Study Break!

I won't even pretend to give the illusion that work is the only thing, especially when the only exam left for the term is research, which nobody had much of a clue about, anyhow. Brady, a guy in our ward and apartment complex, joined me for a morning out in the snow. The pictures may speak for themselves. If not, the snow was completely iced over from the rain, we "borrowed" a sled from one of the neighbor kids...

(sombody's hind quarters are too big for the space available)and heisted one of Kari's cookie sheets...which we tried multiple ways to make work..., and even tried different ways to slide down without a sled...

(notice our model with his "Lawn and Leaf" by Pierre Somebodyorother)Bottom line: it was totally hillarious and we can't wait for it to snow again!

I only wish we had a picture of our ride on the canoe (yes, a canoe!) down the hill behind the divinity school where we probably should have been studying!

Christmas Jig

Check this action out!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1507883526

:)

Christmas Boston Style

Yesterday we took the day off and headed North to visit the Boston Temple and to see a matinée of the Boston Pops Orchestra's Christmas Pops show. It was great to be at the temple again, and it was beautiful with the snow backdrop. We had left ourselves a window of an hour to get from the temple to the show, but by the time we got lost a million times (Boston has been nominated the worst city to drive in several times) we were a full 45 minutes late for the show!! We begged at the box office, and they exchanged our tickets to super upgraded tickets for the evening show. We spent our new-found time walking with all the other insane people on Newberry Drive, fighting the freezing weather and huge snowbanks on the corners to hit all the fun shops on the strip. We did dinner at Charley's, where we had the best bread ever . . . we ate 3 loaves! This time we were early for the show, and it was magnificent. And the seats they gave us were right on the first balcony over the orchestra! Lucky we got to see the first half, because all the traditional, spiritual pieces were first. What an incredible show!! It really feels like Christmas! We got home really late, but were able to sleep in since church was canceled because of the new snow and ice.

I Scream, You Scream...

Everyone loves a cheap date. This one is guaranteed to taste good, too!

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/coupon/BOGOholidaysundae1207.html?cid=32211&jid=2781494&mc=106&eid=404144

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

I believe that a Christmas tree picks you, instead of you picking it. In our case it must be true, because by the time we got ours, it was so dark we could barely see anything at all! I felt like a lumberjack out there with my work gloves and saw...then I remembered the tree was only 6 feet tall. 1200 lights later, it looks pretty good, don't you think?"Timber!"First Ornament!

This ornament says, "Dear Santa, I can explain..."

"THE GAME"

Referring, of course, to the rivalry game between Yale and Harvard, officially the last game of the Ivy League season. If you do a Google search for the title of the blog, you will find a Wikipedia entry with all sorts of fun information about this rivalry, which is one of the oldest in the nation, and which is laden with all sorts of tradition. Both teams came into the game with undefeated seasons, and I am afraid that Yale is going to have to be happy with being smarter than Harvard, as they got spanked 37-6. Emily had already left town, and I was not far behind her, so I went with some PA student friends, and met up with Robbie and Katie at the game, which was a nice surprise! (Contrary to beliefs of the heavily intoxicated young men behind us, they did not bring the "baby blanket" to sneak booze into the game!) It looks like there are a lot of empty seats, but by the half the tailgate parties were giving way to the football game.

Survey Says...

Yahoo!! Our world just got a lot more pink!!! Thanks for voting, and congrats to our two tallies for girl!!!We are so incredibly excited!!! We have had thoughts of girls and boys running through our heads, but were still shocked when the ultrasound tech said it is a girl. Emily even made her go back to double check! The tech was very good, and she zipped right through all the bones, systems, and heart making her measurements with us watching in awe. Our baby is officially getting all the nourishment she needs...she is already in the 79th percentile for size based on the measurements! Isn't she just perfect? She has come a long way since the last pictures, and she looks much more like a little person. She will no doubt be a knockout like her mother!It has been a roller coaster of a week, with Emily working 6 days out of 7 before she left for Arizona, Mom Streeter, Tiffany (sister) and her wonderful little girls visiting for the weekend, another big anatomy test, etc. But now there is a little taste of freedom on my lips, and I will join Emily in Arizona tomorrow night! I am very excited to be there with the Johnson family! Thanks for checking up on us!

Connecticut River Tour

You will find that this is a little bit out of sequence (this was a while ago!), but these pictures are too fun not to share.
We took a boat ride with Brady and Kari down the Connecticut river to get another sampling of the fall colors. It was a perfect, sunny day. This castle was build by an eccentric millionaire who promised his dying wife not to marry again after she died. He was true to his promise, and the property was donated to the state of Connecticut after his death. Now it is a state park and a great photo opp!







Brady, Kari and the most beautiful girl in the world (and the professional cameraman in the reflection). We were on the front of the boat, so we got the breeze, the view and the occasional large wake.







On the way home we took a scenic route and came across a cemetery that was practically crying for us to take pictures. We, naturally, obliged.







This is the farmer that helped us pick out our pumpkin, that led to the award-winning jack-o-lantern seen on our Halloween post. We also got some fresh apples and squash that were SO much better than the average Wal-Mart variety!

Halloween is alive and well

Don't give up on us yet. For family night this week Emily and I gutted our pumpkin together, then I deserted her to go study. When I came home, this is the masterpiece I encountered:
Amazing!! Tonight was a real treat for me, because I talked Emily into dressing up in the flower costumes I made with some friends right when we started dating. She dragged her feet, but we had a great time with it at our ward party. We also got a lot of smiles at the hospital (see below).
The best part of our night was seeing Brady and Kari's new baby, our friends out here. She was just perfect! Happy Halloween all! (I need to get back to studying!!!)

Vermont Trip

One of the highlights of living out here so far is our recent trip to Vermont. Since we were in the midst of moving and cleaning houses when our anniversary and birthday's rolled around this year, we used that as an excuse to go on a little trip. We wanted to go where the trees would be turning all kinds of fall colors. My friend from Young Women's in Power Ranch used to live back here and told of us some must-see's. So we headed off on a Friday morning as Geoff has one Friday a month off. Our first stop was a maple syrup and cheese farm. Although the farm was rather rinky-dink, it was fun to see how they tap the trees and then make maple syrup. And my favorite cheese was smoked. Geoff is a "sharp" man and liked the 8 1/2 year cheese (their oldest) best. The next stop was Joseph Smith's birthplace. The spirit of peace was definately present and it was an inspiring place to be for a couple hours. We bumped into a couple from an area in Switzerland where Geoff served. They knew some of the people he knew!


Then it was on to the Van Trapp Family Lodge. Although there were no singers it is a really cool place to stay. Lots of pictures around of the family and nice atmosphere. That evening we ate fondue and Weinerschnitzel at The Swisspot Restaurant. MMMMmmmmmmm!

The following morning we walked around the hill behind the hotel for awhile. Tons of beautiful trees in fall colors and perfect weather made it a great morning. We saw wild turkeys and a deer grazing in the grass just behind the lodge. No, Matt. You cannot shoot on the premises. Don't even daydream about it.

We found a little stone chapel and I fired up the podium for awhile. I'm sure there are definately some mice that are feeling repentant to this day.

Then we headed towards home, hitting an apple-cider mill up for some fresh cider, and Ben and Jerry's factory for some fun info and ice cream. Check out the picture Geoff captured in Stowe, Vermont.

Cache #2

This may still prove to be a passing fancy, but at this point it sure still is fun! Before we left for Vermont I got online and looked up a GeoCache just a few miles from our hotel that promised a nice hike as well as another find. Both were just about right along the lines of what we were looking for. It was funny that this container was a lot bigger and full of a bunch of worthless trinkets that the hard-core cachers apparently get excited about. We are not quite there yet!

But here is a great picture of the falls and my beautiful wife just a hundred feet upstream from where the container was.

Our "first" picture!!

Seems like everything is big news these days, but this time it really is!! For those of you who are not Johnsons or Streeters, you may not be as familiar with the fact that we make our baby announcing a puzzle in our families. If you look back through the "Tour of New Haven" entry, fill in the blanks and select out the red ones, you get IARPL51, which unscrambles to be April 15!! Our due date!!

Emily had her first appointment with her new doctor, and I spent the entire next week convincing her it was alright if I came along. What an amazing experience, I mean probably more amazing for me since I was just the innocent bystander in the pepto-bismol pink room. But once we established that we really did think there was a baby in there, she pulled out the magic wand, and voila:
I don't mean to get all sentimental, but seeing that little flutter of a heartbeat and hearing that by all accounts everything seems to be fine were some of the most proud moments of my life. Isn't he (that's our guess right now) amazing?!!!
We can't wait until he can hear us so we can let him know how excited we are for him to crash our party of two. In anticipation of that day we have decided to sleep in every chance we get! :)

Our first try at geocaching

This last Sunday was beautiful. Sunny and bright as have most days been recently. So we went to a nearby park called East Rock. It is a huge area that has been kept natural. There are all kinds of trees. It's very pretty with trails throughout. We used our GPS to locate a geocache. Geocaching is something we decided we want to do more of. People hide small waterproof containers out in the wilderness. Then they either make a map or give clues to send you on a treasure hunt to find it. For this one, we had only one minor clue. But it also has the exact GPS coordinates. So we followed the yellow small tool (our GPS) until we got to those coordinates and then searched. It wasn't as easy as it sounds. We got sidetracked for awhile searching in the wrong spot! It was fun and the view from the spot we found it is beautiful. Anyway, you write on the little paper inside the container to leave your mark when you find it. It was fun to see when others had been there.

New Haven Tour ala Game

This is our tour of New Haven, and a game to make it interesting enough to keep you all watching for the entire tour. Keep track of your answers and put the number of right answers in the comments section. Please keep your hands and feet inside the office chair.

We want to introduce our tour by giving you a small glimpse of the general scenery of the town. This building is on the corner along the route we take to work and school. On one of our first days in town we snuck into the upper levels, into a “restricted” staircase, and made it almost all the way to the top of the towers! What a beautiful view of the city!!

Emily will be trying something new at St. Rahpael’s Hospital here in New Haven. To answer this clue, abbreviate the name of the unit she is working in to its acronym. (hint: it is not NASA, NAACP, or NRA) __ __ __ __ __

Despite the fact that we are in incredible shape (er…), we have both struggled with a
phenomenon that simply does not present itself in Arizona – hills! Our favorite loop, which passes through some of the beautiful parts of the neighborhood you will see/saw in the other pictures, ends with a short stretch of Canner Street. While for this part of the outing we slow to a jog or a crawl, this clue is of one of our favorite athletic pastimes together.

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ (hint: it's not "jogging", we are faster than that!)

Doesn’t Geoff look studly in front of the room where he is learning surgical techniques (he will be inserting a chest tube this coming week) while getting a real-life view of the inner workings of the human body. Notice the metal cases in the room. Each contains a cadaver that is studied by a group of 4-6 students. The answer to this clue is the generic name of a room like this. (p.s. much to Emily's shagrin, Geoff still flaunts the fact that he knows Ned.)

__ __ __ __ __ M __

__ __ __

We divert from New Haven for a moment to remind all of you how much we miss being with family. The answer to this clue was where we had one of the highlights of our visit to Normal. We truly have some of the most amazing nieces and nephews in the whole wide world.

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (see the picture!)

Geoff has already taken up temporary residence here. As soon as his lectures are through, he and an LDS friend in the program stake out a table in the periodicals room and work to understand their latest lectures in pharmacology and microbiology. Since there are over 20 libraries on campus, this one is dedicated only to the healthcare sciences. (We will send off more views as the year progresses to show the history and architecture that is inside the building.) For now, the clue is the name of this location on Yale’s campus.

__ __ D __ __ __ __

__ __ __ __ __ R __

If you thought real estate in Arizona is crazy, you should price the houses here in New Haven. Architecture was developed here long before the Southwest was a twinkle in the explorer’s eyes, and one of our favorite parts of exercising is rating each of the enormous properties on our different loops. Since the first time we drove through the neighborhood Emily identified this house as one of her favorites. The answer to this clue is the house number for this mansion.

__ __ __ (if you can't see this, click on the picture to magnify)

We are going to do this clue in two pictures. St. Raphael’s is a Catholic hospital, and inside the entry-way is a depiction of Christ healing the blind man. It is the story of the time when people asked Jesus who had sinned that this man was born blind: his parents or him?

Of course, Jesus explains that neither had sinned, but the man was blind so that the power of God could be manifest … a great reminder that He has all power to heal any infirmity, spiritual or physical. It is fun to start working in a place that values following Jesus Christ through service to others.

To get the answer to this clue, you must know the reference for this story in the Bible.

__ __ __ __
__ : __- __

Whew! Great job! We hope that was as fun for you as it was for us. We love you guys! Keep posting!!

The Apartment

At very long last, we have gotten to the point where we are ready to take the plunge and give you all some pictures of the place. How about a short tour:

To begin, you all must understand that Emily has been a master interior decorator, turning our little apartment into a very comfortable home, and feeling far more spacious and luxurious than it actually is! You can see here we used the same stuff you have seen before and mixed it up to create a very pleasant master bedroom, which is actually quite a bit larger then you would expect. With the wood floors it is hard to resist tap dancing on before retiring for the night.


We continue our tour by jumping across the hallway into the study/guest bedroom. We are doing everything in our power to resist the temptation to let this become a partial junk room. You all could help us with that by coming to visit soon so we are guilted into keeping it ridiculously clean! :) My portion of the master closet does not exist, so this is where I hang my hat...literally.

The kitchen is Emily's true masterpiece. She put enough kitchen tools to fill three houses into our little space. (There were easily a dozen large boxes that are now lovingly stored somewhere?) This is a picture of our IKEA find. It is a wardrobe we found in the scratch and dent section of the store (we traveled through the entire warehouse without finding anything that would work for us). We pulled out the rod, built and drilled 4 additional shelves, and voile - instant pantry! It allows for the kitchen to still hold a lot but not looks crowded with "junk."

Yes, you guessed it, this is the beautiful lady responsible for the magic! --->


We end our tour of the apartment with a look at the living room. The lamps we got from Karen look fantastic, and provide light in a room that has none. You can kind of see from the picture that we experimented in this room with a "candlelight" finish over our paint, which gives it a satiny blush in certain lights. Again, it looks incredible, and again Emily was the mastermind. Anyone else seeing a trend? :)

Well, there you have it: 537 Prospect Street Apartment #3 in all its glory. We are really enjoying the east coast, and will be driving our cars like maniacs, honking at everything that moves, and pronouncing words funny before you know it. We miss you all, and look forward to hearing from each of you!

Travels to New Haven, the Elm City

From the desktop of Emily Streeter:Well, we made it! 2,700 miles and 10 states later than this above picture, we are in our apartment in New Haven. We are really excited to participate in this bloggery. The trip went well. Thanks a ton to mom for coming with us to St. Louis. That really made the first three days more manageable. Since Geoff was the one who picked up the truck, he was the only one with a license to drive it (hogger). So this is what mom and I saw the whole trip, except when I got to ride with Geoff sometimes. We spent four great days in Normal, Illinois with Geoff's mom and dad, sister and three nieces. Connecticut is pretty. I am trying to get over the culture shock of moving into an apartment after living in Power Ranch. And oops, we didn't know these apartments came without AC! Flashback to the Philippines, sleeping on top of the covers all windows ajar. Luckily, we learned about window units and the weather has cooled to the 70's. Yesterday we went to the Milford city Oyster Festival. Watching others slurp the grimey things out was enough to ensure that neither of us try one, but we did enjoy walking around to the booths, etc. can't wait to hear from everyone. -emily

and from geoff: this really is great, and now that we will have internet and a lot of reasons to be online, we will do our best to be here frequently. we are moved into the apartment (mostly) and will do a photo tour on the blog soon. it was wonderful to be at home in normal, and we cannot wait for everyone to visit us here in new haven. the room will be ready for you when you come. there is so much to do here. we will visit a beach this afternoon, hit a shakespeare play in the park tonight, and we are planning to go canoeing tomorrow. love you all, and hope to hear from you all soon. -geoffrey