A Little Taste of Home....

So, I have to admit....I have been secretly enjoying all the Facebook posts about excessive snow and roads being turned into ice rinks!!! 1) I can say that because I have made sure that everyone I know back home is ok and 2) because I am still enjoying no snow, sunny skies, and excellent road conditions! Not to rub it in or anything, but anyone who is from Minnesota can truly appreciate how nice it would be missing a Minnesota winter from time to time!  That and I know my time will come, it is not like I moved to Florida!

Anyway, speaking of missing all the wonderful weather conditions...I will admit that I have been getting the homesickness bug more and more these days! Probably because Charissa had her baby (Adyson Lou Weiss) and I haven't been able to see her yet!  That and with Thanksgiving and Christmas so close I am so eager to get home and see everyone!! The Skype thing is alright, but I am going to need some serious face to face time with all the family and friends I have been missing like crazy!!! And I know Amanda will say the same thing after Chris and I attempted to have a conversation with her and Danny via Skype...let's just say there was a lot of laughing.  For those who haven't seen yet, here is Adyson and Kapria! Love this picture!

Despite all the depressing homesickness stuff...I got to see my MOM!!!!!! WoHoo!!! She was in New York for work and decided to fly down for part of the weekend!!! I was so excited!!! And we made the most of it...Thursday night was spent drinking Margaritas and enjoying some excellent Mexican food, spent all day Friday shopping (and I got to pick out all my Christmas presents so that I don't have to carry it all back with me....extra bonus!) and then met Chris for dinner and a sports bar! Here I thought my mom and I had been to this sports bar when we came out here for my internship interview, but when we walked in I realized I was VERY wrong and then Chris and her took every opportunity to remind me that I had been telling everyone that I had been to this restaurant and in fact was lying to everyone! Made for some good laughs!! We also became addicted to a game called KENO...I'm not sure how to explain it, but the important things to know is that we were certain we had the perfect strategy about 60 different times, never won, but did steal a bunch of the forms you fill out so we can try and re-create the game during Thanksgiving :)

Enjoy some pics from our less than successful gambling....

KENO!!!! (This must be strategy #38)

According to Chris this is the "pre-millionaire" picture...

 Mother and daughter together again....watch out world ;)

Sports Sports Sports!!!

So fun filled weekend of SPORTS!! (clever title don't you think?!?)  First, a trip to the Celtics game....but don't be fooled....we were there to cheer on the Chicago Bulls!!! Are you really surprised?!?! Like Chris would have it any other way!! Anyway, found a great pub to eat at before the game that was packed with Celtics fans, but we wore our red loud and proud! Got quite a few stares, but no worries, all very friendly people!  Later that weekend we went to go watch a soccer game at a local college out here! It was FREEZING, but still fun!! Ironically enough we showed up for the game where they played ARMY and the game we went to earlier this fall was against NAVY!!! Good times!!! Here are a few pictures from the Bulls game...

We snuck down the lower level to snap a picture! 

This is a view from our actual seats :)

Note the wall behind us...yes, that is because we were in the LAST row of the entire stadium!!!

Gotta love that smile ;)

Apple Orchard...

Random, but fun, trip to the apple orchard! Turns out you have to pay $18 to even get in to the apple picking area and Chris and I had no use for 10 lbs. of apples...so we settled for hot apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, and browsing of the pumpkins :)

Apartment Update

THIS JUST IN....The GIANT T.V. was delivered!!!!! Thought I would post some pictures of a few changes in decor!!! Some great gifts from some great people and a huge T.V. that makes Chris VERY happy!!! Took me a while to get used to it, but now that I don't have to move my head back and forth just to see what is going on I like it!

GIANT T.V.

Story People Quotes from Dr. Finch!!!! GREAT quotes too!!!

A beautiful crucifix and wonderful prayer from Brenda Cameron!!! Such a great addition to the bedroom!!!

These are just a few of the recent additions to the decor but there are so many people who have sent cards, letters, and called and have helped make this big move so much easier!! You are all so amazing and I miss you tons!!!! Thanks for all the support!!! It is appreciated more than you know!!! 

Adventure #2

So finally Chris and I got to go explore the Boston area! We lucked out with a BEAUTIFUL day and some sweet tickets from his cousin to the Notre Dame vs. Boston College game! But before those festivities we ventured out down the Freedom Trail that runs all though Boston and takes you by a ton of famous landmarks like the site of the Boston Massacre and Paul Revere's grave, etc.  We didn't walk the whole trail because our ADHD caught up with us and we eventually ventured to some other random parts of the city like the aquarium and some random park with a sweet fountain and kids just dying to run through it like it was a sprinkler!! But the portion that we did walk was really fun and made for a great history lesson on a Saturday afternoon! Here are some of my favorite pictures!

This is the Massachusetts State House

This is the grave of Samuel Adams

The grave yard that members of the Boston Massacre are buried along with Benjamin Franklin's parents, Paul Revere, Mother Goose, and a bunch of others 

Paul Revere's grave

Mother Goose (pretty sure they just say that because this woman's last name was Goose)

This is the Old Meeting House where the constitution was read to the public for the first time and this is also the site of the Boston Mas acre 

Off the Freedom Trail now and by the ocean...

The boat we will be on someday to go whale watching!!!!

Notre Dame vs. Boston College Game....Go Irish!!!

So that was our adventure!!! Tons of fun and definitely so much left unexplored!!! Much more to come!!!!

Hmmm....never had to worry about THIS before...

So, as part of this whole moving process Chris and I had planned to fly back to Chicago and drive a truck full of his stuff (couch, TV, bed, etc) back out to Massachusetts since he wasn't able to before he had to start work! Anyway, plans in place, plane tickets were bought, rental truck was rented, everything was good and then all of the sudden this buzzing starts...buzz buzz buzz...people chatting about this "thing" that could ruin all of our plans, but it is not quite registering to me because it has never been an issue for me....EVER.  That's right, we may not be able to fly out of Boston on Saturday morning because HURRICANE EARL is supposed to hit!!!!  I'm sorry....WHAT?!?!?  We don't have those hurricane things where I come from :)  So, new experience #1: How does one travel in a hurricane?

Just to prove that this is actually happening...here is a picture of the reminder my apartment complex provided us on the HURRICANE EVACUATION PROCEDURE!!!!!!!  Man....that's just CrAzY!!!!!

More updates...

So along with moving out here in the last two or so weeks, I also started my internship!!! It was really weird going from having the whole summer to do whatever I wanted to jumping right into a 40 hours/week job!!! Let's just say I have been VERY tired and miss my afternoon naps :)

Nonetheless, I love my internship so far! It is located in Rutland, MA which is a very small town (smaller than Cambridge if you can believe that!) and the site itself is located on hundreds of acres in the country! It is so great to get to still have the peace of the country at work, especially since the nature of residential treatment is very chaotic! The other intern that is there with me is great! She is originally from the east coast, and then moved to the west coast for grad school and now is back! We have had fun getting to know each other, going through orientation, and being anxious about internship together! We also decorated our offices...which are located in an area of campus that is commonly referred to as "the bat cave"....still deciding on how I feel about that :) Our offices are not exactly luxury, but hey...we have our OWN offices!!!! No more sharing or signing out offices or carrying around a huge tote of therapy games, etc.!!!! I'm soooo excited about that!!!

Here are a few pictures of my office so far....not completely done...need to find one more thing to put on the back wall!!! Ideas are welcome!!! PS - that white board that is hanging up was passed down from the intern before me and you can hook up your ipod to it and it plays music!!! Best invention EVER!!!!!

About time...

So here I had this great idea to start a blog so that I could keep people updated on everything and then I never really posted anything for the first two weeks or so that I have been out here...oops! Well here is the first one!

So the drive and move went really well! It was a LONG drive, but upstate New York is SOOOO pretty and that kept me occupied for several hours!!! Chris flew in on Saturday and I drove straight from New York to Boston to pick him up and then the two of us made it out to Worcester where my apartment is! Everything got unpacked, but nothing was decorated until Emily got here the following Tuesday! After several trips to Target, Ikea, etc....this place FINALLY feels much more like an actual home!!!

Here are some pics of my new place: