My New Home***Updated***

I have delayed this post for quite some time, but now that we have officially paid our deposit for the fall semester tuition as well as a deposit for our townhouse to rent I feel like it is official!!  In less than fourteen weeks we are MOVING!!  Not just down the street, or to "the other side of town" in Mesa, but instead we are headed to New Hampshire.  My husband has been planning on going back to school for quite awhile now, but finally the timing is right.  For the past year or so, he has spend countless hours studying, taking the GMAT, writing essays, and applying for MBA school at some of the best universities in the country.  All of his hard work has payed off, and he ended up getting accepted to 3 top ten business schools: Kellogg (Chicago), Wharton (Phildelphia) and Dartmouth (Hanover NH).  It has been a difficult decision for him in narrowing down his options and picking one, after all they are all such great schools. In the end, Dartmouth won out and I don't think we could be more thrilled.  Several weeks ago we attended the schools "Admitted Students Weekend" and were able to meet lots of new people, including three other fabulous LDS couples.  We all really connected and I think that was the clincher on our decision.  Even though this will be a BIG change in our lives, we cannot wait!  We will be trading the desert and cactuses for the forest and fishing (as well as LOTS of snow).  Yeah for being "Tuckies for Life"!!

ASW: "Admitted Student's Weekend" April 15-17, 2011

Jesse and I went on a trip ALL BY OURSELVES for student weekend at Dartmouth.  It was sooo much fun! I cannot believe it has been 4+ years since our last vacation together ALONE.  After having such a blast together, we promised ourselves that we won't let another four years go by without going somewhere alone again.

Some of the fun things we did together include:

 **Red eye plane ride the first night out.  Jesse somehow convinced me to take a small (1/4) tablet of his Ambien to "help me sleep on the plane".  End result:  feeling horrible, like I was going to pass out/throw up/etc.  Got up to use the restroom, became dizzy and sweaty, somehow stumbled my way to the back of the plane probably looking like I was completely intoxicated, leaning my head on someone's seat and asking them for "help" {luckily they were asleep}, and finally managing to pull myself together enough to practically fall into the restroom.  HORRIBLE experience let me tell you.  I used the restroom, splashed my face, put my head in between my knees for awhile, until I finally felt good enough to make it back to my seat.  I don't think I will EVER take Ambien again.

**Taking a 3 hour nap together once we arrived in our hotel room.  It was delicious.  I cannot even remember the last time we took a nap together for that long.  Probably not since our overnight flight back from Hawaii four years ago. 

**The first night meeting our "new family" in New Hampshire.  We had so much fun going to dinner with some other couples attending Dartmouth in the fall and it was relieving to see how quickly we all bonded.  It totally relieved some of the stress I felt about moving.

**Bachelor pad dinner on Friday night.  We were paired up with several guys that are first year students at Darmouth and they had several of us over to dinner.  They were all OBVIOUSLY single/dating scene era.  They spent a good portion of the time talking about drunk memories until they realized that Jesse and I were married with THREE kids.  Then they quickly began to reassure us that Hanover is "a great place to have a family".  It was pretty funny :)

**Touring Sachem Village {ie: graduate student townhouses} and knowing that "I had to get in there".  Luckily we ended up securing a three bedroom townhouse there, and just found out that all the other LDS families are also going to be living there!!

**Late nights at cocktail parties with dancing, live music, lots of laughter, and of course people watching.  We have not stayed out late in years together, so we felt so young and free again staying out late and then sleeping in every morning. 

**Going to church on Sunday and meeting some of the people we will be getting to know when we move there in the fall.  I was excited to see a good portion of young children at church.....new friends for my kids of course.

**Going to the birthplace of Joseph Smith and taking pictures at the Memorial.

**Getting lost in the Upper Valley on our way back to Boston and finally being so exhausted that we stayed overnight in Manchester.

**And finally, missing our children A LOT and looking forward to coming home and spending some time with them.

Me with Andrea, Maren, and Michelle--aka Ms. Holbrook :)

Miss M's elementary school complete with an open field next door to play in.

(and yes that IS a cemetary you see)

Sachem Village:

This is what our backyard will look like!

Handsome Husband:

Nerdy Wife:

Joseph Smith Memorial:

Pretty Gorge???

Love this Man so much!!