Matt's Birthday Week!!!

I think I've discovered a new tradition! Or, because I'm unemployed, I have way too much time on my hands! The jury is out...I guess we'll wait until next year before deciding if it's a full blown tradition.

Matt's birthday is September 8th and I'm a BIG advocate for birthdays! I love giving gifts and I LOVE birthdays! Matt jokes that I start counting down the days until my birthday every New Year. Not entirely true, but I start getting excited! I think it's because Spring is my favorite season and come January, well I'm basically over winter and want to see flowers everywhere and green come back into the trees! And usually when it starts getting nice out, my birthday is within sight!

Luckily, our birthdays are spread out enough that there's no um...sharing! Let's face it, I'm an only child. I share our anniversary and Christmas with him so give me April 9th! I think it's perfect really. Mine's in April and his is in Sept and then Christmas follows after that...then I start getting excited about Spring again. :) Vicious cycle! haha

Anywhoo!!! I woke up yesterday and thought "Why not celebrate Matt's birthday a little bit every day until the 8th?!" A week and a day! Everyone knows my mom and I celebrate our birthdays for at least a week so Matt surely deserves it too!

It's nothing fancy. I bought his serious gift last month and I've stashed it in my closet so these gifts are kind of little things just for fun. I started off yesterday by getting him a bag of Snickers, one of his favorite candies. I wrapped it with a cute ORANGE bow (to celebrate football season Go Pokes!) and left a little note. He got home about 9:30 so he was too tired to break in and eat any, but I think he liked it!

Today's gift is kind of silly...can't tell you though, he hasn't seen it yet!

And conveniently, my birthday is April 9th so MAYBE the tradition will go both ways! Wishful thinking!!! But I PROMISE I wasn't having those selfish thoughts/motives when I came up with this for him! I don't think he believes me though... haha!

NOW, I'm off to wrap up some last minute things before hopping on the train to meet Kris & Abby at the airport!!! We're so excited to have some guests in town for Labor Day Weekend!!! Lots of fun is sure to be had this weekend! Love our amazing friends!!!

Not the sharpest tool in the shed...

"but I'm the cutest! Right?!?" That's my reply when he tells me that. Not even that tools are even that cute, but if you could rate tools on a scale of cute-ness, my defense to my smart little husband is that I would hope he thought I was at least the cutest darn tool in that shed! :)

I do and say a lot of dumb things! (Matt won't let me forget or live any of them down...one of my most famous examples was when Matt was tickling me one day early in our relationship, I shouted "STOP! You're smuggling me!" I meant smothering.) I'm worse especially when I'm really comfortable around a person. I tend to turn off my filter and say the first thing that comes to mind or just act silly. Sometimes, it takes me a while to catch on to things and I don't always figure stuff out the quickest. And I really pride myself on being a pretty intelligent girl despite my "moments".

Enter...my blog. I spent hours, I mean HOURS last night and today trying to figure out how to change the background to be something "cutsie". All the gals I blog stalk have these super cute backgrounds with polka dots, flowers, paisleys, etc you know, shabby chic kind of stuff and mine was just...blah. I couldn't get past the basic template designs. So I snooped around on their blogs and found some websites they were using. www.shabbyblogs.com and www.hotbliggityblog.com to name a couple. Well, I found one that I liked and did the ol' copy & paste to add it to my blog template. Error. Over and over I tried and each time I would tinker with it a bit more to see if I could figure out what I was doing wrong. I let out deep sighs until Matt asked what was wrong. I knew it was silly to get all worked up over a silly website that barely anyone reads, but I was so frustrated! Finally, I called it quits and went to bed. I came back to it this afternoon with renewed hope and determination. I tried for a few more hours and ALAS!!! I made progress!!! I finally got it to where I could see a little of the design in the background! After much tweaking and editing of ever little thing, I finally was able to see ALL of the design in the background!!!!! GLORIOUS!!!

SO! I hope everyone thinks it's really cute b/c quite frankly, I think I have a few more wrinkles from furrowing my brow. ugh.

Best part. I texted Matt to tell him to take a look at it...his response "Can you center the header?" ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
sigh. That's on tomorrow's agenda.

Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears...

Last night we were given the opportunity to go to a Chicago Bears game! Matt's boss was out of town and he offered us his tickets. (Thanks so much, Jim! We had a great time!) I had never been to an NFL game before so even though it was still a pre-season, I was pretty excited to go! And, since we won't be able to go to many, if any, of the OSU football games this year, I was really just itching to be able to cheer for any team as long as it was football! The seats were amazing! 45 yard line on the lower level behind the visitor's bench. {My only wish for being on the Bears bench side would be to get a good picture of Lovie Smith (Bears Head Coach). I just love that his name is Lovie! :) }


Blue 22! Blue 22! Hut! Hut!


"Bear down, Chicago Bears..." They have a little song they sing after they score. We tried to sing along but need a bit more practice.




At halftime, they brought out 2 Pee-Wee teams come out and play and it was hilarious! Of course I was cheering for the Orange Team! These huge pads and helmets on these little bodies and they're all scrambling around! Precious! They even tackled each other! I laughed the whole time. At the end, one of the little boys turned around and pointed to the crowd and raised his arms up and down for more applause! Too funny!

I recognized a couple of names from watching college football with Matt over the last 5 years, so I had to take pictures!

#26 Beanie Wells-- Ohio State


#7 Matt Leinart-USC





Sadly, the Bears lost BUT we still had an awesome time!

Come sail away...

One of my favorite things about our apartment is our view. I never get tired of looking out on the lake and seeing the sail boats passing by. Here are a few pictures from last week. I think there was some sort of sailing event b/c it was mid day on a Tuesday and there were boats everywhere! These are for you Aunt Tana since you requested more apt view pictures! :)


We're actually closer than this picture appears, but it gives you an idea of the buildings around us. We can see a little of Millennium Park and the building that looks like a mini version of Chrysler Building in NY is where Matt's office is located.






The water really is that clear and blue! I love it!

And so it begins...

I knew it would come to an end...the greatest of all "summer vacations". It's been a great time of self inflicted unemployment, but I have officially started job hunting. Boo. Not really because of the money... although extra cash is always welcome! {PLUS. I'm seeing some GREAT fall sweaters/jackets that I would love to own and I would feel better about it if I were bringing home a little bacon too! Hey, this blog is all about the honesty.} but more because I need something to fill my day. Matt has been wonderfully patient and hasn't rushed me in the slightest, which I love him to death for being so amazing. But he also works, a lot. 10-12+ hour days usually.

I know I live in this amazing city and I haven't even made a dent in the "Things to do" department, but I can only enjoy it so much when I'm by myself. I want to explore the city with Matt so my weekdays are beginning to get a little mundane. AND...I desperately want a new way to meet people! I have made some really great friendships in my past work experience so I'm looking forward to going to lunch with a new co-worker or finding out someone's favorite coffee drink and surprising them with it just b/c I'm such a fun person to work with! :)

One thing though. I HATE JOB HUNTING. I HATE everything about it. Updating my resume, searching endlessly online, reading job descriptions that are filled with obnoxious words and more fluff than anything, writing cover letter after cover letter, wondering if/when I'll even get a call about a job, wondering if they even looked at my resume (I hate that everything is online now...), the anxiety before an interview--I tend to sweat profusely or give myself a stomach ache. Sorry, it's true. It doesn't help that I don't really know what I want to do. It seems like everyone else knows what they want to do, they've got a direction. "I've always wanted to teach." "I want to be a doctor/lawyer." "Investment banking is my passion." well...good for you! I don't have a CLUE! After a college degree and 4 years in the real world, I think I know less about what I want to do for employment! ha! I have ideas sometimes, but then I go back and forth. I've never been super career driven, gotta get to the top of the ladder, kind of person. I admire people like that, Matt is that way. Maybe it's just not in me.

Anyway, I went to a staffing agency today. They seemed really positive and upbeat about finding something for me, and since I don't really know anyone here, I figure it's worth a shot. So, wish me luck! Here goes nothin'!

Latest Discovery!

Drum roll please...

I FOUND A TARGET CLOSE BY!!!!!!! This definitely made my day, maybe even my whole week!
I did a little walk through the clothing section and found this SUPER cute trench

so I'm keeping my eye on it to go on sale! :)

Also, for my Oklahoma friends, Target (in states that aren't weird about alcohol laws sorry OK is way behind the times) sells alcohol. Some may be snobs about boxed wine, but they have a great boxed wine in a cute little cube. So every time I went to Target in TX, I would snag one. It's a great way to keep fresh wine since I'm usually the only one drinking it. Matt's a beer man. So I picked up a cube AND I saw that they had something new...boxed margaritas! It may be terrible but I decided to pick one up and give it a try! So tonight's menu, enchiladas, chips, salsa, guacamole, and margaritas!


And side note: I did the dumbest thing on record for the last well, day or maybe week, I do a lot of dumb things. I decided to bake some Cinnamon Streusel coffee cake for our breakfast tomorrow. Let me tell you, it was smelling so good! Well, until I started smelling something burning and thought "That's weird, the timer hasn't gone off yet" So I went to check it and sure enough...BLACK! I had accidentally set the temp on 475 instead of 375!!!!!! Ugh. The worst part (besides feeling so dumb!) was, I had just gotten home from Target only to realize that I needed flour to make it and I had to run over to Walgreens to get some. boo.

My balcony oasis 42 stories in the sky

If you're scared of heights, you would hate our balcony! I wasn't fond of our balcony at first, but it's pretty great. It's nice to step out and get some fresh air on a nice day instead of taking the elevator all the way down only to step outside and get a quick whiff of sewer smells before your breath of fresh air! haha. I love watching the sail boats out on Lake Michigan, I think I might enjoy sailing. I like to watch all the people and traffic. The rhythm of it all is kind of mesmerizing.

I've been sitting out here a little more often over the past couple of days b/c A) it's been really nice out and B) although I LOVE Friends, I'm already halfway through Season 7 and I've got to space it out a little, oh and C) it makes me feel like less of a vegetable than sitting on the couch watching movies (we don't have cable right now). Don't you think sitting with 2 tailgate type folding chairs facing each other so I can keep my feet propped up is less vegetable like that laying on the couch?! Yeah, me too. I'm really liking this "city life", I think I'm getting used to all the noises and the sirens are now "normal". I watch the trains pass by below multiple times an hour and I'm thankful that our doors/windows are nice and soundproof :)

I think they're filming some more of Transformers 3 b/c we saw a bunch of trucks/trailers with movie set rental logos this morning while I walked Matt to work. Then, I saw a "wrecked" school bus and there are big stadium lights shining down on one of the streets below. I've been telling myself to go check it out, but that requires me leaving my little oasis on my balcony! Maybe I will here in a bit when I go pick up Matt's dry cleaning. :)