Summer Salad

Since moving to Lynchburg, there have been two restaurants that I have come to really love. The reason for this is because they remind me of Florida and places that I would have eaten at there. One of those places is called Neighbors Place. They have all different kinds of menu options from burgers to sandwiches to salad to pastas. They have a variety of different prices and offer a full bar, which makes it popular for people looking to go out, as there are no "bars" in Lynchburg. This summer I went there with my friend Sara & her husband Bryan and got one of the most delicious salads I've ever ordered out. It was full of fresh spinach, egg, bacon, tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles, mushrooms, and my balsamic dressing on the side. I even got some grilled salmon on top. If you are looking for a good meal in Lynchburg, head to Neighbor's Place and enjoy yourself!!

NYC the Final Frontier

So, as I mentioned in the last post, we were about to eat some dinner after a loooong day of walking around the city and sightseeing. We ate at a place recommended by a friend of Sara's called Five Napkin Burger. They have several of these around the city and it was delicious! It's a gourmet burger place that is always busy, so we waited at least 40 minutes to get a table. It is a little but more pricey than your everyday Chili's or Applebee's though.

I'm sure that the burgers weren't on the healthy side either, but "when in Rome." {haha}
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and got some much needed sleep. Sunday morning we decided to take it a little but slower and slept in for a little while. We headed out for a late breakfast at my favorite NY eatery. Now, eatery might be too strong of a word. Ever since I can remember, my uncle Jeff has worked for Amtrak and gone to many different cities as his route often changes. One of those cities is the ole NYC and he shared a great place to get bagel sandwiches with me a few years ago on my first ever trip to the Big Apple. It's called Al & Am's Grocery. It literally is a small store with a deli counter that is about 8 feet wide and 30 feet deep. It's just a couple blocks up from Penn Station and we were able to head there from the train and grab our yumminess.

That tea is also delicious. I first had it when I spent the summer in China the year after I graduated college. They also have this kind of tea that is warm and, when you open it, the air reacts with molecules in the drink to make it cold. We ate our little meal at one of the places in NY that is dear to my heart: 30 Rock:)

Almost all of my favorite shows are on NBC and a couple of them are even filmed in Rockefeller plaza. We went to the NBC store and got our Jimmy Fallon shirts and my Parks & Rec sweatshirt. They had some other great t-shirts too:

We eventually made it over to our Broadway show as I described a couple of blogs ago. Since we didn't eat lunch, we were starving when we were done! So we headed to a pizza place just a couple blocks away called Carve at a recommendation from another work friend. They had GIANT slices of pizza with all different kinds of toppings, a build your own salad bar, and a glass case with delicious cupcakes in it too!! We each got a salad:

And a slice of pizza:

And a cupcake for later that night when we got to the hotel:

And any trip wouldn't be complete with Sara without stopping at a Godiva store:

Sara has a special kind of membership and gets free stuff almost every month. So, of course, we each had a truffle and a chocolate covered strawberry. :)

So, next time you are in NY, take the time to hit up some of these great places...or let me know about somewhere I should make a point to go next time!!





NYC Part Deux

As I mentioned, NYC has some great shopping and food. Sara and I took off Friday from work and took the train up to the city. We got off in Jersey and checked into our hotel. Side note: If you are ever thinking about going to the city, stay in Jersey! It's way cheaper and you can take the metro into the city for only $10 roundtrip!!

After dropping off our bags and forming a plan of action, we headed out to get some dinner and visit Macy's. I have been to Macy's before, but the one in NYC has 7 floors of amazing deals!! I got some great puma yoga pants and sweat capris for less then $15 each...If you know me at all, you know I love PUMA!!

That pic just above is a whole floor dedicated to women's shoes....I think that's what heaven will look like;)
We then headed out to find a yummy place to eat some dinner and ate at the Houndstooth Pub because we were exhausted and it was closed...and it smelled really good as we walked by...We didn't get a pic of the food there, but here is the city at night:

This pic was taken just outside Madison Square Garden and Penn Station just before we grabbed our train back to the hotel for the night. Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head back to the city to try out this delicious place we had heard about called Max Brenner. We wanted brunch and that's what we got. First, let me say that Max Brenner is a chocolate store. They have everything there! The smell when you walk in is intoxicating and you just want to lick everything, literally. I ordered a mimosa and a Mexican omelet. The omelet came with a side of potatoes and (I don't know why anyone hasn't thought of this before) a small dish with melted chocolate and a small dish with melted white chocolate!! It was soooo yummy:)

If you like chocolate this place is super cute, so make sure you visit!! From brunch we wandered around looking at several other stores including Tiffany's. I have looked here before, but I have never made a purchase here. Well, I decided it was too good to pass up and got myself a super cute necklace.

I also looked at the rings while I was there. {wink} The ring that I most liked was a solitaire, 1 carat, emerald cut, gorgeous ring!! I tried it on, and then when I was told the price I almost choked. I didn't snap a picture because they probably would've charged me for it (lol) but it was $10,500!!! As nice as I thought it was, I think that is a huge waste of money to spend on a ring when there are way more important things in the world to buy or give your money to charity or something. Anyway, after Tiffany's we headed to FAO Schwarz:

Then took a carriage ride through Central Park:

And had a great dinner right across the street from Justin Timberlake's restaurant:

Our actual meal was soo yummy too!! More to come in the next post on that meal and the rest of the weekend:)

NYC

When you are asked where you are from and you respond NY, people always assume the city. I grew up in upstate NY and don't claim to be from the Big Apple. I do enjoy a visit there every now and again. When my friend and fellow blogger Sara, told me that she had only been there once around Christmas, we quickly made plans for her to go again in the spring! Our first priority was to see a broadway musical. We got tickets for one of the cheaper shows because the trip itself was costing so much overall. We ended up seeing Wonderland. It was like a modern day Alice...I thoroughly enjoyed it and was even more psyched to learn that we were going to the last show! It was being taken off broadway because it wasn't as popular as people thought it would be, but again, I really liked it!!

As I mentioned, we were able to go to the last show of the season and we had a great surprise at the end. I didn't get any pictures of it because I was too busy clapping and crying, but the two main characters got engaged on stage:) It was so awesome to be a part of and I loved every bit of it!!
Being that NYC has so much more to offer, I have to do another post about the great food and shopping as well....stay tuned;)

Babies

I am so proud that I am an aunt! I love my little niece and nephew:)....My parents are foster parents of my two little cousins and a couple of others and they are too cute not to share. Some friends of mine recently adopted a little one from Ethiopia and I have some adorable pictures they have sent me via text message that I love and another friend who's little girl lives pretty close to me. So this post is dedicated to the little kids in my life that I love so very much:
My niece Kendal & my nephew Evan:

Kendal has changed so much since the first pic of her @ the hospital then to a recent shot from this summer. So adorable though:). My little cousin Ariona is a ham for the cameras:

One of my parents little foster kids' Emily: (Tunde is great with kids {wink})

My friend Melanie's little cutie Camden:

Little Scotty & Jamesy, getting a long great from the beginning:

So even though this post was called Babies, some of these little ones aren't babies, but still precious to me:) Who are some people that have stolen your heart??

Doggies

Back in November, I was given a free dog, named Boomer. I changed his name to Fallon (after one of my favorite comedian's~James T. Fallon). I may have written about him before, but I'm not positive. Just in case, here he is:

Fallon is what some would call: crazy! He yips at every noise and everyone. He doesn't really like to play with the toys I got him, and I describe him as an old man to people. {haha} I thought that I should get him a friend in order for him to calm down a bit and have a friend while I'm gone at work. Cut to:

His name when I got him was Chunky. For obvious reasons, I changed it to Jimmy. (Again, after James T. Fallon) I called him Jim, Jimmy, Jimmy Jam, Jimmy Jammer, and Jammer Pants. I enjoy him so much!! Unfortunately, Fallon is not such a fan. Although, they get a long fine enough, Fallon is clearly not happy that someone else is in his home. Over the last 6 weeks that Jimmy has been here, Fallon has peed in the house a half dozen times, nipped at people, and yesterday morning, he bit me! If he was going to become accustomed to Jimmy being here, he would've done it by now. That makes me sad beause it also means Fallon has to go. I can't have him biting me or anyone else for that matter.
I somehow have been blessed to have gotten both of these dogs for free, so I am fortunate to not be losing out on any money. Because I'm talking about dogs, I have to mention my boy's favorite doggy too. As I mentioned in a previous blog, my bff came down to visit while my boy was visiting as well. She brought along her little lady, Shelby:

Needless to say, Tunde loves Shelb and hates when he can't see her!
What are some thoughts you have on why Fallon can't just get a long with Jimmy??

Surprise, Surprise

For the most part, I have turned into an old lady and very much try to stay to a schedule. This is very different from when I was in high school, college, living in FL, and even just a year ago when I still had roommates. I work M-F and try to be in bed by 10pm on work nights & up at 7 to take out the dogs and get ready for the day. (You will notice that my last few posts have all been at 6:30am...don't kid yourself into thinking I have been getting up earlier to blog..haha..these are scheduled posts). So, all of that to say, when a friend asked me to go to a concert on a weeknight, I had to think twice before saying yes. Not only because I like sleep, but because it was Jason Derullo and I wasn't sure if I knew more than one of his songs. But, I decided, why not?? So I went to the concert, held in a local college's gymnasium and had an odd, yet fun time with some church girlies.

Then, I had an exciting surprise visit from my sister and her boyfriend while they were on their spring break and had gone to SC for a wedding as well. Kayla was the first person in my family to meet my boy and I was really excited for that to happen. I was also excited that Tunde would be meeting a member of my family as well as my most likely to be brother in law. They hit it off right away. Antonio and Tunde both know what is called pigeon language and Kayla and him were able to talk soccer and basketball.

I typically don't enjoy surprises, mostly when I know they are coming, but these two turned out to be great:)