Ramos Family Blog

We have been out and about the past couple of weeks! Last weekend we went to New Hampshire and Vermont for a quick weekend get away. We stayed in a B&B in Claremont NH, and then went sightseeing in Woodstock, VT (which – by the way- has nothing to do with the Woodstock music festival held in New York).

We Learned That……
- The official phrase for going to look at fall leaves is ‘leaf peeping’.
We peeped our little hearts out!

- Vermont was unexpectedly rural and under populated. On the main highways, there are exits every 10 miles.
(um…Where did all the people go?) (and yes we missed our exit once)
- It takes 40-50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of Maple Syrup!
Wowza!!!

- Spring time doesn’t come until MAY!
“I object!!!”

- Parades consisting of only fire trucks are NOT enjoyable in any way, shape, or form.
(Who thought of that idea!!?)

- IBEX tent sale. IBEX is a super high-class wool clothing store that people in New England go nUtZ for! They have an annual tent sale in Woodstock, so we went to check it out. It was SOOOO incredibly packed, hundreds of people there scooping up armfuls of $75 wool cycling dresses (weird?) and all sorts of things. We could only afford hats and gloves We were happy to have hats b/c it was quite cold there.

- Glass Blowing Gallery – When the few people of Vermont are done spending hundreds on skimpy wool underwear (not a joke) at the IBEX sale, they go to this Glass Gallery and buy goblets, vases, ect. When poor college students go, we bypass the show room and go watch the pro’s blow glass – an amazing and hypnotic activity.

- Sneaking down into a rocky riverbed. We parked near a river, and as we got out of the car I noticed a little trail heading down.

This weekend we went to Massachusetts to attend a family sealing in the Boston Temple. It was a day of firsts! We had never been to that temple before, and neither of us had seen a family sealing take place…it was very special, and we are glad we were able to attend.

So as many of you know I went on a blind date Friday night. My friend John (LDS, English teacher from work) realized I was LDS just before school started and has been trying to set me up with his friend Travis since. So since I was in town last weekend, we went out to Octoberfest at Tempetown Lake. Yeah, it was all about the beer and music, so we enjoyed the music, brats and laughing. The best part was I had a 102 fever the entire time, but as we all know, I still went and faked it beautifully! Travis is exactly opposite of every guy I have ever been on a date with before, quiet, divorced, 2 great kids, tall, tan, green eyes, handsome. The best part is he is into me. For once in my life, it’s beautiful to have a role reversal!

Started the day with a run/walk and then stretches (+)
Read my scriptures (+)
Went to work and listened to past conference talks (+)
Went to Target (+)
Tried on clothes at Target and bought 3 shirts for a total of 10 bucks! (+)
Got in my car after leaving Target, and realized I never zipped up my pants from the dressing room!!! (- ) how horrible!!!
Went outside and saw geese flying south (extreme -)

TAKE ME WITH YOU!!! Haha, I want to be a snow bird too!

#1 Daniel studies all the time! He comes home from 1.25 hours to scarf down dinner and watches a hulu w/ me i mean….have family scripture study.

#2 I work lots. At least it feels like lots. It’s a great job, I have a great boss, the work isn’t hard…but…too much of anything isn’t good, Right!!!? Especially work!

#3 Dinner Group. Monday-Wednesday mormon gal pals in Whitehall bring dinner to my door! Thursday I slave in the kitchen all day and do the same for them Friday-Sunday = trying to eat all the leftovers before they go bad. It’s awesome!

#4 Mixer. I have a mixer now. Everyone has one, so I have to have one too! DUh! And of course Daniel got in on the mixer action by searching non-stop for a good deal! We got our pro-series for %50 off…cha-ching! He’s such a pro!

#5 Florida woes. I miss IT and all my friends. Big Time. I just try to not think about it….but I’m obviously not doing a good job of that…hence my ‘homesick’ post.

#6 Babies EVERYWHERE! Everyone has a baby or will have a baby in the next week (Makayla!). It’s hard to fight the baby hunger! I tried to fight it and not pay attention to the cute babies…but I’m weak and this week I have been volunteering in the nursery during institute and holding babies and even playing with them. I even perused the baby section of Walmart yesterday while I was suppose to be grocery shopping…Sabotage!..What am I thinking!?!

This evening I found myself digging up lost photo files from the past year. These ones from Florida made me quite homesick, a feeling that hasn’t fully hit me till now. “Homesick” is a funny word for me. My homes have been many. Between my parents 5 homes, and my 4 annually changing apartment ‘homes’ while in college, I can’t remember the last time I felt this way. Somehow tonight, despite my wonderfully cool and beautiful Labor Day weekend in Connecticut, I miss my good old state of Florida! Just the name of it sounds so care free and fun. I lived there since I was 11, and moved at 22. I have lived about 10 years in Texas, and 10 in Florida….maybe the next 10 in Connecticut? Who knows : )

Here are some pictures of Florida….

This whole album can be viewed at

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielandvalerie/MayAndJune09?feat=directlink

It includes all of NORTH BEACH for Raquel!!!! And all sorts of stuff.

Yesterday we went on a trip to the Thimble Islands with new friends from Whitehall, Makayla and Kyle, and Maddie and Josh. The Islands are TINY! and have gorgeous homes on them! Can you imagine living on your own island? They boat from their island to the main town of Stony Creek, and have water, electricity, and phone lines sent out to them from under the ocean! We took a cruise around all the islands and then had a picnic afterwards
It was a great day!





This is the POOL deck of the mansion of this Island! Not the house area!!!

Hello Loved Ones! I learned how to imput a slide show!!! I am proud of myself

Anyways, this slide show is a recap of Summer 2009 aka our last summer of freedom. We knew that the past 7 months would be probably the most care-stress-responsible-free time of our lives, and we tried to take full advantage this unique time. We are adjusting to real life very well, and have conquered our cross country move, loans, entering the Ivy Leagues, and job searching. We have been blessed in many ways, and know that we can take whatever life throws at us.

Journal from PA School at Yale

Day 1 8-25-09

Day one wasn’t too bad, it was just orientation, lots of sitting and talking, went for thai food with classmates for lunch, really liked all of them, everybody was way cool! Program seems very very hard, but they instructed us many many times to have a balance in our lives and to exercise every day. The program seems very well put together and they are willing to go out of their way continuously to hel us, Yale is great so far besides everyones cars getting stolen out of the parking lot here and catching bike thieves, the world is a sad place sometimes. Mary (Director) is great and really personable. I went cycling up east rock, it was a big climb for not cycling for a while, wanna get back into tri’s. Valerie babysat and the people had cats, she is really trying to help bring home some bacon but it ruined the rest of her day for 2 hours of babysitting $20, not worth it, I would rather be in more debt than have to see her like that everyday L Sis Streeter had us over for dinner, some turkey pot pie, told us about upcoming raspberry season…YUM! Valerie took some Benadryl and passed out at 8:30, I am going through a stack of 764 flashcards to try and narrow down which ones I don’t know, kind of know, and don’t need to study anymore. I’m only at 180 and very scared right now. So is life!. We were basically told this year is gonna suck and next year will be bad too but not as bad but still more hours in clinic. I’m happy though, really feel great about my choices (in life) and am grateful for Valerie and willingness to put up with these 2.5years.

Raquel and Susan are visiting us here in Florida! We have been having a great time, and are trying to do lots of fun things while we are all together. Here’s just a couple fun pictures of our adventures so far.