It's Birthday Week at the Wilson's!

          This past week was a fun one in the Wilson household.  Chris and I both celebrated birthdays, Chris’ on Monday and mine on Thursday.  He turned 26 and I turned the big 2-4. We even got another new family member to welcome into our birthday week with the birth of our sweet new cousin Ginny Beth Howard born on Friday in Atlanta! 

            Considering for the past two weeks at least one of us has had a stomach bug, a week with no sickness was a welcomed thought.  We didn’t plan anything extravagant for our birthdays. We both just had one request each.  Naturally it had something to do with food.  Chris wanted a rack of lamb for his dinner. Acca-cuse me? (Chris bought me "Pitch Perfect"and I bought him a collection of Hitchcock movies)

            I had never cooked lamb and of course was immediately worried I was going to mess it up. Martha Stewart to the rescue! Just in case you too are in the mood for lamb, here’s the recipe I used. (http://www.marthastewart.com/913210/how-cook-rack-lamb)

I bought the rack of lamb from Whole Foods.

An abbreviated recipe follows:

1)   Trim the fat from the lamb and French it (I bought my already frenched “trimmed up”)

2)   Rub the meat with olive oil and sear it in a cast iron skillet two minutes each side.

3)   Let the meat cool and then brush with Dijon mustard and coat with a mixture of bread crumbs and various seasonings.

4)   Cook in oven for thirty minutes.

5)   Viola!

            I must say it was easier to cook that I originally anticipated which is always a good thing ;)
         

            A few days later it was my birthday. I and my sweet teeth (I’ve determined there is more than one!) had to get some cake. I mean what is a birthday without cake? I ended up buying cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes in SoHo. I was already in the neighborhood visiting Banana Republic in order to buy a new suit (my first suit!) for a job interview….on my birthday!

Chocolate ganache, cookies & cream, vanilla birthday (which is also what the missing one on top was too ;)
Carrot cake and chocolate hazelnut. Yum!

            I’d been talking to a company for the past several weeks and after a phone interview and writing assignment, I was invited to interview at their office. Of course my first thought was “What do I wear?” LOL!  In fact during the four days before my interview, I called my sister to figure out what I should  wear and to practice some HR questions from my own Human Resources associate.  While I was shopping, I hurriedly took some pictures of the suits I tried on at Banana Republic, texted her with the message “Which suit says hire me more?” LOL. 

I got a new pair of nude pumps too! They're actually comfortable. A must for walking in NYC!

Winner!

            I also called the brother to go over some economic questions and to get some tips on the interviewing process. In fact several years ago when P was interviewing with AT&T he stayed with me before he flew out to Dallas for a final interview. He practiced his presentation with me and landed the job! Clearly he knows how to interview effectively.

            I talked to dad for some practice business questions and writing tips. And mom? Well everyone calls their mom for the morale and emotional support. I did that all through college before exams and now isn’t any different.

            A few hours after my interview, every member of my family called with “So…how was it?” in the span of 45 minutes. It meant a whole lot to have their support. While I have way too much to say about the whole job hunting/applying and interviewing process for this post, I will say that the people I interviewed with were fantastic and very friendly. I did everything I knew how to prepare adequately and did my homework on the company so now we just wait and see what the future has in store. Closed doors or opened doors is always the prayer.

            I’m very lucky to be so close to my family and without a doubt the most difficult thing about living in New York isn’t not having a car or living in a huge city, it’s that I don't live close to my family.

A family picture from our wedding day

          However modern technology makes it so much easier to communicate with them back home and I’m super excited that my brothers and sister, along with some friends from Carson-Newman are coming up to visit this week. I’ve also gotten to know some extraordinary women up here who somehow have a connection to back home in Tennessee.

            This past week have been wonderful for Chris and I. After spending a few birthdays a part it was so nice to be able to share our “birthday week” together! We’re so excited to see what this year holds for us as a married couple and individually.