East Side Story

I have absolutely no clue what is in these fabulous little things but nothing cleans dirty walls, counters or sinks.

This stuff smells devine

For baking:

This stuff is affectionately known as "the vanilla" at Williams and Sonoma. Dont believe me, walk into any WS and ask. It is from Madagascar and makes everything you bake taste better. I feel a little like a traitor since I have always been taught that Mexican vanilla is the best but this stuff is AMAZING. Even Martha herself has used it on her show.

For training:

I never enjoyed running until I recieved this for Christmas from my wonderful husband. Since then running is so much more fun. This little product plays your music, tracks your miles and gives your encouragement when you log a longest distance or time. Even Lance Armstrong comes on occasionally to congratulate you.

Last summer my husband, father in law and brother in law spent an entire weekend putting in our bluestone patio. Until this spring we havent really had a chance to use it. Now that the snow is melted we are utilizing it to the fullest.

Man has created fire,He is very impressed with himself

The boy beast seems equally impressed

We didnt buy the lounge chair...but maybe in the future.

Ever since I can remember my family has had a spring tradition. Both my mother and my father are avid gardeners. My mother would load us up on a beautiful day in June take us to P&M gardens and spend more money they Gordon would probablly have liked on plants. Additionaly my father has always had a beautiful hedge of bleeding hearts in his yard.

Now that it has reached 60 degrees here in New Hampshire my gardening "genes" have set in. I went to home depot and picked up some ideas for my new garden beds. Last summer my wonderful husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law put in a big blue stone patio in our backyard. It has a fire pit in the center and lots of room for flower beds around it. I will put lots of pictures up once the snow all melts. So here are some of my purchases for the beds near the patio

Ranunculus

This variety of flowers is perennial down in the south but here in new england it only grows as an annual. It was also in my wedding boutique.

Clematis

I have never grown this variety of flower. They are climbing vining flowers that have blooms the size of dinner plates. I am very excited to try my luck at them.

And this is the trellis I bought to train them on. It will look beautiful

Lastly I couldnt resist this urn, I actually bought two of them. The clean lines and yellow tint will look amazing with the blue of the patio. I am not sure what to plant in them yet. Ideas?

So that is it for now. I havent even started at the green houses yet. I have to wait till at least end of May to go pick out flowers there. I blame my parents for this obsession.

Breanna took her boards last week. I woke up early to cook her blueberry pancakes and of course we had to celebrate her end to studying with a big dinner including filet mignon with blue cheese sauce, green beans, twice baked potatoes and black bottom cupcakes. She left the next day to move back to Colorado. The puppies miss her already. She found out a couple days later she passed her boards and now can join the rest of us in working hard to pay off our astronomical student loans. Congrats.

I am currently training for an olympic length triatholon which requires alot of running. While Breanna was here she helped me train both dogs to run with me. This is a picture of us getting ready to go out one morning. The wonderful thing is now I can actually run with both dogs at the same time and they do wonderful. Thanks sis.

Ever since my mother and godmother helped me purchase these pictures in Italy last May I have been waiting to get them framed. Andy and I finally were able to get them framed this spring. I love how bright they are. They really add a lot of color to our kitchen.




Another picture of our house. I am really in love with bright colors but would never think about doing a dark blue anywhere other than a bathroom. Andy was a little hesitant at first but I think it came out beautifully.

Had to throw in a picture of my long legged girl

Last is a picture of the beautiful plate my godmother sent me. I love the poppies.

Thank you Debbie! We love it.

Since I didnt have a blog at the time these photos were taken I thought I would put them on now.

One of the few benefits of living in New Hampshire is the access to candidates around campaign time. This campaign season all of the candidates came to our home town including Obama, McCain, Bill Clinton and of course Ron Paul. Ron Paul actually came to our office to discuss health care topics. It was fun to meet him and he had some very interesting ideas.

Dr. Ron Paul and myself

Dr. Reisert (my supervising physician) and Dr. Paul.

I also have pictures of Bill Clinton but I think my family would disown me if I placed them on my bog.

The next picture is being posted to show off my martha stewart like skills.

While Breanna was here over Christmas we did a ton of baking. Including pumpkin roll (Andy's favorite), Chocolate truffles, Peppermint bark, Thumbprint cookies and mexican wedding cookies. I absolutely love to bake for a group of people and having Andy's family here for Christmas was the perfect excuse to make lots of treats.