Goals

It's been a while since I've made any monthly goals, and I'm not quite sure I'm ready to jump right back in just yet (maybe in January?) But I do have some things I would like to get done before I go back to work in less than 2 weeks!! So, here we go!

• Iron enough work clothes to last me through the rest of the year...all 3 weeks of it ;)
• Read all of my magazines that have been building up
• Organize my coupons - shouldn't be hard, since I haven't been getting them in the Sunday paper >:0
• Change our car tags
• Change my drivers license
• Change our insurance
• Finish painting our small, side coffee table for our new "sitting area" in the living room
• Write and mail Christmas cards
• Take huge pile of stuff in kitchen corner to Good Will
• Take suit and cute holiday shirt to the dry cleaners

Hmmm, I think that's it for now. I've been enjoying every day and not cramming it too full with stuff I have to do, but I'm sure if I wanted to I could accomplish all or most of that list in 1 day. But what fun would that be? :)

Hmmmmm, thoughts?

We've been here for 3 weeks now so I've been feeling the pressure to come up with a new blog name and header! My creativity is seriously lacking these days, wait, actually I've never really been the "creative" type. So this is what I've come up with. Once I get some good pics of the city and our surroundings/life here I'll make it better...and Tom offered up his computer expertise to make me a better header.

As for the blog name? I seriously could not come up with anything better, so that will have to do for now. I reserve the right to change the name at any time should a super awesome name be brought to my attention :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I would like to start this blog post with a brief list of things I'm thankful for:

• Tom's dad is home from the hospital (on Monday actually, he had been there (minus a brief rehab hospital stay) since October 27th!!
• My brother got a job with United Airways! Go Matt!
• I have a job...yay, and Tom has a really good (for him) job
• I found the Yule Log on demand in HD!! There is also a snowman and snow falling on "Christmas greens" all accompanied by Christmas music :)
• My Christmas in Boston DVD arrived this week! (Sidebar: I have a secret guilty pleasure of watching cheesy Lifetime/ABC Family/Hallmark movies during the holidays. I saw advertisements for Christmas in Boston when I lived in Philly in 2005, but unfortunately did not see it. Every year since then I've tried to watch it but they have stopped airing it! Just this year it made it to DVD...and I ordered it a few weeks ago...can't wait to watch it...I'm sure it'll be horribly cheesy but I'm so excited!)
• Our heat works...although our apartment got up to 76 today with all of the cooking! Who needs heat when you are roasting a turkey?!
• My health, Tom's health, our family's health
• Bailey - she's been extra cute lately...and has actually started to "tolerate" cuddling. Maybe it's myself telling me that I'm ready for something else...but I just love her so much lately :)

Okay! Now onto the menu! For breakfast we had coffee and cinnamon rolls (store bought - I contemplated making them from scratch...but it looked like a lot of work!) For the main course we had:

• Gourmet Sweet Potato Casserole
• Salad
• Oyster Casserole
• Two-hour Turkey & Gravy (plus a few extra herbs/spices)
• Stuffing
• And for dessert: Lemon Meringue Pie

I thought the pie was disgusting but Tom said it was great. He ate my piece too since I, apparently, do not like lemon meringue pie. I hope everyone had a relaxing and filling Thanksgiving. I know we sure did, and there's so much to be thankful for!

Pre-Thanksgiving

Today is the first day before Thanksgiving that I haven't had to work. I spent it baking and being thankful that I don't have Stage IV Hodgkins Lymphoma like the girl in this blog (warning: don't read unless you want to bawl your eyes out...I also spent my day doing that).

Anyways, the other day I asked Tom what he wanted for dessert on Thanksgiving and he replied "Lemon Meringue Pie." I got excited, because I was expecting him to say "I don't know, whatever you want." So when he gave me a specific answer, I immediately started searching my favorite recipe site and found this recipe. I have never tried to bake a lemon meringue (or any meringue) pie before, so I was determined to thoroughly read through the instructions (something I've been known to skim) and prepare everything before I actually started baking.

I decided to make my own pie crust because I need one anyways to make Pioneer Woman's Turkey Pot Pie with my leftover turkey. And PW's pie crust recipe makes 2. So perfect. So I did that first (I actually made 4 and froze 2 for future use). Easy. Done. Then I started to get everything ready for the pie. I did a little research and read up on all of the tips left on the recipe site. I tried to time everything perfect, because several people said if you put the hot lemon mixture into a hot pie shell, and then put the meringue on the hot lemon filling, you will get the best results. That's great if you have 3 people to make each thing simultaneously! But it was just me, so I did the best I could.

Everything was going surprisingly well....until it was time to make the meringue. I did everything exactly like the recipe said, but no matter how fast and furiously I whipped the meringue, little stiff peaks were definitely NOT forming. I turned on the mixer and let it do it's magic for a few minutes. Still no peaks. Still gooey. I googled "How to make meringue thicker" and watched several instructional videos. I did everything they said, and after 15 minutes of using the hand mixer, the meringue was still a liquidy mess. I gave up and poured it onto the top of the pie, popped it in the oven, and just hoped for the best.

I think it came out okay, but there were not any cute little decorative peaks. During some of my "research" I learned that meringue does not like humidity/moisture. Wouldn't you know it was raining off and on all day. One website even said not to bother making meringue on rainy days. Good to know. I'll let you know how it tastes tomorrow!!

I got a job!!

Yay! And it was my first choice too! It will be outpatient instead of inpatient (still peds) but I'm actually really excited. I think it's a good time in my life/career for a little change. I won't start until December 13th, so I still have a little more time off. At first I was hoping to start a little sooner (like Monday) but I think it will be good to just have a little more time to myself. Plus that gives more time for my license to go through since it takes FOR-EV-ERRRRRRR. And things could possibly change, but as of now I'll be working only a few blocks from Tom 3 days a week...so we can commute together. The other 2 days I'll be out in the suburbs. It's great to know that I have a job and a start date!

Top 10 Things I Love About Our Apartment

In no particular order...

10. The mint garden (that I can plant whatever I want in :)
9. Gas stove
8. Sunlight in the living room
7. Pretty leaves outside the living room window
6. This cute little flip-out drawer in the bathroom vanity (yes, it would be more functional if it was an actual drawer but this is cuter :)
5. Lazy Susan storage space in the corner kitchen cabinets
4. The fireplace (even though it doesn't actually work)
3. Not having to sort the recylcing!!! (I didn't think you would want to see a picture of our unsorted recycling :)
2. I get to keep all of my cookbooks in the kitchen!
1. Watching Bailey do the Basenji 500 in the back yard

What is She up to?**

**Said to the sound of Homestar Runner

Tom started his job on Monday, and I'm still waiting to hear back about my interviews. I've been slowly unpacking and organizing everything in our apartment. We are down to those last few "Random/junk boxes" which can sometimes stay packed and stuffed in a closet until your next move. Not this time!! We still have to assemble some furniture that we broke down for the move, but hopefully that will all get done this weekend.

I've been doing a little bit of Freezer Cooking in preparation for hopefully going back to work soon, but I'm not holding my breath. I've had a lot of trouble getting everything straightened out for my Illinois license and I'm still waiting on one more letter from my school. Apparently the Drexel "seal" is broken so they are waiting for it to get fixed before they can "verify" that I went to PT school. As if having licenses to practice PT in 2 other states isn't proof enough that I went to and graduated from PT school. Argh!

So anyways I've been cooking a lot. I've made World's Best Potato Salad, Baked Potato Soup, Pioneer Woman's Potato skins, and a few other tried and true recipes. (By the way, did anyone else happen to catch P-dub on Throwdown tonight? It was a Thanksgiving competition - everything looked amazing!) Here's a picture of the skins. We ate them while we watched the Eagles destroy the Redskins on Monday night ;)

Also, Bailey has had a really rough time adjusting to the new place. She hates having me home all day, going for walks, running around in the back yard, playing tug-of-war with her toys, and most of all, lounging around on the couch. *note sarcasm* Incidentally, I came across this post tonight on a blog that makes me almost pee my pants on a regular basis. The "simple minded" dog sounds exactly like Bailey, and even looks like her. Even the barfing part (although Bailey didn't throw up in the car, she did throw up today for no apparent reason, and then immediately tried to cuddle with me on the couch, and she hates to cuddle). Make sure you read that post if you feel like a good laugh!

Eat Your Heart Out, Chicago

Everyone told us we would eat our way through Chicago. They weren't kidding. We've been to some fabulous restaurants so far and we are figuring out how to adjust our budget so we can continue to eat out!

Last Sunday we met up with my friend Jess from Penn State for brunch. We went to Kitsch'n in Roscoe Village. YUM! Everything on their menu looked so good, it was hard to choose just one thing! I had the chicken salad sandwich and Tom had some tasty looking breakfast food. This will definitely be somewhere we frequent for brunch.

Friday night a couple that works in Tom's lab took us out to dinner at Sola for a "Welcome to Chicago, Sorry You Had to Deal With The Stress of Moving" dinner. It was amazing! The best scallops I've ever had. I tried their drink of the month, "Mel Blanc," which was made with "Yazi Ginger Vodka, Domaine de Canton, fresh farm carrot juice, pineapple juice and sriracha." It had a little kick to it but it wasn't too hot for me to handle! Tom had tuna and an amazing looking banana ice cream and hot fudge dessert.

Saturday night we went out to a bar called Alive One to celebrate my friend Stef's (also from Penn State) birthday. Stef and I lived on the same floor in our dorm freshman year and became good friends when we both spent a summer at Penn State (*gasp*) TEN years ago! We had a good time but we aren't used to being out so late! Today made for a lazy day of lounging around and watching football.

Celebration!

Wow, after a rocky start, I'd say we had a great first full week in Chicago! All of our worldly posessions arrived Wednesday night. They had to unload everything in the dark (only because they arrived 4 hours after they called and told us they would be there) so we left the back door open to make it easier for them and to shed a little light outside. Bailey kept herself entertained for a little while by ripping the eyes out of every single one of her toys.

Eventually she got bored and tried to inch her way out to the back deck. Our back deck happens to be shared with our nextdoor neighbor. At one point, I was in the kitchen unpacking boxes when I heard the movers say "No, here girl! Don't go in there!" Bailey decided to introduce herself to our neighbors by running into their apartment and sniffing everthing when they opened their back door!! I was mortified!! I ran over, apologized profusely, and embarrassingly introduced myself to the neighbors. Thankfully, they thought it was hilarious and didn't mind her at all. A few minutes later, they even came over and gave us 2 bottles of wine as a welcome gift! (One of our neighbors works for a company called Wine Connoisseur). We are slowly unpacking and getting settled. I think Bailey was more excited than we were for our couches to arrive!

The other reason we are celebrating this weekend is because I had FIVE interviews this week! Three of them were at the children's hospital (first choice), one at RIC, and one at a small outpatient center/school. I think they went well so keep your fingers crossed for me! I'm hoping I hear something by next week!

Why does Chicago hate us?

Or maybe the better question is...Is our apartment haunted? (Lordy, I hope not. I almost didn't even write this post for fear that someone would leave a comment and say "Maybe your apartment is haunted!" As if by someone else saying it outloud instead of me just thinking it in my head it might actually be true. So no comments about our place being haunted!!)

So, it all started with our crappy movers screwing us over. They tried to delay our pick-up date in Birmingham by 2 days until I called and talked to their boss. Then I mistakenly told them the estimated delivery date was 2-7 days when they asked, so of course they're taking their sweet-a** time delivering. And they told their boss that we had agreed upon this Wednesday as a delivery date (only found that out because I called their boss again on Saturday). It would be one thing if they told us up front it would take 7 days, but feeling like you're being taken advantage of and lied to is a pretty crappy feeling.

We've been having problems with our heat since we moved in. The landlady seems to think we don't know how to work the programmable thermostat and her advice was "Make sure you don't have the AM and the PM mixed up." Um, thanks. The maintainance guy came out today and he thinks there is something actually wrong with the furnace (take that! And then buy us a new furnace!)

Last night I was in the kitchen and Tom was in the 2nd bedroom on the computer when we heard a super LOUD crash followed by glass shattering. We both immediately ran into the hallway thinking something had happened to the other person when we saw that the glass light covering in our bedroom had crashed to the floor for no apparent reason. THANKFULLY Bailey wasn't in there because I think that she (0r us) could have been significantly injured if that had fallen on our heads (if not worse).

Earlier last night Tom was messing around with these super cool lights they have hanging over the bar area in the kitchen because the one looked like it was just kind of hanging there by a single electrical thread. The lightbulb had burnt out so he was going to change it, when the whole thing sparked and blew a fuse. We told the maintainance guy about that as well and he's going to call an electrician.

We finally just gave up and went to bed early last night. I had an interview at 8 am this morning and I wanted to make sure I was well rested. We set our alarm for pretty early because we were unsure of what the traffic situation would be on my way to the interview. Fastforward to 10:30 PM when I woke up completely on the floor, with a deflated air mattress between me and the floor. It was a rough night.

OK! Enough negativity! There have been some good things that have been going on as well. For starters, we bought a new air mattress ;) I have 5 interviews this week for 3 different jobs. I'm really torn between two of them so I'm hoping that there will be a clear choice after my interviews are over (and that the clear choice offers me the job!) Other than the light sparking, I love, love, love our kitchen. There is a ton of cabinet space and I love the countertops! Here is a pic of it from before we moved in.

I can't wait until we can officially get "moved in" and settled and can get out and explore the city a little more!

Chicago, My Kind of Town! Part III

The first thing we did on Friday (after getting the heat situation straightened out) was go and buy a few rugs so our downstairs neighbors wouldn’t hate us! And where did we go to buy rugs??? IKEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I missed Ikea so much! We found exactly what we were looking for. And Bailey loves to run and slide on one of the rugs. She’s going to be disappointed when the dining room table prevents her from having so much fun.

We also checked out the local Target (which is only ½ mile away from our apartment!) and our local Starbucks so we could access the internet. Luckily, I had the genius idea of making a big pot of soup and a casserole before we left, using up a lot of ingredients we had on hand and then freezing them in single serving size tupperware. We threw them in the cooler and brought them with us so we’ve had several ready-to-eat meals since we’ve been here (also, thankfully, our kitchen has a built-in microwave so it’s easy to heat them up!)
We had a super exciting first Friday night in the city (ummm, no). I cleaned (scrubbed) the ENTIRE kitchen while Tom put together his new desk from Ikea. Apparently, when the landlord lady told me they had the apartment “professionally cleaned” for us, it meant someone came in and “wiped off all visible surfaces with a paper towel (and no disinfectant).” Anything out of sight (high shelves, deep cabinets, etc) was disgusting!!

Are you getting sick of hearing about our move yet? We're about to get internet access at our apartment later today (hopefully) so I can't promise I won't keep posting about it!!

Chicago, My Kind of Town! Part II

Thursday we woke up early and hit the road. We made good time and didn’t hit any traffic….until we got to Chicago! Welcome back to city living! We stopped by the landlord’s office to get our keys, opened a bank account so we could pay the movers, and arrived at our new apartment.

Since we brought so much stuff with us, we had many comforts of home (minus a bed and the internet). We took Bailey for a walk and checked out the new neighborhood. It was dusk, kinda rainy, and FREEZING! And we LOVED it! :) I don’t know what it was, something I guess about it being freezing cold in November but it reminded me of home and I felt really excited to be living here. Bailey enjoyed her walk and got to see a few neighborhood dogs, and we found some treats literally right around the corner from our apartment (a bar, the post office, a pet store, etc). I LOVE the fact that we are in walking distance to something other than a gas station!

We had some problems with getting our heat to work correctly the first night L We figured it out enough to get it to kick on partially and we had some really warm sheets and blankets for our air mattress. With the help of cozy socks and sweatpants, we made it through the night.

Stay tuned for Part III!

Chicago, My Kind of Town! Part I

Wow! Well, we made it! The packing/moving was a nightmare, but really, when is it ever pleasant? We have A LOT of stuff. Our theory is that since our apartment in Birmingham was so big, it was easy to accumulate things because we always had a place to store it, and we were never cramped. Even though we donated 6 carloads of stuff to Good Will before we left, I think we will be making a few more trips after we get everything unpacked. If we haven’t used it in the last year…it’s gone!

But I digress. So the movers didn’t end up leaving our apartment until 6:30 Wednesday night. We finished cleaning, packed up the car with what was left (which barely fit!) and ate our first meal of the day right before getting on the road at 8:00 at night! We only made it to Nashville, because we were both completely exhausted and poor Bailey was cramped into this tiny space in the back seat.

We found a pet friendly hotel (the worker even waived the pet fee for us) and stopped for the night. I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time. I think it was a combination of 1) being completely exhausted, 2) my back was KILLING me, and 3) I knew I was going to have to sleep on an air mattress until our movers showed up with our bed. The hotel would have been absolutely state of the art…if it were 1976. But we can’t complain because we got a good nights sleep, a free breakfast, and Bailey got to stay for free. And yes, that is a gallon of milk in the background. We completely forgot it was in the fridge, so Tom brought it along (what's one more gallon of milk when your car is already overstuffed?!)

*I decided to divide this up into several posts, otherwise it would make for one REALLY long blog post which none of my 6 readers would ever read ;)

This is it!!

Goodbye Birmingham! We will miss you greatly. We started our married life together here, ever since stepping off the plane from our honeymoon. We've met amazing friends, some of whom have already moved on and we're beyond excited to be living near them again. Tom became Dr. Tom and I had the opportunity to work with some truly exceptional people. We adopted our super cute pup, Bailey, and took multiple vacations to the beautiful gulf coast. I discovered my domestic side and my love for cooking and baking. I also found my frugal genes and decided to run my first (and only) marathon. I only hope that Chicago and our new adventure offers us as much contentment and fulfillment as Birmingham has.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!