layla

She's basically adorable.

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My cousin Jacob is in the stage of his life where he thinks hugging me is completely undesirable. But when he was a Lambeau for the preseason Colts game, he was so excited to be there and see Peyton Manning on the field that he completely forgot his distaste for hugging his older cousin and threw his entire body weight against me. In a relatively tackle-like manner. I'll take what I can get.

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More of my pretty little sister. She gets her pictures taken every year and this year she wanted me to take them. We had fun laughing and running all around Ripon taking pictures. She was admiring the cute shirtless college football players across the way while we were shooting.

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These pretty girls are sisters. Julie, baby Jayden, Krissy, and Danielle. Krissy's getting married Labor Day weekend, so we were all together for her bridal shower, and my aunt wanted a picture of the girls with Jayden. Jayden wanted a nap, but we took a picture anyway.

jayden

You've seen baby Jayden before as a daily images, but here's more from that time. My aunt has this big beautiful bed next to huge windows. It was a perfect setting for little Jayden to stretch and hold his head up and make faces at my camera. His daddy is a big Packer fan despite being from Illinois, so we took a few pictures with a Packer blanket. He's such a cute little kid.

bubba

When I was little, I somehow started calling my stepdad "Bud". Not really sure how that happened, or who came up with it, but pretty much all the while I've known him I've called him Bud. Or Bubba. Or Bubsypoo. Though I'm not sure I'm supposed to disclose that piece of information to the internet...

Father's Day cards are always so hard to find for him, because they practically all say "dad" on them. He's not my Dad, but he's my Bubba. And my definition of the name "Bubba" is the same as most people's definition of the name "Dad".

On Father's Day we went to watch his brother play baseball, but before we left, I made my mom take a picture of the two of us together. We don't have very many together, and I like pictures. Especially ones with the people I love. And I love him.

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Check out Central Park. It's a unique experience, being surrounded by trees but still hearing the city. Mom and I sat on this hill and read for a little while, soaking up the one sunny day we had in New York City.

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I went to Grandma and Grandpa's house after work. They're supposed to be moving off the farm. Grandpa had gotten rid of most of his animals. And then spring came, and he wanted baby animals on the farm. So, there's calves. And a pony. And goats, and a rabbit who's about ot have babies. I kind of love it.

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I don't like ham much. For Easter, my family had a beef roast with potatoes and carrots and homemade rolls with gravy. Oh yes please.

shoot

So, remember when Katie and I made cupcakes? Yeah, well, we also took a lot of pictures that day. I'm just a tidbit behind with blogging my photography. But here's some images of a beautiful young girl I know.

cheerleading

This weekend I went to watch my little sister compete at the State level for cheerleading. She's a petite girl, and I knew she was a flyer, one of the girls they throw into the air. I didn't know, however, that the first thing they did in their routine involved four guys throwing her as far into the air as they could. I think I stopped breathing. I didn't, however, stop taking pictures.

sister

My Thanksgiving is always crazy busy. That's what happens when your parents are divorced, you have lots of families to see on every holiday. So I always start out driving an hour to a noon celebration with my mom's extended family, and then leaving by two to drive another hour to my dad's house for Thanksgiving at three with his girlfriend's mom and sister and sometimes some of my dad's family too. So, by four, I've eaten more than any person should eat in a week.

Normally, my exstepsisters(yeah, long story) have Thanksgiving at their dad's house right up the road from my dad's house. After my dad and their mom got divorced, they didn't like each other a whole lot, but their dad and my dad got along and I spent a lot of time with them at their dad's house. Through that time I got to know their extended family on their dad's side pretty well. So when they're all there on Thanksgiving I like to go see them.

After all the visiting, Katie, my youngest sister, always comes back to my dad's house with me and we go upstairs to my room and giggle and talk about family and boys and anything that's on her mind.

It rocks. I am so thankful for the time I can spend with that little girl. Laughing together about the craziest things, her stealing my phone away from me to text message Phil and tell him that I don't like cold feet on me while she's trying her hardest to get her feet through the covers to my bare legs. Being a big sister and listening as she talks about the hurts in her life and wishing more than anything that I could take them away.

A right-now resolution of mine? Spend more time with my sister, just listening.

thankfulX2

So I'm doing a combination post today. Combining two people I'm thankful for in one story.

Side note -- I'm entering this to ModCloth for a chance to win some free clothes, but that doesn't lessen how thankful I am for these two. I had this post written up and then realized that the offer for ModCloth ends today and thought it was all just too perfect. Anyway, moving on...

I'm officially on day 22 of working out. Straight. Which has got to be some kind of record for me. But I really do enjoy it. Problem is, after 14 days of working out, I weighed the same and my clothes fit the same and I was ANNOYED. And I know it's only 14 days straight, but I'd been working out considerably before that and nothing was changing. I figured it came down to what I was eating. Because of this, I decided to talk to Phil.

Phil is this wealth of knowledge. He loves learning stuff, and he doesn't forget things. He soaks up information about languages and cultures and astronomy and music. He also happens to have soaked up knowledge about fitness stuff. I decided to take advantage of it, and asked him to help me figure out what I can and cannot eat. I had requirements. They had to be things that are easy to make, because typically I don't like spending a lot of time preparing food. And some of the food had to be things I could buy on campus for the days that I eat lunch there, because if I had to pack something I probably wouldn't do it.

So Phil took the time to figure out how many calories someone my size should consume in a day and how many of what kind, and how eating too less is bad just like eating too much is. And took the time to explain it all to me, which could have possibly taken longer than the research did. My favorite part about what he told me...I can eat peanut butter! Apparently it's a slow burning carb, so the occasional spoonful before bed is actually really good for you.

Meanwhile, I'd been talking to my Mom about this too. I knew that I wanted to incorporate fish into my diet, because it's good to eat and good for you. But I have no idea how to prepare fish. So I mentioned it to my mom, the recipe queen, and she went and found me various recipes for different kinds of fish off the internet and printed them out for me, writing little notes with various ideas to mix up the recipes a bit.

This is the best part about that. Back when I moved into my townhouse with the girls, my mom gave me a bag filled with goodies. Things like a bread knife, a flashlight, batteries, tooth brushes...general necessities in life. One of the things in the bag, though, was a binder full of recipes of things she makes that I like. So, when I got my fish recipes, I wanted to put them in the binder, but I realized this when I got back to my townhouse and was disappointed I hadn't remembered to punch holes in them at home, because I don't have a hole puncher at my townhouse.

Then I pulled the recipes out of my backpack to find that my mom had remembered, and punched holes in them, knowing that I'd want to stick them in my binder.

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So thanks God, for blessing me, for now, with a boyfriend who is willing to take the time to learn about something that matters to me, and has ulimate patience teaching me things I don't understand. And thanks again God, for blessing me, for now, with a Mom who is always a few steps ahead of me, even if it drives me nuts sometimes.

50

This Saturday we celebrated my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. Grandpa threw a party at a golf course nearby and we ate lots of appetizers and sweets and chicken and tips and fish. We met all their friends, and Grandpa talked about all of us and cracked jokes.

This morning he went into the doctor for his heart surgery. The surgery was successful and the nurse's reports since then have been good. Thanks, God.

halloween

My aunt Kate has a super cool party every year for Halloween. Her husband is a farmer, so he uses hay to set up a huge maze/jungle gym for the kids to run around on, and Kate makes sloppy joes and PB&Js and lots of sweets. They come up with some games and let the kids go wild. And I come and take pictures. My favorite costume this year was the little clown, she was adorable!