clam chowder (and pictures of Bea)

I've made a new goal to try a new recipe each week because I get so bored with our meals.

I figured that since we are now living in New England, I should at least try to make clam chowder or as is pronounced here: chowdah.

To make clam chowder you need clams, so I went to the fish market (yes, like they caught them that day) and told the man working there that I wanted to make chowder and he showed me already cooked crab meat for chowder. I shook my head at him and said, "actually, I would rather do all the work myself." I'm sure as soon as I left he called me crazy, but before he did he sent me on my way with 5lbs of clams or quahogs as they are called here.

First I let them soak in water, salt and corn starch to get rid of the sand in them.
Next, I steamed the clams until they opened.

While I was waiting for them to cool I started on the soup.

This is what the clam meat looks like out of the shells. Yup, I thought it was gross too.

I cut it up into very miniscule pieces and added it to the chowder.

On Friday night we went to Georges for fish and chips. It was a little chilly, but we braved it and sat on the deck anyway.

Hello Gorgeous.

what would she say?

"hmmm...i know there is a way to open this door."

"daddy, don't go."

"yummy, the window tastes so good."

"hi mom"

"what do i do now? how do i get out of here?"

"i give up, i think I'll just sit down.""mom, seriously, STOP taking my picture.

rainy day walk to the beach

holiday weekend

Saturday morning after I put Bea down for her first nap (I'm pretty sure she was up at 5am that morning) I decided that I was going to go swimming. I wasn't sure where to go, so I just drove down ocean road, and then came back to Narragansett Beach. I knew that during the summer season they charged to get on the beach, but I saw a ton of people going in and no one taking money. I parked the monster of my truck and headed over. It was a beautiful morning and I walked right on the beautiful beach and headed right into the ocean.

I love Lake Superior, and she will always have a little piece of my heart, but the waves, oh the crashing waves. It was invigorating. I could have stayed in there all day. I definitely could get used to this.

This weekend we read books, drank coffee, went to a cookout, ate ice cream, swam, met new friends, kayaked, drank coffee, walked to the farmers market, took lots of naps, and capped the weekend off with a cookout of our own.

Narragansett beach. Lots of surfers out.

Here are a couple of pictures of our new house. This is the sunroom/dinning room/jason's office/euchre's new home.

This is our bedroom. Plenty of room to walk around and fit two dressers in it.

Bea's room/guest bedroom.

I had to put protective corners on the coffee table and for some reason Bea wants to attack them with her mouth furiously.

The second picture is a new face she makes. She mainly does it when she is concentrating. I think it is hilarious.

Bea getting ready for her first kayak ride.

We took her down the block to the salt pond and she sat in between my legs the whole time. She did great and I think she would have liked it even more if she didn't have her life jacket on, but there is NO WAY I will ever take her on the water without one. Sorry love.

It was a great first weekend in Rhode Island.

good days and bad days

Yesterday was a good day. I tried to find the post office, failed...oh well. I did find a children's consignment store that I will have to check out.

I also found a great spot. I'm not sure if I'll ever get over the fishy, rotting sea vegetation smells. Maybe it's not always like this.

I liked it so much that I had to bring Jason back for a swim with Bea at sunset.

Today I fell apart. Bea wouldn't nap, I had bad hair, I felt fat, and all of the things that I haven't had the time to think about kinda just hit me. I took two naps and after the second one, I woke up in a much better mood. Tomorrow is a new day, and I'll try again.

Point Judith Light house.

I just took off Bea's clothes because the were getting all wet and she just wanted to play.

All day long today I kept thinking, "man, it's like there is sand in your poop."  Oh yeah there really was. I couldn't keep her hands out of her mouth.

It's an invasion. Pretty cool sight to see a bunch of go carts with parachutes on them coming at you.

This one was o close.

Jason and Bea.

new month, new home, and new adventures.

I was originally going to title this post "how starbucks saved my day," but it's a new day.

My baby girl is 9 months old already, and for the first time in her short little life, she has her own room. I thought it was going to be harder, but I am thoroughly enjoying being able to have my room back. I missed being able to put laundry away, get clothes out when I wanted, and to just have a space that is ours again.

Our bedroom is probably the biggest one we have had since we moved from Grandville. We were able to put two dressers in there with plenty of room to move around the bed. What a luxury.

I finally feel like I made some progress on finding homes for all of our things. The kitchen was the hardest. Can you believe that there are no drawers in the kitchen at all?  One whole shelf space was taken up by a silverware tray, so I found a pencil holder with three slots in it, and it just sits on the counter. I think it's great!  I found places for most of our plants which really helps to make things feel more like our space.

We have a sun room which is HUGE and so great, but right now it is filled with all of the things that still need to either be put in storage (there's a shed in back) or books to be put on bookshelves that are yet to be assembled. (Oh, and we can't forget my craft stuff)

Our living room has a great bookshelf in it, where I put all of Bea's toys and books. She will just pull everything off the shelves anyway, so it works great to use that as her space. I'm sitting on a very old couch that is very comfortable, but has a strange odor that I can't quite place. Maybe I'll have to see about a couch cover.

It's so nice here. Our street is a dead end, that is off of a street that is a dead end (into a salt pond!). It's very quiet all day long, and most of the houses on the street are empty or will be after this weekend. We have a huge yard, and a backyard where Euchre can hang out. She is doing good too. I think she likes it here, I think she is still trying to figure out what's going on, but it helps that all of our stuff is here and we won't be leaving her and going anywhere anytime soon. Our house has so many windows and gets such great sunlight all day long. Most days there is also a breeze that comes through all of the open windows, and just plain makes me so happy.

Jason had to be at a meeting the day after we arrived here. The school is only 9 miles away, and yet because of the roads it takes him 25-30 minutes to get there. He's been in class planning classes 9-4 Wed-Fri, and then school will officially start next Tuesday. He seems to like the school and I guess that campus is huge. He tried to find the school off of the bike path last night, but it got too dark, and he had to turn back before he found it. He's currently claimed the sunroom as his office and doesn't seem to mind the piles of boxes everywhere, but I'm sure he'll feel more settled once everything gets put away.

I have been furiously putting things away, so I haven't had much time to think about being here and starting over with friends and grocery stores, and post offices, and all of those simple things you take for granted when you have lived somewhere so long. I had my first outing yesterday and it didn't turn out exactly how I thought it would. I needed to make a MAJOR walmart run to get some organizational things and groceries so we could eat something other that road food and protein bars. I got directions to the address of what I thought was Walmart and mapquested it from my house. Well....there was no walmart at that address, and I drove a good 20 minutes in the wrong direction. I guess it was good to sight see, but I was starving, needed to pee, and felt bad that Bea was sleeping in her carseat even though she had just gotten up an hour ago. *side note: she's been in the car so much in the month we were home and the ride here that I hated to put her in the car for ANOTHER long car ride.) I made my way back to where I had gotten off of the highway, and I made a quick decision to drive through starbucks. I am so thankful I did. I asked the girl where the closest walmart was and she says, "oh, just turn right out of here go through three lights and turn left". Really? Really? I was so thankful. I find walmart and I get out of the car and realize that I had forgotten my very large, very extensive list. Then I realized that this was not a super walmart, and although Bea was due for a nap, I needed to get groceries so we found a store and power shopped for food.  I nursed Bea in the car before we left and somehow her diaper wasn't on right so she peed all over herself and me. I just had to laugh. It really was the perfect way to end our outing. I left the house at 10:30 and got home about 2:00. I'm hoping that grocery shopping doesn't take that long every time.

I think it will just take awhile to get the hang of things and where everything is, and get used to the time it takes to get there. (lots of traffic) I want to find a mom's group and hopefully make some friends and I think finding a church will help the most. I'm so thankful for Bea during this transition. She makes everything a little easier, and she makes the days pass quickly and joyfully (well most days).  She is having a ton of fun crawling EVERYWHERE, getting into EVERYTHING, and pulling herself up on EVERYTHING. Last night she even slept through the night!!!!!  Oh my gosh what a relief. I really don't mind getting up in the middle of the night, but I know that she needs her sleep and she's so much happier that way.

Today I think we are going to brave another outing (if I don't, I'll stay in my house on my street for forever).  We are going to check out the beach (beautiful, and very New England-ish), and find the post office. Then I'll need a nap. :)

I'll keep posting our adventures and I'll keep taking pictures.  Here are a couple from Monday when Debby and Denny left for Grand Rapids.

WHOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our first night here and she didn't want to sleep, so she pulled herself up on boxes instead.

Papa and Yai Yai on the day they left. We wouldn't have been able to make the move without them.

Bea's first meal out in Rhode Island. I love this look on her face. She makes it a lot.

Saying goodbye at the (very cool) train station.