Raising our hands for friendship

Guys, no one told me that at the hint of good weather, everyone comes out of the woodwork. (Notice, I said hint of good weather because I'm still bitter that it said it would maybe be in the 80's today and barely got out of the 50's). Between various things at work (a coworker's last day because he got a new job) and visiting friends (birthdays, Chitown visits, and Milwaukee visits), I have eaten out everyday since last Friday! This is a difficult task for someone who can't have gluten (I'm all in on cucumbers) and is making my wallet a little lighter. Nonetheless our last week has been fun.

We took all kinds of public transportation to get out to a place where Adam's dad could pick us up.  This was us waiting.

On Saturday, Adam, his dad, our friend Joe, and his dad all went golfing at Whistling Straits up in Wisconsin. It's a really nice PGA course that is usually an exorbitant amount of money but they went for a fraction of the price because it was the last weekend of winter pricing. Since the course is past Milwaukee, I caught a ride with them to see some friends. It was a relaxing day of shopping, eating, and catching up while the boys had fun on the course. It was a fun but tiring day.

The last week has been filled with so many boring meetings so I've been practicing my sketching so I can pay attention.

Our friends Jenny and Brogen invited us to the Cubs v White Sox game on Tuesday evening because they got some free tickets. Who can say no to free baseball and friendship? Not us… Also it was BOGO at Chipotle for Educators (I guess designers at an university count because I got me some chipotle and was not mad about it at all!)

never mad about free stuff

sad but we needed the blanket and it was still a little chilly

Whew, last night was someone's birthday happy hour downtown. I wanted to murder my apple map because it kept telling me I was going the opposite direction I actually going but I eventually got there and we had so much fun.  It was really great to see some friends and a new place.

Hopefully this weekend will be a little less crazy but still fun ;)

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.

Super Bowl Party

Our fantasy football team got together for the big game on Sunday. We got to host since the original "host" started to think of his set-up and realized he didn't have a table (his roommate moved out recently taking his half of the stuff), he didn't have adequate seating for 15 people, and he didn't have cable and therefore was have trouble getting his antenna to properly bring in the Fox.  I'd say he made the right choice.

We got a little excited about hosting and so we made a football field to use as our "table cloth". So of course the guys played paper football.

Adam had a lot of fun building the field and went into great detail.

And brought out our mini game of corn hole.

and everyone brought a great array of snacks. (yes we had a tv on our snack table.)

Stephen Colbert couldn't say Superbowl on his show last week so he kept calling it the "Superb Owl" hence our banners.

 We had a guacamole football field on our football field. Mind blown.

If only the game or the commercials had been entertaining. Oh well, we had fun with each other ;)

p.s. this is my first year on a fantasy football team. Is it normal to have a winter meeting about said league to discuss rules and changes "everyone" wants to make happen next season?

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.

Katie and Jack are here for the Fall

My sister, Katie, moved in with us 2 weeks ago and we've been having a blast so far. She is finishing up school and had to do 2 clinical type placements and decided to do one in Wisconsin. I'm sad to say (and maybe you guys will be reading this) but I blogged last week about our weekend and it never saved or posted so... get read for a picture dump.

It was nice last weekend so we went to the lake. Jack loved it.

We went to the farmer's market each weekend to grab the veggies for our meals each week. Which reminds me.

We've been cooking. ALOT. The Mormons maybe have one thing right. Multiple women in the house to help cook and clean (other than that, they have a lot wrong.). It's awesome! We take turns picking out recipes, grocery shopping, and cooking. It's really fun! And I think Adam loves it since I all but gave up cooking went I went gluten free a couple months ago.

 We went to an orchard and got pears.

and apples

 looked cute

 became children of the corn

and got baby pumpkins.

It was fun!

 We went to large flea markets, got bargains, and saw really pretty furniture.

Nothing to do with Katie but I started my new job and they had my sign up the first day. Awesome.

 We went to Dave and Buster's and played Fruit Ninja

 and air hockey. So fun. And I crushed everyone at basketball. The second place winner had 26 pts while I had 40 pts. Thank you Buck and Chrissy for being my basketball coaches in high school so I could go on to win at Dave and Buster's haha

 Jack and Adam became friends.

 We went to a fall festival with owls

 apple butter & cider

 friends

 bluegrass music

 dancing

 nature walks that take you off the beaten path

 mushrooms the size of your head

Pretty views!

Friends come to visit

We had some friends come and visit us for the long weekend. It was so much fun ;) Some of this pictures are going to look like other visits from friends but that's only because I didn't take any photos of the other stuff haha

Travis was Adam's roommate for 4 years and his best man in our wedding. Him and his girlfriend came up from Kentucky on Friday Night and stayed through Monday. This weekend was also the 110th anniversary of beginning of Harley Davidson so there were a lot of bikers in town.

 On Saturday, we headed to one of our favorite parks in the city where we saw a lighthouse and played the par 3 course. It was a really nice day.

 Travis made a Lion friend

 I was the photographer because I'm trying to rest my wrists and golfing doesn't exactly provide that needed rest. Ally is a really good golfer. She could have played in college but decided to play Softball at Louisville. She's a pretty athletic girl.

 roomie tradition of celebration

After golfing, we tried to go to Lake Michigan but it was green again... not sure why this always happens when guests come ;( so we were heading somewhere else when we saw the cutest Lemonade stand and Adam always stops at lemonade stands so we stopped and had some really good lemonade.  Right as we were leaving the stand, 16 bikers stopped for lemonade. I'm not even sure the kids had that much.

 Next we headed to one of our favorite neighborhoods in the city, Bayview, to see if the lake wasn't as green.... It still was but they have a nice park where we could play catch and football so we hung out for a bit.

 The D1 softball player getting some "help"

 We saw a photo opportunity with a cool anchor so we took it.

We went to the Brewers game that night and since they were still giving out $10 food vouchers (because of Ryan Braun's use of steroids), we got $8 tickets with $10 vouchers. Not a bad deal. There weren't a lot of people at the game because of the Harley Davidson events and a huge wrestling/fight being held in Milwaukee, so we got to change our seats every inning for a different point of view. It was really fun. The game was close too which made it fun.

The next day, we went and played some catch since Travis and Adam used to play baseball together and Ally still plays softball. We also wanted to check out a local college's campus so we ended up at Concordia University's field. It was fun.

This is said college's view of Lake Michigan. Doesn't suck. This is really what the water looked like on Sunday.

We had a really chill weekend catching up. Glad that they could come to visit. Anyone else do something fun for the long weekend?