a new york minute

we decided to go to NYC for our one year anniversary (a little early) and go on valentine's day weekend (it was a long one due to kyle getting presidents day...gotta love federal holidays). we were going to stay with some friends of mine but then i thought...being in NYC...it would be a little crowded. so, we did the boldest thing EVER. we rented someone's apartment off craigs list!! we had no clue who she was but after we both interviewed each other, we had a good feeling about her! we stayed in LES (lower east side), a fun, growing area. since it was kyle's first visit to nyc, i wanted it to be a non-tourist event....meaning no hotels and lots of subway rides. we had the worst flight on the way up there. i hate to fly but i do it about 2 to 3 times a year. the wind gusts were up tp 60 mph and that is not fun to land in. they closed all but 1 runway at LGA and canceled most flights....but not ours of course. after literary shaking for 40 mins while circling the city, we landed. our plane was still shaking while we were waiting to get off it. i don't have a weak tummy but i had enough. the flight attendant went to one stall and i in another and we 'made' ourselves feel a lot better. it's pretty bad when the flight attendant tells you that she has flown a long time and that was her worst flight! (that night a plane crashed in upstate NY, killing all the passangers). enought of that!! we then met the craigslist girl in LES to get our key and she showed us around her apartment. i highly recommend the area and her apartment. she even left us maps! here is a tour some of the hot spots....


kyle on wall street. bring it on recession.


one of our many trips to times square (long story)


kyle told me "angie, i want to eat at a place i saw on 'divers, drive-inns and dives' called Katz's Deli." i told him "kyle, this is NYC and since you have no idea where it is, we will never find it." yup, it was on to our subway stop from our apartment and we passed it everyday. http://www.katzdeli.com/ we ate dinner there and the above sign is from...you got it! the famous scene from 'when harry met sally' was filmed at katz's!



day 2: it was fashion week so we marched ourselves up to bryant park to see some stars.


we wanted to be sneaky. totally not obvious! sorry kyle...lauren or whitney are no where to be found. (that's for all you "hills" and "city" fans)


http://www.chelseamarket.com/ kyle had to go to chelsea market because he is a food network junkie. he was in heaven! it wouldn't hurt his feelings if we had to move to the city...at least for now!


downtown manhatten skyline-view from brooklyn


the brooklyn bridge.


YUMMY! i saw this place on samatha brown's great weekend getaways. i want her job.


here is the coal brick oven where the pizza's go in! there is usually a line that wraps around the block but since we went in feb...it was only about 10 people long.


i am such a rebel.


stephanie from high school invited us to her boyfriend's graffitti art show in brooklyn. they had a kissing booth so we decided to act on that offer!



Day 3: eating lunch in SOHO with rachel (friend from my summer camp jobs)!


It'sValentine's Day! I am a HUGE "Sleepless in Seatle" fan. It just so happens that we went to the top of the Empire State building on Vday. Kyle really wanted to see a view of the city from way up high! So I gave in and went!


I didn't see Meg Ryan or Tom Hanks.


I would love to get into photography one day. This is my favorite pic I took on LOVE day!


I have decided that it would be great to own a parting lot in the city. I mean look how many cars you can fit in that tiny space.


Valentines day dinner in Hell's Kitchen at Meson Sevilla


It was the 1st time we had Spanish food. Yummy.


We met a fun couple from Queens that told us another place to eat in chinatown.


Day 4: So we went! Wo Hop was Wo Good! Kyle really enjoyed going in the secert rooms that sold knock off purses! gucci? prada? dvd.dvd.dvd?


He had to try a hot dog from a street vender.


Rock Center


yes...it's rupert g! we had to get prepared for david letterman so we had a cup o joe at hello deli.


kima (high school friend) was in town for a few days so she met us for lunch while we waited for letterman!


this is kyle being very excited to be at a taping of a national tv show! we love dave!


day 5: we stayed the last night at lia's (friend from college) and went on a central park stroll before heading to the airport. we had a great time! it was so good to see my NYC friends! happy one year anniversary to us!

It's My Turn!

Yes, im blogging... my wife has been after me to add my thoughts to this thang, and I must say she has done a great job and I hope it has helped our friends and family keep connected to what is going on in our life. Just a quick rundown of what has been going on in my life in the last year. I got married to the most amazing woman, i was fat and I lost 30 pounds by running my tail off and changing my eating habits thanks to the support from my wife and a bad report from the doctor. We like to call it a lifestyle change and not a diet because diets are only temporary and lifestyle changes are for life so hopefully I can keep that going for a while! Angie and I have traveled to Cancun(honeymoon), San Diego, and NYC in the past year as well. I must say I enjoyed all of them equally but it was great to the to the big apple and experience it all in a matter of 6 days. I can't wait to go back. I got my insurance license this past March and have been trying to get that started while still working at my current job at the Bank. So if you are interested in talking about insurance give me a ring or an email! Oh i almost forgot I am up to running 11 miles and I am running my first half marathon a few weeks so wish me luck on that. Ok so that is a quick rundown of a few things that I have been doing in the last year. The reason I am wanting to blog tonight is that I have a few things that I wanted to discuss with all my friends and family that are meaningless and pointless, so I am giving you a warning that you may be wasting a few minutes of your life by reading this from this point forward so please stop reading right now if you are worried about that. These are things that I think about all the time and it feels good to put it down in a blog and let you all know how I feel. So here goes nothing:



ALDI: I moved to Southaven in June of 2005 and the ripe ole age of 23. I was very broke and I thought that walmart was the lowest of all prices that I would be able to find. I never realized that there was a place that you could get the same products that you get at a walmart or at a kroger but for about half the price. I was first introduced to aldi (http://www.aldi.com/) by my now mother in law. If you don't know about this place then you need to check it out. They have a few locations in the memphis area and one here in southaven. You must bring your own bags to aldi and bag your groceries yourself. They have low overhead and a great strategy and you can really fill up an entire buggy for under $100. I can't even imagine how much money we have saved by shopping at aldi. Now there are a few things that you can't get at aldi, but you can get most of your essentials that you need there with you only having to get a few things at kroger or walmart etc.. This store is becoming more and more busy everytime I go and with the uncertainty in the economy it should continue to flourish. Once you realize the difference in prices you will be hooked like yours truly. Every time I checkout at Aldi I want to hug the cashier and thank her for working at such a fine institution that allowed me to get lots of groceries for around $70. As a matter of fact yesterday I told the cashier as my bill was $72 that I had a crush on Aldi, she laughed at me but I am sure she gets that all the time. So in closing with this topic I hope that at least one of you out there will go shopping at aldi and see what a difference it can make in your pocketbook!



Minivans: Ok, yes a strange topic i know.. but with getting married this past year and the idea of having a few kids in a few years ( 2-3 years people!) I have always had this picture in my head that I will one day be in a minivan with screaming kids and sounds of finding nemo 3 in the background. So this is a fear of most men that they are going to have to get rid of their SUV or mustang or the car that they pretty much had in college or while they were single and trade it in for the minivan. I am sure there are some of you out there that are cringing at the idea of this and are saying not me, never. You know what. I am ready for the minivan, they are comfortable, drive very well and have pretty good gas mileage. I am come to the realization that I am more than likely going to have kids and I have accepted the fact that a minivan is going to be an option for our family one day down the road. I used to drive minivans when I worked for Enterprise Rent A Car and I have been a fan of them ever since. So I might get some hassle from the guys about accepting the minivan concept but I really don't care, I have no problem with it, give me a minivan, a car full of kids and some disney movie playing in the background and you have a happy dad(one day).

Well thats it for now... I hope you enjoyed this blog entry and I hope to blog once every 2-3 months or so... later!

Oct-Dec 08 FINALLY

We had our 1st McCoy family vacation to the mountains in October. The trip was planned because of a football game. Mississippi State was playing Tennessee. Kyle is very confused why I cheer for the Vols since I didn’t go there. Just like the last post, I explained that my UT Martin skyhawks only won 1 or 2 games a year. So we would cheer for the other UT team! We are in the same system! I think he gets it now. We set off for gatlinburg and met my in-laws and some friends of the family for couple of nights in a cabin. It was a lot of fun! We went to cade’s cove, downtown galtlinburg, and did a little shopping!

Sometimes I get a little silly with the pictures!

Ah....downtown Gatlinburg.


our better side??

Leah, my sis-in-law


YAY the mountains!

We did get to meet a reality superstar! We were at the applebarn and Rhonda (friend of the family) saw Bob from survivor. Of course I had no clue who he was.

Bob from survivor...I still have no idea who he is!

Kyle and I went on to knoxville on game day and walked around campus. It was a good day for the vols but not so much for the bulldawgs! The family really enjoyed the stadium and the scenery.

Kyle said the bookstore was too bright with all the orange.


We had about 10 people tell us "wow, a house divided." it got old.

mom-in-law tried to sneak in my drink! they thought she might have a cowbell hidden! BUSTED! no drink for me =(

We stayed the night at the Mynatt’s (friends from church) house in Knoxville that night, then headed off to Fall Creek Falls Sunday morning. What a pretty hike!

the falls that we hiked to.

ahhhh!!!!!

the end of the hike

After some fresh air, we headed to Nashville to see Ray LaMontagne at the Ryman! It was a birthday present from Kyle. Ray is such a wonderful singer/songwriter but is not a talker. If anyone has seen him, they know that he is very uncomfy talking on stage. All he wants to do is sing song after song that’s what he did. We then left the show and headed back to Memphis. We got home about 2am and had to work the next day. NO FUN.

November brought our 1st married Thanksgiving together and our 1st time to do the Turkey Trot. We didn’t get to see Kyle’s side of the family for Thanksgiving but we saw mine. So for the big day of food, we went to Shelby Farms and ran the 4mile relay race to burn some calories. Kyle ran the 1st 2 miles and then met me to hand over the TURKEY leg baton! Yes…an actual smoked turkey leg wrapped in foil. It was heavy after a while. We ended up being in the top half of our group!!!

December was busy, as it always is. We got to decorate our house. I am one of those people that loves to put the Christmas tunes in the day after (NOT BEFORE) thanksgiving and decorate the house. Lights and all!! Kyle secretly likes it! We also spent our 1st Christmas together ever. Last year we both went to our families on our own. But this year we got to do the rearranging of Christmas due to Kyle not being able to take the day after off. Our families are flexible so it all worked out.

Dunagan side

McCoy side