I went to Narnia

and I have a picture to prove it



make-believe is SO not overrated...

i'm not dead... really

dear poor neglected blog,

I am so very sorry to have left you alone for so long...

It's not that I don't love you... I'm actually not entirely sure why I haven't used you in over two weeks. I've never done that before...

All I can think is that it's this dang weather that's been keeping me down. When I'm going, I'm going hard! It took me a few months to come off the high of running around so much all the time... and when I got a break, I seriously TOOK A BREAK. lol

So, a few things that I've been doing the last couple weeks:

- taking naps (about 3 times a week)
- getting photoshop cs3 on my computer once and for all
- working on taking pictures for my church's new website and putting them up (once they go live i'll share the link! the site rocks!)
- started running (i'll post more about that later)
- realized that when my dress comes in for melissa's wedding that i WILL NOT fit into it. remember when I said i had probably gained back the 10 or so pounds i lost over the fall... well i did indeed gain it back. plus 3 pounds. yep, that's right. it's going away now.
- went to the Revolution Retreat at my church and have been totally wrecked
- had issues with my small group (cadre) but am now seeing how faithful God is to work it OUT!
- worked out what jewelry the bridal party will be wearing at melissa's wedding (i will post pics when i get it this week, I cannot wait... but I guess i'll have to...)
- got WAY better at tetris... i will soon be the queen
- have become eternally disgusted with snails (more about that later)

Wow, I have just come up with at least 5 topics for new posts.

Oh! and one last thing that I did that i am really excited about, but you will probably think is lame is that I figured out how to reduce noise in a picture! My new camera is super amazing, but sometimes I still have to bump the ISO to 1600 or higher and it's hard to get that real clean creamy quality going on. One day I was thinking, I know there has to be a way to reduce noise in a picture, so I googled free noise reduction photoshop action, and after trying a couple found one that is actually really good! I know, I'm seriously awesome... or seriously lame, lol!

until next time though, here is a pic i took a couple weeks ago before all the snow melted.



and another...



I have more from this series, I should probably post them since they're already uploaded and everything... ok, make that SIX posts in the works now! :)

can the doggies come out and play?

Today was one of the most beautiful days we've had in a long time. It was sunny and above freezing most of the day.

We went outside to play and I busted out my camera to remember this. In past february's I remember getting some pretty amazing weather. There have been many a february where it has gotten up in the high 60's to sometimes even *gasp* the seventies!

But for today, we still have snow. However, the sun made me feel so good that I actually started hoeing (pronounced HO-ING) out my car... the entire winter's worth of garbage... the actual scrub-down will have to wait for the next sunny day.

This picture is not entirely unrelated to this post... but mostly I just wanted to post it cuz it's so cool. At least I think so.



The pups wanted to come out and run around, and holy smokes, they may have almost jumped the fence.

I have been dying to find an application for this action too. It's one of the pioneer womans actions called "seventies". ugh, now that I've shamelessly plugged her, I suppose it would be polite of me to go find her site and link you up right? You should all go and check it out, ps actions will change your life... only if you let them.

That's all I have for now! (not true actually, but i'm saving the rest for later) so I'm out!

snow day

how perfect is it that 3 days before Christmas there would be a snow day? It would actually be even better if it was tomorrow! Then Christmas vacation would start just that much sooner ;)

The house got very quiet, and I wondered what in the world they could be doing so quietly...

So i ventured upstairs to find out...


this is what i found :)

and no, Claudia is not sick contrary to the way it may look. She wanted to "look sick" for the picture. I think she did a pretty good job LOL!

And this was obviously taken with my cell phone haha. I love the ethereal glow coming from the right side of the picture...

the first snow

We got our first real snow this morning. I'll tell ya what, we have the craziest weather here! Just last week it was totally warm and all around beautiful.

Usually after the fall leaves all come down, we just have cold, cold and colder until Christmas where we are met with a lovely shade of brown on the ground. The combination of unraked dead leaves, dying grass and mud.

But this year, it snowed in October!

I realized something (again) when I came in to work this morning. Things are more exciting when you're still a kid. All of the kids were excited about the snow. I was just moaning about how I had to clean it off my car ;)

But seriously, it's really cool to be reminded of how we once saw things as children. Even when I'm old, I hope I can have kids around on a regular basis so I won't forget to be like one. I don't want to grow up!!!


Post from one year ago (yesterday) I HAD to post this anyways, because it's huuularious. At least I think so ;): stalk me

Wordless Wednesday with a Twist - part 2

It's that time again. Today's theme is "where you live." I was wondering how in the world i was going to get out and take these pictures... since it is disgustingly cold. and I know that the rules said we could use old pics... but i really didn't have anything worthwhile. So on my way home from work one late afternoon, I couldn't help but notice how perfect the light and the sun were. A rarity around here I try to take advantage of! So off i went and took a very cold walk around the village and this is what i came up with.

After you take a look at where I live, head on over to Rachel's site and check out everyone else's.

i wish

that i had some pictures to post. But since I don't, I am going to write about the things that make me feel good. And since I don't feel really good right now, it will be easy to come up with a list of things that do :)


The very top of the list will be...

Days like today. When I walk out of the house, and the sun is completely up... and i didn't wear a jacket (just a stolen sweatshirt from my brother), i could hear the birdies, and although there is snow on the ground, it's just warm enough that it's starting to melt promising more days to come like this one.

Afternoons and coffee spoons, one of the songs on my playlist right now. I looked up the lyrics, and they don't make a whole lotta sense, but i like the melody. it makes me feel better... and i think it's about being sick haha!

Scrapbooking. I got all my stuff out today and did 2 whole pages! I guess if i had my camera, that's something I could post... but i don't!

the color green.

the color pink.

the color green and pink together.

flowers that are green and pink.

Flowers. Especially when they are popping through the soil in the spring. It's just the beginning of my love affair with them though. the few months of winter where they are scarce are what make them such a treat when they come back!

I love laying in the grass in the summer. Especially this last summer with the kids. We would take a blanket out in the yard and the girls and I would lay on it and read... or just talk. I love that.

Reading a good book.

When the sun is shining like it is today, I make sure to go out on the porch for a few minutes and ingest some vitamin D. It does the body... and the soul good.


There's a lot more I could come up with, but those are top on the list right now. What are some of the things that make you feel better?

sooo bored

today is sunny, but ridiculously cold. At the beginning of the winter I was more than happy for any excuse to leave the house... but now, the cold just makes me want to stay inside and keep warm... or at least try to. I haven't even gone to storytime at the library for like a month now. And i don't have money to waste, so going shopping is out of the question.

Last week the girls had off from school... so on tuesday morning we made a "schedule of events."

> Monday they went with their parents to Chuck E Cheese and out to dinner.
> Tuesday we went bowling and to their favorite McDonald's.
> Wednesday we went sledding and got hot chocho after.
> Thursday we went to Adventure landing... which is a child's dream come true, and an adult's worst nightmare.
>Friday they were so pooped from the week's activities we just stayed home and did crafts and stuff.

I think it was tuesday this week when the sun was out and it was actually half way to warm. meaning like 45 degrees! Anyways, it was so great, i let the kids go out and play even though all the homework wasn't done. When you get to this point in the winter, you just have to let go sometimes, right?!

Anyways, i'm longing for spring. I have realized that I haven't been reading nearly as much... acutally not at all... for the last few months. And i came to the conclusion that that is because i am not outside at all! This past summer I can't even count how many times i would go outside book in hand and sit in a chair in the middle of the yard reading... or laying in the grass. It sounds so idealistic i know, that's the only reason i did it ;) it's so much fun!

sledding on saturday!

This last saturday, we had a sledding party at mendon ponds... suicide hill style! I forgot to get a picture of the sign that says "snowboarding, skiing and sledding prohibited." HAHAHA! Good one! Anyways, there were about 20 people give or take that actually came and we had a blast.

We went down the hill with three sled trains, and this was the best of the three. the first one my bottom came off of the sled i was on and i was dragged down the hill bare bottom... yah, it was cold. This was the second one we made...

My two bestest friends were there, Melissa and Alicia! Unfortunately, there aren't any pictures of melissa because she was the awesome one who took all of them! She really did an amazing job... score for stupid hands???

By the time we left, I was pretty much wet through both pairs of the pants I was wearing. Mostly because of the one ride down the hill with no sled barrier.

This was the third and last train we attempted. It started out as a "U" shape for who knows what reason... and then proceeded to completely reverse and while we went down for a little ways, the whole thing came apart and we crashed all over eachother. Wow, this sounds like so much fun when i describe it like that *sarcasm*

After about an hour and a half, we'd had enough, so we left to go in search of some hot chocho... among other things. There were five of us altogether. Alicia, Dave, Christa, Josh and myself. Alicia, christa and i changed into dry clothes and then we headed up to the city in search of Java's. None of us really knew how to get there, so with the limited experience I have driving in downtown, we were just going around in circles. But thanks to melissa, we found it and then had the yummiest hot chocho ever!

while we were at java's we decided that it would be fun to go to a movie... unfortunately, at the dollar theatre, nothing that everyone wanted to see was actually playing. PS I Love You was actually playing which is indeed one of the BEST MOVIES EVER... but stupid boys can be party poopers ya know? (disclaimer for any boys who might read this *i love them anyways*) We ended up settling on Vantage Point which was definitely a "boy" movie, but i liked it anyhow. It did however, lack plot in the beginning... whatever.

we had an awesome time and i can't wait to do it again!!!

ice... snow... and SUN

This is a follow up from yesterday's post. Yesterday was one of the low points for me in the winter season. It's inevitable and happens every year... but i forget so easily how quickly it can be done away with.

I'll start at the beginning of the day, and you will see the progression.

Woke up. Felt adequately rested, but at the same time had the desire to spend the ENTIRE day/year in bed.

Brushed my teeth, washed my face and exited my room ready to leave for the day with 10 minutes to spare. I sat down to check my email, then moved to the kitchen to take my daily supply of vitamin C and finish the orange juice straight out of the jug. As i took the last swallow, I realized that as I had not de-iced my car the night before and/or taken any precautionary measures to ensure that it would not be *encased* in ice this morning, my 10 extra minutes turned into -5 minutes instantly.

Walked outside, started the car... my pants got wet as the seat had not dried yet from it getting soaked yesterday. Began to chip away at the ice. The chipping soon turned into literal hacking. I was hitting the windows of my car with that blasted ice scraper and nothing was coming off.

15 minutes later. The windshield and the two front windows as well as the rear window had been sufficiently de-iced. made it to work in one piece.

All of this hacking and stressing about ice made me *momentarily* forget about the headache that has been nagging me for 3 days now. It started out like a migraine on tuesday and after medicating, felt MUCH better... but has been persisting with a dull ache in the back of my neck and head.

I began to think of anything that might work as a heat source to put on it, since nothing else felt like it was going to work... and after realizing that there was nothing usable, i decided to head back to my house for a corn sack.

I packed up some things for A and me and we climbed into the car at approximately 7:59am. Once home, I put in Daddy Day Camp and secured my neck with extreme heat from the corn sacks. By about 9am, my head began to feel significantly better. I then decided at about 10am after a conversation about washing hair on the Chinese new year that i did indeed need to wash my hair.

That was the turning point, no doubt. I could barely feel my headache anymore, and I realized that the SUN WAS SHINING!

I feel so energized it's ridiculous. I even wanted to clean! I could honestly make a list right now of all the things i want to do because i feel so good! But what i DID do was take a few pictures.

the snow is a welcome alternative to ICE.


And this face is a welcome alternative to staying in bed :)

winter favorites

i've read a few blogs lately that are a list of "favorites." at first, i really didn't want to do it, since it'd been done, and redone... but i have been thinking lately about the things I love about the different seasons. So i decided to list out the things that i actually DO like about winter.

There are just so many days when the sun doesn't shine here that it is hard for me to think of the things that i love. But when i think about the things that make me feel warm, i start to remember what they are...



my kitty cat sleeping next to my face because it's warmer there :)

going to sleep in a nest of blankets and pillows (honestly, I would do this year round, however, it is just too warm in the summer to make that comfortable)

putting on my slippers in the morning (it helps make getting out of bed a little more bearable)

hot chocolate with coffee flavor (notice this is not coffee with chocolate flavor... i'm talking mocha EXTREME)

getting into a hott shower in the morning and finally shaking off all the cold from getting up

sitting in front of the fireplace doing varying activities... such as reading, watching tv or scrapbooking

Notice, most of these have to do with sleep, bed, resting or waking up. Winter is truly a time to hibernate for me. I am extremely reflective year round, but i hold a certain fondness for the season of winter... it seems like I have to try harder to be happy so it helps me to see the beauty all around me. I love when it snows new and all the dirty snow gets covered up and all you can see is white... yah I like that too :)

a midnight snow adventure

Last night on my way home from the outbreak party, i was feeling very nostalgic and was feeling the need to do something excessively wintery. So when i walked in the door at 11:55pm and alicia was still up, i decided that we were going on a midnight snow adventure. it was so much fun!!! so here are some pictures of what we did

pre-adventure pic... post snow clothes (must stay warm)

a nice snowy Christmas to frame with :)

eating snow is a must (i really did eat it)

beeyooteefull christmas lights surrounded by snow in the trees across the street :)


lights in one of the store windows on genesee st

i definitely leaned against this lamp post and my head got stuck to it. like hardcore stuck i couldn't get it off unless i ripped out some hair with it... which is what ended up happening :( but it wasn't too much hair

alicia passed out on the circle as cars drove by... ha more like one car driving by at midnight lol!

i got pantsed!