a new light...

as i think about new blog-post ideas, and facebook photo albums to display, i go through my pictures, and pick out all the best ones. 

it's usually quite a process. 

i'm a sucker for photo-editing, so it can take me hours to get the lighting and cropping just right, and to get the red eyes and blemishes removed before i post a picture. there are always a handful of pics that make me think, 

"why do i even still have this picture? no one will ever see it but me." 

these are usually the pictures that i'm either ashamed of taking, or embarrassed about what was captured. or they're just awkward-ish in some way or another. 

since there were so many pictures taken by my whole family of tiffany's wedding and the proceeding week (and so many have already been posted) i decided to take an alternate route, and post some of those pictures that make me laugh, but that would otherwise never be seen by anyone else.

yes, i am slightly ashamed of some. especially the one of me at the top of this post - it's me doing a solo photo shoot in the elevator that i loved so much at tiff's wedding. i'm being so serious, and obviously trying to be glamorous, while also trying to make it look like i didn't take the picture but that someone else caught me in a pensive moment. 

don't we all do this though... okay, maybe not. i know some people do though. 

anyway, here we go. 

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this is a shady little stand-up tanning bed in a conference room in the basement of a hotel. it was three dollars and i was pasty. i had to, even though i tend to claim i'm against tanning... yeah, i'm not. it was a little creepy.

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i know some of these hay bale pictures have been seen. For those new to them, Brooklyn and I spent a long time playing and taking pictures by these hay bales in southern alberta. 

i thought i'd show our one attempt at looking good...

and our first attempt at being silly.

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i'm actually not at all ashamed of these ones. in fact i think they're amazing. i had to throw in some good ones...

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and then there were all the times we thought we had an awesome mid-air picture, when our feet were planted firmly on the ground. at least the look of determination is still there.

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then there were the times we attempted cool moves but just ended up hurting ourselves.

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 and of course the pictures taken as we surrendered to fatigue and simply walked away.

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this is me getting the giggles at grandpa's grave. (way to capture it brooklyn). he had a real good sense of humor though, and i'm pretty sure he got a kick out of it too. 

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this picture's here to preface the next one. i thought i had such a cool pose...

...and then gravity got ahold of my legs. 

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once again, i think i'm so clever and funny. i thought it would look like eleanor was being blown away in the wind if i held her kind of sideways. it turned out weird and just made her sad. sorry baby! 

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 this is a picture of the other bear-watchers. i just loved the pony tail.

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it's super windy in this one. i just thought it was funny that janelle and i are both obscured by the effects of said wind.

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self-timer of myself... i was trying to see what my dress looked like. yeah, could've used a mirror. 

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not really sure what's going on in this one, but it makes me laugh every time i see it. keep her steady brooklyn!

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andrew in the ladies' room with the bridemom in the men's room, trying out the awesome antique hand dryer.

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brooklyn, erroneously assuming we were done the family photo-shoot... twice.

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i'm glad we could all look at this family get-together in a new light. 

what a great weekend - part 2

eleanor and i being very serious

there will be three great weekends in this little series... maybe four. 

the second one (this one) was the weekend of may 8 - may 12. it was long and it was lovely. friday night, my friend and i went to salt lake and took a little 'brolly arts' gallery stroll in sugarhouse. we ended up in this antique shop that had such fun things. there were dishes, jewelry, appliances and toys. i found that they sold several of my favorite things, like music boxes, umbrellas,  teacups and precious prints. 

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saturday was amazing. i decided i like running in hilly areas rather than flat, and i discovered that i really want to spend the rest of my life with arabs. they are such good people. i have yet to meet a disagreeable arab. 

my friend (who speaks arabic - the same one mentioned above) volunteers with an organization in which he gets to hang out with these two iraqi refugees. i was lucky enough to get to go to their home with him on saturday afternoon. it was so fun to hear them all speaking arabic with each other. i wanted to join in so bad, but well, i couldn't really follow most of the conversation. we went to a park with them and their cute little neighbor girl and her mom (they're from baghdad and have only lived in america since january). the little girl (fatima, 4 yrs.) and i had fun trying to speak broken english and arabic to each other.

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sunday evening was a mother's day celebration/my brother-in-law's 24th birthday party.

 

chase and brittany. the cake didn't fit in her freezer so she had to put it on its side... hence the flatness...

we do theme birthday parties in my family (like this and this) and his theme was 'going green' - so naturally, i had to make a recycled skirt.

bruce even had a fancy little green cellophane bow tie.

it was a fun little party. oh, and my mom liked the pictures, and the little door book.

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monday and tuesday i go to take care of brooklyn's babies, which i loved. it's a lot of work... hence the lack of pictures of them.

once they were in bed on monday night i tried my hand at picky bread. 

so, a few months ago i had a dream in which i was in the middle east again. there was a sketchy little alley-way across the street with a sign above it that said "picky bread" and there was a long line of people. i went over to see what it was all about.

turns out it was a pita shop that sold the most delicious pita bread i'd ever eaten. 

i woke up determined to find real picky bread. 

i did a google search and, to my delight, found picky bread! it was a blog where this girl had posted all this stuff about this delicious pita bread, and the very last sentence of the post said:

"And the whole family enjoyed the bread. Even the picky ones! (Kids, that is. We didn't have picky bread.) (But I'll bet picky bread doesn't like butter, either.)"

this post has too many words, so here are some pictures to show the fun i had.

the finished product. aren't they cute?

i passed the time while they were rising and baking by taking pictures of myself in the reflection of the oven,

documenting my solo dance-party,

and taking pictures of myself in the reflection of my computer.

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ok, this is a really long post, but i just have one more day.

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on tuesday night, my friend (the same one mentioned above) took me to a keane concert! 

we were on the 7th row (i saw them five years ago and was on the 7th row then too!) and we just sang along and danced like crazy. it was such a fun night! they played TONS of songs, and lots from their first album which i love so so much. their new stuff is pretty 80s-inspired, which i'm okay with. you should have seen his dance moves. oh my.

tom, keane's lead singer, in his gold jacket. what a great guy.

basically, it was the perfect end to such a fun weekend. 

me, about to go see keane, and being very excited

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what a great weekend - part I

the last two weekends have just been great. this first one was great because it was british.

sunday night was especially special (i don't care that that's redundant) because our family threw a birthday party for our dear friend jim. he turned 69 this year. he's dealing with an illness right now that's limiting his abilities to do many things (including even just holding his head up). i love this man sooo much, and it was so nice to spend the day with him and his lovely wife. i feel like they're my second parents. 

jim loves great britain (as do i) and so we had a british theme (we're really into theme parties for birthdays in my family). to my great joy, he came in his kilt, complete with the little dagger in the sock. 

we ate shepherd's pie, scones, and trifle.

we sang a whole bunch of his favorite old british songs (including 'God Save the Queen' of course). as he's getting weaker and weaker, it's hard for him to play the guitar like he used to, so he told me what chords to play and i did it for him. 

we had such a good time. he told us british joke after british joke, and let me say, his wit hasn't dimmed in the slightest. i think the party made him happy, at least i hope so. he left smiling, and i, for one, really couldn't have been happier. 

if i do say so myself, it was basically a smash-hit success.

thanks for being born jim. i love you a lot.

fleeing the country

so i was hanging out at my apartment this afternoon when, all at once, there was a knock on the door. it was my friend (who i haven't seen for quite some time). he handed me a ziplock bag and said, "have fun in canada" (you see, i'm leaving in the morning for canada to attend my sister's wedding). 

he walked away, and i looked down at what was in my hand. 

it made my day. 

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there was a little piece of paper which i pulled out and read, hoping for some sort of explanation. this little bag was full of very random things. the note said this:

"fleeing the country kit"

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-foreign money (in case you have to flee another country)

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clay (for driving and for prison)

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chocolate (for bribes)

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- candy cane carbs for energy (running and climbing fences)

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- water flavor for making unpotable water standable

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pen for writing letters seeking political asylum.

what more could a girl returning to her homeland ask for?