Appreciate the little things. Like singing in the car.

Today I am a little bored and a little lonely and missing Utah a little. One little thing I really miss a lot is driving my car with music blasting, singing at the top of my lungs. You just can't do that while listening to an iPod on the subway.

Well, you could. In fact, some people do. But it is generally frowned upon.

When I got to a stoplight I would always pretend I hadn't just been belting my lungs out to Rascal Flatts. Then when it turned green I'd continue on like I was in my own personal music video. Like if the car is in motion, suddenly I become invisible? I wonder how many people got a good laugh watching me singing in my car.

We are finally selling the Corolla. I am a little sad. I loved that car. One of my favorite features was the custom stereo and speakers Klane installed for me (with love). It has an iPod cord in the glove compartment so you can control your iPod through the stereo. Perfect for personal jam-sessions on my way to work. ;)



With the help of my parents I got the car all clean and fixed up and ready for sale. I took some product shots while I was in Utah. And Klane wrote an awesome KSL ad. It made me laugh:

0-60? Yes.

With most Corollas in this model year being posted with nearly double the mileage, at under 71,000 she's just getting warmed up... But if it gets too warm you can hit the a/c.

This 5 seater can go from A to B while you're controlling your iPod/iPhone from it's Alpine/Pioneer custom stereo system. Its brand new battery has less than 4 miles on it. I've tracked the gas mileage for the last 3 years at an average of over 30 mpg. It's taken a move to NYC to pry my wife's fingers from the steering wheel.

Finding flaws in this economical marvel isn't easy — a defunct rear defroster says, "I always look ahead," and a mini-compartment with a loose door on the center console gives instant access to coupon books and your Cafe Rio punch card.

Other than that, a flawless title, well kept interior, clean mechanical record and a model year pre-dating the Toyota quality control melt-down lets you drive this beauty away worry-free.

Yep, my husband works at an advertising agency. Oh man, I love that guy. Maybe he should've been a copy-writer.

The Campout

Since our husbands were on a scout campout together, Rubi, Marci and I got together Friday night for some girl time. We made yummy s'mores cupcakes :


and watched Amélie:


What an absolutely darling movie. Loved it. I should watch more foreign films. We should also have more girl's nights while our husbands are at scouts. It was so fun!

I got home late, after 1:00, and snuggled into bed for a restless night. (I hear things when Klane's gone.) A while later, the bell rang. Slightly disoriented, I got out of bed to check the intercom and see who was outside. There was no one there, but at the edge of the screen I could see the door closing. Whoever rang had gotten inside. I assumed it was someone who forgot their keys, and someone else buzzed them in. A little unnerved, I bolted the door and got back in bed.

A few minutes later, I heard a bump at the door. Then someone fiddling with the handle. Then the door opening. After my heart jumped out of my chest, I realized it was Klane.

"What are you doing here?" I said.

"We just finished playing video games at the church, and they had enough leaders that they didn't need me to camp with them," he said.

"You scared me! Don't do that!" (I am ornery when I'm half asleep.)

"I'm sorry," (He knows I'm ornery when I'm half asleep.) "I buzzed you so you'd know I was coming."

"Oh. Thanks." I guess that made sense. Just not to my sleepy brain. I'm laughing now. Of course it was Klane.

So the scouts camped in their snow caves outside, and Klane got to come home after a few hours of Playstation and sleep in his bed! I'd say he got a pretty good deal there. It's kind of ironic since Klane actually loves winter camping, and most people are less than excited about sleeping outside in sub-freezing temperatures. But I'd say we were both happy with the way things turned out.

random things happen in this city

On my walk down Park to meet Klane for lunch, I saw these cops on horses. I'm sure there's an official name for the cops on horses. I don't know what it is. ("Mounties".......?) I love horses. So of course I chased them and took pictures:

Last week I was in the middle of a text conversation and so was on my phone plunking away outside the subway station, waiting to go in when finished. I was on 47th (the diamond district). Totally absorbed in my conversation, I didn't notice the large crowd forming around me, trying to see inside the corner diamond shop. A lady sidled over and asked me what all the commotion was about, and I looked up and noticed the commotion. Then the crowd parted and two huge black guys (body guards) came through, making way for a shorter black dude that was shouting all sorts of trash talk at the crowd ("I'm the best in the world! I'm NUMBA ONE!" etc), followed by two more huge body guards. They literally brushed past me, to get in their black escalade-type-vehicle which was parked right next to me (who knew). All along I am plunking away on my phone, deep in text-conversation. After they left I heard people saying the guy was a really famous fighter. I can't remember his name, or I might be able to impress someone. I didn't recognize him, but he sure caused a stir. Let's say he was super famous. How about Mike Tyson? Just kidding, it wasn't Mike Tyson. I do know what he looks like.

Klane and I eat lunch in the shadow of these giant Hello Kitty statues every day. It was weird at first and now we hardly notice. I still have no idea why they're there. But there are always tourists taking photos with them. Here is one such tourist. He was happily hugging the giant beast. We stared at him while slowly chewing our pbj's and bananas.

On the same lunch hour, I witnessed two guys dressed as Elvis driving bicycle cart-taxis around, and also an automobile that looked just like a woman's shoe. Luckily someone else also saw it and captured the shoe. Thank goodness for Twitter or I would've had no proof and you might not have believed me. Plus it is just way better in real life than anything you could've imagined. Right?

And finally, yesterday I left work and while waiting on a street corner, I heard a voice being projected over a speaker system, and looked across the street to see a large crowd of people gathered. There was a lady in a white room doing a monologue from behind the glass, but her voice was being broadcast outside. She was very dramatic. I don't know why this was happening. I had to get home and eat something, so I did not stay to find out. But watch this video and see it for yourself.

Hopefully the rest of this week I have awesome pictures and many fun events to share, as my parents and little bro Brandon are coming to visit! We are VERY excited. They arrive early tomorrow morning. I can hardly wait!!! I'm taking Friday off work and we are going to par-tay. So thrilled.

hair story

I finally found someone to do my hair. She's in the singles ward and she is an amazing colorist. Yay for LDS networking. Aubrey likes making things look very natural, which is great. She matched my color really well and toned it down a bit so I'll be able to make it till Christmas without it looking too horrendous.

I guess she does hair for a large portion of the Manhattan LDS singles, or so it appeared. Four other girls were there the same time as me to have something or another done. It was very reminiscent to hang out with a bunch of single people for a few hours. Oh, the memories. Her roommates all ate cereal for dinner. I forgot how often I did that when I lived with roommates! It was fun to listen to all the gossip of the LDS singles scene in the city.

And I'm really grateful I'm not single anymore. It sounds kind of exhausting.

I had to lay on the counter, which was kind of awesome and funny, so we took pictures.


(don't you love their green cabinets? I think they're fun.)

Klane took this after picture of me with my highlights.


And then I took this one of myself.

Sexy.

The end.

the way we do it in manhattan

There are many things we do differently here than we did in Utah. Buying a couch is no exception. None of this "buy a couch, put it in your truck and take it home" business. No, we bought a couch in a box!

We ordered our couch online from Home Reserve, the perfect solution for tiny-apartment-dwellers like ourselves. The couch is mailed in two 50 pound boxes, and you assemble it yourself! So much easier than hauling full sized furniture up stairwells.



My wonderful husband hauled both boxes from the UPS store to our apt, six blocks and two flights of stairs, for which I am eternally grateful. He is also pretty good with a power drill, which is kinda hot.




Home Reserve was awesome. The couch was so easy to assemble; all the pieces are numbered. And they even give you these nice gloves so you don't get splinters in your hands!




Put together the frame, add the fabric covering, and voila!



A couch! And don't worry, despite the fact that it's made out of particle board, it is actually sturdy. And an added bonus: it has storage compartments under the cushions! Perfect for our small space. We are loving having our apartment come together. It feels so much more comfortable now. I'm so excited for it to be complete so I can take pictures and post them.

Speaking of our little apartment, I have a funny story. We always thought it was 450 square feet because thats what the previous residents always said. But when we measured the walls to calculate how much paint to buy, we made a shocking discovery! Our apartment is actually closer to 325 square feet!!! When Klane told me, for a moment I felt like the walls were closing in on me. "Oh my gosh, this apartment is so small! How can we live here?!" But then I realized we've loved it for months thinking it was 450, and it's actually still the same size (even though my perception has changed). So all is well. Kind of a funny realization though.

harmonica blues

Waiting at the 125th street station on my way home last week, my fellow commuters and I were treated to some sweet harmonica tunes:



The best part was that he wasn't a performer playing for money. Just a regular guy who prefers making his own music to zoning out on an iPod. Love it.

be prepared...

I'm laughing. I just uploaded pics from my little camera and remembered this one of my purse, on the bus ride to DC.


I'm laughing at myself for feeling the need to pack so many treats for a three day trip. I just thought we should be prepared! What if we couldn't find food? Between the peaches, banana muffins, cereal bars, nuts, swedish fish, and sour patch kids, at least I knew that we wouldn't starve on our vacation. :)

Klane might think I'm a little crazy, but he won't be laughing if a famine hits.
He'll be feasting on Sour Patch Kids with me.

not to repost someone else's post, but...

This made me smile so much today:



I love that they did this. Thanks guys!
(It's also funny since it used to be the Obama "Change" Jar.)

Oh, also favorite was Mike's response in the comments:



Oh my gosh, our family is awesome.

we went on the roof in a lightning storm

Another big thunderstorm rolled through the other night. From our third floor window, the buildings around us block a lot of the sky. At the moment when the lightning seemed to be striking all around us, the thunder was so loud and buckets of rain were slamming against the windows, I suddenly decided it would be awesome to view this storm from the roof.

Klane was all for it. We donned rain jackets and climbed out the window onto the fire escape. (Yes, we are completely insane.) This happened to be the moment the storm was at its climax over our area. I've never been outside in that much rain, it was blowing sideways and honestly felt like someone dumping buckets over your head. We were immediately drenched, but excited. Each flash of lightning and the closely following thunder urged us to climb faster.

(these were actually taken on the way down, after the rain stopped)

At the second to top floor we had a better view of the sky, and the wind was blowing like crazy and the rain was still dumping. The lightning seemed so close! We were like, "This is so crazy! I can't believe we're doing this!!" That's when I looked up at the ladder to the top and imagined lightning striking it while I was climbing it, and we decided to turn around. :)

Our "scared faces." The rain smeared my make-up everywhere. But I thought these faces should still be documented.

We climbed down a few floors and let the storm pass a little before going all the way to the top. You can tell from our faces in the next picture how exhilarating the whole experience was. We had just reached the top and still were a little nervous about getting struck by lightning but really excited because we were seeing quite a show. Every few seconds, huge bolts of lightning were spreading across the sky over the city.

This was the only "lightning" shot I got, we only brought the dinky camera out into the downpour. If only we could've used a tripod and a long exposure!

By this point it wasn't raining so hard, and we were able to watch a spectacular lightning storm over Manhattan. It was amazing! Something I will always remember.

package from mom = joy

thanks mom, you made our day!

subway performers

One of the fun things about the city is the performers in the subway stations and trains. I like to snatch Klane's iPhone and take video when people perform. I wish I would've had it the other afternoon on the way home from work, there were these three black guys singing gospel music and they had the most gorgeous harmony.

I have a problem. The moment I decide to turn the camera away or not to follow them, that is the moment they do something incredible, like a backflip off the pole. Someday I'll learn. You'll enjoy these videos anyway. I'm amazed they can do stuff like this in a lurching train where many people struggle just to stand upright.

On the C train coming back from Grimaldi's in Brooklyn




On the D train on our way to Stand near Union Square

getting creative

On the last day of the month, we looked at our budget on Mint and realized again how expensive it is to live here.

So instead of a night out, we had an inexpensive gourmet dinner at home:



To complete the "six-year-old" theme, we built a fort and watched movies.




A double-header:
10 Things I Hate About You (classic 90's movie; a little overrated)
and then Juno (we think that movie is just awesome).

(The double-header wasn't really planned, but once you start Juno you can't just turn it off.)



Good times with my favorite person.

thanks, bloggers!

I just wanted to thank all of you who blogged today. After a long, boring, partly humiliating, awful day at work, it was fun to come home to open up my Google reader and find 18 new posts. Eighteen!! Thank you, faithful bloggers. I don't know if I could've taken the disappointment of finding zero updates to brighten my day, but eighteen? You really outdid yourselves. Thanks for the pick me up! :) Keep posting!

a walk in the park

Maybe we're ignorant, but we didn't really know what to do in NYC on the fourth. Coney Island or the beach seemed too far away. So we slept in, had a relaxing day, got cheap pizza and ate it on a pier, and took a walk through the park. Although it was different than what we would've done back home, I'd say it was still a successful day. We had a great time.

The day before, Sara and I bought the same shirt in different colors, and we both ended up wearing them.
We totally matched, in an opposite kind of way. It wasn't planned, but it was awesome.


BFF's


we watched this kid juggle in the Mall for a few minutes


mike and sara were shocked


and amazed.

thursday, and a tkts booth disaster

On Thursday, we...

shopped around Midtown

saw lots of cool stores but didn't buy anything


met Klane for lunch at Goodburger ("home of the goodburger"). It was delicious.
(did anyone else watch Kenan and Kel as a kid?)

grabbed a raspberry chocolate curl cupcake from Crumbs, then headed to Times Square where we planned on waiting in the Tkts line to get cheap tickets to Phantom of the Opera for that night. It was such a great plan in theory...

We just didn't count on the torrential downpour we got caught in... without umbrellas. I sprinted through Times Square through the sheets of rain to buy overpriced umbrellas at Walgreens. But alas, I was too late, and by the time I got back to Mike and Sara, we were all thoroughly soaked.

And now let me tell you a story about the Tkts booth. On Wednesday we went to the box office to see what the cheapest tickets available were for Phantom on Thursday night. The cheapesst available were $66. We assumed that we could get them for way cheaper at the Tkts booth. I mean, obviously if people wait for hours in that line, it must be a dang good discount, right? Right...?

So, we waited in line for two hours on Thursday, only to get to the front of the line and find out that the 30% off tickets they had, still cost $96!! What the heck is the point of a discount ticket booth if they only sell the most expensive seats at a discount?! I wish we had known this before getting drenched and waiting for two hours. We ended up leaving defeated and empty-handed, and went to the box office - again. Sara and I got tickets to the show for $86 a piece, and our seats ended up being on the 7th row, in the middle.

In the end, we still had fun and it was mostly a funny experience waiting in line in the rain. Especially when we got the cupcake out and the bag was all soggy. Luckily the cupcake survived, and was delicious. And Sara and I had a fun girls night out at Phantom of the Opera. The play was great!

fun at f.a.o. schwartz

What could be better than a giant toy store?

Never too old to play dress up. Especially with Harry Potter hats.

He's made entirely of legos. Amazing!