Patience

With all the craziness recently, I think the moral of the story is that patience cures it all! Seriously. No matter how absurd the management companies can be, how many miles you are away from your destination, how much notice moving trucks need, or how many boxes somehow need to be packed, if you just keep at it, it will solve itself. Eventually. :) And every once in awhile, something positive happens. For example, maybe you've been trying hard to find a box to move a fairly decent sized keyboard with no luck-- but then you finally find a way to make it happen...

Yep, I added a good few inches to the box. And I think it worked :)

The apartment is getting empty-- we're getting closer!

BBB Surprise Party

You know, some work situations are just plain bad. And I've thought about it a lot. I've come to the conclusion that the majority of what makes work good or bad is not what you're doing or how customers/clients treat you, but it's your relationship with your coworkers. If they're supportive and fun, any bad experience remains just that, and you can make it through any kind of day. Working retail was not necessarily my first choice long term, and I'm sure my attitude wasn't always the best. But working at Bed Bath & Beyond has really been great. Not just speaking about paychecks or insurance, but day to day. I work with a group of incredible people. And moving away will be extremely difficult when I think of leaving what we've all developed at work. They aren't just coworkers, they're friends or even family.

Alicia decided she wanted to throw a surprise going-away party for me. Apparently she'd been planning for weeks. And everyone at work was invited. I knew something was up, especially when she started to get frantic that I had other plans for last weekend. But we all made it work :) I definitely did not expect this many people to come. And I must say it was a blast! It was so much fun to spend some time outside of work together, no matter the reason. I don't have pictures of everyone who was there. I didn't get a camera out before Ron left for sure, and it was put away before Ashlee came, which was sad. But I really wanted to post these pictures so I'd always have them.

(going clockwise, starting with me) Crystal, Amy, Ben, Kaylee, her hushand Brandt, Ashley, her husband Garrett, Courtney, her date, Alison, Kalee, and Sammie

Alicia, Heidi, her husband Trevor, Brianna, her boyfriend Randy, Phil (Kacie's husband), Kacie, and Daniel (Alicia's husband)

Alison and Kalee

Tori and Sammie

Amy and Ben

Crystal

Brianna, Sara, Daniel, Randy, Brandt, Kaylee

Marcus posing :)

Alison, Kalee, Tori

Brianna, Marcus, Sara, Daniel, Alicia

Just thinking about going to a different city with different coworkers makes me sad. I'm really going to miss these great people! You always say you hope you stay in touch with old friends, but I really do!

Utah Valley Symphony

Last night was my final concert with the Utah Valley Symphony. Crazy. Somehow it's been two and a half years already! We've really had some fun concerts over that time, and I've loved having family attend. In the last concert, I sat first stand with LaReita for Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. I really enjoyed playing that piece, and of course, it was good for me to sit up front and really pay attention all rehearsal :)

It was fun that my last concert was the Christmas one because I always love that concert. I'm definitely a Christmas nut, as many of you know from when I visited Macy's in NY, and starting off December with a concert with all holiday music is a great way to kick off the season.

I obviously couldn't really take pictures while playing, but I do have two from rehearsal and one of Bryce from the UVS website. Sorry, I'll work on taking picture of myself playing while rehearsing. That'd be a talent :)We've been rehearsing at a local senior center, and they will be building a new one next year, so these pictures will be outdated quick :) And the concerts are in the Covey Center for the Arts in downtown Provo. It is a beautiful hall. If you've never been, go see the UVS play there sometime! It's always more fun to have a concert with a sold out audience.

Bryce Rytting

In rehearsal. We rotate seating, so I didn't have the best spot this last time. But notice, we're playing White Christmas :)

A little more of the group tuning in the Eldred Center

I've enjoyed playing with this group and will miss being forced to practice and play the cello :) LaReita (my cello sister-- we had the same original private teacher in Phoenix) was so great to get me involved and help me as I started teaching more private students. And Bryce is a phenomenal conductor! Everyone needs to attend a concert with him. He knows so much about the history and music itself.

So go to a concert! :)

utahvalleysymphony.org

Black Friday Cupcakes

On Black Friday, we always have a potluck lunch. The store provides meat and potatoes, and we bring all the sides and desserts. I had no idea what to make. So I went to my default-- cupcakes :) So I did a white cupcake with a pretty swirl vanilla frosting. I've gotten a little better at frosting them.

Then I decided I wanted to make them look a little fancier.

I thought they turned out really good. And I love the cherry-- it almost makes them look a little more Christmas-y with the gingerbread boy liners. Hopefully they'll taste good too!

more pictures at frosted-cupcakes.blogspot.com

Thanksgiving Dinner

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Marcus' grandparents' house with his family. We spent the day down there, hanging out and relaxing. It was a very nice holiday. Dinner was great, and you'll see pictures of the meal below.

Instead of making a big turkey, we had individual Cornish Game Hens. And they were really good! I think I liked it better than turkey!

Marcus' Oma showing off her birds

Getting ready for dinner

My full plate. Yum!

And then after dinner, we watched 17 Miracles, which is a fantastic pioneer history movie. It was even more fun because Marcus knew so many of the people that were in the credits due to his security job at the LDS Motion Picture Studio. We'll have to buy it :)

It was a great Thanksgiving! Fantastic food. Wonderful company. We hope you had a fun holiday as well!

House Hunting

I guess I shouldn't call it house hunting because who actually has a house in New York City. But whatever :) We went to New York for the weekend to sign a contract. That was seriously our goal, not just look but sign. It was a quick weekend trip, so it was a rather ambitions weekend. Especially once we found out our red-eye flight was delayed two hours. Lame. From the moment we got into the city, we were focused on our mission.

The first place we went was an apartment in Woodside (Queens) very close to where Marcus lived over the summer. We were referred to it from one of Marcus’ two New York friends (outside of work) who knew the couple that lived there and was trying to move. We were hopeful that it would be perfect, but come on, it’s New York, housing couldn’t be that easy to find. But it really was exactly what we were looking for—small, one bedroom, decent sized rooms, close to the subway, good windows, a couple closets, more than two cupboards in the kitchen, … But we decided it was best to keep looking at least for awhile. We looked around for the rest of the afternoon with a management company that actually manages the building this first apartment was in. Crazy coincidence. And we decided that that first apartment really would be our best start in New York. So we got on the paperwork to take over that lease. Then we waited. We could either keep looking or cross our fingers and enjoy being in New York City. Yeah, the second option won. Haha.

We had lots of great food—Indian, Thai, and pizza of course. Oh, and cupcakes from Sprinkles! We walked around Central Park with our Starbucks cups of hot chocolate and caramel apple spice (my favorite!) like true New Yorkers. We went to church on Sunday at what will hopefully be our ward, and we really enjoyed it. And we rode the subway all over the city. We stopped by a Bed Bath & Beyond where I might work. We checked out their Costco, where I tried on official NY jackets.

We probably won’t know for sure about the apartment until after Thanksgiving, so keep your fingers crossed. We do have a Plan B, but Plan A would be so nice to have it just work out how we planned. But that’s always a little much to ask ;)

And here are a few pictures from our trip, in no particular order:

hopefully our future subway stop

Waiting for the subway

Trying on coats in Costco

A cute street in Manhattan. No, our apartment will not look this fun.

Marcus at his desk-- it even says his name on the phone already!

NY excitement!

Sadly, a dark picture of Sprinkles

At Central Park, though it's too dark to tell

Trying to fit in with his Starbucks

Waiting to hear back about the apartment has been rough, but it was fun to pretend it's all worked out already.

Serious Project Time

Well, it's serious project time here in Provo. I realized yesterday that we are going to be driving to Phoenix in exactly FIVE WEEKS! And since we will be going to New York straight from Arizona, that means we have 35 DAYS LEFT IN UTAH! I'm not sure if I'm more excited, stressed, nervous, or overwhelmed. It's all a blur. But that means that in the next FIVE WEEKS, we have just a few things on our agendas. In those next FIVE WEEKS, we have:

24 more days of work (for me)
9 more days of working at the MPS (for Marcus)
4 weeks of classes (until Marcus graduates)
4 days in New York (searching for an apartment)
3 stockings to make (yes, that's on my list)
3 Sundays in Nursery
2 Christmas presents left to wrap (yes, just two!)
2 tickets to purchase (to fly to New York)
1 football game Marcus has to work at
1 cat to prepare for travel (urgh)
1 apartment in New York to find
1 entire apartment to pack (minus a small stack of boxes)

And probably several more, I just don't want to really stress myself out :) Oh, and within these next five weeks, BRIAN WILL GET HOME FROM RUSSIA! **GASP** But now, it seems like there's so much to do because I've done about nothing. Here's a couple pictures of the few things (or projects) I have accomplished before this FIVE WEEK FINAL COUNTDOWN!

The second square in my quilt (except the angel's face)

The first of the four stockings I plan to make

Wrapped Christmas presents :)

More boxes packed

Progress emptying closets

And of course, more cupcakes... Chocolate Orange. Check out my cupcake blog to see more of those pictures. :)

At least I started all these things. So much for getting a lot done ahead of time. But come on, what fun is that?!?!?! Haha.