24 weeks

I finally got Kevin to take a preggers photo of me. This is me on Christmas day and I'm 24 weeks pregnant. Kev said to Zach, "Doesn't Mommy look like Santa Claus?" Now, do you think he meant my belly or my hat?!?

Happy Holidays!

This was our first Christmas in our new house and I was excited to continue our old traditions, and start new ones. Last weekend Kevin, Emily, and Zach assembled the Christmas Village in the dining room (which worked out just great considering we don’t have any furniture in there). It looks nice but we have so many houses and villagers that they all didn’t fit on the table so we couldn’t put them all out. I think it’s time to buy another folding table, for next year!

Over the past week we all baked various forms of cookies. Kevin and Zach made cut-out sugar cookies, I made peanut butter blossoms, and Emily made chocolate chip as well as peanut butter/chocolate swirls. They were all so delicious! I have not been very good on the diabetes diet this week, in large part because of those cookies! Santa enjoyed them all, and gobbled them up. He drank all his milk too.

We have found a new church in Framingham and went to the 4:00 p.m. mass on Christmas Eve. Note for next year – we really should go to the family mass at 6:00 p.m. The church was filled by the time we got there, and they sat us in the choir loft (a new experience for me). It was so quiet at times in the church you could have heard a pin drop – except for Zach’s chatting throughout most of the service. And since we were in the choir loft, they had hanging microphones to capture the choir’s voices, so I was sitting in fear that they could hear clearly everything we said up there. I tried my best to keep him quiet, but Zach doesn’t know much about “inside” voice yet. Oh well. Hopefully everyone in the church thought we was charming and cute anyway.

Following mass we drove around and looked at the lights in Framingham. More so than Brookline, Framingham decorates quite lavishly for the holidays! (the individual homes that is, not the downtown) We found a new Chinese restaurant for our traditional Christmas Eve Chinese food dinner and it was delicious! And extremely crowded. We apparently aren’t the only family who goes out for Chinese for Christmas Eve – this place was hopping!

Following cookies for Santa, stories, and prayers, Zach had a good night’s sleep and woke us up around 8:00 a.m. I actually woke up earlier than that and got the coffee going and turned on the tree lights and got breakfast ready. Emily apparently thought we’d let her sleep in luxuriously until whenever she decided to wake up and then we’d open gifts. I think 8:00 was pretty good for a toddler, but Em wanted a few more hours of sleep. By 8:30 we were ready to see what Santa had brought us.

Unwrapping gifts took a really long time. It’s hard to tell a toddler that they can’t play with the gift they just opened because there are 500 more gifts for him under the tree to open. We finally got through everything about 2.5 hours later. Emily got some nice things, especially from our relatives and friends who sent packages (and money!), but also got gift cards and happily already used some of these at the mall over the weekend. Zach got a new kitchen, choo choo trains and track, an easel, toy tools, books, puzzles, and a million other things. Our house kind of looks like Toys R Us threw up in it. But we’re all having a blast reliving our childhoods and playing with his toys with him.

One of the best gifts we got on Christmas Day was the news that Kevin’s brother Scott proposed to his girlfriend Rachel! We are absolutely beyond thrilled as we love her to death and so happy to officially welcome her to the Mullen clan. Of course we’ve thought of her as family all along anyway, but so excited to make it legal.

I hope all of you had a beautiful holiday season this year as well, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or something else entirely. Happy holidays and lots of love from our family to yours. That sounds kind of corny and like the end of a Christmas card, but I mean it!

Merry Christmas!

To all of our friends and family -- Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a blessed holiday and are enjoying time with your loved ones. We had a great day. I'll post photos and an update soon!

Insomnia

Isn't it ironic that when you need sleep the most, it eludes you? I get insomnia at various points, but mainly when I'm stressed or pregnant. I've currently now had sleeping issues nearly every night for a few months, and I'm not stressed. I am a girl who likes her sleep and functions so much better when well rested. Right now I'm wide awake and have been since before 5:00 a.m. (aka the middle of the night). Prior to that wakening, I woke up once or twice as well but was able to fall back asleep after about 10 minutes.

The children are nestled all snug in their beds with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads. Kevin's alarm is going to go off in a few minutes. I think he'll be happy to find the cup of warm coffee that I'll bring to him. I think he won't even mind that it's decaf.

Fall Frenzy

I’ve become horrible at updating this blog! The busiest time for me at work is roughly September to December so that is my excuse, combined with a few other life-altering things that have consumed most of my free time. I’m going to try to make the effort to be better at my updates, weekly if not more frequently, if possible. Apologies to anyone who reads this and has given up on me… I do want to write more often and will put in a good concerted effort going forward!

So how to sum up this fall? Hmm, when I look back I’m overwhelmed by thoughts of work (and I’m determined to not write about work on this blog, mainly so it remains pleasurable to me! Don’t misread that, I do like my job, but I want to have a work/life balance which tends to be out of whack each fall and that’s when work starts to really feel like WORK to me!) Anyway, outside of work, we’ve had lots going on. Kevin and I did buy this great house which we moved into at the very tail end of August. We both had to travel a lot for work this fall (see, here I go talking about work again…) which meant that we didn’t have a lot of free time to work on house projects. And we do have plenty of projects! The house is in really good shape, but we have some wallpaper to take down, rooms to paint, a foyer floor to replace (just not our taste), a front walk to re-do, a deck to do something with, trees to take down, landscaping and gardening to do, a garage to organize…the list goes on and on! We did find time to rake and rake and rake the tons of pine needles that have fallen on our yard, driveway, and roof. Who knew we would ever rake our
roof? Or driveway? I actually think I mistakenly thought that pine trees didn’t drop their needles (doesn’t evergreen mean they stay ever green, not dropping their green needles?) Well now I’ve learned. We bagged so many bags of needles and pine cones and still have tons more that have fallen that are now hidden under several inches of snow. Oh well. Maybe it’ll nourish our yard for the spring.

Anyway, I haven’t really summarized our fall, but I’m not sure how to do so without saying that it’s been a whirlwind! One thing that I haven’t mentioned yet is that I’m pregnant! We found out in August and are completely delighted. I spent the first few months of pregnancy totally exhausted which also slowed down our unpacking and decorating process. Kevin has been great, organizing the basement and listening to cranky pregnant woman orders on what to do next since I can’t lift or move anything. I’m feeling great, especially now that I’m in my second trimester. I’m due in mid-April so will have a spring baby which will be a nice change from being hugely pregnant in the summer like I was with both Em and Zach.

Now would be a good time to insert a belly photo, but I actually don’t have any. I’ll post one another time. Trust me though when I say that I’m quite big.

Emily has adjusted quite well to college and being independent. We actually do still talk (or text or email) at least once a day (or sometimes a million times a day, especially when she wants money). I’m glad that we’re able to stay really connected since I was pretty concerned about her being so far away. She’s home now for her holiday break and it’s great having her home! She has a really short break and is actually cutting it shorter so she can visit one of her college friends on Long Island. At least I get her for a few days though.

If I don’t post this now I’m afraid I never will, but will try to post something again in the next few days!

The Mullens of Murphy Circle

It's hard to write this post and not insert "YAY" into every other sentence, but that's definitely how we feel. YAY! We bought a new house!

Kevin and I first started looking at houses in the spring, and we were all over the map. We didn't know if we wanted North Shore, South Shore, Western Suburbs, etc. We didn't know if we wanted a Cape, a Colonial, a Victorian, or what. All we knew was we wanted a yard and a driveway and not to be renting any longer.

Househunting is very time-consuming. Kevin and I spent lots of weekends going to open houses and trying to educate ourselves on what to be looking for. I did learn that I really didn't want a Cape style home because the footprint of the house is almost always the same, and they weren't big enough for what I wanted. We also knew we didn't want a Ranch because we wanted two stories. I love Victorians, but many of them were either prohibitively expensive or needed extensive work. We kept an open mind on things, but in the back of my mind I knew I was looking for a Colonial.

Brookline is a beautiful town and we miss it a lot. But it was never an option to buy a house there because we aren't millionaires. We waited until Em graduated from high school before buying so that she could stay in that school district (which is one of the best in the state). Nearly all the towns surrounding Boston are also very expensive (or very seedy), so we knew we'd have to look a little further out. Both of us grew up in areas where we had to drive to get anywhere, so this wasn't a huge problem for us. But we both also hate traffic so certain areas got ruled out that way. South Shore? Ugh. The highway is a parking lot. North Shore is not much better. The Western suburbs started looking better and better.

Kevin went to Spain this summer and I was supposed to continue looking at houses, but that plan fell apart. For one, Em had a million things going on -- prom, graduation, college stuff -- that filled up our weekends. But the other thing is that I wanted to find our house with Kevin. I didn't want to find it alone. Kevin came home on July 6th, we had an appointment with the realtor on July 9th, and the 4th house he showed us was the one we fell in love with. It had an open house two days later and we went to see it again, this time with Emily as well. We put in a written offer two days later. The offer was a little low -- I was 80% certain it would be turned down. It wasn't. They chose us! Or maybe the house chose us. This house just feels right. It feels like home.

The rest of the summer was a whirlwind of packing, home inspection, getting Em to college, and then we closed on our house. The closing was 1 week after moving Emily to North Carolina. I was still nervous up until the day of the closing that somehow the deal would fall through, but it didn't. We moved in the very next day.

Our new house is big (still a little too big for us), but I think that means we just need to have visitors come spend time with us more often. We can finally repay our friends and family for their generosity and host weekend sleepovers and cookouts. We can't wait for you all to come and visit us!

Emily Ann, College Student

To say that I am a little behind in my blogging updates would be an understatement. In my defense, this has been maybe the busiest summer of my life. We've had a LOT going on!

At any rate, I wanted to post an update about Emily since she is off to school now. I miss her terribly. I know she is having a great time which is a huge relief to me (I was also afraid she might be really homesick). We moved her down to college the 3rd week of August -- a loooong drive to North Carolina, but we broke it up by stopping at Sandy & Bob's on the way down and back which made the trip much easier to do. When we got to North Carolina we spent the night at Scott and Rachel's, and then Em, Kevin, and I got up early on Friday morning to meet up with Em's dad in Cary and then drive out to Greenville. It's an easy drive, didn't really even need the GPS we'd borrowed from Scott (although it did come in quite handy on our 2 trips to Target in Greenville). Em's dorm is not the prettiest on the outside, but inside is great. Her room is much bigger than I (and she) expected. They have a lot of storage as well which is good. My dorm room in college was a good size, but I saw some that were teeny, so I think she totally lucked out.

We were at ECU for a few hours before Tori, Em's roommate, and her family arrived. We had actually gotten Emily all unpacked and mostly settled in by then, and shortly afterwards Em was ready for us to leave. I couldn't believe how confident she was, and comfortable about us leaving. I think she really was eager to get started on the next phase of her life. I did pretty well all day, no tears in front of her, although when she was first signing into her dorm and getting her keys I got all choked up and had to turn away and blink back the tears. I know she would have been mortified if I cried in front of people.

When we left Kevin and I drove around the campus a little bit -- it really is a beautiful school. I waited a little while before texting Emily that I loved her and already missed her. We've kept in pretty good touch since she's been gone. I think we touch base almost every day either on the phone, texting, or emailing. Still, I'll be happy to have her home for Columbus Day weekend and be able to see that freckle face in person.

My Baby Girl

It seems like yesterday that I gave birth to a sweet little baby girl in the middle of the sweltering August heat. And then I blinked and she was in preschool. I blinked again and she was taking ballet and gymnastics. One more blink and she was graduating 8th grade. My recent blinks have been rapid-fire -- she went to prom, graduated high school, and now has turned 18.

I've had a wonderful time being Emily's mommy, and I know it doesn't end when they become adults. But now she really is an adult and headed off to college this week. I'm having a hard time hiding my emotions, but they're mixed emotions. I'm so happy and thrilled for her, yet sad that she won't be around the house every day -- to walk and get a coffee with, or just to watch The Biggest Loser with on tv.

Yesterday was Em's birthday and for the first time in a long time, I didn't take the day off to spend with her (because I'm taking the rest of the week off to drive her to school). Instead I worked and she went to lunch with her friend Amelia and made some adult decisions. She got her nose pierced and got a tattoo. I'm not happy about either (that's actually a huge understatement), but it's her decision and now that she's 18, I couldn't do anything about it. She had been talking about both for quite some time and I know she put a lot of thought and research into it, but I'm still disappointed that she went through with it.

Last night we went to dinner at Cityside, one of our local restaurants that we like. Em wanted to go there for her birthday dinner; she has fond memories of it as well. It was the 4 of us (me, Em, Kev, and Zach), her dad, and Amelia (my other daughter). Zach flirted with all the waitresses as usual and barely ate. I think he was saving room for dessert! Following dinner we went home and had cake -- carrot cake, like we had at Em's graduation. Em cut us giant pieces again, and then we made her take half of what was left to go to her friend Rikki's house. She spent the rest of her evening with Rikki and some other friends which was nice for her -- her last full night in Brookline.

We leave this evening to start our drive down south to take her to college. We'll spend tonight and tomorrow at Bob and Sandy's, and will get to Scott and Rachel's on Thursday. They live about 90 miles from ECU, so we'll spend the night there and will get up bright and early on Friday to move Emily into her dorms.

Emily will always be my baby girl (in my mind's eye she's about 5 years old), but I'm excited to watch her spread her wings and start her own life now. Hopefully there are few stumbles and lots of happiness in front of her.

Happy Birthday, Emily Ann!

P&S

Today Kevin and I had the P & S for our new house. This is the Purchase & Signing and basically means we had to sign the contract saying we're buying the house and provide our down payment to the realtor, who will hold it in escrow for us. Our attorney and the seller's attorney have gone back and forth on the documents over the past few days and our attorney has had a couple of conversations with Kevin to go over the legalese. Remind me to never get a law degree, because this woman (our attorney is a woman) has been working not only while pregnant, but also right after giving birth. I spoke with her on Thursday, she sent me and Kevin emails on Friday, she had her baby on Sunday, and was emailing with the seller's attorney on Monday and Tuesday. She and Kevin chatted today, but she did not attend our P&S. I think she must be super woman, or a little bit of a workaholic. What do you think?!?

I'm not entirely sure what the next step is now. I believe the bank will do an appraisal of the house, to be sure it's appraised for what we purchased it for (I believe that if it is less they won't give us the mortgage -- so we'd have to renegotiate purchase price again). We also have to be sure our mortgage is on track (they're working on things with that now -- background checks and the like). And then we need to get set up with homeowner's insurance, and I've already reached out to an insurance company for an estimate and to find out next steps. I think we'll probably go with them -- the agent has been my car insurance agent for a few years and he's very nice and helpful. I will also get a discount because they work with my firm.

We do need to buy a new refrigerator and a dryer immediately as the seller is taking both of those items, and we're starting to look around and figure out what we want and like. One nice thing is that the seller is leaving us the lawnmower, snowblower, fertilizer spreader, and some other various gardening/lawn tools, which will be super helpful since as renters we of course don't have any of that stuff!

We close and move in 1 month. I still can't believe it! I don't think I will completely believe it until we get the keys and walk in that front door!

A Parenting Milestone

There comes a time in every boy's life when he must assemble the first of his child's complicated birthday/Christmas/insert-holiday-here toys. Today that boy, my husband Kevin, crossed that milestone off of his to-do list.

For his big 02 birthday this year, Zach received not 1, but 2 kiddy tricycles. You might think Zach is young for a tricycle, and he is, but these are geared towards younger tots, and they have a built in steering handle on the back, for the parent to push and steer the youngster down the sidewalk. Anyway, we got Zach one of these cool trikes, and his godmother, "Aunt Liz", got him one too. We're going to keep the one we got him and return the one from Liz (Zach is more than happy to go shopping and see what else he can buy!) Kevin had loads o' fun assembling the trike this evening.

Young Zachary has not seen this trike just yet, and I'm actually considering hiding it until we get home from work tomorrow. I know that he will immediately want to hop on and go outside (one of his favorite words -- "OUTTIDE!, OUTTIDE!"), and all hell will break loose when we explain that we need to have breakfast and to go to Lucy's. But I don't think that the other boy (Kevin) will allow me to hide it, and will instead encourage the morning recklessness. Hey, you're only 2 once.

Sad News

My dad's younger brother, my Uncle Bob, passed away today. He had a slew of health issues and things had been looking grim for the past few weeks. I was not close to Uncle Bob, but it's still tough to lose a family member. My dad is hanging in there, but I'm sure it's not easy to see your little brother succumb to an illness. We all know that Uncle Bob is in a much better place, and in fact Dad and I had a nice conversation on the phone this evening about how Uncle Bob is partying up in Heaven with their younger brother (Uncle Tom), Grandma, Grandpa, my cousin Suzanne (Uncle Bob's daughter), and various other Langleys. It is comforting to think about Death that way, that you are finally at peace and happy, and surrounded by the rest of your family and friends, in a place where there is no more hurt, no more tears.

Rest in peace, Uncle Bob.

The Mullens of Murphy Circle

Kevin and I bought a house! It's been a whirlwind of activity and things are moving very very rapidly, but I am happy to say that we are soon to become actual homeowners. I've been really hesitant to talk about it too much, call me superstitious or crazy, but I've kind of felt like if I talked about it then it wouldn't come true. The stars are all in alignment though, because our offer was accepted and we're set to close on it in one month.

Crazy that just a few weeks ago we'd never heard of Murphy Circle. None of my housing searches on the realtor websites had pulled up our house. But it was out there, hiding behind a higher sticker price, just out of our price range. When it dropped to a lower asking price, our realtor jumped on it, and brought us to see it the next day. Of course we loved it, and went back to see it again at their open house two days later. We put in an offer and found that someone else also loved our house and had also put in an offer -- for 10 grand higher than we offered. Luckily for us, the other bidders had contingencies on their offer that made us look a lot more attractive as buyers, and the homeowners went with our offer. We had the inspection last week and everything went really well. The inspector did recommend a couple of second opinions on some work to the house, and those inspections were done today. We were scheduled to have the P&S (purchase & sales?) tomorrow, but as it turns out, our attorney just had a baby -- as in JUST had a baby, like over the weekend -- so we're delaying that a week. It shouldn't affect our closing date though.

Speaking of, the closing date is set for August 28th. It's a great date, just at the end of our rental period with our Brookline place. We're hoping the stars stay aligned and that date stays firm.

Hap Birf to you, dear Zach! (as sung by Zachary)

Zachary is officially no longer a baby. He turned 2 on Saturday, which is what I define as the age when babyhood ends, although I don’t know if I can actually stop calling him Baby. Since he was born I’ve been getting emails from various kid sites and the subject lines have been “your baby at 6 weeks; your baby at 9 months; your toddler at 15 months, etc”. On Saturday I got an email entitled “your preschooler at 24 months.” I don’t think I can make that leap to preschooler just yet. He’s still well into toddlerhood in my mind.

So Saturday was an absolutely perfect (although a tad too hot) summer day, and we celebrated Zach’s birthday with a party in the park. His friends Nicholas, Isabel, Kiran, and Nadia were able to join us. We played on the swings, in the sand, and running all around. Unbelievably, the park was empty for almost the entire party, so we took over the whole seating area. It was very nice. It’s so funny and cute to see Zach with little friends and to watch them interact.

Because of the timing of the party (mid-afternoon) we opted to not have a meal, but we did have snacky foods and, of course, cake. Kevin feels very strongly about homemade birthday cakes, and we went back and forth on what we should make. I had originally thought Zach’s birthday party theme would be puppies because he loves them so much, but in the end we went with a beach-y sort of theme instead. His invitations were photo invitations and he was clearly on the beach in the photo, so we continued with that thinking. Kevin initially wanted to make a sailboat cake, but my idea of a sandcastle cake won him over, and I think the end result came out pretty well. Kevin baked the cakes and I cut them out and decorated them. It was actually pretty fun and easy to do.

Zach got some great gifts at his party, and has been playing non-stop with them ever since we got home that afternoon! I think it’s time to start packing up (and putting away) some of his younger babyish toys, and finding room for his more mature toys. Lately he’s into toy foods, pretend play, and trains, as well as bubbles and riding toys.

There was a lovely breeze when I was trying to light the candle on Zach’s cake, and we ended up not being able to get it to stay lit. So we sang Happy Birthday without having a lit candle. We thought Zach would join in the singing – he sings that song several times a day – but instead he got a little shy and smiley instead. He did enjoy the cake (and the gogurt which got all over him) as well as his Elmo juice box, and sang it privately at home to us later.

Happy birthday to my baby Zachary! No matter how old you get, you’ll always be my sweet baby boy.

6 Weeks

Kevin was gone for 6+ weeks this summer, as is usual, while he was on his excavation in Spain. We missed him terribly, but we were actually pretty busy so the time went pretty quickly. We had a lot going on over the weekends and I never posted anything about those fun weekends because there was too much to capture! But I think I’ll put up a Cliffs Notes version of it all now with a few photos as well.

Weekend 1 – May 22nd
My sister (Barb), my mom, and my niece (Abby) and nephew (Alex) came for a visit. Kevin left on Friday and they came on Saturday! Mom hadn’t seen Zach since he was 6 weeks old and I think was amazed at how big he had gotten. We went down to the Boston Public Gardens and Fanueil Hall and had a nice time. The weather was all over the place, warm, then cold, so Em was all bundled up (she’s always cold) and Abby was in summer gear (she was optimistic). Zach loved having more family members to play with, and he and Abby actually got along quite well, despite their age difference (she’s 8, but loves babies!) The weekend went by too quickly; it was so good to see them!

Weekend 2 – May 29th
Hmm, of course now I can’t remember this particular weekend! It might have been the only weekend we didn’t have anything going on. The following week was Em’s prom and prep for her graduation.

Weekend 3 – June 5th
This was Emily’s graduation weekend, which I already posted about. Sandy came up and was tremendously helpful as always, in particular with watching Zach for me so that I could get the house in order for the party, as well as just to sit in peace during the graduation ceremony itself and get teary eyed over my baby girl’s high school graduation.

Weekend 4 – June 12th
We traveled to NJ on Thursday evening because Friday evening was my goddaughter Michelle’s sweet 16 birthday party. Her actual birthday was in April, but they had the party in June to help travelers (ie: us) who were also attending her brother Jonathan and stepsister Megan’s graduation party the following day. Michelle’s party was super fun and she was absolutely breathtaking in her gold dress. The guests all wore black, white, or black & white, so she really stood out in her shimmery dress. I remember very clearly the first time I held Michelle in my arms when she was just about a month old. I can’t believe she can drive now! Crazy. Zach didn’t go to Chelle’s party – he partied instead with Grammy and Papa Bob. The following day was the graduation party for Jonathan and Megan. The weather didn’t hold out so it was overcast and rainy on and off all day. They have a pool and some brave souls did go in for a little bit (Em was one of those brave folks), but for the most part we stayed in the house or went out to roast marshmallows over the fire pit. The kids also bounced on the trampoline, and Zach made friends with some of the other kids there, although he was the youngest by many years. Our other very close family friends (the Meynardi’s) were there and it was so wonderful to see them as well. Debbie, Karen, and I were all friends in Albany many, many years ago (Karen and I went to college together, and Deb and I met when Em and Jonathan were 6 months old). It was so great to see all those guys and get the kids together like we used to do a lot more often when they were younger. On Sunday I took Em out to the Jersey Shore to meet her college roommate Tori. She is very nice and very pretty and the girls hit it off right away. I think they’re going to be a great fit. Weekend 5 – June 19th
Saturday was our little friend Nicholas’s first birthday party! He had a luau-themed party at his house and it was so cute and fun! Zach even tried on a grass skirt. Nicholas had such a yummy birthday cake, but they also had a tray of desserts and goodies. I grabbed a mini-cupcake for Z and he immediately licked all the icing off and then handed me the unbitten cupcake for me to eat.

Weekend 6 – June 26th
Back down to New Jersey we went for my friend Nancy’s baby shower. She’s due with Baby Jack at the end of August. Nancy is one of my oldest friends – we were on the crew team together in college, and we were roommates in Philadelphia (during our short-lived move there post-college). She threw me one of my baby showers when I was pregnant with Emily, and it was so nice to be a part of her baby shower (her first baby!) The party was held at our friend Sandra’s house in Maplewood, which is the town that Nancy and her husband Glenn also just bought a house in, so we walked over to the new house to take a look.

Weekend 7 – July 3rd
Yay! It was a long weekend and I took the following week off on vacation (my “staycation” – also another post). Em was at her dad’s house for the weekend so Zach and I went to my friends’ house up in Boxford (north of Boston) on the 4th of July. I went to college with Lisa and Eric and hadn’t seen them in years although they moved to Massachusetts about a year and a half ago. They have twin boys who are 13 and a 7 year old daughter. We had a lovely cookout at their house and caught up on things. Zach hadn’t had a nap so we didn’t stay late. Plus, I wanted to get him home before we got caught in too much traffic coming into Boston for the big fireworks and party on the Esplanade. I got Zach off to bed for the night before the fireworks really got into it – we live close enough to Boston that you can see the fireworks from my bedroom window (they’re low on the horizon, but you can see them , especially the finale), and especially you can hear them. On Sunday we went to a birthday party for Zach’s friend Sarah, who just turned 2 as well.

Monday, July 6th
Emily, Zach and I went to Revere Beach and had a great time! I totally got sunburned but it was so beautiful and really one of the first really great summery days so far this year. We had our traditional lunch from Kelly’s Roast Beef and ate it on the beach. Zach made friends with a little boy and they played together until we left. After a good nap and bath, he and I went to the airport and picked up Kevin!! Yay!!!

The rest of last week was good. Kevin was home (although had to work), but the weather wasn’t great. We did a lot of things around the house and it was nice to just chill. On Friday we met with our realtor and went out to look at some houses with him. The results of that are worthy of another post, so will post that later (along with lots of pictures!)

Day 1 of my "staycation"

Today is the first day I have off for my week home on my staycation. (For those of you who don't know, a staycation is a vacation where you stay at home, and explore your home area. I'm having a staycation because we have no money to go anywhere, and daycare is closed next week, so we're going to explore our local beaches and parks.)

Fortunately, the weather cooperated and Zach and I hit a couple of our local parks. He did not get the memo on letting Mommy sleep past 6:00 (or even at least until 6:00), so he and I were up with the birds (although he was back down for a nap at 10:00). It really felt nice to just kind of hang out, play with and rediscover his toys, even do laundry! The past month has been so hectic, that it felt luxurious to not do a whole lot today.

I have a famously bad sense of direction, but actually gave tourists correct directions into town today. Does that mean I've become a local? Am I a Bostonian? No, I don't think so either. I'm just a displaced Upstate New Yorker girl (although I am becoming kind of urban).

Em is at her dad's for the weekend and Kevin comes home on Sunday. I am so excited for his return! I know Zach is missing him a lot as well. He was really cute earlier -- we watched some old Zachary videos on the computer, and I think he got confused with the ones where Kevin was in them because he kept trying to talk to him. We do talk to Kevin on Skype on the computer and I think he thinks that Kevin lives in the computer monitor.

Tomorrow we're heading up north of Boston to visit my friends Lisa and Eric. They are friends of mine from college and moved here a year or two ago and we haven't gotten together yet. They invited us over for a cookout and I thought that might be fun. Zach and I are going to skip the fireworks because they start so late, but it will be nice to celebrate the holiday with friends. We have a party on Sunday as well -- a birthday party for my friend Lydia's daughter Sarah. She's turning 2 and she and Zach are friends as well.

I should probably head to bed early since Zach will likely have me up early, plus we have a Skype date with Kevin first thing in the morning.!

Breakfast is more fun when you share it with friends

This is pretty self-explanatory. Zach likes blueberries, but so do his toy-friends. He's a very good share-r.

Looking on the bright side

It has rained what I believe is a record number of days in a row here in Boston. Or maybe a record number of days for this time of year. It's rainy and a little chilly, yet still humid (such a nice combo, right? It does wonders for the hair). It really stinks, we're all in bad moods, but I'm trying to put a positive spin on it and think on the bright side, so I've come up with a list of reasons why it's not so bad that the weather is crappy.

Jody's Top 10 Reasons Why a Cold and Rainy June (and July) is Okay:
1) I haven't had to turn on the a/c yet so we're saving on electric bills.
2) I'm saving myself from the risk of dying from skin cancer by not exposing myself to the sun.
3) I'm saving others from the risk of laughing to death at the sight of me in a bathing suit on the beach.
4) My normally sadly neglected outdoor plants are thriving and out of control.
5) Boston will surely not encounter a drought or water shortage this year.
6) My windshield wipers are earning their keep.
7) So that I don't run the risk of sleeping through the night and being too well rested, I get the comforting crack of thunder a few times each night to help wake me up.
8) When the sun finally does appear and summer actually arrives, I will really appreciate it!
9) I'm getting a lot of use out of my cold weather clothes.
10) Zach gets the fun of jumping into puddles on a daily basis.

Our heat also just got fixed today after not working since some time in April. Of course this should be a harbinger of summer for us -- now that we can actually turn on the heat, we don't need it, right? I should thank the landlords.

Zachary has fun with crayons

Some kids color with crayons. Zach finds non-traditional ways to play.

Em is a working woman!

Last week Emily applied to a job at a clothing store in the mall next to my office. It's the ONLY job she has applied for this summer (or really, ever). She got the phone call today -- she got the job!!

Em's first day is on Thursday. She has to fill out paperwork and go through training. She wasn't sure if she's actually "working" on that day, but I told her she should be prepared to. She will need to buy some clothes from that store (she doesn't have any!) because she's only allowed to wear their brand while she works. I guess I will hook her up with a few things in advance, and then she'll have to buy anything else after she gets her first paycheck.

I'm so happy for and proud of her! I remember my first job and the freedom I felt by having my own money that I'd earned. I think she was surprised and excited that they hired her, but I think this is very good for her ego and a good start to her summer vacation.

Chatting with Daddy

With Kevin in Spain, we do our best to chat every couple of days via Skype on the computer. We both have web cameras with built in microphones, so we can talk and see each other at the same time. This is great with the baby because being away from your Daddy for 6 weeks at a stretch is tough! But seeing him "live" every few days helps a lot. Zach will smile and chat with Kevin and kiss the monitor. They also get to do high fives and fist bumps and interact. It's really sweet.

On Father's Day we had a nice little chat with Kevin. I woke Z up from his nap to talk to him so he was groggy, but as soon as he saw his daddy he lit right up with a huge smile. This is him sitting on the desk right next to Kevin who is on the computer monitor.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband, Kevin! Even though you're in Spain at the moment, Zach and I will be toasting to you, going to play at the park, and blowing kisses to your photo (and to you "live" on Skype). Have a very happy day today, and know that we love you!!

Terrible 2s

I'm a little behind on my posts -- have had lots of fun things going on this month but I don't seem to have time to write about them! Instead I post mundane things like this. :)


The other night we had to go to Target to get several things (including the detergent in the post below). Evenings are kind of hard to do things like that because we have limited time between picking Zach up from daycare and getting him to bed -- sleep, bath, stories -- they all seem to fill up that time nicely. Adding in a run to Target messes up the schedule. But it couldn't be helped, so after getting home from daycare and shoveling Z full of dinner (he was not a big fan of meat ravioli), we ran out the door. You'll notice in this photo that he doesn't match and looks kind of dirty. Yes, Distracted Mom didn't really notice. That's not what he wore to daycare -- it's what Lucy changed him into after he told her he had poo poo and then showed her. He stuck his hand into his diaper and shared the contents with her. Yuck!!! It apparently also must have gotten onto his clothes because she changed his whole outfit. Anyway, he came home like this and we went out to Target like this. And because Z had had a cookie with dinner (very unusual, I don't give him sweets, but Em had made cookies and he really wanted one), he was jacked up on sugar and a little crazy. He wouldn't stay in the cart, just wanted to run at Target. We played with toys for a while, but I really needed to get a few things and that's when he melted down. Yes, filled with sugar and overly tired, my not yet 2 year old had a tantrum or two in the store. It was cute of course because even whiney Zach is adorable, but it was really hot in the store for some reason and I had on a sweater that I couldn't remove, so it was hard to handle. I finally wised up and realized he'd be okay if he walked and I pushed the cart -- but just had to continuously herd him towards where I needed to go. While I was looking at detergent he moved all of the dryer sheets from one side of the aisle to the other so I'm sure they just love us right now at Target. But it kept him occupied for 2 minutes so I confess I let him do it. We made it out of the store intact but it did make me realize (for the 1 millionth time) how much I miss and appreciate Kevin!

Mr. Hefty Hefty Hefty

This morning just after finishing his breakfast, Zach grabbed the bottle of detergent that I hadn't brought down to the basement yet, and said "Heavy". I didn't know he knew that word! I love when he comes out with things that I didn't know he could say! I grabbed my ever-handy camera to show him lugging the bottle around. It really IS heavy!

23 Random Things About Zachary

Zach turns 2 next month, and in honor of his last month of being 1, he asked me to share with you some little know random facts about himself.

23 random things about me (because I am – almost – 23 months old):

1) I love orange juice and ask for it every morning (“orny yuice”). I like to drink it in a big boy cup that doesn’t have a sippy top on it. I’m getting pretty good at not spilling.
2) I look almost exactly like my Daddy did when he was my age.
3) I don’t really have eyebrows. They might be there but just really really blonde. For some reason my mommy is a little obsessed about this.
4) I’m getting a little tired of my high chair. I think it looks like a lot more fun to just sit right at the table.
5) At restaurants, I turn around in the high chair (and stay that way) so I can see the rest of the people in the restaurant and flirt with them and say hi repeatedly.
6) I really want a doggie. Or a kitty. I love them both a lot.
7) I am the only Zachary at my daycare.
8) My sister’s room is one of the coolest places on Earth. I like to go in there and play with all her make-up toys.
9) I’m a collector. I like to pick up pine cones, rocks, and other items and carry them around.
10) I’m a huge water baby and love to play and splash in the water and dig in the sand at the beach.
11) I hate vegetables. Sometimes I’ll eat peas or carrots if I’m starving and they haven’t given me anything else to eat yet, but I usually try to avoid them.
12) My shadow is really cool! I discovered it a few months ago and I like to make it move.
13) I like the moon and airplanes up in the sky. I will point them out to you.
14) When I’m in a coffee shop or a restaurant and they grind coffee beans or turn on a blender, I will also make those grind-y noises.
15) I’m a little afraid of our vacuum cleaner although I try to be brave.
16) I love to be outside. I love to climb on things. I love to jump off of things. I have lots of bruises on my legs.
17) I try to sing the happy birthday song and the ABC song almost every day.
18) Apparently I’m a little tall for my age. This works to my advantage when I want to grab things that the grown-ups put up high and think I can’t reach.
19) I’ve woken up dry a few times from naps lately which gets Mommy excited. She’s not too happy though when I pee wherever I happen to be when my diaper is not on.
20) Parks are cool. I love playgrounds (bonus when they also have a sandbox).
21) I like to try to do things myself. It makes me mad when people take things away from me to try to help me.
22) My blankie is one of my prized possessions. I sleep with it every night – sometimes I sleep on TOP of it instead of having it over me. It is snuggly and blue and nice, even when it needs to be washed.
23) It’s pretty easy to get me to laugh. Just chase me or tickle me. Laughing is soooo funny!

Emily's Graduation on the Web (and TV)

In case you missed it or if you're interested in seeing it again, you can now see Em's graduation online (or if you're in Brookline, on BATV). If you only want to see her actually walk across the stage, you can fast forward till close to the end (maybe 3/4 of the way through) to see her. She's the 3rd one to walk, so don't miss her. :-) Click the title link to see the video.

Graduation!

Well, she did it! Emily graduated high school on Sunday, June 7th! It was a glorious day, very warm and sunny, and the graduation was held outside, on the field in front of the school. She was the 3rd (out of 430 kids) to walk across the stage to get her diploma. We were fairly far back from the stage, but there was no missing that beaming smile! I took some pictures of her (which I'll post later tonight), but the whole thing was also apparently filmed by Brookline Access TV, so I'll have to find out what channel that is on so I can record it, assuming they repeat it again considering it's now 2 days later.

Following the graduation ceremony, we all went back to our house for a party to celebrate. We had yummy food, mimosas, and cake, and Emily opened up a whole bunch of great presents. We had attendees from North Carolina (Grandma Acevedo), Pennsylvania (Debbie and Mike -- our wonderful old family friends), New Jersey (Grammy Sandy), Connecticut (her dad Mike and his girlfriend Laura), as well as our local "family" from Melrose (Liz, Dave, Nicholas, and Baby Girl, who is due in August -- on Em's birthday). Making a late showing was Mr. Cawthorne, Emily's favorite teacher, who actually lives on our street! He has been Em's history teacher for the past couple of years and was one of the teachers who wrote her college recommendations. Considering she got into 8 schools, mostly her own doing but undoubtedly those recommendations helped, I think we owe him a debt of gratitude!

Emily got a lot of money and gift cards for her graduation, but also some beautiful jewelry, a bike (from me and Kevin), a Tiffany key ring, some yummy lotions, and a jewelry making kit from her little brother. Her dad went the sentimental route, and along with a gorgeous sapphire and diamond necklace, gave her a mix tape (okay, it was a CD) filled with all the songs that remind him of her, along with a copy of the Dr. Seuss book "Oh the Places You'll Go". It was very sweet, and an emotional moment for us all. But I'm a big, big sap, so cried on and off the whole day. In fact, my throat is all chokey now, thinking about how my baby girl is already so grown up and has graduated high school! I'm so proud of her!

Prom Night

It's Emily's senior prom night! She's there at the prom now, and has already texted me a couple of times to say that it's kind of boring. The kids all said that at the junior semi-formal dance last year too. I'm not sure what they're expecting, but apparently dancing is not it. They're more looking forward to the ATPP (after the prom party). Fortunately, the high school throws a fabulous bash at the school gym to keep the kids occupied and in a safe place for most of the night and wee hours of the morning, post-prom.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First I have to share photos of my beautiful girl, all decked out in her prom-y clothes. I can't help but remember my own senior prom and the layers of pink satin and crinoline I wore. Compared to me, Em has a very sleek, California-esque, simplistic look. But still beautiful, no? I was surprised at the simple dresses the girls all chose. They're all very pretty, but very short. Out of the girls who went to Becky's house for the pre-prom photos (photos shown here), only one (Caitlin) had a long gown on. Maybe it's a Boston thing, because I've seen other friends post photos with their kids in long gowns. At any rate, they were all so cute decked out and they must have felt like we were the parent papparazzi with the amount of photos we took!

Becky's family hosted the pre-prom gathering at their beautiful home. We all hung out by the pool, had some snacks, and I even had a glass of wine. Zach came too and showed off all his cuteness. He loved Becky's dog, Hermes, and Rachel's little sister Madelyn (who is 10, much closer to his age than anyone else there!) Em's dad and girlfriend came in for this event as well, which I think always means a lot to Em considering he lives 3 hours away.

Unlike my prom in my high school gym, Em's prom is being held at the Fairmont Copley Hotel in Boston. This is a pretty swank place! They served them dinner (courses, Em said) and then it's dancing time. I think it goes until midnight or so, and then they'll hop back into their limos to go back to Becky's house (I think?) or someone else's house to change (probably should have found that out!) before going to the high school gym for the after-party. Poor Em is not a night owl these days -- she likes her sleep! You have to enter the after-party by 1:00 and then can NOT leave before 3:30 a.m. It goes until 5:00 a.m. The goal is to keep the kids inside, sober, not driving their cars down to the Cape, and getting into trouble. It's a great idea, but they're locked into the gym, and poor Em is going to be so exhausted! She talked a big game yesterday about staying up all night and then going out for breakfast, but I'm not sure how long she'll last.

These last couple of photos are of Emily and her date, Andrew, and Em and her favorite brother. No, there's no love connection (at least not pre-prom, we'll see if anything happens to change that). Andrew's mom introduced herself to me and then told me how adorable she thought Em was. :-) But of course.

The latest with us

I can't believe it's finally June! That means it should be getter warmer in Boston, and I guess it has, it's just sporadic. We can still use the heat at times, that is, if it was working. The landlord is getting the system upgraded, but they shut it off a couple of weeks ago and it's still off. They claim it's because they hired a "loser" and it's not their fault (that's pretty much verbatim for what they told me). Fortunately we have blankets and Zach has a space heater, and there are warm days here and there, or else I'd be a lot angrier. Note to self: if I'm ever a landlord, I will treat my tenants better than these guys have treated us. I'm really looking forward to buying a house and moving out at the end of the summer!

So the house hunting is kind of fun, but really overwhelming. We've been pre-approved for a mortgage and our credit is actually really good. Kevin and I were surprised for some reason by this. I think we both expected the lender to laugh at us -- kind of like "oh you little children, you aren't adult enough to buy a house." Fortunately that was not the case and we are somehow actually able to afford a house in the Boston area. While we will still pay a small fortune for a house, it will still be all ours, with no one living above or below us. We've gone to a bunch of open houses and have a better idea of what we like (and more importantly, what we don't like) and have come to the conclusion that we might need to live a little further out of town so we can get a bit more of a yard. The next step is to find a realtor and educate ourselves on homebuying. As Kevin is in Spain for the next 5 weeks, the realtor shopping is up to me, and I have a few people I need to speak with about this. It's on hold though at least for the next week though as there are a few other major things happening at home this week.

Emily's last day of school was on Friday of last week, and she goes to the prom tonight. Her date asked her via text message which just made me laugh as it is sooooo 21st century to be asked that way! She has a beautiful silk aqua colored dress and is wearing gold accessories. She has been freshly spray-tanned, had her nails done, re-dyed her hair again a little darker (it's been fading nicely to a light reddish brown that I like and she doesn't), and is going this afternoon to get her hair done. She's not sure if it's going up or down. She's been working on finding hairstyles that she likes. I think she's put more effort into getting ready for the prom than I did for my wedding! Okay, maybe not quite, but I at least skipped the spray tan portion. Em is going to her friend Caitlin's house to continue to get ready, and then everyone is meeting up at Becky's house for pictures and to take the limos together. I'll post pictures this evening. I'm sure they're going to be so pretty and I will be my typical sappy mess as my baby girl hits yet another milestone.

I'm giving blood at work at lunchtime (before I leave early to get Em to/from the hairdresser), and hoping they actually let me do it. Last time I tried to give blood I was denied because I didn't have enough iron in my blood. I've been borderline anemic my whole life, but I usually pass the iron test on the second try. I was a little dizzy this morning though so I'm a little worried. Maybe I should eat something. I think it's so important to give blood, and since they're actually coming to my office, I feel like I have to do it.

I hate to post this without photos, but I'm at work (shh, don't tell my boss) and if I don't post it now, I never will. Will post more with updated Em photos later.

Last Day of School

13 years of school are done, and today is Emily's official last day of high school! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown. We moved to Brookline when she was turning 10 (which also means we've now lived in Massachusetts for the same length of time as we lived in North Carolina). She graduates next weekend and will head back to North Carolina in August to go to college (East Carolina University). I'm such a sap; my eyes fill up every time I think of her leaving me. But I cry at Hallmark commercials, so it's only natural that such a big life event will make me tearful. It's a good thing though, and these are happy tears. I just have to remember to buy some waterproof masacara before graduation day!

The First Post!

I thought that I'd try out the blogging approach to keeping everyone up-to-date on our lives, since I've been so terrible about keeping up with the website. This new site should be easy enough to remember, right? I kept a similar name. :-)

For my most first post, I'll keep it short and sweet until I learn my way around the site, but thought I'd put up a recent photo of my teen and my toddler. You'll note that Emily has gone brunette again, and that Zachary has recently had a haircut (his 2nd!) They're sitting on the Mrs. Mallard statue of the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues in the Boston Public Garden. This is one of our favorite spots in Boston, and we went down there on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend when my family was visiting.