Blackhawks!

On June 17 the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup!!  We had decided to watch this game at home so that we could get some work done and also I was very convinced that the series was going to go to game 7 so that they could win the Stanley Cup in Chicago.  Well, the Blackhawks had other plans and they actually won the Cup in game 6 in Boston!

After we watched some of the television celebrations, we decided to walk down to the United Center, where the Blackhawks play.  The city was pretty crazy that night!  Here are a couple pics and a video from the night that they won:

Jim and I also went over to the Blackhawks Parade  on June 28.  We were not able to get the best place for the parade so I did not get a ton of great photos, but here are a few that I did get:

Another Weekend of Renovations

We were fortunate enough to have my parents visit us again the last weekend of June to help us with more renovation projects.  I can't even imagine what our place might look like without their visits - they have been such a big help!

We also decided to have the main area professionally painted to help speed up the process and because the 20' drop over the stairs made that area very difficult to paint.  Although when we saw the professionals doing it, they sure made it seem much easier than it would have been for us!  They were able to complete the painting on Friday, Saturday and part of the day on Monday.  If anyone needs painters in Chicago, let us know - they did great work.  The same goes for hardwood floor refinishing.  We were more than pleased with the work done by both contractors!  Just don't ask us for carpet referrals...  Long story! 

We also finally got some furniture delivered during this weekend!  Some of the furniture did not want to fit down the stairs of course, but with a little work and a little extra repair work for the painters, Jim and my Dad were able to force the furniture down.  

Here are some photos from the weekend:

guest bedroom

main area

powder room

installing the microwave

wait - that isn't where the stove goes!

Jim painting the office

the refrigerator goes in the kitchen?

Mom painting in the master bedroom

unfortunately a lot of time was spent like this...

Sarah and Ben's Iowa Wedding Reception

 The weekend of June 22, I headed to the Quad Cities to celebrate the wedding of two great friends - Sarah and Ben!  After their wedding in Mexico, it was only appropriate to throw a Mexican themed wedding reception in Iowa.  It was great to see some of my college friends that I don't get to see often enough!  Unfortunately Jim was not able to attend because he had previous obligations, however my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew were able to go.  Though it was a quick weekend, it was great to see everyone!

I did not get a lot of photos from the weekend - I was too busy chatting and dancing :)  But here are a couple of Aubrey and Teegan being their silly selves.  I also finally got the chance to meet Oakley - Sarah and Ben's adorable and sweet little furball! 

Jim's Birthday and Renovations

Due to the craziness of closing on our home, moving and traveling we were not able to celebrate Jim's birthday until just this past week.  Jim and I had dinner at the Mid-America at the top of the Aon Center this past weekend.  Below is a photo that I took from our table- we had a great view of The Hancock and the lake!  The food was just ok - but we still had a lot of fun!

On Tuesday of this week, Jim's mom, brother and his family came down to the city to go out to dinner with us for Jim's birthday.  We went to Coalfire Pizza that is a couple of blocks from our place.  The food was delicious and it was so much fun to catch up with everyone!  

An update on our place - it basically is just a HUGE disaster right now!  It feels like we have accomplished SO much, but most of it would not be obvious to anyone other than us.  We have torn pretty much our entire first floor apart to clean and paint.  I don't think that this place has had a good cleaning since it was converted to a condo nearly 15 years ago!  I go a message on Tuesday afternoon from Jim saying that he had sold our appliances.  This is great because we had two sets at the time, however it has left us in a bit of a bind when it comes to making dinner.  Thankfully during our first huge Home Depot trip we also picked up a grill.  This will be our only source of cooking until late next week.

 

 

Here are a couple of photos of our place as it is right now:

 

We took off the fireplace surround the other night.  Notice the TV on saw horses.  We can't miss the Blackhawks games!! 

 

 

This is a shot of our kitchen after the appliances were gone.  The floors were SO gross!!

This is the master bedroom  Notice that it contains appliances, a toilet and a sink  - but no bed...

 

Here is a photo of Vinnie hanging out inside of the carpet padding that was torn out of a closet.

I met some friends for lunch at Macy's on State Street and they had this huge flag hanging down the middle of the store.  I thought that it was pretty awesome - I had never seen a flag this big!

Trip to Iowa

Jim and I spent the first weekend of June in Iowa celebrating Teegan's second birthday.  I can't believe that monkey is 2 already!  We were also able to go to Aubrey's first dance recital, a parade that Aubrey and Amanda were in for the dance studio and to Frontier Days - so it was a fun packed weekend!

Here are a couple of photos from our trip:

 Aubrey & Amanda in the parade

 Teegan watching the parade

 Teegan's Thomas birthday cake and train treats - made by Amanda!

Aubrey taking a snap of me while I get one of her

Teegan with the hit toy of all of his gifts - his first water gun!

I will soon be posting about our recent trip to Mexico as well as about our adventure in home renovations! 

Memorial Day Weekend

Our Memorial Day Weekend was one to remember, but not for all of the fun parties and barbeques that we attended.  This weekend was filled with closing on our first home, packing, moving and lots of decision making!  Here is how our weekend played out:

Friday, May 24th
On Friday morning, we closed on our new home and had a celebratory lunch - but then it was off to work for the rest of the afternoon.  In the evening we went over to our new place with a bottle of Cava and our toasting flutes that we used for our wedding to celebrate!  We hung out for a bit, talking about paint colors and furniture then it was time to head back to our apartment to get some rest because we had to be back at eight the next morning to meet some contractors.

Saturday, May 25th
On Saturday morning we had several contractors coming over to do installations and give us estimates on work that we are getting done.  We spent the morning meeting with the contractors and then after we were done we headed to the South suburbs to a furniture store that we had not visited yet.  We were pretty successful in finding some new pieces of furniture for our new place - although most of it won't be delivered for a month or so and some of the other pieces will take even longer because they were special ordered.  So for now, its camping chairs for us :)

As we were heading back to the city, we stopped at an appliance store that Jim had noticed on our way to the furniture store.  They were great to work with and gave us a deal on our appliances that we could not refuse, so we also bought new appliances on Saturday!  Now before you think that we are crazy and just making rash decisions, we have been researching appliances and furniture - both in person and online - for months now.  We were ready to make some decisions!

Sunday, May 26th
Sunday was moving day!  One of our good friends, Jerry, graciously helped Jim move the bigger items that we were moving.  We didn't move much furniture, but we did have a few pieces to move.  Jim and I continued to move the rest of our stuff all day and night.  I cannot begin to imagine how many trips up and down the four flights of stairs that we made!!  We didn't quite get it all moved, but we got the majority done and decided to finish up the rest on Monday.

Monday, May 27th 
On Monday we finished moving out of and cleaning our old place.  After hanging out on our rooftop deck for a few minutes one last time, we left for the last time.  After dropping off the last load at our new place, we headed out for what I am sure is our first of many trips to you guessed it - Home Depot.  Boy do we feel old!!  We picked out paint colors for our entire place and ordered all 46 gallons of paint that we need.  The paint gets delivered tomorrow - not quite sure yet where all of that paint is going to go... Or for that matter, how all of that paint is going to get on the walls and ceilings!

For now I will leave you with a photo of Jim in what will be our family room some day, but for now is our everything room.

My Attempt at Blogging - Round 2!

Hello Everyone!

This is actually my second attempt at this blogging thing - I just deleted my introduction post that I wrote last August, oops!  I will actually try to keep up a little better this time - and maybe even catch you all up on a few things that have happened since I started this blog last August :) 

I want to use our blog as a way to stay keep our family and friends updated on our adventures because I definitely don't get to chat with all of you as much as I would like!

Our next couple of weeks will be very busy, but I am going to try very hard to keep you all updated.  Here are a few things that we have going on during the last couple of weeks in May:

* Trip to Mexico for our great friends Ben & Sarah's wedding
* Buying our first home together
* Moving
* Starting some small renovations at our new place
* Jim's birthday 
* A trip to Iowa for Teegan's 2nd birthday

Stay tuned for lots of updates and photos coming soon!