Jack and Jill went up a hill...

For the past 3 weekends in a row I/we've had some sort of wedding function; first there was my friend Cary's bridal shower, then last weekend we had an engagement party at our house for my sister Jen and her fiance Joe, and this past weekend we had my cousin Tiffany and her fiance Dan's Jack and Jill. Not to mention this coming weekend we will be attending Cary and James' wedding!! It's been a busy month! Then it will be quiet for a little while before we go to Tiffany and Dan's wedding which is part of a 5 day cruise in October!

But back to this past weekend...
Jen and I hadn't seen Tiffany's dad's side of the family since I was a toddler; or rather I should say they haven't seen us since then because I didn't remember any of them. So it was funny when we got all the "NO! Oh WOW! I haven't seen you since you were thiiiiiiiis big!" I hadn't gotten that in a loooong time so for 2 seconds I didn't feel 30 anymore! But then 2 minutes later I aged myself again when I met Dan's sister and niece who is now 4 and I haven't seen pictures or videos of since she was a baby and I went on and on about how that couldn't possibly be her! She just COULDN'T be 4 already! It was great to meet some of Dan's cousins and Aunt's and Uncle's. I thought meeting Dave's family for the first time was overwhelming, it was cake compared to what Tiffany must have gone through - both of Dan's parents come from big families, his dad is one of 11 and his mom, one of 8 (or something crazy like that!)

And being already married and having gone through my own bridal showers -- the Jack and Jill is SO the way to go!! There's still that anxiety of opening presents I'm sure but how much better is it that your significant other (who also benefits from all the gifts) is sitting right next to you going through the same anxiety!?!

Here are some pictures our Uncle Joe took:

Tiffany & Dan

One disadvantage for the guys being part of the shower, although I think Dan may have requested his "bridal hat"

The moms

Only a few of the MANY cousins

My Little Sister Is Getting Married

We hosted an engagement party at our house on Saturday for my sister Jen and her fiance Joe who will be getting married Friday, August 13, 2010.

Here are a few photos I stole, since I was busy being the host I didn't get to take any of my own!

Jen & Joe

The cake Joe's mom made for the party

The dogs just loved our cousin Jack

Of course Oliver had to take it a bit too far!

Cousins (Tiffany, Jen, & me)

Softball Champions

For the past 2 spring/summers I have played in the Sikorsky inter-department softball B league for the White Label Hitmen.

The league is set up into 3 divisions, an "A", "B", & "C" and each team puts themselves in the division they think would best fit their abilities [A being the best, B being good, and C being average]. 2008 ended in a tragic last inning loss in the semi-finals. The team, bruised and battered, filled some key positions and begin the 2009 determined to revenge the bitter defeat.

My diving grab at shortstop during a regular season game.

We improved week by week and finished the regular season 8-2. That gave us the 3 seed and put us into the semi-finals. In the semi-final we quickly went down 7-1 before we knew what hit us. However, we regrouped, and starting hitting again. We rallied and won 11-8 behind a strong outfield defense and timely, patient hitting.

Great defense and superb base running in our Semi-Final Rally

After the win we were given a 5 minute breather and then onto the Final against the #1 Mudhawks. (They were also the #1 seed last year). We struggled offensively early but Nicole deFau gave us life with another hit and finished the tournament 8 for 9. Behind the solid pitching of Mike Fox (two complete games), we kept another good hitting team off base. Determined, we rallied again from an early deficit and then hung on for a 10-5 win. CHAMPS!

Wild celebration ensued after the last out

The fans rushed the field

Next year we will be defending the title in the A League as the champs of the lower divisions move up, and the cellar-dwellar gets relegated to the next lower division.

The Champion Hitmen: Back (L to R): Dan Belber, Eric Rosier, Dan Echegoyen, RJ Wisnieski, Mike Fox, Brett Eastman, Ray Ng

Front (L to R): Steve Daddio, Nicole deFau, Dave, Durga Sharma

Missing from photo: Mark Milano, Dave Lutian, Jordan Dargon, and Dave Ramonas

Good job Hitmen! 2009 Champs!

Showers of Love and Happiness

Saturday (I know I'm going backwards in time) was my good friend Cary's bridal shower so I got to spend the day with her and her family and friends. Her bridal party and mom threw her such a beautiful and thoughtful shower! It took place at Cary's parents house which is up in East Hampton, CT right on Lake Pocotopaug (literally, their backyard leads right into the water!) We even got to see a little boat parade while eating lunch! And I finally got to see Summit's dock jumping skills in person!

Cary and her bridal party

Cary and her mom

Cary is the most eco-friendly, "green" person I know. And she has gone far and beyond to make their wedding have the smallest carbon footprint as possible (their wedding website tells all about it). Her bridal party and mom took the same care in planning her shower. All the food we ate was not only vegetarian but it was also local grown and SO delicious!! (It's amazing all of the farm stands I saw driving there! We are lucky we have our one local farm just down the road from us but they have numerous farms to choose from, makes me jealous!) And everyone except maybe 3 people (myself being included in the 3!) was so creative in the materials they used to wrap their gifts! From burlap bags and twine, to the comics page of the newspaper, to pillow cases and fabrics and re-useable shopping bags! Even cards were re-used; Cary's friend Jen who got married in July used the card front from one of the cards she'd gotten at her bridal shower! Some people even went as far as using safety pins instead of pieces of tape!! Why couldn't I have been more creative??!? I'm actually pretty disappointed in myself! I just went into the closet and grabbed the roll of wedding paper we had.

One of the many creative gift wrap

But now that I've seen an entire new way to reduce waste when it comes to gift giving I'm definitely going to adopt it! Our families already think I'm pretty crazy when it comes to some things environmentally wait 'til they hear about this one!

Cary who, like any other bride, does not like having all eyes on her did very well! Although we all got to see a bit of her "emotional side" she's told me about (funny the things that happen when a diamond ring gets placed on a girls finger!) I have no idea how she's going to get through her vows which she informed us are paragraphs long!! Her maid of honor, Caitlin may have to step in and read them for her!

After the shower a girls night (ie. bachelorette party) was planned. Suzanne's parents (one of Cary's bridesmaids) have a little house right on the Connecticut River which they call "The Shack" (by no means is it a shack!) and they were nice enough to let the 6 of us use it for the night. So while the 5 of us [Caitlin, Kelly, Suzanne (bridesmaids), Kelly, and I] were preparing The Shack, Cary was getting ready for a little scavenager hunt, glow in the dark penis veil and all!

The girls (with Cary's fiance James' help) had come up with the idea of placing each of us in an area that was significant to the both of them. And Cary was given a bag with a pair of underwear that had a clue which Caitlin made up about the person who got the underwear for Cary as well as where they were waiting to be picked up. It was a lot of fun, Cary even decided to put on each pair of underwear over her clothes as she got them! Such a good sport!

Cary in ALL her new underwear! (Don't worry she allowed me to post these!)

Suzanne, Kelly, Kelly, Cary, Caitlin, & Me

After some drinks and food we headed back to The Shack and had a bond fire, made smores and had a great girls night! It was so good to finally meet all of the friends Cary has always told me about! At first I was pretty nervous since I was the outsider but they all took me in as if I was always one of their friends! I really shouldn't have expected anything less knowing Cary. As Dave's Aunt Karen says, nice people are attracted to other nice people.

It's a bird. No it's a plane. No its...

Dave & Nicole skydiving!!! We finally got to go on Sunday! It was hot as hell but there was hardly a cloud in the sky!

The stressful work up for the past week and half was for NO reason! It was absolutely A-MAZING! There are not words to describe it! I was more nervous this time because I knew the weather was perfect and there were no outside forces that were going to stop us from going up (unless both planes were broke down!?! Wishful thinking..)

We didn't have to wait around too long which was good! I may have had to make a 3rd stop to the bathroom otherwise! (Those who know me know about the nervous pees.) Before we knew it we met our instructors, both Mike's, who we'd be jumping tandem with, were set up in our harnesses, given our 3 minute tutorial on what to do, and were boarding the plane!

Being fit for our harnesses and getting our instructions

Ready to go!!

The plane ride itself was quite an experience! Sixe people cram into this little plane that has an entire side cut out!! Dave and I were attached to our instructors at the hips AND seat belted in but the guy who had to sit parallel with the opening wasn't! [Obviously only the experienced get that seat!] After getting over my fear of the "door guy" falling out of the plane I was surprisingly calm for the ride. Mike, kept showing me the altitude. The first time he showed me I was shocked that we were only at 3000 ft. I couldn't even wrap my mind around going up another 7500 ft. before jumping! So I had a good 15 minutes at ease and then at about 9000 ft. "door guy" started shifting around (making me nervous he was going to fall out again) and before I knew what was happening Mike and I were switching places with him. It felt like it took another 10 min. to get the 1500 ft. higher while I was crouched there in front of the gaping hole on the side of the plane waiting, starting to get REALLY nervous! Next thing I knew Mike was telling me, "Here we go, Nicole" and before he even finished the sentence we were free falling! It still makes my heart speed up when I think about that moment 2 days later. I wonder how long it will take before I lose that flutter when I think of it, I hope not for a long time! When I do that will just mean we have to go again soon.

Initially that first second that I was falling felt like chaos to me. I was braced for the worse and I had to make myself open my eyes because my initial reaction was to shut them tight. And once I did open them I was seeing clouds and had do a mental check that I was doing the couple things he told me were important to do - keeping my head back and feet up between his legs. And then I saw the ground and got to enjoy the ride! And how amazing it was! It wasn't until right before the parachute went up that I had as much of a grasp as I could have on how fast we were free falling. It's just incredible! Mike showed me how by pointing our arms we can change directions and fall faster. It was SO MUCH FUN! And then once the parachute went up (after the initial rag doll feeling I had of being jerked up) it was so peaceful just floating. Then Mike let me take the handles of the parachute and showed me how to use them to maneuver in the sky. We took a hard right and that made us do a spin in the air. And then he did it on the left and we did 3 spins and we were spinning so fast I felt like my head may explode so he stopped! Then we were just meandering around lining up to get to our landing spot. I really wished we could have stayed floating around longer, that part seemed to go by so quickly.

When I was in the parachute I could actually see Dave and his Mike above us. Dave's experience was completely different from mine of course especially because this was his 2nd time skydiving! He thought the free fall went too quickly but he was able to enjoy it more this time than he did the first. He said he felt like Superman! I felt the free fall was as long as they say; 40 sec. - don't get me wrong I enjoyed every second of it, well maybe every one except that first one! In that first moment of chaos I swear we flipped or tumbled or something along those lines and I was nervous I did something wrong when I was thrown out of the plane and Dave wouldn't believe me! Low and behold I found a few videos people had taken when they went skydiving with my instructor and in every one his exit is the same; he does a diving flip out the door so now I have the video(s) to prove it to him (because I had been wishing I had my own video to prove it!) And I can rest easy that I did exactly what I was supposed to do (which I guess should be pretty obvious considering we made it down with no problems!)

We both felt a little queasy after we landed. I thought I might lose my breakfast when we were still at 200 ft. lined up to land. I had a bit of a headache too (I'm sure from all the nerves). Once we had some food in our stomachs we were just fine! I think it was a combination of nerves and temperature. When we first left the plane it was 40 degrees, landing it was 88, mixed with the country smell of manure - that could turn even the strongest stomach!

We had such a great experience! All the instructors at Connecticut Parachutists, Inc. are awesome! I recommend everyone try it at least once! I guarantee you won't regret it! It's such an amazing experience that can't be summed up in any number of words! I can barely believe I liked it so much I want to do it again someday! Dave was always the one that wanted to go again and wanted me to try it and if it weren't for him I know I never would have so lucky for him that turned out to be a good thing! Even he was a little nervous I was going to say I hated it afterward (even though he was pretty confident I'd enjoy it.)

Thank you to Mike and Mike for being the most important men in our lives for those 15 minutes! You are 3/4 of the reason this adventure was so enjoyable!

Me with my instructor, Mike Hennesy

Dave with his instructor, Mike Haas

The Dog Days of Summer

We finally hit 90 degrees 2 days in a row with what feels like 110% humidity (but in reality is only 60%)!

You know it's hot when Roxy gives up a sunspot! Oliver is loving it, he's probably warm for the first time since we've gotten him; one of the disadvantages of having 0% body fat.

Oliver patiently waiting for his turn

This is what Oliver does while Dave is outside training Roxy on the electric fence. They both get SO excited to go out for training. Although I'm sure after they get their first shock we are going to have to wrestle them to the ground to get the collars on and then carry them outside.

Training is going semi-good. I haven't been making the biggest effort to do the morning trainings so they've only been getting 1 session a day. And while Roxy is a superstar and caught on after only a couple of days, Oliver is a bit on the slow side! So my goal is to get Oliver through the first part of training by the end of the week (which means I have to stop being a slacker in the mornings). Roxy is moving ahead to the next session which means we have to put the electric nubs on the collar :-( But I'm not even sure she'll ever get shocked. She sits or lays down 5 feet before we get to the flags that mark the boundary!

Oliver sort of gets the concept we are training them. But if there is a branch on the other side of the boundary he forgets everything and just goes for it! Which means he is not ready to move on to the next part of training. There is NO doubt in my mind he's going to get shocked and it wouldn't surprise me if it happens multiple times (but hopefully it will just take once and I know I'm going to cry like a baby when it does)!

Almost...

For the last 3 days I've been eagerly anticipating going against every sane thought in my head and jumping out of a plane! And now I get to continue doing so for another FULL week!

Sunday morning Dave and I were supposed to go skydiving, Dave for the 2nd time (he had gone with his roommates when he was in college) and me for the 1st time ever!! [Technically we were supposed to go on Saturday morning but because of a computer glitch the reservation I made was lost in cyber-space and by time we realized any of this the day was already booked with 43 tandem jumpers and the people at Connecticut Parachutist's could only "do their best to squeeze us in" so it was suggested we pick another day.] It was an anniversary present (from 3 years ago) re-gifted into a 30th birthday present this year. So at this point there really was no getting out of it! So I watched the video a few times to get myself pumped for what we were going to do (after of course getting through the part about death, injury, and not being able to sue the company or anyone involved).

So Sunday morning we woke up at dawn to drive an hour to Ellington, CT for our big adventure. It was still pretty gloomy at 7am so we didn't think much of it as we were driving. But once we got out of the car in Ellington it was still grey and cloudy and when we signed in the woman warned us that no one was tandem jumping yet, they were waiting the weather out and it was up to us to make the call on how long we were willing to wait. We were still pretty optimistic at this point (as much as I would have probably been fine with turning around and going home) so we hung out and met some of the others that were in line ahead of us for tandem jumping. It was comforting for me to see others that were nearly as nervous as I was if not more so!

When we arrived

While we were waiting 2 people in line ahead of us were suited up and given the 2 minute lesson on the technique for jumping out of the plane so we continued to be optimistic about getting to jump. Meanwhile a plane had gone up with a group of licensed skydivers and it turned out the cloud ceiling was only at 4200 ft. (to legally tandem jump it has to be at least 4500 ft. and one of the certified jumpers said he wasn't comfortable jumping unless the ceiling was at least 7000 ft.). The 3 hours we waited there hopeful that the ceiling would burn off 2 other planes went up with licensed skydivers and the ceiling moved a little higher to 5000 ft. (on a nice day they get to 10,500 ft.) but rain was coming in from Springfield, MA so we decided to call it and make a reservation for the next weekend rather than (1.) not get the full experience or (2.) wait around another 3 hours.

It did not look like it was going to get any better to us, so we took a rain check

So now I get to try not to think about this for another week (which is nearly impossible) and pump myself up all over again - I'll probably end up watching that video at least another 100 times! I just know I'll regret it if I don't do it though, so I have no choice but to wait!

Me excited that we get to go home, JK - When we were still hopeful that we'd get to skydive

Sunday Stroll

After a rainy day spent in front of the sewing machine I needed to get out for some air and the dogs needed some energy drained. So I set out for our typical nightly walk but half way through I decided to check out a more scenic route along the water. I had never tried it with the two of them because there tend to be more people out on their after dinner walks with their dogs and our dogs always want to meet and play with every dog they see along the way so that makes for a very stressful, aggravating walk for me, not to mention how embarrassing they can be as they usually succeed in pulling me along!

It actually ended up not being that bad, if anything it's good for their leash training. And it's just about as long as our usual walk, for some reason I always thought it was going to be much longer. So now we have a new route to add to our list of walks!

Oliver was just so excited! He was dying to get down to check out the water, most likely just for a drink but... maybe we'll have a water dog after all!

When we got back I went around the yard to check out how everything was holding up in all the sogginess that has been our summer.

Our Hydrangea Tree is blooming! By the end of the week all the flowers should be in blossom.

The Lilies I got from Christmas Tree Shop are not fairing so well. I planted about 25 bulbs, 17 grew but only 3 have buds, these are the two that are currently in bloom. Hopefully next year more than 3 will produce flowers! At least each stalk has 2-3 flowers on it.

The grass Dave worked so hard on is all grown in! It looks great! I wish I had "before" pictures from last year when we moved in. Dave and our friend Tim spent a good day ripping out this entire side of our yard that was overgrown with weeds, pricker bushes, vines, small trees, you name it, it was probably in there! So this spring Dave tilled it, put down a lot of new dirt and planted all the grass seed. And surprisingly all the rain didn't wash it away and it's thriving!

Our blueberry bush

Our blueberry bush is doing awesome! Last year I didn't get to see a single ripe blueberry because all the birds got to them before I could. I think the rain has kept them away so I picked a little custard bowl full and the 4 of us had a snack before dinner. I think we are going to invest in some cheese cloth to cover up the bush next year.

We have some raspberries and blackberries that should be ready soon as well!

We have two hydrangea bushes, a blue one in the front of our house (direct sun most of the day) and this purple one on the back side of the house (mostly shady). Last year our blue one was loaded with flowers, this year nadda! The purple bush is younger so we only had a few smaller flowers last year, but this year it's loaded with big flowers! We'll see what next year brings.

Even our 15 hosta all bloomed (even the ones we split in the middle of their growing period) and have been kept in tack for the most part - at least the deer aren't bothering them (thanks to the rain??), but every now and then they get in the way of the weed whacker!

So while the rain has totally sucked this year; I'm pretty tired of having 2 hyper, soggy dogs it has had its positive side:

1.) We haven't had to do much watering, which is both a time and money saver!

2.) Just about all of our plants/flowers are flourishing.

3.) It's kept away the animals and we've gotten to enjoy some of the fruits our bushes produce.

4.) My EMS rain suit that I had to dig out of the back of a closet and dust off has become part of my every day wear. I paid so much for it 3 years ago when I thought I was going to need it for the Boston Marathon and I ended up just suffocating myself in it for 21 miles before I stripped it off and carried it for the last 5! All those bad memories have now been washed away and that purchase has become an investment rather than a waste after all!