Expecting!

Well another one of Chris' friends is expecting! The Nosik's are pg!

Very exciting!!!

We don't see this wonderful couple too often, they go up north to their other house and spend a lot of time there on the weekends and everybody's just busy. But hopefully when it gets warmer out we will all get together! Chris has been friends with Mike and Kelly since ISU days!

Congrats again! I can't wait to hear all the details and if you're finding out if a boy or girl :-)

Amy & Andy's Engagement Party!

Andy & Amy with us at their engagement party

Big day is July 17, 2009!

Saturday was Amy & Andy's engagement party at Zella! It was an all you can drink package deal which I have not been to one of those sportin' my wristband in quite some time! But was fun to get out to a bar again which we have not done in awhile because of this weather. I HATE going out in the cold and being cold period. So I try to avoid it at all costs!

At least we are older and wiser in our age now and don't wear "going out" shirts and no jackets in the dead of winter like we used to back in the day, dumb, dumb, dumb. God forbid if you went out for a night of fun and didn't have your arms and shoulders exposed?!?! And don't bring a jacket because 1. you don't want to have to carry it around everywhere in the bar and 2. you don't want to put it down because odds are someone will steal it or take it thinking it's theirs.

Kimi, Jill & I at Zella

In addition to getting older and wiser Chris and I are in total agreement that a night out drinking is just not what it used to be but I'm so happy about it! We were not even out that late and didn't drink hardly at all but Sunday we were both hurting, I don't get it? At least we're on the same page.

I do have to point out that once again we hit up Arturo's on the way home for a low-fat chicken burrito at our Arturo's. One major pro to offset the Sunday afternoon hungover blues....

Restaurant Connoisseur

Last weekend was a big "eat out" weekend for us. I love eating out but hate it at the same time because 1. you always eat way too much and leave miserable (or I always do) and 2. it's expensive. But as in an earlier post we had gone to this lil mexican (but nice mexican) place on Foster called Dorado. This place is sooooo friggin' good! So we went again the following wkend on Saturday! The best is the duck nachos, pic below. These nachos are sooooo good!!!!! And then I had the chicken enchilada's - again, sooooo good!!! The mole sauce is what makes it as well as the moist chicken. Everybody knows how I feel about moist chicken, can't beat it. Dry gross chicken is like nails on a chalkboard for me.

On Friday AND Sunday we ate at what is slowly becoming our weekly favorite sushi place, Butterfly. This place is ridic and so hard to get a reservation at, and there's even TWO locations and you still can't get a resv unless you call like days or a week in advance. Apparently it's everybody else's fav place as well. Therefore often we do carry out from here. Below is a pic of one of our two in-house sushi nights. Chris' parents gave us a whole sushi set for Christmas so we love breaking out the whole spread to be very sushi "official."

I hate to even say it, but this current weekend we just ordered (again) from Butterfly on Friday night. Pretty soon we will need to go to sushi overeaters anonymous or we should at least get a frequent diner discount!
But I do have to point out it's safe to say I do need to take a sushi break before I get sick of it forever. ps: did anybody read about Jeremy Piven's once a day sushi meal habit for the past 20 yrs and that's why he has mercury poisoning or mercury overdose or whatever?? That's whack!

Another 32nd Birthday + Game Night!

Saturday was Ryan's birthday and his wife, Jill coordinated a group dinner + game night! My favorite combo! Ryan turned 32 this past weekend, 32 is quite the popular age this week :-)

We ate at my new favorite restaurant called Dorado. This place is to DIE for, and I barely even ate because of course like usual I ruined my dinner by having a late lunch. No surprise there so I only had a salad and some appetizers that were passed and a bite of Cortney's enchilada and I was sold that that is what I'm ordering next time I go there. Side note: Chris and I liked this place so much we're tossing around the idea of going next weekend!

The guac and duck nachos are dee-lish to order for appetizers! And to top all of this greatness off it's BYOB to boot! With eight couples at dinner we had quite a long table, ate great food, sang happy birthday and were on our way to the Petersen's for some games. They actually lived about a block away so we just walked there.

A few rounds of Scene It and we were bored with that game (and I think Jill has played it one too many times because she oddly knew quite a few of the answers) so on to good ol' standby Catchphrase.

Chris in a tense round of Catchphrase. The highlight of the night was him acting out as a seal when the word was dolphin. Flapping his arms and making the sound effects folks...quite a scene.

With such a large group this is really the only game to play, we played guys against girls....I think the guys won but don't quote me on that one. I love that game.

Another highlight of the night Cricket making his "faces" and

entertaining us with his other antics throughout the night :-)

We are going to try and have a tradition of doing game night once a month if we can it's such a nice alternative to doing the bar thing which is so old now especially in this weather.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Great Sunday Combo: Sushi + Golf

Having a bit of reverse order, I'll be reporting on Sunday's activity before Saturdays. Oopsy.

Sunday Chris and I were bored and slightly recovering from our late night on Saturday celebrating Ryan's birthday. But we managed to muster up enough energy and trek out of the house instead of laying around being lazy blobs on Sunday afternoon. First we went ALLLLLL the way out to Bloomingdale, from the city, yep you heard right. For some reason it felt really far, I think because it's so depressing out and we were tired and absolutely starving. But there is the BEST lil sushi restaurant in a strip mall in Bloomingdale, yes in a strip mall yet again you heard right. When I first ate there with my dad I too had my snob hat on thinking omg i'm going to eat sushi in a strip mall this can't be good. But I'm here to tell you this place has the best sushi known to man! They have this one roll called the "olympic" and it is to die for!!!! My dad and I go here ALL the time and always order an olympic. They came out with this roll for the 2008 Olympics and actually placed the rolls in the shape of the Olympic rings and wrote "2008" on the plate with some sushi sauce.

When we arrived Chris had the same reaction I did about the "strip mall" curb appeal but once we left he was hooked. He wasn't dying over it as much as I do but really who does die over anything as much as I do.

Then we were off to another burb, Bensenville to White Pines golf club to make use of their indoor driving range dome. I have been to a driving range dome a few times in my day but this was Chris' first experience. He loves to golf and we both really enjoyed hitting a few balls and then it was time to leave and head back to Chicago.

Chris is thoroughly impressed with my golf form and that I can actually hit the ball! :-) This driver is a bit long for me as you can see but I could still whack it pretty good!

Here's a lil video of the golfer in action! Enjoy!

Two Engagements!

Well not one, but TWO of Chris' friends got engaged in the time between Christmas and New Years! Very exciting!
One couple, Kimi & Mikey have been dating for what could be considered forever!!! They both met and have dated since college at ISU. I have heard they have been dating for EIGHT years but I have also heard they have been dating for TEN years?! Not sure which is true but either way both are a long time! That girl deserved her diamond :-)

What a wonderful surprise that when they came over to our place on New Years Eve she was sporting her newest addition to her left hand!!!! We all about died and I don't think I have ever been so excited for someone to get engaged as her as I know it was a long time in coming and she has been wishing for the day more than anyone! Finally came!

Here she is on NYE sporting her new bling holding a plate of White Castle

what a great combo....LOL

Congrats! Can't wait for your big day!

The other couple who took the plunge was Chubbz and Elizabeth! (aka Sean, they call him Club Chubbz because in his "hay day" he really liked the clubs and although he's not chubby, boy can that guy eat!). I have not received all of the details but I believe they got engaged on Christmas Eve.

Although they have not been dating as long as Kimi and Mikey I think they have been together for about over a year and are expecting a baby boy in 2009! Congrats!

This is terrible but I don't have any pics of Chubbz and Elizabeth!! The only one I could find was this one of him below and she is in the background bending down with the dark hair. I need to get some pics of you guys together!

Sigma Kappa 4-EVER JUUUST kidding!!!!!!!

So Saturday, was the annual Sig Kap Christmas party! We started this back in December 2001 in Liz and Bree's apartment in Chicago and have done it every year since! We have lost a few attendees but gained a few attendees along the way. Some cannot attend due to distance keeping us apart but try to from year to year (those who live far now are Jessica, Meah, Barr, Nadia and Nina). I wish I had a pic from the very first year to post, I know there's one floating around out there somewhere.....

But all of us know eachother and met initially from Sigma Kappa days whether it was in 1997 or through 1999! And lucky enough today we are able to see eachother on a pretty regular basis!

In the years past Liz has hosted, Tamie has hosted and this year it was held at Heather's parents house in Park Ridge which was a great location in between the city and the burbs.

Everybody brings a lil bit of something whether an appetizer, dessert or a drink to pass as well as their gift. We usually always put a dollar amount cap on the gift. Years past we have done DVD's as gifts, "something every girl needs" gift, gift cards gift, etc, etc. This year it was $25 limit and had to be from Target (with a gift receipt :-). I knew what Heather's gift was and was determined to get it....you see with this party we draw names for who gets to pick and open a gift first and then as you go along you have the option to "steal" someone else's gift before you open yours. For example I'll never forget when Ann stole my Mario Tricocci gift card, I am still a bit upset about it, j/k.

Heather's gift was the final season of Sex & the City and two super cute holiday mugs that were beige/gold/creme - my favorite xmas color combo! I was second to open a gift, Heather warned me what hers looked like so I of course was happy when I opened my gift BUT I leave the room for TWO SECONDS to refill my drink to come back and see it's Nina's turn to open a present and she has chosen to STEAL my gift!?!?! I was a lil tipsy from the Riesling and maybe got a bit carried away as if she had stolen my first born child but I grabbed her arm and slightly freaked on her a second (all in good fun as I was about 90% kidding) and Tamie stepped in and "saved" Nina from me. While this was all going on Ann was snapping away on the couch across from us at such a great photo op, thank god this incident was documented :-) But I have all the other seasons of Sex & the City so this was going to top off my collection perfectly, I couldn't let that gift pass me by! Sorry Nina :-)

There were 11 of us in attendance this year and Meah who lives near St Louis even came up! Which was great because we have not seen her in forever....that is her above laughing hysterically at the "incident." Even during our time shoveling food and drink in our faces while chatting away earlier at the kitchen table we went around the table and ann wrote down each of our new years resolutions.....a few were have a baby, fit in my clothes again, get healthier just to name a few. Hope somebody has that paper so we can pull it out next year to compare!