Little Sister

my sister laura is going through a divorce right now.  i am sad that her marriage ended, but i know it is for the best.  she came to stay with us for a little bit, and it was amazing having her around.  she is such an inspiration to me.  she is so fun and selfless.  i am proud of her for being so strong through all of this.  i love you laurabora. :)

Visit from the KiDs

"it was sure nice of you to take them out! is this their first time shopping?"
--trader joe cashier to rich, referring to my parents :)

my parents came to visit!  it was a blast, and i was depressed to see them drive off.  i'm so grateful they came because i know how busy they are.  we packed a lot of stuff into their visit.  the first day they got here, we took them to see rich's school, my hospital, went car shopping just for fun, cooked chicken tikki masala and watched the news and a movie.  that was supposed to be our lazy chill day, but it ended up being pretty busy.  one of my favorite things is to hear my parents and rich discuss politics. warms my heart.  :)

the next morning, we catched the metra for downtown.  we walked through the city and on lakeshore drive to the field museum.  it was a nice day thankfully because it ended up being over a four mile walk!  i thought it was supposed to be just over two...oops! lol! good thing my parents have energy like toddlers! the field museum was ginormous and awesome.  rich and i had no clue how big it was.  after a few hours of being there, we all collapsed on a bench in the dinosaur exhibit for about an hour. haha! we are wimps! we learned a lot about the  cryolophosaurus though! :) after the musuem, we went to giordanos for some famously delicious chicago deep pizza.  yummy!  then we went home and watched the news again.  yes, we are junkies!

the third day, we took my parents to the signature room.   the view was amazing.  i love that restaurant and my parents.  after dinner, we took them to see the "million dollar quartet" which is a musical inspired by the recording session that brought elvis presley, johnny cash, carl perkins and jerry lee lewis together.  based on how much parents were movin' and groovin' along with the singers, i think it is safe to say they liked it! :) it was a pretty sweet play, and it was highly recommended for when the parents/in-laws visit.  we finished up our weekend with a trip to trader joes' were my parents practically bought every sugary sweet item in store!  ahah, i think my mom is trying to fatten me up.  we got cheesecake, coconut ice cream, moose tracks ice cream, black licorice, macadamia nuts, dark chocolate covered pomegranates, dark chocolate covered gingers, raspberries, blackberries and coconut cookies! we were like little kids in a candy store. the cashier thought we were hilarious (see above quote).  the sweets were tasty though and now, thanks to my parents, we have delicious treats everywhere! it was an awesome weekend, and we had a fabulous time.  thanks for visiting mom and dad! we love you.  XOXO!

there was a blizzard right before they came.  i was worried they wouldn't be able to make it, but it stopped and made everything look all "white christmas" for us. 

rich showin' off his place of learnin' to the in-laws

my mom wanted to see the area where i go on walks when talking to her, so we put on our boots and trudged through snow! troopers!

my two favorite men riding the metra and making my mom and i laugh.  "he is eating all the proceeds!"

I LOVE MY MUMMY

rich was supposed to be studying for boards, but he took a three day breather.  thanks a lot studycakes! the trip would not have been any fun without your face!

dad doing business during a pic! he is efficient! :)

dad, me, an elephant and tyrannosaurus sue (in the background, to the left)

my dad is hilarious! after walking like 8 miles and standing all day, on our way out of the museum, i turn around and see my dad doing this!!! lol! i love him.  boys never stop being boys, right?!

"if the dad-in-law can do it, so can i!" :)

love him forever :)

best and most cute parents ever :)

best kids ever ;)

my mom is so cute.  she was so worried we were gonna get mugged.  her expression says it all i think!  she has a point though...chicago is dangerous!

at the top of the john hancock building in the signature room.  sorry the pic isn't that great.

life can be pretty wonderful :)

LoVE DaY

i know a lot of people say that you should always show love for your significant other and you shouldn't need a special day to do that, but i for one am grateful there is a holiday devoted to lovin'.  this valentines day was a hit! i should say valentines week because we celebrated all week. :)  rich surprised me with roses, a cute card and tickets to jersey boys for saturday! i made cookies for rich, got him a monogrammed mug and tickets to the chicago auto show for friday...and yes, i was trying to impress him... 

i love my hot pink roses!

there is beef jerky inside of the brown bag, but beef jerky just isn't as cute as cookies.

i baked!

the chicago auto show was HUGE! it is the nation's biggest car show.  we wished we would've worn better shoes because we did a ton of walking and our feet hurt, but it was cool seein' so many ridiculously sweet cars.

most legit car that we have ever seen

also a legit price tag! lol

"a 54' convertible too...light blue"

beamers are a beautiful thing

true.

seriously??? this was the most pimped out van i have ever seen.  inside it looked like a limo--complete with blue lights, velvet, speakers and champagne holders.  i wanna party in this van! lol!!!

my personal favorite

rich at the car show was like me at a clothing store. he did not want to leave! he was so obsessed with this car. we went back to see it like four times.

on our way to see jersey boys!!!

we are a big deal

i went shopping with lisa (from work) and she said i needed to dress "chicago" so naturally i am wearing a zebra-ish print dress. thanks lisa for helping me broaden my style! rich liked it.

yummy, yummy, yummy delicious food!

bruce wayne ;)

this food seriously was so good

Add caption

jersey boys was amazing! definitely worth seeing. 

i love you, rich

kelly cat comes to chicago

kelly was in town for business, so he extended his trip and was able to hang out with us.  i have such an awesome father-in-law.  we miss him already. 

at one of america's oldest theaters, the tivoli.  they are handsome. :)

WORDS-we-LIKE

"A dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. In dreams you will lose your heartaches. Whatever you wish for, you keep. Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true."
― Cinderella

"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

“Success is determined not by whether or not you face obstacles, but by your reaction to them. And if you look at these obstacles as a containing fence, they become your excuse for failure. If you look at them as a hurdle, each one strengthens you for the next.”
― Ben Carson, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story 

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you."
― Walt Whitman

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
― Dr. Seuss

"the only way to get anything done is to get on your knees and plead for help and then get on your feet and go to work."
 ― Gordon B. Hinckley

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
 ― Mother Teresa

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 
 

“To love another person is to see the face of God.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables 

"If you wanna be a human, the first thing you gotta do is dress like one." 
 ―Scuttle, The Little Mermaid
“God has given us more than fourteen billion cells and connections in our brain. Why would God give us such a complex organ system unless he expects us to use it?”
― Ben Carson

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him, 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to." 
 ― C.S. Lewis

“For God loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”

 ― John 3:16

“Tell the truth. If you tell the truth all the time you don't have to worry three months down the line about what you said three months earlier. Truth is always the truth. You won't have to complicate your life by trying to cover up.”
― Ben Carson, Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence 

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. "
― Abraham Lincoln

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
― Albert Einstein

"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes."
― Mahatma Gandhi

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

― Rudyard Kipling

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.
― Audrey Hepburn

I think the worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades.  ― Demetri Martin The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.― Captain Jack Sparrow  Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.
― Mark Twain  

Lincoln Zoo

rich and i both had the day off, so we went to the lincoln zoo in chicago.  neither of us had been to a zoo for at least five years, so sorry if we look a little too excited about the animals in the pics, but we couldn't help it.  there were some pretty entertaining creatures.  i kinda felt like i was ten again.  my favorite was the tiger.  rich's favorite was the giraffe, but we did not get a great view of him, unfortunately.  maybe next time?

 

finishing up the day with a hot drink.  yummy and warm!

Happy New Year's Resolution

first and foremost, HAPPY NEW YEAR! saying 2013 sounds weird!  despite that verbal weirdness though, this year has started out busy and good! my job is awesome and i am learning a lot (i love being on days for orientation). rich is doing fabuloustic in school, and puma no longer eats my socks.  despite being super busy, rich and i have been able to go and play on our teeny tiny ski hill here in four lakes a couple times.  my new years' resolution was to "relearn" how to ski and then qualify for the x-games before they start.  as usual, i win and always accomplish my goals, so please watch for me on january 24th!  actually no.  i fail at skiing, but failing is fun.  i love that i never have to strap/unstrap while wearing skis.  rich is my hot trainer.  rich and snowboarding are #1, but skiing is definitely #2.  ;) rich needs to try boarding, but i don't push him.  he, inevitably, will see the great bright huge light and literally become shaun white.  wait and see. happy new year!

#1 winning loser :D

we own this hill