snapshot moments

i love this cos he knows how much i love elizabeth gilbert, so he found this article in a spa magazine he was flipping thru that she had written on some of her time in bali, and showed it to me.
these are just a few quick moments captured these past few weeks. it made my heart so happy to see that aidan has watched all of us use our seatbelts enough to want to copy us! zane got a scalp treatment and a haircut recently... he was in heaven, lucky man! anyone who knows zane knows he's loooves his head rubbed=-) and then the last one was just a gorgeous sunset we enjoyed one evening from our patio... we have so many of them, we're so lucky!

a beautiful day

we had a beautiful turkey dinner... we are so thankful that dayton and mary included us all! everyone was impressed with austin and evan's homeade pumpkin and apple pies... and it was lots of fun to play skip-bo like we do with our grandparents, and the boys loved learning 'mexican train' with dominoes=-) all of us kids had lots of fun coming home to leftovers and a good round of monopoly to end the night.

subtle changes

we also made some little upgrades around other parts of our home. we finally have a 'real' shower curtain (yay!) ...zane insisted on only having the clear plastic as a shower curtain because it allowed the most light into our dark bathroom, but anyway he finally gave into the idea of adding some color which i'm very happy about=-) and... we finally brought back our canopy bed! we didn't set it up in this place when we moved in because the fan was too low, but our downstairs neighbor is an electrician, and removed it for us as long as zane promised to bake his 'famous' baked apples for their family. it was a great trade! our bed makes me feel like a queen!

a little change does me good

BEFORE: (see what i mean about the 'blah'?) and AFTER...

HAPPY (EARLY) TURKEY DAY!

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving." ~H.U. Westermayer

I hope wherever Thanksgiving Day finds you that you are all happy, healthy, safe and in the presence of your loved ones!

G & J

i had a terrible dream last night, one of those one's where you wake up and you can't shake it off because it felt so real. i literally woke up to my heart aching. zane's best friend had died. and it was even more terrible because he's getting married this may to his high school sweetheart, another close friend of zane's. anyway it just reminded me of the BBQ we had with them this summer in tri-cities, and all the good memories we've had with them, and how much we love them and we're glad they're still happy and healthy!

part gypsy?

i'm thinking i have some gypsy blood flowing thru my veins because i'm so inclined to move from place to place. i've ordered 5 different 'relocation packets' for now on behalf of my bosses upcoming move late this summer. Some of the major cities being thrown out there are these: Salt Lake City, Utah, Boise, Idaho, Flagstaff, Arizona, Denver, Colorado and Dallas, Texas. i am least excited about Dallas, Texas which unfortunately sounds like the city that my bosses are leaning towards the most....but time will tell. we've received 3 out of the 5 packets requested so far... and Zane and I have been oogling over the beautiful scenery in the pages of the Boise magazine... as many may know this is where we think we want to end up permanently someday. anyway whatever happens, whether we take Mike and Anna up on their offer to follow their family, or stay a little longer in Florida, or just go directly to Idaho...i'm feeling very excitable about this next adventure!!!

to paint or not to paint...

all three kitchen lights, the hall light, and every lamp in the house dragged out to brighten our light-challenged living room. all the furniture pushed to the middle of the room, and country radio filling the air, playing 'name that tune' before the first words are sung. comfortable silences broken by occasional chatterings, two heads left alone with their noisy thoughts, and the matchless 'mushy' sound of paint transferring from roller to wall.

for awhile now the question has been: to paint or not to paint? on the con side, it seemed like a lot of work especially in light of the newish information that we could be moving sooner rather than later. on the other hand tho, nothing seemed to be making this space less personal than these white walls surrounding us.

so last night the question took a new direction: what color would make our living room feel more cozy and more us? would it be 'olive', 'avocado', 'bread basket'...after spending a half hour in lowe's not getting much of anywhere, we decided to just take a shot in the dark, and walked out with 'mountain trail'

of course, the color on the sample is always slightly different than you originally envision it looking on your walls, in this case, it was much darker than we'd planned. we had thought it would look like a dark-khaki-tan color, but in reality it's more like a coffee-with-light-cream-brown... and with chocolate-brown furniture and lamp bases it makes for a lot of different shades of brown in one room, but this is all part of committing to a color without buying samples first. and in it's defense, as all dark colors never fail to do, it makes the room feel a little smaller, making it feel a little snugger, and the light coffee color adds the warmth to the room that i've been craving for some time now. so i am satisfied.

we had to laugh because this is our third painting adventure together now, and by pure coincidence every occasion has been right before Thanksgiving. The first time being in Pasco on Road 68, when November just happened to be the month we moved into our first house, and then last year when Zane's family was coming to our apartment for Thanksgiving dinner, we chose to paint our walls a 'cinnamon-peach' color in order to make our home feel more 'polished.' and then this year, yet another attempt to make our space feel more 'homey.' i guess it's just that intense desire this time of year that drives me to do whatever i can to make everything more cozy and warm.

and it's funny, this time around it doesn't seem as 'daunting.' it's just paint. you can just wave your 'magic wand' and turn it back to it's original state if you have a few hours of time to spare. i didn't feel the fear or pressure to acheive perfection, just the peace and satisfation of holding the power to create subtle changes.

fun purchase

zane wants to relay that we are crazy people who hope we REALLY like roller coasters because... we just spent a ridiculous amount of money on annual passes to Universal Studios... one more reason to come visit us!!

November is for Thanksgiving

i've been conscious of a constant running list of things in my head that make me feel thankful because of our approaching holiday. some are silly, some are substantial but all are worthy of being written down. for myself. to remind myself that i am lucky, even on those days when skies are grey.

• taking in my Truelove's face when he laughs without holding back
• Beach House Beanery's homeade apple cider
• fitting into my size "00" jeans again
• catching a glimpse of dolphins in the ocean, thru the windows of the place we call home no less
• eggnog lattes, and thinking of my Gramma because she loves them as much as I do
• Josh Groban's christmas tunes, and singing along unihibited in my car
• being awarded with a fun find at a thrift store after hours of browsing
• brown bag lunches, especially ones with chunks of extra sharp cheddar cheese
• coming home to letters or packages in my mailbox
• being woken up in the middle of the night to my husband pulling me toward him
• the smoky smell of a woodburing stove
• Aidan's two pudgy arms that are just big enough to wrap around my neck when i ask for a hug or a sweet kiss complete with an "mmmm" sound preceding every one without fail.
• easy conversation with an old friend
• beautiful things that make me speechless
• feeling stirred from inspiration
• being on the same page
• an answered prayer or a piece of advice that sets you free
• taylor swift's new cd
• the knowledge that my loved ones are safe
• that my Mom ever gave me a chance to rectify my selfish teenage behavior and inso doing has become my best friend in the process...and allows me to call her a ridiculous amount of times every week, even daily...=-)
• the way my name sounds when Zane says it, like nobody has ever said it before
• anticipation
• fellow closet britney spears fans that come out of their closet
• finding that perfect gift for somebody
• that i can be that person who is there for you when something goes wrong
• seeing results from natural solutions to help rebuild my immune system
• the freedom to dream and to fantasize, and being taken places by these thoughts, even if they never transform into reality. like my most recent of raising kids in big wild alaska someday.
• the irony of a recent fortune cookie fortune
• a good book that pulls you to it anytime you have a free minute to spare

• to be continued...
  

amused

the weatherman has informed us that we are under a 'severe weather watch' in the form of a freeze warning... temperatures in our zip code are to dip down to the 30s, maybe even the 20s... and we are loving it! the cool weather is feeling quite invigorating.

magic words

phone call from zane: "please come downstairs immediately." click. me to myself: "hmmm...all righty then..." it seemed very strange but i obeyed like a good wife=-) and i was rewarded with these beautiful things sitting in my driveway... a norfolk pine and a pointsettia arrangement designed by my husband himself. i cried. the most beautiful part of it all was that earlier that very day i'd gone thru our holiday box and gotten rid of everything except for two strings of lights and some christmas cd's i could listen to alone in my car. and i hadn't just set it aside to get rid of later, i'd actually given it away to someone else already... and that very day zane came home with these thoughtful treasures for me. i adore that we both had the same thought process and acted on it at the same time, both making an effort to make each other happy.

it was the most eerie feeling watching this orange glow come toward me thru our front door as i was sitting on our couch friday night minding my own business. freaking out, i grabbed Zane's arm and demanded him to tell me what was happening. he sprinted out the door and said, "it's the shuttle launch!!" i relaxed instantly, and immediately replaced my fear with feeling lucky. you should've seen the excitement on his face. he's been trying to catch of glimpse of one of these shuttle launches ever since we moved here. we stood in silence for a good three minutes just in complete awe. it was absolutely the most amazing thing i've ever witnessed in my life.

and come to find out the next day we had witnessed history. there are no more night launches. supposedly ever.

and no, i can't claim these pictures as my own. i was too awed to move my eyes and grab my camera.

after hours

the only pix i took by accident were of the glasses zane scored from mike! a pair of dolce and gabbana glasses! foxy eh?

after tucking Evan into bed, we were convinced to stay and hang out with my bosses, Michael and Anna which we actually never do so it was bunches of fun. we sat outside in their garage (weirdly enough, garages are where everyone in Florida hangs out, versus the backyard or porches...) and watched (or more accurately felt) the cold front finally arrive, had easy conversation, played darts and taboo, and danced to linkin park and gym class heros like crazy people with blankets wrapped around our shoulders.

they told us we were like family.

they are making it very hard to write off their offers to follow them wherever they move...

sweet moments

Evan, so excited to see the movie! Zane, a little concerned about our enthusiasm!

saturday evening found us taking Evan with us to see Madagascar II. it ended up being this surprisingly tender night. unprovoked during our car ride Zane looks at me and says, "is it just me or does this feel strangely like we're taking our own daughter out for family night?"

and Evan came up with a system for telling us whether she approved of the movie or not... if it was good she would say, "nose hair" and if she didn't like it she would say, "armpits." so when Zane scooped her up after the movie ended and she could barely keep her eyes open, my heart melted when she managed to say, "nose hair" before we even got the chance to ask her what she'd thought, and then she slept the whole car ride home.