it's definitely a nashville party

my mom and i went to nashville for the day, grabbed pancake pantry pancakes, went to see a couple things relating to the country music hall of fame, and then grabbed the best avocado popsicles. seriously. avocado pops. 

home

//visiting my old high school will always be super weird
//practicing piano
//trying to roast marshmallows, but the wood was wet. we made a valiant effort
//playing mom
//sure mom i'll babysit, sure

tennessee is for lovers

ok. so the right phrase is "virginia is for lovers," but i want tennessee to be for lovers, too, so i changed it.

last wednesday i went to good ole' tennessee to watch my sisters while the rest of the fam (except ethan) headed out on Trek for our church. 

before i came down, my brother informed me, "when you come home, it will be just like we're married, except i didn't choose you, and you're my sister. i'll go to work all day, and you'll make me dinner" (hash tag eye roll). 

after the oooooh- so long airplane flight (they always wear me out) (even though i am sitting down doing absolutely nothing) (it's real dumb), i finally made it home.  i, of course, then explored all of our refrigerators and pantry. i didn't even need to eat the food, i just had to see that i had bounties of delicious free food at my delicate little fingertips. 

the next item of business, of course, was to jump on the trampoline. i love trampolines. every time i see one, there is a magnetic pull from my heart to the trampoline, forcing me to jump on it (it's what we call true love). like i said, i love trampolines. 

but then again, i was exhausted from the airplane, so i didn't last too long 

the next morning my family left, and i finally got to take my place as queen of the house (but let's be honest, i was always queen of the house). and i used that queen status to do whatever the heck i wanted (hash tag house party). i piled the girls into the mommyvan and drove up to nashville. (fun fact: i love greek mythology) (i promise you'll see how that's related in a minute)

we went to centennial park, home of the great goddess athena, and the life-sized replica of the parthenon in greece.

and there's athena in all her gold foil and plaster glory, all 42 feet of her (can we just think about how hard it must have been for her to find skirts that were long enough to go all the way down the the floor?) (rough life).

after visiting ancient greece, we headed out to explore the park and obviously take pictures (we're all models) (hash tag it runs in the family). and look at that green. it doesn't get prettier anywhere else. 

and after a little more trampoline (this time with sprinklers, because, well, trampoline + sprinklers = life), and the hannah montana movie (love it, don't care), i solidified my status of best babysitter ever. 

friday we did a little hobby lobby shopping (hash tag favorite store), and went to see monster's university. summer nights always call for a little bit of marshmallow roasting, if ya know what i mean (we had to improvise). 

saturday was craft day. i shared my lifetime of knowledge, and i learned to never leave your little sisters in the room with a camera. 

(hash tag unflattering bathroom picture)

overall, i would say a pretty successful weekend. it's pretty nice. 

home home hommmmmmmmmme

44 days.

 

in 44 days it will be june 19th.

 

and do you know what happens on june 19th?

 

I don't have to miss you anymore.

 

I don't have to miss you anymore because I get to come home!

evolution of home

last april home was cinderblock walls and ingrid michaelson concerts and nursing broken hearts

last summer home was a childhood place revisited, thunderstorms and lightening bugs. hot sticky summer nights up until 3 a.m. with nothing but myself and my thoughts, and on the lucky nights a few good friends.

in the fall, home became stomach butterflies and friday nights on the couch.

in the winter, home was taylor swift naps and long conversations. freezing cold days to sometimes match freezing cold hearts.

early spring, and home can be painted by beautiful mornings: i wake up to morgan arguing with herself, "i'm not getting up...no, no, no....it can't be time yet." amanda is singing in the hallway with wet hair. chloe walks out of her bedroom, looking angry with her hair all in her face. kyle stumbles straight to the bathroom, sometimes giving us a peace sign, and then comes out of the bathroom telling us how she fell asleep on the toilet again. then there's whitney, running out of her bedroom so fast she doesn't even have time to put pants on because she wakes up with a million things she has to tell us.

the other day i took a step back while our morning routine was happening, and my heart was so full. i realized how much i love these girls. this was home.

now i have to make a new home again. maybe it will include bare feet as much as possible, hard to get smiles, country music, and handwritten letters and you?

cinnamon sugar and dixie chicks

Just the other day I was making toast and I remembered something from my childhood. Cinnamon sugar toast.

How could I have forgotten about this delicacy?

It's quite hard to make, but here's the recipe:

Toast a piece of bread. (We're grown up now, and use multigrain instead of white, I still can't force myself to willingly eat wheat)

Spread a lot of butter on it. A Lot. Remember, we're from the South here.

Mix together sugar and cinnamon until it looks like the white sugar is a nice, light brown-ish shade. That's how you know you have enough cinnamon.

Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top of the melted butter, and VOILA!

Truly a culinary masterpiece.

And if you really want to feel like home, and like you're living in your childhood, you can play the Fly CD by the Dixie Chicks because it reminds you of pretty much every afternoon in the 3rd and 4th grade when you would listen to it and make up dances in your bedroom.

Sometimes reminiscing is so sweet.

before I leave

There's a man in my home ward, and he says the best prayers. His face looks like he's lived a thousand years. The creases and lines and weathered skin prove his wisdom. When he speaks, the deepest, most scraggly sound comes out. He always sounds like he is about to cry, but maybe that's because it's always just overflowing with the spirit, and when he prays, oh he prays.  I can hear a little piece of heaven in the way that he puts his words together. I would like to hear him speak forever.

I'm about to leave home for the second time to go back to school. Leaving home this time will be different. Coming back home next time will be different. I have changed so much even in these seemingly monotonous four months. I want such different things now. And I will change in the next four months, and the next. Coming home is always different after being gone, but I always come back. I guess I end where I begin. 

People always told me that coming home after leaving was weird and it didn't feel like home to them anymore. That wasn't the case for me. I came back home and I fit right back in. I guess it's because I was never really gone. A part of my heart will always be there in my little brown room with stripes on the wall. A part of my heart will always be with those memories, those tears, that laughter. Great milestones of my life happened there, so my heart never could leave. A part of my heart is still in that storybook sky and those green green trees that suffocate the place where the sky is supposed to meet the ground. In those orange tennessee sunsets and those stuffy and wet southern nights.

 But then my heart is also in those dry brown mountains. In the football games where everyone is screaming in one voice and then collapsing in one gigantic, victorious cry. In those long nights on crowded beds with the people I love.

I will never be exactly this person in this place again. 

My cousin in Utah always asks me when I'm coming home, and the people around me here in Tennessee always beg me to stay. How lucky I am to have left my heart in so many places. 

Denver.

Oh you know, just sittin in the airport.

oh and apparently my new nickname is Rickie.

Text from Morgan this morning:
"Your name is now rickie in my phone. It took me forever to decide if I should spell it rickie or ricky but because you spell sicky like that I spelled it the other way."

oh man. I'm gonna miss her.

this is pretty

oh spring

Oh Tennessee, I miss you. I miss the springtime and the thunderstorms. Maybe even the humidity a little bit. The weather this week:

I'm a bit jealous.

And do you know what spring and summer in Tennessee means? Country music!

haha I just couldn't resist the last one

Erica Across America

This is it!

I can't believe the time is finally here! I can't wait to not have to give away anymore of my things! Yay! :) I leave at 5am on Tuesday to catch a flight to my destination. 

I'm gonna miss this. 

Tennesse is my home. It always has been, and it always will be. Over the past couple of months I have come to really realize what the true meaning of home really is. 

Home is really more than just a place, it's the people. I have been so lucky and blessed in my life to have more than one home. 

First of all, my home is my house, my family. 

Home is my gym. With all of my children, my 5 boyfriends who are all under the age of 5, and my best friends. We really are family. 

Most importantly, home is wherever they are.

I was driving through Franklin to Murfreesboro on Saturday, and I realized what a beautiful place I live in. With the rolling hills and lush, green plants everywhere, I will miss Tennessee so much. Especially the fireflies and the starry night sky. 

I've learned not to be stuck in the past, reminiscing about times that were so good, but being so caught up in those great times that I want every other time after that to be exactly the same isn't what life is about. I am so excited to start the next adventure in my life. 

Goodbye Franklin, even though I'm going on to greater and bigger things, I'll always be a Tennessee girl. :) 

HERE I COME!!!