New York State of Mind.

I'm finally taking the time to write about our trip to NYC from almost a month ago. This blog is the closest thing I have to a scrapbook, so it really doesn't bother me when I post out of order. I mean, if it were my real scrapbook, it wouldn't be done for another decade, so I figure a month isn't so bad.

For my BIG birthday, my husband let me pick where I wanted to go. The last trip I had been on with the ladies of my family was back in 2008 (I think) when we went to LA and were on the Dr. Phil show. (Not really on it, but there was a close up of me in the audience looking shocked and appalled at the subject matter. Another story, another day.)

On this trip I was to be the tour guide, which was a bit iffy since I've been to NYC twice before but had yet to figure out which way was up either of the other times. Because I am so wise now in my ripe old age, I actually took the time prior to leaving to study the map. (You may feel free to laugh at that. I do.) However, we only got lost once, and it was because of an unscheduled subway change up on Sunday morning. I call that victory, my friends.

Since the group was comprised mostly of first-timers, we stayed one block off of the iconic Times Square at the Millenium Broadway Hotel. It was a perfect location for the sites we were planning to see.


We saw two shows while we were there with tickets bought at the Times Square TKTS booth. The seats were FABULOUS for both of them. Here we are before West Side Story. Our first evening there we saw Promises, Promises with Sean Hayes and the cute-as-a-button Kristin Chenoweth.

My mom and me taking in the sights.

A carriage ride through Central Park. First time for me!

Riding the Staten Island Ferry with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

Of course we would stop here. One must.

Other highlights were Magnolia Bakery, Canal Street (twice), Ground Zero, the Financial District, Rockefeller Center, Chinatown, Little Italy. Wow, thinking about the walking we did is making me tired.

While visiting Henri Bendel, I consulted with a makeup artist. As a gift to myself for turning 30, I was outfitted with a proper eye cream and concealer (and of course a ton of other stuff.)

I am convinced that at most, I now look 29.

Baby Fun

Thank you so much for your congratulations. Excited doesn't even begin to describe the anticipation we are feeling regarding this little one who will be joining us the first week in March!

The day I found out about Baby G I bought him/her The Jesus Storybook Bible. The tagline says "every story whispers His Name." That just gives me such comfort everytime I read it. I can't wait for us to read it to and teach Baby G how even his/her story whispers God's Name.

Uh-oh, pregnancy hormone moment. Let me grab a Kleenex.

OK, that's better.

That book is actually how I told Brad that we were having a baby. We had previously discussed gifting each other with new Bibles for our anniversary. As soon as I got home that afternoon I handed it to him and said, "I hope it's okay if I give you yours early. I think you'll be reading this one A LOT!"

{I then bought him another Bible sans pictures for our anniversary, in case you were wondering.}

We plan on finding out whether Baby G is a boy or girl. Everyone is allowed their own opinion on the matter so mine is this: I figure you can either be surprised at 20 weeks or 40 weeks, but either way it's still a surprise. And I like to know my surprises early as my husband will attest to how much enjoyment I get at Christmastime trying to guess what he bought me. {It's a very fun game to me--a bit of an irritant to him.} I'm 13 weeks along at this point, so we're not too far off from knowing.

With the exception of this past week, I have had no morning sickness. I'm praising God for meeting this need because I have no idea how morning sickness would've worked with a 100 mile roundtrip commute everyday. Mostly I have been tired, exhausted, worn out, spent, or laid to waste at the end of the day. However you want to put it, if you called my house after 7:30, I didn't answer because I was asleep. I feel like I'm turning a corner though, so now if I don't answer, I'm probably just screening my calls. ;)

Otherwise, we're doing really great and having fun telling everyone we know!

Sometime in Early March

Blessed. Overjoyed. In Awe of our God.

Also, a little tired and hungry, but otherwise happy and healthy. :)

This young lady and I feel the same way about turning 30.

This is going to be our best year yet.

Seriously.

Sneak Peak: NYC

My man sent me to NYC on a girls' trip for my BIG birthday!
Aunt Julie, me, Mom, and Aunt Sheri on the Empire State Building Observation Deck.

Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard...

On the afternoon of July 16, 2005, my hometown experienced light rain showers as a product of Hurricane Emily. Ironic, as this was the day my husband would marry me those five years ago. The past five years have been full of wonderful highs and not-so-great lows, but no matter what, we're in all of it together. We know that our foundation is not in ourselves, but in Christ.

I would go on and write very flowery sentiments to my husband on this page, but he's not big on public declarations and such. I will say one thing--I'm glad he's all mine!

To celebrate, we took The Company Plane to sunny (at times) California for a nice long weekend. Our accommodations were in Santa Monica at the beautiful Fairmont Miramar, right across Ocean Dr. from the beach and about two blocks from the Santa Monica Pier.

We were surprised to find that the temps were right about 70 degrees. Definitely not what we expected, but a wonderful surprise nonetheless (and let's face it, a perfect excuse to shop as I had packed for warmer weather.) Luckily, we were also a block from the Third Street Promenade which had a ton of my favorites (H&M, Anthro, Zara, J. Crew, etc.)

In-N-Out = Not all that, but not bad.
I was pretty lame on the photography front. From the looks of what we're wearing, I took pics on exactly one day.

One evening we drove up Highway 1 a few miles to Malibu for seafood. A couple of days we toured around LA and visited the Kodak Theater, saw the Walk of Fame, and all the other tourist places. This was our ride!

So fun and relaxing. We had no agenda, just slept in late, took naps when we wanted to, and played when we wanted to. I highly recommend Santa Monica. It's located near so many things, but has a good night life when you want to park at your hotel and walk close by.

Here's to many, many more years with the one I love!

July Celebration

I finally got around to downloading the pictures from the month of July off of my camera. To start the month off, my cousin got engaged right before the 4th! so of course we threw a family fiesta to celebrate.

For 20 years I was the only granddaughter on my mother's side of the family before my youngest cousin was born. We are so excited to welcome another girl into the family, especially this one. She's very sweet, and I hope they will be so happy together.


Cute couple!