Team Thomas in New York

Gone too soon...

2011-01-01T13:50:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day of the New Year! We wish everyone a Happy and Healthy 2011!

As a side note: I am finding it hard to look to the year ahead today, I am looking back on the years past, the years we had with our little Dexter...

We lost him to cancer last night and are heartbroken, I will be posting a tribute to our little guy as soon as I get the pictures together...RIP Dex

Happy Mothers Day

2010-05-09T18:37:00.001-07:00

A Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers in our lives that we care so much about....especially our mothers who we love so much, thank you for all you have done...

and now that I'm a mom, I truly understand what mother means...

Bath Time!!

2010-05-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

When he first came home we bathed him in this little hospital bin...

and now we take baths together... I think he already thinks I am crazy :-)

Thomas family comes for a visit...

2010-04-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

In March the whole Thomas family was in New York to meet little Bennie...

Grandma T with Bennie

Aunt Amanda

Grandpa T (aka Grandpa Bennie)

Uncle Phil

Look how chunky he is getting :-)

I loved this :-) So cute

More baby pics...

2010-04-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while again, thought everyone might want to see some more pictures of our new addition :-)

This is a picture of us in the hospital, I don't have a rash just really sensitive skin :-)

This is the little guy as we are getting him all dressed and ready to leave
the hospital to go home, Yay!! Of course he had to wear his Michigan hat home :-)

This is us on our way home, too bad Jareds eyes are closed

In front of our building

The doorman insisted on taking a picture of all us coming home :-)

We are home!

Meeting the doggies! They are very curious as to what this creature is...
Dexter was by his side for the rest of the night, I think he likes him :-)

We are cuddling

Here we are sleeping after my 30th birthday get together, we are both tired

First bath at home, he looks a little scared ha ha

The moment we have all been waiting for...

2010-03-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the World
Mr. Bennie Michael Thomas
February 11, 2010

This was all I was able to see of him after they took him out,
he was quickly wrapped up and taken to the NICU :-(
Then due to my blood pressure I was in recovery for 24 hours,
literally stuck in a bed and therefore still unable to see him :-(

Since I was unable to see him Jared would go and visit him and send me pictures.
Here he is with the tube in his mouth still, poor baby :-(

Tiny little hand...

With Grandpa

With Gigi

With his daddy

And finally mommy gets to hold her little boy for the first time....

look at that look he gives me, trouble already :-)

A Tribute to a great little dog...

2010-03-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

It was a sad day for us all this past Thursday when we had to say goodbye to our first family pet Duke. Its one of those things, you know the day is coming but you are never prepared and it never gets any easier to let go. He was about 22 years old which is really amazing, and he lived in the Peteuil household for about 18 of those years. He was the dog that all of us kids grew up with, we all loved him and will miss him very much.

I just thought it would be nice to post a few pics of Dukes younger years...

Him sleeping with his new buddy Dexter

(I am sure mom will hate this picture but...) This was Dukes favorite,
cuddling with his human mommy

We will miss you little guy...RIP

Last window for a while...

2010-03-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

This was the last window I helped with before my maternity leave. I don't know how many of you follow design blogs like I do but if you have heard of Eddie Ross he designed a window for Elle Decor as part of the annual Bloomingdale's Big Window Challenge. My friend Michael and I helped with the setup of his window ( I didn't do to much, but I helped with what I could). We had a good time helping to put the window together, Eddie and his partner Jaithan were super nice and a lot of fun to work with.

This is the second year Bloomingdales has done this as a way to advertise for our 5th floor furniture department (which I used to do visuals for if you remember). There are 3 designers that use Bloomingdales furniture to create 3 beautiful windows and then people vote on their favorite and after 2 weeks a winner is announced.

Anyway I thought you would all get a kick out of seeing me with my big belly posing for a picture in front of the window with Eddie, Jaithan and my friend Michael. Eddie posted it on his blog, so here is the link: http://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/2010/01/the-making-of-a-window.html

Also the older man Harry that is also pictured above us is my Boss, he is the one that actually designs all of the windows we do all year.

New York Baby Shower!

2010-03-12T16:23:00.000-08:00

Our very good friends Alex and Alanna threw us such a nice baby shower here in New York. It was a mix of school friends and work friends from both of my jobs. I think we had a really nice turnout and was so excited to see everyone. We are so lucky to have met so many wonderful people while we have been living here!!

I want to thank everyone that came, I think that it was a lot of fun and meant a lot to Jared and I. Also a special thank you to Alex and Alanna who really know how to throw a great shower, the food was fantastic, the game was great and how cute were those favors :-)

This was just part of the spread

The food was amazing as usual :-)

Jared liked it :-)

Me feeling large!

Instead of doing a game, everyone did more of an activity,
it was such a great idea...They bought a bunch of little white onesies and fabric markers
and everyone designed a onesie for little Bennie!!

This is Lindsey designing her Dr. Thomas onesie :-)

This is the Pottery Barn crew with all their super cute designs
(Jen, Lemya and Judson)

Ben and his bear onesie

Amanda (Jared's sister) was in town for the shower

Danny and his tuxedo onesie

Alanna with her burger onesie

All of the little onesies together, everyone did a really great job on these

I am checking out everyone's fun designs

We are opening some of the wonderful gifts we received

Jared made a nice comment here that had everyone laughing

These are the super cute favors that Alex and Alanna made for everyone
to take home...they actually made the muffin mix that was inside themselves!!
Its hard to see in the picture but they labeled it "Bun in the Oven muffin mix"

Michigan baby shower

2010-03-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures of the baby shower that my mom and mother in law planned for us. It was really nice to be home and to see everyone, it had been a while the last time I was in town was in April so about 9 months or so :-(

The shower was beautiful and I had a lot of fun, thank you to all that came and to the moms and friends who helped pull it all together :-)

Every table had an apothecary jar filled with useful baby items

These were the delicious cupcakes that my mom made herself of course,
they are so beautiful and unbelievably good!!

A few baby pictures of Jared and I were set up at the gift table

This was the first game we played...every table got a stack of magazines and
had to cut and paste to create a baby that they thought would look like baby Bennie

My grandma and her sister having a good time with this game

Game 2 was guessing the size of my belly with string

Here Jared and I are opening a few of the lovely gifts we received

This was actually the outfit Jared came home in as a baby,
its hard to believe that he actually fit into that at one time :-)

His mom gave us a bag of a few of the things Jared wore and loved as a baby

Me and my mommy :-)

Many many ultrasounds...

2010-02-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

I was already getting ultrasounds every month due to my pre-existing hypertension, but then I also got Polyhydramnios, which is an excess of amniotic fluid and so I felt like I was at the Dr constantly. The good thing about this however was all of the pictures and how often we were able to see our little man, I have literally overfilled a photo album already with just ultrasound pictures, its a little insane.

I meant to share these a long time ago obviously but I thought it would still be fun to post a few of the good ones....

His favorite thing as you will notice is hands in the face :-)

Blog post catchup week...

2010-02-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

So I am going to try to catch up on my posts this week, I have been awful at keeping up and I'm not going to lie I'm probably only going to get worse before I get better.

Its probably not even worth posting the few Christmas shots I have but I'm going to anyway. My family except for my sister Jenny all drove out to NYC on Christmas day, they got in late that night but we still opened gifts and had a good time. They were only able to stay a few days, the main reason for the visit was for them to help me get Bennie's room ready for him since I was getting more pregnant by the day and unable to do what I always think I can do :-)

This was our sad little New York Christmas tree that we lit
and put presents around for when my family arrived

One thing we did while the family was in town was see
Avatar in the 3D IMAX Theater, it was really good
but did sort of make me sick at first :-)

Here is my mom and I in Rockefeller center, as you can see if was a zoo
so we took a quick shot and left

I can't believe I am even posting this picture of myself because it is not very
attractive with my belly hanging out, but I thought you would all get a
good laugh looking at the crazy things I still try to do even 7 months pregnant :-)

Long time no post....

2010-01-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well time to play catch-up again. I said I wouldn't wait so long, and I did it again, time has a way of getting away from me...

Anyway I thought I would post some pictures of our Halloween experience this year, I don't think I have any pictures of Thanksgiving or Christmas, how sad :-( but I will post what I can find!

So this was the night before Halloween, Alex and Alanna threw a pumpkin carving party,
I hadn't carved a pumpkin in probably 6 years, I know its sad,
so I was pretty excited to carve once this year.

Jared cut the top off, and oops he cut the hole too small for his hand to fit in it,
somehow I don't think that was a mistake...
so here I am cleaning it out :-)

Here is Alanna, Danny and Zai cleaning out their pumpkins

Here is a view of the carving table, boy I sure have an interesting look on my face,
I'm really getting in there trying to clean out that pumpkin

After all the hard work, here are the designs!!
They really came out good...we all did use templates though,
this wasn't totally free-handed :-)

This is the one I did, classic ghost

Alanna posing with her beautiful pumpkin!

Jared and I posing with our pumpkin,
and showing how my belly sort of looks like a pumpkin :-)

This is Halloween, we all went over to Katie and Jon's apartment, it was a lot of fun, unfortunately I did not get a picture of them, but here is Alex and Alanna

Jared as the basketball player, and me as the basket and little Bennie is a basketball,
I spent the whole morning making this costume from things around the apartment

ITS A....

2009-11-07T16:08:00.000-08:00

I really struggled for a while on whether I wanted to find out the sex of our new addition. Jared really wanted to know but I was not so sure. In the end, I decided what the heck might as well just find out and maybe I will feel a little more prepared :-) We went to our 16 week ultrasound on September 21st. The technician that was preforming our ultrasound that day asked if we were going to find out the sex of the baby and we told her yes. She told us it would be more fun if she just put it in an envelope and we could find out later in a special way, instead of with a bunch of people we don't know, so we decided to take her advice. We decided we would video conference with my parents and find out with them. Then our friends Alex and Alanna invited us over to find out with them, and we also asked our friend Danny if he would like to join our little party! So we had ourselves a little mini celebration. Thank you to Alex and Alanna for setting up such a nice small gathering, they even got us sparkling cider :-) So here are a few pictures to help tell the story...

Getting the computer set up for our video chat...please excuse my appearance,
obviously was not planning on this being a big event :-)

Video chat is set up, we are saying hello to the family in Michigan...

I've got the envelope...are we ready...

Drum roll....opening....

On my gosh!!! Its a.....

BABY BOY!!

After this announcement Jared Literally fell to the floor in disbelief, he thought
for sure he would have a girl because he wanted a boy so much.
Here I am showing him once he got back up...

He needed closer inspection for himself...

Here is the family back in Michigan on video chat

Cheers to a baby boy!!

Proud momma and papa to be

Our little boy...
This is at 16 weeks, we were able to get a 4d image scan, how cool is it to see him! His face is not even fully formed yet, but he sure looks cozy in there :-)!!

Meet our new roomate....

2009-11-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

This summer we were surprised with the news that we would be getting a new roommate. This is not the type of roommate you may first think of, but actually a new addition to the Team Thomas family... Yes, Jared and I will be welcoming a new baby into our home!

These are a few of our early pictures, not too exciting to look at most of these black and white shots because you can never see much or tell whats what, but I thought I would post them still

This is at 7 weeks, just a tiny little dot almost
Due date: March 6th 2010

This is at 9 weeks, actually starting to have a baby-like form

This is at 12 weeks, we had not told anyone up until this point,
my mom was the only one that knew...yes she kept that secret too!!

I will continue to try and post updates, since we are far away from a lot of our
friends and family and can not share this with you in person. I promise I won't go 4 months with no posts again :-)

The day I became Mrs. Thomas

2009-10-28T17:59:00.001-07:00

Jared and I have been together for a long time, but 3 years ago today we vowed to make it forever. I thought I would share a few pictures of our years together...

I think this was one of the first times Jared came over to my
parents house and we actually made dinner together this night

We took a little trip with my family up north (in Michigan)
and Jared was fishing of course :-)

This was one of those hard mornings where
Jared was leaving for his baseball season,
Dexter and I were always sad :-(

My birthday one year in Arizona for Spring Training
I'm pretty sure this was my first sushi experience, yum!

The pillow he had made for his proposal

The proposal Christmas morning, we are not fancy people :-)
Proposing in pjs!

Our engagement party

Our special wedding day
October 28th 2006

Mr. and Mrs. Jared Thomas!!

Happy Anniversay Jared
I love you!!

Back at Bloomies!

2009-10-28T17:09:00.000-07:00

For those that may have not heard, I was rehired at Bloomingdales in May after being laid off in January. I am still in visual but not in the same position. When I first started I was doing visual for the furniture floor and now I am doing window display for the windows all around the building. The windows are changing all the time, we change something every week! I wanted to just post a few pics of a window display we did a few weeks back for Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams new bedding line. I really liked doing this window of course because of my background in home furnishings :-) It was a really long setup, it took about 5 days to complete. I had fun though, and as we were setting up some of the last things Mitchell and Bob showed up outside the windows to give us a thumbs up! The christmas windows are always the big deal of the year, and we start those in about a week or so and I hear it is crazy...I will let you know how that goes.

Alex and Alanna's book release!!!

2009-10-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

I know I have mentioned before that our friends Alex and Alanna write a food blog, Two Fat Als, well they now have a cookbook that was just released in September! We are so excited for them, how fun to have a published cookbook!

They had a book release party in the city that we attended, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but it was a lot of fun. Then we traveled with them to Alex's house in Connecticut for a book release there. This is our second time to Connecticut and its always so peaceful and a nice change of pace from the city, it actually kinda reminds me of home :-)

Here I am helping out with the book selling table,
I think they actually sold out of the books they had to sell this day!

Alex and Alanna signing away...

What a cute pic, Alex and Alanna with their book :-)
The Frugal Foodie

One Saturday in September Jared went to the Union Square Farmers Market to help Alex and Alanna with a cooking demo they were doing, how fun! I had to work so I couldn't go, but I heard they had a pretty good crowd of people that came by to observe and of course taste!

Dinner with friends

2009-10-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

Jared and I invited our friends over for a last summer get together before school started and their crazy second year began! It was really nice to have everyone over, we had a really nice time.

Wow Danny, you made friends with Dexter, that is impressive :-)

Moms Birthday in New York!

2009-10-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

This year my moms birthday wish was to have dinner in NYC, so she, my dad and my two brothers drove out the morning of her birthday which was August 22nd. Unfortunately I realized when I decided I wanted to do a post about their visit that I really do not have many pictures :-( I will post the few I have though. Its always nice to have the family come out for a visit, Jared and I really enjoy the times with family since we do not get to see everyone as much as we would like to.

This was the first night we went out for moms birthday,
its one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, El Paso Taqueria,
just down the street from our apartment.

I don't remember what day this was but we all took a trip to
Brooklyn to go to a restaurant that was highly recommended
by our friends Jon and Katie. It is called Buttermilk Channel,
and it was really really good :-)

My dad, Michael and Daniel went with Jared to the MET,
this was an installation on the roof, looks cool.
My mom and I did some walking and shopping
around town while the boys were here.

Jon and Katie's Wedding!

2009-10-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

We were so excited that we were invited to share in such a special day with our friends Jon and Katie. They were married on July 24th in the city and it was such a lovely event. This of course I have a lot of pictures from. We really enjoyed ourselves and thank Jon and Katie again for inviting us, our first New York wedding!!

The Church was so pretty

They rented a big city bus tour bus to transport guests from
the church to the reception!

How cute is the old taxi with "Just Married" in the back window!

We were lucky enough to get a seat on the roof of the bus,
this is the view on the front of the church from the roof.

We were holding up traffic waiting to load everyone on

Turning onto Broadway...

Jared and Alex on the roof of the bus, we actually
had to duck from some tree branches :-)

Alanna and I on the roof

This was our little group once we got to the reception out front,
it was held at Tribeca Rooftop

They had lots of passed hors de ordervs, food stations and a cocktail bar
set up on the rooftop of the reception area, it was quite a feast
and everything was so good!

This is the bar...

This was a sushi station...

This was the seafood station with crab, oysters and shrimp, yum!

This was a cheese, cracker and other mainly veggie station for all the vegetarians

View off the roof

View of inside reception

Cutting the cake...

The boys with the groom...

and Jared and Alex with the bride and groom...

What a great night, the food was amazing and we all had so much fun!

Congrats Jon and Katie!!

Ed and Tonja's visit!!

2009-10-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to have my uncle Ed and aunt Tonja come visit us in July. We love to have people visit but it doesn't happen all that often. They came out for almost a week and it was really nice. While we were working or at school they went out site seeing and exploring the city, and then in the evening a few nights we all went out to different restaurants and such, it was a lot of fun. They actually both work for CBS back in Kzoo Michigan so they were able to get a hold of some VIP tickets for the David Letterman show. We all went one afternoon and it was actually a lot of fun to see the show live, its not a show that I usually watch actually but it was cool to see it live. For whatever reason I didn't take many pictures while they were here, but here is one of me with them outside the Ed Sullivan theater before the show.

4th of July

2009-10-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

This year for the 4th of July we were invited to our friend Danny's parents house in Brooklyn. They have the top two floors of a brownstone and a roof deck which was really nice. We took some pictures of the view of the city they have from the roof, its really a cool view. We had a little BBQ up there and then watched the fireworks. The fireworks were on the Hudson this year on the west side so we couldn't really see them all that well. I guess in past years they have always been on the east side and Danny said they have an awesome view of them every year, its like they are in front on you. Maybe they will have it on the east side again while we are here :-)

We are still here....

2009-10-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a while since I last posted, actually all summer. This is my attempt to get caught up with a few posts of what we have been up to these last few months...

Mexican Bulldog!

2009-06-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Jared and a bunch of his friends and fellow classmates went out to Blockheads after a really tough microbiology final exam. I met them there after work. We had a good time, Jared and I don't go out much so its always a treat for us. I had also had kind of a tough week so I decided to treat myself to a few drinks! I had a margarita first which was quite good, but then I saw at the end of the table, Jon had this very interesting looking drink, I was intrigued so I went and asked him about it, he said it was called a Mexican Bulldog! How interesting, its a margarita with a choice of another (I had sangria) and a corona upside down in the top of it. Its actually pretty good!

This is me asking Jon about his interesting drink

This is me with my very own!! :-)

First Liver Transplant call...

2009-06-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

It was a saturday night and Jared and I are just hanging out at home, he got a call about 9:00, the liver transplant team was flying to Baltimore and Jared was the student on call that night. Jared left right away to meet them at the hospital and then they were rushed to the airport to hop on a plane off to Maryland. I told him to keep me updated throughout so I knew when he was on the ground. It was exciting, and a really great experience for him. Also that night they actually scrubbed in for two surgeries, once they arrived in Maryland they got a call that there was another procurement at University of Maryland that they would be taking as well (first one was at Johns Hopkins).

The story of the first case was actually quite touching. It was a little boy only a few years old that had passed due to a head trama, several of his organs were being donated. The mother was there saying goodbye to her child that was technically still alive (to harvest the organs) which Jared said was sad to see. He said there was also a group of surgeons that were removing the childs heart, and once they took the heart out they rushed it into the next room where a little girl about the same age was waiting for this new heart that she otherwise would have died without getting. Its kind of amazing to hear a story like this and how a tragedy for one family can turn into hope and life for another.

This is Jared outside the plane that they took to Maryland

This is a pic Jared sent to me in the middle of the night. This is at University of Maryland for the second case, he said scrub in time was 5am. Also in this case Jared actually got to make the opening incision!

This is the next morning getting ready to get on the plane to come back to New York. Jared arrived back home about 10am. A short 13 hours later :-)

MSSM Formal 09

2009-05-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

I really need to get better at posting more often, sorry its been a while. Jared and I, along with all our friends attended a formal night that the school hosted in a loft that I think was in Midtown (I haven't quite figured out yet the names of all the little areas of Manhattan and where they are located). Before the event, we all met up at a Wine and Chocolate bar called Ayza for a pre-formal bite. It was really good food and we all ordered a truffle for dessert, a perfect little bit of sweet to end the meal. Thank you to Alanna for again picking out a great restaurant. We then all walked over to the loft for the main event. It was a nice night out, we do not get to do it often so we enjoyed it.

I ordered the "Crispy baby shrimp dumplings" they were very tasty although I was surprised to see tiny little fishes that were crispy and sprinkled on top with the crispy noodles (I did not try them if you were wondering)

Here are the truffles we ordered for dessert, yum!

This is the loft that the formal was held at (320 Studios), this is a picture that I took out on the terrace. It was such a perfect night to be outside

Here is Jared on the terrace

This was the view below from where we were sitting

Here I am with Alanna and Zai, they had these big round cushy seats spread around the room for people to sit on

Jared and Alex

Amal, Jared and Danny

Danny and Zai, Zai was excited her favorite song of the moment came on!

Serious faces

Jared and I

Filming outside our apartment window!!

2009-04-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

Jared and I were both home on Wednesday this week, we were both in our cleaning clothes doing some much needed house work. Jared just happened to look out the window and notices that there is filming going on right outside our window! It was Anthony Bourdain! So we assume they were taping for his show "Anthony Bourdain No Reservations" on the travel channel. I usually watch the show when I see that it is on. It will be interesting now to see if that taping shows up on the show, if that is indeed what they were taping. I just had to share this little excitement we had for the day. I was so bummed though that I was all gross in cleaning mode or we would have gone downstairs and maybe gotten a pic with him or autograph or something. Here are some shots we took from the window though.

I am curious as to where the food he was eating was from...

Some guys came out of the building across the street to have him sign some autographs

Here is the crew heading back to their van parked outside the front of our building
We are not stalkers, it was just cool that it was right outside our building :-)

Our First Broadway Show!!

2009-03-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

We finally went to our first Broadway show this month. Alex and Alanna had 2 tickets to Wicked and unfortunately something came up and they could not go. Jared and I were free that night so we were able to take their tickets and see the show. We have heard a lot of great things about Wicked and were excited to see it.

I forgot how much fun it is to see a live show, Jared and I both really enjoyed it. The performers were excellent and told the story very well. The set on stage was really quite amazing, very detailed, we tried to get a few pics of our experience, (I did get a few of the stage during intermission).

My 29th birthday

2009-03-04T10:20:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a long post of pictures so I just wanted to make a note that I have posted a few times in the last few days so don't forget to continue to scroll down after the birthday post as there are some more fun pics :-)

Well I can't believe I am 29, one more year of being in my twenties, its crazy. This year my wonderful husband planned out a night of surprises, he told me that we had plans with our friends but he wouldn't tell me what we were doing. We got all ready, and then Alex, Alanna, Danny and Zai all met us at our place. Jared tells me that there will be three stops this evening so we are off to the first one....

We traveled down to the East Village area, an area we haven't been to much. We are walking and oops, we passed it, here it is a big black door with a pig on the front of it.

This is it, The Bourgeois Pig a French wine bar, wow how fun, that husband of mine sure does know what i like :-)

Its very cozy with nice ambient lighting, we had a very nice little spot in the back corner on some comfy sofas.

We all were red toned from the red light given off by the sign that you saw in the picture above

We ordered some nice pinot noir from France and some tasty white wine sangria, cheers!

We ordered this delicious plate of cheese called "The Pig" it is 10 different cheeses and they serve it with toasted bread, fruit, and some olives and peppers, yummy :-)

This was another dish we ordered, it is brie wrapped with filo dough and maple syrup, it was so tasty, we ate that up fast!

Danny and Zai, she ordered a banana and chocolate latte, looked so good!

Outside of The Bourgeois Pig...what a great little place, we had a really nice time. Now on to the next stop...

The "Flea Market Cafe" our main course of the evening, a french cafe, do we see the theme :-)

Alex and Alanna (with her pouty face)

Danny and Zai (with her sad face)

and Jon and Katie with happy faces :-) although I'm pretty sure everyone was happy :-)

Outside the Cafe... the food was quite good, I enjoyed this little place as well. So far 2 for 3, on to the next...

Well I just have to say that Jared actually had planned for us to go to a restaurant that had biegnets because he knows how much I love them, however when we got there, the man at the front was a real jerk and refused to sell us biegnets as they do not carry out well. He then preceded to tell us that the wait to sit was an hour and a half, and even after Jared explained that it was my birthday and we had planned to eat them right away, he told us that he didn't have a way to make them! So I guess that means even if you wait an hour and a half you can't have them? Well whatever we will never go there again obviously. So after that unfortunate event we needed to find another place for dessert. Wouldn't you know it we were right in the neighborhood of the Dessert Truck!

Check out the Menu and look at the date :-)

Its ok we didn't get biegnts, I am quite satisfied with my bread pudding :-)

The Dessert Truck is always good!

So after dessert Jon and Katie invited all of us back to their apartment to hang out. Jon was nice enough to get out his guitar and harmonica and play for us!

Here is Alanna and Danny, we were playing catch phrase, (which I am awful at) but it was still fun. Thank you Jon and Katie for inviting us over it was a perfect end to the evening. Also thank you to all our friends in joining us for this wonderful night out, I had a really great time, my first birthday in New York :-)

Lots of snow in the city!

2009-03-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well, as I am sure many of you have heard we got a lot of snow in the city Sunday night/Monday. We barely got any snow here all winter and then wouldn't you know it we get almost 14" on March 2nd :-) I'm not complaining though, I actually kind of miss seeing the snow this year. According to the news channels its actually quite rare for it to snow this much in the city. If I am reading correctly I think the last big snow in the city was in 1996. Jared and I decided to walk over to Central Park and take some pictures of the snow.

Here are all the kids that did not have school today playing in the snow!

Night out for Indian food

2009-03-03T19:04:00.000-08:00

This is a late post, we went out for Jared's friend Matt's birthday around the middle of January. He invited a bunch of us out to his favorite Indian food spot. Actually getting in was quite the adventure. Matt did call ahead for reservations, however we still had to wait once we got there, we had a group of 25 and of course they are not going to keep their tiny restaurant clear for us, so they basically try to make a spot once you get there. So we waited outside for a while and then the restaurant we had the reservation at decided to take the party that came after us (also with about 25 guests) before us, so we had a choice....its actually pretty funny, there are three Indian restaurants two next to each other and one downstairs, and basically they all look exactly the same and fight each other for business. While we were waiting for our table at the first restaurant, there was a guy from the restaurant downstairs that kept coming outside and saying, "you guys should just come here, I have a table all ready, I have room, come to my restaurant." He did this like 3 times, and when we found out our reservation was basically overlooked, we took him up on it, and went to his restaurant :-)

This is me, Jared, Jon and Amal waiting outside for our reservation while getting heckled by the other restaurant :-)

This is the front of the restaurant that we were suppose to go to and you can see a little of the restaurant next door and the one we went to was underneath both of them.

The decor in all of these restaurants is just crazy, there are lights and streamers and all kinds of things hanging from the ceiling, its quite an experience.

As you can see the ceilings are quite low, Jared was hitting his head on the accessories even sitting down!

This is Matt, not birthday Matt though. He is from Hawaii and goes to school with Jared as well. He is a very nice and fun person, we like him :-)

This is birthday Matt!

This is Amal, Claire and Jon trying to finish the wine before we leave.
I forgot to mention that its BYOB at all 3 restaurants, so everyone brought their own wine and beer.

Ah, the Chili pepper lights :-)

Its been awhile...

2009-02-21T14:10:00.000-08:00

Hello family and friends, it has been a while since I have posted anything so I thought I would write a a quick post update. As many of you probably know by now I have been added to the list of those who have lost their jobs in this economic downturn. I was laid off from Bloomingdales at the end of January, it was sad, I really did enjoy my job there, but unfortunately the last hired were the first to go, not a good time to be the newbie :-( I am still working at Pottery Barn however, but am on the look out for another full time job.

On a higher note, the same day I was laid off, we had made plans (before the lay off) to have dinner at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill for Restaurant week. Katie and Jon had made reservations a while ago, but called and were able to extend the reservation for six so Jared and I as well as Alex and Alanna were able to join them. We were all very excited to go. We had a really nice time and enjoyed our night out with friends as usual! I unfortunately have no pics of this adventure but I will try and post some other pics we do have soon :-)

Snow in the City and First trip to Brooklyn

2009-01-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to post a few pics of the snow we got yesterday, we haven't seen much of it this year and I love the way the snow looks in the city, it makes it so peaceful.

Jared and I also went to Brooklyn last night to celebrate his friend Jon's birthday. We had never been there so it was nice to get out and see something new. We went down with Alex, Alanna and Danny. We had dinner at this place called Relish, it was very tasty, we all enjoyed it very much. After dinner we walked over to the bar where they were having Jon's party, it was Radegast Hall & Biergarten, never been to a biergarten before, but it was nice, we had a lot of fun.

Here we are at the Biergaten in Brooklyn

Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years! Jared and I just hung out at home and watched the ball drop on TV, even though we could have walked down and saw it in person. One year we will but this year was not it. Jared's good friend Nick was in town also, so he spent the New Years with us in our apartment.

We did go down to see the famous Christmas tree finally the weekend after New Years, it is quite a site to see, we took some pics to share with everyone and even a little video to share the twinkle that would come on every few minutes, it was so pretty.

This is where I work! We got off the train here and I thought I would give everyone a visual of where I am at everyday :-)

Walking over to Rockefeller we saw the Chrysler building and decided to take a picture

There it is!

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-25T14:53:00.000-08:00

Well I don't really have any Christmas pictures to post but I just wanted to post a message of greetings to everyone, I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday! Jared and I are having a nice low key Christmas this year, our first year alone and in New York :-)

Since I don't have any holiday pictures I just want to share a few other pictures that I have wanted to post and haven't...hope you enjoy!

Our two little loves, Dexter and Izzy, they are adjusted to the city, Dex fits right in, Izzy is terrified of the outside, she hates the noise

Holiday House!
Alanna and I took a tour of the Holiday House on 63rd, it is this beautiful place and each room is designed by a different designer, it was so pretty, I loved it. I would have posted pictures but I wasn't allowed to take any so I just have pics of the outside. By the way, this house was the one used in Sex and the City the movie, the place "Big" bought for him and Carrie to live, its really amazing. I think they said this place was bought by someone in 2000 for 31.5 million.

Here are a few pictures I wanted to share of Jared's concoction, he decided one night he wanted to make himself a cake from scratch and he developed the frosting all on his own, it was very good too :-)

Thanksgiving Weekend Surprise!!

2008-12-09T15:55:00.000-08:00

Jared and I were so excited to have my family come out for Thanksgiving. My parents and my brother Michael drove out here from Michigan. They got in about 11pm on Wednesday night and we were ambitiously going to get up to go the the Macy's parade in the morning. Well we did not quite make it before it started like we had planned but we still went and saw a few of the floats and balloons. It was fun to see all of the people out for the parade.

Well we were at the parade for a few hours, but then realized we had to make Thanksgiving dinner still so we had to get back...here is our lovely apple ginger tart coming out of the oven, yum!! Not only did we have to get back for dinner, but we had another little surprise in store...

Jared and I decided to fly my brother Daniel in from San Francisco for Thanksgiving, my parents thought he was spending thanksgiving by himself there, and he played it that way. We told my parents that Jared had invited a friend to dinner that was unable to go home for the holiday, they bought it of course because its something Jared would actually do. About 5:30 Jared says that his friend is on his way over (aka Daniel is on his way from the airport). There is a knock on the door and quess what!! ITS DANIEL!!

The look on my dads face in this picture says it all, they had no idea, it was a complete surprise, SUCCESS!

Check out this video of the surprise!

Mom, Daniel and Dad after surprise arrival!

The day after thanksgiving I had to work of course so Jared took everyone to this lovely garden that he had heard about, I am sure its even better when everything is in bloom

They all came and picked me up from work around 2:00pm and then we had set up to go on the Circle Line cruise around half of Manhattan, Jared and I went before and thought it was great so we took everyone, it was a little cold but still really nice and cool to see.

After the cruise we walked over to times square, its something that everyone must see, although it is always way too crazy

We also took a walk over to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree even though it was not lit yet, the tree lighting was the week after they left :-(

We walked down 5th ave also and checked out all of the holiday windows! Bergdorf was my favorite, they were so elaborate and beautiful!

Our weekend in Connecticut!

2008-11-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

We had the pleasure of spending the weekend in Connecticut. We went with our friends to Alex's parents house, it was such a nice getaway from the city. We spent the weekend relaxing and just enjoying the quiet. We made some really great food, had a nice soak in the hot tub, and the last day was really nice so we went on a little nature hike, it was beautiful. Thank you to Alex & Alanna for hosting this weekend and Alex's family for opening their doors for us, we had a really great time!

This was our first adventure of the weekend, we went to the local apple orchard, it was so cute and fun!

Which apples to buy....

From left to right: Zai, Alanna, Alex and Danny in front of the Apple Barn!

Jared making his perfected pancake recipe

Jared in his element, he was so excited he found a fishing pole!

We walked over to a large pond, of course Jared threw a few casts.

Oh look!! he caught one on his second cast!!

I got eaten by a picker bush, it grabbed my pants and my scarf.

Me, Jared, Jon and Katie in the middle of these very tall trees.

I am very intensely looking for pretty leaves to craft with.

We are all trekking our way back to the house, what a fun little walk we had out in the woods!

Election night Party!!

2008-11-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

Jared and I thought it would be fun to host election night at our apartment, and so we did!! We spent Sunday and Monday making decorations and starting the food. I think everything really turned out great, not to mention ending the night in victory :-) I wanted to post some pictures of our first party, at one point our living room was at max capacity, you literally could not walk, every inch was covered. I hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as we did, we had a great time and appreciate all the help and food and drink that was brought. We will definitely have to do this again :-)

This was an Obama/Biden wreath I made for the front door, in case you didn't know which door was ours :-)

These are Obama water bottles I made :-), I thought they were fun!

Jared, Jon and Katie in the Kitchen, last minute food prep

Lots and lots of people from school came, great turnout!

This is Jon and Katie

Our Desert table

Obama is elected the next president!

A Toast to Victory!

This is Alex and Alanna (They are the two Als behind the Two Fat Als blog!)

Halloween!!

2008-11-06T15:31:00.001-08:00

So Halloween in New York is something else, like nothing I have seen before, everywhere you go, no matter who you see, everyone is in costume, we took a cab downtown to a party that one of Jareds friends was having and there were just tons of people walking the streets in costume, it was really cool to see. I only got a few pictures from Halloween because my camera died on me :-( There is one of Jareds friends Alex and Danny, they went as a condom and a condiment, and then Jared and I, Jared went as the last standing Michigan fan and I went as a Soho celebrity (note: Jared told me I was dressing up to go to a party 20 mins before we left :-) We had a really good time though, Jared has met some really nice people through school.

A late post of me and Alanna, she went as a run on sentence

A Black Tie Affair

2008-11-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

This was a black tie event that Jared and I attended on October 25th. It was put on by the Alumni association of Mt. Sinai Medical School, there were many prestigious Doctors from around the city and elsewhere in attendance, as well as the Surgeon General, who is a Mt. Sinai Graduate! Jared was the only first year student there because he is on student council and is the alumni representative for his class. We did not really know anyone, but we still had a lot of fun, just to be out on the town in a new city was so exciting. It was held at the Pierre Hotel on 5th Ave. and 61st street, it was really a beautiful place. During the cocktail hour they had lots of passed hor'derves and wine, as well as a a buffet table set up with little things to nibble on, (of course I had to have at least one of everything :-) Then we heading into the ballroom for dinner, I took a picture of the first course because it looked so pretty. Dinner was great, and the dessert was wonderful, they served two different desserts as well as a 3-tier of petite fours per table :-) They also had dancing with a live band in between each course. We had a really nice time.

This is the ballroom

This is us with the other people at our table, they were other students 2nd, 3rd and 4th year with their dates, ( not sure who the man in the middle is).

Tabletop Market in NY

2008-11-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

This was my first trip to the tabletop market, it was very exciting to see all of the new products and beautiful showrooms of so many different vendors. I had a lot of fun, we also got a few gifts as well which I took a few pictures of.

This was the Waterford/Wedgewood Showroom, so so pretty, they had a station where they had ballerinas in tutus handing out cupcakes to everyone, it was so fun, also they had trays of mimosas in crystal champagne flutes around the showroom for all in attendence to sip on :-)

This was the cupcake station, the ballerinas were behind it, and then this is a picture of the cupcake and the little box they served them in, how cute.

This was the Rosenthal showroom, one of the last we looked at before heading home. The last picture is a gift we all got from one of the showrooms, a little 3 piece china set.

Back in Michigan for Jamie and Rons Wedding!!

2008-11-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

We were so excited to be able to come home for a few days to attend Jamie and Rons Wedding, it was a lovely day and beautiful wedding, I just wanted to share a few pictures. We are so happy for them!

Visitors!! :-)

2008-10-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

My mom, Jenny, Ben and Michele came out to visit us for Jareds special white coat ceremony, where he got his first "short" white coat. My mom and Jenny came in a day early so there are some fun pictures of us down in Little Italy, we had pizza at Lombardi's, its one of our favorite places, then we tried this place called " Rice to Riches", the whole restaurant is different flavors of rice pudding, it was really good!

Here are a few pictures of us in Times Square!

We went to the farmers market in Union Square on Saturday morning, Jenny took a pic of me shopping for red pepper :-)

Me and my mom in Central Park :-)

These are a few pictures from the White Coat Ceremony

Jared is in the right corner of the picture getting his coat

More Pictures of Apt.

2008-10-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted, lots has been happening and I have a lot of pictures to share. Here are some more pictures of our apartment, the outside entrance, the park across the street and a few pictures of us on the terrace.

Pictures of our new apartment

2008-09-17T11:48:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of our new apartment, the tiny tiny bathroom that needs some TLC, the tiny kitchen which is not as bad as it seems actually. Our GAS range, it is small and old but I am so excited I can cook on gas again!! This is our living room/dinning room, its also a little tight, all that darn big Pottery Barn furniture I bought doesn't really fit in a small Manhattan apartment :-( I will post more pictures though once I have overhauled everything and its all painted and pretty!

Our move to the big city!

2008-09-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

It has been about a month and a half now since we moved to the city and we still have a lot to do. It is taking a while to get things set up and organized, I still can't find everything. I thought I would post some pictures of the move in though and document a few things that we have done so far so all of our friends and family back home can see what we have been up to :-)

This is a picture of Jared and I in Central Park, would have been good if I was looking at the camera. This is us again in front of the Medical School, this is not the main entrance though, this is where Jared usually goes in. These pics were taken a few days after we moved in.