Four is enough

It's evenings like the one I had today that make me feel like another baby (eventually) would be so fabulous. Carlee was at dance. Will and Cade were at football practice and Cloee went with them. I had cleaned up dinner and was enjoying my time with Cash. Eating up all his sweetness. I laughed so hard as he giggled when I barely touched his thighs or back. He is so stinkin' ticklish and I love it! I just love having this little baby around. He brings so much joy and happiness to our home and family. We all fight over him and can't get enough of him.
Fast forward a few hours- right around bedtime. It is chaotic. Everyone is now home and finishing homework and wanting to eat more dinner or a quick bowl of ice cream or cereal. The baby is fussy and needing to go to bed but I am busy helping Cade with homework and cleaning up random food messes that the girls had made. UGH! I had a moment of clarity when I said to myself, "Cari, there is no way you could handle one more thing at this moment. Just imagine if you had a 5th child with all this chaos." Yikes! Kinda scared me.
Will is certain he doesn't want any more children. I am on the fence. I never want to say never. We don't know where we will be- financially, physically, or emotionally. If it feels right in a few years then we can talk about it then.

Cloee asks about my boobs :/

Cloee, age 4 and a half says, "Mom, where are your boobs? The are supposed to be up here."
I didn't have a bra on. I will use the excuse that they were just heavy and full of milk.
Fabulous. Next she will be asking why one is large and the other is extra small. And I have no idea, therefore no excuse to give her on that one.
:/

To Lose

Cash is 5 months old. I am so irritated because I still have about 13 lbs to lose. I will even give myself 3 lbs of breast tissue. So I need to lose 10 lbs. I eat the way I always have eaten- what I want, when I want and I am careful as to not over doing it. I do enjoy raw veggies and fruit or a piece of toast with PB on it- i don't eat a stack of Oreos but I will eat a few Chunky Chips Ahoy on occasion. I am sure I could do MUCH better but I just want to be able to eat the way I always have eaten. I am so down in the dumps about it. When Cash was 6 or 8 weeks old I got on the scale and was only up 6 or 8 lbs (can't remember exactly) from what I normally weigh. I don't know how that happened or if the scale was just having a great day :) I am trying to decide what to do. I have begun to watch what I eat a little more carefully. Cash is still hard to leave with anyone for very long so I don't think I will be doing the gym any time soon. I have even thought about weaning him to see if that helps me lose the weight but then I decided I love to nurse and would rather be a little bigger than to have him weaned already. Besides, he won't take a bottle at all! Been trying every day. I have also been trying to introduce baby foods and rice cereal and mixing them together. He's not a big fan. He will eat about 4 bites of the baby food  by itself but wants nothing to do with the rice cereal, even if there is baby food mixed in. I am just gonna go slow and be more aggressive when he is closer to 6 months. I tried lap swimming but often times Cash would cry the entire time I was swimming (it was usually around the time he took a late nap - like 7pm-ish) so it just became too stressful. What I would really like to do is work out- then I feel better about eating what I want. I would rather not have to count calories and such. What a pain. And I feel better about the whole 'build muscle' thing than the 'eat less to lose weight' thing. It is way to hot outside to go running or even walking. When it starts to get cool out then I will put Cash in the stroller and we can walk Cloee to and from preschool every day. I wore the same clothes clear up until I gave birth. I was able to wear a lot of the same stuff after I had Cash but when he was about 2-3 months old things started to get snug. I know I was hungrier due to nursing. I would wake in the middle of the night with a stomach ache from my stomach growling so much. So I know I ate more than I was used to. But now here I am, stuck with a bit more weight than I want. And VERY tight fitting clothes (mostly pants, shorts and skirts). And of course since I am nursing my tops don't fit either. Urgh! There's my rant. I feel better already. Maybe there is a Chunky Chips Ahoy somewhere in the pantry that I could eat (at 1 am).

Greer trip March 2012

As soon as I got off bed rest (pregnant with Cash) we headed to Greer where we were greeted with beautiful weather and nice tall trees. I made most of the food ahead of time so I didn't have to be in the kitchen the whole time cooking- just for dishing up or warming up food.  There was tubing, skiing (because I was pregnant I didn't tube or ski), hot tubbing (sometimes as the snow fell on our heads!), s'mores (at the campfire and in the cabin on the stove when it was snowing), campfire time, reading, movies, game playing, and nature walks. So Much Fun! Cloee still asks "when are we going  back to our cabin in the snow?" (It is Nov 2012 when I am finally posting this- so 9 months later and Cloee still remembers!)

On our way to the tubing hill

Carlee showing some love to her little bro

Carlee and her best friend, Sarah

Cute little Cloee in a fun hat that I remember Cade wearing when he was her age (notice silly Carlee in the back)

Cade tubed by himself a lot and carried that tube up to the top of that hill over and over again. The helmet saved me from going into early labor! Cade was good about keeping his on but often times I would turn around and Carlee, Sarah and Cloee would have theirs off. Will, of course, is invincible and nothing would ever happen to him- haha so even though we had a helmet for him I don't think he ever wore it

That's Cloee going down a smaller part of the hill. She wasn't afraid to go down the bigger part, it was just easier for her to go back up the smaller hill. She LOVED tubing!

Cade loved riding double but Will didn't particularly care to haul the heavy tube up and down the hill a zillion times

At the bottom of the hill... posing

Cloee in her cute ski bibs

Cade is getting geared up for his first time snow skiing

Carlee on left with red hat, Sarah in middle with lavender jacket, Cade on right in camo jacket. All three getting ready for  their ski lesson

Cade and Carlee side stepping down. Sarah being assisted by the instructor

I absolutely LOVE this picture!!!! Anyways, after the kids were done with their lesson they had free skiing time. Carlee did amazing and was able to ski a bit with Daddy. Even though the weather was atrocious they still stuck it out and stayed out there skiing until the hills closed. Look at those snow flurries passing by as they snap the picture! (Love Will's hat he stole from Cloee, she was in the lodge with me the entire time so she didn't need it.)

Dunno why but I love how Carlee's hip is popped toward Cade in this picture.  

In the hot tub after skiing in the blizzard. It is snowing on heads in the hot tub.  Look in the background to see the thickness of the snow coming down

I decided to get in too but boy was it cold when you got out- and not much hot water so we couldn't all just run straight to a nice hot shower inside. Because of that this was the only time I got in the hot tub. Notice the snow on the rail behind our heads

Cloee drinking milk out of a wine glass. I think that glass actually got broken after this picture was taken.  Notice my belly as I read on Carlee's Kindle Fire

Last day just before we leave. It is snowing pretty heavily. I was scared to death to have to drive home in that weather.  The girls are catching snow flurries on their tongues. Cloee and Cade would grab scoopfuls of snow from the picnic tables and eat it. 

 I think we all had a fun and memorable vacation!!!

Mean kids

Today I left Cloee with Will and Carlee, Cade and I went to the school for student-led conferences. When we got in the car I told the kids how pleased I was with their conference and how glad I was that I could be there. Cade then said, "Yeah Mom, I'm so glad you aren't in the hospital anymore." Of course I said, "me too". Then Carlee said to me, "Mom, did you know people made fun of me when you were in the hospital?" I was so shocked at this I didn't even know how to respond. She said that they would tell her that her mom was gonna die and if her mom didn't then her sister was gonna die. It was crushing me to know she had to go through this. And another boy said to her, "Guess what Carlee, I get to go home to a mom and a dad and you don't cuz your mom is in the hospital and isn't coming home." I don't remember if I said anything, if I said anything at all it was very few words. I was just in complete shock and feeling so sad I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide. It was so cute when Cade said, "Carlee did you just punch them in the nose when someone would say those mean things about Mom?" She answered by saying that once she kicked a boy and made him cry but he wouldn't tell on her because he knew that he was wrong. Cade kinda cheered her on that she should 'bust them up'. It was cute to hear them talk amongst themselves as I became an outsider to their conversation. Cade was totally trying to stick up for her and me and was feeling so sad for us, while I was feeling so sad for Carlee to have to have dealt with that crap. Kids really are so stupid sometimes. And mean! We all decided that we are grateful Mommy could be at the conferences today.

Cali March 2010 Vacation Day 1

Will wanted to leave around 7 this morning. We weren't that far off with leaving the gas station at 8:20 :) I went to sleep right away. I woke up and looked at my cell phone and it said 9:45 am. I felt like I had slept a lot longer. I had. The time had changed because we were in California already. We stopped in Coachella to eat. That ghetto-arse place! Dang!!! Ewww! We had to make a trip to a Game Stop right next to the Wendy's we ate at- Cade's car charger for his DS wasn't charging for some reason and as we all know, a dead DS is bad news on a trip in the car. We headed on. Around 11 we checked the navigation system and it estimated our arrival at the resort to be 12:58. Check in wasn't until 4 pm (I actually thought it was 3). So I suggested to Will that we stop at the outlets. You know, the ones shortly after you pass all the windmills. He thought that was a good idea, especially since he and I both needed new sneakers but never had time to go get any before this trip. We each found a great deal at the NIKE store. I wasn't in love with the ones I got but for $39 I was fine with them. We stopped in a few stores- Rock & Republic had some fabulous shorts, regularly $190, but since it is an outlet store they marked them down to a great deal- $112. Couldn't do it. For shorts? No. Maybe a great pair of jeans though. We found the sneakers and were quickly bored so we hit the bathrooms and then headed out. The mall is in 3 different sections. As we were driving away (we only went to the first section) Will noticed in the 2nd or 3rd section that they had an UGG store. He drove over and parked at that section and said we were going to the UGG store. Really? The place was packed. There were virtually no parking spots and it is very hard to find a spot that will fit the Excursion. He found one. Great, that meant we had to unbuckle and go baaaack in to do more shopping. Ok fine. We found the UGG shop. Will liked quite a few. I browsed around and said "Ok, I gotta go check out Gymboree." I think he was disappointed. I am just not a shopper. When I go shopping it is with a particular item in mind- if I need a new purse then I specifically head out to get a new purse, or a new pair of shoes, or a few new shirts. I don't just randomly shop for myself so it was hard to look at these boots and try to find a pair that I 'needed'. I hope I didn't disappoint my hubby. He is so sweet that he wants to take me out and spoil me- but I gotta have it in my mind and be prepared for it. Besides, I could sure buy quite a few pairs of flip flops with the same amount of money that would be spent on one pair of UGGS. If it were the beginning of winter I think I may have had a different thought but since it's beginning to get pretty warm it is hard to imagine ever wanted to put my foot in that nice, soft, warm boot. So we went to Gymboree where I found a few cute outfits for Cloee, hit a few other stores and headed back to the Excursion. Guess what Cade saw parked at the curb in the parking lot? The ice cream man! He really wanted an ice cream but Will had to burst his bubble and tell him that Brinks is a VERY expensive ice cream man and we just don't have the money for it. LOL Will made me laughing but the kids of course had no clue what he was talking about. I had to break it to them that it wasn't truly an ice cream truck. So we hopped back on the freeway. I had headphones on which were hooked to my netbook where I was listening to a great interview that Reality Steve had with Rozlyn (from this season's Bachelor) and because of this Will missed the CA-60 Riverside exit. He always misses this exit when I don't remind him to get off. Why do I have to navigate to Will what the navigation thingy navigates to me? Can't they just leave me out of their conversation? I mean really, I don't wanna be their go-between. So Will got a little flustered but found our way back to the right freeway. We made it to the resort at 3:55. I went inside to check in and found out that check-in actually wasn't until 4 and keys aren't released until 4:05 so we made perfect time and realized the whole UGG distraction was ok. After we got our clothes hung in our closets and into the dresser drawers (at least Carlee and I did, why do guys like to live outta a suitcase?) we headed to Medieval Times. We love this place! We got really great tickets through an online deal they were having and the last day to use them was today. We got there just as the show was starting and somehow we got lucky and had really good seats. We were cheering for the black & white knight, which we've been in that section before. He was killed off first, so disappointing. My favorite part is when the dude makes the horse 'dance'. It is neat. My second favorite part is that fact that they serve Pepsi and not Coke. Your only choices are Pepsi or Iced Tea, they don't even offer water. Afterwards the kids asked for half the items offered for sale in the gift area and Will was able to talk them down to half of that. Thank goodness we got home with all this crap, because we have been running low on junk around our house lately. After a quick stop at Albertson's (it's the only grocery store around here, it's so cute, has only about 8 parking spots) for milk, we made it back to the resort and I was actually ready to grab my book and hop in the jetted bathtub when the kids asked to go to the pool. I suggested that we can all just take turns in the jetted bath tub and it would be just like going swimming. Cade said to us, "No way, that little tub is nothing like a real matuzzi'. Carlee started to giggle until I softly told her that she used to call it 'the hot catuzzi'. Too cute. Will is usually the one to take them to the pool, like every single night when we go out of town. And I always get called the bad mom because I don't want to do it. Weeeeell, we are always so busy all day long so when we get back I just wanna hop in the tub or crawl into bed. I decided tonight I would be a 'good' mom and take the kids. This was actually very calculated on my part. You see, I have to get up and shower in the morning anyway (tomorrow is day 3 for my hair and my hair gets cranky on day 3) so tonight was a good night for me to sit in the hot tub since I always like to shower after I go in hot tubs. Plus today wasn't a busy day so I am not as exhausted as I will be on other nights. I am hoping I won't have to do pool duty again but if I do I can always cut it short by telling the kids the pool is closing when I am ready to go, hey they don't bring a watch with them so they don't know what time it really is. heeheehee Even though the pool actually closes at 11, from 10 until 10:20 people slowly started leaving. When the last couple were getting ready to leave, it was a great time to tell the kids that everyone was leaving because the pool was closed. Sometimes moms have to fib to their kids. Hey at least they got to swim for a little bit! Better than no swimming at all. And besides, I didn't want them up too late since we have a schedule to keep for tomorrow. We are going to Legoland. I'm not super excited. In fact, I didn't want Will to get me a ticket, I wanted to stay back and relax on Legoland day but Will insisted I go too. Fine!

Thoughts/feelings that I've had throughout the day:

• So thankful that I have a super great mom and aunt that are willing to keep Cloee so we can enjoy a vacation without a little one. (Our "rule" is that if you are still in diapers and/or still take naps then you aren't ready for vacations yet.)
• A small tug at my heart as we drove on the freeway and passed the Disneyland exit, knowing we are skipping the whole Disney thing this time :(
• Incredibly grateful that I am not in the hospital. We passed 3 or 4 hospitals and I couldn't help but think how horrible it was to be sitting my butt in one for so dang long. Oh how I wished to be a passenger in one of the cars that passed by. And today I was, and oh how thankful for that I am.
• Happy for the bonding time Carlee and Cade will have. Carlee made a comment about how she wished her friend Mykala could have come too. I told her that these are good bonding moments for each of us. Cade was cute when he added, "And a-sides Carlee, I wouldn't like it if she came too, cuz she is always around and I just needed to get away from having girls around so much."
• Love, Love, Love that we can talk to Cloee on Skype. It is so fun to see her as she talks to us. She and Cade are so cute as they give each other a million kisses.

*I accidentally posted this and I haven't re-read and edited this. Whoops! Will try to find time to get to it in the next day or two.

My 31st Birthday

My younger sis, Tricia, my mom, and me

My best buddy, Jennie, and me

Me and my best friend since forever ago, Angela

My BFF Shanna, Angela, me, and half of Tricia (Scotty should drink less next time he takes pics of us)

Jennie, Marcee, me

Aaron and Lisa

Jennie, me, Crystal

Trent and Jennie


The big event:
Ridin' the bull

me

Marcee

Lisa

Will

Lance

Aaron

Some of us crazies bein' crazy...
Jennie, Will, Me, Lance, Marcee, Aaron, Mark C, Lisa, Crystal, Mark H, Renae and you can see Scotty sitting down with the hat on

I had the greatest time on my birthday. My day started early at the spa- massage, facial, mani and pedi. Then I went to get my hair done, it was soooo long overdue. From there I headed to pick up Cassidy so she could babysit, then ran home and threw makeup and clothes on and we headed out. There was a total of 25 of us that night. We had to squish in but it was worth it and we had so much fun. The bull was a blast. It wasn't too hard to stay on, I was just nervous I would get sick and throw up but thankfully I didn't.
My camera died after only a few pictures so I had to get pics from everyone else that had cameras. I didn't get many pics with some of my fabulous friends who were there :( But I am so glad everyone came and I think we all had a great time!

News

I'm back from the living dead. At least I hope I am! December and January are hard times for me with all the scariness that is associated because of Cloee being so ill at this time of year, but I'm working through it. It's so interesting how our psyche works- much of it is so beyond our control unless we are being mindful of all of our thoughts and feelings. I am excited for a new year. I hope to leave last year in the past and live in the brightness of the future.

Carlee is improving in all areas of life. She still slips up now and then with being sassy, but that's just Carlee. She still gets on herself and sees herself as a failure which gets her down. She still goes to counseling and that has helped her a lot. School has been hard for her basically since kindergarten. Each year she has had a different hurdle to jump. She was recently tested to get an IEP, mostly for reading comprehension. The other children her age and grade would score around 100, Carlee's baseline is 99 so she would be expected to score a 99. She scored 118! She sure had us all fooled. I think she gets distracted easily while in the classroom setting so she doesn't do as well on her tests. She is trying to focus more on her concentration. In the recent past I have really tried to start to focus on building her up in any way I can. The more she thinks she is stupid, the more stupid she will be. And the opposite as well- the smarter she thinks she is, the smarter she will be. We are working on this with her, BIG TIME! She still loves to be extremely social so we allow her lots of friend time after school and on the weekend.

Cade... he is just Cade. He is so sweet. He rarely steps outta line. He does what is asked of him when he is asked. One night as I tucked him in I told him the things he had to do the next day: empty the garbages, take his dirty clothes downstairs, and pick up the video games in his room. I woke up the next morning and he was already up was in the midst of emptying the garbages. He had already cleaned up his video games and taken his dirty clothes down to the laundry room. He is a great kid! He does get sassy on occasion but it is normally when he is either frustrated or hungry/overly tired. But all in all he is super!

Cloee is doing better, especially considering where she was a year ago. She still has her issues but they are more manageable because she is learning to communicate with us. We are doing better at reading her signs and symptoms and knowing what she needs and when she needs it.

Will is working. He isn't doing computer chip design right now but what he is doing pays better than unemployment :) We are hoping his previous employer will need him back in the next 6 months. What he is doing now provides for us just fine.

We decided to let our house go. It seemed like the right thing to do. After doing the math and seeing what we owed on it versus what it was worth it would have taken us 10 years just to get even- and that's in a normal market, not in this crummy market. So it was kind of a no brainer. I think Will is relieved to be rid of the large house payment and utility bills and I am relieved to be rid of the large house to clean! We are in a rental now. We only moved a block away- the kids still go to the same bus stop, that's how close we moved. I think the house is around 2500 square feet. It still has 5 bedrooms but they are much smaller, of course. And 3 bathrooms instead of 4 and a half, 3 is fine for us. There are SO many kids on our street and around our block. Every day our doorbell rings numerous times and our trampoline is always bouncing with kids. I am not much for having the chaos but if they are in the backyard it doesn't bother me as much. We back up to a tot lot/park so the kids can go over there and play and sometimes Cloee and I will watch them from the balcony. It is also very convenient to call them when it is time for them to come home. So far we like it a lot over here.

So that's about all that's going on. I have lots of pictures to post. I forgot I never even finished blogging about the tail end of my trip to NY. One of these days...

Long time no blog

Many have asked about my blogging of late, or lack thereof.
Sorry.
I've been in a very bad mood for the last 6 months, or year, or two. Or maybe the last 30 years, I dunno.
When, or if, rather, I come out of it, I may begin blogging again. (wow that sentence has a lot of commas, but they seem necessary in order to get my point across)
But for now you will have to continue to wait to hear about our lives.
And trust that we are continuing on, even as I kick and scream about it.
We had summer.
And Carlee and Cade had birthdays.
And we went on a trip or two I'm sure.
And school started.
And we moved.
And Cloee is still her same little stinker self.
And Thanksgiving came, nothing exciting.
And Christmas will come too.
And I'm sure many other blog worthy things occurred.
The pictures to prove it are in a folder on my desktop.
I hope I don't get a virus that wipes them away before I can save them on my blog.
But if I do, oh well.

NYC Day 7

We were running late for church. The subways don't come as often on Sundays so we ended up taking a cab. This helped my very angry feet. The church owns a building and the 1st & 2nd floors are offices and such, the 3rd floor is where we attended church as it has a chapel, a small cultural hall and class rooms. The temple is located on the 5th floor. Very cool!

Look at all the people going into the building

After church we went home and I took a VERY long and much needed nap after a week of Go Go Go! Angela had a research paper she was working on so I mostly spent the day relaxing. We went to the basement and did my laundry so I wouldn't have to do it when I got home. I also made molten chocolate cakes wit homemade chocolate syrup and raspberry sauce. Then I made chocolate chip cookies and some sausage-basil-sun-dried-tomato appetizers.
I did some packing but felt so extremely sad to go home. I loved New York. It was such an adventure. We did so much and I saw so much. We really have some great memories from this trip. It was just so wonderful. I was free to do and go where I wanted- even if it was midnight, because no one sleeps in New York, right?! ;) I didn't have anyone attached to my leg or whining as I tried to eat or sleep or shower. It was just fabulous.
I was missing my hubby and kids though so I had such bittersweet feelings. (Can I run home and give a few kisses and head back to NY?)

I took these pictures out the apartment window after I finished packing

NYC Day 6

I didn't wake until 11 am! I was totally groggy and had a weird headache and didn't feel so good. Was the gas accidentally left on to the stove?
We went to Macy's. It is like 20 stories tall. We got lost in there- like 12 times. And we only stopped on a few floors. Some of the escalators are the original escalators from when the store was first built. The original ones worked great but were narrower than the newer ones.

I tried to scoot back and take a vertical picture so everyone could see how stinkin tall this Macy's is but I couldn't get back far enough and my camera wouldn't zoom out enough so here's all I got.

We then went to Bloomindale's. We didn't see too many cute clothes so that was good- for my husband's bank account. (Just kidding, I'm really not a big shopper.) Then we went to Old Navy- it was 3 stories. The prices are the exact same as they are here in Arizona.
Then we went to a cute little crepes restaurant/shop. It was in an area I hadn't been to before. It was kinda desolate but not super scummy- just vacant, which is not the norm for NYC. The crepes were so super yummy. I think mine was a caramel-vanilla and Angela's was a chocolate-banana one. We shared both, and finished both, all the way down to the plates.

Oh my gosh, YUM!

Later on we went to Serendipity. We didn't eat there because we were still full from the French cuisine we had earlier dined on. But it also seemed terribly overpriced. And it was super duper crowded. And it was cute. And there were many cute men and women inside. And there was an hour wait. But we didn't feel the need to stay that long and view all the eclectic fare much longer than the 5 minutes we spent in there. We went. We saw. We conquered... whatever it was we wanted to conquer, I guess. We saw, which was what we wanted to conquer, really. And maybe someday I'll see the movie. And then it might mean a whole lot more to me.
We then went to Times Square. We needed to grab a few more pashminas- for my sisters and mom. We stopped in Dylan's Candy Bar where all I got was a Pez shaped like a Wii remote for Cade. That's all that jumped out at me in this 2 story building full of sugar. We then went to the M&M's store. I browsed around and Angela stood in line for me- there were probably 30 people ahead of her. She waited in that line so I could purchase a measly keychain for Cassidy and a super lame pink spiral notebook with a green M&M lady on it for Carlee.
On our way home we stopped in the market for food for Sunday and then went home and ordered Thai food. It was fun to be able to 'buzz' the food delivery guy on in to the apartment building (and guess what- he was a bike delivery guy, we saw him the next night while he was out doing deliveries).
Dead tired. Going to bed.
(That's how I ended my report of the day when I journaled it)

NYC Day 5

We went to Max Brenner for lunch. Well it was lunchtime but we got appetizers and dessert. That counts, right?! It's a chocolate restaurant- "Chocolate by the bald man". There's one in NYC and one in Philadelphia and most all the rest are in Australia. I think there are a few in Israel too and a few other places on the other side of the globe. Just sayin' that you kinda gotta go far from good 'ol AZ to eat there. The food was so-so. The hot chocolate was good. The desserts were pretty good. The truffles were outta this world! I still dream of the raspberry truffles I ate days later on my plane ride home. Simply divine!

I must not have gotten any pics of the dessert but here's a pic of our appetizers

Drinking hot chocolate outta a 'hug mug' (I bought one for each of my kids- great souvenir, I thought)

So then we tried to walk off some of the food. We went to Forever 21. It was so big and there were clothes everywhere; It was so overwhelming. I got anxiety in there and had to leave. I like my much smaller, but still large, Forever 21 that I am used too. Oh and yes- the prices are just the same there as they are here, in case you were wondering.
Forever 21 was right at Union Square. It was a bit hectic around there. And super interesting. We didn't stop but walked on through. There were a bunch of little tents set up with people selling things: art, pear juice, fruit, breads, and MANY selling Obama crap. It was absurd! We couldn't walk past those items quick enough.
We then went on a tour of NBC studios. That was pretty neat. We went in the Saturday Night Live studio- did you know they got their audience seats from some stadium because they were too poor for brand new seats? We went in where Brian Williams is recorded and then went in the Today Show studio. Learned some interesting things- you can see traffic going by behind the folks as they sit on the couch. Well there's actually a pole that is used to hold up the building right in the middle but they didn't want a big pole up the back of the hosts heads so they put a video camera on the pole on the outside and video what would be there if the pole wasn't so it looks like it's ALL glass. Did that make any sense at all? It did to me. Cuz I know what I'm talking about cuz I was there.

This is us waiting for the 'tour'.

This is what Matt Damon wore for one of the Bourne movies.

I don't know what the two on the left are but the two outfits on the right are Meryl Streep and Peirce Brosnan's costumes from Mamma Mia.

So we did some more shopping after this. We went to NY and Co where I found a cute dress and some jewelry. I can actually say, "I got this dress at New York and Company- the one IN NEW YORK CITY."
We stopped at the market on the way home and I just grabbed one of those made-to-order salads that I am sooo missing from there, and a basket of raspberries (which were $3.99 just like they are here- only we can get them on sale here, there are no food sales there).
It was a very full day but a bit more laid back and casual.