New Addition

We have a new addition to our tiny home and his name is Archer. He's my parent's cat and has spent the past 4 years happily becoming as fat as he possibly can in their home. My mom recently developed serious allergic reactions (requiring two hospitalizations) and the doctors told her that she would have to give up Archer as he is a serious contender for causing her anaphylaxis. Of course, he is now at my house indefinitely as we wait to see if the doctors will be able to narrow down what is causing my mom's allergies. This has been a bit of an adjustment as Darcy is a well behaved fellow who knows the house rules. Archer on the other hand, likes to tear food bags apart, shred toilet paper and knock things over. It's only been a week, though, and Archer and Darcy have become fast friends and they spend much of the day chasing eachother around. I know this is good for both of them and they can be pretty funny at times. God grant me patience, however, as I try to find Archer proof spaces to keep the cat food.

Weekly Theme: Family

My niece, Mara, playing with the Calico Critters family she received for Christmas.

Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year!

Weekly Theme: Family!

I thought that would be a fairly easy little challeneg over the Holidays. :)

Weekly Theme: Food - Candy Apple Pie

Today is the last day of work for the student worker in our office. She's been with us for over a year now and we've grown very fond of her. This afternoon we are throwing a small office going away party for her and I volunteered to bring the dessert. Hence, myself working in to the wee hours of the evening to bake the Candy Apple Pie I read about here. You are, by the way, looking at the entire available workspace in my kitchen. Needless to say, you have to plan out baking and cooking projects in stages.

This pie is quite decadent and also pretty simple to put together. Don't forget to add and entire layer of caramel over the chilled graham cracker crust.

My cat, Darcy, was convinced that I had something savory hiding up on the counter. He's good at begging and stopped once I showed him I was working with apples. Cats usually aren't overly fond of fruits and mine is no exception.

The best part was mixing together melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon...and then adding the apple slices. The smell was heaven!

Add another layer of cream cheese mixed with a little bit of lemon and sugar, top it with homemade whip cream and caramel and you have...

Apple Candy Pie!

Feather

I just really enjoy feathers. I'd have more around the house if my cat wasn't so intent on killing them.

Weekly Theme: Water

I took this picture some months ago, but it seemed to go with the theme well. This is the small pond in the front of my parent's house. You can see the little goldfish who live there.

Delayed Thanksgiving

Here are some of those Thanksgiving pictures I was talking about last week. My mom enjoys going "all out" for holiday meals and such.

My dad posing by the turkey. My sisters and I come by our decorating obsessions honestly.

Little Big Man

My nephew Joseph received a pair of Spiderman roller skates from his Aunt Caroline. Nothing is cuter than seeing him "skate" with his dad.

7 Things

I've been "tagged" by Just A Plane Ride Away, my new and lovely blogger buddy. I'm new to the whole "meme" phenomenon so I will do my best!

Here are 7 random things about me:

1. I have serious texture issues. By that, I mean that I will not eat certain foods with a particular crunchy texture (think celery or onions); I can't wear certain types of clothes without wearing undershirts so they won't touch my skin (think wool) and I am extremely picky about my bedding or blankets or pillows, specifically because of how they feel when I touch them.

2. I developed a reputation in my family due to said texture issues for being difficult about food and clothes. It wasn't until I worked as a casemanager for developmentally disabled children that I realized I probably have some type of mild sensory integration disorder - as many of the children on my caseload exhibited the same texture difficulties along with their other developmental disabilities.

3. I enjoy spending time by myself. I probably need about 2 or more hours a day (1 hour during lunch and at least two 30 minute blocks when I get home and before bed) and I usually spend that time reading. This explains how I manage to read roughly one book per week.

4. I love hanging out with close friends and family - but throw me in to a group social setting with people I don't know well and I will develop an immediate headache. I think it's from smiling too much, but it happens every time.

5. I love maps. When I was 13 I wallpapered my bedroom with National Geographic maps, and yet remained startlingly ignorant of world geography. I thought Argentina was a large city until I was probably 15 or so. I still think it sounds like one, right? I've remedied this problem with a large world map in my current office, and enjoy spending time just looking at all the places in the world.

6. I will sometimes eat Honey Nut cheerios for breakfast and dinner for an entire work week - because I am just too tired to think of cooking when I get home. I almost always cook nice meals exclusively on the weekends.

7. I am in love with a new camel colored purse I bought last weekend.

Okay! Those are 7 random things about me. I tried to think of more obscure stuff for those of you who know me well. Now, I get to Tag my other friends. Feel free to do it if you have the time, and I think you have to link back to me and in the comments section to let me know once you have completed it. No obligation though!

1. Brian
2. Cayce
3. Janae
4. Sally
5. Tim

Weekly Theme: Sunlight

My flight left in the evening on my way home from Baltimore. I was amazed at the colors the sun made as it was setting.

Fungi?

So, I went on a walk in the woods with my niece and nephew a few weeks ago and came upon these creepy looking balls growing out of the ground.

Being curious, I nudged one very carefully with my toe and was startled when they started puffing out what looked like brown gas. I assumed these were spores of some sort and also concluded that I had exposed myself and the two little bits to some sort of poisonous fungi and that we were going to die. Well, we didn't die, but I swear I had never been so startled in my life! I've never seen things like this before. Anyone know what they are??

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

So, I took some great photos of our family's Thanksgiving table, cutes pictures of the kids running around and even some of our exhausted feet from Black Friday shopping - but you won't be seeing them. Instead, feast your eyes on Branson Missouri's "take" on a chandelier. My dad and I thought we were exchanging ipod chargers and I accidentally gave him my camera's usb connector, which means I can't get any photos off my camera and I will be regaling you all this week with old photos I've taken, but haven't considered posting up until this point. My Thanksgiving was wonderful, I hope yours was too!!

Undecided

I thought I would post these leaves before winter set in. This was a few weeks before all the leaves started falling off and I thought it was neat that I was able to catch the leaves as they were in the middle of transitioning to full out red.

Weekly Theme: Color

This is a pendant lamp at La Gra restaurant in Dogtown. My friend lives just around the block and they serve wonderful Italian tapas.

Weekly Theme: Self Portrait (better late than never)

It's Saturday afternoon and I am wearing a pullover, sweats and my hair in a ponytail - nope, nope, not conducive to flattering self portraits (like I would post an uflattering one!?). So, I searched my photo archives and found one that I didn't hate and played around with it on photoshop. Since it doesn't look too altered, I am sure you can tell that I don't know the first thing about altering pictures. Well, that's one weekly theme picture I am glad is over!!

Christmas started two weeks ago

in my house. Why wait until after Thanksgiving, when you could have three more weeks of pretty holiday decorations to enjoy? Besides, Thanksgiving is the beginning of the Holiday season, so we might as well mark it! Christmas just makes me all happy inside.

These thin old timey glass ornaments are my favorite kind. Every year I go out and find 3 or 4 more to add to my small Christmas tree.

And to my lovely blog buddies and friends, Janae and Cayce, I promise I will have the theme picture up on Saturday. I just have had no time to get on photoshop this week, but Saturday looks like it's going to be quiet and I will get to work on it then.

Misty

Well, it rained the entire time I was in Baltimore. I wasn't too dissapointed though, because there was some beautiful, dense fog surrounding our building. I think fog is magical!



I had a hard time getting the fog on camera, but here's the best I could do. The light really did look like that, it wasn't a distortion by the camera.

Orange Glow

As most of you know, my family gets together on Sundays for "big breakfast". It's our time to get together after the week has passed to share stories and play with the kiddos. A couple of weeks ago I got to my parent's house early and surprised them out on the deck having a morning cup of coffee. It was right at the time that the leaves had turned color, but had not begun falling yet. They gave everything such a lovely orange glow. I'm glad I live in a state that has all four seasons.

In other news, I will be leaving in a couple of days for Baltimore for a work trip. I'll be staying at a "spiritual retreat" center with no phones, tvs or computers and will therefor be unable to post. I'm bring my camera with me though, so hopefully I'll have a new crop of pictures to share!

Nadine

My co-worker and friend, enjoying the art gallery we visited before watching The Color Purple.

The Color Purple

One of the objectives of the grant that I work for is to give students the opportunity to participate in arts and culture and attend events that they would otherwise never be able to afford. In that spirit we bought tickets for our students to The Color Purple, playing at the fabulous Fox Theater in St. Louis. I was lucky enough to coordinate the trip and spent a really nice Saturday afternoon with some of my favorite students. Oh, it was also one of the best musicals I have ever seen!

We ended the evening by going out to eat at Best Steak House, which is a restaurant across the street from the theater. Eating there is an interesting experience and reminds me somewhat of the soup nazi from Sienfeld. They yell "NEXT!" and man, you better have your order ready to rattle off or you get evil stares from all of the cooking staff. yikes!

Weekly Theme: Freedom

Or at least the freedom to vote. I got up early this morning and felt so good when it came time to fill out my ballot. Whichever way this election turns (although I'm hoping for an Obama win), I'm glad that we all get the opportunity to participate in electing our government officials.

Weekly Theme

So, I think it's my turn to post the weekly theme, so without further ado our theme for this week is...FREEDOM. A little cheesy? Yes. But I'm curious to see what you all come up with, as this is the day before the elections! I'm going to bed early tonight, as I am getting up around 5:30 am in order to be at my polling place by 6:00 am and hopefully make it in to work on time at 8:00 am. Otherwise, I'm going to use some personal time, because nothing is keeping me away from the ballot box this year!

Fun Outside

My 3 year old niece in my parent's front yard this past Sunday. We were chasing falling leaves.

Lazy Saturday

Sometimes, you just can't beat a good ol' lazy weekend spent reading, cooking and watching a great movie. We had just such a Saturday last weekend and I couldn't resist snapping a photo of my sister Caroline relaxing in the living room watching an episode of the X-Files as I was heading in to my room.

Weekly Theme: Chaos

This was a tough one, Cayce! For the most part I like to keep my living spaces neat and tidy, however, that doesn't apply to my hidden-from-view spaces. Exhibit one: my closet. It's so tiny that I can't actually fit all my clothes in to it at once, and so I have to switch it out from summer to fall storing the off season clothes in large bins in my basement. With winter coming up, I will have to switch my closet in the next couple of days and it's a chore that I loath doing. bah!

Washington

My mom is an artist, she sacrificed quite a few years to raising her 4 daughters instead of painting, however, and that is one of the reasons I am so happy for her that she was offered a contract for representation by an art gallery in Washington, Mo. I had the day off work on Columbus day and we happily spent the afternoon driving around and enjoying the Fall colors and making our way to Washington so my mom could switch out some paintings. We ended the day by catching "The Duchess" at the movie theater - it was fabulous.

My favorite of her series of paintings of the Scottish countryside.

Knobby Root

Exposed root knob from the hedge behind my apartment. Sometimes I think it looks kind of gross, and at other times pretty neat. I can't decide.

Fall Purple

I know this is a plant. What kind of plant, you ask? I have no idea.