Cabin Fever

Pat doesn't do well with staying inside for long periods of time. Every year for Christmas he gets a little over a week off from work (pretty much the only good thing about advertising). This year, with having Hunter and it being cold outside, we haven't gotten out as much as in years past--and this means Pat starts going a bit crazy.

On one such day Pat decided to go to The Goodwill to see what they had. He found some cool vintage actions figures for a dollar each. He decided to buy a few. When he got home he looked them up on ebay and discovered that there were quite a few he bought and hadn't bought that were worth some good money.

With Cabin Fever setting in her decided to go and buy all the vintage action figures Goodwill had and list them on ebay.

Since having a baby Pat and I have been staying in doors a lot more than usual. When Hunter was first born Pat took some vacation time to help out; however, there is only so much a man can do to help a new mom so he found himself with some extra time on his hands.

He decided to paint and put together an International Scout model that he has had for 5+ years. He painted it the same color as the Scout that he had owned in high school and crashed only months after owning it.

He worked on this model for days. I am so glad that he had this little project because otherwise I am certain that Pat, the man who needs an adventure, would have gone insane inside our 450 sq/ft apt!

You know your a mom when...

...you accidentally brush your teeth with diaper rash cream instead of toothpaste. 

Yes. You read that correctly...please don't judge me. 

As you can see from the picture, there is not much difference between a diaper rash cream tube and a toothpaste tube when you have them laying face down. This combined with the lack of sleep a new mother experiences equals disaster when diaper cream is left on the bathroom counter. 

So my advice to all you new mothers out there: Don't leave diaper cream in the bathroom. 

Christmas

Christmas when you are away from family and do not have any children who are old enough to realize what is going on is kinda anticlimactic  For the past three years Pat and I have spent Christmas in the city alone and it is kinda getting old. 

We miss the excitement that little children bring to the holiday and we miss spending time with family. We try to make the most of it, but we are excited for Hunter to become of age so we can teach him the true meaning of Christmas and also get excited for Santa and gifts. 

For Christmas Eve we didn't do anything traditional or special. We ended up watching a really lame 80's movie about a dragon slayer. 

However, Christmas morning was a little more festive and having Pat somewhat made up for the lake of children, as he gets excited for gifts just like little kids do.

This year Pat decided to institute a new tradition with the "Christmas Dagger." He decided that the "Christmas Dagger" would be brought out every Christmas and each person had to open their gifts with the dagger--so that is exactly what we did.

This year for Christmas we also started another tradition of using Pinterest to make our "wish lists."  I for one always have a hard time knowing what to ask for for Christmas (Pat doesn't have any trouble at all). So in order to help in this endeavor we started a private board on Pinterest that only Pat and I could see and pin to. The months leading up to Christmas we would pin miscellaneous items that we wanted that we found on the internet. It is amazing how easily you can find items on the internet that you don't need but want as you surf on a daily basis and if not pinned would be forgotten about minutes later.

Despite the wish lists, we still managed to have some surprise gifts to give one another that the other person would love but did not ask for. For me this was a fake butterfly in a glass mason jar that flies around just like a real butterfly (when I have seen this is stores in the past I am always enamored by them). And for Pat this was International Scout Gear and Thinking Putty.

New shoe smell

The rest of the day was spent chatting with family via video chat over the internet. I am so thankful for the technology we have today. I can't imagine living so far from family and friends without the luxuries of seeing their faces and video chatting online. It makes being away from them bearable and as if we are not missing out on as much.

Also, a new tradition we I (pat was kinda against it) started this year was Christmas Lotto Scratch Off Cards. Even though mormons don't gamble, Santa didn't know better, and gave each one of us a lotto scratch off card. Hunter ended up winning $15 to go towards his college fund! 

It's Christmas time in the city....

I love this time of year, especially in NYC. I am sad because I haven't been able to enjoy the weather and the Christmas festivities as much as I would like to, since little Hunter occupies much of my time and doesn't let me get out much.

I am hoping once Pat gets time off of work that we will be able to explore the city more as a family and we will be able to enjoy the magical feeling the Christmas brings to this wonderful city that we live in.

Of course one of the downsides to a Christmas in New York City is the size of the tree and having to be creative on where to put it! Every year I am convinced that we won't be able to put up our tiny tree because we have no room. However, without fail Pat always finds a way. This year he found the perfect spot on top of our small bookshelf!

Every year I look forward to putting up the ornaments on the tree. It is always fun to reminisce on years past. I can't believe how quickly time flies and this is the fifth Christmas Pat and I have spent together. 

This year, I had some "new" Christmas ornaments to add to the tree that I am especially fond of. When my mom came in October she brought a handful of ornaments that belonged to my grandparents. They are so charming and take me back to my childhood of Christmas Eve's spent at my grandparents home set in the Oakland Hills. 

 

One ornament in particular brought back a flood of memories -- the knitted Reindeer heads. When my mom brought them I got excited because I remember always going up to my grandparents tree and checking to see if there was a special treat inside these reindeers. If I got to them before anyone else, I would find a hershey kiss waiting for me. The funny thing about this, is my mom had no memory of the purpose of these reindeer so when I popped open the mouth of the two reindeer ornaments she brought me, guess what I found!!! Two hershey kisses! The funny thing is from my calculations the hershey kisses were probably over 12 years old!

Christmas is a time for family and traditions. I am excited start my family and to continue old traditions and start new traditions of our own!

Mormon Helping Hands

Hurricane Sandy Helping Hands from Joshua Brown on Vimeo.

The devastation of Hurricane Sandy is something that no one could have anticipated. Members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints have organized groups of volunteers to help those that were affected. It is so amazing to see what people can do when they come together and serve.

Hurricane Sandy

We survived Hurricane Sandy. I feel like I deserve a badge of some sort...well, not really because where we live did not experience the brunt of the storm; however, so many people were not so lucky.

On Monday we half heartedly made sure to have enough food and water to last us a few days not really thinking this storm would have any force. I was pretty excited since this would be my first Hurricane, along with Hunter's. As the storm approached I anticipated some excitement--maybe the lights would even go out! However, as time wore on we experienced a few strong wind gusts, one that even knocked down a very large branch on a tree outside our window, but it was nothing to write home about. 

However, as we glued ourselves to the news it seemed that the rest of the city was not so lucky. The water surge was rising quickly; yet we could have never anticipated the destruction that so many would experience. 

The next day we took a walk outside to see the aftermath of the storm in our area--the main devastation were fallen tree branches. 

This lady shown here took matters into her own hands as she was cutting down the tree branch with little hand pliers. We just thought it was funny and good lesson to all of New Yorkers to "do your part!"

The East River was higher than normal and we saw some pretty large debris

All of downtown Manhattan lost power and the surge took everything from people in Queens and Staten Island. It was weird to think that all we experienced were some downed trees; while just a few miles away was utter destruction.

Announcing the birth of Hunter James

My last day of work was Friday, September 28th. It was a bitter sweet day. I knew I would miss it over the next four months during my maternity leave but I was also excited for the next phase in my life--to become a mom.

On Monday I made plans to go out to brunch with some other girls that don't have the regular 9 to 5 jobs. I was excited to have a full week off of work before my actual due date on October 8th. I even thought I might get two weeks off before the baby came because I was convinced that I was going to be late because I was feeling so good.


I had so much planned that week in order to get ready for the baby, as I hadn't done much in the way of preparation because I thought I would have a whole week (maybe two) all to myself.

I made a to do list for the rest of the week, crossed a bunch of stuff off but still had a lot to accomplish before the baby came.

However, at the conclusion of my first day off from work, on October 1st at 11pm, my water broke. The labor and delivery was not the easiest and didn't go how I thought; however, it was all worth it when baby Hunter was born on October 3rd at 1:49am. 

The first night we brought him home was surreal. I kept checking him crib every 15 minutes to see if he was breathing. It is a crazy feeling to be responsible for another human being and for his crib to finally have an occupant after being empty for so many months. 

Goodbye to Montee

On September 22nd Pat and I had to make a very hard decision--to give Montee a new home. As mentioned before we found a perfect family for him, who had experience with Sphynx cats needing special medical attention, and even having seizures. We knew that this was a huge blessing as we would not be able to give Montee the proper attention he would need once that baby came.

It was so hard to say "Goodbye," but Montee's new family made it so much easier as they were so nice and were so understanding. They bought us flowers and even a gift for the baby! We were so happy to see that Montee would have such a loving family to spoil him and to take care of him. We hope he never forgets his first parents and we will always miss him.

Montee's new family--The Berge's

Exotic New Jersey

This past weekend I headed to New Jersey to spend a few days with my besty, Meghan. We don't get to see each other often so I was really excited to be able to catch up and spend some down time with her and her family. 

Her parents moved back to NJ a few years ago (Meghan moved from NJ to CA in 7th grade) and bought an awesome house next to an inlet. They are literally one house away from the water, which was amazing. Being so close to the water caused there to be a constant cool breeze throughout the home, making me feeling like I was at a beach house somewhere exotic. It was so relaxing and such a treat. 

Because I am 38 weeks pregnant everyone was on pins and needles thinking that I was going to go into labor at any time. It was very funny. Meghan even came and woke me up during the night because she thought she heard me groaning, but she said it "must have been a bird." hahahhahaha 

We spent a lot of time with her family, which I am so grateful they let me impose upon, relaxing, taking car rides (Meghan's favorite past time), eating, walking the Asbury boardwalk, sitting on the beach and watching the Emmy's. I was so mad I didn't bring my "real" camera and just brought my point and shoot because I feel like I wasn't able to capture the beauty of the weekend very well, but these will have to do. 

View from their home

The Lane Girls

Kathy, Meghan's mom, holds the record at this pinball machine for best score for someone over 50. Way to go Kathy!

Meghan's little sister, Taryn, and her friend Kate. 

For some reason this scene of Meghan watching the Emmy's made me crack up.