1.2.3.

while my partner-in-crime was away for a week, i kept busy by romping the pittsburgh streets with these two crazies.

we had so much fun. when i'm around them, i laugh. a lot. i love my mom & gramsy.

call me anything you'd like

i have a lot of nicknames. i blame my dad for most of them. a few of you have recently asked for definitions of them, so i thought i'd share them {along with their backgrounds} with you.

*cally: this is without a doubt the most frequently used one. this is what you will hear tannon refer to me as, unless i'm in trouble... then it's mccall. i don't like it when he calls me mccall. i think you can pretty much guess where it comes from. you know, mccall --> mccally --> cally. pretty easy.

*callywog: because it rhymes with pollywog.

*mugwomp: i really have no idea where this one came from. my dad called me this all the time while growing up.

*poopstain: again, i'm blaming my dad. i think i used to call him this when i was younger. one day, i broke my arm and asked him to be the first to sign my cast. he told me to close my eyes. the rest of my cast-wearing-months i had to walk around with "POOPSTAIN" written in ginormous, bold caps on the darn thing. occasionally, my dad will whip this one out, but only when it's completely inappropriate.

*woggy: this might be a stretch, but here goes: mccall --> mccally --> callywog --> wog ---> woggy. {pronounced wah-ggy}. a lot of people have the urge to say wooogy, but i don't know why, since there is one "o" and two "g"s. all i know is that i treasure this name. it's what my immediate and {some} extended family call me, including my 2 year old niece. i melt into a big, fat puddle when i hear her sweet voice call me by this name.

*shelf: yep, because of my shelf-butt, which was much cuter in high school.

*hammer: my boss has the entire law firm referring to me as "the hammer". it's quite ridiculous, actually. the boss-man says "she's the enforcer. no construction gets done without the hammer". ridiculous.

i love surprises. especially this one.

the other day, tannon decided to go into the thrift store next door while i picked up some things at JoAnn. he came back very excited and told me that he got me a surprise. i was scared to find out what this surprise was, coming from the thrift store. he then proceeded to whip out this lovely package of red velvet Sprinkle's cupcake mix, complete with peppermint snow crushed up candy canes and a Williams Sonoma scoop spatula. i seriously thought i might cry. these cupcakes are my absolute favorite, but i don't get to have them very often because they are nearly a dollar a cupcake. tannon got this entire package for $2!! i was (let's be honest, i still am) thrilled.

biploar disease

remember my last post?

well, now i'm about to list a reason i don't like pittsburgh.

it's 1,836 miles away from her.

the other day, morgan (my 2 yr old neice) and her mom (missy, my sister) were making morgan's bed. randomly, morgan said to missy, "want woggy back". (i'm woggy).

this girl has my heart.

don't blink

i can't wrap my head around the fact that we've called this place home for a year.
a year!

things i love about pittsburgh: (in no particular order)

1. my friends. i really can't stand the thought of me not having them so close for the rest of my life.
2. it's beautiful here. the trees, green-ness (i like to make up my own words), bridges, old buildings, grey skies, sky-scrapers, stadiums. it's all so, so lovely. just kidding about the grey skies part.
3. my new-found hobbies. i had to get kind of creative once i moved here (i know, heaven forbid). i have found new things that i enjoy doing that i don't think i otherwise would have even attempted.
4. my calling. why does nursery have such a bad rep? i love it. those kids make me smile.

5. cinemas in the park. each week, local participating parks play a family-friendly movie outside for free.

6. the restaurants. i think we could go out to different places every day for the next three years and still be discovering new, fun places to eat.

7. the wildlife. we see squirrels, chipmunks, deer, & groundhogs all over in our yard and i love it. two days in a row, i saw the same deer 'family' - a mom and her two babies. so darling!

8. the rivers. i could have just lumped this into #2, but i feel they deserve their own number. pittsburgh is nestled in-between two rivers that form the Ohio river. one of our favorite things to do is ride our bikes along the 'trails' by the river.

9. i love that there are lots of fun places within a relatively short drive. since living here, we have visited columbus, washington d.c., erie, & west virginia. there are a lot of places on our bucket list that i'm excited for.
10. the thunderstorms. they are second to none.
11. the library system.
12. oh and we can't forget about our Steelers. i have never seen a place so obsessed with their sports team(s). this house is even painted with Steeler pride.

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have you ever gotten a book recommended to you, and when you get around to wanting to read it, you can't remember what it's called or who it's by?

i don't work for goodreads but maybe i should.

i love this website. it helps me keep my books organized. it helps me remember which books i want to read. it helps me to easily browse through books and see if any of my friends have read them, and if so, how they have rated them.

go ahead. take a loook around. sign up for it. and then add me as a friend. (come on, liz. you know you can't turn down any social-networking site)

feels like home to me

i was finally able to take a teaser-trip "home". four days is way too short. there were so many people that i wanted to see while i was there, but i just wasn't able to.

the roads looked much wider to me. i asked my parents if they widened the streets. turns out, i am just used to skinny-minny Pittsburgh roads. the whole time i was there, i was dreaming of cycling my way around on this flawless Utah asphalt.

and we ate lots and lots of yummy food

and you can bet that i spent a lot of time kissing the cheeks off of this little squirt.

as i was putting on lip gloss, she asked if she could have some. what a girl.

the whole reason i went to Utah was to celebrate her upcoming second year of life. i think she enjoyed herself, what do you think?