Weekend Updates

October Showers

Published on by Lisa


The beginning of October marks the beginning of the third trimester and baby showers. This weekend was one big fiesta in Cleveland that took care of all the requests from my family, our friends and co-workers in Cleveland, and old friends who live or have easy access to NE Ohio.

Welcoming Isaiah was no small task. My sister and Mom took the reins for this event and deleted the word “simple” from the vocabulary. For days, they cooked, shopped, and brainstormed on the best way to welcome Isaiah.

The guest list knew few regrets and I was delightfully surprised at how many folks turned up — nearly 50 friends and family!

It was kinda huge.

Like Isaiah’s feet measurements.

Nick’s family, minus Kelly and Tim, all came Saturday and stayed at the house. My dear friend, Claire Mugavin, drove 6 hours from Louisville, KY Friday night. One of my best friends, Tricia, flew in from California for a Saturday wedding in Columbus and then drove up Sunday as well. And that’s just a few traveling stories. My parents came in from Virginia and many made roadtrips from Columbus and Youngstown.

Nick and I were in awe, once again, of how many people showed up to support us and celebrate this new chapter in our lives. It’s really hard to describe when I’m overwhelmed like that. I just smile a lot and don’t know what to say. Everyone is just so generous and positive. Bringing new life in the world really brings out the best in people.

So many people pulled together to make this fiesta possible and we could not even BEGIN to articulate how grateful we are to our families for being there for us and for our friends who see us through everything.

To add icing on the cake, the rain held off and cooperated so we could have seating outside! (Thank God! At one point, I almost considered opening up the bedrooms so people had a place to eat.) It was beautiful.

There are numerous pics that I’m sifting through, but the two above are some of my favorites. The one picture of me is with three of my oldest friends who I’ve known for over 20 years. I grew up with them and they somehow manage to always rally around me whenever a huge transition is taking place in life. I was so happy they were there. (L to R — Christy, me, Tricia, and Jen)

And, of course, the love of my life, opening the biggest present. Only appropriate that Big Daddy himself would open the big gift for his son.

It was an awesome weekend!

Next weekend we get to do it all over again in the ROOOOOOOSHHHHH! (aka Russia, Ohio) with Nick’s side of the family. So excited for the fiestas to continue!

August, I Love You

Published on by Lisa

This week has been normal.

I love writing that sentence.

Sometimes the routine of life can help one relax, breathe easy, and appreciate the itty bitty grains of awesomeness in August. Like how AMAZING the weather has been, holding steady at 70ish degrees this week with pure sunshine.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what kind of weather announcer I would be. Channel 5 news would definitely have higher ratings because all I would do is squeal and yell YES YES YES when there’s a beautiful day on the horizon. I don’t know much about jetstream or northeast winds pushing whatever into whereever region. But I DO know how to be excited for cool August weather.

I’d also announce the weather wearing sunglasses.

This week has had a little rumbling of busy-ness throughout it. One of Nick’s coworkers is moving and so we, along with our pals, are planning a goodbye party for her this evening. Tomorrow, Kelly and Tim Norris will be hiking it up to Cleveland for a wedding so we’ll get to chill with them for a few hours before their wedding. Then tomorrow evening we have a BBQ to attend. Sunday, both Nick and I are helping chaperone/drive/be with a bunch of highschool cats who are spending the day at Cedar Point. Now, other than the ferris wheel, there isn’t much for me to ride at the greatest amusement park on earth. But, that fact does no stop me from going where I will have access to funnel cakes and elephant ears.

So, we’re back in the groove of our lives and as Nick often says, “I’m just excited, you know, for life!”

Yank the Umbilical Cord When You Need Something

Published on by Lisa

This weekend, Nick and I travled to Cincinnati for a wedding that I was shooting. Thanks to Julie Ryan, who referred me to a friend and co-worker, I was hired to work with a terrific couple for their August 1 wedding.

Now, I’ve shot weddings before and am co-shooting another one with a friend in a couple weeks, but this was one in which I had total responsibility from beginning to end with no back-up photographer, just moi. And Nick, who was my assistant.

The day was awesome but physically exhausting. I knew it was going to be a lot. I’m 4 months pregnant and not the same BOUNCY self as I normally am when unpregnant. But, I have lots of energy to give, still, and this wedding took all of it and then some. Basically from 10am – 10pm, I was shooting, directing, posing people, adjusting, crouching, and sweating like the world was my personal sauna. As I write this, Monday morning, my shoulders are still very sore and I can barely move my arms in a full circle with a small grimace. If you’d like a good shoulder/bicep/tricep workout, I’d suggest holding a DSL camera with an attached full lens and SB600 Nikon flash up to your face and running for 12 hours. See how awesome you feel. Let me know.

Overall, everything was great and only when I was going through one stressful moment did I feel any real sense of panic when my camera wasn’t cooperating with me. Usually an even-tempered digital gadget, my camera decided to have a temper tantrum for four minutes. My blood pressure sky rocketed to the blazing sun until I felt the little life inside me churning in the amniotic fluid, yanking on the umbilical cord for dear life and screaming, “MOM! BREATHE! I NEED OXYGEN!” And so, like the loving mother I am, I took a breath.

Nick as assistant and father to be could not have been more perfect. He chauffered me around from house, to church, to Eden Park, to reception with a car blasting air conditioning, cold water for me to drink waiting, and food so I didn’t pass out. He held groomsmen jackets, carried bridesmaid bouquets when the pictures didn’t call for flowers, and joked with the bridal party to relax everyone for the poses.

Nick carried my equipment, propped the church doors when no one in the recieving line did so the line flowed faster, spoke with the priests about the mass and regulations around flash photography, and took away my tripod when I was done with it.

More than one person asked, “Who is that cute guy with you? He’s not a guest is he? I don’t recognize him. IS HE YOUR HUSBAND?! HE’S SO CUTE.”

When someone compliments the good-looks of your spouse, it’s hard not to smile inside and shrug as if to say, “well, of course…”

But I just nod and say something along the lines of, “Yes, we’re married and yes, he is handsome.”

As with many challenges, I couldn’t have done it without Nick’s unyielding support, sound advice, and unwavering belief in my artistic perspective. To create art, to see something beyond what most people see, you have to believe in your own capacity to create something amazing. To do that, you have to relax. Nick does an unparalleled job of relaxing me, helping me remember why I decided to pursue this passion of mine, and believe in me.

Gracias, mi amor.

We left the reception at 10pm and headed to wish my friend Mary Kay a Happy 30th Birthday. We could only stay a brief 30 minutes or so because we were off to Cleveland from there. Still kind of wired from the day, we rode in silence back up north and I soon drifted off into an uncomfortable sleep in the passenger seat. Dreamy scenes floated across my brain of backdrops, family portraits, tuxes, dresses, and flowers. At 3am, we arrived home and I could barely make it into the house. My body hated me. The baby, I knew, hated me.

Nick, juiced up from caffeine, opened the windows and rolled the bed down for me where I collapsed. My muscles decided to stiffen up and not work and I laid in bed wondering how I could be so fatigued and unable to return sleep.

My poor abused spouse descended from his iced coffee high and fell into a deep sleep while I realized at 5am that I was not able to sleep. My stomach growled. The baby growled.

I tiptoed to the kitchen and stared at the dismal display of food options in our regridgerador. We’d been out of town for four weekends which means no serious grocery shopping had occurred in over month.

A toasted English muffin with cheese was my 5am breakfast snack. Once in my belly, I drifted off to sleep.

Sunday was a much needed day of being in Cleveland, seeing our house in the daylight hours of a weekend, and breathing in the rare Sunday morning air from our own bedroom, our own church, our own backyard. We quietly worked on landscaping, finding escape in the pruning of our trees, uprooting overgrown weeds, and catching up with our neighbors. It felt wonderful to be home.

Instead of restaurant food, fast food, or eating at someone else’s dinner table, we made simple spaghetti for dinner and loved sinking into our own couches and watching rented movies while we sifted through mail and aired out the house.

I hate cliches. I hate cliches as much as I hate ignorance, snobby attitudes, and drivers who turn without using their turn signal, but I must use a cliche this one time and one time only:

truly

there’s no place like home.

Charleston, Abby, and the Yellow Bug

Published on by Lisa

The truth of the matter is that life is complex. Life is complicated and busy as a pesky summer bee.

I feel that is all I can say after I look at the unimpressive amount of blogging done in the past few weeks. And sometimes I get so behind in this particular blog that I end up just drifting by important events – like the Charleston trip – without really showing the true brilliant colors of the experience.

So, let’s just start with what’s most recent: this past weekend.

Nick headed to Russia with his family immediately after Charleston for Abby Cordonnier’s wedding, his cousin, and I flew home to Cleveland to work two days before joining him in Russia. The two days were uneventful and full of sleepy catch-up days in the real world. Charleston is kinda magical. I felt like the architecture of the south has some sort of time-travel element built into its columns and bricks. I felt like I was in Gone with the Wind, Sweet Home Alabama, or Forest Gump at times. The houses were just beautiful. Our time there was filled with a lot of beach, exploration, Tripoly, and an euchre tourney.

But, we eventually returned to the real world and headed to Abby’s wedding. It was beautiful, as anticipated.

One thing I noticed is that I am getting much better at being on time for a wedding than I used to be. Now that the Borchers house is getting more and more snug with an expanding family, I have learned when to aggressively hog the shower first in the morning and iron my clothes before everyone else notices they need these amenities. With me, Nick, ( + Baby), Kelly, Tim, Jay, Keith, and his girlfriend Anna, it’s a tight run ship on Voisard street. Luckily, after 4 years of marriage and about 6-7 years of Russia trips, I’ve learned a few tricks to being on time.

Abby and Marcus’ wedding stood out for a few reaons, but like I’ve written before, there’s always one thing that will catch my attention. For this wedding, it was the speeches. Quite possibly, this wedding had the best speeches I’ve ever heard overall. And there were plenty – both of Abby’s parents spoke, Marcus’ father, the matron of honor, best man, and even Abby and Marcus themselves spoke. That’s a lot of talking and very impressive for each and every one to hold the attention of the audience with their wit, insight, and words. Bravo!

When I got home, Nick had to scoot off to work for a meeting and I decided to weed and prune some landscaping outside. I guess this was sorely needed because FOUR different neighbors stopped by to tell me what a great job I was doing and how wonderful it was that I was spending so much time taking care of our landscaping. Soon, the 30 minutes I had planned for myself became a 2.5 hour vendetta and I stopped only when Nick came home from his meeting and the sun had all but disappeared.

As Nick happily reviewed my hard work and the piles of branches, twigs, and greenery set out for pick-up, he threw his arm around my shoulder, “Great work, babe!”

I smiled an exhausted smile and mumbled how I wanted to go to bed.

Then he said, “Hey, what’s lighting up inside your shirt?”

I looked down to see a curious yellow light blinking, sandwiched between my green tank top and skin. All my gardening tools crashed on the driveway as I yelped and screamed and nearly tore my shirt in my frantic attempts to get whatever was in my shirt off my skin. Images of spiders, centipedes, and event tarantulas flooded my brain.

As a lightning bug innocently flew away from my shirt, Nick whooped a hearty laughter and picked up my gardening tools scattered on the ground. Too tired to tell him to stop laughing at me, I headed inside and collapsed on the couch.

Next weekend: Stacy Condon’s wedding and golf tourney for the Borchers clan.

4th of July Weekend Recap!

Published on by Lisa

Our 4th of July weekend was terrific. It was terrific in a kind of firecracker way, not big boom fireworks kind of way.

Nick came back from his week long service trip Friday afternoon and we both needed a quiet evening at home before a long weekend of activities. So we made dinner and rented Revolutionary Road and invited our friend Alexis over who brought three boxes of ice cream to share. We feasted on just mint chocolate chip and gave the movie a B rating for compelling themes but mediocre acting. Nick, who obviously read the book, kept commenting how much one loses in cinema as compared to literature. He likes to rub it in that he’s such a book worm.

That night, I think I fell asleep face down in my pillow. I was exhausted.

Saturday afternoon was spent cleaning up the house, running errands, and enjoying the beautiful weather. I know my energy level is depleting as my pregnancy marches on when I have to take a 1 hour nap after mowing the lawn. Apprehensive as my Dad on prom night, Nick wondered if it would be safe for me to mow the lawn. I assured him that as long as he can rev the motor up for me, I can take care of the rest.

The jittering and jostling may have taken more out of me than I would care to admit, but I laid on the couch afterward and fell asleep. Snoring as loud as the mower itself.

Then we headed off to Christina and Brian Emerson’s for a BBQ. Nick dominated at cornhole while I ate a hamburger like I’ve never eaten before. My appetite, to put it lightly, fluctuates. Somedays I can barely swallow three grapes without feeling like a stuffed cabbage. Other days I feel like eating a rhino would not suffice. Saturday was a rhino kind of day.

Then we watched the fireworks and I got all sappy and happy sitting on the lawn and thinking how by next year, we’ll have a little live firework in the flesh of our own.

Sunday afternoon was spent in Canton, Ohio where Nick and I went to a baptism reception. My highschool friend, Becca, married and now lives in England but her son, Logan was baptized here in her hometown and had a gathering to celebrate the little tyke’s induction to the holy Kingdom. I saw a bunch of highschool buds and it was great to catch up after so many years.

And that was our weekend.

Upcoming weekends are going to N-U-T-S.
July 11-15 Borchers’ family vaca to Charleston, SC
July 17-19 Russia bound for Staci Condon’s wedding
July 24 -26 Russia bound for Abby Cordonnier’s wedding
July 31 – Aug. 2 Cincy bound for a wedding I’m shooting (like, for money!)

And if you’re wondering how everything else is going — all I can say is the God honest truth: splendid.

Nick is wonderful.
I am wonderful.
Baby is wonderful.

(You are wonderful, too, in case you need a pick me up.)

Happy Summer is Here

Published on by Lisa

June 4th unfolded much like every morning of our previous anniversaries. We wake up, greet HAPPY ANNIVERSARY and then look at the clock, wondering what part we were at in our big day 4 years earlier.

After a few minutes of reminiscing, I’ll say, “OK, let’s watch the slideshow.”

And Nick always says, “Yes, good idea.”

So we hobble to the TV, put in our slide show from our reception and watch the pictures go by. From the opening chords of the background music, it’s just floodgates from my end of the couch. OH PATHETIC. I am bawling before my childhood pictures are even over. When I see pictures of my parents, I think, “OH those poor people! What they sacrificed to raise four children! I was so ungrateful and now our children are going to think the same of us! How naive we all are until we ourselves become parents!” The bawling continues.

Nick remains relatively calm until the music switches and the pictures turn to an adorable pretty blond baby (clearly that is not me) and it’s Nick’s turn to lose control. Nick doesn’t say anything, but he gets all choked up and his eyes fill as pictures of Russia, his siblings, his parents, his sporting events, his life parades on by…

It’s a good thing we only do this tradition once a year, because we wouldn’t get anything done in the mornings otherwise.

We head off to work for a 1/2 day and then celebrate later that afternoon with small, thoughtful gifts, dinner at J. Alexander’s, and then Dairy King for soft serve ice cream. We cap off the evening watching the Lakers demolish the Magic.

The weekend takes us to Cincinnati. Nick and I haven’t been to Cincinnati together in nearly a year or so and it was terrific to see everyone. Nick had Eric Rosenbeck’s bachelor party and I was to house-hop, seeing friends and catching up and then going to a Patty Griffin concert with my friend, Claire Mugavin at Riverbend.

Cincinnati hasn’t changed, but Xavier continues to respond to a “rapidly changing global society,” (that’s in their mission statement and I heard it 294874729 times over the four years I was there) and it’s looking entirely different since Nick and I were there. Good ol’ XU. It felt great to revisit our old home.

We concluded the busy weekend in southern Ohio with lunch at Arthur’s in Hyde Park with all the Borchers siblings. Over a ridiculous 2-serving order of fried cheese, we caught up on the latest job updates, friend updates, spouse/significant other updates, and anything else we thought critical to say. It was so nice to just relax and spend time with family.

Albeit wonderful, there’s nothing like heading home and unwinding in your own house. Nick replaced all the storm windows with screens so there is a lovely breeze moving through our house and my allergies have subsided.

As summer slowly approaches, Nick, Plum, and I continue to be extremely grateful for all the friends and family in our lives.

Hope your summer is unfolding as great as ours!

Borchers Visit

Published on by Lisa

This past weekend, Nick’s parents, Ron and Kay, were in town and the Cleveland weather grandly welcomed them to the northeast region of the Buckeye State.

Saturday morning and afternoon, Nick and Ron took it to the house and did several small projects – fixing doors, installing air conditioners, re-installing lights…all the while I laid out on the front lawn and Kay fell asleep. I felt a bit of a lazy bum, but not too much because I would have been ZERO help in the projects they were working on. At least, that’s what I tell myself to feel better.

I’m happy to report that we went out for a lovely dinner to Trattoria, which is located in Little Italy and I was able to order a red sauce dish without any messes or Great White Massacres. Still, I left my white coat at home this time and wore black.

We had a terrific time and it’s always great to have family with us, so come up to see the Indians, Cavs, or just plain ol’ exciting us!

Rewind: A Weekend Update

Published on by Lisa
Above: Bride and Groom to Be: Vanessa and Tom
Above: Sunday Mass in the Mountains
Above: Omelets and Friends
The beautiful scenery

Let’s back up.

The weekend of March 2, Nick and I went to New York with our friends Tom and Vanessa for another fun New York Cabin Weekend. Our first trip was in early February (click here for a refresher of that visit) and it was a fantastic time. We left Boston Saturday afternoon and arrived that evening and stayed until Monday afternoon. Another fantastic time with our buds!