House Negotiating - HELP!

I write this with nothing except frustration running through my mind. We have made 2 offers on houses now and both the sellers have refused to negotiate down from the list price. One seller came down a a tincy tiny little bit and the other refused to get back to us for 3 days to even let us know that they were so offended by our offer. I thought I heard somewhere that that is illegal, but maybe not. Anyway...

Do other people go through this same thing? Is it all part of buying a house? Have any of you even had a seller willing to negotiate or as a potential and hopeful homebuyer should the hubs and I only be offering what the list price is? I'd love to hear what you all think because we are really at a loss.

Please help,
not so cheerful me

A Yello Tuesday

Not sure why but my office area (AKA the Annex) broke out to a bump bump chicka chicka session just a bit ago. Whatever happened to Yello anyway?



While you're watching that we're still house hunting. Apparently the house sellers haven't read my message to them, found here. When they do answer and we start to get excited, negotiations don't go well and the selling Realtors can be real PITAs.

Minne Blackhawks Monday

Happy Minne Monday. I know I am a little late on this but here's a quick pic of Minne sporting her favorite Blackhawks shirt.

If she looks a little sad it's because she just found out her favorite Blackhawks player Eager is being traded.

She's Getting Married

This little bride is getting married today.

How cute is she? Yup, they call her princess.

Best part about her wedding? Her colors are green & pink. How can a girl go wrong?

Finalizing The Bridal Party

Photo Found Here

It seems as though I have left some very important mini attendees out of my bridal party entry. As soon as we picked an outdoor venue and everything was falling into place we knew we wanted to include our Boston Terrier, Minne. We're a young couple that doesn't have kids but we have been touched by the most awesome lovable creature who loves us no matter what and we couldn't imagine not having her part of our big day. The venue was great and said that as long as we didn't allow her inside and picked up after her, she was more than welcome for the fun. Since the reception was in a tent that was considered "inside" Minni could partake in photos and the ceremony.

Photo Found Here

As it turned out, we got married on one of the hottest days of 2009 and poor Minne was hot. We have some good photos of her. However, most of them she looks hot, really really hot. But there are some good photos with and we will always remember her being by our side on our big day.

I know you're asking yourself...But how did Minne walk down the aisle? That part was simple. We knew there were 2 very special people that we hadn't included yet in our wedding, our flower girl and ring bearer. We asked them to be in our wedding in those roles with the addition of walking Minne

Photo by Katherine Salvatori

We hadn't really thought through how that would work, it just sounded like a good idea and the kids loved it (both being animal lovers and all). We made a visit with each kid separately leading up to the wedding and the thing we kept hearing was "I can't wait to walk Minne all by myself."

Ut oh...how could both of them walk down 1 dog? Solution - 2 pink and green leashes from Old Navy latched to one harness, as seen below:

I love the way the hubs is calling Minne down the aisle

When you asked either child what their role was in the wedding, they say dog walker. Completely precious right?

Adorable huh?

We probabaly didn't need "dog walkers" but it was nice to know that if something scared Minne or if she saw a rabbit or a chipmunk, both kids were there leash in hand to take control. If one let go, there was still the other. They felt important, we felt important and it was one less thing for us to worry about on our wedding day.

Photo by katherine Salvatori

Side Note: If you chose to have your little one in the wedding it helps to assign one person to be in charge of them - to clean up poop, give them water, ect. If you have a wedding cordinator remember they have other responsibilties and the watching of the pup should not be on their list. We had a family neighbor at the wedding who we asked to bring Minne home after the ceremony and join as back at the reception. It ended up being a huge sigh of relief.

The Bridal Party

Photo By Katherine Salvatori

After we picked out a venue, a photographer and celebrated the engagement with friends and family we decided we should keep marking things off the list. Buit I need to back up a bit.

A few weeks prior to the engagement party, the hubs and I were trying to find a special way to ask our bridal party to be apart of the big day.We wanted to try to ask everyone at the same time so that no one felt left out so we figured at the engagement party may be a good fit.Since we love baseball and we're getting married on a golf course, the hubs had the idea of getting everyone their favorite titleist mlb hats.

We purchased some blank white bags and the hubs and I drew red baseball like stitching on the bags. We placed the hat in the bag and we attached a little note to each bag that read a little something like this (those of you who know us can fill in the blanks):

It was this time 3 years ago that ____ and I met working for the ____. Since that time, you have played a vital role in our life that is far above a batting average .400 or an ERA of 2.00. You're a true slugger, base stealin', ball throwin' friend and because of that I would be honored if you would join my side as a bridesmaid/groomsmen when I say I do on June 20, 2009 at _____.

To us it was perfect and to this day I always smile when I see photos of friends wearing their hats! And don't worry, the hubs and I each got a hat as well, and when we wear them we're reminded of all our close friends.

I say "all" above because we had a huge bridal party. When we sat down and put together our list of attendants, it was enormous. It was practically the entire wedding. We spent time really trying to figure out who and what is important. The hubs and I had both gotten our lists down as low as we could go and ended with a crazy number of 13-7, my number being first. I know what you are thinking, 13!?!?!?

Photo By Katherine Salvatori

At the time I felt blessed to have so many great friends, some from the younger years and some from college and the sorority and my sisters plus the hub's sister. Neither the hubs or myself have really ever had one group of extremely close friends, rather we have had multiple groups of great friends come into our lives and we have always felt greatful for that.

However, we had left a few people off that list. We hadn't included one of our dearest friends JD. JD was an itnern with the hubs and I back in '05. She was really the only true mutual friend we have. When I say true mutual, I mean she became both of our friends at the same time. We wanted her in the wedding in a role that would be super special for both of us, and since we jokingly faught over what side she should stand up in, we agreed it should be the middle. So, we asked her to marry us. No she is not a minister or a reverend. However, she did call the county clerk and ask them what she needed to do to get us married. Apparently, in the county we got married in it was super easy. She did it all on line and like that it was done. Walla.

Side Note: I would recommend chosing your bridal party as close to your wedding date as possible. You may be friends when you get engaged but throughout the engagement period, which of your friends are still around and helping you out? Only a year later and I think if the hubs sat down and rechose our bridal aprty, it would be very different. However, the wedding represents things as they were at that time, and for that I could't be happier with our bridal party.

Side Note #2: it's your wedding, break the rules. If you want a guy to walk down the aisle with 2 girls do it. If you want one of your best friends to marry you, ask them. If you want to include your pooch, do it. It only makes the day that more special for you.

Missing Minne Monday?

Looks like I have skipped 2 weeks of Minne Mondays. What is wrong with me, you ask?

Well…since you asked, I have had a lot of family things going on and I caught a bug, in my throat. Not actually a bug, but I have had a terrible sore throat and aching cough. Luckily for me, the World Wide Web has made it super easy for me to work from home. Here's a photo of this past Monday's Minne Monday.

The hubs has been calling her Nurse Minne all week, but by the looks of the photo, does it really look like she was working?

I am guessing after last weeks 1 mile Doggie dash, she is exhausted and is still in full recovery mode. Although her weekend seemed pretty relaxed if you ask me, it looked something like this:

More to come on the wedding recaps, the Woofin Hooin Doggie dash and the anniversary. I am scheduleing some weekend posts as I think this one is going to be super chatoic. Until then, I'll leave you with a piece of anniversary cake to hold you over:

Don't worry, it wasn't that scary!

5 Years Ago Today

5 Years ago today my ex-boyfriend asked me to be his girlfriend. Today, that ex-boyfriend and I have been dating for 5 years and this is the first year that I can call him my husband and me his wife.


We spent this day a year ago with friends and family prepping for our wedding. The boys went golfing during the day. They got as much golf in as they could prior to the rainy stormy weather. Apparently boys don't take Photos. The girls spent the day taking cover from the terrible weather getting manis and pedis.

My mother-inlaw and the hubs Goddaughter & Dog Walker (AKA Flower Girl)

Later on that evening, the rain stopped for just enough time for us to meet at our venue and complete a walk through of our ceremony. Right as we made it through the rehearsal, the rain started trickling. We got inside the tented pavilion just in time for the storms.
After we had enough of watching the chandeliers swinging in the tent, we were ready for dinner. We made our way to a little Irish Pub in my hometown for an Irish feast and some yummy cake. The rain didn’t stop anyone.

The hubs and 1 of his Best Men, fellow Purdue Grad

Side Note: The hubs wanted a 3D Purdue Pete Funfettie wedding cake. I may not be very traditional but there is something classic about an all white cake. Plus our cake was thrown in for free by the venue so why would we pay for an enormous train cake? And we found out that most bakeries do not do funfetti. Sad for the hubs not so much for me. The mom and sister in-law surprised the hubs by making his wish come true at the rehearsal dinner with a Purdue Train cake. Genius, right? Plus people could enjoy the bakery cake today and not get torn between wedding cake the day of the wedding.

Side Note #2: I wish we had thought to get the photogrpaher to get pics of the boys playing golf and of our rehearsal. If you have it int he budget, do it. You won't be disappointed like I am now.

Side Note #3: We had a ring bearer and a flower girl in our wedding but both of them preferred to be called "Dog Walkers" since the had the added responsibility of escorting our Minne girl down the aisle on the big day. More on that later.

Engagement Party

And then there was a baseball themed engagement party. Our parents did a great job carrying out the theme through everything. There was an official Aramark pricing sign, a real hot dog machine (you an see Cracker Jacks in the back) and everyone was in baseball attire. And how cute is the story of us told in baseballs?

The party was held in April. In, fact it was opening day for the Cubs. April is also the month I started working for the minor league baseball team. It's the month that I asked my husband out. It's the month that we first played beer pong together with friends. It's the month we went on our first date for dinner at Cheesecake Factory. It's the month we first played tennis together. April was a great month in 2005 and it was a great month in 2008 when we formally celebrated our engagement with friends.

Vendor #1 - Photographer

Photos by Katherine Salvatori

After browsing photos and knowing that we were going to have our outdoor spring/summer ceremony, for me it was about picking colors. We got married the last day of spring and we wanted to remember that. Black is easy when it comes to black ink on invitations, black linens, black tuxes, black bridesmaid dresses but I didn’t want easy and my husband did not want a funeral like wedding.

The blogs also helped us to think about the things that were super important to us. For example, what do we want in our ceremony? How important are photos? Is video important? Is food at the reception important? How about beverages? Who do we want to stand up with us…that list goes on forever. The hubs said we should set deadlines for picking out each of our vendors and just stick to that. But we agreed that capturing the moments of the wedding by photo was on the top of our important list.
I was starting to try on dresses and finalize the guest count when the hubs and I decided that maybe we should take some engagement photos. We could start to finalize one of our vendors, the photographer and really do a test run with engagement photos to ensure we like our photographer. We browsed prices in Chicago for photographers and the prices were expensive and most of the packages didn’t include giving you the rights to your own photos. The hubs had a really hard time with this – as he should. This got us thinking; maybe we could go with a less experienced photographer, pay less and get the rights to our photos. We had thought about the idea of using one of my high school friends as a photographer the wedding but she was newly out of school and she hadn’t shot a lot of weddings yet.
We scheduled an engagement shoot with her and we were really pleased. Since the hubs and I met working in baseball and we wanted to send out a save the date around baseball playoff time we took many photos sporting our favorite team wear.

Photos by Katherine Salvatori

Can you tell who routes for which team?

Photos by Katherine Salvatori

Would you leave your child out of photos that capture your lives? We wouldn't eaither, which is why we had to include our special little girl, Boston Terrier, Minne.

Photos by Katherine Salvatori

Post Venue Picking

After we picked the venue we really didn’t do too much for awhile. We figured we had plenty of time so the hubs kept busy doing his day to day and me the same, with the exception that I started to get blog crazy. This is when I learned about Google Reader which led me to subscribe to everything, seriously everything. Some of my favorite wedding blogs that I still follow today (despite being married for almost a year) include:

Snippet & Ink
Classic Bride
Something Old Something New
An East Coast Wedding
An Army Wife’s Alaskan Adventures
And my close friend Tying the Knot, and her second blog Penned and Pretty

This got the mind thinking. I couldn't stop myself. In the morning I wanted to read wedding blogs and int he evening too. I would spend all day (in between doing work of course) looking for a wedding that looked like it defined us. I never really found it but I did come close. I suppose, that's what makes weddings so special these days, people aren't afraid to break away from the cookie cutter wedding and make the wedding as unique as the couple is. We came up with a lot of inspiration which is what helped us, or at least me, make some of the next decisions.

Engaged, Now What

When we got engaged we learned quickly that wedding planning in Chicago wasn’t going to be an easy task. We planned for a year in a half engagement so that we could save up as much as we possibly could.

Our first step in wedding planning was figuring out the guest list. After estimating, we thought that would allow us to move forward with picking a venue. Our list started with about 300+ but after browsing venues and costs we thought we had better trim the list. And so we did. By half.

We hurt some feelings, a lot of feelings. We heard about it from friends and family later but paying for a wedding during a recession is not an easy thing to do. We cut the list down by saying no kids. We did invite some kids that were close family, but other than that, no kids. The other thing we did is we said no dates. If you weren’t married, engaged, living together or in a seriously committed long term relationship…no date. It may have caused some hurt feelings but when you're talking $100+ for someone you don't even know times like 10+, is it really worth it? Our feelings weren't hurt so we stuck with our decisions.

From there, looking at venues seemed a lot less daunting, although still not easy. Some places give you one head count and it includes everything (food, linens, cake, taxes, ect.) other places give you a cost per seat, a cost per this and you have to add everything together. It was super important for us (and we assume everyone) that we knew ALL the cost up front. After weeding places out based on numbers in books, we set out venue hunting.

When looking for a venue, we were looking for a place to hold an outdoor ceremony and an indoor reception. We figured, in the case of bad weather, having something in doors would help make for a great rainy day back up plan. We were fortunate to have a beautiful sunny wedding day, but it ended up being one of the hottest most humid days of 2009. We were grateful to have an indoor reception for the reasoning of the air conditioning.

We made our first stop to a golf course I worked at in high school. After getting a tour of the facility, getting a quick walk through of the ceremony to the reception the hubs and I were sold! Since we did so much research on paper, we felt confident with our quick decision based on only seeing one site. Plus we thought having a June wedding (busy wedding month) would be impossible to get the date we wanted. The date we wanted was actually the last Saturday they had open in June. DONE AND DONE.

Thus we got the out door wedding we wanted.

Getting Close to Our 1 Year Anniversary!

Photo Featured on The Wedding Chicks

This weekend puts the hub and I at our 1 year anniversary from our wedding, it also puts us at our 5 year of dating. It's crazy how quickly time goes by. I have spent a lot of time lately on the Blackhawks and work related items but I think it's time to shift gears and perhaps do some recaps of our wedding. It is a busy wedding month between friends and family plus our anniversary is approaching so I am extremely in the mood to talk everything wedding for the next week.

To get you started here's a quick pink and green wedding inspiration board I put together as a quick recap from our wedding.

Photos by Katherine Salvatori

P.S. Do you love the shoes?

Happy Birthday Sami & Big Lar!

Happy Flag Day everyone! Today is a particularly special day for the hubs and I as we celebrate Flag Day with 2 very special Birthdays!

First up is my very beautiful sister Sami! Happy 2-3rd! Blow out the candles and make a big wish!

And a very special big 50 to my wonderful father-in-law, Big Lar, who also shares the Flag Day Birthday. Today is sure to be a great day!

More of the Cup!

A few more of the Stanley Cup!

Some co-workers

Yup, that's me kissing the Stanley Cup!

More to come on the Parade but this should hold you over!

Day After Blackhawks Win

Driving into work this morning, I felt compelled to drive down Madison it was a Stanley Cup hot mess. Luckily for the city of Chicago, we have one of these.

I worked my way into the United Center and got to work. After cleaning up all the media monitors, the cables, and what not I was filthy and hungry.

Post lunch, there was rumor that the Stanley Cup was in the building. Crap, I look terrible but I needed the photo op. Wouldn't you? So I made my way to the room housing the cup.  As I walked in the Blackhawks staff was hoisting the Cup up in the window so the fans outside by the Jordan/Toews statue could take a peak!! Look at it shine!

I did get a photo with the cup, but I don't have an electric copy yet. So in the meantime, I thought I would sare this. In the locker room of the 2010 Stanley Cup winners. What's not to love about this place?

That's right, raise that cup!

More photos coming soon and perhaps some coverage of tomorrow's parade & festivites? See you here!

Holy Crap

Holy Crap Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup!

Listen to this classy guy talk about his friends, family, beautiful sisters. Oh and my favorite part? When they tell him to behave during the festivities and he yells "not a chance, not a chance"

Check out Kaner's full interview here:


PS I have a sour taste in my mouth about the Phillies Flyers fans booing the entire award ceremony.

Watch Out Florida

Watch out Florida, it's this girls Birthday!

A 3NW hall mate, a friend and a bridesmaid...Happy Birthday girlie.

Using Real names in Blogs

What do you think about using real names in blogs? I find myself struggling to remember to change names or shorten to initials or to go by nicknames. I like the idea of keeping some items like names secret because I know there are lots of crazies in the world. Should I keep my current stance and shy away from real names or is it ok to move to the usage of the first names?

Love Him

Random photo, Blackhawks Stanley Cup Finals, Post Game 1

Random Fun

A trip to Dicks Sporting Goods left me with some new running attire, a new Blackhawks shirt for the hubs and some entertaining photos. Check out the hubs trying out the Ab Circle Pro.

At first he wasn't sure what to do, but don't worry he figured it out.

Has anyone ever tried the Ab Circle Pro? Do you find it beneficial? At $199 it seems a little pricey, couldn't you just do a variety "free" of sit ups and work on the same affects?

Minne Monday

Can you guess what's different?

We were at home watching the Blackhawks game on Friday with some friends, when someone noticed that Minne wasn't really decked out for the occasion. So the nail painting began, against the hubs will.

Minne girl sat patiently as if she was getting the best manicure of her life. Check it out.

The hubs only let Minne have one paw painted but it looked pretty good. She pranced around all night as she flaunted her red paw. How could the hubs not love this? Despite all the pretty red, the Blackhawks still lost but Minne had her time to shine.

Do you paint your dog's nails? How do they like it?

Happy Minne Monday!

Text From the Hubs

Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals is going on at my work, the United Center right now and this is the text I get from my hubs...

"Who is the team in red, they're good! Too bad they didn't play for us in Philly"

I am guessing he think's that he is hilarious

I did it! I mean WE did it!

Today I ran my first 5K. My little sister ran by my side and the hubs who has been rehabbing his knees ran with us for the first part and then ran the 10K on his own (alpha male show off).

The race went through the beautiful town of Wheaton. The weather was hot & humid and by the end of the race I was nothing but itchy and sticky but ... we did it.

My goal is to continue running and to make it to the Indy Mini. I have no desire to run an entire Marathon but I think the goal of getting there could help me make the healthy lifestyle changes that will help to make me live longer, stronger and healthier. It may also help to keep the hubs motivated.  

334 days till next year's Mini.

Weekend Festivites

Wow this weekend is going to be a doozy!

• Tonight we'll be going back to look at a house we liked with our pseudo inspector, grandpa.
• Tomorrow morning we have the race for the animals - a 5k for the sis and I and the 10K for the hubs.
• Tomorrow night a Bachlorette party with friends I haven't seen in awhile.
• Sunday a bridal shower for one of my DG babies and close friends
• Sunday night working the Blackhawks vs Flyers at the United Center

Can you say insane? At least it won't take me very long to do my hair, infact it used to take me 45 minutes to blow dry my hair, I'm now down to 15 minutes! Yay hair cut.

Today a Lazy Friday, Tomorrow a 5K

Looks like I better rest up today because the 5K for the animals is already tomorrow! Where did the time go? I can tell you that it certainly didn't go to the 13 weeks of training that I talked about here. However, for the past 2.5 weeks I have been forcing myself to run outside every other day. I think there were 2 days that I was forced to hit the gym due to weather. Overall, I am at the point that I just have to do it - Nike running style. Meanwhile the hubs has had some knee problems and just started running this week and he's planning on knocking out the 10K with no training. I think I married an alpha male. 

Anyone have any running tips?

Hey there, Cute Hair

When I cut my hair I figured I'd get some responses but everyone keeps telling me how cute my hair is. I am taking it as a great compliment but sometimes, you don't want to be cute. You know what I'm saying?

Side note: the photos were quickly snapped by my husband while I was rushing on my way out this morning. I got a call from him about an hour later asking if my "too cute hair cut" was getting to my head. When I asked him why, his response was that I left my wallet at home. Oops.

Life Change Alert

I cut my hair. I cut a lot of it. My mom walked into the hair studio to see the finished result and blinked twice, paused and said..."you cut your hair" as a half question? If you don't know me, hopefully you'll understand from my mom's reaction that I may change my hair color or the way I style it but only a few times in my entire life have I cut it all.

So here it is, here's what I did (note that I decided 13 weeks ago that instead of cutting my hair, I decided to  make it red.) So now, here I am with short red hair...not sure my exact thoughts but at least it looks good with the Blackhawks flag.

Game 3 is on right now, better get back to it. Lets go Blackhawks!