I'm a Connecticutian!

Hard to believe that I have been here a month, but it is starting to feel more like home. Ok, I'm really not a Connecticutian, it is funny some of the differences here. First, people in the store look at me like I am crazy when I look at them and say hi. They are so confused by it! (once you start talking to people though, they are very nice) Second, tonight I borrowed my roommates GPS to go to a party that some classmates were throwing, the GPS wasn't working properly, and I didn't have a clue what direction I should start driving! Third, trees!!! Wow are there a lot of trees and woods! I am excited for how beautiful the fall will be! My house is fun, here are pictures of some of the way we have decorated the inside, many of the features may look familiar.



Susan, my piano, made it safely across the plains! She didn't even get knocked too bad out of tune! I really need to get a de-humidifier for her though...

One of my favorite parts so far about Connecticut is living so close to the ocean! I should put a little disclaimer here, really it is the Long Island Sound. I'll explain for those who don't know what that means, because I'll be honest, I wouldn't have known what that meant before I became a Connecticutian. If you look at a map, Long Island, New York is right across from Connecticut and having such a big island right across the way affects the water. It is still the ocean but it is a lot calmer, we don't get the big crashing waves, crazy tides etc. Also the closest water to me (about 5 minute drive!!) is in a little bay called the Branford Bay. Really though, it is delightful. Most of the beaches are quite rocky, but my town has made a little sand beach for us and there is a nice park right by the water. One of my new favorite places.

Random chair on the dock

Apollo's new groove

My fish is adjusting quite nicely to the east coast. He seems to be happy, swimming well, eating well. However he has undergone a strange mutation. Let us review his Utah look.



Nice blue color (which actually did fade some, sorry I don't have a more recent picture), white fins with splashes of red. Apollo has decided that with the change in environment, he needed to also have a drastic change. This is the new Apollo.








He is still acting healthy and I still love him just the same, he's just turned more...red. Four prevailing theories right now. The first is his little container that I brought him over in was red, and maybe he just misses that container and it is kind of like the patronus phenomenon. The second theory is stress, it's a killer. The third theory, Apollo died on the trip, my fam didn't want to tell me so switched him when I was sleeping hoping I wouldn't notice. The fourth and most likely theory in my mind is the fact that there is fluoride in the water in Connecticut that was not in the water in Utah! Hm...what do you think?

RELOCATION!!

Wow, I can't believe where life has gone, I have officially moved to Connecticut to get my nurse practitioner degree at Yale University! This explains lack of recent posts...extreme business with getting ready to go plus soak up as much of my Utah friends as I could muster! But you'll be happy to hear that I have a goal to update at least once a week!

To get to Connecticut, my sister Sara, Mom, best friend Nicki and fish - Apollo - went on an intense cross country trip. We drove a truck which I lovingly named Phillipe and Millie (my car) through 11 states which are:

1. Utah!
Sara with Phillipe and our entertainment, Harry Potter!

2. Wyoming!
Boring picture, but Wyoming is a boring state! In the Walmart parking lot trying to stay out of the sun.



3. Nebraska!
We slept in this charming town called Sidney. My favorite part was passing a town called Friend.




4. Iowa!
we accidentally took a video instead of a picture...




5. Illinois!
not too much exciting happened here




6. Indiana!
Are you getting the gist yet that not too much happened on the first part of our trip?


7. Ohio!
Finally excitement! We stopped in Kirtland to visit some of the church history sites. The Kirtland temple was beautiful.


8. Pennsylvania!
We weren't here for too long...


9. New York!
We did several things in New York, we stopped at Niagra falls, Apollo got so excited, he tried to join his fish friends, but I told him he didn't want to go down the waterfall and he calmed down. We also went through Palmyra. On the same day that we went to the Kirtland Temple, we got to go to the Palmyra Temple! It was a neat experience. We saw most of the sites in Palmyra, the missionaries at the Hill Cumorah (huh, apparently I have no idea how to spell that...is that right?) babysat Apollo for me while we saw the sites. I think they were amused.







10. Massachusetts!
Turns out we didn't get a picture in Massachusetts.

11. Connecticut!
yeah! Apollo made it back into his bowel!




I'm excited to see what new adventures await me here in the east! Coming up next, why Connecticut has turned Apollo blue again with some red splashed in...

garden!

Gardening is by far my favorite part of the summer and this year I have been so blessed to have a great little place to plant! Utah has been getting some great rain that has kept my flowers really happy. Here are some progress pictures. My flowers are a bit like my children so there are quite a few :)

This is back in April when I first planted, please pay special attention to the ity bity pink snap dragons up in the corner.

More shots from April

ok, so all of the following pictures are from the last couple of weeks! the garden has really taken off! A few of the plants were added or rearranged, but for the most part, the original plants just grew really well, for example, the snap dragons! this next picture is those same snap dragons that just took off!

cool how much more full it looks! I did get in some fights with the apartment gardeners to get them to stop picking the "weeds" that were coming up that were actually seeds I had planted, but finally I was able to get them to last to the point that they flowered and the gardeners finally understood that they were not weeds and stopped pulling them.

You may be asking yourself, what happened to those really pretty orange flowers that are in the April pictures but not the June pictures? Well, unfortunately, it turns out that our common enemy, the snail, likes to eat them. The following picture is what happened to my rununculus.

Snails also like to eat mums.

But I have since spread down some poison and that seems to be keeping the snails away. So there you have it, my little garden!! The love of my life!!

Cruise!!!

The fam went on an awesome Caribbean cruise in May. I just loved it. A cruise is perfect for my personality type. You get the perfect blend of laying around with absolutely nothing to do, sleeping in, reading on the deck, watching the ocean, playing minature golf, adventure, shows, macaroni and cheese, steak, etc, etc. It was lovely.

ah the bahamas

we saw some pirates off in the distance

not photoshopped!! I know amazing, just off of Key West

Getting ready to snorkel!

My feet really really rejected the Caribbean sun

Wow life!

huh, so I promise life has happened since May first! Here are some quick marathon posts to catch up since I have been a slacker.

Snails. Why did it have to be, snails?

I looked out my front door and what did I see? This...


okay okay Laura, Utah has a few snails, it's just one snail crawling on the fence. Don't panic. Then I looked a little harder and saw this...



huh. If you look carefully you will see no less than 5 snails on this fence. As I was inspecting the fence I heard a crunch, I looked down and saw this...



If you look carefully you will see no less than 7 snails on the sidewalk in front of my house (haha, including the one I accidentally stepped on). I started looking around and gasped. An army of snails was accumulating right outside my door!! Forget about swine flu, I am preparing for invasion! I must admit while I believe that snails are the spawns of the devil because they kill gardens, they are fascinating creatures, so I started collecting them in one area to get a better idea of how many there were and to observe. Folks, these pictures you are about to see are not for the weak of heart. They are not fabricated. None of these snails you see below are duplicates of those you see above. All of these snails were collected within 10 feet of my front door.


That is correct. You are counting 25 snails. Including the first pictures that makes 38 snails, and these are just the ones in visible, easy to kidnap places. Doesn't just their slime trail make you cringe?


Please, support my cause, step on a snail.