A Warm Christmas

We're in Florida for Christmas with my family (finally made it here last Sunday after 3 days of blizzard driving, more to come on that later).

We are LOVING seeing everybody. There just isn't enough time. Now I know how my Texas family feels when we get to see them. The visits are NEVER long enough. My precious nieces are growing so fast. Everything they do, every move they make and every word that comes out of their mouths is FASCINATING. You should see the crowd of grown adults that sits around and watches toddlers. Hilarious. Love them. I wish you could just freeze time and not lose those moments.

It's WARM here. I do not enjoy that part, makes me love my new Jersey home even more. I'm a cold weather girl for sure. Keith of course is super happy, he loves the warm, humid air.

Merry Christmas to all!!

xoxo
H

Snow Story #1

With the first snow came the first (of many I'm sure) funny snow stories (thus labeled snow story #1).

Keith and I decided to "venture" out and drive to dinner even though it was snowing, and snowing hard no less. We picked a place that was relatively close, laced up our "snow boots", and braved the weather. We walked out to the car (picture Heidi jumping up and down and talking about how she "lovessss it" and Keith making bad faces), and got in. We sat there for a few minutes letting 0ur fancy heated seats warm up, until Keith quit swearing about how cold it was, then Keith turned on the windshield wipers....

Nothing happened.

Keith tried again...

Nothing happened.

"What the heck is wrong with the windshield wipers??" Keith asks.

I started laughing because I realized the windshield wipers were FINE, they just couldn't function because we didn't think to scrape our windshield first, and the snow was SO thick and heavy on the window that it wouldn't allow the wipers to move, much less wipe the windows. HAHAHAHAH
Oops!

First trip before dinner was made at a grocery store where they sold scrapers. ;)

More snow pics

Here's what it looked like this morning!

First Snow!!!!

It started snowing about 1:00 today. Here are a few pics, I'll try to take a few more once it's been snowing for a few hours. It's coming down pretty good, it's GORGEOUS. I'm jumping up an down it's so exciting. Keith, not so much!! haha

King of the Castle

We had a beautiful weekend and we tried to enjoy it even though Keith was gone. Here is the "king of the castle", surveying the kingdom (his yard). Note the SAD SAD face he makes. He's tethered to a tree because we don't have a fence (actually he's tied to a rope between two trees like a run, don't let him fool you).

It's Anna's World, We Just Live In It

I came in from cleaning the kitchen just now and this is what I found Annabelle doing.

The Birds

We had HUNDREDS of birds in our yard this morning. And I do mean HUNDREDS. COVERING our huge lawn. I couldn't even get to my car, they were swarming. I tried to take some pics, but they all lifted off when I went outside... If you look close (pics below), you can see where they're covering the ground about 10 yards from where I took the picture. They're even covering the trees. There are several kinds, some look like big black crows, some look like brown sparrow-type birds (who the heck knows what kind they really are). haha!

Mom says they're migrating, I sure hope they migrate away from my yard soon. They are LOUD, and anyone that knows me knows it's only a matter of time before one (or several) of them poops on my head. :/

He quit!

This is dedicated to my AWESOME husband who quit smoking a week and a half ago!

I came home from work one day and he announces that he's "quit". I kinda laughed cause I guess I thought he was just kidding?? Well he wasn't kidding. He absolutely HAD quit! Cold turkey no less. I keep offering him patches, gum, etc... he keeps insisting "no thanks". Well alrighty then!

Keith, I'm so incredibly proud of you, you rock!!!

Photos of our House

Here are a few pics of our house (including the little stream in our yard)! These were taken when I was here back in October, so the trees and yard no longer look like this (everything is bare and brown now), but we LOVE how green and beautiful our yard will be in Spring!

Love to all...
xoxo
H

Birthday in the City

I'm finally getting around to blogging about my big birthday night in the city!

We made the mistake of making a dinner reservation for 7:15. That meant going into the city at the WORST possible time of day. We left our house at 5:15 and by 7:15, were sitting outside the Lincoln Tunnel in stand-still traffic. We called Buddakan and they were willing to hold our reservation for 15 min, but we knew we wouldn't make it through the tunnel in that time, much less find the restaurant, find parking, and walk in by then. No way. Luckily they had a 9:15 open up so we grabbed that time instead.

Once we got to the city, we took our time getting to the restaurant, took a drive through Chelsea and by one of the rivers. Couldn't tell you if it was the Hudson or the East River. haha!

Keith was so excited to see the city, I was acting like the expert since I'd be in the week before, of course neither one of us had any idea what we were doing. We thought we would try to find a parking garage, and then find a bar to have a few drinks until time to go to Buddakan. Well, we ended up in a bar called VYNL (see the photo at left). There was 80's music and the menus were made out of old album covers, the bathroom was a shrine to Justin Timberlake (no kidding friends, the wall was a mosaic tile formation of Justin's face). We're having drinks and decided to have this spicy calamari appetizer, when Keith leans in real close (I think he's going to be sweet and kiss me) and really quietly goes "is this a gay bar?" I burst out laughing, apparently he was being checked out and sure enough, we had stumbled into a fabulous gay bar!

Then we went to Buddakan! We took one picture (see below) but it was really dark in there and almost impossible to get a shot. Here's the website, if you click on tours (top right portion of the website), you can see better pictures: www.buddakannyc.com

Some of you may know that is where they shot the rehearsal dinner scene from the Sex in the City movie. I was SO excited to be there!

Dinner was AMAZING. I kept telling Keith to get out of the way when we were standing in the bar waiting for our table, cause I wanted to spot celebrities. LOL

The edamame dumplings were SO GOOD. I've never seen Keith so enthusiastic about asian food. We made friends with the people around us, frankly I've never seen Keith talk so much either. He looked in his element believe it or not. The guy on my left was from DALLAS and the girls on our left were from Scotland, here in NY on a "holiday" as they call it.

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!!

Weirddddd

So there's been a few strange happenings since arriving here in Jersey. I'll share a few of my favorites with you.

1) Horse and Buggy
There was a HORSE AND BUGGY (yes friends I swear) just trotting down the road the first day I arrived in October when I came to look for a house to rent.

2) Deer in the Yard
Every night there is 1 buck and 3 doe that appear in the front yard around midnight. Then if you get up early enough you can see them again. I call them the buck and his "posse". Keith is usually the one encountering these creatures because he walks Jackson around the yard. Jackson is convinced they are there to be his "friends" and now looks for them everywhere when he walks outside. He's very disappointed when they don't want to play and run away when he chases them.

3) Jug Handles
Keith wants me to add Jug Handles to the list of weird things. It's his least favorite thing since moving here. On the highways up here, you can't just uturn or get off and turn left. You have to do a "jug handle". Basically you have to turn right ALWAYS. In order to turn left or uturn, you have to do a loop to the right. Sounds fun, right?! It's real fun, we can't wait to get lost again where it takes us 15 min to get back to the highway (this happened yesterday)! I actually saw steam come out of my sweet husband's ears...

Tata for now!
xoxo
H

Texas Girl Takes a Bite Out of the Big Apple

Yesterday I spent my FIRST day in the city since moving up here. I took a bus into the port authority around lunch, then took a cab over to a luncheon with the Publicity Club of NY. They hosted a session with 5 of the Top Broadcast Producers around - Good Morning America, Dr. Oz, the biggies. Hello amazing!

When I stepped out of the cab I was right in the middle of Rockefeller center. I tried really hard not to look like a fool tourist staring at the huge buildings. I've been to NY several times but it never fails to shock me. It's INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cabbed around the city from meeting to meeting, met with a few clients that I've been working with and had never met, etc. I know I'm a huge dork but I love taking cabs. I'm sure that novelty will wear off but for now I'm still in wonderland. I was nervous about navigating in the city but it was so much easier than I imagined. I fell right into line with all the people hurrying around, tried not to stare at people in the face and tried to watch where I was going. LOL

All I could think standing in the streets was I wish someone was with me to share it! My mom, my sister, anybody!! The first thing I saw when the bus pulled into the city was "THE NEW YORK TIMES" on the side of a building. And I saw a reporter working at his desk through the window. It really was a "this is your life" moment. Here I am, working as a media professional, going into the big city for the first time alone, and bam - there it all was. Cheesy I know, but symbolic is it not??

We're off to eat at Buddakan tomorrow night for my birthday. I'm SO EXCITED.

Love to all!
H

First Week - We Made It!!!

Keith and I were just reflecting that we have been in New Jersey ONE WHOLE WEEK. We can't believe it. It's amazing to think that within just MONTHS, I got the job offer, we made a decision, and POOF - transplanted to the Garden State. Wow.

It's so beautiful here. When we arrived it was in the 30's but warmed up to 55-60 this weekend. We spent the weekend making my mom's delicious chili, unpacking, and sitting on a blanket with Jackson on our gorgeous lawn. I have no idea where my camera is at this point but I promise to find it and start taking more pictures.

I thought I would use this blog to tell some of the hilarious things that are happening during our Jersey adventures, to share some of my thoughts during this transition and to help keep in touch with our family and friends so far away!!

xoxo
Heidi