First Day March 2013

I think this is the first 1st day that I have no pics of the kiddos. I left for work before they woke and got home after they were asleep. I missed them, but sometimes you need a girls night!

Link up for First day at Journey to Josie!

 

First Day: October 2012

The best part of this first day?? Craft night with my fellow Rhody Bloggers, at my house..in my newly revamped craft room!  These ladies rock in every way. 

Liz (my craft night hostess partner in crime) Learning to Juggle

Jen: Keekoin

Joanna: Baby Gator's Den

Megan: Baby Makes Four

Liza: Cira's Lyrics

Sarah: Soxy's Diamond

Carla: All of Me Now

Heather: Housewife Heather

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Link up with Nicole every month! 

BlogHer 2012 I did it MY way!

Last Thursday I hopped into my momvan with 5 other local bloggers and hauled us all to the Big Apple for BlogHer. The week leading up to the trip there was so much drama about the conference on FB. I had a few opinions on the ridiculousness but chose to let it go, not get involved and make MY experience at BlogHer the best it could be. For someone who rarely keeps her mouth shut I was proud of myself. I went with a handful of private party invites, conference sessions and events I wanted to attend and wonderful women I wanted to meet and hang out with.  I accomplished everything I set out to do and more.

One of the things I was most excited about was meeting Brooke in person for the first time. We have "known" each other since late 2008, a couple months after I started blogging. You never know how it will be to meet someone you've only known virtually, but she fit seamlessly into our group and I love her even more now! There were 4 of us in our room: Brooke, Liz, Michele and I . You know you really like a group of girls when you can do that successfully! It was honestly like a huge 4 day slumber party complete with getting our hair done, hula hooping, tutus, Batman, cupcakes, dancing, pasties, great food, a stuffed uterus, and of course a unicorn cake (and next to it The Next Martha...way nicer than the real Martha btw).



The icing on the unicorn cake was the large group of amazing RI Bloggers, that I hang out with, who also came to NY. We all crossed paths for different events and hung out. I love being a part of such a down to earth, drama-free, and sweet bunch of women! Melissa, Megan, Sarah (our fellow road trippers in the momvan), Audrey,  Melissa, Jen, Joanna, Liza, Jodi, Jessica, Candice, Sarah (and sweetie baby Avery), Elizabeth, Catherine you guys rock!! Now get yourself a cup of coffee and a snack and settle in for the onslaught of pictures. 

The Crystal Ball

I got the opportunity to attend a fundraising dinner on Saturday. My company is a co-sponsor of the Arthritis Foundation's gala, The Crystal Ball. Many of you know I am a scientist, but I don't think I have ever talked about what I work on. One of the drugs my company makes is Enbrel®, which is used to treat Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Psoriasis and Ankylosing Spondylitis. Most of the drugs my company makes treat debilitating conditions. Basically, you don't want to need anything we make. A 20 year old girl spoke about how she is overcoming her diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis and leading a more normal life because of our drug. I often find I get caught up in the daily hustle and bustle of work and sometimes it takes hearing the story of someone who needs our drugs to remind me why my job is so important.

The gala wasn't all seriousness as we got to have a tarot card reading, a few drinks, a lovely dinner, a pretty Swarovski bracelet and of course our "prom" picture. The last time I attended this event was 2008. Same date, my friend Joelle, but we look much better this time around (see for yourself)! I am not usually a girlie girl, but I think deep down we all want to look and feel glamorous every once in a while.



Flower cake pops & Brunch

I feel as though I have fully embarked on my cake pop adventure now! This is the 5th time I've made them (for the other times see here, here and here) and I am just loving it. While this design is not in the Cake Pop Cookbook, I was having a brunch party at my house and wanted something springy without being Eastery (totally not a word but let's go with it) so I did some Googling and found this idea. Thankfully, since it is almost Easter, pastel candy corn was available. I used the candy corn for the pedals and a chewy sweet tart for the middle. The pop part was straightforward since I was just using white candy melts. I think they are cute and fun and they were a nice addition to the brunch....which I will talk about after the slew of cake pop pictures!

I never have events at my house with just friends any more. It seems that having kids puts a crimp in your partying, but I got some of my girls together on Saturday for a little brunch. We had mimosas and I made stuffed french toast, which was to die for. I got the recipe from Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen site and the only thing I did differently was I used Challa bread instead of French bread. You see, here in NE, french bread is a baguette. I have yet to find loaves in a bakery that aren't Italian bread. I also wanted to make frittatas which, for a girl who doesn't eat eggs, is rather gutsy. I have a couple of friends with dietary restrictions and I wanted them to be able to enjoy too so I decided to make individual frittatas in a muffin tin! I prepared sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, peppers, and zucchini along with bacon, ham and cheese. I numbered a piece of paper that corresponded to the muffin tin spaces and had people write their names next to a number. They put in the tin whatever ingredients they wanted and then I poured the raw scrambled egg into each tin and baked them at 375 degrees for ~17 minutes. Apparently they were delicious, or so everyone said. Next time I will spray the muffin tin with cooking spray before I add the ingredients but luckily the tin was non-stick so they came out OK.

It was fun to have people over and talk and enjoy the nice day. Of course I took 3 whole pictures since I was in a rush to get the food out when everyone was arriving. I swear I might form a procrastinators support group...eventually. It was a nice day with my girls and it makes me look forward to spring (and continuing my cake pop obsession) even more!

That's what friends are for

Now that song will be stuck in your head all day. You're welcome.

I know I already bragged about my girlie day and night out last week, but let me just reiterate how awesome it was to have a girls day with one of my best girls. I took a vacay day and drove up to Boston on Friday morning and picked up Darcy and her mom from the convention center and immediately went shopping! Darcy has the most amazing talent...I have never seen someone zip through racks like that. I simply watched in awe as she put together a bunch of outfits for me. I got a ton of stuff for cheap because we were shopping at Buffalo Exchange! I will definitely be going back. Not for a while though. Don't want the hubbs to freak about me doing any more shopping for a while. We did some touristy things like have lunch on Newbury Street, walk around Boston Common and Beacon Hill, which was fun since I have never done an official walk about Boston even though I have lived an hour away for 5 years.

Now don't laugh at the picture of us. My weird expression was due to the sunlight glaring directly into my eyes and the wind blowing my hair and shirt all around. Oh, and doesn't everyone take a picture of their new haircut in the mirror of a restaurant bathroom? Just me? Ok. I'm fine with that.

We went to dinner at the restaurant where my BIL is the Sous-chef and had a 9 course dinner. Well, we signed up for the 6 course Chef's tasting, but somehow they kept bringing us more food. I left there needing to unbutton my pants just to breathe. The food was way out of my normal comfort zone, but I was so proud of myself for trying everything (except the sea urchin which I have tried before and hated) that they brought out! If you've known me as long as Darcy has, you would understand what a great feat this was! We weebled ourselves back to the hotel, had a cocktail while getting ready and then went to the club in the basement of the hotel. Yes, I said a club. I can't even tell you how long it has been since the last time I've been to a club. I am way too old for this hoopla! After seeing some of the happenings in this place, it makes me extremely happy to be a married woman and not having to deal with that hot mess any more. We did have a great time though. We drank a considerable amount and danced until our sides hurt. We went back to our room and talked for another two hours...the way only great friends that have been friends for 17 years can. I'm pretty sure we didn't even end our conversation but rather fell asleep mid sentence.

After coming home Saturday morning and hanging out with the kiddies we were of to see Dane Cook. Oh good lawd, I love that boy. It was awesome and we had amazing seats.

If it weren't for that little thing called Daylight Saving time (and no, there is not supposed to be an s at the end of saving), the weekend would have been perfect. Although, it was kind of cool watching the clock turn from 1:59 am to 1:00am again. Yes, I was up...driving back from Boston! Darcy is back home and I miss her already! Life-long friends are simply awesome.

Lessons Learned

I went to NYC this weekend to attend BlogHer and this is what I learned:

The 3 hours and 45 minutes it takes to drive home at midnight takes waaaayyyyyyy longer than the 4 hours and 45 minutes it takes to drive to NYC on your way to the conference. It is also way less fun. Especially when you have to call the cops on a drunk driver.

I can't sleep in, even when optimal conditions exist (e.g. no kids, dark room, no one else in my bed, up till 1am the night before). This is an annoying fact.

34 hours is no where near enough time to experience NY.

Just because you add the word Her to something, doesn't mean it makes sense.

That being said, substituting that word where it DOES make sense is often hilarious. So is making fun of the terms that don't.

Even though you intend to go to 3 parties in 1 night, you'll only make it to one. And you'll be totally ok with that. 

Attending the sessions was apparently a waste of time, so I feel better about only buying the parties pass.

Every woman is wearing the wrong bra size. Except for me. Because I went here!

One word. SWAG!

The bloggers that think they're a big deal are usually rude, but the ones that really are and don't act like it are the sweetest women you could ever meet.

Um yeah, SHE was sweet as pie!

You can meet a lot of awesome new people if you just open your mouth and your mind.

Me, Liz, Sarah, Becca, LZ, Sarah, Jana, Christine

(LZ, Liz, Me & one Awesome Diva not pictured on above shot since she left to get beautiful-er)

Me and Amy

If you have zero expectations, you can't help but be satisfied.

I am a way smaller fish in a way bigger pond than I even imagined, and I'm ok with it.

Fun with felt

Last Saturday night (yes I know I am dreadfully behind on posting) we had a crafting girl's night in at my house. We had been talking about it for a while, and luckily Liz threw an idea on the table and we set an official date for the get together. Each of us made some (real) food; we had a drink and relaxed in the company of the girls. Michele even drove all the way from NH for our evening! Our first project was making felt food for our kiddo's play kitchens. It took a surprisingly long time to make some of the food, but we ended up with some cute stuff...even if the oranges had it in for me. Yes, I know, they look easy but don't be fooled! We had a great time and ended up closing up shop around midnight. I have enough felt left to choke a horse so stay tuned for more cuteness coming your way...sometime in the next millennium.

Random Ramblings

Hello Thursday. You've taken your sweet time getting here this week. I have had no time to post much of anything (thank you 2 days packed with meetings), so here is a rambling recap of the week.

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This boy was in desperate need of a haircut. He has only had one other haircut in his life and I did it. You may remember that I killed his curls, but as you can see they came back. They were getting very unruly though.

Before: Craziness (yes I know this is also bed head, but it was still crazy)

After: Super cute curls again!

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This weekend was a busy one. Saturday we took Nate to get his hair cut, went to a Pawsox game, I got pulled over (no ticket), Aaron got pulled over (yes ticket), Sunday I got to go shooping at Target ALONE (yipee) and then we went to a birthday party.

Me and my rosey cheeked, just woke up from a nap in the Ergo, baby girl.

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I was feeling down the other day and had a 20 minute conversation with one of my best friends, Darcy, that ended in laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face. I love that I have my girls to rely on for cheering up. We can all use attitude adjustments from time to time!

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My house is an utter disaster. I wonder if I can get FEMA funding to get it cleaned up! I have been sorting through EVERY stitch of clothing in the house for purging purposes and am going to sell all of Nate's clothes that don't fit at an upcoming consignment sale. Three years of clothes is a lot to go through. They are all over the place in piles and I need to get them all entered into the system and tagged by Saturday. I need little elves to help me out. Maybe the Keeblers can take a break from cookie making and help a girl out.

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I am having craft night at my house for a few friends Saturday night. I'm so excited! Liz came up with the idea to make felt food for our kiddos kitchens. It is going to be fun! I'll be sure to post pics of our creations!

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I'm sure there's more, but my mind is mush right now.