Visiting Virginia

This is a picture of me and the newest member of the family, Leah. She's my cousin's daughter, born on May 30th. Isn't she adorable?

I got to hold the baby

Me and baby Leah!

So proud of my sister!

My sister is an engineering rockstar!

Back from VA

Pictures to come soon....


Friday - drove with my aunt from Leominster to Manassas, only took us 11 hours! We stopped in Stamford, CT at Houlihan's (great restaurant chain that is nowhere near my house!) I drove the entire time, but I don't mind. I like driving. Got in to my uncle's at 2 am.

Saturday - slept in till 9:30. Met up with cousins for lunch at a sushi bar - yum!! I got to see my cousin and his gf's condo in DC, and the sushi bar was right around the corner. We then walked around DC and saw the cherry blossoms in bloom and went to a Nationals game. Beautiful park!

Sunday - babyshower for my cousin's wife! (still new to me to say that!!) She looked like she had fun, and boy did she make out with the gifts! That little girl (whatever they decide to name her) will never be wanting for some cute outfit to wear! Then there was a cookout back at the uncle's house.

Monday - long drive home. Not as long as the ride to VA, however. Only 10 hours, LOL.

Tomorrow - plugging in WAY too many comments into the system at school, because apparently no one can log in from home (or VA)

ugh

Currently...

I am at the rents' house cuddling with the dog on the couch watching Dave Letterman.

Shhh...

don't tell mom.

mini-Thanksgiving

Tonight I had my in-laws for dinner. Mom, dad, and brother.

I made them Orange Spiced Chicken, Peapod & Orange Salad, Cinnamon Raisin Bread, Sweet Potato Salad, and a Black & White Angel Food Cake.

Mom brought some pasta with vodka sauce, Dad brought an apple pie, and brother-in-law brought some wine.

We had to pull the leaf out in the table, and I used a tablecloth and cloth napkins with napkin rings. I even bought a small bouquet of flowers for the center.

It was a feast!! We even watched football! It truly was a mini-Thanksgiving.

Wicked good shows!

Just got back from NYC - annual Girl's Weekend - we go every Columbus Day weekend to shop and see shows on Broadway. This year we saw Wicked and Little Mermaid.

Wicked was just that. It was awesome. I've had the soundtrack in my head for the entire weekend.

The Little Mermaid was good too - although I think we would have enjoyed it more if not for all of the little kiddos. We did go to a Sunday matinee, however...

There were two days of street fairs to walk through, and I bought a few Christmas presents. I also bought some stuff for myself - new rainboots, and a dress for my December concert.

We had a ton of fun - ate some good food (unlike last year's Irish pub experience), shopped our brains out (don't worry - I didn't spend too much $$), and saw some great shows.

The Milford Plaza was a step down from last year - apparently the breakfast that we ate last year was NOT included in our price - we aren't club members, so we shouldn't have been eating there - who knew??

We made our traditional stop at Rein's Deli in Vernon, CT and ate the sour pickles. I also had my very first Bialy - a cross between a bagel and english muffin - yummy.

I am finally home, and am planning on taking a nap while catching up on my DVR'd shows.

:-D

packing and packing and packing

Everytime I pack a box or two or theree, I think I'm getting somewhere...then I look around...and there's MORE to pack....

The living room is almost completely full of boxes - floor to ceiling, wall to wall to wall to wall.

Today I visited with my grandmother in the rehab hospital in Andover - it's nicer than most hotels I have stayed in! How do I get in?? (just kidding!) She seemed to be in pretty good spirits, and was happy to see the honeymoon photos I brought by with the boy's portable DVD player.

Then I went home to get some boxes to pack up my place. We ordered some pizza while I was home - mmm...veggie deep dish from Mandee's - I forgot how good that is! Mom gave me (hopefully) more boxes than I need, there's a lot.

Home again home again, jiggity jig, and I started using some of those boxes. I also made the boy dinner (he wanted - pizza, of course) so I mostly ate salad.

Anyways, tomorrow is the first day of summer work. It shouldn't be too bad - Mon-Wed 8:15-11:45. Then I have to go back home to Groveland to get copies of the marriage license.

sunburn

Yesterday was spent in York fishing with my uncle - we didn't catch much - he caught a 20" striper, a crab, a skate, and a lobster! We didn't keep any of it - we thought about keeping the lobster, but the poor thing only had one arm. The boy caught a crab, and I caught - NOTHING. Well, I did catch a sunburn. A small one, only where it seems we missed the sunscreen. The boy used spray sunscreen on my back, and it is obvious where it missed! It's not too bad - I've had worse.
Last night we went to my aunt's church for a roast beef dinner. It was delicious.

Today's plans - clean and pack some more of the apartment. Hopefully I will get to grading some of the papers I have stacked up as well.

so worn out

I need a long weekend to recover from my long weekend.

Friday was spent shopping with my sis and mom looking for a dress for my mom for the wedding. We found one - woot!

Saturday started with shopping (woot! again) with my flower girl and her mom. We found the rest of her outfit - and she looks adorable!!! :-) The rest of the day was ...

MY BRIDAL SHOWER! :-D

It was so much fun - my sister did a great job - all the way from San Diego! We made wine charms (I brought home 37!), and I won $108 in scratch tickets from playing "Stump the Bride".

I'll have to take pictures of some of the crazy cool things that I got. My aunt made me a beautiful quilt! (I know you'd appreciate that Kelly) I got my supercool-everyonewantsone-youknowyoudo pistachio green KitchenAid Mixer. I made cookies tonight in it, and I used the new stacking cooling racks I got this weekend too.

I didn't get home till after 10 on Saturday - showed the boy all the stuff we got and hit the hay.

Sunday - Easter with the future in-laws. Little Ring Bearer hunting for Easter eggs - he had to fight off the squirrels - one ran away with his egg! We hung out with family all day and caught up with all the goings-on. We didn't get home till after 10 that night either.

Then I had to start the work week - Monday all over again.

Following the Sox Day 2

Click here to see the pics on shutterfly!

We started off today with a yummy breakfast at the hotel. We had our choice of all kinds of fruit, cereal, yogurt, make-you-own-waffles, english muffins, bagels, donuts, eggs, sausages, juices, coffee, milk...it was a lot (I obviously didn't EAT all of it, but it looked good)

Then we headed off to Aunt Ruth's house, where we met up with her and our cousin Glen. On our way over, we stopped at a local grocery store to pick up some drinks for the hotel room, and to replace the contact solution that exploded in my bag, as well as buy a little potted plant for our aunt.

Turns out there was some construction on the way to her house, and we got taken on a LOOONG scenic detour. (which made us arrive about 15 minutes late) sorry Ruth!

We stayed at Ruth's house for a while, where we caught up (I haven't seen her in about 7 years) with both her and Glen. We had lunch, and had a small tour of the yard, where Glen showed us what he has been working on. Turns out he hasn't been to the house in about 3 years!

After that, we drove around for a bit, and headed back to the hotel to plan what to do next. We decided to check out the Senator John Heinz History Center downtown. This museum has a little bit of everything - sports, Heinz 57, Lewis and Clark, Glass making, Soul Soldiers (African American soldiers of the US), and of course a whole lot on Pittsburgh's history. It was a pretty cool place to spend a few hours.

After that, we headed back to the hotel again, to head out to the ballgame at PNC - Pittsburgh vs. Houston. PNC park is literally across the street from our hotel. We step outside, and it is in front of us. Tonight was bobblehead night, so we each now have a Pirate bobblehead. It was a pretty good game, all and all, considering I really don't follow or have a vested interest in either team. Pittsburgh won 7-3. I kept score on my scorecard. We shared a bucket of wings from a place called Quaker Steak and Lube, I had 13 and Debbie had 12. That's a lot of chicken!!

Birthday

My birthday (the big 27) was last Sunday. The boy bought me a new MP3 player, because my old one (that he bought me 2 years ago for Valentine's Day) was only 500-something MB, which isn't a lot of songs, and it didn't hold a charge very well. This one is a Creative Zen V plus. It is pretty good, and is WAY cheaper than an IPod, but is just as good. It can hold photos and video as well as MP3s. He also took me to a Japanese Steak House in Concord (next door to Papa Razzi). We were the only ones in the restaurant, it was really good. I had salmon and scallops, and he had chicken and steak.

My college roomie came over yesterday to bring me my birthday present: 3 shirts from Life is Good.

This shirt is definitely me...especially when I am driving!!!

I could have used this last weekend! My uncle and aunt DEFINITELY would have appreciated it (considering the weather they had for the past 2 weeks)

This one though, is my FAVORITE! Isn't it adorable? I'm going to wear it to NVCB tonight. :-)

Carnival Glass

I went to my grandmother's house on Saturday, and she had me up in the piping hot steaming attic with her for at LEAST a 1/2 hour. It was nasty. She sent me home with two boxes though. One contained a punch bowl set (which I forgot to take pics of). The set had 7 glasses, and the bowl was kinda small. The box also contained 16 other glasses that matched each other, but not the bowl or other cups. I'm thinking of trying to find a punch bowl somewhere without any glasses and buy it to go with the other cups.

The other box contained all these pieces of carnival glass. I didn't take a picture of it all together, I probably should have. There's a LOT of pieces. My little brother's gf and I agreed that having one or two of these pieces would be cool, but who needs a whole set?? I certainly don't want to get rid of any of it, so I left it in my sister's bedroom at my mom's house for her to look at. If she doesn't want the whole set either, we might split some of it up between us and our brothers if they want it. It would make for some cool accent pieces, but it's a little too much orange for an entire set for me.

Slippery Rock

This is down the road and a walk in the woods from my uncle's cabin. We call it Slippery Rock, because the water's current moves quickly, and the rocks become very slippery. (pretty self-explanatory, huh?). The other two labs are my cousins'. The big white was is Acadia, and the other chocolate lab is Sammy. Sammy has a black collar, and is bigger than Kylee in her green collar. The dogs had a great time. I don't have a photo of it, but my cousin tricked his dog Sammy into going down the waterfall. We tried with Kylee, but she just gave us the "are you kidding??" look.

It looks so weird....

My parents' house just looks NAKED without the bushes out front!! Seriously...NAKED!!!

poor neglected blog

aww...poor blog! I have ignored you! I didn't mean it, I swear!

I have been busy (sorta)

Last Saturday was spent with the NVCB. A parade and two concerts (including the YDDB), my lips were DEAD at the end of the night!!!

Sunday the boy and I went to church at Groveland Congregational Church, where we are going to have our wedding ceremony.

Monday I worked around the apartment for a bit, then went to the last yoga class until August. :-(

Tuesday was spent around the house, where I made a REALLY yummy tuna salad. It was totally different than normal tuna salad. It's mostly rice. Try it! It's good and light for a summer dinner! (easy to make too)

Wednesday the boy and I went to Cambridge to visit Greg (who was house-sitting for an aunt) and his gf Debbie. It rained lightly off and on for most of the afternoon, but we still had fun. In between the showers we grilled up some "rollers and sliders" as John would call them. That's hotdogs and hamburgers in case you were wondering. We also got some frisbee in, until Debbie threw it over the fence....we got it back, but the rain stopped us from continuing. :-)
We played Nintendo Wii - my arm was SORE the next day!! (btw - I STINK at Wii baseball, I'm pretty good at bowling and golf) Then we played some cards, which was a lot of fun. We ended up watching the fireworks from an upstairs bedroom (all four of us were crammed around one window, it was hilarious) because it was still raining at fireworks time, and we didn't feel like getting soaked.

We spent the night in Cambridge (and BOY was my stomach sorry that morning) and we took the T back home. We came home and spent the rest of the day hanging out in the apartment, napping and watching TV.

Friday (finally caught up to today) I am still trying to clean up and organize around here. I bought a shelf (nothing special) for the kitchen so I can put some of my appliances on it so that they are more accessible. I made a kick butt pizza for dinner. I used Pillsbury pizza dough, and made a pepperoni and chicken garlic sausage pizza. We had some pepperjack cheese that I grated onto the pizza with the mozzarella. It was yummy!

I've also been crocheting a lot too. I can't post the picture of my latest creation until I give it to the person tomorrow (I don't wanna ruin the surprise). The other things I am working on I can't put on the blog either, because I am making some gifts, so I can't put them online without giving away the surprise of it. If you email me, I'll show you pics (as long as YOU'RE not the one I'm making it for!!) ;-)

Tomorrow I'm heading up to to York to see my aunt, stopping at my mom's on the way to drop off/pick up some stuff. It should be a fun day! :-)

ugh....

ok...it's been a while...let's play catch up!!

**Memorial Day weekend was a busy one! Thursday night the boy and I drove out to Newburgh, NY to the Day's Inn to meet up with family for my brother's graduation from West Point Academy. Friday morning was a big parade, we spent the rest of the day resting, and eating and hanging out. Saturday was the graduation ceremony with Dick Cheney speaking for a looooong time. It was fun though. We hung out at the 1949ers club for the afternoon with a couple of other families. Then we went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant, where they make the food on the hibachi in front of you. We drove back on Sunday, and the boy and I went out to Piccolino's in Shirley for yummy food. Monday was spent with the NVCB for the concert in Harvard.

**The week after that was a long one. Meetings, lessons, students, rehearsals, concert, and classes.

**Friday afternoon my aunt came by with a band of family. She was dropped off with me to check out the quilt shop in Boxborough, and then we went to the farm stand down the street. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the apartment catching up with each other. Some more family stopped by on the way up to York and picked her up. Then I headed to my mom's house where I spent the weekend. Saturday was my other brother's graduation from high school. It was very long and very sunny, and I am very sunburnt. We spent the afternoon with family at my mom's, which was a lot of fun to do. We all caught up with each other's lives, which is hard to do, since we're all so busy. I got to play with my cousin's babies. I swam with Tyler in the pool...his diaper swelled up to the size of a small elephant. The boy joined us , and all of us cousins went out to the movies to see "Knocked Up". HILARIOUS!!! YOU HAVE TO GO SEE IT!!!!! I cried I was laughing so hard. Sunday was my grandfather's memorial service, which was VERY hard for everybody, but it was nice.

**Today was the last day of the rotation for my classes. The students put together some great projects. (of course there are some who didn't, but there always are) We had an extra jazz band rehearsal (at the students' request - isn't it great??) and I bought the students pizza since we only have one more rehearsal until the concert next week.

There...I think that catches us up. Eventually, some day, I will post pictures of the various graduations. I am in the process of editing the video from the West Point graduation. This time of year is VERY busy!!!

family

Things I did today:

~got some stuff done at my apartment, and left at 1:00 pm
~stopped by one of the apartments my mom owns to see what her and my stepdad were up to. They've been renovating it forEVER now, and I wanted to see what they've been working on. So far, it looks nice (not that I know what it looked like before, but I'm assuming whoever was living there more than likely trashed it, because that's what they do)
~talked to mom and pseudo-dad for a while about this and that, while I got the grand tour (why is it that an apartment in scummy Haverhill gets 2 bathrooms and a decent-sized kitchen when I get a teensy tiny one of each??)
~talked to my brother on the phone about his graduation next weekend, and his plans
~met up with my other brother and went to lunch together, while we talked about his graduation in two weeks, and his plans
~talked to my sister on the phone about the upcoming graduations, and what she's up to
~drove to my aunt's house and went shopping with her

It's been a loooong day, but it's been full of family! What could be better?

What a great day!

Went to visit with my aunt in York, ME today. We met my cousin up in Portland for her wedding gown fitting, and went to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays with her and her sister-in-law-to-be. Then my aunt and I did some hardcore shopping.

I now have:
a pair of Crocs
freezable plastic beer mugs
some future Christmas presents for someone (I have no idea who yet, but they were on a 70% discount, and I couldn't pass them up!)
2 new Red Sox shirts (pics later?)
1 random shirt (again, on sale)
and....

GIFTS FOR MY BRIDESMAIDS AND FLOWER GIRL! Only a little over a year ahead of time, but I knew what I wanted, and I happened to see what I wanted, so I bought what I wanted. When you know what you want, you know what you want. And I wanted it.

I obviously am not going to share what these presents are, because that would ruin the surprise, but if you are NOT receiving the gifts, and PROMISE not to tell those who are, MAYBE, just MAYBE I will tell you.

But then again,

Maybe not...

Things I'll miss...and things I'll remember...

I know I will be adding more to this list...but this is what I have come up with so far. Feel free to add your own.


The constant "badgering" if we've done what we're supposed to do

Counting trees in the field

Wagon rides

The little green pedal tractor

"Dark Castles" on the Mac Plus

My introduction to Benny Goodman and other swing classics

Listening to the Annie soundtrack over and over in the car

Housesitting while he's on vacation - watering plants, indoors and out

The meticulous care of his lawn and landscaping

Sharing stories of our lives with each other

Interviewing him about his service in WWII

Listening to the touching story of how my grandparents met

The exercise bike

Washing his car (and mine if it was too dirty)

Aiming for seagulls in the "Grey Gull III" (don't call the MSPCA, we never hit one)

Taking the boat up and down the Merrimack River

Walking in the day glo orange vest

Volunteering together at AJH

Never missing a school function (especially the band concerts...they LOVED going to those)

The Navy hat in the back window of the Caddy

Showing me how to shell peanuts while watching the Sox

Talking Red Sox stats

Candlepin bowling instead of Saturday morning cartoons

Watching the little tiny TV in the shop

Naming every old-timey car's make, model and year when going by in parades

Staking out the best spot at the Training Field to watch the Memorial Day Parade

Finding the longest "short cuts" I've ever travelled in my life

Never taking the same route to get somewhere twice

My inbox always being full of forwarded emails

Getting the same emails over and over

Sitting on the front porch watching the cars go by

Riding in his lap on the John Deere tractor

Riding in the tractor's trailor

Getting the tractor stuck in the mud with 7 grandkids in the trailor and having to walk all the way through the field in the mud

Getting to drive the tractor

Learning to drive on my permit - "Rachael you can go 35 through the center of West Newbury, they won't stop you, you're in a Cadillac"

Asking if he could walk me down the aisle on the day he met my fiance 6 years ago

Asking when the boy was going to pop the question for the next 6 years after that

Getting to finally tell him that he did

Being his "Number One"