Jenny and Garrett are Getting Married!

I'm so excited to share with you all that the DuPont family is going to be growing by one new member!  Last weekend on February 17th, my brother Garrett popped the question to his beautiful girlfriend Jenny, over a gorgeous picnic overlooking the Austin Hill Country and of course, she said yes!!!!

We met Jenny a little over 2 years ago when she captured my brother's heart right before he picked up to move halfway across the country to be in Dallas.  They dated long-distance for a little under a year before they decided that long-distance was for the birds and they packed up Jenny's Mini Cooper for another cross-country road trip...this time for Jenny!

As a sister, there is only one thing that you could hope for in a sister-in-law, and that is that she loves your brother unconditionally.  And if any of you have met our sweet Jenny Lynn, you would know that her and Garrett compliment each other completely. Neither of them take life too seriously, I've never seen them fight, and they both share a love for random reptiles and amphibians. Between the two of them, they've become parents to two tree frogs, two chameleons, a few beta fish and a failed adoption of a Sugar Glider (we don't like talking about Delilah, she was possessed).  The smaller and the more ugly the creature, the more they want it.

I knew God would reward me one day for all the patience I had with the stinky socks, the sweaty gym clothes, playing Ninja Turtles, and being a pawn for my brother's batting practice.  Almost two years ago, I married Mike and grew my family by one sister named Jenn, and now I get ANOTHER Jen as my sister!!  This is so exciting for the both of them and it is one of the most special times for a couple to experience in their entire lifetime.  Mike and I haven't seen the two lovebirds since they got engaged, but with a wedding comes more reasons to see each other.  Garrett and Jenny, we are so thrilled for the two of you and we look forward to growing our family a little bit more.  We love you both to pieces and can't wait to be a part of your big day!  Let the wedding planning begin!!!!!!!!

Love is in the air!

Valentine's day is such a special time of year for me, for a few reasons.  For 24 years of my life (until I met my future husband), my Valentine was my dad...every year...because he is the birthday boy.  No other man could even come close!  But that all changed three years ago, when on February 13th, Mike got down on one knee in front of my entire family in our backyard in Southern California, and asked me to be his wife!


Since that day in 2010, not a Valentine's holiday has gone by without my husband making an extra effort to be romantic and make my heart flutter, and this year was not any different.  Mr. Mobley had quite a few surprises up his sleeve for this February 14th.

It started with a delivery of roses that made me blush!  In our 5 years together, Mike had only had flowers delivered to me once...and that was last V Day...a modest display of my favorite winter flower...tulips!  So I was a bit taken aback when this giant bouquet was delivered to me while I was tapping my pen against the desk anxiously waiting until the end of a conference call.  What a beautiful...BEAUTIFUL way to brighten my day.

I know that dinner out on Valentine's Day can be ridiculously over-priced and have limited choices with pre fixe menus galore, but we had a reservation at Eleven Madison Park that I was looking forward to all day.  It was a 16-course culinary adventure!  We had no idea what was on the menu and we put our meal into the hands of the talented servers and chefs on the most romantic day of the night.  Each course came out deliciously surprising and more satisfying than the one before!  We tasted little bites of oysters, sea urchin, scallops, lobster, duck and of course...dessert.  Every ingredient in the entire meal came from within 150 miles of New York City - from the locally farm raised duck, to the sea salt from Amagansett.  My favorite course was the cheese course right before dessert, which was presented to us in a sweet little picnic basket.

You'd think that a restaurant with this much cache in Manhattan would be stuffy with some snobby staff members.  But they were sweet and accommodating from the moment we stepped into the restaurant.  They even presented Michael with a Tide Pen on a sterling silver platter when he spilled the entire carrot tartare (yes, it was amazing!) on his light pink shirt.

We had a few little gifts for each other when we got
home from dinner and Mike was so proud to tell me how much research he had done to find the best rated yoga mat for me (and in Bears colors too!).  But of course I saved a few kisses for my other favorite guy, my sweet little Mr. Winston.

No, it doesn't need to be February 14th for me to have a reason so show my husband how much I love him, and every day of the year should be a day of love when you are with your best friend and soul mate.  But when have you seen the Mobleys let any holiday go by without celebrating and capitalizing on all the festivities that come along with it???

When I walked into Eleven Madison Park after work last Thursday at 6:30 on the dot, I got little butterflies looking at the handsome man in the festive pink and grey suit waiting for me with a martini in hand at the bar.  It's hard to think that he could make me any happier than he did 3 years ago when he asked me to marry him...but he's done it.  He made me giddy with excitement when I left work for the first time in 2013 by 6pm for a very important date.

Even for those naysayers who don't celebrate Valentine's Day, it's pretty impossible not to feel the love in the air.   The Empire State Building was bright pink last Thursday because even the city that never sleeps loves a little romance. Whether it's a little extra love for your husband, your boyfriend, your family, some co-workers, or your beloved pup...we could all use a day to celebrate everything that makes our hearts full.  Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Surviving Nemo

So here it goes, the obligatory post-blizzard blog entry.  You would have to live in a cave if your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram newsfeeds were not inundated this weekend with pictures and status updates about the great blizzard of the past weekend.  And since this blog is devoted to capturing the happenings of the Mobley family, it's also a virtual scrapbook for us to look back at everything we've experienced as a couple since our wedding in 2011. 

Photo creds to my cousin John Menzies!

I haven't been shy about how mean January was.  I've been drowning in work since the first day of 2013, and have been feeling a bit like I couldn't quite catch my breath.  Outside of launching a massive global campaign, there have been some changes at work that have kept me "on my toes" to put it delicately.  My days have consisted of meetings from 9-6, working through lunch, commutes out to New Jersey, commutes back to the city FROM NJ, late nights, and continued LATER nights when I bring my laptop home to continue working through the evening.  Alright, you get it, I'm slammed.

Photo Creds: John Menzies

The point I'm trying to make with my professional sob story is that Nemo couldn't have come at a better time, and this is one of the many things I love about New York city.   When life feels like you absolutely cannot cram one more thing into your jam packed life, when you look at your calendar each day and see that you are double, sometimes triple booked and there are meetings through lunch, or when you wear your husband's deodorant for a whole week because you literally cannot find the time in the day to stop by a CVS, and when you haven't made dinner for your husband in a few weeks and the only things in your refrigerator is beer and your husband's coveted stash of coffee  ...New York City rewards you with a full day of cancelled meetings, a cleared out calendar day to catch up, an early closing on a Friday, and beautiful winter wonderland.

We got a few extra hours to our weekend when the offices were closed early on Friday afternoon to allow people to get out of the city before being hit with the worst of the storm.  Part of me wanted to sit in the cozy Irish pub across the street Friday night, but we opted for takeout and a few glasses of scotch instead.  We went to bed Friday night to some light snow and a little bit of slush on the ground, but we woke up with 7 or 8 inches of white powder on our patio on Saturday morning.

We walked around Gramercy Park in the morning and took in the quiet solace of the morning after the Blizzard.  There were children jumping in in the fluffy snow banks in the park and parents pulling their children down Lexington in sleds!  The rest of the tri-state area got pounded with some places up to 2 or 3 feet, and had it a lot worst off than we had it here in Manhattan!  My family in Bristol didn't even get their streets plowed after 3 days of being snowed in, so they had quite the cabin fever over the weekend.  Here in the city, I'll admit, it quickly turned from a gorgeous powder to a messy slush in just a few hours.  Winston wasn't thrilled about the waist-high sloppy puddles or the fact that he had to wear booties over his feet to protect him from the salt and chemical-soaked sidewalks.

The storm cancelled some of our weekend plans, but it also kept everyone we know in town!  After one night of hibernating, we were anxious to get out on Saturday to see everyone and enjoy being dressed in our winter's warmest and defrosting our spirits with some...well...spirits!

Nemo slowed the advertising industry and the city of Manhattan down on Friday and gave us a much needed excuse to relax and be lazy without the stress or panic from not checking my emails or blackberry.

Thank you mother nature for the life time out, it couldn't have been more perfectly timed!

The Mobleys go to Super Bowl XLVII

My only New Year's resolution this year was to NOT have any resolutions and live life more spontaneously.  So two weeks ago, when the 49ers defeated the Atlanta Falcons to advance to Super Bowl XLVII - Mike and I decided to do everything in our power to get ourselves to New Orleans.  The Monday before the big game, all the stars had aligned and all of our plans fell into place....the hotel...the flights...the parties....the TICKETS!  It was official!  The Mobley's were heading to New Orleans!

The thought of going to NOLA for one of the biggest weekends of the entire year right in the heart of Mardi Gras intimidated me a little bit.  I didn't know if I was prepared for the insanity that was Super Bowl Weekend.  But when we landed at the airport, we both had smiles for miles.  A cheery welcome party greeted us as we walked off the jet bridge and gave us Mardi Gras beads of our team's colors.  I was wearing more gold and crimson beads by the time I left the airport than most people had on all of Bourbon street!



We honestly couldn't check into our hotel soon enough.  Between Mike's San Francisco crew and the people we know from the advertising industry, there were quite a few people in town that had already gotten the Super Bowl festivities started.  To our dismay, Bourbon street was painted purple.  I tried to convince myself that it was an unfair advantage because the colors of Mardi Gras are, in fact, purple, and that there just HAD to be a bunch of LSU fans in town.  But it was true, Baltimore showed up, and they showed up in droves.  They had their faces painted, they were chanting in what seemed like a sea of purple, and they brought everyone they knew.  Us Niner fans were outnumbered, by a LOT.

But that didn't prevent us from flaunting our team spirit all night before the big game.  We donned cardinal and gold Mardi Gras masks, I showed off my festive 49ers manicure and we screamed "WHO'S GOT IT BETTER THAN US?  NO BODY!!!", until the early hours of the morning.  We took detours to fit in as many Super Bowl parties as possible, and our night ended with an impromptu trip to the Convention Center for a VIP view of Stevie Wonder and Gary Clark, Jr live.  It was another once-in-a-lifetime experience that we just stumbled upon in our tour of downtown New Orleans.

The last time I woke up overwhelmingly excited was my wedding day.  Admittedly, we were both anxious about the match-up and about the fact that New Orleans already felt like a Raven's parade.  After a filling breakfast, it felt as if Mike and I were actually gearing up to play in the Super Bowl.  We dressed in silent nervousness making sure that every aspect of our outfits were perfect and that our matching Patrick Willis jerseys were wrinkle free.  The only cure for our nerves before the game was a good ol' fashioned Niner's Hurricane.  Ok, they weren't "NINER'S" hurricanes, but they were red, and we took that as another display of our team spirit.

Game day on Bourbon was a sight to see and it's quite indescribable.  The streets were literally electric with friendly banter and random outbursts of "GO NINERS!!"  I've never high-fived so many strangers in my entire life. The entire town took a small hiatus from Mardi Gras festivities to paint the streets in cardinal and gold and purple and black.   The energy of the city of New Orleans is extremely unique, but the energy on Super Bowl Sunday in New Orleans is exceptional.  I've never seen my husband so elated.  He was surrounded by some of his best friends, we met up with his cousin John, he was in one of our nations most festive destinations, and his team was about to play for the Lombardi trophy.  I might have had a few hurricanes, and the Bud Light was flowing like water, but I'll never forget the excitement and the contagious sparkle that was coming out of that city.

What the heck is the Niner's defense doing on Bourbon St?

As an avid football fan, as a newly adopted Niners fan, and as an American, there are few things more magical than going to the actual Super Bowl game.  When I walked into the stadium with the person I love most in this world, and settled in our seats just 4 rows up from the 49er's end zone, I felt, at that moment, that my life was complete.  The twinkling stadium lights, the heat from the fireworks when the Niners ran on to the field, the deafening roar of the stadium during the first kick-off...sigh.  I'm not embarrassed to say I teared up during the singing of our National Anthem.  It was overwhelming how happy I was to be in that moment and to be a part of such a great American tradition.


Yes, the game had some highs, and the game had some lows...well, the game was mostly lows when the Niners didn't walk away with the trophy.  If someone told me that they knew the outcome of the game before I went, I still would have gone, in fact I wouldn't have missed it.  We got to be a part of history.  We were mere feet away from Colin Kaepernick's famous touchdown pose.  We got to see Beyonce undeniably light up the halftime show. We got to experience the Super dome black out during the 3rd quarter. We got to watch the absolute devastation on the Raven's fans face when the Niners scored 17 unanswered points.  We were there for the first ever Super Bowl played between two brothers.  We got to watch a second string quarterback, who started 7 games during the regular season, achieve hero status. And unfortunately, we were there when Ray Lewis played his last game in the NFL.

4 rows up from the Niners!

If I cold have changed the outcome, I would have, but that 34-31 score was a great show and a game that will be talked about for years to come.  It took a few days to get over the heartbreak of losing the biggest game of the year, but looking back on the entire experience, it was literally the trip of a lifetime.  New Orleans was a fantastic host city, and I only hope that we can live up to that new year when we host Super Bowl XLVIII in New York City.  To the San Francisco 49ers, thank you for a thrilling season and I can't wait to break out our cardinal and gold again in the fall (along with our orange and navy of course...I haven't forgotten about my Bears!).  Who's got it better than us???  Nobody!!!!!