Anniversary Part 2

The weather did not cooperate with Matt and so his surprise has been delayed for another day..... and he still won't tell me what it is. sigh.
So instead we spent the day watching The Hunger Games, running a few errands and tried out a new place for dinner: Tuckaway Tavern in Raymond, NH. It was recommended by my boss (who lives in Raymond) and she was serious about the huge portions!

I had a house salad, balsamic tomatoes with mozzarella and I think they call it the Pig Bake?
It was pulled pork topped with chives, mashed potatoes and a touch of cheddar cheese. YUM! 

Matt had the New England Seafood Bake for his main dish: lobster, shrimp, haddock in a buttery cream sauce topped with little cracker crumb crust. It also came with a house salad and cole slaw. 

These pictures are of what we brought home! There was so much delish food - maybe not the best food for you, but definitely comfort food done well!

Thank you all for the well wishes, happy thoughts, flowers and emails!! Three years have happily passed and we still feel so incredibly blessed to have each other and all of you in our lives.
xoxo

Anniversary Part 1

I had the painting done by a lady on Etsy...... Matt and I both did Charlie Brown together in college - he was Linus and I played Snoopy. I love this picture for its simplicity, how well it fits the season and how it reminds both of us how we met - in theatre.

Loon Mtn ~ Highland Games

This past weekend was spent at Loon Mtn watching the Highland Games! We had a blast and saw family, friends, and even a few co-workers who were all there also enjoying the brisk fall weather, games, food, vendors and music.

But to start off, Friday night, Matt and I checked into the Carriage Inn Motel.
A lovely, family owned and operated motel that as you can see,
was a bit of a flashback to the 1970's and 80's. 

It was one of the cleanest places I have EVER stayed!

And super amusing with all the little signs posted around the room.
This one was my favorite.

Here we are enjoyed some of the athletic events.
Turns out some of our friends had an old friend from High School competing in the amateur rounds - and I was super excited to see Craig Sinclair representing Scotland at the professional level.

Our phones had tons of trouble on the mountain and so I didn't take as many photos as I would have normally.
This is the tossing of the caber, but we stayed for multiple events cheering and chatting and people watching.

Here are some of us enjoying one of the musical concerts.
Down the line we have Justin, Matt, Justin's sister Jamie and her husband Justin (yes, it was sometimes confusing!)

Saturday was a lovely day - this is Sunday with more clouds and there was a
heavy 'breeze' for most of the day - some would call it chilly! :-)

You could watch the clouds moving across the mountains and some of the trees had begun to turn.

This is Matt standing in front of the Hobo Railroad, which is where we parked for the games  (free parking w/shuttle).
I wish we'd had time to actually ride the train - there are several in town too!

This picture is for my brother and sister-in-law! A Rutland, VT Caboose!!

Justin took more photos of the weekend - his phone did the best (working for Verizon can do that for you!) - so when I get those, I will post them as well!

Dining Room Update

I should say the long awaited update since Matt and I chose the piece of furniture just over two years ago when we realized we needed more storage in the dining room and that none of our current pieces would do the job.
So since it took so long (mostly to save up the $$ and find a killer coupon!) I thought it might be fun to look through all the variations since we've moved in :-)
Apparently it was so boring empty and all white that I don't have a photo of the dining space before we moved in!

when we first moved in after painting the white walls.

the carpet debate. I think it stayed for all of 1 day.

added new curtains

TV moved, so Providence Harbor Art moved to above the fireplace and 2 metal grates
 (hung too high on the wall) moved to the dining room wall. 

Then I spray painted them black. Much more natural to what they would have been in
their former life (when they were actual working grates)

dining room light update. Woohoo!

this one was just for fun! :-)

new paint job - slightly paler yellow that matches the hallway

Matt and I found this customizable piece at Pottery Barn 2 yrs ago and luckily they still have it!

here's one of the options for configuration.
We don't drink that much wine, so  we ordered just 1 wine rack

UPS delivered a day early and blocked both our garage bays with the 8 boxes.
This pic was taken after I moved everything - whew!

Current dining room view

I took this from the other side of the couch so you can see how the first floor is
totally open and flows together.

Matt is away for work at a 2-day conference and I couldn't wait!
So here is the first level....

And here is the second level! This took a lot longer than just stacking them
as all the pieces have to be arranged and then connected together to make
1 large piece that then I slide back to the wall. 

I started pulling up our glassware from the basement and filling things in
when I realized it was past midnight! Reluctantly, I turned off the lights and went to bed :-)

Here it is the morning sunlight

And here's a wide shot for you.
The boxes on top (martini glasses, champagne glasses and beer steins)
will be unpacked and put into the hutch along with other serving dishes and trays.
The cabinet under the wine rack holds all other liquor bottles.

I will be sure to update with pictures after everything is unpacked, organized and has a home! I'm so excited to have our glasses out of the basement and up where we can use them! It's also really nice to not be looking at liquor bottles standing on top of a wine rack too! It was super crowded!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Upgrading My Technology Knowledge

Instagram anyone?
I've recently downloaded it and decided that it's fun and almost simple to use!
I'm still figuring out how to use some of the features. Especially since the tutorial I found online is a few versions back when there were still words/ titles on the buttons instead of just pictures - but I'll get there - promise!
So for those of you that use Instagram, and want to see my crazy pictures, my username is rlr1222

Oh! and since Pinterest is another recent addition (cough! addiction!) on my phone, you can find me there as rloverand

Any new technology/program in your life that you're loving?

Grandparents ~

I had a dream a few weeks ago about Mimi….more specifically about her passing. And I woke up panicked, wanting to call Catherine in the middle of the night to make sure she was ok. But I didn’t. Then life got in the way and I let it slip my mind – not consciously – but it slipped. 

I got a call from Catherine on Sunday, while standing in Joann fabrics with my mother and I knew. Mimi had passed away peacefully, surrounded by family. 

 Mimi wasn’t my grandmother – she’s Catherine’s – but I came to feel as though she was family, just like Catherine and her parents still feel to me. I was lucky enough to spend a few summer vacations with them and their family down on ‘The Beach!’ – to others, Emerald Isle, Outer Banks, NC. Those were special weeks and while I may have fought it at first, the Hodges taught me the beginnings of learning to relax and how truly important it can be to just stop life for a week. To let the days go by with walks on the beach, books to read, great food, family, laughter and hopefully a steady ocean breeze to keep the bugs away! 

Mimi was the last grandparent to pass on for me. She led a wonderfully full life and was simply an incredible person. She had these great one-liners that would just fly out of her mouth in her sweet Farmville drawl and her eyes would be dancing with mischief! She cooked, baked, canned, you name it and it was all unbelievably scrumptious. 

Her funeral is today in South Carolina and while I am not physically there, my heart is there. She welcomed me into her home and her family with open arms and I will never forget it. Thank you for all the wonderful memories, Mimi!

Pork Chops w/Apples

The weather has turned more fall-ish the past few days in NH, and so I pulled out a new recipe for pork chops last night. It was truly delish and super simple!

Pre-heat the over to 175, pan cook the pork chops w/ a little olive oil and then put into the oven to stay warm. In the same pan put 2 tsp butter, some brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, pepper and 2 sliced apples. By this point, your kitchen will smell wonderful!

Once the apples are soft, put them on top of the pork chops in the oven and keep the 'sauce' on the stove until it thickens - YUM! once thick, pull everything out and serve.

As you can see, I layered everything on the plate, so when I put the sauce over the top, it dripped down and also flavored the green beans a bit too!
This was so good (and easy!) that it will truly be a keeper as we head into the cooler NE seasons.

What have you been cooking up recently?

Fire Pit!

Per Kel's request, here are 2 updated photos of the fire pit in the yard. We totally love it and have started using it much more often (of course, finally getting the fire permit helped that too!).

The grey crushed stone that came with didn't quite reach the bottom
of the black fire ring, so we've been adding our own yard rocks as we find them.

They are slowly breaking down in the fires to become smaller rocks,
which is fine with us as well as the fire marshall!

Now all I need to pick up is some good marshmallow sticks - skewers really, since I'd like them to be permanent so we don't have to go hunting every time we want to roast a marshmallow!

Haley Visit!

Haley came up for the weekend on the train Saturday.
We ran some errands and chatted the whole time, catching up!

Next up was snacks at the house while chopping fruit...

for Sangria!

Haley was very excited to try it out

and I have to say - the first time either one of us made it without Kel,
we did a pretty good job! Kel, you'd be proud!! It was tasty!

A lot of firsts happened actually - Haley GRILLED our dinner!!!

corn, sweet potatoes and BBQ chicken...

Everything was awesome!!!
We ended the night around the fire pit with marshmellows, chocolate and a HUGE full moon!

Sunday was brunch and shopping at the Kittery outlets!
We got some great deals and Haley came away with  2 SUPER cute dresses!
As well as other things, but the dresses were the finds of the day!

Haley and I agreed that our next adventure will be me taking the train to Boston to hang out for the day! Woot! I can't wait Haley!!