Our weekend

Happy Birthday, Lexi! My niece is turning 11. She went gluten free this year as well so I feel her pain. Can't wait to see her next week.

Last weekend was so busy!

Hanging out at the end of the night. Jack couldn't decide whose lap to be on so he sat on all of ours.

On Friday, Katie and I saw About Time. I loved it. It was a movie about love but not just between a man and a woman but about love between family and friends as well. It was funny, touching, and really  captivating. I would totally see it again.

Saturday, we woke up early to get a friend to take some Christmas photos for us so I could make a card (You'll see those later if I can get the card done in time!). Then we went to my first Marquette Men's basketball game. They were playing (the) Ohio State so Adam's dad and a friend of his came up to see the game as well. It was really fun to be there. Neither team could really score the first half but the atmosphere was so fun! I'm so glad we went even if Marquette lost.

We hung out with some friends later that night and had a game night. It was really fun.

Sunday, Katie and I were in Nursery. We were talking and catching up and I think the poor little kids were starved for attention so the little boy started using Katie's arm as his road for his car and the little girl brought her a book and sat down next to her. So we read to them and played with them for the rest of the time. They were so sweet.

After church, we had some crazy weather (no tornadoes like Illinois or Indiana) but pouring rain and some hail. We didn't have the garage opener but since we were only going to be home for a little, we wanted to park in the garage. Since the wind was really blowing, I didn't want to use Katie's umbrella but instead just run to the door. Well, I think the gutter was broken because the water was gushing off the roof like a waterfall right where the door was. I tried to use my key fob but it wouldn't recognize my fob therefore it wouldn't open the door so I had to run to the middle entrance. By the time, I got down to let Katie into the garage, it wasn't even raining anymore and I was soaked from head to toe haha 

We went to get some massages ;) and then came home to finish up some stuff. 

Later we had an awesome breakfast for dinner with omelettes and GF pancakes. So yummy.

Adam had to go to the library for a little and when he got back he was in the hallway finishing up a phone call. Little did he know that his little buddy knew he was there. Jack waited and whined by the door for at least 5 minutes until Adam finally came in. It was so cute.

Finished the weekend, getting ready for the week and hanging out.

Happy Weekend. We are heading out to the East Coast tomorrow. We'll be going to NYC from Sunday night-Wednesday morning and then having multiple Thanksgiving dinners. Hopefully, I can keep up with blogging but who knows knowing our schedule.

Give Thanks

I am feeling very blessed these past couple days. So I thought I would share the wonderful things God has blessed me with.

1. Awesome in-laws. From coming to visit us to letting me crash in their space once a week, I am so blessed to have them semi-close.

2. Speaking of my in-laws, reminds me of my awesome husband. He is beyond busy yet he still takes the time to show me he cares and help me out. From coming home early from the library so he can see me before I go to sleep,  helping me carry stuff to my car for my Wheaton working days, to leaving the song Unconditional Love by Katy Perry playing when he leaves to the house to let me know how he feels (aww cute.).

3. Katie- The timing could not be more perfect for Katie and Jack to come stay with us (well for me at least). Originally, she was going to come in the summer but I’m so thankful she is here in the fall because I would be soooooooo lonely without her while Adam is in the libary every night. I have friends in Milwaukee, y’all but I have had a lot of freelance and driving lately and sometimes it’s nice to have someone to hang out with that you don’t have to travel to see.  Also it's nice to have a a fellow gluten free-er. We've been cooking/baking a lot together and now I have so many new recipes!

4. A kind stranger- Once a week, I let myself have a fancy coffee on my way to Wheaton. It’s a treat during this time where I have to get up at 4:45 and make the 2 hour commute. Eventually, I’ll wean off that drink but for now it’s a nice treat to get me out of bed. A couple weeks ago, when I went to pay for my drink, the cashier told me that the car in front of me had already paid for me. I have heard of that being done and have done similar stuff in youth group but have never been on the receiving end of that. It seriously made my day that a complete stranger would bless me in that way. So I decided to do the same. I mean I was happy to pay for the next persons drink (Way happier than I would have been to pay for my own). It’s amazing what a blessing something small like that can be to someone.

5. Work- Since I went part-time,  I have not only enjoyed my part time hours at Wheaton but have had enough work provided each week through freelance or odd jobs. I'm getting to work on all different kind of projects and meet all kinds of people. It's been an adventure.

Happy Thursday!

Veteran's Day

There is one benefit of your husband working at a bank.. Well actually a couple. 1). I have been to a bank less than five times in the last year because the husband just walks upstairs from his office to deposit our checks or get withdraws. Um, awesome. I love when errands are so easy. 2) Since BMO has such a presence in Milwaukee, we sometimes get company tickets to events.  3) He gets off government holidays that not everyone gets off like Presidents Day, Columbus Day, and Veteran's Day, which is convenient when you are full-time wifey and part-time freelancer. Yesterday was one such day.

We had to be normal adults and get some stuff done like grad school stuff for him and freelance stuff for me but we did get to have lunch and dinner together, which was really fun.

The restaurant was really cute so I'm not quite sure why this was what I decided my only picture of the place would be...


We have been wanting to go to this restaurant called The Soup House for almost 2 years. Adam saw it randomly before I even moved up here. It's only open from 9am-2pm on weekdays so it was hard to get there when I was living in another state and then now when neither of us work downtown. We have tried to go several times on days like yesterday but it never quite worked out. So we decided that yesterday was the day. It was a perfect day to go because it was really chilly and snowing. It was  awesome because they had lots of gluten free soups and even had gluten free cornbread. The funny part was that their menu board said that there would be a $1.00 charge for any Seinfeld references haha The only tricky part was that they only took cash or a check and I had used up all of mine at the Big Buck Tourney and we were $2 shy of our total bill. Adam ran to the car and grabbed all my change and had 32 cents and a Canadian nickel extra. He wanted an extra piece of bread so he asked if they would take his 32 cents and Canadian nickel instead of the normal 50 cent charge. haha They said he could have it for free but he insisted on paying them. It was funny.

In other news, my grandma (dad's mom) is having troubling symptoms of the early stages of dementia. She will be put in a nursing home or assisted living really soon because she can't live by herself anymore. Please be praying for her if you think of it. Are there any prayer requests from anyone else? I have a decent commute on Tuesdays and Wednesdays that I like to especially use for praying for others.

Big Bucks and Biggest Loser

This weekend was a mix of cooking, relaxing, helping put on an event at our church and playing a lot of Big Buck Hunter. It was a fun.

my cooking buddy

I pre-gamed the weekend by trying to make some pumpkin bread. I even took pictures of the recipe step-by-step so I could blog about it. I then ate said pumpkin bread and deleted all the pictures. It was the worst. You live and learn.

(my) Hero Hunter (That's what the game called him when he kept getting perfect rounds)

On Saturday evening, we had a Big Buck Hunter (video game) tournament with our friends. The idea was that you had your hunting party of four and there were five bars, each having the game, that you had to go to play and see who scored the highest at the end of it all. The first bar was slow because everybody was waiting for each other to play but once the first team played, they went to the next bar and continued to play through. They were supposed to keep on playing until they finished their last round at the final bar but they might have had a few too many beverages and got a little distracted at McDonalds, other bars, or just plain hanging out… this delayed our night by a couple of hours but it was still really fun.

(I was a hillbilly princess… You can't tell but my hair was huge…)

Our hunting party. We came in second place.

I don't know why but subconsciously I wanted to be as close to the screen as possible. This was the only bar that had a separated between the player and the screen hence why I'm leaning over it so far…. The other bars, I would end my round so much closer to the screen than when I started.

This weekend, our church hosted Marci Crozier, a contestant on the Biggest loser season 11, for a brunch where she spoke about her experience and how God has used her since. (She goes to our Pastors wife's brother's church --confused,yet?) Adam and I helped  A LOT with set up, cooking, and clean up. it was fun though.

I got to decorate so I basically just brought all my apartment decorations and bought a couple pumpkins/gourds and some flowers. There were only 7 tables but each one was different. I wish I would have taken pictures of them all because they each so cute! (I am of course biased because it's all my current decor)

What was really cool was that I had a couple different owls used throughout the room because  I love them but what I didn't know was that an owl had been really important to Marci during her time on the Biggest Loser. Everyday when she walked around the ranch, she would see an owl up in a tree which would hoot at her. It was just impactful to see that owls showed up again when she was speaking at our church.

Tasha and Katie helping out at the brunch

 My friend Nancy looking awesome at 80-- can you believe she is that old? I can't. She's spunky haha

I got to use this awesome box/crate that my in laws picked up for me a couple weeks ago. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of it because it is sooo cute. 

The yolk separators and scrambled egg Masters

 The kitchen boys ;)

We finished up the day by trying to make these apple chips (after waiting 2 hours of cooking on low heat- I cranked up the oven and forgot about them until they started smoking…oops), made this awesome lasagna (my new favorite GF meal), GF chocolate chip cookies, and GF Peanut Butter cookies. We were quite ambitious but now we have so much yummy food!

Happy Monday!!!

Girls Weekend

Last week, I came home from a Girls weekend to Adam having a cold (poor buddy!). The next day I woke up with a bad sore throat and thought it was suspicious to get something so fast. The next two days were even worse, sore throat, runny nose, pressure in my head, that foggy feeling when you just can't focus, and my body just ached so bad. I thought it was the worse cold eva! Until I really started to think about my symptoms (aka body aches) and realized I did not have a cold but the flu. It was no fun but at least I can cross one thing off my to do list… Getting a flu shot.

Anyways, I got the flu from hanging out with some of best friends so I guess I can't complain. There were 9 or so of us who hung out all through college and became really good friends. I think 6 of them ended up on the same hall freshman year and the rest of us just got pulled in. It had been way too long since we had all gotten together so we planned a weekend get together and it was really fun!

We got to stay at our friend's parent's beautiful cabin. Before we got there, I had expectations of a cabin like the ones in Wisconsin that have only dirt roads leading to them, no electricity, and no running water. But instead we walked in to this gorgeous space that had four bedrooms and four bathrooms. It was a perfect space to chill for the weekend.

On Saturday, when we weren't talking, cooking, stuffing our faces with snacks, or watching something on apple tv, we were out exploring.

 We went for a walk in the state park. It was beautiful weather and really nice to be outside.

On our walk around the lake, there were signs like this that had an animal and an exercise that went with the animal. We did all of them and had fun doing it.

There was this random set of stores called Pappy's (is that right, Liz?) that was kind of touristy so of course we had to check it out. Mainly we wanted a picture with this crazy looking dog.

And this too… we're mature, I know.

I had so much catching up with my girls and getting to just be with them. 

#bestochoselfieeva