quality time

Posted in it's cool to school, let me let me update ya, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

i’m off to san fran for 5 whole days. FIVE.

so i made sure to have some quality time with my little peter venkman – as she sometimes likes to be called.

we spent a nice afternoon picnic lunch date at wallace garden plots in our neighborhood the other day after we visited the library. it was pretty cool to walk around all the different plots and take in the different gardening techniques. it was good to be around abundant gardens. it was peaceful and educational. i was able to show darla where sunflower seeds grow and we discussed the different ways plants grow their fruit.

yay for free teaching resources!

i’ll sure miss that girl.

ps. that yellow flower is for my hair. laughy laughy.

6Jul2012

slow southern style

Posted in advantageous adventures, love and happiness, Travels by ElaineMarie

we woke up in franklin, tennessee this morning.

i wish i could blame portals or teleportation, however, the truth is we made the drive down yesterday.

my man knows me and suggested the franklin mercantile for breakfast. it’s one of my all time favorite munching spots.

see how adorbs the place is. how could i not love it? plus the food is pretty stellar. please take note of my fruit tea pictured above. it seems to be a combination of a peach juice & iced tea. i will be attempting a recipe when i get home and let you know on here if i succeed. if i fail, well, i’ll never mention it again and this post will fall away into obscurity. easy enough.

we spent the sweltering afternoon escaping the heat – 102 or 103 i think – at a screening of The Wizard of Oz at the franklin theater. i loved seeing it on the big screen. i catch more hilariously brilliant writing and dialogue every time i see it. the theater was beautiful AND i was able to get a yazoo hefeweizen and popcorn for $7. win win win.

i think i like this slow southern style. it serves us well during these hotsie totsie summer days. that and fruit tea.

27Jun2012

family fun fest

Posted in let me let me update ya, Travels by ElaineMarie

ok, so we’ve been doing a lot of living life instead of blogging about it, so, i’m going to try to catch up. a lot of cool awesomeness has transpired.

like many people, i have been blessed with a wonderful family. i mean, they are all REALLY cool. one of my cousins got hitched last weekend so it meant full-fledged family reunion. we made quite a weekend out of it.

the weekend consisted of: cousin reunion night out, great lake swimmers, late night karaoke, vintage store shopping, family fish fry & june birthday celebrations, the marion county fair, wedding wedding wedding, hotel party with a baby and sunday funday pool party. mike, darla and i then continued on to cincinnati for yeasayer on sunday night but that is all for another post.

pics!

looking forward to doing this all over again in 6 weeks. i love you, family!

16Jun2012

cleveland town

Posted in i dig music, Travels by ElaineMarie

we spent the eve in cleveland town for destroyer. i’d like to spend some more time in that city. we had good eats, good drinks, good tunes and great times. we’re very lucky to have some very lovely friends who show us phenomenal places to sup.

we dined at momocho and then took in destroyer at beechland ballroom. i will return to both. hopefully soon.

1. signage 2. my new luchador profession 3. mmmmm momocho 4. pretty venue viewage

30May2012

there

Posted in let me let me update ya, Travels by ElaineMarie

i’ve been pretty bad at removing myself from life to snap photos as of late. i don’t think it’s altogether a bad thing. here’s the very few pics i managed to get in DC:

as you can see, we did lots of walking. it was the only time i would stop and think “hey, i should get a picture of this.”

for a weekend it felt like we had our feet firmly planted in two different places. DC still feels like home. maybe it was because we got to hang with a bajillion of our friends and it felt like old times. i miss everyone so much.

thanks to everyone for the hangtime this weekend. we loved every minute of it. except darla, who says meeting the penguin at the yogurt shop was her favorite part of the weekend. that picture is the truth proof.

24May2012

missing my family

Posted in Momma Needs a minute..., Travels by ElaineMarie

mike took darla on a two-day baseball extravaganza up to pittsburgh. i am waiting at the door for them to get back. i miss them both so much. mike sent these pics. looks like they’re having a grand (slam) time. PNC Park makes the 7th national ball park darla has visited thus far. how many more to go?

sorry about that unfortunate pun earlier but didn’t that last picture make up for it?

i cannot wait to see that little girl.

ps. i’m happy to see that mike and darla didn’t sit too close to the field. if we sit any closer than the nosebleeds i spend the whole entire game trying to cover my face every time the ball is hit b/c getting hit with a baseball is no joke people! here’s what i’m talking about.

momfearz.

17Apr2012

hickory dickory dare

Posted in kiddie-do by ElaineMarie

hmmmm what to do while waiting for a little one to start her journey into the world…yep, flying a kite sounds good.

concluding with ice cream never hurts either.

the zephyrs are nice out there, people. get a kite this week!

13Apr2012

vacation time share, redux

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, kiddie-do, Travels by ElaineMarie

here’s the rest of darla’s vacation. i say “darla’s vacation” because there is a noticeable lack of any photos of me, meg or my lovely girl friends. just darla, cory and elsa. it looks like they all had a great week together, huh? oh well, jussgonnahavtagoback!

THIS is a mike wright smile

i love these last two pictures. darla was trying to argue with me about something probably inconsequential and then she was trying to be indignant. it’s pretty hard to take an indignant banana seriously… i can’t wait to put these pics on a graduation announcement some day.

we had lots of adventures, a good deal of which were not captured on film because i was trying to put the camera down, have conversations and be present some of the time.

i would say darla’s first trip to “Lost Angeles” was a success.

10Apr2012

my innermost desire

Posted in Momma Needs a minute... by ElaineMarie

i’m feeling the weight of vacation de-programming at the moment. i have a million things to do around the house. I spent the earlier hours of my alone time doing some doula prep that will hopefully come in handy this week – can’t wait to meet you harley! – and i really should be getting rest in case the phone rings in 3 hours but for some reason i can’t stop looking up used RVs. while we were flying over the desert and i was telling darla all about the grand canyon i had that familiar buzzing inside my head that says “you know you want to just pack your whole family in a mobile home and drive all over me…”

guess what? the desert is right! it’s in my head and it knows. I DO want to drive all over it. I want the freedom of being a rubbertramp, a vagabond, a nomad. I look really good in cut-off jean shorts and that’s all the proof i need that my true life destiny is to wander the country’s highways aimlessly.

if i ever get a year to just do what my heart desires it would be to travel the country in an RV – nothing swanky, actually something vintage would be preferable – and my goal would be to stop in every state and see every single person we know at least once. even if it’s only for a brief 10 min coffee. how incredible would that be to compile? it would be a whole life’s worth of memories because other people are your memories. they hold the keys to your past.

big sigh. bigger sigh.

please universe? i put it out there. now you do your thang.