A fun filled weekend with Aunt Marianne

This weekend my Aunt Marianne was in town visiting her son Stephen and her granddaughter Elaina and Sylvia.  I had the weekend off but Brian had to work so I tagged along with them.  On Friday night they came over to see my apartment and we went to meet some of the people Stephen works with on the set of Law & Order: CI.  On Saturday we spent most of the day strolling through Central Park. It is absolutely beautiful this time of year, but I can't wait until the leaves change a little more and the park is filled with Autumn colors. Saturday night Marianne bought us all tickets to see a new musical 13. The show was great. The entire cast was kids around the age of 13 and they were super talented. Remember when you were in middle school and everyday was the most important day of your life and every problem seemed like the end of the world.  This musical really transported you back in time to remember how hard it was to be 13.  After the musical we went to stand outside of the theater next to us where All My Sons is playing and we saw Katie Holmes & Diane Wiest coming out. On Sunday we all went out to dinner after church, I was so glad Brian was off work so he could go along with us.  Thanks so much Aunt Marianne for treating us all weekend and it was so much fun to see you.

A visit from the Austin Family

Last week Whitney and Waller Austin came for a visit.  For those of you who don't know Whitney, she is one of my best friend Megan's big sister.

Here we are at Megan's Bachelorette Party this summer

When Megan and I were in middle school we used to drive Whitney crazy.  We always followed her and her friends around, we wore her clothes and made her drive us around.  But now we can all hang out and fun together, too bad Megan could not be here but she is coming for a visit to celebrate the new year.  

Anyways, Waller is Whitney's husband and he has an amazing talent. He paints these awesome portraits on canvas from photographs.  He was invited to a benefit for the American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan so Waller took the opportunity and made some connections in the art community so he can sell his work and get commissions to create new pieces.

Check him out at: www.walleraustin.com

While they were visiting it was nice to talk with other people who were Republicans especially since the only thing on TV these days is election news.  Whitney was so amazed how much everyone in New York City seems to hate McCain and loves Obama. Everywhere you go there are huge Obama signs and buttons for sale on every street corner.  When we were at one of the street fairs the week prior there were people marching for McCain but the boos were so loud you could not even hear what the marchers were saying.  Whitney was so excited one day when she came home sporting a McCain button.  I said where in the world did you find that? I have been looking for McCain buttons since I saw hers and I have not seen one.  Here is a picture of Whitney wearing her Mac is Back button.

Weekend Update

I have been away from my blog for a while because I just didn't think I had anything that interesting to write about and everywhere we go I keep forgetting to bring my camera.  This weekend was fun though because Brian was off.  On Saturday we went to a tailgate put on by the Ortho Department for the Columbia Football game.  The food was so delicious they had the best baked beans we have ever had and you know they do say that those beans are good for the heart. Most people probably didn't even know that Columbia has a football team. There are about three times as many people at Male High School football games as there are at Columbia football games.  But we had a great time and it was the most beautiful day.  

On Sunday the Upper West Side was home to three street fairs.  So we went to the farmers market to get our produce for the week and then went to all the street fairs.  I love the smells of all the food they cook and looking at the neat crafts.  One thing that Brian and I do that is pretty funny is ask how much things are that we know we can't afford, but we pretend like we are interested in buying them any way.  Then when we walk away we are like can you believe that they wanted $400 for a mirror with tin tiles around it, but deep down if we had the money we probably would have bought it. I did get a few neat little things for Christmas presents. Those are the best places to get gifts because you can always find really unique things.  After going to three street fairs Brian said that he was done for the year on the street fairs.  I said OK, but in November we can start to go to the Holiday Fairs.  He looked at me and sighed.  This is why I really hope we meet some great friends soon so Brian will have a sports buddy and I will have a shopping buddy.  Or I could wait 'till Nikki comes for a visit and we could go to all the Holiday fairs in one weekend.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks.

On My Birthday after the show

Same night hanging out with my friend Vanessa

The next night I found these flowers laying on the street outside of the Blue Donkey Bar

Some friends at the Central Park Zoo

In Maryland last weekend

Foster living up to his middle name "Beckham"

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.