little things

It has been quick a rocky few weeks. I am just trying to take it all in, moment to moment. And do a lot of gentle but helpful breathing!

got lemons, i made....pillowcases??

Ok, so it has been a difficult 'cancer' week, hence the lemons. so what do i do? Well, I have been a busy bee with my sewing machine latelty. I made a baby quilt for baby Eve, almost finished another one for baby Jasper (micheal's cousin's first baby), made a table runner for mom, some other little things here and there.

part of Eve's quilt

Baby Eve looking adorable

I have been anxious to make pillow cases for our bed.  Mike and I both have those weird temprapedic pillows, so they are much smaller than regualr bed pillows. Standard pillowcases are swimming over our pillows. I found this interesting pattern so I made smaller versions for our unique-sized pillows and this pattern was SO fun. When I first looked at it (there is a rolling part?!), I completely didn't get it, but it worked and it was SO easy! And I used fabric from my favorite designer, Denyse Schmidt.

a real star

Laura Linney deserves some serious credit for her role in the series, the Big C. The show lasted just a few seasons - Linney's character has stage iv cancer after all...I watched every episode - a little scared of how close to home it hit, but I felt compelled just the same to watch Linney's character deal with grace and genuine courage. The last season, season 4, took on a different shape from previous seasons, just 4 episodes, covering 4 seasons and it was absolutely heartbreaking. But I wanted to see it through the end. I think the show is very important, it was brave to show the real like of such an awful and terrifying disease. There is more 'cancer' talk these days, and a lot of it surrounds survivorship and cure. Stage IV is a different animal, it is a life of tests, meds, side effects, more tests, waiting, fearing, preparing. Cure is not part of the stage iv animal, unfortunately, so there is no going back to the way it use to be 'before cancer'. Anyway, I hope Laura Linney gets the emmy- she deserves it for this incredible role.

In three's

I can't believe these two little guys just turned 3! It is insane.

Well, this auntie got to step up in the role again, to welcome my new niece, Evangeline Kay! She is just the cutest, tiniest little precious munchin of love. It is so hard to be away when they are these tiny little nuggests! Congrats Amy and Todd! Can't wait to see Eve soon! 

david byrne and asbury park in one single week = extreme awesomeness

For the second time in the last few years, but with much closer seats, we got to see David Byrne at the Wellmont, and he remains my all-time favorite. He is touring with St. Vincent, so they played a lot from their shared album but there was some excellent david and talking heads favorites sprinkled in. In true David style, it was music and theater combined. There was a 10-piece (or so) horn section of women and men and their instruments walking in circles or haning out on the floor or in a conga line, playing along and dancing. They even got to get up to David's microphone during "Wild Wild Life" and sharing in the singing, which was freankin amazingly fun. I could go on and on, it was awesome and I was tempted to buy tickets to another night of the tour.

A few days later, Mike and I went on a weekend getaway to Asbury Park. We stayed at the Berkeley hotel, right across from the ocean (a graduation gift from my aunt and uncle) and our room had a gorgeous ocean view. We packed in so much in just 2 days. Rented bikes, hit the farmers market for fresh jersey blueberries, ate a lot of delicious food, had fancy drinks on the water, walked up and down the boardwalk, rode our bikes and did an asbury park photo shoot, read our books, walked on the beach at night, and sat and watched the waves. It was a fantastic and rejuvenating.

click to see this larger

did not know cacti lived in ocean grove

walking beach to beach

mike assessing sandy damage

best mixed drink i've ever had

I finally graduated

Well, it was a very long journey, but I finally graduated. You can call my Dr. Kristen now ;)  It took awhile to really sink in, but I feel it now. And it certainly helped when about 15 family members decended into town to celebrate with me. Graduation was on a monday, so we had a pre-celebration weekend, which included a lot of fun and even in the rain. We ventured out to the big arts and crafts fair down the street - equipped with about 9 umbrellas. I had hoped we could take little ones in the paddle boats, but it turned out to be pouring rain all day, so we just splashed around outside of the pond. The boys BBQ'd out in the rain. We ate some good food and chilled in town. It was a lovely weekend, despite the rain, and I enjoyed all of the love.

When Monday arrived, we all packed into a bunch of cars and drove down to campus. Graduation was exciting (also long and very hot...). I sat in the very first row, with my friends, the other 7 Phd graduates. All of those years of studying...and I finally walked across stage to get that diploma.

Thank you family, for helping me celebrate this giant milestone in my life.

I think its my favorite city

Well, the news is this: I finally finished my PhD. Can you believe this?? Before I get to graduation, I wanted to add some photos from DC, a trip that kicked off my graduation celebration. We got to go to DC a few weekends ago for a nice long weekend with the parents. It was a graduate present, dad and mo treated us to a little getaway. I have been to DC numerous times, but this might have been one of the very few times, in which, I had no work to do, it was all play.  Just in the last few years, I have been to maybe 10 conferences or meetings in DC and always managed a tiny little hour or two of play, but this weekend - it was all fun.

We stayed at an amazing hotel, probably my favorite hotel ever. It was just the little things - warm cookies at 2pm, wine and olives at 5, a self-named goldfish for your room, the green glass chandilers, the aminal print robes for use during your stay. It was modern and very funky. Also reminded us of 'red rum' but in a good way. When our room was ready, we were surprised to find flowers and fancy chocolate and champange waiting inside. Thanks dad and mo!

When we arrived, we hit the ground running with a tour of the capital building - my first time, and a special pass to the House of Representatives gallery (we literally missed the House in session by aboout 10 minutes) and got to sit in the room where the President gives the State of the Union address. We had to leave our cell phones behind so I couldn't take a picture - but this is the room we sat in!

Off to a good start, we proceeded to eat amazing food, went to all of the memorials, spend some time in the Arlington Cemetary, went to the Natural Museum, went to the National Gallery of Art, ate more good food, saw an awesome Imax movie about the flight of the monarch butterflies. It was SOO fun and an amazing graduation present and kick start to celebrating.

at the unknown solider

this is President Obama's motorcade, he was in one of these vehicles!! 

JFK's eternal flame

breakfast at founding farmers = yum