Rolling with the Punches

Life in Maryland has been different. It still feels like a vacation... one that I can't go home from. It rains so much here, and it seems to do it a lot on weekends. I don't like it much on the weekends or any time but especially the weekends because it interferes with exploring the sites. Today is rained so long and hard the streets were flooding. The grass is always squishy, and on top of that... It makes taking Hercules potty a really big pain, cuz we always have to dry off the wet and muddy dog. Speaking of Hercules, He has gotten pretty big. His winter coat has come in. He is fluffier than ever... either that or he is just getting super fat.

 

We haven't found our own place to live yet. We are still living in our friends basement, but its so nice to come home from work and have dinner ready for us. Nicole takes care of us really well, so well I think it will be hard to for us leave.

Row homes are very popular here. Its almost all you see as you drive down the street. (other than trees) These that we live it right now are nice because there is a private beach. Its a cute little community. I got this picture on one of the NOT rainy days. It doesn't look like this very often.

This is the private harbor. People go crabbing off of this doc. That's what we were trying to do, but didn't have any luck. Still haven't had a chance to try the crab, but it was fun trying.

Being in property management has its perks, we have collected some cool free stuff. Like a floor lamp, a tall IKEA shelf (still in the box), A recliner with cup holders, a couple rugs, and a 5 drawer dresser. I like free stuff. It made the move cheaper!! The only thing we have bought since we got here is a TV (along with the NBA League Pass)

DC Temple

 

I'm not sure why they call this the Washington DC temple. Its not even in DC, its in Maryland on the outskirts of DC. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. We were going to tour some of DC as well, but of course it was raining and we weren't in the mood to get wet. It is a beautiful place. Much different inside than the temples in Utah that I have been too.

 

 

Ya know something about humidity I didn't think of before we came here.... It makes hair SUCK!! Oh ya and it also makes me break out. Never had a huge problem with that before, now I can't seem to get my face to clear up. I never can get my hair to stay how I like it. When we left the house to go to the temple my hair was extremely curly. As you can see not so much anymore!! 

As for now that is all I have, we will work on doing more exciting things so that I can keep the posts coming

Baby

A couple weeks ago our friends ward threw our friend a baby shower. I tagged along since we couldn't really justify a shower for just the 3 of us girls out here. This is what I made and Nicole helped me with the supplies. Its my first diaper cake. Its not too shabby if I do say so myself. I had lots of fun making it that's for sure.

She had a great turn out considering she has only been in her ward for 3 months. The decorations were beautiful.

And last but not least... the mom to be. If you ask me she doesn't look like she is ready to have that baby, but she had the little girl the next week. She is super cute.

Happy Halloween

Created by Steph: The best pudding I ever had!!

I'm so proud of myself this Halloween. I was actually festive. I usually skip out on the whole dressing up thing, but this year Casey and I had a chance to go to Mo and Steph's ward Halloween Party. It was fun. We met a lot of people, saw a lot of fun costumes and had  A LOT of treats. We probably gained 5 pounds this weekend with all the good food we had. Our costumes were on short notice. We only decided to dress up a few hours before the party started. So our costumes come from what we had at home. I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone what Casey decided to be. I'm sure half of you already guessed it. YUP he was a jazz fan. The only reason it worked for a costume is because we are on the East Coast and people out here don't even know what the Jazz are. ha ha.

#1 Jazz fan right here.

 

80's

 

Moana, Teagan, and Steph

He's just too cute to keep the pics to myself. He loved the Hat.

 

My food contribution. I know its not festive or even in season, but I was craving it. Love Fruit Pizza

 

They actually made tons of these for the party, so we took some home.

Home at Last!

Day 5: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Pasadena, Maryland

Miles: 256

Departed: 12:30 p.m.

Arrived: 5:00 p.m.

This morning we tried to visit the Steelers stadium, but there was so much construction and so many detours that Casey lost his patience. So we settled with driving past. Pittsburgh was pretty. It made me fill like I was in the mountains. The roads are all confusing... but I think its the same here in Maryland. Must be a back east thing.

When we arrived we were greeted with a nice dinner. Everyone we are going to be working with came over to mingle. It was fun. Until we find a place to live we will be living with Bj and Nicole. I am excited to finally be here. It will be an interesting adventure. I'll be back to work on Monday training in my new job! yay!

Almost Home

Day 4: Champaign, Illinois to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Miles: 487

Departed: 11:00 a.m.

Arrived: 7:30 p.m.

We are almost to our new Home. This week has gone by way too fast. Here I was thinking driving across the country would really suck, and now I'm enjoying it. Its so cool to see all the different states. If we would have had some more time today, we would have stopped in a part of West Virginia that we past through. We came around a hill full of rich trees, there was a city/town on the river. Not sure what town it was yet, but I'm going to find out because it was BEAUTIFUL!! Casey and I both want to go check it out. I have never seen anything so pretty before.

Through this trip I've come to the conclusion that Utah has no Idea what a RiVeR is. Utah calls a river what states out here call creeks.I now believe there are no rivers at all in Utah.

jAiL...BzzzZZZ

Day 3:

Part 1; Des Moines, Iowa to Carthage, Illinois

Miles:196

Departed: 10:00 a.m.

Arrived: 1:00 p.m.

Every since we left Rapid City, SD there has been an extremely annoying buzzing sound. It would only get worse the faster we drove. We would try to drown it out with the radio, but still could not get over it*....

Today on our way to Carthage we stopped through Nauvoo to see the church history sites. All the tours were full, so we just did our own. It was so pretty! I had fun seeing where Joseph and Emma were buried. The Mississippi River is crazy big. It shouldn't be called a river, more like a lake to me. After Historic Nauvoo was the highlight of my day... {Carthage Jail}.

...*When we arrived in Carthage I had an idea of what this BzzZZzz was!! I told Casey we should try tightening one of the straps to the rack and tying it down a little different. I am a GENIUS. It worked! Now we no longer have to hear that BzzZZzz.

Words cannot do this place JuStIcE! Here are a few picture. Something I did not know was that after they were done using the building as a jail, people actually lived it in. People even lived in it when it was a jail. I dont know about you, but I would never want to live with inmates!!

Joseph Smith's Mansion

 

 

Nauvoo Temple Steps

 

 

Temple Grounds

 

Outside of Carthage Jail

The Dungeon

The room of the Marterdom

The hole in this door is from the actual bullet that killed Hyrum Smith

Part 2: Carthage, Illinois to Champaign, Illinois

Miles: 167

Departed: 4:30 p.m.

Arrived: 8:00 p.m.

Nothing too special about this particular part of the day. Lots and Lots of CoRn fEiLdS as far as the eye can see. The one lane road in this part of the drive made it go by a lot slower.

Hercules saw his first bunny. Yeah that was a bad time to not have a leash on him. He took off. He wanted that bunny so bad... I wish I had a video camera once again, but then I guess if I had one I probably wouldn't get it out at the right times anyway. :)

The HuHot

Day 2: Rapid City, South Dakota to Des Moines, Iowa

Miles: 626

Departed: 11:00 a.m.

Arrived: 11:30 p.m.

First I need to make a note about yesterdays picture and all future pictures. I have allergies that create swelling in my eyes and face... enough said.

The weather today was beautiful, and since yesterday did not allow us to see Mt Rushmore, we took the time this morning to see it.

It was pretty cold, but a cool thing to see. By the time we reached Souix Falls, SD we realized that a tire was loosing air. We stopped at a gas station to put air in it and to see how fast it was really leaking. The tire was low again in Sioux City, IA so that is when We made a quick stop to Walmart since it was the only place still open and had them check it out. Sure enough we had a ginormis nail in. They fixed it in a matter of minutes, and we were back on the road.

Casey was pretty excited about being able to drive through Iowa because this is where he served his mission. He's been telling stories all day, his favorite place to eat was HuHot Mongolian Grill. So we took some time to show me what it was all about. Let me tell you it was AMAZING!!

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Hercules is still being good and still finding weird places to sleep.  Casey and him have had some good bonding moments.....  As you can see Casey still thinks that Hercs is a kid, and Hercules still wants to be a boy.

RoAd tRiP

Day 1: Ogden, Utah to Rapid City, South Dakota

Miles: 719

Departed: 5:30 a.m.

Arrived: 5:00 p.m.

We left Ogden this morning at 5:30 a.m. with as much of ours things as our car could possibly hold. Our drive was delayed an hour by the weather. The roads through Wyoming were covered with ice, and once we got past the slippery roads the fog settled in so thick we could only see ten feet in front of us. Hercules took the ride very well, slept most of the way. Today was the first time he saw snow. I wish I would have had a video camera because he just rolled around in it. So stinkin cute.
We booked our hotel with hotels.com.... We arent too impressed with them. There was supposedly no pet fee and we were supposed to be within 15 minutes of Mt. Rushmore. When we arrived we were surprised with a pet fee, and come to find out Mt. Rushmore is 38 minutes one way. Kind of ruined our plans of seeing it tonight. Hopefully all works out well tmrw.