Nuptials

I can't believe Little Bro got married this weekend! He's 30...he's not really Little Bro but he'll always be my Little Bro. We went home for the wedding and A was an absolute dream! She slept on 3 of 4 of the plane rides and was playful and quiet on the one she was awake for. The trip was a whirlwind but it was great to see everyone...lots of family and friends that I rarely get to see.

The wedding was wonderful, I was pretty emotional but did not have a total meltdown. That happened more at the rehearsal dinner when we received the bridal party gift which was a wine glass that H had hand etched with their initials and the date of the wedding.

I looked at my Mom and she looked at me...game over. I'm very happy for J, he's very happy. They are off to SF for a few days before settling into their new marriage.

Baby Y's First Plane Ride

First of all I will tell you, we did in fact, survive. A was so wonderful! As soon as the plane started moving she was out like a light for the duration of the flight. On some of them (we had four) she would wake up as we were starting to land so then we just fed her and she was totally fine. She did not do as well after the feeding was done and the plane was no longer moving because we had already landed and we had to wait for people to get their stuff together. Mental note, do not book seats near the back of the plane, we need to get this baby off the plane and quick!

I also learned that we had to pick a seat with an infant air mask, I'm still not sure how we would know that while booking seats online but for both of our smaller flights we were placed in the first row which meant we had nowhere to store our luggage. This required a bit of preplanning on what exactly we would need from the diaper bag, but we managed just fine.

In Detroit yesterday, we encounted a two hour delay because of an engine leak but this gave her time to make the biggest messiest diaper while we were still on the ground rather than dealing with it in the air. I don't think she would have been a happy camper for long sitting in that. M was the one that changed her and he went through most of our wipes cleaning her up, luckily we weren't detained longer. It got on her pants and we came to the realization that our extra outfit had been used as pajamas by Grandma and we forgot to reload a spare outfit. She wore just her onesie and a blanket on those little chubby legs on the way home, but she was fine.

She adapted very well to the different schedule when we were visiting, we had some minor problems getting her to calm down enough to put her down but eventually we got there and she went back to her waking at 1230 and 330 schedule. She's back at daycare today and we're back at work....what a whirlwind weekend!

The house is horrendous right now, hopefully she takes a nice long nap tomorrow because the house is in a serious state of disrepair. The luggage is literally laying in the middle of the dining room floor, I'm sure one of the cats will be cozily sleeping in it today.

The wedding was great, it was nice to be a part of all of the pre-wedding festivities and then to be in a wedding for the first time!

Flying with Babes

I am in a wedding next week....uber excited for being home with family and attending said wedding but uber NOT excited to fly with an infant. Everyone tells me to enjoy this time when she's nonmobile, but man, we are dreading it.

There's so much to bring and then there's the worry that she'll be THAT kid on the plane, the one that cries from take off till landing. We're planning on bringing the bjorn for walking around in the airport, checking the car seat plane side, and holding her on our laps. The only problems is that she really doesn't like that. She prefers to be walked around. With me, she prefers to look over my shoulder, with M she prefers to be held in a seated position so she can look around. I foresee lots of walking up and down the aisles with her...

I am also not enthused about breast feeding (even with a shield) in public. I haven't done it up until this point, we use expressed milk whenever we go to a friends or we have company (for the most part). But it seems that feeding her with the boob is going to be the easiest way to go because I don't have to lug my pump, cooler, inventive ice pack (ice packs are not allowed, people suggested using frozen fruit).

Hopefully she will be very tired that day and will sleep most of the flight. I should say flights, we have a 2.5 hour flight, lay over, and then another hour flight. Ugh...

trip to g-ma and g-pa y

first of all, excuse the lack of capitalization. i'm typing with one hand while arden sleeps in my other arm. we made the first trek to vt with baby a,. she pretty much slept the entire way up, we stopped once for a feed and change. we hung out with j and d on saturday which meant another car ride. she slept through the whole visit which gave us plenty of time to visit. the rest of the night she was pretty fussy, i take that as payback :)

the ride home didn't go quite as well, we topped twice and she was still pretty fuusy. she cried herself to sleep a few times after crying the cry that makes me want to pull over right on the side of the highway to console her. sge was fussy the rest of the night.

we decided to make the switch to the crib since the bassinette was already out of our room for the trip. we figured she would have a bad night because of the big weekend, then a change in her sleep environment but she did great! she went down about 9 and woke up at 330 which is our longest stretch yet, she went back down after eating for another 2.5h, we were very surprised.....and somewhat rested.

Baby Pics

I'm not one of those Mom's who's willing to post baby pics really....I only feel ok with posting the more abstract ones that could be any baby. It just creeps me out for some reason...so here are some for you to enjoy without getting too up close and personal.

We are in the midst of shattering our previous bassinette sleeping record, she's been down now for about 70 minutes which is a great feat for us. I have hopes that some day she will do this at night so M and I can once again sleep in our bed upstairs at the same time!

A has been out for a few walks in the stroller and was a little baby rockstar on our trip to Baby's R Us to get a sleep positioner to help us transition her into the bassinette. Next up, a trip to Costco by the end of the week for more diapers. Yes, we've nearly gone through 192 newborn diapers since 7/15/10.

Post Holiday Wrap Up

• Classes done
• Clinical done
• Wonderful trip home for Christmas with no flight delays!
• Cookies all turned out great this year, might have some new keepers for future years. The neighbors said they devoured them
• Kitties back from boarding, did well and got good report cards!
• Back to work today but it's dead here, thank god.

Weekend Recap

Friday-did nothing and got nothing accomplished. Whoop whoop!

Saturday-took a nice road trip to Mason New Hampshire to go to Parker's Maple Barn. As usual, it was a great drive filled with lots of pretty leaves and New Englandy quaintness. Pics to follow. I read an article in the Boston Globe about some foliage destinations and this was mentioned. They have a sugar shack and produce their own maple syrup in the spring. They also have a restaurant and gift shop, they make fresh maple doughnuts too. Of course, after our brunch we were too stuffed to think about having a doughnut. We could have gotten them to go but it seemed like the kind of thing one would want to have fresh....

We got home mid afternoon and were somewhat productive around the house. M washed the front steps with a deck cleaner because he's hoping to seal the steps before it snows. I did a few loads of laundry and did some home work. That night we watched the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, was cuter and more fairy tale like than I thought it would be. Entertaining, but wouldn't call it the best movie of the year or anything.

Sunday-We ran some errands during the day (gym, Target, Lowe's, Home Good's, Hallmark store, packie) and then were invited to a Fake Thanksgiving at some friends of ours who are hosting for the first time this year. We were certainly into being their guinea pigs especially when we were told not to bring anything but wine! The dinner turned our very well and we left with full bellies!

Monday-M worked from home so it was almost like I was home by myself, he was holed up in the office all day. I did more laundry, read a little bit, worked on a few projects that are coming due in a few weeks, watched Dexter and worked on S's sweater. I have now joined the sleeves to the body and finished working the decreases. I'm about to start on the saddle around the shoulders. Won't be long now and S can wear his new forest green sweater in the crisp Vermont Fall! I also managed to make 2 fresh loaves of bread yesterday, the only thing I would change with this recipe is the addition of more salt! I think I have made this recipe before and thought that but neglected to make a note in the cookbook...but this time I did.

Upcoming week:
Class tonight
Test tomorrow night
Mom on Thursday night
Friday-nothing
Saturday-haircut
Sunday-visit to S and A to pick up our meat from the farm

Vermont Foliage

This weekend, M and I went to see the in laws way up in the Kingdom. Northeast Kingdom, that is. No, I'm not joking, that's how they refer to it. These pics reveal why....

Day 6

Today we checked out of the hotel in Watsonville and headed up to do the harbor walk in Santa Cruz. It's a totally residential area with a paved harbor/cliff walk along the ocean. I can't imagine getting to live like this! The houses were mostly normal sized, some bigger than others, but you got the sense that it was a real neighborhood. People were walking their dogs, tons of people surfing and paddle surfing (hadn't seen that before, they basically stand on a surf board and used paddles to move).

We drove for awhile and stopped off in Half Moon Bay to get some lunch. It was a really cute place with a cute main street. We had a great lunch, one of the better meals we have had on the trip. After we were refueled, we drove up to San Francisco and returned our Kia Spectra...smoothe transaction overall.

We stayed at the Marriott on 4th street right off of Market, which is the main street through town. If I cared about shopping on the trip, this would have been a great location. Right next to a huge shopping mall but a mall is a mall. Oh, before I forget, we saw avocados being sold in a Walgreens. We got the hotel on priceline for $112/night and upgraded $20 night to get into a room with a city view and on the 31st floor. The room was absolutely huge, had a huge walk in closet, huge king sized bed, two huge windows (one with a quasi seating area) that looked out to the city.

We got settled in and walked around a bit before having dinner in our hotel, we were too tired to venture far outside and didn't see anything for restaurants except for fast food. Oh, another interstig point, many of the places we ate it did not serve french fries but rather bean salad or a cold salad or cole slaw.

Day 5

Today we headed to Santa Cruz. This was a great town!! I was really convinced there was not much to do here but M proved me wrong. There were so many things to do, we actually went back again.

We started the day by parking (for free!) in a municipal lot down by UC Santa Cruz. It felt sort of like Church Street in Burlington with a focus on surfing and not snowboarding. There were some interesting street gentlemen...all very hairy and bearded, some walking, some riding bikes, several playing a flute. It was...interesting. We walked from downtown to the wharf, walked to the end and saw sea lions basking down below the pier. From there we headed to the Boardwalk which was much bigger and more extravagant than I thought. It seemed to go on forever, it was the kind of thing I really didn't think existed anymore. Rides for older kids, rides for little kids, tons of food, arcades, carnival games. There was so much to do that none of the rides were very long. This was right along the beach and there were soccer fields and volleyball courts on the sand and tons of people playing. There was also a stage set up, every Friday night a band plays live on the beach.

We headed back to the hotel and quickly got bored of sitting there, so we decided to see what was north of Santa Cruz to Davenport (very very small town, possibly only consisting of one street). Along the way, there were random turn outs with cars parked but no people. Finally we figured out that these were turn offs for beaches, really felt like only the locals would know about these and they wouldn't be over run with people. Not that any of them were, there were so many beaches all over the place none was overly packed. We pulled over and found a quasi path, not paved, just rocks and climbed over this dune to reveal one of the most stunning views ever. I felt like I was in Star Wars or on the Moon. It looked like a giant crater, with huge crashing waves and a cove. We stumbled down the other side of the dune, bad day for wearing flip flops. It was super super windy and cold down there and only a smattering of people. M says to me,'Um, I think this might be a nude beach.' I said, 'Well what gives you that idea'. He tells me to turn around and I see a nude man walking around in the cove area and someone else lying on the sand with nary a stitch on. We later found out that this is a sanctioned nude beach, we weren't sure at the time if it was something impromptu. We stayed for awhile then skedaddled up the hill.

From there, we turned off into another state park beach called New Brighton. This was more of a family beach area. We read and relaxed for awhile and then decided to mosey on back to the hotel for some dinner and relaxing.

Day 4

Today we did the 17 mile drive starting in Carmel. It costs $9 to do the drive, it's quite a sight to see. I think that I preferred the Big Sur drive...that was truly nature at it's best. The 17 mile drive was pretty but was more focused on the opulence of the homes along the drive and the gold courses. If you want shock factor, I would go for the Big Sur drive instead.

After we got back, we stopped in Carmel By The Sea. It was cute, typical tourist type shops kicked up a notch. It sort of looked like an Old English village. We walked down the hill to the beach and watched some surfers for awhile.

We headed to our hotel in Watsonville...we were trying to save a little cash after staying in Carmel and Monterey. Watsonville was inland and a big agriculatural center. The hotel itself was clean but was kind of in a sketchy area, the kind of area where we felt like we should park the car in a well lit area. There was little to do in Watsonville, so we headed north up to Santa Cruz and Capitola. Capitola was another beach town, this one had a more blue collar feel. There was a main street with typical beach stores on it, we had a way too expensive dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Nothing special but fun to sit right on the water.

Observations

Before I forget, I wanted to jot down some things I noticed in Cali

• Lots of white cars
• More VW Vangabonds than I have ever seen
• People walking around Santa Cruz with surf boards
• Warning signs on many buildings stating that there were known carcinogens in the building
• Sand dabs on menus...still don't know what they are

Day 3

So we got home last night, of course the flight was delayed. Actually we got home this morning at about 1am. Poor M is at work, I'm up trying to coerce the jet lag out of me because we have the closing tomorrow at 830am. The flight was uneventful once we were on it. M and I weren't seated together so I talked to the agent and he switched us around. Only he didn't. He reissued our boarding passes so it looked like we were seated next to each other but there was someone in M's seat...M got put back into his original seat. Oh well.

So my plan is to continue detailing what we did each day and adding the appropriate pics once I get them off of M's computer. There's some great ones!

Day 3
We travelled south from Carmel to the Big Sur area. Words really can't describe the views and I'm sure they won't translate as well into pictures. If you ever get a chance to do this drive, you will be happy you did. Words that come to mind are dramatic, breathtaking, ridiculously beautiful etc. Sweeping cliffs, crashing waves....it was amazing. There are tons of turn outs and you are expected to stop and take pictures. There are tons of state parks to stop at with hiking trails and beaches. We stopped at two...Pfeiffer State Park and Julia Pfeiffer-Burns State Park (we thought the first park was actually the second). We stopped at the first one and did a hiking trail through the redwoods. I have to say, the redwoods weren't gigantic like I had imagined. There were other parks that touted the redwoods more than this one, so maybe they were larger in other areas. Who knows. Interestingly, the trail we were on (and many others) were closed due to wild fires. The trees had been destroyed but hadn't been removed yet so it was unsafe to travel on the trails. We went to Julia Pfeiffer-Burns because the view was supposed to be unparalleled and indeed it was. It was absolutely incredibly...pictures coming soon. The site of the park was formerly the site of someone's home. She bequeathed the site to the state of California with the understanding that the home would be torn down and a public viewing area would be erected.

On the way back up, we stopped at Nepenthe which is literally on a cliff in the middle of Big Sur. They have a great patio area with a fire pit and lights strung up, the whole patio overlooks the ocean and crashing waves. The prices for the food go along with it. We're talking $20 salads here people, but it's the price you pay for the view I guess.

We got back from Big Sur and proceeded to Monterey Bay and checked into our room at the Intercontinental Clement Monterey which was right on Cannery Row aka the major touristy area. For once, we indulged and didn't take the cheap room. We stayed in room 303 which overlooked the ocean and had a balcony and a gas fireplace. It was very very nice but Monterey was not on the top of my list of places we saw. It felt a little too much like Downtown Disney, like it was a set of a California seaside town. A bit too touristy for us. We had a horrible Italian dinner that night at Linguine Louie's, very substandard for very touristy prices. That night, we had some local wine via travel candle light on our balcony while three teenagers got stoned on the board walk beneath us. Ah, Monterey.

Plan for tomorrow is to check into our next hotel in Watsonville (going back to our frugal ways) and check out the surrounding area then head up to Santa Cruz.

Carmel!

Finally, a vacation! M and I have been in need for non stressful environs..we have a lot of stuff going on. I booked this vacation way back when I was super duper stressed out during my previous semester of school, the semester wasn't overly stressful I just got incredibly sick of juggling my job with school clinical requirements. In my desperation, I decided to use my frequent flyer ticket for a vacation instead of a trip home. And finally, today was the day.

We flew out around 11am, flight was on time and got to SF around 230pm. We managed to get the rental car via taxi just fine, followed by a 2 hour very non scenic drive to Carmel. We realized a bit too late that we missed our chance to get on the scenic route and decided to save that for our trip back.

Tonight we are the Quail Lodge which is on a golf course..pictures to follow. We just ate at one of their restaurants called Edgar's..M thought it was the caliber of Not Your Average Joe's but I thought mine was better. He had the roast chicken pepperdelle with morrel mushrooms, pan seared salmon for yours truly. One regret at the restaurant, opted to sit right next to the fireplace, left side of body, cool as a cucumber. Right side, dripping with sweat, skin pink. Mental note, do not overzealously ask to take the seat right next to the fire place again. Above are pics from the Quail Lodge...

Tomorrow the plan is to go on the 17 mile drive which is along the coast. I am really excited to take some great pictures and see how the other half lives....

Time to break into the mini bar. ......

14 days

There has been so much going on (final, real estate stuff, family visiting) that I realized today that we are a mere 14 days away from our week long get away to SF and the coast! I'm so looking forward to it....

We have only the basics planned, we know where we are staying and we have a car. Aside from that, we have not planned anything which is totally what I need.

That reminds me, I asked United to send me a new mileage plus card with my new name via letter per the website and never heard anything back....

Bottomed Out on the Top Down

Ah...The joy and frustrations of knitting a sweater from the top down. The sweet: you can try it on several times throughout it's creation by putting it on salvage yarn and trying it on. The bitter: You work on it for weeks and it's hitting your hips and you realize there is some funky thing going on with your decreases. You try to look past and keep on working but then you finally can't because you can envision it lying lonely and abandoned on a shelf like countless other sweaters. I decide, with a heavy heart, to frog 90% of it, basically to the point were I had divided for the sleeves. I think the problem was that I tried to decrease for the waist too drastically and it was bunching. I'm now working the decreases again but only every fourth row and I just tried it on again, thank god no weird bunching.

I finished the Tangled Yoke Cardigan oh....last summer and noticed that the buttonholes were a bit too big, I would button it and the buttons would slip right back through. I finally reinforced the button holes with some thread and they finally stay buttoned. I think that's one of my better pieces, although there seems to be some unevenness toward some of the top buttons, too much on side and it bunches when it's button. My solution, go for the casual look and don't button it.

In spring related news, we have a teeny tiny white flower in our front 'yard'. It looks like a cross between a lily and a tulip...also we have some bushes that flower and they are starting to poke through. I'm really awful with plant names so I can't tell you what they are, hey, I'm just glad that I noticed. Usually I'm sadly oblivious to things like that, guess I'm really yearning for Spring!

I'm continuing to do research on hotels for our Cali trip, currently working on the San Fran leg. We got a tip on a decent hotel from a friend but it doesn't have AC! How does a hotel in California exist without AC? I was wondering how it could be so incredibly cheap and I finally figured it out....I don't think we're wiling to take that gamble so the search continues. If anyone knows of a nice, clean, close to things hotel that won't break the bank, leave me a comment!

Robot Mode

Sorry for the sporadic posting.

I've hit the point in the semester where I feel that I'm on autopilot and start counting the weeks until my life is my own again. I feel like I get up, go to work, get home, eat dinner, chill out for a minute, go to bed repeat.

Anyhoo, presented last night in class, my only one for the semester so I'm glad that's done. The next hurdle will be my instructor coming to see my in clinic, I'm not sure what she does when she's there...if she comes in to see patients with me or what.

Cat update: they're doing well. Not the best of friends quite yet, but they are playing with each other somewhat, but inevitably, one gets annoyed at the other and smacks him in the head and one walks away.

Trip planning: I am in the middle of looking up hotels in San Fran. I asked one of my friends who used to live there about the best places to stay in terms of neighborhoods. She steered me away from the super touristy areas and into either the Castro or Mission neighborhoods but I'm having problems finding a selection of hotels in those areas, and hence, reviews. And tripadvisor.com is my friend...Also, SF isn't the bulk of the trip so I will want to do more of the touristy things than exploring eccentric neighborhoods so I'm leaning towards staying in Union Square of the Financial District because it seems that's where most of the attractions are.

Real estate: M and I went to 6 open houses last week in a town about 20 miles from where we are now because it's the closest affordable town to our current jobs. Out of the 6, we liked one and luckily we both agreed. Not that we are even quasi serious at this point. We have too many things going on...the overall economic strife, me being in school, the housing market still tanking, still saving up for a nice downpayment. But at least we agree at this point what we are looking for and the price range we want to be in. Incidentally, two of the houses have an offer pending..one I saw online and one via a phone call I got from the real estate agent who is soliciting offers for the house based on the sign up sheet. He left me a message saying that he got an offer and just wanted to give everyone at the open house a fair shot...me thinks there either is nothing cooking with this property or they did get an offer and it was totally low ball.....needless to say we didn't call him back. It was one of our least favorite houses.

Busy busy busy

In short, until I can expand, the week in review:

Cats are integrated, no more hissing

Presentation due for class today

Open houses this past weekend

Sick this past weekend

Need to finish planning San Fran trip

Throw Caution to the Wind

I am not spontaneous...this is something I have always known about myself, I thrive on stability and routine. I increased my level of spontaneity by booking a vacation. Wait, you're saying to yourself, how is booking a vacation spontaneous? You're planning months ahead of time for something. Well, dear one, it's spontaneous for me because I am not giving a thought to the money we're spending, the time I'll be off work, or the school work that will be piling up while we're away. Perhaps spontaneous isn't the right word, but it feels deliciously reckless!



We're going to fly into San Francisco and spend a few days there either at the beginning or end of our trip. The rest of the time, we want to spend traveling to places like Monterey and Carmel seeing the sights and not having much of an agenda at all.



I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this! I really feel like we haven't been on a real vacation together. Sure, we went to Chatham for our honeymoon which was a great relaxing get away but it didn't feel like a real vacation. The other places we have gone together have been centered around my work and were places that I've been to before. M's been to San Francisco briefly for work but didn't get a chance to sight see, neither of us have been down the coast.



110 days!

Calgon...Take Me Away

So as you know, I'm antsy to take a vacation....it's a combination of being in school without more than a winter break since January 2007, the fact that I feel so locked in to not using any vacation time to conserve as much as possible for the next two semesters and spring fever. I decided to throw caution to the wind, something I rarely do, and book a vacation without considering the ramifcations of taking time off.

So where to go? I know logically I should go home to WI having not gone for the holidays this year. BUT, going to WI doesn't feel like a vacation. It's wonderful to see friends and family, but M and I have really not taken a non work centered vacation except for our honeymoon which was also close to home. So....I feel it's time.

We're currently researching Northern California and Seattle. I think I'm more excited about Northern California, M's looking into Seattle and seems like he might be leaning that way. So far, I've looked at Big Sur, Carmel and Monterey. I think it would be great to rent a car, drive along the coast with it's sweeping cliffs and crashing waves. Also, we would somewhat be in the area of San Francisco although I'm much less interested in leaving one city and trading it for another.

Flight-wise if we went to California, we wold probably have to fly into San Fran or Oakland...I tried for Santa Cruz or San Jose but those are a no go with my frequent flyer ticket. The real downer is that flying into either of those airports will guarantee us a red eye home....

Some pictures to leave you with....