Theme Thursday: Shadow

I have dropped off the earth as far as blogging has been concerned. I'm still here and alive with no news to share other than I am off enjoying my August.

 

I know I've said it before but I love August. The. Best.

 

Today C and I went to the zoo. It was great because we got there right exactly as they opened and hit the outdoor trail and it was basically just us. It was almost like our own private zoo for a minute. There were only two other units of people. And one mom sped way up, one toddler pitched a fit so they slowed way down and we were evenly spaced one family per exhibit.

In all that splendor of peace and quiet in the humid-but-not-so-much-you-want-to-die-yet outdoors I grabbed my phone and got this. It doesn't really begin to truly capture the moment of alone time we shared or the zoo trip as a whole but we had a really great time. He is such a good kid.

 

 

 I'm going to go back to enjoying my August and you have a wonderful day!

Theme Thursday: Food

All together now "Food, Glorious Food! Don't care what it looks like!" (That's from Oliver! if you aren't all theatrey and stuff. I never know if people will get my odd references.) But after our song is over I'll get to the point which is that it is Thursday. And this week's theme is, in fact, food. And I did care what it looked like if I am being honest.

And since I'm being honest, I have been looking forward to this theme for a LONG time. When the July/August schedule went up I started planning which of course means that Tuesday night/Wednesday morning Midnightish I decided on Chocolate Chip Cookies and milk. Since we had all the stuff. And I had no more ideas.

So after making cookies and setting up the shoot and all that good stuff, well it left me with these two pictures.

This one is my favorite.

This one was taken after I lost my fabulous light.
But I like the cookie plating better.

Of course what you don't see is all the out takes including different background objects, glasses and cookie plating, including just using a pile of cookies. Overall this was a really fun theme for me and um bonus, now I have cookies. I am really enjoying learning about the good camera and angles and light. I don't think I am going to go pro or anything but gosh I am glad my pictures look better than they did before. Learning every week I tell you.

Linking up because that's what I do. See you next week for shadow. I don't know what I am going to do for that yet, all I can think of is Homeward Bound at the end. Where Peter says "He was too old. He was just too old." And then the golden retriever comes limping up over the hill and they run towards each other yelling "Peter!" "Shadow!" Which really has nothing to do with anything and I should have just waited until next week to share this little tidbit. But then I wouldn't be me. 

Theme Thursday: Faith

Faith.

It's so much more than simple Religion to me. Not that there is anything simple about religion. Religion is very very complicated. But religion is simply one thing. One spoke in the wheel.

I can't think of anything more reliant on faith than marriage. I don't care how long any couple has known each other or prepared. You can be the most prepared couple in the world and marriage is still an epic leap of faith. Look at us. Standing on the altar of the most beautiful church I've ever been in. It's home to me. Standing in a place where my grandparents were also married and my mother was baptized. Sure I know there are a lot of gorgeous churches. I know. But none will ever be as pretty because they aren't mine in the same way. I didn't become an adult in the church and then marry in any other place. Just steeped in my own good faith.

We were two people willing to put all our faith in each other and God. Good times have come, bad times have come, and both kinds of experiences will continue to come. But we chose each other. In a deep, you jump I jump, kind of way. I have no idea if anyone sitting there watching us was betting on us to succeed or to fail. I know that happens. But it doesn't matter because we bet on each other and we are not willing to lose. We put all our eggs in one basket. We have faith.

In many ways Marriage is the scariest sacrament. And I think it continues to be scary. In a society that is confused as to what marriage is entirely. A society that gives you an out so very easily. We still choose each other. Choose faith. And that is a beautiful thing indeed. What do you know. I had something to say about our marriage after all.

It may be a cop out because I obviously didn't take the picture but this is faith to me. Getting married, in a place of faith, in the Church of Truth, surrounded by the most important people in the world to me? My faith is solid. Linking up with Cari on this Theme Thursday of Faith.

Leather?

It is our third anniversary today. Which seems quite unreal if you really want to know. It seems longer and shorter all at the same time, if that makes any sense at all.

Today is another perfect weather day, so I am pretty excited about that! Our wedding day was hot (because it's August and that's normal.) I love August. I just love it. It is beyond my comprehension that schools have started here because, it's the 14th!! But they have. Which is actually pretty good because when we go out to dinner tonight it probably won't be as crowded.

We are celebrating with a C free dinner. He is officially at the not-so-hot in restaurant age and it will be nice to spend some time just with Husband tonight. The traditional third year gift is leather... so we are going out for steak and rescuing pieces of meat from becoming leather. Because there's nothing worse than an overcooked steak.

I don't know that I have anything particularly exciting to say about marriage. There are all these profound marriage posts out right now, the stories of how everyone met are running rampant... and I feel for whatever reason completely unable to write anything other than statements.

In three years we have managed to pack a lot in and all the day to day ebbs and flows through. Like anything there are good days and bad days, clean house days and not so clean house days. And funny enough good days seems to coincide with clean house days. We have learned a lot and we're still learning. But I don't regret a single second of it.

Big weekend!

C had his first real hair cut on Saturday! No more perpetual bed head for him. He did so good, mostly just ate his sucker , see all the drool on his cape? He loved it. I am quite certain in his head the highlight was the sucker. A guy never forgets his first sucker. 

He also got 2 new teeth on Sunday bringing the grand total to 6. 

Pretty exciting stuff. 

Theme Thursday: Statues

Well here we are again at Thursday. Gosh the weeks go fast.

Cari has set us up with statues for this week... and you're going to have to forgive me for not being a super linkupper and going to find a statue. Sorry. The one that I had in mind to have gone to is actually blocked off right now because they're repointing the building right behind it. (Chiseling out the mortar and refilling it.) 

But Husband's company gets a suite at the minor league team on a pretty regular basis, and last night was his department's turn. The crazy 93% humidity broke during nap and it was a gorgeous August night. I hadn't had such a good time out in a long while, I love fun family outings and this one took the cake. Free parking, free food, free beverages and free entertainment? Yes please.

We had a really good time. And up on suite level there is a case of all of these bobble heads. Which are like figurines or mini statues kind of... well they'll have to do. 

It was one of those really good nights as a family. There was even a point when C was super snuggly and in his Bjorn, and it was just the three of us out in the seats. And yeah there were co-workers there so we weren't alone all night, but they all liked C and we had a good time watching the game and making side comments about other people. Good stuff. As the token kid in the suite C even got a mini bat from one of the guys! Which he loves. And he really liked looking at the bobble heads on our walks. 

Plus after a week to recoup from all the hustle and bustle of the end of July I was ready to get out of the house and do something. And I love something where we can go all together and not have to track down a babysitter. :) 

Catch all the other statues over at Clan Donaldson. I'm sure they're lovely! 

My Sock-Drawer-Hamper-Thing

The dryer eats them. They run away. They fly out of the duffle bag (which is not recognized by blogger spell check.) and apparently land on the side of roads, parking lots, parks or anywhere else you may venture.

I'm talking about socks.

I am in charge of laundry at our house. I love doing laundry. I don't even mind folding clothes. But I have issues putting things away. And matching socks.

We have a little mesh popup hamper and in the nearly three years of our marriage it has become the sock drawer. Unmatched sock drawer. In the morning before work, Husband will grab the hamper put it on the bed and dig through to find a matching pair. It's not really practical. But somehow instead of matching socks right out of the laundry they just make it to the sock-drawer-hamper-thing and they live there. Clean and unmatched.

We like to fold our socks differently. If you're like me you're scratching your head and thinking how many ways can you fold socks? I am, what I thought was, the traditional method user. I match the socks and roll them into each other in a ball. Husband matches the socks and folds them over once, and loops the top part so they stay together a little. We've never had a fight about the socks. A little banter at times. Annoyance certainly when you get your socks in your not preferred method of folded. It's kind of a good metaphor for relationships. We like to do things our own way. We can try to force the other person to try it our way for a while. But in the end, if you just accept the person for who they are, things work out. And in our marriage: working it out means not matching or folding them at all. But just commingling them in our sock-drawer-hamper-thing.

In our sock-drawer-hamper-thing there are all the socks. Dress socks, athletic socks, old socks--we are non-discriminatory. Until today. I set out to match all the socks. And while weirdly folding Husband's socks I decided it was time.

If the socks didn't have a match at the end, if they had a hole on the ball of the foot,  (Husband's socks--seriously he has a whole collection of them.) or were just gross--they didn't get to stay. I love buying new socks, there is little more satisfying to me than wearing a pair of socks for the first time. But instead of cycling through socks and getting rid of old ones, I just accumulate more. Ridiculous. And apparently my love language is gifting socks because I buy Husband at least 2 dress pair and 2 packs of casual socks for every birthday/Christmas. I think I get this love of new socks from my dad.

But it was ridiculous. Even in the worst situation I think I can manage laundry twice a month, which means we need 14 pairs of socks each. And we have WAY more than that. So I sorted them out, got rid of the gross ones and made sure all socks had a match. Here's what I learned:

1. Adidas has made a killing on socks from just me. I don't think I even have 4 pair that aren't Adidas. 
2. Gold Toe dress socks have also made a killing from me. 
3. Men's dress socks are so weird. They just are. 
4. I have a definite preference in style of socks and Husband is just coming along for the ride. I got rid of all the calf height athletic socks of his. I know they're old because I never bought them and I am almost certain I have bought him every pair of socks he's had in the past 7 years. 
5. It feels good to have a less full, matched and sorted sock-drawer-hamper-thing

Okay so I admit, I have a handful of socks with no match that are good quality in good condition just in case their match shows up, but still, it feels good. It's the little things you know?

All ready to go back upstairs.