Boo.

Directorial debut.

Halfway through a jar of Nutella, I decided to put the plastic knife down and do something productive tonight.

Here's what I came up with! I took a stab at putting some videos we shot this past summer.

(this made me itch to be at the farm, near all of this beautiful land!)

enjoy!

you should hang out with us on Saturday nights

We cranked out the fun factory on Saturday night.

Who needs to go out in the big city when you can stay snug at home and have a good ole' fashioned Yahtzee tournament.

We played about 10 games. (that's a lot of Yahtzee for me..short attention span)

These next 2 pictures are from games where I was winning. Odd that I only took pictures of these? Nahhh girl.

Things to know about.

1. I am not good at math. Yes, I somehow made it through college, many tutor sessions later, but I also developed a "fluster", as I like to call it, when I have to do math on the spot in front of someone. I just get sweaty and the walls start to close in on me. (deep, deep rooted math issues here. years of therapy awaiting me.)
Andrew is working on not calling me his 5 year old nieces name when I don't blurt out the sum of 6+3+5+1+6 .....(brainnn poweerrrrr.....mmmm..21?)

pain. emotion. embarrassment. somehow I get through.

2. Who uses the cup? I think it's unneccessary and would probably make fun of you to your face if you played with a cup in my tournamnt. And I can do that because sh%# talkin' is fair game in my professional Yahtzee tournament.

3. This was "Amazing fruit punch, Valerie. No really, taste it. Ohhhh. This is so good." I don't know why I found it so funy, but I did. Maybe you had to be there.

4. Crappy coffee table shelf full o'stuff I need to organize.

THEN THINGS GOT CRAZY NEAR ROUND 8 (or was it 4?)

We brought out the CORNBREAD and homemade HONEY BUTTER. (whattttt? yes, we did.)

I popped open a bottle of gingerale and things got all loosey goosey.

(gross. Who wants to bet we dropped this knife on the floor and continued to eat off it?)

but in the last rounds....I started to get tired. And my attention span was on a rapid decline......

We ended up tying in a sudden death face off on Sunday afternoon.

Until next time......

Forty days and 39 nights

Let the countdown begin! I have officially 40 days until I move from Richmond to the booming town of Mt. Sidney, VA.

I have a post-it countdown ready to go! I can't wait to tear one off each day!

Very exciting times here. Very.

(but oh, so much to do)

oatmeal, i love you.

found here

It's true. I love oatmeal and I eat it every morning. I'm just about to make my morning meal of delicious warm oats. I stick to the old school style most days- just oats, milk, lil' butter and honey. Some days I get fancy schmancy and put fruit in it.

My memories with eating oatmeal go way back. I remember sitting with my Great Granddaddy in the kitchen of his house, which would one day become our house in Norton, looking out the little window to the creek. He taught me the best trick of eating oatmeal: dipping toast into your bowl. Yum.

I don't know what I would do in life without my oatmeal. And that is why this post is dedicated to you Oatmeal, the only food that seems to work with my stomach, not against it.

mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm goooddddd.

there are noises coming from the furnace...

I tip toed over and saw something scurry. I hit the furnace with an empty bottle of vegetable oil (first thing I saw in my recycling pile) and the little booger stopped making noises.

But I know you're still in there.

Where is my cat when I need her the most!!!?

Have a good night. I'll be on mouse watch. (eeeek)

tested and approved

The best snacks for a fall drive:
(according to me)

i love toasted pumpkin seeds.

And I also love these photos that we snapped on the drive, even if it was cold and gray outside:

I can't wait to see what the trees look like in a week or so.

happy monday!

I'm officially living in 2 places at the same time

(This picture has nothing to do with my post. It's a Domo coffee cup from 7-eleven and I like it.)

My car is packed full of summer clothes on their way to hang nicley in Andrew's closet at the farm.

Olivia has been dominating Andrew's mothers house for over 2 weeks now.

I picked up empty wine boxes at Strawberry Street Vineyard on Wednesday.

It's official. I'm in the throws of moving.

I should be somewhat of an expert on moving. Except that I'm not. I have big dreams of organizing and preparing boxes....and I'm going to hold onto those big dreams for now, but we'll see how it all turns out.

For now, baby steps. Summer clothes and sass pants cat. Checked off the list.

Happy Friday!

(and pray for me. Dad & co. are coming to the farm this weekend. We are hiking? What? It's supposed to SNOW with a high of like 45. Andrew won't stop texting me about how excited he is. Good thing you can't hear sarcasm in a text, "Me too!! Can't wait!"

(and of course you can't hear in a text. that's silly. but you know what I mean)

P.S.A.

Make a pledge to stop using the "R" word.

Do you realize how much people say it in conversation?

It's just not nice.

And sounds quite ugly.

You will feel better when you catch yourself. Promise.

Pledge here.

That's my P.S.A. for the evening, goodnight.

on repeat

It's a rainy, cold day in Richmond.

I'm happy to be snug as a bug in my office playing these videos on repeat while I type away.

I love Meg Hutchinson. I highly recommend her last album "Come up Full".

This is my favorite song of all time (I think, or maybe it has just been my anthem for the past 2 years. Either way I love everything about it...from the melody to the lyrics)

This is just simply beautiful.

Happy Thursday!

Cool Breeze Stables

I had the best weekend! I have been so busy catching up and spending time with Andrew (YES! He took Monday and Tuesday off to come to Richmond) I'm just getting around to posting pictures.
My mom was in town, the sun was shining and the farm was buzzing! I loved seeing all of the riders compete and I really looooved eating as much as I wanted from the concession stand (a perk of being "in" the family).

Here's a little peek of the weekend:

Mom and her new GrandHorse

Andrew's newphew...chocolate lovers unite.

Hunter, Andrew's dog/best friend
Hank the barn cat

Andrew and the big green tractor! (humming the song in my head as we speak)

Everyone is invited to the horse show next year!!!!! love.

and it's not even my birthday.

I hope I don't come off as Nellie Olsen in this post. But I have to brag. Because my surprise was that good.

I was supposed to stay in Richmond last weekend. BUT, how can you stay at home when someone is dangling 2 surprises over your head that are, "the best val, the BEST I have ever gotten you"

I mean......any girl would go? Right?

So I got to the farm just as the sun set on Friday. Andrew came down from the barn and asked if I would finish helping him feed.

So off we trot to the Old Barn.

"Go get the buckets out of that stall" Mr. worker pants barked at me with his back turned.

"What stall?"

(and yes, I started to get that 16 year old attitude in my voice-don't you boss me around, I just got here-watch it!)

And then I read this on the stall door that Andrew was pointing to:

And I saw her with bows on! BELLE! My favorite horse that was just a baby when Andrew and I first met! Mine? Is that what it says?

I turned into a 9 year old. I jumped up and down and cheesed a HUGE smile. I wrapped my arms around Andrews neck and screamed, "YOU GOT ME A PONY!"

(all the spots are from the hay in the stalls floating around. kinda looks neat? I think so.)

and then I made him take a photo shoot of me and Belle and made a few faces like this:

SO, I don't know how to ride yet and you aren't trained yet, Belle

(or Bella, as Johannah promptly texted me that she would be calling her. She is in a Twilight phase. Yes. That phase. I have not entered the world that is Twilight, but I have seen many around me fall victim. Get it? Victim? Vampires?)

back to the horse:

but Belle, I will brush you and pet you and braid your tail and love you forever.

oh. yes. I had a SECOND surprise.

but the more I thought of it, the more I think it's a private surprise. It's a personal goal that Andrew has set for himself. And I'm very proud of him.

Nellie Olsen, signing off. ( I HAVE A PONY!)

Nie Nie on Oprah!

Nie Nie will be on OPRAH today!

(and I might be running an "errand" today at 4:00 so I can watch)

I'm so excited.

I love the NieNie dialogues. I love Oprah.

(and it's okay Brittany, I saw your post about Oprah. I still REALLY, really like you and your blog. :) This is America. Let's swim around in the crock pot of differences that we all are allowed to enjoy and finish it off with some cornbread that we share together. (i'm not sure where that came from. it just seems right)

also, while I'm sharing the blog love, Lauren from Lovely Life of Lauren wrote the sweetest thing about my lil' blog in her post today. People, her title does not lie. She really IS lovely.

EDIT: I got terrbily excited when I wrote this post just to find out the episode with Nie Nie will be on WEDNESDAY. That's okay. I'm sure I will have another "errand" I need to run. :)

I love apple cinnamon candles in October.

- Halloween 2008-


I have some pictures to show you about a sweet "surprise" I got on Friday.

( all i can say is that one of my childhood fantasy came true and that doesn't happen everyday.)

but I don't have the pictures with me.

and you have to have them for the full effect.

stayed tuned.

Meanwhile, I have two big things (and one selfish thing) to look forward to this week:

1. Cool Breeze Stables (andrew's family operated horse farm) has their annual horse show on Saturday. My mom will be coming up to the farm for the weekend to help out. I can't tell you how excited I am!!!

2. Wednesday is First Wednesdays October. I haven't been able to go for the past two months and I am sooo looking forward it. The theme is "Pot- Lucky" and you have to read Amy's invitation here. She is such a beautiful, amazing writer! I have no idea what I am going to craft yet! Ideas?

3. Olivia is staying with Andrew for the week. I know I am a terrible mother but she's been a handful lately and I'm really enjoying this little break.

(see crazy cat lady here)

happy monday.

and yes. I do love the smell of apple cinnamon candles in October. Don't you?

America's Best Idea

So my entertainment center has hit the dust. Great. I only had 17 channels to begin with (hey, I plugged it in the wall and ta-daaa, 17 channels. I can live with that). Everything is all fuzzy and muffled. Could it have not waited about 7 more weeks so I could continue to watch trash shows like, "My Antonio" on VH1?

Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. TV rots my brain. (probably because I am forced to watch things like, "My Antonio"). Anyways, last night I found myself on PBS.org watching this:

http://video.pbs.org/program/1072181584/

It is wonderful, amazing and makes me so proud to be an American!

(other than the fact that in the process of establishing this great country and National Park system we drove Native Americans off of their land, killing thousands and forcing tribes to move onto reservations)

Damn. I ruined that moment. But it really does make you pinch yourself and think, "wow, I live in such a beautiful country".

If you are fortunate enough to have a working TV, you should tune into this. If you are tv-less like me, click the link below !

http://video.pbs.org/program/1072181584/