Oh, hello.

I’ve been on a little self imposed hiatus this month.  I know, I know.

A break to figure some things out and to soak some things in.  I don’t do that nearly enough.

Soaking in things included: Playing My Little Ponies with Tate.  My sister’s graduation from college and a trip to Lexington.  My brother’s graduation from high school.  A baby shower for friends who are adopting!  Mother’s Day.  Year end school programs and carnival and “parent involvement” projects.  My sister Rachael was home from Palestine for a whole month.  Brunches.  Dinners with friends.  Playdates.

Good things… well except for the laundry and dishes and boring stuff.

And to make up for it, I’m posting every day in the month of June. 

You’ll be sick of me.  Just you wait.

Enough about me.

What’s up with you?

Summer Drinks: Vanilla Vodka + Lemonade.

So my two drinks of choice are kahlua + cream in the winter/fall or vanilla vodka + ginger ale with a lime in the spring/summer.  The former tastes like chocolate coffee milk.  The latter tastes like a cream soda.  I only really deviate for wine or an occasional fruity frufru drink when the occasion warrants.  I always seem to come back to those two favorites though. 

When we were in Lexington for my sister’s college graduation, I ran out of ginger ale and I love a vanilla lemonade, so I tried the vanilla vodka and raspberry lemonade together.  It is perfection.  Like the yummiest, most delicious, best summer drink ever.  I let everyone take sips and they all agreed it was a blog worthy drink.  It’s dreamy.  You all will have to try it for yourself.

Vanilla Vodka + Lemonade

• 1 {or 2} ounce vanilla vodka
• 6 ounces raspberry lemonade
• ice

Add some fresh raspberries if you want to be fancy.  

And let’s face it, I always want to be fancy.

You can also use plain lemonade or blueberry lemonade with good results, I always get the Simply Lemonade brand found in the cold juice section of the grocery.  I probably would skip the powdered lemonade drink mix here and pick something decent.

I also stumbled upon a new {favorite} brand of vodka.  I don’t know how new it is, so much as new-to-me, but it’s delicious either way.  It was mid-level pricewise, but the vanilla taste is more like a fresh bean rather than a fake substitute.  The brand is 360, it’s a million times better than any other vanilla vodka I’ve tried.  They also have some ridiculously weird flavors like cola, glazed donut, and buttered popcorn.  I’m going to have to get my sister Lyndsey on creating some fun recipes to try those out.

Want some other vanilla goodness of the non-alcoholic variety?  Try Vanilla Lime Iced Tea.

Big Deal.

Tate left me this little note.

Just so we’re clear.  Her daddy was there for the writing and flower assist.  The scribbles are all her.

She wants to color constantly lately, we have to confine her to the high chair because we keep finding random scribbles on things that shouldn’t be scribbled on.

Like books.  Her brother’s homework.  My agenda.  Walls.  Me.

The D Word.

My parents got divorced when I was 5.  It was nuts and I thought {wrongly, duh} that it was my fault because my dad told me to turn the radio up and my mom told me to turn the radio down.  Then they got into a huge screaming argument that had nothing to do with the radio and everything to do with the fact that they shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place.  And mostly, the fact that my dad slept with someone else.  My five year old self only saw the radio. 

I say all this because I found out recently that a couple we know are getting divorced and it threw me for a loop.  I was flabbergasted.  They’ve been married for longer than we have. I have no idea why they are splitting, nor is it any of my business, I just know I was surprised.  We have friends who are divorced.  We have friends who never should have gotten married to begin with.  We have friends who I wouldn’t bat an eye if they told me they were splitting.  This isn’t my picture of this couple.

From the outside looking in, it looks like they love each other and not in a way of like, oh I love him soooo much that it makes it impossible for other people to be around us because I am all over him all the time and I love him, I don’t trust him to be away for more than five minutes, but I looooove him, gag me with a spoon overt vommy PDA pretend we’re perfect.  It seemed like they genuinely liked each other.  They had fun together.  They laughed.  They have been through some really tough things.  They’ve been a team and still maintained their own selves in the process.

They felt like us.

They felt like US.

And I know there are no guarantees, I get it.  Things are not always perfect and there are times when you just don’t like each other.  There are times when you don’t want to look at the other person.  There are times when it feels like you don’t know how you’re going to get through another day with this person who is the most annoying person on the planet, oh my God, WHY does he close the blinds the wrong way every. single. day.  There are massive hidden problems maybe behind the eyes of the outside world.  There are things you can’t move past. 

What makes you walk away?  What makes you say that you’re done?  What makes you not try any longer?

Because I don’t want it to happen to us, is what I am {really selfishly} saying here.  I hope and we work to make sure that it doesn’t happen, marriage isn’t magical I know this, that our marriage lasts forever.  But I am sure most people feel that way, so maybe it really is just dumb luck?  Maybe it’s just timing and life experience and chance.

Wardrobe Malfunction.

I have this dress from Old Navy that I love.  LOVE.  It’s super soft and comfortable, but it’s still cute and it has these little cap sleeves so I can still wear a good bra with it.  Bonus because these tatas aren’t holding themselves up for sure.  It’s great with a little sweater or on it’s own.  It’s the perfect casual little black dress.

That is until it ends up over your head in the middle of downtown Toledo.

During a very busy Friday lunch hour.

In front of one of your very favorite restaurants that you frequent often. 

{Holla Grumpy’s, so sorry if I scared your lunching customers by my mortification and screaming.} 

The thing is, this dress, it has a little swing to it.  It’s part of the awesomeness.  Take note:  It also means that if you happen to walk over a grate you are going to Marilyn the heck out of yourself.  Obviously, I’m careful about that, but I certainly didn’t anticipate the gust of wind that showed everyone on the street my boy cut undies. 

I started screaming for my mom, who was carrying Tate to the car since my hands were full.  Who, helpfully, started laughing at me as I frantically tried to pull the dress down and {unsuccessfully} prevent it from flying up again with each gust of wind.

It was less Marilyn and more spastic thirty-something running down the street trying to get the car door open fast enough to jump inside while carrying a to go box and purse and keys and phone.

Hot.

Yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh.  Tell me your worst wardrobe malfunction so I feel better.

 

{Seriously, if you ever have the occasion to be in Toledo, you need to partake in lunch at Grumpy’s even if it means seeing my rear end on the street out front.}

5 Things To Do In May.

1.  Head to a baseball game!

From little league games to the majors, May is the perfect month to catch a game.  The weather is gorgeous and you catch the excitement of fans realizing that baseball is back!

If you’re local, head to the Mud Hens on May 4 or May 5 for Star Wars weekend, the players are going to be suited up in Chewbacca uniforms!  Awesome, no?

2.  Clean out your car.

Now that the weather is warmer {for most of us… some of you are still getting snow!} it is the perfect time to clean out your car.  Wipe down the interior, make those windows sparkle, and throw away any errant Goldfish crackers that have invaded your backseat.  This is also the perfect time to check those car seats to make sure the shoulder and head rests are fitting properly or need to be adjusted.

3.  Plant herbs in a container garden.

My Meme is 89 years old and she swears that the ‘plant the day after Mother’s Day’ rule is perfect for the zone here in Ohio.  Hit up your local nursery or your Farmer’s Market and start planting all of those fresh herbs you’ll use to cook with all summer.  We keep ours in pots right by the kitchen door so I can just step out the door and snip herbs to add to our meals.  We always plant rosemary, chives, thyme, flat leaf parsley, peppermint, several basil plants, and dill at our house.

4.  Get a pedicure.

Amp up those summer toes with a pretty color.  Don’t forget to get those heels in tip top, flip flop shape.  Need some help deciding a great color?  Check out the Top Spring Nail Trends according to Harper’s Bazaar.  My sister Lyndsey and I are getting one today!

5.  Grill something.

Even better, grill something and eat al fresco.  Invite some friends over and make something delicious. 

 

What are your favorite things to do in May?

Are You a NoReply-Comment Blogger? Fix it!

Hi.  I love when you leave comments here at So Wonderful, So Marvelous.

It makes me happy.  I like you.  I like responding to you.  I want to talk to you more.

Sometimes though, you are a Leslee.  What is a Leslee, you ask?

This is her.  Cute, right?  And I totally want her to teach me how to rock the fair skin and red lip combo because she clearly has that down.  Know what she doesn’t have down?  Letting me respond to her comments. 

She leaves awesome comments for me and I can never answer her.  I thought maybe she was just antisocial, but I tracked her down and she’s not.  In fact, she’s funny and likes me and is quite chatty.  She has a problem that needs to be fixed though… She is a noreply-comment@blogger girl.  Dun dun dunnnnn.

Maybe it’s the same for you?  If you have never received an email response from me, you might want to check.  Heck, you might want to check even if you have never left a comment here.  You never know when you might want to do that.  << HINT HINT >>  {In my head, it was hint hint muthafucka, but I am trying to curb my swearing, but I totally thought it anyway.}

Where were we?

Oh, yes.  Lucky for you, I am going to show you how to fix that pesky noreply-comment@blogger problem, it takes all of thirty seconds.

And then you can get emails from me.

Who doesn’t want that?

We’re going to start at the Blogger homepage.  I even linked it for you just to make it super easy.

TADAAAAA! It’s now fixed.  And you can stop being anti-social.

Leave a comment if you were a former NoReply-Comment@Blogger offender. 

I promise I won’t publically call you out.  Probably.  Maybe. 

We can still point and laugh at Leslee, right?