Dance Show + St Patty's Day

I'm doing a month of March recap b/c I am very behind on my blogging. I like blogging but I def don't love it or am really good at procrastinating w/ it! We'll start with St. Patty's Day weekend. On Friday Chris and I went to the ballet! Not a regular traditional nutcracker boring type of ballet, but this was a "jazz ballet." And I will admit when he first asked me to go, I was hesitant and was thinking I'd rather see what Jack was up to on 24. But since we didn't have anything else going on and we got the tix through his work so we knew they'd be good seats and better yet - free. IT WAS SO GOOD. A cross between "So You Think You Can Dance" (which I cannot wait for stupid Am Idol to be over when SYTYCD starts) and Cirque du Soleil. And to make the night better we had fish & chips at The Gage on Michigan Ave before the show. Perfect night!

The next day was the marathon St Patty's Day drinking fest with Chris and his side of friends at O'Donovan's. This is the same place we went to last year and is a great place b/c it's not super crowded and you're not fighting your way to the bar to get a drink. We were home by 11pm and stopped at our new favorite restaurant on Armitage, Cafe Laguardia on our way home. Here is Chris w/ everybody's favorite sisters, Liz & Allison

Chris w/ Mr. St Patrick CRICKET!

St Patty's Day 2009

St Patty's Day 2008

1st Birthday!

This past Saturday was Donna's baby, Edie's first birthday! The party was at the boat house in Glen Ellyn and although the weather was not the greatest we had fun! It was a short and sweet party! But great food! Donna made all the salads herself! I thought the picture above captured Chris at his best when it comes to babies, he's not a big fan of babies because they "scare" him and he doesn't know what to do with them. Here is Payton, Liz and Billy's baby scared to death because she "knows" the guy holding her is not good with babies, haha! J/K, we had just ripped playdough from her hands because it was heading for the mouth :-)

All our friend parties these days are doubled in attendance because of all the new little people, hence the photo below! The moms, birthday baby and Elmo made an apprearance at the party!(Ann was excited to pretend she was a mom that day)

A few more party attendees!

Jill, Tiffany, Tamie (+ Frankie & Sydney) and Heather

Parents in training, YEA right! Well the Petersen's are but Team Cogski is NOT! :-)

This was towards the end of the party and birthday girl had changed clothes and was running around in her diaper, scandalous! So many kids and they're all getting so Big!

Happy Birthday Edie!

Off to Grandma's House....

On our way to the airport to head back to Chicago we had to stop at In-N-Out my FAVORITE that I can only get in Vegas and California. Open one in Chicago for cryin' out loud!

I know it seems I am visiting California a lot....I went in September with Chris, December with the family and I just got back yesterday visiting my Grandma and Aunt Diane with my Dad. But the flights were cheap so we thought we'd take advantage!

Grandma's good! We got in on Saturday and landed back in Chicago Thursday night. It was a nice, VERY laid back relaxing week. We ate a lot of bagels, drank a lot of coffee and tea, watched a couple movies, I got a pedicure, we visited my grandparents house they used to live in, ate sushi one night, got cold stone creamery, ate a lot of Ben&Jerry's creme brulee ice cream (which I'm not a big ice cream eater but this is the best!), cooked in a lot, sat outside a bit relaxing, talked a lot and I got my aunt and grandma into the Bachelor. Lucky for them they only had to subject themselves to the finale and After the Final Rose - but they were hooked!! haha....

Was a great visit and I'm sure we'll be back again soon since the flights are so reasonable these days.

Here's a pic of Grandma in front of her house she used to live in in Escondido. One of our outings for the day. I told her to ring the bell so we could go in and see the house again but we chickened out. She wishes she still lived there....

Where it All Began....+ a 30th Birthday Celebration

Ok this is gonna be a long one. Mainly because of the pics but the odds of this many of us treking down to Carbondale where we all became friends may not ever happen again so bare with me....I have to recap.

Mid February Ann, Tamie, Liz, Heather and I travelled down to Carbondale to visit Nina at her parents home. Where we met up with Jessica and BIRTHDAY GIRL, Meah who came from St Louis to gather together and celebrate Meah's 30 year milestone. We started a "30th Birthday" gift tradition since 30 is a biggie. As a group we purchase the David Yurman cuff bracelet with the colored stones on the ends. Here's birthday girl admiring her new jewelry celebrating her birthday!

And here's a pic of birthday girl celebrating her 21st birthday! Haha sorry Meah :-) Couldn't resist!
Whoa Meah...one too many shots on the ol' 21st huh? You can't even keep your eyes open, LOL
For some unknown reason we felt the need to write all over Meah with marker to help her celebrate her 21st birthday. We were obviously young and dumb and it must have seemed like a fun thing to do at the time? Poor Meah can't keep her eyes open, probably doesn't know her own name and then everyone who claims to be her best friend is writing all over her....

Here's a great shot below I'm sure towards the end of the evening at Gatsbys, marker on her chest and she looks like she's ready to go home, I'm about three sheets to the wind as well. Of course Ann is all smiles ready to take on the night!
More of the group from Meah's night out that started at Tres. Kelli, Me, Rebecca, Meah and Jill
Ok enough pics down memory lane, back to my post. Most of us met back in 1997 when we pledged Sigma Kappa and have remained great friends ever since! Below is a pic circa 1997, I took the liberty of circling those who are in the pic further down circa 2009! Kinda hard to make my purple circles out but you can if you look close. We have all agreed we look WAY better in 09! In 2019 we may beg to differ but this year lookin' good ladies! I must note in the 1997 pic we are still very close with Lindsay Barr who is front and center with the short blonde haircut and Donna far right second row. They were unable to make it down for the birthday weekend :-(

1997

2009

Our first night of the weekend we gandered down memory lane with a night out at Pinch Penny Pub and Copper Dragon, two ol' great hangouts of ours back in the day. Tamie used to work at Pinch and was glad to be back at her old stomping grounds, she even scored a Pinch "alumni" sweatshirt which she was very "happy" about, haha (inside joke).

I thought this pic below was hilarious and so typical, everyone "posing" but SO funny that Mandy is looking the other direction "saying hey! why are you all looking that way, aren't we posing this way?"

The next day we took a visit to the Sig Kap house and had a photoshoot of everyone in front of their old door. We all at one time or another lived in those wonderful but tight quarters, but we were together EVERY single friggin' day so we loved it. I put in three years of living at that "lovely" home. Here below a pic of my old door and my other room I lived in upstairs, and low and behold Heather and Ann have lived within the same four walls as well. A tradition was to write your name, year and pin number somewhere within the door frame to stake your claim that you did the duty. That is what we are pointing at....

After our Sig Kap house visit we were off to our favorite pizza place, Quatros and settled back in at Nina's house in their theater room for a movie!

Next on the agenda was dinner at the Global Gourmet for Meah's Birthday Dinner, after dinner we couldn't do another night out because we are old ladies so we went back home got in comfy clothes, talked and played games.

Here's the girls in the 30 club so far (missing Donna), Guess who's next?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was a low key but great V-Day!!! Both of us had gone out the night before so we were hurting a bit the next day, I even skipped my FAV kickboxing class that's how much I was dying. But we were up and off to Nookies for some breakfast because I was on the verge of the shakes I was so hungry. Then we were on to what we do best: catching up on "24." A few weeks ago we started from the beginning with season 1 and just started season 3. It's not easy getting thru all these seasons, BIG time commitment (haha) but we're trudging along. Thanks to the Petersen's, who of course have the entire series on dvd so we can get all caught up! Jill and my parents are obsessed with 24 and I now see why it really sucks you in! Very soon Chris and I will send our resumes into the government and CIA because after we get caught up we will be more than qualifed to assist in stopping terrorists.

We took a nap and around 6pm finally got it together, went to the grocery store, made goolash which was SO good! Here's a pic of me being or "acting" domestic.

Then jumped in the car and headed to Hot Chocolate on Damen for dessert! Low and behold we open the door to Hot Choc and we are greeted by Amy & Andy! TOO funny!

So we sat with them, had our dessert and all were on our way back home. Another episode of 24 before bed, I'm not kidding I told you we are obsessed and addicted!!!!

Above a pic of me with my pretty flower bouquet someone special got for me :-) and sporting my new necklace that I LOVE. A silver necklace with a silver disc, on one side it says "I AM" and the other side says "IN LOVE" super cute - right? I looooove this necklace, great V-Day present!!!

Chris made out pretty good as well....at first I just got him a pair of Lululemon pants, he has one pair and he loves them so I got him another pair. And one day I was at the Armani Exchange store and spotted (on sale of course) this creme mock neck zip up. If anyone knows I love mock/stand up necks and I love anything white or creme. So when I saw this zip up I had it at the register in 30 seconds flat. I was nervous Chris would think it's a tad metro or too "euro" which he did when he first opened it and I was sure it was going back to the store but once he tried it on he liked it too! Thank god, my fairy dust (as he likes to say I'm always dropping on his head while he sleeps) is still working!! I am training him well :-) Creme zip up and a new pair of lulu's = great V-Day present!

Hope everyone enjoyed their V-Day, kind of a silly holiday but still fun. As I told Chris yesterday I'm sure on February 14, 2014 I'll turn to him and say "wait is today valentine's day?" "Oh crap! It is!" but for now we'll play along :-)

SPORTS: SuperBowl Sunday + Bulls Game

Again, tad behind on the blogging! SuperBowl Sunday 2009 was held at our house, quite a turn out and I think I watched a total of 12 minutes of the game. I just CANNOT get into football. I want to, but I just can't. I have the same love/hate relationship with football that I have with reading. Want to but just can't get into it. Maybe some day for the football and reading we will have a relationship. If I have children who play football maybe I'll get into it then, but I have told Chris our children will be playing soccer and tennis, he says the girls can the boys will not be playing either of those sports, we'll see.

Love this picture because everyone looks alien-esque :-)

Here's a pic of the girls in the kitchen ignoring the game for a bit.....

Very serious pool going for the big game!

BULLS GAME

A few weeks following the Superbowl we went with Sam + Lena to the bulls game. We had great seats! Two rows behind the people who get the cushy fold-out chairs courtside. Basketball I can get into because the rules and concept are a no-brainer unlike football (to me). But my favorite part of the game is the "kiss cam" :-)

"Mini" Old Friend Reunion

I'm a tad behind on my blogging.....but weeks ago Tamie and I made plans with an old sorority/SIU friend, Gail. Tamie and I have remained close over the years I was in her wedding and she has told me time and time again she will be in mine, LOL! Don't worry you will be :-) both of us had not seen Gail in FOREVER but thanks to the modern technology of Facebook we were reconnected! Now back in the day Gail, Tamie, Jessica and I were like peas and carrots in good ol' 1997. We met in our pledge class and Tamie, Jessica and I lived in the Thompson Point dorms while the rest of the pledge class lived in the ghetto towers on the other side of campus. The four of us were ALWAYS TOGETHER. All three of them were older than me, Gail being the oldest. At the time she was 21 but I was 18 so back in the day that seemed to me like she was like 30! I mean for crying out loud she could drink without a fake id, I felt like I'd never turn 21. We laughed about this over dinner since we're all so much older now and realize a 21 year old is like a child in diapers to us now.

We met at J. Alexanders in Oak Brook and closed the place down! It was sooooo good to catch up and we made a vow to not let another seven or so years go by before we saw eachother again!

Gail, Tamie and Jenna in 2009

Jenna, Tamie and Gail in 1997/1998

and JessieK, Gail and Jenna in 1997/1998. Excuse the cut up photos and ragged edges I took these from my scrapbook and for the life of me could not find a pic of the four of us! I couldn't believe it so these had to do.