Softball Season is upon us!

Tonight we took a detour on our way home to see Jenna's softball game! Jenna is #21--Gator! I will refrain from telling you why she has this nickname!

The throw from 2nd base to the pitcher.

I went to the home teams side to take pictures of Jenna batting,
but I had to get a picture of Rick too!

Jenna's first pitch was thrown at her...she did a nice job ducking.

I was impressed how low she got!

But then she made contact....

And ended up with a double!

She ended up scoring a couple batters later! Westside won the game!

More softball to come....

Concerts at Highland School

The 2nd and 3rd grades at Highland have been busy preparing and performing concerts. Last week was the 2nd grade with their "Friends Concert" and today was the 3rd grade with "This Beautiful Land we Share".

2nd Grade
Friends Concert

Mrs. Costello!

3rd Grade
This Beautiful Land we Share

Mrs. Roegner!

Mrs. Rutherford is the music teacher and is in charge of the concerts! She loves what she does.

Our 1st Anniversary!

Rick and I celebrated our first anniversary on Monday. We were happy to have the day off from work. We had a relaxing day together. It is hard to believe that it has been a whole year since we were sharing our vows and dancing the night away at our wedding! It has been a wonderful year being married to Rick and I look forward to many, many more.

Our first dance!
May 26, 2007

Our wedding cake!

May 26, 2008
**The cake was much better than we expected. It doesn't look nearly as pretty as last year, but the taste was pretty close**

Bike the Drive 2008!

This morning I, along with my family, rode in Bike the Drive. My parents have done this a few times before, but it was the first time for Rick and me. We stayed the night at my moms cousin's house. They live very close to Lake Shore Drive. We left their house at 5:30am to get on the path at the south end. We were one of the first people out and had the road all to ourselves. It eventually got busier, but it was awesome! We finished the 30 mile ride in about 3 hours. We made a couple stops and took some pictures along the way.

The sunrise at about 5:40am.

A quick stop-not sure why-but we are next to Soldier Field (where the Bears play).

On the bridge that goes over the Chicago River. Navy Pier is to the right of the picture. We had gone about 8 miles at this point!

Same location, different people!

This is the half way point...can you find us (Rick, my dad, me)?

The view of the Chicago River on our way back. 22ish mile marker!

Mom and Dad!

Rick and me!

Most people started and ended at Grant Park. Since we started at the south end we just stopped in the park on our way back to pick up our t-shirts. After we left the park we had 7.4 miles remaining!

Back at Daniel and Julia's house! Rick, Daniel, me, Dad, Mom, and Julia!

O'WICH in May!

May is almost over, but we spent the weekend at O'WICH for Mother's Day. We had a great time and got some good work done too. Here are a few pictures from our weekend!

Portage--Here we come!!

The sun was setting as we approached the dirt road...very pretty!

Flooding has been a major issue for Cindy and Carlo all spring up at the cabin. The days before we arrived there had been much of the same---water! Carlo tried mowing but was never able to finish and couldn't get the lawn mower back to the house either so he tied it to a tree so it wouldn't float away. I thought this was very humorous!

Rick showing off his muscles! :)

Giving a thumbs up to Cindy and Carlo cutting a piece of wood for the newly installed stairs to the outhouse!

Putting the finishing touches on the stairs!

The nature at O'WICH!

On Sunday the plan was to install drop stairs from the loft. There was a mishap in measuring and this project couldn't be completed. However, we were able to get the futon in the loft and set it up. Rick and Carlo made a great team!

Moo-velous Job!

This is one of the bulletin boards I made this year at my school. This one was to recognize the students that participated in the Variety Show!!

I am very happy with the way that it turned out.

Wendy's Rant...in honor of Eliot

When Eliot was here this weekend we were discussing my blog. He mentioned that he should start a blog, but it would be filled of rants. He mentioned how mine is very much like storytelling and I leave out most of my opinions.

Well, tonight we were on our way home from Oak Park and I see this Wendy's sign! I told Rick I had to take a picture and make a ranting post in honor of Eliot!

The part I am ranting about is "Italian Beefs are Here". There is currently a commercial running on the radios here advertising Wendy's Italian Beef. It starts by saying how Chicago shouldn't be named the "Windy City" because wind is negative. Instead it should be called something good, like the "Italian Beef City" because Chicago has the best Italian Beef. And now you can get the best Italian Beef in the "Italian Beef" City at Wendy's.

I just think this commercial is absurd. One, there is no way that Wendy's is serving the best Italian Beef in Chicago. I know this is hypocritical as I don't even eat beef, but still I have am sure if I did it wouldn't be the best! Two, this commercial horribly annoying.

Thanks for listening and now back to our regular scheduled storytelling! :)

Yay for Gwen!!

Gwen is one of my best friends from college. She was a RA with me for two years and just one of the best people to be around. Gwen is one of the guests from our wedding that many people still make mention of how great she looked. She was in town because she is interviewing with a medical school tomorrow. Luckily she had time to have dinner with us tonight. It was so great to see her and hopefully it won't be as long until next time!

Gwen and I having our ice cream after dinner!

Here is a picture of Gwen from the wedding she is to my right. Next to her is Jen the other trio in our RA years! I miss them both a lot!! (and Ben and April too!!!!)

Jess and Eliot visit from Denver!

Jess and Eliot are Rick's friends from Denver. Rick and Eliot were roommates before Rick became a RA. A few weeks ago they were bored and we told them to book a flight to visit us. They found a good and price and booked the flight. We were so glad to have them as visitors this weekend. We hang out with them a few times a week as we play a video game online (yes, we are nerds), but it was much better having them in person.

We thought it would be fun to play our video game all in the same room instead of all in different rooms. The next two pictures are the result of that. The laptops were easy to move, but Rick had to move his whole computer.



Friday night we had dinner and visited Dairy Queen. We wanted to go to the DQ with chocolate ice cream, but when we got there they had just closed. Luckily, Rick used his charm to have them still serve us. We had to get cones, but we all managed! When we got back here we played Sequence and The Game of Life. I lost miserably at Life....miserably.

On Saturday they took a trip with us to Wal-Mart and then we played Age of Mythology (the game above), and finally showered in the late afternoon. We headed to downtown Chicago and had a great dinner at a place called Angelina's. After dinner we went to see Blue Man Group. It was fabulous. Unfortunately, we had four very drunk people sitting behind us, but the show was still great. We came home and I fell asleep almost instantaneously.

Jess and Eliot, then me and Rick at Angelina's for dinner.

Sunday was a gorgeous day. After breakfast we took the bags/cornhole set and played a few games. We took a quick trip to the store to get food to grill for lunch and then had a great lunch outside. We had burgers (beef and turkey), corn on the cob, pineapple, and pasta. Quite a combination of foods.

Rick was being sneaky taking pictures of Jess and Eliot from inside the house.

Finally, we celebrated Jess's birthday early with Apple Pie.

Unfortunately, Eliot got sick right before they had to leave for the airport. Other than that, their visit was perfect. We can't wait to spend a week with them (and Rick's other friends) in Las Vegas next month!