Month: July 2008

End of July already?? Wahhhh….

Last weekend we went to the annual Dion/Casey/Martineau family reunion in Turners Falls, MA. (It’s my Dad’s side of the family).
It was a pretty quiet year with not much turn out, but kind of nice that way. Theresa came up with the kids which was nice. Jeremy’s favorite word is now “No!”, but he’s still awfully cute. Jakey is getting bigger (and heavier) by the minute. Chris’ nickname for him is “S.A.P (sack a’ potatoes)”, cause that’s what he feels like when you hold him!
We got to see some relatives from Virginia and New York, and of course we got lots of congrats and tummy rubs (mine, not Chris’ 🙂 ). The weather held up so all in all it was a pleasant weekend.
We even got to see some fireworks from my Aunt’s house as their was a boating festival on the river.

In other news, our house is yet again in a shambles as we try to prepare it for the baby. Note to self: starting several projects at once in a SMALL living space plus non-compliant weather for things like painting and spackling equals chaos. But we’re doing ok and I think we’ll be in good shape once the baby comes. Chris just laid the last tile in the shower, we just have to mud around it and do some trim and then we should be good to go! the project took a lot longer than we expected due to the walls in the condo being uneven. Who knew? Oh well…

This week we are going on our last official vacation without a baby–a “babymoon” if you will. Sigh… it’s kinda bittersweet.

Hopefully it will be fun though!
We are spending a few days in Montreal for the Osheaga music festival, and then later on in the week we’ll spend a few days in New jersey with my sis and go to the All Points West music festival. Since both festivals are outdoors, we’ll pray for good weather. I’m sure we’ll have a good writeup when we get back!

In other ramblings, Chris and I are addicted to the show Dexter (thank you Netflix watch instantly!). It’s macabre but the writing is really good and you can’t help but like the guy!

Here is a really yummy, simple summer recipe that we’ve fallen in love with since peaches are in season:

cut a couple of peaches in half and de-pit them (this is challenging but it CAN be done)
grill them for about 4 minutes
then put a dollop of ricotta on them (in the part where the pit would be)
and drizzle with honey.

Yum-tastic!

A-campin we will go (we went)

Well, folks, we accomplished the unthinkable (or at least maybe some of you would think it was unthinkable?). We went camping while pregnant! (well, at least one of us was…).

Thankfully mother nature cooperated with us and the weather remained mild and on the cooler side for most of the trip. The wind helped keep away the bugs (I hear mosquitoes can’t resist pregnant women!). And it only rained for 10 minutes on Friday. Unfortunately we forgot our screenhouse at Chris’ parents, but Chris, being resourceful as he is, fabricated a makeshift lean-to for our picnic table out of a tarp, and it kept all our goodies dry.

Chris was also nice enough to ask for the campsite that was closest to the bathrooms–with me having to pee every hour or so, it was a good thing!

We always love camping in at Pinederosa Campground in Ogunquit. It’s peaceful, clean, and pleasant. There are always lots of folks from Quebec who speak French, so sometimes you feel as if you’re camping in Canada, not Maine. We stayed Thurs. through Sunday.

Each evening we walked on the beach, about a mile to downtown to get ice cream (although, since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve had to forgo “dessert for dinner”, or, as I now call it “din-sert”, for a REAL dinner beforehand, THEN ice cream for dessert. But hey, ice cream is ice cream!). The ocean felt nice but FREEZING, especially on Friday!

Fri. and Sat. morning we ate breakfast at the Amore Cafe. Most breakfast places have a long wait for seating during this busy season, but we never mind waiting at Amore because they serve you coffee while you’re waiting, and you can read the paper while sitting on their nice chairs on the porch. Makes you much less crabby if you have to wait 45 mins for a table. Plus, their lemon blueberry stuffed french toast makes the wait worthwhile.

The rest of our meals we fired up the mini camping grill for. We bought fresh corn from a farmstand down the road. It is the BEST when grilled in the husk, then patted with herbed chevre. And of course, we had to have the usual S’Mores and Jiffy Pop over the campfire.

Saturday we caught up with our friends Erica and Mark, who were vacationing in the area with their kids (Mark’s sis has a place on York Beach). They hung out with us for a while at our campground before they headed home.

Saturday night, after our ceremonial beach walk, we went mini golfing. We hadn’t done that in AGES. Bending over for me is becoming problem, so Chris was nice at placing the golf balls on the ground for me to putt at (though he wouldn’t place them in the hole for me instead, like i asked 🙂 ). Chris won, but I beat him a few times at cards at the campsite earlier in the week, so I guess we were even.

Sunday of course came all too soon, but we were grateful for the short respite, one of our last bittersweet getaways before the little one comes into our life. So we enjoyed the free time and napping while we could! But we’re getting very excited for her arrival also.

I was extremely proud of myself for not needing a pulley system to get me up and out of the tent in my current state (although Chris did have to help me a little a few times in the middle of the night). But we did it!

Jersey Boys (and girls)

We had a nice long fourth-o-july weekend visiting my sister and brother in law in Somerset, NJ. It’s a long drive but well worth it to spend time with the family and the nephews!
Jeremy is getting so big–already into the terrible twos; he can be a terror sometimes but also very lovable. He is really starting to talk now and get interested in things, like bubbles and cars.
Jake is almost 7 months now and he is a fat little sack-o-potatoes! He is a very cute, dimpled, giggly little guy.
He took a special liking to Chris and fell asleep on him a total of 10 times. He didn’t seem to like falling asleep on me as much- too lumpy for him probably…

Jeff’s daughter Alyssa was also visiting for the month from Texas. She is almost in 4th grade but she’s extremely well behaved and mature for her age. She helped out and was so good with the little ones. Jeremy is enthralled by her and is in her shadow 24-7!
On the fourth of July we went and saw fireworks in Bridgewater, NJ. They had a reggae band, which was fun to dance to. Jeremy is a natural-born reggae lover so he was having a ball. They had bouncy castles and fake tattoos for the kids too. Unfortunately just before the fireworks were set off it started pouring. We tried to seek shelter under a tree for a little while but it started to get worse, so we watched the fireworks from the car. Jeremy was so cute, oohing and aahing at everything. “Wow, the lights, I see them!” he’d say.
One thing that was VERY annoying was that we tried to leave early to beat the crowds, but the parking lot security folks wouldn’t let us. We explained to them that we had small children in the car who weren’t going to last long. They were rude and said they weren’t letting anyone out until the fireworks were over. Everyone was getting cranky and the kids were getting fussy. By the time the fireworks WERE over, everyone was in a mad rush to leave, and we waited in the parking lot for another 45 minutes to get out of there! There was NO reason why we shouldn’t have been able to leave, they had to right to trap us there. Grumble, grumble…

Saturday was unfortunately another washout, but we made the most of it by taking Alyssa and Jeremy to a children’s museum called “Imagine That”. Jeff was nice enough to stay home with Jake, who was too little to enjoy it.
The kids had a great time; Alyssa enjoyed doing art projects and exploring the displays. Jeremy loved playing with drums (anything that makes lots of noise is fun for him!), shopping in the pretend grocery store (he LOVES to organize stuff into categories), and watching a toy train go around a track. Every time the train disappeared into a tunnel, he’d yell “Hey Come back here!”. so cute 🙂

Sat. night we ate at a great Indian restaurant called “Hoysala”. It specialized in Southern Indian food, not what you’d find at your typical Indian eatery. It seemed pretty authentic (we were the only non-Indians eating there!), and they had a ton of vegetarian options. They kept bringing out appetizers for us to try. Yummy!

Sunday came all to soon. I was sad to leave my sis and the family. Living six hours away really sucks, and it’s so hard to say goodbye. I wish we all lived closer! But we try to make the most of our time together.

Jeff was nice enough to detail our car one afternoon when he got bored, and it looked snazzy shiny for our ride home! Fortunately we didn’t hit too much holiday traffic–most of the traffic seemed to be headed southbound.

we have pics of our trip posted on Flickr. you can see how big my belly has gotten, it’s really popping now!

hope everyone had a happy fourth. That’s all for now..

Lovely Ladytron, Damn Good Datarock!

OK, so this might be the last of our late nights out in Boston to go to concerts for…well…a LOOOONGG time (like when our kid turns 18). But we thought we’d do it up right with Ladytron at Paradise Rock Club.

Opening for them was Datarock, which might just be the most genius “nerd rock” band since Devo. The group (from Bergen, Norway!) came on stage wearing matching red jogging suits and ray ban glasses.

They totally got the crowd involved, doing silly dances in unison (very Devo-esque!), and having people sing along and clap. They rocked the scene with cheesy casio keyboards and mini guitars. At one point, one even pulled out a saxophone and played it rather well. How can you not love a band who brings such cheesy fun, and who has song titles like “Molly Ringwald” and “Computer Camp Love”.
Apparently, they have been compared to DEVO so many times that even DEVO themselves remixed a song of theirs and have become fans of them!

myspace page for Datarock: http://www.myspace.com/datarock

They definitely got us pumped up for LADYTRON…

At this point, the not-so-good sound qualities of Paradise Rock Club started to show. Any time there are more than a few instruments playing at a time, its as if the speakers can’t handle it and the sound becomes drowned out.

That said, although we couldn’t hear very well, Ladytron put on a very good show. They played most of their songs off the new “Velocifero” album, and a few goodies from “Witching Hour”. They created a good atmosphere with flashing strobe lights that enhanced their badass/dramatic dancehall vibe. By the time they returned for an encore with “Destroy Everything You Touch”, the crowd went nuts!

We were protected by a guardian angel bodyguard, who, after finding out I was pregnant and didn’t want to get too overheated in the big crowd, found a spot for us to sit and enjoy the rest of the show in relative peace. When the show ended, he even snuck us into a “secret” exit so I wouldn’t have to push my way through the big crowd. It was so nice of him, we kinda felt like VIPS! (very important pregnant people). We even wrote to the club to thank him.

It was a Monday night and we got home at 1:30 (relatively early compared to some of our other Boston jaunts!), well worth it. But we know we can’t pull nights like this too much longer!

This weekend we’re going to New Jersey to spend forth of July with my sister and the kids. Should be fun we hope…more later!