Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well there goes another Christmas. While the festivities will last for a couple more days around this house, I'm sad that it's officially over. It came and went WAY too fast as usual and I'm pouting about it. I can never really have enough time with my extended fam. The weekend before Christmas my mom managed to convince my sister, my grandmother and me to go to the Walnut Room at Macy's...Macy's the weekend before Christmas. I'm lucky I wasn't trampled along the way. They should have handed out flasks of hard liquor at the door to prep your for the utter chaos inside. We did some shopping and enjoyed our dinner at The Walnut Room later on. That Christmas tree in the center never seems to get old, even when I see it every year.

It was then when I got Christmas present #1 & #2. My Michael Kors Hamilton handbag and Kate Spade Gramercy watch. SWOON. I love them.

I was lucky enough to get Christmas Eve off of work so I could prep for Christmas party #1 for Josh's side of the family. I of course ate and especially drank too much. Because...it's not Christmas until something other than the Christmas tree gets lit. Once we got home, Josh and I also exchanged our gifts. He got me a great bottle of wine for our growing wine rack and a pair of Marc Jacobs heels. LOVE. If I ever have any doubt about my fam knowing me, that is rectified during this time of the year as well. Their gifts were absolutely perfect. Little Mermaid fleece pants? My inner child is screaming in delight and I'm dying to dive into this Stephen King book on writing. I also was lucky enough to score some new workout/running gear, a beautiful Kate Spade Gramercy gold watch and a nifty bluetooth hookup for my car that connects to my phone so I can stop having illegal conversations on my phone while I'm driving. (Only hands-free is allowed these days).

I also managed to paint my own nails without one of my hands looking like a child went at them. Stunned.

On Christmas day, my parents were hosting this year and Swedish meatballs were on the dinner menu. HALLELUJAH MY FAV. This recipe is my grandmother's best I must say and there is NOTHING like it. I ate my weight in them. My cousin's birthday is also on Christmas so it's always a dual celebration!

My grandmother also handed out very old ornaments that she always had on her Christmas tree to each of the grandchildren as her gifts and it will be the most cherished. Both Josh and I got to pick one out. Speaking of ornaments, I can't forget a photo of our ornament recognizing our first Christmas as a Mr. & Mrs.!!! Josh's Aunt always gives us the cutest, personalized ornament each year and this one just might be my favorite next to the one she had made for our engagement.

Once all of the Christmas parties were all said and done, it was time to start prepping for our first party at our house for New Year's Eve! It was originally only supposed to be a few people, but ended up being a huge family gathering of over 20 people. Whoops? The more the merrier!

My sister and I consumed more wine than anyone else of course, but we closed out 2014 in style and with a kiss of course! 2014 served me well, I received so many new writing opportunities, tied the knot and bought our first house.

The party was a success and now our house really does feel like home. I've never been so happy to clean the aftermath of a party before. But now I can officially say that my fest of indulging in all things bad is over, I kicked it into high gear and went for a night run and engaged in an intense weights session in my new workout gear!

I absolutely love the holidays and I'm so sad now that they're over, but I'm ready to kick off 2015 in the best way and I can't wait what this year has to bring. Happy New Year everyone!

Summer Nights & Tornados

So here we are, Monday. Womp. I'm coming off of a weekend high that was filled with awesome bestie time and max calories. But seriously, there was no stopping me. It was ridiculous. Let's just say MyFitnessPal saw limited entries from me after I had to log four Summer Shandy's and giant-sized smores. My best friend since our Rugrats and Doug years graduated nursing school (as I stated previously last week) and her grad party was on Saturday. SO proud of her. She graduated with honors and will pretty much be the most amazing nurse ever.

She's seriously the queen of Pinterest wins whereas I am the quintessential Pinterest fail. She created little stations for things that were all medical-related such as little medicine cups filled with M&Ms, Twizzlers to represent clogged arteries, Jello shots in syringes and chocolate-covered pretzels that were made to look like thermometers! Genius, I tell you.

I seriously stuffed my face with all of these things and with their fam being Italian, yeah let's just say I didn't behave and let my inner carbaholic run wild. Later on we had a bonfire and had giant-sized smores. I couldn't even fit the damn thing in my mouth. (That's what she said).

But really, these photos are all signs of summer.

Did stuffing my face stop there? Nope. Sunday luckily started off with an intense, morning run because uhhh I needed to reverse some damage, went over to Josh's to swim later on in the day and then stuffed my face some more. It was a lot of fun making our own pizzas though. We made our own dough and chose what toppings we wanted on them. Eat your heart out every fast food pizza place ever!

Yummmm.

Once our stomachs were full of pizza, we watched a movie and I headed home to get ready for bed....when all of a sudden 2a.m. hit and I got the most obnoxious weather alert on my phone stating that there was a tornado warning and to seek shelter. Greeeaatttt. Luckily, nothing actually touched down and there were just rotation sitings nearby. I'm a huge baby about things like this though and Apollo and Luigi were right there with me in the basement until it passed through. (They don't like severe weather either and I have scratch marks to show for it). This reminded me though that Apollo needs another shavedown. Both of them could have fit in their large carrier if absolutely necessary had Apollo been de-fluffed to an extent. In full fluff mode, he's like the size of two kitties.

Also, I just discovered Starbucks' new iced teas and I'm pretty much dying over the Green Tea Peach Lemonade one. Go out and try it...like now. It'll help you get through your Monday.

Cheers!!

Keep Calm and Family On

This weekend definitely did not start out too swimmingly. I've been battling some kind of sickness so my mornings haven't been that great to deal with let alone finding enough energy to get up and get my workout on. However, when I woke up this morning...I woke up only to realize I was lying in what could be a Law & Order SVU crime scene, had a huge migraine, back cramps, stomach convulsions and stumbled into the bathroom to ever-so-politely toss up my romantic dinner I had with Josh last night. Pardon me while I enter the seventh circle of hell. After I cleaned everything up (all hunched over) I crawled back into bed giving the finger to my motivational workout Pinterest board.

Three hours later, I decided I need to get out of bed to run an errand that didn't require me to get out of my car...SO yes, I snagged my running pants, hoodie sans bra, put my hair up, put on my shades and I actually walked out of the house just like that. I ran my errand, got my sugar-free/skinny vanilla chai latte and booked it back home to watch episodes of The Mindy Project on On Demand.Thank goodness, I started to nurse my way back to health as I laughed myself senseless to Mindy's antics and my Starbucks yummies (good thing too since we'd be having a family event in just a few hours).

Since I haven't seen my cousin in YEARS! I was ecstatic to see him and was so happy that by the time everyone arrived, I was feeling almost 100%. We celebrated my cousin Forrest's 21st birthday (I can't believe he's fricken 21 now) and had loads of fun catching up. Everyone tells me how tall I am, yeah I have nothing on this kid. He makes me feel like a shorty. (He's the one on the far left and my Uncle is on the far right)

He's doing so well in school, has a great girlfriend, and has so many goals he's ready to achieve. He's come so far and I'm SO proud of him. We even shared our first beer together as he rings in his 21st and I don't even drink beer haha.

We also ordered Lou Malnati's and chowed down on that and some delicious cupcakes from a local bakery shop. Skipping my intense workout will NOT be an option tomorrow. If anything cures the sickness out of you, it's the love and laughter that is shared amongst family. Forrest and I walked along the lake to help settle the pizza in our stomachs and soaked up some sun on the dock while we caught up some more. Quite insane how my hellish morning turned into sunshine and awesomeness. Winning.

Happy 2013!!

First thing is first...HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

2012 was full of amazing things from start to finish. From getting engaged to attending many family weddings and receiving so many opportunities regarding my career. Although 2012 was full of amazing things, I am so excited to see what 2013 has in store for me. I love new beginnings and a new year is always refreshing. According to statistics, the most common New Year's resolution is to of course lose weight....I am happy to say that I am not part of that majority. I'm particularly not a fan of resolutions because there is so much pressure and really just sets you up for failure if you aim too big. However, my main goal for this year will be being more focused than ever on finding a place Josh and I can call our own and with that comes being more conscious of my budget and spending. I want to be able to start off 2014 in a home we can call our own or at the very least be very close to finding the perfect place. So that's the main goal that will be floating around in my head for the next year.

Staying focused will be the key to my success and I am motivated more so than ever to make some major financial progress. Now that the damage of the holidays has been done to my bank account, I can recover from that and work my way up from there. I totally got this. While I have my main goal in mind, I do have a checklist of things that definitely need to be done throughout the year...

2013 Checklist

- Finish reading my stockpile of books
- Donate A TON of clothes
- Register and finish the Super Spartan Race
- Keep up with my fitness goals
- Continue planning for the wedding
- Appreciate the little things in life a little more
- Write for myself more
- Travel and see new things
- Embrace change

and most importantly....

A Holly Jolly Christmas

Christmas is practically already here even though it's technically still one day away. Christmas is really a whole week of celebrations and parties....which is just how I like it. Christmas is my favorite holiday ever so one day of celebrating it just doesn't cut it. Saturday night Josh and I had a little mini getaway at a chic spa hotel in the heart of downtown where we had quality "us" time. Since we're still saving up and living at home, moments like these are few and far between....and I enjoyed every single second! Josh booked a room for us and ummm apparently they were aware of our motive of having quality time together...as we were quick to find out that there was only a glass wall separating the shower from the main room! We definitely got a kick out of this honeymoon-type suite. We were on the 22nd floor so we had quite a view from our room!

Once we got settled, we got ready to go to dinner. Josh made reservations for us at the Argent Restaurant. Mind you, Josh is not a raw food/sushi person....yet he knows that I am a sushi-loving fiend so he booked this place. One of the many reasons why I love this man. They had a burger for him on the menu so he was all set. We started off with delicious salads for appetizers followed by our main course. I had the salmon citrus roll and a California roll- holding the avocado of course.

The second I took the first bite...I was in heaven. I also had a glass of this one particular German Riesling that I've never had before. It was absolutely delicious. So lets backtrack. I'm with my one and only...eating top-notch sushi....with Riesling in hand...yep...heaven.

After we stuffed our faces with food, we made our way upstairs to the Vertigo Lounge which is an enclosed rooftop bar on top of the hotel. Josh got us a bottle of Riesling and we chatted over a few glasses of wine until we made our way back to the room.

The following day we decided that room service was ridiculously too pricey so we walked a block down the road to my favorite...STARBUCKS. Now, of course I love Josh so much but he never has Starbucks and when he was ordering a drink...the barista looked at him like he was from another planet when he asked for a MEDIUM chocolate milk or orange juice. Poor kid isn't savvy on all of their odd lingo. He went with a hot chocolate.

Once we had breakfast and relaxed for a little while, we hopped into a taxi to make our way home just in time for the Bears game....and to ultimately see them slaughter the Cardinals. WOOT. Amazing Christmas gift #1. The first of many Christmas parties was later that night with my immediate fam. My mom made a feast with ham, green bean casserole, rolls and mashed potatoes. After that all of us gathered around the tree and handed out all of our gifts to each other.

My favorite part is judging how I did on picking out gifts by seeing each person's reaction as they open them. I just so happened to get my sister's classic "excited" reaction as she opened her first gift from me,  a white sweater dress she's been wanting for quite some time. Win!

Josh also loved his SteelSeries keyboard, Magic cards, Bears touch screen gloves and AE top.

My parents also enjoyed their gifts which is a major win since it's always rough buying for my dad, especially. You can't go wrong with the whole James Bond Blu-Ray collection with special features. As for me, I was one lucky lady last night as well. Josh got  me this gorgeous Rebecca Minkoff crossbody handbag that is what I like to call "rocker chic" with its spiked studs embroidering the bottom of it. It's a beautiful, light pink with a gold chained strap and zipper enclosure. Absolutely IN LOVE.

My parents also got me an abalone shell necklace and matching earrings. They are absolutely beautiful as well. My absolute favorite gift from them though are my Bose SIE2 sport headphones that are specially engineered for exercise/running. They are seriously the most amazing things ever. They feel secure in your ear, yet you barely feel them and the sound quality is unprecedented of course....Bose.

While I went for my first run in weeks since my toe injury AND after getting sick I was finally able to get outside and try these babies out. The only thing that left me disappointed was my damn knee injury that sprung up again since I ran the half marathon. It didn't help that it was below freezing out. Once I get a brace I should be fine but until then...another five-mile morning run will NOT be in my future. I had to hobble home near the end since I just couldn't even jog through the pain. Although, my headphones did not let me down. They stayed in my ears without even budging, sweat resistant and it sounded as though Ellie Goulding and Lana Del Rey were there running alongside me and singing their tunes.

Now something I need to rant about is the Abercrombie & Fitch sizing scale. I am a small/medium in any other brand...yet apparently a medium sherpa-lined sweater from Abercrombie really means an extra small...it seriously looked like something for a toddler. I was so disappointed since my sister really wanted to get this sweater for me and she felt sad that I looked like I was trying on my little cousin's jacket...it was ridiculous. Abercrombie needs to adjust their sizing scale...to ummm normal sizes? We re-ordered another sweater that I absolutely love from there and hopefully sizing up works...I know I have a long torso...but a medium looked like a fucking cropped jacket on me. Get it together, Abercrombie.

My sister also got me a Burberry phone cover that is amazingly cute along with the comfiest set of yoga pants EVER. My bro-in-law generously gave me a Starbucks gift card and a penguin hot/cold beverage cup and an insulated wine holder! Both of them know me so well. ;)

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Party in the U.S.A.

So although it technically isn't Independence Day until Wednesday, all of the fun festivities including lakeside fireworks, the parade and festival all went down this past weekend. If there ever was a sign that I'm getting old...it was this morning when I had to get up for work. However, I have no complaints. This weekend was full of amazingness which started on Friday with one of my favorite people. We had great ambitions to pick out some crazy  Pinterest recipe and artsy craft but we ended up engaging in our ritual of ordering Jimmy Johns, indulging in spinach dip and chips AND her homemade brownies while having a Criminal Minds marathon. Success. It was definitely a calorie-fest and I enjoyed every second of it. I just had to pay for it in miles I had to run in the morning. So worth it.

Saturday my other half and I went to our first Cubs game of the season and he landed some pretty sweet seats right behind home plate! And yes, for all of you who follow baseball...I understand that they have one of the worst records in the league right now...BUT they won this time against the Astros SO suck on that.

One of the things that you absolutely MUST do (aside from people watching and enjoying the game) is scarfing down hotdogs the way only Chicago knows how to make them. :) Going to a game without one is a sin...one of the many reasons why I believe the prices on these bad boys is inflated x10.

Speaking of price inflation...EVERYTHING is insanely priced from little tubs of Dibs that is enough for a toddler to a helmet full of nachos. I mean seriously, a small bottle of water was $4.50. COME ON. I beat them at their game though and smuggled in a huge liter-sized bottle of my own to last me through the whole game. However, Josh and I have a tradition now to get the helmet full of nachos complete with chili, nacho cheese and delicious jalapenos.  It's a challenge for even TWO people to eat.

One thing we couldn't believe though was that they were handing out some sweet Cubs fan gear for FREE. Yes...FREE. We couldn't believe it. We got little Cubs wristbands. Behold the wristbands....clearly they brought the Cubs good luck since they won ;) .

It was flippin' HOT as all hell, but we managed to pretty much have the best time ever. It was an eventful game and the people watching like I said before is always entertaining. Nothing like hot weather and a ball game to bring out the fashion faux pas that will stick with you like a bad sunburn. One woman was even so tan, she looked similar to one of my leather handbags at home. Never a dull moment. By the time the game ended, we packed up and attempted to snag a cab to the train station...yes almost impossible...but we managed to make it with approximately three minutes to spare. We were EXHAUSTED.

Sunday morning I forced myself up bright and early to go for the run of the century since my what seemed to be weekend-long calorie-fest needed to be balanced out with exercise. After my run it was time to prep for the little gathering to be had later on in the day. There was a ton of cleaning and cooking to do starting with making my festive strawberries that I dipped in melted white chocolate that were topped with blue sprinkles. I attempted to make these red, white and blue drinks that  I found on Pinterest but it was an epic fail on my part. Once again, Pinterest users have out-crafted me. Damnit. BUT look at those yummy strawberries. Mmmmmm.

My mom and I also made festive, red velvet cupcakes, a fruit platter cooked pulled pork in the crock pot for some sandwiches. The party subs from Subway also served us well. Alongside Josh's fam, my partner in crime (also previously mentioned above) was able to join us as well.

Everyone feasted on all of that and although it was hot as balls outside, we all played some volleyball until it was time to gather the blankets and chairs to walk to the lake for the annual fireworks. I don't know about anyone else, but I look forward to watching the fireworks every year. If I miss them, the holiday just doesn't seem to be complete. This year's fireworks were very impressive. Because of the drought and EXTREME heat, many surrounding areas have opted to cancel their fireworks show. It's been so hot for so long, streets are starting to buckle! It's crazy! I have never been so thankful for air conditioning and having immediate access to a lake to jump into.

But from me to all the bloggers out there! Happy Independence Day America!!!

Endless Summer

This weekend was definitely needed after such a busy week at work. I didn't get to sleep in, but I got to indulge in crazy amounts of great food, family and friends. It all started Friday night when I had a hot date with not the future hubs but one of my fav friends and also bridesmaid-to-be.

We started off with our newfound sushi restaurant, Kaminari, that has become our go-to girly date night place. For some reason it slipped my mind to remind our waitress that I am highly allergic to avocados so to take extra caution when preparing my food. Lets rewind a little to my wonderful food allergy involving avocados. If I ingest avocado in any way, shape or form...my body will destroy me and I will be making a trip to the ER. SO when our waitress brought our cucumber rolls to us to start with....just seeing the avocado slices made my stomach turn inside out momentarily. I apologized for not mentioning it sooner, she took it back, remade it and all was well.

 We never shortchange ourselves when it comes to sushi at this place so we placed three orders of rolls each. I got the shrimp tempura, spicy salmon roll and spicy scallop roll. We got our rolls...and...there was fricken avocado in one of my rolls. Now, I had to remind the woman yet again of my allergy for the SECOND time. She ended up lecturing me that I should have told her to begin with since they use avocado in many of their dishes. Apparently I needed to explain my food allergy more than once for it to sink in for this woman. Consider your tip to be slashed in half, lady. Once I got my rolls thereby avoiding death by avocado, we devoured our food and split a bottle of wine. No hot date is complete without one obviously...

After we filled up on sushi and wine we headed out to foam at the mouth over Chris Hemsworth in Snow White and the Huntsman. We had some time to kill so my date treated me to Starbucks. It was such a sweet gesture.

After becoming sufficiently caffeinated, we smuggled in the remains of our Starbucks and settled in to see Kristen Stewart's horrid performance and Charlize Theron totally kick ass. Seeing her kick Stewart's ass at the end even momentarily...was worth seeing the movie. Overall, it could have been better but Theron was definitely one badass, evil queen. I also felt sorry for Hemsworth...he had to taint those pretty lips with kissing Stewart. I was personally outraged. Overall it was a decent movie but I really do hope that they release the DVD with an alternative ending that reveals a more likely scenario with Theron totally owning Stewart ending in her untimely death.

The following day I had to drag my ass out of bed bright and early to get Luigi's stitches out and for a post operation check-up. My kitty has a little infection around the incision site so he now has to wear the cone of shame permanently for the next few days. I know how much he hates it so I was too lenient with it before. Ka-ching once more for an antibiotic. He likes to saunter over to me and look at me like I'm practicing some type of new method of torture on him.

After the vet visit Josh picked me up to go to TWO graduation parties for cousins on both sides of the family. This is where my food baby started to rapidly develop. Beer brats, wine, shrimp pasta spread stuff, potato salad, cake, ice cream, Starbucks frap, italian beef, etc....we started at his mom's side where things tend to be more subdued. It was hot as hell outside and definitely not comfortable enough to utilize the volleyball net that was set up unfortunately. The humidity was disgusting. I engaged in some conversation with Josh's step grandmother shall I say? Josh and I are on equal ground when it comes to how awkward and random conversations can become with her. Prime example, she told me how every time I see her I've lost weight and look great....then she says, "oh my sister-in-law is anorexic but I think that's just because her ex-husband was very controlling." Hmmmm ooookay then. See? Very awkward. Very random. After we mingled a bit over there we went over to Josh's dad's side of the fam to celebrate his cousin Eric graduating 8th grade. This side is where the wine flows like water. My place to be. Not to mention that Josh made me my first smore of the summer. A summer staple. Look at that gooey marshmallow and chocolate....next stop, my thighs.

The following day I once again had to skip the whole sleeping in thing and get up ungodly early so my dad could wake up to breakfast amazingness. I made apple cinnamon muffins, pancakes, sausage and eggs. He loved it and the smile on his face said it all. :) He's definitely one of my role models in life.

I gorged myself on pancakes and eggs myself before I just HAD to finally work some of that off with a long run before continuing with the Father's Day festivities. Once my sister came over we got what we needed to make my dad's special dinner and then we were off to see Prometheus since he's been itching to see it since opening night.

After a successful movie date with the fam, we headed home so my sister and I could start making dinner. She made her famous salmon pasta dish that is to die for and I made a yummy salad complete with fresh cut green and red peppers and cucumbers. I also cracked open a bottle of wine a little early while prepping for this awesome dinner. Yum. Nothing better than some candy wine.

Overall, my dad had a great day. Mission accomplished. My mission of being on track to lose my last 10lbs before the summer is over...yeah that one is still pending. I pretty much consumed more calories this weekend than I did during the whole week. At least I kicked ass during my morning runs. I don't need to gain another one...my sister's dog also made an appearance at the house this weekend. I can never get enough of that little pup. He has little nubs for limbs. Irresistible.