No Snow Day....

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

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

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

Hunt for Cider

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

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?

Remember Jack? Sorry Ash...

Cute Picture of Jovie

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

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

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...

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

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!

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

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!

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!