Growing Up

New post here. 

A Perfect Day...and some wedding pictures

New post here.  Lots of wedding pictures!  Some are on Facebook too.

Journals

New post here.

Burger King Deceit

New post here.

Know Your Stuff

New post here.

Breaking In

New post here.

Halloween Costumes

Link to new post here.

What's in a name

New post found here.

Yard Work

New post found here.

Chronicles Update

Not from the land of Narnia, but I did start a private blog, so those of you who'd like an invite, let me know! I'll still keep this blog to update you that the private blog has a new post, so don't delete it!

Sunsets and Waterfalls

Week 2 was our first week back in Buffalo!  It honestly was quite chilly and while I should have had a hard time adjusting to the fact that I'm now living with a guy, I was having a much harder time adjusting to the cold.  Lucking this past week it has been in the 80's and gave me a little reprieve before fall finally sets in.  

On one of those chilly nights, Darren wanted to go watch the sunset.  We have this amazing canal system here and the views are just beautiful.  Well, the canals we found were all tree-lined, so we made our way out to the Niagara River and watched the sunset over Grand Island.  What you can't see in the pictures is me under two blankets shivering to death, and Darren is wrapped up in his hoodie, pulled tight around his face.  He brought pretzels to throw to the birds and did that for about a good 30 minutes.  I'm adjusting to his love for wildlife.  We had a little birdfeeder outside the kitchen window which is always full of birdseed, and he keeps the squirrels and skunks well-fed also. Anyway, watching the sunset minus the birds and the cold was of course very romantic.

pictures with my phone at night aren't great. 

Along the canalways are some great walking trails.  I got out and did a little walking this evening close to the University. 

On Saturday we went to Letchworth State Park to enjoy the changing colors!  There are three magnificent waterfalls.  The timing was perfect to see the trees.

I think these were the Lower falls

Lower Falls again

These are the Upper Falls.  And yes, those are railroad tracks on the bridge above, and yes I did walk out on them.  

Upper Falls

The railroad tracks.  We kept seeing people up there and I thought it was a lookout point.  

View from the railroad tracks looking upriver from the  falls. 

One last picture of the Upper Falls

The Middle Falls - these were the largest.  And yes, we went in order of Lower,  Upper and Middle.  

On the way home, we stopped at this Pumpkin Farm and got a few pumpkins (including some baking pumpkins for pies!)
And we tried the pumpkin ice cream which literally tasted like pumpkin pie.  It was so good. 

This was a little arched footbridge that was built to connect both sides of the gorge.  The picture is a little washed out.  I think the setting was too bright on my phone. Sorry.

View looking down from the railroad tracks.  You can't even see the falls, but you can tell where the rocks drop off and the gorge begins.  

Post 2 Week 1

More pictures.  I think this is more for me to look back on, but enjoy if you want.  

We spent a morning walking around the northern end of the island.  

This picture is so we don't forget where we went.

we went up this one street trying to head back to our hotel and there were
some houses under construction. This was an amazing view
from the sidewalk we were on, through the 'house' and the water was just on the other side!

Then we found that there was a boardwalk on the other side of the
houses and we started walking along it instead of the street.  The view was much better!

The boardwalk ended and we had to walk along the beach in front on all the hotels.  This was a bridge going out to a hotel on a little island (which we later drove on with the scooter). 

I couldn't get enough of these views.  By this time, I was severely dehydrated and irritated that we weren't back at our hotel.  I might have been a bit sunburned on my shoulders as well.  We hadn't intended to be out so long.  But luckily none of that is captured in the pictures!

Darren LOVES motorcycles.  It's shocking to me that I married someone who loves motorcycles because I've been fairly opposed to them.  But I guess if I can ride horses, he can ride a motorcycle.  So, you can imagine his joy when we rented this moped/scooter for 24 hours.  He was in heaven. 

There are little speed bumps all over the island, so you couldn't go too fast for too long.  We did manage to find a stretch where we got up to 60 kph.  We even went 'off' roading' the second day and drove right along the cliff for a little way down near the southern point. 

We got 'take out' room service and took our dinner on the moped down to the southern tip of the island and had dinner watching the sunset...well, we were on the wrong side of the island for it, but it was still beautiful and peaceful (no one else was around) to be there in the evening. 

There is a little turtle sanctuary on the island and they had these little baby turtles in huge tanks.  So tiny!

at the turtle farm

We scouted out this little stretch of beach where no one else was and spent a few relaxing minutes listening to the waves.  On the beach where our hotel was, we didn't have any waves, so this felt like we were really at the beach. 

Despite the number of times I mentioned I wanted to watch the sunset, we weren't actually on the beach to watch it until the last day.  On our way over to stand on this pier, we saw a guy kneeling down proposing to his girlfriend.  How romantic.  

This cove was just around the corner from our hotel.

I think this was taken as we were on the ferry leaving the island. 

This is out of order, but this is the southern tip of the island. that we went to for dinner.  There is a small Mayan temple ruin there with lots of odd statues.  If you walk to the very end, there are stairs down and a boardwalk below the cliffs.  Since we were there afterhours and no one else was around, I didn't think we were supposed to go down there.  I was sure we would fall through a crack or slip and die.  It didn't help that right then Darren started wondering aloud how many Americans die in Mexico each year....I was glad we weren't a statistic.  

Post 1 of Week 1

Don't worry I'm not going to chronicle every week of my life now that I'm married.  I just didn't want the title of my post to be 'honeymoon'.  Here is a snapshot of week 1 of my married life!  I have yet to obtain any pictures from the wedding, hence no post about that, although I do have to say it was a perfect day in every way.

We went to Cancun for our honeymoon (it's become a family tradition)!  And it was wonderful.  All my thanks to my wonderful brother for his travel planning skills who recommended the hotel we stayed at.  We did the all-inclusive package and it was awesome.

We flew from Buffalo to Cancun (via Charlotte) and took a taxi from the Cancun airport to the Port so we could take the ferry to Isla Mujeres where we would spend the next 6 days...

Darren at the Cancun port.  The big yellow and blue boat was the quick 20 minute ferry to the island. 

on the ferry - don't you just love the blue water and skies??  

we walked from the Puerto Juarez on the island to the hotel.  This was our view...

these were the little thatched umbrellas we sat under and ordered pina coladas until we were full.

My nails started chipping the day we left Atlanta, but my toes are still beautifully pedicured!
Professional nail polish happens once in a blue moon.
We were on these cool beds with big pillows instead of the lounge chairs. 

I have to say, looking at our wedding bands makes me so excited.
I love seeing a ring on Darren's finger and I love the added band on my hand.  

One night we had dinner on the beach right next to the water.
They had this big seafood buffet out with special tables.
It was so cool to eat and hear the water lapping on the beach right next to us. 

This is where we ate breakfast each morning and dinner several times during the week.
Can you beat the view?  And the food was really good.
Cooked to order omelets and croissants for breakfast.  Mmmm..

Ok, now I have to go grocery shopping and wait to post more later.  We've been back for 3 days and are about out of the pasta and eggs that we had in the kitchen. Everything else had gone bad while we were on our trip. We have left cheese, condiments, cereal (but no milk) and that's about it.  And it's 5 pm and Darren should be home in 30 minutes.  I'm starting out this married life pretty well!  

Intel Recruiting

I couldn't help sharing this.  A couple of years ago, I graduated from my master's program and applied to lots of jobs.  One job was at Intel.  I know recruiting software isn't the most advanced, and for most of the jobs to which I applied I didn't hear from a recruiter whether the position had been filled.  Anyway, I have no idea what communication I received from Intel about their program, but I got this email today...OVER TWO YEARS LATER.

Not selected? Thanks for letting me know!!  I was still holding my breath.
Apparently they were cleaning up a bunch of old requisitions.

My Song

We just got back from Cancun and I am about to post some pictures, but first I wanted to share this video.  This is a song that Darren has pieced together since we started dating.  The first verse came sometime last year.  I don't remember when the second verse came.  The third verse was supposed to be part of his proposal.  But seeing as how we were on horseback in Utah, he didn't have a way to take a guitar with him. Anyway, on the ferry back to Cancun from Isla Mujeres (where we stayed on our honeymoon), the guy providing the music let Darren play a little bit and this is my song.  There were many nights when I lived in Utah that I'd fall asleep listening to this song over the phone and a few mornings that i'd receive an audio text of the song to wake up to.

PS - the music guy then brought over the microphone and plugged the guitar into the amp and Darren sang the song again to the whole ferry, but the boat was going pretty fast by then and all you can hear is the wind in my video.

PPS - touring the island outside of the town refers to our bike ride around Toronto Island...

Wedding Day Headache

It's Wednesday and I'm getting married on Saturday.  I just put my hair up to try out a hair clip I got.  I pulled my hair back and stuck in a couple bobby pins to do a makeshift hair-do like I'll have on my wedding day.  I immediately started to get a headache from the tight bobby pins!  I will definitely be popping Ibuprofen all day just for my hairdo, let alone any stress.  When my hair stylist did the practice run-through a couple months ago, she said I could easily have 50 bobby pins on my head when she did the up-do for real.  She told me I'd be pulling out bobby pins for days after the wedding....but with a couple bobby pins giving me such a headache already, they will be out as soon as possible.  Every last one of them.

Good news.  I think I like the clip.

Note to self - pack a bottle of Ibuprofen and a water bottle in my purse.

Wedding Shower #3

Last night I had my third bridal shower.
Wedding shower #1.  In Utah, my wonderful soon to be mother-in-law threw a shower for me with my friends and family from Utah before I moved to New York.  It was bittersweet because it felt part like a celebration and part like a going away party.  I had only been engaged a short time and I wasn't even used to saying 'I'm engaged' and thinking there really is a guy 2,000 miles away that I am going to marry and some day live with.  I still had trouble remembering to put my ring on my left hand.  I definitely couldn't refer to Darren as my fiance.  That was really hard to say.  So I was probably really awkward being in the spotlight and seeing people who found out I was engaged because they got a shower invitation. Oh well.  Life goes on.

Wedding shower #2. I kinda forgot about the one at the beach since it was a surprise until someone last night said, your family hasn't done a shower for you?  Then I thought - Emily.  How could you forget THE BEACH?!  Remember that surprise shower your cousins threw and you had to feel the hairy legs of your male cousins, uncles, brother, and was dad in there too?  Definitely unforgettable or maybe you can see why I tried to forget it.  Just kidding.  My cousins did an awesome job planning wonderful games. I'm still grateful for the miracle that my guess was correct on the hairy legs.  After all, living across the country from your fiance, how are you supposed to know what his hairy legs feel like? Divine inspiration.

Wedding shower #3.  A wonderful new friend in my new ward (yes, her name is Emily) threw a wedding shower for me last night.  I was so overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of everyone that came, most of whom I barely know.  I had no expectations of anyone even offering to do a shower for me here since I just moved here and I hardly know anyone. But so many people came and I was definitely showered with kindness and friendship.  I'm not sure if I'll make it in this ward.  Everyone is so friendly and they all serve each other and they are thoughtful.  I just keep to myself.  Being in this ward is going to require me to get out of my comfort zone and give away some of those cookies I bake instead of eating them all myself.  Good-bye selfish Emily.

Mags

I just want to say how happy I am that my Reader's Digest has finally found me in New York.  I finally got the September issue today.  Now I can find out the 13 things my principal won't tell me.  And of course, I couldn't miss the 25 secrets my congressperson won't tell me.  All these secrets.  What are YOU not telling me?

Just don't keep the jokes a secret.

Lost in Love

Lost in love.  That's the only thing I can think of to explain my lack of posting since April.  Wow.  And I'm sure no one even looks at this anymore.  

Well, in a nutshell, I got engaged, quit my job, moved to New York and now I'm getting married in a MONTH. It all seems really fast until I hear about other people who got engaged AFTER me and are already married.   And I really need to figure out what songs to have for our father/daughter and mother/groom dances.  That's stressing me out. Any ideas for songs that aren't love songs because dancing to a love song with a parent is just kind of awkward to me. 

I love the weather here in Buffalo in the summer.  I've had a wonderful time here so far.  I haven't been working and it's been nice, but I think I should be taking better advantage of my free time.  I just got called to the primary presidency.  Who thought that was a good idea? In the past 14 years, I've been in a family ward for 1 year.  And of that 1 year, I didn't even know where the primary room was. Honestly. I was only involved in the singles part of church.  I only knew there was a primary because I saw kids in the chapel during Sacrament meeting. I didn't know any of their names. Last night the presidency was talking about who would teach this Sunday and who would do the music.  I'm sorry I couldn't offer any help because I have no idea what is involved with Sharing Time or music. Then they were asking who should fill certain callings and I don't know anyone in the ward. I don't think they realize my lack of knowledge.  This is going to be interesting.  Since I moved here in June, I have missed 5 Sundays in this ward because I was out of town.  So needless to say, that will take up a lot of time soon, like starting tomorrow.  

Darren is in Ottawa this week and I thought I should suck it up and stay here to prove I can be on my own.  The last time he went out of town, I went to Atlanta for two weeks.  I sure wish I had a sister who wasn't pregnant that would be willing to come travel with me. How rare is it to not work, have no kids, and no spouse to feel like you should stay at home?  Instead I'm here, with no friends, trying to be productive.  And the battery on the smoke detector is low so it keeps chirping.  Should I take it out to prevent a headache and risk not detecting a fire or leaving it in just in case I need it to tell me there's smoke in the house? 

And because every blog post needs a picture, here are a couple.  

This is where we ended up doing our engagement pictures.

Darren, me, and his two kids
This is at the Eternal Flames Falls.  That's the Eternal Flame in the background. 

Off to do...
return library books
fill out my DJ music planning sheet
update contract for my condo
car insurance
prep for a phone screen for a job
pay bills
sort out itineraries for wedding guests
finish slideshow
and shower.

Glory Days

Ah, the good ol' days!  A couple of my wonderful BYU friends came to visit last weekend.  We had a girls night, went out to eat at Zupa's, got dessert at Red Mango, and laughed so hard we cried watching home videos from our college days.  

Love these ladies!

Banana Bonus

I shop at Banana Republic a lot.  But I never pay full price.  It's too expensive.  So I take advantage of opportunities like this one a couple weeks ago....

I was listening to Pandora on a Friday night, just cleaning my room, when an ad came on.  I never pay attention of course, they are always for some politician or something I don't need.  But this one caught my attention - Text 36675 for 30% your entire purchase at the Banana Republic Outlet.  So I texted the number and got a reply back with a coupon for 30% of my entire purchase!  I called my outlet store shopping companion Hillary and planned a drive up to Park City for the next day.  We went to Banana and J Crew and Fossil.  Our shopping trip was pretty short, but very worthwhile thanks to sales already going on with things 40%-70% off. .

Proof of our good fortune - we paid $83.19 and saved $170.73!

How's that for bargain shopping?

the letter

To: enm2@email.byu.edu, ESM21@aol.com
From: BigPapa535@aol.com
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998

sisters,
hear ye hear ye.
i figured while i'm at it i might as well hit two birds with the same stone. liza wiza, that letter that i sent you a long time ago, i don't think i sent it.  i went looking for it yet couldn't find it! nevertheless i stand firmly by my claim that i did write it.  liza wiza Scudder Budder cleaned my room for me today!  it looks excellent.  merc aka meric van sant told me that it was great what i did for Carrie.  i said what are you doing? don't tell me.  go tell all of the girls!!!
j/k
she asked me if it was my idea and i said "of course it was SILLY!!!"
j/k liza wiza i told her that it was your idea.
nevertheless, bring me your finest meats and cheeses throughout all the land. ie: write me back a studly email.
melou (aka Im Bim Slim Jim) Judy is awesome.  She's still not 100%, but she's getting there. She gave me a great response to the "convenient factor email".

Your favorite brother (even if you had more than one)
Walter

*names of non-family members have been changed to protect the innocent.

Quotes from the Past

I was going through old papers the other day and came across a few quotes from a few years back.  I wish I had written the dates on these, but they are great none the less.

We were talking about Herb Stemple in the Quiz Show.  Mom said 'Because of his wacky personality people don't take him seriously.'
Carrie responded, 'Kind of like Dad, huh?'
---------------
Emily told dad that his hair is turning from grey to white.  I said, 'You're getting old.'  Dad said, 'It's my hair that's getting old.'
---------------
Walter found a quote and said: 'Hey Carrie, this on's for you.'

'You are never so alone as when you are the only one in the room who doesn't get the joke.'
(from James Bond article in the Readers' Digest.
Carrie perked up and said....'Hey, read it again.'
Comment on the note: The epitome of Carrie at the dinner table.

These were all followed by a lot of laughter.

Chicken Trombino Dinner Date

Tonight, I had a dinner date.  We have dinner night every Thursday.  Last week we made my recipe of Italian Casserole (thanks to Kari Brown). Keep in mind, I'm dating a guy on the other side of the country.  So since we are 3,000 miles apart, we each go to the grocery store and buy the ingredients for the same recipe. Then we go home and cook it.  He has a 2 hour head start, but if we're lucky, we eat at the same time. This week, he wanted to make Chicken Trombino, a new recipe neither of us had tried before.  I love trying out new recipes.  And I usually forget an ingredient, or have to improvise with some part of the recipe.  Tonight, I spaced the cheese at the store.  And I apparently don't have any oregano.  Well, after scouring our apartment (no luck), I reached out to the girls that live in the apartment two doors down.  No one was home.  So I tried even harder - texted two girls in my ward - way out of my comfort zone to do that.  One gal had some, but she wasn't home.  So I made my way back to the store to get the cheese, and picked up some oregano as well....and everything turned out fine.

These are the flowers he sent me to start off the evening...that's the good thing about technology these days. A click of the camera phone sends several dozen bouquets of flowers to your special someone far far away.

Who made the better looking meal? Cast your votes.

Contestant #1

PS - he actually did give me the flowers in the back of this photo and they were dyed so they turned the water purple and pink. 

Contestant #2

And it was delicious!   Lightly breaded chicken with a tomato and roasted red pepper sauce, ooey gooey cheesiness on top.  Mmm.  You should try it.  Speaking of ooey gooey.  We're going to make the ooey gooey Deep South Gooey Butter Bars next week.  Dinner is pretty stressful and I think this will be a nice change-up - especially since I won't be around to eat leftovers....Carrie made them tonight and apparently they were a hit.  I can't wait!

How's that for long-distance dating?  Definitely trying to make the most of it!  It does require some creativity.  Luckily Darren's pretty creative in that sense, cause I sure didn't come up with any of the ideas.  

Best Cupcakes Ever

I made cupcakes for my roommate's bridal shower yesterday.  I added a special ingredient to the french vanilla  box cake mix and the cupcakes were OH So Divine!  I also tried a new frosting recipe and put pearly sprinkles on top.  Man, they looked great on my new cupcake tree.

I  might have had 2 for breakfast this morning.

Best Frosting I've Ever Had - I added about an extra cup of sugar and vanilla.  Then it was good.  And I did like how fluffy and whipped it was.

As I found the frosting link, I found these I'd like to try:

Deep South Gooey Butter Bars
Healthy Lemon Cheesecake

Back East

I took a trip back East last weekend to visit this guy...

While I was there, we went to Palmyra to see some Church sites.  I was thinking it would be a great day for pictures and to enjoy being outside.  Well, if you think you're the only one with crazy weather, think again.  Everyone is having crazy weather.  Like one day it's 64 degrees and the next it snows and two days later it's 60 degrees again.  Well, last weekend, we did have snow flurries, mixed with sunny skies, and warm enough weather I had the windows down driving around town at one point.  Add to that some really strong winds and they might be the reason there are no photos of me that day.  After being on top of the Hill Cumorah and getting blown around - seriously it was hard to walk straight - we just got back in the car as fast as we could.

Here are a couple from the Sacred Grove..

it was a little chilly to sit and ponder for long

can you see the temple through the trees?

I loved how the light was breaking through the clouds from this direction

The Grove actually was closed when we got there because of the high winds.  When I went a few years ago, I think they closed it because of lightning, we were stuck in one of the houses for a little bit to wait for the rain downpour to pass.  Great memories.  And next time, I'll be sure to go in the Spring so the Chill and Grill will be open.  Can't miss those 5 scoop high ice cream cones!