I Heart New York

We have been meaning to go up to NYC for a while to visit one of my oldest friends Serena who lives there. We FINALLY were able to do that the first weekend of December this year and we had a blast for the most part. Maybe I should say I had a blast and Jason had fun part of the time...

We flew in on a Thursday night and went to Serena's place and went straight to bed cause it was pretty late and Serena - who just got a job working for the Tyra Banks show - had to get up and work. We were also told to expect crazy loud construction outside our window at 7 am. So off to bed we went and we woke up the next morning at like 8 something to no noise whatsoever! They must have known we were coming and decided to keep it down. =)

The first day since Serena was working, we struck out on our own. I had never been to the city when it was the holidays and I wanted to see the huge tree in Rockefeller Center and maybe catch a peek of Matt Lauer and the gang. So we bundled up - it was about 30 degrees the whole time we were there - and went to get some breakfast at Dean and Deluca while we watched Al Roker outside doing some cooking bit for the Today show.


Then Jason took lots of pictures of the tree and decorations with his new awesome camera. Here are a couple...

Here is a picture of me in front of 30 Rock trying not to freeze. =)


So after we had some breakfast, saw some celebs and took in the beautiful Christmas decorations, we went to the MOMA. The last time we were in town they were renovating it so they had it moved to Queens and it was about 1/10 the size of the real deal. The new MOMA is awesome! They had so much awesome art. Tons of Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Matisse, Warhol, Pollock, etc. Their newest exhibit was this huge room where there was a circular couch in the middle and these movies playing on the walls around the couch. You were invited to remove your shoes and hang out on the couch for as long as you wanted and to just experience your surroundings. So we laid down for a while at the end to rest. They also had a Van Gogh exhibit going on so we got to see that. They had paintings from all over the world brought in. A couple I had seen at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, but they had the famous Starry Night painting that everyone knows and I had never seen it. Van Gogh is my fave so that was a nice treat.

After the MOMA we went up 5th Avenue, still admiring all the beautiful decorations, and went to eat at this place called Pop Burger. Serena suggested it and it was DELICIOUS. Really good burgers and fries. Yum. After that we walked down to Time Square to get in line at the TKTS booth for some half price theater tickets. We got tickets for Avenue Q and then went back to Serena's to crash for a bit.

That night we met Serena at a place called Vynl, which was sort of a retro diner type place with really good food. They had some of the best mac and cheese I have ever had. Then we walked over to the theater and watched Avenue Q. It was hilARious. It is unlike any show I had seen. First, most of the characters are puppets, but not like a puppet show. Like the people controlling the puppets are walking around with the puppets and talking for them, but some of the characters are just normal people. Second, it is about the most un-PC thing you have ever seen. Which, of course, lends itself to huge laughs.

After the show we went to the Divine Bar across from Serena's place and had dessert and then headed home around 1, which is when things started to go downhill. As soon as we got in bed, Jason started feeling bad. Next thing I knew he was in the bathroom 'disposing' of everything he had eaten that day. Long story short, he had a pretty bad case of food poisoning that kept him up all night and in the bathroom about every 20 minutes puking. I have never seen him so sick and felt so awful for him and totally helpless to do anything for him. I just tried to ply him with water so he didn't get dehydrated. By about 9 am he was up, but no longer upchucking, however he basically spent all day on the couch watching football. Not the worse way to spend a Saturday for him, but I think he would have preferred to be out and about. He told me to go on and do stuff without him though, and I had already planned to see another show without him anyway - he isn't a huge musical fan, can you believe it? - so I went and stood in line again for tickets to see Gypsy. Now for those who don't keep up with the current Broadway goings on (I am guessing that is about 99% of my readers), Gypsy was revived earlier last year with Patty LuPone starring and it won tons of Tony awards so I was really excited about it.

Before the show, though, Serena and I went to meet her friend for brunch at this place in Chelsea or maybe the Village. Can't remember and now I can't even think of the name of it! Wish I could, cause it was great. It had a fire place and a jazz band and just a really cozy feel to it. When we walked in it was pretty much empty, but they told us we would have to eat at the bar because they had no room for us. We are looking around obviously confused, but turns out they had a tour bus of French tourists coming in soon that would fill the entire restaurant. So we ate at the bar, which was still very tasty and had a good time chatting until I had to go to my play. I got in a cab and uptown JUST as the curtain was going up and the play was AMAZING. I love musicals and plays and when I see a really good one that just gives me goose bumps, there is nothing better in the world at that moment. I loved it.

So after the play I just ran by Dwayne Reed (NYC's version of CVS) and got Jason some sprite and crackers and headed back to Serena's. He was still feeling really crummy so we ended up cancelling our dinner plans and me and Serena went to this Mediterranean restaurant down the street where you get like samplings of hummus, artichoke dip, elephant beans and all kinds of delicious things that you don't see a lot of in Dallas and it was so dang good. I so wish I could find a place like that around here. It is so great to get to expand your horizons beyond your bubble when you travel, but then you are always reminded when you get home that, oh yeah, you live in Dallas where there is like one Greek restaurant and it is in Plano. Oh well. Just gives me something to look forward to for next time.

So that night we watched the Big 12 championship, which we wouldn't have gotten to watch had Jason felt better, so at least that was good right? The next day Jason still felt kind of crummy, but Serena had procured floor tickets to the Nick's game at Madison Square Garden and he wasn't about to miss that. So we met Serena's friend there and had a great time. I have never been that close to the action before and we were like five rows away from David Duchovney and Tea Leoni sitting with their two kids, as well as Spike Lee and his son. Pretty cool.

After the game we did a little window shopping around Macy's and Sak's and back up to Rockafeller Center to go to the top of the rock. It is a new observation deck at the top of that building sort of like the Empire State Buildings. So we went up to see that and then we walked back to Serena's and just ordered in food since Jason still wasn't 100%.

The next day, sadly, we had to leave. Jason still wasn't feeling super, so we just got up and went to the airport to try to get on an earlier flight home. I guess no one is flying cause all standby people got on the flight and there was tons of room to spare! So we got home around 5, got something to eat and I am pretty sure we were in bed by around 8 pm. Not sure what made Jason so sick, but he has made a full recovery and hopefully it won't be another 5 years before he gets to go again. Thanks Serena for being so hospitable! We love you!

Resolution I Promise!

Ok, so I realize I still haven't been very good about posting belly pics on here even though I promised I would be. I have had a lot of people on me about it so I am making a new resolution this year to post belly pics at LEAST every two weeks from here on out. I don't actually have any right now, not any new ones at least, but I will take some tonight and post tomorrow. Is it a deal? I also have not yet written my blog on our trip to NYC and I do have some pics from that so I will do that post today and then belly pics tomorrow. So stay tuned!

A little bit country, a little bit rock n roll

Well 2008 is coming to a close and every where I look I see another top 10 list for the year. Movies, books, music, people etc, everyone has an opinion on what the best things of the year were. So I got to thinking about what would make my top ten list if I were going to make one, so I decided I would do just that. This top 10 is going to be the top 10 songs that I loved this year and listened to over and over and over. My list is a little different, though. This is a list of songs that I personally discovered this year and does NOT mean that they were released this year. So if you read my list and think, 'man that song is OLD', well that's fine. It may be, but it was new to me this year so oh well. I do not claim to be very hip or up on music. =) Here goes!



Runners Up - I wanted to mention a few songs that didn't make the top 10 but were in the running because they also were loved this year. They were Cath by Death Cab for Cutie, Falling Slowly by Swell Season, Watching Airplanes by Gary Allen, and Gone, Gone, Gone by Allison Krause and Robert Plant. Now on to the official list...

10. Garth Brooks - Ireland
This was neck and neck with Watching Airplanes, but ultimately won out. This song is pretty old, and I used to be a huge Garth Brooks fan, but somehow I just never heard it. On our road trip to the river this year, KC and I played several rounds of iPod jukebox and she introduced me to this song. It had apparently been the theme song for the year before and so we listened to it several times in the car, on the river, on the way home, and I have loved it ever since.

9. Natalie Grant - Held
As most of you know, the beginning of 2008 started out a little shaky and there was a lot of pain in my life. This is a song about leaning on God in times of trouble and the lyrics are just beautiful. I heard Natalie sing at Prestonwood Baptist one Sunday and this song just got me. So I listened to this song a lot the first half of the year when I felt like I needed a little strength and help from above.

8. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
So in the past year or two I have read a bunch of historical fiction. A lot about Henry the 8th and French Revolution and also studied a lot about these periods in my Shakespeare class. So this song caught my attention because of the interesting thoughts on revolution and rulers, and besides that it is darn catchy. I have probably heard this song more than any other on the list simply because they played it on every radio station a hundred times a day, but somehow I never got sick of it!

7. Eli Young Band - When It Rains
Another one that I know came out a while back, but I reallllly loved this song this year. Going along with the theme of having some dark times, I felt comforted listening to the depressing lyrics. "Start out depressed, and everything comes as a pleasant surprise" =) Love it.

6. Mates of State - The Re-Arranger
Alright, so this is a band that I 'discovered' early this year by a strange sort of happenstance, but I guess it was just meant to be. I only have a few bands/artists that I would consider my favorites, but this band has now made my faves list. This song is the title song from their latest CD and I am sometimes guilty of putting it on repeat a few times before I play the rest of the album...not that the rest isn't also great. This song is also my default ring tone right now and it makes me want to never answer the phone!

5. Charlie Robison - El Cerrito Place
This song is wonderful, plain and simple. It is beautiful and slow and sweet and makes you want to grab your best guy or gal and dance. "I've been looking for you baby" over and over is so simple, but just gets me. It is a country song and my husband actually likes it so what does that tell you...must be good right?

4. Mates of State - Goods
Congrats to my new favorite band and the only band to make the list twice! The first song I heard by this band was actually a cover of Phantom Planet's "California", which is how I discovered them on my space in the first place. I liked that cover and so I listened to all their songs on their my space page. This song I just loved so much, I have no idea how many times I listened to it and made Jason listen to it before I broke down and bought just about all of their CDs. I now love all their music, but this is the song that really brought me to them. Thank you Goods.

3. Counting Crows - Cowboys
Adam and his band put out a new CD this year after a looooong time without a new CD with all new songs. They had a couple new songs here and there to tide us fans over between their 2002 Hard Candy and now, but this was very long awaited. This is my favorite song from their new album and I was really hoping to hear them play it at their show in September, but that didn't happen. Either way, this song is high energy and there are a couple of stretches of lyrics that are so good they take my breath away literally. Thanks guys for some new music finally!

2. Brandi Carlile - My Song
I got her CD because I loved the song The Story. But this is the song that I have sung so loud in the car passerbys must have thought I was screaming. It is another dark one that seemed to fit my mood so often in the last year and the lyrics are, literally, sharp. One of my faves? "If you only knew my mind was full of razors" Ugh, that girl can write.

1. Drum roll please.......

MGMT - Time to Pretend
This is another band that really impressed me this year and a LOT of the songs on their album are worthy of this list, but I just picked this one because it was the one I loved that made me buy the CD. The lyrics are almost funny and almost sad, but the music is so unique as is their style, it is nice to find a band that doesn't sound like every other new alternative band out there today. And not to diminish their talent by using a word like 'catchy' but this song is freakin catchy. Do yourself a favor and listen to it now.

Ok, well that is my list for the year. Feel free to comment away and let me know what you think. Do you think my songs are awful or awesome? What is your top ten? I am interested and would love to get insight on new music.

Crisis Averted!

Ok, so we have two fully functional cameras now. Jason busted out his fancy schmancy camera to take some belly pics of me over Thanksgiving and we also have a new converter for my camera so we are good to go. I now have no excuse not to be posting belly pics like crazy right? So here is the latest one. I was a little over 20 weeks at this point...


It's getting big! I am now strictly on maternity clothes - well pants and dresses at least. Good thing the 'flowy' shirt is in. It helps supplement my wardrobe.

I started cleaning out the guest room last night. We got rid of the old bed in there and now I just have to clean out the closet and stuff. There are a ton of old picture albums and notebooks and stuff that I found, it has been kind of fun going through them all. One notebook I found had all these poems I had written in it. Which is weird because a) I am not usually a huge poetry fan, mostly because I don't usually 'get' it and b) I don't remember writing them. Very strange, but made me just sort of laugh at myself. Some of them were kind of funny. I also lined up all the baby stuff we have already gotten against one wall. We are blessed with lots of people who love us, namely our parents and brother and sister, who have already started buying for our little bundle of joy. We have decided she will be quite spoiled, which is fine. =) I also had forgotten about the stuff I bought her at Disney World this summer so it made me all excited.

Tonight we are going to get our Christmas tree with the Reeds and then I am hightailing it up to Allen to my friend Tamra's house for book club. We read the first two books in the Twilight series. I am anxious to hear who is on Team Edward and who is Team Jacob. I am almost through the third book and went to see the movie this weekend. It was sort of cheesy, but I liked it and for the most part I liked all the casting. All the sets actually looked exactly like what I had pictured in my head. So they did a good job with that. =)

Alright, I'm off to the doctor. I have had a sore throat and need to get it gone before we leave for New York on Thursday!!

Sorry!

So, I keep getting requests for my latest belly pics and I was fully ready to take some pics and post them today. However, I have run in to a snag. My camera is dead. Under normal circumstances this would not be a problem for anyone with an electrical outlet. However, in our case you may remember that we purchased this camera while we were in Rome in May. So the plug for the charger only fits Italian outlets. We usually just use our handy dandy converter to plug it in, but I cannot find it ANYWHERE. We took it to ACL and that is the last time I remember using it so maybe we left it in the hotel or something, but I have looked all over and cannot find it. SO, basically unless Jason can find it somewhere I haven't thought of, I will have to go buy another one before I can take a picture of my ever growing stomach. And let me assure you, it is getting big. I swear just in the last couple weeks it has doubled in size. This baby is going to be HUGE! =)

Other than that, my friend Lacey had her baby Kiley and she is so cute! Got to see her for a little while a few days after they got home. She is so tiny! It is amazing how small they are at first. Then was my friend Tamra's birthday extravaganza with her husband Michael. They both turned 30 recently (welcome to the club!) and threw a huge bash at their huge house in Allen. She outdid herself on food and decorations and we got to play pool on the new table that Michael built from scratch by hand. That's right, all by himself...he's very handy.

This past weekend was spent Christmas shopping and wrapping presents and writing Christmas cards. We are going to be out of town every weekend from now until 2009 so I had to get a lot done. Still have a lot to do but at least I got a chunk of it started. Where are we going to be every weekend you ask? This weekend is Thanksgiving in Tyler, next is a visit to New York City to see my friend Serena, next is Christmas with the extended family in Tyler, then in Tyler again the weekend after that for Christmas with the immediate family, then the next weekend is Christmas in Norman, then New Years in Beaver's Bend. Whew! I am tired just typing that! Should be fun though, and then it will be all about baby from then until April! =)

Well I hope everyone is doing great and I promise there will be belly pics soon.

It's a Girl!!!

Yes that is right. We had our 18 week sonogram yesterday and we were informed that everything looks great and that we are indeed having a little girl. I am so excited!! I had gotten to a point where I didn't think I cared either way, but I think secretly I was still hoping for a girl. I mean I really don't know what to do with a boy and I just think Jason would be so good with a girl! So we are really excited and are just trying to narrow down a name now! We have a bunch that we like, but I want to have it picked sort of soon so I can put it in her room and all that good stuff. Now it is time to start shopping for all things pink! =)



And as promised here is your very first belly shot of my stomach! This was taken about a week ago and I feel like I am already way bigger now!






I promise to try to be really good about updating the blog with any new info and pics of my ever growing stomach! Thanks for everyone's prayers and kind words over the last few days. Your excitement gets me even more excited (if that's possible!). I love you all and can't wait for you to all meet our little angel!

I'm back...

Sorry I have been really bad about writing lately. I have been meaning to start doing belly shots and stuff so people can start to see how big I am getting, but I keep forgetting and then in turn don't write anything in my blog. But I took my first belly shot last week and as soon as I get it uploaded you will be the first to see it. So for now I just thought I would take a moment to let you all know what has been going on in my life. Honestly it isn't too exciting, but here goes.

This fall my friend KC and I have been taking Italian lessons. Some of you may know that I took Italian for travelers last Spring in preparation for our trip to Italy. It came in super handy over there and I really enjoyed learning it, as opposed to Spanish, which for some reason just never excited me much. Maybe because I live in Texas and everyone seems to know Spanish and I want to be different! =) Anyway, KC was nice enough to take the Beginning Italian class this fall with me. It is just a continuing education class at SMU and we go once a week. E molto bene! =) So I spend some of my spare time studying and making flash cards like the nerd I am so I can try to really learn it. I am sure most people have a 'things to do before you die' list, and on mine is to be able to really speak another language. I can get by ok in Spanish, but I want to be fluent in Italian. I have a VERY VERY long way to go, but hey, everyone starts somewhere right?

In keeping with the perpetual student theme, another thing I have been doing lately is studying for the GRE English Subject Test. Most of you probably know that one day I want to be an English Literature professor in a college. But to do that I have to get my Masters, at least, if not my PhD. And the plan for Jason and me has been to move to Austin in the next couple of years, so the dream would be to get in to UT's PhD program. However, it is SUPER competitive and you have to take the GRE and the English Subject Matter test. So there is a practice test online that you can take, and basically I did terrible. I mean maybe better than the average person only because I have an English degree, but way worse than the average applicants score to get in there. So I bought a Princeton Review study guide that tells you all the things you really need to know to do well on this test. Basically, I must know the Illiad and the Odyssey, which I am pretty sure I was supposed to read in high school but didn't, and then lots of poetry (which has never been my strong suit), some Shakespeare (this is my ONLY strong suit) and lots of novels that I have, of course, never read. I made a list of every literary source mentioned on this test and there were like 200 titles on there. Out of those I felt that I really knew about 8-10 of them. Pretty sad for an English major no? So I have bought the Illiad and the Odyssey, as well as the Cliff's notes to the Illiad and the Odyssey and I am beginning to understand why I didn't read them in high school. They are LOOOONG. Anywho...they only give the test three times a year, so my goal is to study really hard and take it next fall. Wish me luck!

Next up, and most important, of course, is the baby. My stomach has doubled in the last couple of weeks. For the longest time you couldn't even tell I was pregnant. Well now that is not a problem. I think I still could get confused for just being fat, but every day I swear it is more and more just a huge belly. I have two doctor appointments this week. The one on Wednesday is where we get to find out the sex of the baby! I cannot wait. The one on Thursday is just my normal checkup. I am sure I have gained a good ten pounds since my last visit. I feel gigantic. I promise my next post will be with belly pics and letting everyone know if we are having a little boy or girl!

This past weekend was fun. We went down to College Station with a bunch of our friends. Friday night we all went to eat at Wings N More, but being as chicken wings is one of my huge food aversions, it wasn't as good to me as normal. The onion rings were very tasty though as always. Saturday I had a delicious Snicker's Latte from Sweet Eugenes and then we had lunch at Fitzwilly's followed by some shopping on Northgate. Our tickets for the game were pretty cool. They were on the alumni side so we were in the shade and got to sit the whole time. The only down side of that is that no one does any of the yells or really gets excited unless there is a really big play. We got our butts kicked, but that was expected so we weren't too sad. Dinner was at La Bodega. They have the tastiest burritos and I hadn't had one in forever. Really after that we went to bed and left early the next morning. Jason and I got back in town around 1 and went and bought a bed. We had been debating about what to do with the nursery and guest bedroom, so we finally decided to move our current bed in to the office and get a new king size bed for ourselves. We have wanted one for a while and so we just went and got one. We will probably get rid of the bed we have in the guest room to make way for the nursery!

Sooo, that is all I can think of right now. As soon as we know if we are having a boy or girl we can really get down to planning for it and deciding how to decorate and such. And with the holidays coming up I know we will be SO busy with everything. Next post...all baby news!