something i wrote on saturday, february 25, 2012.

8pm

God is all about relationships.

i believe they are nearly-just-about-most-likely the most important thing in this life.

relationships take muscles.

guts.

heart.

feelings.

investment.

choosing.

sincerity.

time.

patience.

all the fruits of the Spirit.

prayer.

openness.

gratitude.

lenience.

silliness.

coffee. ;)

dreaming.

and marriage...

is one of the most important relationships some of us will ever be blessed to grow in.

sometimes it hits me and i battle wonder and disbelief that, put simply, before i turned 20, i met the one for me.

the one i want to learn, love, and live life with.

the next line is found at the end of this post by ladaisi.

(Love: figuring life out together.)
~~~

the next paragraph or two is from a post found here.

excerpt:

Our one certainty: We are in this together. And you will make me cry and I will make you furious and we will laugh and live the best we can. We always make it work. Because when the dust clears we are left standing here with the each other and the truth. No other could love me as you do. No other could love you as I do.

I’ll ask “I’m stuck with you, aren’t I?” and your eyes will narrow and your lips will turn up at the corners and you’ll say “Afraid so, babe.” and it’s a beautiful thing to realize every.single.time.

the best weekend. ever. ever. eeeeever. :]

well, this is the follow up post that i promised to those dears that commented on the last post.

thursday night was pretty darn good.
they [justin, jonathon, and jacklyn] arrived at 7:30; an hour or two earlier than i was guessing at first, since it's a 6 hour drive and it was, after all, thanksgiving. family gatherings and all, ya know. 


friday was awesome.

i read a chapter of 12 + me to rach, jacklyn, and lyddie until 1am.
anna, jonathon, justin and i went to meet martha, where she was ringing bells with her mum for the salvation army . . . it was a gorgeous day, but oh so cold and windy.
we sat at caribou coffee for a bit; laughed over swing dance stories and people we've met there and stories from the restaurant where anna works, and a song title that neither anna nor i could finish saying.

when we got home, we made vegetarian tacos, and then lyd challenged justin to a game of war with cards, and a complicated string of games took place. lyddie, mostly winning . . . laughing at her brilliance and/or good luck. ah, dramatic siblings. ;)
we took a short trip to church to practice dance with me, it being the special we did today.
after practice, i napped in a pew and the guys were awesome and set up some trees for Christmas decorations . . .
we came home, the guys had an adventurous game of air soft in our front and back yard [ahem]... 

then we parted ways [guys to gram's house and me upstairs] and two of us got fancied up.
you might be able to guess.
well, some of you. ;)

you're welcome for the gif.

mhmm. i guess i should come out and say it now, shouldn't i??
meet my boyfriend.
justin.
:)
he happens to be the younger brother of my best friend, pj, whose family we've known for about 10 years.
he's hilarious. sweet. plays drums. loves God and people.
i kinda really like him.

we went to the restaurant for dinner around 5:30. stopped by to see chelsea and her husband [good friends from bible study] so he could meet them... :)
anna got a few pictures of us with the handy dandy flash on my camera. 

after a lovely discount because anna works there; a while of eating great appetizers and gelato; lots of talking and getting to meet all the people who anna's been telling me amusing stories about these past couple months . . . we headed home around 8:30.

the family was playing spoons when we arrived.
so what do we do when we get in there? sit down and start playing.

 photo cred: ma seester, rach.

then someone requested a dessert.
so, what do i do?

i start making those famed pumpkin cake bars. ;)

after the 'rents went to bed, we all headed over to gram's house to watch wolverine with a borrowed projector on an empty wall.

mum came to give us a container of the bars that had finished baking . . . someone pushed pause on the movie, and i don't even have to describe how fast they were devoured by all the siblings. i stepped into the kitchen to find several of them rubbing their stomachs. rachel told me i shouldn't
have made them; they were so naughty...hah.

because of the impending arrival of early waking time for some farm work bonding with dad and cousin david, justin went to bed around 11:30 and the rest of us finished the movie.

the guys came home just before 10, cleaned up nice, and then i watched the first half hour or so of the green lantern with them and the sisters at gram's . . . came home with justin around 11:30am to start lunch: chicken curry.

after chicken curry, anna, jonathon, caleb, justin and i headed off to meet heather, derek, steph and casey [and ryan and michaela] at a coffee shop for a couple hours.
hilarious time over coffee. :)
some of them got to razzing me, and after some comfortable conversation and teasing from everyone, even justin, about some amusing things and quirks of mine, heather gave a few of her cents: "i approve of justin; he gives beka a hard time!"
hah. hah. thanks. i approve of him, too.

sadly, i don't have any pictures on my camera of the gathering; i'm waiting on casey to post some pictures on fb so i can save a few for the date. hence the lack of photos right now for saturday afternoon out. stay tuned for an update.
. . . when we got home from the coffee shop, i washed dishes and justin dried . . . he's kind of an awesome dish-washing partner. ;)

sarah, justin, eliyah and zechariah came over after they got some house-hunting done. it was all good. :)

justin holding not-so-little zechariah.

. . . fill in the blank. :) 

soon enough, i started on making one pan of lasagna while another pan from a friend sat, warming, in the oven. a pan of chocolate cake may have went into the oven, too.
right before everyone started arriving, we both sat down on the kitchen rug against the cupboards and closed our eyes. i'm lucky enough to have second and third winds; he was hitting rock bottom from his day starting at 3:45am --all good stuff, though of course quite tiring-- and sadly, he doesn't have second winds as to my knowledge yet. super freaking early mornings do that to a person, i guess. :P we're going to have to try to change that . . .

grandma and grandpa t. came over; so did uncle bob, cousin david, and david-cito.
talk about the most wonderful party ever.
afterwards, justin and i started washing dishes --him, drying--

as you can tell, saturday was jam-packed and a grand, lovely time.
grandma t brought a pan full of her famous apple slices.
everyone loved that. :)
after the eating and clearing the table was done; we started doing dishes.
grandma t came by our side. "can i help dry? or wash the dishes?"
me: "uh....the position's already filled..." [insert smile here]
grandma: "are you saying you don't want my help?!"
we all laugh.
grandma: "well?" [smiling expectantly] 
me: "well....i guess i could let you do the silverware." huh. my least favorite part of washing dishes.
grandma: "alright! put the plug in and get some water and soap in that sink!"
i stepped back and didn't return to my place until after the dishes were all done . . .

how could i interrupt that?!

it was a darling sight.
to be sure. :)

when everyone left, tiredness hit us again.
someone snapped a picture of it for posterity, obviously, or else this picture wouldn't be here. ;)

rach and jacklyn amused themselves with blogger and youtube vids by julian smith and playing classics by colbie and jason mraz --lucky; i'm yours. you know; the classics. ;)

then, lyddie challenged him to another round of war.

oy. i swear, it's his favorite game ever now; that utterly amusing littlest sister of mine cracked us up [and herself while she was at it] endlessly while she beat him once again with the cards.

all us siblings went over to gram's to watch a movie . . . then someone suggested charades.

everyone was brilliant.
i don't mean to steal the spotlight that everyone envies, but i sincerely sucked.

he asked me to shoot him. :)
[didn't you?? ;) ]
turns out, it was a scene from a film i haven't seen . . . the matrix.

yay for motion shots. lol.
because there was church the next day . . . and supposedly sleep is a necessity . . . us girlies went home to sleep and the guys had some chill time. 

sunday was full and beautiful and more sweet than bittersweet.
there was a ton of meeting people . . . so much of our church is just like family; so, of course, all these people got to meet who they'd been hearing about, and vice versa.

pretty little jacklyn :)

when we came home from church, we had lunch . . . then they packed up . . .
then it was picture time.

rach got into photog mode after her little rampage of funness in the car.

us at the park while they were having fun.

. . . now we know what it is to be on the other side of the camera.
it's not that bad. ;)

as i said on fb, my younger sister, rach, is brilliant. she almost fell off the bench edge getting this of her own inspiration. :]

shoe photo credit: anna. :D

today was the coldest day of this whole weekend. hence the fingerless gloves. but hoods off for pictures.

left to right: ben, caleb, anna, rach, jonathon, justin, me, jacklyn, lyddie.

all of us :)

the men.

the ladies.

and . . . see-you-later's . . .

thus ended a very wonderful weekend.

how was your thanksgiving? :)

just beautiful.

We were alone in the windblown, gently rustic quiet of Montauk (which the sweatshirts refer cheerfully to as “the end,” because it is located at the very tip of Long Island).
We drove to a beach and we sat on the sand in our jeans and sweaters. It was just us. Even the ocean was respectfully softspoken. The beach backed up to dunes that mounded thickly and were packed into bluffs with sharp, untamed edges. Stretches of coarse, reddish scrub brush grew low and defensive over the sandy earth. We were tiny and the world was too big to ever even come close to comprehending.
[kate; eat the damn cake]

that, and seabird music.
heather and derek's engagement photos taken this afternoon [anna and me with cameras in our hands:]
the pumpkin cake bars that turned out to be everyone's favorite, prettymuch.
writing...words...love.
the sunshine through the clouds near the end of the setting.

the contrast of silver ring on her finger.
her laugh; the way he looks at her.

the windy day and all the laughing.
God's love is the threads that hold my day together. 

music and the lyrics that sometimes comes with it.
it's lovely.

no title is good enough for this subject. :)

yoga pants: check. no, i did not do yoga today. they just happen to be the comfiest thing i own.
comfy grey tank: check.
tea: check.
crazy hair w/no mousse: check.

yay for one more outfit post on the net. ;) just. kidding. 

it's funny to do them once in a while, though. 

i've been gone from the blogging scene for two days.
i have a slight cold; mostly it's a stuffy nose. it developed sometime wednesday early morning.
on and off liveliness so i don't come off as a complete zombie to the family and whoever sees me --oh, wait, there's a family get together with dad's parents and grandma t's side of the family tonight . . . should be interesting.
anyways, about the cold: in the back of my mind, i can blame heather for sunday night --girl's night we had with her and steph-- she had a cold over the weekend from her younger siblings . . .
on the other hand, a very cute newspaper guy just walked by outside.
back on the other hand, late nights contribute to a general weakening of my system . . . shoot. :P

now here i am with a gorgeous day, sun shining.
anna gone on 3 meetings--one, a possible client due in december; one, a doula she's getting to know; one, a mom-friend of ours whose 3rd baby is about 3 or 4 months old.

it's 11:33am, and the tea water is boiling.
ginger peach it is, then.

so.
recap on my week?
er....last few days?
thursday morning: farmer's market. love that place. we also walked to caribou coffee--i got a large regular brew. dark roast. i swear caribou has the best regular brew out of all the coffee shops i've been to and tried.
♥
thursday evening: swing dancing for the very first time. i will forever bless the night and friends who got us hooked on it.

 me and anna, posing in our shabby apple dresses before she came:)

a lovely friend, anna a, picked us up, and from there we drove through country

and more country to her friend martha's house.

♥ gorgeous.

then, on the way to the
[i dropped off the face of the planet for a sec half an hour here to procrastinate just a wee bit and laugh at a site i just found thanks to kelsey: how to be a dad. go ahead. go laugh. go learn. now back to the story.]
on the way to the place for swing dancing, we saw this stupid guy:

both hands holding the gadget phone. 70mph or more road.
the sight made me go weak in the knees.
and i was sitting down. dangit, how obvious is that.
i obviously don't get into the larger cities that much; people in our small town are just a tiny bit smarter than that, i think.
the freaky thing is, the idiot is practiced at it.
practiced.

or we'd all be history.

anyhow, back to the story again.
we got there in the middle of the lesson; kinda late, but oh well. martha taught us the basic steps on the side by the pool tables while a pretty big circle of couples practiced random things around the instructor and his partner.
then, the lesson ended and music started. 9pm. they go till midnight or something, but we didn't stay that late.
it was mentioned that anna and i were first-timers, but we dressed like we knew what we were doing.
oi.
well, when you have vintage-inspired dresses on hand, what do you wear to a swing dance?? exactemo.
so here we go.

an overview of the most of the room: lights were dim, so i had to use the stinkin' flash...
now for a slideshow, then a ramble from some notes i managed to take in my journal afterward, and . . . yes.

the grand thing is, the men step out and ask the women.

heck. yes.

and it's a good thing to wear flats. only near the very end, before we left around 11:15pm, did my left shoe start rubbing. nice little blister i acquired. but let me tell you this: it was so worth it. anna got several blisters from wearing low wedges with a nice securing strap; she says it was worth it. [uh, with a beaming smile, too.]

so if you ever have a chance to try swing dancing, do it. search it online, go. if that interests you at all.

because you will fall. in. love.

at least, i know i did.

notes:
12:02am
smiling. speechless.
in love.
swing dancing. ♥
1:30am
home.
there's something about spending the night with a whole bunch of people being alive, enjoying themselves.
[this was followed by a list of observations on the men i danced with through the evening.]
let's just say--my third dance, i was breathless after. that guy knew how to twirl you. and the dip at the end? only ever seen that in movies. it's been years since we've been stupid enough to try to dip each other as young siblings trying to reenact that amazing dance move. el oh el.

then, on the way home [after turning down a dance, darnit; never thought i'd say that...], we stopped by mcd's. 

they made the coffee on the spot; i ordered a small decaf.

for the record, i'm never doing that again. it didn't taste a cinch like coffee, and the non-taste plus the heat [though i waited and waited for it to cool] semi-burned my tongue. a blanket of numbness for the next few hours was the really nice outcome.

waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting for the mcd's dude to get our order and, hopefully, have a handful of sanitizing wipes to give us. no dice. they were out. wth? i needed that; i had forgotten to scrub my hands in the lady's room before we left the dancing; hands slightly tacky with sweat: not the best. i survived and washed twice with lots of soap and time when we got home.

it was almost 12:30 when we got home.
but again: so worth the loss of sleep. even though the past few days i should've gone to bed at like 11pm every night to get rid of this cold. :P


if you were thinking of trying to youtube it, i already did. i found this user {adelineness} to have the best videos; not the best high-definition, but the best instruction and visual learning from them. so many other videos i viewed sucked at bringing it across. those are my candid thoughts, anyways.

all in all: dancing is addicting. it's a whole new experience for me. a very good one. a very enjoyable one. i love learning new things. and stumbling along the way. [no, i didn't step on anyone's feet; but always staring at his feet is what i had to do to get the mirroring down. i'm getting better. :)] it's what makes life meaningful. it keeps you on your edge. keeps you thinking there's always more.

and i can't believe it's nearly 2pm. maybe eating something would've 

brought me energy and contributed to a faster post. oh well.