Trip to Boston

I spent this past week in Boston while Matt stayed in Gainesville and worked on his dissertation. This was my first trip back to Boston in almost a year. I was really excited to be back in my home town. It was perfect timing for me to be in Boston because it allowed Matt to have a quiet house to work in with no distractions. He wrote for about 12 - 15 hours a day, while I spent time with my family and friends, visited some of my favorite places and enjoyed some of my favorite foods.

On Wednesday I went to Grammy's house. She taught me how to make Criss Cross. Criss Cross is a Hungarian cookie that Grammy is famous for making. They are delicious and a family tradition. She has now passed the recipe on to me.

While the Criss Cross were cooking Grammy and I made dinner. While slicing up the veggies for the salad I sliced my finger as well. Ouch!! It hurt really bad. Thankfully I did not need stitches and my finger was still all there. Grammy got to play Grandmother and bandaged me all up.

This is what I cut my finger on. Ouch.

On Friday afternoon I went over to the Aunt's house and made candy with Flo Flo. We made my favorite - peanut butter cups. I really enjoy spending time with both my grandmother and great Aunts doing something they love and that reminds me of them.

On Saturday morning as the Sylvester tradition we headed into the North End for some cuppuccino. Our favorite cafe, Cafe Grafitti, went out of business so my parents have found another place to go to. Patrick came with us since Katie had to work. It was funny to have just the old family of 4 together again.

Patrick and Katie just came back from a trip to Arizona and Patrick was showing my parents the pictures from the trip. I think my Dad was admiring the Grand Canyon.

Saturday night my mom wanted to take me to a new restaurant they found that has Gluten Free pizza. It is called Flatbread Pizza Company. It is only the 2nd restaurant that I have been to where I can order GF pizza. The pizza was pretty good. I actually tried something adventurous on my pizza in honor of Matt.

Matt's commencement ceremony

Although Matt will not defend his dissertation until June 24th, he was able to walk on May 3rd. This was a huge blessing since now we don't have to fly back to Gainesville in August. It was last minute, but Matt was able to get all the details worked out. We were not sure what to expect with the graduation ceremony, but it was great. The Phd's were hooded first and then all the masters students received their degrees. I was able to get some great photos.

After the ceremony Matt and I went all over campus and took some pictures with our favorite University of Florida sights. I had made a list beforehand so that we wouldn't miss any of them. Lisa Merrell was our photographer. She was excellent. After all the pictures were taken we went to lunch at Chop Stix with Bob and Lisa. It was quite a memorable day!

Enjoy the pictures!

Here is Matt with his advisor Pete Giacobbi.

Matt's 28th Birthday!

New Hair Cut

Well here is a picture of my latest hair cut. It is short, but I am getting used to it.

Mom came to visit us in Gainesville for the last time (at least for a while).
It was really fun to have her visit. Whenever she comes she spoils us with good food!! One night she made us chicken piccata, spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes and a GF angel food cake for dessert.
Mom loves to do puzzles so she brought one to do while she stayed with us. It was a puzzle of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. We had fun doing it, although the water and sky part were really difficult since all the pieces were the same color.

For the first few days Mom came to Brentwood with me. My students thought it was so neat that Mrs. Buman's mother was visiting. Mom even came on a field trip to the Devil's Millhopper. It was so special to have mom come on one of my field trips for which I was the teacher for when for years she was a chaperone for field trips when I was the student. After the tour of the sink hole we ate lunch at this really cool park with a neat playground. Here I am playing on the playground with my students. Who can resist the monkey bars. I even convinced Kim to come down the slide. The students thought it was hilarious and so cool.

I took Friday off from work and Mom and I went to the beach. It was a really relaxing day. Saturday we went to the Gator women's softball game and then out to dinner at Cabanna Cove.

This is the amazing meal that I ordered at Cabanna Cove, curry chicken salad. I thought it would not be good, but Matt convinced me to try it. I am glad that I actually listened and ordered it.

We went to church on Saturday night. Matt worked all day on Sunday, while Mom and I went to the beach again. This time we got there much earlier (10 am instead of 1 pm).

One of the other things that Mom and I did was get saddle bags for my bike. It will be my birthday present from my parents. These saddle bags are awesome and will keep me from having to carry a backpack on my bike and have sore shoulders and back. I love them.

Dinner with Kevin at the Swamp

Kevin was working at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL for the week and came up to Gainesville for dinner. We decided to go to the Swamp restaurant on University Ave. It was yummy especially the sweet potato fries. We were glad to be able to hang out with him even if it was just for the evening.

So our BIG news is that we are moving to CALIFORNIA!!

Matt accpeted a post doc at Stanford and we will be moving this summer. We are so excited for the new life ahead of us. We are definately going to miss Gainesville and the friends and memories we have made here. God has been so faithful to provide everything along the way showing us that this move to Stanford is the right thing.

I took a trip to San Francisco all by myself, rented a car, stayed with someone I had never met before and had 8 interviews for teaching positions. God protected me and provided for me the whole trip. I was so proud of the courage that God gave me to make this trip. The trip was a huge success and I was blessed with 4 offers one of which I accepted!!

This is the car that I rented on my trip - bright blue. I stood out like a sore thumb. Most other people were driving Mercedes and BMWs.

This road is called Palm Drive and it leads right to the center of Stanford's campus. It was lined with these HUGE palm trees and was very stunning.

The campus has a unique feel to it and has such beautiful Spanish style architecture. Here are a few pictures I took when I was exploring the campus for the first time.

Patrick, I took this next picture for you because you love palm trees and I thought these were so cool. :)

Matt and I got Crispers takeout for lunch and ate at Lake Alice in celebrattion of my new job in Menlo Park, CA. It was a wonderful picnic lunch. I got my favorite salad, Harvest Cobb with pumpkin seeds, grapes, crasins, blue cheese, pears, lettuce and poppy seed dressing.

Baby Shower, Padres shirt & Family Group Girls Night Out

Here are some of the things that have been going on in our lives over the last 2 months...sorry I got so behind!

We had a baby shower for Zach and Kristy and baby Beckett. Emily Sorgius had it at her house. It was really fun especially to have both Evie and Beckett there!

Here are Kristy and I at her baby shower.


Here is Emily and Evie coloring.

This is the Padres shirt that Matt brought back for me from his recent trip to San Diego for a conference. He did a great job picking it out. It is exactly what I wanted!!

We had Girls' night out with the Family Group. The girls decided to go to the Melting Pot. We had a great time eating a pot of cheese and two pots of chocolate.