Victorian in New England

Wanted to give a little preview of our new home. For now, it's just the outside. It's true, we live in New England in a home that was built in 1901 or 1905. It's like a little dream come true.

backyard..

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Walmart breaks my Heart.

There are so many reasons to dislike Walmart. If the closest Target wasn't 25 miles away and gas was $4.30 a gallon- we would NEVER walk inside a Walmart. But living in the "quiet side" of Connecticut that's our best/only option 95% of the time. We walked in the other day and were greeted by this older man and it simply broke my heart. Why do these senior citizen's have to work? Much less at Walmart? I hate it. If I could I would wrap them up and bring them home with me. Also, seeing young couples shopping together with a new born and carefully looking at each item before placing into their cart makes me truly grateful for what I have in my life. Baby or no baby.

Since we've moved here there has been an outpour of love from so many individuals, couples and families that it fills my eyes with tears. When we moved into our new home, a friend Afton (don't you love her name??) came on a Friday night and helped me pack our kitchen until 11:30 at night. This is a woman who drives 45 minutes one way to take her oldest son to school. She has four kids and makes that round-trip drive twice a day and I have NEVER heard her complain once. If that were me, someone would be hearing something from me, guaranteed. While we were unpacking I found little love notes from her..

And then there's Nancy who has the most beautiful gray hair in the world. She and her husband take care of our Gracie Lou the Saturdays we are in Boston. The day we moved she cooked pulled BBQ, coleslaw, and homemade pickles for everyone that came to help. When she mentioned she was going to do it, I didn't believe her because who does that?? They have been tremendously generous to us on many different occasions. In fact, not only did they give us their dining room table and chairs, and a Bernina sewing machine- they just dropped off a car to us last night. It's a 1996 Dodge Neon and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time since I was making 3-4 trips to campus everyday for both our jobs & taking Gracie out at lunch. We are blessed beyond measure.

Speaking of being blessed, the sister missionaries have been coming to our home often for dinners and what have you and we simply love them. For me, they've been an unexpected answer to a prayer.

We have lots to catch up on besides telling you all the wonderful things people have been doing for us. Easter was fantastic! We spent it with some families in our ward and ate like a King and a Queen. Crystal who is an artist in the kitchen made this beautiful cake with dried pineapple flowers on top. I have no doubt in my mind why there's more of me to love.

I've been consumed by other responsibilities that I've been neglecting my camera. However, I had to capture Gracie's reaction when we came home with some balls for her to play with. I've decided she's not like most bulldogs. She's not lazy, she fetches and she loves to play with big sports balls. I think mom is right, dad sent her to us because for one reason she LOVES basketballs.

This pink ball lasted a total of 3 minutes. No joke.

One day soon I'll take a video of her little wiggle bum. It goes 100 miles an hour when she's excited.

Priceless.

On a baby note. I'm still struggling with ignoring the problem instead of facing it head on. I had an 'ah-ha' moment last week when I realized instead of loosing weight like the doctor said, I've been gaining weight. Subconsciously, I believe on purpose. I need to remember even if I do loose the weight and we still don't get pregnant... life will continue and one way or another, we will have children. Mother's Day is usually heart wrenching. Especially when they ask the sisters at church to stand so the men can hand out a flower (I've always hated that!). This Mother's Day was much different and not because Gracie remembered (she forgot but we won't dwell on that). I walked into church and the Rich's had bought me a corsage. I never knew until that moment that I did want to be recognized on Mother's Day. To make it even better, the Bishop (leader of church congregation) got up and read a poem. Instead of flowers, they handed out a bag of trail mix with the poem AND they didn't ask the sisters to stand. Score! Maybe next year, Cony will remember my change of heart.

Don't Stop Believin'

Journey's song is my ringtone for Cony and it's fun to see people's faces when he calls. When I call him they get to hear "Turn Around Bright Eyes." by Bonnie Tyler. Anywho, There are many things to catch up on. April was a doozy in so many ways but somehow we have managed to come into the month of May happy and stronger.

Just a few highlights:

* We moved and I can't wait to share pictures. It's a true Victorian Home built in 1905 and the owners have completely redone the place. We LOVE it.

* Cony may have lost his funding at school but he has a full time job on campus for the summer working with the grounds crew. I'm jealous he'll be outside all the time.

*Gracie is adjusting to the new place. However, we keep finding her snoozing on our bed because she can't stand the wood floors. Rugs are coming!

*I was called to be the Young Women's (girls ages 12-18)President (we plan activities and Sunday lessons) in our ward (congregation). I couldn't be more excited. I'm having a hard time finding ideas that I actually like online so I might start sharing the ones I come up with (if I'm so lucky!).

*Spring has finally sprung and campus is starting to look beautiful again.

*We still can't stand Connecticut drivers. I could write a whole post on our experiences ....

*We feel totally and completely blessed to be in love and to be able to live the life we live.

Just when...

We've been spending our days packing and driving to Boston (not everyday) and loving on Gracie. We're really excited about the house we're moving into next Saturday. We decided it wasn't the right time to purchase and as time unravels, we know why. With the move and some other things, I needed to take a leave of absence from tutoring and I already miss Valerie. However, with all the jobs and driving to Boston every weekend, I was drowning. Thankfully my job at UConn was extended through the summer! In the last few weeks we've finally gotten to a point where we feel we're settling into our little nest here in Connecticut (even when my body & mind can't handle the gloomy days). We've fallen in love with so many people and love the new house we're moving into. Just when we're breathing the school throws a bombshell on us. With all the budget cuts, they are taking away funding to new students and just informed us an hour ago that they won't have funding for 2 years. This changes everything for us. I'm hanging on to the fact I know that miracles happen and I know the Lord has His hands in this and will not (nor will He ever) leave us empty handed. Even if that means Cony is forced on the job market.

As much as I miss home, I've loved what Cony and I have become in Connecticut. Everything we've learned from being here has been for our good and for that reason alone I will always hold a special place in my heart for this state.

I want to be clear. This does not mean we are moving. Nor does it mean we are staying. We have NO clue what we're doing at the moment. If you pray and you want to mention us, we would be greatly thankful.

On a more happy note: our weekend consisted of a BBQ at Gina & Jerry's with the elders doing the cooking and Gracie getting super muddy and loving every minute of it.

She's now 35 pounds!

Gracie's new thing is to turn around to stare at the back seat

and jump up and take over the bed. The one night Cony goes to bed before me and I see this... (no she does not sleep with us)

UConn celebrates Earth Day on campus,

with a cow...

cooking cows...

and giving away free ice cream... everyone at work took advantage. Do you notice a theme?? We love them cows here in the CT.

Happy Earth Day & Good Friday!

My new tattoo

Today was a dream come true. We got to drive a mini-van to church filled with red headed children while their mom stayed home to take care of the youngest with a broken leg. Which meant we got to sit next to these kids during church services. If the parents would let us, we would just adopt these kids and call it a day! Apparently the kids were being so good Cony got a little bored and decided to draw me a new tattoo. I thought he was just using the top of the pen to trace the lines, so you can imagine my surprise when I took off my panty-hose.

My lunch bag.

I consider myself very fortunate to have a husband who understands that I work a lot and I need his help in the morning getting out the door. One way he helps me is by making my lunch. It's great. Some days I have no fork or spoon, the other I'll only have a bell pepper on green lettuce with a lemon to squeeze on it and some days there's so much food packed carefully in my bag, I don't know how I can possibly eat 1/3 of it. He doesn't put love notes in my bag but sometimes I'll find random items hidden. Which makes me laugh and I can't help but think that's so much better than a love note.

heat to AC back to heat

We didn't announce that we were taking a trip to Georgia because it was a short trip and we didn't have time to see everyone. I promise to take the time in the summer to spend quality time with all of you. We headed to the dirty south for Cony's dads retirement party. We had the most wonderful time even if my throat swelled up the second I got off the plane from all the pollen. Highlights of the trip:

*Emily's 27th Birthday
*Mellow Mushroom
*nieces & nephews!
*parents *siblings or in-laws
*Robek's FIT shake. Yum.
*Stone Mountain
*Stone Mountain Evergreen Hotel-recommend a stay
*breakfast spread at hotel with family
*swimming!!!
*seeing the sun & getting a little pink
*hot tub at midnight
*retirement party
*grilling outside
*chillin' at the family RV
*Baby Myers
*Shulman girls!
*Sarah
*the Other Megan
*Pedersons
*Lawson- thank you for the ride!
*getting eyebrows did
*electrolysis
*friends who take care of our Gracie
*flying back in a lightning storm. (do NOT recommend)

Cony's sister and her man..

We love to do our "shake our booty" dance.

Baby Myers loves me.




View from hotel room.

Favorite design element in hotel.

Love the Azaleas. But hated the allergies.