A Night at the Museum

A beautiful day to go to the museum!

This is just the lobby of the museum,
there is a whole floor of dinosaurs! Mike
is clearly acting like one here....

One of the best things to do when it's cold and yucky out is enjoy some of New York's great "indoor activities".  It's the best time of year to go to a museum, catch up on all the Oscar nominations at the movies, or maybe even go see a show.  I've visited New York several times before we moved here.  And upon those visits I explored various museums and various exhibits.

Butterfly exhibit.  There were thousands
of them all over the place!

But since moving here, the only museum outing I've had was a girls day that was admittedly prompted by Lady Gaga (it was the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met).  As one of Mike's New Years resolutions, we vowed to be more "New York-y" in 2012, and that means we took our first trip to the museum of the year.

Super pissed off T-Rex

It has been a crazy month for both of us with Mike traveling every week.  But on Saturday we woke up to sunny skies and "fall-like" weather on this last weekend of January.  So we were eager to get out and enjoy the day.  I'd been hesitant to battle the weekend crowds/children, and attempt the long trek to the upper west side (i.e. the hardest place to get to from where we live!), but yesterday Mike and I took an adventure to the Natural History Museum.  Of all the museums in New York, this is one of the ones I thought would be a fun excursion.  There are animals and dinosaurs all over the place...plus it was the setting for that awesome Ben Stiller movie.  So rather than figuring out multiple subways & public transit....we took cabs...both ways....not so "New York-y".  

This was a prehistoric bear skeleton...any
opportunity for me to support the Bears I'll take.
BEAR DOWN!

As expected, the museum was hustling and bustling, and there was a live butterfly exhibit that was special just for the next few months.  We took a few hours and explored every floor of the Natural History Museum, including a 15 minute stint in an 85 degree room swarming with beautiful butterflies.  It felt like a little tropical retreat...with a lot more people and kids.  I've never in my life seen that many butterflies.

So tropical!

 I'm not a museum connoisseur, but the NHM HAS to have one of the best collections of dinosaur bones of any museum ever.  They literally had  full skeletons of every dinosaur imaginable.  It was absolutely my favorite part of the trip.  And who would have known that they had a collection of Pacific People artifacts that included a floor to ceiling tiki man.  The exact one that Mike has tattooed on his arm!  I'd say that was one of his highlights!

That is a giant, life sized blue wale in the
marine life exhibit

Notice the proximity to the stage

Just a little bit of Steve shredding

I also have to make a call out about the spontaneously awesome way we ended the night.  After our trip to the museum, Mike heard about a small little show at a jazz club with Steve Stevens & Sebastian Bach.  I think it goes without saying that I am one of the biggest Skid Row fans ever.  Mike even tried to figure out if there was a way to get them to play at our wedding.  Yes, it would have been a little crazy, but awesome nonetheless. We saw them in LA a few years ago on St. Patrick's day, but sadly without Baz...and Baz is awesome.  So we called up our favorite concert buddies, the Novos, and braved the theater district on a Saturday Night...that's freakin gutsy.

 We may or may not have bribed the hostess a little bit to get the front table, but it was absolutely worth it.  The show was in at an old venue called the Iridium, a historic venue where Les Paul used to play weekly shows.  Our seats were right on the stage!  I could have helped Steve Stevens play his guitar if I he'd let me.  And Matty got to sing "Youth Gone Wild" with Sebastian Bach.   It felt like the guys were just jammin' and having a good time.  They sang a little Billy Idol, AC/DC, Van Halen, and of course Skid Row.  The venue was so intimate, and the crowd was so "authentic".  It made for such an amazing experience that will be hard to match ever.  These are the types of things that you can only experience in a great city like New York and I'm thankful that we get to take advantage of these little gems as much as we can!

Yikes, someone needs a tan!

Baby it's cold outside

When I moved to New York in 2010, I can't even begin to tell you how many times people told me "just wait until winter", or "you're never going to make it through January/February in Manhattan", or "how are you liking you're first winter"....and my friends know how much that irked me.  Not only because I have in fact visited many, many winter cities, but also because, I didn't mind it at all!  I've written volumes about how much I love the fall, and summer is always a fun season, and spring is gorgeous.   But for a girl raised in California, I've surprisingly come to appreciate and welcome the winter months & weather more than I anticipated, and more than people thought I would.

Here we are, 22 days into January, and we finally had our first snow of 2012.  Last year was one of the worst winters in New York and I heard apologies from native New Yorkers as if it was their fault that my first winter brought what seemed like weekly blizzards.  But as I did in 2011 for the fall, there are some really, really great things about the winter season, regardless of how bad you might think the weather is.  Here are my favorite things about the season:

1.  Snow!  I'm not at that point in my life where I am annoyed when white, powdery stuff falls from the sky.  I was up and at 'em yesterday morning pretty early, and snuggled up under a cozy fur blanket with my book with my blinds open to watch the snow fall from the sky.  It may create a mess a few hours later, but the silence of the snow falling is still a beautiful sight to see, and it only happens a few times a year, so I have to enjoy it when I can.

2.  Snow days - Growing up as a kid, I was always jealous of my cousins in Connecticut who got to skip school in the winter because of snow days.  A random day in the middle of the week to stay inside in front of a nice warm fire is always a good thing, even if you have to get out of school one day later in June.  In the professional world, we may not get technical snow days, but there is a quiet around the agency when it snows.  People are stranded by inoperable trains, as well as closed streets and bridges, and in that case the only way to get work done is to just work from home (well not for me because I'm the lucky one to live only two subway stops from the office!).  But if there is one thing that can "slow" down the New York pace, it's snow.

3.  The quiet of the city after a blizzard - New York is a loud place to live.  Never in my life did I have to sleep with ear plugs until we moved to New York (that has something to do with Winston's snoring as well). Honking horns, sirens, and screaming people leaving the bars late at night/early in the morning, are just a few of the regular sounds, to name a few.  But there is nothing quite like waking up the morning after a blizzard to the sound of silence.  No cars are out on the streets, there are significantly less people out and about, and you can walk in the middle of Park avenue if there is enough snow.  It's one of the only times where there is actually quiet in the chaos of Manhattan.

4.  An excuse to have hot chocolate - It may not be the best idea for my waistline, but hot chocolate is delicious, and I have no qualms about a giant mug of steaming cocoa when it's snowing outside.

5.  This! 

How can this NOT make you happy....and I'd like to give a little shout out for my first video upload!  It took almost an hour, but it's so sweet to see how happy that little guy is in the snow.  He's sat in front of the sliding glass door all day yesterday longing to go out and play.

6.  Bundling up!  I'm not saying I enjoy over-sized bulky coats, or heavy snow boots that hurt my ankles when I wear them.  But a big comfy sweater, brand new cushy socks, funny little mittens and a silly hats with a big fluffy ball on top are fun to wear when it's cold outside.

7.  Fireplaces - We obviously don't have a real one in our apartment, but we have an electric one.  It doesn't give off the same warmth and crackling noises, but it makes our place feel a bit more home-y when we're stranded inside on a snowy day.  And if you can find a restaurant or drinking establishment in New York with a fireplace, it's an automatic headquarters for festivities on cold, winter-y evenings.  We are lucky enough to have a gem of a "nook" across the street called Molly's which is perfect for a little bit of Jameson or a nice scotch to warm our bellies up.

 In February and March when there is freezing rain, I might feel differently.  I will no doubt be ready to start wearing sandals and sundresses pretty soon.  And I'll be longing for an escape to some tropical destination for some relief, but who would have known that a California girl would grow to love all the seasons so much, even the "unlovable" winter.  I'm hoping for a few more days like yesterday to slow us all down from our crazy, busy lives and spend a day being lazy, without feeling bad & guilty.   That truly is the best part of winter.

Home Improvements

As you may have seen from my earlier blogs, it's my New Year's resolution to continue to update my blog and add new posts at least once a week.  Well, this week, I apologize, but I've got NOTHIN.  Usually I'm not at a shortage for words, and usually, my husband and I are out and about doing something noteworthy to document in my blog.  But this week was a little tough.  Mike has been traveling for work, the weather was cold, it was a long weekend with a lot of our friends out of town, and the weekend was consumed in NFL football playoffs.  Including an unbelievable win by the 49ers.

So I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you a few of the little home improvements we've made to our home to make it a better place to be holed up in the event of a cold winter storm (which we haven't had yet this winter...weird!).  I know I did blog about the new couch last month when we got it, but our living room make over is now complete. It's not much this week, but the Mobleys are taking it easy in January so that we can save up for our upcoming adventures in 2012.  And I'd just like to caveat, there will probably be a few more of these anti-climactic updates over the course of the year.  But I'll do my best to keep you entertained!

Enjoy!

 OLD view of what our living/family room used to look like

NEW view of what our living/family room looks like!  Ditched the sectional for a new sofa, a cozy new matriarch's chair, a beautiful new end table/coffee table.

And a tip for my friends with furry pals, faux throw blankets are a MIRACLE if your pet likes to sit on your couch/chairs.  Winston loves his little brown faux throw, and sleeps ONLY on the throw when he gets on the couch.  As long as he's on his little throw, we have no fur on our furniture.  It just doesn't get snugglier than THIS.  Look at that little buggar!

Going to the chapel

This is a pretty difficult entry for me to write because I'm putting Mike and I out there for a little bit of judgement and finger wagging  from some (okay, many) people.  But if I want this blog to truly be an honest document of our marriage, I think that this is one of the most IMPORTANT entries that I'll write.   For our wedding in April, we both decided that we wanted to be married outside in beautiful Southern California, taking in all of God's beautiful scenery.  So it was a bit of a task to find a Catholic priest who was a bit more liberal to marry us outside, but we were so happy with our wonderful Father Brian and were so thrilled that we could have a Catholic ceremony outside with pelicans flying and dolphins jumping as Mike and I said our vows to each other.  But having a more liberal priest did not mean Mike and I were safe from the extensive pre-cana exercises that are required by Catholics before marriage. 

I'm happy to say that when our priest took us through the results of our pre-cana testing, we had GLOWING results, and scored in the 95 percentile for our compatibility.  He gave us A+ scores for everything from personality matching, family planning, problem solving, and fiscal responsibility; however, I'm sorry to say that the one area that Mike and I did not score very well in was in religion.  It's not because we disagreed on certain elements of our faith, but it meant that we just hadn't taken time to talk about it together...until our pre-cana.  Wth Mike coming from an Episcopal upbringing, and my Catholic background, we have been raised with close to identical beliefs, but religion was something we had just not made time for in our lives.  In any given month, we spend at least 2 weekends out of town, leaving little time for a weekly mass.  

As you may have noticed in our blog last weekend, one of our New Year's resolutions was to go to church at least once/month.  And every Sunday, I feel a slight pang of guilt when the neighborhood church bells chime and I'm sitting in my apartment.  While it's a beautiful sound, it reminds me every time that I'm choosing not to attend services, but to consume myself in my busy life instead.  So this morning, we got up nice and early and put on our Sunday's finest for mass at the quaint little Episcopal church in Gramercy Park.  Calvary St. George Episcopal was a great place to spend our first mass after several months of not going to church, and sadly our first mass together since our wedding last April!  AND, were so lucky that the interior was still decorated with festive Christmas lights and beautiful garland.  The Parish was extremely welcoming to people who were new to the church, and the clergy was very eager to meet us after the services concluded.

We followed mass with a delicious brunch at one of our favorite restaurants in the area...Almond.  It was nice to be in heels and pearls on a Sunday instead of sweats and a ponytail (or if it's football season, jeans & a jersey).  A delicious lobster-egg white omelet (yes...I know...it was amazing) tastes MUCH better after you enjoy a nice Sunday morning mass.  

This entry is not intended for self-promotion after going to church one week, but instead a documentation of how we're growing in our marriage together and making changes in our relationship with each other, and God.  New York is scattered with beautiful churches in every neighborhood.  Some are architectural masterpieces, and some are quaint little local chapels.  And as we get closer to one day starting a family, we feel so strongly about making religion a bigger part of our lives.  We've decided to alternate between Catholic & Episcopal churches to fulfill both our faiths & explore the beautiful places of worship that Manhattan has to offer.  We'll obviously pick our favorite, but we want to shop around a little bit until we find "the one".   But for this week, our local Gramercy Park church was extremely welcoming and more than convenient!

2011 is SO last year....

 My blog wouldn't be complete without a cheesy, somewhat emotional post about leaving 2011 and kicking off 2012.  We had some extreme ups in 2011, and some difficult times as well.  But some of the highlights (good & bad) are recapped below for my own nostalgic purposes!  I've tried to use some new pictures from some of the key events to keep the blog posts fresh and fun, but there may be some repeats of my favorite pics.

The year 2011 brought us....

1.  OUR WEDDING!  Hands down the best day of the year...and my life to this point.  It was a gorgeous day, and an amazing party, and I can't believe it's been 8 months since that perfect day already...I can't wait to see what God has in store for our marriage for the rest of our lives. 

2.  Our dream vacation!  Bora Bora was the most romantic destination in the world, and when I was unwilling to compromise on a "cheaper" honeymoon option, my husband made it happen!  I'm not sure if we'll ever go on another trip as perfect as that one, but it was the best vacation anyone could ever ask for, and I'm glad we have one million pictures to remind me of the beautiful views and priceless memories. 

3.  Cape Christmas - In an earlier blog, I called Cape Christmas one of my favorite weekends of the summer.  I'm already looking forward to continuing the tradition in 2012 with some of my favorite people in the world. 

4.  My first trip to Miami!!!  Yes, I know, 27 years and I never made it out in South Beach.  Thank you to all my friends who helped plan and throw me an unforgettable bachelorette party.  I have some smokin hot friends. 

5.  The coldest & worst winter ever - By this time last year, I believe NYC had not one, but TWO crazy blizzards.  I'm sure we're in for it in 2012, but I'd like to thank the city of Manhattan for introducing me to "winter" properly.  Now every other winter will seem like cake (**knock on wood**).

6.  Our first Christmas together - Yes, I realize that I wrote about this earlier on in my blog, but something has to be said about being together 4 years and not seeing each other on Christmas day.  Mike and I lived together in NY before our wedding, so at first it didn't feel much different after we came home from our honeymoon as a married couple.  So it was great to still have a few things (like spending Christmas together finally) that are preserved for after marriage.

7.  Mike's new job(s) - After our honeymoon, Mike went through a few months of changing up his career.  It was a stressful few months of Mike weighing his options and figuring out the best move to plan our future, but I'm so proud of where he ended up and hope that 2012 brings him more success. 

8.  My first Princeton/Yale football weekender - This has been a tradition for Mike & his friends for years before I even knew anyone.  It's one of Mike's favorite/most festive activities every other year and Princeton has become like a second home for Mike.  So I was so glad that Winston and myself were included in the festivities this year!  

9.  The 10th Anniversary of 9/11 - I wasn't here in 2001, and I was ironically flying in to the city on 9/11 2011, but I had immense pride for the city that has been my home for the past 2 years on that day.  I have yet to visit the memorial, but I've made it one of my resolutions to go see that during 2012.

10.  Family trip to Chicago - I know it's a tradition that we've done for the past few years, but it's one of the most anticipated weekends of the year for me.  I know I have another 9 or 10 months until we go back for the 2012 football season, but I hope that we keep this tradition for many years to come.    

11.  My first river rafting excursion - Since completing 4+ cycles of P90X, I find it harder and harder to sit still and relax during my vacations.  Furthermore, after living in a concrete jungle for the past 2 years, I crave nature when going on vacations. And Mike and I were so lucky to find a great deal on a somewhat last minute trip to Sun Valley in the summer.  The river guides warned me that the rafting trip in Idaho would "ruin me" for other rivers since it was one of the most amazing trips in the world, and while I'd like to try it again somewhere else, I fear they may be right!  

12.  Our trip to the Hamptons!  It was a crazy weekend of fun, parties, and some intense competition, but we had so much fun out there with our friends!

13.  A Manhattan Earthquake - Yep....NYC had an earthquake.  That's all.  

14.  An anti-climactic Hurricane - I was terrified that Hurricane Irene would wipe out the island of Manhattan, and spent the better part of a week putting together a survival kit in the event that we were trapped.  But instead it turned into a party weekend with some heavy rain.  

Our pretty little goldfish

15.  Only ONE...yes ONE ICU visit for Winston.  During his first year of life...we all know how often our little buggar had to go to the urgent care clinic.  But Winston saw only one visit to the ICU in 2011, and spent a fraction of the time there.  We hope as he gets older that he continues to stay strong and healthy...and save mom & dad $$$.

16.  Our new pet gold fish...Cannoli.  Back in September when we won those shiney little goldfish at the Feast of Saint Gennaro, I had no idea that the little white beauty would have lived this long.  While Cannoli's brother (Parmesan) didn't have the same luck, our little 25 cent friend has quickly become a festive fixture in our kitchen and we enjoy listening to her blow bubbles at each of her mealtimes.  

To ring in 2012, we had a very grown up night with the Bucks at a delicious restaurant in the Meat Packing District.  We snacked on delicious treats of oysters, caviar, Turbot fish, wagu beef and tasty desserts.  I've always wants to do a fancy/dressed up New Years Eve, and it was one of the best NYE's I think we've ever had (I feel like I say that every year, but each year just gets better 

and better!).  At midnight, the restaurant staff handed out hats and noisemakers and paraded through the restaurant banging on pots and pans. And to top it off, we had no problems finding cabs (which was honestly my biggest fear about being in Manhattan on NYE) at the end of the night.   They say that how you spend NYE is indicative of how you'll spend the rest of the year, so if that means that we'll spend 2012 being fancy with all of our friends followed by a safe night with the little family....then it's going to be a good year!!!!  

Finally, I know this has become a somewhat lengthy entry, but I wanted to also publish some of our new years resolutions.  It's helpful to have them written down somewhere so that you can check on your progress over the course of the year.  I used to write them down in a journal, but that became very personal...so if I didn't fulfill them...I only had myself to judge.  So this year, we're going to share them with everyone....because that  makes it so much more official!  Our little family has each written separate resolutions,  so here goes!

Steph:

1.  Pay off my credit cards in full (And then stop using them so much so that I can start 2013 with no credit card debt)

2.  Do another round of P90X and venture into P90X II by the middle of the year (yes, Tony Horton made a sequel).

3.  Buy groceries every week to limit the amount of times we have to order takeout

4.  Make dinner at home at least 2x/week (outside of the Sunday dinner tradition)

5.  Work on our budget setting and saving $$$$

6.  Continue to write one blog entry per week.  

Mike:  

1.  Go to church services at least once a month

2.  Start doing Pilates instead of just working with a trainer to keep my back in shape

3.  Enjoy the attractions and  of New York city a little bit more 

Winston:  

1.  Don't go to the ICU this year 

2.  Stop eating dad's leather shoes

3.  Don't sleep on mom & dad's new leather chair

It's only January 2nd, and I'm already excited about all the adventures Mike and I have coming up in 2012. 

I get little butterflies thinking about all the fun things we have planned and I know the year will absolutely fly by as this one did in 2011.  As always, I look forward to sharing all of those memories and experiences with you all and hope to write a similar recap of 2012 on this day next year.  Here is to hoping the Mayan's are wrong!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!