Where in the World is Carmen?

It's been 5 years since the start of this little blog. Although, back then, it was called Where in the World is Carmen? My family nicknamed me Carmen since I was quite the traveler. It was going to be my way of documenting my adventures while living abroad. I'm happy that I've still been able to travel and live up to my "Carmen" name. However, Sunday Best fits us better now. Since then, it has become the collecting place for thoughts, pictures, memories, and some travel stories when we get the chance. We love keeping this blog as our journal and are glad we've added a few readers along the way.

Here's to 5 years...and many more. This blog isn't going anywhere!

Grand Visions

 We started working on our garden a few months ago. The weather kept us from working on it again until this past weekend.We have grand visions this year. We took this:

 and have turned it into a large pumpkin/tomato/cucumber/pepper patch.

We are crossing our fingers for a good turnout.

  

can't forget the flowers!

#4

Last year on my 25th birthday, I made a list of 25 ambitions I want to accomplish before my life is over. (I'm pretty sure my list will continue to evolve and grow over time, but it is fun to dream and hopefully make a reality all the things I want out of life.)

On Saturday, I completed #4-Finish a triathlon. I competed in the Women of Steel Triathlon. It was a 300m swim, 12.4 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run. Just for women.

All I can say is how much fun I had! I don't think this will be the last one I do. Brandon was a great cheerleader and photographer! I couldn't have done this without his support throughout the training and race. And if you care to see pictures, here they are.

waiting to start

the swim went much better than I planned. i ended up passing 4 people!

it felt great to get that swim cap off!

grabbing my bike

and here we go!

do I look a little serious or what?

 

coming down the home stretch with a finish time of 1 hour, 23 minutes!

yay! I did it.

it felt very official with the body marking...

a huge inspiration behind this race...my friend Marcelle

the world's best husband!

And now, I can officially say I have competed in every type of race--marathon, half marathon, Ragnar, 10k, 5k, and triathlon. That makes me happy. I am so grateful I have been healthy enough to do all of them. And I'm grateful for the person I've become from making myself do hard things. It feels good.

Everyone Should Have a Picnic Basket

  When the weather will cooperate,we love taking picnics.

I especially love picnicking with a basket and good friends (like the Calders). 

It makes it that much more fun!

He's got it!

Thanks everyone for the kind thoughts and offers to help with the flood cleanup. 
We are seeing some good progress and will hopefully have things back to normal soon.

Last week, my little brother got his mission call.

We are so excited for him and so proud of him for wanting
to spend 2 years sharing the good news of the gospel!

He will be serving in the Brazil Teresina mission.

one excited future missionary

reading his call

5/21/2011 - Our End of the World

We prepared for the end of the world by setting up our tent to sleep in that night in case our house burned down or something crazy happened.  I know you are all thinking it was a hoax but at our house the prophecy came true!  On the day of the end of the world we came home to this:

Ok, so we really didn't set the tent up before in our preparation for the end of the world but either way I think it's an omen.  Either we need to figure out what we've done wrong and repent or Heavenly Father decided life was going too well for us.

But wow, what a weekend! We headed off to Utah County on Friday night so Melissa could compete in a triathlon on Saturday (She'll talk about that another day). After the race, we had a few errands to run on the way home. Needless to say, we got home a little later than we planned. We were both looking so forward to coming home and crashing. Our plan was to walk in the door, drop our stuff, and take a nap before Stake Conference.  Instead, we were welcomed home to the sound of rushing water.

My favorite though was the bubbles of water that formed in the walls.  All I could think about was popping them.  Big Red Button Syndrome took over at that point.  If your curious, this post explains what I mean.  The Big Red Button
  

We finally figured out that the upstairs tenant had decided to water the lawn (as if we hadn't enough moisture) with the hose. The hose hadn't been turned on since last year because of the winter and so he hadn't realized the the pipe (that happened to run just above our bedroom) had cracked during the winter. As I'm sure you've already guessed by now he turned it on and had been watering for about 30 minutes when we came home to a fun surprise, (by the way, it really wasn't the end of the world) an inch of standing water.

In case you want to know what happens when your house floods, see below.

Your living room gets taken over by everything.

You get to eat as much rice pudding as you want.

You get to blow dry every. single. page of your journal.

In the end, we can look back and say it could have been a lot worse and that it was a good learning experience.  It also has taught us humility and gratitude for what we do have.  This license plate we saw in Gettysburg sums up my feelings of this latest "trial"

In conclusion, the good things outweighed the bad.  Or at least out numbered. :)

The bad things:

1. Our landlady and her sons came over with a wet vac and towels.That may not seem bad until you realize that you have to empty out your entire bedroom while they are watching. Kind of awkward.
2. We missed the adult session of stake conference because they were there late in the night. 
3. Our bed was soaked and couldn't be slept on.
4. We ended up having to rip the carpet out of our bedroom. 

The good things:

1. We ordered a pizza.  We splurged and got a Garden Fresh Specialty from Papa Johns.  I'm thinking about adding the price of it to the renters insurance claim we're submitting.
2. We got to go camping for the first time of the year albeit in the backyard
3. The kitchen floor is really clean
4. We got an extra round of spring cleaning in.
5. Our Sunday nap the next day got to be in a tent as well.  How cool is that!
6. Cold leftover pizza after church.
7. I got to pop the water the bubbles on the wall.  (See video below)

All I know is I'm grateful it really wasn't the end of the world!

Post Edit: Remember the Fun we had in the Fiat? back in Switzerland? We thought we were off the hook for a ticket. Just happened to show up today. Perfect timing wouldn't you say?

Breakfast Tastes Better On the Sidewalk

Alright, I figure I should probably wrap these DC posts up so we can blog about other fun things we've had going on lately. (Although it has been rather fun reminiscing and reliving the memories.)

Our last day started off with a trip to Eastern Market for breakfast.  I was disappointed with the food (but naturally any one would be who has just experienced Bread and Chocolate), but the atmosphere was delightful. There were fresh flowers, farmer's market produce, and lots of other fun little booths.

There wasn't any room to eat inside, so we ate outside. On the cement. Perfect day for a street-side breakfast.

 

Then we headed to the Botanical Gardens. There were some very pretty flowers in bloom.

 Em and I loved having some sister time. We found these random patio rockers by an intersection. Great photo op I'd say.

There was also some manly bonding going on. We love that our husbands get along so well.


Brandon was a great navigator for us that day and during the entire trip.

 
With our last few hours, we visited the Library of Congress, the Capitol, and Air and Space Museum. It was very fun having Em and Kyle tag along.

 

And with that, we'll say good-bye to DC.

Alexandria is Charming and Full of Surprises

Our first glimpse of Alexandria was on our way to pick up the rental bikes. We walked down King Street in Old Town Alexandria and fell in love immediately. All the building and shops were so quaint. And the houses, oh, don't get me started. I could move there today!

We heard great things about a restaurant called Bread and Chocolate. We had tried to eat at one in DC on the first day, but it was closed. Luckily, there was one in Alexandria. We were nice and hungry after our bike ride, so we tried it out. I should have known with a name like that I would be in heaven. Bread and Chocolate are 2 of my favorite foods.

We ate at a table by their front window display. Bike clothes and all. I'm sure it brought them great business.

I ordered french toast with ganache and bananas and bavarian creme. Heaven!

Brandon ordered french dip.

We didn't have enough of Alexandria in one day, so we went back on our last night. We discovered Prince Street. Such a perfect little street.

 
 


We walked by the river and enjoyed the street performers at the wharf. And then, dinner at Bread and Chocolate.I ordered crepes and Brandon got an omelet. Again, amazing!



At this point, Brandon started acting really strange. I wasn't sure what was up. We seemed to be walking aimlessly around the streets (which I didn't mind, but it was very uncharacteristic of him.) Finally, we ended up at a little ice cream shop.

When I first walked in, I saw this:

We got in line to order.You are probably thinking, "why/how do you have a picture of you standing in line?" Any guesses?

 Next thing I know, I feel a little tap on my shoulder. 

And guess who it might be? The girl I saw when I first walked in. It was Emily, my sister! I loved her disguise and I loved it even more than her and Kyle drove all the way from NYC to hang out with us for the weekend. Brandon had been scheming with them the whole time and Kyle captured it all on camera. That explains why Brandon was acting weird. 

We ate yummy ice cream and then went back to our hotel (they got a room in the same hotel) and stayed up until 2 am playing Bang! We must have been having a lot of fun because the manager had to call us and tell us to be quiet. Oops! Man I love surprises...especially in Alexandria! It was the perfect way to end our trip.