Piperlime Delish

Necklace Found here

As the days of summer are ending, it seems like I have been trying to latch on to anything and everything that screams fun in the sun. This may be one of my next purchases from Piperlime.

How Could You Not Love Gap?

If you love anything denim then how could you not love the Gap? I mean seriously? Check this out.

Enjoy!

Banana Republic

Remember when I said I was quiting Banana Republic and that the hubs was going to cry when he lost his discount card? Well, I did quit...but then....

...they begged me to stay on. Ok maybe they didn't beg but it was pretty close to it. They are keeping me on to work special events but I do have to work one Saturday shift at least every 6 weeks. Best part...the hubs gets to keep his discount card.

All is good. Feel free to come and visit me tonight, we can play dress up!

Minne Monday

This weekend Minne helped me celebrate my Birthday by acting as if it were her own Birthday. She helped the hubs wrap presents but then she was eager to unwrap them herself. She moves really fast, but can you find her below? She's ready to jump on table and un wrap the gifts.

You didn't believe me? Do you believe me now? (I think I may have a video of Minne trying to wrestle my Birthday gifts out of my hands, I'll try to post that tonight)

After present time, my sister Sam and I made our way to the pool. Unfortunately for Minne, the public pools don't allow dogs in. So Minne tried to sneak in. It didn't work out very well for her, instead it looks like she was stuck behind bars.

Happy Monday everyone!

Birthday Treats

The hubs and I are less and less about Birthdays as time go on, but it's still nice to be recognized and to score some free Birthday treats. Last week I had gotten a few goodies to help me celebrate my Birthday on Sunday.

• A free Caribou Coffee, you can get one ony our Birthday too!
• A FREE Appetizer or Dessert from Rock Bottom, you just have to join the free Mug Club.
• At some point in my life I bought a pair of glasses from Sunglass hut and to this day I still receive a $25 dollar gift card for Sunglass Hut.
• $15 Credit Towards Banana Republic thanks to my Banana Republic card {my one and only store credit card}.
• A buy one get one free Q'Doba Meal thanks to my Doba card
• Free Shipping at Macy's
• A free Panty from Victoria Secret, actually that one came to my husband....
• A free desert at RA

What are some of your favorite treats to help you celebrate your Birthday?

Housing update

We set out on a what we thought would be a fun house search in February. Our lease ends at the end of July. Our goal was to be moving into a new place the last weekend in July. No such luck.

My husband has physically been in over 100 houses and is exhausted not to mention that I am sure our Realtor is super annoyed with us.  But to be fair, we've made offers, we've even had a signed contract but the inspection has failed us.

When we went into the house hunt, we were told it was a buyers market. We totally got our hopes up. Now this may be true for some parts of the country but this is not the case in Chicago. First problem, people are so upside down on their mortgages that even though their house is one price, they will not sell it unless they get what they owe. This makes the house cost more money, not less. How does that make this a buyers market? Second problem, we find houses we like that are pre-forclosure, when we go back to look at it, it's clear the occupants have been forced to leave. How do we know? Well, floors have been removed, things have been pulled out of the walls and ceilings leaving very little to be desired. And guess what? The banks won't lower the costs of the house at this point. Again, how is this a buyers market?

So if you're a seller in the west suburban area of Chicago and your reading this, please check out where I blogged about our wants/needs and email me if you have a house that you REALLY want to sell. And by REALLY I mean you aren't going to list it as the price you actually want for it, because I am not going to lie, when I see the list price, I think there's room to negotiate. This listing your house for exactly what you want to get paid is getting a little out of hand and it's wasting every one's time - PS maybe that's why your house has been on the market for 200+ days, just a thought.

And as a note to any home buyer, if the seller doesn't send you a disclosure for mold and takes awhile to sign the contract it probably mean there is 20% moisture in the walls with lots of mold and other issues in the roof. The hubs and I learned this the hard way which also wasted 3+ weeks of our house hunting.

OK enough complaining and moping, so now here's where I come in and be super positive (it's the Leo in me, I can't help it), are you ready for it? Summer is almost over in my books and the hubs and I have done very little to enjoy it outside of house hunting. So we're going to take a week and weekend off and enjoy ourselves (partly because our Realtor has decided to take a week's vacation to try to get away from us, not really but the thought does cross my mind) We are super greatful and truly blessed for a healthy family, jobs we enjoy going to (well heck just for even having jobs) and for our fabulous friends. We are greatful to even be in a position of looking at houses especially after only having our wedding a year ago.

Cheers to a fun summer activity filled weekend!

Katherine Salvatori

I know I have written about my Chicagoland wedding photographer and high school friend, Katherine Salvatori, in the past but I just saw her most recent wedding she shot, love it! What do you think? A few shots of the bride:

And what about the adorable boys?!

Make the Sweet 16th Gift Sweet

Since my sister was turning 16, I started thinking awhile ago about what to get her. My mom mentioned that she was getting her a Tiffany's Bracelett. I spoke with my other sister and we decided to go in on a charm for the bracelet and maybe a few other goodies. I wanted this to look SWEEEEEEEEEEET. 

While thinking about the gift, I knew I wanted to incorporate sweets and something significant to this Birthday being special because it's a driving Birthday. I figured I would try to bring all of the above together in a Tiffany like package. We ended up getting a photo box/shoe box and stuffing it with Tiffany's Tissue Paper.

To make it sweet, the hubs and I made a trip to the local candy store and we bought a little bit of everything that was somewhat close to the Tiffany shade. This included M&Ms, Jelly Bellies and Rock Candy. To my surprise, the hubs didn't purchase anything for himself!

To make the gift significant to driving we made a stop at Old Navy and picked out 2 super cute key chains. I also included a blue fresh car air freshener. What we got looked a little something like this: 

Buyers Beware

Remember this little house we were trying to make our very own?

Well we got the contract signed, finally. Good news right? WRONG! We had our inspection 2 days later and it was a major bust.

Back to the drawing board, I mean house search list....efff

Minne Monday

Guess what? We have great news! This little girl is feeling so much better. The hard part is now restricting her from activity to make sure she fully heels so that she doesn't hurt herself again. Happy Minne Monday!

3 O'Clock Snack Time

Anyone else get super hungry right around 3 o'clock? If you do, you should deffinitly try out a Cliff Bar. My new favorite is the Black Cherry Almond. Its delicous and its organic and full of nutrition and natural energy. It's the perfect boost to get you through the last few hours of the work day. Cheers, it's almost 5.

Happy Birthday Jess!

Happy Birthday to one of my good college friends. Since living in the same hall Freshman year at Butler, we've shared some really fun times together and celebrated some great Birthdays together. You may recognize her from here, and if you do you know how totally awesome she is and you know a lot about her passion for calligraphy and all things wedding. She has always been a great late night McDonalds buddy and a friend that could always guarantee a fun night. With all the stresses of house hunting in the Chicago market and not seeing many friends lately, I am totally missing her right now.

Hall of Champions Pre-Party!

Sick Puppy

Monday night the hubs came home to a wheezing puppy who was terrified of jumping up onto the bed. She was hardly walking and she still hadn't eaten her breakfast (which is very uncharacteristic of Bostons). It was terrible and scary. We tried to get her to jump on the sofa and she couldn't.

We know it's common for older Boston Terriers to have lower back and back leg problems but we didn't expect something to happen to our young pup who is only 3 years old.

The hubs took her to the vet and I met them there. The vet said it didn't feel like anything was broken or that out of place so we would wait on taking x-rays for the time being. He suggested (and we're hoping) that it's just a pinched nerve. She's now on a new medicine (her medicine cabinet is more full than the hubs and I combined) and we're hoping that she is back to her self by the weekend. If not, you better believe that we will be at the vets office the moment they open.

Along with a new medication, the vet suggested restricting her activity level. We thought this was going to be very difficult but as of this morning, poor Minne is acting as if she's restricting herself. Here's to hoping her body continues to heal itself so she can stand like this and smile again:

Family Dinners

I love family dinners, especially ones that include my parents and sisters. On our way to meet the family to celebrate Al's Birthday. It should look something like this, as this was taken last year in June for Sam's Bday:

Hope you all are having a good one and you get to spend some time with your family during this crazy busy summer!

Happy Birthday Al

4th Birthday

This little girl turns 16 today!

At our wedding late spring '09

Happy Birthday to my youngest sister!  Wow I feel old, but hey at least we have another DD, right?

The Hubs and Al at our favorite "private" pool, summer of '06

Al and I after a wet game of flag football fall of '08

When To Know When To Walk Away

We've been in negotiations for over 2 weeks. On Friday we reached an agreement. Early Saturday we signed our part of the contract. Since Saturday we have been waiting for the seller to sign the contract. As of now, no such luck. The selling Realtor has hardly even spoken with our Realtor, hence the 2+ weeks of negotiations. Do we keep waiting and hope that everything is going to work out? We haven't even had an inspection yet that could still go horribly wrong. At what point should we be willing to walk away from a house? To what point should we continue to pursue it?

House Hunting is not fun.

Minne Monday - Doggie Dash

A few weeks back our Minne girl ran her first Doggie Dash, Woofin Hoofin a fund raiser put on by some local high school students to raise money for local animal shelters and organizations that combat animal cruelty. The event itself is a small event but knowing that the proceeds are going to a good place and Minne really wanted to run a race, it seemed well worth it.

I think Minne's urge to run a race came from the training I was doing for my first race that I completed in June and the hubs has been training as well. Any time Minne sees our running shoes on, she runs to the door and waits. It's as if she stores all her energy all day by sleeping so that when we get home and take her for a run she can run fast...really really fast.

The hubs can usually take Minne on a 3mile run, however it's been very hot and humid the last few weeks so runs with Minne have been shorter (she likes to run but we don't want to injure her). Luckily, the Doggie Dash was only one mile. Minne was sold on placing but not until she was fully hydrated.

When we got to the race, the Hubs and Minne had a special pep talk. After wards, the two sat across from the finish line, sizing up their competition.

The two wanted to start in the back so they could try to count how many people they passed. Apparently they passed a lot of people just at the start of the race because the hubs couldn't remember how many people they had actually passed. You can see Minne fighting through the crowd here.

It was amazing that when the race started, many of the dogs turned on their race face and bolted. It was crazy to see such a thing. Minne was included in this. It was as if she had been training her whole life for this one little race and nothing was going to get in her way. Not even a stinky shoe.

Check out the form!

 

It was only about a Minute into the race that Minne and the hubs went for the 1st place position. Here they are about to pass the current number 1.

The race went by so quick and some how Minne and the hubs got passes and they were left to run on their own. No on was catching up with them. Not even while they were going up hill.

Or down hill into a gross wet swampy grasslands (by the way did I mention our dog is allergic to grass?)

As the finish line was in sight, the hubs knew that he was the one that was preventing Minne from getting first. She was just too fast for him. But, he put on a smile and kicked his legs up a pace to guarantee Minne a 3rd place spot.

You can't even see how fast she is, she's that fast

And in less than 9 minutes the race was over and Minne got her first ribbon for her first ever race.

A 3rd place finish for a first time race dog seemed pretty good to us. It didn't make sense to punish her for the hubs not being able to keep up so we did what any parent would do and told her she took first in our book. Here's she is singing "All I do is win"

Can't wait to sign up for next year's Woofin Hoofin!!!

Chicago Bridal Expo

My Wedding By Katherine Salvatori

If you're looking for a photographer and you're going to the Chicago Bridal Expo, check out Katherine Salvatori's Booth. You may recognize some familiar faces!

My Friend As Post Wedding Shoot By Katherine Salvatori

Not so Fun Wednesday

No Dwane Wade and Chris Bosh are not coming to Chicago.

Not only has my car's air not worked ever, but to keep the engine from over heating I have to drive with the heat on in this awful Chicago humid weather in construction BUT now my cadillac converter may be out. The hubs has a check engine light on in his car too.

After looking at more houses we decided to go back to the 2nd house we looked at and even though they were so offended by our offer they didn't even want to talk to us, we made them another offer LAST WEEK. Not sure if this funny or not but it does seem very ironic. Doing what we can not to seem to desperate at the moment.

Can someone tell me honestly how long it should legally take for a seller to respond to an offer or a counter offer? Until then...just watching the time go by Dali style.

Found Here

I Love July

Summer of 06 - 2 Birthday girls in the front

There are so many reasons why I love July but figured I should start with Birthdays!

One of my good friends and I have Birthdays less than 2 weeks apart in July, why not love the month you were born in right? Well, in college we used to come back the weekend in-between our birthdays and celebrate. It was a great tradition that would get us all back together in the middle of the summer before we would come back to school in September. We always had a good time in our school city which always included some Indians baseball (I do love baseball).

Summer of 04 I believe?

As you get older the summers pass quicker and quicker as they are full of wedding celebrations, graduations and well just family time. Last year we spent a weekend at the lake and as of now there's no plans for this July. I may need to work on that.  Miss these girls!

Chicago Free Agency Text

Image from ChicagoBulls.com

In text messages over thoughts about the craziness that the NBA free agency is bring to Chicago, the Bulls and my work the United Center, I get this from one of my besties:

"I hope you're doin ur part to bring these boys here--show some boob or something!"

If you follow the NBA or even just the Chicago Bulls, you know which "boys" she is refering to. Pretty sure if I showed by boobs today would probably be the last day of my job so I'll pass but I did get a good laugh at the text. Hope you do too, Happy Free Agency Thursday.