Midterms

So, it's Midterms for Jake around here as evidence by the kind of food in our house as of late.  The other night Jake came home loaded up with these goodies... (Please ignore the dirty dishes in the sink).

My Thoughts Lately...

I don't normally write personal things on the blog other than the fun events that Jake and I attend in fear that my blog will bore people, but I've been missing putting some of my thoughts and feelings into writing...I used to do that a lot back in the angst days of high school when everything was so dramatic.  I think I stopped writing when I stopped wanting to be so dramatic, but life hasn't really stopped coming at me and things still affect me, so I think I'll get personal for a bit.

So, I lost my job in December.  In a way, I was looking forward to the time when that would happen, like I could feel a change coming in my life, so I almost expected it, but knowing how to move forward with my life has been difficult these last few weeks.  I have always felt a sense of financial responsibility, which has probably stemmed from paying for my own car insurance, car, clothes, college education, what-have-you ever since I've had those things that makes me feel that way, but finding the right fit in the world of working individuals hasn't always been an easy road for me.  So, I was hoping that maybe this time around it would be different.  Maybe, God would guide me down just the right path and I would find just the right fit and everything would be as it should be again.  But that hasn't happened and its been a bit frustrating.  Although I know that each of us is living our own lives and we each have our own journey, sometimes I look around me and I envy the people that know just what they want to do: be a dentist, a photographer, a sous chef.  Whatever it is, there are people out there in the world that are passionate about something and they are working towards a concrete goal, but I don't know if I am that way.

I started reading the book club selection for the month, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life by Donald Miller.   I haven't finished it yet, but some of the thoughts by Miller have hit home to me so far.  For example, if I can remember right, he says something about how we are each living our own stories.  There is a Master Writer out there that has a glorious story in mind for us, but sometimes we are resistant to God's story for us and we want to create our own stories, even though they may not be the best story.  I started to wonder if I am resisting God's story for me. Perhaps its just easier for people to keep doing what they've always been doing, but it seems like now might be the right time for me to set out on another path...to keep  looking until I find the right story.  I may not be trekking down the path of a sous chef or a travel magazine editor, but hopefully I can find the right path that I have been looking for.

The Look of Love

This year we had a great Valentine's Day here in good 'ol Buffalo.  Being single through much of my twenties, I've heard lots of complaints from undeserving men about how Valentine's Day is just a stupid holiday from the card companies to make more money.  Seriously...that kind of talk is like listening to nails on a chalkboard.  I tend to think of Valentine's Day as a welcome break to one of the dreariest months of the year as well as another welcome opportunity to let the ones you love know how much you love them and this year didn't disappoint.

This year, we started the festivities off early.  Jake had planned a surprise date for me on Friday night.  I am impressed that he followed through with the surprise up until we were in the car on the way there.  Normally, he tells me about surprises a little early...that's why I love him.  We started the night off by visiting one of our favorite wholesaler flower shops in downtown buffalo.  Jake let me pick out my choice of flowers and then we went next door to the Sea Bar for some sushi.  To top the night off we visited Dolci, another Buffalo favorite for some treats to enjoy while cuddling on the couch.  A perfect night!

The goods from the night

On the actual day of Valentine's Day, I surprised Jake with a romantic fondue dinner and just a quiet night at home.  Thanks Mary for the fondue pot!  We've already gotten a lot of use out of it.

And lastly, because I am still playing around with my new camera and practicing, here are some shots of the lovely V-Day decor this year.

I hope you all had as great of a Valentine's Day as we did!

This Winter in Buffalo

So, last winter was so so cruel here in Buffalo that Jake and I decided to go on our cruise over Christmas break.  By the time we got back I was bracing myself for the cruel and unusual punishment of a Buffalo winter to strike us, but luckily this year has surprised us and hasn't been nearly as cruel as winters past.  It's strange but sometimes I actually find myself yearning for it to snow.  That probably is because we happened to get some good snow over a long weekened and Jake and I took advantage of it by snowshoeing.  Buffalo may not have the mountains that Utah do, but there are some beautiful areas to explore.  These pictures are of a trip we took down to Allengany State Park about an hour and a half from Buffalo.  Enjoy.

Merry Christmas From Miami

Jake and I know that there are only so many chances that we have in this life to enjoy a trip with just the two of us, so we decided to take advantage of that time by going on a cruise to the Bahamas for our anniversary and by spending Christmas in Miami.  I have to say that although I loved the warm weather and the sunny skies I found myself missing family and longing for home over the holidays.  Nothing quite tops visiting temple square to see the lights before Christmas in order for the Christmas feeling to settle in for me.  I guess I just can't help craving what I don't have at the moment sometimes. 

That being said, I think we managed to make the most of our trip.  How often can you say that you got a tan over Christmas by sitting on the beach??  We started out on our cruise and visited Key West, Nassau and Cococay before heading back to Miami for a couple of days before finally heading back home to Buffalo just in time for winter.  The "feels like 0 degrees" ain't no joke.  But enough lamenting, here are some highlights of our trip.

 

The Cruise: Aboard the ship, ready to take off!

The Cruise: Leaving Port Miami

The Cruise: Stop 1: Key West

To satisfy Jake's appreciation of Ernest Hemingway, we went on a tour of Hemingway's home in Key West.  Although I'm not a huge fan of the guy, the home was beautiful and I like learning about stuff and people, so I enjoyed it too.  A bonus is that we also got a pretty in-depth tour of the city of Key West and learned some interesting stories of some of the earlier inhabitants.  Although some of these stories are a little too gruesome to tell on the blog, I'll tell you about them sometime.

Eating some infamous key lime pie.  Jake chose the dipped in chocolate variety.

The Cruise: Stop 2: Nassau

Our second stop in the Bahamas was the island of Nassau.  As you can see we booked an excursion to snorkel.  My association with snorkeling involves snorkeling in Hanama Bay in Hawaii which entails taking a leisurely stroll from the beach into calm and protected water--whenever your ready, no rush.  This is naturally what I expected this time as well, so I wasn't sure why they were handing out our gear while we were still on our boat on the way to what I thought was a secluded beach.  It wasn't until the boat was anchored in the middle of a large body of water and we were told to jump that I realized that this snorkeling trip would be a little different.  Here I am trying to look happy about it.

And here I am after all was said and done...genuinely happy.

The Cruise: Stop 3: Cococay

Cococay is a privately owned island exclusive for Royal Carribean cruisers.  We spent the day doing some yoga out on the beach, laying out on the beach and walking around the island.  All in all a pretty relaxing day.  I don't really have any pictures, but just imagine white sandy beaches and crystal clear aqua water and you should get the idea ;-)

Miami

The rest of our trip we spent a couple of days in Miami to tour the city and explore the beaches.  Here are a few of our attempts at some "artistic" shots while we were there.  Gotta love the blue, sunny skies!

 It was a wonderful trip and I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to go and unwind and spend some time with each other after the craziness of December!  It was good to get away and have a break before another long semester!  I hope all of you enjoyed your Christmas as much as we did!

Thanksgiving Trip(s)

 This year for Thanksgiving we were fortunate enough to visit with both of our families.  Even though we had just a short trip to Colorado Springs for a couple of days and another short trip in Utah, it was nice to just be with the family and hang out.  Here are a couple of highlights from our tip... 

The weather in Colorado Springs was 65 degrees when we were there!  We attempted to take Liam and Cooper to the park, but we made it only about 5 min before Cooper had a break down over a sliver and Liam peed his pants.  I'm sure that when I am a parent I will think to ask kids if they have gone potty before we head out.

 Colby impressed me by trying squid.  Sick!

I got some early b-day presents from the fam.  As you can see Copper and Liam are super interested.

Thanksgiving feast #1 with the McDermott clan.  Thanks so much Taryn for hosting us!

The kiddo table.  I love how Liam is just hanging out like it's the cool thing to be at the kids table.

On our trip we got to visit with all the little nieces.

Grandpa with baby Harper.

 Jake with Baby Marli

Hangin out with Linds and Lucy.  Lucy is not really much of a baby anymore.

The way that Lucy was so intent on her coloring at the restaurant made me think that she is destined to be an artist like her mama.

If you can't tell, the onsie says: "I Love Uncle Jake."

Thanksgiving feast #2 with the Wilding clan.

Thanks again everyone for everything when we came to visit!  We love to be able to visit with family!

October

It's been awhile since I have posted anything on the blog.  October has been a busy month.  I was lucky enough to meet up with Jake's family in NYC for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, Jake couldn't come with us...darn Midterms.  I missed him dearly, but I also had a wonderful time.  I loved everything we did, but I must say that I was blown away by Lion King on Broadway.  It brought me back to my African Dancing days at Weber.  Good times.  The rest of the pics are some odds and ends of what we have been up to in October.

Here we are on the commuter train on our way to the Blaze.  The Blaze was an awesome event, which I believe is in the town of Salem outside of New York, with tons of lit carved pumpkins.  My camera couldn't do everything justice, so I didn't take any and therefore don't have any of my own pictures to document it, but just believe me when I say that it was really cool.

The famous chocolate cake sundae from Serendipity.  I was skeptical if this would be good.  Often times I find that the more you get of something at a restaurant, the worse it tastes, but that was NOT the case in this instance.  It was amazing.

Our walk across the Brooklyn bridge.  This was definitely cool.

The 911 monument. 

After seeing Lion King, us poor girls were a little tired and due to the fact that each of us were wearing heels, we didn't exactly like the idea of walking through the city to visit Carnegie deli, so we enjoyed a pleasant ride in a bike cart pulled along by this guy.

We are SO happy not be walking.

Tom didn't quite make it through all of this corned beef, but I was still pretty impressed.

So, after New York, the rest of the month was pretty low-key.  People in Buffalo seem to really love inflated lawn displays.  This is the most extravagant one I have seen yet.  The pictures really don't do it justice. 

...and here we are carving our pumpkins...

Jake is such a man that he is OK wearing pink cupcakes.

The finished product.  The one on the left is supposed to be a "Jake" pumpkin.

Happy Late Halloween everyone!  Hopefully, I'll get to posting our Thanksgiving before the end of December.