Easier than I thought

I was surprised Saturday at just how easy it was to have everything cleared out of my apartment and on the truck. I was standing in the dining room with trash and traces of a ‘man’s’ move everywhere and didn’t feel much of anything.

A part of me thought I’d feel something. A little emotion, sadness, a tug at the heart, but it was weird. I just stood there with an indifference. The moving day was such a whirlwind. My Dad showed up at 6:45..thank goodness I was up and about already drinking my Dunkin’, and by 8 the first helper showed up. By 8:15, 4 more showed up and by 8:30 2 more. I was shocked so many gave up a part of their Saturday morning to help me move.

My friend provided the donuts and orange juice, along with my entertainment (the only other female with me), and the guys were able to knock the entire move out in an hour. It remained a fun day. Who can say moving day was fun and not stressful? Well, I actually can! This is a rarity, I do realize.

After strapping everything down nice and tight, we got started on the 1 1/2 hour drive, and though I felt guilty, I passed my Dad with the trailer on the freeway so I could drive ‘my speed’. 55mph doesn’t sit well with me. Only my Dad and I were around to unload everything into my storage unit, but we managed to complete it in a little over an hour and keep everything light. A Christmas miracle indeed. Especially when I saw my new dresser leg had a scuff and my couch had dust all over it. Biting the tongue comes in handy at this point.

Its hard to throw fits when I think of all the help I had that morning.

I went back to the apartment yesterday to finish off the cleaning to return all the keys, and again it wasn’t weird. After meeting with the landlord who gave me two thumbs up on the cleanliness, I walked through one last time for good measure and said goodbye.

..I said goodbye to an apartment. Ok, that’s weird, but its what I do.

After so much stress and being so overwhelmed, it was a relief to find I wasn’t attached to this place. Maybe deep down I always knew it wasn’t where I would stay, where I’d settle, so I never allowed myself to have that emotional attachment to it, who knows, but I closed the door one last time and didn’t look back.

I see a lot of new things. A lot of adventures and that fresh start I talk (to myself) so much about. This is it.

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You’re a good friend when

Guys! GUYS!! I’ve been absent for some time, I know.. I probably should say ‘guy GUY!’..kidding.

Things have been crazy, and hectic and insert every non topic specific line that will stay vague because I’m just not up for delving into things just yet, BUT I had one of those weekends, and I had to come back to life.

You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones that have cool things happen, where things go your way and you’re left giggling like a little girl even though you’re fighting to control yourself in front of complete strangers but continue to giggle any way… yeah, those! And I actually had one! And I actually giggled..a lot.

Saturday I had a yard sale. Yes, another one! But this time I actually used my brain and instead of troubling friends to use their front lawns, I decided to use the apartment complex’s front lawn that sits right up against the main street. Why didn’t I think of this sooner, I will never know. I set up all the things I wanted to sell and in my mind, it was a lot. In the mind of passer-bys it apparently didn’t look that ‘big’. Regardless, my goal was to get rid of as much as I possibly could, and it worked! Furniture, kitchen things, tables, chairs, you name it, I really wanted to sell it.

It was such a great success. I rewarded myself with a nap, ice cream, a movie and a cheeseburger from Sonic. Something I never do, but the craving for red meat was more than I could bare and Sonic is the only decent burger joint here.

Sunday I made my way to church and what do I see? But a beautiful dresser in someone’s yard with a for sale sign. My first thought was ‘its gorgeous’. Second thought was for my friend who’s been looking for a dresser for her daughter. Hoping she was at church for me to tell her, I looked around but she wasn’t there. Afterward, I was determined to be the great friend and stop at the house to take pictures of the dresser, and when I did, the older couple came out to talk to me.

The nicest couple I’ve ever met. He explained he restored the dresser himself and from there we struck up a conversation. Within a few minutes of us talking, he says ‘come with me, I want to show you something.’ and proceeds to walk toward his garage. As we’re walking they ask if I was the one that had the yard sale, and little did I know they had stopped to browse through my things.

He opens his door to all of his current projects. Gorgeous pieces he’s restoring and my jaw drops. I can tell he’s proud of his work, and rightly so. They thrift, search yard sales and go antiquing in hopes of finding new projects for him to do and sell them.

Minutes later his wife says, ‘come inside, I have to show you what I’ve done!’ and they usher me into their home. Their home that has me in awe. Gorgeous, clean, and 100% my style. This couple in their 60’s has the same taste I have and I connect with them immediately. They give me a tour of their home, pointing out all the pieces he had restored and as we enter their sitting room, I express my love over their coffee table. A short time later, I get their numbers for my friend, and headed home.

From there I have a battle of conscience. I pull up my friend’s name to text her, but can’t bring myself to do it. What if she ACTUALLY wants the dresser?! then I couldn’t get it. But I don’t need the dresser right now. Back and forth. I call my mom, and my mom is the perfect enabler, and I call the couple up to tell them I’ll buy it. His first words were, ‘I thought this was supposed to be for your friend?!’…yes, I’m horrible. I want it for myself.


I return to their house and as we talk, he leads me to his garage again and tells me to follow him to the back. Once I get there, he points down at a coffee table and says, ‘do you want it? Its yours if you do, I’ll give it to you.’

I’m floored. Its almost identical to theirs, and I’m speechless. for free??!

I had sold my coffee table in the yard sale and hadn’t planned on getting a replacement, so this was an amazing blessing.

We load both up in our cars, they follow me to my apt. and help unload it inside, and I couldn’t stop giggling I was so excited. He thanks me for giving him more space in his garage now for his other projects and I can’t stop thanking him for his generosity.

They have my number now with the next item I want, and I’m so excited.

My friend still has no idea, and well, I don’t want to rub salt in a potentially open wound, so I’ll keep this little dresser adventure from her, but guys, I can’t even tell you how thrilled I am to have these pieces. And how thankful I am to this couple who so generously gave their time to me yesterday.

It was a great weekend that kept getting better throughout the day, and it reminded me how grateful I am to my Savior for everything. For the ups and downs, the rough roads I’m on right now and the little joys that I find while on them.

How was your weekend? What’s one thing that had you giggling in joy and thankful for?

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Adult sized tantrums

Have you seen one in person?

Yesterday, I saw a grown woman actually stomping her feet huffing and puffing with huge sighs…in public, and then not hold the door open for me. harumph!

Kidding…it was her friend who didn’t.

We all still have them. I have mine behind closed doors and in emails to friends. we’re still friends, right? Hard to say when I whine incessantly, it puts a true test to the friendship. I know its probably a shocker that I whine sometimes, on occasion, when the mood strikes..often, but alas its true.

Some of the reasons I’ve been whining (I’m going to make excuses now) is because I think my new laptop screen’s calibration is off. If you’re not familiar with calibration, its all about showing the correct colors of things, like photos especially. And when you’re playing with photos, you’d like to know what you’re seeing is accurate.

And then my major most recent denial (and biggest excuse), I think my eyesight has tweaked just slightly. I’m not going to say they’ve decreased in sight, but I’ve noticed they get tired, and blurry and find myself squinting on frequent rare occasions. I was told (7 years ago) that I wouldn’t need glasses till my 40’s…

I’m still holding onto that…

So add those two things together, and it’s a bit of a recipe for disaster and frustration. What I think may be good, or decent or even tolerable isn’t exactly shared by others (which is okay), so when I do something a little different and flip my lens around to attempt what’s called “macro” of a pink rose, my blurry near perfect eyesight, isn’t sure if what I’m seeing is “neat” or just a jumbled up mess of pink.

So I’ll let you decide.
- Does it make you scratch your head and think, ‘huh??’
- Is it interesting?
- Or is it ‘meh’?



I promise I will not have a tantrum on you regardless of your answer.

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Shocked

I’m shocked my $2 didn’t produce $600,000,000 for me.

I guess I’ll have to go on my with daily life. My yard sale also did not yield me $600,000,000, which almost disappointed me more than the actual lottery. In fact, it was a downright bust that left me quite defeated, and a little guilty for taking up my friend’s weekend since I borrowed her front yard to have it.

When I say it was a bust, I mean it couldn’t have gone any worse than it did. I take that back! no one showing up would have been worse, rather than the 10 {maybe} that did who bought things over the 2 days. It was weird, and unusual and discouraging taking almost all of my stuff back home with me.

When I said I was ‘afraid’ to have it Friday, it was because I was afraid of the hassle to price everything that night, but that was a breeze compared to the crickets I heard for 2 days straight. On the plus side, it allowed me to spend time with my friend that I never get to see and sit outside on a porch to enjoy the 2 beautiful days that we had and finally picking up a book to read. I can’t tell you the last time I read a book. It was so enjoyable, friends.

So though I didn’t make bank like I was really hoping for, it got me outside, with friends, enjoying the cool breeze and a good book. Nothing wrong with that.

Saturday, after packing up early, I raced to a baby shower, a baby shower for Callie, if you remember, I helped shoot her wedding last year.

My ‘table’ of friends.

If all goes right and I can make it, I’ll also be photographing her birth. That’s right! I finally found someone who’ll let me.. and is eager to let me no less!! I’ve very excited.

I had to cut the shower a little short so I could make my hair appointment and I was excited and nervous for this one. Its been an ongoing battle to find a stylist who I think is a good fit here and I was giving yet another girl a chance. Even though she beat up my head with the roller brush and attempted to rip out every single strand of hair while brushing and drying it, she gave a pretty darn good cut and this girl is pleased.

a moment in between the pain


Can you really tell I got a cut? No, but it feels lighter, softer and healthier and that’s all I needed.

I hope all of you had a nice enjoyable weekend…and perhaps one that was a little more lucrative than mine.

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You’re the bee’s knees

A little something crazy happened yesterday. Something that completely altered the normal “Monday” making it a little bit more exciting than it should have been.

We had a run in with some bees. Ok, I wouldn’t exactly say “some”, rather hundreds upon hundreds actually.

I remember walking into work through our back door (where the parking lot is) and seeing a bee flying close by. Half of my brain didn’t think much of it, but the other half thought it was strange to have a bee around when in the past year of being there, they never flew around the door.

Fast forward 3 hours later and my co worker quickly comes in the front door telling me I need to call the city because there’s swarms of bees in the parking lot. I’m a believe it when I see it girl and ran to the back door, only to find 4 other co workers pressed against the window staring out. I felt like we were in a movie as I saw hundreds of angry bees flying frantically around our door and the entire parking lot.

They completely took over the whole area and no one knew how they got there!

I call number after number for the city and can’t get through to anyone and finally a co worker walks to the pet store 2 doors down (that sells local honey) and asks if they can call someone. They said the bee guy was already on his way. By the time I got to the back window again, the bees had migrated toward the pet store. Still swarming but half of them were gone.

It was weird. and creepy. By 1pm, I walked out to my car (to take my lunch, as I do) and looked over to where the bees had been drawn to and that’s when I saw the boxes of beehives. Stacked on top of each other with hundreds of these bees on them. 

If you look closely, you can see the bees flying around.I couldn’t believe it. This pet store owner actually brought beehives to our place of business. We share the lot with them and one other business (who thankfully was closed that day) but the risk they put everyone in, is pretty astounding. To put into perspective just how close they are to us, my co worker walked over to get a closer photo than what I was willing (I only went to half way of the tailgate), but imagine from her to where I’m standing, completely covered in angry bees.


They stayed there all day long, and I imagine they’ll be there in the morning when I show up, but I don’t know how this is possibly allowed.

I have half a mind to walk over to that pet store tomorrow and demand some free honey for all of this! Pin It Now!

I’m thankful for - 20

Oh my goodness gracious what a weekend I had. It had to have been the busiest weekend I’ve had in a very very long time. I have a teeny bit of resentment I have to work today instead of sleep and do nothing. How dare they not accommodate me!

Saturday was the Swedish Festival in my little town and I actually walked over to see the parade. Its pretty bad that in all the time I’ve been here, I’ve never seen it…and its only 1 block away. I would always peer out my blinds to see the floats set up in front of my apt as I sipped my coffee looking like a wreck.

But this year, I made my way over there and watched 5 too many fire trucks go by, and 5 too many John Deer tractors roll by, not to mention the tractor pulling the tractor, which was the hi-lite for me. {not really}


I was most bothered by the fact they didn’t throw candy. What kind of parade doesn’t throw candy? One girl brought me and a little girl next to me, a piece and I offered the girl mine and she said, no. Clearly she was taught well, but then I must have freaked her out cause she never returned. sorry little girl..I’m not a creeper, promise.

Then there was the wedding, that took up the majority of my weekend, which I’ll tell all about when my brain has returned. The heat melted it away.

So this very week, I’m thankful for:

- not working in prison anymore. I ran into a Sgt. friend at the festival who told me nothing but horrible things that have been going on, and it truly made me so thankful God got me out when He did. I’m so blessed to be out of the prison system.
- finally checking ‘seeing the parade’ off my list of things to do.
- getting to shoot what had to have been the most laid back relaxed bride and groom ever. The bride made Mac & Cheese for lunch 1 1/2 hours before the ceremony, nothing fazed her.
even when I *without thinking* showed her a picture of them looking through the door that separated them before the wedding…when they clearly didn’t want to see each other. I still feel horrible for doing that!!
- finally finally finally getting my photo album that I worked on for 10 months of our Europe Trip. The website, I have to say is the worst website I’ve ever used and will never use again, so to finally have my book in my home is the happiest most relieving moment to date.

- getting my favorite blossoms picture on canvas. All I do is stare at it.


- not starting in the new office until Wednesday. I don’t know how the firing went, so I’m relieved I don’t have to work in that office for the first 2 days after, in case anything goes down…is that bad??!

How was your weekend? Is it blazing hot where you are, right now?

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When the situation calls for a gun

Guns do come in handy sometimes. I have footage of a C/O (correctional officer) sitting on his front steps with his girlfriend when a guy walks by real slow, stops right in front of them and shoots the C/O at point blank range. Fortunately for the C/O the guy was a horrible shot and got him in his foot. Unfortunately for the guy, the C/O had his gun and shot and killed him.

~ ~ There’s been few instances where I’ve needed to grab a gun.

Working up in a ‘booth’ watching a very dangerous inmate getting escorted back to his cell, when he turned on the cop and began a heated argument. There I stood with 2 weapons in my hands to use. A launcher that shoots less lethal rounds and the rifle that shoots lethal.

Thankfully I didn’t have to use either but it was the closest I came at work to using one.

Another time I was driving down a highway, coming upon a red light, when a car full of ‘questionable’ guys comes along side me. I had my gun put away in its case, but pulled it out and set it next to me because I had such an odd feeling with them.

And then there was just last week.

Hanging out watching tv one night, when I get a loud knock on my door. Its after 8pm and its dark outside. No one and I mean no one knocks on my door at night. I asked through the door, ‘who is it?’ and a guy answers that he’s giving away free newspapers. {…at 8:15 at night..right.} I told him, ‘no thank you.’ He says, ‘you don’t want a free newspaper??’ All I say is, ‘thank you, no’ and I hear him mutter something to another guy as he walks away.

I stand there for a second thinking it over and immediately grab my shotgun from my room.

They didn’t knock on any of my neighbor’s doors. Just mine.

My mind works in funny ways. I didn’t peek through the blinds to get a look at them, because the light was on my back and they would’ve seen me seeing them.

I didn’t think to call the cops to report suspicious activity in my area.

I didn’t think to double check my locks until after I grabbed the gun. {they were locked, by the way}

All I did was walk in the back room, grab my gun and take it off of safety to have it ready in case I needed to use it.

I even slept fine that night. I debated locking my bedroom door, but didn’t. My guns were by my side the whole night and have been since. I don’t know what would have happened if I’d opened my door. I’m a suspicious person by nature and can imagine the absolute worse but thankfully I have the mind to know when something just isn’t right.

I hope you have that mind too. It isn’t always the wisest to grab your gun but rather call the cops if someone is lurking around your home or if you hear something suspicious. They say robbers know to make one sound only because often times if we hear a crash {like glass breaking} we’ll pause what we’re doing to see if we hear the sound again. And when we don’t, we continue on, thinking we ‘were hearing things’.

So don’t count out what you heard. Proceed with your safety in mind. If all else fails, call the cops and say ‘this is not an emergency’ first before describing the reason for your call. I do wish I’d peeked to see what they looked like, I do wish I’d called the cops so they’d drive around, but I chose to be Jane Wayne instead.

It worked this time, but that’s not to say it will the next.

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Blossoms galore

I’m feeling very flower child today. I’m sitting here in my extra hot pink oversized shirt from Tokyo that G-man got me years ago (that to this day I don’t know what he was thinking. hot pink and 2 sizes too big..we had just started dating, so I gave him a pass) and felt like brightening the day with pink blossoms.

If you remember a couple weeks ago, I gave you a peak at the blossoms. Its actually one of my favorite pictures at the moment, I’m a little obsessed actually. I look at it daily, if I’m honest.


Since I have more, I wanted to share pretty with you this Friday.


Most of the trees aren’t in bloom anymore. They’re turning green, ready to produce its nuts (I think its almonds or walnuts), so its nice to know that I finally caught a season of blooms. I’ve always been gone or incredibly busy the previous years.








Spring is definitely in the air. I love it…minus the horrible allergies I get from it. But I think it a little sacrifice to be able to witness this beauty. It never ceases to leave me in awe every time I drive past an orchard.

Flower power, my friends…flower power.

translation: have a great weekend.

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Girls gone wild

In my little town, we have the one road that’s deemed “downtown”. It consists of trees lit on each side, all year round. Music playing from speakers attached to the buildings and far too many bakeries all striving to draw you to them rather than the others.


During Christmas time, they place this beautifully massive tree directly in the middle of the road. Once I saw that, I knew I had to go late at night to capture the pretty twinkle lights. I encouraged my friend to come along. 1. because it would be a lot of fun and 2. because she had a tripod.


– I kid. But she really did have a tripod…and it definitely came in handy, not gonna lie.


Its nice being able to stand in the middle of the road and know that its highly unlikely a car will come around because its after 10. Oh, the treat of living in a small town.

We started out slow and mild; being responsible mature adults taking pictures of a pretty quaint town, moving aside when the random car drove by. But in no time flat, we became like teenagers running around the street, laughing, jumping and taking pictures atop a metal horse.

We thought it would be fun to get the long shot of us jumping... can’t say that it worked…


…then of us running…


…and I can’t quite explain why I felt I needed to act like I was riding a bull. but I did.

Beyond not being able to feel our fingers, we had the best time running around town, garnishing the random stares from the few passersby. I’m so glad we were able to have a night out on the town. It might not be how some girls go wild but its how this one does.

Merry Christmas!!

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Floatin’ down the river

I got to spend my Memorial Day with friend’s at their riverside house. Let me just say, it’s gorgeous. Gor-geous!!

We had so much stinking fun. All their kids had a blast. They brought out the boat and we all got to ride up and down the river. The adults weren’t crazy enough…ok, even the kids weren’t crazy enough to get in the water. It’s freezing.

The river is ‘created’ by all the snow that melts off the Sierra mountains so it’s ice cold.
You can see the mountains waaay off in the distance. Those big things bring us aaaaall this water. brrrrr


I could live here…

When it was time for all the girls to get in, the boat wouldn’t start so the guys literally had to paddle us down the river to the truck where we jumped the boat.

Picture a man knee deep in water holding jumper cables that are also in the water and hooking them up to a running truck. All us girls were cringing. But it started right up and we promptly took off down the river. Only a guy would think nothing of that.

Everyone was hoping to bounce the boat on waves to help the girl who’s 9 months pregnant go into labor. Didn’t work though unfortunately.

It was tough being there without G-man. Being around all those couples who I can see love each other all so much and love hanging out together made me miss him so much it was hard being the only non couple person there. But despite it, I was a wonderful time with wonderful friends.

How did you all get to spend Memorial Day? Did you go to the cemetery to place flags on the gravestones? Remember someone you know who lost their lives serving the country? BBQ with friends and family? I’d love to know.

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I’m here to represent

I want to give a shout out to my cute little Swedish town, “K-town”.

 

I heart this place. Which isn’t quite love but close to it. I’d love it if it were transplanted out of the nasty smog capital of California, so ‘hearting’ it is as close as I’ll get. Oh and it has the most dangerous thing here that I’ll never understand why they feel it’s ok. See this intersection??? Do you see something wrong with this 4 way intersection??? (you may or may not see my arrows)

NO STOP SIGNS! At all! All 4 directions have the right of way. This is at many busy neighborhood intersections. I’ve almost been hit (by someone flying through) 4 times. Hate it! But K-town is also cute because they play oldies music over loud speakers downtown. So it’s hard to hate. It’s the cutest thing.

 

Any way, I’m going to let you fall in heart with it too. We had a car show in our downtown (which consists of 1 street) and since I live 1 block down I walked on over and snapped away. So sit back and enjoy…my home. *disclaimer* I like cars and love Camaro’s. With that.

3 kings

A church on every corner.

Our kettle water tower. Darling isn’t it?

The 1 and only donut shop. (very important in a small town)

I told you I love Camaro’s. I stopped a guy just to take my picture next to “my car.”

These guys came through with low riding bicycles. The red hat guy had hydraulics and is lower in the 2nd picture. That can’t be comfortable.

These boys were too funny walking around, coming up on people.

Hello Spring

So there you have it folks! Do you heart the place like me?

Did I represent properly?

 

Peace out K-town…and get some stop signs!

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