Summer Giveaway, of sorts

This is from my work blog, but since most of you don't read it I thought I'd share it here. Because who doesn't love a gift card to Target?!?

Each summer we try to do a giveaway, usually with a $50 Target gift card as the prize. This year we thought we'd shake things up a bit. We are taking the luck out of the giveaway and putting it in your hands.This year we are doing a new patient referral program, just in time for back to school physicals.


Every new patient who you refer gets you a $25 Target gift card.  Some of the specifics...

• The patient has to be seen in the month of August (not just scheduled, but seen)
• The patient has to list you as their reference
• They patient has to be new to our office, ie, not previously seen by one of our doctors or nurse practitioners 
• Previous referrals are not eligible
• Every patient counts as his or her own referral. For example, if you refer a family of 4 and we see all four kids...ba bam. $100 in Target goodness for you.
• There is no limit on the number of gift cards you can receive

We are really excited for this, and hope you will be to! Spread the word, tell your friends, and get yourself some Target love.

DC

I went on a quick trip last month to be a part of my friend (and college roommate!) Julia's wedding. Julia looked gorgeous and it was a wonderful ceremony. I was glad to be a part of it. Thanks Jess for letting me crash in your hotel room!

The trip was so quick (I got there Thursday night at 4 and left Saturday morning at 6) I didn't expect much out of the weekend except for the ceremony. But I didn't realize the power of my secret weapon....my cousin Niki! She lives in DC and helped me make every minute count. She picked me up from the airport, gave me her car, and then took me on the perfect whirlwind DC tour. I couldn't believe how much we saw--the American History Museum, the Natural History Museum, the White House, the Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King Memorial, the Washington Monument...all on a perfect 75 degree 0% humidity night. They Hyer's are the consummate hosts--go visit them if you are out that way!

S'mores

My good friend (who is a nicer version of Martha Stewart) gave us the best 4th of July treat ever. S'mores. Not your run of the mill Keebler and Hershey variety. The homemade graham cracker and Ghiradelli kind. Ones that make you ooh and ahh and squeal like a little girl when you bite into them. 

Using good quality chocolate made a world of difference. As did the homemade grahams. Go make some today. It'll put a smile on your face. 

July 4th

Sunday Afternoon

love this...rock my run

If found this site  on pinterest and thought I'd give it a try.  It's like iTunes for work-out mixes. I tried it and it worked great. For $3.99 I got a 90 minute mix that I dragged into iTunes and put on my iPod. I went running today and was movin' to the upbeat beat. The only downside is that you have one 90 minute song, so if you don't like a song on the mix it's harder to skip it. But most of the songs that I listened to were shortened (only the pump you up portion) so even if I didn't love the song it didn't last long.

I bought the Miles Fly By mix, but now I can't find it...so no guarantees on the others.

Photo Booth

(ignore my poor scanning)

My cousin Annie got married last week, and did an AMAZING job with her reception. One of the fun things she did was a photo booth. Ella loved picking out everyone's props and dressing us up. Congratulations, Annie!

Don't get burned!

I did this post for my work blog. Warning--the pictures of Anna's foot are kind of awful...but she's back to her crazy, running, busy, busy self so all is well.

Public...Private...Reader...yada...yada...yada

I'm still trying to figure out Blogger since going private. I thought I had it set up so my posts showed up in  people's readers, but now I'm not sure. If you are seeing this post in your reader, will you let me know? Will you also let me know if you have or haven't received an invite to the private blog (I don't care one bit if you haven't--as long as you are not a creepy guy from Indonesia commenting on how pretty my children are.)

Thanks. Sorry for the lame post. Here's a funny picture of Ella to even the score.

highway robbery

I had a plumber come today to fix a leaky faucet. While he was here I asked him to take a peak at the brown spots on my lawn and see how much it would cost to fix my sprinklers. He crunched some numbers and came back with a bid of $755.00 to fix the three broken sprinklers. Gulp. I said I'd talk to my husband and get back to him. Inspired by what seemed like an insanely high bid I channeled my inner DIY-er and consulted the world wide web. Found this little ditty, stopped by Home Depot, and 2 hrs later I had fixed four (I found another broken one) sprinklers. I called the plumber back to make sure I hadn't read the bid wrong and he really quoted me $155. No ma'am: $755.  

Brooklyn Bridge

NYC (from the iPhone)

Last week Ryan went to London and Rome, and I found cheap tickets to New York, so I packed up the girls and off we went. First we visited Thayer and Lily. It was Mother's Day, so we joined in on the Smock festivities. Thanks Chris! Then we were off to the Big Apple. I can't believe how much we packed in, especially given that we had 2 babies and naps to work around. Plus, dragging 3 kids through the subway is no small task. But we did it and had a fantastic time. Ignoring the 2000 miles between us, having sisters live in New York is the best. Hotel, tour guides and entertainment wrapped up in one sisterly (free!) package. 

I didn't take many good pictures, but here are a few from my phone. Some are hipped up via Instagram (sorry if you follow me there, you can just skip this post) but most are marginal quality "I want to remember this" pics.  (Jamie did more aesthetic blog here.)

flight out

the train from CT to NYC

Kimmy and Jamie live right across the street from Central Park

We walked along the High Line and had it all to ourselves because it was drizzling. It was lovely.

Kimmy and I had our eyebrows threaded. It was kind of amazing, kind of crazy. But mostly felt like a slow (painful) wax.

Corn ice cream from Cones. A little cinnamon sprinkled on top. Delish.

Scandinavian candy shop. Everything was fantastic.

Children's Museum

Ella's favorite part of the trip

old school

Grimaldi's pizza under the bridge. Doesn't get much better.

We left with plenty of time, hit a major accident and were stuck in gridlock traffic. My flight left at 7:15 and we didn't get to the airport until 6:35.  After telling me there was NO WAY, Betty took pity on us and got us through. 

As we were sprinting through the airport I told Ella to run. She said, "I am running as fast as I can without my legs hurting!" Sweet girl. I bought her a treat before boarding.

In all the hustle we left Anna's binky holder behind. After throwing it on the floor a few times (and rolling to the row behind) I dug through my bag and fastened this using a USB cord and a rubber band. I zipped the other end into the bottom of her sleep sack. Necessity=mother of invention.