Good Irish Times!

Nicole: Hey There!  I'm about half Irish and Justin is none, but we live on the south side of Chicago so you GOTTA celebrate St. Patrick's day!  St. Patty's day is one of my favorite holidays, you wear green (my fave color), attend parades, drink, and everyone is in a jolly mood.  It doesn't get any better.

This year to celebrate we met up with our fave twosome and headed out to Irish Times Pub.  We had awesome (all you can eat) fish fry, tasty Guinness, and great company.  There were even bagpipers!  It was an all around good time and a great way to celebrate the Irish heritage.

Justin:  I love pubs.  I don't drink a lot but I love going to pubs.  It's something about the atmosphere that just makes me really enjoy being in a cozy, warm place with good food and great friends.  Jeff and Aireen are great friends.  Aireen and I used to go to the same grammar school and we rekindled our friendship a few short years ago.  It's been a blessing and honor ever since getting to know them.  Whenever we think of some place to go we always call these two.  We seriously wish we were neighbors.  Nicole ALSO forgot to mention the car bombs!  That's my drink/shot or whatever.  I think I downed four that night...which I needed after the hellish weeks I've been having.  We actually talked about shots quite a lot as we plan on having an epic shot party in San Diego in a few weeks!

We topped the night off with a viewing of 21 Jump Street.  HILARIOUS.  Nicole fell asleep but it's all good she'd seen it already and she knew how much I wanted to. 

N: The next day we headed down to central Illinois for my friend Kristie's big 3-0 celebration.  We took our time getting there and stopped for lunch and a letterbox on the way.  It was a cemetery box and one of the easiest letterboxes we have ever found. It was a great start to our letterboxing season.

All my Girls Weekend girls were in attendance, it was so great to see them so soon after our official girls weekend, I felt spoiled!  Kristie's husband Jeffrey grilled out for all of us and he even made an awesome cake for her.  Sadly, we couldn't take any pictures because we left the camera at our lunch stop...

J:  ... Yeah I was pretty upset about that since we got our first letterbox of 2012 and we wanted it documented.  My camera fell out of my vest when I took it off.  Luckily I called the place (yeah it was a Pizza Hut so what!?) and they kept it for us til we could pick it up the next day.

N: We had a late night of game playing and chatting and then it was to bed for everyone and up the next morning for breakfast before we all went our separate ways.  I already can't wait for the next girls weekend that we already have in the works!

Back from Winter Break!

Justin:  Hi all!  The holidays have come and gone and we took a major hiatus from our life here on the internet.  Here is a little highlight from our winter season where Nic talks about her work's holiday party.  Enjoy!

Nicole:  Year 2 at the Holiday Party!

I am very grateful for the amazing holiday party that my company has for us.  They are very generous with everything, even with the economy issues and I feel very blessed to be able to work there. 

The party takes place at the Palmer House every year and it is just absolutely beautiful!  They have a live band, different appetizer stations, and a wonderful decor.  The only thing that may be lacking slightly is the amount of tables for the guests.  Most of them are the tall boy style tables which is fine, but if you are not lucky enough to get a spot, trying to balance your drink, plate, and eat all at the same time can be a little difficult.

Justin:  Look at this giant shrimp and oyster boat!  I'm on a boat, we on a boat...

Nicole: ...

Justin: ...What?

Nicole: ANYWAYS. Last year, being my first year, I was quite nervous.  I had just started working for the company and did not know many people at all.  Luckily Justin came with me and eased my nerves by being by my side.  Everyone I did interact with was very kind and it was just a great atmosphere and I was glad I was able to spend and share it with Justin.

This year, I was able to introduce Justin to some of my favorite people.  I was a lot less nervous and really felt like I could enjoy myself.  As I said before, there weren't very many tables, but this nice couple invited us to share their table with them.  I had never met either of them previouly but they were both very friendly and we ended up chatting with them the whole night and taking turns leaving the table for more food and drinks so that we didn't lose our spot.  Justin and I didn't stay as late as we did the previous year because we wanted to catch the trailer for Dark Knight - Rises, but I definitely enjoyed the time we did spend there.  Can't wait for next year!

Justin: Her work's holiday party is always amazing and I stuff my face...I try not to but I mean did you see the giant shrimp boat made out of ice!  COME ON!

Anyhoo I did a little comic strip for Joe Loves Crappy movies talking about Nic and I's experience with TDKR...see what I did there.  Til next time!

Happy Holidays!

Justin:  Usually during the holidays I do a When I Was Little Christmas card.  This year I decided to change it up and include the lovely Nicole on the card.  Yay!  Our first holiday card together.  Woah Ross and Mona, right? Right?

Anyhoo since they are hitting the mailboxes this week, I figured I'd post it up.  Happy Holidays!

Hallowen Suit Up and Give Some Thanks!

Nicole: Hi there, friends!

 

It's been waaaay too long since our last post.  I won't bore you with the details of what has been going on every last millisecond since our last post, but wanted to touch on the past two holidays that have passed us by since then.

 

The first holiday is Halloween.  This is one of my very favorite holidays of the year. I get so excited as it approaches and always want to make sure I have a good time and a great costume!  Justin isn't that into Halloween, but since we have started dating, I have to say, he has definitely gotten more into the spirit.

 

Last year we were out of town for Halloween, but this year we were able to be home and attended a party that was put on by the Medinah Shriners.  This party was a blast!  They had food, a live band, a drinks aplenty.  My parents attend this party every year, but this was the first time that some of my siblings and I attended as well.  We thought it would be a great idea to come up with a group costume for all of us.  While looking through our old costume box we found some good pieces and decided to go as SNL characters.

 

 

My parents went as the Spartan Cheerleaders:

 

 

My sisters went as Da Super Fans:

 

  Justin and I went as The Blues Brothers:

 

It was a great time and everyone knew who we were.  The band even played Sweet Home Chicago and we got up on stage and danced our socks off!  It was a great night with a fun family, and I'd have to say, I would do it again next year!

 

 

Justin:  I think Nicole has won me over with Halloween by letting me pick the costumes since we started dating.  Last year we went as another pair of bros, of the Mario kind.  I think next year I'll let her pick the costumes.  I'm sure she wants to dress up as a girl for once...but maybe I can convince her to be a Slutty Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle...or there's always the April O' Neal and Slutty Casey Jones.  I'll let you guys imagine which one I'm dressed up as.  Oh yeah.

Nicole:  Uh...Now, on to Thanksgiving.  This is one of the holidays that Justin and I don't really spend together.  My family has dinner early, but then we have friends come over for evening dessert, and his family has dinner in the evening, right about when my dessert party starts.  It's really hard to make a compromise on this day when there are so many other parties involved, but I know we will make it work sometime.

 

Justin came over in the late morning while my mom, sisters and I were gettting the food prepared.  After that was done we made pumpkin cake balls for him to take to his Thanksgiving dinner. 

 

 

Justin stayed to eat with us and watch our annual Thanksgiving movie, and then headed off to his house for round 2 meal.  I am thankful that I got to spend some time with him this Thanksgiving, even though it wasn't longer.

 

My friends came over in the evening for dessert and we had a great time like always, re-living the past and finding out what everyone has been up to.  Lots of desserts were consumed and laughter was had.  Overall, it was a good Thanksgiving and it makes me even more thankful for the Family and Friends I have in my life :o)

 

Justin:  Yeah Thanksgiving is usually a hard holiday for us as we don't really spend the whole day together.  But I'm sure some of you are like, "ugh it's ONE day, calm down."   Anyways, I think we are still getting used to  the way our families spend holidays together.  Nicole's Thanksgiving was a nice, quiet brunch with an afternoon movie and just a good ole family hang out.  Where as my family's Thanksgiving is like a Michael Bay movie minus the giant robots...wait.  And with the addition of my two nieces and nephew we get even more poop and crying.  Hang on.  All kidding aside I have a big family and we do our best to get everyone together and it's a great big time of eating, family togetherness, and did I mention eating already?  I wouldn't have it any other way.  We even watched some classic Friends Thanksgiving themed episodes while we ate dinner.  Could it BE anymore awesome?

That should keep ya up to speed...we hope to get into a more regular posting schedule but we've both been so busy these past two months it's hard to keep you all updated.  I mean you can call us once in a while...what the heck people! (jk, jk)  Seriously where did November go?

You scream, I scream, Ice cream!

Nicole:  I hope everyone had a great 4th of July holiday!  I had a few days off work, which was amazing, but I still managed to keep myself busy as usual.  Lots of bbq's, fun and hanging with friends and family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So as you may know I have a deep deep love for ice cream, I could eat it all day every day.  I've had homemade ice cream on my birthday numerous times and even planned a day to go to special ice cream shops.  My birthday dream is to participate in an ice cream challenge at Lindy's and Gerties of Bridgeview. And Win!

 

Well, last year my sister got me the ice cream maker attachment for my kitchenaid mixer.  Correction:  She got me a picture of the ice cream attachment for my kitchenaid mixer.  After harassing her for almost a year, she finally ordered it and it arrived this past week!  Just in time for July, which is Ice Cream Month.

 

Since we had the 4th of July weekend coming up I decided to give it a go and try it out.  Now, I knew that I had to let the bowl freeze for about 18 hours, but I wasn't prepared for how long it would actually take to make ice cream.  The book says it would only need to churn for 20 minutes and then would be ready to eat!  I picked out my recipe, hurriedly made my grocery list, and headed to the store.  I came back all excited to make some great vanilla ice cream and have it all ready to eat in the next hour.  I get all my ingredients set out and start reading the recipe I picked out. Wait....I have to let the batter cool for 8 hours!?! Uhhhh. Yikes.  So I decided to go the eggless route and that cut the time down immensely.  I whipped it all up, let it get really cold for about an hour and then finally I could let it churn!  20 minutes later - ice cream!

 

 

 

Since it is National Ice Cream Month, my goal is to try to make at least one new flavor of ice cream each week.  I know, that's a lot of ice cream.  Looks like I may need to have an ice cream party!

Warrior Dashed 2011!

Nicole: Hello!  So this past Sunday was Father's Day and we usually just chill and relax and grill but we decided to do something a little different this year...the Warrior Dash!

If you have never heard of it, it is a 5k race with obstacles like climbing ropes, running through rivers, and swimming through a mud pit.  It was the muddiest, wettest, most awesome thing we have ever done Father's Day!

Our goal was to stay together so although we didn't run/jog the whole thing like originally planned, we all stayed together and had a good time and a great experience together.  Some people (my mom cough cough) didn't do all of the obstacles but we all supported each other through the whole thing.

I brought a long a disposable waterproof camera for the run and Justin was awesome and came along and shot videos and pictures as we were finishing the race.

 I am sooo grateful that Justin came to cheer us on and showed my appreciation for him coming ;o)

Who's with me for next year?!?!?!

Justin:  Nicole jumping over fire...hot.

Happy Valentime's Day!

Justin: Our first date was on Feb.21 2009 which also happened to be the day we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day since we missed it. AND that was the year of the AMC Best Picture Showcase...more on that extravaganza next week.

So ever since then, we've celebrated Valentine's Day on the 21st of February each year.  Our anniversary is March 14th so we don't get presents for each other, just cards.  So with that, I always try to rock a sweet card.  We decided to go Chuck's Southern Comfort Cafe...ohhh man EAT HERE.  It's so good.  Best mac n' cheese in the world.

Anyways, before the feast we exchanged cards: 

So this image of a heart dressed in a sweater is our way of saying, I Love You.  When we first started dating Nic and I would talk on the phone sometimes and I remember she blurted, I Love Youuuuur Sweater.  It just cracked us up. 

On to the food!

We had the bruschetta as an appetizer. Nic had the BBQ Pork Nachos and I had the Crab Cake dinner.  YUMMMMMMMMM!  Go here...seriously.

 Did you have a good Valentime's Day?

Nicole:  Justin is right in that we started saying I love your sweater to mean I love you when we had begun feeling those feelings, but the actual saying originated from something else.  It was actually a dream that I had when we first started dating.  I remember telling Justin my dream and being very nervous to tell him because it was such an interesting dream that I had to tell him, but I didn't want to freak him out with the "L" word too early in our relationship and no, I don't mean lesbians!)  I was walking to the train to work in the morning when I called Justin to tell him about my dream.  The gist of it was that I had wanted to tell him "I love you" but I got nervous so it came out "I love you...rrr sweater"  It may have been my subconscious talking to me, but at the time I wasn't ready to say that out loud.  Now...well...now I just can't say it enough.  Sweater my Love.

Happy Valentimes Day!

Girls Weekend 2011

Well this weekend was something....wonderful!  It was Girls Weekend 2011!



While it is called Girls weekend, hubbies/boyfriends are allowed to attend.  We all take turns hosting and this time it was my friend Kristie's turn.  We all got there in time to head to bed and get some sleep for a fun filled weekend!

Saturday we headed out to the park nearby and had some fun monkeying around.

                            

Later that evening we all got ready for a murder mystery game that I brought complete with costumes and accents.

I made my first attempt at cupcakes made completely from scratch.  They were guinness cupcakes with chocolate baileys ganache and baileys frosting.  They were good!

                           



Sunday was a chillax day with chatting and movies and then we all headed home in the evening.  I was sad to leave my friends, but we are determined to have a Girls Weekend 2011 2.0 sometime in the second half of the year.

Lets do this Girls!

Justin:  Yes, yes Girls Weekend was upon us again and it was quite fantastic if you ask me.  One thing I'd like to point out that was kind of a highlight for us was that Nicole lost her ring.  Now that's not the highlight but the fact that we found it was the highlight.  As Nicole mentioned we were monkeying around in the playground and Nicole was on one of those hang upside down kind of bars and she was sure that she zipped her pockets up with ring inside.  However, after we had left and went to eat, she noticed it was missing in her pocket.  I could tell it was bugging her admist the crazy murder mystery game and other festivities but she played it cool.  It was only til that night when she shed a few tears for her lost piece of jewelry.  Because of the fact that it was the first piece of jewelry we bought together, it has a sentimental value to us.  On Sunday afternoon I decided to lay down for a bit and Nicole came in telling us it was time to go.  I was assuming she was sad because we were leaving her great friends but she said she was sad because it's the last day and she knows her ring is lost forever.  I told her it wasn't and that we can check before we leave and that her friends wouldn't mind one bit.

I think part of her hesitated at going to the park to look for it because it could very well be gone for good and a disappointed trip to the park would solidify that statement.  However as we made our way to the car I said to get your camera ready because I wanted to take a photo of the expression on her face when we find it.

Sure enough....I forgot to take the photo.  BUUUUT we did find her ring thanks to a very nice man who picked it up and placed it on one of the tables rather than in his pocket.  She was super happy and I was super happy for her.  We were all out there like worker ants looking for that thing and it's a testament to the kind of friendships we've made that mean so much.

I'm proud to say I was 100% positive we were going to find it.  You can't end a great Girls Weekend with a bummer moment.  But thanks to that nice man and the bond of positively strong friendships the ring was waiting for her when we got there.

Nicole speaks highly of her college friends as their are not just her college friends but her extended family.  I respect that quite a bit and always look forward to meeting up with the people that took care of her back in the day...still do now too.  You pick up a lot of traits from your friends in college, at least I'd like to think so. And Nicole's friends are really bonded together and just all around warm, kind, and funny people.  When you are around this particular group you can feel how closely connected they are.  My first Girls Weekend I was quite nervous but we seemed to get a long quite splendidly.  I think you'd think I was a part of the group for years with how we've interacted and bonded over the few great times we've hung out together.  I'm so happy that they are such a big part of Nicole's life and I'm proud to call them my friends as well.  Thanks for helping find her ring and for being such positive influences in our lives as a couple.

Bud Wizer out.

New 'do. Juju's 2, Bears poo.

Nicole: Hello!  This past weekend was absolutely great.  Everyday was filled with something fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Friday, Justin and I went over to my good friend Ashley's place and had dinner with her and her fiance.  I haven't seen her in so long and the evening was full of stories and laughs and I think that it will definitely have to become a monthly get together.

Saturday was Justin's Niece's 2nd Birthday Party.  It was a Dora Fiesta!  Everyone had a good time and Dora even came to visit!  I also got a haircut in the morning and decided to change it up and got bangs.  It has been about 15 years since I last had bangs so it's definitely taking some time for me to get used to, but I've gotten compliments on them, so they look ok!

Sunday was not only the Bears game......yikes....but it was my good friend Iwona's baby shower.  It was so weird to see her pregnant, but she looked so cute!  It was so good to see her and I can't wait till her baby, Frank, is here so I can visit again!

Justin:  ME LIKEY BANGS.

Ringin' in a Fresh and Fly New Year!

Nicole: I know it's a week late but, Happy New Year! ( put it in some fun color or something)

We've been away from the blog for a bit with the whirlwind that is the holidays, but hopefully we will get this back up and going! 

New Year's was great for me, it was my first more low key evening with not really going out to celebrate and I have to say, I enjoyed it.  I don't know if it's just me getting older or what, but I don't mind not going all crazy for NYE, I just want to have a good time and be with people I like, and that is exactly what I did.

I started off the evening meeting up with some of my oldest and best high school friends.  We went out for tapas and sangria downtown at Cafe Iberico and everything was wonderful!

After that I headed over to Justin's place for some Cas family time.  There was lots more food, music, dancing, and games.  It was a fun and hilarious night and crawling into bed at 5:30am, it was a great start to 2011.  Here's to hoping the fun and hilariousness continues!

  
Justin:  Happy New Year all!  New Year's Eve was pretty awesome-tastic.   Which is a good thing coming from me because I am not fond of the holidays.  I've been like that for awhile and I'm trying to change my feelings towards them and starting the 2011 with good times and family is a nice way in doing that.

While Nicole was out and aboot with her friends I was at home spending time with my family playing video games, board games, and eating.

We all watched the countdown, hugged and kissed, and stayed up til 5 in the morning.  It was awesome.

Happy New Year from So Fresh and So Fly!