Micah & Carrie

Easter weekend

carrie — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 12:37:21 +0000

While my parents were here my dad painted our kitchen and bathroom on Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday we played. I took my parents in to the city on Thursday and we walked the Freedom Trail, almost in its entirety. We ate lunch in Quincy Market and then got dessert at Mike’s Pastry, of course. My dad hadn’t been there yet, so we just had to introduce him to the deliciousness that is a Mike’s cannoli.

Micah took off of work on Friday so he could play with us. We went back downtown and walked across the bridge into Charlestown to see the USS Constitution and climb up the Bunker Hill Monument.

At the top of the Bunker Hill Monument

Micah and I

My lovely parents

Saturday morning we had the Redemption Hill Easter Egg Hunt. I had done a lot to help organize for the hunt, so we got up early Saturday morning and headed to a park here in Medford to start setting up. We had a great turn out and I loved having my parents there. We needed the extra hands as we scrambled to hide eggs before the kids arrived.

One of our pastors gathering everyone together

Organized chaos

We have some troopers in our church that dressed up as Curious George and Yogi Bear

The Easter Egg Hunt was a great success. All the kids had candy, some got prizes, and some adults even won gift cards! It was a lot of fun and an awesome opportunity to love on our community. Saturday after the Easter Egg Hunt we drove up to New Hampshire for some seafood (good ‘ole Petey’s). As the true nerd family we are after lunch we drove a little further to an old fort (Fort Constitution) and light house I had found online. It was a neat little fort with interesting history dating back to 1631, and originally named Fort William and Mary after, you guessed it, the British king and queen.

We realized that Maine was right across the river, and since none of us had ever been we decided to drive on up. We drove to Kittery which is right at the border and went to the outlets for a little exploring. They had this huge outdoor store that we checked out; my mom and I found some cute ‘Maine’ Christmas ornaments and yummy blueberry jam while we were there.

My parents left Sunday afternoon after our Easter service. We loved having them here and can’t wait until they come back. And maybe, I won’t put them to work this time.

Before & After

carrie — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:44:50 +0000

My parents have been up here all week. They got in Tuesday evening and stayed through this afternoon. On Wednesday while my mom and I went to work my dad stayed home and painted our kitchen and bathroom! I took some pictures for my dad before he got here so he could see what he was getting himself in to, and I just took some “after” so you guys can see the awesome transformation.

The color in the kitchen before was a very pale yellow that I did not like. Not to mention it looked old and dirty, the type of dirty that is just stuck on. I digress. The color was a pale yellow and the counter tops were a strange green so we stuck with yellow, but much brighter!

Before

After

I love the color. I can’t wait to get some curtains in there and have a finished kitchen.

My dad also painted our bathroom which was a dark brown. I liked the color and it didn’t look bad, but it was too dark for such a small bathroom. We did a beige/green color. It wasn’t as green as we had hoped but it looks good.

Before

After

If you really want to get the full effect, come see us!

Mixed Bag

carrie — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:23:34 +0000

I was looking through pictures on my phone and I thought it would be fun to post some. So here is a mixed bag of pictures.

Can I just say that I love technology. I got to use our tablet to watch Addie crawl. Now the girl is up and walking which I’ll get to see soon in person!

Brotherly love. I didn’t even tell them to do this. They were just sitting there and I went to take a picture and they leaned in to kiss each other.

We had our first zoo trip last week. The weather was beautiful and the boys were in good moods. They had such a blast!

Our new spring wreath. It was my first attempt at a yarn wreath so it isn’t perfect, but I was pleased at how it turned out. I can’t wait to make more!

Go Bruins!

carrie — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:33:50 +0000

On Saturday Micah and I went to our first pro sporting event in Boston. Back in December I bought Micah two tickets for us to go see the Bruins play against the New York Islanders at the TD Garden. The seats were in the nosebleed section and I wasn’t ever concerned about getting hit by a flying puck, but that didn’t spoil our fun. Unfortunately we lost by one. It was a really exciting game though and we will definitely be going back!

Waiting on the players to come out

Let’s Go Bruins!

Snowboarding

carrie — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:04:47 +0000

About a month ago Micah and I went to Mt. Wachusett for a snowboarding get-away. We stayed at the quaint Wachusett Village Inn ten minutes from the mountain. We snowboarded on Saturday and Sunday. We loved staying so close to the mountain because we could snowboard in the morning, go back to the inn for lunch and a little nap, and then go back to the slopes in the afternoon. Last year was the first time I had ever been on a snowboard and spent more of the time falling than I did boarding. I was pretty nervous about my chances of picking it back up, but I was surprised when remembered how to do it. We spent about 30 minutes on the bunny slope reacquainting ourselves and then headed up for our first real run.

The views from the top of the mountain are so beautiful. Both Saturday and Sunday were clear days so we could see so far in the distance. I heard a ski instructor tell someone else that one of the mountains in the distance is Mt. Monadnock, in New Hampshire.

My amazing husband.

Loving it! Thanks Rebekah for my new gloves.

We had a blast and if the weather doesn’t warm up too much we are hoping to go back one more time before spring. If anyone wants to buy us birthday presents we’d gladly accept snowboards.

Finding Purpose

carrie — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:53:44 +0000

Coming out of college I was 100% sure of what I wanted to do once we moved to Boston. I was going to Northeastern, getting a Masters of Art in Teaching, and teach high school government. I was going to teach for three years, put everything I made towards my student loans and hopefully pay them off within those three years. Then we would get pregnant and I would become full-time mommy just like I’d always wanted.

Instead it went something like this. Before I even moved to Boston, I began wondering if Northeastern was the right place for me. I learned more about the school systems here and just didn’t know if they would be a good fit for me. Shortly after moving here I withdrew from Northeastern and continued the job search. I applied for substitute teaching jobs, political sector jobs, and nanny jobs. I had no interviews or even call backs for teaching or politics. I had three families interested in me as a nanny. The beginning of March I was offered a job as a nanny for twin toddlers.

While all of this was happening I still felt as if I needed more. I needed to be more than a nanny. I needed to use the degree I paid a lot of money to get. I needed to do something. So, in March I enrolled and started at Liberty Seminary working towards a Masters of Christian Education. I took several classes through October. I was going slow, but at least I was working towards something. With this degree I could teach at a Christian school and feel prepared to teach my own children one day. In October I decided to take a break since we would be very busy and traveling during the holidays.

No matter how many different schools, degrees, or jobs I applied for I wasn’t satisfied. I still needed to be something more. Three days before Christmas Micah and I had a very hard and long conversation. I couldn’t even tell him why I was in school anymore or what I was going to do with my degree. I felt ashamed of spending money on a degree I wasn’t using. I felt ashamed of just being a nanny. He listened as I cried and talked. He offered to throw caution to the wind and make me a mommy. But, after praying and sleeping on it we knew the best decision for us was for me to quit school.

So as of December 2011 I am a wife and a nanny. Nothing more. I finally feel like I am exactly where the Lord wants me to be; savoring this time as a family of two, and serving Him in ways we might not be able to later in life.

I pray for the Lord’s continued guidance as we seek His will for our family, and that at all times I would be satisfied in His will.

Family Christmas

carrie — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:44:06 +0000

For Christmas Micah and I spent two weeks in South Carolina visiting family. We spent the first week with his family in Laurens. We got there on Monday afternoon and had a fun-filled week planned for us. Micah and I went to Annie Kate and Amanda’s piano and flute recital on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were spent at home with family and getting ready for Christmas gatherings. It was a wonderful Christmas spending time watching movies, taking many trips to Wal-Mart, Christmas Eve Eve celebrations, and of course eating lots of goodies. Micah’s mom makes the best chocolate balls so certainly too many of those were consumed while we were there.

After opening Christmas gifts on Christmas morning with Micah’s family we headed to Edisto Island for a week with my family. Spending Christmas at the beach was fun. The weather was sunny and warmer than Boston almost the entire week. It was great to have everyone together for the first time since May. For the first few days Addie was the center of attention. I couldn’t believe how much she had grown since we last saw her, or that she will probably be walking when we see her next.

We took a lot of walks on the beach, played bocce ball, rode bikes, read, napped, and went to Beaufort one day. It was so great being with my family for a whole week. We also snapped a few family photos with Micah and Addie in them.

The whole clan

One of my favorites of Granddaddy and Grandmama, and the cutest niece I know.

One of the greatest mamas I know.

Beautiful sunsets every night.

Anniversary in D.C.

carrie — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:20:08 +0000

On Saturday the 17th Micah and I began our journey south for Christmas. We stopped in Washington D.C. for two nights as a mini-getaway to celebrate our anniversary, Sunday the 18th. We stayed within a few blocks of the White House so we were able to just walk around and enjoy the monuments and landmarks.

I really wanted to get a tour of the White House decorated for Christmas, but we were only there one day, Sunday, and they don’t do tours on Sundays. I was very disappointed.

We toured the Air and Space Museum and National Art Gallery, and walked by the White House, Capitol, and Washington Monument.

The weather was beautiful, chilly but sunny, and the crowds were very manageable. We left D.C. Monday morning to finish the drive to South Carolina. And because I am an excellent trip planner we had Chick-fil-a for breakfast on our way out of D.C., well technically Virginia.

Christmas in Boston

carrie — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:05:10 +0000

Micah and I celebrated Christmas as a family early before leaving for South Carolina. We woke up on the 10th to have our traditional sausage ball and monkey bread breakfast. I grew up eating sausage balls on Christmas morning and he always had monkey bread, so we had both. We opened our gifts from one another afterwards. I gave him a new IPod and the Nike+ running gadget. I got a new camera bag to hold my growing collection of lenses and accessories. Micah also completely surprised me with tickets to see the Radio City Rockettes at the Wang Theater and dinner reservations at Blu. We also celebrated our anniversary that night and even got a free dessert at dinner!

Tree in the Boston Common

Inside the Wang Theater. Sorry for the mediocre picture.

We had a great first Christmas with just the two of us.

Vermont

carrie — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:13:53 +0000

Micah and I had the opportunity to go to Vermont for Thanksgiving. We stayed in a condo in Quechee ironically near Woodstock. I was almost home for Thanksgiving, just several states away. We got there Wednesday evening, and came home yesterday. On Thursday we watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in its entirety, something neither of us had done before. We put puzzles together, read books, watched movies, took naps, and even found a Wal-Mart. I forgot eggs for the mac’n cheese so we had to make a grocery run, and lo and behold there was a Wal-Mart. I was so excited! (We don’t have one of those within an hour of us in Medford). We picked up a few groceries, a tree topper (finally found one we agreed upon at Wal-Mart of all places), and few other things. When we went to check out we were so pleasantly surprised by the final price. Confirms what I always knew, Target is way overpriced.

We had not really planned to do any Black Friday shopping but when we started looking at what stores had on sale we realized they had things for great prices we actually needed. We did a little shopping in New Hampshire on our way back to Massachusetts (tax free!) at Best Buy and Wal-Mart (one more time before heading home of course). Back in Medford we went to Old Navy and Bath and Body Works. There were small(er) crowds than we expected which was a nice surprise, so our Black Friday experience wasn’t bad and didn’t involve any crazy people with pepper spray.

Thanksgiving morning

Thanksgiving lunch for two

Outside of the condo

View from the back porch

The views on the drive were incredible.

It really looked like something from a movie.

We had a great Thanksgiving and thankful for the all of the blessings in our life.