Spring is finally coming

I know the official start of spring is March 20, but spring doesn't really arrive (at least in my opinion) until the weather is like in the 70s and the trees are blossoming... which means that it's finally coming. I will miss Arlington's plethora of flowering trees when we move, but perhaps Morningside Heights has lots of flowering trees too. We can always hope! Zach and I took a bunch of pictures earlier this week from the area around our house as we walked back from our Tuesday night date (happy hour at a local restaurant). Hopefully we'll get some more before they all disappear.

A cold magnolia tree... the warm weather can't come soon enough!

The tulips were just waiting to pop

Our spring street

Another beautiful magnolia

These snowy white blossoms are all over our neighborhood

With finals right around the corner, we've been trying to get everything set for the start of Zach's summer job. I think this process is far more enjoyable for me than for him, becuase it involves significant amounts of clothes shopping and, as he says, playing dress up with him. He's modeling one of the new shirt and tie combinantions in the picture below. Yes, it's purple, and yes, it looks so good on him! So much fun, at least for me :-)

See, how great is that?

Just for kicks

Pictures

Pictures from Easter weekend in Pennsylvania.

"Aunt Beth" and Alexandra Decorating Cookies

More cookies

Lunch time at the work site--they're using a piece of drywall for a table.

Alexandra in her "Cinderella" dress--she is totally into the princess thing!

Easter

The three-day Easter weekend in PA was wonderful. I'm so thankful to be able to get away to another home that's pretty easy driving distance. My brother just bought a house, and is in the process of drastic remodeling, so we got in and got our hands dirty... At least Zach did... My contributions were somewhat limited--hanging drywall isn't really in my field of experience or expertise. I pulled up some carpet and swept up the dirt.
On Friday, I baked and then decorated cookies with my four-year-old niece... Oh so cute! I'll post pictures as soon as I get them. My camera is still dead, but thankfully, her mother is a good mother who carries a camera with her everywhere :-) My grandmother also joined us for the afternoon and evening, and it was really nice to have a chance to talk with her and be reminded of the rich heritage of family. The laughable moment of the evening (and unfortunately one for which I was responsible) came when we realized that the brownies I had made us for dessert had no flour in them... because I had forgotten to put it in. I have to say, the final product was really very good--very rich and chocolaty--but a little less like brownies than we were anticipating. Somehow, they were still eaten, so I guess there weren't too many serious objections.
It seems that spring has sprung overnight in Virginia. I am going to enjoy this last spring here in Arlington with all the blossoming trees and flowers outside. Now, if it could just get warm out!

Theme in Blue

Well, as promised, we have some pictures from the apartment... Only, somehow the prints came out with a blue sheen. The whole roll of film came out that way, so who knows, but at least it's a little idea of our new abode. Hopefully we'll get some even better ones as we go along :-) Really, though, the apartment is cute and very cozy (i.e., the main space is 9'x12'). It will be so perfect, and it's really close to several parks and what appear to be a lot of great restaurants. We had a great trip!

Looking into the main room (you can see not quite one half of the room. There's another window on that wall as well)

Looking at the kitchen. There's a stovetop, but no oven and one wall with cabinets.

Me on the Columbia campus. It is SO beautiful!

We also got the chance to hang out with some friends this weekend at a St. Patrick's Day Party. Zach and I decided to try a new dessert recipe for the occassion: Bread Pudding. I'm a little bit of a sucker for bread pudding, but this one was (in my opinion) so good! I've had trouble staying away from the leftovers ;-) So, if you'd like to try it as well, you can find the recipe here. We'll finish up with a few pictures from the evening--we played Taboo... What fun!

Tune in

For pictures of the new place. Zach and I are heading to the big city tomorrow to pick up the keys! Exciting, exciting, especially since this will be the first time that I see where I'll be living for the next year. Maybe we'll spend some time meandering around Columbia's campus to get a little better feel for where everything is located. Looking forward to a day with my man!
Oh, and yes, I promise to post pictures just as soon as possible!

The Adventures of Zach in the Big City

Or, the craziness that is finding an apartment. All in all, I must say, it was a painless process, in hindsight. Where else could you move that you would find an apartment listing on Friday night, call about it on Saturday morning, travel to see it on Sunday, and find that it was already taken? And they say that this is the slow time of year. Nevertheless, the story does have a happy ending.
So, we did indeed see a perfect apartment listing on Friday night and called the realtor at 8 a.m. Saturday morning... I know, you're never supposed to call that early, but she didn't answer anyway. After a lot of debating, we decided that Zach would go up on the train early Sunday morning (as in a 6:20 a.m. train), look at that apartment and several others, and bring the bus home. I stayed in VA and just wondered what was going on all day. As mentioned above, the apartment we had seen listed was no longer available, but there was another, nearly in the same location, that was the same cost for rent and just as convenient. So, we set our sights on that one.
Finding a great place is one thing, getting someone in New York to rent to two students is another... Suffice to say that God was very gracious, and that after some negotiating (we really did have a great agent to work with), the landlord decided to trust us. We didn't find out until Monday afternoon that we had gotten the place, and that was after a few more rounds of negotiation, so it was a bit of a rollercoaster weekend... All that, together with the fact that Sunday started at 5 a.m. and ended around midnight, made for 2 tired, but very happy apartment-leasees come Monday evening. I, of course, have not yet seen the place, except for a few pictures on the phone (our camera battery died as Zach got there), but I trust the judgement of my good man.
So, this is just a lesson that the blessings in life come when you least expect them, and you always have to be ready. We weren't planning on seriously looking for a place until April, but we found out that would have been a big mistake. The market up there is so dynamic that prices rise about 30% on places like this in April May and June as students come in for summer school... What a blessing! I am looking forward to seeing the new home and trying to figure out what we can take up there... It won't be much--did I mention that it's a studio... maybe 400 square feet? Yes, we are in for some changes!

Upper West Side?

I feel like my vocabulary has expanded rapidly in the last couple weeks... at least where it concerns New York housing options. For example, I never knew the difference between a brownstone and pre-war building (I am still a little sketchy) and had no concept of the difference between Morningside Heights and Greenwich Village. I imagine it will take a while to really understand, but suffice to say, the learning curve has been steep and progress has been accelerated as we have begun looking for an apartment over the last couple weeks. I now know the difference between the upper west side and midtown east (I know, that should be pretty self-explanatory) and can safely say that we are looking for a studio/1 bedroom in any style of building, but an elevator and doorman would always be welcome. That being said, it looks like (God willing) we may have a place in the upper west side/uptown Manhattan in Morningside Heights. Zach is checking it out today, and if everything goes as we are praying, we should know for sure in the next 24 hours or so. What a relief that would be! I'll keep you posted.