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We moved (to Queens), I got a new job (same company) and I’m knocked up (don’t worry, it’s Mike’s).

We’re living in Long Island City now, which is on the west bank of Queens. We live in an apartment building right on the East River and we can see both of our office buildings from our balcony. While that may not be a plus, the commute is awesome, which we all know IS a plus given my undying hatred of the subway, and the views are spectacular. Plus, we are in a doorman building so I can indulge my online shopping obsession to my heart’s content. Matching electronic toothbrushes, here we come. Also, lots of kids in the neighborhood. More on that to come.

I’ve also taken a new job with the same company. I’ve loved the past year and a half and learned a ton from the group I was with. But I’m going back to my roots (public affairs) and am thrilled to be going “home”. Plus, the job will bring me back to DC often, so hopefully I can see family and friends a lot more.

And finally, we’re having a kid. Due the day before Thanksgiving — way to cock up the holidays, huh? We’re both, to put it mildly, scared shitless. But, we’re preparing as much as one can prepare for such an undertaking (including buying gas masks). And if anyone is going to be a good father, it’s my husband.

We’ve been calling the impending arrival many different names — Leech, M-Fer (when it made me sick) and even “Chicken Wing” due to an ultrasound that made it look like, well, a hot and spicy buffalo wing from Hooters. We found out recently that Chicken Wing is a boy. We should have known just from watching him squirm around during the ultrasound, he had his hands ALL OVER his “man parts”.

So, as you can see, lots going on in the Wilson/Ferguson household. I need a new blog name now that we’re living in Queens — send me any suggestions you have. I’m not sure how often I’ll update, and I promise it won’t be riddled with baby crap, but I’ll try to do it more often than every six months!

Love to you all,
Anne, Mike and CW.

The biggest storm since the Big Bang (or since Adam and Eve, depending on where you come out on the god vs science debate) has hit Brooklyn and we’re not there. I feel totally cheated — I want to join in all of the #snomg, #snowpocalypse, and #whitesnowwhine tweets, I want to upload 40 pictures of stranded buses/taxis and I want to debate the ethics of ordering delivery when there are three foot snow drifts. But no. We’re in DC. Where they had just about the biggest FAIL of a blizzard prediction everywhere. I think I got more snow in the shower last night by turning the water to cold than I did going outside. #SIGH.

I’ve actually spent all day following blizzard news on Twitter and the local NY news sites as I’ve been freaked out about our furballs. Fortunately, our incredibly amazing cat sitter Taryn Hunter managed to brave the craziness of the streets today to get to our place. They’re now fed, watered, and petted (albeit briefly). If you ever need a pet sitter in Park Slope, PICK TARYN. Not many people would brave what she did to check on animals.

If you’re interested in what Park Slope looks like today, head on over to one of our best neighborhood blogs, F*cked in Park Slope. Erica’s got all the best pictures from the ‘hood. Last year’s snowpocalypse seemed to be handled much better by the city than this one. It looks from afar like everyone has lost all sense, with buses parked in the middle of the road, subways not working (for Brooklyn at least) and general nuttiness prevailing. Hopefully everything will be bright, sparkly and rosy by the time we get back this weekend.

Signing off, check out the photo that kept me from jumping in the car and rushing home today. I found it on Twitter from @brianelmquist (hoping that’s where credit is due, seen this one a few times).

Brooklyn Traffic -- SNOMG

As we wrap up 2010, I figure it would be a good idea to make some sort of permanent record of the stuff I’m determined to do in 2011. I refuse to call them resolutions — not sure why, just makes me feel like a joiner. Instead, it’s just “Shit I’m Gonna Do in the New Year”.

1. Get friggin’ skinny. I got skinny(er) for the wedding and since then have apparently made it my mission to eat everything that crosses my path. And I’d say it’s been “mission accomplished”. Unfortunately, this probably means I have to exercise too. Sigh. Biggest Loser contest anyone?

2. Go away with Mike once a month. Doesn’t have to be far away — Long Island, Connecticut, whatever. But we’re going away. Suggestions welcome. Oh, and I want at least one mega-trip.

3. Buy a fancy camera and figure out how to use it. No more pictures of half a piece of pizza when I meant to take a picture of someone on the couch. It can’t be that difficult.

4. Clean out the house. Not clean the house, clean OUT the house. We have TOO MUCH CRAP. We combined two households and somehow turned it into four. You’ll find me outside of our house selling crap to the neighbors as soon as it’s warm enough.

5. Learn how to cook. I’m not ever going to be Julia Child, and I really don’t much like cooking, but I at least want to be able to add a few more things to my repertoire. We came up with this idea earlier this year to divvy up the cooking responsibilities so that we don’t eat out as much and we both failed miserably. Somehow, some way, we’re gonna make it work.

This is a good enough start. Maybe I’ll add more later, if I actually get through all of these. Let me know what’s on your list, maybe it’ll inspire me.

We’ve had a good holiday so far — had the entire family at my mom’s yesterday for what turned into a gift orgy for the little ones. I’m amazed at how much Sleeping Beauty-themed crap is out there. They were in heaven. We’re in DC now watching Brooklyn get snowed in. Hoping our furballs are ok, our awesome cat sitter Taryn Hunter gave them at least three days worth of food. I’m certain the fat cat has already tried to ingest it all. Perhaps she can go to Weight Watchers with me. We’re headed to PA to see Mike’s mom later this week and then back to BK next Saturday.

Hope everyone is warm and safe. Happy New Year!

Hi friends. I’ve been a terrible blogger. I went into self-preservation mode just before the wedding and am only now emerging. I’ve missed all four of you, and I promise to update more often .

So, well, we’re married! I had the time of my life that weekend — family, friends, beautiful weather, and months of hard work coming to fruition — what more could I ask for? There were some small hitches, like my Crumbs cupcakes causing a heart attack (everyone’s fine, love you David!) and missing our flight to Hawaii for our honeymoon, but overall, I have never had more fun in my entire life. I am determined to get married every year from now on. Not entirely sure Mike agrees with that plan, though. I’ll post some of our favorite pics below and I’m planning on a bit more detailed post later this weekend. Also, check out our totally amazing photographer, Doug Phillips, for more wedding porn.

Other items of note: (1) heading out in 2 weeks for our last wedding of the year, Mike’s brother Rick (2) we’re looking for a new apartment somewhere in NY, have had some “interesting” issues with our place and (3) had a great Thanksgiving with our neighbors Diana and Thomas (I even cooked a WHOLE F*CKING TURKEY). Other than that, life’s been pretty low-key. I spent three weekends in a row in DC with the family and Mike went to North Carolina twice for Rick’s baby’s baptism (Hi Baby Norah!) and Rick’s bachelor party.

We’re looking forward to hunkering down for the winter soon and spending some more time enjoying the NY holiday season.

Will have another post up soon on wedding details. If you’re a dude or not interested in that sort of crap, I suggest you pass that one over .

Now to the pictures!

Eva, one of our flower girls.

Another flower girl, Izzy.

The decor.

Yep, that's me.

And our third (and final) flower girl, Lauren.

My hottie hubby.

Making sure he likes the dress!

Wedding Party

Not sure what to say here...

Me with my mom and dad.

Our awesome outdoor setting.

Married, bitches!

Pretty Blue Water.

Golf!

Starry Night

Some of our guests getting down.

Gotta love Doug for capturing this.

Hubby doing his dancin' thing.

Dancing with Da Momma

Sleepy time.

A great day, all around.

Hi friends.  I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated this blog.  I think to say we’ve been busy would be an understatement, but that’s no excuse for not keeping all five of you in the loop on what we’ve been up to.  I promise to do better.  After the wedding.  :-)

Since we last saw our fearless readers, Mike and I have been on frequent treks across the eastern seaboard.  In August, we went to the wedding of Mike’s stepsister, Jamie to her awesome now-husband, JP.  Fortunately, this wedding was accessible by car, so the only hyperventilating was when Mike drove faster than 68mph.  Yeah, I’m that passenger.  The wedding was lovely — fantastic DJ, they served dessert as an appetizer (um, why isn’t this more common?), and we got to spend some time with Mike’s brothers which is always an adventure.

After that wedding, we had a few weekends off.  We filled that time with shopping (golf for Mike), wedding planning (some more golf for Mike), going to Six Flags (and some golf for Mike) and just general downtime (Mike hit golfballs into a blanket in our second bedroom).  I spent an awful lot of time fretting — we had expected to have about 120 people for our wedding and at one point thought we might be more than 40 people over that number (and it’s a small venue) so I was running around trying to coordinate possible tent renting, table and chair provisionings, etc while Mike watched my hair fall out.  Fortunately, enough people were scared off by the thought of Mike’s “bring the melons” dance (video to come post-wedding) that I think we’ll be ok.

Over Labor Day weekend, we headed to DC for my wedding shower and “bachelorette” party.  Guess what Mike did?  If you guessed golf, you’ve clearly been reading the blog.  Perhaps you should find something better to do.

My aunts threw me a fantastic shower in College Park.  We had yummy food (stuffed shrimp!), good conversation and thoroughly embarrassing gifts.  I’m still not over receiving lingerie from my mother — that one might take awhile.  The next day, the girls took me out on a boat ride around DC for my bachelorette.  Since I’m not a big drinker, we figured this would be a great alternative to the usual drunken scavenger hunt that people have for their bachelorette.  We had a beautiful day, saw all the monuments, and I missed DC that much more because of how great everything was.

The next weekend (last weekend) we headed down to Ocean City for our last weekend of wedding planning.  We went to the site and worked up a few surprises for our guests there.  We went to Candy Kitchen where we bought 36lbs of candy for our favors.  We met with the florist, picked out table linens, met with the DJ, worked on lighting, and generally finished up a whole load of work.  It was a very satisfying weekend for me (oh, and Mike golfed — in the rain — at 6am).  My dad also had his annual crab feast, which involved eating crabs, wearing crab hats, and talking about crabs.  It was lovely.

So, now we’re in the 2 week stretch before the wedding.  There’s lots to do, not a lot of time, and we’re both swamped at work.  Still, I couldn’t be happier.  I’m incredibly excited, I can’t wait to see all of our family and friends, and we’re JAZZED about 2 whole weeks in Hawaii afterwards.

I’m going to try to post again before the wedding and add some pics from the last few weeks — I left my camera in Ocean City and my dad’s mailing it up.  I’m super bummed I didn’t have it last night, as a tornado touched down in our neighborhood, making it look like a scene from “Apocalypse Now”.  Below is a picture our downstairs neighbor posted of the backyard for our brownstone.  There were a bunch of cars crushed on our street and the steeple from the church up the road fell off and crushed a car.  Yikes.

The backyard for our brownstone, post-BKTORNADO.

So, check back here soon.  If you have any last-minute wedding advice, bring it.  Or, if you have extra Xanax, I’d like that too.  :-)

Three new book reviews up on BooklyAnne.  If you’re looking for something new to read, check it out.

First up, Molly and Brandon’s Wedding/AMBA reunion.

Brian, Mike's golfing BFF, and his wife Lauren.

Mike and the absolutely gorgeous bride Molly.

AMBA dudes and the hubbies of some AMBA chicks.

Me with some of the hotty AMBA ladies.

You wanna piece of this?

More AMBA lady hotness.

Boys behaving very badly.

My future husband, and his stinky cigar.

The boys attempting to teach each other special tie knots.

Next up was Maggie’s 30th birthday party, but it’s probably best that we didn’t get any pictures there. I’m just thankful she’s alive.

On Sunday, my nieces, Eva and Izzy came by my mom’s to hang out. They spent an hour making my mom take her wig on and off, they thought it was the greatest thing.

Maggie and Eva. Now you see why it's good there were no pictures from her party.

Eva looking lovely.

Izzy after making mischief.

Izzy reading the very important Mini-Page from WaPo.

We also had some fun with my Mac’s Photobooth program.

It was a great weekend — wonderful to see friends and family, be home, and relax. I miss everyone already.

I wish I could regale you all with stories of exciting NYC adventures, but alas, we’ve been pretty damn boring lately. In the next month we have three trips, all for weddings, so hopefully I’ll have something more interesting for you then. But for now, here’s a brief snapshot of what we’ve been up to.

• Our wedding invitations came in.  I just stare at them all day, they’re so damn pretty.  I’m not sure I actually want to send them to anyone, I might prefer to wallpaper our living room with them.
• We saw “American Idiot” on Broadway.  Short review — it sucked.  Slightly longer review — the actors were lovely and good singers, but the angsty, over-wrought, whiny BS they sing about drove me nuts.  Oh, and there’s no real plot.
• We bought our wedding rings today from my friend Fred Hulnick at Zoland and Son.  Mike picked his out in just under 10 minutes.  I took slightly longer, but overall, easier than most of the other wedding decisions. If you live in NYC and need jewelry, I highly recommend Fred (who I went to college with). I was scared to death of navigating the Diamond District and he made it very easy. More importantly, he’s got some gorgeous jewelry.
• Speaking of wedding decisions, we ordered 300 cupcakes for dessert portion of the reception.  Thirteen flavors.  You have NO IDEA how hard it was to leave all of those other flavors behind.  I felt like I was abandoning a puppy. At least I can visit them whenever I want.
• We had date-night in Tribeca with two of my colleagues and their wives.  It was nice to be social.  The whole “not having any friends in NYC thing” is getting pretty old.  I may advertise on craigslist, that always works, right?
• We decided on Kauai and Maui in Hawaii for our honeymoon.  If you’ve been there, and have suggestions, bring ‘em on.
• I tried acupuncture for my back and shoulder pain and was amazed when it worked (I always thought it was hocus pocus).  So now I’m a needle-devotee.  Again.  Just kidding.
• Mike went to Bethpage again for golf.  And got stranded in the rain for several hours on the LIRR.

Yeah, so that’s pretty much it.  We head to DC this weekend for the wedding of our friends from grad school Molly and Brandon and for Maggie’s “Dirty Thirty”.   Whatever pictures aren’t illegal will be posted here next week.

Hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying the summer.