Wine and Love

Posted on March 1, 2012 by She Wears a Red Sox Cap

It’s time for another week of Wine and Love, brought to you by Nora <3

Wine

1. It’s always a bit depressing coming back from vacation… or should I say going from sunny red rocks to gray snow…

2. It was time for parent/conferences this week. I do like my parents this year, and I like the second conference because I get to show off all the progress of the kiddos, but it just makes the work week soooo crazy that I have to wine about them.

3. My tutoring kiddos are making me crazy right now. Two of them in particular are just checked out and no matter how much time I spend planning a fun things for them to do they are just not having it. There is a LOT that I prefer about older kids, but it can be said about kindergartners especially in the group environment it is not hard to get them excited about something. Sometimes I wish my older tutoring kiddos were the same way…

Love

1. I told myself on Sunday that no matter HOW busy this week got, I had to make sure I still had time to work out at least a few times. I am happy to say I was successful with this plan even when it meant a bit of a rushed run outside on Tuesday afternoon.

2. On Wednesday I had my yearly dermatologist appointment and it was SO fast. It was snowing out so I think some people did not show up because the doctor took me on time to the minute, and I was in and out in 15 minutes. I got home so early I had time for an unplanned walk in the snow (see love 3).

3. Eric and I went for a lovely walk in the snow on Wednesday. Sure I’d rather it be a walk in beautiful spring weather, but I’ll take the walk.

4. The snow that began yesterday has continued today, so both Eric and I had class canceled tonight. I was originally a little bummed because it’s my photo class, but Eric and I decided to use a Groupon to get some Mexican food which ended up being a nice end to a long day. Plus, the Groupon was for $30 which we never spend at this restaurant so we got dessert too. Yum… my first time tasting churros!

I have to say, I was really dreading this week on Sunday night… a lot going on at work, coupled with a dentist and a doctor’s appointment- I was just not excited. I have to say, it was a lot better than I expected! Wahoo!

What are your wine and loves this week?

I Love Boston Project

Posted on February 28, 2012 by She Wears a Red Sox Cap

I think you guys know I love travel, right? Ha ha. I’m having one of those moments though where I realize that I cannot live from one trip to the next. So I think, what do I really love about traveling? I really love planning fun things to do, doing fun things, exploring new places and most importantly I love spending time with whoever I am traveling with. Why can’t I do these things now… when it’s not vacation, even maybe when it’s not a weekend… whoa, a school night? Seriously, I need to always remind myself to appreciate the smaller moments in life.

Enter: The I Love Boston Project. To complete this project, I will do at least one fun activity with someone I love (or at least like a lot) every two weeks and blog about it. Hopefully I’ll do it even more, but I do want to make it realistic. There is no specific end date to this project but I’d like to keep it going at least through the summer. Of course the main purpose of this goal is for me to spend quality time with the lovely people in my life, but I also hope I give you guys some good ideas of things you may want to do if you ever visit me in Boston, or maybe even give you an idea of something you could do in your own city. So for that, I hope you join me and enjoy!

Here are some of the things I have in mind:

Hiking and Walking. I think I mentioned the other day, I really, really want to do some hiking around Boston. Please make sure I start this, soon. I also really want to do at least part of the Boston HarborWalk.

Brunch and Dinners. I never need to be convinced to visit new restaurants. One thing I really want to do is a trip to the top of the Prudential to eat at Top of the Hub but the question is will I eat brunch or dinner… tough decisions!

Breweries and Wineries. Can you believe I still have never visited Sam Adam’s Brewery?

Shows and Sporting Events. Did you know Chicago’s Second City is coming to Boston in March? Awesome. Plus you know I love my Boston sports. In fact, I think a college hockey game might be first on my list this weekend!

Road Trips. Yes, I know I said Boston, but forgive me if I sometimes extend it to short trips from Boston. I’d really like to see the Portland Maine Lighthouse. As usual, I’ll use the term “Boston” liberally to mean anything you can reasonably get to from Boston.

How do you always make sure to appreciate the ordinary days and not live from one vacation to the next?

Goodbye Sedona, Hello Real World

Posted on February 26, 2012 by She Wears a Red Sox Cap

It’s been a super productive weekend over here. I’m so glad I gave myself the whole weekend when I got home, that has made the fact that the upcoming week is going to be really busy a whole lot easier. Yesterday Eric and I had a pretty funny adventure at Babies R Us. I dragged him there because I have 2 baby showers coming up, one is for one of his friends so I figured that was allowed. I figured it would be like wedding registries: stroll in, print the registry, find the stuff, buy it. Oh no….no, no, no. The strolling in and printing was okay, but I could not find ONE SINGLE THING on the registry. Seriously, we tried- but we were massively overwhelmed as neither of us has any clue about baby stuff. It’s going to be scary when we have kids. Oh well… after 20 minutes, we gave up, left the store with nothing and I’m going to go back to my original plan to buy online. The only reason I went to the store is because it did not like that I was buying off of two different registries online, but I’ll have to solve that some other way!

Anyway! I’ve spent today trying to get reorganized for work. It’s parent conferences this week, so I need to be super organized. I did all my prep for conferences this morning, but I still need to plan what I’m going to do with the actual kids during the week.

Since I’m clearly WAY out of vacation mode I better finish recapping the trip… Wednesday and Thursday! We started to lose steam for the crazy touring by these days, so I have less to report but they were both great days too. Wednesday we visited Montezuma’s Castle and Jerome. Jerome is a city built into the side of a mountain, just driving to it is crazy but the view from the town is well worth it!

In Jermone, we visited 2 wineries and an old western saloon. We also visited a couple of shops and a picked up a little present for Caroline.

On Thursday, we met up with my cousin Kristen and her husband who happened to be in Sedona at the same time as us! We did probably my favorite Sedona hike called Devil’s Bridge. Last year Eric and I did not have a 4 wheel drive vehicle so we had to walk pretty far down the road leading to the hike, this year we had a big car so we were able to do it a lot quicker. The road part itself was definitely an adventure! The hike is only about 2 miles, but you get rewarded with a really cool “bridge” at the end…

Like everywhere in Sedona, the views are amazing…

It’s always so hard to leave Sedona, I feel like there are endless things I could do, no time is ever long enough. I am glad we got to spend another week there, and show Eric’s family how much we love the place. I now know that I’ll definitely be back! I just don’t know when yet. Time to start focusing on Summer Trip 2012- Seattle/Vancouver

Do you have a home away from home that you love to visit? For me that place is Cape Cod, but Sedona is becoming a close second! Do you have any trips coming up? If you don’t enjoy talking about trips as much as I do, what was the best part of your weekend?

Hiking Those Redrocks

Posted on February 25, 2012 by She Wears a Red Sox Cap

I’m home! I had high hopes for my Saturday morning: sleeping late because I’m still on Arizona time, going to the Saturday hours at my doctor’s office to get a couple of tests I need to be fasting for (nothing bad, I’ve had high liver enzymes for awhile so my doctor is just monitoring it basically) and cleaning up the house. Well, the sun shining in at 7:00 crashed away my hopes of sleeping late and I woke up feeling like I got run over by a plane… or maybe just like I was in a car and on a plane all day yesterday. I figured if I feel like butt my blood tests would probably look terrible and suddenly I’d have even more issues to deal with, so I’ll just wait until tomorrow for that. Yes, this office is open on Sunday morning too… AMAZING. And it’s near Pinkberry, which conveniently opens at 10am. Life is good.

Since I’m up and trying to catch up on the 96% full DVR, I figure I should blog more about the trip! After our day trip up to the Grand Canyon, we decided to spend some quality time in Sedona on Tuesday. We started with a morning hike up Cathedral Rock. This is one of my favorite Sedona hikes and I would probably do it weekly if I lived there. It’s short, but steep so you really feel like you accomplished something. In Eric’s family, when you accomplish something, a beer toast is involved…

The view from the top is a pretty good reward also…

Cathedral Rock is a bit of a steep hike and there was some worry from our crew that the way down would be a huge challenge, but it’s really not so bad. If you are ever in Sedona, you have to do this hike. That is all.

Another must-do in Sedona is a Pink Jeep tour. We recommend the Broken Arrow Tour, which Eric and I have now done three times! Every time we go, we learn new interesting info about Sedona and this time our tour guide was a photography expert as well, what more could I ask for? She was probably one of the only people I’ve handed my camera to who was not immediately overwhelmed. Let the photo shots begin…

I probably should’ve left all the photography up to our fabulous guide Ray, because when I tried to get a jumping shot of Eric, he ended up landing on some uneven ground and bruising his heel.

Actually, judging by this picture it’s kind of lucky all he hurt was his heel… I should not be trusted with a camera.

I swear we were actually in a jeep for some of the adventure:

Sedona is the best place ever. Really. I always come back from these trips all psyched up about hiking and then I just NEVER do it at home. This year will not be like that. I WILL do some awesome Boston hikes this year. Hold me to it.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the recap of the last two days of our trip! We visited a cool town built into the side of a mountain and we went on my top favorite Sedona hike. Wahoo Let’s hope I am super productive until then!

Do you do any hiking near your home? Where is your favorite place to hike?

Hey, It’s OK…

Posted on February 24, 2012 by TheDailyCraic

…to wanna take a back road

…to be too sexy for your shirt (just don’t be too sexy for it in public, ladies)

…to wanna shoop (the Salt-N-Pepa, Whitney or Cher way)

…to want a Sunday kind of love

…to make it clap

…to put a ring on it

…to step back (if you’re dancin’ kinda close)

…to be walking on sunshine

…to just wanna have fun (whether you’re a girl, or boy)

…to stay forever young

Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

The HAPPY Movie

Posted on February 23, 2012 by TheDailyCraic

When I think about being happy, I think about small things, like watching How I Met Your Mother with Colin, making my nephew Declan laugh, hearing my grandfather say ‘I love you’ when we end our phone calls, giving my sister Kelly a hug when I haven’t seen her in a while, etc…So many nice thoughts come to mind when I think about happiness.

I also think about bigger things, like our wedding day coming up in September, my supportive and amazing family, my great circle of friends, my education, my home, my job — I could go on and on. I have so much to be thankful for, so many blessings in my life — but sometimes I struggle with happiness. It’s not always easy to just be happy — no matter who you are, or what cards you’ve been dealt. Being happy is very much based on how we see things, then interpret them, and overall how we let them affect us on a daily basis.

I recently heard about the documentary called HAPPY and was very intrigued. I saw that they were screening it in Boston, so Colin and I went to go see it. It is a story about real-life people from around the world — who they are, and what happiness means to them. This movie goes into new scientific findings from the field of “positive psychology”, and the role our brain plays within our happiness story.

http://www.thehappymovie.com/

Here are some of the important questions this movie asks / covers, “Does money make you HAPPY? Kids and family? Your work? Do you live in a world that values and promotes happiness and well-being? Are we in the midst of a happiness revolution?” (Source).

I am so glad I got a chance to see this movie. It was thought-provoking, and really inspiring. I laughed, cried, and definitely thought more about what makes me happy and why. Even though I live a great life and am usually a pretty happy person — I know I could always try harder to appreciate all the good in my world. I strive to lead a happy life. I want to feel fulfilled, to be healthy, to embrace the positive and turn the negative away. It’s not always easy, but it’s a work in progress, and a cause I am definitely committed to!

You should absolutely check HAPPY out — it is perfect for all ages. Feel free to browse their website and social media pages (Facebook, Twitter) — also check out this blog post on Maria Shriver’s site, it’s great. Most importantly, please think about purchasing the DVD on iTunes. It is SO WORTH the $9.99. Enjoy!

I love happy photos:

Declan and I laughing away!

My friend Kait and I chuckling in NYC

My bud Kelly

Grand Canyon Photoshoot

Posted on February 22, 2012 by She Wears a Red Sox Cap

Monday of vacation is a bit different than Monday of a work week. This Monday we decided to do a day trip to the Grand Canyon, which is about 2 hours from Sedona. If you are a longtime reader of the blog, you may remember that Eric and I have visited the Grand Canyon before, and we actually left early in favor of more time in Sedona. I think the Grand Canyon is absolutely something everyone should see once. Pictures do not do it justice, you just cannot fathom really HOW big the Grand Canyon is until you see it. That being said, I’m still a Sedona girl at heart.

Small view of the Painted Desert in the distance…

Tell me about some of the natural wonders you have seen- I know there are many others I need to see. Let’s hear ‘em

Unexpected flowers – a do, or a don’t?

Posted on February 21, 2012 by TheDailyCraic

Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Flowers that women have received at the office are wilting away on their desks, and all the chocolates have been devoured (at least in our home they have!). This brings me to an interesting question…would you rather receive flowers from your significant other for a special occasion (Valentine’s Day, birthday, anniversary)? Or would you rather be surprised with flowers on a random day of the week? (I guess another option could be ‘Or would you rather receive them both for special occasions, and on random days of the week’, but come on people — let’s be realistic!).

Beautiful!

I think flowers are sweet any which way you look at it, so they are a DO in my book. I’ve gotten them from Colin on special occasions, and on random days — and I’ve enjoyed them both equally. No matter what it is I receive — flowers, a card, a gift — I must say, I mostly appreciate Colin’s thoughtfulness. It’s nice to know someone’s thinking about you whether it’s a holiday or not!

The folks over at Frugal Dad put together a great infographic all about giving someone flowers and I thought it would be fun to share! Even though Valentine’s Day is over, I’m thinking this might remind the guys out there that flowers are nice 365 days a year (or 366 days in this year’s case — don’t forget about Leap Day!).

Oh, and just as a side note — Colin, if I ever get black or yellow flowers from you (according to this infographic) — you are in trouble.

flower guide

Source: http://frugaldad.com

Sedona Sunrise

Posted on February 21, 2012 by She Wears a Red Sox Cap

If only life could be vacation…

About 2 1/2 years ago, Eric and I decided we really wanted to go away in February, and flights to Florida were too expensive, so we thought we’d give Arizona a try. I posted on my blog that we were going to visit Phoenix, and check out the Grand Canyon. Many great blog friends told me that we HAD to visit Sedona along the way, so we did it. Well, it ended up being our favorite place maybe ever and now this is our third February in a row spent in Sedona. This year we decided to bring Eric’s family and it was our Christmas present to each other.

We’ve had two full days here already and they have been jam packed with stuff, so I will probably just write about one today. On our first full day in Arizona I got to see the sunrise (Boston time + Arizona not doing daylight savings)…

Later in the morning, we headed out to do a hike. The trail was one Eric and I had never tried called Little ________. It was a pretty easy hike but we were able to see a lot of the more famous sights including the Three Sisters, The Chapel built into the rocks and Bell Rock.

Later in the day the real adventure began, my second ever helicopter ride!

I used to be afraid of helicopters but now I think they are my new favorite way to see a place. Also, our pilot this time had my full trust- he used to fly helicopters in Afghanistan for 6 years, I’m sure he can handle some slightly crazy weather in Sedona and a few red rocks in his way

It was cool too because we were able to see areas that people can’t or don’t hike and therefore see some cool ruins…

And a cool view of Sedona High School on the way back to the airport…

The Sedona airport is located up on top of a mesa, so on the way down we even saw a rainbow!

For dinner, we headed to a restaurant recommended to us by the rental car shuttle driver in Phoenix and then again by one of my friends from work. It was called Cowboy Club and they have the famous cactus fries, which are actually really good! We ordered a bunch of appetizers and shared with the table which I think was the way to go since the appetizers were great, especially the chicken tortilla soup and the chips and salsa.

I’ll be back whenever I can get another minute with our epic day trip up to the Grand Canyon!

Steak sandwiches

Posted on February 20, 2012 by TheDailyCraic

Steak sandwiches are one of our favorite meals to make and eat! They are super easy, not too expensive, and 100% delicious. All you have to do is sauté the peppers and onions in a little bit of olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper. Then cook the meat, add the cheese so it melts (we used Cabot sharp cheddar, but any cheese you want should work fine) and scoop it all into a bun.

Colin and I recently made steak sandwiches and I think they were the best batch yet. I literally feel like I could eat steak sandwiches, filet mignon and cheeseburgers in rotation every night for dinner. For now, I don’t think my body (or my wallet) would like that, but hey, a girl can dream…

Check out our dinner:

Cooking up the steak

Next up — onions and peppers

YUM!

And some vino of course