Deck the Halls

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know I did. We hosted this year and I was lucky enough to have 10 friends and family over. Everything went splendidly and we all ate a ton! Of course I had a lot of help from my mom, Steph, and John too; thanks!

With Thanksgiving over I wasted no time getting ready for Christmas. I feel like it all goes by so fast, so I like to decorate right away. This is our first Christmas in the new place. Here is the tree, which I was able to put in the front window.



It's Sunday which is football day in our house. John's brother Joe and his girlfriend Kari came over to hang out and we decided to get in the holiday spirit.

Christy Kringle

Father John Christmas

Joe St.Nick

Kari Claus

Morgan wanted to know what all the fuss was about

Santa Morgan

Have fun getting into the Christmas spirit at your house!

I'm back!

Okay so obviously it has been quite some time since I last posted, sorry about that. So I thought I would post some pictures to fill you in on what I have been up to since August.

On Labor Day weekend we went to Lake Shelbyville in Southern Illinois with some friends and had a great time. The lake was beautiful!

Mikey and me
Sometimes it just impossible to take a nice picture, lol!

Kari, Joe, Becky, John, Me, Mikey, Stephanie, Kaliani, and Diven

Then in September we had a chance to see Zambrano pitch a no hitter; it was a great game. I know the season had a horrible end, but that game was amazing!

I don't think I have ever seen John more excited.

Me, John, Joe, Kari

John and I had not taken a vacation in quite some time, so when a friend of ours was getting married in Las Vegas we couldn't help but say yes! A few of us traveled out to party and see the wedding. We had a great time. The wedding was really interesting; a traditional Indian wedding in the hotel Paris. The dresses were just beautiful. We stayed at the Flamingo, which I love for the central location and the pool. John didn’t do quite so well on the gambling scene, but I had my first winning trip to Vegas. With my winnings I treated myself to my first designer purse!

On our way to the pool.

Joe was really hungry that day!

On the night before the wedding we had a great time at this piano bar, lots of singing and

dancing into the wee hours. Needless to say, getting up for the wedding was not easy.

In October we were lucky enough to spend a weekend at Becky’s family cabin at Lake Thunderbird. It was a beautiful weekend spent eating, playing games, wandering around an apple orchard, and spending time with good friends, what could be better?

Lots of pumpkins ready for picking.

We decided to try out the cornmaze. Some people were better at leading than others...I kept getting dizzy. But it was a fun time.

Lexi, Scott, Becky, John, and Me

A view of the lake from Becky's dock.

The drive home, lots of beautiful fall colors.

Finally a few weeks ago we celebrated Halloween. This year we based our costumes off of a friends party theme-the 80s. After lots of thought I decided to go as Rainbow Brite and John decided to be Scrooge McDuck. John’s costume cracked me up-too funny!

Scrooge McDuck

Rainbow Brite

Becky was a newsreporter.

Joe was Stan from the tv show Southpark, and Kari was a Geisha. I love this pic b/c Stan always throws up on the girl that he likes in the show, so Joe was pretending to throw up on Kari-funny.

Well I think that pretty much catches us up… As always we are busy so I should have some more pictures and stories to share with you soon. I will try to not let so much time pass between posts. Hope everyone is doing well!

KC baby!

This past weekend John and I took a trip to visit Adam and Marena in Kansas City. We flew in Friday evening and started off the trip by going to see their new place. They live in a very cute part of Kansas that is very green and hilly. Their new house is just perfect for them. They have plenty of room for everything; they even each have their own offices (jealous!). They have a great backyard with a deck and a tree house! Despite having only lived there for about 3 months they have everything painted, decorated, and functional. It looks beautiful. I am very happy for them and you can easily tell how happy they are too!

Then I got meet the new loves of my life, their puppies Stella and Jasper. They are adorable, and I wanted to steal them. Well actually I just wanted to steal Stella, we had a special connection.

After seeing the house and meeting the puppies we went out for dinner, to a great place with a nice outdoor deck. We enjoyed some good food, good beer, good weather, and caught up. Saturday we just kinda hung around, which I know Adam and Marena felt bad about but honestly it was just nice to get to relax with our friends. Marena made us a fabulous breakfast-I know I was amazed too. Apparently Adam doesn’t let her out of the kitchen so she’d gotten pretty good at cooking. Then Saturday night they had a fiesta with some friends. It was great, we got to see Curtis and Erica, and also meet some new friends. Marena and Adam put out quite a spread of Mexican food, and we all ate a ton. We also had some fun with a piñata, which was a first for me.

Sadly the next morning we had to leave. But it was a great trip and we can’t wait to go back. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

John and Adam

Marena and Jasper

Me and Marena
Me and Stella
John and Stella
John and the pinata head he won
Me and the pinata

Check out all that food, Yum!

Ride the Slide

Weir you were right it was Summertime by Will Smith, one of the best summer time songs of all time. You win the gold star!

Lots going on here, summer always keeps us very busy with tons of fun stuff going on. Over the past month we have done some pretty fun things. We have gone to a few Cubs games, both in Chicago and Houston- seeing some wins and some losses. We managed to get to the beach a few times, we have a great beach about 1/2 mile from our place that is never crowded, the water is still pretty cold but who can beat building a sand castle and enjoying some sun. We made a trip to Houston to visit John's family. We really kept busy there; cubs game, gambling, golf, shopping, movies, lots of eating, and working at Windy City Pizza. I finally got to achieve my dream of throwing the pizza dough, and I have to say that it is pretty challenging and now I know why they have a machine that does it. After Houston it was back to normal life and back to work.


Work at the preschool has gotten a little crazier. I am no longer subbing, I am on my own in the classroom now. My new assistant has started, she is nice and pretty competent which is always a bonus! All of my new 2 year olds are starting over the next few weeks; and in between mediating arguments over trains and dolls, wiping tears, and giving hugs- we try to have a little fun. By September 2nd they will have all started and I'm sure I will really be crazy. Still having fun most days, so all in all I still like the job.

This past weekend we went to the Wisconsin State Fair, and had a great time. If you haven't been there before you have to go next year. The food alone is worth the drive. I ate cream puffs (the best thing there!!), roasted corn, fried cheese curds, gyros, beer, and margaritas. John ate some more stuff, I'll let him tell you. There is just too much good food there! We also visited the expo center there and bought some completely unnecessary, yet fun stuff. I got a Cham Wow! (you know you've seen the infomercial and wanted one), John got a Cubs lamp, and a polar fleece hood for winter, and we got a huge 8 inch shower head that feels like rain (so fabulous I didn't want to get out of the shower today). We also watched the pig races, there's nothing more fun that watching pigs run around a track. We listened to a mooing contest, those kids were freakishly realistic, and the winner won $1000, that's a lot of moola (sorry). I also rode the giant slide, one of my favorite things to do at a fair. I'm pretty sure I was the only adult without a child on the slide, and when I got to the bottom the teenage boy told me "good job!" Pretty sure he thought I was "special". Oh well, they just don't know what fun is.

Well that's it so far, we'll have some more to report next week, we are going to visit Adam and Marena in KC- looking forward to it. Thought you guys might like some pictures from the past month.

John and his brother Joe in the Bleachers
Mikey and I in the Bleachers
John and I at Wisconsin State Fair
Pig Racing
Yummy Cream Puffs, when have you ever seen me so happy?
John in his polar fleece hood
The giant slide, I'm near the top of the stairs

"Summer, Summer, Summer time...Time to sit back and unwind."

Gold star awarded to whoever can name the song and artist from my blog title.

I just want to set the record straight and let everyone know I have not gotten lazy, I have gotten busy; big difference. Things are going great lately. It is summer time in Chicago, which is probably the only reason I can stand to live in the freezing weather. Summer in Chicago is so much fun! John and I have spent the last month going to Ravinia, Arlington Race Track, celebrating John’s birthday, Cubs games (of course!), bar-b-que’s, celebrating John’s CPA, concerts, Navy Pier, the beach, and Renaissance Faire. As you can see it has been a busy summer and it only gets busier; I love it!

Throughout all of these fun activities I also started a new job. It is going wonderfully. My days go by so fast, I am exhausted after chasing around 2, 3, and 4 year olds all day, my co-workers are cool, my boss is nice; it’s a good job! I am still taking the el to work, which is working out nicely, I like being able to read on the way to work. By September all of my new 2 year olds will have started (10 total) plus my one little girl with downs syndrome. I’m certain it will be chaos, ask me then if I still like my job.

Thought you might enjoy some pics from the summer. Hope you are all having a blast too!

For our 3 year anniversary John and I went to dinner at Rosebud (good Italian, fun atmosphere) and then watched the fireworks at Navy Pier.
We went to Renaissance Faire for the first time, it was so much fun!!
John loved those Turkey legs!
We inspect Jocob's Ladder and decide to give it a try; after all, it looks easy right?
John's off to a good start, unfortunately my camera ran out of room, but don't worry all you missed was John and I on our backs looking up at the ladder dumbfounded.

First Day New Job

Hello all! Today was my first day at the new job. I am working at Loyola Preschool in Rogers Park. This morning I took the el to work for the first time. It was very nice, no driving through traffic, just sit and enjoy the ride. I arrived and met everyone; all of the teachers are all women around my age and seem pretty cool. For the summer I will be just subbing for people on vacation, working with a student who has down syndrome, working on curriculum development, and just learning the ropes. This week I am with the four year olds, and let me tell you they are cute! Kids really do say the funniest things. I think all those years of working in special ed with kids who don’t talk really made me forget how funny little kids can be. So things are going well, and I am feeling like I will enjoy working here.

This past weekend was extremely busy, on Friday night we went to see a new play called Avenue Q with John’s bro Joe and Kari, it’s like a grownup version of Sesame Street. It was quite funny, and I would recommend it to others. It has puppets and also real actors and it is a musical based on a puppet yearning to find his “purpose” in life. It’s not for children but it’s also not too naughty, you can download the music online if your interested. My favorite part is a character called the Bad Idea Bears who are these adorable things that encourage you to do bad things like buy a case of beer, or hang yourself. If you want to hear something funny ask John or me to do the impression for you, it’s funny!

Saturday I went to see Sex and the City with Lexi, Amanda, and Kate, and I have to say that it was fabulous. I know it has been getting mixed reviews but I really feel that if you watched the show you will be happy with the movie. It is always funny to me how many rumors get started about movies like this and how they are never true. I won’t elaborate I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. Overall I would say it exceeded my expectations and I would definitely go see it again. By the way… the clothes are amazing!!

Saturday night a group of high school friends went to Mayfest, a German festival in Lincoln Square, to celebrate Dan’s birthday. It was ridiculously crowded and therefore not as much fun as I expected. The line to get a beer was way too long (30 minutes or more), and there just wasn’t enough room allocated for all of those people. Skip it.
After that we went to Lincoln Square Lanes to go bowling, it was an old school bowling alley with manual score keeping. It was a lot of fun, I really enjoy bowling and I think everyone else did too.

Finally Sunday we went out to the burbs to celebrate my bro Mike’s birthday at Maggiano’s. The food was great! Then we went back to Mike and Steph’s for some frozen peanut butter pie (this is a family recipe that my mom makes, and I think if I ever started making it we would gain 25 pounds because I would be making them all the time-they are SOOO good!) Happy Birthday Mikey!

Overall it was a busy weekend, but fun. It seems like you know when summer is officially here because all the sudden your weekends are jam-packed. I love it!

Dance your cares away

So to everyone’s dismay I am not pregnant, my news is simply that in June I will be starting a new job. I will be a teacher at Loyola Preschool. The position sounds very interesting; I will have a class of 12 two year olds including one little girl with Down Syndrome. I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with regular and special needs kids. So I am moving on from the nanny business back into the classroom. Hopefully it will be a good transition for me. The hours are a little better, and I get more vacation time, which is always a good thing. Also as a staff of Loyola, I get 100% reimbursement on any classes I take, so essentially if I wanted to, I could get my Masters Degree for free. We’ll see about that one. So overall, I am excited about the new position, but starting a new job is always stressful.

I finished reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I have to say that it was a great read; very easy, short, and enjoyable. I definitely recommend it to anyone, it has a great message and at the same time is an interesting story. My advice is not to read the end in a public place like I did (Borders), because you will cry like a baby and it won’t be pretty. I’m talking about the ugly cry where your face gets all crumpled-just kidding.

I have to say I was surprised by the number of my readers who watch Jon & Kate Plus 8. I think it is a funny show and obviously I love kids so I enjoy it. Michael I was not surprised by your dislike for Kate, she is clearly a type A personality, which you are not. I am not sure how many episodes you have seen, but I have seen almost all of them, and I get the impression that Jon enjoys being controlled. There are times when Kate goes too far and he really gives it back to her, but for the most part if he doesn’t say anything I think he’s okay with it. Also I might become just a little OCD and bitchy if I was at home all day with 8 kids. Hopefully that will never happen to me =) LOL! Instead I like to get paid to work in a place where I spend all day with 12 kids-hmmm… go figure!

Finally I want to inform you all of some very exciting news! Fraggle Rock is being made into a live action musical feature (I think that means movie). I am so excited! I mean I dreamt about this day but never thought it would come to fruition, but here it is in all of its Fraggle glory. For all of the details Variety wrote an article check it out here: http://www.variety.com/VR1117985529.html . I am sure it will be a while before it is finally ready, but this is one “sequel/spinoff” I am thrilled about.

Dance your cares away,
Worry's for another day.
Let the music play,
Down at Fraggle Rock.
Work your cares away,
Dancing's for another day.
Let the Fraggles play,
We're Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, Red.
Dance your cares away,
Worry's for another day.
Let the music play,
Down at Fraggle Rock.
Clap, clap!

I'm not a goose ball!

This is depressing...it's been a month and I have had NOTHING to blog about. Which contrary to John's thinking does not mean I have no thoughts, it just means I don't want to share my thought with all of you. No really, it just means that none of my thoughts are that exciting lately.

Let's see...I just finished reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert a story about a woman who tries to find herself post divorce by traveling to Italy, India, and Indonesia. It was an Oprah book club selection and therefore now a bestseller. I have to say that while I thought it was enjoyable, it was by no means worthy of the notoriety that an Oprah book gets. Of course the first section about eating her way through Italy was fun to read about, what woman hasn't dreamed of running off to Rome to sight-see, eat, and listen to beautiful people speaking beautiful Italian? (My favorite phrase by the way... Il mio telephonino, which translates to- my tiny telephone, which they use for cellphone.) The final part where she goes to Bali and falls in love, is also right out of any woman's fantasy. During the middle section the author spent months in an Ashram in India where she learned how to meditate, be closer to God, and center herself. This portion of the book was the hardest for me to make it through and I felt the least interest in. I can appreciate people who are religious and pray/meditate, but I felt that a lot of her scenarios were just a little too "hippy" for lack of a better word.
Overall, I am surprised that Oprah chose this book. Of course all it takes is Oprah's endorsement and millions of women have jumped on the Eat, Pray, Love bandwagon. They are hailing it as an inspiring book, and taking their own journeys to find themselves. Personally I wasn't that inspired. If you want to read what the New York Post has to say check out this article:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12232007/postopinion/postopbooks/eat__pray__loathe_734479.htm?page=0

Now I am reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and hoping this book will be a little more inspiring than the last, I already find it more interesting so that's a start.

Finally, I have been obsessed with the reality show on TLC called Jon & Kate plus 8. It is about a couple who had twins and then a few years later they had sextuplets. Basically it chronicles their day to day lives, which I find fascinating. I truly can't imagine having that many kids and not going nuts, which of course the mom is and that makes it all the more entertaining. Anyway they other day the dad says to one of the little boys, "You're such a goofball." As I am sure all parents say to their children at one time or another. The little guy's response...

"I'm not a goose ball!"

This has now become my favorite saying.

Where's the runner's high?

Been a while since I posted, just been busy doing the same old, same old. Well okay maybe one new development. Today John, his brother Joe, and myself ran the Race to Wrigley, it was a 5k, and I completed it in 37 minutes. It was the second race I have run EVER! My first race was 2 weeks ago and it was the Shamrock Shuffle, an 8k, and I managed to get 66 minutes. The races themselves are fun, (with the exception of it being cold) and I enjoy setting a goal and accomplishing it. I never thought I would be the kind of person who could/would run a race and even enjoy it, but I shocked myself. The training is still no fun at all, but maybe if it stops hurting it’ll get fun. I am starting to fear that I am coming dangerously close to becoming a dreaded “runner”. You know the type-they actually enjoy running long distances, and I’m not talking about running to catch the el. They run a 2-mile “warm-up” before they run. They make crazy claims of some “runner’s high”, I gotta tell you the only high I get is from when I stop running. So help me out people, if you see me exhibiting any crazy “runner-like” behaviors, give me a cheeseburger that’ll slow me down a little and make me remember my roots.
In other news, things are going great with the condo; we have finally gotten to a point where everything is functional. In the past month we had our ice maker on the fridge fixed, something John is VERY pleased with. I swear I think it’s such a man thing to have an endless supply of ice; it must be comforting in some way. We also had our very nice handy-man Dave put in a garbage disposal and put deadlocks on the doors. John remarked that he slept better with them on, and I am certain I will feel much better the next time John is out of town. Don’t worry Becky now I won’t have to break an ankle with my window escape route… So aside from some long-term goals of a fireplace, and surround sound we are good for a while.
Now that it is getting warmer my mood is significantly improving. Pretty soon we’ll be able to walk to downtown Evanston, and do some shopping. Beer gardens will be opening, and outdoor restaurants. And of course they’ll be some Cubs games to go to. It seems like the summer just flies by with each weekend booked full of activities, but I can’t wait!

A little shout out to my good friends Marena and Adam, who have purchased their first house together, congrats! I know you’ll have a great time making it a home.

Spring Cleaning!

Oh My God!! Just a fast update, today is the first day with our cleaning lady. She has only been here 30 minutes and she is already my favorite person on Earth! (sorry John, but you don't clean up after me) I have to say I felt a mixture of guilt and delight as she got ALL the cat hair out of our bedroom. She clearly has super powers. Everyone should have a cleaning lady.

Where have all the role models gone?

Something happened in the news last week that has been a topic of conversation between myself and a few others. Elliot Spitzer, the governor of New York, has been caught having a relationship with a girl from an escort service. He is married and has 3 daughters. During his press conference to confess his sins, his wife Silda stood right next to him the whole time, in silent support. Spitzer isn’t the first politician to engage in extramarital affairs, and Silda joins a growing line of other wives to support their husbands. Here is my question; Why do the wives of politicians publicly support the immoral and adulterous behaviors of their husbands?

Someone may argue that their wives are not “supporting” the behaviors, however I feel that by standing up there next to them they are sending a message to the public. That message says, I am ok with what my husband has done and I will stand by him in this difficult time. Included in this public, a large number of girls and women, who often take their cues from women in power positions such as the first lady, or the wife of a governor. Women that we should be able to call role models. Do you really want the message being portrayed to them that they should turn a blind eye on adulterous behavior? Aren’t we taking a step back in women’s liberation when we send this message? Is that really what Silda Spitzer wants to teach her daughters; It’s okay that daddy slept with a hooker, and because he’s a politician and we signed up for this life, I will stand next to him.

I am not saying that she needs to divorce Elliot, if she can forgive him then I think that’s great. However, can she show a little anger or non-support (maybe sit in the audience instead of stand next to him)? When someone you love and trust breaks a promise they made to you, aren’t you allowed to be hurt? Don’t be such a doormat! Model for other girls/women how you can work through difficult situations while maintaining some dignity!

We expect a lot from our politicians, but are we so focused on perfection that we don’t want to see real emotion and honest feelings? I know I would respect them a lot more if they were not afraid to be themselves.

Spring is in the air

I bought some lillies at the store last weekend, and they have just opened up. I thought they were pretty so I took a few pics. They are so perfect that they look almost fake. I'm not too keen on the pink though, next time I'll get white.