Weekend, we will miss you...

This past President's weekend was quite spectacular for it's lazy day's and casual happenings.

Friday night we spent the evening watching the 2008 movie Fireproof, with the 1980's hearth-throb Kirk Cameron. We ordered the movie from Netflix after someone mentioned it in a church talk. It was a low budget film; however, grossed way more than many blockbuster hits of the year. It sounded intriguing so we had to see what all the "hype" was about. Knowing that Kirk Cameron is now a hardcore Jesus fan and that the movie's rating is PG, I had a pretty good idea what we were in for. However, despite the poor acting, I really enjoyed the movie's message. It was so refreshing to watch such an uplifting movie, even though it was a bit corny.

Saturday was a treat as we easily slept in until noon. We really enjoy sleeping in on weekends, knowing someday those lazy mornings will come to an end; however, NOON is really late for us. We enjoyed the day roaming the city and eating out, just like the old days when we first came to NYC. The night ended with a fun post-Valentines day party at a friends house, which included yummy treats, games and A LOT of fun. Patrick and I even won the grand prize for the "Newly-Wed Game"... "Groundhogs Day" DVD, a movie which I love!!

Sunday was filled with the usual church, visiting teaching, couch-naps, Netflix instant-play movies, America's Funniest Home Videos, homemade 4 oz chocolate chip cookies (I am totally addicted), and reading. Yes, it was a good day.

I love long weekends because the pressure of fitting everything into Saturday and Sunday fades, and I am finally able to REALLY enjoy my weekend. Monday was great with yet another morning filled with only one thing--sleeping. We spent day relaxing and roaming the cold and windy city making our way to lunch and a the movie Unknown.

Even though this weekend will most likely fade from our memory because of its "everyday" nature, I wanted to make sure it was recorded because the "everyday" days are what makes life so great. I only wish every Monday could be President's day.

Making Blogging Worth It

I started my blog in June 2007, a month after Patrick and I got married. I wanted to keep a record of my marriage and life. It also was a great way to keep friends and family updated with what we were doing. Unlike keeping a private written journal, it was so much easier to continue to document our lives because, for some reason, the fact that people were going to read it made it fun.

Blogging was/is not always fun or easy. Often times I got frustrated or annoyed and wanted to stop completely. However, I knew the reason for me keeping a blog went far beyond me just informing the world of my thoughts or what we were during the week—I wanted to keep a record for future enjoyment and posterity, so I kept at it.

A few years back I created a book of our first year of marriage by using our blog entries through the website Blurb. Blurb offers a book design program that easily downloads your blog entries and puts them into a book. Of course, it is time consuming, and a tad expensive; however, it is WELL worth it.

My goal this past month was to create books from our blog from 2007 to 2010. This past week I finished! It was time consuming. However, when I received each book in the mail and was able to thumb through the pages, it brought back so many memories and fun events in our lives together that otherwise would have been completely forgotten. When you are experiencing things in life, you swear you will never forget it. Yet, as time goes on you soon forget your thoughts, feelings, happenings, and possibly the whole event all together. It was incredible as I was putting these books together, all the memories that I documented with my blog that I would have otherwise forgotten.

Now it is fun to sit down with Patrick and flip through the pages (each book ranging from 180 pages to 240, some only being half a year). It is such a amazing thought to think that someday we will be able to sit down with our kids and grand kids and share our lives and all that we have experienced and learned with them because we kept record of it through blogging.

V-day Photobooth Crawl

I have always loved photobooths. Back in college, my friend Meghan and I, would go to the K-mart in Orem, Ut, on a weekly basis to take pictures together for a $1. We even took a few to Kinkos to blow up HUMONGOUS to put on our wall.

I made this book for Meghan with all the pictures we have together.
These were just a few of the pictures we took.
On the right page there is actually a strip that has Pat in it from when we were 19.

Also, Pat and I have a few of these photos as well, from when we were dating. We have one framed in our apartment from the first month or our relationship.


With my love for photobooths already in full swing, last week I read on a photo website, that a great way to spend Valentines day is by participating in a "Photobooth Crawl" in your city. Since I already knew what a "crawl" was, and that they are way fun to do with Hot Chocolate, I knew it had to be fun with photobooths as well. I had to do it.

Preparation for Photobooth Crawl:

1. Locating Photobooths-
In the past I have used the website: photobooths.net to locate photobooth in the area where I currently resided. It is an excellent resource and a great place to start (but seems to have some security problems, enter at your own risk). However, that is not the end all because often the places have closed down or the photobooths are out of order.

2. Sorting by Location-
There were a good number of photobooths in Manhattan. However, if this was going to be a "crawl," and we were going to have to walk from photobooth to photobooth, then they had to be close to each other. I found the addresses to each photobooth and sorted by Manhattan neighborhoods.

3. Picking a location-
After I sorted out the photobooths by Manhattan neighborhoods I found that the largest cluster of photobooths were located in the East Village.

4. Mapping-
I printed out a Google Map and plotted the photobooth locations.


5. Calling to Confirm-
As I said before often times the information on this site is incorrect. In order for us not to waste or time on our crawl I called each of the locations to confirm that they in deed have photobooths. Amazingly only one place was closed down. This left 5 different photobooths in the East Village!

6. Planning our Route-
By looking at the locations of the photobooths and subway stops I planned our "Photobooth Crawl" route accordingly.

7. Get those Bills-
The average cost of each photo strip is $4, so plan according and go to the bank and make sure you have enough cash.

The Night:
I invited our friends, the Mathney's, to dinner and to the Photobooth extravaganza. I was planning on surprising Patrick about the whole "Photobooth Crawl" after we ate dinner, not simply for the excitement of being surprised, but because I didn't think Pat would really want to go. However, Pat and I ended up spending the whole day together so I didn't have the chance to slip out by myself to get one dollar bills for the evening, so I had to spoil the "surprise."

We met the Matheny's for dinner at "The Smith," a nice restaurant and conveniently our first stop on our crawl. I really liked the restaurant. It had good food, good ambiance, it was to caliber for a Valentines date dinner, and most importantly it had a Photobooth!

After enjoying our delicious meals of muscles, steak and slow roasted pork we headed down stairs to where the photobooth was located. Photobooths NEVER get old. I love everything about them: Trying to figure our funny faces, being close to the one you love, the laughter that inevitable comes, an excuse to kiss, waiting for your photos, the moment your photos drop out, looking at your photos, and cracking up over what the camera caught.

The night was absolutely perfect. We walked from photobooth to photobooth having more fun with each stop. It was so fun to see all the different print styles of each photobooth. Each have their own unique characteristics.

The Smith


Otto's Shrunken Head


Lakeside Lounge
Vazac's Horseshoe

This definitely was a Valentines Day date for the books.

If you live or are visiting Manhattan and want to have a Photobooth Crawl of your own,
here are their locations!

Midtown West
Manhattan Mall, New York (100 West 33rd Street -btw 6th and 7th)
The Door Lounge, New YOrk (508 9th Ave- btw 38-39) (no # to call)

Chelsea Area
Trailer Park, New York (271 W 23rd Street, btw 23-24) (212) 463-8000 *temp out of order*
Daffy's Herald Square, New York (1311 Broadway-btw 33rd-34th) (212)736-4477

Lower West Side
The Living Room, New York (154 Ludlow Street-btw Rivington&Stanton) (212)673-5179
Bubby's Pie Company, New York (120 Hudson Street - btw Moore and Franklin) (212)219-0666
Ace Hotel, New York (20 West 29th Street-btw Broadway and 5th Ave) (212) 679-2222

East Village
The Smith, New York (55 3rd Ave, btw 11th-10th) (212) 420-9800
Otto's Shrunken Head, New York (538 East 14th St- btw 14th-13th)(212)228-2240
Lakeside Lounge, New York (162 Ave B -btw 10th and 11th)(212) 529-8463
Vazac's Horseshoe, New York (108 Ave B-btw 6th and 7th) (212)677-6742
Niagra, New York (112 Ave A-Corner of 7th Street)(212)420-9517 (same as Vazac's Horseshoe photobooth)

Mustache Party

When I was a teenager I used to hate stuff that everyone else liked and love stuff that everyone else didn't know about...I guess that made me feel unique and thereby "cool." However, as I have matured (haha) I realized that sometimes trends are fun and it's way more enjoyable to just jump on the bandwagon.

Mustaches have been a popular trend amongst hipsters for a few years now. Recently I thought it would be fun to throw a "Mustache Party." What is a mustache party, you might ask? Good question! I had no idea. I have seen them done in the past on blogs where people draw them on their face and drink a lot of alcohol. However, with this thought implanted in my head I had to come up with a non-alcoholic and marker-free event.

When all the planning was finished I had created my first ever "Mustache Party" extravaganza.

The night included:
-Stick on Mustaches
-A "Name that 'Stache" game where the party attenders competed against one another to guess which mustache belonged to a famous person (click on links to download: mustaches, answers, and answer sheet)
-Pin the mustache on Burt Reynolds
-The Burt Reynolds film "Smokey and the Bandit"
-Mustache Treats
-A "Take Your 'Stache Photos Here" station.

The night was hilarious seeing everyone in mustaches. Having a normal conversation was a bit challenging as it was hard to take anyone serious with a very fake mustache stuck to their upper lip. Some husbands (no names mentioned...Adam) refused to even look at their wives because they were too grossed out.

There were so many great pictures from the night; however, here are just a few.

This guy right here, Stanton, created the most amazing website called Photoboother. The website allows you to transform your boring pictures into spot-on retro photobooth pictures, totally free! How perfect for the 'Stache Photo Station!

Sadly enough, Pat was not able to attend my Mustache Extravaganza because he had to work (we missed you Pat!). However, we still managed to have so much fun wearing our awesome 'staches, playing games, eating 'stache treats, taking pictures, and embracing the hipster in all of us.