Karen + Matt

My AMAZING 25th Birthday!!!! =)

2011-04-25T21:36:00.007-04:00

Just like any other birthday, I made sure to celebrate it multiple times! Happy 25th to me!

The weekend of my birthday, I had a classmate happy hour at the Burrito Bar in Brooklyn, went to dinner with a group of friends in the city to a pizza place with GF pizza, Karen Nelli came to visit, we painted pottery at the "Painted Pot" in Brooklyn, and Matt and I went out to dinner and to the Harry Potter exhibit in Times Square! Check out some pictures here!

I also got some great gifts, including the new Justin Bieber CD from Karen (YES! haha), some awesome Vera Bradley stuff from my family, some fun things from Kim (including Peeps), and a UKULELE from Matt!!!!! Sooo fun! =)

Of course the greatest gift is having friends nearby to celebrate. A great group of friends joined me for my "Amazing Birthday Race" that many of you contributed to as well! Basically the race is a photo scavenger hunt throughout NYC with clues all about the birthday girl! They learned about me via questionnaires that friends and family filled out. It was such a blast! Even in the pouring rain!!!! Here I've shared some pictures from each team! Oh, and for the teams that didn't have me, they got a picture of me on a stick that HAD to be in their pictures! =)

The detour...I wasn't allowed to know about it. Even from my team. Each team had to make me a birthday card with things they had collected along the race. Some VERY creative cards came out of that! They presented them to me at the end of the race, which ended at Chipotle! =)

Also, just like the show, there was a roadblock and a detour. The roadblock, unfortunately, was about my least favorite word in the English language. The "M" word. Any picture we got with our team and something "M" we got 2 points. =)

Take a picture with a Glee CD/DVD, "M" word (rain!), and 25th street (because I'm 25)

Take a picture in the Disney Store with all the princesses, in Little MissMatched looking dizzy, and with a margarita!

Take a picture with a subway musician, get 3 people to do a kickline with you, with a Glee CD/DVD, with "Balto" a dog statue in Central Park (because of Rocket and Finn)

Take a picture of 10 strangers holding hands in front of the LOVE statue in midtown, in Little MissMatched looking dizzy, with someone wearing Sox or Bears gear, and a softball uniform.

My team won by 4 points! We got t-shirts and medals! Woot woot!!!!!

Overall, it was a FANTASTIC birthday! Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes and I hope this post finds you well! =)

The Most Magical Place on Earth! =)

2011-02-28T18:41:00.006-05:00

Well, if you've been on any sorts of social networking sites or have heard from us in the last month or so, it's clear that we were headed to Disney World!!!!! It was a BLAST! It went by SUPER fast, we were CRAZY exhausted, and LOVED our time there!!!

Now it's back to the grind...Matt's back at work and I started my final clinical affiliation today! 10. more. weeks. =)

Since I could probably go through a painfully detailed description of our trip, I decided I'll throw a few highlights in here, and provide you with links to the LOTS of pictures I took! =)

Highlights

- Our resort was great. We spent little time there, but it was nice. We had a newly renovated room and the resort was New Orleans themed.
- The weather! Not a drop of rain, limited clouds, and mid-80s allllll week!
- The DEAL! My friend Ashley from high school hooked us UP!
- Being able to hang out with Ashley for the first time in a long time!
- Going to all 4 parks.
- Park Hopper passes - they are awesome. We definitely maximized our stay.
- Celebrating our anniversary! Got some free goodies and a lot of "happy anniversary's!" since I wore the button they gave us.
- The food. Delicious! Matt's pick: Flying Fish Cafe, Karen's Pick: Citricos
- How awesome Disney was about accommodating my food allergies. I did not get sick ONCE because of their care and effort!
- Fast passes. We worked the system and rode as much as we could every day, thanks to the fast pass! (sometimes we even rode things twice!)
- Hanging out with my husband in the most magical place on earth!
- Meeting Minnie and Mickey!
- Goofy and Matt playing rock/paper/scissors over me! Matt won! Phew!
- Chip and Dale re-inacting our wedding ceremony.
- Toy Story Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios.
- The new Pirates of the Carribbean with Jack Sparrow. Good improvement to the ride!
- How bad our jungle cruise tour guide was - it was kind of entertaining. lol.
- The safari at Animal Kingdom...the animals were active and ready to safari! Especially a rhino right next to our vehicle.
- The Everest ride at Animal Kingdom! We rode that sucker twice! It was awesome! and had a yeti!
- Magic Kingdom. Need I say more?
- Electrical Parade...and the other parades...they were all fun.
- Goofy, Pluto, and Stitch having a dance party in Tomorrowland dancing to Black Eyed Peas and Justin Beiber.
- Epcot - had a lot of characters to meet, and delicious food to eat!
- Riding Splash Mountain - being in the front row and getting SOAKED, when we really didn't want to get wet. haha.
- The GF brownies.
- The Margaritas in Mexico in Epcot.
- Peter Pan!
- Finding my family's brick in front of Magic Kingdom
- Capturing the Beast and Belle kissing on camera.

OK I could go on for a long time... Here's just a few of the many highlights from our trip. Enjoy these and the pictures! If you want to see more, check out my facebook album, and/or my picasa album.

Enjoy, and we hope all is well with all of you! =)

Hello 2011!

2011-01-16T21:27:00.010-05:00

2011.

Can you believe it? Another year!

We had a great Christmas here in NYC. Although I had to work, we made the best of it. We woke up and Matt made us eggs and bacon! Then we opened our stocking gifts, and he drove me to work! Holidays are awesome in the city, you can drive with no traffic! I went to work, and Matt and our neighbor Katina picked me up, and we headed near Union Square to eat some delicious Tapas! After dinner we headed home, Matt and I opened gifts, then Katina came over for some homemade brownies afterwards! My favorite gift from Matt was my new barefoot running shoes, among a bunch of other fun things! Matt's favorite gift from me was a blazer. It was a great Christmas, though we missed our families!

We made a pseudo last minute decision to head home to Chicago over New Years to celebrate Christmas with my family. We missed Matt's family but were glad to at least have seen his parents over Thanksgiving.

We arrived Thursday night and left Sunday evening, for a family filled, holiday filled weekend, where I also had the opportunity to see some friends, too! Not to mention that Sunday was our 2nd Anniversary! Happy Anniversary to us! Time sure does fly. We didn't do anything special other than get some delicious dessert from Wildfire! We are going to go on an anniversary trip in February though... =)

'Christmas' was fun! My family tried to reenact Christmas day. It was great. We opened gifts and I got lots of great things! =) Matt also enjoyed his loot, especially his nerf guns! We also went to see the Hart's new house! It's HUGE and they're really making it look great! It was so nice to see them. We miss having them live so close. Our cousins came up for "cousin family Christmas" and we celebrated New Years and yet another Christmas with them!

(my aunt MADE the girls an Alice and a Cinderella dress! Boy did they LOVE them.)

I also had the chance to hang out with some friends who I miss dearly! I even got to see my friend John who has been serving in the Peace Corps for around a year and a half now. He's been in Tonga, and I follow his blog quite closely! He was home for a little while and he brought a present! He gave me a bag of kava root, and a cup made of a coconut! He told me kava was mixed with water and filtered and people in Tonga have a ritual and sit around and drink it with others often. He told me a few things; it'll make you sleepy, your mouth will tingle, it'll look like mud, and it tastes bad. Awesome. haha. I brought it back to NYC expecting all of my neighbors to join in and try it with me. Only one was brave enough...Sameer. We drank it and our mouth did get numb! It did look like mud and it didn't taste tooo bad. =) Thanks John for the experience!

Nothing else is new. Matt and I are just working away! Clinic is going well, but I still find it hard to get used to working...especially in midtown, NYC. haha.

I hope all is well with you and yours and that you enjoy this post. Maybe one of my new years resolutions should be to blog more? We'll see. =)

The coolest advent calendar EVER.

2011-01-16T21:09:00.005-05:00

Well, I dropped the ball again.... here we are in the middle of January! My how time flies!

At the end of November, we received a package from the Harts that turned out to be quite the surprise! Since we wouldn't be home for Christmas this year, they came up with the creative and fun idea that they would send a homemade advent calendar....which I will NEVER forget!

Here are some highlights! We got a bunch of homemade crafts and things including snowflakes, a string of ribbon we ended up using to hang up our Christmas cards on, and poems and drawings written by Zoe. We also got some snacks, like dark chocolate covered almonds, crackers, and hot cocoa! We also got some piano books and things too. Such a thoughtful gift that Matt and I looked forward to opening everyday from Dec 1 - Dec 25.

Thank you guys for such a thoughtful and great gift. It was really great to have being away from everyone for the holidays!!! I'm hoping to blog about the rest of the holidays soon......

Even Taxi Horns Seem to Harmonize...New York at Christmas!

2010-11-30T19:46:00.012-05:00

Hi everyone! =) Are you ready for a LONG post!?

It must be known by now that I've been horrible at keeping up at this thing! A lot has happened since my last post...and it's Christmastime in NYC!!! =) It's the season of lots of fun decorations, visitors, and great food! =)

Let's back up a bit...On November 23rd I finished the didactic portion of my doctoral education. HUGE step! We had a little moving on ceremony, and my class did plenty of celebrating! Matt came to the ceremony...I have a feeling he's more excited than me!!! I currently am off for 2 weeks (from school, not work!) until my next clinical affil starting on 12/13. BUT I have a comprehensive exam on 12/10 that will consume most of my time studying until then...

Matt is doing very well. Working hard, liking his job, and busy hanging out with friends. Work for me is going GREAT! I'm learning a lot and enjoying every minute. I have been in the Christmas spirit for a LONG time. I'm glad people are finally catching up to me! haha! I've not only been working at Radio City...I've had the opportunity to do other events as well. I covered the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade rehearsal. Here's some shots from that...

Happy birthday, Jill! =)
And Olivia! =)

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was a BLAST. Matt's parents came in for the weekend and we had a lot of fun! We saw the balloons for the parade get blown up, we saw the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, saw the sights, lots of decorations, went to Macy's, and had some delicious food!

Thanksgiving was very NYC-esque... Our neighbors welcomed their new baby Olivia into the world on Tuesday 11/23! With that, a few members of Mandi's family came in to town. Matt's parents brought the turkey from Ohio, and us, Mandi's family, and our other neighbor Katina all made our share of food. Mandi's family was even super awesome enough to make me my OWN portions of food that were me-friendly...which I was SUPER greatful for! (For those of you who don't know, due to some health issues, I am now eating gluten and dairy free.) I was ambitious enough to make myself a GF/DF pumpkin pie. It was DELICIOUS!!!!!!! =) The reason our Thanksgiving was so unique was not only the mix of people, but also the setup. The dogs were kept in the bedroom by a gate, and all of the food was set up in our apartment, with the front door propped open. Across the hall at our neighbor's apt, the door was also propped open, and all of the seating was over there. It was fun. Then, I had to go to work... Due to Thanksgiving being the lowest traffic day in NYC, Matt and his parents picked me up after work, we parked in the city, roamed Times Square, and toured the city by car. It was awesome. All in all it was a great day. =)

This sure is the season for visitors! My Mom is coming this weekend, my cousin Candace is coming 2 weekends later, and my friend Maggie is coming the day after Candace leaves! It's sure going to be a great season. Glad to see family and friends especially with us not coming home for Christmas. A cool job has it's price I guess... =(

Last night we went to one of my favorite things in the winter. It's called Winter's Eve and it's a little festival celebrating the arrival of winter. It's a simple thing, but it's fun. Good food from places around the city for pretty cheap, street and storefront entertainment, and of course, lots of Christmas lights! We enjoyed ourselves, but missed the Harts, who introduced us to this festival 2 years ago. We miss having them so close.

Since we couldn't come home for Christmas this year, Matt agreed to get his first real tree! (We've had an artificial 3 ft tree the last 2 years!) I was sooo excited! We went this past weekend to pick it out and I've been online shopping to prepare for the tree's arrival. =) Here's how the place turned out!

Thanks for reading! My goal is to post more often this month...especially because the Harts (specifically Zoe and Lauren) sent us a super awesome advent calendar, and we'll have to document it's progress! =)

Hope all is well with you and yours. Have a GREAT December! =)

The Open Road...and so much more!

2010-09-15T21:19:00.009-04:00

We're back...again. Hopefully I won't stray away for a long time...because we have a lot of catching up to do! So even though there's been a TON that has gone on during the last few months, I'm going to try and make this short and sweet, with lots of pictures. For more pictures related to this blog post, you can check out my facebook album (especially pics 124-194).

My good friend Karen now works at SJU in Philly! She's so close! She came to visit one weekend...and we had a blast! =)

Our friend Joe had us all sign up for the "Spartan Race" for his birthday. A 5K course with 12 or 13 obstacles. It was challenging, especially since I just got a cold...but it was FUN! Never thought I'd climb under barbed wire, that's for sure! Look at how dirty I am! And the other pic is with our friend/neighbor Sameer and his son, and the birthday boy Joe.

Clinic FLEW by! It was a lot of fun and I learned a LOT! Before it ended, Matt and I had the opportunity to go on the clinic's annual trip to Six Flags! It was fun!

Clinic ended and I had a nice little break. Matt took some time off and we road-tripped to the Midwest to see family and friends. It was SO much fun to see everyone that we miss so much! Even the dogs had a blast...and were GREAT little travelers in the car!

The pups were worn out with all the space and grass to run around in NF, Ohio! We all enjoyed the relaxation and warm weather! It was great to see the family and also take advantage of Dairy Queen... =)

Random comment - Finn's seizures seem to be under control! He had a change in food and is on some medications...and is doing well! =)

In IL we got to see a lot of family and a lot of friends. We even had puppy play dates. We also had the chance to see the Hart's soon to be new home and their new town (and even an apple orchard!). We celebrated Maya's and Mike's birthdays (Sept 2nd) and even brought presents for Paxton and Dad's birthdays (Sept 26th). HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!! =) There was lots of good food including deep dish pizza, the Dairy Bar, and multiple trips to Caribou. I also ran a race in Chicago-land, where I actually placed 3rd in my age group (out of 9...but STILL!) and got a prize! Woot!

On our way back through, we stopped in Toledo and saw a lot of our friends at the park. It was SO great! It's also so fun to see the cute new additions and how much they have grown! Conor is getting so big, and we luckily had the chance to meet little 3 wk old Mason! It was so great to see our friends. We miss them so much, and it's especially hard in the fall when they are tailgating and enjoying UT football without us!

Also on our way back through, Aunt Kathy cut my hair! And she did a fantastic job! I'm super pleased with it. Here's a windblown dorky pic of me, but I think it's a pretty good picture of the hair. Layers for the first time EVER and bangs for the first time in like 10 years. I love it. THANKS KATHY!

Also, if you haven't heard yet, I got a job this fall...I am officially an Assistant Athletic Trainer for the NY cast of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. It'll be a busy fall but I'm so excited for this opportunity!

Well, if you've hung on this long, thanks for checking in, and leave comments! ;-) I'll try and not make it so long before the next post! Until next time...

...and we're back!

2010-07-18T21:30:00.006-04:00

My apologies for a LONG hiatus from the blogging world. I'll try and sum up the last month and a half with many pictures, and hopefully just a few words!

I finished my summer semester (YAY!) and had a week off. I headed home to Chicago and hung out with family and friends, celebrated Courtney's 4th birthday, and Wendy's graduation, and really had a blast. It was fun to see all my nieces and nephew together, and see the Harts just a couple weeks after they'd left NYC.

After my awesome trip to Chicago, I took a bus to Toledo where I got to hang out briefly with awesome friends! I also got to meet the new additions to the circle of friends, Conor (Ryan and Jill's little guy) and Mitchell (Kraig and Mandy's little guy). We also ate some awesome food. Then, Megan and Ben drove me to the airport to pick up Matt! We all hung out and spent the night at Matt's parent's house, then they left and Matt, Finn and I hung out in Ohio for the weekend! It was also family filled and fun, and we also did a fun dinner cruise with Matt's parents in Pittsburgh! =)

Our social calendar has been busy lately! Lots of fun with friends and events! The summer is super fun in NYC, and we can't believe it's already halfway over!!!! Ah! Here are pictures from a BBQ dinner with some PT friends and a Brooklyn Cyclones game! We also painted our apartment! There's a funny picture of us that I made Matt take with me documenting that we had finished!

We also have become really good friends with our neighbors. We threw a rooftop BBQ bash for the 4th of July/Sameer's birthday! It was a lot of fun, with delicious food mostly prepared by Mandi, and a yummy Costco chocolate cake! haha. It was so fun and we could also see 2 of the barges of the NYC fireworks from our roof! So that was sweet!

We have also been going to off-leash hours with them with the pups in Prospect Park. The dogs LOVE it!!!! It also gets us out of bed early on the weekend and tires the dogs out. Check out the out of focus video of off leash hours. Here's us walking home with our neighbors and their dogs! The pups have been good minus Finn having his 2nd seizure since we got him. Vet didn't see a reason to put him through any more tests at this time, but if he has another...that's a different story. =(

This weekend, I accomplished a goal of mine. To run a race! I DID IT! I'm so proud, and it was really fun! It was a 4 mile race in Central Park. I finished in 40:30 even with 3 water stops and 2 or 3 bouts of walking 20 feet or so up hill because it was super hot and hilly! I consider that a really good time, for me anyway!!!!! Matt was at the finish line cheering me on. That was so great to see him there!!!!! This picture was taken right after I finished - hence my very exhausted expression! =)

Life is overall great. Clinic is awesome, and I'm learning a ton. I obviously am having a hard time adjusting to working 40-hour weeks and still maintaining my social life. HAHA. I mean, it took me a month and a half to write a blog! Matt is doing well and still really liking his job! So, life is good! Again, I apologize for the delay, and I hope this finds you well! Also, wanted to say "happy birthday" and "happy anniversary" to all that have celebrated in the last month and a half! There's a lot, so sorry for the generic wishes! =)

Thanks for sticking with me in this long post!

We love comments! =)

It's made of Owl...hooo hooo!

2010-06-10T15:09:00.005-04:00

Well, I've done it again. This time a lot less complicated and thankfully NO SURGERY! Phew. Just a splint for 3 more weeks, then we'll see from there. Life is interesting without an opposable thumb...

Candace came this past weekend for a little less than 2 days. For such a short visit, we sure got a lot in!

We spent Friday night in Times Square, ate some delicious pizza from a place that Sarah suggested. It was great! We looked around,went to Bryant Park and got some delicious cupcakes! We even thought we had a celebrity sighting - a girl from SNL. We tried to follow her but realized we followed the wrong girl. Whoops. hahaha!

Saturday we showed Candace around Brooklyn. We walked half of the Brooklyn Bridge, went to Brooklyn heights to see the promenade, and eat. We also bought Broadway tickets at the tkts booth for 50% off! We ended up getting 1st row mezzanine seats to "Promises, Promises" with Kristin Chenoweth (original Wicked cast, and is in Glee) and Sean Hayes (probably know him as Jack from Will and Grace)!!!! It was an AWESOME show. Not only amazing singing and dancing, but the show was hilarious. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. There were times I was near tears laughing so hard! Before the show, we walked around Rockefeller Center, 5th Avenue, and Central park.

Overall, we had a super fun weekend! Can you tell? Here is some candy we spotted at Toys 'R Us' "Candy Land." We totally couldn't pass up these "Grillz!"

I also did awesome on my finals this week! I'm officially done with classes until fall! Now to enjoy my 10 days off with family and friends...and come back to 9 weeks of clinic!

Happy Memorial Day! =)

2010-06-01T16:42:00.007-04:00

Happy Memorial Day everyone! I hope you had a great weekend and spent some time reflecting on why we celebrate the day. =)

We had a fun weekend. It was also relaxing! On Friday, Matt got out of work early and I met him for lunch before my big surprise date. I took him to a LOST exhibit on the Upper East Side. It was really cool and fun! We saw a lot of original props, got a free souvenir book, and there was a book that was there and explained everything. It was also FREE! It was great! We also had Jamba Juice! Mmm...

Also this weekend we went to the Brooklyn Promenade and scoped out the new park they are building. They are building 5 different sections, and the first park is done. It's called Pier 1! And no, the store is not there! haha. It has a lot of green grass, and has a gorgeous view! Not to mention it's by the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory - which is SOOO good. =)

We also got together with 2 sets of our neighbor friends, Mandi and Sameer, and Katina and Joe to have a rooftop BBQ! It was a HUGE success! And I was the grillmaster! It was a blast. We were up there from 4 o'clock until about midnight. It ended with us all eating pickles pretty much. Long story. haha! The whole party was fun, and there was a lot of delicious food to be had! The day was PERFECT weather wise, and the view from the roof was great! We could even see the Empire State building!
Here are the rooftop views...

The rest of our weekend was pretty low key, and we're already missing the Harts. =)

Back to the swing of things! Hope all is well with you all out there!

Comments...=)

Bittersweet.

2010-05-24T23:45:00.005-04:00

This weekend was fun, yet exhausting! I was expecting it to be that way. The Harts were leaving, after all! So we had to pack in as much fun as possible in before they left. On Friday, they met up with us here in Brooklyn, to watch my softball game! It was awesome to have them there! I could hear Zoe cheering me on all the way at 3rd base, with her waving her leaf "flag." She also said this game was not what she expected - she expected something indoors, with seats, and without balls flying everywhere. HAHA! Matt and I brought Rocket and Finn along, they all enjoyed meeting Finn for the first time! My team, Crescendo, won! Woohoo! We're shooting for a league championship for the second year in a row this year! =)

Saturday we did errands in the morning then headed up to Harlem. We of course fit in one last Harlem coffee date, and hung out at Best Yet - a grocery store that has a cool hang out place with couches and everything! Matt also got a smoothie there to fit his non-coffee drinking needs. =) We had a blast. Then, we went back and hung out for a bit, took Zoe and her friend Elisabeth to the cupcake shop. When we got back, it was time for dinner - and their downstairs neighbors invited us for some good food. =) Too soon after that, we had to say goodbye to the girls (Lauren, Zoe, and Maya), because we wouldn't be seeing them before they fly back to IL. It was sad. =(

In other news, Rocket and Finn are getting along really well! I've almost caught them cuddling a couple of times! Here's my attempts at getting good pictures of the 2 of them. So far we think getting him was a great decision. We love Finn, and Rocket really REALLY loves him - he wants to play with him ALL the time (no exaggeration!). They are fun loving pups! Thanks Steph and Megan for their care package! hahaha!

I'm off to bed in order to be ready to head up to Harlem tomorrow to help Mike and his Dad and brother pack up the moving truck. We sure are going to miss them!!!!!!!!!!

Comments are great. =)

Family, Friends, and Finn! =)

2010-05-16T23:30:00.007-04:00

This weekend sure was a busy one!

Friday we went up to Harlem to hang out with the Harts and grill out! =) I went up a little early to catch Starbucks happy hour though... We all sure enjoyed that! We had a great time just hanging out, Mike did a great job grilling up the BBQ chicken and asparagus! It was a delicious and fun evening!

Saturday was the big day! Matt and I woke up really early, got in the car and went to Jersey to pick up Finn! Rescue Road Trips is the coolest thing. These people do this week in and week out...helping people save animal's lives! It's truly an amazing thing! Finn arrived with them (he was in the smaller truck! When they handed him to Matt, Finn instantly started licking him! He took to us so easily, and just wanted to RUN!!! He's a chubby little guy, but he's pretty active!

Matt dropped me and Finn off at the park, and went and picked Rocket up and met us back at the park. Rocket and Finn sure hit it off right away!

Rocket seems to think that Finn is his 24 hour play mate...and Finn gets a little fed up every once and a while. Otherwise they've been getting along great. They are just trying to figure things out. We also think Finn is wondering why our apartment isn't bigger, and also, where the grass is. We've taken a couple long walks...including one to the Brooklyn Public Library steps! Oh, Finn really likes Matt. =)

Last night we went to the PT semi-formal. It was a lot of fun and a lot of my classmates and professors were there. It was fun to get all dressed up and just have a good time with friends.

Time is Flying

2010-05-14T00:12:00.006-04:00

Since I've been slacking on the blog posts lately, here are some highlights of the last few weeks in efforts to be up to speed in blogging our life! =)

A couple weeks ago, Lauren and Zoe braved the ridiculous weekend MTA service advisories and made it down to Brooklyn on a beautiful summer-like day to grab a Starbucks then head to a handmade craft fair, where her friend Karina was selling her very cute kid/baby stuff from her business Windows of Agate. =) It was at the Brooklyn Lyceum, it was a very cool space, and it was PACKED with cool art, crafts, people, and delicious food. It was a short outing, but fun! =)

Last week I met Matt at work and we walked around the area and had a date night! We walked through Chelsea Market (cool!), grabbed dinner, did some shopping, and got dessert! We also checked out the Highline Park for the first time. It is an old elevated train track that they turned in to a long park with many benches and trees, and a view of the Hudson! It was very cool.

Since Matt got his new job, it has inspired some Hart girls + Karen dates at Barnes and Noble. We have had a lot of fun, and Zoe thinks that place is just great with all of the books. Barnes and Noble brews Starbucks coffee. =) Here Zoe is enjoying her caramel milk while Lauren enjoys her first Frappuccino in YEARS because they finally make them in soy! YAY!

This past weekend Matt and I drove to Pennsylvania to see my great friend Stephanie who was my roommate Junior year of college, who is currently on leave from Iraq. She was having a bridal shower! It was a couples shower so I got to see her fiance too! I also was given a "bridesmaid" button to wear at the shower. haha! This shower was unique. It had a magician, and most importantly, ICE CREAM SUNDAES! =)

2 days later, Steph and her fiance, Dan came to visit NYC for a few hours. I met them at the Empire State building, then showed them around Bryant Park and Times Square. Even though it was a short time, we sure had fun. I miss them already! Safe travels back to Iraq! Thanks for all you do in serving our country guys! =)

This weekend is full of excitement! I'm looking forward to telling you all about it and sharing pictures soon! =)

Doxie Madness!

2010-05-12T21:34:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone, sorry it's been a while! School has been crazy...but as of tonight, I'm DONE!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!! I'm OFFICIALLY a 3rd year DPT student! 1 more year! Back at a new semester on Monday. A whoppin' 4 days off. I'll make the best of it though! =)

On the weekend of April 25th (shout out to some "HAPPY BIRTHDAYS" to Sam on the 16th, Greg Jr. and KaiCee on the 21st, Kim on the 22nd, Steph on the 25th, and Saagar on the 28th! Hope I didn't forget anyone...PHEW! =) ) anyways, like I was saying, on that weekend, we went to the bi-annual doxie festival in Washington Square Park. We went back in October. It's quite the sight, so we went back! There were SOOO many people and doxies there! The Harts joined us for this funny occasion. We had a lot of fun!

Then we went to find some grub...we ended up at a DELICIOUS restaurant with authentic Mexican cuisine. Mmm....Sooo good. We all had a great time!

As most of you probably know already, my sister Lauren, and her family Mike, Zoe, and Maya are moving to Illinois in a little less than 2 weeks. Although it is very sad for Matt and I, we know that it's best for their family. We of course still wish they'd stay here with us though! We are taking advantage of every opportunity we have to spend time with them before they leave!!! =) We'll miss having them so close!

Also, we are expecting the arrival of Rocket's new live-in friend, Finn on SATURDAY! We are so excited! He is arriving through Rescue Road Trips on Saturday all the way from Louisiana! He seems like he'll be a great fit for Rocket. We can't wait to meet him! =)

Expect more blog posts of other fun things in life in the next couple of days. It's nice to have a few days off to catch up on everything! We hope all is well for all of you! We love comments! =)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!! =)

2010-04-17T00:14:00.007-04:00

As most of you know, I love birthdays, and naturally, I REALLY love my own birthday. =) This year was no exception. I extended the celebration as long as possible. 24 is a good age! As usual, I feel no different, however, 24 is my favorite number...has been for years, I've worn it on my back on numerous teams throughout life. So I'm feeling that this will be a good year, being my lucky number and all! =)

I was fortunate enough to be able to first celebrate my birthday a week early when my Mom was here with Matt, the Harts, and my Mom (seen in previous post). The week leading up to my actual birthday was good, and Friday was when the big weekend began! It started off with a big party I had at a place called Oceans 8 in Brooklyn. It was a blast! The place not only had good food and drinks, but it was huge and had a ton of pool tables, air hockey, ping pong, and even bowling! As my friends kept pouring in and we kept moving their tables, they generously offered us the upstairs - free of charge! It was awesome! We hung out up there, ate some good food, and grabbed some drinks at the bar before heading down to all of the recreational activities. It was such a blast!!!!! I was overwhelmed by all of the love! So many people came and I was so grateful! What I was not grateful for was how many times I lost at air hockey...but that's besides the point. haha.

After the fun party, we headed back, and Laura spent the night. We brought my birthday in at midnight with the Birthday song and some cupcake eating courtesy of Steve who bought me cupcakes for my birthday!

The next morning (my actual birthday), Matt made me chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast! My present to myself was not touching any school work for the day! It felt great. I opened presents (Yay!) and absolutely loved everything I got! Matt also showed me my surprise birthday cake. He got it from Chelsea Market. Doesn't it look AMAZING!? Well, that's because it was!
The rest of the day was full of enjoying the gorgeous weather in Park Slope, and in Prospect Park. We took Rocket along, and he was exhausted!!! Later in the day we headed to Brooklyn heights to get some Chipotle (that's what I felt like!) and walk the Brooklyn Promenade (one of my favorite places). I also of course sign up for various "birthday clubs" so I can collect a bunch of freebies when it's my birthday. Because there is not a Caribou or a Dairy Queen nearby, I only redeemed my free Starbucks (Sat.) and Coldstone (Sun.). I was pretty excited about those though!!!! In the evening, there was a BBQ party to celebrate our good friend Sarah, who has just completed surgery 3/3! We went there to celebrate her, and to my surprise, there were cupcakes and candles and a birthday song there for me too! That sure was fun!

Sunday I had my first softball practice of the season (YAY!), and I got some studying done, and Matt and I enjoyed the wonderful weather again by taking a long walk with Rocket in Park Slope. Look at this exhausted puppy...

All in all I can say that my friends, family, and wonderful husband made my 24th birthday an AWESOME one! =) THANKS ALL!!!!!! =)

The Easter Bunny Brought my Mom to NYC!

2010-04-04T21:07:00.006-04:00

Happy Easter! Hope you all had a great holiday! =)

Well, MOM CAME TO NYC THIS WEEKEND! YAY!!!!!!! =) We had such a fun time, and as always, time went by WAY too quickly. I was sad to say "see ya later" to her today.

She got in on Thursday. We hung out Thursday night in Harlem after work and school, just talked and had a good time. Friday Matt had to work but I headed up to Harlem around lunchtime (should have been earlier, but I had transportation issues). The day was beautiful, so we decided the Central Park Zoo was a great idea. It sure was a great idea...as well as for most of the rest of NYC. The line was SO LONG. We decided to just watch the seals from the perimeter, as well as catch a glimpse of the polar bears. Then we went on and grabbed a seat on a bench to hang out, watch park performers, and enjoy the fresh air. It was a gorgeous day...and a certain 4-year old was quite lucky because Grandma bought her some blue cotton candy!

That evening we went back to Harlem to enjoy some delicious BBQ pulled pork and then headed to the neighborhood cupcake shop for some dessert. Maya and Rocket are becoming good friends too!

Saturday we went back up to Harlem and saw a matinee movie of "How to Train Your Dragon." It was super cute and Zoe was glued to the screen with peanut M&Ms in hand. After the movie we headed back to play, be silly, and dye Easter eggs.

Then, it was time to celebrate my birthday! (YAY!!!!!!) On our way to dinner, we saw a giant pillow fight in the middle of Union Square! It was QUITE a sight! (See pic below...see all the pillows in the air?!) I chose to go to Max Brenner's for my birthday dinner...a place where there is DELICIOUS food, and AMAZING chocolate desserts. My Mom will probably dislike the picture I'm posting here, but she's singing Happy Birthday with everyone! We all made sure there was no chocolate left behind on our plates. We devoured the crazy amount of dessert we had! There was nothing left! It was sooo good. A GREAT birthday dinner! =) Not to mention the early birthday presents I got!!!! My Mom got me new running shoes (I'm so excited!)!! I also got a sweater from her, shorts and a doxie book from Kim, and a fun apron from Lauren! Thanks everyone! =)

Easter Sunday was fun. Matt and I went to church while Mom went with the Harts to their church. Then everyone came to Brooklyn to have an Easter feast! We broke out the grill for the first time of the season on this gorgeous day. We made avacado chicken, sweet potato fries, asparagus, and fruit salad. It was a delicious meal. I'm looking forward to leftovers! =) We ate, hung out, then took a walk to the playground up the street from us where Zoe got plenty of "underdogs" from Grandma on the swings.

All in all it was such a fun weekend. Went by WAY too fast, but was a blast! Thanks for coming, Mom! =)

"Hola" Became "Adios" Too Quickly!

2010-03-22T23:34:00.010-04:00

Well, we just got back from sunshine and warm weather, all inclusive goodness, the sandy beach, the ocean, swimming pools, and gorgeous sights! We had a GREAT time, and like all vacations, sad it was over. Coming back to a rainy NYC day was particularly hard...not to mention the whole work and school thing...

Well you probably want to hear about our vacation, huh? Well here goes!

As we tried to leave the apartment for the airport before we got delayed, it started hailing and pouring. 2 hours later, as we were leaving the apartment, it rained and hailed AGAIN! That was crazy, but other than that, our flight was good...minus the late part - we missed out on some sun! We got there when it was dark...Anyways, we booked an Apple Vacations 6-Apple Square Deal. Apple Vacations rates their resorts up to 6 apples. Essentially we paid for a "4-apple" and were guaranteed a "6-apple" all inclusive resort. The catch?! We didn't find out until the day of departure. Minus not finding out until WE called THEM while sitting at our gate, it worked out GREAT! We found out we were staying at Dreams Puerto Adventuras. Once we got there...we found out we got a free upgrade to an ocean view king bed room!

The resort was in it's own little community, and the town was just a short walk away. In the town there were shops, a marina, and the most fun thing there were the dolphins, manatees, and seals! You could swim with them and stuff, but we just watched. We spent a lot of time at our resort, which was great. The food was delicious, the unlimited fruity drinks were amazing, the pool and beach were nice, and there was always something to do! Snorkeling, kayaking, and other water sports were included, so we could do those activities when we wanted to. We also could reserve a spot to be taken out on a Hobiecat for a ride! It was a lot of fun!

Another great thing about our resort were the activities! There were activities all day every day. Even if you didn't want to participate, it was fun to see things going on all the time! They played good music at the pool, and sometimes had live music. The activities included, but were not limited to; bike tour (pic below - without bikes...they took us to 5 cool spots in Puerto Adventuras), dance lessons, cocktail lessons, beach volleyball, 'crazy game', water aerobics, pilates, diving lessons, bungee trampoline.... Not to mention that there was a SHOW every night! The resort had a theater. Some nights the show was in the theater, some nights it was on the beach. We saw a lot of shows! Some were cultural, and others were just entertaining. The shows we saw...an entertainer, magician, Mexican show, Caribbean show, water and fire show, circus show, a 'white party' (live band on the beach with lighting, they told us "is very important wear white!"). (PS- they loved to use the word SHOW!)

The activities at the resort were great, but it was our excursions out in to the Riviera Maya that to me were most memorable! Our first excursion was to Chichen Itza, one of the new seven wonders of the world! That was COOL. To see the amazing things the Mayans did sooo long ago with their own hands...astonishing! There were so many ruins, and so many stories and history behind them. Our tour guide was great, and we learned a lot. The pictures are of the castillo, some detailed faces of the gods, and us in front of the cenote (natural pool/sink hole) in which they used to perform human sacrifices at.

Speaking of cenotes, then we went and swam in one! Matt jumped off a 20 foot platform, and the water was 167ft deep! Me not being such a huge fan of water, I couldn't do the jump. I did a 5 ft one instead. Here we are on the right!

Our other excursion was a snorkeling adventure. We first started off at an ocean inlet where the water was brackish - where the fresh water meets the salt water and doesn't mix...like water and oil! There were many tropical fish through there. Then we made it out to the ocean. Now THAT was cool! We were over a reef...We saw at least 3 or 4 GIANT stingrays, bigger than we've ever seen in any aquarium! Then we saw 3 big sea turtles! It was great! Our next stop was to an open cenote, where we could snorkel and see the freshwater fish (we saw lots of ciclids), as well as zip-line and 'cliff' jump! I ended up going off the jump with Matt once (he did it a few!)...but I loved the zip line. I did it 4 or 5 times -even backwards (Matt did it once!)! Next stop was a closed cenote, or cave. We saw cave formation (-tites and -mites) and I even saw a bat! Oh yeah, we were snorkeling...I should have been looking down! haha We saw some fish too, and deeeeep water and rocks. Very cool! It definitely was an adventure!

We were well hydrated and well fed at our resort. =) We had some good authentic food on our excursions too! Example...At Chichen Itza, a woman was handmaking corn tortillas and cooking them on a fire-heated plate...and the tacos were AMAZING! We also had authentic churros! Our resort had 6 specialty restaurants to choose from. We enjoyed the food. Our only complaint was the buffet didn't have too much of a variety. The night we chose the buffet over the specialty restaurants was seafood night. We were excited, until the shrimp had eyes. Need I say more? The buffet soon got the nickname from us "the place where everything has eyes," and breakfast was the only meal we ate there! haha. Enjoy these random other cool pictures!

Well, thanks for sticking with me through this novel. We had a great time, I hope you have a great time just reading about it! For more pictures check out that link for my facebook album! They allow many more pictures there! =)

WE LOVE COMMENTS!!!!!! =)

Snow, babies, and...sunshine!?

2010-03-12T16:57:00.010-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks worth sharing...so brace yourselves. This could be a long one! =)

On February 26th (I think) NYC (the whole northeast rather) got hit with a giant snow storm. LIU was cancelled but we don't have class on Fridays anyway so it didn't matter. It was still fun and productive...I went to my favorite neighborhood coffee shop to warm up and study, and Sameer, Nolan, and Parker from across the hall came over to play on the deck! As you can see, it was a lot of snow! Our neighbors asked us to go out to dinner and we thought that was a good idea, minus the 3 foot high snow bank blocking our driveway. They have an SUV and 4-wheel drive so it was worth the try! So we all pile up in the car, head out, and...get stuck. Luckily 2 kids walking around with shovels looking for morons like us to get some money came to the rescue. We ended up making it out with some shoveling, pushing, flooring it, and $5...and made it to Boerum Hill and ate at a pub. It was fun and good! (pics: view from our deck, Parker and Rocket playing in the snow, and a snowy street in our neighborhood)

On March 3rd it was "baby day" for my pediatrics class! Lauren, Zoe, and Maya made the trip to Brooklyn from Harlem to join us for baby day...and it was a lot of fun! We met at Starbucks first to get some warm delicious drinks to make our blistery cold walk a little better! =) Baby day was a lot of fun. There were 2 other babies there. Zoe LOVED the fact that she was at school (she showed it by her cute outfit and bows too - which she shared with everyone that her Aunt Kim made them! Plug: Kim's etsy =) ). She helped me fill out my worksheet by "borrowing" my pen and writing things she saw the babies did down. It was pretty fun. When it was Maya's turn, Zoe and I went and sat front and center, so that Zoe could do her big sister duties and keep Maya happy. Maya did great.

This weekend we had some GORGEOUS weather. I also had midterms to study for. So I tried my best to get out and enjoy it, while still making time to study. It was so nice out!!! ahh...Anyways, we decided to take Rocket to the dog park since he's been cooped up all winter. On our way there, we lowered the window. Sure enough, this dog is allll dog. For the first time he rode with his head hanging out of the window. He loved the fresh air!

Rocket was playing with a toy on Matt's lap (he had our Toledo blanket on his lap). We soon realized Rocket wasn't playing with his toy anymore, he was chewing a hole through the blanket. Sure enough, he did. Later, he was taking a nap on Matt's lap, (under the blanket), and when he woke up, he put his head through the hole. Rocket's customized Snuggie! He was scared. He got stuck. We ended up cutting him out of it, because pulling him out of it was gagging him. Yikes!

Well, I survived midterms. Matt is LOVING his job. I am also loving his job because he is much happier, and I will love it even more once my discount card comes. HAHA! juuuuust kidding. (Kinda.) Thanks for sticking with me throughout this post.

PS - C'mon baby Hanke! We want to meet you!
PPS - SPRING BREAK WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<3 comments!

I never thought I'd be one to throw a dog birthday party...

2010-02-15T21:48:00.005-05:00

Happy Birthday, ROCKET!
(yes, this is a dog b-day cake)
Well Rocket turned 1 this week...why not make an excuse to have people over?! It was fun! A lot of people came! It was me, Matt, Lauren, Mike, Zoe, Maya, Megan, Sarah, Alana, Matt, Heshan, Kim, and Stephanie! It was great! =) A lot of people even brought presents for Rocket which he was extremely happy about...and he took the liberty of making sure every toy was chewed through before everyone left.... :-/...

We hung out, had lots of snacks, ordered pizza, and had a great time! We also had a human cake to compliment Rocket's dog cake, which Zoe gladly decorated with sprinkles.

The party kept on going...and Rocket was getting TIRED from the 7 or so hours of people being over...as we were talking as the night was winding down, we realized he had disappeared. We went in to the bedroom to find our made bed to be messed up...and with this little sleepy head poking out.

Overall, quite a success! It was a lot of fun! In other news, Happy Valentine's Day! Matt surprised me with a dozen roses on Friday, as well as some Godiva chocolates on V-day! Yum! Also, Matt's first day at B&N was today, and he had a great day! Not to mention I'm pretty stoked about my impending discount card, which is also redeemable at the cafe's (which brew Starbucks coffee!) hehehehehe. Also, our good friend Megan is in town from Ohio! It is so great to have her around and hang out with her! Here's a picture of us at lunch today in Queens with Sarah.

...comments!...<3

The Traveling Party Box!

2010-02-05T23:28:00.007-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!! (on the 25th...) and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!!! (on Jan. 29th...I know the blog post is a little late...)

Before I share all the birthday fun-ness, I want to share some exciting news! Matt accepted a job at barnesandnoble.com this week! This is such an exciting thing for him, and us! I'm so proud of him! =)

Well, last year it was a tea party, and this year it was a full out pizza feast! Mom sent a box full of goodies to Zoe to throw a party for her Mom. I was "in the know" on the party too. But Zoe was so good at keeping this a secret, she told me on a walk that "I can't talk to you about that. It's a surprise!" I assured her that Grandma told me too...and then we were cool to talk about it. Haha.

So Matt and I went up to Harlem last Saturday and soon enough we were all hungry...so it was time to reveal the surprise! Mom sent appetizer gluten free pretzels, gluten free crusts, pizza sauce, and party napkins. I brought the cheese, veggies, and dough for us gluten eaters. Everyone was quite excited!

Zoe was all about "decorating" the pizzas. She took it very seriously...and made sure no one was going without any toppings. =)

We thought we didn't have enough pizza for us gluten eaters. So Mike tried speed-defrosting some frozen dough. That...uh...didn't turn out as planned. So why let it go to waste? Mike threw some olive oil on it, and some garlic powder...it wasn't half bad! haha

Woohoo!!! Pizza! Happy birthday Lauren!!! Then it's on to presents!!! Woohoo!!!

Then we all just enjoyed each other's company and goofed off. Maya missed out on the bulk of the party, but she made sure to hang out with us and chill with Uncle Matt some before we left. Mom, I hope these pictures meet your expectations. Thanks for providing us with the traveling party box! =)

Groupon Goodness

2010-02-05T22:45:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while! I've been getting in to the swing of things with school and busy life!

So I get the groupon e-mails daily and I enjoy looking at the deals and discovering places I didn't know about through it! The other day, a groupon for frozen yogurt came up. I just couldn't pass it up. So date night it was! Matt and I met in the east village for dinner and to use our groupon! We walked FAST in the frigid cold and found a cute little mexican place and it was really good! Then we walked to 16 Handles, where the groupon was for! Our groupon was for $16 worth of ice cream, for $8! I didn't realize we had to use it in 1 stop...so we were in for a surprise! We ended up getting LOADS of ice cream and toppings, plus 2 bottles of water.

Like the name suggests, there were 16 self-serve handles of ice cream.

You can mix flavors and portion it out yourself. I got peanut butter and chocolate. Matt got irish mint and cookies and cream. Then come the toppings......

<--hers his-->

Matt is probably still wondering why I insisted to go in the FREEZING weather to get FROZEN yogurt...but these pictures are a reminder why!

Last days of winter break...

2010-01-19T21:30:00.003-05:00

Well here's a random blog post. Ahh...the last days of winter break! They were full of some relaxing, some studying, and some fun!

Thought I'd first share this picture of our GROSS car after our giant road trip! We got a very hard core car wash after this!

We also had a thank you card to send to the vet. Here's what we came up with!

Our weekend was fun! Yay for a 3 day weekend! We saw Avatar together on Friday night in 3D. It was a FANTASTIC movie, and the 3D was awesome! Saturday we saw Sarah in the hospital after her surgery...she's home and doing great and feeling better now, which is awesome to hear! We then headed up to Harlem to spend the day with Lauren, Zoe, and Maya. Mike was away for the weekend at a retreat. We hung out, took a walk and got a Starbucks, got some cupcakes at the local cupcake shop, and made pizza for dinner! The cupcake place was cool! You could pick the cake, type of frosting, and topping! Here we are showing of our yummy cupcakes! (They even gave us little mini free cupcakes to go!)

Sunday we went to church and stayed in for the rest of the rainy day! We even took a nap all together - with Rocket too! Monday Matt had the day off! I took him to my new favorite hang out/study spot/coffee shop in our neighborhood, we relaxed, then headed out in to Brooklyn for some shopping and delicious Olive Garden! We definitely had a great weekend! =)

Now it's back to the grind for me...a big comp exam and 3 classes started off my first day of school today. This will be quite the semester. Should be good though. Can't believe I'm halfway done! Good news is we booked a spring break trip to Mexico! We both have a lot to look forward to! =)

Have a great week! We <3 comments!!!!!!

It's been a YEAR already!?!?!

2010-01-13T15:47:00.007-05:00

IT'S BEEN A YEAR ALREADY!?!?!?!?!?!??!!?

Well time sure flies when you're having a blast!!!!!!!!!

On January 2nd, 2010, Matt and I headed to the city to celebrate our 1st anniversary!!!!!

It was A LOT of fun! And we stayed in a fancy hotel which made us feel like rock stars! haha. The hotel was Hotel Allegro in the theater district in Chicago. It was gorgeous.

Our room was HUGE and REALLY nice.

It being our anniversary, I was all about telling anyone that could potentially get us free stuff. You know me and free stuff... ;-) haha. And sure enough it worked! (We'll get to that later). Our hotel had complimentary wine and cheese so we hit that up before we headed to dinner. Here's the free booze (it's spiked apple cider) and cheese. =)

Then we headed to our amazing delicious seafood meal at Catch 35. It wasn't too bad of a walk except for the subzero Chicago temperatures. I forgot what that felt like. It was SO cold...so our plans of walking around the city were NOT happening after dinner. Haha. Anyways, dinner was awesome. They gave us the most private table they possibly could have, and our waiter was great. I had him take a picture of us and said the plug "it's our 1st anniversary!" and sure enough, here comes a chocolate oozing delicious creation, with a candle in it...just for us, for free! Woohoo!

We got back to the hotel, and we came back to a chilled bottle of champagne, with a personalized letter just for us congratulating us on our anniversary! YAY!

We had such a GREAT anniversary, celebrating an also GREAT year! Looking forward to the many many more to come! =)

But, let's not have year old cake again, OK? ;-) Wasn't too much of a fan...

Comments! <3
To see more pictures from the holidays, check out my facebook album at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2196177&id=30100032&l=203c4e4dbd

I lost count of how many Christmases we had!

2010-01-13T15:29:00.009-05:00

Well, I'm probably not the first to point out that it's been a WHILE since my last blog post. So some things need to be said...Happy Birthday Mom, Zoe, Megan, and Mike! And Merry Christmas!!!!!!! =)

We had some awesome times with family and friends over the holidays. We also celebrated Christmas MANY times...But for me, that is the BEST! I LOVE CHRISTMAS! It was also our FIRST Christmas together as a married couple! We started our road trip on the 23rd after my last final, and headed to Ohio. Rocket wasn't too thrilled about all the car riding, but he did great.

We spent the first few days of our trip in Ohio with Matt's family. We had a great Christmas there and enjoyed seeing family. Christmas in the evening there was crazy because Matt has such a big extended family, but it was really fun to finally experience what they've all been telling me for so long! Rocket and their two dogs, Niles and Jack didn't get along very well until the last night we were there. Jack and Rocket played like crazy! It was so great to see Matt's side of the family!

We then headed to Chicago by way of Sandusky to see Ryan and Jill at a Starbucks. It was SO great to see them in person! There have been a lot of ichat's since we've last seen them in person! haha. They are great and we were so excited to see little baby "Ricardo's" baby bump and give him a present!

Then we stopped in Toledo to see some good friends Megan, Sarah and Ben. We played a HILARIOUS board game and ate lunch at Tony Packos. MMMmmm it was good. Then we hit up Starbucks again to see LC and Jess. So great to see them and catch up a bit!

We made it to Chicago! Good thing Mom arranged with Santa to come a little later this year so we could all be together!!!! There sure was a lot of loot. Zoe said the night before that there may be 29 presents under the tree...boy was she shocked when there was at least 100 under that tree!!! We had a blast and enjoyed Christmas day with the family. We had a lot of fun and had some good eats while in Chicago. Then our cousins came and we celebrated Christmas AGAIN! We also got an excellent cousins picture! Look how big my nieces and nephew are getting!

We got a silly game from Aunt Claire for Christmas. We played it into the new year and at midnight Mom got out leftover streamers from our wedding for us to throw in the kitchen. By the way, Happy 2010!

Also, while we were home we had the chance to see a lot of my great Glenview friends. I was so fortunate to see friends from many different "groups." Fun times were to be had by all... =)

Overall, I'd say...it was a GREAT Christmas. Hope it was great for you and yours as well...=)

WE LOVE COMMENTS! =)
To see more pictures from the holidays, check out my facebook album at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2196177&id=30100032&l=203c4e4dbd

Thankful for family, friends, fun times, and much more! =)

2009-11-29T22:23:00.005-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!!! =)

We had such an AWESOME Thanksgiving weekend! We of course missed our families in Ohio and Chicago though! Miss you all!
We did A LOT this weekend...So I'll try to keep it short, sweet, and to the point!

Wednesday - Matt and I met after work/school on the Upper West Side for the "Inflation Celebration." We walked in the masses and the misty rain to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons get blown up. It was quite the experience! Pretty cool...but crowded with tourists who don't know how it's done! ;-)

Thursday/Thanksgiving - 5 AM came fast, when we woke up, got ready, grabbed our goodies and headed to Harlem. We hung out for a bit, set up the turkey, and Matt, Mike, Zoe, and I headed to the parade while Lauren, Maya, and Rocket stayed behind. We got our holiday Starbucks, and made our way to close to the beginning of the parade route. We actually got a decent spot, and didn't get there at the crack of dawn. It was nice! Zoe had the best view of all...on Mike's shoulders! The parade was fun, full of celebrities we couldn't identify, great floats and the balloons we saw the night before! We headed back and the turkey cooked pretty fast! Lauren and Zoe set up the table beautifully, with place cards Zoe personally made for us! The meal was DELICIOUS and we talked about what we were thankful for. We fought through the 5AM wake up and food coma tiredness and built a gingerbread house from a kit we bought. It was fun! We enjoyed each other's company all day and had an overall great Thanksgiving! =)

Friday - We avoided black Friday crowds and I studied all morning... Then we decided to head out and we went to Costco-surprisingly NOT crowded! Then we went to Park Slope and walked around and checked out some places we've been eyeing for a while. It was nice, even though it was kind of cold! That night, Sarah made us delicious dinner, we brought cookies for dessert, and we caught up and played an Office trivia game she got Matt for his birthday. It was a lot of fun. This picture is from a "physical challenge" that said not to spill your cup of water as you ran it to the door, but Sarah ironically did before we even got up! haha. It was a lot of fun hanging out with her! It's been too long!

Saturday - Ryan from Matt's old work and his wife Christy came for the day! We had a blast hanging out with them and showing them around the city! It was great to catch up with them and have some fun experiences in NYC. We did a TON in a short amount of time! We were exhausted! In 7 hours or so, we walked 5th ave, went to Rockefeller Plaza and some shops and saw the new HUGE tree, ate lunch, walked to Bryant Park, ate a Crumbs cupcake, walked to Grand Central Station, took the subway to Times Square, went through stores there, had a Jamba Juice, went to China Town and Little Italy, and the Seaport! It was crazy! But a blast! We were so glad to see them! =)

Sunday - A low key day! Went to church, did some Christmas shopping at Target, went to the dog run, and just hung out enjoying the last day of our 4-day weekend. It went by so fast! Back to work and school tomorrow...but we have a fun evening planned at the Winters Eve Festival on the Upper West Side. =)

Sorry, I said I'd keep it short and I just kept on going! Whoops! I hope you and yours had an amazing Thanksgiving and Holiday weekend! =)

<3 comments!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! (Before Thanksgiving!)

2009-11-22T22:42:00.007-05:00

This weekend was a lot of fun! We decided that we should get some Christmas celebrating in because it'll be here before we know it...along with finals, and other busy things...so why not now?!

We headed up to Harlem on Saturday to watch Christmas movies (Elf, and White Christmas) while making and decorating lots of Christmas cookies! We dyed the frosting to have different colors. We were trying to be crafty with some frosting bags, but, well, let's just say it took a couple heads and a couple tries to get it right. HAHA!

It was such a fun day! We even had some delicious eggnog, and a yummy chocolate gingerbread cake thing that Mike made. PLUS a pizza night! It sure was a day full of tasty things! Along with watching the movies, we hung out, Zoe read to me and Maya, and everyone seemed to just have a fun and relaxing day. It was a great time! =)

Today was a pretty nice day...so we took Rocket to the dog park, did some errands, and some cleaning around the apartment...Then, we PUT UP CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS! How exciting! You know me, I've been listening to Christmas music since the first week of November. I've been READY, but patient!!!! Rocket was very interested in what was going on...wanting to chew on everything. I told him Christmas decorations are friends, not food! =) He soon lost interest and was tired, so he burrowed himself in a blanket to watch what else was going on.

We bought new stockings which I was very eager to put up! We managed to find the space in our NYC apartment to decorate for our first official Christmas together! =)

We are excited for our 3-day week! We are planning on going to the Macy's parade on Thanksgiving, and having Thanksgiving dinner with the Harts! We are so excited. =) We're still trying to figure out what to do with our 4-day weekend! =)

Hope all is well! We <3 comments!!!!!!! =)

Also, Jill's birthday is on Tuesday! Happy birthday, Jill!!!!

Kim and Courtney Come to "Two York!"

2009-11-11T20:27:00.006-05:00

We have been anxiously awaiting Kim and Courtney's trip to visit all of us out here. Courtney has the best expressions...including saying "we're going to go see everyone in two york soon!" since they booked the tickets! It was so fun having them here, hanging out, and watching the girls play!

We fit a lot of fun things in to their trip here! They came in on Thursday evening, but I didn't catch up with them until Friday afternoon after class. Courtney apparently told everyone Friday that "Matt, Karen, and Rocket puppy were not in two york lasternight!" HAHAHA!

When I met up with them, we ate at Whole Foods, grabbed some warm delicious drinks at Starbucks, walked along Central Park and saw the horses, walked to FAO Swartz and had a blast playing, walked up 5th Avenue, then to Radio City, then to Times Square. Let's just say we were all pooped after that afternoon! (pic is me, Kim, and the girls in front of Radio City)

Saturday Matt, Rocket, and I headed up to Harlem. We were all pretty tired from the day before, but we had a nice walk to a fun park (by way of Starbucks, of course), and watched the kiddos play. That night we had a birthday celebration for Matt. The girls definitely were excited to make a cake for him! Especially because they got to lick the bowl!

Sunday we went to the park again, and played until they sadly had to leave. What a fun and exhausting weekend! Thanks for coming Kim and Courtney! We miss you! =)

Here's a "Rockets" picture. Maya is wearing a UT shirt that's been passed down through all the kiddos. Bummer that I wasn't wearing a Rockets shirt!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MATTHEW!!!!! =)

2009-11-11T19:47:00.005-05:00

Matt's birthday was November 3rd! He said it was a great one! =) We celebrated over a few days because of study and work schedules...it was low key, and a lot of fun!

We went for a Saturday morning stroll in Prospect park with the pup and enjoyed the AMAZING colors of the fall leaves! It was really nice...We don't go there often enough!

Then we headed to Union Square to check out the market, eat delicious Chipotle (where I got a burrito for free because it was Halloween and I put tin foil around me), and get birthday Crumbs cupcakes! =)

The next day, we went to Red Lobster for dinner...and it was amazing. We of course don't have one too nearby, but it was worth the drive. mmm...endless shrimp! We had kind of an annoying experience with the waitress, but got a free meal out of it! I'll take it! =)

On the day of Matt's birthday, we ate our FAVORITE neighborhood pizza. Awesome as usual. =)

Happy birthday to my amazing husband!!! =)

Happy Halloween!!!

2009-11-11T19:30:00.006-05:00

Well, the next few posts will be clumped together, because they're late! Sorry about that! School has been so crazy busy, as well as just life in general! We've had a few weeks full of celebrations and fun and visitors! I want to share these fun things with you!

Halloween was fun. I found a $2.00 elf costume at target that I couldn't help but buy for Rocket. HILARIOUS. For some odd reason, he actually LIKES having clothes on...

About a week before Halloween, we headed up to Harlem to carve pumpkins and have a pizza night with the Harts! We all had a great time, even Rocket did...because he ate the pumpkin goo, which Zoe didn't want much to do with. haha.

We had a blast, and Zoe did a great job with drawing the design on the pumpkins! We brought Maya a pumpkin shirt so she could participate too!

Matt and I celebrated his birthday (see next post) mostly on Halloween as well. We went to Chipotle (and I dressed up in tin foil to get my free burrito) and hung out in Union Square! We got Halloween Crumbs cupcakes, too! They unfortunately weren't that good this time...

Then we went to our friend Laura's apartment for some Halloween fun! We brought a delicious surprise...dirt and worms! It was enjoyed by all!!! =)

It was crazy how many trick-or-treaters lined the streets...it took us forever to drive through our neighboorhood! It was fun to see everyone out! All in all it was a fun Halloween! Next year we definitely want to go to the parade...

1 weekend, 4 visitors, LOTS of FUN!

2009-10-18T20:41:00.005-04:00

This post is a little late, but last weekend we had a weekend full of visitors! Matt's Mom, Karen came from Thursday night until Sunday, and we had a blast! She had never been to NYC before...so some things were big eye openers for her! We had a lot of fun, even though Matt was sick on Friday...=(

We saw a lot of NYC sights, including, but not limited to, Central Park, the Upper East Side, Rockefeller Plaza, Magnolia cupcakes, Times Square, Battery Park, Ground Zero, ChinaTown, and 5th Avenue. We even had the chance to meet up with the Harts! Maya slept the whole time, and Zoe was a lot of fun, as usual!

We also saw a Broadway show! We saw "In the Heights," and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. The entire show was just amazing. I can't describe it. It was phenomenal.

(kinda a dark picture, but Matt and I in front of the theater)

In the midst of Karen's visit, Ryan P. and his new wife Emily stopped by on their way on their roadtrip! We had them over for dinner, and we all went to ChinaTown together. It was fun seeing them! We also hit the edge of Little Italy, where we got some canolis to go! They were delicious!

Then, as Matt was taking Karen to the airport, Megan L came to spend the night before heading to Israel! We hung out, ate delicious pizza and garlic knots, and took Rocket to the dog park.

It was such a fun weekend!

The weather is getting colder...and Rocket's a whimp and needs his embarassing little sweater...

This past week was my first week back at school, and it's been going well. This weekend was pretty low key, but fun, with some bowling Friday night, and some hanging out in Queens Saturday night all with fun friends! We even watched classics such as "Casper" and "Hocus Pocus." Awesome movies! =)

Doxies, Doxies, EVERYWHERE!!!!

2009-10-04T20:22:00.006-04:00

This week was a good, but crazy week! I'm all done with my first clinical affiliation! The 6 weeks went by very fast, and now I'm looking forward to a week off from school before classes start up again!

For the first time in a long time, it seemed, Matt and I didn't have many plans this weekend! Unfortunately the plans we did have for Saturday were outdoors, and it poured! We were going to go to a block party that Mike planned, but didn't make it up to the upper west side because of the pouring rain! We did, however, make it to Dachshund Octoberfest in Washington Square park! A lot of people that also own dachshunds that we meet on the street told us about it, we scoped it out online, and decided to check it out!

When we first got to the park, we didn't see any dogs! But we kept walking....and we saw A LOT of doxies!!

I must admit...the event is kind of strange, but ridiculously fun for someone that has loved doxies their whole lives! Rocket met a lot of dachshunds! Short hair, long hair, wire hair, dapple, red, black....

...and even dressed up!

And Rocket found some cute and fun doggies to play with, too!

We had a lot of fun at this crazy thing! =)

For more pictures, check out my facebook album! Enjoy! =)

As always....COMMENTS, PLEASE! =)

Live. Laugh. Love. Lattes.

2009-09-26T21:38:00.004-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD and PAXTON!!!!! =)
Sorry we weren't there for your birthdays today! We miss and love you! =)

Last weekend was a lot of fun! Mom came out to visit and help out Lauren with the new addition to the family, Maya! Mom got a lot of quality time in with Lauren, Zoe, and Maya...Mike was out of town for the weekend.

Matt and I headed up to Harlem as much as we could! We had a lot of fun. We even brought Rocket. Here we are walking up the street, headed to Zoe's dance class...by way of Starbucks, of course! =)

Then we went to Zoe's class and watched her ballet and tap skills, in her new beautiful leotard and tu-tu...

Mom's visit included a lot of fun little outings, caffeinated beverages, ice cream, and good eats. Of course, there were plenty of silly fun times to be had!

Maya enjoys the usual baby things...eating, sleeping, crying, and hanging out. One day she was a little fussy, and once she fell asleep was passed off to me. Who knew 1.) it would be such a long nap, and 2.) how tired aunt Karen would apparently get during the nap. haha. Thanks Matt for the lovely picture. ;)

The weekend also consisted of a lot of sister bonding!

It was SO fun to have Mom here, as always. Matt and I had to leave Harlem a little early on Sunday, so that I could go to my team party, because our softball team won the league! Woohoo! Go Crescendo! I'm so glad I got put on that team! I'm now a proud member of that team as long as I stay in the league! It's very exciting. I've met a lot of great people, and of course have had a blast playing ball! YAY! =)

This week is my last week of clinic already! Woah! Also, in 2 weeks, we are going to have more visitors! Matt's Mom comes, then Megan L comes! WOOHOO!

Life is good...as usual! Comments, PLEASE! =)

Hot Dogs; On Buns, and Swimming in the Pool

2009-09-07T21:32:00.009-04:00

Happy Labor Day! =)

This weekend, Matt and I headed to Newton Falls, Ohio to hang out with his family for Labor Day weekend. We had a fun and relaxing time, full of good food and family.

We got in late Friday night, and got as much sleep as Rocket allowed us to get...(about 3 hours...) The Mondok dogs Niles and Jack weren't too fond of Rocket, and by the end of the weekend, they still weren't! haha. Anyways, Saturday, we headed to one of the biggest fairs in Ohio, the Canfield fair. We walked around in the beautiful weather, enjoyed delicious fair food, and scoped out all the fair had to offer. I saw lots of tractors, antique farm equipment, old offices and other town buildings, crafts, food, rides, and animals! I even got to hold a duck! I LOVE ducks! That was the 2nd fair I've ever been to.
I really wanted to have Olive Garden while we were back in Ohio...and we luckily got to go there Saturday night! I ate WAY too much. It was awesome.

Sunday was the family Labor day picnic! There was a lot of people and a lot of good food there. Matt's aunt and uncle own a bakery, and brought some delicious treats for dessert. Mmm.... Rocket even went for his first swim! He also did some lounging... HAHA!

Monday, we went out to breakfast with some of the family, and that was such a fun time! The rest of the day, we hung out, and enjoyed our last few hours out of the city. Jack began to tolerate Rocket during some fetch too.

On our way back, we were in the plane, and the pilot came over the speaker while we were stopped on the runway. He said "If you look to the left of the aircraft, you will see a coyote with an airport vehicle in hot pursuit!" And we sure did! That coyote was running FAST! It's not everyday you hear or see that!

We're back in NYC and have quite the month ahead of us. Lots of events, fun, and visitors. I'm sure there will be a lot more blog entries to come!

Comments!!!! <3>

Welcome, Baby Maya!

2009-09-07T20:47:00.005-04:00

Last Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009, Matt and I had the privilege of meeting our new niece baby Maya Irene Hart on her birthday! She shares a birthday with my brother which is way cool, but poor Lauren sure had to wait longer than her August 21 due date to meet the new 9lb 4oz baby! She is quite the healthy chunker! =)

We got to see Zoe meeting her new sister, which was quite a precious sight. She loves her new sister and the whole family is quite excited! We are very excited to go see the baby and everyone again soon.

CONGRATULATIONS LAUREN, MIKE, AND ZOE!!!!! =)

No new niece yet...but why not take Zoe for a big sister surprise anyways!?

2009-08-29T18:29:00.005-04:00

Last weekend we called up Lauren and Mike and asked if we could take Zoe for a bit for a "big sister surprise." Without telling any of them what our plan was, we headed up to Harlem, and got Zoe and went on our merry way! We took the train to 5th avenue and walked along, while Zoe kept asking and guessing about where we were going. She didn't have very many guesses though. When we were across the street from a very fun, kid-friendly looking place, she said "oh, I've never been there!" and we soon had her read the sign and she figured out that Build-A-Bear was our destination! Boy was she excited!

We went in and it was quite overwhelming for the 3 1/2 year old! But she did great, picked out her own bear, outfit, and shoes! She was so excited!

Meet "Fairy."
We even made the "birth certificate" for Fairy.

What a fun time! Zoe was so excited about taking Fairy home in her new box-house, and showing her parents!

And what is a Karen + Matt outing without a Jamba Juice if there is one nearby?! We introduced Zoe to that amazing place. She loved the smoothie and we made it back to Harlem after only 1 spill, and some inappropriate sightings of the naked cowboy, to share the fun surprise with Lauren and Mike. Fun day!

This week has been crazy busy for both of us, as both of us are working stiffs now. Haha. Clinic started this week and I am DEFINITELY not used to the full-time lifestyle! Yikes! It's going well though...More updates later!

C'mon baby Hart! Hopefully she will come VERY soon! =)

PS- Lauren and Mike, sorry again about the naked cowboy exposure! HAHA!

A Twist Cone with Sprinkles, Please! =)

2009-08-20T23:17:00.006-04:00

We had a GREAT time visiting family and friends in Glenview! It was an exhausting weekend because it was totally fun-filled. We had so much fun!

We hung out with Kim and the kiddos everyday! It was fun to see how much Courtney and Paxton have both grown! Courtney is quite the hilarious conversationalist, and Paxton is getting more and more independent. Despite his stranger-danger, I grew on him by the end of the weekend by getting to hold him, by his choice! =)

Paxton LOVED "Rocket puppy" and Courtney was constantly concerned about Rocket puppy's whereabouts, but was pretty scared of him if he came near her. He really wanted to play with her though! Eventually Courtney and Rocket puppy were on a playing basis, only outdoors!

One day we braved the heat and went to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. It was great to just walk around and enjoy the sights. I haven't been there in a while...it was beautiful! Here are a couple of pictures from that.

We also did a lot of visiting. Including many puppy play dates! Rocket met Norine's doggy Oreo, the Kiraly dogs Morgan and Wagner, the Hassen doxies Chloe and Pheobe, and met the Lerner doggies Sammy and Cooper. Phew. Needless to say, Rocket was exhausted after this exciting trip. I like this "sausage link" picture, and this ADORABLE picture of Courtney and Paxton.

I also made sure that I had my fill of the Dairy Bar and Caribou Coffee. Many delicious trips were made. Mmm.....

So much fun = So many pictures! To see more, check out the album I posted on facebook (click on that link).

We were sad to leave because we had a much needed fun weekend away from the city with excellent company. Plus, of course, we miss our family and friends! =)

we <3 comments! =)

Alice's Tea Cup and other Adventures in NYland...

2009-08-12T23:57:00.007-04:00

Friday I had such a fun morning! Lauren, Mike, Zoe, and I went to Alice's Tea Cup. It was my first time there, and it was such a cute place! Lauren and I both bought "groupons" a few weeks ago and decided to use them! Boy are we glad we did! It was such a fun time, not to mention the delicious food and tea! The groupons were for a 3-tiered breakfast...with fruit/yogurt, eggs, and a delicious scone. Zoe and I both got banana chocolate chip scones. Wow the food was so good!

They give little girls fairy wings to wear while they enjoy their meal, and well as fairy dust. Zoe didn't really want the fairy dust and she was also reluctant to put those wings on to compliment her beautiful dress...but she came around soon enough, and ended up modeling those sparkly wings for us!

As we were leaving, Zoe was already talking about going back there sometime. It was such a fun leisurely morning to start off the weekend.

The weekend was fun, as Matt and I went on adventure on Saturday that was a total bust and was totally hilarious to say the least. We got these city walk dog cards that had what seemed to be a really nice and fun walk at a national park near the Rockaways and Jamaica Bay. That place was a major dump...we didn't last long there even though we drove a good half hour or so there. I managed to take just 1 picture... I should have taken more to document the smelly rocky seaweedy beaches, the blood sucking vulture bugs, the lack of people, and not taken care of landscapes. haha.

To make up for it, we headed to Brooklyn Heights to the promenade, the dog park, and we FINALLY waited in the giant line for the infamous Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. (I've wanted to try that since we moved here!) We got chocolate chocolate chip cones (mine with sprinkles of course)...and the picture I got of that I have chocolate all over my face because it was such a hot and melty day...so I'll just show you how eager Rocket was to check the place out while we were in line instead! The ice cream was amazing!

FINALS ARE OVER!!!!!! YAY!!!We head to Chicago this weekend (even Rocket!). We can't wait! =)

Comments are the best! =)

Pitstop in NYC on the way to the desert!

2009-08-06T23:35:00.004-04:00

Last weekend Stephanie came to visit for just a short time before her trip to Israel left from NYC!!! We were so glad she decided to come in a couple days earlier to hang out with us!

When she got here Friday evening, she was immediately greeted by NYC's true colors at JFK, and had many stories to prove it...haha. Once at the apartment, Rocket was instantly in love, especially because she brought him 2 toys! We stayed in and hung out that night eating our delicious neighborhood pizza and garlic knots (which Stephanie LOVED), and watched a movie.

The next day, Stephanie wanted to explore Brooklyn a bit, so we took her to the Brooklyn Promenade and walked through Brooklyn Heights. Then we headed into Manhattan and met Lauren in Central Park for a picnic. It was a beautiful day and was great fun! Not to mention, the picnic food was delicious!

Rocket got in a bit of trouble...

Then we showed Steph around Union Square, got Crumbs cupcakes to share (mmmm...) and headed home to drop the tired puppy off as we went to go eat some more delicious food at 67 burger, our favorite burger place in Fort Greene.

(crumbs cupcakes)

After an exhausting day we hung out and relaxed at the apartment for the night. Sunday, we sadly had to take her to JFK, but we're so excited for her and her trip!

As for us, we are heading to the airport very soon to head to Chicago! We are soooo excited to see family and friends! =) I am also very excited to almost being done with another semester! 2 more finals to go!

Summer Nights!!!

2009-07-24T18:09:00.010-04:00

It’s been a while!

Sorry about the delayed blog post…I guess we’re just having way too much fun this summer! Our weekends have been extremely busy, but so much fun! =) (and a little tiring...as Rocket is displaying here...)

2 weekends ago, our good friend Ben Pack visited us for about 5 days. Those 5 days were “packed” with a ton of fun things! To name a few, we saw Mary Poppins on Broadway (which was great, minus the stupid kids behind us constantly talking), went to the Daily show (hilarious), saw Rascal Flatts at the Today Show (AMAZING even though we didn't have a great view-check out the video later in the post), ate ridiculous amounts of amazing food (mmmm), and visited places like Ground Zero, the Met, Central Park, and Times Square (Yay!). Many fun things happened which made for great reminiscing and hilarious stories and jokes. Here are a few pictures from that weekend. Left to Right...Ben and I at the Today Show...Ben, Matt and I at the Brooklyn Promenade....Me, Matt, Sarah, and Ben on the roof of the Met....and our DELICIOUS dessert selection from the famous Max Brennars!

Last weekend was also a blast! Friday night we saw Harry Potter with some friends. I can't believe I waited 2 days after opening day to see it! Phew. It was really good...but rather disappointing for us book readers out there! Then we had Juniors which is famous for their cheesecake. We had a cookie monster sundae which was delicious, however, I probably will go back to having cheesecake next time! =) Saturday, we headed up to Harlem very secretively...quietly went to the Hart's neighbors apartment, and had a SURPRISE baby shower for Lauren, Mike, and Zoe. It was so fun, and boy were they surprised!!!! It took Zoe a while to get over her downright confusion as you can see in this picture. That was her first ever surprise party!

Later that day we rushed home, and our good friend Mike came over to hang out with Rocket! They were pals, and we were thankful for that! Matt and I went on our way with some friends to the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game at Coney Island. It was a lot of fun, we got free hats, and they won! Then we got ice cream on the Boardwalk. Sunday, we relaxed some. That felt goooood.

This weekend we're looking forward to some fun times with great friends...Updates on those events to come soon! =)

Stephanie Lerner comes to visit us next weekend!!!! I am SO excited!!!!! =)

Have a great week! Enjoy my favorite new song from Rascal Flatts, "Summer Nights" being performed at the Today Show! Comments please! ;-)

1 week stay-cation! Part 3 of 3

2009-07-05T22:45:00.007-04:00

Lucky you...Another blog post this week!

I hope you had a happy 4th of July weekend! =)

We had a great time for our first 4th of July in the big apple! We started off with a picnic with the Harts in Central Park. We sure had a lot of fun, and a lot of delicious food! I tried to be as cool as my Mom and make her trifle. It was pretty good, but definitely can't compete with Mom's! =)

The picnic was a lot of fun. Zoe had a lot of fun with Rocket, and Rocket sure got worn out! We found a nice shady spot and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon! It was a blast! It's so great to have family so close! =)

Then we dropped the sleepy guy off at home, and headed back in to the city to meet Lindsay and Laura for the NYC fireworks! That was quite the experience! Definitely a lot different than the midwest! LOTS of people, sitting on concrete as you wait for the fireworks, then once they begin, everyone stands up, they don't turn off the street lights! Not to mention the craziness afterwards where you feel like you're evacuating in a disaster movie, and can't even get down the stairs to the subway!

The fireworks were really cool though! 5 simultaneous sets off of separate barges. We had GREAT seats where we could see all 5! It was great! Here's a video of the finale...

Today we enjoyed the beautiful day by sleeping in, going to the promenade and the dog run, eating delicious burgers from Five Guys on the promenade, and just hanging out. It was a great day! =)

Tomorrow Matt and I are back to work and school. No more jury duty/early releases, and no more break. Oh well. I had a great stay-cation. Here we go again! Have a GREAT week everyone!

Comments, please! We really like them! =)

1 week stay-cation! Part 2

2009-07-02T23:12:00.005-04:00

Well this week has been fun...for me at least! I've just been catching up on life, playing with the puppy, and brushing up on my guitar skills, and Matt hasn't been so lucky. He had jury duty basically ALL week...in total served 4 days. It ended up that the jury came to a decision, and while the court was at lunch, the parties settled, so they never read the verdict. All in all, kind of a wasted 4 days! The good thing, however, is that he got let out early almost every day! So that meant we got to hang out in the afternoons, which was DEFINITELY a bonus! =)

****Today marks 6 months since we got married!**** We can't believe how much time has flown!!! What an amazing 6 months it's been! Anyways, why not celebrate!? We had an awesome date night! =)

First, we went to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) which was delicious like every other time I've been there! We had yummy bread for an appetizer then shrimp scampi pizza. It was delicious!

Then, we went to Dylan's candy bar. I thought this would be a fitting outing since our wedding was basically a candy bar! It was fun, and we both got a bag of candy to take home! =) Here are some pictures from there. We both had never been there. It was pretty sweet! (no pun intended) The only candies I didn't like from there was my fried egg gummy (I spit it out) and my chicken foot gummy. Those were weird.

Pics: 1. Matt with his favorite - gummies 2. A staircase made with real candy in it 3. Me in awe of all the candy bars

After that, we got new iphones!!! Woohoo! My Dad helped us realize that our phones were going for astronomical amounts on ebay, so we could upgrade for a profit. So we sure did! We had to wait in a little line, but it's ok. We always enjoy a trip to the 5th ave apple store...or any in that matter. haha! YAY! New iphones! =)

Pics: 1. Waiting in line at the Apple store 2. YAY iphones!!!!!!!

PS- For those of you who know we started weight watchers this week...Tonight didn't count!!!!!! ;-)

1 week stay-cation! Part 1

2009-06-29T18:01:00.008-04:00

We had quite the eventful weekend! It was a great start to me having a week off! (Not Matt though, unfortunately...) Friday night we met with some friends before a huge storm hit to see Transformers. We both really liked it, even though we had heard a lot of people say it wasn't that great! Afterwards, we all went to the original Juniors, home of famous and delicious Brooklyn cheesecake. Matt had strawberry shortcake, and I had chocolate swirl cheesecake. Also, our friend Elliott was convinced we were sitting by someone famous. But we 'iphoned' it and that person was definitely not who he thought he was. Haha!

Saturday morning we woke up early to head to Harlem to see Zoe in her "end of class" show in her gymnastics class at the little gym. She did great, and got a medal at the end. It sure was fun!

On our way back to the Hart's, we decided to head to the Apollo theater where they have been shooting news for the past few days due to crowds gathering there to pay respects to Michael Jackson. We went there, and it wasn't as busy as it had been, but it still was. It was pretty cool to be part of a historical thing like that. I even signed the posters they had up!

Then we had a fun cookout with the Harts. There was also a "bikers for babies" thing going on where there were hundreds of bikes/bikers on their block! It was crazy! And the cookout was great fun, and delicious! Check out Zoe's great photographer skills on the left, and her photogenic self on the right! =)

Sunday we took Rocket to the Brooklyn promenade, then to his first dog run. He loved the promenade, and was a little scared of the dog run. He did meet some new dog friends eventually. But there's no doubt about it that he has some dog anxiety. HAHA! We love the picture on the right. Not sure how to interperet it...haha!

Overall a very eventful and fun weekend! We also got some plants for our deck! Check it out!!!! =)

we love comments!!!! ;-)

"I feel like I'm in a Seinfeld episode..."

2009-06-16T22:29:00.008-04:00

What a fun weekend! My Mom came to visit! Woohoo! It was a fun weekend full of hanging out, good eats, laughs, and good ol' NYC!

We hung out Friday night and had some pizza, told stories, and just had fun spending time together up in Harlem!

Saturday we hung out in Brooklyn! We started at the Brooklyn Botanical gardens, which is free on Saturday mornings...what an awesome place! We had a blast!

We hung out at our apartment and played Disney Scene it 2. Zoe and I were a team, and beat the rest of the fam. Yep, we were awesome. (OK, they gave us a couple of free-bees because Zoe is 3, but still!) Then we went to the best burger joint we know of in Fort Greene...67 burger. Mmm......

Sunday we went up to Harlem with Rocketdog and hung out. We left him at the Harts as we ventured out to the upper west side to meet Mike for a delicious lunch at s'mac, (gourmet mac and cheese), and then we hit up the Shake Shack. Mmm....

There was a street fair going on nearby. We hit it up for some good deals. Mom was the best shopper, ending up with sunglasses and a wallet! Me and Matt however, got a tree for our deck since we're officially staying in our apartment! (Yay!) Matt felt like he was in a Seinfeld episode as he walked through the city like...

Then it was craft time with some shrinky-dinks (man those things are fun)...and just some more hanging out with an energetic 3-year old and 19 week old puppy!

All in all...a FANTASTIC weekend. We miss you already, Mom!!! =)

It's not always sunny in Philadelphia...

2009-06-11T18:17:00.006-04:00

Well I decided to take a bolt bus (which was awesome and nice...leather seats and free wi-fi!) to very rainy Philadelphia for the day Friday because my good friend and old roommate Stephanie from Toledo was going to be around there. Last time I went there, I got stranded almost overnight at the airport (with no luggage) due to a blizzard. Anywho, plans changed a little bit and spending the day with her turned into just a little over an hour spent with her and her boyfriend and a few others, which was still great and TOTALLY worth it. In that time alone before she got there, I wanted to explore but it was too gross out to venture too much. The venturing I did ended up in wet pants, shoes, and socks from the cars and puddles. haha. I did, however, find a cupcake shop and bought 2 for me and Matt so we could compare Philly cupcakes to NYC cupcakes. (NYC won! :) ) I spent a lot of time at a GIANT Starbucks I found and studied a lot. For the short time I was with Steph, we both had our very first philly cheese steak! Then, long story short, we got caught in traffic and I was 5 minutes late for my bus (which included some running, and some damage of the cupcakes...) but it hadn't left yet and within a minute of me getting on it, we started moving. Talk about amazing timing! Here's a pic of me and Steph with our first cheesesteak!!! LOVE YA STEPH!!!!!! =)

School has been hectic for me! The summer schedule is crazy but I actually am really enjoying the semester. Work for Matt is also hectic. The weather in the city has been nasty and rainy throughout the week, and warm and sunny on the weekends...which is really nice! We have been trying to explore our neighborhood more, and go to the park. Last weekend we hung out with the Harts in Harlem, which was a lot of fun. We had homemade pizza and brownies, and had fun hanging out! And thanks to Lauren for coming through for me and lending me some clothes (even though it took a while to find some non-maternity clothes) because Rocket puked all over me from the car ride. haha. Anyways, that was a lot of fun!

This weekend we are excited because my Mom is coming! I'm sure many fun stories and pics will come from that! =)

I'll leave you with a pic of Rocket! (from a couple of weeks ago...but cute!) =)

Comments are great! =)

Adventures Across 2 Boroughs...

2009-05-31T19:58:00.008-04:00

There goes another week! This week was busy full of school and work for me and Matt! It was only my second week of summer school and I already had a quiz and a practical! 2 more quizzes coming up this week! Hopefully this week goes as well as last week did! =)

EWW! Look at this nasty snail (we named him Stanley) I found out on our deck... We don't think Stanley survived the rest of the day, but I swear it wasn't my fault!

Even though our day-lives were busy with the daily grind of work and school, we managed to save a little time for fun in the evenings! On Wednesday night, we had a little reunion with a bunch of our friends in Queens. We went to Panera, which is SOOOO yummy!!!! There aren't many around NYC, so it was quite a treat. We just hung out and shared stories, had a lot of fun and laughs! Friday night, we again, went up to Queens, to go mini golfing. The course was fun but hilarious at times because they advertised like "Free parking" (which was 10 minutes away and impossible to find), and "lighted course for night play" (which had some shadows at times). But it was great for a fun night. And, I got a hole in 1 and beat Matt by 2 strokes! =) Yay! haha. After that, we all went back to our friend Sarah's place (who we know from Toledo) and had ice cream, popcorn, and played Scattegories! =)

The rest of our weekend has been pretty laid back. The weather has been gorgeous! We walked to and took Rocket to Fort Greene park (which is by school) yesterday and we were all exhausted from the fun day! Then Matt and I went to The Smoke Joint, a BBQ place in Fort Greene. It was a cool trendy place...and the portions were HUGE. They also had delicious BBQ Fries and mac n' cheese for sides. Then we came home and had a movie night. It was a nice night after kinda a crummy day for Matt since our car got hit-and-runned in the garage downstairs =( (although most of the damage was from a tire and mostly came off, including the clear coat of paint), and then Matt got a jury duty summons in the mail for midway through June...Gross.

Today was just a nice lazy Sunday afternoon studying and getting stuff done around the apartment...here's Rocket helping me do laundry!

Well, hope this wasn't too boring. I hope this finds you well! Comments please!

Happy Memorial Day!

2009-05-25T19:55:00.008-04:00

Hi everyone!

Welcome to our blog. We are hoping that this can be a better way to share pictures, stories, and other happenings from NYC with those of you that don't live very close!

Matt and I had a very relaxing, yet productive weekend after my first week of summer semester. We had a couple of outings in to the city, including Saturday going to Union Square to hang out on a beautiful day. The green market was going on there as it is all Saturdays, but it is always CRAZY busy, and they have a lot of cool stuff to offer. I was craving Chipotle so we went there...only to be disappointed by the burnt chicken and old rice. We had to make up for that. So, we went to Jamba Juice because we both had gift cards, and it was delicious, AND we went to Crumbs where there are DELICIOUS cupcakes, and got one for later! Those errands definitely made up for gross Chipotle. Then we went to Petco to pick up a few things, and we ended up getting Rocket a new bed, which he LOVES and now prefers that to take naps over our laps! We've been replaced!

Otherwise, our 3-day weekend has been pretty low key, full of enjoying the weather, and studying for me. :-/
Today we went to Central Park to picnic with Lauren, Mike, Zoe, and her friend Elisabeth. It was a lot of fun!!! Rocket had a blast with his first trip to Central park, as well as made a lot of people and dog friends, like he always does. The picnic was fun and delicious, we played with the girls and Rocket. We managed to keep Rocket away from the food and in to his own food, but we couldn't stop him when I was making a sandwich for Zoe...he zipped in under my arm and grabbed a mouthful of turkey! It was HILARIOUS, and we got all the turkey out of his mouth before he could swallow it. Oh did he enjoy his first taste of meat though! After the picnic, we decided to get all of the adults a treat, at Starbucks! =) That was delicious.

Here are some pictures from the picnic!

I hope you enjoyed our first post! We'll try and post weekly to keep you in tune with what's going on over here in NYC!

Love,
Karen and Matt