Remind Me

If you haven't heard this duet by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood you may not grasp the title of this post.

One month from tomorrow Justin and I will celebrate our 6th anniversary.

As an early gift I surprised him with a trip to McCall, Idaho.

Despite some anxiety about being away from our kiddo for nearly four days, we left him in good hands with his auntie, uncle and cousin for the duration of our trip.

We relaxed.

We ate.
We conversed without toddler interruption.

We took in some beautiful scenery.

We simply enjoyed time to ourselves.

And we were a bit goofy for the camera.

"All those things that you used to do

That made me fall in love with you,

Remind me..."

Time to Sit Back & Enjoy the Music

Sometimes life gets so consuming that the very thought of sitting down to blog about it is enough to make me start yawning.

September ends today and the extent of my fall decor to date is a simple bowl of acorns on the buffet.

Sad.

Especially if you know how much I love fall.

But Bible study and church small group have started back up, I am running 20 miles a week right now, and Kendry is still rising by 6:30 a.m. every morning.

So I take my relaxation time wherever I can get it, even if it means a little blogging break.

Thats not to say I haven't been working on any fun projects.

I have.

I just don't have any final products to show you.

Except maybe for one.

Present exhaustion aside, two months of toddler air guitar got my creative juices flowing a bit last weekend.

Using a few items from our recycling bin, Justin and I whipped up this guitar in just a few minutes.

And Kendry loves it.

As long as you're taking requests, kiddo, how about some "Dreams" by the Cranberries to motivate my fall decorating?

Ten on Tuesday

{1}

Justin and I did a trail race together last weekend - him 2 miles, me 5 miles.
Brutal, I tell ya.

Puffer Butte Huff and Puff 2011

 

{2}

Remember that Washington State football game I mentioned a few weeks ago?

Here we are:

We had a wonderful time and Kendry did great. They also had a Coug Club play area for the kiddos, which was a fun bonus.

These photos mark the official start of Kendry no longer hiding from the camera. Much to my amazement, he looked directly at us and said "cheeeese!"

{3}

Its premiere week, baby!

[spoiler alert]

I was literally squealing with delight at the sight of Victoria returning to How I Met Your Mother.

In real life the actress is the little sister of Kimberly Williams-Paisley (aka Mrs. Brad Paisley) so how can you not love her?

But enough about celebrities...

 

{4}

Oh how Pinteresting!

I came across another AWESOME recipe on Pinterest and tried it this weekend.

Chicken Tamale Casserole

You have gotta try this one, folks.

{5}

Next up on Pinterest:
acorn crafts as fall decor.
I have been scavenging my work parking lot again this year for acorns.

They call me the acorn hoarder.

 

{6}
We have a little orange visitor who has taken up residence in our yard and carport over the last week.

Justin reminded me this weekend that he has always wanted an orange cat.
The jury is still out on whether we'll let her stay,
although the bowl of half and half we have so graciously left out for her the last two mornings might give you some indication of which way we are leaning.

{7}

Over the last week I suffered: (1) a near heart attack watching my kiddo tumble from the top of the monkey bars; and (2) the most embarrassing 'kids say the darndest things' moment.

Parenting ain't for the fainthearted.

{8}
Blogolution Update:
This, my friends, is how its done:

Hooray for baseboards finally being installed two years after our baseboard heaters were removed!

And I did it all by myself.
Mini wave in celebration of me! (name that show)

{9}

Now I'm gearing up to take this bad boy off his hinges again this weekend and finally make him pretty.

Between this and cleaning our windows, we're gonna be workin' up a good sweat come Saturday morning.

{10}
This Week's Blessing:

Not only did Justin and I get to do a run together Saturday morning (sans kiddo), but we finally got to see Transformers 3 at the $1 theater, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa.

Thank you so much for babysitting, Mikki and Richard!

I Have a New Crush

Oh, picnik!

Where have you been all my life?!

(a little shout out to Shelley over at House of Smiths for tipping me off to this fabulous site and giving a few basic editing tips)

I am a newbie to photo editing, but look what I did in just a few minutes with this one:

I actually love both the 'before' and the 'after' versions; the original photo was snapped by my BFF Amanda who takes beautiful pics anyway.

But this before and after shows you a few of the features available on picnik.

I confess - I am a sepia addict. And I like having the background a little blurred so the focus was on Kendry.

(When is it not, right?)

Plus, the wording on the photos and this simple collage format were both done on picnik.

Do you know what this means for my before and after project photos?!

The possibilities are endless...

{Note: I went ahead and paid for the premium picnik features ($25/year or $5/month) since I am absolutely smitten with this site.}

Here you can see the results of a few exposure, highlights, contrast and sharpen changes - essentially just a few clicks of the mouse:

I have been blogging for three years now and for the life of me I cannot tell you why I am only just now catching up with the photo editing world.

Who knew it was this simple?

Ten on Tuesday

{1}

Favorite quote of the month:

“Is there such thing as a cauliflower plant that only produces leaves for you to eat?”

-Justin-

If there is, babe, I'd say thats exactly what we’ve got:

Someone needs to tell this plant that its mid-September and we have yet to see its bounty.

And no, we are not going to eat the leaves.

 

{2}

Phooey on you, ninety degree weather!
I'm buying my pumpkin spice and peppermint mocha creamer just to spite you!

 

{3}

Did anyone really need an official study to know that SpongeBob Squarepants isn’t appropriate viewing for kids?

{4}
Over the last month Kendry's favorite question of "Do you have green eyes, Mommy?" has changed to "Are you sweaty, Mommy?"

Just peachy.

 

{5}

This (sweaty) mommy is ready to be done with the half marathon training.

Only 31 days to go.

 

{6}

I haven't had much time to create lately, although I did make this much needed sleeve for our laptop:

 Ain't she purdy?

I used this tuturial.

 

{7}

Maybe its cuz I'm a child of the 80's, but trendy or not, you will not catch me with a silly feather extension in my hair.

{8}

I wonder how much more I would accomplish if I spent less time on Pinterest and more time actually completing my 339 (and counting) pinned ideas...


{9}
Oh who am I kidding?
Its September and I've got season premieres to watch.
Later, gaters!

{10}

This Week's Blessing:

Spending time with family visiting from Germany.

Alex and Gisela: 

Dank für ihren Besuch Wir hoffen. sie genießen sie den rest ihrer Reise. Vielen Dank nochmal für die Geschenke für Kendry.

Segen für euch und den euren!