Who Would Have Thought?

     22 days. There are 22 more days until I am back in Rexburg. It may come as a surprise to some people but I cannot wait to go back! Due to the weird BYU-I track system I have been off school for he past three months. This has been my second long break and honestly this time around I have missed little Rexburg more than ever. Now never in my life did I ever imagine myself missing a little town in Idaho. But really ever since starting school back in the fall of 2011, Rexburg has really grown on me. Like most people I was skeptical of the place when I first got there. There isn't much there, a few grocery stores, a small movie theater, Mcdonalds, Walmart, and Applebees are the main attractions. Other than the small neighborhoods and the college it's nothing but open farmland. I have always lived near a big city, so the fact that I was going to go to Idaho for school was a big change two years ago. But over the past two years I have learned to really appreciate the small town lifestyle. 

     My family moved while I was in school about 9 months ago to Connecticut, and don't get me wrong I love it here, but it just doesn't feel like home. It has been great being back with my family and will miss them constantly being around. I just can't wait to get back, be in a routine, start classes, and be with my friends (both old and new). 

Idaho Summer's are the best!

The count down until I leave has begun! 

Pillows

     So I finally got around to making my pillows! They were pretty easy to make, however we had to do some picking and unpicking of the stitches a couple of times. But once we knew exactly how I wanted them, we whipped them up pretty quick.

     I made two of each pillow, so there are a total of four. I think they are going to look so good in my apartment. The couches are a deep brown so I figured these pillows will match perfect and bring a pop of color to the room.

New York Day Two

     So the whole point of our little trip was because I got tickets for my mom and I to go to a taping of the Katie Couric Show. We both love her and have been watching her talk show almost everyday since I have been on break. So we got up bright and early to wait outside the studio. Luckily it wasn't horribly cold but it was so windy. After waiting a while outside we were finally let inside where we waited some more in a holding room. After about three hours of waiting we were finally let inside the actual studio. The studio is super tiny so there really wasn't a bad spot to be sitting. However I really think that we had the best seats. We were third row, smack in the middle of the studio, so I would not be surprised if when the show airs we will be easily seen. The show taped for close to two hours. By the end we were definitely tired of sitting. Even so it was a great experience and we really had a lot off fun watching how the show was taped and kind of seeing the behind the scenes act. We were told the show will air March 27, so everyone tune into the Katie Couric show on ABC and try to spot my mom and I!

     After the show we didn't really know what to do so we just walked around. We went up and down Fifth Avenue doing some window shopping. Then we found yet another Pottbellys for a late lunch. We only ate out twice on our trip and both times at Pottbellys. We just couldn't resist, it's our favorite! We headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We decided to rest their for a bit instead of waiting in the train station for our train. It was nice to rest our feet again too. We were able to get to the train station pretty quick and caught our train in just enough time.

     It was so fun to have a girls trip, we wish Sarah could have been there too, but we really had so much fun!

New York Day One

     My mom and I took a mini two day vacation this week to New York City. A bright and early Amtrak got us into the city early Tuesday morning giving us all day to explore. We basically just walked around everywhere. We went through Times Square, which was surprisingly empty, but then again it was 10 in the morning. We then headed over to Rockefeller Plaza. We were able to see a little bit of Kathy Lee and Hoda taping inside the studio through the windows. As we were walking away I spotted cute little Natalie Morales walking down the street. So mom got a picture with her, she is really so sweet, she stood around for a bit and asked where we were from and just chatted a bit.

     After walking around a while we decided to go back to the hotel to rest a little. Once we were a little more rejuvenated we headed back out. We found a Pottbellys pretty close to our hotel so we went there for lunch. It of course was delicious! Our hotel was in the garment district which was fun because there were a ton of fabric stores and fun boutiques. Any fans of the show Project Runway knows the go-to fabric store on the show is Mood, which is located right in the garment district! 

     We went up to the story and it was so overwhelming. It is two stories of wall to wall fabrics. You could literally spend a whole day there and wouldn't even see everything. I wanted to find some fun fabric to make pillows for the couches in my apartment and mom was looking for fabrics to make curtains for different rooms in the house. After a good hour in a half and numerous swatches later I found two great fabrics that I loved! It  will be fun to make those to spruce up the apartment. Hopefully I can make them within the next week and I will post some pictures then. We went to a bunch of other fabric stores to just see what we could find.

     We went back to the hotel to put our bags down so we didn't have to lug them around the city but we did not really know what to do next. We figured we couldn't just sit around in the hotel so we headed back to Times Square to see if anything fun was going on.  We got handed a ticket from one of the thousand people handing out advertisements for Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I was ecstatic! I loved the wax museum in San Francisco so I figured this one would be good too. So yes, we decided to do one of the most touristy thing ever. But I have no shame and it was so worth it! Me and my mom had so much fun finding our favorite people and posing with them.

     Day one was a success. We were actually really proud of ourselves for being able to get around the city for the first time with no help. Once back at the hotel we were just ready to lay down. Our feet were killing us and we had a whole day of walking again ahead of us.

It's March Already?!

     I cannot believe it is already March! Time is flying by. I have been home three months already and only have about 5 weeks left. It has been a while since I posted, but thats because not much has really been happening. I have just been hanging out and running around with my mom. It has been nice to relax these past few months but I am starting to be ready to get back to school. So here is whats happened that is worth telling you...
     I have survived yet another record breaking blizzard. My first was in Naperville back in 2011 and again this year in Connecticut. We recently got about 2 in a half feet of snow in one night. We were literally snowed in. It took about a day for the streets to finally get cleared. There was no way even in the truck that we could have gotten out.
      I finally got a job! It took a while but I am super excited. I will be substituting in an elementary school in a neighboring school district. I will be working in a program called Ready Set Go, it is a program for children that range on the Autism Spectrum. I will be assigned to one student and will follow them throughout the day and basically just assist them. So once all my paperwork and background checks are finalized I will be in the system to be called in.
     This next week my mom and I are taking a little vacation and staying in New York for two days. We have all sorts of exciting things planned, so stay tuned to see what we end up getting ourselves into!