Home for Lunch

Coming home for lunch is one of my favorite things to do…just a quick break to eat in a quiet house and enjoy the company of my plants. Yes there, I said it, I enjoy the company of my plants. (Of course Juneau does often discover meal times and stares at me through the window).  A short while ago my sweet mother gifted me with a Panini maker and I use it All. the. time. Panini sounds fancy, but really it’s just “sandwich enhancer”. I will do anything for a little melty cheese. My go to is to slap leftovers in my bread but today we had all kinds of yummy things so I went all out.

 

My window plant’s names are ArdenVale, WorryWort, Eustace, and Tiny Thym.

Family Photos and the ever so useful bribe.

We got together for a quick frolic in the park to nab some family photos for the new year. Charley and I’s turned out great:

I did everything on the self timer running back and forth kind of like we did for my sibling’s photos back in the day.

My adorable niece was just into everything. I mean, she was in the park for crying out loud! there were pinecones to find and leaves to explore. Who on earth could keep still? Every time we’d take a picture she’d run to me to see what I was doing at the camera…so we created a trading game of gumballs (the on the ground kind). She’d run to me, I’d supply the gumball, she’d hand it to Christine, Christine would grab her for .2 seconds, I’d run in the shot, by then she’d have wriggled free again. Repeat cycle. She’s completely adorable, love her to bits.

Usually she greets me with a “sah!”

but today she insisted that my name was “doggie!”

 

   

ERp. . .

 

I wanted to take a surreal photo…kind of like the wonderful work of Joel Robison. Alas, I found  nothing more inventive to do but to lie on the ground. Five layers of sweaters failed to convince me of a cool character to play. I was just stiff, padded and full of christmas foods…jumping and running proved more difficult than I would have liked and still failed to lend my imagination something ominous, lovely or inspiring.

No, this was just some strange girl hanging out in the woods, quickly reminded that dirt and pine straw is wet after rain. Even after committing to balancing the camera on a pinecone and two stones on the ground left me unsure of where to go.Then it hit me.

The photo lacked cats. Giant cats. It’s like Alice in WonderCatLand.  The bad photoshopping adds much eh?

Then I continued to realize even more. This photo needed laser beams…even more than it needed the cats.Too bad I don’t know how to make those either.

CHRISTMAS

         

THE YEAR IN REVIEW, HOLA 2013

 

For starters, there were 131 posts made in the year 2012

my end of the year stats at 11:59 pm on new years eve:

 

people apparently find by my blog by searching for:

and who knew? people in Russia are reading along too.

I started 2012 by a post celebrating marriage since our anniversary is the 2nd

We took our first ever photo booth picture (we must not get out much) thanks to wild dunes resort Christmas & new years party

we saw several presidential rallies

daydreamed about life on a boat

lived with an extra dude in a tiny apartment downtown

made friends with hobos

took advantage of our drunk roommate

shared my house with a cat that REALLY really hates me

got our 3rd couch which scored major points for not being torn apart, purple, or from the curb.

went to my first backyard music party

was a nanny for two little kiddos that I miss like crazy

attended my best friend’s totally 80’s birthday party

shot my first ever commercial shoot

the husband posted his first ever blog post strongly influenced of pork

painted two paintings…yeah two in a whole year….(I’m going to need to work on that)

dyed my hair brown

then cut bangs

then moved out of the city to apartment two

then a month later moved to apartment/house three for charley's new job. As we said goodbye to Charleston, we thought fondly of all the food we will miss eating.

Charley embraced his new job that lets him bake more pretty bread and dessert all day long

I found the chairs of my dreams (right before we moved)

because of our new place with a backyard, we were able to have a large gathering for the first time in over a year. We had a smashing time dancing in the moonlight.

aannd the hair went back to blonde and glasses were bought

 

and that pretty much sums up things in blogland for the year

I think if this year had a theme word, it’d be “indecisive”

Not always in a bad way. We’ve done much, seen much, experienced much (and yes, colored our hair much). Three apartments, new jobs, new stages of life and relationships. I can say that I have felt first hand this year that life is not stagnant and it moves every so quickly.

God has show his great blessing and provision by providing us a  home. I’ve seen many prayers answered, including our move back to Columbia.

I’ve made new friends this year

I’ve said goodbye to some who are very dear to me.

It’s a shame we can’t see where the new year will move us. For the blog anyways, just eagerly anticipate new pictures of Juneau and Bruno and any other cute animal that gets in my way. That is one thing that will never change.

Happy 2013 yall.