deep fried twinkies (and other wonders of the world...)

Hello, county fair!


Hello, happy mom with a bag full of kettle corn!


I told Marty that if he makes faces when I take his picture, they're going on the blog. And I don't lie :)


County fairs are funny. There are lots of, ahem, colorful people there, which is a plus for a photographer: You can basically do whatever you want, right in the middle of the midway, and no one cares...


Country staple:



I laugh whenever I see this one:



And now... the real reason I go to the county fair.
It's not the fried oreos,
or the tractor pull competitions,
or the livestock auctions,
or the pig races,
or the booths piles high with leather belts,
or the strange carnival folk that cajole you to "step right up."
Nope.
None of that.

I go for the bunnies!


There were hundreds of bunnies for sale. Honest, I wanted to buy them all (much to my husband's pure delight). Next year for sure, I'm taking one home!


:)

My best friend's wedding

Here are a few photos from my sweet sister's wedding last weekend. Can I honestly say it was like a fairytale? Mucho thanks to Lydia and Marty, who took pictures while I was busy bustling Anna's dress and such :)

The bridesmaid's lunch, the day before:



Anna's mother-in-law did all the flowers for the wedding. Um, can you say spectacular? Here's Anna's reaction, as her bouquet came together:


Rehearsal dinner:

GQ-looking groomsmen, wouldn't you say?

Husband, Grandma, Brother!



On to the wedding:

The beautiful bride...


My brother cracks me up :)



Sweet table:


Anna surprised Steve at the reception by singing him a song ("Hey Steven," by Taylor Swift):

Steve's reaction after she finished :)


And finally, my favorite of the day: Anna and my dad, dancing to "My Girl."


Anna and Steve... you don't read blogs, but congratulations anyway ;) I love you!

<3

More to come tonight...

wedding weekend

My sister is getting married this weekend (remember their engagement session?). Life is a whirlwind of fittings, ribbon, out-of-town relatives, and writing place cards until your hand cramps.

And it's all completely worth it :)

Here's the happy couple, at my cousin's wedding last August:

Have a lovely weekend!

sunset

{Have you ever heard an entire restaurant hold its breath while the sun set, and then burst into a round of applause as it finally disappeared? I have, and it was absolutely beautiful, even if some of them didn't know who they were clapping for.}

Beautiful.

Introducing my cousin's super-cute kids:




The newest member of their family: eleven days old!



Cutest babies ever, wouldn't you agree? :)

pelican

flight

Adventures in Home-Ownership (installment #3)

While I love sharing my home improvement stories with you all, this is obviously not a home renovation blog. Thus, per the requests of a friend or two, I'll leave you with one last picture of the current state of our personal lives...

I think Marty's smiling under that mask? Like I've said before, I'm married to an eternal optimist!

Now, on to the prettier stuff of life! More photography, coming tomorrow :)

Adventures in Home-Ownership (installment #2)

Hello house!

There she is, in all of her fixer-upper glory...

You'll note flags in the yard (utility markers for when the sewer is dug up this week), ivy covering the chimney (we'll be up there one of these days, teetering on a ladder with wire brushes in hand, trying to pull the pesky stuff down), and an open front door (because at the moment, bugs are the least of our concerns).

A few notable events from the last two days:

1) Clean entire house. House smells like flowers. Close house up for the night.
2) Return to house next morning. House smells worse than ever.
3) Pray that God would show us where the stupid smell is coming from, gosh darn it.
4) Marty discovers an attic. Marty opens the attic. Marty discovers 5 inches of raccoon poop in attic. Minor meltdown occurs. Then, we thank God (see point #3).
5) Raccoon discovered on roof. Marty and visiting brother-in-law-to-be attempt to coerce us into letting them shoot it. Overruled.
6) Standing in the kitchen, underneath a running ceiling fan, I suddenly feel drops of water on my arm. I look up. Water is dripping from our ceiling fan. Yikes.
7) Crowd of neighbors gather on front lawn. One thinks that I'm the cleaning lady, hired by the new owners. I tell him that I am the new owner. No comment from neighbor.
8) Marty begins to clean out attic. Unfortunately, attic is 100+ degrees. Marty is miraculously optimistic.
9) We buy new locks. And another gas mask.

I could go on, but I'll stop there. Needless to say, we're the talk of our little neighborhood, we're in over our heads, and we're absolutely loving it.

Minus the raccoon poop.

Happy Birthday America!

True story: the 4th of July is my favorite holiday. Watermelon, family, parades, fireworks, sparklers, and food straight off the grill... heaven, I say. {Not to mention, celebrating our freedom. Definitely something we can't take for granted!}

So happy Independence Day... and take lots of pictures of fireworks!

A Much-Needed Update (or, Adventures in Home Ownership, Installment #1)

After much deliberation, debate, haggling, hassles, a few tears, lots of headaches, and earnest prayers ("God, if this isn't the house for us, just burn it down or something?"),
we are, for better or for worse, homeowners.

A side note to my apartment-dwelling readers:
this post isn't intended to make you feel bad about your current situation.
In fact, you'll probably be happier than ever about your living quarters,
once you hear a few of our stories.
Seriously.

;)

Story #1
Marty and I are walking around our new house.
I am wearing a respirator.
{I am not kidding. It's a full-blown, commercial grade gas mask.}
We're in the master bedroom, about to go downstairs and clean out cabinets,
when Marty decides to start pounding on the walls.
{At this point, I think he's crazy.
I soon learn that he is not.}
He says shhhhhh
pounds some more
and we listen to the sound of scratching, clawing, pattering feet
behind the wall.
Behind the wall.
In my bedroom-to-be.
More pounding from Marty; more clawing and hissing from animals behind the drywall.
I hear them scampering everywhere inside the walls.
An hour later, Marty, his dad, and brother are setting up a "humane" trap on the roof,
right outside the gaping hole on the roof that we never noticed before.
They bait the trap with a hot dog...

Needless to say, our hands are full right now.
My little sister is getting married in two weeks,
and we just bought a raccoon-infested house that smells.
Don't get me wrong; I'm ridiculously excited about the house.
But we have a sort of love-hate relationship going right now.
And I think it's therapeutic to share these stories with you all.
:)

Pictures to follow soon,
once I learn how to shoot with a respirator strapped to my head.