The One Where Jeff Turns 26

Now that Jeff is an accountant, the fact that his birthday falls on Tax Day is all the more significant to us. It marks the end of busy season for many in the accounting world and it signifies the coming of spring vacations and all that is warm and relaxing and good in the world. This year we kind of celebrated Jeff's birthday sporadically throughout the month, and specifically during the weekend prior to his birthday.

The main thing we did for his birthday was go to a New England Revolution soccer match. Luckily for us, the game was on the most beautiful Saturday afternoon and we relished the nice weather. The whole living through New England winters thing has thickened our blood or something because it was 70 degrees on the day of the game and we were sitting there in t-shirts sweating and feeling like it was 90.

Spring weather never felt so warm and good.

 

Mom sent us some Easter treats from the candy store, we brought them to the game to snack on. 

The Peachy Penguins came in handy for playing with the camera's focus.

Just after they scored. Rev's won 2-0!

We also of course made cinnamon rolls - Jeff's favorite. 

My family also sent an Edible Arrangement to him at work. What a fun surprise!

And for his birthday cake, Jeff chose the Black and White Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake that we discovered at Costco. A tasty choice!

Birthday boy with his birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Jeff. You're just the best!

P90X-3

We did it. We completed a full round of P90X-3. Six workouts a week, thirty minutes per day, for ninety days without missing a workout! The workouts were fun and hard and we enjoyed doing them together each morning. Here are some of our before and after photos.

This is the first time in my life that I've consistently stuck to a workout routine. During the past three months, we didn't go on a diet, but we made a conscious decision to eat much less fast food and to track the food we ate on My Fitness Pal. Exercising regularly and eating healthier just go hand in hand. As soon as we started this routine our bodies craved more wholesome, filling food. That's not to say we didn't have hankerings for sweet treats anymore; we certainly had our share of desserts (although we've been using healthier alternative recipes when we bake things at home). It has however been easier to choose healthier options because our bodies don't crave greasy, sugary things all the time. Now that we completed our 90 days, we're just going to start another round. Can't let all of our gains go towards nothing. Now it's about exercising and eating for life. Bring it!

Celtics vs. Heat

As an early birthday surprise for Jeff my mom got us tickets to a Celtics game! They were playing the Miami Heat, so TD Garden was packed even though it was a wednesday night. TD Garden arena is literally two blocks from where I work, and since Jeff has been working at a client in the city the past few weeks he was able to walk over to where I work and we walked to the game together. We grabbed some dinner at the Qdoba across the street and then hopped in the giant line that was forming outside of the arena.

TD Garden is pretty impressive. It's massive inside! It was pretty cool to watch players like Rajon Rondo, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade play live. Sadly Lebron James was out with an injury; it would have been cool to see him play in Boston. But it was still a good game and the Celtics pulled off the win in the fourth quarter!

Rondo throwing up a free throw.

Chris Bosh with the ball

This was taken after the game. Should have got one in the daylight!

Waiting for the bus home.

It was a fun deviation from our normal weeknight routine. Happy early birthday to Jeff! Thanks for the cool experience mom!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Some holidays are pretty strange. Like in March when everyone manages to justify some long lost tie to the Irish so they can join in on the greenest of celebrations. That's what I do anyway. Pretty much any reason to do something out of the ordinary sounds like fun to me, and luckily I have a husband who likes to join in and amuse me. This year called for a green breakfast.

St. Patrick's Day breakfast done right : )

Mates of State Boston Concert

Last week I took an earlier bus than usual to work and I had time to pick up a local newspaper and read it before my coworker picked me up for HappyFeet. While browsing through the paper I discovered that the band Mates of State was going to be playing in Boston that very weekend! 

Jeff and I discovered Mates of State back in 2010 when we attended REDFEST at the University of Utah. The lineup for that particular REDFEST concert was Ben Lee, fun., and Mates of State, and at the time we didn't appreciate just how awesome that was. Jeff had to attend an accounting dinner that same night, but we figured we could still catch the big bands of the concert with plenty of time to spare. To our everlasting regret we missed both Ben Lee and fun. We did however get there in time to see the last band of the evening, Mates of State (who we knew very little about). They turned out to be awesome and extremely fun to watch live.

Still have the ticket. Still stings to know that we missed most of this concert.

We ended up listening to Mates of State a lot after this concert and liked them more and more. We still listen to them all the time. We even made their song Like U Crazy our wedding song, and fully intended to dance to it for our "first dance" if only the music system had worked properly. But that's another story for another time. Zoom ahead to March of 2014 and me discovering that Mates of State was coming to Boston. I immediately texted Jeff and we decided to go!

It was such an intimate venue, and this made it all the more enjoyable. By the time the concert started it was a full house.

The concert was amazing. It was played in the David Friend Recital Hall at Berklee College of Music which was so intimate. Instead of standing, everyone was seated as if listening to a performance in a coffee house, tapping their toes and bobbing their heads to the music. We thought it was different to say the least, but we got to sit on the front row less than ten feet from the musicians and the sound was incredible. Wish they would have been recording the whole thing; both bands sounded so good live.

Golden Bloom opened for Mates of State and they were also really good. We bought their CD after the show.

Kori Gardener on the baby grand.

Jason Hammel on the drums.

They sounded so good!

The band came back on stage for an encore and they played our song, Like U Crazy! It was the perfect ending to the perfect concert. We both absolutely loved it and even had the chance to thank Kori Gardener afterward for coming to Boston and for choosing to sing that song as the encore. It was a good night in Beantown for the Mannings : )

Back In the Saddle

We've been getting so excited to ride our bikes again. The weather forecast said Saturday was supposed to much warmer than the rest of the week, so we planned to make the most of it. We ordered some new gear and tuned our bikes up in preparation of our first ride of the year!

Jeff did most of the dirty work. Thanks babe!

Look how nice that chain came out!

We rode about ten miles through West Medford and past the Mystic Lakes. It was almost too hot to wear our bike gloves, which was very exciting : )

So happy to be on his bike : )

It felt fantastic to be outside and riding again. Here's to a splendid spring/summer of biking!

Quarter of a Century and Counting

Birthdays have always been a big deal to me. It was always something to look forward to in the middle of winter (at least for me, since my birthday is in february) and it seemed like everything about the day was special. Maybe my family is unique in this, but we always said when someone's birthday was nearing that it was their birthday week! My 25th birthday week was fantastic. I didn't have to work thanks to February Break, and my sister was able to spend the whole week with me. Jeff is the best at picking out great birthday gifts. He remembers all the things I mention liking throughout the year and then when my birthday comes around he spoils me rotten with wonderful surprises.

A picture with the Mr. on my 25th.

New oxfords for the birthday girl! Thanks Jeffrey!

We had a nice little get together with some friends on my birthday eve to play games and eat cake.

Homemade ice cream cake. Thank you Mary Egan for the delicious recipe!

Rice krispie/coconut topping with chocolate brownie fudge ice cream. Yum!

Thanks to all of my family and friends for making my 25th birthday the best yet!