Our Thanksgiving

Absolutely so much to be thankful this year, it is overwhelming!

Michael and I spent this Thanksgiving with his mom's family earlier in the morning, then visited his dad's family that evening. Since both my mom and dad were visiting my brother in Texas this year, we only had two stops this year.

Michael's mother is an amazing cook who, thankfully, is quick to share all of her secrets and recipes with a young new wife, like me. I ALWAYS look forward to her meals, but I was especially looking forward to her Thanksgiving meal since it pretty much consists of some of my favorite foods: butter, carbs, fat, and butter. In that order.

Her meal, did not disappoint! I'm STILL enjoying slices of pie with the flakiest crust you've ever had (the extra pooch at my waist is proof of that). It was delicious food with a lot of laughs and memories.

Then later that afternoon, we picked up our stuffed bellies and drove them across town to Michael's grandparents' house. Again, delicious food and the love of a lot of family, greeted us. Michael's grandma always makes those quintessential American foods that are always a welcome site on the dinner table: yams with marshmallows, gooey macaroni and cheese, and green bean casserole. Not to mention, for the past few years my father-in-law has deep fried a whole turkey in peanut oil.

YUM.

Talk about the most moist turkey you have every tasted. Can you tell I enjoy eating? No? I guess I hide it well. ;)

So, as Thanksgiving ends and the rush of the Christmas season begins I've been stopping to think about what I'm thankful for this year, and every year. I saw a lot of people on social media sites listing all the things they were thankful for in their lives. At first, I wondered why I didn't feel the need to do so? Honestly, because I couldn't think of anything unique or remotely interesting to anyone else. But this is my blog and I'll do what I want!

Here it goes:

I'm thankful for patience. How patient is our God. We sin, we stumble, and he still comes looking for us and loves us. Just like he still came looking for Adam and Eve after the fall. I'm thankful that my husband is patient with my whining and absent-mindedness. I think I would drive myself up a wall, but he laughs and tells me to calm down and do one thing at a time.

I'm thankful for the work that I do. There are a number of days that I don't do much but clean up the house and cook meals. A lot of people would consider what I do as a wife to be mundane, work. Heck, even I think it's mundane most of the time. But I still find God in the things that I do. I find him in the food in our bellies, the warmth of our oven, the roof over our heads, the breeze while I carry laundry inside.

"We ought not to be weary in doing little things for the love of God.  For God does not regard the greatness of the work but the love with which it is performed."  -Brother Lawrence 

I practice seeing the joy and importance of what I am doing. There wouldn't be any dirty dishes in the sink if we didn't have food to eat. I wouldn't be doing loads of laundry if we couldn't afford clothes to wear, and there wouldn't be a floor to sweep if we didn't have a warm home around us.

I'm thankful for that. :)


Next time this week: Another beauty post!

An Easy Weekend

i'm always grabbing molly like this and kissing her on the face. i love how she reacts when her whiskers get tickled!

This weekend was a lazy weekend. Michael worked on Saturday so I spent the day watching chick-flicks, eating candy, and just being lazy! Sometimes I have such a difficult time relaxing, I'll often feel like there's something I should be doing. I'm sure that says a lot about me but I'm only human, right? :)

Sunday we spent time with one of Michael's oldest friends. It was a blast. His friends area always such crack ups and they are some of the kindest and most sincere people I've ever met. We went down to the beach and grabbed some lunch. I had a delicious bison burger and amazing curly fries. Yum!

While we were with Michael's friend I really got a bit of a wake-up call. He kept marveling at what a beautiful day it was and how great it is that we live so close to the beach. He couldn't stop admiring the day.

It got me thinking about how fortunate we really are to live here. I'm always saying that I'm not much of a beach person, I'd much rather live in the desert or the mountains. That beach town atmosphere just isn't my thing. But it is nice that we get to enjoy such lovely weather and just such a nice area. I mean, we are less than ten minutes away from a great area to watch the sunset, every night if we wanted to.

I know there are so many other people living in worse conditions or just in really unsafe neighborhoods. We are so blessed to live where we do.

This week don't have a whole lot coming up, just work and more work (and some more posts)! Thankfully this weekend we'll get to spend some time with Michael's family as we celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary!

Traveling North

This weekend Michael and I traveled up to northern California for a wedding. Two very good friends of ours were getting married in the Redwood National Forest. It was a gorgeous and really heartwarming wedding. I was definitely in tears at one point!

In the days leading up to the ceremony, we did a bit of exploring around the forest and the surrounding area. I don't have many pictures of our time in the forest since I really wanted to enjoy the scenery, and just take it all in.

When I have my camera I tend to constantly be scanning my surroundings trying to see what my next shot will be. Not to mention, my current camera bag isn't the most comfortable--it tends to pull my hair--so it gets a bit annoying to carry around. I really want to save up for something like this. I would prefer something that looks more like a purse, and not a backpack. Gotta save up for that one, though!

It was such a beautiful trip with just amazing views. The last few photos are from our day trip to Shelter Cove. This is a magnificent area that remains fairly undisturbed. If you're familiar with California beaches, you know that it is pretty difficult to find a beach that is empty, not full of shops, restaurants, or other businesses.

Shelter Cove is actually known as the Lost Coast. Instead of running along the edge of the coast, the Pacific Coast Highway came inland at this point since the terrain along this beach was so difficult to build on.

It was really peaceful and breathtaking. We had a blast on our trip, but it's definitely nice to be home.

Weekends and Apartment Hunting

What an absolute adventure this weekend has been!

Our weekend started on Thursday afternoon with a trip to Old Town Orange. We walked around, window shopped a little, and Michael got a haircut at a really great barbershop. The men in there were older, and looked like they had been cutting hair since they were my age. It was really neat. They told us about all the cool cars they used to own, and how much they paid for them when they were brand new (one guy paid $1900 for his brand new Chevy!!). Michael really enjoyed it since he had never gotten his hair cut at an actual barbershop.

photo by michael :)

Bright and early Friday afternoon we took off to continue our apartment search. You never realize how exhausting sitting in the car, driving around, writing down phone numbers can be, until you do it. My back was aching, Michael's legs were really bothering him, too. We were pretty exhausted, all around. 

As the day carried on, I was starting to feel a little discouraged. Most of the landlords we spoke to didn't really seem all that eager to rent their apartment. A lot of them were really rude and didn't want to take time out of their day to show us the apartment.

stopping for lunch and a churro

The apartments we did see were also not very nice. One apartment we were able to get inside of, looked pretty well taken care of outside. Once we got inside, it wasn't so bad--just on the older side--but the floors sloped down toward the center of the apartment. It was so strange! They made a V that ran down the length of the apartment. If we had tried to put furniture in there, it all would have wobbled. :/

The day did get better, though. We went over to Michael's uncle and aunt's home (near where we were apartment hunting) to babysit his son. Michael's uncle and aunt were going out on a little date and we were happy to babysit for them. Their son is such a crack up and he's a lot of fun to be around.

teaching michael to play the piano

Needless to say, by the end of the day on Friday, it was so nice to fall into our warm bed and sleep.

a drive-by night sky

Saturday started off a little slower. We knew we wanted to see some more apartments that day, so while I drank some coffee, Michael got some phone numbers and addresses and started calling managers and landlords. Nothing. Zip. No one was answering their phones.

We found some places online that looked really promising. We found one place that had French doors and a cute patio, but no one would pick up. We decided to drive down to the west side and see who would call us back. Eventually, a couple managers called us back. One said he would be available shortly to show us his place. We were pretty excited to see his apartment since it's only one level and it has only 4 units, total. A nice change from the the 30 unit building we currently live in.

When we got there, there were two other people to see his unit. I was so disappointed. As soon as I walked in, I loved the place. It was older, but had so much charm and character. Wood floors throughout, a shared garage, tons of storage, original tile in the kitchen. I loved it! The landlord told us he had just put the "For Rent" sign out the day before, and he suddenly had tons of people calling him, wanting to see the place. I felt like crying.

We had been searching of and on for a month, not really seeing anything that we liked a whole lot. Here was this place, that was old, charming, cute, and even had a front AND a back door. But I had to remind myself, Michael and I had been praying a lot about finding an apartment. I had to remember that God was in this, and we would find a place. Our whole reason for leaving our current apartment is so that Michael doesn't have to drive in an hour and a half of traffic to and from work. It's exhausting physically and mentally for him, and it's just not worth it, for us.

I wanted this apartment so much. The landlord was really friendly and wanted to know more about Michael and me. We told him we were married just under a year ago, and why we were moving to this area. He really seemed to enjoy learning about us. When we told him we loved his unit and were willing to put a deposit down that day. He said, "Ok, if you have the money, it's yours."

AHHH!! I wanted to scream! I was so exhausted from looking. I had been suffering from headaches and getting car sick every day from swinging my head around and quickly looking down to write down phone numbers, while in a moving car. I was so happy!! Michael was too, soon he would be home after work in under 30 mins.

in our new living room!

I am so thankful. I love the our new home, and I can't wait to move in! I will be sharing some more pictures of our new home, soon, so be sure to stop by!

Weekends and How I Sorta Like the Beach

This weekend was a lot of fun. Michael was out of town last weekend at a men's retreat, so we decided to spend time having fun together. We spend most weeknights at home watching our favorite TV shows and eating home cooked meals. So on Michael's days off, we make it a point to get out and go somewhere.

On Saturday we spent time cleaning up our bedroom, getting rid of things that  we don't need anymore. I'm a total believer in not keeping things around that aren't being used, you don't love, or don't have sentimental value. I just can't stand clutter!

Clutter literally keeps me up at night. If I go to bed aware of a drawer or shelf that has a bunch of unused items sitting in/on it, I'll obsess over it! I've been like that since I was a kid. I remember my parents putting me to bed, and being aware of an area of my room that was messy. I would quietly sneak out of bed, turn the lights on and start cleaning up my room. It wasn't until I was done that I could finally fall asleep! I'm weird, I know. :P

After cleaning up our bedroom and dropping a carload of stuff off at the Salvation Army, we went to hang out with my mom. She had been painting her living room the whole morning and wanted us to come over and have a look. She had originally picked out a grayish shade of blue for the walls, but when she went to buy the paint, the salesman convinced her it would make her living room look too dark. He offered her a brighter shade of blue. When she got home and painted the first wall, she was shocked. It was almost like an electric blue! Here's a picture of me, pretending to be at the beach in front of the painted wall:

i also clipped some succulents from my mom's garden and brought some home. so cute, huh??

It's just so bright for a living room!

Afterward, Michael and I went on a date to get some dessert at a cafe. I had a little cinnamon roll and a latte. Michael had a piece of cheese cake the size of his head and a latte.

He cracks me up so much. He claims to not love chocolate very much, but if you go out to a bakery or anywhere that serves dessert, he goes wild for anything super chocolatey. It's so funny to see his eyes get huge when he spots a double chocolate lava cupcake or something. I don't' even like chocolate very much, but that guy LOOOVEES it!

michael couldn't believe the size of the cake, either!

I love going on dates with him. We laugh just about the whole time. He'll make funny faces and I'll just laugh and tell him he's embarrassing me, and he just gets louder and crazier. I know that once we start having kids date nights will be a rare treat, so I really try to soak up the time we have now. It's so important that we connect and have a chance to remember why we fell in love, all over again.

Sunday we spent the day at the beach. Unfortunately, it was no picnic. We were invited to go surf fishing with an old friend of Michael's that he's known since high school. I was all for meeting one of his old friends and spending time in the sun, but when we got down to the beach it was MISERABLE.

I've never been the type of person who dreams of living in a house right the beach (I guess I'm not your stereotypical California girl). I'm the type of person who dreams of living on a farm in the mountains. But, I'm really trying to like it since we might be moving closer to the beach to be closer to Michael's job. Most days, the beach is great! I love sitting in the sand when it's a hot sunny day, and dipping my feet in the water, and watching all the little crabs and starfish in the tide pools. What I DON'T like about the beach, are those days when the wind doesn't STOP blowing! Grrrr!! I can't stand it!

Sand getting in my eyes, hair, ears, mouth... Blech! Not to mention, whenever there's a breeze anywhere near my ears, they start to hurt so much! Someone recently told me it has to do with the liquid in our ears. Whatever it is, my ears start hurting so much when I'm chilly or there's a chilly breeze. So sitting on the beach while a cold wind was blowing nonstop, was definitely not my cup of tea. I ended up only fishing for about 10 mins, before I decided to lay in the sand and tan my legs while everyone else fished.

I look like I'm having a blast, don't I?

In the end, spending time with Michael's friends was worth it, and I'm glad we got to go. Hope you all had a great weekend! What did you do?

Utah in the Spring

We had absolutely gorgeous weather while at the cabin, as you can see in my last post.

I just want to keep this post short and simple, and let the photos do all the talking. :)

I have a bunch more posts lined up featuring a lot more of my photography (along with the rest of Grace's senior session)!!

Also, check out my Where to Find Me page to talk about booking your session with me!

Thanks!

Weekend at the Cabin

This past weekend Michael and I went up to the cabin in Utah, to spend time with his family and help his dad out with a few things up there.

Whenever we're up there it's usually really difficult to come home. It's just so beautiful and peaceful. I can't help but feel so free. The cabin sits right against Bryce Canyon National Park so the land is government owned. That means no big development and not very many houses close by.

as you can see, we had GORGEOUS weather

I had another session while we were up there, this time senior pictures. Michael's cousin, Grace, is graduating from high school and heading off to college, soon! 

I'm in the process of editing her session still, so for now I'll only share a few photos.

Pretty lady, right??

And amazing scenery! I just feel so blessed and in awe that all these photos were taken right on our family's property. I feel so thankful that I get to experience God's beauty this way. 

I'm off to continue editing and working on some new posts, including a new recipe post. 

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

Sneak Peek: Grace

Here's a little sneak peak at my session with this little lady, Grace...

Isn't her hair, amazing?? Just wait until you see the rest of the photos. Michael went with me on this shoot and even he said her hair was amazing when the wind blew through it!

She was so much fun to shoot and I can't wait to share the rest of the pictures!

This weekend we plan on doing a lot of relaxing and spending time with friends and family. We also plan on visiting a food truck I've been stalking on twitter. I've never eaten from a food truck (except for one of those roach coaches ;P ), and I'm so excited to finally get to eat at one of these gourmet ones that have gotten so popular over the past few years. 

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

I'll be back next week with the rest of this shoot and some new photos to share. :)