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

Happy Halloween!!

I really hope some of my patients come dressed up today when they come see me :) Tom and I plan on handing out some candy tonight with some of the neighbors. Here are some Halloween pics of the neighborhood!

The first picture of this tree was taken last Monday (one week ago) and the second was taken on Saturday...the leaves are changing fast!

One of our neighbors put a barfing pumpkin out front :)

Penn State takes Chicago!

We've been looking forward to the Penn State/Northwestern game ever since last year. Mom and Dad were going to drive out with a few other family members/friends and we were going to spend the day tailgating and enjoying that it wasn't 100 degrees outside.


Enter our family and our HORRIBLY designed backs. Dad hurt his back and thought it would get better, but unfortunately it kept getting worse. It was so bad in fact, that they couldn't make it out :( He's doing better but still in a lot of pain....I hate that I can say "I know how you feel" and really mean it! We were looking forward to seeing everyone (and Tom was looking forward to having someone to converse with regarding the mess that is Penn State Football).


So instead Dad overnighted the game tickets and we bought tickets for the 5th Never Annual Zombie Penn State Chicago Tailgate. We went with a few of our friends from Penn State that now live in Chicago and had a blast. The weather was unbelievably perfect...who would have thought you would be hot wearing a T-shirt and jeans in October in Chicago?!




We had pretty good seats at the game too (Thanks Dad!) right in the heart of the Penn State section. Ryan field was small, but it was actually nice because it seemed like everyone had a good seat. We were excited to cheer on the winning Nittany Lions!!

Our Weekend: In pictures

Friday was beautiful and I couldn't think of a better way to kick off the weekend than to take a walk by the lake.

Saturday night we enjoyed the pretty fall colors in our apartment :)

Sunday afternoon we took a drive up to the Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha, WI to pick up some yummy treats for the tailgate this weekend.

Tom was in heaven with all of the mustards!!!

We also stopped at the Apple Holler to pick up some fresh apples!! They're Honey Crisp apples...and I haven't decided yet if we're just going to eat them as-is or if I'm going to try to make something out of them.

Dear One Year Ago Me

I wrote this in a blog post exactly one year ago today

"...I am out of work (temporarily), in a lot of pain (when I'm not laying down), and about to move across the country but have no idea where we're going to live or where I'm going to work, have nothing packed, have not hired movers, and am in too much pain to start packing,..."

It all turned out okay! More than okay! You've been really smart about your back in the past year, and when it begins to hurt, you have learned to take it easy and rest. You've also been better about working out in the past few months, which has been great for your back (and your confidence, considering all of your pants still fit). You have a wonderful job with the perfect amount of autonomy, cute patients, and awesome coworkers. You live in a pretty kick-ass apartment, with pretty much the best group of neighbors you could ask for (I mean, they all watch Always Sunny and drink wine...how could you not all get along?!) And you don't have to worry about moving (for better or for worse) for quite some time! So No Worries One-Year-Ago-Anne!! Everything turned out perfect :)

Wordless Wednesday

I am obsessed with Fall

As you already know (from my many fall-loving posts), I'm quite obsessed with fall. I think I've become more infatuated with the season this year because we haven't had a true fall in over 5 years! I've been going on a lot of walks lately and feel completely mesmerized, like a child, by the beauty of the leaves. Thursday and Friday morning I was able to get up early and go for a run/walk along the lake before work. It was so perfect! The sunshine, the lake, the city, and of course, the pretty leaves!! I'm trying to soak it all in now since Chicago is predicted to have one of the worst winters in the country this year!!

I did quite a bit of baking this weekend too. We had some friends come over for the Penn State game on Saturday and I made Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Slow Cooked Stuffed Apples. Today I made a Pumpkin Roll and Pumpkin Bread. And now I'm sitting on the back deck enjoying a glass of Hallowine. I wish I had my iphone or camera with me when I was by the lake, but I didn't feel like lugging it along. Here are a few pics of fall that I've snapped so far this year.

Currently

Excited about A weekend with nothing to do, Cooler weather, Christmas
Worried about My coworkers twins.....the nuggets were born at 33 weeks (and we blame her premature labor completely on the horrible seats at the course we all took last weekend)
Reading Eat Pray Love....don't judge, I take a while to read things
Creating Lists on all of my various iphone apps
Loving My iphone!
Hating That The Office reruns on Tuesday nights have been replaced by other reruns
Wondering So many things
Craving DP Dough
Hoping For a snowy Christmas
Watching on TV Always Sunny, The Office, Parks and Rec
Listening to Oh my gosh I can't even believe I'm going to tell you this......Christmas music!! (Just one time on the ride home from work in the 'burbs Wednesday night, but it must have been a Christmas miracle because for the first time since I've been commuting out to the suburbs there was NO traffic!)
Cooking All kinds of fall favorites...Crockpot chili, Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup, ribs
Looking forward to Our 10 year (dating) anniversary this fall

Updates: Work, iPhone, Bailey

Not much to update this past week because I've spent more time at work this week than at home! We had a course this weekend that we hosted so we were all pretty much expected to go. It ended up being really great, a TON of information that sparked a lot of treatment and assessment ideas, but by mid day on Sunday our entire department was ready to head to the bar for lunch (which we may or may not have done).

Let's see, what else has been going on in my life......I did go ahead and get my iphone and I absolutely LOVE it!! My favorite app so far is MiMeals (which also happens to be the only app I've paid for so far) but I love love love it. It makes meal planning SO easy and keeps the kitchen free of my scrap papers that are always floating around with random meal ideas on them. I also really like Grocery IQ, which lets me build my grocery/shopping lists for different stores that I go to and also lets me add frequent purchases to a "favorites" list. (MiMeals does the same thing...allowing me to add common meals to a list). Anyways, I'm really enjoying my latest purchase.

Bailey is finally recovered after her acute GI illness. Let me tell you how fun that was *eyeroll* Actually, I have to credit Tom here because I didn't really do anything except pet her, crate her, and make her boiled chicken and rice while Tom had the lovely job of cleaning up her accidents. I'm not sure how she even got sick but I'm thinking she must have eaten something in the back yard that the alleycats or the squirrels drug in.

Also, Bentley must have filled Bailey in on how much fun it is to hang out in random places (At our last visit to Anne and Brian's, we learned Bentley decided her new favorite spot is in the corner behind a chair).

New Furniture!!

Tom and I have slowly been trying to replace some of our old/donated/worn out/cheap/free furniture that we've collected over the years (which we are very appreciative of and have never taken for granted). We bought new couches back in March and have been making mental lists about other things we wanted to upgrade (or buy in the first place, like a bedroom set). We set out with patience, a budget, and a little determination and amazingly we were able to find exactly what we wanted AND stay under budget (well, almost).

We wanted to complete the living room, which basically meant finding an entryway table and some nicer lamps (instead of the $10 Walmart floor lamp that we've had for 5 years). It also meant finding something in dark brown to replace our black fish stand/table that doesn't match everything else.

We wanted a place near the door to sit down to remove our snowy/rainy shoes and a place to hide them as well. We thank Target (and their nicely timed 15% off furniture sale) for our new entryway table and lamps (in the living room) and entryway bench (near the back door).

Next up? Our bedroom. We've been wanting to get actual bedroom furniture for a while, but just didn't feel like it was a necessity. We shopped around and found a really good deal on a set at....are you ready for this? Costco! We figured what the heck. It was exactly what we wanted and too awesome of a deal not to pass up. So far we are loving it!!

Finally, Tom has been on the search for a full length runner for our hallway for months now! Previously we had two 8' runners from Ikea, which were just about the first thing we bought when we moved here last November. So anyways, turns out it's pretty difficult to find a runner that is longer that 16 feet and doesn't cost over $500. We finally went to our local Home Depot (literally less than a mile from our apartment) and found runners that they will custom cut for you....and they're relatively inexpensive!! Win!

We are settling in nicely to our "new" apartment and loving finally having some nicer upgrades. I think the fact that we have waited so long to buy some of this stuff makes us appreciate it even more!

Weekend Fun

This weekend we took a trip up to Milwaukee to visit our friends Anne and Brian and see their new baby, Ellie. The Phillies happened to be playing the Brewers this weekend, so we got to finally wear some of our Phillies gear (my shirt was from Tom's sister Lisa after the Phillies won the World Series and Tom's jersey was a groomsmen gift from his friend Jay's wedding).

We snapped a few pics with the sausages on the way to our seats. We were a little late to the game but (thankfully) didn't miss the sausage races in the 6th inning!! Chorizo won. They're all lined up and ready to go!

The Phillies took it into extra innings but thankfully pulled it off (I don't know if we could have handled another loss after the shame and embarrassment that Penn State put on us earlier in the day).

We had a really good time visiting with everyone. On the way home we finally stopped at the Mars Cheese Castle. We've driven past it the past few times we went up to Milwaukee and kept saying how we wanted to stop, but we always had Bailey with us. We figured she would be fine in the car after her busy day of playing with Bentley, so we ran in real quick for some cheese and other goodies. This place was so awesome that we decided we have to come back and stock up on a few items for the Penn State vs. Northwestern game next month!

Happy Pumpkin Spice Candle Day

Picture me doing this right now:

Jumping for joy!!! It's September. Football is on. Pumpkin Spice candle is lit. Pepperoni calzone is in the oven (with homemade pizza dough). And Tom is putting together our new entryway bench and table. Life is good right now :)

We're not in Paw Paw anymore

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