Happy Halloween!!

 

Hope you all have a safe Halloween! Enjoy all the candy, costumes and craziness!! J

The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze!

 

Just becasue it's Halloween Week doesn't mean that

all our festivities are completed and

all we have left to do is dress up and show off our costumes!

Oh no no no!

 

On Monday, we had bought tickets to go see

he Great Jack'O Lantern Blaze!

I think it is pretty self explanitory what this bad boy was all about.

Just saying.

 

The pictures really do not do this place justice.

The pumpkins were actually pretty cool,

all real and must have taken quite a bit of time.

It is definately something to take the kiddies to go see in the future.

I was truly amazed at how many pumps they actually had.

They were ALL over the ground, on the walls, railings AND in the dang trees!

Yes, they were hanging from every freakin' tree as bats,

or butterflies, or fairies.

They really left nothing pumpkinless.

See for yo self!

 

 

Amazing bee hive! With blinking bees around it.

 This picture is horrible, but the "Sunflower Field" was unreal!

 

AND MY FAVORITE THING THERE!!!

 

Hello people, this was HUGE. Huge doesn't even being to explain.

Simply amazingly talented!

 

History in the Making

This post is a little random, but it is something I want to remember forever

and that is what this blog is about right?

Remembering life events, moments in time and

being honest about my feelings in those moments and the way it has changed me.

A little over 12 years ago,

 our lives had changes more than we ever could have imagined.

Living only 15 minutes away, and being able to see that beautiful NYC Skyline

from my bedroom window is a privilege and something we often take for granted.

Let’s be honest, when something seems so natural,

normal and everyday to us, we forget to just sit back, breath and

actually appreciate the beautiful things around us and be thankful

 for what we are able to be a part of.

On September 11, 2001 that beautiful view I peaked at

every time I walked out my front door would never ever be the same.

It has been 12 years and A LOT has happened within those

 12 years and yet some things just seem like they are taking forever to progress.

Many people around the country and the world,

that don’t have the opportunity to walk through

New York City everyday or even once a month aren’t

reminded of the progress this great city is still making.

We have come a long way no doubt about it,

we have climbed up a mighty tall mountain and

have reached goals and came back stronger than ever,

but there is still much that needs to be done.

I have the pleasure of working right across the street from ground zero.

My train stops right underneath the construction zone that continues on,

underneath the new fountains that have been

placed in memory of those lost and underneath the gorgeous new buildings

that are being built to continue this ongoing

renovation of Lower Manhattan.

This leads me to the amazement that I can say

I am living through another historical moment in time.

When we were younger we heard of historical events

and read about past presidents, wars and monumental times

and these lessons and events are carrying on to our children and children to come.

It also amazes me that 9/11 is actually

in history books and taught to children that were not yet a blessing

on this earth and now look at this change in history as we once looked at our history books.  

I have lived through that infinite day in United States history and as much as this place has worked its butt off to recover and rebuild there are still things that need to be done.

On October 24, 2013 I had the pleasure of being one of the first people

to experience a milestone accomplishment here in

Lower Manhattan at the World Trade Center

as the underground walkway tunnel that connects

the train to the building I work in was completed and opened to the public.

I will never forget the feeling of pride I had

for the hard working men and women

that I see and hear every day as I walked past had built something

so extraordinary

and truly a piece of history to come.

I’ll never forget how bright, clean and fresh it felt.

The way the architecture was developed like something

I had never seen before,

and surely never expected.

This underground walkway will eventually connect office buildings

that lie on the Hudson River to the World Trade Center

as well as 13 Subway trains and trains to New Jersey.

Like I said,

when things become a routine, normal, everyday occurrences

we often take advantage and never really stop to think about

 all the little things going on around us.

I am guilty of that and this moment has reminded me to stop,

look around and appreciate what’s around.

Appreciate the opportunities and the experiences

we are given every single day.  

I am a part of history.

I can tell my children and their children that I was here on the first day,

I was honored to be the first one

 to walk those halls and I will always appreciate

the magnificent things of life.

Happy Halloween Weeeek!!

First things first…HAPPY HALLOWEEN WEEK!!

After all the fun fall things we have done this year it’s insane to think that Halloween is here already!

On Halloween will be heading into the city for the Halloween Parade,

lots of drinks and hours of watching crazy people seep out of the woodwork

for their one night of actually being normal!

I’m not kidding,

NYC is a craaazy place and there are way too many crazies living here.

SO if you are going out in the city or anyplace this Halloween be careful! J

 

Now a little weekend recap on this breezy Monday in October.

On Friday we got ready for our big zombie race Run For Your Lives!

We had a nice dinner with my dad and after we just relaxed and

decided to scan some old pictures onto the new computer.

First of all I was super shocked my good ol’ printer/scanner/copy machine circa 2006

 actually works AND it did a pretty decent job of scanning old pictures.

When I say old I mean baby pictures of the boy,

sitting on the toilet with a loaded Nerf gun.

(Obviously in case someone busted in the b-room uninvited!

DUH! He was indeed a cutie.

 

We also went through old middle school and high school pictures!

I just laugh at the outfits and hair styles that we thought were 

 soooo cool and we looked so good back then.

Granted some of these pictures were 10-13 years ago so you can imagine.

It’s going to be pretty interesting when I look back on this blog in

10 years and cry laugh at how ridiculous we looked.

But I’ll embrace it and laugh just as I did on Friday.

(No seriously, I’ll prob cry!)

 

Saturday we were up with the birds and headed into Brooklyn at 7am for our run!

It was FREEZING and I was about as happy as a kid dropping his ice cream cone!

UGH! But I put a smile on my face and we headed on out.

Brooklyn is a little awkward to get to from where I live

because there really is no easy way, so it took us a little less than an hour

but we always have our best times in the car together.

Once we got there is was even more windy than at home – imagine my excitement now.

Once we were all registered, bibs pinned and zombies in view I actually started getting excited.

They had an entire tent setup for the zombies to get professional makeup done

and fake blood splash all over them.

Not gunna lie, next year I may have to be a zombie just for the makeup sesh.

 

We were nervous taking a camera on the run with us,

because we didn’t know what the obstacles were going to be like

and we didn’t want to risk the camera’s breaking or getting wet,

so we waiting until after the run to capture the excitement.

But before that I’ll give you a quick rundown of the race.

This was only my 2^nd real race and I’m not going to lie it was pray-tay fun.

I won’t give away all the secrets but in summary you have to wear a belt with

3 flags lives that the zombies have to grab to infect you!

IT WAS HARD!

There are so many zombies at one time in a huge cluster,

like 50, and these are not the slow,

wheezing clumsy zombies you see on Walking Dead.

I KNOW I thought that’s how they were going to be too…lies!

Okay enough of my rant!

Yes the zombies were quick and there were a lot of them and unlike a normal 5k

we were sprinting A LOT

so it was exhausting and breaks were definitely necessary.

End of story I would have died on the 3^rd cluster if it wasn’t for Luke letting me hide behind him! J Blessing that boy is!

And one last thing, I only saw 2 people that survived the race!

TWO!

The odds were definitely against us, but it was still a lot of fun!

After the race they were nice enough to offer a free beer,

which we took FULL advantage of, and then some.

Here are some quick pics we snapped.

 

Ahh beer! So proud to be infect!

 

 

Showing those zombies who's really boss. Not.

 

 

 

After the race we were starving from all our hard work,

drinking beer so we decided to head into the city

for one of our favorite spots, Shake Shack.

If you ever get the chance to come to NY

you have to get there for lunch!

Imagine a Crabby Patty from Spongebob

(yes I went there).

Their burgers are just the cutest and so perfect!

So into the city we went.

OF COURSE the boy is on his phone and see’s that our

 new favorite artist just put something in Brooklyn, how convenient!

So we put it in the GPS and headed on over.

It was actually on the way to the city so it wasn’t a big detour.

 

Truth be told!

 

 

Just as we were leaving the race,

my brother had called from work and invited us

up to see the town’s Halloween Parade.

He works in Tarrytown/Sleepy Hallow, NY

and we have been trying to get up to visit him for lunch one day,

 and this was the perfect opportunity.

First of all the town was SO cute!

They have two main streets will cute little stores and restaurants,

I could definitely move up there!

The parade was cute too! Since it is Sleepy Hallow,

of course they had to have the headless horseman!

Highlight of the parade!

After that we just grabbed some dinner with him and ended up

hanging out there for 5 hours! Haha!

What a great sister I am!

After that you can only imagine how exhausted we were!

Straight to the shower and into bed I went,

and I couldn’t have been any happier!

 

 Handling the business. So cute he is.

Handling my business...obvi.

Gorgeous Tarrytown, NY.

The king of the town.

 

 

 

Sunday was spent at my weekly football game

AND

the Giants won their second pathetic game of the season.

2-7…still hopeful?

Hope you guys had a good weekend. It is finally feeling like chilly fall is here!

 

Five on Friday!

 

:: one ::

I am pretty excited for our Halloween costumes this year! Every year we try to coordinate and somehow we always end up being two completely different things. However, this year we are 100% coordinated and it is pretty dang funny when we put it all together. They are homemade which I LOVE so much better. Definitely going to stick to that for as long as possible! Can’t wait to reveal the pictures!! Sadly, we all have to wait till next week!

 

:: two ::

On Wednesday it was my beautiful little mama’s birthday! She turned 6 (42) but you would never even know because she has such a little puppy attitude. I still can’t believe in January we will have her 6 years and she was the tiniest little monster. One day I’ll tell the hysterical story of how she came into our lives but for now Happy Birthday Mama girl!!

:: three ::

I have been DYING to go horseback riding for the last 279561 8 years or so. YES 8 years because no one ever wants to go with me, or I get the old “yea we’ll go” and it never happens. SO apparently on Sunday we are “supposed” to be going and I cannot contain my excitement! It will honestly make my fall…no my year!! Fingers crossed it will finally happen!

 

:: four ::

So I can’t say I’m deprived but I am totally itching for a vacation! I feel like I have been…okay deprived of a nice trip for way too long! I have my planning pants on and I am in hopes to have something happening by the beginning of next year! Any suggestions of places I need to see?!!

 

:: five ::

Saving the best for last! Tomorrow me and the boy will be participating in “Run For Your Lives Zombie Run”! If you know me you will know I am the farthest thing from a runner. However I have been working at it and ran my first 5K this summer! To my surprise I actually enjoyed it and decided to sign up for this bay! Let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to pretend to actually live in a world where zombies chase after you?! Walking Dead obsessed much?! I have attached the link below in case anyone is interested in checking this out or you can wait for my crying complaining awesome recap!

 

Better Late Than Never.... Weekend Recap!

 I totally flaked and forgot to post a weekend update from last weekend.

 

Okay! If you remember in my 5 on Friday I mentiontion this Banksy street artist who has pretty much cause a ruckus in NYC for the last month. Well me and the boy decided to hit up the streets and get a piece of what the madness is all about. He drove into the city to meet me after work and off we went.

 

Side note, on our way to one of Banksy pieces, we ran into this interested display on 10th Ave and since we were in an artful place of mind we decided to stop and observe. Pretty interesting stuff here people!

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 



It is pretty amazing when you actually think about how BIG this city is and how many things you really have no idea about. I mean, I come here every single day, I've seen a pretty large amount of the city and I still find myself amazed by thing's I still have yet to see. Ugh amazing!

 

Anyway, now the main event. This is the Banksy piece we able to track down last Friday night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLease note I was photo bombed by the security guard! Straight creepin'!

 

 

 (Oh this guy!)

 

 

We were also able to go and see another piece that was a few blocks away. Unfortunately, people are destructive and hateful, so this piece was ruined but you can still see the dog doing his business hahaha! (Hey it's art right?)  

 

 

After our little hunt we ended up heading back to Jersey for a nice dinner. How could you pass up this view?!! New York may be a concrete jungle but it sure does sparkle!

NOO FILTER! This is real life!

Saturday was an errand day and then we eneded up going our to dinner with friends. No pics :( but the food was wayyyyy too good to pause and appreciate! I'm trying here!

 

 

On every Sunday during the fall you can find my freezing butt watching these cuties at 9.. yes NINE in the morning. That's loyalty right there! But I do have to say I enjoy watching them and laughing at all the silly things they do and say.

 

 

 

Thank goodness the next week is almost here! (not that anyone is counting!!)