The Bridges in the Big Apple

Lifes Many Changes...

2010-01-25T18:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I know its been awhile since I last posted. We have had so much going on! We were lucky enough to get to go home for a month in December. I worked at the hospital and had a very busy month with The Polka Dot Boutique. Richie spent the month doing a rotation at Ochsner in Nephrology. It was a very busy time spent at home, but well worth it! We were blessed to be home for the holidays! Theres definitely no place like home!

2010 has already proven to be a fabulous year for multiple reasons. My mom got engaged...yes, I said ENGAGED! We are thrilled about it! I think she's really lucky, but he's even luckier! We are excited to welcome Mr. Richard into our family! That news came on January 2nd!

On January 4th, all of our lives changed. We welcomed our first newphew into our family, Elijah Ashton. He is perfect in every way! Richie and I had to leave two days after his birth to come back to NYC, but it was worth every second of being with him! He is truly a blessing to our family.

Well, its not like I am a proud aunt yet...right??? He's so cute! I miss him so much! I think that when we go back home, Eli will be my first stop! I can't wait to hold him again!

Richie and I headed back to NYC in our over loaded Equinox...wow. We had so much packed it was ridiculous! Remember, we did bring The Polka Dot Boutique home for the holidays!

Since we have been back in NYC, its back to reality. I am working at Plainview again and Richie has started his Pediatric rotation. We have been able to spend several days in Manhattan and loved every second of it. We will move home April 24th...not that I'm already counting it down...and have decided to live it up until then.

Okay, well other than the frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity...is there really anything better??? The Polka Dot Boutique was recently recognized by eBay as being a Top-Rated seller....how exciting! I am so in love with my boutique and LOVE monogramming! It has been such a blessing in my life and I truly am enjoying it!

You can visit The Polka Dot Boutique at http://stores.ebay.com/The-Polka-Dot-Boutique.

Much Love!
Candace and Richie

Life These Days!

2009-11-15T04:49:00.000-08:00

I know its been awhile since I have updated...but we have been super busy! I am so excited about my latest life adventure...I have opened an online monogramming boutique! This has been a dream of mine for a long time and Richie and I have finally made it my reality. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive husband and family! I really do appreciate all of you and love you all dearly! I feel blessed everyday and can say that I LOVE what I am doing! I am still nursing in the Emergency room full time too!

The Polka Dot Boutique is my love! I have had such a great time getting this business started and have had an overwhelming response and amount of sales. Its been great! I am getting new merchandise in daily and LOVING it all! You can visit The Polka Dot Boutique online eBay store by going to
http://stores.ebay.com/The-Polka-Dot-Boutique?refid=store.

We have 3 more weeks until we are going home for a month! I'm so excited and I know Richie is so ready for surgery to be over! In January we come back to NYC but only until April! This time in clinicals has truly flown by and we are blessed by that simple fact! We miss the south and home dearly...and of course our family and friends! We also miss our friends that we have made during our medical school adventure that aren't here in NYC. This has been a long road but that light at the end of this tunnel is starting to shine through. Have a blessed Sunday y'all!

Love,
Candace & Richie

I'm a SLACKER!

2009-06-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

I know, I'm such a blogger slacker. We have had so much going on in our lives lately! One highlight is that Richie had 3 weeks off. It was GREAT! We went to Washington D.C. for several days and we had a great time. We luckily met up with Jake, Carly, and Jenn one night for dinner at Old Ebbits Grill. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends!

I can't believe it has been 6 months since I had been home. Seriously, I'm very thankful to be working because if I wasn't I'm sure I would be el nutso again, as I was when I was bored stiff in St. Maarten! For my birthday my mom and Brantley came into NYC to stay with us for a week. We had lots and lots planned, starting with a road trip to Niagara Falls Canada. I can only say that this was amazing and I had the most amazing people to share this experience with!!! I feel like such a lucky girl! I thank God everyday for putting the people in my life that are here now. Its such a blessing!

One of my best times at Niagara Falls was the tour of the wineries in the area. Collectively we bought 27 bottles of wine and drank probably the equivalent. It was great! Later that night we went to eat at The Keg where we had a fabulous view of the horseshoe falls of Niagara Falls. It was so nice and is definitely a trip I will never forget.

After our Niagara Falls trip, we headed back for a few days in NYC. Morgan came up and spent a night with us and we went to the Yankees game the next day in the Bronx. It was great! Brantley bought us all the best seats and it was fabulous! We caught 2 game balls...mom caught one and Richie caught the other! What a great day! And...the yankees won!

Spring is in the air!!!

2009-04-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Brandon's birthday at Smokin' Als in Long Island. Its truly the best bar-b-que I think we've ever had!!! It was great to spend some time with our friends in NYC!

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary a few days late since we both had to work! We went to see Wicked and had dinner in the city! I love Richie so much!

We hope you are all doing well! We miss you!
Love, Candace and Richie

HaPpY EaStEr!

2009-04-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Richie and I are both excited to have the holiday off this year! Richie is now done with his 2nd week of OB/GYN and he's totally excited about that! After his first day he came home and assured me that I would only want to have one child because "I heard a lady screaming really loud...and I know you sweetie." Ha ha!
Yesterday Richie took his first shelf exam and we're both glad that is OVER! We celebrated last night and went into Manhattan to have dinner friends! I think I can now say that getting together with our friends from SXM makes me miss the island just for that reason! Other than that, God bless the USA! We had dinner at Bar Americain, Bobby Flay's restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. Richie and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary there last year. It was just as good last night!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful EASTER!
Love, Candace and Richie

One rotation down...

2009-03-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

Richie is finished with his first rotation, Internal Medicine! We had a weekend full of friends and going out. It was fun! Its always nice when we both have time off together, especially on the weekends. Richie is very busy working in the hospital and trying to soak it all in! He learned a lot during his internal medicine, but the best lesson was how not to treat people. Gotta love NY...

As for me, I can't wait to get back home...I'm totally homesick. NYC is definitely better than the island for me but its nothing like the south. We went Saturday night to supposedly a "southern" restaurant and the food was okay but the service was terrible. We were told that the sweet tea was "disgusting" and that pecan pie was "gross" by the owners daughter, our waitress. The waitress was rude and we were asked to leave before we finished our drinks...RUDE...RUDE...RUDE! Can't wait to get home! They have no idea what southern hospitality is here.

The pictures were taken at Smokin Al's in Long Island Friday night. Richie and I go to Long Island as much as possible to get out of NYC. Theres actually grass and trees there...go figure!

Much Love,
Candace and Richie

Our Belated Valentines Day!

2009-03-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

Richie and I weren't able to celebrate Valentines Day on the actual day because I had to work. Luckily for us, we both had off the past weekend so Richie planned a fabulous dinner in Manhattan. We spent our night out at Ben Benson's Steakhouse. It was seriously the best dinner but my company was even better! I love every minute that I am able to spend with Richie and consider myself a very lucky girl! He's the best!We hope that you are all doing well! We are staying busy and counting down the days until we are able to move back home closer to all of our friends and family! We miss you all and love you very much!

Love,
Candace and Richie

Snow, Snow, SNOW!

2009-03-02T11:58:00.000-08:00

We have been staying busy and cold to say the least in NYC! For me, jobs up here in NYC are few and far between. I talked with one of my nursing recruiters and she wanted me to go to Rochester for my next assignment...which is 6 hours away...so NO CAN DO! I ended up extending my contract at Long Island Jewish until mid July. This job is totally crazy and at times quite unsafe...but at least I still have a job! It has certainly helped pass the days while Richie is slaving away at the hospital and we are still waiting on our student loans...I know, ridiculous but apparently part of it!

Richie is doing really well and saying super busy! He has been quite lucky with his call schedule or lack there of. He changes interns today so hopefully we will this coming weekend off together! We still haven't celebrated Valentines Day officially since I worked! Richie is learning so much. He has definitely learned that Internal Medicine isn't for him...he's pretty bored. I'm SOOOO proud of him!

Ben is still here with us and we get daily updates on what is going on inside Flushing Hospital from Richie. Ben leaves on Thursday and we are going to miss him...but I'm sure Jill misses him even more! We have been lucky to get to see the girls and Jill when Ben video chats with them! Its so crazy how much they have grown!

Unfortunately, I had to work over the past weekend. This is the part of medicine that I don't like...the 24 hour deal 7 days/week. Yucky! The weather here has been cold and really cold but now I'm freezing! We did actually have a week that was really warm, but of course, it didn't last! It seems like the weather forecasters have missed the weather for the past several days, but not last night! I got off work at midnight and it had been snowing for several hours...I mean really snowing! The ER has windows in the patient rooms so I watched it very nervously. It was the thickest snow that we have seen since we have been in NYC. My 10 minute commute from the hospital took me over 45 minutes. Multiple cars were hydroplaned on the interstate. I did get lucky...I finally ended up behind the snow plowers so I just stayed back and enjoyed the newly plowed interstate :) These pictures are from this afternoon. Luckily for us, our apartment owner came when the snow stopped and plowed our walkway.

Much love,
Candace and Richie

Ben in the BIG APPLE!

2009-02-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

We are lucky to have Ben spending a couple of weeks with us in New York City while doing a rotation in Long Island. We have tried to show him some things in the city that we have enjoyed. We spent the day in Manhattan and had a really fun day full of plenty of fun and things tourists would LOVE to do!!
We spent most of the day walking around the city and navigating the bus and subway system. Luckily, Richie had a good sense of direction. I tried to help, but couldn't really help with directions! It was fun! I think Ben saw all he needed to see of the city...LOL.

Livin' in the City...

2009-02-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

We have just come to realize that life is busy and that's how its going to be! We have been fortunate to have some downtime on the weekends when Richie isn't on call and I'm not working. We went to Leon's apartment on Roosevelt Island with a bunch of our friends and headed into the city for a night out! It was fun and a nice break from our hectic work weeks!
Because I have to work for Valentines Day, Richie and I decided that we would head into the city to spend a day together. We had never taken the bus and train into Manhattan without Cesar as an escort but it wasn't a bad as we thought it could be. The only problem is that the 7 train is under construction on the weekend. So...we changed our route and made it with a little help from our i-phone application! We LOVE LOVE LOVE the village so we headed into the village for lunch and to "explore."
One of my friends from Amite was working at a conference in Manhattan this week so we met her for dinner in Times Square! We went to a recommended Pizzeria and had a good time! Its always so comforting to see familiar faces from home! After dinner we walked into the heart of Times Square and just watched the many many sites. NYC has such an eclectic group of individuals its never a dull moment! We had a great time and LOVED catching up with Lynne!

Our First Visitor in NYC!

2009-01-24T11:12:00.000-08:00

Before Brandon headed out to England for his clinicals, he came and spent a few days with us in NYC. It was his first trip to New York! Unfortunately Richie had to be at the hospital during the day, but luckily Cesar was available to hang out with us and put up with us. We had a fun time! We spent one day just hanging out and showing Brandon around where we live and one day we went into the city. It was really cold the day we headed into Manhattan! We rode the bus and subway the entire way....which is a big step for me! Before this, I hadn't been on the bus or subway yet since we moved here. Richie takes the bus to his hospital daily but I hadn't had the experience yet! Thank goodness Cesar was with us! We had a fun time with Brandon in town! I was the photographer of the day...as you can tell by the pictures! I made Brandon take some of these pictures as he was refusing...LOL! I couldn't believe that part of the Hudson was frozen where there was no current. It made me even more sympathetic for all of the airline passengers that were standing in the water several days ago waiting to be rescued.

We took the subway all over the city! We went to Ground Zero, Battery Park to see Lady Liberty, NYU campus, Grand Central Station, Bryant Park, and Times Square. We had a BUSY BUSY day! We ended up having lunch at Juniors in Times Square. They have the best cheesecake ever! Bobby Flay did a throw down with the original Juniors in Brooklyn. It was yummy!
Hope everyone is doing well! We're slowly but surely finding our way in NYC! Richie is busy in the hospital and I'm working again. We are both busy and loving it! I'm so proud of Richie...he's learned so much in just a few short weeks. Keep in touch! WE MISS YOU!
Love,
Candace and Richie

Candace Meets the NYFD...

2009-01-19T06:01:00.001-08:00

Richie had his first day of call on Saturday so he was gone EARLY that morning! I luckily had a day off from work so was just resting up and relaxing. All of a sudden I heard a fire alarm going off. I wasn't sure if it was from the upstairs apartment or not. I quickly checked for signs of fire but none were present. Then I heard water....lots of water. I opened our closet door and there was water leaking from the ceiling, LOTS of WATER! It came rushing out all over me and our clothes! I called my building manager first. At first, I thought that the neighbors upstairs had a tub or toilet overflowing. (Lets just say that they are new to this country from Africa and are still finding their way around!)

I called 911 and tried to explain to them that it was "raining" in my apartment and our fire alarms were ALL going off. After several attempts, they dispatched the fire truck. As I was waiting on them, I wanted to keep as much as I could dry so I started throwing down anything I could find to soak up some of the water that was now coming through the kitchen, over the dining table, and closet. I quickly placed trash cans, buckets, Tupperware all over to get the fastest leaks.

Then I went outside to join my neighbors and wait on the firemen to come. It was freezing and I was in crocs with holes because in an attempt to grab other shoes, it was raining on them and all of my socks were soaked! I was also soaked because I had been drenched trying to keep all of our clothes and bedding from getting wet. It was not snowing at the time, but it was FREEZING outside! I didn't feel so retarded when my neighbor had on flip flops...LOL. I texted Richie at the hospital just to let him know that I had called 911 and it was "raining" in our apartment but that I was doing okay. I also called Cesar hysterical since Richie wasn't home.

The firemen showed up and busted down a couple doors, shut off the water valve, and quickly figured out that there was a busted pipe on the 3rd floor in the attic. I was blessed that Richie's resident let him come home for the day so he was there to be with me! And of course, Cesar came over too! So, it was a PARTY! The manager of our building was great during this mess! The electrician, plumber, and builder showed up within minutes. They came with buckets and mops and quickly started helping us get the water out so the wood floors wouldn't be damaged. They checked all electric outlets before they turned the breakers back on. Reggie was out of town so Richie kept checking on her place to make sure it was okay and it was. They took all of our soaked clothes, blankets, and towels and sent them to the cleaners for us. They came over yesterday to check on this and today they are coming to fix all of the problems (repaint, fix the sheet rock, etc.) Lets just say that I am very impressed with them!

If medical school isn't enough to "wrap our heads around" we always seem to have more things going on in our life. I know its just to keep us on our toes!!! Just thought I'd share another one of our adventures! I of course went from crying to laughing hysterically that this actually happened to us. I had to take a few pictures to share! Fun times in NYC!
Love,
Candace and Richie

P.S. My neighbors upstairs thought it would be a great idea to take the buckets of water and dump them out to help. The only problem is they felt it was another great idea to dump it down the stairs in 15 degree weather. Richie was cracking up about this. Our manager Steve then had to shovel the ice off of the stairs and salt it. But there were icicles left as proof!

A New York Disaster...

2009-01-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

I was working at a hospital in Long Island when I was told that there had been a plane crash in the Hudson River. We were immediately placed on disaster diversion by administration. All in about 5 minutes we were told that all patients in the ER had to be moved out in preparation for this disaster. So, of course, in perfect ER style, it was complete chaos (as it usually is). It was announced on the hospital intercom that disaster preparations were taking place. About an hour later, we were then told we would not be receiving any of the patients from this accident. I am thankful that there were no deaths in this very traumatic accident! These pictures were found on yahoo news online. Its amazing to know that there were no major injuries in this accident.
During times of disaster, I really appreciate and respect all of the EMS personnel that risk their own lives every single day to help save another. That is what its all about, especially in Emergency Medicine! That is why we all do what we do in the medical profession....to help save and protect others because we truly care.

The Hamptons

2009-01-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

There are many things that Richie and I are planning to do on our weekends off. We have always heard of the Hamptons and decided that we would take a ride out to Long Island to check it out. The Hamptons refers specifically to the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on the east end of Long Island, New York. It was about an hour and a half drive from where we live. Cesar came along with us. He used to work in the Hamptons, but hadn't been there in such a long time. It was nice to see. Most things were closed for the season. There were apple orchards, wineries, lots of shopping, and dining restaurants. We loved seeing the different style homes and beach houses. This area was a far cry from NYC....Much Much different! There was actually lots of grass and land...and compared to NYC, its very different! We found an entrance to the beach so that we could check it out. It was cold and we were the only people around. This town surely does "close down" during the winter months, which is totally understandable. We will definitely go back again during the summer to spend the day at the beach and test out the wineries in East Hampton.
This past week was very exciting for us. Richie completed his first week of Internal Medicine clinicals! He was supposed to be on call Friday night but luckily got out of that because his resident trader with another. This phase of medical school so far seems much easier than when we were living in St. Maarten. I actually get to see him daily! Its great! We hope everyone is doing well! We miss you guys and will keep you posted on our life in NYC!
Love,
Candace and Richie

Our New Apartment...

2009-01-08T11:55:00.001-08:00

We love where we are living. We are in Fresh Meadows and its less than 10 minutes from where Richie is doing his clinicals. We lucked up and found this apartment on Craigs list! I love it! It is SO nice living in the USA again with real sized appliances and oversized furniture!

The Move to the Big Apple...

2009-01-05T05:53:00.000-08:00

Richie and I left home for New York on Saturday, December 27th. Its weird because when we first left for St. Maarten...we left on the same day only 2 years earlier. We first went to spend the night with my grandmother in Tallulah to attend one of my best friends wedding in Monroe, Courtney and Jorge. The wedding was fabulous and she looked like a princess! We are so excited for them! They are actually in New York for their honeymoon! We left Tallulah early the following morning to begin our 22 hour drive to New York. The drive was not as bad as we were expecting. We decided that we would go halfway and spend the night but ended up going further so we would only have about 8 hours of driving time the next day. We spent the night in Roanoak Virginia. The hotel was beautiful and a very nice and much needed break from the car!We left Roanoak early the next morning (before 7 am) so that we could get to our new apartment at a reasonable time. We had a quite boring day of driving, lots of interstates and not much traffic until we hit Jersey. Wow, did things change. We were using our GPS the entire route because it told us exactly what lane to be in and for how long we would be in that lane. We waited and waited and waited and went through a couple of tunnels that was to bring us into Manhattan and then we would take another bridge to Queens to our apartment. Well, it brought us to Manhattan and "spit" us out right into the city, which by using our GPS we thought would be no big deal...WRONG! Our GPS couldn't pick us up because of all of the tall buildings so we were completely lost. Luckily for me, Richie is smart and we finally found our way out of Manhattan and into Queens!We spent the rest of last week shopping with Cesar and trying to get settled into our new place. We can't thank Cesar enough for what he has done for us this week! We love our place! It is starting to feel a little like home, but will never be the real deal because we don't have all of our friends and family, BUT...we will adjust. The location is perfect for Richie's hospital, Flushing Medical Center, and very close to where I am going to start working next week, Long Island Jewish in Long Island. We are both only about 10-15 minutes away so its perfect! It snowed two days last week but nothing stayed on the ground yet, thank goodness! I have been freezing and Richie is loving all this cold weather! Below is a picture of Richie in front of our apartment and the other is just our place! I'll show more pics when its clean...ha ha ha. We'll keep you all posted on our adventures!