NYC- Takeaways

 So I left on Thursday to meet Jason in NYC so I could see him ring the bell at the stock exchange on Friday.  I've never been to New York, so here are my takeaways from the weekend. 

1. I was really excited about going and was a total dork and took pictures from the airplane.

2. Speaking of the airplane, I was cold from the time the airplane landed until we got back to Houston.  I had no idea it was going to be so cold and windy! Here I am wearing 2 coats! I have on a leather jacket underneath my overcoat and I was still freezing. 

3. TV and movies led me to believe everybody was going to be more fashionable.  I didn't see one person dressed up.  If fact, we went to a Broadway show and I left my coat on the whole entire time because 1. I was cold and 2. I was embarrassed that I was overdressed. 

This is what we looked like. 

Everybody else at the show was wearing sweatpants and leggings.

4. I felt a little like country come to town as I kept thinking "it's just so big". 

The buildings are really tall, the streets are really narrow, and there are long lines for everything.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, and it's not like I've never been anywhere before.  Maybe time has softened my memory, but it seemed way more crowded than Beijing, Hong Kong, or Tokyo.  We walked down to the Bull of Wall Street and here's the crowd around that. I mean, it's just a statue of a bull. 

Jason wanted us to get a selfie with it, and you can't even see it!

5. And last I'm putting this here because I don't know where else I'll put it.  We went to the 9/11 memorial and museum.  It was absolutely heart wrenching, and I was on the verge of tears the entire time.  It was just so, so sad. 

But, we definitely saw all the things we were supposed to see and ate all the things we were supposed to eat, so I will get to those in the coming days!

Successful

 Kyle had some successful fishing this weekend. 

And then he bought this.  Which I guess will make his fishing even more successful. 

Events 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

 More April events...

I had a bingo luncheon, I didn't win.

I had a hats off to spring luncheon. There wasn't a contest, but we know I always win at hats.

We went to a white party 

And though not technically an event, we celebrated Alex's birthday so I'm going to count it.

And I had a fundraising luncheon yesterday.

She's Famous

 Look who ended up starring in her groomer's Instagram! 

And here's how she celebrated her big debut.

Pig Plaques

 The buyer pig plaques for the auction came in and here we are.

Yes, we got to be in Kyle's again since we're friends.

And here's the pig we bought. 

Notice how it's behaving and not having to eat to have its picture made.

Newsworthy

 So Reed has been in the news and writing the news this last week.

His BPA group showed up in our local neighborhood magazine.

He had the cover story for his school newspaper (that's really a magazine). 

To nobody's surprise he wrote about eating healthy.

And he won 1st place in news writing at district last weekend. 

Event #2

 We had a school district event to go to last week.  The theme was "yellow rose ball", so I did my best to look like a yellow rose without actually wearing any yellow roses. 

I hate these rotating video things, I never know where to look. 

And here I am with my friend, Kristi, who invited us to the event. 

Eclipsed

 So we had the eclipse yesterday.  Thank goodness we weren't in the path of totality, so we didn't have to deal with all the traffic and tourists the hill country had.

I really didn't give the eclipse much thought, and I just so happened to be checking our mail at the time it happened.  My across the street neighbor waved me over, so I ran to his driveway. He pointed it out between the clouds, and I saw it.  I just looked up at it, and thankfully I'm not blind, but if I start having eye problems I guess we can come back to this blog. 

Reed was able to get a picture.

And here's what the rest of the family thought about an event that won't happen again for 20+ years. 

Event #1

 For some reason April has become the new May.  It seems like we always had lots of things to do in May, but this year everything seems to be in April.  Jason and I had a charity event to go to last week, which was outside, so they requested "no high heels".  I barely even own flats, so I would up wearing tennis shoes. 

Here's what we looked like. 

And since Chloe's bows matched my dress, she wanted a picture too.

Summer Cut

 Chloe got her summer cut this week and she is really feeling herself.

Here she is before

And here is her after

And apparently she got lots of compliments on her morning neighborhood walk. 

85

 My daddy celebrated his 85th birthday on Easter Sunday, so we had his party the day before.

I had no idea I was ordering an 8 and a 5 that had to be put together.  Not only did they have to be put together, they came in a box as strips of cardboard with no directions.  Thankfully I'm married to an Aggie engineer that has the patience of Job. 

The balloon arch was an easy set up, but I'm pretty sure MawMaw and Granny Sherry's fingers have blisters from tying ballons knots. 

We had a cute entrance set up

And a yummy cake (I forgot to take a picture of the Mexican buffet)

Speaking of forgetting to take pictures, basically if you arrived early or stayed late you got a picture with the birthday boy, and though it doesn't look like it from these pictures we had about 80 people come.

The original 3

My cousins

Paw Paw's favorite nieces. 

My 2nd grade teacher and her daughter

The counselors from Humble High School

And the family that was left at the very end (Kyle and Reed were already back at the house hunting)

It was a very nice birthday party!