One Week

So Orie and I are counting the days until we will be home for the holidays!! One week and we are so excited. I would imagine Grace is the most excited to go home and play with Mia, Sedona, Katie and Annie! She loves having doggie friends.

See you all very soon.

Happy Birthday Geoff!

Well our good friend Geoff turned the big 30 yesterday. We celebrated Louisiana style with dinner in the village at Mara's Homemade. Some of Geoff's friends and co-workers joined us and it was a great night. Thanks for a reason to celebrate Geoff - it was much fun! Enjoy the photos!

We wish you a happy rainy day!!!

So it has been rain rain rain rain rain rain rain in NYC lately. No snow :( and cold cold rain!

Just thought I would blog about that while asking for all of our loyal fans to comment about our blog so that we know you love keeping up with Di and Orie in NYC!

Sometimes we never know if we are writing this for ourselves or if our friends and family are keeping up with our journey through life. Give us a shout out (through a comment or e-mail) and let us know!

Have a great week!

p.s. even though I know she doesn't have e-mail, internet access, or probably even know what a blog is....Happy Birthday Mama Tee!!! She is #$&^%#@ years old today and still going strong!

Yes...Snow!!!

It snowed ever so briefly last night and it was fantastic!!! Orie and Geoff were so kind to join me on a short stroll in the snow. I was so ready to see snow on the ground this morning...not the case. It didn't stick and so far no snow today. I'll keep waiting. Until the next snow...here are some pics from our first white night!

And We're Dancing!

This is cute - enjoy!
Click Here - Holiday Dance

NYC version of...

Well last night we went on the New York version of looking at Christmas lights. You know how families load up the car and drive the best neighborhoods to look at lights. I remember once driving all the way to Benton to look at great Christmas lights!

We had a blast walking around midtown and taking in all the sights. Enjoy some photos of several window displays, the tree at rock center, and some nice drummer boys near the Waldorf!

Christmas is a coming.......

Enjoy some new holiday music on the playlist! I am so excited about Christmas time this year. We are headed to the south for some great family, friends, and fun!!!

What a Thanksgiving we had...

So this is a little late post...BUT we are exhausted after such a fun Thanksgiving celebration. Mom, Dad & Kat arrived on Thursday and the fun began immediately. They approved of our apartment - small and quaint but they thought it had lots of charm!! We entertained them with wine and cheese and crab meat appetizers before our Thanksgiving Dinner. Geoff was able to join us for this celebration and we had a great evening. I should probably note that we were the ONLY table in the restaurant for dinner on Thanksgiving!! It was a great restaurant and well reviewed but we were definitely the only ones who enjoyed it that evening. The staff was far from interested in playing around or joking with us about this. Fun was had by all. We even walked to Times Square after dinner just to make sure we had all seen it at night before!!! What fun!

Friday we braved the crowds for a little Black Friday shopping. After enjoying our bug bagels at the neighborhood place we somehow ended up in a cab headed to Macy's...yes Macy's. It was nuts! Orie and Dad left immediately for a bathroom, electronics store and then on to Legends (the LSU bar). Mom, Kat and I went straight to shoes. Kat had a mission on this trip and we thought why not look for those items at Macy's. We browsed the jewelry for a bit and then headed up to shoes. She found the perfect shoe and one hour later we had checked out with that shoe and were on our way OUT!!! The wait was unbelievable and we kept our patience and sweet southern smiles to charm the sales associate. It didn't work as well as we had planned but we were successful in the end.

We headed back home at this point to watch LSU lose once again. Very disappointing. We enjoyed a great time at my apartment. I loved being able to entertain and realized that our apartment will never be to small for family! Friday evening we went to Uva, our favorite restaurant, for a fabulous evening. We even walked home...against Kat's wishes in her new shoes! What fun laughs we had.

Saturday we headed to New Jersey to visit the family for some Thanksgiving cheer. Beth and everyone prepared a wonderful meal and we really enjoyed our time with everyone. We were able to meet John, the newest addition to the Meldrum/Guelich family. Poppy was pretty proud to have so many of us there. It was a great afternoon.

Sunday we braved the rain and set out for some shopping. We hit Bryant Park, Zara, a new store Kat heard about, the precious store in SoHo, some of our usual hot spots and then the rain and cold wiped us out. We relaxed at the apartment for the afternoon and then headed to Carmine's, dad's request, for dinner. It was a great place that Dad had been before with some friends and wanted to introduce to us. Much fun and more leftovers for the Hunter house than I have ever seen.

Well, that being our last night we couldn't call it an early night! We headed to the Waldorf for after dinner drinks and it was such a treat. We laughed, texted, and had so much fun. Orie and I were exhausted Monday morning for work but it was well worth it!!

Thanks Mom and Dad for such a fabulous Thanksgiving. The food, wine, family, friends, and laughs were priceless. You can all come back anytime...you can even bring those Varnadores next time!!! We love you all! Enjoy some pics from our days...

Happy Thanksgiving

We have been to the park and it is a gorgeous day in the city. We are anxiously awaiting our fun family...enjoy our morning photos.

Thanksgiving Eve...

I think this is a celebration we should all start to enjoy! I love Thanksgiving Eve in NYC. The streets are empty; the people left are frantically running to the grocery store and wine store to stock up for Turkey Day. All the dogs are excited because they know what tomorrow brings...a nice relaxed day with some definite park time.

For us NYC transplants tomorrow brings great Southern family. We are so excited about their visit and creating a new Thanksgiving memory. This is our third year to do something completely different and new for Thanksgiving in NYC. Orie's first...we went to my aunt beth's house for Thanksgiving day; Orie's second, my first...we last minute decided to cook a traditional Turkey dinner and ditch our upscale dinner reservations; Orie's third, my second...we have great family and friends joining us for a great Thanksgiving night - we are so looking forward to all the fun.

We wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and much fun with your days off from work!

WOO HOO

I am so ready for some family time! My mom, dad and sister Kat are headed to the big apple on Thursday and I am so excited. We are going to have a great time living it up NYC style for Thanksgiving. Family and friends are so important to me and Orie and we are so excited that some fam is making their way to visit.

Good laughs and times are sure promised to come our way. Much happiness and thankfulness to all our family and friend during this Thanksgiving time!

too bad for the tigers...:(

What a let down of a football game...at least we're still smiling! Our Tigers sure couldn't pull it off against Ole Miss. However, we had a great time watching the game with fellow LSU alum! Legends was really a nice place and the crowd was great. They played the fight song and lots of other LSU/Baton Rouge music. It was fantastic and felt almost as good as being in Tiger Stadium. We had a blast!

Sunday was spent running some errands and hanging out with Grace. Her park trips are still nice family outings but now we are FREEZING instead of enjoying the pleasant weather with her!

We hope you all had a great weekend - enjoy some pics and have a great week!

Geaux Tigers!

We are headed to Legends today to watch LSU take on Ole Miss with the alumni group. We are really looking forward to going since the view in switched to this new and bigger locations. Enjoy your day and we'll tell you all about our day soon!

Also...I thought I would add this. My dad e-mails it to me every week from his good friend's daughter. She is quite a clever writer. Enjoy her thoughts on LSU vs. Ole Miss


IT'S GAMEDAY!!!!!!!!

Congratulations and Many Thanks to our outstanding Seniors!

91 Charles Alexander, 40 Caleb Angelle, 30 Chad Baniecki, 48 Darry Beckwith,2 Demetrius Byrd, 38 Brady Dalfrey, 6 Colt David, 99 Marlon Favorite, 17 Josh Graham, 94 Donald Hains, 74 Brett Helms, 93 Tyson Jackson, 79 Herman Johnson,45 Quinn Johnson, 47 Tremaine Johnson, 63 Ryan Miller, 5 Chad Moody, 50 Phillip Pigott, 49 Kirston Pittman, 27 Curtis Taylor

Go to Hell Ole Miss, Go to Hell…

Wild cats Wild hogs and Wild rebels
That Nutt is one wild and crazy guy
So crazy he's now found in Mississippi
The place where coaching careers go to die

They say the runts are feeling frisky
They're all dandied up and ready to fight
But kind of like those guys in West Side Story
They'd really rather pose and dance all night

A week removed from the craziest comeback ever
Kudos to those that cheered the team and stuck around
Your spirit helped them never stop fighting
As the score went up and the clock wound down

We're left again with more questions than answers
Who will show up, Dr Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?
Let's see our Death Valley home team
Take the pipsqueaks for an all too familiar ride

And so we will honor Billy Cannon
Who dealt the Tigers most famous blow
He ran the stake into the heart of those Rebels
For that alone, he deserves a standing O

It's Senior Day in Tiger Stadium
When school and heart and family shines through
One last, sweet win
One last, sweet song
Forever LSU

Jill Savoie

Brrrrrrrr!!!!

Wow - it's cold outside. Today on my walk to work...it was a breezy 16 degrees outside!!!!!!!!!

YIKES it was so cold. I was talking to mom and she was running down the list of things such as a hat, scarf, mittens, etc. I should have. Of course I had all of that; it is now part of the daily routine.

We are hoping for some warmer weather next week when some southern family heads this way!!!

Love and hugs to all. Stay warm and take care.

Brooklyn

Oh yes...we went to Brooklyn again. Wow - this is now my 3rd time for a social event. At least this place wasn't that far - only one stop after leaving Manhattan. We went with friends to Brooklyn Brewery and had a great time. It is a real working Brewery that opens up on Friday nights for people to hang out. They set up picnic tables and people bring games and stuff to play. We played cards!! Crazy eights, Cadillac and some game Orie made up!!! We had a great time.

Orie even showed off his style with our friend John's golf hat. We both kind of liked the look!

After the brewery we went to an arcade type place - pretty crowded and we were still in Brooklyn but it was fun.

Saturday Orie went and worked on a project with some friends and I did a little shopping. That night we went to Geoff's to watch LSU on Gameplan - a disappointing first half. The boredom made me fall asleep. Orie must have done a nice job cheering them on because when I woke up we were winning!!!

This weekend a cold front came through so we had some rain on Saturday and much cooler temperatures today. This weeks should be pretty cold!!

Today we just hung out relaxing and enjoyed a lazy Sunday - hope you all did something fun or relaxing too!

Enjoy some pics from Friday night!

Fall is here!

We had a great weekend. Friday was an evening of nothing for us. Really relaxing and I caught up on some sleep since I wasn't feeling very well.

Saturday we had the pleasure of locking ourselves out of our apartment about 30 minutes before the start of the LSU game. We had to call our super to help us out and he was so rude about it. Has really been rude since then also.

We finally got in our apartment and enjoyed having Geoff over to watch the game. Too bad we lost. I can't believe that we keep losing like this and our quarterback is so terrible! After the game we went and played some pool at a neighborhood spot. It was fun - I have to say I am the better player out of this duo!!

Orie had the day off today and so I took off to hang out with him. We enjoyed a nice day in the park. It was GORGEOUS! What a fun day for all of us.

Enjoy some photos!

New York City Marathon

No, we did not participate in the marathon but we did watch some of the runners go by. It was a little early in the race so the streets in the photos aren't nearly as full as they get further into the day. It runs right down 1st avenue on the UES, which is where we live, and was very exciting. It interfered with my shopping plans today (I couldn't cross the street to go up to the subway) but I made do by taking the downtown bus to 57th street and hopped on the subway there. The police told me that if I wanted to cross the street I would have to go down to 58th street or up to 1oo and something. NO THANKS on foot so I hopped on the bus!

After checking out the marathon we strolled over to the park where Grace had a little squirrel hunt. All in all a good day! Enjoy some pics

Happy Halloween

We spent our Halloween evening on Pier 92 celebrating Brewtopia. It was a beer tasting festival that Orie and our friend Geoff enjoyed last year. It was pretty fun. Lots of people in great costumes and full of character. We enjoyed beers from New York and all over the world. Enjoy some photos!

Wow - time flies!

We have been super busy! We spent a great weekend in Baton Rouge with some friends (not everyone but some :(

We had so much fun being there with everyone, tailgating at the house and enjoying Tiger Stadium. Thanks Dad for giving us the tickets and chance to have a great weekend with friends!

Monday night we met Sandy Owen for dinner in NYC. It was great to visit and catch up with her. Glad to know that all is well with the Traylor/Owen gang!

Tuesday night we had plans with a friend of mine from work and her husband. Super great people and we enjoyed a nice evening of conversation.

I do have to say though - we are really enjoying our first evening home with nothing to do!!!

Our new grill arrived from Jen and Rodney and Orie has just put it together and we are grilling hamburgers tonight. Thanks Jen and Rod for our replacement - the grilling fun on our terrace can continue!

Enjoy the pics from our weekend. Hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy your Halloween!

Dogs, Dogs, and Kay Kay!!

We had a great weekend in the city. Our sweet aunt Kay Kay is now an official New Yorker! She survived her first week in the city! We were so lucky to have her spend the day with us on Saturday. We took in the dog show in Central Park where we saw every breed of dog you can imagine. They were beautiful, the weather was gorgeous and we were all in Heaven!

We even had Grace micro chipped while we were there. A big day!

We enjoyed each moment walking the city with Kay Kay showing her all the sights and sounds of Uptown NYC. We think we may have even found her new home on the Upper West Side. She would be extremely close to where I work, very close to where we live, and anchored on both sides by plenty of green park with Riverside Park to her West and Central Park to her East! We ended our day with a nice dinner at Fetch and shared some great laughs and fun moments. It's so nice to have family in the city!

Enjoy our pics and we hope your weather was as gorgeous as ours this past weekend. It is starting to turn cold but that sun is still just a shining!!!!

LSUTOPIA

Please check out the website Orie and his friends have created for LSU sports chat. Orie built the site and it's pretty impressive - oh our little techy boy!

www.lsutopia.com

GEAUX TIGERS!

Columbus Day Weekend - what exactly are we celebrating?

Well - we loved having a long weekend even though we are not sure what exactly Columbus Day is all about... Friday night we watched the Red Sox take game 1 over Tampa Bay. Unfortunately that didn't last throughout our holiday...we then watched them lose game 2 and game 3.

Saturday we watched our sweet Tigers - or shall I say some other team - lose to Florida. Not a great night for sporting events. We enjoyed our evening though. Orie grilled ribs and Grace had a great night hanging inside and outside on the terrace.

We ran several errands this weekend and walked home from some of them through the park. That is when we saw our seal friend at the Central Park Zoo. I think we will have to retry that one earlier in the day as opposed to dusk.

Today we enjoyed the day in Central Park with Grace. We went on some new trails and she had a BLAST! I am not sure she wanted to come home but she needed the rest after a long day of chasing everything!

We had the best weekend hanging out together as a fam. Even though we miss our friends and family so much, it's good to know we still enjoy each other!

We also celebrated today in the grocery store a text message from our friend Carie. Her levels have fallen to 24 after her second round of chemo and we are super excited for her!!!! Can't wait to hear more great news.

We hope all is well with everyone and you are enjoying fall. Our weather here has been nothing short of SPECTACULAR and we are loving every minute of it! Enjoy your days!

Dixie Chicks!

So - I adore the Dixie Chicks as some of you may know. I am still waiting for them to announce tour dates - if they are ever going to tour again or release a new album.

I was listening to their music tonight...and singing along much to Orie's enjoyment!!! I love these lyrics...enjoy!

Gonna live it up this time
And dance like the song is never ending

The Weekend is Near

We are really excited that our weekend is in sight!! We can't wait for LSU to play Saturday and continue to look forward to our trip to BR!

This week has been an adventurous one for me at school. We kicked all the parents out of our toddler classroom and the children really thrived. My steady pre-nursery kids surprised me on Wednesday when we had one with WRETCHED diarrhea and another who poo pooed in his diaper and then proceeded to show it to me on his hand! All in a day of kids right....any moms out there who think this is normal?!?!?

Orie had a good week at work and continues to stay busy with requests. He says hello to all as I type!! I know he is ready for his long weekend! I had today off of work for Yom Kippur. Not sure exactly what Jewish holiday this is but it was nice to have a day of relaxation! I think he was jealous a bit!

We hope you are all doing well. Miss you lots and keep us posted on your lives!

A Relaxing Weekend

Orie and I really enjoyed our weekend of nothing. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and temperatures in New York. Fall is really a wonderful time in the city...Grace enjoys it too!

We grilled on our terrace last night and it was really fun. Our first grill in the new place. It's a lot easier than grilling out of the window on the fire escape!

Today we had a typical Sunday of laundry and tidying up the apartment. Grace and I went to the park this morning and enjoyed an art show on the street. Beautiful pieces but unfortunately we are out of wall space!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. We are looking forward to a great week here and the upcoming long weekend. Enjoy yours!

Birthday Weekend

Well Orie's birthday was on Saturday - the big 28 years old. I am not sure he is into celebrating years as he approaches 30. I love to celebrate and think the older you get the more fun you have had in life!

It was a really nasty weekend with the tropical storms and hurricanes that were chilling out in the Atlantic. We had lots of rain Friday and Saturday was filled with fog and just nasty misting rain all day. The birthday boy survived though and I think had a good day on Saturday and weekend in general.

We opened presents Saturday, watched LSU win Saturday night, feared Alabama as they dominated Georgia and sang Happy Birthday with M&M ice cream cake. We sat on our terrace most of Saturday evening after the game. Orie enjoyed several phone calls from family and friends. I sure wish we were closer to celebrate with more friends and family. It was so nice to be outside with the rain settling down. We listened to music, I sang which I know Orie loved and Grace was pooped after a long day!!!! Enjoy the photos and have a great week. I have Tuesday off of work for Rosh Hashanah...I love New York and all the Jewish holidays!

Spare Time...

So if you haven't noticed...I am no longer blessed with the spare time I had when I was unemployed!!! Sorry for the infrequent postings - we will try and get better.

The week has been good - school is going well - Orie's work is still going well. He's getting very busy again with all the financial crisis on Wall Street. We're very blessed that his company has not been affected like some of the other banks.

We are gearing up for Orie's birthday on Saturday - he's not really in to celebrating but I love to celebrate so I am sure we will! A Tiger win on his birthday is probably exactly what he wants!

Hope you all have a great weekend. Don't forget to keep us posted on your lives...we miss everyone and the e-mail updates and pics are always great to see.

Our New Apartment

Yes - we are cute and cozy. We downsized to a studio apartment but we gained an outdoor space which is fantastic. We have still not found a place for everything but here are some pics so you can see what life is like. I could never live like this in any other city but in NYC it's just what you do. People tell us we are crazy for moving back to a studio - I tell them it's a good thing we love each other!! Enjoy!

We Moved!

Holy cow - it was a disaster zone but we are finally moved in to our new apartment! The boxes never ended and we are still in search of a place for some items but we are in! Orie did a great job supervising our move. The Oz workers were quick and didn't break anything. Orie even had all the garment boxes emptied and several other boxes unpacked before I even got home from work on Friday. We spent the evening unpacking and loving our new terrace!! Grace is pretty thrilled with her new space as well. She stares out the window and just loves it. You may not know but our last place had very little light due to only 2 windows. Neither of which were at Grace height...

Saturday we made our Bed Bath and Beyond run for a few organizational items and then came home to prepare for LSU vs. Auburn. Our friend Geoff came over and we were so put together I could serve crab meat appetizers, skillet queso and a variety of cold beers. We even had cute cocktail napkins at our disposal!!!

It's been a big weekend and we LOVE our new home. Smaller but better! I will send pics as soon as we finish hanging pictures, throwing some things out and put the final touches on some items. Enjoy your Sunday - we are off to Home Depot soon and then to watch the Saints. Keep us posted on life...

Let us know if you need our new address!

Wow

We have been so super busy over the last week - sorry for no updates.

Back to school has been going on...still no kids. We were to have them on Monday but are delayed again. They will now start on Wednesday. It is crazy - construction in NYC has delayed our start. I would be furious as a parent paying what they are paying! I can't wait for them to begin though. I have met several of our parents this week in conferences. They seem really lovely but so nervous about separation. This is the first time their children have gone to school. I hope that goes well for them. Maybe you moms can identify more with them than I can!! Right now days at work are log and consist of trying to find something productive. They say we can be in our room Monday and Tuesday to get ready. We have a lot to set up...sensory tables, play dough tables, the kitchen, the dress up corner, the reading area, the play area (gross motor playroom), the lofts, the easels...wow...a bunch of stuff I am so not used to!!!

Orie has had a good week at work. Still going in early to avoid long commutes. He is really enjoying this football season for LSU and our Saints. We have now started going out on Sunday to watch the Saints on television at a neighborhood place. We NEVER get the games on our local station so we are grateful that the bars and restaurants pick all games through satellite. We are both ready for LSU tonight and another Saints game tomorrow.

Packing is coming along in our apartment - it definitely looks like a hurricane blew through our home with all the mess. Once you get the box packed there really isn't a good place to put it! This clutter and disorganization is really hard for me to handle!!! Thank goodness it will all be over Friday as we move to our new home. We are still both really looking forward to that!

We hope all of you are doing well. Please keep us posted on your days as we miss everyone so much. Enjoy your weekend. Stay dry Texans and North Louisianians!!

The Few and The Faithful!

Hello to our blog fans who are in an elite group! Sorry for the inconvenience of the sign in to the blog but I needed to do it for school. They have very strict privacy rules and I just didn't want to risk it. I also didn't want our parents, who I hear are quite nosey, "googleing" me and finding anything out about our personal lives. So thanks for bearing with us!

So - Hannah is coming our way. I think it's crazy that we come from Louisiana to NYC and are going to get a tropical storm/hurricane! How bizarre.

This week has been pretty good for us. Orie has had a stress free work week and I had my first week with full staff at school. All has gone well.

Grace is still attacking sprinklers and loving every minute.

Other news - we have signed the lease on our new - yes another - apartment. We have scaled down in size and rent. It was a hard decision but we felt it was best. This way we have lots of extra money for plane tickets home. Our new place is a split level studio with a terrace!!! We are so excited about the outdoor space. The terrace is fairly big and overlooks the street in front of us. We took Grace over last night and she had a blast. She now has a floor to ceiling window to look out as well. We have no windows in this apartment that she can look out and even if she could - they don't look at much. We measured and think our things will fit in the space. Just a little adjusting. Our kitchen is the pits - a definite downgrade - but the outdoor space, great light, and lower rent is definitely worth it. We will move Friday the 19th and our new address will come soon.

We hope you are all doing well and thanks for following our adventures!

Are You Ready for Some Football?

So this is what football looked like in our house today...hope you all enjoyed your first day of LSU football season!!!!











What a great day!!!