Monday, August 29, 2011

Hurricane Clean-up

Both the backyard and the neighborhood are covered with branches and leaves that were blown all over yesterday. Lucky for me, Emma decided to help me with the local clean-up effort.



If she keeps this up, our backyard will be free of sticks by the weekend!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Necklaces

Here are the long awaited close-ups of my newest creations. The lamp is a much better model than I am, especially when I'm the one taking the picture!
My fancy necklace.
Made of crystals and pearls on silver wire, separated by the crimp beads.
 
Another long necklace -
Used vintage beads I bought in Keene and the same technique as above.

Hurricane Irene

Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit Boston, so unfortunately it has just been a windy, rainy, gloomy day. The news showed clips of the surf, which was pretty impressive, but since we no longer live on the coast, our day has been rather boring.

The wind forecast for Needham from Saturday:
Here is a video to give you an idea of the wind and rain:




Since we were stuck inside all day, we decided to bake the best chocolate chip cookies ever! Thanks to Mel for sharing the recipe with us.
In my early birthday present - I love my apron!
Watching the rain, while eating a cookie 
Amit was in heaven.

Mmm.. Warm cookies!
You have to be creative when bored and stuck indoors. Amit decided to mimic Emma when I came out of the kitchen - hilarious!
That's about all the excitement that's been happening in our town today. Can't wait for the sun to come back!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Earthquake!

Well, so I hear. New England felt the effects of Virginia's earthquake yesterday afternoon. Sad to say, I was sitting on the couch next to our snoozing baby and felt nothing. Emma didn't even open her eyes. I got a text from Amit that said "earthquake!" and I replied "what"? He said they all felt an earthquake and that even the pictures were moving, so I went online and sure enough, we felt the tremors here in Boston. Gotta love Facebook and it's fast updates!

This is now the second earthquake that I haven't felt, but Amit has - the first one was in Schaumburg back when we were in high school. I think it was late at night, so of course I was probably sound asleep.

I checked my e-mail this morning and found this from our local website. Turns out that probably half of Needham felt it and the other half didn't. Crazy!

Check out the story:  http://needham.patch.com/articles/tremors-felt-in-needham

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

She swims!


Last week we decided to head up to New Hampshire so Emma could get some more time in the water. She is a funny dog and is definitely a little scared of the water. We pulled over on the Kancamagus Highway and decided to venture into the Swift River and see what we'd find. Lucky for us, you could walk into the water (Emma hates having to jump into it) and we stumbled upon a little swimming hole (too deep for her to walk in). After trying to get out of the swimming part by walking along the side, she gave in and swam to Momma!

Trying to walk in the river,
Momma nearly fell in!
 
SWIMMING!!!

So we're obviously totally dorky doggie parents, but since we're childless for now, guess you'll just have to keep putting up with the stories. We were very excited to see that she actually knew what to do, looks like a camping trip near a lake is in our future!

One last photo - I took this one with my phone when Oma and I were hiking with Emma. It's the best one and I totally forgot to post it! Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Snapshots

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to recently. Let me know if you notice a theme...

Watching TV one night. 

We were cat-sitting Ellie for Seth and Kirsten this past week.
The two of them are starting to get along, some of the time.

Napping after getting home from the wedding.
Emma was exhausted from all the playing at the dog-sitter's house.

By the end of the week, 
they would even sleep in the same position!

Since I am done with my summer semester and Amit is just on his externship, we've been doing a lot of relaxing. I guess when we go for hikes and walks in the heat, we're allowed to veg on the couch? That's going to be my excuse. Now that this post is done, back to relaxing...

Monday, August 8, 2011

Seth and Kirsten

They're married!! We were in Albany, NY on Saturday night for Seth and Kirsten's wedding. It was in this old bank, with some amazing architecture. The decorations were beautiful, too. The wedding was on the main floor and they got married right in front of the vault! Kirsten was seriously the most beautiful bride I've ever seen - and Seth cleaned up nicely, as well. Dinner was delicious, but Amit was more excited for the dancing portion. In between all that fun, I did manage to take a few pictures.

The bride and groom's first dance

Some other good-looking couples from the wedding:
Your favorites (of course)
 Mel and Derrick
Then Amit stole the camera and took these:
Adam and Tia
(sorry Amit didn't get a better one!)
 
Aaron and Sabrina 

So the old bank vault was open and inside were couches. Great place to take a break from dancing! Amit and Derrick were rather excited about it. It was very cool - too bad I didn't get a picture of the outside of it!


Amit was a dancing machine, as usual. I did make him stop to take a few pictures, though.

With the newlyweds and some of my favorite people!
The boys with Seth's cousin - Amit liked him because he danced crazy, too.
The Dental School Group
My hiking buddies
And last but not least, one more of the two of us!

We had a great time at the wedding. It was beautiful! We were so happy to be part of it and are so blessed to have the Caldons as our friends!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Doggie Love

Read this article on the Tribune's website and loved it!

Pets mark the chapters of our lives

There is definitely no way to replace these two -

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Mother-Daughter Week, Continued

The only other "free" day for me was Friday and since Amit was actually off that day, too, we knew we had to think up something big. So, seeing as Mom loves all things historical, and I love a good mansion, what do you think we did? We surprised her with a trip to Newport to tour The Breakers!! I managed to keep it a secret until we were driving down to Rhode Island and the signs started to say Newport, x miles. Then I just couldn't contain myself. I was super excited - Amit and Mom weren't quite as sure about having to pay to tour it. It was seriously worth it! The self-guided audio tour was amazing. We learned so much and saw so much of the house. It was awesome! It's a bummer that we can't take pictures inside, so I made sure to get some outside.
The gate - I want one.
 The Breakers
Seriously - can you imagine this being your SUMMER house?
Shoot - I'd be like forget the city, I'm living here all the time!
Exploring the ocean-view side of The Breakers after our tour.
The ocean.
Seriously one of my favorite pics ever!
The side view of the mansion.
Amit took a few pictures of us on the Cliff Walk.
He did a great job!
 
We had a great visit, ate lunch at The Red Parrot, and took Mom to our favorite antique store. We had to show Mom the giant throttle (Thanks for getting me the name, Nate!) that Amit wants to buy when we have money. I have to admit - I would buy that AND a steering wheel AND some lanterns AND whatever other awesome boat stuff we could find. They all would look AWESOME!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Mother-Daughter Week

In between her time visiting Ron as he builds the new Hobby Lobby in NY, Mom came out to spend some quality time with her favorite child - her grand-doggie Emma. Just kidding! The two of them totally bonded, but I'd like to think she was here to see me. I still had class, so Mom had to go explore a bit on her own. Emma loved all the extra walks.

On my Wednesday off, we headed up to New Hampshire to do a little hiking. Up in the mountains it was rainy and cold, so we ditched our first idea and headed to the Kancamagus Highway to do a little exploring.
Scenic Overlook
 Sabbaday Falls
 
 We hiked along the path and decided to venture into Sabbaday Brook. Emma wasn't a huge fan of water and a little hesitant, but once we got in the water with her, she loved it!
 
 
On our way out, Emma decided she didn't want to follow me.
She tried to follow Mom, but Mom was on the rock and in her way.
Hilarious!
We also stopped at the Swift River to see the Rocky Gorge. On the way back to the car, we gave in to Emma and let her go back in the water. So funny! She even laid down in the water. What a crazy dog!
Rocky Gorge
 Swift River
 Our water-loving dog!
We had a great time exploring. Emma loved being able to roam around in the van! We stopped at this little roadside ice cream place for lunch and she loved sitting at the table waiting for our leftovers. Oma (aka Mom - Emma kept going to Mom instead of me so thanks to Facebook we came up with our new name for her) totally spoiled her!
Having a great time on our road trip!