Thanksgiving in New York!

Happy Friday Bloggy friends! I have really been awful at blogging lately. Not only did last week's travel really get me behind, but I have been subbing quite a bit lately as well and I really have not figured out how to balance my work life, my home life, my social life and my blogging just yet. Instead of having the ability to peruse the internet for hours on end at work and dream up blog posts a plenty, I now have to actually work the entire day and have no time to get online. It will be an adjustment, but I am working on getting it all ironed out! ;) With that being said, I wanted to share with you some of the highlights of our trip to New York! We had an amazing time exploring the city together! Here is our trip in pictures. Enjoy!:On our last night in New York, we had dinner (and dessert) at Serendipity. The wait was 2 1/2 hours but luckily I had called and made reservations weeks ahead of time! We were seated at the cutest little table right in front of the fireplace. Then our waiter told us that it was the same table that Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack sat at during the filming of the movie Serendipity! A perfect ending to a perfect trip! I <3 NY and definitely plan to go back as soon as possible (preferably during warmer weather next time)! ;) Have a great weekend everybody!

Dancing with the Stars

So sorry for the delay... I was too exhausted to write about the conclusion of my LA trip before I was back on a plane on my way to New York for Thanksgiving. I'm sure you are all sitting on the edge of your chairs eagerly awaiting the follow-up to Day 1, so here goes: ;)

My mom and I woke up bright and early, ready to see some more sights. Beverly Hills really is just so beautiful, I could definitely get used to living life in the 90210! ;)

First stop of the day, Beverly Hills Hotel:

We peeked inside this hotel as well. I loved it! It would definitely be my hotel of choice if I were a celebrity looking to shack up for an evening! :)

Next, we got back in the car and drove all the way to the ocean! We traveled down Santa Monica Blvd (humming our favorite Sheryl Crow tune along the way) all the way to Santa Monica beach!

We even took off our shoes and walked in the sand all the way down to the water. I collect sand from every beach I go to (and plan to put them in cute little glass bottles one day, but right now they are stored in lovely water bottles ;) so I of course had to get some from the SM beach!

After, Santa Monica we did a bit more wandering around Beverly Hills and I finally came across this:

Beverly Hills High School!

Ok, so we didn't just come across it...I am a 90210 fanatic, so of course I was stalking it (that is if you can even stalk a building... ;), even if it is not the actual school seen on the show!

After another full day of sight-seeing we headed back to the hotel to get ready for Dancing with the Stars! No pictures of us all dolled up for the show because we were not allowed to bring cameras or cell phones with us. Though the ABC girl did take pictures for us and is supposed to be emailing them soon...

Apparently the Dancing with the Stars contest was held nationwide and they selected one winner (along with one guest) from every major city. So there were probably about 30 people in our group. After some pictures in the foyer of our hotel, we boarded the bus and headed to the studio! It was soo exciting to see the actual studio where Dancing with the Stars is filmed. When we walked in everyone had designated seats with their names posted on their chairs, so we had a chance to scope out where the famous people would be sitting! Little by little the celebs started trickling in as it got close to show time! Here are the famous peeps we got to see: Donnie & Marie Osmond, Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly & Jack Osbourne, Mya, Denise Richards, Steve O, Steve Job, Dionne Warwick, Lisa Rinna, Harry Hamlin, Mary Hart (of Entertainment Tonight) and all of the DWTS Dancers!!

AND we got to see WHITNEY HOUSTON perform LIVE!!!! Although she was said to be performing on Tuesday nights show, she actually taped her performance on Monday evening and we got to watch her from the second row! She did have a few DIVA moments, however... First it took her a good 30-45 minutes to get ready for her first song that she performed ("I Wanna Dance With Somebody"-my fav song to belt out during karaoke ;) and truthfully she didn't sound all that great, she totally butchered the song and avoided all the high notes. After that it took her another 30 some odd minutes to get ready for her second song performance....the name of the song escapes me at the moment, but it is her new one. Well she performed it and at the end DWTS blew out a truckload of confetti (fake dollar bills) all over the stage. Well right after she took her bow, she said she wasn't feeling it and wanted to do it over again. Sooo we had to wait about another 30 minutes for the crew to sweep up the confetti and put it back in the bags so that they could re-do the whole thing. At this point all the celebs left, because they had had enough diva for one evening. We stayed through the entirety of it all though...and even though the crack has severly affected Whitney's vocals, it was still awesome to see such a legend perform only inches away from us!

Afterwards, we piled back on the bus and headed out of the studio...however, not before we saw Ozzy and Sharon Ozbourne in the parking lot by the trailers waving goodbye at us! They are too cute, I just love them! Anyway, so that is the gist of our trip! Definitely a good time! :) Hope you enjoyed my little re-cap! :) I promise to be a better blogger....last week was just crazy! Missed you guys!

Welcome to LA LA Land!

We're here!!! I'm blogging to you live from the comforts of my fluffy bed in the luxurious Beverly Wilshire Hotel! It is 5:30AM, but I'm up and at 'em because my body is still on Texas time! Yesterday after our two flights (Dallas to Austin, Austin to LA) and after we picked up our rental car, we hit the road armed with maps and travel books hoping to see the sights! The rolling hills of LA are so beautiful, the city though...not so much. Lots of trashy neighborhoods surrounding the Hollywood and downtown areas. However, there was lots to see and we didn't waste anytime. First stop:Haha, that wasn't really our first stop, at least not on purpose. But there it was shining in all it's glory. When I got out of the car to get a few shots, two Scientologists chatted me up and told me I should def check out the Scientology church in Dallas. Um, yeah, I'll get right on that... So we waved to John Travolta and Tom Cruise and got back in our car headed for Hollywood!

We surprisingly found great (and free) parking next to this place:

We took a peek inside and I wasn't too impressed. I'm sure the pool on the roof is fab though! ;)

Next stop was the Hollywood Walk of Fame and guess who we ran into!?

MJ in all his glory!

Next, I got to pose with Miss Marilyn!

We took in a few more sights... Grauman's Chinese Theater:Kodak Theatre:Capitol Records Building:

Then headed up into the hills *waving to Speidi on the way* in order to get a good shot of this:

After we were confident that we had seen all that there was to see of Hollywood we headed to our hotel in Beverly Hills.

Here is our hotel all prettied up for Christmas! It is just as amazing on the inside as well.

After our photo session inside the hotel, we headed to dinner just down the street at a little mexican restaurant called Frida. It was so delish, very reasonably priced (esp. for being right off Rodeo Dr.) and soo cute inside!

Anyway, so that was Day 1 of our Los Angeles adventure in a nut shell! Time to go shower up and get ready for day 2!! On the agenda for today: Santa Monica, In-N-Out Burger, Rodeo Dr. and Dancing with the Stars! Soo much to see and do and so little time! Tata for now! :)

Ask and You Shall Receive...

So last night, Mason and I were getting ready to go out to dinner with friends when suddenly there was a knock on our door. When we opened the door, no one was there but there was a big box sitting on our doorstep! Neither one of us were expecting anything so we had no clue what it might be. The return address on the box said that the package was from Louisiana, where Mason oversees a lot of drilling sites for work, so he figured it was some type of holiday gift from one of the companies he does business with. Well you have never seen two people tear into a box with as much excitement as we did, because what were we hoping would be inside??? Is it?? Could it be?? A turkey!?!?! YES!!!! Inside the box was a TURDUCKEN!!! A turducken is a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey with a layer of cornbread dressing and pork stuffing in between each bird! It was sent to us from Herbert's Specialty Meats located in Maurice, LA. According to their website, they are the inventors of the turducken. David, who hosted us when we were in Lafayette and took us to the LSU game a few weeks ago, sent the turkey to us... so sweet! I have never tried one before but have always wanted to. I mean how freaking weird is it that yesterday I was blog pouting about not getting a turkey and then low and behold a bird in a box shows up on our doorstep that very night! It's a Thanksgiving Miracle! :) Mase and I are going to wait to cook it when we get back from our vacation, so I'll have to let you know how it is! I have never cooked a turkey before...should be interesting! ;)

Turkey Day Blues

I am absolutely not complaining at all....not one teensy bit! I know I am super lucky to be going to NYC over Thanksgiving break this year and I truly can not wait! I can't help being a tiny bit sad though that for the first time EVER my Thanksgiving Day will be lacking turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, buttermilk pie, and every other food on the buffet that is oozing with butter. Going without turkey, however, will be the worst part this year because it's not just any 'ol turkey I'll be missing out on, it's a Greenburg turkey!!! Mmmm....my family has ordered a delicious smoked turkey from this East Texas turkey farm every year of my life for Thanksgiving! It is the best thing in the world, seriously! Oprah even featured it as one of her favorite things one year and you KNOW if Oprah likes it is HAS to be good! Instead of feasting on our normal T-day staples, Mase and I will be dining in Times Square at ESPN Zone watching the TEXAS vs. A&M game! Ha, very traditional I know! ;) So please everyone, save me some leftovers!

B-day Boys!

HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY Mason!!!!!

The past 2 years and 5 months have been perfect with you in my life!

I love you and can't wait to celebrate your birthday tonight!!

Also, happy birthday to Cameron (Mase's twin bro) too!!I hope you both have Fab B-days today! :)

First Day on the Job!

I know that I have been slacking a little on the blogging (especially last week). My absence was for a very good reason though! Last week I started subbing!!! :) Not permanently, yet. I am still working at my current financial job until the end of the year. However, I was able to substitute teach on Thursday and Friday of last week! I was so nervous on my first day, not knowing what to expect and having had no real experience in the classroom! On Thursday, I subbed for a middle school 8th grade science teacher. He was very prepared and left me an easy to follow lesson plan for the day. My first class of the day was soo well-behaved, but each class after that kept getting worse and Worse and WORSE! I was having to remind them to be quiet and stay in their seats over and over again in my best teacher voice! I really surprised myself though with how good I was at having control and keeping them on task! All of these teaching phrases just kept flying out of my mouth and by the end of the day I had perfected the mad teacher stare (which works soo well I might add ;)! Haha, I guess it just came naturally to me! I have a younger brother and sister and have always been the bossy older sister, so I guess that has really prepared me for my role as a teacher! :) The whole time I just kept wishing I could video myself so that my friends and fam could see me at work! It was too funny! I even confiscated a note going around about the "hot sub" and how they wanted to get a picture of me on their camera phone. Geez!

On Friday, I subbed for another middle school science teacher at a different school and this time it was for 7th grade. I liked 7th grade a lot better than 8th, not as sassy! These kids were a lot better than my kids the previous day too and I really didn't have to get on to them very much at all. I will say this though, teaching is the most exhausting job I have ever had. I left the building each day limping to my car (I need better teaching shoes) and really feeling that I had earned every penny that I had made. Even so, it really was so much fun and both days went by so fast! I am so excited about my new career and will really be so happy once I have a classroom of my very own! Until then I am content being the hot sub for now, haha, and Mason is really enjoying all of my stories that I have to share with him about my day! Way more entertaining than the ones of me working in the corporate world! :)