I went home for President's Day weekend to work on wedding plans. Getting there was my first real experience dealing with weather delays in airports. I'm hoping to never have to deal with such delays again. After three hours of sleep, transferring to a different airport, and flying through Miami, I arrived in LA 14 hours later than planned. As a result, I missed all of my Friday appointments, but managed to fit most of them in at other points in the weekend. Saturday morning some of my friends threw me a bridal shower. It was tons of fun. But can I just say...I've awaited the day that I would be the bride and looked forward to being "showered" with gifts and attention. Well, the day came and it was kind of hard to be the center of attention. People are just so nice and I just felt like, "Why do I deserve this?" So nice though. I came back to New York with a good start for the apartment that Brett and I will hopefully soon find. Ok, here are some shower pictures:

Here is the cute little set-up of the brunch and treats with Ruthie G gracing us with her presence in the background:

Just opening up some gifts. That's my mother-in-law to be sitting next to me. Isn't she adorable?
My mother-in-law gave me some nice things. The picture below was definitely the hit of the shower. This is a cross-stitch that Brett did when he was a little boy. It was hanging in her house. Now it gets to hang in mine :)

Just a few friends. Jenny was my roommate in college. Emily and I went to high school together and hung out in college.
There I am with the ribbon bouquet and Ruthie G who assembled it for me. What talent she has. She will be doing my real bouquet.

Per Mary's (and all those other folks that signed the "Kris Update Your Blog" petition) request, I think it about time, or way past time to update the blog. It really isn't much of a blog if it never gets any attention. I have no excuses, though it would be quite easy to come up with handfuls of them (i.e. work, a long weekend trip home, work, wedding plans, a fiance, work, bronchitis, work, laziness...). So, what has Kris in NYC been up to in the past two months? I like to sum January up in about one word-work! I feel like I got back from the holidays to triple the work load. I was working at least 3 late nights (meaning 10pm or later) each week with the other "normal nights" putting me home no earlier than 8pm. Talk about overkill. If it was the industry's attempt to burn me out, they just about succeeded. In the few hours that remained aside from work, I managed to spend some time with Brett. Here are just a couple of pictures of our indoor activities (considering the bitter cold that came with winter).


This is when we had a little "Argentine" night. We made "torta frita" and ate it with dulce de leche and any other toppers we could find in the cupboard. Brett even set a cute little table that we could enjoy it to. It turned out well, not as well as those Argentines, but hey, they use lard. I mean really, everything tastes better when it has lard in it.
Brett and I frequently have what we like to call "Sudoku challenge." We have matching Sudoku books that he got for free from a client presentation (thanks Microsoft) so we do the same puzzle and see who can finish first. You'll have to ask Brett what the score is...I like to think that my new nickname will be "Queen of the Sudoku." Ok, so the secret is out, we're big nerds...and we're proud of it.
Brett surprised me for Valentine's Day. Well, in theory in was to be a surprise and he was doing a great job hiding it. I had no idea. It wasn't until he called me right after lunchtime on the V-day that I knew. Well, he told me because he found out (from his little helper) that I would likely be working very late that night, so he needed to know if it would be worth it for him to come considering he would have to be back in Philly by 9am the next morning for a mandatory class. In addition, it was right as the big storm was hitting our part of the country, so he had to plan ahead. Although I ended up knowing, it was a great surprise. This is us walking back to my apartment after a delicious dinner at an Argentine restaurant, Pampa (my sister saw it featured on the cooking channel), on the West side. We walked in the bitter cold and snow. Do we look cold?

I know, this was a thrilling post. Now maybe all you petition signers will think twice about the next blog petition that you sign. At least by not signing you won't be obligated to read the not-so-awe-inspiring posts from Kris in NYC.

Christmas was so fun this year. It's always so good to be home with the family. Santa Claus even managed to surprise me. For a while there I was a huge infomericial groupie. In that time I discovered "The Magic Bullet." I watched and rewatched the same infomercial to the point that I had it memorized. "Speedy Guacamole in just 6 seconds! And that's not all folks..." I had even picked up the phone to order but quickly hung up when I found out how much shipping & handling costs were. Ridiculous! I could understand the shipping part of the cost, but what is this handling business? Just another way to eat my money! Anyway, I gave up on the Magic Bullet dream a long time ago. I guess coming to New York and meeting Brett diverted my attention, but Santa Claus doesn't forget and I must have been a good girl this year because he completely surprised me with a "MAGIC BULLET." And to my utter shock, it actually does what it says it does! I don't know who was more excited on Christmas day, my 3-year-old nephew or me :) Check out some pictures from the day.

I've promised everyone pictures of the new apartment for a long time. I moved in the beginning of November and here it is the beginning of January. Better late than never, right? Enjoy the tour!

Lighting the tree in Rockefeller Plaza

So last night I was fortunate enough to get off of work in time to go to see the tree lighting in Rockefeller Plaza. Unfortunately, getting off of work in time doesn't mean getting off early enough to beat the crowds. I went with some friends and things were looking great until we came to a stand still about 200 feet from being in view of everything. We sat there for a good 10 minutes debating whether we should stay or not. People were so impatient, we even had a woman next to us screaming at someone trying to push by her. Poor thing, I wanted to sing a nice hymn in her ear to bring the Christmas spirit back. Anyway, we decided to leave and pushed our way back out. We went to Bryant Park, where the tree was lit a few days ago, and walked through the holiday shops. To make the night more personal, we closed our eyes and then opened them to get the effect of a tree lighting.

The pictures:
On 5th Avenue...I thought the snowflakes were fun...they even danced with the music.
Ade and I standing by the tree in Bryant Park.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Well, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was my first in New York and my was it fun. Growing up it wasn't Thanksgiving unless we woke up to the Macy's parade. This year was no exception. Instead of waking up to it on TV, I woke up to it right in front of my eyes. To keep it short, Brett and I were planning on getting up bright and early (as in 6am). However, when we woke up, it was pouring rain. Who wants to stand out in the rain for three hours? So I made the executive decision to sleep an hour or so longer, after all, who wants to get up at 6am on a holiday? We got up and left around 8:15, got to the parade at about 8:40 and got a wonderful spot. We were even stationed right under a scaffolding, so no umbrellas necessary. It was beautiful for the first half hour of the parade before it started raining again. We stayed til about 10:30 and left as Mr. Potato Head was making his way down the street. I took quite a few pictures and will be posting those right along with this.

This is just for you Kari...the cast of High School Musical!


Check out the size of that Snoopy...he didn't even fit into the camera :)


"Thomas, Thomas Turkey..." Need I say more mom?


Just the two of us with "Bob Esponja" in the background.


Check out the crowds...


This is as far as we got. Nicholas, this picture is just for you my little man!


Here we are on the way to the subway...aren't we cute? You've gotta love Brett's bedhead (and to think that people pay to make it look like that) and my mismatched beanie, but hey, I have to sport the beanies that I make.



The rest of Thanksgiving was wonderful, I mean really, it can't be anything otherwise if you've got turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and the rest of the works and some tasty homemade pie to top it all off. The Campbell's were so sweet to us...all I had to do was get myself there. Check out the picture of our feast fit for a king!

Just sitting down to dinner...mmm, mmm good!

Holy Toledo!

Last weekend Brett and I went to Toledo to visit my sister and meet her beau, Kyle. We spent a wonderful weekend together. Friday night was the Pumpkin Carving Party at her house. She and Kyle won the contest for the best carving…they designed it themselves…check out how cool it looks.





Saturday we went to a corn maze since neither of the boys had been to one. We made it a race to see which couple could make it to the end first. Brett and I kicked some serious trash on that one. We were waiting for Kirsten and Kyle for like 15 minutes. Maybe they just conveniently found lots of “dead ends.” After some contemplation on that, Brett and I wished we had done the same.




Sunday we made a gourmet dinner and enjoyed it on fine china with personalized name tags and all.

It was so nice to spend time with them and to spend time away from the big city. Such tranquility! You don't realize how much you miss that life until you're back in it.

The Proposal

Here’s the story. I started work on Wednesday (FYI: at an ad agency in the city working for the Pepperidge Farm account…yum, lots of free cookies and goldfish), so yesterday I was working. Brett had told me that he was going to come up to see me and spend the weekend with me. He met me at work and from there it all began. We proceeded to take the subway from Grand Central Station to the Upper East Side, where we began. Both Brett and I lived on the Upper East Side this summer when we met, so we returned to our roots. We went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant that Brett and I had gone to for one of our first dates (which is another cute story). At dinner we reminisced about our first months together and once again Brett took one for the team and ate sushi. It had started to rain on the way to dinner, so we snuggled under my umbrella. After dinner it was raining a little harder, but that didn’t foil Brett’s plans one bit. We proceeded to walk to the East River—I had never been there, but Brett had walked there after I left NYC in August and told me that he wanted to take me there (and that he did). We went to a bench on the river which has significant meaning to us. We sat on that bench huddled under the umbrella and Brett proceeded to tell me the significance of the spot as well as when it was that he knew I was “the one” (I like the sound of that, it makes me seem really special and important). It was adorable and my, did he do a great job with his words. I’ll spare you all from the gushiness of it all, although I didn’t find it to be at all gushy J Then he played his Rook card and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him (in the rain and all--the rain was actually a nice bonus because it meant that we were alone on the East River, no one to ruin the moment). I paused for a second, trying to think of something witty to say, but after a few seconds I said, “Of course I will! Yes!” He put the ring on my finger and from there we just shared a few more moments together. It was so romantic. I LOVE the ring almost as much as I love Brett, he did a great job. It sparkles so much and makes me feel worth a million dollars. Boy am I the luckiest girl in the world!

Check out some pictures of the ring and of us.

Always a Tourist!

Brett and I haven't really been on a date in a while since we've spent so much time apart and so much time moving me from here to there. So last Friday night was date night for us and we decided to be your everyday New York City tourists even though we've lived here for a few months. But seriously, there is so much to do and see in this city that you just can't do it all, so we'll just be forever tourists with our place of residence happening to be NYC. We decided to go to dinner, which shouldn't normally be a problem...I mean really, it's Manhattan...there are restaurants everywhere you turn. Well, we made the wrong decision to go downtown toward our destination, the Empire State Building and look for food there. Just as we suspected, we found a good handful of restaurants, but none that tickled our fancy. After a while, we finally settled on a place and can I just say...they charged $18 just for a chicken strips meal, come on...what a way to rip someone off! Haha! Ok, sorry, I'll try not to be so frugal! Anyway, after our costly, but enjoyable dinner, we headed to the top of the Empire State Building (another costly experience...honestly, is there anything cheap in this city?) It was absolutely gorgeous, freezing and windy, but gorgeous nonetheless. Just thought I'd post a picture or two from up top.

Interview Rewards (I like the sound of that)!

So I decided that this interviewing thing needed to be rewarding along the way since the job offers don’t come immediately and Rachel has had no problem helping me out with that. After the first interview we went and got manicures and pedicures! That was absolutely fabulous. However, I decided that I couldn’t spend that much money everytime I have an interview (since we’re hoping that they aren’t that few and far between). So what have I done since then? Well, take a look…Rachel and I found some gourmet cupcakes to celebrate one interview. They were tasty, although we were regretting eating the whole thing afterwards. Since then I have bought myself a few other little treats. Go ahead, take a wild guess what they were!

toothpaste, goldfish, and credit cards

well here i am back in new york city. to be quite honest, it was bittersweet coming back. i have been working long hours at finding myself a job…however, once the job comes, i will be working many longer hours. i’ve had quite a few interviews and from the title of the blog post, you can tell that they have been with very diverse accounts. that’s right folks, up til now i have interviewed with such accounts as global colgate, pepperidge farm and then there could be an interview coming with american express. this week i also made my way into an interview with a company that markets healthcare products, such as claritin, nasonex, excedrin migraine, etc. so i’ve been all over the product spectrum while staying within the advertising discipline. it’s a tough industry to break into, but things have been going really well even so. so now it’s your turn to vote…which account should i choose? (as if i have a choice at the moment)!

Meeting the Families

So, after getting back from New York, I spent about a week and a half with my sister and niece and nephew before flying out to Vegas where I met Brett at the airport. I then spent about three days with him and his family. The whole crew was there. He has a wonderful family and it was fun to get to know a different side of Brett. Then we drove out to California where we spent about a week with my family. We did a little bit of everything from hanging out with Katherine and Tim and their kids, taking Kari to her first day of school, going to the first day of school ice cream...to spending some time with grandma and grandpa Lawson, going to a Dodger game, and just hanging out. We had so much fun together and we seemed to have passed the test with the families. The goodbye was definitely that much harder than it was a few weeks before in New York, but things are going well and that's what matters, right?

My time in New York came to an abrupt end. I can't believe those two months flew by so incredibly fast. I will be back considering I left some of my stuff there. I am waiting on some job offers and if those don't pan out, I will be going back at some point in September or early October to knock some agencies' doors down. Look out NYC, I'll be back! So, I came home a few days early to meet my new little niece, Katya Elise Cross. She was born on August 14th and is just a little princess. Nicholas is such a good big brother. It's been fun to be here for the first weeks of her life since I was in Argentina when Nicholas was born. Needless to say the past week has been fun and exhausting. Feedings every two hours are tiring!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Thanks for all the calls on my birthday, I appreciated it! The day was perfect...I woke up to two dozen roses and a daisy (you can all guess why the daisy was there), so the day started out perfect and ended the same way. It was crazy getting to the airport and working things out with my brother, but SO good to see him. Then Brett and I headed home to a little surprise party...even with all the changes of plans, he managed to pull it off! Here's pictures documenting the day.

Elder Nicholas comes to NYC!

My brother was scheduled to leave August 8th for Sao Paolo. Seeing as though I'm all the way on the other side of the country, I was quite disappointed that I wouldn't be seeing him before he embarked. So, I prepped myself for it all and was actually doing quite well with it. I had said goodbye to him over the phone and was back up at my desk working when I received another series of phone calls. What happened you might ask (although the subject of this post already gave it away)? Anyway, his flight to Dallas was cancelled due to weather conditions, so he ended up going all over the place and ending up at the JFK airport last night. Needless to say, I rushed right over there to see him and give him a big hug before he left the country. I don't know how he did it, but he managed to give me the best birthday present ever--just seeing him! Plus, he got to meet Brett. It turned out to be a good thing that we were there because there were even more complications at the airport with check-in. The cell phone came in handy seeing as we were talking to church travel for 45 minutes trying to figure things out. At long last we fixed it all, just in time to get his bags checked and send him running. No emotional goodbyes because he was looking so happy and I am just so happy for him! The whole incident at check-in was not for naught...we ended up giving a pass-a-long card to the ladies that we worked with and formed a pretty good relationship with them. They were even going to let us in the airport to see him to his gate, but we opted out of that seeing as though we had already said goodbye and there were more birthday celebrations to come. Good day!