A couple of weeks ago, I took Thursday and Friday off of work and stayed in a cabin in Laurelville with some of my girlfriends.  It was in the middle of nowhere, but that was perfect.. we just took it easy.  We read books, grilled out, watched movies, did some creek-walking….

visited the animals on the farm down the road…

hung out with Maggie the dog …

watched a thunderstorm from the porch…

and then I left on that Friday to meet Funnel and some other friends in Logan for two nights of camping, which was fun but made me feel pretty gross.  All of my other pictures are on film, so I’ll post those once I get them developed. 

Today I discovered this painting by Isaac Bushkin.  The title of it is “Lost but not Forgotten.”  I was really taken with it and stared at it for a long time.  ((It reminds me of this video.)) My heart hurts for that little bird.

I go through phases of my life where I feel like my emotions are on steroids.  I think this is one of those times.  Today, for example, was just your average, uneventful day.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  But my feelings were swelling.. I felt so happy.  The happiest I have felt in a while.  And I can’t even give you a good reason why.  Just an average day.

She said she usually cried at least once a day not because she was sad,
but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short.”
— brian andreas.

While I am on this emotional high, I will confess that there are so many people I love that I have never ever told.  Even people that I don’t really know that well, but I am blessed by the small presence they have in my life.  They have made such a big impact on me and they probably don’t even know it. 

I joined a knitting/crotcheting group at church that is working on making baby items for a crisis pregnancy center.  Pretty neat.

I’ve had a good weekend.. I got to see my dad for a long lunch over Tammy’s Pizza on Thursday, watched Anne of Green Gables Friday night with Debbie and Danielle, spent the most of my afternoon yesterday working on my neverending book project, and worked on etsy stuff and the apartment today.

I haven’t gotten to see much of Funnel lately, but his next break starts Tuesday.  (How did we make it when we were dating and only saw each other on the weekends?).  I miss him.

We have started watching BBC’s “The Office” and it’s so weird & surreal to me.  We watched the first episode yesterday and we were trying to figure out who the corresponding American characters are. (I love the Dwight character.)

I am looking forward to:
+ spring (dresses! frolf! going for walks!)
+ photographing my first wedding in April.
+ visiting the new ikea.

It was a really fast weekend, and I was pretty exhausted afterwards (I actually got sick and called off work a couple of days) but it was the best weekend I have had in a long time.

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All of the “original Fredericks” drove to Michigan Thursday and the “imposters” (me and Amy), as Funnel called us, drove up Friday after work.

We drove Waltima-the-Altima and I just realized that it was probably his last road-trip before he gets replaced with my sweet new ride in a couple of weeks. Amy and I had fun — we talked about girl stuff & being married and danced to our good music until Waltima ate our CD. We didn’t get to Grandpa Jones & Diane’s on Friday until close to Midnight.

The next morning, the weather was pretty crappy which was a bummer because we all wanted to go swimming in the lake and we just had a few hours until heading off to our next stop. It finally cleared up a little bit before we had to leave, so Funnel and I were able to go canoing.

Then after lunch and playing basketball (”Round the World”), we headed over to Aunt Mary, Uncle Brian and Barbie’s for a cookout for Mary’s birthday.

We played horseshoes and volleyball, chalked and swung on the swings, played with their adorable dogs and watched a really sweet video Barbie put together of Peab and Amy’s wedding.

Then we headed over to the Crouses’ for the night. They are a really neat family and its amazing how much has changed for them in the last couple of years… their three oldest kids have married, they have three grandkids with two more on the way, (Anna, their oldest daughter had her baby while we were in Michigan!) and all the married couples have built houses within walking distance, pretty much on the same property. That would be so much fun!

We got to visit Anna and her newest baby, Jimmy (not even a day old) in the hospital…

The Crouses also had two litters of kittens, which were really entertaining and sweet. We were so tempted to bring one home.

I was really sad Sunday to leave the loveliness that is Michigan. It is hard to go back to reality and work after a weekend like that.

You can view the rest of my photos here.

If you are a friend of mine, please come.
There will be Root Beer and Tahitian Treat.  This I promise you.

Skate rental = $2.00

For dinner, we had angel-hair pasta, salad, garlic bread and miniature chocolate cupcakes (mmm…)

Ann, Jamie, Sarah and Lauren

Danielle, Amber and a drunk-looking me.

After dinner, we went in the living room and wrote Haikus and drew pictures. Everyone wrote them for me, and I had to write one about Funnel….

This is everyone who came (except Danielle)

And those are me with Ann and Lauren, two of my bridesmaids…

It was such a fun night.  Sometime soon, I will post some photos from my wedding shower a few weekends ago.

Twelve days… we are nearing single digits!!