Wordless Wednesday: She stole my slipper

Happy Thanksgiving Vacation Everyone!!

I hope everyone had a restful and filling Thanksgiving break. I know that I absolutely needed a break, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Thursday I woke up and immediately went to CVS to score a ton of stuff for practically free...you can read all about that here. After my crazy calmed down, I got back from CVS, we enjoyed coffee and a favorite breakfast casserole that I had thrown together the night before. I cooked our turkey and whipped up a few delicious Thanksgiving staples in between watching football and relaxing on the couch.

Thanksgiving night we had a massive Pre-Black Friday FAIL all because of a stupid tiny baby food processor. A few years ago I bought one from Walmart on Black Friday and it quickly became one of my favorite kitchen appliances. It died a month or so back, so I figured I would wait until Black Friday to see if Walmart would have it on sale again. They did, and so we trekked out to what turned out to be not really the best neighborhood in Chicago Thursday at 10 pm to try to get the food processor. We severely underestimated the insanity of Walmart in Chicago on Black Friday. We couldn't even get into the parking lot, so Tom dropped me off and waited a few blocks away. I can't even begin to describe the chaos that was happening in the store, but somehow I managed to circle the whole store twice (in 40 minutes) and couldn't find a single baby food processor :( So we went home empty handed.

After that debacle, I was a little weary of going to Home Depot Friday morning to get some $0.99 white pointsettas that I had my eye on, but was pleasantly suprised to find it pretty quiet at 8 am. I was excited with my Christmas decor purchase and love our decorated mantle.

Friday afternoon we relaxed, watched more football, and I made some of our all time favorite meals (and extras to freeze) with our leftovers. Curious what they are? Pioneer Woman's Chicken Turkey Pot Pie and Paige's Best Ever Chicken Turkey Noodle Soup. Also, it turns out that Friday night is an excellent time to go to Dominicks and Costco, in case you're in the Chicago area next Thanksgiving weekend :)

Saturday we woke up early and went to Ikea to pick up a new rug for our office. It's the same one we have in our bedroom, just a different color. We love it so much, but I think Bailey loves it the most, especially when the sun shines through the office window (since she thinks she's a cat).

The rest of Saturday night and all day Sunday were spent watching even more football, organizing some out of control areas, cleaning up my giant cooking messes (thanks Tom!!) and enjoying being home and able to relax. Hope everyone had a great break!!

It turns out, we've been busy

Sorry I haven't updated with anything exciting lately! We've actually branched out a little bit (never mind the fact that we've been here an entire year) and have been hanging out with some friends on weekends. A few Thursdays ago we went over to a coworker's house for dinner and drinks. Another one of my coworkers came too, with her twins (who technically weren't even supposed to be born yet at that point) and her husband. We grilled out (yes, 40 degrees is still grilling weather in Chicago) and drank entirely too much wine. It turned out Tom and I were the only ones who had to work on Friday (boooooo) but it was still a lot of fun.

Last weekend another coworker had a surprise birthday party (although I'm still not sure throwing a Surprise party for a 29 week pregnant woman is the best idea in the world). Thankfully no one went into preterm labor and we had a good time hanging out with the people I work with outside of work.

Tonight (today, rather) we went over to one of Tom's coworkers house for LOTS of food and some football. I should mention that his coworker is Italian (and his name is Luigi=awesome) so we literally had a feast and I don't think I have to eat again until Thanksgiving Dinner! They had plenty of appetizers (chips and salsa, fruit and dip, etc) out to snack on when we arrived. Almost immediately they served two large pizzas. I was getting kind of full when they brought out the cannelloni, but I sucked it up because how can you pass up such yummy italian food? Next came the lasagna. Next? Homemade pasta with sauce straight from Italy. I'm not even kidding, I thought I was going to explode. And for dessert? No less than 3 pies, 1 pumpkin roll (courtesy of me), and homemade tiramisu. A little bit later came some espresso, complete with a dash of Punch Abruzzo (a very strong, but very "cozy" liquor from the part of Italy that Luigi is from). Seriously, just looking at the picture on the label makes me want to cozy up by a fireplace and watch the snow come down for hours! And for a nightcap and to celebrate a Bears win? Of course, some Limoncello. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go to bed :)

Happy 10 Year Anniversary!

Ten years ago tonight, Tom and I had our first date :) He came over to our apartment in H Alley, we watched Dumb & Dumber and drank Labatt Blue. What can I say? We're classy like that, and the rest was history ;)

Wordless Wednesday: Sorry guys, I'm obsessed with this tree :)

Trick or Treat!!

Last Monday night we put on our "costumes" and headed downstairs to celebrate Halloween. Our neighbors joined us, and we had a good time:

• handing out candy


• eating candy


• seeing all of the cute kiddos in their costumes


• reminiscing when the teenagers showed up with their pillowcases


• reluctantly giving candy to the 2 hispanic women who were definitely over 30, not even dressed up, and were using plastic bags to collect their candy


• enjoying hot chocolate


• learning that I should buy some stock in Thundershirt because it really does work, or maybe not since the $0.74 banana peel costume served the same function