For the love of {florals}

Florals, florals, florals.

I just can't get enough of them this spring. 

In other news, I'm bad at blogging these days.

If you need me I'll be riding my bike, day-dreaming over Anthropologie catalogs, and planning frantically for the upcoming weekend! Two of my long-time besties are getting married (no, not to each other) and I just can't wait to celebrate their big days! 

Have a happy, flowery spring week!

Images via: illustrious illusions, honey houses, hannah rose beasley, grey likes weddings, deer circus

{give thanks}

I am thankful for this season, for both the joys and the pains, the delights and the sorrows, the summery days and the wintry nights, the friendships and struggles and bonds forged with fire. I am thankful that through all the darkness there is beauty and light, that through suffering God shows His character, that through my weakness, over and over again He proves unfaltering and unfailing in love and compassion. I am so thankful for faithful friends and uplifting family and for a partner perfectly suited to all my needs. I give thanks for you, too, my internet friends both near and far who faithfully uplift me with your kind comments and thoughts and prayers. Have a happy, blessed Thanksgiving!

Images via: chocoladesigns, 1001 gardens, a little bit etc,

{in pink}

Starting tomorrow, Phillip and I are flying off for a week to the magical land of Seattle! We'll be visiting my lovely and delightful cousin Tiana during her last week as an intern with the Seattle Children's Theater. She's pretty incredible and talented. We'll be visiting the local sites, eating our hearts out, shopping, drinking some famous coffee, and splashing in puddles to our hearts content. At least, that's what I'm hoping for!

It's cloudy in Denver today and I'm getting in the mood by drinking my coffee hot and packing up all my cutest things. 

Sorry about the silence around here, I feel like I only pop in to tell you I'm popping out! 

Hope you all are doing well! Shoot me an email or a comment and let me know if you've ever been to Seattle and what I should do there!

Images via: OldEnglishCo, Flickr, Free People, We Heart Photography

*yawn

Oh, hi Monday. You arrived way too quickly.

The weekend flew by delightfully. I pretty much started playing on Thursday night with a special sneak peek showing of Man of Steel and never really slowed down until last night. My brother Isaac and sister in law Melissa came to town and I spent Friday afternoon driving around with them, drinking coffee, and antiquing. They dropped me off at my house and I immediately ran out the door to have dinner with some friends. We didn't get home until 1:30am.

And then we were up and at 'em again bright and early Saturday morning. Isaac, Melissa, Phillip and I went up to Castlewoood Canyon State Park to hike. 

Isaac displays his superiority over the boulder.

The man-made dam. I climbed up this monster, there were giant steps I had to lunge up that really make your buns burn. Yay!

And the gorgeous view from the top. 

A beautiful butterfly on a cactus flower. I love this state. 

After the hiking there was an old car show, a late lunch at a pastry shop, gelato, more antiquing, and general sibling fun. We got home, scarfed down a quick dinner, and hurried over to our friends house to work on costumes for The Dirty Dash.

On Sunday we were again up bright and early to compete (I use that word loosely) in our first fun run! I signed up for this while I was still on crutches as a motivator and I'm so glad I was able to finish, even if there was no "running" on my part.

Pre-race. The four of us were Power Rangers. 'Cause we're cool like that. 

Phillip and I, post-race. There were tons of obstacles, like hay bales to leap and walls to climb and muddy pits to crawl through. We had an absolute blast. Also, please note my tutu. Also, these pics were stolen from Terra.

After showers and another late lunch we hung around with Darren and Terra until evening, when we came home to finally rest and eat popcorn for dinner. 

And that is the story of why I am so tired. 

I hope you had an absolutely fantastic weekend!

{you are}

Happy 18th Birthday to my important, deserving, loving, intelligent, worthy, compassionate, beautiful, creative, inspiring, brave, true, strong and able sister! I hope you realize how truly wonderful you are! Love you!

For the love of {sisters}

{brilliant} weekend

 

My cousin is coming to town this weekend to audition for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. She is amazing and brave and I can't wait to bum around with her.
I can assure you there will be many anglophile references and hopefully a lot of tea. 

Boulder isn't quite London, but a couple of girls on the loose in any city can and will get up to something wonderful. 

I hope you have a fantastic, brilliant weekend!

So your friend is infertile: What {not} to do.

1. Please don't bring up my infertility loudly and in front of a large group of people. It's a very private thing, and I don't necessarily want to share my deepest hurts and desires with all those other people. Conception is very closely related to sex, and my sex life is MY business. Also, #1 can directly lead to #2....

2. If I don't personally tell you about or share my infertility with you, you don't need to bring it up just because you heard about it. For some reason, I'm not yet comfortable sharing that part of my life with you, and you bringing it up can be really painful for me! You may think you're being sensitive, but you're not. If/when I want to talk about it with you, I will.

3. For the love of all that is holy, please stop telling me stories about random people you are related to, know, or heard about who "had infertility" and then got pregnant. These stories DO NOT HELP. I already have to face all the women around me getting pregnant. I have to smile and congratulate them and, although I am truly happy for all pregnant people, it still hurts. I'd rather you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it, than that you tell me that more and more people (who I don't even know!) are pregnant. When I hear you say "I just want to encourage you" followed by a story, piece of advice, etc,  I just want to scream. I'm terribly sorry, but generally I am NOT encouraged by your story. Just because it happened that way for someone else doesn't mean it will happen for me. 

4. I don't really want or need your advice. Just today I was told to a) look up mandrakes in Genesis 30, because they are good for conception, and b) try standing on my head for 15 seconds during sex. Unless I directly ask for your advice (or if you're my mom. moms get free reign. deal with it.) then you can just go ahead and assume that I've already heard of that drug, herb, technique, etc. Either it hasn't worked or I've ruled it out as something I'm uncomfortable with. I'm a big girl, I can research, talk to my doctor, and seek advice on my own. 

5. Please don't try to come up with reasons why this is happening to me. Trust me, I ask God "Why?" a lot, but I'm pretty sure that, should He choose to answer, that answer will be directed at me, not you. If you think I'm infertile because of sin, health, or even because I just can't handle children, you can keep that to yourself. Go ahead and believe whatever you want about the reason, but I really don't want to hear it. 

6. Even with other women who struggle with infertility, I really try not to say that I know exactly how they feel, what they are going through, etc. There is no way that I can have experienced that exact pain, and so I try not to compare. But if you have never gone through infertility, please don't say "I know how you feel. I really wanted children" etc, because chances are, you have no idea what this feels like, and I might resent you for pretending like you do.

Of course there are a million ways to be a good friend to someone with infertility! Pray for us, please! If your close friend is infertile, and she talks to you about it, you really don't need to be afraid of saying the wrong thing! I personally do want to hear about your pregnancy, to hold your baby, etc. I also appreciate you sensitively knowing when to stop talking about babies and change the subject. If you are close to someone with infertility, she'll probably tell you when she wants to talk, and when she doesn't. 

Listen as best you can, offer advice if asked, and just be there for her. If you really must say something, "I'm sorry" is a good go-to! You can also try "That sounds hard/awful/scary/etc." As humans, we tend to feel the need to always relate, to say something, to have our own comparable story to tell, but that's really not helpful to a friend in any kind of crisis. I'm not going to relate to your child birth pain/story. I can only sympathize and remind you of how brave you have been. And you can do the same for me. 

Zen Wednesday: {happy}

This is how I feel about Emily coming to town today.

Now I gotta go sweep the floors so she won't know how messy I really am! 

Happy Wednesday!

A {mad hatter} Tea Party

Hello! Prepare for photo overload!

My friend Shannon, my mom and I, with the help of my sisters, mother-in-law, and many others, threw an Alice in Wonderland themed Bridal shower for Brie. Brie is currently on her honeymoon in Europe, and for that I hate her. Just kidding. I love her. 

Anyway.

Here are some photos of the foods and decor. Some of it I'm super proud of. Some of it I can't take any credit for. 

Shannon and I made dozens of mini fresh fruit tarts. I'm not going to lie, they were probably the most work and also the biggest hit of the shower. But now that I'm experienced and all, I really hope to make them again!

The guest list was over sixty people. Fortunately for us, not all of them showed up ;)  

Cucumber sandwiches. 

Shannon made two different kinds of scones - savory cheddar chive and blueberry. She's awesome. And they were delicious. My only contributions in this department involved burning a batch of scones and making clotted cream. 

Paper pom-poms were everywhere thanks to my mother-in-law! She also helped me make that garland out of a thrift store book. It seriously wound all over the house, and then they were able to re-use it as a wedding decoration.

We had people write a note/advice/etc to the bride and groom.

What's a bridal shower without fresh flowers and chocolate!? I am proud to announce that I arranged all the flowers. Also, the ones in jars served as prizes for the one game we managed to come up with.

Shannon made this hilarious balloon caterpillar! He is even smoking! We were going to have a garden tea party outside, but it rained off and on all day long, so we had to stay inside. 

My sister Sophie hung streamers in the entryway and they were super fun. 

A tiny "eat me, drink me" tray.

I think the drinks bar was my favorite! Apparently there are no good pictures of it anywhere, but we made fruit ice cubes to go in lemonade, water, and iced tea, and coffee ice cubes for iced coffee with flavors and cream. Those coffee ice cubes are now a staple in both my mom's house and mine.

All the bridesmaids helped us out by bringing fruits, veggies, cheeses and crackers, green chile and cream cheese roll-ups, etc. There was TONS of food, and it was good. My mom made the most delicious pasta salad known to man, and it was even gluten free. I gotta get that recipe, mom!

My sister Lydia made this hilarious disappearing Cheshire cat climbing the chimney. It was a little creepy but cool.

Here's the beautiful bride opening her gifts. 

I have to thank Michelle and my mother-in-law Kimberlae for the pictures, because I didn't manage to take a single one! I really gotta work on that. 

{today in the forest}

Randy and Brie, 

I am so glad you found each other. 

I am thrilled to share a small part of your big, wonderful day,

to see you off on your greatest adventure.

I pray you will learn daily to be that perfect person for each other.

I love you both!

{tuesday}

                                                                         Source: thevow.tumblr.com via Daniella on Pinterest

I'm on the run with errands and obligations galore today and tomorrow, but tonight I'm going to slow it down just a bit with a girl's night! We're going to see a movie at the Movie Tavern, where you get served dinner right in your seat! Phillip's been studying his brains out for a major test coming up at work, but with him away at school, tonight's my chance to whoop it up! Hope your Tuesday's swimming along nicely!

Soul-mates

I never really believed in soul-mates. I know that's shocking, but it's true.

I never quite bought into the belief that you could be destined to love someone, that there was only one possible person for you, and that nothing could change that, even if it was wrong or unhealthy or unsafe. 

But don't feel sorry for me, I'm married to an equally unromantic soul, who strongly believes that love is a choice. And I think I'm lucky. My husband chooses to love me, every day, and there's something so sweet, so romantic, so real about that choice. 

He doesn't have to choose to love me, but he does.

But I like this idea, that soul-mates are just the people who make you the most you. 

 I can definitely believe in soul- mates like Anne of Green Gable's believed in "kindred spirits," those people who innately understand you, who's spirit's are like yours in some undefinable way.

Last night I had a short pity party, a small little cry, because I was aching for my family and friends. I knew moving would be hard, but mostly I've enjoyed it. But there are moments when my new friends are not enough, they are not quite right, they are not quite the same as the old ones, the ones who are my soul-mates, with whom I feel truly myself. 

I may never be as completely comfortable here as I was in my home town, with everyone and everything I knew. And I can live with that, mostly. 

But I miss you, soul-mates. I miss being me, with you.