hump day ramblings

Currently there is a mouse living in our house.

I personally think that mice are adorable. Our current house guest is one of those especially cute tiny gray voles, about the size of Beck's hand. Rockie is the first one to have set us off to the mouse in the first place when she went absolutely ballistic one night while I was home alone with the boys and gave me quite the fright! But my deductive reasoning over her frantic and seemingly random chase across the hardwood floor, which ended in her sitting in the corner sniffing at the base moldings, had my inner sherlock quickly concluding that she must have seen a little rodent scurry by. She has been acting terribly funny ever since her first sighting, constantly sniffing in the same corners with exciting anticipation. Sometimes she wakes me up in the middle of the night to do it! I imagine it's because in the quiet of the night she can hear the little guy scurrying around behind the sheet rock somewhere. Sometimes I'll even catch her still as a statue while lifting her front paw, and because she is not a hunting dog all I can think is perhaps she picked that move up from watching the fox and the hound. ;) Then Monday afternoon while the three of us stood in the kitchen putting away the groceries, Jace called out "MOUSE! I SAW A MOUSE!" and he told us all about how a tiny little gray mouse ran across the floor by the front door, so: suspicions confirmed.

Personally I think he is a charming little fellow and I enjoy the thought that we are giving him some shelter from this cold. But Dan is much more logical than I and he wants to be rid of the bugger. And poor Rockie is just waiting for her chance to really show us her stuff, the very essence of what boston's were bred for, which is hunting small rodents.

Anyway, in light of the season, I think I will call him Tiny Tim.

We had our first real snowfall in the valley on Monday night. The storm clouds scattered snow throughout the night and we woke to patchy little tufts covering the grass. I have really been working hard to embrace the weather and not complain because in the grand scheme of things, while children are dying from starvation every day and countless horrible things are happening all around the world and I have a large roof covering my bed at night, snow? what a very silly thing to complain about. I also feel that as I get older I welcome the cold much more affectionately than I once did. I find bundling in layers and wearing thick boots and watching my breath float in front of me while I take Rockie on her early morning walk is largely picturesque. When it's especially cold and I need some extra boost embracing this, I just pretend that I am Lucy Eleanor Moderatz in Chicago. It works the same way I got through MA school by pretending I was on the set of Grey's Anatomy. Also while playing Lucy in Chicago, I like to make sure my sweaters are at least two sizes too big and I purchase my winter coat and beanie from the boys department. Playing Lucy always gets me through the winter, while leaving me wanting only for a hot dog truck. (Really, why does cache valley not have a hot dog truck yet!?)

Dan harvested the garden over the weekend to prepare it for winter, so this week I have made another half a dozen jars of jalapeno jelly and freezer salsa. My last batch of jalapeno jelly threw quite the sucker punch because I used the red peppers and I didn't de-seed them first. Dan loves the kick, and I'd love to love the kick, only my taste buds aren't quite so seasoned as his and so all it does is to make me cry. This batch I used green jalapeno peppers and de-seeded first so, it has a much softer punch. Which is perfect in the compromise department: a batch for him, a batch for me! I like to toast an english muffin and then spread the jalapeno jelly until it really melts into the muffin. Although my first preference would always be to slather jalapeno jelly on a thick slice of dakota bread from great harvest. (Have you ever tried their dakota bread? Honey wheat bread topped with sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds, which makes me feel like I am some exotic bird while also it is truly is the best bread I have ever tasted.)

These past couple of months my hair regrowth has been constantly reminding me that I am in dire need of a root touch up, but my mind has always struggled to wrap itself around the one hundred dollars that I spend each time I have my hair colored. Anytime I spend a large sum of money I focus on what else I could have spent that money on. I could have bought ten shirts with that money! A new pair of running shoes! Christmas presents! We could have gone out to dinner as a family three times! You know. And anyway, this internal fight between needing my hair colored and not wanting to spend that amount of money ended like this: me standing in my bathroom during Beck's nap time on Saturday massaging Paul Freida precision color foam into my scalp and living on a prayer that my hair wouldn't turn orange. The result was a very natural strawberry blonde-like ombre and I do say that might be the best money I ever did spend considering it saved me like, eighty-seven bucks. Pheww.

There is magic in the air this time of year. Some days in life I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders while other days I feel so light and carefree that I worry my feet may leave the ground. Earlier today I saw a girl sitting on top of her car, swaying back and forth to the music playing from its speakers. I watched her inconspicuously for a moment while she swayed and drummed her fingers against her thighs, her eyes closed while she hummed softly. She emanated carefree and I wanted to be her.

This week life has been rather mundane, which is to be expected with the time change and the cold, but I'm always reminded to love where I am and who I am and what I have at any given time in life. I was thinking just the other day: if you live in a way that life is continually getting better, you are probably living right. Right? I feel sad for the people who look back on the past and wish themselves there, in another time when life was better. I think the secret might lie in making a life that continues to improve so much that you look back with fondness while being completely content with where you are.


I've possibly never loved November as much in my entire life as I do right now.

the pumpkin patch + thoughts on babyhood

this is likely not the first post you've seen about picking pumpkins, and likely won't be the last one either. in my defense, there truly is some magical element involved when you put little kids into an autumn scene filled with pumpkins and hay bales! i'm the crazy mom with a stupid smile pasted to her face, chasing her kids around with a camera all night long. because really there just aren't many things that compare with the kind of satisfaction i get while watching my kids experience blissful carefree happiness.

 fun facts:

jace is wearing one of dan's beanies and beck is wearing one of mine. big headed kids are how we do!

jace looks like he is fourteen years old these days.

jace found that tiny little pumpkin gourd and was soooo excited ("this one is so cute and little just like beck!") so he ran and handed it to little brother, who promptly threw it into the wheelbarrow. (jace also picked out a little white gourd for rockie, which was cute.)

dan picked out an amazingly authentic big warty orange and green pumpkin which is now on the front porch and all of the neighbor kids continue to remind us: "uhhhhh that's really ugly."

i took approximately one hundred pictures trying to get both of my boys on that hay bale and in not one of those pictures were they looking at the camera.

and then just for funsies, here is a side-by-side of Beck exactly one year ago and today: 

i know, right?! they grow so fast! can i go off on a tangent for a moment? ever since i looked at this picture of my baby b one year ago, my mind has been reeling with thoughts. and what is a blog for if not for getting my thoughts out?

i have loved watching this kid growing and changing. there's no question about it now, he isn't a baby anymore! he's all toddler. his personality is coming out in full force and it's so fun to watch beck becoming beck. i was so intent on soaking up that first year because i knew i would blink and he wouldn't be a baby anymore. i wanted to soak up baby everything as much as i possibly could because he is my last baby! and i had this worry that i might really miss babies. but now he's this sweet chunky funny happy personality-packed toddler who is becoming more and more independent by the minute, and i find that i'm quite satisfied.

i find that i'm very content with how well i soaked up babyhood while i had it in my life. i made it through two pregnancies! i survived morning sickness and stretch marks and engorged boobs! you DO NOT KNOW PAIN until you've experienced engorged boobs. i survived pushing big-headed large pounded babies out of my you-know-what, TWICE. that's two times more than anyone should have to go through ever, thankyouverymuch. i recovered from the broken tailbone and all of the stitches and scars after giving birth! i experienced breast feeding and bottle feeding both! i made it through months and months of not sleeping more than three hours at a time! we got past all of my crazy hormones and all of that crying and crying for no reason at all!

babyhood is so beautiful. if ever there was a need to swear, it would be to really emphasize that being a mother with an infant is so damn beautiful. it's the kind of beautiful that is so much that way because it's so damn hard. babyhood is only the most contradicting thing i have ever experienced in my entire life. because you're so full of love and happiness and so overwhelmed with joy, while also going through the hardest most overwhelming most exhausting times of your entire life, all at the very same time. It's this roller coaster of happy and hard. It's work, so much work, having a baby.

but never once did i think it wasn't worth it. babyhood with both of my boys was the most worth-it of anything i've ever experienced in my life. and now i find myself in a place where i don't have a baby anymore, where i blinked and he turned into a growing toddler, and i'm just so very happy with the babyhood that we had. i soaked it up just right, i think, just enough that i can feel happy with it while also feel happy to be done with it all at the same time.

babyhood was a fun time of life, and now i have a boy and a toddler and i find that we are living in this transitional stage of life because of it. we still have the baby overflow that a toddler brings, like upcoming potty training and big boy bed transitions, and i'll go ahead and make sure that i don't take any of it for granted because this is it. this is it.

james taylor once said the secret of life is enjoying the passage of time, and that has stuck with me hard because, TRUTH. i often find myself really trying so hard to enjoy all of this change and craziness and watching these boys turning into boys before my very eyes. good grief i love them.

but all of that from a post about the pumpkin patch! pheww.



happy monday friends!


xoxo

weeding through the clutter

In my old age (ha!) I find myself constantly searching out authenticity. It's practically my life's goal now, to surround myself as often as possible with the people and the things that make life feel genuinely authentic. It's always on my mind, like I'm having a sacred moment each and every time I encounter something that feels real.

It's also so obvious to me lately that my awareness of authenticity in this world is directly linked to my desire for simplicity. That simple and authentic go hand in hand like milk and cookies.

(And if you feel like you're having a daja vu moment, well it's because I talk about simplicity and authenticity often on this blog, should I apologize? It's just so much apart of my life lately, this search.)

Myself, I don't often find that staunch authenticity in places like church or facebook. I don't feel it in places where generally people toe the line, where they wear the same things and believe the same things and stay huddled together in their groups of like minded fellows. Those places, to me, feel more like a bubble of seclusion than a real human experience. And that's not to say that these places are bad mind you! Sometimes I find peace and love while sitting on a church bench. Sometimes I find an inspiring message or a cute picture of my friend's baby while scrolling through facebook.

But finding bona fide rawness is something else entirely. I find the search for this to be similar to my cupboard filled with coffee cups. My favorite coffee cups aren't brand new and they don't conform to an entire set purchased off the shelf at a department store. My favorite coffee cups are the ones with a story to tell. The clay mud-colored cup with patches of orange that Dan purchased secondhand years before I met him, where the top of the handle is worn thin from the weight of being held so many times. The dust colored ceramic cup with swirls of deep brown that we bought from a booth at a local summer art show, surrounded by like-minded and carefully crafted ceramic designs such as honey pots and giant cooking bowls and mugs of all shapes and sizes. The rusted tin cup that Dan's sister brought back from Russia. The mug with the autumn leaf designs that was given as a Christmas gift, so perfectly large and wide that it reminds me of a bread bowl while I cup it in my hands.

Like all of these mugs, I find intangible authenticity in places that have stories to tell. In places that are beautifully real and sometimes completely outside of my comfort zone. Like the tattoo parlor I stepped in, where the floor was checkered red and white and the walls lined in odd sized honest art, the air thick with some combination of notebook paper and faint cigarette smoke, and the skinny tattoo artist from new orleans tells stories about the landscape of his home city and the art of cooking real food. In solidarity at the top of a mountain, while watching the wind dance with the branches of the trees and listening to the river babbling at my feet, watching the world in slow motion from my perch. While sitting across the table from an elderly woman who I hardly know, whose dementia is turning her into someone she is not, but who cheerfully tells me all about her late husband and her children and her favorite grocery stores in town. While reading a book written so passionately and beautifully that it all but reaches in and touches my spirit while I read.

Lately, while discovering these moments of authenticity, I have been weeding through some clutter in my own life to create a more authentic space in my soul.

Such as.

I have been spending considerably less time wasted on my phone. I deleted my facebook app to rid myself of mindlessly scrolling through the newsfeed twenty times a day. I've pushed myself to choose to call people over texting them. I stopped checking my email and instagram first thing every morning.

I have been shopping at the thrift store. Oh the authenticity to be found at a thrift store! Since I discovered a quaint little thrift store downtown my life has changed for the better. I have collected some of the most lovely authentic things: worn-in chunky oversized sweaters, stacks of award winning books for thirty cents a piece, an old bread board, barely worn vintage adidas sneakers, a tin pot to hold coffee beans, rain boots for the boys, a pair of brown lace-up riding boots that make me look like katniss everdeen.When you buy something from a thrift store you get to carry on someone's story. You even get to make it up, if you'd like. I always wonder whose magical memories and mundane moments and massive life milestones were passed through with this in their possession.

Hands down the very best thing I have been working on to increase authenticity in my life is the art of listening. I'm naturally quite terrible at this, as I often find myself listening to respond. Thinking about the stories I can add to the story, or my thoughts on the matter at hand, instead of listening to just listen. Really focusing on what is being said and taking it all in. When I can remember to listen instead of talk, I am floored at the rawness that finds me. When I focus and listen to what is being said, I feel all of the feelings. It's one of the most wonderful traits and I'm truly so sad that it doesn't come naturally to me, like all of those perfect people who are born to listen. Aren't they lucky? I wish I were born to listen instead of talk. But if wishes were fishes, you know. I have instead this amazing ability to change and mold into who I desire to be, and so that's what I'm doing. I am trying to change my ways so that I can become the person who listens.

Anyhow, these little changes in my life have made worlds of difference. I am feeling so...free. It's lovely. This constant search of mine is always reminding me of how beautiful a thing life can really be.



xoxo

a week in the life video

I spent the majority of last week struggling internally with a bad attitude. I strongly believe that sometimes we need that internal struggle. It's as though these cynical and unenthusiastic parts of me show up to test the optimistic and hopeful parts of me, dead set on a mission to push around like a big bully. When I have these internal struggles I often think that I'm losing. I spend the week watching the fight happening and I almost always end up in bed feeling depressed and defeated because I am losing this fight! I can not win!

It takes a few days before I come to grips and realize that I haven't lost at all. The fight was brutal and blood was shed, my face is battered a bit, but I always end with this abrupt overwhelming instant after the exhaustion of the fight where suddenly it hits me. I have won!

And maybe won isn't the right word. I don't know that there is a winner, persae. I think the negative part of me that put up her dukes in the first place to start this godawful fight just kind of...gives up. She slinks away defeated and hides for a while, building up her strength until she will come back and try again. 

Late last night I had my moment of recognition. One final punch was thrown and then BAM, just like that my clarity and peace rose up inside of me, filling every crevice and niche I have with its wonderfully needed tranquil seclusion while the bully slid away to her cave, conquered for now.

I smiled softly and heard myself say, I did it.

Those kinds of weeks are hard, but the days after I have made it through that fight are some of my favorite days of all. The irony of the contradictions life gives is never lost on me, one of which being the learned notion that I am so much stronger for having fought my weaknesses.

Life is beautiful, isn't it?

Also last week was overall largely uneventful in activities really. Rock climbing, the cabin, park play dates and a rainy hike were the highlights of my week and so, I decided to try something different today. Something fun for posterity, you know, that kind of thing. Instead of gracing the blog with a collage of photos from our week, I made a video.

Enjoy! And happy monday friends! Get out there and get you some!


xoxo



// if you are viewing this on your phone, you can see the video here:


http://vid962.photobucket.com/albums/ae106/megscroft/AEEAC597-E1D5-479D-B61C-322636B52D2C.mp4

subconscious desires

I am a firm believer in living each season to its fullest.

Mind you, I haven't always been this way. Let's say I'm a newly firm believer in this. When I was younger I was more of a, is it tomorrow yet!? kind of girl, which I now feel was such an unknown tragedy to be this way. The wiser and more learned I become with each passing year, the more aware I am of how essential a thing it is to live in the present! And more importantly, to not take anything for granted while living in the present. I am focusing on really being where I am in life and loving all of the simple and beautiful things in the world. As it so turns out, the most simple things are, in very fact, the most beautiful things. And now isn't that something?

It's the thick of summertime right now so as per my firm belief, I am focusing on all of the things I love about this season. I'm loving how light it is in the early mornings and still long into the evenings, for example. That might be my very favorite thing about summertime at all! I love summer mornings. It's very hot in the summer, you know, so if I want to get in a good bike ride or a good run, I have to go very early. Running in the heat is just not my cup of tea and whatnot. But there is so much beauty to be had in those cool-aired, dimly lit early mornings while the sun is still ascending behind the mountains. The sky is always a perfect color of purple and blue, the world light enough for me to feel safe but dark enough for me to feel serene. It's quiet in the mornings, and I truly love that. (Peace is something hard to come by when you're a working mother of two rambunctious boys and so, mornings. I love them.) And in contrast, I love summer evenings. The kids out roaming the neighborhood together, jumping around from this house to that house, running through sprinklers and riding bikes and jumping on trampolines until bedtime. Eating dinner on the back patio and watching the sunset while inhaling a delicious concoction of citronella bug repellent and coconut sunscreen, all from a long summer day.

I also love the busy-ness of summertime. The weekend camping trips and the canyon dinners and the family reunions and the water slides and the fairs with their ferris wheels and cotton candy dreams and the rodeos with their greasy rodeo burgers the size of my face. It's all very nostalgic, summertime. It's short but so very sweet.

That being said, and now don't laugh in my face, but.

I did purchase two sweaters this week. Isn't that ridiculous? But I need you to know that tj maxx just received their first fall shipment and I'm a sucker for fall shipments. I'm a sucker for fall anything, including but not limited to: sweaters and cardigans. And this just in: wool socks. (I suppose that's how I know I'm aging.)

Also, You've Got Mail has been repeating itself on my tv in excessive amounts this week, which may not seem out of the ordinary but that it is, because typically I only watch You've Got Mail in really excessive amounts once autumn arrives. In fact, the essence of the movie in itself brings with it waves of nostalgia for corn mazes and late ripened garden tomatoes sliced into fresh pico de gallo and steaming hot potato soup while wrapped in a woven mexican blanket, the same way a familiar scent takes you back to your childhood. I associate meg ryan with fall the way I associate sandra bullock with christmas time.

And then this morning, and it happened so subtly in my head that I had to do a double take to even realize it had happened at all, I had quite the hankering for a pumpkin bagel from einsteins on the way to work. Just like that, as though I would walk into the store and demand a pumpkin bagel and, hey! why not add a shot of pumpkin spice to my coffee while you're at it! And they would have looked at me like I was insane. They would have said WOMAN IT'S JULY and I wouldn't have realized it at all until they yelled it in my face because of the silly, robotic, pumpkin flavored trance that I found myself in.

I'm still very happy with summertime while also, it would seem that my subconscious is slightly anxious for fall? I'm not sure what is happening in the universe to cause these cravings but I'm going to blame the random summer thunder storms that keep creeping in. I mean my goodness, just rub salt in my subliminal wounds, will you!?

Okay so, but, it's still July, I know. Got it. My freckles and my kayak are both very, very happy that it is summertime. And I'm with them, really, I am! While also, this heat! It's a beautiful thing, to live somewhere in which I am able to experience all four seasons so intensely. The heat of summer is always the one thing that pushes me to welcome the coolness of fall. And so on and so forth.

Look. This whole thing is just a ruse, a pep talk to myself. I really just came here to remind myself that I AM A FIRM BELIEVER in living in the season we are in! I needed to hear myself say that, so the new sweaters in my closet and these cool summer storms will stop enticing me to wish the days away, because I know from experience that October will be here soon enough! (It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a beautiful bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address!)

Breathe. There is no need to rush time. Time has a way of doing that all on it's own.



Also, really though, insanely cute cardigans at tj maxx right now GO GET YOU SOME AND THANK ME LATER.



Pointless and ridiculous blog post, over and out.

Life Lately

I'm superbly slacking in the blogging/taking pictures/editing pictures/writing department these days. But I'm superbly excelling in the living life department, and I suppose that's what it's all about anyway?

This month has been a tornado, and I'd like to not say it but you know that I have to... Where did this month go? Where?! Work has taken the majority of my time and energy this month. We have been making history and setting records as far as how busy our little office has become, and it's nothing but testing my multitasking and patience skill sets. I'm passing so far, but ask me again tomorrow, as I'm living day to day right now!

On top of which, we've had two of our three thanksgiving dinners already. A ridiculous amount of turkey and yams and, would you believe I haven't had any cranberry sauce yet? I'm very sad about that, in a "first world problems" kind of way.

And I'm going to make an "on top of which" sandwich here: On top of which, yesterday for our lovely friendsgiving, I cooked my first ever turkey! I truly am entering the world of adults. I was much too scared to try anything fancy, so I stuck with the bag method. I felt morbidly barbaric rubbing butter and seasonings over that cold bird while it's juices leaked into the foil pan beneath. In fact, there was about ten seconds in which I seriously contemplated becoming a vegetarian. I also had to put the turkey in the bag THREE times before I got it right (forgot the flour! Oops, it's upside down, the slits are on the wrong side!) but I did get it right eventually, and then I cooked the crap outta that turkey. The hubs had a learning experience of his own when he carved the turkey for the first time ever. (We both grew up so much this month!) He did a beautiful carving job. He's so particular, this man, and it really showed in his perfectly carved slices of perfectly cooked turkey, and his cleaning out every last chunk of meat from every last nook and cranny in that turkey. So much so, that the turkey was slightly cold by the time we served it. But the turkey looked beautiful and tasted buttery while not being dry, so we are counting this as a WIN.

And here is the bottom slice of bread in my "on top of which" sandwich: ON TOP OF WHICH, Dan and I were both down with a bad bout of sore throat and coughs recently. Which I suspect is in fact not a contagious virus, but rather a result of this quick onset of winter that was slapped in our faces. One day we are hiking through green pine-treed-trails in t-shirts and fifty degree sunshine, the next day we are waking up to seven degrees and a windchill that tastes like bitter coffee. Winter makes me stronger, this I know.

This month-or perhaps this year-I've really put a lot of effort into feeling. Just letting myself feel. Not fighting feeling. Does that make any sense? No, I suppose it doesn't. See, do you ever have a really crummy day and it turns you incredibly theatrical and the next thing you know, your pessimistic and slightly dramatic side of the brain is reminding you about how we are all going to die anyway and what's the point of life?! Or on the opposite end of the spectrum, have you ever had an amazingly beautiful moment and let yourself over think it so much that you all but ruined the moment anyhow? Over thinking and worrying are such silly, unnecessary evils. They are quite detrimental to the purpose of life in my opinion. So I've stopped. I've stopped over thinking and worrying. I've made peace with all of the good and all of the bad. I've soaked up every moment I can, letting things be the way that they are at that exact moment. Our feelings can rock our core, shape us into who we should be, teach us and lead us and make us grow. We shouldn't try to change them. Anyway, it's made quite the impact on me this month especially. It has been downright beautiful and liberating and I highly recommend it.

I have so many things to write about and so little time! Until next time, mah'fah'riendddss! And even though I've been failing at taking as many pictures as I might normally do, you can always count on me to still take too many pictures. It's just what I do. Here's a few to wrap this up!

If I'm not back before then, I hope you and yours have a wonderful thanksgiving surrounded by the people you love!

xoxo

Sometimes coming up with a title is harrdddd.

Look, I don't know about you but this week has been the longest! Long days at work, long days at home, long days of rain, and don't even get me started about that day it snowed! Holy moly. One minute I'm outside admiring our sprouting lettuce and peas in the garden, and the next minute our yard is covered in snow and I'm all, wtf?! Then today it's fifty degrees and I'll be darned if we don't live in the valley of pms weather, am I right? Good gravy.

So how would you feel about me telling you some random thoughts and recent happenings that are flying around in my head like witches on broomsticks? And how would you feel if I number them in no particular order and for absolutley no reason at all?

1. I've been living with headaches all week, and I started to be concerned that I am probably dying of cancer. As one does when their headaches increase tremendously in one weeks time. (Right? Or am I the only one who does this?) Well the good news is, I'm not dying of cancer (or that I know of, I'll keep you updated on that one). And the bad news is, apparently too much caffeine gives you headaches and migraines. Who knew? Good-bye, french vanilla cappucinos and caramel lattes. Hello headache free living! HIGH FIVE TO MYSELF.

2. I discovered lip STAIN, not to be confused with lip STICK, and I am in love. I've never been able to use lipstick because it doesn't last, not too mention it doesn't get along well with my dry lips. But stain? Beaut. Lasts all day. I'm going to get one in every color, I tell you! Reds and corals and nudes, oh my. It's making me even more anxious for summer! (But come on, what doesn't make me anxious for summer?)

3. My son can sing along to 'Thrift Shop'. Does this make me a bad mother? (don't answer that.)

4. Our nurse just got back from maternity leave, and she was soooo missed. Best day ever.

5. I get Jimmy Johns for lunch today, and, HELLO. I could eat there every dang day.

6. Speaking of which, have I mentioned how much I love my job? Free lunches on a regular basis? It's a cushy life I live.

7. The sun is shining today and guess whose fruit trees are planted? (Did that sound dirty to anyone else?) Yep, my husband is amazing. UH-MAZE-ING. The guy has put his heart and soul into our yard, and it's turning out to be a big ol' slice of chocolate cake, that's what! Beautiful and delicious. Now if it will just dry out long enough for the cherry on top, sprinklers and grass. Then we will be living the high life I tell you!

8. I could count the times I had a moment to breathe this week on one hand. And two of them (including this) I've used to blog. The other one I used to eat a lime-coconut cupcake.

9. My spell check isn't working on this blog post, so every big word I've written I've put in google to double check that I'm spelling it correctly.

10. Have I told you that we have a little old man on our hands? Mister J reads tractor magazines over breakfast, flipping through them while he munches on toast or cereal, and I'll be darned if it's not the funniest thing.

11. I'm obsessed with The Voice this season. USHER! How cute is he?! Holla! (ps. I just googled "URsher, and this is what comes up on urban dictionary: Ursher: what 'colored people' call singers named "Usher". Oh and it gets better, then it uses it in a sentence: Ursher got the voice to make yo' booty go *SLAP*!)

12. Um.

13. I'm getting my hair colored in three weeks, so I apologize in advance for the overload of blonde hair color pictures on pinterest. (I should really apologize for the pinterest everything overload everyday? No?)

Okay, 13 is enough. I could go on, but I better run. You were saved by a pressing staff meeting filled with Jimmy John sandwiches! PEACE OUT playa!

January and misery go hand in hand.

...dreaming of the beach... {via}

Does anyone else feel like this is the longest month of their entire life so far? It feels like we have been in the month of January for yeearrss now. Years, I say! I can't even hardly believe that it's not over yet.

It's no secret that I'm a fair weather girl. I complain every single winter, I'm very aware of that. And gosh, if there is one thing I hate it's a complainer! So here I am being nothing but a hypocrite. And also, I choose to live here don't I? So who am I, I ask you? Who am I?!

I know. Really, I do. But allsI'm sayin is, can this January please be done so we can all move on with our lives and remember what it's like to live in a warm, sunny world?! I swear to you, if I can make it to Spring I will never take that beautiful sun for granted ever again. I will be good, I swear it! Just PLEASE, for the LOVE, let January be over soon!

There, I've said my piece. I promise to try my hardest to think about not complaining anymore whilst I'm waiting for this god awful snow to melt, cooped up inside my house watching cars for the millionth time with a stir crazy toddler, being tortured on a treadmill and eating so much canned soup that my tongue is going to fall out.

Dramatic much?

And anyway, all I can say is thank the heavens for dr. pepper. Else, how would we make it through January's at all??

Things husband has taught me.

Look, I'm going to let go of my pride for a minute and let you in on something. And please, take note, because letting go of pride doesn't happen often where I stand. Since I met husband almost 4 years ago, I have learned a large deal more than I care to admit. New things every single day with this talented brain-iac around. Seriously. And all you feminists, don't get your panties in a twist-I'm not saying men are smarter and the only way we can learn new things is by getting a husband. But my guy, he's a real thinker this one. And he's nine years my elder, which means in nine years I will know as much as he knows RIGHT NOW. Does that blow your mind?? Yeah, me too.
ie: here are a few things I've learned since meeting my other half:

- - > how to 'pop the clutch' (in a car! you perv.)
- - > the right way to use a wet-dry vacuum
- - > why it's important to clean out the wet-dry vac after every use
- - > how to get up on a wakeboard
- - > how to flip an egg without ruining it
- - > how to use a level and measurements when hanging things
- - > put a dollop of sour cream in the bowl BEFORE pouring in the chili (try this!!!)
- - > the extreme importance of using a funnel for almost everything
- - > how to dive (I have the proof on camera)
- - > how to design an invitation in photoshop

...the list goes on and on. And really, most of the things I have learned are probably regarding cars. Good golly man, I had no clue about cars before I met husband. Oil changes every how many months? Wha??? I don't think I ever had the oil changed on a single car I owned since I was 16. Which explains why I went through so many cars.

Well okay, let's not keep dragging this out longer and longer. Let's go ahead and teach each other. Here's something I learned from husband that has come in reaaalll handy as of late.
And please, if you all already know this and want to laugh in my face for not ever knowing it before, can you just keep it to yourself? Because my self esteem is a pretty fragile little thing. Okay, thanks.
Let me draw a picture for you, and then take a picture of the drawing with a cruddy camera:




Don't be fooled by my lack of artistic ability. It looks like a truck, but it's supposed to be a car parked in a parking stall. And that parking stall is on a little bit of a slope. So do you know what I used to do? I would park there, get out, and lock the doors (if I was lucky). Done. But that's not how it should be done, don't you know! No, this is what you do...
You pull into said parking stall, and BEFORE (I repeat, BEFORE) you put the car in park, while your foot is still pressed on the brake, you pull up that handy dandy parking brake (which I never, ever used before), and then AFTER pulling the park brake, you put your car into park. Got it?
How easy was that? Well wait, we aren't quite done.
When it's time to leave, you first- put the car in reverse, then second- pull off the parking brake. AFTER putting it in reverse.
Make sense?
You will be amazed. And if you're not, your car will be. It will actually thank you. Seriously, this may seem boring until you put it into practice. You will see!

Are you just ecstatic that I'm teaching you as I'm learning new life lessons? You should be. Soon I will charge, in chocolate, for people to read the things my smarty pants husband is teaching me. And I will become not only smarter but also gloriously fat.

Stay tuned for another round of "what hausband has taught me" coming very soon. Because he usually blows my mind on a daily basis. (Again, don't be a perv!)

And guys, just so you know, sometimes...sometimes, guys...I teach him things too. I may be younger, and prettier, and he may be older and wiser...but sometimes there are things I know that he doesn't. Like, what "the clap" means. True story, I had to tell him once. And no, I don't have it. I just KNOW things.