happy girl

So much to discuss! I'm such a happy girl right now, just feeling very satisfied with life in general. The weekend was very full and very fun, a great start to July. Where to begin.

Well, let me actually start with some older pictures... from our trip to New Hampshire.

From the wedding, my brother and I... with Ethan taking a glorious picture as always (on purpose, little butthead):
The newlyweds (Josh, my cous, and Natasha):
From my aunt and uncle's AMAZING house... the sunroom:
The loft (and bedrooms):

The rest of the New Hampshire trip pictures can be found by following that link (I'm not sure that I'm loving shutterfly yet... I've very sad that yahoo isn't going to be doing the picture hosting anymore.)

Speaking of shutterfly: does anyone know if there is a way to allow viewing of my pictures without bookmarking each individual album?

Moving on, last week was great... how can you not love a week that is broken up by a random day off. We celebrated the 4th with Ro & Pat, Titus, and some BBQin. It was a great night.

This past weekend was very full. I finished my work project (yippee! and in time for the bonus, double yippee!!). Saturday started off with a hair appointment... where I cut off about 6 inches. I love the new short hair, it looks and feels great.

Here's a picture I took with Stella this weekend... which isn't the best shot, but you get the idea:

After my hair appointment, I headed to see the Quads and fam for Sam's birthday party. It was a lot of fun, and I was so happy to see everyone... though it was very bittersweet. It was the last time that I'll be going to see Laura and the kids at that house, and most likely the last time that I see the kids before they head to Boston. I'm hoping that I'll be seeing Laura one more time before the move, but even that is up in the air. I got a little teary driving away that evening, but I know it will be okay.

Here's a picture I took of the birthday boy with mom:

That evening Travis and I ran out to Bed, Bath, and Beyond... where they had some nice outdoor furniture on sale. We picked up a bench and two chairs to go with the firepit that we got as a wedding gift. We'll be picking up another bench this week because after we arranged the stuff on Sunday, we figured out that we have plenty of room. We'll also be grabbing three small outdoor tables and some citronella candles.

Here's what the back looks like right now (and there is my husband wearing the firepit cover as a showercap):
And a closeup of the firepit and bench:
Yippee! We gave it all (except the firepit) a good tryout on Sunday evening by BBQin some dinner and eating outside. Good times! We are planning to use the firepit next Friday when Apoc comes over to roast some marshmellows.

Also on Sunday I got to see Stella for the first time in ages. She's been roadtripping in the NY, PA, NJ area for the past week or so (up from North Carolina), and came by our place to visit. She and I headed out to lunch at the Pearl (love that place) and had a great visit. It was nice to catch up with her.

All in all a great weekend. We also made plans to go out for dinner and Harry Potter with Pat on Wednesday... he already had tickets for that day, so we decided to wait the extra 21 hours. :-)

Today the boss is still away, but I'm trying to be very producting. I did take a short break this morning to head to the Gap and buy a new dress and two new shirts that are comfy enough to wear anytime, but nice enough to wear at work. I should appreciate them a lot in the next few super sweltering days here (96* and counting, with heat indexes of over a 100*).

Well, on that note I should get back to work. Hopefully ya'll are feeling as happy as I am right now. Ciao!