friday night

j's previous residence was in a little town where we could walk to about 3 restaurants. since he moved last month we've been wanting to walk down to keswick village and check out a couple places. it takes less than 10 minutes to get there and the houses & shops are really cute!

so last night his college friends came to hang out and we walked down to the corner tavern for dinner. the place was jam-packed & super loud. we decided not to wait 40 minutes, so we walked a little further to a pizza place. unfortunately it didn't have any inside seating and the outside tables were full... but then we looked across the street and saw 6 giant picnic tables outside the local florist. awesome!

four of us ate dinner for around 20 bucks: pizza, garlic bread, 2 liter.

afterwards we took a really long walk around j's new neighborhood~

good advice

last night j. and i were talking about/planning the coming week. i reminded him that we're supposed to bring dinner to his neighbor family who lost their husband/father recently. when i said i was brainstorming what to make, j. asked if i knew how to cook lasagna. i said i didn't, really, but i could try. his response was so perfect. here's the gist:

"well, i know last week when you were trying to cook that chicken for the first time, and melissa and kristine were over, you were really stressed. i know you care about how your food turns out and you want people to like your cooking. and it's less pressure if you're just cooking for me. so i think you should try to experiment mostly when it's just us. because then you won't be so stressed or overwhelmed."

dang.

good. point. fiance.

nelson vacation

j. and i spent a couple days with my bro & parents last weekend. it was lots of fun to hang out with them, go white-water rafting, see "inception", and show j. all my old haunts.

we got to have a picnic/play time with one of my fav families. they have 6 awesome kids and we had a great time playing crazy games together.

when we were leaving the rafting place, my mom reminded me that she's been brainstorming about an ongoing nelson fam summer vacation at lake luzerne. she wants that to become our tradition, so when j & i have kids and when al gets married and has kids, we can all have a house on the lake together!

sweet vacation rental site!

i just stumbled across this awesome website via cup of jo [which i read compulsively!]

all of a sudden j. and i are talking about next summer! we already have tons planned... U2 concert that got canceled this summer. camping in michigan's upper peninsula with his college friends. my college friends reunion trip in south carolina. beach week with my extended fam in north carolina. seeing both sets of parents and brothers.

if by some chance we have time and money left over, i'm going to suggest that we take a little vacation just the two of us... i'm dreaming of new orleans and the website mentioned above just happens to have beatiful vay-k rentals in new orleans. what a coincidence!

here's my fav so far:

last day

i do not want to go to work today.

i want to stay in my new red running shorts/tank top all morning. i want to look at blogs. i want to eat delicious zucchini muffins. after a while i want to take a nap. and i want to cook a delicious dinner for my bff and my fiance. then i want to scrape the front porch of my fiance's new house. then i want to take a walk in his/our new neighborhood. then i want to make a smoothie in our new blender and relax in the cutie living room.

today is my last day ever teaching ESL to adults. i don't want it to start & i don't want it to end.

[edit: we still have 2 weeks left of our summer program, but i'll be working with kids. that's why today's my last day teaching adults!]

road trip: athol

on sunday we had an awesome cookout on a lake and invited all our athol friends/family. we probably had at least 40 people in attendance. i was too busy having fun to take many pictures, but the afternoon began with food preparation and ended with a softball game. both are documented, but the in-between times were not...

road trip: boston

some of my philadelphia friends & i just took a whirlwind road trip to providence, boston and athol, massachusetts. we were gone just over 48 hours and jam packed a LOT of fun into those two short days.

night 1: my parents' house in providence for a sleepover and delicious breakfast
day 1: boston: quincy market, freedom trail/old churches/cemeteries, harvard