This little piggy...

The Astoria Ward has an annual cake auction to raise money for the Young Women's Girls Camp. Because I am the 1st counselor in the YW, and because I like to let my creative juices flow while baking...I decided to participate and make a cake.
I knew I didn't want it to be just ANY cake, so I thought about an animal cake...they always seem fun and taste so much better than your run of the mill bundt, so I did a little research, thought long and hard, and came up with a cake in the shape of this...





The little pig cost me about 18 dollars to make and the highest bidder was 9.00...go figure. But, we had a lot of fun and ate WAY too much cake!

Best weekend, surprise, birthday, husband!!!

This past Friday was mine and Hill's 27th birthday. Jed has been saying "can't wait to give you your present", "what do you think I'm giving you" and other such taunts. Friday morning I woke up to a new card holder, and two round trip tickets to Salt Lake City, Utah.

On the other side of the nation, my twin sister had a nice dinner date with her husband, Kelly, then a very extended trip to Target (waiting for her surprise to land...of course, flying out of JFK, we were 1.5 hours delayed) Because of the delay, Kelly had to tell Hillary about our arrival. She still cried when she saw me in the airport.

Jed and Kelly took the surprise farther and had a big birthday "breakfast" party (it's our favorite meal of the day) and had friends from high school, college, and family come and join in for a celebration.




I was also able to get my nieces/nephew and family fix while in Utah. We had a fun lunch on Saturday, visited my sweet grandma Hopie, toured my sisters dream house, oh, and had Cafe Rio salad (I know what you are thinking...a lot of food in a short amount of time...but, we managed!)

It was such a fun (short lived) weekend and I am so grateful that my husb and Kelly were thoughtful enough to surprise me and Hill so we could celebrate our birthday together.

Only thing left to do is Jed's acceptance speech for husband of the year award.

Wanna see more birthday fun??? Check them out here.

Warning...PICTURES may appear scarier than they were

This is what happens when you are in Lancaster Pennsylvania and there are no stores, restaurants, cafes, movie theaters, or public ANYTHING open on Sunday and you are waiting for a cab (for 45 minutes)...

The Introduction

I’m getting old. How do I know? Because I follow politics...and I like it. I’ve been following the Presidential campaigns in varying degrees since the primary season started heating up last year. And yes, sometimes it makes me feel old, boring and even a little too serious for an almost 29-year-old kid. Still, I’ve come to terms with my recent place in the ever-rotating circle of life. So what if I’m getting old, following politics, both current and historical, makes me feel like an American, and makes me proud of the democracy to which I belong.

For those of you who don’t share my affinity for policy debates and mindless slander, I feel your pain. I’m guessing that you don’t like politics not because you don’t care about America, but because you’re tired of the fact that there’s too much mindless slander and not enough policy debate, or because you feel overwhelmed by all the “smarty pants” who’s political conversations are way over your head. Believe me, I’ve been there, I know how you feel.

And yet, politics, especially national politics, is too important to ignore. Tired of donating your arm and your leg every time you stop at the gas pump? Been watching the price of bread go up for months and wondering when it’s gonna stop? Your favorite day of the year April 15th? Well, to a certain degree, that’s politics. Don’t like it? Now’s the time to do something about it.

So, I’ve decided to write a series of short and, hopefully, easy-to-understand articles describing what’s going on with the current Presidential campaign. Pretentious? I hope not. In fact, quite the contrary. Despite what my mother might say, deep down I’m just an average American trying to have a happy and healthy life and provide for my wife and (someday) kids. That sounds like most of us. But I’m thinking that since I happen to be abnormal enough to enjoy wading through all the political mumbo jumbo I’ll wade through it for you and present it in a way that normal Americans can stand reading.

I know what you’re thinking, “Great, I was merely hoping to catch up on H+J’s life in NYC, now I gotta listen to this crap?!” I hear ya. The answer is no. This is just the introduction. The remainder of the “series” can be found at The Citizen Post. Check it out if you’re interested.

PS. No old jokes, please. I’m vulnerable enough as it is.

Weekend Recap

We had a really fun weekend. As I have posted in earlier posts, the weather is really making me happy. Sure, I still have sweat dripping down my face/back and I don't do my hair in the mornings, but fall is just around the corner. The nights are cooler...so, we decided to do something very UTAH this past weekend: We went camping with people from church.

     Let me set the stage:

-Campsite in Long Island...we got there by train (Luckily the Dox's took our loot the night before) 

-The Bathroom (with showers) was maybe 20 yards from our tents. 

-The fire-pit was a galvanized steel bucket.

-Lots of friends from church gathered in tents.

-The beach (Long Island Sound) was 100 yards from the campsite.

We had a really nice time eating hot dogs and smores, laughing with friends, and enjoying the great uh...outdoors!

Our newest and maybe most favorite celeb citing happened LITERALLY in our backyard. In our little city of Woodside stands Jeremy Pivens filming an episode of Entrouge. 

The guy looking REALLY annoyed at me was because he was, well, pretty annoyed with me. He asked me repeatedly to stop taking pictures, and when I pointed out that everyone else was taking pictures he said "yeah, well, they aren't using a flash"...I came back with "well, I don't know how to turn the flash off my camera." I thought about asking him if he could turn the flash off, but didn't want to push my luck. 

Jeremy Pivens was the three T's: Tailored, Tiny, and Tan.

The little things in life that make us happy.

History 101

We took a trip down to Philadelphia today to check out the sites and sample the tastes. Anybody who knows us, knows we started with the tastes, of course. We took a culinary tour of the Reading Terminal Market (thanks to KSP and C-dubs for the tip on this place). We shared an authentic Philly Cheesesteak and sampled some homemade cookies fresh from the Pennsylvania Dutch's oven. They were both a huge success.

Next it was off to the sites. Great thing about Philly is that about 90% of the historic sites are within about a mile radius, perfect for a couple day trippers like ourselves. Anyway, a budding history buff like me can't let a moment like this pass by without a little history lesson. So here's what we saw:

The Liberty Bell: I think we're all pretty familiar with this little beauty. Two interesting occasions when it was rung: 1) to recognize the coronation of King George III and 2) to call the citizens of Philadelphia to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence, which brings us to...

Independence Hall: Birthplace of our nation. So known because it was where the Continental Congress debated, agreed to, and signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We saw the steps of this hall on which they read the Declaration of Independence for the first time to the citizens of Philadelphia. Once inside, we saw the Assembly Hall where they debated and signed the Declaration and the Constitution, including the actual chair that Washington sat in as he presided over the debating of the Constitution. Got chills standing in that room--nerdy, I know.

Congress Hall: This is where the brand new legislative branch of the brand new government first met. The House of Representatives met on the main floor, which is also where George Washington stepped aside after his second term as President and John Adams was sworn in. 

The Senate met upstairs. That means that important looking chair is where John Adams sat as he presided over the very first Senate as Vice President to George Washington.

We also saw Carpenter's Hall, where the first Continental Congress met, before they graduated to Independence Hall, Betsy Ross' House, where she made the first American flag (most likely in her bedroom so that she wouldn't be caught by the British) and the final resting place of Ben Franklin.

So yeah, we saw a lot today. Oh, and after all the sites we were hungry again, so we hit up Reading Market for a second go-around, this time sampling the BBQ (and more of the cookies of course).

I think we're putting this in our top five day trips since we moved to New York City. We had a lot of fun.

A new Sheriff in town

Jed and I have been LOVING the weather in NYC right now. 82 degrees screams FALL IS COMING!!! I absolutely LOVE the fall and can't wait for jackets and boots.
We decided earlier this week that we were going to get out this weekend and have a "we don't have to stay in the apartment because it's too hot to be outside" day. We started out doing some church stuff, then went to a SIT DOWN dinner...feels like it's been too long for a one on one date with my husb.




After dinner we took a little stroll and ended up at the Apple store on 5th avenue...and picked us up a little beauty. (For the record, Jed has been begging, pleading, wanting, needing, drooling over the imac computer for the last year...and I caved)

We love our new computer...all 20 inches of it!