They ask me where hip hop is goin', a Chicagoan, poetry's in motion like a picture now showin'

I love that lyric! Chicago is easily one of my favorite cities in my few visits there. We went this past weekend to visit Tim's family on his mother's side. Below is just a snap shot of the weekend.

Elliot wanted to come along for the trip.

But alas, we arrived without her.

Tim drove a rental.

And I cheesed for the camera.

I thought this was a cool spotting.

Loved the bridge.

Chi city!

Pretty.

We went to the museum of broadcast communications. #totallyme

Check it out!

Such cool history.

80s anyone?

All Things Considered!

Who remembers BOZO!

My name is in that drum, I'm pretty sure...just ask my mom.

Meet the Press!

OH YEAH!

I bet if my dad were there, he could tell you everything about each piece of this installation.

Tim acting like one of the cats, all passed out.

WHITE CASTLE! It really exists.

I'll let you fill in the caption...I thought they were funny.

For Dad Sowers.

On the drive home.

It's so flat!

Overall, a fun trip. Tim and I flew to Chicago from Atlanta on Friday and got in the city around lunchtime. We explored by driving (not recommended) for a bit and then set off on foot to find the Museum of Broadcast Communications, because I'm a lover of the media. It's especially something that I'm interested in because my daddy has spent over 40 years in the field. I love seeing things that he's lived through. It was pretty cool, but honestly a little less than I expected. But it's ok. Tim and I watched one exhibit show clips from memorable moments in US TV news history. We watched the Kennedy assassination, the challenger explosion and of course, 9/11 when the second plane hit. It was very emotional. 

After the museum, we met up with Sarah and CJ and ate at a place called Elephant & Castle. It made me think of my dear friend Beth because of the elephant and the fact it was crimson. However, it turned out to be some British and Canadian pub that's in fact a chain all over the North. We ate outside on the sidewalk and watched the people and cars on the street. Afterward, we went to find Cousin Amanda at Aldo. She managed one of the stores off Michigan Ave. After three stores we found her! :) 

On Saturday we got up and went to the family reunion. It was nice to see Tim's family because they are so far away. I really enjoyed visiting with them all, but I've especially grown quite fond of Cousin Stacey because we keep in touch on facebook a fair bit. She has two sweet boys and her sister Cousin Nikki has two sweet girls. One of them, Nora, was very much attached to poor CJ all weekend :). I of course also love talking to Cousins Amanda and Lauren because they are close in age to Tim and I and it's fun to hear what they are up to! Again, love them all- but it's easier when you have something like facebook to help bridge the gap between visits. :)

On Sunday we got up, ate breakfast and then began the long trek back to Georgia via car. We stopped in Champagne, IL where my husband was born. While there we ate BBQ at his dad's favorite place and bought sauce to bring back. It's pretty good (no one tell Country's)! We got in around 2:00 a.m. to our house and I slept until 10:00 a.m. the next day, ha!

We're Back!

Well, things are finally starting to settle down around here. We've had the internet up and working in our home for over a week now. Who knew our lives were so dependent on this technology. Well, I plan on using it to continually update this blog.

I've started WW again, today, so hopefully this blog will help facilitate those healthy cooking and eating habits again. I also hope to take more photos, especially of the kittens exploring their new space.

All in all, it's good to be back!

Moving Day 1: Where is Tim?

Ah, yes. Where is Tim? Yesterday around 5:30 p.m. Tim's family arrived to meet me and my parents at the new house...but where was he? Hrmmmm. He decided to "cat nap" and in doing so he missed doing this:

This is about a 1/3 of what was in the U haul- load 1.

Between all of us, we unloaded lots of boxes, mattresses, TV, dresser mirror, and the small kitchen table- all in less than half an hour. Tim showed up AFTER we had finished :) Good timing.

The all star of the day was this champ:

Katie rocks!

She was hauling like no one's business. Total rock star! But, she won't be here today so Tim's going to pull his weight. Which he is doing right now while I'm blogging. He and his dad are loading up round two with the majority of our furniture. I can't wait to see what everything looks like once its inside. Unfortunately, everything is going to be slow because of the stormy weather. So wish us luck :)

Trip Tease: Part 1- Jet Set to NYC and Jersey!

Wow! What a weekend. I know I should be in bed because the bags under my eyes are heavier than my unpacked luggage right now, but I'm excited to share with everyone about our weekend trip. It had its highs, and it certainly had a few unpleasant lows.

The purpose of this trip: congratulating my husband's sweet cousin on her upcoming nuptials. Teresa and Todd are getting married in SPAIN! Though I had only met her once before, Teresa means a lot to me. Tim and I got married and she and her fiance made the long journey "Down South" for our wedding. (PS- they also bought us our favorite dishes for entertaining- which unfortunately we haven't been able to use since moving back in Columbus). In fact, we were just overjoyed with the large turnout from his entire family. So we made a promise to ourselves that we would try and travel more to see his family and celebrate special occasions with them when we could afford to. So when we got this adorable handmade card, we decided yes! We would make this work.

And here is how it all went down...

Thursday
Tim and I packed up and headed out to Atlanta around 3. Our flight was supposed to leave at 7:45ish. Well...it ended up finally getting there around 9:40. I think we sat on the plane a bit and took around closer to 10. We landed around 12:40, waited in line for a transit to get to the rental car place, and waited in line there til close til 1:30. I think we finally got in the car and on the road by 2, and somehow I'm looking at my phone and I went to bed after calling my parents at 3:23 a.m.

Lessons learned- 1) NEVER FLY UNITED/CONTINENTAL... 2) Never fly into Newark 3) Never rent a rental to drive into NYC. This was the creepiest experience of my life. On the plus, we got a super upgrade to a nice Ford SUV. I think it was the Ford Edge. Pretty spacious. 4) Garmin cannot be trusted up North, especially on the Jersey turnpike. She gets disoriented very easily, cranky, and takes you through the smelliest, worst parts of Jersey City. 5) If you do rent a car to drive into NYC always get a hotel with valet. It was worth the $70!

We stayed at the Wellington Hotel.

Wellington Hotel- NY, NY

It was overall a decent hotel. Very pretty on the inside lobby and outside. Old and classic looking I suppose. Our room was tiny tiny tiny. But, of course who needs a big room when all you do is sleep in the room. It was unfortunate that when we first arrived our room was "unclean and used," but our bellman quickly took us back to the counter to get a new room.

Wellington Hotel - Standard Queen Room (yes the bed took up 85% of the room).

The best part of the hotel is that it really is centrally located for a lot of good tourism spots. They have this great list on their website that sort of sold me.

Friday
Believe it or not we were up and out the door by about 8:15 a.m. We wanted to take full advantage of our 24 hours in Manhattan! We walked and walked and walked and walked. Here are just a few of the things we saw on our long walk in the city:

Times Square

More Times Square

M+M store in Times Square

Central Park

Timmy at Central Park

Time took a photo of me looking at the buildings next to Central Park.

Pretty flowers!

Me at Central Park!

Madison Avenue!

For Mel and Chris... <3

I really thought Tim owed it to me to buy a piece of Tiffany jewelry... *sigh*

Yummy cakes in a bakery window near out hotel. I'll have to look up the name.

I'm a bad tourist...I have no idea which church this was...but it was pretty!

I love this!

Curses! It hadn't opened yet. It's still under construction.

Grand Central Station

The REAL DEAL for Mel and Chris <3

My hot hubby chilling in Bryant Park!

Me in Bryant Park!

Naked Cowboy!

 

Home of AVENUE Q! I finally got to see it!

We ate dinner here after the show.

And late night dessert!

The best butter-creme icing ever!

Friday was the most exhausting day!

Saturday

On Saturday morning we woke up early, packed, and headed out to find our way to Newton, NJ. That's where out hotel was. Its a very scenic, green and quite part of New Jersey. We liked it. We checked in and got ready to go to the reception for Teresa and Todd. It was amazing! So much fun. I love catching up with people. It felt really natural and it was good to see everyone enjoying one another. My only regret...Tim didn't request our song...and he refused to dance :( I bet if they played our song we would have started shufflin :) I thought the location was sweet and beautiful! I love seeing people in love!

Like these kiddos! (That's my husband's parents showing everyone they still have the "passion" hehe)

Aren't they sweet? :)

Tim and I at the reception!

Pretty girls! Sarah, Me, Katie and the Bride to Be Teresa!

Sunday

This was the nightmare. And it wasn't because of the Sangria  from the night before...it was like the weekend finally caught up with us. We probably walked over 12 miles, slept a handful of hours, laughed and had a good time for hours on end. But, Sunday morning turned ugly quick. I woke up feeling pretty bleh, but I snapped into a sobering reality when the call came at 10 a.m. our flight to Atlanta had been cancelled. We packed in a rush and skipped going to an apple orchard Tim had picked out. All we could think about was getting to Newark International to try and catch a flight home. After a gruesome 12 hours in the airport waiting we boarded a plane, only to arrive in Atlanta after midnight, wait on our luggage to arrive at 3 a.m. and finally hit the pillow at home around 5 a.m.

Whirl wind overview of a whirl wind weekend I know! But, I've got a few other plans for entries, so you'll just have to check back later. I hope the photos didn't explode your browser! I'll be posting more plus these on facebook soon.