Nothing is easy. Everything is beautiful.

Lately my life has become complicated in ways I could never even TRY to blog about. But it's also insanely beautiful. So I'm going to post photos for a while until I get over myself.

Let's start with the rad party we had a week ago Saturday, of which it turns out I took zero photos. We had dozens of our closest friends over for Cinco de Mayo and some serious drinking occurred. And by serious, I mean multiple gallons of tequila magically disappeared even though I kept refilling the punch bowl. And then FORGETTING that I'd refilled it. Because all of a sudden! There it was! Empty! Again!

By the end of the night, I actually broke one of my cardinal rules: NEVER RUN OUT OF BOOZE. (Or food, but there was plenty of that since I made a fuckton of carnitas and my best friends came early and rolled out handmade tortillas while I put on mascara at the last minute.)

I didn't take any photos of the party itself because I was too busy enjoying it, but I did snap a few of Joel's mad decorating skills before everyone showed up. This is what he did with the fireplace mantle:

You should click to embiggen that one because he made those two art pieces himself. The only thing I contributed was my busted-ass collection of Ball jars, some mercury glass shit I bought at Target for 75% off and the antique letter blocks that spell out our initials. He made all the ACTUAL art. (One more reason he's a keeper.)

He also put my Dude on a chair, which I love.

The next day we woke up and made mimosas. Because the only cure for tequila poisoning is more alcohol.

Then we found an unexpectedly perfect hangover remedy: WE WENT FOR A SAIL. On the river. On the most beautiful day we've had this year.

One of the ADDITIONAL things I love about Joel is that he has no problem whatsoever hanging out with another man I've dated.

Say hello to Chris:

We met on OK Cupid and dated for a little while, but our timing was problematic and he ended up reconnecting with his ex-girlfriend right around the time I got serious with Joel.

But in spite of our piss-poor romantic timing, Chris and I have always maintained a fantastic friendship.

He's the one I go to when I need man advice and he always somehow talks me down the safe side of the ledge. He's also the one who took us out on the Columbia River last Sunday on his boat.

Which was pretty much perfect.

By the following afternoon, I was finally sober enough to pick up my kids and we ended up having a rather drama-free week (at least kid-wise). I'd like to think I had SOMETHING to do with that, but honestly we can all thank the SWEET MERCIFUL sun for coming out and relieving me from relentlessly entertaining two children who are smart enough to know that they're being entertained.

We barbecued!

Or rather, JOEL did.

Genoa stole Sara's sunglasses.

Which was so cute, I tried to eat her.

Then she tried to eat Cinnamon Chip.

Which isn't fair because she's still technically a baby. (The chick, not the child.)

Then Alex had to introduce us to his leetle friend.

(He's 100% second grade mafia.)

Then the man finally got to eat. And last night, I finally turned those leftover grilled tomatoes and peppers into a pasta sauce. Which was every bit as good as you'd imagine. By the end of the week, we finished planting our garden (photos ASAP!) so I'm hoping to bottle Manda's BBQ'd Tomato Gravy by the end of summer...

Comments

[Vanessa]

This was a perfectly lovely post. It appears you have hit a sweet spot :).

[Sara]

And it was some of the BEST bbq I've had in a long time! I'm still dreaming of the peppers and tomatoes...

[Dawn]

Yum! Those mushrooms look delish!

BTW - I saw your kiddos today and was like WHY do I recognize those kids!? It 'twas crazy.

[Jen]

Food looks delish, and your hair looks fab!