my black but sometimes green thumb

so i've been successful keeping all of our patio plants alive. and we've had so-so luck with the flower beds we've been trying to keep up with. but for the life of me, i couldn't keep ANYTHING alive in our window boxes. then i saw some fake flowers on clearance at michaels... and i couldn't resist. so for $10, i now have festive looking flowers that are always in bloom ;) in fact the other day one our friends even complimented how nice my flowers looked outside. so maybe they don't look as cheesy as i thought :)

besides, most people see them from this vantage point:

not this one, which definitely makes them look fake ;)

and another one..

nathan wants to know how i can 'be taking any more pictures of the dog that [i] haven't already taken.' but i still think she's adorable and a great learning subject :) that... and a very willing photo model when i have treats handy!

rules of the red rubber ball

so nate and i saw the author of the book named above last week. he was incredible! very cool what he has overcome and done with his life. it's a message i've heard before, identify what your passion is in life and do it. but the way he thinks about and delivers it is awesome :)

the book is very creatively done as well. he talks about blending the lines between work and play so that it's difficult for someone else to tell which it is you're doing :) he also had us tender our resignation as adults:



Adult’s Resignation
I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year-old again. I want to go to McDonald’s and think that it’s a four star restaurant. I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.
I want to think M&M’s are better than money because you can eat them. I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer’s day. I want to return to a time when life was simple. When all you knew were colors,
multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn’t bother you, because you didn’t know what you didn’t know and you didn’t care. All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset. I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good.
I want to believe that anything is possible. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again. I want to live simple again. I don’t want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor, bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones. I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.
So . . here’s my checkbook and my car-keys, my credit card bills and my 401K
statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this
further, you’ll have to catch me first, cause . .
“Tag! You’re it.”

"Somehow I can't believe there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C's. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."
-Walt Disney

photos posted!

so i posted all the az pics from my camera :) still need to post the ones from my mom's camera. instead of using the shotgun approach this time, i sifted through the many i took, post-processed them, and then posted them :) nate's not so sure about this plan, i think he thinks i'm over processing.. which i may well be! i can't decide. for example:

straight out of the camera

and after i played with it a bit

i'm not sure i guess... although the first is the picture i originally took, the second looks more like something i'd want on the wall and in my memory, seems like the colors were that vivid, so i'm conflicted!!

philisophical arguments about photoshop aside, these are a few of my favorites:

my dad :) my brother austin actually took this picture and i made it black and white and burned (darkened) the edges.

my mother's delicious looking snacks!

my mom spotted this hollow tree trunk while we were waiting for marty and nate to try and free a deer (long story..)

and nate finally let me take a proper portrait - lots to learn about taking good portraits but i think he looks cute :)

oh and joey is one of my dad's two dogs ;)

how cute is joey??

i forgot my camera charger!

so we're in az this weekend and at the cabin surrounded by gorgeousness! but i forgot my extra battery and charger so i only have pictures from a few hours on the first day, the rest are taken on my mom's camera-- oh well :) we're having a great time just the same, it's topping out around 75 degrees during the day here which is fantastic compared to phoenix (112 degrees) or orlando (in the 90s for both temperature and humidity!)

happy labor day eve!

life's a bowl of cherries!

yaaaaaaaaawn....

getting sleepy ;) random thoughts commence!

so i've been thinking about changing my e-mail. at first when gmail came out, i thought it was cool that i got a fairly common word (breeze) with no numbers as my e-mail... but i've since changed my mind. i get all kinds of genuine personal e-mails intended for others and i also get a whole lot of spam. although gmail is pretty good at figuring that out, i'm thinking about switching to firstname.lastname@gmail.com but we'll see! yes, i'm a big enough dork to write a paragraph about my choice of e-mail moniker. is that how you spell moniker?

in other news, nately and i have had a fun week :) we went to see superbad last week (did i blog about that already?) it was HYSTERICAL... although... if you don't have a high tolerance for extremely crude highschool boy conversations, i don't recommend you see it ;)

we also went to 'taste the nation' a benefit for second harvest (a charity for hunger). it was fun :) i got a new dress and we got to try food and wine from many of the area restaurants. they also had a silent auction on many items, but we didn't win anything that we bid on.

nate's also been hanging up several pictures that i framed so we finally have stuff on the walls! or at least more stuff-- it feels cozier already :) i'll have to take a picture of the living room, i think it can finally be considered finished!

this week's gone by incredibly quickly! very excited tomorrow is friday and that we're headed to arizona in the near future :) can't wait!!! sounds like we'll be spending most of our time up north since it's ridiculously hot in phoenix right now.

I Crave Your Mouth

by Pablo Neruda

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
Like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

the toilet saga continues (gasp!)

so if you read my below post, the story didn't actually end there, my post was premature ;) see the full story in pictures ;) and since the pictures could be considered less than interesting, i've captioned the whole thing for your reading pleasure.

http://FloridaIveys.smugmug.com/photos/sspopup.mg?AlbumID=3340993

my husband, the plumber

so when nate and i got married (and let me preface this by saying i love him just the way he is) i figured i was marrying a wonderful man, but that i'd be paying a repairman or specialist to fix most of the things around the house. because lord knows i'm not patient enough to do it, and nately didn't strike me as the handy type.
but lo and behold! since we've lived in our own home he's proven himself to be extremely handy and in possession of nearly limitless patience. he's done all kinds of little projects and is gaining skill with each one. his latest endeavor (if you will) was our leaky master bath toilet. 2 trips to home depot, 3 trips to ACE, and approximately 6 hours later- we have a repaired toilet! the man's skills know no bounds ;)

ah, home sweet home...

Angriest City in America?

"The winner -- Orlando, FL -- home of Walt Disney World, the so-called "happiest place on earth." Three other cities in Florida -- St. Petersburg, Miami, and Jacksonville -- make the top 10, with Tampa, FL trailing at 12th place.
New York City, infamous for its rude and angry citizens, ranks 57th.
Tha calmest city award goes to Manchester, New Hampshire. Portland, Oregon, the urban planning "Shangri-la", comes in at 96th place, just four above Manchester.
Men's Health magazine judged 100 cities on high blood pressure, traffic congestion, aggravated assaults, workplace violence and speeding tickets."

a collection of my favorite property photos :)

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.
-G.B. Stern

new blog title, new obsession

so lately i've gotten more and more into photography and it's got me thinking. seems like i'm always trying to get into something artsy. well, maybe not always, but if you recall the previous title of this blog (think back really far to yesterday) it was 'beware of poetry.' but i find myself reading and writing less poetry and taking pictures instead :) so state of flux it is for now.

oh i also recently got photoshop 7 (thanks drew!) which has contributed greatly to the blog changes :)

happy birthday to a whole lot of decade turners and more!