Molly time all the time

We have had Molly now for oh about 30 hours and let me tell you about her so far. She is a very sweet little girl, very loving and very clingy! She has already figured out that we only want her to be in the kitchen for now yet she still follows us out of it. She loves all her toys we bought her and her treats. She scarfs down her food in about 30 seconds and we hope we are feeding her enough (following the directions on the bag!). I have been by myself with her since about 3:30 today and it is difficult to get things done. I want her to stay in the kitchen but when I try to go clean another room she just follows me. So I have to stay in the kitchen. There's not much I can clean in the kitchen because I have to carry things to other rooms. If I put her in her crate she just cries a lot. Although I did do that earlier for about 20 minutes to get a few things done! She seems to be scared of being outside but is getting better with it. We have gotten her to run around out there with us.

Anyway, I just got a call from Matt and he is on his way home! So I can finally get some cleaning done I hope :) Looks like we'll have to tag team this effort for a while until she figures things out. Oh and on a positive note, she slept for 6+ hours last night!

Trip & Puppy!!

Ok, busy busy. Quick synopsis of the rest of our trip. After Boston we headed to West Hartford, Connecticut to visit John (Matt's brother) and Stephanie (his wife). We spent a few days exploring West Hartford and spending time with John and Steph and baby-to-be-born in July. It was great to finally visit them and see their new home and where they have been living since August. They left the day after our wedding last year to move up there. From Hartford we took a Greyhound bus to New York City. The bus ride was actually great and easy and dropped us off about 8 blocks from our hotel which was about 1 block from Times Square. We spent 3 days in NYC seeing the sites. This was my third trip to NYC and Matt's first so it was more for him to see everything. Except we did go to the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island and that was my first time going to those places. Ellis Island was pretty cool.

We have had a very tight schedule since we came back. We ventured out to Snellville to meet Ann Marie who was 8 days old at the time. I spent one evening doing some shopping for Stephanie's baby showers and Matt's birthday (which is tomorrow). Now we have a busy weekend full of birthdays, babies and cleaning!

Also, we got a puppy today!! We have been planning on getting one but waiting until after our trip was over. Now that it's over and we're back, we found just who we were looking for (pictures below). We found her online and went to the adoption day outside of Petsmart today to get her. She is an Australian Shepherd puppy (possibly a mixture though) and is about 10-12 weeks old. We named her Molly. She is already quite the handful. We left for about an hour and a half to go to dinner and put her in her crate for the first time. Came home and she was out!! She climbed out the top.. apparently we had the thing upside-down. She is scared of being outside for some reason, we are working through that, and has yet to use the potty outside. In fact, she just peed in her crate. So much for them not using the bathroom where they sleep. Although she doesn't know that she sleeps there yet but will figure that out tonight.

Anyway sorry you don't get more details on the trip and all but it would be more than you want to read, I promise. Instead you just get some pics and some pics of Molly. Enjoy!

Matt with my aunt Janet and uncle Frank by the Old North Church in Boston

Matt in the pew "for strangers and wardens"

John Adams house at Peacefield in Quincy

Matt and John at the Sam Adam's brewery in Boston

Matt and I in Connecticut walking up a mountain trail. Matt is holding the rock he found.

Times Square! Sensory overload

Dinner 'picnic' on some rocks in Central Park

Walking across the Brooklyn BridgeStatue of Liberty

Our cozy hotel!

Molly outside

There's our girl

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig

Just a quick note to say that Matt and I are back from our trip around New England and I am now procrastinating going to bed because that means it's back to work tomorrow! We have a ridiculously busy week ahead of us but I hope to post pictures and more recaps within the next few days. Hope you enjoyed your 3 day weekend, I have enjoyed my 10 day break!!

New England Trip, part 1 - Boston

Greetings from Cohasset, Massachusetts! Matt and I flew into Boston on Friday evening and have been staying with my aunt, uncle and cousins. I won't be able to put pictures up this week but will when we return home.

Saturday we walked the Freedom Trail which is a 'trail' that you follow all around downtown Boston to see different historical sites. It was really interesting and Matt was in heaven. We took the T into the city from Braintree which is a town nearby Cohasset where they live.

Sunday we went to church with my family and then spent the afternoon driving around Cohasset. It is the typical New England town you see pictures of. Small, absolutely gorgeous right on the water. Huge beautiful homes. Small cute downtown. It has been chilly up here, moreso than for this time of year up here. Low 60s and around 58 today with clouds and rain. Last night we watched the Benjamin Button movie. I have to say I was not impressed with it.. I wouldn't really recommend it but it was ok.

This morning we got up and had some Cohasset bagels :) I had a salt bagel which I love and I don't know why they don't serve them in the south, I have only found them in the north. Matt, my aunt and I headed into Boston to walk around the Harvard area and go to this fun burger joint. After lunch we headed to the John Adams house in Quincy (house at Peacefield). Went on about an hour tour, it was awesome. If you have not seen the John Adams HBO mini-series I highly recommend it. It was very neat seeing this house after having seen that. Tonight we headed to Mary Lou's which is a nearby coffee shop that my cousin is obsessed with. I had a thin mint iced coffee - yum!! And tonight we watched videos of me and the cousins from when we were younger. It was hilarious and a little embarassing.

AND.. today I was receiving updates all day long about the Harlans! Scott and Elizabeth's baby girl, Ann Marie, arrived today! (Picture on the 'Scott and Elizabeth' blog on the right ->) 8lbs 1oz. I can't wait to see her! Happy Birthday Ann Marie!

That's all for now. Tomorrow we head to Hartford, Connecticut to spend a few days with Matt's brother John and his wife Stephanie!

I haven't forgotten that I have a blog but I haven't had much time to post on it either! Not only are we trying to work on the house but we are back into full swing of activities and seeing friends. Last week Matt battled a cold all week while he studied for his finals (he has his last two tomorrow and then he is done with spring semester!). Like a good wife I took good care of him and then got the cold myself. It was especially great because it hit me on my weekend. Before I started feeling bad on Friday night, we made spaghetti with homemade meatballs - YUM. It was my first time making meatballs and it was really fun! Definitely will make that again. Saturday morning we went to Matt's parents house around 8:30 for breakfast and I drank a Theraflu before we left. I was out of it all morning and finally realized I drank the nighttime Theraflu by accident. Made for a nice afternoon nap though :)

Saturday night we went to a dinner for the young adults at our church. It was fun to see everyone outside of church! We saw most of them again on Sunday night at Bible study and found out that Peter and Angel are pregnant! I'm betting it's a girl ;) For Mother's Day we went out to lunch with Matt's parents and gave his mom a bottle of homemade vanilla extract. Amelia told me about this recipe that I have been dying to try. All it is is vodka and vanilla beans. I made a cute bottle out of a beer bottle and a wine stopper. The vanilla extract has to 'mature' for 6 months and is then ready for use. It is supposed to be better than the stuff you buy so we'll see in 6 months! For my mom, I mailed her two loaves of my famous sourdough bread.. actually Matt's grandmother Mimi's famous bread but everyone around here just refers to it as Julie bread.

And finally, more house pictures.

Our medicine cabinets are finally installed!


But we had to cut through our bedroom walls to get them in. Apparently it's easier to re-drywall than that get a stud out of our bathroom.


Our bedroom is finally clean! I hope we can keep it that way.



Any ideas for what to put above/behind the dresser?






And I have been painting some of the guest room furniture. Can't wait to get that all together!

And finally some pictures

Seems that I have gone missing from here lately.. just trying to get settled around here. And I finally found my camera cord to put pictures up! I know you don't want to just read boring words :) We have been working a lot around here lately and doing a lot of fun things too. We went shooting last week and did mediocre considering we never go.

Here is Matt shooting skeet

This is me shooting last year.. I didn't get any of me this year but thought this would be funny to see. Don't judge my stance, I think I was just posing for this, not that I really know how to hold it anyway.

Thursday night we celebrated Crystal's birthday over at Matt's parents house. We had a yummy dinner followed by ice cream cake! Can't beat that.

Last night we went to little five to see Man Man and Cursive play at the Variety Playhouse. I have to say it was a pretty impressive show. Man Man was absolutely hilarious to watch and Cursive was amazing! I would recommend seeing both of them if you ever have the opportunity.
Also at work I secretly planned a double baby shower for Michael & Brittany and Amelia & Nathan. So sneaky. It was great, they had no idea. Wish I had a picture of their faces :) They are both due in late June and we are so excited for them!!
And now for some house pictures:

This is the kitchen before it was cleaned
Before
And after (the first time the counter has been cleaned off since the day we closed on our house)
After (still need to hang some stuff on this wall)
Here is Matt preparing to install our recessed medicine cabinets. Cutting out the drywall.

Here is the finished project! Or at least that's how it looks today. This is way harder than it looks but we are progressing slowly. I will post the real 'after' pictures once they are finally installed (one for each of us).
These are the bookshelves I am so excited about! If you get the crate and barrel ones they are $129 each. We paid $140 for all 3 of these off of craigslist :) Still need to fill them up.
Full room view (ignore the clutter)
This is the mirror I hung this morning in our bedroom. I'll get a better picture of our bedroom when we are all finished.
And this is the organ pipe I hung this morning. I also tried to get the dining room in the shot so you could see it. We still need to recenter the light fixture above the table. Also this room has yet to be repainted.

Hope you are all enjoying this beautiful weather!