NYC

This summer we planned a surprise birthday trip for my mom. She turned the big 6-0 on December 14th, and we planned to take her to New York City the weekend after her birthday to celebrate. We told her about the trip on her birthday, and she was so excited to go! Unfortunately she got very sick that week, and our tickets and the hotel room were already paid for and were non-refundable. Since none of us had any idea how sick my mom actually was, and because she insisted that we still go without her, the three kids went on the trip without my parents.

Jonathan, Sarah and I left on Thursday night and got into NYC around midnight. On Friday we got up early and went to the Today Show. When we were sufficiently freezing, we went to Dean & Deluca for coffee. We also explored Rockefeller Center and the enormous Christmas tree. We were wandering around, trying to decide what to do next, when we saw Matt Lauer about 5 feet from us on the sidewalk! As huge Today Show fans, this was the best experience ever! The only thing I could think to say was, “Matt! We love you!” He stopped and looked right at me and said, “Thank you!” Then Jonathan told him happy birthday, and he said, “Thanks, guys!” What a nice guy! I think he probably loves us, too.

Next we went to the top of the Empire State Building, saw Madison Square Gardens, had a famous Nathan’s hot dog, and wandered around mid-town. We went back to the hotel after that for a nap and to wait on Jonathan’s friend, Charles, to meet us. That night we went to a yummy Japanese restaurant and to a couple of fun bars. We were so happy to have Charles there to show us around! He lived in NYC for about 3 years previously, so he was a great asset to the trip.

On Saturday we went to the Statue of Liberty where we got to go all the way to the top of the crown. It was an amazing view, but a very scary climb both up and down. Yikes! We also went to Ellis Island and saw where thousands of immigrants were introduced to our country. Next we went to a famous pizza place for lunch, Lombardi's. Then we split up – Sarah and I hit China Town and SoHo for shopping while the boys went to Central Park and Yankee Stadium. Sarah and I found some GREAT deals and had a blast shopping together. We even saw a fun Christmas parade in China Town and bought her a Coach purse from a green Dodge Caravan on the side of the road. Great memories!

When we got back to the hotel that evening, we learned that New York City was expecting to get between 9-14 inches of snow and that the airport had already shut down for the weekend. We learned that the earliest we would be assured a flight out was Thursday – Christmas Eve. We tried everything we could think of to get out of New York, and we finally resorted to renting a car in Newark, New Jersey and driving back to St. Louis. After our travel plans were finally set, we set out for a two block walk through the snow to a sports bar for dinner and so the boys could watch a football game. The way there wasn’t so bad, but on our way back it was incredibly cold with the wind blowing and snow everywhere. I guess that’s what it’s like to be stuck in a blizzard! I have never been so happy to be inside.

Sunday morning we were up at 5:30. We dragged our luggage through the snowy streets of Manhattan – past Ground Zero – to a subway station. From there we took a subway to Newark and caught a taxi to take us to the Newark airport. (Side note: our taxi driver was a Jamaican man who kept sliding all over the road. He would say, “I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all!” We were trying to be sympathetic, but we just really wanted him to take us to the rental car place! It was so funny.) From there we rented our car and began our 15 1/2 hour drive back to St. Louis. We went through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, and finally Missouri. Whew! Definitely not the ideal way to get back from New York, but another great memory. The best part was that we all got along the whole way and still liked each other when we got to our house. :-)

Here are some of the many pictures we took from our trip. Despite missing our parents and the interesting trip home, we still managed to have a blast. I love NYC!

WARNING: There are a LOT of pictures…

With our beautiful signs at the Today Show

Oh, Christmas tree! Oh, Christmas tree!

In front of the tree at Rockefeller Center (or, as Jonathan called it, 30 Rock)

Sarah and I in front of Rockefeller Center

Sarah and Jonathan “posing” with Matt Lauer in the NBC Store

View from the top of the Empire State Building

Sarah and Jonathan at the Empire State Building

Sarah and I pose next to a replica of the Empire State Building

Sarah had the brilliant idea to bring mom and dad along…as “Flat Ed and Flat Sus.” They went everywhere with us!

Sarah and I at dinner

Out at a bar…nice bunny ears, huh?

Flat Sus and Flat Ed having some cocktails

Lady Liberty

At the top of the Statue of Liberty’s crown

Sarah posing with a torch that was taken off the Statue of Liberty

This picture is just ridiculous…we made everyone around us on the ferry laugh!

At Ellis Island near the “Kissing Pole” where many families were reunited

Eating pizza at Lombardi's

Part of the Christmas parade in China Town

At Bloomingdale’s (a.k.a. heaven)

I had to include this picture because we were at a sample sale in SoHo. I’ve always wanted to go to a sample sale! Confessions of a Shopaholic, anyone?

Sarah says this is her favorite picture. It doesn’t even do the “blizzard” justice, but I’ve never been so cold in my life! Now I understand why people don’t survive blizzards. Brrrrr!

The snowy streets of Manhattan

Getting into our fabulous rental car for the l-o-n-g journey home

Flat Ed and Flat Sus were very good in the car. They never even complained!

And just a little something to leave you with…We <3 NYC!

My mom

We found out on December 23rd that my mom has cancer. It was a very hard thing to hear, especially around the holidays. However we were very thankful to all be together and to be there for her during this difficult time. She has already been through one surgery and is now at home resting in her comfortable bed. Tomorrow she will meet with a team of oncologists to find out what the “plan of action” will be. We are incredibly thankful for her wonderful doctor in Tulsa and all the great nurses who helped her get to this point, and are praying for great oncologists for the next part of this journey. We would appreciate everyone’s prayers for the appointment tomorrow. I know my mom is very anxious to get started on her treatment plan, so please pray for patience as this is probably going to be a long process. Also pray for wisdom for the oncologists to pick the right mix of medicines to completely rid her body of all the tumors, and for strength for my dad and sister as they hear what is in store and begin down this long road. It is very hard for Jonathan and I to be so far away – it’s always been hard for us, but this definitely compounds those feelings. We are planning on going back next weekend and every chance we can. Thanks to everyone for all your many thoughts, emails, phone calls, but most importantly prayers. We know that God is in control and has all of our lives in His hands. We are confident that He knows what He’s doing and that He has amazing plans for my mom and her life! We love you, mom!

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think…

Ephesians 3:20

We've started a website to keep everyone updated on my mom's progress. You are welcome to visit it. She loves reading the notes people leave in the Journal:

www.caringbridge.org/visit/SusanMSchmidt

Funny letters

Okay I promise this is the last time I’ll post today.  I had my students write some letters to our principal this week for their writing center.  Here are some of the funny things they wrote:

Dear Dr. P,

I have some ideys to make Henry better. Make the play gerows (grounds) biger. have more books in the library. make the bthday ribins priteyer (birthday ribbons prettier).

Love, A

Dear Dr. P,

Do you have a radery (reindeer)? If not it is ok. Do you have a kid? ok. I love you Dr. P.

Sincerely, E

Dear Dr. P,

What do you do all day as a principal? What is your favorite thing as a principal? how long have you been a principal? how old are you? I love going to this school. I hope you have a stupendis Cristmas.

Your friend, Z

Happy Hanukkah!

Friday night was the first night of Hanukkah.  We were excited to have Mike here to help us light the first candle. 

Where have we been?!?

I realized I’m way behind on posting.  As you can tell, I’m trying to get caught up from the past several weeks.  Life has just been super busy lately!  We’ve been mostly busy with work and traveling.  At the beginning of November, Jonathan went on a boy’s trip to New Orleans with several friends from St. Louis.  They had a great time, so I hear!  While he was gone I went to Oklahoma for the weekend.  Jill was having a cocktail party on Friday night, and Megan helped me plan a surprise for the girls since they had surprised me last month.  It was really fun to see everyone and hang out at Jill’s new house – which is super cute!  Then I headed to Tulsa to spend Saturday night and Sunday with my mom.  After that we made our two Thanksgiving trips (see posts below.)  Since we’ve been back, I’ve been frantically trying to get ready for the holidays.  Last weekend I got the house cleaned up and organized before putting up the Christmas decorations.  On Saturday night we had my work holiday party, which is always a good time.  Henry teachers and staff sure know how to party! 

This weekend Mike is in town helping us fix some of the electrical issues in our house.  Oh, the joys of owning an older home!  He and Jonathan have been busy changing out the switches and receps (look at me…I’m learning new vocabulary!)  Apparently our house has aluminum wiring instead of copper, and that’s not a good thing.  But Mike is so incredibly nice to come up and help us get the upstairs fixed.  I’m just so happy that we finally have all matching “toggle” switches (what most people have) instead of a mixture of “toggle” and “paddle” switches.  We’re moving up in the world, people!  On Friday night we went to eat at our favorite Italian restaurant, Cunneto’s.  On Saturday, while the boys were hard at work, I made a mad dash to do our Christmas shopping.  I had done NOTHING before yesterday, and I probably looked like a mad woman with my list and the crazy look in my eye.  But I am very happy to report that I got all but 3 things!  That’s pretty incredible, I think.  I would’ve finished had I not needed to come home and get ready for a party.  That night I went to our church Christmas party where I helped the kids make gingerbread houses.  Super fun, but very messy!  Today we went to brunch with Sarah, Dave and Samuel.   It’s been so fun having Mike here.  Too bad he can’t stay longer…

When Jonathan and I bought our house, we definitely could see the “potential” in it.  When we first moved in, we painted EVERYTHING upstairs and did a few decorating-type renovations.  Next we renovated the basement a couple years ago and have loved having the extra space.  Recently we’ve been looking online and driving around St. Louis looking for new homes.  Mostly we just get irritated with some of the “issues” of our older home.  I finally, however, had the epiphany that we have a great house that we should be so thankful for.  We’ve have more than enough room for now, and we really do like a lot of things about it.  It’s also not the best economy to try to sell a house, especially when we put a lot more money into our basement than I’m sure we could get back at this point.  So, with all that being said, we’ve come up with some new updates we’re going to try to accomplish in the next few months.  They include the electrical issues (finished this weekend…yea!), painting and changing all the hardware on the interior doors, replacing the carpet throughout the upstairs, new kitchen countertops, and finishing the crown molding and replacing all the baseboards upstairs.  So if I don’t post for another few weeks, I guess you’ll know where I am. :-)  Home projects…here I come!  

Playing in the Leaves

While we were in Tulsa, Samuel had fun playing with Savta (Judy) in the leaves.  It was pretty cute…

Thanksgiving in Oklahoma

We came back to St. Louis to work for 2 days before leaving again for Oklahoma.  We got to Tulsa on Tuesday night and stayed until Sunday.  It was so nice to have all that time to spend with family!  We have spent the last 4 years having Thanksgiving in St. Louis, so it was a special treat for us to go back home this year.  Jonathan always spent Thanksgiving in Kansas City when he was growing up, so this was his very first time to be in Oklahoma!  We spent the first part of the weekend at Jonathan’s parent’s house in Tulsa with Mike, Judy, Sarah, Dave and Samuel.  We got to see some of Jonathan’s good friends on Thursday and enjoyed hanging out and catching up. 

On Friday we took some photos with my best friend, Melissa, in downtown Tulsa.  We needed a good one for our Christmas card this year, and she was so nice to fit us in while we were on town.  After that we headed to Bartlesville on Friday to see my family.  We enjoyed relaxing and eating even more Thanksgiving food with them.  On Saturday we went to Megan’s parent’s house with some of our friends and their families to watch the OU vs. OSU game.  I honestly never imagined that OU would play as well as they did, and it was a little bit hard to be happy about it when so many of the nice people there were rooting for Orange.  But don’t kid yourself…deep down I was cheering as loud as I could! 

Overall it was a wonderful Thanksgiving break.  We are so thankful for all of our family and friends.  I honestly never imagined being so lucky to be surrounded by so many great people in my life.  It’s incredible to have such close relationships with many people who live far away.  Every time I’m around our Oklahoma family and friends, it’s like we’ve never missed a beat. I’m also so thankful that Jonathan and I both have great jobs that we love and wonderful friends that we’ve made in St. Louis.  It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for 3 full years!  It really feels like home to us these days and I am so grateful for the friends we’ve made here also – they’re our family in St. Louis for sure!  (Along with the Glassers, of course.)  Alright, enough with the sappy talk.  On to the pictures…  

  Samuel doesn’t sit still much these days, but he did snuggle with me to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade on Thursday for a good 30 minutes.  It was a perfect way to spend the morning!

Watching the parade with Samuel – I explained all the important parts to him

Uncle Jonathan and Samuel playing Dr. Mario…old school style

Jonathan, Sarah and Dave

Before Thanksgiving dinner with my hubby

With mom and dad Teal…I love my in-laws!

Judy, me and Jonathan

Samuel with his olives…mmm!

Side note…I don’t have any pictures on my camera for the Bartlesville visit.  I’ll have to get some from my sister and post later!  I promise I love them, too. :-)

Thanksgiving in Kansas City

The weekend of November 20th, we headed to Kansas City to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jonathan’s family.  Side note: The Friday night before, I went to see New Moon with my sister-in-law and one of her friends.  It was AMAZING!!!  And I’m completely in love with Edward.  It’s all Sarah’s fault for getting me addicted to this craziness.   I do, however, think it’s fun to have something to get excited about, even if it is teenage vampires.  I’m such a sucker for love stories.  Anyway, since we were busy that night with the movie and dessert afterward, Jonathan decided to head to KC early to hang out with his parents.  Sarah and Dave were planning on driving separate cars, so it worked out nicely that I could ride with her and discuss every detail of the movie all over again on Saturday.  (Plus Dave and Jonathan didn’t have to listen to us – that’s just a win-win situation if you ask me!)

The whole family got together for dinner at Bube and Zayde’s house.  It was really fun to see everyone and spend time with them.  Plus Bube called me a “hippie” for wearing torn jeans, so that just made my day!  She’s so funny.  Here are a few pictures Sarah got from the weekend:

A picture with the whole family

Jonathan and Bube 

Samuel loved playing with Uncle Jonathan in the leaves

Our favorite little guy

Samuel came to visit this weekend, and he even stayed the night. Friday was Sarah and Dave’s 5th Anniversary, and we thought it would be fun for them to have a night off.  Samuel got here around 5:00.  We had a yummy dinner of burgers, tater tots, baked beans, and some steamed broccoli.  Samuel mostly ate broccoli and pickles.  He saw the pickles when I got some out for my burger, and he was relentless in asking for them.  He would say, “ckles” over and over until we gave him more.  I’m just glad he didn’t get a dirty diaper while he was here – I can’t imagine what it looked like after all that green stuff.  Ewww!  Next we played Legos and colored until it was time for bed.  He went down around 8:00 and only cried for a couple of minutes.  Luckily he only woke up once during the night, too…he definitely made parenting look easy.

On Saturday morning we were up at 7:00.  I think that’s a new record for us!  But it was nice to be up early for once.  We made some pancakes and then went to the playground at the elementary school by our house.  Samuel had fun playing, but I think Jonathan and Lola had the most fun.  Jonathan took her down the twisty slide – I was so worried he would hurt her.  But apparently she loved it because she went again all by herself.  What a weirdo!  She’s such a funny dog.  Maybe we could train her to do that and make some money off of her…ha ha!  I just wish I had taken the camera with us.  Oh well.

It was kind of sad when Samuel left that morning.  We had so much fun hanging out with him!  Come back soon, Samuel, and Happy Anniversary, Sarah and Dave.  We love you all!!!

Asking Uncle Jonathan for more “ckles”

It was so cute having this little man eat dinner with us at the table!

 

Coming back from the playground.  At one point he was carrying 4 sticks.  I’m sure they were treasures in his mind!

Brian and Amy's Wedding

On Friday we went to Brian and Amy's wedding. The ceremony was in Amy's parent's backyard, and it was absolutely beautiful! The weather wasn't exactly cooperating before the ceremony, but it cleared off just in time! The leaves were gorgeous and they had twinkle lights and lanterns hanging all over them. I didn't get any pictures of the ceremony, but maybe I can borrow some from other people to post later.

After the ceremony we headed to the banquet hall for their reception. Amy has just started her own wedding planning business, and you can tell that she will be wonderful at it. Everything was beautiful...down to the last detail. I just loved the fall colors and decorations.

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Snyder! We are so happy for you both.

The happy couple

Jonathan and the groom

Amy and Missy

Me, Mallory, Michelle, Kim, Heather and Jen

Brian and Jonathan

Me and Jonathan

Mallory and Brian

Jen and Tim

The candy bar

Yummy cupcakes

The cake was amazing - a cake topper with cupcakes

The crossword

One of Brian and Amy's favorite things to do together is crossword puzzles, so they gave each of us a personalized crossword. Everyone was very intent on finishing it before the new couple arrived, but I mostly had fun taking pictures of it. I did find "I love you," though. So appropriate!