2013 – Page 4 – Silver Linings

Halloween 2013

I don’t know what’s wrong with me, maybe I’m just growing up or maybe it’s because we aren’t close to family? But I wasn’t as excited for Halloween this year. Usually it’s one of my favorite holidays. I love baking Halloween sugar cookies and pumpkin bread, but I just wasn’t in the mood. It’s also a lot of work, so maybe that’s it. I’m just lazier than I used to be. I need to kick it in gear before Christmas though because holidays aren’t as much fun when you’re lazy and lame. Ha!

That being said, we still had a good Halloween. I just didn’t feel like dressing up much or carving a pumpkin. But I enjoyed watching Eva get dressed up and seeing T.J. carve that great pumpkin of his!

We also didn’t throw a Halloween party like in the past three years. Most of my friends’ husbands work in the city until late everyday and so trying to find a time to host a party at our place just didn’t seem worth it. But we went to our ward Halloween party last Saturday, and I must say… I was VERY impressed. Since last year I helped to put our Ward party together, I know how much stress and hard work goes into planning a ward party. But tons of people helped out, there were activities for the primary and nursery half of the time so us adults got to have a little break from our children (that was an awesome idea), and it was a HUGE turnout. Way to go Jersey City!

Other highlights from this Halloween… I took Eva to the mall yesterday for trick-or-treating. I wasn’t sure if we’d be the only ones there or what the situation would be. But the later it got, the CRAZIER and more packed the mall was! It was really fun actually, but I’m glad we got there early before they ran out of candy. There were so many kids and families in adorable costumes, it was really fun to people watch.

We also saw a fight in the mall between a woman and a man who might have been drunk and looked pretttttty sketchy. I was genuinely concerned about my safety… in the world we live in… who knew what could have happened and seeing that fight got me really nervous one of them would pull out a gun! But the fight dissolved and then the woman ran after the guy through the mall screaming in slurred words, “I need POLICE! POLICE! POLICE!” It was crazy!

I tried to teach Eva how to say, “Trick-or-treat!” But she only said the OR TREAT part. I know it’s because it was hard to say, but I thought it was pretty funny and fitting. She’s asked me for a treat over and over since we got back from the mall.

Last night, I was going to take Eva trick-or-treating through our building but there were so many kids that it was a little overwhelming for Eva who did not nap yesterday (the mall trick-or-treating was during nap time and I couldn’t turn it down!). But we had chili together as a family and then danced to the Halloween pandora station.

As soon as I put Eva to bed and while T.J. was napping, I took down all of the Halloween decorations, even the pumpkin nightlight. I kind of felt like the Halloween Grinch when taking the nightlight out of the plug and putting everything away while everyone was sleeping in our home. But I couldn’t look at those Halloween decorations any longer that had cluttered my kitchen table and counter space all month long! Wow… I really am turning into the grinch!

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

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November 1, 2013/1 Comment/by Katie

Holidays

Bilbo Baggins Jack-O-Lantern

My husband, T.J. Derrick, did a carving of Bilbo Baggins from Lord of the Rings for his jack-o-lantern this year. He started at 8 p.m. and finished at 3 a.m. He used pottery carving tools and an x-acto knife.

Great job, T! It turned out fantastic!

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Check out the pirate pumpkin he did in 2012.

October 31, 2013/2 Comments/by Katie

Life as Katie Lee

Shopping is like eating sugar…

…the more you shop, the more you want to keep shopping. That’s what I’ve learned recently.

Guys. We are only on day 3 of my goal to not spend any money and it is getting REALLY hard. We have enough food at home, it’s not like I’m starving or anything. I had a small grocery trip last Thursday, so my produce is still fresh. But the good stuff… the crackers, the fruit snacks, the granola bars… they’re all gone. Even the Halloween candy from the party on Saturday is gone. Let’s not kid ourselves, that was gone by Saturday night. It didn’t even have a chance.

But besides the food. Do you know how difficult it is to not spend money for three days straight? Out here, our daily activity usually includes going on a walk, to the park, Target, or to the mall. Our options are very limited without a car, the colder weather, and Eva’s unwillingness to sit in the stroller. It’s not like we go to the mall or to Target specifically to spend money. We go to get out of the tiny apartment and to let the toddler run around. But spending money happens 99% of the time. It may not be much, but even an Auntie Anne’s pretzel, a little piece of jewelry, or a shirt from the clearance rack adds up!

So, that’s why I decided to challenge myself. We had a litttttttle too much fun in Boston, Eva’s birthday and Christmas is coming up, we’ve got plane tickets to buy soon, and debts to pay off. All in all. I need to learn how to save. Specifically, I need to learn how to control my need to impulse buy!

Five days. That’s it. May not seem like much. But I’m going to do it. And I might try to do it again, or at least set up another financial goal to save more money. Only time will tell.

October 30, 2013/4 Comments/by Katie

Jersey City, Life as Katie Lee

Goals for the Week

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I’ve been quite a Debby-Downer since I came back from Kentucky. It mostly stems around the fact that Eva doesn’t like to sit in her stroller anymore, making life so much harder. That leads to me being in a bad mood and then complaining about everything in my life. But the fact is, life actually is good. We are healthy, my husband has a good job, we are living in an exciting area (a place I prayed we’d get to move to), our apartment could be a lot crappier, our ward is friendly, and I’ve got a good friend to do things with now.

So, last night I decided to make some goals, like I did back in the early summer when I was having a hard time. Making and accomplishing goals always cheers me up as I have something to work towards everyday.

Kneel in prayer every morning and night. I’ve been getting lazier recently.
STUDY my scriptures everyday-not just browse through a chapter.
Hold FHE on Monday where we listen to a conference talk.
Don’t spend money (NO EXCEPTIONS!) for 5 days! More on this later… and don’t worry, Mom, we have plenty of fresh fruits and veggies to make this work.
Open my Etsy shop by Friday! I haven’t talked about this at all on here (which is surprising), but something exciting is coming to Silver Linings! It might be a collaboration with my friend Rachel if we can figure it out… she lives in CA though, so it’s difficult.

There you have it! It’s going to be a good week!

October 28, 2013/3 Comments/by Katie

Travel

B is for Boston (Part 2)

On our second day in Boston, we started the day off at the science museum but didn’t stay long because it was overrun with elementary school kids running wild. We got those tickets for free too, so we didn’t feel that bad leaving. Plus, it gave us more time to explore Harvard. We saw tons of sailors and rowers that day, which was so cool. Harvard was such a beautiful campus too, but much busier than Yale with all the Boston foot-traffic.

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We ate lunch at a local burger place and it made me so sick! So, while Eva napped in the car with Ryan’s wife, I was having a rough couple of hours. But fortunately, I got over it fast and felt better by the time the boys were done touring Fenway.

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We ended the night back at Quincy Market where we got some seafood. I don’t know why it took me so long to find out I love crab… but finally, I’ve come to my senses and devoured lots of crab legs that night.

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We had such a great trip and so much fun visiting with our old pals! Until next time, Boston!

October 23, 2013/0 Comments/by Katie

Thoughts

Weekly Thought List: Timeline

For my thought list this week, I’m doing something a little different. I went through old thought lists and picked out funny/favorite/interesting ones:

8/6/13 Eva learned the word “mine” this week. So, that’s fun.
6/10/13 The building that we live in is about 90% occupied with Indian families. Everyone is very friendly and nice, we love it. But our hallways smell like curry 100% of the time.
5/16/13 I scolded Eva the other day saying, “No,” very firmly while waving my pointer finger at her. What did she do? I thought it might make her cry. But no. She did the EXACT same thing right back at me. The finger and everything. SHE IS ONLY ONE AND A HALF! What is it going to be like when she’s five? At least at that age she’ll be able to understand more clearly.
2/1/13 It’s Groundhog Day this weekend! “Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.” You’re telling me, Phil!
1/23/13 The more Downton Abbey I watch, the more I catch myself talking in a British accent.
1/10/13 Monday night, I had friends over to watch The Bachelor premiere. Uhm, hello. It was awful… I mean, awesome. I hate that show so much sometimes, but I also just love it. The awkwardness of Sean meeting all the girls made me cringe so much that I had to cover my eyes! It will be a fun season. See all you girls at my house next week, same time!
11/19/12 A year ago, I was 38 weeks pregnant! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone.
9/12/12 I’ve been thinking about our future a lot recently since T.J. graduates next Spring. I am getting so excited for a new adventure! It’s so fun to think we really could go anywhere! I’m really pushing for New York, Chicago, or Cincinnati. I don’t want to live in those cities permanently (I hope to actually come back to Utah if things work out). But I’d love to get away for a couple of years while we still can with a small, young family.
5/25/12 I just caught myself singing along to the Disney Junior TV show, Chuggington. “Chugginton chuggingchugginchugginchugginchugginton…”
3/17/12 “Goodness knows they’re squinters.” T.J. said this quote today and it made me realize it’s time to rewatch Arrested Development again for the… thousandth time?
3/7/12 I haven’t been to the movies for three months. Depressing.
1/24/12 I’m listening to Mistletoe by Justin Bieber. I don’t care that Christmas is over. I love the song.
1/3/12 I can’t tell you how many boxes of gingerbread men cookies that I went through in the past five days because my mom would freak out if she knew. But I’m now having a withdrawal because we are all out! Oh, Smith’s please tell me you still have some boxes left!!!
11/7/11 I ate a spinach salad for dinner. Maybe that doesn’t seem like anything to share, but I kind of feel like I should get a round of applause for it… Yes… Thank you!
9/12/11 I forgot that my belly is still growing. I was kind of under an impression that when it got big a couple weeks ago, it would stay at that level of hugeness. But no, it still has forever to go and that makes me absolutely miserable thinking about. Get this baby out of me!!! I feel like a whale!
7/26/11 My mom left me a voicemail yesterday. The good kind. About how she was proud of me, not to tell me to take something off of my blog. Made me cry and I made T.J. listen to it. Loved it.
7/19/11 HarryPotterwasawesome.HarryPotterwasawesome.HarryPotterwasawesome.
7/30/10 A beautiful bouquet of flowers showed up in my office this morning. My eyes got wide and a huge smile came across my face, only to find out that they were for my boss.

I can’t believe I’ve had this blog for more than three years now! It’s been so much fun writing and looking back at old posts.

October 22, 2013/1 Comment/by Katie

Travel

B is for Boston

After a great couple of days in Boston, we are back. I’m freezing in our little apartment this morning because I’m too cheap to turn on the heater. But I kind of like the cold when I wake up. It makes Fall feel more real. I’m still in disbelief that Summer is over and that the holidays are right around the corner. Where did time go?

If I wasn’t aware that it was Fall before, I sure am now after driving four hours through beautiful color-changing leaves. The drive to Boston was unbelievable. The entire time I just kept saying, “Wow… look at that tree!” TJ probably got sick of it, but it was gorgeous and I couldn’t get over it.

Anyway, enough of that. I want to tell you about our trip! TJ’s old roommate/high school bestie served his mission in Boston a while back and so he and his wife planned the trip to see the area again. Since we hadn’t seen them for a while, I had never been to Boston, and TJ and I really needed some time together (we haven’t had a real date since we moved here… five months guys!), we decided we really wanted to make a vacation out of it.

On our way up there, we stopped at Yale. We felt like fish out of water there, since we are in our mid twenties and carting our child around through the prestigious school. Can we just talk about Yale and their corridors? They have these crazy arches and doors to get into buildings, locked up with iron gates and beautiful type overhead. TJ was in architectural heaven. He couldn’t stop talking about the buildings and I couldn’t stop talking about the changing leaves. Yale was quite a site and totally worth the stop.

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We all stayed at this resort right on the ocean in Nantasket. It was BEAUTIFUL. To get there, you have to drive through tons of little towns filled with old homes, big trees, and windy roads. And to have the ocean right there? Amazing. I literally cried on our way home because I fell in love with the area and want to move there right now.

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On Thursday, we headed into the city and just explored. We went to Quincy Market and to about half of the places on the Freedom Trail. We then met up with Ryan and KacyAnn at the aquarium. We scored free tickets since Ryan had an old library membership there, so that was awesome. Eva, as usual, just ran around yelling, “More more more!” We were disappointed there weren’t big sharks but the penguins and sea lions made up for it!

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We wrapped up the night by eating dinner in Little Italy and then walking back through the city to see Boston Common, which is where a homeless man yelled at me (when he saw Eva on her leash) saying he’d put me on a leash. At first we were pretty put off, plus embarrassed since tons of people were around to hear it. But we got over it and now will remember our first time being heckled for putting Eva on a harness. You gotta do what you gotta do, am I right?

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