Aubrey and Sarah Visit NJ/NYC: Part 2

On Saturday, A, S, & I caught the 9:23am train into the city from Morristown. I knew I wanted to take the train at least once into NYC while they were here so that the girls could experience it. Plus, it's always nice to be car-free in NYC and you could feed a third-world country with how much it costs! ;)

{On the train; Beware: there are quite a few 3-headed pics in this post, ha!}

This was Aubrey and Sarah's first time in the city and it was so entertaining to see their first reactions to  the city as we took the escalator up out of Penn Station! We grabbed some Starbucks and headed straight for Times Square. 

After the girls got the chance to soak up the craziness that is Times Square, we headed over to the the Gershwin Theatre. We put our names in the lottery drawing for Wicked tickets, but did not get drawn (boo). After my mom heard this, she did the sweetest thing and bought us Wicked tickets for Sunday afternoon. Score! From the theatre, we took off on our day-long adventure of seeing as much as possible in the city. 

{Spring in NYC is lovely}

We then walked up the Central Park. Side note: we did a TON of walking on Saturday. Could we have taken the subway more? Sure. But it was way more fun to walk and see so much, plus I didn't have to worry about getting my Saturday run in. Pretty sure I burned 1,000 calories just walking around NYC!

Experiencing Central Park in the spring might have been my favorite part of Saturday. As many times as I've visited and even lived in NYC, I've never done either of these while the sun was out the way it was on Saturday. There were people and dogs EVERYWHERE! Running, laying out, playing with footballs/frisbees/soccer balls/etc. I even took a quick video and sent it to Luke. If you can't find me in June, it's probably because I'm at Central Park! We took tons of pictures (which I've limited for you, you're welcome) in all of the beautiful trees and ate street tacos for lunch.

We then traveled down to Soho to visit Kate Spade NYC, Georgetown Cupcake Soho, and Purl (where I'm pretty sure Aubrey was in heaven!). And from Soho, we continued south into Brooklyn so that I could show the girls my old stomping grounds, Brooklyn Heights. We walked Montague St. and ended up down at the Promenade for another photo shoot.

{Pic stolen from Sarah}

We then decided to walk the infamous Brooklyn Bridge back into Manhattan. At this point, you can imagine that my feet were about to fall off. But of course, walking the Brooklyn Bridge is always worth it!

While in lower Manhattan, we stopped by the World Trade Center Memorial. I had never been to the new memorial and it was definitely a humbling experience. I'm forever grateful for those that gave their lives to fight for and protect America.

We ended our day with dinner in Hell's Kitchen and a quick trip up to the top of the Empire State Building. I'm a firm believer in people visiting the ESB at night vs. during the day. The view is absolutely breathtaking!

{Pic stolen from Sarah}

See? I was not lying! We did a TON on Saturday! But I must say, I was pretty proud of us. We took the train back to Morristown and crashed. It was good that we did though, because we still had another full day in the city to conquer. Sunday's adventures up next... :)

Aubrey and Sarah Visit NJ/NYC: Part 1

This past weekend, two of my best friends in the entire world flew up to New Jersey to visit and go into the city. Their visit was the first long visit by friends that Luke and I have had since we moved up here. I cannot even begin to explain how good this was for my heart! Not only had I missed these two like crazy, but they brought with them a little bit of Texas, familiarity, and comfort that I hadn't felt in a while. True friends will do that to you. :)

The girls flew in on Friday and I picked them up at the Newark airport. It could not have been a more gorgeous day (or weekend, as you'll be able to see from my pics)! After I squeezed their necks half to death, we grabbed their luggage and headed back to Morristown so that I could show them where I live and they could chill after an already long day of traveling.

After a quick break and showing the girls our apartment, we all piled into the car and went looking for lunch. Of course, we ended up at Tito's, one of mine and Luke's favorite places to eat in Morristown. The girl's liked it too!

After lunch, we went back to our apartment so Aubrey and Sarah could take a quick nap. They had, after all, been up since about 5am and lost an hour in the switching of time zones. We lounged on the couch and caught up on Revenge and SVU, just like old times. This was exactly what I'd been looking forward to!

After naps, us three girls left Luke and the pups at home to go walk around Morristown. I wanted to show my friends our cute little town since I knew we'd spend a majority of Saturday and Sunday in NYC.

{Walking around downtown Motown; pic stolen from Sarah}

{Isn't Motown so pretty in the spring?! pic stolen from Sarah}

{Pic stolen from Sarah}

{Pic stolen from Sarah}

We walked around the Morristown Green, enjoyed the perfect weather, and had our first-ever experience with bubble tea. It was a little interesting and probably not something I'll drink on a regular basis (creamy flavored tea with brown tapioca bubbles--weird), but it was fun to try something different!

That night, the girls ordered pizza and Luke and I ordered Chinese. Got to love delivery! Knowing that we had a long two days in NYC ahead of us, we wanted to fuel up and get plenty of rest. 

Up next, Aubrey and Sarah's first day in NYC!

Spring Basics...and feeding my online shopping addiction!

As much as I love spring, I'm discovering that I'm not very good at it, ha! I've lived almost all of my life in a part of Texas that was practically summer 90% of the year, so I've never really had to adjust my wardrobe to 4 distinct seasons. I've been a little frustrated the last couple of weeks because I don't feel like I have anything to wear (Luke would beg to differ, I'm sure!). I've been wanting to shop for some new spring clothes, but I also wanted to be particular on how much I spent because it's still only in the 60s outside (and I automatically lean towards summer clothing).

After a little looking last week, here's what I landed on:

{Basic, layering vintage-style tees from Old Navy. On sale for $7 each!}

{Old Navy's cut-off shorts, 15% off!}

{ON again. I can't wait to pair a jean jacket with this simple, jersey tank dress!}

{I actually let these sandals go the last time I visited the Piperlime store in SoHo. But I haven't been able to get them out of my head, which always means I must need them! Plus, Piperlime offers free shipping and free returns. They were my one splurge. :) via}

{I picked this little guy up from GroopDealz for $5 y'all!! via}

{I bought the mint one for $7, again from GroopDealz}

I've officially hidden my wallet from myself so that I'm not tempted to spend more. There are some really adorable spring/summer clothes out there! But as much as I'd love to line my closet with new dresses, the ones I want just aren't necessary yet. But by June, you better believe I'll be living in them!

What are the spring/summer basics you just can't live without?  

Bloglovin' Hop!

If you've heard, google reader is on it's way out! In my opinion, this means google friend connect's days are numbered, but that's just an opinion. This is happening on July 1st so a few bloggers and I got together to bring you what we hope will be the new google reader, Bloglovin'! Bloglovin' is a great reader to use because you can organize the blogs, it goes to the blog so the blogger will get page views and if you use google chrome, you can add a widget to your toolbar to show you how many posts are unread!

Here's the deal. This is a blog hop that will be happening on the 3rd Friday of each month for the forseeable future. A Dose of Paige and My Beautiful Crazy Life will be your permanent hosts and we will be having four cohosts each month.

Last month, we had 163 link ups which is amazing for the first month! Thank you so much for linking up and spreading the word! I know I read a ton of new blogs through bloglovin' and had a blast! 

Want to cohost? Email one of us!

Here are the rules:

1. Link up your Bloglovin' URL ONLY.

2. Follow your hosts and cohosts

3. Go find and follow some other blogs via Bloglovin'

4. Share, share, share!!

And of course, here's a button to grab to use on your own blogs to spread the word!

<a href="http://www.adoseofpaige.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q278/paigers91/BloglovinHop_zps50963343.jpg" border="0" alt="Bloglovin' Hop!"/></a>

Have you met this amazing blogger?

Broken

There is really no other word to describe what my heart is feeling right now. My heart is breaking for Boston, MA and for West, TX, two places close to my heart. 

I am a runner. In fact, the first anniversary of my first half marathon is in a few days. There is a pretty good chance that I will never run a full marathon, but that does not matter. Once a runner, always a runner. And on Monday, a terrorist attack not only rocked the city of Boston, it rocked the running community as well. This hit so close to home. For runners, races like the Boston Marathon are the ultimate success. Family and friends come out to support. People from all over the U.S. and scores of countries fly in to run. And all of these runners share the joy of training, feeling those few jitters before the race begins, being motivated by the cheers of those watching, and feeling the most incredible sense of pride and accomplishment as they cross finish line. The coward that set off those bombs, knowing that he/she would hurt so many people in one place, attacked our country in a way I never thought a terrorist attack could, at an event that is supposed to bring joy, not sorrow. Will we stop running? Absolutely not. Will we find this coward and will justice be served? Yes. But my heart is still so broken for those affected by this horrific terrorist attack and angry that someone would try to hurt something so precious to me and runners everywhere. Last night, I ran for Boston.

West, TX is a small, Czech town just north of Waco, TX. Being a Baylor alum, I've spent many a night driving to West's Czech Stop to buy kolaches for a late-night studying break with friends. Luke and I stayed in West, TX at a little Czech hotel for our first Baylor Homecoming as a married couple. West is well-known and loved by all Baylor students and might as well be connected to Waco. But in addition to this, I am Czech. I grew up in a small, predominately Czech town so similar to West, it's crazy. To think of something like this happening in my home town shakes me to the core. In fact, it might as well have, with how close to my heart West, TX is. Hundreds of people are currently standing in line to give blood, hundreds of others are gathering food and supplies for those that have lost everything, hospitals in Waco and surrounding areas are caring for hundreds of injured people, and first responders are still searching for those that are unaccounted for. I'm so proud of the Baylor community for the way they are responding to this terrible tragedy. Giving blood, donating food/clothing/time, and gathering to pray. My heart is in West, TX today.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

Inner Nerd + Firmoo Review

Confession: I have an inner nerd. Probably a bigger one than I'd like to admit. I love to read for fun, I would go back to school in a heart beat (freshly sharpened pencils and new spiral notebooks anyone?), and I am nearly blind as a bat, which = nerdy glasses. I had been wearing the same pair of glasses for a while, and was ready to switch it up, when Firmoo, an online eyeglass store, reached out to me. With a huge selection of glasses to pick from, a virtual try-on system, and Firmoo's first pair free program, I quickly picked out the frames I wanted!

It took a little longer than I expected for the glasses to be delivered, but I don't think that was as much of a Firmoo thing as it was the delivery people. When I first opened up the package, Luke was like, "Hurry up and put them on!" [Side note: What is it with guys and girls in glasses? Naughty librarian, or what? Ha!] I was surprised at how well these glasses fit my face, which is something you're asked about this during the ordering process, and how much they looked exactly like what I thought they would (thank you virtual try-on system!). I wanted a larger, more square frame so that the Brooklyn hipster inside of me would be able to make her appearance when I ventured into the city. And the prescription is perfect! I would never have guessed that these glasses did not come from an eye doctor's office.

I have a feeling that my inner nerd will be talking me into ordering more glasses from Firmoo in the future! Want your own pair? Check out Firmoo's first pair free program here.

{Like the ones I picked? You can find them here.}

From Firmoo:

The old opinion that glasses are only necessities for people with vision problems has already gone. Glasses are increasingly becoming a fad and must-have accessories for  celebs and fashionistas. Everyday we can spot millions of non prescription glasses wearers and we are constantly fascinated by many noted film stars’ signature non prescription glasses.They instantly upgrade your look of modern, sexy, vintage or geek by wearing different styles of frames.

Any hot glasses/sunglasses /goggles frames you want can be found on Firmoo, and all are available for both prescription lenses and non-prescription lenses. Are you desperate to have a new look? Now here is the chance, Firmoo has launched a First Pair Free Program to people worldwide. You will absolutely fall in love with the excellent quality, affordable prices, fashionable designs, fast delivery and the good service after trying them with paying shipping only! You even can get a refund/exchange if you are not satisfied with them. It's totally Risk free, so why not have a try?

Hope you're enjoying this lovely weekend!

Lately.

1) These fluffballs need a haircut!

2) Last Saturday, I went into the city to have brunch with two of my friends in the city.

3) That same Saturday, I strolled through SoHo to enjoy the lovely spring flowers...

4) ...and some coffee.

5) On Tuesday, I went back into the city to watch the Baylor Men's Basketball team play in the NIT semi-finals. They ended up winning the NIT Championship on Thursday. Sic 'Em Bears!!

6) Picked up another BU shirt. I'm a proud alum, what can I say?

7) Walked past the Empire State Building on my way back to the train.

8) Now Bentley won't get off my new shirt. We know where his loyalty lies.

9) A little sunshine on my Friday afternoon run. Can't wait for some great weather this weekend!

Sorry I've been a little MIA on the blog this week. There are 10 days left in the tax season and we're in a mad race for the finish. Hurry up April 15th! 

Have a lovely weekend. :)

Kick A** April

Let's face it, the almost 4-month-long winter that Luke and I have endured hasn't had the best effect on my body or fitness routine. If I was still in Texas, I would have started my bikini regimen 2 months ago because the sun would have been shining and the weather would be awesome (= running outside). However, between chilly temperatures, Luke having the car until 10pm every night, and my constantly changing work schedule, my workout routine has suffered (not for lack of trying, I swear). 

The other day, I hopped on Pinterest for a couple of minutes and immediately noticed a fitness pin called "Kick Ass April." See below. It gives you a month-long fitness plan that you can do in your house without weights. It's not a super long workout, but I'm adding it to the 2-3 runs I plan on fitting into my schedule starting this week. Squats, burpees (love to hate burpees), and wall-sits. The perfect workout to tone your entire body! 

{via}

I'm a little behind, so I'm hoping "Kick Ass April" will jump start my bikini body workout. Summer is just a short two months away! What are you doing to get bikini ready? I'd love to hear any other recommendations you may have!

Happy Monday y'all. :)