I Love New York

Can I just say, I love New York City. I could live here. Except for the stinky smell that comes from all the garbage in the street. What's up with that? But seriously, I love the big city. Of course, when I really think about it, I prefer visiting big cities to living in them.

I've always heard about how rude New Yorkers are. But that has not been my experience at all. Everyone we have met has been so nice - from the lady who carried Faith's stroller around, to the NYPD officer who got me some tissue paper so I could change Faith's diaper on the subway floor (don't ask), to the bus driver who went out of his way to help us get to the Giants game, to the man at the cookie stand who gave me the cookies for $4 instead of $4.25 when I couldn't find a quarter. It's been a hard trip, honestly. Hauling Faith around by myself in a city that I'm unfamiliar with is hard. I have to haul her stroller up and down stairs at the subway and figure out where we're going. But I feel totally comfortable here. So even though it's been hard, it has been a great experience. I've been blessed. Today I was supposed to meet Jeff at 5:15 in a certain spot. Well, we had our wires crossed about exactly where that certain spot was. After an hour and a half of waiting in the sweltering hot subway station, I said a silent prayer, and I immediately had the thought that I should walk out a certain way. I did, and there was Jeff. He had been waiting there for the same hour and a half. Should have prayed sooner, huh?

I have a lot more to say, but Marriott charges 49 cents a minute for me to be on this computer, so I'll wait until I get home to write about everything else.

Off We Go.....

So Jeff and Faith and I are leaving early tomorrow morning for the Big Apple. I'm really excited, but I'm also really stressed. Unfortunately, me being stressed means that I'm ornery and kind of a jerk. Sorry, Jeff. I really don't mean to be so witchy. Mostly I'm worried about getting there. I'm not sitting by Jeff in the plane, and I am in a middle seat, holding Faith on my lap. So here is a random sampling of my thoughts:

• What if I get stuck between two large men who don't like babies?
• How am I going to discreetly nurse Faith between those two large men who don't like babies? I have a little blanket that I'll use, but still....
• What do we do with the carseat? We're taking it, but we have to check it. So every time we get in a cab, we'll haul the carseat with us. But what about when we get out of the cab? What do we do with the carseat while we go to the Giants game and this or that museum? I'm starting to wonder if people in NYC have babies. How do they do it?
• What if I have to go to the bathroom during the flight? Those little airplane restrooms are a big enough hassle without having to hold a baby while you do your business. I guess I could let one of the two large men hold her.... Actually, I guess I could go give her to Jeff. Maybe he'll be between two skinny ladies who love babies. That would be awesome.
  
• What if Faith screams the whole flight? She isn't a very fussy baby - she's actually really mellow and happy. But in a strange situation with two large men that she doesn't know on either side of her, it might be a different story.

Okay. So my real fear is that I'll get stuck between two large men who don't like babies. Is that what you got out of that?

I really am very excited. Michael is staying at my parents' house this week. I'll come home Thursday, but Jeff won't be back until really late Friday night. We're going to Bear Lake this weekend for the Whole Hansen Family Bear Lake Trip. My parents will pick Faith and me up, and they'll have Michael with them. I'll go to Bear Lake with them, and then Jeff will come up early Saturday morning. I'm really looking forward to going to Bear Lake, too. As happy as I am with my life, my husband, my kids, there is still some part of me that longs for those days when the most complicated thing was how I would get to Laketown or Garden City on the weekend. Ah, the memories....

Thankful Thursday

1. Government-funded vacations. Jeff has to go to New York City next week for a class, and since his airfare and hotel and meals are paid for, we decided that I'm going too. Yay!!! I'm really excited. We just have to pay for my airfare, and then whatever activities we want to do. The only thing we know for sure is that we're going to the Giants game Monday night. Jeff is so excited.
   
2. Family who will take care of Michael. Mom agreed to take Michael next week while we're in New York. Thank you, thank you, thank you. There is no one I'd rather have him stay with.
3. Dill pickles. Yummy. Need I say more?
4. Uncle Jerry. Our car still isn't fixed - one of the spark plugs keeps misfiring. Jerry thought it was probably bad when Jeff bought it and put it in, so Jerry took one out of his own car and put it in mine so I could go home instead of waiting even longer at the shop for the part to arrive. Of course, I still had to pay for a new one so that he could drive home that night, but I figure it's a small price to pay to get two ornery children out of there and home so they could eat and take a nap.
   
5. Pine trees. I was reminded while we were camping last weekend how beautiful pine trees can be - not when you have one pine tree in your yard that kills the grass and dumps needles all over the place - but rather, lots of pine trees together. Thanks again, everyone, for a great family campout.
   

Heritage Maker Book List

Okay, so most of you know that I have been making some books through a company called Heritage Makers. It's an awesome company, and I've been loving it. Anyway, they recently added a new feature to their site where I can now put links to my projects on this blog. So in the sidebar on the left, there is now a list of "My Books." These are most of the books that I have done. I thought it might be interesting, especially for those of you who are far enough away that you don't get to see the book we recently did for Grandma and Grandpa Hansen. The bad part about these preview images is that you can't zoom in. On some of them, the writing is too small to read very well. But at least you'll be able to see the photos. Maybe soon they'll add a zoom feature.

A Report on Last Week

Phew!!! The crazy week is over, and we all survived. Everything actually went really well. I got a new person hired at work, and I think he'll be good. The car was fixed (sort of), and the cakes turned out really well. Here are a couple photos of the wedding cake:

They had a western-themed wedding, so I made the ivory fondant look like stucco and added fondant ropes, felt cowboy hats, and icing and gum paste flowers. It was a lot of fun to do, but it was probably way too big. Everyone filled up on the other food, and so nobody ate cake. They have carrot cake to last them a really long time.

The wedding was really nice. A lot of people came, which I'm not sure they expected, since it was such short notice. Grandma and Grandpa's house looked great. Jill and everyone else up there did a fantastic job. The ceremony was very nice, and the food was yummy. How could a wedding be better?

Here is the birthday cake I did for Julia's first birthday. Julia is my friend April's little girl. This week I'm doing another birthday cake, for Hunter. He wants a track-hoe like his daddy drives at work. I am excited about it.

This is me, Michael, and Faith at the wedding. Faith's dress was given to her by my friend Becca in Michigan. Becca, if you read this, I LOVE IT!!! It's so cute on her. Thanks again.

After the wedding, we left to go camping. We went to a campground called Ledgefork, near Oakley. It was a really nice campground (good job, Mom!). Mom had activities planned and assigned, and everyone participated, which made it so fun. The only thing that could have made it better (other than Mandi, Burke, Matthew, and Riley being there) would have been if Jeff hadn't been sick.

As promised, here is the video of Michael singing "Three Little Ducks" to Faith, as well as a photo of the two of them together.



And that's all for today. Time to go do another load of laundry.

Thankful Thursday

1. Ana - Thank you for coming to my house today to play with Michael, so that I didn't have such guilt about neglecting him.
2. Jeff - Thank you for calming me down when I was all freaked out because I had just "ruined" Richard's wedding cake. You were right - I was able to fix it and it wasn't too big a deal.
3. Mom and Dad - Thank you for bringing a tent and the portable kitchen for us for this camping trip. It will make packing easier.
4. Jodi - Thank you for taking Michael to the fair today. He had a great time.
5. Michael - Thank you for being so happy to see me when you got home.

Craziness

AUGH!!!! And BWAH!!!! That pretty much sums up my week. I don't think it's possible for a week to be any more hectic. Between a birthday cake, a wedding cake, a baptism, a wedding, getting my car fixed, hiring a new person at work, preparing for a camping trip, preparing a family activity and a musical number for the camping trip, not to mention taking care of two kids (who I must admit were sadly neglected today while I baked seven cakes), I NEED A BREAK!!!!! Unfortunately, I won't get it for several more days - until after we come back from camping and do all the unpacking and laundry that comes with that kind of trip. My calendar looks happily blank next week, except for Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday...... Good. That means I have Tuesday and Thursday to catch up on all the cleaning I didn't do this week. Thank goodness for Jeff. He's taking care of some of the family activity planning and preparation, he did some laundry, and he did some of the work to fix the car, and he's been great to take the kids while I made flowers for the wedding cake. And he's good comic relief, if nothing else. :)

I have taken lots of pictures of the kids lately, but I haven't had time to download them onto the computer. I plan to do that before my next post. I have a video of Michael singing "Three Little Ducks" to Faith. It's really cute. I'll also post photos of Richard and Shannon's wedding cake, and Julia's birthday cake. Even though I'm totally stressed out this week, I'm really excited to do these cakes. Stay tuned to see the results!