We had a Luau Fiesta at my house last night. The Vargases, Jeremy and I had the pleasure of throwing our good friends Uzo and Alicia an Engagement Luau Fiesta – complete with Tiki themed party, a pinata full of candy, little liquor bottles, and lotto tickets, and Mexican food and luau drinks. I don’t think I have had that much fun at a party in a few years. Cheers to good, long-lived friendships! I can’t wait to celebrate all the other little milestones before their wedding next year!
I remember growing up and helping my parents in the garden. I specifically remember the thoughts centering around how I am never going to garden as an adult becasue why would anyone want to dig holes outside all day? Except now I’m 32 and suddenly want a beautiful garden around my home ( which I also thought I’d never want ). I garden with my husband ( but I was never going to get married. Why have that hassle?).
If nothing else – the lesson is that you can’t predict how you’ll feel about everything forever. Or at least, I sure can’t. I love being married, I love living in this home, I love my career, and I love my husband.
Anyway – I also love some of the edible things growing in my garden. Here’s what’s growing right now.
When Rachael, Kenneth, Jeremy and I went to Siesta Key to shoot their engagement session, we finsihed the trip at the Marie Selby botanical gardens. Easily my favorite botanical garden now, it had beautifully landscaped and showcased specimens to walk around. It also sits right on Tampa Bay – affording some really beautiful views across the landscape. If you’re heading to the Tampa area anytime – put it on your list.
After four years of battling stage 4 colorectal cancer, Sanjay left us on Tuesday early in the morning. I have no idea how to parse it all yet. All the funeral prep and events kept us busy, kept me going, but now having laid Sanjay to rest on Saturday, it’s quiet. How do you see someone, a regular part of your daily life, since you were born and then they’ve gone? He left a lot of great memories…his illness left a lot of painful ones. The sum total of his life was just amazing, still, even though it felt short. What I can take away at this moment about his death isn’t at a place where it makes any sort of sense. However, the amount of people who showed up for the family, and the strength of my family itself, has left me with a sense that things will be alright. I am so grateful for all the people who actually showed up. It was a great showing of people who demonstrated that they cared by being there in many different ways. I came home to flowers, I had tons of phone calls and texts checking to see if we were managing or sending an encouraging word.. people sent us dinners and came knocking. My family in the aftermath still met together day after day to be with one another, to take turns being pillars at this downpour of a season in life. It really highlighted the valuable relationships in my life. – my true friends, my real family. It is wonderful to see who I can count on – who cares about us – who really cared about Sanjay. It was SO many people! I am so so grateful to them and for them.
We came home from our 5 day trip to Houston to find that our Cherry tree had bloomed. When we bought this house last September, we had no idea what kind of cherry tree it was. Turns out it is my absolute favorite species – The Double Blossom / Yaezakura! I had to spend some time absorbing how beautiful it was and took a lot of photos!
I went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens a couple of weekends ago and got myself some Tulip fever. I picked these up at Costco and have loved watching them bloom, since! The rain today was a nice touch.