We had a nice long vacation to FL to see all of our family for Christmas, but it sure felt like a whirlwind trip! We caught up with just about everyone and spent lots of quality family time with all of the grandparents. M learned some new words: No, Please, Get Down . . .
We ate at or got take out from some of our old favorites. We had a quick visit to the beach. The weather was beautiful, and allowed us to eat several meals outside, but we didn’t do any swimming. It just wasn’t hot enough to warrant needing to cool down in the pool. Miss M and my mom did a lot of walking up and down the street. M did not do a lot of sleeping. Not sure if it was teething or just being away from home, but she seems to like being back in her own bed now. Thank you to all the friends and family that adjusted their schedules and made some time to hang with us – we really appreciate it and loved seeing you! To those we missed this time – we hope to see you very soon!
Category Archives: Friends
Elmo!
Our very awesome friends Jen & Ryan came over last Friday for wings and pizza. I mentioned that Miss M loves Elmo even though she doesn’t watch him on TV, and doesn’t own an Elmo. She even says “Elmo!” So, they brought her an Elmo, or three. And some fun Elmo Christmas books! Miss M is in heaven with her new Elmo friends.
This one sings La La La when you squeeze his belly. She’ll bring it over to you and then sing La La La along with him!
Kids’ Table
This weekend we went to a dinner party where all three families had kids, so naturally there was a kids’ table. M was the youngest at the kids’ table. I wasn’t sure she would stay put, since she normally eats in a high chair. I also wasn’t sure how it would work once she decided she didn’t want to stay put, because her feet didn’t touch the ground, and I don’t think she’s ever tried to get out of a chair before. Surprisingly, she sat there for quite some time, ate a ton of lasagna, and even ate off her friends’ plates once they’d vacated the table. She was a champ! It was a lovely dinner party (awesome food and awesome company!), and not even as nuts as I thought it would be with four kids!
Hopefully We’re Back
I’ve taken a little hiatus from blogging, partly because I am lazy and busy and partly because there’s been some tough stuff going on with some of my peeps (extended family and friends), and I’ve been feeling contemplative and quiet (ha, me?) and thanking my lucky stars for all and everyone that I have.
A lot has changed, and is changing and happening around these parts.
- My parents headed back to Florida after a 5-week stay here and lots of quality time. Much to the surprise of some of my friends, I didn’t have a breakdown ;)
- We had a run of over 6 weeks without anyone being sick (not counting M’s pink eye). Thank goodness for summer!
- I got a new title at work. I am now the Operations Manager of a Marketing Agency.
- R almost has his teaching certificate (only one multiple choice and one essay test to go in mid-September).
- R got a job teaching high school and elementary music in a town about 45 minutes away from our house (he starts soon!) This means he’ll probably be out the door before I normally get up, so life in the mornings for me and Miss M is going to be changing big time! I think we’ll both be eating breakfast on the job, and our hygiene and wardrobe choices are sure to suffer.
- R continues to work on his thesis, and we both hope he can juggle the new job, all his existing teaching and gigs, and the thesis writing over the next year and that we can still see each other once in a while.
- Miss M now goes to daycare 5 days a week (3 days at her daycare center and 2 days at a home daycare).
- Miss M drinks only whole milk (no formula) and we’re working on phasing out the bottle and phasing in the sippy cup, which is proving to be harder than I thought it would be.
- Miss M knows what she wants and when she wants it, and if she doesn’t get it, she gets pretty angry – for example, she wants to play in the dog’s water bowl, real bad.
- Miss Izzie goes in on Friday for her 2nd yearly checkup since her two big surgeries back in the Fall of ’09. She’ll go under anesthesia and have her teeth cleaned and get new X-rays. They will probably redo her bonding and most likely pull some more teeth. Poor baby.
- In addition to all that we’ve got in store for this next year, I’ve also signed up for the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at my favorite local yoga studio (1 full weekend a month for 12 months starting in September).
- I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Fall, which is my favorite season, even though it means that Winter is coming. It’s going to be a busy year!
Here are a fewer new(er) photos. She’s still got 80′s rock star hair.
Memorial Day in New Hampshire
This weekend, despite illness, we packed up the babe and the dog and headed to New Hampshire. Miss M recovered from her horrible cold just in the nick of time and was an angel on the ride to and from Effingham. We visited our awesome friends Gretchen and Graham and their dogs Happy and Banjo. Whenever M fussed, we just pointed out the little white dog (Happy) to her and she was all smiles. She cracked up everytime Happy would give her kisses. We swam twice in one day in two different lakes, we went out to dinner, we took nice long naps. It was a great weekend and we’re so glad we sucked it up and went!
11 Weeks Old
Can’t believe she’s 11 weeks old already. Two weeks shy of 3 months old! We had a lovely visit from Gretchen and Graham this weekend and we’re looking forward to a visit from some of the New Hampshire Haines clan this weekend.
Just in time for Christmas . . .
. . . I am finally posting about Thanksgiving. Wow, where has this fall gone. I’m exhausted.
Thanksgiving was awesome. So much family gathered in one place. It was all of one side of my family, minus my parents and one cousin and his wife (we missed you!). Our friends Gretchen and Graham joined us with their 2 doggies. We ate, we drank, we ate some more. I’ve included some photos (some borrowed from Cousin Matt – thanks!).
I’m thankful for . . .
. . . the Manchester Road Race, even though I’m not around to participate this year. It’s such a wonderful feeling of community – almost 14,000 participants and 15,000 – 20,000 spectators last year! It’s such a great way to kick off the holiday season. Oh well, MAYBE next year.
. . . family. This year we’ll be spending Thanksgiving in Contoocook, New Hampshire at my Aunt & Uncle’s house (Rick and Ginny). Also in attendance will be my cousins, Matt & Amy (Boston), cousins Jon, Will, Dan, Jess & Baby Evelyn (New Hampshire), and Aunt Beth & Uncle Roger. I tried so hard to convince my parents to fly up, but it’s just so hard to pull off air travel during the short Thanksgiving break. Maybe next year.
. . . friends. We’ve hosted for the past 5 years or so, and we’re sad to not be inviting our friends into our home this year for Thanksgiving, but we’re happy to be able to bring some of our friends to eat with our family in New Hampshire.
. . . Ryan. Today more than ever. Tomorrow more than today.
Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts
I stole this recipe from the lovely Stefania, who stole it from her mother in law, who probably stole it from somewhere on the internet. I have had this once at her house, and have now made it once, and it rocks. At her house, she served it with other things and we each had one. We made it our main course, and each had two, which in my opinion was too much. It’s super rich because of the goat cheese. Next time I think I would serve it with a nice fresh salad.
I am copying the recipe from her blog, because I think her notes are just adorable – especially the part about “objecting to this greatly.” Oh, PS, I halved the recipe, so it made 4 squares. Oh, and I am dumb and didn’t know the difference between parchment paper and wax paper, so I used wax and it smoked a lot in the oven, so I then transfered just to a sprayed cookie sheet and they were fine.
Thanks Stefania!

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart
Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts
1 pkg (2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted
Olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced onions (2 large onions)
3 large garlic cloves cut into slivers
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons dry white wine
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves (I used dried)
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus 2 ounces shaved with a peeler (didn’t do this bit)
4 ounces garlic and herb goat cheese (I used regular)
1 large tomato cut into 4 slices
3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves (I used freeze dried)
Directions:
Unfold a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll it lightly to an 11 by 11 -inch square. Using a 6-inch wide saucer or other round object as a guide, cut 2 circles from the sheet of puff pastry, discarding the scraps. (I objected greatly to this. This recipe calls for 4 tarts from 2 sheets… I had 8 women coming over so I didn’t discard any of the pastry and cut 4 squares from each sheet and continued on…)
Place the pastry on sheet pans lined with parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium to low heat and add the onions and garlic. Saute for 15- 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are limp and there is almost no moisture left in the pan. Add 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, the wine, and the thyme and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, until the onions are lightly browned. Remove from heat.
Using a sharp pairing knife, score a 1/4 inch border around each pastry. Prick the pastry inside the score lines with the tines of a fork and sprinkle a tablespoon of grated Parmesan on each pastry staying in the border.
Place 1/4 (or the onions divided into however may pastries you have) of the onion mixture on each, again staying in the border. Crumble 1 ounce of the goat cheese on top of the onions. Place a slice of tomato in the center of each tart. Brush the tomato lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with basil, salt and pepper. Finally scatter 4 or 5 shards of the shaved Parmesan cheese on each.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.
Serve hot or warm.
Go Red Sox
Hard to believe that this was our second weekend back from vacation, it feels like we’ve been back for months. We tried something new this week. Instead of me having to control the house cleaning to be sure everything is just right, we did it together. On Friday night, we buckled down and spent a few hours each cleaning. It went really well, and felt very rewarding to have done it together. And it took half the time it normally takes me! As it turns out, Ryan is a better cleaner than I am, that’s why it takes him so long. He is a meticulous vacuumer and he even did all of the laundry.
The rest of the weekend was great. We went to Boston for an impromptu lunch with Cousin Amy and a Red Sox vs. Yankees game with Ryan and Jen (thanks R & J!).
We went blackberry picking and to a going away get together for our friends Jon and Lisa. It was a great weekend!

Go Red Sox!


























