life in snapshots - a tuesday in pictures.

From Natalie's Tuesday life.....

gourds.

hw.

hubs.

split peas.

I turned 22.

October 24th is really the best day of the whole year.  My husband once said, "Your birthday is like a national holiday.  That only you celebrate."  And it is, folks.  It's a big friggin deal to me.  Maybe not to anybody else... but I love my birthday.

This year my amazing husband planned the greatest birthday trip EVER.  Here are a few of the highlights.

Acai bowl at OB

Sea World.

Palm trees.

Tennis with Matt's college buds.

Birthday gluten free pizza + hard cider

Shuffle board.

Sunset cliffs and Bro's mansion.

Hollywood.

Our amazing hotel.

Honeymoon style.  Seriously.

Birthday dinner night.

Road trippin' with my love.  34 + hours total. 

AND when we got back from our trip...  Mom and Rob got me an amazing surprise present.... sewing machine!!!!!

Thank you both so much!!!  I can't believe I'm going to be able to do my projects at home whenever I want.  :D

All in all, the best birthday I've ever had.  Thank you to my wonderful husband who planned the entire thing!!!!  You are amazing.

And now, back to school, back to fall weather (this is a good thing.  No.  A great thing), back to homework and coffee shops and X Factor.  Fall... you are good to me.

a tuesday in pictures.

This place.  

 This snack.

 This feel [yes, they're ridiculous.  Ridiculously comfortable.]

Relaxing, right?

If only you knew what happened in between all of these pictures.  Not so relaxing.

T

As in tea.

Don't worry.  He doesn't actually speak this way.

Love you Matthew.

sock bun curls.

Definitely trying this tonight.

[sock bun curls tutorial]

this guy.

Queue the mush....... Just wanted to take a moment and give a shout out to my awesome husband.  Basically, I am just flabbergasted at the moment.  And no, not because he surprised me or did anything particularly fantastic.  He just is fantastic.  

I can't believe that God would just give me a best friend, a team mate, and a lover all wrapped up in one husband.  It doesn't seem fair.  It seems too good to be true.  What have I done to deserve him?  Not sure. 

Love this man.

it may-or-may-not ... not be monday

But I have some stories regardless.

May or may-not Monday.. where you can divulge in the secrets of life's mishaps without feeling like a failure.  So go on... own up.  I may have...

I may or may-not have done SO much homework last week on Wednesday that I spent the night lying wrapped up in a fleece blanket in front of my fireplace with hubs for like two hours, relishing in the doing of nothing-ness.  Yes.  The bliss of refusing to do a single, darned, thing.

I may or may-not watch the X-Factor every time it airs.  Shamelessly.  I also may or may-not cry every time the 14 year girl (yes, Rachel Crowe, she is phe.no.men.al.) sings.  

I may or may-not have been joking around with my husband while I was showering. We were laughing, talking, you know.  Usual couple bathroom stuff (TMI?).  Well anyway, I make some comment (mistake) that goes something like "Oh, I thought you were coming over to scare me."  And before I know what's happening, Matt pulls the shower curtain back (from the opposite side I would expect), and screams at me.  I can't even explain how scared I was.  I immediately screamed at the top of my lungs, turned like I was going to run, started crying, and peed myself.  Yes, I peed.  I immediately, out of shear fear, starting peeing.  All of this was so frightening and so funny that not only was I bawling and peeing, I was also laughing uncontrollably.  I can't even imagine what my face looked like.  But when something is reeeeally funny, my husband gets this real squeaky high-pitched laugh, and once that shows up you know it's good.  Well.  He was squeaky-high pitch laughing.  "Eeeee-heeeee-heeeeee!!!!!"

I may or may-not have finally created a twitter.  Ughhhh I didn't want it to happen.  Now my challenge is understanding the tweet world.  So far my attempts consist of: logging in,  looking around a little at my home page, attempting to search for somebody and failing, and getting frustrated and logging off.  I got an email notifying me that I have a "follower" and I'm not even sure what that means, or what they're following.   So I begin telling Matt about all of these twitty tweety troubles.  He tells me that I need a "twitter education.  A twittercation.  A tweducation.  A TWOOTER!!"  To which I agree that I most certainly need a twooter.  

And you?

Mamma bear's birthday, and punkins.

Happy birthday to my wonderful mom.  You taught me to be a listener, to kill 'em with kindness, to be mature.  You taught me how to love, how to be selfless and what to say.  You are a fabulous woman with a heart of gold and I love you so much!!

I hadn't been to a pumpkin patch since 3rd grade.  I'm pretty sure.  Mom, you can correct me if I'm wrong.

Found tall pumpkin #1.

Cider.  Hottness.

Adorable little pumpkin!!

My plans is to spray paint some an off-white color and get some glitter stripes goin' down the sides, like this:

Should be fun.  Bought my Martha Stewart glitter yesterday @ craftwarehouse and the spray-painting has already begun.  Pumpkin-display pictures to come later!  

Hope you all are having a great October.  It is, after all, the best month of the year........ 

besides December.

:)

mix its and match its and a stroll.

My husband is the greatest person on earth.  Yesterday he sat by my side the whole 9 hours I was doing homework, proof-read everything I printed, went for a walk downtown with me (just because I wanted to), and joined me for a cup of caramel cider at govcup (I would go to govcup 4x a day if I had the budget.... even though I work there....and so it means a lot when he comes).  He is the greatest.  Period.  He also played the role of photographer.

boots and skirt: target, chunk-sweater: goodwill, scarf: gifted (originally Nordstrom's, Christmas gift from my awesome step-sister Erin, who is a Nordy's buyer. Greatest job ever?), nail polish: essie.

purse and pea coat: Nordstrom's.  Cliche Salem goose picture: Priceless.

Aside:  I got home from my first class today and my wonderful husband had done all the dishes and was reading the Word of God.  I love that man.  He is truly the greatest.  

8 hours later....

Mindscapes, paper, and works cited (yes, it gets its own category) = DONE. 

I have some mixed feelings about all this.

Good and sleepy.

Good and really sleepy

 Brain hurt. Sentence.. work... can't... sleep... must...

 and euphoria!

Gooooood night!

this crazy, crazy week.

Turned in paper proposition today.

Urban Anthro paper due tomorrow.

Mindscapes due tomorrow.

Philosophy paper due Tuesday.

Anthro mid-term Tuesday.

Chunky sweater.

Fleece blanket.

Computer + charger.

Recliner chair for the rest of the night.

...Yep.  Look out professors.  Just you wait.  I am going to kick this week's butt.

well it's wednesday.

Wednesdays are good.  Minus that I am at school literally all day and then go to math tutoring from 6:30-9 because I can't do math.  BUT. On the flipside, stomach bug = gonezo and I am eating again.  SSuuurrrppriiiiseeee bloggers don't have perfect lives. 

So I made some soooper tasty stuff once my insides stopped wanting to be on my outsides.  

Is that a tasty breakfast bowl full of pumpkin oatmeal with cloves, cinnamon, brown sugar, and walnuts? Yes, yes it is. And if you'd like some for yourself you can find the recipe here.

As if this wasn't enough bomb-ness for one day.... I whipped up some cookies at about 11pm last night after finishing my ginormous stack of homework (okay let's be real.... I didn't even finish... it's an eternal pile)

The easiest ingredients ever.  

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup peanut butter

1 egg

3/4 teaspoons of baking soda

3/4 cup chocolate chips

The end.

Mix em all up with spatchula.

Here they are.

Voila.  Bake for 9 minutes at 350.  

My husband says they're the best cookies he's ever had.  Wife un-fail. 

AND I got this new orange sweater for Halloween time.  At Goodwill for like $3. Yep.

I thought the white tiles would make a cool back drop.  But I actually just ended up looking like a weirdo.  And my husband thought so too.