m + j

New Year.... New Closet

2012-02-01T19:20:00.001-06:00

Sometimes I get what I believe to be really great ideas with home improvement. I see kitchens and start dreaming about completely redoing ours, including layout, appliances, cabinets... Bathrooms, I being to imagine new vanities, new paint, new tile... I can get kind of carried away - and of course think we should do everything right now. John usually just shakes his head.

This time I managed to get him on board with my latest project.... master bedroom closet overhaul!!! I don't know what prompted it, but I suddenly got extremely fed up with our closet and asked for a new one. Ours is pretty inefficient, and I also have a problem with owning a lot of stuff... so it just wasn't working.

We started it thinking we could get the demolition and painting done on Saturday, buy the new system, and ultimately install on Sunday. Sounds like an easy project, right? We so should have known better. John had to work on Saturday so that left me with the demolition. It was tough. Just getting everything OUT of the closet took longer than I expected. Then the "geniuses" that put up the closet (essentially a shelf with a rod - not too tough) decided they were really nervous about it falling, so they had screwed, nailed, and glued the shelf supports to the drywall. It took some serious muscle to get that thing down (which I apparently don't have and required help).

The long and short of it - it took us the weekend to just get the closet ready for install. We had a lot of patching to do, holes to fill, priming to do. We finally got our closet painted by the end of Sunday. We lived out of our living room for the entire week before being able to install our new closet. It wasn't pretty. Our condo is still recovering -- I think it will be a slow process. But, our closet looks great, and we are pretty excited to have done it all by ourselves (alright - Pat came down and helped a little with the demo, and we couldn't have done it without some of the tools he brought down)... but overall we did a good job, and it looks great! I'm excited because there is just so much more space, and I'm hoping we can get rid of our IKEA dresser still in our room. Oh, and we even managed to squeeze in a little electrical work! We had broken the light in the closet, so we bought a new one and installed it ourselves... well, John did.. after a little trepidation about touching wires even though we knew the circuit was off.

We had a couple of mishaps along the way: measuring (note to self, always always always check to make sure that you measure where you really need measuring and don't assume a room is square - thank goodness it was an easy fix), top rails being put on upside down (another easy fix), but in the end we still managed to get it up... and 4 days later it's still on the wall! I'm pretty psyched.

So - below is a quick little slideshow to show what we did (hopefully it works, for some reason I have serious problems with this).

Now on to the next project....

Happy Hump Day!

2012-01-26T09:00:00.002-06:00

This post won't do much except to hopefully brighten your Wednesday with a fun tidbit of conversation I overheard on the way to work this morning..."When I was younger and I didn't like 90's rap, I used to tell people Will Smith was my favorite rapper". It was pretty awesome to hear this random confession from a guy to his friend, who seemed to accept this bit of knowledge with no judgements passed....

Although who am I to judge? I used to LOVE Will Smith..... but that doesn't mean I didn't like the other guys too. Ha. (By used to, I mean I could probably still "rap" along word-for-word with almost every song on Big Willie Style.... Don't judge)

Happy Hump Day everyone! I hope you have a wonderful day... I'll update more this weekend once I have pictures of our first completed project that we've done (essentially) on our own. It has been a harrowing experience.

Can't believe it's 2012 already

2012-01-08T16:03:00.001-06:00

It's been a while.... as in months a while. While I know I've never really made a point to write regularly, this has been a little ridiculous. I hope to get more into updating in 2012. I feel like I need a "purpose" to this blog, instead of my ramblings on non-exciting, every day life. So, I hope to find something exciting to write about that you would be interested in reading. I'll let you know if I come across it, or you'll still be reading my daily musings.. to that I apologize. Ha. :)

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope it is exciting and wonderful for you all!

Three years later (plus a little)

2011-10-18T23:25:00.002-05:00

It's been three years (plus a few extra days) since we got married... where do we stand? We have a house... we're still awesome... I guess that about sums it up. Ha. In all seriousness, it's been such a whirlwind and I had no idea how quickly time would pass.

Six years ago (yeah... weirds me out a little too) we decided to join some friends for dinner... it's crazy how even with so much time can go by without talking to someone it can turn into such an easy conversation.... So we started over...

John helping me drive across the country to start a new chapter in Chicago in the summer of 2006.

Bringing in 2007 -- No judgement with the bottle of champagne.. it was a lovely night.

From that dinner in 2005, to my move to Chicago, to many trips to Cincinnati, to John's graduation and finally getting to Chicago... we made our way to this:

October 12, 2008

You know you love someone when you both wear tights for Halloween (2009):

Sam Adams Oktoberfest and Robin Hood Men in Tights - Classic.

2010 brought big Texas hair... and a new home!

So, I know it looks like I got caught in a hurricane while having aqua net hairspray. I promise you that's not the case - this is what is described as "a bun to the side" and "natural make-up".

I just wanted to prove that I looked like myself while in Texas, while posing a gas station with longhorns in the background.

Now here we are... 3 years after our wedding day... and I'm still amazed by how "easy" it's all been. Getting married didn't mean a huge "change" where we seemed like different people. It was just a natural progression. The big joke around our house now is that every time John starts doing something in the house, be it cleaning, or cooking, or something seemingly random.. I end up gravitating to his side and when he asks what I'm doing - the inevitable response "I don't know - I just want to do what you're doing". We're like that. I feel lucky that I truly just love being a part of what he's doing and I know that he feels the same. I look forward to many years of enjoying being a part of each other's lives.

Our friend's wedding this past weekend - October 15, 2011

So here we start year number four... three years went by so quickly, I think I've got this "for-e-ver" thing in the bag.

(Disclaimer - you must read the "for-e-ver" as though you are watching Sandlot and then it sounds a lot less haughty and a lot more funny....)

(And as a shameless plug - I'm still updating our travel blog (www.m-plus-j-plus-theworld.blogspot.com)... although not as quickly as I would like. I'm slowly adding the rest of our trip. To be fair, I think I was overly ambitious to start the blog with such an intense travel experience - and honestly it would have been great if Europe's Internet was more reliable.)

Medal-ed

2011-08-18T22:37:00.004-05:00

Sorry... another post without pictures.... I forgot to take one when I finished, but I figured I would let the results be known.. I'm still alive from my half marathon debut. It took me 2:59:24... which means that I made it within my personal goal by 36 seconds... Woohoo! I mean, I would have liked to be done faster than that, but I'll take it! I ran with Al Roker for about 5 miles. I mean, I didn't run "with", but I definitely ran behind and next to and in front of him for quite a while, and it took me about 3 miles to figure out who the guy was running with an in-shape person and a person on a bicycle. Best news though, I beat him by about 3 minutes. Woohoo!

Next time (if there is one..) I would like to be faster than 2:45... we'll see if that happens. John and I might end up running a 10 mile in November. I hope to get in better shape for that one, and train more than 6 weeks and run more than 5 miles during said training. We'll see how it goes though. :)

Now the countdown begins for our trip to Europe. We have booked hotels, plane tickets, and train tickets... I can't believe we are almost there. I've told my office that if I get any sort of job while on vacation, I will not be returning to my current position.... I don't know that they believe me, but I would do bike tours, I would sell cheese (my friend's sister sells cheese in the Netherlands and she always has delicious cheese when she visits).... I would hmmm.... I don't know my limit... but I love visiting and it's always so hard for me to come home.

We are starting a travel blog for our experience .... I'm trying to get John into blogging so that people don't have to listen to me all the time. :) It will also show our trip and pictures and the likes which will hopefully be good? We'll see how it works out. (Ohhhh... and the blog will be up soon, but it's still in progress so I won't post it just yet...)

We are still looking to find Sheeba a home. We are also looking forward to having a dog-free home. Call that heartless, what have you, but it's been such an eye-opening experience about how UN-ready we are for a dog! She's so wonderful, but she needs a yard... she needs a suburb! All things that we cannot offer. We are hoping that she finds something before we leave so that we can come home to a dog-hair-free zone. (Crossing fingers)

Otherwise we are gearing up for the next couple of weekends. Lifehouse at Ravinia (yes, we are reliving the late 90's and early 00's).... Dubuque, Iowa (every one's favorite vacation spot).... and then the most ridiculously full Labor Day weekend ever.... Fantasy football draft, Guster at Ravinia, Beer Olympics, and a Cubs game... Phew... all to take it easy so that we can get pack and get ready to be gone for 15 days... Yeah, we might be dirty Americans in Europe... I hate laundry........

What have I gotten myself into?

2011-08-11T21:27:00.003-05:00

The time has come... one of my "resolutions" is coming to fruition.... My half marathon is SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!! When I signed up back in February, it seemed as though I had ages to train, get ready, get in shape, etc etc etc. Weird how quickly that times passes. My biggest problem is that I may have (okay, I most defnitely did) stopped my training about a month ago... Mainly because I didn't so much get the runners high at 6 miles and from then on motivation was severely lacking. The one thing it did is teach me that if I really want to, I can in fact get up at 6:15 in the morning to go for a run. I didn't think that was possible. It also showed me that if I were to keep at it, I would actually like running again like I did in college. I just have to work a little bit harder so that I'm not out of breath before I even reach the lakefront path (0.75 miles away from my door)... With that in mind (the out of breath part) this Sunday should be interesting as I only need to go approximately 17.5 times that distance to complete the race.

It is the Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon though, which means that bands will be playing, people will be excited, or at least as excited as they can be with a race that starts at 6:30 in the morning... so I'm really hoping the adrenaline and the excitement of everything will at least get me through the first 5 miles. The good news is that the max time limit for the race is 3.5 hours, which equates out to a 16 minute mile. That means that if I at least run part of it, I will be golden since I usually walk a 15 minute mile so I could probably stop and listen to a band for a few minutes and still at least finish in the time limit (assuming I don't enter a running/exercise induced stupor that requries medical attention).... So that keeps me going.

I started freaking out about 2 days ago since it's just right around the corner. I have about 6 people I know running in the race too, all of which have been diligent in their training.... So I started wondering if I was going to make an ass of myself. I don't particularly like making an ass of myself (although I think I do it with relative frequency - I just don't like to walk in knowing it's going to happen). My freakout caused me to google phrases like "what's the average time for a first timer's half marathon"... "is it embarrassing to finish a half marathon in over 3 hours"... "is it worth running a half marathon in over 3 hours or should I just give up"..... Strangely enough there were actually things that pop up with some of those searches. I came to realize that even the 1 hr 30 min half marathoners were encouraging and saying that you should just go through with it because who else can really say that they ran for 3 hours on a Sunday morning. I guess that makes sense, but I'm still pretty sure I'm going to have a hard time dealing with the feeling of humiliation (warranted or not, I still am feeling it right now).... We'll see how it goes.

So with that, I am calling upon my avid reader(s?) to think of me on Sunday morning and send me thoughts of athleticism and quick feet so that hopefully I can make it through for the medal at the end of the race!

Soon to come - udpates on our European vacation planning (just around the corner!), updates on Sheeba - seriously does anyone know someone in a place somewhere that has a high fence and no other pets that wants a 4 yo dog ? No? Too many disclaimers?......

Bridge Inspections Gone Wild!!

2011-07-19T09:04:00.011-05:00

Let me preface with - I look absolutely ridiculous in a hard hat, safety vests are impossible to look cool in, and fall protection harnesses are incredibly uncomfortable - and apparently one of my thighs is bigger than the other and it changes based on the day. Haha.. Otherwise, my bridge inspection tour (errr - 2 bridges) has been mildly successful. I guess if you look at it in the fact that I never had to test my fall protection harness, then it was extremely successful.

All in all, I have spent about 2.5 weeks inspecting bridges. The first one, I mostly sat under the bridge on the catwalk (and yes, I spent about 90% of my time trying to not sing "I do my little turn on the catwalk/yeah on the catwalk...") while my coworkers were inside inspecting.

Took a little bit of time to get comfortable walking along the catwalk when you can see straight through the walk. It gives a slight feeling of vertigo, but it went away after a few hours.

I was only there the first 4 days to make sure that in the confined space (i.e. the 10'x7' to 15'x7' box beams) the air quality didn't make them pass out. Luckily, everyone was safe and I got in some good guide book reading for our Europe trip.

This is the door opening to the box beams. There were 4 for each line of beams, and there were 4 beams. So, I sat at these holes for 4 days while my coworkers were inside. I had bruises in places I had never had bruises.

When I showed up to the first bridge inspection, I got my first look at the snooper. It's essentially a cherry-picker/man-lift, except instead of going up, it goes off the side of the bridge, down, and then around and under. It was terrifying to think that I was going to be getting in that basket, but what they didn't tell me, is that to get on the catwalk, I would need to leave the relative "safety" of the snooper, climb up and over the catwalk railing, and then just be there about 40'-50' in the air. If they had told me that before getting me under the bridge though, I probably would have said "I'm good guys... I think I'll just stay up here on the deck". As it was, I was already there and didn't have much of a choice.

Here is the snooper before we got in.

This is the snooper in action, to give an idea of how it operates. It's pretty jerky, and after you get off, you kind of have the feeling of sea-legs.

On Thursday, once I was feeling pretty comfortable walking along the catwalk and generally being a troll under the bridge, we needed to be picked up. The problem: there is only room for 3 people in the snooper. That meant, the 3 of us under the bridge needed to be picked up in shifts. We had to climb down a 10' ladder to the top of the pier (yeah, as in the top of the pier.... however many 10's of feet in the air... and we can't tie off since our lanyards aren't big enough for it). I was super nervous. We had to go up in shifts. Since Linda (another inspector) was actually going to stay in the snooper and keep inspecting, Dennis and I got to go up first. I felt so bad leaving her at the top of the pier while we went top side. If that had been me, I would definitely be freaking out. We left her tied off to the ladder, sitting the middle of the pier.

So glad that's not me! But it could have been. I just got the first pick up.

The second bridge that we worked on was just down the river. This time, I was actually in the lift, on the truss above the bridge. That means that I was going to be 60' in the air... I was a little nervous about how it was going to go. I have a little bit of nervousness with heights, but I wasn't going to be sure of how I would react until I was up there. Turns out, I'm much more comfortable in the air, than under. Who knew?

The bridge. The through truss is what I was working on this time.

The view from one of the higher points of the bridge. It's the Illinois River below us. Lots of barge traffic, but other than the main channel, it's only a couple of feet deep.

The deck below, just to give an idea of how high we were up. We had to look at each of those steel members of the truss. I think I might have found one of the more monotonous jobs of my life. W.O.W. 5 full days of going up, down, across.. up, down, across...

This is the last day in the 60' lift. I was finally relaxed in the lift, hence I am not holding tightly onto the edge of the basket with white knuckles, so that was definitely an improvement.

We were able to get to most of the bridge with the 60' lift, but for the highest peaks we needed to use a 125' lift. I went up the first time, but with all the bracing and everything else made it a tough squeeze. So, they decided to put someone on the ground to act as a bit of a traffic calming measure and to just have an extra set of eyes on the ground to make sure the wheels didn't go over the line... luckily that was me! The tall lift wasn't making me nervous with the height, it was the fact that we needed to thread it through the holes in the bracing and going back and forth to make it to the crest of the truss. I was not about to get stuck up at the top of this bridge. At one point, when they were checking one of the higher members, the basket spazzed out and tried to dump my coworker and the operator. It was siting at a 30 degree angle, with them just bracing themselves against the railing. It took about 20 minutes for them to get the lift to get moving again and finally put them back on solid ground. Needless to say, I did not get back in the lifts after that. Ha.

One of the hardest parts of the inspection for me is that we don't take a lunch break so that we can get in a solid 8-9 hours of work. There aren't any nearby bathrooms (unless your a guy, which on things like this is SOOO not fair) so I don't want to be the one to make everyone take a break so that I can go to a gas station. That means that I don't drink much water. I was lucky for the first inspection that it was 60-70 degrees, but the second inspection had heat indices in the 90's and 100's which made it much more intense. You know it's a problem when you drink 2 gatorades, 2 small waters, and 1 large water, and you don't need to go to the bathroom for 15 hours. Ha. I definitely drank more after that so that I wasn't at risk of passing out.

So - that's my story of how I became a bridge inspector. Hopefully the rest are few and far between. But I'm not going to lie - aside from the fashion disaster that construction work is for me, I still feel like a bad ass. :)

Home Improvements and other randomness

2011-04-03T17:39:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I've provided any sort of updates to this blog. I've been busy with work, life, miscellaneous things that I have nothing to show for, and clearly not busy with providing my loyal (+/- 3) readers with what we have been up to for the last month.One thing I have found is a place to make random collages... haha, so you get to be the first to look at my fairly terrible skills in putting together photos. (Whenever I type "skills" I find it hard to keep myself from writing skillz and singing All-4-One in my head). Although as you will soon see, I do NOT so much have these skillZ.

One fun project I had been super excited about trying was chalkboard paint. I had seen a couple of awesome examples of how to use it, and I had been wanting a place to try it for a long time. Luckily John is just as excited about "art" projects too, so on a cold March weekend we decided to test it out in our bedroom. We thought it would be best to try it in a room we hadn't painted yet, so in case we didn't like it, we weren't really wasting time already spent with fresh paint. So below is our before and after... plus a little m+j action to test it out!

Then, just for the fun sake of collages, I put one together of the Sheebs. :) We are hoping that she will be on the website for PAWS soon so that we can find her a really happy and loving home... I like the one on the bottom left because apparently it was taken by John when he came home one night.. I like to lay down, and try to leave enough room for Sheebs to share the couch... I'm happy to know that she totally uses it, and she does NOT eat our pillows while I'm snoozing. :)

Now to showcase some of the fun projects we've been doing around the house (aside from the chalkboard paint). In our spare room we have been trying to figure out what we can do to get some better use of space. We are going to be getting rid of the wardrobe that we have in there currently. (hopefully we can sell it on craigslist soon!) So, we made a trip to The Container Store a while back on a whim. We were wanting to get rid of John's broken dresser so we were getting some wire shelves to put in our closet for the few things that he keeps in there. It turns out they were having a pretty ridiculous sale on Elfa systems so we decided to get a few shelves to line one of our walls in order to get some space to put the immense number of random objects from our wardrobe. Then we decided we should absolutely put them up! I was so proud of us for actually installing them so soon after buying them. No procrastination there! They were totally worth it, and we do love them.. Although we need to get some serious organization on to make them look uncluttered and not so full. We also need to get some of the junk in our spare room cleared out so that it doesn't look so cluttered in general. Any suggestions? I thnk the #1 suggestion should be to eliminate how much we own... that would be true.

John using the laser-level for us to make sure our penciled holes are going to be level. We did a pretty good job. (Note: The green walls will be painted one of these days... I'm excited for that day)

Martinis do make the job go better... We waited to drink them until after our leveling.

Our final product on the wall!!!

Yes, the shelves are currently very bottom heavy, but we are working on pairing some of that down and reorganizing. It just shows how much they can hold.. It's amazing!

The expanded shelves for our pantry. I'm so excited to be able to put all of our small appliances in there!!

So those are some of the fun things that we've done lately. This weekend has been pretty laid back for us and it was awesome. John had a fun beer tasting at a friends house, I was lucky enough to hang out with the Sheebs for the evening and watch really high quality tv (NCIS, Fried Green Tomatoes, Criminal Minds). Then this morning I made these:

Crepes a la Frenchy!

While looking at this:

The view from our front window...

So that's about all that's going on over this way. Work is busy, life is pretty busy, and the summer is supposedly getting started. I'll believe it when it doesn't keep dipping to 30 degrees outside. On a random note, we were able to take advantage of one of the best parts of living by Wrigley Field yesterday - as John and I left brunch yesterday morning, we walked by a guy on the corner selling tickets for 1/2 price. We ended up walking into the game for a total of $30 in the 2nd inning and watching the Cubs get their first win of the season! It was a great time. :)

How do you manage stress? I cry at FedEx...

2011-02-25T18:10:00.004-06:00

Have you ever had a moment when you have a very public (and embarrassing) meltdown and you have NO idea where it came from? Even if you haven't, I hope that you will at least nod your head in a very apologetic and sincere way so that I feel I'm not alone... I apologize in advance for the probably lengthy post this will turn into.

It happened to me... yesterday... in FedEx. I feel terrible for the woman behind the counter who had to put up with this humiliating moment in my life - but in all fairness, she started it. What took me over the edge was packing peanuts. I know it doesn't seem like those innocent packing pieces should create such a problem... but they are the catalyst which made me sob, yell, and just overall have a breakdown at my local FedEx. It went a little something like this..

I walked into the FedEx at 6:15 with my box fully packed, with my FedEx label affixed to the top - all by the book. Pick up for next day delivery is at 7pm, and I had to meet Jennifer at 6:35 to get a ride to our hair appointment. Apparently the box I was using (a supply shipping box that FedEx actually uses to ship their supplies??) was not allowed -- even though I had seen the FedEx label to the person who originally had this box because I had covered it up so as to not confuse the FedEx delivery truck with 2 delivery labels.... Following so far - it's confusing, I know. I apparently used the wrong box - even though it had been used to ship something at some point in time... To give you a general idea of what happened - I'll supply an abbreviated version of our conversation...

I wanted to send the package, it was the wrong box. What happened next was a drawn out conversation (this word is used loosely, it was really me ranting and crying) about how I should have come downstairs to buy a new box (but I didn't know this box wouldn't work)... what the account number was (I had a pre-printed FedEx slip, shouldn't it be on there somewhere?? Isn't it her job to find that out for me?).... not finding the account so me volunteering to buy a box, repack my items, and be reimbursed by my company... That's when the trouble started.

I was informed that in order to package my reports I had to buy packing peanuts. Up to this point, I was just annoyed, when she said it was policy that I buy packing peanuts if I was going to repack my box but I wasn't wanting packing peanuts... that's when I lost it. I went over to the boxes, started pulling them up and throwing them down because they weren't big enough, all the while yelling "This is so frustrating!!! I don't want packing peanuts!!! I just want to mail my reports!! They are paper reports and they can't be damaged!!" All the while she's telling me it's policy and that it's required to have packing peanuts... Then I said, "well the box that's in front of you doesn't have packing peanuts inside, does that mean you can't mail it because I told you that??!!" She didn't think that was very nice... Eventually she did find my account number, while I had my head in my hands on the desk, sobbing uncontrollably, and apologizing and saying that I wasn't actually mad at her.... And then I ran out of the FedEx once she said she would take care of it and it would be delivered tomorrow....

Moral of the story? Don't ever talk to me about packing peanuts....

Why did I have a breakdown at FedEx you ask? I have absolutely no idea. I mean, the woman wasn't very pleasant in the beginning (only after I started sobbing and apologizing for yelling did she finally show any sort of compassion or understanding)... so I was definitely frustrated... but mainly? I have absolutely no idea...

A number of things (good, and overwhelming) have happened over the last few days, so I could probably use some of those things as an excuse... I haven't been feeling well since last Sunday, subsequently I've had horrible dreams (nightmares ranging from creepy people to waking up hours late for work and freaking out - this one happened about 3 times last night alone).... Frenchy and Lisa (while ok) just survived a horrible earthquake in Christchurch. I thought it was fine, but I started looking more into it, hearing their stories of how their house is completely split in two and they've lost almost everything, how Lisa is stuck on the North Island because she was trying to get home and her plane was diverted.. and it's so overwhelming to think how any of those people who didn't survive could have been them.

My boss has told me that while I shouldn't worry "hard" about my job, I should worry "appropriately" - which I don't know what that actually means. It means that for now I still have work to do I guess.. But I really hope it also means that we get some of this work to finally trickle down so that I can stay billable and busy.

I'm totally stressing about the Sheebs. I love her.. and I don't want to give her back - ever. But we really aren't equipped to own a dog. It's stressful to us, I'm sure it's stressful to her, and it's so hard to completely change our lives. We aren't really used to coming home right after work, or not being able to do certain things because we either can't take Sheebs with us or we can't leave her alone. Our house is covered in dog hair and I have lost countless shirts to her obsession with my deodorant (which makes her chew out the armpits of my shirts... it's awesome). But I still do love her. :) I just know that she can also probably find a family that doesn't live in a neighborhood that is swarming with dogs, that doesn't have to leave her in her crate for 10+ hours a day, and that can really just do a better job that we can. I know she loves us, but she loves everyone, so I really hope that she can find a family she can love more!! (So if you know of anyone that wants a wonderful dog????? We would really like to be able to deliver her straight to her adoptive family without a stop at the shelter) I've been putting off emailing the woman at PAWS for a month now because I just don't have the heart to tell her that Sheebs once again is going to have to move to another home... :(

On the good side, I have some fun news. John's parents were lucky enough to win 2 round trip tickets and 3 night stay to anywhere in Europe. This means that they have decided to extend those 3 nights and make a 2 week vacation of Europe and have invited all of us to join them! So, we are in the throws of planning a 2 week vacation to Europe in September for all 6 of us. It's super exciting. I just got my new passport back yesterday in the mail. It's a little weird looking, but it's great to have it back! (Hopefully John's gets here soon since I did mail them on the same day...hmmm) Right now the plan is London, Paris, Tuscany (Florence, various small towns), Rome, Venice, and Dublin.... It's going to be a full trip for sure.

So maybe it's all of those things.. Maybe it's just a random week that had a lot of stress that I didn't realize it.. But I wish I could have realized it, as I could have avoided the complete mortification of yelling, sobbing, and blubbering just trying to mail a box at FedEx. Worst part was? I didn't even care that much if it was delivered or not. It wasn't a deadline, it wasn't life or death - it was just me not wanting to carry it back to my office because it was 11 copies of a report that was really heavy, and because I had committed myself to mailing it yesterday... Ha... Oh well, we all need a moment to reset ourselves, right?

I guess that's my story - sorry it took so long. I should probably write more often so that I don't create these novellas... I do have some fun posts coming with pictures of our new shelves and hopefully some other fun pictures and house things.

Ohh - and it's John's birthday tomorrow!!! he's going to be 28 and we're going to see Les Miserables downtown on Sunday. I'm really excited!!

Blizzard 2011!!!!! (snOMG)

2011-02-04T21:14:00.011-06:00

You will be happy to know that we survived the Chicago February 2011 Blizzard. John and my offices didn't shut down, so we went in since we didn't want to "waste" the vacation day. Upon reflection - probably a good call - but it would have been AWESOME to take a snow day as an adult person. :) I took some pictures of our morning experience and I am posting them here (in my first ever movie, so please bear with me).

I hope everyone stayed safe in the crazy winter storms that have been doing through the nation. One of the strangest things we experienced - Thundersnow.... yes... thunder AND lightening in snow. It was totally bizarre and I kind of hope to not see it again, mainly because it just trips you out. (PS I highly recommend seeing Jim Cantore's reaction to thundersnow, it's pretty fantastic).

Without further ado - here are our Blizzard 2011 pictures (the 3rd snowiest in Chicago record at 20+").

2011 begins...

2011-01-11T19:41:00.004-06:00

2011 is here - 2010 has flown by... It's pretty ridiculous how quickly time can go by without me even realizing it's over. I figured I would post a quick picture from Christmas and get straight to the nitty-gritty of new years... :)

We were in KC again this year for Christmas Eve with my family. It's turned into quite the free-for-all since my older cousins now have a million kids - okay, there are 4 all under the age of I think 5 plus girlfriends/fiancee kids (3 more), but that's a LOT of little kids.

After celebrating the new year we drove up to Wisconsin. A while back (June) we decided that we should go to the Bears vs. Packers game.... that game just happened to be January 2... Yeah, what better time to go up to northern Wisconsin than the beginning of January, right? Luckily our friends' family has a lake house just north of Milwaukee, so we were able to stay there and then just drive up to the game. We wore a lot of layers, and honestly, dressed like snowmen the game wasn't that bad (cold wise) and since we weren't playing for anything other than keeping the Packers out of the playoffs it was even okay that we didn't win.

One word - frozen sand is weird... You think it should sink like sand, and you mentally think that it should feel like sand... but it's hard and frozen... ha. It was kind of a trip.

Either way, the holidays treated us well. We had a wonderful time with our families, a wonderful time with our friends. Now we are just looking to get our lives back together and clean up our house to recover from the holidays.. Ha. :)

I started thinking about the new year after I got back from Wisconsin. I'm not one for new year's resolutions, as I feel it's either setting myself to be disappointed in myself, or just too cliche for me to want to do it. But, then I started realizing - if I post them hopefully it will 1) hold me accountable and 2) it will inspire me throughout 2011. So here are my resolutions for what I want to accomplish not just in the new year - but to generally inspire throughout the years to come.. :)

I resolve to...

...better myself by eating healthier, drinking less, and exercising more.

...take the GRE and at least apply to grad school.

...be more kind to myself, but more importantly to my friends.

...raise $600 for PAWS Chicago for the Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon (yeah, I think I'm going to run... I might be crazy).

...remember to send my nieces presents for Christmas and birthdays (as close to the actual day as possible). (I still need to send Christmas presents... ugh... I might need to have that be for next Christmas)

...learn how to take better photos with our Canon SLR.

...finish putting photos into my photo book (from my first anniversary.. yikes!).

...keep up with my LEED certification.

...calm myself down when I get frustrated at work.

...calm myself down when I get frustrated at life.

...have an inner filter.

...throw something out every month to try and get rid of my clutter problem.

I feel like I could so keep going with all the things that I know I want to do this year.. but I don't want to get overambitious, especially since some of these things are a little intense (i.e. running the 1/2 marathon)....

I hope that everyone had a wonderful, safe, and happy holiday and new year. I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for you all!

Winter has begun!

2010-12-01T10:40:00.003-06:00

Snow..... yes, snow. It is the first one of the season. Thanksgiving, I was able to walk the dog outside without a coat, and now I'm about to bring out my "sleeping bag coat" so that I can keep warm. My sleeping bag coat is my down coat that comes down almost to my ankles and is about as shapeless as anything you can imagine. It might not be the most attractive thing, but it certainly is warmer than my others. The only thing it's lacking is a hood, which at the time I purchased it, didn't seem like that big of a deal - I was wrong. Ha. Unfortunately they are expensive, so I have yet to upgrade to the hood. I'm hoping to be able to do that before the Bears vs. Packers game that we are going to on January 2nd. Apparently it might be upgraded to a night game which means that it will be even colder than I thought it would be.

Sorry, I digress. The point of this is to just acknowledge that winter has begun. The snow is sort of, almost, maybe sticking... and the wind is blowing.... and I'm already beginning to wonder why it is that I love Chicago. Okay, so not completely, there are plenty of reasons to love this Windy City - but the bright flush of my cheeks when they are wind-whipped into numbness is not one of them.

One thing I do like though - people that wear their hunting camouflage winter coats in the city. Is that really the only winter coat that you have?? You realize that unless your camo is of concrete, granite, and stone that you are much less camouflaged than the people surrounding you in black wool coats, right? I just find it amusing. Again, staying on point -

I know it's starting to really get into the Christmas season now that we have our Christmas tree up (it look so pretty in our bay window!!! - we just need new blinds to make it look even better).... the snow is starting to fall, Drinksgiving is a week and a half away.... and I'm finally starting to think about presents to get for everyone on my list... I can't wait!!

Happy holidays everyone!!!!! :)

Our family has expanded....

2010-11-04T21:20:00.003-05:00

We have decided to foster a dog.... It's super exciting!! Her name is Sheeba, she's from PAWS Chicago - a no-kill shelter organization that I have volunteered with a couple of times (okay, only once, but I have MEANT to volunteer a LOT more...).

She's 3 years old, a shephard mix (clearly German, you can see from her face) and apparently cattle dog (I guess you can tell by her snout... I should get up to beat with my dog identification).... She's really pretty. She's a little big chunkier than I think they would like her to be, but nothing a few brisk walks around the neighborhood couldn't fix... and let's be honest I'm a little chunkier than I would like to be these days so it's something she and I can work on together! She also has to wear a muzzle at all times when outside... That's the downside, and the reason she's in foster and not adoption mode. She apparently has had some freak-out moments with other dogs, so we just have to be careful... And we will absolutely be careful.

So, if all goes well, we might have a permanent addition to our familly... but if we don't think she could be a good addition to our life forever, then this will be just such a wonderful experience to help such a wonderful dog and hopefully help her find her forever home. :)

Without further adieu - here are the pictures of Sheeba...

She smiled for the camera.. :)

Looking like she's already pretty comfortable...

Already enjoying her new cow toy... I don't think it will last long. :)

So, wish us luck with her. I hope that she loves our home, and that we can really provide a loving home for her, and make her feel safe and calm and happy. She really is a lover already... waiting for us to rub her, and then if you rub just right, she immediately rolls over onto her back for you to rub her belly. I can't wait to see the progress she can make away from the hustle and bustle of the boarding place she was at. I think it can do a lot of good for her to be away...

Pumpkin Patching circa Halloween 2010

2010-10-26T22:20:00.008-05:00

It's that time of year again.... Fall. It's my favorite season ... the trees changing colors, the crispness in the air.. and of course pumpkin carving and costume making. My friend KG and I went pumpkin patching out in Malta, IL. For those of you as unfamiliar with anything outside of the Chicago metropolitan area as I am.... take the tollway... and drive, and then drive some more, and then drive even farther. You'll pass an outlet mall, you'll pass about a million farms... and then you're almost there. We found out where Northern Illinois University is (DeKalb). Then we entered the town of Malta, population 1000. It is home to the pumpkin and apple farm that we went to though. I was disappointed as the apple launcher seemed to have not been part of the activities for the day we were there. Although, it was a great place to pick up apple butter (my grandpa's favorite), apple pie, and go pick your own pumpkin from the pumpkin field.

It was a bit of a gloomy day, but the rain had stopped and it was unseasonably warm. It was made all the warmer by the fact that we were pulling the pumpkin cart in deep/slippery/stick to your shoes and wheels of the cart mud. KG made it look easy, when I took over I realized that was a ruse and it was NOT easy. Ha. But I took my turn and pulled it once we loaded apparently 500 pounds (equal to 6 pumpkins) of pumpkin onto the cart.

I have documented my first pumpkin patching experience in a long time for as long as I can remember below...

The apple orchard (that a few weeks earlier could have allowed us to pick our own apples). Next year.

The vast expanse of pumpkin patch. Had we been earlier (read post above about apples) we probably would not have had to walk up to the top of the ridge to find attractive pumpkins while pulling a cart... due to our late arrival, we had to do just that.

KG dutifully pulling the pumpkin cart out to the pumpkin patch. I promised to pull it back once we had pumpkins on it. I didn't realize that was a bad idea.

Our first pumpkin!!!! It was 3 for $10, so we clearly had to buy 6....

1 pumpkin for each of us!!!

This was a weird pear pumpkin... okay, it was probably a gourd but it kind of creeped me out...

That's our cart with our pumpkins in the middle of the field with the windmills in the background. We were searching for our last one. :)

All of our pumpkins on the cart. That was a TOUGH pull back to the end of the patch. Lucky for us, we were the most eligible (read "of age ladies without children") so the driver of the tractor waited for us and assured us that the walk back to the front was going to be made worse by the gravel getting stuck in our mud caked tires... We took him up on his offer and probably got back to our car about 30 minutes earlier than it would have been if we had walked it. It was a really good idea to take the tractor...

A giant rocking chair.. KG is displaying all of our delicious farm goodness that we bought. Apple raspberry pie (oh my goodness was that delicious), apple cider, and the fresh baked bread. We also snagged some apple butter.

I am drinking a thing of milk in the giant chair... It makes me feel like a kid, so I'm going to act like it. (Confession: I drink milk all the time, so this isn't that peculiar.... I'm really just acting like me... so I must just be a kid)

We went to a bar in "downtown" DeKalb .. We went to O'Leary's Bar and Grill and there was a cow (not a real cow I assure you - although I wouldn't mind a cow at the hostess station, I feel that could add some serious interest to a bar in DeKalb) at the front door dressed in fireman's boots and a ghost costume. I thought it was pretty awesome. (Disclaimer: Mrs. O'Leary's cow is rumored to have started the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.)

Then we finally made it back to the big city.. to go to such wondrous places as Target, the Halloween Store, and Sports Authority to finish off our costumes... Which are previewed below (I have included my costume things as well as our friend Dani's shirt - Mann Slaughter)... I will award extra points to the person that figures out the "theme/idea" of our costumes for this Halloween.... :) I am very excited by them.. Good luck!!

Happy Halloweening to all! I hope you get adorable trick-or-treaters at your houses... (or have adorable trick-or-treaters that you take out to other people's houses)...

Time flies when?

2010-10-11T21:59:00.016-05:00

Here it is, the eve of our 2nd anniversary.... I can't even believe it. I sit here, drinking a glass of wine while John sits next to me playing the latest and greatest video game... It is pretty cool (nba2k11 I think it is?... it has Michael Jordan and the

Bulls so I'm not surprised that we now own it).

Here is a snapshot of how we got to where we are... I feel so lucky to have someone like John... He makes me laugh, he calms me down when I get a little crazy (okay, a LOT crazy)... and he just is the best balance to my life that I could ever ask for.. :) I am such an incredibly lucky lady to have someone as awesome as John (and he would totally back me up with that).

Right before moving to Chicago.. :)

On the roadtrip to moving to Chicago from Arizona. We covered 8 states, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois... It was amazing!

Seeing John at the end of the aisle was what made everything worth it..

"I do"

"We did"

I like this one, because I feel like I give this look a lot.. ha.

Cheers to us!!!

Mr. and Mrs. McDonald

First picture on the honeymoon. John has his eyes closed, but it still works.

I want to always go to Europe on the fall from now on.

Notre Dame... quelle belle!

What an amazing trip. :)

We look fantastic. :)

News Year's 2008!

How often can you say, "we both wore tights for Halloween"??

Happy New Year's ... again... :)

We even survived a Texas wedding!! Big hair and thick make-up, John still loves me he just doesn't recognize me.. :)

And now we have a house... How exciting!

It's amazing to think of how fast these 2 years have gone. While I'm happy they have gone so quickly, because to me it means that nothing so crazy has happened to make it feel long.. I'm sad that the time has gone so quickly that I don't feel that we have captured all the moments that make it so exciting and wonderful. I can't wait to celebrate so many more, and I know that we have plenty of amazing things waiting for us in the future.

Happy 2 years... and happy many many more :)

(Wedding pictures courtesy of Kevin Weinstein Photography and Chris Sommers... Thanks you guys for such wonderful pictures!!!)

House Stuffs

2010-08-23T21:30:00.010-05:00

I'm a little behind in my postings on all the fun things we have started with our house, so I have decided to take this time to update...

We began this process with cabinets over the peninsula in our kitchen, a blue wall around the fireplace, and your basic white walls.... Over the last 2 months we have removed the cabinets, changed the blue wall, and painted it a new basic white? haha.. But, it is so much more our style. It's a gray/blue/white instead of a yellow/cream/white... which makes ALL the difference. We have taken down old bronze chandeliers and replaced them with track style lighting... We have pendants and shelves... mounted surround sound, and wires hidden behind the fireplace. And some of the best part is that we finally have all of our furniture!!! How exciting, is that? We have a couch (which over the last 2 months we have broken in), a love seat (same color), and a chair (in orange!!!). The orange chair is better than I could have thought. Not going to lie.. I'm super excited. I was a little nervous to introduce so much color into our living room... and it's not so much a "small" chair. But, it makes it feel fun, funky, and makes me feel stylish.. whether other people think so, I don't know... :)

So I'll walk through the changes we've made - some of the fun things we've done.. and a very exciting surprise at the end!!!

The painting is beginning.... Everything is draped, and the blue wall is hiding behind the primer!

Our new fan!!!!!! I love it. :) We need a floor lamp to make up some light, but it's so pretty - and we can turn it on without the noise and unevenness as before.

Our ceiling paint.. :)

From this I'm standing in the living room looking at our modified track lighting. You can also see the new lighting under the cabinets.

We ended up rolling up extra chords on the pendant lighting so they aren't hanging down in some sort of nouveau art fixture...

These are our "flying saucer" light fixtures. They are great over the table and the bar.

The flying saucer over the bar...

Just a more updated picture of the kitchen with the lighting. I'm excited about it.

Our living room complete with all of our furniture. Our chair hanging out in all of its glory.

We finally were able to hang the shelves into the alcove and put our stuff up there. We had some interesting work to do with supporting the shelf with L brackets... 11" is apparently a little shallow for the new blue ray player.

A better view of all the shelves - we are going to reign in some of the cords, but that's for a different day.

Our chair with our new light fixtures. Awesome.

Oh... I guess I promised a surprise didn't I....

Oh yes... That's ME, holding my PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING LICENSE for the State of Illinois.... :) My application was accepted!!!!!!!!

So things are going good... Our living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway are painted (walls and ceiling)... we need to work on trim but that's not too bad. We need to work on our bedrooms next and probably bathrooms.. but that's all in good time. We are now going to just enjoy living here a little bit. Try to get the motivation to get some more done.. All that jazz. :)

Official Residents

2010-08-13T10:05:00.001-05:00

Wow, 2 posts in 2 days.. I don't know what's going on here! I'm getting into the blogging spirit I guess... But really, this will be short. I just wanted to share that we are official residents to our building!! They have put our name on the front door and on the mailbox. Super exciting :)

Yeah - that's our name on the buzzer! We are no longer Kindred.

Mailbox!!! I think I'm going to have to leave a note that Hoyt mail still comes here.. otherwise our mail person doesn't deliver... Or I could just finally get around to changing my name for everything...

So there you have it! It's like we own the place or something! Haha..

Random Thoughts

2010-08-12T15:32:00.005-05:00

I have decided to take a break from my now "regular" postings on our house living and present to you a couple of random thoughts ... I know that I have promised more pictures of the condo, but those will have to wait as I am a bit busy (and let's face it lazy with getting pictures downloaded from the camera, to the printer, posted onto the blog)...

So here goes - the random things living in Chicago has brought to my life...

1. I have yet to understand why there are people sitting on the benches at the Washington/Wells platform in the morning after I get off the train... There is only ONE color that goes to that side of the station - so it begs me to wonder: are these people confused and trying to wait for the purple, orange, or pink on that side of the tracks? Or are they just enjoying the freshness of the morning next to the booming voice of the CTA trains saying "this is a brown line train to Kimball...next stop is Quincy.. doors open on the right at Quincy.." I mean, nothing relaxes me more than train operators screaming through overloud speakers in the morning...

2. Can I be jealous and judge skinnier/prettier/more put together women than myself if I am standing in line at the Walgreen's buying a Monster Energy Drink (roughly 5 million empty calories), a Kashi bar (a few hundred calories that would be acceptable had I not been buying a Monster), and thinking about lunch at Potbelly's or Chipotle? Knowing full well that I will not be going to the gym that evening because I am instead choosing to go to happy hour? I would say no, but if I really dig down deep, I don't feel that bad for judging them...

3. How many plunging necklines, hiked up skirts, and various other things that shouldn't be appropriate for a work day can I see before and after work? I know that it's hot.. I'm sweating more than most, but I'm still at least covering up what should be covered up and wearing what is at least appropriate, albeit not necessarily trendy or fashionable. It makes me think that 1/2 the people that work in the City must be high priced call girls (or in the case of many, very low priced ones judging by what they are wearing).... Is it so hard to wait until the weekend to wear those revealing dresses?? I certainly don't want to see it on my way to work....

4. I might have seen the best thing the other day walking home down Halsted Street... No, it wasn't a fabulous drag queen, or some "lady" adjusting her package walking down the street (these are common and not worth the extra blogging)... but a woman in stiletto sandals walking her BIKE across the street. She could barely stay upright on those heels (picture to be posted shortly)... so I don't know how she would pedal a bike.. but I certainly waited around long enough to see if she would in fact be getting on the bike (which would have lead to MORE pictures)... alas she parked her bike on a bike rack and presumably headed down Halsted taking little steps and hoping she didn't break her ankle.

5. Finally - this is just for good measure and to kind of top off my 5 random musings of the summer... Cub's fans that are in from out of town... I have heard multiple rather hilarious conversations while getting off at the Addison stop on the way home. I often don't check the game schedule which could allow me to miss some of the insanity that is the Addison Red Line Stop just before game time... but then I would miss things like these intelligent comments.. FIRST: A man getting off of the train right in front of Wrigley, looking at the ground, surrounded by about 300 fellow Cubs fans in Cubs gear - goes up to the Wrigley Field Ambassador at the train stop and says "Where do I go? I'm trying to get to Wrigley, which way do I go once I'm down the stairs?" To which the ambassador managed to suppress a smile and say "Sir, you'll go down the stairs, take a left... honestly, just follow the rest of the people and you'll figure it out." he could have also said "hey dumby - why don't you just look up and you can SEE THE FREAKING STADIUM FROM HERE"... and that's why I'm not an ambassador... SECOND: I was exiting the platform behind two girls who were roughly 18-19 years old. One was clearly from out of town (we'll call her OOTG - out of town girl) and learning about Wrigley Field and the other girl was from what I will assume had to be a northern suburb of Chicago (we'll call her NSG - north suburb girl) ... the NSG was explaining to the OOTG the ins and outs of where people sit and things... pointing out where people were walking up to the rooftop bleachers and said "ohhh, remember those when we get onto the street - those are the illegal bleachers that are on the rooftops here. there are real ones inside where we are sitting". The OOTG's response was "oh really? They're illegal? That's so crazy.. I think I've heard of those" .... And that's how viral lies start.. you know somewhere on a facebook page this OOTG took a picture of the rooftop bleachers and is calling them illegal and spreading this around to her 5 million friends...

6. I realized that there was another one... I know you were getting disappointed that I was at the end - never fear, there are far more weird/crazy/stupid things that happen in this fair city.. I just can't think of them all at once. But this one was pretty fantastic.. A new (read beautiful, life changing) Target opened about 1/2 a mile from us.. John and I went there on Saturday to return something and buy a phone (yes, we have a land line... it's bizarre - we reverted back to 1995). We were leaving the store and this girl was walking her dog down the sidewalk. This new Target for all it's shininess lives in a very UNshiny neighborhood... and this random homeless/weird guy walks behind the girl with the dog and goes "WOOF"... the dog keeps walking but the guy keeps talking now in his apparent 2nd language (aka English) and says to the dog "you know what I said.. you know what I said"... at this the dog pauses (presumably because he wants to protect his young female owner from the weirdo walking behind them??) and the man says "no, you go with her... it's okay... you know what I said".... and the dog keeps walking (the smell on the concrete that he was smelling probably lost interest)... and the man seemed very satisfied...

Hopefully you now either feel grateful for where you live and who you deal with... or jealous that you can't partake in some of THIS absurdity (while I'm sure you encounter your own)...

Remodeling has begun

2010-07-14T10:51:00.008-05:00

So the remodeling of our condo has begun .... we spent 3 days last week (well, let's be honest here - my dad came in and spent 3 days) going through an insane checklist - of which we accomplished about 1/3 of it... hahaha... But the good news is that we have plenty of time since this is OUR place... That's what I have to keep reminding myself.

I think the moment I finally realized it was ours was not when I signed an insane amount of my life away to the bank for the mortgage... it wasn't when we got our first set of keys or when we refinished the floors (which look awesome by the way)... it was most definitely when I bought my first appliance (a dishwasher) and when we did our first demolish (the cabinets you will see below).

A lot of the "before" pictures you can see from my previous post. I apologize for the fact that I have about a million pictures (only a handful of which are posted here) and our new dishwasher might need to be in its own post since I apparently haven't taken a picture with my actual camera - only the camera phone. Please bear with me as I show you some of the renovations that we have been working on over the last week and some descriptions of what else we are thinking of... hopefully you enjoy. :)

These are our cabinets above our peninsula that are going to be shortly ripped out.. I'm sure our upstairs neighbors were very pleased when it was over. Hopefully we have not made enemies too quickly!!

The cabinets are gone - only the soffit remains!!!!

All the "stuff" that my dad brought with him... we pretty much could have built a new condo I think, but it was definitely better to be safe than sorry - and I'm pretty sure he ran into some crazy snags that it was a good idea to have as much as we had... :)

Soffit is gone!!! We now have a clear view of our dining and living room from our kitchen. I had NO idea how much I would love it.. but honestly, as soon as those cabinets were gone, it just felt so amazing in there!!

Hahaha... I just thought this was funny! We are in the process of installing little metal racks to hold the baking sheets and stuff so they don't have to be stacked. An ingenious invention I assure you.

A new light in our hallway on the way to the bathroom... No more boob-lights here!!! (Alright, we have 2 more, but we have lights to replace them so they won't last for too long!!)

Our sweet new bathroom light. We put one in our master and one in our guest bathroom... They are so much better than the ones we had in there before. Ikea has been amazing!

It may not be exciting, but a shower rod is pretty awesome - especially since now I feel like I can turn on the lights at night and not have our neighbors be able to see through the glass brick. :)

The hole from where the soffit was in the kitchen has been filled (with multiple layers of drywall and expanding foam).... and it's starting to look like a real ceiling. Not to mention we now have an outlet so we can hang some pendant lights over the peninsula.

Our old dishwasher... We got a new GE that is clean steel (won't smudge like stainless, but still looks pretty). I apparently didn't take a picture of our new one - so that will have to come in a later post... But, I will spoil the surprise and let you know that it's quiet and pretty and gives me great hopes for how wonderful our kitchen will be!

A glimpse into our living room before we put up our mantle (also from Ikea)...

Post mantle (and with the new TV... life is looking so 2D now that we have the 3D.. okay, it looks like real life).... One day we will get rid of the blue wall AND the 12" green marble tile around the fireplace. That is for a different day....

Our new couch (matching love seat and orange chair to be following in about 3 weeks)... with our color coordinated bookcase behind (thanks Chris!!)... Don't be fooled, the boxes are in the spare bedroom... hahaha.. we did NOT unpack that quickly.

Our house set up for company. John's parents, sister, and grandma came for dinner and so we had to make it look as presentable as possible. I think we did a pretty good job. Our new dining table worked great for 6 people.. and with the space we can keep it up a lot more than we used to on Fremont.

The one thing I can take a picture of that John and I did, sans help from my dad... hahaha... yeah, you're impressed... We don't charge much if you need help in your home!

Our previous living room TV mounted in our bedroom. If you think it seems excessively large for a bedroom, you are probably right... but it still looks great!

Our new shelves in our spare bathroom. Right now thy are storing our paint that we will be using on our trim and walls in the living room and dining room and kitchen.

John hanging out in our kitchen.. if you look closely you can catch a glimpse of that new dishwasher to his left.... We had a lot of dishes to put away - still have a lot of dishes to put away...

Just a general picture of our living room. Where the white shelves are we have some new black shelves (Ikea) that we are going to put up which will clean that area up a lot. We will also be putting the wires behind the wall so that they don't show... It will be wonderful.

So yeah - just the beginning of what we are doing. Hopefully it looks like we are starting to come up with a vision and a plan that everyone can see. The next step will be painting, putting up and/or replacing ceiling fans.. some more light fixtures, and just some general updates. We were able to repurpose the cabinets from the kitchen over the washer and dryer which is fantastic. It really just made everything look so much more clean and less cluttered in there. It was great. We also replaced the broken faucets in both bathrooms so we are starting to have everything working!!!! Ohhhh and we have an ice maker! How exciting is that? (and a garbage disposal... my first here in Chicago... it takes a backseat to having a coat closet though.. who knew that Chicago didn't think those should come standard?)

Alright... I guess that's it for now - but I will keep you all (all 2 of you) updated with our future home improvements and the adjustments we are facing with having a mortgage (yikes!)...

What could we have done with our down payment?

2010-06-26T13:23:00.007-05:00

So, I started thinking about what John and I could have done with our down payment if things had gone south... Here are some of our ideas:

We could have flown round trip from Chicago to Dublin in business class 7 times.
We could have stayed at Hotel Meurice in the Belle Etoile Suite in Paris for 6 nights.
We could have flown to South Africa to see the World Cup Quarter Finals with 5 nights of 5 star accommodation plus airfare 4 times.
We could have bought a 55" Sony Bravia 3-D ready tv 15 times.
We could have flow around the world 7 times.
We could have bought our sofa, loveseat, chair set 16 times.

Instead.. we bought a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo in Wrigleyville. While, I'm completely happy and excited about our choice - there could have been a LOT of fun had with our downpayment money... ha. There are quite a few other things we could have done I'm sure - this is but the beginning of what could be a large list if I had another 9.5 months of salary to just play around with.

I plan on posting pictures soon - but we have a lot going on right now. We are still unpacking (we .. errr.. I ... have so much stuff it's ridiculous), we have friends staying in town for the weekend (I think 3, but it could be as many as 5), and we have the 3rd Annual Beer Olympics this weekend!! This means that I will be very limited in my posting abilities for a while, as we try to get ourselves set up in our new home. :)

Hopefully we didn't speak too soon....

2010-06-08T09:43:00.004-05:00

Some aggravating news on the home buying front... For those of you keeping score at home we have been waiting on this condo since the end of March when we put in our offer. It is now the start of the second week of June (aka 10-11 weeks later) and we are still waiting.

We thought we had good news yesterday... Everyone agreed to close early (original date was June 18) to close this next Monday or Tuesday (June 14 or 15)... and then the bomb dropped...

The 2nd lien holder - which we have been told was essentially a non-factor this whole time - became a factor. They decided that they didn't want to take less than 20% - $13,000. The 1st bank is willing to contribute $3,000 but that would leave us on the hook for the remainder. Well, that was a little bit of a SHOCK. Apparently they decided we must be desperate enough at this point that we wouldn't want to lose the condo and we would just randomly throw in an extra $10,000. Even if we HAD the money I don't want to play this game....

The most frustrating part of all of this is that the seller's agent has been saying that it wasn't a problem this entire time. She has essentially told us that the 2nd lien holder was a non-issue and that they were fine. I feel as this shows they are the opposite of a non-issue. They could break the entire deal because they want 20%. Annoying.

A month ago when they finally looked at our offer they could have countered for $10,000 more, and truth be told.. we most likely would have accepted.. It would have been at our high end, but it would have worked. Now we are down to the wire, we weren't anticipating needing that kind of extra, and it's just not going to work out. Hopefully the bank realizes that it's either $3,000 or $0, and they choose some over none... but I feel like banks are a little too greedy to see that side of it.

So while we thought we were in the home-stretch, it seems like we somehow bounced back to square one... Please everyone (all 2 of your who read this..haha) keep your fingers crossed for the rest of the week and pray that the bank will see the light on this one!!! We would really like to be moving into a condo on June 28th instead of a storage space and/or a new apartment and/or the in-laws (no offense to Pat and Martha.. ha)... We would really like to have a place to call our own!!!!

To wrap it all up.... banks suck. :)

Texas Tour

2010-05-31T13:39:00.009-05:00

It has taken me a bit of time to get our Texas Tour posted, but here it is... We had a really good time. We started in Houston, went to Magnolia (well, John went to El Campo)... I journeyed to College Station (Texas A & M folks are CRAZY!!!).... a Magnolia wedding.... Kingwood (The Livable Forest). And finally up to Dallas before coming home. All in all, we were gone for about 7 days and while we had a great time seeing our friends, it was nice to come back home. :)

I had the most unmovable hair I've ever had .. I swear I shook it upside down at the end of the night and it went right back into itself. It was a little crazy. It took me about 2 days to wash off the make-up from my face.. and I never did get used to not recognizing myself in the mirror at the wedding. But eventually I started to look like myself again. :)

John shot skeet... seems like he did a pretty good job for never having shot a gun before. He did have a wonderful bruise on his shoulder though... You really do need to hold it tight, I think he'll remember for next time. :)

JuliAnna was kind enough to welcome us into their amazing home!! We spent the day in their backyard pool which was the perfect ending to the wedding hoopla that was that week and weekend. :) I was blown away by their city (Kingwood) and their home. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was just so relaxed... I got to catch up with her family and be shocked by how old they are and grown up. I couldn't believe it.

We also got to visit with Chris and Emily in their sweet condo in Dallas. They definitely showed us a good time. We drank and ate ourselves totally silly which was amazing. It took me a while to recover - and John is still talking about how much he doesn't think the "hook and ring" game is a fun time.. hahahaha.... It's only because we were better than him :)

So here is a brief snapshot of some of our Texas experiences. :)

The Houston airport. I wonder what they're "Big On".

There were also animal heads on the walls - this is when I officially felt I had entered Texas.

Theresa, me, and her sister Lisa. Bachelorette Party Part 2 (College Station).

Had to get the Lone Star Beer.. it was similar to PBR, so not too bad.

Riiight...... Leaving for the rehearsal dinner.

The wedding venue - pre-people.

It definitely was the hottest day we were in Texas. And the hottest hairstyle I've ever had!

The happy newlyweds.

KG, me, and Sarah hanging out at the reception.

The Livable Forest residents ... down the street from JuliAnna's beautiful home!

Got to Dallas and saw a pretty perfect double rainbow!!

Where JFK was shot. It was a little eerie.

Hahahaha... Thanks Texas!

Fabulous tacos at a gas station that has longhorns. Awesome.

I can see our City from here!!

Our new home (almost) :)

2010-05-13T22:17:00.014-05:00

The time has come to show some pictures of the condo that we are in the midst of buying... We went to the inspection on Wednesday and it went pretty well. Some little (hopefully little) things were a problem - dishwasher leaking, a/c not working... things like that. However, we are looking forward to the work we have to do (a little bit anyway) and trying to figure out where to begin... The appraisal should come back today or tomorrow, and that will really solidify everything - so keeping our fingers crossed that we paid a reasonable amount, our loan application should be in the underwriters hands for final approval sometime on Monday!!! So without further ado..... our new home :)

Strangely enough that blue wall at the fireplace will be painted over... This is looking from the front door essentially..

Looking from the baywindows into the dining, kitchen, hallway. The door on the right is the front door.

Kitchen. Ultimately the appliances will probably be updated.. the dishwasher replaced sooner than later (thanks leak!).

2nd Bedroom from one corner - looking at 1 of the closets.

2nd bedroom from other corner looking at the 2nd closet...

The hall bathroom.. some cleaning and a little work to the window will fix it right up!

Full size, side by side washer and dryer in the hallway. That door leads out the back to the patio.

Master bedroom from the corner looking towards the hallway and master bathroom. It has a little bit of a walk-in closet down that little hallway to the right.

Master bathroom with a whirlpool tub... It's fancy. :)

Master bathroom sink.. One day it might be a double-sink. That would be nice. But it already has more storage than our current bathroom :)

Looking into the living/dining from the hallway.

And the roofdeck... Those are Wrigley Field's lights in the background.

So, we should have done a LITTLE bit more research, as we didn't realize until the inspection the other day that there WAS a roof deck. It's pretty huge, has a nice view.. and I think it will be the perfect summertime addition. :)

We plan on doing some work.. painting for one. We are going to figure to what to do with the woodwork. It has been painted multiple times so it's a little "gloppy"... there are some random things to fix, like window locks, floor where the dishwasher warped the wood...air conditioning ... we are considering staining the floors to more of a walnut color than they currently are. John has done some great things in Photoshop to convince me of how beautiful it would look. :) We are starting to think about what colors to put on the walls... what we can do if we take out the bank of cabinets in the kitchen that blocks the view to the living room.. ha. I think we will need to learn how to take it slow so we aren't rushing into everything at once and overwhelming ourselves with home improvement.

So, this is what we have been waiting for since the end of March.. and we are in the homestretch. It's a little overwhelming, but so exciting at the same time. I just hope that over the next few weeks (closing is expected to be June 18) everything goes smoothly and that we end up getting this all finalized. Our move-out date for our current apartment is June 30, so we are just hoping to get it all done before then so we have some time before we have to move our furniture and stuff in!!

Smoking Goodness

2010-05-05T23:04:00.009-05:00

I realized that many of my posts as of late have been reflecting the hectic pace of our lives... but I wanted to make sure that it is understood that we definitely have fun as well. Our fun lately has revolved around our new smoker. John has become quite the chef... so feast your eyes on our most recent gastro-delight. :)

Mustard rub on the brisket

Cornish game hens chillin'

Our smoker is the size of a small child..

The brisket between the cornish game hens

Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the brisket when it was finished. It looked amazing, and tasted even better. The only thing we are going to work on is timing.. The brisket didn't finish until about midnight or 1 am... So we weren't able to enjoy it until the next day really. But we certainly DID enjoy it. Haha.

We have some new rubs to try out from our recent trip to Texas.. which I'm sure means many more hours watching the smoker do what it does best - provide us with awesome smoked meats. :) We will also be busting into salmon in the near future. It takes a lot less time - so we might actually be able to have that for dinner.

Upcoming will be pictures of Truitt and Theresa's wedding in Magnolia, TX... talk of travels to visit JuliAnna in her beautiful home... and our trip to Dallas to cap it all off.

House buying and what it means to me....

2010-04-22T10:25:00.003-05:00

Let me share with you what I have experienced in our house buying process....

The term "short sale" is a misnomer... There is nothing "short" about it... Here is the lengthy process we have followed so far...

March 23 - submit offer on condo
March 24 - seller signs off on the offer, sends to bank to accept/decline/counter
March 24-April 9 - we hear NOTHING.... grrrr
April 9 - offer "expires" so we extend offer until following Friday, April 16
April 12 - receive "verbal" confirmation from the sellers agent that our offer is approved by the bank, merely waiting to receive the written confirmation
April 16 - offer "expires" but the bank still has 3 business days to put in writing that it does not accept the contract, otherwise contract stands and is in full effect
April 19-21 - we hear NOTHING
April 22 - still waiting, but have not withdrawn our offer which means the contract stands and any day now we should maybe/hopefully receive written confirmation from the lender

Is everyone now as thoroughly confused as I am? And also as completely annoyed with this process?? Goodness.. I know that John and I do not often take the easy way to do things... we just HAD to go out there to buy our first place and end up with a short sale that has a seller and 2 banks (luckily the 2nd bank apparently is not providing any resistance.. that we've heard of anyway)... but seriously, this is definitely trying my patience!

What are we doing now you might ask? Hoping and praying that the written acceptance of our offer comes through in the next couple of days... that we can schedule our inspection before we have to leave for Houston ... and that everything can close by June 1. That's a lot to ask for when the seller's agent won't respond to phone calls or emails, and just in general does not seem to want to communicate. Looking at this now, I feel it's pretty ridiculous that here it is actually a month later and we are still in essentially the same spot.

We have looked at our fair share of homes... there have been ones where we walked in and said "so not happening".... there have been ones where we would be happy, they're just not ideal... and then there is this condo. I'm working hard on not being TOO emotionally involved because I don't want to be disappointed that even after all this time we might end up needing to walk away.. but at the same time, it embodies what we have been looking for. There is some work to be done (update the kitchen and bath.. paint... typical stuff) but it would be fun to do it... the space is there, the layout is there. It's kind of what we have now in our apartment that we love. So until I feel as though this process is truly getting out of hand and ridiculously long, we will continue to keep our hopes up that everything will work out. No matter what, I know that it will work out as it should, it just might not be how I think it should work out right now. Ha.

So what does house buying mean to me? That apparently life has decided that I need to work a little bit more on my patience before letting me have what I want.... :)

Wishing I was on HGTV's "My First Place"...

2010-03-06T15:37:00.008-06:00

I will begin with the all exciting news that I was officially approved to sit for the PE Exam on April 16th! That means that I get to dedicate the next month of my life to studying for it, but at least I don't have to worry about applying anymore! I only need to think about passing.... and then applying for licensure.. Goodness, I'm getting ahead of myself again. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement.. :)

More updates? House hunting... I'm beginning to wish I was on one of those HGTV shows (My First Place, Property Virgins...anything) where they line everything up with 3 options and you go, look at them, and then you get to choose 1.... Instead I'm inundating my brain with about 15+ properties that I think I could love... most of which are actually WITHIN our price range (it was tough eliminating the beautiful places that were too high.. but we had to do it). This means that I need to cut it down to about 7 to go and look at this weekend when my dad is in town...

That's the next fun part.. my dad is coming in town this weekend to look at properties with us and Pat (John's dad/our real estate agent)! We were being the "mature grown-ups" that we are and decided to forgo the St. Patrick's Day celebration in favor of trying to follow through with the possibilty of being home owners this year. It was a tough decision.. ha. :)

The curveball in our plans? I talked to our landlord today and she's under the impression that our lease is up in April...aka move out by May 1st. Really?!?! I really hope that we are able to find our lease in our apartment somewhere and I so am crossing my fingers that when we do find it, we are correct in thinking we decided to go through June instead... But, I know we considered April... So of course I can't for the life of me remember which we chose when we talked to her. Fantastic.

So, hopefully I will be gracing this page next time with pictures of possible house candidates... but if we need to wait another year, I will have to accept it, as I really do like our current apartment. It's essentially what we want, so I might as well be happy with it, right?? That's what I keep telling myself so that I don't get sad about the prospect of not buying right now. Who knows, there are a lot of variables, a lot of possible changes in the near/not so distant future... We'll jsut have to see what works out best for us...

So THAT'S what the instructions were for....

2010-02-18T16:06:00.006-06:00

I'm in panic mode... it's completely my own doing, but I'm still in it. I've decided to register for my P.E. Exam (to become a registered professional engineer in IL)... I actually decided to do this quite a while ago, but kept putting it off because of the cost. I think I can safely say that I am paying much more now since I have to get everything pretty much overnighted to me in order to get it turned IN on time, but that's another matter entirely. Ha.

Apparently you should read the instructions when you are planning to take one of the biggest exams of your life. Apparently in these instructions they tell you that you need to submit a form as proof that you passed your FE back in 2005... they don't just take your word for it. And apparently in these instructions they tell you to get an official transcript because they also don't take your word that you graduated from college. Awesome. Luckily all the "supporting documentation" isn't due until March 5th, so with the help of my local FedEx I should be able to get everything to the right people and back and submitted on time...

I would have thought my procrastination technique would have dissolved itself once I entered the adult world. Or at least I was hoping for it to have disappeared. But here I am, 2.5 weeks from a very important deadline and I'm scrambling to pull my stuff together. Grrrrr....

John is having to listen to my panic over the last 2 days when I realized my error.. and he has been very calm and offering positive words of wisdom like "well, if it doesn't happen for April at least you'll be ready for when it happens in October and you'll have some more study time" and "everything will work out".... In my frenzied brain these words are more like taunts that I should have started this process a lot earlier .. haha :)

He's right though.. In the end (be it April or October - yes, I'm assuming I'm passing on the first go) I will join the ranks of Professional Engineers ... Maybe by that time I'll be able to figure out how to follow instructions and keep on a timely schedule. I won't be holding my breath. :)

I would say that this sense of panic is new to me.. that I'm calm, cool, and collected... but John would read this and know I was lying. I don't know when it happened, but at some point I woke up and decided that it was a good idea to freak out about everything. The messy kitchen (what will our friends think?), the messy bedroom (laundry is my official nemesis), the process for buying a house... Goodness, the list goes on and on, and usually gets verbalized at 11pm at night before I go to bed when it is far too late for me to do anything about it... I'm pretty sure I make John crazy... :)

So please help me to wish for speedy mail service, and application accepting!!!! I don't want to have all these late night study group sessions be for naught! haha. Maybe next time I'll be a little bit more prepared....

Dear Winter

2010-01-25T21:36:00.004-06:00

Dear Winter,

I like you - seriously... I was probably one of the few people that stood up for you during the Christmas holidays when you almost didn't let me make it back to Chicago. I moved to the north for a reason, snow, seasons, wearing hats and scarves... But now I need to make a request... Can you stop teasing me with warm temperatures over the weekend and then dropping 20+ degrees overnight? I had just started to enjoy the lack of ice and snow on the ground and then you started up with the snow again this morning... leaving me to fend for myself on icy sidewalks once again...

I understand that I probably have at least 2 months left of the cold... I have accepted this, but I had just hung up my down coat and now you are threatening to drop once again into the teens this week. I just don't think I'm ready for it.

My request is this - please play nice for the rest of your season, and don't let me get my hopes up that it's almost over..Thanks!

Sincerely,

Megan

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-26T11:27:00.006-06:00

Merry Christmas from our family to ours!!! I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday...

If we did Christmas cards, I'm pretty sure this picture might win.. we are pretty stylish.

So my Christmas began with heading down to Kansas City. I made it in Monday night and managed the obligatory Gate's BBQ stop (yummmm). Then Tuesday was cookie making at my Aunt Tara's (as has been tradition for many many years). This year we had the help of two of my littlest cousins - Gia and Kaylie. They were very... helpful. haha. But they seemed to have a great time.

Wednesday was Christmas shopping. We like to get it all knocked out in a day for all the kids and our secret santa gifts for the family. It's so much easier because then I don't have to worry about either carrying gifts with me or shipping them in advance. I'm not quite as streamlined as my Aunt Kelly. But, we managed to get everything together and buy for the 5-million some odd kids that were at our Christmas Eve bash. :) John actually got in on Wednesday night, despite the afternoon flights all being cancelled and the apparent "fog" in KC.

Thursday (Christmas Eve) is where the fun begins. Everyone gets together and opens the presents. The kids get presents from everyone, but once your 18 you start drawing names. It's a great tradition, until you turn 18.. haha.

Me and my incredibly beautiful cousins.. Love them!

John and me

This year Christmas Eve came to my grandma. We all went over there and had her open her presents and we took a plate of goodies over to her.

The family...

The fun part of the holiday was apparently getting OUT of Kansas City. When we got back from my grandma's we had a message waiting that said our flight on Christmas Day had been cancelled. KC was getting this crazy storm... we already had 1/4"-1" of SLEET accumulation. It wasn't even snowing yet... We were supposed to get something like 4"-6" of snow overnight and the airlines were kind of freaking out. So, we booked on American Airlines, hoping that somehow we would make it to Chicago on Christmas Day.

The next morning, we were awakened for Santa Claus and with a message that our American Airlines flight that we had booked was also cancelled. Grrrr... My Aunt Kelly and Uncle John were scheduled to be flying back with us too, but they decided to just stick with the "sure thing" of Saturday morning. John and I decided that we were going to try and get out of Kansas City... try our shot at standby. Here is what we woke up to:

Looking out the front door of my grandma's house....Yikes!

So, we decided to hang out at the airport... we LOVE the airport... there are like chairs..

Yaaay airports!!!

This is what made us a little nervous.. They had snowplows out there so the planes could back out of the gate... Yikes!

But, we finally made it to Chicago. We were number 3 and 4 on the standby list, and they let 5 people on. Phew. It was definitely a Christmas miracle. We escaped the "blizzard warning" and are now hanging out where the snow is coming down with a good couple of inches on the ground. Apparently we can't get away from a White Christmas this year...

A weekend in the life...

2009-12-14T19:51:00.013-06:00

I made it through yet another busy weekend. I'm not sure where I find the stamina to make it through, but somehow I rally.. haha.

Friday night began with happy hour after work - where I got a certificate for my "perfect pint pour" of Guinness. I think I should have been a bartender in a different life (not based on my ability, only my enthusiasm)...

Then we all went out to see Molly and Sarah in the Christmas at DePaul Concert. It was as amazing as last year. They sound beautiful and they sing a lot of the classics.

Hey look, the gang's all here!

Saturday, luckily, was low key... the basic housekeeping things - laundry (alright, one load, but that's better than usual for me - domestic I am not)... grocery shopping... dominoes and 42 with our friends Truitt and Theresa. Grilling out in the pouring rain in the middle of the winter... can't beat it (or so I hear, since John and Truitt did the grilling). :)

Sunday is when the magic happened... Not only did I make a delicious, first-time pot roast (watch out Betty Crocker!!).... I also was able to make it to a Bears game.. and not just ANY game, the Bears-Packers game! John won tickets so he got to go for free, I was jealous so I bought them.. I went with Katie McD and her rooom-mate Marla. It was fantastic! Our tickets were awesome! (Only grumble was that the Bear's couldn't pull out with a win)

We were one of the first 30,000 fans - so we got scarves!!!

The first touchdown for the Bears... It gave us false hope.

Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted by Sunday night and started to doze watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. BUT, it was a very fun and exciting weekend. I wish I could say that I get a break, but unfortunately my week is swamped...

Tuesday - 10 cent wings and our Tuesday Night Christmas Movie Night (it might be Fred Claus this week)....
Wednesday - trivia, seriously can't miss that. Mullen's might be the greatest trivia bar in Chicago - maybe it's only because we rock it.
Thursday - Happy Hour with my ASCE-YMG group where I'm the Social Director - so I have to be social
Friday - Hair Party and birthday party (someone - not me - ruined the surprise)
Saturday - Bad Christmas sweater party (at least we aren't hosting - we get to take a break)
Sunday - packing for my trip to KC... trying to get some relaxation
Monday - leaving for KC to start the Christmas festivities..

Can someone tell me when I'm supposed to rest?? I am too busy for my own good!!! At least it's all fun... that makes it a lot easier.

I hope that everyone has a safe and fun holiday season!!! I'm looking forward to hearing all of your holiday stories and seeing your pictures :)

2nd Annual Drinksgiving

2009-12-08T19:38:00.001-06:00

We managed to make it through our 2nd Annual Drinksgiving... It was a great time. We combined it with Slapsgiving (if you've missed these How I Met Your Mother episodes, seriously, you need to watch.. AMAZING). While I don't have pictures of the slap, it was pretty good. John lost the bet between him and Ian that the Bears would cover the spread against the Viking's the week before... there was some good build up to the slap, and it was definitely worth it!

We had more food than I knew what to do with... mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes wrapped in prosciutto, cajun mac and cheese, caramel bacon bites, prosciutto crusted quiche, gingerbread cookies, butternut squash stuffing, a wonderful cheeseball, ham, and deep fried turkey... goodness, we had more... much more. We stuffed ourselves silly! It was fantastic.

The spread - on our new table!! I don't even think everything is on there yet... :) We are like real people...

The turkey in its deep fried goodness...

The tree with all the presents underneath... 21 people showed up.. awesome!

I got to use my grandma's candlewick glassware- it looked festive and it made me happy to actually USE the boxes upon boxes of candlewick I have stored...

I am certainly as exhausted as I look!

So, all in all it was very successful Drinksgiving! (And Slapsgiving... and slap bets are now being made for pretty much everything)

Next year I think we will have to work on the amount of food we have for next year because we had a LOT more leftovers this year... even with more people to eat it. Hopefully we can also get some more people to join in... I'm not sure where we can possibly PUT them as we were pretty up to our max with space, but please come and celebrate with us next year (to everyone reading.. and who is out of state.. hehe)!!!

Part 2 of Thanksgiving

2009-12-02T18:38:00.000-06:00

Thanks for those who have read so far... haha. I feel as though I'm still stuck on HOW to write on this thing, but I'm working on it. Hopefully future posts will only get better and more relaxed!!

Just a quick note.. I want to post the picture that was taken of all of us for Thanksgiving.. Note the Chicago skyline painting in the back and the Southwestern painting to the side.. all courtesy of my very talented mother-in-law!

And here is the appropriately fall festive Thanksgiving table...the vases are from our wedding.. yaaay multi-purposing!

This Saturday we are hosting our 2nd Annual Drinksgiving... I'm pretty excited about it. Our friend Truitt is deep frying a turkey, and everyone is bringing a dish to share. I think that I'm going to give a butternut squash stuffing a shot from my "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine (I feel very Sally Homemaker)... I might even go out and purchase a dutch oven.. I feel it might be a necessary component to my kitchen...

Last year our Drinksgiving was fantastic! So I'm hoping that this year will be just as delicious and fun. We combine it with our Secret Santa/Secret Secular Gift Giving celebration... There are about 21 people that will be sharing our living room and sitting around our Christmas Tree!!

So, once again, when I think something will be short I end up getting carried away. ha. But, I will be posting pictures from our Drinksgiving eventually...maybe Sunday if I don't have too much cleaning up to do?

McDonald's and Waldo's UNITE!

2009-11-30T18:59:00.001-06:00

John and I's second Thanksgiving and we had a "joining of the families". The Waldo/Hoyt-McDonald union for the Thanksgiving feast went off without a hitch!! My dad and I brought sweet potatoes smothered in sugary goodness and pumpkin pie... The McDonald's provided the rest (and it was delicious!).

We got to share it with the new addition to the family - Riley, Katie's new puppy.. a 12 week old Schitzu.. adorable. We wore her out!

We played Pooch for pretty much the entire weekend... a card game that's related to euchre, but makes no sense unless you have the scorecard in front of you and some people who understand the rules... My dad, staying true to his aversion to games, decided to watch Swing Vote instead...I think he enjoyed himself? :)

Saturday we met up with family from my mom's side - Jennifer, Jeff, Bob, and Candy. It was fun to catch up with them as I don't see family from that side (other than Jennifer and Jeff) very often. After lunch, the Hoyt's headed to the airport and we managed to catch a near matinee to see Pirate Radio. It was fantastic! It has all sorts of fun actors and I highly recommend it. My dad, being the radio man, seemed to really enjoy it too!

Sunday my dad hit the road after lunch at Potbelly's with me and Selena. It's great, Selena's family is close to Chicago so she gets to come out and visit more often! We hit up the Art Institute with my membership that I hadn't used yet... and exhausted ourselves with art in about 2.5 hours.

The lion at the front of the museum...

The streets look like they are shining and I should be passing these people as I walk closer..

I was totally entranced...

The "Bean" with Chicago behind...

I was able to pretend I was a tourist for about 8 hours...taking pictures all over the city...But then I had to return to "normal life" and get back to work... It was fun though.. my dad in town for 4 days... Selena in town for 1.... good food, good family, good friends. I couldn't ask for anything more and I am certainly very thankful. :)

First time blogging... cut me some slack...

2009-11-25T11:05:00.000-06:00

So, I decided to give this a shot since a) I absolutely love reading JuliAnna's blog and b) there are some fun things coming up over the next year (like house buying hopefully?!) that I figured I should be sharing in a better forum than facebook.

Hopefully I can provide entertainment and a window into what's going on in our lives as we embark on our second year of marriage.