Vacation preview

Photo Dump III

                       
Paul's brother Stephen was in Utah, so they ran a 5k together.

                                

    

This is my adorable niece watching the race with me

For our first anniversary, we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Huntsville.  It was only 45 minutes away, but it felt like a whole new country. No smog! Snow that is actually pretty! A whole valley free of freeways and factories! The place we stayed at was super rad. It's run by this semi-retired California beach volleyball player who is living the dream by running the bed and breakfast in the mornings, and skiing and hanging with all his friends that fly out to visit for the rest of the day. He skis every day. Inspiration.

We mostly hung out at the place, playing pool, eating, and watching The Empire Strikes Back. We also went snowshoeing. It was breathtaking, with fresh snow, beautiful views, and hardly anyone around.

                            

We also went out for barbecue, which I should have taken a picture of, because it. was. unbelievable.

I was so grateful we chose Huntsville for our anniversary.  I had wanted to try and go somewhere warm, because I was so sick of winter in Utah.  I hated it. This was not helped by the fact that the morning before we left, I got hit by a car sliding out of control on the icy freeway.  But even though our beloved car was totaled and my mouth was full of glass, I didn't have so much as a scratch. And insurance payed for everything, including an awesome rental car! It all shook me up pretty badly, though, and left me longing for the day when we could move far away from Utah winters.  But instead of escaping it, we ended up in in the beautiful Ogden Valley. Waking up to gorgeous snowglobe snow falling outside the window, eating lazy warm breakfasts, taking beautiful hikes, and driving through gorgeous canyons ended up being the perfect solution. There were people at our place from all over the world, totally thrilled at the landscape and weather. How cool to live only forty-five minutes away.

Photo Dump II

Other highlights from the beginning of the year:

We ran a Valentine's Day 5k.  It was my first one, and I was a little apprehensive, because I have studiously avoided running with Paul at any time. I did bike with him once while he ran, which just goes to show our athletic differences.  I wasn't sure if I was mad or relieved when he sped off into the distance at the beginning of the race, but he finished quickly and came back and jogged with me for my second half. It was perfect. And I got to eat most of his prize.

Date night at home:

I was so happy when it started to be sunny again.

I learned that unless you love shoveling snow, north-facing houses are the pits. Not a speck of snow on the south side.

Dinner with some awesome friends. This is the picture that made me think that I should consider doing my hair a little more often.

Photo Dump

Today I'm going through my camera photos. May is the perfect time to post Christmas photos, right?

I met Grandma Russell on our drive out to Virginia:

 Matthew had bought all the guys bow-ties for Christmas, and they spent an afternoon learning how to tie them (Note: Paul didn't want to change his shirt, so he looked rather ridiculous, which I think he enjoyed).  This turned into a family photo-taking extravaganza.

Tomatoes and Boo Radley

First, there can never be enough garden tomatoes. But the (pre-existing) garden at our new place is doing very respectably.  The Watsons haven't left on their mission yet, so we had held off pillaging, but this week they kindly gave us free rein.  HOLY COW, so many delicious cherry tomatoes.  Those little things are some  of my favorite snacks.  They are the perfect mix of sweet and fresh, crunchy and juicy, don't produce any crumbs (although the risk of tomato geysers is an ever-present issue), don't make you feel gross in twenty minutes, and are right on the line between salty and sweet. In other words, they are the perfect airplane food.  Another aside about tomatoes: when you compare the garden to the store-bought, the store-bought are not good. Not even "kind of lame," but in a side-by-side comparison, store-bought might be described as gross. But you have to forget about that comparison most of the year.

So naturally, our Friday night meal revolved around tomatoes. We made crispy cheese ravioli (all time favorite), with a garlic, cherry tomato, balsamic vinaigrette,  and basil sauce.  We also had big slices of tomatoes that were roasted with mozzarella and parmesan on the top.  So yummy. After that, we watched "To Kill a Mockingbird."  We hardly ever watch movies together (I can probably count them on one hand), but last week we went crazy on the library website (my hold list keeps getting longer).  I've been re-reading that book, but had never seen the movie.  First off, what an amazing book.  It's almost cliche, how good it is.  I haven't read it in a few years, so every page was just unfamiliar enough that it was just as much of a delight as it was the first time. I finished it late the night before, just in time.  The movie was pretty good, too. The book was better, surprise. Spending time with Paul was the really wonderful thing. Turns out "dinner and a movie" is kind of great.

Random highlights

Shake Shack, before Potted Potter.  No, we don't eat oatmeal with our hamburgers.  It's ice cream, and it was delicious. 

Along the High Line.

Blurry monochromatic books at the Film Biz prop store.

Whenever I'm out of bed before he leaves, Paul makes the bed. 

I love him. 

Hello again!

Isn't it sad that when my life gets more full, I feel like I don't have time to write about it? Like, for instance, my engagement and wedding? Big mistake. I've worked on fixing that a little bit. . . a very little bit, in all honesty. But yesterday I decided that I was not going to let that happen to this little month of my life, which has been shaping up quite beautifully.  No pictures of my own yet, sorry. The reason for that is part of the adventure, I guess.  This is going to be one of those journaling-for-myself posts, not a what-a-cute-blog posts. I'm sorry, I hate those too.  But hopefully the little devil-thought that someone else who is not my distant offspring may read this will keep me on track with actually explaining things in a clear way, and help me refrain from other weird tendencies of my middle school journal days (so many emotions! so much boring stuff!).  I just read that last really long sentence and decided that "explaining things in a clear way" can be one of those long-term goals, because it's not happening so much in the short term. 

I'm in New York! Sort of.  I'm actually in New Jersey, in the house of the friends we're staying with, sitting on an ornate brass bed. Maybe I'll take a picture of it someday. In the meantime, picture this:

                                    Only ours is much prettier, and doesn't have the canopy thing. 

This little town has a nice little train station with lots of direct trains into Penn Station, so that's where we've spending most of our time.  Paul is doing a month of work training downtown, and I am enjoying summer vacation.  I arrived here last week with my brother David, who stayed for a couple days.  He is pretty much the ideal traveling companion, by the way. I highly recommend him.  He left on Friday, and Paul and I got to party in the city over the weekend.  It was great. We went to the last temple endowment session before it closed for cleaning, ate pizza, did a little bit of shopping, and walked through Central Park, which is particularly lovely on a Saturday early evening.  However, I think that eating ice cream from the tub and watching Food Network in the hotel room may have been the part I enjoyed the most.  Funny how life is. 

This dude won two episodes in a row.  All-star episodes, at that.  

Sunday was. . .interesting.   The big take-away was  that I left my purse on the train.  Contents of purse included:  iTouch (our only camera for the first three months of marriage, that I haven't been able to back up), cell phone, meds, my favorite pair of sunglasses, and my wallet (i.d., cash, hundreds of dollars in gift cards).  Yeah. It was nice to have a husband who could talk to lost and found offices without  a voice that would get perpetually higher and occasionally sob-hiccup-breathe.  One of the results was that instead of going into the city on Monday, I stayed at the house. I wasn't loving the idea of going into the city without a phone when the lost and found office could call Paul at any minute, who could then email me. It gave me a chance to do laundry and other sundry things that had been piling up (such as a couple episodes of certain television shows). Finally. . . .ta-da! "The pocketbook that you put in a request for has been returned."  Wait, what? Pocketbook? What does that word even mean? Turns out, according to the internet, pocketbook definitely means purse, not wallet, which cleared up a misconception both Paul and I had. Learn something new every day. Anyway, its return was definitely an answer to prayer.  Let the Amy-partying-in-NYC-during-the-day-by-herself adventures begin!

Flashback Sunday

Remember these?

I don't. Well, yeah, I do, but I never did get one. I remember being startled in the middle of a great game of MASH when my friend had to leave right then to go feed her Tamagotchi. Right then. So confusing.

During a math lesson last year, I heard a mysterious beeping and caught one of my students trying to sneakily "feed" his Tamagotchi. Yes, they still exist. You can buy one for 20 bucks (!) from their website.

Wouldn't it be cool if they were cool again? You could carry them with you everywhere you go. In the middle of conversations, all of the sudden you would have to stop and pull it out, feed it, take it for a walk, or whatever. You'd have to plan your life around what it tells you, which would give you purpose and direction.

NOT.

My dear roommate Alyssa over on the other couch was just talking about how the way we use our phones is remarkably similar to the way we used our Tamagotchis. I thought about it. Yep, guilty (Although I am definitely the kid with the ones that were constantly dying due to neglect). I think I'm going to rename my phone Memetchi.

A list of goodness:

Frozen Lemon Cake

1. I decided to make this, despite the complexities of stirring 3 different bowls of stuff to varying degrees of thickness/lumpy-ness/crumbly-ness/peaky-ness/shiny-ness/merrychristmas-ness as well as having to sit in the freezer for 3 whole hours. It looks simple, huh? Not fancy?Hurumph.

It was one of those times where something that should have taken 3 dishes takes 15. Where something that should have taken 3 eggs takes 10. Of course, I have learned some things. Like the personal necessity of googling "how to beat eggs."

Two hours later, I got out a fork to check my cake. Ladies and gentlemen, I firmly believed I wasn't hungry, that I was too irritated at the dang cake to enjoy it, that I didn't feel like eating it until tomorrow. That quickly turned into me plopping down at the table for a full-blown helping of completely worth it lemon-y goodness. Oh gosh, so great.

2. Making graham cracker crust (i.e. using your hands to mix butter and graham cracker crumbs) is my new favorite thing.

3. My Dad did all my dishes for me, cause he is the best.

4. Moving away from the cake goodness, today I bought jeans. Levis. Skinny jeans. They fit. Miracle. They got me with their "common problems" sign about fit. It went something like: "If your jeans are always too tight in the waist when they fit everywhere else and you dislike jeweled embroidery on your bum, go here, Amy Thurber." Sold.

5. My grandparents are living with us now, and I love them. They have been heros of mine for most of my life. My grandma has always been a spunky, wise, vivacious woman who loves the gospel, doing things with my grandpa, writing in her journal every day, keeping up on her 10 children and 50-something, and going on missions. My Grandma has Alzheimers. She now has the capability and has to be taken care of the way someone would care for a 3 year old. She has lost all memory and most capability for any of those things. But take those things away and you get . . . my grandma. She's still her--spunky, cheerful, and sensitive. There is something to who we are that is more than our life history.

6. My grandpa is amazing. He is a high school music teacher, a composer, and a stone-cutter. He's this unassuming guy, who loves the gospel and my grandma. I mean that in the best, highest meaning of love. It is selfless, it is constant, it is obvious, and it makes him happy. He is in love with my grandma still. The way he has always treated her has been my model of how I should treat my spouse someday.

6. I like this website.

7. I thought fall in Virginia would be over by the time I got here, but it wasn't! Even the dregs of fall here are awesome. I should post a picture, but imagine something pretty darn perfect and there you go.

Spring Break, Day 2

Highlights:

1. These were eight dollars at the thrift store with the tags still on them.

Current retail price: 80.00

2. Mmmmmmmmm

from here

3.

Another great day.

What would you do if you had nothing to do?

As you know, I am a third grade teacher. I get up every day at the same time and go to school for 8+ hours, teaching 25 eight and nine year-olds. It has been a tough year. It has been more physically, emotionally, and intellectually demanding than just about anything I've ever done, especially for an extended period of time. And I love it more than I can express. But I've never been more ready for Spring Break.

Yes, Spring Break. One of the joys of working the public school system. It's already been great. Over the weekend, I had a ridiculously super amount of sleep, went out for ice cream, celebrated Passover BYU-style, had a delicious Easter Dinner, and learned (?) how to play Smash Brothers.

Today was my official no-work day. It ended up being the perfect lazy vacation day, and exactly what I needed.

My Day (originally I had times posted, but they were rather embarrassing):

Wake up

Get out of bed half an hour later

Make buttermilk syrup and french toast with my roommates

Shower, get ready for the day

Go grocery shopping for the ingredients for all the magical things I hope to make as Spring Break continues

On the drive home, play the "Whatever song comes on next is yours, and describes some aspect of your life" game

Visit our new friend Annie

Visit Kevin

Look at photography blogs

Make a big plate of garlic-y pasta with red peppers

Finish reading Anna Karenina (very, very, very good) and then fall asleep on the couch

Unintentionally sleep through Family Home Evening

Go see "The Morning Benders" at Velour

Finally do a weekend's worth of dishes

Guys, this is shaping up to be a beautiful week.

The Morning Bender's Excuses (the video is being funky and driving me mad. I'm not going to fix it, sorry).

Graphs are fashionable

My blogging history:

It's not even halfway through 2010!

A bit of joy for you. . .

Here it is

10 things I recently discovered should ALWAYS be in my cupboard

What do you expect to use all the time? If you look at my wardrobe, there are a lot of simple items that I bought with the intention of wearing with EVERYTHING (black cardigan). And then there's the other example of when rather unique pieces of clothing (green and white beaded flip flops, for example) somehow end up going with, and improving, almost everything. And you find excuses to wear them, no matter what.* Lately, I've been listing in my head all the ingredients I love, and am noticing a few similarities between my cardigans, flip-flops, and this list.

1. Cauliflower

2. Lime

3. Freshly ground black pepper

4. Real Parmesan

5. Spinach

6. Hummus

7. Garlic

8. Tim Tams

9. Chips

10. Salsa

The quality of life has drastically improved.

*Or the opposite situation, when you buy something that is supposed to be versatile (khaki pants) and never wear it/them, because it never looks quite right.

My dream

I am going to start this posts the same way I start my conversations--with one or two disclaimers. First, I think it is ridiculous to post about dreams. This one was just too hilarious, though. Second, I really don't think I am repressed.

Chapter 1: I dreamed last night that I was a repressed Victorian woman, who somehow got mixed up with a crew of goat herders in a basement who were protecting their goats from people shooting through the ceiling at them.

I emerged alive, but not the same.

Chapter 2: Fast forward one year (as is so easy to do in dreams and movies):

I had begun to break free of my mother's rule and had my own herd of mountain goats.

I saw this picture on a blog the day before. Goats=metaphor for "living on the edge?"

As I was out tending them, I ran into a gang of motocross nomads (yep). One guy managed to miraculously save one of my goats, thus winning my heart. I became best buddies with the nomads.

Chapter 3: One of the nomads had a younger sister. She loved motocross with all her heart, but there is just no room for women in the nomad motocross world. I was talking to her, and I had an epiphany: I would learn how, and then we could compete against each other! The world would have to take note of two woman competing. It was brilliant.

Then I woke up.

A Mighty Change

I had a moment last Friday. My roommates and I had just come back from a triple blind date, which, surprise, was awful. I was exhausted before the date even started, it was snowy, wet and cold, and then things went from bad to worse. When we got home I sat on the couch and steamed for half an hour, I was so mad. All I wanted to do was go to bed and slay the dating monster in my dreams. Hannabeth and I needed to go to Walmart, though.

I forced myself out the door into the miserable snowy cold and discovered instead the most beautiful world. It was still snowing, and the whole world was covered in snow, starlight and stillness. I was reminded of what Elder Hales said in the last conference, speaking of wanting to come to know and gain a testimony of God: "This desire leads us to ponder on the things of heaven—to let the evidence of God all around us touch our hearts." In my life, I have been negligent in observing the frequent and touching witnesses of the love of God for His children. I nearly missed that perfect experience because I thought I would rather be grumpy. It was beautiful.

Life Is Good

I am so excited by this. Isn't it amazing that those things that once seemed impossible, like finding out the color of a dinosaur, aren't?

The Grapes of Wrath has been my reading nemesis for the past ten years. I couldn't ever actually finish it. January 2010 goes down as the month I conquered it. Finished! But it was a completely worthy foe, and a new favorite. Other books I've read recently that made the mighty list: Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Jurassic Park, Catcher in the Rye, and The Hunger Games.

Quotes from the third grade:

"I didn't get any peace or love from that story, cause I was looking at the stars on the wall."

Me: "What slows objects down?" Smarty-Pants Anthony: "Fraction."

"Who is that? Is he a basketball player?"--when a black character showed up in a book we were reading.

"I was late fo school because my dad was in the bathwoom doing number two, and it took fo-eveh."

One girl, after doing a spastic dance where her legs were going all over the place: "And that's not fat. It's pure muscle. I got 'em from my dad."

I haven't lost my keys since Christmas.

Books

If I were stuck in my own brain, life, and way of thinking forever, I'm sure I would go crazy.

Making up for lost blogging time

Count this as a post.

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my. . . toes!

Some leading-up-to-Christmas highlights: 1. Over Thanksgiving, my brother and I accomplished a Thurber family first: putting up Christmas lights outside. He helped me with my fear of heights and I helped him figure out the light contraptions ("Are we supposed to screw these in?!" "No, they should just snap on." "Snap on how?!" "Just wedge them between the shingles, that'll do" "That looks ghetto" "We are ghetto"). We did figure it out eventually, survived the panic over what to do about the chimney, and were the most festive house on the block. 2. Aren't we great? I think so. Family photos, however, are a miserable thing, at least in my family. This is how it goes, every time: First, we have to delay something fun (opening presents, going to bed, cleaning our bedrooms) to take pictures. Then we position ourselves, taking into account our different heights, genders, and outfit colors. Then we do it all over again, remembering that we have to fit Dad in, too. Dad presses the button, scampers into the picture, and we all discuss whether or not the timer is working. Either it doesn't, and we all sit there forever, or it does, and we have a lovely picture of our discussion. So we try again. Then we have problems with the sibling-whose-name-will-remain-anonymous who won't smile properly. Or even make a normal face. After a few shots, we all crowd around the camera and critique. We repeat the whole thing a few more times. It's tortuous. Finally, he-who-must-not-be-named gets a sort of shocked look on his face that looks a little bit normal. We call it good, even though I secretly bewail the fact that the most acceptable overall family picture is my least favorite of myself. However, I think our endeavor turned out rather nicely this year. We took these over Thanksgiving. We're a good-looking bunch.

3. I found this picture of me in all the christmas morning mess from last year. I like it.