Dancing, Cubs and Crawfish

Well, it's only Sunday morning, but it has been such a busy weekend I thought I'd do a post about what has happened so far.  Friday night Teddy and I went for our first ballroom dance lesson.  We went to Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Burr Ridge.  Our instructors name was Daniel and boy is he patient.  :)  Teddy and I had a ton of fun learning the Rumba box step, the Fox Trot and the Hustle.  We decided to sign up for 4 private lessons, so we can hopefully not step all over eachother on our wedding day.  After working up an appetite dancing we went to Coopers Hawk for dinner.

Saturday was a busy day.  Since we were celebrating Teddy's birthday with his family on Sunday, I thought I'd surprise him with some activities on Saturday.  So, Saturday morning I gave him his gift of a Cannon Power Shot camera.  He was busy snapping away trying it out.

Then I told him I had one more surprise and we had to leave by 10 am to make it in time.  He spent the car ride asking me questions trying to figure out where it was I was taking him.

He was excited to find out.  When we were about 10 minutes away, he said all the answers to my questions and where we were made him think we were headed to Wrigley Field, but that didn't make sense because they were away that day.  Well, at that point I gave it away that we were going on a tour of Wrigley.  So, he was right! 

Our tour started in the bleachers where we heard all sorts of history about the park.

We then got to go into the visitors club house.  Boy was it tiny.  Apparently they expanded it slightly in the 1990's, but before then it was about 2/3rd's its current size.  We couldn't imagine a baseball team squeezing in here, let alone a football team for when the Bears played there. 

From there we went up to the press box, to see what it's like from that view point.  We were sitting in Patrick Mooney's spot. 

After that we were able to head down to the Cub's club house.  It was larger than the visitors team, but still pretty tiny.  We also found out that the batting cage they use is in there locker room.  They drop a net, flip down this piece of plywood to cover a plasma screen tv, and then let it rip in there.  It is crazy.  Teddy said after seeing that he understands why the Cub's hitting is what it is.  :)

See that net at the very top of the picture, that's what is dropped for the batting cage

We then walked through the tunnel to the cubs dug out.  Teddy was very excited.

We ended the tour on the field.  I thought it was a great tour (seeing that I'm a Sox fan - that says a lot), and Teddy really seemed to enjoy it.  I thought it was completely worth it and it was fun surprising him on his birthday. 

I then took him to lunch at our favorite place when I lived in Lakeview, Wilde.  We loved this place and came here almost every Friday before we moved to the burbs.  It was fun reliving memories at our place.  They have the best blackened shrimp appetizer around.  It is our favorite.

Ok, so that covered dancing and Cubs, but what about Crawfish?  Every year Chris and John throw a crawfish boil at their house for John's birthday.  So, Teddy and I headed from Wilde to their house to take part in the mudbug celebration (well, I took part - Teddy wouldn't touch those things with a 10 ft pole).  We were excited to see everyone as it has been a while since we had been able to get together.   

Since it was the 5th year for the boil, Chris was making t-shirts for everyone. 

Kris and Erica where there with Emily and Carson.  Teddy and I spent some time kicking the ball around with Emily.

As they were preparing the first batch, and about to dump them in the boiling water, someone noticed an odd hitchhiker to the crawfish.  It was a turtle.  Somehow a turtle got mixed up in with the crawfish.  Thank goodness we didn't dump him in.  I don't think I could have eaten the crawfish if that happened.

This is Mark realzing that there is a turtle in the bunch.

After the excitement with the turtle, the crawfish went in.  Soon after, we then got to sample the first round of the crawfish. It's sort of a feeding frenzy. John dumps the cooked little guys on a newspaper covered table and everyone stands around to feast. It's a little graphic if you've never seen as you have to pull off the heads, and pinch the tails to get the meat out. Sounds gross maybe, but they are delicious.

The rest of the night was spent visiting and enjoying the progressively spicer batches of crawfish.  Here are some more pictures of the night.

Mary and Shawn brought their sweet little guy Evan all the way from Denver for the boil.

Jennifer hanging out with her nephew Carson and talking to Kirstyn

Jennifer and Super catching up (hmm, Jennifer with no drinks, Super with two, something's not quite right here.)

Heather cutting her from scratch birthday cake she made for John

John working away on the next batch of crawfish

John, Jon., Mark and Shawn trying the latest batch

More people jumping in to try it

Ending the night with Jon, Shawn and Mark doiing their best Zoolander.  You guys are crazy!  :)

It was a busy day, but we had  a ton of fun hanging out with every one.  Thanks to John and Chris for hosting another awesome crawfish boil. 

Celebrating half birthdays

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice joins the Mad Hatters tea party and they celebrate their Un-birthdays.  Not your typical celebration.

Growing up my mom always made a big deal about celebrating our half birthday.  What's a half birthday you might ask?  It's the day that is exactly 6 months from your actual birthday.  I'm not sure why she made this such an important part of our year.  Perhaps it is because both my sister and I were born on the same day.  Yep, on my 5th birthday, my biggest and best present was a little sister.  So, maybe my mom wanted to give us each an extra day to celebrate our birth since we had to share.

It was never anything extravagant.  She usually got us a card, or some candy.  Just something small to tell us she loved us and that now we could say we were our age + 1/2.  (remember being a kid and actually wanting to get older! Ha!  I can't really pinpoint when that mindset changed...)  It always was a fun day that Sara and I looked forward to.  All our friends thought we were crazy most of the time, announcing to people that it was our half birthday.  But we loved it.  It was a great family tradition that brings back some fun memories. 

This morning when I got into work, I had an email from my mom that she sent to both me and Sara wishing us both a happy 1/2 birthday.  How she remembers these things, I'll never know.  I guess that's one small part of what makes her such a great mom.  She always remembers those milestones in our lives, no matter how small or how old we are.  So, today I can say I am officially 32 and 1/2.  Lucky me! :)

And I can't end this post without wishing my little sister a happy half birthday as well.  So, happy half birthday Sara!  I hope you have a great day.

Trying new recipies

Teddy and I had a very quiet weekend this week.  It was kind of nice. 

Friday he flew home from a business trip, so I made some steaks on the grill with a yummy mushroom sauce that I'll get to later.

Saturday morning we had breakfast with my mom and dad, so we could pick up Fozzie from their house that morning (they were dog sitting with both Teddy and I traveling last week.).  Saturday was spent running errands and doing chores around the house.  We had our annual visit from our heating and cooling guy to check out the air conditioner.  Our "free" service call resulted in a check for about $400.  *sigh*  At least we shouldn't have to worry about the airconditioner going out on us this summer.

Saturday night we headed up to Erica & Kris's to visit and play some Lego rock band.  Jennifer and Heather were there too and we all had fun hanging out with Emily and Carson.  We took turns reading Emily a bedtime story before she turned in for the night. 

Sunday was a very low key day.  I've been fighting a cold for about a week, so Teddy made me stay in bed most of the day to try to kick it.  It was the first time in a long time we had a weekend with nothing planned.  We savored it since it'll be the last time for a while that will be the case.

So, this weekend I tried a couple of new recipies that I made up just from experience cooking other things.  They turned out pretty good.  The first was the mushroom wine sauce that I put over our steaks on Friday. 

Mushroom wine sauce:

1 package of sliced and cleaned baby portabello mushrooms
1 cup of red wine
1/4 cup of beef stock (or any other kind of stock you have in your pantry)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a saute pan, add the olive oil and mushrooms.  Heat until mushrooms are browned.  Then add the red wine.  Let that simmer over a low-medium heat until the wine reduces by half.  Add the beef stock and season with salt and pepper.  Simmer for a few minutes.  When ready to serve, shut off the heat and stir in the sour cream.  Then pour over the steaks & enjoy. 

It turned out really good and was a nice compliment to the grilled steak. 

Sunday I created a version of chinese stirfry.  It turned out really good and I'm sure was a lot healthier than take out.

Chinese stirfry:

1 lb of meat (works with beef, pork or chicken - I did it with pork)
4 stalks baby bok choy quartered with cores cut out
1 can water chestnuts drained
1 cup sliced white mushrooms
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
2 tablespoons rice vinigar
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon thai chili and garlic sauce
salt & pepper to taste

In a saute pan or wok brown the meat until nearly cooked.  Remove meat from pan, set aside and pour out any grease.  Add the baby bok choy, water chestnuts, and mushrooms in the saute pan with a 1/4 cup of water, cover and steam for 2 - 4 minutes.  While steaming the veggies, mix in a bowl the ginger, rice vinigar, soy sauce, brown sugar and chili & garlic sauce (add salt and pepper to taste).  Then add to saute pan with the veggies, add in the meat (include any juices that come out of the meat while sitting), mix and let simmer for 3 - 5 minutes.  Serve over white or brown rice. 

The sauce has a nice heat to it from both the ginger and the chili & garlic sauce.  If you don't like spicy food leave out the chili & garlic sauce.

Overall, it was a very nice, low key weekend.  We probably needed that rest as we ramp up for all the activities coming up - Teddy's birthday, Teddy's mom's birthday, mothers day, wedding festivities, etc...
It's going to be a busy couple of months!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday.  Happy birthday mom!! 

On Saturday after the dress fitting we celebrated mom and Teddy's birthday with my mom and dad back at their house.  My mom and dad had been talking all winter long about getting a pergola for their deck.  So, Sara and I decided to pool some funds and get one for them for mom's birthday.  We thought we were being so sneaky by coordinating this with the dress fitting.  Mom was out of the house, Teddy and Michael were planning on going over their that morning to help dad move some stuff in the basement.  They could have it all put together before we got back from the fitting. 

Then, as Sara and I are trying on dresses, Sara gets a text from Michael that mom and dad bought themselves a pergola the day before.  DOH!  Of course that would happen.  Luckily, dad hadn't opened it yet, and he liked the one we bought them better.  So, the three boys got to work putting it together. 

On the drive home from Judy's mom says, "Oh, I hope there will be a surprise for me when I get home."  Sara and I both responded with an - Oh yea, what surprise, and she continued on saying, "We bought a pergola yesterday and I was hoping that your dad would get Teddy & Michael's help putting it together since they were going to be over."  I think it took every fiber of my being not to make eye contact with Sara in the car and burst out laughing. 

So mom walks in when we get home and heads straight to the deck to see if she has her "surprise".

She paused at the door confused because, "this one doesn't look like the one we bought..."  And then we explained it to her, and she got all excited.

So, she was surprised, just not in the way she expected.  Here's mom and dad checking out their new digs on the deck.

Doesn't it look nice.  I can imagine some delicious dinners out here with the family this summer.  We spent the rest of the day hanging out.  Teddy got to open his birthday gifts from mom, dad, Sara & Michel.  He got some great clothes for our honeymoon in Hawaii.  Then we went to dinner at Claim Jumper.  It's by Yorktown mall in Lombard.  The food was fantastic.  I had the rotissere chicken and Teddy got the filet.  Both were very good.  We also splurged and had the mint chocolate chip mud pie for dessert.  Very yummy!   

All in all it was a great day. 

Sunday Teddy spent the day outside mowing the lawn and puttering around the yard.  I worked on the bridesmaid gifts for the wedding.  Then we went over to Teddy's parents house for some dinner.  His mom made chilli and it was so good. 

When we got back home I think we collapsed.  I had to get up early for a flight to NYC, so we had an early night. 

What a great weekend! 

The Dress Fitting!!!

Well, I'm a little behind in my weekend wrap up post, but here it is!

Friday night Teddy picked me up at the train station after work, and we went to dinner at Capri.  It's a cute Italian place in downtown DG, and the food has always been very good.  Teddy got the lasagna and I got the baked whitefish.  Yum!  We headed home after that for a quiet night. Saturday was going to be a big day.

I FINALLY was able to see my wedding dress and try it on Saturday.  My mom and all my bridesmaids headed down to Judy's to have our fittings for all our dresses.  I couldn't wait to get my dress on.  I got to go first, so I slipped it on, put on the veil, slipped on my shoes and walked out to see the reaction.  I was the first one to get to Judy's, so Erica (Teddy's sister) and Judy were the only ones there at the time.  They were smiling as big as me.  A few minutes later my mom and sister arrived and they were excited to find me already in my dress.  It was a great moment and they loved the dress.  Judy finished pinning my alterations, but I didn't want to take the dress off.  I had to keep it on for the other bridesmaids to see when they arrived. 

Do you want to see it? 

Sorry, you're going to have to wait!!!!

Next my mom tried on her dress.  It is gorgeous and she looks amazing in it.  From the color to the touch of sparkle, she looked beautiful and I loved the dress. 

Doesn't she look fantastic!  Next Erica tried on her dress.  Somehow Erica skated by without getting her picture taken.  Hmm.....that's some sneaky work there Erica!  We'll have to watch her on the big day to make sure she doesn't sneak out of the pictures.  :)  In any case, she looked fantastic in the dress!  I was in amazement that she had Carson only a month ago. 

Sara went next.  I was so excited to see Sara in her dress.  For anyone that has been following her blog, Sara has lost over 75 lbs since November.  So, I couldn't wait to see her modeling her new figure in the dress.  Here are some pictures of her.

She looks great!  At this point the other bridesmaid started rolling in.  Andrea brought with her the twins, Carter and Cole.  I think they enjoyed watching us all in our pretty dresses.

Cole

Carter

They liked seeing their mom in her dress especially.  And who wouldn't.  She looked amazing.  Can anyone believe she had these twins three months ago?

I know, amazing - right!  Only two bridesmaids were left.  Stacy went next, and then Nilam. 

Don't they look great!!!  This was the first time any of the girls saw the dress (besides my sister), and I was nervous they they would like the style and everything.  I was so happy to see how fantastic they all looked in the dresses.  I think the color is nice and bright and screams summer to me. 

I enjoyed some champagne cocktails that Stacy brought while the girls were going through their fittings.  It was champagne, cranberry juice with frozen berries floating in it as ice cubes.  It was delicious.  Here's me enjoying mine.

You thought you were going to see a dress shot didn't you....ha!  I wouldn't bring cranberry anywhere near that dress!  :)

While Judy was finishing pinning up Nilam, Stacy was having fun trying on the winter bride accessories.  I thought it was too funny.  Here's some pictures of Stacy playing model. 

Too funny!  After the fittings we headed over to the Plaza Club for some lunch.  I had such a great time with the girls.  I'm so glad they could all be there for this.  It was so much fun!  I am so lucky to have such great friends and family surrounding me.

And, if you've made it this far in reading the post, I guess you deserve some insight to my dress.  Here are a few teasers.

There you have it!

After lunch we went to mom & dad's to celebrate mom and Teddy's birthday, but I think I'll make that a separate post.  This was one exciting day.  :)