PB Lewis

Benny Boy Birthday

2012-02-12T15:22:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet Ben!
It was a little bit different this year as his actual birthday was quite busy.

We went out to dinner the night before his birthday

And he got to open one present

The morning of his real birthday started early
Here we are driving to school on an early, cold winter morning

Ben was at school all day and we had a few minutes to eat some Panera dinner before he was off to a meeting.
We went straight form the meeting to his intramural basketball game.
I went to cheer him on and see some friends.

We got home at 8:30 and Ben said he didn't think he had time for cake & presents
(he had a paper due at midnight that he needed to finish)

But we snuck in a couple presents anyway.
He also couldn't say no to his requested mint ice cream cake/pie

The day after became birthday day#3
He got to open some more presents and have cake of course

And to top it all off Ben wanted to have a cereal party at the end of the week.

Yes, at age 29 his birthday party of choice was a cereal party

It ended up being lots of fun.
We had our friends bring a box of cereal to share with the group
Surprisingly no one ended up bringing the same cereal.
I think the favorite choice was Reese's Puffs

It was quite the fun birthday week for Ben!

Christmasness

2012-01-08T18:41:00.008-05:00

The beginning of our trip back to Arizona for Christmas was hilarious.
Ben and I were on our way to the airport when my mom reminded me that my brother (who is serving as a missionary in our NY mission) was going to be at the Syracuse airport also that afternoon!
I totally forgot and wasn't thinking about it, but he was going to pick up the new missionaries at the airport that afternoon.

I ran around the small airport looking for him but he was not there. We missed him by one hour early. He was coming after our plane was scheduled to take off. Too bad, but close call!
We walked up to our gate and came to find these 4 missionaries sitting at our gate. These are the missionaries from his mission that were going home that day, on our same flight!
The one on the far right served with Michael a couple months ago, and the Sister served in Ithaca for awhile!
So we had a great beginning to our journey to AZ.

We made it back safely and had a busy couple days before Christmas.
We switched back and forth between mine and Ben's house in order to catch all of our family before some of them left after Christmas!

Steven and I rofling as usual.

We had a joint family cousins party a few days before Christmas.

My cute nephew Jackson is obsessed with "choo choos" as pictured here

We had a gift exchange, played chimes, and enjoyed each others company.

Arizona was pretty warm for us, so they had to create fake snow at the mall to make it feel a bit more "Christmasy"

Christmas Eve day was a blast. We played some tennis, soccer, and then hit up the hot tub!

Then we decorated sugar cookies and played some games.

Switch over to the Lewis family Christmas Eve dinner and festivities.
Singing around the piano is quite common at their house.

We got to be Mary & Joseph in the reenactment of Luke 2.

Christmas morning was busy with lots of kids!

Then we transitioned back to my house for Christmas evening

So much fun in such a short time!!

Post Christmas Party

2012-01-08T15:47:00.005-05:00

After Christmas was just as busy. Switching forth between both houses made it fun and crazy!

My lovely sister-in-law Annie made delicious caramel apples for everyone

We did a lot of hanging out with Ste

Even more fun family get togethers

And of course seeing a few good friends!

Oh yeah... and our 2nd year anniversary!! We've officially been married two years. Hooray!
Time has flown by and yet I feel like I have lived in Ithaca with Ben for quite awhile already.

We went to Oreganos, where our first date was three years ago to the day!
We also decided to celebrate more officially back in Ithaca when we weren't trying to see family

We did also go to the Mesa temple where we were married two years ago!

Then it was New Year's Eve. We kept it low key as we hung out with both of our families.

Finally, we celebrated our cute nephew Rhett's 2nd birthday

Thanks for all the fun and sun Arizona!

Pre Christmas Festivities

2012-01-08T14:42:00.002-05:00

Before we left for the holidays Ben and I had some fun making gingerbread houses with some friends! Ben's was quite amazing, and definitely better than mine. He was very proud.

We loved our Douglas Fir tree and it was fun having it up before taking off

Some of my work friends had a cookie baking party. We made way too many cookies but they were delicious.

We had a few Christmas decorations up, but we were excited to go home and hang out with our families!

'Tis the Season

2011-12-04T15:18:00.006-05:00

I was more than ready to get Christmas decorations up and to start celebrating this year.

There is a cute town called Skaneateles not too far away that has an annual Charles Dickens Christmas Festival.
We went with some of our friends and their kids and enjoyed the fun festivities

We still wanted a picture with Santa!

cute Graham with the Hollbrooks

The girls watching them act out A Christmas Carol

Posing by the horse and carriage ride that we decided against waiting in line for an hour

The Christmas tree at the end of the pier

And of course sing along caroling at the center of town!

I decided that we were getting a Christmas tree this time, after having our ornaments hung on the chandelier last year!

Ben and I found a tree farm and decided to go for it

It was a bit chilly so we bundled up, me in Ben's jacket, and went to find the perfect tree

After much contemplating we found the "closest to perfect" tree.
Ben got to saw it down like a real man!

And carry it as well

They got it all bundled up nicely for us and somehow it managed to fit in our car!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

LOVE,
THE LEWIS'

Turkey and Things

2011-11-26T09:35:00.004-05:00

For the past week Ben has been out of town in London..

London, Ontario that is.

While he was gone it was fun to get some girl time in at a birthday party and movie night

But it was weird not being able to call/text him because of the out of the country phone rates.
He didn't want to take my laptop (maybe because it is super old and slowing down)
so he borrowed one from Cornell instead.
This entailed not being able to download Skype and in us talking minimally on GChat a few times.

I'm not sure if the lack of laptop started the idea or just the necessity of it but Ben decided it was TIME to buy a new laptop. It just so happened to be Thanksgiving and Black Friday that same week!

After we ran that crazy 10K in June I decided we should try another race.
I found this 5K on their website and it was on Thanksgiving morning!

Ben and I stayed here to have our first Ithaca Thanksgiving this year, after our NYC Thanksgiving last year, so we got to run the Turkey Trot!

It was a lot of fun because you were supposed to guess how fast you thought your time would be for the race. Funny thing was that we found out it was 5.5 miles rather than a 5K when we got there!
Ben wrote a time down and I had to beat him so I wrote 2 seconds faster at 49:11.
Some of our friends ran too!

One of the rules of the race was no watches.
Somehow I managed to finish with a time of 48:50... only 21 seconds before my suggested time!

Then we decided to get cleaned up and I made a few Thanksgiving dishes for the first time.
Here is the Cranberry Jello... with the yams & apples and green beans cooking

We enjoyed a great feast at our friends' with some delicious turkey of course

Here is Ben checking out the ads with the girls... he was trying to find the best laptop deal out there.

And of course the delicious dessert table with pies and cutie pie Aubrey

The boys did some gaming while we dished out the pie.

Ben said he wanted apple pie with ice cream. Earlier the ice cream scoop was being used in the mashed potatoes. I mentioned it would be funny to put potatoes on top instead of ice cream... and soon enough that is what I served to Ben.

The girls and I watched in the kitchen and we were dying as Ben picked at his pie "a la mode"

We finally told Ben about the prank and he thought the ice cream was freezer burned and was politely eating it.

I'm grateful to have such a wonderful husband that doesn't complain
(most of the time)

Ben decided on an HP laptop at Walmart and went down at 10:30 pm to stand in line.
At 1:30 am I heard him climb into bed with me *(because I had early work at 5 am) stating that he had successfully purchased the computer and already got it set up!

Quite the successful Thanksgiving!

Halloween Time

2011-10-29T20:28:00.008-04:00

It seems like Halloween just crept up on us!
I wasn't thinking about it at all as we have had a couple visitors recently.

Since we didn't have much time to plan, I thought it was a great idea for Ben and I to use our crayon costumes from a couple years ago.

Ben was not too fond of the idea, but at the last minute we ended up going with it anyway!
I mean no one in Ithaca had seen Ben in his crayon tube top dress yet, so they needed to experience it right?!

We got invited to the YSA Halloween Party

We ended up going "Trick or Can" rather than "Treat," and we went collecting canned food for a local food bank. Here is our winning team with a total of 85 cans of food (in 30 minutes that is!)
Thanks to all our friends who live at Winston Court who helped us out :)

And he said he wasn't excited about wearing his costume... I don't believe it one bit after this picture!!

My friend Nicole and I dressed up as cowgirls at work on Halloween! It was fun getting to wear two different costumes in one day!

We went back to the Corn Maze where we had been with my family 2 weeks ago.
Ben wanted redemption at the apple slingshot, so we got 32 apples to hit the bulls eye.
Ben was pretty successful, but it sure is tough. We also played a round of mini golf.
Ben and I tied! He may have a different story, but mine is the truth :)

NOTICE OUR FESTIVE ORANGE & BLACK GOLF BALLS

And then it decided to snow in October here?!
I guess it didn't stick and wasn't too bad but kinda crazy that it's already starting! Ah!

Oh yeah, we moved!

2011-10-29T20:17:00.005-04:00

With a lot of help from family and friends, we successfully decorated and moved
1.1 miles away to our new apartment!
We are really enjoying it.
Here are some pictures of the downstairs.
Upstairs we've got our bedroom, Ben's office, and our washer & dryer (hallelujah).
It's not quite as clean and fancy up there!

So if you're ever around upstate New York, feel free to stop by... we love visitors! :)

The Lewis Crew

2011-10-27T17:32:00.003-04:00

We were lucky to have Doug and Annie stop in Ithaca on their fun trip to New York.

The twins are quite similar in many ways, so it was fun to see them interact and to be with Annie to laugh about their quirks and antics.

We got to play games with them, hike Taughannock, tour Cornell, visit all of Ithaca's many waterfalls, enjoy pizza and thai food, and spend time together!

Thanks for the great quick visit!
Here are a couple pictures...

The cute twins on our couch
Ben thought leaning would be a great idea for a picture :)
There Ben & Doug were, reading EVERY sign on the hike
Doug wanted to help the Cornell bell chimes players with their concert
One of the many Ithaca waterfalls

My Family Visits

2011-10-19T20:31:00.008-04:00

Last weekend we had a great time hanging out with our visitors...
My mom and brother, as well as sister and nephew came to NY.

Here are some of the highlights through pictures, starting from the end of the trip

We went to a corn maze close by and had to do the apple slingshot of course

We hiked at Watkins Glen and saw the beautiful waterfalls and gorges.

Another beautiful Ithaca site to see is Ithaca Falls

Mini tour of Cornell with quite the view

Saturday morning trip to Hollenbeck's

Made a delicious pie out of these apples

Bought some freshly pressed cider

Friday we went to Palmyra and saw all the church sites

Sacred Grove... in the rain, with the beautiful fall leaves

Whitmer Farm

And one of Ben's favorite memories, dinner at Dinosaur BBQ

It was fun to show off Ithaca and upstate NY and all they have to offer, especially in the fall!

Fall Festivities

2011-10-07T16:18:00.006-04:00

As always time seems to be flying by!

Since Texas we have been busy working and having fun in Ithaca.
I started coaching soccer again and Ben is busy working on his dissertation.
The fall is a great time to be in Ithaca with all the leaves changing, festivals, and of course co-ed intramural soccer.

Ben and I are on a co-ed soccer team, like last year, and are having lots of fun playing together (as long as Ben doesn't mess up or let the other team score :) )

We took a trip to the Palmyra Temple with some friends, and even stopped at the Chill and Grill for quick ice cream before

We threw a bridal shower for Stacy and enjoyed delicious treats and some funny games

Had a nice Sunday afternoon at the Plantations at Cornell.

Then we hit up the Apple Harvest Festival for some delicious fall treats.

Ben took one glance at these "tornado fries" and knew he wanted some.
It actually was pretty cool watching the guy slice the potato and slide it onto the skewer.

Ithaca Commons

Then last weekend we went to my good friend Nicole's wedding near Syracuse.
She looked amazing and her dress was gorgeous.

The only bummer was that the weather was 40 degrees, so we had to get out our warm clothes!

My work friends and me at the reception.

Nicole is a big dancer. At her bachelorette party I taught some of the girls my friends' Apple Bottom Jeans dance. Yes, the dance my friends and I danced at my wedding.
You can see one of the many times my friends and I did the Apple Bottom Jeans dance here if you would like.

It was a lot of fun celebrating with Nicole!
Congratulations to Nicole and Justin Commane!

Now we can't wait for my family to come in town!

TEXAS

2011-09-22T14:45:00.006-04:00

Last year for Christmas Ben's parents gave us tickets to the BYU vs. Texas game.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to go if I had a full time teaching job, as the game was scheduled during the first week of school, but there were still no teaching jobs in Ithaca this year so we were both able to go!

Ben and I flew into Houston, where his twin brother Doug and his family live.
Ben's parents and grandparents were there also and we all headed to Austin the next morning.

(of course that was after we had played soccer, played with the kids, and all put on our awesome blue t-shirts)

It was fun to see Austin, and of course to stop at the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory on the way there

The game was really fun.... until the second half when BYU fell asleep.
We also met Ben's sister Lauren her husband for the game.

We got to see the Texas state capital and hear an awesome bagpipe band.

The twins in their element. Try guessing who is who...
(especially if you don't look at the other pictures giving away their pant color)

We had fun checking out the city with Doug and Annie.

Then we drove back to Houston to spend another day at their house and with darling Rhett and Cal.

We went to Galveston beach and had a great time enjoying the sun!

Thanks for the fun time Texas and the Lewis crew!

End of Summer

2011-08-27T20:01:00.008-04:00

Oh how I wish Ithaca's summers could last all year!

I cannot believe August is almost over and that school is back in session. The funny part is that Ben isn't taking or teaching any classes this semester so it doesn't really affect us that much.

We had a Stake Day a few weekends ago at Watkins Glen when Ben was at his annual Management Conference.
I went with Kristy and The Timothys (the new CES missionary couple in our Branch)

We had a fun time hiking, exploring, and enjoying a beautiful day in upstate NY.

Last weekend we had a bachelorette party for my good friend Nicole from work.
We went out to dinner, played some games, and had a fun time!

THEN... we had an awesome Saturday in Ithaca.

I went to the Ithaca Farmer's Market in the morning for crepes with some friends.
Then Ben and I rented a canoe for a few hours and took it out on Cayuga Lake!
It was a lot of fun... and a lot of work

View of Cornell from the lake.

We were trying to get a close picture of both of us without tipping the boat!

The dock at the Farmer's Market

After our canoe outing we got some yummy calzones and brought them to Treeman State Park

They have a place to swim and sweet waterfalls!

The water was pretty cold in the evening so we decided against it but are planning on going back soon!

I fell in love with Ithaca again this summer!! Let's hope the winter weather doesn't sneak up on us too soon :)

Birthday Outing

2011-08-02T16:50:00.007-04:00

With my birthday on Sunday this year it made for an extra fun birthday weekend!

We were planning on going camping in the Adirondacks, but the weather didn't look very promising on Friday night.

We decided to move that to another weekend and do a fun day trip to Niagara Falls instead!

We left Ithaca early Saturday morning and made our way to the falls in about 3 hours

The highlight was definitely the "Maid of the Mist" boat that took us right next to the falls on either side of the border!

There were some pretty amazing sights from up top and down in the water!

After enjoying our time around sunny Niagara we drove to Rochester and hit up the mall

I was shocked when I saw a Delias store! I knew that they had a few stores but had never seen one before. I was excited to go inside as I used to shop their catalog back in the day!!
(Please tell me some of you know what I'm talking about)

Then we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner and a birthday serenade.

Sunday morning brought the big day! We had birthday cinnamon rolls, went to church, and opened some presents.

Ben gave me the last piece of my "tennis set"
(I received the racket for Christmas and tennis skirt for Valentines day)
Apparently he wants me "to go pro" haha

Ben decided to test out our grill and cook us steak :)

It was a success! We had a delicious meal and saved room for fresh lemon raspberry cake!

Ben even remembered to sing happy birthday this year, and didn't demand me to blow out the candles like last year :)

HOORAY FOR SUMMER BIRTHDAYS!

Berry Season

2011-08-02T16:37:00.003-04:00

About a week ago Ben and I went blueberry & raspberry picking at Grisamore Farms just down the road.

I think Ben ate his weight in blueberries but we had fun picking and enjoying the nice sunny weather!

Besides your typical munching, the berries have been used to create a few delicious desserts recently.

Muffins, cream pie, mini cheesecake, and my lemon raspberry birthday cake were just a few of our favorites :)

Summer Vacation # 2- SLC

2011-07-18T17:49:00.009-04:00

After our California vacation my parents, Steven, and I spent some time in Salt Lake City!

When I was little we used to spend a whole month in SLC and I loved celebrating the 4th of July there with my family and grandparents.

We got to celebrate the 4th there this year with great fireworks

I got to spend a lot of time with my mom and dad

my cousins, and Steven

We fit more tennis time in the schedule

And of course some Papa & Nana time as well

We did a little swimming, and Steven caught both these melons off the diving board on the 4th of July swim party

We enjoyed a 4th buffet feast before the fireworks show

and enjoyed every minute of it!

Thanks SLC, it was fun hanging out with you again :)

Summer Vacation # 3/4- Friends & Ben's Family Reunion

2011-07-18T17:04:00.009-04:00

After a fun week in SLC, I got to spend some time with friends in Provo.

At first it felt weird being back in Provo, married and graduated from BYU for a year!

But it sure was nice seeing my friends and catching up with them

Bethany, Maren, and I had lunch at Rumbi

I got to stay at Maren & Logan's house and Maren kindly came along with me for some adventures in Provo.

We checked out the awesome cube made out of books at the MOA at BYU

enjoyed some rofling time like the good ol' days

Scoped out Provo's current fro yo places

Had some soccer time with Andie

...and I couldn't leave without stopping at SmartCookie with them and Jacque

THEN... it was time to attend Ben's Smoot family reunion.

Technically it was "my" family reunion as well, but it was Ben's mom's side of the family and their big get together they do every year.

This year it was in Park City and it was the exact time Ben had to T.A. for the Cornell class.
Ben was sad he couldn't make the reunion so he said that I needed to represent us and still go anyway

I ended up going and it was a lot of fun hanging out with Ben's family and grandparents.

I loved playing with cute Rhett... and he loved my sunglasses in return

Chairlift up to the alpine slides

Three survivors after a fun ride down the mountain

We watched some World Cup soccer, enjoyed the park, pool, and running in the mountains!

By the end of week 3 I was ready to get back home to Ithaca and be with Ben again.

The one thing I wasn't looking forward to was unpacking our belongings in our new apartment!

Yes, we moved... just a mile away from our old apartment. Pictures will be coming soon :)

Summer Vacation #1- CALIFORNIA

2011-07-18T16:40:00.005-04:00

Remember how last summer I spent a month in Arizona?!
Well this year I spent almost a month away from Ithaca in a few different places, first including Arizona.

Ben and I finally got to take a vacation together, and we flew to Arizona to spend a few days with his family.

Ben couldn't make it to his big family reunion so we decided to spend some time with just his family in Arizona.

We didn't get many pictures as it was such a short, fun trip but we had fun being at "home" in sunny HOT Arizona.

Next we drove to California with my family. We met Rachel, Tyler, and Jackson at Newport Beach and got to spend a week in Cali!

We got some shopping done,

Checked out "The Wedge" at Balboa

I got sunburned really bad on my feet the first day! I never really used to burn but I guess my new home in Ithaca, NY didn't provide me with any base.

Got to spend time with my cute husband :)

Steven & Ben had some good bonding/building/boarding time together

We enjoyed some treats we don't have in NY

And enjoyed a great week at the beach!

The only sad part was when Ben had left to fly home to T.A. for a class at Cornell for the summer.
That started day 1 out of about 18 being apart :(

Overall it was a blast being in Cali and I hope to get back there soon!

We Did It!

2011-06-04T15:15:00.006-04:00

This morning Ben and I ran in our 2nd race together.

This time we stepped it up a tad and ran a 10+K (aka 6.7 miles)

Ben wanted some sort of goal or reason to motivate him/us to workout earlier this year.

I got online and found one of the very few races that was not on a Sunday out here in NY!

It just so happened to be the "Tortoise & Hare 10+K Trail Run"

I thought it was a cute title and quickly glanced at the race, day, time, and location.

It looked like a go, so we started running together more frequently

As the race date got closer I looked at the information a little more closely...

It described itself as "Covers beautiful varied terrain, the flat Larch Meadow Trail, the easy Bear
Trail, the rolling Lake Trail (all sounding pretty nice right?)...

and only one long steep 400 foot incline in half of a mile.

I knew the incline would be bad, but I didn't really realize how bad it would be until we actually
attempted to run the trail/race last Saturday.

Let's just say our goal was to finish the race

We started the race and got our adrenaline going, and had to run through a few pretty muddy spots which resulted in some wet, dirty shoes.

This is kinda what part of the uphill looked like (but much greener and a few less people)

Once the super steep uphill part was over we were loving life and enjoyed the rest of the run.
It was a cloudy day with a few sprinkles but nothing to complain about.

Here we are at the finish line, pretending we ran it in 41 minutes. I think the fastest guy ran it in 45 minutes somehow?!

I didn't get 1st, but did get 71st :) with a time of 67:21 & Ben at 68:26

Ben and I stayed together for a lot of the race, but sometimes I was just ahead of him... and he finished a minute after I did

I forgot how much I enjoy competition.
I loved having people ahead of me so I could chase them down and pass them (or try to at least)

(and I'm pretty sure the two people in front of me didn't finish one second ahead of me, or else I would have had to pass them at the finish line! ha)

Happy to be finished with the race
It got a little rough and dirty on the trail!

Cute Benny boy after the race

Thanks for the fun memory Tortoise and Hare Race!
Maybe we'll see you again next year?!

Where Did May Go?!

2011-05-25T11:53:00.009-04:00

Time seems to be flying by lately.

Ben was out of town for a week at his best friend's wedding in Utah. Time went by a little bit slower when he was gone, but I still managed to stay busy as always. I did realize it's a lot more fun around here when Ben is home.

Time sure did fly by when we took a mini-trip to Philadelphia last weekend!

Rachel, and baby Jackson, flew up to to meet Tyler after his work conference in Philly. Ben and I drove down on Thursday night to hang out with them the rest of the weekend.
We had a lot of fun together and got to see all sorts of cool historical sites.

Here are some of the highlights via pictures!

The classic Rocky steps outside the Museum of Art...

Valley Forge Sites...

A lot of good eats, including Cheesecake Factory...

City fun...

Pretty awesome Liberty Bell...

Philly Cheesesteak at Reading Terminal Market... just kinda large

Fun times at the Phillies vs. Rangers game...

Walking around U Penn/bookstore & finding Ben's section...

and everything in between. Thanks for a fun weekend Philly and the Jennings!

April Showers

2011-05-04T10:42:00.006-04:00

I guess I haven't posted recently because of my lack of pictures, but once Easter rolled around I remembered I actually had a camera and should start using it again!

Ben and I had a great Easter together this year. Last year I flew to Orlando in the afternoon, on Easter Sunday. We made sure to take advantage of being together this time!

We had a wonderful Easter program at church

We got to have our annual egg hunt... don't worry I beat Ben again this year!

Ben thought he looked pretty cool searching for eggs up on the chair :)

Later that evening we had a delicious Easter dinner with some of our friends.

April was full of showers!
Ben was on a softball team that had games on Monday nights.
Did they even get to play one game? No! Every Monday it was rained out! Haha

We finally got to bust out our tennis rackets and have played a few times when the sun came out.
We also have finally been able to run outside as we're trying to "train" for a 10K in June.

Our Branch had a talent show and Ben was dying to perform some sort of song/dance. With Ben's current obsession of Glee's music, he/we convinced some of our friends to participate with us. We chose the song Loser Like Me that Glee performed because of its easy choreography to copy. Be sure to watch their video here as we didn't get a recording of our dance at the talent show.

Oh yes, Ben was so excited to "be" Finn in our performance. It was pretty hilarious as you can imagine us doing the moves and getting into it!

I've made a lot of new friends and got to celebrate the Royal Wedding with some of them at our tea party

Last Saturday we went to the driving range. Surprisingly it was not an easy task to find one open in early May. We had fun practicing our swings and we also went to the baptism of Lipeng into our Branch!

Such a cute husband I have :)

Life is good now that it is finally warming up here...
We'll see what adventures May will bring our way!

Ben's Spring Break

2011-04-05T16:55:00.005-04:00

When I got back from Florida Ben was feeling a little down and decided he wanted a spring break of his own. Some of his ideas were going to Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., but we decided to keep in more local and check out some cool historical places around Ithaca.

Our first stop was Harriet Tubman's home, in Auburn, NY.

Notice there was still snow everywhere and we had to wear our warmest jackets as it was in the low 30's in late March.

Here is the home that Harriet helped build that is currently under renovation, soon to be able to go inside.

We were able to go inside the home she created for "old people" as she worked there and later herself was taken care of here as well.

Our next stop was the William Seward House... also in Auburn. Seward was Lincoln's Secretary of State and loyal friend. He lived in this house along with his relatives, and it has so much history and so many cool artifacts inside. If you ever come visit us I'm sure Ben will want to take you there as he loved it! Seward had thousands of first editions books, many signed by the author. They were/are filthy rich and have some awesome stories/treasures.

Too bad someone took pictures of inside the house and sold them...not allowing us to take any now.

Our final stop was the Women's Rights National History Park/ visitors center... in Seneca Falls, NY. This is where the first talk and convention for women's rights was held. There were some cool exhibit, fun photo ops, and a historical movie.

Apparently Ben wants to follow in his dad's footsteps and become a political figure... maybe even the president?!

Overall we had a very fun filled day. I felt well educated afterward and we even hit up the outlets before heading home. Thanks for being so cool and full of history New York!

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-25T17:45:00.004-04:00

Last year I headed down to Orlando to meet my new nephew Jackson a few weeks after he was born.
This year I decided to head down to Orlando to hang out with my family for their spring break... and of course to get some sun/heat in my life! I really like the trend of going to Orlando every March to run away from Ithaca's snowy winter!

It was a great trip and the highlights include but are not limited to:

-Good food and fun family times

-The Lake

- 3 Disney Parks: Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom

-Shopping

-Jackson's 1st b-day party: making his cake

-Tennis, the park, and walks outside

Thanks for the heat Florida!

oh yeah.. and when I got home to Ithaca there was no snow, but the next morning I woke up to a winter wonderland outside!
No more walks to the park or tennis for awhile!

Cakes

2011-03-13T14:51:00.004-04:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been taking this cake decorating class for the past few weeks. The only downside to this class is having a large amount of cake/frosting/sweets around the house all the time.

I also made a cake with a girl from work for these two girls having birthdays the same week. It was a funfetti cake (4 boxes of it) and very delicious!

But about the cake class... we learned about all different designs/tips and I had some fun decorating cupcakes.

We finished up the cake class this week with our "final cake." I figured since I was planning on making a cake for my nephew Jackson's birthday that I would practice for it.

I saw a picture of a darling sailboat cake and tried to replicate it. Not exactly the same as the picture but I don't think it turned out too bad.

I'm excited to keep practicing and use my new cake skills!

Wretched Warren Road

2011-03-09T07:36:00.009-05:00

So... I've told these stories quite a few times, doesn't that mean they deserve being posted on the blog?

Ben and I live off of Warren Road.
Our daily routine is: get up at 5 am.
Leave to take Ben to school at 5:30 while I gotta be at work by 6.
This instance happened last week.

It was a typical early morning, pitch black, and still trying to wake up in the car.
Every morning we head down Warren Road towards Cornell.
This time we passed by the school zone where lights were flashing "slow down" for me to go 20 mph
Yeah right... no one is in school at that hour so we still continue on at our 35 mph speed.

Suddenly I look behind me and see flashing lights? It couldn't be for me so I keep driving.
Ben says "Pull over! Obviously you have never been pulled over before"
Apparently his lights were for me as he walked up to us and asked if I knew my back taillight was out.
OF COURSE I DON'T!
But I obviously didn't yell this at him but I kept my cool and mentioned I had no idea.

He came back with a "fix it" ticket which meant we just had to get it signed and mailed before the court date.
The cop must have been REALLY bored at 5:30 am and decided to give me a good scare by pulling me over.
The only good part about it was that he didn't clock me for speeding or anything :)

NEXT STORY AND EVEN BETTER...

So this story happened on Monday.

On Monday morning we woke up to 15 inches of snow. We of course didn't know it snowed this much until we stepped out of our apartment and are the first ones to make a print in the white wonderland.

This picture was after they cleared the parking lot and in the daylight, but just to get a visual
Ben said he didn't know if we would be able to get our car out. The snow was up to our knees and Ben started scraping off the car. ** Keep in mind no one had cleared a walkway path yet like the picture above** Then he got a shovel and we slowly made our way out of the spot. Once we thought we were home free the apartment workers told us the roads were closed until 8:30 am so we went back inside.

Ben wanted a picture to show how ridiculous he looked, but the picture didn't quite capture the full effect. Still happy somehow.

When we came back outside to get out the second time it was a little bit better out.

The only problem was that they plowed the parking lot but left a tall wall of snow behind everyone's car. Including ours.
Ben went at it with the shovel again as I warmed up the car :)

I tried to roll my window down to talk to Ben as I tried to back out of the spot.
The drivers side window was frozen. Typical.
So we FINALLY get out of the spot, it's about 9:15 by this point, and we headed down Warren Road to take Ben to school and head to work.

We were laughing at how crazy our morning had been, but little did we know that the adventure was just beginning.

As we drove down Warren it sounded like my window was still open a little bit.
I pressed the window up button but nothing happened.
Again I pressed the button up, but this time the window went down an inch .
Weird.
Another try at pushing it up, and another few inches it went down?
I decided to let it cool off for a minute when Ben saw it slowly just sliding down.
The window was about half way down when it SLAMMED and fell all the way down into the door of the car!

What just happened? Who knew that was even possible?

I panicked and didn't know what I should do. I was supposed to take a Panera catering order and I knew that wasn't possible with one window down, and I couldn't leave my car at work like that.
We decided to head down the freeway to the VW dealer.
Yes, that meant driving 65 with my window open, trying not to get sprayed and such.

Here I was in denial that the whole thing was happening. I had Ben drop me off at work while he took the car in.
When I got into work there were 2 more phone calls for catering orders that afternoon.
Keep in mind I have never done the orders all alone but my friend Nicole, the catering coordinator, wasn't able to make it in today.
So... I was trying to figure out how to get these 3 orders put together while Ben is texting me about the car and Nicole is telling me what to do.

The car window made it out with a few scratches from the big fall but they were able to get it back in place.
The orders got finished just in time and I delivered the last one and dropped Ben off at school around 1.

Not the ideal day for either of us but crazy things happen!

Oh yeah, and then I got stuck again pulling into a parking spot coming home from work that evening.

It was quite the eventful day but if I learned one thing it was....
I CANNOT STAND THE SNOW MUCH LONGER!

But thank goodness I get to take a trip to Orlando in ONE WEEK!

Love.

2011-02-23T09:53:00.003-05:00

After a week of celebrating Ben's birthday we finished it off by going bowling with some of our friends.

Then Ben got some more love on Valentines Day! His birthday is a bit close to Valentines Day but it's always fun to celebrate a holiday where we both get to show our love for each other...
(and we both get presents)

We had a nice dinner at Tamarind, a local Thai restaurant.

Then we came home and opened a few gifts...

A book full of memories and pictures of our first year of marriage

Ben was really excited about my present... so excited that he accidentally left it in Arizona. He gave me a tennis racket for Christmas and bought this tennis skirt then too. It did make its way to Ithaca and I was really excited! Good shopping Ben... now if it would only warm up so we could actually play tennis around here!!

Oh yeah... and I'm taking this cake decorating class and thought I might show off my first cake!
Hopefully more to come soon.

(I did the #1 to practice for my nephew's first birthday cake)

We love February... a month full of Love!

Ben's Birthday Bash

2011-02-10T16:54:00.007-05:00

We celebrated Ben's birthday this week as he turned 28!

I took Ben to school on my way to work, then picked him up and had a yummy Panera birthday lunch!
Later that afternoon we did the first round of opening presents from the shrine...

The big surprise of the day was that my grandparents gave him tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters for that night!

sidenote.... I heard the Globetrotters were coming to Ithaca, on his birthday. He mentioned that would be fun and forgot about it. Then he sent me an email a few days before his birthday with a link to the ticket webpage saying "we should go for my birthday." I told him sorry and that I already had plans for his birthday night (just so happened to be for exactly what he wanted to do!)

So we had some more fun opening presents...

An "at home workout bar" hiding under the bed...and other fun stuff!

We had to do an early dinner to get to the game

We went to the new Italian restaurant close to our house

Then we headed to the Globetrotters at Cornell's basketball gym

Ben had never seen them before and we both had a fun time laughing and watching their skills

Then we hurried home to have Ben's choice cake: angel food cake with whip cream and strawberries!

Not your typical birthday cake, but it was pretty delicious in the end

The next day we had round #2 of present opening with gifts from my parents, his grandparents, etc..

It was a fun birthday...we sure do love celebrating!

Memorable Gift

2011-01-12T16:20:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite presents for Christmas this year was my wedding book.

Thanks to Ashley Madsen for creating this wonderful memory for us! Check it out at her website here.

First Anniversary Adventure

2011-01-12T08:32:00.007-05:00

Ben and I have officially been married for one year now!
As Ben put it "One year down!"
Things were a little tough at the beginning as we moved to our new apartment in Ithaca, Ben was studying for his CPA and PhD "comps" exam, and I was busy student teaching. Everything was new, and COLD! But we got through it and things have been great after the tests were over.

We were planning on celebrating our anniversary after our trip to Arizona for the holidays but Ben's twin, Doug, and his wife Annie made some plans we couldn't resist.
(Ben and I share the same anniversary with Doug & Annie! Cute right, twins getting married on the same day... just Ben was 5 years after Doug :) )

So we decided to go to a cabin a couple hours away, in Strawberry. Some may think that Arizona doesn't have any snow... but think again after seeing these crazy pictures.

The four of us drove up to the cabin and knew that a snow storm was coming that night. What we didn't realize was how bad it was going to be. We made it up there just fine and got cozy in our cabin. The rest of the trip was quite the adventure.

-We couldn't find matches anywhere to start a fire
-Made friends with the local Strawberry folk
-Played the longest game of Monopoly EVER

-Tried to stay warm by our fireplace (as it took all night to get up to 60)

-Tried to get dinner in the town, but all the roads were closed... power was out... and nothing was open.

-Woke up to about 15-20 inches of snow
-Couldn't get our car out of the driveway

-Used our cross-country skis to get to breakfast

-Skied on the closed highway

-Attempted at shoveling our way out of the driveway
-Thought we were going to be stuck another night
-Called our Strawberry friends and had them pull us out of the snow

And yet we managed to have a wonderful time/adventure for our first anniversary! The drive home was very snowy, but beautiful.

I'm not sure what we're doing for our next anniversary but I dare to say it might not be as crazy as our first! Thanks for the fun memories Doug and Annie!

An Arizona Christmas

2011-01-10T17:55:00.007-05:00

After our fun trip to NYC for Thanksgiving we realized that it was already December and time to get ready for Christmas! I was being practical and didn't think we needed a tree for only a couple weeks before we left for Arizona. This was the result of the lack of tree...

Chandelier ornaments!

We had a lot of goodies and music playing... as well as some decorations, thanks to Nana!

After a hard last week for Ben we finally headed to Arizona to spend Christmas with BOTH of our families. How nice it is to have our families live 15 minutes apart so we could share the holidays with everyone!

My sister Rachel, Tyler, and baby Jackson came for the week before Christmas so we got to spend time with them. Some of the highlights were bowling, golfing, movies, dance parties, dinners, and so much more!

We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with everyone.

We got to see the Arizona temple Christmas lights and other fun activities.

After opening presents on Christmas morning at my house we headed to Ben's house for the next week.

We had all sorts of fun with the Lewises... sibling rivalries, the twins arm wrestling, and brother sports

We got to have fireworks on New Years Eve...

and got to participate in the Lewis annual pot&pan/instrument banging to the neighbors

We played a lot of games at both houses and had a very fun warm holiday season!

We celebrated our first anniversary and went to the Mesa temple to remember our special day

We're excited for the new year and can't wait for new adventures and memories to come!

A BIG Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T15:37:00.012-05:00

This year we had quite an amazing Thanksgiving with my family.
My parents and brother flew into Ithaca on Tuesday night and we drove to NYC Wednesday morning.

Thanks to my brother-in-law we were able to stay at a hotel right off Times Square.
One of our first stops was the M&M store right across from our hotel.

Our first view of Times Square on Wednesday

Rachel, Tyler, and cute Jackson made it to NYC and we checked out the city that night.
Central Park was one of our stops.

We were told to check out the Macy's Day Parade balloons the night before... they were pretty cool to see up close.

Rockefeller Center with the famous Christmas tree...pre-lit.

We didn't camp out or anything, but we were able to score an awesome spot to watch the parade on 55th St. and 7th Ave.... with a few randoms around us.

It was so amazing to be there for the Parade.

I couldn't stop taking pictures...

I think that was Kanye West..

And Santa ended the Parade with a big HO HO HO!

The boys thought they were pretty cool cruising Broadway, since all the streets were blocked off for the Parade.

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at the Film Center Cafe... with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry, and pumpkin pie!

The next day was my mom's 50th birthday, and it was Black Friday. Perfect, right?

We did some crazy shopping and started at Macys. I loved Holiday Lane :)

There was a lot of good shopping done. I even had a lady get mad at me for taking the sweater she had her "eye on." Haha

Later that night we went to West Side Story... thanks to Nana!

The play was great and we had the songs stuck in our head the next few days, especially Steven with "MARIA!"

My parents and Steven drove back to Ithaca with Ben and I and spent a few days with us there.

We were able to visit Cornell, Peter Whitmer's Farm, waterfalls, Corning Glass Museum, and other fun stuff!

We had so much fun being with my family for Thanksgiving and can't wait to see them and Ben's family for Christmas!!

Happenings As Of Late

2010-11-15T15:19:00.005-05:00

SO.... THIS POST WAS MEANT TO BE PUBLISHED WEEKS AGO, BUT MY PICTURES WOULDN'T WORK... BETTER LATE THEN NEVER?

I haven't done a specific update of what's been going on as of late, but here they are...

We had a fun Halloween with our friends and Branch...

We carved our pumpkin with friends

Ben loved his costume, especially his mustache (only pic tured at the bowling alley)

We went to the Cornell women's hockey game,

then were inspired to see an infamous Cornell men's hockey game.
It was a ton of fun!

We sure are staying busy here in Ithaca.

Our Own Fall Break

2010-10-24T20:11:00.005-04:00

Cornell had their fall break the second week in October. Seeing as Ben is not taking any more classes, we were able to create "fall break" when we wanted to. My friend Brittany was flying out to see our friend Katie in D.C. the third week in October... so that's when we had OUR fall break.

We drove to D.C. on Sunday and were excited to see our friends again. Monday morning we hit the metro and headed to Arlington Cemetery.. Tomb of Unknown Soldier, JFK, and Iwo Jima.

Hit the Air and Space Museum on the Mall and headed to Georgetown. Delicious lunch and cupcakes of course, at Baked and Wired, shopping. National Harbor, some real Mexican food, custard, and that was just the start of our evening.

Katie wanted to take us on a nighttime tour of the monuments, so we hit up all the big sites: FDR, Jefferson, Washington, White House, WW2, Lincoln. We ended up walking 5 miles but it was so amazing to see everything at night and without the crowd (not that many people were there on a Monday in October).

On Tuesday we were a little less excited about walking all around the city but managed to have a great day. Started off with the Capital Building tour, Library of Congress...

Supreme Court Building, Nat'l Archives, and decided to see Social Network.

After the movie we found this pub with a London style telephone out front... obviously Katie and I had to have a picture in front of it.

Overall it was a great trip and it made me love living in the east coast even more. Can't wait to see what else it's got to offer over here!

A Beautiful Sunday

2010-10-10T19:02:00.004-04:00

Ben and I went to the Cornell Plantations this afternoon for some beautiful scenery and a nice walk. Here are some pictures from the sunny day!

So this was Ben's "special" profile picture which was taken at the Plantations 2 years ago about this time..

This was my impression of it... I forgot the hands on the knees, etc.

Falling for Ithaca

2010-10-03T11:41:00.006-04:00

It's definitely feeling like fall here in Ithaca. We went from the highs of low 80's upper 70's... to highs of mid 50's in a week! The leaves here are changing and are a beautiful sight to see. I thought Provo was pretty in the fall, (coming from Arizona where fall wasn't much of a season) but I've decided that Ithaca is even that much prettier with the abundance of trees all around.

We've been pretty busy lately... and as a result I haven't put up our pictures/ talked about our recent outings. So a quick run through...

-We went camping about a month ago with some of our friends in the Ward. We went about 20 minutes away from our house and were totally in the woods on our own (another beauty of living in Ithaca). They have 3 little girls, so I was a bit worried about how well we would sleep. They ended up being troopers and were amazing campers! Not to mention they had all the right equipment, food, etc.... I on the other hand brought Panera to our camp-out. I definitely learned a few things about camping and am excited to go again sometime here.

-Here is a beautiful Ithaca sky one night after our intramural co-ed soccer game. Ben and I are on a team with some of our friends from the Branch. We don't have the best record... but we do have fun!

-I often work on Saturdays so we went to Grisamore Farms on a Monday to pick some apples! It was sprinkling a bit at the beginning but ended up being a nice day. It is a huge farm where they grow all sorts of fruits/veggies in different months...

Ben didn't let me pick a pumpkin because he said we would "come back closer to Halloween" for one.

Ben was doing a lot of apple eating as well as picking

Just out in the countryside

Ben wanted a picture of himself "in the tree"

Macoun and Crispin apples ready for pies and eating!

-Last weekend we enjoyed General Conference and the "Apple Festival" in downtown Ithaca with some of our new friends. We walked among the large crowd enjoying kettle corn, roasted almonds, and other goodies.

Life in Ithaca has been a lot of fun lately.... along with staying busy with work at Panera, as a soccer coach, and trying to substitute teach as well. It's becoming more and more like home!

A new identity.

2010-09-19T13:46:00.006-04:00

Ever since I got my blue Jetta it has been named "PAIJETTA." The inspiration for my personalized license plate came from my best friend Kristen. I was trying to come up with something clever because my sister, Rachel, had a red VW beetle named "LADYBUG." It was a bit trickier with a blue Jetta... but Kristen had some inspiration that PAIGE and JETTA fit together like PAIGEJETTA... but squished together it was PAIJETA. Throughout high school and college some of my friends called me Paijetta and it even transformed into Fajita somehow to my friend Katie. But now, things have changed since moving to New York. No longer do I have an Arizona license plate, nor does it say PAIJETA...

Here it is... the new PAIJETA. To me it will always be "The Paijetta" but now FAX 5345 is its' license plate.

IT'S A BOY!

2010-09-13T17:40:00.006-04:00

First of all, no... I am not pregnant. BUT Ben has a new "baby" boy that he just adores. Yes... that would be his new scooter. I guess it is "our" scooter, but lets be honest, it's just for him.

A few weeks ago we sold Ben's car. We didn't really need 2 cars as Ben rides the bus to school everyday, and I take the car to work. It would also be nice to have some extra money as Ben finishes his PhD...so we decided to sell his car. What I didn't realize was that since we sold the car, we now had money to buy a scooter?! Who needs to save money when you can buy a scooter for cheap!? Well that was Ben's thinking. (for Ben's sake.. he actually is a big saver and doesn't spend a lot of money).

A week ago or so Ben started looking at scooters online. Not only did he start looking at them online, he became obsessed with the idea and shortly thereafter found one he wanted to look at. "Oh... I didn't know we were that serious about buying the scooter," I said.... "Well it's on our way back from Pennsylvania, so we might as well just look at it" Ben slyly remarked.

Little did I know that the scooter was conveniently 45 minutes out of the way, on the way home. We checked out the scooter, Ben loved it. He played it cool and waited a few days. Then when he did call they didn't answer. When they finally called back Ben was by himself and made an offer on the scooter. He came back and informed me that we now "owned a scooter." So... Ben drove a few hours away to pick up the scooter, came back and got all the gear, insurance, etc. He now has a "new baby boy." ... and a helmet, a cover, insurance, a scooter pass. But I guess it's in place of a $200 bus pass every year.

A Trip to Utah

2010-09-03T07:40:00.006-04:00

Last weekend I flew to the big SLC to attend Maren's wedding. I got it late the night before and was able to be in the sealing Wednesday morning.

It was a fun day morning 'til night...

The happy couple, officially married

The bride and I... yay my best friend is married too!

lal ness with Mary and Britt

In the afternoon we went to the wedding luncheon at the Lion House with

all my girls... so lovely

Then the reception was at The Point... at the U

(I was one of her 9 bridesmaids)

The reception was fun and the newlyweds drove off in the Marebug

I got a few days to hang out with my friends after the wedding!

Some fro yo (since Ithaca has NONE)

We decided we liked to hike so we hiked the Y and Stewart Falls

My trip consisted of food, dessert, and friends. It was a great time and fun to see everyone again!

Bonjour Montreal !

2010-08-08T18:28:00.012-04:00

Ben and I had a great trip to Montreal this weekend for his annual
"Academy of Management" seminar. Every year they host it at a different city,
and this time it just happened to be in Montreal.

I had no idea what Montreal was like when Ben mentioned we should
both go there... but I came to find out I really like it a lot!

Some highlights of the trip included:

-Paying $2.50 for a toll bridge

-Relying on and figuring out a GPS for the first time

-Paying $4.11 per gallon for gas (converted price from liters to gallons)

-Subway, metro rides around the city

-Ben's credit/debit card being denied at the subway station and ATM

-Me figuring out Montreal on my own while Ben had classes in the mornings

-Cobblestone streets

-A tour from a friend who's a "local"

-Squeezing in the crowded Shwart's restaurant (smoked meat sandwiches and fries... YUM...obviously eaten quickly)

-Hiking up Parc Mont-Royal and the view of the city

-Montreal's bagels at St. Viateur's (chewier, sweeter, better)

-Being unsure whether to approach the people in English, or try using French

-Ben couldn't get enough of the BIXI bike rentals all around the city

-Oh yeah, and I liked them too

-Parc Jean-Drapeu's bike/car track and view

-Yummy restaurants with high prices for little portions

-Poutine at the restaurant Banquise... yes that is fries, gravy, cheese curds. Surprisingly good.

-Free outdoor music/performances at Parc LaFontaine

-Saturday night firework show in Old Montreal

-Trying to find the local LDS church and being unsuccessful... but going to the art museum instead

-and much more....

Ben stayed at the conference for the next two days but I had to get home to work and such. It was cloudy/rainy Sunday afternoon... so I decided to hit the road and head back to New York. I was a bit worried about the drive in Canada and across the border alone... but I made it just fine (with the help of an apple, cheezits, tootsie rolls, bagel, cheese popcorn, and granola bar of course)

TIL WE MEET AGAIN MONTREAL... A REVOIR!

The Big BirthDAY

2010-08-01T08:24:00.012-04:00

This is the first year I have not been with my family on my birthday. I have always had such great birthday celebrations because it is in the middle of the summer. Countless Utah birthdays, one in St. Louis, California, Sedona, etc... But this one, was my first married birthday with my sweet husband. It couldn't have been better... a Saturday, no work, Ben home, and a sunny day.

There were a few things I thought I would never experience being at "home" on my birthday...

-Being cold at night
-70 degree weather during the day
-Going to a farm for fun
-Seeing a waterfall in my neighborhood
-Living in New York
-Go to someone else's party

The day started with sleeping in and then waffles from Ben. I then stopped by a "going away" get together for a girl in our branch. Afterward Ben and I went to play tennis. Right by the tennis courts is this beautiful waterfall..

After tennis Ben had the fun idea to go blueberry picking at Grisamore Farms. We had a fun time eating and picking them together.

We had barely missed raspberry season...but managed to find a few good ones and ate them there!

We came home from picking berries and then headed to dinner at "Just a Taste." It's a restaurant that has a lot of little appetizer-like small dishes... very fresh and very tasty :)

We came home from dinner and got to open presents and have cake/ice cream. This would be the "shrine." Whenever there is a birthday or holiday, the presents get lined up somewhere on display. After they are opened they are then usually displayed there as well. Just how it was in the Christensen home growing up... traditions never die.

Yay ... a cute raincoat. Since moving to Ithaca I have realized the frequency of it raining... so I thought it would be a great investment to have a nice raincoat. My mom somehow got this cute Betsy Johnson one from Nordstrom that was sold out online.

Hm.. what could be in this big box. No, not a soccer ball in it's box. It was a blanket with a soccer ball wrapped inside it. haha. He "didn't want it rolling around."

Ben was very excited about making his very first cake. He even did it in the bundt pan like my mom did. He bought the cute candles... even though we already had some, and wanted to do MOST of it by himself

Ben was so worried the wax from the candles would fall on his masterpiece that he FORGOT to sing happy birthday to me, and told me to hurry and blow out the candles! HAHA It took him a little while to realize why I was looking at him weird and why I wouldn't blow them out. He finally got it :)

Post present opening shrine...

Overall it was a great birthday!! I didn't realize it was not over until late the next night, on Sunday. A girl in our branch, Dani, invited Ben and I over to her house... We drove over there, not knowing that Ben had told a bunch of people from our branch to go over there. We knocked on her door and I saw this sign, and suddenly people came from all directions yelling "Happy Birthday!" I was very surprised and we had a fun game night!

Oh how I love birthdays... it sure is great to be 22! :)

The End of July

2010-08-01T08:13:00.005-04:00

Oh how I love the month of July ... especially the end. It used to always be a great time because of my birthday on July 31st, but since last year it has even more special memories. Last year on July 30th, the day before my birthday, Ben surprised me and proposed while we were in Sedona, AZ with my family. I thought maybe he would propose to me on my actual birthday, but the day before was a big surprise. I also knew the ring wasn't done so I was not quite sure how he would do it. While we were in Sedona on July 30th my family, Ben and I were having a great time swimming and hangin' out. My dad told us that we were going to dinner a bit earlier that night because there was some "special" going on before 5 o'clock. Perfect. It made sense because we do things like that all the time. (nice one dad) But the plot behind that line was so my family (aka Ben and I) could go to dinner before the restaurant opened to the rest of the public.

So we got ready for dinner. My mom said that maybe I should try and look nice since it was a nice restaurant (good thing I didn't go with the wet hair/scrubby look). So we headed to the restaurant with my mom, dad, Steven, Ben, and me. As we're pulling into the restaurant/resort, my dad "pretends" to get a text from my brother Michael saying that he is almost to where we're staying in Sedona (he was working that day and drove up later.... only to find out he wasn't coming 'til much later that night). My dad said he was going to quickly pick him up from our place, my mom and Steven said they would go play croquet, and Ben and I could go check in for us in the restaurant. (good one guys... totally fooled me). So Ben and I walk into the restaurant and we checked in with the hostess and she started to walk us in... with a smile. We walked right past a piano and Ben said.. "Oh look, a piano.. could I maybe play that?" I was thinking, what is he doing?? I was getting a bit embarrassed when he sat down at the piano and started playing a song and singing... It didn't finally click until I recognized the song and words. ****Ben and I went to New York City and saw The Little Mermaid. After the musical we started coming up with new words to the song "Part of Your World." These lyrics included something about Ithaca and being part of his world there****. ..... The song he was playing on the piano was this song, and he finished changing the lyrics to it. I was embarrassed/excited/surprised all at once.

We then sat at our table and I wondered when my parents/family were coming. I clearly wasn't getting it that it was just us and that it was a special occasion. Ben handed me a present... it was a calendar. Not only was it just any calendar, it was one with pictures of us on each month... and handwritten notes on specific days we did somethings together (such as first date... kiss, etc) I got to the month of July and saw that "Trip to Sedona"... then on July 30th it said "Ben proposes to Paige... Paige says ________" At that point Ben had got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes. It was a very exciting evening as we talked about our future together.

We finished dinner and walked outside to find my family smiling and waiting to see what I had said. It was a great trip to Sedona and a fabulous birthday with my fiance and family. Oh how i LOVE the end of July !

The Big Vacation

2010-07-15T09:53:00.010-04:00

For the past month and a half I have been at home in Arizona. After Rachel and this cute little guy left in June, there was still much vacationing to be done.

My mom and I took on a bib and burp cloth sewing adventure and ended up with some darling sets

We had a nice Father's Day... with a yummy cake

Steven and I continued to have fun together... especially with his gift to dad

Steven's All-Star baseball games began and were fun to watch

And then FINALLY... my husband finished, and passed his test and came back to Arizona!
I thought I would make him a mini welcome back sign...

...Because we had lots of signs and people to welcome his brother CJ home from his mission in Ghana, that same night

I dunno how well Ben would have fit in in Ghana, but he was trying here :)

We celebrated the 4th of July with our families, watching fireworks together in Mesa

The boys had fun together...

..especially trying to show off their strength at the celebration games (somehow my cute husband got it to the 1000 and managed to get it stuck up there!)

When Ben was there we got to see Brittany again, and enjoy some fro yo

Then Ben wanted to "take out the kids" so we went to the splash pad in Gilbert for some fun in the sun

He quickly realized Kayla, Callin, and Ella had more energy than he thought

Our last few days were full of fun... we went golfing and even to a D-Backs game where they WON

And last but not least Ben got his wish... we were invited to the lake and had fun wakeboarding

And now after a red-eye flight, little sleep, and a long trip home we are back in Ithaca, New York. It's back to reality, goodbye to the heat and hello to the humidity. Thanks for the fun trip Arizona... it was quite an eventful several weeks!! We'll miss our AZ homes and family, but will be back soon!

Arizona Times

2010-06-17T00:04:00.011-04:00

Before saying goodbye to Ben for a month there were a lot of fun happenings in the Christensen family in Arizona. Here are some pictures from the highlights.

Michael's going away party

Ben got some time with his new nephew Jackson... he can't wait to be a dad someday!

(no hint intended)

Michael's farewell was amazing

A lot of baby loving (two first time uncles)

Ben flew home to New York to continue studying for his qualifying PhD program exams.... and the rest of us drove to Utah to drop off Elder Christensen.

Jackson Tyler Jennings was blessed in Provo, where all his family could be present (both sides)

We had 2 days with Elder Christensen before going in the MTC... we visited our maternal grandparents in SLC

We had the "last supper" on Tuesday... with amazing cupcakes from Sweet Tooth Fairy Bakery

(it's the shape of New York in teal)

Then he practiced the goodbye scene and carrying 3 bags at once

Then it came time to have the real MTC (Michael Thayer Christensen) to MTC goodbye

Our family stayed in Utah for a few more days before heading home to Arizona.

Steven and I hung out a lot... played the game Cooties and foosball

We went to our cousin's cabin in Heber... very pretty

Rachel and I were both husbandless in Arizona for a little while, but we still had Jackson.

We did a lot of hanging out with this litte/big guy

There has been eating, sewing, cooking, swimming, etc... Rachel left to go home to Florida today, and now it's just me, Steven, and my parents of course.

Two weeks without my husband... two more to go! I do admit, it's not the most fun all the time but it would be even worse if I were watching Ben study/write/think for 10 hours a day!! He gets here on the 29th of June... and then there is a whole other set of events with the Lewis family and my brother-in-law's homecoming from his mission! Hooray for summertime! Wait, where do I really live again??

A Bit of Ithaca Before AZ

2010-05-23T16:15:00.003-04:00

Ben and I went to Taughannock "Tuh-gan-ik" Falls Saturday. It was a beeeautiful day and we enjoyed a nice hike/walk and some waterfalls. Check out Ithaca New York on a good day (aka the summer time)

Ben really wanted to "walk on water" but he settled for this rock in the middle

Sacred Grove ish looking.

250 feet tall I believe

I swear Ben has more shirts than just this one, but he happens to wear it whenever I take pictures that go on the blog

This is what the waterfall looked like behind us... our "photographer" above didn't quite get the memo that that was what we wanted to capture in our picture :)

After our hike/walk we went across the street to the "beach." Actual waves, water, boats, but no sand. The sand consisted of small rocks or pebbles. It was very pretty and almost like the real thing. I'll take it for now as it's only 20-30 minutes away.

Our date ended with dinner at FiveGuys, yum. We sat outside and stared at the building that will soon become PaneraBread! Hooray for Ithaca getting more chain restaurants.

Finally Complete

2010-05-21T21:40:00.003-04:00

So it's official.... now that student teaching is over I can finally feel like I've graduated!! My last day was on Wednesday and I've had these past two days to do my own thing. I've realized a few things. I do not like being bored. I don't do well when I don't have anything planned. Exercising always makes me happy and excited, especially with other people.

I got to play soccer for the first time since I about broke my ankle in September. It was really fun to play, and there were about 20 girls there playing 10 vs. 10. The field was the only downfall. It felt like I was running and kicking in quicksand. The grass was soooo tall and it made it difficult to dribble and kick hard. But... it didn't stop me from scoring a goal! haha. That's one good thing about Arizona, I don't think I ever played in long tall grass, just dirt.

This isn't the exact grass, but it looked close to this

It was Wednesday that I played soccer, and oh was I sore on Thursday! I'm excited to get back into soccer... I really do LOVE it. Thursday was good because I had a lot planned out to do. Put away winter clothes, bring out the spring. (I don't think I've ever had to wait until May 20 to do that) Clean out the den closet. Scary. Make "chalupas," this shredded pork with green chilies and beans over Fritos mmmm. We had the Sister missionaries over for dinner so I thought I would make chalupas. My mom makes it whenever there are a lot of people over so I thought it would be perfect. The meat was supposed to cook for 6 hours and then be able to shred. This was definitely not the case. Apparently the water wasn't hot enough so I had to turn it way up before our dinner appointment at 6. It ended up being good but it sure scared me for awhile. As many people know, my brother Michael got his mission call to the New York Utica mission.....which just so happens to be the mission we live in! So crazy. Since he got his mission call I've been talking to the Elders and Sisters in our branch. My mom has given me questions to ask them and it's so fun to talk to them knowing that Michael will/could literally be one of them in less than a month!

I'm getting ready to go to Arizona for about 7 weeks. I'll be missing the best part of Ithaca weather, but it will be fun to be with family and friends. But... I will be missing one KEY family member, my husband. Ben takes his big qualifying exams to stay in his PhD program June 24-26. He has been studying non-stop, literally, for them since we moved to Ithaca. It consists of reading more than 200 articles and then writing essays on them (from what I understand). We will both be flying to Arizona for Michael's farewell next week, but then Ben will be flying back to Ithaca to finish studying and take his test. He told me I would be bored if I came back to New York because of all his cramming and final study weeks before this huge test. So.... I'll be staying in Arizona for about 4 weeks without him. It will just be like our long distance engagement all over again. haha.

It is goodbye Ithaca and hello Arizona for the next little while. Two of the most different places to live in the U.S.

BUT BOTH VERY PRETTY!

Why did the duck cross the road?

2010-05-14T18:34:00.002-04:00

Dear Ithaca,

You are getting really pretty lately. The green is great, and I like being able to get in my car without needing to scrape it off. There has also been a lot more animals outside lately (well besides deer). Going to school last week I almost ran over a duck. Yes, a duck. A large duck was standing in the middle of the road. He was doing good because he was in the crosswalk, but our light had turned green. Luckily it was 7:15 a.m. so there weren't a ton of cars around. The duck finally realized it was not in the right place and flew away. Who knew a duck could fly so well? Then.... today I was coming home from school. This time a duck brought its four babies along with it to cross the road. Again, not sure what it's thinking (well he was headed to Walmart so maybe they were going to the store?). The car next to me and I stopped and waited to see what direction they were going. About 10 seconds later the mom led the babies back to the sidewalk. Geeze! I can't imagine running them over. Please keep your animals on the side of the road. Thanks.

Not Yet a Mother

2010-05-09T10:13:00.007-04:00

So this is us...me driving the Paijetta and Ben always happy smiling singing etc. See the green out the window? Yes, I've been waiting for that since January.

Even though I'm not technically a "mother" yet, Ben still wanted to uphold the Lewis family traditions on this day. Apparently breakfast in bed is one of them. I was so excited to not set an alarm for the first time in a long time. But the internal clock inside my head told me it was time to get up at 7:30 anyway! So Ben got up at started going at it in the kitchen. We had gone to the store the night before and purchased stuff for blueberry pancakes and cinnamon toast. I heard Ben in the kitchen with pots/pans/etc. He can't find the Pam, then he burned the first pancake. "Oh no," I hear.. wondering if I should check on the situation. Next, he burned the second pancake and wondered what was wrong. "It said heat to 375 degrees... I figured that meant high on the burner." After that he managed well and brought in the breakfast on a cookie sheet. Pancakes, toast, strawberries, bananas, and o.j. I mentioned I wanted my toast buttered and he asked if I wanted both sides done... Oh how I love my Ben.

I guess you could say I'm trying to be more "motherly" and make other things besides dinner. Banana chocolate chip cookies were the first shot. Actually turned out pretty yummy... The only annoying part was getting to the "mix all ingredients" step and realizing I don't have baking powder. But nonetheless it was a good start...

I've Graduated From College?

2010-05-01T23:02:00.006-04:00

Last weekend Ben and I flew to Utah for my BYU graduation. It was so fun to be with him as I graduated and was able to be with both of our families. Ben's sister Diana was graduating from BYU as well, and his cousin Austin was getting married too! Ben's family drove up, as well as mine. Thursday we were lucky to have nice weather for some outside pictures and waiting for the big graduation with Elder Christofferson speaking. I got to see some of my friends before and after the ceremony. The highlight of Thursday was walking into the Marriot Center and having my family be right above me to wave and take pictures. As we walked onto the floor waiting to go up to our seats, I spotted myself on the jumbo screen! I told everyone around me and we waved, smiled, thumbs up, and finally found where the camera was coming from. After about 20 seconds of air-time I guess they had enough of us. It was a great beginning to my BYU graduation weekend. haha.

Thursday night we had a nice family dinner at Macaroni Grill (thanks to the tradition set by Rachel's graduation two years prior). I got to hang out with my best friends after dinner. We watched the Suns game and reminisced about old times :). I truly do miss them and wish they could be here in Ithaca with us! Friday morning was rainy. My School of Education had our graduation in the Smith Field House at 8 a.m. Both of our families were all able to make it. I loved all the support and it was so fun to be with everyone again. We raced over to Diana's graduation and then sped to Austin's wedding in Draper. It was pretty cold up on top of the mountain but great to see another temple wedding since ours 4 months ago! That night we went to the reception and said goodbye to Ben's family.

I've got a pretty good looking husband!

Saturday was a Christensen day. We got some good shopping in (including getting a jean skirt which I have looking for, for months). Then we went to the Salt Lake temple (my first real time) with my brother Michael and my parents. That night we got to see "How to Train a Dragon" and hit up Crown Burger to finish off a great Utah trip. It was so worth it to fly out for my graduation and be able to be with my friends and loved ones. The only weird thing was going back to school Monday morning to the 3rd graders. I do enjoy going, but it felt like I should be done after receiving that fake, white diploma a few days earlier!

And two good looking brothers!

An Abnormal Easter and Fabulous Spring Break

2010-04-25T22:14:00.008-04:00

When I found out I got a spring break this year I was ecstatic. Then, when I realized it coordinated with when Rachel was supposed to have her baby it was even more of a bonus. The hard part was finding a plane ticket at a reasonable price. Let's be honest, spring break is one of the worst times to try and buy plane tickets. But after much searching and waiting there was a flight that was reasonable. It didn't cross my mind that I was flying out on Easter Sunday. I mean usually Easter is at the end of April, but this time it snuck up on me. So before I knew it I was leaving my new husband on Easter and General Conference, for a week! Not the end of the world but kinda funny. We were trying to figure out what we were going to do for Easter or if anything at all. Last minute we decided an egg hunt needed to happen. I hid foil eggs and Recess eggs in the family room and Ben hid them in ours and the guest room.

We also hid two items that we got each other on our "Easter budget" :). Ben, of course, wanted to time our hunts to see who could find the items quickest. The timer was out and Ben went first. With a time of 8 minutes and some odd seconds he finished slower than I thought. I figured it was in the bag and victory was mine. I set off for the bedrooms and found all foil, Recess, and other items in about 10 seconds less than Ben! Those of you who know me, know I love to win. And no... he didn't just let me win!So after an Easter hunt, watching morning session of Conference, and three cinnamon rolls it was time to head to the airport. I was headed to Orlando Florida where my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and NEPHEW were! It was such a great time

Highlights of the trip were:

* Going to the Orlando Temple
*Hitting up the Orlando mall
*Panera Bread (WHICH WE ARE GETTING IN ITHACA SOON!)
*Game nights and pazookies
*Playing with Jackson (well, holding, bathing, putting to sleep)
*Seeing Downtown Disney

Overall it was a great trip and it was hard to come back to Ithaca (aka reality). It was good to be with Ben again but I went right back to work !

Boston Bound

2010-03-26T17:55:00.008-04:00

Alright, I think I'm done with all "The Big's...." and I've moved on with my life to even more exciting titles. Anyway, last weekend Ben and I decided to take a weekend trip to Boston. We knew we wanted to go sometime this semester but our spring breaks did not line up. Ben has his this week and I have mine the first week of April. So for my spring break I get to go see my new nephew Jackson Tyler Jennings, and for Ben's.... he got a weekend trip to Boston, with his wife of course.
I didn't have school on Friday the 19th, so we decided that would be the best time to go. We got to Boston in about 6 hours and our first destination was the Boston Temple. Wow. It was so beautiful and the weather was amazing from the moment we arrived.

Of course we saw Ben's second cousin and another couple that knew his grandparents while we were there. After the temple we made our way through the city and finally made it to Ben's friend's house downtown. That night we ate at a great Italian restaurant and went to Mike's for dessert (a cannoli and huge cookie).

Saturday we were blessed with the most beautiful sunny day ever! We had breakfast at a different "Mike's" and then got out on the town. Our day began at the freedom trail, classic tourist city sites. We then headed toward Harvard, MIT, and the river. Our afternoon ended up being over a 6 mile walk around the city and jumping on the T to different hot spots. Ben's favorite part of the day was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I enjoyed soaking up a bit of sun myself as well, hence Ithaca's shortage of sunshine (as well as finding a Paradise Bakery and buying a dozen cookies).

The night ended in good eats and watching sad defeats (BYU). The next day was Sunday and we attended Stake Conference in Boston instead of our own. We sat behind Danny Ainge and his family and headed to Walden pond afterwards. It was very pretty out there and looked more like Walden lake to me. After our interaction with nature we headed home to Ithaca to real life. It was a great trip and totally worth it... and I totally wouldn't mind living there!

The Big Pay Day

2010-03-26T17:42:00.004-04:00

So I guess all the sayings about teaching are true... your reward will come after you have taught and THEN you will realize your importance and impact. I had a similar experience on my last day of student teaching in Ithaca at Cayuga Heights. It was a difficult placement and there was a lot expected from the parents (who teach at Cornell) and the other staff. The students were very bright and they always kept me on my toes. Some days I did not want to show up, and other days I couldn't wait to send the kids home on the bus. But overall my students were great and I had a lot of fun and learned even more from the whole experience. We had a nice little "party" on my last day which included card giving, a song made by a student, and of course peanut butter and chocolate. I received a nice gift from my teacher, homemade soap from a student, a homemade necklace from another girl, and an assortment of cards with animals, aliens, and other such items. I will surely miss Cayuga Heights 4th grade, but now I'm off to Newfield Elementary School to have some other great adventures.

The Big Crash

2010-03-26T17:17:00.004-04:00

So I was sitting at my usual location, at the kitchen table, when I heard the loudest crashing. It just so happened to be right next to me in the family room. The crashing consisted of an assortment of noises including crashing, banging, ripping, and rattling. The incident involved our amazing large clock and the flimsy family room wall. Guess who won... yep, the clock. No worries because the clock is in perfectly good condition. I thought for sure the clock had broken during its fall to the ground, but oh no it was just fine. The wall on the other hand took a very hard beating. First of all, our apartment complex will not let us nail anything into the wall. So we took the alternative route of using the plastic hooks and hanging a few things. Apparently the hooks or the clock did not want to cooperate in this situation and therefore we are left with this.... two big holes in our wall... pulled off the dry wall and it's going to be a beast to repair it! Ha. So much for no nails... we're gonna go ahead and nail the heck out of that wall now, since it is already ruined and everything :)

The Big First Visit

2010-03-05T20:00:00.007-05:00

This blog post is a bit delayed from when "the big first visit" occurred, but better late then never right? Alright, so I am currently doing my student teaching at the first of two schools. The school I am at right now is called Cayuga Heights Elementary School. It is a pretty good school with students whose parents are professors at Cornell, geniuses, and mostly very involved. Another very good thing about this school is that they had a "winter break." This consisted of having 3 days off, Monday-Wednesday, and it was a perfect chance for my mom to come out and visit Ben and I. My mom booked her flight and flew in to the Ithaca, New York airport which has an entire four gates for planes to fly in/out of. She flew in on Saturday night as we were being the D.J.'s for the "Feb-Con" YSA Dance (Which was a blast and hilarious). So she flew in and I had to bring her back to the chapel where the dance was being held to finish the last half hour of D.J.ing with Ben. Not only did we have/get to D.J. the dance, but we also housed four girls that attended the conference. That meant we had four girls in our living room, Ben and I in one room, and my mom in the other = a total of 7 people trying to use ONE bathroom on Sunday morning before 9. Ha. It ended up being fine and the girls were gone before we knew it.Sunday was fun because my mom and I were able to cook a big "Valentines Day" roast and potatoes meal. We also made the best strawberry cream cake and got to relax and hang out.This was our final product with everything put together... (hooray for wedding dishes!)

Then Monday came and we had our big list of all the things we wanted to do in the next three days. We were able to complete most of the list and have a great time. Monday was the best weather by far, as we did not have to turn on the heater or have umbrellas, or trudge through the snow.

Monday highlights included:

*Finding great deals at TJ Maxx on a clock, mirror, and pillow.
*More great deals and cute stuff at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.
*Driving through Cornell when the sun was out

*Lunch at College Town Bagels. Yumm.*Seeing all the pretty (frozen) gorges.

*Hanging out in the Commons
* Trying to get a picture of the deer outside our window...smiling :)

Tuesday highlight included:

*Some more shopping for do dads and nick nacks (however you spell that)
*Staying inside away from the snow*Reorganizing my entire house/kitchen/office
*Making my house look like a home*Driving to the Palmyra temple in the snow*Stopping at the Peter Whitmer Farm where the church was organized
*Seeing a beautiful sunset

*Doing a session at the Palmyra temple after Ben called them and asked them to hold the session for us (which they did, as there were less than 20 others there)

*Trying to find a place for dinner in Palmyra, New York at 10 p.m. and hitting up Mark's Pizzaria

Wednesday Highlights:

* Taking a mini-tour of Cornell
*Hiking to the top of the bell tower and listening to this girl play the bells

*Dinner at Aladdin by campus
*Watching Dream Girls with the girls (and Ben of course)
*Finishing touches on the house

It was a sad day Thursday as we had to say goodbye, but it sure was great having my mom here and showing someone where we live! We would love to host any other visitors sometime soon! :)

The Big Snow Day

2010-02-25T08:34:00.004-05:00

So yesterday at school I heard some talk about a big snow storm coming in. Every morning I have my daily computer routine... eat my cereal while I check my hotmail/gmails/facebook/blog and of course the weather. Weather.com is my favorite as of late. I always look at the 10 day forecast, and it has been the same for the past week here... snow every day (Nacho Libre voice for those of you who appreciate it). Anyway, so the teachers talked about a snow storm and possibly 30 inches of snow in two days and I just kinda sit there and laugh about how I have never had a snow day in my life. Last night I checked my email and my teacher wrote me saying that it would probably be alright tomorrow, but Friday was questionable. I woke up this morning, Thursday, and it did not look too bad outside. My car was almost out of gas so I needed to fill it up before going to school and before the snow dumped crazy hard. I checked my email, and no messages from anyone saying school is canceled. I make my way to my car... alone...(Ben decided to work from home today)... and proceeded to get the inches of snow off my car. The Paijetta made it to the gas station, and then to Cayuga Heights Elementary School. I usually arrive about 7:30 a.m. before the students show up, but today it was about 7:25. The parking lot was completely EMPTY. Usually there is at least one or two cars there with a few lights on... there was no sign of anyone there. At this point I debated checking the front door to see if it was locked, calling my teacher, or calling Ben. I chose the latter and he found out it was actually closed and that I got/had to come home. It's funny how I actually wanted to have school today and was a bit disappointed that it was canceled, but I still have about ten more weeks to make up for it. So here I am, at home, enjoying my snow that I was not able to appreciate to the fullest by sleeping in or not getting ready. I'll just have to try harder next time!

Here is a picture of Fall Creek, right by Cornell, with a typical snow covered look. Some may say beautiful while others, residents of Arizona especially, might think otherwise!

The Big Transformation

2010-02-07T20:29:00.007-05:00

Here are some pictures of our recent transformations... Check them out and then read the story behind it all!

If only I could blog as I talked, there would be more than just one post since getting to Ithaca, New York. These past 3 to 4 weeks have been crazy busy and full of buying, building, driving, working, and continually moving. Don't get me wrong, it has been exciting and fun to get settled in our new apartment but there is a lot more to getting settled than meets the eye.

Here are just a few of the things we have done since we moved here.

Purchases:

- Couch, tv, tv stand, coffee table, multiple lamps (for some reason there is no room lighting installed in this city), etc.
and...
- Everything else we needed from our registry

Moves on our own:

-Ben's piano (you can imagine 5 guys getting it up to the third floor)
-Ben's clothes/BOOKS!/life (including a desk, bed frame, and box spring we held on the top of his car and it just so happened to fly off while we were driving! No picture of that one but still funny and ridiculous)
-Couch
-TV
-Coffee table/t.v. stand/side table
-Kitchen table

Deliveries Including:

- Mattress and boxspring
- Gifts from our wedding
- Bed frame and dresser
- Nightstand

The best part about all of this is that everything had/has to make it up our (emphasis) skinny staircase up to the third floor. Even the mattress delivery guys were struggling, let alone me, Ben, and his friends with the rest of our furniture. I have recently taken up heavy weight lifting because of all the things we have had to get up to our apartment. I'll let you know how it goes.

So all of those have kept us busy, along with waiting for our Bed Bath and Beyond coupons and other such deals. There have been many of funny nights, especially at the beginning as we had to sit on the floor to eat dinner, sleep on our mattress on the floor, have our computer set up on numerous boxes, and make dinner using minimal kitchen utensils. Another one of our new hobbies that we are getting good at is throwing the trash away by putting it on the hood/roof of the car. The garbage can is not very close to our apartment and it is not fun to walk there in 8 degree weather, so we tend to pile them all on the car when we need to go somewhere and drop them off at the garbage. It's very exciting.

So that is it for now... hopefully I will have more free time soon so I can post some other classic times in Ithaca!

The Big Move

2010-01-19T10:59:00.000-05:00

I did not do too well starting our blog before we were married, but I will definitely have to make up for it now...

Ben and I had a wonderful honeymoon in Arizona for a few days and then on a cruise to Mexico for a week. We got back to Arizona Saturday, January 9th, and hit the floor running. We had one and a half days to buy things, go to the bank, and get ready for our drive across the country. Those two days flew by and before we knew it Monday morning crept upon us and we were in the car leaving the East Valley.

Our destination was Ithaca, New York. Google maps predicted a 36 hour drive. The battle in front of us was ten states and four days of driving, as we planned on arriving Thursday afternoon. Here is a play-by-play on what happened during the trek.

Monday-January 11th-
Forecast: Sunny and chilly

*8:20 a.m. Left 2143 E. Norcroft St.
*1st pit stop, Holbrook, AZ. Gas station sketchy. Have to pay an extra .08/gallon for using a credit card. The bathroom door barely closed and the sinks didn't really work. Stay classy AZ.

* Lunch in the car. Ben putting peanut butter on bagels trying to balance a purse, knife, bagels, and a towel. I'll just say men are not multi-taskers.
* Saw five separate moving trains.
* Entered New Mexico and Ben did the Lewis tradition (make Indian noises when you enter a new state)
* Tried to make it to Santa Rosa New Mexico without stopping for gas but I got nervous and we filled up 20 miles out.

*Ben busily studies for his CPA test
*Made it to Texas at night, and again the Lewis tradition was sounded.
*Stayed the night in Amarillo, Texas at a Days Inn.
*Were given the wrong key
*Had Scholtskys for dinner
*Woken up at 2:00 a.m. by loud hammering on the building

Tuesday- January 12-

Forecast: Sunny and chilly

*Start driving, reach Oklahoma (state 4 out of 10)... and yes the Lewis traditional chant

*Stop in Oklahoma City at my grandmother's old home

*Stop by Oklahoma City Memorial -April 9, 1995- well educated now thanks to the park ranger

*Reach Missouri, Ben is still busily studying so he does not remember the tradition (I do not remind him)
*Pass by St. Louis

*Drive a bit out of the way to find the Pei Wei...but received a great fortune pertaining to the circumstances.

*Stayed the night at Holiday Inn Express (thank you Tyler) in Troy, Illinois (State 6)

Wednesday- January 13-

Forecast- Sunny and cold

*Progressively got colder and snowier as we moved east, and was frost/snow on our car this morning
*Reach Indiana... state eight! (the Lewis traditional chant was getting a little old by this time)

*Stop in Indianapolis at the Speedway ... much larger than we imagined

* Made it to Cleveland where it had been snowing the past 8 days but gave us a sunny day :)

* Stayed at Ben's friends' house in the outskirts of Cleveland

Thursday- January 14-

Forecast: Mostly sunny but cold

* Head to Kirtland first thing in the morning, and stop by the visitors center

*Had a personal tour of the Newel K. Whitney home and store

*Saw the Kirtland temple from the outside (FYI- only open on weekends during winter)

*Enter Pennsylvania and stay for an hour

*Finally enter NEW YORK... state 10 out of 10!

*Paige drives (while Ben studies of course) until Elmira

*Reach the Ithaca sign...

*Arrive at 700 Warren Rd....apartment 16-3A.... empty !!!

Then... we go to Ben's old apartment to pick up our boxes, and that is a whole other story in itself...

The infamous FIRST post

2009-10-16T18:06:00.000-04:00

So I decided that even though Ben and I are not married YET, I could still start our blog! So here we are... our story is very unique, but whose isn't.