2 Days of Destruction

Monday morning, the front of our house looked like this:


By Tuesday afternoon, it looked like this:

Our crumbling stairway and hideous retaining wall are gone! We're really looking forward to seeing how beautiful the finished project will be but we'll likely have to wait about a month. Apparently, doing masonry work in winter takes a little longer. That's fine with me because I have a lot of faith in this company (hopefully I still do in a couple of weeks) and know that the new wall is going to be absolutely gorgeous!

I'm definitely a glutton for punishment. With the final bill to our contractor on the interior renovation not quite settled, we've started on the wall\stair project and are in the very beginning phases of expanded the half bath on the first floor to a full bath (ie thinking about and planning). Since our current upstairs guest bedroom is soon to become a baby's room, we figured our downstairs sleeping guests, ie grandparents, would appreciate being able to be self contained. However, we won't be starting that until we've got our pretty new front stairs and retaining wall done. I may have an addiction to home improvement, but I'm wise enough to take on one project at a time...I think.

I'm Dreaming of a Not-White Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we left the white winter land of Boston and flew down to the tropics of Dallas.  Ok, tropics might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but weather.com failed us and didn't warn us as to quite how warm it was going to be.  We brought clothes appropriate for mid 50s and it was in the mid 70s for a couple of the days we were there.  So, no white Christmas in Dallas this year!

This is the first time in 3 years we've a) made it to Dallas for Christmas Day and b) actually had the whole family there for a Christmas celebration.  The last couple of years have been crazy because of health, pregnancies and weddings so we haven't all converged in quite some time.  It was really great to have the gang all there. 

The gods of travel were on our side for this trip (for once) and we got there and back, as well as our luggage, with no problems what so ever. What a nice change of pace!  We got in Wednesday evening, my parents picked us up, took us home and Mike and I immediately went upstairs, unpacked our suitcases and wrapped all of our presents in record time.  When we got back downstairs, my brother Jamie and his wife, Sarah, had returned from driving around looking at Christmas lights.  We spent some time chatting with them then hit the hay.

Christmas morning, we all got up, ready, had breakfast, then waited for my other brother, Jody and his family to arrive, as well as my Aunt Pam and Uncle Kerryn.  I think everyone was there by noon and we sat down for a Christmas feast then gathered in the living room for present opening.  There were SO many gifts and it took some time to get through them all.

Me and Princess Leah Mini-Me (Presley)

The Whole Gang

That evening, we were so stuffed from eating treats all day, that we didn't really have dinner. Instead, we played games as a family.  The kids had just gotten Cranium Family and we had a really fun time breaking it in for them.

The next morning, Mike whipped up a huge breakfast for everyone - the works with eggs, pancakes (chocolate chip and regular), toast, sausage and bacon.  Yum!  Mike even made the kids and I special Mickey Mouse pancakes.

Chef Mike and his assistant, my dad

Me and my homey, Ryker

After breakfast, Mike, my dad, Presley, Ginger the dog and I all went for a walk to try and shed some of the Christmas treats and heavy breakfast.  It was so warm!  The dog got overheated and so did Dad and Presley...they were dressed for a little cooler weather.  

For lunch, Mom made her traditional Santa Pizza.  Jamie and Sarah took off after lunch to go have Christmas with her parents.  The rest of us hung out and rested for the remainder of the afternoon.  After a dinner of leftovers, we all watched Wall-E and then called it a night.

On Saturday morning, Mike and I went for a walk after a breakfast of Taco Cabana breakfast tacos.  For lunch, my Dad grilled us some burgers.  For desert, the kids, Mike and I ate, er made, ginger bread houses. The candy pickins' left over from my Mom's Christmas party a few weeks earlier were slim, but we used our creativity and made some pretty cool and unique houses.  Pretty soon after the houses were completed, Jody's family packed up and headed home.  So, Mike and I were the only ones left at my parents house.

Presley and Reece with our completed gingerbread houses

The four of us went out for an awesome Mexican dinner (a must do when we're in Texas) the drove around to look at Christmas lights.  Sunday morning, we went to church and then scurried off to the airport for our flight home.  

Even though the visits with the family always seem too short (and too full of food), we had a great time being with everyone for the holidays!

Mike the Shoveler

(I didn't take this picture, but this is definitely what the trees looked like in our neighborhood this weekend.)

Well, we did end up getting a good amount of snow last weekend. It basically didn't stop snowing from Friday afternoon until sometime Sunday night. Most of the accumulation was Friday night (10.5 inches) but we got at least another 5, I would guess, over the next 2 days. I helped, but Mike definitely did most of the shoveling. Needless to say, he got several good work outs over the weekend.

Saturday, after cleaning up the driveway, we ventured out to purchase the complete set of our pots and pans (that we registered for but did not receive). It was our Christmas present, or rather end of year bonus, to ourselves. Last week, the melty pan handle of our most used pan finally snapped off, so it was time.

Saturday night was my company Christmas party at Fenway Park. Even though it sounded like a cool place for an event, it was really nothing more than being at a function hall at Fenway - no lights on in the park, no tour, just the location. We got to spread the baby news to more coworkers and had a good time.

Sunday the weather was stinky again so we had to cancel our Christmas celebration with Mike's family. That's now rescheduled for New Years Day. After practically being cooped up in the house all day Saturday (can you tell I'm not much of a homebody), I decided we should venture out quickly to the mall a couple of blocks away and get the rugs I'd finally found for our bedroom. I could not believe how bad the roads were! It was a good call not to truck it to the in-laws. However, the roads didn't keep people from shopping....I was a little shocked at how many people were there. We even ran into my obstetrician. Weird. Then we went to the grocery store to stock up for the week and had a nice day\evening at home.

Monday night, Mike and I had our Christmas together and exchanged gifts. It was a nice night together. Last night we packed up and in just a little while, we'll be jumping a plane to Dallas for Christmas with my family (first time there for the day in a few years). So, I'm excited and ready to see my family!

Have a really great Christmas\Hanukkah\Kwanzaa\Festivus (or whatever you may or may not celebrate) everyone!

It Means What You Think It Means!

WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!

Yes, we have now officially joined the baby crazy that seems to have taken over our generation. They say you're never truly ready for it, and we definitely feel like we fall smack down into that category.  However, now that we've had some time to digest the news and are now comfortable sharing it with the world, the excitement level is somewhat overtaking the fear.

We found out that we were pregnant November 3rd, the day my parents and Aussie friend Anthony left Boston and the day before Barack Obama was elected president.  Needless to say, that was a bit of a roller coaster week for us.  Since then, we chose to share the news with parents and siblings.  While it was nice to have some people to discuss the big event with freely, I must admit, it might not have been worth the torture of making them also keep the news to themselves.  (I'm sure both mothers were on the phone all day yesterday after we called them post Dr's appointment.)

So, yesterday we had our first ultrasound.  Everything looks great (according to the people who know how to read those things....I thought everything looked more alien-esque)!  After getting done with the folks in the maternal fetal medicine department, we headed up to my obstetricians and got to hear the heartbeat over Doppler.  Though seeing the ultrasound was cool, I must admit it didn't make the pregnancy "more real" to me like folks said it would...it still felt like I was just watching something on tv.  Once we heard the heartbeat, though, I think it started to sink in that this real, living being was being formed inside of me.  Wow!  That's crazy!

Speaking of crazy, in the picture posted above, I can, without too much imagination, see a baby. However, in this picture they also took, I think it looks more like a chicken nugget:

It's funny.  My parents have been far more concerned with my safety now that I'm carrying their grandchild (what was I, chopped liver before?) and everyone always seems to ask me how I'm feeling before anything else.  Listen people, I've been knowingly pregnant for about 7 weeks and have been successfully been able to "hide" it from just about everyone.  Obviously, I've been functioning fairly well.

But seriously, I've definitely had pregnancy symptoms (kind of inescapable in my present state) but they've honestly been very manageable.  I've been extremely tired, which has definitely been a challenge for my personality.  My daily to do lists have ceased since I'm never able to cross anything off, my workouts have gone to a level of what I consider "wimpy" and I need more sleep than I thought I would ever need.  "Morning sickness" hasn't been in the morning nor has it made me very sick.  I would often get this feeling of "am I overly hungry or do I feel sick" that eating something made go away (hence the weight gain above what all the books say I should have gained at this point).  That feeling has been rare over the last week or so, though, so hopefully at the tail end of that (even though it's not the nightmare that some people experience, it still gets old).  Also, my clothes are all now tight and uncomfortable, but really nothing worse than those things.

The due date is July 8, 2009 (7-8-9!).  So, look for updates on my growing belly until then.  Oh, but don't worry, I'm still me.  If I don't have anything else going on but baby stuff between now and then to write about, kill me now!

SNOWSTORM!!!

While Boston missed the crazy ice storm that caused major chaos just north of here, we're definitely not going to miss the storm heading this way. The forecast is 10-12 inches of snow tonight. It's JUST started coming down here.

Since Mike's able to work from home, I got to take the new car today. I'm going to get to seriously test out it's all wheel drive capabilities. Woohoo! I'm sure it will be much easier to drive in the snow than my little rear wheel drive sports car.

Mike tried to get the snow blower ready last night, but couldn't get it to start. He dropped it off for repairs this morning but we're not getting it back until Jan. 5th! Yikes! So, he and I will be taking several shifts shoveling away tonight, getting plenty of great winter exercise. When we're not shoveling, we will be sipping hot chocolate in front of a toasty fire. Yay for winter!

Our New Car!

Yesterday, we finally drove home in our (well, primarily Mike's) new car! It's a beautiful, black Mazda CX-9.

We have shopped for a while for a new car. We knew we wanted something bigger. We've been toting so much gear, and occasionally cats, to NH that our tiny little cars have just not been cutting it. Since a family is likely in our future and this car will be around for the next 5-7 years, we also wanted a car that could fit at least 4 adults and one kiddo (for when grandparents come to town). The CX-9 has the optional 3rd row seating that allows for that. It also rides really nicely, has all wheel drive for our long winter here and was, aesthetically, my favorite in this category of available cars.

Of course, nothing seems to be without drama and difficulty in life. First issue was financing. We really shouldn't have had any problems but we preferred to go through our credit union because they had the best rate. However, even though we have a joint account there, Mike's the lead name on it so he had to qualify for a loan. Apparently, working at a temporary job was held against him and we were denied. So, I got a loan through Mazda. The rate wasn't as great but still decent. The second issue was that we were unable to locate the title to Mike's car. Have NO idea where it could be....we scoured the entire house. To get a copy from the RMV, we just needed a letter from the lien holder stating we had paid off the loan. The problem there? We don't know who the lien holder was! The account Mike paid the car off through has been closed and we couldn't access the information on it. So, about 5 phones calls to too many automated numbers later, we found the source and are still working to get the dealership the title.

The good side to all of this is that we left the dealership feeling as if we got a great deal! That never seems to happen. The down economy, mixed with 2008 models they want to get off the lot and my mad bargaining skills (at least I like to think that went into play) got us a big chunk off invoice and a great price on the trade in. Yay me!

We're hoping to test out the all wheel drive and gear storage capabilities on our first ski trip this weekend!

Smoking Seattle

Sunday, November 23rd, one of Mike's best friends from college, Jody, lost her husband, John, to a 4 year battle with the evil disease, cancer.  The vigil and funeral to celebrate his life were to be held in Seattle Nov. 30th and Dec 1st.  It was important for us to be there to support Jody, so we quickly found surprising reasonable airfare and hotel rates to make the trip.  Mike wanted to be there for more time then I was able to take off work, so we traveled separately.  He left Friday morning and was able to spend some time with Jody shopping.  I left Friday evening after work and got there very late that night.  

While we were on call all weekend if and when Jody wanted to hang out, not surprisingly, she was grieving and not able to spend a lot of time with us.  So, we had a little time to fill on our own.  Mike and I both have friends that live in Seattle and have both been there several times, but have not been there as tourists.  So, we figured we'd spend some time doing touristy things.

First thing we decided to do was to take inspiration from the great view from our hotel room and visit the space needle.

View from hotel window

Even though we were chided by the locals for doing such a "generic," "overpriced," tourist activity, we still enjoyed it.  The space needle was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. Coming from Boston temperatures, we found it funny to see lots of folks on the street dressed in really heavy coats while we were quite comfortable in light jackets.

Self portrait from the top of the needle

Me with the tree needle with the space needle

After we left the needle, we wandered back to our hotel and saw this sight that I feel one would only see in the good ol' US of A:
If you look closely at this pictures, you'll see your typical black crow, by McDonald's with 2 (yes 2!!) fully shelled peanuts in his mouth.  His beak is stretched so wide it looks really painful for the little guy.  Unbelievable.

Saturday night, we met up with my good friend from college, Anna, and her boyfriend, Jon.  It was great to see her and spend a little time catching up.  I forgot to take my camera to dinner so I'll have to wait for Anna to send me the pictures she took of us. 

Sunday morning, still no word from Jody, so we walked down to Pioneer Square to do the Seattle Underground Tour.  Apparently the enjoyment of the tour is entirely dependent on your guide.  Luckily, we had an awesome guide who was funny and entertaining.  She led us through the underground of Seattle that used to be street level.  It was pretty fascinating to hear about the history that formed the city which you can read about extensively (about half way down the page) here.  Luckily, we got through the entire tour seeing no rats or ghosts!  Yay!

"Skylight" from underground Seattle

"Skylight" as seen from street level (you'll see these all over downtown Seattle)

As tourists, we couldn't help but notice one big difference in the Seattle population that, very luckily, we are no longer used to - lots and lots of smokers!  It seems the Seattle population is a little behind the trend of having healthy lungs. It's become quite obvious, with the US adopting non smoking laws for restaurants and bars, who's still been unable to kick the habit.  You'll find those folks puffing away in doorways and on sidewalks.  We were just amazed, though, at the large amounts of groups everywhere congregating with their packs of cigarettes.  That's why we referred to the city for the remainder of the trip as "Smoking Seattle."

Sunday evening was the vigil.  It was an incredibly moving night of friends and family telling stories about John and a great photo slide show set to his music.  Obviously, it was very emotional.  Afterwards, Jody and John's good friend opened up one of his bars for all the friends and family to gather and spend more time together.  All proceeds from the night went towards John's medical fund.  

Monday morning was the funeral.  After the services, there was a lovely luncheon at the church where we were able to get to know Jody's friends and family a little more.  After some rest at the hotel, we met up with my good college friend, Mike, who recently moved to Seattle.  We had a great dinner at the hotel restaurant.  Mike had just returned to Seattle from spending the Thanksgiving holiday in Dallas, so it was great to squeeze in a little catch up time with him as well.  Unfortunately, Mike's lovely wife Krista (who is pregnant and due in early July - congrats to them!) was working late and unable to join us.

Mike J, me and (my) Mike

Tuesday morning, Mike drove me to the airport and I traveled all day back to Boston.  Mike didn't fly back until Wednesday.  Luckily, he was able to spend some time with Jody on Tuesday.

Though it was a quick, tiring and very emotional trip, we were very glad we made it.  Getting to see some of the sights and spend some quality time with such great friends was just a huge added bonus.

Speaking of Snow....

Boston's getting its first snowfall of the season today!  We spent last night decorating the tree and the house for Christmas...now it's looking like it outside too!  Yay!  

Guess I should have gotten my snow tires put on my car last week.  Oops!

My Weekend as a Trainer (aka Jillian Jr.)

My good friend Amy lives in Austin.  She's working to get healthier and lose some weight.  Since this is a topic close to my heart, it's been very important to me to support her in this endeavor.  I've been passing on the knowledge of my experiences with her via email and phone, but it was really important for me to support her face to face.  So, I planned a weekend in Boston and New Hampshire for the two of us to eat well, work out lots and, of course, have some time for two great, old friends to enjoy hanging out together.  Amy's got a great detailed account (in three parts) posted on her blog if you want to check it out (see Dec 1st, 3rd and 5th postings).  Here's my version.

Amy's flight arrived late Thursday night, Nov 20th.  We chatted a while and then hit the hay.  Having a good night's sleep would be crucial to the schedule we were going to have.  Friday, we got up, had a healthy breakfast, packed up and headed to the gym for a Body Pump class.  This is a weight lifting class that Amy's gym also has and that she's tried and hated.  So, of course, I made her go to one with me.  I believe weight lifting is crucial to weight loss, one should not do it by cardio alone, so I wanted to see why she might hate the class so much.  I noticed her form was not quite right in several of the exercises, so I took note for later.  Even though she wouldn't go as far as saying she "enjoyed" the class, she did say my teacher and equipment made the class less horrible.  After class, we hopped in the car and headed up to the NH condo, eating a healthy, packed lunch along the way.  

When we got to NH, we unpacked the car, turned the heat on in the condo, dressed in layers then headed out to the "back yard" to do a test hike to the waterfall.  It was cold out and ice had formed on parts of the trail, so it was somewhat slow going, but Amy made it, got to enjoy the waterfall and then we headed back to the warm condo for showers.  Later, we went to one of the local pubs for a great dinner then it was back to the condo for tv, talk, relaxing and an early night to bed.

Frozen ground in back yard

Partially frozen back yard waterfall

On Saturday morning, I had planned for us to go over to Crawford Notch (about a 45 minute drive) to do some hiking.  While making breakfast and getting ready to go, extremely light snow flurries started falling at the condo.  It might have shut down Dallas, but NH folks wouldn't blink an eye at that stuff.  So, we continued as planned.  About 20 minutes later on the highway, though, the flurries turned into all out heavy snow.  When driving through Franconia Notch, one would normally be awed at the incredible mountains on one side and the huge stone face (sight of former "Old Man in the Mountain") on the other.  Amy was not awestruck because you couldn't even see it in the storm - the only thing to see was white snow.  Since the forecast hadn't shown a heavy snowfall, I presumed it would cease shortly and pressed on.  40 minutes later, we got to Crawford Notch and the snow hadn't let up at all and, more importantly, neither had the wind.  I wanted hiking for Amy to be enjoyable and the current weather conditions were not going to make anything fun except for a fireplace and hot chocolate.  So, I revised the plan (still determined to make the girl hike) and decided to head back to Franconia Notch where the snow didn't seem quite as heavy nor was it quite as windy.

It was a good call.  We went back, started out at The Basin and hiked up to the first great waterfall in a long trail of them.  It was slow going because Amy was not at all comfortable with her footing in the snow and ice but she made it and truly enjoyed being out in the snow (a HUGE novelty for a Texan).

Snow and icicles at the top of the Basin

A wintry Basin

Frozen Kinsman Falls

Cute Snow Hikers!

After the hike, we went back to the condo to change and pack up.  Then, it was back to MA for a relaxing evening at the house with a fire, a movie and some homemade, healthy pizza.  Sunday, we headed to they gym again.  Amy's favorite exercise is spin class, so we did one of those together, then we headed to the weights section of the gym where I showed her a low equipment workout she can do just about anywhere and helped her to correct her form on some of the exercises.  Then, after a healthy lunch, we rewarded ourselves for a hard working weekend with pedicures (walked to the nail salon, of course) then, sadly, it was time for Amy to head home.

It was such an awesome weekend with her and I'm so proud of her hard work and dedication.  I know she'll be successful with or without my help, but I've been through the struggle and know it's much more bearable to go through with good friends backing you.  So, Amy, hat's off to you for keeping up with me all weekend! Keep working at it.  You rock!

New Stuff

First is a new project on the house.  This shade has been up in our dining room for over a year and I always felt that it just didn't look finished.  So, I've been working on a solution and finally found a great sale on upholstery fabric at JoAnn's over Columbus Day weekend. 
After a couple of months of other post renovation projects, I finally got around to making the simple valance.  Just some mdf, batting, fabric and some brackets, it took just a couple of hours to get completely assembled and installed.
The picture doesn't show the detail well, but the fabric has a diamond pattern that works very nicely with the geometric theme I've got going on in the rest of the dining room where I've got colored, square wall art up.

The 2nd new item to share is a mirror I fell in love about 2 years ago.  I wanted it as a piece for over the mantel, but the scale was just too small.  I went as far as having the boutique owner contact the artist that made it to draw up plans for a larger scale mirror to be made especially for me, but the drawing I got back just didn't give the same feel at all.  That was over a year ago and I still haven't been able to forget about that mirror.  So, I decided to splurge on myself for my birthday and get it.  It looks fabulous in my entry way and I absolutely love it!

The reflection of light in this picture shows how cool the oxidation of the metal frame looks.

I've still got tons of projects planned throughout the house and am still looking for that perfect piece for the mantel, but it's great to have these 2 things bought\made and up to enjoy.