Tan Fat is better than White Fat

I'm off to the tanning beds! Screw Midwest winters. I need some vitamin D!

My favorite to Date

I just finished knitting, felting and putting this purse together, and I have to say, it is my favorite thing that I have ever made. Love it. On to the next project. Luc, dying to know what having a wedding logo is. You have to expand on that. Sounds so cool. Love to all.

Update

Well, hello everyone!

Good to get the update from Lyd. As she mentioned, it's flippin' freezing here but Drew and i look at it as the last time we have to spend a freezing cold winter here so that's comforting. My trip to Atlanta was great. I was pretty tired the first day and half but by the end i was able to keep up with Lyd and the kids. Believe it or not, I took them to Chuck E Cheeses. Not going to lie... the pizza was pretty good there!

Drew and I are in the honeymoon phase. He's gone the next two weekend as well so absence really makes the heart grown fonder. We have set up our savings accounts and are really planning against our move and all the other crazy thing we have ahead. Change is the theme for us in 2008.

Work is pretty consuming right now but i had a little come to Jesus with myself and just need to put my head down and get through to September. I've has very little time to do much else but I am looking forward to spending time with Carrie and Andy this weekend although I'll still be at the office both days. We are going to dinner at Alinea (Gourmet's number 1 restaurant in 2006) and a neil diamond cover band. Good times all around.

My property management company redid my bathroom with floor to ceiling white tile. It feels like a hospital and I hate it. I have unscrewed almost every light bulb because the reflection is so bright. I actually called to ask them why they did this and they said they were 'updating' the apartment. i had to laugh out loud.

I really like my dress for magoos wedding. Hope its cool but I am going heels ceramony and flops for reception. It's just a summer wedding must.

Currently I am eating the world's worst thai take out. I am so bummed. Good thai is hard to find in Chicago. For the love of god can I get some peanut sauce that is not melted Jif???

Hope all is well. Love to all.

It's been a long time baby!

Where to begin. Been so pathetic on the communication front. We had a wonderful MLK weekend with Lizzy here. As you saw from our pictures, we had a really snowy weekend and the kids had an amazing time. We even went sledding. Mary Rowe had never seen snow before and she said it was the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. It is still freezing here. It isn't 5 though! I know Chaz and Lizzy are freezing in that temp. today. Crazy stuff here. We loved Lizzy's visit. We went shopping and got me a couple of essentials. Liz, I also took in a few of my favorite clothing items to have them made to fit my new bod. One of them was that flower skirt you got me a couple of years ago. I also just got an amazing jacket and skirt yesterday at a friend's clothing show so I am on a roll. Next purchase is a bikini! Unfortunately, Lizzy convinced me to go to a tanning salon for the first time in 10 years and I am still burnt to a crisp. Aparrently tanning technology has not improved at all, only gotten more expensive. My boobs are purple! They are re-districting out neighborhoods school district and some others and it has caused quite a big to do. We come out fine in the deal, but others are very upset. I went to the School Board meeting on Tuesday night. We got there at 6:15 p.m. and did not get home until 1 am! Very emotional folks. Glad we come out good in the deal though. Our whole neighborhood went, had a petition, spoke etc. so it was interesting to witness the process and be a part of it. I was amazed at the board and how proficient they were in everything. Cannot believe it is the same group agreeing to pay students $8 an hour to study!!!!! Dill thinks that is fine, I, like Lizzy, thinks it is a joke. Oh well. Looking forward to a relaxing weekend, and then to Super Tuesday. I am definately voting for Edwards. I was horrified at Obama and Hillary's behavior at the debate on Monday Night. I think they both looked like spoiled children and Edwards came out shining. Dill has been in town lately, but is about to go on a long trip to Spain, England and France. The conference in Spain is a really big deal and he is speaking everyday and on panels everyday as well. Very proud of him for that. Finally got Spencer's Christening all set. It can't be until April 27th, but better late than never! At least it is prior to his first birthday. My poor little heathon. I am doing a private ceremony in the small chapel at our church this time and am really looking forward to hit being all family and friends and not the entire congregation. We are here for a while and then heading to Chapel Hill for Easter. Trying to figure out if we are going anywhere for Spring Break. I was thinking I would take the kids to California, but it is such a production by myself. Our plan is to come for 6 weeks this summer though. Can't wait until your wedding Luc. Lizzy's dress is fabulous, and we put Mary Rowe's dress on when Liz was here and she looked like an angel. I am going to just monogram the sash, in case you have a little girl that you can give it to in the future. I am writing this at the car wash. My car is like a rolling trailer so it is a 2 hour ordeal. Excuse me for over writing, but need to pass the time! I love and miss you all.

Happy birthday Chaz!!!

Have a great day today! xoxoxo

Happy New Year

Chaz- I love the pics of Oscar skiing. they were so cute! Shaw's make for good skiers.

I am back home from California only to be met with 6 degree weather and I am butt white and, well, you can imagine how happy I am to be back here. Did I mention that Drew doesn't come home for another 9 days...?

Anyway, work is keeping me very busy and I am just going to keep my head down, go to yoga and lay low for a couple weeks. Should be nice actually. I am looking forward to going to Atlanta in about 2 weeks to see Lyd and the kids. I am also excited to see some friends, including Drew's brother, and go see on of Baker's basketball games.

I got a ton of new cooking stuff for xmas so I am excited to get start whipping up some things. Getting a dutch oven is the best thing for this time of year. Hearty braised meat make for good winter dinners.

As a family I think we have a lot of exciting things to look forward to in this new year- Lucille is getting married, Chaz and Lena are having a third, Drew and I are moving and much more we don't even know about yet!

Love to all

Happy New Year

OK. No posts since the 20th. You guys are slacking. Happy New Year everyone. Our New Year's get more and more sober every year. I guess that is a good thing. Actually, we went to a very nice family friendly party. We left at 10 because the roads were getting bad with all the snow but we made it home for the "ball drop." Even the kids stayed up. Strange. Not much going on. Our back yard fence was blown over in the 75 mph winds we had. Insurance is covering it though so in the end but for the deductible, we should have a really nice new fence. We are also in talks with an architect to remodel the house. Not sure what we will be doing. We will definitely add the master bath but we might do much more including another room upstairs, remodeling the kitchen and building a new garage that orients toward Church. We'll see. Got a lot of thinking to do on the matter. The house is looking better with all the great art we picked up over the holiday. It is starting to look like a museum. The best thing is that all of our pieces are original. The painting I got for XMAS is just great. I love it. After our ski trip, we are now gearing up for the Caribbean. PSYCHED!!!!!!!!!!! SUN!!!!!!!!! Global warming. Yeah right. You gotta be an idiot to believe that stuff. All I know is that I haven't seen this much snow in years and last I heard it was snowing in Daytona Beach. Whatever Al. My bday is coming up. Those too are getting soberer every year. We are going to a Blackhawks game with Glenn and his girlfriend. Should be fun. I like hockey games. I miss you all. Hope to see some of you before too long. With airfairs the way the are, I am not sure when that will be. Looked into tix for Lu's wedding. At this point, they want $575 for ORD to SFO. Unbelievable. Not a year ago, they were $198. Not looking forward to carting 5 people to Sweden. Ouch. Love you guys.