New strategy: post pictures with only captions

Because lets be honest I will never be the blogger I have intended to be! Thanks to Maggie and Katie for the inspiration!

:tumbleweed (my car) finally got tribe pride last weekend. All is right with the world.

:coldplay concert in dc a few weeks ago.

:classy Thollander family movie night (while my parents had wood floors put in)

In honor of book club

Last Saturday I read the happiness project outloud to my brother while he painted my parents house. I figured I had better stay nearby in case I had to take him to the hospital.

Concrete Jungle where Dreams are Made of...

A few months ago a friend from Church (Matt- pictured below in the front row in a hat and sunglasses) sent an email out saying that he wanted to go see Newsies on Broadway, and if we bought our ticket...he would make it happen. Well a few months later and with 15 people in total...we all headed off to New York! Matt rented a 12 passenger van and 13 of us climbed aboard last Friday morning. (yes...it was a bit tight...but fantastic. the other two took a train up later) always keeping WM close to my heart, we played an epic game of accusations both on the way up and back. Here's the van group at a rest stop in Maryland.

There are several photographers in the group (which is awesome) which also meant I didn't bring my camera. But here are a few I captured on my phone for this very blogging purpose:

We visited the 9-11 memorial on Saturday. It was truly incredible. We had to get tickets in advance and then go through a lot of security, but it was all worth it. There are two identical pools in the places where the towers once stood, and water falls from the edges into an even deeper pool of which you can't see the bottom. The names of every person that lost their live is etched into panels edging the pools. It is simple yet powerful.

Some other things we did- hung out in Times Square, ate dinner on Friday at a place where the wait staff is constantly singing and performing. I don't remember the name, but they said that 12 people have been called up from there for broadway shows in the past year. It was quite entertaining. After that we went to a comedy club. Parts were hilarious, others incredibly uncomfortable, but overall very fun. They put our group in the front which meant the comedians ragged on us a lot...which was great. And each comedian is only up for about 7 minutes, so good or bad, you get to hear a lot of different ones. 

Saturday we did some shopping, saw the memorial, went to Central Park, And then of course the purpose of the trip- the Newsies! After hearing a good review from Newsie lover  Maggie herself, I was quite excited....and it did not disappoint! The show was amazing and the singing and dancing phenomenal! Definitely the highlight of the trip.

Oh and you are wondering if I bought anything?? Of course! These socks! A good buy, I know.

Lavender Farm!

Last weekend I spent St. Patrick's day co-leading a Parks & Rec overnight trip to Harrisonburg, VA. What's to see in Harrisonburg, you ask? Well...the White Oak Lavender farm! The farm wasn't as big as I pictured it, but it was still very nice and the weather was gorgeous. There were some animals (horses, goats, cat) that the folks could pet and we just kinda meandered around and enjoyed the beautiful landscape. There was even a pony who was 10 months pregnant. (apparently the gestation period is 11 months- I learned something!) Here are a few pics of the scenery: (those little bush things are the lavender beginning to grow)

and in this "Rabbitat" lived the biggest bunny i have ever seen! sadly I don't have a picture, but it was literally bigger than most cats I have seen. it was huge.

anyways, after the lavender farm we spent the night in a hotel in harrisonburg and it was a great time. for some of the folks it was their first time on an overnight trip and possibly first time in a hotel, so that was really fun. pretty much I just love any chance where I can pretend that I'm like Leslie Knope.

Pattern Challenged

So back in December my Mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday, so I mentioned that I had seen a coat that I liked. She asked me what it looked like, and I did my best to describe the color and pattern. Some of you remember in college when I bought a business jumart and described the pattern as "little circles" (which I guess brings to mind polka dots...) when in fact it was something like "textured." Well, apparently I haven't gotten any better because after struggling to describe it I told her it was red gingham (which I now know is what i call "picnic pattern"). Thankfully she still found the right coat...but then informed me I was nowhere near on the pattern description. Here's the coat:

And a close up of the pattern:

Now I don't remember what it was actually called- houndstooth maybe? Someone recently told me about a pattern "chevron". I don't know. I'm pretty much lost when it gets more complicated than stripes....Anyone know this pattern? Is it in fact houndstooth?

UVA baseball

Today I took one of my former students to a UVA baseball game. Since my brother Matt was my long term sub when I left the school (a fun fact I may not have yet shared), he came along too! It was a lot of fun, but chilly! It has been so warm here the past week (60s & 7os) but unfortunately it did not get above the mid 40s today. They were however giving out free coffee & hot chocolate, so that was a nice bonus! We only made it through 3 innings (although that was about 2 hours!) and then it was time to go. It was a lot of fun though and my student was definitely the best cheerer there. I do enjoy watching baseball (it's very relaxing!) and I think I just may have to go back when it warms up.

I am back

Delicious wine, good conversation, and an iPhone have inspired me. I'm back.