Wish You Were Here: New York City

We had so much fun in the Big Apple last week! I'll never forget the first time I traveled to New York City. I was eight years old and it was my first time on an airplane! My uncle lived (and still does) in Greenwich Village and my grandparents took me to visit. I still vividly remember the night we arrived and I went to my first Broadway musical, CATS! We visited the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Centers, and much much more. Since then, my sister has gone to NYU and made her home there, so we've been really lucky to be able to make several trips there over the years.

This trip, however, was a first for Marcus! I was so excited to be able to make the trip with him and for him to see all the really touristy places. It was also a special trip because all of my family was there and we celebrated my sister's 30th birthday! Kyleen was so shocked when we arrived at her house and the entire long weekend was just so much fun.

We started off with a visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Both places are full of history and such a neat experience for all ages!

Isn't she a beaut?

After lunch we went to the 9/11 Memorial. I guess I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was a really neat experience. The fountains are beautiful and they pay important tribute to those who lost their lives while symbolizing hope for our country's future.

One of the fountains at the memorial.

Freedom Tower, still a work in progress.

We finished a day of sightseeing at the Top of the Rock. I was really excited about this because it was new for me! We opted for the observation deck at Rockefeller Center over the Empire State Building because the wait was much shorter and the view was just as amazing.

Hello from the top of New York City!

For dinner, we went to the iconic Grand Central Station for dinner at the long-established Oyster Bar. One of the fun things about Grand Central Station is that you can stand in a corner and talk to someone standing in the opposite corner, kind of like a tin can telephone!

My dad in timeout!

The next day, we took a lovely stroll through Central Park. In my opinion, no trip to NYC is complete without a good old-fashioned New York hot dog. So this was our first stop at the park. Second to a hot dog, my favorite spot in New York is the Literary Walk. It's just so picturesque and peaceful in the city that never sleeps! We also visited the boatyard and turtle pond as well as the fountain that's seen in many films, including One Fine Day!

Next stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My uncle calls it his Number 1 Must for anyone with refinement and artistic sensibilities! :) Marcus enjoyed all of the modern art, and I just loved the new Schiaparelli & Prada exhibit. If you love clothes and fashion, it's just incredible.

After some classic New York style pizza at John's, we headed to the Broadway Theater to see Sister Act: the Musical. I have to admit, there were other shows higher on my list, but it was a really fun show. We laughed out loud and had a good time!

Best pizza in the city!

As always, trips to New York are too short and it's just impossible to see everything. After our time in the city, we spent a couple of days visiting family. Stay tuned for a post about my sister's surprise party and my special birthday gift!

Wish You Were Here: Chattanooga

Marcus and I used Valentine's Day as an excuse for a little overnight getaway to the charming town of Chattanooga. It's just a couple hours from Nashville, so it makes for a perfect little weekend trip! The short drive takes you through the mountains and even through Georgia for a few minutes before you find yourself back in Tennessee in a little town that sits on the river and is home to a fantastic aquarium, incredible art, tasty food, quaint little B&B's, and general feeling of sweet yet sophisticated southern hospitality.

This was the first time Marcus and I were able to go to Chattanooga for fun, and we accomplished our goal of just relaxing and enjoying each other's company.  We stayed at a wonderful little B&B that was part of the Bluff View Art District. From our room, we could walk to the restaurant where we had dinner overlooking the river and the perfect little coffee shop for dessert. And that's exactly what we did on Friday night!

Really bad picture with the self-timer. :)

Another bad picture with my eyes closed. This is where we stayed!

On Saturday morning, we got up and had breakfast at the Inn. After checking out, we headed over the river to Frazier street, right by the riverfront Coolidge Park. We decided to just visit the little shops and not have any sort of agenda. I found a great little dress for my friend's rehearsal dinner, and Marcus got The Beatles Rarities on vinyl at a cool little vintage shop. After hitting up the antique mall, it was time for lunch! We hit up Good Dog for some tasty hot dogs and frites (fries). Then, we topped it off at the ice cream parlor, Clumpies!

Yummy breakfast!

Yummy hot dogs!

Yummy ice cream!

After a day of exploring, it was time to head back to Nashville. We had such a great time and if you're ever looking for a quick little escape, Chattanooga is the perfect place!!

November Babies

Thanks to an article in the Valentine's Day edition of my high school newspaper, February 14th will forever be a reminder of the day all of us November babies were...how shall I put this...thought of.  If you were born on or around November 15, give your parents a high five today. Or don't...that might be weird.

Anyway, it's Valentine's Day and Marcus and I are celebrating with a little weekend getaway to Chattanooga in a few days. For tonight, though, I'm giving him his favorite Little Debbie snacks and these! If your sweetie is a fan of Arrested Development, they might be just what you've been looking for:

via

via

I originally saw these on Rage Against the Minivan, and couldn't resist! You can find these and print for free at Kyle Hilton Illustrates. There are other TV series too, like Breaking Bad, The Office, Parks and Rec, and more. Enjoy!

I hope that whatever today means for you, you feel the love. Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe it is already 2012! I hope you all had a great time ringing in the new year.  The Womacks sent 2011 out in style...on the couch.  It was actually a nice NYE, just going out to eat and spending time together as a family.

I have enjoyed reading all of your posts about the holidays, and I finally have a chance to sit down and share mine.  We had a great time in Texas visiting with family and friends and celebrating the most wonderful time of the year.  It always goes by way too quickly, but it was also good to come back to Nashville and start settling into the new year.

Our break started with the wedding of our dear friends, Nicki and Alex. After dropping Max off in Longview with my parents, we headed down to Houston for the party! We had such a great time celebrating and catching up with close friends from college.

The Womacks and the Zeisigs!

We headed back to Longview on Sunday and spent some time with my family. It was really great having time to just relax, eat, and enjoy family time! I was really excited for our family gift exchange because I finished my grandmother's quilt! While it was fun to watch everyone open the gifts we gave, I was most looking forward to this one.  Here is the completed quilt!

Front

Back

My grandmother collects quilts, but has never had one made for her. I made this using some doilies that her grandmother and grandmother-in-law made! This was such a special project for me and I'm so pleased with how it turned out. Here she is opening it up!

I think she liked it!

Unfortunately, I was really bad with the camera this year, and didn't get many pictures of the rest of our family. Maybe I should add that to my list of new years resolutions?

Christmas at Nunna's!

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Rockwall for Christmas with the Womacks. We had so much fun visiting with family, especially our nieces.  They NEVER run out of energy so there was lots of play time while we were there.

Love these crazy girls!

We are always sad to leave Texas, especially when we don't know how long it will be until we're back. But we returned to Nashville hopeful for the new year and all that it has to offer. Come back tomorrow for a review of 2011 and my resolutions! I know most people have already done this, but better late than never, right?

Merry Christmas!

created via Shutterfly

From our family to yours, have a blessed holiday season!

Ornament Swap

Ok, it's officially crazy time. Not only have I been busy working on Christmas gifts (I'm pretty sure my machine started smoking last night), it's also the busiest time of year at work. I've worked late every day this week. Granted it was only about 15 minutes each day, but still, working late is a rarity for me (not that I won't, my position just rarely requires it). But I digress.

Today I'm linking up at Mackey Madness to show you the ornaments I received in the swap she sponsored! I was paired with my new blog friend Kendra at Life in the Slow Lane. I was so excited to receive these little beauties in the mail!

Aren't they so cute? The first two were handmade where Kendra lives in Kansas.  And I have always loved that quote from Thoreau! Thanks, Kendra! To see what I sent, check out her blog!

Stay tuned for (hopefully) another post on Friday of all our Christmas decorations!

Lunch Break Make: Button Ornament

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Friday night, Marcus and I decorated the house while watching Home Alone (one of my top five favorite movies of all time). I just love this time of year, and it's such a fun time in our lives as we create new family traditions and combine the traditions we grew up with.

My family never really had a tradition of making ornaments, but my mom insisted on keeping EVERY (and I mean every) single ornament I ever made in school or church and they ALL go up on the tree year after year.  We joke that we have the tackiest tree on the block, but it really is fun to see all our "artwork" and it's special to have a tree that's so personal to our family and full of stories and memories.  

This is the second Christmas for Marcus and me as a married couple and we don't have any handmade ornaments on our tree yet, so over Thanksgiving, I decided to make one!

This is a perfect Lunch Break Make. It takes about an hour, and once again, you can do this at your desk at the office, or on your couch, or if you're like my sister, on the train while commuting into the city!

Here's what you'll need:

Styrofoam ball, ribbon, glass-head pins, buttons!

Starting with a larger button, stick two pins through the button holes into the foam ball:

Repeat!

Continue to cover the ball with buttons, using small ones to overlap.

Tie a pretty little bow with your ribbon, and pin it to the ball.

And then you have a lovely handmade ornament! 

I used a combination of green and red, but you could use any color combo you like.  Wouldn't a white and silver one be pretty?

I originally saw this ornament at Curbly, and I'm linking up at Tip Junkie- check it out for lots of fun ideas!

Christmas Projects

Does anyone even remember what Thanksgiving was like? It's only been a few days, but it seems that everyone is in full Christmas mode now!  We had a great time in Texas- we marked everything off our list and had a great time with our families.  Max made some new friends too!

Now that we are back in Nashville, it's time to start decorating for Christmas and think about our gift list.  I'm trying to make several gifts this year, so I'll be spending a lot of time at the sewing machine in the next few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago, I joined my friend, Lauren, and some lovely ladies from her church for a sewing lock-in! I worked on a few projects, but I was most excited about two pillows I made.  I had several scarves left from when I went to Africa and needed something to do with them, but didn't want to give them away.  So I decided to make some pillows for Marcus's grandmothers.  Here is one of them!

Tonight, I was a little over-ambitious and tried a project I found on Pinterest.  I found these adorable stuffed animal sleeping bags and thought they would be so fun for my nieces, Abby and Lucy (baby Clare will be getting something else). Melissa, I hope if you're reading this that you're far away from the girls! :) This was a little above my skill level, but it turned out ok! Hopefully the second one will be even better.  We'll switch the stuffed animal out for one that fits a little better.  I hope they are a hit!

I'm excited for all the other projects I have on my list, and I'll be back next week with another Lunch Break Make!  Let's just hope there's enough time to get it all done.

Have you started your Christmas shopping/making? What's on your list this year? I'd love some ideas for my father-in-law...

The Eyes of Texas are Upon You!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope you all had a wonderful day full of family, friends, food, and giving thanks. Oh, and football!

Tonight was the end of an era- after 117 years, it's hard to say if there will ever be another Thanksgiving Day match-up between the University of Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies.  It's one of the biggest rivalries in the history of college football, and tonight's game was quite a thriller.  This year was the first time I watched the game with Marcus's family- ALL aggies! I was a little nervous, but everyone was very civil! :) The game was great and kept us on our toes to the very last second! We were happy for the outcome, but sad to see such an incredible tradition come to an end.

I'm so proud to be a graduate of THE University of Texas and to have been able to take part in so many long-standing traditions, both in athletics, and not!  My four years in Austin were some of the best in my life. In fact, in many ways, I'm still "grieving" the loss of my time there.  I love my life now, but college was where I grew up. It's where I figured out who I was and who God wanted me to be. It's where I made the most amazing friendships, and where I fell in love.

I'm a fourth-generation longhorn, so to say that my love of UT runs deep is just a bit of an understatement.  I hope some day one of my children will carry on our legacy and have as wonderful an experience as I did.

Today, I am so thankful for my families- the one I was born into and the one I married into.  I am thankful for a really cool job and a warm home in Nashville. I am thankful for a loving, compassionate, patient husband who cares for me and loves me unconditionally.  I am thankful for the school that brought us together and the valuable education I received.  And most importantly, I'm thankful that God has so graciously provided these things.

I hope you continue to remember the things that you are thankful for and enjoy the start to a blessed holiday season.

Oh, and hook 'em horns! 

Countdown to Thanksgiving

We leave for Thanksgiving break in Texas in 6 days and the countdown is on!  

I have a long list of things to get done before then, including

laundry

cleaning the house

changing the sheets on the beds

grocery shopping

host small group

wash the car

pack

But getting all that done means nine hours in the car with this guy:

Pray for us...

But getting that done means six whole days at home in Texas with:

(my parents)

and

(Marco's parents)

and the rest of our wonderful family!

and

and

and

and 

and

(and real food too)

and my first:

and the last:

(for a while anyway...)

Can you tell I'm a little excited?  We always enjoy getting back to our roots and spending quality time with our family and eating lots of fried food and shopping and watching sports.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Are you counting down like I am?