Werewolf Bar Mitzvah Spooky Scary...

Even though I have to work Halloween night (boo!) we decided that we couldn't miss the opportunity go to Salem this year, so we went on a Tuesday night. We went through a haunted house, which wasn't that scary. But we ended the night with a haunted walking tour, which is when a very knowledgeable guide walks you through all of Salem's witch history hot spots. It was really interesting and spooky, and I think I caught a picture of a ghost...
The second floor of this house is where they did much of the witch interrogating...I think that white smudge is the ghost of a woman who hung herself while being kept locked up during interrogations...or maybe it's rain?Penny was un-scareable.

Canoein' the Charles

Last week we went a canoein' on the Charles River. It was so much fun and sooo pretty. The leaves were turning all different shades of fall and Penny was enjoying the ride. Dave did most of the rowing as I did the baby-holding, but on our way back Penny fell asleep so we both got to row and enjoy the crisp fall air. It was such a great day. Penny was looking so cute in her infant life vest. I didn't know they had such things.

Which brings me to another subject, and that is that I pretty much always assume no one is going to let you do anything with an infant. But they do! They even have special infant things! My plan was to hide in the car with Penny and then smuggle us on to the canoe after Dave had paid. Luckily, Dave's idea won out, which was to just all go in there normal-like and rent a canoe. They procured a special life jacket for Penny and although she hated it, I loved it.

Here are some gems from the day.

Soup du Week

Since I am working a lot of nights and can't make dinner I have started making a different soup at the beginning of each week so Dave (and me) have something yummy and warm to eat. I have acutally done this 4 weeks in a row! So I figured it was blogworthy, and time to start asking for ideas... Soups I have made so far:

1. Taco soup
2. Broccoli cheddar (probably my fave so far)
3. Potato Bacon
4. Corn chowder

Any other ideas?

FALL in love...

Fall is awesome! The leaves are so pretty and the weather has been lovely. I have been working most nights but Penny and I get to hang out during the day. Today we went to Orchard House! (Louisa May Alcott's house). It was so neat and the tour guide was so knowledgeable. Most of the people in the tour, including the guide, seemed more interested in Penny than the tour. How can I blame them? Penny and me at Orchard House.


The above three are me and Penny on our walk to the park.

I love that girl. Being a mom is awesome.

Wow it's been months, if not a full year since I've blogged... I guess it's time I start pulling my weight in the blogosphere. So life is great, school is good, we like Boston a lot... but probably not enough to keep us here for the rest of our lives (so don't worry family). Penny is reaching new levels of cuteness, levels that can only be reached with videos, so here are a couple. The audio wasn't working for me for some reason, so let me know if it's messed up for everyone else.




Penny does this funny thing sometimes where she sucks her upper lip... it's weird in a adorable sort of way.


And Uncle Joe and our friend Justin (that I've known since my first summer term at BYU-I way back in 2000) were our on the east coast and stopped in to visit, so we went to a Red Socks game and watched them get creamed by Toronto. During the 8th inning everyone sings "Sweet Caroline" and I missed most of it but you get the picture.

Penny Likes It

I think Penny likes it here. She just keeps getting cuter! She sits up like a pro on the couch but still has a little trouble on her own. She's getting there though. Here are some recent pics!

If it isn't fresh, it isn't LEGAL.

I got a job as a server at Legal Sea Foods, which is basically the premier sea food place on the east coast, if not the country. If you don't believe me, Bon Appétit magazine touts a meal at Legal Sea Foods as among America’s “Top Ten Tried-and-True” dining experiences. Legal is also included in Patricia Schultz’s popular guidebook, "1,000 Places to See Before You Die." So I was really excited to get hired.

And today was my first day.

So I get out on the floor, all ready to show off my service skills. I get the drink order for my first table of the day, a sweet, gentle elderly couple out for an early lunch. Two iced-teas. Simple. And, as if my life were part of some ridiculously cliche comedy, I served the lady her tea and spilled the gentleman's on his lap. A full glass of iced tea. Luckily the old man was as sweet and gentle as he looked, jesting that it must have been the drink ghost who pushed me. Bless his sweet, sweet heart and may it have many more beats.

The rest of the day went smoothly and I really am looking forward to the job. I will work night shifts so Dave can watch Penny after class. We'll seehow it all pans out...

What We've Been Up To...

In brief we moved three thousand miles across the country to the great state of Massachusetts, Dave by land, me by air. Dave started his Masters program in International Econ and Finance at Brandeis University and has been busy busy.

But we've had some fun too.
We visited the great American, Paul Revere's, grave.

And his house.
And his statue.

We visited Henry David Thoreau's shanty.

And let him hold our baby.We swam in Walden Pond. Beautiful and so warm!

We saw a free symphony at the Shell, an outdoor performance venue in Boston!

And won a ward pie baking contest! Well we didn't win. Ok, so we didn't even place, but we did enter and that makes us winners in my eyes! It was a "Sugar Cookie Apple Pie". We didn't have enough pie crust to cover the top so we made sugar cookie dough and covered it with that. I thought it was bomb and ate three pieces.

We're trying to get our apartment together and once we do I'll post some pics!

Common Sense

Last night I finished Glenn Beck's Common Sense, and Thomas Paine's, which is included in the back. Here are some quotes from Thomas Paine that I thought I'd share:

"A long time of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right."

Oh, the list of things in our world today that this applies to...

"Time makes more converts than reason."

"Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence."

Fig leaves...

"I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature which no art can overturn,viz, that the more simple anything is, the less liable it is to be disordered."

So unless there's only one word in 72 pt. font on each page, 1,000 page bills don't qualify.


Sorry to wax political on you, but I really think it is important to remember that our founding fathers didn't just sit around while their government abused them, they made their voice heard. I am proud of the many people in our country who are making their voices heard and encourage you to find out who your congressman is and voice your concerns when they arise. This is a great country, and we have the opportunity to keep it that way.

So maybe this is the longest book recommendation ever. Common Sense. Read it.

Don't Leave!

I changed our blog. I just like these colors better, but I'm not very good with computers so I know it doesn't look very great yet. Just consider this page "under construction", but also "open during contrucion".

Pretty Penny, Lucky Penny, A Penny For Your Thoughts...

Cute.

Cuter.

Cutest.

I've been trying hard to get video of Penny talking and singing like a madwoman but everytime I put a camera in front of her face she gets baffled by technology and goes speechless (one thing we already have in common). We have managed to get some more cute pictures though! She can hold her head up really good now, an exciting new development.

Also I think Penny might be part mermaid. She loves being in the water and really wails when you take her out. Come to think of it, when you take her out she sounds a lot like Daryl Hannah speaking mermish in Splash...Penny the 1/2 mermaid. Maybe that will give her a leg up when applying to colleges. Oh you're one eighth cherokee? Im one half mermaid.

Baby Makers

This picture is one of the reasons Idaho was particularly hard to leave behind this last time. We had a little farewell dinner with some friends on our last night, and no, we didn't just invite a random people with babies--these really are our best friends in Idaho and we just all happen to have new babies. Shauna (the girl to the left of me) had our babies the same week! How fun.

Caught Red handed (and faced)

This is me getting caught by Dave being the worst mom ever, and although it looks like Penny is about to slip out of her pajamas and off the side of the bed, I promise I was holding her very securely. And don't we look cozy?

Lately...

Penny has been cuter than ever lately. Although it's really hard to catch a smile, I have managed to catch some other cute faces on camera..

I couldn't put captions under each picture cause I'm blogtarded, but one of these is called the "blue steel". I'm sure you can figure it out.

Things I've done ("I" being Jessica)

I found this on my friend Melanie's blog and thought it was fun. You're supposed to go through it and highlight everything you have done. I wasn't going to do it at first but then I realized I'd actually done quite a few things, so I decided to share. It's fun, you should do it.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band--The Zenith Byrds, you should remember this Sara, you and Allie gave me hell for my hit "Joker".

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity--I might be cheating on this one because it was mostly other peoples money that I raised to go to Africa...

7. Been to Disneyland--more times than I can count. By the way D-land lets you in for free on your b-day this year. I already signed Dave up cause his is on July 31.

8. Climbed a mountain--Half Dome!! It was amazing.

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo-- Young Women in Action, 13 years old, first and last solo.

11. Bungee jumped-- Into, yes, into the Nile River.

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch-- Guitar? Is that an art?

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked-- no but I've picked one up before, which might even be riskier.

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Ran a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run-- No. But I got hit in the head by a home run.

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied-- When I was 10 it only took 75 cents. Enough to get a push-up-pop from the ice cream man.

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke-- And risked lung cancer from second hand smoke at a dirty Idaho Falls bar to do it.

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant-- I bought a homeless guy a sandwich at an Arby's once... does that count?

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain-- Thanks honey.

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie-- Many of my own self-produced hits. As well as an infomercial where I played basket ball behind one of the original Duke brothers from the Dukes of Hazard.

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business-- Several. "Refrigerator Art"- When I was about 8 or so I sold crappy drawings door to door to old ladies and marketed them as "refrigerator art". Dang I was cute.

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy--American Girl Dolls.

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job-- Kind of. Sister Holt I did quit first, that's what it's called when you stop coming to work, so the e-mail was unnecessary.

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle-- Dave just bought one.

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life-- Oh I'm sure I have, haven't we all?

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous--Please. Mya, Rascall Flatts, Jo Dee Messina, David Hasslehoff, and I spoke on the phone to Jewel (not a lie).

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby-- YEAH!! Penelope.

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit-- Well it was really my dog, Charlie's, fault. He dragged me into the whole painful litigation process, for which my parents are still paying.

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person