finishing out our nyc trip...

our first two days in nyc were by far our busiest. on sunday we slept in a little and then headed to the tkts line to try to get discounted tickets for that nights performance of "Mama Mia". when we got there the line was incredibly long...we would have been waiting all day. so, we headed to the theatre to see if we would have any luck there instead. while we were still in times square debating what to do we saw this guy wandering around so i had to get my picture made with him...

as meagan was taking the picture he was telling me,

"most people give me like a dollar for this"

haha..."so your hugs aren't really free?" i asked!

we ended up getting a fairly good deal on our tickets to the show that night. there was an usher hanging around in the lobby (the matinee was getting ready to start) and he told us to find him at intermission and he would see if he could move us to better seats!

when we left the theatre we headed to 59th and lexington and did some retail therapy before heading back to get ready for the show. the play was really good...and we did find our usher and he got us into some great seats for the 2nd half of the show!! they were awesome!

the next morning we didn't set an alarm clock...bad idea. luckily meagan just happened to wake up. she woke up at 11:40 and check-out was at noon...not good. none of us had packed anything the night before, so that will explain some of the pics you are about to see. we did get out the door by 12, and the hotel held our luggage for us because our plane didn't leave until 6 that evening. we headed straight for central park. i love central park! it's so amazing that new york has that big beautiful piece of land in the middle of such a huge city.

how did meagan end up looking like so good???

when we left central park we went to fao schwartz...we were all about the toy stores on this trip!

the piano from "big"

a lego johnny depp!

we had one last stop to make before heading to the airport. we ate at the shake shack for the second time of our short trip. they have amazing burgers, fries, and shakes!

and that, my friends, was our trip to the big apple! can't wait to do it again : )



saturday in nyc...

no, i didn't go back to new york again : ) and yes, i know this post is way late...when we got to new york on friday i was of course taking lots of pictures. we were on top of the empire state building and all of a sudden...my camera battery died!! what a nightmare on the first day of my trip!! and of course...i had forgotten to bring my charger with me. so, i had no camera for the rest of the trip. fortunately, melissa took lots of pics and she downloaded them for me and i've got them all now : ) so, here's a rundown of what we did for the rest of the weekend.
we decided to spend saturday in downtown manhattan and then go to brooklyn that night for some scrumptious grimaldi's pizza. we started out by taking the staten island ferry so that we could get a good view of the statue of liberty.

                              when we got back we saw some of the famous downtown sights. 

where george washington was inaugurated

the new york stock exchange

the bull of the stock market (and from hitch!)

trinity church

this is a replica of tree roots that were in the cemetery beside trinity church.

on 9-11 these tree roots protected all of the old graves and tombstones in the cemetery.

the 9-11 memorial. "may we never forget"

next we headed over to south street seaport. there are lots of little shops and places to eat over there. it also has a great view of the hudson river. we were almost there and we heard someone say..."would you like to have a hug today, ladies?" we looked up and this is what we saw...

let me tell you...i FREAKED out!!!

i turned around and ran! i got to the corner and was standing by a pole and looked up...

i immediately started running across the street...almost getting run over by a taxi!

snakes scare me to death and i couldn't handle being close to these guys.

that night we took the subway over to brooklyn and ate at the delicious grimaldi's. it was well worth the long wait, as usual! we walked back over the brooklyn bridge and had a great view of the manhattan skyline at night. the weather was perfect!! we went to 2 different places for dessert : P megan and melissa ate at ferrera's and then i ate at rice to riches.

after our long day we finally headed back to the hotel and got some much needed rest.





paint a piece with allie...

last year for allie's birthday we went to paint a piece. when it came time for her birthday this year i asked her if she wanted me to get her a present or if she wanted to go back to paint a piece again. she said she wanted to go back to paint again! i left work early and went to pick her up from school and we headed to jerry's for some yummy snowcones.

when we left there we headed out to wolfchase. allie had told katie that she was going to pick the biggest piece of pottery she could find because she wanted to stay a really long time!! when we got in the store she looked around for awhile and then went straight for this guy.



unfortunately i had to tell her "no go!" for one thing, it was $75! and for another...look at the size of that thing!!!
she got right to work picking out her paints for the dog that she picked out.

         me and allie with our finished products. of course she named her dog andy.

we had so much fun!! can't believe my sweet little girl is 6.

i've got a nephew!!!

wow...i actually thought i would never say or write those words. but yep...it happened...the long line of reed girls (and murphy, white, and taylor's) has finally been broken. the little guy that has come into our life has already captured everyone's heart and won all of us girl-lovers over!

meet mr. jett daniel taylor

he's so very handsome i must say!!!

i was really sad that i couldn't be there at the hospital with julie when she had jett and see him right after he was born, but i'm glad i was able to go down the week after.

when katie and jeremy came home from texas on sunday they brought jenna with them so that julie and daniel could have a break their second week with jett. mom kept jenna and i know they had lots of fun that week!! that friday when i got ready to head down to kilgore i loaded jenna up in the mini and we hit the road. katie let me borrow their little dvd player and that helped out a lot. jenna did GREAT except for one time when she had fallen asleep and when she woke up she wanted out of her seat and kept asking for her mom and dad. we pulled over at a rest stop and i held her for awhile and then she was fine again. the rest of the trip was a breeze!

jenna was so excited to see julie, daniel, and jett...and they were ready to see her too!!! when i first saw jett he was in his swing. it's funny how every time i see a newborn i forget how small they all are...he seemed so tiny! pretty much all weekend was spent laying on the couch loving on jenna and jett. you can tell by looking at the pics...not my best...

sweet baby boy

on friday night when i got there i gave jenna her birthday gift. she was excited about digging into the bag!

sleepy jenna

big sister and little brother : )

we thought jenna was being so cute laying right beside me all still...

then we realized she was sneaking....playing with my iphone!!

getting ready to leave my texas babies : (

that's right...i don't have any makeup on...

one last pic with jenna in front of the mini : )

p.s. this may not be my only nephew...the pencil pregnancy test says katie has a boy in her belly...and the pencil test is never wrong : /

the other side of the fence...

every day i talk to patients about taking their medications, side effects of their treatment, signs and symptoms of their disease...and my whole job revolves around research. is a higher dose of this medicine more effective than the lower dose? but even if it is, does it have significantly more side effects? what about if the patient reacts to the medication...what do we give then? which is better...this arm of chemotherapy with one block of meds, or this arm of chemotherapy with another slightly different block of meds? and my job is to capture every minute little detail such as a missed dose, a wrong dose, a fever, an infection...so that we can compare this drug to another.
i say all this to say, i do this every day without thinking twice about it...but now i'm on the other side of the fence. i've had rheumatoid arthritis for 15 years now. i've been really blessed to have as few problems as i've had. unfortunately i have had to change meds every 3-4 years because they just quit working. i was on enbrel, remicaid, and then humira. my rheumatoid factor and my sed rate have been going up (this means the inflammation in my body has been increasing) and i've been having a lot more pain. so, i asked dr. gupta what my options were. he wanted me to do a drug where i'd have to go in once a month and have an iv infusion that takes about 1 1/2 hours. i just really don't want to do that. i don't want to have to get an iv once a month, and i don't want to have to take that time off work. the other option was to go on a research protocol. so...i'm doing the research drug.
i went and did my screening on tuesday. i really think they took like 100ml of blood from me. i hadn't eaten because they told me not to so i thought i was going to pass out! but i didn't. they did a chest xray and an ekg and i signed the consent for the protocol. i can't get the first dose of the medicine until 1 month after my last humira shot, so i'm going back for my first dose on october 11.
it's a sq injection, just like my humira, so it goes just under the skin...not into the muscle. after the first 5 or 6 doses i'll be able to give it to myself at home, but they have to monitor me at first to make sure i don't react to the drug. for the first several times i have to go in, get the drug, and be monitored for an hour. it's definitaly not something i'm looking forward to...the office is all the way over by st. francis...but hopefully it will help me feel better and bring my levels down! that would be a miracle!!
please pray for me.

what i've been up to...

this week has been CRAZY!!! to start things off, mom and dad left town to go to texas to be with julie when she had baby jett, so i kept lacy for them. i picked her up on sunday, one day after i got cooper. let me tell you...it was a mad house with those 3 dogs in my little house. i had her until today, so basically i was running a doggy day care all week.

then on tuesday my very first nephew was born!!! i can't believe it : ) he's so handsome and i can't wait to meet him and hold him and love on him. i'm going down to see him on friday and am so ready.

last night kylie and i had a girls night. we started out by having dinner at chick-fil-a. she was so funny because the pastor's son was working there and he kept calling her "princess". she was eating it up!! after that we went to see the new movie "dolphin tale". it was so good! i love dolphins and i especially love harry connick, jr...the movie was a really great family movie! when we left the movie we headed over to steak and shake for dessert. the only bad part of the night was that kylie had a loose tooth that she really wanted me to pull. i do NOT do loose teeth! it grosses me out to see kids wiggle their loose teeth. i tried 3 times to pull it out, but i just couldn't do it! i ended up hurting her, poor thing and she just fixated on that tooth. she was so afraid she was going to swallow it in her sleep...but she ended up being just fine. we had a great time together. it was really fun being able to spend time with my little kylie. she's getting to be such a big girl and we can carry on real conversations. i love her so much!

i ended out my week by going to get a hot stone massage today at serenity day spa. it was amazing! my massage therapist is in her last year of nursing school at the u of m so we talked about that a lot. it's been way too long since my last massage and this one was well worth the money!!



cooper...

meet cooper, the newest addition to mine and liberty's family. he joined our family this past saturday and he's already adjusting really well. he and libs are getting along great so far! he's a sweetie : )