Sunday, June 27, 2010

Wild and Crazy Guys!


 Stressful, hurried morning with icing the cake and getting to Tball on time turned into stressful and hurried afternoon with finishing the cake and getting last minute details for the party accomplished turned into a very successful and fun birthday party!  Parker and his favorites buddies doing what they do best.....being C-C-C-CRRRAZY!!!!! (and seriously, making sure five 5 year old boys stay together and keeping tabs on all five is one of the MOST challenging things I have ever done!  Good thing the other Moms were there!)
Langston, Parker and Liam, the original Musketeers

The Fiercesome Fivesome

Liam, Braylon, Langston, Jordan and Parker

Yes, he has an Iron Man mask now too....Oh how he loves masks!

CAKE!

Optimus Prime Cake!
It was a pretty badass day!  And of course, I couldn't have pulled it off without help from my favorite Jennifer and my favorite Zach.....thanks for making me look good guys!

Monday, June 21, 2010

A full circle

Today was the day it happened.  The power was cut to the historic Bartlett Building this morning at 11:05am.  Duke (energy company) came in around 11 and told me they were going under ground and that the east side of the building would be first and then our side.  Within minutes, it was all over.  For weeks now it has been an everyday worry.  We moved all the product from my store 2 weeks and 3 days ago.  I, along with some help, have been running the right amount of bread, meats, chips, all that jazz everyday from the Clifton store.  It has been stressful!  When the lights went out, I can't lie, it was a sense of relief from the "in between."  So that is it for my little store with no dining room, my insanely busy lunches, my flirting with all the cute business men,  the end to meeting all the Red's players, and the most tragic, the end to blatently hitting on every Bengal player and coach that bought a sandwich.  I guess my plan to ask for tickets to a game will have to happen a different way........this day sucks, but I am lucky.  I lost my store but not my job.

Now it is the eve of my first day working at the store on Calhoun Street.  Well, first day isn't really accurate.  I spent more time there that I can remember in college.  The amount of hours and shifts I ran paid for a large part of my college education.  I met some of the best people I have ever known while working there and, at that time, they were my family.  Whenever I visit there, I remember the fun that I had working.  I was Val's second hand person, she fully trusted me to do things the same way she would, and I took a lot of pride in my professional relationship with her and personally, she is one of the most loyal and dedicated friends.  If it wasn't for Val, I wouldn't have been hired part-time at the Dayton store while I was finishing college, I wouldn't have been asked to move up to General Manager of that location and then asked to transfer to Downtown Cincinnati when Dayton was sold.  My last 7 years of employment all started at the same store I will be opening tomorrow.  It is bittersweet.  I have never had the intention of working there again.  So much has changed there since I last had a key to the door.  There is one person I knew from the "good ole days" who still works there, all the other who were my family, have mostly moved away from Cincinnati.  Mandy is in LA, Claire is in Savannah, Val is in Nashville and Kristen is in Cleveland (according to facebook). 

Tomorrow will be interesting but not just tomorrow....damn.  I just remembered again that this isn't temporary.  My store at 24 E 4th street will not exist again.  All my regular customers are now just strangers.  Boooo....I am done talking about it.  I just got sad again.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Rain, rain, go away!

When T-ball gets rained out what is an almost 5 year old today for entertainment on a wet, dreary day?  Make cookies!






 And of course.....eat them!







Friday, June 11, 2010

Friday finally!

Thank goodness it is the end of the week!  My store has been closing earlier than normal, which means less hours of me being there but I swear this has been the LONGEST week EVER!  It is so hard to not have any of my normal product there and having to rely so heavily on someone else to provide things for you...and everyone knows how much I hate to rely on others for taking care of things I am fully capable of doing!  I can breathe easy now though, sitting at home, watching Parker play with cars, chillin' in the AC.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the looooong awaited T-ball season at the Y.  You can imagine the anticipation has been building ever since he started soccer last fall.  All the sports have lead him up to this moment.  The moment when he will get to put his Diego glove to use besides playing catch with me.  Which we have been doing every weekend....he can almost catch...some of the time.  Whenever he misses it but it was close, he'll exclaim "At least I moved my feet like this!"  and demonstrate the entire sequence of actions.  I think he would reenact anything anyone asked him to, he is such a clown.



My sister asks questions at the end of every blog entry and now I plan to answer them on mine whenever I remember to look at hers and remember what she asked.....today's question was: What do you ride?  And what's your riding outfit?  But since I can't answer it because I drive and not ride, I will ask my own...

Why are YOU happy it's Friday?  (and just because it's Friday can't be the answer...that's no fun)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Missing Wednesday?

Yesterday I received a text from my little sister with the link to her newer blog.  She  said that I would like it and I think, primarily, she thought that I would be jealous of her fabulous fashion sense and happy about her small tribute to our Grandma.  It's interesting because I was also remembering our Grandma Peg yesterday, although not in the same way as Lauren.


May 30th marked the 5 year anniversary of her death as well as what should have been her 65th wedding anniversary.  A friend of mine married that day this year.  I told him how special the date is to me and how wonderful of a couple my grandparents were when I told him congratulations.  He and his new wife smiled and politely said "Thank you," but I could see that they thought it was a little odd that I was bringing up such a sad date.  I don't think my words conveyed properly the relationship I witnessed of my grandparents.  Like all couples, I know they had they fights, disagreements, times of stress and doubt, but as a child, I never saw that.  They, as I will always believe and remember, were each other's true love.  They met briefly as children, as told by their parents, and then again as adults.  My Grandma lived in Chicago and my Grandpa lived in Trenton, Ohio.  She moved from the big city to a small rural town after they were married and within her first years there, she easily knew everyone.  She told me once that if she had to live in that "God forsaken town" (which she always said with a smile and giggle) that she would make the best of it by knowing everyone. 

I remember seeing them be affectionate with each other only a hand full of times, but their energy was only love.  It crushed my Grandma when my Grandpa died in 1993.  She had lost her soul mate, partner, and husband.  She never was the same.  When I was pregnant and told her I was planning naming my son Raymond, she teared up. 

This is more what I wanted to say to my friend, but my words were not clear.  They were married on a day, although very sad because of the loss of her, that is full of positive and loving energy.


Lauren was missing more than just our Grandma and she asked as interesting question : What do you miss on those long rainy, middle of the week days?

I miss missed opportunities.  Those who know me well, know that I have been reserved the past months.  I have not done anything bold or put my self "out there" by any means.  Considering all the things that are up in the air right now concerning my store (aka the one thing I am really good at controlling), I have decided that I am not going to miss as many opportunities anymore.  I took a step today, a small one, but I feel my boldness coming back already.