Concrete Jungle

Thank you Delta for the free flight :) My job is the best....GB and I decided to head to New York for the weekend since its spring break and we really didn't have a whole lot of options and New York is ALWAYS wide open. Despite the weather, we had a blast!

We arrived at 1030 am. We walked around Time Square, ate lunch, stood in line for Mary Poppins show tickets, got Jamba, walked around China Town and Little Italy, shopped, got me a cupcake, ate dinner at Shanghai Hut, and saw Mary Poppins.....GREAT day!!


The Shanghai Hut we ate at in Chinatown was flippen delish! We knew it had to be good when the only people eating there were locals!


The Marry Poppins set was incredible!! The show was extremely different from the movie, which bothered me a bit..but the songs and dancing totally made up for it!


PS, did you know its pretty much impossible to catch a cab after shows?! After very unsuccessful attempt at the metro, we then had numerous unsuccessful attempts at getting a cab. Try 6 at the metro, we got it right...except when we got off, there was no bus stop and we had landed in the middle of sketchville....after another terrifying 20 minutes in the freezing cold and rain, we FINALLY hailed a cab! Doesn't really sound bad at all as I type it, but trust me....it was anything but fun. Note to us, don't ever get a hotel in Queens when all you want to see is Manhattan. Its okay, Day 1 was fabulous and Day would be just as great.

Day 2 was FREEEEEEZING!...also very wet. Having been living in 80 degree weather the past month, I had completely forgotten what 50 degree weather felt like and did NOT pack accordingly :( Oh well, it was still a great day. We hit up the Met and walked around for a few hours and ate lunch at a street vendor..cheap, just the way my GB likes it ;) After the Met we walked around central park, which, by the way is awesome. I wish the weather was a tad bit nicer...but oh well. After some touring of the upper West Side, we stopped at Garrett's aunts apartment for some dinner. We ended the night early after walking around time square and checking out the Maceys Flower Walk. WOW is all I have to say, it was BEAUTIFUL! The theme was Brazil and the flowers were all real. Incredible. This time we snagged a cab before all the shows let out...we were not taking any chances tonight. Unfortunately, our driver had NO clue where he was going and got completely lost..oh yes, this is New York so you better believe he charged us. We eventually made it back...after nearly throwing up all in his car from car sickness.

The Met:I was only wearing about 5 layers

The Met had mideval armor! SO very cool


And of course I just LOVED the Egyptian Area...esp. the sweet real life ancient temple shipped in all the way from Egypt!


The Fabulous Flower Walk


Day 3, the last and final day...here is where the good stuff is..:)
We won't even go into trying to get from our hotel to Garrett's aunts to drop off our luggage. Lets just pretend we woke up and poof we were at Caesars Palace pizza eating a delicious lunch :)

After lunch, we went to...dum dum dum....The Museum of Natural History! A personal Favorite for me :)



And a poor picture of us in front of the blue whale...poor fella wasn't sure how to work our camera.

Before we began our long long trek to the airport we stopped at the Doughnut Plant...pretty pretty pretty good :)

Happy to be home now thats for sure...New York is great to visit but I don't think I would want to live there. I missed the warmth, both in weather and in human compassion. However, I did LOVE the lights and the food and all the walking. Great little weekend :)

Sunday is a Great Day for...

BLOGGING!!

Okay so here is the latest and greatest at the Bradham house. Normally I document each little trip, but ...its been too long so im gonna fork it. This is all you get, so deal.

So the past month has really flown by. We have been a few trips, taken the pup(s) to the river ...a TON, and just stayed busy with different projects and school.

So lets see, lets see...whats new..well we were called as ward missionaries in our ward. We are super glad for that calling because our good friends are missionaries with us and conversion around here is BOOMING!

Also I got a job here

Meaning I (along with GB) get free flights! Yaya bayba! Between GB's hotel hook up and my flight hook up, we are now the dream team! We are planning something super spectacular for his graduation trip ;) I really like it so far, the team is super nice and it seems like a great company to work for.

For Spring Break, we headed down to the family beach house in Holden. Sadly, there are NO pics of us...and only a few of the whole trip. Here is one of the only pictures from spring break lol...it is of course of food :) This was delish! All fresh seafood...mmmm SOOO yummy!!

And the view from the back porch...as you can see, the weather wasn't very fantastic. We still managed to have a great time regardless...as always Chaunce sure loved it!


Best news yet, (if you are on my FB you already know) We got a new pup!! Meet Charlie. He is a SHipoo and so much flippen fun. I won't lie he is a ton of work, but so worth it. He has the most adorable personality. We are loving him! He loves everyone and everything and is so very clever. Chaunce loves him too...in increments of course.

Pretty cool right?


I think that about does it for us. GB graduates in, wait for it......5 weeks!!!! HOLY?! Yes, the time has FLOWN! We are so excited to see what lies ahead and where we may be in 3 or 4 months. The world is our oyster

Brain Day

** I made this post right after V-day (obviously) but just realized it never posted...oops**

What is brain day?...you might ask. Well allow me explain. A few years ago when Garrett and I started dating, we were discussing Valentines and how we really don't understand why the heart is the symbol. I mean after all, you emotions come from your brain. Anyway, that year I "brain" attacked his apt. Ever since then it has been happy Brain day!

Ours was especially magical this year. To be honest, I am not huge into in, I mean what is most important to me is that we just spend time together. Not drop 60 bucks on a fancy dinner or blow 50 bucks on some flowers. Just spend the whole day doting on each other and being extra special sweet.

This year, I wanted to take the night part, I mean I feel like on brain day it always seems to be about the girl and what she got. Well, GB gives to me every single day, so I wanted to treat him this year.

GB canceled all his stuff for the day (class, work) and gave all that precious time to me :) It was great! I really miss him during the weed when he is either at school or glued to his computer. It gets pretty lonely. SOOO, the night before he mentioned wanting a second pup ( I know, second pup? how about a first baby?) We are workin on workin on it people. NE way, we found this awesome animal rescue barn that has a bijillion dogs (and cats) BONUS: you can hold and play with ALL of them! Unlike the lame pet stores, these people encourage you to hold all the animals and take them to their awesome fenced in play area. We had a BLIZAST! We were there about 2 and a half hours loving on all the sweet little bubbies. Alas, none of them really felt like "the one". We do have to consider Chaunce and his very picky personality. It was still fun, even though we came home empty handed. We then went to lunch, at Ruby Tuesday...mmmm my favorite salad bar! It was so great to just spend the whole day together laughing and just being us.

That night while GB was playing racquetball (I needed him gone) I set up the living room. I had been working on a movie of "us" for about a month now. I went out and got his favorite dessert Molton lava cake! Whenever we go to Chilli's I (selfishly) always beg for the chocolate chip paradise, and she ALWAYS lets me get that instead of what he wants. I also had been sneakingly working on a DVD of our "story", from the time we started dating until the time we got engaged. I set it up and placed candles all around our coffee table. I thought he could use a little extra love today. He was so surprised when he saw the set up. I was extra proud of the pom pom's I made :) I was so glad I could make him so happy and feel so loved the way he makes me feel every. single. day.



V-day was awesome! Hope yours was too!!

Its Always Darkest Before the Dawn

Oh the devil...dirty dirty devil.

This song made me smile, maybe cry...just a bit. Love it, it is my new theme song. It completely expresses everything I feel right now.

And every demon wants his pound of flesh
But I like to keep some things to myself
I like to keep my issues strong
It's always darkest before the dawn

And I've been a fool and I've been blind
I can never leave the past behind
I can see no way, I can see no way
I'm always dragging that horse around

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off, oh whoa

I am done with my graceless heart
So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart
'Cause I like to keep my issues strong
It's always darkest before the dawn

And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope
It's a shot in the dark aimed right at my throat
Cause looking for heaven, found the devil in me

ABC's

Attitude. Believe. Courage.

This is the message from the first presidency of my church this month. What a fantastic message to start my new year.

I read this message a few weeks ago and it really touched me...of course, like most things, I forgot all about it. Hence my previous disgusting post. yea...ooops. Oh well it was honest and honesty is....refreshing? right?

Hey I am human and no one is perfect and I needed to vent. Anyway, all is well, I have changed my attitude, decided to believe in myself, and gained a little courage.

We had our home teachers over tonight which I loved. I love having home teachers, I love that the message they share always seems to be just what I need, I love that they bring the spirit, and I love that they leave the spirit with us when they go.

Its awesome.

Tonight they shared the First Presidency message again, I needed to hear it again. I needed that reminder. Its beautiful and simple and just everything I need right now.

GB and I were talking today about how blessed we are. We talked about how sometimes we have rough days and complain about things, but really, we shouldn't because despite all the hard, we are so very blessed. And really, the hard is not as bad as it could be.

Life is good. I have been trying really hard to just let my worry and frustration go and just leave it to the lord. Because really, most of the things that I really worry about are completely out of my control. And the few things that are, I am doing my very best to change them, and I have faith that once I have done all I can do, the lord will take care of the rest.

Live an abundant life. That is the moral of the message. An abundant life, I have. I have a phenomenal husband who works his tush off to provide for me and our future little family. I have the gospel and the lord on my side. I have a happy home and tasty food and a warm bed. I have a sweet snugly pup who loves me unconditionally. I have been blessed with talents and gifts to enrich my life and help bless others. Not to mention all the wonderful family I have. I mean look at this really I could go on and on.

Despite my bad days, I have Joy, pure joy. Without the bad days, I don't think I could really appreciate the good ones as much as I do. Cause when my days are good, they are really good.

I encourage everyone to go here and read this. I promise you won't regret it. And maybe, just maybe, it might inspire you too.

http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/01/living-the-abundant-life?lang=eng