The first 4 days

I'm sitting in my friends' living room listening to Jay make hot pockets from scratch with Molly. Yeah, I know. The first thing Jay asked for when looking at the contents of my refrigerator/freezer were the hot pockets. Truth be told, I've never had one. And since I'm extra cautious about frozen foods and high sodium prepackaged foods, I wasn't sure I could commit to buying them. So imagine the sheer joy on Jay's face when Molly suggested that we make our own hot pockets.

Within minutes we were off to the grocery store to buy pepperoni and deli turkey. Only, we never found the pepperoni and I sort of suggested turkey sausage to keep our homemade version of hot pockets as healthy as possible. (Next, I'll make a huge batch of burritos and freeze them so when Jay wants a snack/lunch/dinner and I'm unable/unwilling to cook, he can pop one in the microwave. Triple Win!)






Look at our little chef! This is his second night cooking since arriving in Beantown. The first night he grilled merguez with Ben and was such a great helper! I caught him using the tongs to take off the last few links.

So you might be wondering what we've been up to...

Saturday we went out to lunch at a Columbian restaurant in Eastie where Jay ordered the most expensive item on the menu. The $16.50 Snapper with plaintains, rice, and salad. To balance out the bill, I ordered the fried yucca. Lucky for me, Jay shared his snapper meal with me and had enough for lunch the next day. So I was able to justify the expense of the meal since it fed him for two meals (and me for one.)

Sunday we checked out Calvary Chapel in the City. I had been before but there was a guest preacher the first time so it was nice to get a glimpse at what the church experience is like normally. We finally headed to the grocery store because I never got around to doing the food shopping before he arrived and I made pizza from scratch for dinner for 7 people! It was a ton of fun. We didn't take any pictures of the pizzas but we had a pepperoni and fresh basil from the freighbor's garden; salmon, spinach, and basil; green pepper, onion, sun dried tomato, and spinach; and finally pepperoni and green pepper.

Did I mention that Jay LOVES the freighbors? Like really? Ben is amazing with him. They pay on the ipad for hours on end. Nathan played Just Dance 2 with him. Molly bakes with him (now they're making poptarts -- from scratch!)

In fact, I'm officially "the bad guy" because of course I'm the only one forcing correct grammar and reading time and multiplication tables. When I suggested that maybe we don't hang out with friends everyday, Jay suggested that I might be jealous.

Maybe just a little.

So today he and I went to Constitution Beach. We walked there Sunday afternoon but didn't have our suits on so we couldn't go for a swim. I also was a little weary about that body of water, but this afternoon we just decided to go for it. After a bit of pestering, Jay completely dunked himself in the water and then tried to get me to do it! Ha ha ha! Fat chance! I sat down and let the waves crash against me but the water was too cold to completely immerse myself.

Oh! I almost forgot. Jay's on chapter 15 of James and the Giant Peach. We bought about a dozen books from Harvard Bookstore's warehouse sale on Sunday and I'm excited to read them together. Jay wrote his next entry for our blog, but it definitely needs some work. His verbal communication has already improved. Just this evening he corrected a conjugation mistake immediately. I'm so proud! It makes me feel confident that his written composition skills will improve once we get settled into a routine and can dedicate significant time towards it.

Jay's up next! I can't wait to read his thoughts on Beantown so far!