Happy St. Patrick's Day

Last night Becca and Carl Hardie cooked a huge spread for St. Patrick's Day. This is Becca's favorite holiday so it is no surprise that everything was perfect.

Starting with the table setting


Also, there was great company. One of Carl's old mission companions was in town with his wife and one of the oldies, John Clowney, was in town as well. We were so excited to see him and are waiting for his wife Bonnie to be meeting up with us this week.


We also learned something new. Becca grew up eating corned beef and cabbage as her St. Patrick's Day meal, but apparently that is not authentic. Purely American. So this year she did a lamb stew. Supposedly it is more authentic and very tasty. The bread was an Irish Soda Bread. The dessert, although not Irish, was played up with the green aspect including green whipped cream, mint chocolate chip ice cream and thin mint girl scout cookies. The candy bar crumble consisted of twix and snickers and the hot fudge was homemade. All I have to say is: Oh my goodness, it was amazing. Becca out did herself.













As always, good times were had by all.


















Happy St. Patrick's Day

Appreciation #5

My appreciation this week goes out to a mystery man that I met at church today. As many of you know, Doug serves in the bishopric of a singles ward so I attend that ward with him. After class today a gentlemen that I did not know and have never seen before walked right up to me and said "I just have to tell you that I think you are one of the most beautiful women that I have ever seen." He then went on to ask if I was new in the ward. I started playing with my hair on purpose trying to show off my wedding ring until he finally realized what I was doing. He got a look of pure embarrassment on his face then said, "can we just pretend that this never happened" and walked away. I did not see him again but I appreciate any man that has the confidence to walk up to a complete stranger and give such a nice compliment. Doug got a good laugh out of the story then followed with "well, I agree with him". Thanks again mystery man for helping my husband along with his romantic side. The moral of the story is: I still got it.

Who do you appreciate this week?

Nice

I'm sure most of you have spent your weekend just like me so far- Friday night following the NCAA indoor track and field championships while cheering on my alma mater and Saturday cheering on my favorite professional runners at the US 8K championships in central park and finding brunch places in the village for your old running teammates. Josh McAdams, who I ran and roomed with at BYU, was running in the race. For those few of you not in the know, Josh was the US 3000 steeplechase champion last year and represented us at the world champs in Osaka. He'll probably be an Olympian this year if he doesn't get hurt. He wanted to take his wife to the village so I obliged. That's just how I roll on my weekends. If that's not what you've been up to, I really can't imagine what else you were doing but it couldn't have been as awesome as that. As you can tell, a lot of what I do in life I view as awesome. I highly recommend it.
I've had a few friends go on and run professionally (as professional as you can get) after college and it's awesome to see them succeed. It's hard to keep on running when I probably won't ever be in as good of shape as I was in college but every time I go to a race I still want to keep on training. Hopefully once I'm in school I'll have a bit more time and be able to . That's what you do in school, right? Have more time? That's how I remember it.
Either way it reminds me of a talk President Buckner gave back when he was a high councilor. He spoke about dreams and goals and how when we were younger we had these huge ideas of what we wanted to be and also had a different way of defining success. For some reason when we get older we lose those dreams and don't think we can achieve as much. Of course reality sets in, but where did our confidence go? When I was younger I was deciding which NFL team I would play for. Then it was which events I wanted to run the Olympics in. Now I don't feel like running local races.
Anyway, it's really cool to see friends fulfill their dreams and gives me some hope and inspiration. I'm not going to drop out and be a professional athlete, but I can still dream. And be awesome.

Awesome

Yesterday I was on the phone minding my own business when my Gmail pops up saying congrats. I was so stoked to get into a school. For those of you not in the know I applied to business school and it's a really competitive year. I applied to four schools and just want to get into one. I'm being intentionally vague about which school because it might be in LA and Tamara doesn't want everyone to think we're leaving. We haven't heard from other schools so we haven't decided yet where we're going but we're excited to at least be heading somewhere.
I was trying to think of how relieved I was. One time we were at the smoots at the dinner table and Stella gets this awful look on her face like she's in some intense pain. She's cringing her face and clenching her fists. Everyone was concerned for a second when all of a sudden she passes some major gas and has this look of MAJOR relief on her face. We cracked up and so did she. I felt kind of like that.
In other good news, Tamara went to the doc today and only has to to take four shots for her next round of medicine. In not so great news they decided to pump all the medicine from the last time into one week. So, it should be a pretty sweet week. But the doctor was much more positive this time so it was reassuring.
More good news is we have some friends coming to town this weekend and should get some serious Halo playing done which should be great training for bus. school.

Weekend Update

Even though it was pouring rain, so windy that it would blow you over, and the subways weren't working, we still managed to have a great weekend.

Friday night we met up with some of Jakes and Reagan's friends that were in town visiting.


We ate at a Thai restaurant called Lime Leaf that was very tasty and had live music. After diner we had to, of course, stop at Magnolia Bakery to munch on some cupcakes.


Saturday night we met up with Jeff, Caitin, Tracy, and Steve for a celebration dinner for Jeff getting into a master's program at Northwestern.


We ate at a French restaurant named Bistro Les Amis. Again, it was amazing and I highly recommend getting there in time for their Prix Fixed meal.


After dinner we were all off to another celebration. Our friend Carl Lesueur was turing 31 and graduation from the singles ward and Mike Mathews put together a rocking party.











And of course, a party would not be a party without one of Oscar's raps.


Sunday we enjoyed sleeping in (because we forgot to change our clocks), went to church, had a great nap, then went to dinner at our friend Leslie Short's home. This was great because Ann, Carly, and Neal were also there. Dinner with them is becoming a monthly tradition that we are very much enjoying. Leslie cooked these amazing stuffed peppers and Ann brought some very yummy chocolate dessert that she just happened to whip up. I wished that I had pictures but I forgot my camera.

So, it was another great weekend in the city with fun adventures, great good, and the best company that anyone could ask for.

There are more pictures of the weekend at Hall Photos.

Appreciation #4

This week's appreciation goes out to my dear friend Kaedi Fehlberg. We became friends shortly after I moved to NYC about four years ago. Without ever knowing it, she has helped me through my good and bad days. She was with me the night that I first fell for my husband Doug, she was there on our wedding day, and she has been there after everyone of my doctor appointments these past months. She lives about a block away from my doctors office so I would go cry on her shoulders before having to take the bus and two subways home. Every time that I showed up at your home she had cookies, lunch, and a smile that always made me feel better. I look up to her in every way and always inspire to be more like her.

Who do you appreciate this week?

Project Runway is so fierce

Last night we had a fierce Project Runway finale party and we all looked fabulous


Kim brought the couture made Rice Krispies Treat.


Meredith made a cake with the writing "Make it Work"


Quoting our dear Tim Gunn (Doll brought by Ryan)


The night had to, of course, start off with a competition of the designers (thanks to Ryan). Each team had ten minutes to design and fit their models only using newspaper and tape. Flowing that was the fashion show (the video will be coming shortly). We all know that "either you are in or you are out" and team fierce won. Way to go Reagan, Meredith, and Tamara.


All of us were getting nervous at the end thinking that, oh my gosh could Rami really win...No!! Seeing Christian lose his confidence was mind blowing, he was starting to cry. Seeing him almost cry made all of us (well some of us) want to cry for him. Christian, we were thinking, you can do it, you have to win. Just when we couldn't take it any longer we hear Heidi Klum announce, "Christian, you are the WINNER." Yeahs and claps were heard though out the room. Christian was himself again quickly when soon after was asked "Can you believe that this just happened?" and he replied with "Yeah".


Way to go Christian, you are so fierce. Don't be surprise if a girl named Reagan comes knocking on your door just to give you a hug.

You can see more pictures of the night at Hall Photos

Roll Call

I wanted to do a few shout outs to people/things that have affected me lately:

First, to running. It's been months since I've run pain free and while my hip still hurts after a few miles it feels so good to be back on the road. I don't think I can overstate how much I enjoy running and am glad I was able to compete for so long. And also giving me an excuse to wear short shorts and spandex as well as shave my legs. I'm forever indebted to the sport.

Tone Loc recently turned 42. If Funky Cold Medina doesn't do it for you , well, I don't know why you're reading this blog. Seriously though, think about some of his lines:
This is the 80's and I'm down with the ladies
My threads are fresh and I'm looking def yo was up with L-O-C.
He embodied everything that was good about 80's rap even though he only had two big songs. And he was in Ace Ventura which was a staple in our house growing up. For some reason my mom wouldn't let us buy it but we rented it so many times we paid for it several times over. One of my favorite memories of my brother Matt is doing a better impression of Ace than the actor in a show we saw in Florida. I don't know if he was embarrassed or in disbelief that a 14 year old kid showed up in front of dozens of tourists. At this point I'll also shoutout Matt for inspiring me to take the GMAT by rocking it and forcing me to bring my A-game.

My cousin Jon who took us to the MoMA for the design and the elastic mind exhibit. Jon moved to the city a few years ago. Before that he lived in North Dakota and for the first couple years he was here I saw him more often when he was in ND than when he lived here. I'm glad we got that figured out and we now see him and Kayte (not that it's always a package deal, for now) more regularly.

KROQ who is finally streaming online so I can listen to Kevin and Bean during the day now. Growing up, these guy were so hilarious. We would sit in the car before seminary waiting for them to finish their segments. I'm sure our teachers are thrilled to hear that.

Jeff, Caitlin, and Tracy for various reasons. As a group they visited Tamara a couple times last week which she really appreciated. I didn't know they were allowing travel so freely between Brooklyn, the UWS, and the heights but I guess I was wrong. I'm going to highlight Jeff because 1) He just got into a master's program at Northwestern and though we'll miss him, this is huge 2) He introduced to the following things that have changed my life (a list within a list) a) Daft Punk's 2007 alive b) scrabulous, which he routinely humiliates me at and 3) and any time spent with the Mulcocks is 100% guaranteed a good time.

Wilbon from PTI for recovering from his heart issues and not forcing me to listen to LeBatard or Adande any more.

Tamara wants to shoutout our bud Carl for making sure that we never have to lose a board/card game we play with him, Brett Favre for helping her win her football fantasy league (let's not talk about it), and Christa for sending her customized M&Ms.

I want to say good riddance to Sam Cassell for quitting on the Clips. I understand where he was coming from but it's a sad day to be a Clippers fan. In advance of tonights results I'm saying goodbye to Hillary. She won't quit after this, but she'll be essentially eliminated and anything else she does will divide her party.

I'm also saying good riddance to my infrequent posting and will be back more regularly.

MoMA

This past weekend we went to the MoMA Museum with Doug's cousin John Bennion and his girlfriend Kayte Williams.

We went to the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit and found it very odd and interesting and the same time. The odd part was seeing what we could look like in the future.

We found this very interesting and the pictures don't do it justice. The first picture is showing what happens when you play chess and all the different choices you can make in just one move. The second picture is showing the activity of all the airplanes in the sky at one time. Both of these exhibits were continuing to change, we thought that it was pretty cool. There is much more to experience, but you need to go see it for yourself.

All and all it was a great time with a little culture, family bonding, and of course great food.
We went to get burgers at the Parker Meridien Hotel...yum.

Appreciation #3

This week's appreciation goes out to my little buddy Warren Dix. He came to visit us in the city last year and filled our home with sunshine (and throw-up). Last month he sent us two Valentines surprises, one as an e-card and another in the mail. What more could a girl ask for?

Who do you appreciate this week?