A little walk through our LONG weekend

It has been such a perfect week.  I have had some time off of work, the holiday, it was all too good. Oh yeah, and I survived my night alone! Nothing scary happened to me! I promise you that I woke up and thought, "I made it! I made it, nothing happened, and I'm ok and happy!" Thanks for your prayers :)

Oh, and get ready for the biggest picture overload of your life. Thank heavens for collages, right? :)

Saturday night we kicked off the weekend by attempting to see Avengers. It was sold out, so we grabbed some dinner instead at one of our favorites, Schnippers!

Sunday we met up in Central Park with my long lost cousins! You can find her cute blog HERE.

We got rained out and ran to their apt to play some games, but of course talked and talked instead.

We can't wait to play with them again soon. Derek balanced the fruit salad on his head all the way to our picnic...almost, put on a rock concert, and modeled for me. All true. He's a wild man I tell ya.

Sunday night walking home, our usual ten minute walk took me about 45 minutes. But seriously, so gorgeous right?! 

Fun with sparkling orange juice and a camera.

Monday we were on top of things and got our Avengers tickets in advance! Through my short cat naps throughout the movie, I still loved the movie. I tell ya, living in the city, seeing your city destroyed in a movie, then walking out and seeing the buildings are totally fine really gets confusing. Not really. But seriously, watching NYC in practically everything, it feels like watching home rather than another world or make belief. Ya know?

If you ever come visit, Lombardi's, the second best pizza in the world, is a must try. It was incredible! 

Little Italy

China Town

My Instweek

I'm blogging to keep my mind off of how weird and lame it is to be alone overnight.

Every time Derek has left me home alone overnight, something extremely traumatizing or difficult has happened to me. No joke. It's like a terrible terrible curse that haunts me.

The last time he left me alone, I found a guy that had killed himself, dead in his apartment. I always end up at my in-laws. Well I don't have anywhere to run tonight, so I'm praying for a normal, safe, happy, night. Pray for me if you will. 

I think the worst that could happen tonight is finding a giant cockroach crawling on something in our kitchen, be it our knives, wall, sink, or dishwasher.


And I'm sure you're all dying to know where the Mr is tonight. He is camping with the young men in our ward. He was so cute with his backpack. Should have taken a picture.

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I wanted to fill you in on my rainy, humid, yet beautiful week through Instagram.

My $3 thrift store find. Loving them.

Derek had class, tried curling my terribly awkward hair, became even more awkward and outrageous, husband came home, totally thought I was hot. He's crazy, easy to please, and I love it.

I know an escalator secret. Most people take the left. It has yellow stripes and looks all speedy cool. The right is faster suckers. Beat ya.

Gorgeous rainy meet in the park evening. Bryant Park. Snagged an umbrella covered table. Began pouring rain. Everyone scattered. We kissed. Almost made out. You know you love PDA. It was sooo romantic. Mmmm melt my heart.

Got some alone time with my Claire this week. Too much fun. Almost fell asleep with her on the subway.

Today I

said "Did you have a good day?" to a man in our ward that lives two floors below us, and he replied with "Thanks you too" while getting off the elevator.

picked up a package from our not so friendly doorman while he proceeded to laugh and joke with me like we're best friends. It was weird, but I felt a sense of relief. But I don't think I showed it one bit. Sorry mister. I was confused. I have a bit of an awkward history with doorman Nelson.

met Mr. D for dinner at the Shake Shack after we both worked and before he had night school. That is now time we cherish so much as it is our only time in the day together.

got some butt lovin' from a large black man on the subway. It's not out of the ordinary to be touched and awkwardly smashed against strangers when riding the subway at the busy hours I do, but today was intentional and he loved every second of it.

found some motivation to get running again. Our trip to Utah severely stunted all motivation to run and desire to eat healthy. Oh, and I played a little I Spy while jogging. First person to name it gets a blog hug.

thought a lot about our babies waiting for us up in heaven. I think about them daily. Is this weird? They have played a huge role in my life and I feel like I love them so much already. (not pregnant)

talked anniversary plans with D and got a little giddy. I've been told to not worry about a thing. Makes my heart pitter patter. I can't wait.

realized that Derek's night school might not be all that terrible. I'm so productive when he's gone. I thought that I'd just be a depressed nincompoop and the TV and I would have bonding time each night, but we, the TV and I, haven't looked at each other or talked once. For that I'm thrilled because my running shoes got some attention, my books, and my pile of clothes I've been avoiding unpacking at all costs. So much alone time may get old, but for now, I'm enjoying it.

have felt Heavenly Father's love for me so much. I had an experience last night I'd like to consider a tender mercy. I was reading Stephanie Nielson's book "Heaven is Here" while laying in bed waiting for D to join me. Reading away, I came across an italicized phrase saying, It will pass. This time will pass. What I consider a trial of mine is no where near comparable to Stephanie's tragic accident and trial, but it has been difficult for me, and Heavenly Father knew that was exactly what I needed to hear. I  got the chills and was completely overcome with the spirit. This has given me a little boost of hope. Thanking my Father in Heaven for that.

The sleepy heads are back

I wrote this post like a week ago, and never got around to adding pics and posting it:

I have said this multiple times in my life, but with 100% confidence I can say that I have never been more tired in my whole life. Yesterday was the strangest day. I promise you that I would fall asleep within 3 seconds of sitting down, and within 10 seconds of standing up if I weren't talking or preoccupied. After calculating my sleep hours, I was surprised to discover that I did not sleep more than 20 hours an entire 7 days. Ah!! Normally I would have slept 56 hours in that same span. My body was shutting down on me. I was having trouble walking. I was slurring my words. I was confused.

We flew through the night from Utah to NY Sunday night. We arrived in NY, dropped our luggage off at home, I slept for 30 minutes before having to get right back up to come to work. I looked like death with no makeup on my skin, leftover makeup smeared all around my eyes, greasy hair, and the same clothes from the day before. Luckily the family I work for is so nice and let me sleep while the baby was sleeping. That gave me another hour. I took every second I could get. I slept every second on the subway between stops, the short bus ride to my apt, and crashed a good ten hours last night. Ahhh it was so good. I think I could use one or two more nights of a ten hour slumber, and I'll be back on track.

Twenty hours of sleep must mean we had a good time in Utah. Well, we did. It was so good to spend so much time with Justin before he leaves on his mission to Pittsburgh. He will be a rockstar of a missionary. We're so proud of him.

Our first morning there we surprised the birthday boy. He didn't think we were going to make it. He was so cute. He got the jelly bean game for his birthday. You spin the wheel and it gives you a jelly bean you're supposed to pick. One is gross, one is yummy, but they are identical. He was CRACKING up the whole time. We think it's the worst game ever invented.

Black licorice or skunk?

Skunk it is!

After our first breakfast of horrific jelly beans(I had barf/peach. Of course I picked barf. I almost barfed while eating it. The rule is you have to swallow it. You can't spit it out. I must love my brother a lot), we took him out to a real breakfast.

Friday morning we got to go fishing with Papa Bear (my dad has requested to be called Papa Bear instead of grandpa. He is the cutest.)

The missionary boys: Derek's brother and my brother.

It was a fun treat to ride this around with the top down in the beautiful Utah weather!

Hires

City Creek.

Brothers

Mother's Day

Time with Papa (My MIL's father). Sure love that man.

We are

celebrating family. We are soaking up time with brothers leaving for missions. We are enjoying Utah. We are loving the warmth. We (I) are having a really hard time training with the elevation here. My chest feels like its smashed by bricks. We are eating a lot of delicious food.

Oh and we're doing some of this too...

the WEEKEND

Working full time really makes you appreciate the weekend a lot more. 

Friday nights are mutual nights here in the city. So now that Derek has been called to YM, his Friday nights are now taken over by mutual. Luckily I was able to go and sit in the back and watch the creative, funny, and immature skits each ward had come up with. It was so entertaining. It made me wish so bad I was in YW.

We were able to squeeze in dinner before though, and holy cow! It was DELICIOUS.

Our appreciation for the food here is growing everyday, which also means our budget for eating out is growing everyday. :) I don't mind it one bit. Really though, groceries are so expensive here it hardly makes a difference. 

After mutual that took place at the temple, we walked home through Central Park from the west side to the east side. After Derek braving the park for our #LRIH adventure, we now know how safe and beautiful the park is at night. I'm in love. Also, that moon! Can you believe it?

Saturday we watched the Derby. Bodemeister was my pick, and he made me proud! He was in first place the whole race until the last few seconds when I'll Take Another pulled ahead. Next year I WILL have a fancy hat. It's going to be a tradition. I'm so excited about it. 

Our full length mirror arrived, and for the first time since moving here, I can see myself head to toe. I have fully relied on the opinions of Derek to this point, and he has been a great fashion consultant. Actually I wouldn't know, cause I couldn't actually see myself, but I'll pretend he was so I can think I was cute these last 4 months. 

It's become tradition to take Sunday pictures while walking home. Don't ask Derek how much he loves it. Actually, I'll just tell you. He doesn't. But I love when Derek dresses up. He looks dang good AND he wears one of my Grandpa Hallsted's ties almost every Sunday. I love so much that he loves them so much. Ahhh.