On his 27th birthday

I just want him to know that I am so proud of him. I’m proud of his kindness and his sense of humor, of his gentleness, his self-deprecating manner and deep humility. Mostly, I’m proud that he’s mine.

Happy birthday to the sexiest, funniest, sweetest guy a girl could ever marry.

love, elizabeth

Photo shoot in the garden

I feel like my post titles are getting more and more creative, don’t you?

Kyle and I spent a good bit of my birthday exploring what may very well be the best kept secret acreage in the Columbus area, Inniswood Metro Gardens. I won’t spoil it for you, just in case you’re ever in Westerville, Ohio and you feel like spending the day outside but…there may or may not be an actual “secret garden” inside the park. I feel like nothing I say will live up to how beautiful this place actually is but we’re already planning a trip back after autumn settles in because I have this feeling that the leaves are going to be incredible.

One of these pictures may end up on our Christmas card…what do you think?

I married a handsome fella.

Super extra awesome giveaway just FOUR days away, people. O.M.G.

love, elizabeth

Birthday Magic

I like to believe my birthday is magic. I tried to explain this to Kyle and if he didn’t get it, he at least did a really good job of smiling and nodding. But I’m totally serious. My birthday is magic. Maybe yours is, too. It’s not that the 14th of August is out of the ordinary exactly. It’s just that every ordinary thing is better on my birthday. The cup of coffee I drank yesterday might be the exact same size and brew today. But today it’s my birthday coffee. Food tastes better; it’s birthday food. Kisses seem sweeter; they’re birthday kisses. Clothes fit better…you get the idea.

And on the other hand, my birthday is a kind of melancholy thing. Every year I find myself wondering if being a year older should really mean something. Like, what is the great significance of this year that’s passed? I should feel different. I should be suddenly MORE or BETTER.  And maybe that’s why birthdays, even the magic ones, always secretly feel like a letdown.

The other two in the morning when I couldn’t sleep, I propped my laptop up on the end of the bed and Googled, “on turning 25,” scouring the internets for a pithy list of all the things I should now know that I am about to a non-24-year-old. I did read this very comforting article. There’s some good advice in there and it made me smile.

When I was little, I liked to play house with my friends. Probably like lots of you, for my friends and me, playing house mainly consisted of making up elaborate identities for ourselves and then putting on clothes and lipstick that reaffirmed our belief in those identities. In case you were wondering, my name was always Lisa and I was always 25. Lisa was a very glamorous 25 year-old and she really had life figured out. Lucky Lisa. 25 feels like a strange turning point somehow. Maybe because it’s the last milestone year (I can rent cars now…what’s left? Nothing but the senior menu at Denny’s, that’s what.) Maybe because it’s the first year I’ve understood the possibility of not being young. I guess the thing is, as a child, 25 was the pinnacle of a far-off adulthood I couldn’t wait to have as my very own. 25 was IT. And here it is. I want to go back, look little Elizabeth square in the face, and ask, “Now what, smarty pants?”

Every year on my birthday, I re-read one of my favorite poem/stories of all time, Eleven by Sandra Cisneros. In it, she writes.

What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten. And you are--underneath the year that makes you eleven. Like some days you might say something stupid, and that's the part of you that's still ten. Or maybe some days you might need to sit on your mama's lap because you're scared, and that's the part of you that's five. And maybe one day when you're all grown up maybe you will need to cry like if you're three, and that's okay. […] Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one.

Maybe you feel like this, too?

All of this rambling leads me to the thing I’m realizing about birthdays. I counted on my fingers and realized that today is the EIGHTH birthday I’ve spent with Kyle. We have this great day planned and I’ve spent weeks scoping out the places we’re going and the things we’ll do there. I’ve been saving this amazing bottle of wine for tonight and I’ve been internet-drooling over the cupcake menu at Blue Frost. But if everything goes wrong today, if the car won’t start, if the cupcakes are stale, if there’s a hailstorm, if the Redbox is all out of copies of The Artist, if the zombie apocalypse descends upon us, it’ll be a birthday zombie apocalypse. And it will be magic.

Here’s to another ring inside the tree trunk.

love, elizabeth

Happy Birthday, Shakespeare

William Shakespeare turns 448 today (at least, most scholars agree April 23rd is his birthday). He’s looking pretty good for his age, I’d say. So in honor of that, I’d thought I’d share one of my favorite things compiled by Bernard Levin. I often forget how much of my everyday speech I owe to Shakespeare! How many of these things do you say? Did you know all these sayings were from Shakespeare?



“If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ``It's Greek to me'', you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.”

-Bernard Levin

Also, Happy Wedding Anniversary to Mrs. Pancakes over at Adventures of Team Pancakes! Stop by and show her some love...

love, elizabeth

Your Mother Should Know

My mom and I are in North Carolina for the next few days to see my brother who just got back from a year-long deployment. I am documenting every microscopic moment of our vacation and I can’t wait to share with all of you!

Today is extra special because it’s my mom’s birthday!

I snapped a few pictures of us yesterday and these are just a few of my favorites…

Mom was so patient with me on our eleven-hour drive yesterday. She even tolerated my road trip mix which included me serenading with her this song in honor of her birthday.

I even did the dance. It was magical.

 

Happy birthday, Mama! I’m so excited to spend the day with you!

love, elizabeth

Happy Birthday, Marine

My baby brother turns 21 today. He’s not home from his deployment yet so say a prayer for his safe return!

 

Here’s a song for you, Ben. I love you and I can’t wait until you’re home!

Have a good Wednesday everybody!

love, elizabeth

Happy Birthday, Kyle

Today is my husband’s twenty-sixth birthday…I wish I could think of something wonderful enough to say about that. I really can’t. I met Kyle shortly after his 19th birthday and to see him all the way til today is a little mind-boggling. Every year, he grows wiser and funnier and more handsome. I swear, sometimes he looks at me and I feel my knees buckle.

There are not words for how much I love November 10 for being the day my sweetheart was born.




Happy birthday to the great love of my life. SOMEONE’S going to be getting 26 birthday spankings…bwahahahahaahaha….I just killed the mood, didn’t I?

love, elizabeth

A Birthday Wish

Today I turned 24. Madigan turned 3. And Kyle turned 6 (spiritually).

In honor of that, a birthday wish:

As we start another year…

May we hold one another tightly, never taking that impossible, aching, breathtaking kind of love we share for granted…

May the loveliness of the littlest things bring us joy…

If we feel ourselves slipping away into bitter cold and sourness, may we find the

sweetness all around us…

And share it with others…

May we treasure the seconds, minutes, hours before they fly away…

Make us better friends…

And lovers…

And now…

Just before we blow the candles out…

Teach us to care without fear of consequence, to love without limit, and to stretch out our arms to the universe and say, “I will live all the days of my life and I will savor every one.”

love, elizabeth