A Night on the Town

Carrie, Deb,Gretchen, Me, Emily and Anonda

Deb and Gretchen at the Living Room.

Liam and Deb

Outside Phoenix Landing

Last night I went out with an old friend from high school that I haven't seen in 8 or 9 years, Deb. She just moved from Boston to Dallas, but came into town for her friend Emily's b-day! We started the night at the Living Room, in the North End and ended up dancing our butts off at the Phoenix Landing in Cambridge. GOOD TIMES!

Sneaky Kitty!

For the last couple days, I've searched our place looking for my cat Stimpy. He would just disappear! I've looked in closets, clothes baskets, under the beds, you name it! Then as I became frantic, thinking I might have accidentally put him in the washer or out with the trash, he would reappear!? Well, I finally found him!!!

Christmas Tree

Here are some photos of our Christmas tree.

Home Alone, Again!

Well, Rowdy left yesterday for a 3 week school in Ohio. I've got some fun things planned for myself while he's gone. I'll also have to do Christmas shopping by myself since we didn't make it out for Black Friday and thank goodness we didn't! What a mess! Anyway, I decorated my tree today and now I have to clean up the mess I've made doing it! FUN! FUN!

Pomegranate Martini

How could I not love a cocktail that includes my ALL TIME FAVORITE fruit, the blessed Pomegranate! The recipe is compliments of Oprah. It's her favorite and I know it will soon be mine! I'm gonna make it this weekend!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
2 oz. Absolute Citron vodka OR white tequila
1 oz. Cointreau liquor
Cup of ice
Optional: Splash of sparkling water
Optional: Squeeze of lemon

Shake ingredients in a shaker and put in chilled martini glasses.
Put pomegranate fruit into glass as garnish.

Thanksgiving Day

Nap time!

Turkey Coma!

AHHHHH, There it is!

Where's the Turkey, Damnit?!

My first EVER pumpkin pie

The best Pomegranate I've eaten in years

Well.....I'm stuffed! We had so much food today it was frightening! Rowdy made the turkey and garlic mashed potatoes and I made the pumkin pie, green bean casserole, stuffing, and rolls. I also peeled my always Thankgiving favorite, the pomegranate! Rowdy flipped between poker and football all day and I've been trying to get my plan together for X-mas shopping, so we may try and brave the ever so dreaded "BLACK FRIDAY"!!!!!

Happy Turkey Day!

Our First Thanksgiving in Boston! Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL holiday!

Just Venting

The weather sucks! We're suppose to get snow this week, YUCKO! Right now it's raining like crazy and hasn't stopped for 16 hours, but whose counting.

Rowdy leaves on Monday for Dayton, OH for some school for 3 weeks, so unless we do it this weekend and on BLACK FRIDAY(yikes), I'll be stuck doing the holiday decorating and shopping, once again, by myself! AHHHHHHH!

Now that things are starting to calm down in my life, I'm back on the job/art school hunt! Hopefully I can figure out what the heck I'm gonna do by the beginning of the new year. I hate being indecisive!

Oh yeah, and my computer that was fixed is acting up again! This computer has done nothing but cause problems for me since we've had it! I'm ready to throw it out the window! I'll never own another Dell! NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all for now!

New Hampshire

Rowdy's friend Steve and his wife Dawn invited us over this afternoon for an early Thanksgiving feast. They live in Nashua, NH, which is about 45 min away. They are super nice and have the cutest little girl named Charlotte. We chatted away and ATE A TON! I'm so full that I don't think I need another Thanksgiving meal this week.

Friday

Friday night we went to downtown Boston to the Black Rose, an Irish Pub, to meet up with some people Rowdy works with. There were about 10-12 of us. They were fun. Thanks to Rowdy we found a couple stranger guys in a mini-van to give about 5 of us a ride home. Probably NOT the smartest idea, but after a few cranberry vodka's, who's really paying attention. They turned out to be really nice and didn't chop our heads off and leave us for dead, but we had them out numbered anyway.(not that our conditions would have allowed us to do anything about it.) I don't think we'll be doing that again!!!!!

ANGRY DAMIEN!

Here's our friend Damien hard at work today! Don't be hater D! Chicago can't be that bad, but I know, Boston's BETTER! HAA HAA!

Caleb and Molly

Ashley sends us photos frequently of the children! Caleb is practically an adult! I can't believe it! She was pregnant with him at our wedding! Molly is just as cute as can be! It's great to see our friends' children grow up even if when we don't live near. Owen and Ashley(got out of the USAF) moved back to the midwest and she's lovin' being a mom!

Where's Baby Avery???

Kim L sent this photo and I couldn't resist posting it! WHAT A DOLL!

WELCOME BABY MCMENAMY

Baby Nolan

Mama and baby!

Proud PAPA!

Samantha and Brian had their baby yesterday morning at 10:50. His name is Nolan Richard and he's adorable! He's 6lbs 6ounces. Mom and Dad are doing well and said they will be taking Nolan home soon! CONGRATULATIONS, WE ARE SOOO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!! (Tammi took the photos last night)

Thought on Togetherness

"The biggest surprise on the soulful journey to authenticity, whether as a philosophy or a spiritual path, is that the path is a spiral. We go up, but we go in circles. Each time around, the view gets a little bit wider."

— Sarah Ban Breathnach

No New News

I have nothing to really blog about! Didn't do anything this weekend. We watched movies and football. I know, FUN! Hopefully we can stir up some excitement soon, but maybe not. WHO KNOWS!

Concert

Went to the Nine Inch Nails concert last night. It was part of my birthday present from Rowdy. I'd seen them before when I was 19(wow, that was a long time ago). We were really having a good time until the concert turned political, so it really put a damper on the show for us. We paid money to listen to the music, not to watch on a screen, events of the war and how much they hate George Bush(for 20 min)! Shut-up already! Anyway, it just really pissed us off but they still put on a good show.

A Night in Harvard Square

We ventured out on Friday night with Chris and Carolyn. Chris was stationed with us at Vandenberg, Cheyenne and now Boston. It was nice to see some familiar faces. We went to Whitney's Pub and finished off the night at Grafftin Street in Harvard Square. It was a great time!

Photos from the Patriots Game

Drag Queen Night Continued.....

Our New Friends!

Uncle Mike's Visit Continued...

Jennifer Lopez

Fat Anna pickin on Rowdy

Fat Anna Nicole(top) and Cyndi Lauper(below)

This one was just scary whether a woman or a man!

On this night, we went to a Drag Queen Show at Jacques Night club. We had never been before and it was quite the experience, especially for Rowdy. They just LOVED him! Mike and I thought it was too funny because we knew he would be a target.

Uncle Mike's Visit - Oct 21-23

Harvard Yard

Harvard Library

Day of Shopping and Walking in Harvard Square

Dinner at Tryst - Oct 21

Cocktails at Cambridge Common - Oct 21

We had such a fun visit with Uncle Mike. It rained a lot during his trip but we made the best of it with great food, cocktails, and entertainment!

Mom

Here is a photo I took with my mom the day I left on Oct 21

GOOD NEWS DAY!

Today is filled with good news so far..... Most importantly my mom had her CT scan and the Dr. said that the clot has shrunk and she can continue on with her normal life, but to still be careful. She's scheduled for another scan in a couple months. He's confident that it will dissolve eventually on it's own!

Rowdy also called and told me that our laptop is fixed! We were told it was a hardware issue that would cost A LOT of moola($80 an hr at the computer store), but it turns out there were just some screws loose. Rowdy took it to the computer guy at work and he is so kind to have fixed it for us and I don't even know him so THANK YOU JOHN! We owe you big time!

Laura

I never realized that someone you don't even know could affect your life in a way this story has affected mine......

I got an email from my friend Becca yesterday. When I opened it up, I definitely wasn't expecting to spend an entire day reading and talking about the contents. She explained how a guy we went to college with has a wife that was in a terrible accident in July, but has overcome miraculous odds. She wanted us to check out the website that he created for his wife. I couldn't remember if I even knew the guy, but I still felt bad for the situation. When I went to the website, I immediately recognized him and would never have thought I would ever see him again especially in a situation like this.

We are all guilty of taking life for granted sometimes and worrying and about little things that don't really matter. It's normal human nature. I just think we need to take a step back sometimes and re-evaluate what's really important, especially when those little things consume us in a negative way. Life is way too unexpected not to.

My heart goes out to Laura, and her family. I'll pray for her everyday until she's better and back living her normal life. I want to help in any way I can and I know anyone that hears this story will feel the same. Let's all cheer her on!

Here is the link to the website. I'll put it under favorite links as well.

www.lauralaughlin.com