Monday, November 9, 2009

A Few Lessons From The Street......Sesame Street, that is

1-Shoving a ton of cookies in your mouth at 1 time is comical and helps you make friends (and while it unfortunately will also make you fat, I've learned, in my later years, that Cookie Monster isn't obese because most of the cookies he "eats" fall out of his mouth.)

2-How to count: onetwothree, FOUR, FIVE, sixseveneight, NINE, TEN, eleventweeeeelve.

3-How to count to six in Spanish (besides the words found on the menu of a Mexican restaurant, that is still the only Spanish I know )

4-Bath time IS more fun with rubber duckies

5-Living in a trash can (or dirty place for that matter) will make you grouchy too.

6-How to Dance (though I obviously took lessons from the white girls in the background)

7-And everyone can make a difference:

(Even if you are a man with a deep smoker voice, who hangs around playgrounds, and is never really that helpful. I mean, nothing says super hero like a plastic cup, right? You'd think he'd save people from dehydration or something.)

8-Being adorable can help you make millions of dollars (i.e. the Tickle Me Elmo craze of Christmas 1997) and if you dress up like something adorable, you can still make money in Times Square:
(Mark took the picture for his kids...really, just for the kids)

9-Everything around you has life: lady bugs have picnics, oranges sing, and you never know whether or not the Yip Yip Aliens just used your telephone.

10-And although Sesame Street was based on the row houses in Harlem, it's a little bit cleaner on their set: no rats, no broken bottles, no drug busts, and no crazy people...but oh, how the air is still sweet.

11-Clearly I should have spent less time in front of the T.V. with my friends from Sesame Street and maybe more time out on the streets of my neighborhood with real-life friends (and maybe the most important lesson from this post).

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Falling for you: The day Ryan walked me to work

I feel pretty lucky because my office is on the Southeast corner of Central Park and I live on the Northwest corner of the park.

From either location I can be within the gates in about seven minutes and I try to take advantage of that as often as I can because it's my favorite place in New York (you may have noticed since I write about it all the time...like here, here, and here to mention a few...).

So, if I haven't convinced you yet of it's greatness, start Falling in love right now because those leaves are real and they're spectacular:

A Few More Halloween Pictures:

To answer your questions, yes, I really wore my wedding dress:
And Ryan wore his wedding suit:
Crazy?
Nostalgic?
Or just too busy to come up with another costume because we were working on throwing the ward Halloween party together?
All.
To see what we did last weekend
("We" as in the Ryan & I, the sole members of our ward's activities committee),
go here.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Happy Halloween, from the NEWLYDEADS


Thursday, October 8, 2009

Will Work/Drive/Run/Pick (whatever I have to do) For Food

A little over a week ago Ryan and I went to Holis, New Hampshire with
Ann

and Leslie

to run a 1/2 Marathon.

"Where's Holis, NH?" you ask.
Well...I have no idea really. I was asleep in the car.

But I will tell you this, we stayed in Boston Friday and Saturday nights and then drove an hour to this lovely location:


The true impetuous for running the race was the apple crisp at the finish line and the after-race apple picking (one of my favorite fall activities).

If you haven't noticed this about me yet free food is one of my greatest motivators.

My life is just a series of carrot chases.

Actually come to think of it, I don't know if I have chased a carrot, but in Holis, I certainly chased down my share of post-race apple crisp.

And Apples:







We had a great time picking


picking apples...that is...




It's really hard not to test the apples that you pick...
as you can see...




And then we spent Saturday night and Sunday morning with Chelsea
(Ryan's friend who we stayed with in Boston)

and Cristi

(our long lost New York friend)

Saturday, October 3, 2009

A Spiritual Buzz

Yesterday I was trying to explain to one of my friends at work how much I loved General Conference weekend.

"Eight hours of church meetings? And you're sober the whole time? No thank you."

Obviously, she's never experienced an intoxicating serving of my Dad's famous "Rubber" Eggs which are ONLY served at conference breakfast....and well, she's also never heard one of those solid Jeffery R. talks...but whatever.

Hope you have a great weekend. It's one of my two favorite weekends of the year.

And Dad, I hope the "Rubber" Eggs are as good as the talks. Wish I could be there to have one, but I'll be trying out my own version in your honor.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Ryan's Birthday (updated 4 weeks later)

After the amazing day that Ryan and I spent together on my birthday (in March, which you should check out here), we decided to start a birthday tradition:

Together we will perform one act of service for every year of the birthday girl or boy's life.

For Ryan's birthday, we planned just that. In addition, I asked 30 family members and 3o of Ryan's friends to do something on his behalf as well

It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect and it was fun to be together (as always) and we set out to do 30 acts of service while also visiting a couple notable locations in New York:

(Liz Lemon's apartment)


(Jerry Seinfeld's apartment)
as well as a few other places.

OUR 30 ACTS OF KINDNESS:
1-Returned lost shoe to crying child
2-Helped a family carry groceries from their car an up 5 flights of stairs
3-Complemented a lady's shoes
4-Picked up garbage

5-Bought lemonade from a stand for us as well as another little girl and left a big tip
6-Gave a bouquet of flowers to a nice Russian lady walking past
7-Gave money to the homeless people we came across
8-Helped a senior citizen renew his bus ticket and added an extra $5 on his card
9-Bought a filet-o-fish for a homeless man
10-Helped a lady with a broken ankle carry her groceries
11-Gave a free swipe and directions to an out-of-towner
12-Bought a ride for a little girl on a mechanical horse outside a pizza place
13-Gave 30 popsicles to 30 people

14-Took a photo for a tourist
15-Gave money to a very deserving, young juggler
16-Bought carousel tickets for strangers
17-Gave money to a musician
18-Gave detailed directions to a few lost souls
19-Upped someone's chances at the Wicked lottery
20-Gave a Jamba Juice card to someone outside of Jamba Juice
21-Paid for a load of laundry but left before starting the machine
22-Left "Thank you" notes and post its all around the city
23-Bought a cheeseburger for a homeless man named Kevin
24-Bought 2 chicken and rice meals for a homeless couple
25-Left money in a random telephone booth
26-Handed out a flat of water to people near Penn Station
27-Were nice to the doormen all along 110th
28-Complimented (and talked to) sidewalk chalk artist
29-Bought Dinner for a stranger
30-Helped a couple with a huge load down the subway stairs

FAMILY
Uncle Mike: helped someone find a job
Uncle Bob: took tires to the dump for his mother
Aunt Luwana: took Zucchini bread to a neighbor
Craig: stopped a bus to help a stranger catch it
Nana: bought 10 ice cream cones for strangers
Janelle: threw a baby shower for a girl in her ward
Verdonn: cooked a spaghetti dinner for his landlord's handyman who had been working all day
Katie & Dougie: cleaned out their closets and gave her clothes to a homeless shelter
John: Gave someone who was running to catch the ferry a ride to the dock, and donated a backpack full of school supplies to an elementary school
Papa: Paid the ferry fare for the car behind him in line
Aunt Janet: visited a sick friend in the hospital
Jeff: Let all of his employees out of work early for the weekend
Scott: made breakfast for Marcelle's friends and helped set up tables at a function that night
Nanette: Made special zucchini bread for a neighbor
Marcelle: Sent a missionary care package to her brother
Kim Church: Gave the money that she would have spent on Ryan's birthday present to a woman in her office who is struggling financially
Paige: Helped an older couple
Tony: Helped co-worker with a project
James: made cookies for a family whose dad has shingles
Ann & Jim: Helped Mark and Shannon move and fed the Elders who helped.
Wanda & Lester: took fruit and bread to the sick and the elderly
Mark: Gave a copy of The Book of Mormon to his new neighbor
Shannon: visited with the neighbors
Catherine: had a very spiritual and uplifting conversation with a friend in need
Calder: unloaded a car of groceries for his mom
Christine: did an endowment session
Taylor & Todd: complimented people in the park

FRIENDS
(I don't have everyone's act of kindness that they did because most of the messages went to Ryan's phone, however, here is a sampling of what was done:)
Cy: Gave $5 to a homeless man
Ann: helped a co-worker
Kim G: gave money to homeless kids
Blair: bought doughnuts for her office
Lisa: gave her last lollie to someone in Times Square
Chelsea: sent a bouquet of flowers to a sad friend
Amber: shared her pizza with her roommate
Jeff: bought an extra Trax ticket and left it in the kiosk for the next person
Tracy: gave flowers to a friend
Tamara H: let her interns go home early
Megan: gave money to a lady on the subway
Tamara D: helped a paraplegic man and fed the missionaries
Heather: fed the missionaries
Anita: helped and elderly man down the subway stairs
Cristi: smiled at strangers
Holly: cleaned the hair out of her drain at her apartment
Roger & Heidi: helped one of their employees receive a very generous scholarship
Cameron: did his home teaching

To everyone who participated: thank you for being willing and thank you so much for doing something. It made the day so better than it already was. Getting your text messages and emails and voice mails were inspiring. I'm so amazed by people's creativity and generosity. I was thrilled to hear about the wonderful acts that others were performing all across the country.

To all the friends who helped: thank you for being a friend. Thank you for being Ryan's friend, thank you for being my friend, and most importantly, thank you for letting us exploit the friendship we share.

To all the family members who did an act: thank you for showing Ryan you love him. Thank you for responding to my request....whenever that was that you happened to respond...Thank you for giving such sweet service for your son, brother, uncle, new son, new brother-in-law, and new favorite uncle. I swear we won't ask anything else of you this year...unless maybe we could get some of you to come visit for Thanksgiving? No...? Too much to ask...? Okay then...we'll wait for 2010 to put any more requests in.

To everyone we helped: thank you for letting two crazy strangers pester you. Thank you for being so gracious. Thank you for being so kind to us.

To everyone who wouldn't let us help them: thank you for being honest with us that you wanted us to get the hell away from you.

To everyone that we stared down while we were trying to figure out how we could help: thank you for not hating us for staring. There were good intentions behind it.

To everyone that took a popsicle: thank you for taking them before they melted--we were stressed for a minute or two that we wouldn't get them out.

To President Monson: Thank you for reading this blog and using this same idea for your birthday (see here). And even if you don't read this blog thanks for thanks for being a Prophet and sharing your vision with us.

To Ryan: thank you for wanting to do a day of service again.
I love you.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Warning: Dream Blog

I had this reoccurring nightmare throughout most of my twenties:

I'm engaged to someone.
In fact, I'm minutes away from being married or it's the day before the wedding or worst of all: we just got married and I know IT'S WRONG!

I don't want to marry them.
I'm not supposed to marry them.
It does NOT feel good.
And, I start freaking out:

How am I going to get out of this? What do I say? Who do I say it to? How do I fake my own death right in this very moment to avoid this situation?????

Then I wake up and I breath deeply because I'm not married.

This dream came regularly while I was single, but while I was dating a few particular people it crept up as a nightly routine. Sometimes the reoccurring dream drove me so crazy that I broke up with people to make the dreams go away.

I'm happy to report that I never got this dream while Ryan and I were engaged (not even the first time we were engaged).

But the other night, the dream came again:

I was engaged. I was getting married to someone in a few days and I'm not miserable, but during the dream it dawns on me: I don't want to marry him. I want to marry Ryan.
I love talking to him.
I like being with him more than I like being with anyone else.
He's my best friend.
So, I started freaking out:


How do get out of my engagement? And more importantly, how do I convince Ryan that he's supposed to marry me???

And then I woke up with him right next to me and was relieved to find that somehow, I had already convinced him to marry me.

(pictures taken especially for Paige who so graciously gave us these adorable hats)

Monday, September 7, 2009

Pictures: The Wedding Day!

Pictures outside of the Manhattan temple by the amazing Gugelman Photography



Pictures: The Wedding Luncheon

Wedding luncheon pictures by Gugelman Photography



Pictures: Around New York

Pictures around New York City with Gugelman Photography







Pictures: The Reception

Family and Reception Photos by our favorite guys. Again, I give you: Gugelman Photography