The One with a Teensy Bit of Foodie Joy

In my almost daily perusal of Tasty Kitchen's website, I was shocked to see this on their main page--



eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!! I haven't been so thrilled in who knows how long!

Yep, that's right. I guess my little ol' waffle recipe has been climbing its way to the top of the Tasty Kitchen recipe collection. I couldn't believe my eyes! I literally burst out in excited exclamations when I saw it. I have seen that list of the top five "popular recipes" for months now. The honey oatmeal bread recipe has been on the list forever (I should try the recipe, right?) so to be joining it's ranks is a HUGE honor.

Can I just say eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! one more time?!

The One with the First Crochet Project

When Kevin's family visited us in October, Mom helped me correct my crochet styles and helped give me confidence to read a pattern. I have been "crocheting" for years, since freshman year of college when every girl on my floor was yarning it up during movies and slow Saturdays. But I never made anything other than scarves. No patter required. 

With my good friend, Debbie, preparing for the December birth of her firstborn daughter, I decided now was the time to get past my fear. Armed with a pattern and a crochet hook, I headed to the craft store to find the perfect yarn. This was a much more daunting feat than anticipated. There was aisle after aisle of colors and textures. The options seemed endless. I finally chose this lovely Silver Gray. I thought it suited Debbie's taste perfectly. Hopefully I was right. :) 

I flew through 8 skeins of yarn like nobody's business and ended up with a pretty lovely baby afghan. (Thanks to Mom E. for photographing the completed project--because I forgot--and for hand delivering the gift--because I live a couple hundred miles away.)

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The One with a Little Thing

We've had a long, busy, tiring weekend. I'm going to bed now. 

But can I just say that when I got back from worship practice tonight, I found my husband had done all the dishes. 

He rocks. 

Oh, and last night, I got home from our church's family movie night and another worship practice for a different purpose, and I found this message on my Skype-- 

you are beautiful and I love you. 

The One with the Epic Trip to My Parents'

This year was one of the most relaxed Thanksgivings of all time. At least the Thanksgiving day was relaxing. We started our holiday at 7am Wednesday morning. With the car loaded with pies and bags of who knows what, we hit the road. I drove the first 4 hours while Kevin read his library book on his iPad (yay, Kindle app) which was due back that day. Good thing he can read a million words a minute. 

I occupied my time with a book-on-mp3--Pride and Prejudice. It was entertaining to laugh out loud and have Kevin not have any clue what I was busting up about. We drove past my parents' exit from the freeway as we were making the drive all the way to Michigan. At 11:20 (yes, I'm precise) we pulled off at a Pizza Hut, because my husband has a thing for their lunch buffets. We almost died when a telephone pole jumped out in front of me in the middle of the parking lot. Seriously. It would have done irreparable damage. (I blame Kevin for distracting me with the Chinese restaurant.) 

We ate our delicious lunch and Kevin took over driving. (He definitely didn't want me behind the wheel anymore.) At this point, I became a Chatty Cathy and talked Kevin's ear off. Poor guy. Just before our exit in Michigan, a semi truck nearly killed us when he pulled into our lane without seeing us. sheesh. Thanks to my husband's reflexes and the lack of cars behind us, we survived.

From the freeway, we headed to our former hometown's downtown to meet Josh & Amanda and take their engagement pictures. What a blast! (I already talked on and on about this experience here.)

After the photo session, Kevin and I began receiving text after text from our former youth group students who were eagerly awaiting our arrival in the mall food court. We thought it'd be the perfect place to meet up and hang out for a couple hours without getting in trouble or having to spend money. It worked! Four of the girls almost tackled us to the ground and just about blew our eardrums out with their shrieking. aww. :)











We had a fantastic time with those teens, but our time together quickly ended as we were meeting Kevin's family for dinner. We were so thankful the three of them were willing to make the long-ish drive to the restaurant to spend a little bit of time together for the Thanksgiving holiday. As per usual, we had a wonderful time together. (I even brought a pie for dessert. :D)

We could have stayed and talked for a few more hours, but we needed to get back on the road. We still had a three hour drive ahead of us. *whew* Preparing ourselves for the remaining 3 hour leg of our 18 hour trip to my parents' home. Longest. Trip. Ever. But worth it.

AT 11:30pm we rolled into my parents' driveway after having almost died a third time. An 8 point-ish buck ran out in front of our car and stood dead still in our lane as we were driving 65 mph. Kevin slammed on the brakes and I nearly screamed. When I looked up, though, I couldn't see what he was stopping for. The dear was nearly invisible. SO THANKFUL Kevin saw the glint in that buck's eye. *whew*.

The remainder of our holiday was much less eventful, filled with good food, lazy mornings, and fun conversation (oh yeah, a few technology lessons for the parentals. You'll get it eventually, mom :D)

Oh, and check out the beautiful table that my mom set for the big meal--she even folded the napkins all fancy style with the tips she learned from her napkin folding class on their cruise. Yep, she took a napkin folding class. Pretty cool, right? Those fancy-pants napkins really do make the table look a million times more awesome.

 

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The One with Engagement Photos

The start of our Thanksgiving break included our very first solo photography gig (my first gig ever was Elise's wedding, remember?). Our good friends, Josh & Amanda, called us a few weeks ago with a request to take their engagement pictures. We were totally honored (not to mention super thrilled) to oblige. The honest truth is we are novices. Kevin has a great natural talent for photo editing, and I like to think I have a creative photographer's perspective that needs to be honed. The two of us discussed our plan for the shoot. I would take the pictures, do the posing. He would pick out backgrounds and photo ops, be an extra set of hands, and help keep our subjects comfortable and at ease.  

We made a great team, I think! Amanda kept saying, "I feel like this is going so great. I'm so excited about the shots you're getting." And Josh went from feeling a bit tense and uncomfortable having his picture taking (like most guys do), to laughing and relaxing and having a great good time. Win-Win. 

Eager to get home to our Photoshop-equipped computers, we jumped at chance to pick through the 300 plus photos and perfect the winners. I can't wait to share a handful of them with you RIGHT NOW.  

{josh & amanda. november 2011}

I learned a lot through this photo shoot experience. 

1) I LOVE photography. I love working with the subjects, posing them, finding the perfect angle. 

2) I needed to up my shutter speed. It's so depressing to find out that some of the most beautifully framed photos are blurry. 

3) Posing subjects is way harder than it looks. Mostly because it takes a whole lot of creativity. 

4) I have a lot to learn about Photoshop.

5) Lighting, shadows, clouds, sunlight, direct sun, and flashes are essential and I need to learn, learn, learn. 

6) I'm thinking I shouldn't feel bad about having so many "duds" in my final collection of photographs. Getting 80 great shots has to be pretty decent (at least for an amateur.) 

5) I really want to continue developing this skill. It has been a dream of mine for many years, and I can see a glimmer of reality in my future.  

Can't wait for more opportunities like this one--friends who trust us to "practice" on them until we're good enough to go pro (ish). :D

ps. I'm linking this post with it's 10 pictures I'm proud of with OhAmanda's Top Ten Tuesday.

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The One with ABCs of Thanks

 There's been a lot of thankfulness happening on my blog lately. But don't think that's a bad thing, do you? :) Today, at the close of Thanksgiving Day 2011, I join Rachel @ Finding Joy in her ABCs of Thanks. 

A - Ashley. my favorite sister. 

B - blogging.

C - chocolate, in most all its variations. 

D - Daddio.  love him.

E - Elizabeth. a faithful friend for every year of my life. 

F - Father-in-law, the best I could ask for. 

G - grandparents. I mean, seriously, both my Grams and all four of my grandparents-in-law rock. 

H - holding hand. 

I - internet connections. 

J - Jesus, my Lord and Savior. 

K - Kevin, the one who holds my heart. 

L - lattes. I really should drink more of those.

M -  my name. I really love my name.
 

N - notes, handwritten with love.

O - oatmeal. my favorite breakfast. 

P - piano students.

Q - Q's awesome points in Scrabble. 

R - running. 

S - Sheryl, the friend my soul needed. 

T - time to live, to be together, to laugh, to minister.

U - Under Armour--my first UA running shirt ever. In Pink!

V - vegetables. not kidding. 

W - water for drinking.

X - x chromosomes that make me the girl that I am. 

Y - yarn, for crocheting.

Z - zeal for the Lord.

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