Sports

Last week was all about sports!  Our best friends Matt and Teresa had two extra tickets to the Red Sox for Wednesday night... well, here's the long story:
Matt's parents (My Aunt Wendy and Uncle Art - they're honorary Aunt and Uncles, close enough!) both have cancer.  His mom is doing quite well right now after going through rough chemo but his dad has been feeling pretty lousy lately.  So on Monday morning, Matt called and basically said, "my dad isn't sure he'll be well enough to go on Wednesday night, so if he isn't, could you guys get a sitter to go?"
Well, we have this great friend, she's actually a resident in my building and my office assistant, who is so good with Maddie and is great with last minute sitting... so I asked her and she could if we needed her!
I told Matt to wait until the last possible moment and then have his dad decide, because I didn't want him to give us the tickets and then feel good enough to go...

Well, Wednesday morning, Matt let us know that his dad was still not up for going - which was bitter sweet, for obvious reasons... so that afternoon Matt and Teresa came here and we headed into Boston.

We ate some greasy food outside of Fenway and then headed inside.  After getting some Octoberfest *my favorite* we headed in to find our seats.  We were on the left field near third base... So we headed up... only to find out that the lettered seats are down towards the field... and we kept walking and walking until we were at the second row from the field!! Best seats we've ever had!!

And what a night.  Matt and Teresa are those friends that know so much about you, love being silly and don't care if you look stupid... they just have so much fun with us... so the night was incredible!

Here are a few pics from the evening:

after the game... so happy!

Ryan's Heaven

Matt and Teresa

me showing that I'm ready for a foul ball to come our way!

group pic in front of our seats!

when he's happy, I'm happy!

so close to a win...

what d'ya want for a self take?

from our seats

This was Ryan's Birthday gift.... from his loving wife! :)

Then, Ryan's parents bought us Patriots tickets for this Sunday.  And, again, Kristy (the resident babysitter) saved the day and stayed with Maddie while we headed to Gillette Stadium!
Unforuntely, although we left with three hours to spare, we got there 20 minutes before the game due to horrendous traffic!!  We had tons of stuff to tailgate (with his friends from work) but couldn't until after the game.  So, once we parked, we downed a few beers and basically ran to the gates!!
Again, grabbed a few Octoberfests and headed to our seats.

The view from our seats.

We were high up, but it was so much fun.  I just have the hardest time staying focused when we're actually there for a game!!

It was pretty windy, but this is us... 

We did get to tailgate afterwards... and my great buy:  the disposable grill that I got made fun of for buying worked out great!!!

We had a few dogs and burgers, a few more beers, and headed home! (Don't worry, I was sober by then and drove while Ryan had a few beers with his coworkers!  My mom reads this so I don't want her thinking I was drinking and driving... )

Oh, and the best part about both games:  WE WON!!  So, I have deduced, I need to be present at all the games so that we can win all the time!!

Personal Assistant

I could totally use one!  If for nothing else, just to keep up with my email, twitter, facebook and this blog!

The housework and bills at home, I can handle those! 

Things are quite busy here, obviously, I haven't blogged in a month!  School started back up and my 300 students are all moved back into my building.  Ryan's brother got married (again) during opening weekend, which was poor timing for me, but I figured, "hey, at least I got an invite to this one!"  His first wedding... I wasn't invited to.  His first wife told me point blank, "I have enough friends, I don't need you or Scott's mother as friends" and then proceeded to leave me off the shower invite list as well as the wedding invite list.  Oh well, I didn't lose sleep over it!

This wedding was... interesting... I'll recap with a few highlights:
No music during Holly's walk down the hill towards Scott, so her step-father sang "da, na, na, na.... da, na, na ,na..." while walking with her...
The 'ceremony' took place in a gazebo, which was pretty.  Until a little dog ran in and around the gazebo through the whole thing!
The "bridesmaids" attire was interesting - one wore an 80s small prom dress in purple and the other wore a sundress with black/white and red in it.  
After the wedding, while Holly and Scott were over taking pictures, Holly's mother shouts to all the guests, "Ladies, if you need to use the bathroom, you can use the camper (there was a camper set up near the food) and guys, well you know where you can go (and pointed to the woods)"...
People were asked to "bring a dish to share" making this the first potluck wedding I've been to... but they did have steak tips and chicken.  However, the bare-chested man with the cigarette hanging out of his mouth that was grilling contributed to the fact that I did not eat much that day!
My sister made the cake, that had (as requested) candy skull heads on it.  She did a nice job.
And, unfortunately I forgot my bathing-suit because, the pool was a huge attraction!

I'll attach some pictures for your viewing pleasure: however, right now the picture button is not working, so you'll just have to wait!



As far as running goes, I'm getting my groove back!
When we were in MB I ran every other day practically, but once we got back I was slacking... and it was just so hard to start back up!
But I've been going at least three, mostly four, times a week for the past three weeks and I run 3 miles each time.  I have a 5K coming up in October, which, I'm ready for! 
I was going to train for another Half with a co-worker, but I just couldn't afford or justify paying for the $55 registration fee right now.





Anyways, that's my quick update.  When I can, I'll get the pics updated!!

Camping

I really don't feel like I worked much this summer.  Three weeks vacation was splendid!!

We usually take a week in August and go to NH camping with my parents and sister and her family.   My aunt and uncle have a house in Seabrook, so their whole family (3 cousins and their families) all go to the beach house and we camp nearby.  Then we spend days at the beach and nights having dinner and playing games/drinking/having a blast together.

This year, my work schedule screwed everything up.  But my parents are awesome and just said that they'd go up whenever Ryan and I could even if our cousins couldn't go that week.  The cousins (all except for one, Kathy and her son) went the week after us.  And Becky picked up a full time baking job so she couldn't go anyways.

Cooking Pancakes on the fire!  Our site setup!

Anyways... We went up on August 6th, Friday and set up our campsite.  We camp in a pretty decent tent and have a screen-house for our eating area.  We have a queen sized Aerobed and a twin Aerobed too, so it's very comfortable.

This is what the inside of my parents motorhome looks like!

My parents camped in their motorhome in the site next to us.  We had a blast.  We got to see my Aunt and Uncle and cousin three times, which was great, and had three days at the beach.  We went to this pizza place in Portsmouth for lunch one day that Ryan and my dad just love!  We spent two nights in Newburyport walking around... Maddie was fantastic!!  She rarely was moody, barely had a meltdown, and made friends with the little kids that camped next to us the first weekend.

This isn't their exact one, but about the same!

It was really nice to just sit and be bored.  My mind didn't have to worry about work drama, we don't have much family drama now that the brother-in-law is an ex, and Ryan and I really enjoyed just being...

I'll post later about our late night hysterical night!  For now, its back to work!!

Updates

I said I'd update on my Myrtle Beach trip and that was now one month ago.
I can't believe it!

Well, we left here on July 3rd at 9:30am.  We had a great 10 hours in the car and arrived in Springfield VA at 7pm.  We found this great restaurant down the street, Mike's. 

The food was incredible and they had Yuengling which is Ryan's favorite beer (but not sold north of NY)!
Maddie slept great until about 4am on the sleep sofa, and then ended up in our King Bed. 

We left on July 4th after a continential breakfast and a stop at dunks and after 8 hours arrived at Uncle Dana's house in Myrtle Beach at about 6pm.  We went with Uncle Dana to a Chinese Buffet that had so much food and was wonderful!
He took us on a quick drive so we could see his beach (Myrtle Beach State Park) and the local shopping areas as well as his great neighborhood.

(this is us walking the beach that first day!)


That night, after unpacking and settling into our rooms at UD's house; we had glasses of wine and heard fireworks.  So we ran outside and saw fireworks right from the front yard!  Maddie's first firework experience!! She loved them.

Monday morning Uncle Dana golfed (he golfs EVERY morning at 6am) and we packed up and headed to the beach.  So lovely!!  We packed lunches and Uncle Dana met us there after his golf game.

In the afternoon we let Maddie nap and then went grocery shopping.  We decided that we'd do two or three nights out to dinner and most lunches we'd make and go to the beach.  This was the plan... didn't exactly happen that way!
That night we made spaghetti and meatballs and Uncle Dana enjoyed with us.  I just love that he drinks a glass of wine before bed!! (I love a bottle glass of wine before bed too!)

Tuesday, we went to Broadway on the Beach which is a great shopping area where there are bridges in between with huge fish that you can feed and they're enormous!  We had lunch there at the Liberty Brew House which is one of our favorites! Then we went to the Myrtle Beach Pelican's Game (they're a AAA Atlanta Braves Affiliate Baseball team) and UD came with us.  Maddie was super excited because he bought her Ice Cream!

Wednesday we were back to the Beach and we made Pulled Pork for dinner.  It came out great!

Thursday we went to the Ripleys Believe it or Not Aquarium.  The only thing I didn't believe was how crowded it was there and how hot it was outside.  The aquarium was nice, but so busy that we didn't get to see the show.

Down the street from UD's house is a park area with a pond and ducks.  It has a running/walking path around the pond that was perfect for my 3 mile runs.  (yes, I ran four times during that week!)  We fed the ducks and played on the playground and just loved this little park!!

These little exercise stations were positioned all around the pond

Friday we were back at the beach and I think we went out to dinner that night too, but I can't remember where! 


Then it was time to leave Uncle Dana :(
We really had such a great time with him.  Each night, after we put Maddie to bed, the three of us would sit in the living room (with our beer and wine) watching TV and just chatting.  Uncle Dana told us stories of when he was young and before he was a christian.  Then he shared stories of his early marriage years with Aunt Marsha.  We learned so much and were so happy to share Maddie with him and have her know and love him like we do. 

Saturday we set off to North Myrtle Beach - Little River where the condo was.  We enjoyed the pool at the condo and had dinner out the first night and did another grocery shopping trip.

Sunday, the in-laws arrived at the condo.  This condo- was - great!!  Ryan's dad works with someone who in February sent out an email that said, "hey all, I have a condo in Myrtle Beach and if you want to stay there, it's just $85 a week"... so we jumped at the chance!!  Figuring is was a dinky barebones condo, we didn't even care!  But this was no dinky barebones condo!  It was great!  It had a breakfast bar, washer/dryer, dishwasher, pool, (two pools actually) and two large bedrooms and two full sized bathrooms with a screened in porch.  Heaven!!

Maddie didn't know that her Grandpa and Mena were coming, so when they showed up she was elated!!

We did a few things with the in-laws but were still able to have time alone.  In fact, they watched Maddie one night while Ryan and I went and had a date night. 

Our favorite thing about South Carolina:  HAPPY HOUR!!  Beers are $2.50 and appetizers are half off!! Needless to say, date night turned into drunk night!  But oh so fun!!

(this was us... haven't sat at a bar together in over 3 years!!)

We spent a lot of time at the beach and went back to Broadway at the Beach to go on the splash pad and Merry Go Round (Maddie's first experience on the Merry-go-round and she loved it!!)

My parents have friends that live in NC, the Burneys.  They used to live in Attleboro and go to our church.  We made plans to go to dinner with them on Wednesday night and I'm so glad we did.  They're so sweet and they brought their grandson, Tripp who is about the same age as Maddie.  They were so cute together.  Somehow we didn't get a group pic, but we did get a few of the kids and one family one!

On Saturday, we headed home.  After 10 hours, we hit Springfield VA and went to Mike's again for dinner... YUM!
Then after a Dunks run, we traveled another 10 hours and arrived in MA at about 7 pm.

Maddie was hysterical when we got home.  It was like she had completely forgotten all about her toys at home... She kept running from room to room shouting, "Oh, my Kitchen is in here"   "Oh, my baby is in here" "Mumma, my crayons!!"

Overall, it was an incredible two weeks.  We will never ever forget the quality time we spent with Uncle Dana, the great conversations we had with him and the hospitality he showed towards us.

Our time with the in-laws was great too!  They were very generous and gave us some great time together.

stay tuned for our camping trip...