One Week

This title coincidentally is both a reference to the countdown to my birthday and a popular song by my favorite band, the Barenaked Ladies.

July is already shaping up to be a busy, busy month for me.

I officially signed the lease for my new apartment yesterday and will be getting ready for the move in July 21st.  I'm SUPER excited to be back in my own place and get settled.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all the help my parents have offered by letting Samson and I stay at their place and I will miss the company.  But, it will be good for me to get settled on my own again.

Also, this weekend Amanda is coming into town and we are celebrating my birthday.  She and Brooke have been scheming up plans for the whole weekend and they won't share any of it with me!  All Brooke said was, "I'll let you know what to pack for the weekend".  Being a planner (and admittedly liking to have control of all situations) this is going to be a test for me.  I trust that they will plan out something amazing and incredibly fun.

Then, the last weekend of July is the NIU grass triples tournament and Lauren's baby shower.  

It's going to be August before I know it.

Happy Birthday Dad!

My dad turns one year older today.  And he's off in Madrid living it up (and allegedly working).

Found this picture that seems appropriate today.  One of my all-time favorites.  A lot of people know my dad as being all business... but that is far from the truth.  Ask Justin who experienced "Vacation Dad" last fall when we were in Hawaii.

Happy birthday Dad!  Love you.

Melissa and Justin's wedding - 2009

It's Friday!!!

I'm so thankful it's Friday and I have a short day.

I'm heading up to Milwaukee for the weekend... but before I go, a few random things.

First - this is a jar of leftover Portillo's chop salad dressing.....  liquid gold.  Boy, I'm glad I have this!!

Second - I received my membership card for the Art Institute of Chicago yesterday. Who's excited?? :)

My Second Favorite Holiday

I am shocked to say that I did not take one pictures yesterday.  Not even one of the red, white and blue rice krispy treats I made.

Yesterday was really nice.  I got up crazy early (naturally) at 5:15.  That's earlier than my alarm goes off regularly.  I tried to go back to sleep for a while and right before I was going to give up and just get up, I heard my dad take Samson out for his walk.  Of course, I couldn't even fall asleep after that.

After a pretty lazy morning, my mom, dad and I headed up to Wheaton.  We spent some time with family, did a little swimming with Kayla, and ate lots of Portillos!

I think we were all pretty tired because everyone left the party pretty early.  We were back home by 7 and I walked Samson as people were heading to the fireworks.  I tried to stay up to read as long as I could, but finally turned the lights out at 10.

I'm looking forward to having a day and a half of work before the weekend.  Today should be pretty quiet - hopefully!

What did you do for the 4th??

July 3

It's hot... I'm tired from playing volleyball yesterday and wanted to be as cool as possible at work.

*skirt/belt - Jcrew, shirt - Express, shoes - Steve Madden

I'm really looking forward to having tomorrow off.  Not just because I'm looking forward to seeing my family, but because I need the break from work.  

The countdown begins...

It's July 2nd.  Which means it's less than 15 days until my birthday (see countdown on the sidebar). :)

This past weekend was a lot of fun.  I babysat Kayla on Friday night.  She's so funny.  I really enjoyed the 2 hours she was awake while I was there.  :)  She LOVES LOVES LOVES to look at herself in the camera.  I managed to grab a hilarious video (posted on facebook) and a few photos.

 She loves sticking her tongue out.

 Got a good smiley one!

Making a fish-face!

Then on Saturday, I met a few friends at the World's Largest Block Party.  We saw Mike & Joe play again and ended up leaving before Lifehouse.  We headed to a house party at a place one of my friend's knew.  I ended up running into a handful of people I knew from high school.  It was weird, but really great to catch up.

The only downside to the night...taking the train all the way back up to Evanston when I'm already exhausted.

I spent the rest of the weekend reading and napping - I definitely don't recover as quickly as I used to.

I'm looking forward to having Wednesday off of work.  It will be nice to break up the week with that day off.  We'll be heading out to Glen Ellyn to visit with family.  Then on Friday, I'm heading up to Milwaukee for the weekend so I can visit and get out to Summerfest to see a few bands play.

Goals Update: June

Sunday will be the first day on July, which means the year is technically half over already.  I can't believe how quickly time is flying past.  Do you ever feel like you just can't keep up?


June had glimpses of being a productive month, and then it wasn't.  But then it was again.  Bouncing back and forth has made me a crazy, moody mess.


The bank approved the offer on the house, but then they wouldn't finalize the paperwork until we were default on the mortgage.  So, we didn't pay June.  Then I hear that it shows we paid June.... lots of back and forth emails and still, as of today - June 29th, nothing.  Which means we will be  paying the HOA in July, not paying the mortgage, and hope that the bank finally gets their act together.


In June, I also found an apartment I liked.  After two weeks of back and forth about filling out an application, I did.  Then I was told I was approved and we set up a time to fill out the lease.  Then the day of the lease signing, I was told I filled out the OLD application and I needed to complete the new one.  Now I'm still waiting to hear that everything is okay and we can move forward with the lease.  The plan was to take over the current tenant's lease as of July 15th.... which is soon.  So an answer would be awesome.

I think my anxiousness to close the door on that part of my life has caused me to be very impatient.  So fingers crossed this stuff gets resolved soon.  Like today... :)


Anyways, the point of this post, the goals update...


1. WORK ON MY 101 IN 1,001 LIST - I was certainly trying.  I have a couple of books to finish reading that were recommended by friends.  I should spend some weekend time trying to figure these out and get back on track.  I may re-evaluate some of those goals and change them to things more important now, but we'll see.

2. SAY "YES" MORE OFTEN - Not a lot of instances for me to take advantage of this has come up, but I anticipate this will change in July.

3. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE - I gotta tell you, not paying a mortgage in June allowed me to save $1,600 without blinking (and thanks to my parents letting me crash at their place).  Thank goodness too, because when I do eventually sign a lease that's pretty much going right back out of my pocket.  The good news, the apartment I found was much cheaper than I was preparing to pay, so I will be able to continue to put away money.  


Who's ready for July (aka the month of my 3-0 birthday)??? :)