I've heard it said...

I've been listening to the Wicked soundtrack since senior year of high school.  As seniors, we are able to audition for the annual Fashion Show which is a show full of dancing, singing and fashion.  The theme my year was "From Broadway to Runway" - so the show was packed with Broadway hits.  


I danced to the song "Fame" - outfitted in spandex, a cut-off sweatshirt, side ponytail, leg warmers and bright lipstick.  It was so much fun!


I remember two of the girls in our class sang a song called "For Good."  I had never heard it before then, had no idea where it came from but knew that the lyrics were hard to forget.

  "I've heard it said
That people come into our lives,
For a reason
Bringing something we must learn.
And we are led to those
Who help us most to grow
If we let them and we help them in return.
Well. I don't know if I believe that's true,
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you."

I remember looking up the song on the Internet and found out that it was from the musical called Wicked.  Soon after, I bought the soundtrack and quickly learned the words to each song!

From car rides to the shore to bus rides in Ireland - I have played the songs on my iPod for years!

This past weekend, Tom and I celebrated Christmas together since we will be at our own families' homes on Christmas day.  Tom gave me the most amazing presents!  I got Modern Family Season 1 on DVD, the game Rummikub, a crossbody bag from Aldo, Michael Kors leather gloves (with a bow on them!), a pearl necklace and then...

I unwrapped The Wizard of Oz DVD.  He said that he got it online and it was the two disc version and that he wanted to make sure that both discs were in there.  When I opened up the DVD case there were tickets to Wicked on Broadway!  I couldn't believe it!  

When I looked at the tickets again, I saw that the show was for Sunday!  As if the surprise wasn't good enough that we were going to the show - it was even better that we were going the very next day!

So for the matinée Sunday show, Tom and I saw one of the best shows I have ever seen!  It was such a special gift and a wonderful memory for us!  

Wicked on Broadway - who would have thought!?!

This is take #10 - the sunlight kept messing up the sign in the back of us.
We are laughing because the guy who we asked to take the picture
literally got about 10 inches from our faces and took the picture! 

In front of one of the signs - right after the show!
(That's my new bag! Love it!)  

So - about two weeks ago I was wondering which show I was going to see next and never did I think that I would be lucky enough to see Wicked!  And the more I hear the words to the song "For Good," the more I truly believe that people come to our lives for a reason.  Thank you for making my Christmas so special!

I got all my sisters with me!

So, we know that my grandparents passed down the dancing gene, I brought my moves with me overseas,  my brother, mom and I love to get down at weddings and well - surprise, surprise - my sisters and I are known to cut some rug at parties as well!

Nothing like having a sister - and I'm lucky to have two sisters who I consider my very best friends!  

My 21st birthday party - dancing with my sisters!

Taking a break from dancing at one of the weddings this past year
with my sister-in-law, Karen

I am also very lucky to have a wonderful sister-in-law who feels more like the older sister I never had! 

Now, go ahead - shake ya grove thing! 

From the entire city of Philadelphia...

Jersey Boys? Spectacular!

I have been fortunate enough to have been able to go to quite a few shows in the last year and a half.  Most recently I went to see Jersey Boys and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular!

My Mom coordinated a night out for about 25 women - including my aunts, Grandmom, sister-in-law and many friends to go into Philadelphia to see Jersey Boys at the Forest Theatre.  Everyone went to my house before the show for apps and drinks and then went to the show in a limo bus!  After hopping on a train from NYC to Philadelphia, I got in a cab and went to the theatre to meet up with the group!

It was an amazing show and it really lived up to all the hype that I had heard about it!  It was so fun to meet up with everyone in the city and see the show!  Almost too good to be true... :)

Then a few days later my Mom, Victoria and Sean came up to New York for a day trip that ended with us going to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular - which was really awesome!  I had never seen the show before but the Rockettes are very entertaining!  It really helped me to get in the Christmas spirit and I enjoyed watching famous Christmas stories being told by the singers and dancers.  What was even nicer was the fact that they also included the Nativity - which I didn't expect at all.  It is true what they say about Christmas in New York - quite spectacular!

I have been so lucky to see all these amazing shows and I can't wait to go see another show sometime soon!

Shall we dance?

As we have discussed before, Noonans like to dance.  Any excuse for a good dance party, we're all in!  

I was lucky enough to be my Mom's date to a few weddings over the last year and half for a few of Patrick's friends.  And - as we all know - I am a sucker for anything romantic - and obviously weddings are the epitome romance... 

So needless to say, we had a great time at each of these special occasions.  Ironically - the following two pictures were taken on separate occasions yet the three of us are making the same face.  

A couple in love - check.

A beautiful wedding - check.

Delicious food - check.

Friends and family - check.

Noonans on the dance floor - check, check, check!

Baby it's cold outside!

The 19-mile weekly commute to work is - welp, how do I put this - freezing! 

And it is only the beginning of the season! 

If I won the lottery this is how I would outfit my winter outerwear...



Michael Kors coat

Burberry earmuffs



Leather gloves



Cashmere scarf



Boots with the fur! :)

A girl can dream, can't she!

An Irish jig?

One of the best parts of Ireland was - prepared to be shocked

- the pubs!

We went to a, ahem, a few pubs during our time in Eire - but our favorite, by far, was called An Brog.

We discovered it very early on in our trip and legitimately went at least 3 times/week.  I remember one of the first times I went there I was wearing my North Face jacket and (I'm scared to admit because my Dad would have killed me) but flip-flops.  (Pat Noonan did not approve of flip-flops past August and assured us we would "catch a cold" if we did...but I was 2000 miles away and hey, if that is the worst of my "disobeying"...I'm sure Papa Noons is okay with that...)

ANYWAY - the big Irish bouncer-man looked at me and said - "North Face and flippies - you must be American." (I loved that he called them flippies - but let's be honest -  he could have said anything and I would have loved it because anything an Irish person said was like Heaven to me) So I just politely nodded because I couldn't get past his glorious accent and headed right in to the place that became one of my favorite spots on Cork! 

We had many a nights at the Brog - and I honestly miss it dearly!  We often were the only ones dancing but that never seemed to phase us in the least.  The best part about the group of kids I went abroad with was the fact that we all genuinely wanted to make the most of our time there.  So if we were the only ones dancing, well then, so be it...and we were gonna have a good time!   

The one and only, Mac (creator of the name of this blog)
and me dancing at the Brog!

I cannot wait to get back to Ireland and visit where I called "home" for four months.  

DON'T JUST STAND THERE, BUST A MOVE!

It's been a while...

I apologize for the lack of posting the last few weeks!

After the very fun weekend of the bar crawl - I went to work Monday morning to find out that my work computer was stolen from my desk over the weekend.  Somehow or another, someone came in and saw my MacBook laptop and walked away with it, the power strip and a set of headphones.  I was so upset about it and felt so bad that my computer was gone!  But everyone at work assured me that it would be okay, that it wasn't my fault and that we would figure something out.

The next two days after that I had a meeting in Brooklyn - which was really great.  I learned a lot more about the company and where they are looking to go in 2011 - so it was a great few days.

Then the next weekend was the Jets tailgate that had been planned for all of the Loyola kids!  Tom sold seats to three of our friends (Anthony, Billy and Brett) who each bought two seats.  So the boys generously took a friend with them to the game and we had an awesome tailgate beforehand!  Here are some photos!

Jenelle, Frank, Brett, me, Anthony, Billy, and Liz!

J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!

Brett grilling us some grub!

 What was really nice about the tailgate was that some of our Jets friends came - so I got to introduce them to the Loyola crew.

Then we went into the stadium and met Tom (who was working the whole day before the game) and headed to our amazing seats!  The game was another nail-biter, but the Jets pulled out the win in the end!  We had such a great time!

After such a fun weekend - it was nice to have a short work week!  I worked in the office Monday and Tuesday and then worked from home on Wednesday.

Wednesday would have been my parents' 31st wedding anniversary, so I was very happy that I was able to be at home with my Mom.  

Of all the couples I have ever known, my parents had it perfect.
Thank you for showing us how to love.

Thursday of course was Thanksgiving and my brother and sister-in-law hosted 26 guests at their beautiful home.  Karen did a great job with the dinner and everything was delicious!  

Friday is our annual Christmas-decorations day in the Noonan house (pictures are to come...) where we transform our home into what has been described as a winter wonderland.  

Saturday I went to breakfast with my friend Liz and caught up on all that is going on in our lives and then went home for lunch with my Mom, brothers and sisters.  We went to mass on Saturday night and had a delicious Momma Noons dinner.  After a HomeGoods run with Patrick, he and I went to Dairy Queen to pick up some ice cream for everyone!  Then I packed and got ready to leave early Sunday morning!

Work has been going really well and I have been assigned more projects - which is really great!  So, again I apologize for the lapse of "reporting" but I will get back to my few posts/week - promise!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and friends - and thank you for loyally reading along!  

Visitor!!!

I had my first visitor this past weekend!  My good friend Susan came on Saturday afternoon and boy was it a perfect weekend to come - I had been planning on going on a Hoboken Bar Crawl this weekend with people from the Jets so we were excited to her join the crawl! :)

Susan and I have literally known each other our whole lives - we were baptized on the same day (ha) and our brothers are the same age so our families knew each other even before we were born!  We went to the same grade school and high school and to be honest - we haven't changed much!  

Take a look at this picture from our 8th grade graduation dance!

Me in the bottom left and Susan in the bottom right!

Susan and I played softball together at St. Pius and - not to brag - but we were the first team to win the championship!  Pius 8 is great!  :)

Every year at Christmas time, our team tries to get together to catch up and see how everyone is doing.  It is funny to see that really - none of us have changed!

2001 - right after we won!  One of the best days!
Yep - that is Patrick in the back - one of the coaches - loved it!

2008 - some of the girls back together again!

And now, here we are - 23 years old - crawling up Washington Street!  It was such a great time and I am so glad Susan was able to come!  Can't wait 'til she comes back!  

Who's my next visitor!?!

Dance - as if no one is watching!

I have been going through my iPhoto to look for some great Kodak moments and realized that I have a ton of pictures of friends and family dancing - so that gave me the idea of having multiple posts about dancing.

I figure that this subject really needs to start - well - where it all started - with my grandparents.  My Mom's parents that is, John and Honey.  Grandpop John and Grandmom Honey (whose real name is Rose but for God knows how many years, she has been referred to as Honey.  My Grandpop even has "Honey" tatooed on his arm!) have known each other "since my Grandmom has been 16 years old" - as the story we have heard over and over again goes!  They are exactly one year and one month apart in age, even though my Grandpop guarantees that he is 39 every November 5th!  :)

Grandpop John and Grandmom Honey have danced their way through over 50 years of marriage (I can only hope to be so lucky one day)!  And it makes sense - Grandmom was taught to dance by the one and only Gene Kelly back in the day.  She would be happy to recollect on those days and even show you a few moves that she learned from one of the greats!

So dancing has been something that my grandparents have loved to do together and the dancing gene was certainly passed down to my Mom, who thankfully passed it to each of her five kids.  God bless my Dad - he had his own dancing techniques that used to crack us up on Saturday mornings when he would blast "Earth, Wind, and Fire" songs throughout the house and had quite the "puppet" move (for all you Noonans out there who know exactly what I'm talking about) but it was my Mom who gave us the rhythm that has proved to make parties and especially weddings so much fun! 

That's Grandpop John - towering over Grandmom Honey
as they danced at my cousin's wedding a few years ago!



My Scotch-Irish grandfather and my Italian grandmother
who have taught us all that with a good laugh, a strong faith and
an emphasis on family - happiness will surely follow.

Looking forward to shaking it with you! :)

The Noonan Files

My Mom has taught me a lot - how to cook, how to clean, how to make the bed, how to fold laundry, how to be a good parent, how to be a loving spouse...the gambit. 

She has also taught me how to be organized.  If Rosie has been given a piece of paper of importance - you best believe she could find it without even blinking due to her outrageous organizational skills.  I can remember my Dad saying, "Roseann, you know that document from the shore house that was for that one tenant..." and sure enough my Mom would go upstairs to her files and she would find the exact paper my Dad was looking for.  And my Dad would flash his signature smile - his eyes saying, "thank God I have you."

My Mom always tried to help us stay organized and encouraged us to have a place for everything.  She made sure to purchase some file folders for me and let me borrow a three-tiered wire rack to hold my file folders at my apartment.   

I have made a folder for receipts, parking invoices, credit card information, coupons - you name it, I can find it!    

Thank you, Mamma Noons - you are the organizer queen and I'm doing my best to be the princess :)

WE ARE

PENN STATE!

This past weekend Tom and I went to Penn State to see Regina!  We left after work on Friday and made it in pretty good time - given that it was so late and there were pretty much no other cars on the road except for huge tractor-trailers and a few PSU winnebagos!

Once we got to PSU we parked the car and went to Regina's apartment.  It is so cute!  The girls have it decorated really nice and they have tons of pictures throughout the apartment depicting all the fun they are having at State College.  Then we all got ready to go out to a party.

It was pretty funny that most of Regina's friends thought I was the younger sister - again, it probably has to do with the fact that I am so short...  Some kids even did a double take and thought that we might be twins!  It was a lot of fun to meet Regina's friends and hang out "as a college kid" again!

Me and my sissy

On Saturday we went to a tailgate hosted by Regina's roommate, Erin's, parents.  We had some great food ... including Chick-fil-A nuggets that I haven't had in so long so they were extra awesome!

Here are some pictures from the tailgate:

Tom and I really wanted to go to the game since Tom had never been to a game before and I had only been to one last season.  We went to go get tickets and we walked by a man who was holding two tickets in his hand.

Tom: "Are you selling?"
Man: "Maybe, are you interested?"
Tom: "Possibly, what do you have?"
Man: "Two seats, field level, section NH."
Tom: "Okay, how much?"
Man: "Well, they are $55.00 seats - but, uh, you two look like young kids, I'll sell 'em to you for $20 each. Oh, and they are great seats because they have the backs to them."
Tom: "Okay - alright.  Yeah, we'll take 'em."

Scene: Me cracking up the rest of the way back to the tailgate at the fact that we got away with $110 worth of tickets for $40.  Thank God for the young face! :)

So we went to the game and he was right - the seats were awesome!

The game got off to a not-so-great start and Penn State was down 21-0 to Northwestern.  At half time Tom and I went to get some hot chocolate and something to eat.  Then as the second half began, Penn State started to look more alive and before we knew it, they scored 5 touchdowns in a row!  

Final score: 35-21!

This was an especially great game as it was Joe Paterno's 400th win!  At the end of the game they had a mini ceremony for him, thanking him and his family for their dedication to the university and all the great memories!

Joe Paterno (clap clap clap clap clap)

The man himself.

A list of all his wins!

Let's go State!

After the game we headed back to the tailgate to have some more to eat and then made the trip back to Regina's apartment.  We said we were going to take a nap before we went out again, but umm...that nap turned into a 12 hour slumber - and I woke up on the couch absolutely confused and couldn't believe we all had slept through the night!  Guess I'm not as young as I used to be :P

Then on Sunday we went to breakfast and we took Regina to Wegmans to get some groceries.  Then Tom and I dropped Regina back to Beaver Hill, said goodbye and we headed back to Hoboken.

It was so much fun seeing Regina this weekend and I am really glad that we made the trip!  This is my second trip to PSU and I can say for sure - they call it Happy Valley for a reason!  It is a great place to go to school and I am glad that Regina is having such a great college experience!  

Good things...

...come in small packages.

Or at least that is what my Grandmom has been telling me since I was a kid.  I have literally always been in the front of pictures because I would be hidden if I ended up behind anyone.  I can only remember one time in my life - in 6th grade - when we were taking a picture of all the girls in our classroom, I was asked to stand in the back.  I can remember being like - wow, that is different!  Maybe I'm growing. 

Here's the catch - I haven't grown since then.  Yep.  As I like to say, "I'm 5' on a good day."  After 23 years, I've come to like the fact that I am particularly short and love that I can always wear heels if I want to and never fear that I will tower over anyone. 

I had a prediction that Sean would soon grow enough that I would be the shortest person in the family - and well, it happened. 

-"Hello."
-"Oh hey, Sean.  What's up?"
-"Kathryn, GUESS WHAT!"
-"What?"
-"I'm 5'1!!!!"
-"NO.  When did you go to the doctor?  For real?"
-"Yep.  I am."

So that conversation happened about 3 weeks ago - and I have now come to terms with it.  I am the shortest Noonan.

You see, pictures in the old days used to be like this:

Sean - the youngest - being held by the older, taller kids.

Now...

this is going to start happening much more often - being that I am the oldest girl yet shortest child. 

Repeat after me - good things come in small packages.  

Festival for Fall

One of the best parts of having an apartment is decorating!  Molly, Jess and I went to Home Goods and made some solid purchases that are really making our house a home.  And with the help of my Mom and Tom's Mom, we added some fall decorations that have added great character to the living room.  

The lamps are from Ikea and they have added some necessary light to the living room.  Molly was going to use them in her room but ended up thinking they might be better for the living room!  The three of us loved the colors and they really are a perfect fit!  Molly also supplied the painting on the wall as well as the "dining room table,"  My mom gave us the place mats, scarecrow and basket of fall vegetables and Tom's mom gave us the acorn (which is actually a candle!) as well as the pumpkin runner that is on our coffee table! 

Thank you for the gifts! :)

As we decorate the space more, I will post some more pictures! 

PS - I hope I will be able to show my faithful readers my apartment in person and take you on a real tour one day!  

Practically Perfect...

...Halloween in Hoboken!

I had a lot of fun this year for Halloween!  Molly, Jess, and I hosted a little pumpkin carving party on Thursday night with some drinks, apps, and desserts and we had a really nice time opening up "our home" to some friends! 

Here are our jack-o-lanterns!

Creations by me, Molly, Jess

Then on Friday I went to a Halloween party with Tom and our friends from the Jets.  After seeing Mary Poppins (my first Broadway show) and then retelling the story of Regina's phenomenal rendition of "Jolly Holiday," I thought that being Mary Poppins would be perfect for Halloween this year!

My transformation began when my friend, Liz, found an amazing carpet bag at Forever 21.  She texted  me a picture of it and it was then that I knew that I could find all the other essentials to become Mary.

Then I went to a thrift store in New York, Cheap Jacks, and found a dress that was definitely going to help me make an awesome Mary Poppins.  Next I went to Macy's and bought an apron and finally I went to a card store and asked them to tie a red bow for Mary's bow tie.  Then I borrowed a black umbrella from Jess and stuffed my bag with all sorts of Mary Poppins necessities.

I wish I would have been in some sort of costume contest!  I loved it!  Oh, and behind me is our awesome chalkboard wall - yep, painted it with chalkboard paint!  It's so much fun!

 

Spoon full of Jameson makes the medicine go down!

"Rum Punch"

Practically Perfect in Every Way!

Let's see...what else do I have in here?

A plant!  To make my room more cozy...

Tom and his friends from the Jets were the cast of Family Guy.  Tom was Peter Griffen!

The cast of Family Guy

All in all, it was a fun weekend!  Hope yours was just as good! :)