Manchester, Photos, and, Bringing It!

Hello All!

Long time no blog?

Yeah, having limited internet really cuts in to my ability to share. But I'm here today, and I'm ready to tell you everything I know.

Let's start with a Manchester update. Well, a New Hampshire update in general. We have decided on a city we are going to live in. We picked Manchester. We can't give you a reason why really.  We just had to make a decision so we could get an apartment, and we decided on Manchester. If we get out there and don't like it, I'm sure we will consider moving.

We scoured craigslist for apartments. And we finally decided on one we would apply for. We paid our application fees, and our holding fee, waited, and a couple days later we were notified that the apartment was ours! Now, in the couple of days it took us to hear back from the apartment complex I read some reviews about the apartment that gave me the heebejeebes.  Things like "This place has bedbugs" or "the roaches run and hide when you turn the lights on." What?? That is too much for me! But Jason and I talked with people, and we both agree that we can't walk away from this place until we actually see it.  Originally when we applied we said we wanted to do a 12 month lease, but since we were a little nervous, we asked if we could a 6 month lease.  The managers were just fine with that! So we have a two bedroom apartment with a 6 month lease. No worries. If we hate it, it's only 6 months!

http://www.colonialvillage-apts.com/  --this is the website, take a look! It "looks" really nice.



This is our floorplan. Not too shabby right?

 



 We are moving out to New Hampshire the first week of June. And we've given ourselves a week. Three days to drive out there, and then a handful of days to get organized and settled. yay!


On Saturday March 24th, Jason and I had a "beloved" session with the wonderful Megan Eckers of Wildlove Photography. Check out her great, witty, emotional, sentimental blog. http://wildlovephoto.com/blog/
I orignally made the appointment for the session as motivation to get my unexercised butt in motion. It worked! I didn't lose as much weight as I had hoped I would, but I feel comfortable and confident in my body. Especially when my husband holds me in his arms, or looks at me with those eyes of his! Look...

Jason and I had a fantastic time with Megan! She had us laughing, she had me crying my eyes out, she had us kissing till our lips were sore. (okay, maybe not that much smooching) She asked us to tell her about the other person, she gave us "what if" scenarios, and she led us in games with each other. It was a great day. She was never watching the time, or hurrying us along. She just stood behind her camera, patiently drawing us out and closer to each other.

I haven't told too many people this, but I started p90x almost 30 days ago. I'm Loving It! I was nervous that I wouldn't keep going.  I did not want to tell everyone and then give up and be laughed at! I can see and feel it working. I Know I'm "bringing it" every morning at 0430. I know I am going to FIT in to those pants again!

thanks for reading,

megs

New Hampshire Contact

Jason and I were recently in South Carolina visitng my aunt (my dad's sister) and her family. They have a beautiful home, nestled deep in the woods, four dogs running around outside, and a house full of laughs and good food! It was a fantastic mini getaway. 

While we were there we joined them at a Mardi Gras party at their church.  And a couple from their church recently moved to South Carolina from New Hampshire! They were so excited that we were moving there and kept coming over to us during the night to tell us little tid-bits about the state and ask us more questions.  We ended the night with a promise from them that they would provide us with contact information for their daughter-in-law. We got an email the next day! I have contacted her yet, but it's nice to know that somebody out there is willing to help us. It makes it that much more real too.

Less than 100 days!

-Megs

Blogging

I have been living at my parents house for the last eight months, with Jason dropping in from a rotation every now and then.

My parents use a Verizon MiFi card for their internet.  It is limited to 5GB.  With six people using it this month we quickly used over 4GB in 12 days.  Now we are not allowed to use the internet unless we absolutely have to. Needless to say, blogging has been slow because of it. Be back soon, or next month maybe!

Here is some slightly more exciting news. Jason and I recently started subscribing to Consumer Reports. We received our first article this week, and one of the stories was about cars. I kid you not, Jason flipped open the magazine and it's a giant picture of an ORANGE HONDA FIT! It rates something like 2 times more than the average.  I can't explain what that means to you without having the magazine in front of me. But it was nice to see that all of my research paid off, and that even Consumer Reports likes my car!

Fan

My late grandfather, Ludwig, had a wood-working shop in the basement of his house.  Grandpa and Grandma were the dynamic-duo when it came to crafting.  He would cut the wood piece, and she would paint it.  I have a Christmas ornament, hand made by them, for almost every year of my life!

A young Ludwig, with an even younger Megan and brother Travis

In this wood working shop stood a Montgomery Ward fan.  I spotted it while admiring his dusty little shop a couple of months ago, and asked Grandma if I could have it.  Of course she said yes. I didn't take a before picture (silly) but imagine a little metal fan, covered about 1/4" thick in sawdust, and odd wires sticking out in places that looked too unsafe to be real.

I decided I was going to pull it apart and paint it. I had never thought that I would get it running again. I realized that I had no idea how to get it apart and I needed my brothers help.  As soon as he had it apart he said he could have it running again.  So we ran to town, bought the stuff to re-wire it and some spray paint. And a couple weeks later she's done! It really only took a couple hours. I just had to give the spray time to dry, etc.

Here she is in pieces. The base

The cage

The back cover

Front Cover

Jason snapped a picture of this for me, it's the magnets that sit inside of the fan.

Everything covered in a coat of primer. I did three coats. I used a car metal primer.

The base in a coat of primer.

The base with one coat of Valspar Tropical Oasis Gloss spray paint

The blades with one coat of paint

Brother helping me with the wiring of the fan.

I paid close attention. Maybe I will be able to do it on my own someday.

Soldering the wires together.

The cover and blades are going on.

She's beautiful!

Making vintage new isn't always easy.  The push button we purchased doesn't fit in the cage of the fan. Oh well. She runs!

Here she is, relaxing in my room.

A close up of the Montgomery Ward symbol.

The motor runs hot after only being on for a couple of minutes.  So, I may never actually use it, but I have the option. And she looks great sitting in the room.

-Megs

December 17th Weekend

On Friday December 16th, Jason arrived home from Georgia. He spent two days driving, from Georgia to Illinois, from Illinois to Minnesota.  It was great to get him home and it's been great to have him here!

Saturday morning Jason and I loaded up the Honda Fit and headed for Fargo.  I had planned to visit my friend Kristi, her husband Adam, and their NEW BABY Griffin! Griffin is a little bundle of joy.  He was born on October 31st, 2011.  When I met him he was roughly a month and a half, about 13 lbs, just learning to smile, and getting pretty good at holding his head up.


It was an experience for me. It has been quite a while since I'd been responsible for a baby quite so small!  I got to change his cloth diapers, bottle feed, and burp him. 

Kristi and Adam attended a company Christmas party and 4 of the prettiest women on the planet got to baby-sit baby Griffin.  Ashley, Anna, Tana, and myself. 

Here is a picture of Ashley feeding Griffin

We Belong Part 2

March 2009
Spring Break in California

Jason and I went to northern California to see a friend, and stay the week for cheap.  We flew in to Sacramento then drove up to Humboldt county in my friends little ford focus.  Winding roads and a manual car can make for a fun drive! I remember our first day there was...interesting. We had left Minneapolis at an early time. We landed in Sacramento around 11am, and decided we did not want to get lunch yet. We then drove around trying to find the boating house that our friend was having her Crew practice at. We arrived there an hour later and they were out on the water. We waited a couple more hours, and by then it was 3 or 4pm in Minnesota. We were STARVING!


Early morning flights make us silly. 



The Ford Focus Megan got to drive



Our campsite the first night in California 



I love camping with this man.



Look at what a studly stud he is.



The long-arm-self-portrait-shot



We stopped on the way for a leg stretch.


After we said our Hey-Hellos to Emily we wandered the streets of Sacramento once again. (This was all Pre-GPS) We found a Sizzler. We thought we had hit the jackpot. Later we found out that it's a pretty common restaurant.  So we probably should not have excitedly taken pictures of our sub par steaks. Ha! Oh well.

We spent the rest of the week hiking in the Redwood National Forest. Which was amazing and beautiful. We even hiked in an area that a scene from Jurassic Park was filmed in. And we saw some hippies smoking in a tree. That was nice.


That kid is 6'4" with his hands down.



Tree Love!



Fern Gully anyone?



This is our Dear Friend Emily.



When we flew out of Sacramento we went to the capital and saw Arnold (said with an accent of course). He wasn't actually there, but we peaked in his office just in case!


We went out for a nice dinner on the bay.



Ooo pretty!



August 2010
Honeymoon in Bar Harbor Maine
We were married on May 22, 2010. It was a beautiful day! We had decided that we wanted to go to Bar Harbor Maine for our honeymoon. We found a little 2 person cabin in the woods and we stayed for a week.  We knew that we wanted to wait for our honeymoon. We did not want to feel rushed after our wedding.  So we planned the trip for August, and it was a wonderful little vacation!

We drove the entire way. Something like 36 hours. We drove the first 24 hours straight through. We landed in upstate New York and stayed at a friends house. Thanks Katie! We spent the next 12 or 20 hours relaxing with Katie and other friends from upstate. We met our good friends husband for the first time and we had a blast! (Thanks Ryan and Kasey for being so cool!) We are excited to be a teeny-tiny bit closer to that couple.

We drove the rest of the way and had a great week. We hiked acadia national park, we kayaked in the ocean, we pretended to not be so out of shape that biking was killing us, and we acted like the tourists that we were!



Buoys decorate everything out there



Bar Harbor

The Newlyweds!

Look at that cute smile.

We made it to the top!



It was so beautiful



Goofing around

He's falling in!

To be continued...
-Megs

Our Christmas Plans

Friday 12/23: Relax at home with Megan's parents and siblings. We will be stuffing our faces with Enchiladas, yummy taco dip, and Margaritas! Yippee!!

Saturday 12/24: We have a Christmas party at Jason's brothers house at 11am. We are excited to see family! Even some out-of-state relatives will be there to celebrate with us. After lunch with the fam we are going to downtown Minneapolis to celebrate our family Christmas. Just me and Jason!

Sunday 12/25: We are waking up in our plush hotel room and then heading over to Jason's grandparents house in Paynesville, Mn.

Megan has Monday 12/26 off and I'm not sure what we are going to do that day. Megan would love to stay home and work on some of her craft projects!

Friday 12/30: Christmas with Jason's parents in Jordan, Mn!