happy mother's day.

I hope you all have a beautiful Mother's Day. I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful mother and find myself overwhelmed with joy that there is a specific day set aside to celebrate everything she has done for me (and for others, too). I have many women in my life who have nurtured me and mothered me and I feel it's only appropriate to commemorate all of them on this special day. To all the women who have lifted me, loved me, cared for me, rooted for me, prayed for me, cherished me...thank you! Your love and generosity has inspired me and will fuel me in years to come as I, myself, strive to one day be a mother worthy of beautiful children. I love you.

a lovely day.

On Friday afternoon, my mom, sister, and I ventured just outside of our college town to visit some of our favorite little spots and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. We stopped at a big antique mall and rummaged about, ate some sweet and savory treats at a darling little farm store, met the most adorable dog, and drank Blue Sky sodas from the local co op. It was an absolutely lovely day from start to finish.

the jones.

On Tuesday, my mom and dad came to our apartment to stay with me while Jeffrey was away (which was very sweet and thoughtful). My dad had to leave early the next morning, but my mom spent the next few days with my sister and me. We enjoyed breakfast at The Jones, which is a beyond tasty spot that relies on a lot of local vendors.

Their special for the day was Strawberry Short(pan)cakes, so we obviously had to order it. We split that and an omelet three ways, and it was quite delicious. It was like having dessert for breakfast, which I will never, ever object to.

shopping with my mom.

The scene:
Me, my mom, at J.Crew, looking at a way-too-expensive dress.
Not one in my size.
Always makes it that much easier to walk away.
One of the employees walks up to me: "Would you like for me to see if we have your size in the back?"
Why the heck not?
"Sure, thank you."
She walks away.
My mom looks at me, "...She thinks we're serious..."

We both cracked up a good deal over that one.

satchel's (or the best pizza on earth).

I have a confession to make: My family, we're pizza connoisseurs. As in, we've made it our mission to find the best pizza. And we think we're pretty good at it. You can search high and low for the most perfect slice, but you will continue to search until you eat at Satchel's. You'll realize that your quest is over and you'll be simultaneously happy and sad. Happy because you're eating the best pizza ever and sad because your quest is over, which means that you don't have an excuse to eat pizza whenever you want it. But do you really need an excuse? (The answer is no, you don't.)

happy birthday.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. Let me refer you to multiple posts where I talk about how much I love her.

{1} {2} {3} {4} {5}

Thanks for letting me talk about my mom all the time. She's a muse of mine. lovelovelove, R.

to my mom.

To my best friend, confidant, shopper extraordinaire, beautiful, loving, wise, gracious, humble, kind, glorious mother: I love you. You are the epitome of a graceful woman and a brilliant mother. For all you do, I am eternally grateful, today and all the rest of the days of my life. You are a true beauty. Grammy would be so proud. Love. Always.

xoxoxoxoxo,
R.

Spring Break 2010: Monday & Tuesday

Unfortunately, this is where I totally forgot that I owned a camera and neglected to take any pictures of these two days. Why, oh why?

Monday, March 8th, 2010
I went out to lunch with my two best friends. We are shameless lovers/supporters of Olive Garden's unlimited Soup/Salad/Breadsticks deal and took full advantage of it. Like I said, shameless. We talked about the normal stuff — you know, things like meeting up at Olive Garden when we're old and still talking about high school and weddings and the future. It was fun, but it always is. Then, we hung out at my house and just talked some more and perused our high school yearbooks; such an entertaining pastime. Love it.
Once again, my mind has totally blanked and I have no idea what I did Monday night. Sometimes I wonder about myself.

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
My mom took the day off of work and we went shopping. This is something that we commonly do. I was blessed with a mother who has impeccable taste and fortunately we share very similar styles. She's definitely one of my favorite shopping partners (my sister is my other favorite). Then, we went to P.F. Chang's and ate on the patio. I shared a piece of my fortune cookie with a sparrow. They're so cute, I had to. My mom and I always have the best time — I'm really lucky to have her. We also went to Crate & Barrel and I contemplated which comforter I liked most.

I don't know. What do you think? Normally green would be the obvious choice because it's my favorite color, but there's something really happy about the yellow and I promise the blue actually looks good in person. The picture is simply not doing it justice. Let me know what you think in the comments.
My mom and I came home after a looong day of shopping and who knows what we did next. Seriously. Who am I? This is so horrible. I can't believe that I am drawing such a blank. I'm pretty sure we watched Where The Wild Things Are, which I had already seen and still do not like it. I'm sorry, but that is not a children's movie and it is a children's book, so shouldn't the movie have been for the children? Let me know if I'm missing something. I'm pretty sure the movie's only redeeming quality was the goat, Alexander, who I would absolutely recruit as my best friend if he were real.

I guess I was just expecting something different and half the time I really didn't understand the point of certain scenes. Like, why was the chicken's arm ripped off and then replaced with sticks, and how would anyone explain the meaning of that to a small child? Anyway, I guess it's pretty clear how much I enjoyed that movie. The book, however, is a masterpiece, and always will be.

xo, R.

*images found here and here.

short and sweet.

I miss you already, Mom.