New York City...Part 1/4!

So last weekend Cameron and I along with our friends Joey and Kristin got to visit the Big Apple. Now, let me start off by saying just one weekend in that huge city is not nearly enough! But it was still SO fun. So this is part one of the New York posts (if I crammed it all into one it would be entirely too long!)

Thursday night: Our flight got into NYC around 5:00pm. The trip immediately started off interesting! Upon walking out of the airport to find a taxi to take us to the hotel, a man approached Joey telling him that he could give us a ride. So we start to follow him, and doing so we bypass all the taxis....and start walking to the parking lot. Kristin and I immediately start dragging our feet and I'm sending Cameron the "what the heck?!" look. The guy saw our hesitation and showed us all of his taxi...credentials? Not sure what the right word for it is but he showed us his license and a small "NYC Taxi" sticker-license thing taped up on his window. Still hesitant, we climbed in the car and Kristin pulled up Maps on her iPhone to make sure he wasn't taking us anywhere else. Lol! But, it all ended up being fine, he was a really nice guy and we actually called him to take us back to the airport on our last day. ;)

The view flying in! :)
The lovely welcome sign we received...

Kristin had done some research of places to try while we were there, and found a really neat place called Jeykll & Hyde. We went to eat there after getting checked in to our hotel and it was a lot of fun! They have a "butler" that is in full character that would come approach us and say funny things, and he would also go to the back and control all of the things that would take place on the walls of the restaurant. There was a huge rhinoceros next to us, a werewolf, a gargoyle, a mad scientist...all of which he could control and use to talk to us. We were the only people in the restaurant, so we got a lot of attention! ;)After we left there we went to Magnolia Bakery to get some cupcakes! And they were gooood. (They had GREAT hot chocolate, too!!!)
Friday: We started the day off with some Starbucks across the street from the hotel and then headed to Times Square! I loved Times Square. So bright and colorful and lots of shops! :) And on the walk there we got to pass a lot of the theaters where they have many of the Broadway shows!! (I have a great love for Broadway shows/musicals. Sadly, we didn't get to see one this trip. But next one for sure!)Kristin, Joey, Cameron, and I (barely got myself in there!)(MY FAVORITE. Cameron took me to see it when it came through Oklahoma a while back, and it was absolutely amazing.)We stopped in at M&M World!
We had O'Lunney's for lunch...mmmm.

After O'Lunney's, we got on the subway and headed to Ground Zero. I don't know quite what I was expecting, but my heart was definitely not prepared for all the things I saw. Being there made what happen even more real to me than it was before, and it was hard to see and even attempt to put myself in the many shoes of the people involved. The people on the planes, the NYPD, firefighters, the families of those who passed, the volunteers, citizens of NYC...My heart hurt the entire time. A very somber experience.

The new World Trade Center being builtWhat Ground Zero currently looks like..
Memorial AlterWhat it should look like after everything is built.


Well that concludes post numero uno! The next one will be about the NJ Devils vs Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game! Which was SO fun! People treat hockey up there like the South does football! So keep your eye out for New York City...Part 2/4! :)

December/New Year Celebration in a nutshell

Hello all! Hope everyone's Christmas and the ringing in of the New Year was as great as mine! I promised a post over the ice skating and lights, and made a mental promise to post about Christmas, so why not throw the New Year weekend in there all in one! :)

Cameron and I joined his good friend Joey and his girlfriend Kristin in Bricktown a few weekends before Christmas to ice skate! I think it was every one but mine's first time to ice skate, and the boys were immediately comfortable on the ice and left Kristin and I in the dust! (Just for the record, the ice was seriously run down due to not having the Zamboni out on it for a while, thus making it very hard to skate on...a couple of weeks later we went to Stillwater and got to ice skate on some nice, smooth ice, and I liked it much better ;)) After we had enough of the bitter wind chill, we stopped at the Bricktown Brewery for dinner before we headed to the Chickasha Festival of Lights! Here are a few pictures from the day:

A few pics of the rink..

Joey & Kristin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The week of Christmas, we had the pleasure of going to Stillwater to visit Cameron's dad, step-mom, and brother and sister. It was such a good time! As mentioned before, we also got to ice skate there and enjoy some Hideaway Pizza and Eskimo Joes. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures while there. The following weekend was Christmas, and we spent Christmas Eve celebrating with my family at my mom's first with my sister and her group, then later with the rest of the fam at my Grandma and Papa's! Saturday Cameron and I exchanged gifts, and he surprised me with tickets (and other goodies, too) to the touring Cirque du Soleil show, "Alegria!" It was nothing short of wonderful.

My nephew, Hudson, loving a rolling horse my mom got him

Grace modeling her new helmet for her bike from Santa (My sister sent Santa a text message asking him to drop off their presents a night early since they were going to be away from home on Christmas Eve ;))One of my favorite gifts :)The gift I put together and made for mi madre!The tree at Grandma and Papa's...and that is only half of the gifts!Grandma and Papa opening their gifts...(My sister got better pictures of them two and of all the families grouped together..I'm going to try to get a hold of them and post them later!)Family Christmas Tradition: at the end of everyone unwrapping their gifts, we have a major paper throwing war. While opening gifts, it's best to prepare and start rolling up your paper in balls, and keeping any boxes you got for a shield. It's always a fun time! :)Cameron smelling some Polo body spray I got him!
Some of my goodies from Cam in my stocking at his house :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I spent New Years Eve in T-Town at my sister's! Unfortunately Cameron was working, but I was still happy to celebrate with my family. My niece Grace even made it to midnight! Barely, but she made it. :) I didn't get many pictures from that night, but we stopped at Wal-Greens before that evening and got some decorations and confetti poppers, and Grace got a light-up champagne glass that she drank milk and water out of throughout the night. :) Here is a picture of her posing with it:

The next day the Sooners played int he Tostitos Fiesta Bowl...and won!! (Boomer!) Grace and I were decked out in our Sooner get-up and red lips (her fav) and Hudson was in a new OU shirt too! :)

Next week school starts back up and things will get busy again, which is bummer because this break has been SO nice. I don't have much exciting going on between now and the end of February/ the beginning of March (a trip to Austin for Cam and his friend Clint's birthday and then a trip to NYC for Cam's birthday also and our one year anniversary!:)) I may or may not get a post between now and then, but if I don't, there will for sure be one after that!!

Thankmas/Thanksgiving!

What a busy week it was for Cameron and I! He got back from hunting with his Papa on Tuesday night, and we spent all day running around and getting things for his family's celebration of Thankmas on Thursday.

Thursday morning we headed to Cameron's mom's house...err, cabin (a beautiful one, at that! His step-dad Dave literally built it himself. Impressive!) for Thankmas. They combined Thanksgiving and Christmas into one day due to the fact that Cameron's sister Coty and her family could only make it down for one of the holidays. And it was so much fun! Shelli (Cam's mom) has written mysteries for everyone to complete in order to get their gifts for the last few years. Despite the rain and cold wind, we ventured out to complete these mysteries! Then presents were opened, followed by the Thanksgiving feast and then some down time.Some of the family hanging out before opening presents

A little Christmas decor...The tree with all the gifts!Cameron's brother Colton and his wife, CaseyCameron/we got a microwave!!Cam and Colton talkin' businessCameron's sister Coty and her husband, JaredCoty and myselfCameron's other sister, Candice and I

On Friday, we headed to my sister's for a Thanksgiving celebration! My brother in law tried frying a turkey, and it was a success! It was very tasty, and was gone before the baked turkey. I do believe this will become a tradition! MmMmMm.Bryan about to put the turkey in......it's in the oil...
No explosion!! Success!!

Somehow before our whirlwind of busy-ness started, we got a Christmas tree and put it up at Cameron's house! I'm pretty proud of it, I think it's beautiful :) But then again, I'm biased..
Cameron's ornamentMy ornament

Well, that concludes this post and I hope that everyone's Thanksgiving was as great and fun as mine! :) In the next couple of weeks, we have plans to go see the Festival of Lights and go ice skating, so hopefully I'll snag some pictures and have a new post up of that! Until then...:)

(ps, some of the pictures were taken with a camera and the others with my phone. So I apologize for the different qualities!)

3 Things That Pulled On My Heart Strings....Hard.

With the Thanksgiving holiday being just a couple days away, things that we are thankful for seem to be highlighted during this time a little more than they usually would. Or maybe that's just me, but I know that until this holiday (or rather, this time of the year in general) the things I am thankful for are brought to the forefront of my mind more often. Could that be because we are reunited with the family that we may see a few times, scattered throughout the year until this time? Or because of all the commercials, cards, statuses, etc. reminding us to ponder on what we need to be thankful for? Whatever the reason, I'm going to make more of an effort to reflect on the things that I am thankful for through the entire year, and not just during the holidays. That being said, I'd like to share with you all, dear readers, three things that I witnessed that humbled me greatly, and in fact made me thankful.

Justin Bieber concert:
A few weeks ago, I was asked to take the girl I nanny every week and her friend to a Justin Bieber concert. Who would've thought I would have an experience that made me tear up? Not me. (And no, the tears were not shed because of the excitement of seeing Justin. Luckily, I've never been taken over by "Bieber Fever" ;)) After waiting until just an hour before to head to the concert, plus the traffic and trying to find a parking spot, we were rushing to make it to the show. While frantically trying to find the elevator from the parking garage to the Ford Center, we came across a mom and her daughter who seemed to be in the same boat as we were. So, we started to follow them. And while jogging to catch the open doors of the elevator, I glanced at the little girl and I noticed she had her hand up on top of her head. It wasn't until we were in the elevator that this little girl whose eyes were gleaming with excitement was holding on to her head because of the wig that wasn't securely on. As I looked a little more closely, she in fact had no eyebrows, no hair other than her wig, and seemed very frail.

Kindergarten Class:
This semester I am in a Foundations class and we were required to spend 30 hours observing and working with students. I was assigned to a kindergarten class, and like in my past classes I've spent time in, I get attached to the children very quickly. One Monday I went in, and the teacher told me that one of our students wouldn't be in the class anymore. I had been informed that this student was a foster child, and the teacher had received news that they had not only been adopted, but had been adopted into the family's home that had also adopted their brother by birth.

Child Psych:
There is an older Chinese man in my Child Psych class. He sits behind me, and has much trouble speaking and understanding the English language. I must admit, that I would find myself annoyed by his constant questions and needing help. It is hard to admit this, as I am so completely and utterly embarrassed by this behavior and my thoughts. And it wasn't until he spoke to the class with his group about secondary languages that I was crushed with a wave of guilt after he shared his personal story. He is 46 years old, came to America a few years ago with his wife and children, and he is bound determined to complete his education at our college, and provide for his family. He shared the struggles they've had with the language barrier, and how it is especially hard for his wife.

All of these experiences humbled me in a different way. How thankful and lucky am I to have never had my body contain an ounce of cancer. Causing me to every hair on my head, a small thing in the big pot of hardships cancer brings on one and their family. I have never been in a foster home, I have had the luxury of consistently having the same roof over my head and a place I could always call home. But how thankful am I that this student is being adopted into a permanent home, not to mention that they will get to be with their brother. How humbled I am after hearing my classmate's story by my inexcusable behavior and I am so thankful and inspired by his ambition.

You'll have to forgive me, this post was a long one. But if you get anything out of it, I pray that you will reexamine the life and actually look for things to be thankful for and to be humbled by them year round.

Phew!! That was kinda heavy. (For me at least) On a lighter note, I am so excited to celebrate Thanksgiving this week! Thursday we'll be headed to Cam's family "Thankmas," then Friday we'll be celebrating with my family! I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving, full of food, fun, and family!! :)

A little over due but...Halloween 2010

Nearing a month later, I am finally posting pictures from Halloween! I apologize for the delay, but here they are!

Cameron and I went to his good friend Joey's house for a little party. As Joey told me, costumes were required or you were not allowed in the house! ;)

Cam's costume was a hit!! I wish I had snagged a picture of the side view- hilarious! Such a clever costume, his legs were actually the monkey's and his upper body came out of the stomach of the monkey! The only downer was he had to crouch down a bit and said the cage was a little heavy after a while. But still, it was an awesome costume!I went as a doll! Made the colorful tutu myself, and just wore things I already had and did my own make up. Not too pricey!Cameron and myself..Joey (dressed up as his own cat, Waylon) and his girlfriend, Kristin (Little Red Riding Hood)

This concludes the Halloween post, I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted to. But, keep an eye out for my upcoming posts! I will have one over 3 things that have really tugged at my heart strings, and one covering "Thankmas" (Cam's family celebration of Thanksgiving and Christmas :) ) Stay tuned!