Loved it there!

There are certainly ups and downs to being the wife of a scientist, but I recently had the opportunity to enjoy one of the awesome perks of my husband's job- international travel. Conferences in the research world tend to take place fairly regularly and tend to take place internationally (much to my excitement at this revelation), and last week Steve was fortunate enough to attend the Metastasis Genes and Function Conference (one of these days I'll have a post attempting to explain what is it "I think" my husband does...) in Barcelona, Spain. Now, obviously I won't always be able to take advantage of this luxury, but with our 5 year anniversary fast approaching, and Steve's portion of the trip covered, we couldn't pass up the chance to bring me out there for an early celebration. We arrived last Friday morning, returning this past Thursday afternoon, so with his conference only taking up the equivalent of about two days, it turned out to be a great vacation.

The story of our trip can be told in pictures found here:

Pics with us

Pics without us

Therefore, I'll limit this post to some things we noticed and particularly liked about Barcelona (or in some cases, even more broadly, European) living. Next week, I'll share some thoughts on some things we noticed and particularly like about US of A, and sometimes, particularly, NYC living. Neither posts are intended to bash either city or country in any way- they're just some interesting observations we made. So... here is a small sampling of some random reasons why we loved it there:

* Greener transportation!!! Case in point- our car ride to the Newark airport (~30 miles away) took almost two hours!!! Why? Because of all the cars, and all the big cars, with hardly any carpoolers!!! We noticed that Spain was full of scooters, bikes, and small cars, and loved that!

* Greener toilets- ha! Yes, such a thing can exist! Toilets literally had a double-flush. That's right, two different types of flushes - one if just a little flush is needed and one if... well... you get the drift. Water saving at its best- brilliant!

* Greener lights! Ok, this was just our first hotel (yes, we stayed at two hotels- one that we had to cover, and one the conference covered, but hey, we're certainly not complaining!), but the idea was too cool; the lights are set so that you can't leave the room without the lights turning off- once the key is taken out of the slot that it is placed in upon entering the room, the lights go out. Awesome.

* Siestas- enough said.

* Incredible architecture, feel, and views. There's something about a place that has the beauty and charm of old Europe, the vibe of a big city, and the scenery and landscaping of the Mediterranean. Gorgeous!

* Paellas, and Tapas, and Wine- oh my! All good Spanish yumminess. Mmm. Yes, I did mention Spanish wine (and more specifically Catalan wine, as we learned Barcelona was considered to be), and it can give France a run for its' money.

Ok, that'll do for now. It's pretty evident from our MANY pictures the various reasons why we loved it there, so I'll keep it at that. We had a wonderful trip and early anniversary celebration and we feel incredibly blessed to have had the experience.

Nosaltres amor Barcelona!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

In honor of this most special day, I'd like to wish some very awesome moms a very Happy Mother's Day!!! First and foremost, to my dearest mother, Linda, to my mother-in-law, Dee, and to my "step" grandma, Mary Catherine- Happy Mother's Day, ladies!

And I also have to give a shout-out to a few of my sweet friends who are wonderful mothers that I can't wait to pick their brains about the joys and trials of motherhood once my time comes :)-

Happy Mother's Day Christian, Cindy, Desiree, Melanie, Shawna, and Summer!!!

There are many more great moms that I don't mean to leave out, those mentioned above are part of the "blog world" so I hope all of you special ladies have a wonderful day :) .

As is probably evident from my previous post, I've got quite a terrific mom so I couldn't bypass this important day without saying a few words about her, so just for fun, here is a small sprinkling of some my fondest memories with my mom:

* My mom dressed up with mismatched clothing, smeared make-up, and a crazy wig as Mrs. Hannigan, accompanying me on piano while I sang "Tomorrow" from Annie for an elementary school talent show

* Eating pizza in the white van overlooking the ocean in Monterey, CA

* The many tasty and creative cakes mom would make for my brother's and my birthdays- "Strawberry Shortcake", "My Little Pony", a telephone cake during my tween years, and a cake with one of my favorite pieces of music decorated on top... just to name a few!

* My mom directing the church kid's choir in many "Psalty, the singing song-book" musical productions, while we lived in CA, then MD

* Baskin Robbin's ice cream sundaes for dinner whenever it would be just the two of us some evenings throughout middle and high school :)

* Singing at the top of our lungs in the Honda w/ the sun roof open while we still lived in MD, before moving to the Netherlands.

* That fateful day in Canterbury, England on the HS drama trip with mommy as chaperone, lost in the village of Canterbury while I fearfully boo-hooed on the bus while we tried to find her. Alas, she was found and we had a tearful reunion as we hugged and all turned out ok.

* Mom's (and Dad's :) attendance of almost all of my various performances throughout undergrad AND out to San Fran for some grad school performances

* Our many FUN, awesome mommy/daughter trips that we've shared over the years with a ton of great memories: the Bahamas during the spring break of my senior year of HS, Rehobeth Beach right before I got married, Palm Springs when Steve and I lived in San Diego, and the many NYC weekends we've shared and will share now that we live here in this incredible city

Well, the list could go on, but I'll leave it at that.

Mom- you are so special to me and have given me more amazing memories than there's room on a web page to write about and I look forward to many more now that we live so much closer together. I love you!

And to all the mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!