I've been enjoying this week off so far catching up with stuff here at home, exploring the city, and getting stuff done that needs to be. And the following post isn't really for anyone to read particularly but really as a means for me to organize my thoughts and get together all that I have done this week :) So venting to myself now commences...
Saturday - I worked 9-5 and when I got off work, I went home and with all of Paul's family being here, it was my brother-in-law's birthday and also him and my sister-in-law's 2nd wedding anniversary : ) Paul's parents treated us all to Chik-Fil-A for dinner and we all went over to my parents house for cake, ice cream, and hung around for a while. Then we left around 9:30, got home, and I was NOT ready to let the day end. I talked to my parents and they were totally down for a late night movie to have the chance to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides where me and Paul left the house after his family went to bed to meet up with mine to see the movie around 11:30. My mom treated us to popcorn & soda (which she NEVERRRR does..!!) and we saw what I thought was the best addition to the pirates collection. Didn't get home until about 3am. Had to sneak back into our own house lol!
Sunday - First official day I had off. I made a big breakfast for everyone and let me tell you cooking for 6 people is a lot harder than 2..! Then we kind of split ourselves into two groups. The boys went to Target World to get some shooting practice in. Us girls hit the mall and did some afternoon shopping with a very noisy baby in the stroller lol Little Callum I think would have preferred to be at the shooting range. Buuuut I don't think a 1 year old should be around open fire hahaha. When we got home I started making dinner which was my specialty, Swiss Chicken. I loooove making it. It's so delicious. All of my favorite things are in the ingredients (chicken, wine, butter, creamy deliciousness, topped with crunchy stuffing mix) and I was happy that everyone loved it.
Monday - I had the idea to take everyone to the local root beer stand that is famous in Hamilton called Jolly's. It has quite the old timey feel to it because when you go here, it's not the classic dine-in style. You just drive your car up to a spot of your choice with a menu that can be read from the driver's seat and where you can order right from your car :) There's a fast food chain now that you can find pretty much anywhere here that has the same idea called Sonic but Jolly's is better in my opinion. But it's probably because I grew up here. So anyways, we all had Jolly's in our cars and then headed to the park to play on the playground with Callum and enjoy the summer sun. It was the hottest day of the year that day at almost 90 degrees. Insanity. But we finally got a Townsend Family photograph together which is the first time ever! I was happy. That night though we had the most horrible weather blow in. Tornado sirens were going off. Wind broke our front yard tree in two. And debris was flying everywhere. It was pretty much the most exciting event of the DAY. It was amazing :D After it blew past we turned on the weather channel and learned about the horrible happenings in Joplin, Missouri :( The storm that came across our way was the same storm that hit that town.
Tuesday - Paul's family left around noon to head back down to North Carolina and Paul and I ended up getting Chinese for lunch at a new place we hadn't tried yet. Then did a bunch of random shopping all day where we discovered a nature shop, the African market shop, clothes stores, and walked around the empty and dead mall Cincinnati Mills. Later that evening we took a late night motorcycle ride and went all over the countryside driving a total of about 40 miles. It was so relaxing.
Wednesday - Paul and I woke up with the need to explore downtown Cincinnati :)! So we did. Packed the car up and went. We mainly just walked around EVERYWHERE and although I forgot to bring the battery for my 50D (do'h!) I did however have my little Olympus camera and I did take a lot of pictures. Seen below. That night though the worst of the storms rolled in..! At midnight, huge gusts of wind started blowing in and it sounded like there was a war happening outside. Hail, winds, and hard rain started beating down and me and Paul just watched it from our bedroom window. Lighting was crazy. I felt the need to run outside and protect my car somehow. But it would probably be a lot more damaged if I started to lay on it lol. It lasted probably about an hour and funny thing is, I fell asleep during it.
I would love to have a studio location that looks like this someday:
The Art Museum of Cincinnati: Home place of the most amazing staircase in Cincinnati
This was the one piece of art from the entire collection at the museum that really impacted me and stood out to me the most. I loooove it. I wish I would have gotten the name of the artist in the picture though :(
Thursday - Everything was a mess outside due to the storm. Trees uprooted. The sidings on houses completely ripped away. A car port behind our house completely toppled over.
Check this out and you'll be able to see what some of it looks like. After doing a look around our neighborhood, we had to head Tri-County to meet up with a friend of mine and talk about doing their wedding photos this fall. I'm pretty sure they're wanting to book with me too :) Then, Paul and I headed to Target World to do some looking around and ended up purchasing a new gun with money he's been saving this entire year. ((((It's a Ruger Blackhawk .357 magnum revolver. Kind of has that old western feel to it. Quite nice actually. Pretty stoked to be able to fire it here soon. It'll be the next biggest bullet that I'll have fired other than a shotgun. I've fired a .22 and also a 9mm before and so far 9mm is my favorite. .357 is supposed to have a little more of a kick so hopefully it won't be too bad :/)))) So, we did some more shopping at a nearby computer geek's paradise called Micro Center. Then headed to the craft store for some new canvases (been completely out!) then in between the very heavy rain storms headed back home. It was the most relaxing day so far. The rest of the evening I spent playing Kingdom Hearts, watching tv, and playing with my phone.
Today... well no plans! And I like it that way. I was going to head down to Louisville for a wine tasting party I was invited to but I told them I wasn't going to make it because since we're heading down to Louisville anyways tomorrow as well for Memorial Day weekend, I thought I might as well save money in gas and hitch a ride with my parents down there instead.
But after Saturday I'll have 2 more days left of my vacation. Sunday I have a photoshoot planned and Monday I might be having another. We'll see!
I'm going to stop ranting now.
Brooke
