Hello Friends! This week has been a nice quiet one. Rich has really been enjoying Nielsen, I've been keeping busy at CNT as well as a little bit of babysitting within the ward.
I forgot to post a few pictures last week. It was a pretty long post and I think by the time I finished and was ready to post I was tired and forgot a few pictures.
For those readers who live out west and don't know what a toll road is - this is what they look like. Last weekend, on our way back from DC, we passed through SEVERAL of these tolls. The ones that say EZ PASS - are like your quick pass - you get a little barcode on your windshield and you zip on through. The ones that say CASH - are the longer lines, the ones we went through. They were the biggest thorn in our sides on our trip. The way back from DC was the worst when we crossed the George Washington bridge into New York - it was a 15 dollar toll!!! (most are around 5 dollars). We spent about 50$ in tolls that trip. If you're coming back east - and you're planning on driving - bring money for tolls!!
They were quite annoying and we were VERY happy to be home and greet our puppy when we got home. I forgot to mention last week that we came home to a pleasant surprise waiting for us on our counter.
We were pretty exhausted but it made my heart melt to see that the "easter bunny" had visited our house! Our sweet angel neighbor Lynn made us some yummy banana bread, and the Tuppers from the ward left some chocolate bunnies and flowers. It was such a pleasant surprise and it totally made our evening!
This week, on Tuesday we had the awesome opportunity to watch BYU basketball in MADISON SQUARE GARDEN! We never were able to see the Cougars play when we were in Utah, so it's ironic that the first game that we saw of the season, was at the NIT in MSG.
Here's a pic of us at the game. We played the first half terribly, but the second half was pretty entertaining! We still lost but it was a close game in the end! It was cool to see how well represented BYU fans were - the majority of the fans were rooting for the cougars! But the Valpo fans were loud too (mostly drunk). (we were louder) Also - doesn't Rich's beard look handsome? He's never gotten this far before and he's always stroking it.
On the way to the game at the last minute, I decided to paint this on my cheek with blue acrylic. It was pretty tricky to do because of the bumps on the road.
It was a lot of fun to be in Manhattan at night. The buildings were lit up, the smells of the hot dog and food stands were floating in the air - it was "magical". We were walking along, heading back to grand central, when suddenly, look what came into our view....
That's right. The Empire State Building. In a previous post I mentioned that seeing it was underwhelming. And in a way, it is. But, at night, it was beautiful. It was all lit up and tall as can be. Before when we saw it, on our first trip into the city, we were almost to the point of death we were so tired, so maybe we were just disappointed because we were tired. But you can see in this picture, it looks quite stunning. (and sorry...this picture is horrible, but we were walking while I took it and it was the best I could do....sorry about that bright street lamp)
We had a pretty quiet week. Rich actually went BACK into the city on Thursday for a team building activity with his work. (He's becoming quite the New Yorker). He and his coworkers had to "break out of prison". The way he described it, it was kind of like a real life game that also helped in team work exercises. He didn't get home til pretty late that night like 8 or so. They hid rush hour traffic at about 5 and it took 3 hours to come home instead of about 1.5.
We finally have mostly everything packed away and most of the decorations put up. So it actually looks like people live in our apartment now. So I took pictures this week. Enjoy.
We have the bed SUPER high because we have all my school stuff under it.
Can you see those makeshift curtains? We're getting REAL curtains soon...compliments of my mother! ;)
Gotta love that rug! It was in my classroom before we moved. But...we need rugs! Apparently the man who lives beneath us can hear a lot - we learned that when we had an unpleasant visit from the police. The rugs help.
You can see the bathroom directly through the bedroom. It is ITTY BITTY! I didn't bother taking a photo in there because it's very small and I'll be honest...it wasn't the cleanest either.
Here's our closet. It's STUFFED. There's a Christmas tree in there somewhere. We literally have nowhere else to store things so this is where we had to tetris it all.
Here's our living room. View #1.
And here's the other view. Do you see a sleeping husband? (conference nap)
Here's a view of our kitchen. It's small. But cozy. It's really not bad. The roses on the counter were given to us by LYNN!!! I love her.
Here's the entry. BYU BANNER! Let's go cougars!
That pretty much sums up the whole apartment. It's smaller than you think it is, but...it's ours and we like it a lot. It's really close to everything. And it's a very safe place to live. Rich and I have gone on some evening runs this week (we're really trying to get back in shape...we've been feeling flabby lately). We've gone after dark each time and it's been really nice. Everyone kinda goes to bed at 5 (so it seems) so the streets get pretty clear and not too many people are out. We actually had our first frog encounter this week! We stopped to stretch and I saw something move in the grass - it was a spring peeper! Bilbo came with us and made friends with the frog too. I was so worried he was going to eat it, but he was pretty gentle and only pawed at it gently and licked at it.
In between conference sessions today (which all 4 were sensational!! I really loved Rasband's and Oaks' talks this time around) we took the dog on a little adventure. Lynn told us we need to check out this place called Town Forest - it's just a big long hiking trail with a little creek alongside it. It's going to be SO beautiful once the trees get leaves (winter is lasting SOOOOO LONG).
While we were walking, I noticed this fungus stuff growing on a fallen log. I thought it looked pretty cool. We don't have stuff like that growing on trees in Utah.
I made these beauties this morning. And mmmm were they delicious! We shared one with Lynn and we'll probably enjoy them for a few more days.
I also meant to share this a while ago. Back at Manila, my students (the 1st and 2nd graders) were able to hear from this Irish Olympian! Our student teacher, Jane Hart, has a friend (boyfriend actually) who came from Ireland to UT to do some skeleton luge practice at the Olympic park. He was able to speak to the kids about what he does. His name is Patrick Obrien (can you get any more Irish!?). It looks like most of them (except Brielle - 10 guesses who she is?) really enjoyed it.
I miss my kids sooo much! I have had 2 letters from them - and I check the mail every day for more. I miss teaching so much more than I thought I would - I know it's my calling. I'm trying to get on the ball and get a job as a teacher ASAP!!
Well, that's all folks. Who knows what next week will hold!
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