the blue sky year

I had to take a picture of the sky this morning. True to form, this Oregon winter has been rainy. But today, just in time for New Year's Eve, there is hardly a cloud in the blue, blue sky. A fitting finish to this beautiful year that was two-thousand-ten.

In 2010,

I started this blog... which means everything that I have posted about happened in 2010. : ) 

Through blogging, I have connected with so many like-minded people across the world, and I absolutely love reading all of your blogs. I never dreamed I would have 290 followers... ever. Thank you.

It has been a good, good year.

• I went on a cruise to Mexico.
• I was a bridesmaid in my brother's beautiful wedding.
• My other brother graduated from college
• I lost my step-grandma to cancer.
• I had an unusual, productive, and thought-filled summer.
• I fell in love with old movies.
• I fell in love with cupcakes.
• I watched several amazing 2010 movies--most notably 
• When in Rome, Alice in Wonderland, Inception, Robin Hood, Prince of Persia, and Tangled. It was a good year for movies.
• I fell in love with Gregory Peck.
• I read a lot.
• I climbed all the way to the top of Mt. St. Helens.
• I got two new nieces. 
• I began drawing.
• I fell even more in love with photography, and bought my DSLR, Lorenzo.
• I ate countless donuts and didn't gain any weight. : )
• I got to see my friend and my brother start a relationship that never ceases to amaze, delight, & amuse me.
• I changed a lot. I am happy and content and excited for the future.... which was not where I was last year.

Even though this year has had days of sobbing, on those days, there were shoulders to sob into and people to hold onto. It has also been one of laughing until my stomach hurts. It has been one of learning to hope. Learning that no matter what, God will come through.

He has been good.

We are having our annual party with a couple other families. It's not a fancy, wear-a-sparkly-dress kind of party... more like a comfy, food-filled, laugh-a-lot, in-the-country kind of party, where the girls watch chick flicks and the guys play strange world-domination board games and then at midnight, everyone gets together and drinks champagne and the guys shoot guns at the moment it turns the new year.

I hope your celebration is wonderful. 

Happy New Year.

Some of my beautiful birthday presents...

I had a birthday a couple weeks ago. :-) And I got some pretty awesome presents.

And...I haven't gotten around to doing a post about them until now.

I got up in the morning to find this on my computer!

My very own entire box of Krispy Kreme donuts, from Benjamin. :-)

I did share them.

A few of them.

Along with the cupcake liners and some other cupcake-making equipment, 

I got this book FULL of recipes. 

I can't wait to get started.

Lovely pashmina from my friend Beka... who got it in New York City! :-)

Red AND leopard spotted!

Leopard umbrella! It almost makes me excited for rainy days.

Benjamin gave me "When in Rome". We watched it that night... oh, wow. I love it so much.

Read my post about it here.

I also got an adorable polka-dot apron... I'll have to have a photo shoot with that sometime. ;-)

I did get some other awesome books and such, but these are the presents I wanted post about here. 

my favorite thing to sniff.

When the cherry blossoms finally burst, I immediately did what I do every year--acquire a substantial bunch of them and sniff long and hard. Not only is the smell the best in the world, but as I whiff it up, all of a sudden all these feelings come seeping in.

It's that feeling of pure freedom...  having the whole day to run wild, barefoot in soggy grass. Knee-deep, complicated quarrels with my best friend, Sam. Finishing my laundry folding in record time and calling up to their house and asking if he and his sister Juli could come down the hill to play.

Swinging on this swing set. Going as high as it would go, and grabbing bits of the tree with my toes. 

Climbing the one tree that wasn't so inappropriately prone to stabbing me with pokey branches. Eating an apple and reading, reading, reading.

Laying on the ground and getting moist because the ground just isn't dry in springtime.

Hay-bale-twine bow-and-arrows and carved-wood daggers and epic battles and spy drama. Dying heroes. Indians creeping quietly around the back of the house.

Dashing into the barn when it poured, and using the hay bales and pallets as a whaling ship. Listening to the rain pound on the sheet metal roof.

Those sparkley days when the problems are so small. When the conflict is on whether Sam's character can be named Lafayette, or if I will tyrannically bully him into letting me be Lafayette. Gosh, Sam. I'm the one who has a crush on the guy.

Now we're all huge and I jolly well don't fit in that cherry tree anymore. Last time I got on the swings... the yellow seat busted.

And even though the cherry trees aren't blooming as thick as they used to, and we have a million-and-one things to worry about and not enough imagination or time to run around like mad and fight and scream and laugh and pretend that we're everything and everyone but ourselves,

life is awesome. in a different way. and I still get to sniff my trees once a year.


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(those of you who took this button early yesterday... please change your codes, because that one was wrong. :P )

Strawberry Lemonade = Nectar of Life

Yesterday was hot. So Bethany made strawberry lemonade. Did I mention that strawberry lemonade is on my top ten life essentials? Anyways... we drank way too much.

And then got silly.

LOL. That's all there is to say about this picture.

Sam, Juli, and Bethany

Juli looks like a poodle skirt girl here for some reason...

Mexico!

So I haven't posted in awhile... and that's because I was in Mexico! My sister, Bethany and Grandy and I went on a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise. 

It was amazing.

 

Cabo San Lucas

This adorable fenced-in area was the Naval Base!

The back of my lovely sister's head. :-)

We went to Starbucks in Puerto Vallarta. Notice "Descafeinado" instead of "Decaffeinated". ;-)

I want to live in this house. 

This was a really cool statue thing on the promenade by the ocean. I want her dress!

A view of our cruise ship from the beach in Cabo. 

happiness

 I, 

lover of blue skies,

the Spanish language,

water,

getting away from this dreary Oregon winter,

eating lots of food,

and Mexicans,

am going on a cruise to Mexico...

...in three weeks!

We went in April, with my sweet step-grandma...

this time Bethany and I are going with my mom.

I'm going to revel in taking hundreds of photos with my new camera, and am going to eat way more food.

Cruises are the best, because you pay a flat fee for your meals, so that when you are on the ship, 

you can consume as much steak, lobster, ice cream, donuts, fruit loops, 

and fresh-squeezed orange juice as you jolly well want to.

I take advantage of that, let me tell you.

 Last time we never ate any food on land.

I am SO not passing up that opportunity again--

real, authentic Mexican food!

In other news, I've been eating leftover Christmas cookies constantly for the last two days.
And my sister and brother-in-law gave me the beautiful camera strap that I've been longing for.

from eclectic whatnot

And I have a brand-spanking-new blog button, which makes me way happier than my last one.

Here ya go.

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* happiness *

Today, I am running on that high that comes from having gone mall-shopping for the first time in months. 

From wearing two ponytails while tripping around the mall because none of my friends or sisters were with me to be embarrassed. (Moms don't suffer humiliation from pig-tailed daughters--they're cool like that.) 

From defying the odds by finishing the huge burrito and the adorable strawberry shortcake cupcake. 

From having just bought the cutest blue-and-white striped dress this side of heaven. The coupon code and unexpected free shipping brought it to only $18. I love everyone.

From having the comforting assurance of a cinnamon-roll-and-Mexican-love-song-filled, breakfast-in-bed-with-a-movie, photo-editing, Gone With the Wind reading kind of Saturday stretched out in front of me. 

From finally being caught up with my crazy life so I can post here again. Because I missed you. {:(

From sitting here in my plush pink pajama pants with margaritas and polka dots and strawberries on them,

and posting sunshiney pictures. : )

On St. Patrick's day, I got to do a long-awaited photo shoot with my seriously lovely friend Rebekah... the one who my brother is courting. : )

Our prayers for a dry couple hours in the middle of our moody spring were answered. On our way to downtown Vancouver, we were literally driving out from under the grouchy black rainclouds, into the sparkley sunshine. There was even a rainbow. I LOVE GOD. 

The fact that the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom made everything even better. : ) Plus I was wearing hot pink fingernail polish. That's a win/win situation right there.

Rebekah is crazily photogenic. She looked amazing in basically every single one of the 500 photos that I took.

Basically, right when I started to love doing photo shoots and portrait photography, thanks to my DSLR, the sun disappeared from our lives here in Oregon. So I hadn't gotten to play with sunshine at all in my photo shoots.

Suffice it to say, I am now in love with the sun in a major way. I mean, we were always close, but now I have experienced the thrilling delight of incorporating it into photography, and now I scream, "please please please sun, never leave me!" even more often.

She could totally be a supermodel.

Right about here I was like, "Rebekah, why in the world don't you have a fashion blog?? I could be your photographer..." : ) 

Her style is gorgeous, plus she's a natural poser.

Polka dot umbrella--yes.

The most rewarding thing about this photo shoot was how happy it made my brother. : ) We looked at the pictures together and he kept smiling and saying, "She's so pretty..." in a sighing, satisfied, dopey kind of way. 

Now I'm off to eat delicious and unhealthy food and watch a movie in bed. Let me know if you have any Netflix-instant suggestions. : )