Category Archives: love and happiness

it’s a family affair

Posted in kiddie-do, love and happiness by

our first day back together. i gotta say it felt pretty damn good. i cried. a lot…only in the morning, though.

first, lunching at the big happy greek

then onto visiting our creature friends at the ohio wildlife center open house

one is fantastic and one is my spirit animal. can you guess which is which?

guess what? i get to be in pictures again. yippee!!!! i’m happy that these photos highlight my highlights. i got my hair did hours before mike returned. thanks again to jenna and cole for making this magical hair day a possibility. oh yeah back to my family…

the wildlife center was a pretty rad place. now i’m happy that the middle aged volunteer we ran into at mozart’s bakery talked our ear off about the place a few months back. my personal favorite was meeting wendell, the narcoleptic woodchuck. oh and seeing darla and mike together in the woods. that made me feel shades of laura ingalls wilder. we’ll be returning again in futures near and distant.

He’s back!

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our house currently contains:

2 – happy girls

1- happy and tired sailor

21 – soon to be eaten cupcakes. 3 already provided us with a nutritious breakfast. wink. wink.

i didn’t capture much at the airport, except for this very blurry father + daughter moment.

we’ll be spending lots of time getting reacquainted and mike has already been a trooper about listening to the barrage of information that has been trapped in my head for three months.

happy, happy day to you all from one happy, happy family.

love letter to my husband

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ok this is actually a post about a hypothetical love letter that you have written to me. (hey, you knew i was self-centered when you married me) oh, but it’s already been written by someone else. by your favorite band.

i finally listened to the words of “dear wife” the other day and i found myself crying. i know. i know. it’s not just because i’m pre mens. well maybe. but i feel like this song was written about us and especially appropriate come the end of your work tour. maybe there is a little bit of michael wright in jim james.

soooo can i just pretend from here on out that it’s a song you wrote for me. or a poem. a sea shanty, if you will?

please?

sweet, sweet, dear where are you?
I am out here somewhere working through the days
I imagine you are livin life,
but I must explain..

dear wife, I miss you always
aint it strange how quickly things can change.

I’ll be out here wanting you
you’ll be out there wanting me
and I’ll be back there runnin’?
you’ll, you’ll be in here lovin me.

(solo)

sweet, sweet, dear how are ya?
well the nail of your kindness hits my brain.
when you pounded it in with such violence,
I must exclaim..

dear wife I love you always
aint it great how quickly things can change

I’ll be out here wanting you
you’ll be out there wanting me
and I’ll be back there runnin’?
you’ll, you’ll be in here lovin me

I’ll be out here wanting you
you’ll be out there wanting me
and I’ll be back there runnin’?
you’ll, you’ll be in here lovin me
You’ll be in here lovin me

friendly friends from afar

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i received this too cute and personalized card in the mail yesterday from a dear, lifelong friend. i’m sharing bc it was a little ray of sunshine in a somewhat harrowing day. she is a really good person and a much better friend than i. she is always thinking of others and i need to emulate her more often. of course i love her b/c she’s thinking of me and, well, i love when people are thinking of me.  weeeeee! selfishness you’re so fun!

thank you, beautiful friend.

ruby tuesday

Posted in kiddie-do, love and happiness by

someone is now obsessed with all things dorothy and ruby and wizardy and ozzy. this was the best i could do to appease her fashion desires of looking the part of dorothy gale. i now also hear a lot of “lions and tigers and bears. oh my!” around the house. i gotta say that i’m having a ball getting reacquainted with the wizard myself.  revisiting past loves with my child = cryfest.

sunday funday

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i meant to post this picture update earlier in the day but we were busy with adventures.  the motto for this s’ennight could have been attention to detail. we made lots of new discoveries- secret old doors in the neighborhood, odd trees, new parks and playgrounds. learning is getting more comprehensive. such as when i show her the veins running through the leaves and then compare them to the veins in our wrists. she understands they serve the same purpose in both beings – the transfer of oxygen and nutrients. at least she understood for 2 minutes. it has probably floated away, out of her brain by now but FOUNDATIONS ARE BEING LAID! i am an educating force to be reckoned with. cackle cackle cackle!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway here are some of my favorite pictures from our outings.

OhYeahandI’mHereToo

my darling darla,

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i realize that once i put something out onto the internet and out into the universe it stays there forever. most of these posts are laden with motherly woe and frustration. i want to give you something more than that when you finally read all this.

when you were 4 months old i could get you to laugh more than anyone else. that was one of the proudest achievements of my life.

you are much smarter than i am or will ever be.

the most fortunate aspect of my staying home with you is i feel these past three years have taken their time. i don’t look back saying “wow, time flies.” i get to spend every day with you – almost – and i feel our long days creep by like sap on a tree. i think this means we’re doing at least something right.

sometimes i pull you out of bed at night and bring you in to sleep next to me because i miss you. i feel the weight of frustrations voiced and reprimands dealt during the day and i feel compelled to bring you to my side so that maybe i can erase some of that through osmosis. it seems like peaceful times are rare during this toddlerhood conjuncture so co-sleeping can sometimes be a salve on my parental guilt wounds. and other times you kick me in the face at 3 am.

you are wild to the core. i know this because i am wild, too. part of my frustrations of motherhood are the reigns that have been placed on me that weren’t there before. i think that if you and i were left to our own devices we’d whirl ourselves into oblivion like mad dervishes. but you are pulling on my reigns and i’m tugging on yours. together we will balance each other. you will guide me and i will guide you. i just hope that neither of us are blind b/c then we’ll never be able to find that water that we probably won’t drink.  i hope your spirit will always be free. i look forward to seeing you as a young woman. i anticipate the metamorphosis of your spark into a full fledged blaze. we’ll compare flames for a few years and then i’ll be able to bask in the warmth of your glow while mine recedes to smoldering embers.

when i’m away from you all i can do is think about you.

i love you.

you are beautiful.

i love you.

you are intelligent.

i love you.

you are amusing.

i love you.

you are free.

i love you the most.

weekenders

Posted in kiddie-do, love and happiness, Travels by

when i was a little girl my dad had an old knit hat he called his “weekender” that he would wear around the yard while working and doing chores.  i would tag along “helping” with some chores which pretty much consisted of me picking up all the tiny sticks all over the yard. well, now it’s darla’s turn to be the stick-picker-upper. this past one was definitely a “weekender” weekend, reminding me of saturdays and sundays long gone.

here’s our indiana-ing.

feeding the birdies with grandpa

our marshmallow ghosts. can you tell which ones darla did?

chasing bubbles with grandma

repurposing an old toilet paper roll as a peanut butter bird feeder

and oooohhhhh the leaf piles!

i didn’t take any pics of our wilderness trek but that was kinda the point. to just get back to investigating nature. we found a huge beaver dam! i haven’t seen one since i was a little girl. i love having those moments with my little girl. grandpa came too and he was able to pass on more information than mommy. he’s the real wilderness expert. i’m just a fake. other than that trek my favorite part of the weekend was right here:

i love sitting next to a fire, indoor or outdoor. especially with a cup of coffee with chocolate milk, bailey’s and whipped cream. or with a hocher schorr weiss.

i’ll try to get pics of our trick or treating up later today or early tomorrow. i know you are looking for them, hubster.