a girls weekend. (plus nick)



 "wouldn't life be perfect if... goodbyes only meant until tomorrow."

this weekend, on her way home from a week-long beach vacation, my mom planned a weekend-long layover at my house. my sisters both drove in to visit, and it just so happened to be the same weekend that the hubs had planned a boys-weekend in Buffalo, so we had ourselves a girls-weekend. with nick.

 

we visited the topiary gardens, and we picnicked, and we went apple picking, and we made and ate an apple pie, and we made applesauce, and we played sequence, and we went out for brunch, and we shopped for my sister's new house, and we almost finished a little project, and we just hung out and had an absolutely wonderful time, and i only took 22 pictures the whole weekend.

i've heard people say that it is important to not view your life through a camera lens. that it is important to put your camera down and just be in a moment instead of documenting it. i guess i kind of did that this weekend - but only because my camera battery died early in the day and i don't have a phone that can double as an acceptable backup plan.

i managed to take 11 pictures, somewhat carefully spaced to maximize my battery life, before my camera was completely drained. so once it was dead, i stowed it in my purse and made up my mind to just rely on my mom and sister for pictures. but i wasn't entirely happy about it.

i wanted to take my own pictures. to capture the days from my own perspective. i felt a little bit sad and cheated that my own oversight and my dead camera battery took much of that opportunity away from me.

without my camera, i spent time marvelling over fish in ponds, searching for blue flowers, picking apples (lift, twist, pull!) and laughing so so much with some of my favorite people, and i vowed that as soon as i got home i would charge my battery and do better at picture-taking the rest of the weekend so that i could easily remember these moments with my sisters together and my neice and nephew at 6 and 4 and my mom at [REDACTED] and all of us all together in one place.

but then once i got home and charged my battery, i only took 11 more pictures the whole weekend. none of them had my mom in them. i only have a picture of one of my sisters. its a great picture of a sweet moment, but you can't even see her face in it. i took zero pictures of the faces of my mom and my sisters during an entire weekend that we spent together.

but i do have 2 pictures of the homemade apple pie a la mode.

so what does that say about my priorities?

i'm almost certain that i am overthinking this, because everyone just left this morning and i miss them all terribly and my house is so quiet and empty. but quite honestly, i don't think i have the right balance quite yet between experiencing moments and documenting them. because i had a wonderful time this weekend and i enjoyed every single minute and we laughed a lot and we made some fantastic memories... but i'm kind of disappointed that i don't have many pictures of those memories... no memory joggers to look back on later.

so i guess we'll all just have to get together again soon and do it all over again. and let's remember to get at least one group picture next time, mmkay?

meal plan monday: july 29.

i was told by my aunts over the weekend that i needed to take some pictures of the butterfly bush in my backyard. so i did.

completely unrelated, this is our menu for the week:

Monday: turkey burgers. (recipe)
Tuesday: zuchinni, black bean, and rice skillet. (recipe)
Wednesday: soup from a can.
Thursday: fish packets with rice. (recipe)
Friday: chicken veggie quesadillas.
Saturday: veggie omelettes with roasted potatoes.
Sunday: grilled chicken and cake.

daffodils dont understand thermometers.

like guys - do you not realize that we are dealing with single digits this week? if you have the option, why not stay down in the warm ground until we at least get up to a reasonable temperature out here? i mean, i'm all for bringing on spring, but this just seems a little extreme. winter has barely just begun! they're calling for snow tonight! and are you prepared to deal with that? i sure hope so. because you're so very pretty when you bloom.

 

and yes, because i know you're wondering, TWO cars drove by while i was crouched at the end of my driveway taking pictures of the ground around my mailbox like some sort of crazy lady. the things i do for you guys...

in the dirt.

are you ready for the most anti-climactic before-and-after ever in the history of before-and-afters? because i've got it right here for you.

first things first, lets take care of the befores, shall we? care to tour the grounds with me? as we make our way around the house, please take note of the clever way that we have enabled overgrowth and death to intermingle in our flower beds. this creates a unique atmosphere that has been years in the making, and gives off an impression of complete and utter neglect.

there's a flower bed in this picture?

 

the flowers on that hydrangea are all dead.

 

this is where we store all our dead leaves for the winter.

 

so. many. weeds.

 

there used to be a GIANT ornamental grass in that big empty spot.

i spent about 6-8 hours on Saturday battling creepy insects, monster weeds, and the return of my seasonal allergies in an attempt to make some sort of progress in these areas that were formerly known as flower beds. i pulled weeds, and picked rocks, and bagged leaves, and made some pretty good progress on my tan. so here's what you've all been waiting for: the afters. see if you can spot the differences!

look! a flower bed that's not full of grass!

the dirt is very welcoming. honest.

the view from the end of the driveway

i really hope those bushes arent dead.

i spent way more time in this area than this picture lets on.

HUGE difference, right?! hardly looks like the same place! ok fine, so it looks pretty much the same, just now with less green and more dirt. the look we were going for was "blank slate," and i think we pretty much nailed it, dont you? our future plans for the flower beds/general outdoor space is still evolving, but this is kind of what we're thinking so far:

- tear out the bushes closest to the front door.

- also get rid of the giant ugly bush on the corner of the house closest to the driveway.

- remove all the white rocks around the perimeter of the house, replace with something less weed-y.

- lots and lots of mulch.

- figure out what kinds of shrubbery/flowers will work best.

- better define and fill the flower beds around the deck.

- powerwash the deck.

- make a patio area between the deck and the basement doors.

- define an area for the fire bowl.

so long story short: we've got more updates planned for our outdoor space, but for now we're back to ground zero. so the good news is there's nowhere to go but up! if any of you would like to be a part of this awesomeness, just let us know and we'll plan a bush removal/mulching/planting day sometime after vacation and make sure that you're invited! or if you're a sane person who would like to stay as far away as possible, then i totally understand.

our low-key valentines day.

im pretty certain that i have mentioned here before that i have not always been a huge valentine's day fan. as in i have been known to wear all black and be an outspoken advocate for singles-awareness-day. but for some reason, my attitude has been shifting over the past few years. it may or may not have something to do with having the kind of friends that helped me to understand that Valentine's day is about celebrating ALL the love in our lives, even if its not of the romantic variety. oh, and finding the love of my life, too. that was pretty cool.

so i kind of went a little overboard this year. well, overboard for ME that is, which means that our celebration would probably be considered low-key by anyone who considers the kind of romantic overkill found only in rom-coms to be normal or the standard by which all romantic gestures must be measured. but for us, it was pretty close to perfect.

we exchanged our gifts over the weekend. we didn't really plan to, but it just kind of happened. you see, i went a little crazy and decided that in addition to the meaningful little crafty things i was working on that i really loved and i knew would look really cute hung on the walls of our front room, i needed to also get the hubs something that he would actually really like. so i bought him a miter saw. i was really sneaky about buying it and i was going to make him wait until tuesday... aand then i just gave it to him. i didn't wrap it. i didnt sneak it into the house and set it up for him. i didnt send him on an elaborate scavenger hunt. i didnt even put a bow on it. it was just like "hey, i have this thing in the trunk of my car that you said you wanted and i cant come up with any sort of believable lie to keep you from buying one for yourself in the next 3 days. its really heavy so you're going to have to heft it into the house yourself. happy valentines day."

he does really like it. and he proved that by immediately building me this giant awesome bench.

and then he even put a coat of stain on it over the weekend. isn't it fantastic?!? it still needs another coat of stain and a few coats of polyurethane, and a cushion for the top, and some baskets for underneath, but i'm really excited about it and i cant wait until it can move upstairs for good.

so with all the big gift-giving all out of the way we were all set up for a relaxing tuesday evening. we made an uber-romantic grilled chicken salad for dinner, which was made uber-romantic by working on it together while chatting about our days at work and not getting in a fight over having to share our teeny-tiny kitchen.

i gave mark one of the two crafty gifts i had been working on, the one that was mostly finished. the only thing missing is the dry erase marker so we would actually be able to write our love notes. (this morning i just yelled down the hall, 'because you take out the trash! that's why i love you today!' so at least its not a complete waste without the marker) i'm still waiting on my free map of Maine to come in the mail so that i can finish my other project, but i'll be sure to share it when i get it done.

and do you see that rose? that right there is the first flower that mark has ever bought me that has not come wrapped in dirt. its simple and perfect and i hope i can keep it alive for at least a few days.

we spent the rest of our evening snuggled on the couch for a rom-com double feature of Friends with Benefits and Crazy Stupid Love, courtesy of our local redbox because we dont actually own any good rom-coms.

it was a perfectly low-key-but-still-super-special valentine's day, and a great way to celebrate our three-year dating anniversary. (a day early) hope you all had a wonderful day, too!

tour the grounds.

i just wanted to share some pictures of pretty things that are currently or at one point were growing around my house.

the rose bush in the front yard has been consistently pretty all spring.

at one point these flowers under the tree out front were all pretty and pink. they bloomed all at once, and appear to be done now.

i dont know what this is. but it had a flower, so i took a picture.

i am a little sad i dont have a better shot of these guys. they're all on their own in the front flowerbed.

Mark discovered these purple beauties while mowing the grass one day. you can really only fully see them if you stand in the far back corner of the yard and look back towards the house. they're kind of hidden by the hydrangea bush.

these marigolds are the only thing in my flowerbeds that i have planted. they were a gift from the hubs for no real reason other than that he thought i would like them. shortly after this picture was taken, i accidentally watered them with bleach water. no word yet on if any have actually managed to survive.

i have two lavender bushes. a rabbit lives in one. they both attract bees.

hydrangeas! i cant wait to cut some of these for a vase in the house.

here you can see one of the purple flowers fighting to be seen through the other hydrangea bush in the backyard.

there are a few scraggly looking rosebushes out back below our bedroom window that grow the most massive roses.

these purple cone-flowers came up right around where i planted my ill-fated love-marigolds.

and most recently, we planted some strawberries in a hanging planter! we're hoping that the birds dont just eat them all before we get a chance to cuz they're looking pretty yummy...

all in all, its a pretty lame tour, but its what i've got. mostly just whatever the previous homeowner had planted that managed to survive the winter, mixed with just a few things we've added cuz we couldnt resist! but we'll have to wait and see if they can survive my perpetually brown thumb...

the nose knows.

i swear, i did not used to have allergies. growing up, i was that typically tomboyish kid who was constantly outside. (mostly at my mom's insistence i think) i loved getting dirty, climbing trees, and doing really anything that allowed me to run around like crazy - whether it was football, baseball, foxtail, freezetag, or any number of made-up activities our little imaginations could muster. and call me crazy, but rolling around in freshly cut grass was one of my most favorite pasttimes. and as i remember it, never once did any of this cause so much as a sneeze out of me.

and then i grew up and went away to college.

my first spring at Geneva hit me hard. at first it was just a bit of a stuffy nose as i walked around the rather lovely landscaped campus, and i wrote it off as nothing. maybe i was coming down with a little cold. but i realized that i had all of a sudden developed allergies one sunny afternoon as i was stuck inside studying for some sort of test or whatnot with some friends in the lounge, and not having much fun with it. because really, who actually wants to study when they could be out playing on a lovely sunny afternoon? one friend (who would later come to be known as my Best Friend In The World) (we shall refer to her as 'Julie') decided to brighten my day by bringing me a very lovely flower.

(this is not that flower. but isnt it pretty?)

seriously guys, it was the most gorgeous flower ever. and it smelled absolutely delicious. i wish i really did have a picture of it. because then i could remember it forever probably figure out what the heck kind of evil violent-allergy-inducing face-swelling eye-watering throat-closing monster was hiding within that beautiful exterior. it took me a while to realize that my entire face was in the process of swelling shut, and a little longer to realize that this horrible unprecedented event was being caused by the beautiful flower that i was happily waving all around my face, inhaling deeply of its fantastic fragrance.

once the truth of the situation dawned on me, it was a miserable time of recovery as the flower was trashed, benadryl was taken, and all i could do was brood on the unfairness of developing allergies to beautiful flowers during my freshman year of college while i waited for my face to return to its normal state. meanwhile, Julie went to find the bush from which she had plucked said flower-of-disaster so we could make a point to avoid it in the future, only to find that the bush was no longer there! in the short span of time between when she picked me the flower and when it almost killed me, the source of said flower had vanished said Julie.

and now, i have about a two-week stretch every spring during which i am a hot allergic mess. my eyes water, my nose stuffs up, and my whole head feels kind of floaty. an 'allergy fog' i think is the technical term. also, grass clippings cause me to break out in little red itchy bumps and this year i also have a mystery non-itchy rash-type-thing on my elbows kind of like my sister gets when she eats oranges. curse you beautiful mystery vanishing flower of doom for opening the floodgates of seasonal allergies onto my previously unallergic non-allergic allergy-free self! (dude. according to thesaurus.com there are no antonyms for the word allergic!) (also, the longer i look at it, the less like a word it looks)

i hope your nose treats you all well this allergy season. keep your tissues close, and stay far away from secret-mystery-vanishing-flowers-of-doom!

sprung.

so, i started writing this post about a month ago, because i had a great picture of a lovely flower that had planted itself in my front flower bed. i was so excited about this lovely purple flower that i took a picture of it (okay maybe a few) every time i walked past it. because if i waited til later it would never look just like it did right then ever again!

but i didnt want to claim that spring had sprung just based on that one little flower, and i noticed a few others who were threatening to bloom, so i figured i'd wait until i had a few more flower pictures to declare the arrival of spring to my house.

but then, it snowed. and my lovely purple crocuses (i think thats what they were) were no more.

surprisingly enough, this unexpected little turn of events fit quite perfectly into the initial deep-and-meaningful thought that i was going for with my original post:

we never know whats coming. life is an unending cycle of unknowns and surprises.

i thought that those lovely purple flowers meant that spring was here. that temperatures would continue to just rise. that the sunshine was here to stay. surprise! i was wrong.

at one point in my life, i thought that i would never get a job after graduation. that i would never again have a place to call home. that i would be living out of my car forever. surprise! i was wrong.

i thought that i had a good handle on what marriage was going to look like. that everything would be stress-free after the wedding. that living with a boy would be a piece of cake. that i could continue to handle everything on my own. surprise! i was wrong.

i have no idea what the outside of my house is going to look like this spring. the state of my gardens and flower beds is a complete unknown to me. and yet, this is an unknown in my life that carries a bit more exciting and hardly any scary (i mean yeah, previous unknowns in my life were plenty exciting but they had a lot more scary-life-altering-implications to them than plants and flowers) i cant wait to see what pops up around the house this spring and summer, to tend to the plants that do appear, and make a plan for making it my own next year.

but for now, i'm pretty happy with the daffodils that have appeared by my mailbox.

Happy Spring!