Branching Out

Recently someone asked us about good local restaurants near us in Pleasant Grove. I was kind of embarrassed when I didn't have a response. When we get something for dinner, we typically just stick with pizza. If we actually go to a restaurant, we have our "usuals" and don't ever really branch out. These places are typically chains that you can find in many cities. Yes, Cafe Rio and Red Robin are both on the list.

As I've been thinking about why we don't branch out a couple of things have come to mind. First of all, I don't like to spend money on food I can't guarantee that I will like. Secondly, when we have branched out (which is extremely rare), I usually find myself disappointed and mad at myself for choosing that place.

Lately I have been into "Cupcake Wars." One of the winners of "Cupcake Wars" is from Pleasant Grove and has a store within 5 minutes of our house. We were recently at a party and someone there heard we were from Pleasant Grove. Their first question was, having you been to Cravings? They couldn't say enough about how amazing this place was.

After that, I looked into "Cravings" some more and I found out that there are twin sisters who went on cupcake wars together. One owns the cupcake place, and one owns a bistro. Usually when it's date night and my turn to decide, we get pizza or cafe rio and watch our favorite T.V. show which to be honest is getting old. This week date night was different. I think Andrew was pleasantly surprised when I told him I wanted to eat dinner at Cravings Bistro and then top it off with a cupcake at Cravings Alisha's Cupcakes.

I tried to document the occasion with pictures, but daylight savings kind of ruined that idea. It was black outside when we ate dinner. I tried to take pictures inside of each of the places, but they were crowded and even with a flash the quality was poor. I didn't even attempt a picture of us. I have had a miserable cold and you can still tell I've blown my nose too much when you look at my face. The pictures were a bust. You'll have to go for yourself to see.

One thing I noticed when looking up the Cravings Bistro menu online is that the menu said that if you order a grilled cheese, expect at least 15 minutes for it to cook. At the actual restaurant, we counted 3 signs talking about how long it would take and that this isn't a fast food place. I read some reviews online, and that was the one negative comment I consistently noticed.

I decided to order the Thanksgiving grilled cheese. It had green beans in it, potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and probably more. It was delicious. It even had a cranberry dipping sauce, but who likes that? I felt a little stupid because when I ordered the Thanksgiving Dinner, I was expecting a Thanksgiving meal with mashed potatoes and gravy. I was shocked to see it was a sandwich. Andrew ordered the Philly Cheesesteak grilled cheese and before our food came I made him promise to give me a taste before devouring his.

We shared fries between the two of us and I actually liked the fry sauce which is rare. Usually I can only taste the mayo in fry sauce which makes me want to gag. We were both happy with our meals and jumped in the car to head to get our cupcakes. I had looked at the menu beforehand and was looking forward to a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake, but there wasn't one.

The Better Than....(This is really what it's called) Cupcake was out of this world though and left me very satisfied. Andrew got a banana cheesecake cupcake (which of course I tried) and it was a big hit. We noticed 15 people at the cupcake place who were also with us at the Bistro. It seems like my "creative" date idea is common.

For our date "activity" I told Andrew I wanted to hang curtains. So practical and I blame pregnancy and nesting. I am sick of just having sheers in our living room though especially when it is so dark at night. I feel like our neighbors can see everything we are doing. The curtains look quite nice. Pictures to come.

I will branch out more now when it comes to restaurants. In fact, we both want to go back to Cravings which is an excellent sign. I will use my resources (internet reviews) before suggesting a new place, but I already have 2 more local places on my "want to try" list.

We're Going to Be Parents!

August 1st. That is how long we have known that I was pregnant! That feels like forever ago. I wish we had documented the day we found out with a picture, but that was the last thing on our mind. In fact, I wasn't even going to take a pregnancy test because I didn't want to be disappointed again.

My period was a few days late starting, but it had been 4 days late the month before and I got a negative test so I was trying not to get my hopes up. I actually had Andrew go buy the pregnancy test at like 9:30pm which is pretty close to my bedtime. He came back with a two pack. Little did we know, we wouldn't need that extra test.

I took the test and was floored when I saw a plus sign. I immediately screamed to Andrew who didn't really believe me. Taking pregnancy tests has been a monthly thing for us for about a year now. In fact, I finally had to tell myself to stop buying them and wasting money on the "find out early" tests because they kept coming back negative. The first couple of months, I took like 3 tests a month because I thought for sure I would be pregnant. My Mom never had any problems and I figured I would be the same way.

It took us awhile to get over the initial shock of the positive pregnancy test, but we were SO excited. Of course before I even knew I was pregnant, I calculated out when the due date would be in case I got pregnant that month. April- Perfect! 

At my first appointment, the doctor told me that my due date was April 7th which is the end of Spring Break for me. At my second appointment, the doctor moved my due date up to April 3rd. This date has me a little nervous. I'm really hoping that we don't have our son on April Fool's Day. Either way, it seems like we planned the pregnancy really well with spring break and less than 2 months left of school.

Although it seems like we planned it perfectly, we are just really blessed. I will get 6 weeks off of school after having the baby, so if I have to go back to school at all this year, it will only be for the last week which is a huge blessing. We found out this week that we are having a baby boy and we are thrilled. 

I am a little picky with names and I think I can blame teaching for that. When you teach 30 students a year, some names are not an option. Luckily we have some time to figure that out. 

I saw a Doctor in June of this year to try to figure out why I wasn't getting pregnant. They took my blood and did some tests. It turns out that I am Vitamin D deficient. (I blame Rexburg) Who knew that this deficiency could keep you from getting pregnant? I had no idea and I had even been taking prenatal vitamins for quite awhile which have Vitamin D in them. The doctor suggested taking 500mg of Vitamin D a day. At first I was a little skeptical. It really couldn't be that easy of a fix? 2 months on Vitamin D did the trick. We feel so blessed. It obviously could have been something much more serious.

I sometimes feel bad even saying that I had "infertility" issues because ours were pretty short term. I know that some people struggle for years and years and I can't imagine how hard that must be for them. Honestly, I don't know why we had to go through this and why we couldn't just get pregnant the first month we tried. I also know this happened for a reason. Maybe it was to teach me to be more sensitive to others and know how to relate a little bit with those who struggle with this problem long term.

This December marks 4 years of marriage for us. That is a long time for a Mormon couple to wait to have children and some people have been loud with their feelings and opinions about our lack of children. None of these people were intentionally trying to be mean, but sometimes I think it's important to remember that you don't always know what someone is going through.

We have had home/visiting teachers ask us, "Before I start the lesson this month, I just wanted to ask if you guys even want to have kids? I know you have been married for a long time and I wasn't sure. The lesson is all about families and so I didn't know if I should share it." This broke my heart. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love kids. I started babysitting when I was 9 years old. My profession also involves 30 children for 8 hours a day.

In a group setting at a church activity, I was asked in front of 10 other people, "So now that you bought a house, does that actually mean that you'll start trying to have kids?" This comment really got to me and made me feel extremely awkward. At this point, we had been trying for 9 months and it's hard to know how to respond.

I have also had others tell me, "Jenna, I don't know what your plans are, but now would be a good time for a teacher to get pregnant because then you could have your baby in the summer." I would have loved to have responded with, "yeah, we have been trying for quite a while now. The summer would be a great time." Instead, I awkwardly nodded and changed the subject.

Now, I do need to add that we have not been trying to have children the entire time we have been married. In fact, we waited quite a while which was up to us and what we felt good about. 

The point of this post was not to be grumpy. In fact, we are as happy as ever with a baby on the way. We feel like we're living in a dream and it still feels very surreal. I'm sure that in April when I'm waking up to cries several times a night, it will finally hit. I also bet that in April I will be as happy as ever, if not happier because my dream of becoming a Mom will come true. Also, watching Andrew be a Dad will about melt my heart. He is so good with kids and I've seen him play with complete strangers babies and I just know I married a man who will be the best Dad possible. Can we fast-forward time to April now please? I want to snuggle our little guy. In fact, we sometimes joke that we will argue over who gets to hold the baby because we'll both be so in love with him. We are open to name suggestions....

Parent Teacher Conferences

October is always a stressful time for me and probably all teachers. I don't think college adequately prepared me for what parent teacher conferences are really like.

Here is my checklist for how to prepare for parent teacher conferences: (You're welcome new teachers.)

• Get PLENTY of sleep beforehand. Being at the school from 7:00am-8:00pm TWO days in a row really takes it out of you.
• Bring deodorant/a brush/makeup to reapply/possibly a toothbrush. After trying to maintain the attention of 30 distracted students all day you'll need it. No parent wants to see what you ate stuck in your teeth either.
• Pre-plan your professional outfit, so the morning of you don't have to change several times.

Here is my checklist for things that have worked well to do for/during conferences:

• Provide candy for the parents and students. I like to start on a very happy note and very few people have passed up my candy offer. (I buy the good stuff... aka Reeses)
• Always start the conference with something you love about the student. This shows the parents how much you really care and know their child.
• Have water nearby. Talking all day and into the night takes its toll.
• Have things to do between conferences or when someone doesn't show up for their appointment. In a perfect world, there wouldn't be huge gaps in your schedule and nobody would take the last appointment you have available BOTH nights, but it happens.
• Keep a clipboard handy during conferences to take notes of things parents bring up, so you don't forget. By the end of 2 days of conferencing, my clipboard was full.
• I learned this tip from another teacher. When it is time for the conference to end, stand up and start walking the family to the door. This way, you can keep up with your schedule. Obviously you can't always do this, but sometimes it's really helpful. It's easy to fall behind when people come late. (Yesterday someone came 2 hours early and took 25 minutes of my dinner break.)

Here is the list of how to recover after conferences:

• Tell your husband how much you have enjoyed the special treats and surprises he got you last year at parent teacher conferences. Mine was smart and surprised me again this time with ice cream, chips, and root beer.
• Don't plan on doing anything strenuous the day after conferences. I made sure that everything was planned out for today because I knew I would be too exhausted to think about lessons.
• Go to dinner. Andrew and I have been planning on going to dinner the day after conferences (today) for several weeks. This has given me something to look forward to all week. By the way, Texas Roadhouse couldn't have hit the spot more tonight. Yumm... Still recovering and hardly able to move after eating so much, but worth it.
• Give yourself a "lazy day" with your appearance. I set my alarm later this morning and wore a ponytail. After 2 days of full-on makeup and lots of hairspray and hard work on my hair, I deserved a break.
• Last but not least, enjoy the 3ish months you have off until the next Parent Teacher Conferences. (February) 

New York Part 2

Tuesday was our long tennis day. We watched tennis for over 13 and a half hours. We had tickets to the day session as well as the night session.

Tuesday was actually quite disappointing for us though. Rain was in the forecast, we found out our super expensive front row tickets were for doubles, and the matches weren't exciting. 

We tried to switch our tickets, but couldn't. The first doubles match was Mattek-Sands and Salfarova vs. Muhammad and Townsend. It wasn't even close and the team I was hoping would win got smoked. 

The next doubles match we were excited about was Makarova and Vesnina vs. Klepac and Srebotnik. Makarova and Vesnina won the gold medal in doubles at the Olympics only a few weeks prior. It wasn't a super exciting match, in fact we went and got food for a good chunk of it. (By the way, these gold medal winners ended up losing later on in the tournament.) 

The last doubles match of the day we were really looking forward to. It was the Bryan brothers vs. F. Lopez and M. Lopez. It was fun tennis to watch especially after a kind of flat day. Unfortunately, it started raining twice during the match and the players had to leave the court and wait. Luckily it didn't rain too much, but the rain definitely impacted the final outcome in my opinion. Before the last rain suspension, F. Lopez was QUITE angry. He was able to cool off during the suspension and came back playing way better and then won. I was sad. Louis Armstrong Stadium is actually being torn down and they are rebuilding it with a roof next year.

Apparently Feliciano Lopez is known for being really attractive. One hyper lady in the crowd was screaming at him after the match asking him if she could have his shirt. She did this several times with no response. She then tried screaming it in Spanish. It was hilarious. 

We were seen on T.V. by my parents, grandparents, and Andrew while in our amazing seats. I was stoked because I finally made friends with the person sitting next to me. We talked a lot. In fact, Andrew wasn't sure if he saw me on T.V. or not because I was talking to some random lady when he saw me.

Can you tell rain is coming?

Being that close to the players was so cool, even though I would have preferred to see singles. We got to hear what they said to each other in between points. Joel's Spanish came in handy and he was able to translate what the players were saying to each other for me. There was one instance where I got too excited and screamed, "out." Luckily the ball boys actually called the ball out and did it at about the same time as me because it would have been really bad if it had been in and I screamed, "out." Oops. I got a little into it.

After our day of disappointments, we knew that the night session would be amazing. Much to our dismay, it wasn't. Wozniaki played Sevastova and killed her. The Djokovic vs. Tsonga match gave us a lot of hope, but ended abruptly when Tsonga retired unexpectedly. We left that evening wanting more, yet exhausted. 

We were quite high up, but could still see just fine.

Wednesday morning we had some time to explore some of New York before the first match. We decided to go to the new world trade center. Wow, it was tall and we went up to the 102 floor. The views were incredible. I got some pictures, but I don't feel they do it justice. This building is very nice and well done. On our way back to the subway, we got pizza because we had been craving it since the last time we had it. (Also, buying food at the U.S. Open is so expensive!)

It's so tall!

This pizza didn't compare to night #1.

We got to see some intense, sickening tennis after that. We first saw Konjuh vs. Pliskova which was another blowout. They were followed by Murray vs. Nishikori. What a match! It turned into a 5 set thriller and Andy Murray LOST. I was ecstatic. Andy Murray is not my favorite because of his temper. In my opinion, he was acting like a baby. He couldn't stop swearing. He complained about a butterfly on the court. Then he complained about a moth on the court. What did he expect? This was outdoors. There was a loud sound that happened a couple of times which pushed Andy over the edge. He talked to the chair umpire at every changeover for a while. In fact, he even had a U.S. official come and talk to him. After this fit, I was so glad he didn't pull out the win. We actually ended up having to leave a little early in the 5th set because we had tickets to see "Wicked."

It was my third time seeing "Wicked," but Joel had never seen it. He seemed to really enjoy it, as did I. Glinda had an AMAZING voice when she tried. She was quite silly, a little too silly, in a lot of the play though. So glad we went. 

We had a good chunk of time on Thursday to explore New York some more before flying out. We headed to Central Park right away. Probably not our best idea. By this point in the trip, we were wiped. We tried walking around and were too tired. Central Park was pretty though. According to my phone, most days we walked at least 5 miles! I almost didn't bring shoes other than sandals which would have been a huge mistake. I ended up getting blisters from walking so much.

Central Park. It reminded me of "You've Got Mail"

We ended up heading to a pizza place. Surprise surprise. Joel and Andrew's boss used to live in New York and said this is the best pizza there--Grimaldi's. We liked it, but we liked Rosa's better. The cheese was very different. (It didn't sit well with me.)

We love that pepperoni is totally normal and acceptable in New York. It seems like here when I say that's what I want, people always think it's too plain. They know what's best in NY.

This pizza place is right under the Brooklyn Bride.

We ended the trip by going to Times Square. We did some shopping at H&M and then rushed back to make it to the airport. Of course our flight was delayed. By the way, the La Guardia airport is the grossest airport I have ever seen. I made it home at about 11:45pm on Thursday night. Teaching bright and early Friday morning was rough.

New York was great. I could NEVER live there though. I can't imagine EVER driving there. Also, strangers aren't quite as friendly as they are here.

Joel is already talking about going back to the U.S. Open again next year. I would love to go again, but who knows when that will be. Going was one of my bucket list items, so now I can die happy. 

P.S- I promise my next post won't be about New York! 

New York Part 1

I have been dreading this post only because I know it is going to take forever to compile. I have so many pictures from my trip and we were there for 5 nights, but hopefully it will be worth it. 

We left early on Saturday, September 3rd. We didn't arrive in NYC until 6:50pm. Right off the bat we had problems with public transportation and ended up tracking down a taxi.

Upon arriving at our airbnb, we were both startled. It wasn't at all what we were expecting and didn't seem to be in the best neighborhood. Our keys weren't where they were supposed to be and when we finally opened the door a strong smoke smell filled our nostrils. We walked into a hallway full of junk. The picture doesn't do it justice.

After reaching the third floor and our actual room, we were pleasantly surprised to see a queen sized bed as well as a futon. We were just expecting one bed, so we were thrilled with the sleeping arrangements. We always locked our door immediately when at the airbnb. One thing we were excited about was a shared kitchen. It was so disgusting I didn't really step foot in it after my first look. Mold, gross dishes, you name it. Also, I was worried about getting athletes foot while showering, so I put down a towel in the shower. This caused so many BUGS. By the last day, there were over 50 in the shower. SICK. This is not an exaggeration. You get what you pay for I suppose. We didn't have a horrible experience because we were rarely in our room. This was like a third of the price of a hotel.

We were starving and wanted some good NY pizza. We had done some research during our long layover and headed on a bus to Rosa's in Queens. It was absolutely AMAZING and worth sitting on a crowded bus for several stops. In fact, this was our favorite pizza that we had while in New York. Take me back!

(I wish both of those pieces were for me!)

We stopped on our way back to our place to get some breakfast and snack items at the store. Everything is so expensive in New York. I definitely don't miss that!

On Sunday, we headed to a YSA branch. It was really small and happened to be fast and testimony meeting. It was cool to hear people bear their testimonies outside of UT. We brought a change of clothes and packed a lunch to head to the Statue of Liberty right after. 

The Statue of liberty was an experience. I'm glad we did it, but the lines were long and it was hot. We bought our tickets Saturday and got to go in a faster line which helped. We also went to Ellis island which was neat. We watched a movie about what happened on the island.

View from from behind on the island.

Picture taken from the ferry.

View of the city. It looks so serene. It's not.

The Statue of Liberty excursion took longer than anticipated and wore us out. We were starving by the time we got back to Manhattan. We only packed lunch. My purse was full of our church clothes all day and my arm was actually sore from carrying so much. We headed to Shake Shack for dinner. 

While at dinner, we decided to watch some tennis on Joel, my brother's, phone. While we were watching, a lady came and started watching with us. She then mentioned that she had tickets for that night and asked if we wanted them. We said yes and headed to Arthur Ashe Stadium to watch Novak Djokovic, the number 1 men's tennis player in the world.

This is how we rigged up watching Nadal while we ate. He ended up losing by the way which devastated both of us. We never got to see him play in person.

Arriving at the U.S. Open was better than I imagined. What a sight. It was much different than I pictured. We were astounded by how much land there was devoted to tennis and how nice everything was. It was definitely a ritzy atmosphere. We found our seats (near the top of the arena) and soaked in every moment.

We got home late Sunday night utterly exhausted, but set our alarms early to head back for more tennis. On Monday we had "general admission" tickets meaning we didn't have assigned seats. We got there nice and early to get really good seats. This was one of my favorite days of tennis that we watched. 

It was so crowded!

We got to see some really great matches. First we got to see Halep vs. Navarro which was an excellent match and made me really like Halep. We then got to see Wawrinka vs. Marchenko which was a thrilling match and involved some serious racket throwing. The last match we saw Monday was Karlovic vs. Nishikori. This match was less exciting. Karlovic was not playing well at all and it wasn't very close in the first two sets. Karlovic is so tall that he really seemed to struggle moving around the court.

Some things that I learned while watching tennis... There are U.S. Open employees keeping people in their seats at all moments. They get REALLY mad if you try to get up in the middle of a game. You can only leave during change overs, so after every 3 games. They take their jobs very seriously. There were people from all over the world and English wasn't spoken by everyone. I was really hoping to make friends with the people sitting next to me, but they spoke German (I think?). Applying 4 coats of sunscreen wasn't enough to prevent a sunburn. That New York heat is really something. We also filled up our water bottles at least 4 times to keep cool. 

That is where I will end part 1 of our trip. Plenty more to come!