ode to a season...

i'm feeling autumnal.

i LOVE FALL.

i love slightly grey skies, slightly shorter days, fresh apples and straw. leaves changing, crisp air pinching the corners of my cheeks and nose as i walk to school...

this is purely an east coast influence. if i did not grow up watching skies darken, baskets of apples rest in stands on the side of the road, and have labor day signal the beginning of school & renewal of learning, i probably would be like every other Californian: unobsessed.

the week after labor day i craved a new book. to crack the binding and soften the pages with the

oils of my fingertips.

to open a new pen & see my words fill the very first page of a new spiral notebook.

i wish for cooler skies and sweaters and pants.

i have been begging the skies for precipitation.

i can't help it. i miss autumn. real autumn. not "California kinda weird cool warm Santa Ana winds" fakey Autumn.

i give Logan UT honorable mention for fall. the fall of 2007- albeit the worst semester of my adult life- it was a beautiful transition into winter. the slowly cooled and darkened until Christmas & the season of lights.

oh autumn. i love you. miss you. i'm glad that some where on the globe people get to enjoy you. *sigh*

the clouds outside my window are giving me false hope for rain.

if i beg brad do you think he'll take me to Boston instead of hawaii for our 1st year anniversary next year?

if you buy a brad a cookie...

he will resist and not spoil his dinner of gourmet quesadillas.

but then as you go to take the cookies home he will ask you to leave "a few" for him.

if you buy a lindsey a cookie. she will eat it. right then and there.

and then she will put them in the cupboard so as to not snarff up the rest of them that moment.

then she will wake up the next morning wanting one for breakfast, only to discover she left them a brad's.

i'm going straight to his house after work. i'm been craving a cookie for 9 hours now. :)

i'm grateful for...

.friends who are traveling in 6 weeks to my wedding.
.brad who does anything and everything i ask him to help me with.
.a friday where i had an hour to READ A BOOK for my own sanity.
.books about WW2. i've read more books about that time period than any other. it's both fascinating and horrific to read about. infact, this book had already made me cry at the thoughts of the horrors people survived. it makes me so grateful.
.people in my life who are discovering the Gospel all over again and i get to teach and share my testimony with them almost daily. it reminds me i not only know what i believe but that i BELIEVE it.

apparently once a few months ago i told him i wanted one...

so this small box arrived in the hands of a handsome courier last night:

(please excuse the cell-phone pictures...)

apparently he likes to buy me things in platinum lately...

and also-

GO GET ONE. it works. it's amazing!!!

what i was thinking is...

i can't wait to get married, cut my hair off & put lowlights back in. i'm over the shoulder length uber blonde- it's ended up in a pony tail everyday for the last month.

in mean, keeping it in perspective, i know blow drying my hair takes less than 2 minutes, which is shorter than anyone else i know probably... but thats DOUBLE what it used to be.

and darker hair is better with my complexion. i mean look how good darker blondie red looked on me in london! (i realize part of the fact i love this and i look so good is because i'm glowing with excitment livin' a dream, but still.) :)i'm over it, blonde. you can fade out for all i care. 9 weeks and your toast. you too, long layers. prepare for SNIP SNIP!

'ello, bench!

i love this bench looking at the ocean. we visited it the other day to say hi & thanks for being there and not occupied on august 15th :)

Lucy Annette Card

i have a friend named Laura. or Laq, really, is how i think of her. we've been friends since we were 2. i have NO memory of my life without her in it. in fact, pieces of our friendship have been the sweetest and most cherished memories of my life. i am confident that i will love her and think of her as a gospel rock in my life til i'm 90.

she just had her first baby.

welcome to the world baby Lucy, we love you!

BABY ASHLEY ANDERSON!!

WOOT! One More Baby to the crazy anderson family!!

welcome, ashley rebecca anderson!!

she was born on the 14th... sorry to be a slow blogger!

you have many girl cousins- i can't wait to see you all grow up to be friends :)

this is her with her big sister rachel. sorry to not have a very good picture! promise she's cute- how could she not, she's related to me and shelly!? (oh and todd, too)

Hiss! Put it on my luggage! "P.J."

my new luggage.

mine.

not borrowed.

and the name tag shall say "lindsey barttels."

(bad picture, i can't hold my phone steady i guess...)

my suggestion is, that you find someone who REALLY loves you and buys you cute pretty luggage you don't REALLY need just because you ask for it. :)

fruitation

once my friend scott said "fruitation" instead of "fuition". we laughed.

today i saw a pet project at work come to fruition. i presented the idea, researched, prodded, pleaded, finally got permission, organized, prepared and saw it all begin to happen today.

pretty awesome.

i hestitated to say anything to anyone just in case it didn't happen or work, and it's really NOT a HUGE deal, in fact it's kinda boring, but it is a change for our office & i'm proud to be involved.

its kinda cool to see work and thought become action.

i love how it feels.

embellishments

today i asked like 5 people what those "round button things are that have 2 metal prongs at the bottom you stick through a hole and then bend the prongs out so it stays? brackets?? facets??"things that scrapbookers and girl scouts use for crafts?

brads.

they are called brads. ha.

barttels (baar-tellz)

i've started this post about once a day for the last 17 days. i don't know how to write it, but i really want to. forgive me if it's too oogly googly for you. :)

how can i possibly express to you how i feel deep deep inside the last couple weeks? i can't. it sounds trite and cliche, but i feel such an overwhelming sense of peace, happiness and calm. brad is like a breath of fresh air and a warm fuzzy blanket, super hot cup of cocoa. comfortable and broken in. together we've tackled money and wedding plans with lots of laughs and the attitude that nothing is worth crying or worrying about. he has made me laugh EVERYDAY for the last however many months. i know i complain, and i vent, and i may worry about wedding plans and money and selling my car and life in general, but i just want you to know that deep deep deep inside- i am so happy.

i sing to his voicemail when he doesn't answer. he acts silly and ridiculous until my crazy moods are completely dissolved. he does not get angry. ever. he looks forward with faith. he hugs me as long as i ask him to. prays with me everyday on his knees, kisses me and tells me he loves me after every "amen."
it's amazing that i've been so blessed to find someone who i feel so completely "puzzle-pieced" together with. and it's crazy to watch our life and dreams all coming together. making a new family picture.

and the funniest part is, i always picture an oakland a's hat somewhere in the big picture.
gosh i love him. :) *sigh*
barttels.brides.com