Around Here Lately

Disclaimer: Playing months of catch up for my blogging absence of the past three months. This post is really just pictures. And even then, in three months I really didn't take many pictures.

Puzzles are for snow days. And every day in my opinion.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of the Juice Joint, our murder mystery party. Fortunately this picture is hysterical.

We attended 2 hockey games in the never ending winter. I had a soft pretzel both times.

As much as I hated this winter in Boston, exploring a snow covered city was breathtaking.

And walking on the frozen Charles was a once in a lifetime experience.

When we have visitors we utilize our aquarium pass and there's no one who would enjoy it more than Judy Kenney.  Tim and his dad went off to explore and Judy and I were perfectly content to watch the penguins fight to be fed for hours.

Our final adventure to overcome seasonal depression? Joyful Garden! 

Every time Tim and I drive into the city, or to pick up someone from the airport, or anywhere for that matter we take Starrow/ Soldiers Field Drive. Along this route you will pass Joyful Garden (the Chinese restaurant on the main floor of the Days Inn) and it is inevitable that it will be packed. It has become a fun thing for us on this ride to comment on how ridiculous that this place is as packed as it is. (Fun married people games? I don't know...) So after commenting to ever person who has ever taken this ride with us, Tim's parents finally Yelped the place to find that the Days Inn Restaurant has stellar reviews. And so adventure of adventures we treated ourselves to dinner! We were two of four non-Asians in the whole place (the other two were guys utilizing the "hotel bar") and we were timid in our ordering which we both regretted when looking around to see what the other patrons were enjoying. But, it was delicious and delicious again the next day for lunch. Needless to say, we'll be back! And next time having done some research on what to order.

I hope you all are enjoying your spring, finally. I saw snow this weekend in a remnant pile for what I can only hope is the last time for many, many months. My prayers about the weather turned a little snarky this season and recently can sound a little something like this, "Hey God, you know how you tortured us with that winter in the midst of my nausea? Well I think you owe us the best summer Boston has ever seen. And of course you remember in your weather planning, God, that this pregnant woman will be without air conditioning. Thanks."

Florida

I am home right now for Spring Break. I abandoned my husband for the Spring of South Bend and comfort of home cooked meals and the shock of what wide open space looks like. Now that I am here with a little bit of time to relax I guess I should finish talking about the last time I saw these lovely people. Cough* January * Cough. I toyed with the idea of just chalking it all up to nothing with all of my posts that have sat here up published and just stop trying to play catch up in hopes that it would be a more manageable task but I do this for me. This is my virtual scrapbook and I'd rather not have a 4 month hole so here goes...

The road trip to Florida (See Disney) was not as chaotic as I thought it would be. Mainly because we all prepared for the worst. But we split up the drive quite a bit and packed snacks that were both delicious and diverse which makes all the difference (See the Cheese Puff fiasco of 2012).

We were able to see our Georgia cousins, where Ryan works, and the first season of Modern Family. Praise God for in car DVD players and the 21st century.

Torey lived with Ryan for the summer and was able to show us the local hot spots.

After our exhausting two days at Disney we spent a relaxing day going to Mass for Our Lady, relaxing by the pool and exploring hotel property. All in all we had a great trip and are so appreciative to still be included in the big family road trips. I serrrrriously doubt we will all fit in a car seat so I wonder what Plan B is going to be?

Boys vs. Girls

We are simply so excited!

This baby girl is already so loved.

Easter Blessings

He is risen y'all! Happy Easter! And in classic Catholic fashion, we are going to stretch out this party for eight more days!

Tim and I spent our first Triduum together as a married couple and loved it more than I can begin to describe here in such a small space. We have loved the long weekend off too.

We have started to take daily walks. My doctor recommended that I start these immediately after we found out I was pregnant but our endless winter put a kaboosh on that. So now that the ground has thawed and the sun has made an appearance, daily walks it is. We've come to really enjoy and count on the time to chat and baby plan and life plan. Here's our Holy Saturday walk and my Easter Vigil outfit. Apparently my standards for spring are so low that qualifications for sandal weather are simply no snow on the sidewalks.

Our parish as we were walking in for the Vigil Mass. I get chills thinking about walking into the dark Church knowing that the light of Christ is coming. Bring on that Easter Candle. I was so excited this year seeing the Deacon process in with that massive tower of beeswax to realize that this is the same candle that this child's baptismal candle will be lit from. 

Tim mandated the post mass selfie as we excitedly exchanged our favorite parts of the mass. All this on the way to get some chicken nuggets (my biggest craving so far) at the 24 hour McDonalds. You can just put that in my Easter basket.

 And for Tim's Easter basket I made a challenging hunt... to my enjoyment and his frustration.

The eggs held a message this year. Does it still count as a Promposal if you're married? And chaperones?

By far the best Easter present I ever recieved and perhaps the best gift I've ever receieved ever is never having to go to the laundromat again. The landlord finished the installation as we were making Easter breakfast. And we joined our voices to the choirs of angels in heaven as we sang our own little Gloria on Easter Sunday. A huge, huge, huge gracias to Tim's parents.

Steve and his family graciously welcomed us into their home and their Easter traditions by inviting us to come to Plymouth for Easter dinner. So we made our way south for a delicious home cooked meal and some great conversation while gathered around the table for hours. Thank you, thank you, thank you Imparato's for inviting us into your home and your family again and again and again.

(It also meant that Shep joined us on our daily walk which was our visit to the ocean. Summer is coming friends, I feel it.)

And to top it all off, on our trek home I got a sudden and urgent need to eat and now. So we stopped for chips and guac about 20 minutes from home. Is this a normal pregnancy problem?

We had a great Holy Week/end and we hope you all had a prayerful and indulgent Easter.

Lenten Gratitude

It was a retreat week for me. Just add this to the long list of excuses as to why I can't seem to find the time or energy to blog lately.

My biggest excuse though is that I require countless more hours of sleep than College Rylee would ever admit. And sleeping this much more is taking that many productive hours from my daily life. I've found though, this Lent, that the more excuses I make the more of a whiny person I become. It quickly turns from excuses to complaints and all sorts of negativity.

So I am going to change it up and try out some thankful fors:

1. At our second ultrasound last week we found that our baby is happy and growing right on track. Baby was bouncing around the whole time and sucking their thumb. Praise God for this little one and the joy he or she has already provided our little family. And my students, because Baby seems to be providing them a lot of joy too... it's all they seem to want to talk about. Also our ultrasound tech was super generous in providing us nearly 20 pictures so we are thankful for her!

2. I've survived the first trimester and with the exception of this morning, the nausea seems to be passing.

3. McDonald's Chicken Nuggets.

4. Family who fly across the country to visit us in our most humble abode.

5. Long Distance friends who are constantly making plans to see each other again. (even though I haven't yet blogged the last time I've seen them. It's coming, I promise).

6. Trash talk that comes with family March Madness Brackets.

7. A Church that doesn't require pregnant women to fast on Fridays as I find I am hungry all of the time! And I can eat all of the time because no one judges the pregnant woman who always has food in her hand. I'm following all the books and trying to refrain from big meals but limiting the eating periods to 6 times a day has not yet become a reality in my life.

8. Flinstone Gummy Vitamins that don't make me sick. Hold your judgement here, they say for Adults 4 and up. I fall into that category.

9. A school that is wonderfully supportive yet allows flexibility for me to best understand the needs of my students and serve them in ways I feel the Holy Spirit is calling me.

10. That regardless of the fact that it is freezing outside and it is supposed to snow tomorrow that the sun is still shining and providing warmth upon my face as I sit in my green house of an office.

11. Pants that still fit me. #treggings

12. The feast day of Saint Joseph and the wonderful husbands and fathers who model him every day. Shameless promotion: Tim wrote a post about Saint Joseph here and he talks about me so...
Joking, Joking! Read it because it is much better than anything you will find written by us mere mortals.

For now dear friends,

Rylee

P.S. Thanks for all the love and prayers and joy you have shown us over the past few weeks as we shared our news. It's great to be surrounded by people like you.

Our Library is Growing

 The Kenney Family Collection is expanding. Our New Edition expected to arrive September 2015.

Novella (not really) about Productivity

Boston has been hit with wave after wave of snow. Have you heard? Maybe here? or here? Well it's true. And from how all the long term locals are acting I'm starting to believe that this may have been the most evil winter, even for the North East. And with all my snow days and all the time where I'm cooped up inside, you would think that I would be all caught up on blogging by now. Yet, here I am struggling to write about a weekend from a month ago.

I could apologize or promise to make up for it but the problem is that I've been in a rut. It seems melodramatic I know but winter is hard, and I am a person who is most happy when I am productive. I really think all people are. Many times I tell myself that productive looks like grading a set of papers or trying a new recipe or even a new blog post but I can get beyond my type A personality and see how with intentionality, most things can be productive. An intentional watching of an episode with my husband can be productive. (But the struggle with snow days is that we sat on the couch and finished the West Wing far too quickly). Spending an extra two hours with girl friends than expected can be productive. (But with the 8 feet of snow we've gotten it's increasingly more difficult to meet with these friends). Even walking our town aimlessly can be productive. (But with the windchill, good luck getting me to leave the house). I guess with my ramblings I am trying to say that all things can be productive if they work toward the good and produce fruit. I think it's good for me to see this shift in mindset, definitely still an area for growth, that a successful day is not measured in how many things remain on my to do list and instead on the good that comes out of the few things I do. 

It's the small moments that are able to make me feel like their really might be a spring to this evil winter and to this strange season of my life. It's the moments when I feel lazy and tired and bored and cooped up and anxious and selfish that I tend to praise God that I married my best friend. The one who never complains of how much we eat mac-n-cheese and hot dogs when I don't have the energy to cook. The best friend who calls you on your seasonal apathetic mood and makes you get off the couch to do something, anything outside regardless of how cold it is. The man who knows that as we work next to each other, silently and independently, that all it would take is playing this song to wipe the scour off my face. It was in this particular moment that I realized how selfish I was really being in this season of my life and how he was loving me unconditionally and I spent all of my time loathing anything and everything in my presence. As I put away my computer and started to dance (how can you not get up and dance to this song while wearing socks when you have hardwood floors?) I registered his shock and then joy. I think we listened to that song maybe six times. And it was good and I felt more productive dancing in my socks with my husband around our apartment than I had in weeks.

All this to say, I'm trying, struggling but striving, to find joy in every cooped up moment and recognize the times in my daily life that can bear unexpected fruit. I would close this not-so-short essay with the promise to get back to the blogging grind but you must remember two things:

       1. regular blogging for me tends to always be at least a week delayed, maybe months.

       2. I just admitted that for the past two months or so I've barely left the house so if I do blog I highly doubt you'll find my at home adventures enjoyable.

All this to say, if you read this kudos, if you keep checking back here at My Life, My Sweetness I may or may not have fun new things for you. Who knows.