Happy Birthday to Me & Foster!

Foster and I share the same Birthday. I think that's pretty cool. Today he is 2 and I am 25.  I thought I would use a Jennie Burke writing style and make a list. Here are 25 things I love about my birthday and about my life at 25.

1. September is the best month to have birthday because it is Fall, my favorite season.

2. All the new shows always premiere on my b-day week.

3. I am a Libra.

4. I love that my birthday is on an even number day the 26th, this must be a Libra thing trying to find balance in the universe.

5. I share my b-day with my dog.

6.  I live in an awesome city that has the most delicious desert shops, if only I could decide which one I want to go to tonight.

7. I am going to see Spring Awakening tonight with my hubby, I love Broadway great surprise babe.

8. I have a wonderful husband who is off all weekend for my birthday.

9. Getting presents and mail are two of my favorite things and when you live away all of your presents come in the mail.

10. I think you are a true adult at age 25 because you can vote, drink, drive, (not simultaneously) should have a real job, and are financially independent (well except every time we call mom & dad for a bail out or to go to dinner.)

11. I take that back maybe next year I will be a true adult.

12. I have the best friends in the world.

13. I got a batch of chocolate chip cookies in the mail from my best friend.

14. A bunch of people wrote on my facebook wall. (this one is funny since I hardly ever get on facebook, but today I did.)

15. Since it is fall I usually get a new jacket and jeans from someone for my b-day. 

16. I adore jackets, Brian got me a new North Face fall jacket for another present.

17. My sister wanted to be the first one to wish me a happy birthday so she called me before she went to school at 6:50 am, and she was.

18. My other best friend sang happy birthday to me on my voice mail. 

19. I really like my job, getting to be around children all day is such a treat.

20. I am going to wear a cute dress tonight with cowboy boots. Why? Because I live in NY and not Louisville, people won't look at me like I am strange.

21. There are beautiful colors in the park to look at with all the changing leaves.

22. It is a rainy day, but lately I have been loving my curly locks hair.

23. My parents have taken care of me for almost half of their lives and I love them very much. Thank you for making me who I am at 25.

24. I am glad that I am not 30 yet and had to think of 5 more things to write.

25. Today is my Birthday, Happy Birthday to me.

Thank You!

I just wanted to say thank you to all of our wonderful friends and family who have been there for us over this difficult past month.  Thank you for all the cards and flowers they really do help to know that our friends are praying for us and thinking about us since we are so far away from home. There are not many people who can stay such good friends when your are hundreds of miles apart, but this not the case with our special group of friends. I wanted to send an extra special we love you and miss you to the: Dursts, Fowlers, Gardners, Scotts, Lloyds, Bachmans, Lauren, Tiffany, and Jennifer.  We can't wait to see y'all at Christmas time. 

WAKE UP...That Boy

Last week and for the next two weeks I have been hanging out with my second cousin Elaina. She is my cousin Stephen's little girl.  She is so much fun to hang out with and she has the most wonderful laugh that is so contagious.  Right now Brian is on an ortho rotation and is on call every Monday and Wednesday night.  Lately the hospital has been very busy and he only get about 2 to 3 hours of broken sleep. When he gets home on Tuesday and Thursday around 2:00pm he likes to take a nap, as you can imagine.  Elaina is 2.5 and she does not like to take naps so much because she is never tired, yeah right.  When you first meet Elaina she comes off as rather shy but once she gets to know you she is the complete opposite.  Even though she knows Brian's name she insists on calling him "that boy." When Brian got home from work on Tuesday he was very tired and laid down to take a nap but every time he closed his eyes Elaina would yell, "WAKE UP!"  She kept saying, "Tell that boy to WAKE UP!" We were laughing so hard and at that point I think Brian was slap happy so I tried to get Elaina to go down to the play room with me.  But of course she wanted that boy to go with us.  So we all went down to the play room and that boy snuck off and went back to bed.  Soon after Elaina said, "Where is that boy go?" So we had to go back up stairs and find him.  Brian was greeted with, "There is that boy, WAKE UP!" So much for his nap, but we had a fun day and our bed time was 8:00 pm that night. I guess this is what we can look forward to one day. We love Elaina and we are so glad that Stephen, Sylvia, and Elaina live in NYC now so that we will get to see them all the time.  

Elaina at the Park

Elaina Waking up That Boy

Eating Lunch

Go Madison!

While I was in Louisville last week my mom and I got to go to my cousin Madison's cross country meet.  She runs for Goshen Elementary School and my uncle Bryan is the coach. He actually only signed up to help at a couple meets but then there was no coach so he got a call and since he signed up to help he became the coach by default.  It's really funny because he has never ran track or cross country or coached it before. Madison ran 1.3 miles in about 10.20 minutes.  She got a medal for 37th place out of about 150 girls. Here are a few pics from the meet.

NFL Kick Off Concert

I have been away from the blog for a while because I went home for a week but now I am back. Two weeks ago Brian and I went to a free concert for the kick off of the NFL season.  It was an awesome event in Columbus Circle.  There were so many people and it was very hot but well worth the 4 hours of standing in one spot to hear three very talented performers.  When we got home we crashed. 

Natasha Bedingfield

Usher

Kieth Urban

Then on Friday night we hung out with Joe.  Joe is a second year resident and he always invites us to go out with him.  The night started out cool at a wine bar, the real reason Joe wanted us to come is because he was meeting a girl there who he had not seen in a while and he wanted us to be his out.  But then he invited his brother and another friend so he would have multiple outs.  Anyways, we soon ended up at a college bar close to our home and there were so many college students out because it was the first weekend for Columbia students to be at school.  Up north students still have the luxury of going back to school after Labor Day unlike in Louisville where kids start after the first week in August when it still feels like summer.  So Brian was having a lot of fun because he was like yeah this is like the bars in Lexington and i can still party like a college boy, to bad we don't have our kegerator from the Burkes yet, but they promised it to us one day :) The third, and last, bar we went to had beer pong.  Brian claims the beer pong is what did him in.  He took someone's pitcher (and never replaced it) and filled the cups on their side and then challenged a team to a game. Half way through I asked to throw a shot, and the other team wanted to know if they wanted it to count. Brian was like, "Yeah she can play it can count," and what do you know I made the shot, but they still lost by 2.  Maybe I should have been Brian's partner because girls can shoot just as good as guys.  It was pouring down rain on the way home, but we managed not to get wet thanks to the bartender who gave me some trash bags. 

Apt #425

So here it is at last. Several of you have been asking me to post pictures of our apartment. Sorry it took me so long but it is hard to fit everything from a 2 story, 4 bedroom house into a 550 square foot apartment. It's not perfect but we like it. Our building is great too. We have a door man, concierge desk, health club with a pool, roof deck, and reading solarium. We also have some wonderful shops, restaurants, bakeries, and dog parks where we spend most of our free time. Come visit us anytime but pack light.

View from the front door

Turn to the left

The bathroom around the corner

View to the right

The kitchen

Goodbye

Maryland: Crabs & Football

This weekend we went to Maryland for the holiday, rest, relaxation, crabs and football. This weekend was full of traditions.  First the annual UK vs UL football game.  Usually we are with our friends in Louisville for this wonderful rival game weather it be for football or basketball. Since we were so far away from Louisville we decided to go to our home away from home Brian's parents house in Maryland. Congratulations to all you blue blooded fans on your win. That's the difference between UK and UofL fans, only a UofL fan would say oh well maybe next year.  If UK lost all you would hear about is how they are going to dominate the rest of the season and all the bad calls that were made etc... It's so much more fun to be a CARDS fan even if they did lose. Another tradition, a crab feast in Maryland.  We had so many crabs we could only eat half of them. Here are some pictures from the weekend & we hope everyone has a Happy Labor Day.