Happy Anniversary to my Grandparents!

My grandparents had their 60th anniversary this summer and we celebrated it this past weekend with a grand pig roast. It was a fun-filled weekend with camping on their lawn and smores and croquet and dogs and family and friends and so much more. We hope to continue to do this every year, not as an anniversary party, but a family reunion. It certainly was fun!

But our travels started several days earlier when we went to Detroit for my student orientation. It was one intense day of information and socialization. I learned a lot and got a little overwhelmed and now just can't wait to get started so I can stopped trying to plan for the un-plannable.

I was glad to get out of Detroit (to get away from the brain overload) and go to Lansing and see my bestest friend Erin.
We had a great time getting to know Lansing and just hanging out with these guys. A yummy breakfast, shopping, golfing, walking around Old Town to watch awesome free theatre shorts. It was perfect and we topped it off with a trip to Dark Horse Brewery. YUM YUM. We tried a few beers and ate pizza. Perfect.

It was a GREAT week and I am really glad it worked out the way it did. I hope we can see everyone again soon.

4 Years and Counting

Yesterday was our anniversary and I must say it was possibly THE. BEST. ANNIVERSARY. EVER.

I kicked off the day by making french toast, not normally my favorite breakfast, but with my cinnamon swirl bread, it was pretty yummy.

Just after noon o'clock we headed downtown to see a matinee of Spring Awakening. IT WAS WONDERFUL!!! I hope that it comes back to Chicago so we can see it again, next time sitting onstage, yes they have on-stage tickets. It looked like it would be a lot of fun!

I have to admit that at first glance I shouldn't love this play, traditionally the mixing of popular music with period-setting musicals really bugs me. Especially in shows like Phantom of the Opera. But in S.P. the modern style of music has a purpose. It is more comparable to like of Romeo + Juliet, remember that movie? It came out in 1996 and did a great job mixing Shakespearean with modern times. Like in R+J, S.P. is using the music to relate the coming of age tale of the period teenagers (in S.P. it was Victorian) to modern teens. This is made ubundantly clear, not only by the style of music but by the lyrics. Which when you listen not only used slang like "junk" (meaning the addictive substance) but referances to things like phone calls. It's kind of an ah-ha moment when you realize this. It certainly made me feel better about liking it!
Anyway, so completely happy we went, but we were equally excited to go home and change for dinner.

Specifically into our wedding clothes (we do vary accessories). I love wearing my wedding dress on our anniversary. It is so nice to slip it on and remember and feel beautiful all over again. Although I do feel self-conscious as times, wondering if people think I am walking around in a wedding dress.

So dinner was WONDERFUL!!!!! We had an 8pm reservation at Spring in Wicker Park. And boy was it great. I really liked the idea of going to a fine dining restaurant that wasn't downtown, which are few and far between. And I wanted to have a tasting menu and the website they said they did by request and the discretion of the chef. Lucky us the chef was willing.

Our waiter took great care of us, helping us pick affordable wine pairings and talking over the food components with us.

We started out with a half bottle of Lucien Crochet Sancerre. Maybe a little smooth for mike , but I loved it. Would love to find and buy this wine. And it went very well with our first few courses:

To start raw oysters with cucumber and wasabi. YUM

Cold App was Sashimi of Pacific Whitetail, it had these great chili-pepper pearls, a gastromony invention that have the appearance and texture of fish eggs, but taste of sweet chili-pepper. loved it.

Hot App was a seared Sea Scallop. Mike LOVED IT. His words, "the best thing I've ever put in my mouth." I loved the bed of fresh chickpeas and tahini sauce, delicious. Never had fresh chickpeas and they were yummy.

Fish Course Atlantic Skatewing. Boy was that good too. It smelled WONDERFUL. A bowl of summer I think was what we called it. Prob becuase it had watermelon in it!

Here is where we decided to share a glass of a Pinot Noir to go with the meat course, again taking the waiter's recommendation.

The meat course was a delicious steak, but what was memorable was the bed of oxtail and mushrooms.

Then we were treated to the most delicious sparkling/effervescent wine I have had. I wish I knew which it was either a Moscato Rosato, or Moscato D'Asti. It was YUM-MY

We had a dessert teaser that was a bite of honey marscopone foam. mmmmmm....

Then fresh made doughnuts with peach ice cream.

Oh it was heaven. I wish we could go every month.

But our night wasn't over it was home to change again before going to the music box to see a friend in a burlesque/vaudville review at midnight. A fun way to end the night, but boy was it late when we got out. And I was glad to splurge on a taxi home, after a day of trains, busses and walking at 2:30am I was ready to take it easy.

MY FIRST TOMATO!!!

This is actually from Saturday August 8th. This tomato fell off in my hand, it actually still needed to ripen a little, so it sits on my kitchen table, slowly turning more red. When I tell people I have 7 potted tomato plants and 5 in the ground, they think I'm crazy "that's a lot of tomatoes" they say. Not really though. Two of the potted plants are sponsored by friends, so they will get all the tomatoes from two plants. And then the potted plants were planted a lot sooner than the garden ones, so they are on different schedule (hopefully). AND I planted two different varieties, one of which isn't doing so well in the container, only growing one to three tomatoes on a plant. It is doing much better in the garden, despite competion with rhubarb and cucumbers and raspberry plants. SOOOOOO....I am learning and expirementing and happy to get any tomatoes at all.

But maybe your should ask me again in a couple weeks when all these ripen...

Over-run by Dogs

Us with our doggie charges for the weekend. Brady (from Lisa and Jason) in the back and Kelly (from Walter and Troy) in Mike's lap. And of course our Stanley right in the middle.


Mike was a little surprised when I aggreed to watch two differant dogs this weekend. In the past having three dogs in the house makes the simple things like taking them out to go to the bathroom difficult. (I am no dog walker and negotiating three leashes is just too much for me.) But our current apartment has a yard and that means it is a relative ease for them to relieve themselves. Just have to keep an eye on all three to find which with all the obstacles in our yard does get dificult at times, but we are all trying to have a good time.

It has been uneventful except for when our charges run up into our neighbors apartment or knock down children and make them cry. Strange people, strange place strange dogs, it is all just a little too much for them sometimes. But we are kinda loving it.

Children Rule

We were very lucky to spend a few days with Mike's sister and her family when they visited chicago last week. They hit the field, art institute and science and industry museums. And I tagged along. We may not be in this picture, but it is still the photo of the week. They are from Iowa and so this american classic by Iowan Gant Wood seemed like an appropriate pick.

I loved walking around the art institute with them and asking the kids which they liked or didn't like and what their audio tours told them about the paintings. But we soon had to hightail it to the science and industry museum...

where there was a Harry Potter exhibition we got to see all sorts of stuff from the actual movies. IT WAS AWESOME! This is the only item you could take a picture of, the flying car.

I don't think fun house mirrors ever get old...

Or the thrill of seeing baby chicks just out of the shell. You are worried that they are dead at first but then they struggle to their feet and take a few steps! It is thrilling. Juliana liked taking pictures of them over and over and over. But not just the chicks she liked taking pictures of everything. and everyone.

But the best exhibit for young Brynn was the coin smasher. The girls were a little sad I only had enough change to make a smashed penny for myself, sorry girls!




We ended the day with Ethiopian food. I was a little worried to take the kids, but they kept an open mind and ate quite a bit. Juliana was the most adventurous, even trying the spicy stuff! It was a great day and a great trip.

Mike's B-Day Breakfast

It's so nice to be able to see friends we haven't seen in a while. And a birthday is the perfect excuse to get everyone together. We decided to try something different and invite folks over for a breakfast Saturday at 10am. It was nice to catch a few we hadn't seen in a while...

Like these two, we haven't seen Amber since her birthday in April or David since the play opening in June. We had a great group...
Mike, Just, Bill, Jane, David and Lisa. It was so nice of Jane to come into the city before heading up to work and Bill came even though he had to drive in a separate car! Now that is love. I was mezmerized by Jane's hand knit sweater, so pretty! And we hadn't seen Lisa in ages, so it was great to see her, I think we need to have a girls night very soon.

There was also Jove, Meg (on their way to Pitchfork), Rebekah with chloe, PETER, Diane, Sara and Mike. Yes that's Peter in the middle of all those church friends, SO good to see him, he made a real effort to come so early in the morning, but the hour was a big hit with the parents in the crowd.

Amber is here helping Dan with his twin boys, thanks to for the slide!

I actually hadn't ever met the twins, and they are nearly a year old! So glad to finally see these two cuties.

Oh and the twin's mom Jen here with Amber and Jane. They had fun being cute and making eachother laugh.

And Mike even got to through a birthday football. Gosh I love having a yard.

Dubuque is for Weddings

We had a great weekend in Mike's hometown, Dubuque, Iowa. We saw family and friends, but the main event was the wedding of his highschool friend Carrie:

She was a beautiful bride and my only regret, as it always is with weddings is that the bride was very busy mingling and livin' it up, not sitting and chatting with us.

But I am getting ahead of myself...

The wedding itself was very cool. I should have taken more picture of the beautiful interior of the Five Flags theatre in downtown Dubuque, but my camera is a little sad so we will have to be happy with this blurriness. The wedding party was large and diverse, not letting the sex of the person keep them from serving as a maid or man. Loved how it was fuscia on the brides' side and graphite on the groom's. Very classy.

The program was AWESOME, modelled after a play's program. It detailed all the wedding party's relationships to the couple in their "bios" as well as how the parents of the bride/groom met all those years ago. SO SWEET! Preshow music was fun too, love songs from various musicals, like "Ten Thousand Kisses" from Rent and "My Freeze Ray" from Dr. Horrible. It was great.
The only hitch to the whole thing, was they didn't practice the running/performing of the music pieces, so there were two points when we were all just waiting for the song to finish, although it was pretty. And it didn't get aggrevating because the wedding itself was quite short and sweet.
The wrote their own vows and through groom Aarron's started as a speech the vows themselves at the end were quite beautiful and made me tear up a little. HIGHLY unusual for me at weddings.

And after a bit of chatting it was time to head to the edge of town for the reception. I didn't get a picture of the outside, it was literally a gas station, but the inside was nice enough.

They made each of the table musicals and the placecards were actual show tickets. Very Cool.

The favors were these cute buttons. There was "It all started with a fish taco" and "Dubuque is for weddings" and "Don't slow down now, babies are next"

But the best part was hanging out and meeting more of Mike's highschool friends:

Here we have artist/wedding photographer Luke, HILARIOUS Thad and Bride's maid, I mean man, Nathan. I loved them all and am sad they all live so far away.

Then there were new friends to make like Thad and Bride's college bud Tyler and his wife Jessica. They were a TON of fun and give us another reason to go visit DesMoines Iowa.

The recpetion was over before we knew it, but the party didn't stop we went to local dive/kareoke bar for one more drink. It was delightfully kitsch. Although not everyone liked it...

Luke sat down, looked around and said, "Truly, this must be hell."

But we made the best of it, these two even got up and did a little singing, although Tyler was sabotogued by the words on the screen being ahead of the music BOOO! Poor guy.

Oh well we had a good time, met good people and wonder if we will ever see any of them again...

July 5th, Diane's B-Day BBQ

On sunday we threw a bbq for our lovely friend Diane. It actually wasn't much work because Maria made the sides and brought buns! It was awesome and made me want to throw another potluck or BYO-thing-to-grill BBQ.

Here we are with Maria and Diane, the birthday girl.

Everyone chipped in and helped with the grilling so everyone had a chance to sit and eat and enjoy themselves. Stanley was super excited to see Al.

Mike did used brooms and such to prop up the tree branches to make shady seating, BRILLIANT! It was the perfect place to make ice cream.

To go with the birthday cupcakes. Homemade Hostess cupcakes. Everyone loved them,

especially the birthday girl.



We all had a good time. Stanley was plum worn out by the end, so much so he even let Maria "ride" him, as she is always trying to do.

RVA GALA

Thursday night was Rape Victim Advocates Gala. It is their 35th year of existance, but their first ever gala! We were glad to be there and to have acouple of our friends come support the event as well. These things are never as much fun when you don't know so many people, but the important thing was to be there and show support for the workers and volunteers. We are truly thankful for all they do for the people of Chicago.

Our Weekly Edition

As my electronic scrapbook, I have been not posting as much as I should. Mostly becuase the backlog of posts on here to turn into a real scrapbook has been a bit daunting. In the interest of trying to get back to this and an old tradition, I have commited to putting out a "weekly edition" of our lives. At least one pic and post a week of something going on in our lives. The old tradition was an album called the Sunday Book (the Sunday Book was comprised of pictures which we took weekly, on Sunday), but this time we can't be held to one day a week. We want it to be more of a best of our week, even if it is just a haning in at home.

One week ago was the goodbye party of our pastor Trey Hall, I know already a week behind, but I wanted it to be the first post. He has been a major influence in our lives. He was with our church for five years and officiated our wedding. My favorite thing about Trey is his beautiful singing voice. He would cantor the blessing of the eucharist, which was just so lovely. Also I love his southern roots. His sense of hospitality and how he says "y'all" a lot. He is not leaving Chicago, even if he is leaving our church, so we hope that we will see him occassionally around town. He has been really lucky to get a commission to start a new church in the West Loop (which is also where Mike's building is!) and with how our church has grown since his arrival, I'm sure he will be building the new church in no time!

How does my garden grow?

Just thought I would take a slow hot summer night to catch up on some fun garden pics.

My garden in May:

I am so thankful to the old owners of my apartment building becuase they planted some beautiful perrenials. Two peony plants which almost took turns blooming.

They were so beautiful to look at.

And flowering bushes that smell as good as they look. This mystery plant started to bloom right about when the lilacs petered out.

And irises and chives and mint and so much more!

And our tomato plants are growing, although I was worried about them with the prolonged cold weather....

My Garden in June:

This little plant popped up, which I think might be a wild strawberry plant, but we'll see.
This tall cane-like grass is very prolific and the purple flowers are pretty!
Check out the gate, where's the fence you might ask? The land lord took it out, I think to put in...

...this huge storage unit. I wonder if it will ever leave. Luckily Stanley is mostly trained to stay in the yard.

And my tomato plants are HUGE!!! Although with the cold wet weather some started developing black spots on their leaves. So I quarenteened them to the other side of the yard, hoping that it would get warm and they would get better.

The rain also flattened some of that tall cane-grass!

Time also causes the flowers to lose their blooms...

But as one plant loses it's flowers, another one starts to bloom. My tomato plants are doing much better in the warmer weather and I am happy to say have started to bloom!

Look forward to eating them!!!

Spring is Coming

It may be rainy and cold, it may even snow, but these little buds tell be that Spring is finally on it's way. They are tiny and delicate, they break at the lightest brush, but they are beautiful promises of warm, green days to come.

Every year I try to capture the first flowers I see, usually in someone's front yard as I walk to the train, but this year these were found in my Mom's garden. I am on my third week of coming and going and trying to enjoy it.

This week has been decidedly springy, besides little flowers...

There were more little baby things to ooh and aah over. Paula had Lester bring a tupper of Grandma knits. I liked this bonnet, so cute. I got to keep a couple different items to use for patterns. Although most of them are in pretty good shape, the acryllic yarn isn't exactly en vogue. I look forward to sharing more of them as I reknit them.

Another sure sign of spring is all the dog bathing that's been going on. Stanley got his back home and I gave Mom's dogs a bath. They sure look pretty and shiny in the sunshine.

And when Paula's Bianca came, it didn't take long for her to get good and muddy and into the sink she went, too.

We celebrated the coming of spring and Mom getting better with Margarita and Chips!

Our favorite! We EAT IT UP. And drink it up too. Paula don't even eat anything but the chips with ranch (and a little salsa mixed in). My friend Shannon would call that Texan Style, I think. It was fun and yummy and a great way to celebrate this rainy spring.