I'll Be Seeing You...

On one particularly hard day during the first week of our move, Emma looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, "I thought you told me people would come visit us here!  No one has come so far!" 


I am happy to report that less than two months later, we've already had several special people pay us a visit here in the Big Apple.  Here are some highlights:


**My little brother Kaleb and his family came through New York on their way to Ireland, just a few days after we got here.  We aren't nearly as exciting as Ireland, but we were grateful they trekked all the way up to the upper west side from midtown to see our new home.


**Linda Lillard and her sweet daughters had a girls weekend away, and graciously worked us into their schedule.  Let me tell you, these girls run a tight ship when they travel-I'm quite sure they covered more ground in one weekend than we have during our entire time here. I wish I could hire Linda to be my tour guide for a month! 


Here are some pictures of our delightfully sweet lunch at Serendipity.

**Mrs. Webb, my former teaching partner and Abby and Emma's favorite music teacher ever, came all the way into the city from visiting family in Pennsylvania just to have lunch with us!  Of course we chose an Irish Pub, since Mrs. Webb is the best Irish dancer we know.  OK, she's the only Irish dancer we know, but she is amazing!

**For the past three years, Emma played on a basketball team with her LCA classmates.  I am not exaggerating when I say they could not have had a better coach.  Steve Foster, a former pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds and the current bullpen coach for the Kansas City Royals, spent much of his time off the road in the gym with our girls, teaching them not only basketball skills, but life skills that they'll never forget.  Needless to say, Coach Steve is very special to Emma.

Imagine her delight when he called last weekend, here for a 4-day series of games against the Yankees.  We met Steve for breakfast at Norma's in Le Parker Meridian Hotel in midtown.  How fitting that a Texan introduced us to our new favorite breakfast spot in all of NYC!

Steve also pulled some strings to get us great seats for Sunday's Yankees vs. Royals game.  Even with the downpour of rain and no 600th homerun from A-Rod, our first visit to Yankee Stadium was incredible.  Thank you, Coach Steve!

We're looking forward to seeing more friends this fall...don't forget to give us a call if you're in town!

Settling In

Two nights ago, I was lying on my back in Central Park, sandwiched between my husband and my daughter, looking up at fireflies dancing in the trees.  The New York Philharmonic Orchestra was flawlessly accompanying saxophonist Branford Marsalis in his debut performance with the world-renowned group.  (Side note-I have had a huge crush on Branford for some time now, ever since he played on Sting's "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" album.  Hearing him play "Jazz Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra" took my crush to a new level.  Don't worry...Cameron knows.)

Anyway, as I closed my eyes and my mind began to drift with the music, a very pronounced thought made its way in between the notes.  "I am settling in."  This took me by surprise, for reasons I will share in a moment.  But I didn't panic, thinking I was most likely just caught up in the enchantment of sharing a concert in the park with about 30,000 other New Yorkers.

After a beautiful set of selections from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and a rousing fireworks display, we began to make our way home.  Abby was sharing her reflections of how the music mirrored Shakespeare's epic story when a little lady stopped us, asking directions for exiting the park.  I surprised myself (and my family) when I quickly-and correctly-told her what street she needed to take.  How did I know that?  And there it came again..."I am settling in."  I knew how to give directions because this city is becoming my home.  

"Well, of course it's becoming your home!" you might be thinking.  "You've lived there for a little over a month now, and that's what happens when you move.  Your new place of residence becomes your home."

But this is not how I have experienced moving in the past.  There's something about the word "settling" that unsettles me.  It seems to denote mediocrity, giving in, even failure at some level.  Like settling for a hamburger when you could have had a juicy steak.  And in the seven moves Cameron and I have made since we said "I do," including three cross-country relocations, my heart has fought long and hard not to settle in, anywhere.

Don't get me wrong-each move brought a sense of adventure and satisfaction in its own way.  Exploring the new apartment, house, neighborhood, city, state...all of that was great fun.  Finding the hidden restaurants that only the locals knew about, making new friends, experiencing different stages of life in new places-all of these adventures were wonderful parts of my life journey.  But up until now, I haven't felt like any place was completely HOME.

So, as we continued down the sidewalk, watching Emma dance across park benches as she sang at the top of her lungs, I came to a conclusion.  It seems rather simple now that I think about it, but in the moment it felt like a great revelation.

I am settling in, but not because I have a different address.  I am feeling like I am home, but not because I live in a different city.  I am settling in because I am finally learning to let go and live comfortably in my own skin.  Something about selling everything and dramatically changing my familiar way of life has liberated me-from feeling like I can control things, from being afraid that "home" will somehow be a let-down, from living in a constant state of looking ahead instead of looking at what is, right now.  And being ok with it.  No, better than ok...being thrilled with it.  

I probably won't be a back-up singer for James Taylor like I once dreamed I would be.  I might not write a famous song or get the degrees I once determined I needed.  But I will live the rest of my days feeling at home, feeling settled.

settling (intransitive verb)-to come to rest; to become fixed, resolved or established.

I think I'm going to like settling in after all.

Rainbow Perspective

As I sit here watching a beautiful light rain falling outside my window, I'm reminded of a wonderful surprise the girls and I had last week.  We watched a thunderstorm approach over the Hudson River, and when it finally reached us, our 28th floor apartment felt like a scary place to be. Emma, my storm-a-phobic child, was beside herself as the lightning, thunder and driving rain sounded somewhat apocalyptic.


Imagine my relief when just minutes later, as the storm was passing, I heard Emma calling us to the window. We looked out and saw this:

A beautiful rainbow, stretching from building to building, proclaiming that the storm was over. A gentle reminder that no matter how apocalyptic the storms in life may feel, our loving Father always has a rainbow waiting at the end...we just have to remember to look out the window.


And speaking of, as I look up right now, this is what I see:

Another rainbow...what a nice way to start the day.

City Weekends

Apparently, many people leave the city on summer weekends to go visit the beach, or the woods, or their second homes in the Hamptons. Seeing that we do not have a second home in the Hamptons, or anywhere else for that matter, we have enjoyed exploring a relatively quiet city these past few weekends. Here are some of the highlights:

American Museum of Natural History-we now have an official family membership. Just one short subway stop away, this promises to be a place of endless learning and fun. We were pleasantly surprised with the relatively small crowd there on a Saturday...looking forward to going back next weekend. First on the agenda-the lizards and snakes exhibition.

Riverside Park-Our new friends the Knapps (recently relocated from Oklahoma) shared another beautiful park with us over the July 4th weekend. Just a few blocks away, this waterfront park stretches four miles alongside the Hudson River. A jogging path along the water's edge allows for unobstructed views of the New Jersey skyline. The park contains sports courts and fields, a public marina, playgrounds, skate parks, dog runs, places to eat, and is even the burial site for President Ulysses S. Grant. I'm beginning to sound like a commercial for the department of tourism. It really was a great spot for an Independence Day picnic...thanks again for the awesome fried chicken and peach pie, Knapp Family!





























Salumeria Rosi Restaurant-Cameron and I have been trying to get a reservation since my brother-in-law and his wife ate here on a recent trip to NYC. We've had no luck, until this past weekend when we happened to walk by while the girls were busy with class. There were plenty of tables available, and while we weren't starving, we figured we should go for it. We were so glad we did...serving Italian "tapas" style dishes, you can try a bunch of yummy stuff without getting too full. Although we managed to get full anyway...I suppose if you try as many as we did, you will undoubtedly be stuffed.


Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Show-I should be able to talk about the crowds along the Hudson River, watching the breathtaking fireworks overhead. I can't, however, because we chose to watch them out of our bedroom window, with the tv on behind us so we could hear the choreographed music. Call us lazy, but we had a great view and could actually use the bathroom when needed. This was one time staying in seemed to pay off...but we will definitely continue to take advantage of the "empty city" as the weekends roll along!

Broadway Babies

We contained ourselves as long as we could. Feeling the call of the Great White Way, we checked Plum Benefits and up popped up a special for Billy Elliot, the Musical. Front row seats cost the same amount as all the others on sale, so why not? (Don't tell the girls-we are currently contenders for parents of the year, so I don't want our cover blown).

We revealed our plans to see the musical over dinner.  We waited to reveal the front row seats until we got to the theatre. Here was the reaction:

Sitting up front allows for an interesting perspective. You can watch the musicians reading books and checking their iphones in between songs. You can watch a seven year old actor wink at your eleven year old daughter as he sits on the edge of the stage trying to pay attention to the long ballad being sung behind him. You can see spit flying from the mouths of passionate singers. But perhaps the greatest front row moment happened to Abby, my fourteen year old.  During the song "Expressing Yourself," in which Billy and his best buddy, Michael, are goofing around in girls' clothes, Michael has his big moment in the spotlight. During said moment, he looked right at Abby, pointed at her, and gave her the "call me" sign. She was elated-even though he probably does the same thing to some lucky young lady each night, what a treat to be the chosen one.

The show was phenomenal. Watching the lead, a fourteen year old boy named Alex Ko, move with such maturity and brilliance while maintaining his boyhood innocence was a rare treat. When the show was over, we happened to catch him outside the theatre and snapped a picture. He was as delightful in person as he was on stage.

A wonderful evening, full of memories we will cherish for a lifetime. And now Emma wants to marry someone other than Justin Bieber. I approve.