Hello Halloween

Happy Halloween

   When it comes to celebrating Halloween Carter and I are . . . shy. Our celebration was a few weeks ago when my parents were in town. My family has a tradition to make haunted gingerbread houses! It's pretty much the greatest tradition :) 

   Sadly, this gingerbread house and a few un-carved pumpkins outside our door are my only Halloween decorations this year. We've been so busy that I haven't even put fake cobwebs out. .  . something to improve on for next year. Speaking of decorations...I'm trying to convince Carter to let me buy a small fake Christmas tree since our apartment complex does not allow real trees. I think we need a tree and he can't imagine having a fake tree. We'll see who wins! Maybe I'll buy a fake tree and hang up air fresheners that smell like noble firs. Someday Carter and I will live in a real house and get a real tree and have lots of fun decorations!

   Last year I went trick or treating with my nieces. It was a blast! I wish we could go with them again this year but the rest of our Halloween festivities include a meeting at the University of Utah for prospective nursing majors and maybe a scary movie or two depending on when I get home. I remember when I was little my Mom would always paint our faces and we would go trick-or-treating at my great-grandma's neighborhood. Great-grandma Bean had this fun gumball machine and a old Altoid tin filled with pennies that we used to "buy" gumballs. I want to be like her! (For more reasons than just her gumball machine)

  

  I hope you have plans that are more fun than Carter and I, and you enjoy your holiday! 

We Are Changing

Changes Are Inevitable

While we were in Maine the Blogger App on my phone went "klapooo-e". . . . and I am now just getting around to writing another post. I could blame this long absence on all the changes in our lives recently, or on our hectic schedule. But it's not you, it's me.

For starters, Carter has joined the United States Army Reserves. He leaves for basic training in January and will be gone for six months. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to survive... My plan so far is to study and work like crazy, only leave the apartment when absolutely necessary, and visit Carley as often as possible. Not to mention try to convince my parents to fly me home for a long weekend, or come visit me :) In the meantime Carter is working full-time at Target and keeping up with all his physical training (PT training). I can tell that he is getting anxious to start in on this new chapter. He has already purchased his special military garments and ordered military scriptures. His plan is to contract with the Army ROTC so that when he graduates from college he will be an Officer. Only time will tell what University he will end up attending...our plans are up in the air because....

... I have decided to change my major to nursing. You may be just as surprised as I was! I was sitting in the General Relief Society broadcast when I had a picture placed in my mind of me as a nurse, and learned that I need to think about changing my major. After lots of pondering, researching, and talking with Carter we came to the conclusion that I need to pursue nursing as a career. At the end of this semester I will say goodbye to the Elementary Education program and start on all the prerequisites for the nursing program. The reason why we are unsure about which University Carter and I will attend is because it will depend on what nursing program I am accepted to. It will be a while until I can even apply to these programs so .... time will tell.

May God be with you 'til we meet again!

New Hampshire

Saturday night Carter and I drove to New Hampshire to visit one of his  areas. And of course I forgot to take pictures of the families we visited! But I did get photos of a robin's nest in the Kinney's front yard.

The weekend was great! We stayed at the Kinney's house and had a blast. For Sunday dinner we had one of our favorites...tacos! And homemade taquitos, which were amazing! I made sure to get the recipe.

Yesterday I sold out of strawberries a little early so I went down to the docks and bought some lobster. ... Carter couldn't really remember what they tasted like, and I wanted to try some so I bought three. I never realized that the phrase "red as a lobster" refers to their color after they've been cooked....just like how the sun cooked you! Anyways, neither one of us really  liked the lobster so we took the leftovers next door and made pasta for dinner. For dessert Carter made strawberry shakes with peanut butter cups on the top!

And last but not least we have purchased our plane tickets and will be flying back to Seattle on July 31st! Carter and I have decided that going back to Utah for school is what we want to do for now...until we get another crazy idea :)

Albion

Well, I apologize for not posting the last few days. It's been a little bit crazy. I always think that I will have time to post things via the computer at night, but I never do! So I'm posting via my phone while at the market. And when I say market I really mean our fruit stand in the parking lot of a strip mall...Brother G goes to a few actual farmer's markets on Fridays and Saturdays, but the one I'm at is just me.

On Saturday Carter and I went out to lunch to a place called Big G's. As you can see from the photos the sandwiches are HUGE! I only bought a half sandwich but Carter got a whole one. We both only ate a quarter of Big G's "sandwich". Carter says that on his mission he could eat an entire one in one sitting... We also bought a whoopee pie....a huge whoopee pie! That's me eating it in our kitchen (my phone won't let me load pictures within the text so they are all at the bottom still).

After lunch we went back to the farm and took a walk around all the fields. That's where the landscape photo is from-the back of the farm.

And as for this week, Carter works on the farm and in the greenhouse from 7 to 5:30. I leave for the market around 7:30 and get back around 6:30. Saturdays I get off early so we are making Saturday night our date night and travel time. We are going to visit other areas of Carter's mission on the weekends. We're thinking we'll go to New Hampshire this week and to Bob's next week. Hopefully traveling will make our posts much more entertaining!

Sadly the farm was not what we were expecting. We thought Carter would be doing more of the farming but instead Brother G just has him picking. It is still fun, and so far we like farming but just wish Carter was running more tractors :)

As for the quarks of Maine..there are plenty! What gets me the most are the roads. I haven't been on a road yet that had more than three lanes. All the roads I drive on to get to Boothbay are two lanes, don't have shoulders, are windy, have driveways right off of them and the speed limits are 45 or 50. Completely backwards from Washington! Their road  signs are also really short, they're nice and petite. I'm still getting used to the accents. Yesterday a customer and I were talking and I could hardly understand him! From the bits and pieces that I did understand I learned that he grew up in Norway and lived there till he was about 30...or maybe 20, I couldn't really get that through his accent. Then he moved to Maine,  where he has lived ever since...adding a completely new accent to his Norwegian one! It was a great conversation :)

We love and miss you!

First full day

Today, Carter and I went to a farmers market in Stonington. The market was on a small, very private island. We got there early to secure our spot, so once we were done setting up we took a walk around town and down to the water. I should have taken pictures of the awesome old New England homes/stores . . . But, alas I did not think about it until now. Next time I definitely will! These are the pictures we took on our walk out to the public dock and Carter by our strawberries.

One last fun thing about today, we drove over a quaint river called . . . Drum roll .  . . "Passagassawakeag River"! Pronounced just as it is spelled, pass-a-gas-a-walk-eag.

We are here

After a five hour flight, a two hour bus ride, and an hour car ride we have arrived at the farm! Not the most direct way to get here but we are here none the less and have already picked our first bunch of strawberries.

Carter and I sat next to a native Bostonian...I had quite a hard time understanding his accent. Hopefully I will be able to understand all the customers at the farmers market!

On the way to the farm we stopped at Freeport to buy Carter a pair of L.L.Bean boots. What a beautiful area! It is right on the coast with all these fun shops and old buildings. It looks like the cover of a magazine.

Here are two pictures of the farm. Sunny and warm!

On our way!

Maine, here we come!