Easter pics

Mike and I get in a pic. Two words: Need tan. Vacation cannot come soon enough!!

The kiddos wait for the egg-hunt go-ahead.
And they're off!

Aydan "helps" Odin. And by help I mean takes eggs out from under him. hahaha... like Odin would really get much of that candy anyways with two older brothers!

OK, I have two eggs. All I can hold. Are we done here yet?

Mike helps Odin hunt for eggs by holding onto the basket that is almost as big as Odin!

I wonder if this one tastes good?

Ooops! thought the drive-by egg grab would work... notsomuch.

I finally get a tiny smile out of Dade a little later in the day.

I love the Easter egg hunt with all the nephews. It is so much fun to see all these little boys run all over the place for eggs, and it's even more fun now that Dade and Aydan are a little older and don't stand in one place throwing one egg against the sidewalk (a real hardboiled egg... ahem, I'm looking at you, Odin) for the duration of the event. Plus the weather was gorgeous. I was sad I missed my niece, Gracie, in her Easter finery, but it's become a bit of the tradition to load the nephews up on sugar and then deal with the consequences.

As a random aside, Dade and Aydan made the paper bunny ears that Aydan is wearing above while I was napping on Saturday, and they sported them almost the whole weekend. It was so cute!

And SO SAD I totally forgot to take pictures of the newest little nephew. Little Loki was born just about a month and a half ago. Doh!

Ch-ch-ch-changes....

So I've been a bit quiet lately, and it's because I'm digesting a big piece of news for the Knowles household. Mike started a 4-6 week project in Detroit last week, and on the 2nd day the senior manager asked him if he would consider a 1 year commitment to the client.

Mike is an actuary and specializes in pensions and this client has some pretty complicated pension stuff going on - not only will he learn a TON that will be on his tests in the next year (he has one actuary test in May, and two in the fall... not sure if he will take both in the fall), but he'll have no commute and an empty hotel room to come home to to encourage him to study. We decided together that it was a great opportunity (especially in this economy!) to learn and to really work on finishing his tests.

So it's been tough. I was really upset last week, as I told some girlfriends "I married Mike because I want to spend my life with him, not Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday each week with him." But I'm feeling much better now; I'm in the 2nd week of not having him around and it's not looking nearly as bad. I come home and do all the same chores I used to... hang out with the dog and take her for walks. I have made plans with friends during the week a little more and am looking to scale back and/or bring him with me for more weekend commitments and events.

I'm sure it will stink sometimes, but that's life. As my mom used to say "Life isn't fair".... and we are so very blessed in so many ways that I can hardly act as if him being gone a few days a week is going to ruin me or us. Because it won't.... a year will go by faster than we realize and at the end the condo will be lookin' pretty nice due to my new obsession with home improvement (which I imagine I won't burn out on nearly as fast as if Mike was around during the week!) and our relationship will be stronger than ever as we make a concerted effort to spend time with each other.

I have a friend that has done long-distance with her boyfriend multiple times, and she has made comments to me that when they're long-distance and get together they do fun events & spend quality time together, whereas sometimes when they're living together they can take each other for granted and, with such busy schedules, feel like they're just constantly passing each other. Like her, I know it would be nice to have him around and that it's tough, but am looking forward to those fun events and Team Knowles time!

Another positive: It's WAY easier to stick a diet when Mike's not around. Ridiculously easier! He MUST be a bad influence :) And without Mike around, I'll really feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of our fancy security system!

Happy weekend

I'm headed to Indy this weekend to visit with my baby niece, Gracie, my Mom, and my sister... we're planning on wedding dress shopping for Katie and doing some bridesmaid dress shopping. Expect many pictures of Gracie and perhaps a few of me in various bridesmaid concoctions! I also get to stop and have din with my cousin Zach who goes to Purdue. :)

I am so excited to see my family that I can hardly sit still. Meanwhile, Mike is staying home this weekend with Milly. We took her to doggie daycare today to burn off some Beagle Energy so that Mike could have it a bit easier this weekend!

Have a great weekend!

I leave you with a picture of my two loves! That beagle loves that boy.

Weekend Recap

Another full weekend! That's pretty much the name of the game around here.

Friday included two forays into Chicago Restaurant week. At lunch my friend Andy and I went to Japonais. It was so good. The portions were a bit small, but I think that is kind of how they roll in general. You know, Japanese place, trendy little portions and servings style. I picked lobster spring rolls for an appetizer, cashew encrusted chicken as my entree and chocolate custard with raspberry sauce for dessert. It was all really really good. And look, they had some fancy topiary tree!!
For dinner, Mike and I tried The Chicago Firehouse Restaurant in South Loop. Appetizer was a cup of amazing lobster bisque. The broth was just the right consistency and the soup had big chunks of perfectly-cooked and sweet lobster in it, as well as some sweet corn. It was one of the best I've had (and I consider myself to be a lobster bisque Connoisseur. For an entree, I ordered the 8 oz CFH prime steak. It was OK, a bit more fatty than I am used to with a steak (I always order filets), but very good with a parmesan-peppercorn crust. It didn't include any sides, though, so if Mike hadn't ordered off the regular menu and gotten a family-style side of mashed potatoes I would have had to order a side separately. I thought this was super weird, because the whole point of the Restaurant Week menu is to have a whole meal for $32. A steak on a plate does not a meal make, at least for me. I wish I had tried a different entree; they all looked so good! And then I could have just tried a bite of Mike's steak to see what that was like. The only other complaint I had is that they had changed a few items on their menu from what was posted on the internet as the Restaurant Week Menu. This change meant not only that they bumped the one Mike-acceptable option of beef tips from the appetizer menu (this is why he ended up just ordering a regular steak from the main menu), but also that they weren't serving creme brulee for dessert. BOO. I was a little honked, as creme brulee is my fave. I ended up ordering the chocolate cake for dessert, however, and was not dissappointed. It was a big square piece of chocolate cake that seemed to be dipped in chocolate. It was very rich and very good. Mike and I scarfed the whole dessert down even though we were already pretty full at the end of the meal.

After dinner, Mike and I headed to Bucktown to meet up with another couple we know through an IU friend of mine. We usually only see them when our mutual friend is in town, but always enjoy seeing them so much! So we made it a point to set aside a night to meet up with them. They picked the location of Bluebird. The minute we walked into the place we picked up the hippy vibe... Mike commented that he wasn't trendy enough in a looked-like-he-didn't-try kind of way to be there. The beer menu was about 10 pages long with lots of international microbrews and such. The menu also had a long list of organic wines I had never heard of. I don't drink much hard alcohol and they didn't look to have any beers at all on tap... and I wasn't about to order a Miller Light in such a place. I was a bit at a loss regarding what to order until Mike motioned to the barkeep and said "Can you just give her something that tastes like Stella?" The guy popped open a brew and sat it in front of me in a fancy glass with a smile. At least he was super friendly and didn't mock my lack of interesting-beer knowledge!

Once Trevor and Lizzie got there, we got a table and the waitress was great about recommended brews she thought we would like based on us telling her our preferences. I would definitely go back and try more of the world's brews - but would definitely want a table to get the personalized attention the waitress was able to give us. Everyone there was super nice, and the food looked great (even though we didn't eat! so I don't know if it was actually good or not).

The next day I accomplished all kinds of stuff like going to Trader Joe's, the post office, Jewel, and the dry cleaner before leaving to go visit my friend Melissa in Northern Indiana (Crown Point). Before I left, I tried the mac and cheese I'd picked up at Trader Joe's for lunch. I'd heard it's the best frozen mac around and just had to try it. At first I was a bit disappointed that the tray held two servings, and I shouldn't eat the whole thing. However, after eating half of the tray I was stuffed! And it was SO FREAKING GOOD! I am going to have to head back to stock up on this stuff, for sure.

I tried to stop at the public library on the way out of town, but there were like 10 people in line and I don't even have a library card yet! I couldn't take the wait, and my car was wedged so tightly into a parking space that I was sure to get doored. So I cut my losses and just headed out to Melissa's. I do need to make sure to get back to the library soon... I'm almost out of books to read and I hear that they loan them to you FOR FREE.... haha... Let's just say that Free is definitely in the Budget.

I was so glad I took the time to go visit my friend Melissa... when I first moved to the city she was one of my roommates and we always have such a fun time together! She made tacos and we had wine and lots of good conversation. Plus we teased her dog, Red. When you put your finger in front of her face she crinkles up her nose. It's hilarious.

Why do dogs get green-eye and not red-eye? That is so weird.

On the way home on Sunday, I hit Target and DSW in Merrilville, which was awesome! It was so not crowded and I just wandered around checking out the whole place. I feel like you're constantly tripping over people/getting in people's way at those stores in Chicago so it was a nice change of pace.

Random chores/organizing and church rounded out the rest of the day. And that is my weekend! I swear I cram so much stuff into every weekend, they all fly by. But it's always a good time.

Weekend Recap: Boy Birthday edition

Man, another full weekend for me. My name is April and if you haven't met me yet I like to ORGANIZE EVENTS. This means that any day is likely filled with things I just have to do, which bothers the Husband mightily. But this weekend it was all about him, so it was A-OK.

Friday night my company had a happy hour at 3:30 in the cafeteria. Which was sweet, especially because I convinced my boss to convince his boss to go to have pre-drinks for the happy hour around 2:30. Excellent.

After the happy hour(s), we headed to a nearby bar to have a few more cocktails and some grub. We headed there around 5, so that could be called happy hour as well! I like happy hour, so I was pleased. Michelle and Andy met us out, saying something like "Our spontaneous happy hour days are limited! We'd better take advantage!" After we headed home on the train, I ended up baking two cakes and a double patch of peanut butter blossom cookies (my specialty!).

The next day I got up bright and early and took all the fruits of my baking over to Meghan and Brett's house, who were hosting Mike's 3oth birthday party. After we at lunch and watched IU get KILLED by Purdue (I'm sitting at the bar going "Is it over yet? Is it done? Because I am done. This is insane."), we headed over there for the festivities.

Of course it wouldn't be a party without a tongue-in-cheek cake message:

Kidding! I made him another cake too! One that makes fun of neither his age nor pant size! Did a pretty good icing job if I do say so myself! Orange is his favorite color, if you must know.
Because of an epic failure in my cake-baking skillz earlier in the week (let's just say.... don't double the Pioneer Woman's yellow cupcake recipe and try to make it as a cake. It was... dense. The most solid cake ever. More like cornbread sans corn or spongecake sans spongy-ness), I made two cakes. The square one was Duncan Hines butter recipe from a box with the Pioneer Woman from-scratch frosting. The frosting was more liquidy than I thought it would be and didn't look like it would go well onto the round standalone cake. The round cake was a from-scratch yellow cake recipe from Epicurious, with frosting from a can. Mike said he liked the scratch cake better.... don't know if he was just saying that to make me feel better for the HOURS of baking or what, but I'll take it.

I made him pose for a few pictures:

As I took this one he said "Why do I have to pretend I'm taking a bite out of the cake? Why can't I just actually take a bite out of the cake?"

I tried to get some shots of people as the party went on. This is me with Chad. Chad and Mike used to live together; I believe Chad was present for Mike and I's first 4-5 dates. As in, he ACTUALLY WENT ALSO. It's lucky that I like him!

The guys had so much fun playing Madden for Wii, even though they didn't really get through their "tournament." And I had purchased the 2006 Rose Bowl (Texas vs USC National Championship) and the 2007 Tostito Bowl (Boise State vs Sooners), so the guys watched those on the 2nd TV as they played Wii. After those games were over, we turned to ESPN Classic and there was an old IU vs. Purdue game on, complete with the General Robert Montgomery Knight and Gene Keady. It was perfect!!

Overall the party was a super fun time and we didn't break anything of Brett and Meghan's. Double score :)

Sometime during the party my friend Amy showed me the best new iPhone application EVER:

OMG, that is so good for a laugh or ten. It is hilarious.

Sunday I spent doing a lot of fun things like laundry, vacuuming every surface in our house after getting fuh-reaked out by Milly hair ALL OVER and going to church. It was a super productive day, I love when I get all ambitious like that!

The boy turns 30!

Last night we went to Southport Lanes for cheeseburgers for the Boy's birthday. He turned 30! Very very exciting!


My brother and his girlfriend are there and are visiting her sister in Boston this weekend and then going skiing in New Hampshire. Jay got all his ski gear this week, including a nice new jacket that I think looks really nice. As we were talking about skiing and the trip, Jay demonstrated his "I'm on the top of the mountain, thinking deep thoughts" face. Of course he made Kim play along too!

When we got to Southport Lanes it was snowing, and the wind was whipping so hard that it looked like it was snowing sideways. Let's just say that it was a nice night to hole up and have a few drinks instead of being outside. And Milly is perfecting her whining (I imagine it sounds more like this to her "THIS CONE!! It sucks! Mom! Dad! Take it off! I keep running into crap!"), so after listening to an hour of straight whining after work (I also call it "silent screaming" because it's so high-pitched) we were ready to get out of the house. We're having a party for Mike on Saturday, so it was pretty lowkey, but so much fun to just have some bad food, drinks, and talk with good friends.

Happy Birthday Mike! I freaking love you!

And a day late, but better than never.... the birthday tradition "10 things I like about Mike":

1. I have never met anyone that doesn't like him. I've never met anyone that got along with people in general like he does
2. He lets me take care of him... as much as I give him grief I actually like making meals for him and doing the laundry.
3. He takes care of me... on Monday he ran to McDonald's just to get me a hot fudge sundae. And he would (and does) stand up for me and protect me.
4. He is wicked smart. He's one of the smartest people I know.
5. He can derive equal joy from a night out at a fancy restaurant, drinks with friends, or watching a movie on the couch with Dog.
6. He is fiercely loyal.
7. He'll always win in a pushup contest.
8. At bedtime, he tucks me in every night because he goes to bed later than I do. It's a few minutes of nice quiet time to chat, just us.
9. He married me... and puts up with me! He is everything a good husband should be and more. He is my best friend.
10. Sometimes I forget that we are two different people and think of him as an extension of myself.

Sorry for the schmoopy ones, I have to be honest! Plus it wouldn't be a 10 things list without a little schmoop :)

Boy Birthday Gift

So Mike turns 30 next week, and has been evading the question of birthday gifts for some time. At first, I thought I should get him a pair of nice jeans. You know, Sevens or Citizens or the like. Something he would never think to buy himself. But every time I mentioned it the Boy was pretty amibivalent. So I figured maybe that wasn't the best idea? I mean, I like my expensive jeans but I'm pretty sure the $27 Old Navy special suits Mike just fine. Plus he looks good in them. So whatever!

My boss and I had lunch last week with a guy in another group at work who had a netbook on his desk. We exclaimed how cool it was, and he then proceeded to show us that he'd hacked it to put the Mac OS Leopard on it. DOUBLE cool. The boss became immediately intrigued with how to do this and set about trying to make a "Hackintosh"

Boss brings his in yesterday and it's super cool. 10 inches wide, weighs two pounds... because of the Mac OS the thing is SLICK. I mean, just really cool (This is the part where my IT geekiness comes out). I knew I wanted one and started thinking of all the things we could use it for: Mike's computer is slowly dying a very awful death, we could tote it around Italy in May to look up maps, train schedules, activities and such... a lightbulb went on in my head.... "I wonder if Mike would like this for his bday?"

Turns out he did! So now we have a Wind U100 en route. I am super hype to play with it (after I make the Boss hack it, of course), and am glad that we'll have a laptop to take with us without much fuss to Italy. It will come in super handy and was sooo much cheaper than replacing Mike's straining behemoth of a laptop with a full-on classic laptop.

In other recent Amazon purchases, my point and shoot camera arrived yesterday, so hopefully I will be able to include more pictures here soon. Looking at all the entries on this blog from 2007 inspired me to workout more (can't really work out LESS, Bob!) and to post more pics, as well as made me more hopeful for warm weather. The pics from the April-May time period that year are so sunny and look like SUCH good weather. Maybe there is some hope for Chicago and the winter ending at some point after all.

Typical Hubs fare - Today's IM convo

Me: hey pal
Me: what did you do for lunch?

Hubs: hey there
Hubs: got some pizza hut, beat some guy up
Hubs: the usual
Hubs: you?

Me: you beat some guy up?!? What?!?

Hubs: not really. just ripped his shirt. :-)

Me: what happened?

Hubs: i was walking back from the train station and saw some guy wrestling with a female bike messenger
Hubs: he was yelling that she had hit his car or something
Hubs: and trying to drag her off the bike
Hubs: so i put a stop to it
Hubs: just grabbed him by the collar and pushed him away
Hubs: and his shirt ripped a bunch
Hubs: some other guys jumped in and the girl got away, so i just kept walking
Hubs: didn't even spill my soda
Hubs: :-)

July 15

Today the only pics I took were ones of Mike for his new diet plan. He told me I can't post them though, because he looks fat ;c)

May 20

Back home again in Chicago.... for a day. So glad to see TheBoy.

May 15

Today is my Thursday! Tomorrow is the last day of the week for me, as I'm taking off Thursday and Friday and heading to Charleston, SC for my bachelorette party. I am hella excited about this, and can't wait to see my gals. Let's just say this gal needs a vacay like no other.

Mike, as he says "No picture! Bad hair day!" What he is thinking: that he will miss me terribly while I am gone and also study very hard so that he gets he becomes a Associate in the Society of Actuaries. Sounds like a fun bunch, huh? Nerds!!!

April 5

How I spend most weeknights

With Rachel Ray

And with The Boy

I am one blessed Monkey.

March 31

Some random shots of the day!

The Chicago Olympic logo.... pretty cool

The Boy and I at Duffy's

The Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree that I made Emily on Saturday night

March 18

Sometimes, you just gotta stand by your man.

February 28

Dinner with the Boys at Belly's

February 18 - Happy Birthday, Mike!!

Birthday cupcakes, again! Mike prefers the yellow cake with chocolate icing. Check out the messed-up "M" on the one with the candle. Go me.

Here is the birthday boy, laughing at me singing the additional verse of the Happy Birthday song: "You look like a monkey, and you smell like one too!" haha.

February 10

This weekend we went to see Mike's family in Northern Indiana. This is Aydan. His mom is saying "No hitting!" and you can see in his face "I didn't do nuthin'!"

January 27

This weekend we went to our friends' wedding in Orlando. It was so much time, and I am so glad we went! Plus, it was like 70 degrees in Orlando - a welcome respite from Chicago for sure.

Mike and I

The post-wedding scene

January 22

Sick day. Not very creative with the picture today, must go take my Zicam.

January 19

Mike and Carl scam on a cougar!