Weekend Recap 5/3-5/5

Another weekend has flown by at lightening speed and I am left sulking on my way to work that its all gone. (At least I'm assuming so. I'm writing this Sunday night and scheduling it for the morning. Who knows, I could be sunshine and rainbows.)
Now that the sun is out and temperatures are up, I'm finding it harder to get to work on Monday mornings. I just want to go out and play!
Friday afternoon started out though, with not any playing at all. As a volunteer coach it's not required for me to help out at high school meets, but seeing as I would eventually like to get a paid coaching job in this district or out, the more I help out hopefully the better.
It was a hand timed meet; I worked at the finish line writing down the times with some of my middle school-ers running the times over to be announced.

Sounds easy enough.

And I mean it was. But  I'm pretty sure that's because I'm a teacher.
There was a lot of multi-tasking. It was a 5 team meet and half of the timers where high-school-ers. So sometimes the  times didn't match up with places, or just no times at all.

And then the computer that was printing out the events got coffee spilled on it. So up in the botth they weren't really in a place to figure out places, and I didn't have the official sheets left, just the tiny lists of every runner in each event not split into heats...

So I was taking down times, scanning sometimes 8 sheets of results and figuring out places, making columns and lines to organize the tiny printouts, and organizing my middle school runners.
All at the same time.
 Go-go multi-tasking super-powers!


Thank goodness Dave came with a huge ice coffee for me, and then stuck around and directed high-school-ers that wanted to ask me where to check in for their even away from harms way.
It was also pretty nice to have some of my most reliable kids hanging around and helping me out.

After we left the meet at 8:30 PM (WOOF!) we headed to our local Greek Pizza place where the owners are literally Greek. They were close to closing but we're regulars so they sat down and ate their dinner with us with the whole place to ourselves. Let me tell you that pizza hit the spot!

The next morning we went on a hike up a small mountain with my Mom, Dad, and their dog Molly.

But before we left, Bruin and Linus got some sun.

Oh and just in case you don't follow me in on Instagram or Twitter, while I'm showing photos of my pets, here are a couple of Bruin giving Linus his nightly bath on last Monday.

You're welcome. 

Back to this weekend.

There's nothing to make you feel like you need to get into shape like your Mom kicking your butt up a mountain. Not that she's out of shape. She's one of those crazy runners that stays in amazing shape even after having 4 kids.
Don't hate her because she's beautiful.

It was pretty steep and quick, but was fine once we got into  the swing of things.

We decided not to summit since we were pretty ready for lunch around 1. But we did find a place with a nice view to eat at.

Here's Dave with apparently a  turtle/giraffe neck, nom-nom-noming on his sandwich.

I don't have any photos of my parents or their dog because I took a nap while everyone else ate.
Don't worry, Dave got photos of that. 

Bruin is my cuddle-buddy even at the top of a mountain.

This was right before I rolled onto my side and gave a few snores. It's fine. Pine needles were really meant to be nature's pillow.

 That would be Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. (We were hiking in Maine.) Still snow. To think Dave wanted to hike/ski that this weekend. NO THANKS.

The descent was nice and we got to have some pretty good conversation, and watch the dogs spaz out on the trail together.

Here were our sweaty butts when we were done.

Dave wet my bandana in a brook to cool me off. It was perfect.

 On the way home we stopped for Ice Cream. We're those people that get vanilla ice cream with a dog bone on it for our dog.
Bruin deserves to be completely spoiled before we start having kids in a few years and he's not the only one we take hiking.

 Another shot of Bruin getting it done.

When we got home, we were pooped. We took showers, poured some boxed wine into juice glasses and caught up on our "Thursday" shows on Hulu. Pretty awesome.

Sunday was pretty relaxed. Dave showed off how handy he was when he took off the dog bed cover to get washed, realized the foam was falling out, and patched it with some old pants. 

Good as new!

Sunday afternoon we also decided it was about time to hang up the twine that the Morning Glories and Moon Flowers will *hopefully* climb up on our front porch/awning.

 

We have had mixed luck with gardening, so we're hoping this project will work out. Or else we're just those young kids with the strong on the front of their house.

 Dave put in the nails and tied the knots because I get all wobbly when I get onto ladders.

 We of course didn't plan ahead for the actual planting of the seeds, because we forgot to soak them ahead of time. So I guess they will be going in tomorrow.

If we remember them.
Or the cat doesn't go fishing and eat them all while we're at work.
That would be some weird poop in the litter box.

To end the weekend, Dave and I needed to go grocery shopping.
Now we've been both trying to think of ways to eat healthier. We did some research on some different ways to cleanse and get a little more natural and realized that we actually have a lot of sugar in our diets.

So for two weeks we are going to eat "clean" and do a "No Sugar Challenge". This means nothing with added sugars and if they have sugars are pretty low.
Lots of smoothies, salads, and overall, actually, fresh deliciousness.

We'll see how this goes...

This is what the check-out looked like. So many vegetable bags! So much money!

But I think it will be nice to get ourselves back on track and not have sugary stuff every day after every meal.

And when we got home from shopping?
Well we kind of had a "last meal" of sorts.
We did have some frozen Chinese food and Ben and Jerry's in that cart, and we did eat it all. We're going to be good for two weeks, so we figured our body will appreciate it more if we had Chinese and ice cream right?

We finished the night with me updating the blog, Saturday Night Live on Hulu, and getting some grading in the grade-book.

I will keep you updated on the flowers and the sugar-free eating.
I wouldn't want to keep you up at night wondering if I've broken down and eaten an Oreo or not.

Hope your weekend was as eventful as me sleeping on a small mountain and buying some kale in bulk!

Stay Awkward, 
Tricia

You Wouldn't Be Able to Picture My Weekend. Oh Wait. Yes You Can.

Whew! I go a few days without a substantial update and I feel like I've been gone forever!

I was a busy, busy girl over the weekend. And not in a, "I had so many errands to run and things to clean in my house kind of way."

Because let's just be serious for one second here. Myself cleaning for an entire weekend is something that you-all will never find me writing about on this-here-blog.

By busy, I mean I was with my crazy family having quite the crazy time. And you better believe that I had my new camera with me as I acted as my family's personal paparazzi.

I was hoping to post earlier but after reading some other blogs decided that I should make myself a watermark for my photos since I will be posting some more of my own photos on my blog as I start taking more of them. We wouldn't want people stealing my pictures of two dogs spazzing out together or a couch covered in fur and not giving me credit now let me tell you!

Now I'm just going to throw it out there that making something as small as two lines of text that you can apply to any and all pictures is SO MUCH MORE DIFFICULT THAN IT SHOULD BE.

So, needless to say, I hoped to post about my weekend sooner, but alas I spent two hours googling tutorials and yelling at my computer. I used a childhood nickname and then copy and pasted my blog url for my trademark. Putting a name to something that is not your full name is awkward.

So just appreciate the fact that the little white text in the corner of each pic  took me FOREVER AND A DAY.

HOKAY, so let's start sharing. My whole family was home this weekend. This may not sound like a lot, but when I say whole family I mean everyone. Both parents, all four sisters, all three significant others, and all three naughty dogs. If that doesn't sound like a lot of people to you in a three bedroom house, then you need to go home.

We hadn't been able to get everyone together all at one time like this since my wedding in February, so you better believe it was a very busy household. Also, we're still celebrating the recent engagement that we are all just so excited about.

We started out with a bonfire. There was one photo that members of my family won't kill me for posting here from the night, and it is of Bruin in the window wondering when his turn to be outside was going to be.

Saturday morning the husband arrived straight from work and my parents decided to take all of us to an island that's only a twenty minute ferry ride from the coast.



We left as soon as we got the dogs settled.

Don't worry, we didn't keep them in here while we were gone. Just while we were running around getting ready.

The weather and ocean was perfect for the ride out.

Just gorgeous people, on a gorgeous day. It's rough being in my family let me tell you.

Oh, there are some giggles.

We ferried right on past the building where my reception was held for my wedding. That's right, the building right in the middle. Best. Wedding. Ever.

Happy Couple

Excited?

Lunch on the island.

Flowers, everyone can photograph flowers right?

Alright, this is me unsticky-fying my hands. Sister #1 took this picture, not I. So technically, my watermark shouldn't be on it, but I had to instruct her enough on how to actually use the camera I think I deserve credit.

That skyline in the background with all of the buildings? Just the biggest city in Maine. This is why I love this state. 20 minutes between the city and a beauty of an island.

The one picture I was given permission to take of my mother the entire time. Enjoy.

The men have a meeting in the water.

She lives for summer.

Singing to the snail to get it to come out of it's shell. It did.

Unsure of the daunting task ahead of us.

The sarge rounding up the troops to jump off the pier.

These look like convinced faces right?

We didn't want to jump off where the ferry docked as it was supposed to be coming in soon. So we picked this, right next door and just as high. I sat out the first jump so I could take some pictures.

Everyone ready?

Set...

Go!

I put my camera down long enough to go for a few jumps myself. Here's the one with the sisters.

I'm going to pause you right here. This photo is hilarious and this guy will probably kill me for posting it, but I could not resist. This boy owns a huge truck, tromps around in the woods in his steal toe boots,  and is usually covered in paint, or mud, or something that won't wash off. He posed for this as a joke. The fact that it turned out so serious is just, by far, THE BEST.

Leaving on the ferry.

Suburns and smiles.

A fort with a forest.

Always used to hang out on these rocks.

Tired guy on the ride home. Can you tell he hadn't slept in 24 hours? What a trooper.

So those are just some of the photos from our little family adventure. (You don't need to see all 100 right?)
We spent another night, played cards, spent more time together, and gave eachother a hard time. My camera, at  that point, had died so no photos of uno.

But, before it died, I got to take some other photos.

Of what you may ask?

My first Maid of Honor duty was to take some engagement photos for the adorable new betrotheds!

I need to give my eyes a break from the screen, go for a short jog so my whole body doesn't get completely stuck to the couch for realsies, and catch up on my other reads.

So this post will end, but prepare yourself for my next one including lots of pictures of beautiful people smiling in matching outfits!

I Partied Like It Was My Birthday. Because It Was.

So now that I'm 24, I'm officially older, wiser, and know everything.

Just kidding.


But do not expect this post to be about how turning 24 changes my life perspective and how I see the world through different eyes. Get ready for a recap of my birthday and how I had a fabulous time.

On Thursday we headed down to my parents to pick up my youngest sister. On the way to their house I got a phone call from my older sister with some great news:

SHE'S ENGAGED!

This is some pretty exciting stuff. She's been dating a fantastic guy for about 6 years now and I'm so happy for the both of them. 

And I may or may not be SUPERDUPERPUMPED that someone close to me is getting married and I can look at wedding things and talk about it, BUT DON'T HAVE TO MAKE ANY DECISIONS! The best.

Okay, back to my birthday.

So we get to my parents, get excited about the wedding that will be occurring next summer, grab my little sister, and head down to his parent's. The babies were tired.

We spent some time with his family, and went to bed.

We woke up bright and early, said goodbye to Bruin, and were off?

To where you may ask?

I decided I wanted to spend my birthday at SIX FLAGS!

This may not sound all that exciting to some of you, but I had never been to a Six Flags and had a coupon that gave me a wicked deal for admission. 

I MEAN WICKED.

On our way there we realized we had forgotten sunglasses. So as fashion divas we clearly stopped at the nearest gas station to pick up a two-for deal.

 

Six Flags New England is approximately 3 hours away from our starting point, so we settled in for the drive. Unfortunately the weather did not want to cooperate. My fancy phone, which took most of the photos in this post, told me thunderstorms would be looming over the roller coasters that we were planning on bossing. So we stopped at a rest stop an hour away, ate, and tried to make a call.

Weather at the rest stop after some rain. Debbie downer trumpet WAH-WAAAAAH.

After much deliberation and some delicious sandwiches, we decided that anywhere else we might choose might be a let down, and there were plenty of spots to hang out if it did rain. We made the uncertain decision to head to the park.

And guess what, everything worked out perfectly!

Because of the nasty weather, there were barely any lines.

 We wanted to get back to my parent's at a decent time to eat dinner, so we knew we had to make the most of the time. You need a whole day to get on every single ride there. We had three hours, so with the exception of a few water rides we had to really zone in on what we wanted to do.

What rides did we decide to do in our limited time? All of the hardcore rollercoasters of course!

We did not want to get our cellphones wet, so we don't have any pictures. 

Well, except for this one.

I cropped out the other people in our cart, but six flags cropped out my little sister. Well, you can see her legs.

We had to wait 45 minutes for this ride, not because of crowds, but because at one point many of the roller coasters were having maintenance due to rain. This roller coaster does not go upside down, but it had the biggest drop I have every seen. It was awesome.

The last roller coaster we went on the person running it asked if it was okay if the three of us sit up front. I was more than okay with that. We all got to sit together. Here is how we felt about this one, which did go upside down.

It's blurry, but as you can see, we're all screaming. And apparently we color coordinated as well.

Needless to say, it was a blast. 

We settled in for the long drive, and Erin and I took a picture to show how exhausted yet happy we were. This is what I captured.

Unfortunately a tractor trailer truck thought it would be funny to kick up a rock and crack my windsheild.

While that was bummerific, we're getting it fixed  tomorrow, and despite what people may think, it's not as horribly expensive to fix as you might think. (Around 200ish).

We made it back to my house safely, and I decided I wanted to keep it low key after traveling, so after we picked up the little mad at my in-law's so we headed to my parents' house and ate food they had love-ingly grilled. 

After cake and some laughs, it was time for presents. My parents gave me a Mt. Washington t-shirt as I totally bossed that mountain last year, and a giftcard. (I'd already gotten to some other gifts in the mail. Thanks Gram and Judy! I'll be sending out those thank you cards soon, promise!)

Dave then looked at me with a silly grin and had me open the card, it was no surprise that it had dogs on it. He eagerly handed me my gift, that was apparently from my parents, all of my sisters, and Dave. 

This is the part where I start to get excited. 

What did I find?????

Please enjoy my headband and pajamas. Oh, and chipping green polish.

For those of you who are familiar with my plight of having a Canon Rebel that is film only, you may know that I've been yearning for a digital DSLR. I had mentioned it in a few posts but in no way expected to get one so soon!!!!

It is a Nikon D5000. It has tons of features including video capabilities, live view while shooting on the screen, a screen that flips around so I can shoot in crowds and take self portraits, and sooooo many other features. The extent of my photography knowledge is from the one class I took in high school and the photography blogs that I follow. I'm just super excited that I have a camera that will have what I need as I *hopefully* expand my knowledge and skills.

Dave didn't get me a bag, not because he forgot, but because he is an angel from heaven and wanted me to pick one out on my own that I loved. So I shall be doing a post on all of that later.

So that was my birthday friends. I hope to be going out with some friends next weekend to continue the party. So just in case you were worrying, the celebrations are not done.

Have a fantastic Sunday!