The Month of May

Noelle spoke the utterly stark truth: our blog has become monthly rather than weekly. Here are some highlights from the month (order corresponds with the pictures below):

• saying good-bye to my bank branch/co-workers and starting a new position with the bank (at a new branch)

• going to Hilton Head, South Carolina for vacation with the Morans- beach going, eating out, pool tournaments, Bar-B-Ques, cook-outs, hot tub/pool water wars, chic flic time on the bed, sour patch kids/swedish fish, baseball, movies, coffee, mini golf, Sticky Fingers (aka. the best BarBQue restaurant in the south: the employees were amazed by the size of the Moran family which led to loud exclamations from numerous employees, introductions to the rest of the restaurant patrons and extra Sticky Fingers sauce to go), an ice-cream getting adventure into pitch blackness, and complete relaxation

• Matt finishing semester #2 and completing a two week intensive class successfully

• Rach's visit- going to Cambridge, area tours, wandering around Ipswich, eating at the Depot Diner and Agawam, laughing
  

• Meeting up with Luke and Vic in Cambridge- taking the whole Harvard/Cambridge tour

• Being at Fenway for our very first Red Sox game- a gift to us from Justin and Myrriah- a couple from our church, seeing multiple home runs, eating Fenway Franks, seeing Beckett in action, jetting around the back alleys in the van, laughing with J/M and Carol Anne and Eugene

• Celebrating our 2 year anniversary- hanging out in Quincy Market, on the Common, relaxing, exploring more of Cambridge, having a get away at the Hyatt, swimming in the pool and seeing MIT

The old branch and my old station (sniff*):
Vacation:
























Luke/Vic/Rach visit:
Red Sox game:







Anniversary Celebration:

Spring is here!

We are back in the blogging world. Here is an update from the past 1 1/2 months- so sorry for the lack of posts.

In March we went to Nashville to visit some of our Utica friends. In addition to seeing where they live, we partook in a rousing game of Poker, an enthusiastic game of Taboo (props to the girls for our 2 wins!), an NCAA conference championship game (the winner, Belmont, went to the NCAA tournament), and Nashville's 'storm of the century' (what amounted to about 2 inches of snow). I found special delight in eating fried okra (at Bar-B-Cutie) and grits. I think I'm still an Okie at heart. Matt and I are still recovering from the shock of seeing live country music performed in the airport and seeing huge church buildings on every corner (maybe TN could send some of their churches up here?).

Matt has been thriving in his role as the assistant baseball coach at Gordon college. The team had a great bonding time in Florida for a week and have continued to improve since then. The team is doing really well- records are being broken and it is definitely Gordon's best year yet. They have high hopes to make it into the playoffs (which start April 29). His days have been filled with practices and many many games and double headers.


Also in March, some of my bank friends and I went out- to the "Rock Pond" and to the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast (as you know I am a firm advocate of all things Kiwanis). :-P

My days at the bank continue to go well. I have been working many hours of overtime due to staffing issues. This causes me to greatly appreciate the days off that I do have- especially with Spring in full bloom here on the North Shore. It really has been beautiful...

As per usual, fascinating interactions with the customers continue. Here is a conversation from the other day:
Customer: "Did you go to private school?"
Laurel: "No...why?
Customer: "Well, my brother and sister went to private school and you just look like a private school girl."
Laurel: "uh...Why exactly do I look like a private school girl?"
Customer: "Something about your eyes..."

??? He then proceeded to tell me that I looked European.

Another highlight was the proposal. yes...the proposal. A customer came in and asked me to marry him. And I think he was serious... Prior to this he wrote little notes on his deposit slips such as: "20s please, pretty lady" and blew me kisses from the drive up.

Matt has been doing a ton of reading for his seminary classes. For one of his classes he had to read the Old Testament through twice- yikes! And this on top of his other reading/papers/exams. He had his last class today and just has to finish up some finals and papers before he is done with semester number two. hooray!

As the days have gotten warmer we have loved taking walks around the campus. We have some of our best talking times on our walks. Here are some of our walking views:





I have been feeling oddly domestic lately and have enjoyed baking (in our oven that doesn't circulate heat correctly- yi!). Recently I baked chocolate chip/raisin/oatmeal cookies, another batch of oatmeal cookies (I'm trying to find the perfect oatmeal cookie recipe- let me know if you know a good recipe!) and banana bread (my first time making bread!). Matt is a good sport in trying all of my experiments.
Wish we could have all of you over to eat these cookies. :-)
Happy Spring, everyone! 'Till next time! :-)