Weird things

Here are a bunch of weird things from my life:

My phone told me I had 240 new voicemails. WHAT?!?!?!


We did not not stuff it with onions...
Hope's crazy face!


Our family went to Tahoe with the Hahns after Christmas. There was no snow though!

We went hiking! (This is where I found the branches for my jewelry trees.)
Look how dedicated I am.

Okay, folks! I have sold 2 jewelry trees from my etsy shop! WOO! (I kinda feel bad though... they are just branches I found. And people are buying them.) If you would like to buy one (or a flannel baby blanket) browse around my shop!

For Christmas I gave my parents a gift of a hike and lunch (where we practiced the phone stack)! (I love Advent Conspiracy.)
We went to Monte Bello Open Space Preserve. The view was amazing!
We loved it.

I found this outside of my door at camp. Holy huge long-legged bug. 


Taking family photos has never been our strong point.
This was our most normal one in this sweet family photo shoot by the amazing Gavin Duffy:

Photo by Gavin Duffy

We went to get our Christmas tree in the mountains and wanted to get a family photo...

Yeah...
Once you start...
...others have to join in!
It's congtagious!


:)
Melissa loved it.


I took a buttlong time to crochet a baby blanket for Hope. Walaa!



On Tuesday Michelle and I made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. They are THE BEST rolls I have ever had or made. She posted a picture and look how many comments it received. (Most of the comments are from 3 ridiculous people but STILL.)


I also made her Perfect Iced Coffee.

Photo by Ree Drummond

It's a cold brew so you just let it sit out for a lot of hours. It is less acidic than brewed coffee and really yummy. I tried her Vietnamese version and I LOVE IT. It is SO SO SO good. The sweetened condensed milk is ... I really have no words to properly describe it.

Photo by Ree Drummond

 NOW it is your turn. Please make the rolls and iced coffee and tell me what you think. Also- any weird things you want to share?

Some beautiful songs

The Purest Place- Watermark

Jesus Draw Me- Keith and Kristyn Getty

Restless- Audrey Assad

All I Can Say- David Crowder Band

Signature of the Divine [Yahweh] -NeedtoBreathe (I am going to see them in SF in March!!!)

Closer- Shawn McDonald

Also- go to Micah and Michelle's BandPage and listen to their songs. (especially Sharpened in Time.)

Do you have any music recommendations?

I am a sewer! (Or is it seamstress?)

(Before I start I must show you my dreamy new niece Mercy Jael. She was born at home in Zimbabwe to my amazing sister and brother-in-law.)

She is the sister of this crazy girl:

My sister told Hope to smile and this is the face she made.

Alright. Back to why I am writing.

I am crafty. Here are some things I have been working on. Get excited.

I sew! I have been sewing since I was in high school and I love giving away blankets to people who had tiny little babies come. Meow I am selling them on etsy. WOO!




So if you have the desire to buy one please check out my etsy site! I have wanted to make one for a while and I finally did it!

My incredibly talented and cute friend Amy and I gathered some Manzanitas from Lake Tahoe and made jewelry trees! So neat- right? (My photography is not thaaat good. You know how a photo of a sunset never can capture how it truly looks... kinda like that.)


I love the shape of this one!




ALSO I crocheted some hippie headbands. SO freaking cute.

If you would like one please email me at naturegirlcreates {at} gmail {dot} com and I will mail you one! Fo free99. Just because I like you. And because you are reading the words that are coming out of my mouth the letters that my fingers are pushing.

Here are my brothers in them. But you can be a girl and wear them too and be transformed into a hippie. or hipster. or both!





(In your email please say which color(s) you would like and what is the girth of your head. (Just measure around where you will wear the headband and tell me how many inches. Or you can tell me small, medium, or large head.) Plus also maybe your name and address.)

The end. Love ya!

The Goodest Boy: NICK!


Today we have the wünderbar pleasure of having Nick post! Woo! Nick, take it away.


I am posting today a little about myself and you have to guess the blanks! No one likes to be a bored bystander. Or sitter. Or a bored babysitter. Or a board baby sister. 


My name is ___.


One time I wasn't being careful whilst shaving and I accidentally ___ myself.


When I was a boy I loved watching TV. My favorite show was for sure ___.


My favorite candy bar has nuts and chocolate. Yep! You guessed it!  ___.


The most incredible actor in my opinion is ___. He is as good as it gets.


I love pennies, dimes, and quarters so much! But the one I like most is obviously the ___.


I did this sick half marathon a couple of years back and this other guy and I ran at almost the same pace the whole race. It felt like we were running ___ and ___.


Bluegrass is AMAZING. One of the most talented and dedicated bands is ___. I wish they would get back together.


When I am standing in line to get food I don't like being first to go. I usually try to be ___ to last.


The most treasured part of my body is obviously my ___. It is the best place to grab when you are sitting down and someone tries to hug you from behind.


Christmas is one of the most magical times of year. The jolliest Saint ever was definitely ___.


Phew! I am glad I am at the end of this post. I feel like I finished in the ___ of time.


Do you have any suggestions for me? Please share! (Thanks for letting me post, Gabriella, ella, ella.)

Spoonerisms

I am weird. I like sounds and words and switching the sounds in words around. (I will beat you at Mad Gab.)

Here are some (mostly) musical themed ones:

Koby Teeth

Wil Phickham

If Gungor comes up with a new album I think it should be called the Gungor Games.

Vowel City

David's Clam Chowder Band

I am not the only one who has done this... Jon Acuff wrote about starting a handkerchief company called SMOT (in response to TOMS.) And then BOBS were created. Lame.



Photo by the amazing Gavin Duffy

And this isn't one where I switched it around but they are my friends and their music is beautiful:

You might not want to read this guest post...


Today we at the blogging girl world have the distinct/extinct/Istink pleasure/play? sure!/plessure/pressure of welcoming @somuchgross to guest post/guessed posed! Without further adieu/ado/I do...

I am not not known for being gross. Quite a few of my friends and family think they are cleaner, nicer, more refined, funnier, and smarter than I am. But mostly cleaner. SO, I am qualified to share this information today.

5 pizza slices of advice from the grossest one:


1. Hold in your toots (so you don't have to wear this:)


2. Fake shower (I learned this from this guy.) Here is an excerpt from his post about living with roommates:

In Thai culture it is very important to take at least two showers a day – usually three if it’s been particularly hot and humid that day.  I don’t really like taking showers.  I understand they are important for general cleanliness and personal hygiene but I find they take much more time and energy than not showering…
However, to appease my roommate’s cultural expectations I’ve been taking more showers.  When I can I like to try and take two showers a day.  Although, on those days when I really don’t feel like taking a shower I’ve been taking fake showers.  I spray the shower water all over the bathroom area and wet my hair a little if he’s in the room.  I even hit a new low last week when I started wetting my towel to avoid any queries as to why my towel was always dry after my “showers.”
Some of you may be saying, “Doesn’t it take just as long to fake a shower as it does to take a real shower?”  The answer to that question is a simple “no.”  Yes, it’s deception but it is still much easier to take a fake shower than a real shower.  I’m working on changing my ways but please be patient with me.  It’s a gradual process – one shower at a time.

Fake showering > real showering
3. Use stuff like nasal and ear wax washes.

4. Try not to wear clothes from your estinky pile. (Nacho, anyone?)

5. Love the fact that someone who looks like this:


Can also look like this:



 And make this variation of a cake pop...


Now that all your appetites are shot, I shall kindly leave.
Thanks for letting me post, Gabriella.





FREE swag my running heart


I ran a half marathon this past weekend and one of the best parts was all the free stuff! The expo is amazing because of all the swag you can get as well before the race... and the food you can get after the race is really wonderful too! I actually ended up not getting a lot of free swag at the expo (I was thinking costume changes, masks, stilts...) because I parked at McDonalds with limited parking and could only stay for an hour but I did go big and go home with the post-race swag and then I wrote a run-on* sentence.


All in all I got 7 bags of Bare Naked granola, 2 Cytomax bottles (the citrus was suprisingly good! Propel now has a contender.), 5 GU packets, 4 snicker marathon bars, 4 bananas, 2 oranges, and 1 luna bar. (Plus more like chapstick, a wine sample, and fortune cookies...)

Do you want to know the best part? I got the GU packets when I was at mile 9. I kept grabbing them and ran the rest of the race with my free stuff. Look below and laugh to yourself.


For all you haters out there (Amanda, I am looking at you), I saved countless pennies for 3 1/2 years for this one race and think that getting some free food and goodies is totally coo without the l.


*See what I did there?

Do you like free things? Do you send other people yourself free things?

Song love

In celebration of going to this bluegrass festival in San Fran this weekend I wanted to post some dreamy songs for your ears to enjoy.

I want you to be my love- Over the Rhine

Only God can save us now- Over the Rhine

When you come back down- Nickel Creek

The fox- Nickel Creek

Down to the river to pray- Alison Krauss

Long time traveller- Wailin' Jennys

One voice- Wailin' Jennys

Any songs you want to recommend?

The Secret Perks of Being a Dad (A Guest Post by Sir Tyler Tarver)


Today I have the happity dippity do dah day time of having my first guest poster! I began reading Sir Tyler Tarver's blog a while ago and kept reading it because this guy is so dang funny. He also makes ridiculous videos... like how to defeat Darth Bad Guy using lightsaberbabies or how to cook a mean banana. (Get it?)                                                                                                                                    
Taller Tahrver (how I say his name out loud because he is a southern gent) likes puns, teaching, and being accused of dealing drugs. He has also been known as the Wal*Mart version of Ryan Gosling. So, there's that. If I ever meet Tyler I shall challenge him to a game of Mad Gab. ALSO, please read Tyler's book entitled Words & Sentences. You won't not not not be glad you did.


The Secret Perks of Being a Dad

In life, people have kids. The parent who is male, is called the “dad”. I know, knowledge abounded. Here are some perks of being a dad that someone might not read in What to Expect When you’re Expecting and/or The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Conversations: My kid just rounded the one year mark like a long-term high school relationship, so the only words he can really say articulately are daddy, uh oh, and grandiose. However, I like to partake in little games with the gibberish he spits out in sentence form.

Whenever we’re in public and he starts rambling on, I like to respond as if he said something deeper than the hole Mel Gibson dug for himself. Examples include, “I see your point, but I just feel the barbarian integration as mercenaries carried a majority of the weight that led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.” Or, “Rene Descartes never said that, you’re paraphrasing”.

Pushing: You remember when you were in grade school and you got in trouble for pushing? I know, I loved pushing too like the wife of someone with the street name for a drug dealer. Well, guess what proud male owner of a brand new kid, You, yes You! Get to push that kid in every plastic car and cart and carton and anything else starting with “c-a-r” that you can’t keep your wife from buying. I know, it’s like that one fight you got into except you don’t get suspended like James Earl Jones’ pants in Field of Dreams.

Humility: You only get one life. That’s what some people say anyways, but not if you have kids. Cause you get to train them to be better than everyone else. Yeah, and when they are better than everone else, you get to show them how awesome you are at humility by not rubbing it in their face that your kid can do 15 pushups while reciting the Preamble to the Constitution at age 1.2, while their kid is chewing on a dog biscuit.

Those are a few perks you won’t read in the textbook.

Thanks G-Money, I’ll try to think of a cool nickname like you asked later.

Tyler Tarver is so sweaty it’s freaking gross. You can check out his website tylertarver.com, subscribe to it here, check him on Twitter @tylertarver, or just buy his brand new toilet book which he won’t shut up about titled Words&Sentences. He also might be in love with you so much it’s freakin stupid.

Nature Girl has some fun!

Being a naturalist has been so incredible.

I mean... I get paid to hike around all day, act insane in ridiculous skits, teach 11 year-olds about science, and be sarcastic with kids who don't really get sarcasm. (Story: I told a story about why we shouldn't use sticks to help us hike and the story involved a camper named Bob who tripped and was speared through the stomach with his stick thus receiving the name shishkaBob... hahaha not really funny but just a story regarding hiking sticks. I realized they did not get the joke when one of my students asked me, "Did he go to the hospital?) Teaching outdoor science has been really wonderful but also challenging. I am not a huge science nut, but I have been learning new words such as crepuscular, protist, and other cool words I can't think of right now...

There have been a few highlights:

Having one of the chickens at the garden fly frantically out of a student's arms

Eating bobcat scat*

This night

Placing mannequin legs in strange places for my cabinmates to see

There is currently a raccoon on my porch as I type this. I tried to take a picture of it with my computer but it was too dark. So, inspired by the queen of ugly faces, I knew I had no option:



And finally, being called Nature Girl all week

I love my job.

Love,
Nature Girl

*Or, a Chocolate Brownie Clif Bar that I have rolled into a very believable turd.