Thanks for being patient with me. It's been a rough week folks. Ok, maybe not really rough (besides work), but busy all around. Saturday was Nikkie & Matt's wedding (post to follow), Sunday we welcomed home Rita & Don from Germany (visiting
Dan & Marissa) with Sommer, Bry, & Bryce. We also celebrated Sommer & Bry's 7th Anniversary with some yummy cake I made for them (pics later). I had my first photography class with
Mase & Bethany on Monday! Super fun and excited to learn how to take better pics (hopefully)! We have weekly homework assignments, so I will try to post about those! Tuesday we celebrated my parents 30th wedding anniversary (post to follow), and Wednesday I had a doctors appointment. It was quite the checkup. I have been having problems with my heart (almost like a sharp, sudden pain in my heart followed by my heart racing a mile a minute), so they checked out my heart and he said it was very strong and sounded good (no murmurs), but wanted to do an
EKG just to make sure. The lady who did it tried to make me feel as comfortable as possible, but seriously . . . how does laying on a table half naked with a bunch of electrodes and wires hooked up to you feel comfortable?! Anyways. . . . the EKG came back normal as well (thank goodness!), and he thinks what I am feeling is called "Atria Catch". It's when the top chamber and bottom chamber of the heart open and close at the same time and create that pain feeling because the pressure is pushing together. He said it's normal and no medicine is needed. Ok. If you say so. But really, it is always nice to go to the doctors and get a good bill of health!
And on to NYC:
I love organization. Some people might think you can have too much of it, but I live on it. I like to have plans, I like to see everything all neat and tidy, I like to know what I'm doing when. I feel like this way you can maximize the time you have, and make the best of everything. This is why I made a NYC Trip Itinerary. So we weren't walking/subwaying from North to South Manhattan and wasting all our time travelling back and forth. So we knew what we wanted to see and when we could see it. Now with that said, we did follow the itinerary mostly, and it worked and helped out a lot!! But we did not let it deter us from cool things! If we saw something we wanted to see or do, we did it! (I left some wiggle room in our itinerary for that reason).
We flew out of the Buffalo Airport . . . (Erie, you need direct flights to big cities!). We umm, love unhealthy food. It's just soo yummy!
So on our flight we had individual TV's in each of our seats!! Coolest thing ever! I got to watch HGTV the entire trip! And swapped over to free XM Radio during commercials.
Can you see the city from the airport?! I was getting sooo excited right about now!
Next Stop: Ours! The 7th Ave & 53th Street subway stop came out RIGHT by our hotel! Quite convenient!
We stayed at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers! Definitely recommend that hotel! Within walking distance to Times Square, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Moma, Magnolia's Cupcakes, and several other fun spots! The bed was nice and the room a little smaller (but really all we did was sleep there, so that was perfect)! And the bathrooms need a little updating, but for what we spent and how close it was to everything, it was perfect.
I loved that for key cards we got one that shows Shane's idea of a dream vaca and one that shows my idea of a dream vaca! Can you guess which is which?!
We decided to take a stroll in Central Park our first night, and I cannot tell you how much I LOOOOOOVED it!! We need one in Erie! It was just such a great atmosphere! So many things going on and so many beautiful sights!
There was a giant kids playground and huge rocks that people were laying on.
A big lawn where people were playing frisbee, learning self-defense, working out, playing soccer or catch, or just laying back and reading a book.
An awesome fountain (at this point we thought we were almost through Central Park b/c we were walking FOREVER, but really we were like 1/4 of the way through it. . it's HUGE!) with a pond with lots of cute turtles! You could rent paddle boats or take a gondola ride.
As we were trying to find our way out of Central Park, a bummy guy came up to us and said "Counting Crows is in town! That's how you know it's going to be a great weekend!", and then we tried to see if it was a free concert (yeah right), but we could still hear everything outside, and we were tempted to join this guy's (white shirt w/grey beard w/hand raised) party! He just kept singing and dancing all around . . by himself.
Late Show!!! Shane and I are both huge fans of David Letterman! We tried to get some tickets for the Thursday show, but that didn't work out. . . so we went to Angelo's (right next door) for our first dinner in NYC . . .
More pizza! It was ok. I think we were expecting it to be the BEST pizza we ever had since they hype up NYC pizza so much.
And what's NYC with out wandering around at night! We decided to take a trip to Times Square to see what all the fuss was about!
On our way we ran into Obama Condom boy. He was trying to sell condoms. Obama's - "Ultimate Stimulus Package", Palin's - "When Abortion is Not An Option".
We read that we couldn't take cameras to the broadway show with us (not true. they never checked and there were TONS of people with cameras. bummer.) so we decided to find Mary Poppins (New Amsterdam Theater) so we could at least have some pictures of it.
Me in Times Square!! Really . . the city that never sleeps! I mean, ok, we only stayed out till 11 or 12, but there were ALWAYS sooooooooooooo many people! And it was sooo bright! I actually felt more comfortable in Times Square than I did on a "not busy" street.
On our way back to the hotel we decided to check out the four level Toys-R-Us store! We ran into a T-Rex! Don't worry! We outran it!
And they have the best tourist stores there!!! I got a "I <3 New York" t-shirt for $3!!! I gave Shane the best husband award for going into all these stores for me.
That was Day 1, 3 more to go!
I really can't believe it's been 7 years already! Time flies when you're having fun!
To think that Shaney's been able to put up with me for that long! THAT is impressive! 
Shane goofing off!
In the back yard (it really wasn't THAT sunny. Shane has issues with opening his eyes).
And our signature pose (except notice Shane's closed eyes again). Didn't turn out as good as our "Christmas" pics, but I still like em (minus the closed eyes! Ha!)!
p.s. - It was pretty much negative two hundred degrees out when we took this. . . and I couldn't find our tripod, so we used one of the big cardboard boxes from our move. And for a few of the pics our remote wouldn't work (we took these ourselves), so I had to press the timer and sprint to Shane before the camera went off (in three feet snow)!
Today marks the 2 year anniversary of my hubby and I! We got married August 11, 2007 in Erie, PA (Edinboro). It was seriously the best day of my life.
I got to marry my best friend.
We have definitely had soooo many milestones already in just our first two years together. We moved 7 hours away from friends and family with just each other to lean on sometimes, started new jobs, bought a house, adopted a puppy, had to go through several major family losses, adopted some kitties, made some major home repairs, moved back home, tried (and finally successfully) sold a house, started new jobs again, and had to pay lots of money to sell our house.
We have been through a lot, but have grown closer because of it. Every day I just love him more and more!
We have fun together all the time and I am just so blessed that God put him in my life.
I am looking forward to everything that awaits us in the future. What the future stores, I am not quite sure, but we will trust in God and hope that our marriage becomes even stronger than it already is.
Super excited about tonight. It's been a while since Shane and I have gone on a "date". When Shane and I were in Virginia, the focus was always on each other. We went out to dinner about once a week. Since we've moved back, we kinda forgot that we need "just us" time. I think we've gone out to dinner together just once or twice in the six months (holy crap, it's really been that long already?!) we've been back. So this is long overdue.
Well . . . I keep track even after we got married! I met Shane at Penn State Behrend. We were both on the track team together (. . .I know . . . you know.).
I remember seeing him for the first time and thinking, "gosh I'm not going to like this guy . . . he just seems way too good for everyone else." (Shane and I went to rival high schools --> General McLane and Harborcreek . . . so I knew of him already . . he was the star of his track team and I saw him on the "Athlete of the Week" thingy or something like that on tv.) I just wasn't sure about him . . .
His first thoughts when he saw me was, "man that girl has way too many things on her key chain". Ha! I just think that's so funny!
So we saw each other every day during track, and even though our coaches thought we were going to kill each other (we would have water fights, pick on each other, Shane always wanted me to tell him that he was my master, and he almost buzzed my hair off) . . . we knew it was growing to be more (that was just our way of flirting I guess).
I will never forget going to his dorm room our first couple "dates" together (and by dates I mean watching David Letterman in his old recliners in his dorm room). It was the simplest thing, but it was just so fun for me to be with him. I knew that I wanted to be with him all the time.
So then we had the greatly awkward "are we dating" talk, and decided that we, in fact, were! And ever since then (May 6, 2003), we have been together!
