So there are definitely days that I come home from work completely stressed out from everything I do all day!

But other days, I get to do fun things like this…..

 

It's a birthday calendar for everyone at my work!!

It’s pretty awesome when you get paid to do crafts at work! :)

Another fun thing I am currently doing at work is planning the company Christmas party!!

When I first found out I was going to be in charge of planning the party, I was ECSTATIC!

I love planning these types of things… especially when it comes to Christmas festivities, however….

Lately it has been stressful because I am realizing that it is impossible to please everyone!

So many of my co-workers having been coming up to me and giving suggestions of what they want to do (which is fine), but I obviously can’t make everyone happy. 

So I decided to do what I thought made the most sense…. Take a vote!

The majority of people voted that they wanted to do the party at a restaurant and rent out a banquet room.  I’m really excited because I think it’s going to be a lot of fun!

We are going to do raffle prizes, a white elephant gift exchange, and an employee trivia game.  There are only 14 employees where I work and we all know each other pretty well so I figured a trivia game would be fun to learn things about people that we don't know.

Wish me luck!! There is A TON of pressure involved with planning a company party! 

Yay for Christmas though! I CANNOT wait to go home to visit for Christmas!!!

I already gave my mom all the details of what I want to do while we're visiting.... pretty much down to the hour. :) I can't help it.... I'm just so excited!

Harvard Hockey Game!!

Well I'm still alive!

Haven't blogged in a while.... I've been a busy busy bee. 

Work has been busy... and life in general. 

Everything is swell though so I can't complain. :)

  So last night AJ and I went to a Harvard hockey game!!

My boss had tickets that he wasn't going to be able to use so he gave them to me.... and they were FRONT ROW seats! 

It was really cool because it was a first for both of us...

and we were sitting right along the glass.

I got scared a couple of times though when the hockey players got slammed against the glass right in front of us! 

At one point, all the players broke into a big fight (which isn't allowed in college hockey games) so they ended up throwing a couple of the players out of the game.  

So anyway, it was a super fun night and I learned that hockey is INTENSE!!

AJ watching the game intensely. :) 

One last thing I want to mention.... I LOVE public transportation here in Boston! 

Last night we just hopped right on the bus and it dropped us off in front of Harvard.  

We never have to worry about finding a parking spot....

not to mention it ends up saving us a lot of money!

It's great. :)

Baking Adventures

Like many other bakers, I get a little wrapped up in pumpkin during the fall months.  I can’t help it… I love everything with pumpkin in it!

Now, AJ isn’t much of a pumpkin fan…. Which is both good and bad for me! It’s good because it means more for me… and it’s bad for the exact same reason. :)

This past week I made  pumpkin chocolate chip bread and I was surprised at how good it turned out considering my oven doesn't even have a temperature gauge or thermometer!!! Yep that’s right…. I have to GUESS what temperature I think my oven is at whenever I use it.  (See below)  It gets really annoying because I have to check on everything I bake and cook every two minutes to make sure it's not burning.  Needless to say…. It makes baking very difficult!

 I was on Skype with my mom and brother earlier today and I was trying to show and explain to them how my stove consists of just knobs without temperature gauges and they got a real good laugh!!! My mom thought it was absolutely hilarious that I have to guess what temperature my oven is at! 

Since AJ doesn’t like pumpkin and I cannot afford to eat two whole loaves by myself, I took one of the loaves to work and everyone loved it! 

I think the bread was a success given the challenges I ran into! :)

Fall is in the air...

Fall is my favorite time of the year!!

I love everything about it. 

I love waking up to the crisp chill in the air... I love baking fall treats (aka everything pumpkin).... I love the fall leaves... I love wearing boots and scarves again... I love everything about it!

Yesterday AJ and I took a drive up through New Hampshire to see all the fall leaves and it was absolutely beautiful! New Hampshire has some decent sized mountains and it felt a lot like home to me. The weather could not have been more perfect... it was high 70's low 80's with a slight breeze the whole day.  It's been so cold in Boston recently so it felt really nice to have warm weather again! 

Here are some pictures from our New Hampshire adventure! Oh and we decided we officially love New Hampshire because they have no state taxes and their state motto is "Live Free or Die"... Haha. 

It's on all the New Hampshire license plates. How awesome is that?!

I was impressed with the mountains here... they obviously aren't like the Rockies but they are big for the East Coast!

Love & Don't Love

Now that we have officially been living in Boston for 36 days now, I thought I would make a list of all the things I really love about Boston and the things I don't love as much....

LOVE 

1.All the houses & neighborhoods are so cute & unique.... it feels a lot like Europe in that way. (I could be entertained for days by just walking around through the adorable neighborhoods)

2. There are so many delicious places to eat. There are hardly any chain restaurants... most of the places are quaint little cafes or small restaurants and many of them are family-owned.

3. There are lots of young people here

4. Everyone here constantly walks, bikes, jogs, etc (you really don't need a car)

5. It is so GREEN everywhere you go (especially outside of Boston.... the freeways and streets are lined with greenery and it's gorgeous!)

6. Downtown Boston.... it's such a lively place and there's always so much going on! I really love working downtown. 

7. Shopping in Boston!! There are tons of options as far as shopping goes here!

8. There is always so much to do here (especially at night--everything stays open really late)

9. You get to meet so many cool and different people every day

10. There are SO many opportunities for missionary work!! The other day I was talking to a taxi driver and he had heard of the "Mormons" but didn't know a lot about the church.  I had the opportunity to tell him a little bit about what we believe and it was such a great experience! He mentioned how he has seen the LDS temple in Boston and thought it was beautiful! But he had one question for me...."Who is the man standing at the top of the temple with a trumpet and what in the world is he announcing??" haha I thought that was pretty funny! I told him that the man's name is Moroni and that I didn't know if he was announcing anything in particular but that I would find out! :) Good times! 

11. Boston is very old and there is so much history here

12. Public transportation is awesome and SO easy to use (it was definitely scary at first but I'm getting the hang of it)

13. The support system in our ward is awesome! Everyone is so great and most of the people in our ward are in the same boat we're in (young people going to school/working/etc)

DON'T LOVE

1. Traffic (at ALL times of the day)

2. Humidity... my clothes never feel fully clean and I constantly feel like I need to take a shower!

3. Everything is EXPENSIVE!! From housing to groceries, everything is a lot more expensive in Boston.  Just to give you an idea, a gallon of milk costs $4.19 here.  That's a lot considering I'm used to paying $2.09 at the Wal-Mart in Utah. 

4. I don't have any family in Boston :( 

5. There is no Cafe Rio 

6. Pretty much everybody here drinks and so when you tell them that you don't drink alcohol, they simply can't believe it! They are either really confused or they consider it unfortunate that you don't drink. ;)

Well, that's it for now.  I'm sure my love/don't love list will continue to grow the longer I live here. 

This is where I work.... in the heart of downtown Boston.  Pretty neat huh?!

These pictures don't do the neighborhoods here justice... but you can get an idea of what some of the neighborhoods are like here.  I love it!

How to spend my days...

So as many of you know, I have been unemployed for the last few weeks since we moved to Boston.  

Therefore, I have NEVER had to be so creative with how to use my time. 

Needless to say.... it can get pretty boring sometimes. (Not to suggest that Boston is boring--because it's FAR from boring, but I'm just used to being in school or working or both.)

All I can say is thank goodness for the library we have right around the corner from our apartment. Those of you who know me well know that I love to read. I have been spending a lot of my spare time reading..... so if anyone has any recommendations for good books to read, send them my way!

I've also been walking around our neighborhood a lot and discovering new things.... there are some really cute cafes and bakeries a few blocks away that I never noticed until a few days ago. 

You know it's pathetic when you have "get the mail" on your to-do list. 

Oh and one of the funniest things happened the other night when AJ was trying to help me brainstorm fun/new ways I can spend my days and he suggested looking through my "Tools and Techniques" cookbook and learning how to cut up an apple a different way or how to cut up a raw chicken. Haha  Besides the fact that this is something I would probably actually do, it's just ridiculous to think that even AJ is running out of new ideas for me. :)

I know the time will come when I look back at this time and wish I could go back and have so much time to myself, so I'm trying to enjoy it for a few more days while I still can.  I guess I'm just the type of person who really likes being busy and I'll probably always be that way.  

Boston so far...

Wow.... where do I even begin?! 

Living in Boston has been quite an adventure so far! We have gotten to see some really cool things and eat some really delicious food so far! Let me just say.... the food here is AMAZING!! (Especially if you like Italian food and fresh seafood!)

So AJ has been REALLY busy with school, but we made it a goal to do something fun in Boston every weekend when he has some time.  Last weekend, we went to the North End of Boston (aka "Little Italy") and walked around.  We went to a place called Mike's Pasty which everyone in Boston knows about!! 

One word... Heaven. 

If you love desserts and especially pastries (like me) you will LOVE this place!! 

They are especially known for their "cannolies" which are basically like giant eclairs, but even better (if you can imagine.)

Mmmm....

This is what downtown Boston looks like at night! Pretty cool right?!

One of my favorite things to do is drive to church on Sundays because the drive is so beautiful! We drive all along the Charles River to get to church and it's really pretty! See for yourself!

One thing I really like about Boston is that there are always people outside! There are so many people that love to jog, walk, bike, etc.  It's very refreshing!

This past weekend, AJ and I drove out to Rockport, which is a little town in Massachusetts right along the coast of the Atlantic ocean.  The harbor there is really cool and there are so many cute little shops--I loved it! 

Does anyone recognize this red building?? Okay I probably wouldn't be able to either, BUT it's significant because it's in the movie "The Proposal." They actually filmed the movie here in Rockport (not actually in Alaska.) Cool right?

The apartment is still coming together.... pictures soon to come!! :)