Tucker Update

Our boy is 3 months and 2 weeks old and he is growing like a weed. At least once a day, I look at him and say to Bob "He's so big!". I can't believe how much he has grown and changed in the 6 weeks we've had him.

Tucker's recent milestones: 

:: He begs to go into his crate at night. He'll stand by the bedroom door starting around 8pm and give us mournful eyes until we put him in his crate at 9pm. Then he stays there, without a peep, until 6am. Yes, 9 hours!!

:: Bob has taught him how to "speak" and it is pretty cute. I'll try to get some video the next time they do it. :: He's become more snuggly, which we love. He likes to be held, for a few minutes at least, and has started leaning up against us when he naps. He was very independent the first few weeks we had him so we were worried he wasn't going to be a snuggler, but he has definitely become more snuggly in the last couple of weeks.

:: His favorite spot to sleep is on top of one of the back cushions of the couch. He's sleeping there right now...

:: We bought him a little harness, which has helped make walking him much more enjoyable for all of us. There is nothing worse than the sound of him hacking as he pulls against his collar when we walk, so the harness is awesome. And he seems to like it. We're trying to take him for more walks and get him used to walking on the lease and not being a maniac.

:: We're starting puppy kindergarten once we get back from Maine in 2 weeks. We're ready for him to learn some new commands - okay, we're actually ready for us to learn how to teach him the commands. He sits like a champion already, but it will be nice for him to learn how to walk on the leash better and to do "down", "come", and some of those other commands. He is a smart little boy and we need to harness those smarts so he can use them for good instead of evil. We're also hoping puppy kindergarten will give us some insights into how to get him to stop biting. He loves to use his little sharp puppy teeth on us and its getting old. Our most common words to him are "no bites!!"...

Frank Ticheli

Ask any of my students and you will quickly find out that Frank Ticheli is my very favorite composer for concert band.  I love his music and have done his pieces with my students in Manchester, Lima, Newport, and now Bow.  So when I heard that Frank Ticheli was going to be the guest composer/conductor at the New England Band Director Institute in Plymouth, NH last weekend, I knew I couldn't pass up the chance to go, even if it was the week I was at Wanakee to direct Footnotes.  Luckily Wanakee is only 20 minutes from Plymouth and I have my afternoons free, so last Friday I headed up for a 2.5 hour session of Frank Ticheli conducting the music of Frank Ticheli.  All the band directors who were attending the workshop made up the band and he conducted us through a dozen of his works for concert band.  It was incredible, to say the least!!  I came away from the session inspired and excited to be a band director and so thankful that I had the opportunity to see him in action.

There is a Deutsche Grammophone video from the 1980s of Leonard Bernstein conducting the entire score of West Side Story with opera singers singing all the parts.  It is amazing to hear and see and in one clip, Kiri Te Kanawa, who sings Maria, talks about how being a part of this project is like getting to work with Mozart - she was able to learn about the music directly from the source and it was so neat to have Leonard Bernstein talk about the music and be able to get exactly what he wanted for it out of the musicians.  I felt that same feeling in this session with Frank Ticheli.  It was an honor and a unique opportunity to be able to play HIS music with HIM conducting, telling us stories of how and why he composed it and putting his energy and emotion into conducting it.  I feel so lucky...

Tucker Photos from Jane

Last week we did a photo shoot with our wedding photographer, Jane.  We wanted to capture Tucker right now when he is little, knowing that he is going to grow and change so quickly.  Jane is a wonderful photographer and we love working with her.  She was able to capture Tucker perfectly and we love the photos.

You can see the entire album here:

http://lovegrowsphotography.zenfolio.com/tucker

She also made a video of some of the photos and that is here:

http://video214.com/play/ASpeWVosyTqWVHVogRZOjg/s/dark

Thank you Jane for these beautiful photos of our boy!!

Downton Abbey

The perfect way to spend a rainy summer afternoon - puppy sleeping at our feet, cozy on the couch, watching Downton Abbey.  I'm a few steps behind the Downton Abbey craze - everyone else I know has been hooked for a while, but I haven't had a chance to watch them until now.  Needless to say, I absolutely love the show.  And Bob is hooked too.  It is so well written and acted, and Maggie Smith is truly incredible.  The lines she has, and the way she delivers them, cracks me up every time.  She is amazing!

Tucker Update

Sleeping right up against the fan

:: Our boy is 11 weeks old and is growing like a weed.  I think he has gotten taller and filled out quite a lot in the week we've had him.

:: His personality is coming out more and more.  He can be naughty and definitely has a lot of energy at certain times in the day, but he is truly a good boy.  He plays hard, then sleeps even harder.

:: He's gotten used to his crate, both at night and if we have to leave him during the day.  He's sleeping in a small crate in our bedroom and both he and we like having him in there with us.  He calms down much more quickly when he is near us and he is only getting up once in the night at this point.  Of course, he is usually up before 6:00 every morning, but we're getting used to being tired all the time!

:: He's hit some great milestones this week:

• He can get up the outside stairs by himself (when he wants to and when he doesn't get distracted by trying to eat rocks on the stairs) which is very nice for us since it means we don't have to carry him up all the time.
• He is starting to give us a heads up that he needs to go outside.  And today is the first day he hasn't had an accident in the house, so we're pretty pleased with that!
• He seems to like to ride in the car - he lays on the floor of the backseat and usually goes to sleep
• He's becoming more independent in the house - he likes to go in the other room by himself and take a nap, especially on the cool kitchen floor when its really hot.

:: Bob and I are both a bit shell-shocked by puppy parenthood and all it demands, but we are madly in love with Tucker and can't imagine our life without him.

Tucker meets Bentley

Sarah came over to meet Tucker on Saturday afternoon and she brought Bentley with her. Bentley is the sweetest and gentlest of her three labs and we knew he would be fine with meeting Tucker. Bentley was very patient with the small puppy running around him and seemed to tolerate him just fine.  Now its time for Tucker to meet Annabelle and Jake!

My smiling boy

Serious face

Action shot - poor Bentley

Mirror, mirror

Someone discovered himself in the mirror this afternoon... It entertained him for at least 10 minutes and we laughed at him the entire time.  He's so much work and we're exhausted, but he is truly the cutest, funniest thing we've ever seen and we love him so much.

Tucker

Tucker Currier Duncan Jaques

He's here and we love him!!  Tucker is settling in well and seems to like us.  He is a good boy and is doing well with house training.  He isn't a fan of his crate yet, but he had never been in one before yesterday, so it was a bit of a shock to him.  Hopefully that will get better every night and he'll end up looking at his crate as a safe place.  Puppy parenthood is hard work, but we're madly in love with our boy and are so happy to finally have him!

Lougee Pond

We made our first trip of the year out to Lougee Pond this past Saturday. I sometimes think that we like to go out there just to be sure its still there and still beautiful. And it always is!

I love that both Bob and I have these places that are so special to us. For me, its Georges Pond and I am so glad that Bob fell in love with it as well. And for Bob it is definitely Lougee Pond, which I fell in love with too.

A perfect iris on the edge of the pond - a little reminder of Jean who loved irises

Celebrations

The end of April into the beginning of May was a time of celebration and I attended some great parties!

On the last Saturday of April, I went down to Newton, MA to celebrate my wonderful friend Karen and the impending birth of her daughter.  It was so fun to see Karen's friends from all the different parts and times of her life and I was proud to be there, along with Rosemary, Kelly, and Corrie, to represent her years in Berlin.  And just a month later Karen gave birth to beautiful Maeve Audrey, who I can't wait to meet!
 

The Berlin Girls

The first weekend in May was spent in Boston, celebrating Sarah's 40th birthday!  She had requested a Girls Weekend in the city, so that is what she got.  We took a Duck Boat tour, had drinks at the Top of the Hub, went out for German food and beer, and ended the night at a piano bar with live music.  We had a great time!!

The Wanakee Girls

Nova Scotia

The day after we moved to our new apartment, we left for a six day trip to Nova Scotia with Bob's brother Rick and his wife Cindi.  It felt a little crazy to leave all the boxes in our new place with basically nothing unpacked and take off, but it actually worked out well.  It gave us a chance to relax before we came back to all the unpacking and we had a wonderful trip.

We spent the first two days in Bar Harbor with every intention of showing Rick and Cindi all our favorite spots, but it torrential rained the entire time we were there.  We still managed to have fun, but there are no pictures to show for it since we could barely see in front of us due to the fog and rain.

We drove all the way up to Nova Scotia and it was a lot of driving, but definitely worth it.  We spent time in Halifax, Yarmouth, and many smaller towns in between.  Here are some of my favorite photos:

Downtown Halifax

At Peggy's Cove Lighthouse

Brothers

Beautiful fishing village at Peggy's Cove

Sunset in Yarmouth

Lighthouse outside Yarmouth

St. Bernard Cathedral - we were driving along this little road and came across this amazing church!

The first of many overdue blog posts

My poor neglected blog... This spring/start of summer has been incredibly busy and I haven't felt a ton of motivation to blog, but each time I look at my blog lately I start to compose posts in my head, so I'm taking that as a sign that its time to get back into the swing of blogging. And here I am! I don't want to spend a ton of time catching up on the past four months, but there are a few things of note that are worth a few sentences and a picture or two.

We made a big change and moved into a new apartment at the end of April. It was sad to leave our old apartment - a lot of important things happened to us there. It was where Bob proposed to me and where we came home to after our honeymoon and started our married life together. We fell in love in that apartment and we definitely felt sentimental as we were leaving. But it was time to move on and we're excited to continue our life together in our new place. It is a beautiful apartment and we are so happy here! We have tons of space, including a three season (probably actually four season, but winter might be chilly) porch, an enormous kitchen, and a full basement where Bob has set up his studio. Its truly the perfect space for us and we love it! There is also a huge yard, which leads to our most exciting news...

WE'RE GETTING A PUPPY!!!! Our big motivation for moving, besides the fact that we wanted more space and to not be on the second floor, was to find a place where we could have a dog. The minute we got our new place, we set out to find a puppy. We found a breeder in Raymond who had a male black lab puppy who would be available June 16, which fit perfectly into our summer schedule. We really wanted to get a puppy right at the beginning of the summer so we could be home with him and train him throughout the summer, so the timing for this puppy was perfect! We got to visit the litter a few weeks ago and found out that this little guy was going to be our puppy. Meet Tucker Currier Duncan Jaques!

Stayed tuned for lots more pictures of Tucker and stories of our adventures with the newest member of our family!

My First Bento Box

I'm mildly obsessed with bento box lunches and regularly read the Wendolonia blog to check out the bento lunches she makes for her kids. I've wanted to start doing bento lunches for myself, but I just didn't know where or how to start. Last night I finally realized I had food that would work for a bento, so here it is:



Not the fanciest bento in the world, but I was very excited by it!! Some carrots and celery with light ranch dressing for dipping, plus some leftover cheddar cheese and crackers from the Superbowl party. And I had to include chocolate, of course, and the Cadbury cream egg fit perfectly! It was a great dinner to take to school when I went back last night for our first "Oliver!" rehearsal. And I was surprised at how filling everything was - I didn't even finish everything I packed.

I'm hoping this is the beginning of many more bento boxes for my lunches and to-go dinners. I'm definitely inspired and ready to try some other things. Yay for bentos!!

Friday night

Its been a VERY stressful, long week at school. It was so nice to finally come home this afternoon and know it is over. I went for a swim with Sarah, then came home and cooked, which always makes me so happy. On the menu on this cold Friday night: tortellini soup with beans and chard, biscuits, and wine. Now I'm curled up on the couch watching the Celtics, reading People magazine, and eating mini 3 Musketeers. A much needed good way to end this week. Life is good...

New Recipes

I've decided to start posting links to some recipes I've been trying lately. Its also a good way to keep track of the recipes I like. I've discovered how much I truly love to cook and it is so much fun!! It makes a big difference when you have someone else to cook for, especially someone as appreciative as my husband.

I made these Portabello Mushrooms with Creamy Artichoke-Spinach Filling for dinner last night and they were really yummy.



And for dinner tonight I made Broccoli-Cheddar Soup and Crusty Bread Bowls. Both were amazing, especially the soup!!

Celtics vs Pistons

Last night we went to the Celtics home opener at the Garden and it was great! Its the second game we've been to and we loved every minute of it. The Celtics won by 11 points and it was a fun game to watch. I was worried that our tickets were way up in the nose=bleed section, but they were fabulous! We had a great view (I'm not sure there is really a bad view in there at all) and we brought the binoculars so we were able to see whatever we wanted.



We're hoping to make it to at least one more game this season. They obviously play well when we're there, so they need us. ;)

Looking Forward

I thought about doing a post about all we'd done in 2011 and while I love looking back on the year we've had (celebrating our first anniversary, wonderful trips to Maine, kayaking adventures, a good year at school), I decided instead to look forward to what we're anticipating in 2012. So here's what we're looking forward to in the year ahead:

:: A puppy!! We've put a deposit on a lab puppy with a breeder in Epsom and are eagerly waiting for our puppy to arrive in the spring. We've put in a request for a yellow male, but we're also open to whatever puppy is best for us. The mama dog is being bred this spring and we can't wait for word that the puppies are on their way. We've been dreaming of a dog for a while and are definitely ready to expand our family.

:: A new apartment. The possibility of a puppy means its time to find a new place to live (we can't have a dog in our current apartment). We'd love to find something on the first floor so I can have my piano (and so it will be easy to take the puppy out) and we'd ideally like to stay in Concord, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll find something great when we start looking in the spring.

:: "Our" land. We are desperately in love with a tiny piece of land on Georges Pond and are trying to save money to make it a reality for us. Anyone want to loan us $10,000 for a down payment?? Did you know you have to put down 20-35% when you buy land? Crazy!! We met with a real estate agent and looked at the land when we were in Maine for our anniversary in October and have been dreaming about our land ever since then. We spent most of October talking with mortgage brokers and banks and basically finding out that we can't proceed with anything until we have $10,000. So, we're saving and crossing our fingers that the land will still be for sale when we finally have the money to make an offer.

:: Celebrations. Two of my best friends turn 40 this year and I'm looking forward to celebrating with them both. Sarah's 40th birthday "Girls Weekend" will be in Boston in May and Michelle Upstairs, Karisti and I are planning to meet in Vegas in July to celebrate Karisti's 40th.

:: Traveling. We've going to spend April vacation in Nova Scotia with Rick and Cindi and we can't wait! It should be a fun road trip and we're really looking forward to it. And hopefully we'll make it to Berlin in 2013, but that will be part of next year's post... :)

Happy New Year my dear friends! Sending you wishes for a wonderful 2012!

Update

I've been quite the blog slacker lately, so here's a little update of what we've been up to...

... School, of course. November was a blur and I truly don't know where the month went. Now we're in the thick of getting ready for the Winter Concert on Dec. 15th. I'm also guest conducting the New England Wind Symphony at the Capitol Center for the Arts on Dec. 18th and Bob is recording the concert, so we're both looking forward to that.

... I started my new gig as organist at the United Church of Warner this past Sunday and it went really well. My choir is 12 people with an average age of about 75, but they are sweet and exited to have me there. Its nice to be playing regularly again, and the extra money is nice!

... Dreaming of the new addition to our family. No, not a baby (never!!), but a puppy! We've decided we're ready to get a puppy, so now we're just waiting until our current lease is up in May so we can move to a new apartment where we're allowed to have a dog. Sarah helped us find a wonderful labrador breeder and we're looking forward to picking out our lab puppy in the spring! We can't wait!!!!

That about sums up the last few weeks. We did spend a day at the coast a few weekends ago and it was great to be at the ocean (see post below). And we're planning on spending a night in Boston over Christmas vacation, but otherwise we're staying close to home for a while. Time to save some money and just hibernate. :)

Sunny Sunday at the beach

The day we went to the beach was incredibly beautiful - mild, sunny and just perfect. And there were really big waves!! We drove along the strip at Hampton and walked on the beach for a while. It was great!

How many pictures do we have of us like this? We've perfected the self-portrait.

We also went to Short Sands and walked on the beach for a bit. We stayed at the Union Bluff Hotel for the first night of our honeymoon, so it was fun to see a bride and her bridesmaids having their photos taken out in front of it. She was lucky to have perfect weather for her wedding - it reminded us of how perfect the weather was on our wedding day too.

Thanks

I am a lucky girl and while I'm pretty good about being aware of it most of the time, it is good to step back and reflect on this day of thanksgiving.

So, here are my top 5:

1. My husband - I truly never knew I could love someone as much as I love this man. I want to spend every second of every day with him and I am so blessed he feels the same way!

2. My mother - we may fight and challenge each other, but I love her so very much and I'm incredibly thankful we are both so committed to maintaining and growing our relationship.

3. My friends - how did I get so lucky to have these people in my life? They are truly the epitome of your friends being the family you choose and I love my chosen family!

4. Dreams - the land on Georges Pond, a dog named Tucker, traveling to Berlin and Ireland... all the things Bob and I are dreaming of right now. Its nice to have some goals to be working towards... and its so fun to dream!

5. My job - I'm very lucky to have a job, period... and especially to have one I love. I get to work with great kids and amazing teachers every day (with the exception of one) and it feels good to be doing this job.