Ut Oh - the Cubbies Ohhs

One of our mess the dress session photos from here

My not so hot Cubbies are taking on the hubs favorite team the Phillies the next 2 days. Since we tend to disagree on all sporting teams with the exception of the Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Fire, this naturally means a bet is in order.

Since I lost the last 2 bets (Bears vs Packers and the last Cubs vs Phillies series) I had to come up with a bet for this 2 game series. With our 1 year anniversary just over a month away, I decided that whoever loses has to make plans to celebrate.
the hubs lost a Bears Packers bet, yup he's wearing a skirt with a Bears shirt to our Chicago families Christmas Celebration

We've been wanting to plan a little baseball trip however, house hunting has really thrown a wrench in our plans so we're back to the drawing bored because we both want it to be great but neither of us want the stress. However, there is a running joke that the husband knows me oh so well, since the last time he made "big plans" he took me to HIS favorite bar & grill, Old Chicago. Does this look like an anniversary spot? I think not. So he needs a chance to redeem himself, but after I presented the wager to the hubs, here's the email I got back:

Perfect……spoiler alert…..mine would involve OLD CHICAGO!

Not sure who this bet is going to work better for, I guess if we split the series it's back to the drawing board.

Lets Get Nautical

This weekend was a fabulous weekend all about a beautiful upcoming bride, who I spoke of here. It was great to see college friends, especially some of my sorority sisters. One of which, the lovely Jessica from Penned & Pretty made for quite the Skipper aka host. She planned a wonderful evening based on everything nautical. Case in point, check out the awesome invite she did - I had to put it next to one of our college shirts because...well it was just nautical and very fitting.

We started at the hotel, for a "private shower" if you will. There were presents, nautical colored drinks and fish snacks of course, and by fish I mean cheesy delish goldfish. From the hotel we cabbed over to Bubba Gump Shrimp for some yummy sea food delight.

While we waited for a table to be ready, we made a long hike to the end of Navy Pier to see one of Chicago's largest anchors. Since I was in the photo I don't actually have anything to show here, but I promise I will insert something soon.

Once we made the cold hike back to the restaurant we started the night with some drinks. We were only missing some Gamma for this Delta.

Isn't the bride to be beautiful and totally nautical?

Ok ok so I might have a slight obsession with work...but really how cool is it that Navy Pier is completely decked out with Blackhawks banners?


Post dinner is where I start to lose focus and apparently stopped taking good photos, well photos at all. We went to a teeny tiny karaoke bar where we waited forever to do a group song of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" to celebrate the new bride to be. From there, we went dancing. (PS Laura may kill me for this photo)

After the bride had clearly had "too much fun" a few of us helped to take her back home. However, we made it like the college days and had to have the cab make one quick stop before we called it a night. Yum the Golden Arches, I think this may be my favorite photo. Come on, what is more classic than the captain with their skipper in line at McDonalds around 1am?

Minne Monday

Between house hunting, car problems and this weather I am just not feeling my uppity self today. But this blog was meant to remind me of the good times and since it is Monday here's a a bright colored photo of our Minne girl with the hubs goddaughter. Man what I would give to be shading myself on a hammock on a warm sunny day like it was in this photo

Happy Minne Monday!

PS recaps from my nautical weekend are coming soon!

Project Friday

Months ago the husband and I got in an argument about what do to with our shoes. You see, if I put the shoes in the shoe boxes in the top of my closet, I can't reach them. I'm vertically challenged so I would have to bring a chair into the closet, stand on it as I unstack the boxes, opening them as I try to figure out what is inside them. It is just too long of a process for me. I usually opt to keep just my nice shoes in the shoe boxes and all others in a bin on my closet floor, I wasn't ready to budge on this.

A few weeks later the hubs said he saw an idea that may be some what of a solution for the shoes. So we had project night. All it took was shoe boxes, tape and an exacto knife (and if you want to get really creative some spray paint).

So we spent one night revising the shoe box.

The hubs went to town cutting out one side of the shoe box, making it:
1.Easy to slide the shoes in and out without having to unstack all the shoe boxes.
2. Easy to see the shoes inside the box.

After he cut the side of the box, I would go back and tape the top of the box to the bottom of the box.

In the end we got lots of boxes that I have happily stacked in my closet. I think once we move I will be looking for old shoe boxes to use for the shoes that I have already thrown away and I think I may want to spray paint them all to add some consistent color to the closet. This is what we have right now, what do you think?

Remember that 5K?

Weeks ago I talked about running my first 5K. I started the training and it was going well until about the 3rd week. Work got busy, the weather got worse and running seemed impossible. In the past 2 weeks I have managed to get outside for a light run at least 2 times a week but that isn't the 3 times a week that I really need. So now I am faced with this awesome 5K run coming up on June 5 and I am terrified. I googled some 3 week running programs and didn't come up with too much. Looks like this may be the best I can do:

Week 1: Mon: 5km easy run, Wed: 5km faster run, Sat: long easy run for an hour, take it very easy.

Week 2: Mon: 5km easy run, Wed: 5km faster run, Sat: long easy run for an hour, take it very easy.

Week 3 : Mon: 5km fast run, Wed: 5km easy run, Sat: Race

Since my 3 week milestone doesn't actually start until next Monday I am hoping to get 2 more "easy" runs in this week and then I'll really push myself next week. Any one have any advise or tricks to share with me? I would normally ask the hubs to run and push me but his nurse sister just diagnosed him with Patellar Tendonitis so that puts him on the sofa icing his knee rather than running. I wonder if my little track star sister is going to want to do any training with me?

Parades are Supposed to be Fun

A few weeks back I was leaving my besties house to head to a Blackhawks game at the United Center that I was working. Here I am driving down a normally busy street with no cars in sight. it was a Sunday evening and figured maybe those crazy city people were recovering from their city weekend life styles - no biggie.

I kept driving and then I heard sirens coming from the opposite direction, some fire trucks and police cars. This made me think that perhaps there was a crazy accident that happened behind me, this would make sense since I was the only car on the road. Then I started thinking what if I caused an accident? Do I turn around? Should I go back?

As I have all these questions running through my mind, I approached the top of a hill and started to head downward and that's when I saw it. There were hundreds of people lining the street in just a few hundred yards in front of me, marching at me, chanting at me in words I didn't recognize. Flags were waiving and the megaphones were powerful. It was a parade, but not just any parade. The Polish American Police Association was helping to host a parade in honor of the President of Poland who was killed in the plane crash on April 10, 2010.

A police officer on a bike rode up to me and asked me how I got to this road. My response was simple and confused.... "I drove"

The officer took a long pause and said never mind that, lets figure out how to get you out of there. He directed me to stay on the right side of the road as he directed me westbound. Now, I know that phones are illegal in Chicago while driving, but as I was getting directed out of the parade line, I had to snap a quick shot because who was going to believe that I got stuck in a Polish Parade? Come on now. And that's where this little gem comes in

Parades are supposed to be fun, but not when you get trapped in one.

Reunion & Mothers Day Recap

This weekend was quite the weekend. We did make it to Indiana so we could celebrate the reunion of my hubs and all his high school classmates of '99. The reunion itself was simple and not very many attendees. However, that didn't get my husband down. He was so excited to see everyone that was there and in the end that's what matters right?

As much fun as the reunion was, I think the hubs mostly enjoyed seeing his friends little ones.

Case in point, meet little L. She is the daughter of my husbands best girl friend from college. We've seen the hub's friend but this was our first meeting with little L. Looks like the hubs hit it off pretty well if I do say so myself:
He offered cookies with no luck, but the balloon grabbed Ls attention quickly!

After the reunion we made it to a little local Mexican place for margaritas and more social time with some of the hubs high school friends. Again, there was more bonding with little ones, but this time Landon may have been a bit too excited:


Don't worry the two ended up bonding just fine!


Isn't this little guy adorable?! You can see more on him here.


Little L and her mommy made it over to the restaurant too. Here she is trying on the new shades that the hubs hand picked out for her:


She is quite the ham and according to the hubs, she looks exactly like her mommy when she was a little girl. Adorable.


The hubs mom was dying to see how big little L was getting so we made our way back to their house for a little R&R:


NOT! This may look like a relaxing evening in bed but the hubs decided how to teach little miss L how to jump on the bed. After jumping a bunch of times she would fall and land on her but and then hide under the covers. This game went on for quite awhile. In fact, the dogs got a little bit jealous which is how this photo came into play.

Minne on the left, nephew buddy on the right

We woke up and prepared to make our journey back home, but first the hubs and his sis made their mom a breakfast just to her liking. Smile Beckers:


And that concludes the reunion & mothers day weekend!