Photo Update: Snow, Bars, iPhone, JoePa, Dad

Last Friday we got several inches of snow. Bailey had a blast, as always. She loves "attacking" Tom and trying to steal his gloves.Friday night we ventured out in the snow to Beckett's Public House to celebrate our neighbor's birthday. We had a good time hanging out with the neighbors and swapping stories...I'm sure going to miss them when they move!

I broke down and ordered a new iphone cover a few weeks ago. I've been wanting it for a while but have resisted buying it....until now. It came in the mail this weekend and I love it!!

And of course, we've been in mourning since the passing of JoePa. Regardless of what he did or didn't do, it's still a shame that the last few weeks of his life had to play out like they did. My heart breaks for SuePa.

When facebook flooded with Joe Paterno and Penn State comments, I thought it only fitting to change my profile picture to this one of me and my dad (circa 1984ish I think??)

Wordless Wednesday

Project Goal Update: Kitchen Cabinets

So far, so good! Here are some before (brace yourself) and after pics of re-organizing the kitchen cabinets. I actually forgot to take a before picture of the main cabinet...which is a shame because it was a mess and that was the biggest project. I'm so glad I was able to get some of the STUFF off of the countertops. I LOVE how it looks so neat and clean. We'll see how long that lasts ;)

Some Project Goals

So I feel as though I'm a pretty goal oriented person, however I have kind of been slacking on my monthly goals for the past, oh I don't know, year and a half! I think I've been a little hesitant to keep up with my monthy goals because I have a tendency to put too much on my plate and then stress out when I don't accomplish all of it, even if there aren't "real" deadlines associated with it.

With the new year comes my rejuvination for being organized and productive, and with being organized and productive comes (my favorite) lists! I thought about making a weekly post with one project goal that I would like to accomplish each weekend, but again I don't want to put any time constraints on this and the last thing I need to do is stress out over it. So here is my list of weekend projects that I hope to complete over the next few months (some obviously sooner than others).

• Take down the Christmas tree


• Put away Christmas decorations


• Go through stuff and make another trip to Good Will


• Organize coat closet (This should probably be done before the Good Will trip)


• Reorganize 2 of our kitchen cabinets and find homes for everything (just about everything) that has been living on the countertop for the past month


• Go through my file drawer


• Move my desk contents over to Tom's our desk (we consolidated to 1 computer)


• Decorate for Valentine's Day


• Plan and cook meals for February vacation


• Inventory the freezer contents


• Plan meals for upcoming busy week nights

2011: Year in Review!

January

Matt comes to visit

February

The Blizzaster strikes Chicago Bham Reunion in Milwaukee

March

We became Chi-rish New couches

April

Matt visits again We experience burger bliss

May

Brie & Margaret come to visit Penny comes to visit Grilling out with the neighbors

June

5 Year Anniversary and Trip to Michiana Shores

July

Birthday Week and Bailey's 1st trip to the lake Jess's 4th of July Party Mini Family Reunion in Chicago

August

Paw Paw Vacation

September

Milwaukee trip New Furniture

October

Penn State/Northwestern Game Halloween with the neighbors

November

10 Years Together

December

Holiday Party Jess's Party Christkindle Market Sweatpants NYE & Paige visits

Sweatpants NYE & Paige's visit

Happy New Year!! Here's hoping 2012 is an amazing year for everyone! We've had a fun NYE Weekend so far. Our friend Paige and her fiance were in town Friday night so we took the train down to meet up with them. They were staying at The W, so we figured we would go have a drink in the lobby while we waited for them to arrive. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. Here's a pic of the giant lamps and disco ball themed lobby.
After they got settled, we went to Rosebud Prime for dinner. Everything was delicious and we couldn't believe the restaurant was practically empty on the Friday night of NYE weekend. We ate and drank and talked and laughed and it was so so good to see Paige again!! I can't wait until she moves to Ohio and can be our halfway stop on the drive home for Christmas next year!! (And Bailey can finally be reunited with her BFF Jack!!)
A few weeks ago we had the ingenious idea of celebrating NYE with our neighbors and thus the idea of Progressive Sweatpants New Year's Eve was born. What can be better than hanging out with friends, not having to leave the building, AND getting to wear sweatpants all night?! We started out the night at our place for appetizers. For the main course (homemade tomato soup and some amazing grilled cheese) we went downstairs to Catherine and Brad's apartment, and for dessert we went to the "Party Room" which is attached to Michael and Leslie's apartment. We went back to Catherine and Brad's to ring in the new year because we didn't want to wake Micahel and Leslie's baby. Good thing we did or else we would have missed the classy people ringing in the New Year on our sidewalk jamming to the music they were blasting out of their car. I'm not sure why we thought it was a good idea to go outside and Cheers them, but I don't think they minded us crashing their "party." We had a great night and I am so thankful we have such great neighbors living in our building!!

Today and tomorrow are going to be spent watching football and lounging on the couch. I can't think of a better way to kick off 2012!

Merry Christmas Weekend!

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas Weekend!! We enjoyed a lovely, quiet, and cozy 4 day weekend here in Chicago. Friday we both took the day off of work and headed downtown for a little Christkindling and holiday shopping in the Windy City. We were hoping that the Christkindle Market wouldn't be crazy crowded like last year, but alas, we were wrong. We were also disappointed to learn that they ran out of their famous "boot mugs" about a week earlier. So we had to enjoy our Glühwein from styrofoam cups. We still had a good time and enjoyed some yummy German brats.
We wandered down to Macy's and did a little spontaneous shopping. Tom got two...wait for it....black hoodies and I bought a couple long sweaters and a shirt for work. On the walk home from the train, we decided to carry on the German theme of the day and stopped in at Mirabell, a local bar that we've passed a million times but have never been to. We loved it! It was cozy and Christmasy and everything in it was very German. We drank some Zwick'l and enjoyed the holiday spirit.
Speaking of Christmas Spirit, I had volunteered to work on Saturday (Christmas Eve) for my friend/coworker who is 8 months pregnant (but who has been having contractions on and off for the past 2 weeks). I was dreading going into work, but I knew if I were in her situation, I would be dying for someone to volunteer to work for me. Everything actually worked out perfect, because another therapist was asigned to work as well, and she said she could really use the money (and there was only one kiddo who needed to be seen - everyone does their best to get as many kids out of the hospital at Christmastime as possible), so long story short, I didn't have to work! Saturday we got caught up on some stuff around the house and went for our 2nd Annual Christmas Eve Walk to the park with Bailey. Unfortunately it wasn't covered in snow like last year, but we still had a good time. (I love that our shadows make us look like giants ;) Christmas Eve we enjoyed eggnog and a cheesy ABC Family Christmas movie (LOVE LOVE LOVE cheesy Christmas movies!!!). We were dying to open up some presents, and it just so happened that a package arrived from my parents while we were on our walk, so we opened a few presents while sipping our eggnog. My favorite? Beer and wine soap!!
On Christmas Day we enjoyed some yummy coffee (DD and Starbucks were on super sale during the weeks leading up to Christmas) while we opened presents. Bailey had a blast opening her presents. Her favorites were her racoon (see below) and the bone she got from Jackie and John Thomas. We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas day, and topped off the holiday by watching Christmas Vacation (which was finally on tv Christmas night!)

Monday I did some post-Christmas shopping and scored some good deals! I finally found some Christmas stockings that I like, and just our luck they had an "A" and a "T" embroidered on the front of them. I also got some new clothes for work, a Christmas wreath, some completely teeny-bopper slipper boots (that I love!), and some clearance Yankee candles.

Bake Fest 2011

So last Sunday I spent the entire afternoon baking tons and tons of goodies for Tom's lab. I'm most excited about my chocolate dipped pretzel rods with candy cane sprinkles! I was pretty sure I was going to mess it up, so I googled a few different recipes and followed the instructions from good ol' ehow.

Other goodies included:

• Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
  


• My Grandma Borys's sugar cookies
  


• Carnation Famous Fudge
  


• Peanut Butter Fudge (same recipe except I used 1 cup of PB and omitted the chocolate chips)
  


• Mom's no-bake cookies

I had thought I would try to plan ahead and whip up a batch of the sugar cookie dough and chocolate chip cookie dough a week in advance, freeze it, and then just bake it on Sunday.
Well, the sugar cookie dough made it through the week, but the chocolate chip cookie dough somehow disappeared a little bit each day from the freezer....oops. I didn't even care about the risk of salmonella from the raw eggs. It was so good it was worth it!!

So a few hours and 10 pounds later, I officially declared Bakefest 2011 a success :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

We've had a busy/fun/holiday filled past few days. Last Thursday night we went to Glascott's, a bar near work because they were having a huge Toys for Tots drive (with free drinks if you brought a $20 toy). Everyone from work goes every year because my co-worker's husband has always been in charge of organizing it, but this year was extra special because it doubled as a Going Away party for our co-worker Neal, who is leaving Children's (sad). It was packed to the brim, so much that I began to have claustrophobia and I wondered how on earth I ever liked to go out when places were so packed. Regardless of my personal space issues, it was a good time, complete with a little person who dressed up as an elf and threw candy to everyone from atop the bar.
Saturday night our friend Jess had a Tree Decorating party at her house. She said she got "inspiration" from my holiday party. Whatever, she took my "idea" of labeling things and, as Tom said, made it a million times better! (I had 2 things labeled "Wine" and "Beer is outside.") Jess even had little drink recipes printed out and placed on the bar!! Too cute! We had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with people we've met through Jess.
Here is our attempt at a "family photo," except Miss Bailey seemed to be more interested in sniffing my boots than smiling for the camera.
Today I spent the afternoon baking for Tom's lab (more on that later) and filling out Christmas cards. Next year we are definitely just snapping a photo and stuffing it in the envelope...way easier!