My Birthday

I was 26 yesterday!!!! So old! I think I am going to go through major gift withdrawal in a month or so.....It has been about two months of constant gift opening with our engagement, Christmas, bridal showers, the wedding and now my birthday!!!!

Unfortunately, I had to be responsible and work on my birthday, while my new husband, the student could sleep in and "work" from home. He did get up and make me coffee and a bagel (that was all I wanted for my birthday breakfast) On my way to my first client (mind you this is about 7:40am) my 9:45am client cancels, then I get another phone call and one of the 3 ladies I was headed to see, cancelled. Another one had cancelled the night before, so now I only had one client and my whole morning was changed. All I had wanted was to sleep in! Well, I worked out with the one client and then decided to surprise Andrew and get all these marriage related errands done. I went and got our marriage certificate, stopped by my old place to pick up my good friend Jill and a few things I had forgotten. Then Jill and I headed off to Davis Square to get new passport pictures for me (changing my name = having to get a new passport!) apply for a new social security card, close bank accounts and have coffee. Everything went well until the social security office. I waited in line for over 90min to give them a form, show them my marriage certificate, a picture ID and for them to give me a letter saying they would mail my new card in 10days!!!!! UGH....the government!

After dealing with all that, I went to Harvard Sq. and had lunch with Andrew and all his Air Force buddies....Since I was "officially" part of the Air Force, I could join in on these lunches :) Andrew met me at lunch with a single long stem rose and a box of gourmet chocolates from a local place called L.A. Burdick's!!! :) After lunch we ran downtown to pack Andrew for the weekend and load everything into the car. When we got home Andrew had the saddest face and said "I tried to make you something for your birthday but it got ruined!" He was is so sweet. He had emailed my good friend Cecily for a recipe, and had tried to make an Angel food cake with Berry Compote. The Compote turned out great, but the Angel food had gotten burned and the pan with it! (It was the first time using the oven for either of us) After I tried the wonderful compote and loaded everything into the car, Andrew drove me to school.......(Traffic is a miserable thing in Boston.) I ended up being 11min late to my OWN class!!!! When we finally got there, Andrew took off to run several more errands. Class went well, with its usual array of funny events and craziness (I got to see one of my students use his stomach to launch dry easerboard markers!!!)

While I was teaching, poor Andrew was stuck in more traffic trying to get to Harvard Sq and then back out with 25 long stem roses (the one from earlier went with this bunch to make 26 :) Again things didn't work out for him....Not only was he not able to get there before the end of class (my students really want to meet him) but he was about 15min late. We left school to go and swap our car for his friend's truck so we could bring a couch back from the Berkshires. (big surprise - we sat in about 25min of more traffic) We got the truck, got gas and finally hit the road around 6pm....Perfect timing to head out of the city on a Friday :) By this time, neither one of us were in a good mood (and that is putting it mildly)

It normally takes 2 hrs to get to Steve and Cecily's place, we were lucky enough to have it take 3!!! ;) While we drove, we listened to the book Imperial Grunts, by Robert Kaplan. We were having dinner with him the following night and wanted to learn more about him. The book was fascinating....Andrew especially loved it because it is about the U.S. ground forces around the world. I slept off and on which helped my mood :) As we got close, I decided all I wanted was a good glass of white wine and something to eat. Cecily had recommended a Bistro to us, so Andrew called AmX concierge and found the place and got us reservations.

The place was awesome. It was little, comfortable, warm and had great wine! It seemed like a popular, local place. AmX had told the Maitre 'D that it was my birthday, so she had picked out a great bottle of wine and gave us a good table. It was the perfect end to a bit of a rough day....We just talked, enjoyed great food, wine and dessert. After dinner, we stopped by Steve and Cecily's place, had more wine, chocolate, and opened a few presents. At the end of the day I felt so lucky that although it was not the "perfect" birthday, it was the beginning of something different......of always having someone to celebrate with.....Someone who loves me, tries to be a blessing to me, and who I enjoy just being around.

26 and married!?!?!?! Who would have thought I would have been here 1 year ago! God is pretty awesome!!!!!!!!

Berkshire Weekend

Well, we have been married two weeks today and are still enjoying the honeymoon bliss! I turned 26 yesterday. Andrew is married to an old woman now :)

We had decided before the wedding to head out to the Berkshires this weekend with our good friends Cecily and Steve. They had a couch that they needed to get give away or throw away because of space issues and we needed a couch so we made plans to make it a birthday weekend in the country and get the couch. Andrew and I got out here late last night and had dinner at a wonderful little French bistro called Rouge.....We had wine, split two appetizers and I got a wonderful dessert!!!! (if you are ever in West stockbridge check this place out!!!) After dinner we stopped by the main house where Steve and Cecily were and had more wine :)

Cecily's parents actually own the property and Steve and Cecily help them keep it up. There is a main ranch style house, a newly restored barn (where Andrew and I talked about having our wedding if we had waited till June) a little 2 bedroom, 2 story house on the very edge of the property and lots of land. Andrew loves it out here because he can do "manly" things and be outside all day working and there are almost no people around! Andrew and I get to stay out in the little house this weekend! It was so fun this morning to "play house". Even though we are married and have our own home.....a tiny 650sq. ft city apartment is MUCH different than a full house in the country. Andrew and Steve are currently out making doughnuts with the car in the snow, while Cecily and I are sitting here enjoying a fire, good coffee and relaxing. Andrew just walked in while I was writing and told us that they managed to get Steve's BMW SUV stuck, and the tractor that they tried to use to get the BMW out, stuck!!!! Boys:) They look thrilled themselves while Cecily and I are definitely less than excited about waiting for the ground to freeze so they can try and get the SUV and tractor out!

Tonight Steve and Cecily are hosting a dinner party here with a local winery owner, his wife, us, two other friends and also the columnist Robert Kaplan from the Altantic Monthly and his wife. Andrew and I listened to Kaplan's book last night on the drive down.....It is called Imperial Grunts and was very well written. I have a feeling there will be lots of interesting conversations about imperialism, military, foreign governments etc and amazing food!

Tomorrow will be sleeping in, having a leisurely brunch with Steve and Cecily, then loading up the couch and then trying to get it to fit in our elevator at our apartment building or navigating it up 6 flights of stairs!!! Let's hope for the elevator!!!!

Next weekend we are off to Vermont!

The Honeymoon - A fairytale comes true!

Honeymoon location: Banff Springs in Alberta Canada - 2 hrs north of Calgary
Honeymoon accommodations: The Fairmont at Banff Springs - http://www.fairmont.com/banffsprings/

Our honeymoon was a fairy tale come true (at least for me - Brooks) Andrew planned everything & kept it a surprise for about a week & then decided he couldn't wait till the actual honeymoon to tell me where we were going. (yes, I knew the whole time I said I didn't :) We decided we would keep it our secret. All Andrew actually told me was we were going to Banff Springs & were staying at the Fairmont & that he had gotten the ski package for us.

DAY 1
Unfortunately for the sake of sleep we had to leave our bed & breakfast super early Sunday morning....5:45am to be exact. Our flight left out of Logan at 8am. We flew to Minneapolis & then to Calgary. Once there, we rented a car (which was massive drama because Andrew is not 25 & my license had been stolen in Europe on our last trip & I had not replaced it yet...it worked out in the end but we do not recommend using Dollar Rental Company) Thankfully the weather was clear & the roads were fine as we made our way to Banff. (little tip - to get into Banff National Park you have to pay a fee per day! They will give you a receipt you have to post on your windshield for the time that you are there) By the time we got into Banff (around 3:30pm Canadian time) we were starving. We found a great sushi restaurant that served its sushi on a train. It was really funny....You walked up to the sushi bar (the only seating area) & there was a train that went around the counter top & you just picked off what you wanted....The price was based on the color of the plate. If you wanted something different than what was traveling around you just asked the the chef & he would make it & place it on the train. By the end of the meal, I was feeling extremely sick & thought it was because of the altitude. We left & went to check into our hotel. Driving up to the "castle" was amazing.......It just appeared in the mountains!!! Check-in was crazy.....I learned that Andrew had gotten us the honeymoon suite up in one of the towers, he already had a massage booked for me for the following day, we got gym access, complimentary valet, etc.... The place was so big they had to give us floor maps to figure things out! We finished up, finally found the elevators & headed to the the 9th floor (top floor) . We had to walk down a long hallway, through an open doorway & then up 2 flights of stairs. Our room was literally in the very top of the tower with only one other room up there!!!!! Our room was absolutely unbelieveable......The door opened into the "sitting/living room", with a long couch, entertainment center, champange waiting on top of it, a huge walk-in closet, & a massive bathroom......Jaccuzzi, huge shower, mountain view out the windows....... As you walked around the entertainment center, a spiral staircase appeared; leading up to our bedroom! The room was literally 2 floors!!!!!!!! I think my jaw stayed on the floor the whole first day. Our bedroom was the entire upstairs with a small second bathroom & massive picture windows looking out on the Canadian Rockies. (I was SO glad Andrew had kept the room a surprise!) Bellhops came up with our luggage...I was so glad we did not have to carry our luggage the whole way up!!!!!!!! Even though I was in awe, I was getting sicker & sicker. Andrew order me a ginger ale, I took a shower & we unpacked. He decided to order room service......(tip - 500ml of ice cream is a full pint!!!!) I was too sick to stomach any food & just crashed.....I think I ended up sleeping for almost 12 hrs.

DAY 2
I felt so much better after all the sleep & woke up starving. We headed to breakfast, (where they called us the Anderson's & I started laughing because I couldn't believe we were Mr. & Mrs.) Breakfast was like nothing either one of us had ever seen....When they went to seat us, they asked if we had already had a tour...upon saying no, we literally recieved a tour of the buffet & how it worked. The opposite wall of the buffet was floor to ceiling picture windows of the Rockies! We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast & both over ate because there was so much wonderful, fresh food to choose from. After breakfast we explored the "castle". There were 6 different restarunts, 10 stores, the spa, fitness center, outdoor terraces, numerous ballrooms, indoor & outdoor heated pools, skating rink, movie "theater", bowling alley, internet cafe, convience store, small museum about the Canadian Railroad & the hotel and the breathtaking view from every angle. After exploring everything I headed to the spa.... It turned out that the spa was #3 in the world!

Welcome to the Newlyweds Blog

The adventure has begun.....Since our story is quite the whirlwind adventure and is hard for most people to keep up with, we thought we would keep a blog. We are having a blast together and cannot wait to share our life with you all. We hope you enjoy our stories, adventures and special memories. Much Love, Brooks and Andrew