enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

from the weekend.

I played host to four sweet friends over the weekend. I love showing off my town. I love laughing until I cry. I love drinking wine. I love cooking up a giant batch of spaghetti. I love having someone to run with. I love having someone to collect rocks with. I love talking about the same stuff over and over again. I love getting the gossip about people we went to high school with. I love wandering Santa Barbara. I love finding new restaurants. I love seeing a chick flick in the theater (even when they are a bit underwhelming).

Trunk

I love that I had someone to agree that a new/old $18 trunk is just what I need. And then help me carry it to the car. And then begin the "let's make it fit in the car" game. I love that that trunk is just dying to be painted in an obnoxiously fantastic pattern. (No joke – I am currently considering hot pink diamonds.)

Good stuff, great visit. Come back soon, loves.

Dottedline

And more good stuff on Stephanie Howell's blog today. I wrote a post for her Lovely things month about Paul's deployment and showing him LOVE while he's been gone. I totally cried while writing it. These past six months have been so full of high highs and low lows. But that's life. And he'll be home soon and I'll get to show him our amazing new town.

Posted in ,

24 responses to “from the weekend.”

  1. Sonja Avatar
    Sonja

    …I love reading your blog and I love staying here for an while 😉
    Hughs and kisses,
    Sonja

    Like

    Reply
  2. Sammy G. Avatar
    Sammy G.

    “I love getting the gossip about people we went to high school with.” – this is always funny.
    and was the chick flick “The Vow?”

    Like

    Reply
  3. Callie Avatar
    Callie

    Sounds like a wonderful weekend! Also, I read your guest post and it was really great. You and Paul seem like a great couple and you set a great example for how to be a supportive partner.

    Like

    Reply
  4. Cecilia Madden Avatar
    Cecilia Madden

    Sometimes a girls weekend is the best medicine. How fun 🙂

    Like

    Reply
  5. Ann-Marie Avatar
    Ann-Marie

    So glad you had a great girls’ weekend in such a beautiful place! I love the picture of you guys carrying the trunk – how fun! I just read your guest blog post on Stephanie’s site and teared up. All I can say is your reunion will be amazing! xoxo

    Like

    Reply
  6. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    it was! I did not love it, but it was fun to see.

    Like

    Reply
  7. Bella Casa Avatar
    Bella Casa

    I read your article on Stephanie Howell’s blog …straight from the heart …lovely. Being part of the military life is all that I knew for over 20 years …I still miss it so.

    Like

    Reply
  8. karen Avatar
    karen

    you know how you did what one of your days looks like last week for project life. maybe Paul would agree to do the same for what one of his days looks like during deployment.

    Like

    Reply
  9. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    Thats a great idea!!!

    Like

    Reply
  10. Rose Avatar
    Rose

    I spent the weekend with my girls as well for a bridal shower. I miss them SOOOOO much!

    Like

    Reply
  11. Kelly Cree Avatar
    Kelly Cree

    Hey–Loved your post over at Stephanie’s! Thought of a little tip for you…consider “hiring” a friend/photographer to be your poparatzzi (how do you spell it?) for Paul’s return…at the unit, dock, airport, whatever. The pictures of his first re-deployment will be TREASURES and you’ll want those pics to be of BOTH of you…the run toward each other, arms wide open, the hug, the long kiss, the smiles and tears….and you can’t get that on your own! …and then you can write an awesome blog post and share an awesome pic with us!

    Like

    Reply
  12. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    do people do that? do you know? is it normal to bring a photographer friend?

    Like

    Reply
  13. Stephanie Howell Avatar
    Stephanie Howell

    i have done it for one of our reunions. handed my camera to a friend. 🙂

    Like

    Reply
  14. Allie Avatar
    Allie

    I’ve definitely seen it done– I wish that my family had pictures from when my Dad got back from a year long deployment. One of the best reunions ever.
    Especially for someone who loves to document things– I think it would be a great idea!!

    Like

    Reply
  15. Allie Avatar
    Allie

    Elise, I loved your post on Stephanie’s blog! You set an example of a great wife and great supporter.
    Glad you got to have a “girl’s weekend!” I’d love to hear tips from you on how you stay in touch with your girlfriends– none of mine live anywhere near me and it gets lonely sometimes–do you have ways of staying in touch that go beyond email and skype?

    Like

    Reply
  16. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    hey Allie! We send an awkward amount of email. I hate the phone and do not use it that much with friends. But most of us are on twitter and instagram and following along with their lives there really helps. Trips to vegas help. The fact that we are of marrying age and having big parties to go to every year or so really helps. 🙂

    Like

    Reply
  17. SY Avatar
    SY

    can’t wait to see what you do with the trunk! 🙂
    love your post over at Stephanie’s! I wish I could write about my feelings as well as you can (even for personal journalling purposes).
    You know, the funny thing is, we spent a major chunk of our relationship in long distance mode (20 hours plane ride away) and I realized that we communicated the most during the 4.5 years apart. It’s like we made the conscious effort to chat (skype/email/text messages) everyday and now that we are married with a 1 year old girl, we spend any scarce free time we have vegetating online/in front of the TV. Funny how things work. Now we have to remember to make the effort to have “us” time.

    Like

    Reply
  18. Jenn Avatar
    Jenn

    your article was lovely. Deployments are hard. deployments suck.. but you seem to be handling it with a lot of grace and most importantly LOVE.

    Like

    Reply
  19. Kelly Cree Avatar
    Kelly Cree

    Elisa, We’re ARMY and my hubby arrives on post at an air strip. I don’t know where/when Paul would arrive but I just saw my friend’s recent photos and was in awe (and she clearly was IN them as opposed to taking them). Lots of neat shots that were not posed at all—just snapping away while the couple embraced and the raw emotion was caught–WOW–I’d totally go for it. I don’t think you’d be sorry.
    Best days of your life MUST be caught on film…and this will be one of them!

    Like

    Reply
  20. Robyn :) Avatar
    Robyn :)

    That was a beautiful blog post on the other blog. It reminded me of when my husband was deployed and all the stuff I tried to do for him 🙂
    Don’t you just love how people want to give advice and tell you what to expect for a first deployment? Or waht you should do (I hate that word, btw). The best advice I got was that it was okay whatever I was feeling, since this was my first deployment I didn’t know what to expect and that can be scary. She did not tell me how to feel or what to do, just validated my feelings and let me know she was there for me 🙂
    Thank you for sharing your experiences.

    Like

    Reply
  21. Bridget Larsen Avatar
    Bridget Larsen

    Another new blog I am subscribing to, awesome story of great strength and love and courage on Stephanie Howells blog that I have been following for a few years. I know your husband will read this and know that he is doing a wonderful job, my husband is ex US navy but I met him after he left it. We live in Australia, I am Australian well originally from Fiji. All the best and goodluck and Godspeed, I also make hand made cards to send to the troops to send back to their loved ones.

    Like

    Reply
  22. Sophie @ threetimesf Avatar
    Sophie @ threetimesf

    I went out for lunch with some girlfriends yesterday and talked all about the people we went to school with that are now pregnant or getting married! It seems insane to me, but lots of giggles were had!

    Like

    Reply
  23. elise blaha Avatar
    elise blaha

    thank you so much!

    Like

    Reply
  24. Thinkie Avatar
    Thinkie

    I’ve just read your post on Stephanie’s blog. Yesterday I heard this song for the first time in a while and it made me think of your situation and how Paul is coming back soon: http://racoon.nl/site.php#/video/clips/racoon-love-you-more/ I wish both of you lots of strenght for the time being!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Stephanie Howell Cancel reply