I interrupt your regularly scheduled monday to say that I’ve tweaked my comment settings in hopes to help those of you who have mentioned the inability to comment lately…
Let me know! :)
PSA…
Author: Mae @ Rainydayinmay
Desert native who claims the Pacific Northwest at home, while currently residing the Northeast. Lifecoach, Podcaster, PR writer, essay author, imaginary poet and every day dreamer...
On Monday Morning…
I had the best sort of weekend, honestly…
On Saturday morning I had the privilege of going to a beautifully kind woman’s home and picking lavender. An entirely beautiful basket of it.
Following the lavender adventure we made our way to the Farmer’s Market, where I picked up a great deal on baby potatoes (which Genny detests) and bananas (which Amanda detests.) I should have taken a picture of all of the bananas really, before i spent an hour and a half slicing them for the freezer… They were vividly beautiful, though i could go awhile without smelling fresh bananas i think!
Saturday night Chw and I went to dinner and a movie… At dinner I posed the question to my facebook friends: does a grilled veggie burrito (which was amazingly fresh and delicious!) lose it’s healthy goodness when it is covered in queso blanco? Half way through the glorious goodness blanketed in white cheesy heaven, I realized I didn’t much care. Besides, it was date night… We could, between the two of us, choose to say- share an entire chocolate cake and it would be in the name of quality husband/wife time therefore it would be completely justifiable, right?
But for the record, we didn’t.
Anyway, after dinner we went to see Crazy Stupid Love.
Heard of it?
Wow…
While this most certainly is not a family movie, it is defintely an amazing movie for married couples. Especially married couples, with children… I can’t even tell you how much i would recommend this film, or how much I loved it!
Moving on…
I am completely behind on B90… My Monday is going to look like catch up…
I spent Sunday afternoon, in the 100 degree weather, canning pickles. They are my first pickles, ever… They are hamburger/sandwich slices. I’ll let you know… Not being much of a pickle person, and having a family who is incredibly picky about the pickles they’ll eat- it could be a big gamble.
We also got to end the weekend with a house full of really awesome people, good food and conversation. It’s the best way to close any day, if you ask me…
And this morning I made my 5:30 wake up with ease (a good wake up song on the alarm clock helps!). Today is a bit of an emotional hiccup for me, as it marks a sad anniversary which carries a lot of guilt for me- but I try not to be too reflective. I could use extra happiness and love today, that’s for sure…
J is for the way…
J has not been kind to me.
If I believed in curses, I’d think some sort of J curse was placed on me when I was but a wee lass…
It started with a step dad named Jerry, when I was a toddler, who liked to get me drunk and play with my mom like she was a punching bag. True story- we actually fled for our lives and hid out in Sin City, which is where my very earliest flashes of memories are.
As I grew up, I had best friends and boy friends. Normal middle school to high school tragic romances and heartbreaks. Reflectively though, it’s the one’s owned by the letter J that stand out the most.
John… the relationship that ended so beyond tragically that still, to this day, I feel sick at my stomach when I think about it. Everyone in his family was affected, manipulated and hurt by what happened and not long after that- his father died.
Jim… that boy from a far, whom I spent the summers in “love” with, but he didn’t even know I existed. Then, the summer of my junior year (i was just sixteen) he sat down with me, poured out his heart (about life stuff) and suddenly acted like I was his best friend ever. As the leaves turned he would mail me letters doing just that. And then he stopped, and I’m not sure whatever happened. Broke my summer crush heart at any rate…
James… first true love- of the soul mate variety… far deeper relationship than any sixteen year old should have. Ended at a bus station, sort of. I carried along a lot of baggage from this one, for far too long. He is a giant Jerk now, which fits- what with the J and all…
Justin… If I were to collect my love stories, print and bind them, this one would be the best. Though nothing horribly devastating happened during our relationship- it was intensely played out and the timing was tragically wrong for us. Then, things went really bad for him and now, now I have no idea.
Jared… Jared and I didn’t date, but that did not change the intensity of our friendship at all. He was that dark and brooding boy, intense and artistic. He was that guy who could look into the core of me and pull out truths I wanted no one to know. I adored him. Spending time with him, (which happened daily) left me both amazingly inspired and incredibly drained. He died tragically, far too young.
Jaycaun/John… Though i doubt either one were even his real name, he did an amazing job pretending they were. He was a scam artists/pathological liar, to his core, but the way I felt about him was real. He hurt my heart over and over again, for far too long. Then finally, one day, I wised up…
When our sweet little Genny came to us, we made the decision to keep her birth name (sort of), only spell it a little different. Family criticized us horribly for not taking the opportunity to also change her G to a J.
No way… by then, I knew better. J’s and I just don’t play nice together…
Cue the young adulthood and romantic life of my oldest daughter Amanda.
She’s dated quite a few screwed up douchebags…
Guess what letter their names started with.
Yep.
So she goes on a date with this guy last week and giddily she tells me about it. After she leaves for work, Genny (who had been completely listening to everything, as she always does) says to me “All I have to say is, at least his name doesn’t start with a J!”
*grin*
She picked up on that one, due to her sister’s troubles, all on her own. She knows nothing of my own. Hopefully this is enough to spare her from the curse of the J. True to herself, while rollerblading yesterday she met a new neighbor kid named Jake. After a warm introduction she said “i have to go in now. bye!” and rushed in the house…
Poor thing… or not. ha ha…
*disclaimer… yes, my mom’s name was Julie. And yes, I’ve had friends among the Jen and Jess variety, as life has gone on…
Adventures in parenting…
Before we went on vacation, I asked Genny to go through her clothes and try on the things she hadn’t worn in awhile. On our way to California we would be visiting friends who have a daughter a size or two below Gen. It only made sense to take her whatever clothes we could pass along while there.
After an hour or so, in her room she emerged with a few t-shirts, some shorts and maybe a nightgown. (I forget) The point is, there wasn’t more than a normal Target bag, half full of clothes. Taking her word for it, I went on packing us for our trip. We passed the clothing along, our our stop there, and everyone was happy.
After we came home I had Genny go through all of her clothes to make room for her school uniform pieces and so I had an idea of what I needed to start looking for. This time I wanted to see them. On her.
Would you believe that ninety percent of her clothes did not fit her?
Shocking, really, the invisible growth spurt that California sunshine must have caused was amazing. A closet full of dresses, and only 2 remained. The other fourteen were unable to be zipped up at all, or showed her knickers without her bending over. Every single last pair of her jeans were unable to be zipped up…
hmmm…
I divided them so that my niece could get some of the pieces she loves and boxed up the rest for our friend’s daughter who is now 8 hours away.
Gosh, isn’t parenting fun???? :)
A little post vacay nostalgia… Sort of…
I finally feel like recovery from California, (and the EVIL stomach virus of the vacation) is a possibility… I thought I’d take the opportunity to show you some souvenirs that I brought home.
gifts for the girls, of course…
For the husband’s yummy saturday morning pancakes…
Stocked up! yum!
Amanda’s favorite…
For me. I’m selfish…
our little luxury of the trip…
the BEST cocoa, in my opinion.
DOUBLE YUM!!!
hello, necessity…
the BEST Soy Sauce on the market…
*swoon*
Chw’s…
Eat your heart out, chips ahoy!
Gen…
Nana…
DIVINE snackability…
I LOVE these silly fig bars…
hard to read, from the dumb flash, but these are Gorgonzola crackers, and let me just say: OH MY GOSH, these are FANTASTC! Amazing with cheese, amazing with hummus… just GOOD yumminess…
Pasta, gnocchi and more pasta…
i am selfish here and won’t share. this is my FAVORITE Salad dressing ever- turned on to it by a good, kind and generous friend!
Chw’s…
Our hard working freezer bag which, in a cooler full of ice, did it’s job AWESOMELY Well for those 7 hours!
BEST Biryani I’ve ever had!
YUM!!!
Even yummier…
So bored yet? I’m sorry… i just love (and miss) Trader Joe’s so much. Everything you saw here, we bought multiple amounts of… We had a ridiculous amount of food, which filled up the back of my SUV and we only spent $178. It’s ridiculous… The things we got would last us 4-6 months…
I am hoping to go back to TJ’s early in the fall to stock up on soups and a few more things. (LOVE their soups!)
Are you a TJ’s shopper??? What are your favorite Trader Joe’s things?
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