Wedding and Preggoness.

I am extremely nauseous. Bear with me as I get through the first trimester. I have been zooming through meds trying to find something that works, and it isn't, so I am going to be incommunicado for a bit. However... here are some photos from the wedding I just photographed, but that's about the extent of it.

Drum Roll, Please!

So... my laptop doesn't work. You probably won't be hearing from me that often until I can buy a new cord. Oh, the cord doesn't work. So I can't charge the battery. You know.

Also...

I'm pregnant!

Which also might aid in the whole not-blogging thing. I have major preggo brain already. Which is pretty tragic because I have months to go. I am feeling pretty good, and am praying that this standard keeps up! I was nauseous 24/7 with Ryla... but this one seems to be in the afternoon/evening mainly. :D

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of fall! :D I sure am!

What? It's September?

Is it really September already? I can't believe how quickly time goes by. :) I have been enjoying every minute, though. I find it a pure joy to live my life! I have a fantastic family, wonderful friends, and I am blessed beyond measure...

We seem to be stuffing every single moment full of great memories that I will cherish for as long as I can remember them.. :)

We went to the South Haven Arts and Crafts Show recently. It was great! I didn't get much, but I really enjoyed it... I got a black crow silhouette garden stake for $1.50, and I got Ryla the cutest winter hat! $10, and it looks like a pattern I can mimic. Now, before you get upset with me, I want to clarify... I won't be selling any hats I make from it. I just want to make different colors for Ryla, and make some to GIVE AWAY for friends. I will not steal a pattern and use it to make money on. Okay? Good.

I also got Ryla this sweet flower hair clip for $3.50. :)

She had such a blast with Pop Pop! She just adores him. He is her IT person, and it is awesome to see! I love it.

BIG bites! Doesn't want to share with the rest of us. Since Pop Pop was there she got Shaved Ice AND Italian Ice!

This is what I've been doing all summer! Lots of canning. I have done more since I took this photo.. It's insane.

Chocolate Chip Cookies. A family fav. I made them for the garbage man, and for MY garbage man(My husband's occupation)

Brownies, YUM!

Brats and Grandma Shirley's Corn Relish. My husband LOVES it, btw. Here I was all worried and he wants me to make more!

I found this magazine, and the cover looked so good I had to buy it.

Ryla at the petting zoo at Mooville. Her favorite animals were the CHICKENS. They had llamas, pigs, cows, bunnies, sheep, goats, ducks, and she liked the CHICKENS! ha!

I miss having these guys. We had them when we were growing up.

I should have put these in a collage, but my computer is running slow..

Helo, our Aussie Shepard. He is sweet, but desperately needs some training. Which I could do, but haven't.

(just ignore the boob in the shot.. he was sitting kind of behind me so I took the photo like a self photo...)

This is seriously what my hair looked like this morning. Needless to say, I was a bit taken aback..

I hope everyone enjoyed their summer as much as I have enjoyed mine!

Guessing game...

Guess what I got?

Here's a hint: it wasn't working, and it needed to be cleaned.

I always use my Mom's because I didn't have one.

It's really loud and built like a tank.

Need more hints?

Here's one:

It's my sewing machine!!!!!!

I was playing with it today(and making sure it was working well), and I threw together this apron.. for someone. I really need to get a pile of kid and baby gifts together, so when someone has a baby I have something to give them...

If you note the car pillow to the left of Ryla in the photos... we were at Hobby Lobby and she spotted that fabric and just had to have some, so I got her a pillow form and threw it together. About the best $15.00 I have ever spent. She loves it! Absolutely worth it...

The oddest looking Ball jar that I have ever seen...

We have been canning and one day I brought all of my tomatoes and canning jars to my mom's house and her cat, Bad Kitty(his actual name is Hobbes, but I call him by the name that best describes him) was very confused, but happy about the boxes...

Any guesses at to what I am doing with these?

I am putting them in my cauldron(Bubble bubble toil and trouble...)...

Corn Relish! Woot! Not sure if we like it, as none of us have ever had it, but we better, because we now have 19 pints of it on our kitchen counter. :) Any advice on how to eat this stuff?

Let Me Share With Y'all...

.... just how amazing and fantastic my husband and father really are(and how easy I am to please...)

When we moved in to our house last June we had a front door that you could see outside around. Around as in the door frame... it was at least a half inch all of the way around. We bought some stuff to cram in there over the winter, and we have been meaning to get it replaced, but you know how it goes... So anyway, today my husband and my father replaced our door! And VOILA! no more bugs around the outside. No more traffic noises like you have open windows all of the time! It is so fantastic!

It looks like this right now, but that will change soon... Note the 4 inch gap on top of the door? That's because the previous owner wasted money getting a custom built door for it and not bothering to get a FRAME for it. He threw a door(2007) into the old door frame that has probably been there since our house was built in 1927. Seriously. Pffftt. But that is in the past.. the guys are just rearranging stuff and, unfortunately, we are going to have to cut the trim down(I hate doing stuff like this because I imagine future owners saying "WHY DID THEY DO THAT?" like I am now..) and get it put back up around the new door...

Still... as it looks now.. I am saying

"Be still me heart!" because I adore it.

Oh. And I got the new Skillet CD.

Open Letter...

*FREAKING EDIT* I kid you not. Seriously. About 60.4 seconds after I posted this blog Ryla and I went to the bathroom so we could go to bed. I opened the bathroom door and there was a BAT flying around my kitchen. So I locked both of us in the bathroom and called my in-laws to come help me. You want to know if you have great in-laws? Call them at 1/4 to 11 on a Friday night and see if they will come kill a bat for you because you are a weenie and totally freaked out when they FLY. INTO. YOUR. HEAD. Oh, yes. He went there. I. Am. Never. Sleeping. Again... EVER.

*FREAKING EDIT over*

...to the next bat that wants to invade my home.

Dear Mr.(or Mrs.) Bat,

My dear husband is away on a man's holiday tonight. He is seeing a movie with his bestest friends in the world, and getting some guy time(bro-mance. He deserves it, because he gets up at around 3am every morning to go to work. Now your last comrade to invade my home in the middle of the night unfortunately became closely acquainted with our baby gate. My dear husband was kind enough to take care of that problem at 4 in the morning while I was still trying to wake up and get the sludge in my brain moving.

Mr. Bat... my dear husband is going tonight, and I don't know that I have it in me to deal with you. Mr. Bat... I implore you to take a holiday yourself tonight. Search some bro-mance of your own... see a movie. Maybe this one. That's what my dear husband is seeing. I hear there is a swamp up the road... you and your bestest friends could head up there for some major mosquito banquet... but please, Mr. Bat, whether you seek out your buddies tonight, or have a nice evening alone... please don't enter my home. I would dearly love to sleep all night. If I have to visit the restroom in the middle of the night, I don't want to see you flying around my dining room. Understand? It would get my adrenaline flowing. It would freak. me. out. And it would undoubtedly upset me to have to smack you with a baby gate.

So for both our sakes, please, please, please do not enter my house tonight! (I would actually prefer you stay out altogether... but tonight is definitely not allowed)

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Mr. Bat.

Give Me Your Best Shot

I was given the opportunity to photograph a friend's baby, and I grabbed it! I ended up finding this sweet girl! I am not sure that this is actually my favorite out of them, but I can't really pick just one... I really loved this chair, though... so it's definitely in my favorites.

For more give me your best shots, head over to Better in Bulk!