"DC and New York"

Here are just a few pics from our trip. So many to share. We really enjoyed Washington D.C. and New York. Here is a pic of the capitol. All of the buildings are gorgeous and the architechure is amazing. Nicole and I didn't sleep a wink on our red eye flight to Georgia and then on to Virginia. At about 3:00 am we got the giggles on the plane when everyone else was asleep. This was our flight back when Nicole actually got some sleep. We were on the wing all flights which as nice. Got some cool pics out the window.

We went clear to the top of the Old Post Office in DC and ate lunch there. Was awesome. Could see the entire city and it was fresh and cool up there.

Here we are in front of the White House. It was raining. We got alot of rain in DC and New York. We saw the snipers on the roof and our guide told us Obama was in town because of the way the flags were hung. Saw his motorcade and missed him at the Capitol by 5 minutes!!

Had to a pic with New Yorks finest police officers in Rockefeller Center.

Central Park was amazing. This is the "kissing bridge" famous in so many movies. It was raining that day to! But lovely and we walked thru the park and took lots of pics.

Times Square in Manhattan.

Was really cool at night too. We loved it!

Some of the streets were dirty and smelly and full of garbage. We saw it all. The good, the bad and the ugly.

We saw "Shrek" on Broadway. A play on Broadway in New York City..............really...........how cool is that. Show was awesome. Nicole loved it too!

Lady Liberty. So awesome to see in person. I have pics that are closer, but thought this one was cool because you could see the NY skyline too. Was overcast and raining (surprise!) but I really enjoyed the ferry ride out to see it. Fresh air. On a boat. Morning. Very enjoyable.

A few things about the trip that I did not enjoy.

NY Subway. Dirty. Stinky. Hot. Icky.

4 hours sleep every night. Not enough!

Moving hotels almost every night.

Other than that. Trip was amazing. So many more pics to come. Such a great experience for Nicole and I to do together. Met some great kids and parents I didn't know before. Great bonding before they are all of to high school in the fall.

"trains, planes and automobiles"

This pic was taken in Times Square, New York City. Well, were back. What an AWESOME trip. So much fun and so much to see. We are exhausted and have jet lag. Got back at 2:00 am Monday. I went back to work Tues and am paying the price. The day we left we traveled by bus, NY subway, ferry boat to Statue of Liberty, airplaine across the united states and car. Wurl-wind trip.
Nicole wants to move to New York. :(
I want to blog each day we were gone, once I get some sleep.
So much more to come and lots of pics~!

"i'm off the see the wizard......"

In exactly 1 1/2 hours we are leaving for Washington D.C. and New York. Red eye flight. I have expertly (O.C.D.) packed my bags. And am super organized. Nicole and I leisurely got ready today and finished packing. I'm going to eat, give lots of love to my boys and we're off. (trip is Nicole's 8th grade class)

It's going to be a wurl-wind trip. We arrive in Charlottesville, VA at 9:10 am tomorrow and hit the ground running. Some of the places we will be visiting:

Smithsonian Museum

Air & Space Museum

Natural History Museum

Williamsburg

Busch Gardens. Then off to D.C.

White House

Vietnam Vetrans Memorial/Lincoln Memorial

Union Station

Capitol Hill

Major League Baseball Game: Baltimore Orioles vs. Mets

Arlington National Cemetery

National Zoo

Mt. Vernon. Then off to New York City

Chinatown

Little Italy (and dinner)

Empire State Building

(Sat. Jun. 20, 7:00 am) Today Show (set your DVR!)

Midtown Manhattan

Rockefeller Center

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Fifth Ave (Trump Tower, Tiffany's)

Central Park :)

Ride SUBWAY to Grand Central Station

Chrysler Building

Broadway Play! (Shrek)

Times Square

Wall Street

Ground Zero

Statue of Liberty with Ferry From Battery Park

Ellis Island

And many more stops but these are the exciting ones.

8 days. We are going to be exhausted, but so excited.

Off we go! I will miss you all and have lots to blog when we return.

"so proud of my girl"

Middle School is over for Nicole. (thank goodness!)
This entire post is a huge brag board today.
The awards assemble was yesterday for the 8th graders.
My daughter rocks. She got a plaque and award for earning a 4.0 GPA for all three years of middle school. Her ENTIRE middle school career and she kept up a perfect GPA. Pretty impressive. Especially since she is a social butterfly and plays sports all year round. Look at her plaque! :) So proud of her. Can't stop gushing about it. ......and she also got an award for outstanding academic achievement from the President's Education Awards Program. And a letter signed by the President of the United States and a pin. Again, so proud and what an acheivment!! Was quite the proud mama when she went up to accept it in front of her entire 8th grade class and bleachers full of parents. I went solo, since LeRoy was at work.

Not only is she smart, she is adorable too! My other girls, Cassandra and Jasmine.

After the awards we didn't make the kids go back to school, we all took them to Red Robin for lunch. Here are some of their friends. Nice group of kids.

This picture speaks for itself. I love these goofy girls. On to high school.......................

Then later they had their 8th grade celebration party back at the school. They thought it was boring so we only stayed for a little while.

So then they inform me that they wanted to do an 8th grade last hurrah at school. They cleared it with the principle and janitors. After the party was over and everyone was gone about 12 of their girlfriends had hatched a plan. Earlier in the day we all went to the dollar store and bought balloons and streamers. So at 10:00 pm we all headed back to the school (principle let us in) and all the girls made posters for the 8th grade hall and hung balloons and streamers down the entire hallway.

and the principle let them move their favorite teachers entire classroom into the gym. Desks, podium and all. Hilarious! So when the teacher got to school today his classroom was empty and was set up in the gym exactly like his classroom. Cool that the principle let them pull it off and they were hyper and had a good time. Today was last day. 1/2 day then we went to pick up Tyler and I took them out to lunch. Ahhhhhh......................summer begins........................................

"salsa, salsa"

I am also addicted to salsa.
Only good salsa.
I actually am a salsa snob.
Very picky and hate "store bought, non-fresh salsa".
So I was blog surfing the other night and saw this recipe.
Looked easy enough. But I was skeptical. Have tried lots of recipies and been disappointed.

This one does not disappoint! Claims to be the best homemade salsa ever.

Agreed.

Bought the ingredients and roasted up my veggies when I got home from work today.

OMG.

I halved the recipe incase it wasnt good. Still made a lot. Even though I cut the recipe in half. Was pretty hot for me. Next time I would not use as many peppers as it calls for. Or maybe scrape out the seeds. And use gloves next time. Would use a little less cilantro also. Only like a little for flavor, but not to overpower.

Loved the texture and flavor was awesome.

The "roasting" brings out such yummy-ness. Since I am a wimp, I mixed some sour cream to "tone down the heat" and I was in heaven. SO GOOD. Can't wait to make another batch.

"so much to say......'

I have a new obsession. I don't usually "drink my calories", I would much rather eat them. My daughter got me hooked on this yummy iced tea. She is more addicted to it then me! And it's only $0.99 a can.
And oh so yummy in my new Starbucks re-usable, insulated cup that my hubby bought me, filled with ice. mmmmmmmmmmm...........if you don't have one of these, you should immediately visit your local starbucks and purchase one.

So I had my cup all filled up and ready to go to Tyler's baseball game. 1st inning the game was called due to lighting. 2 games this week cancelled due to thunder and lighting. Scary. Felt bad for South Albany grads last night. Thunder. Lighting. Pouring down rain. The girls and I drove around looking at the lighting and listening to the thunder. Was awesome.

Today was crazy weather too! Tornado warning in Linn Co? I was at work and got a panicked phone call from Nicole. They were watching Spongebob after school and the warning came across the TV and for severe thunder and lightning storms. Good thing dad was on his way home. Thunder was so loud and rumbling.

And I find out that my BFF is leaving bright and early tomorrow for Washington. WHAT?

Have fun! Blog all about it when you get back. I will miss you this weekend.

Shout out to Susanne. Love your post. I laughed out loud. Oh, Marge...........

Leaving for Washington DC and New York in 9 days. Probably should think about packing soon. Nicole is going to struggle with our restricted amount of luggage we can take. This about sums up our trip to Mexico 2 years ago. We packed WAY too much. So much that I actually left an entire suitcase with stuff in it at the resort cause I wasn't lugging it home. Really, I did.

Have some pics to post later of Ladies Night Out at the BGCA over the weekend. (actually, the after party).

Beware. Lots of commentary to go with it.

Ex. Drunk conga line in chairs with wheels, flashdance, jelly bellies in the bottom of my purse, people barefoot in the bathroom, Amy, the dancefloor in general. Thank You Kambria for being the DD.

"today is the day"

5k training.......... tonight. track. be there...................