The Spankers!

No, it's not a new form of spanx that are out. The Spankers are the Asylum Street Spankers (likely very familiar to you Austinites) and Mike and I had the pleasure of seeing them at a club in Harvard Sq. last night. This band is special to me not only because they're from Austin, but I've personally known Christina Marrs since my early days at UT in Austin. Throughout my four years of college, I regularly babysat her son, Sebastian, during her gigs. Sebastian is now 18 (yikes, I feel old!) and she's since added to her family with a son, Coltrane, and she has another due in January.

It was really great to see them play. They're always a very entertaining show and I miss my days of regularly going to see them (when I wasn't babysitting, of course). It was also fabulous to get to spend some time catching up with Christina. The Spankers only tour up this way about once a year and I haven't been able to make the show for the last couple of times they've been in the Boston area, so I was thrilled to be able to make it this year!

Before and After - Living Room

I know what you're thinking, "didn't Kara and Mike redo their living room 3 years ago?" Well, yes, we did! But, we bought a new rug this week. Unfortunately, our super cool rug that we had for the living room wasn't at all camouflaging and all of my clumsy, messy spills that had taken a toll on it. A pretty big bummer since we really loved it. But, what can you do? Shop on Craiglist of course!

On Monday, we went and picked up two good bargains - 1) a kitchen island on casters to use as my craft table in the lounge and 2) a new rug for the living room.

Since we obviously have a lot of before and after pictures to share on the house (a series that will start soon so stay tuned), we'll start with a really old before picture.

Here is our living room with our now previous rug before we gutted this room (raised ceilings, removed wood paneling, gave the fireplace a face lift).

And here is the living room today with our new rug! I just didn't quite love it yesterday and I figured out why. Those great orange throw pillows which we just hadn't moved out of the room yet were very distracting. I took them off the couch last night and now the rug looks perfect in the room!
Luci likes it a lot! What do you think?

Whimsical Wicker Redo

One of the projects I wanted to get done pre re-housewarming party was one I have been trying to get to for a few years...literally. Not long after we moved into the house, Mike's parents converted their screened in porch to a 4 seasons sun room and upgraded the furniture for the new digs. They graciously offered to give us their wicker. Now, I wouldn't say that Mike and are are real wicker people, but who passes up free furniture when you've got a house to fill?

I bought some colorful cushions for them way back when but also wanted to spruce up the white paint, which was definitely a little weathered and chipping. It never happened. The time had finally come to vamp up the wicker.

Here's a "before" shot. Well, actually, it's a middle shot since I had already scrubbed them down with a hard bristle brush, power washed them and shot them off with compressed air (I love my power tools!).





















We decided to go bold with the color. I mean if you're going to spend so much time redoing something, might as well go all out, right? Though the new green apple color is definitely a little loud, we're quite pleased with our "new" furniture.

Showers and Shin Dig

At long last, we were able to retire our shower curtain that we had taped up the the tile for the last month and a half. Last Thursday, our glass shower door was installed! Wahoo! And it is beautiful!

Speaking of showers, on Saturday, Kari and I drove down to Kingston, MA (South Shore), battling Cape Cod beach traffic, to attend Jennifer's wedding shower. We had a great time hanging out with all the gals and Jack.

Kari, Jenn and I

Saturday night was the big home unveiling. After the shower, I scurried home to help Mike put the finishing touches on the house and set up for the party. The party was a fantastic time and we just loved being able to be with people from so many facets of life (work,friends,family) all in one place. A smashing success!

All of our guests were special, of course, but it was especially fantatic to see my friend Katherine. She moved to Seattle a couple of months before our wedding. She made the flight back in Oct of 2006 for the special event, but that was the last time I saw her. Recently, she moved to Rochester, NY and drove to Boston this weekend to visit everyone. It was so incredibly great to get to see her again!

Aren't we cute friends?!?!

Can you Hear the Thunder?

There is nothing more awesome than a good summer thunderstorm.  In Texas, I got to experience these bad boys quite frequently.  When I moved to Boston, I realized that this part of the country just doesn't see these intense storms quite so often.  I believe the first one I experienced in New England was over a year after I had moved here.  It was such a rarity, that several of my coworkers and I gathered under the awning of our front entry to watch it.  So, they definitely happen here, but it's not usually a weekly occurrence.  

Flash forward to this summer.  I think I've seen more thunder\lightening storms here this season than in my last nine years (can you believe I've been here 9 year?!?) put together.  A lot of them have been very intense.  They've been exhilarating to experience and I've really enjoyed getting to watch them.  Today I sat in my sun room reading a book and listening to this afternoon's storm.  It was great to relax to the music of the rain.  

Unfortunately, the storms have also done a lot of harm in the area.  Over a dozen people have been struck by lightning and damage was incurred as well as one life lost in a tornado in NH.  Mother nature can be truly powerful.  

Castle in the Clouds-Brook Trail

As promised, here's the posting about our hike post Castle in the Clouds house tour.

We set out trying to find a trail that took us to a nice overlook of the house, but couldn't find the marking of the start to it.  So, we took a mystery trail, then went off on another well traveled but unmarked trail and ended up at this glorious waterfall.

Song of Falls

This waterfall was part of a trail of a whole bunch of waterfalls called Brook Trail.  Apparently, this portion of the conservation land around the home was a part of a 19th century spa retreat called Ossipee something or another.  So, we had happened upon a really cool trail and got to see lots of waterfalls.  

I ventured off the trail at the top of the Song of Falls and tried to get a cool photo of the falls from above that didn't turn out too cool.  But, here's a picture of Mike keeping an eye on me to make sure I didn't end up going down the falls.

Hi Mike!

Here are the other falls we saw.  

Bridal Veil Falls

Twin Falls (which was actually about 7 little falls, go figure)

End of the trail falls

(OK, not the real name, but my memory fails me often.)

As we walked out of the woods to head back to our car, my hubby stopped to pick wildflowers for me.  Wasn't that sweet? 

And what a beautiful bouquet!

The day was just perfectly lovely and relaxing.  Yay!

Castle in the Clouds

On July 12th, we embarked on another great day trip from our place in NH. This was a place Mike went as a child and thought I would enjoy. He wanted another look as an adult because he remembers being a bit disappointed as a kid. I mean, he heard "Castle in the Clouds" and was expecting, well, a castle, complete with a moat, in the clouds. Who can blame him....seems like a accurate vision of the title.

So, after having some breakfast, we set out on the 45 minute drive to Moultonborough (in the lakes region of NH), grabbing some sandwiches for lunch along the way. Other than a little bit of heavy traffic for the folks heading to the lake, we got there pretty easily but then had to wait in line to get onto the grounds. We just so happened to choose the day of the annual classic cars show. Wahoo! Even more bang for our buck.

Once we got in, we spent some time looking at all the cars. It was truly a broad range of vehicles. Everything from Model T's to 60s and 70s muscle cars. One of my favorites was the Austin Healey.





After we checked out the cars, we headed up to the house. It was a short but steep walk up the stairs. And this is what we saw when we got to the top:

This is actually the back of the house, but it's the best part. Check out that view!

The lakes and mountains, people, not me! ;)

Inside, it was a self tour. So, we wandered around, read the cards in the room and took some pictures. Here are a few of them.

The office. The picture posted above the desk is of the owner's shoe factory

in JP (my old hood) where he made the big bucks to build this house.

Cool stove, huh? And, I don't know if you can see it well in the picture, but the floor is made up of rubber, interlocking tiles. Very cool....I've never seen anything like it before.

Gryphon in the library. The owner had a secret room

off the library where he would escape to and read.

The gutters and downspouts on this house were even cool.

One of the dormers.

And let's just check out that view again. Truly spectacular!

For the full history of the house, click here. Basically, this guy, Thomas Gustave Plant, retired a millionaire from the shoe making business in 1910. He and his wife then started building the house, then known as "Lucknow" in 1913. Apparently, he was a bit of a player and the marriage didn't stay happy for long. Also, Thomas apparently got a little bored in retirement and tried to continue investments. He bought Russian bonds just before the Bolshevik revolution and US stocks right before the great depression. His unfortunate luck made him a poor man in his later years. Lucknow was put up for sale, but given the economy of the 30s, never sold. He died while still in Lucknow, but, according to our briefing before the self tour, the house was in some state of foreclosure.

Kind of sad. BUT, the house was well kept by families after that and many of the original furnishings remained. The Lakes Region Conservation Trust, the current owners, have been refurbishing the home and furnishings back to their original state. Their goal is to have the project completed by the home's 100th anniversary (which I think is next year some time).

After touring the house, we picnicked by the pond down by the fields where the car show was (wrapping up at that point) and then took a little hike on the conversation land. That will be my next post!

Macs and Martini's don't Mix

Friday, Mike and I had the rare pleasure of spending a weekend evening at home with no plans! Wahoo! I thought I'd finally check out our pictures of our NH fun the previous weekend and post a few of them. I went through, selected my pics and relenquished the laptop to Mike so he could check a few things out before I posted. While doing so, the martini he was enjoying tipped onto the back of the laptop! Oh no!

Of course we quickly cleaned up what we could and try to dry it out with the hair dryer. It wouldn't turn back on. Things were looking bad. Mike spent some time taking it apart on Saturday, doing research on some possible fixes and looking into somewhere he could get it restored. Lo and behold, on Sunday, the darned thing turned back on and worked again. Wahoo! So, disaster was narrowly averted and the only "damage" done, that we know of, is the pictures I had chosen to post on the blog were gone from the desktop. No biggie, my loyal fans will just have to wait a little longer to hear about our last NH trip.

The rest of the weekend was very productive house-wise. We ran some errands morning, unpacked the rest of our bathroom things, unpacked more of our decorative pieces, prepped our wicker furniture for painting, cleaned up plants so they can hopefully recouperate from the construction dust and our tile guy came and got done about 2/3 of our backsplash.

We even made some time for fun. We checked out the 2nd of our 2 new local ice cream stands, watched a movie at home and met some friends of ours out last night for dinner and The Dark Knight at Imax. It was a very full weekend!

Life is Easy???

The weirdest thing happened last night. Something rare and unexpected. A life issue was solved easily, quickly, smoothly and worked out for several people. I mean really, how often does that happen?!?! Usually, every little detail is a pain the in booty.

So, last night, Jenn, Kari and I had plans to go to the Lantern Festival at the Forest Hills Cemetary in JP. If Forest Hills sounds familiar to you, it should. That's the street I lived on in JP. The cemetery is about 5 blocks from my old condo. Annually, this festival is held as a memorial ceremony. There are some performances, then, at dark, all the people in attendance float lanterns on a small lake in the cemetary. Based on the traditional Japanese Bon Festival, this ritual is a time when a door opens to the world of the ancestors and allows us to send messages to the other side. Anyway, it's supposed to be really beautiful and I've missed it every year. This year, we were all going to attend for the first time.

Unfortunately, the festival wasn't what any of us were expecting and we were a little disappointed. So, we didn't stay until the lanterns were set afloat, but it would have looked something like this.

While walking back to the car, we were talking about baby things Kari needs (she's due at the end of September) and she mentioned a crib. My sister in law had been trying to give Mike and I her old crib for a while and, well, I just couldn't mentally accept it. Kind of freaked me out. So, I presumed she still had it. It just so happened that Mike was in Providence having dinner with her. I called him as we were still walking to the car, he put it in his car, drove back to MA, and dropped it right at Kari and Jimmy's door just 1/2 mile from our place. AND a bonus to all of that - Kari loves the style! She said it's what she would have picked out if she would have had to purchase something new.

Isn't that great?!?! How often do things fall into place that easily? If you're me, hardly ever! So, you've got to embrace and be thankful for the times they do.

Good Things Come in Three

1. What are the last 3 things you purchased?

A couple of dresses for upcoming showers and weddings

A print out of my landscape architect's plans for our yard

Tile for the backsplash

2. What are the last 3 songs you downloaded

All good work out songs:

Flaunt It - DJ Francofabi

Stronger - Kayne West

Keep Your Hands off my Girl - Good Charlotte

3. Where were the last 3 places you visited?

White Mountains of NH

Dallas to visit the Fam

Costa Rica

4. What are your 3 favorite movies?

Elf

Ever After

50 First Dates

5. What are your 3 favorite possessions?

Can animals count as possesions? I dig all of my critters!

My home in MA

My vacation home in NH

6. What 3 things can you not live without?

Good Books

Ipod

TV

7. What would be your 3 wishes?

For all my family and friends to be always healthy

To be comfortable financially for life

To find a way to be internally happy at all times (how do people do that??)

8. What are 3 things you have not done yet?

Given Birth

Found "the meaning of life" (deep today, aren't I?)

Get a black belt in Tae Kwon Do

9. What are your 3 favorite dishes?

Pizza

Sushi

Gazpacho (not an all time favorite, but I've

been loving it a lot on these hot days)

10. What 3 celebrities would you want to hang out with the most?

Will Farrell

Drew Barrymore

I can't think of any others I would enjoy hanging with...

there might be a few others I'd like to smack some

sense into, though! That list is FAR too long!

11. Name 3 things that freak you out?

Mortality

Mice (in my house, not the cute ones at the pet store)

Stitches in someone's skin

12. If you could describe yourself in 3 words, what would they be?

Creative

Stubborn

Hard Working

13. Name 3 unusual things you are good at.

Self Portraits with a camera

Kicking people in the bum while standing next to them

Decorating packages to mail

14. What are 3 things you are currently coveting?

Mazda CX-9 (we SO want a new car!)

A kayak

Garage for our NH condo

(Somewhat all tied, aren't they? I can't get a kayak until I have a place to

store it and a vehicle that will transport it easily. )

15. What 3 bloggers would you like tag?

Any of my 3 loyal readers!

Don't Mess With Texas

For some reason, I woke up this morning with the song "Don't Mess With Texas" in my head (how that happened, I certainly have no idea since I'm sure it wasn't playing on my Boston radio alarm clock). But, yes, that's right, I said song.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds were singing in my head (to the tune of Tough Enough) "Don't you trash that Texas highway don't you throw it in the road....Don't you Mess with Texas (guitar twang twang twang), Don't you Mess with Texas!" Yes, that's right TRASH! Don't Mess With Texas was a litter campaign in the 80's. That's it's start. It got me to thinking about how this mid 80's litter campaign somehow became a slogan of Texas cultural elitism. Now, it's on every souvenir you can possibly get at the airport.

Before leaving Texas for New England, I never put much thought into the slogan except for hearing that song in my head everytime someone mentioned it. Now, I find it really laughable how it's portrayed in the US outside of Texas. The rest of the world associates the words with Texans being tough and, yes, even a little arrogant. All fine and dandy since, let's face it, both are a little true (I'm proud to be Texan!). But it's just comical that it's original intent was trash...quite the opposite of something elite.

I realize that the slogan has now very much evolved and Texans now do adopt the meaning that the rest of the world associates with it, but I'll always think trash when I hear it.

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!!!

Wildlife at Home

Even though we live just outside the hustle and bustle of central Boston, we seem to get some unexpected wildlife in our neighborhood.  Cute bunnies have often visited\lived in our yard and we even saw a coyote run down the middle of our road one time.

This morning, Mike spotted a rabbit in the yard and was able to quickly grab his camera and snap some shots of the little guy.

Bunny-bun eating some weeds for breakfast 

(Eat away little guy - our dandelion patch is all yours!)

Super cute eating stance on our ledge

Oh, he's spotted Mike!

Independence Day Celebration Continues

We continued the fun in NH on the 5th with a visit from Tamara and Ross. They've won the award as our most frequent NH visitors! Congrats y'all! On this trip, we all decided to go for a hike. After much discussion, map looking and changed decisions, we ended up starting on a trail that Mike and I had gone on last November (some pictures of that trip: http://gallery.mac.com/mhines57#100031&bgcolor=black&view=grid). It starts at the Basin in Franconia Notch, which is really cool, very beautiful and I have no pictures of it from this trip there. Up from that, there are lots of cool sights of ledges in the stream and a couple of waterfalls.

The boys seemed to really enjoy climbing out to the rocks and it seemed everytime Tamara and I turned around, they were back out there. Here's a picture of them (enthusiastically) waving to us from their rock perch.

The trail was a pretty popular one that day. I don't think I've ever been on another hike where I ran into so many people. One of the benefits of the crowds is that we had an offer to get a group shot. Normally, the only group shots I get are self portraits, so it was a nice change from the norm. Here we are enjoying lunch.
As I said, there are several falls on this trail. In fact, I think the name of the trail is Kinsman Falls trail. Unfortunately, there was quite the swimming crowd at Kinsman Falls, so I couldn't get a great nature picture of it without lots of half naked strangers. So, here's a picture of Rocky Glen Falls which is a little further up the hike.
At the top of Kinsman Falls, we swung right onto another trail to hop over and see Lonesome Lake. From the maps, it looks like it's about 1000 feet up from the bottom of the notch (where we started). There's a huge AMC hut there - it looked to be about as luxurious as camping gets. We stopped to check out the hut and enjoy the view. And wow! What a view! With Lafayette (a future hike this summer, I hope) in the background, it was breathtaking!
And speaking of views, check out the guns on Tamara!
After circling the lake, we headed down the Lonesome Lake Trail, which dumped us out at the Lafayette Camping Area and then we traversed another 2 miles on the paved bike\hike trail back to the Basin and our car. 6 miles of hiking deserves ice cream. So, we headed into the nearby town of Lincoln for some "Udderly Delicious" treats. Yum! It was a fun day. Thanks for coming up Tamara and Ross!

July 4th - Yakin' the Pemi (Whities on the River)

The 4th of July brought gorgeous weather to the white mountains of NH. We decided to take advantage of it by taking a little kayaking trip down the Pemigewasset river. The Pemi actually flows just across the road from our condo complex. In fact, our "sister" complex on that side has river access which I've been told we should feel free to use, though we've never done so. After a leisurely morning, we set out to our local ski shop for kayak rentals and a shuttle to the river. While waiting for the shuttle, we ordered a few subs to enjoy, picnic style on the side of the river, from the new pizza\sandwich shop there.

After slathering sunscreen on our pasty selves, I tied my floating cooler (thanks Coke points) to my kayak and we launched onto the river from the "Robin's Nest" stop around 1pm for our 3 mile float.

All went very well as we got adjusted until we hit a low point in the water. Mike got through it easily, but I had to get out my kayak to walk over the rocks. No big deal..I had my water shoes on and was ready for this type of situation. My concerned husband looked back to check up on me though and ended up flipping over! After getting our sandwiches drenched, being frustrated from not being able to get the water out of the kayak himself and having to have his wife come and help "save" him, Mike was not so much into the kayaking trip. However, after a picnic break and having a soggy breaded sandwich, he was in better spirits and was able to enjoy the rest of the trip.

Two very positive things to note for the day:
1) The inaugural run of my floating cooler went smashingly and I was the hit of the river because of it! I'm glad I was a big nerd and collected my coke points for it!
2) Miraculously, we both survived the day with extremely minimal sunburn!

Yak self portrait

Kara with floating cooler in tow

After our day on the river, we went back to the condo to clean up and have a cook out. Our little Coleman grill there has been very good to us and we had a great meal of grilled meat and veggies.

Although our NH neighbors usually put on great fireworks shows weekly, we wanted to check out Waterville Valley's show (one of the ski resorts close to our place). We drove down, sat on a blanket on the hood of the car and enjoyed the show. It definitely wasn't as high budget as Boston, but it still a fantastic fireworks show. My camera doesn't exactly take great photos of fireworks, but here's one picture that turned out okay.
A great 4th complete with enjoying the outdoors, having a cookout and seeing some fireworks. Happy Birthday, America!

Lupine Festival - Sugar Hill NH

After our Welch Dickey hike, my wonderful husband surprised me with a trip to the Lupine festival in Sugar Hill, NH (just on the other side of Franconia notch from our condo..about a 30 minute drive). Lupines are flowers that remind me a lot of my beloved Texas bluebonnets! They grow wild in northern New England, up through Canada.

We went to an open air market where we bought a few craft items and also got to meet Oscar the cow. He was just a month and a half old and very cute and friendly!

Mike and Oscar the Cow

After enjoying the market, we went back to the fields we passed on the way into town and stopped to take some pictures of the lupine. We saw mostly blue\purple ones, but also some in pink and white. Stopping to take some pictures was very reminiscent of all the Easter time pictures folks take in Texas of kids in the fields of bluebonnets.

When driving back to the highway, through the town of Franconia, we came across this large, interesting structure, so we stopped to check it out. It's was the Stone Iron Furnace which is NH's sole surviving example of a post-Revolutionary furnace for smelting iron ore. I don't feel that the picture gives a good idea of it's scale, but it was ginormous! Another great weekend in NH! We always have such a great time there and there's just so much to see! Pictures of our 4th weekend are yet to come and we have another adventure planned for Saturday! So, stay tuned!

Welch-Dickey Hike NH

On June 14th, Mike and I took our first "big" hike of the season. One of NH's "most bang for your buck" hikes is literally just down the road from us (the peaks are just in front of you before you turn down our road) - the Welch Dicky loop. It's a 4 mile loop that includes 2 peaks, is "only" about an 1800 foot ascent and give you 360 views of the white mountain range. This was our first big hike last year, so we've decided to make it our first hike every summer.

Self portrait on one of the peaks (can never remember which is Welch and which is Dickey)

Mike ascending one of the many long, step stretches of granite ledge
Mike pondering life and the white mountains
Mike catching butterflies

It's Tough to be a Trend Setter Sometimes

A little over a year ago, I searched high and low for beds with drawer storage to maximize space without the use of inconvenient and tacky plastic underbed boxes. My searching gave me only a few options of designer beds....with the price tag to go along with it. I waited awhile and did luck out with a 50% off price of one of them because of a discontinued stain. The price dropped down to a level just above what I was comfortable spending, but we went ahead and bought it because we felt as if we had exhausted our options.

At that time, I told Mike "mark my words, as soon as we buy this, we're going to start seeing these beds everywhere." Sure enough, one year later, I've seen beds with drawers underneath at West Elm, Ikea and now Target! I'm glad the market is responding to my demands, although a little late. However, we're extremely happy with our bed so all's good.

Wildlife at Work

Just ran out to the parking lot of my office quickly and saw a momma and baby groundhog scurry off into the bushes! That's more interesting wildlife than I saw all weekend hiking!

Between those and the wild turkey that lives here and torments all who pass (whether on car or foot), I feel like we should start a new business as a zoo!

Logging your food intake

One of the headlines today is about how logging your food helps folks to lose weight faster. From my experience, it's true! It's one of my "secrets" to weight loss. Although a pain in the rear at times, it keeps me on track with my intake vs burned calories and keeps me honest (with myself) with how much I've eaten in a day.

I use http://www.fitday.com/, a free site. You can log food intake, weight, weight goals and activities on it. If you're like me and cook a lot of the same foods over and over again, it's definitely worth a try. After you get your "Custom Foods" repertoire filled up a bit and learn how to search their engine efficiently, it becomes quite easy to use. I've been logging now for over 2 years. I do give myself a break on the weekends when my schedule's a bit more erratic. Weekends are also the times I let myself "cheat" on my rules. Because of both of these factors, my weight is definitely up on Mondays!

Supposedly, losing\gaining\maintaining weight is simply a measure of calories in versus calories out. Given my activity level, I supposedly should be able to eat more than I do and not gain weight. Not true, though. Other than my assumed "I'm a freak of nature," does anyone with nutrition and\or medical knowledge know why this might not be the case? I've had my base metabolism measured and it seems pretty on par with the assumed amounts for my age\height\weight. 10 point bonus to anyone that might be able to solve the mystery!

House Progress Pictures

Since all of our workers will also be bbq-ing up a storm tomorrow, it's the end of another week of progress on the house. We're heading up to NH this afternoon so I'll likely have lots of fun pictures to add of the mountains on Monday. Happy 4th everyone!

Until then, here are a few pictures of what happened at chez Hines this week:

New porch and mudroom - freshly sided

Another view - the porch is likely going to change again

once we get some landscaping in the back yard (next summer?)

A sneak peak at the master bedroom. We still need to add lots of decor!

Yogaaaaah!

I'm a new yoga convert. Until last year, the thought of remaining in one position as exercise was my idea of boring. I have tried classes here and there since college, but just haven't been able to get into it. Maybe you have to be really stressed out before you can truly enjoy the pause in life you get in a yoga class.

Mike and I started taking yoga last year from our community center and I really enjoy the teacher. She is a yogi so she's a little "out there" but she's still grounded enough in the real world to give a great yoga classes to the minimally "spritual" (for lack of a better word) people such as myself.

A new session started last night. I had taken some time off because the renovation just didn't allow for a normal schedule since so many last minute shopping trips had to be taken. Wow, was it nice to get back! I feel so relaxed today....like I had a massage last night.

So, for those of you that haven't tried yoga, I suggest you be open to it. I had serious doubts too but am now a believer. And, for those of you that are not very active, yoga is a great way to enter the world of exercise...it really is for people of all ages, shapes and sizes!

Ode to a Great Dog

I'm writing this through tears. I just found out my brother's wonderful dog, Sadie, didn't make it through her surgery today. It is absolutely heart wrenching to me when the life of an animal is lost...especially one that has been so great and loyal to her people and brought joy to all that met her. She was a great pet and family member and will be sorely missed.

RIP Sadie - we love you!