School's Out for Summer...and now the transition begins!

So after a quick trip to Virginia for Anna's High School Graduation (Pictures to come) it was back to Boston to finish tieing up loose ends...

Sunday morning was my last day at church. It was so hard saying goodbye to everyone. I will miss my GracePoint friends and students. You guys were like our family away from Virginia.

Monday was the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! FINALLY!! Another day of saying goodbyes...I've decided I don't like saying goodbye. So it will just be see you later. We plan to be back up to visit of course. I even got to go out with a big group of teachers after school. It was nice just relaxing with them to end my time at the Butler.

Then that night it was an evening with Jess Phelps, Colleen and Kim just hanging out one last time for a while. I love you girls and I can't wait for our next visit! Us to Boston to you guys to Virginia Beach. I have to keep reminding myself it isn't goodbye because we WILL be seeing each other!

Tuesday was spent running around like a crazy person...a doctor's appointment, followed by canceling cable and phone, then over to a dentist appointment followed by a trip to Logan Airport to pick up my mom and sister. Then it was finally off to get a massage to relax, of course this massage was supposed to be Adam's, but he couldn't fit it in with the sudden transition. That night we had one last dinner at our fave chinese restaurant Su Changs...and then home to pack the car.

Today we finished packing the car. It's full to the brim and then it was final touches on our house to make sure it's in selling condition. Please continue to pray for us that the right buyer comes along to buy our condo!! That's really our last loose end and it's a big one!

So my mom, sister and I piled into the Explorer and headed for Connecticut to see my mom's college roommate Jeannie who has the twins that were flower girls in my wedding. Friday we're headed to New York for the weekend and then finally home to Virginia on Monday. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to post next week! It's just the beginning of our new transition to Virginia Beach! Wish me luck!

COT

So here are some shots of what Adam is experiencing at COT!

From PT to Classroom time...they're learning about how the military operates as well as leadership and problem solving skills.This is his class of trainees.
The ropes and obstacle course.
Another shot of more of the guys that he's training with.

Things sound like they're going really well and he's enjoying it!

Hiking Mount Monadnock

This is Mount Monadnock.

Mount Monadnock is often described as the most hiked mountain in the United States as well as the second most hiked mountain in the world, with 125,000 hikers yearly, behind only Mount Fuji in Japan, with about 200,000 yearly hikers.

At 3,165 feet, it is nearly 1,000 feet higher than any mountain peak within 30 miles and rises 2,000 feet above the surrounding landscape and that folks is what we were about to hike or CLIMB (at least it felt more like climbing at times)!

Here's our group as we get ready to set off for the summit. The terrain starting out...let's just say there were lots of rocks along the way!

Here I go!! My first real hike!

And we're off...

We just kept going and three hours later we reached the top!
Here I am sitting at the highest peak of the summit! CRAZY, I was on top of a mountain, literally!

It felt like quite an accomplishment and I think I actually do like hiking. HOWEVER, now I know that the next time people want to go hiking, I should ask what the terrain is going to be like because I was expecting a very long walk with some hills along way...I can't say I was expecting to climb a mountain, but at least now I can say that I did it and a famous one at that! I guess I'll have to climb Mount Fuji next?! Any takers?

Adam becomes a true military man!

My hubbie in uniform!He's off to the airforce for the summer.

Military hair cut and everything.

Doesn't get much more official than this!

Memorial Day

We had one last day of fun in Boston, before Adam left for COT, on Memorial Day.

We met the Youngs at Quincy Market and grabbed lunch at Dick's Last Resort. If you ever eat there be ready for the waiters to do their best to insult you, it's pretty hilarious actually.You get cute bibs and everything. You'd think it was a rib joint, but it's not.

Here's Colleen and Adam.
This is my Adam inside Faneiul Hall and he's making a silly face at me for wanting to take his picture.Here are the two Adams mimicking their fave beer genious and forefather, Sam Adams in front of Fanieul Hall.
Some pretty shots around Boston on a beautiful day.
Adam and I in front of the original Cheers, where everybody knows your name.
A shot of the famous North Church which was an important part of Paul Revere's ride.
"One if by land, two if by sea"!

We definately enjoyed our day in Boston. It left us with a few more fond memories of this area and fun times for Adam to think about on his way to COT.

Flower Shots...playing photographer

I had some fun playing photographer around Boston and I took some pretty neat photos of some beautiful flowers.

It was fun and I got some pretty cool shots! What do you think?

Packing Day at 7 Park St.

So hopefully most of you already know our exciting news that Adam was recently hired at Atlantic Shores Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia as the Middle School Youth Pastor.

Our house is on the market...so please pray for us that things go smoothly in the midst of a crazy real estate market and that the right buyer comes along. So with all that said, we knew packing and moving had to be carefully orchestrated since Adam was already scheduled to be away this summer at Commissioned Officers Training in Alabama. Pretty much we knew we had to pack our house before he left. We were so thankful for everyone who helped us with the packing. Adam's dad flew in for the weekend to help with the packing and then to drive one of our cars back to Virginia so I would only be left with one vehicle to get back to Virginia. Then Saturday we had the best packing team's help made up of Colleen, Colleen's Adam, Joe, Adam's dad and my Adam who arrived after taking one last final and me of course.

Here are the guys packing the POD. We pretty much got our whole house into this small space. Adam and his dad had it down to a science!
Packing the last few items got very interesting, but we got it all in there.

Here's our POD. What a great invention...we can pack in Mass., ship to Virginia and store it there in a warehouse till we're ready to move into our next place. Pretty sweet!
A goofy moment packing with the guys. We're always having a good time!

So all the packing was done by noon because Adam and his dad had gotten a good headstart the past couple of days. So the POD was picked up that afternoon, a couple days early, which was such a relief because we wouldn't have to worry about complications on Tuesday when Adam had already left and I was at school.

So after all the packing was wrapped up it was off to Salem Beer works to thank our packing team and for one last hang out session at one of our favorite watering holes before Adam shipped off to Pastor Boot Camp.

Then to top off the day, Stacey Fink and her boyfriend Jeff happened to be in the New England area on a road trip. So they got to the house just in time to visit Salem Beer Works. They stayed with us that night in a pretty empty house, but hey at least they can say they saw it, and of course we had to bake chocolate chip cookies that night because it's a Stacey and Jess tradition.

Baby Phelps!!

We were so excited to see the Phelp's new baby before Adam was headed out of town.

Elizabeth is such a cute, sweet baby!

Two Jessica's and an Elizabeth!

We are so excited for the Phelps and the new addition to their family!! Congrats guys!

Packing donations for orphans in Moldova

For the last three years our church has sent a shipment of packages donated by the members of our church to an orphanage in Tocuz, Moldova with a team to hand everything out to the children.

This year our church is sending a team in September and my friend Colleen is leading the trip. So recently we had collection Sunday and Adam and I were able to help out by checking items in and building crates to ship all the packages.

We zip tied all the bags to make sure they arrive the way they left.

We had four cars full of donated bags packed like this.

Here are the guys who literally built a wooden crate to ship the packages.

Then when all the packages would not fit in the first crate, they had to build a second.

Women's work was to organize and check in the bags followed by wrapping the newly built crates.We were very proud of our blue crate!
Adam was working very hard at all points during the day, but I guess there came a point when he needed a break.After working all day, we got a little goofy in the warehouse taking turns riding the equipment.

It was definately a fun filled day and for a good cause too!

We're all really excited to see how God uses this shipment to show these orphans how God loves them.