New York will never be the same!!!!

I got back from my weekend trip in NYC with 10 other friends. The group was me, Linnae, Becky, Jennifer, Ellen, Wendy (Linnae's cousin), Kristen, Tianna, Marissa, Wendy and Lisa. I had a blast and we are already planning for this to be a yearly thing. This was a special trip for all. My friend Linnae had always wanted to do a NYC trip and so it was planned. It was so great to be with friends and just pretty much laugh the whole weekend. Here are some highlights. Pictures will follow!!!

Going the wrong way on the Subway with Kristen, Marissa, Wendy and Tianna. We meant to go Uptown and ended up at the Brooklyn Bridge!!! Whoops. But that lead us to see the man in a karate uniform, a big old fro wig, and barefoot, dancing in the subway terminal with his girlfriend looking on and staring at him like he was Brad Pitt!!!!

Shopping on Canal Street. After some coaching on how to handle the street vendors from Wendy, Ellen became a force to be reckoned with and I will just leave it at that :) I found out that Lisa is the master at wheeling and dealing. She was able to negotiate a great deal for Tianna on some great purses. Tianna getting locked in one of those "back rooms" where all the good stuff is at!

Dinner in Little Italy. The food was divine and the restaurant was great.

Stardust Diner!!!!! One of the best things we did. Anyone who goes to NYC I highly recommend eating there. The wait staff sings and dances and the food was awesome. They will sing dedications to people and Kristen asked them to dedicate a song to Linnae! Words cannot describe the emotions. The waiter sang "Faithfully" by Journey and he totally rocked it out.

Shopping on fifth avenue was so fun. H&M stores in NYC have so much more than ours here.

Cab Rides!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Riding on the Subway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cafe Lola!!!! Some incredible Belgium Waffles and desserts!!!!!

Times square at 1 in the morning with Linnae, Wendy, Ellen and I!!!!! We were pretty punchy by that point and that made it all so much more interesting.

The M&M store in times square. A store with M&M's available in all kinds of colors. Who would want anything more. Ellen, Wendy and I posing with the huge statue of the blue M&M as John Travolta in Staying Alive pose.

Wendy, Linnae's cousin, caressing the half naked man manikin in window of Planet Hollywood!!!!! Ellen has the proof :)

Visiting the WTC site and going over to St. James church across the street. I love old churches and this church has an amazing history. The church has an exhibition in it with many things pertaining to the 9/11. St. James is an amazing place to visit. It was a heaven for the volunteers, firefighters and policemen, right in the middle of hell during 9/11. The exhibition was moving and is something everyone should experience. You feel the peace in the church and feel the strong spirit of love that was there. When you are walking through and see the pictures, letters, and mementos it is incredibly humbling and reminds you that at the end of the day we are all humans and because our time here is so precious and short we should spend it loving each other instead of finding ways to dislike each other.

Lastly, on Sunday we had our own little spiritual thought and many of the ladies shared some wonderful thoughts. It was really moving and a wonderful way to express our love for Linnae. Linnae's energy, and enthusiasm all weekend was so great. It was such a special experience to be able to share this with all these amazing women. To see Linnae so happy and laughing after all she has gone through was the best medicine for all.

Coming Soon

I am going to interview my daughter and her friend Shelby about the characters in the Twilight book series. They are big Jacob fans and I can't wait to find out what they have to say. Should be interesting!!!!

Thirteen

So it has happened. My baby girl is 13!!!!! The big day was yesterday and I woke up with a feeling of incredible happiness. Happiness that I am blessed with such an incredible, loving, thoughtful, fun, creative and energetic daughter. I love her for so many reasons, her laugh, her smile, her sweetness, her ability to drive me nutty sometimes and most of all I love her for everything she is.

Here is how her birthday went down. She had her best friend, Emily, spend the night Friday night. They decided they wanted to go see the new Dr. Seuss movie and go shopping. So after dinner at Pei-Wei we headed out to begin celebrating the big day. After getting our movie tickets we went to the mall and headed to GAP, she is sooooo my daughter. After her and Emily found some really cute pieces for her spring wardrobe we went to the movie. The movie was really cute and the girls got their usual large popcorn and medium drinks. After the movie we went home and the girls just hung out. Saturday morning, the actual day of her b-day, they were up and ready to go. I took them to a spa/store called Rouge and they got pedicures. My daughter says she now realizes why I love getting pedicures so much :) After pedicures it was off to Christina's basketball game and the home for lunch. We then went to dinner at this great place called "Fireworks", wood fired pizza, super yummy, and then went to Cold Stone for dessert. What a fun filled day!!!

So to my awesome 13 year old I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Your are the best.