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

 image via

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.