Memorial Day 2016

Finally, Memorial Day weekend is (almost) here. So far in 2016, I have had 4 days off. Between 2 vacation days, Presidents Day and a sick day being all spread out, I thought it would hold me over until this long weekend. Not so much. I am feeling desperately in need of a little R&R.  So, just last week I put in for tomorrow off too, and we're heading up to MV for an extra long weekend. I cannot wait! The travel time to get there is usually about 6 hours so it can be tough for a short weekend but 4 days is perfect. The weather looks good, a lot of family and friends will also be out there, and I'm excited to just hang with my little fam. Martha's Vineyard is such a beautiful place, and has this way about her, of just instantly relaxing me - mind, body and soul. It doesn't usually get too busy there until July, so it'll be nice and quiet too. Last year we had a wonderful long weekend home - time with family, BBQ's, the parade and tons of yard work. It'll be nice to switch it up this year and kick off the summer in our favorite summer spot. Whatever your plans - I hope you enjoy all the wonderfulness of the long weekend! Happy Summer! XO

 Memorial Day 2014 on Martha's Vineyard

Memorial Day 2015 in New Canaan

Edgartown Lighthouse

 Edgartown Harbor

Downtown Edgartown

This Old House... strikes again!

Lately, I have had a very love-hate relationship with our house. So many things I adore about it, and some things that have me looking at realtor.com daily. At the end of last summer and our long list of updates we were hopeful we were done with the must-do updates for a while. Some landscaping this year and maybe some new paint here and there. Then we had a pipe burst and ruin our brand new vanity in our guest bathroom which all need repairing and over the fall our hot water heater went, and we needed a new one. Leaving the only things in the house that we haven't touched - the furnace, central air, and kitchen.

Just yesterday, we booked a trip to Boston over our anniversary weekend in June, with the kids. I love Boston, and have nagging Brian to go for a few years to take a mini trip with the girls. We found a great hotel, will hit up the Children's Museum, the Aquarium and have a fun little trip away with the kiddos. I am SO excited. Today, I met an HVAC guy at our house to evaluate our A/C which hadn't been cooling the house as expected, and he gave the dreaded report, that its toast. He sort of played with it so it will work in the time being, but the wires are corroded and not held together well. He said "use it at your own risk." Lovely. Brian plans on using it until it blows up I think... so hopefully I can twist her arm not to wait so long. We'll still go to Boston as planned, but oh-so-quickly it's like the wind is out of our sails. Just when you feel like you are ahead a little bit. Momma mia.

I swear to God, I'm tempted to replace the a/c and put our house on the market next week. It has literally sucked as dry, which I guess they always do, but we've debated if this house is "forever" for a while, and right now this is not helping the situation! Its like a relationship, you put so much into it, and if you don't really feel like you are getting that much out, you probably should walk away. Maybe I'm giving up too easily, and at this point, just about everything in the house will be new. But right now, the house and I are in a fight.

TGIF to the max. Time for a big ol' glass of rose, and fun with family and friends. Have yourself a very nice weekend! XO

Celebrate good times...

Come on! Two weeks ago, we had the gang all together to celebrate Sara and Scott's engagement. They went out to dinner to a special restaurant that night, and he'd arranged for our family to be at my parents house, so they could come there to celebrate with us after he proposed. What a fun night! I love my family to pieces and it's always a good time when we're all together! The girls stayed up way past bedtime, while the adults had many champagne toasts, smiles and laughs! I'm glad I had my camera in hand, and was able to catch some of these great shots from the night! Cheers to Bear and my brother-in-law-to-be, we love you!

Real Life: Mom and Dad's night away

Over the weekend, Brian and I went to a wedding in Baltimore and the girls spent the night with my parents. It was a black-tie wedding, with many good friends, and we'd been looking forward to it for a while. Many of our friends know, we don't have a babysitter, so date nights aren't a frequent word in our vocabulary. Much less, a night away. So, this is how I daydreamed about the night away leading up to it:

- easy car ride with our favorite music, a nice big coffee and chats with Bri
- check in and plenty of time to get ready without "Mommy, I need this? Please help me!" or tears....
- time for a pre-wedding cocktail at the bar and catching up with friends who had checked in earlier
- wedding fun
- sleeping in
- breakfast in bed as we stalled a little before hitting the road
- a welcome greeting with big smiles from the girls who missed us

We had a great time at the wedding - every detail was beautiful, and it was so wonderful to catch up with friends. We talked for hours, had lots of beverages, good food and great dancing. But looking back, I'm getting a kick out of my fairytale vision of the night away. This is how our 30 hours away from home went:

- I did have a great big coffee to enjoy on the car ride down, with good conversation with Brian and adult music. And then....
- Our 3.5hr drive took 5hrs
- There were some unpleasant words exchanged while we were trying to get our lost selves back on route
- We had a whopping total of 40 minutes to get ready for the wedding before the shuttle left the hotel
- I didn't have a chance to do my hair and there was certainly no time for a relaxing celebratory cocktail before the wedding
- (the wedding was a blast)
- After hours of fun and many of beverages, I basically fell asleep sitting up in bed after crushing Dominos pizza (they now make GF - yum!)
- I slept terribly because of the oncoming hangover (and the Dominos ;)
- Felt awful when I woke up, like AWWWWFUL - full body ache, I couldn't eat and barely talk... just.needed.sleep. It certainly was not pretty.
- our 3.5 hour car ride home was 5 hours - in the pouring rain
- we got home to girls that were napping, and while there were smiles initially - they quickly turned to tears and crying out "we want Mimi"
- Ahhh, welcome home!

So that was our fun night away. Things often don't go as you plan, but you have to roll with the punches and make the best of it!

Happy Monday! XO

Invitation to Thanksgiving

Gigi, became the name that the girls called my grandmother. She lived in North Carolina until recently, so Madelyn didn't see her very often, but it had become tradition for her to spend Thanksgiving with us. A few weeks ago, when I picked Madelyn up from school, she was excited to show me the invitation for Thanksgiving that she'd made for Gigi. It was such a sweet, and random gesture. Little did she know, we were going to go visit with her in just a few days. So, she could hand deliver her invitation to her, and she was very excited.

 

I am so thankful for that nice visit and that we were able to spend time with her. Unfortunately, Gigi wont be joining us this Thanksgiving. We said goodbye to my grandmother this weekend and she passed away yesterday. It came as a surprise, since our visit last month was normal. She had moved to CT last year with my uncle, and he reached out to us on Friday and we were up there first thing on Saturday. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.

 

I am thankful that she was at my wedding, thankful that she met my girls, thankful they moved to CT recently and that meant that many of her kids and grandkids could visit with her this weekend. My grandfather passed away years ago, and she's been missing him immensely ever since. So, I am thankful now, that she's able to dance with him again, and they'll be together watching over us at Thanksgiving. I'm also glad I took some pictures while we visited last month because I'm keeping these in mind, and not the more recent.

 

Hug your loved ones, and cherish each day.

XO

 

The Swoon Series

My swooning for this, has become an addiction and I am completely fixated, on updating our kitchen. It started last spring, when we had a contractor come to give us a quote on doing the work. We were just about to move forward, when a few other issues arose, and those updates took priority. I told myself I'd get over it, and our kitchen was fine as is. Sadly, I was only able to make it a year, before the itch came back.

My parents put on an addition last year. Honestly, it was the renovation from hell. Every little possible thing that could go wrong did, and their contractor was the worst. I wouldn't wish their experience on anyone, it really was the pits. The one good thing that came out of the whole 1 year stress-filled challenge, was finding the carpenter who added new built ins to their living room and updated their bar. He's just an individual, no big overhead or big labor costs, and a passion for his work. He did an impeccable job, and everything is custom. For a fraction of the price of what you'd pay most companies.

We've had a number in mind that we'd have to have saved to do our kitchen and it seemed feasible it was in the 5 year plan.  About a month ago, we had the carpenter come to our house to give us a quote on redoing our kitchen, and removing the wall between our kitchen and dining room. His quote was almost too good to be true. He could put in hardwood floors, remove the wall, do custom cabinets including a new pantry and a wall of built-ins on a now-empty side wall, all for a fraction of what you'd expect to pay. We'd get our money back, probably two fold - because it would be so beautiful and unique.

Regardless of how reasonable his price is, it's still a lot of money, which my uber financial-savvy hubby just isn't ready to spend.  Don't get me wrong, I totally understand and respect his concerns. Buuuuuut, what it would do to our house, to the functionality and flow at the core of our home, and to my emotional attachment to the house, are substantial. There are a lot of things I love about our home, and a few things that I really don't. Funny enough, I thought the kitchen was adorable when we moved in, and it quickly became my least favorite part. The bar is too high, and the natural wood is covered in stains and impossible to clean, the floor is disgusting linoleum and always looks dirty no matter how you clean it, the cabinets are weird sizes, the oversized (ancient) stove works, but only sometimes and the large overhanging wall of cabinets makes the small space feel even smaller and darker than it is.

So, nearly every day I am looking online for the best appliance suites to share with Brian and show that not all appliances have to cost you, $6,000... you can find perfectly good ones for less. But I know it will take time, and eventually he'll come around to the idea. I just need to wait until he's ready. I think my problem is I'm slightly obsessed with home renovations, obsessed with HGTV and completely obsessed with the design plans we were given for a kitchen reno on our house. So, we'll see how patient I can be. Until it's time.... I'll continue to swoon over photos like these, and the idea of what could be (and hopefully will be, in the near future! ;)

white on white... beautiful counters, floors and lighting

 

One of very few photos where the kitchen layout actually looks like ours! This designer gives me hope seeing her working with her girls (and big smiles) in their kitchen!

More white on white... so clean and pretty!

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Happiest Birthday wishes to my other half!

 

 

This picture is from a surprise party I threw for Bri 8 years ago! The first birthday that we celebrated together. I think we'd been dating for 6 months at this point. When I look back at old photos of us, time and time again, the Springsteen song - So Young and In Love, instantly starts going through my mind. This one is no exception. It was a beautiful April day and Brian went to play golf with friends. While he did that, we set up a party in our friends backyard. His face when he walked in was priceless, and this picture was snapped just a few minutes after. I'd pulled off a great surprise and was giddy that he was so excited. I wanted to give him the ultimate birthday party celebration, which was followed by a weekend in Boston. It was a ton of fun, and we were so young and in love.

 

 I feel like not much has changed... well, this year there will not be any wild party, or big surprises, and we're not that young any more :) And, we're married, have purchased a few homes, have a few kids, and on and on. BUT, I love him more than I thought possible, and I wish him a perfect day that he so deserves. I feel like the luckiest, and I know our little ladies are the luckiest to have him as their Daddy. Happiest wishes to our favorite guy - we love you to the moon!