6.18.2011

Another Year

"So how's it feel to be celebrating the 7th anniversary of your 21st birthday?"

Best birthday message so far.  Because it's clever.  And I like clever.  Also because I received it way early this morning and I like to kick off the day early so that made it even better. 

Yes, it's my 28th birthday today.  Here I sit with sweat literally running down my nose because the SUN is out and I kicked off my day with a run.  Just having the sun shining feels like a birthday gift wrapped in a pretty ribbon.  Maybe I should feel like oh no, I'm another year older and now I'll just have more wrinkles and the gray hair will start sometime...but really what I feel like is, this is going to be the best freaking year ever and I'm happy to be 28 because I've figured some things out and...

HOLD ON.  Right in the middle of typing that sentence I received a phone call with my niece and nephews singing the Happy Birthday song to me.  That's a best birthday message too!  I can just picture their dimpled cheeks smiling away.   

Alright, back to what I was saying.  I'm quite alright with turning another year older.  Because I really do think we get better with age.  Less fearful.  More comfortable with who we are.  Wiser.  Stronger.  Just better.  

So bring on the 7th anniversary of my 21st birthday!  I can't wait to see what the year has in store for me.  


Sister Pister turned the camera on me the other night after her quick "cute outfit" photo session.  I quickly discovered I do indeed belong behind the camera and she does a much better job in front of the camera than I.  Because this is mostly what she got.  Don't let the two from above fool you.  I do love that she is learning how to use my camera though because sometimes it's nice to have evidence that I am indeed a part of the memories I capture. 


 28.  Best freaking year ever.  I just know it.   

6.16.2011

Coupons, Dirt, and Other Random Love

Welcome to a rendition of random. 

For real, I am not becoming an extreme couponer.  That was a joke.  But, I have started using coupons when they make sense for an item I need and use.  I have also started saving the little stamps that The Market Basket gives out.  Collect so many to lick and stick on a card and then voila, each card equals one dollar off your next gas purchase.  Sometimes they have deals on food too, but I have noticed they usually place the coupons on processed not real boxed food which I tend to steer clear from.  So I use these cards for gas.  Well actually I haven't really used them yet because I find it oddly satisfying to have a stack of them all clipped up with a cute clip.  Plus the deep down nerd that lives in me thinks it might be fun to save up enough to make a whole gas purchase FREE.  Wouldn't that be worth a donkey kick?! 


Like I said, I steer clear from most processed foods.  Remember my mantra is -- if it came from the ground or had a mother, I'll eat it.  BUT.  Last Saturday when I was at the farm, Momma Debi had these crackers out and I actually could read all of the ingredients on the box and they are yummy.  So I had some that day and then I told her I was taking the rest home.  They are scrumptious with cottage cheese or really any kind of cheese.  Although, the men in my family did not like them.  So know they are probably a girly cracker.  


The reason I was at the farm last Saturday was to plant garden.  And weed the strawberry bed.  That was first on the agenda.  It surprises me I haven't done this whole gardening thing before because it is right up my alley to pick all of those pesky weeds out of where they do not belong to end up with something all neat and clean.  Very satisfying to my inners. 


The garden is officially planted and let's hope it doesn't drown before it has a chance to shine.  I'll say it again that I'm surprised I haven't done this whole gardening thing before because being outside and having dirt under my fingernails is my idea of a pretty fabulous Saturday afternoon.  My parents have always been gardeners and my grandparents were gardeners and now I'm a gardener.  Full circle.   

Momma D. was schooling me in garden know how.  For instance, place a coffee can around the plants for two reasons: one, it keeps the cut worms out and two, it helps the water and fertilizer stay right by the plant to soak in instead of spreading out.  But coffee doesn't come in cans anymore.  Now it comes in plastic.  Momma Debi has held on to those old Folger's cans like they are gold and I rather enjoy their vintage look. 

I only hope that I will like the picking, cleaning, canning, freezing aspects of the garden as much as I like the dirt.  


There has been an over abundance of not sunny days this summer.  Otherwise known as rainy days.  On those rainy days, I feverishly attacked all cupboards, closets, drawers, corners, ledges, niches, shelves in my house.  And I made my way through them all.  I'm completely organized up.  Everything in its place without any rif-raf hanging around.  


In doing all of that organizing, I came to the realization that I want to spruce up my office a bit.  Make it more inspiring and less -here lives a desk, a chair, and a computer.  I found this piece of paper when I was cleaning out my clothes closet.  Apparently this spoke to me at one time because I've held on to it.  So, I'm thinking something along these lines for my office.  Cheap and easy with using items I already have lying around.  I can just picture all my fun office supplies that have been collected over the years sorted into jars.   


Yesterday, I met Sister Pister at Hobby Lobby to help her start a project and I ran across these baskets on clearance for the price that you can find in loose change in your couch.  These have already found a home in my office.  Jars and baskets.  Check YES.  


Last night, amidst three little girls playing dress up and running through the grass, a bonfire crackling, a more than adorable baby being passed around and snuggled, nineties country music playing, wine glasses clinking, friends visiting, and the sun setting, I had a moment of - When did we get to this goodness?  It was an evening that was a poster for this is what you finally get to after high school drama and college studying and job hunting and grad school writing.  You get to the good stuff.  The summer evenings of carefree.  

Wine was the drink of choice last night and we all know I am a marketer's dream.  All about the labels and packaging and pretty.  I ran across this when I was buying wine and have no idea if it tastes good but I loved the look of it.  


Maybe I should be in marketing because it's the little details that I notice like the old school bike on the cap and the color combination of orange with red and the saying "follow your folly."  I sure hope it tastes as good as it looks and isn't like when you were a kid and you dumped the cereal out to get the toy at the bottom only to realize it was the size of your thumb nail and didn't really talk on its own.   


Coupons, playing in the dirt, organizing scarves, cute jars and baskets, summer drinks...

My life makes so much sense.  

Uffda.  

6.14.2011

Horse Chiropractor and a Cute Outfit

I'm not taking my sister's senior pictures.  I'm not taking them because I want her to have the experience of actually going to someone and doing the whole photo shoot thing.  And because really, I have been taking pictures of her since she was born so it seems she should have the chance to go to someone besides her sister for the big moment.  

But that didn't stop me from grabbing my camera when we stopped back at my house to kill time in between dinner and the movie on our sister date.  She, of course, had a cute outfit on and her hair done in a...well, I'm not actually sure what it was.  It wasn't a braid and it wasn't a twist.  It was a something.  And it was fun.   


I still can't believe that Sister Pister is heading into her last year of high school.  It seems like just yesterday she was sitting in her mini fold up lawn chair out in the field during harvest trying to cut up her ham like us big kids.  She swore like a sailor at the ham on her plate that night.  My mom was real impressed.  The rest of us couldn't help but laugh at the little three year old with the crazy fly away brown hair wearing a mismatched sweat pant outfit with moccasins on her feet.  

 
Yes, it seems like just yesterday.  But now instead of her being the little one who was always up to some kind of imaginative game like wearing socks on her hands being a "vet doctor" or turning old  mattress springs into jumping shoes, she is meeting me for dinner and we talk about real life.  


We have always been close, but now I feel like our relationship is evening out.  More like we are on the same plane in life.  Which makes our closeness different, it's turning into a real friendship instead of big sister and little sister.  


She has always beat to the rhythm of her own drummer that is for sure.  I only hope that as she heads into a major transition time in her life that she will keep her confidence and her willingness to simply go for it.  


I'm pretty sure she will.  She will keep living full and keep pushing herself and keep being funny and keep being independent.  Because when I went with her earlier that afternoon to take her horse to the chiropractor, she drove the trailer and took care of locating the place.  Then, she went in and found the guy and walked right up to him and stuck her hand out and introduced herself.  She also introduced her horse.  I think she forgets he is not a human.  Anyway, I purposefully stood back.  Watching her finesse her way around a business situation with ease and humor.  Before ten minutes had passed, she had the horse chiropractor laughing and giving her life advice.  He was wrapped around her little finger.  I thought to myself, "She's going to be fine in life.  Just fine."

 
I'm thankful that no matter where either of us are or what we are going through, we will always have each other to laugh with and be ridiculous with and solve the worlds problems with.

One self timer photo session at a time.   


Sisters.  There is something special about them.  I love mine.