Jenn & Chris – Page 16 – Mom Dad CuppaKids

We’re Not Dead Yet

by Jenn & Chris on November 27, 2014

There is a classic skit in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” called Bring Out Your Dead. Set during the Black Plague, it portrays a village collecting up dead bodies that had passed on from the plague. A man approaches the cart full of dead bodies with has his grandfather (oh so alive) slung over his shoulder and tries to add him to the pile.

While the grandfather keeps protesting with the likes of “I’m not dead yet!”, the man works on convincing him that he is near death’s door. The skit plays out, ultimately he gets clubbed over the head and that’s the end of that.

Those words keep noodling around in my head these days. I’M NOT DEAD YET.

Facebook helped me stroll down memory lane this year as myself and the majority of my friends celebrated turning that epic age of 40. Birthday notifications popped up and many a TBT pic took me back to simpler times.

We have gotten older. Wiser. We give far less of a shit in terms of what other people think.

That part of 40 is awesome.

But we’ve kind of hit this no man’s land. This funk.

Not so awesome.

Our sense of adventure has somehow atrophied.

Going out dancing means sourcing a club that won’t make us look (or feel) like cougars.

Going to see live music has become a REALLY big night out.

A movie is the activity of choice if you can get a babysitter to come during the week and we are already Rock, Paper, Scissoring for New Year’s on who will get to be hungover in peace the next day and who will get up with the kids. (AND it takes 3 days to recover from said hangover)

I see so many of us settling into a world of domestic drudgery. Groundhog day in, day out of dropping kids off at activities, making dinners, making lunches, staying home to watch TV, living but not really living any more. We’re tired. We’re surviving. We are overwhelmed.

We have somehow accepted our fates that as parents, this is our life.

And it is.

But it doesn’t have to be so….in the middle.

WE’RE NOT DEAD YET.

We are at a time in our lives where there has been many losses. Parents, friends, family. Our constant now seems to be going to more funerals than weddings. The word cancer is so prevalent in our sphere. People I love and adore facing this in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.. and not just a few. A LOT.

So why when life is reminding us how precious it is, are you not taking more moments to feel grateful for what you have? Why are you not going after life with fervor and excitement?

What is stopping you from going after something you want to do? What is stopping you from taking that trip? Trying that class? Checking out a new hobby?

It requires effort. Yes. SO MAKE THAT EFFORT.

Take one step forward in doing something different every day. GO on that trip you have been meaning to go on. DO IT.

Because having this beautiful life of ours should be filled with moments not things. Mountains of moments and memories not mountains of money owed and debt to be paid.

CHECK YOURSELF before you WRECK YOURSELF.

Teach your kids the value of solid friendships. Not quantity but quality. Encourage your kids to go for what they want, not let them see the inability of their parents to do the same. Create those important moments with those you love. You are not taking any new appliances to the grave with you. You are leaving a legacy of you as a person.

Make a mark.

WE’RE NOT DEAD YET.

Real Life

Girls Weekend – How to see NYC

by Jenn & Chris on November 24, 2014

One of my favourite ways to enjoy New York is with a girlfriend.

It’s easy (we tend to want to do the same thing), its cheap (we can share a bed to spend more money on shopping) and it is so so fun.

We went down to New York this summer to celebrate one of our bestie’s birthdays and it couldn’t have been more epic. New York just gives you so much opportunity to explore and adventure, you can’t help but have a great time.

On this trip we stayed at Affinia 50 a mid town boutique hotel on the East side of Manhattan. It was great (although we are hardly ever in the actual hotel) and have two of my favourite restaurants flank it like bookmarks.

http://www.affinia.com/fifty/rooms-suites — Photo credit – Affinia50

We hit both Dos Caminos probably one of the best Mexican places to go in NYC and The National on Lexington. The ambience is the perfect mix of chic and intimate. The food divine.

One of the things I love to do when travelling to a new city if I ran out of time is to hit a BLO Dry bar. Nothing better than getting fancied while you are painting the town red. Nowadays Blo Bars are everywhere and its super easy to usually get in day of for a quick blow out.

BEST GIRL TIP- SHOPPING: If you are going to NYC for the first time, make a plan to hit Century 21 the first morning you have there. This is like the best sale you could ever get on designer goods. Think purses that would normally sell for $600-800 for $60-80. Shoes that would be $300 on for $50. Trust me when I say, give yourself double the time you were going to go there for, go in the morning because by afternoon it is Mayhem and plan to go back to the hotel (via cab) with your purchases.

Alternatively, Pre-purchase before getting to New York the 9/11 memorial museum to go first thing, then the Staten Island Ferry (Free and you can get a great view of Lady Liberty- You simply go over, walk off the ferry and then walk right back on) and then hit Century 21 around lunch with a plan to go back to your hotel late in the afternoon.

I also HIGHLY recommend checking out C.O. Bigelow, New York’s oldest apothecary. The C.O. Bigelow Rose Salve, Lemon Hand Treatment and Mentha Lip Balm are all things I have paid people to pick up for me when they are done in NYC.

The 9/11 Memorial is heartbreaking and stunning

Staten Island ferry is the one you see in Working Girl

BEST GIRL TIP- BROADWAY SHOWS: If you really want to see a specific show, book in advance online. If you don’t care- go to Times Square the day of or day before you want to go to a show and see what is selling off. We have ultimately seen two amazing Off-Broadway shows by just checking out what is available. Here Lies Love which is still on till January 4th was a super fun show about Imelda Marcos and produced by Fat Boy Slim. It is an interactive dance show that is so well done and perfectly off the beaten path.

Here Lies Love - Best hidden gem of off - Broadway — Here Lies Love – Best hidden gem of off – Broadway

BEST GIRL TIP: FOOD

If you want to go somewhere fun while you are out and about in New York, two standouts are the Peanut Butter Sandwich Shop and Big Gay Ice Cream. Both fun in their own right and something totally New York.

As I included in my Wild & Raunchy post about New York. If you are out on the town having a blast and need to get some food in you before you head to bed, best reco for late night eatery is Cafeteria. Hosts those in need of substance well into the early hours of the morning.

BEST GIRL TIP: SIGHTSEEING

Seeing the Empire State Building by day usually means excessive line-ups and waiting to get to the top. We went on a Friday night at midnight (it stays open till 2am) and enjoyed some of the best views of the city. Let’s not even mention the Sax player playing once you got there, its oh so New York and I oh so hate standing in line so it was simply perfect.

Overall, you can never have a bad time on a Girls Weekend in New York City. After all, you’re in the city that never sleeps with your girlfriends. Who could ask for anything more.

Travel

Wild & Raunchy – How to see NYC

by Jenn & Chris on November 24, 2014

If you are looking to celebrate a BFF Birthday or a Girls weekend down in New York City and your gal is all about the fun that nearly gets you arrested, this might be a good version of NYC for you to review.

We were celebrating a 40th birthday at the time and were looking for fun, wild, raunchy “Only in New York” style things that we could do for the short time we were there.

For this trip, we stayed at the Eventi Hotel in Chelsea, part of the Kimpton Hotel Chain. This hotel is beautifully Luxe feeling and close to Penn Station. The customer service was bar none, the decor funky, the rooms chic and a complimentary Happy Hour is served every day.

This is a great area of town that carries a great art/hip vibe, has Penn Station and Madison Square Garden close by, good shopping, (Macy’s and many other shops), and the Empire State Building is within easy walking distance.

La Burlesque Lesson

Because our birthday gal was a feisty, go for anything kind of gal (& we have teased relentlessly that she should have ben a stripper) we thought it would be a hilarious surprise to take her to a private lesson at the School of Burlesque. Burlesque is such an art and is so much about owning the power of seduction. So for an hour, we learned the art of the peel (off your gloves that is), the “oops I dropped something and need to pick it up” bend over and then as we got loosened up, the art of the tassel. I have to tell you personally that trying to get your boobs to make tassels twirl leads you to nearly pee your pants but for a hoot and a besties birthday, it was something we’ll never forget.

Museum of Sex

The Museum of Sex is a total blast. Although warning: It is not for the faint at heart. If you are open and comfortable with the people you are with, it is actually quite interesting in so many ways. When we went they actually had an exhibit on the history of Burlesque which went perfectly with our whole raunchy theme. It talks everything from porn to erotica to the how animals mate and all in all the exhibits (however strange they are) are curated to stimulate conversation.

Times Square

Just walk about two steps anywhere off of Times Square and you quickly run into a strip club or a sex shop. We of course bought our gal a lap dance cause why not? It was all in good fun and a part of the hilarity of the whole evening.

Dancing the Night Away

For one of the best dance bars with a killer view of the city, we ended up at Plunge Bar & Lounge at the Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking district. This was a place where we could just hang out and check out the city or get our dance on with a slightly more mature crowd.

*If you want to end the night off with a rude awakening, Hogs & Heifers (the basis for the movie Coyote Ugly) is close by. Prepared to be abused but if you are cool with that, this was and could be the perfect end to your raunchy girl’s birthday festivities as they collect bras which hang everywhere throughout the ceiling of the bar. Will your gal donate hers?

Late night Eats

If its about 3am and you are starving, there is absolutely NOTHING better than Cafeteria. This could very well be THE best Mac & Cheese in NYC and if you have been on a steady party celebration the whole night, food at this point is a really good idea.

The Next Day

Brunch at The Ace Hotel which is not far from Eventi has a wickedly awesome brunch. The Breslin Bar & Dining Room serves up mean morning Bloody Mary post too much fun the night before. It’s funky. Its ok if you are wearing sunglasses cause everybody might just as well be.

However you enjoy NYC, I’m sure it will go down in the record books.

But be sure to ask everyone to keep their phones away. None of this needs to get on the internet.

Family Matters

Marriage is in the little things.

by Jenn & Chris on November 23, 2014

Marriage.

Ebbs and flows like an ocean’s tide.

Most times, you feel tight and strong and perfectly in sync.

Other times, you can’t remember who the person is sleeping beside you, let alone the last time you had a complete conversation. It feels so long & so busy since you’ve connected.

You focus on survival, getting the kids to the zillions of activities you stupidly signed them up for to keep them active & engaged. You both have pressures at work. You’re both just going and going and going at such a frenetic pace that you seem to just high five at the door as the next round begins.

It’s easy to be busy. To fail to appreciate the reasons behind why you decided a lifetime with this person. To keep going about your daily life. Day after Day.

Then there start hints of a desire and need to reconnect. Mentions of how long its been since you’ve been out together.

Marriage requires effort. You get out what you put in.

It doesn’t have to be huge effort but effort nonetheless is essential.

The other night I came home. Spent. I was ready to take care of the kids and get through a night of children’s stuff but then my lovely amazing stellar husband had organized a massage, a glass of wine and a bubble bath.

It started a trend. Today as I was out doing one of the thousand errands we have on our to do list, I started thinking of how I could come up with something special to let him know how much I appreciated the effort he had put in.

I drummed up a simple picnic on the floor of our living room, with memories of past moments (before children) when we had all the time in the world and hardly a care to deal with. I brought home flowers, wine, cheese, salami, olives and Tiramisu. All important food and drink that reminded us of those good times.

As I led him to the living room and surprised him with this little set-up, he started to laugh and then took me to a tray of menu items he had set up to surprise me in the kitchen. We sat there on the living room floor, laughing, conversing and catching up. We just sat in the present and embraced what the night brought our way.

It doesn’t matter how intricate the surprises were. All that matters is that we wanted to do something for each other. A simple gesture. The little things. Even after all these years, the idea of doing something romantic is what keeps our relationship alive.

So next time you think of how long its been since you have connected with your spouse, don’t worry about what you get. Worry about how you can show it.

Family Matters

Pillow fight- My wife’s addiction

by Jenn & Chris on November 21, 2014

Dad Says:

Ok. It’s happened. I am sure, well relatively sure, that every guy goes into marriage thinking that he will maintain that little element of cool. That maybe a man cave will suffice for the real thing, that caveman logic will somehow prevail and leave you a bit of that control over your environment.

The changes come slowly. A seasonal hand towel, festive for the winter season. A scented candle, that certainly does change the mood of a room. And who among us hasn’t let go that 1981 double album of the Pink Floyd The Wall from Japan, cause really you don’t even have a turntable anymore…

All this makes sense at the time and you don’t fight it. Then slowly, inexorably, the grip tightens. Pantone becomes a colour wheel you are familiar with. You know, without even thinking, that a change in throw pillow covers would instantly brighten up a room.

Then this.

Nothing wrong on the surface. In fact, it looks pretty good actually, with a definitive use of colour, shape and texture to create an appealing environment. But then comes a keener observation: the actual space used for sleeping has been tipped in favour of throws and accent pillows, none of which provide any level of warmth or comfort! We are now 2/3rds overwhelmed with fashion over function. Hell, it takes me 2 minutes to strip this thing down to a usable space at bed time, don’t even ask about a nap. The re-assemble in the morning has totally thrown off routine, and Gawd forbid if I miss a green/texture/sham arrangement and have to start all over…I will be lucky to get the kids to school for lunch.

I know that marriage is compromise. I know that in the grand scheme of things, this is puny. I know all these things. But at the end of the day, I really just want a place to lay my head without fear of impalement from the latest accessory. Too much? I don’t think so. After all, I didn’t get a say in the new couch fabric and I have no idea what just showed up from Urban Barn, but I am sure it is in my colour compliment so I should make out ok…

Mom Says:

For a guy who seems oblivious to the subtleties of married life, I am slightly in a state of shock that this has even registered on his radar. I honestly don’t even know how to argue this. Except maybe all the pillows will just go right on top of him when we head to bed…or we might just have a pillow fight.

Travel

New World Order – Planning Africa

by Jenn & Chris on November 21, 2014

I used to be an avid Lonely Planet, and Let’s Go Guidebook lover when I travelled . My favourite moment would be picking up my travel books and start earmarking & highlighting the “off the beaten path” places I wanted to discover.

I loved the insider tips you would get from the likes of those books (like go to the second bookstore outside the bus station to get the scoop on best accommodations for that night). Our way of travelling was to book nothing. Relying solely on those books and walking the town.

Times have so changed.

The invention of Websites, Blogs, Twitter and Pinterest took over this trip. They became the best and worst thing about researching and getting ready for Africa.

The BEST.

We can't wait to take you on the trip with us — We can’t wait to take you on the trip with us

Websites

Travel planning is done so easily now. When we finally sat down to get our trip organized, we reviewed various tour operators via recommended blog posts/Trip advisor and decided on Intrepid Travel. They are a travel company that provides experiences vs tours and we were instantly smitten with how easy it was to navigate their site. We then had an alert (via Trip advisor) set up for flights to Tanzania and got notified when special offers were posted. We used Booking.com to get us a place in Amsterdam and the hotel we needed the night we got into Kilimanjaro and utilized their shuttle offer featured on the site to get from the airport.

Blog Posts

Reading dozens of blogs helped us wrap our heads around what we were going to do and provided welcome information on what to expect. We researched the posts for travel vaccine suggestions, what to pack, hacks and multi-use ideas, the climb itself and what else to do when we were in Tanzania.

Twitter

We were going to climb Mt. Kilimajaro with the awesome tour group Intrepid Travel. Since Twitter is a space I love and am comfortable in, I started following them and discovered they were highly active during #TTOT (Travel Talk on Twitter). This Twitter Chat draws people globally and the only unfortunate part is that it tends to be at 5am in my time zone which meant getting up earlier than usual to connect.

Twitter chats are great for finding like-minded people and especially ones who can impart knowledge of a particular space. Jumping on #TTOT, I was able to find a variety of global travellers, and a number of resident African tweeps who could provide me with some on the ground insights I otherwise might not been able to find.

Pinterest

There is nothing better than Pinterest to get your travel juices flowing. I was able to pin inspiring places that previously I would never have even heard about or seen with flags on possible accommodation choices, attractions to visit, animals to see and most importantly, Mt Kilimanjaro…Seeing photos from the top would get us giddy and beyond pumped to go. Feel free to check out our Pinterest Board in prep for Mt. Kilimanjaro

THE DOWN

The downside to all this information at the tip of your fingers is that it was like being pregnant. There was just too much information and suddenly you are overwhelmed. We certainly were and look forward to providing as much comprehensive information in our Africa Series as we possibly can to help you have an easier time in planning your Africa trip.

Jenn & Chris travelled to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro as a different way to celebrate their 10th Anniversary and Jenn’s 40th Birthday. Travel tour was designed by Intrepid Travel and in working with them, they are raising funds for VEPK – The Village Education Project Kilimanjaro. Donations are always accepted and The Intrepid Foundation not only matches but they also take on all admin fees which means ALL the money goes direct.

AFRICA SERIES