summer trip

Before we left for vacation Sue made this amazing dessert. Strawberry Rhubarb and Apple Pie

We went to the Brockton fair and had so much fun! We ate greasy fair food, saw a demolition derby (which is so weird to me) and Ben & Fin both got wristbands. The train was Finleys favorite ride because she could ride it alone

 We took Finley for her 3rd haircut ever. It was a cute place that specializes in kids haircuts. She looks very cute with her short bangs :)

We just got home from Cape Cod, which in my opinion is the perfect vacation spot. I absolutely love it there. It sort of reminds me of Italy for some reason, but mainly it's everything that summer vacation should be. We picked a house to rent in Brewster, which turned out to be in a great location. The house had the perfect set up for the dogs. They spent most of their time in the breezeway with the door to outside open. With 6 acres and a private road..we weren't worried about them going anywhere.

We did a few scenic drives to different parts of the Cape stopping along the way to check out toy stores, bakeries, little markets and general stores. We went to the Heritage Gardens in Sandwich to ride an antique carousel, see an amazing hydrangea display, antique cars and a Norman Rockwell exhibit. Ben and I went kayaking on the Bass River while Finley stayed at the house with Gran & Pop. I don't know why we don't go more often because it's so much fun! We paddled to some salt marsh areas and saw lots of birds and enjoyed the quiet.


Somehow I randomly picked the town of Brewster for our home base and the beaches there happened to be perfect. Ben was happy to be able to ride his bike there every day. We went one day in the morning and the tide was out very far, but we were able to  walk and find some pools that were the perfect depth for Fin to sit and play. We went several times at around 6 pm when the tide was in and did some swimming. I found it to be very pleasant, but Ben wasn't impressed with the grass in the water! Our house was walking distance to a little Seafood/Ice cream shack called Kates and one evening we walked Goose, Pax and Finley there for some ice cream. We ate out for most dinners or sometimes I skipped dinner and just ate ice cream. Once night we went to the Oyster Company for happy hour and had 2 dozen. Finley even ate one! We also enjoyed the Sesuit Cafe, Seafood Sams, Cobies and the Red Nun in Chatham.



I could definitely live in a place like this. I love everything about it. We plan to go back in the fall and winter to see if we could handle it year round.

experiencing summer

Gran & Pop arrived last night and we had an early 4th of July dinner with Sue and Joe. We had BBQ chicken, steak, roasted peppers, onions and zucchini, grilled corn and italian bread with butter. For dessert we had two amazing pies that Sue made from scratch. Apple and strawberry rhubarb with vanilla ice cream of course. I tried my apple with some sharp cheddar. It was actually pretty good!

Gran & Pop are staying at a nice B&B in Sutton, which is basically the closest accommodation to Sue & Joes house we could find. Hopefully tonight we will go to the fair to see fireworks, go on some rides and see some farm animals.

Finley started daycare last week. She will be going two days a week. It's a little weird because it's in a home setting, but there are some perks that aren't available at commercial places. We pay by the day and are allowed to change the day or cancel anytime. It's very flexible. It's not as structured as her previous daycare. They do arts & crafts other fun activities, but it's more like being at a baby sitter. I plan to put her in pre-school when she is closer to 3 and she is safe and has fun, so I'm not too worried. Also she is around some older kids that are very good with her, which makes me happy. Her favorite friend there is Lucas. She loves the cat, the baby dolls and unfortunately Barney. Of course they are quite surprised with the quantity she eats and so far the only time she's cried is when they ran out of food! She's a big eater!

We are having fun experiencing summer in New England. It's very different because it's so hot out! We spent a few days just swimming in the pool, Barbequing, going to scoop shops at night and last weekend we went to the Millbury carnival. It was just like the carnivals I went to when I was a kid. We had fun riding the ferris wheel and Finley even went on a few rides by herself.

Still no luck finding a house to buy or even anything promising. I really want a place with a pool and a mother-in-law, at least 1 acre and 3 bedrooms. I'm willing to be flexible on the location and age of the house..although the house has to be visually appealing. I have yet to find one that meets my criteria even with lowering my original hopes for an old house with at least 5 acres.

Natural Pet store in Gloucster

 The beach in Rockport from a few weeks ago

 Ben made us an amazing dinner of beer can chicken in fried string beans

The food festival In Worcester

Sue and Joes lovely house

 We went to the Beef Barn the other night which specializes in roast beef sandwiches. I had a steak sandwich with swiss and mushrooms and a piece of peanut butter pie for dessert. It was very good and very inexpensive. We need to go there for breakfast soon!

 Sue's pies from last night

Fried String Beans


by The Neelys

Ingredients

• Peanut oil, for frying
• 1 cup beer
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
• 1 pound green beans, ends trimmed

Directions

Preheat oil to 375 degrees F.

Whisk the beer, flour, salt and pepper until smooth.

Dip green beans into batter to coat, letting excess drip off. Fry in the peanut oil in batches, until they are golden and crisp. Remove from oil with a spider strainer to a paper towel lined sheet tray. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2 months

We have been in Massachusetts for 2 months now.  We are still staying with friends in Douglas, MA. It's a great location in terms of the amount of property and it's beautiful, but hard to get used to the amount of driving required to get most places. We've been looking for houses to buy closer to Boston...basically half way between Ben's school and Boston, but haven't found anything yet. We've narrowed down the area to a few towns, but every house seems to be lacking one of the essentials for us. We aren't in a huge rush and are still set up with a rental house starting August 1st, so we'll continue to look until we find something ideal.

 For Fathers Day we went to the beach north of Boston. We checked out Gloucester, Rockport and Salem. We absolutely loved this area. We may end up moving closer to the beach once Ben is done with school. It was very much like Cape Cod. Lots of people walking around, hip restaurants, cute shops, beautiful ocean views. I also really like Northampton...so for a permanent location it will be a toss up between these two areas! Central Massachusetts (where we will be near Tufts) is beautiful, but I feel like we don't fit in as well as we would in another part of the state. Oh and our our house in Seattle is officially closed!

Finley is on the strangest sleeping schedule right now. She sleeps a lot! A typical day for her starts at around 11 am and then a nap from 3- 5 and then to bed around 10 pm. It's hard to get her off the cycle. When I go in her room in the morning. She sits up and says "good" and nods her head. She has been doing wonderfully in her new big girl bed. At first we put up a gate around it, but she actually just stays in bed until someone comes to get her. She also loves jumping up and down and saying "new bed!" "new bed!"

After getting up she typically starts talking about what she wants for breakfast. Lately all she wants is hummus and crackers with juice. But in the interest of keeping her eating a wide variety of foods, I try to give her something different everyday. After breakfast we usually go on some outing. Yesterday we went to Worcester to check out a locally owned toy store, where she got some toy cars and wooden blocks. We also usually take a scenic drive and look at the farm animals along the way. Then we come home and have lunch, which is usually leftovers from dinner, we play for a little while and then it's time for a nap. In the morning before 11 I usually have sometime to get stuff done and then during her nap I cook dinner and exercise the dogs. Although lately I've been running the dogs in the morning too.

Since Finley is up until 10 pm, we've been able to go out at night. On Saturday we went out to eat in Grafton at the Post Office Pub right near our future house. There was a live band and Finley had fun doing a little dancing. After that we went to watch the Millbury fireworks. We were pretty far away and all Finley cared about where the cars down below our viewpoint, but it was a fun night!

Last night we went of to a Food Festival on Shrewsbury St in Worcester. It was $25 for all you can eat samples at most of the restaurants on the street. We did a ton of walking and eating. It always feels weird to have that many different types of food, but most of it was really good. We had pasta, chicken wings, gelato, cream puffs, smoothies, sushi, tacos and pizza! Finley was a trooper and stayed in her stroller most of the time. I was impressed by the number of people there. The city is a little rough around the edges, but has a lot of character.

Settled

We are settled into Sue and Joe's house now and have sort of a routine figured out. Ben is now working full time at the Tufts Labs and I am watching Finley full time. Finley and I spend our time checking out local towns, farms, cooking, playing outside at the local zoo and various playgrounds. She is currently very obsessed with horses, cows and Elmo. Her language skills are growing by the day. It's amazing to hear her put words together. This morning she said "hair mouth", when she wanted help getting a hair out of her mouth and if she doesn't want something anymore she'll say "take this".  She hasn't quite gotten a rhythm to her speech, so there is often a pause between words. She is also getting very opinionated and has an unbelievable amount of energy. She is ready to be potty trained, but it's difficult to do when we aren't at our own house. The other day, she pooped on the toilet, but we aren't pushing for it too hard. We have another two months here.

Things are settled with our house other than needing some paperwork from the Shryock's, but they are cruising the Mediterranean. I am looking for houses to buy everyday, but we really haven't settled on a location and nothing is really sticking out at me. I'm not a huge fan of many colonials or capes unless there is a front porch. I'd really like a Victorian style house. This is definitely not the most important factor, but it's hard to get over a first impression. After being here for a month and experiencing the extreme heat and it's only May, a pool is becoming more of a necessity. I am willing to be more flexible about the age of the house as long as it's well made and the neighborhood is established. There is nothing I hate more than a generic new house plopped down on a freshly cleared lot in the middle of a subdivision.

Another factor to consider in towns to live is that I am thinking about going back to school! I didn't think this would happen and I'm not sure yet, but I am looking into Doctor of Physical Therapy programs. It's a three year program and the pay is so much better than what dietitians make, but I would need to retake the GRE, several prerequisite classes and get lots of shadowing experience. Anyway, if I decide to do this it would be to start around when Ben is done with his school. The dilemma is that I'm not sure if I'd get into a school in Boston or Western Mass. Luckily we have awhile to think about that and for now, I'm going to continue working as a dietitian to get more clinical experience.

We are leaving tonight for Ontario for another flyball tournament. We will stop drive about 3-4 hours tonight and then another 4-5 tomorrow.

We made it!

We have been in Massachusetts for almost 2 weeks now. We are feeling a bit like gypsies, moving between Sue & Joe's house, our trailer and a cabin on a nearby lake for a few days. Finley arrived with her Grandparents safely and got settled at a cabin they rented near Sue & Joe's house on Lake Manchaug. She has been adjusting really well to everything and is a good sport about the lack of routine in her life. For the first week Ben and I stayed between our trailer and Sue & Joe's house, spending time getting the trailer organized, driving around to different towns and taking care of stuff related to selling our house.

Here are some photos of our camping experience at Herkimer NY. It was the night before we arrived in Massachusetts and was the nicest KOA I've ever been to. 

Speaking of selling our house..it's not going that well. We were excited to have a buyer after just a few days. We accepted his offer, which I wasn't too thrilled with since we gave him more than I would like for closing costs. Then he did his inspection and it seems like he was really looking for something to be wrong. When he didn't find anything, he asked for money for future repairs and small things. He wanted $2500 after we had already given him more than we wanted. We counter offered $1000 plus a home warranty and now he is upset because the warranty (even the best one available) isn't as expensive as he expected. At this point we just want this to go through because we already missed our window for getting top dollar. We will know by the end of the week.

Anyway, after Frances and Kenneth left for Reno we moved into the cabin for a few days and just got back to Sue & Joe's today with Finley. Now we are all in the same house and our stuff is only in 3 different places! We are so thankful that Sue & Joe generously are allowing us to stay until August! Finley will be a lot more comfortable in the house rather than the trailer! We had a hard time finding a rental house, but did sign a lease for a 3 bedroom house in Grafton (the town that Tufts is in).

We are also trying to decide where we want to buy a house and are possibly thinking about investing in a house near Tufts, staying until Ben graduates and then moving to a location that we really want to be permanently. The towns that we like the most locally so far are: Shrewsbury, Hopkinton, Holliston, Grafton. There are still quite a few that we haven't seen yet.

We are experiencing major culture shock. New England is quite a bit different than Seattle and even where I grew up in New Jersey. It's very old. Most of the towns were established in the 1600s, which of course means lots of history and farming/manufacturing that occurred in the towns. The town we are in now is pretty rural. There is a small downtown with a few restaurants and shops, lots of wooded areas, lakes, ponds. It's beautiful, but will take some getting used to.

 Sturbridge is one of the towns we are thinking about moving to. We took a hike there and went out to lunch after. It's a good fit for us because it's got a nice town down and lots of open space. It's also convenient access to New York. The only downside is that it's far from Boston and not the most convenient location to Tufts for Ben.

The lake cabin