The Christmas Present 2010

I love my husband for so many reasons. One of them is for his gift-giving abilities. He has a knack for picking out very thoughtful, yet useful gifts.

On my birthday, and the day we started dating, he brought me an 8 gig memory card. I ran the gamut of a few emotions and thoughts before settling on the fact that had not been lost on me.

The last thing I expected was a gift (since we actually didn't cross the "will you go out with me" phase til later that evening). I sincerely did not expect anything. But he knew better than me, and apparently knew I needed a new card... which I have been so thankful for on so many occasions. He sees things like that, that I just don't see.

Last year on Valentine's Day he bought me an air popper for popcorn. Again, I cocked my head to one side and said, "thank you???" In my head only of course! But don't you know I love that air popper! I use it all the time. To me, a thoughtful gift that will be used, and something I wouldn't think to buy myself is a good one.

I wish I had the same gift-giving ability he has! Thankfully, he hasn't bought me a toilet brush or something like that :P But you see, that isn't really thoughtful, so why would that even cross his mind? Exactly... :)

At any rate, we both had a hard time at Christmas this year. I felt like married Christmas was different than engaged Christmas... now all our money is the same... so we had to speak with each other on what we could afford/we felt was appropriate. And to justify what he wanted to get me, he ended up telling me ahead of time so that we could make sure it fit in our financial status.

And oh did it ;)



The one on the left there. Yep, that's what he got me! A lovely match to my other monitor, 3 inches smaller, but such an awesome addition!

I thought it was excessive at first, but I have come to just love having the two monitors side by side. Instead of tabbing all over the place I can keep so much more open (much the the chagrin of my hard drive) But I really like having internet on one side, photoshop on the other... etc. It's so convenient :)

Anyways, here's the a great Christmas present! And as an aside, because my office was so messy and full of boxes, it took me like 6 weeks to be able to set it up. The two of us set out to clean this office/guest room a couple weeks ago, and now I have pictures to show! But that will be tomorrow ;)

3 vases

I am making it a sort of "thing" that when I get flowers I separate them up and place them in numerous vases... sharing the love around my house :) Well, actually stil my apartment... but soon a house. In fact, we are in the process of buying a house :) Yes, yes we are!

So after Valentine's Day was over, and I was done tossing cookies, I set to separating my beautiful flowers and displaying them in the 3 small vases I have in the bathroom... previously seen here.


The bathroom is the one room in my apartment that I am thoroughly happy in. That sounds really twisted, but it's the one room I felt like I could decorate and be very very satisfied with :) I'll have to post pictures of this in full soon to add to my touring posts.


Spider mums are still one of my faves... next to peonies :)


Ahh, I can't wait for spring!

the real V day

I'm a sappy romantic... but I'm more of a realist than anything. So it would figure that my Valentine's Day would end up the way it did ;)

We had already planned to be apart for the day. We went to dinner on Sunday together instead of Monday, and then when I got home Monday night we were going to exchange our cards and such :) However, I ended up coming home early as I began feeling sick mid-afternoon. Turned out, so did Steve.

So there we were, both home, together, on Valentine's Day. Feeling rotten as heck. He brought me flowers, but was apologetic as he couldn't stand being out to hunt for something better on his way home trying to hold it together. I don't blame him, because he felt like I did, and I would have skipped the flowers altogether had it been me...

We alternately made trips to the bathroom, landing back in bed looking over at eachother with a sorrowful pity knowing the other felt just as crappy.

Middle of the night we both finally had the end of it. I am pretty sure it was food poisoning... from our dinner the day before ;)

But what is love if it's not real. I don't need a beach in the tropics to fall in love with my man... I just need to know his heart is mine... and that he so kindly shares the bathroom with me ;)

LOVE

Past Valentine's Days have been filled with hearts and cutesie lovely things. Cookies and pictures, friends and fun. I've spent 1 Valentine's Day with the love of my life and this year is the second and most importantly, our first married Valentine's Day :)

In May 2010 I married the kindest and most loving and sincere man I've ever met. Sometimes I doubt his sincerity, only because of ways I've been jaded by social media's version of love... but in ways I don't expect, he shows me over and over how blessed I am. Truly one of a kind, I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true.

Happy Valentine's Day Love, I'm forever yours :)

4 birthdays in 2 days

Almost immediately after hitting "publish" on my last post I regretted it. I thought how I was going to be sad about something later or whatever and punched myself emotionally for being too "pollyanna-ish." But you know what? At that time, I was really that happy. It's nice to know sometimes when you're feeling down that there are still bright spots. Even in the middle of February.

But on to the main topic :)

January is a birthday laden month in our family. Normally, I post separate birthday posts for each kid and my mom... but this year I didn't remember... so then I just didn't. A bunch of us went to Maryland for these 4 birthdays all within about a week of eachother. What's funny is that there are 4 birthdays, but only 2 birthDATES. One of those dates happen to be shared because Robbie and Raelynn are twins, but the other date is shared by my mom and my youngest nephew Nick.

While down there I was able to visit with some friends who recently relocated from here to Alexandria. That was really great :) It kinda sucks when you realize just how much you missed someone after they're already gone... But at least I have lots of reasons to visit :)

Nick had a pool party for his birthday on Saturday... I was so sad to miss it and not have to put on my bathing suit at the end of January... thank you Amy and Brian for that lovely excuse! But I made it home just in time for cake ;)







And as if 1 cake in a day wasn't enough, later that evening we celebrated Mom's birthday with another one.



I was ready to take this picture of my mom with her cake... til they turned every light off in the room and it was already after dark... :( And then it was all right there and I scrambled to try and fix settings and I had no time to get a flash... so it is what it is!

I have a wonderful family and we all had a wonderful time together this weekend :)

happy happy happy

Today I am finding myself very thankful. Though the weather is yuck-o and the wind is whipping about so crazily, I am feeling so happy and blessed. I have so much to be thankful for!

For example, sometimes I get down on myself for not being more of a "go-getter." I feel lazy and stagnant and then get depressed about it. I am frustrated that I don't do more photography (professionally at least) in the winter time. I tell myself that if I really was serious about running a business I would be more proactive about it. But you see, when I sit back and take in what I have, I realize I am so happy with my business! I have just the right amount of work and I feel that the people who come to me are really special. Not in a stalker type way, but in a way that makes me feel as though I can really connect with each individual to make their pictures special.

It truly amazes me when I look back at the wedding couples I have had the last 2 years. And to look at the couples I am working with for this coming year. As I met with previous clients this past fall and winter to finalize things from their weddings, I realized how blessed I am with such amazing people... people I would never know if it weren't for my business. Honestly, sometimes I feel my life is made so much richer by new people that I would go back and start this business all over again just to meet these people!

Other reasons I am thankful:

this beautiful baby boy I get to play with most of my week :)

my very loving husband who is not just loving but truly kind and the truest friend I have :)

friends to hang out with on snow days :)

I'm just in an extraordinarily good mood today and I thought I would share! When I'm really down in a couple weeks I'll have to come back and remind myself of this ;)

breakin the streak

It was August of '08 that I went blonde. Like totally blonde. I've been so happy with it, never stayed with a color that long! But I got bored this time and asked my stylist to do something different. Maybe some red, but I didn't want to look like an ad for McDonald's. And this is what she came up with...



I quite like it :) But I may switch back to blonde with just red bangs or somethin next time!

touring the apartment (living room edition)

Moving right along with the apartment touring, today you get to see the living room. If you've missed any of it you can catch up here and here.

So here it is. I realized that this first picture is hard to tell what it is on the left side, but it's a dyptic showing my beloved shoe shelf that Steve mounted for me. Mounting things in this apartment is scary, because the walls are plaster. If you have plaster walls you know what I'm talking about... if you don't, you're lucky!

There are pictures hung on the wall in here, and with the exception of the bw collage everything you see hung is only there because there was already a nail and I needed to place to put frames because there was nowhere better to store them!


That random half wall behind the couch is actually a staircase leading to the downstairs apartment. It's also the "catch-all" here. Which I hate. But I am 50% of the problem so I can't complain much ;)




This is the bw collage I was referring to. I actually put nails in for that. Which I have to say, I'm not happy with the arrangement... but again, I needed somewhere besides a box for all my frames. They are sad when they have to stay in boxes :(


Anyways, there you have it. Next up is the bathroom. Much like the bathroom in my old apartment, I am quite taken with this one as well, I really love the way it looks :)

busy

Before Christmas, I was busy. Now, after Christmas, I'm still busy. Surprise surprise!

But it's not the same kind of busy. Thankfully this current time of busy is more manageable. When I get busy I usually throw cleaning to the wind. Not because I enjoy living with messes, but simply because, you guessed it, I'm too busy to care!

Truthfully though, my life is not so crazy and hectic and busy as I make it sound, but I do manage to get through each and every hour of every day wishing I had more time!

Today I've been home alone since 8am. I told myself all day yesterday that today I would cleeeeaaannnn. But wait a second, American Idol recorded last night... I had no intention of watching it this year, but it saved my record settings from last season... and since it was there, I had to watch! Long about 10 o'clock I decided enough was enough and if I didn't start now, the whole day would be down the drain.

So I set the timer for 1 hour. And I resolved to not check my email, facebook, phone, anything for sixty minutes. And it worked! I got a ton done! It was so inspirational, I set the timer for another half hour and kept going.

And then since I had done the stuff I don't like so much, I decided to make some granola (because baking I don't consider housework or even work at all. I love to bake... and I love sending it to work with Steve for his co-workers ;) Well, the granola was a big fat flop. Really gross in my opinion. I had never made it before and I'm pretty disappointed. I did learn one thing about making granola though... the flag batch should probably not be enough to feed 10 small children for a year.

I have a lot of gross granola in my house now.

Depressing as that was I decided to make banana muffins. Which are in fact, something I make regularly. I am a banana snob. I love them, but only before they turn all the way yellow. Once they're all yellow I'm just like blech. So they get made into muffins!


Oh! And I took a picture of it. See how my day just flies by when I'm so busy ;)

adoption is the new pregnant

To share all my feelings about adoption in this post would be more than this blog could hold! To say it succinctly, I have a huge heart for adoption. I sincerely hope that one day we can adopt children, regardless of whether we have biological as well!

This post is not about my heart for adoption however, I want to share with you about a friend of mine who is in the process of adopting their second child. They had 2 little girls before they adopted their son and since have had one more daughter. The road to adoption is long, difficult and expensive. But so rewarding. By supporting adoption, we support the pro-life movement and foster the spirit of adoption we've been given by God.



So this is Lara, and she is wearing one of the shirt dresses they are selling to fund this second adoption. There are also T-shirts, and kids T-shirts. The Etsy store where they're all available is right here, and her kids are the models :) They also happen to be the silhouettes on the shirts! Underneath it reads "adoption is the new pregnant." And when you purchase a shirt, it comes in a tote bag that also says "adoption is the new pregnant."

Her blog talks more about their life and I personally find her sarcastic sense of humor hilarious. It would be so awesome if anyone wanted to repost this in hopes that more people will see and help support them :)