Amy J. Bennett

Amy and the Big Apple

June 21, 2012 by Amy Leave a Comment

I have a Big Post to match the Big Apple. So hang in there. Or just quickly scroll through to see all the pictures, it’s ok 🙂

At the end of last week on vacation I received an unexpected call from work asking me to attend a brainstorming session in New York. I considered it an honor to be asked to attend and whatever this "gamification" word meant, I was in. I flew out Monday afternoon and was in by dinner time.

At arrival, I was hit with a major case of the nerves. Although it was my 3rd time to New York and I’m normally quite independent, I felt scared to death of traveling alone around the Big Apple. Since I hadn’t had time to plan my trip, I hadn’t researched any restaurants around me so I wasn’t sure what was good, what was near me and exploring by myself just sounded dangerous (I know. Silly). I ended up hitting up a steakhouse I’d visited before, but only after paying taxi fare there and back. Fear can be costly. So can steak. But it was every bit as good as I remember and I was happy to get back to my room to plop in front of The Bachelorette for the evening (who do you want to win? I love Jef and Sean).

I still had some anxiety about taking the subway on my own to the meeting Tuesday morning–I know, it’s safe and it’s silly to worry–and my friend Liz convinced me (thank you, Liz) that my 15 block walk to the office was doable so I walked to work. I don’t get to say that very often. In fact, I think it was the first time in my life I’ve ever walked to work.

It was a beautiful, bright, breezy, cool New York morning.

I passed Bryant Park where a large group was doing yoga. I stopped and watched for a few minutes and sipped my coffee.

The best commute ever.

The business portion was done by 3:30 so a coworker and I hit Times Square. With a travel buddy, I was excited to explore and all my anxiety was completely gone. Can you tell I’m happy to be there?

Is anyone else excited Emily from The Bachelorette and I are in the same picture? Two Carolina girls in Times Square! Because, you know, it COUNTS even though she’s on a billboard.

We hit up the Barbie house in Toys R Us to get the girls two Barbies.

We kept exploring and ended up a grabbing a shake at Shake Shack. I see now why everyone raves on Foursquare about it. One of the best milkshakes I’ve had. Go for chocolate peanut butter. It’s a winner. We checked out some more stores around Times Square. Forever21 had this cool camera that filmed folks on the street. See if you can spot me 🙂

I’m standing between the 2 and 1 on the bottom and have my Toys R Us bag on my arm and my camera up taking the picture.

We then headed out towards Central Park with the last few minutes before our dinner. Just for the record, I didn’t know we were going to be walking so much so I had my heels on and I was developing a nice blister by this point.

Central Park is pretty much nothing like I imagined.

I had no idea it was hilly with huge boulders and a waterfall and amusement rides and all sorts of things to enjoy. Who knew?

Dinner was at China Grill where they thankfully had a gluten-free menu. I enjoyed steak again as well as this crispy spinach that melted in your mouth. The guys at dinner were fawning over Isaiah Thomas seated a few tables away. I had no clue who he was but they seemed pretty excited. After dinner we all headed back out towards Times Square to pick up some cheesecake at Junior’s.

It was every bit as good as I recall. They had these little slices that had no crust which means no gluten which means happy Amy. While we were there, Ricky Martin was across the street leaving from his Broadway play Evita.

I caught just a glimpse of him over the crowd in his SUV. It was enough to satisfy my celebrity appetite. He’s no Justin Bieber, who was in town the whole time I was, but you know, he was a few steps above the Naked Cowboy.

After cheesecake the guys decided to walk me back partway to my hotel and after seeing the Empire State Building lit up on our way, we decided to go (nevermind that it was like 10:30, they’re open until 2am).

I visited back in 2001 but during the day. It’s a whole other beast at night.

All the lights over the city were just gorgeous and it’s so overwhelming looking down and seeing all the buildings, knowing all the work went into them and also knowing all the LIFE (and DEATH, literally and figuratively) that is going on below.

At this point, we’d walked miles. I’d been carrying my laptop bag and the two Barbies in a separate bag and my feet were cramping up in my flip flops I’d changed into. As I told my family, my flips wouldn’t even flop at this point. I was never so glad to be just a few blocks from my hotel where I passed out right after I got my feet to stop cramping. I was up just 5 hours later for my flight. I was so tired and sore but there’s nothing like looking through an airplane window and spying Manhattan that makes you realize it was all worth it.

Later, Alligator! Saying Goodbye to Family Vacation 2012 – Hilton Head, SC

June 20, 2012 by Amy 2 Comments

Our annual family vacation in Myrtle Beach didn’t pan out this year. When I saw that Ashley was auctioning off a week in Hilton Head as an adoption fundraiser a few months ago, I knew it was the perfect fit. If you have a few spare dollars, I’m sure they’d appreciate a donation to their adoption funds as they’re trying to bring home TWINS from Congo.

This year’s vacation will have a few special memories. Perhaps you’d like to hear a few?

On a Mommy blogger note, Emma showed some signs of maturity this year. First, I loved that she rode her bike to the beach every day and was excited.

If you’ve been around awhile you know the bike hasn’t always been her strong suit. But I suppose everyone has to learn and now she’s terrific. Since our house isn’t really suited for going anywhere on a bike, this is the first I’ve seen her use a bike with purpose. And speaking of bikes, they were EVERYWHERE. I’ve never seen so many people biking.

Second, she gravitated towards the adults sometimes just to talk. I mainly hung out at the hot tub in the pool area and she would drift over, sit with us and just talk. I’ve heard of these perks of aging children but I think I got a glimpse of it on my own this week. Third is her branching out to the deep end of the pool. Since we have an above ground she doesn’t get a lot of practice and always has shied away from anyone else’s but this week she swam across and jumped in.

Hilton Head is a very natural, green place. Lots of natural attractions and wildlife. I have to say when we first got there I was a little scared about seeing the alligators. All anyone could say was DON’T FEED THE ALLIGATORS. I even asked the front desk lady how likely it would be to see one. She said very likely and sure enough, we saw one swim up in the lagoon behind the resort’s pool on the second day.

No fence, no zookeeper, no ditch keeping it from coming for us. But for whatever reason, he minded his own business. We also enjoyed the live oaks and Spanish moss. The trees were an attraction of their own.

Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House in Savannah was definitely a highlight of the trip. We will talk about that place for years to come.

Mrs. Wilkes is an 80 year old restaurant that serves family style meals. Dining room tables were set for 10 with sweet tea and then 23 Southern dishes are laid out for everyone to pass around.

I’m not saying this lightly but it was the best food I’ve ever had. I loved the lima beans for crying out loud. I loved that the owner said grace before the first table started and we were responsible for taking our plates and cups to the kitchen. Mrs. Wilkes is a must for all Savannah visitors. Just get there early . They only serve 11-2. We got there at 10am and were already about 10 people back. The funniest part was when the girls claimed it was even better than PawPaw’s cooking and then Lexi’s disclaimer saying "only a titch better." A titch is some word Lexi made up meaning just a little.

Another memory will be the toll bridge bypass to get on and off the island. It’s $1.25 each way and we were all the time hollering for change. We managed to round up enough every time without paying solely with 125 pennies.

I will always remember Emma and Lexi getting into it helping me eat my crab legs when we visited The Crazy Crab in Harbor Town. They really got into it and even tried some and didn’t hate it.

I’m sure visiting The Salty Dog Cafe and tie-dying their shirts will be memorable for the kids. Nevermind that they have 20 other t-shirts at home. It’s all about the experience!

And finally, this will be the trip where we spent way too much time watching TV and were introduced to The Turtle Man. Have you been watching his show The Call of the Wildman on Animal Planet? The Turtle Man is in Kentucky and grew up catching turtles in ponds. As he’s grown, he has gone on to catch any "critters" for folks in his area. And the trick is he catches them all with his bare hands. He and his friend are straight up REDNECK and it is straight up hilarious.

It was SUCH a great week. Exactly what we needed to reconnect as the kids finished school and Scott came back from several weeks out of town. As it turned out though, I went to New York two days later last minute for work. It was almost a vacation from vacation :) Coming up next is a wrap-up post from the Big Apple!

The Summer of 7: Possessions

June 17, 2012 by Amy 9 Comments

Wow. I was so ready to do this week of possessions. Possessions week was actually the first and only week I had planned on doing when I first saw that Katrina was looking for bloggers to join up. I knew my house needed a good shaking and cleaning out but ya’ll! It’s hard!

The first day I gathered items from my laundry room, kitchen, dining room, living room and part of my office. A few observations:

I didn’t have nearly as many things in my kitchen to get rid of as I thought. I really thought I’d have boxes of things to sell but I didn’t. Perhaps I just need to organize my cabinets and clean my counters to make it feel cleansed in there.

We had a ton of CDs and DVDs that we NEVER use. Just as an example, I had Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean and New Moon that I watched ONCE after I bought and then they’ve just sat there doing absolutely no good in my cabinet. Why???

Purging hurt the most in my office. I have a special love of books. I seriously just love standing in a book store and looking out at all the books. I know the heart and soul that goes into writing and then all the hands that touched it to get it to print. I just love books. But I have had books sitting around since I read them the first (and only) time and now some of them aren’t worth even $1. And the worst part is I still didn’t want to get rid of them when I knew I couldn’t get any money out of them. I figured it was better to let them sit there than to get rid of them for next to nothing. Why??? Why would I hoard them when it’s very obvious I’m not reading them, no one else is and it’s simply taking up room in my office creating more clutter. I mean, really. I’m doing some deep digging on why I do any of it…spend $10 on something I’ll only read once, let books sit around when I know I won’t read them again, and then hoard the book when I know I’m not using it and can’t get money out of it. Why???

The other oddity I’ve come across is my need to keep empty boxes of electronics. I hate to admit this but I still had ALL THREE of my iPhone boxes, even from my 3G that I bought YEARS ago. My initial intent on keeping boxes was to have the original box when I resell it. But guess what? I’ve never shipped an used iPhone in the original box so why in the world have I not just dumped the case each time I get a new one? I still had my Kindle box, my web cam box and my digital camera box. Why???

I’m not sure I have answers yet on all these why’s but I definitely see some attachments and habits that are not healthy. I’m scared to touch my closet and see what I’m hanging onto and why. As to what I’m doing with all these things…well first, if you are in the market for some DVDs or books, let me know and I might do a blog sale. If not, my friend Dani and I are planning a huge double yard sale for charity in 2 weeks! I can’t wait.

To check out more posts on possessions…

The Summer of 7: Stress Week

June 16, 2012 by Amy Leave a Comment

So it’s stress week and I haven’t posted a thing. We spent a wonderful week in Hilton Head, SC. I’ll admit planning a stress-free week during a vacation week was sort of a cop-out. I mean, who gets stressed with their feet in the sand during the day and a plate full of crab at night? Well, come to think of it, I know people who’d get stressed about either of those things but that is neither here nor there. I was not.

Although I didn’t have my normal stress points like getting work done AND taking care of kids or having too many errands to count, I did find myself in a few situations that I could feel stress coming on. I tried to pinpoint the cause and came out with four trigger points

Fear

I shouldn’t be surprised. Fear is definitely always been a trigger for me in so many areas. But this week I realized that I get stressed when I have a fear of the unknown or fear of my family’s safety. I think, think, think too much about all the alternative endings to the point I’m tensed and stressed. I truly believe in so many cases I’m just being ridiculous.

As a small example, the kids this year decided they could jump the waves by themselves. I sat in a chair at the edge of the water but then I’d get worried and go stand in the water 10 or 15 feet closer. Standing there, I realized that being 10 feet closer was not going to help a whole lot. In reality, they were doing just fine by themselves and I could just LET GO of the stress. The only thing it changed was my stress level. Seriously. Me being worried did not make the kids handle the waves any differently. It didn’t make sharks not swim near them. It didn’t emit some sort of force field so jelly fish wouldn’t sting them. Worrying did not one single thing to help the situation.

Sure, we have safety issues to consider as parents but I’d guess most of the time our stress is fear-induced and POINTLESS.

Lack of control

I’ve been coming to the realization I can be a control freak. When I feel things slipping, I get stressed. This is especially difficult when I’m dealing with other people’s problems. In my “real job,” I’m a problem solver. People come to me with problems and we figure out a technical solution to them. And getting to the solution involves even more problems to fix. I like to know all the variables, pick a solution and go with it. Again, I think, think, think until I feel like I have the best solution. I try to do this with other people’s problem and it just creates a ton of stress for me. Again, the solution to this is to LET GO. Sure, I can care but that doesn’t mean I have to solve everyone’s problems. I couldn’t even if I tried.

Unmet expectations

I’m not sure if the result of unmet expectations is more anger than stress but I got that tense feeling come over me when the girls just did not want to do what I wanted to do one night this week. When we have something planned or expect something of someone and it doesn’t happen? Stress! We want things to happen the way we planned OR ELSE. Can you think of the solution? Yep. LET GO. It’s totally fine if plans change or you have to maneuver around a new set of circumstances. Just GO WITH THE FLOW.

Disorder

The most stress I felt all week is when we were trying to get out the door to the beach. I realized I had not planned enough in advance and I was washing clothes and dishes as were going out the door. I must have gotten out of the van at least 3 times to grab things I remembered last minute. I realized if I’d have just prepared a little more in advance I could have prevented a lot of stress. And even more than that, the things I did need should have been organized into a place where I would have known right where to get them.

The ironic part of this point is that hard work sometimes leads to less stress. You might think that being lazy and not working as hard would lead to a stress-free life but I’ve found just the opposite: work hard now and you can play hard later. I just need to learn to balance that when all my plans don’t quite go as expected.

My take-away from this week can be summed up in the words of Timon and Pumbaa "Hakuna Matata, it means no worries for the rest of your days…” Seriously, I just need to get myself organized, plan a little more and then LET GO.

Read more posts from the Summer of 7 participants on Stress and link up below!

Mister Rogers

June 8, 2012 by Amy 3 Comments

First order of business on my less stress week. The viral Mister Rogers video.

I’m mesmerized. Scott heard Mister Rogers singing "the garden of your MIINND" from my computer today and said, "Are you listening to that again?" and started laughing at me. I clearly remember watching Mister Rogers and didn’t think much of it then. I mean, I knew I liked it but listening back, I see parts of my beliefs I hold dear just from that clip.

It’s good to be curious.

Everyone is unique.

I know I owe a lot of that to my parents but Mister Rogers was part of that. A very beautiful part of it. Maybe my mom will comment and say, "Amy, you don’t know what you’re talking about, you only watched that a few times." I don’t remember enough to know how often or many times I watched it. I just know when I watch this I feel safe and happy and grateful and definitely less stressed.

Summer of 7: Goodbye Food, Hello Stress. Er, Hello Food, Goodbye Stress.

June 8, 2012 by Amy 5 Comments

My week of food for the Summer of 7 is over in just a few hours. My original goal was no desserts, only water and no take-outs. I can tell you what I missed: OJ in the morning, coffee and having a treat in the evening. I honestly did not miss eating out one little bit. Well, eating in at work was awful but as far as dinners went, I didn’t miss it. Perhaps it wasn’t an excess like it has been in the past. In good news, I lost a pound just by cutting that out. Have I mentioned how I’ve lost 10 pounds since we went gluten-free (and I totally changed my eating habits)? Hm. Yeah. And it seems to be staying off. I’ve been maintaining the past month or so but this last week of basically cutting out the excess literally cut out a little excess on me.

But most importantly, the lesson I’m taking from this week is from my Leftovers post. When I give anything, not just food, I will be reminded of this week and remember not only to give, but to consider the quality. And further, remember the widow that gave all she had, not just out of her abundance. Ouch. That still hurts.

As of this evening, it’s goodbye to stress. I’m changing up what I had planned. I’ll be candid here and say I hadn’t read the stress chapter in the book yet when I planned my “rules” but went ahead and put down what Jen had done. I didn’t buy the book to do the prayers and just like Jamie, loading myself up like this I think would cause me more stress so I’m letting go this week. I sat and thought of what relaxes me and here it is:

Having coffee/interacting online with friends
Reading
Writing
Doing nothing on the beach
Spending time in prayer
Spending time in the word
Being creative
Cooking

So there are no rules around those. I’m just going to try to do them more. We’re on vacation all week and it’s totally possible. You might see a ton more posts this week because I write more or I may let go of any duty I feel towards writing. Who knows! It’s all about less stress, baby!

Below are the other FOOD week related posts. You can still jump in and participate so don’t think it’s too late!

Leftovers

June 6, 2012 by Amy 15 Comments

I’m going to be honest. Summer of 7 had me in a funk earlier today. I left a sleeping family this morning to drive in the rain for 45 minutes to go to the office and I was just a little irritated that I couldn’t have my once-a-week Starbucks like I normally do when I head to the office. I couldn’t even have my French pressed Dunkin Donuts. If I’ve missed anything this week I’ve missed coffee. I’m not addicted to the caffeine. I’ve had no headaches and I haven’t been tired. I just miss the smell and the warmth and it’s just plain comforting.

Then because I’m not doing take-out I had to take some leftovers from last night for lunch. Ranch chicken and a baked potato. I don’t want to sound whiny but I pretty much hate leftovers unless it’s Italian. And then our barely-there microwaves didn’t heat it well. And we were out of sour cream. So I was eating dry chicken with a reheated baked potato with only butter. With water. I hated lunch today.

I started giving myself a pep talk about how I should be grateful I have a job to take leftovers to and the fact that I had leftovers to take. But really the bottom line was the food was not good. So then I started thinking about people that struggle for food. I’ll admit I kind of always assumed that people that were hungry loved any food they got their hands on. But, you know. I’m pretty sure that’s not true. So I thought about how we’re feeling pretty good about giving people our excess during Summer of 7 and then I thought well that’s not so noble. Giving people what we don’t want, especially our seconds, doesn’t magically make someone ecstatic to have it. I thought about Alene’s post where she posted a letter from a former homeless person and how he said you always had to watch out for mold because many donated items were old. And then I thought about how God gave us his very best in Christ and it really made me think not just about giving but the quality of what we give.

If I were super hungry and someone had given me the dry chicken and the reheated potato I would have eaten it gratefully but I don’t know. I just don’t think giving leftovers is what Jesus would do.

Mark 12:41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

You can read more posts about the food week of Summer of 7 below:

Garden Update

June 5, 2012 by Amy 5 Comments

It’s been just shy of 2 months since I planted my first garden. So far I’ve been able to harvest lettuce, basil, parsley, broccoli and as of last night, jalapeno peppers. They were two smallish peppers that I turned straight into stuffed jalapenos to eat with our burgers and let me tell you they were HOT. I had read that I could leave them on the plant longer to get hotter but I like them mild and wow, I’m glad I pulled them when I did. It was SO NICE though being able to have those and not have to go to the store to pay an arm and leg at the store.

OK last I updated you, it was about one month ago:

Wow. It’s amazing to look at that now. Since then, we talked with our farmer’s exchange and they recommended we take out some of the dirt on the right bed that was having issues and replace with some soil. He then gave us some FREE replacement plants with a few extra plants. Super nice folks there!

This below picture is about 2 weeks ago, just about 2 weeks after the above picture. As you can see my tomatoes exploded and also the zucchini he gave us on the right there started exploding too. The broccoli stems were hanging down to the ground and this is the day I took the broccoli plants out.

So it’s been about two weeks since that and I moved a few things over in place of the broccoli and here’s where we are today:

As you can see the tomatoes and zucchini are taking over.Tomatoes from the side. They’re trying to grow through the fence.

We’ve got a ton of tomatoes actually growing.

More peppers are under way

And I actually have blooms on my zucchini!

My parsley, basil, marigolds and nasturtium flowers are all doing well too.

Look ma, I have a real garden!

I really cannot tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this garden. Yes, part has been frustrating but I love tending to it and I just can’t even explain the peace I get when I’m there. I know it’s just two piddly beds but something really speaks to me working it. Most recently, God really spoke to me through that right bed which had too much fertilizer. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. I think this is particularly poignant this week as I stare down the excess of food in my life through Summer of 7. Food is good. Very good. But too many desserts, too much unused food, too much caffeine, or too much take out is bad. Even having a garden and having an excess that is not used is not good. I was so happy to give away some extra basil yesterday and it was just so right. Not that I want to pat myself on the back but I want to say that growing my own food, using what I need and then giving away the excess is definitely something I want to pursue more.