We had a great time the past few days in NYC! Will was so great – he is such a city slicker I think it is in his bones. We had a fabulous time mostly eating good food with great friends. Here is our trip in pictures.

Will looking out the airplane window. He did great on his first flight.

Will checked out the “Sky” magazine while en route from Minnesota to NYC. The whole magazine was devoted to New York so Will knew all the hot spots to check out once he got there.

Man, flying is exhausting.

On Saturday night we at at John’s of 12th Street in the East Village. We enjoyed dinner with Jay, Desiree and James Sholes and Pete Little, all of our gracious hosts. Will and James enjoyed catching up with each other over dinner.

Will loved riding on the subway. He especially liked entertaining everyone on the train.

On Sunday we were able to worship at Apostles Church then ate a delicious Thai lunch with our sweet friends Kristian and Katy. It was great to introduce them to Will and catch up a little. Thank you Rose’s for fitting us into your schedule. After lunch we took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. You can’t tell from the picture but it was very crowded.

Bill and Will on the Brooklyn Bridge with the Manhattan skyline behind them.

Will and James had a great time playing with each other. Thank you James for sharing all your cool toys with Will!

On Monday we headed to the Central Park Zoo with Desiree and James. Above Will is trying to spot the elusive Snow Leopard. I don’t think it makes much since to have an elusive animal on display but we did see one that was hiding in the corner.

Will at the Polar Bear exhibit.

Will watching the seals play in the water.

Bill and Will checking out the penguins.

James getting a good look at a penguin. Or is it a penguin getting a good look at James?

Fun day at the Central Park Zoo.

Of course, we had to visit Columbia and our old stomping grounds. And we couldn’t leave without a new t-shirt for Amber and Will

We took Will to Toys R Us in Times Square. He wanted everything in the store! Just kidding, but he did like looking at the toys.

Bill and Will in the middle of Times Square. We went down because we wanted to see the new “pedestrian mall” we heard about on the news. That was a little disappointing – it was just a bunch of plastic lawn chairs in one block of road that cars don’t drive on.

This is why I call Will a “city slicker” because he was so good! We went almost all day everyday and Will was happy in the stroller and just went to sleep when he got tired. Thank you Javen for letting us borrow your stroller – it was a lifesaver! It is so light that even Amber could carry Will and stroller down the subway steps.

On Monday night we met Ramona to catch up for a few minutes. Will loved her and really wants her to come and visit him. Actually, he would love for all of his NYC friends to come and visit him!

On Tuesday we headed to Books of Wonder the great children’s bookstore on W. 18th. They have lots of book signings there by famous children’s authors. Will got a signed book about penguins since he saw the penguins at the zoo.

For lunch on Tuesday we ate sushi. Yummy! Don’t worry this was just a cucumber roll – no raw fish.

Then, a quick goodbye to Desiree and James. We had a great time!

We love this city!

Our sweet friends in NYC gave us a Babies “R” Us giftcard before we left. We finally used it this past weekend towards a baby video monitor. A big thank you to you guys!

It’s so weird to think that our CG is now literally scattered across the world – Nashville, NYC, Dubai and who knows where in the future. Bill and I are always thinking of you!

Thank you!

These days we are up to our ears in packed boxes. It feels like we keep packing, packing, packing and haven’t hardly made a dent. But, I know that is not true – the biggest thing we have left is the small kitchen appliances. Our apartment looks like a  disaster zone  but I think it just gets worse before it gets better.

When I’m not packing I have been busy sending out resumes. I think I’ve sent out 5 or 6 this week. They are all for jobs that I would really enjoy. So, hopefully I’ll be hearing from some of them soon. One of the jobs said they planned to start interviewing next week!

Graduation is Monday – so we have a fun weekend ahead of us with my parents

This past weekend my best friend Megan came to visit! It was so great to spend time with her – since moving to NYC I’ve only seen her for a few hours over Christmas break. She came in mid-morning Friday and stayed until Sunday night.

We did lots of fun things! We explored several wonderful bookstores – Strands and Books of Wonder. We picked up several signed copies of children’s books at Books of Wonder. For years I’ve been buying signed children’s books for Megan, my sister and Aubrey and now I can start buying them for babydixon!

On Saturday the three of us headed to Little Italy for a delicious lunch of fried zucchini, salad, spaghetti and chicken parmigiana. Yummy! Then browsed Canal Street while eating gelato. Saturday night we saw Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was really good – at first I was disappointed because I kept comparing it to the movie but then I quit comparing and it was much more enjoyable! There are several songs and scenes in the play that are not in the movie.

We ended the weekend with a relaxing Sunday. After church we went to Max Brenner’s Chocolate Shop where our friend Ramona joined us for lunch and Chocolate Pizza. The food and especially the dessert was delicious! Bill and I will have to go back again before we leave NYC.

Now it’s the start of another week and it’s going to be a very busy week! Tonight (Tuesday) a moving company is coming out to “assess” our apartment and give us a quote to move us to Nashville. The U-haul quote to rent a truck was over $3000!! Yikes! So, we’re pretty sure we can hire a company to do all the work for us for way less than that. Thursday morning (bright and early) we have a doctor’s appointment and then we live that afternoon for Chattanooga and dinner at Ichiban! Friday will be spent house hunting and hopefully finding somewhere to live. Saturday is Aubrey’s birthday party and Sunday we head back to NYC! I don’t know when we’ll have time to sleep.

I was in Times Square picking up some Mary Poppins tickets for when my friend Megan will be in town and trying to get Wicked tickets for graduation weekend (to no avail) ~  when I thought it would be fun to see a Broadway play tonight! Hairspray sells student tickets on weekdays so I went to the box office to see if I could get some. But, continuing my streak of bad luck there were no student tickets left. But, they did have some “lottery” tickets left for tonight’s show! Our seats were in the orchestra – row A! Our faces were about 6 inches from the stage!

It was a great show! Even Bill liked it and he did not like the movie. It is fun to sit that close because you can see every little thing that the actors are doing – it is so exaggerated! George Wendt from Cheers played Edna Turnblad – it was great! At intermission they told Bill and I that we needed to put our bags under our seats b/c the cast would be using the space in front of us – remember that there were only 6 inches between us and the stage. One of the characters actually squeezed past us to get on the stage!

In other showbiz news: Bill has seen 4 tapings this week including: Gossip Girl, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Law & Order!

I just got back from a one-day conference in Albany. It was the annual conference of the National Association of Social Workers – New York State Chapter. I was able to do a poster presentation entitled: “Thought Leadership: Bringing Social Work into the Digital Age.” There were several people interested in what I had to say but I could tell most people just didn’t get it! It was fun to present and it looks great on a resume.

I left for Albany on Thursday afternoon, the conference was all day Friday and then we took the train back to the city this (Saturday) morning. The conference was good – I learned some new things which is always nice

Tonight we are going out for BBQ with our friends Jay and Desiree – they are expecting a little boy in 1 week! Then we are going up to their apartment in Washington Heights for dessert. It should be great!

A big shout out to everyone who continues to comment on my blog – especially you Amy! If anyone else has a blog – I can add it to my blogroll and I read those blogs every couple of days!

***babydixon.com is now up and running – check out the blog!***

Thanks goodness – I feel like a 100 pound load is off my shoulders. I just have to make it through one more day of internship and then I’ll be off to Florida!!!!

Last weekend our friend Tiffany, from Jackson, was in the City. We had such a good time together. We ate Thai food, went to Steve and Barry’s (where everything was on sale for $8.98), went to a baby shower and saw the Broadway play A Chorus Line. We exhausted ourselves, as usual, but it was great! It was kind of a nasty weekend weather wise and it never failed that every time we were outside it was raining with hurricane force winds.

We didn’t have much luck with umbrellas either. Someone stole Tiffany’s at Steve and Barry’s! Then, when we were at the theater- I left my soaking wet umbrella under our seats when we went to the restroom. We came back and my umbrella was gone! I asked the “seater” and she said that she hadn’t seen it or picked it up. So, I asked the people who had sat down while we were gone if they had seen it – it was an older couple and their adult son. The old man said – Yeah, and pointed at his wife. And then nothing. So, I said – well, it was mine. So, the lady got her purse and pulled my umbrella out! I couldn’t believe it – it was so weird!

The rest of the weekend was spent at church and studying – good times.

That’s right – midterms! By next Wednesday, I will have completed two 10-15 page papers, an economics test and a presentation at my internship. Talk about a lot to do!

Bill is still doing excellent at work.  This week human resources  asked him to write a job description for the assistant account executive position I asked him if HR realized he was only an account executive and not a vice president!

We are also still  apprentice leaders of our community group. We lead every 3rd time – so next week is our second time to lead. Last month our sermon series was on idols and this month – leading up to Easter- we are examining who Jesus is by what He said about Himself.

So, I apologize in advance if there are not too many updates in the next week because of mid-terms!