the pure interest

On Sunday, the city was kind of reeling from the aftermath of the crazy snow falls over the weekend! Brian and I ended up in the house from Friday night until Sunday morning. (Naturally, the winter retreat was canceled due to the weather) On Friday night I made Rachael Ray Sausage Pie, but I made it more like a casserole. It was pretty yummy and fed us the whole weekend!

As Saturday wore on, we had to call a friend to come plow out the snow at the bottom of our driveway because it was so heavy and high, we couldn’t shovel it ourselves. Because of Brian’s back (2 herniated discs at the young age of 26), he can only do a small amount of shoveling, and I do my best but I’m only able to handle so much. It was amazing what a plow can do in 30 seconds that takes us humans hours to do ourselves!

Truthfully Sunday was quite beautiful - most of the main roads were melted, but a lot of the side roads are still struggling as the plows never got to them. And because so many people in the city don’t have off-street parking, a common site was cars barely visible, plowed into their spots with 5 foot high snow drifts around them. But the sky was blue, and we were able to attack some other portions of the snow. I hired a nice young strong guy from church to shovel our sidewalk and he and his dad came and did an AMAZING job! I was so relieved to know that people could freely traverse the sidewalks again. (sort of) Sunday night we had a get together with our music teams from the church, and ended up getting stuck in the driveway of the host’s home which was a steep long hill. We had to get towed out! But the great news is that we found out our insurance will cover it so I’m going to send in the bill.

Another fun thing that happened Sunday is when we got home, the pilot light had gone out on our furnace, and the house temperature had dropped to a whopping 49 degrees! This is Brian, Danielle and Candace dealing with the cold

Alright I need to do some work, asap! Thanks for reading if you did

The snow started yesterday, but the realization of how much really fell didn’t happen until I woke up this morning. The snow drifts were actually covering the front of my car. Everyone is out shoveling their cars out and sidewalks, and as soon as you get your driveway or sidewalks shoveled, the snow plows go by and fill it back up again. I’m thankful for them, but it is defeating. According to weatherman Dave, the storm isn’t finished and there is another round coming soon. I’m actually a bit scared, I don’t remember having this much before with the knowledge it wasn’t over. We do have a break right now which is a relief. Almost everything is canceled, which for Erie, is big.

Here is a warning that Dave gave me from the people in charge:

Deep snow is making travel treacherous today and both the Pennsylvania State Police and the Erie Bureau of Streets are asking people to stay at home if possible.

“People need to be off the roads,” said Terry Delio, the assistant chief of the Bureau of Streets. “This is one of the worst storms we’ve seen in years. And it’s going to keep coming.”

Here’s some pictures of my little corner of the world in white:

And my favorite:

Stay safe, stay warm, be glad you don’t live in Erie! (or anywhere else that’s getting hit by the storm!!)

For what my good friend Dave deems to be one of the worst blizzards the Erie region has seen this season so far. It just started lightly snowing outside. So peaceful and calm right now.

Headlines say: “Winter storm warning in effect from noon today to 4 a.m. Sunday”

I’m a bit nervous as Brian and many others I love are traveling tonight to a youth retreat called “The Great Sex Weekend,” (yes it’s a church-youth-group retreat themed on sexuality!) Last year when Brian was gone on the winter retreat, my car was almost totalled by being rear-ended into another car and Brian had to come home, so I’ve been asked not to drive this weekend. Obviously I will need to at some point, but I’ll be very careful. It’s supposed to be the worst later tonight. All I know is I’m glad I purchased a back-saving new shovel last weekend because I think I’ll be needing it.

Be safe everyone!

(Picture from the heavy snowfall two weeks ago)

I know that I have been pretty M.I.A. the last few weeks.

Basically my weeks have been filled with this: (Most designs and by Danielle and implementation by me)

Basically the main photo bar takes you to a new section of our site. The campaign billboards are around Erie and direct you here to read true stories from real people in our church from all stages of life. Who is grace? We are grace. I am grace.

and this: (looking at these now i see some dust on my lens and i’m not happy about it)

and this (first time i’ve witnessed them on a bed “together”):

and many other non-photographic elements including web updates, grocery shopping, budget planning, laundry, kitty playing, husband and friend time, worshipping at church, volunteering, life life life life.

Can’t wait to get back in the game!

It snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed yesterday and then again last night. I have to admit, it IS beautiful as it has coated all the trees and houses with a lovely icing of white a few inches think. But I am definitely ready for it to be over!! I am cold and I want to be in my garden again

I downloaded these so cute free flowers here @ You the Designer. I still don’t really understand how people have time create this kind of adorable, perfect art. But hey, I’m glad they do it so I don’t have to!!

I promise to have some photos and updates soon… I took some awesome ones this weekend because it was snowy but sunny and gorgeous. I went out on Lake Erie, frozen, for the first time in my life! The last two days have been so crazy from running to one thing to another that I have neglected the pure interest. Do you ever find yourself so overwhelmed by photo posting, organizing, touching up and flickring and blogging that you just DON’T? That’s kind of where I was at.

forgive me?

It is… very very white outside. It’s my fourth day shoveling our driveway and sidewalk myself (the joys of having a husband with a two herniated discs in his back). Luckily this morning, the snowfall was so much that hubby did brave it and come out to help me. By the time he got out though, I was mostly done with my side of the drive anyway - so I left him to fend for his car/side.

I have to admit, it is beautiful outside and it is the kind of snow that is peaceful and serene when it falls. But I’m a little exhausted of the constant shoveling as it is starting to take a toll on my back. We’ve discussed hiring someone to handle our snow, but it seems silly for such a small area. .04 acres to be exact. But I can’t explain to you just how much snow we truly get, and how a lot of the snow from the street and the parking lot ends up on our lawn (the joys of living on the corner of a very busy intersection). At this point, a few more inches and we’re actually going to have a space problem as far as where to put the snow. But we’ll manage, I know it got worse then this last year!

Some pictures from todays snowfall:

Everyone stay warm and only go out if you have to. Even my boss is working from home until 10am!

Can’t we have 2-hour-delays at work?

I know this is very behind, but I finally got around to organizing all these photos. I hope you enjoy them… I had such a wonderful holiday. Here is a photo journal of the holiday season….

my magnets from jennifer boston

prayer with the worship team at christmas eve

gifts for danielle from seejanework

our christmas tree on christmas morning

brian’s gifts to me - what a sweetie!

my dad and sister with dad’s new McCartney DVD

a semi-white christmas!

my mother’s table setting

my sister and i at the christmas eve service

the “mistletoe” ornament ball from pier 1 in our dining room entry way. I still can’t bear to take it down

nikki playing games at new years

organization and memories with stripes and other fun pieces. thank you for these!

trifle I made for Christmas day

me and my hubby on new years

hot cocoa and beautiful dishes and mugs

our guest room at new years - loved it nik & jas!

family moments at christmas

my new little baby

Thanks for looking at all of those everyone! I am so blessed and thankful.

i have bribed brian to let me get a second kitten by letting him get the tv of his dreams… its huge but i think it will be amazing. the conditions were that we sell our current tv and that we use the extra money i got as a “bonus” to help pay for it…. both of these conditions are actually making it pretty darn affordable.

Anyway… so I am in full kitten searching mode. And I am really trying to stick to the humane societies, because you care, and other spca and animal rescue organizations. I wish I could adopt them all… my heart goes out to them. Anyway…I don’t want to jinx it but there are a few at the humane society right now that I have my eyes on and I am going to go check it out at lunch!! I am so excited… if my application goes through then I am good to go and could have a new kitten in the next few days.

This is Kayla… there are a few other kittens, but this is the only one with a picture. Doesn’t she look like a sweetie?

I will admit, I’m a little nervous about how Zelda will take to a second cat, because she is spoiled and attention loving and very cuddly and friendly now because she is alone. But from what I’ve read all over, most cats have no problem adjusting if you do the introduction correctly and she will adapt, and in a few weeks it will be great because they will be friends!!! If there are major problems the new cat would go first, because Zelda is my first love - but I pray that it won’t be the case. I don’t think God made me an animal lover for nothing.

I also spent my Christmas money on some upgrades, accessories for my 3.5 year old camera… including a new speed flash, a big new bag (mine was always too small), a UV lens, a lens cleaning set (used yesterday and it is so nice and sparkly now), a flash diffuser. I figured it was about time because I was asked to photograph a small wedding ceremony in a few weeks and I was nervous about doing int without the proper equipment (really the flash was the biggest thing). I got some great deals on Amazon… I’m pretty excited about it.

Also, my dad and Danielle in combo bought me this series of books, and I love them… they are just so intriguing and addictive. They are really romance novels/life/girly novels more than anything… but still I like them.

I also re-ordered my basic Turbo Jam DVD set for a mere $20 because I was just really wanting them and between lending them out I seem to have misplaced it. It was no biggie… they had some delays from overuse anyway so i was fine with just getting a new set.

I also ordered these books:

Which I’m excited about. I had Logo Lounge 1 and it really helps to inspire me… and I thought this cheap mini-edition would really hep as well.

There are other pretty and great things… but I’ll spare you.. overall I’m quite happy with this Christmas…. I just feel like I’ve been able to do a lot personally and a lot for my business which will really help me in the future!!