And...we're back! Please note the shorts. It is 60, sunny, and we're heading to our friends in CT where T will spend six not so glorious hours drafting his fantasy baseball team and I will be eating brunch and watching girly movies! Perfect weekend, here we come!
After a light dusting of springlike weather this week, I woke up to this. Reminds me of home!
I pulled a muscle in my back the other day so I've been wearing this very sexy heating pad around the house for the last few nights. I feel like a tourist in a fanny pack, but it is helping! My husband snapped this picture while I was doing a dance move, trying to prove how much better my back was feeling.
This is the best part of my commute: The Bear Mountain Parkway. Once spring arrives, these sad, brown trees will be full of blooms. I scan them every day looking for signs of color!
This is one of the eight trees on our property that has been mummified. Kidding...actually my landlord wrapped them in burlap when the weather really turned cold. We are waiting desperately for warmth and I can't help but think that the trees are too. Free the trees! Bring on the warmth!
This is the back room at work. For the three years I've worked there, this room has been littered with boxes, old sales material, and crap. You had to pick your way through the minefield to just to get to the office supplies. I finally had enough so I put these shelves together and organized everything. This is the after picture. At the end of the day, my white shirt was splotched brown and I pulled something in my lower back. But the room looks great!
Here on the East Coast, the very first avocado sighting of the year is cause for celebration. Especially when it comes with that glorious RIPE NOW sticker! Even though they were $2 each, I placed them gently in my basket, went straight home, and whipped up a delicious guacamole. 
I took myself to see West Side Story today as a belated birthday present. I love theater and this is my all time favorite show so I was really excited when I read that it was coming out. They made some changes from the last time I saw this show, but the music is phenomenal and the show was fabulous. I finished off the day with a cupcake from Magnolia (yum) and an almost Angelina Jolie sighting. I missed her by minutes, but I did watch them filming a scene from her new movie. (a funeral procession in front of the Waldorf) The best part was the woman behind me on her cell, trying to figure out who had died. To be read in a heavy Long Island accent: Oh my gawd, I see the secret service, and like 10 cop cawrs. I wonder who it is, Oh wow, there's the hearse, are you watching the news? Do you know who this is?" Reason # 199887 why I love NYC: You never know what you're going to run into!
I've been following the tragic death of Natasha Richardson because I was lucky enough to see her in the role of Blanche DuBois on Broadway several years ago. It hits close to home for me because the injury that ended her life is one that my father was diagnosed with nearly fourteen years ago. Upon discovery, he was rushed into surgery and they saved his life. Last year, we danced at my wedding. For me, this is yet another reminder to make the most of each day and cherish the people around us, because we never know what is in store for us.
This is the first page of the brand new M Family Christmas album! My Mom started a Christmas only photo album after she and my Dad were married that had 1-2 pages dedicated to each year that passed. The early years have photos of my Grandparents, several that I never knew. As you flip through the book, my sister and I appear, in footy pajamas, posing with Santa, sitting proudly next to a plate of cookies on the hearth. With each turn of the page, our family is captured in wonderful holiday moments and gatherings with loved ones. Forty something pages has become a rich and vibrant family history. I am thrilled to be continuing this tradition. I only hope that forty pages later, our book will be filled with as much joy and love as the H Family Christmas Album.
I came home to this card from my beloved four year old nephew Shane. He dictated to my mom and she wrote his thoughts word for word. I spent the weekend with them two weeks ago and when I was packing to fly home, he was trying to plan my next visit. As I can see above, he still is!
Happy St. Patrick's Day to me! I drove Tim to the airport this morning, so I'm relaxing with a delicious beer and the last piece of my birthday cake. Erin go Bragh!
The race we affectionately called the Sully McFitzy's 5k. We ran through Somerville, MA and were awarded a medal/bottle opener for our trouble. This was the first of the 5- 5k's I'm going to do this year and although it was an easy course, I wasn't as prepared as I had hoped. It felt great to get out and enjoy the early spring and I'm feeling pretty proud of myself! On to the next one!
Tim and the boys spend the first weekend of March Madness in Vegas every year, which normally falls on my birthday. But this year, the trip wasn't scheduled until the next week. So Tim planned a surprise day for me in Boston! I have a love/hate relationship with surprises. I love them, and yet I can't stand not knowing what they are. So you can imagine how annoying I was when he teased me for two weeks and wouldn't tell me what we were doing. Well, he woke me up in the morning with a card that brought a tear to my eye...before I was even fully awake. He drove me into Boston, a short ride from my mother in law's house and kept me in suspense the whole way. We walked into the Purple Shamrock, which was loaded with early St. Patrick's Day revelers...and a group of our friends! We had lunch, a few drinks and laughs and went back to his mom's house where we had a wonderful dinner and a to die for chocolate torte. Complete with a single candle and a Happy Birthday sing-a-long! It was an amazing day and I was so touched that my husband gathered everyone together and managed to keep it a surprise! We took this photo as we were leaving Fanueil Hall as a keepsake of the day I turned 32.
