"Happy Birthday Cousin"

I have had a loooooong day. A good day, but very long. I got off at 7, came home, and promptly went to bed a little after 8. I tried to catch as many zzzz's as I could before noon. I woke up at noon, showered and headed off to spend a few hours with my dear friend Cara. We had both been on vacation and wanted to reconnect and chat a little bit. We had a great time chatting and eating ice cream (gotta love DQ!), then we goofed off on the computer a bit. I won't hate you if you post those pictures Cara! :)
Sadly, our time was cut too short, because I was watching Brooke, and had to be there to get her at 5. We said our goodbyes and promised to do it again soon. No vacations planned for either of us (that we know of), so hopefully it will happen soon.

Well, I arrived to get Brooke at 5 and she was in the prettiest little yellow party dress. I was only watching her for the night because Dan and Becky were taking Luke and Mer to some car show. So I was taking Brooke to my cousin Rachel's birthday party. (Happy 18th Rach!) The second I got there she ran out the front door and jumped in my arms. She is so sweet... She melts my heart! I hugged Mer and talked to her and we went inside. Becky said hi and that she wasn't ready, but if I needed to go I could take Brooke because she was ready. Well, we still had some time, so I just went ahead and loaded up Brooke's carseat in my car, and then sat in the living room with the girls and chatted a bit while Becky finished getting ready. Becky commented that I must have bonded with Brooke or something (because I started watching her when she was 5 months old), because anytime they needed a babysitter Brooke would say, "My Megan gonna watch me?" Becky said I'm always her first choice, but she tries to get her to understand that I can't always watch her. Yea, right... she's 2!
Anyway, so we're sitting in the living room and Brooke keeps looking at me saying, "I ready to go in the car. Let's go bye-bye." She was so ready to go and party! :) I chatted with Becky a little longer and then her and Mer left to meet up with Dan and Luke.
Brooke and I left shortly after, and she couldn't have been more excited. I kept telling her we were going to my cousin Rachel's birthday party. We rehearsed a couple times "Happy Birthday Rachel". Well, it was quiet in the car at one point and I hear her talking to herself in the backseat... "Happy Birthday Rachel". Then a few seconds later... "Happy Birthday Cousin". How sweet!!! She was all ready to say Happy Birthday. We had gone through the guest list (My mom, Holli (aka Hoddie)....), she was ready for cake and ice cream...we were set! So we're driving along and I had a country radio station playing pretty low, because we had been talking. Well she all of sudden says, "Megan, can you turn it up?" So I did. Then she says, "Really loud, k?" So I turn it up louder. Then I hear her sweet little voice singing to the radio. Are you kidding me?! She knew a lot of the words to the chorus. The funny thing is that it was a Montgomery Gentry song. I wanted to start laughing, but she was just so sweet I didn't want her to stop. When the song ended she said, "My mommy and me listen that music in her car." Too precious! So we're almost to my cousin's house and we pass an ice cream place. Well there is a huge ice cream cone outside and I hear her gasp and say, "A Snowball Man! Did you see it??" At first I had no clue what she was talking about then when I caught on all I could do was smile. She seriously is a bright spot in my day when I get to be with her. She's so funny!

We finally arrived at the party and as we were walking toward the door and we went through all the people she knew that weren't there yet, she looks at me and says "I don't like cousins." How hilarious! She was nervous! Well the fact that my cousin's dog met us at the door barking did not help the situation, but she quickly calmed down, and when Holli arrived shortly after, she went to her while I got her sippy cup filled. Brooke was pretty quiet at first, but she opened up pretty quickly. My mom got there and she went right to her and was soon chatting it up with the guests and showing her sweet little smile to everyone. :) She was thrilled that my mom let her stick her finger in the cake to get some of the frosting off. She ate her dinner great, and barely made a mess at all. I was quite proud of her. :p
While Rach opened her presents (which were basically cards) she sat on Hol's lap and then sat in mine next to where my cousin's little boy was. They quickly began playing together and were just too funny! I think Carter was a little smitten. :) My cousin snapped some pictures of the two, and if she emails them to me I will post them here and let you know.
Brooke started getting a little tired around 8:15 so we left and went back to her house. She kind of snoozed for a couple minutes on the drive home, but not too much. It must have been just enough, because she was wide awake and raring to go when we got inside. So much in fact that she was completely naked in the matter of 5 minutes. Silly girl! I got her dressed for bed and decided to pop in a movie. Bad idea!!! I was so tired, that putting in a movie just lulled me into a relaxed state. I was on the couch and she sat with me for a bit, but then she wanted to get some books out. I couldn't muster up the energy to read them to her so she sat in a chair and read to herself. Thankfully Dan and Becky got home shortly after that. I was fading fast, and I was pretty sure I would be asleep soon if they hadn't shown up. We went through the run down of how she did, bathroom breaks (now that she's potty trained), if she had fun. She nodded her head vigorously when Becky asked her if she had fun. Then she asked, "Are you and Megan best friends?" to which Brooke nodded and smiled. I love her!!

Thankfully I am home now, and I am going to be going to bed now. I'm way tired. 4 hours of sleep in like 32 hours is NOT enough. I'll be sleeping in tomorrow and taking a long nap on Sunday before work. Don't worry though. I will be back with my trip post as promised. I want it finished just as much as you do. Everyone have a good Saturday!

Until...................................

NYC Recap- Day 4: Part 2

Aren't you surprised?? I worked on half of this post last night after I finished the previous one. I was on a roll I guess. :) Here is the rest of Day 4. Only 2 parts for this day.....

Day 4: Part 2

When we were done at the beloved Grand Central Station we trekked to The Empire State Building. What a bust! Seriously. Don't go inside. It's dirty and the gift shop is terrible! Just take a picture of the pretty outside and move on. Don't waste your money. Go to Top of the Rock. Much better, same view, and clean. I mean, honestly, isn't the Empire State Building you want a picture of anyway? You can't get that if you're inside the building. Just my thoughts. You can do whatever you want, just wanted to give you my honest opinion before you were going to waste money.

After we did that we went back to the hotel (I think) to drop our bags and then we went to Columbus Circle. You know, I think we may have gone back to the hotel earlier... I don't remember. Either way at some point we went back to the hotel....

So we went to Columbus Circle, because I for some reason had become obsessed with the fact that we go there and take pictures. I enjoyed myself. I spent 15 minutes trying to track down a horse and carriage to take a picture of (why...I don't know), we took a couple pictures of Trump Tower, the big globe, and surrounding buildings. Oh yea, there was also a freaky statue impersonator there. He was almost more scary than the Statue of Liberty posers because he was decked out in head to toe white. *shudder* Ick! Who would want that job?

So right off of Columbus Circle we found a Subway and got a sandwich for dinner. FYI- Roasted Chicken is Ick! Then we decided that Pinkberry was in order again and we stopped in to have dessert before dinner. This time our collective concoction was Original fro-yo with chocolate chips and yogurt chips!! I was so excited to have my beloved yogurt chips again! :) However, the picture is blurry because Lisa was freaking out! We weren't supposed to take pictures inside the store, which is kind of dumb.

Not sure why they have that rule, but I figure I was only taking a picture of my purchase which I could have done anywhere. I wasn't taking a picture of people, just my food. Do they have fugitives working there or something?? Weird....

So after that we went and hailed a cab and went back to our hotel for our delegated resting time.

This day we had like 3 and a half hours to kill before Lion King. So we ate our disgusting sandwich from Subway and then Lisa took a nap. This is when Holli and I decided to go through ALL of our pictures and write down what they were so we wouldn't forget. I'm glad we did, because it's only been two weeks, and without my cheat sheet I would be lost. Lisa was just too funny sleeping though, so I had to snap a few pics of her. :)



We started getting ready for Lion King around 6 or so and took our mandatory picture. Of course the one musical I'm not overly thrilled about seeing is the one I'm wearing my favorite shirt to and my hair was not destroyed by the elements throughout the day. Oh well....

We headed off to the Minskoff Theatre. This was probably the biggest, and nicest theatre we went to. There was a very nice view of Times Square too. Check out the traffic!




So...the Lion King. I don't know. I'm glad I saw it...so I can say that I saw it, but it wasn't too spectacular to me. I don't know if it's because I was so tired, or if it was the fact their weren't really any strong lead vocals. It was more like a "choir" performance. No one really stuck out. The costumes and set get an A++. That was of course the best out of the three musicals. I had a hard time focusing though. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to look at the real person head, the costume head, or both. It was a little distracting and the whole first Act had children singing and dancing. You know how I feel about that.... unless I know them it creeps me out. I don't know why, it's just how it is. Here's a clip of the beginning though, because it's just so cool. This is from the Tony Awards that they performed at.



Yea, so that pretty much concludes our evening. We went back to the hotel, got ready for bed, and that was it.
I'll post about our last day and journey home sometime soon... I promise. It should take me as long. I have Friday and Saturday off of work, so hopefully I will be able to post sometime then.

Until.....................................

Prayer Request

Please pray for my friend Ashley and her family. Her dad is having a quadruple bypass in the morning (Thursday). It was very unexpected, and they are lucky they caught it when they did. Please pray for Ashley, her mom, and sister as they wait during the surgery. Pray for the surgeon that he will have a steady hand and that her dad will come through the surgery with flying colors.

Until.................................

Music

Ok, so my playlist is starting to tick me off. I don't know why it only plays 30 seconds of some songs and the full length for others. It didn't used to do this, so I know I picked full length versions of all of them. I will have to investigate this further... Sorry for the annoyance. I will try to get this resolved ASAP.
Until...........................

NYC Recap- Day 4

I know, you're shocked. I'm actually back to update on my trip. With work and everything I've been a little busy. Working 3rd shift is good, but the whole sleeping thing is an adjustment. Oh well...
I keep having to remind myself that it's summer. I feel like I should be going to the pool, or taking long walks...something. Instead I'm working 3 days a week and then sleeping the rest of the time it seems. I really love working in the PICU though.
Anyway... I guess I should get on to the real reason for this post. :) Enjoy......

Day 4

We got to sleep in a little bit more this day (Saturday). We were going to go to Rockefellar Center (aka Top of the Rock) first and they didn't open until 9 or something, so we slept until 7:45 and then leisurely got ready. So we listened to a little music on my ipod and got ready. We were actually listening to the Wicked soundtrack. Holli came out of the bathroom and clicked her heels (or rather her knees) at one point, she was so excited for the day. :) Haha! She was constantly searching for things, as we all were. Living out of a suitcase is not my ideal, and I don't know how some people do it for an extended period of time.

So, as I mentioned before we were starting off our "shopping/misc" day by going to Top of the Rock. I must admit I wasn't sure about this. I don't know if I quite knew for sure what it was, but now that I know I recommend it to anyone going to NYC. It was great. You go up in these elevators (that have tv's in the ceiling) and then there are three more levels that you can go up (on foot) to look out over the city. The city is quite beautiful from up high. Central Park looks really nice, and a little out of place. It's building after building squished together and then there is this vast green section. It was a perfect day outside, so it was nice to be out and enjoying the view.

(I paid $.50 to look through this thing, and it didn't even work very well. I want my money back!)

(Target Walkway. This whole room lit up with lights intermittantly. It was cool.)

When we were getting ready go down on the elevators the guy who was operating the elevator looked at me and said, "Hi. How ya doing?" I replied, "Good." (I know... how intelligent of me.) Then he says, "Oh good, someone who speaks english." Haha! It is so true!! Everything sounds foreign and garbled everywhere you go. It just cracked me up that he said that. :)
On the ride down you could look up and see the elevator shaft with the cable lit up in all different colors. It was pretty cool, but I recommend looking down if you're afraid of heights or something. I enjoyed it though.

Fun fact: Did you know that Kandace Pelletier from Amazing Race is a Rockette? Right before we got in line to go up on the elevators there was a movie playing and she had a 3 minute blurb about being a Rockette. Who knew....

After Top of the Rock we went around some shops inside Rockefellar Center. Nothing too spectacular, but it was nice to walk around. The NBC studio Store was there. That was a nice thing I guess. I got a shirt and posed with Matt Lauer's cardboard cut out.

Then we went across the street and got our pictures taken with the BIG picture of Matt and Meredith.


Shortly after these pictures we encountered a SCAM ARTIST!!! He wasn't threatening or anything, but he wanted us to buy these hats he had for $10 a piece to "benefit a charity". Whatever Dude!! He was being all suave and flirty, and I was pretty much not looking at him or paying attention. He was ridiculous! He talked to us for awhile and then smoothly mentioned that we could keep the hats he had handed us for the low low price of $10 a piece and then we could walk around with an "I've been scammed" sign on our forehead. Ok, so I added that last part in, but we might as well have if we paid him for them. He can call us Shaniqua, Shanaynay, and Roxie all he wants... we were not paying him for those hats! He was trying to butter us up so we would fork over some cash! We're not dumb! Just as we were walking away he started trying to scam anothe rgroup of people that walked by and this woman chewed him out! She said "I was here last year and one of you people tried to scam me. I'm not falling for that!" To which he kind of stuttered a reply, "It's only a scam if you give me money." Are you kidding me?! What an idiot! Right after he said this we snapped this picture...

Caught ya red handed!! Yea, so that was our excitement of the morning.

Next we started walking toward Grand Central Station. We made a pit stop in a souvenir shop. We had to get something, we'd barely purchased anythign besides food that whole time we'd been there. So we got a shirt and some dirty photo albums (No, we didn't know they were dirty when we bought them. They were wrapped in plastic). It was funny because almost the second we walked into the store we had workers "stalking" us to see if we needed anything. They were trying to sell us something before we left and we wouldn't have the chance to leave if they were 5 inches away. So we pick some things out and as we're still kind of browsing and headed toward the cash register they are nowhere to be found.... Seriously? You stalk me for 15 minutes and then when I'm ready to check out you're down in your store room? Talk about backwards! We finally made our purchases and left.

After that we continued on our way to Grand Central Station for lunch. I love GCS!

It's very beautiful inside, and there is just something about it.... I don't know. It's hard to describe. We stopped in a fun little store called Pylones.


The store had some really fun stuff inside (mostly for children). The cashier cheated me a dollar though. My purchase cost $7.04, and since I didn't want to dig around for 4 pennies I gave her $8. She counted it, looked at me and said "Don't you have 4 pennies?" So I kind of looked at her a second and said "I don't think so." ....Blank stare. So I said, "Well, let me look." So I pull out my wallet and rummage around and finally find 4 pennies. I hand her the pennies and say, "I gave you $8." .... Again she says nothing. She puts the money in the register and gives me my purchas. I looked at her for a second and then I just walked away. I'll forfeit the $1 just as long as I didn't have to look at or talk to her again. She wasn't so bright, and quite frankly rude. What is up with this day?!

So we move on to Juniors, which was on a lower level. This restaraunt is famous for their cheescake. It's very odd how they have food places set up in GCS. They are teeny tiny spaces, and I'm surprised they had sit down places, but they did. We had to wait like 15 minutes, but once we were seated we ordered and everything came in a timely fashion. I was quite impressed. I got a BLT (because I had to see how theirs was compared to ours :p), Holli got turkey (of course), and Lisa got a cheeseburger. All were very yum! We got a piece of Strawberry Cheesecake to share for dessert. Oh my word! It was phenomenal! I think it was the best cheescake I've ever had. If you think your cheesecake can beat theirs you make me one and I'll try it. I'll gladly taste test and see. :)




So after we ate we took a TON of pictures. Of course I had to be a little artsy. :) The funny thing is that Hol and Lisa try to be artsy too, and Lis has a little bit of trouble, but one of the pictures she took was pretty fantastic and artistic with not much effort on her part. It turned out amazing. Snaps for Lisa! (Sorry... just a little left over Legally Blonde there) :)

(Lisa's artsy work.)

Alright, well I think that's enough for this post. Next up... Visiting the Empire State Building (affectionately called the Eiffel Tower by me all week. I don't know why I was so confused), Columbus Circle... You're Fired!, and the Lion King.

Until.............................

Rip off!

Okay, so my phone kind of broke a couple weeks ago. The hinge started making a snapping noise and then a week or so after that started my flip phone became a flop phone. I've put up with it, but we got an upgrade thing in the mail tonight and I decided I might as well go in and see about getting a new phone.
So off to Verizon I go with my mom. The thing she was most concerned about was that I get another flip phone and that it be easy for her to use (because it's her phone and all..... NOT!) Anyway, I get there and the guy that waited on me was super rude. He said we had a $50 online credit, so I should order online. No sooner is that out of his mouth he calls for teh next person. Apparently he was done talking to us. So mom and I browsed around and then left.
I got home to order a new phone online and after registering and yada yada I picked a phone. It looked nice, it had good features, and it was a flip (your welcome mom). Well when I went to go checkout the phone was only $20. I didn't want to upgrade my plan, just my phone. Well apparently Verizon frowns on that. They want to suck all the money they can out of you. So the choice is either get a whole new plan that's expensive or just get a new phone and stay with your old plan for even more $$$. With a new 2-yr contract the phone was $20. Without a contract it was $239!!!! Are you joking?!?! I think not!!
Dad and I need to consult on whether a new plan will be more beneficial and if not, I'm going to ebay. That's ridiculous!!

Alright, I just had to vent that. My aunt is coming over to look at my trip pictures, so I must go, but I'll be back to tell you about my awesome night at work, and maybe if I'm not too tired I'll update on Day 4 of my trip. :)

Until................................

Just a little funny...

OK, so I was reading some old posts on a blog I like to check in on. Angie Smith (her husband is Todd from the group Selah) started a blog back in January about their story of heartache over finding out halfway through their pregnancy that their fourth daughter was seriously ill. This video was posted of her three oldest daughters and I just about laughed myself silly. Watch the faces of the two oldest girls. Precious!



Until........................