About our Blog

This is the story all about how our lives got flip turned upside down! We moved across the country from the suburbs of Chicago to Los Angeles. We are embracing our new life with outdoor living, healthy eating and fun adventures!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

What a waste!!!

Yesterday was (supposed to be) my LAST blood clot checkup…I had to make the appointment for 30-days post warfarin completion so that they could do a blood draw that was clean and drug-free to test all of my levels. I took a half day since the only appointment I could get was at 2:40 in the afternoon. I was annoyed that I had to waste a half day off work to go to the doctor, but work was really starting act like an a-hole so I was happy to bolt!

Bri took me to the doctor – which was good – because since my last appointment sometime in the winter, they had completely changed locations! We got to a brand new, gorgeous building so that was nice and got in right away to the doctor. Well, the doctor seemed to have no clue why I was even there! She read my chart (out loud) for a while and then I tried to fill in the gaps, to guide her to the answer of – why was I even here??? Well, she came to no conclusion, but I guess felt like she needed to do something, so I laid on the table and she felt around for a minute or so, told me I looked like I had lost some weight, asked questions about the wedding and we were off!

The very next day I get a call explaining that since my name changed she didn’t get to thoroughly review my info before my appointment and it turns out that I DO need blood drawn!!! UGH! So…there goes the “final” appointment. I luckily just need to hop over to the lab right by our house to get blood drawn. It should take a few days to get the results and (fingers crossed) my risks are low and I will not need more drugs!!!

The only thing worse than going to the doctor is going to Buy Buy Baby with your husband. We’re virgins to this store and if you haven’t been – consider yourself LUCKY! We jumped over there after the appointment yesterday to pick up a shower gift and it was alarming just how much of everything baby there is out there.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Gallery Wall

OK…so many blogs ago, I had mentioned that we were starting the process of creating a gallery wall in our entry way. Well, we FINALLY got around to that last night. As a refresher, I created newspaper templates to play around with the arrangement. We hemmed and hawed about this for a while. Then when we were finally ready to put some holes in the wall, we realized we didn’t have any nails!



After even further delay – we FINALLY made it to the Depot, picked up some nails and “finished” the job! I use the term loosely since as you can see the pictures are all the leftovers from our wedding shoot – we plan to mix in some real wedding pictures from that day. Plus, the picture configuration is goofy. Give us a few more blogs and hopefully it will be just right!




Nice job to the lovely husband for the sweat...if anyone was wondering, I was in the kitchen making some delicous thai chicken cabbage cups! Let me know if you want the recipe...

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Great Weekend!

Well, aside from a bit of potential "radiation poisoning" AKA too much sun (my hubby can be a bit extreme on occasion) and a big L for the Bears it was a fantastic weekend! Note to self: Do not let your husband read the blog about him before publishing. Writing was briefly interrupted by a demand to google and read about radiation poisoning symptoms. Now back to the blog...

We started the day off with a good old Sunday breakfast - eggs, sausage, toast and some STRONG coffee! We watched the Bears game and Brian is playing a video game while I blog...I love Sundays.

On Friday evening we met up with Pat and Betsy to go down town to see our friend Nick sing with his band for a fundraiser. We had a nice drive downtown together and then realized that we had to try to find parking in Lincoln Park. The boys dropped us off after we drove around for a good 15 min. Betsy spent the next 20 minutes fearing for her car since she didn't think Pat could parallel park and Brian had a little buzz going already...everything turned out fine though and her lucky husband found parking that didn't even require parallel skills! that guy wins at life. I've never met anyone that gets that lucky all the time! We watched the show and got killed on beer - we are so used to the cost of beer from a grocery store - we forgot that city beer was like $5 a bottle. Betsy pulled out a ten to pay the bartender and realized she needed a bit more then that...I think we even overdrafted trying to pull cash out!!! It was still a great time though and it's always fun to see Nick sing/play. Our dogs were barking though - we didn't sit the whole evening and then had the 20 minute walk to the car...

We made it home and got a few hours of sleep in before we were up and moving for our big Saturday plan. Our FIRST trip to Arlington Park for horse racing!!! Brian and I met up with Betsy, Theresa, Brandy and Eric for a FUN day! Brandy and Eric met up with us a bit later which was hard for us since they were the ones who had been there before. The four us tried or best to understand exactly what was happening without a guide - which was mildly successful. We skipped buying a program at first, we didn't want to spend $2.50 unnecessarily. We returned shortly and coughed up the dough though when we had no clue what was going on. We sat in awe of everything that was going on for the first bit and when the Kosniks finally got there, they showed us how to place bets.

Well, we were sold after that! The girls waited in line to place our bets with a real person...the meanest woman in the world. She was not amused with our novice betting skills. We got our tickets though and went down the general seating to watch the first race. I was the big winner!!! I had placed a $2 bet on a horse to show (place 1-3) and she won! My strategy was to bet on any horse that had a cat in it's name - for example Cats Bells or Cat has Claws. I hit it big and collected a whopping $.60! The funny part is that Brian and I decided not to cash in our tickets until the end so every time we won we tried to figure out what we'd get based on the odds...needless to say we thought we were doing a bit better than we actually did...I mean, $.60 doesn't even buy you a soda at the park. We had a great time though! We got to go to the back and watch the horses parade around and decide who we would bet on, go to the machine, place a few bets and watch the race. Betsy ended up walking away with a $2 profit! Everybody else lost big. Brian and I decided to bet it all on the final race and then lost it all! We're not planning on jumping on a plane to Vegas anytime soon. We were glad that we finally made it to the park, especially since it closes for the season next weekend. We are excited to go back again next year.

The downside about Arlington was that although it was actually kind of a chilly day - 65 for a high...it was VERY sunny! You would have thought it was in the 80's...Betsy was in a tank top and the rest of us in short sleeves. Nobody had really even considered sunscreen...hence the radiation issues. Brian got significantly more sun than me...perhaps because I would frequently get up and go place bets? He had a slight burn and little to drink...so when we went to go hangout at our friends place later that night, he was struggling....he ended up going to lay down and thought he was going to puke. I got him home quickly and loaded him with water...he's doing fine now!

We'll continue with a lazy day - it's raining outside and seems like the best thing to go do is make banana bread and do laundry!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Top Golf

Last night was Brandy's first official night of vacation as she is off of work for the rest of this week. If you know anything about me and Brandy, then you know that this is possibly the worst news that you could give me. Basically coming into Madden without her takes away almost ALL fun that may have happened here in the first place.

On top of that, her husband had been home Monday and Tuesday without her looking for something to do...so he called my husband.

After helping Brandy clean up her desk so she could be stress-free during her time off, we went over to Top Golf where Eric and Brian had been golfing / drinking all afternoon!


Upper right is the proof that Brian beat Eric! Don't they look cute in their matching gloves?
 The boys hit a few balls...Brian actually beat Eric in one match...one match! The girls just had a drink, some dinner and looked pretty.


See, don't we look pretty?!?

I had a great time, but I'm pretty sure I was invited so that Bri had a ride home! That's what wives are for! I am still trying to figure out what exactly husbands are for...haha! Only joking!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Game 1

Fantasy Football (and I guess regular Football) has officially started! My first team to play was the Pretenders - AKA Kevin Heniff - an owner at Madden who loves to beat me. I swear we take this game against each other VERY seriously...which is why it was especially heartbreaking to come SOOO close to winning!


What is was even worse...he just had to rub it in this morning by sending me a picture of a waving big "L" for loser flag...

Things better get better soon because I am probably going to lose my money from the Big Brother pool tomorrow, $50 in fantasy football and I'm going to the horse races on Saturday.......I'm developing a bad losing habit!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Generic Update

I haven't been blogging!!! Nothing too exciting has been happening. I (we) have a lot of half-finished projects, late nights of drinking and hanging out which leads to quiet days and just falling into general routine. Brian is running on the regular to get in endurance shape for Tough Mudder...look it up! He's going to get electrocuted at the end of it.

For the record, I couldn't remember the name of Tough Mudder...so I just asked Brian what the name of his race was and he answered "Caucasian."

And that just about sums up life for now. We'll try to mix it up a little bit more over here. I mean, things are pretty exciting today...it's the season finale of Bachelor Pad. Anything could happen!