November 23, 2009

Chicago...

So last weekend we took a last minute trip to Chicago for our friends Petey (his real name is Dave, but all their buddies call him Petey to avoid confusion) and Lucy's wedding.  It was my first time there and Dave hadn't been since he was little so we were excited to see everyone and to explore the city.  We had a lot of fun even though we didn't end up getting as much time to sight see as we had hoped.

We got there Friday evening and after catching up for a few minutes we all headed to Carrabas for a nice dinner and to celebrate Pam's, our friend Joel's wife, birthday.  It was great to have a nice meal and relax.  Everyone was trying to entertain Lily, Joel's little girl, and keep her awake...poor thing kept drifting off, it had been a long day of traveling for her!

Home is with You // Chicago
In the car on the way to Carrabas :)

Home is with You // LOL
Petey playing with Lily, so cute!

Home is with You // The group
The whole group after dinner :D

On Saturday we went to Portillo's for lunch.  The wedding was held in Pete's Mom's apartment complex clubhouse, it was decorated really pretty with rose petals down the aisle and nice tables set up for the food, drinks, and cake.

Home is with You // Chicago wedding

Home is with You // Bride and Groom
The beautiful bride and her groom

Home is with You // The Bride and I


Home is with You // cutie
I also made a new friend that day...Lily was so shy, but she warmed up to me on Sat. :D

After the ceremony we all went out to celebrate...we went to Fox and Hounds and then a salsa club.  It was fun, although we felt a little out of place at the salsa place- those people were good!

Home is with You // friends
Dave and Dustin at the salsa club

Home is with You // dancing on bar
Lucy and Pete were asked to dance on the bar, too funny!


Dave, Dustin, and I all tried White Castle cheeseburgers for the first time that night...they weren't amazing or anything, but hey now we can say we've had them :)


Sunday the plan was to leave as soon as possible to get to the city and explore, but of course we didn't get there until about 3...we still got to see a lot though and we were lucky to have nice weather all weekend so it wasn't freezing :D  The other thing that was frustrating is that we were in a big group of people and everyone besides Dave, Dustin, and I were from Chicago.  They all had their own agenda as to what the plan was for the day and what we were going to see...they were also frustrated by the three of us stopping to take so many pictures...I mean, we were on vacation, what did they expect?  But we just stopped to take pictures anyways and if they kept walking we just had to hustle a little to catch up...

Home is with You // L train
Dave and I on the L train

Our first stop was to the Sears, I mean Willis, Tower...it was such a weird feeling riding up the elevator so fast.  It was definitely a lot higher than I realized before and the view was amazing!  They also have "skydeck ledges" that are glass boxes that go off the edge of the building, they are so neat...it makes you feel like you are floating above all of the buildings.

Home is with You // Willis Tower
On one of the Skydeck Ledges

Home is with You // Skydeck
The whole groups feet on the Skydeck Ledge

Home is with You // Willis Tower
Haha, Dave being silly...he was a little nervous taking this one!

After the Sears Tower we stopped to get some famous Chicago deep dish pizza at Giordano's...it was really good!  Dave and I had the veggie lovers, mmm mmm good :)

Home is with You // Giordano's
Haha, the guys being cheesers and displaying where we were about to eat

Home is with You // deep dish pizza


Our next stop was to Millennium Park...I REALLY wanted to get a picture of us in the bean!  Although I did get a picture it is really dark and not good enough to post on here :(

Home is with You // Chicago bean
Us in front of the bean


After that we went to the Navy Pier, it was really pretty down there with all the lights and the huge ferris wheel, sadly it was closed so we couldn't take a ride...


Home is with You // ferris wheel

Home is with You // Chicago


The next stop was to Hard Rock Cafe to relax and check out their neat stuff...Dave and I split a brownie sundae and a fun drink :) We saw lots of guitars and John Lennon's leather messenger bag (very cool!)  After that we went down to Wrigley-ville to see the stadium and hang out...I don't have our picture in front of that yet because my camera was dead at that point and someone else had to take our pic (very unwillingly might I add.)  Haha!

Overall it was a crazy unplanned yet very fun trip!  We can't wait to go back again and explore Chicago on our own...

November 9, 2009

On to more recent happenings...

So as many of you know we've been doing our best to eat natural and often organic food...we still eat out every now and then (not anywhere near as often as we were doing) and eat "normal"  food.  We just try to be reasonable about it.  Here's a few pics of some of the yummy foods we've been making with our better for you ingredients...

Home is with You // Banana Bread
My chocolate chip banana bread...not as healthy for you but all natural sugar and whole wheat flour

Home is with You // Homemade bread



Home is with You // Homemade Pizza
Dave's scrumptious pizza...made with wheat dough, spaghetti sauce, mozerella cheese, feta cheese, and tomato bruchetta (that's the brown lumps and what makes it look greasy)...dare I say it's as good as if not better than "Wheat State" pizza? :)
Home is with You // cooking

Home is with You // Homamde chili


Home is with You // Halloween Chili
The finished product...SO GOOD!

Home is with You // Halloween pasta
The Halloween pasta my Mom sent us :)
Home is with You // Baked pumpkin seeds
The seeds from our pumpkin I baked
Home is with You // dumplings
The meal Dave prepared for me after a rough day at work..
Home is with You // wine and dinner
mmm...veggie potstickers, organic brown rice, and wine...perfect :)



Our trip to Wichita...

So way back in the day (ok more like the beginning of September) we made a trip down to Wichita so here are some pics and everything from that trip...

We got to go down the lake (Tablerock) with my Dad and stay at his lake house...it was an awesome weekend full of jet skiing, boating, and of course my Dad's famous slushies.


Home is with You // jetskiing


Home is with You // Jetski at sunset


Home is with You // Slushies
The boys and their slushies

August 18, 2009

Been awhile...

So it's been awhile since my last post...I've been really busy, but that's no excuse, so here I am!  So to get the blog updated on what I've been up to since last time...

First off...I got a job!  I'm now teaching at Children's World Learning Center here on base...so far it's been pretty good, I am loving getting to work with kids again and to be making money again...it'd been awhile, I forgot how good it feels to be getting a steady paycheck :)  They have all the new hires working as "floaters" going where we are needed to fill in for breaks and such...although so far I keep getting chosen to be placed in classrooms for weeks instead of hours like the others haha.  My second and third week were spent in a classroom of 2-3 year olds and now I am in a 3-4's room until their second teacher returns (which right now is indefinitely.)  That's good for  me though!

Dave even got me some flowers to celebrate my first day...these were waiting for me when I got home, along with dinner...I am so blessed :)

Home is with You // Sweet surprise

Home is with You // Colorful bouquet

Also the past month or so, Dave has been playing lots of shows in the area...here are a few pics from those...

Home is with You // Dave Owens
Playing on a Saturday night at Koopers Tavern
Home is with You // barefoot
...and the shoes are off, it's serious now!
Home is with You // Woody's Rum Bar
Woody's Rum Bar and Grill...my favorite location to be in the audience so far, such a great view!

[Home is with You // Fells Point

Ok enough of the catching up, now on to the new stuff...now Dave and I have been looking into getting rid of my beloved jeep (aka Serina Misquito) and getting a newer car for me!  Even though it's going to be tough to finally get rid of my trusty Serina, it's time to move on...we took her to CarMax this weekend to get an appraisal and they offered us 1,000 (not bad for a 97 jeep with 169,000 miles.)

As for the replacement car...we were thinking a 2004 jeep grand cherokee...you know, stick with what I know and love.  But after some intensive research by my wonderful husband, we're looking at other options...

Now we're looking into possibly getting a 2003ish Acura MDX

Home is with You // Acura MDX

Or a 2003ish Yukon Lt...

Home is with You // Yukon Lt

So far I'm leaning towards the Acura, not sure I could handle a big car like a Yukon quite yet. What do you all think?

Ok that should be enough for now, love and miss you all! ~Mal

July 9, 2009

4th of July trip to Tennessee...

Dave and I got to spend our 4th of July weekend in Tennessee with his family!  It was great, we had a 4 day weekend so we had a little extra time to spend with everyone.  We spent most of our time at the lake his family has their camper at, the weather was perfect and it only rained a little after we got back from watching the fireworks on the boat...

There was boating, tubing, relaxing...and of course rib day! :D

My 10 year old sister-in-law Jessica is taller than me now (not that that means a lot since I'm so short, haha!)  And my nephew-in-law (if that's such a thing?), Hunter gets bigger and can say so much more every time we see him, its great...this time he was cracking everyone up by calling his great-grandpa (Homer) an "old fart" after every time Homer called him a "punk"...it was too cute :)

Here are some pics from the weekend...

Home is with You // Tubing
Dave and Jessica tubing
Home is with You // Sunset on the lake
Beautiful sunset

Home is with You // nephew
Hehe, my fav pic of the weekend...Dave gave Hunter a mohawk :)
Home is with You // Fireworks

Home is with You // jam session
Dave playing with his cousin Daniel

We had a great time and we can't wait to go back once we're out of here for good and spend more time with everyone, weekends are never long enough...even when you have 4 days!

June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day!!!

 Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there!  I am a very lucky girl to have two very special men in my life...plus my amazing Grandpa.  I also now have my new Father-in-law Dave (and grandfathers-in-law!) who has welcomed me into their family with open arms.  Some people say that you can have too much of a good thing, but I beg to differ :)  I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful men!  Just three months ago today I got the privilege of being walked down the isle by both my Dad and step-Dad at my wedding...it was so perfect!  I feel so grateful to know that while some people don't have anyone to give them away I had two...

Home is with You // Dad's and I

Here are a few more pics, I can't help it, I'm a picture person! These next few are of my Dad and I...

Home is with You // Pretty Pretty Princess
Playing "Pretty Pretty Princess" :)
Home is with You // Boating
Teaching me how to drive a boat...I can't wait to go to the lake this year!

Home is with You // Dad and I

And a few of John and I...

Home is with You // Stepdad and I
Dancing at our friend Julie Rains' wedding

Home is with You // Dance with Dad
...dancing at my wedding :)

My all-time favorite picture of my Grandpa and I...

Home is with You // Reading with Grandpa

And I LOVE this picture from the wedding of us!

Home is with You // Hugging Grandpa

Ok enough pictures, for now...HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! I love you all :) ~Mal
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...