Summertime Beach Bum

A story about a girl named Colie Sparks who learns about finding herself. She grew up living in her car with her mother Kiki Sparks, both over weight, eating junk food and traveling from school to school, never staying in the same place for too long. Her mother becomes the fitness queen, losing a bunch of weight and Colie losing hers along side the mother.  For the summer Colie is sent to her Aunts house in a little town. The book shows you how she was bullied her entire childhood, and therefore, still believes she isn’t worth anything. She has trouble making friends in this new town, but quickly finds her way.  Her first friend is a guy named Norman who lives in the basement of her Aunts house. Then she becomes friends with Morgan and Isabel. During summer she finally learns what it is like to have girlfriends, love interests, and best of all, to stand up for herself. This was my first book by Sarah Dessen, and I enjoyed it. I look forward to reading her next one.

Lately work just seems to be crazy busy. The first week back from vacation had a nice little lull, but now they have a new employee shadowing me every day, as well as a student twice a week. I enjoy having someone out with me, however it takes more time. Today after my day we went back to the office and we spent about 2.5 hours going over paperwork. So it just takes more time to do this. I am trying to stay afloat, and sometimes it is hard. I worked both days this past weekend, and Sunday when I was done for my day with visits (around 12) I went home and charted. I charted until about 6pm, and when I closed my computer at 6pm, I still wasn’t done! Crazy! I love my job because I have flexibility most   people would only dream of having, however the amount of paperwork, I could only dream would go away. 

Tonight we tried out the Broadway Diner. I had found it listed as one of the places that Guy from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives had been to. So we decided to check it out!  Here is the outside of the diner. I love all the lights.  A close up of the sign with the name.  Front of the menu- Guy was right! A huge menu to choose from.  Then we ordered a ton of food! I tried the special of potato gnocchi with Alfredo sauce that came with a salad. Mark got a steak sub with fries and a French onion soup. He also got a strawberry milkshake.  This is also in the picture above but here is a close up. It's a grilled cheese mac&cheese with French fries. This is what I ate when we were there and I brought the gnocchi home.  It was all so yummy! And def so filling!!  Now we are back at the hotel just relaxing for the rest of the evening. 

I mentioned posting the photos of the desserts we got today from Carlo's Bakery.  The M&M cookie. Mark had already broken me off a piece when I mentioned taking a pic. We did try this. Yummy!  The box tied up holding our goodies :) On the left is marks mini cheesecake with a chocolate mousse and a strawberry ontop. Then on the right is a mini red velvet cake covered in chocolate. We haven't tried these yet but they look amazing!  The cupcake on the left fell over as you can see by the frosting on the side on the box. So it's no longer pretty but it's a chocolate cupcake with a peanutbutter frosting. On the right a classic cannoli. I think we will try the cannoli tonight. Can't wait! 

Today we left on our adventure! We are traveling down to Maryland for our cruise and making a few stops along the way. Our first stop was in Hoboken NJ to visit Carlo's Bakery from the TLC show Cake Boss. I had always wanted to go to the bakery and I was excited we made it.  Mark headed inside!  Some of the desserts being shown. We got a bunch of different things. Mark outside with our bag of desserts!  My turn outside the bakery!  After the bakery we went and visited my great uncle and his lovely girlfriend. They treated us to a late lunch. After we headed back in the car to go to Baltimore. Once we are checked in and enjoying our desserts I'll be sure to post the photos! 

About a week ago Mark took my to my first patriots game. I had been to Gillette Stadium before for a few Revs soccer games as well as working the food stand with my sorority during the patriots game. But I had never been just to watch a game. We headed up as soon as both of us were out of work. The only traffic we encountered was passing an accident on route one, about a mile away from the stadium.  I had prepared a bunch of food for us to tailgate.  Potatoes with seasoning and onions. Placed in tinfoil for the grill.  Chicken drumsticks. Seasoned and ready :)  Homemade chilli. We actually didn't end up eating the chilli since we were so full.  Mark also brought home from work their home made bacon cheddar burgers. And for dessert I has made extra chocolate brownies. Yum!!  We tailgated for a while. Once we were done we got up and walked around patriots place.  When they opened the gates we went into the stadium and walked around exploring. We eventually found our seats. Which were