CAN.NOT.WAIT.

Mama and Giggy are coming to Chicago on Thursday!!! I can't wait to see 2 of my favorite women on the planet! Seriously, I feel so blessed to call these women my family! They are both so beautiful, graceful, lovely, classy and just so much FUN!

Here are a few pictures of our fun trips in the past!


Giggy & I--Virgin Islands 2002
My grandma took each of her grandkids on a trip for our HS graduation. I wish I had a picture of all of us snorkeling! BLAST! Yes, I realize this is NOT a good picture of me.

Mama & Giggy in the Virgin Islands 2002 Aren't they cute? I think they have the same smile!

Giggy & I in Colorado. Many many of my memories with my grandparents have been made in Colorado. We went every summer when I was little and this was from the summer I lived with them in Durango. Summer 2005

Mama, Giggy & I in NYC in our fun pink trenches! Helllllloooo, tourists! We wanted to be able to spot each other in a crowd. Mission accomplished. I don't remember exactly what year this was...maybe 2004??? {Please note my pudgy round face! eeek!}


Giggy & Mama before dinner at this amazing resort, Keyah Grande, in CO for Mom's birthday. ( Summer 2009)

I can't wait to make some new memories this weekend with these two!!! We're bound to have a blast. Get ready Chicago!

{Side note: One of these days I will muster the courage to show some of the pictures I re-discovered tonight. I wish I hadn't found them b/c frankly I didn't recognize myself in some of them, but I should probably print some and post them on the fridge as motivation. I was quite the chubby bunny a few years ago. yikes.}

Just call me Susie Homemaker...

Or Martha Stewart or some other DIY diva. These last two days I have been CONSUMED with making some new pillows! 7 pillows in 2 days, all stitched by hand! It was kind of therapeutic and the time flew by! I haven't been the biggest fan of the pillows on our couch and I was dying to do something creative and useful with my time this week. {Unemployment might be getting to me...haha!}

I love pillows. I love that pillows are an easy way to change the look of a room. And since I'm usually pretty neutral on big decor items {I think it's a commitment issue} then it's not quite as scary to me than buying an entire chair covered in an amazing fabric. One of my crafty friends makes lots of pillow slip covers and changes her pillows out every so often. GENIUS! So, I copied her idea.

Now, my craftsmanship is not to perfection, but I'm still pretty darn proud of myself! As I get more experience, I might try some other fancy things!

Out with the old...



And in with the new!!!!








I think I'll put the blue and cream floral pillows in our bedroom, maybe even with the zebra! We'll see!



And...then I still have this fabric that I'm going to make 2 more pillows out of for the living room.

Let me know what you think!

Next DIY project: Lauren and I plan on making fun Christmas pillows & wreaths this year!

Warning...sail boats crossing

Saturday morning I woke up and walked outside to the balcony to feel the breeze outside. {Please see previous post} Our building is just south of the river so I looked over and the bridge was up! I've never seen a bridge do this in real life. I kept waiting for a stunt car to try to ramp it and fly over like in a Jackie Chan movie or something. (He's the only stunt person I could think of off the top of my head. haha!) There were lots of sailboats just floating down the river and my only guess is that they were headed to their winter home?!? Just a random assumption. Anywhoo...I'd never seen this before so I ran back inside to grab my camera and snap a few shots. I'll admit it...I'm easily entertained.

HEAT WAVE!!!

Ok...I realize I should NOT be complaining about the warm weather trend we've been having b/c it's about to be miserably cold, BUT I'm ready for the temps to drop back down into the upper 60's!

It's beautiful outside, but our apartment is uncomfortably warm. I LOVE our corner unit with all the floor to ceiling windows, but that also means LOTS of sun! And when the building has turned off the AC for the year, it gets pretty toasty up in here! Last night we both fell asleep on the couches in the living room b/c it gets a bit more air flow from the windows being open than our bedroom. We haven't slept with the comforter on the bed for like a week! Whew! Our poor little tower fan (no ceiling fans which I miss terribly!) has been on constantly and if it goes out, I might cry. I just wish the maintenance staff hadn't jumped the gun to switch over to heat the first weekend we had 50's for highs.

Anyway, although it's a tad warm, I'm still thankful for the beautiful trees changing colors and that I get to steal a glance at them every day!



But seriously...I'm sweating in my apt right now. :)

Thoughtfulness...

One of my husband's greatest traits is his thoughtfulness. I'll admit, sometimes I expect thoughtfulness from him and it just doesn't happen. {insert pouty face here} But that's the beauty of marriage, or any relationship, the times it means the most is when it's the least expected! Matt & I neither one are big advocates of giving/receiving flowers. They die and I tell him not to buy them for me on special occasions (c'mon...haven't you seen the prices of roses sky rocket during the month of February?!) but I'm still a girl I still love flowers every now and then. :)

So yesterday he came home at SIX (this is probably a record since starting his new gig) with this behind his back!



So stinkin' thoughtful of him! There is a florist just across the street from our building but they're never open when he's walking home from work (maybe because that's at 8 or 9 or even later at night!)

I love his simple yet oh so thoughtful gesture and it was a major bonus that it is a beautiful shade of Oklahoma State Orange! Go Pokes! (OSU means Ohio State up here. gag.)

Confession: Someday, I would love to squeeze room into the budget for a "Fresh Flowers in the House at All Times"

Play Date w/ Luke!

One of the perks of living in Chicago is that I am now within 45 mins (by train...30 by car) to one of my best friends/Matron of Honor, Lauren Johnson! Her and her husband, Jason, had been living in Washington for the last few years so we were both ECSTATIC when we found out we would be reunited in Illinois! I missed out on being there for one of their most exciting milestones as a family...having a BABY!!! but I love trying to make up for it by taking little day trips to spend time with them! She is blessed to stay home with their little man, Luke Brandon. He's such a great little guy and recently turned ONE!

Lauren is one of the most genuine and down to earth girls in my life. She is always kind, gracious and encouraging. I still can't believe it took us 20 years to "fall in love" as we like to say!

We're both from Wichita Falls, but went to different high schools and had different social circles (she was in the cool crowd! haha!). We both went to Oklahoma State and ended up in the same sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta. Lauren was always a girly girl. She's got a great sense of style and makes everything look so cute, even a baseball hat. ugh. :) I was always the "athletic one", I would rather wear tshirts and be super casual and it wasn't until later in high school/early college that I even really enjoyed wearing skirts and such. I know. WEIRD! Now, I would rather wear a sun dress than shorts and love me a cute pair of skinny jeans! who knew?!? :) Lauren usually takes credit for this b/c she helped me kind of find my style. I remember being in the Theta house and she would help me fix my hair and pick out cute clothes. She also introduced me to "the clutch". My HOBO wallet/clutch combo that is my life and I still carry in my big purse! But even beyond all of that, we get each other. We can talk for hours about any/every thing and sometimes it's serious and sometimes it's just non sense. She's just wonderful! We can really just be ourselves and it's so refreshing!!! So anywhoo...that's a little background on our friendship!


So Thursday I hopped on the Metra to spend the day with Lauren and Luke! We went to lunch, shopped a little and just spent time together!


I was also honored that Lauren and Jason asked me to watch Luke so they could go on a date! Luke is such an easy baby, but I know that Lauren and Jason don't get much alone time since family is in Texas and they don't know anyone well enough here in IL to just leave their child with...so Aunt Beth was MORE than glad to play with Luke! Lauren got all gussied up since she didn't have to worry about any slobber or sticky hands lovingly touching her dry-clean-only blouse and wore some fun dang-ly earrings that would be oh so fun for a child on the hip to pull and yank! We had a great time! We played with ALL of his toys, watched Yo Gabba Gabba (w.o.w), and ate grilled cheese and the time just flew by!

We didn't even have to tickle him to make him grin and laugh! He's just so much fun right now! I tried to teach him "Go Pokes"...we'll get there!

I hope we can have another play date soon!!!

Bummer...

Our building fixed the machine that was broken in the laundry room...now we have to pay for our laundry. It's been free since June and I guess I was hoping for a small miracle that they would just let everyone enjoy free laundry forever. Wishful thinking. :)