Cruise Highlights

We have always been a family that loves to cruise. The majority of our family vacations have been on a cruise and we were lucky enough to experience another fun family cruise late January. In honor of my Mother's birthday my Mom, Dad, Renee, Philip, Asher, Rich and I cruised to St. Thomas, Antigua, Tortola and the Bahamas. It was a blast and we had some much needed family time. We ate A LOT of food, saw some beautiful beaches, went to some comedy shows (Asher was the guest star) and got some rest and relaxation. More importantly we had EIGHT days to love on Asher and experience the ultimate cuteness that he is :)
Here are some pictures to highlight the trip:

Baby Love

Can hardly contain my excitement to meet these little beauties tomorrow...

Caralie Andrassy

&

Lilly Baum

Cuteness overload!!!

M.I.B.A. (MISSING IN BLOG ACTION)

There have been so many wonderful fun things to blog about, but I've either been too busy or the complete opposite...extremely lazy and really enjoying every moment I have to do NOTHING :) When I first started this blog I promised myself I wouldn't feel "blog pressure" to update every day or every week, but it is hard not to feel guilty in some way that I'm not updating or posting on a regular basis. Just wanted to post that I'm still here...still feeling the blog bug...and that I haven't given up! New posts to come soon :)

Future Mr. Right

While in Raleigh, I met Carrie's little man, Jack. He is adorable and I have no doubt he will be a heart-breaker when he grows up! Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner I picked up this little number for Jack.

SO PRECIOUS!

My Sister's Pregnant!

I am loving the flood of newborn babies for 2012! Can't wait to meet my newest Niece or Nephew :) Love you sissy!

North Carolina Tour

I got to spend EIGHT whole days in NC last week and it was heaven :) Every time we go to North Carolina it becomes harder and harder to come back...STILL working on this! We had planned to spend NYE in Charlotte this year, so we decided to stay in DC for Christmas to eliminate more travel than necessary. My company offered a 3-for-1 deal for those that took vacation days the 27th-29th, so I decided to take off the rest of the year! (I love the way that sounds!)Rich had to work Tuesday and Wednesday, so I decided it was the perfect time to make a visit in Raleigh and spend some quality time with people I haven't seen in awhile. You see, every time we visit North Carolina we go to Charlotte to see my family, and poor Raleigh and my favorite friends get neglected. So, we came up with the BRILLIANT North Carolina Tour: I would go to Raleigh Monday-Wednesday and visit with friends. Rich would take the train to Raleigh and then we would drive to Winston Salem to spend some time with his parents. After that, we would head to Charlotte and visit with my parents and then end with a visit to our friend's house for a New Year's Eve party. To me, it was a perfect plan :)So, here goes a recap of my NC tour!

Monday:
I drove to Raleigh in record time...4 hours!!! I have never arrived in Raleigh this quickly and experienced ZERO traffic. For those of you who have ever been in traffic on I-95, you know this is unheard of! First stop was Miss Jaclyn DeVita's house. Jac and I visited her NEW CONDO (so exciting) and then OF COURSE made a pit stop at Vestique. I swear, this is the cutest boutique in Raleigh with the best prices. PLUS, I absolutely adore the owners; Caroline and Morgan. I got a camel colored pea-coat and had to use every ounce of willpower not to splurge and spend more. Jac and I then headed home to rest before meeting Caroline out for dinner and drinks. We ate at Cantina, the old Bogarts, in downtown Raleigh. It was so strange being there when all I could think of was how we used to break it down on the Bogart's dance floor! I swear the inside still looks exactly the same. We had such a great time catching up; it always feels like no time has passed with these ladies.

Check out our 'Tique (Vestique) Tops!

Raleigh is such a small world. As we were parking our car I ran into 2 friends from High School. I couldn't believe it. It made me miss Raleigh even more :)

Tuesday:
After saying goodbye to Jackie, I headed to my friend Carrie's house to meet her newest addition Baby Jack! He is simply precious and it's so wonderful to see Carrie and Chad as parents. Let me tell you, that baby is the luckiest little boy in the world. (photos to come!) After visiting with Jack, Carrie and I headed to the Mellow Mushroom in Cary to have lunch with some of our old friends/coworkers from the Blue Martini. I hadn't seen Sarah or Kelly since our wedding...TWO YEARS AGO!!! It makes me so sad I don't get to see these ladies more often. The year I worked at Blue Martini was one of the best years of my life and mostly because of the amazing friendships I made that year. We have the best memories from that place and it felt as if no time had passed. There were A LOT of laughs and we ate A TON of pizza and pretzels! I love my Blue Martini crew <3

After lunch I headed to Jen's house to get some quality time with her and Baby Andrassy. She only has about 14 days left until her due date! I can't believe it. Jen looked amazing and I just can't wait to meet my niece!

For dinner I met up with Mary and Angie at Gravy in downtown Raleigh. Again, it was so wonderful to see both of them and catch up. I wish I could do this all of the time. I truly have some of the best friends in Raleigh!

Wednesday:
Jen and I spent the entire day and night together. We haven't had quality one-on-one time together in a long time and it was nice to have a normal and not rushed visit together. She took me to a special/secret antique place in North Raleigh that was a gold mine for interesting jewelry, furniture, clothing, decoration, basically anything you can imagine...it was amazing! We literally could have spent hours there if our hunger hadn't gotten the best of us. We ate at one of my favorite cafe's in Raleigh, Zest Cafe. We both ordered probably the best sandwich I've ever had; a breaded chicken sandwich with cheese, apples, and some other things that made the most amazing combination. If you haven't been, you MUST check it out. I am STILL craving it. After lunch we continued our shopping extravaganza. It was such a great afternoon and just so nice to spend a lot of time with Jen. After heading home and resting our feet we started cooking dinner. The Andrassy's never disappoint with their home-cooked meals. Jen made Macaroni and Cheese and Joey made sausage with vegetables. It was delicious! After dinner, we said our goodbyes and realized the next time we see each other it will be to meet the baby. I get so emotional when I say goodbye to Jen, but this time was even harder knowing the major life change we are all about to experience. I'm so glad I got this special time with Jen before she has Baby A. I can't WAIT to meet her!

I headed to the train station to pick up Rich and we were off to Winston Salem...or should I say Pfafftown! (pronounced Paff-town)

Thursday:
We woke up in the Carney household, which is ALWAYS a treat! Fresh biscuits were made and lots of other goodies. We had a wonderful day with them and spent the evening playing games, watching tv and eating Terry's home-cooking...deelish! I always feel like I'm the most relaxed at their house. Think of the coziest Bed and Breakfast and that's exactly what it's like :)

Friday:
Friday morning we headed to Charlotte and met my sister, our nephew Asher and my parents for lunch. Asher is seriously the cutest little boy I've ever seen (yes I'm biased).

But seriously, he is adorable and such a happy little boy. I can't believe how quickly he is growing up and becoming a little man! And oh how he LOVES his Uncle "Wich"!

After lunch we headed to Mike and Sarah's house. Their house is ADORABLE and we were so excited to spend some time with them. We were all exhausted so we ordered pizza and watched a movie. We are getting old! After dinner we started decorating the house for the New Year's Eve party and prepped the food. Sarah is amazing in the kitchen and is a fantastic cook/party hostess! She went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect for our party.

Saturday:
New Year's Eve!!! The plan this year was to recreate my favorite New Year's Eve I've ever had. The first year I dated Rich he lived in a house in Morrisville, NC with 3 of his best friends. This house also ended up being the place where everyone's boyfriends and girlfriends lived as well. We were a little family and we had some fun and crazy times in that house. That year for NYE we threw a big house party and it was a blast! We haven't all been together in a long time (except for a few weddings every few years), so we decided to plan a reunion. Sadly, Sarah and Dan couldn't make it because Sarah is on modified bed rest with her pregnancy (can't wait to meet their little girl) and Erin and Ryan couldn't make it because Erin was sick :( But, the treat of the night was seeing Tracy who we haven't seen in TWO YEARS!

Crazzzzy! It was such a fun night and it felt like old times. We ate entirely too much food, drank just a little bit ;), and danced the night away.

We are truly blessed to have such amazing friends in our life.

Sunday:
It was a rough morning, but we pulled ourselves together and headed to my parent's house for a surprise Birthday Brunch for my Uncle Jay's 60th Birthday. It was great spending more time with our family. We had planned to drive back that night, but we were exhausted, so we decided to stay the night with my parents.

It was an amazing week in North Carolina and I feel so grateful for the friends and family we have in our lives. If only we lived closer!

Merry Chrismukkah

We had a blast making this photo for our Holiday card! This was an idea we came up with a few years ago and finally decided it was time to make our dream come true :) Rich borrowed my Dad's yamulke (the Jewish hat) and tallis and I used the gem of a dress I had found a few years ago for a tacky Xmas party. To top it off we decided to have our picture "professionally" taken at the one and only JCPenny Portrait Studio. The photographer looked at us like we were nuts and we were the only people over 2 years old getting our pictures taken. It was an experience to remember and I hope your holidays are also unforgettable!

Sending everyone bundles of love from the Carneys this holiday season :) xoxo!

I'M BACK!!!

I can't believe I made it through last week and the busy crazy fog I was struggling to see through. The Red Bull event was a huge success and I'm so proud of the DC Red Bull team for pulling it off. We successfully hosted 130 Red Bull Employees, the CEO for North America and the Leadership Team from Headquarters...whew! In true Red Bull style we stayed at the W Hotel (if you haven't check out their rooftop it's a must-see in DC...great views of the National Mall and you're so close to the White House it feels wrong!) The first night we rented out the entire National Air and Space Museum and hosted a dinner for our group. We had full access to the flight simulators and the IMAX theater. The next day we were in meetings from 8am-6pm, but went out for a dinner and lots of dancing afterward. I created a "Red Bull Passport" for the week that had our itinerary, information on the Air and Space museum and a navigator for DC. There were a lot of other little details that went into the event, but I won't bore you with all of that nonsense. It was truly a monster to plan, but so worth it! (I may have had a few breakdowns along the way) Everyone had a blast and it was a week that truly defined what an amazing company Red Bull is to work for. I was so worn out from the week that I literally slept all weekend...well except for Friday night when Rich played at the piano bar in Georgetown, Mr. Smiths. It was so great to see him back in his element. As usual, he was extremely entertaining and laid it all out on the black and whites :) I am so excited for the next 2 weeks: Hanukkah, Christmas, visiting friends (and babies) in Raleigh and then spending NYE in Charlotte with some of my favorites! So many wonderful things to look forward to...I hope this week flies by :)

MIA

The past two weeks have been some of the busiest and most stressful (work-wise) in a long time. I really want to write about Thanksgiving and holiday decorating and fun times with friends, but I just don't have the energy or the time. I just wanted to say that I'm still alive and that underneath my heavy layer of stress is an energetic girl just bursting to update her blog...Friday of next week I'll be able to breathe again :) Can't wait!

Thankful

Can't believe Thanksgiving is already here. Rich and I are laying low and spending Thanksgiving with each other here in DC. We have traveled so much this year, it will be nice to just take a break and relax at home. Although I am relieved that we are not traveling this week, I am sad that we will not be able to spend Thanksgiving with our entire family. This year has really put our distance in perspective for me and nothing would make me happier than to be closer to our family. Keep your fingers crossed...we are working on this :)

This Thanksgiving I am extremely thankful for many things, but most importantly for my friends and family. I feel beyond blessed with the people we have in our lives. Thank you thank you thank you for making my each and every day full of love :) Wishing you a safe, yummy and Happy Thanksgiving!

Please wish me luck as I attempt to cook a Thanksigiving feast for Rich tomorrow...at least if it turns out bad we have Georgetown Cupcakes to fall back on ;)

SURPRISE!

Wow...I can't believe it...Rich surprised me this Friday with a surprise Birthday party with my DC friends! Rich has always said I'm IMPOSSIBLE to surprise and I just figured maybe he wasn't good at planning a surprise, but he pulled it off and I was shocked!!!

Here's what I thought was going on...

Leah had asked me if I wanted to do a girl's night with the Bethesda crew for Friday to do some bday celebrating. Most of the ladies were busy, so Leah and I decided to do a double date with our hubbies and grab some dinner. Leah suggested we go to Mellow Mushroom because she hadn't been to the DC one yet and also wanted to show Andy (her husband) our apartment since he hadn't seen it yet. Totally bought it! Kim had planned a night out with our DC friends to celebrate my bday Saturday night. She wouldn't tell me where we were going or what we were doing, but told me to be ready Saturday night at 7:45pm . Again...totally bought it! All week, I was really looking forward to the weekend and seeing my friends. I wasn't AT ALL suspicious of anything out of the ordinary. Friday rolls around and knowing that we were expecting company, I cleaned the apartment. Rich loves it when we have company because I put away all of my mess that usually accumulates. Leah and Andy met us at our apartment, but couldn't find parking, so we decided to just park in the garage right by Mellow Mushroom. I asked if Andy wanted to pop in and still see the apartment. Rich tried to brush it off, but I said we could have him run in real quick. We parked the car and Andy and Rich dropped me and Leah outside of the parking garage. I wanted to go ahead and walk to Mellow Mushroom so we could put our names down, but Rich insisted we wait for them. He was really persistent about us walking together to the restaurant which I thought was a little bit strange. We were freezing and I didn't understand why he was being so weird about it, but we waited. I put our name down on the wait list at Mellow Mushroom and Rich said he found a spot at the bar where we could wait. We headed to the bar and it was completely full. I STILL had no clue. Right as I tried to tell Rich the bar was full I heard SURPRISE.....and saw a table full of friends in the back...HE TOTALLY PULLED IT OFF!!!!

The real story...

Leah had mentioned to Rich right around Halloween that she wanted to do something for my Birthday. Rich suggested a surprise party. He then coordinated the whole shebang. Leah purposely asked me to get together Friday night and had everyone say they were busy so that she could suggest we just hang out in DC. Rich had Kim pretend we were going out Saturday night in DC so I wouldn't be suspicious. Rich also told me that Andy wanted to see our apartment (when in reality he could care less) so that I would clean because Mary and John (another surprise from Richmond!) were staying with us and he didn't know how else to get me to clean. I still can't believe it...I had NO IDEA!

It was such a fun night and I had a blast. We had dinner and drinks at Mellow Mushroom and then headed to Muzette to sing karaoke in a private karaoke room. SO MUCH FUN!!!

I seriously feel so blessed to have such amazing friends in my life and most importantly for Rich. He made me feel so special this year and truly went above and beyond. I couldn't have asked for a better husband and best friend.

Thank you to everyone who helped me celebrate and made me feel so loved this year! I love you all :) xoxo
Pictures soon I promise!!!

Feeling the love...

Couldn't have asked for better friends and family...thank you all so much for making me feel so special and loved today! Sending you so much love right back at you :)

Oh what a weekend!

This past weekend Rich took me to New York City to do a little bit of early Birthday celebrating. The weekend was one of the best we've ever had and I was a little depressed today knowing that it was over. I am seriously going to have some trouble going back to reality this week...here's what we did...

Friday:
Rich was lucky enough to have Veteran's Day off from work and I took the day off. It was our first time actually driving into the city and we took on the Jersey Turnpike like champs. (I was a little confused by the whole Turnpike ticket thingy...guess it's time to get an EZPass) We actually didn't hit a lick of traffic...we were shocked! We arrived at our hotel in Jersey City 5 minutes before my conference call...thank goodness. Once that was over with we got ready for dinner and headed into the city. (Doesn't Rich look handsome!)
This was my first time visiting NYC and not actually staying in the city. It was a little weird for me (yes I'm a NYC snob), but I have to admit that Jersey City is reallly nice and our hotel was perfectly convenient for everything we had planned. Plus, look at how gorgeous it was at night. We had a great view of the city from the other side of the Hudson River. We decided after A TON of research and advice from friends to try Lupa in Greenwich Village for dinner. http://www.luparestaurant.com/home.com. This is a Mario Batali restaurant for all of you food gurus. (I actually didn't know who he was until I researched it, but apparently he's one of the best Italian chefs from the Food Network) We were not lucky enough to score a reservation, but decided we would just show up and if we had to wait...oh well...we'd have fun at the bar. As predicted, the hostess told us there would be a 45 minute wait. We headed to the bar that was literally the size of my pinky and completely full. Feeling slightly defeated we decided to go ahead and order some drinks. There were literally 2 inches between my bah dunka dunk and the table behind us (this place is teeny tiny) We stood there for 2 minutes trying to figure out a place to stand where we weren't in someone's way. Suddenly, the couple in front of us at the bar got seated. SCORE! We graciously took their seats and started to get comfortable. I kid you not...5 minutes later...WE GOT SEATED! I could not believe our luck. Not only did we only wait 15 minutes, but we also got a "good" seat. Rich and I are not picky and will sit wherever we are seated, but don't ya hate those 2 person tables that are directly in between two other 2 person tables? It literally feels like you're seated with them and you can't have a normal conversation...might as well have sat us at a 6 top. BUT, we were seated at a 2 person romantic table against the far wall and it was PERFECTION :) The food was truly a dream. Rich got the special and I got the Ricotta Gnocchi with Sausage and Fennel. We shared the Pollo a Diavolo with the Butternut Squash salad as a side. Seriously one of the best meals I've ever had. After dinner, and maybe a few too many glasses of wine, we were tipsy exhausted and headed back to the hotel. We grabbed a scrumptious dessert at the hotel bar and then hit the hay.

Saturday:

We slept in Saturday and then headed into the city to meet up with my parents! My Mom and Dad were in town for a reunion for some of my Dad's friends from the Bronx, so we were lucky enough to be able to see them while we were visiting :) Before we met up with my parents we went on a stroll to Times Square. I think I will always love Times Square. It is annoying how touristy it is, but something about it will always get to me. There must have been a release of a new Mario game, because there were Mario's everywhere. I love me some Mario ;)Rich may have been a little bit jealous...

We headed to meet my parents at one of our favorite past times, Ben's Kosher Deli. This place is really special to my family because my Grandpa Dave used to take us to eat here every time we would visit him. They have humongous portions and he would insist that you clean your plate. I never could and he would get so mad at me. I certainly cleaned my plate this time around....Corned Beef Sandwich, Matzoh Ball Soup and Square Knishes...oh my!!!! It was delicious and so great to see my parents. I miss them so much!
After lunch, Rich said he had planned a surprise for me. He had an address right outside of Central Park we had to go to. My parents dropped us off at the address and to my surprise Rich had planned our very own When Harry Met Sally picture tour!!!! For those of you who don't know, When Harry Met Sally is my favorite movie, and Rich reminds me SO much of Harry. I couldn't believe he planned this surprise for me...I loved it! We started at the stoop where Harry and Sally are helping their best friends move into their apartment and have the argument over the wagon wheel coffee table.We then headed to the Boathouse in Central Park where Sally had lunch with her friends throughout the movie and would discuss her relationship status.
The original picture...
My picture...We walked by the Central Park running trail where Harry and his best friend would go walking in their spandex. It was such a perfect day and it was so gorgeous walking around Central Park. We had a blast!
After the surprise tour, we rushed back to our hotel to change and then headed back into the city. We grabbed some true New York style pizza and then headed to the August Wilson Theater to see Jersey Boys!!! This was Rich's first Broadway Show experience in New York and I hadn't been to a show in New York in years. To say we were excited was an understatement.
The show was AMAZING! Seriously, one of the best shows I've ever seen. I think we will be singing those songs for weeks...."Oh what a night"! After the show we met up with one of my longest friends, Julie, at an Irish pub in the theater district. We had a blast catching up and as usual it felt like no time had passed since I had last seen her :)
Wow...seriously an amazing weekend...I feel so blessed to have been able to see my parents, friends, Jersey Boys, eat some amazing food and spend some quality time with Rich.
I've got a serious case of the Sunday Blues...