I love Chicago

While this week has been exceptionally busy for me....  It's been another reaffirming week that my move to Chicago was absolutely the right decision.

With a random sushi and wine night with Brooke on Monday and dinner and drinks last night with Josh and Brooke, it's been a awesome to be back where I can visit with people whenever we want.

I'm going to try to enjoy my last week of summer hours and then head up to Milwaukee this weekend to visit family and meet my new nephew, Liam!

Welcome Liam Wiley

This morning right as Samson and I got back from our morning run/walk, I got a text message from Lauren... "water just broke".

And just like that, I spent the rest of the day glued to my phone waiting to hear the exciting news.

At 3:45ish, I received the text message announcement ' Liam Wiley was born.  Seven pounds and 15 ounces and 21 inches long.

Mama and baby are doing well.  I can't wait to meet the little guy!!

Here's some photos I stole from my family members who happen to be up there today.

The happy family!

 Uncle Brendan and Liam

Grandpa and his grandson

Back in the saddle...

with running.  And it was rough.

For the longest time I've been telling myself I need to get started running again.  I am committed to the half marathon next summer since I was able to defer my entry for this year and I really just need some exercise.  Constituting walking Samson as exercise is not working anymore.

So I set up a running schedule for myself - to try and hold myself accountable.  I decided on the week days that running in the morning when I let Samson out is going to be the most likely time I will actually do it.  So I set up yesterday to be my first day.

My alarm went off.... did I run? No.  So last night I set out all my stuff before I went to bed so that I would see it when I woke up and feel guilty.  Well, that seemed to work.  Samson and I went on a run this morning.

It was be no means far and certainly not fast, but at least it was a start.

Apartment Improvements Round 1

This weekend I had big plans to do some spray painting and decorating.  Well, some of that was done... most was not.

First, I had to do something about my front door.  The front door to my apartment has three frosted windows in it.  Not sure why - since that defeats a good portion of the privacy.  Also, there is a hallway light directly in front of the door.  The first night in my apartment, it was so bright it was like I left a light on.  The second night, I taped some cardstock paper over it to kill some of the light.  It has been like that for a month.  So on Friday, we stopped at Home Depot and found some contact paper (that you use to line shelves).  I thought this would be a good alternative to help dim the lighting since I did not want to put a curtain on the door.

Well, we managed to find some paper and when I added it (3 layers in each pane), it actually looks like it's supposed to be there. WIN!

Then, I wanted to get started with attempting to organize my hallway mural of photos.  I was using the idea from Young House Love.  I don't have as many frames as they have, so I was a little looser with my set up.  I followed their lead and made a newspaper outline of each frame and size to help me layout the walls.

Here are the 3 walls in my hallway with the outlines taped up.  I figured I would start with smaller bunches on each wall and then I could add out from there.

 Hallway 1 next to the door

 Hallway 2 between the bedroom and the living room

Hallway 3 next to the bathroom door

After laying out the frames to see if I liked that order, I started measuring for the nails.  Honestly, I followed YHL's process almost exactly.  I did run into one problem - there seems to be studs ALL over the walls.  So I'm going to have to go back and get some shorter nails for a bunch of the pictures.  Not the worst issue, but a mishap for sure.

Then, I went through and hung things to see how I felt.  Here's what it looks like so far.

 Hallway 1

 Hallway 2

Hallway 3

About half of them don't have any artwork in them and the canvases all need to be painted, but at least I can see what they would look like.  I planned to paint all the black frames white so that everything coordinated together.  I'm glad I have to wait on that a bit... I may change my mind.  Also not sure if I should paint the mirror white.  That bright green works with my colors so maybe with the paint on the canvases it won't stand out so much.

So it's progress at least.  Fewer things taking up space on my table and floor for sure.

While I was at it, I decided to also hang that artwork from California.  There weren't many places I could hang it, so that was a pretty easy decision.  I'm hoping some light from the little window next to the space will play up the colors a bit.

Stubborn... just like her mom :)

On Saturday, I offered to babysit Kayla for a while so Melissa and Justin could go look at some houses.

And this girl loves to be naked!  The first opportunity she had to get me to take off her little outfit, she took off running - squealing with delight while I chased her. :)

Then... she was determined to put it back on herself - WITHOUT my help.  And then she got stuck.

I love this girl.

Lackluster Blogging

I'm sorry for the lackluster blogging lately.  I've been super busy at work and by the time I get home, I don't feel I have much to say that's really worth typing up.

This weekend I am going to try and tackle some decorating projects for my place so that it feels a bit more lived in... we'll see how that goes.

I promise to remember to take photos so that I can blog about it next week.

Happy Friday!

Finally - an outfit post

I have not been taking outfit pictures since I moved for two reasons...

First, I've been way to tired/hot/short on time to make any sort of effort on my appearance for work.  Honestly, it's embarrassing.  I need to correct that immediately.

Second, while I have a full length mirror built into my hall closet door - the lighting is TERRIBLE.

Case in point...

*dress & shoes - Target, belt - old, cardigan - Jcrew

That blue tinted light in the hallway sure looks great, but the light it provides is awful.  You can't even tell that this is the dress from target with all the dots on it.  Plus, my mom cleaned that mirror and it still looks like that.  Terrible.

I need to buy a nice sized full length mirror to put in my bedroom so I can properly see what I am doing in the mornings.  We can just add that to the list of everything else I need to buy for my place - sigh.  :)

Air & Water Show Weekend

My first full weekend at my new place just happened to be the same weekend as the Air & Water show downtown.  I was happy to get to have some time at my place, and visit with some friends.

Before I post some pictures I took during the show, I have to backtrack to Friday afternoon.

After a trip to the grocery store, Samson and I met Brooke and went went walking down by the lake for like an hour and a half.  We found this great park area (pretty close to my place) where we sat down for a while.  Samson was fascinated.

Of course, that walk really wiped him out...

So back to the show...  My friend Ryan had an all-day rooftop party.  I managed to grab a couple of sweet shots of the Blue Angels.

 It was a fun day - the weather was awesome!

On a random, last note - I saw this artwork on some random street while walking Samson on Sunday morning.  There is a matching one across the street.

The conference for association executives

If you remember, in January, I attended the conference for conference planners - put on by the association for meeting professionals.

Well, last week I attended the conference for the association for association executives.  It was held in Dallas and it was going to be my first time attending their conference.  My dad was also going (since we are in the same field).  I had mixed feelings about attending, mostly because I didn't feel like I was going to know anyone.

I ended up knowing more people than I thought because several contacts from my previous job were there also.  The agenda was filled with evening events to showcase Dallas (gotta sell your city to potential clients) and education during the day.

The conference was great.  I learned some stuff, got some credits towards my certification exam and enjoyed myself with a few friends.  I took a few random photos of the events for the blog....  they give a good idea about what my week was like.

The opening night reception was held at the Cowboys Stadium.  They had food and drinks all along the top floors and then later in the evening, they opened the field up for dessert and more events.  They had a whole bunch of "games" if you wanted to play those.  You could take tours of the locker rooms (players and cheerleaders).  Then they concluded the night with a concert by Big & Rich.

 *this is my "senior portrait" moment

me and my dad

one photo of the cheerleader's locker room for those that care

I forgot to mention that my flight out there was cancelled and during my rescheduling/changing of airlines/flight to Dallas, they lost my bag.  I had to run to Target to grab some things because I had no idea when it was going to show up.

 I snagged this dress and shoes from Target and wore it to dinner with my Vancouver friends

Toronto had an area where you could go and decorate some Converse shoes that they were donating to a local children's center.  So of course, I went to stretch my creative muscles and pitch in.

The middle of the conference was all about the exhibit hall and meetings.  I did snag some photos from the closing reception on Tuesday night...

 This is a blurry photo of Vanilla Ice.  Yes, Vanilla Ice (a Dallas native).  He was actually GREAT!  I took a video of him singing but of course, when I download it it's upside down.  Oh well.

The below shots are of me and my friend Chris from Vancouver.  We were trying to entertain ourselves before KC and the Sunshine Band came on.

 
 Finally, on my trip, I did manage to walk down to the Grassy Knoll and visit the 6th Floor Museum - dedicated to the assassination of JFK.

 

This is the view from the grassy knoll of the 6th floor of the book depository.  You can barely see it, but they still have boxes there in the top window.

Closing a Chapter

Sorry I haven't gotten to write on the blog since I got back from my trip.  I'm super swamped with work, so hopefully I can get a few recaps in here over the weekend.  In the meantime, I wanted to share a quick update that happened while I was out of town.

On Wednesday we closed the sale of the house in Maryland.  It didn't really have as much impact as I thought it would have, but maybe that was because I was not at home and busy at the conference.

Today I am sending off the payment to our realtor (at least the little we owe).

It is really done.

No more HOA payments or frustrating emails to my ex about taking care of things.  No more dealing with the bank.

Completely done and a chapter officially closed.

There are a few last things between my ex and I that we are dealing with.  His portion of the payment to the realtor and whatever happened to my portion of the tax return from the house.  But that will wrap up pretty quickly.

It really does feel like a huge weight is off my shoulders... and I no longer have to deal with that extra stress.

Now, let the countdown begin until I can purchase a house again - two years.

Color Inspiration

Yesterday I decided to get started on my Apartment Project Plan.  I'm not going to detail my nerdiness, but let's just say this plan contains a color-coded spreadsheet.  Oh yeah!

It was pretty easy for me to create a plan of what I wanted to tackle/add/fix going room by room.  The next step is to create color palettes for each room.  This is pretty crucial before I just go buying accessories and things.

Some of the rooms are fairly easy.  The bathroom and bedroom already had some defining qualities in them, so it was easy to draw from that.  Other rooms that already had furniture were not so easy - like the living room.  Since the living room and dining room are so open, I want to use the same palette for these rooms but maybe emphasizing different colors.

Other rooms (like the sun room) are completely blank canvases.  I don't own anything for that room, so it's sort of free reign.  I will probably end up seeing what I like and what the colors end up being in other rooms and go from there.

Another area is the hallway.  I'm thinking of taking colors from the bathroom and blending them into the others (all of the rooms have at least 1 color that's pretty similar) as a transition.

The more and more I looked at color palettes, the more I wondered if I might just end up painting after all.  I don't have to make that decision now, it's just something to consider.

Anyways, while I was working on this last night, I got to searching color inspiration on Design Seed.  If you are not familiar with them, you should check it out.  She makes inspiration palettes and even provides the HEX colors.  She does them all herself making the colors based off the inspiration photo, not pulling them with the eyedropper (in Illustrator).  This is a great resource, if you don't already know about it.

So here's what I've been thinking so far.  Keep in mind that the colors are just inspiration and probably won't match EXACTLY.

Bathroom
Seeing as how I have a blue tube and toilet to contend with, I figured I should just play them up instead of trying to hide them.

via Design Seed

Bedroom
Also fairly easy since I have a grey bed and I know I plan to paint that dresser cobalt blue.

via Design Seed

Living & Dining Rooms
This one is a little tougher.  I was sharing all my favorites with my mom and I haven't really narrowed it down much.  Here are the top contenders.  I do have a nice yellow couch and grey rug already - so that was at least a starting point.

via Design Seed - this one is my front runner

via Design Seed - my second favorite

via Design Seed

via Design Seed

Sun Room
No clue.... Maybe these?

via Design Seed

via Design Seed

or bring the colors from the bedroom in again 

via Design Seed

Kitchen
Also no clue.   But it definitely needs some color - BADLY.

Hallway
This will probably transition with how I feel in the space.  So it will be last.

So far, I think it's a good start.  Which color palette is your favorite in the living and dining room?

Happy Birthday Mom!

Every day I am thankful for the family and friends I have been given.

We are a close family, and I love it.

When I hear people talk about how they don't speak to their sibling/dad/mom or have a very strained relationship with one of them (or more), I feel really sad.  And then REALLY grateful for what I have.

My mom is the best!  I honestly lucked out.  She's supportive and motivating and fun to be around.  I love that we can just hang out or go shopping or see a movie.   I'm glad that I feel comfortable talking to her about things and that I know I can rely on her when I need support.

This picture is not one of her favorites, but it's one of mine.

Fourth of July on the DC Mall - July 2006

Happy birthday to the best mom I could ever ask for!  I love you.

596 Days

596 Days.

1 year, 7 months and 18 days.

This is the amount of time since my ex and I split up.  596 days of dealing with the split and the house we own jointly.  It has been trying and exhausting process and a huge emotional weight on my shoulders.

I posted on June 8th that the bank finally accepted the offer we had on the house.  After being on the market since October.  I knew that the short sale process would be lengthy... and this certainly was.  Dealing with the bank was frustrating and having to coordinate signing document after document after document with my ex took forever.  Having to continue to communicate with my ex when I really didn't want to made it difficult to move on for a long time.

Yesterday I received the settlement papers from the title attorney to sign and FedEx back to them.  My attorney said that because the offer is a cash offer, we will close on the house within 48 hours after they receive the signed documents from my ex and I.

48 hours.

Later this morning I will be dropping off this lovely package in the FedEx box with the signed deed to my house.

By this time next week, I could be officially closed on my house.  The amount of weight lifted off my shoulders is tremendous.  I can't even describe it.

Olympic Inspired

*Thanks to Lauren for the suggestion for this post... topics for this blog have been difficult for me the last couple of days.

Every four years, I get really excited for the summer Olympics.  It's the time when we can guarantee that women's indoor volleyball will be shown on TV... guaranteed!

I'm sure like most college athletes, watching the sport I played will sometimes evoke the desire to get to play again.  Then I remember how old my body is and I rethink that. :)

In all honesty, I do miss playing women's 6s.  Hopefully I'll get to play in a tournament or two this fall/winter. That would also remind me to get my butt in gear.

In the spirit of the Olympics, I am posting some archived photos from my playing days.

 Let's ignore the fact that I missed the ball on that one. (photo credit NIU)

Man, I wish I could still jump this high. (photo credit NIU)

WI State Fair - Two Days of eating

This past weekend, my mom and I headed up to Wisconsin to go to the State Fair.  It's been several years since the last time I had been up to the fair, and I was really looking forward to it.

While there are many animals there and they do shows/contests for the animals, it is really all about the food.

Lauren, mom and I headed to the fair pretty early on Saturday because it was supposed to be HOT that day.  Without much of a schedule/agenda, we pretty much just wandered around.  We looked at the animals and ate food.

AND ATE FOOD.  Here's what we had on Saturday:

- Roasted Corn - Okay, so not really very new or fancy, but it is a State Fair staple.  I snapped this photo of Lauren enjoying her corn.  Her face is because I caught her mid-bite, NOT because she wasn't enjoying the corn.

- Deep Fried Stuffing - This was a new item on the menu for this year and one Lauren and I were excited to try.  It came with gravy dipping sauce.  SERIOUSLY.  It was amazing.

- Sweet Potato Fries with marshmallow dipping sauce - Another one Lauren was excited to try.  The fries were good, but the marshmallow dipping sauce made them a little too sweet.

- Fried Beer - The Budweiser Pavilion was advertising fried beer, so we had to try it.  It was am amber beer encased in a pretzel ravioli with cheese dipping sauce.  Honestly, they were just okay.  They could've used some salt because they just tasted pretty bland.

- Fried Cheese Curds - another staple.

- Fried Pickles - A lot of places had friend pickles.  The ones we choose were the pickle chips and they were delicious.

- Cream Puff - The Wisconsin cream puffs are iconic to the state fair.  In fact, that is the only time they make and sell them.  So of COURSE we had to have one.  They are amazing.

After that, we had enough of the heat and the food, so we headed back to Lauren and Kevin's place to take a nap before Melissa, Justin and Kayla came.

*On a side note, I managed to snap this dark picture of Kayla - sitting like a little lady, flipping through the photos on her mom's phone.  So grown up.

On Sunday, we got up and headed out to the State Fair for day two.  This time, Melissa, Justin, Kayla and Kevin joined us.

We had plenty food and saw some animals with Kayla.  It was a really nice day out, so the place was packed.

We stopped right away and had corn (again).  :)  Then we stopped and watched the pig races.  See how excited Kayla was!

After that, we wandered around and tried some food and took a look at the animals.  We had some fried veggies, more sweet potato fries, a deep fried s'more and deep fried milky way.

After looking at all the animals, we stopped for some cream puffs before we left.  It was Justin, Kevin and Kayla's first cream puffs.  I think the cream was a bit sweet for Kayla, but she had a few bites of the pastry with some cream on it.  She then took it upon herself to be my personal face-wiper.  Thanks for looking out Kayla. :)

We had a blast (even though I'm tired).