Remember this scene in The Notebook?
Allie: “I don’t paint anymore. I used to paint all the time and I really loved it.”
Lon: “So, paint.”
By some miracle I can’t explain or remember, somehow I got Andy to watch that movie with me back when it first came out, and ever since then, “I don’t paint” has become a line we use for when we’ve stopped doing something awesome that we love, and it’s often pulled out and quoted melodramatically. Like if Andy hasn’t gotten to eat a certain kind of cheese in a while – “It’s been months since I’ve had that brie! I don’t paint anymore!” or how we haven’t played volleyball together lately (“We DON’T PAINT ANYMORE!!”).
I got to spend a precious alone-time hour at Homegoods recently, and as I was wandering around looking at the decorations and thinking about how I haven’t done a single thing in our house in months, I turned melodramatic on myself and was all “I DON’T PAINT!” as I touched the curtains and considered the throw pillows tearfully. “I used to paint all the time and I really loved it!”
I MISS YOU GUYS. I get painful, incurable itches to write, and to decorate, and to write about decorating, and when I can’t, it makes me want to strip down to nothing but a blanket and paint a picture on the front porch of a Southern plantation. Metaphorically.
(If you haven’t seen that movie, I’m sorry for the unfamiliar references, but let’s be honest: this is a problem I can’t solve for you. It’s not me, it’s you. #FixIt.)
You guys are the sweetest and I can’t tell you how much it means to me to get your notes just checking in on us! It’s like a salve to my thirsty little not-painting soul.
Here’s what we’ve been up to:
1. (Primarily): Working and trying to keep our heads above water.
We started a company together a couple years ago, and it’s been the coolest thing to watch it grow beyond not only what we expected, but also anything that we even remotely envisioned when we brainstormed the business name while spoon-feeding liquefied peas into our infant at dinner.
If you’ve ever tried the entrepreneur thing, can I get an exhausted fist-pump over how amazing but crazy and needy it is?
Also, we have two kids. Who keep getting bigger.
2. Parenting.
Weston and Mila have turned 5 and 3 and UGHHH. I just can’t with this age. I JUST CAN’T.
Before I had kids, I thought 3 years old would probably be the cutest age, and 5 years old would be the second-cutest, and then after that, it’s all downhill and they get gross and have stinky armpits and hate you until they’re 21.
Right this second, I have one child at each peak-cuteness age and I WAS RIGHT. I can’t handle my children because they’re hilarious and still have tiny little voices and IT’S ALL GOING TO BE OVER SOON AND THEN THEY’LL HATE ME! The cuteness level is at its PEAK and I’m stressed out all the time because I know this is IT.
Why do they do things like this to me? This drawing?! How am I supposed to handle this?
True story: right at this very moment, I can hear Andy and the kids doing their bedtime prayers. This is Mila’s prayer:
“Thank you for my mom. Thank you for my dad. Thank you for my bwudder. Thank you for my Mila. Thank you for my Jesus. Thank you for pee-peeing in the potty. Thank you for my sun and my sky. AYYY-MEN!”
See? It is so STRESSFUL how cute they are. It makes me want to send them back. I wish I could just push pause and make them stay 3 and 5 for all time, or have 14 more of them so there’s always SOMEONE in our house who is 3 and/or 5.
3. Celebrating 10 years
We’ve been married a whole decade! To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we rented a big house on the beach and invited some of our best friends to meet us there for a long weekend. We had a dinner by the pool at sunset, and then had a DJ for a dance party, which by the way is SO MUCH BETTER if it’s just a small group of people who will still talk to you even if you look like a dying duck when you dance.
It was the PERFECT way to celebrate 10 years!
4. Inserting Foot in Mouth
My bud Chelsea from Two Twenty One asked me to do a podcast/interview thing with her for a new series she’s doing, and y’all? I should not be allowed to just SAY THINGS with no option for editing it.
I accidentally spewed all kinds of stuff, like my most embarrassing moment and the reason why Andy would never have married me if we’d met a few years earlier, plus some super honest thoughts on what NOT to do when decorating. You can listen here. It’s a bit silly. If I’m being real.
5. Getting started on some projects!
I have a few half-finished things I’ve been working on and so more things are coming! I miss you guys! Tell me how you are. Tell me everything you’re thinking!
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