New House in Boston

Ragnar

This is a short video one of our ragnar team members put together.  It was a 200 mile nonstop relay from Yale to Harvard with 12 people per team.  There were 202 teams.  It was a blast even though it was torture!  It took us about 30 hours.  Don't be fooled by the sleeping pictures!  Except for the two SNORERS the rest of us tried hard to sleep for a couple hours but couldn't!  We were merely resting our eyes.http://gallery.me.com/jared.c.jones/100891

Update 5/2011

Hi Family and a few friends,

How's everyone doing?  Super fantabulous I hope.

I would like to declare:  I was not made for humidity.  It has arrived and I am constantly soaking wet and very very sticky. Grrrrrrrr!!!!  I knew this would come.

The payoff: trillions of beautiful lush green trees, bright colorful flowers everywhere, gorgeous flowering bushes, and green green green all over.  It's so amazingly beautiful.  A lot of the smaller roads are complete tunnels now through the trees.  It's so cool.

Aaron's getting the hang of the tractor mower...hehe!  It was pretty dang funny at first!  Our side yard is huge  There's no back yard at all.  Just the woods.  Ok and a swimming pool but no back yard!  That IS the back yard.  Oh one more thing on the list.  Figure out how to be pool owners!  Drew & I planted a teeny tiny garden today.  It's a little 4x4 garden box.  Stop laughing Dad.   

Aaron is loving his crazy busy job and will be able to slow down a little at the end of July.  He can hardly find words to express how much he loves it here.  He LOVES it!  I'm working with our young women as president.  There are only 3 active right now and i don't think any of them want to be there.  It's a challenge!  We love having the sister missionaries over for dinner once a month.  They're really sweet.  Our bishop (Bishop Burt) is great.  His wife is in YW with me along with the cutest girl from Brazil (Daina pronounced Dyna) and a really great recently re-activated 26 year old lady Danielle.  Aaron holds down the fort on Wed nights from 6-9 and does a great job!

Liv is in heaven playing in the neighborhood after school.  She stepped in dog poop today & her teacher called me to see if I'd bring her some more shoes.  They scrubbed them as well as they could but they were still stinking up the room.  Her second hamster here just died.  We don't know what the deal is!  She was absolutely crushed.  It's buried in the woods behind our house & nobody's really motivated to get another one.  She likes skyping with her friends back home & she's getting impatient with her brown room as she calls it (brand new beautiful light tan paint!) and wants it painted crazy colors.  It's on the long list.  She did get a cute desk to do her homework on.  She likes her school class and hates that everyone's birthday parties are on Sundays. Bummer.

Drew loves his friend Palmer (a kid in our ward his age that lives not too far away).  They have 1 or 2 play dates every week.  He's having a pooping problem that's driving us CRAZY.  Drew, not Palmer. Unfortunately!  It's called encopresis (thanks Ang) and he poops his pants a little every day and can't help it.  We're doing some things for it under the direction of his doctor but it's slow going!  If I put a pull up on him he ALWAYS pees in it instead of the toilet.  If I don't I'm dealing with poopy underwear every day.  It's lovely.  He's a really fun age right now though.  He's so cute!  His preschool gets out Jun 9th & Liv's school gets out Jun 24th.  I got Drew into a GREAT preschool for next year that I'm really excited about.  I was so lucky to get a spot.  I was #37 on the waiting list & I called the day the  day everyone's down payments were due like they told me to to see if anyone dropped out & the owner said, "It's your lucky day.  I'm just going to move you up to #1.  It's my business & I can do what I want.  Just don't be telling anyone!"  I'm sure it helped that a girl we've had some play dates with has a son in there.  I feel like she put in a good word.  So they're not fair & ethical with the waiting list but I'm glad to get Drew in!

 We're going exploring on Memorial Day up to New Hampshire's White Mountains.  We'll drive through Woodstock!  It's about a 3 hr drive & we'll stay Sun night & come home Monday night.

Have a nice weekend everyone.  We love you!

Love, Aimee 

Gift from Aimes

Thank you Aimee for such a generous, thoughtful gift...you know me so well...even my breast size:HUGE!!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :) :):)

Ella took this.  She kept on going down...down...down...

Easter is Coming

Boston does not know how lucky it is that Aimes has come to town.  Easter is one of her favorite holidays. She makes dozens of beautiful chocolate eggs -some filled with nuts.  Aimes--send me more pics of your creations!  Please!

Cakes Cakes Cakes

Did I mention Aimee makes the most amazing cakes--for all occasions--from scratch?  I need to post the ones that I have...they are cute, creative and mmmmmmm.....GOOD!  I wish you could send me one through the mail from Boston Aimes!!!!  (But I LOVE my present!) xoxoxoxo

Only Aimee would announce her pregnancy with a gorgeous homemade cake!

Boston Update

Hey Family/Friends,

How's everyone doing?  We're alive and well!  Just very busy!  I have learned how to spell Massachusetts.

The move went really well.  Nothing broken or lost.  We had a really fun week together in Boston before we could move in.  It was great!  Then came all the boxes and the stress.  Liv started school the day after we moved in & Aaron started back to 12 hr work days to make up for the time off.  Drew and I are going in circles chipping away at the to do list.

We're almost out of boxes but everything is NOT put away.  Our TV isn't even hooked up yet!  We've hung a few lights where the sellers had taken them with them so we feel happy to have light.  We love the house!  It's really cute.  Drew is scared to death of the attic.  It has pull down stairs & we use it for storage.  There are TONS of strange noises that had the kids up a lot the first few nights.  We have a sump pump in the basement that's constantly "flushing" and the heat constantly makes all kinds of weird noises.  The doors upstairs are really squeaky/sticky/warped (you name it) so everyone's always waking each other up with their doors.  It's on the list.

The snow is 90% melted.  It was really weird icy snow.  The kids could run around the yard on top of it & not ever fall through.  We've had tons of rain. And some freezing rain. Some days are warmish & others are freezing cold.  We haven't seen the sun much but it's gorgeous when it does come out.  Quite often there's fog & a mist.  Everything's damp. The trees are incredible.  There are so MANY and they're just huge.  They're so pretty even with no leaves.  Once leaves come on we won't be able to see ANYTHING!  Birds are everywhere and they sound great.  There are lots of huge acorns & pine cones. Chubby grey squirrels are jumping all over and a few bunnies.  The kids love chasing them.  WHen the snow melted it revealed a sand box to Drew's utter delight!  We've got sand everywhere.

The neighborhood is great.  It's adorable with tons of kids and dogs & really friendly people.  I've found a couple girls to run with 2 mornings a week.  That has helped the stress levels.

Liv rides the bus even though we live really close to the school.  It comes at 7:45.  She likes her school so far & her teacher Mrs. Brown.  She hates school lunch here so she takes a cold lunch every day. The kids out here are sports FANATICS so we'll see what we can get Liv into.  So far she has no interest but we're going to keep working on her.  They all play soccer, lacrosse, basketball or softball.  Dance and gymnastics are totally unheard of.  Seriously every yard has lacrosse & soccer nets in it. It's cute.

Aaron loves his job.  He commutes about 20 min.  He got his new company car today.  He hasn't seen it yet but it's in the driveway.  It's a black 2011 Volvo S80 & it's really cute!  He finally doesn't have to haul a bunch of equipment & machinery around with him so he can have a regular car!

The roads here are SO narrow.  I'm always amazed that two cars can fit.  It's scary.  And they're crazy.  They change names all the time & aren't marked and they're just really different.  I'd DIE without the GPS.

The accent is hilarious.  Some people have it really think & others not as much but everyone has it to some degree.  They have big problems with their R's.  They don't say them when they should & they do say them where there isn't one.  They say idear not idea.  Pizzar not pizza.  Oliviar not Olivia.  Ca not car.  Mahket not market.  ALL of their vowels sound funny!  There's a guy in our ward that we can't understand at ALL.  It's embarrassing.

One really strange thing is they have sticker price tags on everything at every store not matter what.  Target.  Costco.  Grocery stores.  Gas stations. Price stickers on everything.  Even though the price is shown on the shelf like we're used to and they're scanned like we're used to.  It seems like such a waste of time.  

They have the hugest selection of yogurt out here & it's YUMMY. 

Drew started preschool two mornings a week & he likes it.  He really misses his old teachers and friends.  I think more than anyone else does.  At least he talks about it the most.  Probably because he's stuck home with me most of the time.

Church is a 35 min drive.  That's definitely different for us.  The ward boundaries are 70 miles across.  I only know of one other member that lives in our town.  There are 2 girls Liv's age and one boy who turned 3 in Nov in Drew's class.  We had him over last week & all they did was fight.  Ugh.  There are some really great families in the ward though.  It just involves a drive to get together.

The maple sugaring is going on right now, coming to an end actually.  There are tons of places nearby to go see how syrup is made.  Fun.  Last year was a bad year for it & this year has been awesome.  It takes really cold nights & warm days for the sap to flow.  Did you know it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup?  And the tree has to be at least 10" in diameter to be tapped.  They only take up to 4% of the sap out of the tree.  Too bad I don't like real maple syrup.

We sold our bedroom furniture before we moved and so we haven't unpacked our bedroom yet....pretty much living out of boxes up there which is a such pain.  But tomorrow our new set gets delivered.  We are so happy!  Little by little we're settling in.  Meanwhile there are little piles everywhere that don't have a home yet.  The kitchen has a whole 3 drawers in it.  VERY little storage space & no pantry.  It's a challenge organizing things in a home half the size we came from.

Enough rambling & a big hug to each of you!  There's a finished basement & a spare bedroom down there if you don't mind snuggling with some food storage so come visit us!

Love,   

Aimee