I DO ALL THE THINGS! Or how I scared my husband, the animals, and the roofers next door.

i realized a long time ago that you can't expect your husband to know what you want. 

no amount of "signals" on your part can take the place of just calmly saying "right now, i feel __________/i would really like you to do ___________/i'm upset because ___________." 

you get the idea.
hints get you...nowhere.

but sometimes what we know we should do in our heads and what we decide to do moving forward are on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum. 

i have quite a lot of experience in this area.
let me explain.

a few weeks ago, the concept of a "honey do" list came up, and nick had no idea what it was.
he had never even heard the term.
{i have no idea how this is possible either.}

well, i used that as a great opportunity to explain what it was and then make one for him! 

brilliant, i know.
he's so lucky.

this list had three items on it.

1. buy a shelf for the garage.

2. organize the garage.

3. fix the drawer in the kitchen. 

easy peasy, right? 

so this last saturday, nick checked off the first item with a quick trip to home depot.
then he came back and set it up.
it was great.
i marveled at his initiative and productivity.

then came time for step number two.
the whole organize the garage thing.
we started working together. going through boxes, condensing, throwing things out.

and then, like i usually do, i took over.
it only took a few "actually, i was thinking that should go over there" comments for him to hand over the reigns with a casual "let me know if you need anything" as he went back inside.

and that's when it all went down hill.
it was hot and i was sweating and i didn't know what to do with half of the crap and nick was inside WATCHING neflix and he was even LAUGHING {the nerve.}
i was left to suffer the fate of my bossiness, and i wanted him to know i was not happy about it {even though it was my own fault.}

so, i started slamming boxes and muttering under my breath, just sure that he would hear me and come ask if everything was ok.

as you could have guessed, my signals were not effective, and when i was finished i came inside, proceeded to give him the silent treatment, until he had no choice but to say, " is everything ok?"

and here's where it really gets good.
i looked up at him and screamed at an ungodly volume,
"I DO ALL THE THINGS!!!!!"

blank stare.

"I WAS OUTSIDE DOING YOUR JOB! AND YOU WERE HERE LAUGHING?!?!?!
YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THE DISHWASHER NEEDED TO BE EMPTIED?!?!?!?!

the blank stare continued, followed by, "you're scaring me."

to which i responded {still yelling}…
"YOU SHOULD BE SCARED!"

oh lord.

i knew i was acting crazy.
i knew this was not the way to communicate.
on the plus side, i wasn't trying to drop hints, but my directness and volume were scaring everyone and everything in a 50 miles radius

i was letting out all the crazy.

he tried to make things better with a "but i told you to let me know if you needed anything" which didn't really help, although by that point i was laugh/yelling, the real indicator of being a true looney tunes.

eventually, the conversation went into completing the list vs. seeing what needs to be done and just doing it.
aka being a man vs. being a woman.

eventually i calmed down, the animals came out of hiding, nick wasn't quite so scared, and i decided to cut his manhood a little slack.

the moral of the story?
i am crazy.
nick is a man.
and maybe someday we will live happily ever after.

camping: the lesley way.

it's no secret that i love summer. i frequently forget what day it is and get to vacuum my house to my heart's content.

it's pure bliss. 

{oh, and i've just started a dawson's creek marathon on netflix, so i've really taken the good times up a notch.}

in addition to staying in my pjs for as long as possible, photographing babies {i have a website now, so you should probably check it out}, and using the bathroom whenever i please {aka a teacher luxury}, nick has insisted we clock in some good camping time this summer in order to help him reach his goal of climbing all of colorado's 14ers {he's currently at 40 out of 53. yeah i'm impressed too.}

our first excursion a few weeks back included throwing sir winston in the back of the jeep and heading out for a quick car camping trip to aspen. nick wanted to get up in the elevation and do some hiking, so we set up camp, drank beer around the fire, and woke up at 4:30 am and headed off for the trail.

in our 2 years of marital wisdom, we devised a pretty good plan for hiking together. i take sir winston and start off with nick until the trail gets too "mountainy" and sir winston and i head back to the tent to go back to sleep and nick takes it the rest of the way.
so that's exactly what we did.

this also gives me the opportunity to take photographs at my leisure on the way back down.

everyone wins.

our second camping trip of the season was a little more…involved.

this time we were backpacking, uphill the whole way, and with a lot of big rocks covering the trail.

fortunately, we brought our friends matt, kandyce {who is responsible for some of the beautiful photos below, and she was kind enough to let me steal them} and jonathan along because misery loves company and they are pretty great company.

after our car tried to die on us in colorado springs, we finally made it to the blanca peak trailhead, put on our packs, and set off for our 7 mile hike. 

{i can't help myself with the heart rocks.}

when we finally made it to the top, completely exhausted, the view at the lake was completely spectacular and made all the misery worth it {mostly}.

the next morning, while kandyce and i were sleeping, reading, walking around the lake, and talking about family, marriage, and general life things the boys were taking it to the next level and summiting mount blanca.

they learned a valuable lesson on the cleansing effect of apricots that day.
only the strong survive climbing mountains while eating handfuls of apricots.
and they made it back to us in one piece, mostly.

we headed back down that afternoon to meet our friends james, sarah, mitch, and whitney who were staying at a campsite nearby.

they spoiled us with a delicious dinner already prepared, the perfect campsite location, cold beers for everyone, a hilarious game of cards against humanity, and hours spent around the campfire.

and they even endured me talking about how beautiful the sunset was for at least an hour.
i couldn't help myself. 

sunday morning we decided to visit the sand dunes before heading back to denver, and i'm so glad we did.

primarily because i got to see what happens when you tell a group of people to do a jumping picture, in sand, and you put your camera on continuous shooting.

enjoy.
{maybe we'll get it next time guys.}

i'm really thankful that camping has become a summer staple for us.

it's a beautiful, challenging, and always hilarious adventure.

i'm so thankful you were born.

to my nature dominating, beer appreciating, grad school smarty pants…

 i am so thankful you were born.

words fail to express how grateful i am to have met you, to have married you, and now to be able to live our lives together (with sir winston and miss louise by our side). 

i am expectant of all this next year will hold for you and hold for us.

you are my very best friend and i can't imagine my world without you in it.

and even though you aren't the biggest fan of all the birthday hoopla, i hope you know you are loved and celebrated, today and everyday.

now let's party.

my funny valentine.

there are a lot of things that come to my mind when i think of "us."

____________________________________________________

i think of meeting in a middle school, in the main office, shaking hands and going separate ways.

i think of our first date and shamrock shakes and talking about disney movies.

i think of you teaching me how to climb mountains and cringing in disbelief as i tried to scoot on my butt as we hiked instead of walking like a normal person.

i think of that romantic date to red rocks where i thought for sure i was going to ruin it all and we were going to break up and how we ate indian food that night and actually worked through it.

i think of our trip to costa rica, praying with all my heart we would not die or get lost forever on those ridiculous roads.

i think of all the times i've cried and felt ok to cry.

i think of your love for movies and all the hours i've spent sleeping through them.

i think of our moments of silence and learning to communicate through frustration and disappointment. 

i think of our wedding day. 

i think of your sweet words and amazing heart.

i think of the joy of being surrounded by so many we love and the comfort that came from your unconditional acceptance of me. 

i think of your damn lamp. i just hate that thing, but i still love you.

i think of the ways that loving you has completely changed my life and reminded me that life is surprising and adventurous. 

i think of flavored coffee and craft beer and mcflurries. 

i think of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, and the ways you can still make me laugh in the midst of them.

i think of how much i hate grocery shopping and how much you loooooove it.

i think of your voice for sir winston. that lisp gets me every time.

i think of socks and shoes on the table and recycling on the counter and all the things "i just can't handle." 

i think of a future together that fills me with hope.
 ___________________________________________________

yep, i think you will always be my favorite valentine.

 

trading my sweat pants for my hiking shoes.

mr. lesley and i decided to celebrate thanksgiving this year in a less than traditional way.

instead of stuffing our faces, laying on the couch, braving the black friday sales, and setting up our christmas tree, we road tripped it out to the utah/arizona border to camp, hike, and visit the wave.

my sister and brother in law and their two friends justin and heidi (and their wonder dog) were so kind to let us tag along on their adventure and use two of their permits to see the wave (this place is legit. you can't just show up and hike to it. you have to have special permission. they only give out twenty passes a day and a lot of people want them, so this was a once in a lifetime sort of thing).

after arriving on thursday, we made ourselves the best camping thanksgiving you could imagine, complete with cornish hens, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie to top it all off! it was delicious. 

although the temps were pretty frigid, the campfire kept us warm and with all the beautiful sites surrounding us, there wasn't much room for complaining. 

we spent friday hiking through the slot canyons at buckskin gulch and all day saturday at the wave.

words don't do justice to the beauty we saw, so i will let the photos do the talking.

i couldn't have asked for a better thanksgiving!

a little atypical? 

maybe.

worth it? 

totally and completely.

just call me a pilgrim of the desert.