just a little trip to MA...

 this weekend was fabulous. exhausting, but fabulous. i had the privilege of making a very quick trip to the north shore to catch the gordon women's championship game...and of course see a few favorites while i was there. 

i promised one of the goalkeepers that i coached for two years that i would make the trip if they made the finals...and when they won in pk's in the semi-finals i could not go back on my word! so i got up saturday morning at 4:45 and was on the road by 5:15. it took me 6 1/2 hours thanks to some traffic once i hit MA (surprise). i got to have a quick starbucks date with a former player who is now a dear friend and then off we went to endicott to cheer on the girls. i am still oh so invested in this team since i coached the now juniors and seniors. i wanted them to win SO bad...for them, for coach, for gordon. and they played SO well. they fought so hard. they pushed and pushed through regulation, through both overtimes, and then pk's. unfortunately pk's can go either way and they didn't go gordon's way on saturday. it was heartbreaking, but they should be so proud of themselves. i'm so gosh darn proud of them and the work they did this season.

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after the game i was off to another game, this time for some dear family friends. after that game it was out to dinner with them, which was full of fun, good conversation and laughter, as always. and then it was off to my home for the evening: jamie and chris' new home! HURRAY! there were more favorites waiting when i got there, too!

and then, before i knew it, it was 6 am sunday morning and i was back on the road headed home to my boys. oh how i missed them and wished they could have been with me this weekend (along with everyone i saw...yes ryan and j are far more interesting than i am!)...but it was a great weekend for all of us! ry and j had a daddy son date day filled with the zoo and eating junk food and this mama got plenty of alone time (i am really loving some good alone time since becoming a mama...) and lots of needed hugs. a refreshing time for us all.

lately.

1. i decided to blog more. remember that declaration? well, as soon as i made that decision, all three of us came down with the plague. and it lasted two whole weeks. two. whole. weeks. do you know what this means? no regular schedule. no eating real meals. no time to clean. no sleeping. because when you have a sick child, he wants nothing but to be attached to your hip. but, goodness, isn't he cute when he's sick?? we've seemed to finally kick the bug that was floating around here, for which i am thankful.

2. fall has been lingering around here. the colors are still so vibrant. it's fantastic. j and i have thoroughly enjoyed playing in the leaves so far this week. hopefully the sunny days and bright colors continue for a little longer.

3. the sox won the world series. it was fantastic on so many different levels. the fact that they won this year. after what happened. the way they did it. the beards. papi's batting average. it was all too perfect. thank you, red sox. 

4. halloween. yippee! i don't like halloween. it's not that i have any reason, i just thought it was kind of silly and pointless. not to mention we were around salem, ma at halloween for one year too many ((read: it's crazy...in a t'here are crazy people everywhere' kind of way)). then we had a child. and then said child turned old enough to trick or treat. cue the liking of halloween! oh me, oh my, i had so much fun making j's costume and dressing him up in it! he wore it four times: to the zoo, to library class, to daddy's work and trick or treating. i was fully convinced that this holiday was invented so parents could dress their cute little monsters up.........and then came trick or treating. j LOVED it. the first house he didn't know what to do, but as soon as our neighbor put a treat in his bucket, something clicked. each house he got so excited to hold out his bucket and have candy dropped in. it was so fun and i could have watched him do it all night long. there is nothing like watching your kiddo fully enjoy what he's doing, no matter what it is. my heart was so happy.

5. we have the greatest neighbors. the greatest. the kind of neighbors who dress up for halloween with their cowboy hats and flannel on because they knew j would be trick or treating there. and yes, he probably was the only trick or treater they had. and the kind of neighbors who get pictures of your kid printed for you before you even have the chance to do it yourself. it's so fantastic knowing that we have such wonderful people living next door to us, especially since they delight in j (mrs.) and beans (mr.). nothing like having your kid(s) loved on. 

6. i've been failing on the gluten free adventures. everything i make just seems to be lacking, well, flavor. i guess i'm not picking out good recipes. but then i made this tonight, and it was delicious (okay, fine i just typed this sentence and i haven't even made dinner...but i'm sure hoping it's delicious!). okay, i just lied. dinner was not delicious. in fact, it was disgusting. and therefore i fed my child cereal and cookies for dinner...