a beautiful day and a give-away

it's a beautiful day outside today, we are getting ready to go explore

i am doing my first giveaway to celebrate the day!!

this blog is such a great creative outlet for me and i'm so grateful for all the positive feedback from friends and family

sooooooo........

i'm giving away a photoshoot

a photo session with fully edited prints including:
1 8x10
2 5x7
4 4x6
8 wallets

locations include:
anywhere from san diego to santa barbara
and we will be in michigan from june 12th to june 24 around the kalamazoo area.

in order to enter just leave me a comment and tell me one of your favorite things to do on a beautiful day.  for 2 chances to win, link this blog post on your facebook and post another comment telling me you did.  please everyone enter!!!  if you win, you can also give the photoshoot as a gift to a friend or family member. 

well if you'll excuse me i have a little girl outside with a hose and a beautiful sunny day!!!

how we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives     -annie dillard

failures and triumphs

it was one of those days...

i woke up and didn't take a shower
gym clothes and no makeup
i even forgot to put on deodorant....stinky girl am i
i had a ton of things to do but didn't write them down
i left the house feeling scattered and overwhelmed
i had one of those horrible choking episodes(you know where you cough really loud uncontrollably for like 15 minutes) happen to me in starbucks and no one even cared except bayley who told me to "chew mama"
mango smoothie was everywhere for whatever reason
i went to the grocery store and probably did 9 laps, incomplete list.  i still forgot some things...
and bayley yelled "i want candy" at least 800 times imitating the brat angelica from the show the rugrats
i let bayley watch too much tv
potty training isn't going as well as it was last week
the sink was full of dishes all day
i didn't call and reschedule my doctor appt because i felt guilty for not showing up and not calling yesterday
i started making dinner too late therefore we ate way late
bayley fell down the stairs
adam and i both had difficult days which resulted in frustration and disharmony
i cried while i was barbequing chicken
i didn't take one picture

and now that i thought all my problems were done, my computer is going bonkers and i can't upload my pictures...

but i'm not going to let that get in the way of listing my gratitudes for today, because bad things happen but how we chose to deal with them shows our true character

so tonight i realized while lying in bed waiting for bayley to go to sleep how lucky i am
and instead of feeling sorry for myself and thinking that my mom skills or communication skills were subpar i thanked God for shelter.  i was lying in a warm bed and so was my child and we ate a nutritious dinner and reconcilled our problems and i felt SO MUCH BETTER.  i can always strive for more, but if i don't appreciate what i have at this very second, i will never feel like i have enough or that i AM enough.  i have to accept myself right now, mistakes and all and hope that others will do the same.  if not, they must not be worth the time anyways. 

so now i'm starting to understand the whole "fail more, fail better" quote
if i fail more and can accept my failure, then it doesn't really matter what happened or didn't work because i feel okay and i can accept things the way they are and forgive and move on.

and i am so happy that my husband did ALL the dishes tonight and that i didn't run away when we had a disagreement, we are such an awesome couple. 

so now i am going to soak in a lavendar bath with a glass of red wine and relax for 20 minutes before i tuck myself into bed. 

i think my photos uploaded now...enjoy

























“There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them.”



-Tom Krause

30 and loving life

so i'm 30 and guess what, i didn't turn to stone or figure out life yet.  so i shall get on with things.

i love life.
i love it so much that i sometimes forget to eat or sleep or go pee.  i do realize that all of these things are part of life, but there are also so many other things that scream life even more and then i forget the basics.  like a lot of times i will be utterly starving, but for some reason nothing sounds good to me except (fill in the blank with some sort of extravagent food like king crab or country pate) so i go out of my way to get such food and starving for just a while longer.  most people would probably make a sandwich.  i love so many things about life that it's really hard for me to narrow things down, but as i get older and smarter and cuter and all around better (hehe) i'm starting to narrow things down.  i'm trying to figure out what i really love and what REALLY gets me going. 

so lets make a list, because i LOVE lists

ballerinas, especially when one is Bayley








going out for breakfast and the color yellow


the ocean
sunsets
sushi
horseradish
dirty martinis


nature and all beauty it entails


bonfires
marshmallows


music


smiling
champagne
celebrations


candles
experimenting with photography
jelly jars
dimples


the color orange
cats


curly hair


great friends
















babies


amazing family
connecting









kisses



yummy treats
snuggling




life is an amazing gift and i'm gonna devour every last drop





"Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human." 

 -anthony robbins

in a nutshell

i am not allowed to drink caffinated beverages anymore, they make me feel like a drugged up person with severe ADD.

clean up on aisle 4 of the grocery store and our staircase because my child now likes to get my attention by chucking her juice everywhere.

the library is quiet and there are nice people there

home made mac n cheese is so yummy with diced up ham mixed in

it's asparagas season, get the big fat ones and drench them in butter, lemon and salt and peppa

i have fancy french truffles from my amazing friend chara



i'm having a campout bonfire for my birthday on thursday

tonight after putting bayley to bed, i ran to target and finished getting easter basket stuff and these



yep, tomorrow is her first ballet class and i'm so excited (probably more than she is)

homemade tomatillo salsa is one of my favorite foods

tomatillo salsa:

tomatillos (raw)
onion
garlic
cilantro
vinegar
olive oil
jalapeno
salt and pepper

blend in food processor til smooth

YUMMMMM
we put it on chicken tostadas
you can also mix it with ranch for a really yummy salad dressing

i love bayley's easter bunny, he's so cute



since adam has been home in the evenings  we have been having our nightly "tickle monster" ritual. where we all hide under the covers and wait for the tickle monster (adam) to get us.  bayley LOVES this game and really believes there is a tickle monster (or she is a dang good actor)







i am almost and super excited.

i am excited to go to bed and wake up to my new peets decaf coffee and entenmanns raspberry swirl danish.

oh also the meyer countertop spray in basil scent is amazing and i'm contemplating using it as perfume, i am loving wiping down my surfaces.



Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't. ~Richard Bach

sunday night ritual

when i was in high school, sunday nights were kind of fun. i watched seventh heaven and ate mint chocolate chip ice cream.  it meant getting ready for the new week and it seemed like i usually had a new shirt or earrings from weekend shopping to get me excited for monday.  clean cotton sheets on the bed, clothes washed and laid out, instant oatmeal set in a bowl with a spoon.  i had a plan man.  it usually all went to hell by wednesday, but sunday night...i felt ready. 

tonight i tried to re-create this ritual.  let me tell you that it's a bit more complicated now.  because i have more responsiblilties than laying out my gym clothes and new earrings.  but i'm really working on this whole "planning" things better.  in learning about myself i have realized that i may not be a planner by nature, but i need to be one.  almost anytime i feel confident or have a success i had made a plan.  i can't tell you how many times i have kicked myself because i put off planning something important.  so i'm trying to look ahead, not too far.  just enough to encourage and inspire this crazy and spontaneous girl.

so it's funny, because for a while i've been trying to plan in my head what i want to do before i turn 30, like i might turn into a stone or just forget who i am once i hit the big 3 0.  and since i turn 30 in 4 days i think i may need to modify my plans a bit.  i don't think i will be going to india or getting a book published or going here for groceries and then having a fabulous dinner party, but i can start planning some of these big things and put them out into the universe.  because that is how every big, huge, tiny, any-thing begins.  with intent.  a plan.  and then small action steps everyday to lead us to a goal. 
well i'd better go lay out my new earrings for tomorrow.
it's a big week ahead!!

this weekend =

what is the meaning of life?

whatever you want it to be.

-james frey