Wednesday, July 16, 2008
fiesta update
The grand total was 55 pieces of fiesta! After I unpacked it all to sort it into piles for mom and anna, I decided I needed to go back and get a few more things, so the grand total is now 62 pieces, at least until I go back to Old Time again!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
bargain
Thanks to my friend, Hallie, I found the most incredible bargain. She told me Old Time Pottery had some Fiestaware. My mom, sister, and I have fiesta and we just love it. In fact we are flying up to Pittsburg in just a few weeks to tour the factory! So I went to Old Time yesterday morning on my way to work not expecting to find much. They have had some fiesta there before but only just a few pieces but oh, have mercy! There were rows and rows and rows of it, in good colors! I called mom and she and anna got their game together and I went back yesterday night. I got so much stuff, but how could I resist: plates normally $9.99, only $2.99- serving bowls normally $29.99, now $3.99- pitchers normally $19.99, now only $2.99! So I stocked up. I was on the phone with Anna and Mom for a good 45 minutes figuring out what we all wanted and needed. I took my basket FULL up to a register and the poor girl had to call for three more cashiers to help wrap all my stuff! It filled the back of my jeep! I am going to unpack it all after work and I'll give you a grand total of pieces....
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Beach Trip
I have a fan out there who is much anticipating the arrival of a new post about our family beach adventure.
We had a great time down in Perdido Key, FL for a week. It was a great time and ALL of us got to go. It was: Mom and Dad, William, Me and Nick, Robert and Emily, and Anna and Chase- the whole gang! We had an awesome place right on the beach. It was a townhouse and the best part was that the house owned the beach, so we had a private beach right out our back door.
All in all it was a relaxing trip, just laying out and reading (I finished 5 books in 5 days!), great food - I tried some seafood and think I now like Talipa (sp?) and crab legs, and fun times. We played a highly competitive game of Cranium, boys vs girls. No doubt who the winners were- the GIRLS! But it made for some good laughs, especially when William had to act out Batman and stood up and hummed the theme from Indiana Jones and held his arms out. Who knows how Chase guessed Batman. Mom really came through on our team, she couldn't hum for laughing but she pulled through on the spelling (we all know we didn't want Anna spelling!).
We hunted jellyfish all week. For some reason, there were lots of jellyfish out in the afternoon, so we would catch them in the nets and bury them. We had a little jellyfish grave yard, complete with headstones.
It was a great trip, but I am glad to be home in my own bed!
I'll post some pictures once I get them uploaded from my camera sometime later.
We had a great time down in Perdido Key, FL for a week. It was a great time and ALL of us got to go. It was: Mom and Dad, William, Me and Nick, Robert and Emily, and Anna and Chase- the whole gang! We had an awesome place right on the beach. It was a townhouse and the best part was that the house owned the beach, so we had a private beach right out our back door.
All in all it was a relaxing trip, just laying out and reading (I finished 5 books in 5 days!), great food - I tried some seafood and think I now like Talipa (sp?) and crab legs, and fun times. We played a highly competitive game of Cranium, boys vs girls. No doubt who the winners were- the GIRLS! But it made for some good laughs, especially when William had to act out Batman and stood up and hummed the theme from Indiana Jones and held his arms out. Who knows how Chase guessed Batman. Mom really came through on our team, she couldn't hum for laughing but she pulled through on the spelling (we all know we didn't want Anna spelling!).
We hunted jellyfish all week. For some reason, there were lots of jellyfish out in the afternoon, so we would catch them in the nets and bury them. We had a little jellyfish grave yard, complete with headstones.
It was a great trip, but I am glad to be home in my own bed!
I'll post some pictures once I get them uploaded from my camera sometime later.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Boston Part 2
Our second day in Boston, we decided to drive up to Salem and check out the "Witch City". We hopped in our car and headed off. We toured Salem, the witch dungeon, the witch monument, all that touristy stuff. We stopped in a little pet store in the shopping district where I got a sticker that says "Bark less, wag more" as soon as I find it, it will be going on my jeep. We asked the man running the store where to eat lunch; he reccommended this little local spot. It was fantastic. It in an old house and the food was FANTASTIC. The best clam chowder I had on the trip. Nick told our waitress "yes, mam'" at some point and she just looked at him and said, you must be from the south. Ha! After lunch we did a little shopping and then headed back to towards our hotel. On the way back I decided to take a little detour to a place called Marble Head. It is out on a 'neck' into the ocean and is the most wanted real estate in the upper coast region. Ok, no kiddin', these are the biggest houses I have ever seen! They were incredible! There is a place on the neck called Castle Rock. It is a tiny little gate between two huge houses. You just park on the street and walk through the little gate to this beatiful rock cliff overlook. I felt like we were standing in these peoples back yard. Here are a few pictures, although they don't do it justice!
So then we were really headed back to our hotel because we were going to the Red Sox game that night. Nick stopped in the lobby to check his email and I headed on up to the room. I got off the elevator and there is a luggage rack in the hallway with OUR luggage on it. The front desk guys come walking out of our room with our stuff. I said, um, that's my stuff and that's my room. Long story short, there was a mix up and they thought we had checked out. So, needless to say they gave us free meals from the resturant in the lobby the rest of our trips and made sure to do everything possible to make up happy. Good thing for them we are pretty good sports.
We cleaned up and head out to the ball game. And what an experience it was. The ball park is SO crowded. We never were sure where we were supposed to sit, so we just found seats and sat in them until someone came to sit there. It was a fun time but we were both ready to get out of the crowd, so we called it quits about the 6th inning and headed back to our hotel.
Thursday morning we ate our free breakfast in the hotel and headed out to see Plymouth Rock. It was kinda out of the way, but I wanted Nick to see it. Once in Plymouth we checked out the rock, don't be overly impressed, it's a rock. They are building this HUGE monument over it, kinda ridiculous if you ask me. We walked over and saw the Mayflower 2, the replica of the original boat and then headed back to the car to head to Rhode Island. We made it to Newport about lunch time and had lunch at a cute little outdoor place on the pier. Ok, so Newport is this pricey little town where all these rich folks summer. It was incredible. The lady at the visitor center told us we could walk to the start of the Cliff Walk. Seriously, it was like 4 miles. I was tired of walking before we even started the cliff walk, which is 3 1/2 miles. The cliff walks are fun, you are basically walking along the cliffs in the backyard of all these huge houses. The Vanderbilts have a house on the cliff and it looks like a mini Biltmore. One house had a wedding set up in the backyard, so pretty. It was a fun, but long walk. We finally made it to the end and then had a 4 mile walk BACK to our car- whew! We stopped for icecream and loaded in the car and took the scenic ocean drive through town and then headed on back to Boston and stopped and had pizza at Uno's, a Chicago pizza place. Here's some shots of the cliff walk-
We weren't sure what we wanted to do Friday, since I had to be at my conference about lunch and Nick's flight left at 3. So we just slept late and had another free breakfast before packing up and heading to the airport. I took the shuttle to my conference and Nick headed home.
My conference was good and pretty uneventful, until it was time to fly home. My direct flight was overbooked and they were offering a $400 voucher and well as a first class up grade if you would change planes, fly to New York, have a 2 1/2 hour layover, then arrive in Nashville about 9. I volunteered, I figured what did I have to loose, it would get me home about 4 hours later, but the voucher would almost pay for our girls trip tickets to Pittsburg. I had to RUN through the airport to get to the flight to NewYork, they were holding the plane for me. I relaxed in first class, even though it was only about a 45 minute flight. So once I got in NY, I had to get a ticket for my flight and went to the terminal to wait. We were scheduled to board about 7, well about 6 I decided to go grab something to eat. I get back about 6:30 and notice our flight has been delayed till 9:30! AGHHHHH. So I get my book out and start reading and talk on the phone to mom. All of a sudden I hear, last boarding call for flight whatever the number was to Nashville. I look up and my flight has boarded. I run over to the counter and give them my tickets and the lady tells me to hurry up and board. Hello, I was sitting there the whole time, how did I miss this? Apparently they moved our boarding BACK up to 7:45! Whatever, I was on board and ready to go. We taxi out to the runway and after about 30 minutes they come on and tell us we are waiting our turn to take off. We were plane #100 in line. Yes, 100..... as in there are 99 planes before us. AGHHHH! Ok, so finally we take off about 9:50. Whew, we got to Nashville about midnight I grabbed my bag, which had come on my original flight and headed home.
So then we were really headed back to our hotel because we were going to the Red Sox game that night. Nick stopped in the lobby to check his email and I headed on up to the room. I got off the elevator and there is a luggage rack in the hallway with OUR luggage on it. The front desk guys come walking out of our room with our stuff. I said, um, that's my stuff and that's my room. Long story short, there was a mix up and they thought we had checked out. So, needless to say they gave us free meals from the resturant in the lobby the rest of our trips and made sure to do everything possible to make up happy. Good thing for them we are pretty good sports.
We cleaned up and head out to the ball game. And what an experience it was. The ball park is SO crowded. We never were sure where we were supposed to sit, so we just found seats and sat in them until someone came to sit there. It was a fun time but we were both ready to get out of the crowd, so we called it quits about the 6th inning and headed back to our hotel.
Thursday morning we ate our free breakfast in the hotel and headed out to see Plymouth Rock. It was kinda out of the way, but I wanted Nick to see it. Once in Plymouth we checked out the rock, don't be overly impressed, it's a rock. They are building this HUGE monument over it, kinda ridiculous if you ask me. We walked over and saw the Mayflower 2, the replica of the original boat and then headed back to the car to head to Rhode Island. We made it to Newport about lunch time and had lunch at a cute little outdoor place on the pier. Ok, so Newport is this pricey little town where all these rich folks summer. It was incredible. The lady at the visitor center told us we could walk to the start of the Cliff Walk. Seriously, it was like 4 miles. I was tired of walking before we even started the cliff walk, which is 3 1/2 miles. The cliff walks are fun, you are basically walking along the cliffs in the backyard of all these huge houses. The Vanderbilts have a house on the cliff and it looks like a mini Biltmore. One house had a wedding set up in the backyard, so pretty. It was a fun, but long walk. We finally made it to the end and then had a 4 mile walk BACK to our car- whew! We stopped for icecream and loaded in the car and took the scenic ocean drive through town and then headed on back to Boston and stopped and had pizza at Uno's, a Chicago pizza place. Here's some shots of the cliff walk-
We weren't sure what we wanted to do Friday, since I had to be at my conference about lunch and Nick's flight left at 3. So we just slept late and had another free breakfast before packing up and heading to the airport. I took the shuttle to my conference and Nick headed home.
My conference was good and pretty uneventful, until it was time to fly home. My direct flight was overbooked and they were offering a $400 voucher and well as a first class up grade if you would change planes, fly to New York, have a 2 1/2 hour layover, then arrive in Nashville about 9. I volunteered, I figured what did I have to loose, it would get me home about 4 hours later, but the voucher would almost pay for our girls trip tickets to Pittsburg. I had to RUN through the airport to get to the flight to NewYork, they were holding the plane for me. I relaxed in first class, even though it was only about a 45 minute flight. So once I got in NY, I had to get a ticket for my flight and went to the terminal to wait. We were scheduled to board about 7, well about 6 I decided to go grab something to eat. I get back about 6:30 and notice our flight has been delayed till 9:30! AGHHHHH. So I get my book out and start reading and talk on the phone to mom. All of a sudden I hear, last boarding call for flight whatever the number was to Nashville. I look up and my flight has boarded. I run over to the counter and give them my tickets and the lady tells me to hurry up and board. Hello, I was sitting there the whole time, how did I miss this? Apparently they moved our boarding BACK up to 7:45! Whatever, I was on board and ready to go. We taxi out to the runway and after about 30 minutes they come on and tell us we are waiting our turn to take off. We were plane #100 in line. Yes, 100..... as in there are 99 planes before us. AGHHHH! Ok, so finally we take off about 9:50. Whew, we got to Nashville about midnight I grabbed my bag, which had come on my original flight and headed home.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
1095 days, 26280 hours, 1576800 minutes
That's how long we have been married! July 3, 2005 we promised to love each other forever. It's been a great three years. Loving Nick forever hasn't been too hard, it's the liking him forever that I sometimes struggle with- good thing that wasn't in our vows. We have grown so much and have learned so much about each other in the process. I can say the third year of marriage has been the best so far, I can only hope it keeps getting better.
Nick, you are the love of my life. You are both my husband and my best friend. And I thank God for you and the life we are blessed with.
Our Vows
I, Nick, take you, Mary Leigh, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith.
I, Mary Leigh, take you, Nick, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith.
Nick, you are the love of my life. You are both my husband and my best friend. And I thank God for you and the life we are blessed with.
Our Vows
I, Nick, take you, Mary Leigh, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith.
I, Mary Leigh, take you, Nick, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Back from Boston
before we head to the beach this weekend I wanted to update my faithful two readers (MawMaw and Hallie) on the Boston adventure.
Since I was in Boston a full 7 days, I feel I can now make some general sterotypes and comments on the entire northern population. So here they are:
1. Turn signals are simply an accessory and do not serve a useful purpose.
2. The lines in the middle of the roads are also optional. If it looks like you can make the off ramp a three lane, by all means, go for it. Same principal on roundabouts. Just get on and spread out.
3. There is NOT a Walgreens on every corner, but there is a Dunkin Donuts on every corner. In fact at one point we saw two Dunkin Donuts across the street from each other- just makes it more handy when you are headed both into and out of the city- no need to turn across two lanes of traffic.
4. No sweet tea. I knew this going in, but come on, sugar after the fact is NOT sweet tea. I would have thrown the tea overboard too. You only think the settlers were mad about taxing, but the Boston Tea Party is a result of no sweet tea.
Those are my 4 comments on the overall trip, now to the details.
We got there Monday late afternoon and picked up our rental car, a nice blueish, purple Ford Focus. Although I have to say, not a bad car and AWESOME gas mileage, we are talking about 30 miles to the gallon! We headed to our hotel and found it without getting lost- whoohoo!
Tuesday morning we were up and at 'em pretty early as we planned to do the entire Freedom Trail that day. We took the hotel shuttle to the airport subway station and then rode that into the city. We had no trouble finding our way - red line to green line, or something like that. I grabbed my map and we were off. We got majority of the trail done before lunch, and stopped for lunch at Cheers 2 in Quincy Marketplace. Then it was a walk through the North End (little Italy) and over to Bunker Hill Monument. The monument is this tall tower thing that you can walk up and look out. They said 264 steps to the top. I didn't think it would be that bad, but after about 50 steps I was breathing hard- hello, out of shape! There is no air movement inside the tower and the staircase wasn't wide enought for two people which was fun when someone was coming down and you were going up. Once we FINALLY made it to the top, I just sat on the little bench while Nick took a few pictures, then it was back down. It had started raining while we were climbing, so we walked back to the harbor in the rain. The rain stopped just in time to take the ferry back to the city. Once back in the city since we finished the freedom trail and it was barely mid afternoon, we decided to get back on the subway and go find the flagship store for Life is Good. Life is Good was founded in Boston, so I was excited to see the store! After Life is Good, we sat in Boston Commons deciding where to eat. We decided on Ye Ole Seafood, which is the oldest eatery in the country. As we were walking back to the subway station, it started to POUR. We had to RUN to get to the station before the bottom fell out. We made it to the resturaunt semi dry, and I had my first offical bowl of New England Clam Chowder. I have to say I loved it! Now my shrimp, take it or leave it. We walked back to the subway station and back to the airport for our shuttle back to our hotel. I just knew my legs would be sore from all that walking and climbing, man was I right!
Stay tuned for Day Two highlights!
Since I was in Boston a full 7 days, I feel I can now make some general sterotypes and comments on the entire northern population. So here they are:
1. Turn signals are simply an accessory and do not serve a useful purpose.
2. The lines in the middle of the roads are also optional. If it looks like you can make the off ramp a three lane, by all means, go for it. Same principal on roundabouts. Just get on and spread out.
3. There is NOT a Walgreens on every corner, but there is a Dunkin Donuts on every corner. In fact at one point we saw two Dunkin Donuts across the street from each other- just makes it more handy when you are headed both into and out of the city- no need to turn across two lanes of traffic.
4. No sweet tea. I knew this going in, but come on, sugar after the fact is NOT sweet tea. I would have thrown the tea overboard too. You only think the settlers were mad about taxing, but the Boston Tea Party is a result of no sweet tea.
Those are my 4 comments on the overall trip, now to the details.
We got there Monday late afternoon and picked up our rental car, a nice blueish, purple Ford Focus. Although I have to say, not a bad car and AWESOME gas mileage, we are talking about 30 miles to the gallon! We headed to our hotel and found it without getting lost- whoohoo!
Tuesday morning we were up and at 'em pretty early as we planned to do the entire Freedom Trail that day. We took the hotel shuttle to the airport subway station and then rode that into the city. We had no trouble finding our way - red line to green line, or something like that. I grabbed my map and we were off. We got majority of the trail done before lunch, and stopped for lunch at Cheers 2 in Quincy Marketplace. Then it was a walk through the North End (little Italy) and over to Bunker Hill Monument. The monument is this tall tower thing that you can walk up and look out. They said 264 steps to the top. I didn't think it would be that bad, but after about 50 steps I was breathing hard- hello, out of shape! There is no air movement inside the tower and the staircase wasn't wide enought for two people which was fun when someone was coming down and you were going up. Once we FINALLY made it to the top, I just sat on the little bench while Nick took a few pictures, then it was back down. It had started raining while we were climbing, so we walked back to the harbor in the rain. The rain stopped just in time to take the ferry back to the city. Once back in the city since we finished the freedom trail and it was barely mid afternoon, we decided to get back on the subway and go find the flagship store for Life is Good. Life is Good was founded in Boston, so I was excited to see the store! After Life is Good, we sat in Boston Commons deciding where to eat. We decided on Ye Ole Seafood, which is the oldest eatery in the country. As we were walking back to the subway station, it started to POUR. We had to RUN to get to the station before the bottom fell out. We made it to the resturaunt semi dry, and I had my first offical bowl of New England Clam Chowder. I have to say I loved it! Now my shrimp, take it or leave it. We walked back to the subway station and back to the airport for our shuttle back to our hotel. I just knew my legs would be sore from all that walking and climbing, man was I right!
Stay tuned for Day Two highlights!
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