4th Date......Homerun Derby?!

So the cat's out of the bag! I have a boyfriend! I know, I know! You're about as surprised as I am! I have to pinch myself at times to make sure I'm not dreaming! haha Not only do I have a boyfriend but he's been around longer than 6 weeks! Big feat for me! Big feat! I usually scare them away oh right around 4 weeks! I'd like to say I was joking with that last statement, but unfortunately it's true! :-) So since I'm backdating this posts, at this point Brian and I had been on 4 DATES, yes 4 DATES and he asked me to Homerun Derby. I thought this was kind of a big gesture coming from the guy that told the girl that set us up that there were no sparks on date 1! haha Even more so, he paid for my ticket! It was $375!!!! AND he wouldn't let me pay him back! So now I'm going to St. Louis with this guy and his brother who I barely know. For all I know, they could pull off the road and leave me for dead on the way down! haha But I went and we had a great time! I'm not a Cardinals fan so I went and supported my Cubs even though no Cubs were actually in the homerun derby, but I was still wearing my Cubs t-shirt proudly! :-)

We ate at McClusker's for lunch. It had an awesome outdoor garden area to sit in. Can you tell were still awkward with each other at this point? I look like I'm not sure what to do! haha

Now I don't know if you've ever dated a twin before but let me tell ya, it's a tricky business! Thank the Lord they wore different colored shirts that day or I would have been in trouble! haha

Jenni had a friend that worked for Budweiser and he gave us a tour. We got to sample beer right out of the filtering barrel. It was actually a -3 three days fresh! The born on date doesn't go on till it's packaged! :-)

VIP tour! Yep, that's how we roll! haha

On the VIP tour you get to pet the Clydesdales.......

and chase after them! Susie over there didn't care that she was ruining our photo opp! They are kind of spoiled horses! I've never seen such exquisite conditions for a horse! haha

It was rather surreal to be at the Homerun Derby. Lots of excitement! My favorite of the whole night......the hot dog! It was amazing! I'm sure Brian thought that it was so worth it to spend all that money on me for me to say my favorite was the hot dog! haha

The participants. Pujols was the crowd favorite by far being a Cardinal. He knew it too! He was strutting around there like he was the pope!

I'll let you take a guess on which one is Brian. You might think it's the one I'm standing closer to, but it's not! I was keeping some healthy distance between us with my purse! haha

They say opposites attract and we would be a classic case of that! I mean seriously, a Cardinals fan?! I thought my dad was going to disown me! haha

You can tell who he likes more.......this is his profile pic on Facebook! haha

High on Fumes!

So it seems to be a tradition that when Nichole and Aaron move, I come out and bum a few meals off of them and help them paint! :-) This time I was WAY more willing to come help because they moved back near Burlington which means they are a whole two hours closer to me! Yay! Not that I didn't just absolutely LOVE that five hour drive before, because I did. Let me really have time with my thoughts. However, after an hour into I realize I don't have a lot of thoughts! :-) You know how many times you can sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall on a five hour drive? About 4 times! haha All joking aside, I'm thrilled to have them closer. I love getting together with old friends and being able to always pick up where we left off and that's exactly what Nichole and I do!

After a fun filled day of painting, we went to treat ourselves with some chicken lips! Don't judge until you've tried them!

Marie showed us their parents condo that was upstairs from the restaurant we ate at. I didn't know there were drawers that you could buy that don't slam! :-)

These three thought it would be funny to be triplets for the night. Nichole gave her brothers specific instructions "pick out a cool outfit for Aaron". That apparently includes dressing exactly like his in-laws! haha

The three identical amigos!

Sexy mama! Look at those hidden bra straps! That took some creatvity and a trip to Target to hide those babies! haha

It was a Twilight Day!

Whit has a new love in her life. His name is Rob Pattinson and he is a vampire! Not sure what the appeal is. I've never been attracted to someone who is butt white and could suck my blood but whatever! So for Whit's birthday, Kate and I gave Whit a Rob Pattinson themed day. It rained all day on the 4th of July, so we changed our plans and took Whit to Champaign to go shopping.

Her day started out with Rob's favorite lunch......which is hamburgers. So I brought Whit some McDonald's in her new Rob Pattinson lunch box.

She acts embarassed, but she thought it was TOTALLY cool and she takes that thermos to class with her. All the kids want to be just like her! haha

Then we had a goody bag in the car with none other than a Twilight bag to put all her goodies in. Whit said, you know I'll never carry that right?

We took her to one of my Champaign favorites called Cowboy Monkey and had some awesome tacos. I also gave Whit some more of her gift. A Twilight bookmark and a Twilight jewelry box. Can't forget to mention the poster of Rob that we took with us on a poster board so Rob was with us all day. He had a blast! His favorite were the tacos too! haha

Please ignore the fact that I look like Mickey Mouse in the this picture and let's get back to Whit's birthday! :-) So after a star studded filled day, she came home to rest her head on her pillow that now has been screen printed with Rob's face on it. I thought she'd think it was nuts, but she apparently likes to be close to him at night and actually sleeps on it! haha

4th of July on North Shore

It's a tradition to spend 4th of July weekend in Chicago. Usually we go to the Taste and watch fireworks near the water. This year we switched it up a little bit. We went to North Shore beach. Now I'm not usually a fan of the beach. It has way too much of the one thing I hate most.......SAND! There's no good way to go to the beach! You lay down a blanket and you walk all around the edges and not actually on it and then some dumb kid comes by and kicks up sand onto your neatly sand free blanket! You go home home with sand in all your bags and crevices that you sometimes may not find out about till hours or days later! Yuck! But worst of all, you can't even wash off. Lake water is less than appealing or the ocean makes my just cleanly shaven legs burn like the dickens, so there you have my aversion to the beach.......BUT for some reason this year it sounded like fun! So Denise and I got some last minute reservations on Priceline and stayed downtown at the Congress Hotel literally right across the street from the Taste. Remember this sentence, "RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE TASTE"! It will come into play later on as you see pictures! :-)

So the plan was to go to the beach, out to dinner, down to the Taste and watch fireworks......this did not happen.


We waited for about a half hour till Lindsey and her friends got there. Denise wasn't sure if they would like the spot we picked out, so we sat with nothing spread out till they got there. Denise looked like she was doing a photo shoot with the blanket on top of the cooler!

Look at these hotties on the beach!

So remember when I said we were right across the street from the Taste? Well we left our hotel, hopped on the L and took that way over to Lincoln Park area to have dinner and watch fireworks from a friend's apartment that swore we could see them from his roof. First bummer, we weren't eating at Half Shell which is what we had been craving all day. I couldn't wait to dig into some crab legs and drawn butter. Second bummer, bad directions. We walked 10 minutes out of our way to find out that the restaurant was the other direction from the L. Third bummer, you CAN NOT, I repeat CAN NOT see the fireworks from this guy's roof! I mean if you would take down the entire Chicago city skyline then yes, we would have had like front row seats! Did I say that our hotel was RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE TASTE?! haha

So we ended up at this barbecue joint. I hate barbecue and so does Denise but they assured us they had other stuff. Yeah, they have other stuff. You just ask for it without barbecue sauce and then it's bone dry! haha

Needless to say our 4th of July in Chicago was a smidge of a let down, but being in Chicago is always still fun.

D and I were tad bit annoyed though to find out that they all went to Half Shell the next night without us. Guess that parking issue wasn't an issue 24 hours later! haha

Olivers with Dietrichs

So the bad news is I don't have a lot of luck in dating......the good news is I make lots of new friends with their families when the guy and I fall out! haha The Dietrichs and I try to do dinner about once a month. We take turns between Bloomington and Bourbonnais. I always tell them that they should come here because Bloomington is WAY better than Bourbonnais! haha This night we went to Olivers in Bourbonnais and then to go see My Sister's Keeper! Always a great time!

Why do we take pictures of people's food? Is it because I always want to remember Tiffany's salad?! haha

Karen is one of the most happenings moms I know! She's got the best style!

Tiff and I are like kindred spirits! We want kids someday, but someday isn't for a looooooong time! haha

I didn't know that taking a picture was so difficult. You know those new cameras where you look at the screen rather than through the lens, they're pretty tricky!

Maybe zooming in a bit works better! Just cut off half of my arm this time! haha

Lake Hamilton

We don't get to spend a lot of time with the Hubers these days because everyone has kids and lives of their own that make things extremely busy, so when we had the chance to spend a weekend together, we all jumped at the chance. Rachel and Jason put together a lake weekend for us and it was a blast! We had a great time all being together and hope that it becomes a tradition because it was so fun!

Will apparently wakes up in the middle of the night and tells Jarod "yo dad, my exzema is bothering me!" :-) Amazing vocabulary that little guy has! haha

There is nothing about this angle that is flattering! I've got to remember that that hairstyle on me does NOT photograph well! haha

They were playing hide and seek in the tube! They almost fooled us!

Christen showed us all up with her mad wakeboarding skills!

Will tore it up out on the water on the jet ski! haha

He was a little natural skiing with Jarod. We were all terrified for him, but he was a trooper!

Having your dad ski with one hand and jostling you around isn't scary at all, but being safely secure back in the boat and watching your mom ski is deathly scary! :-)

I love those little chubby cheeks......Faye's that is! haha

No one believed me when I was lathering on 30spf. They all just ignored my warnings! Well they all got tan and I came home with nothing. Guess they showed me! haha

Jaret and Shar have the funniest kids!

This took about three tries to get one with everyone's eyes open.

Olive Garden over Fiesta?!

It's always fun to get together with this group. Usually we spend half the evening in hysterics. Let me recap:

1. We were supposed to meet at 6pm which had been switched from 7pm originally.
2. Luke thought we were still meeting at 7pm, so he hadn't left his apartment when we called him at 6:30pm
3. Josh was late because the roof/ceiling was falling in on his plane and they spent more time on the runway to fix and he still FLEW home on that plane.
4. He wanted a welcome home party at the airport, but not like last time filled with balloons, a welcome home sign, brownies, clowns and a donkey(not to be confused with Chris)
5. Josh still doesn't wear navy and black together based on my fashion advice from 5 years ago!
6. Luke has unusually soft hands!
7. Luke has some hilarious hand gestures that kept us entertained all evening! They included rising taxes, a plane flying, "getting together", and sawing some limbs!
8. Luke has flown 3 times in his life and has an opposition to checking his luggage no matter what the size!
9. Josh is dating Jackie who went on a date with Luke 4 years ago, which apparently went downhill after Luke didn't call her till Thursday(they went out on Sunday) and she was out of town. He called her up mad on Saturday and that pretty much put an end to their potential relationship.
10. However, Jackie and Luke still are cordial and share an interest in John Wayne movies
11. Josh likes John and Kate Plus 8 and was upset to see them split up.
12. Josh has a girlfriend in Florida who says mmmm....when he walks into a room, and calls him her tender vitals!
13. Josh plays April Fools jokes on Luke and he can only tell some of them because others are inside jokes that he rudely wouldn't tell the rest of the table! :-)
14. Luke doesn't like Fiesta Ranchera, so we couldn't eat there. Then he ordered soup at Olive Garden! You can get soup anywhere! He has a thing with textures! I am with him on tomatos! Yuck!
15. Amanda was going to the New Kids on the Block concert that weekend and was going to be amongst the other 40 year olds that are still in love with them! haha

Never a dull moment with this crowd. Luke, you'll have to let me know if I recapped the evening well of if I'm leaving out key moments! :-)

From left to right: Luke, Chris, Amanda, me, Katie, Jackie, Josh

A guy from another table almost jumped in the picture with us and Josh was wondering about his hand placement in take 2!

Ashley and Caleb's Wedding 6-13-09

Ashley was in two of my small group's a couple years ago. We've stayed in touch even after she moved and went to Trinity. She met her husband Caleb up there. She looked gorgeous and it was a sweet ceremony. Her dad didn't even make it one step into the sanctuary before he fell apart. He bawled and she sniffled all the way down the aisle. As Oprah would say, "I slipped into the ugly cry!" haha Congrats Ashley and Caleb!

Caleb stood up front and I sat there confused as to who that guy was. Caleb had chopped off all his curls and I didn't even recognize him!

We had a fun table. One of the guys was a pastor in training. He was very bummed at the dry wedding. He also doubles as a mosquito fogger at night. Yes, my thoughts exactly! I didn't know a job like that existed. I thought I'd be all smart and ask him if he thought lime disease was being kept under control. That's when he informed me that he wasn't sure since lime disease was from ticks and it was molaria that you have to worry about with mosquitos! haha

Instead of clanking glasses to get them to kiss, your table had to stand up and sing a song that had the word love in it. Our table opted out when we knew we couldn't compete with the table that sang the Oscar Myer weiner song!

When I went to the bathroom a lady complimented me on my dress. She said, "I love your dress! I saw you when you first walked and I thought, that dress is sooooo pretty! Looks like something that you see at prom!" Thanks......I think! So are you saying I'm trying to look 18?!