one super sunday.

I spent the afternoon with Tahnee and Matt. Matt and I have been trying to hang out for a year now, and he's getting ready to move back to Colorado at the end of the month--so today was kindof our last hoorah. We ate lunch at Cheddar's and came back to the house for popsicles, bracelet-making and sprinkler fun.

Later, Pop got all his hairs cut off. We brought out the ruler to make sure it was long enough to donate to Locks of Love, and it was actually 12 inches long. Yeehaw!

Happy Sunday, bloggy buds. I hope today was a great start to the week coming up! I'll be leaving on Thursday morning for the Navajo Reservation outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. I'm going with the youth group from First Church to do Vacation Bible School, community outreach and all kinds of other fun and crazy things. I'll definitely post pictures when I get back, but there will definitely be no blogging while I'm there...just so you know. =)

rope swing.

It was such a beautiful day today. After church, I sat outside in the sun while eating my salad for lunch. When Hosh and Rach came back to the house after their lunch, Hosh decided to build a rope swing (!!!).

Hosh and Pop wrestled with actually getting the rope up into the tree for a while. Verrrrryyyy entertaining. =)
Once they finally got the rope up in the tree, Hosh went to work on some great knot skills.

We ultimately decided that a wooden board would do better for swinging...

RACHELLLL!!!!

(The following pictures of me might not be the most flattering pictures of all time, but they show a truly happy Jecca. I felt like a care-free child on that dang rope swing!)

(check out that rattie blowin' in the wind...)

The perfect afternoon ended with a trip to Rita's (and just a few more swings after we got back to the house).

I hope your Sunday was fabulous as well. I had such a fun time with Hosh and Rach today!

Lerv to the max, I'm really feeling it.

jec

easter.

It has been a tradition for as long as I can remember to have an Easter celebration at Memaw's house. After lunch, all the cousins would be sequestered in a room with no windows, monitored by one of the parents. While we were being held hostage, the adults would hide a myriad of Easter eggs in the front and back yards. The last time we did this as a family, Memaw was still with us and I got scolded for pulling up the shade and peeking outside.

It's a few (or several) years later. The cousins are all grown, and we decided to pick up the tradition again. What's an Easter celebration without an Easter egg hunt at Memaw's house?

The egg-hunting crew, from L to R: Loretta, Tini, Kiel, Jecca, Lauren, Trav, Anita, Nini and Hosh.

I was the unattested winner in volume of eggs. Tini's boyfriend, Kiel, followed me into the backyard in the beginning of the egg quest. He commented on my decision to go for the edges of the two sheds saying, "You hit the gold mine!" I said replied lovingly, "Duh, Kiel! This is NOT my first rodeo." (You can actually hear this in the video if you pay attention closely.)

The following is a video of the beginning of the egg hunt. What you can't see is Tini throwin' some bows... just saying. What you can see is Hosh and Trav's overwhelming enthusiasm. (Ha.)

There was money in some of the eggs and that's what really sparked my fervor in the hunt. (Most of you know that I don't eat candy.) Wouldn't you know it, I got a metric butt-ton of candy...and $1.25 in quarters. =) Loretta found $3 in her eggs, and she offered to buy my bag of candy with her $3 in quarters. Woot woot! I'm rich. A whole $4.25!!! (That should be read "coffeeeeeee".)

(Here's another video purely for your viewing pleasure...you can see me scurrying in the background at the beginning, Tini's lawn ornament discovery and Nini looking around in the "compost pile" that Loretta and I already hit up.)

Lots of family lerv today.

P.S.- Mamba, we missed you tons especially today. Love love love you!!!

that dirty dog.

I bought a bunch of yogurt the other day at S(p)am's Club to go along with my granola for lunches at work. (Yay for pre-packaged portions, no dishes to wash, 0% fat and only 80 calories!)

I hadn't tried the peach or blueberry variety until after I bought it. Peach is definitely not my favorite, but the blueberry is just as good as the strawberry. No matter. I take a cup of yogurt each day, choosing the next flavor in the rotation (peach, blueberry, strawberry, peach, blueberry, strawberry...). I push through the peach day knowing that the blueberry day will be better and the strawberry day is right around the corner. Or will it?! Probably not. Wait. Why?...because I have a dirty dog for a weasel-y brother.

This boy gets home tonight at 11:30pm after traipsing around in the woods all day with a friend. He was especially tired and hungry. I went into the living room to say hello before going to bed and I see him eating a cup of yogurt and granola. (Ok. I can handle that.) I look closer. STRAWBERRY. (This wouldn't be so alarming if I hadn't seen him eat a cup of strawberry yogurt with my granola the night before...he should be eating a peach or a blueberry...and the scarcity of the granola... I won't even go there...Ok. I'll just say that I have stockpiled 24 boxes of this elusive granola and hidden them away from the rest of Newport News...it's that good...but I digress.) I immediately go to the fridge to count my cups of yogurt. Exactly what I thought. ONE strawberry left and 4 of each of the blueberry and the peach.

After attempting to convince my brother and Ma of the importance of following the rotation of the yogurts, Hosh protests that he's too tired to talk about it and pretends to snooze on the couch. (I know his tricks, so...) I immediately sit on top of him. "Hosh! You can't just eat the strawberry yogurt." "Ok, Jess. I'll have the blueberry ones too."

Oh good golly! Does anyone have any respect for the yogurt rotation?! Have a peach!!!

Ay caramba.

cemetery on saturday.

I went to visit Memaw today at the cemetery. I asked my mom before I went if it was acceptable to take a run while I was there. She said people do it all the time. So I did too.

So now (after a trip to the bank and Sam's Club, and a phone chat with Barls) I'm working on a super secret crafty (again). It might end up being a semi-super secret crafty, depending on my level of confidence in my own skills and judgment abilities. We'll see. I think I might have done all I can do... Ugh... What do you think, bloggy buds?

Is a super secret crafty with a possibility of being slightly off better than a semi-super secret crafty that has more of a possibility of being right on? Or are they both equally exciting and acceptable?

Lerv.

a good day.

I've been listening to Priscilla Ahn like it's my job lately. This morning she told me it was going to be a good day. (Sorry I couldn't find her actual music video, but listen to the song anyways.)

The beach has really been calling my name lately, so I decided to pay it a visit.

That extremely scary bird was occupying my usual spot, but I didn't dare ask him to move...and this was as close as I got to him (using extreme zoom...homie don't play).

I love the Lion's Bridge. Annnnd yes, that is my coffee sitting on the statue. :)

The Lion's Bridge is behind the Mariner's Museum, who just so happened to be hosting some sort of re-enactment today.

Well, hello Christopher Newport!!!

After my adventure to the beach, I stopped at Village Thrift and found a ton of awesome sewing accoutrements for $14. I didn't find any buttons though, which is what I was actually after. So, I went to visit JoAnn's Fabric store where I found out that March is National Craft Month. A little redonk, yea? (I'm so excited though.)

When I got home, Hosh asked if I wanted to go get something to eat with him. We went to Cheddar's and he drove us in his Honda Element. We listened to The Mars Volta, which I haven't heard in a long time. Hosh also took me by Food Lion to get some yogurt, and he helped me with a super secret crafty once we got home.

Nowwwwwww, I've got my friends (candles) all ready and I'm getting to work work WORK on that super secret crafty. It might be the death of me, but that's a chance I'm willing to take.

(This post is extremely random. My storyline is fragmented. My apologies. I've got my head in craft-world.)

Lerv.

nose knows.

I don't know about the rest of you, but certain smells have the power to instantly transport me to another time and place. I've noticed it especially as of late.

For instance:

The smell of wood and laundry takes me to Stanley-Land. I am surrounded by family, pups and love. Someone's looking for something. Someone's calling for someone they can't find. Mama's offering to make me something to eat, and I'm grinning from ear to ear.

The smell of winter is a wonderful thing. I could never describe it; it's impossible (but it's amazing). Whenever I smell winter I am taken back to my freshman dorm room at PBU. Renae and I are sitting, listening to music and "doing homework". I smell winter (because we keep the window open all year round). I tell Renae. She doesn't understand. We are bonded forever.
The smell of Vurt and cigarrettes puts me back in the presence of a dear friend. We are riding in the car, talking, laughing and probably drinking Starbucks. We make it a regular thing, because it's more than good in theory.

The smell of Polo takes me back to Sunday mornings as a child. My father wore Polo cologne and made cinnamon buns for us before church. I can't get enough of the smell. I hug him and bury my nose in his neck. (This technique proves to be most effective and is used later in life to identify and remember especially important people.)

The smell of grass mixed with a certain humidity in the air transports me to track practices after classes in high school. There's a whole lot of messing around and not a lot of practicing. I think I know everything about the world and how things should turn out. I am blissfully mistaken.

The smell of Comet cleaner takes me back to summer days of old. I'm sitting on the counter in the kitchen. Ma's slicing strawberries and sprinkling sugar over them. We'll have strawberry shortcake for dessert after a day in the sun at the beach.

Now I'm wondering about you, my bloggy buds. I'd love to hear about the smells that transport you to somewhere else. I think that sometimes your nose knows exactly where you secretly want or need to be.

Lerv, lerv.

sunday lunch with hosh.

Hosh and I usually have lunch together on Sundays. Sometimes we go out, and sometimes we stay in. Today we stayed in and each had a salad with a chip-chaser. Hosh had jalapeno-flavored Tostitos with salsa and I had carrot chips with sugar-free maple syrup. (Please, don't knock it until you try it...I can see some of you snubbing your nose at me already.)





Yummy!!!!

I hope your day is going well! I heard the Super-Bowl is on tonight...yea, won't be watching that one. =) I'm off now to craft, craft, CRAFT! I'm so close to finishing a super secret crafty for a special someone. (I'll blog about it eventually, but I can't ruin the surprise.)

Happy Sunday, blogger buds!
(If you're reading this from Filthy-delphia, there's a good chance I'll see your face on Friday!! Pray that God allows the weather to cooperate!)

P.S.- Hosh immediately fell asleep after lunch. =)

goodbye, sweet beard.

[This post could also be entitled "Look But Don't Lust" for some of my blogger buddies who will remain nameless.]

This is my brother, Hosh.
He has blue eyes and a red beard.
He is 20 years old and the drummer for Westbound.
He recently built a bouldering wall in the game-room in our backyard.
And I love him.

He texted me the other day and said that it was sometimes hard to look about ten years older than he actually is, and I knew immediately what that meant.

It was time to say goodbye to the beard.
I asked Hosh if he would wait until I got home from work to do the awful deed so I could document the process. So, here we go...

(This is the part where I get a little watery in the eyes.)

(If you look in the right corner of this picture, you'll see that I wasn't the only one documenting this extravaganza. Hosh called his good friend, J-Land, to come over as well.)





I begged Hosh to leave the stache, but he wouldn't do it.

...and there you go. It's all gone.

I salute you, Hosh, for being able to grow such an awesome beard.

Please, grow one again soon. You're an inspiration to a lot of people (and not just because of the beard). I love you, Bub.

<3