winding down from a day's work

 Goofing around with the girls after work today...

Love this sweet face.

Audrie told me she was dressed up as Miss Hannigan (from Annie).

Sweet girls.

I love Annie's expression in this photo... she's way too mature to take a silly pic with me??

Sometimes the only way I can recover from a hard day at work is to join the girls in fairy tale land.

Since Jamie's a stay-at-home dad he rarely gets a chance to 'escape' from work, but he handles the long hours like nobody I've ever seen. He's one amazing daddy!

my hobby

I haven't had a chance to blog about my photography lately. It has been super hard to keep the hobby alive here mostly because my job is so consuming, but I have been able to fit a couple photo shoots in for friends and coworkers.

I can't wait to get back to Arkansas and hopefully have more time (and willing subjects) to do photo shoots with!

Here are a couple of my favorites that I've done since moving here...

Alan, another music teacher at my school, and his adorable little trio.

Bladamir is also a teacher at my school and has three super sweet daughters.

Eric teaches at my school and has become a great friend and mentor!

Patricia works in the office at my school and wanted me to do some head shots for her. So stunning!

Ryan, Jamie's cousin, was in town and needed some Senior pics. Fun photo shoot!

Arkansas through a New Yorker's eyes

We met a great couple, Jonny and Troy, at a church in our neighborhood when we first moved to NYC two years ago. We have run into them a few times at the play group with their son at church over the two years. Well, last week we discovered that they are also leaving NYC. They are moving the SAME day as us. And they are moving to FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS!! Wha?? They have lived in NYC for 16 years and love it here in the city. But they accidentally fell in love with Northwest Arkansas and have a fun story about how they chose Fayetteville. Anyways, I'll have to tell you more about them later (they are a super awesome family), but in the meantime I wanted to share this blog that she wrote about their visit to Fayetteville. Made me even more proud to hear her describe my hometown through the eyes of a new yorker. Here is the link: http://troyandjonny.com/wp/?p=12993

dancing in the streets of nyc

In case you didn't know... Audrie loves to dance. Today we were walking to the subway station and, as usual, Audrie was dancing while we walked. So I captured a few minutes on video so you could see what it's like to walk down the street with Audrie.

(PS- I'm secretly jealous because I actually wish I could get away with this myself.)

pizza and shoes

Jamie and I celebrated our 12th anniversary last night! 

We have an inside joke about "pizza and shoes"... when Jamie and I were first married I was having a bad week and he sweetly texted me and said we should celebrate the end of the hard week by going out for pizza and then to buy new shoes. Of course my mood was lifted and I was so excited. For some reason (I honestly can't remember now) by the time we got home that evening Jamie had changed his mind and said he really didn't want to go anywhere. I was so bummed and said something about- how dare you "pizza and shoes" me?! Then we both just started laughing at how ridiculous I sounded.

So from then on whenever we would promise each other something fun we would often pause to ask "are you pizza and shoes-ing me again or is this really going to happen?" Thus became the joke.  

ANYWAYS, so to celebrate last night we decided to go out for pizza and shoes.

We got some AMAZING pizza in Little Italy. (You know the place is good where there are tables full of Italian families sitting around all speaking Italian.) It was very mafia and fun and tasty. In addition to this yummy pizza we also got a deep fried calzone... yum!

 Then we walked through Soho in search of some fun shoes. I found some ridiculous but amazing red leather high heeled sneakers.

 We went in a men's sneaker store called Flight Club that is apparently pretty renound. It was overwhelming to me- SO many hundreds of sneakers for hundreds of dollars- but Jamie was in heaven.

He ended up getting these sweet turquoise Adidas "dunks" (in case you're up on your shoe lingo).

 It was fun to walk through that area of the city. Not a place I frequent too often, but it's really "old school nyc" down there.

 We had a really great time (also because we don't get to go out just the two of us very often). Thank you to Samanthe for babysitting!

Jamie and I had a great talk over dinner about our marriage and our future. Love is such a battlefield (not to steal the 80's lyrics) but it's true. Satan has been attacking our marriage for a long time and there have honestly been times when we were almost overcome. But we have held on to each other and our relationship is stronger than ever.

We do have fun living life together and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

annie is three

Our BABY is three years old.

Three years??!

Three years ago she was Baby Annie and now she is all full of sass and opinions.

Yesterday when I instructed her to go sit in time-out she told me "to never ever say that to her again"...?!?

Lord, help us.

We celebrated a few days early on Wednesday because I had the day off from school and we wanted to surprise Annie by taking her to see a matinee performance of "Annie" on Broadway (it's her favorite show, of course). I wish I had video taped her reaction when we told her- she gave Jamie and I the biggest hugs and said thank you over and over. Such a sweet girl!

On Wednesday we had cake and presents for her, too.

I attempted to make cake pops for her because she LOVES cake pops. They weren't so pretty, but they tasted great. She ate 7 of them...!! And I let her.

Audrie was SO sweet- she made this crown for Annie at school.

It's hard to see in this picture but we got Annie the MOST ridiculously amazing pair of princess high heels that no child should own. She loves them!

And a new princess dress to live in all day every day.

Audrie picked out a Sophia doll for Annie.

Getting ready to make a wish.

Blowing out her candles.

Audrie helping her.

Then we headed downtown to see the performance. It was so wonderful! Annie smiled so huge from the moment it started. She really loved it. We all did.

Also at this performance it happened to be the first performance featuring Jane Lynch (from Glee) as Miss Hannigan and "Mr. Schuester" was sitting a few rows behind us in the audience. It was pretty cool. 

I attempted to get a photo of the Four of Us.

Day three and she is STILL wearing the dress. Love her.

Here is a video of Annie talking all about her favorite things...

And I know this next video is lengthy, but if you have time to take a trip down Annie Memory Lane then here you go....!

no place like home

7 more weeks until we move to Arkansas and this is what we know so far about the next chapter of our lives...

I am SO SUPER excited to have been offered a job at the new junior high in Springdale. I will be the head choir director there (it's an 8th and 9th grade jr high). I interviewed in March and was inspired by the vision and enthusiasm of the administration at this school. 

Per the norm of my life the past few years, this job will be outside of my comfort zone. I have taught older students in the children's choir, but not in public school. Also I haven't taught in the 'competitive realm' of choir contests, all region, competetions, etc. Jamie says it will be good for me though and you know I'm always up for a challenge! And, really, I can't wait to get started either- I truly do enjoy challenging myself and I LOVE teaching. I hope jr high kids will like my quirky jokes and put up with me talking about my kids all the time. I'm excited that it's a brand new building and all the staff is new (in the sense that they are all moving in from other schools). The principal seems to be an amazing man to work for. I feel God's presence in this decision!

A few other awesome aspects of this job is that Audrie will be going to Kindergarten at an elementary right next to my jr high. So she will get to ride into school with me each day and I am looking forward to getting to get her dressed, fix her hair, and spend that morning commute time with her. Also, the assistant principal (and a few other teachers in my jr high) have kindergarteners starting at this school- so Audrie will be in the same grade with them. AND since all these little kindergarteners will have moms teaching right next door- they will get walked over together after school and spend the last part of the day in our classrooms (our schools are on staggered start times so I will be finishing up my last period class when Audrie comes over). I can just picture her sitting with my sopranos, holding her sheet music, and singing along!

One of the logo ideas I put together on Photoshop.

The jr high where I will be teaching is called Lakeside Junior High and I got to take a tour of the building (still under construction) while we were in Arkansas for Spring Break. It is an amazing school building! I could not believe all the amenities and how HUGE my TWO choir classrooms were. It can't wait to get in there and get to work this summer.

Another logo idea I created (the mascot is the Golden Eagle and the school colors are gold and garnet).

The school started a Facebook page and they posted a sweet introduction of me on their page...

I wish I could share about Jamie's job once we move back to Arkansas, but it's not offically finalized yet, so we have to hold off sharing the good news. But we're thrilled for him (although he will MISS staying home with his girls that's for sure) and he's excited to be re-entering the business side of life.

Annie will be going to pre-school full time somewhere- we are just not sure where yet. We are on the waiting list for Kid's Studio in Rogers (she would ride with Jamie each morning on his way to work). But it really just depends on where we are living and what makes the most sense with Jamie's commute.

Ok, so the housing dilemma has been a roller coaster. We love our house in Cave Springs and more importantly we love our neighbors there. However, we have had great renters there for two years, so we decided to look around for another place to live. We've found some GREAT options that keep not working out. And then two weeks ago we found out our renters are leaving! Our realtor seems to think we can easily get new renters so we are still on the hunt for a place to live. We are struggling with deciding whether to try to find a quality house we can live for a few years or finding a cheap house we can fix up to rent out later and then we will build our dream house.

And the basic timeline is that the week of June 19-21 Jamie will fly the girls to Arkansas to stay with Grandma. Then he will fly back to NYC to help me pack and finish up the school year. My last day of school is June 26th. We will have movers come the last day in June to help us load the Uhaul. Then Jamie and I will drive the Uhaul for two days back to Arkansas. If our marriage survives that (ha!) then we will move into our TBD home in Arkansas to begin our new life.

Anyways, it's all an adventure and each step is a part of the journey so we are trying not to get too stressed out. Really the only factor that is still looming is where we will live- so we appreciate your prayers for that to work out smoothly!

well hello there

 I can NOT believe I only blogged THREE times in April! I haven't been that much of a blog slacker since the very first month I started this blog in 2006 (wow, have I been blogging for 7 years?). Anyways, my apologies to everyone and I hereby vow to get back on the blogging wagon.

So, here are 60 photos of what the Cornetts have been doing in NYC these days. 

Audrie with her friend Katie- riding the Cadi around the park!

Jamie doing our taxes. This is exciting stuff people. :)

Two little girls. Two huge sunglasses.

For anyone who says having girls is easier. :)

My cute brunch dates.

Aunt Wendy came to visit!

A photo I took near Lincoln Center.

Did I mention that Jamie is training for the NYC Marathon?!

Just hanging out with Annie.

I still carry Annie in our baby carrier when we are doing a lot of walking around the city.

Annie doing some self-decorating.

Took the girls to their favorite museum, the "Dinosaur Museum" aka Natural History Museum.

One of my favorite photos I've taken in this city. I took if from a window inside the Natural History Museum overlooking Central Park.

Dinosaurs!

A photo I took on a run I did from Central Park down to Times Square.

Another photo I took in Columbus Circle.

Sheesh, I take a lot of photos. This one is inside Central Park. So lush and pretty this time of year!

Babysitting Sammy-oh!

Holding hands as we walked over to Jason and Sam's apartment.

Me being silly at school with a giant Afro wig.

One of my best friends from sixth grade was in town, so we met up for dinner.

Audrie came along, too.

We had fun playing tourists... Top of the Empire Building late at night (and falling asleep on the subway home).

Annie ready for a fun day at school!

Annie and her boyfriend, Maxim!

Annie and her prince, Daddy, taking a nap.

Audrie getting serenaded at Ellen's Stardust Diner in Times Square.

I caught Annie dancing on the top of her dresser in her cowboy boots.

Picnicking in Central Park.

Pretty sure Annie and Audrie have the exact same smile in these two pictures.

Annie and Jamie enjoying the sunshine.

Good day, sunshine.

Me and Annie.    (my mom asked if I got bangs and I explained that I always have bangs but I usually swoop them to the side or wear them mixed in with my curls.)

At our picnic we had a squirrel that kept getting closer and closer until he was finally eating out of my hand!

Picnic Instagram collage.

Me and Jamie.

Playdate with some neighbor friends that we love hanging out with.

Audrie eating pizza with two of her friends, Charlie and Corina.

Double duty for Jamie pushing the girls in the swings at the park.

Something random about NYC... you can buy not-so-legal dvds of any new release movie for $5 on the street here. The girls get excited when we see these people selling dvds!

Annie with her ice-cream doppelganger.

Annie pretending to take a nap on the subway.

Audrie (and E.T.) riding the 4 story Ferris Wheel inside Toys-R-Us in Times Square.

We took a walk across the GW Bridge (next to our apartment).

A photo I took from the bridge.

Me and Audrie headed out for an afternoon of girl time. Pretty girl!

She's getting so tall and grown up!

Took her to the dentist (which she loves!), then to get pedicures, and Pinkberry Ice Cream. Fun day!

Annie showing off her favorite pajamas.

Audrie brushing her teeth and rocking some sweet turquoise nail polish.

Annie doing what she does best... scaring people at the park with her death-defying feats.

Pic I took in Central Park. Spring is here!

Audrie pushing Annie on the swing. These two are really the best of friends.

Me and Audrie swinging.

Audrie and Annie watching the city go by on the Uptown 1 train.

Ok, another update done! I'll post tomorrow with an update on where we are at with all our "Move Back to Arkansas" plans. 7 weeks?!