Oh yes..

Yes Folks.

My feisty nature of late (mainly at the office) has attracted the attention of the folks at the National Hurricane Center.

What you see here is a current image of Tropical Storm Erin.

It goes without saying that anyone who knows me at all finds this insanely amusing. My colleagues have gotten quite a kick out of it.

To my friends in Texas - the last thing you need is rain! I hope my little buddy doesn't wreak too much havoc over there.

Social Butterfly

Seriously. This kid has the life.

She hangs out with a social crowd, and seems to always be the life of the party.

Saturday our friend Sandi had a birthday party/housewarming party. We headed over there early evening. Several friends from work were there. I just put her down in the sun room and she made herself comfortable. Hung out with my boss, loved both of my boss's sons (ages 15 and 7). She played with them forever. And of course (the other) Uncle David - aka Baby Whisperer- was there. She loves him. Just grins ear to ear when she sees him. We stayed there right up until her bed-time, and she was none the worse for the wear. She really is spoiling us.

Sunday morning we headed to church. We hadn't been in two weeks. So, I don't know if it's because we haven't been in two weeks, or whether its because Eileen has become that much more mobile, but she was feisty! Not misbehaving - not yelling or crying or pitching a fit -just being social. She kept blowing raspberries at the priest as he read the Gospel. During the sermon she kept saying 'babababababa' quite loudly. And seeing as we were in the front row, this was quickly going from cute to rude. So I made my way to the back of the church to hang out with the other parents and listen through the speaker and watch through closed doors! We'll give it another shot next week, and if she's still on a mission to par-tay.. well our days of front row church people may be on hold for a couple of years.

And then, then the fun began! We went to IHOP! Eileen got to eat her first pancake. Let me rephrase that: Eileen got to devour her first pancake. She absolutely loved it. She's been eating more solids lately-- little baby raviolis and cheese slices. But she is generally pretty picky when it comes to new foods. Not pancakes. One little taste and then she gobbled it up. So cute. Of course we took pictures.

(pause here for Erin's social commentary: The table next to us was a family of 4. Mom, Dad, teenage daughter, and a son about 4 years old. The daughter sits down with her ipod in her ears. Stays that way about 10 minutes. THEN she took out the earbuds to talk on her cell phone. All while mom, dad and brother sat and chatted and ate breakfast. Now I don't know the circumstances. I have never been in that situation -raising a teenager. I shouldn't pass judgement. But I hope to high Heaven that I am never that parent that would allow my child to act in such a manner. Besides the lack of manners, it's just downright sad).

We thought about going to the pool, but it was really just too hot to even do that. If she were older, or if I were by myself, I would have parked there all afternoon and basked in the summer heat. But she's still too little to be able to handle it, so we decided to go see some model homes in a new development.

It is a fantastic concept.. basically a village in the middle of town. Single family homes, town houses, loft style condos. Several large parks. Retail - shopping, movies, restaurants, and a small grocery store. It is in the early stages, no retail is there yet.. just some of the homes. The idea is that you don't really have a yard, you go to the many giant gorgeous parks. You don't have to drive anywhere once you're home. Need a gallon of milk? You can walk to the little grocery store within the village. This whole concept would be ideal for Josh and I, seeing as how he's not able to drive. BUT since the houses start at about $400,000, it is not likely we will ever actually live there. But hey, we can dream.. and we can wander through the (air-conditioned) model homes. And I did indeed find my dream home. Craftsman style, and actually not much bigger than the house we have now. Gorgeous kitchen opening up to the family room. Master on main. Bedrooms, loft and bonus room upstairs. Very open and airy. Arched doorways. Even a firepit out on the patio. And half a million dollars.

Of course, one thing that did not occur to me was that I'd be carrying Eileen all over the place. From house to house. Upstairs and downstairs and back up again. Inside and out. Hot and cold. Did I mention the stairs? And did I mention that she weighs around 24 or 25 pounds. And did I mention we looked at at least six houses? Wait, did I tell you there were stairs? And now I get to brag: because despite the heat and all the stairs, I was NOT out of breath! And, my arms did not ache. In fact, I didn't even really notice that I was starting to get a little tired of carrying her until we were in one of the last houses! It seems that my 5:30am workouts are paying off. Now, I will admit, that later that evening, my back was aching, so it did catch up with me!

And now here we are and it's Tuesday morning. Still hot as hades here. Two weeks ago we had a load of rain and our yard turned green and the flowers were gorgeous. Now it's been in the high 90s, with heat indeces (fancy word alert) in the 100s, and we've had not a drop of rain. So the yard is brown again and now my flowers just look nasty. They are long and 'leggy' looking. I will be pulling them up soon and waiting it out til mum season.

That's about it from our world. Catch ya later!

And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

So, where were we?
Talking about the trip!


















The second day was the actual wedding. It was a blast. Kim & Bill had it in their (gorgeous) back yard. Tents, bonfires, horseshoes, live band, and barbeque! oh, and of course the nuptials. We were all dressed up for the ceremony, and within 5minutes of it being over, I was in a t-shirt and shorts and so was Eileen! It would have been nice hawod I remembered the fact that I would need to be in a family picture.. but that would have been far too much brain power. So there's Erin The Southern Cousin in her t-shirt and shorts. Good thing Bill loves me! :)

It was hot but breezy. We all just hung out and played in the backyard. Couldn't have been more perfect. All the kids had a blast running around. The adults had a blast chowing down and having a beer or two. We did not stay for the bonfire (I was bummed about that!). Eileen did great, but by 6ish she was hot and worn out, so we headed back to the hotel. But she did manage to consume a corn muffin and a piece of wedding cake. She likes her carbs!


Sunday was fantastic. Everyone was heading out of NH. Josh, Granndpa, Beanie, Eileen and I drove back to Boston. We spent the day walking around Quincy Market and Fanueil Hall. I love love love that part of Boston. I haven't been there in several years. I remember going there so many summers as a kid when we'd go to Aunt Sharon & Uncle Ron's. We ate some fried clams (well, not Josh, but the rest of us did). There really is no place that can serve up fried clams like Boston. I was in Heaven. Then we walked around. I was on the hunt for Baby Red Sox gear. We found a great vendor and dropped a load of cash there. We really shouldn't have, but how often do we get to hang out in Boston?! Josh got a new cap & a Green Monstah t-shirt, Eileen and I got matching Sox caps, and we both got a t-shirt. (ahem. and now it's also time to get the Tennessee cheerleader outfit!).

Then we made our way over to Aunt Sharon & Uncle Ron's condo. They've lived there as long as I can remember and it's just cool. They are the reason I always wanted to live in the big city (tho I ended up in NYC and not Boston, it was still b.c of them!). Their windows on one side look into the heart of downtown Boston, and on the other side they look into the Harbor. And for years they looked over the Big Dig, which now is amazingly almost finished and actually seems to have turned out quite well. We hung outr at their pool for a while. And Eileen got to ride on a swing for the first time ever. And she LOVED it. She just squealed and giggled and couldn't get enough. She just gets cuter and more fun every day.

And then we headed back to the hotel in Boston and crashed. She did even better on the plane trips back home- slept all the way through both flights. After 3days of running around, I think she was beat. But she was just insanely good the whole time.

It was great to see the family. It was great to get to hang out in Boston. We definitely came away with some great memories!