Life with baby

So it has definitely been too long since my last post, so sorry!! As you already know, Logan was born on election day in November and he has truly blessed and changed our lives! We have been enjoying our time bonding with him as well as watching him grow, learn and make a million faces. In addition, we have been having a wonderful time with all our visitors, family from California and local friends/co-workers. Logan is already 2 months old and I haven't blog since his birth...but I have made a new year's resolution to blog at least once a month! Even though I have more time on my hands now than I ever will, I usually find many other things to do in my down-time, like cleaning up around the house, laundry, paying bills, etc....or just staring at my super cute son! Also, I am often holding Logan in my arms, but it's too difficult to blog one handed. So, I am going to do my best to continue posting updates and pictures here for those who don't have facebook or just feel like reading more of the details. :)

Brian starts back to work/school on Monday, but we have truly had the greatest time this past month while he was off. We love listening to Logie (as we like to call him) and all the cute little noises he makes now. He also is getting so good at holding his head up and grasping toys. Being parents is so magical and we love every moment with him. I will be heading back to work (starting out part-time for the first few weeks) the second week in February - I am looking forward to it (I do love my job!), but I am really going to miss being home with him all day, everyday. 

 I've included some of our favorite pictures from the past 2 months.

This post has taken me almost 10 days to write/finish - every time I started writing, Logan started crying. I think I will try to make my posts shorter and, hopefully, more frequent.

A lesson in Carbon Monoxide

Last night I was sitting at the top of the stairs working on the computer and Brian was downstairs reading and cooking. All of a sudden the carbon monoxide alarm started going off - it was alarming "move to fresh air" - it wasn't the battery light, it was the alarm. We, naturally, started to panic a little and immediately opened all the windows and turned on the fans. We called the emergency maintenance number and the guy told me that it was probably the battery and instructed me as to how to take out the battery. He then said he would come by in the morning to install new detectors. I wasn't completely satisfied with this response, so I called my brother-in-law, Luis, since he has worked in maintenance at apartments. He basically said the same thing, which made us feel better. While I was on the phone with Luis, I noticed that we had another detector downstairs, in the living room - which wasn't going off. Interesting...made me think it was probably the battery too. Then, I was reading the back of the detector, which said to call 911 or Fire Dept if alarm goes off. So, I called the Boston Fire Dept and asked them if taking the battery out was the best idea. The man wasn't very nice on the phone. He told me to put the battery back in and that he was going to send some people over to check things out. Of course the alarm stopped beeping once the battery was back in, making it look like it might have just been the battery. Brian and I were waiting and within a few minutes we hear the sirens approaching - I didn't think the sirens were necessary. Three fire fighters came in with all their gear on, one carrying the CO detector. Brian showed two of them the alarm that was going off and the other was with me downstairs checking the stove. They said the detector probably wouldn't pick anything up now that all the windows were opened (I was hoping for a little more praise that we did ventilate the rooms!). They only stayed a few minutes, made sure we were feeling okay and said to call them back if the alarm began going off again. One thing we learned from them was that CO is heavy and that the detectors need to be placed low to the ground. Ours, like everywhere you usually see them, are high on the wall. One of the guys said to Brian "you would die in your sleep by the time it reached a detector that high". We told the Fire Dept that we would let the maintenance person know that when installing them. So, when maintenance came early this morning we let him know, but he said he has never seen it low to the ground and that they are always installed on the wall, a little lower than the smoke detectors. We tried. I was telling Brian that it needs to be a better known fact to have CO detectors near the ground because I am sure these are improperly installed everywhere! Perhaps they are placed high for aesthetic reasons, but it seems like an important enough device to install properly. Anyway, we learned a lot from this experience and are thankful that it wasn't anything & we are okay.

Mac & Cheese!

We are still cooking up some new and creative dinners. We made our first homemade mac and cheese back in May. It wasn't just any ol' mac and cheese - it was butternut squash with kale mac and cheese...and it was good! The picture isn't so great, but at least the food was! :)

I came home from work the other night to an awesome baked whole chicken with a super yummy pasta - who knew I married a chef!! It was so delicious! I am going to try to be better about taking more pictures of our fancier meals...I usually am just too excited to eat it that I don't want to go look for the camera. Ha! Just wanted to let you know that we are still cooking in the kitchen! :)

Loving Boston!

It's been a while since I have posted so this will likely be a longer post. A couple weekends ago, we went to a party (more of a gathering) in Newton with some of Brian's colleagues from the doctoral program. It didn't start until 8pm, so we were going to try to get there a little after that, but by the time we wrote down all the directions and figured out our route(s) to and from the house, it was almost 9 when we were left our place. Thus, we missed our 2nd bus and the next one wasn't for an hour, so we decided to just walk (about 40 minutes through quiet, dark residential areas). We enjoyed our walk - it was a chilly fall night, but we got to see some new places and the smells were lovely. We stayed for about 1.5 hours, but we never moved from the house foyer! We didn't even make it out onto the porch where another group of people were. I met a lot more of Brian's classmates and their significant others, which was great. There were a couple girls there who are getting their Master's in nursing (to be Nurse Practitioners), so I really enjoyed talking with them. Then a lovely couple, Ben & Tara, drove us home which was so nice! I wish I could take more pictures for you, but it's just not right yet...once I get to know people a little better. :)

That Sunday, we went to 8pm mass at St. Clement's, which is a little further into town, but it is very easily accessible. I love that they have a 8pm mass - that would be great for nurses who work days from 7a-7p. Right after mass they have adoration, which is great too! The priest, Fr. Peter, gave the best homily that I have heard in a while! This is a little excerpt from it:

"When I anoint someone in the hospital I also bring a bottle of oil so everyone can see it. I tell them that back in the time of Christ, the most important item in your house was not the cat, nor your wallet. It was olive oil. Not only was it food, it was also your health care system. You could put it on your body and you could put it in your body. There is something about olive oil. Olive trees are very durable. You can't seem to kill them. A bottle of olive oil spells longevity. When the farmers harvest olives, they never pick all the olives from the tree. They always leave the olives on the lowest branches. Why? Then someone could go by and pick them. That is exactly why. All the widows and the poor in the village knew that those olives were left for them. It was the farmers' way of telling God, that they were grateful for providing the most important thing in their home. It was their way of telling God that their thanks were not just empty words. The leper who went back to thank our Lord let Jesus know that his thanks was not just empty words. We too have to remember to thank our Lord not just with lips but with deeds as well."

We decided to go back there this past weekend on Sunday, but at the 11am mass instead since that is when Jen and her fiance go. Fr. Peter gave another great homily, which I felt was directed to me right now. He talked about "the waiting room", which is a period of time while you are waiting for something great to come along and during this time it's what you do that builds character! This was so powerful to me since I am currently in a "waiting room" for a wonderful job. After mass, Jen usually goes out for lunch with a small group, but she had marriage prep instead, so Brian and I decided to hit up Newbury street for some winter gear. We stopped first at Patagonia and bought Brian a nice jacket and some pants, then we ate lunch at Sonsie (so good!!!), and over to The North Face we went. There we got some snow sneakers for Brian and I got a jacket. Then we just walked down Newbury street, went Olive Oil tasting, sampled some gelato (I tried sweet potato, which was actually pretty good) and eventually headed home.

The day before, Saturday, we went to lunch at Aquitaine in the South End and met Angel & Dan there. We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, but it was worth it! They have $10 brunch all day on Saturday and you get a good amount of food. After our lunch, we walked around a bit (it was pretty chilly!) and then went to see The Town, which we really liked. It was fun to watch it and recognize certain places/things since it was about Boston/Charlestown. Definitely a movie to see if you haven't done so yet. Then we headed home and while we were on the subway, Brian got a message about some classmates meeting at a restaurant really close to our apartment called "Joshua Tree", so we stopped by there on our way home. We had dinner there, which was also very good, and had a wonderful time hanging out and getting to know people. There was about 8 of us total there, but we primarily talked to one couple, Conor and Kate, who I just met at the party the previous weekend. Kate is one of the nursing girls in the master's program at Mass Gen. She and Conor are getting married in December and so we have a lot of things in common that we can talk about. They're really nice.

We are really enjoying Boston! We are getting to know so many wonderful people from all over the country! We have friends from Florida, Colorado, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Indiana, and even Canada! Some people don't even have cell phones, which is a huge change from OC where 99.9% of the population has a cell phone, with a large percentage of people having iPhones! Everywhere we have eaten has been fantastic! There are so many places to eat around here and very few of them are big name restaurants, which makes it even more fun/better!

Lastly, the trees are beginning to change color and it's absolutely beautiful!! I love the weather here right now, especially now that we are prepared for the cold. :)

Our Weekend

Thursday Brian and I ran some errands downtown and I bought my first pair of quality rain boots! So exciting! I was happy to see it raining on Friday so that I could wear them. :)

Brian spent all day Friday at school for a colloquium and meeting for a presentation he has on Monday with Nichole. I headed over to BC around 3:00 to read in the library until they were done with their meeting. Then, Nichole and her husband, Daryn (who is in another class of Brian's), drove us to their house in Waltham to have dinner. Authentic Tacos with homemade tortillas!! It was great!! We hung out there for a few hours and had a really great time getting to know them. We then walked our way to the bus stop where we had to wait about 40 minutes for the bus and then we got lost transitioning between bus connections. I was so frustrated that google maps doesn't give you the connecting route and to make matters worse, the intersection was for 6 roads so we had no clue which to walk down AND it was raining. We eventually asked a bus driver where our pick up location was and he told us "over the bridge and across the street". As we were waiting to cross the street (because here in Boston you never know when the walk sign will turn green [they have a horrible system here, surprisingly since its such a pedestrian city]), we saw the bus we needed to get on just pulling away from the stop. We at least knew now where we needed to be, but had to wait about 30 more minutes for the next one. Ay yi yi. It was a learning experience...

The theology department was having a retreat this weekend, but we decided to just go up for the day on Saturday so that Brian could get some homework done. He arranged for us to get a ride with a classmate named Jen who lives pretty close by. She picked us up around 4 and we made our way to the Jesuit retreat center in Cohasset. We got lost quite a few times on the way (even with 2 sets of directions), but we finally made it there just in time for dinner and the sun setting beautifully on the water. This retreat center was absolutely gorgeous! Such a peaceful place to spend some time and the house was quite impressive too. We stayed until about 8:3o or so socializing and getting to know people and then headed home. We had such a great time and met some really neat people. The way home went much quicker because we took the freeway, but then we hit a ton of traffic due to a Red Sox game, but we enjoyed talking to Jen and getting to know her too.

Sunday we went to St. Ignatius for mass, but we went at 10:00 for the first time. Daryn and Nichole were there - she was teaching confirmation after mass and then Brian and her were meeting at 12:30 to go over their presentation once more. It was fun to be at mass and see a familiar face - since we used to know so many people at San Antonio masses.

It's been a lot of fun getting to know people and picking their brains on attire and preparations for the winter. Most of the people we have met are from all over - Florida, Colorado, Canada, Minnesota, but almost all of them have lived or at least been to California at some point in their lives. In addition, Daryn & Nichole just got married in August, Angel & Dan were married in April, and Jen just got engaged. Just some fun little observations :)

It has been getting much colder lately! It was in the upper 50's when we were in Cohasset by the water, but then when we left for church at 9:45 am it was 50 degrees out. However, my husband still decided to wear shorts and a t-shirt, but I was bundled up with boots, scarf and jacket.

We had such a nice weekend and it was fun to see some different areas of Massachusetts...and by car!! It's totally different, but increased my fear of driving here. The streets here are ridiculous and their signage is horrible! I will definitely need a GPS once I start driving here, which hopefully won't be anytime too soon (although I do miss the convenience and freedom of my own vehicle). For now, I will stick to the public transportation, which is kinda fun. :)

More Creative Dinners

It's been a while since my last food post, so I thought I would share with you some of the things we've been cooking.

Broccoli, spinach and potato soup


Spinach and green pea rice with chicken


Used the last of my apple picking apples to make Cinnamon Apple Chips


Nothing like homemade pesto! Yummy!!

Walnut & date wild rice and mashed sweet potatoes
(this one started out good, but half way through we were not feeling it anymore. The sweet potatoes were supposed to be a soup, but I decided to not add more water and keep them mashed. The potatoes went nicely mixed with the wild rice, but that rice is just so hard to work with.)

Pretty much every week we try to soak some kind of dry bean that we will use throughout the week. This week we decided to use garbanzo beans (chickpeas), which is definitely different from the usual black or pinto beans. So, to start I made homemade hummus, but it wasn't quite as good as the store bought ones. And then we have tried incorporating the garbanzos into our weekly meals:

Walnut & Raisin Waldorf Salad and a chickpea quinoa with almonds and raisins

Spiced chicken with garbanzo beans along with a yogurt sauce
and some sweet potatoes & peas

Spinach and garbanzo beans with thyme butternut squash
(We ate out for lunch at an Italian place across the street, which was really yummy and then we went out for a few hours running errands. When we got home Brian was craving a huge mound of spinach, so this is what I did with his mound haha)

An Eventful Saturday

On Friday night, Brian got a text from a friend named Chuck, who he worked with at Servite for 2 years. Chuck went to Boston College for his master's and then moved to CA to teach at Servite and is now back on the East Coast working with his dad. He texted Brian letting him know that he was going to be in town to go to the BC football game and that we could join him for a tail gate before. We looked up tickets online and they were $60 each, so we decided that we would just stop by and say hi before the game (which was at noon).

So, we headed to BC and met up with Chuck and his girlfriend, Paige (who is a RN from Florida, met Chuck in CA while working at UCLA and now is attending school in NY to be a nurse anesthetist). Chuck gave us a little tour of the campus and then we met some of his old roommates and friends from his BC days. We also ended up buying tickets from some guy for $50, so then we went to the game and sat in the nosebleed section with Chuck and Paige. It was fun even though they lost to Virginia Tech. We joined the same people for a little bit after the game for more tailgating, but then decided to head home to relax and freshen up before heading out again.



So we went home for a light snack and relaxed a little. Around 5:30 we left to head downtown to meet Dan & Angel for dinner - we met Angel last week when Tiffany was here, since she stayed with them her last night in Boston. Dan & Angel moved here from So Cal as well and they were also recently married, so we had a lot to talk about. They are some of the nicest people we have met and we had such a nice dinner with them in the South End at Gaslight Brasserie du Coin, french cuisine. The food was amazing!!

It was so fun to have something to do...to have plans! haha. We had such a fun Saturday!! :)

Our most recent visitor

This was our most recent (and not-so-welcome) visitor:
A house centipede! We saw the first one about a week ago and have since seen 2 more (smaller) ones since then. I think they are getting in through the heater vent. They are pretty fast little guys, but Brian's good at killing them thankfully. I just don't like these things.

Zoo Day

Saturday we went to the Franklin Park Zoo. We were going to go on my birthday, but adults get in for the childrens' price on the first Saturday of the month so we waited a few days. Although the zoo is only about 5 miles away, it took us about an hour to get there, having to take 2 buses. We got to see a whole different side/area of town that we hadn't yet, so that was nice.

The zoo is really nice and spacious, unlike the zoos that I am used to seeing. It's beautiful and we had a fun time, not to mention it was a gorgeous day!

Making Dinner

Here are some more dinners we have made together recently:

Broccoli, pinto beans and cheese baked potato

Spinach Rice Cakes with Marinara Sauce - YUMMY!

Different (healthy) Vegetable Bean Soup (leek, zucchini, carrot juice, celery, beans, cashews, onions). Took us 3 hours to make and fed us for a week!

Healthy Eggplant Parmesan for my Birthday dinner at home - Very good!

Of course we would be happy to give you the recipes for any of these that you might want to try. Just let me know! All of the ones I have posted have been great, but I will let you know when we come across something we didn't really care too much for. :)

Boston Birthday

My first Boston Birthday was lovely! Brian made me pancakes along with a delicious glass of fresh sqeezed orange juice! Then we headed to Revere Beach.
We walked around the beach for a while

then we ate at Kelly's (Roast Beef). Brian got a "Reuben" sandwich (corned beef with sauerkraut)
and I tried the roast beef sandwich, which was very yummy.

Afterwards, we headed to the Museum of Science and stayed there until closing.

Life size black bear

Comparing hand prints with T-Rex

Brian next to the humerus bone of a Brachiosaurus!

Then we went home for dinner and dessert. Brian made me heart shaped brownies and I opened my cards!

Ending the night with a lovely serenade! :D

What a great birthday!!! Thanks Brian! :)

A Day Downtown

Today we decided to have lunch at the Quincy Market.
It's pretty pricey, but so many options!!! Afterwards, we went over to the Aquarium.

Right now they have 80 penguins as their big attraction.

They had a couple sharks and we enjoyed watching them swim by with their evil look.

They had lots of cool fish, some really big ones too, but the pictures didn't really come out. We had fun though. After the aquarium we headed into the North End for an early birthday dinner.
Ate dinner at Al Dente and tried their famous Spinach Crepe appetizer, which was so amazing!!!!
After dinner we walked around the "Feast of St. Anthony Celebration" that is celebrated in the North End every year, the last weekend of August. Lots of food stands and things to buy.