this boy

is loved so much.

The story? I was jumping up and down to take a timed picture of the family and The Nephew thought I was cool [I am.] and wanted to be like auntie amy. Then he did the hand-raised thing. I think he may be more of an extrovert than I am, but I'm hopeful for his future on stage. (-:

a walk on the beach

Me, Mumford & Sons, and a beach. This, my friends, is the life. 

I wore my shorts, but it was definitely in the 40s. 

CHILLY! 

Things I saw: 2 Amish girls running in their dresses; a family in coats, hats, and scarves; guys in shorts without shirts; dead fish; a girl in her bikini swimming; and an older woman in head to toe neon. I love people. 

In other news, it's been 3 days since I last bathed, I think I'll remedy that tonight. People are going to have a hard time loving me soon if I don't. (-:


All photos taken with my iPhone because I'm too lazy to get out my big girl camera. 

Lights

I'm hoping to share an entire post of Christmas music with you before Christmas, but one of my new favorite albums is an EP by Pentatonix [winners of The Sing-Off] called PTXmas. LOVE.

Carrie, Kate, and I walked around the other night to look at lights. The following is the wordless version of what we saw.

Love you people.

amy

Friendsgiving

This year Michelle's annual Friendsgiving was December 1st. So, if I'm posting pictures only 15 days late and not over 30 [just wait, I still have birthday pictures to show you!] I feel that I'm accomplishing some sort of goal.

PAT ME ON THE BACK.
Thank you.

This is Michelle, she's our hostess. She's holding a turkey neck in this picture.

This is Rachel. She put together the relish tray in case people were hungry while the turkey was cooking. She also found this geode at her parent's house that looked yonic [that means it was deemed a "vageode"]

This is me. Carving a turkey. I'm kind of the official turkey carver. Did you know that I'm a vegetarian? Is this irony?

This is Emily. She's my friend from forever. She recently moved to Illinois and come over so I could hug her face and it made me crazy happy. We were both really excited to eat this dessert and then it tasted like this:

You should know that this is her second bite because I requested an example of how we felt eating the first bite so I could photo-document. Emily took one for the team. 

Yeah. We needed coffee to wash that out of our mouths, so mid-party we took a little walk over to Starbucks. You know, because that's normal. (-:

CAMEL DOWN! I drank out of plastic cups with my name written in permanent marker on the side, but assisted this person in accumulating as much glass decor as possible. These make it easy to identify your beverage, but they seem to impair the whole drinking process. I'm a good friend.

Sarah. The former college roommate. She's engaged. What a grown-up.

SO. MUCH. FOOD.

BRUNCH! [because, obviously, we needed more food]

During the party a question was asked:
Question: Why are my chocolate cookies always flat?
Carrie: Your butter is probably too soft.
Man: It could be many things.
Carrie: Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it's because her butter is too soft.
Man: I hate to pull rank, but I'm a pastry chef.

Then, everything we did had a "I hate to pull rank..." joke attached.

I hate to pull rank, but I invented spoons on noses.

I hate to pull rank, but I have a degree in swirling whipped cream on hot chocolate.

I hate to pull rank, but I created cat-eye glasses.

This photo is by the amazing Meagan and it's my fave from the whole weekend!


love these people.
love you people.
amy

oh, my heart

It has been sad.

Sad to leave Fort Wayne. Sad to leave my job, my friends, my family. Sad to leave Hank. Sad to pack up my adorable little apartment. Sad for the relationships that are just beginning without time to grow.

Happy to pursue my calling. Happy to be near old friends. Happy to have family to live with. Happy to be able to be in school.

The happy and the sad are fighting and I don't much care for the tug from both directions. My emotional balance is off...all.the.time.

Therefore, I feel manic and depressed hour by hour without being diagnosably either. A hot mess if you'd like my personal self-diagnosis. If they've got Hot Mess in the DSM-V, let me know.

Hot Mess Amy is being her hot mess self, then on Friday there was a school shooting in Connecticut. My heart plummeted. I physically ache for this community.

I hate it.

I hate violence. I hate that children died. I hate that teachers died. I hate that other children, teachers, and school personnel had to bear witness. I hate that for some reason this young man was in a state where evil and darkness took over his mind. I hate that people live in fear.

I hate that it makes me question and doubt and question where God is in it.

My heart was not made to hate.


I started seeing this quote around facebook and it reminded me.

Go see the free printable available at thrityhandmadedays.com.

Love can outshine the hate. Love is what makes teachers choose to go to their classroom and care about their children. Love is what makes strangers give their time and talent to help. Love is what will heal our wounds. Love is where we can seek peace when nothing else seems possible. Love will remind us that we aren't alone. Love will trudge beside us when we can barely lift our feet.

We sang Love Came Down at Christmas this morning at church. I couldn't sing it. It's so true and painful. Painful in how hard it can be to see love in this. We're in a holiday season where Love is Coming Down. A yearly holiday when I'm reminded that Christ is born, Christ is Love, Christ is my past, present, and future.

My reminder that Love will win.
Love always wins.


love you people.
amy

Dear Northern Indiana,

I like seasons.

I want snow.

If I'm going to live in extended fall, I'm going to at least need the leaves to be pretty on the trees. [And, just to be clear, I don't actually want to live in extended autumn.]

It's December and it was over 60 degrees today. Boo, weather, BOOO! I'm ready to wear my winter clothes and my boots and my coat and my scarves and my hat and get all snuggly.

Plus, this is soup season, but I am experiencing difficulty with my desire to eat warm, uh....soupy meals.

Let's make it happen. Can I get 6-10 inches next week?

gracias.

xo,
amy

the list

Hank's list of neuroses and neediness:

• He loves closets, if you don't want hair on EVERYTHING close the door.
• He knows how to worm his way in if you don't latch doors. 
• He will build a nest, well, several nests. 
• He will never run outside. It is scary.
• He will timidly poke his head outside and then run INSIDE because outside is scary.
• He will stay in his cat bed, but he will use it more if you put it on your bed. 
• He can only have a small container of wet cat food. IF you choose to purchase some, get the kind that is orange plastic (I don't know the brand) and a fish flavor. This is the only kind where he will eat the entire container. 
• He is not picky about dry food, but he prefers the cheap stuff to the organic, healthy stuff. 
• He is meticulous about cleaning and using his litterbox. He will "clean" the walls surrounding the areas as well.
• Use clumping litter in his Roll'n Clean Litter Box. <---favorite favorite--="" litterbox="">
• His cleaning tendencies spill over to the area around his food bowl. This is why he can't have too much wet food, he will clean and clean and clean and then dump it over. 
• As he "cleans" he will also drag anything he can find to cover the food clothes, papers, magazines, bags, anything. 
• He will try to clean/cover any of your food you leave out on the floor as well. 
• He doesn't eat people food.
• He will beg and prowl around your legs if you're cutting cucumbers. He LOVES cucumbers.
• He will let you know when his food or water is empty. He'll yowl at you and then lead you to his dish.
• If he throws up, he'll try to cover it up.
• He likes to be combed. He'll roll on to each side so you can get his sides with the furminator. He will preen after because he's beautiful.
• He wants to talk to you. Feel free to talk back. 
• When his eyes dilate, he's going to spaz out. This is your warning. 
• He'll let you trim his claws you just have to hold him and be the boss.
• He likes to have his picture taken. 
• Feel free to put his bumblebee hat on him. He has a love/hate relationship with the attention. 

This is the list I gave Dave before I handed Hank over to him. At least he's with family, so I'll get him back when I can. 

The first of many hard goodbyes. 

I've been told that my pictures are deceiving about how big he is, is this better to show his baby mountain lion size?


love you people.
amy

Hank & my birthday card

My mom makes her own cards. She can go a little cray-cray with the paper crafts sometimes, but it's her jam, so who am I to judge? I talked about some of her other craftiness a couple of years ago. 

I love his whiskers. I'm ridiculous. 

Owls! 

Where's my card? 

love you people. 

amy