"If they asked me, I could write a book"

Warning: There are at least a bazillion photos in this post.  Proceed at your own discretion.

Today is our 15th wedding anniversary.  We try to do a trip to celebrate our anniversary every 5 years.  So, a couple of weeks ago we managed to time a trip perfectly in between blizzards to NYC.  It was delightful! 

Todd on the airplane.  Reveling in the super cheapness of the plane tickets I found, no doubt.

Part of a series of photos we like to call "Let's text pictures to the kids that will make them jealous!"  Us getting Jamba Juice in Penn Station is jealousy inducing.  (Though my kids are partial to the one right by the subway station at Lexington and 53rd which is our traditional breakfast when we tag along with Todd on business trips.)

We dined at Ellen's Stardust Diner where my dear friend Chris-Ian is a waiter and performer.  And if you are eating gluten free or vegetarian GET THE VEGGIE LASAGNA!!  So. Good!

We took Todd's cousin, Cameron, with us to dinner.  Because we like him.  Look at how adorable he is!

And then we went to see "Twelfe Night" which was the most satisfying theater experience I've had the pleasure to enjoy in the last decade.  It was incredible! They did everything as traditionally as they could without doing it at the Globe Theater.  I wish that every kid who has slogged through reading a Shakespeare play in high school could go see this and really understand what a Shakespeare play is supposed to be like!  It runs through the end of February. Go see it!

Quick stop at the Times Square Toys R Us to take more pictures of things that would make our kids jealous.  We're mean parents.

The next day we slept in, breakfasted late, braved the rain and went to the LDS temple at Lincoln Center.  It's so beautiful inside and such a stark contrast to the bustle and noise right outside the doors.

After the temple we headed over to the Guggenheim and saw the Christopher Wool exhibit.  This is shockingly my first time at the Guggenheim, but I am a convert!  I loved being able to experience the art up close, but then continue up or down the museum and experience it from afar.  It made me realize how much a traditional gallery set-up limits the way you can experience art.

And then off to a gluten friendly Indian restaurant where we sent another picture to our kids.  This one of Todd enjoying naan.  Benjamin would happily live off of nothing but warm naan if he were allowed to do so.

We couldn't figure out why this train was so uncrowded as we headed down to the theater for that night's performance.  Then we noticed the sleeping man.  Oh, well.  On a rainy day in the city, it's tough to find a dry place to nap.

After we saw the new musical "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" we splashed back up to the apartment we were staying at and put on dry clothes to cuddle on the couch for a bit before bed.

The next day we headed down to Bleeker St. where there were blocks and blocks of places that catered to the gluten free!  Two pizza places and three macaron shops all on the same street!!!  And this place. It was closed, but I like the signage.  I love the village.  

And then back to Penn Station to catch the train back to the airport.  The monitors just aren't as fun as the big flippy chart used to be, but I suppose progress is like that.

View from the train. I know it doesn't look like much, but it still looks like a piece of home to me.

It was delightful to have a trip for a few days that was just the two of us.  And even more delightful to realize that we still really like each other and were happy to spend as much time together as we could.  We have many wonderful friends and relatives in the area, but we decided that we wanted to just be us on our trip.  It was nice to feel good about that together.

"A Wonderful Town"

Guess who just scored crazily cheap plane tickets to NY???  We'll be celebrating our 15th wedding  anniversary in one of my favorite cities!  Two of my delightful neighbors agreed to take my kids for a couple of nights before I even bought the tickets, bless them!  

Hooray hooray hooray!

Now to find a place to stay...

Keeping Myself Honest 6

Spiritual: I'm behind but catching up. I've been listening to scriptures while I do tasks in the kitchen during the day. Or while folding laundry. I'm only about 15 pages behind, which in the grand scheme of this project is not much, but which I've been fighting hard to not let get any worse.

Physical: In an effort to be kind to my posterior tibial tendon, I was a total schlubb in April. Other than working in the yard, which I've been doing a lot of, and belly dancing I've barely gotten my heart rate up. The good news is that my tendon feels as good as new! The bad news is that I'll probably need to start if not from scratch, probably back several weeks in my training.

Financial: Better this month, but not as good as I would have liked. Still, we were able to increase our mortgage payment even more, which should shave an additional few months off the end. The long term goal is to have the house paid off by 2017. (13 years from the time of purchase.) We'll have kids graduating in 2018, 2020, and 2022 which seem like pretend dates as I'm typing them, but which are disturbingly close. Not having a mortgage to pay right when we will potentially have 3 kids in college or on missions all at the same time sounds pretty awesome.

Organizing: The challenge was good this month. One of the challenges was to clean out my email inbox. This is a daunting task, but I did take the time to unsubscribe from quite a few companies that I just don't need to be getting email from, especially at the alarming regularity with which they send it. The one that amused me the most was Roy's. Roy's is a restaurant that used to be in the financial district in NYC (It exists in cities all over still, but shut down their NYC location many years ago).  Todd and I haven't been there since our 5th wedding anniversary.  We've been married for 14 years.  I really don't need to hear about what's going on at Roy's.


Books I Read this Month:
Notorious Nineteen
The Beekeeper's Apprentice (The very fact that the Mary Russell books exist makes me happy.)
Thale's Folly
Wicked Appetite
Wicked Business
A Monstrous Regiment of Women
Edenbrooke (Charming.)
Minding Frankie
Heavens to Betsy
O Jerusalem
The Builders (This novella is part of an adult literacy series. I love the idea of "easy" readers for adults that don't bore the reader to death in the process.  At only 87 pages for the entire story, it's a quick read, but enjoyable.)

TEN YEARS

We are going to pause in our regular programming of me posting my embarrassing journal entries written about Todd. But here's a silly picture of him:


In case you aren't sure how the story ends, Todd and I were married almost ten years ago on December 23. We are never letting our kids do anything that silly. Christmas is a terrible time to have an anniversary! Some years we barely acknowledge it, but we decided that every five years we'd do something "real".

I should mention that we have weather issues. The day we were married there was a big ice storm. It took people who attended the wedding ceremony nine hours (instead of the typical 3.5 hours) to get home from Washington D.C. to NJ.

On our fifth anniversary we had a wonderful weekend in NYC. The first night it was so freezing cold that we ventured outside our hotel only long enough to get bagels for dinner, and then the next day it was pouring rain. We ended up going home early. I don't love the city in a monsoon.

Friday night, the awesome fabulous and wonderful fellow book group broad, Heather (and her hubby, of course), took my boys so Todd and I could run away for 24 hours. (Big shout out to HEATHER!!! Gimme an H!!...)

It was 15 degrees outside. And I planned for us to walk from our hotel to Latitude 41. Which I LOVED, btw. I definitely recommend it for a grown up evening out. They use local, seasonal ingredients and have a very small selection. But every single thing they offered was excellent! Here's us at the restuarant with our desserts:

(Mom, I didn't brush my hair before this picture was taken.)

After dinner we walked quickly and coldly back to the hotel along the mostly deserted city streets. (Everyone else was smart enough to stay inside that night.) I kept reminding my freezing husband that for as cold as he thought he was, I wasn't even wearing pants. He countered by reminding me that he has no body fat. We'll call it a draw.

Back at the hotel, I wanted a picture of the two of us. I have a ridiculously small number of pictures of the two of us together. So I handed him the camera and told him to do it because he has longer arms. Bless his humble heart, the man has no idea how to take self pics. Here's what happened:

"No, honey. Closer and more centered."

"Without being completely unflattering."

"Give me that!!!" "No!" "Give me that!!" "No! You can't have it!"



" It's mine because my arms are longer!!" "Yeah, well, I'm heavier than you are!"

Ha! I got it. But apparently I can't take pictures either.
That's better.

The next morning we woke up to lots of snow and wind and cold and slipped and slid all over the city for the rest of the day. I am just pointing this out to the people who cursed us while driving home from our wedding ten years ago. The curse stuck.

Saturday morning, after we'd chased a postal worker all over downtown Columbus (there's a story there, too) and we'd finally eaten, Todd asked me what I wanted to do. I responded that I had really wanted to wander all over the North Market and Short North areas. But the weather was uncooperative. Todd laughed and reminded me that I'd said the exact same thing in NYC five years ago.

I suppose it's good to have traditions.

Boys Who Sing

My Dad was in the Stake Presidency when I was a little girl. Basically, that meant that he had lots of church meetings and had to travel around to all the congregations within the stake. Sometimes my Mom and I would go with him.

One Sunday in particular, we went to the ward (congregation) that Todd attended.  After the main meeting (Sacrament Meeting), the children go to Primary.  There are lessons and singing and all sorts of good things.  Anyway, that day in primary the music leader was introducing a new song called "Love is Spoken Here".    I loved learning new songs.  It was like having a puzzle dangled in front of me.  I HAD to solve it.  So, I paid very close attention to everything that was taught.  (This paid off, because they didn't start teaching it in my ward until the next month.  And I totally knew it already.)  The girls sing the first verse of the song and the boys sing the second verse, then join together to sing the third verse.

  There are some wards where the little boys are very enthusiastic singers.  Then there is the majority.  So, my seven year old self was very interested in the melodious singing coming from the opposite side of the room.

I craned my neck around to see eight year old Todd Smith.  I remember thinking, "Hm.  He's a really good singer.  That's Todd.  I remember him.  He cries when he gets teased."

I should mention that he didn't look at me once.  Nor does he remember this event at all.  Nor did he remember that I was even at Treasure Island all those years before.

He does, however, remember our anniversary.  And my birthday....um, usually.

The next time I saw Todd Smith, I was 14 and he was 15.  But that will be tomorrow's story.