A Word Dump

When T and I first started this blog over a year ago, I already had an idea of some posts to create. After those ideas were blogged the novelty of posting wore off. Now I'm back for a take two realizing that life passes much to quickly and there are important things I'd like to remember as the years go by.

There are too many memories to record since my last post (3/5/2012) so I'll list them for your enjoyment because obviously you care about and want to know what I'm doing.

April 2012

-T accepted his first official job as a lawyer for a firm in Old Town, VA

-T moved to VA while I held down the fort in Massachusetts

May 2012

- Found out we were expecting our first child

-I graduated from Boston University with my M Ed.

-My parents came out for my graduation and we planned a trip to Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket

-Cancelled the trip to Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket but I was sooo weak and ill with morning sickness

-My mom extended her visit and entire week to clean my house, take care of me, make dinner for me, and keep me company with T was working in VA

June 2012

-I packed up our entire apartment by myself while 3 months pregnant and ill with morning sickness

-T and I loaded a rental truck with all of our belongings and he and I caravanned to our new home in VA

-We moved into an apartment I found on craigslist (I ALWAYS find the apartment to live in on c.l. but T's always soo skeptical till he sees the place in person. Then he realizes I'm always right about it!)

-Flew to California for a week with Cassy and to see a friend get married

July 2012

-I flew home for 2 weeks

August 2012

-We took a backpacking trip across eastern Europe. We went to Iceland, Finland then took a ferry across the Baltic Sea to Estonia, Lativa, then took an overnight train to St. Petersburg, Moscow, then Saratov (60 miles from Kazakhstan's boarder)

-I used a hole in the ground to go to the bathroom (not only did I have to stand but I also had to PAY $$ to pee in a hole in the ground. gross.)

-I was 20/22 weeks pregnant while backpacking

September 2012

-Went to Jamaica with Cassy, Catie, and Jamie

-Got a prenatal massage on the beach

-Went on a cruise with my mom and dad. We flew to Canada and started off in Montreal then Quebec, Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island (this is where I thought of the name Charlotte for our babe), Cape Breton, Halifax, Bar Harbor in Maine, and then landed in Boston

-Stated in Boston to visit friends and see the area that I fell in LOVE with

October 2012

-Finished unpacking and arranging our apartment

-Got a job tutoring students

-Travelled to Albany, NY to see Tina get married (Albany was gorgeous in the fall time with so many vibrant colors)

November 2012

-Got bigger

-Visited Mt. Vernon (4 miles away from where we live)

-Craved cinnamon rolls and consumed them like they were water

-Had Thanksgiving here with dear friends (Smith's & Richardson's)

December 2012

-Had baby shower

-Quit tutoring job

-Got put on bed rest (BP was starting to increase)

-2 false trips to the hospital

-T and I had our first Christmas alone. We got our own tree and decorated it

-Went to bed at 10pm on NYE.

January 2013

-Had a baby girl (8lbs 8oz)

-My mom came out for 3 weeks to take care of us

-Got little sleep

February 2013

-Dadders came out to meet baby Charlie for the first time

-Visited the Jefferson memorial and Martin Luther King Jr. memorial

- The babe slept 12 hrs straight without feeding (this happened once, I thought she died. I had mixed emotions)

March 2013

-T turned 31, I through a birthday party for him and let everyone know how much he loves The Sword of Shinara (read it, it's about dragons and scifi)

-Took a trip down to Richmond to visit old friends (C was a NIGHTMARE on the way down, through the entire night, and on the way back)

April 2013

-Saw the cherry blossoms in DC

-C got bigger

-T worked

-I continued to work on surviving

May 2013

-Hung out with my sil, Haley

-Georgetown with Haley and Rome

-National Mall with Haley and Rome

-Old Town with Haley and Rome

-I turned 27

-C got bigger

-T worked

June 2013

-T,C, and I went home to visit family and bless her in Church 

-Went to the cabin

-Went to Yellowstone and saw 2 bear, hiked, saw a Mama moose and her calf

-C and I spent most days at the pool

-Great Falls Park in McLean VA with Rome, Graden, & Haley

August 2013

-I started work again tutoring students in read and math

-Went on our first camping trip as a family. We lasted until midnight. C wouldn't stop screaming

-C and I went raspberry and blackberry picking

-Made homemade blackberry and raspberry jam

-C and I continued to be pool junkies

-T worked

September 2013

-T and I are in the process of starting our own business 

-I learned about creating LLC's (can any of you help answer my questions??? I'm a business newbie)

-T worked

-Went apple picking

-Hopped a plane to Michigan to see Allie get married

-Got kicked out of our apartment for 3 days for the floors to get redone (freaked out, no place to go, the Davey's came thru thank goodness!!)

-Made 13 quarts of apple sauce

October 2013. Wait, no. I'll save this for another post. Here are a few pictures to document the last 17 months. Enjoy.

Strawberry object lesson learned

Our two-party political system is a great example of opposition in all things. A GOP candidate will do well politically to disagree with the current president on almost any issue. But the truth is that both sides have good points and are often times both "right."

Marriage sometimes highlights the opposing views of spouses in the most unanticipated ways. While at the baptism today after church, the Aimers and I started talking about the strawberries we had just bought at Costco. To Amy, we needed to make those $9 stretch as long as possible and not eat them all at once. She was after all talking to an Ostler so her bringing up this topic did have merit.

I had a different view, being more concerned about the strawberries going bad. We had, after all, bought a huge case of strawberries and to me the worst thing in the world would be to see those big, red, sweet-smelling beauties go in the garbage because they were rotten.

What I'm trying to get at is that in this case, we were both right. Yes we should eat our goods in moderation and yes it would be a real tragedy if any of them had to go to waste. But when you're in the conversation, it's opposition in all strawberries.

Over the hill

Hello world, let it officially be known that I am now old! The Aimers let that fact sink in with black streamers and black balloons.

There is a silver lining in this news that I will never again be in my 20s ever: I can still be young at heart. Amy gifted me a tarantula, one of those squishy faces and an insect net to catch fireflies in (if we ever see one).

I also ate delicious tasting food. Having your 30th on a fast Sunday is a little bit unfair in some regards, but when you have a wife that can bust out a vegetable lasagna phenom, you are only smiles.

Jesus started his ministry at age 30, according to the customs at the time. While I'm not trying to compare myself with the Master, I just want to say that having laid a pretty good groundwork, I feel like I'm just getting started with life.

Insanity

This is the point T hit around 9:00am morning. I'm currently lesson planning for work next week and he has already been in to see me 19 different times in the last 3 hours. The first few were just to check on me to see if I needed anything. The next 5 were to see how much progress I've made on my lesson plans (none, if I can't focus, obviously).  The following 6 were about the bar, passing the bar, law school, student loans, and perspective employers. I realized he was inadvertently looking for ways to get out of studying so I sent him to do my dirty work... he handed me books on the other side of the room, got the mail, ran an errand to the library, then went to the store and got food for his trip and milk for me. Realizing I was on a roll I asked him to print my reading lesson plans, make my sight word cards, do the dishes, and pick up around the house. I also said lunch would be nice and a drink too! I'm currently in my pj's sitting in bed enjoying a great lunch made by T with all of my errands completed for the day as well as my reading lesson plans. I'd say this was a very productive day for me.

If only the bar were another 2 weeks away, then I could get T to help me do the spring cleaning...

February is half way over...

February is half way over and I'm still thinking what to share. Picking up from where I left off with our last post, we had a rockin' end to the month.

Brad tied the knot with a little lady. I raced home from school Friday and hustled to the airport to make our 6:00pm flight out of Logan. After boarding our flight we learned there were severe headwinds that would guzzle our gas to fly through. The two options mentioned were kicking people off the flight or stopping in SLC for a quick fuel stop. I voted for removing people from the flight. The final count was 3 to 200. Clearly I was in the minority once again. We took off and I was pleasantly surprised to see that JetBlue had TV's with 40 channels for me to watch on our 7 hour flight! I started watching Tom Brokaw. Apparently some other customer's TV wasn't working so the JetBlue staff restarted the TV system. I guess the other person's TV started working and mine became broken. I KNOW! I said the same things in my head too!! Can you believe the audacity of some people? Needless to say I know my vote was right earlier to kick people off the flight. I grew less interested in reading and working so I went to sleep. I was awakened 5 hours later by a beeping sound. I hate the beeping sound, it is never followed by anything good. Apparently SFO had closed down and delayed our flight by another 2 hours. Ugh! We finally got to SFO at 2:00am. Don't worry we were only 4 hours late. (here is a view of SF from the plane. what's that you ask? the sun rising? it's quite possibly so.)

We rented a car and drove 2.5 hours more to arrive in Shingle Springs at 5:20am. Went to bed and woke up 3 hours later for this. (don't they look like superstars with the lighting??)

The wedding was beautiful and it was good to be with family. I feel like I got to know my sister in laws a lot better and I love them! After the festivities end, T and I drove back to SF to meet up with sister and bf. We ate in Chinatown and had fun exploring that part of San Francisco.

 We got to our hotel at 11pm and got ready to leave the next morning at 4am. We got home with out any delays. I was actually really angry about the trip and having to go but I really enjoyed myself.

T and I celebrated Valentine's Day. He made me breakfast in bed and I made him a delicious dinner with our friends the Evans. 

I hinted to him 17 different times about what kind of flowers I wanted... it's 5 days later and I'm still waiting for those flowers to arrive...

It's t minus 9 days before T takes the bar. This phase of life NEEDS to be over. Nough Said. 

Now the update on me. Lately this is how my life has been...

I find there is never enough time in the day to complete what needs to be done. I try to prioritize but for some odd reason Hulu keeps ending up at the top of the list...

Until next time,

A

He Did It!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, it happened! T did it!! And now he denies ever having tasted it yet alone eating more than half the cake. I just don't get why he would blow his resolution on a $0.99 off brand cake mix with no frosting... obviously he is not the connoisseur  of sweets that he claims to be.

Back to lesson planning. Until next time. xoxo

Our First Time

It's been over a year and we are only now entering into the blogging sphere together... I guess this means our marriage is official. Realizing that our closest family members are 2,500 miles away, we thought it would be fun to post stories, musings, and pictures of us so that come Christmas time when we need a ride from the airport people will recognize us and not need signs. And by we in the previous sentence, I really meant I.

I can say after 2 full weeks of being home, we've both finally adjusted from our Christmas trip to Utah. It was painful for a few days realizing that no one was there to make my breakfast for me while I slept in and that I can't wake up a 9:00am every day or watch movies all day and shop online. It was sad leaving family but even sadder to hear Trent's new year's resolutions: NO SUGAR!!! What?! Who is this man that I married. He can't gain weight and he works out everyday like a maniac. I asked him why he was doing this and he explained he didn't want to be addicted to sugar. I wonder why this is hitting him now after being a sugar addict for the past 29 years. I begged and pleaded for him to change his mind but to no avail. He is 2 weeks strong. Last night I lied to him. I told him the mango juice was all natural and didn't have any sugar in it. He agreed to have a glass. (I thought if he would have sugar then he would stop this ridiculous goal). Then I got selfish and decided that I didn't want the mango juice, I wanted the raspberry juice. The moment I stepped into the pantry to get the other bottle, my plan backfired. He picked up the bottle and saw the number 2 ingredient was sugar! If only I wasn't so selfish and just went with the mango juice, Trent would be off this no-sugar kick. I'm kicking myself still.

In other non-eventful news T is full swing for BAR study. This basically means I see him only at meal times and when he crawls into bed after I've been asleep for at least an hour. This kid works hard. Harder than I do. I think the real question this brings to my mind is why can't things be handed to us on a silver platter. I'm not that picky, I'd take it on a pewter platter or even bronze. I just wish sometimes when we (and by we I really mean T as I think about all of his hard effort that went into the Mass BAR) work so hard, that someone would cut us a break and give it to us. I guess the real learning comes when we are faced with situations such as these. I hope he learns quick because this bar emptied our pockets...