Cheap and Easy

Jay and I moved to New Hampshire a little over a month ago. yay! And for the last month we have "lived on a budget" again. But Not REALLY. We basically threw budgeting out the window and lived like we were on vacation. Maybe that's a common side effect of moving thousands of miles out of your comfort zone. You go out to eat more and you don't mind seeing a couple extra movies on the big screen.

All fun and games, but we quickly realized we can't keep living like this, or we will soon be running back home to our parents, begging for money!

So, we found a couple of things we could do for cheap. Just the price of gas!

Merrimack is a town 20 minutes from our apartment, and there is a Budweiser brew house, with free tours, and real Clydesdale! Oh, and the best part...FREE BEER!

Enjoying the sunny day by the horse stables.

A free sample before the tour!

More free beer! After the tour we each got TWO beers. Yumm.

Jason with his booze of choice.

Look at that free deliciousness.

Budweiser flag. 

On Sunday we went to church. We are kinda sorta going to church in Hampton Falls, NH. It is 45 minutes away from where we live. :-( But the teaching is so sound, and so good, we are drawn back every week. Anyways, the ocean is 15 minutes away from church, so we decided to hit the beach!

Rye, NH

Jason reading

It's Cold

Unlike myself, Jason actually did go all the way in!

But it is COLD!

He's such a stud.

How lucky are we?

 

 

 

After the beach we returned home to watch the second Harry Potter. I just finished reading the book. I know, I'm getting on that boat like a million years late, right? The entire series is free for Amazon Prime members. I love my kindle.

Happy weekend all!

Bedroom Corners and Side Tables

We have enough space in our bedroom to have a chair. What a privilege. Seriously. Love it! I scoured craigslist and found the chair you will see. (It comes from a great older couple who live in Mass. They were so funny. Conversations, on top of conversations funny. Like, 40 years of being married to each other funny.)

I've piled as many frames as I can on the wall. I love laying in bed and staring at all of the pictures. There is a great picture of baby Jason in Twins gear. It makes my heart smile.

I realized that We needed a side table. Side tables are expensive, and silly. They are a couple scraps of wood, sitting, collecting dust, and there is no good reason for them to cost more than 5 bucks. Maybe I'm cheap. Okay, I'm cheap. I found a couple patterns to make my own, and I have most of the equipment (thanks Mom and Dad for the saw!), but I don't feel comfortable setting up shop in the middle of our apartment complex parking lot (I've read our lease agreement, and there isn't any statement that says I'm not allowed to use power tools in the parking lot, but I have a feeling it won't be allowed.)

Anyways, I've been to a couple of garage sales, goodwill, and a couple other consignment shops. Nothing. So I went to Savers today. A brand new store in Manchester! And that is where I found this side table for only 4.99. It's ugly. But I will paint it! But, what color?? That's where you get to help me!

This is the side table in its natural state. She actually doesn't look that bad. But trust me, she's no good in real life.

Bright blue? Also, I know that lamp needs a shade. It's a process.

Mint green?

Coral? Do you like my use of "hot" summer colors?

Yellow with grey stripes?

Orange. Not very pretty I know. But I recently saw a cute side table that was bright orange, and it had an orange slice painted on top. Cute.

Red?

The chair is grey/green. So maybe grey/blue/teal?

Or just plain old grey?

Grellow (green yellow) and grey? 

So, what do you think? I might just pick up whatever can of "oops" paint I can find and call it good, but maybe I will actually buy paint!

Things that I miss.

Listen, I know it's only been a month. I shouldn't be missing anything yet. Especially since it was our idea to move away. But when you realize it might be a long time before you see these things again, you start to miss them.

My mom.

Dad and Grandma

Parents

Siblings

Family and pajama parties

This girl.

This puppy dog

And this old man.

This lady.

And her beautiful baby.

Every single one of them. 

All of these.

Every second of this.

The Teeny Tiniest of an Update

Hello all!
I have every intention of taking pictures of our apartment, maybe even a video. But I keep thinking, "tomorrow, tomorrow, I will pick all the pictures frames up from the floor tomorrow, I will sew that table cover, and buy that bed skirt tomorrow. And then, the apartment will be ready to have pictures taken of it."
I know that's silly, and none of you really care if there are still 15 white photo frames laying on the floor, or a piece of grey fabric pretending to be a "table cloth" But I want the apartment a little more spruced before I go showing everyone. :-)

So, until then, I will give you the smallest of an update, filled mostly with pictures!

Jason graduated from NDSU with a Pharm.D!

We initially drove out with just the Honda Fit. We made it New Hampshire! Welcome!

This was how Jason lived for his first two solo weeks out here. When we had the Uhaul from the move we bought a couch on craigslist for a whopping 90 bucks!

The blow up bed Jay slept on for his solo weeks. 

 

 

 

On our first move we forgot a beer bottle opener. Not a good idea. We used needle-nose pliers.

I was in New Hampshire for only a couple days, then flew back to Minnesota to finish packing and projects. We hauled our self out to the coast. About an hour from Manchester.

This is the Port in Portsmouth, NH

Had some yummy Smuttynose (a local brew) at a Portsmouth restaurant.

 

 

 

 

Look at the beauty that is God's creation.

New Hampshire houses the White Mountains. And there are 48 peaks over 4000. It's an unspoken challenge to complete them all. Some people do it two or three times a year.

We hiked Mt. Osceola

Sitting down to eat lunch. We had read about "black flys" but being Minnesotan didn't think they would be any worse than a mosquito. Wrong! They basically burrowed in, drew blood, and left a welt that itched for days. We will be bringing bug spray next time!

It was an overwhelmingly beautiful view from the top.

The spot to be. It had the remnants of a long forgotten fire station.

Captain?

The trail had a lot of giant rock slabs going at a 30 degree angle. On the way down I slipped. :-(

All the blood.

We live in a city. But less than a mile away is a pretty great park, with a lake in the middle.

And just to leave you with a smile! Jason's grandpa Gil Holle. I love this picture.