a little collection

[beautiful summer, beautiful life]

[today I am grateful.]

the last swim

I have my own little tradition (which I stole from my Dad) of going for "one last swim" in Lake Huron whenever my vacation in Oliphant is coming to an end. This is no simple feat since arriving to water deep enough to swim in requires about a ten minute walk out into the bay from our own little tiki hut beach spot.

A week ago today I was splashing through the clear, blue water of Lake Huron for this very tradition.

Justin and I were able to spend a week in Oliphant together for what we fondly called "jk vacay." I was so very grateful to be able to spend the extended time there with him to be able to show him around the place that has found such a special place in my heart.

Oliphant is ever changing yet somehow always the same. There is the same pine tree smell driving down the windy roads to the cottage that to this day always makes a smile spread across my lips. There are the same gorgeous sunsets that make the sky glow with orange, purple and red and that seem to be shockingly beautiful time and time again. There are the same sounds of the gravel road under the car tires as you drive slowly down Queen Street to your family cottage. There are the same family traditions that are practiced and remembered from generation to generation.

Over the years there have been relocations to different cottages, new faces as families grow, missing faces as loved ones pass away, and new places to check out as new restaurants, shops, and roads are built. Each change melts into the rest of the memories and feels like it was just always that way.

I love this place. It is my "heaven on earth." It is full of family memories, comfortable routines, Bruce Peninsula adventures, late night bonfires, tiki hut dance parties, lazy mornings, brilliant sunsets, silly happy hours, lots of laughter, carefree summers, yummy Cosmic french fries, tumbling Sauble waves, sandy bottom lakes, refreshing swims, sunny days, starlit nights, delicious whitefish meals, booming thunderstorms, and refreshing vacation memories.

Today I am forever grateful for Oliphant.

childhood: couch-beds, dimmed lights, plinko, and lawn-service flags

I am, by nature, a very nostalgic person and having recently been feeling especially nostalgic about days gone by, this question is very fitting:

As kids, what were 4 of your favorite things to do/play?

In addition to endless hours of playing with dolls and barbies:

1. sleepovers on friday nights in the family room: I don't really know when these started, but I'm glad they did. My memory tells me that we had a sleepover on, what seems like, every-single Friday night. They usually consisted of me, my neighbor (and best friend at the time), my sister (probably if my friend and I were feeling nice enough to include her?) and my mom. It was something to look forward to every week and I always loved that it was "just us girls." My mom would push the couches together in our family room to make one big bed. We'd get out the sleeping bags (old ones that were my parents and smelled like our basement) and grab our pillows and make a huge, comfy couch-bed. My mom would make us nachos (like a big batch on a cookie sheet) and popcorn and we watched TGIF (remember when Full House was on TGIF?). After TGIF we'd watch a movie (usually Troop Beverly Hills or Overboard -- they were on the same VHS tape, one right after the other). These sleepovers were then obviously paired with sleeping in late on Saturday morning and maybe a homemade breakfast, courtesy of Mom. I don't even know how accurate my memories of these nights are, but I sure do remember them fondly.

2. grandpa and grandma's house: My dad's parents always lived just five minutes down the road from us so we were blessed to see them often. I have so many great memories of spending time with them, but some that stick out the most are from when they would babysit Heather and I for the night while my parents were gone. We would spend the night at their condo (which I always loved because it was clean -- yeah I was a neat freak -- and because it was our home away from home) and basically spent our time entertaining Grandma and Grandpa with our silly little shows or games. One of our favorite make-believe games involved each of us picking out one of Grandma's t-shirts (which we wore as dresses), dimming the lights in their living room, and then having Grandpa put on some classical music. Heather and I danced around the spacious room with couch pillows (the pillows were our "husbands") and pretended we were out at some fancy dinner dance with our significant others. Haha. This memory makes me laugh and smile. We looked forward to doing it every time we spent the night and thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa played along.

3. price is right on summer mornings: This memory is from when I was a little older, but I still remember waking up late on summer mornings and heading straight for the couch to watch "Price is Right". It was a great way to start the lazy, summer days. I always loved the games where they tried to win cars (the one where they rolled the over-sized dice was the best). And of course, one of my favorites, Plinko.

4. capture the flag with stacy and stephanie: During middle school some new neighbors started building a house right across the corner from ours. Heather and I were more than happy to find out that the new neighbors were a family of four with two girls about our age. It goes without saying that we spent tons of time with them (after school every day, every weekend, all summer, etc.). Again, I have tons of memories of activities we did with Stacy and Stephanie, but one of them was Capture the Flag. I forget the details now, but we made up some version that worked for just the four of us to play. The flags were always those little lawn flags that lawn-service places put up when they fertilize. We loved running through the woods around the house and coming up with clever ways to capture the flag.

As I write this blog, I am flooded with hundreds of fond memories from my childhood. I was blessed. I was surrounded with love and freedom and care-free summers and yummy food and fun vacations. I have nothing but happy memories from all my younger years.

blog mondays: looking forward

What are four things/events on your calendar that you are anticipating? These could be things you are excited for, nervous about, dreading, or simply waiting for.

Being someone who is constantly checking my google calendar on my iPhone or scrolling through my Outlook calendar at work, the answers to this week's question came quite naturally. I think the reason I look obsessively at my calendars is because I like to think about the days, weeks and months to come and be able to picture what each will bring. I like to be prepared for the not so great events and I like to count down the days until the next exciting plan.

1. Conference at Work: The first thing that comes to mind is the upcoming conference at U of M that my department is playing a large role in. Since our department is heavily involved in providing service for this conference, I have been assigned as our "point person." In one way, this has been a blessing because it's kept me busy at work and has given me a great sense of ownership and accomplishment in my job. However, the down side to this responsibility is that it's a giant project/event that is just looming over my head. I don't want to wish the next few weeks away, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to August 6th when it's all said and done.

2. JK Vacay: That's what Justin and I are fondly calling my week vacation in the middle of August when we will travel to Oliphant together for an entire week!!! My favorite place with my favorite person. My cottage has so many sweet, sweet memories for me and I love that I now get to share it with Justin. I also love that I have accrued enough vacation days to comfortably take a week off of work. It's a week that the two of us have been looking forward to for a long time. Although we've toyed with different ideas of where to spend the week together, we've landed on the idea of spending it in Oliphant where we can explore the Bruce Peninsula of Canada, enjoy lazy days at the beach, spend time with my Mom, sleep in, and sit around bonfires.

3. Meredith and Leland's Wedding: I'm sure this isn't really possible, but I think I'm as excited for this wedding as the bride. I have absolutely loved planning this wedding with my sister-in-law. We've spent countless time via email, texting and g-chatting discussing all the little details and I cannot wait to see them all come together. I'm also standing up as one of her bridesmaids and I feel so honored and blessed to have become such close friends with Meredith that I am able to support them on their big day. It will be a memorable celebration and although it will mean the summer is nearing its end, I'm most definitely counting down the days until this event.

4. Eminem and Jay-Z: On September 2, I will be joining a large crew of friends for this epic concert at Comerica Park in downtown Detroit. Being two of my favorite musical artists, I couldn't be more excited to attend this concert. I think the combo of Comerica Park, best friends, a night leading into a long, Labor Day weekend, and singing along to some of my favorite songs during a live performance will create nothing more than an epic evening.

blog mondays: location and amenities

What are four things you love about where you live?

When Justin and I were apartment hunting in Ann Arbor last year before our wedding, we had pretty specific requirements for where we wanted to live. We knew it would be the first place we lived together as a married couple and we wanted it to be comfortable, convenient, charming, affordable and special. The place we ended up choosing was not really what I had been imagining for our first place together (we spent hours delibearting over what would be the best place), but our apartment has turned out to be just what we needed and what we didn't even know we wanted. We really love it and have almost no complaints. I am blessed to be able to say that I could list well over four things I love about our first, married home together.

Disclaimer: the first thing that comes to mind that I love about our current residence is our pool. However, because I've already written two blogs about the apartment pool, I figured I'd give you something new to read about (and obviously felt the need to still give it a little shout out to my beloved pool).

1. close to the architecture building: With Justin's long hours and late nights at school, being close to the architecture building on U of M's campus is a highly valued aspect of our apartment. It has allowed us to enjoy many dinners together, and makes for a quick walk home for him in the middle of the night after hours of working on a project. It also makes it convenient for me to pop in for a quick visit when I'm missing my husband.

2. no snow shoveling: Over the last couple of years, I've really started hating the winter season. I think this is mostly because driving in the snow stresses me out and the chore of shoveling snow is just that...a chore. Living in an apartment building erases all the stress of having to shovel my front steps or my driveway everytime I want to go someplace during the winter months. I actually found myself enjoying this past winter, not only because I now take the bus for a lot of my commutes (eliminating the stress of driving in inclement weather), but also because I am able to stay warm inside while our apartment's maintenance staff takes over the chore of snow shoveling.

3. patio/balcony: I can't write this post without mentioning our amazing patio. In the warmer months of the year, our patio space acts as a second living room. We've created an inviting little spot with comfy patio furniture, an awesome grill (courtesy of my husband's Dutch relatives who gave us money for our wedding to buy one),and lots of plants/flowers (courtesy of my very generous in-laws who work at a greenhouse). Another recent addition is a cool oak structure that my husband and his classmates put up for their summer class project. I really love it -- it adds a cozy feel to the cement nature of the patio and created a great place to hang our cute, little string of lantern lights (another wedding gift). The other amazing feature our patio offers is a five story view over Ann Arbor's arboritoreum which is home to beautiful trees making for a spectacular view of autumn leaves (we've also enjoyed some amazing lightning storm shows during the recent summer storms).

4. parking: This may seem minor, but free, convenient parking ranks pretty high in my book. It's just so nice to never have to hunt down a spot to park our car, not to mention it doesn't cost us a dime.

Home sweet home...

blog mondays:scents of life

This week's question: what are your four favorite smells?

1. banana nut bread candles: Several years ago my family and I discovered the banana nut bread scented Yankee Candle. For some reason this particular candle scent became a favorite of ours and often turned up under the Christmas tree or at a Birthday celebration as a beloved gift. I think the scent is so enticing because it creates a warm, welcoming aroma that I especially love to fill my living space

with on those cold, autumn days. We were all sorely disappointed when Yankee Candle Company discontinued the banana nut bread scent. We were forced to resort to other candle companies, none of which could quite replicate the Yankee Candle version of our beloeved candle. This past Christmas, one of the gifts I opened up from my Dad was...you guessed it... a banana nut bread Yankee Candle!!! I shrieked with excitement wondering aloud how he would've gotten his hands on this discontinued candle. Appartently, the Niedenthals weren't the only lovers of the banana nut bread candle -- Yankee Candle Company had so many requests for this scent that they decided to bring it back for a limited time for all its fans. When Justin and I unpacked all our new Christmas gifst into our apartment, the Yanke Candle was immediately put out and lit, filling out apartment with its delightful banana nut bread scent.

2. ocean air: It's that wet, salty air that always makes me close my eyes, breathe in deep and sigh when I approach the beach. I am usually

approaching it upon arriving somewhere for a long-awaited vacation. "Relax," the scent tells me, "you're on vacation." There is something magnificent about the ocean. It's vastness is compelling and staring out at it seems to wash away life's worries. The waves swell and my feet sink into the sand as the water rolls over them. These are some of my favorite moments.

3. freshly showered: I love the crisp, clean smell of being freshly showered. The strong scent of shampoo and body wash wafts through the air as it rushes out of the steam-filled bathroom. This smell is often associated with the beginning of a new day, a fresh start.

4. food on the grill: The smoky, barbecue smell that drifts from hot dogs and hamburgers cooking on the grill never fails to bring a little smile to my mouth. That's because it usually means summer.

Those long, summer nights when the sun sets late, the fireflies are lighting up in the yard and I'm still in my bathing suit from a day at the pool are some of the best nights of the year. They usually leave me feeling carefree and relaxed...and full of food fresh

off the grill.