lunch with ashley

ashley was my roommate for two years at byu, and i absolutely adore her.  she is currently on a mission for our church serving in the new york, new york north area which includes all of manhattan, a bit of upstate new york and western connecticut.  right now she is assigned to the upper west side and harlem.  yesterday jonathan and i met up with sister coleman and her companion for lunch.  we enjoyed laughing about funny college memories, catching up and hearing about her experiences as a missionary.  who knew that 4 years later ash and i would be sitting at a restaurant in new york city eating lunch?  i love how small the world can be!

newport, rhode island

i woke up at 8am saturday morning to jonathan coming up our twirly stairs saying, "jamie, wake up!  it's a beautiful day, so we're going to rhode island!"  the weather report promised mid-50's, so we quickly got ready, were out the door by 9am and in rhode island by 11am.  i love how it's not unusual on the east coast to cross multiple state boundaries on the same day.  you know, i work in new york city, live in connecticut and go to rhode island on the weekend like it's no big deal.

some of my favorite things during the day were...

a "cliff walk" along the rocky shoreline with beautiful ocean views and gigantic mansions

brightly painted historic doors & homes, all of which are still lived in & were built c. 1760

trinity church built c. 1726

i must say my favorite thing of all was this lighthouse that we chased down at the end of the day.  i've never seen a prettier sunset on the east coast.  the view made me feel like we were walking across the scene of a postcard.

point judith lighthouse & sunset view across the bay in narraganasett

curtis family visits ct

last weekend jonathan's parents and sister + family came to south norwalk! although their visit was quick, we packed in the fun with a visit to yale's campus, a trip to the infamous stew leonard's grocery store, dessert at chocopologie, church and a birthday celebration.

jonathan is currently on spring break (lucky guy), so he went back with our visitors to philadelphia for a day where he spent more time with playing with the kids and following his mom + sister around philadelphia's international flower show.

thank you for the fun visit! we hope to see you again soon!

missing in action

i've been on a social media fast for the past 3 months - no facebook and no blogs (not even looking at other people's blogs) since just before Christmas.  it started off thanks to my youngest brother, 10-year-old trevor, who made a wise comment during one of our phone conversations: "facebook and blogs are a waste of time."  i found his statement quite profound, so i dismissed myself altogether from the online world of networking.

yesterday, however, jonathan reminded me that the main purpose of our blog is to stay connected with our family and friends who are spread across the world.  he also had a good point - even my sweet grandma has mentioned a few times that she checks up on us through our blog every now and again (hi grandma!!).

so here i am, balancing the wisdom of my brother and husband and giving a sliver of my attention to updating our blog.

here's what we've been up to in the past 3 months:

Christmas & New Years in Utah

Christmas Eve fort

curtis crew at the byu basketball game - go jimmer

trevor's favorite Christmas present

jonathan plowing snow on the 4-wheeler

snowshoeing in the heber valley

Brunch & The Museum of the City of New York

herbert katzman's glorious sky exhibit

Yale Winter Ball

when it comes to the day-to-day, we don't find too much empty space on our calendars.

for me i'm staying busy with...

work.  my boss moved to another brand within l'oreal at the beginning of the year.  no one has filled her position yet, so i am currently reporting directly into the assistant vice president of haircolor.  although my responsibility and time commitment has drastically increased, i still love my job.  additionally, during the month of january i was gone for a total of 12 days on three different consecutive business trips to las vegas, nv, charlotte, nc and richmond, va.  luckily i won't have to travel again until may...travelling on business is not my idea of fun.
being sick.  after my body finally had time to rest, i was sick for 2 weeks with the flu.  jonathan being the public health whizz that he is claimed that i wouldn't have been sick had i gotten the flu shot.  he got the shot and never got sick...

church.  i was recently put in the young women's presidency for our church and am working with the mia-maids (14-15 year olds).  luckily in connecticut they hold mutual on wednesday nights (when i was in young women's in the city, we held mutual on friday nights!).  i love being with the youth again, although we do miss our adorable 9-year-old primary kids.

everything else.  when i'm not occupied with work or church things, i stay busy teaching yoga, reading jane austen novels, attending craft night, running, spending any moment possible with my husband and enjoying time with friends.

my dear husband stays insanely busy with...

school.  he's taking 6 classes, although it is recommended you only take 4, 5 at the very most.  in addition to regular course work, jonathan is the communications chair for the yale school of public health.  he also just finished a huge research proposal for the downs fellowship to support him during his 2.5 month study that he will be doing in Ghana this summer.

volunteering.  on thursdays jonathan volunteers at a clinic in bridgeport (about 20 mins east of where we live) where he shadows doctors, assesses patients and helps with administrative work.

research.  aside from his research preparation for Ghana, jonathan is also doing a research project through the rudd center for food policy & obesity that studies the effects of flavored milk on school-aged children's food choices and prevalence of obesity. 

tutoring.  on tuesday and thursday nights jonathan spends 3 hours tutoring a high school student in a neighboring town called westport.
scouts.  jonathan was recently asked to be an assistant scout master in our ward.  he's very excited to work with the scouts again.

thanksgiving in philly

this year we gathered in philadelphia for thanksgiving with scott + jessica, matt + barbie and jonathan's parents.  as tradition holds, we went bowling on thanksgiving day and enjoyed a delicious feast.  while there, we also toured the franklin science institute and ate a good ol philly cheese steak - when in philly, right?

work and play

these past two weeks have been a whirlwind, and we sure packed them full of a lot of work and play.

thomas visits connecticut:
thomas is another one of our good friends from the city.  he and i became instant friends while we worked together at l'oreal, and he and jon became pals while he was our neighbor on the upper west side.  now that thomas lives on the lower east side and works at ralph lauren, and we live in connecticut, we were due for a nice, long visit filled with shopping, seeing the historic sites of mystic and eating delicious new england clam chowder.

business trip to new orleans:
this week i attended divisional meetings in new orleans where i presented upcoming redken haircolor launches and promotions to our field sales team.  the hotel was right around the corner from bourbon street, and i had no idea what that even meant before my trip.  now i know.  let's just say i was glad to be with co-workers who enjoyed eating beignets at cafe du monde.

in the heights:
on friday night jonathan tested our luck at getting lottery tickets for a broadway show called "in the heights," and we won!  front row seats for $25 dollars!!  we absolutely loved it - the setting takes place about 60 blocks north of where we lived in the city, so we were able to catch on to a lot of the cultural and neighborhood references.  the music, dancing and story is fantastic and highly recommended.

yale vs. harvard football game:
yesterday we attended "the game" in boston.  this was the 127th time the schools have played, making it the second oldest continuing rivalry in college football.  admittedly, i didn't even know ivy league schools played sports; however, i quickly learned that they do, and in fact, they even play pretty well.

after the game we spent some time walking around downtown boston (i fell in love) and ate some delicious lobster at america's oldest restaurant - the union oyster house.

employee hair day:

one of the perks of my job is called "employee hair day."  a few times a year some of the redken artists come into the office and do our hair - for free!  this time i decided to be a little more adventuresome.  i work for a hair company, so i figured why not?  if i hate it, i certainly know plenty of people who could fix it for me.  so, with the help of a consultation from the artist, i decided to go for an auburnish brunette color.  i'm still a little surprised when i look in the mirror - it's definitely darker than my natural haircolor - but it's a fun change for now.

weepies concert

last night we saw one of our very favorite bands of all time - the weepies - at the hiro ballroom in the meatpacking district of nyc.  they are a folk band that is made up of a husband and wife (i just love that).  we played a lot of their songs at our wedding, so they have a special place in our hearts.  

this was definitely one of the best shows we've ever seen.  we knew the songs and loved the music.  after the show, on our way to the subway, i couldn't stop singing, and i still have songs stuck in my head...we absolutely loved it.

greg tannen (steve's brother) opened and did one song with them.

the weepies: steve tannen and his wife deb talan.

the venue.

some of our favorite songs: gotta have you, world spins madly on, all good things, orbiting, be my thrill, please speak well of me, add my effort, antarctica...okay we pretty much love everything they do!