new blog address

So I decided for this to really be our blog, as in mine and John's, we should have a new blog address.  So we're being really creative and the new address is: johnandbethanyarerad.blogspot.com if you will please update your links, blog lists, google reader, etc.  I was able to export all of the posts from this blog but I have to add all of my gadgets all over again, but I figure it's a good way to get rid of some of the clutter.  I will keep this address up for a little while so all 7 of my readers are sure to read this and make necessary updates.  :-)

After-Thanksgiving recipe

As long as I can remember, my mom has been making these Turkey Pillows (is that what they're called?  someone correct me if I'm remembering it wrong) the day after Thanksgiving because it is one great use for leftover turkey.  We have a lot of leftover turkey, so we made a big batch of these and I may make some more tomorrow.  They are so tasty and easy so I wanted to share the recipe.

Turkey Pillows

2 packages crescent rolls (for making 16 pillows, adjust accordingly for your needs).
2.5 C chopped/shredded turkey
3-4 oz cream cheese
1/2 C melted butter
chopped mushrooms (optional)
salt and pepper
seasoned bread crumbs
2-3 T additional melted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the cream cheese and the melted butter together, then mix with turkey and mushrooms (if using) and add salt and pepper to your liking.

Unroll the crescent dough.  Scoop turkey mixture into the center of each triangle then fold each corner over the middle and tuck/pinch any excess or holes.  Dip each pillow in melted butter then roll in bread crumbs.  Bake for 10-15 min or per directions on crescent roll package or just until lightly browned.

These are great alone but we eat them with some gravy and cranberry sauce-another great use for leftovers from Thanksgiving.  Enjoy!

the fished product for you visual people like me

Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving was very different but we had a great time.  Our festivities started on Sunday when we got together with some friends to have dinner #1.  John made his famous candied yams and I attempted to make my mom's homemade crescent rolls (the turned out pretty good) and we enjoyed our afternoon with friends.

Shawn and the tasty turkey he made

the spread

Dinner #2 was actual Thanksgiving day and we traveled to Cape Cod to visit our friends Ellen and John.  They live in New York but rented a house in Buzzards Bay for a few days and invited us to join them.  We met John and Ellen in Hawaii 2 years ago but it feels like we have known them for years.  Ellen took care of most of the cooking and it was the most organized and efficient Thanksgiving meal I have ever been to.  Of course the meal was delicious and of course we all ate too much and of course we had a good afternoon nap. I made pies:
 

It was so good to see John and Ellen again and to spend some time hanging out with them.  Ellen in from MA so she knows all the good places to go and eat and shop.  So Friday we drove further down the Cape and out to a place called the Knob...which is basically a small knobby looking piece of land that sticks out into the water.  It was a little cold, rainy, and windy, but we love seeing the ocean so it was a great little stop.

The Knob

Dipping my toes in the ocean

my hot husband

Our third and final dinner was tonight, at home, just the two of us.  One great thing we love about Thanksgiving is the leftover turkey so we decided to cook our own turkey so we could have lots of leftovers. So tonight I cooked a turkey for the first time-it's really not all that hard-and it turned out pretty good.  And we got the leftovers we asked for-lots and lots of turkey for sandwiches the next few days.

dinner #3

We really missed our families this year, but it also helps us appreciate all the times we have been with family for the holidays.  Sadly, we will not be with our families for Christmas either, but we are getting to go home next weekend for a visit and we are really excited to see everyone.  I don't think we realized how much we would miss everyone.

A few things I'm especially thankful for this year:

my awesome husband
our amazing, supportive families
having all the necessities in life: a place to live, a job, money to pay the bills, food to eat, warm clothes and not taking these things for granted
freedom
friends
technology


Those are just a few of the big ones.  I'm trying to focus on all the good things because sometimes I get caught up in the "one day" or "some day" and I forget that I have a lot of good things going for me right now.  I'm truly grateful for all the amazing people in my life and the great opportunities that have come my way.

Holiday cards from Shutterfly

So lately I am addicted to shutterfly.com and I wanted to pass along the info for their holiday card promotion currently going on for bloggers.  I had used Shutterfly a few times to get prints and then John's sister, Carolyn, showed me her cute albums she makes every year for their family so I decided to make our wedding album through their web site and I love how it turned out!  Now I am on their email list so they send me coupons and promotions every week and I always love a good deal, so it makes their cute products even better.

I still can't believe that the holidays are upon us and it's time to start thinking about sending out cards.  John and I sent our first card together last year but this will be our first as married people, so it seems more serious or something. :-)  Luckily we have most people's addresses from the wedding but if you think I may not have yours then please send it to me if you want to get one of our cards.  You can email me at bkyoungs at gmail dot com or leave it in a comment.

There are hundreds of cute designs for cards on Shutterfly, but the ones I am loving this year leave space to write a little letter or include "top moments" of the year.  We had a big year so it seems like the best option for us...I'm just not sure if I can fit everything!  These are my top choices in no particular order:

#1

#2

#3

Let me know what you think-or I may surprise you all and pick something different.  To check out all of their great card designs, go here.

If you want to participate in their promotion and receive 50 free cards go here.

And if you don't have our address, we would love to receive your card too so let me know and I will send you our address too!

3 Months

Happy 3 month anniversary to my wonderful hubby!  These first months of our marriage have been filled with lots of ups and downs (more ups though), a cross-country move, a new job for me, new travel opportunities, busy, busy, work days (and nights) for John, new friends, and lots of quality time spent together.  We are missing our family and friends in Utah like crazy, more so lately because of the upcoming holiday season and partly because of all the new snow we hear has hit Utah as well.

Even though we are celebrating just 3 months of marriage, we recently celebrated the 7 year anniversary of our first date.  John and I met at USU and it was the year I was Arts and Lectures VP and in charge of bringing speakers and performing artists to campus for the students.  I had a visit from a guy named Gary who was on tour with the Warren Miller ski film because he had been working on the films with Warren Miller for a few years.  I guess he was on the speaking circuit and wondered if I would be interested in possibly booking him to come back to USU for a speaking engagement/presentation of his film talent, etc.  What was in it for me?  Free tickets to that night's showing of the Warren Miller ski film.  I said yes to the tickets, but sadly we were not able to book Gary to come speak.

Well I had recently hung out with John a couple of times and he had mentioned his love of snowboarding so I thought it would be great to go together.  Luckily he was available on short notice and that night we had our first date!  He held my hand and I was smitten.  Unfortunately, it was short-lived and we didn't have our second date until nearly a year later...but we all know how the story ends (or really begins) so I guess it all worked out, right? :-)  Anyway, we have made it a tradition to go to the ski film again every year since (minus one year when we were not speaking, but I digress) and it is always the official start of ski/boarding season for us because we get really excited for the upcoming snow.  This year it will be a little different snow-wise, but I think it's really cool that we were still able to have our anniversary date all the way out here and see the same film we would have watched in Utah.  The great thing about here is that we get 4 ski passes instead of just the 1 we would have in Utah.  Yay for skiing!

I really do have the best husband ever-I know most women will say that but I really am so lucky.  He is my best friend, my number one supporter, and the funniest person I know.  He is loving and romantic in his own cute little way.  We have so much fun together and the adventures just keep coming.  He is very thoughtful and does nice things for me all the time.  He does the dishes.  Every day.  Seriously.  And sometimes he cooks too (and wishes he had time to cook more).  He works so hard for our little family and he is passionate about his work and doing a good job and being successful.  He loves kids and our nieces and nephews love him.  He is going to be an amazing dad one day!  He puts up with my quirks and my moody days and can always make me smile.  I love him so much and I know 3 months is such a short time, but we have already had a lot of years together and now things just keep getting better and better.  One day we're going to be celebrating 30 years and probably wonder where the time went so I'm just trying to enjoy every day together and really focus on the things that matter the most.

Halloween and things

So our halloween was a little lame this year.  I wanted us to do something, but John has been super busy with work and he is not much of a planner so we didn't get anything together in time.  We had heard Salem is really cool for Halloween, but by the time we figured out what we wanted to do, everything was sold out that we wanted to see.

I did dress up on Friday for work though because we dressed the babies up and took them to story time at the library and I went as a cat.  We did still go to Salem, but we ended up just going to dinner and driving around, people watching while we were stuck in traffic.  We are hoping to make it back up there to see some of the cool witch houses and museums and things and next year we will be able to plan ahead a little more and hopefully get to dress up and be a part of the festivities.

Little A & H-cute, huh? :-)

Unfortunately, not much is new in our lives.  I am getting new contacts, which means I have to wear my glasses for a few days to let me eyes rest and go back to their natural shape so I can get fitted for my new lenses.  It hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be-but I haven't worn glasses out and about all day since 1995 so this is pretty big for me.

Also, we are going to be in Utah Dec. 4-7 for those that want to see us.  We are spreading ourselves pretty thin, but we are hoping to see as many people as we can during our jam packed weekend.  We are even planning a Monday afternoon/evening visit to Idaho to see my grandparents.  My grandma just had a second surgery today, and I hear it went well, but it will depend on how she is feeling over the next couple of weeks.  I guess I never really blogged about this, but we had a scare with my grandma at the end of Sept. when she went in for her first back surgery.  I think I still can't write about it, but she is okay now and my Aunt Brooke has moved in and is there to help grandma and grandpa, which I know the rest our our family is very grateful for.  I do know is I am not ready to say good-bye to the only grandma I have every known and I'm grateful for every day she is still here with us, I just wish I was closer so I could visit her more.

I'm getting excited for the upcoming holidays-even though we will be away from family, it is still my favorite time of the year.  I bought egg nog today, which seems like a good kick-off for the holidays to me.  There area  lot of tree farms around here so we are planning to cut down our own tree this year, which should be a lot of fun.

Lobster and stuff

John and I have settled into a routine...probably a boring one, but at least it's a routine.  We are still working on getting settled in our apartment and we probably won't really feel settled until we get the rest of our stuff out here, which will hopefully be happening in December.  We are coming to UT the first weekend in December to visit and hopefully load a moving truck with the rest of our stuff.  It has been frustrating not having some of the things we need and super sad that we didn't get to bring all of our sweet wedding gifts.  So if you are in Utah, be sure to mark your calendar for Dec. 4-6 and hopefully we will get to see everyone we want to see.  It is going to be a quick trip, but we are happy to get to go.

Another reason for our visit is to meet our new nephew, Grant Daniel McRae, born 10.16.10 to my sister Rachel and her husband Dan.  I am so excited to (finally!) have a nephew and for Rachel and Dan to have their healthy, cute baby join their family.

Baby Grant

Overall life is going well.  I am enjoying my job and am getting into a good schedule with the kids.  My main responsibility is watching 10-month old twins Hannah and Adam.  They are really, really good babies and we have a great routine and my days are pretty easy going.  I know things will get busier as they get older, so I'm enjoying the down time while I can.  I love my schedule because I'm home by 4:00 every day and I love having my evenings.  John is working a lot, which is pretty normal but at least he is staying busy.

On the weekends we are trying to get out and do things and experience Mass and the surrounding areas.  This last weekend we decided we wanted to check another state off our list and headed down to Rhode Island.  We got to the shore just before dark and walked on the beach for a little bit and watched the moon rise over the ocean.  Then we drove around for a bit and found a place to eat, George's of Galilee right by the water.  I decided to get the lobster special because I've never eaten a whole lobster and it seemed like the thing to do. Actually, I had 2 lobsters.  It was quite the process to eat them, but it was fun and super delicious.  Unfortunately, I am worried I may have a lobster allergy due to the severe reaction I had on the way home.  I am still going to try it again though to see if I respond the same way, just to be sure because that would be super sad if I couldn't eat shellfish anymore.

Atlantic Ocean...it was almost eerie how still the water was

Rhode Island shore

moon rising

yum (and yes, the bib is necessary)

Anyway, I just wanted to post a little update so everyone would know we are still alive and doing well.  We miss our family and friends so much but we are having a great time here in Mass!

Apples

The last week or two we have been really busy-me with my new job and trying to get in to a routine and John with an upcoming deadline for work that has him working really long days (and nights!).  So when the weekend rolled around we were ready to catch up on sleep and just have some time to relax.  By Sunday I was restless and feeling like we should have an activity, so we decided to go apple picking.  There are a lot of pick-your-own farms and places like that in the area and we missed most of the harvests, but we made it in time for the end of apple season.  Anyway, the place we went is called Berlin Orchards and we paid for our bag and took a wagon ride out to the orchard and we were able to fill our bag with a variety of apples.  It was a beautiful day and it turned out to be a lot of fun.

John and the ponies

John picking apples

his pick

cheesy, I know :-)

my tasty apple

our driver kept us entertained with his apple-balancing skills

So now we have a lot of apples so we have been trying to use them.  My mom makes a great Dutch apple pie so I thought that would be a good way to use a bunch of our freshly picked apples.  Last night I put the pie together and into the paper bag where it is supposed to be baked (I know it sounds a little crazy but it works and it's how my mom has always done it, and I've done it before too) and then I realized I didn't have a stapler to close up the bag and that my oven is kind of small.  So I took out one rack and was really careful to make sure the bag wasn't going to touch the heat coils and it looked like it was going to be fine.  Well, about 10 minutes later I started to smell smoke.  The bag had started on fire (not huge flames or anything though) so it was a crazy minute when the smoke detector was blaring and I was trying to get a window open and the pie out of the bag and the burning paper bag into to sink.  I had to yell to John to help me (while he was on a work call) and he did and everything was fine.  Well I had used a small sauce pan to keep the bag closed and I had set it on the stove but it was right on the edge so I went to move it over, forgetting that I needed a hot pad because the handles that don't get hot on the stove get very hot while in the oven.  So I burned my hand on top of everything else that was happening.  I kind of feel like a failure of a wife when it comes to baking tasty desserts for my husband.  Good thing he doesn't care about my baking skills and he loves me anyway. :-)  

Well I wasn't about to waste all those good apples so we decided to just bake it anyway and covered it in foil instead hoping it would be good enough (and the baking was delayed a little further because I forgot to turn the oven back on after the fire was out).  Anyway, the pie was still really tasty just maybe not as crisp of a topping as it is when it's cooked in the bag.

yeah, it turned out all right

So for now I'm going to let John do the baking, which is what he likes, and I will stick to cooking dinner for us.  Our next apple-inspired meal is going to be pork chops with an apple chutney...hopefully it's a lot more simple than the pie!

new job!

I got a job!  Yesterday was our 1 month Mass anniversary and the day I got and accepted a great job offer.  It's been a long month, but I feel really grateful I was able to find something so quickly and even more grateful that it is a good job, basically exactly what I was looking for.  It's a nanny job and I am taking care of 3 kids: a 4.5 old boy and 10 month old boy/girl twins.  Most of my day is spent with the babies because the older boy is in full day pre-school so I see him in th morning and for an 1-1.5 hours at the end of the day.  He is great with the babies and they love him.  They are really good kids all around (the babies sleep 12 hours at night and nap 3 hours in the day too) and I love the parents too and I think it's going to develop into a great relationship.  The hours are good, the pay is in the range I was looking for, the commute is just 10 miles with no freeways or toll roads, and of course the kids are adorable.  I have already started and I'm so happy to be working again and that my days have a purpose again.  I miss seeing John during the day, but it's better for his work schedule to be home alone anyway.  Yay for my new job!  I'm really excited!

Vermont

This last weekend we were able to go up to Vermont to see some of the pretty fall colors.  I've learned I should just refer to it as the "foliage."  I think growing up we just always said we were going to look at the leaves or whatever but everyone says "foliage" here, among various other words I never/rarely use that will take some getting used to.

Anyway, we are lucky to have one of John's friends from USU/Delta Sig living out here (he's from here, but randomly went to USU), Shawn, and his family has a friend with a ski cabin in Vermont he is able to use a few times each year.  We felt lucky to be invited and we had a great time.

We got up there late Friday night and got settled and then enjoyed a great breakfast with everyone Saturday morning.  We set out to do some hiking but had to alter our plans a little when one of our friends wasn't feeling well and so we took a detour to a hospital in Middlebury, VT (she ended up being fine).  While there we explored the town a little, took a nature hike, ate at a great little bakery, and got some sweet new Chaco's for half off (sandals for John, flips for me).

cool river we came across on our nature walk in Middlebury

it had this bridge over it

some train tracks

being cheesy :-)

it was a cool town, very "New England"

ha ha I can't believe they really posed for this one

I loved the town, the vibe, the shops, and the good deals

and this waterfall in the middle of town

We were still determined to go hiking though so altered our route a bit and ended up at Mad River Glen ski area where we had planned to take the lift up and then hike down.  Well, we missed the last lift ride so we decided to hike up as far as we wanted to/could before dark and then just come back down.  You probably could do this on a couple of green runs in Utah I suppose, but not with hope of getting to "the top."  The hike was actually pretty cool and had some great views and lots of pretty water falls, streams, and fall colors.  I wish I had a better camera because mine doesn't do the colors justice-so much prettier in real life!  We didn't quite get to the top because it was starting to get late, but it was still a good hike.

Some pics from the resort/hike:

single chair lift.  crazy old school.

There were some great views

lots of waterfalls

and great colors!

the easy way down :-)

John and Ken climbing the lift tower

I heard it was a great view

Later that night we ate at American Flatbread, which serves some very delicious pizza, which we had previously sampled at the Big E the weekend before so it was great to get the real deal...even if we had to wait nearly 2 hours for a table.  Sadly, my camera ran out of batteries at the end of the hike so I didn't take any more pictures to include the rest of the people we were hanging out with, there were 11 in all at the ski house for the weekend.

Sunday we took a very scenic way home (on purpose) so we got to see more of the quaint little towns of Vermont and enjoy some more foliage.  Vermont seems to be big on Maple syrup and other maple products, so we bought some maple cream and now we now why, it's delicious!

We had a great weekend, but it's always good to come home.  Our little place it feeling more and more like home all the time.  We hope to keep getting out on the weekends to experience more of the area and see some more great sites.

For all of the photos I took go here.

Confession

I miss planning the wedding.  There, I said (typed) it.  I planned the wedding for a long time...most girls plan their hypothetical wedding for years and there was some of that but I planned our wedding for about a year or so.  So it was a huge part of my life, what I thought about and planned for and worried about and stressed over.  I miss flipping through bridal magazines for inspiration, going to bridal fairs, working out the budget, checking things off my lists, picking flowers, working out details and all of it.  I feel a little lost because I don't have anything to plan for right now.  Besides the wedding, there was the move (which we actually didn't do much planning for, we kind of just winged it) and now that we are to in Mass I feel the need to plan something to fill the void.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the wedding is over and although there were a few things that I didn't get done and even fewer things I would do differently if I could do it again, I am happy that we are (finally!) married and on to this next chapter of our lives.

I think things will get better once I am working and there is purpose to my days and I have a schedule and can get in to a routine.  In the meantime, I am trying to stay busy...I've done some meal planning at least and am trying to cook at home.  We still have a trip to UT to plan as well as when/how we are going to get the rest of our stuff out here.  For a minute I thought maybe we should just go ahead and try to have a baby just so I could have something to plan for...I really need a job!

So it's a good thing I had a great interview this week with a family I really like.  We are going to try things out for a couple of days next week to make sure it's a good fit.  I will keep you all posted-hopefully next week I will be employed again and I can stop feeling like such a crazy person.

The Big E

On Saturday, John and I drove out to West Springfield with a college buddy of John's (from here, randomly went to USU) and some of his friends.  The Big E is short for Eastern States Exposition (I think) and is hosted here in MA but put on my all of New England (MA, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, for those that don't know).

Eating Pizza in Vermont

Bag pipe band, in Vermont

So each state has it's own building and showcases it's best/craziest food and local culture.  Basically we ate our way through the day-it was pretty intense at times!  My version of going to a fair is some eating, some entertainment, and lots of rides.  Well we didn't go on any rides, and it's for the best because it probably would have ended badly after all the crap we ate.  We did see a lot of farm animals and some prize pumpkins and a lot of horses...but mostly we wandered around the buildings and ate a lot.

The menu:

Corn on the cob on a stick from New Hampshire
Kettle Corn, also from NH (sample)
chocolate covered bacon from Connecticut
maple bacon flavored ice cream, from CT (sample)
Dell's frozen lemonade from RI (best thing I had all day)
American Flatbread pizza from Vermont
Lobster roll from Maine
raspberries from Mass

That was just the state buildings...outside we also sampled fried dough, deep fried oreos, a doughnut cheeseburger (instead of a bun, it was a krispy cream doughnut) and fried butter (notice a trend here?).  The fried butter is actually butter rolled in dough and then friend, so the butter just melts and it's basically a scone with too much butter.

John and some moose 

State trooper car for Mass

watching some local 4H girls on their horses

Fried butter

mmm, tasty

crazy is right

it was not good.

but what a fun experience! ha ha

baby llama

giant pumpkin

even bigger pumpkin

Anyway, we were all feeling a little gross at the end of the day but it was still a good time.  It was fun to meet some new people and they were all really fun and have invited us on a couple of weekend getaways the next 2 weeks so hopefully we'll be getting out a little more.

at the end of our adventure

yeah, it's a pork palace