Thursday, July 27, 2017

Life update ♥

Hello Friends! 

I’ve been absent from my blog for over a week now and I wanted to explain what I’ve been up to.  Big changes around here!  I’ve been wanting to share this with you for a while now and I guess now is the time.  I’m moving!  Not from this blog (don’t worry : ) but I’m moving houses.  I’m staying in the same state, same town, just going a few minutes down the road.  We’ve made a family decision to convert my parent’s house (the house I grew up in) into a two family home and move in with them.  What this basically means is that I’m moving back home.  My parent’s house is quite big for just the two of them and they basically live on one level, which leaves TONS of room on the second floor.  Rob and John and I will make our home there.  We’ll have a living room, kitchen area with a pantry, two bedrooms and two full bathrooms.  There is also a finished basement for John to have his playroom.  I’ll be taking all my furniture with me and luckily will be able to not only fit everything but set up the rooms pretty much exactly how they are now.  I cannot tell you how excited we are.  It’s something we’ve talked about for years and now it’s finally happening. 



It's a strange thing to see a for sale sign in front of your house....:) 


It’s been a stressful month.  I’ve never sold a house before and I’ve only moved once.  From here to there.  And now I’m moving from here….back to there. Are you following me? Good.  Anyway, to make a long story short, our house was on the market for two weeks.  We had two open houses, and on Sunday two offers came in.  We accepted the second one.  So that’s that.  The closing is the beginning of September, so for the next month I’ll bouncing in between houses – cleaning, packing, organizing, moving, etc.   


I’m not going to say I’m not sad about leaving my house.  We’ve lived here for almost 19 years.  I’ve loved every day in that house and I have shed a few tears this week. But I know it’s time to move on and do what’s best.  Rob always says there is strength in numbers.  I feel that this is a perfect example of this and I’m looking forward to making a new nest in my new/old home.  We’ve plastered and painted and Rob put down shiny hardwood floors.  I’m excited to share pictures with you soon!


By the way, in case you were wondering  John is beyond excited for this move!  He’s there every day as it is and basically lives there now! The only difference is that now he can sleep over….every night! I’m looking forward to having coffee with my Dad in the morning and spending quiet afternoons with my mom while John is at school.  I will have more folks to cook for and try my recipes (which I can’t wait for!).  And the best part is we get to have two Christmas trees….one upstairs and one downstairs.   That’s how my mind works.


However, through all the chaos and confusion – dealing with realtors and painters (thank GOD Rob does most of that)…. summer rolls on.  I quietly celebrated my birthday this week (43!!!!)  and John and I celebrated Christmas in July. I will share some pictures on this blog soon!  I still have a whole list of things we have planned for August and I am trying not to let this move disrupt John’s summer too much.  He turns 10 on August 16th.  Double digits!!!!  He asked me if we could have his birthday party at the house, as it will be our last big party there.  I said of course.  I just booked the bouncy house today.  The party is on Saturday August 12th .  We have a lot of water balloons to fill.  We are also going to New Hampshire next weekend with Rob’s family.  Every summer we rent a big house and spend two nights in North Conway.  There is almost 20 of us going!! It’s a lot of fun!  I think a getaway will be good for us. 


I’ll continue to do my deep breathing exercises and try not to stress about things too much.  It’s hard for me because I am not a person who enjoys change.  And I hate having too many things going on at once.  I like it boring.  I’ll get there.  I keep thinking about Fall.  I can’t wait to put a pumpkin in front of my door, go apple picking, and take long walks around my parent’s neighborhood.  It’s much bigger than mine now and perfect for walking.  I can almost smell the wood burning stoves on the street.  When all the smoke clears, life will be good.  And I’ll be back to baking real soon.  Just in time for the beginning of school and sweater weather.  

I’ll keep you all posted! 
XO 



My new/old home.  Our door will be the one on the left ♥ 

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

York, Maine ...short and sweet ♥

Hello Friends!

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter you may have already seen some of these pictures but we had such a nice getaway I thought they deserved their own blog post ♥

This past weekend my nephew David got married.  We were invited up to York, Maine for the wedding.  I had never been to York and had heard it was lovely. 

 It was! It was quaint and beachy and I wish we could have stayed longer.  

My parents and my sister and her family all made the trip with us, so that made it even more fun.


This is the venue, but we'll get to that in a minute.... : )


Saturday morning we loaded up the car and off we went.  It's about a 2 hour drive from Boston to York. 





Somehow I ended up in the backseat which I was ok with as long as I had provisions.  I'll trade you my front seat for all the coffee stops I want need. 
Deal!





We ran into some traffic (naturally!) but we finally arrived!

Can you smell that ocean air?






Our hotel was called Stone's Throw.  And it was.  A stones throw from the ocean!

Literally.






The room was absolutely the smallest hotel room I have ever seen. 
But it was cozy and quaint and I kind of loved it. 





Here's the bed...






Turn around and there's the bathroom.  That's it people. 
Tour is over : )






John slept here...in the trundle bed.  It slid out from the side. 
Kind of cool, right?






Because of all the Boston traffic we had no time to waste. 

Jump into our fancy clothes and go.





Looking cute!





There was shuttle hired to pick us up and take us to the venue. 

Which was spectacular!






The most beautiful place, right on the water.





 What a view!






The ceremony took place outdoors on a deck overlooking the ocean.






My nephew David, the groom. 






Hugging his bother and best man, Chris.   






 Here comes the bride!

She looked gorgeous!






♥♥♥






Congratulations David  & Amy!






My Mom & Dad





On the left is my sister Laurie and on the right is her daughter Alycia. 
In the middle is Alycia's husband Mike.  They got married last August. 

(yes, I am the only one in my family with big hair, yes)










A selfie with sun in my eyes.... ♥






A little jazz music during cocktails. 





Dinner!






And dessert!






We had a small crisis during dinner because the caterer could not confirm that the cupcakes were nut free so John could not have one : ( 

He got very upset, but then my sister came to the rescue and found some ice cream! 
She had the waitress read the label and it was completely nut free! 

He devoured it in 5 seconds. And felt extra special because "hey, no one else got ice cream! how'd he get so lucky?!" Whew! Happy once again!





We spent a good amount of time taking in the view.  I could not get enough of it. 

There was dancing and celebrating but then it was time to get back to the hotel. 






First thing in the morning, I crossed the street and took a walk on the beach.  I drank my coffee and watched people walk hand & hand, and walk their dogs.  So laid back and relaxed.  I could get used to this.  It was really beautiful. 

I was curious about the temperature of the water. I saw people swimming but I heard it was really cold.  I dipped my toes in and OH MY... brrrr!  No one seemed to care though. 

Maybe after a while you just go numb ♥





But alas, it was time to go. 

We had breakfast with my parents at John's favorite restaurant (IHOP) where they put the pot of coffee on the table....♥

and then homeward bound. 

The trip was short and sweet, but long enough to make me fall in love with York and want to go back one day. 



Friday, July 14, 2017

Weekly wrap up ♥

 
 
Happy Friday!  I normally work on Fridays but today I have the day off! Yaaaay! My family is headed up to Maine for a wedding on Saturday so I'm taking advantage of today to get all my errands and packing done.  We are only going to be staying over one night but I still need shoes to go with my dress and I would like to go to the grocery store so I don't have to do it when we come home on Sunday.  My nephew (and God son) is getting married and since I clearly remember when he was born ( I was in 8th grade) I'm finding this so hard to believe that he's 28 and getting married.  I'm afraid to blink or John will be next! Oh no, I'm not ready yet.  Let's slow this train down. 
 
Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting dressed up and dancing the night away. I really love weddings ♥  and I really, really love wedding cakes.  I wonder what this one will be.  Stay tuned. 
I'll share pictures next week!
 
 
Until then, here are some random photos from my week. 
 
 



The beginning of the week we had beautiful weather, which I took full advantage of ♥
15 minutes of this puts me at such ease for the rest of the day.  I must do it more often. 
I'm trying to be better to myself these days.  More deep breaths and "in the moment" moments, if you know what I mean. 
 




We hit a huge milestone in my house this past week because......
John has started putting milk in his cereal!!! He's not a huge lover of milk so he never has it. He eats cereal dry.  I finally convinced him to just try his Frosted Flakes with a little bit of milk and he agreed. 
 And guess what? He likes it!! He's been having a bowl every morning for breakfast!  Hooray! 
 
 No, you'll never see him gulping down a big glass of milk, but just having that little bit in the morning makes this mom happy!





On Sunday we were invited to my in laws for an early birthday celebration for me and my sister in law.  My birthday is the 24th and hers is the 17th.  Sunday was the only day this month we would ALL be able to get together. 

It was an awesome day!
 

 
 
John and his cousins!
 
He has so much fun with these kids! ♥♥♥
 
 
 

My mother in law makes the BEST bruschetta.  I mean....look at that!



 
 
 
My father in law showing us his garden.  Which I will admit I'm very jealous of!  It's amazing!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rob, the bocce champion!!! (glad I was on his team...lol : )





Such a lovely yard ♥





Rob's sister made us this delicious ice cream cake! It was so good!!! I'm definitely stealing the recipe.  It had ice cream sandwiches in it.  Yes it did!



 
 
 
I experienced some big changes at work this week.  Our office moved locations.  None of us in my department had seen it until we reported to work on Monday.  It felt like the first day of school. 
 
It's a very nice building, bigger than my old office.  It will take some time to get adjusted. 





Here is the lobby.  I'm on the 3rd floor.  I've been taking these stairs instead of the elevator as much as I can.  That's about as much cardio I get these days.  I'll take it!

**PS I really don't understand that green couch down there.  You can't tell in the picture, but it's a full size couch.  Why lime green?  It baffles me every time I walk in the door: ) **





We are just outside of the city and have a nice view of Boston. 


 
 
On our first day we had a lot of unpacking to do.  The company treated us to breakfast from Panera Bread.
 
This croissant was as big as it looks and Yes I ate it all up....it was worth it!
 
 
 
 
Back on the home front....
 
 
I finished this book in three days which is very fast for me.  I'm normally a very slow reader.  It takes me forever to finish a book. But not this time.  
 
I got caught up in this story and could not put it down.  I was up until 2 am two nights in a row.  Isn't that the best feeling, being involved in a book. I loved it. It was wonderful.
 
  And sad.... if you ever read this, get the tissues ready.. You have been warned. 
 
 
 


Homemade pizza was pretty much the extent of my cooking skills this week. 


 
 
Goes great with this drink.  My new favorite seltzer... Strawberry Sunrise! ♥
 
 
 
 
I hope you have a fun weekend ahead and make the most out of a lovely July weekend ♥
 
I will dance a dance in your honor on Saturday night. What do you like to dance to at weddings?  Shout? YMCA? I Will Survive? Are you a Party Train kind of girl?  I like The Twist.  But please don't ask me to Limbo.  I'll leave that one for John!
   
I'm off to pack for the wedding and run some last minute errands. 
 
 
But first....
 
 

 

 
Whew!
 
xoxoxox

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Christmas is coming....♥

 
 

Last year John, Rob, & I celebrated our first Christmas in July.  It was so much fun we decided to make it an annual event! 

On Monday July 24th we’ll celebrate Christmas Eve (and also my birthday!) and then on July 25th will be our fun day!  I took the day off from work so John and I can make Christmas cookies, watch Rudolph & A Christmas Story, play games, do crafts, be as silly as possible. 


 


It doesn’t take much effort to make this a fun event.  A few small gifts wrapped in Christmas paper make for a special morning. 






I’ll dig out my Christmas CD’s so we can listen to Nat King Cole while we have cinnamon rolls for breakfast.


 

 
  I won’t do a whole sha-bang with decorations, just a few scattered about the house will do the trick. 






And of course a Christmas Cookie candle, you know…to set the mood ♥


 


Hopefully we’ll have two special guests join us.  John’s been saying all week that he hopes Zip & Zoom will come back and visit.  I have a strong feeling they will. 

It's not Christmas without our favorite elves!

 
He loves these guys! ♥

 
The weather has been beyond hot and humid and I’ve been waiting all summer to make frozen hot chocolate.  We tried it last year and it was delicious! 

Perfect for Christmas in July!


 
Yummmmm!

 
John and I will make a special “Christmas dinner” for Rob when he comes home from work. 
We haven’t decided what yet, but I do know we are having pie for dessert. 


Priorities : )

 

 
 
A hot summer day spent in my air conditioned house, curled up on the couch watching Christmas movies with my best buddy is my idea of perfection. 


Its little things like this that make the moments we remember forever : )


Am I right? ♥♥♥

 

 
 
And just in case you didn't realize it....
 
 
We are over half way to the real thing ♥♥♥