outdoor chores

would you believe that i mowed the lawn for the first time...*ever*...today? with a push mower. three hours and multiple blisters later, i feel accomplished. even my husband was impressed, "you did it with a pushmower? are you crazy?" i told him yesterday that i would mow the lawn if it meant that we got to spend the whole afternoon together yesterday...needless to say, he didn't believe that i would actually mow the lawn. i feel wonderful about our large yard and its mow-ie-ness. now it's all lovely and short again. these faces (below) are that of satisfaction and my completion of outdoor work for the day. 

(oh, and you can check out my short hairs...thanks to genna;) 

this next week is about to get crazy. doing some video with "voyage", and it's going to be busy. fortunately, i don't have school for two more weeks. it'll be great working the video department with my husband instead of going it alone while everybody else does photography. i think i've come to the conclusion that my caleb and i were made for eachother without us even realizing it. hah. i mean...until this past week, i didn't even know that i enjoyed doing video. and he's loved it since he was just a little kid. go figure.

video project

found myself with a few minutes to spare, so i figured i'd get down to writing something rather than wasting time elsewhere. 

finals were today...oh...and tomorrow. who cares about studying when you have a bajillion other things to do-like video editing. i guess, that was more important, anyways. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhGzMSKS7ks

pretty much what i did with my time instead of doing finals. it was worth it because i've never touched videography before that shoot nor had i edited it. so it was (more fun and) educational for me. 

if i had a good picture, i'd post one of my haircut (or shave...whichever you prefer, honestly). genel did a great job. 

either way, there are my few blurbs. check out the vid ^^^^!

obviously.

obviously i've been doing a lot of blogging lately (insert a chuckle as a realization that i'm joking). i go back and forth and back and forth (you get the idea) on if i should keep this blog going or not. it's been a while since i have really put much thought into writing for any reason other than my college homework or essays. sometimes, i wish i had kept writing, and other moments...i don't regret it. moody, right? so much has been happening, that it honestly just gets lost in the day-to-day business of life. i might actually start occasionally blogging again, though, in my spare time. rant rant rant. okay. i'll post a picture already.

found my initials during our vacation.

doing a friend's makeup...just for fun.

thrifting a few months ago with the hubbs.

cort - nay

it's been a while since i blogged, but hey! here are some snapshots from my internship in 2011. lots of catching up to do, obviously. my good friend courtney, from the previously mentioned internship.

"foxywoxypoopoohead"

babysitting. my awesome husband texted me yesterday while i was hanging out with my dear giselle and told me that a manager at his work needed a babysitter. i jumped at the opportunity, of course. "you get paid to sit on babies? ummmm...count me in!" obviously, that's not how it goes in real life...it's more like they sit on you. or pee on you. or beat you up. fortunately, in my case, the two oldest kids had just gotten off of a video game grounding, so they really wanted to play video games and eat pizza. i got them to go outside and play football with me and the others - did i mention that there were five of them? - for a little while. i was learning how to throw a football for the first time in my life. my instructor? an eight year old boy. it was great...until one of the older boys decided to push the two year old girl in the stroller as fast as he could and the darling two year old fell flat on her face, with the stroller still seat-belted onto her. the boy's eyes get wide and he says, "you're safe! look, cami! you're still buckled in, you're safe!!" *insert face-palm*. telling him to apologize, and cleaning up many tears and grass stains and mini "boo boo's", i managed to gather the kiddos back inside.
the neighbor boy came over and rang the doorbell, offering the kids skittles in return for their friendship. they inhaled the skittles and then all bounced off the walls until two of them complained about being hungry. their mom gave me money to order pizza before she left, so i went about awkwardly calling papa johns and repeating the address i was at about a hundred times while the kids talked loudly in the background. the pizza arrived, and the youngest boy lunged at the pizza man and snatched the pizza box from his hand. i apologized and gave the man the money and the tip that the kid's mother told me to give him. he happily walked away. would you believe that the two year old girl ate the most pizza? their little neighbor friend went back home after the garlic sauce and bread sticks vanished.
the dog kept going into the bathroom and drinking out of the toilet. in the end, i decided to close the bathroom door to keep him from accessing his "personal water bowl". i asked the two year old, cami, what the dog's name is. she mumbled something along the lines of "foxyasdfnlweflkanskdfklaksdfnheeeeeeeeaaaaaad" - which is how she talks: in gibberish with a few understandable words - and the five year old girl translated, "his name is foxywoxypoopoohead". the name of their dog should give everything away about this family. i like them. i asked their mom (when she got home) if that was really their dog's name, and she said the kid's uncle named it and they liked it so much it stuck. since it's such a long name, they just call him "fox" or "foxy".
i was in the middle of hooking up the youngest's "kindle" with "yo gabba gabba" (i even know the name now. she said it sooooo much until i could understand her. i'm a pro.) when i hear the oldest yell, "MISS RACHELLLLLLL!!" and i dart into the other room. i find him, standing there, pointing at a humongous leaf-bug on the wall near the ceiling. i felt a tingle up my spine when i realized he wants me to kill this thing. i looked around for something long so i wouldn't have to get near it or let it fall on my head. "are you scared?" i asked the oldest. he nodded and backed up. i realized that i had an audience. all the kids crowded into the room while "super rachel" flung at it with a fly swatter and smacked it on the second hit. it came fluttering down the wall and onto the ground. i proudly waved my swatter and put it back on the wall. the show was over, and the kids slowly went back to doing their own thing.
at the end of the night, i hooked two of the younger kids on UNO. i matched up with the five year old girl, and the eight year old boy was his own team. he stinking beat us: four to two. that little...little...champion. haha. it was a comforting scene, when their mother got home, we were all in the middle of the UNO "final championship" with the two year old scribbling on paper, the twelve year old playing his DS on the couch, and the ten year old somewhere upstairs on his DS playing pokemon.
i could so do that again. i wonder how she manages every day. the boys are so feisty, i can't imagine how she keeps them from tearing the house apart. in all, i'm really thankful for kids and i have a higher appreciation for mothers.

change in scenery.

i could use one of those from what i have been doing today. job, homework...homework...homework. talk about a long day. on the bright side, my friend, sara, came over and i got to cut thirteen inches off of her hair. let me tell you, that was so much fun! i really enjoy doing hair, which is why i'm so glad that i am in cosmetology school...hence the homework. rather than complain about the amount of homework i have in cosmetology or computer science, i should say that i'm very thankful that i get to continue my education by learning about hair, skin, and nails! i believe that all the crazy amounts of work and such will pay off in the long-run. i wish i could write more, but i'm basically brain-dead currently. :)

one of those.

one of those days-the good ones. i woke up early and got ready for class. on the way to class, i almost drove head-long into a coyote, dashing across the street. i slowed down just in time to not only not hit it, but appreciate how beautifully it flew over my neighbor's fence. it kept looking at me while it ran off, while i kept looking at it. some sort of mutual feeling was passed, i am sure. awe, beauty, and terror. on both ends. i have heard from a few people that coyotes are becoming increasingly numerous in these parts, as well as increasingly pesky. i've only seen them a few times out here, but when i do, they are usually running from the neighborhood across the street...which is quite odd [to me anyways].
when i got to class, our teacher was out, so we had a substitute. she anounced that we only had to take a test and then we were dismissed. i ended up leaving school at 9:15am as opposed to my usual 2:30pm(ish) typical tuesday dismissal time. it was lovely, because i got to use the time and stop by chick-fil-a to visit my wonderful caleb. now i am home, about to do some studying and finish up my blogging for the day. unfortunately that wonderful caleb i was talking about has my laptop, so i get to use his. not horrible, though, because i know how to use his just fine. the password to log on was kind of tricky, but when i thought about it for a minute, i produced the perfect password, and the computer logged me on. smart guy, that caleb is. alright. off to do daily activities. i miss blogging...hmmm...maybe i should blog more...