Recent Travels

If any of you have ever seen this show...



then you've hopefully seen the episode where Bobby Flay does a throwdown with the "Wafels and Dinges" truck in NYC.

On a recent trip to the city, we made it our first priority to track down the waffle truck! And let me tell you....we were not disappointed. BEST WAFFLES EVER!





It was actually quite an interesting trip to NYC this time. We usually plan our trips full of sight seeing and events, but this time, our objective was simply to see how much great food we could consume in 24 hours! Between the waffle truck, Mesa Grill (one of Bobby Flay's restaurants), the Shake Shack, Momofuku (and it's accompanying Milk Bar), and the Doughnut Plant...I think we were successful in consuming all of our allowed calories for the entire WEEK, in 24 hours.
Such a fun trip!

Other great trips in the past two months include a trip to the motherland to throw my mom a 60th birthday party...



a weekend in SLC with my sister...


three days in Calgary for my cousin's wedding...
(How did I come away from that weekend without a single picture...?)

and Washington DC with Ben for spring break...




This weekend is GRADUATION!!! Let the festivities begin!

Next weekend we head to Toronto for one last trip home before moving west, the following two weekends I have our end of year recitals....and then the BIG MOVE!

Where has the time gone?!

We're moving to PHOENIX!

Today was the long awaited Match Day...and we were thrilled to find out we will be moving to PHOENIX in June so Ben can complete his Medicine Intern Year!

Thank goodness we get a break from the frozen tundra before we head to Buffalo for three years of FREEZING COLD SNOW!

I hardly know how to put into words the excitement of the last 24 hours!

Below are pictures from the Match Dinner the night before....talk about A LOT of nervous energy!




We have shared so many great times with our friends here in Vermont. It will be sad to say goodbye to so many. But we are grateful for the time we have had here, and look forward to our next chapter!

(Thanks for the great photos Vanessa!)

And in honor of Ben matching in Ophthalmology...I felt it necessary we take a moment to remember the eyeball cake of 2009!

I think it needs to become a tradition!

True Story

Ben and I went to Buffalo a couple of weeks ago to check out the area and get a feel for where we might want to live. In an attempt to be somewhat frugal...we decided to Priceline our hotel for the weekend. I was feeling pretty enthusiastic about the steal of a deal I got on our room (2 nights in prime Buffalo location for $38 a night) until I started reading reviews of the place on Trip Advisor. 41 REVIEWS OF BEDBUGS! And Priceline had the audacity of listing the hotel as THREE STAR. I can't believe we were actually contemplating staying there!



I decided to take the advice of my brother and call Priceline to try and work things out....maybe threaten to call my credit card, and hope they would refund us our money. I mean, who in their right mind would stay at such a dump after reading what I had read?

Priceline was completely unhelpful and basically told me there was nothing they could do. I then filed a claim with American Express, and they assured me they were almost positive they would be able to get us a refund. A week later I received a letter in the mail that said there was nothing they could do for us, that Priceline has a very strict "no refund" policy listed all over their website and there was no way around it.

So not only did we incur the expense of the hotel we DIDN'T stay at, we also had to find a new place to stay! Moral of the story...Priceline isn't always the best way to go!

Also, best news of the week...

First sighting of mini-eggs this season. I have a serious addiction to these. I think I need therapy!

The wait is finally OVER!!

We found out today that BEN MATCHED!! He will begin his Ophthalmology residency in BUFFALO, NEW YORK, starting July 2011. We couldn't be happier!

We feel so grateful and so blessed that Ben was able to match in such a competitive field. It is such a relief knowing he will actually be able to do what he loves.

It may not be much of an improvement in weather....but we'll only be an hour and a half from my parents, in Toronto! Definitely something to look forward to!

We find out in March where we will be going next year for intern year...but at this point, that's the least of our concerns! HOORAY FOR MATCH DAY!

What was I thinking??

I bought a sewing machine this weekend....and I am so excited about it. The funny thing is, I have no clue why! I know nothing about sewing, am seriously lacking any sort of crafty/creative abilities, and I have limited patience.

But for some crazy reason I've been dying to learn how to sew!

We'll see if I'm this eager after my first attempt at a project...


Now the real question is...what am I going to sew??

There are so many things I will miss when we leave Vermont. I'm mostly trying to not even think about it. It's better to live in denial. Or at least live in the present.

I really am doing my best to not be prematurely sad...but when we had our Christmas benefit at the studio this past weekend, and I realized this was my last Christmas with my students...and that the inevitable end of year really isn't that far off, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. I'm sure there will be new great students wherever we end up, but there is something about this group of students that makes it particularly sentimental for me. Probably the fact they were my first. And so many of them have been with me from the beginning. And have made so much progress. And probably because people in Vermont are just great. It will be hard to top this group of kids!


One thing I will not miss however...is teaching 40+ lessons a week. I think 20/week sounds much better! It's not that it's time intensive...but there is a limit to how many wrong notes I can take in any given week. And I hit my max by Wednesday!

Starting the end of March I will be taking on 10 more students to help a coworker who is having a baby. Maybe Teaching 50+ lessons a week for the last few months will help me to not feel that sad about leaving!

In other news...
Ben is finally done with interviewing. He had his last interview in Phoenix today. It has been a very long few months (much harder on him than me, although I always hate it when he's gone) with tons of flights and many many hours spent in the car. It will be so nice to get back into a normal routine again. Let the count down to Match Day begin!!

Just our Luck!

So it's no real secret that I hate winter! I've always hated the cold...for as long as I can remember. People always seem so shocked to hear this. I mean how can a Canadian hate the cold?

But it's really quite simple. I just don't like it.

With this being our last winter in Vermont, we really wanted to make the most of it. Every true Vermonter tells you that in order to survive living here, you have to find something you enjoy doing during the long winter months.

And so we decided to give in and buy ski passes this year. Having skied out west, I think we were a little reluctant to do so, knowing the conditions wouldn't be great...but with Ben having more free time his 4th year, and me not working Fridays, it just seemed to work.

So is it any surprise that the year we decided to buy passes...we DON'T HAVE ANY SNOW!

I'm normally cursing the snow by this time of year...but instead, I'm praying for it! Opening day at Smuggs was on Tuesday, 9 days behind schedule. Only one of the three mountains was open, and the majority of the snow was man-made.

But it worked. And we had a blast.

I'm just hoping the temperatures will stay low ( I can't believe I'm saying this) and that the snow will start falling so I can have some power to break my falls. Tuesday was my first time snowboarding...and my knees are feeling it!