Happy Belated New Year

Happy New Year! I really have to get better at updating the blog. I wasn't sure anyone was reading it, but now that I know people are, I'll try harder to update it!
I hope everyone's Christmas and New Year was wonderful. Our was nice. It was just us, but we had a nice time going to church and celebrating the holidays.
Now it's on to Carnival Season (Mardi Gras), Jarod's birthday, Valentine's Day, and my birthday (25th again, of course)!

We're back in the South!

Well, as usual, it's been quite a while since I've written anything. We've just been so busy the past few months! While still in New England, we filled our time with lots of activities! We went to a Red Sox game at Fenway, tubed the Saco river, drove up Mt. Washington, went to Freeport, ME., toured around Boston, took my mom to Newport for a long weekend, ate tons of local seafood, and so much more. We ended up seeing so much of the area during our 6 months, but I know that there is so much more still to be seen. I really enjoyed our time up there, and miss my friends there a lot. Of course, it was great to come back home to Mississippi as well!
We were only home for about 6 days before Jarod left for a 2 month deployment to Guam. He got to see lots of stuff in Guam as well and he even found my old house! He got home last weekend and we are now looking forward to our wedding in 2 weeks! Many of you are probably thinking, wait, a wedding?! Yes, we are getting married in November! We are having a small, intimate destination wedding. We are hoping there are no hurt feelings by not getting an invitation. We just wanted to keep it small and private. We are considering having a reception back home in a few months where we can invite all the family and friends, so we'll definitely keep you in the loop.
I've gone back to work since we've gotten home and that has definitely kept me busy!
Hope everyone is doing well and hope to see you all soon!

So, as usual, its been a while since my last blog. I think we are doing so much stuff, that I am having a hard time keeping up! Some recent highlights are: of course the big one! Getting engaged in Bar Harbor, ME! Jarod took me to the top of Cadillac Mountain at 430am to watch the sunrise. As the sun was rising, he dropped down on his knee and proposed. It was so sweet and special :) We had a great weekend camping and exploring the island. Jarod had rented a camper from base, so we got to stay in that and we brought the dogs. We also went to a brewery and winery and did some tastings.

We also have gone to Boston several times and have gotten to see lots of fun and interesting things. Two weeks ago, we went down to the Sam Adams Brewery. That was a lot of fun! Then, we headed over to the Freedom Trail and walked half of that. We went to the USS Constitution, Paul Revere's house, The Old North Church, and one of the cemetaries. We did the Bunker Hill monument (and the 300 steps up and then 300 steps back down again!) the week before that before we went to the Eagles/Dixie Chicks/Keith Urban concert. (Thanks USO for the free tickets!)

After the freedom trail, we headed over to Chinatown for dinner and then to Harvard to drive around and visit the school. It was such a fun and busy day!

Last weekend, some of the Hurricane Hunters flew a plane up here, so Jarod was able to fly with them for a while. We joined them for a lobster dinner before making plans to meet up a couple of days later. One of the weather officers' parents live up here on a lake, so we all went to their house for some yummy food and playing in their lake. It was so much fun!

This past weekend was a 3 day weekend for Jarod, so we went to the towns of Milton and Wilford, NH. They were both cute, little New England small towns, so they were adorable to drive through. We had lunch at Adam Sandler's favorite lunch spot too! I didn't know he was from up here, but apparently grew up right in Manchester!

On Saturday, we went to the Cape for the night. We went through all of the towns in the cape. Had lunch (more lobster!) in Hyannis, walked around Provincetown, and visited a lighthouse in Truro. The next day, we took the ferry to Martha's Vineyard where we rented a moped and explored the island that way. It was a lot of fun! We got to lay out in the beach and play in the water for a little while. Such fun!

We are so blessed to have this opportunity to travel like the right now. I am so grateful for it!

Several Week Wrap Up!

Well, again it's been a little while since we blogged. We've been pretty busy with travelling and working lately. I started subbing at the local elementary schools the past few weeks. Not coming from an education background, the first day was very overwhelming! Especially because I was told I had a pretty bad class! There were a few meltdowns that day, and let me tell you, they weren't by me! But I have done it a few times now and am scheduled for several more, so it will keep me busy!

We also had a trip down to Mississippi for the Hurricane Season kick off party and for Jarod to do some flying. I also went and worked a few days at my old job, so that was nice to do that again! It was great to see all the friends down there.

For Mother's Day, we went to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery and saw how Bud Light (and some others) is made and bottled. It was a great tour and we look forward to doing the BrewMaster's Tour with some of our visitors. It was also great to have the free beers they offered while watching other beers get bottled. Very cool!

A couple of weeks before that, we went to the East Coast of NH and had a great Lobster lunch! Jarod said they were the biggest crawfish he'd ever seen! ;) We also went to Maine for a little exploring and down to Hampton Beach to see if it was as bad as everyone said it was. (It definitely was)! After that, we went to the RedHook Brewery and enjoyed a couple frosty beverages :). Jarod got the sampler! It's located on part of what used to be Pease Air Force Base so it looks oddly familiar how it's laid out.

Yesterday, we drove down to Boston and met up with Erin and Dan and then we went to Newport for the day. We had lunch at a place my parents used to take me to with some great stuffed french toast. Then, we went and walked a portion of the Cliff Walk. It was beautiful! After that, we sat around on the lawn of The Breakers and then toured one of the mansions. We chose Rosecliff because several movies we've all seen had been filmed there; including 27 Dresses, True Lies, and Amistad. We also got to meet up with some other friends on Thames at the Black Pearl for some delicious clam chowder and then we drove past my old house. It was a great day and we had beautiful weather while we were there.

Today, Jarod and I decided to check out the NH Rennaissance Faire. It was nice to be outside, but unfortunately, it wasn't very good! So we came home and took the dogs on a long walk!

This week, we are both working. I am already scheduled for 2 days and will probably call the district and see if they have anything the other 3 days.

I posted some pictures in this blog of some of the activities I wrote about. I also included one of me with my Mike's Pastry box. I wrote about that place a few blogs ago and their delicious cannolis!

Hellooo! Its been a couple weeks since my last post. Jarod and I travelled to Washington State to visit my mom and grandma and I had no internet access, so....I had to wait till I got home! It was a good trip though. Jarod got to see the family lake house, and I got to visit my grandmother and celebrate her 89th birthday with her. It was great to see all my family. When we got back, we decided to take the dogs on a hike up Joe English Hill that is on the Air Force base Jarod works at. It was a lot of fun! We were allowed to let the dogs climb off the leash, so they just went crazy! They had so much fun! Kaia was definitely into it. She just climbed and ran right up the path! We kept having to call all the dogs back so we could keep up with them! They only ran off twice where Jarod had to go find them. One was at the top of the mountain, and one was on the way to the bottom. At the top of the climb, there was a bunch of granite slabs and someone had drug up two adirondack chairs and created a granite fire pit. I guess people climb up and watch the sunset, but I don't know how they'd get down! I slid down in a few places in the daylight! I'm sure it would be pretty though. On the way down, Kaia and Kirby decided they didn't want to keep up with me and Jarod, so they flew down the mountain. Jarod sped up to catch up with them, while my slow self made my way down. They were hanging out by the truck waiting on us! It was a great day, except we found a few ticks on the pups :( I didn't even think about that being an issue. Hopefully we got them all!

Other then that, we've tried out a few more places to eat and have drinks. I"m loving all the food around here!

We head down to Gulfport tomorrow so Jarod can do some flying to keep current. We happened to plan the trip around the Hurricane Season kick-off party. What a coincidence ;) It will be nice to see everyone though and last year's party was a lot of fun! My old job at Superior Asphalt is even letting me come to work for a few days. I am so excited about seeing everyone and getting some work in! We've got some camping trips and some other travel coming up, so we'll have some more interesting things to write about soon!

NH Syrup Weekend

Forgot something else fun we did last weekend before we headed to Boston! We went to the NH Syrup Weekend held across the state. We visited a sugar shack on one of the syrup maker's home. They let everyone in to see how syrup was made and we got to have free samples of some of their stuff. We got to try sugar on snow (boiled down sugar on shaved ice), maple cotton candy, maple covered nuts, and maple candy. It was all so good! We then took a self guided tour of the maple orchard, which we made it about halfway through before we got bored of looking at trees with piping running out of it. Jarod finally got my pictures uploaded, so I'll post them :)

Catching Up!

Hello! Sorry for the delay in a new post. I have been wanting to add pictures to this next blog, but I can't figure out how to upload them onto my new laptop (a birthday present from Jarod!). So I'll just do it without!
We got all moved into the condo just fine. It was a cold, cold, rainy day, but we got everything in. We got a lot of use out of the fireplace in the condo the first night, using it to dry out some of the items that got soaked!
The first weekend here, we had a birthday party to go to in Boston, so we got to see my friends Paul, Erin, and Dan. That was a lot of fun and nice seeing just how close we are. It took us just under an hour to get to downtown Boston! We also have found a great little Thai place I am sure we'll be hitting up often, and a cool little tavern in the downtown area. So far I am really loving it here. I love the change of atmosphere and the change of scenery!
Last weekend, we took the dogs hiking near a fast moving river/stream and that was fun. They were super excited to get out of the condo and explore! I look forward to finding some more places to take them as well! Then, on Saturday, we headed over to the east coast of NH. We found a lunch place down by the water and had lobsters :) yum! Once we started looking at the map, we found out we were really close to the Crate and Barrel outlet in Kittery, ME, so we headed there next. After touring around that area, we drove down to Hampton Beach, just to check it out. I haven't heard very many good things about it, and they were right. It was pretty bad, but interesting to see. We ended the day back in Portsmouth at the Red Hook brewery and pub. We were hoping to do a brewery tour, but missed it by a couple of hours. Next time, hopefully!
Sunday, we tried out a new church in Bedford. It was nice, but Jarod wants to try out a Methodist church next weekend, so we'll see where we end up going to regularly.
This upcoming weekend, we have another birthday party to attend in Boston. I am so looking forward to heading down there. We're gonna leave early in the morning and tour around the downtown area. Jarod has never been to the Freedom Trail or any of the historic sites, so we plan on doing that all day before heading over to the Sees' house. Plus, we have to stop at Mike's pastry (not to be confused with Paul's pastry in Nola, who makes the BEST King Cakes), but Mike's who makes cannoli's that are out of this world. Erin and Dan introduced us to them when we were in town a few weeks ago. It is this delicious Italian bakery in the North End that I have been craving since I finished my last bite the the last cannoli!
There is so much we want to do while here, I hope we can fit it all in! We want to explore NH, ME, and VT some more, plus we'd like to visit Newport, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, NYC, and of course, get to know Boston better. We live super close to the Stonyfield Farms factory, so we'd like to do a tour of that, and also I'd like to see the Green Mountain Coffee Factory and Ben and Jerry's too! So if any of those sound like a place you'd like to visit, please come up and we'll go!
Jarod likes his job so far up here. One of the projects he is in charge of is redesigning the main entrance to the base he is stationed at. He says the base is so tiny! There is only 175 people on it total, and only about 20 of them are military! There isn't even a gas station or shopette on it!
Luckily, they work longer days, so that every other Friday is a day off, so it will be easier for us to do long weekends somewhere.
I have been in contact with the local Easter Seals here in Manchester, specifically their Veteran's assistance department which assists soldiers and their families with deployment cycles and any assistance the soldier or their family needs before, during, or after a deployment. Unfortunately, they have no positions available right now, but they are interested in having me volunteer, so we are supposed to meet up soon to discuss that. Having so many people in my family, and close to me being military, I had been wanting to be involved with the USO for awhile, but there are no locations near me here. So we'll see how this goes!