On Friday,

I turned 25.  For some reason, that feels so old to me... probably because in my mind I'm still like.... 21 or something.  Or 19.  I do not know.

But anyway, 25 feels pretty good.  It was a pretty great day, jam-packed with fun and family and just a little work. 

I feel like those are the best birthdays--but then again, I always like the odd years better than the even years.  I guess you could say I have a fondness for odd numbers.

I have some cool things to show you, but it will have to wait til a little later.  Have a fantastic MONDAY!

Vagueness is for hosers.

And so I apologize. 

Truthfully, I have a new job.  Which brings my job count up to a total of 3.  They include: 1. my day job which I've had for several years, 2. my photography business, and now 3. this one. 

This new one is truly stellar; and mostly because I'm somewhat paranoid about things in my personal life being on the interweb, I will just say that it's a job which allows me to work with kids and fill in the gaps of time & money that having my own business left gaping.  Which is to say:  it's everything I was hoping for and more. 

I love working with kids.  They are HILarious.  And now I have far less pressure on myself and my photo business to succeed, which, honestly, was cramping my style for quite some time.  It's hard when you want things to work out and they just aren't for whatever reason.  I'm still doing photography and I still love it, I just don't love the pressure of being pretty poor and needing work, then not getting any.  SO!  This is good.  Real good.

And I just got really good news about my housband's future/school opportunities.  We are having a good couple of weeks.  I'll have to fill you in on that more later.

AND his birthday is on Thursday.  I love birthdays--his, mine, our dogs'... I don't care.  It's a BIRTHDAY!

Soooo... happy Tuesday.  And all this being vague?  Yep, makes me a hoser.

image.

Good news!

This little booger turns one TODAY!

He started celebrating early yesterday, apparently, by chewing a huge hole through the only handmade quilt we have, which we got from my mother-in-law upon the occasion of our marriage. 

Yep.  I'm thrilled.

Nonetheless, I still love birthdays (and, I guess, this dog).  Birthdays just feel like special days, so perhaps I'll find something fun for us to do tonight. 

OH!  And I met his sister yesterday.  She has one brown eye and one blue eye, and she's smaller than he is... but it was clear they were the same mix and that they most likely remember each other. 

Anyway, happy birthday to our Bags.  He drives me nuts but I'm so glad we have him.

So...

Tomorrow is my housband's birthday.

If you remember last year, I love birthdays, and his was fantastic.

I think I like his birthday almost more than mine... except mine is warm... because it's June...

On days like today, I just want to run away with my camera and husband and nothing else. There are a lot of things bugging me lately; I know I'll get over it, but for now, I've been really grumpy and easily provoked.

I am really annoyed with myself today. These kinds of days are the worst, because you can't really escape yourself. I'm just not sure what to do with myself.

BUT, I know tomorrow will be better. I just need to be positive... Right?

Hopefully.

Happy Birthday

to my niece, Hailey, who turns 6 today, who will be on American Idol when she's a teenager, and who also tries to dress like a model every day. [I know because she told me all these things last weekend--after she asked me to stay outside with her to look at the stars--and she drank half a large bottle of Gatorade to make herself go faster and slower.]

Happy Birthday, Hailey!

4 things:

1. I'm glad you find my husband attractive. I do too. We met in middle school. More on that later. (I thought about ways to make that more exciting, like we met on a singles cruise or chatting online, but... our story is more interesting/boring, depending on how you look at it.)

2. Tonight, I'm going to a reception for a show one of my photos made it into tonight. This is my first gallery submission. I am more nervous than I should admit, and I also feel like I might throw up.

3. I watched Marley & Me on my birthday and sobbed. I am a sucker for dogs.

4. My birthday was full of such goodness, I can't even describe it all. It was perfect.

Happy Weekend.

Hello, hello.

I've finally caught up on all my photos. I edited around 100 from our vacation, and it was a truly great trip.

I think I'll share some photos with you here.

My niece, Paigey, with her Minnie mouse jacket after we went swimming. We spent most of our time in Disneyland, but that's a post of its own.

Seester and Jimmy Jumper. I love the light in this shot.

Those California palms just kill me.

We also went to the ocean. It was a cloudy day, but I got pretty sunburnt anyway. I love the curling lip on the waves.

And just so you know, tomorrow's my birthday. I love birthdays [mine AND yours]. Perhaps I'll go swimming.

Hello again

I'm back.

I had a lovely, lovely Friday & weekend. I made treats [peanut butter pie and cupcakes--I went a little crazy, but it was fun], cleaned my house, went swimming, bought a new dress and got a haircut. I also helped my sister get her house ready for my nephew's 1st birthday party the next day.

I took a lot of photos of him... he's so darling, I can't help it. Here are a few:

My sister has more photos on her blog that I took then too... Yeah, I took a lot. He snuggled me and was rubbing my hands on Friday night as he sat on my lap. Oh, I just love him. He has a little cut on his forehead--I think we deduced he must have scratched himself in his sleep or something.

My neighbors are still loud, and my husband is still great. I finished Roman Holiday, and I have to say that's probably my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie I've seen yet. I also watched My Fair Lady, and I was surprised to see that I know a lot of the songs from the movie. I especially loved Eliza Doolittle's dress at the ball...

I really liked the time I had to myself. Lucky [or not] for me, I get to do it again this week... sort of. My brotherman has a lot of engagements lately! He came home Saturday night, a day earlier than planned, and that was a sweet surprise. We rested on Sunday, and as per usual, Sunday night turned out to be my least favorite time of the week. I sometimes have breakdowns Sunday nights; I don't really know exactly why... perhaps it's knowing that the week will be busy and I'll be at work so much. I know it sounds weird, but home is where I'd like to be, and spending so much time elsewhere can be hard. I think I just need to toughen up. I'm working on it.

Anyway, I'm going to carry on and get through this week. It helps that it's spring, and I have something that's really making life pleasant for me--a new car! I traded up. It's wonderful to have a car that has a driver's side window that rolls up inside the frame, has automatic steering, and all the speakers work in it. I used to go for drives all the time, but lately it hasn't been that fun or calming... but I feel it coming back with this new car... plus I feel a lot safer.

It's great to listen to the new CDs I bought last Friday in my car. Yes, I still buy CDs. I prefer them to iTunes... I think it's the physical sensation of owning the CD, putting it in my car's CD player... I don't know, though. I don't have a CD player besides the car. Anyway, I'll tell you about the two CDs I bought later. If you're not too busy listening to your walkman. Or your record player.

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Belated! (II)

Ok, so I didn't post all the photos from housband's birthday. So, I have some more!


He opened presents throughout the day, and let me take as many photos as I wanted:


This was halfway through the day, some presents opened, some unopened:
I also gave him a mini-book type thing, where I wrote my favorite things about him... the number matched however-old-he-is-now... you can see the cover of it under the large package on the right side of the chair. He says it's his favorite gift! I took a photo of it, but I decided that's private, you sicko. Actually, I just don't want to embarrass him with my favorite things--some are funny, some are thoughtful, some are inside jokes. I must say, it's pretty brilliant and creative.

While he was at work, I left work a little early, came home, cleaned like crazy and got everything ready to surprise him with balloons and crepe paper and cleanliness! We went to my parents' house for a little dinner (Minnesota soup... actually, it wasn't that, but it's a lot easier than the actual name, so I think I'll continue calling it that..) and his present. After, we went to his family's house, where we had pumpkin pie--his favorite--and talked and laughed for a long time. It was great!

Finally, we came home again. We lit the trick candles:


And he blew them out, pretty easily.


So we lit them again, and let them burn longer.


I'm not great at baking, so I bought him a cake instead.

Lastly, we sat down to cake and drinks in our fancy goblets (which match the magnificent pitcher my sister gave us!):


Yeah... my cake tipped. Truly tragic.
It was a really good day.

Belated!

Sorry, I meant to post about my housband's birthday earlier, but I simply haven't had the time (or the internet around to do it). So, it was basically a really great day. Everything was perfect! While he showered, I took all the wrapped presents downstairs and told him the birthday bunny came... ha! He opened a couple presents, we ate breakfast together, and I drove him to school. Then I picked him up for lunch, and he finished opening his presents, and later, we celebrated with both families.

We had our own cake back at our apartment with trick candles at the end of the night, but I'll have to post about that later. I'm done with work, and I want to go home!

Here are some photos:

His gifts, which I thought were well-wrapped... I was so proud of them, I took pictures. I'm weird...

I even wrapped the Sobe drinks I gave to him... He thought that was funny.

I hung crepe paper from the ceiling! I got a little excited. This is our kitchen, and I like it a lot. It's a nice little apartment.

It's interesting to think it turned out so well, because I am used to things not going my way when I plan and prepare for them (such as birthdays). It seemed overwhelming to me that the day went so well... I was a little unprepared for such success. I even had a really great day! Plus, he watched election results with me, though he doesn't care for politics. I was really excited about all of it, so he was gracious and listened to everything I had to say and my excitement over the new presidency.

All in all, a great day. Makes me think I have more power on the way things turn out than I thought, especially with my luck lately.

But now I am going home. I will post more photos later!

Weekend

This weekend was great! I did some heavy lifting, went to Ikea (and traveled through in record time...), watched some TV, and generally took it easy.

I LOVE weekends.

But for now, I have to run some quick errands before I rock the vote tomorrow (actually, that's kind of irrelevant, because the errands have nothing to do with voting), and before it's my housband's birthday. It is going to be GREAT!

Ok I have to go now. Hurry hurry hurry.