Weekend Recap + Some Blogging Thoughts

Hi all, it's Monday, hi, hello.

Another good weekend in the books. It was a packed one, but it was good. It's been nice to have things going on outside of the house since Sammy and I haven't been clicking lately. We've just been off. We'll have a good morning or evening and then the next day we'll be totally out of sync and in bad moods and not the nicest to one another. I think a lot of it has to do with his new position and how he's been feeling about it, adjusting to the new schedule, etc., but it's been kind of exhausting.

We leave this Friday to go to a wedding in Denver and I'm hoping the little trip revitalizes us a bit. It will be really nice to have no responsibilities for a few days (God bless friends who willingly take care of your dog while you're gone), getting to sleep in, drink cocktails without deciding which one will be the DD, no cooking, etc. 

Sammy's mom rented us a house that we'll stay in with them and Sammy's brother, SIL, and our niece, and I'm excited to spend the extra time with them. It has an awesome backyard with a ton of lounge-y seating and I can't wait to plop myself down with a book and relax. 

But enough about next weekend—let's recap this past weekend.

FRIDAY

Friday I left work around noon (and I'm definitely going to miss these half days come Labor Day) and treated myself to McDonald's and some uninterrupted reading time in the air conditioning before running errands. 

I had to stop and get a few things for the shower my girlfriends and were throwing on Saturday for one of our friends and get a few things for hosting friends over that night.

This was on sale for $6 so I grabbed it to go with the "give some advice for the bride" station at the shower. I thought the penny candy jar was a super cute look.

Friday night Chelsie and I hosted our friend from elementary school at each of our houses. We all got to meet her boyfriend (and their tiny dog, Hendrix!!) and show them our places and it was a really lovely evening. Chelsie hosted appetizers and they all came over to our house for drinks and dessert.

I was telling my dad that it was so wild to be in each others houses together. There was a moment when Chelsie and Dana and I were washing dishes in Chelsie's kitchen and I thought to myself how amazing it is to have remained friends with these women. We were in brownies together as kids and I still feel like that little girl but now I have a kitchen to wash dishes in. It was a cool feeling.

I mean...can you even? Henry LIVED for playing with Hendrix and Hendrix did too until he was over it haha.

SATURDAY
Saturday was Jacqueline's shower! And it turned out really nicely, and more importantly, I think she was really happy with how it turned out. She's probably the least bride-like person I know, but that almost makes you want to do more for her because she appreciates the littlest things so much.

We're big Coke people, but the bride's love for it might top us all.

One of my best friends and bridesmaids made personalized cookies as part of the favors. They're of Jacqueline's two cats and I think she really, really, really loved them ;)

I've always felt the connection between these two, but after this shower, I'm reminded just how much of a connection they have. I loved watching them play this silly shoe game and agree on every.single.question (which I've never seen and I've watched this shoe game many times) and open gifts and move seamlessly as a team (which isn't to say it's perfect, just that it works well for the two of them). It made me even more excited for the wedding in less than two months—ah!

After the shower, Chelsie and I met her brother and cousins for a quick drink at Cooper's Hawk where her brother's girlfriend was working. Then we went home and hung around the house all night which is exactly what I was hoping we'd do. 

I bought a Kindle Fire during Prime Day and it delivered on Saturday so I spent the evening setting it up and ultimately getting annoyed when I couldn't figure something out ;) 

SUNDAY

Sunday morning I went with my mom to Sammy's parents house where his mom was hosting an "eyebrow party" and I wish there was another name for it haha. Sammy's mom invited a few women over and my cousin, who's an esthetician, came to their house and waxed whatever your heart desired. Most people got their brows done and I definitely needed it. 

She had coffee and mimosas and bagels and some other things and it was a really nice morning to spend together, especially since I got to see my cousin.

Afterward, I went with Sammy's parents to his grandma's to celebrate her birthday for a few hours in the evening. Sammy and a few other family members met us there and it was nice to be together for a little while then too.

Sammy and I picked up Boston Market on the way home, got home around 8 and ate, did some laundry, packed lunches, played with Henry, and this girl started season four of my beloved Queer Eye. I didn't do as much laundry as I had hoped because we got home later than planned, so I have mountains to do tonight but at least I have Queer Eye to watch while I put it all away. 

That was our weekend! It was a good one, like I said.

And now, per the title, some riveting blog thoughts. I said in my last post (or whenever) I wanted to write other posts other than just recaps and shit, so maybe to hold me accountable, here's a list of what I want to document on here:

-another wedding check-in to recap some things we've done in the last few months, which really isn't much at all, but I'd like to record it before the summer ends because I think our venue should be contacting us in the fall to schedule our first planning session/tasting with them

-our engagement photos
-first year in our house
-Henry's first year (but maybe I won't do this because I include so much of him in my posts already haha)
-summer bucket list is in my drafts list but since we're halfway through summer already...I may have to tweak this

I think that's it for now. Hopefully I can get my act together soon...

Have a great week, all! xo

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday, all! I think we're headed into our last COLD week here in Chicago. It was in the single digits this morning but should climb in temperature by Saturday which is supposed to be 41 and raining PRAISE. And I think we're in the 40s all of next week which should be amazing after daylight savings gives us more light in the evenings after this Sunday. Fingers crossed we're out of the cold-dead-ass winter phase and into the only-slightly-warmer "spring" phase Chicago loves to do. I'll take it though! 

FRIDAY

Sammy worked an earlier shift on Friday (to read Dr. Seuss to some classrooms, okay cutest ever) so he was home earlier than normal. We decided to make pizza together for dinner to hangout before he inevitably retreated to the basement for the rest of the night to play video games ;)

It turned out real janky in shape because this Italian couldn't get her dough skills together which put her in a real sour mood which turned this "date night" bonding experience into a bickering session. Luckily he went down to play video games hahaha. It was actually really fine and the pizza tasted awesome (we love the dough from Jewel!). I can't complain about him going down to play video games either because it's a time he can "hang out" with his friends which he doesn't get to do often with his schedule. And I get time to read or watch crap TV. Win, win.

SATURDAY
I got up on Saturday with no plans on the agenda and it was total bliss. I read for a while in the morning.

Did some cleaning later on. I did the bathroom and ceiling fan in our bedroom and tidied up around the rest of the house in the form of dishes and laundry.

I made our spring cleaning list and our spring bucket list. And updated our calendar on the fridge.

Henry and I went for a walk (which is becoming more and more of a struggle as he's getting bigger—he's so strong!) and then I made dinner when we got back. I used the leftover sausage from our pizza making the night before and threw it over pasta with a diced fresh tomato, seasonings, butter, garlic, a splash of leftover pizza sauce and milk. Delicious.

Henry and I took our showers later in the evening ;) yes, people, I take him in with me. Some people think this is weird. I get soaked when I give him a bath, so I may as well just shower at the same time and hit two birds with one stone, OKAY?

Since Sammy was working, I decided to have a date night with myself. So I poured some cranberry wine, made popcorn, and watched rom coms until he came home. I watched Somethings Gotta Give because I want to BE Diane Keaton's character in this film more than anything in life. And then SATC 2 because I haven't watched it in forever. Yes I know it's not good but this SATC fanatic thinks anything SATC is good, so BYE.

I had moved upstairs to finish SATC 2 in bed by the time Sammy came home, so after it was over we hung out in bed for a while before falling asleep. My favorite memories from this house is going to be the time we spend talking in bed. I just love it so much. And it's such a lovely reminder knowing we can do that wherever, no matter what house we're in, that it will continue throughout our lives.

SUNDAY
Sammy ended up taking a sick day on Sunday which started him on a four day weekend. We spent the morning together before going our separate ways for the day.

I went downtown with my girlfriends to see a Disney Acapella show because we're five years old ;) We had an early dinner at Broken English before the show for some tacos/nachos and a pitcher of margaritas.

The group was really good! And it was a fun outing for these Disney lovers. Plus I always love an excuse to hang out with my ladies (even though we were missing one!).

Looking at a slow week and weekend with nothing on the agenda. I'm not usually left with a wide open weekend schedule, so I'm trying to see if there's something I want to do! I've been wanting to get a library card at our library since we've moved, so I may have to pop over there. We're really wanting to see Captain Marvel, so I'm wondering if we can sneak that somewhere in there. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! xo

*linking up with Biana!

Weekend Recap

Well people, it was a doozy of a weekend. What I was expecting to be a super light, fun-filled weekend, turned out to be unnecessarily emotional and kind of tough honestly. It was still fun! But kind of bogged down by some other bullshit.

I noticed my ring was missing Friday night after I came home from work and it sent me and Sammy into a total shit show. To make a long story short, we found it. Well, Sammy found it. It was literally under our bed like the most stereotypical place for it to be haha. I KNEW it fell off when I was changing after work or messing with my laundry in our room. I don't know why I don't trust my instincts more because, while I looked thoroughly in that room, I should have looked harder since I knew it was in there.

At the end of the day, all is well. I'm just disappointed it turned into an argument that permeated the whole weekend.

So, enough about that. On to the fun parts of this weekend. 

SATURDAY

I met my girlfriends for the annual Wine about Winter event that we go to every year in downtown Libertyville. We have such a fun time every year and I love getting to spend this time with them.

Love seeing pups every year on the crawl!

One of my fave gorge ladies.

We ate at O'Tooles after the wine crawl was over and then I snuck back to Chelsie and Dan's for some DQ afterward. Nothing like wine and dairy to really fuck up your system, am I right? 

I ended up spending the night at my mom's that night because we had a baby shower Sunday morning to go to together (and since I don't have my car yet, she'd have to pick me up at my house so it was easier just to spend the night and be with her in the morning for the shower) and it was really nice after an emotional Friday night to be at her house.

I got some pup snuggles and my mom's oatmeal (the BEST) and it was good for the soul.

SUNDAY
I headed to my cousin's shower with my mom and Grandma around noon and it was such a lovely day celebrating these new parents and their sweet baby boy (named after his grandpa)!

This family gives the loveliest favors at their showers and this was nooo exception. We got a box filled with gourmet chocolate items and a beautiful white appetizer dish from Crate & Barrel.

They had a great appetizer spread—I wish I could eat like this every day. And I had mimosas and Sprite all morning which means I was a happy girl (I'm literally half adult half child at all times.).

They had a great spread and serving two salads, chicken in a cream sauce with mushrooms and artichokes, beef, baked pasta, roasted potatoes, green beans, and rolls.

The sweetest couple was showered with some awesome stuff which they certainly, certainly deserve. They're seriously so generous to everyone else, I loved watching them be on the receiving end.

My cousin (the mom-to-be's brother) made all the centerpieces and floral accents. He has such a raw talent but is actually going to floral school (who knew?!) downtown Chicago soon to learn even more. I've already asked him to do our wedding flowers (if he wants). I actually won our table's and got to take it home! So pretty for a winter shower, right?

I got home at about 4 o'clock and was able to do all the things since Sammy was at his parents' for dinner and Henry was occupied with a new treat. It's been a while since I've had such a productive Sunday (in the last month or so, Sammy has been off on Sundays and I really don't like to be doing random stuff around the house when we can be spending time together) and it felt really good.

I did a load of towels, dish rags, table runner/cloth (aka all the things you put off washing), folded everything including our Christmas sheets (YES, Christmas, I know) that have been sitting in our laundry room after being washed like a month ago, made my lunch for today, cleaned the kitchen and living room, straightened up random stuff, took down Sammy's birthday decorations, which still left me time to have a bowl of cereal (and a few other snacks ;) ), spend time with Henry, and watch a few episodes of Four Weddings (Please note my princess blanket...further proving the half adult half kid thing from earlier.).

I'm really hoping for a relaxed week this week. I have nothing to complain about—there are much much worse things that could happen than losing your engagement ring, believe me, I know—but the whole event kind of shook me up for other reasons, so I'm looking forward to a low-key, chiiiilllll week haha. 

Sammy is off tonight and tomorrow night, so I'm looking forward to *fingers crossed* not having to make dinner and having a little more "me time." I swear I have no idea what we're going to do when we have kids if we think we're busy now haha. This is the first week in a while where I don't have anything going on after work (I actually cancelled plans with friends for tonight so I could go home and spend time with Sammy because I felt like it was important after the weekend we had) and I'm really looking forward to that refresh.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Happy Monday! xo

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday! This weekend was a cold one, getting down to 18 degrees in the evenings, but it seems like the temps are going back up into the 40s this week. At least they are in NYC which is where I'll be Wednesday night!

I spent a ton of time at home this weekend which is exactly what I needed between traveling last week and now this week. And now, 87 pictures of me in my house. Just kidding. Kind of.

FRIDAY

After work on Friday, I went straight to HomeGoods and Target because I needed some remaining things for Friendgiving and my bridesmaid proposals.

Luckily Sammy's mom made us chicken soup last week, so I was able to pull that out of the freezer and make a quick dinner for us before I started Friendsgiving prep.

Meanwhile, this guy likes to be involved in e v e r y t h i n g now, so in a desperate attempt at actually getting things accomplished, I gave him an empty jar of peanut butter I was going to recycle and let him go to town.

I put all my purchases away (or decorated with them), cleaned the lower level of the house, and set the table after dinner. 

I grabbed these burnt orange velvet pillows from HomeGoods and love the richness they add to our white couch. I proceeded to rip the white tags off the bottom of them (because Henry will rip them off himself) instead of cutting them which immediately resulted in the seams coming apart so a giant hole at the bottom of each pillow SO FUN. My mom always told me to never rip tags off things... I never listen.

And I grabbed this pillow at Target for the same price as I paid for the pair of giant ones at HomeGoods haha. I just love the simplicity and the sentiment (and that it doesn't say "blessed" or "grateful." Nothing against those sentiments haha I just think they're so overused for Thanksgiving decor.) because it's the number one thing I want people to feel when they're in our home; that they're always welcome.

And wouldn't you know they had it on a towel too ;) this is actually a kitchen towel because neither Target nor HomeGoods had any Thanksgiving bathroom hand towels (but they had 42 million Christmas ones), so I layered it over bath towels and called it a day.

And then this guy sat with me while I started working on the boxes I was making for my bridesmaids. Don't be fooled, he sat here for two seconds before going nuts.

Needless to say I couldn't do much with my boxes downstairs while Henry was awake other than taking the plastic wrap off, taping their note to the inside of the lid, and adding box filler, so I had to continue my work upstairs after he went to sleep haha.

I ordered their names in gold vinyl on Etsy (because my Cricuit machine was still at my mom's at the time) and a box of 12 stemless flutes from Amazon and adhered the names to them myself.

I got these gorgeous Sugar Paper boxes from Target (as well as the gift tags). They're $6 a box which is a little high when you're buying multiple, but it eliminated my need to purchase wrapping paper and ribbon (I was going to get brown craft paper and white ribbon if they boxes I got ended up being simple white shirt boxes or something) and they were the only ones I could find (in the store and online) that were deep and wide enough.

They each got their glass, a gold straw, soft socks, a candle, and their favorite drink (and favorite snack which didn't fit in their box so I just handed it to them after they opened them haha). I was kind of particular about what I wanted to include. I wanted it to be personal, so I didn't want to give everyone the same thing, but I did want some element to be similar across all of them, so I think I struck a nice balance.

I wrote them each a note that included a graphic of something we both have in common and tied my message in with that thing. Chelsie's below is Sex and the City, of course. I was her maid of honor last year, and she's my matron of honor, and I've been waiting to ask her, so that was really special to me.

And if you're kinda nosey like me and want to know what the other ones were... Tina was Disney (I used a Monster's Inc. quote because her and I were Sully and Boo for Halloween this year).

Jacqueline was Seinfeld. I included a line from the "Dinner Party" episode and put a Pepsi and Ding Dong in her box (even though neither of those are her favorite anything haha she's a good sport).

Sammi's was Ellen Degeneres because she's our queen.

And Alicia's was Anne of Green Gables because we always call the other our kindred spirit.

They were all ready to go by the end of the night and I had such a fun time making them. Of all my bridesmaid proposals (each "group" is getting slightly different things), these were the ones I was most excited about. If I go into even the littlest bit of detail of what these women mean to me, I will dissolve into tears. I am beyond words grateful to have them and so happy they'll be up there with me on our wedding day.

SATURDAY

Since I did a lot of prep Friday night, there wasn't a ton for me to do Saturday which was the goal, but I got up and hung out with Sammy and Henry in bed for a bit before heading back upstairs to clean the upper level. I cleaned the kitchen floors and vacuumed the stairs before heading to the basement to straighten up and bring the bridesmaid boxes down there.

My uncles and grandma came over during the day because my chef uncle was going to help me roast the turkey, but as a result of my stupidity and not knowing how to properly defrost a turkey, we ended up chucking it and running out to the store and getting chicken to roast in an attempt to avoid giving all my friends food poisoning. Happy Friendsgiving! *eye roll*

But it all worked out. And it turns out, some of them prefer chicken to turkey anyway. Anyway, because I have the nicest friends on Earth, they all brought me a hostess gift (which was unnecessary!), and my girlfriend who lives a few hours south of us brought me popcorn and glass bottled soda from a shop near her which was so thoughtful since these are like my favorite things of all time.

I set out a cheese board and spinach dip with crusty bread as appetizers.

And I wanted something festive for our cocktail, so I did this cranberry one that was cranberry juice, sparkling wine, and Sprite (and whole cranberries for aesthetic reasons ;) ).

My girlfriend who lives further away hasn't seen our house yet, so I gave her a tour and knew the rest of my friends would follow along because our guest room is now set up and wasn't the first time they saw the house, so they wanted to peek at that. I put the boxes in the basement to surprise them because I knew we'd end up there by the end of the "tour."

My heart, my heart. I love this picture so much.

We came back upstairs, I plated the meat, and we got ready to eat!

Sammy stopped by during his shift to say hi and I had him take our annual picture for us.

For dessert we had pumpkin pie and Jacqueline brought all the ingredients to make fried ice cream which is shown in this so lovely, high quality, not blurry photo I took. You fry cornflakes in sugar and cinnamon and roll a scoop of ice cream in them. SO good.

After dessert we sat around my living room until midnight talking and laughing. It's always my favorite when we get to do that. And after they left, I fell asleep immediately haha.

SUNDAY

I was so pumped to do NOTHING on Sunday. And that's basically what I did haha.

This guy turned four months old on Saturday, so I took some pictures of him so I could post to Instagram, obviously.

Sammy had to work so it was basically me and Henry for most of the day. We spent it in our sweats, eating leftovers, watching the Harry Potter marathon.

Please ignore how I look #SUNDAY but this is what eating is like if I choose to eat in front of the TV...

Thankfully I got a few chunks of the day where he was lower energy and actually napped so I could chill out.

Before it got too dark, we took four laps around our neighborhood while I called my parents. When we got back, I made a stir fry for dinner with leftover rotisserie chicken and proceeded to watch the rest of the Harry Potter marathon (remember how I hate Harry Potter? ;) ), before ending the evening with a fall Hallmark movie: Falling for You. I thought it was cute and was really digging the male lead. Full disclosure: I've been recording all the Christmas movies that have been airing, but I'm trying to save them until after Thanksgiving.

Sammy came home to eat dinner earlier in the evening and bombarded me with a list of things we needed to get in terms of Christmas decorations, which normally I would be all about, all hands on deck, but I was trying to watch someone defeat Voldemort, so like, you're stressing me out with this at the moment, but I did spend the rest of the night in bed on Wayfair and Amazon looking at stocking holders, tree skirts, ornaments, a faux tree for the library (real tree downstairs, people, we're not amateurs in this house), etc. 

Anyway, that was my weekend! I'm looking forward to Sammy being off today and tomorrow so we can spend some time together before I leave Wednesday night. I shall be spending the rest of this week researching places Chelsie and I can get the best pizza, Chinese food, bagel, etc., in NYC and figuring out how to fit enough sweaters into my carry on.

Have a great week all! xo

*linking up with Biana and Heather!