Yankees

Well, today was a relaxing day. We slept in and did laundry, how exciting, right? I took a walk with Joan to get a pedicure. My aching feet were in need of one. We were waiting for Keith, Nicole and Madison to come by after their errands but unfortunately they never made it by to see us:(

Erick got Yankees tickets from our brother-in-law Rich (bigtime Yankee fan) for the 7:05 game. Alexia was dressed in her Jeter T-shirt, fitting right in with every other person at the stadium. Seriously, more than half the adults at the game wore game shirts, it was unbelievable. We got to the stadium about 4:45 because we wanted to head over to Monument Park to see all the historic Yankee Greats like Mantle, DiMaggio, Babe Ruth and Gehrig. At 4:45 there were hundreds of people waiting to get in more than two hours before the game on a Monday nite. Wow!

They let us into the park at 5:05 and by 5:14 they were no longer letting people in line to go to the park, bummer. So we walked around the stadium, watched batting practice and took some pictures. We decided to get something to eat before we took our seats, way, way up in the top of the bleachers. No lie, it was the 2nd to last row from the very top...nose bleed section, literally (more on that later).

Alexia was asking about a section in the outfield, if they hit the ball over that wall if it would be a homerun, sure enough A-Rod was up and hit a homerun right where she mentioned. She looked at me and said, we need to talk about that more often so they get more homeruns.

Around the 6th inning Alexia's nose started bleeding and it wouldn't stop. We headed to the ladies room to try to get control of it and decided not to trek all the way back to our seats afterwards and left about 10:00. The Yankees were already up 11-3 anyways so we knew they would win.

We're so glad that we went to the game, it was a great time. Since it will be the last time we're able to go to a game in this historic 85 yr old park because they are tearing it down after this season. We could see the beautiful new park right next door, it had these white columns and gold lettering, stunning and it should be with a price tag of $1 Billion.

On the way home we followed traffic out of the stadium. We had to drive north since there was no way to drive south. So we got off the highway and drove a couple of back roads in the Bronx. Yikes. Then we saw the sign to go south. We take the road and the road goes around and down to a dead end next to the water. What the heck! We got a little nervous wondering where the heck we were. A guy comes from out of the darkness towards our car. Hearts begin to race. He approaches the car. He tells us that this happens all the time and to go back up and make the next right. I think my heart went 30 seconds without beating. We left and found our way home amongst the very aggressive NY drivers. That was fun.

The Big Apple

We (Erick, Alexia, me and his mom Joan) headed to NYC on the train from Valley stream, catching the 1:25. We got into the city a little after 2:00. It was so busy, so much hustle and bustle going on. And the smell, especially on a hot steamy day, whew...nasty! So many people speaking a foreign language as we passed by them on the streets. We checked out some of the street vendors. I was looking for a knock-off handbag and some sunglasses (don't tell my brother-in-law, he's a NYC cop) We had to get a pretzel since we missed lunch and we were hungry but didn't want to ruin our appetites for dinner. We were going to "Dallas BBQ".



We made a few stops but found nothing I was interested in. We went into Toys R Us, which has about 3 floors and a huge ferris wheel inside. It's really something to see. After much pleading by Alexia for a toy, we made our way down to the M&M store. It was amazing, all these canisters with just about every color imaginable. Of course we had to get some :)



It was now closer to dinnertime and we headed to the infamous Dallas BBQ for some outhwatering ribs, chicken, cornbread and homemade french fries (my favorite, just like my mom used to make) Besides great food the prices are amazingly cheap for being in the city. What a mess we were afterwards, lots of clean wipes for wiping off that BBQ sauce! If you go to NYC, this is a great spot.

After dinner we still had a bit of time to kill before the show started so we walked through a fair of more street vendors. Alexia had $10 to spend for the day and wanted everything she could see. But, then she saw a sign, it said...WEBKINZ! Oh boy, there she went. They were selling them for $12 and Alexia offered him $10 because of course that's all she had & he took it. Behaving like a true New Yorker she bargained the price down. Erick's so proud! Like she NEEDED another webkin, urgh..


Now it was time to head to the Cirque Dreams show on Broadway & 53rd. It was simply amazing, the acrobats, the contortionists, the strength these people have it was just mind-blowing. We were in the second row. We highly recommend the show to all you guys. We were in such awe half the time, our mouths dropped opened. Just watching Alexia's face, made it all worth it. Thank you Grandma Arndt for treating us to the show!

Back home on the 10:02 train, what a great day!

First Day of our 12 day journey

Today is Saturday the 19th, it's a very hot, steamy day today. We woke up about 9:30(I was expecting us to sleep until noon) feeling refreshed believe it or not. Joan (Erick's mom) had already walked to the bagel store to get us fresh, hot bagels for breakfast. They were delicious. Richard (Erick's dad) made coffee, it's just not Dunkin' Donuts...boy was it strong! After being up for a couple of hours and trying to plan out the day, I felt the need for more sleep and took an hour nap.
For lunch we got to have our pizza from the night before.

Erick got a chance to chat with his mom and dad. Alexia was playing with the dogs, Dana and Jodi.

This afternoon we went over to Erick sister Celeste's house to swim with Alexia's cousins, aunts and uncles. Celeste showed Alexia her neighbors' horse (yes she loved it) and other animals like a peacock and chickens (and they say NH is cow country). This is in the middle of $600,000 homes. It's like a petting zoo. The next door neighbor is a Polish priest that speaks some english. They have chickens and fresh farm eggs. Then it was over to Erick's other sister Mariette's house for yummy NY pizza, dessert, drinks and fun family time. Yes, Erick comes from a large family of 6 kids. It is like carb-heaven in Long Island. It was so great to see everyone. Erick got the pleasure of going for a ride in his brother Chris' mini-cooper, his pride & joy. And another 15 mins away is the former house of Erick's grandmother. It was really strange to see the house after all these years. All that time as a kid seeing grandma and her house is right there. The funny thing is that grandma used to live in a modest country kind of setting with lots of space. Now the area is all million dollar homes in an exclusive neighborhood. Funny how things change.

(Erick is writing) At the end of the night we all watched the tape of the TV show that I was on in 1988. The show (Fast Forward) was filmed at my high school for one episode. It ran on Thursday nights before the Cosby show (remember that?). It ran for 6 episodes. All the kids were laughing at the styles that we had in clothing and hair. What is so funny about that, right?

Moving Day

This is it, the day we had been planning on for years, as you all know. And it was really happening, kinda strange to see a long time plan come alive.

Today was moving day, July 18th. Seemed to go smoothly when the College Bound guys arrived at 8:30 to move all our belongings. Erick and I were a bit skeptical that everything was going to fit into the 16 ft POD we rented. The movers did a quick evaluation and thought it was possible. But guess what, about 1:00 and 3/4 of the way full it was obvious not everything was going to fit. By the way, does anyone really realize how much "stuff" we all have. We gave so much away, sold many items and threw alot away & we STILL have so much "stuff". Talk about a reality check. So by now you can only imagine the frustration and disappointment about our dilemma now. We're hot, sweaty and irritated.

Throughout the day we had so many of our great friends pop over to say their good-byes, :( We saw the Geringers, Shelley & Rachel, Maureen, Sue & Garrett.

What to do? We sat on the basement floor and regrouped. We called about another POD but that was going to cost an absolutely ridiculous amount of money so we decided to go with ABF U-Pack moving truck. It was about 1:30 so we were grateful when they said they could have a truck here by 5:00. So when 5:00, then 5:30 then 6:00 went by & we still had no truck we were a little ticked off. Our patience had just about run out when, low and behold, here comes the truck down the hill. The driver must have just gotten his commercial license because he didn't have a clue what he was doing trying to back that trailer up. He attempted this for about 20 minutes and almost taking out my mailbox, finally just left it where he wanted, had me sign the paperwork, unhitched the trailer and left. Yes, I said left. Here we are staring at this giant trailer in the street wondering what to do next. We had questions for him and he just bailed on us. Needless to say they got an earful from us. Now this is a trailer remember so Ashley, Alexia, Erick and I are lifting the rest of the stuff 4 ft into the 28 ft trailer and then packing it, because we're professionals ya know. It's a 28 ft trailer and all we need is about 6 ft. Our concerned neighbor, Maureen, seeing the distress and hunger on our faces was so kind to go get us a pizza for dinner, thank you so much Maureen! We completed the packing by 8:30ish and ate our pizza. Every time we turned around, we had MORE stuff to pack. Yikes.

Saying goodbye to Ashley was the toughest thing we had to go through that whole messy day. There were many tears shed by all of us. Even after we left Kinsman Ln. we all continued to cry off and on for a while. The reality of it all was hitting us, hard.

We were on the road to Long Island by 9:15 and arrived about 1:00 a.m. Alexia fell asleep about 3 hours into the ride finally. It was a long day and we all crashed at the Arndt house. Just glad the day is over. We were physically and emotionally drained. Grandma Arndt had DaVinci Pizza (the best pizza!) and cold heinekens waiting for us. But we just went straight to bed. We crashed.

17 days but who's counting

Hey there everyone. Glad you checked in today.

32 years of history here, it's awful strange saying goodbye. I knew it wouldn't be easy but man my emotions are draining rapidly. I went to see my "second parents" as I call them. John & Judy, they've been in my life since I was 15 and have always been so sweet and made me feel like a daughter to them. They've enjoyed watching Ashley & Amanda grow into young women and also seeing Alexia grow up. We have fun picking blueberries at their home, peaches and even some apples. Today Alexia got to ride in John's air conditioned tractor, it was a thrill for her. But what she likes even more is driving their golf cart around their property to get to the blueberries. I'm going to miss that fresh mint in my mohitos this summer.

Alexia seems to be doing well so far, just trying to get in as much playtime with her friends as possible. I am so grateful for technology today, being able to stay in touch with everyone via the internet is awesome. We're going to have a web camera set up once we get to CA, for any of you who have one....we can still see each other:)

Been going through old files and when I say old, I mean back to 1991. Crazy how much we save, it's cute looking back on some of the little notes Erick used to write me, I say "used to" because it just doesn't happen as often now. But I have to say he's still a romantic, brings me flowers and cards once in a while. Anyways enough about him, it feels good to go through this "cleansing" process.

We're looking forward to spending time with Callie, Emily & Gretchen tomorrow before they head to their family vacation in Ohio. They won't be back before we leave, this is gonna be a tough one:(

19 days

The Beard's threw us an amazing going away party last night, Thank you! It was so much fun, we ate lots, drank little, had amazing desserts along with Todd's famous "heart attack on a plate", it's like bite size potato skins, real yummy and we made s'mores. I haven't done that in years. We had such a good time with all our "party friends". Thank you everyone who came. The Schaubs moved into their new home yesterday, moving furniture all day but were such troopers to pop over and hang with us all in the evening.

Twenty-two Days

Hi there everyone,

Yes, after all these years the time is almost here. You've heard us talk about it, it seems like forever. Who knew "forever" would actually arrive.

We are west coast bound in only 22 days. Of course we are going to miss the dear friends we've made, the 3 seasons (notice I left 1 out, I know you can all figure out that one :) We figure we've been moving every 3 1/2 yrs or so, so who knows where we'll be in another 3 1/2 yrs. Change is good. We're going to be right in the middle of Ashley & Amanda. Hoping to visit Hawaii more often now that we're closer.