NYC so far!

Hello from New York City! This will be a really quick post - we have things to do! :) I LOVE New York.....seriously, when can I move here?

So far, we have been to Battery Park, SoHo, Wall Street, TimesSquare (we are staying right next to Times Square), Washington Park, Little Italy, among other places. We have been enjoying the NYC food as well. Some of our food highlights include Becco (Italian, http://becco-nyc.com), Lombardi's (Pizza, http://www.firstpizza.com), Noodies (Thai, http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/noodies/), and Rice to Riches (Rice Pudding, http://www.ricetoriches.com/puddy.aspx).

Today, my parents are at the US Open and George, Emily, and I are doing some more eating and exploring. AND tomorrow morning we are going to Live with Kelly!

Got to run....

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Happy Birthday to my Dad! We celebrated today by doing a "staycation"....it's when you go to a resort in town. A vacation, but without the travel. We went up to the Pointe Hilton. They have pools, a lazy river, a water slide, etc. We all has a great time at the water park.

We have a lot to look forward to this week. The most obvious is the closing on our home! If all goes according to plan, we should be sleeping in our new home on Thursday night.....wow, sooooooo exciting!

On Monday night, I start school. I've been finishing up my "pre-work" this weekend, but I am very excited to start attending classes again!

AND...my parents, Emily, George, and I are going to New York City from Saturday to Wednesday. Yes, yes...we are taking a trip two days after moving into our new home, but this trip was planned before we had our close date. Next week will be George's first time to New York City! We will be doing all of the touristy stuff. We also secured tickets to Live with Kelly!!!! AND it is sounding like it will be the new co-host's first day. I wonder who the guests will be?!

More exciting blog posts with pictures of our home and trip to come....... :)

Pizza Makin'

I am writing this blog while taking a break from homework....I'm out of season on the whole homework thing. This is actually pre-work. What's up with that?! Actually, I am excited about the content of this class (Organizational Theory) so the readings and assignments don't seem bad at all. Now statistics on the other hand.....

On Sunday, my parents had the whole gang over for lunch. I wish I would have taken a picture of Paisley to show you all. She looked so adorable! She was pushing her little stroller around (with her baby strapped in). She is also talking a ton of gibberish....she has a lot to say, we just can't tell what!

Lunch on Sunday was pizzas on the grill. I have to share some pictures because you should all try this. We all made our pizzas with whatever toppings we wanted. I opted for olive oil, a bit of garlic, cracked pepper, basil, salami, and mozzarella. After the pizza is all ready to go, you put in on a stone on the grill (but let the stone heat up first). They have special pizza stones at kitchen stores like Sur La Table. The pizza cooks pretty fast....about 7-8 minutes. My poor Dad stood out in the heat while we enjoyed the pizzas in the AC. Anyway, VERY delicious.  

I think I mentioned it in my last post that we close and move in next Thursday, August 30. We are down to the final list of things to do before move-in. Can't wait for next Thursday!

Guacamole

I had my MBA orientation on Saturday. It is really sinking it that school is starting in just 2 short weeks....not even, actually! I am really excited about the program. We had a chance to hear from some of the professors and many of the classes sound so interesting. The program is set up on quarters. We have 2 quarters per semester. This semester I am taking Organizational Theory and Statistics for Business and Economics during quarter 1 and Accounting and Toxic Leadership/Dysfunctional Organizations in quarter 2. My classes are on Monday and Wednesday nights form 6-10pm.

This past weekend, we all (my parents/siblings) went to the Queen Creek Olive Mill for lunch. We stocked up on olive oil (YUM....who doesn't love olive oil)! We also took the tour which was actually pretty interesting. I learned that you should not buy "light olive oil" because it is not really olive oil! 

Last week, at work, George entered me into a guacamole competition. What is a guacamole competition, you ask? Well, it is when two or more people make guacamole and others vote on their favorite. I was no guacamole expert prior the competition, but I did some research and found an awesome recipe that won me the competition! 

Here is the recipe and some pictures:

Ingredients

• 3 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)
• **Note: I added a tablespoon of cumin 

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt. Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes, and garlic. Stir in cayenne pepper. Refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor, or serve immediately. 

Wedding, Engagement, Table, and First Day!

Last time I updated we were off to California for Sergio and Andi's wedding. The wedding went great. Andi looked beautiful and they were both so happy. I don't have any pictures of the wedding since we were both busy being in the wedding! 

We have been spending most of our free time doing "house stuff". Last weekend, George finished the table and bought and assembled chairs to go with it! We also decided on paint colors and booked the painter for the weekend that we move in. On Sunday, we looked at tons of couches. We finally decided on one from Costco so George and his dad went and bought it tonight....and barely fit it in the truck. This week, our goal is to decide on a washer/dryer and fridge. 

Not too much has changed since the last pictures that I posted, but here is the most recent!

Over the weekend, my good friend Marie got engaged to her boyfriend, CJ! Brittany and I are having dinner with her to see the ring and get the details in person! :)

What else.....

Hannah starts his senior year tomorrow!! I can't believe it.....seems like just yesterday that she was going to kindergarden. Haha. But really, it does! Can't believe that next year it will be college.

Kitchen!

OK, here's a really, really quick post. I am literally about to jump in the car to drive to California for Sergio and Andi's wedding (on Sunday, rehearsal tonight). BUT before I do that, I wanted to share some house updates. I am particularly excited about the latest progress, because now I have a kitchen!! Here are some pictures....

Off to California....

Family Vacation

Hello Everyone! We just got back from vacation and we are tired! We had a long and exciting couple of days of traveling....i'll get to that later.

First, our trip. George and I headed out to Rochester last Friday. We didn't have much time there before we headed to Canada on Saturday. We made a quick stop in Syracuse to see our Aunt Lesley and cousins, Sarah and Ian (we just found out that they're coming to AZ for Christmas!) We arrived in Pineridge on Saturday right before dinner. Arriving there and seeing everything that I remembered from 14 years ago was one of the most exciting parts of the entire trip for me. It looked exactly the same as I had remembered. 

The week was wonderful. We spent most of our time relaxing, laying around, and reading...not bad, huh? We also did some fishing, cliff jumping into the lake, and swimming. Every evening we all gathered in the big log home for dinner, games, and hanging out. I'm so glad we all made the trip happen. It will definitely one that we will all remember. 

After Pineridge, we headed back down to Rochester for a couple of days. We did our usual favorite things.....Friendly's, Abbotts, etc! As always, time with our two Grandmas was great too :)

         

AND....staying true to the Warren tradition, we got bumped on our flight home from Rochester. We were traveling with Brian, Terrisa, Paisley, and Emily and all five of us got bumped. AirTran put us up overnight in a hotel in Atlanta and gave us TWO free roundtrip tickets each. We spent the next day hanging out in Atlanta until our flight the next evening. We took a tour of the CNN Center and ate lunch at Brian and Terrisa's favorite Mexican restaurant in Atlanta. Soo....now we need to plan our next trip. AirTran flies to Aruba, Dominican Republic, Cancun, the Bahamas.....oh yes!