At Home in Boston

Another month, another update! Greetings from HOME, here in Boston Mass! A lot has happened in a short amount of time. Here are some bullet points.

February 2nd - Got married!


The following morning, we went to Morocco.... and Kenya..... and Egypt..... well... sort of... they are all different parts of Busch Gardens, a theme park in Tampa.


February 3rd - Watched the Giants beat the (cheating) Patriots on a 73inch TV.

Sandra and Crystal, fortunately were not doing karaoke during the game! Crystal was sleeping, but shhhh..... we won't embarrass her.

Speaking of which...
Second week of February... honeymoon in the biggest house we will ever live in!


After that, we flew home to Boston on JebBlue, our new favorite airline. Unfortunately we don't want to be sued for using copyrighted logos... so no cute pictures of JetBlue planes.

That brings us up to date! As of now, we are living in in East Boston. Our part of the city has history of having a lot of immigrants. In the earlier part of the twentieth century, they were mostly Italians. But recently the majority of people moving in are Latinos and a good number of people from the Middle East. What does this all mean? A large amount of hole in the wall Mexican and Italian food places! One of our favorite places to eat is a Pub 3 blocks away. Every Wednesday night, they offer cheap pizzas. It's a great date spot, though Crystal's taste for pizza is more refined than Aaron's is, so we may be in search of a new weekly hangout.

One of my (Aaron) favorite things about Boston thus far is the weekend Haymarket. On Friday and Saturdays every week, local produce vendors set up shop on a street downtown and sell produce for cheap! It feels like you're overseas a lot of times as you haggle with the vendors. We discovered a couple of Middle Eastern stores on one visit, and even befriended one seller who gave us free Felafil and validated our parking! (ooooh... ahhhh)


Another thing that I, Aaron, have enjoyed about living in Boston is that it actually snows here. Unfortunately, Crystal doesn't share that sentiment, because she has lived with snow for years, maybe I'll see the light someday and regret posting this...
Growing up in Waco, Tx I really was never sure what the point of winter was. I always figured that it was a break from being 100 degrees for 10 months out of the year! But dealing with snow has taught me a few lessons, including new ways to be chivilrous for my wife. Cleaning off a car covered in snow can be an adventure, so can shovelling snow, and even throwing it at each other. I am always tempted to initiate snow wars with random passers-by, but reason always gets the better of me! This is our car, "Tara", covered in snow and being very cold.


We have moved in with a married couple who have graciously allowed us to take up a room for the entire time we are here in the city. They have an eight month old son who likes to talk in unintelligible words and is learning to crawl around the house. He should be walking and terrorizing in no time flat! Read Matt and Pam's blog here.

Here are a few pictures of the house.


This is our street, it's not always covered in snow. Darn.


Our house, we've heard the bush and tree in front are alive most of the year. We are skeptical at best!

Here's a few of our room.

Standing in the door looking back, it's small but we like it.


There is the previously noted door. There are decorations on the wall to the left, but the picture turned out silly so I won't post it. Crystal is a great decorator, I am so blessed!

And finally, our view out the back window.

Many colors, many colors.

And one more pic for good measure, in case you forgot what we look like!


That's all for now! I won't promise another post anytime soon, but we'll see what the post fairy brings.

Where have they been for the past three months?

I will be the first to admit that keeping a blog of my life is a discipline that I have always struggled with. The likelyhood of mass ammounts of people reading this is, well, likely to be limited to the random facebook links. When my life is in 'normal' circumstances, it is hard to write about. If I were to write often it would look like this......
December 2nd.
Woke up this morning and immedeatly went to Starbucks and had a Venti six pump Vanilla Latte and a pumpin scone. I sat there for about twenty minutes and rushed out to be on time for work, where I stayed for nine hours. Went home, cooked some dinner and watched Heroes.

See, that's not too exciting! But whenever big life things happen, I enjoy writing about them!

That being said... whatever I'm saying... greetings from cold, sunny Myerstown Pennsylvania! Crystal and I are on the tail end of a cross country road trip, and are currently at my Parents' house here. I will recount the past couple weeks journey and hope to amuse you and not leave you angry for stealing away precious moments of your life with my rambling.

Friday, Dec 21st 2007
Crystal and Aaron load up all of Aaron's material possessions on planet earth into their tiny, mostly plastic Saturn nicknamed "POS" and depart for Tampa Florida. The first leg of the journey ends in the Woodlands, TX to spend the night with Bruce and Morgan Teague, their fabulous teammates and felow texans. Aaron proceeds to own Bruce at a friendly game of Worms 4 and then goes to sleep.

Saturday, Dec 22nd 2007
At 4am, Aaron and Crystal arise from their beds excited about the day of travelling. By 4.15, they are on the road. The remainder of the trip is supposed to take 15 hours, but it takes far longer!
10.00am. Crystal wants to stop at an outlet mall about 30 mins off the highway. Turns out, the Bath and Body Works website was completely wrong, and the store doesnt have anything we were looking for.
1.15pm. Aaron's right foot aches because the saturn doesn't have cruise control. On a better note, the unabridged version of The Kite Runner on CD passes time quickly.
7.00pm. Now in Tallahasee FL, the happy, weary couple stops excitedly at a BBQ resturant called Sonny's. What happens should be on an episode of the twighlight zone for the worst resturant experience of their collective lives.
7.45pm. Back on the road, the Saturn begins to have problems shifting gears.
8.00pm. There is something seriously wrong with the transmission. It is difficult to drive at all, and we travel at a pace of 45mph.
1.45am. A trip that should have taken much less than four hours finally ends. Aaron and Crystal collectively kick the car and then crash into bed, glad that the journey is over.

The Week of Christmas.
Now at the house of Billy and Susan Crawford, Crystal's loving parents they celebrate christmas with a sleu of children all under the age of six. Fun events of the week include rescuing a couple friend by putting together their trampline for their young kids. That was one of the high points of the week. Other high points include recieving warm fuzzy socks. They may change our lives!
Many gifts are opened, much time is spent wishing that we were eating healthier food. And lastly, many kids are screaming at all hours of the day.
Back to the car issues. Following Christmas day, we began car shopping in the Tampa area. The repairs to the car would have been at least a thousand dollars, and the car was worth less than a thousand. Besides... neither one of us preticularly liked the car in the first place. So after two days of shopping, gettting frustrated, calling out to God, shopping again, they found a 2001 Nissan Xterra with high milage, but in good working order. The purchased it, had a new CD player put in and then rejoiced by eating at Checker's. All was well, except for their wallets.

Road Trip part two.
On Saturday Dec 29th the now happy again couple pulled out of Tampa, with the final destination of Boston Mass! Of course, what is a good road trip without a few extended stops along the way? Stop number one was in Charlotte NC to see a fabulous bro named Bill Eichorn. We arrived saturday night, and went out to a microbrewery in updown Charlotte. Aaron had some chicken fried chicken, Crystal had some Cajun pasta and chicken. All hope and joy for the evening was lost when the Patriots beat the Giants.
Sunday Morning, we went to Bill's church, Elevation, and had a great time... even though it felt like World Mandate meets Rock concert. The music was delightfully loud, the sermon was suprisingly deep, despite "Pastor" donning a Guitar Hero guitar and using it as an illustration about how to share the gospel.
Aaron, Crystal and Tara, the car, pulled out that morning for Pennsylvania. The day was gross and cold and rainy, and the gas prices rose the farther north we got. But the journey was great, and included the conclusion of The Kite Runner. We arrived in PA, delighted to be home again, and that night it even snowed!

So that brings us up to date. But where do we go from here?
Tomorrow, we leave for New Jersey, to spend a day with Aaron's extended family, and enjoy delectable italian food.
Friday we pull out for New Hamshire for a NW Africa team retreat.
Sunday we are finally in Boston for church and staff training.
January 20, we fly back to FL for a couple weeks of finishing up wedding planning.
And finally on February 2nd..... we will be wed! See the next posing for all of that info though!

Aaron and Crystal

Changing your relationship: 201

Below is the story of a young, hopelessly romantic man, and the beautiful redhead that he asked to marry him. Don't worry, the story isn't as sappy and gut wrenching mushy as the opening line. We're simply trying to catch your curiosity with a sucker punch. *pow*

Let us first introduce the two parties involved.

Aaron, a young strapping lad at the age of 22, looking hotter than Waco in mid-august (that's pretty stinkin hot!) was new to the whole planning dates thing, yet desperately wanted to surprise his Fiance' to be. Unfortunately he is neither smooth, nor a good liar.

Crystal, on the other hand. Is older, more mature, far more attractive, and while she would admit that she wanted to be surprised... she would grill Aaron for info at every chance she had!

It was the night of October 25, 2007. The temperature was a cool 65 degrees, the skies were clear and the moon was out. Seven months prior, to the day, Aaron had asked Crystal to be his "Boo." So Aaron, with all the smoothness within him, suggested that for their anniversary date they would get dressed up and eat somewhere nice. She, with an inquisitive mind, agreed that this was a wonderful idea.

So now, the stage is set. And you will be relieved that we're no longer writing just the introduction.

Aaron showed up a couple minutes after six to Crystal's front door, dressed to a hilt carrying a dozen red roses. Cliche? Maybe a little, but she was blessed non-the-less. Her roomates were gracious enough to take photos of them before they left. Crystal still has no idea what the date would entail, though she is cleaver enough to know that she would leave the evening with a rock on her hand. After the photos, Aaron explains that he had made "reservations at a nice place to eat in town that she had never heard of" but "they aren't till 7.30." However, the Suttles (a married couple who leads their Life Group) said they could use their Wii for a little bit." Of course, Aaron is smooth enough to know that playing video games before he proposes is silly, but he was trying to throw off Crystal from thinking she would get the aforementioned rock.

They proceeded to the Suttles house, while Crystal suspiously wonders why Aaron has a key, and Aaron plays it off with finesse. For the next hour, Crystal proceeds to absolutely own him in everything they play, from Wii bowling to Guitar Hero. Aaron would have won at arm wrestling of course, but he didn't want to mess up his perfectly pressed shirt.

This is the part where Aaron's stomach begins to turn to knots, and Crystal feels like he is buying time. Yet, let the romance begin.

They go from the Suttles house-o-fun to another married couple's home (The Mulkey's). This couple had class that night, and graciously donated their casa along with some fine china and a few friendly dogs. Glen, another good friend and distinguished chef (in his own right) had been slaving all day long preparing a 4 course Italian feast. It's a date, of course there is Italian food!

Allow us to set the mood of the house for you.

They knocked on the front door, and a man opened the door and declared "Welcome to Cafe' De La Glen!" The room was dark, lit only by the glow of 100's of candles. As the song "Everything" by Micheal Buble' filled their ears (the happy couples "song"), the aroma of pasta with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes wafted out the door . Although, all they tasted in their mouths was the Orbitz Sweet Mint gum, the feelings in their hearts were expectancy of what was to come next.


Now the original plan was that Aaron would propose before dinner, as not to make it a super long drawn out thing for his already weak knees. Unfortunately, in his lack of foresight he had hidden the ring in a drawer in the kitchen. Having no way to discreetly get the ring, the first perfectly romantic moment passes as the couple dances away in the living room.
Their host for the evening, Glen, invited them to come and partake of the ceasar salad and garlic bread that made up the first course of this extravagant meal. Small talk is given, but from Aaron's perspective, it is simply awkward as he is praying for an opportunity to get the ring. Salads are devoured, and Glen comes with the second course, an Italian wedding soup. He of course, doesn't want to say the word wedding before there was a ring on her finger, so a funny exchange happens.
"And for our second course, we have an Italian meatball soup," Glen says quickly.
"Isn't this an Italian wedding soup?" Crystal asks nonchalantly.
"Uhhh.... why yes it is." And then proceeds to walk away briskly.
All the while, Aaron is thinking "Oh my goodness.... I just want to get this over with!

They partake of soup, and at this time Aaron feels like he is on the verge of death, and swears that his life flashes before his eyes. But nonetheless, he suggests that they take a break for 15 mins to let the first two courses settle before the main event, Pasta Milano, Crystal's favorite meal on earth. Well done Aaron, well done.

Once again they find themselves dancing to Buble in the living room. Crystal is extremely suspicious. Aaron feigns a bathroom break and awkwardly leaves Crystal on the couch in a moment of desperation. He grabs the massive box on the way to the bathroom and is presented with a new problem. The ring box is about the size of his fist, and cube shaped. Stick it in the pocket? No. In the belt? No. Hold it in his hand? Could have worked, but still no. The sock! Oh of course! Stick it in his sock! "She will never notice the cube shaped cancerous looking tumor that wasn't there before on the back of my leg" He tells himself.

All is well walking back, until halfway back the box begins to shift and dislodge itself from the sock. But Aaron is committed to it by now, and drags his leg behind him discreetly. "Are you OK?" Crystal asks. "I uh.. I'm fine. Thanks" is his response. He attempts to lead her in a dance, but that lasts about 10 seconds until mushiness ensues. They embrace and give each other oogly eyes. Aaron, sweeps her off of her feet with the following line
"So I really like your parents"
"You've been talking to them eh? What about?" Crystal asks suspiciously,
"Oh, a little this and a little that"
A few moments pass before Aaron, in by far the most suave and romantic voice that he can muster asks....... *Drum roll* *fireworks are about to be launched*
"Should I just do it?" he asks cooly
"Unnhun" she responds excitedly
"OK"

And with those words, Aaron awkwardly drops to one knee, almost taking out the chair next to him, fumbles around in the sock, pulls out the massive box, and totally forgets to actually ask the timeless question! What a doofus! It doesn't matter though, her eyes are wide with awe as she sees the ring. He slips it on her finger and mushiness continues, but for your sake, I won't include it.


Everything after this moment is a blur.They ate Pasta Milano with a White Riesling wine. Aaron's heart calms down and Crystal admires the ring. Aaron texts half of his phone. Crystal calls her parents. Glen serves the fourth course, an Irish Cream strawberry cheesecake served in a dark chocolate bowl with fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream. Amazing! A night to always remember!!

We are engaged to be married in Tampa, FL on Saturday, Feb 2nd! More details will follow on future plans, but this post is long enough for now! Please email us because we love you. wacopeach@gmail.com - Aaron
cncchick27@yahoo.com - Crystal