ode to my favorite season

i love all the beautiful colors.

{outdoors}

{and indoors}

not even adorable kitties can resist a beautiful, crunchy leaf.

jackets are necessary {because i'm always cold and i like to hide in a big turtle neck}

but socks aren't! {because, really, who likes socks?}

i went on an acorn-cap hunt and came home with handfuls

and everything just seems bigger.

i just love fall!

{what's your favorite part??}

reasons to love manhattan #3

the sky!

and don't bother me with silly details like the fact that everyone has the sky.  i'm telling you, if you want big wide open spaces, move to kansas. this time of year i really start missing michigan and all it's trees and beautiful color tours, but it's hard to beat all this:

bright skies:

and some gorgeous sunsets that seem to stretch on and on:

a little wallowing. and a thanks too.

your recent comments have been so wonderful and put a smile on my little face.

{photo}

lately i've been dealing with severe allergies. severe severe allergies. i've had them since i was a kid, so i'm no stranger to pretty much every symptom that goes along with that- including eyes that swell shut. 

but living in kansas has made things even worse. my asthma is out of control and i've been sleeping at least 11 hours a day, and if i'm not at work i'm wallowing on the couch. 

and it's been miserable.

if i was a normal person i would have realized that being this miserable isn't normal for anyone, but i've just grown to expect it so my whole base frame-of-reference is off. but this week i reached my breaking point and made a doctors appointment.

so after a steroid shot, two new inhalers with increased potency, and an additional pill prescription, i am very hopeful that i will be feeling like a normal human being again. {although it might all just be too good to be true}

anyway, i'm taking the night off and basking in kansas football and my newest craft obsession {which i promise to reveal soon!}

so again, thank you all so much for all your wonderful kindess! i really needed it :)

creative camping equipment

husband and i like to camp.

or at least we used to, before we moved to kansas where the summers are stiffing hot and the cool fall air is full of toxic pollen.

so, sadly, all our backpacking stuff sits in a box, way in the back of our closet. 

 {photos from backpacking in the u.p. with these guys} 

 but i have found new uses for some things, such as our head lamp. i get up for work much earlier than husband, so to avoid having to pick out clothes the night before {yuck} or stumbling around in the dark without ever finding a pair of clean underwear {double yuck} i'm using the headlamp. it's pure genius.

and now i'm thinking: fondue party in the living room floor with our camp stove? there may be something to that....

letterboxing adventure #1

{hopefully to be followed by adventure #2}

let me just begin this post by explaining what letterboxing is {if you don't already know}

it's awesome!

i like to describe it as scavengerhunts for grown-ups {or even not-so-grown-ups}

it's easy, and all you need is a notebook, a stamp and a good sense of adventure.

{it's a hobby i started and cultivated with my bestie}

so anyway, onto today's letterboxing hunt with my summertime kiddos!

 {we started at the lookout to see where we're going: down there by "tuddle puddle"}

the second clue led us down to the "bison" {you know, kansas art}

{ok, i actually think they're pretty cool}

the box is somewhere in this old wall...

 found it!

the best part- you put your stamp in their notebook, and their stamp in your notebook. make sense?

{my notebook and stamp, with the found letterbox and hand-carved bison stamp inside}

we had fun. and it's a great way to explore outdoor spaces you wouldn't necessarily go otherwise.
now go look and see if there are any letterboxes near you! {or just to read more about it} you'll be hooked.

scenes from a kansas summer

nesting instincts

remember this nest i showed you a couple weeks ago?  you know, the one right outside my patio door?

it's in full bloom and it's not empty anymore!

it's currently home to this little momma. and i cannot wait to see her little ones hatch!

i feel pretty lucky to be so close to something so beautiful. with birds singing outside my window and this lovely family to watch, i think today will be the perfect day to finish up my may day packages :)

it's spring!

it's hard to stay down-in-the-dumps when there's all this spring-love surrounding you everywhere you look.

this nest? right outside our patio. i spent a wonderful day reading and eating in the shade, listening to the birds singing.

perfect.

glorious day

walking to work today i just couldn't stop smiling. 

which isn't actually that unusual.

but today was so perfect. 

so beautiful!

blue skies and white wispy clouds.

bright sun shining and a cool breeze.

and birds singing.

i just couldn't help tuning my ipod to my favorite summer music.

music that reminds me of lying in the grass.

falling in love.

and laughing so hard it hurts.

and this song in particular.

it was the recessional song at our wedding. the only recorded music we used.

because it's our song {or one of them} and it's so perfect.

 carbon leaf- life less ordinary {partial lyrics}

Live a life less ordinary
Live a life extraordinary with me
Live a life less sedentary
Live a life evolutionary with me
Well I hate to be a bother,
But it's you and there's no other, I do believe
You can call me naive but...
I know me very well (at least as far as I can tell)
And I know what I need

The night you came into my life
Well it took the bones of me, took the bones of me
You blew away my storm and strife
And shook the bones of me, shook the bones of me
By the way, I do know why you stayed away...
I will keep tongue-tied next time

Live a life less ordinary
Live a life extraordinary with me.
If I could name you in this song
Would it make you smile and sing along?
This is the goal: to get into your soul
If I could make you dance for joy
Could that be the second-chance decoy?
The bird-in-hand I would need
To help you understand?

friday sky watch

only in kansas is it sprinkling while the sun is still shining :)

go see other skies from around the world

simple pleasures

after a wonderful weekend with the perfect balance of friends, crafting and quality time with my hubby (at last!) i'm happy to say that today has not brought me off my "happy high".
i often make mental lists of life's simple pleasures to keep me going (and to look back on when i'm having a not-so-great day) so i though i'd share a few (of my many) simple pleasures today:


~ purring kitties


~ perfect fall days (sunny, crisp and colorful)


~ public libraries (and book stores)


(i did not realize until just now that they all start with p)

care to share some of yours too?

weekend stories part I

i had such an incredible weekend. i was sad to see sister and father-in-law (alicia and jon) leave this morning (at 6 am)

i have so many things to share (photos and stories) from the weekend, so i'm going to break it up a little.

first up, our visit to tuttle creek!
we went down to the lake friday early-evening and the weather was beautiful!
sunny, cloudless, and crisp.i got a little lost getting to the water, but luckly it was a gorgeous drive so we didn't mind too much

it was the perfect way to end our tour of the city

alicia did some frog-catching (she did catch one but then immediately dropped it on a rock)
and we all did a lot of poking things with sticks and turning over rocks

i love these guys!
look how happy manhattan made them:

and mother-in-law, don't worry, i'm sending you a disc with all these photos so you can have them too :)

tuttle creek: take two

we went back. and this time there were more of us! (13 instead of just 6)

and we brought way more snacks

limestone all around the swimming area.
josh didn't swim so he took the pictures (and started climbing)

that's us. we were the only ones there (again) and it's amazing!
it feels like you're in the middle of no where.

practicing for ultimate frisby. that's right, the english g.a.'s formed an ultimate frisby team

sunset. gorgeous.

we love kansas!

tuttle creek

yesterday josh and i went with some friends (from josh's program) out to the tuttle creek area for some swimming and grilling. it was a beautiful evening for it and the water felt great.

we were practically the only ones there. that's one thing we're loving about manhattan- drive a couple minutes in any direction and you're alone in a wide open space.

i didn't get any photos of the swimming, but here are some others.

sunset.

after grilling we made a camp fire and roasted marshmallows.

with relatively no light pollution we could see all the stars and watched the harvest moon rise. we also caught a glimpse of fireworks from the ksu stadium after the first football game of the season (which we obviously skipped)