well, hello

Hello, blog! Oh my, it has been a while. The blog break was intentional but I didn't mean for it to last this long. It was good, though, and I'm excited to jump back into blogging. I may eventually catch up on our summer and will hopefully answer some more of those great New York questions, as promised. (Note to future self: go easy on the promises.) But for today, I'm moving forward.

Hello, Santa Paula, CA! We live here now. I'll have to post more about it soon. It's definitely not NYC, but we think it could be The One, even if we have to MAKE it fit. (Like on our wedding day when I smiled and said in my mind "I'll MAKE it fit" as I shoved Jared's somehow-suddenly-too-small ring on his finger. It really happened. But by then it was too late, for him.)

Hello, husband with employment. This is a well-trained man--he walked in the door with his first paycheck and handed it directly to me. I could get used to this.

Hello, 20 month-olds! How did that happen? When you think about it, 20 months old is pretty much 2 years old, and that is just crazy. Every day I am just amazed by these incredible, hilarious, energetic little people, and so glad I get to be their mom.

Hello, new life. I'm not quite sure what you're all about, but I think you'll be good. And if not we'll MAKE you good.

NYC Q&A: the city

Kristine: Clear up one or two NYC misconceptions people have about the city. Either the experience of living there or the city itself.
Abbie: What were your top 5 favorite outings in the city? 5 before kids / 5 after kids.
B: I agree with telling us about your favorite things about the city, or even favorite moments. Do it!
Laura: I am so excited to hear your favorite moments from the city- maybe one favorite family moment in a busy, busy, world.
Rheslie: If you could live anywhere in NYC where would that have been?

Well now...

Misconception #1. It's not just a cliche that non-New Yorkers think New Yorkers are mean. Before I moved here from LA, I was warned by a few different people that people in the city are all callous and cruel. My former boss even went into this long story about how people would literally step on me to get where they were going blah blah blah. I didn't believe him for a second, before and especially after I got there. Sure, people get in their zone, but from day 1 I found that people were so friendly and willing to help if I asked them. And later on I found out that whenever I was stranded in the subway station, at the bottom of a long flight of stairs, with a double stroller and a broken elevator (I don't even know how many times this happened... a lot), someone always always always offered to help. So that was an easy one.

Misconception #2. I was a little scared to taste the tap water. It's AMAZING. It has ruined me for all other waters. Sorry UT and CA and even MD, I've had you since and you just don't compare. I don't know if bad water in NYC would be a common misconception, but it was mine, and I'm so glad I was wrong.

Five favorite outings, pre-kids:
1. Central Park rowboats, hands down
2. Concerts - we heard great music at the Kitting Factory, Mercury Lounge, and Central Park Great Lawn
3. Eating out, but I have a hard time listing favorites because we almost never went to the same place twice
4. Bike riding down Riverside Park - we once went from 168th down to Battery Park and back. So much fun!
5. The Village Halloween Parade - Jared was an astronaut, I (7 months pregnant with twins) was of course Saturn (the planet), and our friend Penny was a Trekkie. Our little space brigade got a lot of attention that night and we kind of loved it.

We must have done the CP rowboats 10 times our first summer!
Okay, maybe 3.

Saturn has rings!
Our Halloween costumes are always homemade and last-minute. They turn out better that way. '09 may have been an especially good year.


On our way out the door, our doorman said to his friend, He landed on that planet! Hahaha.

Five favorite outings, post-kids:
1. Dolphin Park
2. The garden
3. City Island with the Shamos, our friends from CT
4. Central Park, especially Sheep's Meadow (we had a couple great family/friend picnics there) and Heckscher Playground
5. The Horeys apartment

Our first family picnic, at Sheep's Meadow in Central Park.

I was pretty nervous about a big outing with the twins (I still am sometimes), but it turned out great.
Having Jared there makes all the difference.

Where would I have lived? So many amazing places to choose from, but if I have to pick one it would be West 74th, 10% because of the pretty brownstones and nearness to Central Park; 90% because of Levain. Also because in this fantasy Abbie would be my neighbor again--we have the same dream street. Really, anywhere in the W70s or 80s would do!

But really really, I'm so glad we got to live where we did, in the medical center towers. We lived right by the A, C and 1 trains, two blocks from Jared's clinic, close to a few really great friends in WaHi, and where I could take a picture from my window with a crappy camera and it would come out like the one at the top of this post. I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Bethany & Isaac are 18 months old!!

It's amazing--Bethany and Isaac have probably changed more in these last couple of weeks than maybe any other two weeks in their whole lives. I don't know if it's being in a new place (we've been at Grandma's in UT) or just that they are now 18 months, but it seems like they are doing something new every day.

All the things they've never experienced before are now their new obsessions--ceiling fans, cars, stairs, and opening doors (those lever handles are wayyy too easy for toddlers). They say "on" when they enter a new room, asking for help in getting the lights on and those fans spinning. They'll pretend to pour tea and sip from their tea cups in their cousin's Disney princess toy kitchen. And they're almost as tall as their cute 3 year-old cousins and even weigh more, at a hefty 30 (Isaac) and 32 pounds (Bethany). These big babies will not slow down!

But my absolute favorite thing they now do... They count to 2! And in the most adorable way, like they're asking you questions: ahhhn? dewww? I love it, I love it.

My second favorite? They say cheese!

Happy 4th from your favorite 18-month old twins!

NYC Q&A: first impressions

Turning this NYC wrap-up over to you friends was a pretty good idea, I must say, because you asked such great questions. THANKS!! I think I can combine a bunch of them into just a few different posts, but I thought this one was a good starter all on its own.

* * *

Q Miggy: tell us about your first "I guess we're not in Kansas anymore" moment in the city.

A Funny, that Wizard of Oz reference, because on our very first night in our NY apartment, the wind was blowing so hard it shook our windows and made a huge board smash into our 10th story window. Obviously it was a tornado and so I made Jared evacuate with me and walk down the stairs to the basement.

It wasn’t a tornado. But I thought of that night when my NY friend Katie told me her hilarious anxiety girl story. So funny, so true.

Tornadoes or not, the view couldn't be beat.

Other than that I would say the entire food experience was just... different. NYC clearly has the best food in the world, but if you end up in the wrong place it might also have the most questionable food in the world. We arrived in NY before restaurant grading did, but were already very reliant upon the grades (and snobby about it), moving in from LA. So eating at places that didn’t have a Dept of Health grade showing in the window always felt like a big scary gamble. The good news is, NY eventually did get the grades; the bad news is, our favorite sandwich shop got a C. Sick.

And then there’s grocery shopping. Getting groceries in the city was my greatest fear, and really, my only fear about moving there. In fact I was super excited about everything else, just had no idea how we were going to acquire food. We were pretty excited when we saw that there's a little market right across the street from our building. But we went inside and there's a nasty buffet of food that looked like it had been under those heat lamps for 3 months, and the box of brown sugar was really a brick of brown sugar, and I remember picking up something canned that was past it's expiration date. We ran out of that disgusting place as fast as we could without hurting their feelings. I later heard horror stories of people buying milk only to learn that it had spoiled, and more things I tried to forget.

I eventually found my groove and, surprisingly, grocery shopping in a way became a little easier for me once the babies arrived. We just built it into our almost-daily routine, and since you can only buy what you can carry home, having a stroller (and two Mommy Hooks, best invention ever), meant I could carry home quite a bit. As long as I could fit that stroller through the tiny New York aisles...

I don't know if that answered the question exactly, but it was fun to think of some first NY moments and realize that we eventually figured out this different way of life. It's really a much more livable place than most people think, I think.

June 30, 2001

10 years!

Our anniversary celebration started just after midnight on Thursday morning, when I got to pick up Jared from the SLC airport! He stayed behind to finish up his thesis, transfer all his patients, and wrap up our move and our lives in New York. Yes, we're officially gone and it's definitely sad. We miss it there, a lot. (NY exit interview coming soon!) But none of the graduation events or anything felt real at all until he was here and had left it all behind. And it finally feels great that he's really done with school. How appropriate that his very last day of school would be on our 10th anniversary! I'm just glad he decided to play hooky.

Any series of events that I ever could have dreamed up would not have been as good as how we actually spent that day. A vacation or extravagant night out might have been awesome but with all that we've had going on, we just felt so lucky to spend a whole day together as a family. It was so relaxed and fun and perfect...

The babies got to wake up to their dada for the first time in 10 days. They were excited x1,000,000.

They were all over him, all day long. I was only a little jealous.

For lunch I made my sweetheart a heart-shaped sandwich.

We exchanged gifts. I got my second (and perhaps last) little blue box! I love love love love love this ring Jared picked out. It's pretty and understated, which is probably how I like most things.

He was pretty stoked about his new bike.

We left the kids with Grandma & Grandpa and went to dinner at the Tree Room at Sundance Resort. Sundance is where we got engaged 10 years and 3.5 months ago. (So sad that I don't have digital photos of that--that's how long ago it was!) To get there we took the absolutely gorgeous Alpine Loop.

And then we kissed on a bridge.

It was a perfect way to celebrate the BEST decision I ever made! I can't wait to see what the next 10 have in store!

Dr. Jared T. Lee, DDS, MS

Graduation! It finally happened! The FINAL graduation! Parents came into town to see it with their own eyes. There were no caps and gowns but Jared did get to walk across a stage and was handed a paper scroll and a fancy pen. He gave a speech that was funny, optimistic, and perfect for the occasion.

I can't say enough about how proud I am of my guy. Sure, he's got a nice resume (understatement), but what is most impressive (and important) to me is how well he handled all his stress, how he would always come home with a smile and make me laugh. He's balanced his school life and everything else so well that it was easy to forget how much he really had going on.

There was a nice little luncheon after the ceremony...

Jared's parents

My parents

Us

A few people were disappointed that we didn't bring the babies, but what they didn't realize was that the fun kids we bring to run around in the clinic don't suddenly become quiet kids that would sit through a 2-hour graduation ceremony. These text pics I got were proof that they were much happier playing with Eli & Audrie.

Texts from Abbie:

I reeeeeeeally like your babes.

A lot.

A lot. A lot.

Congratulations, Jared. Here's to NO MORE SCHOOL!!

NO MORE SCHOOL! NO MORE SCHOOL! NO MORE SCHOOL!!!

A chant feels appropriate.