happy friday

Hello from the Windy City! Wednesday my dad and I took the train up to Chicago and were welcomed by falling snow flakes. Today and yesterday our schedule has been filled with continuing education classes and walking the floor (aka vendor booths) to get free samples.

Last night we had a great dinner at Bandara and I can only look forward to more delicious food tonight! We will head home tomorrow and then rest for the remainder of the weekend. For your leisurely weekend reading, I found some good links, enjoy!


This video is only 6 seconds long, but every time I watch it I laugh out loud

This Etsy shop has me ready for summer

My friend Stephanie and I want to try our hand at making this cake...it looks delicious

This was a topic of conversation at a lunch with friends this week, so I found it to be an interesting read as well as some of the links within the post

Coming to a TV near you...via Netflix

This makes me wonder how some people get elected into office

In case you need a reminder that today is just one day

This would be quite the surprise on a date

In case you've been a little confused about all of the net neutrality discussions

Happy Weekend!!

wanderlust

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I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have a serious case of the travel bug. I don't make it easier on myself either, I am subscribed to several different email notifications for flight sales, getaway promotions and trip discounts. Everyday when I check my email, I begin wander-lusting and day dreaming...

I don't think it's a bad thing, but some times it think it may breed a bit of discontent. I have been trying to delete the emails and steer myself away from travel blogs and websites. I don't know how many times that I have planned a trip and then exited out of the browser at the payment screen. But, it's hard when it's so cold and dreary here. On top of the travel bug, I think I may have spring fever too...I hope I can find a cure soon!

happy friday

Why is it that the weekend flies by, but the rest of the week drags on like second period history?? It's not that this week wasn't a good week, it was just long and cold. It felt like we had three Monday's in a row...so now I am eagerly welcoming the weekend and hope that next week only has one Monday.

Tonight, Alex will be mourning the loss of his fantasy football during the trophy presentation and I will be celebrating my friend Amanda's 25th birthday! She asked for a red velvet cake, so I'm going to try to perfect my recipe.

Tomorrow, we have plans for brunch with some friends and then Alex is going to a Blues game and I'm having (another) girls night.

I really enjoy our weekends and love that in the winter we don't have a lot of obligations other than what we create for ourselves. I'm looking forward to resting and getting ready for another busy week. Here are some of the links that caught my eye this week. Enjoy!

Alex and I are planning a trip to Oregon this spring, we've been using this website to help

The age old question finally has an answer

Just because I'm twenty years older than the target audience, I'm still a fan and scored very well on this quiz

This little girl is too cute and definitely shows Alex (and me) up with presidential knowledge

This is a good post about spending time alone

I have to make a lot of small talk with my job (and my personality, I don't like awkward silence) so this post was an interesting read

The mid-west, as a whole, is not ranking very well in overall well-being and happiness

Have a great weekend!

chopped

I have always had shorter hair. My mom didn't want to deal with three girls and their long hair, so we rocked the bowl cut for quite a while. Because of that I never learned how to do hair, so I've always found it easier to have short hair. 

In the summer of 2013 I was brave enough to get a pixie cut. I loved it, it was fun and so easy to take care of. But after a few months I decided it was time to grow my hair out.  Then came the awkward growing out stages, you know what I'm talking about...I looked like Justin Bieber, then Carol Brady and then slowly (finally) like myself again. 

I let it grow until it touched my shoulders. I began embracing pony tails and the ease of just tossing my hair on top of my head and calling it a day. But, because I have the attention span of a squirrel, I got tired of all the time it takes to dry and style longer hair, so I got it cut! I'm happy with how it turned out and it only took me 5 minutes to dry and style my hair this morning, so that's a win!

I want to be Peter Pan. I don't want to grow up. I don't want to be an adult with real responsibilities. But, apparently it's too late for me...if it's not too late for you: Run! Save yourself!

Lately, there has been a lot weighing on my heart and mind. Most of it is normal, adult-y life stuff, but more and more I find myself worrying and praying for the high school students in our youth group.

They are battling some pretty dark stuff that I have never had to encounter. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around what some of them have had to experience. My heart breaks for them and I just wish that they didn't have to grow up so quickly.

My prayer is that I can show them an ounce of the grace and love that Christ shows me. I know that growing up is unavoidable (insert sadness, despair, weeping and mourning), but I know that my hope and identity is in Christ and I pray that these students will find that in Him too.

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snow day

Today I took a snow day and took full advantage of it. I slept in, ran (on the treadmill, not in the snow), binged on Friends, baked some delicious muffins and then made a great dinner. I feel like a regular 'ole housewife!

Alex, on the other hand, scraped the car, shoveled the driveway and trudged his way to the office and worked all day. I definitely got the better end of the stick. Tomorrow we will both be going to work and resume normal activities.

Happy snow day!

happy friday the 13th

So far Friday the 13th isn't shaping up to be very spooky at all. Right now, the hype is all about the 14th. We had a normal week and are ready to welcome the weekend.

Tonight our high school youth group (which we help lead) is hosting a Parent's Night Out fundraiser. The parents drop off their kids for us to babysit and then they get to enjoy a childless night out. We try to do this once a quarter as a service to the parents in our church, but also to help our students raise money for mission trips, retreats, etc.

Other than that we don't have a lot on the schedule this weekend. I'm sure we'll do something for Valentine's Day and this Sunday I will officially start training for the Go! half marathon. I have eight weeks to get race ready, so as long as I stick to my schedule, I'll be good to go. This week I've stumbled across some good links that I wanted to share, enjoy!

We love this restaurant and I'm so excited at the recognition that it' getting

Lately I have been binge watching Friends on Netflix so this article caught my eye

Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart...how could this not be funny?!?

In case you haven't noticed, Valentines Day is tomorrow...this is a cute DIY Valentine

I've got my eye out for a new couch (ours is a bit too small and white) and I really like this one

My Mom signed me up to receive a crock pot recipe every day in the month of February, I may try this one

This is an experiment I may try...and regret

It's no secret that I'm a Bond fan and I am really excited for the new release in November

I'm all for these price changes

Lastly, there has been a lot of hype for 50 Shades of Grey, which I will not be seeing or supporting, but I do support Ellen and this video she put together... and this video too

Have a great weekend!

don't worry, it's not (very) contagious

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Alex and I try to have some sort of adventure planned each month. However, January didn't really lend itself to adventuring, so I'm feeling a little antsy. Luckily, at the end of the month I'm heading north to the Windy City with my dad and Alex is headed south to Wildcat Country aka Lexington, Kentucky. He is going with his dad and older brother, Paul, to visit Greg, his younger brother. We all miss having Greg around, so I'm really glad that they get to go see him.

I'm looking forward to shaking up our routines and getting to spend some extra time with my dad. I'm sure we will learn a lot at our continuing education classes and eat enough to satisfy us until next year's conference.

happy friday

We have had a great week and have a casual weekend planned. All that is on our schedule for Saturday is brunch with friends and relaxing. Then Sunday after church, Alex is going to the Blues game and I have mountains of laundry calling my name. I love casual weekends with no real obligations and I'm really looking forward to it. This week I have come across some great links and wanted to share them with you. Enjoy!

Tips for avoiding small talk

A list of the best cities in Illinois for young families

How much sleep should we be getting?

POTUS "singing" Uptown Funk

My sister and I plan to visit all of these doughnut shops....

But, first we'll be starting with some local doughnut shops to get ready for our big adventure

I wish that my siblings and I could have come up with this idea

This video is by far my favorite and I've watched it over and over again!

Have a great weekend!

life lately

Happy February! It doesn't seem real that we are already into February but alas, here we are. We have been keeping ourselves quite busy between work and life.

We have finally hired a full time employee! It has been exciting and somewhat scary, but we are happy to have found someone that seems to be a good fit for us and the office. Today was his first day and we are excited to have him here and to see what he can add to our agency.

In other news, Saturday we went to watch our niece, Addison play in her first basketball game. She did great and I'm glad we were able to see her play. On Saturday evening we met Josh and Libby and the girls for dinner at Dewey's. It was delicious as usual and good to see them and catch up in person. After dinner Alex and I headed over to the Wildey to see Rear Window. It was such a good movie and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time!

Then on Sunday after church, we went to my parents for the Super Bowl. We have watched it with them every year for the past several (7+) years, so we didn't want to miss out this year. My mom made delicious wings, mini sub sandwiches, brownies and my Aunt Linda made Barf (a taco cheesy dip)so Alex was in heaven. My cousin's wife, Kendra, made some tasty caramel, chocolate covered grapes and they were amazing! We ate our fill, watched some of the game and all of the commercials and had a great time.