Monday, December 29, 2008

Chicago IL

Here we are unloading all of our wordly possessions that were in transit for a bit over a week. . Our place is the two-story row house on the right. You can see the progression of the "Great Room" as far as boxes are concerned. It starts pretty neat and empty and then we get to it.

I can't even tell you how many boxes (although I'm sure Scott can) we had altogether (sadly after a month, we still have some). I can say one thing though...never had I thought we had that much stuff in our Hoboken apt. When did we accumulate all this stuff?!?!?


Friday, December 26, 2008

To the Ol' Arnold Crew

Day after Xmas brought us to Brooklyn to meet with Jason, Jessica & Sam as well as Brandon & Susan. We had some burgers (two for me thank you), wings, fries, some beers and lots of good fun. Sam and Stella have not seen each other in a while but picked up where they last were. Bittersweet. It is always comforting to know that there are, and always will be, friends from all walks of life.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Monday, December 22, 2008

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Xmas Tree

Normal Kemper tradition calls for an Xmas tree hunt where we visit a tree farm to pick out, cut and bring home our tree for the season. However, with just a few minor things going on (e.g. Scott being in Chicago, our prep for the move, our not being in a home til after Xmas), we decided to buy a fake mini tree to commemorate the season.

We set the 2-footer at my parents and think that we did a pretty good job. To us it's comparable to the famous tree...don't ya think?


Saturday, December 20, 2008

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Stella & Her Halabuh-gee

which means 'grandpa' in Korean. No fighting over rights to 'grandpa' or 'grandma' for her; she has her hal-money (my mom), nana (scott's mom), halabuh-gee (my dad) & bampi (scott's dad).

Here they are chilling at home in the 'Boken while I start trying to wrap my head and material possessions around the impending 'big move'.

Stella is a little banged up as she had taken a pretty nasty spill off the back of the couch, landing head first into a square potter. First big header but she came out of it okay.


Who's having more fun? This one's at Halabuh-gee's house.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Angel & Betty Jean of the SkyClub Fitness Club

Ok...I'm totally behind and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to catch up. I am in front of my computer now and for once I have no child in front of me whining, and no dire errand that needs to be taken care of now. So I am randomly going to post pix and videos for the sake of getting it up there.

Here is a final shot of the lovely ladies that watched Stella whilst her mother worked out to stay in some semblance of shape (although that's all gone to the wayside big time by now) at our gym in the 'Boken.

Angel (on the left) has watched Stella ever since I started going. Boy did Stella cry and cry. Angel saw the eight month long separation anxiety through and for that, I will eternally be grateful. They were so good to her. We will miss them.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Stylin Stella

All ready for Chicago...

Are You Kidding Me?!?!

I may have the best husband ever. Or at the least the most thoughtful. It's been about 6 weeks since he took off to Chi-town to start his new job at DDB. November 4th to be exact, which was exciting in and of itself since he had the opportunity to vote in Hoboken and fly to Chicago to be part of a celebrating city as we elected our next president.

Anyway, flash forward 6 weeks, 6 pretty difficult weeks, and I get a card from him. Inside is a truly heartfelt message that acknowledges my efforts during his absence and a bunch of sweet nothings that I care not to share on this site :). More importantly however, within the card is another smaller envelope that asks me not to open it until Dec. 15th after the "knock" on my door at 3PM. How cryptic is that? And how freakish is that? I mean I'm expecting something but I don't know what it is.

Monday the 15th rolls around, per my previous blog entry, I spend a good part of the day with Karen, Deville & Luca. I get home a bit after 2 and proceed to anxiously hang out and await this knock. 3pm comes and goes. 3:30 approaches and of course I'm in the middle of changing a very messy, poopy diaper when sure enough there is a knock on the door. Flustered, I leave Stella on the changing table (clean), and answer the door.

An older Asian woman is at the door with a giant plastic bin and immediately starts talking to me introducing herself, and recognizing me from the gym. Interesting...I probably came off a little standoffish as I told her that I had no idea what was going on. She directs me to open the envelope. Aha. I invite her in, finish getting Stella dressed and hear the woman busying herself...with what, no idea. I come back out and find the envelope, rip it open and begin reading...

Hokie sh*ts as Scott would say. He delivered me a gift via this person. Ping is a personal chef! As I watch her unload her plastic bin full of fresh food, pots, pans and spices, she explains that she is to make me dinner that night and two additional entrees for the rest of the week. I can't even begin to describe what this means to me from a 'my husband is so thoughtful' perspective, and just from an outright logistical help standpoint. Don't think he truly understands how much time and energy he has saved by doing this in the final week we are in our apartment.

I had a fantastic day. It was about 65 degrees. Stella and I went out to run a couple of errands and to just lackadaisically meander the streets of Hoboken. I was in no hurry to get back with groceries to prepare dinner. YES! I just needed to show up when I got hungry. Stella and I hung out for 2 1/2 hours. We got home by 6:30...I was eating a deliciously home cooked meal by 6:40. Seriously.

My dinner menu consisted of: Chicken Marsala (melted in my mouth), side of sugar snap peas and cous cous. It was delectably delicious. She also made two other entrees: 1) Coffee grind crusted skirt steak, broccoli rabe, yellow rice w/ black beans and sweet plaintains (see pix above), 2) Chicken curry stir fry with noodles and vegetables. I have tupperwares full of deliciousness that I can open and heat up and eat to my heart's content. In addition to this, she left me plenty of sliced up veggies in ziploc bags for me to toss a salad together in 5 minutes or less. She also made plenty of each dish as like me, she has a hard time cooking for 1.

The fact that Scott not only came up with this idea, but executed it and worked with Ping on the menu is just a wonderful thing. It is thoughtful, it is helpful and it is freaking DELICIOUS. Thanks baby!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Hangin with Deville & Luca Van

Stella and I visited with the Palaitis' on Monday. It was a balmy 70 degrees - weird. We played at Karen's and then decided to take the kids out to run off some steam. We went to the playground and then went to a local diner for some good food.

How do we leave these cool cats that we've gotten to know and love?!?!?!