Scotty and Ashley

Meal Plan 2/12-2/18

2012-02-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday:

Chicken Parm Pasta Toss

Monday:

Lighter Beef Tacos (new recipe)
Black Beans with Lime (new recipe)

Tuesday: Valentine's Day

Grilled Ribeye Steak with Onion-Blue Cheese Sauce (new recipe)
Potatoes
Spinach Salad

Wednesday:

Breakfast Burritos

Thursday:

Baked Chicken Parmesan (new)
Pasta
Roasted Cauliflower (from my sister's blog - yes I made this already, but I have leftover cauliflower to use and it was very good)

Friday: Eating Out/Takeout

Saturday: Eating Out/Takeout

Rings and Stories

2012-02-09T09:20:00.001-05:00

To celebrate Valentine's Day next week, my friend Diana is posting ring pictures and engagement stories of friends and family. Our story was on her blog yesterday - check it out here! It was fun to write our engagement story out and to take pictures of my ring.

P.S. Scott is pretty amazing at taking pictures with his phone, don't you think? I did help to stage a few of them, but he did the shots.

Spring Cleaning....the blog

2012-02-07T16:15:00.000-05:00

I know it's not Spring... but I felt like our blog was getting a little bit cluttered and old. I decided to clean it up and I was so ready for the change. What do you think?

Meal Plan for 2/5-2/11

2012-02-04T08:15:00.000-05:00

Sunday:

Super Bowl Food

Monday:

Chicken Cordon Bleu (new recipe)
Baked Potato
Cauliflower (from my sister Amber's blog)

Tuesday:

"Fend For Yourself" night aka Leftovers

Wednesday:

Asian Glazed Drumsticks (new recipe)
Rice
Zucchini

Thursday:

Beef Fajitas

Friday:

Florentine Chicken Soup (my sister Amber introduced me to the recipe when I was in college)
Bread

Saturday:

Eating out/takeout

Bow Holder

2012-02-03T10:51:00.000-05:00

I haven't made bows in a while, and with my friend Katie having a baby shower, it was the perfect excuse. I decided that along with the bows I wanted to make a bow holder to go with the gift. I wanted to share this on our blog because I was happy with the way it turned out and Iwanted to share how to make one.

Supplies Needed:
16" x 20" Stretched Canvas (I bought this twin-pack)
Fabric - enough to cover the canvas and a few inches on the back (I bought this fabric)
Staple Gun - like this one (I bought it just for this project, and it was very fun to use. If you buy one be sure to also buy staples)
3/8" Grosgrain Ribbon - enough to do whatever pattern you choose (I just used ribbon I had for bow making
Ruler (for measuring along the way)

Instructions:
1. Tear or cut fabric to the correct size of your canvas. I found that tearing was very quick because it doesn't matter if the edges torn. The edges will not be seen at the end.

2. Place fabric on the canvas so that the pattern is straight on the front if there is one. If it is a solid fabric, then it doesn't make as big of a deal. Turn fabric covered canvas upside down so you are looking at the back of the canvas.

3. Now it's time to staple the fabric to the back of the canvas. You are going to be stapling on the wooden frame. I folded the extra fabric over so that when I stapled it the frayed torn edge would be enclosed to give it a finished look. Choose one side to start on, and start stapling the fabric on from the middle of that side and going out on either direction. Leave some space around the corners to do those at the end. Once you get finished with the first side do the side that's opposite from and parallel to the one you just did. Be sure to fold the fabric tight as you staple so the fabric does not bag on the front. When you do the corners you may need to cut some of the excess fabric so the corners don't bulge too much. You do the same thing with the corners as you did on the sides - just be careful to not make the corners too thick with fabric.

3. Now you are ready for the ribbon. You can measure and cut the ribbon beforehand if you would like, or just cut it along the way like I did. I used a ruler to measure a distance that I wanted in between each ribbon. I would then put the end of the ribbon along to the back and staple into place on one end. Before I stapled the other end, I would measure again to make sure it was straight. Then staple the other end into place. The pattern I did was first doing vertical stripes, then I wove the horizontal stripes over and under the vertical. You can choose to do whatever pattern you like.

4. Once I got all of the ribbon stapled I put fray check on all of the ends so they wouldn't fray. You can also used clear nail polish. Or before you staple the ribbon, you could burn the ends.

And that's it! It was a very easy project and I hope I explained it well enough. If you have any questions let me know. I kind of just figured it out as I went along. I was inspired by a picture on etsy.com and just went with it. If I have a little girl, I will definitely make one of these for her. It was very fun, and I was happy with the way it turned out.

Recipe Reviews

2012-02-01T10:39:00.000-05:00

So far this week I have tried new recipes every night. It has been kind of fun. The rest of the week is easy dinners, so I thought I would share a review of the recipes I made.

Sunday:
Skinny Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy
It was nice to lighten Salisbury steak up a bit doing by half ground turkey and half ground beef. It was a classic meat and potatoes kind of dinner, but not as many calories. I would make this again. We cut the recipe in half but next time I would cut it into fourths.

Monday:
Quinoa Salad with Black Beans, Avocado and Cumin-Lime Dressing This recipe was good, but I wouldn't make it as a main dish again. This is more like a chip dip I think and would be good to take to a party. Scott and I decided that it could be part of a main dish if you added meat and turned it into a sort of taco salad, adding lettuce. The dressing is a little strong, so if you make it taste it along the way as you add the dressing.

Tuesday:
Asian Flank Steak Skewers
Since the meat in this recipe had to marinade, Scott was nice to get it started for me. The recipe was easy enough and was good. Only mistake I made was - when I copied/pasted the recipe for some reason I left off the ginger. So I think that could have made it even better if we had the ginger in there. Scott added a tablespoon of sugar to make the marinade a little sweeter also. It was fun to make the skewers and they cooked very quickly on our grill pan. We served them with rice and baked parmesan broccoli, and it was a delicious dinner.

After dinner last night we had extra rice so I decided to make rice pudding. It was delicious! See the recipe below.

Creamy Rice Pudding (from this website - I left out the raisins)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup uncooked white rice, or 1 1/2 cups leftover cooked rice
2 cups milk, divided
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
If you are using leftover rice skip this step: In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm or chilled. Serve plain, sprinkled with cinnamon, with fruit, etc.

Progress

2012-01-31T15:10:00.000-05:00

-10

I don't want to brag but... today I hit my 10 pound mark in my weight loss! I was really excited when I got on the scale this morning. Scott can vouch for this. It has taken me 10 months which is a really long time... but I'm glad I have reached this point even if it has taken that long. My clothes are fitting better and I feel good. The secret? Counting calories and exercise! It really is that obvious and simple. I also like apps on my phone that make it a little more fun tracking progress. As I mentioned before my faves are: myfitnesspal (for tracking food and exercise) and nike+ (to use on my runs). I have another 4.4 pounds to go until I reach my goal weight. Here's to continuing on!

P.S. I decided now is the time for me to learn to take care of myself, so that's what I have been focusing on. I'm sorry if these kinds of posts are boring... it helps me to stay motivated to talk about it.

Meal Plan for 1/29 - 2/4

2012-01-27T10:01:00.000-05:00

One of my goals this year is to be better at meal planning. My sister Amber has been posting her meal plans on her blog. I really like seeing what other people make for dinner to get ideas. I was talking to her on the phone last night and she mentioned that she might stop posting her meal planning on her blog. Amber keep posting! It's my motivation to start doing it too:)

Below is my meal plan for next week. When I try new recipes I will let you know if they are worth trying or not:)

Sunday:

Skinny Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy (new recipe)
Mashed Potatoes
Corn
Salad

Monday:

Quinoa Salad with Black Beans, Avocado and Cumin-Lime Dressing (new recipe)

Tuesday:

Egg Sandwiches

Wednesday:

Asian Flank Steak Skewers (new recipe)
Rice
Broccoli

Thursday:

Leftovers

Friday:

French Dip Sandwiches
Potato Wedges
Zucchini

Saturday:

Eating Out

MyFitnessPal

2012-01-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

If you haven't heard of MyFitnessPal, you have to check it out! If you have an iPhone/Android phone, it's a free app. You can also go to the website http://www.myfitnesspal.com/. Scott showed it to me when I was trying to find a free way to track my exercise and food. I have been using it for a while now, though I was slacking for a bit, I'm back on board. Check it out! If you join, you can add me as a friend (just search for ashleynstevenson under user name). And if you have been using it, but have slacked like me, come back and we can support each other! I'm 5 pounds away from my goal weight and I decided I'm going to be serious to get the rest of it off. I love when other people share things that they find and love, so I thought I would return the favor:)

Falling in Slow Motion

2012-01-25T10:17:00.001-05:00

Last night I was heading to a Relief Society activity up at the church. I got to the subway stop and as usual was trying to get my metro card out of my wallet while running down the stairs. While in the process of pulling out my card, I caught the step weird and began to fall. I I literally felt like I was falling in slow motion. Every once and a while my foot would catch another step, but I kept falling. The only thought that kept running through my head was, "I'm going to fall on my face... I'm going to fall on my face!" It felt like there was nothing I could do but continue to fall. The fall that seemed like forever ended when I fell into the arms of an older guy about to head up the stairs. I was shaken up by the whole thing and embarrassed. So when he asked if I was okay the only thing that came out of my mouth was, "Sorry... Sorry... I think I tripped." I also think I mustered a thanks, and I heard him yell, "be careful!" as I ran down the next set of stairs. It was an embarrassing moment, but I was grateful that the person was there to keep me from falling on my face:) All I ended up with was a little scratch on my finger - which probably happened on the wall as I was trying to grab onto the rail but missed. Thinking about it later, I laughed about it because it is kind of a funny story. Embarrassing, but funny.

Apple Crisp

2012-01-23T13:25:00.003-05:00

At work on Friday, I was given a basket of apples that an attorney didn't want. When I got home Scott and I decided that apple crisp sounded good. I decided to try a different recipe than I normally make.

I used Pioneer Woman's recipe for Pear Crisp and then just put in apples instead. It was delicious! I was hesitant to put in the pecans, because I'm not a real nut person. Scott convinced me to put them in and the pecans made the recipe! Here's the recipe with my changes:

Apple Crisp

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 40 Minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 4
4 large Granny Smith apples
2/3 cups Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt

Topping:
1-1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
1/3 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 cup Pecans, Very Finely Chopped (Don't leave these out!)
1 stick Butter, Melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel, core, and dice apples. Place into a bowl and stir together with 2/3 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans. Stir together. Drizzle melted butter gradually, stirring with a fork as you go until all combined.

Pour apples into a baking dish; top with crumb topping.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Place pan on top rack of oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Morning Run

2012-01-11T10:23:00.001-05:00

This morning I went on a run with Maddie. We usually go at 5:30, but this morning we went at 6:30. We ran across the George Washington Bridge and then we turned around to run back. This was our view the whole way home! It was a gorgeous sunrise! Thanks Maddie for stopping to take a picture.

P.S. It was also 40 degrees outside this morning - perfect run:)

Second Utah Trip in December! (Christmas 2011)

2012-01-04T11:22:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we flew to Utah for my brother's wedding. It wasn't too hard leaving because we knew we would be back in a couple of weeks for Christmas.

Disclaimer: I have no pictures in this post because we just enjoyed ourselves and forgot to take pictures:) I will try to be better in the new year with pictures.

Scott flew to Utah a few days before me and there were a few reasons for this:
1. Scott was done with school, and I still had to work.
2. Flights were a LOT cheaper on that day.

So since Scott had flexibility with his scheduled he went early. I was very anxious to get to Utah so I was excited when I finally got to go.

It was great to spend a lot of time with our families! Sometimes it is very hard for me to live so far away, so it's nice to be able to visit.

Our trip went by so fast! We celebrated all the holidays, I went to exercise classes at the gym, we ate a lot of good food, did lots of bowling, played games, did karaoke, played with the nieces/nephews, went shopping, saw some friends, my little sister Courtney turned 17, we talked to my brother Cody on his mission, and our family friend Patti was baptized. It was a great trip!

I was disappointed that there was no snow...though maybe it was for the better because we never had to scrape off a car or drive in it!

Our trip back to New York wasn't as fun, being delayed a few hours. But we made it back and are now trying to revert back to real life:)

Christmas Letter 2011

2012-01-03T12:12:00.001-05:00

Cameron and Marielsy's Wedding

2012-01-03T12:04:00.001-05:00

My little brother Cameron married Marielsy on December 2nd. We flew out for the wedding and it was a beautiful day. Here are a few pictures:

*these aren't the professional photos, just ones I stole from facebook*

Thanksgiving 2011

2012-01-03T11:50:00.002-05:00

For Thanksgiving, we decided to get up really early to go to the Macy's Parade. We left at 5:30 am hoping to get there by 6:00 am to stake out our spot. The subway ended up taking forever, so we got there later than we were hoping. We still had a great time though! Here are a few pictures:

After the parade we had an early Thanksgiving dinner hosted by our friends, the Thomson's. It was different being away from our Utah family, but it was also nice to have friends to spend it with. I am lazy and am going to link to Maddie's Thanksgiving posts:) If you want to read about our Thanksgiving dinner read here and here. It was a very nice Thanksgiving.

Catch Up!

2011-12-22T12:44:00.000-05:00

I am going to play catch up - since I haven't blogged for a while. I am hoping to get caught up so when I make my "blogging resolution" in January, I won't be too far behind. Sorry these posts should have been done a while ago, life just got busy!

There to clean up my messes...

2011-11-18T12:46:00.001-05:00

One thing I learned early on in our marriage is that when I make a mess Scott is the sane person to clean it up. I get all frantic, and I freeze. This happens when I drop something and it breaks, spill something, cut myself, etc.

This was no exception last night when I was painting my nails... I decided that I really wanted to paint my nails black. So I was using our coffee table to hold my stuff and as a surface to paint my nails. I got distracted while I was talking to Scott and my nail polish flung to the ground landing on our rug, spilling black nail polish.

I freaked out, not knowing what to do, spouting off about how we needed to get a new rug. I frantically was telling Scott to google how to get it out. I'm lucky to have a very handy husband that at times is better at being domestic than I am... He jumped into action, and started blotting up the nail polish. Then making a diluted acetone solution, and using some Oxyclean to finish the job. Ta da - you would never know that had happened when you look at our rug now!

Scott is amazing, and we balance each other out. When I'm freaking out he's calm which is definitely what I need. I just wanted to share this story, because it shows one reason why I'm grateful for Scott. November is all about being grateful right?

My Missionary Bro

2011-11-08T14:07:00.001-05:00

My little brother Cody recovered from his broken foot and headed back out on his mission on November 1st! He is now on the big island of Hawaii. I am getting jealous now that it's been getting colder here... We received our first email from him, and he sounds happy! We even have a picture to prove it:) I am proud of him and know that he will do a great job preaching the gospel.

Utah Trip August 2011

2011-10-11T10:46:00.001-04:00

I am so behind in blogging, it's kind of overwhelming to start again! I never documented my Utah trip from August. I flew out to Utah for my brother Cody's mission farewell. It was a great and emotional trip sending my brother off.

A lot has happened since then.... Cody broke his foot in the MTC while playing basketball, and is now home until November 1st. He will get to go out to Hawaii then and he is super excited! It was hard for him not to be able to go to Hawaii with his group, but is being patient in waiting for his foot to recover.

Also since my trip, my brother Cameron got engaged! See I said a lot has happened:) He will be getting married December 2nd, so another Utah trip is in the works. We will see family a lot in December with the wedding and Christmas.

Back to my trip... here are a few pictures - enjoy!

I made this dress for Jovie and finished just in time to give to her in Utah! I think she looks cute in it, but I may be biased because she is my niece and I made the dress:)

This was the morning before dropping off at the MTC.

Me and my "little" brother:)

A cute picture of Cody with Canon and Keller, all wearing cute suit coats.

We went to J-Dawgs for Cody's "last meal."

Picture of the siblings (minus Amber) across from the MTC.

Saying goodbye, yeah it was really hard, notice the sunglasses...

Drop-off at the MTC, much better than previously having to sit through a video.

Dinner with my family before I had to fly back to NYC. It was nice to see everyone before I had to leave. Especially these cute kiddos:) Thanks Amber for having such cute and fun kids! Here are some pics of the nieces and nephews on my side:

Me with Taesya

Me with Jovie

Taesya

Canon

Jovie

Canon, Taesya, and Keller

Keller

It was nice to see my family and be there for Cody's farewell. Cody was a great missionary in the MTC, and will be a great missionary in Hawaii when he goes out in November! I'm excited to hear all about his adventures!

This is a perfect quote for me...

2011-08-24T16:08:00.001-04:00

"The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

3 Year Anniversary...and 2 Year Anniversary!

2011-08-23T12:53:00.001-04:00

Recently we celebrated two different anniversaries...

The First - As of July 31st, we have been married 3 years now! I am not big into doing anything big for anniversaries, but we decided to count our Maine trip as our anniversary. The trip was amazing and I think that was a great anniversary gift for the two of us. On our real anniversary day we had both forgotten about it. All I was thinking about that day was calling my brother David for his birthday. So we were sitting in church, and Scott leans over to me and says "oh, Happy Anniversary!" I start laughing because I realize that I had forgotten also. It was a funny moment because it shows how big of a deal we make out of our anniversary:) I am so grateful to be married to Scott! I feel like each year we grow closer and closer.

The Second - We are celebrating is 2 years living in New York City! We have come so far! I think I have changed the most living here. It's funny to read my blog posts from then and seeing the difference. I remember first moving here and being terrified to leave my apartment, and not knowing how to get anywhere. Now I go everywhere by myself and sometimes Scott asks me for subway directions;) I feel like after living here I could live anywhere. I have to admit that I think my patience has gotten worse since living here. I also have become more assertive which can be either good or bad. I am glad we have the chance to live here for a few years at this time in our lives. It will make me grateful for that day when we have cars, a dishwasher, a washer and dryer of our own, etc.

Maine Trip 2011

2011-08-17T12:14:00.002-04:00

Scott had a one week break the end of July, so we decided to do a road trip up to Maine. Since Scott is 25 now, we were able to get a rental car for a good price. We were excited to be able to get out of the city and drive! We planned things to do while we were there, but also allowed for flexibility. I'll try my best to give details so if you ever plan a Maine trip you can have some recommendations. It was a really enjoyable trip, and very relaxing. Maine is very beautiful! It was also nice to see Scott for an entire week because that has not happened in a very long time.

We began our trip, and decided one place we would stop on the way would be Salem, Massachusetts. One thing we discovered is that there isn't really anything there... We ended up finding Puleo's Dairy to have lunch and some ice cream. The ice cream was very good, the food was just okay. We decided to have fun and take some pictures.

After Salem, Massachusetts we headed to Kittery, Maine where I heard about an outlet mall. In my opinion is was quite a find! We found some great deals and Scott was also able to find some things. If you are going through Maine I recommend stopping at the Kittery Outlets. While we were in Kittery we needed a place for dinner and went to Bob's Clam Hut. It had been featured on the Food Network on Diner's Drive-ins and Dives. We had read that they have good fish and chips and I'm sure clams:) We ended up getting the haddock and chips, and Scott also had some clam chowder.

We left Kittery and headed to Portland, Maine which wasn't too far away. We ended up staying at the Travelodge there. Definitely nothing spectacular but it was a decent place to stay along the way. In the morning we continued heading North to get to Bar Harbor, Maine. We stopped at lighthouses along the way and other things that interested us. We stopped at a Cape Elizabeth to see a lighthouse. It was beautiful to walk on the rocks and see the ocean. The funny thing was every few minutes a loud blaring foghorn would go off a few times. So we had to keep covering our ears when we walked close to the horn. Here are a few pictures.

We also stopped along to see a few more lighthouses which I don't know all the names to. Here are some more pictures:

Those of you that know me when I see a sign that says "Wet Paint" I have to touch it. So you won't be surprised that when I see a sign that says "Keep off the Grass" I just cant... and want a picture:)

We found this random metal lobster and decided Scott needed a picture with it.

We kept heading north and ended up stopping in Booth Bay, which was a small touristy little town with shops and restaurants. We ended up going to a restaurant and getting a lobster roll, and lobster stew to share. It was really good. I can't remember what the name of the restaurant was.

In Booth Bay Scott saw a store that had Whoopie pies and blueberry soda. Here's a picture with his treats and a random stuffed bear.

We continued our way to Bar Harbor, where we had a reservation at a bed and breakfast to stay. We decided to check in and get settled before going out that night. The bed and breakfast was called: The Collier House. This wasn't a traditional B&B, as we stayed in a separate building outside of the main house. We stayed in the "Pond House." The room was good, and the hostess was really nice to tell us things to do around there. Breakfast was kind of awkward the next morning because no one was talking, and the people next to us, we weren't sure if they spoke much English. Other than the awkward breakfast we had a good stay.

For dinner that night we went to Thurston's Lobster Pound for our first whole lobster dinner. It was right on the water, and you could see all the lobster cages so we knew we would get some fresh lobster. Basically you choose the size of lobster you want, and any sides that you want, and when it's ready they call you up to get it. It's very casual eating the lobster on paper products. I was amazed the kind of food we got for the price, it was a major deal. Here are a few pictures:

Everywhere we went in Maine they were so many ice cream places. We had ice cream on a few occasions and it was very good. I had no idea that there would be so many ice cream places.

The next day we were going on a Whale Watch through Bar Harbor Whales. We hung around downtown until our whale watching excursion. It was quite the experience! We were able to see a few different kinds of whales as well as seeing the same 3 Humpback whales multiple times. I was worried going that we might not see anything but we saw a lot! The only downside was that Scott was feeling sick on the boat but he was a trooper and enjoyed the whales also.

We checked into our second bed and breakfast in Bar Harbor which was Canterbury Cottage. This was a traditional B&B being right in the main house. We met the hostess and she gave us some recommendations as well as showing us to our room. It was funny because it felt like we were staying at Grandma's house. The decor was very flowery, with lots of nick-knacks. We found out there was a honeymoon couple staying there for the week. I would never have stayed at a place that felt like Grandma's house for my honeymoon! Breakfast the next morning was really good with blueberry pancakes. It was also less awkward because people talked unlike the previous one we were at.

The night that we were there we decided to go out to dinner at a place that Scott could get his lobster and I could get some fried Maine shrimp which is what I was craving. We ended up going to the Fish House Grill. The food was really good, I especially was very impressed with the cornbread. I have never had such moist cornbread before. I had my shrimp and Scott had his New England Lobster Bake which included a lobster, clams, mussels, and clam chowder. Here are some pictures:

The next day we started our way back home. We first went to Acadia National Park to drive the loop. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped to take pictures along the way. For some of them we got a bit silly and decided to start jumping which made us start laughing hysterically. I think we were entertaining anyone who was walking by.

At this point we were talking about "planking" and how weird of a trend it is. So we decide to get a picture of Scott planking lol.

So Scott was joking to me about watching out for bears. As we were taking pictures I told him there was a bear behind him because there was a dog that looked like a bear behind him. I thought it was so funny! Here's a picture of the dog.

We stopped at Toot's for ice cream. We were really craving ice cream so we typed it into the GPS and it led us there. It was good ice cream but very funny, seeing all these farm animals while you are eating ice cream.

We also stopped at a beach at Cape Cod on our way home. We got into our swimsuits, lounged, and waded in the water. It was very nice and relaxing! I feel like I never get to feel the sun living in New York. I am the palest I think I've ever been in my life:) I think Cape Cod is a place where you could spend a lot more time. We didn't get very far into it because we were not wanting to get home too late.

It was a great trip and I'm so glad we had the chance to go. If you ever have a chance to go up the coast, I definitely recommend it. It is absolutely beautiful. It was amazing food, amazing views and so nice to be able to see Scott for an extended period of time.

The only bad part of our trip was driving into the city and dealing with tons of traffic, and finding a parking spot. We were lucky with the parking spot but driving in traffic was not fun.

P.S. If you don't like seafood, Maine is not really the trip for you. We ate lots of seafood!

GMA American Idol Concert

2011-08-16T14:09:00.001-04:00

I went to the GMA American Idol Concert in Central Park last Friday before work with my friend Lindsay. It was a lot of fun! Anyone that knows me knows that I love American Idol, and a free American Idol concert I could not pass up. Here are some pictures taken by Lindsay:

Blogging Confession

2011-08-12T10:18:00.001-04:00

I have been having an internal struggle about blogging lately. I feel like I have been enjoying living my life and not worrying about blogging about every little thing. When I am planning to blog about an event I feel like the whole time I'm worrying about getting pictures for the blog and not really enjoying what I'm doing. It's not that I don't like blogging I just don't want it to be a distraction from living life. I will continue to post on the blog. I just wanted to explain my absence. I'm not sure if anyone reads our blog or even cares, but for some reason I feel like I need to explain.

I do have a few things that I would like to blog about! We have had a really great summer. So stay tuned for...

Our Maine road trip
Celebrating our 3rd Wedding Anniversary
American Idol Concert in Central Park (today)

Food, Festivals, Fireflies...

2011-07-12T09:00:00.001-04:00

On Saturday, we decided to try a few food carts that Scott's been wanting to try. We headed down to Madison Square Park to try the "Calexico" cart. Calexico is Mexican food with a California influence. We got off the subway stop and Scott says, "We may have to change our plans..." I said, "Why is there a big line?" Then I look to see a big street festival with food stands, etc. We decide to check out the festival and taste some of the food. We are of course drawn to the BBQ corn on the cob, fresh squeezed lemonade, and beef skewers. We share everything just to get a taste of the festival. One of the things I love about the city are the fun things you find along the way to where you are going.

After the festival we found Calexico and it was very good. They had a little seating area to eat your food which was nice. After Calexico Scott wanted to try the "Waffles & Dinges" cart in Central Park. So we headed up to central park so we could make it to the cart before it closed. Scott ordered his waffle "the Belgian way" plain with no toppings. Since he didn't use his free topping, I used his too and had mine with bananas and Belgian hot fudge. They were both very good, though mine was very rich!

We sat for a while on a bench and just people watched - one of my favorite things to do. It was a nice night in the parks. We had our first experience with fireflies which were so fun to see. I could have watched them all night - they are very entertaining. On our way to the subway station we were walking through the park and watched a goose for a bit in the water.

After the goose, we ran into the little carnival rides that they have there. We didn't spend money to get in and ride, but just watched. They had mostly kid rights so I think it would be more fun for the younger crowd.

We made it to the train and were headed home and I thought, this is one of those nights where I love living in New York City:)

4th of July

2011-07-11T14:19:00.002-04:00

For the 4th of July we headed to Coney Island with some friends for the famous hot dog eating contest. You can't live in New York and not go at least once, so we checked that one off of our list. We actually took a few pictures, enjoy:)

After the hot dog eating contest we headed home to relax, and recover from the heat. We got together with some friends for an indoor BBQ and watching the fireworks from the roof - 31 floors up. It was a very enjoyable 4th of July! We missed our families celebrating in Utah, but enjoyed another 4th of July in the city.

Half way through med school

2011-06-24T11:51:00.007-04:00

Half way through med school today, and since I have an afternoon off, I thought I would give an update on the past 6 months that I've been locked away in the hospital. I finished classroom work in December, and started clinical rotations in January. Ashley is realizing how nice it is having me gone all the time: less dishes to do, less laundry since all my scrubs are washed by the hospital, and extra shower time for her since I have to be up and at the hospital by 5:30 some mornings before she is even awake. Or to think about it another way, I like to think that she appreciates me more when I am home :). In reality though, I really appreciate all she does and puts up with, because I couldn't imagine having to do this school without her support.

Speaking of school, here are some of the highlights of the year.

I started on surgery - very long hours, living in Stamford, CT. I had no clue what I was doing, but I eventually learned how to sew and how to tie square knots with two hands. That's just about all you need to know to be a surgeon. So next time you need your gall bladder out, save some money and call Ashley (she's good with a needle) as well as your local Boy Scout troop to tie those knots!
I got to take care of infected appendices, gall bladders, pancreatic cancer, thyroid tumors, blood vessels, livers, colon cancer, and various other bad things that need to be cut out. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

Next, I went to pediatrics. Very nice people. I took care of the usual asthma, RSV, respiratory infections. I also helped take care of Tylenol overdoses, helped diagnose a 12 month infant with a rare blood cancer, sickle cell patients who were losing their eyesight, muscle aches, fevers, stomach viruses, encephalitis, and painful diseases that make your skin shed.

My next rotation was in psychiatry - yes, I am analyzing everything you do and say. And yes, I have thought about what your particular psychiatric disorder is. Ashley thought it was amusing...until I started analyzing her behaviors. Then it wasn't so fun. Remember that kid you went to school with that was always a little crazy? You were right all along, he probably is crazy.
I was assigned to an acute, lock-down eating disorder unit, but also saw the usual depression/psychotic people as well. Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa, and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. It was so shocking to see the denial that people had about their illnesses. I saw first time admissions in 16 year old girls who were just beginning their eating disorder journey, and I saw their future (but hopefully not) in 40 year old women who had spent the last 20 years, 12 hours a day, eating and purging. I have a new respect for the physiological power of addictions, having seen it now up close when there is nothing for it to hide behind.

After psychiatry, I moved on to Neurology which was quite interesting. I helped take care of a smiling old man with dementia, taught a scared college student and her mother about her new diagnoses of multiple sclerosis and what her life would be like going forward, took care of a woman who suddenly couldn't walk one day, spoke with a Haitian man via translator about his prostate cancer that had spread to his spine, and helped evaluate patients with Parkinson's disease, among many other things. Many patients get really sick in neurology, and only a select few can slow the progression of the disease or get better. Most continue to get worse.

Lastly, I just finished my rotation on OB/GYN. Screaming women, screaming babies, emergency c-sections, terminal cervical cancer in single women, terminal ovarian cancer in young mothers, cutting out fibroids the size of your head, pap smears, ovarian cysts, infertility treatments, and circumcisions. Catching a slippery baby was, to say the least, really cool.

Next up: Urology and orthopedics.

New Post!

2011-06-23T12:32:00.001-04:00

It has been probably 1-1/2 months since I have blogged. I wish I could say that I have missed it but it has actually been a little freeing - one less thing to worry about. I have decided though that I would like to rejoin the blogging world. Instead of feeling guilty that I'm way behind and trying to catch up, I'm just going to start from today. There are a few old things that I will blog about, but mostly new. Here's to a new start! Stay tuned...

Lunch Dilemma

2011-05-04T12:31:00.002-04:00

Every morning when I pack my lunch I have a hard time deciding what to pack. The problem is that lunch food never sounds good. This is why I usually end up bringing to work cereal for my breakfast and lunch.
When we have dinner leftovers I usually pack them the night before to bring for lunch. Then in the morning I decide that it doesn't sound good so I pack some sort of breakfast food.

Monday night we had spaghetti so I packed up the leftovers and told Scott, "Now tomorrow when I said spaghetti doesn't sound good, tell me it will sound good at lunchtime." He agreed. The next morning I had a clothing fiasco*, so I didn't even go in the kitchen or have time to pack my lunch. I had cereal in my desk at work so I didn't worry about it. That afternoon Scott sent me this picture:

He wrote me a note on our whiteboard on our fridge since he wouldn't be there to remind me to take my spaghetti. I really laughed when I saw this picture! Too bad I missed the note because spaghetti really did sound good for lunch but I didn't have it with me. Then this morning the lunch dilemma started again. I looked at the spaghetti and thought oh I think I'll just pack some cereal.... and the cycle begins again!

*The clothing fiasco: Picking out what to wear each morning takes me a really long time. On Tuesday, I decided to wear a green dress and ironed it and everything. I put it on and was all ready to leave the house when I remembered that I needed to put lotion on my legs. I pushed the pump on the lotion to get some and it shot out all over my dress! I thought there is no way that I'm going to be able to get this off of my dress without washing it completely. So I grabbed the first thing I saw and put it on and left for work.

Side note: I haven't given a Weight Watchers update in a while. Here's a summary of my progress so far:

Week 1: -1.8
Week 2: 0
Week 3: +.20
Week 4: +.60
Week 5: -1.8

So overall in 5 weeks I have lost 2.8 pounds. It's not a lot but I feel good about it because I've been having a hard time losing weight since we've gotten married. I'm going to stick with this and get more serious to make it to my goal. In Weight Watchers they talked about how sometimes weight fluctuates when we are trying to lose. Sometimes is will go up a little in between the losses, the important part is that overall we are heading towards our goal. So I am pretty happy that I have a loss overall so far. Now I just have to work harder!

P.S. Shyla and Liz do you see your announcements on our fridge? So excited to see you both get married very soon:)

Easter

2011-04-28T15:05:00.003-04:00

On Easter we went to church, and it was a beautiful day! It was a great way to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. I love spring!

After church we celebrated the commercial part of Easter and dyed Easter eggs:

We decided to go all out and make all of the colors:)

Here are our eggs!

These are mine, including an egg I made to look like Scott.

These are Scott's eggs.

Here's Scott with his egg look-like

A few other pictures of us and our eggs

We turned a few of our Easter eggs into deviled eggs. They were almost all gone by the time I decided to take a picture.

That night we went to our friends, the Scott's apartment, for a delicious Easter dinner! It was a very enjoyable holiday, even though we were far away from family. Our families helped us to feel included by sending pieces of family traditions so we could still participate and not feel so left out:) It was a good day!

Advice for Canal Street

2011-04-26T11:58:00.001-04:00

Canal street is all about the game of trying to get people to lower their prices. They always start out at a really high price which almost makes me want to laugh every time. Do not buy anything from Canal without going back and forth a little bit.

First, think about the price you want for the bag or whatever it is. My usual price is $25.00. Once you have the price in your mind for the item that you want I first start out by asking, "How much?" They will usually say like 50 dollars, then I'll just say no. Then I think of the price that I want to get it for. If it's $25.00 then I'll usually say $20.00. They'll say, "No this bag is real leather, looks like real leather" trying to talk up the bag. Then just wait, I usually just tell them I'm going to look around at other places and come back. That is the worst thing they could ever hear. They know that each place you go to is going to have a similar bag and you'll probably end up buying from someone else. Then linger around the shop a bit on your way out. In this time they'll probably start dropping their prices on their own. Then as they come down a little you move yours up a little until you settle on something for a decent price. My rule is if it’s within a couple of dollars within what you are asking I’ll go for it. What’s 2 dollars? To get an even better deal buy multiple things at the same place, it makes it easier to negotiate. Follow the same bargaining as above. If they aren’t going to give you what you want, walk away. Go to another one of the many other shops and you can probably find the same thing and start all over again. I find bags I want really fast at Canal, but sometimes it takes time to find “the bag” so be patient. I used to hate bargaining for a better price but now I am better at it, and don’t make Scott do it for me anymore.

I have had random people on the street ask me who designed my bag. Jokingly I say, "Oh, it's a Canal Street original." Then they kind of give me a glare. The truth is I don't know designers, I just know what I like which is why canal street bags are just fine for me. I really have gotten a lot of compliments on my bags though, and I'm sure I will have a large bag collection when we leave someday:)

*Pictures from my mom's facebook album

Advice for Serendipity

2011-04-26T11:50:00.001-04:00

My first piece of advice is to make a reservation! They take reservations for lunch or dinner but not just for dessert. I have heard of people waiting hours to get in. I don’t think it would be worth waiting that long. With a reservation you may end up waiting 10-15 minutes if your table is not open yet, but still a lot better than hours. Serendipity is known for their desserts. My second tip is to split your meal. Split the meal so you have room for dessert. Also the desserts are very large so you can split that too!

Advice for Regis and Kelly Standby

2011-04-26T11:44:00.001-04:00

Finally, the NYC tourist advice I have been promising! I'm going to break these into a few posts. First I'll start off with Regis and Kelly. If any of my NYC friends have anything to add to any of these please comment:)

The line is at ABC Studios at 7 Lincoln Square (Columbus Ave. and West 67th Street). Arrive between 6:00-6:30 am to have the best chance of getting in. Our experience was on a very cold day I would expect that if the weather is better you’ll have to get their earlier. You wait in line until about 8:00 am. Then they give you a sheet with a number on it. You have to be back at the studio at 8:30 am. Then you wait some more until they announce how many they are letting in. If you make it in the doors of the building, don’t get too excited yet. They’ll have you wait there and take people from that line to fill in the seats. Once you make it into the studio you are good to go and enjoy!

The best option is of course to get tickets, but you can’t get tickets, you can always try standby:)

*Picture courtesy of Courtney Mortensen

Cody Got His Mission Call!

2011-04-21T11:40:00.001-04:00

My youngest brother Cody got his mission call yesterday.

We video chatted with the fam so we could "be there" in a sense.

Here's are some pictures of my bro I stole from Facebook.

He's going to... Honolulu, Hawaii!

He reports to the MTC on August 31, 2011.

We are excited for him and we are very proud!

Family Visit! (I just added pictures)

2011-04-20T14:35:00.005-04:00

My parents and younger sister Courtney came to visit us a few weekends ago! I was so excited for them to come. Three months without seeing any family seemed like such a long time. I'm going to include the things we did for future reference for me and others that may visit. Here's what we did:

Wednesday
Their flight came in that night and we met up at their hotel downtown.

Seoul Garden - We went to dinner at Seoul Garden. It's our favorite Korean restaurant here to go to. It's in Koreatown and it is so good!

Thursday
Regis and Kelly - We decided to wait in the standby line to try to get into Regis and Kelly. Good thing we ended up getting there earlier around 6:30 am because there were already about 10 people ahead of us in line. It was freezing cold that morning! 2-1/2 hours later we barely made it into the studio and saw the show! I’m so glad we got in! It was fun to see the show

Serendipity - My mom wanted to go to Serendipity the last time they were there and we couldn't get a reservation. It's a place where you have to go at least once to say you have. We tried again this time but decided to make a lunch reservation. I just have to say that reservations are the way to go. The thing about Serendipity is that the desserts are what the place is known for. So we split two meals between the four of us so we would have plenty of room for dessert. We split our desserts too, they were big!

After lunch we did some shopping, on the way back to the train station. Thursday night my sister was going to stay with us at our apartment so we all headed up to Washington Heights for dinner and American Idol results show.

Malecon - We ordered Dominican food from Malecon to be delivered to eat at our apartment. It's one of our favorite places to get food. Who doesn't love rotisserie chicken, black beans, and rice? Oh no I'm craving it now...

One of the things I love about New York is that just about every food place delivers. In Utah you would sound crazy if you asked any restaurant other than a pizza place to deliver.

My parents went back to their hotel, and Courtney slept over. I am not good at sleepovers because I get tired way too fast. Scott went to sleep at 10, I lasted until 11, and then poor Court was up by herself trying to fall asleep. I felt bad we were so tired, I wanted to do lots of fun things. Sorry Court! It was still fun to spend some time with her.

Friday
Lombardi's - Before beginning our shopping on Canal Street we decided to stop by Lombardi's. It's a famous pizza place that is very good.

Canal Street - We had a later start, and met up with my parents. We decided to head to Canal Street to do some shopping. If you haven't been, Canal street is a crazy street with lots of people selling purses, sunglasses, etc. You have to bargain with the vendors to get a decent price. I have taken people down there several times and know the drill. Courtney bought many colored pairs of sunglasses. Of course we bought purses. I found mine in the first place we went in. Courtney had explained to me the kind of bag she wanted. I thought that I had found what she wanted, but she said no. So I bought it in a different color. Come to find out, later in the night she decided that she really did want the bag. So we planned another Canal street trip.

Basilica - We had dinner at Basilica down in Hell's Kitchen. The food was very good, and the desserts even better:)

Wonderland - I have wanted to see the Broadway show Wonderland since it was announced. When I found out my parents and sister would be coming into town I knew I should suggest going. We were not disappointed! It was an AMAZING show! We went when it was still in previews, now it is officially opened. Go see it!

Saturday
Levain - On my way to meet up with my family I decided to stop by Levain Bakery. We had it on the list of things to do but were running out of time and I wanted to make sure they got to try it. Levain has these what I call "monster cookies." They are very thick and large, and probably a million calories. I picked up one of each flavor on the way to meet them as a surprise. They loved them! If you are ever in New York try them out.

Canal Street - We decided to hit up Canal street again to buy the bag Courtney wanted.

Century 21 - Century 21 is like a discount department store. It's kind of a crazy place reminds me of a giant TJMaxx. They have some good things there for good prices, you just have to look really hard.

Ground Zero - We stopped by Ground Zero to see the progress.

Baluchi's - We love Indian food, and my family has never had it so we decided it would be perfect. We like to go to Baluchi's, which is by my work, on Saturday afternoons when we go. We go for lunch because everything is half off. It's usually an expensive Indian place so half off is a major deal! It was really good!

Shake Shack - For dinner we took them to Shake Shack. Everyone always raves about Shake Shack so we thought we'd give them the full New York experience. I think it is good, but definitely not the best hamburger in the world. Just like Serendipity it's something everyone has to try at least once. We have been there a few times and I'm starting to believe that the long lines and fighting for a table aren't worth it.

Wicked - Of course we saw Wicked which was really good. We have seen it in different locations, but it was a first for all of us seeing it in New York. I was disappointed that we got the understudy for Glinda. It was still good despite that.

Sunday
On Sunday they came to church with us and I made lunch afterwards before their flight.

It was so fun to have them in town! Thanks for coming Mom, Dad, and Court!

P.S. I decided I'm going to make a few posts with tips on doing certain things in NYC. These will include things like shopping at canal street, going standby at Regis and Kelly, etc. I'll share my knowledge:)

Oh How I Love my Bernina

2011-04-19T09:52:00.002-04:00

My poor sewing machine has been neglected since moving here. Sure I have used it here and there but it has been living under it's cover for far too long. Sometimes I have a love/hate relationship with sewing. I love it when everything is going smoothly, I hate it when something goes wrong and I can't figure it out. Every time I go to Utah I always buy fabric with good intentions to reunite with my Bernina but I kind of forget about the fabric/patterns after they are put away. A few weeks ago as I was going through my fabric I found the fabric and pattern that I bought over Christmas to make my little niece Jovie a dress. One of the parts I hate about sewing which usually stops me from sewing is all the prep work. I'm probably missing some of the steps as I'm typing, those who sew a lot, ignore any mistakes:)

Prewashing the fabric: I would go to start a project and realized that I hadn't washed the fabric yet. So I'd stop right there. I figured out how to solve this problem. My new goal is to wash/iron the fabric right after I get it so it's good to go. I know this is obvious.
Putting the fabric on grain: Sometimes this is an easy thing and your fabric is just fine. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to make sure it will lay flat. Scott is good at helping me stretch my fabric when I need it.
Cutting out the pattern pieces: Sometimes there are a lot of little pieces to cut out.
Making any alterations to the pattern: This can be tedious depending the changes that need to be made.
Positioning pattern pieces: Figuring out how everything will fit on the fabric is very important. Sometimes it takes a while to get it all to fit in the best way and double checking before cutting out. My college sewing teachers voices are always ringing in my head when I sew, "measure twice, cut once."
Cutting out pattern pieces: Cutting everything accurately takes time, sometimes a lot of time.
Marking fabric: Now after all the fabric is cut out you now have to mark the fabric, with all of the markings from the patterns. Sometimes I try to skimp on this step but I always regret it when I'm looking for that one marking that I really needed.

So then after all of that, now you are ready to sew. Then I remember, oh yeah I should probably staystitch. After staystitching, I am finally ready to sew! By the time I get to this point I'm usually too tired to start sewing. I know that I work better with my mind fresh so I put off the sewing until another day. Then finally once I start sewing pieces together I get in a groove and it's so fun!

This weekend I was working on sewing a little dress for my niece Jovie. I started it a few weeks ago, doing the initial steps. Yesterday I got to put some of the main components together. It's just so cute and small that it is so fun to work on. I wish I had the time to just sit down and finish it all in one sitting instead of working on it a little here and there.

While I was sewing I was thinking to myself how much I love to sew. I have gone so long without doing any sewing that I felt like I was losing my skills. I am back and love it so much! I keep thinking of more and more projects to work on, oh I love it, I wish I had more time to sew!

Weight Watchers Week 2

2011-04-12T14:09:00.002-04:00

My parents and little sister came into town which included eating lots of yummy food. You can't explore NYC without eating out at restaurants. We tried to be really good and split meals, and walked a lot. Still, I was very nervous going to Weight Watchers since I had eaten more than I usually do. I was even tempted not to go. That's the whole reason though to be accountable.

I'm happy to report that this week I did not gain any weight! I didn't lose any either, I stayed the same. I was completely expecting to gain so I was happy. On a usual week I probably wouldn't be happy at staying the same weight but this week I was thrilled! I'm still on track and will do much better this week.

P.S. Once I get pictures from my family, I will post all about their trip!

Weight Watchers Week 1

2011-04-05T14:17:00.001-04:00

I went to my first meeting (this time around) this afternoon during lunch.

And.... drumroll... I lost...

1.8 pounds!

I'm excited that I'm actually seeing some progress and I'm hopefully I can keep it up!

This week I didn't eat different foods than I usually do, I just watched the portions and kept account of what I ate with the points. It made all the difference. My goal this week is to "Move More" like we talked about in the meeting, and to also do well in my eating.

P.S. I felt really young at the meeting, but that's okay:)

Creamy Lemon Pie

2011-04-04T11:19:00.003-04:00

I made this WeightWatchers lemon pie yesterday. If you know WeightWatchers it's 4 points for 1/10 of the pie. It's very rich I thought so you don't need a lot. It was super easy to make and I thought it was good. Here's the recipe:

Creamy Lemon Pie

6 whole reduced-fat cinnamon graham crackers
2 Tbsp butter
11 oz fat-free sweetened condensed milk
2 large egg(s)
1/2 cup(s) fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Grind graham crackers in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Or place crackers in a resealable plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Place crumbs in a small bowl.

Melt butter on stove top or in microwave and pour over graham cracker crumbs, mixing with a fork until completely moistened. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom of a 9-inch pie pan; place crust in refrigerator while preparing lemon filling.

In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk and eggs; mix until smooth. Add lemon juice and zest; stir until incorporated and pour into prepared crust.

Bake pie for 15 minutes. Cool completely and for best flavor, serve chilled.

*This pie can be baked and frozen for up to two weeks. Defrost and serve chilled.

(Picture and recipe from www.weightwatchers.com)

Mid-Twenties Life Crisis at 24 (This is not an April Fool's joke)

2011-04-01T10:19:00.001-04:00

Now that my birthday has happened this now feels stupid to even write about this but I'm going to anyways. The day before my birthday I was having a major mid-twenties life crisis even though I was turning 24, not even 25. It seems like this is happening every year lately.

My thoughts:

"I'm going to turn 24 I should be in the best shape of my life and happy with my body, but I'm not."

"Why don't I have a baby like everyone else?"

"When am I going to have a house?"

I started freaking out wondering what I have accomplished in my life and who I was. Does anyone else do this? I realized that some of these things I can't really have right now.

Scott is going through medical school, and when he's done with that we'll move for residency. This really isn't practical for wondering why I don't have a house right now. First of all we are only in our 20's so I shouldn't even be thinking about a house until I'm 30. Secondly, we don't know when we will finally be settled and it's definitely not yet.

I shouldn't be stressing about not having a baby because we aren't even trying to have one. With our unstable life, and financial situation I shouldn't even be thinking about that right now. It's just hard not to compare our "family status" to others my age and wonder when we will have that. Right now is not the time, but I'm sure it's normal feeling this way, right?

There is one thing on this list that I can control and do something about it right now and that is my weight and health. When I was thinking about my struggle with weight I was sitting at work and I decided that this is probably something that I will struggle with for my whole life. Right then and there I decided that since it will be a struggle I should figure it out now while I'm young how to manage it and change my lifestyle. So after I had this thought I decided that I would turn again to Weight Watchers. It seems like the only times in my life where I could get back to a good weight in college was when I went to the meetings with my mom in the summers. So I went to Weight Watchers by my work at lunch and signed up. It was very scary for me to do this alone. I had tried just doing the online tracking stuff but it didn't work for me. I need accountability, which is why going to the meetings works.

I am all signed up and am embarrassed to be posting this on our blog. So why am I posting about this very personal stuff? I'm posting because this is going to be accountability too. I'm hoping to be able to share my progress and feelings along the way to keep me going. My goal is to make a lifestyle change. I'm only a few days into it but I'm feeling motivated. I know I don't have a lot of weight to lose but it's more for me to learn to drop the weight I need to and then maintain. The thing I like about Weight Watchers is that you don't feel like you are depriving yourself. If you want a treat you can have it, you just have to budget your points for it. This is why it's something that works for me. I can't be one of those people with a lot of restrictions.

I'm probably going to be blogging more about other goals I have set for myself. I hope you don't mind but this is mostly for me, but I hope that others can benefit as I know that all of us struggle with something. Here's to goals and improving ourselves!

24th Birthday!

2011-03-31T16:20:00.002-04:00

Thanks for the birthday wishes yesterday! It was a great day, other than the fact that I had to work:) I felt very loved as I read messages on facebook, email, and our blog! Here is a recap of the day:

Scott woke me up by singing Happy Birthday and playing a song for me on a kazoo! Then I opened the door to go out into the hallway and I saw all of this! Scotty was so sweet to decorate the apartment for me. It's our tradition, and he always finds ways to bring the birthday decorating up a notch.

Scott had to go to his Psych rotation and of course I had to go to work (I didn't want to waste a vacation day to be alone at home). I got to work and there were little cheesecakes from a friend at work on my desk. Then my work friends took me to lunch. The day got a little busy after lunch, but not too bad. Then toward the end of the day an attorney of mine brought out cupcakes and got people to sing to me. Then when I got home Scott ordered Indian food for us that tasted so good. We opted to do my traditional "strawberry shortcake" this weekend. I had way too many desserts on my birthday. To end the night Scott even watched American Idol with me-see I told you he was super nice to me. It was a great birthday! Secret: he's always really nice to me I'm lucky.

Happy Birth Moment, Ash!!!!

2011-03-30T00:00:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday Ashley!!!! Thanks for all you do! Love you, Scotty

My Bank is Here!

2011-03-28T16:21:00.001-04:00

I was walking down the street during lunch to go to Chase to use the ATM and I just about walked into this bank...

I caught myself and thought Wells Fargo isn't in New York... and then I realized... it is now! Some of you might be thinking okay she's weird for being so excited about a bank. It just brought back good memories of going to the bank in Kaysville, UT (cue music) "where everybody knows your name...."

I know that it won't be quite like that in NYC, but at least I can withdraw money from my Well's Fargo account now. I took this picture on my walk, I saw the taxi and thought it was perfect. We have to appreciate the little things in life:)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T14:45:00.008-04:00

So remember last year how I said I was going to do St. Patrick's Day better this year? My mom makes green jello cake every year and it's one of my favorite traditions of St. Patrick's day.

Last year I posted that I didn't make the jello cake and this year I am sad to say I didn't make it either. I had really good intentions as I bought the cake mix and the jello last weekend.

Last night after I got back from organ lessons I was just exhausted from the day that I didn't make it!

I didn't think it would matter all that much to me but my family has all been posting on Facebook how good the cake has been today and now I feel a little left out. It's not so much the cake it's just the thought of us doing the same thing as my family across the country and it has made me a little homesick today.

I think I'm going to make it when I get home tonight, and it will be ready maybe by the time I go to bed:(

Sidenote: Scott was so nice this morning to make me feel better and more festive he put green food coloring in his scrambled eggs. Isn't he so sweet? I have to say it did make me feel a little better. So at least someone ate something green today. At least we both wore green, right?

I sure hope I'm better with this holiday stuff once we have kids!

So good news so far this St. Patrick's day I haven't seen anyone passed out, any throw up on the sidewalk or subway platform, or had to avoid the glass from broken bottles. The bad news, it's early and I still have the commute home tonight. I'll hurry home to avoid the crazies.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My Predictions

2011-03-04T10:55:00.001-05:00

I told a few people that once the top 12, 13 or whatever number it was going to be was announced on American Idol I would predict my top 3. There ended up being 13 of the 24 people chosen last night. I have chosen who I think will be in the top 3, my favorites. My predictions are...

James Durban

Lauren Alaina

Casey Abrams

If you don't like American Idol I'm sorry, but if you haven't ever really watched it---do, so I can have more people to talk about it with. If you watch, let me know your predictions too! We'll see how I do this year:)

No Hot Water

2011-03-03T13:19:00.001-05:00

We woke up this morning to no hot water. I'm still not over it. We had to do the toilet flushing trick to get any sort of warm water in the shower. I sure hope we have better luck tomorrow!

I Cooked Bacon...

2011-02-25T14:54:00.003-05:00

For any of you that know me very well you know that I hate bacon. The way it tastes, smells, texture, grease, all of it. I refuse to cook it, but I made on exception last night. So if you know all of this you know how much of a big deal and out of character it is for me to cook it.

Here's the story:

Scott has been starting to get sick and when I asked him what he wanted for dinner he said he wanted soup, potato soup (see recipe posted below). I told him I would make the soup if he would cook his own bacon. The thought of cooking it made me feel sick as I have always refused. The agreement in our marriage from the beginning was that he would cook his own bacon, preferably when I wasn't around. So I go home from work pick up a few things from the store that I need and head home.

I get there and start getting the potatoes ready for the soup since that's the longest part. Once I get them in the pressure cooker I ask Scott when he was going to cook his bacon. He was working on an assignment he had to do that night and said he would do it when he got to a good stopping point. I felt bad because he was working hard on school stuff and was sick at the same time so I didn't want to bother him. So... I pulled the bacon out of the fridge, got out my pan and started to separate the pieces. I thought to myself, how do you even cook bacon? You can tell I haven't done this in a very long time. I turn on the stove, wait for the pan to heat up and put the bacon on. It started getting all sizzly and greasy and making the weird noises that bacon does and I thought, okay I can do this.

I decided to make Scott aware of how good of a wife I was. I said, "I deserve an award, I'm such a nice wife. Just listen..." Scott was too busy paying attention to his schoolwork that he completely ignored me so I stormed out of the room since I didn't get the attention I was hoping for. I went back to cooking the bacon and Scott runs in and tells me thank you so much (he was very grateful!), and he does me a favor and pulls the bacon out of all that nasty grease so I didn't have to. Anyways, I am making a big deal about a little thing but I was proud of myself for kind of getting over that fear of cooking bacon. Now I'm not saying that will happen anytime again soon... Also for the record, I did not eat it just cooked it.

P.S. Here is the recipe of the soup. My older sister Amber found this recipe a while ago. It's our go to potato soup recipe now. Thanks Am!

*Things I do differently:
-We have the bacon on the side so Scott can add it to his soup.
-I cook the potatoes in the pressure cooker, it's faster.
-For us I cut the recipe in half so we have leftovers but not too much.

Potato Soup

16 strips Bacon
5 large Potatoes
2 cups Chicken Broth
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
16 ounce Sour Cream
3 ½ cups Milk
½ large yellow/white Onion
2 cans of Corn, drained

Cook bacon and crumble into small pieces, set aside in small bowl. Simmer onion in small frying pan until tender; add to bacon. Peel and chop potatoes into bite-sized chunks. Boil in large pot until soft (not too soft). Drain potatoes and set aside. In large pot, add bacon, chicken broth, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, milk, onion and corn. Bring to a low boil, stirring often, until thickened. Add potatoes and reduce heat to medium. Salt and pepper to taste; let simmer until desired consistency. Sprinkle cheese on top and serve with rolls.

Yield: 1 large pot of Soup

A Long Weekend Calls For a Long Blog Post:)

2011-02-22T16:03:00.001-05:00

So I keep wanting Scott to make a blog post, but life as a medical student in rotations is very busy. I will just have to include a recap of his birthday for him. So here is a look at our holiday weekend, and sorry the blog post is really long! I guess it makes up for me not blogging very well lately.

Friday, the day before Scott's birthday the weather was amazing, mid 60's! We decided to go out for Korean food down by Columbia's main campus. It was so nice, no coat was needed, I wore a sweater and flats (no boots necessary). It was the perfect night to go out, afterwards we walked around the campus.

So Scott and I have a tradition that on birthdays we decorate the apartment for the other person. This started right when we got married. These are homemade decorations which is fun and you can use creativity. Scott set the bar really high last year with a funny idea to make signs that had pictures of celebrities and a birthday wish from them to me. I decided to follow along with that idea and do that for Scott this year. So when Scott was sleeping Friday night I woke up and hung these up around the apartment. Most of these are people that Scott likes, but I threw in a wildcard because I couldn't resist.

On Saturday, it was Scott's 25th Birthday and Scott woke up to all of his signs. I was still asleep but I could hear him laughing so I went to see him find all of them. Scott opened up his present from me which was The Price is Right game for the Wii. We agreed to only do a small gift for our birthdays, like $25.00 or less. I found the game and I was like, oh perfect, it's on sale and everything. I was so excited to give it to him, he opened it up and we played it. Sad to say, it was not a fun game, it was a huge disappointment. I felt so bad because my only gift I had for him was a flop. I'm working on a replacement gift...

We got ready for the day and headed out the door. When we were getting ready to leave we were determining the outerwear that we needed. It was going to be colder than Friday by 20 degrees, but still didn't sound that bad. Too bad Friday couldn't have been his birthday... So we each put on a coat, and decided we didn't need a scarf or gloves. We were planning on going to lunch on the east side so we decided that on the way we were going to try to win lottery tickets for Wicked. I didn't want Scott to be disappointed if we didn't win since it was his birthday. We headed to the theater to put our names in and it was freezing cold! The wind was so strong and sooo cold! This was our 5th attempt to win cheap tickets for this show, so we weren't holding our breath. Waiting for the drawing it was still really cold! They waited longer to draw the names so we had to wait outside for a while. They drew the names and.... no we didn't win! I thought maybe we'd have a birthday miracle or something, but no.

We decided to walk into a store to warm up and figure out what we were going to do. We decided to head straight to where we were planning on going for lunch. We had to walk a bit longer, but luckily the wind had slowed down. We arrived at our location, Baluchi's. It's really good Indian food right by my work and for lunch everything is 50% off. We love going on Saturdays because it's super cheap for lunch and really good! We are also always the only people in the restaurant---weekends are their slow days because during the week it's filled with people working in the area. We ate our food and of course it did not disappoint. Mmmm I love Indian food. I'm getting hungry thinking about it--and it's only like a block from my work... While we were at lunch, we were talking about an alternative plan for the remainder of the day because it was just too cold to be out and about. The original plan was to go to Standburger to try their famous toasted marshmallow shakes, but because of the cold we were not wanting to eat something cold. We decided to head back home and I would make "Chocolate Lava Cake" for dessert.

On our way home we went down into the subway station, paid and walked through the turnstile only to find out that the "E" train was not running that weekend. We ended up having to take an alternate route that ended up taking a long time waiting for the trains.

On the way home because it had taken a while we were hungry and decided that a donut from the street cart sounded good. To try to be festive I decided to put candles in Scott's donut. I had bought birthday candles, but I could not find them. We decided to use a regular sized candle which was pretty funny. I sang and took these pictures of Scott:

We just chilled the rest of the day, played a few wii games, Scott was able to watch basketball games. I think Scott enjoyed taking his mind off of school for one day. I made the cakes and they turned out really well! I'll post the recipe another day, super easy.

Parts of the day were good, parts were not so good... I can't speak for Scott but it was good to just be able to spend a whole day together, we haven't had much time together lately so it was nice. We are happy now that Scott will be able to rent a car for us and being 25 sounds so much cooler than 24:)

Since we weren't able to do anything amazing for Scott's birthday because of not so pleasant NYC weather pleasant... we are going to do something when it warms up to make up for it. Here's to another year!

P.S. Thanks to everyone who sent their birthday wishes! Scott felt very loved on his birthday. We especially laughed really hard when we read the comments from my sister's kids.
Sunday, I found out it was my last week to teach the 12-13 year old youth sunday school class... I am sad about this. I have really loved teaching them since I don't get to teach for a profession, and I'm going to miss it. I learned so much teaching them.

Monday, I decided it was a day to catch up on the apartment since it was a holiday and I didn't have to work. It also helped that it snowed overnight so I knew it would be a staying indoors kind of day. I feel like I never have enough time to get it really clean. Since I always leave our bedroom for last I decided to start with that first. I worked a long time doing laundry and cleaning, but our apartment looks great! Well our bedroom, living room and kitchen. I still need to finish the extra room and bathroom. How do those of you with houses keep it all clean? I can barely keep our 2 bedroom apartment in good shape! It felt good to have a day to get a lot accomplished. We also played Michael Jackson - The Experience, on the Wii. So fun! Scott did a few songs with me, but he was mad I kept beating him!

It was a well needed long weekend!

It's a Special Day!

2011-02-19T00:00:00.001-05:00

It is Scotty's 25th Birthday!

It's a big birthday year...he can finally rent a car for us:) Feel free to leave a message for the birthday boy! We'll post later about the festivities...and a picture of the birthday boy.

Excited for Broadway this Year!

2011-02-10T13:02:00.001-05:00

I'm signed up to get emails about shows on Broadway, and I was so excited to see this show opening in March! I remember watching "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" with my older brother David. He introduced me to so many musicals, and I give him credit that I am cultured in that regard. Anyways, this show opening in March---anyone want to go?

I also want to see this show-Wonderland! It's opening sometime in March too. This one is a new musical, based on Alice and Wonderland with a New York twist.

American Idol is Back!

2011-02-03T15:18:00.001-05:00

This is Scott's least favorite time of the year... when American Idol starts up. It's my favorite though!

I am a little behind in posting about American Idol this year because I wanted to watch a few episodes before. So I've watched a few weeks of it, and I love it! I have decided that I really like all the judges. For those of you out of the American Idol loop there are 2 new judges this year to replace the old. Randy Jackson is still a judge, and Steven Tyler (from Aerosmith) and Jennifer Lopez are the new judges. So I may be a little biased because I am a Steven Tyler fan. Just ask my family about my Steven Tyler impression:) I think the judges work well together, and I am not missing the judges that left. I don't even miss Simon Cowell. So if you decided not to watch this season because of the new judges, start watching! I need more people to talk about the show with.

I like this season how they seem to be focusing more on the good singers than the bad. I used to get so sick of hearing all of the bad people so I think that is better. There have been a few people that have been really good! Once they get to the Hollywood episodes I'll start listing my predictions. I like to pick my favorites early on and see how far they go. I also like to "judge" the contestants myself, so I hope I don't bore you with my reviews as it goes further.

If you can't stand American Idol, I'm sorry just don't read these kinds of posts:)

1 Year Work Anniversary

2011-02-02T12:56:00.001-05:00

I have made it 1 year working at my law firm! Hurray!

Other good news... Scotty is home!

No Snow Day....

2011-01-27T12:12:00.001-05:00

Going to sleep last night I was really hoping for a snow day. Especially considering that I could hardly sleep because of the noisy snow plows scraping the roads, it sounded worse than nails on a chalkboard. For those of you in Utah, I know nothing closes because of snow. Here in New York it's a little different. When there is significant snow my work closes. Not today though... there was a lot of snow, but I still had to go to work...

Oh well, on the plus side, Scott comes home Saturday-Sunday!

MIA

2011-01-26T12:21:00.001-05:00

Sorry we have been MIA on our blog. I've been trying to adjust to change, and I prefer to blog about happier things. I just wanted to share what I've been going through.

Coming back from Christmas vacation I was very stressed and it was the hardest time coming back so far for me. It was harder because I knew that when I came back Scott would be starting his year of medical rotations and I wouldn't see him very often. On top of that his first rotation would be surgery in Stamford Connecticut which meant Scott would be living away from me. If I didn't have a job I probably would have just stayed in Utah. But I have a job and responsibilities so I couldn't do that.

His rotation started at the beginning of January, and I will admit that it has been much harder than I thought it could be. When Scott has been gone I have felt sort of empty I don't know how to describe it. I felt like I had taken him for granted while I had him around everyday. Luckily he has been able to come home at least one day each weekend. I don't know if it makes it easier though because I have to say goodbye again each time he leaves.

The good news is that he only has one more week left of living away! Hurray this rotation is almost over:) I feel like I have done a lot better than I thought I would. I feel like I am learning to be more independent and productive. I have been cleaning, organizing and crafting to occupy my time. Also, our friends have been amazing and have invited me over for dinners, and to hang out. It's crazy to think that he is almost done with one rotation. When he gets back he'll still be really busy depending on which rotation he is on but at least he'll be living here and I'll see him more than I have with this rotation:) I'm kind of glad looking back that I got the worst one out of the way first. When Scott's finished with this rotation I'll have him post a summary of what he's been up to in Connecticut.

Anyways, when I'm feeling stressed, overwhelmed, I tend to withdraw which is why I haven't blogged. I'm getting back into it I promise!

Christmas Trip Home

2011-01-06T13:50:00.003-05:00

It was so fun to go back to Utah and visit family! It's also nice to get a break from the city and live a suburban life for a bit. Here are a few pictures from my phone, and the majority are ones I stole from facebook. We also spent time with Scott's family, but I don't have any pictures. I'll be sure to take more pictures next time instead of relying on the pictures of others...

We finally got to meet our niece Jovie! Of course, we made sure to get a lot of Jovie time. She was still just a few weeks old when we met her, so it was fun to see a baby so new.

Keller was so fun this trip. He is so cute and likes to give everyone "loves."
He also refers to himself in the 3rd person which is very funny.

Canon looking cool in his new bulldog football sweats.

Taesya is very girly, and totally into princesses/tinkerbell

On Christmas Eve, Scott went with my dad, brothers, and his dad to see Tron. I chilled with my mom and sis and skipped out on the guy movie. That afternoon/evening we got together with Scott's family which was fun. We had good food and played a few fun games. We slept at my parents that night and opened gifts with them Christmas morning. We went back to Scott's house for a few hours to open gifts with everyone there. It was nice to see everyone on Christmas and Christmas Eve.

So for some reason, me and my sister Courtney started singing the "Baby Bottle Pop" commercial song at Thanksgiving. It got stuck in our heads or something Scott heard us and asked what a baby bottle pop was. We explained it, but he had never had one before. When we were out there for Christmas, we went to the store with my mom, and Court picked one out to give to Scott. Here's a picture of him it.

While we were in Utah we were able to celebrate my sister Courtney's 16th birthday with her. She got her license which was exciting. We also went bowling for her birthday which Scott and I have never done together. He always said that he was bad and didn't want to go. He ended up doing really well! I ended up doing terrible because I haven't bowled in the last 3 years. Here are some pictures:

After bowling, we made homemade pizza, and had strawberry shortcake. Strawberry shortcake is my birthday dessert of choice but since we moved away I've been having it in New York so Courtney decided she wanted it for hers. I did not complain---it was so good!

The birthday girl making her pizza

Everyone making pizzas

My dad making his and my mom's.

My mom getting the strawberry shortcake ready.

Happy 16th Birthday little sis! (I know that she looks older than me)

When our family gets a box of miscellaneous chocolates our family likes to play what we call, "Chocolate Roulette." For the game each person has to choose a chocolate and you have to eat it. We call it roulette because it is a gamble. There are typically a few very nasty chocolates in the box. We all went to make our choice and I saw one and said, "I get this one because it looks like a Snickers." I thought it was a safe pick. That was until I took a bite.... it had little bits of cherries, and it was the nastiest chocolate I have ever eaten. See the picture of my reaction below. If you have never played this game I recommend it, it's hilarious. Scott lucked out and got all good chocolate. My brother Cameron did get one that looked worse than mine. Inside it looked like a fruitcake with various candied bits of fruit and cream.

We packed up our gifts along with our clothes etc. and were worried it wouldn't all fit in our suitcases. We managed to fit everything and I told Scott it was a Christmas miracle! On the flight home they asked for volunteers to take a different flight for vouchers. Of course, we volunteered as we could use some free flights, and went to the gate where our new flight was. They called us back and told us we could take our original flight and keep the vouchers! It was our lucky day, getting paid to take our original flight!

It was a very fun trip, and I can't wait to go out again!

Our 2010 Christmas Letter

2011-01-05T09:50:00.001-05:00

Hunt for Cider

2010-12-14T11:14:00.003-05:00

Saturday is typically the day that we do laundry, grocery shopping, etc. This Saturday we decided to put off our chores and responsibilities and go out and have fun in the city.

We woke up and decided to head to canal street to do some shopping. It was insane! I always forget how crazy it gets there with all of the crowds. Once we found what we went there for, we left as soon as possible.

We decided to walk toward Union Square where they have little holiday shops. On the way we saw a lot of Santa Clause's, I guess there was a thing where people dress as Santa and go around to all the bars. It was funny to see all the Santa's but we kept our distance, since we could tell a bunch of them had already had a few too many drinks. Union Square was also insane, though it was fun to see the things people make to sell.

We decided to head home to drop off our purchases and relax for a few hours. When we got to our neighborhood we decided to stop by Starbucks to buy some of their caramel apple cider since we hadn't had any yet this season. They told us that they couldn't make it because they didn't have any apple juice. We went home and decided we would try again later that night at a different location, because it sounded so good.

We had tickets to Wintuk, a Cirque du Soleil show, so we headed downtown to go to that. The show was a great! They did a lot of crazy circus tricks, and had amazing special effects. At the end there was a snowstorm (tissue paper snowflakes) over the entire office. It was kind of crazy how much "snow" was shot out. There hasn't been a snow storm in New York yet so it was fun to have a fake storm.

This is before the show started:

This is the stage, before the show started:

Since we were already downtown we decided to check out the Macy's windows. It was cool how they decorated the scenes, made mostly of paper. I was impressed by the windows.

We went into Macy's and saw that they had Starbucks so we decided to try again on our search for caramel apple cider. We tried the 5th floor, they were out of apple juice, like the one by our apartment. 6th floor-same story, 3rd floor-no luck. We found one on the 1st floor and thought that we would be lucky this time, but they couldn't make it for us either! I was giving up, but as we were walking toward the subway stop we saw another Starbucks and decided to try that one. There was a big line and when we got to the front we asked, not expecting anything, if they had caramel apple cider..... and they did! We ordered our cider and I told Scott that I wouldn't believe it until I tasted it. It was oh so good! As we hunted for our cider it became a game, and was getting pretty funny that we were striking out so much. It was totally worth the hunt!

It was a really fun day. It was nice to do some festive things to get us more into the holiday spirit and just to spend the whole day together. Life is so busy it's fun to take a break from the things you "have" to do.

Christmas Cards

2010-12-09T07:00:00.004-05:00

This Tuesday for Girl's night I thought it would be fun to make Christmas cards. It was a small turnout--but very fun! These are the cards I made:) I decided to do a few different designs so I don't get bored making all of them.

Remember Jack?

2010-12-08T20:10:00.007-05:00

Remember Jack? Sorry Ash...

Cute Picture of Jovie

2010-12-08T17:00:00.001-05:00

This morning I saw on facebook that my sister posted this picture of our new niece Jovie on Facebook. I'm so excited to meet her, she is so cute:)

Ugly Sweaters and Gingerbread Houses

2010-12-08T07:00:00.003-05:00

This weekend we got together with our friends the Hansen's and the Thomson's to wear ugly or festive sweaters and decorate "gingerbread" houses. Scott and I decided to make very festive and ugly sweaters. I gathered the supplies from Michael's earlier in the day for our creations. Saturday morning a Christmas movie was on TV and there was a guy wearing a sweater that had a bright green moose on it which is how we got the inspiration for Scott's sweater. The idea for my sweater came from a few years ago when my roommates and I made some really good ugly sweaters for a party at our apartment. I tried to recreate it in a way. See pictures below, along with how-to instructions for you to make your own ugly sweater:)

The front of my sweater:

There are bells and pom poms I used to cover the buttons/buttonholes. Then I cut strips of those Mardi Gras type beads next to the buttons/buttonholes. for the bottom of the sweater and the cuffs of the sleeves I used tinsel garland.

The back of my sweater:

I used felt to make the tree. I decorated it with pom poms, bells, and beads. The "presents" under the tree are Christmas buttons.

Scott's sweater:

Scott made his own sweater with a little guidance from me. He printed off an outline of a moose, and used that as a template for his moose. Googly eyes, and a bell were added as well as holly made from pom poms and pipe cleaners. I think Scott's sweater turned out really well!

We had fun making our ugly sweaters, and are definitely saving them for a future party! Here is us together at the party in front of the Hansen's beautiful tree, what a great backdrop for a picture:)

Here is the "gingerbread" house we made from graham crackers. It is a replication of the apartment building we live in, tower 1. This is while we were still adding a few finishing touches at the decorating table. Scott was very creative in our tower. He did the most work on it, I just followed his lead:)

This picture is when it was all complete at another angle.

We had such a great weekend, it was fun to do Christmasy things with friends! I love the holidays!

Welcome Baby Jovie

2010-12-06T19:13:00.001-05:00

We have a new niece! Jovie was born on December 5 at 2:15 am, weighing 9 pounds 10 ounces. We are so excited to meet her in a few weeks! Congratulations to my sister Amber and her family:)

Creak...Creak...

2010-12-01T10:52:00.001-05:00

I'm at work and it is so windy today that I'm afraid this is what I'll be hearing all day---creak....creak... It kind of makes you feel like you are on a ship getting seasick. You can't really feel the building move, but the sound tricks you into thinking you can. I think this is going to drive me a little crazy but I guess that's what you get when you work in a tall building.

Our Thanksgiving Break

2010-11-30T12:55:00.002-05:00

I apologize beforehand, but I was too busy enjoying myself that I didn't take any pictures of our Thanksgiving break. If my family posts pictures on Facebook I will add some to this post.

Wednesday: we decided to head to the airport extra early to allow extra time for the "nightmare" security we were hearing about all over the news. The subway on the way to the airport was crazy so I was a little worried... We arrived at the airport, checked our bags and were through security in about 20-30 minutes. It was probably the fastest we have ever been through security at JFK. They didn't have those body scanners that everyone was freaking out about. We made it through security and had time to have dinner before our flight. The flight was a little long because of strong winds but other than that there was no problem. I don't know why they were freaking out about the security on the news, it was totally fine.

We landed in Salt Lake and were picked up by my dad and brother Cameron. We tried to sleep soon after we got to my parents house but it was hard to sleep because it was so quiet. My friends here in NYC will be able to back me up, as we are used to sleeping with so much noise in the background. I keep telling Scott that I'm going to have to find a "Sounds of the City" recording to fall asleep when we eventually move out of the city.

Side note: If there are any Boy Meets World fans that read our blog---do you remember in an episode when Shawn moves into an apartment and plays "Sounds of the Trailer Park" to be able to fall asleep? Ha ha, just like that.

We eventually fell asleep, and slept in until 5 am UT time--because it was really 7 am NY time. It is hard switching back between time zones.

Thursday: we went to the Mortensen extended family Thanksgiving. There are a lot of people in our extended family so when we get together we reserve a church building. It was fun to see a lot of family, though it gets a little chaotic, we enjoyed ourselves. After our early Thanksgiving with the Mortensen's we hung out at my parent's house and played with my niece and nephews. Then, we headed to Scott's parents' house for our 2nd Thanksgiving.  We enjoyed yummy food along with good company.  We were really tired pretty early, about 9:00 and went to sleep shortly after we got back.

Friday: we went out for a yummy breakfast with my family.  Then Scott hung out with his parents, and got to go to the Jazz vs. Lakers game. Apparently it was a very exciting game, though I didn't watch any of it. Meanwhile, I hung out with my family and got some shopping in with my mom and little sister.  My older sister and her family also came over so we got more niece and nephews time.

Saturday: we woke up and helped my family prep the Thanksgiving we were having that afternoon. After all the food was made, we all dug in.  Yum! Then the boys watched the BYU vs. Utah game, and the girl's hung out with my sister and her kids. It was fun to see the kids so much! I miss having kids around to play with.  Then, Scott went to dinner with his family, and I chilled with mine.  Of course we had the joy of packing again, which I hate, but we got through it.

Sunday: we woke up early to head back to NYC.  It was snowing so the roads weren't the best but we made it to the airport. Security was a breeze again, because we were directed toward the International terminal in SLC. We got on the plane, and it seemed like it was going to be another easy flight.  After 2 hours of waiting to be de-iced, we finally took off! I kept falling asleep and waking up to find that we were still on the ground. It was nice to get into the air and the flight wasn't too bad after that. When we got to JFK, we had to wait a long time for our baggage. I then wanted to take a cab home, but we decided to save money and not take one. It's a good thing we made that decision because as we were walking past the taxi line, it was huge! It probably would have taken just as long to wait for a cab as it would to go home on the subway. I know Scott was secretly happy on the inside that I could not complain that we didn't take a cab. We made it home by 7:00 pm and I was exhausted! Scott was nice and made us some dinner. Then we chilled for a bit and went to sleep.

We had an amazing Thanksgiving break, and I enjoyed seeing family so much. It makes it really hard to come back to the real world...

P.S. My older sister Amber was a trooper this weekend. She came to every family thing even though she could have had her baby at any time. We are excited to meet our new niece when we go home for Christmas. Amber, I hope you meet her soon:)

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

2010-11-29T13:43:00.004-05:00

I don't usually like touchy feely stuff, but we have a lot to be grateful for and it's good to remind ourselves. Thanksgiving is just a perfect day to reflect and have gratitude.

We are both grateful for (in no particular order):

Each other (Awwww)
Family :)
God, Jesus Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (We are so blessed)
Medical School (It's Scott's dream to be a doctor, we are grateful he has the opportunity to pursue it
Friends (We have really good friends-NYC, Utah, etc.
My Job (I'm not grateful to have to work, but we are both grateful to get a paycheck. Finding this job was a huge blessing)
Our Apartment (It's our escape from the outside world. When we are in our apartment I feel like we are in Utah, and that's comforting to me)
Our experiences in NYC (living here is like a roller coaster, but we have grown/learned so much)
Scott is grateful for Sinus Decongestant Medication
I'm grateful for Airplanes and that we get to go home for Thanksgiving AND Christmas (it's reassuring to know that family is just a plane ride away-a really long plane ride)
Scott is grateful that we have plenty of food to eat every day even though he complains that it's not his absolute favorite sometimes (He said it's not a comment on my cooking, we just have to eat cheaper at this time in our life)

P.S. I had good intentions to have this post on Thanksgiving, in fact it was already written. I just forgot to schedule the post...

*I'm going to make a separate post for what we did over the holiday*

An Attempt at a New Look

2010-11-23T13:56:00.001-05:00

I was getting kind of tired of the design of our blog so I decided to change it up a little. I know it's not a drastic change, but I think there is improvement. I still don't LOVE it. Are there tutorials or something that teach how to do all the cool bloggy things? I've been trying to figure out how to do one of those cool headers, but I'm not having any luck. Any help would be appreciated:) Also, I noticed on some blogs they have tabs that you can switch between for different sections of their blog. I don't know if that makes sense. Is that something that's easy to do, like I could do it, or is it more difficult? Do any of my blog savy friends have suggestions?

The Wariner's Came to Visit!

2010-11-04T10:00:00.004-04:00

Our friends, Tarin and Danny graced us with their presence this past week! It was a lot of fun! We are sad to see them go...

I had to work and Scott had school but we were able to catch up with them most evenings.

Some of the highlights when we joined up, and just a warning most of these are restaurants:

-Malecon (a Dominican restaurant by our apartment that serves rice, beans, and yummy rotisserie chicken)
-Eating seafood down at South Street Seaport right by the water. The shrimp I had was so good:)
-Grimaldi's (a famous pizza place in Brooklyn)
-Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge towards Manhattan
-Rowboats at Central Park
-Seeing a million people dressed up in costumes in Central Park
-Shake Shack (hamburger place, good hamburger for New York)
-Levain Bakery (amazing cookies, featured on the Food Network multiple times)
-Yummy soup and rolls Scott made us on Sunday
-Jimmy Fallon on Monday (it was a lot of fun, cool to see how it is all put together)
-Another trip to Malecon, mmmmmm

Thanks Tarin and Danny it was fun to have you come stay with us!

Scott's Secret...

2010-10-29T09:00:00.002-04:00

This is what Scott likes to do while blowing up the air mattress...

He flips the switch and likes to lay on it until it fully inflates. This happens just about every time we blow it up:)

Bed Half Made, or Bed Half Un-made... you decide

2010-10-28T08:00:00.003-04:00

Ever since we've been married Scott has almost always made the bed. The other day I thought I would be nice and started making the bed while he was in the shower. I got distracted by something and went to do something else. Scott comes in and sees that I only made half the bed, my side of the bed. He said, "What is this?! You're only going to make your half of the bed?" I started laughing because I didn't realize that I had only made my half of the bed.

The next day I walked into our room after getting ready and see this:

Scott was giving me a taste of my own medicine:) So here is the question would you consider our bed half made, or half unmade?

By the way... I made the whole bed yesterday morning.

Long Needed Haircut

2010-10-27T11:16:00.001-04:00

We went home to Utah in June and at that time Scott needed a haircut which he never got... I wanted him to go somewhere to get it cut, but it never happended. Now it is October, well almost the end of October and I finally caved in and cut his hair. I wanted to show before and after pictures so everyone could see how long his hair was.

Sidenote: For those of you wondering why it took me a long time to finally cut his hair---first of all Scott kept saying he wanted to grow it out to see what it would look like, second of all anyone who knows me knows I'm hair-phobic. Hair that is out of someone's head freaks me out, even my own! Also, it typically takes me FOREVER to cut his hair. The first time it took 2 hours, second 1 1/2 hours. This time only took me about 30 minutes, I would say that is progress!

Before:

After:

Morning Fog

2010-10-26T10:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday morning I was getting ready for work and Scott says, "Ashley, you have to see this!" I walk over to the window, and this was the view outside with the fog over the river. It was so cool! Just thought I'd share.

Hawaii

2010-10-25T12:49:00.002-04:00

Just over a week ago I returned from a trip with my parents and younger sister to Hawaii. It was a lot of fun! I just wanted to post a few pictures to document this trip. I am very behind on blogging.... Most of these pictures I stole from my Mom's Facebook, thanks Mom! We stayed on the big island of Hawaii in Waikoloa.

We took pictures of ourselves for entertainment while waiting for everyone to board the plane.

We enjoyed the beautiful scenery while we were there. I really love palm trees.

We were able to take a trip over to the wet side of Hawaii where it rains more to the Volcanoes National Park. It was very lush and beautiful on the wet side.

Here is a picture of the vegetation we saw while going to the lava tubes.

Inside the lava tubes.

One day we rode in a glass bottom boat and were able to see fish, turtles, and coral.

These guys were working very hard keeping the trees at the hotel looking good. They had these weird things on their legs to help them climb the trees. It was interesting to watch.

Of course we had some Shave Ice while we were there.

We also went to a luau, but I don't have any pictures from that.

We went on a helicopter ride for my dad's birthday which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Flying over where eruptions had been felt like you were on a different planet. It was so cool/crazy to see.

Here are some pictures from the ride:

This was at the end of the ride with our pilot.

It was a very fun trip! It was also so nice to fly back to Utah and be able to see the rest of my family. We celebrated my Dad's birthday along with my sister Amber's birthday. I love my family!

We got out the dress up stuff for my niece Taesya, and my brothers enjoyed it the most... lol.

It was a very enjoyable trip! I felt bad that Scott was home studying though....

P.S. I still haven't unpacked all the way from my trip, I'm bad...

These are definitely on the list of things to make!

2010-10-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

2010-10-08T09:00:00.001-04:00

For those of you that know Scott really well, you know that he loves his cinnamon rolls. He doesn't like raisins, apples, or chocolate chips added, just classic cinnamon rolls. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and made them on Sunday to enjoy during General Conference. I also actually took my own pictures this time which I hardly ever do for recipes, that's why the photos aren't very good. Also, I wasn't very good at keeping the rolls the same thickness which is why you see varying sizes.

Cinnamon Rolls

1 cup warm milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour (regular if you don’t have it)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine* in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.

After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.**

Roll dough into a 16 x 21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter*** and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

*This recipe has you use a bread machine. If you don’t have one just mix/knead/raise dough as you usually would. The bread machine just makes the process easier.

**I cut the cinnamon and sugar in half. Last time I made this there was way too much cinnamon and sugar. Adjust this depending on how rich you want your cinnamon rolls.

***For the butter I didn’t measure out the butter. I just added it and spread it on until it looked covered probably using a couple of tablespoons.

I have a pumpkin....named Jack

2010-10-07T10:03:00.001-04:00

I came home one day after work, and realized that Scott bought some gourds and a cute small pumpkin from the farmer's market. I was excited and was thinking about where I was going to put them to decorate. Then the other night I said something to Scott about how I was going to put some ribbon on them. Scott's said something like, "Why are you going to put a ribbon on the pumpkin? I bought that to cook with..." I said, "You can't buy me a cute little pumpkin, let me get attached, and then say we are going to eat it!" He said, "Why, did you already name it?" I said, "Yes, I named it... Jack!" (That was the first name I could think of when he asked me).

Rainy Day

2010-09-30T15:05:00.001-04:00

Do you remember in elementary school how you had a "Rainy Day Box" that you brought with things to do in it when it rains and you have to stay inside? I was just thinking about this memory at work because today is a "Rainy Day Box" kind of day.

Recipes on my list of things to make...

2010-09-28T16:08:00.002-04:00

I was looking online at this website and saw all these yummy things I want to make over the next few weeks. I thought I'd share some of my recipe finds. Warning--I haven't tried to make these yet, so I can't give my full recommendation until I try them. They look good though!

Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Southwestern Bean Salad

Southwestern Chicken Drumsticks

Roasted Vegetable Whole Wheat Calzones

Baked Penne with Sweet Italian Sausage

P.S. Does anyone else out there only try recipes that have a picture with the recipe? It's like I trust the recipe more if they show proof that it has been made... maybe I'm the only one that thinks like that...

10 Cops Go Into a Donut Shop....

2010-09-23T14:16:00.001-04:00

It sounds like the beginning of a joke right? As I was leaving for lunch I saw 10 cops walking into a little Dunkin Donuts, I started laughing because that is totally a stereotype (cops and donuts). I wanted to take a picture but I didn't think they'd like that very much (Sorry this picture is from this website talking about a cop stealing donuts).

P.S.: When I worked at Tasty's (donut/sandwich shop in Kaysville, UT) cops would come in all the time. You'd see a parking lot full of cop cars. I always thought it was funny.

My New Best Friend

2010-09-16T15:03:00.002-04:00

I had the best Post Office visit ever today!

Do you want to know why?

Post Office Kiosk, and drop box!

No longer will I have to deal with angry postal workers...

These Kiosks have been at the Post Office

by my work for a while, but only today did I truly

appreciate and use them to their full potential:)

Rough morning... I feel like going to bed and starting over....

2010-09-09T10:45:00.003-04:00

Yesterday at work I started feeling really sick. I could feel a cold coming on and my stomach was killing me. I sneezed probably 100 times at work, and I'm not even joking. The commute was successful and I made it home. When I got home Scott gave me some medicine, and warned me it would knock me out. I felt like it was working and didn't feel tired until all of a sudden I was on the couch and fell asleep around 8:30. I woke up and hurried to bed and fell right to sleep. I continued to sleep until about 6:30 am when I woke up.

I decided to get up and get ready since that usually makes me feel better. I got ready and headed off to work (thought about calling in sick but didn't want to waste vacation days). I got to the subway station and saw waited for the train. I initially got onto the C train, but the A came, so I decided to switch trains. Right when I got on the train, I sat down and smelled something funny. I soon realized that it smelled like something was burning, and decided to get off the next stop and get on the C when it got there. While I waited for the C, I noticed MTA workers and a police officer trying to figure out what was causing the smell. The C came, and as I was getting on they announced that the A train was no longer in service, so everyone from that train packed on... It seemed like forever on the train, I ended up getting to my transfer stop 15 minutes later than usual. I transferred to my train and was freaking out because it was looking like I was going to be late. I get to the stop right by my office and get off having to climb the monstrous escalator while I felt I didn't have any energy. I made it to work and clocked in at 9:34 which is "late" for work since work starts at 9:30, but they give us until 9:37 to not be considered late, which saved me. I clocked in "on time! barely." Now the story doesn't end here.

I start working, and doing the usual morning routine and at about 10:15 I decided to eat my breakfast that I had packed--lemon yogurt. This sounded really good to me, because it was cold, and I thought it would feel good on my throat. I started eating it and it was really good until I noticed a clump in the yogurt I was eating. I then looked down at my yogurt and realized there was mold in it! I throw the container into my garbage and start spitting it out. I start freaking out, I yelled, "yuck, I'm going to be sick!" Then I ran into the bathroom. I started to wash out my mouth, scrubbing my tongue to get it out. I run into the kitchen and grab half of a bagel to take a few bites to get the taste out of my mouth. I come back to my pod and explain what happened to the 2 people who sit next to me. They just look at me like, "and the problem is..." No sympathy whatsoever.

So not only am I sick, tired, was almost late, now I have consumed moldy yogurt... I'm ready to call a do over...

It's not even 11:00 am yet.

Subway Pro Now

2010-09-02T18:54:00.003-04:00

One year ago I could have never given directions to anyone on the subway...

Yesterday I saw a lady on the E train that looked so confused. I asked her where she needed to go and figured out she was on the wrong train so I gave her instructions and told her to get off and wait for the correct train.

Then today on the way home I saw a girl looking at the subway map on the train and seemed stressed. I asked where she was going and told her which stop she needed to transfer at without even thinking about it. It just seemed like second nature.

I'm pretty proud of myself:)

Look What Scotty Did!

2010-08-31T13:44:00.001-04:00

He bought this from a student moving out....

And turned it into this! Isn't it so cute?

What an amazing hubby! Thanks Scotty!

P.S. For those of you who have backyards/frontyards/garages to do projects, we're jealous...

First Day of School!

2010-08-30T11:37:00.002-04:00

Today is Scott's First Day of his 2nd Year of Medical School!

I made him take the traditional first day of school picture:)

Real Sandwich

2010-08-23T14:04:00.005-04:00

It's called, "Bacon, lettuce, vine-ripened tomato, avocado double-decker on lightly toasted white bread, with mayo, salt, and pepper." Sorry, the recipe is a secret, and I can't give it away no matter how much you want it.

Some things should be left in the past...

2010-08-19T16:29:00.002-04:00

There are certain styles that come and go and I am fine with that.

There are good things and there are bad things.

Skinny jeans good.... Leggings with stirrups, very bad!

These are on sale at Gap, I'm not making this up.

Crunchy Lemonade Drumsticks

2010-08-12T11:30:00.002-04:00

I found this recipe in my Food Network magazine. I thought it turned out very good, and it was really easy!

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (if you don't get enough juice, add bottled)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 cup buttermilk (or milk with a splash of lemon juice to make your own)
12 skin-on chicken drumsticks
salt and pepper (kosher salt and freshly ground pepper if you have it)
2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or dried, just use less)
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1/4 cup mayonnaise
olive-oil cooking spray

Mix 1 tablespoon lemon zest and the lemon juice in a large bowl. Add 1 cup water and the sugar and whisk to dissolve, then whisk in the buttermilk. Pierce the drumsticks several times with a fork and season with salt and pepper. Toss in the marinade, cover and refrigerate 4 hours, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring the chicken to room temperature. Put the panko, thyme, remaining 1 tablespoon lemon zest, the cayenne, 1 teaspoon salt, and black pepper to taste in a large resealable plastic bag and shake to mix. Put the mayo in a bowl. Set a rack on a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.

Remove the drumsticks from the marinade, dip in the mayonnaise, then drop into the bag and shake to coat; transfer to the rack.

Mist the chicken with cooking spray. Bake until golden, about 35 minutes; flip and bake until browned and crisp, 35 to 40 more minutes (check on your chicken, mine took only an additional 25 minutes).

6 Month Review Nightmare

2010-08-11T11:18:00.003-04:00

I'm supposed to be having my 6 month review sometime this week for work. Last night I had a nightmare about the whole thing. This is what happened:

I'm sitting at my desk at work, and I get a phone call letting me know that my review will be in about 10 minutes. I go up to the reception area to wait for my appointment. I look down and I'm wearing jeans. I freak out that I am wearing jeans to work because I'm not supposed to. I decide that I need to change. Conveniently I remember that my freshman roommate Linsey Spriggs (now Walker) lives in the building that I work in. (Crazy how in my dream that made sense). I rushed to her apartment to ask her if she has a skirt I can borrow. She said that I could, and as she handed me a skirt (thanks Lins!) I look down and notice that I was already wearing a skirt, my jeans were gone. I find a few more pieces to finish the outfit, and am happy with what I am wearing. I rush back to make it to my review, which ended up taking a long time to get back for some reason, and I had missed my scheduled time. They tell me to hurry and find my supervisor to see if I can still do it. I find her and am unable to have my review....

I woke up after this dream at about 4:15 am stressed out. Luckily I was able to get back to sleep. When I got dressed this morning, I paid special attention to what I picked out, just in case they decide last minute to do my review.

2 Year Anniversary

2010-08-11T10:07:00.002-04:00

This is what Scott woke up to on July 31, 2010...

Me singing: "Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Haaaappy Anniversary! Happy Happy Happy Happy, Happy Anniversary! Happy Happy Happy Happy, Happy Anniversary! Haaaaaapppppyyyyyy.... Happy Anniversary!"

It's the traditional anniversary song, it's very fun to sing:)

Family Visit!

2010-08-10T11:02:00.005-04:00

My family went on a trip to visit my brother's mission in Canada. At the end of their trip they took some time to come to visit us! They came 2 weekends ago, and were here for about 4 days. It was so fun to see them! I may insert pictures stolen from their facebook pages later, or maybe not.

Some things we did:

Thursday- I met my family at their hotel in Times Square after I got off of work. We decided by request of my sister to head up near our apartment to go to Malecon (a Dominican restaurant in Washington Heights. Scott met up with us at the restaurant. We ate lots of chicken, rice and beans, beef, bread, flan, and tres leches cake. My dad was amazed at how cheap it was there! Scott and I can eat there for under $10.00 for the two of us. We then went to our apartment so my brother Cam could see where we lived.

Friday-Met at Central park by the Bethesda fountain. My brother Cody was amused by the saxophone performer. We rented rowboats and rode around in them for a while. It was really fun! We raced each other a bit, and just relaxed. After the rowboats as we were walking through the park, we ran into an area where there were a lot of tents set up. We soon realized that we had come upon a Korean festival. We heard some Korean music, and sampled Korean food. Most of it was good. We joked with Scott that he had planned going to it all along, and made it seem like an accident when we stumbled upon it. It really was an accident though which made it all the more fun. We walked by the Manhattan Temple and ate lunch nearby. We went to the MOMA which was fun. I love to see all the art, and also the crazy pieces people come up with. We then went to Times Square where my family was staying. We decided to get Ice Cream, so we picked up some custard from Shake Shack, yum. That night we went to "In the Heights," which is one of my favorite shows! If you don't live around here, and haven't heard of this broadway show... it's about Washington Heights which is the neighborhood we live in. It's a show about community, and has amazing music, dancing, and is very all around entertaining and funny. I was nervous about what they were going to think of the show. I really wanted them to like it since I did so much. It was a success! They loved it! I'm so glad. If you are ever in NYC and have a chance to see it, get tickets.

Saturday-We met down at Battery Park. We just walked around and watched performers. There was this one guy that was doing some sort of ritual before his show. Then he did all weird sorts of contortions with his body and eventually put himself into a small box. I thought it was disturbing, but he had a lot of spectators. We then walked through the financial district. We eventually rode the subway to the West Village where we went to "A Salt and Battery" which is an amazing fish and chips place. We bought the food and then ate at a park nearby. After that we walked to where there was shopping. We went to Macy's and just wandered around the store, going up each level to show my family how large it was. We found the furniture level which was nice because we were able to rest by "testing" out a lot of couches and chairs. My brothers split off to go to other stores and back to the hotel while me, Court, Mom, Dad and Scott walked around some more. We went to H&M and found some cute things there. Scott and Dad were good sports while waiting for us to be done shopping. We were then wandering back to the hotel where we ran into another street festival! This one was just a bunch of random stuff. We found yummy smoothies, and kettle corn. Later we tried to take my brothers back to the festival but it was already closing down. We found somewhere to sit, and hung out until dinner. That night we went to Virgil's BBQ, which was really good, and a lot of meat! It was my brother David's birthday so they brought out a dessert and sang to him.

Sunday-My family came over to our apartment in the morning for Crepes. We filled them with all sorts of things. We rode the subway to church. Then, we came home and had dinner. We enjoyed talking to each other and hanging out until my family had to go back to their hotel for the night.

Monday-I had to work on Monday, so I didn't get to hang out with my family the morning before they left.

It was very fun having them here! I love when family visits, come again soon!

A few pounds of potatoes...

2010-07-28T15:03:00.008-04:00

I went to Target last night with a friend while she went to Costco and was excited to find that the new Target has more of a selection of food than the one I usually go to. I was shopping, and walked past where they had potatoes, and I thought, "Oh we need some red potatoes, I'll buy a 5 pound bag." I was excited when I got home that I was able to buy potatoes at Target. When Scott got home I showed him all of the stuff I bought, and showed him the potatoes. He looks at me and says,"but we already have potatoes." Then I said, "No we don't, remember we were at Costco and decided that the 10 pound bag of potatoes was too much...." Then Scott opened up the pantry and there was the 10 pound bag of red potatoes... I came to a realization that now we had 15 pounds of potatoes. I was not so excited about my find anymore... What are we going to do with 15 pounds of potatoes? Do you need any?

I don't know what to blog about...

2010-07-22T13:53:00.002-04:00

Be suspicious of empty subway cars....

2010-07-15T17:01:00.003-04:00

Here is a survival tip if you ever come to New York City....

Yesterday morning, I was waiting for the A train to come to take me to work. Of course during peak commuting times the subway cars are usually full. I saw the train approaching and noticed that there was one that was pretty empty. I ran to get into that car, and it took me only 1 second to realize why there was no one on the train. There was a homeless guy with all of his stuff, and he stunk soooo bad! I ran out of the car along with probably 30 other people to get into another subway car. Thankfully I made it and enjoyed my commute with minimal bad smells. I was thinking about it and I felt bad for that guy and the reaction I'm sure he gets all day, but I just couldn't imagine sitting for 20 minutes with that strong odor. I just about gagged being in there for 2 seconds. This has happened a few times, and I always think, maybe it's just an empty car....but lesson learned, it never is.

New Goal: Meal Planning

2010-07-13T12:08:00.004-04:00

On Saturday when we were at Target, I saw a little whiteboard just like this one here on sale for 2 dollars. I decided that this would be perfect to get back into meal planning. I've been very bad at meal planning lately, and would often get home from work without any idea of what I would make for dinner. So after making this purchase I got set on meal planning...

Saturday was Chicken Tikka Masala with rice and Naan
Sunday was Enchiladas with Cilantro Lime Rice and Black Beans
Monday was Meatball Sandwiches.

I planned out all these meals, and we made exactly what was planned.

Tonight is whatever each of us can find because Scott will be at the homeless clinic when I get home
Wednesday is Oven "Fried" Drumsticks with Potato Wedges and whatever vegetable we have
Thursday is Lemon Pepper Fettuccine with Chicken and Asparagus
Friday is another whatever night because we work at the temple on Friday nights so I just meet Scott there after work

Another one of my goals in meal planning is to try new recipes. So I'm hoping to include a few new recipes every week. If I make any really good ones I'll post them. Please share any good/new recipes that you make too :)

It's almost 3:00 and I'm ready to call it a day...

2010-07-10T14:49:00.004-04:00

Laundry Blitz on 5 different floors in our building---Check
Grocery Shopping at Target, carrying everything back with us---Check

I'm tired....

P.S. Today was a realization that we are indeed back to the city life

Our Trip to Utah!

2010-07-08T13:38:00.005-04:00

I haven't blogged in a really long time, so it's my chance to catch up. I will have to add in pictures later.

We were able to take a trip back home to see our family. Scott went a few days before me to do the Ragnar so I had to navigate to the airport alone. I would say that I am pretty good about getting myself around the city on my own, but the airport is always a different story. I left directly from work and was feeling good getting on the right trains, and making it to the airtrain. While I was on the airtrain I got distracted while texting Scott asking about his race, and I missed my stop. The airtrain loops around to the different terminals at the airport so I decided to just stay on and make the loop again. It took about 20 minutes to get around the loop again and come to find out I could have gotten off the train I was on and gotten on another to save myself some time. After getting through security I still managed to get to the airport 1 1/2 early. Other than that little trip up, I would say I was successful getting to the airport.

When I got to Utah on Friday June 18th, my Dad, Mom, and little sister Courtney came to pick me up. They were so nice to come get me even though I didn't fly in until after 11:00 pm. I of course had to go to sleep shortly after since it was after 1:00 my time. I got excited while in the car that I could see the stars. I haven't seen a sky full of stars in a long time. Of course waking up in the mornings during our trip I rarely slept past 6:00 am. I decided I was going to try to stay close to New York time if possible so I wouldn't have so much of an adjustment.

Then we just hung out on Saturday until Scott was back from his race and then I went with him to his celebratory BBQ.

On Sunday, it was Father's Day. We went to church with my family. It was a little strange being back in my home ward. Our ward in NYC is just so different. After church Scott's brother Brad and his wife Kate were going to be leaving to go back to California so we had lunch with Scott's family to say goodbye. Then we went back to my house for dinner. My sister was sick, so my brother in law brought their kids, and my grandparents were also there. It was fun to see everyone.

Monday to Wednesday Scott helped his Mom with Elementary Science camp for the Davis School District during the day. I hung out and helped my family with getting things ready for my brother Cam getting home from his mission on that Thursday. On Monday my mom took me to her circuit training class that was a killer. I went once and died... I don't know how my mom does it.

On Thursday we did the final things getting ready for Cameron to get home from his mission. We went to the airport with our signs, and greeted the missionaries as they came in. There were a bunch of missionaries from Canada flying home together so there were a lot of people waiting. It was emotional for me to see my brother, because I hadn't seen him in 2 years. A lot has happened since then. Since he left on his mission, Scott and I got married, we both graduated from College, and then we moved to NYC and Scott finished his first year of medical school. It also made me sad to think that now he's home, and we are living away, so I had limited time to see him. I got over my emotions, and enjoyed being able to see him! After the airport we went home and had dinner with all my siblings, parents, Scott, sister's family, and grandparents. We had one of Cameron's favorite dinners and desserts, then he was off to get released as a missionary at the Stake President's office. When he got home we all went swimming, which was very fun!

Friday and Saturday we prepared for family coming over on Sunday to hear Cameron speak. I can't remember what else we did.

On Sunday we went to church with my family, and heard Cameron speak in Sacrament. Afterwards our family came over to have lunch at my parents house. It was fun to see extended family that I hadn't seen in a while. I was amazed at how many people could fit in my parents house and backyard. I'm used to hosting people in a tiny apartment.

Wow, this post is getting really long! I'll stop boring you with the details because now my mind is blanking at what else we did. It was just a lot of fun relaxing in Utah and hanging out with family.

Some of my things in Utah that are different than NYC:
Driving!
Grocery Shopping with a car to take home the groceries
Cheap groceries
No Humidity
Staying in a house with carpet
A Yard
Grass
Dishwasher
Disposal
Washer/Dryer
And best of all.... Family!

I'm sure there were more, but these are some of the things I really appreciated while we were in Utah. It was very relaxing to be out of the city for a bit. My stresses went away for 12 days which I enjoyed. I can't wait for the next time we get to go to Utah!

Off to Utah!

2010-06-18T11:48:00.007-04:00

Tonight I'll be heading to Utah and I couldn't be any more excited! Scott has been there since Wednesday so it has been very hard for me to go to work these past 2 days. Looking forward to going home, but now looking forward to the long flight... and dealing with JFK. I am hoping that my experience is not like Scott's. He sat on the runway for an hour waiting to take off, multiple babies were screaming, and a little kid was kicking his seat the entire time:( I hope I can just read, sleep, and have an enjoyable flight. See you soon family and friends!

While I am waiting to finish work, and fly home... Scott is running! He is running the Ragnar with members of his family, and some of their friends. I tried to post pictures of the route, but blogger wouldn't let me. Refer to the link It's a relay race from Logan to Park City. Each member of their team runs 3 legs of the race. That's what he'll be doing for today and tomorrow. I'll have him make a post of his experience.

1 year down... 3 to go

2010-06-14T12:30:00.009-04:00

Today Scott officially finished his 1st year of Medical School! I am so proud of him for working so hard. It's crazy that we now have one year down... it has gone by so fast!

I asked Scott to share some highlights of his first year. This is what he said:

White Coat Ceremony - Even though I don't know what I'm doing, at least now I look like I know what I'm doing.
Anatomy lab - dissecting my cadaver, aka my "first patient." My mind's view of the body will forever be changed, and it is imprinted with the delicate nerves and vessels of my cadaver's flesh.
Shadowing in the OR - scrubbing in on a heart surgery and touching a live heart, seeing it stop . . . and start again, and seeing a full hip replacement, complete with power tools and all.
Columbia-Harlem Homeless Medical Partnership (CHHMP) - Each Tuesday night from 5:30 to 10:00, providing healthcare to street-homeless individuals in Harlem. As you might imagine, I've met people here in the city looking for help who have life stories I couldn't make up even if I tried. All types of drug addicts, dealing drugs, stealing cars, prostitution as a means of staying alive, sleeping on trains, etc. At times I wish I could do more than give them allergy and blood pressure medication, advice on how to keep their infected feet both clean and in-grown toenail-free, and a new pair of socks...but I hope that what we do do makes a difference.
Assisting a lung transplant - "harvesting" the donor's lungs at 3:00am - then racing back to our hospital with siren's blaring to put them in the recipient whose lungs have failed them from years of cystic fibrosis damage.
Being a witness to both life (delivering a baby in the hospital) and death (in the ER)

This summer Scott will be busy doing research with a Urologist. The research he is doing is comparing patients who've had both cryotherapy (freezing) on their prostate cancer and organ transplants.

Cody's Graduation!

2010-06-12T09:43:00.004-04:00

My little (but a lot taller) brother Cody graduated from High School on June 4th! I was sad that we couldn't be there... but so excited for him! He will be going to BYU in the Fall. Thanks Mom for posting pictures on Facebook! Sorry this is a late post too...

My little (but taller) sister Courtney in this picture just finished up Jr. High and will be heading to High School! Our family is growing up...

We went to Boston for memorial day weekend...

2010-06-03T09:52:00.006-04:00

And ran a half marathon! I know that this is a late post, but better late than never. I have a bunch of pictures I wanted to post from our Boston trip but for some reason, this is the only picture blogger will let me post...so I have put off posted until I got it figured out, but I didn't. These are our friends in NYC that we ran with.

This race was the hardest thing I have ever done physically, I really didn't think I would finish. It was really hot, and it was humid, and the race didn't start until 8:00 am. I saw people passing out around me, saw a few people on stretchers and hoped that I wouldn't be one of them. I started getting dizzy and blacking out a few times during the race, so I'd slow down during those times. When I came up the final hill and started on the downhill I thought I was almost to the finish line, but it was further than I thought. Scott saw me during this time while he was waiting for me to finish, and ran up to help me finish. He was trying to give me encouraging words, but all I was saying was, "I can't do this, I'm going to die..." He kept me going, and helped me get to the finish, even though I was getting mad at him for being so perky. When I finished I told him to hold me up because I really thought I was going to pass out. I have never been good with heat and get very overheated easily.

I thought that I would love running after training for a half marathon or that it would get easy at some point. All I can say is that I don't hate running as much as I used too, and it still has not gotten easy. I'm glad that we ran the race, and that I finished. I proved to myself that I can do something if I put my mind to it. Never before would I have ever thought that I could complete 13.1 miles.

We had a great trip to Boston! It was mine and Scott's first time going there, and I loved the area. I was surprised at how different Boston was from New York. It had a sort of small town feel, but it wasn't a really small town. It was very calm, and relaxing being there. We went to a Red Sox game one night when we were there. Scott and I weren't planning on going because it was sort of expensive. Walking with our friends to Fenway Park, we decided that we wanted to go, and bought some tickets someone was selling. It was fun to experience a Red Sox game. We also went to some really good restaurants, and just had an overall good time with our friends. It was nice to get a break from the city for the weekend.