leaving on a jet plane

this shouldn't surprise you but i am going home tomorrow!!! yeehaw. i am so excited. i need a break!anyway i will be home from the 19-jan. 3. so i hope to see some or all of you loved ones of mine. please call me. i will not really have much access to a car but i will try to do what i can. also, this weekend i saw a good movie called juno. go see it. it was good and sweet and funny. then end. see you all soon.

NYC

this shouldn't surprise you but we ventured to the big apple this last weekend. we had made plans back in august to meet mark's cousin and her family up there. ben decided to join us. we left work around 3 on friday and drove through horrendous traffic and finally made it to the hotel around 10. then we met up with our peeps, marilyn, steve, chris and daniel, and had a driving tour of the city. we saw 42nd street, times square, yankee stadium, broadway, central park, the east river, the guggenheim, moma, the mormon temple and other sights throughout town. then we went back to our hotel and fell exhausted into bed. the next morning we woke up and went to the train station (we stayed in secaucus, nj) and went into the city for breakfast at zabar's. yummy. then we went to battery park, saw lady liberty, hello lady.
there she is between our heads. (ps, mark makes fun of this hat.)

then we walked over to ground zero. it is amazing how big of a hole there is and what a huge construction site it is. it was surreal to see.

then we went to china town and little italy. holy hannah, there are so many people in new york. it is crazy. of course we bought some knockoffs and of course we had yummy italian food.
then we went to central park and looked around for awhile and we rested on this bench. here we are, me, marilyn, steve, ben, chris and daniel.

next we went to rockefeller center. again, so many people. i really wanted to see the ice skating ring but there were too many people crowding around so i saw the ice but there were no good photo ops. boo. the tree was fun to see though.

also there was a huge lake of pennies by the tree, so many pennies. i hate pennies when they are in my pocket or wallet or purse but they looked cool here. i read in the paper that there were over 10,000,000 pennies collected for charity.
then we went to times square and looked around. there is much to see and such good people watching.
then we headed back to jersey. while we were waiting for the shuttle from the hotel, ben decided he wanted to look like an old russian woman. endearing.
after a nice night's sleep, we rode the train in to the city again and we went to see cirque du soleil at madison square garden. here is mark sitting dejectedly on the stairs of the garden.

here is the smith family
i waited here for a miracle, none occurred.
and here we are so happy that we came to NYC. what a fun trip.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas.

christmas decorations and snow??!! what more could a girl want?

thanks give revisited

so i got the rest of my thanksgiving pictures to upload and since i am OCD and want things in order, they are going up now before i post about more recent things. so here are some more pictorials of the other guests that made it to thanksgiving and other happenings.
annie came
so did maryann and kelli and cathie (annie's sister from boston)
amber. doesn't she look pretty?
the boys: ben h., dave, ben smith, jeremy and mark.
and crazy eyed brian came at the end. he normally doesn't look this crazy but i think he was hungry. now i feel better that thanksgiving is all posted about. onto more things...

h.e.l.p

how the h do i make my blog have a cute header. i would love some input or someone just to make me one. the end.

phew

this shouldn't surprise you but i know you are all dying to know about my weekend. well, i am here to keep you up to date but i am going to need your help this blog. you are going to have to use your imaginations this time. many of you know that mark has been preparing to take the lsat for quite some time (you know this because i whine about it incessantly). well saturday was the big day. so in order to prepare him for the big test, we went looking for the location of the test and then we had some korean bbq. i thought of adriane the whole time so these pictures are for her. ade, there was bulgogi (gogi)!! also, we went with mark's old boss who once made me sing karaoke. blech.
okay, now here is where your imaginations is going to have to come into play. i have no more pictures. i have seriously been slacking. okay so on friday, mark studied for a while and then we watched hairspray (insert picture of me grinning excitedly and mark looking skeptical.) it was super cheesy but i liked it. we had to stop it early so mark could go to bed at 9:30 for the big test (insert picture of mark yawning and me rolling my eyes.) so on saturday, i ran various errands with ben and joy and kelli and then mark was done!! much earlier than expected so we got to hang out with out the pressure of the lsat hanging over us. it was pure delight. we watched shrek the third (obviously our movie choices were a bit off this week). after our movie, we got to go the party of the year. it was jenica's party and it was a bacon, cheese and chocolate party.those are jenica's favorite foods. shelley was of course the one to combine all ingredients for a tasty treat (insert picture of shelley holding her muffins up in the air in triumph). there was good bacony food all night and we ate until we were stuffed. then we played games and laughed a lot. it was a good night. hooray for no more lsat tests and classes! (insert picture of me doing a jubilant leap in the air.) sorry for the lame post (insert picture of me looking ashamed.) better one next time, faithful readers (insert picture of me with a face resolved to be better.)

my lovelies.

freak, i know some pretty people. my friends the simpsons and my cousin and her family were on this photo blog. Check them out. haywusup.blogspot.com man alive. what i wouldn't give for some looks. they are there under 11/30 and 11/27.

giving thanks

this shouldn't surprise you but i often take for granted how lucky i am. i have a great life. i have great friends and a great family and almost every aspect of my life makes me smile. i am also lucky to know who i am and where i came from and where i am going. it is my most valuable blessing. i was fortunate this year to spend thanksgiving with people i love and admire and have a good time with. it was a treat. almost as good as being with family. (almost, marn, almost.) we made assignments and despite a few minor freak outs, things went rather smoothly and all was well. here is some photographic evidence:

a few friendly games of tetris before the big meal.
a nice nap for tired dave
ben, mark and jeremy chat it up in the kitchen. they are all from price and have a lot to talk about.
ben, kelli, maryann, dave, mark, jeremy, joy and ben at our feast
more views. the make shift family for dinner. amber, ben, kelli, maryann, dave, mark, meg, jeremy and joy. annie and her sister joined us a little later as well as bryan banker but my pictures are not uploading correctly. boo. i know this is late but i hope everyone had a fabulous thanksgiving. after our dinner we sat a nd chatted and watched football and tried to play games but we were too lazy for that kind of stuff.

i want to grow a bonsai tree

so, mark and i went to the national arboretum because i wanted to see the bonsai exhibit and also i want to do all the things the manderson report suggests so we will be going on a segway tour and to the basilica and whatever else he suggests. i am at his mercy. but seriously, how cool are bonsai trees? i know i would probably end up killing one but i really want one of my own to raise and nourish.

lars and the real girl

this shouldn't surprise you but mark and i saw this movie this weekend and it was great. one of the best movies i have seen in a long time. funny and sweet so you should go see it (ps. i cried). here is some info. i will post pictures about my thanksgiving weekend soon. i am so slow at pictures and what good is a blog with no pictures?? hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

gluttony

this shouldn't surprise you but i went to a sweet pre-thanksgiving party the other night. julie and leslie threw a rad bash and so i went because i was invited and i felt popular. so i hopped in the car with dave and bryan and we made our way downtown to enjoy glutton fest 2007! there were lots of fun folk there.
here is julie. she sure can throw a party in her cute little house.

here is leslie. she can throw a party too. she can also run a marathon and not let you forget about it because she loves he medal so much. ( also i know leslie through my brother matt so that makes her extra special).
this is how excited ben and julie and i were about being at a party together for the 2nd time in 3 days!!
this is dave and cubbie and janette and i. i was settling a debate between dave and janette about mark and me and holding hands. dave was right.

here is dave and bryan and mary and me throwing candy at dave adn out the window for people at the bus stop. they thanked us in their hearts
cubbie and julie are twins in hot (haught) outfits!
mary and cubbie enjoying gluttony
ben....it was his birthday. what a way to celebrate.

also, my new blog friends julie and leslie were not aware that i steal pictures from blogs and make them my own but now they are. painfully aware. sorry girls. hope we can still be friends.

PS

update from last post: dick and wally just got off the elevator and dick totally gave me a dirty look. hmmmph!!! what a dick!

a few things

there was a man at my desk just now who said, will you tell wally dick is here and so i called wally and said, (as the man stood here) "wally, there is a dick here for you." i am embarrassed but laughing on the inside. he was kind of a jerk anyway and his face was well worth it.

do you ever look in the mirror halfway through the day and think:
"eek, what was i thinking?"
"why did no one tell me i looked so bad?"
"i look fabulous."
sadly of the three, the top 2 are totally my life. sigh. not that i feel that way all the time but in the morning, i leave and feel fine and then i get to work and somehow, my hair or makeup or clothes have morphed into something completely different than the way they left the house. crazy.

do you ever get really annoyed about something and then you are annoyed at yourself for being annoyed? me too. that is all. i just wondered.

slide show

roommate reunion take 1

together again!!

when i was a sophomore at utah state, i lived in a pace called old farm with some crazy roommates. here we are: kelli, linnea, deon, megan, alexis and melissa. it was such a fun year and we have kept in touch fairly well. we recently decided that we all wanted to have a roommate reunion and so we planned it and the girls ended up here. we found melissa but she was not able to come and we missed her lots. we wish she could have made it. next year for sure. so deon and linnea flew in from connecticut and colorado and we had a fabulous time acting like 20 year olds and catching up. we went out to eat and saw the sights in dc. on friday, kelli and i had to work so linnea and deon and alexis went to see the national mall and the smithsonian museums. alexis had to go home to baltimore for the evening so she didn't get to go to dinner with us that night. it was so fun to be together and catch up. here is some info and a picture

deon, megan, linnea, kelli, alexis

deon and her husband steve live in connecticut. he works for price watherhouse coopers and she has an amazing job as a photographer (http://www.deonjamesphotography.com/) she is so talented. they are doing really well and are liking connecticut. she is so funny and beautiful. i did not want to be in any pictures with her but i caved. we made her sing for us with her beautiful voice.
linnea and josh are living in colorado springs. they have two of the cutest boys around. they just built a new house and it is beautiful. i am hoping she gets her blog up and running soon.
alexis and her husband dustin live in baltimore. they have two kids who are darling. they seem to be keeping alexis busy!!
melissa and rob live in utah and are looking for a new house. they have 2 little boys. so cute. oh my sam, we missed melissa.
kelli just passed the nursing boards and is working in the alexandria er. way to go kelli!!

on saturday, we went to the corocoran gallery to check out the ansel adams and annie liebovitz exhibits. they were so interesting and it was a great way to sepnd the afternoon. there was part of the exhibit where you could become the photographer and then your pictures would flash up on the wall. we spent a lot of time in there. i made a slide show of the images because there are so many!!

*slideshow is not working here so i will post it in another post!*

after the museum, we said farewell to lex and then we went to lunch at potbelly's. yum! it was linnea's and my favorite spot before she moved. after lunch we headed to the arboretum. the leaves were beautiful.

we took some pictures and headed on our way back home. we stopped at mark and ben's to play kelli's new favorite past time/obsession-guitar hero. i like linnea's rocking out face. after we had our fill of guitar hero, we headed out to have some pho (pronounced fuh). it was good. we all liked it lots. after pho we went home and ate pumpkin ice cream and stayed up into the wee hours of the morning talking and reminiscing. what fun. sunday was our last day together so we had brunch and then went to churchof course, we had to take more pictures!! then deon headed to the airport and linnea and i went to see old friends in woodbridge. it was over too soon!! thanks for coming roomies. can't wait for labor day 2008!!! it wil be off the hook! love you.