You have my permission to be jealous

Because I just spent a marvelous weekend in Paris! There are only a few things that could have made the trip spectacular 1) if Jer was with me and 2) if the sun could have made a cameo for a few hours to at least burn away some of the fog.

I need not bore you all with picture of things you can look up on the internet and probably see much better pictures which were probably taken by professionals and not 100 pictures like this....

or like this........

(Forgot the camera was zoomed in)

Yes. I was with people that could take pictures of me at the different locations, but because I have a really hard time taking a serious picture, you end up with pictures like this...

So it is just better that I take pictures of myself, arm stretched out.

So here is a summary of my trip (with some select pictures, and for the most part, not of me):

1) Started the morning at a corner cafe with a hot coco and a pan au chocolat (pastries are my favorite...who needs candy when you can have baked goods with chocolate in them!)

2) Walking down the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe dodging clouds of cigarette smoke. While window shopping found this little (literally) treasure...

Yes...that is a car on the wall.

Toyota's version of the Smart Car is so small and aesthetically pleasing you don't even need, nor would you want!, a parking spot outside when you can park it on your living room wall where the colors and dimensions can accent your living room decor....talk about a converstaion piece!

3) Next it was on to the Eiffel Tower. Well....it is a big medal structure. Apparently you can pay money to go to the top and get a fantastic view of Paris, but the 3rd level was closed and I didn't really see the point if you can't go to the top.

4) A quick subway ride and we were at Notre Dame and just in time to hear the bells ringing. This I must say was pretty cool. It was early in the afternoon so the bells did not ring for long, but it was long enough to get the pigeons to leave their post and fly around the cathedral. I got this on video. I may be the only one, but I think it was cool.

4) Next stop...the Musee de Louvre. I didn't go inside. As much as I would have liked to see the Mona Lisa, I don't think I could suffer through 2,000 pictures of Madonna and Child. But in the courtyard I really wish it had been a clear day, because this picture with the eiffel tower in the background would have been pretty cool.

5) Next a stop at a brasserie for lunch for some "typical" french fast food, a croque monsieur, americanized by the addition of my coca-light. Enjoyed my meal sitting outside under a heat lamp by a square complete with a small orchestra playing classical favorites such as Cannon in D and the "Beef. It's What's for Dinner" song or for those in the music "know", Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

6) After lunch it was on to the Sacre Coeur Basilica, from who's hill you can see a lot of Paris...However, on a foggy day, all you can see is a bunch of clouds and a few buildings. About the only thing I got out of this was some burnt calories and some sore calfs from the hike to the top of the hill. But this was okay because from all that hard work I earned myself number 7.

7) Afternoon treat, a crepe with nutella and banana...delicious. After a quick (3 hour) nap and dinner and some walking around with no particular destination in mind it was bed time in my hotel room about the same size as a broom closet.

8) Sunday morning, I attempted to go to sacrament meeting. Western Europe changes time for daylight savings one week before the US. I knew this saturday night and attempted to watch my phone to see if it automatically changed. Well by 1 am, it had not changed, so I changed it. Long story short, phone did change itself, so I was 2 hours behind and only made it to 35 minutes of sacrament meeting (do I get credit for trying?)

9) With not much time for site seeing on sunday, we decided to go to the Luxembourg Palace. While in route to the Palace and speaking of small cars we found the original smart car. The Fiat Cinquecento (500), I honestly think you could not be more than 5'0 tall to fit in this car.

Of course there were other things I saw, but this post is getting long. So, go to Paris if you ever have the chance, it is an absolutely charming city.

And to end...here is my favorite french word (I don't know why). Bonsoir (Good Evening)!

Have you ever....

Have you ever wanted to "forever change the rules of engagement for marshmallow gun confrontations"?

Introducing the Marshmallow Mazooka!
Item Description: The 40' Marshmallow Bazooka. This battery powered bazooka launches edible, full-size marshmallows up to 40', forever changing the rules of engagement for marshmallow gun confrontations. The integrated miscroprocessor automatically regulates air pressure, allowing you to launch up to five marshmallows in 60 seconds without manual pumping. Simply load a marshmallow into the chamber, wait for the LED on the reticle to illuminate, and pull the trigger to bombard your mark with confections. Requires two 9-volt batteries. Ages 6 and up. (Sold on Hammacher Schlemmer's website)

I saw this in a magazine today and was beside myself with laughter. First I was laughing about the fact that Marshmallow bazookas were even invented. But then I read the description and it was all over. Pretty much made my day. It makes you wander though..."who is the ad wizard that came up with that one?" (a gold star for anyone who knows who that quote came from).

Special Announcement!

Here it is.....the special announcement!!

I have to confess something first. When I first said I had a special announcement...I really didn't. I just wanted to see if I could drive people crazy. It worked on a few of you!

So nope...no babies in my belly...if that is what you were thinking.

But I am happy to report that we do have a big announcement.

Jer got accepted to go to the Domican Republic for a week as part of an outreach program at school. This is really exciting for him and I am really proud of him. He is already an amazing dentist (from what I hear) and I know that he will do a lot of good while he is there.

Good job Hun!

(sorry family if I got your hopes up! But if you got your hopes up...you should know me better than that!)

More Stuff

So continuing on...


Also in August I had a very important birthday....Y'all I am 26! I am officially on the other side of 25. I think I can be classified as "mid-to-late 20's" now. Wow!

At the end of August, Jer and I went on a much needed vacation. We went on a Carribbean cruise. We had a lot of fun. We went to Cozumel, Mexico first. While in Mexico, Jer and I went beginners scuba diving ("are you for scuba?").





This was actually quite a big deal for me...I am not a deep water person. Anyway, we made some friends on the cruise ship (Holla' Jess and Carrie) and they convinced us to go with them. Anyway, this is how it went.

We get to the scuba place and the instructor takes us down to this room to give us instructions on how to scuba. So a couple things here. 1) The room had an echo so it was hard to hear, 2) english was this guy's second language so he was hard to understand, 3) we got a 15 minute instruction session and then he said "alright lets go to the water", and I was thinking "ummm....isn't this something that people have to spend hours getting certified for and I just sat through a 5 second instruction session and now I have to go do it...great!"

So we got down to the water and started going through all of the steps that we talked about in the instructional room. I immediately start freaking out because my brain is just not liking the idea of breathing underwater. Next, the instructor starts to take us deeper into the water, and again I start freaking out because I can't figure out how to "pressurize" (if you don't pressurize you can really damage your lungs and sinuses). Well I am happy to report that after I got the breathing and the pressurizing all figured out, everything went fabulously. I actually had a lot of fun. We only went about 20 feet under the water, but both Jer and I agree that we would like to do this again.

Next we went to Roatan, Honduras where we just went to the beach. We had a great time here also. I played volleyball with bunch of people from the cruise ship. I didn't know them, but it only took me about 3 seconds to realize they were from New Jersey (all of the guys were Guidos). Also in Roaton, we went snorkeling as evidenced in the below photo (by the way, looking at our vacation pictures it looks like I am trying to bring back the "two thumbs up" in pictures).












The next location was Belize City, Belize. Here we got off the boat, got to the port, looked around and decided that we would not be venturing into the city. Belize City from what we have heard and what we saw, is not a fabulous place. We did however find a local company that took us snorkeling and then out to a private island. The snorkeling was fun and the island was pretty fun too. Here is a picture we took at the private island. (Posers!)



On the way back from the island, we saw some dolphins, two adults and a baby. They weren't close enough to touch, but I liked to see them all the same.

Lastly we went to Freeport, Bahams. We went to the beach, got a few hours of fun, and then the outlying storms as a result of hurricane Ike caught up with us and we had to go back to the ship.

When we got back from vacation, it was moving time again....except not for us this time. Our best friends, Corey and Nan were moving to California. This was very sad to me for a few reasons. Corey and Natalie were the first really good friends we made out here in Jersey. We did just about everything with them, in fact most of my memories of this area involve them. It was also a very sad event because Natalie and I were pretty much the same on the crazy scale (and I mean crazy in the nicest way). We were always singing something (even though I was never good) and we would laugh at all of the same things (particularly "mom jokes"). I put a few pictures in the below slideshow to show what ALWAYS happened when we were together with a camera. These are only a select few of the many pictures that we have like this. Finally I was sad because Natalie is pregnant and I am sad that I won't be able to be around for it. Anywho, we were very sad that they had to move, but we know that the friendships you make when you are an adult are so much stronger than those you make when you are children and teenagers so we know we will still see and talk to them.

Before Corey and Natalie moved, Natalie and I celebrated our birthdays by going to a Broadway show. We went to Gypsy, and it was amazing! It stared Patti LuPone (who I guess is a pretty big deal) and she really was amazing also. I would have never chose this play on my own, but luckily Natalie is a theater person and new the play well. I highly recommend the play. It is not for the kids, because it is based on the memoirs of a stipper named Gypsy Rose Lee (no worries there is no nudity).



Jer and I also saw another play when his brother came to visit. We went to a new musical "A Tale of Two Cities". A....maze....ing!. We loved it! Great story (I am actually to read the book now) and the actors (singers) they had were really really good. We were blown away, especially by the lead James Barbour (who played Sydney Carton).



And lastly...

Jer finally got his Playstation 3. He has wanted one for a long time. I made him save up his money and buy it. This was the only way I would led him get it. I didn't want it, I didn't think we needed it, so I didn't want to spend a penny on it. Well, Jer saved up the money he earns from assising a dentist every now and then, and he finally saved enough. I must say, I like it as well. The PS3 has blu-ray which is awesome. One of the first movies we watched with the blu-ray was Harry Potty: The Order of the Pheonix, the graphics and clarity of the movie was really cool.

What the heck have we been up to?!?!?!

So here is it....the catch up blog.

So where should I begin? I think the best place to begin would be where I fell off the blog-wagon back in July.

July

When I posted last, I was actually in Switzerland...yes, be jealous because Switzerland is the most beautifully gorgeous country I have been in my life. It is so gorgeous, it is ridiculous...infact it is so beautiful...I am mad at it!

I was in Switzerland for a week and I had the weekend to kind of explore. I went for a nice long drive on Sunday and came across this gem of a landscape (unfortunately is was rainy that day so it is not the clearest shot). Nearby where I took this photo was this sign saying that on July 31st there would be a fireworks show over this valley, how freaking awesome would that have been!!! Unfortunately I had to go home before that, but just look at the picture and try to tell me you would not have liked to see that also.

Also while meandering through Switzerland, I drove past a town called....

Yup...Frick! I may be the only person that thinks this is funny...but that is okay. I am usually the only person laughing at my own jokes anyway...so I am used to it.

Back tracking a little. The week before I was in Italy. We had one night to spend in Rome, and we had an Italian showing us around. I have been to Rome before, so I have seen all the main attractions, but this guy showed us something that is not quite as well known...

I guess somebody wrote some love story and the lovers in the story wrote their name on a lock and attached it to one of the light posts on this bridge as a symbol of their never ending love. Well, people decided to copy the book and did the same. Apparently so many locks were attached to the light posts that the mayor (or Italian name for it) was going to take the locks down and through them away...people had a fit! So the solution was to put up this railing (there were atleast 10 more of these on the bridge) so people could attach the locks to them instead. It is insane the amount of locks on this bridge. It was interesting to walk around and read people's names on the locks and to see how much of an impact one person's seamingly insignificant idea can have.

Out of all of the locks I looked at, this was the one that I felt was the most heartfelt and got me a little emotional ...

I know it is kind of hard to see...and it is in Italian...but roughly translated it says, "Die Everyone!" Ha Ha! What?! isn't the act of laughing an expression of emotion.

August

August was moving month. Basically the second I got home from Europe, we had to start moving. I got home the very end of July, we moved on the 15th of August. I dislike moving soooo much. What made it even worse is that we had to repaint our apartment. We had painted it brown, and had to get it back to a whitish color, so the apartment people could come in and paint it again anyway...stupid. Anywho, we tried to make moving a non-event by doing a little everyday. I think it made the process go a bit smoother, but it was still stressful. Many thanks to all of you who helped us move.

Here is a picture of a big part of the moving team...

*Helpful hint...always make friends with the missionaries. They are the key to a quick move.

So moving was a bittersweet process. There are things we will miss and there are things we will not miss so much.

Things we will miss:

1) The view:

2) Our friends (including Ozzy's best friend) - Tom, Elena, and Frankie

3) Being close to the Leishman's and the Reed's

4) That feeling of being home (this was the longest place we have lived since we have been married and it truly felt like home)

5) The pathway by the river, nice for an evening stroll.

6) Something that Ozzy would do...but I can't describe it, I have to show it. But I can't get to the video, so I will have to post it later.

Things we will definitely not miss:

1) The fact that we could support a small country with the amount of money we were paying each month for rent

2) Our apartment building that was "settling" especially where our apartment was located. Everything was slightly slanted in our apartment.

3) Our noisy upstairs neighbors (who I am pretty sure were druggies).

4) No storage

In the end, I think we got a much better apartment. It is bigger...cheaper...and more state of the art.

Here is our old apartment:

And here is our new apartment:

I do have more to blog about, but I think this is a good place to stop for now. I know that I don't really have the attention span for long blogs, so I am sure many of you are the same (if you have even read to this point, for all I know you gave up a while ago). Stay tuned for a few pictures from our vacation, a farewell to a good friend, some other random things, and a special announcement ;)