Punta Cana, Round Dos!

Christian and I took an elongated weekend and flew off to Punta Cana, Dominica Republic for some much needed R&R. Christian had just finished his exam for his Chiropractic pediatric certification which took him 15 months to take all of the courses, and I had just finished yet another semester at school. We went to Punta Cana two years ago for our honeymoon, and really enjoyed our time spent doing absolutely nothing, so we thought what better way to decompress then to spend four days lying on a beach, or pool side, while friendly waiters bring you food and fruity drinks? We tried out a different resort this time round, and although in comparison our honeymoon resort was better, we still found plenty of spots to just relax and enjoy the warm ocean breeze.

Our room.The towel art, which changed daily. Clever maids!The private lounge for "Club Elegance" users only. (About 50% of the guest were in a more "elite" section of the hotel. Yuppers, that would include us.)The private pool for "Club Elegance" members, along with the private cabanas. And of course, the biggest draw, the private beach. Super soft sand, and ocean water that felt more like bath water it was so warm!The night life included jazz musicians in the hotel square, 9 different restaurants to choose from. (We never went hungry!) Dancing, and shows. A little something for everyone.
The hotel lobby. Very beautiful, open, and airy.Every night we took a stroll through the resort and enjoyed the warm tropical air while listening to music that seemed to come floating down from the night sky. (Actually, they had little speakers that looked like rocks along every pathway, so it was if you always had theme song following you where ever you went.)
Just about ever day we ate lunch beach side. Took a nap after we were full, and then headed back to the beach for some late afternoon sun.


Here's the view from our cabana. So peaceful!

Just a touch of the greenery that surrounded us.
The HUGE lantern that greets each guest as they check in at the front desk.
The spa. Very zen.
The games that we played, and surprisingly I won. Very surprisingly!
Finally headed back home. This is inside the airport, at our gate to walk the tarmac to the plane. It was a wonderful trip, albeit a short one, but all in all it served it purpose and we're very happy we went. Maybe next year we'll try a different island. Who knows.

Letting go

I've always been the kind of person that is rather particular about my belongings. It was a big deal for me as a kid to purchase an item that wasn't a "hand-me-down." So when I made the decision to spend my money on something I had to make sure I really-REALLY liked it. Well, today I'm finally letting go of two of my childhood buys. They seem like nothing really to people who don't understand me, but I've been holding on to, and still utilizing, these two items since I was in high school.

The photo below is of a wallet I bought at Wal-mart when I was a freshman. I really loved it because the cover shifts colors as you tilt it back and forth. It also makes a fun little zip sound when you run your finger over it, kind of like a wash-board. Only once did I have the fear of it being stolen. (The day I met Christian in Las Vegas actually.) It has been my faithful companion all through living in Oregon, living in New York, and living in New Jersey. Well, today my husband bought me a new wallet. A wallet that an adult would be proud to pull out of their pocket book. A wallet made of leather, not plastic like my old one. And a wallet that still has the "Taryn factor," of feel good colors.The second item has literally taken me places. I purchased a pair of sneakers from Payless Shoe Source when I was a sophomore for $12.99. (I remember the price because it was a penny away from my family's lucky number 13. Little did I know just how lucky these shoes would be for me.) I wore these shoes just about every day. I wore them to my audition for school in New York. I wore them all over the streets of Manhattan. And I was wearing them the day I met my husband in Las Vegas. I adore these shoes. But all the wear and tear was really starting to show.
Even the heals were wearing thin from my pounding the pavement.
So I searched high and low for a replacement pair and as luck would have it, my new sneakers were found in my home town in Oregon. The circle of life has been complete. *wink* So to my faithful sneakers and wallet, you have served me well and have gone far above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you for your years and years of service. You will be missed.

Finder's Keepers

All winter long I searched high and low for my ski gloves, and simply could not find them. I checked every box that I had packed for the big move and even after I scoured over the contents of each box I always came up empty handed. So on our snow days this past winter season I was able to find a pair of woven mittens to wear, but my hands would get cold and wet from playing in the snow, and I truly missed my ski gloves that kept my hands warm and dry. I honestly gave up looking for them after about two months of winter.

The other day Christian needed a copy of my registration from my car, so I went into my glove compartment to get it.... Low and behold what do I find? My Ski Gloves!

Who would have thought that I would actually use the glove compartment to put my gloves in? Just goes to show you that sometimes the most obvious place isn't so obvious.

Progress Report

I have had several requests recently for photos on our house projects, and I'll be the first to admit that I have been greedy by not sharing the progress with everyone. As I have said in prior posts pertaining to the house, I had a desire to wait until a project was complete before I revealed to the world how beautiful things turned out. This being said, I had no idea just how much time a "completed" project would need. Now, I'm probably one of the most patient people I know, but even I have limits. So I can no longer contain my enthusiasm about how great our house is coming along, and therefore I am about to share just a snippet of what we've been up to in the past week.

Below are photos of our foyer and staircase. Wallpaper galore. During the sanding process for all the bedrooms upstairs a vale of plastic was put up in an attempt to keep dust at bay. (Honestly, I don't think a fifty foot wall would have kept all that dust from getting into other rooms.)

We were thinking we would simply put fresh wallpaper up to avoid the fiasco of pulling down chunks of plaster from the walls, along with the paper. However, we were lucky to discover the plaster wall behind the paper was solid, and able to withstand the pull of the glue.

So once all the wall paper came down, our contractors Konstantine and Andrew, began filling the cracks, and smoothing the wall to prepare it for painting.

Christian and I are giving the paint color choices to our contractors this week, so I apologize if this seems anti-climatic having only a white primed wall to look at. But like I said, completed projects take time. While we wait for the primer to dry, let's take a quick sneak peak into the living room and dining room to see the action there. The living room has stained floors, and a major crack that was in the corner of the room, caused by our shifting the foundation of the house to level it out, has been filled. As of today, two layers of varnish have been applied to the floor, but I have no photos of the room because it is sealed up like Fort Knocks! In fact, every room, with the exception of our bedroom and kitchen, is either sealed up, or completely void of furniture at the moment.

So there you have a small amount of our construction zone. I will post the completed bathrooms soon. Once the plastic wall comes down, I'll be able to snap a few photos of the downstairs bathroom, and I'm still trying to find the right light fixture for the upstairs. Until then, this little update will have to suffice.

Playing catch-up!

Please forgive me for this mass-blog-update. I'm about to cram four events into one post, so it may be a bumpy ride.

Two weekends ago, Christian and I spent a day at the Delaware Water Gap. This was our second visit, and we thoroughly enjoyed becoming one with nature during our almost 9 mile hike.
Below is the pond that we spent hours walking towards. It's considered one of New Jersey's natural wonders. For some reason this pond is very acidic, and only two species of fish can survive in the water. Acidic water or not, it was still very picturesque.
Since I'm putting so many things into one blog entry please excuse my use of the collage to recap the hike and lack of commentary. (If you'd like to see the photos closer up, just click on the collage.)


On April 13th, our family got a little bigger. Christian's cousin Danielle welcomed to the world her first baby, Joseph. A healthy 8 pounds 8 ounces, and seriously has the cutest face I've ever seen on a baby boy! Way to go Danielle and Mike!!Speaking of babies. A girlfriend of mine, who's husband is good friends with my husband, is expecting her first baby in about five weeks. Her baby shower was this past weekend, and although I couldn't be there for reasons which you will learn shortly, I sent to the shower a name plate for her little man who will be named John. I really liked how this one turned out. The reason I could not attend the baby shower, Christian and I spent the weekend down in Asbury Park, NJ attending a chiropractic seminar. Asbury Park is right on the beach, and our hotel was mere feet from the boardwalk and crashing waves. I forgot to bring my camera, so the few photos I have of the place, I did not take, but if I had my camera I would have loved to attempt to capture what my eyes saw, and it would have looked something like this...Again, sorry for the jammed pack entry. I'll try to be better at posting more frequently. Hugs!

Just 5 minutes later...

I left the house less than 5 minutes later than I normally do this morning and my goodness, what a difference it made! I take the back roads to get to campus for class, and usually it only takes me about 15 minutes door to door. But this morning, Murphy's law was upon me. I was only four blocks away from my house when I came upon my first road block. A school bus.It made four stops on the way up the hill, so I patiently waited knowing that it would turn down a road in less than a mile. Once it made the left turn, I zoom down the road trying to make up for lost time. (No worries, I never go over the speed limit. It was 40 mph on this road.) At the bottom of the hill, I was stopped by a crossing guard. Once allowed to pass, what should pull out in front of me, but another school bus.So now I'm caravaning with a school bus and at least ten cars behind me, when we all get stopped by a commuter train.
Now I'm starting to get agitated because less than half a mile down the road we get stopped at the second set of rail road tracks as another train passes. So I'm close to school and I'm sure I'm in the clear by now, when I come around a bend and what do I see? A garbage truck taking up the entire lane, with three cars already behind it, as the "waste management engineers" run out grabbing trash cans, flinging them into the back of the truck, and then chucking them on the lawns from whence the came.
I let out a sigh, and just wait the less than 100 feet to the next light because I know they're going to go straight and I'm turning. The light of course is red!
I turn the corner, I can now see the buildings on campus ahead of me, I get nervous because I have to cross over my third and final set of rail road tracks and I just know I'll be stopped with an on coming train. To my surprise, I was able to make it across without a hitch. I turn onto campus, only to be stopped by, not one, but two public transportation buses that are taking up both lanes to allow students off and on. Finally the buses pull forward only to clear my line of sight to the parking deck that I am allowed to use, where I see a line of cars all waiting to pull in. (The photo below really is my parking deck) Luckily both gates were working this morning so the wait wasn't more than a minute or two. I drove up to the fifth floor, and ran across campus to my 8:30 class.

I was only 4 minutes late, but turns out that my professor had as rough a morning as I did because she was 5 minutes late and blamed it on traffic. I totally believing her! Whew!