Las Vegas, here we come...

So, Ethan and I were spending the evening together last night, and he mentioned that he really wanted to get away together after the craziness of the holidays (since getting off work is next to impossible between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve) and before he started Becker CPA Prep. I asked what he thought of Las Vegas, and he was excited about the idea...not because of gambling, but because of the classic car museum that is housed in one of the hotels there.

It's turning out to be a really inexpensive getaway due to cashing in our frequent flyer miles for both of us to fly there, and due to a promotion that the Mandalay Bay Resort was running for suites. We have this huge spa suite at the Mandalay and I'm so excited about it... I'm a girl who definitely loves lavish hotel rooms...so to have a suite is just too cool. Everything in Vegas is over the top. So, while we're there we will do the whole walking around and gawking at the huge hotels and casinos, visit the Bellagio for the fountain show, dinner buffet, and see "O", and visit the car museum that Ethan wants to see. Everything else will be as we decide to see it whenever/whatever we feel like! :) After my birthday trip to New York, I realized how much fun it is to just BE with Ethan and randomly explore where we happen to me. It's so much more fun than a planneddowntotheverylastsecond itinerary.

I'm soooooo looking forward to it...we're flying in on a Tuesday evening after work and returning on Thursday night - this way Ethan doesn't have to take any vacation days, and I have so many vacation days it's ridiculous, so I might as well start using them! :) (I had quite a few from last year that rolled over) We're hoping to be able to take a ski vacation in March as well but it really depends on Ethan's Becker schedule more than anything else. We'll see what happens! We might end up just going to West Virginia to ski Snowshoe, we'll take what we can get. We had a trip totally planned last year but cancelled it because of what happened with Symmes since I just couldn't bring myself to go out of town during such a rough time.

Hm. I will have flown practically every month for the rest of 2010.... October I flew to New York, November I fly to West Virginia, December I fly to New York again.... and January we fly to Vegas. Good thing I absolutely love to fly! :)

New phone, new life....

I'm pleased to report that after months of telling myself (and everyone else) that I would slow down at work and take more time for me...it has finally happened. I was fortunate enough to find an excellent part time nanny (yes, that makes three part-time nannies that I now have) so I am now getting off of work at 5:30 PM Monday through Thursday. Friday nights I work late, as usual... and by choice. Since Ethan goes to sleep for his overnight patrol, there is simply no point in going home. I also will continue to have my weekends off. I'm SO excited.... I have big plans for this new schedule... the major thing being that I am going to be going to the gym right after work each day and get back into my routine that I slipped out of because of always working late and then going home so I could see my husband for a little bit.

In other news, I also finally got a new phone... my T-Mobile G1 was well loved but dying on me... and when it started refusing to charge this week I knew it was time. However, I didn't want to get roped into extending my contract, nor did I want to shell out tons of money for a phone at retail price, so I turned to Craig's List. Lucky me - I just happened to be the first one to respond to an ad that had literally been posted two minutes prior and snapped up a brand new G2 phone. I love gadgets, but let me say that I LOVE this phone. I had seen the commercials for it and been a bit skeptical about the features - namely the Swype feature, but let me say that it REALLY WORKS. It also supports flash so I can catch up on my shows on abc.com wherever I am, and the speed of it is insane. It even has QuickOffice if I need to create a Word document or PDF. Yes, I love this phone.

So, daylight savings time is tonight.... my favorite, fall back...an extra hour of sleep! So happy about this, but a little bit sad that it will be dark outside so much sooner. I am definitely loving the cold weather though... even though it's supposed to jump back up to the 70's next week. I guess that's just Atlanta for you!

My birthday weekend recap....

Cheers! I'm 30 at last....

My husband loves me so well. It wouldn't matter if he hadn't taken me somewhere - he makes me feel special and loved, without fail. The thought that he puts into everything that he does for me is always evident. Last year he surprised me with a Dairy Queen birthday cake and a jacket from my favorite store, and we had a low key evening at home. I just want to be sure that everyone knows that I don't expect or require a lavish and extravagant birthday in order to be happy. That's not what I'm about.

Anyway, I got home SUPER late on Thursday night from work, and was so tired... I collapsed into bed at 12:30 and just prayed I'd have the strength to make it through Friday. I had been informed that we were leaving on Saturday.

Wrong.

Ethan started poking me and I opened an eye and saw that my clock read "6:00".... I don't have to be awake until 7:15, so I was not pleased at this somewhat rude awakening when I'd only gone to bed 5.5 hours earlier. Those of you who know me well know that I like my sleep. I grumbled something along the lines of "Why are you doing this to me? Go to work, leave me alone....I can't believe you would do this to me...." and then Ethan flipped on the light. I sat up in bed and glared at him about to ask (and not politely) why he was robbing me of 75 minutes of sweet, precious sleep.... and he announced, "We're going to New York City, you have thirty minutes to pack." Boy, was I ever awake then. He handed me a Nike backpack and informed me that was all the space I was allowed for packing purposes. I was slightly flabbergasted but managed to pull it off, and we were off to the airport....

We landed, took the M60 bus to the subway in Queens, and then took the subway down to the Financial District, where he had booked us our room for two nights at the absolutely amazing Gild Hall. It was SO cool... and perfectly located - right down the street from Century 21, which is my favorite store, and right in the area of Manhattan that is nice and quiet on the weekends. We had such fun exploring and walking everywhere just for the fun of it with no agenda. He surprised me that night by taking me to Mercat, where Phillip & Irene were waiting for me for a birthday dinner with tapas and LOTS of sangria... oh, it was so much fun. After dinner, we headed to Max Brenner's in Union Square for some decadent chocolate desserts and then bid each other goodbye.

Saturday we spent more time exploring and then Ethan surprised me with tickets to the off-Broadway show, Stomp. He remembered that I wanted to see it and had never managed to find the time... I always ran out of time whenever I was there or forgot to buy tickets before going, and so it just never happened ... the last ten years! It was so special that he remembered how much I wanted to see it and that he bought the best tickets in the house.... it was such a wonderful show and I highly recommend it. The percussion was so awesome, and the cast was absolutely hilarious, which I was not expecting. The show is 2 hours long with no intermission, and I would definitely go back and see it again! After the show we headed to Chinatown since Ethan wanted to see it, and we ended up eating some food there which I actually ended up liking. Then we walked around more... we walked for over 8 hours straight and were totally exhausted when we made it back to our hotel after a late night dinner at Havana Central which is one of our favorite places in Union Square...their empanadas and sangria are soooo good.

Sunday morning we went to the Brooklyn Bridge and then headed to the West Village to check out John's Pizza.... so delicious, and worth it... then we topped it off with gelato from Grom, and made our way back up to Queens to get the bus back to the airport. It was such an awesome weekend, and I will never forget how much planning and time Ethan put into the trip. We made such wonderful memories there...I can't wait to take another getaway weekend!