Sweet Honey Love

November 17

2011-11-17T14:16:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful for my new winter jacket! After a couple of shorter winter coats, I was looking for a longer one in hopes of retaining more heat. I asked for general gift cards for my birthday and started my hunt in September. I chose this one from Eddie Bauer for it's length, warmth and super cute faux fur hood (yes Mom I actually think it's cute). I've only worn this one a few times this year, I can already tell it's going to be awesome!!

Sorry for the super creepy, weird angled picture but it's the only one I have in the coat!

November 16th

2011-11-17T08:48:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful for technology. I received my brand spankin' new Motorola Razr in the mail today and I love it! It's so fast and thin that I can't wait to use it every day. Be on the look out for more texts/calls from me as I try to contain my new phone excitement!

My actual phone - and not the best picture.

A better picture courtesy of pcworld.com

November 15th!

2011-11-15T18:34:00.001-06:00

Julie decided that I could do the blog entry for today, since I am so awesome and all! So keeping with Julie's trend of the month I am thankful for my old beat up company car!!! This 2005 Ford FiveHundred with 195,000 miles on the odometer has been awesome for our wallets and has provided us with safe transportation over the last year. We hope to keep this benefit going forward and are grateful for it every day! Side note: Thanks to Ford Motor Company for making a car that made it past 100,000 miles with the same transmission, we are amazed but very happy at this achievement!

The pimp-mobile

November 12th, 13th & 14th

2011-11-14T15:45:00.000-06:00

Ken and I went downtown on Friday to see some friends and watch the MSU game on Saturday, so I'm a little behind. Here's my catch-up post!

November 12th - Today I am thankful for public transportation. I don't always want to take the train or the bus, but this weekend we decided to take the Metra downtown. It kept us from sitting in traffic (for probably a couple hours) and was much cheaper than paying for a couple days of parking!

November 13th - Today is our 3 month anniversary so I am thankful for all of our friends and family that were able to help us celebrate our big day. They helped make the day amazing and carried the party well into the night!

November 14th - Today I am thankful for my dental insurance. I chipped one of my molars eating popcorn last night (I wasn't eating the unpopped kernals I swear!!) so I had to make an emergency visit to the dentist this afternoon. He said the rest of my tooth looked fine, so he fixed me up and sent me on my way. No crown needed and crises averted. Thanks Doc!

November 11th

2011-11-11T09:29:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful for our veterans. They sacrifice birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and many of life's other milestones to serve our country at home and abroad. One day is not enough to thank them for their duty, but I hope that one small token of gratitude will help them understand how much we all truly appreciate their service.

My grandpa in his Coast Guard uniform - WWII

November 10th

2011-11-10T08:44:00.002-06:00

Today I am thankful for my friends. Some have been there for me since kindergarten, while others are new additions to my posse. Either way I'm grateful to have such wonderful friends for fun times, sad times and everything in between!

November 9th

2011-11-09T11:48:00.002-06:00

Today I am thankful for my car. It takes me to work every morning and back home every night. It keeps my buns toasty warm in the cold, cold Chicago winters and cools me down in the hot summer. We've never had any major problems, so let's hope the car lasts a few more years!

After more than 20" of snow in winter 2011

November 8th

2011-11-09T07:00:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for my ability to cook and bake. Cooking (almost) daily dinners allows me to try new recipes and broaden my culinary skills. Baking allows me to be creative and make a yummy treat for us to enjoy (even if it is at the expense of Ken's waistline!). Just look at the cupcakes I made for the Michigan State-Wisconsin game!

November 7th

2011-11-08T17:00:00.000-06:00

November 7th - Today I am thankful for my health and physical strength. I'm thankful that I have the ability to run 3 miles a couple times a week without back pain, joint issues or gasping for air. I know that when I'm old and gray I'm going to miss the days when I had the ability to run!

At the end of the Hustle Up the Hancock - February 2011

November 4th, 5th & 6th

2011-11-08T10:23:00.000-06:00

November 4th - Today I am thankful for my job. I'm not always excited to go to work in the morning and some days are frustrating and annoying, but in our current economy I'm glad I have a good paying job at a solid company. It helps pay the bills!!

November 5th - Today I am thankful for the ability to go back to school. This one has many facets to it. I'm thankful that my employer is willing to help me pay for my higher education. I'm also thankful that I have the determination, willingness and mind power to go back to school. (As of today we are done with our first quarter too. We're on our way!!).

November 6th - Today I am thankful for all of my extended family. They have been there for me over the last couple of years and I know I could go to a large number of them if I needed help or advice.

November 2nd & November 3rd

2011-11-07T11:15:00.000-06:00

November 2nd - Today (or many days ago!!) I am thankful for my mom. I get alot of my mannerisms, personality and looks from my mom. We always have funtogether going shopping, going to sporting events or just sitting in thebackyard enjoying a bottle of wine!

November 3rd - Today I am thankful for my sister. Growing up we didn’talways get along (hello Pledge throwing fight!), but as we’ve gotten older we’vebecome better friends. She’s the one I called when I had some crazy weddingidea or needed advice on how to deal with an uncooperative vendor. I’m lookingforward to your wedding so I can do the same!

I'm Thankful For...

2011-11-04T13:31:00.001-05:00

In order to hopefully increase my posting activity on the blog and just to do something fun, I've decided to post every day of November something for which I'm thankful. I've come up with a pretty good list so far and I'm hoping to even get Ken in on the action.

So, since the month actually started a couple days ago (I promise I'll be better the rest of the month!) I have a little bit of catching up to do. Be sure to look for double postings over the next couple of days!

November 1 - The month starts off with a pretty obvious one. I'm thankful for Ken. The one person who can calm me down when I'm being crazy, make me laugh and love me unconditionally. We've had a crazy busy three months since getting married, but they've been fun!! Love you!! :) xoxoxo

Birthday Celebrations, Take Two

2011-10-27T21:48:00.000-05:00

Last month I talked about how Ken made me a funny looking (but very tasty!) birthday cake. Little did he know that I had something up my sleeve for his birthday a month later.

Since we were planning on being at Ken's parents that weekend, I planned a small surprise birthday party for him with all his friends from back home. Now this seems pretty straight forward: guests-check, food-check, and drinks-check. However, we were missing a very important piece of the evening. A cake!!

Not one to shy away from a baking challenge (even if they don't always turn out like I hope) I had my eyes on something big. A big cupcake!

Source: wilton.com

As luck would have it, Ken was out of town the week of his birthday for work. This allowed me to gather all my supplies and bake away without having to explain myself. I had seen a Super Mario themed big cupcake on Amazon, so I used that as my inspiration and ran with the idea.

Once I started thinking more and more about how I was going to keep this a secret from Ken, I ran into my biggest roadblock. How was I going to frost everything at home and transport it without ruining all my hard work?! After lots of creativity and some improvisation, I used a cake carrier for the bottom half and a Tupperware container for the top half. It didn't end up looking as perfect as it would have if I made it fresh that day, but it looked pretty good nonetheless. What do you think??

The big cupcake with several smaller ones.

Everyone picking out their favorite Super Mario characters.

He was pretty surprised!!

Fun News Friday

2011-10-07T14:15:00.004-05:00

A couple weeks ago, Ken came home and said that his office was having a chili cook-off. When I asked what he was going to do he declared he was going to buy cans of Hormel chili, dump them in a crock-pot and call it day since "everyone knows that's the best chili anyway." The week before the cook-off came around and Ken wanted to make a "trial batch" just to make sure it was exactly what he wanted. I asked about the Hormel chili and he brushed me off like I was crazy. He wanted to know what I put in my chili and if we had everything to make two batches! A couple days later we had our trial batch made and ready to taste. With the exception of some cocktail weenies we added just to try, we had the winning recipe. Or so we thought.

Well, the cook-off was today over lunch. How did Ken do?? I think the picture below tell the story best.

He won!! Thanks to one awesome chili recipe that Ken now claims is ours, we are the proud new owners of a small trophy and chili cookbook. But since you're supposed to give credit where credit is due, I think the true shout-out of this story should go to my mom. After all it is her recipe from which mine is based.

Way to go Mom!!!

Birthday Celebrations

2011-10-02T21:53:00.000-05:00

This week was a big one in our newly minted family household. My birthday!!! Now, I'm a lady so I won't tell you exactly how old I am (if you don't already know you'll just have to guess), but I will say I'm not as young as I used to be.

Since Ken and I have been together he's started the tradition of making me some kind of birthday treat. Two years ago he started it all off by making me an apple pie. Look at that concentration and how proud he is of the final result!

Well, this year Ken decided he would make me a cake (Funfetti to be exact!) which is always my favorite for birthday celebrations. Despite all the wonderful wedding gifts we recently received, we do not have round cake pans. Ken wanted to make a double layer cake anyway (you know to maximize the frosting coverage) so he got creative with a regular cake pan and cutting the cake in half. The only downfall to his plan? He only got one container of frosting. And since we didn't have any cream cheese to match the pre-made cream cheese frosting he purchased the cake ended up like this:

Then in an attempt to distract from the non-frosted sides, he added sprinkles!!

At the end of the day, the cake was delicious and Ken made the whole experience memorable. :) Look at the yummy piece I had to celebrate my birthday! (No judging on the size of the piece -- it was my birthday after all!!)

We're back...and Married!!

2011-09-06T20:37:00.000-05:00

It's official! We're back from the honeymoon and ready to start living our lives post-wedding. We've been back for just over a week now and it's really strange not having any wedding things to do every night of the week. However, as most of you know, we are both starting school again on the 10th so I'm sure our nights will be filled with school related studying very shortly. I will put up a post or two about the honeymoon soon, but I've included a few wedding pictures for the time being. Enjoy!!

10 Days and Counting.....

2011-08-04T07:16:00.000-05:00

The wedding has officially taken over pretty much every moment of my day. We're getting close to jumping into the single digits and I feel like I'm sitting at the bottom of a mountain sized to-do list. However, I know that no matter what Ken and I are getting married next Saturday! The best part of finally getting this close? Saturday the 13th is now on the 10-day weather forecast!! Looking at the forecast below we should have AMAZING weather. I hope the weather man is right and the rain stays away! :)

We're Legal!

2011-07-21T13:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Ken and I tackled a major pre-wedding task. Getting the marriage license.

Now it doesn't seem like this would be too bad, answer some questions, sign your name, pay the fee and be on your way. Except when you get there and the line is halfway down the hallway. We were hardly through security when we were automatically told where we needed to go. At first I thought 'Hmm, that was nice.' But definitely not rocket science when almost every other person who came in after us was there for the same thing.

We waited in line for almost an hour and even though it seemed to take forever, we got it! Want to see the proof??

Now it's just sitting on our table, waiting for a signature on the big day!

Wedding Wednesday, Part 2

2011-07-13T09:38:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks (!!) since my last post, but things have been super hectic around here lately. I have a to-do list for every week that's like a mile long, but so far we seem to be making good progress. The big things on the list this week? Figuring out the day-of schedule for the wedding and getting it to our transportation vendor and our photographer.

This week also happens to be the week we have to get our planning sheets to our photographer outlining where we want to take pictures and specific shots we want taken. I'm getting really excited about our photography and the shots we will be getting. Last week Ken and I went to various places in the area to scope out locations and we think we found some good spots. Where are those exactly? You'll just have to wait and see!

Our photographer Lin is fantastic and most of you have already seen her work with our engagement pictures. I think she will do an amazing job with the wedding pictures! Just take a look at some of my favorite shots below. Which one is your favorite?

Photos courtesy of George Street Photography and Photography by Lin

Habitat for Humanity

2011-07-01T08:00:00.013-05:00

On Saturday, June 11th Ken and I participated in Habitat for Humanity as part of a team building activity for his work. Ken had participated in Habitat before, but this was the first time for me. After a little bit of driving in circles (supposedly not because of Ken's lack of navigation skills) we arrived at the job site ready to work.

They had three different job sites going and our whole team was assigned to one site. Luckily, we got assigned to the house where walls would be going up that day. Everyone in our group was excited, we would be able to see real progress and could say that we helped build walls!! We got our hammers, tool belts, nails and hard hats and got to work. Ken and I helped build the remaining two exterior walls of the garage.

Hard hats on and ready to work!

Ken fixing an earlier boo boo he made.

Supervising...

Now, I can't say I am the best at hammering, but I gave it my best shot! I ended up being sore for almost two days afterwards, but in the pictures above you can see some progress. It seemed like a long day, but it was really awesome to see walls go up and see the layout of the house taking shape. I would definitely do it again, even if Ken continued to make fun of me for my lack of arm strength!!

Wedding Wednesday, Part 1

2011-06-29T21:54:00.000-05:00

Since the wedding is only 7 weeks away (!!) I want to do a weekly update on all things wedding leading up to the big day. Currently we are in the middle of trying to work out 'all the little things' and I'm in full frantic list making mode. I seem to think that if I make a list of everything it will get done. Crazy, I know!

Today want to share with you one aspect of the wedding that has already come and gone. My showers!

My first shower took place in Northville on May 14th. It was hosted by Ken's aunts Pat, Janet and his cousin Makayla. Ken's mom, Robin, was awesome enough to let them hold the shower at her house. We had a very yummy brunch and Ken stuck around to make mimosas for everyone. We received some amazing gifts and it was nice to get to know some of Ken's family and friends a little better!

With the gracious hosts: Janet, Makayla and Pat.

Ladies brunching in the living room.

My second shower was in Humboldt on June 18th. This time it was held by my sister and my mom in Humboldt. Becky organized a mid-afternoon shower full of wine and cheese tasting. Despite the strong storms and complete downpour, everyone was able to arrive safely. Again, we received some awesome gifts and it was great to see some ladies I hadn't seen in quite some time!

With the hosts: my sister, Becky and mom, JoAnn.

Displaying one of our gifts.

With some of the aunts. Whose idea was this?!

My two showers were both amazing days filled with great friends and family. I can't wait to see everyone together in August!

Welcome!

2011-06-29T09:30:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my new blog! I've started this blog as a way to keep up with our family and friends in various parts of the country. I will probably be writing the majority of the blog posts, but you never know, Ken might pop in every once in a while.

We have a lot of stuff coming up so I hope you enjoy keeping up with us pre- and post-wedding! I'm excited to share our lives with all of you!