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The cyber-move that is. We're heading over to WordPress, so please come check us out.

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Summer 2009

Evidently summer in Boston doesn't always happen. This was news to us. It didn't not get above 70 degrees for any sustained amount of time until the end of July. It rained and was cloudy the whole month of June. Where did I move to, Seattle?!? All in all, we had about 4 weeks of warm weather, to the point of needing the air conditioner. By the end of August the temperature was back on the way down.

We did a lot of traveling over the summer as well: KY, FL, AL, and Barbados.

May, KY: This was a short trip, just a long weekend really. Kevin graduated (again) from EKU and we flew in to see that. Robert's parents, sister, 1 nephew, cousins, aunts, grandma all came up for the ceremony and afterwards we went bowling. Because we were in the state, my parents came too. Amazingly, this was the same time my brother was on vacation at home so we saw him as well. It was just like old times. Nine of us in a hotel room eating pizza and swimming in the indoor pool.

June, FL: This was a girls and "men under ten" week only. I flew to Jacksonville to stay at my Grandmother's condo in Daytona Beach with my mom, aunt (and her 2 sons), and then Kerri came over with The Blonds. It was a great week. We went to the Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine (which 1. is not a fountain and 2. is the main source of water for the whole area, i.e. tap water--so need to pay extra to drink it). I had been to Daytona many times during that same week of the year, and this year the water looked different than I had ever seen. It looked the Caribbean Sea on some days. We saw dolphins from our balcony one day and just had a good time being together.

July, AL: Before we knew that we'd see my brother and his family in May, we made plans to go to their house in AL for the 4th of July. We flew into Nashville where we met my mom, dad, stepdad, and large dog (who rode in the front floorboard the entire way). From Nashville, we drove to south Alabama. I will never do this again. Robert, myself, and my father were in the backseat. None of us are small people.

It was worth it though, once we got there:


We played with The Blonds extensively, including reading books (see above). We swam in my brothers pool, went to Destin for the day, took a tour of Ft. Rucker and saw all the different types of helicopters, and where Jarrod has been training for the past year, had a lasagna cook-off, watched movies, played Wii and Rock Band and soaked each other in.

(Robert with his best girl).
(Peyton showing us how to fly this thing).
(My dad playing with the kids while simultaneously terrifying the adults).
(Joy).

In summary, if you want to experience summer while living in Boston, you may have to find it elsewhere.

Resolution--FAIL

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to blog at least twice a month. That sounds reasonable, no? And here it is February already and I've failed.

I am horrible at blogging. Horrible. But I'm going to keep trying. Stay tuned for a retrospective catch-up post(s), and then I'm going to be back at it.

We're Baaa-ack

Third times a charm?

I really, really, really want to keep this thing updated, but I'm so bad at it. It's a great way for our families to keep up with us way up here in the frozen tundra, but I still don't do it.

But here we go again, let's see if this time it sticks.

Summer, fleeting summer...

Once upon a time it was warm in Boston. It was a magical day with flowers blooming, birds singing, and a resurgence of shorts in astounding numbers.

And then it was over.

But seriously Boston, what's up with this? I think we've had maybe 7 days of temperatures above 70 degrees since November. Worse yet, just when you think it's finally over, it's not. Monday (Memorial Day) was wonderful, around 80 degrees, breezy, not humid. Wednesday the high was 49 degrees.

(I'm fully aware that I will need someone to redirect me to this post in July when I'm begging for a break from the heat and humidity. But hey, it's my blog, and I'll cry if I want to.)

Moving on: Memorial Day was a lot of fun. Robert actually didn't go into work! We went to a local diner for breakfast and Robert had Eggs Benedict for the first time. He seemed to like it. No thanks, from my perspective. Then we went to cookout at a friend's house. Watermelon was consumed. Badminton was played. Fun was had.

I love badminton. Jarrod and I used to play when we were younger. I love that no matter how bad you are, it's still fun. Conversely, no matter how athletic you are, at times you are still swinging at thin air. It's a great level-er.

I mean, for the rest of them. As for Team Ev, let's just say we look a little something like this:

Cooking with the Evs

*DISCLAIMER: Robert is the chef in our house. I cook so that we'll survive. He cooks because he likes it and also likes to try new things. I once made something that was so horrid looking I wouldn't eat it. (I believe there was hamburger, stove top, and some type of soup involved. It looked like geriatric dog food.) For Robert, it's different, when he tries things, they work! Also for him, as I like to explain it: "It's chemistry you can eat."

Robert and I got hooked on the show "Top Chef" during its first season and ever since then we have become (somewhat) aspiring foodies. We now watch Top Chef, Iron Chef, the new show Chopped, and a lot of random stuff on the Food Network. We still don't know what half of the words or ingredients are, but we're trying.

Case in point: Robert's birthday. What did he want? His own cheesemaking kit. Behold.

Robert is making his first batch of mozzarella, which you have to heat up and stretch repeatedly to get the right consistency.

This is the finished product, along with his cookbook, and the fancy-schmancy $8 organic milk that was used.

In use, grated for our homemade pizza.


The cheesemaking took place before Thanksgiving I believe, but here are some of our more recent attempts.

Strawberry Smoothie Cheesecake and Peanut Butter Pie for the Easter brunch with our small group from church.

Homemade Pesto, in process and complete. It was yummo!


*2nd DISCLAIMER: Though we are aspiring foodies, we like to place GREAT emphasis on the aspiring part. We went to lunch for Boston's Restaurant Week and ate at one of the Top 50 restaurants in the U.S. That same weekend, we ate barbeque and key lime pie. Take a wild guess which one we preferred. What's that saying about taking the people out of the country...

In summary, come and visit us sometime, I promise I won't cook.

We're Alive

In case anyone was wondering.

Clearly, we're bad at this.

It's uh...December in a few days and this is our first post in months. I should probably just stop apologizing everytime we do a quarterly post, right? It is what it is.

So, what have we been up to you ask?

1) We moved. AGAIN. We had some problems with our certifiable landlord, and moved to a different part of town. It's closer to my school, and about the same time to get to work for Robert. Previously, he was walking to work (about 20 minutes) and now it's about a 25 minute subway and/or bus ride home. This will definitely be better as it continues to get colder. Which brings me to #2...

2) It's getting colder. We don't like it. The end.

3) School and work are still giant time-suckers and we haven't had too much opportunity to see more of Boston. We did go to Salem though, before Halloween. That was really fun. We rode the ferry up and just spent the day. For me the best part was the tour/theatrical re-telling of "The House of Seven Gables" by Hawthorne. Good times.

4) I surprised my brother with a visit home a few weeks ago. This is the first time I've seen him since he returned from Iraq in August, so the first time since the end of March that I've seen him at all. I also got to see Reagan for again! I've only seen her when she was 2 weeks old. I was really afraid I'd miss the cuddly baby stage and she'd be walking by Christmas, but I didn't! Oh--and she is perfect, in case there was any doubt. Photographic evidence:

That's all for now! I have some more pics to post, but they're not on the computer yet...

September (So Far)

1. On Labor Day we went to Crane Beach, about an hours drive from here. Of course we forgot the camera, but believe me, it was beautiful. It was crazy too, the water was so clear that you could see your feet when it was over 5 feet deep. The water was a dark blue color, so it didn't seem like it'd be clear at all. We had a great day together swimming in the 50 degree water, reading, and laying on the beach being lazy. We went to celebrate my last day of freedom before classes started.


2. I started grad school! It's insane, all kinds of reading, but I feel like I'm learning so that's good. I also have to remind myself on a daily basis that this is what I wanted and what I have been working towards for the past few years. I am blessed to be in this position. I seriously have to say that to myself every day.


3. Fenway Park! Man, that was exciting. I don't even really like baseball that much, but we thought that we can't be Bostonians and not go to a game. Ever since then, we've been hooked. It's been a very weird experience. All of the sudden I care about baseball. I never would have expected that to happen.

4. The Colts have lost. Twice. I am very distraught about this.

5. Still no good Mexican food to be found. We have tried 4 different places and struck out everytime. Why can't I just find some good 'ol Americanized Mexican food in this international city?!?! They don't even serve queso cheese in the restaurants. They put melted cheddar on everything. This, above all else, could be a deciding factor in my long-term residence plans.

6. I made a pot roast for the first time in my life. I'm not sure how I got through 5 years of marriage and avoided this. I think I saw a whole new level of love in Robert's eyes when he saw the end result.