Hula Champ!

Lindsey and Ryan came over on Tuesday to play some Wii...Lindsey and Champ played dress up =)

Snowy days...

You have to love how quick the weather can change in New England! Brian had a snow day today so we took Champ up to the trails for a hike in the snow. He LOVES the snow. That has to be my fave time of day, in the morning when it's just me and Champ on our walks in the trails. Don't get me wrong, it's great when Brian can join us, however, the man always needs to have a schedule or a plan. Today for example, we had to be back by 930 so we could go to the gym. Well what if Champ and I weren't ready to go back? haha I like that we can just walk for 45 minutes with no agenda. It's so peaceful up on the trails, no one to bother me! I tell ya, working opposite hours than brian during the winter definitely stinks. But when we're home together all day during the week, he DRIVES ME CRAZY. I have a routine in the mornings, and I like my routine. When he's home though, 8 AM he's already asking what my plans are for the day b/c he needs to know how to plan his day. OH MY! Not to mention the TV automatically gets turned onto ESPN. And I get questions like "why are you doing this?" "why wouldn't you do this?" LEAVE ME ALONE...i manage just fine without you here every other morning! =P Not sure where that all just came from, apparently I needed to vent. haha. It's really not that bad, it can be fun to be home together. But I'm not going to deny loving the fact that he has a job this summer =) And I'm sure he's not too upset to not have to hang out with me 24 hours a day. Funny isn't it? Before you get married all you want to do is hang out all of the time...then when you're married and able to hang out all the time, you'd rather not! =) Anyhow here are some pic from our lovely walk! The last one is of one of our neighbors shoveling snow onto the Champer, apparently it was a great game, and Champ just stood there and let him do it..what a good boy!

Sunny days...

This is a pic of Champ just two days ago!

The weekend

This weekend was a pretty good one, considering I had work on saturday and duty until 12 Saturday night. Friday night I got out early and Brian played basketball with some other guys on campus, it was nice to have the remote to myself at night! Sure I'm home alone all morning, but there's plenty that needs to be done at that time so I don't always watch a lot of tv. Sunday I went to a new church and then headed up to Simsbury for DAYTONA DAY! Brian and his dad watch the race together every year. I had every intention of watching it but then his mom said they were going shopping, so I opted to go with them! We made it back for the last 8 laps, which let's be honest, they're the only laps you really need to watch. His dad bought a quad, so before the race we tooled around in the snow for a while, so fun! On the way home we stopped by my parents and had a nice visit with them...the two things sundays are great for, either you sit around and chill out all day, or cram in as much family as you can...we like doing either one =)

So I went to a new church down the street, I got tired of driving up to NB for mass so I finally (after way too long) found one close to home. I was planning on going to this one, then checking out another one next week but I loved this one so I think I'm done searching! The first thing I noticed, besides the amazing architecture, was the crowd. My last church has kind of an older crowd, which I never realized before going to the new one. The crowd was much younger, most people were young couples either had kids, or were expecting. Everytime I turned around I saw a pregnant woman. And they have a great little semi enclosed area to bring kids if they are being disruptive, with all windows. I think thats a huge plus. I thought I would feel like an outcast walking into a new church, not knowing anybody...but it was the total opposite, it was completely comfortable. I really liked the pastors as well. There were two of them. The gospel yesterday was about transfiguration, and in the homily, the priest talked about change, and how it doesn't come without hardship and inconvenience but that it's worth it in the end. Change is evident in all of our lives. It should be accepted, instead of feared. He actually used the phrase "no pain no gain" which I thought was a "hip" reference haha. He also said something that caught my attention..making a change in our lives could in turn be a great change in our families, our community, and even the world. That hit home with me, we're a young couple planning on starting a family in the next couple of years...what bigger change is there in life?? It will most certainly have its hardships, and every now and then I'm sure there will some inconvenience, but in the end it is a change that will enrich our lives, our families lives, hopefully our community, and quite possibly the world. (future president perhaps?) Needless to say, I'm really excited to register as a member of Holy Trinity, and am super disappointed I can't attend mass next weekend b/c I'm working both Saturday evening and all morning Sunday :(

Lover Boy

Ok, so this pic was from last year, but it's still a pretty cute Valentines Day pic, hope everyone had a great Vday!

Sunny Opportunity!

I'm super excited...I got an email from someone requesting an athletic trainer to work a lacrosse camp in Hilton Head, SC during the first week of my march spring break. I emailed the guy back and got the job! It's from march 2nd-7th and they pay for me to get down there, to stay (on the beach!), and to eat breakfast and dinner every day. They will also give me a pretty decent stipend for working..which is unusual when a camp pays for everything else. I'm bummed it's not the same week brian has off (he has the week after that off) but b/c i'm working that week, it means that maybe the next week we can take off somewhere together. i get back late friday night then the next night we're going to see Bon Jovi at the casinos with my sister and her beau! We're staying over which will be awesome, I've never stayed at Mohegan before. We're going to go right at check in so we can enjoy the pool, etc. A mini vacation. Then hoepfully a couple days later we'll head to Florida...what was once a pretty low key break just turned into a couple of fun filled vacations...funny how plans change over night like that.

Now I need to vent a little bit...I'm the advisor for the school sport paper "The Press" (or should that be underlined? Clearly I'm not very good at the grammar part!) Anyhow, I'm mostly there to keep inappropriate things from being printed. And my boss, a great guy, is pretty strict so I have to think like him while I'm editing which can be pretty tough. Some of the jokes, I admit, I laugh out loud at but then I can't print them b/c they don't belong in a paper that parents and faculty members see. This weekends edition really aggravated me. I know it's almost spring, and the seniors are getting antsy, and it's showing in their work. They are getting pretty lazy! Which drives me insane...my name is attached to this paper as well, so if they throw in a private joke that I don't catch b/c it "looks" innocent, then my butt is on the line, and that REALLY ticks me off. Maybe I take it too seriously but I want it to look as professional as possible. Don't get me wrong, I want them to be free to be creative and to have fun but there's a line somewhere in there. This weekend for example, our wrestling team had an amazing weekend and the coaches and players were all really pumped (if you knew our wrestling team's history, you'd understand why). When I got their rough draft this morning, the article wasn't in there, they said they couldn't fit it and that it would go in the next edition on friday. Funny how I was able to move things around and get it to fit. They just didn't feel like doing the extra work. and b/c i'm not a pro at the program yet, what they could have done in 10 minutes, took me 2.5 hours..give me a break, it's a complicated program. So instead of hanging out with Brian this morning on his day off, I had to sit at the comp to fix what they didn't feel like fixing. I understand that they are kids, but I expect more out of them. Maybe thats my fault! We'll be having a nice little chat on thursday night. I've been nice so far...but this situation was only one thing wrong with this weeks edition, so no more mrs. nice gal!!

And the news keeps getting better!

So today I went to the new orthodontist with all of my xrays and the ceramic model of my mouth from my previous ortho. He was awesome, once again. He reiterated the fact that surgery would be a bad idea. He added some more reasons to his original ones, such as, my face looking "fake" afterwards, the skin not falling the right way, and the fact that it's not even guaranteed. I told him how much I paid for my previous mouthguard, not only did he tell me I overpaid (a lot!) he said that it wasn't helping my jaw, it was in fact making it worse. SWEET. he also told me he's going to charge me half the price the last guy was going to charge me for braces. I go next week to get my mouth guard fixed into something that will actually help my jaw, and then I get my botton braces on. yikes. he said he's going to give me the clearest braces possible so thats good. I'm so bummed that I didn't know he was an orthodontist last year at this time. I would have saved so much time, money, and would have been half way done with the braces thing. Live and learn I suppose. Lesson - always get a second opinion!!!

How could I forget???

I got so wrapped up in uploading pics to my last entry that I forgot about the best part of the weekend! Last night I went with Meg to Babies R Us to "help" her register (I was really just along for the ride, I clearly have no help to offer when it comes to buying baby stuff!) It was lots of fun...it's really overwhelming seeing the rows and rows of 'stuff' babies need. She is going to get some really cute things! I'm excited for her little boy to arrive, he will be getting lots of Yanks and Giants stuff from us thats for sure! =)

Random pics...

Cousins!!!








A traditional Caribou toast on Christmas...Caribou is a very strong alcoholic drink that my relatives bring from Canada. It usually makes for a pretty interesting Christmas =) My parents and uncle laughing it up!















Champ playing in the snow...LOVES it!

GO GIANTS!

Another great weekend to write about! It was a long weekend for me which means I had friday-monday off. Choate does that half way through every semester which is awesome. I usually work every saturday and in the winter, a lot of sundays as well so it was great to have a weekend off. Friday night we went to a mexican restaurant with friends of ours and their baby, great food, great margaritas and great company! Ella loved watching the mariachi band, so cute. I think Brian was pretty psyched he got to sit next to her, he's pretty much obsessed. It's hard not to be, the girl is adorable! Saturday Brian went to the Uconn game with some of his friends and I was able to go for hot dogs and my grandparents. It's a saturday tradition on my dad's side but I never get to go b/c of work, so whenever I have one off thats the first thing on my list! I met Brian back at home and we went to the dining hall for dinner then came back to rearrange the living room for the Super Bowl. (the way we normally have it set up isn't really condusive to having more than 5 people over but we have no choice b/c of where the closets are located). Then I gave brian his early bday gift..a nintendo Wii! We played for three hours, so much fun! The next morning Brian woke me up bright and early to wish me a happy super bowl sunday, I swear you would have thought it was Christmas. The Giants are his favorite team so you can imagine how exciting the day was for him. his friends and amanda came over early and we played Wii again for another couple of hours. Later on my parents, Shan, my grandparents, and Brian's parents and sister joined us for some chili, nachos, wings, beer, etc. It was a great time...although I couldn't help but wish we had a bigger place! But it was a great time to say the least...not to mention the Giants won! I'll post some pics from the day...