worth it

holidays, home for the

christmas dinner was at our house this year! and really, it went over really smoothly. we had peppers and sausage (brought by anthony's parents), a braised paprika chicken dish, green bean salad, asparagus, salad, and a vegetarian stuffing. everything was delicious except for.. well... the paprika dish. it was good, just kind of bland. we'd made it a number of times previously and it thickened up beautifully! insanely delicious and eat-able! but this time, it didn't really thicken, which was sad. oh well. there's always another year!





since my younger brother has to work on christmas eve and christmas day, we actually got together and celebrated early on the 23rd. it was kind of fabulous to have a house full of family, and surprisingly stress-free! i have high hopes for future celebrations.

afterwards, our family friend, jesse, came by on his way down from oklahoma and spent the night with us. he (and we) were exhausted. we stayed up, talked, relaxed and then zonked out completely.

♥

cold mornings

on the way to work yesterday

christmas came early!!

TA DAAAAA!!





anthony knew i'd be PISSED if i had to sweep the entire house before we host the holidays at our house. i'm looking forward to playing w/ my new toy!!

smells divine

i love heading home and eating a delicious meal made by my dad. my new goal is to learn a new dish each time i come down. so far, i can make sour cabbage, pan-fried fish and hot & sour soup (other than the obvious and easy steamed veggies with garlic and little soy or oyster sauce).



here he's making breakfast noodle soup with baby bok choy, fish balls and steamed dumplings.

foggy skies and heads

this was the fog that greeted me early saturday morning on sanibel island - it was cold and quiet and lovely. it made me wish i could just traipse around taking damp photos on my own. *sigh*

it had cleared up beautifully by the afternoon - a gorgeous day for a wedding.

tgif!

ah, but no rest for the weary.

all i want to do is go home, lounge on the couch and watch some crappy movie with our new fancy pants surround sound system with anthony and our sweet yam.

unfortunately, i get to go home and pack and head down to ft myers for a wedding shoot all day saturday - 10 am to 10 pm!

note to self: bring water and snacks or perish.

the good, of course, is that i'm getting paid for this! and i'm gaining experience for future gigs!

it's hard to have your own business when you've started to already get old and are kind of inherently lazy and anti-social. what was i thinking?!

i keep going through highs & lows:

yay! i'm getting paid to shoot a wedding!
ugh, i can't just relax and spend time in my pjs...
hurray for extra money for more photo equipment!
urgle, less free time...
maybe this will be something i can do full-time and work for myself!
...but do i really want to?

so i'm in experimental mode. trying to find my boundaries and what i really enjoy and what i can do and what i can truly motivate myself to do. i'm sure that part of the problem is just trying to maintain a full time job along with a part time job. TWO JOBS! something i never thought i'd do. ever.

hhhheeeeeeerrrrreeeeeeeeee goes!

remember...

...the crazy hot & humid days of summer?



is your heat on right now?

mine is!

surprise!

found this in my sad, overrun garden this weekend.

baby purple carrot!

an oldie

i wasn't here for this, i just stole the pic from my mom.

my parents live in a huge subdivision that was started near the end of the housing boom. there are a bunch of italian style homes set all close together and then... a large area of overgrown empty lots. it's kind of perfect for my parents who like to walk in the evenings for exercise.

this night there were a huge number of biting gnats, so my dad pulled a beavis and walked around with his shirt over his head. *insert much giggling by me* he claimed that this was going to be his halloween costume.

thankful for:

my sweet yam, who snuggles and keeps my belly or head warm at night. she keeps me company when i use the bathroom and entertains us constantly with her antics.

thankful for:

family (and friends that are just like family):


♥ tiffany ♥

thanksgiving was spent at anthony's parent's home - his mom's birthday was actually that day!


sal & rosco, sal giving his best mobster face.


marion

a fabulously relaxing and delicious day. it prepped anthony for his foray into wal-mart at midnight with MAt; they are hardcore. i, of course, went to sleep.

friday evening was spent kicking a kickball around a giant baseball field with friends and their kids - fun times! kind of makes me want to get a kickball for our yard, as silly as we'd look kicking one around by ourselves. it also, again, showed me that i was out of shape, as my back started hurting after a small amount of time and i was a little sore the next day.

seriously, if i'm not constantly doing activity, it's like my body regresses exponentially. kind of scary. in fact, i'm sore, on a thursday, from a yoga class on tuesday.

... wait, maybe it was also from lugging around my 20 lb. sewing machine to and from the parking garage. that little workhorse is heavy.

saturday i did a family photo shoot in the morning and then we drove down to see my family for thanksgiving, part deux.







we got to hang out with jesse on his birthday (*insert many exclamations about how i was there when he was a newborn and now he's taller than me and out of high school and in the air force and and and*) and eat even more good food.

anthony even tossed the 'ol pigskin around with my nephew! it was pretty shocking (given our mutual dislike of football) - and adorable.

can we please have more vacation days a year? please?