simple made special

hoppin'

things are busy, busy...and can you believe I already have folks contacting me about holiday card images? wow. I'm working on some fresh ideas...

here's last year's family portrait, which caused quite a stir. Dave is willing (on an extremely limited basis) to do some sessions, so contact me if you are interested. I'm going to come up with some packages, so stay tuned.

6 years ago tonight...

I was giving Dave a pre-wedding hair trim. xoxo!

You mean that was a real wedding????

Two of my favorite wedding photos...happy anniversary to my baby September 19th!

Dave looks so mad in this picture, I laugh so hard every time I see it. A big thanks to Dave's dad for capturing these priceless memories.

eggs

3 of our hens started laying eggs on the 29th. I couldn't believe it. I wasn't expecting eggs for a few weeks. I really have the ladies at the IFA to thank. They recommended the black sex-links. I wouldn't have picked them, as I didn't want to have to say sex-link, but they are very fine chickens. Blacky is a very friendly hen, and likes to be petted. She also likes to sit at the screen door and make chicken sounds. 

We get 3 eggs a day. The eggs look quite different from each other. All of the eggs from an individual chicken look the same, so once we had the chance to observe the laying, we could tell who is laying which egg. The eggs are fairly small right now, but should get bigger as the chickens get more advanced.  They taste better than the eggs we were buying. I notice the biggest difference in the lack of 'off' flavors.  The whites are also quite thick, and the yolk is very bright orange (almost freakishly so, it looks very artificial compared to normal). I found these answers on a google search:

the freer the chicken so to speak (from caged to free range) the more orange they tend to be. Also there is a school of thought that the reason the more orange an egg is shows how little stress the chicken was under therefore providing a relaxed egg which is tastier.

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An egg with a deep yellow to orange yolk is rich in carotenoids. A hen can’t control the yolk pigmentation on her own; the yolk’s color is determined by her diet. Good food (plenty of insects) and sunshine yield yolks with a nice, rich color.

I'm taking those with a grain of salt. Here's a beautiful graphical representation of each chick, her egg color, and any unique features:

Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France...

Inglourious basterds. Wow. Probably my new favorite movie. At least in the top 3. It was amazing. We hadn't been to the theatre in a few years, but this pushed me over the edge, and I'm so glad we went. The dialogue is amazing, and it is so scary. Stop what you are doing and go, right now. I want to go again, soon.

weekend in pics

How do the Engles roll on our days off?

I go to the gym, he works out 'Rocky style.'

Bargain shopping at Target.

Various blended drinks.