New York 3

On Tuesday morning we planned to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Since we had to take the subway to the 9/11 Memorial to do that, we decided to stop by there first. But when we got to the memorial, it wasn't what we thought, and I realized that what I wanted to see (the letters and the photos etc) were probably in a building we'd passed that cost $17 to get in. And we'd already donated $10 each to the Memorial. So I decided to find the church that had been open for the firemen etc during 9/11. That was St Paul's. We found it and went in.

Near the Memorial

One of the pools at the Memorial

The rest of these pictures are of remembrances at St. Paul's. And this is what I'd wanted to see in the first place. I guess a lot of it has been moved to a remembrance building that costs to get in.

There were so many photos of people who were lost. So so so much loss.

St. Paul's

We spent so much time doing this that we decided to save the Statue of Liberty until Wednesday.

We did some more things Tuesday that I'll post about in the next post.

New York 2

Monday was our first full day in New York.

We went to the Museum of Natural History first.

This is the museum from the movie Night at the Museum. 

I love the subway. I love all the different people you see there, the stuff on the walls and the random musicians. 

We went to the Empire State Building. We bought a city pass book and the museum and this were both in it. There are a couple of art museums in it that we aren't that thrilled about, but we'll go since we paid for them.

Jessica bought a new camera right before the trip. My Nikon died right before the trip! The auto focus isn't working.

Yeah, I have issues with heights. I didn't until I was into my 20's.

So far we are loving New York. We are staying in Long Island City. People told us we wouldn't like being this far from Manhattan, but it's a 5 minute walk to the subway station and only three stops on the E train to 5th and 53rd street. So we are there in 15 minutes. And I get to people watch.

In NYC!

The auto focus went out on my Nikon last week so I only have my iPod touch and a little point and shoot camera for this trip! So don't expect really great travel photos
 : )

We are safely in New York. Our hotel is actually in Long Island City not Manhattan. We are paying $95 a night instead of $300 a night. It takes us five minutes to walk to the subway station, and then it's only three stops to 5th Avenue.

We made great time to our nearest airport this morning. We arrived at 6:15 a.m. By time we got to our gate, they'd already boarded our section.

We flew into Atlanta and only had 25 minutes to get from the C concourse to the A concourse. The whole flight was boarded by time we got there!! So there was no waiting for either flight!

We took a bus from the airport to Newark Penn station and then the train to NY Penn station where we caught the subway to Long Island City. It was pretty inexpensive, and I'm glad we did it that way. It was only a ten minute walk from the subway station to our hotel with all four pieces of luggage--once we figured out which way to go!!!!!

I took a lot of random pictures. These are the tracks.

Two guys sat up their drums and started drumming on the subway. I love people watching. All sorts of people on the subway. Guess it's the writer in me. Or I'm just plain nosey.

Once we got to our hotel and unloaded, we set back out for NYC. We just hopped off the subway at 5th ave and W 53rd St to see what we could find. I LOVE it. Did I already say that? So many different kinds of people here.

This lady was selling wooden roses on the subway. Jessica bought me one.

We got to this church on 5th Ave right after a special service ended. If we'd known, we'd have tried to get here earlier. But we had no plans, just walked around to see what there was.

On the entry way floor.

I only got as far as snapping this photo when they kicked us out to close the church.

This is a different church nearby.

Door to the first church. 

Lots of vendors down 5th Ave. Funny to see them in front of the fancy stores.

In Central Park. I wanted to take more people pictures but didn't feel I could just go up and stick my iPod in people's faces. But I threw money in this guy's case, so I figured I could take a photo. 

The Apple Store on 5th Ave

Jessica said she'd buy me Mother's Day dinner, but we didn't really come across any restaurants, so we did this.

We wanted to stay in NYC longer, but it is Sunday night, and the stores started closing at 7:00. We didn't buy anything but food.

So that was day 1. Travel and figuring out what we were doing.

Planning

End of Course civics exam is out of the way. I have no idea whether Jasmine passed or not, and we won't know until summer. So she could be retaking civics next year. I hope not. If she failed either that exam or the reading FCAT she'll lose band to make up the classes. That would be heartbreaking. Won't find out if the twins promote to 4th grade until into summer too. Sigh.

Kaleb is on a field trip to Wonder Works today. I hope he does well for the teacher. He's been doing pretty well at school lately but he was really screwy here last night and got sent to bed even though we had people here.

The grocery store got dog ice cream in.

Surprisingly, they didn't eat it that well. They all ate a little bit and then left it. That's unusual for these three.

Travis is just over a year old.

Scrappy is almost 15!

Caspian is 3.

Jessica and her future mother-in-law (pink shirt) and her maid of honor went to pick up her wedding dress yesterday. It's 3 1/2 hours to the bridal shop, so I opted out of the trip to take care of school pick ups. I was with Jessica when she chose it, so I'd already seen it. I asked them to come back to the house for pulled pork and chicken. These three joined us plus Hunter's dad but Hunter wouldn't come.

Two months ago Jessica left her iPad out, and it kept beeping messages. She was gone so I glanced over at it to see if it was something urgent so I could call her cell if it was a message she needed. The message was wayyyyyy TMI for me.

She told him I read it, so he hasn't talked to me or come in the house for two months. Funny thing is, I didn't really notice until just recently. It's not like he comes in and socializes anyway. Hope he never gets angry at Jessica for anything or she's going to have a tough time. He's not one to just let things go. Especially if he feels he's been wronged. He does this to his mom too. I told her she's off the hook for now because he's focused on me. : )

Adam came over and brought a friend.

There was a lot of wedding planning going on.

I am fortunate to have a guy who is easy to get along with. He doesn't play games, and he doesn't hold grudges. We do get a little crazy at times though. : ) We will have been married 26 years in July, and I hope we have another 26 years together.

Jessica and I are off to New York Sunday. We will be celebrating the twins' birthday tomorrow due to being gone over their birthday. Next week was the best week for us to make the trip, but we will be gone on their birthday which is also Jasmine's band concert (the date was changed on that though, it wasn't originally scheduled that week). But the following week is dance recital and two long rehearsals, so that week was out. And then we get into the crazy end of the year stuff. 

Rough Times

This has been a rough week for Jasmine. The end of the year pressure is on at school. She's making very little progress in math this year, especially right now, and the teacher is constantly on her about being off task. She is on as high of dose of daytrana and focalin as we are comfortable with so we are not going to increase meds at all. The teacher constantly being on her, of course, makes Jasmine feel the teacher doesn't really like her. We have had that problem in the past, but this is this teacher's third year with Jasmine and it's not a like/dislike thing. It's just frustration. FCAT testing is behind, but the end of course math exam is ahead. This is the first year Jasmine has had end of course exams. She had one in civics this morning and it was a pass/fail test. So a child could get all A's in civics, fail the EOC and fail the class. Testing is just crazy to me!! This is one of the reasons I have a masters in elementary education but don't teach.

Jessica and I are counting down to NYC, and we are also nearing the dance recital. We decided Jasmine's hip hop costume looks like the Dauntless costumes in the Divergent movie. What do you think? The leather jacket isn't part of the dance costume.

We have field trips and field days ahead. A lot is happening while I'm in NY so that will keep Rick on his toes! One child did not go on a field trip today. She decided to get defiant about doing what she needed to in order to go and the teacher backed me about her staying at the school in another classroom. It was a pretty pricey field trip any way.

I'll post more about the special school events next time. And about Jessica's trip to pick up her wedding dress.