Life Lately

Just popping in to give you some peaks at our life lately.... May was  crazy busy for us (I feel like I say that every month-ha ha) we are moving into our summer house...it's a little ranch house nothing fancy..but we rent out our regular house to summer baseball families that are here for the baseball camps.  so that has taken most of our time lately.    We also just finished another semester at the College. 


Here's a picture of our little house.  We just love this little place. 

Last weekend Ava went to her first prom with her boyfriend Ethan. Saturday she spent the day getting her hair and makeup done.  My friend Rachael did her hair and her friend Mary did her hair and Mary took some beautiful pictures of Ava and Ethan for us.  Graig, Grandma Jan and I went with Ava to Ethan's grandparents house to take pictures before the prom.  It was such a fun day and Ava had a great time.  I hope to do a full prom post soon!

A couple of weekends ago my friend Coleen got married!  It was such a fun night and I am so happy I was able to share in the festivities with them.  Here is a picture of me, our friend Erica and Coleen. 

Memorial Day weekend my friend Amy had her annual Memorial Day party-it was raining and nasty out but we made the most of it.  It was fun getting together with friends.  Ava even grilled the hamburgers for the party. She loved doing that!

Last week Amy Schumer made a surprise visit to our town! We knew a few days in advance and almost everyone I know got tickets to go.  She donated all of the money from the ticket sales to charity which I thought was so great.  She was adorable and funny and it was a fun night out!  I went with my friends and we took a quick picture while we were waiting in line outside.  

In May I took a weekend trip to Washington, DC with my friends to watch the Dodgers play.  My friend Vicki's nephew plays for the Dodgers and this is our second annual trip to see them play.  I hope he has a long career because we love going to watch him play!  We had a great weekend.  I hope to do a full post on our trip soon!!

That's a tiny look at our life lately.  I hope you have a great Tuesday!

Xoxo

Life Lately

I am STILL having blog issues-ughh!!!  I am hoping to get them resolved this weekend and get back to posting regularly next week.  We have had an exhausting week and I am SO SO happy it's finally Friday!  Tonight Rachael and I have our monthly craft night for Branch and Bloom and tomorrow G, Ava and I are headed to Long Island because Ava is in a basketball tournament.  

Wednesday we had to put our dog Daisy down.  I was such an awful morning.  On Sunday she had a seizure.  Ava and I were home when it happened and after her seizure we held her until she seemed OK again.  On Tuesday night G and I were getting ready to go to sleep and she had another one.  I told him I was going to take her to the vet the next day.  We knew something was wrong we just didn't know exactly what was wrong.  I took her in to the vet on Wednesday morning and they did blood work and took x-rays and the vet said her lungs and the area surrounding her heart were full of cancer.  He said there was nothing they could do to help her.  He suggested that we put her down right away so she wasn't suffering.  I called G at work and he came and was with me when they put her down.  It was so sad and I just cried and cried. Daisy was my little shadow around the house and I loved taking her for walks around our neighborhood.  She was part of our family for 12 years and we miss her so much.  

The vets office made us a paw print in clay so we could remember our Daisy girl.  I picked it up today and thought it was so sweet.  I will cherish it always.  

This week did have some happy moments....

We celebrated our nephew Gabe's 6th birthday on Friday with dinner and of course a big cake.  He is such a cutie.  I am so glad we got to be with him on his birthday.  

We bought a new (to us!) Nissan Rouge for me.  I have only had it a couple of days but so far I love it!!  We have always had cars so this is our first SUV and it has so much room so far it's been great. It's a really pretty dark purple/black color called black amethyst.  

Tonight Rachael and I have our monthly craft night for Branch and Bloom.  We are going to be making vertical chalkboard planters and this craft night is also a fundraiser for our local library.  I love this craft and think it will be a lot of fun to make these tonight.

That's it for me today.  I hope you have a great Friday!
Xoxo

Life Lately

I've been having some technical issues with my blog and haven't been able to post in a few days :(
I am hoping everything is fixed so I am able to post.  I have so much to share!  Here is a look at our life lately.

Last night I hosted our monthly Bunco game.  It was fun as always.  It's always great to catch up with these ladies.  

I made a some yummy snacks and a signature drink of course!! I set up the food on my desk in the living room and it worked out great!  

I set up the drinks in the kitchen.  I will post instructions on how to make the Bunco Tart on Saturday.  Everyone loved this drink.  I drank seltzer at Bunco because I had to get up early this morning to run.  But everyone loved this drink and it's a fun spring.summer cocktail!!

This week is Greek Week and we have different fun events planned every night.  The students have been loving it!!  

The Easter Bunny came to our house on Sunday!  Ava got a big basket of candy and a gift certificate for a manicure.  We also went to church and had a big Easter dinner at home. 

Saturday night my friend Heidi hosted a craft night at her house. I made a welcome sign that it turns out I have no place for in my house so I am going to sell it at the Holiday Market.   It was so fun to get together and catch up with these ladies.  

 Ava and I went to a green house/farm stand on Saturday to look at the plants and buy some fresh produce for our Easter dinner.  I got a couple of little plants for our house.  Even though it is snowing today I am so happy it's almost spring in upstate NY!!

 G's brother and his family has been visiting from Colorado this week. It has been fun having them in NY.  Ava loves her baby cousin Gabe. 

That's it for me today.  I hope you've had a great week!!

Xoxo

Life lately

Life lately for me has been BUSY!  Last week we had two craft nights at Branch and Bloom (one with 50 people!), I hosted a Tree lighting party at my house and I coordinated the luncheon for the annual garden club greens sale.  I am exhausted just typing all of that!!

Last Wednesday I hosted a tree lighting party at our house.  We watched the Rockefeller Center Tree lighting together and it was so fun!  It was a great way to kick off the season! Graig was reffing a basketball game and I thought having a party with all my friends would be way more fun that watching alone and it was.  Almost everyone I invited was in NYC with us last year when our tree was lit.  

This year I put up a small two foot free in our dining room and I put all of our Rockefeller center ornaments on it.  We got a lot last year and my plan is to get a new one for us every year.  

Last week I also helped decorate two trees for The Festival of the Trees that was held in our town.  This event was brand new this year and it was great.  Businesses, organizations and community groups were asked to decorate Christmas trees. I helped with the Garden Club tree and we used poinsettias to decorate our tree.  My fraternity and sorority students did a tree with a Disney theme.

I won the Ommegang tree which is a brewery in our town. Here is a picture of the tree I won.  It was amazing!  It was filled with wine cork ornaments and beer bottle cap Christmas trees.  I saved a few ornaments from the tree for our tree and then I donated it to charity because I don’t have the space for another tree in our house.  

The Garden Club Greens sale was last week.  The Greens sale is the biggest fundraiser for the Garden Club all year. The members spend all week making wreaths and arrangements then on Friday we have an event where everyone can come and buy our creations.  Here are a few things our members made at the sale. 

Friday night I had my monthly craft night for Branch and Bloom.  We made personalized wooden signs.  They turned out really cute and it was a great night!

Saturday I marched in the Christmas parade with my students and friends to support the Shoeboxes for Seniors campaign.  My dear friend Lisa is organizing the effort in our town to have people donate shoeboxes full of small gifts for senior citizens.  This is the first year and we marched in the parade to raise awareness for the effort.

After the parade Rachael and I raced over to the Performing  Arts Center to teach a wreath making class for 50 people!  This was our biggest class yet for Branch and Bloom.  We spent ALL week organizing this class and collecting greens for the wreaths and it was exhausting.

 Thankfully everyone had a great time and we have already been asked to do the class again next year!!

We like to take pictures of all of the people in our craft class but this class was so big we took a few pictures of some of our participants when they were done with their wreaths. 

Last weekend Ava was in Vienna Austria for the Christmas markets.   I got these pictures from her host Mom.  I’m so glad she got to visit a Christmas market. Everyone I’ve talked to about them says they are magnificent and a must see at the holidays so I’m thrilled she got to go to one. 

Happy Thursday!!

Life Lately

Here's a little sneak peak into our life lately....

1-we are enjoying the last week that Anne will be with us.  At the end of next week Anne is going to her new family.  Lucky for us she'll just be one block away but we are going to miss her!!! We are taking her out to Easter church and then dinner in Saturday night, Sunday we are taking her to Easter brunch before we head to D.C. for a few fun filled days.  We've had a great time with her. 

Anne with Ava and Grandma Jan

 

2-I'm the Vice President of the Garden Club and it's my job to organize the speakers every month for our meetings.  Monday night I had a four of our members do presentations on flower arranging.  In June of every year the Garden Club does an exhibit at the art gallery in town it's called Art in Bloom.  We choose a painting and arrange a flower arrangement to go along with the painting.  It's so fun!  I'veparticipated  with my friend Rachael for three years.  

 

3-our nephew Gave turned 5 on Saturday!   He is getting so big.  We love him so much ❤❤

 

4-it's been BEAUTIFUL out this week!!!   I put my poor, neglected houseplsnts outside in the sunshine and they have been loving it!  

 

5-Speaking of houseplants tonight some girlfriends are coming over and we are going to make string gardens and plant stakes.  Everyone is so excited and now I know we are officially old 👵🏼👵🏼 because we at excited about these things.

The plant stakes we are making are going to be similar to these I bought last year from Magnolia in Waco, TX. 

 

6-After Easter brunch on Sunday Ava, Anne and I are heading out to with my dear friend Sabrina and her daughter to D.C. for a few days.  We are going to tour the Capital

and go to the National Zoo.  I love Washington!  I went last fall for a few days with my sister and I'm excited to go again.

I hope you've had a great week!!

Xoxo

Life lately

Here's a little peek into our life lately......

Brock called us on Saturday with BIG  news.  He got offered a  full time/permanent job in IT-support for an insurance agency.   He has been doing this job in a temp  position since the fall.  In this new position he gets full benefits including a 401k and insurance. His work hours are 6:30am-2:30pm.  His plan is to work full time and  take late afternoon/evening classes at Arizona State in the fall.  

 

Ava had her end of the year basketball banquet.  She had a great time playing this year and she's already started playing  AAU basketball.  She'll play all spring and summer and she's thrilled!  She loves basketball!

 

 

Sunday I did a 5k (we walked!) with my friends L and T to support SADD (students against destructive decisions).  It was a beautiful day for a walk.

 

Then later on Sunday my dear friend Amy invited me to go to a fundraiser with her to support Hospice.  It was an Epicurian festival and there were about 30 restaurants there with food samples.  I've gone to this event for the past 5 years and it's always fun!  In addition to the wonderful  food there is wine tasting and a silent auction. This year I won one of the baskets in the silent auction! I won a liquor gift basket filled with glasses, mixers and mini bottles of alcohol.   

 

Amy's daughter (and Ava's bff) Avery went with us and our friend Shannon came too. 

 

We sat at at a table with Amy's co-workers which was fun. It was a beautiful day so we took a picture on the veranda.

 

G has been working so hard to get our house ready for the summer baseball renters. In about a month we are moving to our rental house for the summer!  This weekend we are hoping to get a lot of organizing and cleaning done at our house to make our upcoming move less stressful.

 

At the end April I am going to have a brunch for all my friends so they can see our new house.  We are also going to do a paint and sip at the brunch.  My friend Lauren is going to teach us how to make this painting.  We will add our name or monogram to the middle.  She sent me this sample.  I love it! 

 

This week at work has been busy.  It's Greek Week!  We've had some fun events this week including cake decorating which was new this year.  Tonight we wrap up the week with Greek Sing.

 

That's a little look into our life lately.  I hope you've had a great week!

Xoxo

Life lately

Holy cow this week has flown by!!! I can't believe it's Thursday already!   We have some fun plans for the weekend so I'm pumped about that ❤

Here are some pics of our life lately......

Last Wednesday our exchange student did a presentation on  home country to our Rotary Club.  She also made Danish cookies.  She did a great job!  Ava went to the presentation too because next year when she's in Czech she'll do a presentation on the US.

 

I love this air plant I got at the Philadelphia flower show.  It's  doing so well in it's little pot in our dining room.

 

We keep plugging away to get our house ready for baseball tenants.  This is our sunroom.  This is my favorite and least used room in our whole house.  During the summer it will be the Rockerfeller room and it will have a big print of the tree and a couple of scrapbooks filled with pictures of the tree.  

I need to start working on those 😬

 

Three former students surprised me last weekend at the leadership conference.  They were in town visiting and stopped in to see me at work.  It was great to see them! 

 

This weekend Brock is going to buy a car in Arizona.  He has been using a bike since he got there but he feels like he needs a car so this weekend he is going to buy one.  He doesn't have a huge budget and he has been researching what would be best for him. I love this picture of him from Chef Mickeys ❤. We still kiss him like crazy but he lives Arizona and I'm happy that he's happy there :-) 

 

I've been trying to slow down lately, I feel like we are constantly running around. I love this quote and try to remember it when I'm being pulled in 10000 directions all at once :-)

 

That's a peek at our life lately.  Happy Thursday!

Xoxo