Gronk!

How could I forget to include meeting Gronkowski in my February post?! The Thursday after Super Bowl, when Patriots lost to Giants, Rob Gronkowski stopped by the VA to say hi to the patients. I was supposed to leave at 4pm that day, but decided to stay and help for overtime. He showed up around 7ish (glad I stayed!). I didn't recognize him (especially since I didn't watch the super bowl since I was at work), but someone asked me if I wanted my picture taken - I thought it was for the newspaper or something, so I said no (it was a long day and my hair was a mess - HA!). But then people were saying "You don't want your picture taken with Rob Gronkowski!?" Then I slowly figured it out and asked a bunch of co-workers to get in the picture with me. And here it is! He was very tall, quiet, and nice. My co-workers in the picture, from left to right, are Craig, Lauren, Ilia, & Merideth.

Our 1st Trip to New York City!

In February, we joined Angel & Dan and Amanda & Josh in a trip to NYC! Friday morning we met at South Station and took an early bus from Boston to NYC, about a 4 hour trip. Once we arrived, I realized that I forgot my camera charger and the battery light was already flashing low. I was so bummed! We, first, headed to our hotel to drop off our bags and freshen up. Then we started wandering around town to Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the impressive Lego Store, NBC studio store...and stopping along the way to buy a camera charger. There was just no way I wasn't going to take pictures all weekend! Friday evening I let my camera charge while we went to dinner at Landmarc in the Time Warner Center. After dinner we went to see the play War Horse, which involved several horse puppets that were incredibly impressive. It was a spectacular play!

Saturday morning, we went to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) with Amanda & Josh, while Angel & Dan went and met up with a friend. I got a little sick that afternoon, but thankfully felt better by evening. We went to Times Square and waited in the TKTS line for discounted tickets for a play that night. We then decided that we wanted to try a Ramen noodle restaurant, but the one we had been eying had a really long line. Joyce, Angel's friend, knows the city pretty well and she knew of a Ramen place that would be opening around 5 (it was about 4), so we hailed our first cab and headed across town to the other place. There was already a line forming outside (a good sign I suppose), but once they opened we still had to wait over an hour because we had a party of 7 people. We all thought it was worth the wait because it was some good food! We didn't have much time after dinner, so we quickly headed to where our show was. We saw Avenue Q, which was a funny musical, also with puppets. It was another good show - the actors were all very talented. Afterward we wandered around looking for a good dessert place - we found a place with amazing, giant slices of New York cheesecake! Yum!

Sunday morning we woke up early and headed across town to a well-known breakfast place, Clinton St. Baking Company. They definitely had the best pancakes we've ever had. They were amazing! We felt the need to burn some calories after breakfast and did a lot of walking that afternoon, browsing through stores and stopping for snacks. We had lunch at Katz's Deli, which is a completely unorganized, busy sandwich place, but well-worth it. Brian says it was the best Pastrami sandwich he has ever had. This is also where the famous scene from When Harry Met Sally took place. We rested a little that afternoon and then went to dinner for some New York Pizza. Then we walked around Times Square more, going in the Hershey's and M&M stores. Times Square at night is quite extraordinary!

Monday we went to the Chelsea Market and the High Line, which is a raised park made from old railways. We grabbed a quick bite to eat in the market, headed back to the hotel to grab our suitcases and got on the bus back to Boston. It was a fun trip! We didn't do too many touristy things because our friends have already been to NYC many times and we figured we can do the touristy stuff on our next visit. We are so happy that we got to go on this trip together, especially since Dan & Angel moved back to California just after returning to Boston.

Now for the pictures!! Click on this link: New York Photo Album

February

February consisted on more housesitting, resulting in us living at our own home for only 15 days of the month. We enjoy housesitting - I love spending time with the furry critters. :)

I forgot to mention in January we met an old friend at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). Katherine, a girl I grew up with in Girl Scouts & Confirmation, lived in Boston for a few years before we moved out here. By the time we moved here, she was already back in California. Anyway, she was back visiting with her boyfriend so we met up at the MFA, browsed around and caught up on the past 10 years. It was wonderful to reconnect. Since we didn't see a whole lot of the museum that trip because we were talking so much, Brian and I used our tickets (within 10 days for free) and went back at the beginning of Feb with Brian's classmate, Joe. This was our 3rd time there, but Joe knows a lot about Ancient Egypt and gave us an awesome detailed personal tour of that entire section of the museum.

On the first Friday in Feb, I went to the South End with my co-worker, Roni, to browse around art galleries and vintage shops. Some of the art was very interesting (and odd) and the vintage shops were fun, but almost like a big garage sale. For $5, I bought an old Alice in Wonderland book from 1963.

We met up with Christina (my cousin Ian's girlfriend who is at Boston University) and her roommate Erin for dinner and then came back to our place for some cookie baking. Since it was right before Valentine's day, we decided it would be perfect to use my "L-O-V-E" cookie cutters that I received a few years ago at a bridal shower. The cookies turned out great and ended up making a ton! The girls took a bunch back to their dorm and I ended up taking the rest to work because they were really yummy and I didn't want to eat them all! haha. They were a hit. :)

Also in February, we learned how to make Lefse, a Norwegian flatbread made out of potatoes. Lefse making is a family tradition for our friends Ben & Tara and they taught us how to make it using their new Lefse griddle. It is quite a process, but super fun and they are so tasty with a little butter & sugar! Mmmm!

That just about sums up February (except for our trip to NYC, which will be in the next post)! Another fun-filled month! :)

January 2012

Since it has been so long since my last post, I will do a little catching up over the past couple months. January was spent mostly housesitting for my co-worker, Roni, and also for our usual 2 Beagles. We celebrated a few birthdays of friends, starting with our friend Patrick (left), who is someone we knew in CA, but recently moved out here and is also going to BC.

Brian took me on a surprise date night to a Catholic worship event called Lift Ministries. It was held at a school about 45 minutes away. It was just like old times! There was an amazing pro-life speaker, adoration, and praise & worship (right). I was in tears within minutes just by being there because it brought me right back to our youth ministry days, reminding me so much of the retreats and events we were involved in. There is something so powerful to me when I hear Christian music being played and the feeling of singing along, praying the words as loud as you want. We haven't found anything like this in Boston yet and I realized that night how much I missed it. (Although, one of the churches we attend regularly has 24-hr adoration, which is definitely awesome, but that's the closest thing we've found. -picture to left). It was the perfect date night!

There were a few snowy days, but this winter has been very unique in that we hardly had any snow on the ground! I was a little bummed, especially since I didn't get any pictures on the days we did have some snow. Brian, on the other hand, was super happy that it barely snowed and wishes every winter was like this one. We have now experienced the extremes of winter in New England!!

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!!!

November

Some catching up for November:

• We visited the Pompeii Exhibit at the Museum of Science. It was pretty neat. In case you want to know more about it: Mt. Vesuvius volcano erupted near Pompeii, Italy in 79 A.D., covering the whole town in layers of ash and debris. The city of Pompeii was lost and forgotten for 17 centuries; the ash also preserved much of the city "as if in a time capsule", which is what was on display in the exhibit, including body casts of the victims.

• We went on The Spirit of Boston Harbor Dinner Cruise, courtesy of Chris and Cate. They had tickets to go for their anniversary, but weren't feeling well, so they gave us their tickets. It was a 3 hr dinner cruise around the harbor, which was really nice - we found ourselves talking a lot about our time here in Boston and what a beautiful city it is. :) The waiter thought it was our anniversary, so we played along and celebrated.

• Fall went by too quickly! Now that I am working 40 hrs a week, I didn't have many opportunities to go out and take pics of the foliage. However, I did manage to snap a few shots - I truly love the 4 seasons!!
  

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!!

Nursing Fun

Last night was a crazy night at work! I think it was somewhat related to the fact that today is a holiday, but it was also due to us being very busy with almost a full census. If I haven't mentioned it before, I work on a surgical floor, although we do take medical patients occasionally too. Many of the patients we see recently had surgery on their heart, lungs, abdomen, or an amputation. We encourage the patients to walk and/or get out of bed as soon as they are able to, so I offered to assist a patient in a little walk last night. He walked earlier in the day, but I thought it would be good to get him up and he was willing. So I got him set up with the walker and out the door he went. The doctors were in the hallway reviewing each patient's care, and they were all happy to see my patient up walking. He walked about 3 rooms down to the nurses station and then turned around. He started to turn toward the first room or a wheel chair, so I asked him how he was doing. Unfortunately, he doesn't talk much and has difficulty formulating words, but when I asked if he needed to sit he nodded. As I was pulling the wheelchair up behind him, I notice him getting really weak and looking as though he would fall. So, I grabbed him and lowered him safely to the floor. It all happened so fast, but I was thankful everything was ok. The 4 doctors in the hallway ran over and helped me get the patient into the chair. I took him back to his bed, which he barely made it into, and thankfully my patient said everything was fine. It was my first "near fall" incident and it sure made my adrenaline rush!

Next, I had to transfer one of my patients to a different floor. Since we were really busy, I figured it was going to be difficult to get some help moving the patient, so I decided to just do it myself. The beds are pretty heavy and very hard to maneuver, especially all alone. I had to push from the head of the bed but then the foot of the bed would hit the wall, so I would go to the other end and straighten it out and then go back to pushing. As I was arriving to the new floor, there were two nurses in the hallway gossiping - not only were they in my way, but they didn't even offer to help. Another road block was a cleaning cart in the middle of the hallway, that I had to move out of my way....it basically was just one thing after another, all with no assistance. I was so frustrated and irritated because with 2 people, it should have taken 10 minutes to transfer the patient, but instead it took me about 40 minutes, really setting me back in the rest of my evening duties.

In addition to these issues, it was just one of those nights where nothing seemed to go right. I ended up staying till 1am, but there was another nurse that left at that same time and the another nurse left 20 minutes earlier, so none of us left on time (which would have been 12 am). Anyway, I am sure I could share more about last night, but these were the main things and I felt like this was one night worth documenting. However, I would like to note that this was not a typical night for me, and I think every challenge is an opportunity for growth.

Some other work related things I can share are the neat technologies around the hospital. I included some links to pictures of them:

• We have robots - I haven't seen these anywhere else, but my guess is they are probably becoming more popular. I can only imagine how expensive these "tugs" are and how many (human) jobs they are replacing. We have 3 - their names are Roxie, Fenway, and Lola. I am pretty fascinated by them and how they sense people/objects nearby, get in/out of elevators, and they talk. :)
• We recently got these really neat hand washer/sanitizers - you just stick each hand in a barrel and it spins around putting soap and water on your hands, lasting a perfect 10 seconds. I guess Americans are lazier than we thought - we can't even soap up our own hands!
• I recently discovered we have a drinking fountain with a spout for filling water bottles - so cool!!
• Thankfully, many of our rooms have installed overhead lifts, so that we don't have to strain our backs. It makes it so much easier to get patients in and out of bed (although perhaps more time consuming). These are very wonderful to have around.
• Hospitals are aiming to become paperless, but the VA is one of the first I have encountered that really is! St. Jude in Fullerton was pretty close - when I was there 2 years ago they were computerized with minimal paper records, so maybe now they are. I learned in my orientation at the VA that the barcode medication administration was first implemented by the VA. I am very thankful for it!!

Alright, that's enough nursing stuff for now. :)

It's been TOO long!

My apologies for not blogging more, and I am going to try to be better about it!! Here's a little update on the past couple months - I'll try to include lots of pictures.

- - - SEPTEMBER- - -

My friend Alice from nursing school is in the Army and she was in Boston for a conference, so we met up for dinner. She brought a friend she met that day, Heath, who is also a nurse and in the Air Force. We had a lovely Italian dinner in the North End. It's always so good to meet up with friends from California!

Brian's dad came to visit and stayed for a week. Although I had to work a lot, we enjoyed having him here and Brian loved spending quality time with him. We wandered about Boston...




...we napped on Bunker Hill
(my first time here! Brian went when Daniel visited in May)






...and we walked the Battle Road in Lexington and Concord. (A first for us all!)

Brian & his dad also visited the Adams National Historical Park/House, which they really enjoyed.




- - - OCTOBER- - -

We started off October by heading to Cohasset, MA for a retreat for Theology doctoral students and their spouses/significant others'. The retreat house is right on the water and is the coziest house ever! There is nothing like drinking wine and sitting by the wood-burning fire, talking to wonderful friends. It was a beautiful weekend with some beautiful people. We were very thankful that I was fortunate enough to get 3 days off in a row, allowing us to retreat for the entire weekend.

The picture on the left is me with two of our favorite couples - Conor & Kate, and Ben & Tara. We spent Saturday afternoon walking around the small town of Cohasset town and this is a pic of us eating some whoopie pies!

We came across a little obstacle in our path on the way back to the retreat house - the tide had come in, blocking the one road that leads to the house.













It was a wonderful weekend of relaxation, prayer, and fellowship. I really enjoyed getting to know some of Brian's classmates too. At the end of the retreat, we were helping clean things up (part of our youth ministry nature I guess) and we stumbled upon the biggest book ever! Look at that thing!







The wonderful Wintheiser's were visiting a friend in Cape Cod, so we drove down and had dinner with them. It was our first visit to the Cape and it was a memorable one. Mike & Angie drove us around a bit and gave us a little tour of some of the Cape. It's beautiful down there and the beach was perfect (although it was quite windy and cold!). Here's a picture of us at the Chatham Lighthouse.

We went back to the house (which is the vacation home for Angie's childhood friend, Bev) and she and her husband were making a perfect lobster dinner. They had a lobster for everyone and one of them was a biggie! We held it while it was still alive and it was heavy!!! I want to say it was about 5 lbs? That was our first time holding a live lobster - thankfully his claws were still banded together!




Here is Mike with the lobster after it came out of the hot tub.

And the beautiful dinner table (by the way, she made the best homemade Caesar salad dressing EVER!)

After dinner we sat by the fire in the back - it was so peaceful and it felt like we were in the middle of the woods. It was such a wonderful evening!!!
Brian got sick the following week, which resulted in a trip to the ER one evening. He's been having chronic headaches for a while now and we were worried about meningitis when he woke up with fatigue and stiff neck. The ER ruled out meningitis and sent him home with pain meds. The next day he had nausea and vomiting all day but thankfully started to feel better at the end of the night. He woke up the next day - still with the headache, but no more flu-like symptoms, so he headed to the airport to pick up Dick, our long time friend from youth ministry who came to spend the weekend with us. I worked the first day, so Brian took him around town. I was off the next couple days, so the first day we drove to New Hampshire to see some fall colors. We just picked a random place on a map, drove there and found somewhere to have lunch. Then our friend Conor, who's from NH, suggested we drive to Mount Monadnock, so we went there and did some hiking. This is a picture from the top of the mountain...on the other side you could see Boston on the horizon. It was a beautiful place for hiking and we saw some great fall foliage there. Afterwards, we headed to the Boston Seaport for seafood.
We had a great day.

The following day we went to see the Head of the Charles Regatta - an annual world rowing race that takes place on the Charles River in Cambridge. I was super excited because there were lots of vendors handing out free stuff/food, which ended up being our lunch that day. It was fun and I just love checking out events like this around Boston!

We then just wandered about Boston, looking in antique shops, strolling through the peaceful Public Garden, and eating Italian dinner in the North End. After dinner, we went to the Top of the Hub, the 52nd floor of the Prudential Center for drinks...but we soon discovered that we could just get pictures of the view (what we really wanted) without spending a dime. So instead, we headed to Finale, our favorite dessert place. A lovely ending to a lovely visit! :)

The last week of October was going to be spent with my grandparents visiting, but my grandma got sick and they couldn't make it afterall. :( So, this pretty much sums up September and October! We keep ourselves busy and are enjoying all that Boston has to offer (which is a lot!).