unadulterated glee

there is something special about watching someone who isn't holding back. someone who throws his or her head back and laughs. someone who can't stop smiling, and doesn't try to do so. someone who lives in the moment, takes it all in, and just enjoys it. just enjoys life.

this weekend included many moments of unadulterated glee for me. we spent the weekend at the lake with family -- peter's cousins' family to be exact. we spent the day saturday wakeboarding, tubing, and playing miniature golf. we ended the day at a delicious, fairly authentic mexican restaurant complete with spanish speaking waiters, guacamole, ceviche, margaritas, and for me - enchiladas el compa. being in good company, and having good conversation didn't hurt anything either...

not our ceviche, but similar...
{via www.feelgoodeats.com}

we hadn't seen mike, tina, or chris since right before christmas, and it had been much longer since we had a chance to see peter's uncle eric. it was so good to catch up with them, and have a couple days set aside to just hang out and have fun. we talked about life, about family, took a trip down memory lane, congratulated chris on making it into special forces, and generally had a great time.

of course i failed to take pictures, because i failed to take my camera - which also has a dead battery. i wish i could write the thousands of words it would take to describe the many pictures i would have taken if i had my camera, but i think after a bit you'd probably just get bored as i tried to capture every detail.

suffice it to say that after this weekend i'm convinced i need to wakeboard more often, and tubing more often would be fun too. basically, we just need to have a lake house and a boat [you know, no big deal.]

today was full of running around like a crazy person and trying to accomplish more than i really had time to do [and meeting with an old student-turned-friend]. but that's pretty much par for the course. too much to do with some goodness mixed into the crazy!

we finished off the evening with a late dinner of mushroom risotto with peas. it needed a little more parmesan, but the leftovers will certainly include what the original was missing!

i didn't get any pictures of the finished product because we were too hungry by the time it was done, we just ate it up. this definitely wasn't my favorite kind of risotto, but it was still good. it didn't take quite as long as my favorite, and it had mushrooms instead of zucchini which makes peter slightly happier. squash isn't exactly his favorite, but sometimes i make him eat it anyway...

food makes me a different kind of happy. i love the feeling of making something - combining all the ingredients and coming out with something delicious. i like being able to sit down and immediately enjoy the fruits of my labor. that's what gets me into trouble with desserts *wink

anyway, there is more i could share, but i'll have to save it for another day. i hope your monday has your week off to a good start! 

i'm off to catch some belated zzzz's