{Weekend Mornings}

Oh, how I love laid-back, relaxing weekends.
My favorite part of the weekend is the mornings though, as long as they don't
start too early...and they really don't anymore.
The kind where there is plenty of time for coffee and the newspaper and Saturday morning
 cartoons and breakfast together and staying in your pajamas for a good part of the day.
That's the kind of morning we had yesterday.

But this morning I am going to meet my sister to do a little Christmas shopping.
Coffee and breakfast and then a few errands, no hard-core shopping for me today. But it's
just the girls and being able to do it with out dragging any little ones is a treat, really. My kids are good little shoppers but there's only so much you can do when one of them is with you all the time, ya know?
I'm looking forward to today.
We woke up to snow this morning. It's not a lot but it is our first real snow this
Winter which is unusual for us, usually we would have a decent amount by now.
The kids are excited about the snow, Eric is at the store shopping for whatever
 it is he is making for the big game today and I bet at some point the kids will talk
 him into going outside to play.

****

I hope you are having the very best kind of weekend, too.
I think you should go dust off your bread machine and bake some yummy crusty bread now.
And serve it warm with some Nutella. You won't be sorry.

On Assignment :: Part 2

so, a while back i talked about going on assignment to take pictures my husband needed for a committee he is on. okay, so it wasn't like a real assignment, like an actual paying job or anything,  but it was fun. and it was right up my alley; old cool buildings, historical homes and churches. sigh. oh, the details in the architecture. the art, the craftsmanship, the design. i love it all. can't get enough. i feel like i am really showing my age (hello dad!) but i can't help myself; they really just don't make things like they used to. it's a fact. and i am officially old...but that's another post entirely.

give me an old cool church with real stained glass windows and a steeple over a mega-church warehouse any day. same with old houses. i am not knocking all new houses (or people that live in them, for that matter), i realize old historical homes aren't for everyone but if we all subscribed to the "let's tear it down and build something new and bigger and better" theory, look at what we would be left with. it wouldn't be pretty, folks. and we would lose all that history. that's depressing to me. really depressing. there are so many stories to be told and things to learn from these houses and buildings and from people. the people who lived in these houses and went to these churches, whose grandfather helped build these old buildings or knew people who lived in the houses. i don't want all of that to be lost.

how fun would it be to go around to different towns and photograph buildings and houses and places like this for a living? oooh, i would so love a job like that. that's a job i could handle. but for now i will just take my monthly newsletter photography assignment and pretend like my little partner and i are really out on assignment (it sounds way more official) and love every second of it while thinking to myself; "maybe some day......"

*****

i hope everyone is having a great  holiday weekend!
and for those of you not celebrating this holiday, i hope you are having a lovely weekend as well!
we have been busy and busier and i am really looking forward to tomorrow because we don't have anything going on. tonight i have a date with jake gyllenhaal my girlfriend to see "love & other drugs". 

popcorn and a great friend and yummy jake gyllenhaal. i'm looking forward to it! 

it will be an early night though because

 i am still recovering from a little too much fun last night. ouch.

happy saturday y'all.

{Ten Years}

Yesterday I was in the upstairs bathroom,  brushing my teeth and getting ready to fix my hair.
From one of the front bedroom windows I could hear Eric and the kids outside playing.
I walked into Wyatt's bedroom, looked out his window,  down onto the sidewalk and saw Eric pushing Wyatt on his bicycle (minus the training wheels) and Charlotte running up and down the sidewalk behind them.

Yelling, laughing, patience and encouragement is what I saw and heard.
Pure happiness.
Right then I stopped and realized that this is exactly what I wanted and what makes me so happy.
Exactly where I want to be in my life.
Eric with a day off of work, outside playing with the kids, a happy, healthy family, a wonderful husband and father...just right.

It also didn't hurt that I was getting ready to go out to dinner, at my favorite restaurant, just the two of us,  the kids going to spend the night at their grandma & grandpa's and the weather was absolutely perfect.

It also didn't hurt that I had time to run a couple of errands by myself, actually fix my hair,  put on make-up and lipstick, paint my nails and pick out the perfect jewelry to wear for my date.

I was not one of those girls that dreamed of her wedding day, not really at all.
What I did dream of was some day being married, having a family and a house and a life together.
Sometimes it takes big days like an anniversary, or little moments like looking out the window at my little family outside,  to realize that I have exactly what I always wanted, no complaints.
I am a lucky girl, very lucky.

We had a great dinner, out on the deck looking at the lake, just the two of us.
Being related to the Chef definitely has it's benefits;  we got to choose what we wanted to eat, not order off of the menu like the common-folk, appetizers were sent out along with a super-fancy dessert of fondue and mini-cheese cakes, strawberries and mini-brownies.

And since no anniversary or sappy wedding reminiscing is complete with out music,  I love
this Jack Johnson song that I call "The Anniversary Song"...take a listen, it' just perfect.

Happy Thursday to you!

P.S. Eric did not want his feet in that picture at all but he did it for me, and it's a good thing as none of the pictures I tried to take of the two of us turned out at all!

Looking Forward::

Today is a big day around here....it's Eric's birthday and it's kind of a big Birthday, too. The kids and I have been making decorations, cards and wrapping presents. This morning I had a chance to run a few quick errands while Wyatt was at school and my mom was watching Charlotte and as soon as I set out on my way I. got. a. flat. tire. Do these things only happen to me or is it everyone? Because I only had about an hour and a half, there was definitely no time for a 45-minute delay. Instead of crying right there in the auto shop parking lot I decided that it was okay if things didn't turn out exactly the way I planned today and got over myself. All is well. Tonight we are celebrating by going out for Mexican which is always Eric's first choice, the kids are excited and really, really hope they shove daddy's face in the fried ice cream...we'll see!

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband, looking forward to another great year with you!

Crazy-Happy-Busy Weekend

Just a few pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend. We had a busy weekend, so much going on but a really great, crazy, busy few days. We celebrated with both sides of our families, ate lots of yummy food, I got to hang out with my very best girlfriends, shopped and had a date night with Eric. Now we are all exhausted and ready for things to quiet down this week, at least a little bit.Hope everyone had a great weekend!