Missing Family-Archive Draft

{I am happy to report that since this sad moment my family has visited several times, and I have been out to see them. But there will always be those moments of missing them.}

I got a little teary during and after talking to my mum and little nephew over skype. And I am not one to cry that often. I have only been gone for a grand total of 5 months. I am so not good at being away from family. At least I have the most important family here with me. But sometimes a girl just needs her mum/niece/nephew/sisters/brother (in addition to her husband of course ;)

Chicken girl tries the hardest tongue twister in the world

It is really hard.
Peggy Babcock.
Just try it.
But try not to Ba-BAK like a chicken.

Camping out, living room style

P.S. (pre-script) My little sister scoffed when I told her we did this. "pshbm, that's cool". WHAT DO YOU KNOW!? ;) It's cool, ok.
Love you Ren.

We had Grease, a puzzle with alligators, popcorn, colorful little lights and candles, cookies...what else is there to want? (except Grease is a scandalous movie! I had forgotten ;)

Yup, we slept here. And then we woke up and ate panettone bread pudding for breakfast here. And then we canceled our plans for a hike due to rain. And then went back to sleep right here. Good story huh?

We think so too.

P.S. (post-script this time. Sheesh, confusing)

Our little Owl friend missed us in bed that night. Always watching out for us, what a guy.

Last day of Pompeii (and of Kristin visiting)

 I had to go back to work the day after Christmas but Job took care of my dear sister, and I got off at 4 everyday so there was still plenty of time to have fun! :) Observe:

We cooked, we went to museums, we laughed, talked, watched movies, went out to eat, relaxed from our busy week prior, took late night donut runs; basically had a lot of fun.

In more detail than you want:

• We could spend forever in the Museum of Science. They had a special exhibit of Pompeii going on which was amazing. Kristin and I also reminisced about our dreams of becoming astronauts. 

• Kristin decided The Greek Corner was one of the best places we took her to eat. That is due to the lamb and beef kabob. Explosion in your mouth people.

• We finally went to Kane's donuts. It was super good. And we stood at the counter for a very long time trying to find the donuts before the guys at the counter decided to show us where they were hidden. They thought we were dumb, but ya know what buddy?! It's a donut shop, show me the donuts.

• I am still finding out slowly fun little things Kristin and Job did while I was gone at work. I am glad they had the chance to get to know each other better :)

Thanks for coming Kristin! We loved having you. And we love you. And donuts.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Twelve

On the twelth date of Christmas, my true love, my sister, and I....

Celebrated a wonderful Christmas day complete with gift and stocking opening, a big breakfast we all cooked together, a beautiful program at church centered around our Savior Jesus Christ, having the missionaries from our church over for a dinner of tamales, google chatting with family, etc... It was delightful.

{by Simon Dewey}

It was a special treat to have Kristin here for our holiday! It was a surprise for me and I loved every minute of having sister time. Job and Kristin got to know each other better which was nice. We also had a fun week-after-Christmas which I will proceed to put all in another blog post.
I had a lot of fun with these 12 dates of Christmas. Maybe this will become yet another holiday tradition.
I love those.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Ten

On the tenth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....


Went to the New England Aquarium to oogle at our favorite enormous sea turtle Andre, and then walked right on over to the North End for a big box of cannoli from Mike's.

And yes, we then went home and proceeded to eat them all.

No regrets.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Eight

On the eigth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....

Went to see the Boston Ballet perform the nutcracker! They were amazing to say the least, and it was definitely a fun way to get in the Christmas mood.

Before the show we hopped on by Sam LaGrassa's (remember, the world's greatest sandwiches?! :) Did not disappoint, that's for sure.

I mean, come on, just look at that happy face :) I sure love that guy!

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Seven

On the seventh date of Christmas, I had a sister date! :)

Kristin and I got down to business and made some delicious things for our stockings. Our stockings have a sort of old fashioned theme with fruit, nuts, molasses cookies, etc... (of course ours also included some not-so-old-fashioned things like twix and VS eye shadow ;)

Anyways, baking up some homemade cookies with a good friend is just so fun! And molasses cookies are my new favorite, seriously, give them a try!
We also candied some nuts and found a new favorite recipe which I just have to share. So.darn.good.

I present to you:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Toasted Pecans

{via www.simplyscratch.com}

ingredients:
16 ounces Pecans
1 Egg White
2/3 cup White Sugar
1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1-1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 pinch Cayenne Pepper
1 pinch Ground Allspice

preparation:
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. I lined my cookie sheet with a silpat, but you could also grease with butter or coconut oil.

Mix the sugar, cocoa powder and all the spices in a medium bowl and set aside. Whisk the egg white until it is thick and frothy {small peaks} and add in the pecans. Stir to coat. Next, add the cocoa mixture and combine until the nuts are evenly coated.

Scoop the nuts with a slotted spoon onto the prepared pan and place in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove, toss and place back in the oven for twenty more minutes. After the first 40 minutes, check your nuts to see if the cocoa/sugar doesn't crumble off of the nuts. If it does, place it back in the oven for 20 more minutes, otherwise let cool slightly and serve!

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Six

On the sixth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I.....

Went to enjoy some beautiful art at the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston has a great one and I always love going. The special exhibit going on now is Degas Nudes and many of them were very beautiful (we didn't care for his brothel period however). We also saw the new Jewlery exhibit, the contemporary art, the rest of the impressionists, and some video art. Can I just say, I could spend all day in there!

After getting our culture fix we headed over to our favorite little tea shop for some hot apple cider and herbal tea. Speaking of art, they always show local artist's work in the place which I love.

Now, if watching Job sip his drink from a tiny teaspoon doesn't make me all jolly inside, I don't know what will ;)

Look who's here!!

This girl!!

Who I love so very much. Who I haven't seen for 3 years! Who I have missed terribly. And she's here, for Christmas, and.I.love it.
She arrived on Tuesday night and we proceeded to cuddle up, watch a family Christmas classic (Muppet's Christmas Carol), and talk through the whole thing. It has been great catching up.
For the remainder of our Christmas dates this lovely lady will be joining us. She adds a lot of fun so we are happy to have her along! :D

Time for Rachael's Roundup

Weekend round-up that is. Guys, I live for weekends. Especially ones that go like this:

Friday: I didn't have to work so I lounged about part most of the day. Sweet.
Evening came and I wisked on downtown to pick up Job and meet some friends for dinner at 5 Napkin Burger. After dinner we went to the play/musical "Curtains". It was fabulous! I love seeing plays on stage, there is such a great energy and excitement! It kept us laughing and guessing the whole time.

Saturday: Welcome sleep! It was nice to have a day to sleep in. Those don't come all that often.
Later we hit a Food Truck Festival near our house that was hosted by Suffolk Downs racetrack so we got to try out a bunch of yummy food from local trucks while watching the horse races. Super fun for people like us who love food and local fun :) No betting for us though, we'd rather spend our money on food ;)
That night we rented a scary movie and got our cuddle on.

Sunday: dawned bright and early! I got my visiting teaching (visiting women in our church as friends and to talk about the gospel) done in the morning before church and then Job and I went to see a little bit of the Head of the Charles Regatta, a big crew competition here in Boston. I had packed a little picnic earlier that morning so we parked it on our little blanket along a quiet part of the river and munched while we watched the boats speed on by.
Church was uplifting, edifying, and just what we needed to start our week with. We talked about having humility, and living up to our potential and privileges. After church I did some more visiting teaching, and then we headed out to a Viola concert at Job's school (Helen Callus-lovely concert). After that Job did his Home Teaching and then finally we headed home. I got to skype my sister who I haven't talked to in ages, "meet" her current boyfriend, grill him a little, and see my mum's 2 kittens she just got.
I was definitely ready for bed that night, and ready to wake up this morning for work (after hitting snooze twice that is ;).

Bam. How's that for an update? I know, kind of long. But that's good from a journal perspective right? :D yeeaaah.

Kid quote

My sis-in-law just shared this tid-bit on her blog tonight and I had to pass it on. It made me laugh :D Love this kid. 

"Look a Mexican, can it take its clothes off?" -4 year old Parr

"Parr that is not a Mexican, it is a mannequin" -His mom

hehe.

We be rocking the 90's in those sweat suits

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

East Coast has been popular with the natural disasters lately eh? I was somewhat disappointed that I didn't even feel a shimmy or shake during the earthquake (nada.) but I am thinking Irene will up the excitement level. I hope not too exciting though. I want it to rain just enough for me to tell everyone "sorry guys, can't go out today-just look at that rain". That's all. Cuddling and watching movies with Job all weekend sounds A-O.K. to me.

On the To Do list for today:
Buy flashlight and batteries
Buy {more} candles
Charge up everything
Buy an extra case of something for our food storage
Fill up car with gas
Bake some bread (just because it sounds good :)

Let the cuddling commence!

Oh and since it is Friday and all:

Sometimes I miss these teeny tiny girls. Now they are old, dating, going to high school and even *gasp* college!
But no matter how old they get they will always be "The Little Girls" in our family.

Good, Better, Best ideas

Good Idea: Buying little trash can liners for those small trash cans around the house so you don't get icky gunk in your trash can.

Better idea: Being green and re-using plastic grocery bags as liners. A little too big but not a big deal.

Best idea: Being green and clever and re-using those perfectly sized produce bags you get at the store (because we all remember to bring our canvas bags to the store and so don't have a million big plastic ones lying around anymore right? I always forget those things.) Perfect size for my teeny weeny cans.

Cleverness brought to you by one of my many sisters. 

Thanks Bec.

Good, Better, Best taken from this amazing talk. One of my favorites.

M-m-m-memos

To the couple across from us on the T---full out nuzzling, complete with eyes closed and dramatic slow-mo attacking of the ear and neck is usually always a social "no-no". Job and I would have gone for it and tried to out-PDA you but alas, we value our dignity. 

To Rino's waitresses---Ever heard of a chill pill? Attacking everyone at a large table of costumers and then backpeddling and trying to be all chipper near the end of the meal to land a bigger tip doesn't fly with me. 15% for you, and no returns to the restaurant. Bummer for Rino.

To Rino---Your Italian food is deeeelish! My tummy thanks you. P.S. See above memo to your waitresses and hire some new ones.

Half of the group at dinner last night. A group of couples who live in East Boston. We call ourselves the Easties. O.k., I call us the Easties.

To Jessica---You are such a good sharer! :) Lots of points for you.

To Five Guys---We obviously like you a small amount. Please do not tempt us more than 3 times a year. Or something like that.

We had to take our little foreign exchange student/nephew Oscar out for an American hamburger. Right?! Right.

 To Oscar---I do declare we miss you mijo. Thanks for spending the summer with us.

Tanglewood concert

Sincerely,

J&R

Catch up-Mum, Maren, Melia and Eliza

Right after Becca and Cody left my mum and 3 younger sisters came! :) They are also a ton of fun and I have missed them so much. It was so nice to have them here and it was much needed. Thank you mum for your support through the ordeal of our apartment getting broken into. It was horrible timing to be in the middle of your trip but I really don't know what we would have done without your help. You're the best! Same goes to you Ren, Mel and Lizy Loo :)

Once again, I'll let some pictures do the rest of the talking ;)

Mount Auburn Cemetery. So beautiful!

Popcorn popping! ;) The Spring trees were fantastic

Taking the water taxi

Musuem of Fine Arts

 

The Chihuly exhibit at the MFA

Our favorite little Thai cafe before our Boston Pops concert

Yay Pops! We love them :)

Museum of Science. This was one of everyone's favorite things we did while they were here! :)

Silly girls (as if that needed explaining ;)

Wow!

Riding the T with our fave snacks haha

Temple day! It was so nice to be there with Job and my beautiful girls. 

Childrens Museum

Upper Crust on Newbury Street. Deelish.

The beautiful main branch library at Copley 

We played phase 10 dice almost every night! haha Job doesn't usually like playing games but he was the one begging to play each night. It is lots of fun with these gals. 

Quincey to see the presidential homes

 

Taking them back to the airport :( Sad to see them go but we had the best time with them! :) Thanks you guys for your support and for making us smile even while we were going through a hard time smack in them middle of your trip.

We love you lovely ladies!!

Catch up-Becca and Cody visit

I am so far behind on blogging about the wonderful visitors we have had lately! I want to try and catch up over these next few days. First on the list: my sister Becca and her hubs Cody. They are a fun couple and having them stay with us was like having one long double date ;)

Here's a quick recap in pictures :) Prepare for an overload.

 Making Parker House Rolls and Boston Cream Pie. Whilst watching America's Next Top Model (hence the face ;) Our husbands strangely refuse to watch that show with us so we have fun doing it together.

Walking the freedom trail + some sisterly love

Workin' the big guns over at Old Ironsides

 Public Garden and Boston Common

 Riding the T everywhere

 Laughing like crazies while playing games. I think my jugular was in danger of popping right there.

 Harvard

 Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert

Thanks for coming you guys!! It meant a lot to us and we had a blast! :) Love you.