1.14.2012

1.13.2012

DREAM MAKER.

on the eleventh day of the instagram challenge, i was suppose to take a picture of where i dream at night. i was oh so excited about this one because i love our bedroom. as you may know, my sweetie and i just bought our very first house. jordan grew up doing drywall and so on the first tour of our new home he said that all the walls would have to be skim coated when we moved in. i was busy falling deeply in love with a window seat and planning s'more making parties for a fireplace and covertly testing out the hardwood floors for dancing, so at the time i just nodded and said, "yes, definitely skim coating, uh huh."

well, it turns out that skim coating makes a mess and i don't mean a manageable mess. i mean dust that is somehow unable to be vacuumed or swept up in every crevice of your house. dust that follows you to work on your favorite frye boots and sneaks into the lid of your coffee cup and makes a home on the nose of your black pup. about a week after we moved in jordan started skim coating the bedroom and i immediately turned into the worst version of myself. i said things like, "why can't we just paint... i hate skim coating... when will this be done?" i know, i know, terrible wife behavior. in the middle of this project i had to leave town for a work conference. usually when i leave i choose to imagine jordan sitting on the couch surrounded by ice cream containers and frozen pizzas, a pup under each arm, weeping because he misses me so much. however, on this particular occasion i was unable to conjure up that image. instead i envisioned him dancing around in his underpants like tom cruise in risky business, glad to get me out of his hair because i was being oh so delightful about the skim-coating.


five days later i returned. i had forgotten almost forgotten about the skim coating and was just glad to be home. after five nights in a hotel, sleeping in a city a time-zone away, i didn't care about returning to the mess. i was just excited to hug my sweetie and pet my pups and look at my house and think, "i bought that. i'm a grown-up." in the back of my mind i knew that the house would probably still be filled with white dust, but i didn't care anymore. i was just glad to be home.

but when i walked in the front door i was greeted by two jumping pups and no dust. jordan walked me back to our bedroom and in an instant i knew why he had insisted on doing all that stupid skim coating. our walls looked like white porcelain, like fondant from a wedding cake, like snow. a room that had looked a little more tired than vintage had come to life.

now our bedroom is my favorite room in our house. i'm so lucky that i have my sweet husband to teach me that its okay for life to be a little messy sometimes.


1.12.2012

RAISED BY HIPPIES.


when i was born my parents lived in a log cabin on acres and acres of land. in the winter they strapped me into the backpack and cross-country skied to their friends' houses or into town. in the summer i went back into the pack as they traveled to tropical locations or went on hikes or played horseshoes in their backyard. i like to think that someday when i have kids i'll discover that our family has inherited that same adventurous spirt.

1.11.2012

BITS + PIECES.



BOY CRAZY STACY

these books are on shelf in my classroom and no one ever reads them. i have been teaching for eight years and not one student has ever picked up a babysitters club book, much less devoured the entire series like i did when i was nine. i wanted to be stacy. she was oh so brave and knew so much about boys and music. i decided to bring home boy crazy stacy and now, as i read it, instead of thinking stacy should go for it with the older boy, i find myself worried that she is going to get herself into trouble. i want to yell, "stacy! that stupid scott is going to break your little heart. he's such a douche bag. sure, he's a lifeguard and that seems really rad, but i promise he'll still be managing an applebees in ten years and that is not something you want to get all tangled up in. don't waste your time." i think she should go learn to paint or start playing the oboe or learn mandarin. i guess that's why i'll never be stacy.

which babysitter did you want to be?

1.03.2012

PUPS.

there is nothing i adore more than my little one eyed wonder. sure he may have itchy skin and he may only have one eye, but he loves being the little spoon and he sings happy birthday. the perfect pup, i'd say.

sigh. look at that face.

1.02.2012

I'LL TAKE THAT CHALLENGE

there is a photo-a-day challenge circulating instagram right now. it's fun to slow down and capture bits and pieces of my life in pictures. oh, and snooping peeking into the lives of my friends isn't too bad either.