It's been about three months since our family expanded to the "four best friends that anyone ever had" and it's hard to remember life without our large & loud addition. :) Mav was a surprise in our life - neighbors adopted a female GSD and their male GSD got to her before they even had a chance to take her to the vet. Their unfortunate timing became our happy accident :)

I read another blog about a family who documented the rapid growth of their German so I decided to do the same thing! If people can slap a {3 months} sticker and track their baby's growth, I can force my dog to stand in front of a sign and document it too :)

Here's Mavericks's {picture} story...

Cyrus (male) Black and Tan
​Greta (female) Black
Puppies born: January 1, 2016

The day we met! Coincidentally - Valentine's Weekend. Love at first sight.
Maverick picked us. He walked over, asked us to pet his belly, and licked my face.
​SOLD!
Weight: 12lbs

Welcome Home Maverick! 
So he's actually two months in all these photos. A bit of free advice for all parents: know the age of your child :) You're Welcome.
Weight: 22lbs

The official three month photos :) 
Weight: 33.1lbs

Favorite things: tennis ball. trying to get on the couch. dada <3
Weight: 54.5lbs

Weight: 76.2lbs

A behind the scene view of how we captured this perfect shot:

A behind the scenes look at this {Kansas heat!} shot:

Behind the scenes:

6 weeks vs 6 months

Tennis ball has become a way of life. Went on first family vacation - learned to swim in the lake.
Weight: TBD

One thing I am extremely proud of is how much I've grown since I've been here. Perhaps I always was capable and just never gave myself credit (insert some meaningful quote on top of a pretty picture that people share on Facebook here). I'll let you in on a little secret. New to Kansas + New House + Captain Scaredy Pants = No Sleep. Captain's bark is LOUD and he is on alert for EVERYTHING. I know every time an ice cube has been thrown from the tray to join his fellow cubes in our freezer. Every owl who comes to visit and spends his night "hoot hooting". Every tree branch that brushes up against the siding in the INTENSE wind. All because Captain is "guarding the house and protecting his Momma." 

Living in a long-distance relationship has been challenging but I would not change it for the world. Our relationship started on the road which allowed us to build trust, perfect our communication, and strengthen our commitment to one another. The sacrifices Matt has made for our family are appreciated more than I can express. We would not be where we are today without his hard work. Not a day goes by without me sharing how thankful I am for him. For every challenge I had living at home, Matt had an equal challenge on the road.

We also were able to travel to places we've never been before - like that great town in North Carolina "The City of Progress that never progressed" LMAO - we can forget that town (and the bloody hand print). 

{Vernon/Syracuse, NY} {Charlotte, NC} and {Charlotte/Hinesburg/Burlington, VT} will all have a very special place in our hearts. And so will Southwest Airlines, Business Select, A-List Preferred, and Companion Pass :) #ballerstatus

After work yesterday I decided to head down to the pond for an afternoon stroll. It was a beautiful crisp fall day. I was surprised at all the wildlife just a few steps from our house and knew I wanted to bring Matt out ASAP to pick his brain.

Matt jumped at the idea this morning to figure out what animal tracks I saw. A cold front has moved in so the family bundled up and headed out.

What a site we are ... I love my family of four ❤️ 👣🐾

Matt was anxious to find deer tracks and thinking about venison burgers. To his pleasant surprise, he realized deer have been coming to our pond to drink unbeknownst to us.

A rather unnerving discovery were the amount of coyote tracks surrounding the pond! Just last night we heard a large pack howling at dusk time ...

Of course where there are wild animals, there are bound to be raccoons ...

An adventure on our property would not be complete without finding another beautiful piece of antique aged wood.

Just another morning at the Whiskey Rose Ranch. Go Pats!

This post was 100 percent bound to happen given our new location. However, we did not anticipate it to occur during our THIRD weekend at home - WAY OUTSIDE tornado season, when our friends were out of town. But as they say in Kansas - Kansas weather is unpredictable!


Here’s our story:

Matt surprised me and arrived home early from work. Luckily for me, that meant he could be at the house when our dryer from Home Depot was delivered :) (Shout out to my amazing parents for the thoughtful housewarming gift!)

The Louisburg festival “Blazing the Burg" was happening Saturday morning. To avoid the crowd we decided to run all our errands for the weekend before starting our weekly Friday night festivities. This also included sampling the local Rice House to critique their Crab Rangoons (verdict: not as good as Lees Kitchen in Franklin, MA, but we would order them again!)


Immediately upon our return to the prairie we cracked beers and cheersed to our success of being the smartest people ever. We sat outside to take in the view - a storm was creeping in and the thunder was rolling. These moments between Matt and I are some of my favorites - the first beer on a Friday evening after a long work week is so satisfying and filled with joy for the weekend ahead. Sometimes Mr. Mark shows up and those nights are even better :)

This Friday evening was a little different. The moment came to a crashing halt as a soft siren could be heard in the background...

Thankfully I had heard the tornado siren in town at the start of the month when they tested. Unfortunately, it was so soft that I was not convinced that it was the same alert - I also recall thinking that it was bizarrely soft in town too! (The backstory to our siren is that we live in the country -a whopping 10 minutes from town- but the sirens were not loud enough to hear at our location. Last year they installed a siren a little over a mile away at Rutlader - but it is still soft. Better than nothing!)

Matt was not convinced either so we headed inside to check the news and I text my co-worker to confirm. She lives in the country as well and hears the same sirens we do.

CONFIRMED. Tornado siren. CONFIRMED. Tornado spotted. CONFIRMED. Headed toward downtown Louisburg (what?!) CONFIRMED. Will be here in 10 minutes. Get to the basement.

CONFIRMED. Heart Racing.

Immediately I start texting friends and family. Momma Hill calls to make sure we are in the basement. Aunt Tia is taking care of our friends home in town. We reach out to her and make sure she is aware and safe. My brother and his wife send Sharknado pictures and reference Twister. Witty. I'm sure my mother is ready to scream bloody murder.

While I stayed inside monitoring the tornado's path via the news, Matt was out on Miss Kay hoping to spot the twister on the back side of our property ... surprise surprise. I think he was secretly hoping to have an opportunity to throw our new barn cat, Bolt, into the wind :) 

In total the siren blared for about 30 minutes and will definitely be one of those flashbulb memories that I never forget. The tornado thankfully missed us. Closest it got was four miles north of downtown, and we are seven miles south of that. It was traveling East on 68 directly toward us but started to shift north before downtown. Although we never saw it, tornadoes can turn on a dime, change path, and be unpredictable so you can't take a chance with mother nature. 

I have to say the local media did an amazing job of early reporting, assessing danger, and keeping everyone safe! Here is a report of the tornado after all was said and done :)

Enjoy these few pictures we grabbed off the TV during live broadcast:

Here's to a wild spring and more "survival" stories to come :) cheers!

"Matt, if we don't do the fall things during the fall we will never do them!" 😜

Fortunately for us, we don't have to travel very far to enjoy one of my favorite activities - apple picking.

Our land has three mature apple trees and it is an absolutely beautiful day. Today we picked bushels and bushels of Granny Smiths - the ones with the spots will go to the deer, the rest are for us.

This year we are reaping the benefits of the previous owners' work on these trees. Over the winter we hope to pick my Uncle Frank's brain (and anyone else who may know about apple trees) to find out how we should be caring for them and ways to keep the brown spots/freckles from happening.

If any of you know, please share in the comments! We clearly are new to this 😃

When life gives you an apple tree, make apple crisp!

I am excited to share with everyone the whirlwind weekend Matt and I had! As I revealed in a previous post from the Fourth, Matt and I are coming to you live from Charlotte, VT for the summer. Although I am ready to pack up everything in our small town apartment and hit the road - Dixie Chicks "Wide Open Spaces" style - we still have lots of commitments and responsibilities in our Old Victorian. Fortunately we both operate under the same philosophy "go big or go home."

My parents share season tickets to the Red Sox with a group of friends and they generously offered to take us to the Saturday night game against the Yankees (Insert a good ole fashioned "Yankees Suck" chant in here for fun). Matt and I thought to ourselves - ok, if we're going to go home and not enjoy Lake Champlain, how can we make the most of it?? Our niece, Cynthia, is turning 12 (TWELVE!!) on the 16th so we asked The Roses if they would like to celebrate her birthday that Sunday - which they did. Great! So Saturday night and Sunday day were covered - Friday night we would travel south and then run errands on Saturday morning. Well ... the universe liked our plan and decided to add one more event! But first, pictures from the Sox game:

The game was very hot but we all had a blast! Yankees games always conjure a feisty energy in the crowd and its so fun to join in chanting, singing, and of course ... booing A-Rod. The stadium seemed filled with more Yankees fans than usual (although we were not surprised since this has been a pretty terrible season for the Sox overall). Matt had the pleasure of sitting next to a quite vocal Yankees fan and had some fun putting him in his place. A Saturday night win against the Yankees - doesn't get much better than that! Here's a quick (sideways) clip of our favorite "Sweet Caroline"

Like I said before ... we had a weekend surprise in store! One of Matt's coworkers has become a very good friend of ours and we often go out to dinner with him and his fiance ... they are truly wonderful people. Matt received a call late Tuesday night and to our surprise Brian and Ali have decided to tie the knot ... this weekend! The world has a funny way of working things out :) Matt and I were so glad that we were coming home this weekend.

Friday night the guys took Brian out for his bachelor party at their favorite local watering hole. Saturday afternoon we had the pleasure of joining their closest friends and family to bare witness to their marriage. This was the first wedding Matt and I have attended since becoming our own Mr. & Mrs. Let me tell you, I was a blubbering mess. Ali was beautiful. The venue was perfect. Their love is true. Here are a few pictures from the beautiful ceremony at the Blackinton Inn:

Whew. We made it to Sunday! Thank goodness for The Roses and their garden. We had a wonderful day celebrating Cynthia's birthday and relaxing with family. Matt and I love spending Sundays lounging and feasting with everyone. Cynthia and I painted our nails. Matt caught up with the family. Captain got to enjoy/torture his older cousin, Cash.

Tired from a busy weekend, we headed back up to Vermont late afternoon. Thankfully YaYa sent us home with a bag filled with fresh greens. Check out what we did with the greens for Sunday Night Supper here!

It's official. We are coming to you live from the Charlotte Public Library located in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. This means I am officially on SUMMER BREAK and Matt and I are reunited ... and it feels so good! (haha) As I mentioned in a previous post, it has been one hell of a winter. Not only was this a bitter long historic winter, Matt and I suddenly had a long-distance marriage as he was assigned to his next project: Vermont Smoke & Cure. Fortunately for us my profession allows me to enjoy summers off and we have been counting down to the last day of school since February. FEBRUARY! Well - we are finally here and we cannot wait to update everyone on all the adventures we have up North...

Since I last posted I packed my bags, visited my niece & saw my brother's new home, and headed up North for one of the best weekends of the summer - Fourth of July! I arrived late on Wednesday night to two of my favorite things: Cheese Popcorn and Cabernet. I seriously have the best husband.

As I unwound from the four hour trip up, Matt and I played the "this time last year" game and realized we have a Fourth tradition by happenstance. Last year we celebrated with Matt's brother and niece at the family cabin on Lake Sokokis in Maine. The year before that we were in North Conway, NH just the two of us. Apparently we like to get away this weekend and we both hope this "tradition" continues.

This year we decided to head into town to catch the fireworks on the third. This is actually a first for us because in North Conway I didn't make it to the fireworks (It took me a bit to realize I could not go drink-for-drink with Matt ... advice we should all heed lol). In Maine we did not have to travel because we could see the fireworks from the cabin.

Before I share this year's story - let me share a little about my husband: Matt cannot stand crowds. He also has little tolerance for feeling trapped and at the mercy of public transportation. Despite it all we boarded the train and headed into Burlington to enjoy carnival food, mingle with the locals, and sit on a blanket for 3 hours to claim our spot for the 30min firework show. ("Matt - If you don't do the Fourth of July things on the Fourth of July, when are you going to do them??")

I had an absolutely amazing time - and my husband must love me very much :)

If you're ever in the Champlain Valley for the Fourth, here are some tips we picked up:

1. Take the Green Mountain Train into Burlington - a local gave us the tip and we are so thankful! Apparently it's a parking lot leaving the city and the train will get us home before everyone else has a chance to get out. I was also IN LOVE with the train - it's a bunch of old-time cars hooked together to form this long train that takes scenic routes throughout Vermont (I'm trying to find the history - if anyone knows, please share!) The green color stools and chairs also reminded me of the green couch my grandparents had my whole life - blast from the past.

2. Get to the waterfront two hours early, bring chairs, patience, to-go drinks, and an appetite. HELLO FAIR FOOD! Unfortunately, Matt and I only brought a blanket and foam seats to sit on (rookie mistake). Three hours later our backs were completely regretting that decision. Everyone around us brought their camping chairs - Vermonters are so smart.

3. Speaking of Vermonters ... well, the public in general ... free holiday events have a tendency of bringing the most interesting people to one location. Be sure to bring your dark shades and revel in the people watching.

4. You know that in-between time of the sun setting and it actually getting dark? Well, there is a local guy who puts on a one-man air show to entertain you as you wait for the stars to come out. Matt and I were very impressed!

5. Pick your viewing location wisely and forget actually having any space next to you by the time the show starts. Seriously. After three lovely hours of feasting and watching native Vermonters step over us the fireworks started. To our great fortune, we positioned ourselves diagonal to a group of trees which happened to completely block 3/4 of the fireworks. I guess there was a fire where they were shooting them from (which is pretty common) but we had no idea! C'est la vie.

All in all - the show was amazing and completely worth the trip in via public transportation. If we were up here for the Fourth I would absolutely do it again. Here's a few more pictures from the day. Enjoy!

For more tales of our weekend long celebration - check out our post in the Food & Drink section.
Cheers!