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Things That Go Bump In The Night

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And just like that, it’s November..

The month of October basically flew by and now it’s time to pack away the Halloween decorations for another year, which is too bad because other than Christmas Halloween has to be my favorite holiday.

The good news is that Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Which mean lots of food, football and naps. I have never been one to turn down pumpkin pie and left over turkey for turkey sandwiches is is almost better than left over pizza. Just add some gravy and mmmmm. 

I hope that everyone had a great Halloween. We had quite a few fun “haunted” activities that made this Halloween a ton of fun. We decorated a trunk for the Immanuel Lutheran School annual “Trunk or Treat” on Friday. Then braved the freezing cold to hand out candy to all the little ones. I loved seeing all of the different costumes, but damn was it cold. It was also kinda nice because my dad was able to come with us and I think he really enjoyed it. While he has been staying with us I have been trying to take him to do as many things as I can since he is pretty much bound to the house when we are working.

Upward Trunk or Treat
Trunk or Treat

On Monday, the day before Halloween, some friends and I went downtown Chicago to go on a haunted ghost tour. It was a ton of fun, although we didn’t end up seeing any ghosts. It was nice to see a good friend who came in from out of town and get a night out of the house.

Hull House
Fierce
Lovely Ladies
Ghost Tour

 

Our actual Halloween night was pretty mellow. After eating a nice dinner, we snuggled up to finish watching Stranger Things 2 and handed out candy. Now that is my idea of a good night!

 

Now I just have to contain my excitement for Christmas and try my best to not put up the tree until after Thanksgiving. I will say I think the stores are pushing the Christmas stuff a little early this year. It makes it hard for me to resist. I am a sucker for holiday decor.

Until next time

L

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

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Kansas girl that I am, the Kansas City Royals are my team when it comes to baseball. However, having lived in Chicago for the past 6 years I have to admit the  Cubs aren’t so bad. I mean, before last year, that the Royals had it bad, but the cubs haven’t won the World Series in 108 years! You can’t help but feel sorry for them. Anyway, all that being said the Cubs must win the World Series this year. Here are my reasons why:

  1. So my husband is in a good mood.

Ok, so that is the main reason the cubs need to win. My husband is a die hard cubs fan and I don’t think I can take another year of a cubs loss. Plus, you know 108 years is way too long. Here’s hoping to a Cubs World Series win!

Last Man Standing

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Pack your bags ladies and gentleman because we are going on VACATION!!

I wish, but actually my husband and I just got back from a week long vacation at the most magical place on Earth; Disney World!

Normally I can’t wait to get my vacation started, but when you throw the word “family” in front of it (and I am sure many people will agree with me) I was a little nervous. Yep, for my first family vacation with my husband’s side of the family all 11 of us, plus 4 family friends, went to see Mickey Mouse. Thankfully, other than some blisters, sun burns, and a couple of bruises, everyone came back pretty much in one piece. Sure I am still sore, completely exhausted, and now sick with some sort of flu/cold (zika?) thing, but I survived and most importantly I had a lot of fun.

When we planned this…. family vacation I was honestly pretty scared because his family are “get up and go, go, go” type of people. They want to be up and at the park before it even opens so they can beat the lines to the best rides. I am more of a “wake up look at the time, roll over, whine, finally sit up and stare for a solid 5 minutes before crawling to the coffee pot” type of person. Before this trip I didn’t even know you could line up inside the park before like noon. Did you know that at Animal Kingdom they open the park by releasing a bunch of parrots in the air? Yeah, I didn’t either (Honestly, I think I could have gone my whole life without knowing this, but it was kinda cool. You know before getting trampled by a stampede of people trying to be the first to get on the African Safari ride.)

Anyway, I have to say I was expecting some drama because all of us are different and tend to be set in our own ways, but things were pretty mellow. (This may or may not be code for no one was a complete raving bitch and I may or may not be surprised by that.) I don’t know, maybe I was expecting some huge blow up or yelling match, but nope none of that happened.

So yes we were on vacation, but don’t let that word fool you. While we may have been off work and out of town, this trip was anything but relaxing. Fun, yes. Relaxing, not even close. Let me just give you a quick run down:

  • On Tuesday September 13th, at the wonderful time of 1:30 am, we wake up to go meet Tom’s oldest sister so we can leave for the airport with enough time to make our 6 am flight.(Why we chose such an early flight you ask? I have no idea). I have no shame in saying that once we got to our gate (after his mom yelled at a bunch of people at Starbucks. Once again no idea.) I laid down on the dirty carpet and tried to get some sleep.
  • We get to Orlando about 9:40 am (after a 2 hour flight, in which a child kept kicking the back of my seat. The “turn around and stare” didn’t work so well) and made our way to the hotel. After checking in and changing, Tom and I headed to Holly Wood Studios.
  • It’s now about 11:30 am, I am completely exhausted and very cranky. We go on one ride before I have a complete panic attack. (To be fair the bar on the Rockin Roller Coaster was suffocating me and people were taking way too long to get off the fing ride.).After my mini melt down, we head back to the hotel, eat, and then get ready to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom that night.
  • Around 5 pm we get to the Magical Kingdom (by now we have been up about 15 hours) and have just enough time to get one photo before the torrential down pour begins. After most of the rides get shut down, the shows get cancelled, and we are thoroughly soaked we give in and head back to the hotel for the night.
  • The next day we are up at 7 am to go to Animal Kingdom where we proceed to wait in line 30 minutes before the park opens so that we can run ahead of the forming line to go on the African Safari Ride. Then eat, pool, shower, and more Disney Park fun.
  • The rest of the week goes pretty much the same way, except on Saturday I was actually able to sleep in until, gasp… 9 am. Then on Sunday some asshole booked breakfast at 7:30 am. (This of course means I woke up at 7:15 am put pants on and walked down the hotel hall to the table.)

So as you can see we have a fun filled week! But don’t you worry, we will be doing all this again soon, but this time for FREE. Yep you heard me, free. While all this fun (insanity) was going on a hotel employee decided to go in our room, lock the door, and take a dump. We just happened to come back and catch him the process.

As I said before this trip was a lot of fun, but I think I am going to need sometime to relax before heading out on another family adventure.

Some photos of the trip:

Mickey’s Halloween Party
Animal Kingdom
Ladies at Yatch Club
Star Wars
Rockin Roller Coaster
Beauty and The Beast
Beauty and The Beast
Cinderella’s Castle
A Jawa

Mi Casa es tu Casa (or something like that)

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Welcome to our home; where the bed is never made, dog toys are strewn about, and no matter how many times I vacuum grass still seems to accumulate on my hardwood floor.

After a grueling coupling of months we are finally in our new home! About a week after my last post we closed on the house we had been so anxiously waiting to move into. Hallelujah!

As I write this post my husband and I, as well as our two dogs, have lived at this new address for just over a month. I am proud to say that we are almost completely unpacked and by “almost completely” I mean that anything we couldn’t easily put away we shoved down into the basement. (Thankfully we have a rather large basement). I figure as long as no one can see it and we don’t have to stare at it every day it doesn’t really matter if some boxes sit unpacked. Unfortunately, this means that the rather unpleasant task of cleaning the basemen is looming in the near future. (Maybe if we are lucky some magical elves will clean it up for us at night while we sleep). 

The first month in our new home has been great, especially since we are living in a house that we actually own (or you know, will own once we pay off the mortgage). The best part though is that we can do whatever we want because it is OUR house. We can put things where we want, decorate how we want, and not have to worry that someone else  may be watching TV when your favorite show is on. If I want I can walk around naked, although the neighbors might get offended because we don’t have full coverage curtains yet.Which brings me to the next project on our list. DECORATING!!

I am really looking forward to making this new house a home and I can’t wait to get new furniture and all the little knick knacks that really personalize your space. Tom and I have very different styles though so things are sure to get interesting.

So until I am able to talk Tom into some brand new curtains for the living room I will just stick to laying around in my underwear drinking wine straight from the bottle. (Why would I want to dirty another glass when I’m the one who will have to wash it now?)

MRS.

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Well, ladies and gentlemen, it finally happened. After years of dating and multiple moments where I was completely convinced I would end up as a crazy cat lady, I am officially a Mrs! (Shocking I know)

My husband and I (still working on saying that word without laughing) recently got back from Seaside, Florida where we had a wonderful wedding and great vacation. After the wedding we stayed for a few extra days so that we could have time to relax and enjoy the beach.

By the way, while we are on the topic of marriage, I am just going to throw this out there: wedding planning sucks! In fact it’s complete bullshit. I would describe it as a year long panic attack where you are consistently hemorrhaging money. On top of that everyone has their own opinion about how you should plan YOUR “Big Day”. (You notice I highlight YOUR because this is your and your fiances day, no one else)

I planned and planned and honestly to tell you the truth I don’t even remember any of the small details. Here is what I do remember:

  • Watching my dads face as he saw me in my dress for the first time.
  • Being so nervous about walking down the aisle that he had to tell me a story that he would tell me when I was a kid to make me feel better.
  • Seeing Tom for the first time waiting for me at the end of the aisle.
  • Dancing the night away with family and friends.

What I don’t remember is all the other stuff that, in the end, really doesn’t matter. I have no idea if the appetizers got passed around on time, or if the tables were decorated as they should have been. I didn’t even know till the next day that someone threw up outside the reception area. (Kudos to them though. Sounds like they had a great time!) And no one knew that I had to remove a table last minute because people canceled three days before. Bottom line: something is not going to go as planned and that is completely alright.  Trust me it will not ruin your wedding.

During the whole planning process I was so worried about making sure my guests would enjoy themselves and that everything was laid out to cater to them. You know what though: Fuck that! It is your day, you are paying for it, so you do whatever YOU want. If you want to have pizza and beer at your wedding for dinner, do it!  If what you really want is to fly off to the Caribbean and have a small ceremony on the beach, go for it! Shit, if you want to get married at midnight under the stars, I say that sounds amazing!

The point I am trying to make is that only you and your fiance can decide what is best for you. Trust me your guests will be fine. My grandmother will get over the fact that I didn’t get married in a catholic church or wear a veil. No one died because I chose not to have programs or menus or because I didn’t spend thousands on flowers. I’m pretty sure that everyone had a great time and if not well, screw you because it was my wedding and I had an amazing time!

Here are some pictures from the week:

ceremony

Wedding Ceremony on the beach

everyone

Wedding Party

entrance

The new Dr. and Mrs.