Childhood Friendship

Is anyone else feeling summer crunch time? This summer is going so fast and I feel like there are so many things I want to do before it ends! We don't have a big summer "bucket list" or anything like that, but we do have a few things we still want to do with the kids--visit the zoo, go bowling, go on a photo treasure hunt and complete a few projects around the house. And by complete a few projects around the house, I of course mean putting my dear husband to work. ;)

This week, however, was kind of like a stay-cation for all of us. One of my best girls who lives a quick 8 hours up the road ;), stopped by for a visit. I finished all of my photo editing before she got here so I  could totally enjoy the week without the nagging thought of needing to work.

 A lifelong, childhood friend is something that I have grown to cherish and hold close the older I get. I have so many wonderful friends that I've grown close to since I got married, and I'm thankful for each one of them. But there is something comforting and reassuring about someone you've been best friends with for 20+ years. We stay in constant contact, no matter the miles, and when we see each other again it's like we never left. The talks were long, the sleep was short, the coffee was strong and the shopping was frequent. Just the way it should be with friends. No need for schedules or entertaining--just picking up where we left off, talking, cooking, cleaning up, swimming, shopping and caring for our babies.

We visited a store that I'm not sure how on earth I missed over the past 8 years of living here. This crossover bag had to come home with me!

I don't think we stopped talking for a second when she was here. We both cried when she left, mainly because of the reason I wrote about earlier--that childhood friendship is like none other, and you don't realize how much you miss it until you experience it again. However I am so thankful for the times we do get to spend together, even though they are few and far between!

NYC, Part 2

On our second day in NYC we planned to just take the ferry and then walk in the city without taking subways. The Staten Island ferry dropped us off in Battery Park and after we got off, we just started to walk. It was a little chilly that day so starting off with Starbucks was a must. From there we walked to Freedom Tower. We didn’t go inside, but even just walking by it was eerie, thinking about the events of 9-11. Even though there were crowds of people walking by, there was a strange silence in respect of what happened there. 

Some of the best food in the city comes from food stands, in my opinion. A NY gyro is what most of us ordered, with lamb of course, because it is simply divine and a real treat.  Also, we justified our pigging out with the fact that we walked for 5-6 hours that day. ;)

We walked into Battery Park city where we found a really ritzy mall that we used the bathroom in (ha) and walked around a little bit. 

That night was definitely one of our best memories of the trip. My dad and younger sisters stayed home with all the little kids (quite the job; I’m so thankful for them!) and the rest of us headed to Canal Street (tourist shops in Chinatown), Little Italy, Grand Central Station and Times Square. It was such a memorable night! One of the Pastor’s sons who knows the city in and out took us all over and we could have never seen what we did in one evening if it wasn’t for him. We shopped, ate dinner in Chinatown and dessert in little Italy at the best little dessert shop, Ferrara. I definitely recommend it if you are ever there!

One thing that most people do not know about Grand Central Station is that in one of the corridors there is something called a whispering wall. It's a square/dome type room, and if two people stand at either corner opposite of each other and speak in a normal voice, one can hear the other person clear as day. The sound travels up and over, giving you the sense that a speaker is right behind you. You can only say a few words at a time, simply because you laugh at how weird and phenomenal it is all at the same time. Once again, we were so thankful for our "guide," because we would have never known this without him and it was one of the highlights of our evening!

We arrived in Times Square at midnight and of course it was almost as bright as the middle of the day. I haven't been there in so long, I forgot about how huge all of the screens are and how much there is to gawk at (insert tourist face here). We walked around, took pictures, and of course could not leave without getting Starbucks!

New York is truly a beautiful city, and while I would never choose to live there, I do love visiting. But better than all of the sights, sounds, NY accents and food was the precious time spent with my family. Living so far away has never gotten easier--if anything, it's gotten harder--but that has caused us to cherish every moment together which I really appreciate.

 Coming home from vacation is a strange feeling--being rested and exhausted, all at the same time. I think our exhaustion was probably caused more from all of the carbs and sugar we stuffed into our bodies than anything. ;)

 Update on Recent Happenings: House hunting is still, well, going. We put in an offer on a beautiful home on an acre of land but it was not accepted, so we figured it was not God's will. We're still busy packing, while also keeping our house clean for showings, so it's definitely caused some stressful moments but over all we are doing well! Hope you all are enjoying your week!

Happy Friday!

Well hello there Friday! You are a welcome sight. This week I washed and organized the babies clothes, set up the crib, packed my hospital bags, rearranged and re-decorated my room, organized my closet, scrubbed my molding and dusted my blinds.

 Oh wait. That was me in another life. Or what I wanted to do this week. Instead I barely had the strength to keep up with normal housecleaning and laundry. It's the end of my pregnancy and boy am I feeling it like I didn't with my other 2. My back is getting bad again, my feet are on fire by the end of the day and I can literally feel my skin stretching as the baby puts on weight in these last few weeks. I am not complaining, more just trying to justify why I haven't gotten done what I wanted to this week. ;) Thankfully I have 4 weeks left until my due date, which could translate to 2 or 3 if I go early again, so I have time...

Monday night we left the house in the pouring rain to go to Starbucks. The kids were excited and I wanted to get out of the house. Brookie opted for chocolate milk and Joe wanted apple juice.

Nate got coffee, I got water and the kids and I shared a salted caramel chocolate bar. It was divine!

Hugging her little brother--we are all getting very anxious to meet him!

Would you look at these two?! All mine, girls. All mine.

Last night the kids skyped with my sisters before bed. They loved it! Brooklynne said she wants to do it every single night. I don't think that will work out but they are excited about doing it often with them. :)

Tonight Nate had a practice for a competition coming up. It was Friday and I really wanted to go out with the kids, so we took a little trip to Chik-fil-A (otherwise known as chick-a-lay). I admit I had selfish
intentions to go out--Nate said last night that I could get a new bed set for our room since I've been wanting one for a while and ours is shot. (Apparently if you spend $30.00 6 years ago at Wal-Mart you should be prepared to get what you pay for).

 

After staying up way too late last night looking online for ideas, I settled on purple and gray with a little yellow for color pop. We have a white bed frame and dressers, so it will go really well with it! Here is the actual picture of what I found tonight at Target--I am super excited to get it set up!

We also needed a new set of sheets, so I was able to find these gray ones to match...

...and yellow throw pillows on clearance to boot! I am still going to look for gray pillows, but I just cannot justify spending $20-$45 on a pillow. Not cool. I'll keep my eyes open and hopefully find something soon that will tie it all in. We also need curtains (I AM THE WORST CURTAIN-ER IN THE WORLD!) and some lamps for our nightstands. 

I'm excited about picking stuff up as I find good deals, but really hoping to have it totally done before the baby arrives. Coming home from the hospital to a clean, organized, "new" room will be wonderful. 

This month I'm listening to 1 Corinthians 13 each day. I loved listening to PS. 119 so much last month that I decided to keep it going. What better month to keep with the "love" theme than February? I actually memorized the chapter years ago and it's coming back to me now after only a few days of listening to it! Hopefully it will be a constant reminder to be long suffering, kind and charitable to those around me on a daily basis.

Well, that's all for now. It is once again way too late and I need to get to bed. Have a great weekend readers!

Shopping, Waffles and Vikings

Thanksgiving weekend 2011 will always be very special to us. Visiting Nate's side of the family is rare--as in, they've never met our kids. This year we wanted to make a little effort to take a road trip to visit them for the holiday. 

The supposed to be 16 hour trip took 18 on the way there, because of awful traffic, but here are the kids after about 12 hours of it! As you can see, they did great! 

 Grandpa P. uses a magnifying glass a lot, and the kids loved it.

 Ahh...Thanksgiving "eve". There is something so cozy about the eve of any winter holiday. After we put the kids to bed, I curled up with dark chocolate...

 ...and my man and we watched a movie together. One thing that was great about this trip was that Nate's parents went as well, meaning we had free babysitting a lot. We took advantage, maybe a little more than we should have ;), but it was so nice!

 After our huge Thanksgiving feast, we walked to the park with the kids. It was unseasonably warm that day, but nothing like Texas, so I was happy! My kids got to play in leaves for the first time in their little lives!

 Me and my little "pumpkin" on Thanksgiving! (25 weeks). Throughout the trip, I felt great and my back didn't really bother me until halfway through the drive home! That was amazing!

 Headed shopping on Black Friday! We don't get up super early to get all the crazy lines and door busters, but I do like Christmas shopping on that day. Something about the first day of the Christmas season that's so festive and fun! The great thing is, I got a lot of good deals and almost got all of my shopping done!

 Joey kept us very entertained on the trip. He is a riot--I don't know how else to put it. He talks constantly in full, clear-as-day sentences, (When your almost 90 year old grandparents understand 99% of what he says, you know it's clear!) and he is truly hilarious. He is exactly, 100% like my dad. I just hope he preaches like him someday! What a dream come true that would be!

 Nate's Mom and her parents are very strongly Danish and we were able to visit a windmill that was brought over from Denmark in pieces and re-assembled. The gift shop was fun too--look at those little vikings! :)

 One day, we drove a few hours to meet my Father-in-laws Mom and sister for lunch. They were so sweet, and I was disappointed we didn't get to spend more time with them!

 Saturday evening tradition: Grandpa makes waffles.

 They. Were. Delicious. (I'm typing this before breakfast and could really go for some right now!)

That completes my phone pictures while we were there. Thankfully the ride home seemed much shorter than the first one, although Nate and I didn't really sleep at all through the night (he was driving, so that was a good thing!). We got home at 6am, put the kids right to bed and we all crashed for about 4 hours. Let's just say we all slept really good the next night!
 I am so thankful we got to make this trip and that my kids got to meet their other great grandparents. I don't know if we'll make it there again, so these memories will last us forever!