The Big Apple

Yay for time off after October 15th! We both took our Labor Day Holidays (we got two days back in September but had to work, so we used them this week) and went to New York City for a long weekend. I have been several times--my sister and I had this weird obsession with going in the summers. Anyways, Chris had never been. And one of my best friends lives there. So it all worked out quite nicely.

We left Dallas on Friday afternoon. We were of course delayed an hour but we made it to the City around dinner time. We dropped off our stuff at Meg's apartment and headed out to dinner. We got pizza at Lombardi's then just roamed around while eating pinkberry (yum!) for a while before heading back to Meagan's.

Saturday we got up early and headed to see some sights. The weather forecast for the entire time we were going to be there was rain, rain, rain. So, when we woke up on Saturday and it wasn't raining we decided to try to see all the outdoor sights that we could. We hit Central Park, Rockefeller Center, 5th Avenue, Times Square, etc. We decided to try to eat at Serendipity for lunch and indulge in their frozen (peanut butter) hot chocolate. The wait was only about 45 minutes to an hour so we wasted some time at Bloomingdales then ate lunch. It was actually a much better wait that I thought it was going to be. And totally worth it. It was king of spitting rain by the time we finished eating, so we decided to visit the Natural History Museum. I had never been there before. It was interesting, but crowded! We headed back to Brooklyn to meet up with Meagan for dinner. We ate at this cute little place down the street that had fantastic home cooked food. Chris and I then went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was so fun! Totally entertaining with an uplifting plot. I would totally recommend it to anyone...especially if you have kids.

Sunday we slept in a little bit--we were tired (not to mention SORE) from all the walking that we had done on Saturday. We started the day off with brunch at Meagan's fav place --it was SO good. Side note: we ate A LOT on this trip (if you can't tell). It was raining pretty steadily on Sunday so we walked around a little bit, but then took a tour of the NBC studios. That was actually really entertaining - we saw where Jimmy Fallon is taped and where SNL is taped (which was pretty cool). We then met Meg at the Museum of Modern Art (she had the hook-up and got us in FREE!). Then Meagan treated us to a delicious dinner at Peter Luger's Steakhouse. AMAZING. Biggest. Steak. Ever. And I can't even begin to explain how good the chocolate sundae was. In fact, I want one right now.

Monday was gorgeous (but seriously COLD). Since we watch the Today Show everyday we decided to go see it while it was being taped. We totally walked up to the gates as soon as Matt, Anne (Meredith wasnt there) and Al walked out. We are pretty sure we were on TV. Ha. We then walked over to Top of the Rock. It had beautiful views of the entire city. However, my complete fear of heights kind of go the best of me. I was able to go to all the levels, but stayed close to the walls. Chris stayed up on the top level FOREVER while I was waiting down below. Don't worry, he wasn't scared and we have about a million pictures to prove it. We then took a double decker bus tour (an uptown and downtown loop). That took up most of the rest of the day - we got off at a couple of stops and walked around the financial district and wall street. We finished up the day with dinner in Little Italy.

Tuesday morning we headed to the airport. It was such a good time for us to get away! We loved getting to see Meg and her friends and to see all the sights as well. Thanks Meg for being such a great host!

Here are some pictures from the trip. We really didn't take a whole lot. I managed to not even get a picture with Meagan. Oops. Enjoy!

Lady Liberty

My ears were SO cold. On the double decker.

Top of the Rock

Al, Anne and Matt

At Rockefeller Center.

Frozen PB Hot Chocolate. YUM.

Optimism?

Things I'm looking forward to:

1. October 15. Work will be much less stressful. I need a break.

2. Halloween. More specifically Trick-or-Treaters.

3. Carving a Pumpkin!

4. New York City! T-minus 9 days.

5. LSU vs. Auburn game....in Baton Rouge.

Today work was a beating. We picked up Chipotle for dinner and have been watching TV since we got home. I am struggling to stay awake. This is better than last night when I fell asleep at 8. Yes, 8 pm. It was amazing. Anyways, I thought I would make a list of fun things coming up to make this week a little more bearable (work wise). Every little bit helps, right?

Happy Hump Day!

One Big Update

Well. I did what I told everyone I was not going to do. I have been away from the blogging world for too long now. I will do my best to keep the updates coming. However, I'm 95% sure my sister is the only one that reads this blog. So, here you go Kristin...

We have been out of town for the past two weekends. Last weekend, we were in Lubbock to visit Chris' parents. It had been a long time since we had been there because of our wedding and all the other weddings we were traveling to this summer. It was good to see them and just hang out. We went to eat to celebrate Chris' birthday and just relaxed. Sadly, I did not take pictures that weekend.

We just got home a few hours ago from Arkansas. One of my high school friends got married, so we made the trip to Little Rock for the wedding. We left mid afternoon on Friday. When we got to LR, we made time to go and view our wedding photos to get our album together. Hopefully we will get that in the next month or so. We have obviously been putting if off--there are so many pictures to go through! Then we headed to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Here are a few pictures that I took that night...

The wedding was Saturday evening, so we had most of the day to spend with my family. My cute little nephew came over bright and early on Saturday morning because my sister had a hair appointment and Mike had some stuff to do for work. Here he is eating his chocolate donut and drinking his juice. Seriously, is he not the cutest thing in the world?!?!?

The wedding was very pretty and it was so great to see my best friends from high school...we all live in different states now! We have had so many people tell us how rare it is that we are still such good friends after so long. We meet in the 5th grade and we are still going strong!

This morning Chris and I slept in, then met up with the rest of the fam (mom, dad, mamaw, kristin, mike & brooks) at Olive Garden for lunch. It was tasty as always. Then it was time to head back here to Dallas. Here is Brooks with his crayons at the restaurant. I LOVE HIM.

Oh! I almost forgot. I also got to see this guy while I was home. All 35 pounds of him.

The flight home was semi-bumpy. However, they were preparing us for the most turbulent ride ever. Good thing it was not as bad as they were making it out to be. I probably would have had a panic attack.

We made taco soup for dinner tonight and now it is time for us to start preparing for the week. Sunday nights are so bittersweet. Gotta try to talk myself into being positive at work this week....wish me luck!

Menu Planning Monday!

This week we will be having....

Monday: Grilled Chicken Breast, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower

Tuesday: Chris' 26th B-day! So we are going to Perry's

Wednesday: Cheese Tortellini; Green Beans, Texas Toast

Thursday: I am going out to eat with a friend, so Chris will be fending for himself

Friday: We are going to Lubbock after work, so we will figure something out

This was not very exciting of a week for dinners. But at least we aren't eating out EVERY night like we were right before 9/15 deadline...

My parents were here this weekend and we did a lot of stuff with the house. I will post pictures soon.

Little Red Truck

I don't know why this little CiCi's truck is so funny to me. But seriously I LOVE seeing it around Flower Mound. I mean the sign is just about as big as the truck. And the little teenager that motors around in it is definitely smaller than that sign. My favorite sighting (so far) was when brave little truck whipped a U-turn on extremely busy 2499- with attitude. Oh, it's the little things in life....

Exhausted

I am TIRED. I did not realize it until I decided to take a short nap today (which I NEVER do anymore). Well, I slept for three hours and seriously wish I could have slept longer.

Chris and I got home from Hot Springs, AR this morning. One of my childhood friends got married there this weekend. It was a whirlwind of a trip! We both slept some today and I have a feeling that we will both being going to bed soon. It was a fun weekend and I really enjoyed getting to see friends and even my family for a little bit (they came to the wedding).

Other than that, work is getting all kinds of crazy. This time of year is always so exhausting, but I never am prepared for it.

I am too tired to formulate any more thoughts. So I will leave you with some pictures of the weekend....

Me and my husband at the reception

Me and my sister (in her cute new dress)

Some of the girls at the bridesmaids luncheon

Big group!

The original four

To Floss or Not To Floss

I never used to floss. NEVER. I actually would get kind of irritated when my dental hygenist asked me if I did. Of course not. It is way too difficult, not to mention it takes up entirely too much time. I'm usually running late in the morning or way too tired at night. Plus, I had braces for 4.5 years. It would probably have taken me an hour to floss with those puppies on.

Well, now I'm a floss-er. I don't do it every night. But I would say about 3-4 nights a week. My current hygenist (Yvonne) cleans teeth like I have never experienced before. I now kind of dread going to the dentist because it hurts like the dickens. I'm telling you my gums are on absolute fire for a couple of hours after I leave the place. But, my teeth are clean. This is different for me, because growing up I liked going to the dentist. Probably because I loathed going to the orthodontist or the oral surgeon because they did horrible things like pull my teeth down from the roof of my mouth, extracted teeth, and implanted a tooth which consisted of drilled into the bone in my mouth. The dentist just basically brushed my teeth and squirted some water into my mouth. It was like a mouth massage. I digress.

Well, Yvonne (my current hygenist) cleaned my teeth so well, that I think she cleared up some pathways for food to get stuck in my teeth. Forcing me to have the need to floss. It started out just flossing between two teeth, then the whole bottom row, now it's the entire mouth. I won't go into detail about what I have found. I will just tell you this: you really should floss. It really will do you some good.

Yes, I just blogged about flossing. Gross.

Baby B

Guess who is 21 months old today......

Brooks Blain! The sweetest little boy ever.

I can't believe he is already this old. It really seems like just yesterday that he was born. My sister did good, didn't she? I really can't wait to take him to Build a Bear, Six Flags, and do all things fun. We are totally destined to be best friends. He just doesn't know that yet.

Lazy Weekend

This weekend we stayed home and it was wonderful. This entire summer we have been all over the map. And this fall we are going to be doing the same thing. So, for all most August we have decided to stay in The Mound. It was a much needed restful weekend. We took off of work on Friday and just watched movies, went shopping, and grilled fajitas on the grill. Just the two of us. I really think that I would be much more productive at work week to week if I could just have a three day weekend all the time. I should suggest that...

Saturday we got up early and did some community service with our church. We were at an elementary school in the area and just did some projects to help clean up the school. In the afternoon, we helped out with a block party where we provided free food and gave out some free school supplies for the kids. There was a bounce house and Chris and I got the privilege of being in charge of that for about an hour and half. I was pretty convinced that someone was going to break a bone with all the craziness. It wore us out! It was fun though--it was a great day for that kind of thing. I got to see some friends from high school that afternoon and then we went to church that night.

Sunday was supposed to be a productive clean-the-house day. What did we do instead? A puzzle. Yes, a puzzle. We had borrowed one a few months ago from some friends, so we thought we could start working on it. Well, we could not do anything else. We not only started it, we finished that thing. Yes, we know we are super nerdy. We don't care. We finished up just in time to head to home group. We love each and every person in our home group and we really feel so lucky to be a part of it.

So, that was our weekend. Nothing exciting. This upcoming weekend will probably be even less eventful--I can't wait!

I will leave you with our "Menu-Planning Monday" Dinner Schedule. I will try to post each week. Our menu is kind of lame this week. Sorry, but last week was intense so I'm taking it easy.

Monday: Chicken Salad Sandwiches, chips, dip

Tuesday: breakfast - scrambled eggs, biscuits, turkey sausage

Wednesday: Palio's with the Mitchells

Thursday: Homemade pepperoni pizza

Friday: Mexican lasagna

Saturday: Much needed trip to the store....

Happy Monday!

Here we go

Well, I thought that I would start out blogging on an extremely important day of the year: my birthday. So that you do not think that I am a completely vain person...it is my sister's birthday as well. So, since she was part of the motivation for me starting a blog--I have decided to dedicate this post to her.

Kristin is 7 years older than me. A lot of people think that we look alike. I guess we kind of do. But at the same time, she has a really large head...and I have a extremely small head. This is probably magnified by the texture of each of our hair. Kristin = puffy hair. Katie = flat, mold to your head hair. See the picture below. It's OK to agree with me. We have both accepted this fact.

My brother-in-law is totally creeped out by us sometimes. Around Halloween a few years back, I made a trip to Target. While there, I looked at the dog Halloween costumes because they are just so cute. My parents have a pug (I will have to dedicate an entire post to him in the near future) and they would totally enjoy dressing him up and letting him parade around in a costume. There was a dinosaur one that was the best and I could picture Teddy boy looking good in it. So, because I was in Waco for school, I call my parents and tell them that they really should go and get it. Don't worry, they didn't have to make the trip themselves because my sister walked in with it about five minutes earlier. Weird, huh?

We have also been known to get each other the exact same thing for birthdays, Christmas, etc without even knowing it. We even wore the same thing to a family reunion once. But, if I had to choose to be like this with anyone it would most definitely be my sister! To quote a book about 'What Sisters Share', "Going through life with the family thighs is a lot easier when there's somebody else out there with two more just like them". Amen.

Happy Birthday, Kristin!