Goodbye 2009

2009 was such an amazing year.  I have learned so much in my relationships, financially, and grew spiritually.  


The highlights of 2009:
1) Joining a small group and meeting 4 new friends that have changed my life.  I look forward to Wednesday nights every week.. I get to catch up with them and their lives, and also share mine.
2) Dan started the surgical tech program and loves it! :) It has opened up so many opportunities and he has discovered many new interests in the health field because of it.  I am so happy for him..AND hes is good at it!
3) I am no longer a people pleaser!! One of the biggest areas of healing I have received this year.
4) I got to travel to Vegas for the first time with Dan.  It was one of the best vacations and we ate sooo much delicious food.. ! I cant wait to go back in about 10 years, haha.
5) Mexico with the family for a 4 day weekend! 
6) Elizabeth bought a house.. not really a highlight for me but I am very happy for her! 
7) My 25th birthday.  I had about 10 friends come over that night and we had a blast.  I definitely wasnt sad about turning 25 like I had thought!
8) I have grown up and changed my life over the course of a year, I value my marriage, friendships and family a lot more.
9) Dan got a job.. an easy one that he enjoys where he can do his homework/study and get paid..perfect!
10) I am pregnant!  Dan and I found out early October that I was 5 weeks pregnant. One of the biggest blessings in our life and it came at the PERFECT time.  I feel so incredibly blessed.
11) My 4 best friends are pregnant with me!! (still waiting on one more.. :) Thanks God. Perfect timing!  2 Girls are due in March, Im in June, then one in July (4 weeks behind me!) and one in August. (8 weeks behind me!)  


(Of course there are many other things that are awesome about 2009 but as I said, I am pregnant and my brain is pregnant as well lol, I really think 'pregnancy brain'.  Ive done the laundry without detergent, Ive heated up hot water for tea in the microwave without water in the cup - OUCH!, and when I started writing this I thought I was saying goodbye to 2008.. lol. )


Ive been keeping a journal for over a year and stayed consistent, I am very proud of myself.  I especially love documenting the pregnancy and my life.  I cant wait for 2010, I get to meet my son or daughter, Dan graduates, we are celebrating our 10 year anniversary (3 years married) in July... and many more exciting things to come.  I couldn't be happier or more blessed.   

To.. activites never ending!

Tuesday.. the final session of HJ was really encouraging.  After we ate all the delicious food people brought in, we got to listen to testimonies from people whose lives have been transformed.  There was like 14 people who spoke..  It was amazing..  People talking about how they finally have peace and self worth after going through years of pain and coping through other methods.  It was really inspiring and just what I needed to hear.  God can do anything, there are NO limits on what He can do.  There are people that were heavy drugs dealers, into drugs themselves, alcoholics, sex addicts, etc.. the list goes on and they have completely changed their life around with Gods grace.  They realized why they did those things and were healed of it.  Now they can start now a new path and they arent alone anymore.  I feel after this session I have been healed of 3 things.. I was working on anger, people pleasing, and control.  Though I know Ill probably still face temptations regarding these things, I have more strength than I ever have before and know that I have the power to fight it off.  One thing proved it yesterday, I stood up to someone that I consider a friend.  Thats hard for me because I really dont want to make anyone mad or step on anyones toes, I just want everyone to like me.  They overstepped their boundaries, like they always do.  Usually I let them, however yesterday, I didnt! I stood firm on my ground. I told them they would not talk to me like that again and that it was inappropriate.  They were completely shocked.  I didnt feel bad or have any regrets doing it.  If I would have tried to do that 4 months ago and they reacted like that, I would have backed down and apologized for saying that to them.. crazy isnt it?  People pleasing has always had a power over my life but not anymore! :)  I have to protect my heart. 


Wednesday.. Dan, Tom, and I went to the OK Go concert at Canopy Club.  It was so much fun!  We actually sat in the back and watched from there instead of partaking in the huge crowd of people in the front of the stage.  There were a lot of technical difficulties during the show so OK Go told jokes and danced, also put on a little skit.  They are hilarious guys, it was really entertaining.  The best part about it, the tickets were only 10 bucks each! So cheap! It was a great show and next time they come in town, I will go again. I enjoyed every song they played.  


Thursday ... Jay-z concert... AMAZING! It was like the biggest dance party ever with a freakin legend hosting it. It was a lot of fun. Dan and I danced the whole time, he was on for almost 2 hours.  N.E.R.D. opened before him so that was cool they had a really good opening band.  Jay-z knows how to put on a show, he played soo many songs.  We had Jay-z's number one fan in front of us. She was this huge african-american girl with her bf. She almost whacked me in the head everytime a song started because she was so excited.  She even pretended to faint at one point when Jayz showed his stomach to the crowd. I actually thought she did faint so I was going to attempt to catch her.. lol.  She was super nice though, she would turn around and dance with us.  When that song came on, she turned around and brushed our shoulders off.  Haha, so funny. We got home around 11:30 and Dan still had an hour of homework to do.. I am exhausted today, I wonder how hes doing.  He had to wake up at 5:30 to be in surgery at 6:30 until 3 today.  I think he has 4 surgeries today, Im sure he will rock them. 


Tonight.. Our small group is getting together for dinner at TGIFridays.  I wanted to stay home with Dan tonight but since everyone is going, I dont want to miss out.  Especially since its just dinner, I know it wont be too long.  Although when we get to talking, it could be 2 hours easily haha.  Tomorrow, Im going on my Saturday walk with Amy like usual then were going shopping for an hour.  I have to meet my mom at a furniture store so she can buy her living room furniture, apparently my sister and my mom are impossible when it comes to decorating their house.  They are always calling me up or asking me to help them,  I dont know why though cuz Im just as bad at making decisions as them lol.  Apparently I know what Im doing when it comes to decorating my house.. Riight! haha. I just pick something and go with it, I dont really think about it.  They should do the same.  It works for me! 


Dans mom's bday was on Wednesday so I need to figure out when we can get together with her to give her the gift we got her.  Im hoping Dan and I can catch up on the dvr this weekend, it seems like we havent had any time to just relax on the couch and snuggle this week! 

To.. on the GO

Looking forward to my plans this upcoming week and weekend..


I had Healing Journey at church on Tuesday night, next week is our last week and its a potluck.  Its a 10 week course that Ive been taking. Kind of like therapy and its changed me a lot actually.  Its a 12 step program like AA or whatever. I have a better understand of why I do what I do, and where the root of my 'problems' come from.  Of course Ill probably have to go through this course again but Ill probably wait until next year around the same time.. Im going to take some time off.


Last night we had small group.. we had another girl join our group.  She was really nice and seemed to fit in perfectly.  Weve had people come and go over the past couple months but they didnt stick.. Which I can totally relate to because this is my 3rd small group that Ive joined and from the first moment I met these girls I knew I would be coming back every week.  Im very blessed that God had these girls in His plan for me to meet, they are lifelong friends and they know more about me then people Ive known my whole life.  


Tonight I plan on relaxing and hopefully catching up on the dvr.. Real housewives tonight! Dan and I havent had any quality time since Monday night so it will be nice to spend some time with him, except he probably wont watch OC housewives with me..haha. 


Tomorrow night after work, we are eating dinner and then going to a conference at church.  Its 7-10pm and then on Saturday its 9-3.. that takes up most of our weekend but Im really excited about it.  Bill Jackson is an amazing speaker and he is going to take us through the entire bible and connect everything together. This is like a once in a lifetime opportunity,  Im really interested in seeing him.  Dans going with me so at least Im not missing out on my marriage time! :)


Dan works 11-7am that night so Im going to my sisters to spend the night with Renee. We will probably go there around 8. We are leaving early AM on Sunday to go to IKEA in Bolingbrook.  Elizabeth just moved in her house a week ago so she cant wait to decorate it.  I know we are going to be in a huge rush to get to everythign in that store.  Its much smaller than IKEA Schaumburg but its still big!  Last time me, my mom, and Elizabeth went there, we were RUNNING through the last part of it trying to see everything.. I think we were there for 3-4 hours!  The plan is to get there by 10 am when it opens, and leave by 1. That only gives us 3 hours to conquer that store.  I reaaaally hope Elizabeth has a list of what she wants.. same with Renee.. its going to be madness!! I cant wait. :)


I have my potluck on Tuesday and then Dan, Tom, and I are going to the Canopy Club to see OK GO! Its only 10 bucks a ticket and I love that band, should be an awesome time.  AND Dan and I are seeing Jay-Z on Thursday! Next week is going to be a lot of fun.  No plans for the weekend yet and I hope it stays that way.. :) Im going to need to rest!

To.. weekends!

Im so happy to report that my weekends are BACK!! So excited I dont know what Im going to do with myself. I mean seriously, what do you do on a weekend when you dont have to work?  Spend money $$$ I guess lol.  I hoping tomorrow I can curl up with Dan and watch movies allllll day. That sounds perfect to me.  We were supposed to help Elizabeth move tomorrow but her closing date got moved to Tuesday, maybe next weekend we can help her move!

I recently quit the catering job Dan and I were doing (thats why the weekends are free now!:) ... well he quit too.. Dan got a real job! I think hes on his 2nd or 3rd week.  Anyways, he really likes it..he gets to do a lot of homework at his job and he likes everyone he works with and the residents and they likes him as well. Im so happy for him.  He works on Tuesday, afternoon to evening, and then Saturday nights (3rd shift).  Kinda sucks sleeping alone but its okay because I dont sleep very well so when Dan gets home on Sunday at 7:30-8ish, I can go for a walk and then jump back in bed with him around 11 for a couple hour nap.  Its totally working out for me haha.  The great thing about him being able to do hw at work, he doesnt have to do it at home! So when hes at home, he can just relax.  Except Thursdays.. He has surgery on Friday so Thursday nights he has to research everything that is going to be done in surgery the next day.  I think he only has two surgeries on Fridays so its not too bad, except last night he was up until 11:30 studying and had to wake up at 5:30 to be at the hospital at 6:15.  Busy, busy.  Hes awesome how he balances it all, and now that Im only working one job, Ill have more energy to take care of him. 

Which reminds me... I gotta get back to cooking.  Lately its just been blahhh, at least I have felt like it.  I need some new recipes. Im determined!  I have tons of magazines, books, and the internet, you would think it would be easy to find a couple good NEW things to eat for dinner.  I should look into it.. Dan will be happy, I know that! :)

To.. Before and Afters take 2 !

Our bedroom has been the last (besides the baby room, no baby yet though so I dont count it as not finished, it hasnt even begun!) room to finish, weve painted our kitchen, both bathrooms, living room, and finally..the bedroom!  Maybe this is the place we should have started first because seriously, I hated going in my bedroom and thats an important room.  But no one ever sees it so I put it at the bottom of the list.  Dan and I are planning on buying a new bed from IKEA as a Christmas present to each other, but of course that all depends how we are financially. 

This is the one I want -  (in black/brown) http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39849855 OR http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S19849804

With this awesome headboard behind it  - its hard to see but the things on each side actually hide behind the headboard and you pull them out for your 'night stand' then you can push them back to hide.  Good way to save space. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80109421

Here are our before, during, and after pictures of our bedroom now (new bed coming in Dec. :)

sad pathetic room :(

Dan fell asleep during the drying process

room is chaos at this point lol

calming blue!

much better, i really love the color. hard to get it in pictures probably but its very relaxing :)

To.. living in the present! :)

Yesterday I was busy reading blogs and reading other sorts of stuff online and I ended up reading a similiar thing in two different places. I feel like 'someone' was trying to tell me something so I will share.

http://powertochange.com/life/giftorpossession/
This article was talking about how we dont value time enough and appreciate life ENOUGH, which I totally agree with. Most work days I am waiting for 5 oclock to come. I feel like Im just wasting the day away. No wonder I think that time flies. If I would reflect and enjoy every thing I do, I think I would find more joy in my life and reduce stress. I have all the time in the world, I always have time to do stuff.

Dan is a good reminder of this. He tries to cuddle or spend time with me or whatever, and Im always trying to wash the dishes or clean or something since I feel like ' I dont have time'. Which actually is a lie, because I do. Dan reminds me he wants to be with me NOW and the other stuff can wait, I totally agree, he is WAY more important, I should give that time to him, not chores. I can do them after I spend time with him.

Maybe its a female thing I dont know. I always say I can never relax until everything is done or else I just think about how I need to do those things. But Im consciously going to change my way of thinking.

I read a blog yesterday, the writer asked herself this: "When did we become so fast paced and stop desiring to take in the beauty of the world? Sometimes are we so fixated on the destination that we can’t enjoy the ride?" I totally agree. Ive been waiting for Dan to finish school, waiting for us to have kids, waiting to move somewhere warm. I think its good to look forward to things but it seems like at some point you just wish your whole life away. You stop living in the moment and you are only living for the future. Then your kids are grown and you are waiting for grandchildren. Why not enjoy the time you have before you have kids? Or the time before you move somewhere else? These are questions I ask myself. I like (I use this word loosely when it comes to working lol) working full time, being able to do what I want, I have plenty of alone time with Dan. I dont want to get all caught up (which i do) in wanting our lives to move forward, I want to enjoy our lives now! :) I know that once we do have children, we will reminense about the times before kids, or the times when Dan was in school or when we were working a part time job together.

Im going to enjoy every minute and stop waiting for "5 o'clock".

To.. SUMMER!!

Aw, summer really came and went huh? Its kind of sad that its not September and crazy how fast June-Aug went. Seriously, wow. I had a great summer though and I love fall weather so Im ready for it!! This past weekend was perfect. I loved the weather even though it was probably a little more on the chilly side then I prefer but still nice for cuddling under blankets with the windows open. I love that! :)

We didnt really do much last weekend which was awesome. On Friday Dan and I worked an event for our part time job. It was for a mans 80th bday party. This old couple had a ridiculous house in Champaign. Im a fan of houses that dont look like everyone elses. Yeah you can go to that crazy ridiculous neighborhood off of Staley (forgot the name at the moment) and you will find million dollar homes easily. My boss lives there actually lol. But they all have the same feel, and thats not an original feeling. This house that we worked at on Friday was crazy! First off from the outside, it didnt even look like a house, it looked like a place where you would go to work but really nice. My first instinct was that all the rich neighbors invested in this building and they just have parties there lol.. this was obviously before I went in there.
When we walked in it was clear that these people lived here. It was a nice house, it had a downstairs and an upstairs but you couldnt tell that from outside. In one part of their living room they had a place cut out in the floor that had railings around it. When you looked over the railing there was a mini waterfall with rocks and stuff (like a hotel) and then a huge tree growing out of it with lights on it. It was HUGE. I never found out if it was real or not. My coworker thought it wasnt because what would you do with the roots? That could possibly mess up your foundation, so probably fake. Anyways it was still cool. They had mulitiple sky lights and a huge patio, lots of giant windows. It was a fun party to work. The company we work for always has cute ideas. For this party there was a slider station with lots of options and a mac n cheese stations with all the fixings .. crab, lobster, bacon, cheese, sausage, etc. (There was so much stuff I cant remember! lol) We were incredibly tired after it, I think we got home around 10 so we put in a good 6 hours that day.

On Saturday Dan and I hung out on the couch, I read and he studied. We took the dogs to run and play frisbee while he golfed and then after dinner we volunteered at church. There was an international fair this weekend celebrating all the countries so we helped scoop food. I was glad that we were able to help!

Dan and my dad went golfing on Sunday and I went to church and grocery shopping. By the time I got home Dan was in bed studying and I joined him. I was able to finish my book that day.... success! :) It was the perfect day to spend lots of time together. I made biscuits and gravy and then sliders and mac n cheese for dinner. (wonder where I got that idea? :)

To.. the dreamers

Im really interested in dreams and visions right now and so Ive been doing a lot of research and listening to a lot things. Mainly because Ive been having vivid dreams for about the last week or so, I usually have about one really good one a month that I can remember and lately they have been almost every night. God speaks in dreams through symbolism or sometimes its literal.. Its amazing what God is trying to tell you once you listen and 'hear' him.

Proverbs 25: 2
"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. "

Numbers 12:6-8
"he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

In this clip at the bottom 'Understanding Dreams and Thinking Metaphorically - Part 1 & Part 2', he will go over like 10 most common dreams : flying dreams, showing up late somewhere, being chased, falling dreams, having a baby, teeth falling out, etc.

Its really interesting to see how these are interpreted...

(Part 1 goes over the basis of things, talks about dreams, and dejavu (really interesting!).

Part 2 interprets the 10 most common dreams.)

http://dougaddison.com/understanding-dreams.php

To.. happiness

Wow, this week is going fast. AWESOME!

Last night we had small group at Steak n Shake, we ended up talking for like 3 hours there, it was a good time. Lately I have been having some really amazing dreams and Im getting really obsessed with getting them all interpreted too! I think it would be cool to eventually learn how to do that, Im in the beginning steps of that process. Maybe Ill share my dream on the next post, Im having my friends husband interpret it now.

I feel very blessed to have new friends that have come into my life. I know Ive said it before but to have other women who you can count on and talk to about anything without judgement is amazing. I have always felt like I can talk to Dan about anything, and actually we dont have any secrets, we tell each other everything but theres just some stuff a guy just doesnt want to hear or cant relate to.. thats why girl friends are so important! Its awesome being able to share with other Christian wives that share the same views on marriage, and faith, and have the same values as you. This year is such a good year for me. I feel like Im finally coming into my own, finally standing up for myself on what I feel is right, esp against people I feel like I cant speak my mind to even if its SOO hard.. and my relationships with Dan and friends and family are better. Maybe getting older isnt so bad. :)

Life is good.

To.. patience is key

Mondays... ugh. Today has been one of the Mondays! It has taken every ounce of patience in me to not get frustrated.. or cry lol. Thats what I normally do, haha. It seems as though every time I face a situation at work today it takes forever to get resolved. One of my reps, one that Im actually get frustrated with, told me that I had awesome patience today and if he were me he would have strangled him by now.. Good thing we are on a phone and he cant see me rolling my eyes and getting pissed at him lol. Hes a great guy but sometimes no matter what I just cant help them and he cant give me enough information so that i actually can help him. Confusing, yeah.

I had one of the best weekends in a long time though. Actually all of my weekends are great, what am I talkin about lol. I celebrated my bday all weekend long.. awesome! On Friday Dan and I ate dinner and started drinking some wine and hanging out. My sister, Renee and her husband, Justin, Elizabeths friend, Adam, and Journey all came over to start the fun. We hung out for an hour or two then Scott came over and so did my reps JJ and Matt and their gf's. We had a nice little party going. I had called the kareoke taxi bus to come pick us up.. best idea ever. lol It was only like $3 a person to get from my house in Savoy to Guidos downtown... DEAL! We sang some random songs, none that were current but it was a good time. We got to Guidos and met up with a lot of people, mostly Elizabeths friends, and Erica Q and her bf! After a while at Guidos we went to Cowboy Monkey to dance. I think me and Dan danced for like 3 hours. I didnt even go to the bar, I just danced the whole time, it was a lot of fun. We took the kareoke bus back and ended up talking to Renee and Justin at my house until like 3:30 or 4 in the morning. I had an awesome bday, thanks friends! :)

I woke up at like 8 am on Saturday morning, not feeling the greatest and ate some food and then went back to sleep from 11-3 pm... basically the whole day lol. Once I woke up I got ready for dinner. My parents came over and we all went to Red Lobster for dinner. It was amazing. Dan and I shared a dinner, it had crab legs, lobster tails, shrimp, and scallops.. yeah thats why we shared haha. Then we got some soup, salad, and shared an app.. oh yeah and dessert! It was a chocolate chip cookie with molten chocolate on the inside with ice cream. It was sooooo freakin good. After dinner we went to my house to take pictures in the field for Christmas cards... which the guys were not too happy about.. I mean it was ridiculously hot but come on, suck it up! Be thankful that you are alive and well enough to walk out to a field.. haha. (That didnt work when I told them that.) After my parents left I went with Elizabeth to Blind Pig to meet my good friends Shelby and Ericka and their bfs. I used to work with them at Dr Whites office, they are great! Ericka just moved back to IL from Florida and shes going to work at Shelbys office. yay! :)

I ended up only staying 2 hours at the bar and Dan picked me up, it was an easy night out.. didnt even spend any money! Woot woot! !

Yesterday me and Dan went to St. Joe... My mom and I made calzones and tomato tarts for lunch while my dad and Dan drank and hung out in the hot tub. Dan got a lot of sun yesterday, it was a great day for that. They made the hot tub really cool so it felt like a pool, it was awesome! I got some sun too, I can kinda feel it today. We ended up staying until like 5:30 and so I didnt have to make dinner when I got home... score!

All in all it was an awesome weekend. AND tomorrows my bday! :)

Tonight after work Im going to church, I volunteered to help out with the back to school kids thing.. Im a guide. No idea what I will be doing but I hope its easy! I cant wait to get in my bed, Im exhaustedddddd!

To.. inspirations!

My mother in law's "aha moment" . Check it out.

http://www.ahamoment.com/pg/moments/view/5800

To.. busy bee

Right now, I could use a bed, Daniel, and my dogs in the cold house with the ac blasting. That sounds so perfect to me right now. I have been on the go this past week and have no time to really do anything. I dont think Ive actually cooked since Sunday. I made quick stuff all this week since I was always about to leave. That sucks. I enjoy cooking for Daniel and having the time to be relaxed and not be rushed. When you cant do some of the stuff you like to do you have a whole new appreciation for it. I miss it more and will cherish my time with Dan even more when I get to be with him tomorrow night! :)

On Saturday Daniel and I went to Scotts new place and hung out from like 2 pm to 12 am. It was a long day of drinks, soccer, pizza, dancing, and fun. That means Sunday was a lazy day.. not a productive day at all. I went to the pool for a while but everytime I fell asleep it was so hot that I thought I was going to throw up... miserable. I went home and did nothing. I normally do laundry on Sundays and I havent done it since 2 Sundays ago.. ew. I cant remember waht I did on Monday night but apparently it wasnt laundry and I dont even know if I cooked. Wow I have a bad memory! eek.

On Tuesday my sister came into town and when I got off of work we went shopping at the mall for a while then we met JJ, my new rep that just moved here, at Jupiters to hang out. Dan was feeling down about not having a job, bad day for him, so he didnt come. :( Elizabeth and I didnt end up going home until midnight or later and I couldnt sleep so I stayed up with Dan until 1:30. I slept so rough that night, I kept sleep walking or something, like I knew I was doing it but couldnt stop myself. I would wake up every 2 hours and jump out of bed, go in the extra bedroom then go to the bathroom and then go back to bed.. then do it all over again 2 hours later. Im dumb lol. It was so annoying though!

Last night I went to small group and then after it I couldnt wait to go home and get in bed! However.. as soon as I walk in the door he tells me we are going to a welcome home party for Tonie, Dans friend from h.s. that just got back from Japan. Luckily it was in our neighborhood so we could just walk there but we ended up staying for a few hours and then me and Dan watched stuff on the internet when we got home so I didnt go to bed until midnight or 1.

Im so exhausted today. I wish I could take a nap after work but Im meeting Journey and Melissa for dinner. Journey just got back from her month long vacation and Melissa is going to Alaska soon so I really want to see them. I told them I have to be home by 7 though since I think Im getting sick from the lack of sleep.

My mom informed me that we might be going to Elizabeths house this weekend to visit her. I want to see her but I would rather catch up on sleep, walking the dogs, and laundry! We will see what happens. I cant believe its already Thursday!

To.. Friday!

Im so happy its Friday! The weekend is in sight! I slept through "lunch" today and I get off at 4 so today is a pretty good day so far. Im thinking Ive been sleeping too much lately because I just cant wake up! Damn Tylenol PM... its amazing but then I gotta deal with the aftermath.. ugh.

Tonight Daniel and I are celebrating our 9 year anniversary. Dans picking the movie tonight and then the next movie we are seeing is Julie and Julia because I really want to see it. We are going to a Johnny Depp movie tonight so I cant really complain about his choice haha. Im in love with that actor.. but who isnt? lol

Tomorrow my mom and I are going to Tuscola Mall while my dad takes Dan to the golf course to teach him how to golf. Dans been really interested in golf lately, esp since I left to go to Mexico.. thats all he watched on tv. He really wants to learn. Im sure he will be good at it since hes good at everything. :)

After that the rest of the weekend is just whatever.. I hope to lay out if its nice or read inside if its raining. This week went really fast and it went really well. I was so happy to go back to small group on Wednesday. We had been off from it for 2 weeks. We are reading the 5 Love Languages book by Gary Coleman. I highly recommend that book. It can add so much to your marriage or relationship, and its really easy to read.

To.. Monday night friends

I had one of the best Mondays yesterday in a long time. Dan came and visited me in the morning for a few minutes and then after lunch Elizabeth came and hung out with me for about 3 hours. I feel blessed I have a job where I can spend time with my sister and actually talk to her.

After I got off work Dan, Elizabeth and I went to Ko Fusion with Erica Q and Renee, Scott met us for a few minutes between his classes. It was dollar sushi night so me and Dan each got the sampler which was all 10 pieces and Renee, Elizabeth and Erica picked and chose what they wanted. It was really good but in my opinion no one beats Yellowfin Restaraunt. I love that place. It didnt really compare in my book but it was a great time hanging out with my friends. After we got home Dan passed out on the couch and I watched tv for a few hours and then went to bed. Im still having a hard time falling asleep so I probably didnt fall asleep until 11:30.. which meant 7:30 am came early. No time for a shower or really to do anything.. good thing I didnt see anyone today lol.

Last week was really rough for me, I was pretty upset/depressed/lonely.. it was a bad feeling. No one could say or do anything but I stayed faithful and prayed about it and God spoke to me.. It took about 4 days and the feeling was lifted. This week is MUCH better... Im not feeling resentful or mad about anything, I feel complete peace over my life today.

To.. a beautiful day

I am LOVING the weather today. Its a little on the chilly side but its so gorgeous outside that I dont care. I just hope it stays this nice and doesnt rain! My rep, JJ, is moving to Champaign today so Matt, my other rep, is coming down to celebrate with his fiance w/JJ's gf and friend. I think me and Dan are going to join them, hopefully it wont get too crazy especially if my boss and his wife comes too. He makes me feel like I cant be myself since I work for him, I dunno, Im weird like that lol. We will probably just hang out downtown, Im not sure. Im the only one that is from here, besides my boss, so Im responsible for showing them a good time. No pressure. :) Bling Pig has an awesome beer garden though so Im sure we will go there, Cowboy Monkey or Guido's. Its a little chilly outside so Im going to have to find some warm clothes!

Last night was a great time. These past few days have been hard for me, Ive been really upset/depressed/lonely.. something I dont really want to discuss on here but last night really changed my mood. ALSO some words from my mother in law and my daily devotional. God is trying to speak to me and I have been refusing to listen. Todays devotionaly spoke LOUD and CLEAR to me.. I get it I get it. . I need to change. Got it!

Anyways... before I left work one of the people in my building gave me an invitation to the showcase of homes opening night thing for the new subdivision behind Carle on Curtis. Dan and I went and they gave us free food and drinks... free dinner.. woot! After that we met Buffy, my mother in law, and her bf Chris for a drink and dessert at Crane Alley. Dan ended up eating sweet potato fries and Chris had dinner so no dessert... well actually me and Dan went to DQ afterwards and had the Girl Scout blizzard.. which we are completely obsessed with. Good thing we shared.. haha. Ive been reading Bethanny Frankel's book 'Naturally Thin' so I trying to change my eating habits.. Its actually a really good book. She teaches you how to think about food and how to approach food so that you get rid of the "food noise" as she calls it. I have a lot of food noise as probably anyone can tell from reading my blog. I obsess over it and my weight.. not good. Im working on it though and I already feel better about it. I have stopped with the guilt after I eat something I shouldnt. Also instead of like eating a bunch of cookies, Im satisfied with just one and feel good afterwards. I cant wait to finish it, she has 10 steps, Im only on step 3 so Ive got a lot more to learn!

Im looking forward to the weekend, we dont really have any plans tomorrow or Sunday so I hope the weather is nice and I can go to the pool and read. That would be awesome.

To.. changes

Gosh I feel so tired lately, like all the time. Ive also been having very vivid dreams and I keep waking up in the middle of the night, its weird. Today I decided to bring in the comforter I keep in my car and bring it into the office. I took a nap on the floor at work during my lunch and it wasnt that bad actually. I thought it would be hard to fall asleep because Im not really used to sleeping on the floor but it was pretty comfortable. I woke up in the middle of it of course and got a little freaked out about where I was but once I realized it I fell back asleep.. it was awesome. haha.

I'm about to get a co-worker on Friday, actually hes moving on Friday so hopefully he wont be in until Monday but still, I wont be alone anymore. I dont really know how long he will be in the office every week since he is a sales rep.. hopefully he will stay busy enough so he wont be in here 24/7.. eek that would suck lol. I like working alone for the most part. It gets lonely at times but otherwise its nice. I get to do whatever I want at the pace I want. Plus no one is watching me or telling me what to do. I mean sure the reps tell me what to do on a hourly basis but since they cant see me, they dont know what Im actually doing on my end.. I can take my sweet time.. haha.

Tonight when I get home I gotta catch up on laundry.. eww. Im so happy I bought a frozen pizza when we went grocery shopping so its an easy dinner tonight! Woot! I dont like frozen pizza really so Im making a small pizza for me.. Elizabeth taught me how to make it and its sooo good. She calls it a tomato tart or something but I just think it tastes like a healthy pizza. I make puff pastry in the oven and then after that cooks and puffs I take it out and put thin slices of tomato, fresh basil, parm or mozzerella cheese, salt and pepper and a little bit of e.v.o.o. Then I bake it for about 5 more minutes, until the cheese is melted. Its sooo good. YUM.. That sounds really good right now actually since I havent had my lunch yet.

Today was Dans last day of school. He starts officially job hunting today, even though he has been applying since April. Its tough finding a job in this economy but theres no recession in Heaven and I know God will provide Dan with the perfect job with His perfect timing. :)

To.. recovering!

This weekend was one of the best in a long time and I think it mostly had to do with the fact that we had nothing planned. I love relaxing weekends like this. Friday night, me and Dan cooked dinner and then watched a marathon of a new show on Showtime called 'Nurse Jackie'. I wasnt exactly thrilled to watch it because there was lots of blood on the first episode. Okay probably not 'lots' but there was still blood. Eww. I dont like doctor or surgery shows, I have a weak stomach or weak mind or something lol. Im sooo glad Dans the nurse in the family. It turns out that it was a really good show. We are hooked. I love HBO and Showtime series'. They have some of the quirkiest shows and they are so interesting and good. We watch Entourage, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, The United States of Tara, Californication... I feel like theres one or two more, cant remember right now.

Dan and I decided that we are going to start a new routine- walk two miles everyday. This is not only for our health, but the dogs health and to get them out everyday. It looked like it was going to rain on Saturday so I grabbed the umbrella and put on my swimsuit and we went for a walk. lol See, I was soo prepared for what was to come. We went to the park on Windsor and if you walk the whole perimeter its like 1.9 miles or something like that.. its really close to 2.
We walked probably 1.5 miles and I looked up and could see LOTS of rain coming our way. Its pretty crazy if you can SEE rain ahead of you and watch it coming towards you. Quite an experience. We got lucky and we were right next to the bus stop by the nursing home so we ran in it with the dogs. We left them in it and me and Dan stood out in the rain. It was really cute.. <3 . After it stopped raining so heavily we went on the rest of our walk.. Dan and Suki got soaked and I carried Leia under the umbrella with me. We had a good time. We got home and Dan and I went grocery shopping and then we stayed home the rest of the night. I really wanted to go see a movie because we have free movie passes but Dan wasnt up for it.

Yesterday was DAY 1 of starting to exercise again at the gym.. YUCK. I am incredibly sore from working out! I usually work out a full hour and yesterday I decided to only do 40 minutes since I havent worked out since May...I guess I should have only done like 15 because literally every single muscle hurts. Which I guess I should see it as a good thing because I was successful in working out my whole body. But still. I tried to wake up this morning at 5:30 to go to the gym but I couldnt.. I didnt fall asleep until 1:30 this morning and I was in bed at 10! It was probably a good thing I didnt go since I am so sore. Dan said he would go with me so Im going to try to go tomorrow morning. I figured out a way to guarantee I will have motivation to go to the gym but its not really appropriate to share on here..sorry. haha. That was always my biggest problem..it wasnt actually working out, it was GETTING to the gym.. But now I figured that out! lol.

ANYWAYS... this week is pretty mellow.. no plans. One of my reps is moving here on Friday so he wants me and Dan to go out. I dunno how thats gonna go since Im not really a partier. Im going to have to figure out a way to get out of it..hmm. Maybe Ill just go for one drink.

Its such a beautiful day outside, I could totally lay out but me and Elizabeth went to the pool yesterday for almost 3 hours and I got a little burnt on my shoulders so Ill probably just stay inside until 5.

To.. back to the grind. :P

Back to work after 3 weeks of fun.. :) I guess it was worth it and now I cant complain about having to work full weeks lol.

Lets see.. Mexico was a blast! My mom and I got there on Friday morning, we ate some delicious food and drank probably way to much. whoops. We were supposed to check in at 3 and didnt do it until 5 because we were having way to much fun in the pool at the swimup bar. So the mexicans yelled at us at 5 since we were two hours late. I really didnt get why it mattered but whatever, it was pretty funny how mad they got. We are on vacation! We dont have a schedule...come on. lol Shouldnt they know that already? We actually ate two dinners that night, nothing new for me.. We ate at the buffet and then we went to this Brazilian restaraunt and had meat on a stick. They had like a buffet style thing set up for just salad and sides and then the waiters would walk around with all this meat on a stick (skewer) and slide it onto your plate. They had everything...chicken, steak, filet minon, fish. It was really good actually. After that we layed on some chairs and listened to the ocean and then went to bed. My sister and dad came on Saturday. The weather was beautiful and sunny in the morning when me and my mom went for a walk on the beach and by the time my dad and sister came, it poured!! It actually poured until the day I left.. I saw about 2 hours of sunshine the morning I left to go to the airport. How nice. lol. We ended up eating a lot (ya know 6 meals a day at least) and drinking a lot and trying to stay warm in the pool because of all the rain. I know its weird, being cold in Cancun. I think it was the ocean breeze combined with the rain... wow it was freezing! Okay maybe not freezing but not hot.

It was nice to get away with my family and spend time with them. I missed Dan like crazy!! I actually didnt get to talk to him until day 3 (Sunday) and I called him and emailed him. He actually sent me 9 emails so I responsed to all. He can be so sweet sometimes. :) I was happy to leave on Monday, so tired of all the eating and drinking and lack of sleep.. then I got to the airport. Which was A NIGHTMARE! Eeek. Ill write about that tomorrow or something because thats a LONG story.

I had a fantastic weekend. Dan and I painted our kitchen and our bathroom. A tip for anyone ever painting a room red... GOOD LUCK! Lol. Seriously I was at Menards 3 times that day and Do It Best twice. Yeah not fun lol. BUT we ended up with the perfect red. I had a vision in my head of the color I wanted.. I wanted a raspberry red not a fire truck red so that it would go with all the different reds I had in the kitchen. The first color we bought was pink {not on purpose}... Yes pink. lol A little too raspberry or something haha. We took it back to Menards and they added black to it to make a darker color. They showed it to me with 3 coats on the top of the paint can and I hated it! But I didnt say anything lol because I wanted to go home and I figured that color couldnt be fixed no matter what you did to it. I took Dan home and I went to Do It Best to get a different red. I ended up getting RED red. Ya know like bad red? Lol. I didnt know it was bad obviously until I got home. The guy at Do It Best actually gave us the best tip..he told us to use up all of the previous red (pinkish red) on our walls as a base, then paint this new Do It Best red on top. Well...we loved the "base" soo much that we kept it! ( I had to go back to Menards a third time to get more! ) It worked out so well! Im so happy with our "custom" color and it really makes our house a home.

Our bathroom ended up working out really well too. I wanted a sand color and the first time we went to Menards we got a light tan. When we brought it home I wasnt that crazy about it. We had only put a stroke or two on the wall but I wasnt feeling it. So the second time we went back to Menards, I bought a random tan but just a quart of it. I really didnt know what to do. We ended up painting two walls the lighter shade and one wall the darker shade. It looks like wet sand and dry sand. They go perfectly together, I couldnt believe how well they went and we didnt even compare or plan it. :) Yay.

Dan was sick yesterday and I wasnt feeling that great. We both ended up sleeping A LOT. I fell asleep outside to get a little tan, then fell asleep in my bed then on the couch.. and Dan slept on the other couch watching golf I swear for 8 hours! How boring lol. That can put a person to sleep..haha. I made lettuce wraps that were SOO good for lunch.

OH Also church was pretty amazing... well its too hard to explain but it was crazy and awesome. It was really cool and I was glad I went.

Overall it was a great weekend. I actually only saw fireworks driving from Walgreens to my house on Friday night after I was picking up some photos. I am very blessed for all the brave soldiers who fight for our freedom and I think this holiday is MUCH more than just fireworks and cookouts and I truely felt the meaning.

To...VACATION!

So, today is bittersweet.. I have to leave my husband :( but Im going to Cancun...soooo I cant be that sad. lol Sorry Daniel! Haha. Just kidding. It just hasnt hit me yet. I finished writing all my daily letters for him that Im going to place all over the house, that way he wont forget about me while Im gone. :) Ughh..Its only 4 days! Come on.. I can do it. Haha.

Anyways, today is going pretty slow and Im ready to go home and spend time with Dan before I leave. My mom is coming over at 8 and we are driving to Elizabeths to sleep/watch tv until we have to be at the airport at like 3 am. Oh what fun. I hope I get at least a little sleep so Im not so tired the first day but Im a trooper and Im pretty good at running on adrenaline.. it worked in Vegas!! Ill make it... :)

I feel like I need a break, lately Ive been really stressed out..I kinda think its PMS though.. ya know?! I noticed on Sunday that there was water on the floor in our kitchen, and it was kinda smelling like vinegar..it was weird. Actually it started to drive me CRAZY and I think it was Monday I decided to wash the rugs thinking they got wet and now they are smelling. Somehow it was logical. After I washed them...which was a huge task. -- They are from IKEA so you are not supposed to wash them but I did anyway thinking its worth a try!? They fell apart in the washer, on the floor, outside, in the dryer lol. They actually did the best in the dryer because it took all the fuzzies off of them. Dan flipped when he saw our backyard because it was covered in red fur from the rugs lol. He was like sneaking up to the backdoor because it was kind of dark out and I was like what? what?? what?? I obviously knew about the rug and told Dan about it earlier but since hes not the best listener he didnt hear me. I was freaking out that there was a person in our yard or something but noo...it was the rug all over the place lol. He thought an animal or something came into our patio and did that. lol Wow.

So anyways... After I get those all cleaned up, the kitchen smells good again.. the next day I started to notice a little water...I just thought I spilt it and cleaned it up..Yeeeah, things dont usually click with me very quickly. So yesterday I get home from work and two rugs are soaking wet, and the third is getting there.. WTF! I call Winfield and the guy mentions something about the freezer to Dan so hes moving stuff around. The maintenance guy finally comes around 7 or 8 and tells us thats the problem. Apparently I was blocking the vent in my freezer (no one has ever informed me of this!) and it was freezing the back of the freezer and melting, rolling behind the cabinets, and onto the floor. Oh how nice. BTW Im so happy we do not have own a house lol Ive gotten our $527 worth of rent this much on maintenance alone. (Remember the fridge light incident ? lol - and our internet is not working so theyve been out to our house about 4 times in 2 weeks.) The maintenance guy is over at our house right now thawing out the back of the freezer to speed up this process so that we dont have to wait for it to unthaw over the next few days. What FUN! :)

Back to being stressed, as all of this was going on last night I was sooo hot because I was cooking in the oven (our grill is broke) and our a.c. was just not cooling off the house fast enough. I was stepping in this stinky water as Im trying to cook. I was trying to move fast so I broke a nail, bruised my hand and almost cut my finger. I was about in tears.. Im so happy to have a vacation now. I want to get away from normal life for a few days... Not Dan but thats the sacrafice I have to make unfortunately.

To end on a good note, Im excited for vacation tonight/tomorrow to start and spend some quality time with my family. My love for Dan will grow even stronger the time we are spending apart and I know when I come back we will have a great reunion. :) lol It will all be worth it. AND he will have a happier wife! Life is good.

To.. work days :P

This morning was ridiculously fast, this afternoon is dragging. I found out that 3 of my reps are no longer with my territory so that lightened my load A LOT. They were the busiest out of all of my reps so it looks like Im going to have to watch more tv. I know poor me. I have to admit its not as great as it sounds. I would rather do actual work then trying to pass time all the time but whatever. Ill take it.

This past weekend was so nice. Last Friday Dan and I got a pizza from Amano's - Chicago style deep dish sausage pizza. It was HUGE! I weighed it as soon as we brought it home. It weighed 6.5 pounds!!! Can you believe that? Its crazy. We each ate 2 slices and thought we were gonna die. Last time we got this pizza we only ate one each and it was just the right amount. I decided to give my mom the rest and I saved one slice for me and one for Dan to eat a day or two later. I knew we couldnt eat that much pizza. While we were eating pizza, drinking a beer, and catching up on tv shows, the freakin tornado siren went off. We threw everything in the bathroom, including the pizza, dogs, and beer, and hung out there for like 20 minutes. What a great surprise! haha. Not! Even though the a.c. was on, it was still super hot all crammed into a tiny bathroom. After that passed, which luckily it was very quickly, we watched tv and hung out the rest of the night on the couch.

On Saturday morning my mom woke me up at 6 and we drove to Elizabeths house in Bloomington. We took a long walk with the dogs and by 9 am it was super hot. Im glad we went early while it was cool(er). After the walk we ran in TJ Maxx and then went out to lunch at this really good chinese place. It was a good day. Dan and I just hung out at home the rest of the night. On Sunday we went to church and then my parents came over. We got Buffalo Wild Wings for Fathers Day lunch. It was good! We got like over 40 wings and all 4 of us ate them all, plus salad to go with it. After my parents left we went to Dans mom's house for dessert and wine. It was a nice time. His grandparents came over and so it was good to see them. I love them! They are the sweetest people, and they actually like me, which is more than I can say about my grandmas! Haha. Juuuust kidding. They love me..

Im so happy I got some quality time with Dan this past weekend, hes been so good to me and Im sooooo happy. Hes a really great husband and so supportive. Im glad we have trust and our marriage is strong so that I can go on vacation this weekend! My mom told me last Saturday that we were going to Cancun this FRIDAY! Its crazy but in an awesome way!! Im so excited. Im not thrilled about leaving Dan but it will be okay. I decided to do something for him while I was gone so today I wrote him a letter for every day Im gone. Im going to hide them all over the house so that everyday when I can talk to him (just for a minute - its $.99 a minute to talk!) I will tell him where the next one is. Im going to miss him a lot but absence makes the heart grow fonder so Im not worried. I have a 3 days weekend next week so I will have plenty of make up time with Daniel. :)

Only 3 hours left of work, I just gotta find three 1 hour shows and Im set! Hmm... :) Hopefully tonight we can go to the new frozen yogurt place on campus, that sounds soo good right now! I love ice cream on hot days, they go so perfectly together!

To..vintage!

My mom has kept some boots since the late 70's - early 80's that she used to wear, she brought them out last month and gave them to my sister. We visited Elizabeth in Bloomington this weekend so I stole the boots from her haha. For some reason she cared a lot that I took them even though she hasnt wore them yet! Apparently she forgot about them, whatever, not my fault..Ill wear them! haha. Heres some pics of them, they are really cute and comfortable!

To...holy humidity!

Wow, is it hot here...I LOVE IT!!! Im probably the only person in C-U enjoying the humidity but I dont care. I have waited all winter for this kind of weather. It finally feels like summer. My work turns the a.c. on pretty much as soon as May comes around, Ive had the windows open today to warm me up..haha. I went home on lunch to lay out and it sucked because the sun would hide behind clouds every 2 minutes, now its been staying sunny for the past 2 hours. Arg. I want to refresh my tan, ya digg?

Its really slow at work today so Ive been watching a new show on ABC called Here Come the Newlyweds.. its a reality show and passes the time so whatev. Ive also been searching for a place to go on a mini vacation with my parents and sister. Turns out we are going next weekend!! WTF lol That is sooooon. Pretty exciting though.

Besides that, Im really excited for the next 3 weeks. Well this weekend starts in an hour and a half. Next weekend Ill be on the beach. Following that weekend will be 4th of July, which I just found out I get paid to be off on the 3rd. So stoked! My day just got better. Peace out.

To...married moments..

Sorry Dan..Im about to put you on blast haha.. but you deserve it!! lol jk..

So this morning, I actually woke up early for once and felt great! I had plenty of things to do in the morning without feeling rushed or anything. I cleaned our bedroom and took a shower and whatever.. Dan kissed me after I got out of the shower.. then he went downstairs and came up again and kissed me again to say goodbye (this is crucial to the story lol). It was a nice morning UNTIL...

I have about 10 minutes before I have to leave so I opened the fridge to grab my lunch and the light was off.. I pull out the mac and cheese me and Dan made last night and it had dew/moisture on the lid. So yeah I freaked out.. a stupid broken refrigerator. I felt everything else and it was cold so I figured it had just broke. I call Winfield and told them my fridge might be broke and I get the answering service..they tell me they will call me at 8am. Well I gotta get to work so I start moving everything outta the way to prepare for a new fridge to be brought in the kitchen. I take all the pictures and magnets off.. I take the bread box off of the fridge. I move all the furniture in the back to clear room since thats how they had to bring it in last time it broke. I got bags ready to put everything in it so that maintenance can transfer all of our food easily.
I am trying to call Dan the whole time but he wouldnt talk everytime I answered, which made me more mad. lol. Finally he texted, whats up? I told him our fridge broke and I called Winfield. Hes like no it didnt break, the lights out. I was like the food is warm! (I lied a little lol) Hes like Erica, when I opened the refrigerator this morning, I heard the light bulb pop and it went out.

Yeah.. so apparently when Dan came up right before he left and he kissed me, he could have told me about the light.. buuuut he didnt. Whats up MEN? lol Seriously! After all that, It was like 2 minutes till 8 am and I have to be at work at 8. Normally I wouldnt care because I can use my lunch time to fill in for the minutes I missed but I had a dentist appointment today during my lunch so that wouldnt work. After lots of texting and bitching on my part, he apologized which made me feel better. But seriously, all of that could have been avoided if he told me right when it happened. You would think after 9 years of being with him he would know me by now lol and know that I would react that way if the light was out. Wow. what a morning.

I called Winfield a few hours ago because no one ever called me and they are like yeah.. maintenance went to your house and it was a broken light bulb, your refrigerator is working fine. HAHA! Whoops.

So that was a fun morning. lol Im pretty much okay as soon as Dan apologizes so for me it didnt take long to snap back into a good mood. I was just frustrated because it seems like the only time we fight it comes down to lack of communication... and this situation was no different. Maybe I should have asked him if anythings going on before he left.. but how would I know? I dunno, Im just trying to figure out the way men think and work and its not workin too well. Guys are simple creatures but I still havent figured out WHY they do some of the crazy stuff they do lol. Im so glad Im a woman! :)

To.. weekends

This weekend really flew by! Dan and I made herb risotto and hung out on Friday night and dropped off the dogs at his moms house. We woke up at 6 am on Saturday to get going on our road trip to Schaumburg. We left around 6:30 and got to Schaumburg around 9:30. I was pretty impressed because for a while we were going around 40 mph because the rain was so heavy and the traffic was kind of busy. We got lucky that the traffic wasnt so bad, Amber gave us a good route to take that had the least amount of traffic and tolls! Im going to keep it for the next time we go to IKEA there. Normally we just go to Bolingbrook so it probably wont be for a while. Dan and I shopped for hours and then had lunch. I dropped him off at the hotel to take a nap and I ventured out on my own. I went to Kohls and bought my dad some Adidas Slides for Fathers Day. After that I tried to find a store that I had went to with Buffy a few months ago called Filenes Basement.. its like TJMaxx but with higher end brands. I couldnt find it anywhere! The stupid GPS made me do like 3 U-turns in like a block radius.. clearly couldnt finding it either. After like an hour, I went to IKEA which was ridiculously packed. I told my mom I would buy her a lamp and 2 lamp shades so I found an employee and somehow found an open checkout lane and was out of there in 15 minutes. I think thats a record!

Dan and I took a taxi to the wedding at the Schaumburg Golf Course, a mile from our hotel. It was really pretty outside where Amber got married. She looked beautiful when she came out and it was a very cute wedding. Im so happy for her. I cant believe shes married!!! :) I met her husband at the reception, very nice guy and you can tell he has a lot of love for her. I had a few martinis and Dan was drinking some gin and tonics so we were feeling pretty good..haha. Once we started dancing we really didnt stop. Dans a dancing machine I swear..lol. It was a lot of fun and there was soo much food! Omgosh I couldnt believe how much food there was. If my camara was working I would have taken a picture of every course haha. There were passed appetizers as well as some set out for you to help yourself. I think there were 5 or 6 different things. Then there was the soup course, followed by the salad course.. then dinner which was filet minon and chicken. After dinner we were served ice cream. Like 30 minutes later, cake was available. Then around 9:30 they had chocolate fondue with anything and everything to dip in it. I couldnt believe how much food there was. I basically ate a little bit of everything and was stuffed. All in all I would say it was a successful wedding and reception.

To change the subject.. my parents have been wanting to take another vacation with my sister at the beginning of July. I, of course, wasnt allowed to go unless I paid for me and Dan. My sister however, got it for free. Last year my sister took a friend and my parents paid for her to go with them and the friend paid their way. I said something about my mom paying for me and she was like 'no, Elizabeth only gets it for free because shes not married'. How does this make sense? It doesnt. She should reward me cuz I am married...haha JK!
Anyways I finally figured out that this didnt make sense and decided to confront her last week. Im like just because Im married doesnt mean you dont have to pay for me... You can pay for me and then I can pay for Dan to go. Basically I told her thats whats going to happen and she agreed lol. So I talked with Dan and hes not really wanting to go anywhere again but he said I could go. He cant miss a day of school either and we would be going Thursday - Sunday. So now Im deciding on whether or not its okay to go on a vacation without my husband. Im so attached to him and I dont want it to reflect badly on our marriage. However, Im going with my sister and my parents..not exactly a crazy vacation with your girlfriends or something. I see this as an opportunity to spend time with my sister which whom I rarely get to spend time with. Any married women, wish to comment?! I would love suggestions. Its really hard to turn down a quick vacation all expenses PAID to the caribbean with my family. I just wish Dan could go!!

To.. counting down the minutes!

I am sooo excited for the weekend to start! Especially since this week has been dragging by sooo sooo slowly. Since I have this obsession with food I will start off sharing something really cool that happened this week. Risotto is pretty much my favorite food..ever. I like it any way...Well without mushrooms (probably the only food I can not eat if I tried!)...

When we were in Vegas I had three different types of risotto... haha, yes I am obsessed! One of the best ones was at a restaraunt called Aureole at our hotel, Mandalay Bay. It was an herb risotto and probably one of the best things I had ever eaten. Dan and I couldnt get enough! Last week I decided on a whim that I would email them since it really doesnt hurt to ask so I emailed the hotel asking for what was in the herb risotto. They replied back that they would forward it to the restaraunt and Aureole would get back to me sometime later that week. I totally forgot about it actually and on Tuesday I got an email from the restaraunt with the entire recipe!! I couldnt believe it. How freakin awesome. So tonight Dan and I are going to make that with seared scallops.. I can not wait.

Right now I have overcome my laziness and have only ate out twice since Memorial Day weekend. Ive cooked for every single meal... Im so proud of myself. :) One of the times doesnt count because Dan took advantage of me when I was in a weak state (drunk) and I requested that he take me to Steak and Shake at 2 am and he was all over that! I regretted it the next day because I was on a streak! Arg lol. Yesterday was the first official day I had eaten out and me and Melissa downed a whole medium pizza at Jupiters. Im so happy I waited..that pizza was good! lol

______________________________

I gotta share something creepy that happened to me.. Okay its maybe not really that creepy but for some reason this guy at my workplace totally makes me feel uncomfortable. I think that you have to listen to your gut instincts when it comes to stuff like that so I really do think Im totally spot on with this guy.

Ive been working in this building for over a year and a half and my company just rents a room out of a realtor's office building. There are builders and other people who work out of this office but Im the only employee in my office. This guy (I dont even know his name, but of course he knows mine) bugs the crap out of me every week. lol I dont mean to be mean but I would think that Ive sent enough signals to tell him to leave me alone. This is probably the first time IN MY LIFE that Ive stood up for myself and didnt laugh some weird guy off like I usually do. Thats probably why I dont feel bad actually. So yes, its a good thing for me, think what you want.

Everyday when I would pull up to work, he would come outside to get in his work truck.. I started waiting in my car until he got in his so I wouldnt have to talk to him, or I would run to my door if I didnt see him. I shouldnt have to feel this way, should I? Sometimes I think its all in my head but if someone makes you feel uncomfortable you have the right to avoid them.. I think. One time he gave me a cupcake.. isnt that weird? I dont even know him lol. Apparently he has a fiance, one of the other guys told me that.. if Dan was giving cupcakes to girls at work, I would be pissed. Thats like something your bf would do or whatever.. I dunno. Hes does many other things but whatever, Im over it. I just wish he would leave me alone. Theres like 10 or 15 that work in my building and they all talk to me or whatever, none of them are creeps! Only that guy.. I call my stalker haha.

Okay so yesterday he walks in my office and hes like "Hey Erica do you need furniture?" Me: "Nope." Hes like "Oh you dont?" Im like " Nope, I got a small house and its full." See how direct Im being? Im so proud of myself lol. He goes on telling me that his friend is having a huge sale with awesome stuff and that its this Saturday. He draws me a map of where its at, gives me directions.. Then 30 minutes goes by and he comes back with a map that he had printed out from google maps.. wtf?!?! lol He starts telling me about a table he got there that is soo awesome or whatever, trying to convince me how amazing this sale is.. um yeah I dont care. I threw the directions away. But then Im like well maybe I should give the directions to Buffy, my mother in law, since she always loves a good sale. I started emailing her and then Im like, what if this is his house and theres no sale? Like would someone actually do that?! I cancelled the email because I thought she would think I was crazy if I was like 'theres an awesome sale on saturday, and give her all the details and stuff and then be like, theres a 1% chance theres no sale and its this creepy guys' house from my work. LOL . Can you imagine? OK OK.. I know Im just paranoid but please buddy, leave me alone! lol

So if anyone really does want to go to this HUGE AWESOME sale, its off of Staley Road in Champaign in that really nice neighborhood. If it really does exist, it will be pretty cool I would think.

Tomorrow me and Dan are going to Ambers wedding in Chicago....and Im very excited to spend some alone time with Dan. I think we will be avoiding IKEA even though that’s my favorite store ever! We don’t have extra spending money so that’s probably the best idea. We will see how that goes haha. Im sure we will eat a nice lunch once we get there and get in the hot tub or something..take a nap and then get ready for the wedding at 5pm. I cant wait to see Amber, shes going to look so beautiful and I cant wait to meet her new husband! Ive never met him before so Im looking forward to that. I feel so blessed to share her wedding day with her.




Psalm 91

To.. rainy days

This day is going by really slow. I have absolutely nothing to do!! No work at all. Boo.

Im so happy that I got to meet Melissa during lunch today, that definitely made my day better. :) I hadnt seen her in a month or two so it was good to reconnect. Journey is about to leave for vacation for a month and I tried to get her to come today but she couldnt make it. Ill miss her while shes gone.

Man I swear the world revolves around babies and pregnancy.. lol Not thats its a bad thing but if you want to wait a while before starting a family, it really seems impossible. Like everyday, my mind changes about when I want to start trying... I think it pretty much revolves around what I hear or see online or from my friends.. it could make a woman go crazy! lol I think its hard enough turning 25 and not having kids yet. I understand 25 is NOT OLD.. but ya know when its happening to you, I dunno it just makes you realize that wow.. Ive lived for 25 years.. I have been out of high school for 7 years.. WTF! That doesnt even seem possible.. haha. Yeah.. Im crazy. Not to mention I know a lot of people with two kids.. people that are younger than me. That makes me feel like 'wow what am i doing?' lol

But to be completely honest, I just loooove being with Dan so much so that I really dont want anything to come between us. I know a baby will not be a hinder to our relationship, well it can be if you let it I guess, but it will make a stronger and closer together. Its just the part where I cant just be with him or whatever, I gotta always worry about another human being 24/7. Not so easy, lol. I always want to come first to Dan and he will always come first to me, no matter what (Ive learned something!:). I appreciate all the knowledge Ive learned to get to this point in my life. I feel ready to have kids in one way but obviously really not ready in another way..because you are never really ready for a baby.. how can you be?!!

If I could be a nanny to two children (7 and 3) when I was in 7th grade for like a year or two (only on weekends and summer since i was in school), then obviously now that Ive grown and learned SOOO much more than from where I was, I will be perfectly fine. I still find it completely crazy that I was a nanny to two children when I was like still a child myself, like 12 lol. I was awesome. haha.

I talked to my mom for an hour today and hung out with Melissa and have been sitting in my office for like 5 hours thinking about crap and this is what I came up with lol I dont care if Im crazy.. actually I might just be a typical woman. Ill go with that. :)

To.. hump day!

Whoo hoo..FINALLY WEDNESDAY! This week has been seriously dragging.

The rest of the week should be great from now on.. small group tonight, ice cream tomorrow night then Friday night with Dan!
Dan and I have started a little thing on Thursday night where we walk the dogs to DQ or Marble Slab (maybe even A&W for root beer floats!) and split some ice cream. This way we can eat ice cream every week and it wont be THAT bad for us since we are splitting it and walking to get there. lol Brillant idea! haha. Also spend time together.. :)

Last night was nice.. after dinner me and Dan went to the park to play frisbee with the dogs. Well only Suki.. Leia is lazy when it comes to playing lol..
Another dog came into the park and Leia growled and snapped at him then walked away. Luckily he was a nice dog and just looked at her like she was crazy and didnt do anything.. phew! I really need Ceaser Milan to come over and train my dogs!! Leia is so terrible when she first greets a dog. However once she gets over that, shes completely fine. Its so dumb. Im just afraid that one dog will have the same personality as her and they will fight and Leia will get injured. I have been thinking a lot about how Im going to change and teach Leia to act right... And this is what Im going to do -- Im going to use Suki as bait lol. If I have Suki put her face in Leias and correct Leia everytime she growls or snaps then one of these days she will just get used to it and get tired of it. I hope!

This is kinda the same approach I need to use when it comes to Suki's bad behavior. Suki is a golden retriever so shes very easily to train.. she loooooves to please and really will do anything to make us happy. However.. she does have one big problem, otherwise she would be perfect... (lol riiight). When someone comes in the door, she wants to be ON them.. she wants to lick them, tackle them, touch them.. whatever. Shes crazy! Seriously, nothing you can do to tell her to stop, she cant hear you cuz shes so freakin excited. So.. Dans mom suggested that she would come over and just come in and out for like an hour or whatever until Suki wasnt interested anymore. She thinks that once we do it enough it wont be anything special and she will be over it. So I thought that was really good advice. I really need to do it because Ive gotten to that point where it really drives me crazy. And the thing that sucks about it is really the first 10 minutes. After she goes all crazy on you, shes fine. lol

I hope that kids are easier to train than dogs! haha JUST KIDDING! :)

To.. reality check

I have had a rough day to say the least. I did some stuff and said some stuff Im not proud of last night and today Im definitely feeling the consequences of my actions. I dont try to pretend Im perfect and I know Im WAY off from that.. This blog is just an outlet to express how Im feeling and continue on my journey with God and the people I love. I know Im a very broken person with a lot of garbage. For me, God is a way for me to have hope. Without Him, there is just an evil world with a bunch of evil 'things' trying to get you. It really does seem like its you against the world. I mean you cant take anyone with you when you die..you are alone. (in that sense) . Ive always felt a sense of peace and comfort knowing there is a higher power and praying and growing as an individual.

Before I was a Christian, I was a child.. so its hard for me to know anything else. I was 14 or 15 when I was baptized and thats when I felt like my life changed for the better. My outlook on life was different from that point on. I was no longer afraid to die.. when I had a problem I could talk to God and it was released.. the worry was gone... I always had someone with me, I was not 'alone' anymore. So really this is all Ive ever known and all I do know. I dont know facts.. I cant quote every bible verse in the bible.. so yeah dont get in an argument with me about this.. I can only speak about whats on my heart and my experiences and if thats not enough for you then Im sorry.

Anyways, Im ready for Ambers wedding this weekend in Schaumburg. She is getting married at the golf course and having the reception inside. Im soooo excited. I bought a dress for it a couple months ago that I havent worn yet. Its a little short, so now Im debating on whether or not I should wear it. Hmm. The best way for me to shop is to look at Elizabeth's pics on facebook. I swear she never wears an outfit twice so all I have to do is find a dress I like and then tell her to bring it to me lol Awesome way to shop! haha

Off to browse facebook... :)

To.. stress

Most days I am fine with stress.. I pray, take a nap, have a glass of wine, or just talk to someone about my problems (usually my husband).. and then Im fine. Today I have anxiety like crazy and I am finding it hard to have faith and to trust God to take care of everything.

Obviously I have been struggling with money for a couple months now and its gotten to the point where its a little overwhelming. Ive never struggled with finances so I think thats why I find myself stressed out so much and having such a hard time dealing with it. It sucks that Ive taken things for granted for sooo long. Dan and I used to do whatever we wanted, buy whatever we wanted, ate whatever we wanted.. life was good. lol Seriously its like a reality check or something.. and it sucks! I guess Im a spoiled brat reacting this way but Im just tired of it. I understand that the bad times make you a stronger person and maybe this is a way for me to appreciate things in life. Right now Im at a point where I dont see the end of the tunnel but Im hoping that it will be clear as day soon. Dans in school for about a month longer.. I just have to make it until then. AND I will.

I feel fortunate to have a great place to live, a supportive loving husband, a strong relationship with God, and a great family and friends. Those things are priceless and invaluable to me and I know that I shouldnt take those for granted and I do not. I have always wanted to live a simple life. I never thought I was materialistic and now I realize that Im more than I thought. I hope from this experience that I grow as an individual and gain a lot from it. I want to continue to value experiences and people more than a fancy house, car, or lots of money. Im working on it, but its coming along. I want to raise children who find worth in experiences not how much stuff they have. I understand now that I have to live that way in order for me to teach my children how to live. If I think back to times when I was a child, it wasnt how many toys I had or the clothes I wore, it was the experiences I shared with my family and friends. :)

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths" (Proverbs 3:5,6)

To.. staying calm.

This week has been messed up for me.. I wish it wasnt so crazy. Really, on the outside everythings okay but inside, its turmoil. Somehow I managed to get like 4 people mad at me this week and I work alone.. what the eff.. .UGH! Im usually really good at avoiding drama. I stay clear of it whereever I go but for some reason this week its been impossible to do my job when other people are hazards in the way. Whatever.. Im over it. Two people told me I need to get thick skin and quit being so sensitive..whatever, go screw yourself lol. Juuuust kidding! :) I am really trying not to be mean but it really bothers me when people think Im intentionally doing something I am not. If I were doing it then I would be totally fine with it but its when you arent doing something and you get yelled at for doing it. I know that probably sounds confusing.. whatever.. Im over it! DONE!

I am looking forward to the weekend beginning. Today is a gorgeous day outside! Dan and I are having a couple people over for a cookout, should be perfect weather for that. I hope our grill works! It was acting weird the other day.. it wouldnt get warm. That worries me.. hmm. Ill be doing some praying before dinner tonight, haha.
Tomorrow Dan is playing at Farmers market and we have the gallery tomorrow night. Pretty relaxed weekend. Next weekend is Ambers Wedding in Schaumburg!!%$%^^ Im so excited.. I really cant wait.

I feel so blessed to live where all my family and friends are but today Ive made a conscious decision (along with my husband) that we are going to move when he is done with school. Soooo in about 5 years. lol I really want to live on the west coast and Dan just wants to move. I used to be so held down by my family, specifically my mom, but I dont think I can live like that anymore. I need to do what I want and why should I live somewhere where Im not happy?! We want to buy a house in about 5 years and thinking about it I really couldnt figure out where we wanted to raise our family.... St. Joseph, Savoy, Mahomet, Champaign? None of those ideas sounded good to me.. mostly because if we did live outside of Champaign we would have to drive.. in the winter. Not my thing. I dont like Champaign schools and Savoy is a great town but the school thats being built there is considered Champaign. I really dont want to compromise. Im not a country girl.. or a city girl.. I just like warm weather and scenary! I really want to live in Arizona.. somewhere around there. I need to do a lot more research and actually go there to know where to live lol but I was thinking a place where you get all the seasons. I think its Flagstaff, my friend said that when she lived there and it snowed, you could walk outside in a tshirt... how freakin perfect is that?!?!?! :)