goodbye seniors

My first and only calling since moving to NY has been in the Young Women's and I have loved getting to know all of the wonderful girls and leaders in in our ward. This year we will be losing 3 of our seniors and I am so sad to see them go. Each girl will be moving on to college and I am so excited for them to start this exciting new chapter of their lives.

(Melissa, Denisse, Jenny)

When I first moved in Melissa was a recent convert to the church and was so shy. She is now one of the funniest, bubbliest girls I know. She has lived in NYC her whole life and has decided to make the plunge and move to "Happy Valley" Provo, Utah to attend BYU. I am so excited for her. I know this decision wasn't any easy one and that she is nervous to go, but she has been so brave and I can't wait for her to be among so many wonderful saints and experience BYU.
She was able to visit Provo a few months ago and when I asked her what she thought she said all the open space made her nervous (now that's a true New Yorker). One of my favorite memories of Melissa was the first conference session I watched with her after being called to the YW's. We were all sitting around listening to the membership report and they had just given the number for the new members in the last year and Melissa turned and told me that she was one of them. She was so excited to share that with me and it instantly brought tears to my eyes. This number is always exciting to hear but it meant so much more when one of those numbers was sitting next to me.
Jenny is also a native New Yorker, and one of the smartest girls I know. She has honestly read more books then I can even count and if you ask her a question about anything she'll more than likely know the answer. She is so strong, she attends an all girls catholic school and has had to defend her religion on more than one occasion. This fall she will be starting at Fordham College with hopes to become a doctor and I know she will become whatever she puts her mind to.
Denisse, will be the first person in her family to graduate from high school and the first to attend college. She is such a strong, beautiful girl and everyone who knows her, loves her. She always comes to church with a big smile and a hug for everyone. She is known as the ward babysitter and there are going to be several sad mothers in our ward when she moves upstate this fall to attend Buffalo College. I know she is scared to move away from the city that she has known her whole life and like Melissa, a little apprehensive of living in a much smaller city, but she knows what she wants, she's worked so hard to get it, and nothing is going stop her.
Last Saturday, we had a party to honor our seniors and luckily all the seniors were able to make it. We ate pizza and battled it out on the guitar hero. Jenny killed us all with her mad guitar skills and was so good, that she didn't even have to stand up to win. I had so much fun spending one last activity with these girls.

(Jenny - winning while sitting)

(Denisse and Melissa batteling it out)

I know you always hear stories of women talking about the impact their leaders had on their lives when they were in young women's but I can truly say that these girls have shown me just what it takes to stand strong and be a daughter of god. They have faced more challenges then I could ever imagine and each has touched my life for the better. I am so grateful that I was able to be their leader. I'm so proud of them and all that they have accomplished and I am so happy to know that there are beautiful young women like these 3 girls out there representing our church.

star struck

One of our favorite things about living in New York is the random encounters we have with celebrities. Usually Jason will spot one in passing on the street and then get upset because I missed them or because I disagree that who he saw wasn't really a celebrity. Obviously, I don't pay attention when I walk down the street, I guess I need to start looking at who I'm passing.
We've seen a few big ones; Julianne Moore, Johnny Knoxville, Tim Gunn and Ryan Gosling (to name a few) but on Friday we were truly star struck when we walked out of the theater and ran right in to ... Adam Sandler.


It was crazy! We were walking out of the movie and for some reason there weren't very many people around us but a few people ahead of us were staring at something. All I could see at first was a man shaking hands with all of the workers and then Jason stopped and said "You've got to be kidding me ..." (for those of you who don't know Jason, this is a common phrase he uses when something surprises him). We just froze and finally managed to say hello as he looked straight at us and said hello back. It was AMAZING!! He was going into another theater to surprise all the movie goers that were in watching Zohan. After a few minutes of regaining our thoughts and realizing just what happened we were a little upset with ourselves for not following him into the other theater. But I love that he was shaking hands with all of the workers, he seemed so down to earth. Despite his outfit (he was wearing a long brown trench coat with shorts, old shoes and an out grown mowhawk) he was all smiles. He is a little shorter than I imagined; I could see the top of his head so I'm guessing he's about 5'6".
Ironically, several clips from the movie Zohan were shot in front of the building where I work and last year, as they were filming, I got to see his stunt double film the scene where he is riding on top of the car (pictured above). I was so disappointed that I kept missing him when they were filming but seeing him up close is so much better.
The rest of the weekend Jason kept spotting people and saying they were a semi-celebrity but I didn't recognize any of them.

spiderman vists ny

Not one ... but TWO men scaled the NY Times building yesterday. Unfortunately, I missed out on the action but I found some great pictures of Alain Robert's climb and ascent. You would think the second guy could have been a little more original and at least try to scale a different building. Let's hope this doesn't spark a stream of copycats. Just one more reason to love NY!

Ashville, NC

Last weekend, Jason and I flew to Asheville, NC for my cousins wedding and it was a quick trip ... to say the least. We were scheduled to fly out at 9:30 Saturday morning but didn't end up leaving until around 12:30 (I'm really getting sick of all the delays out of NY) which gave us a total of 18 hours to spend with my family.
Asheville was beautiful. Very similar to Connecticut, but the trees seemed more green and much more dense then up here in the north. When we arrived we were rushed to the hotel, checked in, and had just enough time to rest before we were off to the wedding.
Asheville is home to the largest home in the U.S., the Biltmore Estates, and I can't describe to you how beautiful the home (castle) and grounds are. I felt like Elizabeth Bennett staring at Pemberley for the first time (I love Pride & Prejudice). The estate sits on thirteen thousand acres that include an Inn, Winery, two restaurants, several gardens, ponds and a waterfall. Before the wedding started we walked around the house and through some of the gardens and then on to the Deerfield restaurant for the wedding.
It was so nice to see my cousins, the last time I saw them was 12 years ago, and introduce them to Jason. The wedding venue was amazing, the couple was married in an old stable house followed by dinner and dancing in the courtyard in the middle of the restaurant. Despite a little fainting spell by the groom, all went well and the bride was beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera to the wedding, but I took several pictures of Shea to make up for it.
We had so much fun seeing my family and playing with Shea, she has changed so much since the last time I saw her. It took her a minute to warm up to us but after that we were instant friends. She loved giving us kisses (especially Jason) and our favorite was when she would fall down and then stand up and "brush it off" (while literally brushing off her clothes) to show us how tough she was.
It was so nice to be with our family and see our cousins again. Thanks for the trip, Dad.

The Main House





The Family


Shea and Na'ma (Grandma)


When you tell Shea to smell the flower she blows on it


The Gardens






Shea pulling her fishy face before kissing her puppy

memorial day weekend and my first nyc race

This summer is going to be a busy one for Jason so we decided to take advantage of the three day weekend and treat ourselves to a little fun in Florida. Last year we went to Miami but this year we just wanted to relax on the beach without fighting the crowds. We heard Fort Lauderdale was a little quieter than Miami so we decided to give it a try.
We had such a nice time; we literally laid on the beach all day and ate seafood for dinner and nothing else. We found some great seafood places along the intercoastal waterway and it was so nice to sit out by the water while watching the yachts float by, secretly wishing we were on one.


Our hotel was only five months old with condo style rooms so it was fun to stay in a new place and pretend, for a couple of days, that it was our apartment, instead of the 500 sq ft. studio we are currently living in. One afternoon, right after we got back from the beach, they had a little tropical rainstorm so we decided to sit out on our balcony and listen to the calming rain. I've always loved summer rainstorms, it's still warm outside and the rain always seems so relaxing, unfortunately these types of rainstorms never occur in New York. In New York it just pours and you get soaked while sloshing through all the garbage on the streets, you never get that clean rain smell in the city. But I guess this is just one of the few faults of living in this practically perfect city.
Before our weekend began I was able to run in my first NYC race and LOVED it! KPMG is a sponsor of the AHA Downtown 5K run so I was able to invite some of my runner friends to join me for the race. I was a little nervous going into it, I have never ran in a large race and I didn't quite know what to expect with 12,000 other people running through the streets of New York. Luckily, my wonderful friends are frequent runners and knew exactly what to do.
It poured all day on the night of the race so I was a little worried that we were going to have a bad experience but it cleared up just as we were about to begin. It was so fun to run along Wall Street and around Battery Park while the crowds cheered us on, and having thousands of other runners around me made the race go by a lot faster. We ended on the World Financial Center esplanade where we were able to watch the sunset on the Hudson River. I had so much fun running with my little group of friends and hope that we can run in many more together.

After the race with all our bags of goodies

bookclub shower

When I first moved to NYC I was invited to join a bookclub and I am so glad that I did. The women in our bookclub are fabulous!! Each of these ladies bring so many different opinions to our discussions and it's amazing where our conversations can go when discussing something as boring as the Oxford English Dictionary. But lately, no matter what the book is, we always end up talking about scary labor and delivery stories. You would think with several pregnant women in the room we would try and avoid this subject but I guess they want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly.

Since joining the bookclub we have had many women come and go but we've had even more babies and we will soon be welcoming twins into our group. My friend Addy is having twin boys in July and to celebrate this exciting adventure we through her a bookclub baby shower. We had such a fun time chatting, playing games and seeing her "double" gifts. I am so excited for Addy and her husband Matt, they are going to be AMAZING parents and I can't wait to meet their "twinks".

Some of the ladies


"double" the gifts




BreAnna's cute favors

two down ... one to go

It's official ... Jason is FINALLY done with his finals. He took his last test this morning and then jumped in a cab and went straight to his first day of work. There will be no break for Jason this summer but he is very anxious and excited to be working at White & Case.



I really don't know who is more excited for finals to be over ... me or Jason. For some reason I have had a really hard time with his finals this semester, I've never thought of myself as a selfish person but my true side came out this past month. I hated that he was studying so much and all I wanted was his attention, I know it wasn't easy for Jason but I am so excited that I only have to go through this for one more year. We haven't done anything together for over a month and a half and I can't wait to finally be able to get out of our apartment and enjoy the city this summer.

gothamist

Jason found this blog, Gothamist, that keeps you up-to-date on all things NYC. Each day they post a picture of the day and I loved today's. Isn't the fog rolling across the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges amazing? Enjoy.

showers and shae

Two of my favorite people are starting new adventures in their lives so I flew to Utah last weekend to celebrate with them. My friend Britni is getting married in May and unfortunately I won't be able to make it home and my other friend Michelle is having a baby in June, so we coordinated our schedules so that we all could go home at the same time to throw both of them showers.

I flew in Wednesday night and spent some time with family and then got ready for Britni's wild bridal shower on Friday. Michelle flew in Thursday night so Friday was spent all day preparing for the shower. Michelle's sweet mother-in-law let us take over her beautiful new home for the shower and it turned out so nice.

We had wonderful food and Michelle made the cutest favors but my favorite part of the night was spent chatting with old friends that I haven't seen for years. Some of us joked that it was our 6 year class reunion and there were a couple of people there that I hadn't seen in about that long. After showering Britni with gifts a few of us went back to her parents house so see her beautiful wedding dress. She is going to be the prettiest bride and I'm so sad that I won't be there to celebrate her special day.

The infamous tissue pom-poms



The Favors


The Bride


Friends




The next morning it was Michelle's turn to be showered. We all met at Britni's apartment for a wonderful baby shower brunch. Once again, I had such a nice time visiting with old friends and talking baby talk. Michelle looked so cute with her Little belly and I can't wait to see baby Hutchison.

Michelle and her baby bump


The girls with Burton and Chase


Chase




The rest of the weekend was spent with family. I had such a nice time visiting with everyone and playing with Shae. She is sooo cute. She talks so much and runs around a million miles an hour. She is talking so much, my favorite was when her dad would pull in the driveway and she would immediately start saying "hi daddy", while I was there she learned how to say "piggy" and she loved the way it sounded when she said it so she would say it and then laugh. I loved that she wasn't shy with me and would come right to me when I wanted to hold her. I'm so excited that we get to see her again next month and I can't wait to see how she has changed.

Shae and her olives




Laughing with daddy



Cuddling with uncle Trevor


Shae and her pretty flower


Kissing her Hello Kitty chair


It was so nice to see family and friends and even though it was a short trip it was so worth it to see everyone.

mama i'm coming home ...

I'm flying to Utah tomorrow to see friends and family but most importantly ...

HER


I can't wait to see you Shea!!

writing my story

Last night for the Relief Society Birthday Party the lesson was focused on preserving our families history and they had several women talk about the different ways we can record our history (i.e., scrapbooking, keeping a journal, blogging, working on family genealogy and creating photo books).

After enrichment I came home feeling like I needed to do more to tell my story. I have loved looking back and reading my high school journals and sometimes I have even looked back at my first few posts just to remember what we did when we first moved to NY. I will admit I can be a bit cheesy when I write on my blog but hopefully some day my children will appreciate it and love hearing about my life(Who knows, maybe they will think I'm cool because I kept a blog). But I realized that I'm not writing enough and that my family is missing out on parts of my life. So I am making a goal to write more, not just for my future family but for me, so that I don't forget all of our adventures.

When I got home my new Ensign was sitting on the coffee table. I love when I get the Ensign, I usually spend the night reading the first presidency message and other articles. Ironically I opened the Ensign and the first article I saw was titled "My Journal, My Testimony" by Salli Hollenzer. I was thrilled, after such a wonderful lesson at enrichment and now this article I new that this was something that I needed to start doing.

In the article Salli quotes President Spencer W. Kimball as saying, "begin today and write ... your goings and your comings, your deeper thoughts, your achievements, and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. We hope you will do this, ... for this is what the Lord has commanded, and those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives."

I loved this quote. It's so inspiring and amazing to think that when I am pondering my thoughts and feelings and trying to put them on paper I do have the Lord in my thoughts and it helps me to realize how grateful I am for all that I have been given. It truly is a testimony builder for me.

I just wanted to share this amazing quote with all of you so that maybe it will motivate you to start writing your own story.

Thanks to all the enrichment sisters for such a wonderful evening.