Hula Hoops: The Next Big Thing

A flea market takes place in Union Square about 3-4 times throughout the week. One of the booths, with 2 hippie-type sales people, was selling hula hoops a couple days ago. As customers approached their booth, they would show the sweet moves that can be acquired from owning a hula hoop. Check out the video clip - the girl was pretty good... Most people could hardly keep the thing around their waists. Makes me wonder just how much she really practices... "Hey come meet us for a drink for happy hour"... "Sorry, I can't tonight. I have to practice my hula hoop."



P.S. The reason I say it's the next big thing... two days later, in Central Park, I spotted another group of hula hoopers. They were movin' and groovin' with hula hoops and music as they advertised their assortment of size and colors of hula hoops.

Busy Ants

I've found a great place to sit and watch the city people move. I've always seen people in these windows looking onto Union Square from a shopping center in the southern edge of Union Square Park. Now, I'm not wondering how they got so lucky to be sitting in the comfy chairs while I'm standing/sitting on cement steps. When you come to NYC to see me, I'll take you there too!

Watching the people as they move made me dizzy. It never stops and the same people just don't come back. It reminded me of an ant hill. The ants swarm all over the place and you are sure you never see the same one twice.

A Little Case of Homesickness

Last year (and college years previous) I spent every weekend with my friends... staying out late, tooling around Manhattan (KS), watching TV, talking, and just generally hanging out. Now, I'm far away from all of them, and haven't actually talked to them on the phone much because of schedules and whatnot. I miss each of them terribly - especially when I see groups of friends hanging out in my neighborhood on a casual Saturday afternoon. I can't explain what they have, but I understand it. I, too, shared that with my friends states away.

It's hard... I'm not sure how you make friends. It's also such a slow process... college was so different. We were all together for the same purpose - school. We had nothing to do but hang out all the time. Friends seemed to come a lot easier. Plus, I had my friends of forever there. We'd all come together, bring new friends, and help each other make friends. Here... I'm on my own.

I spent the day hanging out alone in this huge city full of people. It made me a little homesick... which is to be expected since I moved so far away from my comfort zone and everything that I knew so well into something so big, different, and unknown.

PS: I did get reminded of Manhattan (KS) though last night. Seth and I were coming home from seeing the new Batman movie. As we came down 5th Ave, lights were flashing, ambulance, police cars, caution tape hung at the intersection in front of our apartment. A stabbing... Kind of scary thought, but as I thought about it, we did have many incidents outside of the Seth's college digs... and we do live near the bar scene as Seth lived near Aggieville in Manhattan.

Pieces of You I Miss

As most of you know, Seth and I spent the last year apart - him living in NYC and me in KS. During the time, I thought I'd be sweet and send Seth puzzle pieces with the letters I was writing to him... For each puzzle piece I would tell him something I was especially missing about him - his hugs, the sound of him laughing, making dinner together, trying a new bottle of wine, etc. I had a picture of us from our first visit to NYC together turned into a puzzle through shutterfly.com.

I kept up on sending pieces of the puzzle to him throughout the first half of the year... but with wedding planning and the stress of the State Tests, the KPA, and teaching, I kind of forgot about the puzzle. Although he didn't get all the pieces through letters throughout the year as I had planned, I gave him the rest of the pieces and we began putting it together the past few evenings.

Cancers Need Security

My horoscope said it correctly today -- I am a soul who needs security (emotional and financial according to the 'scope). My Zodiac DNA and my own personal experience shows that I do not live in comfort unless I have it. At lunch earlier with Seth, I was almost in tears because everything is extremely complicated with this move and job search. I know it will all be worth it when we get settled in and life falls into place, but I do look forward to the moves in our future (at least a couple years from now) being simpler - we can hope!

*Just so you aren't getting scared that there's trouble in paradise - the insecurity I'm talking about, feeling, almost in tears about, stressing about, etc. has nothing to do with our new marriage - love couldn't be BETTER! This is all to do with my lack of a teaching job, apartment imperfections, transitions, etc... Fitting more under the financial security than emotional -- but it does do a number on my emotions (ask Seth)...

The latest... We are in the middle of a huge urban area, New York City to be exact. This last year, I have been looking forward to having internet, having options, none of this "in the middle of Kansas, crappy internet" stuff... HA. I had it coming. Our area is in Timewarner Cable internet. Our lovely Landlord doesn't allow them to wire the building, so it's not available to us... We try for DSL, it's ordered, on the way to be hooked up this weekend, get an email... turns out... No DSL available. Now we're onto something new, more expensive, but our only option. Satellite internet. So here we come 2 year commitment of Satellite internet... PLEASE Rock our socks off!

Internet is on it's way... and I have a job fair tomorrow afternoon in Brooklyn, interview in the Bronx for a 1st Grade position on Monday morning, and another job fair in the Bronx on Monday afternoon... hopefully this Cancer finds her security.

Sumos in Carts

Thanks to Ethan and Jac, we have living room furniture... Sumos (aka very big bean bags that rock) Because of our small space, we thought a couch might be too much. Moving it up 3 floors of stairs didn't sound too appealing either. We look forward to watching Lost: Season 3 soon on our new living room seating :)

Words in the Sky

On our way home from Target on Sunday, I looked up to see planes leaving marks in the sky creating words. I'd never seen this before... so of course, I pulled out the camera to capture a first! Turns out "Heineken" was being written across the sky over and over again. (A message from the heavens?) Made Seth and I want to go get a beer on a patio and enjoy the wonderful Sunday afternoon.

Tour de Apartment Livingroom/Kitchen Area

Figured we'd post a quick video to give you an idea of what our apartment looks like. We still have moving to do, but we have a base for what the place will look like.

Vote for Bartlett Arboretum

Many of you saw the natural beauty of the Bartlett Arboretum at our wedding ceremony. You may have also noticed the tilled up dirt/mud near the pond. This was caused by major flooding - which has happened for many summers in a row. Many people are working with Robin to receive a grant to remedy the flooding issues. You can help too!

Visit this site and cast your vote daily! Hurry though, you only have until July 21st!

Go to: http://www.markhammarkofdistinction.com/
Vote by clicking on: Bartlett Arboretum, Robin Macy

For more information about the flooding at the Bartlett Arboretum, check out: http://www.savethearb.com/

Putting the Pieces Together

All the furniture pieces we got at Ikea came packed as pieces in boxes. So, last night, Seth and I began the fun of putting together the pieces. Quite enjoyable at first, as we had just received our next discs for Lost and were enjoying a few episodes on the new flatscreen 32" TV. Even when we shut off Lost and turned on Miss Macy's wonderful music to start putting together our new loft, we were still fairly excited about our task ahead of us. (www.bartlettarboretum.com if you are interested in purchasing your own copy of "Songs from the Garden")

After a few steps, we realized that our small quarters and frustrating pieces and instructions were going to make this loft-putting-together project an adventure... with a little less fun and a little more frustration than we planned. We did survive, and we now have a loft waiting for a mattress... it was over 3 hours of work and problem solving. All I have to say, We are NOT moving next year because I do NOT want to take this thing down and rebuild it again... and this thing BETTER BE WORTH IT.

It fit perfectly into the room between these walls... but that became a problem when we couldn't move it to screw the pieces together. Tight space for squeezing... Luckily Seth didn't realize this until we were too far along to change it. Ultimately, this is the way I wanted the bed to fit in the room, and he'd have been ok with it going the other way.

All the boxes... and Seth's new TV.

The completed project.

Also, thought I'd share some random pictures of the apartment and the views out our fire escape. Seth and I have already decided that this fire escape is about as good as a balcony and definitely a perk to the apartment... although I'll be sitting in the window sill - my fear of heights makes me a little leery of joining him on the metal fire escape three stories above the cement sidewalk! O and did I mention - we have a TINY (fitting) view of the NYC skyline... and I can check up on one of my favorite NYC buildings: The Chrysler Building.

View from the Balcony looking down 1st street in the "western" direction

View up 1st street to the intersection of 5th Avenue in the "Eastern" direction

Let the Moving begin

Week in Review---
Monday: New apartment Keys (but only the key to the actual apartment)
Tuesday: Apartment building keys
Wednesday: Target and Ikea shopping spree
Thursday: Cleaning the apartment and putting everything together

Our apartment is TINY! Even smaller than we both remember... it somehow seemed bigger when the chick had all her belongings in it before she moved out. We are hoping the same happens for us when we get all of our belongings in!

It has been kind of a mess (or at least more of a mess than it would have been for an apartment in Kansas). They only gave us part of our keys, so we couldn't get into our apartment. Fortunately we weren't on a deadline for moving in... There is no way to contact the landlord, but we have a Super, named Luis, who doesn't live in the building or answer phone calls (as of yet at least) or clear his voicemail box for new messages... Supposedly he does exist, according to our neighbor, Megga.

Our problems didn't end with the keys. This city is interesting in how it does internet. In Kansas, you have a choice between a few providers, at least if you are living in a city area (we of course didn't have a choice on my parent's farm)... but you usually can choose if you want cable from company A or DSL from company B... etc. Here... it depends on where you live. Seth was disappointed to find out we are in the Timewarner area. Something about slow internet or loss of connection... Turned out though, our landlord doesn't allow Timewarner in the building. On the lease it tells us to use Timewarner... but instead we had to ask around and find out that we needed to get a phone line and DSL. Let's just hope it the internet is decent.

While we were ordering internet, we went ahead and ordered television channels - something Seth and I had both decided against previously. The reasoning behind this was the new TV we got (Only because I was talked into it!)... but I'm thinking if I giving in and let the husband have his Toy, I can use it to my advantage :) Back rub here, dinner there. :)

This TV... leads to our adventure of Wednesday evening. Seth was able to borrow his company's car for a couple days. We used it to help us transport some of our buys towards our apartment, including the TV. Quick note about this car though. Although I didn't actually drive it myself, I'm in love with it! It is Scion.
Let me tell you about this car. This car may not be the best for the folks back home, but for any city drivers... THIS CAR WAS MADE FOR YOU! Seth whipped right in and out of parallel parking spots like a pro. This car has MOVES! If cars could dance, this one would be the Dancing Queen! And although we'll never get a car in the city, I'll always dream of this car and remember our few days of using it to help us move.

Anyways, enough about the Scion. We spent the evening purchasing Seth's new toy, a flat screen TV, and making me happy with a trip to Ikea. Ikea may very well be my new favorite place. I love the showrooms! One just opened last month in Redhook about 2 miles from where Seth and I live. Our Ikea purchases consisted of a loft to put our bed on. The bedroom is so small and we need to fit our full size bed and desk room for 2 in it... plus a closet or wardrobe of some sort since the closet is super mini-size. Under the loft, we'll put our new desk table - it's long and white. Seth will be under the loft bed because of his LARGE chair. It can stay out of my way under there. We also found side tables for the living room - they'll double as our eating area. Matching those tables is a TV table. At this point, Seth and I decided against a couch, once again because we realized how tiny our apartment REALLY is. Jackie and Ethan are letting us borrow their Sumos (large bean bags) for our seating area. Hopefully, when it all comes together, we'll have a nice, Little home.

Pre-Birthday Dinner

It has been somewhat of a tradition for my family to celebrate birthday's at the local Mexican restaurant in Abilene - La Fiesta. We've been doing it for years whenever a birthday comes up and we're all together. They have a great way of celebrating, not only does everyone at the table get to wear a huge, obnoxious sombrero, but the special birthday guest gets spoon fed a "birthday" dessert topped with more than enough whipped cream... while the table and other servers stand around singing "Happy Birthday." Then right at the end, the server shoves one last spoonful into the birthday guest's mouth before shoving the whole plate of dessert right into their face! At this point, they snap a Polaroid, you sign it, and you become a part of the "Wall of Fame" with all the other whipped cream faced birthday guests... This is great fun, especially when it's not your birthday. We do it everytime, and we all know what is going to happen...

Somehow, I've lucked out in the whole face-whipped cream experience... my picture has yet to make it on the wall, but of course, my family made sure I wouldn't be leaving Kansas to move to the big city without my picture hanging with the rest of the suckers on the wall. Seth was the one who had the honor of running off and telling the La Fiestians of my birthday celebration... he came back convincing me they don't do anything for birthdays any more. Of course, I'm beginning to catch on to his teases, even if he's rather convincing :) and this time he was teasing because he came all the La Fiestians with the sombreros and dessert. Some people try to hide, some dodge, some hold them back... I took it like a sport. Now I can be found on the wall of La Fiesta , my new signature shining at the bottom. I figure most people won't recognize me behind the whipped cream or my new name, so I have no true fear of being spotted!


Birthdays are the only reason our server keeps his job... he obviously enjoys it! (guy off to side)

Catchphrase. ATTN: Schultz Family

This post is a special post for the Schultz family - In reference to the multiple games of Catchphrase and the missing instruction sheet. (I knew I had it. I found it when we arrived in Kansas underneath the truck seat!)

To get your team to guess the word you can make any physical gesture (Something Jace would have loved to have known for as often as he got called on it!) and give almost any verbal clue, but you CANNOT say a word that rhymes, give the first letter, or say a part of the word... the question about "Spanish" being a part of "Spain" isn't necessarily answered, but similarily - "German" and "Germany" would not be allowed because "German" is a specific part of the word "Germany" much as the word "Shoe" is a part of "Shoe horn" from the instruction manual.

As far as points go, you get 1 point if your team wasn't buzzed on. Then your team can guess the word - if you get it correct, you get 1 point (not the 2 we'd been giving), making it possible to score up to 2 points for a round.

Anyways - I'm sure having the instruction manual won't stop the Schultz game questions anyways :) and I'll be saving up my competitive juices for the next round, whenever it is we can all get together again for our next rounds of Catchphrase (and I'll just make sure Micki brings another puzzle for when the time comes that I can't stand with the Schultz family game playing!)

Wishing all of you safe travels home and thank you for the amazing time on my first family trip as a TRUE Schultz!

River Rafting in the Poudre (Poo-der)

Bric, Jace, Bre, and Bryan were on the other raft.

Our raft was made up of Ian, Seth, Micki, Blaine, and me. Our guide was Courtney. We had a pretty good time with her. (Minus the part where she made us spin in circles. I was suffering from a bit of motion sickness from the winding roads on the way up.)

Notice anything awkward about this picture?

Nine of the Schultz clan roadtripped 80 miles to Fort Collins to go river rafting in the Pouder River. We arrived quite early, so the Schutlz family divided up into teams for a few competitive games of volleyball. It was quite humorous - the teams being uneven in size: Seth, Bric, and Jace (of course Jace got yelled at every time he made a mistake!) and the other team being Blaine, Bre, Bryan, and Ian. I think the latter team walked away the winners!

We enjoyed rapids from level 2 to 4. Luckily NO one fell out - although Seth came close (he was saved by the guide!). The water was extremely cold, but we all jumped in and floated down a short distance at the "swimming hole". We also joined in some nice water fights - I think that our boat, consisting of Seth, Micki, Blaine, Ian, and me won the water fights... but then again, this could just be my opinion!

Hiking to Emerald Lake

Notice our rocking stickers? Our lucky selves got decorated with bug stickers by Phoenix. Bug stickers to the sunglasses are just a start of the things Uncle Seth will do for his favorite nephew!

Lily pond.

Jace was employed as our personal photographer throughout the trip. He works for no pay, so it was perfect for our budget!


Honeymoon in Estes Park, Colorado has been amazing! We have been spending time with family, enjoying the mountains and scenery of Colorado, and loving the cool weather (minus humidity).

When we get back we'll post the pictures of our amazing hike to Emerald Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was 1.8 miles and a moderate hike. Along the way, we saw a beautiful lake with lily pads and another lake called Dream Lake. Seth, Jace (younger brother), and Bre (cousin) hiked to a waterfall further up in the mountains. It was quite a hike. I stayed back and hung out with my new father-in-law and Bric.