{decorate your soul}

Disarray

Our home is currently in disarray.

We have cleaned out everyone's closets, hall cupboards and the black hole we sometimes refer to as the garage.

Our trash can is overflowing with unloved toys and what-nots (and trash day was just Friday- it's going to be a long week there!).

The floors are covered with icky grime and the walls still need to be erased by the magic eraser.

Magazine files have been decreased. Children's books have been organized. Our main PC is packed up (thank you God for laptops that travel easily!) . All these boxes are everywhere.

So Andy had a solution to curb the wall of anxiety: he is out getting donuts.

All is well when sugar is the answer :)

blog hijack II--delayed response

This is Andy again with another blog hijack. (I actually wrote this in Switzerland!)

 

So late nights in

Paris

meant that we didn’t get a chance to update the blog, but we are in

Switzerland

now and waiting for the laundry to open (in an hour) so I have a few minutes.  We are so thankful to be away from the madness of

Paris

and

London

(especially

London

) and are really looking forward to hiking and enjoying God’s majesty. 

 

Susie doesn’t want so many pictures of herself, but after she posted the Guitar Hero pic I am pretty sure that I have free reign.

 

Here we go!

 

We went on a pretty cool bike tour in

Paris

our first night.  If nothing else it was a nice excuse to get off our feet for a night.  Seriously, my feet are killing me by the end of each day.  It is like a full day at

Disneyland

—10 days in a row.

 

 

The food in

Paris

was so much better than

London

.  This is an authentic French café.  You know it is authentic because there was a businessman smoking at a table like a foot away from ours.  Susie also bravely tried escargot (twice!), and it didn’t even cost me a pair of shoes.

 

But Susie did buy shoes here.  You can see the four floors of the department store behind us.  Amazing.  What was even more amazing was that she had to wear the shoes a few hours later when I stepped on her sandal and it broke.  /cry for Susie’s favorite pair of gold sandals.

 

The most beautiful woman in the world and the most gawked at woman in the world. 

This picture pretty much sums up the Louvre.  Notice the shopping bag (containing aforementioned shoes.)

 

Parisian apartments must be so small that they are all forced to hang out in parks and drink wine.  This is the only picture of Susie at work in this post.

 

Here is the same park from the top of the tower.  You can barely see the people still out there…at 11pm.

 

The tower right before we raced to the Metro to avoid the 12:30 am cutoff (we made it to our hotel at 12:38.  Susie actually walked the length of that park in her new shoes and even walked down the stairs from about halfway when the elevator line was too long.  Women sure do pick silly shoes to wear.

 

We went from a fancy Mariott in

Paris

to a hostel here in

Switzerland

, so we have some adjustment to do here.  The good thing is that we have an internet connection and not a lot to do at night so we may be connected a bit more.

 

Auf Wiedersehen!

 

 

 

 

 

Mind the Gap

London has an underground subway line- known as "The Tube" and it's the quickest way to get from Point A to Point B, especially helpful if you are on one side of the city and you need to get to the other. As you exit, a gentleman in a proper British accent carefully suggests to mind the gap as not to fall between the concrete and the transporting cars. Over and over again, Mind the Gap. It was ingrained into our heads as we tried to imitate his accent. We never came close- but it was fun to try!

A few shots of the more well known parts of London- these are what we call postcard shots... you can find a collection of our London photos in a set on my flickr page.

Big Ben attached to the hip of Parliament:

A picturesque view across the way from Buckingham Palace:

The Towers of Westminster Abbey:

What should I do with all these photos? Seriously, perhaps I can make coffee mugs for Christmas presents? hee-hee.

  

I'm No Globetrotter

Aside from my early adult ambitions of becoming a jet setter at any age, after traveling halfway around the Northern Hemisphere, I quickly learned, I was never going to become the chic that takes on city after city, luggage and passport in tow, hitting new desitinations every few days for weeks on end... No, my friends, our "trip of a lifetime" was just that- we enjoyed ourselves immensely, experienced the British, French and Swiss cultures for a few days each, and learned that I was more than ready to come back home to the girls and my American coffee house when Day 12 hit.

I have a few topical posts that I will hold out on, but for now, just a few favorites from the last leg of our trip- Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland was just as beautiful as Andy had described it to me. He visited some years ago the summer after he graduated college- the views from the valley were simply breathtaking. I cannot accurately describe the sight from our hotel room, even, since the majesty and depth of the Swiss Alps  cannot be captured on my camera. I will forever, then, attach them to my memory and know without a doubt that God has created some amazingly beautiful landscapes around the world and I was lucky enough to experience bits and pieces of them.

Our view from the hotel room in Lauterbrunnen:

We found a cute little park to hang out in Murren- the town just north of us - did I mention we were missing the girls??

The walk back to the town we were staying in was ripe with picturesque views- I couldn't just pose in the pretty fields, you know...

And now we are home- for twelve short days until the movers come. Sigh. It's always something keeping us on our toes!

A million thank you's to my mother-in-law, my mom and my sweet aunt for sacrificing their time (and hot coffee!) to watch the girls while we enjoyed this trip over to Europe. We are blessed and grateful for you and hope we can in some small way return the favor.

Over and out.

Happy Birthday, America!

Oh how I love thee!

Most Ridiculous Item of the Week

The leggings that shrink in only one leg-- Any guesses as to which store these came from??

Ten on Tuesday: The We Went to the Fair a Week Ago Edition

I think the San Diego County Fair runs through the holiday weekend, so techinically, I'm not too late. Here's the pictorial version of our trip last week:

1. Sarah was all about checking out the fair program:

2. Ash wasn't so sure about the farm animals:

3. I understand -- they can be kind of intimidating with their poker faces on:

4. They girls were much happier when we saw this booth:

5. And then we hit some rides- the older girls were all smiles floatin' around in a flying elephant (is it Dumbo?):

6. This is the view of the Kiddieland area- which is really spectacular if you are 3 1/2 feet tall, I think:

7.I spied a guy walking in front of me and he had a 16-35 f/2.8 L on his camera that I have been dreaming about so I thought, hey he looks like a photo enthusiast, I'll ask him to take our picture with my camera and we'll get one from a guy that knows what he is doing. Little did I know that he was there as the official Fair Photographer with a press pass and two cameras on his shoulder and a person to show him around... He didn't mind stopping and even busted out his external flash for this one in about two seconds (I was impressed, and apologetic for bothering him!):

8. Mama spied the Mackinac Island Fudge box and dragged present company over to get two bars:

9. Then it was time to hit the big ferris wheel:

A closer up shot:

And of course, one of this classic ride in motion:

10. I have some freakishly weird fear of riding ferris wheels, so Lolo and I hung out while Andy took Sarah and Ashie up- this is where she makes her only appearance in focus:

June 29: Camera Day!

Are you a fan of your camera? Well, if so, today is the day to celebrate it! I recently read that June 29th was Camera Day- and this year I just can't let the date go by without mentioning how much I love my camera. Here's a few tips I have collected regarding cameras that I would like to pass on (unsolicited, of course) about taking good care of your camera:

1. Always where the neck strap- even when putting her in other people's hands. You never know when gravity will be the party foul.

2. When changing lenses, tilt the camera downward so specks of dust and imaginary fairy dust particles floating around in the universe are minimized into their entry into the sensor area.

3. Clean your sensor as little as possible. A good cleaning product such as Eclipse will do- just check out your local photo store to purchase that and a Sensor Swab. And YouTube for a tutorial!

4. Get into the habit of having a lens cap cover on your lens to protect it from dust, scratches, and little people finger prints. If youcan swng it, buy a UV filter to protect your lens. A friend of mine was recently VERY thankful that she had that extra piece of equipment- you can check out her story here.

5. I highly suggest learning how to use your camera off of "Auto" mode. Learn what your icons on the dial do- here's a quick read on what those icons can do. I realize this isn't really tkaing care of your camera, but rather learning what it can do can make a difference in her performance!

Hey- what's a post about cameras without a picture?

 

Quick Blog Hijack--Update #1

Warning: This is Andy with a blog hijack.  Susie has (mostly) sworn off the internet but I couldn't sleep last night and I has some Lightroom 2.0 beta fun that I wanted to share.

You will see a lot of this if you ever come to Europe with Susie.  Not The Eye, but the Canon 24-70L.  Also, you will not see this much blue sky in London...ever.

This is not the Bobby that told me that my "picnic" knife is illegal in the UK.  But that Bobby was also at Parliment, when I was trying to get in to see the House of Commons debating.

What I learned at Harrods: Men have more fun looking at insanely overpriced cars or electronics than women have looking at overpriced shoes and clothes.  I think it is mostly because they spend the entire time trying to figure out how many days of Starbucks that they have to swear offf to afford the Jimmy Choos (warning to Nate White).

Did you see us on Wimbledon yesterday?  We were there enjoying a Pimms with some locals.

Ouch...this is what Federer will make you go through...just to lose in straight sets.

Did I tell you or what?

Susie didn't want to try a bunch of different wines at Vineopolis: City of Wine, just the tawny Port.  Port is now the only wine that she enjoys apparantly.  The lady pouring thought it was really strange that Susie wanted the same wine more than once.

Bombay Saphire cocktails that came with the wine tour.  This could have been a cool picture if my G9 had a much larger sensor and I used some off-camera lighting.  The AB 800's wouldn't fit in the carry on though. 

I hope you've enjoyed the experience.  More from Paris in a few days.

Welcoming a new year!

And we're off!

I've set a few auto-posts up to keep things 'fresh' around here- Andy and I will be back soon!

Au Revoir!

Snip, snip

Before (taken earlier today when there was hair covering the back of my neck!):

After:

I'm so excited to be free from the blow dryer- yeah, right!  

The Jumping Bean

Girl's got the jumping gene, let me tell yoU!

She looks like she is free falling here:

   

Surprise!

The plan for last night was that Becky would pick me up, and we would pick up a few more friends and head off to the movies for a fun girls' night! I had been looking forward to this movie night all day long! So here's Becky and I just about ready to get the others...

(you should know that this shot was taken after Andy said the first shot had us too far apart like we were strangers, ha!)

We hopped out of the car at Reina's for a quick pit stop (maybe a picture or two?) before heading on out to p/u Sarah- but this is what greeted us at the door:

(nevermind that I couldn't think about camera settings when trying to get this image!) 

The surprise was on me! Sarah and Reina brought together all of my SD friends and planned a farewell surprise party a month ago for our "movie" night and met before hand to come together... and boy did they ever SURPRISE me- I had no idea. Even the husbandly was in on it!

Seeing this line of women greet me when the door opened left me speechless and all teary-eyed- sheesh! Honestly, I can only equate the feeling to possibly being in Heaven- you know, after meeting the Lord, that I might share eternity with the people I have had the opportunity to know and love. These women, both individually and corporately have become my church family and it was beyond touching that they would take time out to be apart of a celebration like this- Thank you, so much, my friends.

I know, I know, enough sap...What's a party without a little Sassy Shoe action?

And as usual, I coerced my friends into a little JUMPING action (I was not the official photographer- I'll point you over to the better pics when I get them in:

Oh how I love these women. Thank you, thank you 100X for making this season in San Diego amazing. I prayed for dear friends and wouldn't you know, God just blew me away!

Most Ridiculous Item of the Week

Ouch! And that's not even filling the tank completely full.