awesomefest, me time! homebirth picnic

the time has come for me to branch out a little from my hyper attachment to my family. that sounds silly the way i say it, rather it is time for me to reconnect with jenny outside of being Mother/Wife/Emotional Support/Diaper Changer/Chef/Baker/etc. my plan is to take two evenings per month, one of which i will spend with a friend perhaps, the other totally alone. i hope to just stop by an ATM and take out like $20 and of course be respectable and trustworthy with this money but not tell a soul what i did while i was out. i realize that i have no secrets in my life that (which seems like a good and innocent thing) but really it's as though i have no mystery about me whatsoever at times and that doesn't feel good. i do it to myself, what with my lack of internal monologue.

saturday was such a busy day. david left for awesomefest at 4? 5? am. i thought i had blogged about this event off and on enough to clarify what it was but apparently not based on people's comments on the photos i posted. awesomefest is the brainchild of nick fancher (shutterthink.com). in my opinion it's sort of a hipster triathalon. with the help of david (and another guy?) this year the fest included a 35 mile bike ride, an 11 hour rocky movie marathon, and a tattoo from f14hellkat (the-artful-dodger.com). not surprisingly no one wanted to come to my door at 4 or 5 am to babysit my children while i went on a bike ride so i was unable to attend that part of awesomefest. probably just as well as we had a picnic for all of the homebirthers who used our midwife kathy mitchell that afternoon. the picnic was great. i slapped together a shepherd's pie and headed to the bexley mansion. boy that place is slammin'! driving through bexley makes me equal parts angry at the snobbery and in awe of such beautiful homes. im so blessed that maggie and austin came and i got to spend time with jeff and michelle (& sunny who is somehow 6 weeks!) chapin too. i think i told kathy that i loved her at least twice. birth is just such a powerful, incredible, intimate thing if you let it be.

at one point augustine was off romping off with a group of boys, keep in mind there are probably 25+ families with a resultant 50+ children or maybe it just felt that way?, and i find him off in the woods with these kids and beckon him back to the playground where i can see him from the shelter house. he says "mom, we are playing in the woods. [stares at me quietly] ALONE."

OUCH! BURN!

apparently they were jumping from one rock to another over a puddle and i was cramping his 3 yr old style.

so i hug and kiss everyone goodbye and maggie walks us to the car and i just love her to pieces in a way i've never loved another gal before. i know she is my friend but really she is a sister to me too. before i get all choked up again i've got to keep this entry moving. i drop the kids off at my house with my mom and off i go to awesomefest. finally! adult time! (see first paragraph for unfulfilled needs in this area reminder) i get there in the middle of rocky IV. it wasn't bad. david and i both noted that a creepy russian dude was driving our car in the movie. too bad that was oh, 1982? come on, love on that rocky IV


(note our car at 3:31)

rocky V i sat around talking in the tattoo room. boring movie, ugh. but rocky VI did not disappoint. i actually hadn't seen that one yet. anyways the point is the fest, what i experienced at least, was really fun. food, friends, rocky balboa, tattoos, bikes, raffles, trivia, games, free stuff! next year nick mentioned the possibility of doing a jaws marathon. giddy up!

sunday we were zonked and skipped church to lazy around the house. though that night i made a blueberry peach pie and we went over to our friend jaime and jared boyd's house to share it. olive (16 months) made every single one of their girls (9 months approx., nearly 3, and 4.5 yrs) cry by hitting them. AWKWARD. looks like we won't be invited back there! monday was our small group cookout and i tried to make some cupcakes with real finesse only to be utterly humbled when i burnt them. i was SEETHING. so i went to the store to buy some pastry to make another pie like i had made the night before, only to realize that pies take 2 hours to cool and it was just 2 hours shy of cookout time. again SEETHING. yes, over baked goods! i threw together some of the lamest, most unimaginative cupcakes ive ever made. it might as well have been from a box! the icing was good though but i was so angry taking them to present to friends. they ate cupcakes, i ate humble pie.