In between editing...

In between editing and getting settled back at home, I have been thinking of ways to get outta the house once Travis is home after work. He sits at a desk all day so coming home and sitting the rest of the night makes him feel restless and like he hasn't smelled fresh air in a while. So, last night we went on a picnic in the park for dinner.

I filled our cute little picnic basket with a chicken salad, some grapes, and red vines.

What kind of grapes do you like? I really only like the crunchy, big ones that I put in the refrigerator. Am I a grape snob?:)

Mouth full o' salad...

I love Bidwell Park. I also love it when the tops of the trees are painted orange from the sunset. The weather was perfect and despite it being pretty hot during the day, it was cool in the shade around 6:30pm.

It is officially Fall--although it doesn't really feel like it yet. My favorite season in Chico is Fall. I can't wait for the leaves to change and the temps to drop. Scarves, boots, cardigans, pumpkin spice mochas, and streets lines with yellows, oranges, reds, and pinks leaves make me happy:)

 Back to editing! What's your favorite season? Are there even seasons where you live? 

Thanks for following!

She knows me.

I really love my sister in law, Torrie. Not only does she know what I like, but she is so thoughtful in surprising me with little gifts here and there. I went down to her place in San Diego yesterday and as we were sippin' our coffee, she told me she got me something.

I've mentioned a few times on here that I love thrifty, vintage plates. I have started a little collection and Torrie has graciously added to it. She even got me a beautiful Anthropologie plate for my birthday! Yeah, it's my favorite. I love the colors of the flowers on the one she most recently gave me.

Thanks, Torrie--one day you will have to come up to Chico and we can bake and eat our treats off of some vintage plates:)

While my mother in law and I were visiting Torrie, we all stopped by Anthropologie to look around. My mother in law ended up buying this book.

Feeling nostalgic and missing my hubby, I read a lot of the quotes on our drive home. I finally get to see him in two days! Anyways, thought I would share a few of my favorites.

"God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way."
-Leighton Ford, evangelist.

"Anyone can be passionate but it takes real lovers to be silly."
-Rose Franken, writer.

"Divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there's less of you."-Margaret Atwood, writer.

"Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness."
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr., writer.

Thanks for following and have a great weekend!

I'll take a Large Coffee with Extra Cream and Sugar, thank you.

Oh my gosh. One thing that I was sure about when I knew I was coming out here to the MidWest was Dunkin' Donuts.  Best.Coffee.Ever.

I've taken a little drive to get my mother in law, sister in law, and myself some of this deliciousness and it has been sooo good. I had to get myself a Decaf one today because last night I was up 'til 2am watching Steel Magnolias. Spoiler Alert. I was fine until after the funeral and Sally Fields starting screaming about how angry she was and how she was supposed to go first. Someone get me a tissue.

I have been loving hanging out with my niece, Emrie. She is such a great baby. She laughs a lot and poops a lot:)...I guess that whole pooping thing is normal with babies. Hmmm.

We have taken her out to lunch a few times and everyone tells me how cute my daughter is. "She is actually my niece." One lady responded with "Oh! That is even more fun! You get to give her back." Yeah, but I wouldn't mind having her around all the time!:)

My mother in law bought her a little walker. She is on the move!! Already getting the hang of it and moving a bit quicker.

This weekend we are heading up to Michigan to watch my younger Sister in law play field hockey. Then, I will be down in San Diego preparing for a wedding that we are shooting on Saturday. I'm excited and thankful to be able to have some time to travel right now.
I'm off to take more photos of my niece and then spend the evening editing.
Thanks for following!

Thank you, my love.

I seriously feel blessed to have such a great man in my life. Yes, we have our issues. There are still silly things that we get in 'discussions' about. But, life is gooood.

 Most of the time he is the voice of reason. I can get stressed easily and he knows how sensitive of a woman I am. I read into things. I've realized that it is because my relationships with people are very important to me. Also, I expect a lot out of people. Which, we all know, people will disappoint you. A great friend of mine told me recently that when we expect great things out of the people around us and when we hold them to certain standards, there will be more issues in your relationships. I was feeling concerned about how many people I felt the need to 'have a talk with' and she reassured me that I wasn't crazy, or a bad friend. I just want them to be the best people they can be and that I know they are.

WOW, that was a tangent. My whole purpose of this post was to thank my sweet husband for all of his help--in our marriage, in our business, in our future.

--Thank you for talking me out of my craziness sometimes, and embracing me for who I am.

--Thank you for working so hard for our little family and giving up your weekends to support our business.

--Thank you for making me happy and wanting me to be happy. 

--Thank you for being honest with me and telling me the truth-in-love.

 

About a year ago we were having dinner with some friends when one of them asked Travis what the most surprising thing about being married to me was. I made a joke by saying "You didn't know how emotional I was." And he responded with "No, I knew that." Gotta love it.

Honestly, I also did this post to take a break from editing. My eyes were starting to glaze over.:)

Thanks for following another one of my random posts. Are you over it yet?:)

Spinning.

My.head.is.spinning.

I have so many things to do and think about but I am glad. I am thankful for the time with people this past weekend when we photographed two weddings. I am happy that my husband and I get to work together. He really is an amazing man--have I said that on here before?:)

A friend took our picture at the wedding on Sunday.

This coming Saturday I am excited to host a baby shower for a friend. On Sunday I am flying to out to Michigan to watch my sister in law play field hockey at Michigan University. (Might shed some tears about flying on Sept. 11th--I'm scared.) Then my mother in law and I are driving to Indiana to watch my niece for the week! I couldn't be more excited.

Amongst all of this fun stuff, I have lots and lots of editing to do! Which can also be fun, but quite time consuming. Hoping to get lots of office work done on my plane rides.

This coffee is helping me work quickly and efficiently, but it might be adding to the spinning of my head:)

I am a to-do list kinda person. I normally have many to-do lists lying around. I get great satisfaction in taking my pen and running it across the 'Clean Bathroom' or the 'Call phone company'. It is kinda sick:)

Are you a to-do list kinda person? If not, how do you remember all the to-dos?

Thanks for following and reading my little blurbs of life. I appreciate it!

Refreshing

One fun thing about moving in with another couple is that you get to see what they eat. Does that sound weird? What I mean is that you get to see new recipes that you haven't tried, but that are a big part of their meals. One thing that our new housemates have a lot of is Lemonade. Travis loves it! Last time I went to the grocery store I bought like 6 cans of it because we all go through it so fast. I was tired of just plain ol' lemonade so I spruced it up!

--Slice up some fresh strawberries
--Slice up some fresh limes
I added the strawberries and lime mix to the cup first, then ice, then the lemonade. I didn't want to have fruit pieces trying to sneak in my mouth while I'm trying to drink!
Not only does it taste really good, but it is so summery and refreshing. I'd recommend drinking it outside--just so you get the full summery effect:)

Enjoy!
Thanks for following...

Friends in cool places

We are seriously blessed to have friends around the map who let us crash their pads. Last week was Travis' week off before starting full time at Chase Bank. So, it was up to him how we spent that time. I'm so glad that he chose what to do because we had a blast! We started out in Sacramento and got to spend a day with our friends Kevin and Krissy. They just got married in June and are total newlyweds:) I just love watching them together--they exert such a beautiful love for each other.
We all walked about 30 blocks around downtown I have no idea where. We walked to see the capital building and then to a cute coffee shop where we had the most delicious cheese plate!!

 Trav and I had never been to the capital. Most of our friends how grew up in Northern California would take field trips here in grade school. That would have been a long field trip from San Diego!

 Kevin and Krissy.

 A pretty church that Trav snapped a pic of while we were walking around.

 We had the best tacos EVER for dinner(We were all starving so the deliciousness was heightened!).We made homemade chocolate chip cookies and played lots of Liars Dice. 

Kevin took some pictures of us making our cookies. Cooking with friends is always so much fun. It is one of my favorite things to do!!

 Here is how our homemade chocolate chip cookies turned out--they were a delicious mess.

We left Sac and headed down to San Diego for the week. I got to surprise my good friend Elyse. I told her that we should skype around 7pm. So, at 7pm I called her and told her to stay on the phone with me because I wanted to make sure that my skype worked. I knocked on her door and said Surprise! She had no idea. (Skype was a great way to make sure that she was home!)

We also got to go to breakfast and coffee with our friends Zac and Lacey. They were vacationing at Del Mar beach with their family. So, we stopped by the beach house and walked over to the beach two days in a row--literally a two minute walk!

We spent one evening with my Dad and sisters at his house in San Diego. My Pops knows how to cook--he made us corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, chicken, and ribs.  He never fails to impress!!

THEN we got to go to Palm Springs for a day and lay by the pool with Elyse, Jose, and their families. It was so hot out but the pool was nice and cold.

I wish I would have taken photos of all of the things we did. I get too protective of my camera when it comes to taking it to the beach(sandy mess), to the pool(water & heat), etc. Next time we travel I will try to capture all of the fun little things that we do!

All in all, we have FABULOUS friends in FABULOUS places. Thank you for sharing your lives with us!

Lake Almanor Camping--Dirty feet, tree swings, and hammocks.

I was so excited when I turned on my camera and saw all of the photos we took camping. I had totally forgotten about them. I think the stress of moving the following week threw me off. Anyways--we went camping with some great friends at Lake Almanor a few weeks ago. It was FABULOUS. I love camping-- I would choose camping over hotel staying. I'm not saying I didn't scream at all of the nasty spiders and love taking a shower afterwards, because I did. But, I'd do it again tomorrow.

My favorite part about camping is waking up in the morning. It is so refreshing. We actually slept in because it stayed cool in our tent. Normally, camping in a tent forces me to get up early because it gets so hot. But, I enjoy sitting around the smoking campfire early in the morning, before other campsites are swarmed with screaming children, with coffee in my hand. Maybe we didn't totally 'rough it'.

 The water level was so high that this is not normally an island. We swam out there to the tree swing. The water was perfect!

 The newlyweds--really love them.

 Mahlon's awesome circus tent and my cute hubby playing frisbee--I've given up on that sport.

 The only picture I took of the campfire. This is probably the most pathetic that it looked the whole weekend, too. These men knew how to build a fire!

 Where we ate some shakes and food.

Sorry about this next photo, babe. I thought it was funny. You probably won't even read this blog post and if you do, you don't know how to delete photos from it:)

Mahlon, you weren't in any of my photos. I'm sorry! Mahlon brought his jetski and I went out on it with Trav. I am fine on those things if I am driving--I feel in control. Once we switched and he was driving it, I freaked out. I told him to not go fast!! I think I also said "Travis, please respect my feelings!" HA!! Then I said just drop me off and you go enjoy yourself out there.

Lake Almanor is a gorgeous place! Thank you, friends, for making it even more of a gorgeous experience.
Thanks for following!!