Because sometimes, I just need to be reminded.
My cousin, Meredith, was in town for the day! She usually lives in Hawaii, but has been doing some training down in Florida these past few weeks, and this weekend, she came up north for a wedding in Pennsylvania. And how that explains why she was in Ohio this afternoon. . .Anyways, we met up at the Pine Tree Barn for lunch with Heidi, Frank, Cynthia and Meredith and ate absolutely luscious french-onion soup.
Wow, we had a huge thunderstorm last night! It was like a light show outside the window, and the thunder was incredibly loud and crashy. (and right over my head!) However, I love rain, I love storms, and I sleep really well when it’s raining. Except for worrying that either the roof will leak or the basement will flood (or, gasp! both!), I’m happy when we get big storms. Here’s a picture from a shower earlier in the week:
I need a week off to recover from my week off! When I was little, Heidi always used to call me "Party Girl" because I was always going over to my friends’ houses for sleepovers and having them over and just generally having a good time doing whatever it was I was doing. I used to hate that she called me that, but as a grown-up, I can see what she meant. I played very hard last week, ate extremely well, and enjoyed the company of many friends–it was fantastic! As I have said to Jill on several occassions: "If everyone could eat like this everyday, outside under an umbrella, there would be no more war. Everyone would be too happy in his or her food coma."
Thursday afternoon, Jill and I drove down to Wooster to visit Hannah, who works there in a bank. She took us to Tulipan, a fabulous little Hungarian pastry shop, complete with aforementioned umbrellas. The owner was just lovely, the shop was sparkling and beautiful, and the food was just, sigh, so yum!
On Friday, I spent the day doing some much need housekeeping and photo-editing, but I made up for it that evening. We went to the drive-in theatre with the Mulligans, Andrews, Joe & Sara Beth and saw Cars and The Break-up. It was my very first drive-in experience ever. And except for being really cold and getting home at 2:00 in the morning, it was a great time!
Last night, Chad took me to see The Lake House, which was just sublime! I had no idea what the premise of the movie was, but Chad kept insisting that I would like it, so we went. I sat there, riveted, enchanted, thoroughly entertained. I haven’t enjoyed a movie so much since Pride & Prejudice. It was a fabulous movie, romantic, beautifully filmed, and I left sighing and giggling. Go see it.
AND my hollyhocks started blooming today. 🙂
You know those days–those days where everything just clicks and there are so many things to laugh at, so much to enjoy, so many people and places and things to love. And you just swell up with all of it? Well, today is like that for me. I went to West Side Market this morning with three of my favorite people, Heidi, Jill, and Karen. We had so much fun, laughed the whole time, ate almost the whole time, and just enjoyed being together on this beautiful, clear, cool day.
And, does anybody know what the heck the bill-board means? "Look, I have a meat beard." You can imagine the conversation while I was eating my huge, juicy, sloppy burger. "Look," I said, juice dripping from my chin, "I have a meat beard!"
I drove out to western PA yesterday, to have a picnic with Jenn at McConnell’s Mill State Park. We feasted on yums, sweated and swatted flies, hiked around and blew bubbles. All in all, it was a successful venture!
What more does a party need?
So we had a pot-luck last night, and my dear, sweet husband doesn’t even bat an eye anymore when I casually mention strange requests, like "honey, can you put up the table in the side yard?" Because eating in the "side" yard is eating in the front yard, and that’s just not normal in our neighborhood. But that is where the yard is prettiest, so that is what we did.
. . .my Mama went to heaven. I used to hate June 10th, dread its coming, mark it with a big black X on my calender. It was Death Day. But somehow, this year, today is a day of rejoicing. Eight years ago today, my mum wen to heaven. And that is a matter of rejoicing. So yeah, I miss her, and the memory of that day still stings. But this is my hope:
"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. . ."
Every day when I go out to check the garden, I am always amazed at how lush and big everything has gotten. I have photos from just a few weeks ago, when it was all small and dainty. And now, well, it’s just verdant, green, buzzing with vitality and life. I love it; it makes me so happy that sometimes I think that only bursting into tears would allow me to express how happy it makes me. How weird is that? Many of my plants were transplanted from my mom & dad’s place a few years ago. My Mum started some of them from seed herself, and I am the new care-giver. I like to think that I am just another in a long line of gardeners, a little bit crazy, adoring, and drunk on the magic of having things grow.
last week
Today:
I went to lunch today with Jill (the lovely and talented), and it was so good we just had to giggle! We sat outside at the Aladdin’s on Highland Square, and just ate until replete.
Chad learns to take photos in the manual mode. He did a pretty good job! Of course, we were shooting in RAW, so I was able to fix any major boo-boos on the computer. And look! more photos of my cute new hair!
Went to Chipotle’s tonight with Luke & Hannah, Billy & Julie, and David & Whitney to celebrate David’s birthday and wish him bon voyage as he leaves to be an army chaplain next week. While we were there, somebody mentioned makeovers, and Whitney so sweetly offered to give us new hair. Hannah and I were in rapturous joy!
David & Whitney:
Julie and Me (with "before" hair):
Chop, chop!
Hannah?
Me, after:
I’ve been wilting in this heat. I’m not used to it yet, and it makes me literally sick. Migraines, nausea, serious fatigue. Not fun. But what IS fun is playing in my garden. 🙂 And yesterday, like a dummy, I over-did it out there in the morning, sweating away, planting and digging and weeding. And then I paid for it the rest of the day. Anyhoo, here is some evidence of my labors:
And some from the church picnic on Sunday:
Remember Maximus, the sick kitty? Well I went to visit him and his person, Linda, last night. He’s doing much better, even though he has to wear a modified onesie to cover up his feeding tube. Linda says she hopes he’ll be eating on his own soon. He’s lost five pounds, but he still weighs more than my cats at a whopping 17 lbs!
