Weekend Recap

Happy Monday! It was a jam packed weekend, and while it was mostly fun (had a little dramatic ending), I had a moment last night where I was like, I'm so glad this is over haha. Very happy it's Monday which is a nice feeling!

FRIDAY

I hung out at work a little later than normal, which would have been torture, but since I love my job, it wasn't bad at all. What a difference a few weeks makes--still can't believe it.

Sammy swung by and picked me up from work since we had a date night planned (since his birthday in February ;) ). We got some sushi before heading over to the United Center.

To see Elton John! His farewell tour dates came out right before Sammy's birthday back in February and he had casually mentioned how he would like to see him, so I grabbed some tickets as his big gift.

I knew he would be good, but I didn't know he would be THAT good. He was seriously incredible. I definitely forget how wonderful is voice is, like he's an amazing performer but just as a singer alone, he's incredible. And his band...omg. They are NUTSO talented.

My mom came over to watch Henry while we were at the concert (and the following night because have I mentioned my parents are saints?), so when we got home, she had all our mail organized and waiting for us haha. And I received the BEST surprise from one of my bridesmaids in the mail!

I mean...can you stand it? She has a dessert company as a side business and makes these incredible cookies. I can't believe she made these for me. The women in my life, man. I just can't believe how blessed I am.

I ended up saying goodbye to my boys so I could spend the night with my mom at her house so I could get up early the next morning and get started on packing up the remaining stuff in my room over there since we had plans to bring everything over our townhouse on Saturday.

SATURDAY

You think you don't have a lot of stuff but then you try to pack it all up and realize you have a TON of stuff. It doesn't look like much here, but it was a big truck haha.

My siblings and parents helped me move everything (again, saints) because Sammy had to work (lucky guy) and it took longer than I expected but that's because I'm an idiot when it comes to time management ;) we were actually rather efficient which was great. It was still a super long day because I don't know when to quit while I'm ahead. My initial plan was to just get the furniture and stuff into our guest room and divided up into closets/storage spaces and then organize/style everything over the next few days/weeks. But, of course, once everything is in the room, I can't stop myself, so I ended up continuing to work on it when I should have stopped because I ended up stressing myself out and taking it out on Sammy, per usual haha. UGH.

But I eventually had to stop so we could get ready and head downtown to our friends who were having people over for Halloween. Phenom couple's costume, right? At least they're both owned by Disney ;)

My girlfriend and I decided on being Boo & Sully because we're five years old. And took my favorite series of photos ever taken.

If it wasn't clear, we were drinking heavily.

And this is how your girl ended up. SHOCKINGLY (or maybe not so...) I wasn't actually that drunk haha. I just seem to always look it--how lovely. Love when we act like we're still 21.

SUNDAY

Even though I wasn't that drunk, I was still hungover Sunday morning and the last thing I wanted to do was bake, but we had Sammy's cousin's annual pumpkin party to go to and I had to bring something pumpkin, so I powered through and made pumpkin cream cheese muffins.

Christina has a pumpkin party every year where she serves pumpkin chili and cornbread and everyone else brings a pumpkin dish to share (and tupperware to take home leftovers!). And we all bring a candle for the candle swap.

It's one of my favorite days and she always does such a beautiful job hosting.

And I'm always taking pictures of their condo because her styling is absolute perfection. 

And after making a visit to Sammy's grandma, we came home to a sick little guy. Without giving too many gross details, he had an upset stomach and had an accident in his crate while we were gone and while we were cleaning him and everythinggg in his crate, we discovered some blood, so Sammy took him to the animal hospital, while I took care of everything at home which included boiling chicken for his bland diet.

Luckily all his well. He has an antibiotic for his stomach and will be on the bland diet for a few days.

I've mentioned that he's not a cuddler, except when traumatic things happen to him haha so we ate this right up last night. I even stayed up later than I normally do because I didn't want to stop cuddling! :)

So that was our weekend! It felt like I was going from one thing to the next all weekend without being able to take a minute to breathe, so once Sammy left to take Henry to the hospital, my emotions and stress level got the best of me, and I had to have a good cry haha. Needless to say, I'm happy it's a new week.

Sammy works Halloween, but since he's off today, we're going to have our traditional Halloween date night tonight :) In past years, I've made everything because he always came over to my house for it, but since we live together now, he said he wants to make dinner. I'll take it! 

Lots of exciting things this week: date night tonight, Halloween on Wednesday, my birthday on Thursday, and I leave on Friday for a little girl's trip to Florida. I have a feeling there will be many favorites to recap on Friday :)

xo

*linking up with Biana and Johannah!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday! It was a good week. It felt so good to have a "normal" week and starting the week off with a stellar therapy session (I swear, that woman is a genius) couldn't have been a better plan.

It seems like a majority of these favorites are either wedding or Halloween related SO SORRY. But that's life, people. Let's get to it--

I took my birthday off next week so I would be able to see Sammy for part of the day (if I didn't take off, we would have missed each other completely), and he ended up being able to take a half day so we could go look at two wedding venues--eek!

Starting off with Ravenswood Event Center. It's got such a cool vibe that we both dig (but especially Sammy). It might be a hair too masculine for me, but you never know!

And our second showing is with Galleria Marchetti which I had actually discovered years ago (long before I should ever have been looking at wedding venues...) and fell in love with and never told anyone (again, because I had no business looking at wedding venues...). It has a gorgeous outdoor garden for a ceremony and I love the draped ceilings (Sammy is still on the fence about that ;) ). The food also sounds amazing. 

We seem to have exhausted our options in the city, so if neither of these work out, we'll have to branch out into the suburbs, which is fine, but I've always envisioned getting married in my beloved Chicago, so fingers majorly crossed! 

I picked up a few things from Kirkland's when they had their fall decor on sale for 50%:

They're cute little additions to the house for the month of October. Looking to find some more fall/harvest-y stuff on sale for November and for next year.

This guy has been sporting his skeleton bandanas (yes, he has two) like a champ.

I've been loving the cozy vibes in our house lately. It's funny that in pictures it looks like we have ZERO decorations out, but we do! More reason to go ham next year ;)

Asking my girlfriend to be a bridesmaid was definitely a favorite from last week! She's sent me the funniest snaps holding the goofy note I gave her days later haha.

Sammy's aunt and uncle gave us the BEST housewarming gift last weekend--an old fashioned popcorn maker!! My dad actually has this exact one and it's so fun to have around. Can't wait to break it out for Friendsgiving this year and every other weekend going forward okay thanks.

Still reminiscing on the sweet engagement gifts I've been getting. Chelsie gave me a gorgeous ring dish, an magazine for inspiration, and the sweetest customized framed print. And a Disney engagement card!

If that isn't the most gorgeous thing, I just don't know.

Had to share one of the housewarming gifts Alicia gave when we went by Chelsie for brunch. Dinner in a basket! Isn't that an awesome idea? Everything you need to make a nice dinner is in the basket. I loved it.

Alicia also brought me the BEST birthday gift! A pin for my denim jacket this is Dwight's. Stapler. That. Jim. Puts. In. Jello. I mean, come on! How awesome is that? And this super cool Steinbeck candle because she knows what a nerrrrd I am. The packaging is awesome and it looks great in our library.

It's entirely too early to be looking at wedding dresses, but since Chelsie and I will be in NYC in a few weeks...we figured we had to ;) VERY excited to say the least. 

Also must share my much, much, much cooler than me sister's hair. Obsessed with the color. 

This Bub is getting so big!

Nightstand views lately.

Weekly dinner with dad is always a favorite--getting our favorite Chinese food was just an added bonus.

Stayed up late last night attempting a DIY for Henry's Halloween costume. I felt like a mother staying up late making their kid's costume haha. Kinda loved it, not gunna lie.

And if you thought, maybe Alex will be normal for Halloween this year, you can think again. My boyfriend (excuse me, fiancé, people get mad when I don't make the distinction now) and his friend (who is dating one of my best friends) decided to do their own individual costumes, which left my girlfriend Tina and I with shit, so her and I decided to do something Disney related--classic--so she gets to be cute little Boo, and your girl gets to be Sully. Honestly, very true to our relationship haha. Meanwhile, I get to walk around in a onesie and be warm. Take that beautiful women of Chicago in your perfectly executed costumes!

Packed packed weekend coming up. We're seeing Sir Elton John tonight (!), tomorrow we're bringing over the last of my furniture and other stuff from my mom's to our townhouse and then going out to the bars in the evening, and Sunday we'll be back downtown for our cousin's pumpkin party. All good stuff, but I think I'll be taking a nap Sunday afternoon haha.

Have a great weekend, all! xo

*linking up with Andrea and Kate! 

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday, all! Happy to be reminiscing a wonderful weekend this morning.

FRIDAY
Friday night I had my girlfriend over for some wine and Chinese food. Also to ask her to be a bridesmaid :) asking my people to be bridesmaids has been one of the top things I've been looking forward to doing wedding-wise, so I've really been enjoying coming up with personal ideas for each person.

Her and I are obsessed with The Office, so I took a little inspiration from Jim and got her a teapot that looks just like the one he gives to Pam. And I put this DORKY note in there for her. Also, she loves tea, so I figured she would actually use the teapot!

Pleaseeee excuse the way I look, but we were laughing while taking this photo because she's a graphic designer and I literally made this note in Microsoft Word and it definitely looks like it was made in Microsoft Word haha. Like why didn't I center anything?! It's all flush left haha.

Anyway, she said yes! :) And then we had a great night catching up over only halfway decent takeout and wine.

SATURDAY

Saturday started off like most do: Henry and I snuggling on the couch.

We were hosting Sammy's parents and his aunt, uncle, and cousins because his aunt and uncle hadn't seen the house yet and their whole family hadn't met Henry! So Sammy and I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon cleaning the house and cooking in preparation for their arrival.

Had to snap a quick picture of our living room before they came over. I was digging the late afternoon light.

We served pulled pork in the crockpot (courtesy of my favorite packaged sauce from Aldi), mashed potato casserole (courtesy of instant mashed potatoes from Aldi haha cause I don't have a KitchenAid to make mashed potatoes with!), green beans, biscuits, and a green salad Sammy's mom brought over.

We had a great visit with them. We all sat around watching movies together and then kind of all migrated around the house, playing with Henry and eating. I ended the night sitting at our kitchen table with Sammy's mom and aunt.  We talked about wedding stuff, but also about family and it just felt right. It reminded me of sitting around the table with my extended family which unfortunately doesn't happen as often as it used to.  I loved every minute of having them over. AND they gave us the COOLEST gift ever, and I can't wait to share for Friday Favorites.

Once they left, Sammy and I sat around until we remembered the second season of Making a Murderer was on Netflix! So we immediately started watching. And immediately fell asleep 'cause we were exhausted from the whole day haha. We ended up hightailing it up to bed and rewatched the first episode on Sunday.

SUNDAY

I headed over to Chelsie's on Sunday morning for a brunch & bubbly she was hosting so all of us girls could see their new house! 

*also to note: I drove myself which was my furthest solo car trip thus far. It's extremely fitting that my first solo trip was to Target, and my first "lengthier" (it was like a half hour haha) car trip was to Chelsie's house. Loved that realization.*

How pretty does she have this set up?! I was obsessing over all the details and how she has everything styled. And you can't beat the natural light they get in here omg.

I got there a little earlier than everyone (it's kind of a tradition we have to get to each other's houses/events earlier than everyone else haha) and was able to give her and her husband their housewarming gift and our thank-you gift (wine and chocolate, of course) from France for watching Henry hehe.

And then she insisted on this picture haha. But she gave me the sweetestttt engagement gift as well.

All my favorite things--perfect nods to Paris, Audrey Hepburn, and Disney ;)

How cool is that?

She served three different kinds of mimosas: regular ones with OJ, ones with peach mango juice, and ones with apple cider with cinnamon sugar around the rim. I stuck with the apple cider #becauseFall and they were so delicious.

Her husband is the self-designated chef and always cooks for us when we come over. He made egg cups with potatoes, peppers, onions, and chopped sausage and bacon, sausage crescent rolls, French toast, yogurt parfaits, and doughnut skewers. Everything was delicious.

We sat around for hours talking and catching up--it's not often our entire group is together because one of us lives a few hours south. And that particular lady happens to be a bride as well, and she asked us all to be bridesmaids! which was so exciting. It is SO good for my soul to be together and it was definitely needed.

I'm thrilled we have two holiday related get-togethers coming up that we'll all be together for: Friendsgiving in early November (which I'm hosting and am ecstatic about!) and a holiday party mid-December Alicia is hosting (which I know is going to be amazing!).

I got home around 4 p.m., Sammy and I had leftovers for dinner a few hours later, watched a few episodes of Making a Murderer, and mostly stayed in this position until we went up for bed (except to get up 800 times to get a new toy for Henry to play with--Mr. Teething needs his attention constantly redirected...)

We need to do a better job introducing him to our bed (even though everyone and their mother keeps telling us not do this--sorry I want my dog to sleep with me OKAY?) so he starts to get used to it more and it isn't such an exciting thing every time haha. Can't wait for this to be our life! 

While this weekend was certainly a good one, it wasn't without its anxious moments. My anxiety has been rather high lately, I think it's been increasing with all these big life changes, so I'm looking forward to upping my self-care this week in the form of a therapy session tonight and a midweek *much needed* haircut. Always trying to be transparent here in order to recognize and remember life as it actually is rather than how it would "ideally" be displayed via social media or in blogland.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead! xo

*linking up with Biana and Johannah!