An apple a day

Two days ago, I went to the doctor and had a pretty typical blood test. Not a lot of blood was drawn, just a quick in and out. After the blood test was over, I stood up and felt a little light-headed and dizzy. I thought I would walk it off - after all, I have never felt that way after having my blood drawn before. I made it all the way to the front of the office to schedule my next appointment, and the next thing I know, I'm on the ground with a a bunch of nervous nurses and doctors trying to help. That's right - I fainted in the doctor's office. Wow, that's not embarrassing at all. Especially because all the nurses were like, "Wow, we've never had someone faint from such a small blood sample before." Thanks. The doctor had me lie down and all the nurses were so nice. They brought me water, juice, and even pizza. All the other patients walking past my room were probably wondering why I was getting all the attention - and all the pizza! The doctor was worried about me driving home, so I ended up having to call Russ to come and get me. That was an interesting call. :-) The whole event was a little embarrassing, but otherwise, just fine.

My Apologies... My Christmas post is finally here

I really have nothing to say for myself in lieu of an excuse for my long and terrible absence from the blogging world. Have I been busy? Well, kind of. I suppose the idea of this blog just seemed a little daunting because there are so many things that I want to include. It's like when you have a really big journal entry you need to write, but you put it off because you know how long it will take.
Without further adieu, the big reveal...

Christmas and New Years in Barcelona and Italy!

After a long and frustrating dilemma, including an overnight stay, at the JFK airport - due to late flights and not running fast enough through the International terminal at the airport - Russ and I finally made it to Barcelona! I was so excited to see my family and just spend time hanging out and relaxing together. We watched a lot of movies, ate some wonderful food and spent a lot of time laughing. (Jonathon's alter-egos "Nigel" and "Linguine" were certainly big contributors to the amount of laughing Russ and I enjoyed while we were there!)

And now through pictures, while in Barcelona, we...

Went to church, as well as the Bario Dos Christmas Party. That was interesting, as always.

We went to the beautiful maze near our house. Jonathon beat us by a long shot.

We went to Montserrat and took family pictures in Barcelona bull t-shirts.

We took family pictures at the Roman gardens near our house. It should be noted that the photographs were taken using the self-timer on my Mom's digital camera and we set it up on a tripod that we made out of cardboard boxes and duct tape.

We went to a Barca game and we won! Russ said this was absolutely his favorite thing from the whole trip - it even beat out Italy. :-)


We went to the port for the arrival of the Three Kings.

And now, as if all that wasn't already enough, a few pictures from our trip to Italy. We went to Rome, Florence, Milan and Lake Como.

Church in Rome. Turns out my Mom's best friend has a son serving a mission in Rome and we happened to show up at the ward he is currently serving in. Then we saw him again on the metro!

Obviously, the Colosseum
Outside the Vatican

In front of the doors at the Duomo in Florence

View of Florence from the Bell Tower

My favorite place from the whole trip - the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

Beautiful Lake Como

Festival of Lights

The Washington, D.C. Temple all lit up for the annual Festival of Lights.
I thought it was absolutely lovely.

The West Wing

A couple weeks ago my Uncle Jim called and asked if we would like to go to a tour of the White House. (He currently works for HHS and has the power to organize such things.) Of course, we said yes! We had a great time last night and it was especially fun to see the White House decorated for Christmas.

Outside the West Wing with the Presidential Seal above us.

Outside the West Wing

The Press Room was probably my favorite part of the tour. Each of the chairs in the Press Room is labeled with a plaque, designating which paper, magazine or radio station the reporter is from.

Inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where the majority of the White House staff works.

Where I would love to be if I ever got the chance to work at the White House.

The National Christmas Tree!

A Few of My Favorite Christmas Things

Christmas is one of my favorite things. It just so happens that my family and the Gospel are two more of my favorite things and everything seems to be all packaged nicely together during the Christmas season.
I have been getting very excited for our trip to Barcelona for Christmas this year with my family. This is normally an exciting trip all on it's own (because it is in fact Barcelona and my family is actually living there).
This Christmas is made all the more exciting because #1, I get to see my Dad. I always get to see my Dad at Christmas, but normally I get to see him at a few other times during the year as well. This past year I saw my parents in early April, but my Dad wasn't able to come to our wedding, so it has been almost 8 months since I have been with him. That's the longest span of time we haven't been able to see each other and I'll be honest, I haven't much liked it. I am looking forward to seeing Mom and the boys as well, of course! It's been a little over 6 months since we were able to spend some time together at the wedding. And as for Rebecca, well, it will great to see her too, though I did recently spend a week in Provo.
The #2 reason for the heightened Christmas excitement is that Russ and I are also going to Italy! Hooray! Russ has been twice, but I've never been so I convinced him to take me. We'll be spending a week with my family in Barcelona, then a week in Italy and then back to Barcelona for three more days before we head back to real life. The heading back part is tragic, but necessary if we plan on doing any fun traveling ever again. :-)
Last but not least, the #3 reason for extra Christmas cheer is that Russ and I still have a little bit of money left over from our wedding to spend at Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn for fun holiday things.
Yesterday, Russ and I went to the Outlets for the remaining gift items on our Christmas list and I got a little Christmas present for myself at Williams-Sonoma. They are little appetizer/dessert/whatever plates that have different little snowmen on them. I think they are adorable and I plan on using them for whatever I can from now until we leave and for every Christmas from here on out.

Here's a picture of one of the plates. (There are 4 different designs.)

I hope you are all enjoying some of your very own favorite Christmas things!

A Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

This year I joined Russ' family in running the annual 5k Virginia Run Turkey Trot. They have been participating in the Turkey Trot for the last 6-7 years and as the newest member of the Marsh family, I participated in my inaugural run. Now, I say run, but technically it was really more of a saunter. You see, I hate running. I love nice walks and enjoy being outside, but make me run for 200 yards (which my cousin Jessica did at the very end) and I'm ready to quit. Luckily, Jessica told me to suck it up for those last 200 yards and even though we were coming in a little later than most "runners", we had people on the sidelines cheering us in as we crossed the finish line. I'll save myself the embarrassment of telling you our time, but let's just say I pretty much only have room to improve. :-) Nevertheless, I did complete the race and I'm proud of myself for doing it.
I will send a shout out to my cousin Stephen for finishing the 5k in 21:38. He's 16 and he's not even a runner! Good work Stephen!
I'm excited to run the Turkey Trot again next year and hopefully improve my time a bit. :-)

Russ and I after the race

The whole gang: Stephen, me, Russ, Shawnee, Emily, Kirk, Tiffany and Jessica

I will say that participating in the Turkey Trot made me feel much better about all the eating I did later in the day. And let me tell you, we had quite the spread. My assignments included an appetizer (homemade pepper jelly over cream cheese with crackers) and sweet potatoes. Both dishes went over very well and I would like to give credit to my mother for the recipes and for teaching me how to cook in general. Thanks Mom!

The pepper jelly. Yum!

$1.95

$1.95 doesn't get you as much now as it used to, but it is still enough for a lot of small purchases. With $1.95 you can buy a carton of eggs, two packs of gum, or an ice cream cone from RiteAid. You know what else you can get for $1.95? One whole gallon of gas! That's right folks. Tonight I paid $1.95 per gallon for a grand total of just under $30 to fill up my entire tank. About three months ago I think I was paying over $4 a gallon. Not anymore! All I've got to say is this better not be a trick.