Happy Halloween 2009

Drew and I went to Adam and Nicole's tonight for their Halloween Party. I actually felt pretty good and made it through the party. Here are pictures of some of the people who dressed up.

Amanda was a left over and Josh was a Smurf.
Stephanie and Nicole were 80's workout chicks. Steph's leotard cracked me up. It was a thong in the front and in the back. Awesome!

Dawn was Big Bird. Such a neat costume!!

Her husband, Dan, was Michael Jackson.

Jono, a guy that Drew and Adam know, was some singer guy from Judas Priest. You can't see in the picture, but he had stuffed his pants so it looked like he had a rather large member. Hilarious!!

And last, but not least, my husband. He ran to K-Mart at 4:30 and bought whatever he could find. He paired that with his FrigiWear and instant costume!

We had trick-or-treaters at the house, so we don't have to put it up for sale. I had joked that if we didn't get any, I would be putting it on the market the next day.

Wednesday's Word

Conflate / Kuhn-FLAYT / transitive verb
1. To bring together; to fuse together; to join or meld.
2. To combine (as two readings of a text) into one whole.

Scott Reynolds's creepy debut feature [film] conflates the present and the past with ingenious use of flashbacks.
-- Anne Billson, "Bent beneath the weight of its own righteousness", Sunday Telegraph, March 1, 1998

Painting America as a drug-ridden society leads to bad policy -- as does the tendency in some quarters to conflate the various drug abuses into a single dreadful statistic.
-- William Raspberry, "Not a Drug-Ridden Society", Washington Post, April 21, 2000

. . .lean and mobile military units that conflate the traditional categories of police officers, commandos, emergency-relief specialists, diplomats, and, of course, intelligence officers.
-- Robert D. Kaplan, "The roles of the CIA and the military may merge", The Atlantic, February 1998

One Year Anniversary

Since Drew and I can't go to dinner tomorrow night, we decided to move our celebration up one night. We ran some errands this afternoon, picked up all of my clear liquids, and went to Red Lobster for dinner.

Drew introduced me to seafood while we were on the cruise in 2007. I feel in love with so many new items that I would never have tried if it wasn't for that cruise. One of my particular favorites is crab cakes. I absolutely love them!! When Drew and I decided that we weren't going to be going to JMK, we decided to go to Red Lobster, and that made me just as happy. Drew indulged in endless shrimp and I, of course, had crab cakes. Don't worry though, I helped him eat some shrimp! I needed to be sure to stuff myself good and full because it will be the last good meal I eat until at least Tuesday afternoon. (And as long as my stomach will let me, McDonald's chicken nuggets will be the first thing that I request.)

After dinner, we came home and popped open some champagne so that we could toast our first year of marriage.

It is so amazing to me how quickly this year has flown by. It's unreal. We've definitely had some challenges, and lots of ups and downs. But we've also had so many joys too! I am so blessed to be Drew's wife. I love him more and more everyday and I look forward to what our next years will bring us.

Happy Anniversary Drew!

Liquified

Surgery on Tuesday is barreling towards me. The doctor's office called me yesterday and told me that they want me to start a clear liquid diet starting tomorrow morning until surgery.
I am allowed to have:

• Coffee with no cream or sugar. I don't drink coffee. At all. Next option
• Soda, but it can't be diet or red.
• Jello
• Juice, not red and no pulp
• Soup broth

Sounds scrumptious, doesn't it? I was an emotional wreck yesterday after the doctor's office called. As you know, it's our anniversary tomorrow, and we had plans to go to JMK for dinner. Well, now dinner can't be done because I'm stuck on this stupid clear liquid diet. That, compiling with everything else that has been going on, and I was a mess of tears all morning.

Best.Husband.Ever!!!

As I'm sure you lovely readers know, our anniversary is coming up. I had to work at the bank until 6 tonight. I came home, walked in the living room, and greeted my husband. I then started to head back to the bedroom to do what I do every night when I get home from the bank. Put my pajamas on! I started calling for Simon because I saw him when I walked in, but then he ran away. I didn't see him in the hallway and figured he was in the bedroom. As I approached the bedroom, I heard a squeaking and wondered what Simon was doing. I flipped the light on in the bedroom and was greeted by the cutest little kitten in a cage! Drew got me a kitten for my anniversary present!!!!!

Drew got him from one of his co-workers. He is 8 weeks old today.

And he is crazy!! Watch the video that we took of him. He does more playing in the kitty litter than anything else.

I am totally in love with him. We haven't decided on a name yet. We're leaning towards George because it kinda sounds like orange. We're fans of naming our pets "normal" names. That way I don't feel like a loser shouting Fluffy or Nugget (Mom!) to our pet. Any suggestions?

Wednesday's Word

Aesthete / ES-theet / noun
One having or affecting great sensitivity to beauty, as in art or nature.

Beijing, with its stolid, square buildings and wide, straight roads, feels like the plan of a first-year engineering student, while Shanghai's decorative architecture and snaking, narrow roads feel like the plan of an aesthete.
-- "Sky's the Limit in Shanghai", Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1999

But he was also an aesthete with a connoisseur's eye for the wild modernist innovations with letterforms and layout of the 1920s.
--Rick Poynor, "Herbert Spencer", The Guardian, March 15, 2002

Where the standard Oxford aesthete of the 1920s had been slowily dissipated, full of wild talk about decadence and beauty, Auden was preaching a new gospel of icy austerity and self-control.
-- Ian Hamilton, Against Oblivion

Looking Back

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

MIA Blogger

I know that I have been very neglectful of this poor blog lately.  There is a lot going on right now.  Unfortunately, I just can't talk about everything right now.  I will be able to reveal what's been going on in a couple weeks, so be on the lookout for that news.  It's good too!

Our one year anniversary is in 8 days.  It's surreal.  I can't believe it's here already.  It's hard to believe that a year ago we were a week away from the wedding.  I remember being so anxious and excited.  I remember begging for time to speed up.  Now, I wish that I had wished for it to slow down so that I could have savored the time more. 

Surgery is in 10 days. I'm scared to death. 

Wednesday's Word

Pukka / PUHK-uh / adjective
1.  Authentic; genuine
2.  Superior; first-class

He talks like the quintessential pukka Englishman and quotes Chesterton and Kipling by the yard and yet he has chosen to live most of his adult life abroad.
-- Lynn Barber, "Bell book . . . and then what?" The Observer, August 27, 2000

If he does not have a house, the government gives him a pukka residence, not a . . . shack on the pavement but a solid construction.
-- Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Wednesday's Word

Foofaraw / FOO-fuh-raw / noun
1. Excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration.
2. A fuss over a matter of little importance.

A somber, muted descending motif opens and closes the work, which is brief but effective. It provided much needed relief from the fanfares and foofaraw in which brass-going composers so often indulge.
-- Philip Kennicott, "Brass Spectacular is a Spectacle of Special Sound", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 17, 1997

As usual, with all cooperation with Tom Lea, Art becomes a "taking away" process rather than the adding of ornaments, rules, and other foofaraw.
-- David R. Farmer, Calgary Sun

Making the Times best-seller list, or a movie, or all that other foofaraw is not necessarily proof of [a novel's] lasting significance.
-- Roger K. Miller, "Peyton Place' was remarkably good bad novel", Minneapolis Star Tribune, December 29, 1996.

Surgery Date

It's finally confirmed that my surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27.


Tensions are already running quite high here in our house. I never would have imagined that our first year of marriage would have been filled with so many challenges and obstacles. We're praying for the best and I ask that you do too. I will keep everyone posted with updates as we get closer and as the surgery actually happens.

101 in 1001 October Update

1. Take Drew to Arizona
2. Read the Bible
3. Visit the Daughtry’s in North Carolina
4. Visit the Landgren’s in Colorado
5. Make dinner every night for a week
6. Go to church at least one Sunday a month
7. Take a dance class
8. Move out of our apartment
9. Buy a house
10. Start our family
11. Pay off all credit cards (0/4)
12. Go to a Cubs game with Drew
13. Watch at least 5 Cubs games each season with Drew (and not complain about it) 5/15
14. Learn sign language
15. Learn to play the piano
16. Go on a spontaneous overnight trip
17. Go snowboarding or skiing
18. Don’t drink pop for an entire week
19. Go to Florida
20. Read 5 books that have turned into movies (2/5)(Twilight, My Sister's Keeper)
21. Watch the movies too (1/5)(Twilight)
22. Do a drastically different hairstyle
23. Get braces
24. Read the Twilight series (4/4)
25. Organize the closets
26. Host Christmas Eve for my side of the family
27. Go to bed before 10PM at least 60 times (8/60)
28. Go on a second honeymoon
29. Organize address book
30. Find 4 new recipes to cook for dinner (1/4)
31. Start a family tradition with Drew and me
32. Find a family doctor
33. Have 8 girls’ night (0/8)
34. Take a yoga class
35. Get a massage
36. Go to Starlight Theatre three times (0/3)
37. Clean out Drew’s clothes
38. Pick and print out wedding pictures for frame
39. Go to the movie theatre with Drew
40. Try 5 new restaurants (2/5)(Granite City, Land's End Tavern)
41. Stay off the computer after work for one week
42. Get a job in my field
43. Take a cooking class
44. Put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean
45. Put my feet in the Pacific Ocean
46. Go golfing
47. Make a new friend
48. Teach someone something
49. Play hookie with Drew one day
50. Play a video game with Drew
51. Pick apples from the apple orchard
52. Plan a big surprise for Drew
53. Make dinner for my family
54. Make dinner for Drew’s family
55. Spend a day with my brother
56. Let Drew teach me something new
57. Learn one new word a week and blog about it (39/143)
58. Put at least $20 into my savings account every two weeks (19/71)
59. Eat dinner at the Signature Room again
60. Volunteer anywhere
61. Be a Chicago “tourist” – Go to the Museum of Science and Industry
62. Be a Chicago “tourist” – Go to the Shedd Aquarium
63. Be a Chicago “tourist” – Go to the Field Museum
64. Be a Chicago “tourist” – Go to the Hancock Observatory
65. Be a Chicago “tourist” – Go to Adler Planetarium
66. Go to Navy Pier
67. Stay at a Bed and Breakfast
68. Go to Brookfield Zoo
69. Go on a picnic
70. Go camping
71. Read “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” when I become pregnant
72. Take a photography class
73. Cross stitch a picture
74. Set up a 401k
75. Get a physical once a year (1/3)
76. Pay off bills as soon as they come in rather than waiting until they’re due
77. Host Thanksgiving
78. Throw a surprise party for someone
79. Send out birthday cards every month for a year (0/12)
80. Completely clean bathrooms every week for a month (0/4)
81. Recycle
82. Completely clean the tables off every night for a month (0/30)
83. Vacuum and dust every week for a month (0/4)
84. Don’t swear for a week
85. Go skydiving
86. Become known for making or doing something
87. Take a ballroom dancing class
88. Take an acting class
89. Research getting an MBA
90. Drink only water for a week
91. Splurge on a spa day for me
92. Splurge on a spa day for me and a friend
93. Encourage at least one other person to make a list like this one
94. Purchase a china cabinet
95. Purchase 5 new pieces of clothing and DON’T feel guilty about it (5/5)
96. Host a game night with our friends
97. Clean and organize garage
98. Do something I don’t want to that will make someone else happy
99. Preserve my wedding gown
100. Donate $5 to a charity for any uncompleted items on this list101. Make a new list at the end of 1001 days and include any items I didn’t complete on this list