More Reminiscing

Ahhhhhh!!! I might be signing up for three classes this semester!!! I might be insane and I might go insane...we'll see when I register tonight what I decide to do. So instead of thinking about the crazyness I might be signing up for, I'll do a little...

More reminiscing. This past summer my husband and I packed up our house, dogs, and a little lucky bamboo plant to drive across country from Las Vegas to move to New York City. Oh...and did I mention this was a mere three days after our wedding? Or was it two...that time is a blur. So here's a photo recap of our first week in New York City:

So our entrance into the city via New Jersey the night of July 7, 2007. It was about 10:00 or something and we had seen the fireworks coming in from Live Earth Concert.

After we unpacked the truck, lugged the dogs, our luggage, our camping gear, and the lucky bamboo plant up to our apartment...we crashed:
Here's our lovely little bare apartment...funny how it seems bigger now with our furniture and stuff in it. The kitchen:
We actually have a desk, a bookcase, and a file cabinet here now...crazy!
And we've managed to cram a California King into this bedroom...amidst other furniture AND the dog beds.
The next day or so we took a walk around our new neighborhood to see where we lived. This was mainly due to the fact that I hadn't even seen our apartment before we moved in (neither of us had seen it when we signed the lease papers...yikes!) and I had seen the neighborhood only once before.

Steps in Isham Park
Beautiful promenade in Isham
A street in my "hood"
And of course when we moved we sold all the non-essentials so we headed to IKEA for some necessities. Did I mention IKEA is in New Jersey?

This is New Jersey:
A common bridge scene (I won't tell you how long we were stuck in it):
Coming back to New York:
Love this one:
Ok...then a day or two later we got the dogs out hiking again in Inwood Park. We were so wiped out because we weren't used to the humidity coming from Vegas with a minus 500 humidity factor (ok not really...I'd be an awful weather person). But at least the scenery was beautiful:



I love trees

And we'll finish the week with our new kitchen table and a bottle of wine (the bamboo plant made it too).And of course Charlie is in the kitchen too:

The End!

Reminiscing

Well I now have less than a week until Spring semester starts back up and my free time is diminishing. Although I love to procrastinate so my blogging should pick up ;) In the meantime, I've avoided my computer at home almost like the plague and I don't have recent photos at work. So I'll be taking you back to some fun days before my husband and I became New Yorkers.

My husband and I met in Colorado while I was an undergraduate studying History and he was getting his Masters in Engineering (mechanical). My roommate and I were taking off to go to Wales for our Fall semester and my husband was one of our sub-leasers for our house for that semester. So we met, fell for each other, and then I took off for four months :)

The following summer we both graduated and I already had plans to go to Alaska to live with my sister and brother-in-law and help out with their new baby. So I took off again for a few months. Poor DH :( But then he decided that maybe Alaska would be a fun place to live and work so that fall I met him in Seattle and we drove to Alaska. Here are some photos we took of that trip...and I suggest that trip to anyone :)

This is Vancouver city in British Columbia as seen from Stanley Park. Yes...that Stanley (the Cup). I was so blown away by how beautiful the city is. I could have spent weeks and weeks there.


Oh...and did I mention we camped the entire way there too? Most of the time is was gorgeous...a little cold but gorgeous. Here's one of the sites:


My husband's dog is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and she loves water...the colder the better. She loved this campsite. (We hadn't gotten Charlie yet). Here's what entertained us for hours:





And we loved stopping at all the little pubs...I like how they are called pubs. This one was my favorite because of the owner chatting away at us and DH's embarassment at pronouncing Canadian Kokanee beer "co-caine":



Another fun pub or two:




One of the coolest things we did was detour to see an old Ghost Town: Barkerville. The best thing is that the whole town is still populated by actors...kind of like a Barkerville Theme Park. So all the old buildings you can go inside and the actors play their roles as who'd they be in the town. It was a lot of fun. I especially loved the town's church:





We visited the graveyard which is kind of a must see...if you are into that kind of thing. But while we were out walking (not at the graveyard) Anna decided to find a stick:



Still looking


Almost found it


Wow...she really is a (normally) pretty dog...seriously


And if you travel by car with an active dog...you know that "normal" drive-time doesn't come close to being how long it takes us to get places. This was a common scene every couple of hours.


And after a few nights of waking up with ice on our tent AND Anna...we entered Alaska.


If you've never been to Alaska...go!!






My views from the trip:






The End!

Snow and Movies

My husband got a great chance to go with some co-workers to Vermont next week to go snow boarding. I was invited too but with the two trips to Texas for my graduate studies in the next couple of months, I really couldn't afford the trip. But I am super excited for him. He grew up in Texas, went to undergrad in Alabama, and when he moved to Colorado (where we met) he fell in love with the snow and snow boarding. He's great at it too! He just goes right into a field of trees and can manouver so well. While I'll miss him I'm actually going to enjoy a little "chick" time by myself. Semester starts up next week and while it should be a pretty easy week, school-wise, I know I'm going to miss the freedom of not being tied to my computer 24/7. So I saw that PBS is having a Jane Austen marathon/festival thing and I have to say I am a fan of her books. Not for any "deeper" meaning or "intellectual" stimulation they bring...but that they are sheer fluffy fun books. So I am going to curl up and drink something warm and enjoy my freedom and DH can enjoy the snow with the boys.

Christmas Pictures

Ok, so uploading all the photos that I want from my brother's trip would be impossible so I will just post some favorites.

My husband and I at Times Square totally freezing.
This is my brother playing with the color accent thing in the subway.
And this is me playing with the color accent :)
So then I took the day off and traipsed around town with my brother. I never get to do this so I was excited to see places I haven't yet seen. Oh...and we were on the very southern tip of the island and it was so windy and cold.

This is me with the Statue of Liberity in the background.
I always thought the Statue of Liberty was all alone on an island but looking at it ...she's surrounded by stuff. Not sure what but it's kind of sad.Ellis Island. I am looking forward to maybe taking a tour there this summer. It was so windy and cold we couldn't bear getting on a boat.
Me being cheesy :)
This is the Peace Sphere that was located in the World Trade Center plaza fountain and pretty much came out unscathed. It's a pretty amazing site....especially after seeing the absence of buildings made by the World Trade Center.
From the pier where we were taking photos of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island...if you turn around this is what you'd see...
Also Downtown...I love the juxtaposition of old building against new...
I also like how Downtown has super narrow streets...not like Mid-Town where I work:
At the corner of Wall Street and Broadway you'll find Trinity Church. It's beautiful and slightly creepy all at the same time. Maybe because it was winter or because it's so crammed between buildings. I had fun playing with my camera settings and taking pictures:


Ok...we are off to watch the Bourne Ultimatum...I will post more later!!!

Happy New Year!!

I just realized that I didn't say Happy New Year!! I've been pretty bad at blogging recently...I'm in between semesters and I think my brain just turns off. I can't even spell normal words! Anyway...what all did everyone do for New Year's Eve?

Shockingly we didn't do anything spectacular our first New Year's as a married couple and in New York City...which was actually exactly what I wanted and it was wonderful.

I had to work New Year's Eve but my husband didn't. My normal subway transfer is at 42nd Street/Times Square and I just couldn't be bothered with the crowd so I took the train home from Grand Central. So fast...like twenty minutes and I'm home!!!

I get home and my husband had spent the day grocery shopping, cleaning, doing the laundry, making fajitas, home-made sangria, bought champagne, froze some grapes for me (my favorite!), and was all in all super. His undergrad University was having their bowl game that night so we watched Auburn University play the Chick-fil-A Bowl game (I wish they stop the promotion names...go back to normal Orange, Sugar, Rose, etc.). I curled up on the couch at about 11:45 when I realized the game was going to go into over-time and proceeded to fall asleep. My husband said nothing would wake me...not the fireworks on TV or the crowds cheering when Auburn won the game. I was perfectly content to sleep :) He said it was cute and we both thought all and all it was a perfect night :)

Achieving My Goals

Two of my goals or resolutions this year are to:

1) Do daily devotions

2) Find a church

A few years ago my mom sent all of us kids the Purpose Driven Life devotional. I have to say that I don't think any of us ever read it. But it's been on my mind recently because I really need to find a purpose...well, find His purpose for me. So my sister and I (it was really her idea) are starting the devotional together and I'm really excited :)

The other one is not as easy. My husband and I have been procrastinating trying to find a church. The ones in our neighborhood are all Catholic and isn't quite what we are looking for. He was raised Methodist and I was raised Baptist and then non-denominational. I have to say there is no right denomination but what you feel comfortable with (although I want a church that isn't too comfortable...one that makes me think and drives me to change). So this weekend as we were walking we found a Baptist church and thought we might try it out this Sunday. I know we will probably have to browse a bit before we find the right place for us to be...but we won't find it unless we look. Wish us luck!

Correlation

This Christmas I received a pretty nice bonus from my work that I wasn't expecting AND have done pretty well in school...another all A semester :) So my husband said I should treat myself to something. So I got a pair of cool boots I've been wanting...yay!! And I got an espresso machine. The machine (pictured above) takes pods (when I really can't be bothered) and grinds (when I want to tinker for a good shot). While in high school and undergrad I worked at various places as a barista and love love love coffee. So this is a super great treat for me.

Not that I don't love drip coffee but it seems like these days I don't have the luxery of waiting for a pot of coffee to drip drip and then drink a cup. So when I do take a to-go-cup it's sometimes annoying carrying purse, lunch, coffee, umbrella all while swiping my MetroCard AND balancing it on my lap on the subway.

I used to be in awe of people in Europe going to those little cafes, ordering a shot of espresso, shooting it down, and then off to work. Now I understand :)

Speaking of not enough time and caffeine....I read this today on Ideal Bite:

"Before the invention of the light bulb, people slept an average of 10 hours per night - today, the average is 7."

Ok...so now I know why I (and most of this country) am so caffeine addicted.