Top Ten (or 12) List for 2008 (or the things that impacted our lives)

Everyone seems to do a top ten list on their blogs...
We jumped on that bandwagon so here goes
in no particular order:

1) 5-25-08 our wedding day. We got married on trunk bay on the beautiful virgin island of St. John with our families present. We spent 12 sun-soaked days living it up island style.

2) 8-05-08. The day Denise took not ONE but TWO pregnancy tests. Both were postitive but she just needed to be sure....Hence baby Donavan became a part of our lives and will present him/herself to the world sometime around April 12th, 2009.

3) The acquistion of our 42-inch Pioneer Elite Plasma HDTV from The Tahl's as an engagement gift. TV watching has never been quite so good as it is on this TV.

4) Denise's new I-Phone. She received this as a birthday gift sometime in November and hasn't quite taken her hands off of it since then. But truth be told...It is really quite awesome.

5) Our discovery of Pinkberry. Now every trip to New York involves at least one stop to take care of our addiction. We recently discovered one in Flushing which is much closer to Great Neck. Unfortunately we learned that Pinkberry doesn't travel well so we only get to enjoy it on our NY Visits.

6) The birth of our blog on with this simple post on March 11, 2008. It all started as a joke and here we are still blogging away. Who thought we could write so much about our boring lives.

7) Our addiction to Facebook. Yes it's sad and true but the truth is...We are both truly addicted. Face it, you all are too.

8) My new job as a 10th grade social studies teacher at Nashua High School North. It certainly has been an exciting, exhausting, challenging, yet fun year so far.

9) Plenty of great movies including Wall-E, Once, The Visitor and Slumdog Millionaire.

10) Our discovery of Zach Deputy. He opened for The Ryan Montbleau Band when we saw them in March. We instantly fell in love. Hopefully he'll be playing more shows around here soon.

11) Frank Pepe's Pizza. The Manchester, CT outpost of this New Haven landmark has become a favorite lunch/dinner stop of ours on our drives to/from New York. It is right off the highway and has some of the best pizza we've ever tasted. The four hour drive doesn't seem so bad anymore.

12) Finally, our 44th President. Yes, we are both thrilled that Barack Obama won. We certainly feel that we did our part to help him win here in the Granite State. . We really enjoyed making phone calls and canvassing the neighborhoods of Manchester.

2009 certainly will be an exciting and eventful year for us. We'll be sure to keep you all posted on everything that happens.

Happy New Year!!!!

A few hours early but who knows if we (or at least I) will be awake when it officially turns to 2009...we are spending a quiet night at home to celebrate the new year as opposed to traveling in the snow to ring in the new year with live music and a few hundred other people like we have done the past 3 years. One of our favorite bands, The Assembly of Dust, has always put on a great show in Boston or like last year, Keene. However this year they are playing in North Hampton MA...a bit too far and especially in this weather so we nixed the idea of going. We also decided that we are probably getting to old to be out until 2 or 3 in the morning...and we figure we should start getting used to staying in and hunkering down! Only 4 more months before our lives change forever! And we are getting very excited about it! So Chinese food for dinner, Andrew making carrot cake cupcakes (I think he shredded part of his finger with the carrots) and a bottle of champagne (I might have a little glass...), we are all set to enjoy a quiet New Year...Happy New Year to everyone and here's to a great 2009!!!

Christmas with the Fosters

First off...we'd like to wish everyone who reads our blog a merry christmas, happy hanukkah, or whatever it is you celebrate this time of year....

Denise and I just got back from Ballston Spa, NY where we spent Christmas with her parents... We had a great time...relaxing, eating, sleeping, opening presents, and doing not much at all.


We arrived on wednesday evening after an awful drive through rain, fog, and more rain. Joyce cooked us a delicious dinner (Rachael Ray's Christmas pasta, salad, and garlic bread). We then played a rousing game of trivial pursuit and retired to bed.

Christmas day started with breakfast and then consisted of opening gifts, eating candy (including Joyce's famous chocolate fudge wreath) see picture:


The afternoon was spent playing with our new toys (including Joyce's new I-pod), sleeping, watching "A Christmas Story", and eating more junk........ There were a few catnaps that took place as well...

Christmas dinner greatly resembled a thanksgiving feast (turkey with all the trimmings)...After dinner Denise and I took a walk and then drove around unsuccessfully to look at christmas lights. When we returned Joyce, Denise and I played a rousing game of Seinfeld Scene it.

We got up today and had breakfast and hit the road. We had a quick trip back and then Denise had to go to work...

All in all it was a great relaxing XMAS.....

Yet another ultrasound picture....

Well, because baby Donovan (just a nickname, not any name we really picked out) is so stubborn and wouldn't move the right way for the doctor when I went for an ultrsound last month, I had to go back again today so they could got all the imaging shots they need for the 2nd trimester screening. And wouldn't you know it, he/she was being just as stubborn today as well! I may have to go back a third time as today the baby moved in the exact opposite direction the tech needed it to move! Stubborn and doesn't listen...hmmm...could this be a precursor of what is to come? Or does the baby just take after it's parents? Anyway, the upside is that I always get to go home with some new pictures...Here's baby Donovan sucking his/her thumb!

"224,000 without power in NH but...."

224,000 was the number on Saturday due to the "ICE STORM OF 2008". I don't know what the number is today but I am hoping for all those people out there in the dark that it is a lot lower! We were so lucky never to have lost power and had no idea how bad it really was, even in our own backyard. The storm started Thursday night and we were both home safe and sound watching the ice form on the power lines. Friday morning, we woke up at 5am to check it all out and Andrew found out he had no school. I, of course, still had to go to work so I headed out a bit early in case the roads were bad. It was raining but about 40 degrees, so no chance of ice on the roads. I made it to work fine and noticed that about a block away from us, the neighborhood was completely dark. Target had power and ended up being a busy day since thousands of people had no power, and no school and no work...so the holiday shopping season saw a benefit from the storm! Saturday night, Andrew and I went out to dinner and then hit the town for his favorite holiday activity...driving around looking at Christmas lights. I don't know what it is about the lights, but the more obnoxious the decorations, the more he laughs and laughs. Our goal is to find the most obnoxious in Manchester and we think we may have done so...The ironic thing is this is all going on while 224,000 people still have no power in NH!!!! Could there be a connection? If these houses turned off just half of their lights, would it be easier for the power to be restored in the rest of the state? I know, probably not but it makes you wonder...Anyway while driving around about 3 blocks away from us, we noticed there were not a lot of decorations...then we realized these blocks had no power, still after 48 hours. We had no idea and because we never lost power, had no idea that houses so close to use were effected for so long. I'm not sure if they have power back on now but we certainly felt lucky! Here's to hoping that all power throughout NH and New England is restored soon!
***These are all pictures from the same house in Manchester. Also the same house in the background of our new blog picture***




***Also seen around Manchester: A blow up snowman the size of a house****

***I couldn't believe this when I saw it but it's the leg lamp from The Christmas Story! "Fra-gil-e...must be Italian!"

Ninety-Nine

No...not bottles of beer on the wall....

Wednesday (Dec 10th) was my grandfather Jack's 99th birthday....
One more to go...
I am pretty sure he's not reading this but
anway..
Happy Birthday Gramps.... Here's to 99 more!!!!

Blogging Slacker

So it's been a while since I last blogged...I'm an official blogging slacker. We had a nice thanksgiving in NY. It was great seeing family and friends (although in a whirlwindish kind of way) Denise headed back to NH on friday morning to do the Black (green) friday thing at Target. I stayed in NY and sat through a bad movie (Quantam of Solace) and then went to the annual post-thanksgiving bash at the Tahl Mahal. The drive back to NH on that sunday was awful. Rain, traffic, more rain, more traffic and then up here in the granite state ice and snow. It took well over 6 hours to do a normally 4 hour drive. Now we are back to the grind. Denise is busy with the usual holiday stuff and at school I'm contending with progress reports and the pre vacation student zaniness. Otherwise Denise at 24 weeks and baby Donavan is doing just fine....

Some of the events of the past few weeks will be elaborated upon soon..
Until then..be assured I won't be a slacker anymore....

Nobody puts Baby in the corner...

The latest ultrasound pic of baby bergang...at least now it actually looks like a baby!



20 weeks down and 20 more to go!

Weekend in the country...

We decided to take off for the weekend and hole up in Andrew's parent's country house in Cold Spring NY this past weekend. It was rainy, foggy and not so pleasant outside so a great weekend to build a fire and stay indoors the whole time. We got there late Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon and enjoyed being free from phones, computers and t.v. The majority of Saturday was spent with me plowing through the book "Twilight", which I decided I have heard so much about I might as well read it. I finished it today before we left...and looking forward to seeing the movie when it opens this weekend as well as starting the next book in the series! Andrew spent the majority of the day tending to the fire...which he did a pretty good job at! I swear, we are going to have to buy a house with a fireplace some day! We did leave the house Saturday night for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and to see the movie Changeling...the fajitas were better than the movie. Our weekend was complete with a stop at our favorite pizza place in CT, Frank Pepe's and then groceries from Trader Joe's on the way home. All in all, a nice relaxing weekend and we are ready for another week of work!

And so it begins..

Tonight marks the beginning of yet another season of Top Chef... This show has become a favorite here at the Bergang household... This season should be interesting as the show takes place in New York...

Looking forward to seeing Tom, Padma(a fellow clark alum) and the rest of the gang...
Denise and I will making our bets on who will be the winner soon.

YES WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say I am proud to be an American today...
What lays ahead is unknown but the outlook is certainly brighter than it's been for a long, long time....

Most importantly, I am happy that Denise and I will be bringing a child into the world when we have a president whom I am proud of...

Keeping our fingers crossed...

Hoping for a victory for these guys tomorrow....

























YEAH RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You Betcha!

This is quite possibly the funniest thing I have seen pop up on the internet in a while. Roll the mouse over everything and keep clicking to check it all out!!!

Palin as President

Birthday weekend getaway (leef peeping style)

Last weekend was Denise's birthday and we took a little trip to celebrate. Seeing that it was Columbus Day weekend and the peak of the fall foliage season we decided to head North to the white mountains.

We left sunday morning and headed north...First off..When was the last time you saw this at a gas station?


We then headed to Squam Lake to hike up Rattlesnake... It is a somewhat short but rewarding hike....It was, however, very crowded.

After the hike we headed to the Wentworth Inn.
On the way we saw some really cool handpainted Obama signs.

The Wentworth Inn was a nice place. We had a nice room with a fireplace. The Inn's room rate included a four course dinner which was actually really good.


The following morning we ate breakfast at the Inn (also included)and decided, since we were so close, that we'd drive up the Mount Washington Auto Road.
If you've never done this, it is something you should do, it's quite an adventure...
Definitely not for the faint of heart.



The view from the top wasn't so wonderful as it was freezing cold and overcast... But we had fun nonetheless...


Here is Denise at the roof of the Northeast...


Our Drive back to Manchester was a scenic one. We took the Kancamagus Highway which was a beautiful drive.

This drive included us seeing a big black bear run right across the road in front of our car as well as us passing a dead moose on the side of the road.

Helping out in NH

"Hello my name is Denise and I'm calling from Barack Obama's headquarters in Manchester...."


Denise and I have been spending some time of late campaigning for Obama here in the Granite State. New Hampshire has been a traditionally "purple" state and we are doing our part to change that(Right now the polls are definitely in our favor!!)
We have been going one night a week to make phone calls and spent a few hours on saturday knocking on people's doors. It has been a rewarding experience and we have met some great people in the process. Keeping our fingers crossed for November 4th.

It's a baby!!!!

Well...we think it is! Not sure what it really looks like now but it's exciting! In case you haven't heard...we are having a baby and I am due April 12th! This was taken last Tuesday at my first ultrasound. Hopefully we will get a better picture at the next one! But no, we are not going to find out if it's a boy or girl! We are currently accepting any suggestions for names since we can't seem to agree on any!!!

The VP Debate

Sarah Palin's performance all laid out in a pretty little flowchart :)

Goin' Phishin....

Well, maybe...Phish just announced their first show in almost 5 years for next March in Hampton VA. Some people may know, but for those who don't (even though Andrew loves to tell this...) I was (and still am) a "phish phan" and saw 62 shows over a 10 year period in about 15 different states. I used to take time off from work every summer (and sometimes long weekends)to travel around from place to place to see 5 or 6 shows in a week. I followed everything the band did, what they played each night, collecting "bootlegs" of the shows (and later downloading them off the Internet)...some would have said I was obsessed...and I guess I did devote a lot of time (and money) during my 20's to Phish. 4 years later and I still love the music, and I still love seeing live shows. Now, shows that I go see are a bit different as they are usually closer to home and only 200 people there, instead of 20,000 at a phish show but it's still one of my favorite things to do. But, what to do now? I always thought that when (and if) Phish got back together, they would play there first show in Boston, NYC or even Vermont...all very convenient places, close to home, close to family...not Hampton VA! And next March is not looking like a very "convenient" time for us to travel! We'll see if I make it to the "phish reunion" tour and if Andrew makes it to his first phish show!

Wedding part 2

This past weekend, we traveled to Long Island NY for a luncheon thrown in our honor by Andrew's parents to celebrate our nuptials. We have been planning this for a while and couldn't believe it came so quickly. Friends and family from all over (and as far as California!) joined us for an afternoon of good Italian food, lots of wine and great conversation. It was a terrific way to celebrate as there were only 9 people at our wedding. The four hours blew past and felt like a whirl wind of hugging, kissing and accepting lots and lots of congratulations. I can't imagine what a real wedding would be like! It was just a perfect way for all of our friends and family to come together and celebrate! The only downside is that my brother and his family couldn't make it from Arizona, although they were there to celebrate with us in St John back in May. At some point we are sure my brother and his family will meet Andrew's sister and her family, who couldn't be in St John because baby Alex was born just a few weeks later! With all the craziness of the afternoon, neither one of us took any pictures with our camera but we posed for many! As soon as we get some, they will be on here. Thanks to all who came and helped us celebrate!!!

Something to make your blood boil

Sent to me my father...

How can it be that there are so many people who would vote for this guy?
Let's keep our fingers crossed..

"Same old River..."

Every summer for the past 3 years we head up north and rent a canoe for the day and float along the Pemigiwasset. This summer, we almost didn't make it as every day off we had together (with no other commitments) it was either raining or had just finished raining for 3 days and the river would be like a class 5 rapid (anyone who knows about our experience a few years ago white water rafting knows why we avoid the river when it's really high...). But last Sunday, we had the day off and no plans...we woke up and it was a beautiful late summer day. We called our friend Earl

at Pemi-Barker River adventures and set it up to take a canoe out on our favorite 14 mile trip. Earl is great and has a pretty cool set up. He drops you off at one end of the river and sets a time to pick you up however many hours later you want. Other times we have done the trip we have taken hours... stopping to swim along the way in the clear river water or to have lunch on a beach along the side. This trip was a quick ones as we started later in the day than we wanted and the river was so quick, we barely needed to paddle and the weather turned crappy the further north we drove, although it did clear up and became beautiful again towards the end. We even missed our favorite beach to stop and have lunch so we ended up eating in the boat while floating in circles. Here's some pictures of us on this trip and a few more from other years...

Andrew ruined the nice picture...

Why do I let him lead? It's amazing we made it back...

First signs of Fall...

Picture from last year, our beach we missed this year...

A couple of years ago, we went with Jon, Carolyn and their dog Abby...oh hi Abby...yes, Earl is so cool, he had life jackets for dogs...

Yes We Can!!!!

On saturday morning Barack Obama spoke in Manchester at a public rally. I decided that this was something I needed to attend. He was not expected to speak until 10:30but they were opening up the gates at 8:30... I walked down to the park at 7:45 and when I arrived at the park the line was already blocks long. I found the end of the line and began chatting it up with the people around me. It was like going to a concert. People selling buttons, shirts, etc.. While we stood on line we watched literally thousands of people trying to find the end of the line. At 8:30 the line finally started to move... It took about 40 minutes to get into the park. This involved going through security that rivaled any airport in the days after 9/11...Metal Detectors, No bottles, no food... cell phones and cameras open and turned on etc...
Getting there that early ensured me a spot pretty close to the stage...
Here is the stage pre-speech...

Here is a picture of the crowd 7,000+ strong

At around 10:15 there were a number of introductory speeches including Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter and Governor John Lynch. Finally at around 10:40 Obama's bus (and entourage of security vehicles arrived) The crowd (which was estimated between 7-8 thousand people) went absolutely nuts...

The man of the hour had arrived....
Obama gave a great speech that lasted about 35-40 minutes... The crowd had some much energy and reacted to everything he said...
here he is...

Needless to say...Hearing Obama speak in person was amazing... It's one thing to see him on TV but to see it in person was special.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed....

P.S... If you are so inclined..and have 35 minutes to spare..here is a youtube video of the speech I saw..Such powerful words.....

Dave and Nina's Wedding

Ok....
So it's been almost two weeks now but I thought I'd start catching up on things.
We were in Milwaukee for my best friend Dave's wedding.
Dave and Nina got married at a country club in Milwaukee.
There was a whole weekend of festivities starting with the rehearsal dinner at a very cool place called Historic Turner Hall.
Here are the bride and groom at the rehearsal dinner

The wedding was the following day (Sunday). It was a beautiful afternoon and a beautiful setting. The ceremony took place outside on the golf course....
Here I am during the procession...

The bride and groom after the "I do's"


The party moved inside and it became a wild one (even though it was a completely vegetarian wedding)...complete with not one, but two rousing, wild and crazy horas..
Here I am with Nina (the bride) during one of them

Denise also did a great job of taking pictures of me during my finest moments..
Check out my face..Yikes....


We had a great time and wish Dave and Nina a lifetime of happiness....

A quick update

Well it's certainly been a busy couple of weeks.
Just a quick recap with more detailed updates to follow.
We returned from Milwaukee last monday and I immediately had to go to work...
School started on wednesday for me...It was a short two day week but an exhausting one...Ninety-three tenth graders will do that to you....

On friday we headed north to Vermont for Daniel and Audrey's wedding.
The rehearsal dinner was friday evening.
Saturday Denise and I took Rachel for a quick spin upto Burlington, then we spent the afternoon setting up the tent for the wedding.
The wedding was great (more on that later)
we had breakfast sunday morning and headed home.
We had a nice visit with cousin Brooke and her boyfriend Andrew.
Monday was spent catching up on our lives and getting ready for the weekly grind.

More to follow....

Happy 3rd Birthday Griffin!!!

Airport fun

What to do in a Milwaulkee airport at 5:30am? Make friends with the news stand cashier and convince her to take pictures of us with cheese head hats...