subject: creepy restaurants owned by the mob. el.oh.el. ;)

friday night. it was february 18:)
it was looking like this.
that whole day was gorgeous. the hugest glimpse of hope in this latter part of winter God could have given me. 
yessirreeeeee. beautiful, huh?

so my hair was crazy, my apron tied on because kitchen duty was mine to call that day...
but gosh it was beautiful, and not too cold either!
so of course i attack one of my brothers and place my baby in their hands.
because that's what any girl does on an afternoon with gorgeous sun and spring fever fading away....

see what i mean? crazy hair. it had been up and down and up and down from a crochet-hook-stuck bun. all day.
PLUS: i had the strange impulse to part it weird that day. darnit. not sure it fared too well.

i had the audacity to crop out my brother cubby for this one.

and this one.
heh:)
what can i say? i like mixing colors. purple t-shirt, green pullover, blue skinny jeans, turquoise-and-white-and-grey striped socks, black flats...and that lovely apron.
so. onto the title material.

title for this photo: beka, wonderful garage crap, green alien light, and sap buckets, etcetera for maple syrup making. it's about that time of year. once it's warmer in the daytime and colder in the night, we're syrup making. well, the guys are. :)

yay! i am so excited about going to a mob restaurant.
:D
whoa, whoa, whoa.. please don't trip over the sarcasm there, peoples. especially you ladies who are pregnant. safety first, hon.

i munched on this all. the. way. there. staring out the window for glimpses of the huge orange low-slung moon, i finished off the last half of this bag. um....the other day i started it; the day i got my camera. lots of car time? =trail mix! this is not from years of experience that i speak. i'm just sayin'. milk chocolate, nuts, and cranberries are kind of good.

my best shots at the moon without a tripod and a much-needed aperture fix....

creepy thing #1: the place has no windows.
at least, that i'm aware of.
does that not creep you out?! i love windows. i need windows. windows make me feel safe and loved and......show me the world while i'm eating. no matter that's it's darker than dark outside. :)

i need windows.
but thank goodness i'm not prone to panic attacks or anything, otherwise i'd be in trouble with going here.

could have been a nice sister picture, but the rooms are so dim. darnit.

sorry for the blurriness, but i had to post this icon of sisterly love.

heh. heh. 

they have weird bathrooms there.

and last year when we were at that restaurant, the bathroom door snagged my hand and gave me a little slice on the side of my palm. bad door.

now, we took quite a few funky shots in this loo mirror, but i'm going to try not to humiliate my sisters and myself and just post a few of the better ones. ;)

now i have come to the end.

you have now experienced as much of the mob-owned restaurant as i was brave enough to capture. which...isn't much, obviously.

so sorry about that.

but one last word: the waiters who greeted us and summoned us to the back room where our extended family waited for dinner, they were italian. or something. ya know. they had accents. those accents. and the guy who motioned us to the back room said these few words: "far, far away."

odd much? 

heh. heh.

thus ends my post about the only restaurant i've encountered that i feel needs a sledgehammer taken to the walls. ya know. that place needs windows. i'd just feel better. :]

costume drama, anybody??

these would be devastating with the homemade caramel anna makes once in a blue moon.
just sayin'.
[i never do headbands, but look at the sash i picked up. wonder what it went to. now it belongs to my head. heh. anna thought it was cute:) i love the polka dots.]

today was a slow, off day.
what a monday to be a woman. ahem.

fluffy pancakes with syrup for a late breakfast today.
and coffee. 2 mugs.

it's 4:17pm and i have a feeling some sort of costume drama is in the near future, once anna gets up from her nap.
i bought this on amazing for anna's birthday in late march. she can't wait. :)
we've seen it, and love it, and she's hankering to watch it sometime soon...heh.

as per my need for rest and quiet.... [yes, i demand that on the first day.]

i retired to my bed for reading a book and maybe a nap. eh, no nap. reading heaven in my hands and eating chocolate.
mom gave this to me on v-day:)

:)

yeah, methinks anna and i are going to kidnap the tv from the siblings.
oh wait. there go the siblings, on their way outside.
it's dreary again, and it was snowing earlier, but not the pretty sort of snow. just slow, blah flurries.
random: last night i was reading this birth story online before i realized how late it had gotten...and saved it for today. it's okay that i'm weird and find them fascinating. :]
two absolutely favorite posts of mine by joanna goddard:
their house.
do you guys even know how much i heart house stuff?!?!?!?
okay.
and the other:
the post of her grandparent's romance.
yep:)

~~~

9:29pm
okay. now is when you should start worrying about me.
one of my favorite parts of return of the king--the lighting of the beacons of minas tirith--has passed, and i'm on to blogging...and reading blogs.
now....this is sweet. dangit, it's little posts like those that set me on that slippery slide to the muddy pool of needing brownies and girlfriends to stay sane. boohoo. nevermind. it's just hormones talking.
anyhow.
earlier, we did indeed watch a costume drama. first half an hour of pride and prejudice, the kiera version.
ugh.

yes. i know.
some austen lovers like her;) can't stand that version...and i, personally, can't stand kiera. and it just occurred to me tonight that mr. darcy kind of needs a haircut...
call me dense.
i live up to it sometimes.

oh, and i forgot how much i hate la-z-boy chairs that move too far back. in fact, chairs that are too squishy and move too much are on my hate list. never sitting in that certain chair ever again.
but lyd and danny were enjoying p&p for a few minutes alongside me. cute companions. though none too quiet, i say.

....hmm. this one you wouldn't have to do with a husband, particularly, but it would be fun....
this one's like....really cute.
ooooh, i love the green army of dead men!! another favorite part.
ah, and a really cute 60th anniversary post. sheesh.

so, to switch the subject quite snappy-like and everything, tonight anna made a new recipe.
yessss.....
that means a new recipe to post here! and it's easy. ;)
and different. quite. it has ginger and garlic in it. you know recipes that contain both of those means different.
yeppers.
it's cuban black bean soup. and caleb actually liked it. everyone did, in fact.....
:)
and, anna randomly commissioned me to make some sort of dessert.

votes went up around the house for chocolate pudding.

i use smitten kitchen's recipe, cut down on the sugar by almost half, and heap on the cornstarch a bit more.
in fact, i've blogged this pudding before.

[mine.]
and yes...this beautiful mug from hobby lobby was one of those unfortunates that succumbed to the curse. actually, it dropped out of a paper gift bag on our way into starbucks to hang out....hmm. horrible scene, yes? yes indeed.

i even put some finely ground coffee beans on top.
ohhh yes.
you must make this recipe. i made a quad version. mhmm, you read that right. we kind of...um...indulged a little bit tonight. i haven't made it in forever.

. . .

sigh. i just found a wonderful site.

ack. i just found a few things i kind of love. house stuff. ya know. 

a burlap tablecloth.

hand-stained wooden shutters.

a ban.do veil.

 

ack! these are adorable.

♥

i shall leave you now....10:32pm.....almost my bedtime. ;)

i need to finish reading that small birth story book anyways. 

toodles.

me: reaching new levels on rainy days.

part I
so there's 102 followers. of course that could change in a day or two. but who the hey cares. right now there's 102 and megan was the latest one! :) :) 
 the numbers 102 remind me of the 103 it'll become when the next person pushes the button, and 103 reminds me of psalm 103. ♥
hellooooo! *waves*
hope you all had a good sunday. *cheers with the coffee mug*
i spent the whole of the early afternoon looking at photography blogs.
in my defense, it's been dreary all. day.

so, photog sites? uh. yeah.
the engagement section on jessica claire. and a maternity one that rocks my socks off. they're so dang cute and she's so perfectly proportioned. and i love all her dresses. dang. 
after all that, i think my need for brownies has grown.
where are they? 
we have a few box mixes in the pantry, waiting to be made, but...
brownies are way better when friends are over to chat with.
sheesh. 

this morning we had icey rain dropping down from the sky quite unceremoniously, therefore almost ruining my sunday. besides that fact, a day that looks like this summons a picture of me, curled up on a deep and wide window seat, well insulated and cushioned in adorable scrapbook-paper-designed fabric... comfy handmedownfromwhotheheckknows silver jeans that fit the best; a snug cami and a huge mens pullover; a book in one hand and a mug of something hot in the other; or a period drama on the tv. 

i ended up with some of that.
definitely not the window seat, since that's only in my dreams.
heh.

but i got some comfy skinny jeans on and a clean t-shirt i borrowed from ben's laundry pile a few weeks ago when i was doing my laundry. quite comfortable. also, a book that anna just finished: heaven in my hands. birth stories. cool. and of course the mug of something hot.... ;)

all this long while, looking at photoshoots, i've been copying certain links and sharing them with heath, and if i stop now i might save us all from some amount of trauma. i'd rather not spend the rest of my sunday in a singleness state of mind. as i've said before, i usually do just fine. i only turned 20 last week, for goodness sake.
but once in a while...that special sort of companionship, that desire to just having someone . . . yeah, sometimes it attacks me. and that's when i brew the second or third pot in a day. :P
anyhow. 

this was the other night, friday, on our way to the mob-owned restaurant for grandpa-and-grandma's 57th anniversary party. i'm sure i just got the numbers wrong. i did last time. it's probably 54th or something...

♥
this skirt was on sale at target in january; i got it for my birthday:) it was, of course, instant love. and fit perfectly. you might not be able to tell, but it's more of a pencil skirt. sheesh, it's almost flaring in the second picture. 


i'll write more later. it's 3:54pm and lyd is watching ramona and beezus for the second time. last night was the first time seeing it, and i loved the wedding at the end--loved her lace dress. gosh. ♥
toodles.

~~~

part II 
9:40pm

we had broccoli-potato hot dish for dinner --i made two pans of it on thursday or friday, so it was nice having to just pop this in the oven tonight:)  
while everyone was watching part one of lord of the rings: the two towers, i washed dishes and made the kitchen look decent again. 
earlier, you wouldn't believe what anna did. she made those muffins. again. thankfully we didn't eat as much of the batter. ;) when she said she was going to make another batch tonight, i stared at my computer screen and questioned her: "are you trying to get us all fat?!"
hahahaha.

so....in part I of this post, i described my outfit, yes? that's ben's t-shirt. so comfy. but he wants it back.

me and anna:) innocent sister roped into a picture all because she was coming for a cup of water... 

what can i say? there's nothing like having an older sister. nothing. :)


An older sister is a friend and defender,
a listener, conspirator, a counselor
and a sharer of delights. And sorrows too.
[Pam Brown]


thus ends my post of this dreary sunday.
:)
it's supposed to rain ice or snow tomorrow. 
:(
spring...oh, spring.....sigh. where. are. you.????

i heart: learning. {for instance, aperture!}

4:27pm
with late-afternoon, nearing-sunset-time light coming through the dining room window, i'm reading an awesome, much-needed, easy to understand tutorial on using cameras like mine.
yes.

i'm loving it.
learning new things and different settings i can use.... yay!
so of course i'm testing it out, different apertures....on the window, on the kitchen that needs organizing, on me. the flowers in the middle of the table from valentine's day.
....um, don't ask me why there's a dollar sitting on the roses and baby's breath.
i. don't. know. why.
also, i don't know how it's still there? well, we do have some morals--like for instance, no stealing. heh:)

f/3.5 --aperture at the lowest my camera does. there's also this little beauty of a lens that would be lower aperture...

f/22 or so. *laughs* a higher number, to be sure. more light let in, and yeah...i couldn't take the waiting how many long seconds, so i wiggled the camera in a squiggly design.

no idea what number f/ i had for this....i believe i was back down to around f/5?

yep. testing it out, baby.
so....i just wanted to let y'all know that my last post, so simple and sweet, did not reflect how my day ended. that was in the mid-afternoon, right about this golden-sunlight time, reveling in the spring-yness of the day and the wind making everything beautiful. hmm. last night ended with a long discussion of me putting my blog before my more important siblings. namely, my lovely older sister. we were going to watch a movie on my laptop --the stoning of soraya-- and i put her off to blog.....um. bad idea. but once i realized my mistake, and how my putting her off made her feel, (not important in my life at all, --which, hey, all the evidence pointed to such a thing!) my lesson is learned and i'm going to keep in mind that i can save it, press the x button, and continue later and who the heck cares if it's published into the next day and there wasn't a post technically published on friday. as i said...lesson learned.

oh boy. the cruella deville theme song is going through my head. lyd was watching it a bit ago.....heh.
catchy, i say!!

oh my. so that sweet lady amanda who wrote the camera post?? she has this post on their redo of the laundry room.
gah.
LOVE!!!!
our laundry room is in the basement, as has one of those little windows above the washer....but it's not dressed up or anything down there. heh. i'd love to have a sunlight-filled laundry room someday. all to myself. {well...you know what i mean.}

4:45pm
i'm leaving you now until way later. like after dinner. i'll talk to you more then.
hopefully i shall go out for a walk around sunset...should be soon......of course i'll take my nikon with me;)

~~~

9:57pm
inbetween dicing green peppers for mac-n-cheese lentils for dinner, i barely managed to get a shot of the sunset. a barely decent one....it wasn't one painted with intense shades.

tonight we watched a movie....
ramona and beezus.
for the first time ever.
i loved it. to pieces.
:)

earlier, anna had the notion to make chocolate-cherry muffins.
um...yeah.
needless to say, we definitely had our fair share of the batter...laughing and reaching our spoons in for more....quite unashamedly... ;)
our household altogether has a firm belief in the wonders of batter. raw, awesome batter. this was no exception to the rule. it was amazing. dried, sweetened cherries in a chocolate-cake-like batter?? happy sigh.

let's just say i wish you were here for that. ;)

p.s. this music is pretty awesome, albeit techo-ish. brandon moyer. we had it turned up and bass cranked in the sanctuary of church, we were alone and setting up drums, bass and guitar to practice a song we're doing tomorrow for a special. gosh, this music was amazing --especially the song "heaven's gates"... but it was awesome. and another song, wow: it was so good. great beat. [might've been mortal kombat, jumpstyle remix.] totally had anna and me dancing. heh. gotta have fun once in a while. it was something you could dance and exercise to --alone in a room with the stereo cranked. key word: alone. ;)