Four

My sister did this on her blog this week and I thought it was cute, so like any good sister, I'm copying her.  :)


Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Worked in accounting at Ideal Carbide Die with my Mom
2. Assembly Hall at UofI as an usher
3. Waitress at Traverso's in Tinley Park
4. Senior Audit Manager at Grant Thornton


Four movies I would watch over and over:

1.  Planes, Trains & Automobiles
2.  Sixteen Candles
3.  Old School
4.  National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation


Four places I have lived:

1. Chicago, IL (where I was born until 7th grade and moved back to after college)
2. Lockport, IL (where I spent my teenage years)
3. Melbourne, Australia (where I spent 3 months in 2003)
4. Downers Grove, IL (where I live now with the hubby)


Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. The Amazing Race
2. Real Housewives OC, New York or New Jersey
3. The Office (although I miss Michael)
4. Grey's Anatomy

Four places I have been on vacation

1. Orlando, Florida
2. Kauai & Maui,  Hawaii
3. Europe (Paris, London, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, Madrid and Barcelona)
4. Australia

Four websites I visit daily:

1. Facebook
2. Google Reader
3. Babycenter
4. Goingconcern

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Sushi (and I can't have it right now)
2. Buffalo chicken
3. Fajitas
4. Mom's BBQ ribs


Four places I would like to be right now:

1.  The adult pool at the Four Seasons Resort in Maui
2.  Italy - I'm dying to go there
3.  Sitting on the back deck with the husband and a nice cold beer (no beer for me for a long while!)
4.  At the Kohler Spa

Our big news

In my last post I eluded to some big news.  In February Teddy and I found out that I was pregnant!!!  Teddy was out of town all week, and I had been feeling weird.  Not sick or anything, I was just feeling weird.  I was still a week away from being able to take the at home test, plus I wanted to wait until Teddy got home.  So, he was home for about five minutes before I blurted out, "I think I'm pregnant."  It was still a couple of days before I was supposed to take the test, so we agreed to wait until it was time to take the test.

We headed out to the grocery store, and yea, I couldn't wait, so I bought a test, brought it home and took it immediately.  Teddy was leaving town again on Monday, and I couldn't wait a whole week for him to come home, so I figured, better early and with him, than without him.  So, I took the test, we waited the 2 - 3 minutes and I had the following results.

We couldn't believe it!  We were hugging and crying, and just overly excited.  We both agreed to keep it to ourselves until we at least saw the doctor and got confirmation that all is good.  My original plan was to wait until I was 12 weeks to tell anyone.  But that didn't exactly happen.

A few days after the positive at home test, I went in for a blood test at the doctor.  That came back positive as well, with normal results, so they scheduled our first ultra sound.

At the ultrasound I was 7 weeks along.  Teddy was able to go with me, and we saw our baby.

Here it is at 7 weeks.  I thought it looked more like a frog than a baby, but we saw the heart beating, and everything looked normal.  It was at this point that Teddy and I decided we needed to spill the beans to the family.  I was having a hard time not telling my mom, and plus I was leaving for China in a week, and wanted to let work know before I left. 

So, we were able to tell my parents and Teddy's parents in person, which was a ton of fun.  Both were super surprised and just as excited as us.  We then told the sisters, who were all really excited, and somehow, kept the news off facebook until I was able to tell work. 

Just last week we went for our 12 week ultra sound.  We were excited to hear the good news that all appeared normal and healthy with the baby.  So far, so good!  It was also exciting to see that the baby, was actually looking a lot more like a baby!  We saw that it has two arms, two legs, we saw the heart beating, the umbilical cord, the brain, and we even had the baby stick its tongue out at us at one point!

So, that room that I posted about earlier this week, that's going to be the nursery.  We just need to find out if we're having a baby boy or a baby girl to finish it up.  There's still about 8 weeks to go until we find out that news.  We are just so blessed and can't believe our good fortune. 

The last three months...

I have been just a horrible blogger.  Nothing of substance has been posted for months!  So, here is an update of some of the things Teddy and I have been up to since January.

We hosted a super bowl party with the family, even though we had to bear watching the Packers win.

We're all focused on watching the game

Sara made a delicious sandwich for all

Then late February we celebrated my nephew, Carson's 1st and golden birthday.  He was one on  March 1st.

Doesn't he look good in that hat

His sister was pretty excited to celebrate too

Later in March, we celebrated Erica's birthday

She's looking like she's ready to party.

Since I was busy working every Saturday, Teddy decided that he wanted to do some work on our guest bedroom.  One of the walls was covered in cork board.  He worked hard to remove it to reveal this mess.

Yes, that is one hideously green wall covered in stinky glue that was holding the cork on

He worked for at least 2 weekends in a row scraping all that glue off, and then spackling up the wall that was damaged.  Even Fozzie stopped by to check out his hard work.

Then he gave it a nice coat of primer, which surprisingly covered up that awful color. 

After finishing that project, Teddy got the bug to replace the doors and trim in the room, similar to what we did to the bathroom between Christmas and New Years. 

Here are the closet doors nearly done, they just need the trim casing around them.

He also did all the baseboard and the main entrance to the bedroom.  What are we going to use this room for now that it is nearly done?  More to come on that.

Then in April, I went to Beijing for a business trip.  I got there a couple days early so I was able to check out some of the sites before the meetings started.

We went to see the Forbidden City

Many of the buildings in the Forbidden City were repainted for the Olympics, this was one of them.  The colors were so vibrant

The next day we headed out to see the Great Wall

The wall was amazing, truly an engineering marvel that it was able to be built in the first place, let alone still be standing after all these years

We were able to see a small section of the wall, the whole wall is over 4,000 miles long, so it would be pretty impossible to see it all.

On our last siteseeing day we went for a long walk through Beijing to see the Temple of Heaven.  We got side tracked going through this park that had some beautiful cherry blossom trees blooming.

We finally made it to the Temple, which was really beautiful and worth the long trek there

 Beijing was an amazing trip.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but unfortunately the camera died in the middle of the trip. 

So far 2011 has had a great start!  I still have some more news to share, but I'm going to save that for another blog.  Hopefully, I'll be blogging about that soon.



Yes, I am still alive

Wow, February 20th was my last post.  Oopsy!  I guess I fell of the blogging wagon.  I am still alive and well, just eyeball deep in my busy season at work.  12 - 14 hours in front of the computer 6 days a week isn't really condusive to wanting to run home and sit in front of the computer again. 

I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and will hopefully have my life back in a few weeks.  Then I'll be able to update on the actual fun stuff that has been going on here on Ridgeview, because despite the insane work schedule, Teddy and I have squeezed in some fun. 

More to come...

Catchin Up

I'm sitting here in front of the computer thinking through what Teddy and I have been up to so I can catch up on my blog.  And sadly, there really isn't much to say.  I guess when you're working 65 hour weeks, it doesn't leave much time for anything else.  With Teddy traveling most of the week and me at the office all day on Saturday it doesn't leave much time to do anything but scramble around and try to get all the errands run on Sunday.  Friday and Saturday nights consist of eating some dinner and collapsing on the couch for an hour before heading off to bed.  Sundays leave some time for doing some things.  Here's what our last few Sundays have been:

• Spending the day shopping, returning wedding gifts we didn't get a chance to
• Laundry, lots of laundry
• Grocery shopping
• Paying bills
• We did have a great super bowl sunday in there hanging with my family and Teddy's parents.  My sister wrote a nice post about it here
• And today the big plans are to go shopping for a new bed and then have dinner with my parents.

So, not too much has been happening.  I'm in a busy season funk and May can't come soon enough. 

This week I'm...

Loving: That I found time to go shopping and was able to get two new pairs of shoes for $42 with all the sales and coupons I had.
Disliking: How behind I am on my blog.  Three weekends now with no updates from me.  I need to get caught up!
Craving: A massage.  I need to cash in my Kohler Spa gift card from Christmas.
Wanting: More hours in the day
Reading: Not much, but I did get a few minutes to look at this month's Food Network Magazine.  It's an Italian themed issue and I want to try to make every recipe in it!  I'm going to shoot for two this week.
Watching: The Grammy's.  I thought it was pretty good, although there are always weird combinations of artists together.  On another weird note, I thought the graphic for the Grammy's this year looked a lot like it said The Crammy's...am I alone in this?
Listening to: That F#*k You song that was on the Grammy's last night and is played on the radio constantly.  I can't get it out of my head!
Looking forward to: Celebrating valentine's day with my hubby tonight!
Hearing buzz about:  Two cars crashing into a freight train this morning because the gates weren't down.  It looked pretty bad.

This week I'm...

Loving: That I just got to spend a whole week with the hubby with no out of town trips...too bad its over
Disliking: How short the weekends are this time of year.  Working 10 hour Saturdays stinks, no matter how you slice it.
Craving: More sleep
Wanting: Some time to shop.  I really need some new clothes
Reading: Nothing really for fun right now
Watching: The super bowl, which was pretty tough to watch - being a Bears fan
Listening to:  My dog snoring
Looking forward to: Crossing things off the to do list
Hearing buzz about: Christina Aguilera butchering the National Anthem at the super bowl

Snow Day?!

I don't believe it!  The weather forecast was right, it was snowmageddon last night.  I am so glad that I left work early yesterday before it got too crazy, but last night watching the storm was kind of like watching a snow globe being shook to death by a small child.  Wind was coming from every direction it seemed and you couldn't tell if the snow flying around was new snow or just snow being blown around.

Well, this morning it was clear that it was new snow.  Here are some pictures from my front and back door views.

My front porch is one big snow drift

I'm not sure where the front yard ends and the driveway and street begin

Also, see in the far distance in front of the brownish house a small yellow speck sticking out of the snow - that's the fire hydrant. 

The backyard is where most of the swirling snow was last night and that's evident by the crazy snow drifts.  There are snow drifts as high as our four foot tall pool.  Our pool filter is out there somewhere, do you see it?

Check out the snow drifts on my back neighbor's house.  I hope Jared and Marie don't need to use their back door any time soon.  Also, it looks like it continues up the roof.

And one final shot, of our shed with it's snow drift.  Part of me wanted to suit up and jump out there in that snow, and then I remembered that I probably will get plenty of snow action as I help clear the driveway...once we find it.

I hope everyone is home safe and can stay home today.  Even though I'll be working on my snow day, it's still kind of fun to be snowed in and working in front of my fireplace.  Stay warm everyone!

This Week I'm...

Loving: That my new years resolution of "move more, eat less" has been sustainable for a whole month now with 8.2 pounds less as a result!
Disliking: That I'm way behind on catching up with family and friends.  I need to get on that and see what's going on with everyone.
Craving: Dark chocolate
Wanting: More hours in the day
Reading: Not much.  I started LA Candy by Lauren Conrad, but haven't picked it up since I first started.  Yes, it is chick lit, trashtastic, but it's my escape from the constant technical reading required daily
Watching: Not much.  The DVR is getting full
Listening to: The sound of typing on the computer
Looking forward to: Heading to Beijing in April
Hearing buzz about: An insane blizzard headed our way that may be life threatening according to the news

Date Night & the Bears

This weekend Teddy was home!  So we focused on getting some quality catch up time together.  Friday night was pretty low key.  I made us some baked chicken and we relaxed watching a little TV and chatting. 

Saturday I had to head into work, but got home in the late afternoon.  Teddy had been busy working around the house and focusing on his latest Lego project.  We decided last minute to have date night on Saturday and headed out to one of our favorite local places, Aodake for some sushi.  It had been a really long time since we went there and the place was packed.  They have the hibachi grills as well, so most were at those versus the sushi tables.  I guess a lot of people had the same idea.  Even my sister did date night with her husband at a sushi place over the weekend. 

After dinner we headed out to see a movie.  We got some AMC gift cards for Christmas in our stockings, so we thought we'd put them to use.  We ended up going to see No Strings Attached with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.

It was yet another romantic comedy, but I thought it was pretty funny.  There were some holes in the story as they never really explain why Natalie Portman's character is such an emotional train wreck, but there were some really funny moments in the movie.  It was nice to cozy up with the hubby and watch a movie.  It's been a while since we have been able to do that. 

Sunday was all about the Bears!!

We were so excited for the biggest game of the season for a team we didn't think would see the off season at all.  The day was just bad karma all around.  We decided to check out one of the local DG bars, Another Round, to watch the game and headed out around lunch time to snag a seat.  Well, when we got there we found all these tables that were being "saved" by peoples coats, drinks and other crap.  It was unreal.  I couldn't believe the bar was allowing people to just block out tables and chairs from paying customers because they were saving them for their friends.  So, we did a couple of laps and decided to head over to BW3's to check out if they were any better of a set up.

This was miles better.  They had the Hawks game on.  There was plenty of open seats and TV's a plenty.  They also were giving away all sorts of prizes during the commercial breaks, well, it was mostly free wings. 

So, we settled in, got some beers and some grub, and proceeded to watch the Hawks lose.  At that point I made the big mistake of saying, "I hope this isn't a sign of a bad sports day for Chicago."  Ugh!  Why do I say such things.  It's like I was asking for the karma kick in the butt.

We got excited to watch the Bears come out blazing.

Teddy sporting Hester

Me sporting Briggs

And the game started with the Bear's deferring on the coin toss (was this really a good call?) and then the Packers just marched right over us on the field.  It was one ugly first half, but Teddy and I were still having a good time.  Until half time and we were suddenly surrounded by the strangest people.  These people were obsessed with high fives to everyone around them at the most awkward moments of the game.  They were wearing Bears jerseys, but every time the Bears had the ball, the one lady would start screaming like a wild women to "Sack him!" which was quickly followed by an incredibly confused look when the Bears snapped the ball.  At some point this couple decided they wanted to try to be friends with Teddy and me.  They kept high fiving us and telling us to smile.  Um, the Bears are playing like sh!t, and we have annoying people that keep trying to touch us and won't leave us alone.  There wasn't a lot of smiling happening.  Teddy ended up moving seats to put his back to them because at the time he was sitting next to me. And this nutter of a women kept peaking around Teddy's head to try to make eye contact with me so she could yet again wield another high five.  I did everything to avoid her eyes.  Then at one point she came over to tell me I looked just like her cousin.  Seriously?  Can we just watch the game?  UGH! 

Luckily Teddy and I were smart and got the check early so that after the game ended we could bolt before our new found buddies followed us home.  And we also all know how that game ended.  While Heine did a respectable job coming in cold and getting two TD's - it was too little too late.  Some bad decisions with a time out on the third down with one minute to go just sealed the coffin for us.  In the end, for a team we never thought would make it to the off season, not too shabby.  Although, it would sting a little less if we hadn't lost to the Packers. 

This week I'm...

This week I'm....


Loving: Having some quiet time to relax
Disliking: The way the Bears played.
Craving: A bright blue sky, with white puffy clouds and lots of sunshine
Wanting: To plan our next vacation
Reading: My Food Network Magazine looking for new recipes
Watching: American Idol.  I'm kind of liking the new judges, but am thinking Hollywood week will be a mess because they're letting a lot of crap through
Listening to: The sounds of Teddy sleeping since he's actually home, for a few days anyway
Looking forward to: May
Hearing buzz about: Oprah having a half sister that she never knew about. 

My Fitness Pal App

As I said in a recent post, I did set a new year's resolution of eat less, move more.  With focusing on getting to the gym three times per week I had the move more plan in place.  But I felt like I needed something to help with the eat less. 

So, looking at the health related free apps I found the My Fitness Pal app

 This app asks you for information on height, weight, any weight loss goals and how quickly you want to lose it and then calculates a net amount of calories for intake every day.  You can then record what you eat and your exercise to track your intake and burn every day.

This summary screen gives you a snapshot of where you are for the day

The greatest part is that the diary is so easy to use and find what you are eating, even at restaurants.  Many chains are even specifically in here, so you can find exactly what you're eating.  Plus you can create recipes for things you are cooking to see just how many calories it is.  The exercise database is just as extensive and allows you to adjust calories burned if you use a heart monitor or something else to track that when working out.

One of the other features I really liked is the nutrient info.  It's really made me aware of when I'm eating things high in sodium or sugar, or if I'm not getting enough iron or dietary fiber.

I've been doing this pretty religiously for two weeks now and it takes no time, and has really kept me focused and aware of what I've been eating so I can tackle the eat less part of my resolution.  It has made me very aware and helped me make better food choices.  I have been checking the calorie content before I pick what I'm planning to eat, so I am able to better allocate calories throughout the day.  I haven't been hungry once.  And it is working.  Week one I lost 5.5 lbs!

This week I'm...

Like many of the ideas on my blog I get them from my sister and her blog.  This one is no different.  I think it will be fun to go back and see what I've been thinking and feeling each week at the end of the year.  The tricky part will be my ability to actually post this each week, but here we go.

This week I'm....

Loving: That I actually get to see my husband one day this week

Disliking: That I only get to spend one night with Teddy

Craving: Clementines

Wanting: To take down the outdoor Christmas decorations.  It's just so darn cold

Reading: Bill and Giuliana Rancic's "I Do, Now What"

 Watching: The Bachelor.  I know, it's terrible.  When I heard Brad Womack was coming back I fully intended to just watch the first episode to see what his deal was.  And then I got sucked in.  I can't tear myself away.

Listening to: Sara Bareilles, I love her new album Kaleidoscope Heart

 Looking forward to: Bears vs. Packers this weekend.  Go Bears!

Hearing buzz about: The Golden Globes and Ricky Gervais's zingers

Weekend Recaps: Birthday Celebrations

It's only two weeks into the new year and I'm already a week behind on my blogging.  Good thing I didn't make blogging more often one of my resolutions.  That would have been a pitiful showing. 

Last weekend Teddy and I went to Andrea and Chris's to celebrate the first birthday of their twins Cole and Carter.  We were running late, so we missed all the excitement of the magician that they had, but we got there in time for the make your own pizzas.  It was a great idea for a kids party.  These guys rolled up with a pizza oven on wheels with all the fixins and made pizzas to order.  Plus they made extras that could be frozen and made later for people to take home with them.  Great idea! 

Soon after it was present opening time for the boys.  Carter seemed interested, but Cole just wanted to play with some Elmo balloons.

 Cole

He had a serious grip on those balloons

Carter's momentarily distracted from the gift opening enough to snap a couple of pictures

Soon after it was cake time and these two monkeys certainly got into their cake

First we sang to the birthday boys.  Aren't they cute in their hats.  

And they went to town!  Hilarious.  :)  I think Cole had cake in his hair, down his back, pretty much everywhere. 

Carter had a little bit cleaner technique, but took that cake down just as quick as his brother.

Then after a quick bath, these guys were ready for some sleep

It was great to spend some time with the family.  The rest of last weekend was really quiet, which was nice. 

This weekend Teddy was out of town for work.  I decided to finally watch the Twilight movies.  I read the books a few years ago, but never ended up seeing the movies, so I watched Twilight and New Moon.  They were pretty good.  I felt like they kept pretty true to the book in both.  Maybe today I'll watch Eclipse and get completely caught up. 

Last night I went out with Tom, Stacy, Nilam and Chris for Tom's birthday.  With everything going on the group went from a party of 10 to 5.  It was a really fun night.  Just like old times!  The original five were out and ready for fun.  We went to Coopers Hawk for dinner and the food and wine was great as always.

Hopefully I'll get back on track with blogging, although with Teddy and my work schedules over the next couple of months, I'm not sure there will be all too much exciting stuff going on.  But you never know!

My Favorite App of the New Year

Like most people, I've fallen down the typical well of setting some new year's resolutions.  And also, like a lot of people, mine has to do with being healthier.  I have vowed to focus, not on weight loss, (although that would be a great by product) but on committing to being healthier.  I have both committed to get to the gym three days per week and to start counting calories.  I usually eat healthy foods, but I eat too large of portions.  So, I'm going with the simple plan of eat less, move more for 2011. 

It's week one, so its definitely early to start declaring any successes.  But I am off to a good start.  One thing I was looking for was a way to track work outs and calories, which I found and will post about another time, but I stumbled across this.

This is an app for your iPhone that Nike has put out for women that is like a trainer in your pocket.  And, even better it's free!

It has over 60 workouts that are 30 - 45 minutes long with audio guidance while your doing the exercises.  There are also 15 minute targeted workout if there is a specific area you want to really focus in on.  The app even lets you select music from your iPod to play while you're working out.  Each exercise has step by step instructions you can look at before you do it, and a video demo to help clarify.

There are four different categories of programs you can choose from  

And within each one of these categories there are three levels of experience:  beginner, intermediate and advanced.  Once you choose these you then select from about 6 or 7 different work outs.  It then tracks your progress and rewards based on how many minutes you have worked out cumulatively with special workout programs from famous athletes and trainers.

One of the greatest things about it is that you can workout anywhere.  For a lot of the programs you don't need any equipment.  For the ones that require equipment it is dumbbells, a medicine ball, or a jump rope.  So, while I've been doing these at the gym, I could get a workout in from the comfort of my home or from my hotel room when traveling.  

This week, I have done the beginner sweat + shape program twice, and it completely kicked my butt.  I was so sore after the first time on Monday, my second workout this week had to be something different.  I got on the elliptical for 30 minutes vs. the NTC program.  But this morning I did it for the second time.  It still kicked my butt - but I wasn't feeling as much muscle fatigue as I did on day one.  I think next week I'm going to try one of the programs that calls for weights. 

I like that I can mix this in with other workouts to keep things fresh.  That way I shouldn't get bored, and it is probably better for me to mix it up more anyway than live on the treadmill.  I'm hoping Nike continues to update it with new workouts.  What a great app!