Getting lots done!

Another busy weekend is coming to a close today.  Friday I was able to work from home, which was nice despite being on conference calls from 10am - 5pm without a break.  My ear hurt after that day!  :)  In any case, despite all the calls, I got tons done which always seems to happen when I work from home.  Teddy flew home from Ohio on Friday, and we decided to take it easy at home. 

I made spicy orange roast chicken for dinner and we relaxed catching up on some DVR'd shows from the week.  It is probably the easiest receipe. 

Take your favorite bone in chicken pieces, put them on a foil wrapped baking sheet, salt & pepper them and roast them in a 375 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes.  Before the last 10 minutes of cooking, brush the orange glaze on them.

The glaze is 1/4 cup of sweet orange marmalade and 1/2 tsp of spicy thai chili & garlic sauce (found in the asian isle of your grocery store)  Just mix it together and it's ready to top the chicken.

It's one of Teddy's favorites.  Not too spicy, and not nearly as sweet as I thought it would be with all that orange marmalade. 

Saturday was pretty busy.  I woke up and went for my hair trial for the wedding.  Anita Top is going to be doing all the wedding hair for me, my mom, and most of the bridesmaids.  She has been cutting the Ebeling family hair since we moved to Lockport in 1989.  It was great to see her and catch up, since it's been a while.  Here are the results of the trial.

Overall she did an amazing job, and it was exactly what I asked for.  There are some fly away pieces and things that will be tacked down on the day of, but we were just going for the general idea.  I thought it looked really nice, and best of all - it only took her 30 minutes to put together.  Now I know it'll take longer the day of so we don't have any fly awy pieces sticking out, but all in all, I was really happy at how quick she got it just right!

After the hair trial I stopped at home to pick up Teddy to meet our Day of Wedding Planner, Melissa.  It was time to go through all the details so she could do our timeline and think of anything we'd forgotten.  Going through all the details with her is really starting to make it real.  We are only about 2 1/2 months from the big day!!!  Time is flying by. 

Following that appointment Teddy and I went to Flattop Grill for dinner, which we hadn't been to in forever.  We then went over to Teddy's Uncle Terry and Aunt Donna's house.  Teddy's cousin Laura was in town from Seattle (or near Seattle).  So, we hung out with his family for a while chatting away. 

Of course we lost track of time, so we didn't end up making it out to our last stop, which was downtown for Mark's birthday. :(  We were sad to miss seeing everyone.  But we should be seeing them soon for the annual crawfish boil at Chris and John's house.

Today I'm going shopping with my mom for a few odds and ends for the wedding.  It's been a very productive weekend so far, and hopefully I'll kick this cold I have by Monday so I can get through my short week (yea, 5 day weekend) and prepare for Easter with the family. 

Carter & Cole's Baptism

Yesterday my cousin Andrea and her husband Chris baptised their twins, Carter Craig and Cole Joseph.  Teddy and I were able to attend, which I was really excited about.  I hadn't seen all of my family since Thanksgiving.  Andrea gave birth to the little guys in December, and this is the first time we got to meet them.  They were worth the wait.  What a pair of cuties they are.

The baptism was held at Christ Lutheren Church.  Andrea and Chris stood proudly in front of the church with their two boys with Chris's sister Julie and her husband up there as the Godparents.

The babies did quite well and were very quiet until pastor poured the baptismal water on their heads.  Neither boy liked that too much. 

Their family is now complete with 5 adorable boys:  Cade, Carson, Colin, Cole & Carter.  Wow!  Their own basketball team - Andrea is one busy mom!

After church the family all went back to Andrea & Chris's house for dinner, cake and festivities.  Everyone took turns passing around the twins. 

Me with Cole

Julie with Carter

Dad with Cole

Dad with Carter - watching the Blackhawks game

The twins were up the whole time just happily hanging out being passed from family member to family member content as could be.  I was amazed at how good they were.  So, congratulations Andrea and Chris on the twin's baptism! 

Spring is here?

Chicago's winter this year has been pretty brutal, and this past week the weather was gorgeous.  High 50's, low 60's, sunshine, blue skies, etc.  Last night when I came home from work there were kids running all over the culdesac, Fozzie was running around the yard and hanging out on the back deck.  It was wonderful and feeling like spring.

I knew the weather over the weekend was supposed to be pretty bad, but when I woke up this morning and looked out the windows upstairs I saw this:

Ugh, gross.  The green grass is gone, it's gray skies, snowing at a steady pace, and altogether looks pretty icky.  :( 

Oh spring, why do you tease us so.....I guess that's Chicago for you.  Tomorrow is the first day of spring, and though I've lived here pretty much my whole life and know the deal, it still sucks just as much when the weather teases us like it did this last week.  Hopefully this is the last snow until next winter (I can dream can't I!)

Is it already Wednesday?

Well, I obviously didn't get to my typical Sunday posting with the weekend recap.  What can I say?  Things have been C - R - A - Z - Y!!  Work has just been absolutely draining and leaving little time for much else. 

This past weekend Teddy and I did find some time to spend with friends, family and on wedding stuff. 

Friday night we had dinner with our friends Nick & Gabrielle.  We went to Cuatro in the South Loop.  It's a great latin fusion place, and we hadn't been there in a really long time.  Nick & Gabrielle had us laughing about their remodeling work in their new home and preparations for their baby (who is due mid-April).  (Is it just me, or is there talk about babies everywhere!)  It was great to catch up with them, as it had been far too long since we had seen them last. 

Saturday Teddy and I did our typical errand runs, laundry, bill payment, Lego rockband, etc.  :)  Then on Saturday night we went to dinner with my parents at an italian place by them called Taza.  We hadn't been there for a long time either, and everything was delicious.  It was fun spending time with mom and dad both at dinner and hanging out at their house, and Fozzie was super excited to see Watson (said with sarcasm).  Watson of course was super pumped to see Fozzie and jumped all over him when we got there - hence the sarcasm.

Sunday Teddy and I finally finished out our wedding registries.  We were 90% there, but just had to finish up towels and bedding.  It was fun to pick out all the things that we want and need, but wow - there is a lot of stuff on there! 

So we had another great weekend.  I'm looking forward to the next one, and hopefully will post about it more promptly. 

PS - Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

A movie, baby Carson & IKEA

Well, another weekend has gone by.  After a VERY long week, Teddy and I were pretty spent.  So on Friday night when I got home I made some homade spagetti and then we curled up on the couch with an On-Demand movie.  We decided to watch Couples Retreat.

We hadn't really heard anything good or bad about this movie, so expectations were low.  Teddy and I found ourselves laughing through most of this movie, so it was a nice surprise.  It was a typical predictable romantic comedy type movie, but there were many funny scenes.  It was a nice way to close out the busy week.

On Saturday, I was supposed to work, but luckily my meeting was cancelled, so we spent the day running errands.  We finally went to Ruffled Feathers and finalized all the details for the wedding and also picked up our thank you cards from PaperWorks.  So, two more things to cross off our to-do list.  :)  After finishing out our errands we went up to Erica & Kris's house and I finally got to meet baby Carson!  He is as adorable as he looks in his pictures.  I of course forgot to bring my camera, so this picture is from Kris's facebook page.

Uncle Teddy, Auntie Jennifer, Grandma Gillian and I had fun hanging out with Carson and his sister Emily spending time coloring, dancing, and watching some racing (yea, that was all Kris!).  Heather even stopped by to see the little guy.  Teddy's mom made some yummy dinner for us all, and his dad came later with Teddy's sister Beth who flew in to visit her new nephew.  All in all it was a great day.

Sunday I got up and got some work done to get ahead of what I expect to be another busy week.  After that Teddy and I decided to head out to

We were looking to get some shelving storage for Teddy's man den in the basement and also possibly another piece for our family room.  We found some great shelves that will work out perfectly in both spaces and even some fun accessories.  It's such a fun store to wander around in to see how they build out all these different spaces.  So, we brought home our loot and spent the afternoon building.  Everything fit great and we're excited to use it to get organized. 

Overall it was a productive weekend, and we are doing a good job keeping progress moving forward on the wedding.  Now on to the work week!

My New (Soon to Be) Nephew :)

Yesterday my future sister in law, Erica, and her husband Kris welcomed a new bundle of joy into the family.  Carson Robert Beall;  weighing 7 lbs 13 oz and is 20.25 inches long. 

Here he is.  (Penny -  I stole this picture from your facebook page)

I'm not sure of the exact time of his birth, but it was somewhere around 6:20pm.  That is one long day for mom and dad as they got to the hospital around 4:30am! 

Teddy and I talked to them last night and they sounded like happy proud parents, but tired parents!  I hope they both got some rest last night.  :)

Carson joins his little sister Emily, who will be 2 in May.

Isn't she cute!  (Penny - I stole this one from you as well!)

I'm sure Emily can't wait to meet her little brother.  I know I can't!  Congratulations Kris and Erica!!!  And Welcome baby Carson!  :)

New Computer!

Well, Teddy and I finally broke down and did it.  We backed up our own personal computers that have been bandaided together and on their last leg, and bought a new computer!  We finally have consolidated our music, photos and other items that have been isolated to their respective machines. 

We debated for a while what to buy:  laptop vs. desktop.  After much consideration, we decided to go with a desktop.  It just works better for us.  We both have laptops for work, and in looking at the pricing and capabilities, the desktop just got us a little bit more for the money. 

So, after making that decision the next one was more critical.  Which desktop?  The first time we went looking around at Best Buy a couple of weeks ago, the sales guy we talked to obviously didn't want to sell a computer.  We asked him his thoughts on the various brands, a tower vs. an all-in-one, etc.  His response: "Well, all the brands are the same.  None are reliable and they all break, so it really doesn't matter and it's all what you like."  Ok then...so pretty much everything is a POS in his mind.  That didn't really convince us to make a purchase that day. 

So we decided to do a little research.  We looked on consumer reports, reviews on Amazon, and other online sites.  Our computer needs are pretty basic.  We use it basically for the internet, photos, music, and designing Lego creations (um that one is all Teddy!).  In the end we chose:

The HP TouchSmart 300-1025 Desktop PC.  It's an all in one (meaning the monitor is also the computer) touch screen desktop.  So, we spent a lot of yeterday transferring our files from the old computers to our new one, and playing with it's new features.  The touchscreen is really cool.  It comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard which is great and everything is built in, so there are very few cords snaking around behind the desk.  The screen is HUGE, which is fantastic.  It was pretty quick, which is good for my impatient nature.  So, all in all we are really happy and excited about it.  A fun new toy to play with!