NKOTB broke my heart…

So remember how absolutely thrilled I was about the New Kids on the Block summer tour (see March's "Exciting News" post) and how I thought this was just the best 30th birthday present I could have asked for? I am crushed to tell you that both concerts in North Carolina have been cancelled (not to worry, my money has already been refunded) and I have heard of no plans for them to come back this direction. Carolyn and I were so excited – we had AWESOME seats and we were going to tailgate with a huge group the day of the event. What makes this news that much harder to take is I don’t know how much longer they will actually be touring so I may not get to see them again. I am so bummed! What’s weird is that their tour dates are jam packed and going on for the next several months. They’re just taking a week off (not too sure why) and the NC shows were two of the five total shows affected by this. I am so sad!!

The note Carolyn sent me along with my now useless ticket

So far every plan I had to make turning 30 a great time has fallen through so I think I might just join the ranks of those that are depressed about it and move on. No big party, no trip, and now no reunion with my favorite group of all time :( The NKOTB show was going to be awesome too – my favorite group from America’s Best Dance Crew is touring with them and Jesse McCartney (who has a couple of songs I like) was opening, it was outside (the BEST!) and when I saw them on the Today show last week they were so great. Carolyn and I thought about trying to go to the Atlanta show but tickets have been on sale forever so we could pretty much only get lawn passes and it’s a bit of a drive to get down there. (And we are totally unfamiliar with the area, so it could be absolutely disastrous!) If I can convince her that we should go anyway we’ll still try to make it, but I’m not holding out hope at this point.

We were planning on bringing our cameras this time (since we followed the rules, like idiots, last time), we have new shirts that we’re ready to rock, and my mom even found our old NKOTB bath towels (did I mention that we were OBSESSED!) that we were going to bring with us to sit on (even though we had seats instead of lawn passes – I guess it doesn’t make too much sense now that I think about it!)

Patrick is pretty excited at the thought of regular music returning to my car. (Since the announcement about the concert, the only music that has been playing in my car was their new CD, The Block, so that I would be totally ready for all the new music too.) I don’t drive too much these days since I work from home, but anytime I went anywhere all I listened to was NKOTB.

I am so sad, but I will “hang tough” and maybe, just maybe I will get to see them again. (I just hope it doesn’t take another 20 years!)

Check out the vintage bath towel and night shirt (that I used as a shirt for my first NKOTB concert experience) along with the new shirt that was waiting to debut at the summer show...Carolyn has the matching Jordan shirt!

Three Years Already

Today Patrick and I are celebrating three years of marriage! I cannot believe it has been three years already – the time has flown by. Today I spent the day at jury duty (again!) while Patrick was hard at work. What a difference three years makes! I remember on our wedding day spending the morning at the hair salon with my mom, sisters, and friends drinking mimosas, eating bagels, and getting nervous about the ceremony. Patrick and I entered into the sacrament of marriage in my hometown church surrounded by our loved ones and my family priest. We both loved the feeling of family that he brought and are so grateful that he was able to marry us (since he left for service in Guatemala shortly thereafter!) We had a very traditional marriage ceremony that meant a lot to both of us and then a super fun reception. I still think that the DJ we picked was one of the best I have ever heard – he kept people up and dancing the whole time! It was truly the happiest day of my life, and everything was beautiful and better than I ever dreamed it would be.

The years since our wedding have been full of happy times, hard times, silly times, challenging times…but through it all I know that Patrick and I are in this together and we remain committed to each other and our family.

Caddy's 2!!

This past week we celebrated our little Caddy's second birthday. I think this birthday was especially meaningful considering just how close we came to losing her this past December. She got very sick with pancreatitis and the fact that she has been able to almost fully recover is truly a miracle. Caddy has been such a blessing in our lives (I have an older post in here about how she came into our lives - a miracle itself!) and we are so grateful to have her. I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with my little bear (one of her many nicknames...given because she thinks she's tough stuff!)

Caddy keeps watch over the cul-de-sac

Enjoying a treat from Nana and eyeing her Oreo cake (no - she didn't get any of that!)

My office "visitor"

So here was my strange, disgusting, icky event today...Holly was lying on the floor behind my desk chair in my office sunning herself this morning when all of a sudden she got up and started going crazy by the window. I looked down at her (thinking "this cat has officially lost her mind!") when what did I notice she was eyeing RIGHT OUTSIDE THE WINDOW LOOKING IN AT ME?! A snake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He was curled up in the front bush looking right at me and flicking his disgusting tongue. He did not freak out when I started pounding on the glass at him either, and he kept staring at me like he wanted to eat me or something. Thank goodness I opted not to open my window today. I may never open up windows in the house again – ever! I should probably mention that my desk chair sits right in front of this window so when I say he was staring at me, I mean we had sustained eye contact for a long time!! I took these pictures while sitting in my desk chair, if that tells you how close he was to me.

He slithered through the bush off to somewhere new after about 10 minutes (and multiple attempted sneak attacks on Holly's part.) After he had gone I tried to reach down to pet Holly and she jumped about 3 feet in the air. It was hilarious! She is still on high alert and may have been traumatized by this because she kept coming in and out of the office today and was staring at the bushes. She is going to be my guard cat now because I tried to show the snake to the others and they did not even notice him. I kept thinking if I could get them all to fluff up and hiss at him through the glass he would take off. Alas, my cats are pretty much useless when it comes to protecting me from wildlife (with the notable exception of Holly - today she gets a gold star!)

This was so absolutely disgusting and who knows how long he was actually watching me, if he has friends, and where he’ll be waiting for me next. I may have to move…tonight! I am so over life in the country right now!!!!

Happy 4th Birthday, Holly!

Yesterday our little Holly celebrated her fourth birthday. (By celebrate, I mean I made some Rice Krispy treats and we gave her some Fancy Feast to eat.) Holly came into our lives right before Halloween three and a half years ago (hence her name - I kept calling her the Halloween cat since she is all black and somehow we shortened that to Holly) and she is by far our friendliest cat. (She's also the smallest, weighing in at just under 8 pounds!) She loves everybody and cracks my mom up the way she leads people over to the toy basket and pleads with her eyes for you to pick a toy with which to entertain her. We're convinced she's half dog, since she greets us at the door, plays fetch, and will also bring you toys in an effort to convince you to play with her. She had surgery a year and a half ago to remove 7 bladder stones, and we are so grateful that since the surgery she has been doing really well. I know it's silly to have a "birthday party" for a cat, but she's part of our family and we are so happy to have her fully recovered and celebrating another year of life with us.

Happy Easter!

I hope that you all had a blessed and enjoyable Easter. Unfortunately Patrick has to work on Easter Sunday, but after me throwing a pretty major fit a few years back about the importance of being in church on Easter Sunday Patrick has always managed to attend mass with me. After attending a pretty early (and packed!) service together, I went home and spent the afternoon and evening hanging out at the house. I think next year I might go back to my mom’s house to spend the day with my family, because it was a pretty lonely day overall. On a day of celebration I think you definitely need people around to celebrate with you!

On Saturday I received the best present ever – a beautiful mug that reads “Proud Godmother of Morgan Elisabeth.” I am so excited about this! I should probably mention that I drink hot tea every morning, so there is always a mug on my desk. Since its arrival, my new mug has already become a permanent fixture on my desk and I smile every time I see it. (I do take it to the kitchen to wash it at night though, so maybe it’s not a permanent fixture!) In any event, this totally made my day and so I wanted to share my happy surprise with all of you!

Weekend in DC

So last weekend my friend Lindsay and I decided to leave the husbands at home and drive up to DC for a much needed break. We've both had so much going on and so much stress lately that it was really nice to get away for a few days! I drove to Raleigh on Thursday to spend a little time with my mom and then on Friday we were off. Lindsay drove and I have to give her credit because once we hit DC the madness ensued - street names changed multiple times and the traffic was hectic. We only got honked at once, and that totally was not our fault...unless the car behind us actually wanted us to run over the pedestrians. Once we arrived at our hotel we safely deposited the car keys at the front desk and did not see the car again until we departed on Sunday. (We did wonder where they parked the cars though, because there was no parking lot anywhere near our hotel!)

We were total tourists all weekend and it was great! Friday afternoon and evening we walked around and took in some of the sites before grabbing some dinner. Had we known how crowded Saturday was going to be, we probably would have done more sight seeing that evening. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock and turned in early - a sure sign that we are definitely getting old!

We woke up early on Saturday and headed over to the Holocaust Museum. I'm really glad we got to go see everything there, even though some of it was pretty hard to take in. We tried to go to the street festival, but here is where the crowd part comes into play - it was packed! We herded around like cattle at every intersection and finally gave up on the street festival and just walked around DC. We did pretty well at not getting ourselves too turned around, and saw our tax dollars at work in all of the different government buildings. We did get turned around once, but discovered a beautiful garden along the way so it was a worthwhile detour. Lindsay is a pro with her professional style camera, and I'm trying to learn a little better about how to use my regular camera so it was a nice accidental discovery. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and they are beautiful. I totally want to plant a tree in my yard now!

After the street festival and our walking tour of DC, we checked out more of the monuments that we didn't get a chance to see on Friday.

We had a fun time and I'm so glad that we got to get away and spend some quality time together. I wish we lived in the same city, but fortunately Raleigh and Charlotte aren't too far apart (and we both have family in each other's city!) Hope you enjoy some pics from our nation's capital!