Our Easter was happy.

I spoke in church yesterday. When they asked me to, I asked what the topic was & was told, Oh you know, whatever. Easter. Okay. So. The Atonement. The Ressurection. Jesus Christ. No big deal. Just the little things, right?

(Stress.)

So I spent the last two weeks studying, & as nervous as I get to speak, I'm really happy that I got to (even if it was good enough that Glenn Beck slept through through its entirety - Mike says that he was "pondering"). I'm glad that it's over, but I'm also grateful for the encouragement to study such amazing topics in earnest for a few weeks, while at the same time observing the quiet arrival of spring. I like what Elder Ballard said - that spring "brings a renewal of light & life - reminding us through the cycle of season, of the life, sacrifice & Resurrection of our Lord & Redeemer, Jesus Christ, for 'all things bear record of [Him]'" (Moses 6:63). 

We had a really lovely Easter. The sun came out! Church was nice, friends were nice (I'm so very grateful for the good people who have offered to help me & my broken little bones), we made a yummy dinner at Suzi's & she sent me home with the first Easter basket that I've had in probably 20 years. These tulips? They're from her too, the other day. For my toes. See - nice friends.

(Quinn was a little grumpy in our family Easter photos [thank you, Kylie] - you know, sleep deprived thanks to church, not to mention the fact that we made him wear a blazer.)

Hi.

I took this photo of Q the day after we got home from Texas (we're happy / sad about being back). He's looking so grown up to me all of a sudden, probably exacerbated by the fact that he came out to an early lunch with me + girls today & he sat in his portable chair all by himself (it's my favorite new baby gear purchase, by the way). He was so proud of himself, & was a perfect friend to lunch with. He's making all sorts of new noises, practicing new tricks, & working on eating his fruits & vegetables (!!). I'm loving taking photos of him every day - & posting my favorites. 

Did I mention that Texas was the easiest, happiest trip? It was. Everything about it, & now I'm just a little sad all over again that the Burtons aren't living down the street. That being said, Dallas is better than... Hong Kong? Sigh. People shouldn't leave New York. Either that, or I should be allowed to gather all of my favorites & move to an island somewhere where we can all live together in a neighborhood full of good food, good conversation & good budget-free shopping. 

It's April! How did that happen? This month marks Mike's second 29th birthday & 6 years of marriage for us. It's a good month. I plan on baking the most delicious cake in the universe (with lots & lots of support calls to friend Jill). Wish me luck, because I have these really beautiful cake pans that I've never, ever used.  

I've had these tacos for dinner approximately 4 times in the last week. I'll take anything with cilantro & avocado.  

I have lots of catching up to do on Conference since I was traveling on Sunday & missed 98% of it. I just downloaded it all & am eager to listen. Thank goodness for technology, no?

I'm loving Pinterest. Such a more useful way to bookmark favorites (& share!).

I invested in eye cream. It's time. Sigh.

I've got 400 photos (after deleting!) from Texas to sort through. I've already flagged 100 or so as favorite, oh dear. This is stressing me out just a teensy bit. I'm also working on gathering ideas for redecorating our bedroom (which also kind of stresses me out + all I want for Christmas are furniture store gift cards), doing some serious spring cleaning in the apartment (spring cleaning is my happy place), getting ready for all of the upcoming visitors we have & generally just feeling busy. I'm grateful for busy though, because it's a happy busy & we're good. 

Quinn's blessing day.

The man who was conducting our Sunday service said Mike & Kathryn Whiting recently had a baby boy named Quinn, & will be blessing him today. 

That's about when I lost it & had to utilize a burp cloth. 

(And then I looked to my left & saw friend Jill, & then I cried a little bit more for her - because I want my son to know my friend + her sweet boys.)

I'm a mom! We have a son. I know I'm almost 7 weeks into this, but I still wake up surprised sometimes. And on Sunday, when we brought him to our church for the first time & Mike gave him a name & a blessing, I cried from real happiness - because I'm grateful for him, & for our family, & there's something about starting this little boy out on solid footing - a blessing encouraging him to be good, to be sweet, to know his God - that just feels nice. I'm grateful his dad + our friends that participated. It was simple & perfect for our little boy.

Mike's family came down from New Canaan (+ Cara from Washington DC) & we all ate Pumpkin Chili & breadsticks & apple crisp. Quinn, meanwhile, took a marathon nap which was much appreciated & much needed. He was apparently on the verge of total starvation immediately before & immediately after the blessing & I count us lucky to have made it through without total & complete meltdown. So, I made my first trips to the mother's lounge & missed most of the meeting. Church is obviously going to be quite different for me going forward... 

I took a pathetic number of photos, & half of them ended up blurry (?!). But - I loved seeing Q in khakis, a white shirt & a tie. He looked so grown up. For a baby, anyway.

I was talking to Suzi yesterday about how gross I think I look in these photos - kind of like how I felt the first time looking at a photo when I was really pregnant. Like, wow. I really look like that, & it's not what I'm used to. So it goes, & that's okay. I'm making progress, my body is starting to feel normal-ish & fitting into my favorite jeans comfortably this morning almost made up for the fact that I had just noticed that I had spit up stains all over my bra (an indication of how many cleavage shots I've recently taken, I suppose). And - I have a sweet little baby who is pushing 10 pounds (I think!) to show for it. That makes it all worth it, of course. Even with the squish.

But a hair cut. I already said I'm counting down the days, right? Four.

Nie.

I understand that this has made thorough rounds of the Blogsphere + all other forms of social networking, but I finally watched it for the first time (thanks, N) yesterday, on a Wednesday when I needed it. And it humbled me.

I don't mean to be so dramatic, but on a day when a lease falls through at the absolute very last minute & in that exact moment you receive news that family member passed away unexpectedly hours before (not putting them on the same plane, of course - but apparently when it rains, it pours), it's good to gain a little bit of a perspective.

Faith is everything. The Gospel is everything. Focus on those things, & everything else works out. It just will. And that makes me feel better on less-than-perfect days.

*And everything will work out for us, & is already. We're fine, & we love our family + good friends. 

Crazy.

I'll easily admit that I complain about seminary. I murmur. I often wish for an illness that will keep me in bed so I can sleep in an extra 2 hours. I question why I was asked to do it in the first place. Sometimes I'm even on the verge of tears because it's just a hard calling.

But this morning was crazy shoe day! Just because, just for fun, & it reminded me why I love this group of young New Yorkers. My pink flats are as crazy as I get, but I tried. We had a lot of fun & I was reminded, as I often am, that I'm lucky. Even if no one ever says thank you. Even if people ask to lie down during class, want to listen to the music on their iPhones during a lesson, or show up 15 minutes late & then ask to leave 10  minutes early. Even if I'm just exhausted, because it's so impossible to go to bed at an hour that makes getting up at 5:30am easy. Because I miss getting 8 hours of sleep on weeknights.

I took a bunch of photos of our class this morning for an upcoming regional seminary event. I wish I could post them, but I'm pretty sure that posting photos of my seminary kids ON THE SCARY INTERNET without their parents permission isn't kosher. Even though Josh's mohawk was extra amazing, David is so tall that I had to stand on a chair, José just looks like the sweet 17 year old he is, & Mikaela & Caroline just wanted photos of them together because they are BFF. So I won't. Sigh.

Okay, twist my arm.

Don't yell at me.

What fun is life is we take ourselves so seriously? For the record, I'm guilty of about 67% of the below. I have bangs, I love Anthropologie, I have TWO metal letters in my living room alone, I crafted just today, I could have a 20 minute conversation with you about cupcakes in New York (& Washington DC), & I've been blogging since 2006. Etc. etc. But I consider myself an independent, unique, well-rounded, open-minded person. I'm not a clone by any means. So, like I said, don't yell. You know, like those people who get all offended when they read Seriously So Blessed because they think the author is real & is being serious, or they're somehow otherwise offended? Yeah, those people need to lighten up. This is all in good, clean, lighthearted fun. 

Stuff Mormon Girls Like
(Compiled by me + Erin + Corinne + SJB + other various contributors. Smart & funny girls.)

Vampire Books
Anthropologie ("Anthro")
Etsy shops
Typing in all lowercase letters
Digital SLR's & starting mediocre photography businesses
The word lovely
American Idol
Husband (the word + it's massive over use)
Cupcakes
Big girl's weekends to big cities (DC, New York, LA - depending on geography)
Shade shirts with spaghetti strap dresses / tops over them
Shade clothing
Tankinis
Scrapbooking
Digiscrapbooking
Book clubbing + small food
Baking
Crafting
Mechanical bull riding for parties, birthdays, etc.
Natural birth
Divine family planning (i.e. we'll have children when HF thinks we're ready / need more)
Josh Groban
Game night / board games (Settlers of Catan, Bunko)
JCrew
Banana Republic dresses
Silhouettes
Running half marathons
Bangs
Diet Coke addictions
The Pioneer Woman
Headbands with flowers
Headbands with massive flowers on babies
Dwell
The movie Mean Girls
Throw pillows
Handmade throw pillows
Vinyl lettering with inspirational phrases
Stampin' Up
Homemade Cafe Rio
Dashboard Confessional
Designer jeans
Victorias secret underwear (pre-marriage)
Frozen yogurt
Mild cuss words
Decorating with a giant letter (last name initial, etc.)
Giant bridal / wedding pictures on a prominent wall
DIY projects
Blogging!! (This could be a separate post in & of itself)
Design blog-blogging
Highlights
Photoshop (& overuse of photoshop)
Wicked the musical
Red lipstick, whether flattering or not

I call it "cemetery" when I have a bad attitude, but this morning it was sort of fun.

I took this a few weeks ago. 6:15am. Just for fun, with my polaroid. Our building is so pretty.

This morning, the sky was racing. It really was. I can't explain it, except that I walked out of my apartment, & it was dark, but I could see these puffy, huge black & blue clouds (leftover from last night's torrential rain storm) just sprinting over the buildings & out of the city, almost close enough to touch them. It's nothing but blue skies now.

Some mornings, seminary comes very early. It comes extra-early when you're at a concert until almost 1am the night before. Oops.

We did scripture mastery this morning. I cut out photos of Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson's pretty heads out of US Weekly, stuck them on a poster board & then drew them nice little stick bodies (Kristen's dress was not seminary-appropriate, although very cute). I named them Wally & Molly Mormon. We broke out into groups (um, 2 groups since there was a grand total four students this morning), & made up stories / skits about Wally & Molly struggling with something or making bad decisions, & then used the scripture mastery verses to help them solve their problems. Even at 6:30am, I think we had fun.

Hymns don't have to be lame.

NieNie posted about this new collection of hymns the other day. I bought almost all of the songs from iTunes about 7 minutes later. Love, love, love the modern take on some of my favorite hymns & will love having them on my Sunday playlist. Especially love All Creature of Our God & King by Spencer Harrison & Lauren Casper. Kind of reminded me our friends Nathan & Sarah Jane who did the BEST. (Special, of course) MUSICAL. NUMBER. EVER. in our ward several months ago before they moved. Seriously. The best ever. Nathan & Sarah Jane Unplugged. It was amazing. They should record it & put it on iTunes.

Progress.

I slept (almost all the way) through the night last night for the first time in three weeks.

When I got in the cab to head to seminary, I didn't feel like I was going to throw up from anxiety.

And then I taught a pretty decent lesson, complete with fresh cinnamon rolls straight out of the oven in the adjacent kitchen at the church.

And this boy in my class - he told me that I did a good job (!!). And a girl said that she loved my sense of humor (& that my new hair cut was pretty). It's sort of amazing what compliments from 15 year olds can do for one's self esteem.

I walked home happy. I can do this.

(Totally unrelated, but sort of related to making cinnamon rolls I suppose, even though [I should clarify] they were definitely not from scratch - I made Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes with Orange Maple Butter for lunch with friends yesterday. Amazing. I love them.)

True love.

Us. From the US Open. Just because.

True love is when Mike basically performs an entire reenactment (off the cuff, of course) of a seminary lesson that I'm teaching tomorrow morning because I'm so scared & need his help figuring how on earth to do it. He's really good, by the way.

Teaching seminary kind of makes me nauseous. Some day I'm sure that I'll be able to say how much I love it. Until then, I think it's a good idea to skip breakfast in the morning.

Happy Hour, Mormon Style.

I may post somewhat often about food, but it's sort of a package deal with living in New York (& being LDS). We don't have backyards or massive homes to congregate in. We can't congregate in large groups in people's homes because very few of us have more than 800 square feet. And, separating us from much of our peer group, we don't meet up at bars to grab a drink. So what do we do? We improvise. We eat. Together. And it's tons of fun, so don't even make fun of me.

It turns out that Big Daddy's (our favorite neighborhood diner) has a happy hour every day from 3-6pm every day. All shakes, appetizers & desserts are 1/2 half off, which means that their yummy shakes go for about $3. A few of us met up there yesterday afternoon & I've decided that it should be an almost-weekly tradition.

The sad news is that I met Mike in Soho an hour later for an early dinner at Cafe Habana. All I could fit in my stomach (after my oreo shake at Big Daddy's) was a piece of their corn. I mean, it's really, really amazing corn - topped with spicy chili, cotija cheese, & a creamy white substance that I won't mention by name because it grosses me out to think about it. It's like La Esquina's. But maybe better. And their Cuban sandwich is fantastic. I just couldn't do it. Any of you who have been there understand what a sad situation this really was.

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But Big Daddy's? It's a really great excuse to get together with friends on a Friday afternoon, even if it means maybe spoiling dinner. And obviously - an open invite to anyone who wants to come next week.

First day of seminary.

This morning I discovered that the early sky looks like an over photoshopped photo. You know, like maybe when you take a photo of the sky with your camera on landscape mode? Everything over saturated.

.

Seriously. I was walking to get bagels & orange juice at 5:50am this morning (let's say that again for extra emphasis here - FIVE. FIFTY. IN. THE. MORNING.) & it was still quite dark, but I think the sun must have just been peeking up over the skyline, because the sky was just this incredible shade of turquoise.  Seriously, it was fluorescent.  A deep, bright blue.

.

It was amazing.

.

I haven't woken up this early in weeks (um, months) & it was admittedly a tiny bit painful this morning, but as I was walking to our church building this morning I realized that I'm doing this because I believe. It's as simple as that, & I know I couldn't get out of bed otherwise.
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I have this tendency where I often try to sort of inappropriately bargain with God, trying to work out some sort of deal of demanded blessings in exchange for service. But I think that this morning, my small reward was just seeing that beautiful sky. I didn't even ask for it, but it was perfect & it was enough. 

The Mormon Missionary in China Town.

See the piece in the New York Times here.

Origami.

We have really great missionaries in our ward, & we like to feed them on occasion. 

We especially like to feed them because they make us really cool thank you cards afterwards. 

Y.

I have quite a few friends who are gay. Some are not religious, some are members of the church (LDS) here in my ward in Manhattan, one has been investigating the church for 2 years with us here in the city, and others used to be members but have chosen to no longer participate. I love all my friends, and when it comes down to it, their sexual orientation doesn't really concern me nor change my feelings towards them. I've found that through my friendships with these people that I have become accutely aware of how they are treated at church & how people talk about homosexuals (& minorities) in general, and quite frankly, I'm really sensitive about this.

I've always believed and known that the church was not opposed to homosexual people. There is nothing wrong with being gay. You can be an active member of the church in good standing and still be attracted to members of the same sex.This seems to be a huge point of confusion within members. The church simply advocates the law of chastity (meaning, abstaining from sex outside of marriage, and marriage being between a man & a woman). Interviews with church authorities like this one with Elder Oaks foster understanding and personally gave me a clearer picture about the church's position on same-gender attraction vs. homosexual behavior.

My friend Bret posted this story on his blog last night. BYU has made a change to it's Honor Code reflecting the position of the church (that attraction and behavior are not the same thing). I applaud BYU for making this move. I think it's a great step, one that shows that we are not all cut out of the same mold, and that is okay. BYU needs to do more to foster diversity and tolerance.