just a little bit

Today is the first day in a long while that it has felt like Spring. The air this morning, as I walked out into our tiny, back yard smelled sweet and a little bit different. The light made me catch my breath because it was so perfect. I could sit on my front porch again and not freeze, but instead soak up the warmth. Not saying that this is it, that Spring has come, because I'm sure we'll have more cold days, but it is definitely sneaking closer and it makes me excited.

I'm working on some fun things with fun people... but you'll just have to see what I'm talking about.

What is it like where you live? Is it still cold or is Spring rounding the corner for you too?

Goodnight, I'm off to bed. Good morning, you who are just waking up.

Love to you all.

Love, a

thank you/black and white

Here are a couple black and white shots I've taken over the the months.

How are you?

I really haven't said thank you to you yet, so here goes.
Thanks so much for following me. It means a lot and I hope that the stuff that I write and the pictures I take or rather just this blog of mine, brings you some sort of
joy.

Love you all.
Love, a

oh man...

...is my new favorite expression. I don't know, it's kind of weird but it's fun to say. Try it. Oh man!

This blog (Fernweh) continues to be amazing and this post inspired me to do the following.

Buy:

Brown notebooks. Basically like the moleskine brand only I can get them at the huge market for less than a dollar.

Airmail envelopes. I really hope I can find them at the market as well but if not, I may just have to order some of those darn, cute things.

Chalkboard paint. Yes.

Other than that I think I'm set.

Recently I found one of the notebooks in my Mom's room, I asked if I could have it. Then I saw the post on notebooks and so I added a pocket onto mine. On the front I wrote "bird" and beneath that I drew a large set of teeth. I'm an avid doodler and whenever I doodle I find myself drawing the bird/teeth thing, so I decided it'd be a good idea if I put it on the front.

Today I had coffee with my friend again which was lovely, then a cute, young asian guy waved at me twice and I said hi to him and smiled... and waved.

I painted my nails gold!

Now I'm about to go hold our sweet baby.

How are you?

Love, a

p.s. I redid my daily reads page and I'm working on a couple of other things. My header is going through stages too. hehe.

ring 'er on in

As I write this there are huge fireworks booming in my ear. Literally booming. My eye catches little sparks of light as they explode, ringing in a new year. 

The Chinese new year arrives later than ours, so as you now know, starting today, it is 2012 for them.

All this noise makes me happy. Just the thought of it; all of these Chinese people that I've been living with and growing to know, are celebrating their country... it makes me proud. Like on fourth of July when we're celebrating our country; watching my little town light off fireworks and everybody cheering, it makes me feel so thankful. Thankful and proud.

So as I'm still hearing fireworks a little ways in the distance, I want to wish you friends a Xin Nian Kuai Le, and maybe, just maybe, your celebrating too, far across the ocean.

I'll write again soon.

Love, a

p.s. Side note... the past few days have been a bit busy, we're fostering a baby girl and I'm pretty sure she's too cute to be alive. More on it all soon!

p.p.s. New design... again. I love it though. What do you think?

a Giveaway

No, not mine but a friends! It's lovely. Head on over here and check it out!

Love, a

at three

Today's sounding sweet. It's 1:40 pm and I'm heading to coffee with my dear friend Lydia at three. I love coffee. The smell is most irresistible, and probably one of my favorites ever. Starbucks will be cozy, what with rain dripping down the windows and a big, comfy chair to sit in and a friend to talk to. I think it'll be lovely. I'll pop on my jacket and gloves (and I might just throw on my new, red hat) grab an umbrella, and head out into the grey.

Oh Suzhou

Listened to this amazing song as well as this one while writing.

I find this picture rather hard for my eyes to look at. Hope YOU like it though. It's the view from our living room window.

This song has been my constant companion for the past few days; I'm kind of in love with it. What do you think about it?

Oh man... this post :)

And this is happening in our little home town New Castle!

I love you all.

Love, a

us girls

Yesterday was wonderful. Actually yesterday and on into today. I spent both days with Lydia and Leah!

Yesterday I hopped on the bus at about 3:00 p.m.--a common start to every trip--and soon found myself at the Wirgau home.

We decided to have dinner at one of their favorite little restaurants, so we bundled up in a million and one different garments and left. I sat on the back of Lydia's bike and she rode me all the way there: through the darkness and the city streets, until we got to the tiny, Chinese restaurant. We all enjoyed the food a lot, and the company and warmth of the place was also lovely. After that the six of us (the three Wirgau boys came too) rode home. 

That night we worked on making a video. It was really fun and hilarious, and I'm pretty sure you'd want to see it, so I'm going to have to put it up sometime :)

We watched a Doctor Who episode (love!) and drank tea and coffee and laughed and talked. 

Today we hung out at their house some more then Lydia, Leah and I headed over to our house. On the way over we stopped at Coco and bought pearl milk teas (you should know by now that we kind of love them) and then got back on the bus to go to my house. We edited our video a bunch, ate dinner, laughed some more and then the girls left, ending the 25 some hours I'd been with the two of them.

I love them and I'm so thankful for them! God has really blessed our family with the Wirgaus.

While waiting for the bus we realized that we all had rolled-up jeans on and converse! Picture taken by Leah Wirgau with her camera. I'm in the white ones, Lydia's in the grey and Leah's in the purple :)

Love, a

sweetness

I realized I never posted these pictures that I took one cold, autumn day. Beth snatched up several hats and a checked* red blanket and we headed out into the perfect weather.

She is such a beautiful little sister and she looks so sweet in these photos. 

How do you like them? Any favorites?

Love, a

*I wrote "checked red blanket" in the post and both of my brothers said that "checkered" would be more understandable. Do you think "checked" sounds weird? I thought it sounded much lovelier. 

{life}

Today was just a normal day. Actually I started school again. After our morning at home a couple of us went to the park in the freezing cold and did some workout stuff. 

After that we obviously needed something sweet and something to warm us up. We headed home (lots of laughter along the way) and I made myself hot chocolate and watched the Office with my siblings. Good combination, yes? I think so. 

Tonight we made our weekly trek to "Melrose" the pizza place where we enjoyed pizza yet again. We took the bus home like normal (I've figured out that I've been on approximately 800 bus rides. You know, just about two a day!) and now we're home in our cozy house.

Those little lines next to my watermark mean 2012. (?)

What's going on in the life of you?

Anything new and exciting?

I'm sure there is something you could tell me about in a comment?

Love, a

Give this song a listen. I love it.

Lovely, new blog over here. (I linked the whole sentence, hehe.)

I like them...

...Gray sweaters. Remember my cute sweater that I promised to show you? Well here is me wearing it. I'm kind of loving the big sweater thing right now. 

Enjoy!

FYI, I just got my hair trimmed by Becca so it's shorter than it is in this picture now.
Picture taken by Andrew.

Picture taken by Bethy

Picture taken by Bethy

Love, a