January is almost over!

Hey you guys!  Sorry a few more weeks went by... Life has been hectic, mostly because of work. This whole week I was in Frederick, MD for a work meeting. We had co-workers from all over the world come to Frederick for this meeting, so a few of them I hadn't met before. And I was told like the day before the meeting that they wanted me to do a presentation on this project I've been working on for like a year, so I immediately went into panic mode (I HATE public speaking... It's such a phobia for me), but I made a PowerPoint presentation and tried to prepare the best I could. And the first day of the meeting they re-did the agenda so that my presentation was bumped to the morning of the last day (yesterday), so I was REALLY hoping we'd be running so far behind that we wouldn't have time for my presentation... And, that's what happened!  I was soooo beyond happy on that last day when we were so ridiculously behind that they decided to skip my presentation.

It was an exhausting and stressful week of meetings, and I'm so happy to be home and that today is Friday. I still have a lot of work to do today, but I'm giving myself a nice leisurely morning. I already took Guinness for a walk, and now I'm drinking my coffee while Guinness sleeps next to me! I'll start working soon.

The nominations for the Oscars were announced!! Kevin and I like to try to watch as many of the nominees for Best Picture as we can, and we're pretty excited about most of the movies this year!!  The only one we've seen so far is La La Land, and we LOVED it.  I highly recommend that movie.  Here's the list of the nominees, just in case you're curious!

Arrival - Starring Amy Adams. It's about aliens coming to our planet... I was actually really surprised this was nominated!  But I'm interested to see it.
Fences - Starring Denzel Washington. I've heard this one is REALLY intense, so we'll have to pick the right time to watch this one. And probably follow it up with Zoolander or something silly.
Hacksaw Ridge - This one is based on a true story about an American soldier in WWII who refused to have a weapon (even though he was sent to the front lines), and he saved 75 soldiers without firing a single shot. This one looks like a really amazing story, so I'm interested to see it.
Hell or High Water - I actually don't know anything about this movie, except that it stars Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk in the new Star Trek movies). So... I have no idea if I'm interested to see this one or not!
Hidden Figures - I am SO excited to see this one!!  I've really been wanting to see this one. It's the true story of 3 African American women who worked at NASA, and they were the brains behind the John Glenn mission.
La La Land - Already saw this one. Go see it if you want a fun movie that's amazing!
Lion - This one looks good! It's about a 5 year old boy from India that gets lost on a train, and ends up far away from his home/family... and he has to survive alone for a while before he is adopted by a couple in Australia. And then when he is an adult he tries to find parents/home in India.
Manchester by the Sea - This one stars Casey Affleck (Ben's brother), and I've heard it's great but it looks REALLY sad... so I don't know.
Moonlight - I don't know what this one is about! So, just like Hell or High Water, I have no idea what to expect.  

We'll see how many we get through this year!  We think we will see one of them (probably Lion or Hidden Figures) this weekend. This weekend we are also going to see our friend Michael (the opera singer), and we also have plans to go to this snowshoeing demo at a brewery! It's sponsored by REI, and they're bringing in a ton of snow (since there's no snow right now...), and there's going to be beer and snowshoeing.

Fun! 

I hope you're all doing really well, and I'll try to take some pictures this weekend! 

2017 so far

Well, we are 13 days into 2017 and I am FINALLY feeling almost healthy again!  This cold/flu/whatever has really been hanging on. It's mainly just been my throat/voice, but I was also really congested for a while. Something funny/weird about Guinness is that he completely freaks out when I cough.. He doesn't freak out when Kevin coughs, but he really panics when I do.  That usually isn't a problem, but when I have a weeks-long cough, it becomes a big problem! He tries to either climb into my lap or into Kevin's lap, and it isn't usually gentle! I got a picture of him sitting on Kevin after I coughed:

Kevin had to quickly move his laptop so Guinness didn't sit on it... 

And now Kevin's comforting poor panicked Guinness (all because I coughed...)

As a result of this stupid illness, we had a VERY low-key New Year's Eve and barely made it til midnight (but we did!), and the next day I was not feeling well enough to go into the city for the parade. Kevin didn't want to go to the parade without me, so we stayed home on New Year's Day for the first time in 4 or 5 years. We had a leisurely day of watching movies and just hanging out at home, and Kevin kept a nice warm fire going in our fireplace all day.

Those are all of our Christmas cards above our fireplace! 

We also had our first decent snow of the winter last weekend! We got a few inches last Thursday, and then on Saturday we also got about 3 inches. Guinness looooooved playing in the snow in our yard!  He loves the snow. But yesterday it was 60 degrees (whaaaat?!) so all of the snow has melted and everything is just super muddy now. This is such a weird winter so far. They're saying we might get more snow this weekend even though yesterday was 60 degrees.

Catching a frisbee!

Guinness feeling playful and trying to keep the frisbee away from Kevin. 

Running back after a successful catch! 

Our cute pup

A different day

Action (blurry) shot! Guinness is catching the frisbee

Happy boy!

I'm not sure how many of you follow football, but I think most of my friends/family know that I'm a big Chargers fan... so yesterday was a sad, sad day for me. The Chargers announced yesterday that they're officially moving to Los Angeles. So... I'm pretty bummed about that. It's such a dumb decision... They definitely should have stayed in San Diego, and I feel like it's a big middle finger to their fans. I can't be a fan of a Los Angeles team... I just can't do it. So, I think me and the Chargers have to break-up. So, if you need me for the next week I'll be in my pajamas eating ice cream out of a carton while watching break-up movies in the dark (but these will be football movies instead of the usual break-up movies). Sigh... And then I'll have to eventually find a new football team to be a fan of. Eagles? Niners?  It's too soon to think about.

I'm going to try not to dwell on that, because there are obviously MUCH more important things going on in our country right now.  I won't turn this post into anything political, but let's just say I'm feeling incredibly stressed, angry, sad, and anxious for what's to come for our country. So, that's definitely way more important than my Chargers.

I hope everyone is doing great, and I hope everything is going well for everyone. In case you need some feel-good movies (I know I've been needing them!), one movie I would definitely recommend is La La Land. That's a hopeful, happy kind of movie, and I really enjoyed it (and I KNOW it's going to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, so that's already one off my list since I try to see those movies before the Oscars!). We also just watched Zootopia last night (it's free on Netflix!), and it was super cute. So, there's a few happy movies, just in case anyone else is needing them right now!  I love you all!

2016 is almost over!

Wow, I can't believe December is already almost over!  Crazy!!  I'm sorry I haven't posted much - This month really got away from me! We've been keeping very busy with work, Christmas activities, and lots of other stuff going on! I'll try to do a super quick summary of the month. One super fun thing that we did at the beginning of the month was we went to a concert!  If you've ever seen The Life Aquatic movie (from 2004), then you know who Seu Jorge is... He's a Brazilian musician that was hired by Wes Anderson to be in the movie and sing David Bowie songs. He does these really beautiful covers of David Bowie songs in Portuguese. He's doing a small tour right now as a tribute to David Bowie, and it was a really amazing show.  It was just Seu Jorge and his acoustic guitar on stage, singing David Bowie songs in Portuguese... It was a little bit of heaven.

Here's Seu Jorge in The Life Aquatic!

I spent about a week in California visiting friends/family in the middle of this month, and it was SO great to see everyone. The time flew by, as it always does. It was great to be there and enjoy some of the Christmas traditions with my family, and we even had a big present opening night on the 20th. On the 21st we did a big Christmas train ride, and the kiddos loved that. I left super early on the 22nd and headed back to Philly!  Here are some pictures from my time in CA! 

The fireplace at my parents' house! So darn Christmasy. 

We made a gingerbread house one night! My nieces decorated it (but I did that piping on the roof! Not too shabby eh?  Those years of decorating cakes at Baskin Robbins still comes in handy sometimes...).

Here's Maggie working on the Kong toy I got her!  She can destroy ANY toy (except for that orange one by her bed!), so every year I try to find one that she can't destroy. This one lasted a while, but she eventually started getting chunks off of it. 

This was from the Christmas train. That's Andrew (Amanda's brother), and his wife Nicole, and their adorable daughter Aria.  Oh and an "elf" is behind Aria. 

Here's Nicole and Andrew's son AJ with Santa! 

Here's Addison happily clapping, and that's Nicole and Andrew's other son Elijah... He was NOT enjoying the train ride, but he's 12... so life is tough when you're 12.  I remember not really liking much of anything when I was 12! 

There's my brother and AJ fist-bumping, and Amanda, Cassidy, and Addison! 

This was after the train ride was over!  Addison was sooo happy. And that girl in the front was from one of the skits on the train... She was way too happy...

And here's AJ and Santa again! 

This year we spent Christmas with Kevin's family, and next we're we'll be in CA with my family. Last year we tried to split the holiday, and that was a terrible idea... We were flying back to PA on Christmas Day, and that was just nutty/stressful/delay-filled and didn't work out well. This was my first Christmas away from my family though, and it was more difficult than I expected!  I kept having to try to fight off feeling down about it. McGee's family is wonderful of course and their Christmas is really fun too, but it was still really hard for me this year. 

Christmas Eve dinner was fajitas, and that night Kevin's cousin Ryan dresses up as Santa for all of the extended family's kiddos. They've asked Kevin to do it too, but he has definitely declined... haha :)  Ryan has incredible patience though, and he's done this a few years now. On Christmas night we had Cajun Christmas dinner which is a McGee Family Christmas tradition! Kevin's dad spends a LOT of time cooking up a bunch of Cajun dishes including crawfish etouffee, jambalaya, alligator nuggets, and many more!  It was quite delicious. 

Here's Ryan getting ready on Christmas Eve!

The tummy looks pretty good!  It took a lot of time (and a LOT of padding) to get it looking like Santa's belly, but we were happy with the final results. After he was all ready, we drove over to an aunt's house where all of the little kids were hanging out! 

The kiddos were so sweet and so happy to see Santa. 

Kevin's cousin Mary Eileen (everyone calls her Mare Mare) got Guinness a bow tie! It has bananas on it and attaches to his collar, and she also got him a banana chew toy that he's quite obsessed with. 

Such a dapper pup! He couldn't even tell he was wearing it, so he didn't mind it at all. Haha

Even though it was really hard to be away from my family, it was still a really fun time with Kevin's family, and it was great to be able to sleep in our own house and our own bed for Christmas! We woke up on Christmas morning and opened presents around our tree - It was lovely to spend Christmas morning with just the two of us (plus Guinness, of course) :)  

Now I've caught a bit of a cold or flu or something... So I've been fighting that off for a few days now. My throat is just insanely sore and swollen. So Kevin's been taking very good care of me and making me soup and bought me some juice that has an insane amount of vitamins (especially Vitamin C). I'm hoping it's going to go away very quickly... because tomorrow is New Year's Eve!  We always go into Philly on New Year's Day to enjoy the parade and hang out with Timmy and some other friends, so I hope I'm feeling up for that. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's Eve!! 

Wow, it's been a month!

Wow, sorry it's been a whole month since I've posted anything!  Things have been crazy... First, the election happened right after my last post, and that kinda put me in a funk for quite a while. And work has been CRAZY busy for the last month... Like I've been working a minimum of 12 hours per day... Yep, minimum.  It's total b.s.  I think things are finally (maybe... hopefully...) starting to calm down this week to where I can maybe work normal-ish hours. And McGee and I also went to California for a visit for Thanksgiving!!  It was amazing to be home and see family and friends, and it was my first time home for Thanksgiving in about 10 years. It was SO great to be with everyone, and to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner as a family again.  We also went to Apple Hill while we were there, and we explored Oakdale a bit more! Here's a few pictures from my time there:

We had some great relaxation time while we were there!  We both really needed it. 

Cassidy on the pony ride at Apple Hill! 

Addison on her pony!  She's obsessed with horses, so she was beaming the whole ride. 

The guys! We were killing some time before the Oakdale Cowboy Museum opened. We arrived like 10 minutes after it opened but like 5 minutes before any staff arrived... Haha :) 

On the topic of Fall activities, I should update you that I finished all of the Fall Bucket List items from my previous post, except that I didn't make any pumpkin goodness... I did EAT some pumpkin goodness, but I just didn't cook anything pumpkin this year.  Next year though!!

I can't believe Christmas is coming up so quickly!!  It's insanity. Kevin put the lights up on our house (and cleaned our gutters) while I worked on bagging up some more of our leaves from our yard. The lights look soooo pretty on our house (great job, Kevin!!) and we also worked on decorating inside our house too. We still have a bit more to do, but everything is looking so pretty and really putting me in the Christmas spirit.  Here are some pictures of our tree!!  I'll post pictures of other decorations (and our outdoor lights) at another time.

One view of our tree! 

An up-close picture of our amazing tree skirt that my parents sent to us!  We love it. 

Another view of the tree skirt! Amazing!! 

Here's our tree topper!!  We got an ACTUAL tree topper this year!  But we also had to throw Bumble up there like in previous years. 

Here's some of our favorite ornaments!  There are way too many favorites to take pictures of, but I thought this was a nice little group. 

Here's a few more!  That Mickey ornament is from my brother and sister-in-law when they just went to Disneyland this year! And we bought that little tiny trailer ornament on the left side of the picture, because that's definitely our dream!  We want to retire (like maybe tomorrow?  Come on Lottery...) and buy a small trailer and just travel all around! 

And here's a front view of our tree with a few presents already under it! We have a lot more wrapping to do... 

In other news, we also bought a new car last weekend!  We traded in Kevin's car and bought a Subaru Crosstrek. It's beautiful, and we're loving it.  Now we have TWO Subarus, which means we will both have All-Wheel-Drive at all times (VERY important for winters out here!). It's a relief to have that process over with! We've been looking into getting a new car for over a year.

Well guys, back to work I go!  I hope you're all having a great week and a great December so far!!

It's Election Day! AHHHHHH!!

I'm (more than) a little stressed about this Election Day!! I plan on having a lot of wine tonight. I'll be heading up to vote in about an hour and a half... I'm hoping to go at an odd time and avoid the lines. 

On to more positive things: This past weekend was great! On Saturday morning we drove up to the KOP mall, because one of my birthday gifts to Kevin was a gift card for a professional shave at The Art of Shaving, and he'd been saving it for a special occasion. So, the charity gala seemed like the perfect time! The shaver guy was seriously like a surgeon, and had some CRAZY steady hands with that straight razor (and he also had an AMAZING beard!). He did the whole hot towel thing too, and it was cool to see the whole process! Kevin left there VERY relaxed and looking amazing! 

Then we ran a few other errands, and then it was time to get ready for the gala! We had SUCH a fun time at the gala!  Einstein Hospital was celebrating its 150th anniversary, so they had a whole theme of "Through the Decades", and each room in this amazing venue was a different time period theme. I tried to take pictures of some of the rooms, but I forgot to take a picture of the BEST room, which was the 1960s-1990s where they had a live band singing AMAZING covers, and there were dancers up on stage and everything. It was a total party vibe. And an Albert Einstein impersonator was also wandering around the gala, and he was SO adorable. Kevin and I had an amazing time!! 

I had to take a picture of City Hall while we walked from the train to the venue! I love this building. 

This room was from 1866 (when Einstein Hospital was founded) to 1920. It was sooo glamorous, and they had these amazing pearl-like strands draped down from the ceiling. 

This was the Speakeasy room (1920s and 1930s)

They called this room Crooners Lounge, and it was the 1940s and 1950s. They had live music in here too (and addition to the 1960s to 1990s room... which I didn't get a picture of).

Me and Albert Einstein! He was so nice and adorable. 

 After everyone had spent a few hours wandering around the party and enjoying themselves (and the many open bars and the amazing served appetizers and food stations), then we were all asked to go to the ballroom for some dancing and a short presentation where they thanked everyone and gave a brief history of Einstein Hospital. It was very inspiring, and made me want to work for such a great organization!  We sat a table in the balcony with some really fun people that Kevin knows from work, and when the short presentation was over, it was time for the dancing!  We headed down for one dance, but then it was already after 10:30pm and time for us to go catch our train home!

The ballroom! 

Kevin!

 

Me and Kevin!

Philly already started decorating for Christmas! So pretty. 

 Sunday we were both feeling pretty exhausted, but we still managed to be semi-productive around the house (and watched a lot of football too), and we also took Guinness for a really long walk around our neighborhood! The fall leaves were looking amazing,, so I had to snap a few pictures. I hope you all had a great weekend!!