general life – Page 6 – Myriad & Sundry

Niagara on the Lake Weekend Getaway Part 1

August 28, 2014 No Comments

About a month ago, Brian and I were enjoying some time to ourselves away from the kiddos at Niagara on the Lake in Canada. We left Friday after dropping off the kids at daycare and drove straight there.

My last trip to Canada was with Brian to see the Falls in 2007, driving our way around the North East up to Maine to my cousin’s wedding. I’ve never actually been further into Canada than the Falls, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

As it turns out, the transition over into Canada was a bit anticlimactic and other than an accent change and some odd road signs (which we also get in the States), it didn’t feel too different. Well, we did have to get a currency exchange. Brian stopped at a bank and they were giving away cupcakes! So that was a big bonus.

Our first stop was actually for lunch, since we drove straight there we were starving (and had to use the restrooms). We stopped at a highly recommended pizza place to eat. Actually, most places we went came highly recommended, since Brian and I didn’t want to do any intensive planning. We went mostly to places Brian’s parents recommended, who visit Niagara on the Lake very frequently.

We stopped at Old Winery Restaurant and had the Arms and the Man pizza and split a salad, leaving full but not over done. Honestly, I could’ve eaten everything on that menu. We at outside, and it was such a beautiful day and perfect first stop.

Brian and I also stopped at a couple wineries before arriving at our Bed & Breakfast. First was Megalomaniac. Tasting used to be held in the cellar downstairs, but they recently opened up a brand new building built over top the cellars. The landscaping may have been a little rough, but the inside was an interesting mash up of elegant and rustic. (Like Restoration Hardware maybe?)

I loved the extra large glasses they served their red wine in and their logo etched in. We took home a bottle, but honestly the experience being in that big room without anyone else was a little echo-y. We were told that the weekends were actually much busier, and that was truth! There is also just a little less traffic in this part of the region, which is actually Jordan, rather than Niagara-on-the-Lake proper, where we spent most of the following day.

Our next stop was at Kacaba, where they wined (but not dined) us and we did some barrel tastings in the back. Brian was sold on the heavily oaked chardonnay, and we also loved the merlot. We bought a case for when the barrels are ready, and Brian’s parents may be picking that up for us, haha.

Then we arrived at our Bed and Breakfast at Among the Vines to drop off our things. Among the Vines is nestled next to Di Profio Winery, so it was very peaceful location near a vineyard. We stayed in their beautiful main suite, which has an attached bathroom with separate sinks, shower and tub.

Di Profio is most known locally for their white blend, the Kitchen Zinc. We had a bottled opened right there that we enjoyed on their upstairs balcony, a more private location with one table. It was lovely to look out over the vineyards from that spot.

It was a very relaxing first day. In fact, I hadn’t yet truly broken out my big girl camera and took most of the photos with my phone. The next day is a different story, but what a lovely transition into a short weekend vacation for us!

That evening, we actually walked into the little downtown area, Jordan Village. I was looking forward to their mussels. We just don’t really get fresh mussels by us, so I was excited I would be able to have them in Canada!

We ate at the Jordan House Tavern, shared the mussels (I think I made Brian a fan), and I had the mac and cheese. Really tasty home cooking. And I even loved that we could walk there (albeit on an occasionally busy road without sidewalks). It was still a nice walk, but I wouldn’t do it in the dark (at least, not without a flashlight!)

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Time Together

June 26, 2014 No Comments

In the past month, Brian and I have been doing a better job at getting out and spending some time together. It helps that Brian had a birthday and we had an anniversary in there for occasions to celebrate!

A couple weeks ago, we were finally able to try Momocho, recommended to us by several friends and on our list to try for a while. It’s in Ohio City in Cleveland, and Brian scored us seats at the Chef’s table which got us a couple extra little appetizers and guacamole. It was a blast! We ordered 6 samples of their margaritas, and loved the spicy mango. Brian was also a fan of the cucumber. You can’t go wrong with traditional either!

Then, just this weekend, we celebrated our 5 year anniversary by going to Elevation, a fundraiser event put on by the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I scored some free tickets from work, and it was the perfect night out for us when Brian realized that we were engaged in the park, married in the park, and now celebrating our anniversary there.

We first went on a hike with our trail mix we made from the trail mix bar at the ledges, and then had some fresh veggies and dip before the main meal of different sliders with pulled pork, burger or veggie. They had beer and wine, s’mores by the fire (for a bit, before it really started raining), and even dancing.

When we got home, we opened our love letters in our love letter and wine box. Believe it or not, neither of us cheated and opened this early. This was also before we really started drinking and making wine, so I was concerned about the quality of the wine we purchased. But the wine tasted great (and was meant for aging), and the love letters were perfect. We were so young!

I am insisting we do it again for the next 5 years, and we’re going to get the next bottle of wine from Canada when we go on a weekend trip in July.

Love you Brian!

general life

Day for Dads

June 17, 2014 No Comments

Father’s Day this year was a lot of fun! We had a wonderful weekend. However, it was bittersweet for me when I found out one of my oldest friend’s father suddenly passed away Saturday before Father’s Day. I have quite a few memories of him actually, from sleepovers to bonfires. He will be missed by many. As much as I wanted to honor Brian and my own father, even more so because of that, I wanted to respectfully avoid posting publicly on Father’s Day and exacerbating the pain she must already feel.

It opened up a line of thinking, which of course I may have thought of on the surface before but never in such depth, which is that Father’s Day may not always be a day of celebration for many. I would just say that I am happy right now to continue to celebrate all the fathers in my life, here in the flesh or not!

A couple weeks prior while Brian and his friends were away, I took photos with the DAD letters at a friend’s house, and took photos of their kids as well. I had high hopes that Coraline might smile for our silliest friend Lisa’s wacky faces, but I still only got a hint of one no matter what we tried!

We still captured some great moments. Last year I didn’t try to do the photo series since Coraline was too little, but I did do it for Brian’s first father’s day in 2011, and attempted the year following 2012.

I didn’t manage to get our for cards though this year, which I suppose just makes for less waste. Brian did get some awesome mustard, gunpowder spice rub, and spicy sweet biscotti which he’s been enjoying. For my own dad, he hasn’t opened his yet since he’s out of town so we’ll leave the suspense for now 🙂

children, general life, life with baby

Brian’s Birthday

June 3, 2014 No Comments

Brian’s birthday seems to consistently have such perfect weather. It’s always right around Memorial Day, and so we tend to celebrate with cookouts with our family and friends!

This year, we went to grandma and poppa’s house, and were surprised to see that his cousin Gabrielle and her son Griffin as well as his Uncle Mike were all there to celebrate with us too!

Griffin gets along so well with younger kids, and played with Jameson almost non-stop while we were there. They played ball and catch and tackle and cars… “boy” things.

Coraline plays ball fine herself too, I should add!

After our rib dinner (so. good.), we went back outside to play. It was beautiful outside!

Aunt Melissa and Gabrielle tried to get Jameson to roll down the backyard hill with them, but he couldn’t be persuaded to let go. He did do a little fake roll for a second but that’s it!

I made Brian’s cake from scratch from the same recipe I made Coraline’s first birthday cake as well, but this time I made it with a peanut butter filling. It was very peanut-buttery, so that was perfect for Brian. It was good, but not my best effort! I had a difficult time getting the filling right (too much peanut butter) and the cake itself was a little… broken.

But, all’s well that tastes well!

For the record, Coraline tasted a bit more of this cake than her own. We’ll turn her into a cake eater yet!

children, general life, life with baby

Easter Hunting

May 2, 2014 No Comments

Easter morning, Coraline was up a little earlier than Jameson, so I brought her downstairs for a little ~~egg hunting~~ testing. I wanted to see how observant she was, since the Easter Bunny had to hide the eggs a little better this year for Jameson than in years past.

As it turns out, Coraline was very observant (perhaps more than Jameson at that age?). I took some video of her, and later after church, of both kids doing some Easter egg hunting.

When Jameson joined us downstairs, he spotted eggs right away and wanted to find more. It was tough, but we told him not until after church (just as it was for me growing up!). So we ate breakfast, got ready, took some family photos, and went to church before hunting eggs. It was quite a busy morning.

The Easter Bunny left their two baskets full of good things. Jameson got a box of 7 Jake and the Neverland Pirate puzzles; new bath crayons and bath bubbles; Jake car keys and stickers; a little metal school bus car; and chocolate covered animal crackers and gummy penguins.

Coraline received a new sippy cup which she quickly used with its straw; a Mega Blocks stacking egg with chick; a touch and feel Thumper the Bunny book and hippo puppet; new finger paint colors and stickers; and this Peek N Shake egg carton toy with little eggs and chicks inside which she just adores.

Jameson helped find one of the pink eggs which were designated as Coraline’s, and she got to munch on goldfish (off the floor, how thrilling).

Jameson just loved finding eggs this year, but still passed up likely spots I thought for sure he would see right away. He found all the eggs the Easter Bunny hid high up, but had a harder time being thorough looking at his kitchen set which had several hiding in it.

After Coraline’s nap, we went over to Grandma and Poppa’s house, where the Easter Bunny hid even more eggs for him to find! Aunt Melissa and Grandma helped the search, but Jameson nearly lost interest by the end. Looking for eggs outside was hard work.

Inside, Coraline and Jameson played so nice together while dinner was prepared.

The kids got to open a couple more Easter gifts, and Coraline loved her new pink lounge chair!

After dinner, we played with Jameson new toy, a lightweight Styrofoam airplane. Poppa taught Jameson how to fly it, though Jameson was a bit too excited to launch with a steady hand or figure out the proper position or posture. Still, it was a lot of fun for everyone watching him throw his airplane so excited!

Coraline loved being outside. She has no fear or concern for the grass, and was happy to watch all the activity. And crawl, too, because she certainly doesn’t sit still much any more!

By the end of the day, she was exhausted. Coraline loves to throw her head back and assume someone will catch her (most of the time, this works). She loves to be upside down, so at the end of the tiring day, she was a little slap happy and throwing herself backwards over daddy’s leg. Too funny!

It was a fun Easter, though I imagine next year we might see some more competition for hunting eggs. We’ll see!

general life

Back to Routines

April 26, 2014 No Comments

It is amazing the changes in 1 year. Also, what hasn’t changed. Sasha is still with us, though she is starting to show her age (like myself, I think haha). Brian still looks the same, maybe better plus a few gray hairs.

Jameson looks remarkably the same to me, aside from losing some of his cheeks. Coraline though: Wow. And for the record, it’s hard to get a baby to smile at a tripod, so we didn’t even try. Looking, but not looking unhappy, was good enough!

I have periodically gotten family photos in the spring or summer or fall. I usually try to get two of them a year, but if I get one then I am happy. I love this photo! And it came right after some very happy news last week: I had just accepted and started a job! After 6 weeks off work, I am so pleased to be able to say that I am back at work, doing a job related to my field (if anything, it’s more concentrated, an advantage to doing a job well that I am not focused too broad).

I had also just run my first race the day prior. It was a fun run and not timed, but I’m proud to see where I’ve come from this time last year, which was not running or even exercising at all, to my first 5K.

The 6 weeks off work were hard, I’m not going to lie. Not fresh-into-maternity-leave hard like. But plenty of ups and downs with how I felt about myself and what I wanted to do with my life (why do we feel we need to make big all encompassing goals or life statements? there is just “for now” and “for as long as we want” for everything in life except family which is “for always”).

There was a lot of guilt sending the kids to daycare everyday, and a lot of freedom I’ll probably never have again. And just like I thought I might, I wish I had taken better advantage of that time. I only went to see one daytime movie; I definitely should’ve done that at least twice!

So here we are again, back into routine, and happy for it.

children, general life

Spring Is Here

April 11, 2014 No Comments

The beginning of April finally felt more like Spring; we’ve been able to get outside on the weekends and evenings. We’ve planted seeds to try to get our own plants ready for the garden this year instead of buying garden-ready plants at the garden shops. It’s been a fun experiment so far. Our tomato plants have sprouted quickly while the pepper plants are further behind.

I put Coraline out on the grass, and she sat back after every time she put her hand on the ground. She doesn’t remember grass from last year!

Coraline gives great high fives.

I love pulling the kids in the wagon. Coraline is much more interactive when she’s sitting in the wagon than in a stroller. Jameson wanted to help pull the other night which was funny!

We have had quite a bit of rain as well which puts a damper on the warmth we’ve been enjoying. It’s raining right now! I keep telling Jameson (and reminding myself) that we need the rain for the grass to get green and plants to grow! We bought Jameson some rain boots to splash in the puddles with, but he was very concerned when he got his pants wet when he jumped. We had to go inside immediately and change.

Since we’ve been outside, we’ve ran into our neighbors Lily and her brother several times too. Jameson loves playing with Lily, they are so fun together. They have been trying to “pump” and move the swings themselves, but need some more practice. I can’t wait for more opportunities for us to be outside!

general life

Freedom

March 9, 2014 No Comments

It’s been quite some time since my last post, in fact, nearly a month because Coraline will be turning one THIS WEEK.

How did this happen, a full year gone by in a blink of an eye? So much has changed, and I’ll save further nostalgia and blathering on about the time warp of parenting on Coraline’s one year post.

I have actually had a rather lot of time on my hands the past two and a half weeks since I was let go from my job. I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to write much about it until it was final, but here we are.

My next entry was going to be about our plans to finish off our basement; plans that we were literally going to sign off on the day that I was laid off. Or position was eliminated. My career services coach, provided generously by my former employer, says that “laid off” has negative connotations and that I should use the terms “position elimination due to cost reduction and restructuring”. Which is true, but a mouthful.

Thankfully, our contractor for our basement is a very old friend of Brian’s who is perfectly willing (and has plenty of work without us) to move us into fall, by which point I should be securely into a new position elsewhere. Although I am still incredibly bummed by the delay! Not to mention bummed at the lack of a job, of course.

I am on severance payments right now, and again my former employer has been generous in that regard in comparison to folks from other companies I have heard of. Generous, though, is not a job, and a few things changed for us including a $300 increase per month in health insurance on Brian’s paycheck in comparison to what we had from mine.

But don’t spend much time feeling sorry for us or myself. I am experiencing quite a bit of an ego hit myself, but for our family, we are not hurting financially or even emotionally in general at this moment. These kinds of decisions surrounding finances and family life are never fun to have, but aside from my pride, Brian is really enjoying my being able to pick up and drop of kids from daycare.

How have I been spending this time? We have continued to send the kids to daycare, because we are not ready to pull them out entirely and we have to pay anyway unless we wanted to set up a part time schedule. But quite honestly, we strongly feel and hope that I will not be out of work for long. We have not considered me as a stay at home mom at this point. I envision several more years in the future a potential part time job for me so I might work on photography more and allow us the freedom from having before or after school care, but at this moment we are happy with our choice.

So my time to myself has been spent working on organizing photos and moving them. I messed up when I created our iPhoto library when we first got our Mac, and this project has been on my mind for a long time. Basically, I was duplicating photos on the very same drive (which certainly isn’t a good back up strategy and has no benefits).

I freed up over 100GB on our drive and in the process organized and labeled family members in EVERY SINGLE digital photo we have (not including scanned family historical photos). From 2002 on, here’s where we’re at:

– 4 iPhoto Libraries totaling 34,603 photos tagged from: 4 or more phones and 5 cameras we have owned, plus numerous shared photos
– 1,874 photos of Sasha
– 2,424 photos of Coraline
– 3,833 photos with me, from 2002 to present
– 4,591 photos with Brian, from 2002 to present
– 11,328 photos of Jameson (obviously I didn’t know how to delete)
– Over 7,400 labeled as a favorite photo
– 66 photos of all 4 us humans
– Just 2 photos of all 5 of us with Sasha

With that project complete, which literally was like a job for 8 hours a day for a week or more, I have turned my attention to things that forever get put on the back-burner like renewing my passport, ordering Jameson’s birth certificate (we only ordered Coraline’s oddly enough), running outside whenever it was nice enough to do so (oh I am feeling the lack of a treadmill which I used to have access to at work!), cleaning the floors and actually catching up laundry, having lunch with friends, and working on Coraline’s party.

In a couple weeks, I’ll be heading to my parents for a visit with the kids and am pulling kids out of daycare a few times this week for various things. All in all, my time is very well spent and filled to the brim. It is great to be able to do things I have always talked about doing and never found the time to. I am hoping to finish Coraline’s digital scrapbook and catch up on both kids’ baby books. Maybe I’ll even get to our 2013 family photo book.

I have had some trouble sleeping and frequently have to turn away from bitter thoughts which invade whenever I’m feeling sorry for myself. But mostly I’m okay, even good. I’m sure, like Coraline’s first year, that it won’t be long before I look back on this time of freedom with nostalgia as well.

general life

Happy First Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2014 No Comments

general life

A New Year

January 23, 2014 No Comments

For New Year’s Eve this year, we headed over to JP & Lisa’s house for the evening. We planned to make a relatively short night of it, since they had a 7 week old newborn, their second son named Joshua. As a bonus, we got to meet Jack too, just days old and nearly fresh from the hospital! Jack is the second son of Rob and Christina, good friends of Brian’s who recently moved back to Ohio.

Jonathan, Bobby and Jameson all played together on Jonathan’s new train table. Watching little boys try and play nice together is interesting and occasionally requires intervention, but everyone had a great time.

Coraline looked so very big compared to her very new friends. She wore her confetti onesie in celebration. We also did a little gift exchange! We really extended Christmas celebration this year. In fact, it’s nearly the end of January and Jameson insists on listening to Rudolf every day on the way home from school. He continues to ask me where the lights are, and is disappointed that Christmas is over. I kind of love it.

Coraline was a great sport about staying up late. We did try and put her to sleep in the pack and play in JP & Lisa’s office, but she had trouble staying asleep. She was exhausted, but running and yelling boys were causing quite a ruckus! It didn’t disturb Jack though, he was asleep during his entire visit.

The boys were crazy! But in a good, ok-on-New-Years, staying-up-late sort of way. We had such a good time, and left around 10 to be home by 11, and have the children in their proper beds by 11:30. We watched the ball drop in bed without falling asleep beforehand, which was amazing. We had a good time, but life has certainly changed for all of us even compared to just a year ago. New babies, newly-returned friends, another new year!

The very next weekend, I drove to JP & Lisa’s and Rob & Christina’s houses to take some pictures of the beautiful babies. I was thrilled that Jack stayed asleep for newborn photos (since I didn’t have success with a sleeping baby for either Jameson or Coraline!). He’s such a cute baby, with a full head of red hair.

Joshua was a 7 week old, not very sleepy type baby, but he made the cutest little ‘o’ faces to match his mom’s favorite hat.

I can’t wait (or maybe I can), to see where we all are next year. The newborns will be a year old, Coraline will be nearly 2, and Jameson will be 4. Do you think maybe we’ll get to have a New Year’s Eve without children, or is it too soon? haha!

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