The price of eggs

We are talking about the actual price of eggs here...
These are the most expensive chicken eggs I have ever seen! I have lived in this city for a while now and feel quite jaded so far as the cost of, well just about anything here...but this caught me by surprise - $5.49 for a dozen eggs - wow.

Another Little Shop

Located a new source for yarn. Although the name signifies knitting, Cory and I were able to obtain crochet hooks for our upcoming projects.

I continue to be amazed at the multitude of tiny shops that are able to survive in this city, it seems to me that even with the vast population of New Yorker's + Tourists that there simply would not be enough people interested in whatever the shop happens to be selling to keep it in business. But they seem to thrive...so I will continue to enjoy them!

My Mother

Today is Mom's birthday! As I have been thinking about her a lot today I just wanted to share a couple stories…

My Mother is the greatest teacher I have ever had. As a young child she taught me to read, write, draw and count…I remember being about four years old, I would have "school" and "chores" while the big-kids were at school. Now, coming from the large family that I do, I know that there had to be other kids around, but I mostly just remember Mom and me. I would sit at my little yellow desk and do my schoolwork (coloring pictures and tracing letters) and then I would help Mom out in the kitchen by doing the breakfast dishes. Mom would always ask me to wash ten dishes and then come get her (she was busy feeding the baby - possibly Denise?) Now I have never been quite certain if it was intentional or not, but as I remember it, at the time I was unable to count! I would just wash the whole sink-ful of dishes 'cause I didn't know better! My Mother is brilliant! My favorite part though was that, without fail, she would show surprise at the amount of dishes I had washed and always congratulated me on a job well done. One of the reasons that I have the best Mom ever.

Another important skill that my Mother helped me develop early was to sew straight. Now, for those of you who don't sew at all it may not be apparent why this was so important. Well, trust me, if you ever want to make clothing that looks professional, you need to be able to sew strait (and if you lack sufficient patience to use a seam ripper). I was in fifth grade and Mom was finally going to let me make some of my own clothes. I was so excited to go with her to Fabricland where we purchased the material and patterns. We chose a beautiful dark floral for some pants with suspenders (hey, it was the early '90's) and a peach-colored floral print for a dress. We started with the pants. Mom assisted me in laying the paper pattern out appropriately to get the strait of grain and carefully cutting around each pattern piece. Then I started the construction. How fun it was to be able to sew on Mom's Singer 301A sewing machine! It was so quick and the stitches so even…but alas, I misguided the fabric and the seams were not strait. Mom taught me how to pick out the stitches without harming the fabric. During that project I must have sewed the equivalent of five pairs of pants, but they turned out beautifully when I was finally done. I wore those floral pants until they were completely threadbare. And I have often benefited from that important lesson - always sew strait!

Mom also often incorporated gospel lessons into daily tasks. We, her children, must have been a constant challenge and maybe that was why she always pulled back to the fundamental truths. Many a scripture did we get to practice (we won't share why we were reciting them so often) while pulling weeds in the onion fields (or potato, or corn, etc.), character was built and truth and knowledge gained. Those were the good days.

Some other cool facts about Mom - - -
She loves Dad
She has 13 children (don't believe what you may hear, we all know I am the favorite!)
(A quick side note, our fam isn't much for photos - don't even remember the last time we were all together for a picture. Instead, here is the wall - that's all of us! And yes, I can name everyone)
She makes the best doughnuts in the world
She can listen to (and understand) two conversations at once
She can buck bales, drive a tractor, milk the cows, and make a meal…all before the sun rises (ok, she used to do all this - now some has been passed off to the kids!)
She can make anyone feel better (emotionally or physically)
She is well loved, especially by her nephews who know her kitchen is always open!
She has great compassion
She has talent for quilting - creating beautiful works of art
She is pretty much amazing : )

I am blessed with the most wonderful Mother and I am so glad she is mine.

I love you Mom, happy birthday!

Happy Halloween!

Just FYI - people take this holiday serious here in NYC! Don't ask me how I missed it last year, but wow, there were some interesting costumes. If only I had remembered my camera to document it. Oh well, here are a couple photos from last weekend. Joined some friends for the Stake Halloween party - it required an extremely lengthy subway ride to get to the party but it was quite fun!
Heidi and Lyndee

Brittany, Me, Ashley and Kimberly

Thanks to the influence of my good friend Ashley, I actually dressed up this year. I was a porcelain doll. The costume was a bit thrown together but that is the way it works when one is a million miles away from one's sewing machine! Resorted to the junior-prom-hairstyle for the evening, guess my hair is long enough again. Only I had to style it myself this time - Marica wasn't around to help out. I did my best and hoped it was ok.

Shopping Adventure

For the first time in weeks, I had a free Saturday (no scheduled events during the middle of the day)! I convinced Lyndee that we should go shopping and run some errands together. We had a fabulously fun day - spent hours (7+) wandering around Canal Street and Herald Square, also venturing momentarily into the Garment District. We were veritable bag-ladies by the time we finally shoved our way onto the 2/3 train at Penn Station to head home. It was a beautiful day in NYC and the two of us had a great time!

Two high-lights:
About halfway through the day we decided to stop for some lunch (and to rest our weary feet). There was a McDonald's down the block, but as we headed towards it we came across a small pizza shop and decided that it held more appeal.
After ordering, we realized that the tables were all occupied. Lyndee promptly walked up to a table where an older man was sitting alone and asked if he would share with us. (Quite possibly something I never would have considered doing.) He made room and we enjoyed some fun conversation. We learned that he was a construction guy (the hard hat on the table should have tipped us off…) and he is managing the building of a brand new 32 story Hilton hotel directly across the street from the pizza place. It was an interesting experience and quite enjoyable to share lunch with a stranger.

As we were right next to Macy's we went in to take a quick ride on the wooden escalators - next to the annual flower show, the best part of Macy's!

Thanks Lyndee for a wonderful day!

Pyro

Maybe it was a bad idea to build a campfire with business cards in the ashtray...

Oops!

Moonlight

Late last night, as I walked into my bedroom, I realized that there was a full moon! I love it when the moon is full and it makes everything so bright outside (so maybe NYC doesn't need that much help!) It reminds me of home and walking between the farm and our house; along the gravel road…it was always so much less frightening when the moon was full enough to see one's shadow. I think the countryside is much more appealing by moonlight.

As I lay there, I thought it was so beautiful and soothing, after a very long day's work, to look up at the sky…I never thought I needed windows, but maybe I do.

This is how it appears from the vicinity of my pillow :)