A Day With Baby L

Last weekend we spent some time with Baby L. We took over 200 Photos, but here are some of my favorites of one of the cutest babies ever:

The hubs really enjoyed the day. Honestly he did. I think he may have thought he had the dad role. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

PS someday my husband is going to make the worlds best dad list, I'm 100% sure of that.

HELP!

Help, there is a man hanging from my ceiling.

Actually he comes to visit almost once a month. I get forced out of my work space so he can check some water lines which are super important for the building. It is kind of humorous though.

PS I just realized I really need to spruce up the office area back here, it's kind of lame

Minne Monday

This past weekend we were uber busy but we got to see and host quite a bit of friends. Minne especially loves weekends like this with all the girls. She like following the girls around and helping them to pick out their outfits.

Minne also likes watching them get ready. I actually think she hopes that someone will put make up on her.

But I think Minne's favorite part about a weekend like this past, is when we all come home from a night out and give her a lot of attention. All eyes on Minne girl.

Hope you all have a great week, Happy Monday!

Quick Weekend Update

Quick recap, yesterday was spent with the cutest baby ever....

Today I am going to my baby's wedding (my DG baby that is)

Anchors aweigh!

Happy Birthday Jack

Happy Birthday to my best friend in the entire world.

Next year at this time she will be in Germany, miles and miles away.

New Car Part 2

Did my New Car Part 1 post leave you wondering what I upgraded myself too? Well did it?

Meet my Jetta! It's got a spacious trunk, family friendly 4 doors, blue tooth equipped through the car (which helps in Chicago traffic since it is a law that you can't use a hand held device) and the best part? THE AIR CONDITIONING! and the color is Candy White...if you know me, you know this is so fitting.

And well she looks great in my work parking lot!

Happy Birthday Preacher Woman

One of the most special moments of the hubs and my life and looks who's there to join in it....that's right our very close friend, in fact our only mutual friend that we both had before we started dating. We fought over who side she should stand up on and we agreed she should be in the middle. And she agreed. It was perfect. Today she celebrates her Birthday and even though we're miles away...we are thinking of her. Happy Birthday to our very special preacher woman.

Weekend Festivites

Whole busy but fun weekend ahead!

 Landon's HS friend, wife and Baby L will get in at 3pm on Thursday. They are thinking deep dish pizza for dinner. Genius, I mean we do live in Chicago :)


Friday will be spent in Chicago, sight seeing items like the bean in Millennium Park, Navy Pier and maybe the Hancock Center. In the evening we're going to check out the Yankees vs White Sox game as our friends are huge Yankees fans. Apparently our friend picking criteria is at an all time low, I mean the Yankees...come On - totally kidding but I am a Cubs fan and the hubs is a Phillie's fans so at least they aren't Mets fans :)
Post game, we'll pick up one of my college girl friend.

Saturday all of us will have breakfast. The HS friends will leave and we have 2 more of my sorority sister's joining us for a wedding of another DG sister, one of them you may already know.  We'll partake in a beautiful wedding ceremony and then dance the night away.
Sunday, breakfast with friends staying with us plus my girl friend who moved to North Carolina and her boyfriend.

This may be the best weekend of the summer. Finally, friend time :)

Best part? I get to drive everyone around in my new car.

New Car Part 1

I have been driving the best most reliable FREE car ever. It's gotten me around for almost 3 years. It's wonderful on gas mileage, has automatic windows and a great cd player BUT...it has no air conditioning. In fact, in the summer I usually have to drive with the heat on so that it doesn't over heat. This poor all heat Pontiac Sunfire has been passed down 3 times and last winter it started experiencing some transmission difficulties. We have put some money into it a few times but 2 Fridays ago on my way home from work it died. COMPLETELY.

It looks something like this, with chipped paint, some more rust and some fender benders (to be fair, the car was parked and I was in the house when it got hit)

You would think I would be terrified but this wasn't the first time I had a car die on me in a construction zone, during Chicago Rush hour...oh noo it was actually the 2nd time. Thank goodness, it was a lot easier to bare the comments that people were yelling, it was easy to look past people flipping me the bird and screaming (apparently when your car dies everyone around you thinks that you did it on purpose so their day would be ruined).

After that the hubs said enough is a enough. We spent 2 weeks researching cars. I was able to use the hubs car for a few days and the rest of the time I took the train. Well that was until Monday when I got harrassed outside of Union Station in Chicago. It was so bad the police got involved. The officer begged me to fill out the report because it was the only way they could arrest the man who was harrasing me. After the report was filed the cop told me I did the right thing because the man has been known to follow women into their work places! He also told me that he targets new faces along the train route. AWESOME.

That Monday night, we bought a new car.

My Husband Is Wonderful

This morning my husband woke me up by saying, come out side now.

Apparently this little birdie was having a hard time walking and he was starting to turn green. It seemed like he could hardly move. The husband grabbed a towel and we were able to get the bird on the towel. We moved him off the sidewalk away from all kids and dogs and placed him by the trees and woodchips. We don't know much about birds but we do know we aren't supposed to touch them for fear of him being a baby birdie and his mom never wanting to associate with him again.

 Hopefully, his life will fair better there. I hope this little guy isn't still in the same spot tonight.  

PS my husband really is wonderful

Minne Monday

Sometimes life is stressful and you just need to take a nap. The hubs and I schedule nap time on Sunday. it was fabulous. Minne especially liked the extra sleep time.

90s Music Flash Back

Someone in my office just quoted a line from a song that came out in 1990 by Musto & Bones, maybe you've heard of it?



Check out Rita's dance moves. All I can say is WOW we've come along way in 20 years!

When is it ok to turn left at a red light?

image here

"My boss came in and said he didn't know Illinois had so many cameras at the lights" hubs

"How did he find out" me

"His wife received 12 tickets in the mail that included photos of her turning left at a red light" hubs

me choking..."She turned left at a a red light?"

"My boss said that in Massachusetts it's ok to turn left on a red light if there are no cars around" hubs

"Pretty sure it's not legal to turn left on a red light in any city" me

"That's what I told him. I let him know that at most lights in Chicago you can't even turn right on a red light. I'm sure she has more tickets coming in the mail" hubs

This seemed absurd to me but I don't think I have ever driven any where near there. So  my question is....does anyone out there reading this live in Massachusetts? Is it common or accepted to turn left at a red light? Or in any American city for that matter?

Mini Marathon

I can hardly run a 5K so I am not sure what I was thinking when I signed up for next year's Indy Mini. I guess the plus is that I don't need to start training till next year. Perhaps that will be my resolution for 2011...run more, get healthier and run a mini?

The mini is 262 days away...72 days ago I posted this. I wonder what took me so long to register? Perhaps maybe it's the fact that I haven't really even tried to run since that post? eek.

Minne Monday

This weekend we went back to Indiana to see the hubs sister graduate from nursing school. Minne's favorite part was her time spent playing with her cousin Buddy. Compared to our last visit, Buddy is growing and you can see that he is now bigger than Minne.

Minne (Boston Terrier) on the left, Buddy (Faux Frenchbo) on the right

They had some good play time with the hubs... 

And with my sister in-law too, although it looks like there may be some jealous boxes in the room.

Just a few other favorites:

They hear the camera but both look a different way

 

The pups with Grandpa

Graduation

Photo found here

The hubs, Minne girl and I are on our way to go watch his sister graduate nursing school. We are so proud of all the hard work she has put into such a little amount of time. Congrats big sis!!!

PS I am sure Minne is super excited to play with her cousin Buddy. Photos to come on Monday.

Future Rock & Roll

The hubs and I always joke that we want to have 2 brute boys named "Rock" & "Roll" some day (we may be a little serious). Don't worry we would actually name them Rollin and Rocky but still call them rock and roll. While I was in Rockton watching my dad race I spotted this little guy wobbling around. I am pretty sure I can see the future Rock and Roll giving us plenty of laughs like this. It's a long time away still but the throught makes me smile

Dad's Race

Last weekend I had the awesome experience of going to watch my dad race. He's been doing it for a few years but race season is the same season as wedding season and after being in so many weddings and planning our own, the weekends just never seemed to fall into place. So this year I committed myself to going to see him at a local race (only 2 hours away which is nothing compared to some of the drives). While there I got to see some of my family friends that I often referred to "uncles" while growing up. It was a great little trip, see for yourself...

To get to the track you drive through some beautiful slightly hilly areas with lots of farm land, grass and trees. It's hard to not find the place beautiful. I guess that's why they call it Blackhawk Farms Raceway.

I arrived just in time to watch my dad do his final practice. Post practice my dad made his way over to the weigh machine to make sure he was at regulation. He was. It was a good practice, not a great one but a good one.

Once he got done we all took a little break for food and afterwards stopped for cake, ice cream and root beer floats. These two made themselves cake icing lipstick. Silly but fun.

After lunch all the racers work on tuning up their car for the race. It was cool to see all the guys helping each other out even though they are all competitors once they get on the track.

Once everyone was ready and it was my dad's flight time, we made our way to the track.

I learned that my babysitter was quite the pit girl! While I was there I saw her help my dad make some adjustments to his car, check his air pressure, get gas for the car and even start his car. For a 16 year old, she's pretty bad @ss.

It was hard to capture photos of my dad actually racing because well at 70+ mph....he was just to darn fast....

The best part about the race I saw? That's obvious, when he took 1st

After the race everyone goes back to their camp sites, prep for dinner, work on cars for the next day's practice and my favorite part? They all relax.

Here's just a  few other photos from race day that I really enjoyed:

Babysitting the Cousins

Last Monday I baby sat my cousins who are adorable. Want photos to prove the point? We had color night and ended up with some of these:

Can you guess who this is a picture of? Hint here

A 4.5 year old's homework...coloring her folder, presh!

We also played 1 game of bowling Wii. There were some happy faces and some not so happy faces.

In my book, everyone's a winner!

It was a really good night. Can't wait to do it again soon.