First 4th of July, Bostonian style

 Last year was our first 4th of July in Boston and I had to work that evening - at least I was able to watch a little of the Boston Pops show on the TVs in the patients' rooms. This year I worked the day shift, getting off at 4pm, went home & changed, and then met up with some friends on the Cambridge side of the Charles River for the big 4th of July celebration. I knew it was a big deal, but I couldn't believe how many people were there for it!! It was a gorgeous day and many people just hung out all afternoon to get good seats. The show started at 8, but during the Boston Pops performing we could see some lightning in the sky. At first we weren't sure if it was someone's fireworks or if it was in fact lightning, but then they announced for everyone to seek shelter for about 20 minutes as we wait for the storm to pass. Tons of people did just that, but we stayed put. We didn't want to lose our awesome spot unless it got really bad, so we stayed there and the rain never came. They started the show back up, but just as it started to get windy and stormy-ish, they decided to stop the music (Jennifer Hudson) and get on with the fireworks. So, about 3-5 minutes into the fireworks it POURED! These were some huge drops of water and they would fall right into our eyes as we were looking up in the sky at the fireworks. Let's just say everyone was drenched by the end of the show. It was definitely a memorable and wonderful Boston 4th of July!! And definitely the best firework show I've ever seen! Go Boston!!!

Springtime

Boy do I have some blog-catching-up to do!! We'll start by backtracking a little to April. Springtime is such a beautiful time - it's quite amazing watching the trees go from bare twigs to full greenery! And all the flowers that bloom just add to the springtime beauty. 

On Easter Sunday I had to work at 3:30, so we went to church in the morning and then had a few friends over for lunch. Brian made Ham and Fontina cheese sandwiches, which were quite amazing. It was a nice little Easter celebration considering my time was limited. 

The Chen family (I used to housesit for them in CA - they had the mastiff) was here visiting, so we joined them for the afternoon on our first Duck Tour. The tour goes around Boston on land and then we get to view Boston from the Charles River when it turns into a boat. We had an awesome tour guide, which made it extra fun.  Then we wandered around the North End, of course getting some Mike's Pastries along the way. It was so nice catching up with them while touring the city.

To end April, Brian and I went to the last showing of Riverdance in Boston - I've always wanted to see this show and I had the night off from work so we went! It was fantastic!!! I loved every minute of it! It was showing at the Boston Opera House, which is an impressive, gorgeous historical building. We had such a nice time.

Blessings of 2011

Brian and I sat in adoration the other day at church and wrote down many of our blessings of 2011.

We have so much to be thankful for that happened in 2011, one being Theresa's job. The job hunt was interesting, frustrating and challenging, but I ended up starting 4 jobs, which was thrilling not to mention an amazing learning experience. However, at this point in my life, I am looking forward to just having 1 full time + 1 per diem.

Another blessing has been our car ~ we were a little reluctant to get it, but now that we have it, we love it and are so happy we have it. We still haven't driven in the snow yet, but I think that day will be just around the corner.

More thanksgiving for 2011:

• The health of ourselves & family
• Friendships - those in Boston and back home
  
• All the wonderful people who came to visit us this year, making 2011 so memorable
• Exploring many new places, including Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, as well as Cape Cod
• Housesitting opportunities
• Theresa's 1st publication

To celebrate the end of a fabulous year and start off 2012, we went to our friends' Cory & Stephanie's party in the Seaport District of Boston. We didn't know anyone except them, but they didn't know most of the people there either (I guess one of the guests invited like 20 people). It was nice to have something to do...we also picked up dinner from a great Chinese restaurant that night before the party. We like to say Chinese food on New Years Eve is a tradition now. :)

We are looking forward to another wonderful year - we can't wait to see what God has planned for 2012!!! Happy New Year!!

December 2011

A stuffed animal Christmas Tree at the Four Seasons Hotel

December happenings for Brian & Theresa:

• Theresa started off the month with a lovely eye infection - I could barely open my eye for two days! It was bright red and pouring out tears, not to mention painful to open. I spent my two days off with my left eye closed, doing pretty much nothing. I finally went to the eye doctor as an emergency case (the day my insurance card came in the mail!) and I was started on antibiotic eye drops. The doc told me to use 1 drop every hour while awake and every 2 hrs while asleep - I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't. I had to set an alarm to wake up every couple hrs, but that was only for a couple days. I guess eye infections are followed very closely, so I had to go back the following day, Friday, and then again on Monday, Thursday, and then weekly for follow-up appointments. In addition to the antibiotic drops, I started a steroid drop for a couple weeks. So, throughout most of December I got to wear my broken glasses (that Brian accidentally stepped on last Xmas), but just before Christmas, the Dr. told me I can start wearing contacts again and my eye was pretty much back to normal! Yay! I really liked the doctor (Dr. Hu) and have arranged for my next appt on Brian's bday next year. :) Sorry I forgot to photo document this event. ;)
  

• We spent an evening at the Four Season's Hotel Lounge with Ben and Tara. They had a gift certificate there and treated us to a spectacular evening with some outstanding food! Not to mention that our server was pretty awesome. Below is a pic of the 4 of us with a giant chocolate cake we had for dessert - it was amazing!! :) We had a wonderful time.
  

• We dogsat Callie in Cambridge. We watched her (and her sister Cassie who has since passed away) last January in a gorgeous new apartment, but last time there was a ton of snow and we didn't have a car. [However, Brian was on winter break from school and I didn't have a job last year, so we didn't have a lot of need for the car at that time, but it is essential now.] I got to park in the underground parking garage, which was so awesome - I would leave work when it was freezing cold and only have to walk outside for a few minutes while walking to the car, and then be indoors upon my arrival home. It was great. Brian really wants our next place to have covered parking, but that's not easy to find around here. Since this apartment was right behind a giant Whole Foods, we spent lots of time in there, browsing around the non-food sections and this was one of my favorite findings, Nose Frida
  

• We went Candlepin Bowling for the first time! This type of bowling started in 1880 in Massachusetts, about 15 years before the standard bowling. It involves smaller pins (much skinnier) and a small, light ball. It was a lot of fun, but much harder! We went with our friends Dan & Angel and Josh & Amanda.

• I hosted a girls afternoon tea Christmas craft party for some wives of classmates of Brian's. There were 6 of us and we made Christmas Trees out of buttons - they all turned out so nice!This is a picture of my tree that I made (left) and a sample tree (right - I used colors that might not have been used)

Deviled Eggs, Cucumber Mint Sandwiches, Scones, Cookies, & Tea

Pictured here from left to right: Deb, Tara, Cate, Kate, and Susanna

• Christmas - I had to work Christmas Eve evening and Christmas Day day, so that meant about 5 hrs of sleep in between. But I got Thanksgiving and New Years off, and I told my manager I was really flexible, so it wasn't a problem. We had a potluck lunch on Christmas day - we had a ham, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad and lots of sweets. I came home Christmas day to a wonderful dinner made by Brian. On my way home from work, I saw this in the middle of the road:
  

• Then there was Brian's Golden Birthday on the 27th. Some friends of ours (John & Susanna) were housesitting in Wellesley for a professor, so we went over there for dinner and dessert. Ben & Tara joined us too! The house was gorgeous - I think there were 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, 3 stories including a movie theater in the basement. The owners actually asked them to have people over because there was so much food left over from the holidays, so we were happy to be able to partake. I ordered a blueberry cheesecake from Finale for dessert and it was delicious!! Afterward we watched a movie in the theater - fun!
• I went to The Clayroom in Brookline for some crafting time with some co-workers. The Clayroom has all sorts of clay items to paint...but because it was right after Christmas, there were a lot of items out of stock. I decided to paint what I thought was a vase, but can also serve as a wine chiller. It's a pretty cool place and I will pick up the finished product next week. In the picture on the left is Roni, who painted a square bowl - she lives about a block away from us and we occasionally help with her dogs. Rosalind is the blonde in the other picture, she is painting a quiche dish.

What a fun and eventful month!!!

Thankful

There is so much we are thankful for! Our faith, family, and friends; shelter, food & water, electricity, education, our health and this year we are especially thankful that I have obtained a full time job. Lastly, we are very thankful to have you in our lives!!

This thanksgiving, Brian and I decided to attempt our first turkey! We bought a 10 1/2 lb brined turkey from Whole Foods and it turned out pretty well. Our sides were a green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and dressing. Dessert was a pumpkin cheesecake pie. Everything was homemade except the bread for the dressing and pie crust. Not bad for first-timers!! :)

We hope you all had a very wonderful thanksgiving!!

Lately

Last month my step-mom's aunt and uncle (Jim & Fran) were visiting Cape Cod, so they drove into the city to meet us for lunch. We ate at the Union Oyster House, which is America's oldest (still-operating) restaurant - really cool place with good food. The Kennedy's ate there often and we sat right across from "The Kennedy Booth". This is a picture of us at lunch - Jim and Fran are next to me and their traveling buddies are next to Brian.

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We had a picnic and went hiking in the Arnold Arboretum with our friends Ben and Tara.

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Thankfully I had the weekend of our anniversary off. So, we celebrated our 1st anniversary by taking a little trip (in our fabulous new car) to Portsmouth, NH. It's a cute little town on the harbor, right next to Maine. We just walked around the town, shopping in the cute stores, went to Kittery, Maine for a lobster dinner (for Brian), and got hour long massages the next day. We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel and they left us some nice chocolate covered strawberries and champagne. On our way home, we drove through New Castle, NH, which is apparently the smallest town in NH and is entirely on islands. We saw some of the cutest houses there - I could move there in a second! Unfortunately we were focused on driving and I didn't get many pictures though. To end our trip, we stopped to have dinner at Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse. It was just like being back home :) We are certain there are places like these in Boston - we just haven't found them yet. Here are some pictures from our anniversary trip:

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I had to work on the 4th of July in the evening, so we had a picnic lunch in the park with our friends Chris and Cate. We also were housesitting the beagles, Lily & Molly over the weekend, which is A LOT easier to do with a car now. Their house is about 15 min walk from the subway stop, so it was kind of a pain getting there before.

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Lastly, I've been working a ton! After our anniversary weekend, I worked 8 days straight (between VA and Whidden) and then had 1 day off before starting a row of 12 work days. On my day off, we went downtown and wandered around as usual. We went to a cupcake shop that we've heard lots about and got mini cupcakes which were amazing. Then we walked on the bridge over the Charles River - it was a beautiful summer day in Boston. To end the fun on my day off, we had dinner at a nice modern restaurant in Newton (something we couldn't do before because we didn't have a car). So, now I am on day 3 of my 12 day stretch. Things are going really well at work - I am officially working on my own, no more orientation at the VA. I am working as an RN for real now - 2.5 yrs after getting my license! HA! And I only have 3 more days of orientation at Whidden and then I will be working per diem there. So, things are going very well over here!!

Springtime

Easter Brunch Sangrias

Life's been busy (which is good!), so I haven't had much time to blog. We hope you had a very nice Easter! Our Easter was very nice - it was a beautiful day out, and we went to mass at a chapel downtown, where we had never been before. Then we met Angel, Dan, Amanda, & Josh for a tapas brunch. Soooo good!

Brian enjoying the bone marrow - his favorite tapas

The best corn on the cob ever!!!

Springtime here on the East Coast is gorgeous!! It truly is a wonderful symbol of resurrection and new life! The trees are no longer bare and now it is a lovely green all around. And the flowers are out of this world! I wish I had taken more pictures because some of the flowery trees have already lost a lot of flowers from the rain and wind. Here are a few pictures, but it is nothing like seeing it in person - the best part was watching the transition from naked to "dressed" trees. Quite amazing.