We Won the Lottery!!

Ok so we won the "Wicked Lottery"
We did a couple lotteries for Broadway shows when my family was here but since that was the busiest week of the year in NYC we didn't win a thing. Tyler left to sell in Texas today so we wanted to do something fun this weekend before he left. So we thought we'd try the lottery again. Even though it was a Saturday night we thought that there would be less people than during the holidays, wrong! There were just as many people, like 100-150. I was bummed but of course had to go for it. We put our names in and waited in the cold (single digits, below 0 with windchill!) They started announcing the winners and my name was called fifth! I flipped out (inside) and took my place in line...

Me in line with other winners while they finished the raffle,
trying to suppress my ecstaticness

What does it mean to win the Wicked Lottery? Oh just front row tickets to that nights show for $25!!! It was crazy being that close to the show. This picture is taken from our seats, where we could touch the stage without even leaning forward.

I have seen the show 3 times and each time has been a completely different experience; different companions, different seats. It is such an amazing story and I love finding more and more parallels every time I see it. We feel very lucky to be living here with such great opportunities like this and so many fun things we can do together!

Happy Birthday Hubby!!

Today is Tyler's 26th birthday! I had to post this picture of my smokin husband sporting some of his birthday gear and let everyone (and Ty) know how much I love my hubby. I couldn't ask for a better man in my life. He is so amazing. I am so grateful for his example and love.
Happy birthday Ty!
I love you!!!

Holidays with the Family

NOTE: the pics are small, you can click on them to see them larger.

DAY 1
12-26-08

We started the week off with some shopping, like mad shopping! It was awesome. Thank you Santa for the $!

We experienced "street food" for the first time. I have been here 8 months and have never had street food! Crazy

That night we went to the Broadway show, Gypsy with Patti LuPone.
It was so fun!

DAY 2
12-27-08

We started off the day in Central Park. It is my favorite place in the city. My sister kept pointing out all of the scenes from the movie Enchanted.

Then we moved on to the American Museum of Natural History. I loved this Christmas tree they had displayed decorated in origami animals.

That night we ventured to Greenwich Village for some Two Boots Pizza and La Arte de Gelato. Unfortunately we don't have a pic of us with our gelato because everyone was so focused on the creamy goodness and we forgot :(

DAY 3

12-28-08

After church on Sunday we went on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. It was my Dad's idea to explore Staten Island for a while so that we had perfect timing on our way back and were able to see this beautiful sunset.

We then walked to the South Street Seaport to check out the Brooklyn Bridge and all the fun that goes on at the Pier. (Notice the lack of coats in this pic, the high that day was 63!)

We came home and made some sweet gingerbread trains!
Girls vs. Boys!

DAY 4
12-29-08

We spent the majority of this day exploring through lower Manhattan. We visited Ground Zero and then walked along the water and through the streets. It was fun exploring an area that I was not familiar with. I love how extremely different all the areas of Manhattan are. Its like a new city every 20 blocks!

That night we went to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and all of the 5th avenue stores and their Christmas windows. The Bergdorf Goodman windows were my favorite by far! They were so intricate and beautiful.

DAY 5

12-30-08

Since my work was closed for the week it was a perfect time to play show and tell and show my family where I work. (in the pic on the right i am holding a Jamie Drake Muppet that a vendor gave him for Christmas, it was so funny)

The picture on the bottom left is from our apartment and you can see the island that is in the middle of the East River between us and Manhattan. This is Roosevelt Island and my dad was so intrigued in the history of this island so we took the tram across to check it out. It turned out to be way cool!

We couldn't stay on the island long because we had a tour scheduled of the NBC studios. This was one of my favorite things we did. It was so cool to see "behind the scenes" of some of their studios. Wouldn't my family make a great news team!? :)

We went to do the lottery for a couple of shows. Seeing how this was the busiest week of the year in NYC we didn't win a thing. But it brought us to Times Square often and this night was New Years Eve - Eve. We debated off and on and decided that we weren't going to do the Times Square New Years Eve party for a number of reasons 1-it was supposed to snow and be 15 degrees (it ended up being 1 degree) 2-you have to get in your "grid" at like 1:00 and just stay there until midnight. So it was fun to see them getting ready for the party. They had stages set up and were doing practice interviews and practice countdowns and stuff. I say it was good enough :)

DAY 6
12-31-08

As forecasted, it was snowing this day so we decided it was a good day for another museum. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A friend at work had told me about this amazing tree they set up in the Medieval section. There was an amazing nativity scene all around the base and then the tree was decorated with beautiful angels.

I must include the Subway entertainment portion of our adventure. This lady/man (we weren't sure) was posing as a human statue. She was actually really good! This homeless man kept bugging her, it was pretty crazy. When people gave her money she gave them something. My brother wanted to see what it was so he took her a dollar she gave him a little red heart that said "Peace in your Heart". How sweet (and weird)

DAY 7
1-1-08

We had a short day with packing and plane to catch so we decided we had to squeeze in a visit to Serendipity. We put our name in and were seated an hour and a half later. It was worth the wait as it always is.
That frozen hot chocolate is the best!

Thank you family for an amazing week in New York.
It was so fun to have you here!
We love you!

A New York Christmas...just the beginning

Tyler got home from working in Las Vegas today! He helped me wrap all of our Christmas presents (something I had on my list to do before he got back) I love having the house decorated for Christmas, there is nothing better than a room light by Christmas lights.

I love seeing the random scenes of "normalcy" in NYC. This snowman was built in between parked cars on the side of the street. I guess you squeeze it in where you can. Our first snow storm was on Friday and it was amazing. The flakes were so big and it fell so slowly. I don't know if it was windy or if it was the height at which I watched the snow fall but the flakes weren't just falling down they were dancing every which way. It was beautiful and once again reminded me how lucky we are to be living here and experiencing all that this amazing city has to offer.

Workaholic

You know work and life become too intermingled when you chat through instant messenger with a vendor and report in staff meeting that you are now friends with a client on facebook.

So has been the story of my life for the last month. I have been working like crazy. We were approached by a couple from Paris 4 weeks ago. They just bought a two bedroom apartment in the Manhattan House and want to spend the holidays in NYC in their new apartment. They hired Drake Design to design, order and install their space in 4 weeks. IMPOSSIBLE! ..or is it.

Another designer named Darrin and I were given this project and we have been working like mad men (women?) ever since. We designed the space and sent our presentation to the clients through email because they were still in Paris. That same day Darrin went to Florida to install another project. The next morning we got the response that the clients didnt like anything we proposed. So I get a call from Jamie (who is conviently out of town as well) saying that I need to re-design the whole scheme and propose it to them asap. So I spent the next 48 hours making selections, emailing them to Jamie for approval and then on to the clients. It was crazy doing it all by myself. Fortunately they approved the second scheme and I proceeded with placing orders (begging and dropping Jamie's good name to get this stuff in weeks when regularly it would take months) Long story short (long story long) we have given them a furnished apartment including a custom sectional sofa in just 4 weeks! The clients landed today at 3:45 and I didnt leave the apartment until 4:30. (yes i worked an 8 hour day on a Saturday) Thanks to NYC traffic I was out before they came. whew

It was crazy and stressful and I'm exhausted but it is also so rewarding to basically have my own project and to see it though the whole process down to placing the roses on the table.

I love my job and am so grateful for the opportunity that we have to be out here experiencing all that we are.

(sorry so long and lame pics, but I had to please the mother by posting something)

South Street Seaport Tree Lighting

This weekend Tyler and I went to the tree lighting at the South Street Seaport. It is such a fun part of town. There is a pier that over looks the Brooklyn Bridge and across to Brooklyn. There are fun shops and restaurants with cobblestone roads. The beautifully light 50' tree, the Big Apple Chorus singing carols and New York City’s most acclaimed Santa (in his 18th season) made this night so much fun! It totally put us into the Christmas spirit. So naturally, we went home and put out all of our Christmas stuff. We are so excited for the Christmas season here in New York!

An NYC Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving in New York City was amazing! On Thanksgiving "eve" we went downtown and did some parade attire shopping for the big event the next day. The Empire State Building was light up with Thanksgiving colors, love it!

Thanksgiving morning Tyler met up with some guys from our ward at 6:00 am to save our spot for the parade. The girls and I came later. The guys did great and got us right up front. The parade was so much fun! The weather was beautiful and not even that cold! The news said that 10,000 people were in the parade and that 3.5 million attend!

The balloons were my favoriteMile Cyrus, David Archuleta, Kristin Chenoweth, Trace Adkins
The celebrities were fun too! I have tried really hard to find famous people in NY but this is as close as i've come (so far)

The briefcase drill team was so awesome! I loved them! Another group that we liked was the "second time arounders" They had a huge marching band with dancers and color guard and everything and they were all older people. I loved the "out of the norm" acts.

And more fun balloons!

Utah Trip

This weekend Tyler and I flew to Utah for my friend, Katie's wedding. I must start describing this eventful day and the very beginning. It was 4:45 am and I was driving to the airport. The roads in New York are terrible so it didn't concern me when the car was driving all lopsided. Well I did get concerned when the car went out of control and was smoking. I was able to pull over to the shoulder (not all freeways even have a shoulder, blessing!). I got out and realized that one of my tires blew up! Since I didn't pull over right away there was only like 6 more inches that it was even attached to the wheel. I started panicing for many reasons, 1-Tyler was in California 2-I had a flight to catch 3-I was too freaked out to attempt to change the tire myself. So what do you do when you are stuck on the side of a New York freeway all alone at 4:45 in the morning...? I prayed obviously. Then I called the road side service that our insurance provides. As they were in the middle of telling me that I was on a restricted highway that only allows certain companies to bring towing vehicles, a tow truck was backing up to me. I stared in atonishment at the miracle and told the insurance guy i would call him back. I got out and the guy said that someone had called and said that I was in danger. The nice guy changed my tire for me and i was in and out in less than a half hour and I made my flight with a little time to spare. It was such a miracle and I truely had my prayer answered!

Tyler and I attended Katie and Zach's luncheon and reception later that night. It was so fun to see them and all of my friends. I have missed my studio friends a lot and loved seeing them all again!

We were able to spend time with both of our familes as well which is always fun. Thank you everyone for such a fun trip!

23rd Birthday!

I celebrated my 23rd birthday this weekend. It was such a great day. Tyler and I had a pre-party early in the morning so that I could open his present to me which was a super cute coat! He was so cute with the wrapping of it, we didn't have any wrapping paper and I guess buying some at the store is not as fun so he went to the subway where an old man hands out the AM New York every morning. He cut out words and letters from the paper to make my card, so cleaver.
At work, Darrin, a designer I work with, gave me Happy Birthday flowers. It was so thoughtful of him. They were so fun to have on my desk all day, so bright and cheerful! Then the office suprised me with tons of different little pastries with a candle in one for me, a sweet card, wine (woo hoo! :)) and they even sang to me! It was a great day, I love the people that I work with.
Then when I got home, my sweet husband was waiting for me with a beautiful bouquet! He made reservations for us at this little Italian Restaurant near our apartment called Bella Via. The food was really good and my company was even better :) Props to Ty for making my first birthday away from family so great! He made me feel special all day long. Thank you Tyler!

Halloween pt. 2

Tyler made it home from California just in time for our ward Halloween party. I was so glad to have him back and all dressed up with me! The ward had a chili cook off so we had lots of different kinds of chili (there was a chocolate chili even) and the best part....cornbread! Someone made this cornbread that tasted just like cake! There was a trunk-n-treat in the parking lot for the kids, even some karaoke.! We had a good time! We love our ward!

Isn't he a great pirate!! :)

Me and my nursery kids!

Tyler and I were just called as Nursery leaders in our ward. We are so excited to serve and teach the cute kids in our ward.

These are some of my favorite costumes at the party. The family of the cute "flower" baby were bees, they were my favorite family costume!

Halloween pt. 1

Alpha Workshops puts on an amazing Halloween party every year at the New York Design Center called the Alpha Workshops Masquerade Ball. Tyler was out of town still so I went to the party with a group from work. We started the party at about 5:00 when we turned the office into a zoo. We were all running around putting on make up and spraying hairspray, we got pizza and turned up the music! The pre-party was so fun!! Then we all hopped in cabs and went to the party. The tickets to the party were $125, kindly Jamie paid for all of us and our guests, we took a group of 48 Drake-ers! The catering was amazing! There were three open bars so I had all the white grape juice I wanted!! :) There were lots of people carrying around trays with super fancy versions of mac-n-cheese, mini hamburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches and fries, etc. There was cotton candy, popcorn, and pretzle machines. It was way fun! Our Drake Crew staked our our spot on the dance floor (taking up half of the room) and danced the night away! I was way bummed that Tyler couldn't be there but it was fun to bond with my coworkers!