IT'S BUNS' BDAY!

Happy Birthday to My Hubby! Praying for no rain, even though the forecast says chances of rain all weekend. We're planning on camping, Saturday/Sunday in New Hampshire no matter what. You might think we're crazy, but it was actually MY idea! Making memories, right? Tonight we're going out for seafood, thanks Mom and Dad for the birthday cash to make this happen!!

This is my TWEET for the day! Already got them in... He has 365 days :)

NEWS: It's Paul's Birthday!

HOMEWORK

I feel like I spend most my day doing work. Homework. Doing freelance isn't bad, I actually enjoy it. Spending most the day stranded without a car isn't always fun! Paul's job is nice because he gets home by 4:00 everyday, which is very nice! This is a picture I took that summarized my week (before today as it's poring rain). Sunglasses, Macbook Pro, and the nice weather outside! Ideal for a freelancer :)

This week the weather has hit high 70s/80 everyday. It isn't the same Minnesota, humid hot though. I still get to sit outside in a tank and shorts! I learned a little more about the weather from Barb, too. She said sometimes they don't get snow until after Christmas. I'll take that! Snow comes fast, but leaves fast too. One bad thing: it melts and freezes making winter driving nasty, but that's a couple months away at least.

NEWS: Paul's Birthday is tomorrow! We've been planning a camping weekend including hiking, fishing, and smores. We'll see if the weather clears up by then! Fingers crossed...

CRAFT DAY

Sometimes if we are really bored and I'm really lucky, I can convince Paul to do arts and crafts with me! Because Friday and Saturday were rainy days, we were stuck inside with nothing to do but lay in bed looking at the ceiling or watching the Law and Order marathons that are on everyday. So, while we were lying on our bed bored out of our minds, I shared a dream of mine with Paul. I want to build a birdhouse -- I always have! So, now he's collecting scraps from work and we'll get started this week. (that's not the craft)

The craft for our weekend was the prelim. I told Paul we should do a artistic model of the birdhouse, and he said OK. So I set the rules. You can't use a pen/pencil, and it has to be 2D, and you can only use paper and glue... We designed our birdhouses in that way.

I think they came out quite nice. Paul spent most the time working on his siding (of course) and I spent most my time picking out colors and thinking about how I wanted to do it. I thought that was really kind of cool how we do our crafts so differently -- it says a lot about a person.

Besides our craft, over the weekend we were able to get in a short game of tennis. The mosquitos were awful so we cut it short. Paul kicked my butt in Monopoly. We watched most the Vikings game but decided to quit due to poor internet connection (since it's not on TV here) and the usual Vikings turnaround in third quarter. We went to Plum Island Beach to fish and watch the sunset, which was really nice because I found a book to read in Barb and Fred's library. See the picture of the sunset. We also went on a few walks, which I love to do because I get to look at houses in trade of hearing every name of tree we walk past. :)

We also went to church. We googled one that was 2 minutes away from the house. Paul and I always like to go to the earliest service. So we went to the 8:45. It had a very lively worship, which we thought was OK. The message was really good! The service only had 30 people or so, but the others are full (last week they didn't have an open seat). I think we are going back next week -- still to the 8:45.

Amber

MEALS ON A BUDGET: COUNSELING LESSONS DISGUISED

Paul and I have continued our counseling through everyday activities like playing tennis, where I get really frustrated when I lose over a certain amount of points; and driving to far places, requiring reading maps and following directions or actually driving which is very difficult in Massachusetts for me. We've also learned that working on a budget has become an exciting adventure, even though it doesn't always make us feel good!

Paul and I have made two trips to the grocery store so far in Methuen, Mass. But, before we just set out and spend all the money we don't have, we work a budget and make a list for all the things we need. Then we usually cross out quite a bit to make our budget! My smoothies haven't made the list yet. Going grocery shopping, I think, is really fun because we make a great team. We have the same mindset -- cheap. We rarely go for name brand foods, except for important ones like coffee and wheat thins! I use my phone as a calculator and push the cart and Paul carries the pen and list. Sometimes we split up, but mostly we stick together to hunt down our food :)

Our first real meal we made together here was Spagett...

This weekend was Barb's birthday, so we thought it would be nice to make a cake too! See here she just turned 50! Paul did the decorating. We homemade the frosting: buttercream and chocolate. Yum, yum.

NEWS: Paul's first day of work went well!

SALEM

This last week Paul and I were able to fit in some interviews. Did you hear he got a job?? One of the days, I had an interview in Salem, MA so Paul drove me and while I was meeting with the company he went fishing in the park. 

After I interviewed, I worked at a Starbucks down the street for HCPR until Paul picked me up to go fishing with him. The park was filled with the elderly (a shuttle brings them from nursing homes I think). Plus it was a dog park. So, the park was filled with dogs and the elderly. I felt a little out of place, to say the least. 

I spent most the time writing thank you notes to all those that attended our wedding, or sent us a wedding gift. I think we have half written, now we just need to send them out! Hopefully next week :)

NEWS: It was Paul's mom's birthday yesterday! Hope your day was wonderful Shelly!

OUT ON THE TOWN

So a couple days ago Paul and I decided it would be really great to see the ocean. I mean, we are here on the East Coast and all, right? So we made a trip to Gloucester, MA just 45 minutes or so from Methuen where we are temporarily living.

Paul sat me down at a coffee shop in downtown so I could get in some work. By the way, I'm still working at home for Hollywood Connections PR as Account Executive. So, while I was trying to get an interview with Rod Stewart (still in the works), Paul set off for the ocean a few blocks away to fish. I joined him early afternoon, after finishing up my emails and a large dark coffee black.

I actually walked to the beach, where I did get a bit lost. One nice thing about Massachusetts is it's a law to stop for pedestrians. Not like it isn't in Minnesota! But, you can just walk in the street, and people will slow down for you and wait without getting upset because they have to all the time. They're used to it out here. That was nice walking to the ocean... cars stopping and waiting for me everywhere. Also, the downtown area is really neat. I took some pictures to show you the cute shops.

I eventually found Paul and joined him fishing. Sadly he didn't get anything for the day. He blamed his bad luck on me; I don't think that's fair. We unpacked our sandwiches and grapes and had a nice little lunch on the beach. I dipped my toes in the water and found some cute, tiny black shells. Good news; bad news. I'm starting a new collection. Tiny black shells and orange rocks. They go perfectly with my color scheme -- the one I have picked out for our future 200 square foot studio apartment!

NEWS: 
Paul got a job in carpentry and he starts Monday. I had some interviews this week, and am crossing my fingers on the Marketing Assistant position. 


Best,
Amber

WE MADE IT TO MASS

Paul and I left for Mass on Thursday and made it Friday evening to Methuen.

Day One: We traveled from Minneosta to Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and stopped in Pennsylvania overnight. We ended up staying at a Red Roof Inn, which I just used my iphone to call ahead on places I thought would be cheap... it was cheap! One of those risk places that you can enter through the outside. The inside was actually really nice, though.

Paul wanted to actually sleep on the side of the road. More like at a rest stop, but I persuaded him that a hotel would be better. It took us until Ohio to decide to stay in a hotel! I'm very glad we did! We got a 'free hot breakfast' with our hotel purchase, which means free breakfast and McDonalds next door. I quite enjoyed it.

Day Two: We spent six hours driving through New York. I expected NY to be really busy, but we drove through mostly country the whole way. Country with big hills and mountains that is. I named all the hick towns Minnesota names (they were at least ten times bigger scale, but comparable). Like, I gave Hammond, Millville, and Elgin a town in NY. It was really beautiful.

At some point in NY we were high beamed by a semi (which happened one other time, and we pulled over and didn't notice anything wrong) so we stopped at the next rest stop figuring nothing would be wrong but wanted to be sure, and..... this is what happend.

The muffler was bumped off the piping on the car with all the rough roads. We are lucky we didn't lose it, really! That would be awful for someone else, and probably our wallets, too. Anyways, Paul pulled it off and we threw it in the trunk and hopped back on the road.

At some point our engine light went off too, so I had to call Penske to be sure we weren't going to blow up. Paul checked all the fluids and added some oil but it didn't resolve the light problem. Penske service told us the problem was our gas cap. Hmm. Ok. So we kept driving.

After six hours in NY we made it to Massachusetts! We arrived at Paul's aunt and uncle's around 7:00, and were just about ready for bed. It was a really long drive, but we made it safely. I'll post more about how our life in Mass is going next time.

Love from the East Coast,
Amber

PS it's expensive to drive a 16 ft truck with a trailer/car 1600 miles! Tolls alone cost us $140!

WE ARE REALLY MOVING!

Today was our last day at church for a very long time. Our plan is to move Thursday this week -- 4 days left in Minnesota.

We are sad to leave our friends... mostly sad to leave our family and extended family behind, but we want to experience a little bit of the world before it's too late. This might be our only chance to live in a new place so we just have to go for it. I think about leaving and I sometimes want to change my mind though.

Honestly, I think we'll be back in Minnesota at some point in our lives. Maybe if we decide to have kids. I certainly need grandparents around for that! But that is far down the road, hopefully. As for now, it's just our family of two so better get out now before it's too late!!

4 days left.... Tomorrow we are having a get together with some of my family. I'm sure we'll be doing something with Paul's family at some point before we go too. 2 more days of work each and packing, packing, packing. Then we're out of here!

-ANCM

THE TIME I WASTED MAKING THIS POSTER

I am off of work for a few days because my boss is out of the country. That means I tried expanding my creativity through photoshop and illustrator. I made an advertisement for my blog! A waste of time? Maybe. It was fun, though. That has to count for something!

Really, this blog will feature me writing about the adventure we take to Massachusetts and what we do while we are there. We've been continuing to apply for jobs, and have a few potential interviews when we finally make the move. We want to build our savings account for another week so we can cover the cost of moving and maybe even have enough money for rent!

OK, here's the ad! It isn't perfect, but I really didn't need to spend more time on fine details...

There it is folks! An advertisement for this blog. I hope it lives up to your expectations!! And no, that boat isn't ours; in fact, I never even sat in it... that would be pretty sweet!

Best,
ANCM