ACC Tournament: Pittsburgh v. Virginia 2017

On Wednesday, Kevin, Nick, and Briggs went to the UVA game against Pittsburgh at the Barclay Center last night. It went late- almost to midnight!- but UVA was victorious!

ACC Tournament

Basket!

Sadly, UVA lost the next night to Notre Dame, ending their tournament in NYC.

Patriots Win Their 5th Super Bowl! 2017

We enjoyed the Super Bowl this year. By half-time, it looked like the Patriots were definitely going to lose. And then everything magically turned around!

Kevin's joy in the fourth quarter

This gravity-defying catch!

The cupcakes

Yum-yum-yum

Num-num-num

Patriots win and Gisele immediately takes an insane selfie.

Kevin's Giselfie

Our 6th Wedding Anniversary 2015

We gambled our anniversary date on a horse. In 2011, we went to the Belmont Stakes with our friends. The best part was that we could just walk over from our house in about 20 minutes. I tried to go again a few years ago when one of the horses won at the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, the first two legs of the Triple Crown. But when that horse scratched before Belmont, I lost motivation.

Still, I love horse races (Gold Cup and Foxfields being my most frequent horse races) and the fact that we live so close to Belmont, called me to the Belmont Stakes every year. Plus, it's a really big deal in our town. They have a town celebration in honor of it the day after every year. One main problem with going has been that it's always on the same weekend which is also our anniversary, my mother's birthday, and Great-Grandma Ruth's birthday so we never have a lot of motivation or a readily available babysitter.

A few things happened this year to motivate me. One is that the race fell exactly on our anniversary and we weren't sure what to do for anniversary anyway. We just went to a fancy night our for our 5th anniversary (6 months late) and a big trip isn't in our budget or time allowance right now. The second thing that happened was that American Pharoah won the first two races. It was at least theoretically possible that we could have a Triple Crown win on our anniversary. The third thing was that our kids had gotten used to a hired babysitter over the last 8 months. So we knew who to call so we could go to Belmont for a little while.

But Kevin was concerned. While we had a really good time in 2011, Kevin was less than impressed with the actual horse track facilities. He was worried that our anniversary wouldn't "be nice enough." I thought this was a little strange considering he loves dive bars. My counter-point: what if it's the Triple Crown? So off to the races we went.

In front of the ivy-covered windows of Belmont Park

While we were emotionally betting on American Pharoah to win, we did not actually bet on American Pharaoh to win because the payout would be pretty low. We'd have to bet a lot to gain anything if he won, and that would mean we'd lose a lot if he lost. So we bet on some less likely horses #6 (my pick because 6th anniversary yo!) and #8 (Kevin's pick). Then we did a trifecta bet that American pharoah would win, #6 would be second (my choice again), and #8 would be third. The trifecta bet had a least a chance of having a nice payout for our very little $10 bet.

In line to place our trifecta bet!

YAY!! TRIPLE CROWN!!

American Pharoah became the first triple crown winner in 37 years! Oh but the horses came in 5, 6, 7. Oh well. Still totally worth it. I will post a video of everyone running out of the stands cheering as soon as I get caught up on videos.

Also, I often post something about our actual marriage in my anniversary posts. This is my thought this year. Each spouse has the responsibility of being the best spouse they can be- not as the temptation drives many- to make the other person be the best spouse they can be. In other words, as a wife, my job is to be the best wife I can be, not to make Kevin be a better husband. He's a great husband any way, and yes, I can talk to him about whatever problem I have, but my main focus is to be more loving to him in the way that he would most appreciate me showing him love. For me, love is very "showy": words, kisses, hugs. For him, love is very action-based. I can love him best when I do things to support him at home, in his career, his mental state, etc. He is awesome at doing these things for me probably in part because he feels they're so important for him. So that's what I'm working on. I hope that my effort is itself a show of love on my way to actually achieving what he wants.

Jon's 35th Birthday in Boston 2015

Kevin and Jon drove up to Boston for Jon's 35th birthday and met up with Casey and Jon's brothers-in-law that live in Massachusetts. They ate many dinners, watched a Red Sox game from the Green Monster, and drank beer until it hurt. Yay! Happy birthday, Jon!

Casey, Kevin, and Jon at Fenway

Just casually leaning against this bar

Jon stopped by to say hi to the little ones too

Patriots Win the Super Bowl! 2015

We had a party when the Patriots were in the Super Bowl in 2008 and again in 2013, and that didn't work out for us. Also, some of our friends had already come over for the playoffs so it was hard to persuade anyone to come over again. Going out would involve only one of us-- specifically Kevin-- because having two kids is hard. So we dressed the itty bitty ones up and watched the game at home.

James in his Brady jersey, Miranda in her pink New England Patriots onesie

With the biggest Pats fan, Dada

Watching the beginning

Warning: The following might be totally wrong because I only got into football like two seconds ago.

Belichick eats, breathes, and sleeps game strategy. They say all football coaches do, but Belichick was probably born to be a famous war general and decided to coach instead. And Belichick has been really tricky lately. He's been playing crazy chess more than usual, and I felt confident that he'd whip out some crazy strategy to win the Super Bowl. For example, in the AFC divisional playoff against the Ravens, the Patriots had three plays where a guy who was usually eligible on the play was ineligible (a running back who could actually still get the ball passed back to him), which meant a guy that was usually ineligible was eligible (a lineman). This strategy was unheard of before, but it wasn't illegal. And it was super confusing to the Ravens. The Pats did some of this against the Colts too. When the Super Bowl began I felt confident Belichick  had some master plan. But then it seemed that everyone was just playing football.

Already lost interest

And given how sad Kevin was after the 2008 and 2013 Super Bowls, I was pretty concerned. I watched the game through fanned fingers like you do at horror movies. Actually I mostly hid behind my laptop because the Seahawks were winning. But as the close game was getting near the end, I wanted to watch the decisive moments and closed my laptop and fully focused. Then everything happened.

Seattle Seahawk's Jermaine Kearses's catch was the most insane thing I've ever seen. It defied every rule of physics, or possibly proved the existence of parallel universes, with this universe as the most unlikely one. It looked like a miracle, and if so, God was squarely on the Seahawk's side. Also, Kearses is an amazing inspiration because after that insane catch, he pushed himself off the ground with one hand and got up to run. He got up. And tried to run. As James would say, "That was a good try! That was a really good try!" He was athletic, focused, and determined, and I just cannot say enough about how amazing it was.

Then the Seahawks snapped the ball at 1 minute and 6 seconds left in the game and Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch advanced the ball to the 1-yard line. Things were looking really bad. The Seattle Seahawks were going to get winning touchdown and the Patriots might not have enough time to get another one to win. Basically every football coach Belichick's position in the history of ever would have called a timeout in that position to save enough time to try to get another Patriots touchdown after the inevitable Seahawks touchdown.

If Belichick had called a timeout the Seahawks could have handed off the ball three times in the 1:06. But he didn't call the timeout. So the Seahawks had to pass on the second down or the third down, and if they didn't pass on the second, the Patriots would know they would pass on the third. So the Seahawks passed on the second. Plus, I bet the clock ticking away kind of freaked out the Seahawks because they expected Belichick to call the timeout. Also, Belichick said that he decided against the timeout after he saw the Seahawks put three receivers on the field, which I don't actually understand at all but everyone who understands football probably does.

Obviously cornerback Butler did a great job. He had practiced that pass play days before the Super Bowl. And he felt confident that they were going to throw the ball then.

Miranda loves Coach Belichick!

So there it is, I just blogged about football. Who would have thought? Hope I made sense!

Patriots Playoff Game 2015

We had some people over for the Colts v. Patriots playoffs game on Sunday. I got super-inspired and made nachos and chili. The nachos were solid, but the chili was my first attempt and not spicy enough at all. Next time I'll step it up.

Also, I put Miranda in her Patriots onesie at the beginning of the day and she immediately spit up all over it. So now we know that's good luck for the Patriots! Super bowl!

Pre-gaming with the kids

Chili and nacho collage.

Kevin, Lukas, Sarah, and Miri post-nachos

So cute!

James bringing Jon a (closed) beverage.

Game 6 of the World Series in Boston 2013

Kevin has watched about a hundred baseball games this season, and probably every season. He was thrilled when the Red Sox made the World Series, and he tried to buy tickets online countless times, but the page was overwhelmed with fans and kept crashing. His childhood friend Kevin got all the way to the checkout portion of the page before the site crashed. So the boys hashed a plan to drive to Boston for the potentially decisive game 6 of the series and buy day-of tickets at Fenway.

Unfortunately, even though they got there early, the line was already too long for everyone to get tickets and no one else was allowed to get in the line. But their back-up plan was a solid one. They went to Bleacher Bar, a bar that is attached to Fenway and actually looks out onto the field. So they were able to watch the game both in person and on the televisions there. So that was awesome.

Casey, Jon, Kevin, and Kevin

Line outside of Fenway to get same-day tickets

Outside Fenway

View of the field inside the bar

Kevin, Kevin, Jon, and Casey in front of Fenway

When the game was over they were able to see the World Series trophy delivered to the team, and afterwards they were able to celebrate with the entire city of Boston!

Scene outside after Red Sox won the World Series

With fireworks!

My friend Ian was inside Fenway for the game, this is his picture of the celebration.

Yay! Congratulations to the Red Sox (they read my blog right?) and to all their fans!

Watching the Patriots and Miss America 2012

About every other week, we have Kevin's friends over to watch sports.  This is nice for me, because on the weeks that they're not here, they're drinking beers in Brooklyn, and James and I miss out on the fun. James enjoys watching the sports a lot more than I do, though he dislikes sports-related-yelling a great deal. Anyway, James usually stays in the living room with his father and his friends and I sometimes make myself scarce until dinner-ordering time.  (I think now it might be clearer why I enjoy sports night at home.)

Brady, Briggs, and James watching football here two weeks ago

Sometimes however, I actually participate in hosting, as was the case last weekend when Sarah and I amended Patriots-watching night to be followed up by the Miss America pageant.  The pageant was amazing, complete with crazy evening gowns, crazy "talents" (why-oh-why didn't they let us see Miss Hawaii's butt-bounce?), and craziest of all, the contestants' personal fears which included megalophobia. Of course, it is a sad that the largest scholarship organization for women has a bikini competition.

Three Clous wearing their Patriots gear! (Patriots beat the Broncos 45-10)

Lukas and Sarah snuggling with James

Girls' Weekend 2005

Last year, my college girlfriends and I went to the beach for our first annual "Girls Weekend." This year, the summer got away from us, so the girls decided to come visit me at my new place. Since I was up in Arlington for Michelle and John's wedding on Friday, Friday night we all slept over Janice's apartment near Pentagon City. Saturday, we bought a bunch of orange shirts, drove to Charlottesville and went to the UVA football game against W. Michigan. GW didn't have a football team so it was a novelty for all of us.

Me, Janice, Laurie, Megan, and Christina

Trying to figure out how to get to the game... (Where does this bus take me?)

Megan and Laurie chilling

W. Michigan v. UVA Football Game!! UVA wins!

Sunday, we had brunch on the Mall, followed it up with some gelato at Splendora's, and then caught a movie. We ate so much for dinner that we had a strange hodge-podge for dinner that included Megan's spinach dip bread bowl, Christina's crab dip, and ice cream cake... because that's how we roll.

Christina and Megan

Laurie and Janice missing Soraya.

Me, Megan, Christina, Janice, Laurie

Movie snacks

Hurray!

Thanks for an awesome weekend girls! And thanks for being some of my first visitors!