Weekend of Rest

We had fun-filled, basketball watching, crossing things off our list, hanging out kind of weekend.  We invited Adam's family to come over on Saturday, which kicked our butts into gear to clean up our place a little. It looks so much better! We hung up more stuff on the wall (who knew that was even possible if you've already seen our collage) and cleaned up a bit so it's really starting to feel like our place. Our kitchen is done, put away, and looking good . (I went to take a picture for you guys and realized it was put away and looking good but then I made dinner and these delightful muffins and it's a mess again. Oops!)

We showed Adam's family around our neighborhood and went back to Eataly (the Italian marketplace full of small boutique restaurants) because Adam's family is Italian. I really think they liked it ;)

 Adam's mom trying on a bomber hat 

 I had a successful day, eh? 

Let me just tell you, those fish were heavy and the guys who really caught them had been there for 8 hours! They had a great view though!

When the fisherman pulled out the fish, grandpa came running to see them. It was cute.

After we showed them the neighborhood and went downtown, we came back and had a quiet dinner at a local place with really good gluten free (and regular) pizza. It was yummy and such a nice way to end the day. Thankful for family close by, my family far away and a nice, relaxing weekend.

Ripped off

When I worked at Indiana Wesleyan University, it was my task to come up with an infographic to explain the 4 page document about the financial aid calculator. It was a really hard task to condense that much information in just one graphic so it took several rounds of different designs. We ended up with this final design.

Now granted, I haven't worked at IWU for a solid year and half (which is sad!) but this week, my old coworker sent me an email about a neighboring college that had "borrowed" our graphic on their website.  Not sure how I feel about it since they didn't even try to make it their own… I mean, they could have at least attempted to make it a little more different, right?

Well, I guess it just means we did a good job coming up with our graphic ;)

Our kitchen

Our kitchen is getting new countertops today which is kind of exciting especially since we don't have to pay for them. Gotta love apartment living. I'll have to give you guys an after picture when it's done.

I want to start doing a "wordless Wednesday" post. Technically it will be a picture of words but they won't be my words. They are going to be hand lettered quotes or verses. This week got a little crazy with me saying yes to multiple freelance projects so I didn't get around to it. Hopefully, it will start back up next week ;)

Happy Wednesday!

Weekend Warriors

Wow, so the people have spoken. Thank you everyone who sent me emails, texts, Facebook, blog, and instagram comments about my glass choices. Seriously a hard choice. The overwhelming choice was #5, which I was leaning towards anyways… I'm still going between #4 and #5 because my hipster self is trying to win even though I know #5 looks better. haha Sending them back today though ;)

Anywho this weekend, we watched a lot of basketball (Adam's brackets are busted!) and explored the city a bit.

We went to Eataly, a huge Italian marketplace full of multiple restaurants dedicated to pizza, pasta, meats and cheeses, wines, gelatos or other fancy Italian themed food. It was awesome.

 You could also get fresh pasta

 All kinds of cheese

 fun kitchen gadgets

fresh produce and two levels of fun imported goods from Italy

 On Sunday, Adam went to a men's meeting after church to meet some guys at our church while I went out to eat with one of their wives. It was fun to get to know another lady from our church in more casual setting. Looking forward to continuing to explore the city and meet new people.

Help me pick my glasses and see bits and pieces of our new apartment

So I've wanted/needed new glasses for a while but every time I finally got around to ordering them, it would be time for a new eye exam. Well, I finally got around to ordering some glasses and decided to get them from Warby Parker because they have cute styles, are pretty affordable, and let you do a home try-on.

I was so excited when I got home on Friday to the awaiting Warby Parker box! I wore the different glasses all weekend around our apartment just to test them out. If you haven't heard of Warby Parker before, their thing is you pick 5 pairs of frames and you get them for 5 days for a home try-on before sending them back. There is no obligation to order any but if you do, they are $95 a pair (plus $20 if you have really bad vision and want thinner lenses). They even give funding to local entrepreneurs in struggling countries so that they can help people without glasses get access to them. Love it.

 I like all of them so this is why I need your help. Which one should I choose? (4 out of 5 of them are the tortoise option. I'm kind of obsessed)

We now have a sun room in our apartment. So many windows and natural light! (our last apartment only had one window)

 Our sun room feeds right into our living room… which you've seen a glimpse of here…

We have a lot of Adam's fun paintings throughout our apartment ;)

 This is in our bedroom but I can't show you that right now because it's an absolute mess! Yikes! Our bedroom is smaller than our last apartment so sometimes we don't even know what to do with all our stuff. Even though our bedroom may be smaller our living area is bigger so that's nice for entertaining ;)

I don't love that our kitchen isn't as close to the living area as our last apartment but I do love how big the kitchen is especially for being in a city apartment.

Okay, so I only have a couple days left before I have to send the glasses back, so let me know what you guys think by leaving a comment.

(this post is my own opinion and not a review of Warby Parker)

City Living

Adam's view from his office

Since the New Year, our lives have been a little crazy. I had been commuting down to Wheaton every Monday morning and back on Wednesday evening, staying at his parents in between. Then I would rush back on Wednesday and get ready to finish up the work week in Milwaukee. I wasn't working out consistently, cooking, cleaning, or getting enough sleep. I felt like I was always busy rushing back forth between the two places. Adam had the same problem come February except he was commuting an hour and half to two hours one way no matter if he was coming from Wheaton or Milwaukee. We were driving a lot and spending a lot of money on gas and eating out.

Surprisedly enough, the move to the city has made our lives simpler. We are both in one place everyday. We both take public transportation and so even though his commute is still 30-45 minutes, he gets to read. Before we moved, I can't tell you the last time either of us read a book but now we've both started our 2nd books this week. (what?!?). We are both working out consistently, eating better (I'm cooking again ;), spending more time together and getting rest. It feels so nice after all the craziness. We got in our car over the weekend and we had only driven it 60 miles in a week and half and 30 of that had been to come to the city from Wheaton. Haha It's been nice.

I hope as it gets warmer, we'll get to enjoy the city more. So far though the move has been good for us and I'm thankful for that.

Hebrews 6:19 a

Moving

These last month has been kind of crazy as we quit old jobs, moved to the city, and started new jobs. I was pretty overwhelmed the first week as I had to leave my part time job at Wheaton and our apartment looked like a war zone. I was sad to leave my job because I loved it and the people there but they couldn't make me full time and it wasn't worth it to have us both commuting 45 min-1 hr  for a part time job. I'm now doing the same thing at a different college, 2 miles form our apartment. It's really convenient.

Now that we're here and our apartment is unpacked, I'm feeling a lot better and we are loving the city.  Our commutes are pretty easy and we've been having fun doing different things around the city.

For now, I'll leave you with a photo dump from our past few weeks.

My last day at Wheaton also happened to be the day that I had signed up for months ago to provide snacks for our department. My friend, Kim and I made it a March Madness/ Spring theme.

I always see fun ideas on pinterest and can never carry quite carry them out lol Oh well, they were supposed to be ham and cheese basketball crackers. I was also going to try and make basketball cake balls as well but I decided that was a little bit too ambitious.

My friend, Kim ;) I miss her already

These little beauties were the only slippers I could find to keep my feet on our beautiful yet cold hardwood floors. Ironically enough I thought I had put them in the goodwill pile before we moved yet when we got here they were the one ones I could find haha

loving my new pitcher now turned vase

our living room is starting to come together

 I'm loving our new bathmat and shower curtain

 We had a friends weekend this past weekend. We went to Dave and Busters and split the points so we could all play different games. The boys were "sharing" the last of our points to play a game. It was hilarious.

 On Sunday, we celebrated one of our friend's, Matt, birthday. It was so fun to now live close enough to see our friends 2 days in a row. Hoping for more weekends like this.

City Living

We went to City Target on the way home from Church on Sunday and it was really interesting. There is a parking garage conveniently in the basement so they have these escalators for your cart. How cool is that?

We are loving how cheap Target Groceries are and how close it is to our apartment ;)

You say Goodbye, We say Hello

On Thursday we said goodbye to Milwaukee. I'm not going to lie, as excited as we are to move to the city, I was sad to leave Milwaukee. It was our first city/apartment together and it was such fun place to have our first year of marriage. So easy to get around and so many fun things to do. We truly enjoyed the city and the new friends we made. At least it is close so we can say hey to our friends still there.

Our apartment before we packed anything away. Also that is a painting that Adam just did for me and he wanted it to make the picture.

I had to rip up all my fun shelf liner in the kitchen… I'm looking to get some more for our new place

So much packing the last couple weeks. By the end I was just throwing whatever I could in a box to get it to Chicago haha

I had never seen our apartment when it was empty so it was weird to see it without all our fun stuff in it.

Friday, we watched Pops ref one of his last games of the season, which happened to have Adam's old high school freshman team playing in the game. They looked like a bunch of babies, which had us scratching our heads as to when we were freshman. It's been TEN YEARS. What? I feel old and never want to talk about it again haha

After the game, we went to eat with Adam's parents and grandparents and taught them about selflies. 

On Saturday, we moved into our new apartment (new pics when we unpack everything. It's a obstacle course in there right now). It feels so surreal that we live IN Chicago. We went to visit some friends last night and were able to just take the L a couple stops south and be at their place very easily. It was so fun.

The rents walking around with us in the snow storm

us on our way to our friends apt

Adam thinks I look crazy when my coat is like this but I can't help it. It's so warm this way.

We also have been walking a lot to various places around us which has been really fun. We both like to walk and be out and about. I think we are going to like this new adventure.