Moving on

Well folks, it has been a long time since this blog has been updated. I don't even know why I am even bothering doing it now (I really just need to erase this darn blog). I guess it has to do with the fact that life is not as busy as a year ago. For starters, we've moved away from the City and it has been quite the adjustment. I miss the City so much. I can't think about it too much because I will start getting a big lump in my throat and things will go downhill from there. I know, I need to be mature about moving away from the City but I can't help it. I feel like the picture above. I am stuck and I need to move on. Move on from the memories and take on this new journey of our lives. Don't get me wrong, this move has been great but with every move comes changes that we don't expect. And I will stop right there because life is good and I need to focus on the good things that we have been given the past few months.

Back in March we found out where Matt matched for his pediatric residency. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Matt came up to my work at Columbia and we meet during my lunch break to open the one email that will tell us where we would live for the next three years. Matt seat at my desk open his email and there it was, he matched at his first choice University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. He looked at me in disbelief, both of us thought we were either going Chattanooga, TN or  Peoria Illinois. I was secretly hoping to go to his fourth choice, Albany New York. However, in my heart I always knew he would match in Oklahoma. Don't ask me why, I just knew. Now that we are here I know this is the best place for him, this is the place where he is becoming the best pediatrician that he can be. And that is when I know this move needed to happen for all those future children that he will treat in the near future.

Oklahoma is a great place. There is beautiful sunsets here. The sky is clear at nights and we can see the beautiful starts and the moon...I've missed that a lot. And most importantly the people here are so kind and caring. I have to say the one thing I hated about living in the City was walking up four flights of stairs with laundry and Costco food. The best part is that I have a dishwasher!! I haven't had one for the past four years. There are many things I miss about the City like:
-Walking anywhere I want
-Flower shops
-Tress, especially during the Fall
-Central Park and picnics with friends
-Ridding the subway, traffic, cabs
-My job and my work friends
-New York restaurants. They have ruined our taste buds forever!!!
-Washington Heights-Don't ask me why. There is something special about that place.

Most importantly we miss our friends. They made our journey in the City very special.

Later in June the craziness started. Matt planned this huge camping trip with his dad and his dad's girlfriend Kathy to Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. I love the Northeast.  I really want to move to Maine but I don't know if I can convince my southerner husband to move there. We will see.

Hiking in the Appalachian trail in Vermont 

Then we headed to Acadia National Park in Maine. This was the best part of our trip. We hiked this hill and it was probably the hardest hike I've ever done. When we made it to the top of the hill we were so relieved. 

After the crazy hike we explored the Bar Harbor area. Had amazing sea food and tried the famous blueberry soda float.

On our way out heading back home we saw tons of rainbows. It was a good way to end such a fun trip. Two days later, Matt graduated med-school and I had a little graduation party planned for him which I will post on that later.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

On Thursday we went to see Breakfast at Tiffany's down by the Brooklyn Bridge Park. I've never seen the movie before and I've been dying to see it. Matt met me in Brooklyn after I got off from work and let me tell you, it was perfect! I don't want to sound too cheesy but this was probably one of the most romantic things I've ever done. Great view, great movie, and a great picnic in the park. For those who live here or are planing on coming to visit the city, this is a must do. And did I mention that is free! The best part of all was being able to walk the Brooklyn Bride at 11pm when there were no masses of tourist walking around. It was great! 

Oh New York City, I know we have a love and hate relationship at times but these are the things that make me appreciate you more & more each day.

Have you ever stumbled upon a nude beach?

Living in New York City has it's benefits but there has been many times where I just need to get out of the city. At times, both Matt and I feel suffocated by the tall buildings and the big masses of people. Don't get me wrong, I think I am finally getting why people like it here so much but there is nothing like being close to nature and the beach. After much discussion with our awesome friends Pat & Lindsay, we decided to go on a day trip to Fire Island, which is off the coast of Long Island. Our trip there was supposed to be only two hours but everyone knows that to do anything here takes forever. After taking the subway, the Long Island train and a ferry to the island, we finally arrived to the island after 4 hours...go figure.

Once we got to the Island, we just walked around and explore the place. The island is quite interesting. The roads are super small and the speed limit is only 8 miles. I guess the main reason for that is because the main form of transportation are actual bikes.

 Mr. & Mrs. Koelling

Fire Island Lighthouse

We decided to go look for the light house that is right by the beach. On our way there, Matt & Pat noticed three middle aged men that seemed to be walking naked. At first we thought they were just wearing some sort of thongs, but as we got closer we started to see more and more people that seemed to be naked. That is when it finally dawned on us that we entered a nude beach!!!!!!! In my head, I pictured a nude beach in an isolated area. However, this beach was just right next to a beach where there were families and people in bathing suits.

So of course what did we do…we keep walking in shock laughing like 5 year olds of the things we are seeing. The funny part of this is that I thought in my head we should turn back around and walk the way we came from, but for some reason we just could not do it. Lindsay was brave enough that she started taking pictures. As for me, I just could not do it…all I could think of is that I was invading people’s privacy. But wait…these people didn’t care about the privacy. That is what happens when four Mormon kids go on adventures to un-familiar places. I guess I can scratch that off my list of things to do...haha!

This picture just makes me laugh so hard. Pat & Matt just can't stop staring and Lindsay is making sure she got some photos to proof our crazy encounter.  

If you want to see some more in detail photos of the nude beach go to Pat & Lindsay's blog. They are really funny pictures. I wanted to put one of her pictures on this post but my husband was not too happy with this idea. 

After such interesting encounter, we hangout in the beach and then we walked all around the town to look the bay where we could go "clamming". Which is basically look for clams on the bay collect them and take them home to cook them (That is why you see Matt carrying an empty cooler). However, we looked all over and we could not find anything. By the end of it we were exhausted and we ended up in a clothed beach and relaxed for a few hours. 

We did not find clams but we did find a deer. Apperantly, there is a big population of deer in the island.

On our way home, while on the train, Lindsay & Pat pretended to be Matt's patients to help him study for his clinical skills exam two days later in Philly. Thanks Koelling's for the good times.

Hope the rest of you had a great memorial day weekend!

Pretending to be Olympic Skiers

I know we've been a bit behind on our blog and so here it is to those of you who have requested a new blog post. I've actually started to consider erasing our blog. The main reason we kept the blog was to document our lives in Grenada and England but now that we are back in the States there is really nothing exciting to share. But we will see, this is just an idea that I've had for a couple of days.

Winter is almost gone and we've loved every minute of it. I love to go out and walk around the city, especially on days when it snows, you really get to see the small little details that make New York City so unique.

While Matt was doing his surgery rotation, I used to have a routine walk to central park. And usually on my way back home I would meet Matt on his way home on his exit from the subway.

I know this photo is blurry but it resembles so much the craziness and late nights of surgery.

On another walk across the Brooklyn Bridge I came across something that someone wrote on a construction site and I laughed so hard when I saw it.

A couple of weeks ago we went on a day skiing trip north of the city. It was Matt's reward for finishing surgery rotation, or should I say for surviving 24hr call every third night at the hospital. We drove with some friends from church and I have to say we had a blast.


This was my first time skiing and Matt wanted to make my first time skiing perfect. So he got me to take some lessons and let me tell you, I've never felt so humiliated. I ran into my instructor twice because I didn't know how to stop with those silly skies. I am not going to lie, I did cry at one point since I felt like such an idiot...haha. The day got better as I keep practicing on the bunny slopes and then my hopes of being an Olympic skier were shattered when I saw 4 and 5 year old kids ski better than me.

Like I said the day got better but I think it had to do with the fact that our friend John was wearing a skiing suit that looked like he went back to the 80's. He actually pulled off the suit pretty well while doing some crazy moves. Needless to say, I am considering giving skiing another try. But I better start skiing like those 4 year olds...right.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

When we were planning to move to New York, the number one thing on my list to do was to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! Fortunately, I had the day off and we made it to the parade route at 6:45 am for the 9am start. It was a dream come true.

The Werner's and MJ

In 7th grade Dr. Brewer gave me extra credit (10 points) on a music test because I was the only one in the class who raised his hand to admit to watching the entire parade and waited for the appearance of Santa at the end of the parade. And here he was again! The real Santa Clause!

Now that we are in the holiday spirit, we put up our Christmas tree today. We are just so happy to finally have our own stuff. Yes, the tree it's a bit small but it fits our small apt so well. We purchased this tree our first year of marriage in Tampa at a Target for 11 bucks...it was awesome. Just so everyone knows, I (Maria) wrote this part not Matt.