Adios 2013, Bienvenidos 2014

2013 was another great year. Crazy and often stressful, but great.

Some highlights of our year:

Trips to New York City

Seattle

Louisville winning the National Championship

The USA soccer game in Seattle

Our cross country trip

Celebrating our first wedding anniversary

Seeing Jason Segel on the sidewalk after being back in Boston for a week. No picture. But the moment is burned into our memories so it's fine.

The Red Sox World Series win.

And of course- the biggest event as of late- Chuckie's job offer and acceptance!!!
 
It was an eventful year! Between the two of us, we visited 30 states this year. And by visited I mean either stayed there or drove through it. I'm not counting states we stopped in on layovers while flying. THIRTY. STATES. I'm not rounding up or anything either- I looked at a map and counted all of them.


2014 already has a lot of exciting things in store for us. It may go down in history as our biggest party year ever. We have a lot to celebrate in 2014.

In February, my younger sister turns 21. In April, my older sister turns 30. In March, the weekend of my birthday, the girls, Chuckie and I are heading to New York City for one night of madness to celebrate their milestone birthdays since we won't be home on their actual birthdays to celebrate with them. And a long time ago we said we'd do something BIG for Sami's 21st since we'd be so much older and have so much money. HA! The money thing isn't quite accurate but we're sticking to our promise. ;)  After 2 days in NYC, they will come back to Boston for a few days and will be here for St. Patrick's Day. Fun!

In early May, Sami graduates college. WHAT!? Two of my cousins and very favorite people also graduate college then.  In late May, my cousin who is one of the brother's I never had, gets married!


In early June, Chuck graduates and we're planning a big celebration for that as you'd guess. Then we'll move home which I'm sure will spur more celebrating! We then have 3 weddings to attend/be in as well as a couple bachelor and bachelorette parties thrown in here and there of course.

In July, we have another wedding (that's right, 5 weddings total between May 24 and July 12) and then hopefully we will take a vacation before Chuck starts his job at Amazon! And speaking of jobs, I'll hopefully have found a job by that time too.


Once August hits, I guess we'll sleep and recover from our several months of celebrating. We are very much looking forward to this year!

We have had another amazing year full of adventures and are looking forward to the craziness that 2014 is sure to bring!

It's Christmas!

We've been in Christmas-mode for the last two weeks. Christmas parties, shopping, Christmas movies, hot chocolate, candy canes, decorating... And this week it's been snowing. A lot. It definitely feels like Christmastime!

Two weekends ago we hosted a Tacky Christmas sweater party.

Last weekend we went to a friend's party and binged on Christmas themed food.

Saturday and Sunday it was about 12 degrees and snowing, so we didn't venture out of the apartment too much except to go to Target and to go see Catching Fire.

Monday Chuck took his last final of the semester and that night we went on a date. Back in August, my 1st anniversary gift (paper-themed of course!) to Chuck was tickets to see the Celtics play the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 16th. When I bought them, I totally forgot about the whole "finals week" thing but luckily for us, it worked out that Chuck's last final was Monday afternoon.

I chose the game against the Timberwolves because this season they picked up a recent graduate and one of our favorite players from UofL- Gorgui Dieng! Gorgui is a rookie so we weren't sure if we'd see him play or not but sure enough, he got to play several minutes! He ended up getting 4 fouls so then he got sent back to the bench, but while he was in it was exciting. We were really conflicted about which team to cheer for so we cheered mostly for the Celtics and then just for Gorgui individually.

Number 5 in the blue! That's our guy.

Chuckie wore his Louisville hat for Gorgui. :)

Now the week is wrapping up and tomorrow I'll join Chuck in Louisville (he left Tuesday) and we'll  spend lots and lots of quality time with our families and friends.Wherever you are and whoever you're with, I hope your holidays are great!

Job News!

The past few months for Chuck (and all of the other LGOs) have been full of interviews, phone calls, site visits, meetings and decisions. This is the time of year when (most) everyone decides where they will go and what they will do after graduation. It's a very stressful time, for the LGOs and their SOs.

After several phone calls and interviews with different companies, Chuck formally accepted an offer to be an Operations Manager at:

*drum roll please*

You know.... that company that recently came out with news that they're working on drones as a delivery option in the future? That company where you and probably everyone you know bought most their Christmas gifts? Yeah, you may have heard of them. Oh and before you ask, no he doesn't get free Prime and no, he doesn't get a discount on purchases. I wish.

Chuck is really excited about the position he's accepted. Before LGO, he hardly ever sat at his desk at GE, as he was out traveling to suppliers and out on the factory floor. He loved that part of his job and was looking for something similar after LGO but also for something that would give him the ability to lead a group of people. This job at Amazon will give him both of those things! Congratulations, Chuckie!!!!

And that's not all of the exciting news.

The job with Amazon is in Louisville, KY!!!!! Technically, the job is at the Fulfillment Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana but, we'll be living in Louisville.

So, it's official! Chuck will graduate on June 6th and a few days later, we will be Louisville residents once again. 

This LGO experience has been more amazing than words can even describe (I'll save my sappy, lovefest posts for the program, the people and Boston for a later date...), and we've loved this experience, all the traveling we've done and living in two totally different cities. However, the longer we're away from Louisville, more specifically-the PEOPLE who are IN Louisville, the more we want to go back. In addition to our family and friends, and maybe even a bigger reason we want to go back? We really miss Havana Rumba.

Kidding of course... or am I?

Soon, we fly home for Christmas break for two weeks and when we get back, we have exactly 5 months to soak up as much time with our Boston friends as we can, do all the things in the city we've had on our list but haven't crossed off yet, and prepare to move AGAIN.

The post office is really going to freak out when I submit yet another forward address form. Who changes addresses 6 times and lives in 3 cities in 2 years?! I bet the CIA will be investigating us soon.

CIA, if you're reading this: I promise we are NOT terrorists. Just crazy.

Nieces Say the Darndest Things

Remember that show "Kids Say the Darndest Things"? I loved that show! Chuckie and I have 5 nieces and they would all be stars on that show if it came back to TV.

Technically they are all his nieces, but I claim them as mine too because 1) we're married and that's how it works and 2) he and I have been dating since before any of them were ever born. None of them know Chuckie without Rachel, and I like it that way.

The girls range in age from 2 to 10. They are all sweet and beautiful little girls, and they're ALLLLLLL kinds of funny. It's so fun to see the world through their eyes and hear their thoughts on things that we, as adults, probably never even think twice about. It's kind of like being in those AT&T commercials 24/7.

While we were all in Virginia, the girls had some pretty funny things to say.  Here's some of the conversations from the weekend, and a lot of pictures of the girls because if I'm being honest, about 75% of the pictures I took last weekend were of them.

While in the car on the way home from Busch Gardens....Sloane (2nd grade): When are you done with school?
Chuck: In June I'll be done with school FOREVER.
Sloane. Ugh. Lucky.....

While watching the Lady Gaga and the Muppets special on Thanksgiving.....(Which may have been the highlight of the weekend. Seriously. So funny.)

Ava: Lady Gaga forgot her shirt!
Sloane: And her nose is running! (Mistook her nose ring for snot.)
Caroline: If there's a Lady Gaga, is there also a Manny Gaga?

Next song, Elton John joins Lady Gaga onstage.
Sloane: Who's that guy? Is that Manny Gaga?
Ava: He's not very good........ (talking about Elton John)
Sloane: Now she's not wearing pants! I can almost see her butt!
Caroline: Look she has a tattoo!

Next song....
Ava: Her face is skinny and weird.
Sloane: And her hair is bigger than her body!
Caroline: Oh! She's not wearing pants again.

I told Ava I own the exact same onesie. I think she thought I was joking. Sadly, I was not.

While playing piano....Amelia (age 2): This is my piano.
Me: Oh did you bring it with you?
Amelia: Yeah. In the car. It's mine.

Also while playing piano.....
Amelia: Sloane is my Ariel.

While eating chips and salsa......Caroline (5th grade): Chips and salsa are my third favorite food. My first favorite is a chocolate volcano explosion from that one rainforest restaurant. My second favorite is cheeseburgers. And then chips and salsa.

While coloring at the table.....Audrey (age 4): Do you kiss Chuckie? That's gross. You can only kiss if you're married. Then you just have to deal with it.

While doing Thanksgiving crafts....Audrey: I'm drawing a snowman. Because I'm thankful for a snowman.

While sitting on the couch....Amelia: My Chuckie is my little friend.

While me, Chuck and Caroline are in the car on the way to the grocery on Thanksgiving Day to get a couple last minute items...Caroline: When we go in the grocery, I'll show you how I get TWO cookies from the bakery by telling them I need an extra one for my little brother. (I like her style.) 

They crack me up. And I know I'm slightly biased... But you can't tell me these aren't the 5 most adorable little girls you've ever seen.

Thanksgiving in Virginia

Tickets to fly to Kentucky for Thanksgiving this year were once again WAY too expensive, so we decided we would tackle the "short" 9.5 hour drive to Chuck's sister Shawn's beautiful and cozy house in Virginia. (Ever since our cross country road trip we feel that 9.5 hours in a car is a breeze .) So Tuesday evening, after I got off work and he got out of class, we started the drive. Looking back, trying to leave Boston at 5:15 pm on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week was probably not the smartest plan, but oh well. Sometimes you learn things the hard way.

We drove through the night to get to Virginia. It rained the ENTIRE  drive, except for maybe 20 total minutes. The traffic was terrible. It took us 2.5 hours just to get 56 miles outside of Boston. So around 5:15 Wednesday morning, yes 12 whole hours later, we rolled into Virginia Beach. Chuck said it was just like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, except just Automobiles.

Wednesday was a nice relaxing day which was needed after only about 3-4 hours of sleep. All of the women of the house took the younger girls to the movie theater to see the new Disney princess movie, Frozen, which everyone loved, including the adults.

The rest of the day we spent doing grocery runs, prepping food for the next day, eating a yummy ham dinner, baking pumpkin bread and pumpkin pies, listening to Chuckie play guitar while the girls took turns singing along, and watching movies.

Thanksgiving Day we were all up early. We had breakfast, watched the Macy's Parade in our pajamas, colored turkeys and other things on some coloring sheets Shawn had for everyone, learned the Cups song, did crafts, wore festive hats, and colored some more.  Oh and I got to pump the turkey full of buttery goodness before it got cooked. :)

My parents and sisters kept me updated throughout the day on their Thanksgiving in Louisville.  They spent the morning with my tiny little Grandma deWitt.

 Later in the day when they were at my other Grandma's house, we got to skype with them and all of my cousins and aunts and uncles! We love FaceTime, especially on holidays.

Finally it was time to eat dinner. I made sure I didn't stop eating until I was miserable, as that's my personal Thanksgiving tradition.

That night we cleaned up, watched the Lady Gaga and the Muppets special (more on that in my next post) and watched the David Blaine magic special.

Friday, me and all the guys (all THREE of them...they are sadly outnumbered by the ladies) went to the outlet malls in Williamsburg. It was insanely busy, as one might assume it would be on Black Friday, but fun. Chuck and I walked around and looked for deals but didn't end up buying anything. After the outlet mall, we headed to Busch Gardens to meet up with the van full of girls.  Busch Gardens decorates the entire park for Christmas, sells hot chocolate and wassail at every vendor, has carolers walking around singing, and they put on several shows in all parts of the park. Most of the big rides are closed (I guess because it's cold) but a lot of the kiddie rides are open, which is what we probably would have been doing anyways. Also, year round, the park is divided up into countries, so it sounded really funny throughout the day when we'd talk about where to go next and say "Well we're in England, so let's take the train over to Italy and then we'll walk to Germany from there."

We rode some rides with the girls, saw two shows with singing and dancing, drank so much hot chocolate we all felt sick to our stomachs from it, and looked at pretty Christmas lights and decorations.

This next picture makes it look like Audrey was taken on this ride against her will but I promise she wanted to go and at the end of the ride she was thrilled and wanted to do it again.

On Saturday, everyone was pretty exhausted from our day in the cold, so we made that our "chill at home day" and did just that. The girls did some more crafts, we ate more, the guys watched football, I helped the ladies shop for some Christmas gifts, we taught everyone Telepictionary, and then we watched Spiderman.

Sunday we left Virginia at 6:30am, thinking we'd get home by 4 or 4:30 that day. Of course, we didn't get home until almost 7:30.

The driving portion of the trip was awful, but it was all worth it to get to be with some family for Thanksgiving.