more to come......

I can post with my phone now....excited much!!!!!!!  hopefully that means more frequent posts...pictures..videos....etc.....and thus it is!

photos by me

just posted new pictures on my photoblog, check it out here!!!

voila!....

so at my nephew's school they don't really celebrate "halloween"  but since its busting at the seams with little kids, they have a fall party and each grade has a theme to dress up like.  well my nephew is in kindergarten and their theme is.............nursery rhymes.  so they send home a list of suggestions, and what does my nephew pick.........hickory dickory dock.

so there our brains go with ways to make a clock costume for a 5 year old.  this was our solution.  take a paper bag and cut arm and head holes and cut of the middle of the front or back...like you would if you were making an indian vest, like we did when we were little kids.  well then we took brown felt and covered the bag in felt.  you can sew it directly on the bag because it's thin enough to sew through.  well there's the body, but the tricky part was the head.  so we took poster board and cut out the shape of a clock then covered that in brown felt making sure to cut the hole bigger leaving space for the face of the clock. add a little velcro here and there and a little elastic and make a little pair of pants with the leftover felt and draw the hands on his face with eyeliner or face paint and you've got the cutest little hickory dickory dock ever!!! 

that's right folks...there you have it.......hickory....dickory....dock!!!!

(minus the clock hands)

love this kid!

official....

it's officially official....i suck at blogging. i don't even know why...i enjoy blogging, but i guess between choosing whether to post on my blog or vegging on the couch, taking a shower, or eating i'd choose any of those to blogging...you know...they're necessities.  the easiest place for me to blog is at work, and that requires some preparation...especially if i want to include pictures...which is always better....most of my pictures are on my external hard drive (best purchase ever!!!) so if i wanted i could lug it in, but well, i have to lug enough in to my little piece of heaven (hear the sarcasm?).

i've officially realized that i spend more time at work than i do at home, with the exception of the weekends, but a majority of my life is spent here.....i'm not exactly sure how i feel about that.


i think i should decorate!


"Within each woman is the capacity to strive for improvement and the freedom to choose her own path.  our challend is to choose a path that will offer to each of us the assurance that our chosen course of life is acceptable and according to the will of God."              {Elaine Sorensen Marshall}

unveiling...

There i was in the bathroom looking in the mirror at the rat's nest we call my hair!  I looked like and 80's rocker!!!  I texted this picture to Gina Jill and told her i felt like an 80's rocker...she said i looked like one too.  let me tell ya that was inspiring....let's not explore the fact that i look like i'm 40 in this picture okay...the hair was depressing enough.

So what do i do?  I go and look for pictures online because this was just unacceptable!  i knew i wanted to go shorter, but i like to try different things everytime so i was looking for inspiration, that's when i came upon this:

so cute right!?!  so it was decided.  armed with these pictures and my head full of hair i went to see Lisa who, as always, entertains me as she cuts my hair.  They have a new shampoo girl....omg...best shampoo i've EVER had!  It was amazing!!!  I think i'll go back there just for that reason!  but i digress...sho Lisa starts hacking and what happens?  Well in the end i have a Christina Applegate (who i don't even really like) inspired haircut that is SO much better than the previous 80's do.........................so...........................................here it is........

I'll try and get a better shot but that's what we've got for now...and let's be honest, we're lucky rachael even wore mascara that day!  

So..........whatcha think? 

photos by me

new post on my new blog

http://photosbyme-rach.blogspot.com/

check it out!!!!

chicago...

{Clauds, Gabriele, & Amanda}

okay, so i went up to chicago for my friend claudia's wedding.  one of the days i was there we went into the city.  we took a bus (abt a 30 minute ride) to the train station, which we took into the city (also about a 30 minute ride).  i have a picture of the rail system map, but it's not that significant, so i'll get on to the important stuff.

{sweet moment}

For instance, we went to the city for a boat tour.  it was an architectural tour, which is way awesome, because ever since i met claudia we've discussed architecture.  her love is far more extensive than mine, but it was cool to learn about the architecture of chicago...which is a way important part of their culture and history.  The guy narrating the tour was a native chicagoan and knew more about chicago than i thought one person could know...he had us looking this way and that. and then i caught a cute moment between clauds and gabriele (whom i called gabe throughout the week, for the lack of being able to pronounce his italian name).

{awesome lighthouse}

{chicago skyline}

He told us a lot about the architecture of the city...they actually had a lighthouse, which i thought was way cool.  i wasn't able to get a great photo of it, but we get what we can.  The day itself was actually quite overcast.  if wasn't a great backdrop for pictures so most of the skyline photos i have are horrible, but i was able to get some green from the park and water from lake michigan in one, so it didn't look all that bad.

We went back up the river at one point, and i saw some buildings that caught my name, so...of course i took pictures, but i don't know what they're called, so don't even ask.  I didn't realize how many movies were filmed in chicago.  Transformers 3 was being filmed while i was there, but we didn't see any of the filming, they just told us that they were in the city. It was so funny because we were all exhausted because we all got to bed late and then had to wake up way early to catch the bus.  Yeah, so gabe fell asleep, and i couldn't resist taking a picture.  I'll be honest though, i fell asleep as well.  Sometimes you can only take so much touring.

{zzzzzzzzz}

So after we finished with the boat we walked several blocks to Michigan Avenue also know as Chicago's Magnificient Mile.  I didn't take a lot of pictures while we were there, but i did take at least one that proved that i was there.  we were on a mission though and had to walk like forever to get to macy's.  okay so maybe it wasn't forever, but it sure seemed like it.

{almost newlyweds}

well after that we went down to the train (we got on underground, so i guess you could call it a subway at least for a portion of it)  There were tons of people...it was crazy!  But i'm glad i got to experience it for myself.  Needless to say it was a pretty long ride back so some people {clauds + gabe} snoozed...it was cute though so i forgave them...which was all good because later i got to take a nap, and they didn't.  

It was so cute to see them together and helping each other through the stress and still in love.  It was awesome, and i'm glad i was able to share this time with them.  

Love you guys!