Tateoka Pudding

Hyde Park

2011-02-25T13:05:00.003-06:00

Last Saturday Joseph and I went down to Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago. We had a Groupon for a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House. When Joseph first moved to Chicago as an intern he lived on the the South Side in University of Chicago housing and he would pass the Robie House each Sunday on his way to church. Crazy.

Just down the street was Rockefeller Cathedral, the University of Chicago's cathedral. Joseph loves this cathedral and has always wanted to go inside, so we did. This is probably my favorite cathedral now. It was just beautiful. The inside was so light. The walls were a light gray stone and the stained glass had light purple and green. It was just a different feeling than other cathedrals, not so dark and heavy. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the inside because my camera was acting up. Another time perhaps.

The sun was so bright and peeking over the cathedral as we walked up. I've always loved sun flare in photos so I thought I would give it a try. This was actually the first shot I took and it turned out to be the best one. Beginners luck I guess!

Snowpocalypse 2011 Take 2

2011-02-04T12:48:00.010-06:00

I went out Wednesday afternoon to capture our neighborhood on this snow day. Here's what I saw.

Our street.

The beach.

Joseph took a break from work and came to visit me.

This is the actual lake. No water is sight.

To the right is Loyola campus, to the left is downtown. Pretty nice view from up here.

Snowpocalypse 2011

2011-02-03T10:28:00.008-06:00

Snowpocalypse finally hit Chicago yesterday. The roads were starting to get bad Thursday afternoon and the high winds made it hard to see. I'll admit it was pretty scary driving home. Luckily, I was able to get off early and made it home before it got really bad. Joseph was also able to get off early and made it home safely.

We woke up Wednesday morning to a winter wonderland. I got the day off and Joseph was able to work from home so it made for a pretty fun snow day! Here are some pics.

Our back alley where we park our car.

Our first floor balcony.

The front of our apartment building.

Our street.

The busy street by us was completely desolate.

Our friends Brandt and Christina pulling their daughter Jane. We all ventured over to the lake (2 blocks away) to see what it looked like. I'll show you in the next post what the lake actually looked liked.

Here we are on the beach of Lake Michigan. The wind was blowing like crazy.We felt like we were in a National Geographic special exploring Antarctica.

Break Your Heart

2010-11-05T14:57:00.002-05:00

I know I haven't posted in, oh, over a year and this is going to seem like strange reason to start posting again but I'm sitting here listening to Pandora and the most beautiful song is playing. It's "Break Your Heart" by Taio Cruz. You may be thinking, "but that's a hip-hip song." It happens to be "Taio Cruz for Piano" so it's the instrumental version. I am in love with it. It is so beautiful. I highly recommend downloading it or waiting for it to play on Pandora. I'm going to admit something to you so it will be easier for you to find the song. The station I was listening to on Pandora was Lady Gaga. I admit it. So just type in Lady Gaga and wait for it to play and dislike all the inappropriate songs. :)

Oh look. I found a video of it on YouTube. Gotta love YouTube. Disregard the video because it's super lame. Just listen to the beautiful music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCQoBwjt7vM

My 25th Birthday

2009-10-27T18:40:00.009-05:00

To be honest, I was not excited about this birthday. I know it's not, but I just feel like 25 is so old. (No offense to those of you reading who are older than 25.) I still feel like I'm 20, 21. I am in my mid 20's. Soon I will be in my late 20's. Then...I'll be 30. I always thought people who freaked out about turning 30 were crazy. I'm starting to think I'm going to be one of those people. Oh well. C'est la vie. At least I still feel young. And at least I still look young. I could seriously pass for a high schooler. I've always looked younger than my age. My mom always told me I'd appreciate that someday.

Anyway, I never posted these pics. So here they are.

Joseph and I spent the day downtown and hung out at Navy Pier. It was a pretty sweet birthday.

View from the Ferris wheel

Putt-Putting with a view of the city

So we decided to go out on a speedboat to catch a view of Chicago's skyline from the water. We chose the "Xtreme" speedboat ride. I figured we would just go a little faster and spin around at the end. As soon as the boat gets far out far enough, Rhianna's "Live your Life" starts blaring and we take off. This definitely wasn't an architectural boat cruise but I would highly recommend it. Tons of fun!

Isn't Chicago fantastic?

It is finished

2009-09-13T19:09:00.009-05:00

Over Labor Day weekend Joseph and I ran in our first half-marathon together. I just have to say, I am so glad it is over! Not just the race, but all the training that we had to do to prepare. Joseph and I slept in last Saturday and it was the best feeling in the world! I do enjoy running but after 13 weeks of working out most weekdays and then running every Saturday morning I could not wait to be done with this race.

*Note: The time in the picture was not our run time, just to clarify.

We chose a race up in Wisconsin because it was close to his uncle's house and because it was one of the few we could find on a Saturday. So Saturday morning came; we had to wake up at 5am to make it there by 6am for a race that started at 7am. Yuck. Me and mornings don't really get along. It's a good thing I had some adrenaline pumping so I was more awake than usual. It was fun to be a part of a race and to be in an environment where everyone has been working towards the same goal. The nice thing about races is that (unless you're one of those crazy people who actually want to win) it's not competitive. Everyone has their own personal goal that they are trying to achieve. It's only a competition with yourself. Everyone is so supportive and cheering for each other. What was cool was to see the people in the community coming out of their houses or lining the streets to cheer people on, play upbeat music outside their home, or have their hose on so you could run under it if you wanted to. My favorite cheerleader was a little boy who at about mile 3 yelled "Go big herd!."

So the first 4 miles I'd say were cake. Joseph and I were keeping a pretty good time at about 9 minutes a mile. The entire first half of the race I was feeling pretty good. In the beginning I remember thinking, "This is awesome. We could totally train even harder next year and get even faster!" Around the half way point I changed my mind. Water stations were scarce in the middle of the race (I thought) and there started to be some hills. Chicago is flat. We were not prepared for hills. I found some strength (it may have been the gel pack we took about mile 7) and got back into a decent pace, slower but steady. Toward the end of the race, about mile 10, I remember thinking, "Where on earth are the mile markers? They used to come so quickly. Have they switched to mile and a half markers?" They did not. The miles grew longer, the hills kept coming, and I grew weaker. Those hills just take it out of you. It was somewhere along mile 10 that I thought, "What have I done? I am such a fool. Why on earth did I choose to torture myself like this?" It's at that point that I decided I would never do this again. I told myself to remember this pain if ever I was foolish enough to be tempted to try this again. It was also at this point that some of my toes got blisters so it made it much more difficult to enjoy the beautiful trail along the lake. Mile 12 finally came. The home stretch. I could not wait to be done. Of course there happened to be a couple small hills in this final mile. Come on people! Cut us a little slack and make the last mile down hill or something! Oh well. We finally made it across the finish line. What a fantastic feeling! It was finally over! Half-marathon: check, done.

Let me just say that I have amazing respect for anyone who has run full marathon. In that final mile I realized I would have to turn right back around and run the whole course again if it were a full marathon. No way, no how. I don't know how people do it. So if you've run a full marathon, kudos, I don't know how you do it.

We were able to finish in 2 hours 13 minutes. Our goal was 2:15 so we were happy we finished slightly under our goal time. Joseph could have totally gone faster and finished before me but instead he chose to run with me and cross the finish line together. So sweet!

A little more than a week has gone by and I'm already started to warm up to the idea of running another one someday. It was hard but it was also kind of fun in a weird way and really rewarding. It was nice to have a forced workout regimen all summer. Who knows. Maybe someday when I've completely forgotten this experience. Joseph and I are thinking that sprint triathlons may be the way to go. We'll see. As much as I complained about how awful it was in this blog post it really wasn't that terrible and it was only like 30 minutes of my life that I was really hating it. I really do recommend try one sometime. It's not something you regret doing.

What summer?

2009-09-05T18:58:00.002-05:00

Umm, it's September. I realize that is an obvious statement but holy cow people! I can't believe summer is already over! It didn't help that the summer here in Chicago felt more like fall. I can't complain though because I saved a bundle on car insurance, i mean our electric bill. (Don't you just love that little gecko? I love anything with an accent really, including Hugh Jackman, everyone in Harry Potter, and our friends the Atwoods.) Typically, I hate the coming of fall and have a mini anxiety attack (not really) that it's getting colder but I'm actually a little excited this year. I love the changing of the leaves, the crisp air, all the holidays around the corner and the absurd amount of baking that accompanies the cooler seasons. Hope you are all soaking up the last bit of summer!

A first

2009-09-03T11:17:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a first for Joseph and I. It was the first night we were apart since we got married. Joseph is in Minneapolis on a business trip until Friday. Now I don't consider myself to be a needy or clingy girl. I actually appreciate the nights when Joseph is busy (ie: Mutual night) because then I can run errands, do crafts, or do anything else I want to do but never have time for. But I'll tell ya, I sure do miss him. I just wish he could come back really late at night and leave early in the morning. It wasn't fun going to sleep all by myself. I did get the entire bed to myself was fun. The key was to stay up late so I fell right to sleep, which worked beautifully. I've never minded being by myself, I actually like it. It was just knowing he wasn't coming home that bothered me. Then there was the whole "safety" issue. I tend to minimize things and never think that anything bad is going to happen. I'm careful, but not scared. Have I mentioned we live in Chicago? Sooo....our neighborhood isn't quite the safest area. It's not bad, we're not in the "hood" or anything, but it ain't Lincoln Park either. Some pretty crazy stuff has happen right outside our window but I still feel relatively safe. So my awesome friend Christina invited me over for dinner while Joseph is gone. I wouldn't have thought anything of it but then Joseph kept telling me to be safe when I go over there and to not stay too long. He totally freaked me out, which I guess was good because I was super cautious last night. I take for granted how safe I feel when Joseph is with me. I'm glad I'm not easily scared by being by myself but it is nice to have Joseph to balance me out and make me more cautious. It made me remember to double bolt the doors when I got home. Joseph usually takes care of that. I'll let ya know how night #2 goes. I've got big plans for organizing. :)

12 miles

2009-08-31T13:55:00.003-05:00

Last weekend Joseph and I did our 12 mile run. It was the longest run we have to do for our half-marathon training. Much to my surprise, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The week before we did a 10 mile run and I thought I was going to die. I'm not even kidding. I think I know why this run was more successful though. First of all, we didn't eat greasy tacos at 11pm like we did the night before our 10 mile run, we carried Gatorade instead of water, and we used an energy gel pack. I used to not be a fan of Gatorade but now I totally see how it trumps water when you're doing a really hard workout. Those little gel packs runners use, I thought they were a gimmick. Let me tell you, that little gross packet of gel saved me. After taking the gel pack (it's about the consistency of frosting, yuck) I could tell that my body was exhausted but I was just able to keep on going. At the last mile I was even able to sprint a few blocks. Our total run time, including all stops was 2 hours and 3 minutes. We just need to add another 1.1 miles so we should be able to run our race in 2 hours and 15 minutes. We should have just run an extra mile and called it good and skipped this whole race nonsense. Oh well. I'm actually getting pretty nervous about the race this weekend. It's like my mind thinks that the 12 mile run was our race and now I'm thinking "oh crap, it's not over yet?" I'm also nervous because it's a new course. We are used to running in the city. As picturesque as running in the country is, I think I prefer running in the city. In the city there are blocks to measure your distance; you have some sense of where you're going. This race is going to be interesting. I can't wait until it's over. I am so excited to sleep in on Saturdays and not be forced to run when I really don't feel like running. Wasn't this whole race thing my idea? Oh yeah, it was. Thank goodness for Joseph. I totally would have quit by now.

Google Reader

2009-08-18T21:09:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to put in a little plug for Google Reader. First off, if you don't have a Gmail account what in the world is wrong with you? It's only like the best e-mail account ever. When you check your gmail account there is a button for Reader on the top of the page. You click it, and voila! All the blogs you follow are neatly organized and you can easily see which blogs have new posts. This is the only way I would ever check anyone's blog. So my advice to all, get yourself a gmail account and set up google reader. It rocks.

Our very own car!

2009-08-18T20:55:00.003-05:00

So last month something very exciting happened....we paid off the car! We now officially own the car and have the title in our possession. I bought the car when I was about to graduate college so I could drive to my jobs that were always out in the boonies. We bumped up our payments and paid it off a year and a half before schedule. This may not seem like a big deal to most people but it is such a big deal to me. I have paid for that car in its entirety. Every payment, every oil change, every tank of gas, all paid for by moi. (It helps that Joseph has been paying my rent for the past year. :) ) I feel like a real grown-up now. I went and found a car all by myself, took out a loan all by myself, and paid it off all by myself. That's what I consider truly being an adult. I'm glad my parents never gave me a car because I truly appreciate and worked hard for this car. (I don't count the old rusty Dodge caravan I had to drive around my senior year of high school. That was more a lesson in humility than it was a car.) I love that I am adult enough to pay for things myself. If you can't tell already, I'm very proud of myself. Thanks all, for letting me gloat. :)

1st Anniversary

2009-08-18T20:22:00.003-05:00

Can you believe Joseph and I have been married for a year already?! This year just flew by. It has been such a wonderful year. I really couldn't ask for anything more. I love being married. More importantly, I love being married to Joseph. I couldn't imagine my life without him. For our 1st anniversary we decided to enjoy our city and our theme was "do things we don't normally do." Pretty simple huh? We slept in (my special treat, since I LOVE my sleep), then we rode our bikes to the lake and rented a tandem kayak and kayaked around the lake. I loved it! I loved being out on the water and anything water related really. I just found my new favorite past time. Too bad it's a pretty expensive hobby. I guess I'll just have to reserve it for occasional outdoor fun. We got some food at the beach cafe, and then went to go see a movie. We passed the concessions and Joseph said "we don't usually get food at the movies..." You guessed it, we ended up getting popcorn and an Icee. It was a totally rip off but it was surprisingly delicious. Afterwards, we got all gussied up and DROVE downtown. Yes, we paid for parking. It was so worth it. We went to eat at Melting Pot. I have wanted to go there for years, ever since I discovered it existed. Fondue was kind of "our thing." When we were engaged we would have fondue nights and sit on the floor since Joseph didn't have any furniture. Melting Pot did not disappoint. It was delicious and we were soo stuffed. It was the perfect day of fun, just the two of us.

Do we not look 12 in this picture? Yikes. I guess it's better than looking too old.

Taste of Chicago

2009-08-18T19:42:00.004-05:00

Joseph and I decided that this summer we were going to try to do as many Chicago activities as we could. One of the most classic Chicago activities is The Taste of Chicago. They close off a few blocks downtown and restaurants set up booths on the street, very state fair-esque You buy tickets and can order a full serving of a dish or just get "a taste." It's great because we were able to try so many foods from a bunch of popular Chicago restaurants. I just love Chicago.

What we've been up to...

2009-07-29T07:43:00.001-05:00

So it's been like forever and a day since I've posted anything. I apologize. I told you this would happen. Here are some pictures from the beginning of the summer. Please bear with me as try to get this blog up to date!

Grillin'

2009-07-28T21:46:00.002-05:00

Move over Bobby Flay. Here comes Joseph Tateoka. I got Joseph a portable grill for his birthday. There's nothing like firing up the grill in your own backyard, or in our case, the back patio area of our apartment building.

Ben's visit

2009-07-28T21:14:00.007-05:00

We had Joseph's brother Benjamin visit us over Memorial Day weekend. It's fun to have visitors because then we get to do all the fun touristy things we never really have time to do.

We got to eat at some classic Chicago spots: Hot Doug's and Al's Italian Beef. Delicious!

In front of "Sue" at the Field Museum.

The boys playing at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Temporary Insanity?

2009-06-11T10:05:00.002-05:00

So Joseph and I signed up to run a half marathon the other week. Running a half marathon is on my list of "things to do before we have kids." Somehow I successfully roped Joseph into doing it with me. (Isn't he a good husband?) I've wanted to run a half marathon for a few years now but never found the time to do it. It's so true what they say about signing up for a race-if you want to prove you're really committed, sign up! There's no backing out now. Because there's no backing out, it makes it easier to follow through with training. Not that I'm looking to break any records or anything but I don't want to end up walking half the race either. Joseph asked me the other day what finish time I'm aiming for. Finish time? Please. I just want to finish the darn thing.

Oh and by the way, Joseph and I have decided to do our runs in the morning ,which entails being out the door by 6am!! Talk about activities that are on my "Top Ten Things I hate to Do" list. I hate waking up before I absolutely need to, but it has been surprisingly easier than I thought. It helps to have someone doing it with me who will get me out of bed. It's actually pretty nice to run in the morning. We get to run by the lake, there aren't a lot of people out, and I'm so much more awake throughout the day. We'll see how I feel about it in a couple more weeks...

Getting back into the swing of things

2009-05-15T15:35:00.002-05:00

So I've had some time off recently because my employer just had another baby. How exciting! Anyway, I took this opportunity to start exercising again. Lets just say it's had it's ups and downs.

UP: I found an awesome website that has yoga podcasts so I've started doing yoga. Let me tell ya, I was never a huge fan of yoga. It was great and all but in my mind if I was going to take the time to exercise I was going to get in some hard core cardio. I felt as if running was always the superior choice. I've gotta say, I have fallen in love with yoga. True, I don't burn as many calories as I do in a run but it's a good workout, especially for those days when the weather is not cooperating.

DOWN: I went on my first run last week. It was a beautiful day, I'm running to the lake shore, all is well. I'm running, I'm running, feeling liberated from the cold winter when I did nothing that required any physical activity. All the sudden I start to feel out of breath, I feel a cramp in my side. What?! I'm not in perfect shape? Duh. This happens every spring. I start running. I'm going strong, feeling like I could run for miles and then, much earlier than I would like, I start to feel tired. I guess this is why it's called "getting back into shape." It's gonna be a long road...

UP: Yesterday was my day of working out. Maybe it's all the sleep I've been getting, maybe it was the perfect weather outside, whatever it was I felt possessed to exercise. I did some yoga in the morning, went on a run by the lake and then used Joseph's bike (mine's broken) and headed out to find the North Branch bike trail. First off, the weather was perfect, 60's with a cool breeze by the lake, and the lake was a beautiful deep blue color. I love living near a lake. The bike ride was wonderful as well. The trail was great; I loved feeling like I was on some country trail but was in the middle of the city, very Central Parkesque. I have a tendency to go a little overboard when it come to exercise. I'm not so good at short, consistent workouts. I tend to have a day free and decide to do yoga, go running, then bike several miles. Oh well. It's better than nothing right? I'll have to work o that whole short, consistent thing.

Who wouldn't want to run by a lake that looks like that?!

Joseph's 26th Birthday

2009-05-14T10:01:00.004-05:00

So May 8th was Joseph's 26th birthday. Boy is he getting old! (I shouldn't talk. I turn 25 in a couple months. Yikes!) For as high maintenance a person as he is (love you honey!) he is super low maintenance about birthdays. He got off a little early from work, we opened presents, ate cupcakes, went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, and went to the temple. Oh yeah, fyi, we have been temple workers since the fall. It's great, I highly reccomend it for those of you who are able to do it. So it was a really low key day all in all.

Here is Joseph reading his card I made him. I was all stealth the night before and snuck it into his planner so he would find it at work.....but he never opened his planner. Super. When he finally did open it at home (after I asked "so....did you read my card?") he said "Stud.....cupcake." No silly. It's: Stud muffin!

Now Joseph did not turn one this year. There's just something about putting 26 candles on the cupcakes that did not appeal to me. He's so silly. He gets really excited for funfetti cupcakes and always wants them, so that's what he got.

Comic

2009-05-13T09:15:00.002-05:00

Usually I don't think many of the comic strips in the paper are very funny but I read this one on Mother's Day and I laughed out loud. It's so true!

http://www.foxtrot.com/

If you can't read it because it's too small just click on it.

Haircut

2009-05-13T08:47:00.003-05:00

I finally went and got a haircut a couple weeks ago. I desperately needed one. My hair was getting pretty long and raggedy. Now I didn't just get any haircut. Usually I take off a few inches, add in the ususal layers and I'm done. This time I cut it a lot shorter and got an "in style" haircut. It's an inverted bob...at least that's what she called it. I never get haircuts that are in fashion. I guess this style has been around a few years so that sounds about right. It always takes me a few years to start to like anything trendy. Just as something's going out of style I start to think "Hey....I kind of like that." So here it is. It goes up in the back but you can't tell in the picture. Oh well.

When I got home I kind of freaked out a little bit. I felt like I had just aged myself. I felt like I was 32 with 3 kids and that I had given up on having long hair and had gotten a "mommy cut." I don't want to give up on my long hair. I liked my long hair, when I took care of it. I just don't want to keep my hair short forever but am afraid I will once kids start coming. So I've sworn to let my hair grow long from time to time. We'll see how that goes.

Baby Elana

2009-05-11T16:01:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago Joseph and I went up to Wisconsin for a wedding reception. We went to church with his uncle that Sunday and we ended up getting to hold an adorable 2 month old baby. Joseph brought the baby carrier in from the car and the mom sat with us during sacrament meeting. It's kind of stressful holding a baby that small. I was constantly worried about moving her and wondering if she was comfortable and praying she wouldn't start crying at the top of her lungs in the middle of sacrament meeting. The time came to pass her over to Joseph, which was also no easy task. Oh, how my heart just melted! I loved seeing Joseph hold this tiny infant. Now don't get too excited everyone.....babies are not in the near future for us....but it was really fun to think about the time when we will have one of our own. There is something magical about seeing men and little babies. Maybe it's the contrast: big vs little, strong vs delicate, whatever it is I just love it.

Easter 2009

2009-05-11T12:44:00.005-05:00

Here are some highlights from our Easter trip to Wisconsin. I'm so grateful to have some family close so we have somewhere to go for the holidays. Holidays are always more fun with kids too. Here are pictures of the Easter eggs Joseph and I dyed.

This is my favorite egg that I dyed. Easter eggs are so fun!

This is Joseph's uncle's family who we always go visit. We love going up tovisit them. Wisconsin has become our second home. We don't even have to introduce ourselves when we go to their ward anymore.

Quick shout-out

2009-02-05T13:12:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to Morse Market. It's this Mexican market a block away from our apartment. The other day they had the most amazing deals. A large container of strawberries...$.99, a large container of blueberries....$.99, a large head of Romaine lettuce....$.50! I could go on but I'll spare you. I went in to check the price of zucchini and walked out with two bags full of produce for under $10. In this economy it's not easy to live in Chicago. While everything else in this city gets more and more expensive it's good to know I can always count on Morse Market to provide some relief to my wallet.

Lake of Ice

2009-02-04T21:35:00.013-06:00

One cold day in Chicago we decided to go see Lake Michigan, a few shorts blocks from our apartment, with our friends Brandt and Christina. The lake becomes frozen over and the waves create these amazing ice forms. It was really freaky to think that underneath the ice we were standing on wasn't land but the lake itself. I wish I had a picture to show you where the beach ended and the lake actually began, but I don't. Sorry this post is mostly pictures but who doesn't like pictures?! It's why I look at blogs.

Brandt and Christina-our friends we pretty much do everything with.

Our First Christmas

2009-01-28T18:50:00.006-06:00

Joseph and I had a different "first Christmas" experience than most newlyweds. From what I hear, most newlyweds face the challenge of deciding which family to visit on their first Christmas after the wedding. It usually ends up being the girl's family because girls usually win at these kind of things. To our surprise, both of our parents pretty much told us that since they've already seen us this summer and we're poor newlyweds, they understood if we couldn't come home for Christmas. As much as we love our families, we decided to take them up on the offer. We figured we wouldn't get many guilt-free chances to stay put for the holidays. I'll admit that the holidays seem kind of anti-climatic when there is only two of you, but it was also a wonderful, once in a lifetime experience to be able to spend our first Christmas together, just the two of us.

Here are some pictures of our decorated apartment and us in our awesome aprons Joseph's mom gave us for Christmas. Aren't they adorable?!

A Chicago Christmas

2009-01-28T18:01:00.007-06:00

For some reason I just love giant Christmas trees. Even though I know that it's just a bunch of smaller trees piled on top of one another, there is something about seeing this enormous symbol of Christmas in the middle of the city that gets me all excited for the holidays. I loved going to see the Christmas tree in New York City so it was only natural that I was pumped to brave the cold Chicago evenings in order to view our city's tree. Let me just say, Chicago did not disappoint me! I think it may even beat out NYC (gasp!). Chicago's tree sits in the middle of Daley Plaza surrounded by the most charming German market called the Kriskindlemart. There were several booths that sold everything from ornaments to German cheese fritters. We bought a ornament for our tree as well as a fritter and quickly headed on our way because it was unbearably cold out. Welcome to Chicago; it was worth it to get me in the Christmas spirit!

Here Goes Nothing...

2009-01-21T09:02:00.002-06:00

Lets just get one thing straight--I have no idea what I'm doing. I resisted getting Facebook when it first came out, finally signed up, used it for a bit, and now barely check it. I'm not really the blogging type. I like reading about what other people are doing and enjoy looking at their pictures but I guess I just too lazy to or too uninterested in blogging to post anything about my own life. I just keep going about my life, happy as a clam, not thinking that anyone else needs to know all of my comings and goings. However, due to the inspiration of friends and a nagging feeling that I need to be better at keeping in touch, I have finally created our family blog! I keep hearing that this is the wife's responsibility anyway. I want to know who starts these rumors. I make no promises as to how well I will keep this updated. You'll probably learn about everything Joseph and I do in the next two months and then not see another post for like a year....i mean....I'll do my very best to update this as frequently as possible. I'll try...really I will!