got the route, and we started walking.

In completely the wrong direction.

The little blue dot that was "us" on my iPhone (yes, my phone has a Marauder's Map - what up) was right at the "end destination" marker, but the place, the name of which I've since forgotten, wasn't anywhere to be found. I checked the address and my phone had decided to guide us along WEST Park Avenue instead of EAST Park Avenue. Blah. Happily, there was a diner right there so we ate there instead. But I am sure that my barbecue/hot sauce burger would have satisifed way more than the burger with way too much lettuce and too many tomatoes.

So. After we ate, we had to run so quickly that I was 80% convinced I was going to pass out in order to catch the train. We barely made it and as soon as I'd gasped my way back into full consciousness, I lost it again. We both fell asleep on the ride home.

After much-needed showers and some R&R, we decided to try out the Carnegie Deli. Mary had never eaten there but really wanted to go, and I'm always up for anything I've heard of in New York (and many things I haven't). How could I go wrong with a place Adam Sandler has sung about? Unfortunately, I was about to get my answer.

This place is evil. It lures you in with its "WORLD'S BEST" sign and nonsensically good reputation. However, everything on the menu is absurdly priced and although they won't take credit cards (WHO doesn't take credit cards?! In NEW YORK?!), they have a required minimum of $12.50 per person. Now, that's not hard to make, given that a SANDWICH costs 23 DOLLARS, but I had only budgeted one "nice" (i.e. over $20) meal into my trip and I sure as heck wasn't going to waste it on a sandwich that would require me to undergo a third jaw surgery. They must pack like 4 lbs of meat onto those things - I would've puked later anyway.

We decided to get cheesecake for dinner. We'd heard that their cheesecake was the best in the world and we were already there, so why not? However, we also had to get chocolate shakes in order to make the minimum check.

Le pout.

Le sigh.

The service was terrible. Our waiter didn't say ONE single thing to us that wasn't absolutely crucial communication. It was like one of those dumb team-building exercises without the bonding. The servers allowed dishes to crash so loudly into the sink every two minutes that you'd think they were getting paid based on how many people jumped out of their seats. However, one good thing came out of this trip.

Oh. My. Gosh. It was the best thing in the entire world. I consider it an innocent piece of goodness and wonderfulness trapped in a world of evil. I would gladly be the gallant knight that returned to rescue it again and again....only in a to-go box from now on. (The pickles were wretched.)

Really, I hate to complain, but it gets worse. By the end of the meal, the waiter's rude behavior was so unbelievable to us that we had decided not to tip. (I am a HUGE tipper. I believe in over-tipping, and tipping decently even if the service wasn't the best. So allow this to tell you, if I have been heretofore ineffective in doing so, how awful this experience was.) I had enough change to combine with Mary's cash to make the amount on the check. So we pooled our money and headed off to pay in the front of the restaurant like we'd been instructed. Guess what happened next?

The waiter RAN up to us and said, "Tip. You need to leave a tip for the service."

I said, "...What?"

He must have thought I didn't understand him, so he wrote the word "TIP" on the back of his notepad. I was utterly confounded.

Luckily, my sister's street smarts are the yin to my doe-eyed yang, so she quickly said, "We need to get change up front, then we'll come back and leave the tip." This convinced the waiter and he went off to probably break some china in the sink.

We went to the front, paid, and TOTALLY left. Ha. Showed him. I hope. I still kind of felt bad, as this was a new and scary experience for me. But not really. But a little.

ANYWAY. We went to a supermarket so I could get yogurt for the next couple of mornings, and Mary got a slice of pizza at a hole in the wall on the way back to her place. We gave ourselves pedicures and watched a movie, then made an early night of it.

The next day, Mary went to her gym in the morning so I roamed about as I pleased. I spent some time in Whole Foods in Union Square with an iced coffee and my special New York Moleskine that Ryan got for me. I did a little bit of journaling about what we'd done so far, all while enjoying the view.

Afterward, Mary and I met up and had another picnic in Central Park (hey, I only get so many chances!).

Afterward, we took some sweet pictures.

That night, we met our "cousin" (her grandpa and my Pi are brothers) Emily at Serendipity III! After the Carnegie Deli, I was SO glad to go to a well-known place in New York that I loved as much as I had hoped I would. It was so CUTE! And the food was delicious.

Los hermanos!

The menu was HUGE - not that it had a ridiculous selection, but it was literally HUGE.

Frrrozen Hot Chocolate! So delicious!

This was the sandwich I had. It had turkey, sprouts, Fuji apples, and Brie. Delicious!

Blurry us!

After dinner, we went upstairs to take a picture of the fireplace shown in the movie. We're tourists like that. Well, I am at least.
(Check out Mary in the corner of the photo. She was fed up with how many pictures I was taking.)

Early Tuesday morning, I boarded a train to Princeton to meet a dear friend's baby boy. He is so, so cute and SWEET! It was great to see all of them.

After that, I went back to the city and met up with Mary again. We spent the afternoon shopping. At Macy's they had really cool, old wooden escalators.

We met up with Gabe again for dinner. We went to an awesome Thai place called Room Service.

Mirrors on the ceiling. Cool!

This is my yummy Chicken Pad Thai. Yes, I take dumb food pictures. I am, indeed, one of those.

After dinner, we got cupcakes and went over to Gabe's apartment to watch a scary movie! I think I amused them with my screaming and shouted predictions ("HE'S UNDER THE BED!") Luckily they had both seen it before so I didn't ruin anything for them.

Anyway, the next day it was time to leave. Mary had to go to work so I hung out at her apartment and packed, then was off to the airport.

I had a great time! It is definitely tons of fun to see all the typical sights, but I also really enjoyed just walking around and doing whatever. Thanks, Bruther, for hosting me!

New York, Baby! - Part One

2009-06-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

Last week I returned from my fourth trip to New York. Now, the first three times I went were all very touristy trips. The first trip was just for a weekend with my sister so that she could interview for a Dolce & Gabbana internship. The second and third times were in the summer, when she HAD the internship and I went with Josey and her family, then my husband. Both of those summer trips were spent running around with our New York Passes, cramming in as much sightseeing as we possibly could.

In January of 2008, when I was doing my sister's hair for her interview, neither of us dreamed that she would be LIVING in the Big Apple the next year. This trip was the first time I made hardly any specific plans. I stayed with Mary in her apartment in Hell's Kitchen (LOVE that area!) and she took some time off work so we could just walk around and do as we pleased.

We museum'd. We shopped. We ate. We went to the beach. We picnic(k?)ed in Central Park. We even hit a "garage sale" that took up a whole street! I got lots of cuteness there. We hung out with Gabe, who is Josey's brother and one of the sweetest, most fun, and most hilarious people ever. Mary and I often have actual discussions about how we pity people who don't have someone like him in their lives.

Let the pics begin.

We went to a restaurant on 53rd and 9th called Mangia e Bevi. If you're in NY, I recommend this place for yummy Italian food that is decently priced. They even give out tambourines to each table for people to (bang?) along to "That's Amore!" Very fun and unexpected. But beware if it's someone's birthday. That's all I'm sayin'.

Mary enthusiastically awaits the subway.

T Kettle on St. Marks has the BEST watermelon slushes. They consist of nothing but watermelon and ice. They are healthy and AMAZING!

Much cuteness.

Thumbs-up for T Kettle.

16 Handles, also somewhere in the East Village but I forgot where, has unique flavors of frozen yogurt that you can combine and then top with their awesome variety of toppings (like fruit, nuts, candy bars and even Cinnamon Toast Crunch). Pay by the ounce.

Yumminess!

We went to Europa Cafe for breakfast. Mary teased me, saying it's too touristy. Maybe it is. But I love it.

This is the garage sale! I saw a sign for it so we walked down after breakfast. The day was gorgeous and we found so many awesome things there! Like:

I'm working on making over my living room into a fresh green and yellow look. So I had to have these candlesticks! $5 for the pair.

Genuine Matryoshka dolls from Russia. Look how teeny teeny tiny the smallest one is! $6.

So I love "kitschy" things for my kitchen. I love vintage knickknacks. This sweet little milk jug was $5.

I love cameos, so when Mary spotted this necklace I had to have it. She found a gorgeous black one and got it for herself, so now we have sort-of-matching cameo necklaces and a fun memory behind them! They were $5 each.

The lady who was selling this carpet bag purse told us it was from the 40s or 50s. She wanted $10 for it. Mary spotted that it couldn't be that old because of the type of stitch used. She dated it around the 70s. The lady must have spotted Mary checking it out suspiciously, so she dropped the price to $8. Ha. I don't care when it's from, I just think it's cute!

I got some more things at the garage sale, but I can't post them because they're gifts ;)

So ANYWAY. Back to the photos from the trip.

My cute sister :)

So, this is definitely Mary's ROOF.

Central Park!
Bethesda Fountain

We saw this wedding couple a few times throughout the park! The bride's dress was light pink!

Beautiful.

Magnolia Bakery has the BEST cupcakes! I know I've said that before so I won't expound now.

She'd never been before and LOVED it!

I heart NY...
Union Square

Watermelon margaritas at an outdoor bar called Blockheads! So summery and perfect.

Amazing.

Sistahs!!

Well, that's all I'll burden you with in this post. Beware four more days' worth of pictures....

Head-Shaving Party!

2009-06-14T20:27:00.001-07:00

Yemma got her head shaved yesterday as planned. My grandparents, Aunt Lisa, cousin Jordan, BFF Josey, and friends Tracey and Kristina were there. She's not Mr. Clean, just buzzed short. I think she looks adorable!

L to R: Tracey, Kristina, Yemma, Aunt Lisa, Jordan, and Josey. How fun!

He Who Must Be Named

2009-06-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday, I went to Petsmart to look at kitties because I am ornery. We hadn't been planning on getting another kitty, at least not anytime soon...but I kind of accidentally fell in love.

The nail in the coffin was actually holding the kitty (after being coerced by another lady, who did nothing to help my infatuation). The kitty immediately snuggled up on my shoulder and starting purring more loudly than I've ever heard another cat purr in my life. Sooooo sweet! I sent a few pics to Ryan, who, understandably, got a little upset because he'd gone off to work that morning like it was any other day, and here was his wife sending him pictures of a big commitment out of the blue.

However, we talked about it and the next night, he told me that I could go to Petsmart and apply for the cat. (When we got Caspian, we had to apply for him and I was a basket case all weekend while we waited to find out whether he'd be ours.) I was so excited! We got to Petsmart a little before 5pm on Saturday and held the cat again. While I was witnessing Ryan falling in love, too, the lady was explaining how the adoption worked. "....And you'd be able to take him home tonight." We were floored! All we had to do was fill out a paper with our names and address, pay the fee, and the baby was ours. Ryan drove home quickly to get the cat carrier while I waited with baby, and then we were on our way home!

Now, here's the funny thing. When I first saw this cat, the employee was sure it was a female. When we went back on Saturday, another employee was sure it was a male. No sex was marked on the info sheet on its cage. So...umm....we kind of aren't terribly sure whether we have a boy baby or a girl baby. BUT...we are 90ish% sure it's a boy. Maybe.

I already have two names that I like if it's a girl....but we've been trying to come up with boy names all day and we still haven't reached anything we definitely love enough to commit to. With Caspian, I wanted to name him Neville but sadly, he just didn't look like one. Ryan and I threw out a few names, then Ryan said, "What about Caspian?" Instantly I knew that was his name. It was like it was his name all along; we just had to realize it. I'm waiting for that to happen with this baby, too. But it's kind of important to find out baby's sex first.

Caspian and lil' bit are currently chasing each other around. They're still hissing and growling at each other, but given the fact that we've only had the baby for one day, I'm impressed that they're interacting instead of still avoiding each other like they did at first.

And so the family is one creature bigger :)

Home from the Hospital

2009-06-13T02:23:00.000-07:00

Yemma got to go home from the hospital at about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, her stomach got very upset and she vomited before she left, but she told me she felt a lot better after that. (I don't plan on detailing everything like that, by the way.) She also has the beginnings of the infamous metallic taste in her mouth. This is common with chemo. I know that it could be so much worse and am grateful that things HAVEN'T been worse so far and that she is still in high spirits, but I ache with concern for her. I think it's because I feel powerless being so far away. (Yes, I could be a lot farther than six hours, but that is a long distance when your mommy is sick.)

I know I'm speaking too soon as one "round" of chemo is apparently defined by the time it takes to infuse the drugs AND go through the cycle of rescue drugs, but I'm praising the Lord that one round of the chemo actually being infused is OVER. Five to go. I'm not sure if we can expect her reaction to the drugs to get better or worse from here on out. Will her body be more used to the drugs the fourth, fifth, sixth times around? Or will each round weaken her more and more so that the chemo takes progressively more of a toll? I do wonder these things, but I need to remind myself that God is in control and that my job is to pray for and love my Yemma the best I can.

As I said in the last post, Yemma was told to expect to feel the full effects of the chemo about 5-7 days after it was infused. Right now she's very uncomfortable because there are two liters of fluid just kind of sloshing around in her abdomen. I guess after the Cisplatin is infused, it takes a few days to soak in. My grandma said that early this morning, she was having to turn from side to side every fifteen minutes in order to let the chemo bathe the whole area. Hopefully she will sleep more soundly now that she is at home with her kitty cats. (Random shout-out to cats - all you haters take for granted how easy they are to take care of and how much their calming presence can mean. Haha, I know that's out of the blue, but I know WAY too many people who have quite uneducated hatred toward cats!)

Today is the "head-shaving party." Josey and my sister's two best friends, Tracey and Kristina, will be there. I'm admittedly torn between happiness that she'll have her surrogate daughters there and jealousy that they can experience this with her and her own daughters can't. Just being frank. However, I am SO grateful - as always - to everyone who has been supporting Yemma. EVERYTHING means something. So thank you very much for even reading this.

Chemo #1

2009-06-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

Yemma started her chemo yesterday. Early in the morning, she had a small surgery to insert a port-a-cath that is now being used to inject the IV chemo, Taxol. She came out of the surgery fine, then was sent to the oncology floor, where the drip began immediately. It should be finished around now (24-hour drip), and then they will use the port in her abdomen to infuse Cisplatin, the other chemo drug. She should hopefully be able to leave the hospital tomorrow, and if all goes well, the other rounds of chemo will all be outpatient.

I spoke to her yesterday afternoon and earlier today. She states that she's feeling fine, just tired. Her doctor and nurses have told her that she will feel the full effects of the chemo about five to seven days from now, and that mostly she will feel very weak and tired. She said she'll take that over any other side effects. I hope she doesn't get too nauseated. She hasn't been nauseated at all yet - thank God!

This Saturday is when Josey is going to come over to shave Yemma's head. Like I said, I love that she's getting it all over with in one go and on her terms. My Pi will be taking pictures and sending them to me, so as long as I get Yemma's permission, I'll post them here.

Yemma has lost 25 pounds since she was diagnosed in April. She's been trying to lose weight and this is obviously not the way which we would have chosen for it to happen, but she might as well enjoy it! Here is a picture of her with one of the many blankets that have been made for her. She is - WE are - so richly blessed with great family and friends.

Thanks so much for the continuing prayers.

Rhema and Zane

2009-06-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

I met Rhema last summer on the float trip from the bottom layer of Hades ;) We rode in her car to the river and back and got to know each other along the way. Let me tell you, this lady is incredible. After doing her own research about God and deciding that she wanted to follow Him, she moved from California to Tulsa purely on faith. She started a whole new life. She's quite an inspiration. At the end of that day, I was so glad to have made a new friend. Nobody in that car knew that less than a year later, she would have found the love of her life and married him! God is truly faithful.

Zane and Rhema started dating last fall and were engaged in February. They got married Sunday night, May 31st, at Tarp Chapel in Broken Arrow. It was a beautiful, beautiful wedding.

The groom awaits his love.

Stunning bride.

Putting on the ring!

Married!

Gorgeous :)

The reception was at a beautiful home in Broken Arrow.

We welcomed them to the reception with sparklers :)

Zane's father, the best man.
Congrats, Zane and Rhema! I hope you have an insanely happy life together :)

I'm gaggin' on it.

2009-05-31T01:14:00.000-07:00

Shortly after 11pm, I got a text from Ryan that said, "Want McDonald's iced coffee?" I danced with glee (in my head, anyway) because I love McDonald's iced coffee. It is truly delicious. Ryan often brings it to me during a shift as a special treat. (The coffee is actually a mere excuse for the real treat, which is my loving husband visiting me at work.)

The following conversation ensued. (Note the times between the texts.)

Finally, around 1:30am, Ryan got here with the coffee. I felt so bad that he'd waited so long just to get me a drink. He handed me the cup. I thanked him and said, "Hmm...I wonder why it's so dark?"

His face wrinkled and he said, "They didn't seem like they had any idea what they were doing." I continued to peer at the beverage and I noticed some dark stuff at the bottom. Oh, he got me an iced mocha! How sweet. Must be chocolate syrup. I swirled it around with the straw. Nope.

"Oh, there are coffee grounds on the bottom," I observed. (I am not a brat like this post is making me sound! First of all, there was a phone conversation in which I thanked him repeatedly for offering the coffee and told him how sweet he is; second, I'm a horrible liar/faker so I couldn't ignore the obvious fact that this iced coffee had problems. It was mere observation, not complaining :) Besides, I was too excited to see Ryan to be upset about the coffee.) But back to the story. Ryan said, "Are you serious?!" and was adorably angry at the wrong that had been done his wife. I nodded and took an adventurous sip.

He asked, "Is it the worst thing ever?" "Mm-hmm," I confirmed sweetly, never breaking my smitten glee. His shoulders slumped and he gave a dejected sigh and began the story of his McDonald's experience, complete with a disturbingly skilled hick accent when speaking as the employee. It had been a long and somewhat frustrating trip. Poor, generous husband of mine.

"I want you to take a drink," I said with a mischievous grin. "No!" was his immediate, inevitable response. "Please? For the experience," I implored. He sighed and did it.

"AGH!" He immediately jumped backward, then started stepping this way and that, looking as if he had no idea what to do with himself. I laughed. He wiped his tongue off on his arm in desperation. I laughed some more.

We continued our conversation. He had premiered the "Greyscale" trailer at the showing of another locally made film and it had been very well-received. I wanted to know every detail as I was so sad to have missed an important event for him. He paused and smacked his lips, staring with hatred at the coffee. I said, "I know, this stuff is going to haunt us." He agreed and we talked some more, then said goodbye.

I went into the dining room on our unit and began to doctor my drink. I poured the liquid into another cup, rinsed the coffee grounds from the McDonald's cup and put sugar packets and whole milk in the bottom, then poured the coffee back in. That was much better. My additions had somewhat lessened the arugula aftertaste. I texted Ryan, assuring him that I'd salvaged the drink, and bravely downed the whole thing - although it took me two hours.

It was yummy, though. I promise. But oh man, if you could have tasted the drink they originally made...*shudder*.

Ba-dop-ba-ba-barf...

UP.

2009-05-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

Go see it. I don't want to give anything away or build up this movie so much that it's a letdown compared to how I make it sound. Just know that it will affect you in ways you didn't realize from the previews, and that if you don't absolutely love it, you have problems. ;)

With every new Pixar movie I see, I think, "Wow, they've really outdone themselves this time." Everything they make is so clever and has at least SOMEthing that is relevant to people of all ages. (I wasn't a huge WALL-E fan, but that was one of those that people built up to be the absolute SQUIRREL!...best movie I would ever see, and when it wasn't that, it seemed "ehh" to me, which is unfortunate.)

"Toy Story" and "Monsters, Inc." are two of my favorite movies, but "Up" topped them. I went expecting a simply cute and funny movie and got the surprise of finding my new very favorite Pixar film. (For the record, it offers "cute" and "funny" in spades, but also so much more.)

Just go see it. Please!

Four.

2009-05-29T01:13:00.000-07:00

That's how many more hours I have of work until I get to go home and go to sleep.

Then I get to wake up in the late afternoon, go see "Up" with Ryan, and come back for another twelve-hour shift. Then another one on Saturday night.

I am working two weekends in a row so that I can switch to the opposite weekend rotation that I've been working. This is because I am going on two trips in June for which I would have needed two of my weekends off if I hadn't switched.

Next weekend, my heart will be beating a little more earnestly, for I shall be in New York City. I have no specific plans for when I am up there. None. I will get there around noon on Friday and leave shortly after noon on the following Wednesday. That's four whole wake-up-and-go-to-bed-in-New-York days, plus two half-days. My sister and I will do as we please and go with the flow. We shall picnic in Central Park. We shall shop. We shall eat at quirky little places. We shall take lots of pictures and laugh until we (nearly) die. It shall be awesome. (Okay, so maybe I do have some vague plans. But I don't know WHERE in Central Park we will picnic, WHERE we will shop, WHICH quirky little places we will go to for dining purposes. So there. Spontaneity fully intact. Oh, except I know that I must have another watermelon slush at that one place.)

So. Four more hours of this shift. I think I can do it with fun things on my mind.

And so ends my "number" posts. This one was kind of a stretch, anyway.

Three.

2009-05-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

That is how many iPhones I've had since March of last year.

I got my first iPhone the day I landed my extra job working overtime shifts in rehab (which is where I work full-time now). It had its share of minor hardships, like the time something was setting the metal detector off at Walgreen's and the lady at the counter felt the need to make sure it wasn't my phone by sliding the back of the phone against the part of the counter that they slide DVDs on to deactivate the security whatevers. It was good and scraped up after that. There were also times when I would accidentally drop the phone and give it more scrapes and scratches. (Ahh, the original scratch-sensitive silver design.) Overall, it was a great and reliable phone, as iPhones are.

Then we went to Disney World. We were at Animal Kingdom one morning and decided to ride Expedition: Everest. It was a very fun ride. After we got off of the ride and went into the gift shop, I realized my phone was no longer in my pocket. I figured it must have slipped out as I was getting off of the ride and had remained in the seat. I went back to ask one of the employees, knowing that they would have it. They didn't.

Long story short, we figured out that it HAD slipped onto the seat and some guy from Philly had stolen it. We figured this out by looking at the phone's activity online and seeing that the genius had promptly used the phone to call his home phone number. We kept calling the phone but no one ever answered, and so we had the service turned off. Ryan spoke to the guy (via the guy's cell phone, which he had also called from my phone) multiple times and he had a different story every time (first he turned it in to an employee, then he turned it in to Lost & Found, etc) and got obviously antsy, but never came clean.

We accepted it. My first iPhone was gone. Ryan felt so bad for me that he got me another iPhone.

Then we went on a float trip. Now, the only times I had ever floated the river at that point were with my grandpa, who was and still is capable of pretty much anything I need him to be. I never had a reason to fear that anything would go wrong, like - Heaven forbid - our canoe tipping. After all, that only happened when mean people did it to others intentionally. So when Ryan and I were swiftly approaching a fallen tree in the Illinois River last summer, I assumed we'd bump off and be on our way.

WHOOSH. We and our belongings were completely submerged in two seconds. I had the breath knocked out of me and it took a few seconds to get my bearings. Every time I tried to surface, I hit my head on the bottom of the canoe. I knew I was going to drown. (I'm not exaggerating. This taught me what a "near-death experience" is. I 100% thought "Okay, this is how I die.") Obviously, I did not, in fact, die. I did get some nasty bruises and every orifice in my head was completely water-logged, but here I am.

I cannot say the same for iPhone #2.

Though that time it was my irresponsible decision to bring the phone along on the float trip (like I said, I was naive to the possibility of anything going wrong), Ryan again took pity on me. I have such a loving, patient, and forgiving husband. Along came #3.

By this time, the 3G had entered the world and was sold out in most stores. I had to wait awhile for mine to come in. But it did, and it's lasted me the longest out of all three by far. Again, occasional accidents occur; a drop here and there is pretty much inevitable.

Then, this evening, it happened.

My iPhone was in the front pocket of my jeans. It slipped out and slowly, gracefully, slid the short distance from its starting point onto the floor (I wasn't standing up). It landed face-down. I thought, "Dang it, I dropped it again...at least it was more of a slide this time," and picked it up.

This is what I saw.

As interested as I am in the physics of this, I am in mourning for my third dear iPhone. It still works, but as its glass shards are a threat to my nonbleedingness, it will have to be replaced. I've already, ridiculously, gotten an "iPhone splinter" in my thumb. A friend pointed out, "I hope it doesn't get glass in your ear....." Hmm, probably a good thing to NOT happen.

Who knows what the future holds? Hopefully not 483 more iPhones.

Two.

2009-05-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today, Ryan and I celebrated our two-year anniversary. We started out the day by having brunch at Mimi's, my favorite place to eat breakfast, which was Ryan's suggestion (bonus!). We had a great time just talking and enjoying being together. Look at the pretty flowers that were there! They were for us, I just know it.

Next we went to Barnes & Noble, our go-to "Whatcha wanna do?" spot. Afterward, we hunted down a sno-cone shack that had been recommended to us for their wedding cake sno-cones. We found it and were soooo glad we did. I had a wedding cake sno-cone, which was indeed delicious, and Ryan had a "Happy Camper" - pineapple, banana, and blue raspberry.

We came home and I relaxed for a little bit while Ryan spent some time editing the movie. (His goal is to have the assembly edit finished this week.) Next, we gave each other our anniversary present...

...We cleaned. We went through all three junk drawers in the kitchen (yes, THREE...I am ashamed) and got rid of everything we didn't need and organized the rest. Then we did the same thing with the entryway closet and the drawers in the coffee table. It's so nice to just purge all the junk from your life. (Oh, but there is SO MUCH more. A little bit at a time, though.) Happily, I was in that cleaning kind of mood today. I even vacuumed inside the drawers. Yes. I vacuumed....the drawers. (Yesterday I completely cleaned out and reorganized the pantry, inspired by this lady, whom I hope you read and if not, I hope you start! Tomorrow I'm on to the guest bedroom and hall closet, which is full of Halloween/Christmas decorations, board games, etc.)

After we finished cleaning, we went out to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. This isn't our very favorite place, nor does it have any particular sentimental meaning to us; we just felt like going there. (I don't like to plan on a specific place to go because if I'm not in the mood for it that day, it's not much fun. WOW I NEED TO STOP RAMBLING.)

We had a delicious dinner and shared a piece of key lime cheesecake for dessert. Then we came home and watched a movie we'd rented on TiVo.

It was a relaxed, low-key anniversary. It was JUST what we needed.

Happy anniversary, baby.
(Sorry I forgot my bouquet on the way back up the aisle.)

Whiskers on Kittens, Warm Woolen Mittens.

2009-05-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, I changed the words. Raindrops on roses don't do much for me and I could take or leave bright copper kettles.

Evidently, everybody who's anybody in the blog world occasionally posts about things they like. I love this idea - I think it's a really interesting way to get to know quirky things about people, and others' posts have alerted me to awesomeness that I didn't know existed. So, onto the bandwagon I jump.

Pineapple Orchid scent from Bath & Body works. It smells sooo good - the perfect combination of fresh citrus and lovely floral. The smell tells me that summer is coming. Besides, the candle is so pretty. I put some gnomes around it to make you smile.

So I collect gnomes. What of it? (Just kidding. These are from a gnome hunt that we put on for Gloria's birthday - but that's a different story.)

Vitamin mentha lip gloss, also from Bath & Body Works. (Honestly, I am NOT as obsessed with this store as the average female. I'm surprised that two things from there made it onto my list.) Josey introduced me to this in the dead of winter. The mint is tingly and so refreshing on your lips, and it even makes them sparkle - but not "I'm twelve years old" sparkle. Just enough. More of a shimmer, really.

They are also available tinted, but vampires such as I make any lip color look more shocking than it would look on a human being with pigment, so the tinted ones make me nervous.

The new dish towels I picked up from Crate & Barrel in Chicago. I have somewhat of a fixation with dish towels. I find that they are an inexpensive, easy way to help my kitchen look more festive. I have two stacks in my drawer: one holiday-themed stack and one just plain cute stack. Aren't they SO adorable? They make me want to gush with domesticity.

My Matryoshka doll measuring cups. I wish I'd thought of these! They make me smile. They are from Anthropologie. (Umm, can I PLEASE get one built in Utica Square? Tulsa people would go there. I promise.)

The nth wonder of the world: Sour Patch watermelons. Mmm, they are my favorite in all the land.

Last but not least, the word "peahen." What? I've always liked it. *Crickets*