3rd Annual Girls' Chicago Shopping Trip

On Saturday, the girls and I braved the winter weather and took a road trip to Chicago to see the sights and enjoy a good meal. This year's crew included Stacy, Steph, Joy, Erika and me. We stopped in Shorewood for lunch at Portillo's, then finished the trek to the city where we did a LOT of walking. It snowed pretty much the entire day, so we had a few shoe issues. Stacy's shoes were cracked in the sole so water kept creeping in. Joy was wearing some non-water-resistant cute little shoes that quickly became saturated within 20 minutes of walking. So our first order of business was to locate a shoe store for those two to get their footwear dilemma resolved. Stacy ended up tossing her shoes and wearing the new ones right out of the store. Joy, on the other hand, still valued her old pair but changed them in the store before we left.

Another fun story is that Erika got engaged on Friday night so we got to hear all about it on the way up. She wore a permanent grin on her face all day and was often caught staring at her left hand. Congratulations, Erika! :) The day ended a bit earlier than we had planned when we found out that the weather conditions in Bloomington were not good. So we had dinner at Maggiano's then went to the State Street Macy's to see this year's window display. Erika read aloud each pane of the Nutcracker story as we worked our way around the store. It was a fun day with the girls - I'm looking forward to the next one! Here's a slideshow of pictures from the day.

I finally updated my blog

It's now December. It's been 4 months since I updated this thing and my few faithful readers (Hi Mom!) have pointed out that it's time to post something new. I'll share some highlights of this last quarter of 2007. Maybe a goal for 2008 could be to do more frequent updates? No promises. Here goes...


September - The slow pace of summer ended and life picked up again. BSF, Orchestra, Small Group, etc. I'm down to just one free night a week, but somehow I thrive on keeping busy. Here's a picture of our Journey Labor Day picnic at Annette's house. That's Tiffany, Shanna, Jerrad, Craig and Kera.




October - Life as usual, I guess. A few birthdays... the girls celebrated with Tiffany as she turned... oh I better not say. She's 29 again. ;) My little cousin Kaylin turned one so there was a big family celebration. I'll attach a picture with her smash cake - she's adorable!



November - Rehearsals for my church's Christmas concert really ramped up this month so I spent some considerable time with that. I also participated in the worship team for the ONE Thanksgiving Dinner event at East White Oak. Here's a picture from that. My real Thanksgiving at home in Joliet was nice too. Grandma and Murrie hosted - it was good to spend time with family.

December - This month started with Eastview's Christmas concert the 1st and 2nd. I got some more use out of the bass clarinet and alto sax, so that is always fun. Last weekend we had an ice storm - gladly it's all melted now. I went to Jen and Clint's wedding amidst the storm, only managing to fall in my heels once, and that was at Huck's getting gas on the way home. So, not too bad! :) The ceremony was very nice with a reception later at Crestwicke. My favorite quote of the evening was by an usher who looked all around for the rest of my party before escorting me in... "Are you here all by YOURSELF?!?!" Yep. Nice, huh? Tomorrow is a day in Chicago with the girls. I'm hoping the weather holds off for us!

I'm 30 - for real this time!

Well the day is here. A landmark event. My 20's are officially over. :( However, I had a really fun day today. My co-workers went to town decorating my cube with "over the hill" decorations and they brought in lots of food to celebrate. I didn't accomplish a lot of real work, but I got to visit with many people who stopped by for food and good wishes. Some felt that it was wrong to classify 30 as "over the hill". I have to say I agree!



That evening I met some of my friends for dinner to celebrate both my birthday and Annette's birthday. She is 33 on August 23rd so we decided to combine our parties. We went to Chevy's so we got to sport their lovely birthday sombreros. Amy's birthday was August 16th so we made sure she got to participate as well. Tiffany brought a Strawberry Jello cake for us too. After dinner, a few of us went over to Eastview to watch Kera's softball game. It was a great 30th birthday and I'm so thankful to have such good friends to celebrate with!

I'm 30!! (Well, almost...)

On Saturday, August 18, 2007, I met up with some friends to carpool to dinner for Amy's birthday. I came ready to go with my camera and a card for Amy. Heather drove us to Swinger's Grille at 6:30, the appointed party place and time for our small group of eight to celebrate Amy. However, upon entering the room where we were meeting, I was stunned to see a roomful of about 40 people - my family and friends. I stood there, dumbfounded, confused and thoroughly surprised. They got me good!! I had no idea that "Amy's birthday dinner" was actually a huge surprise party for my 30th, which isn't until August 22nd.

My good friend Stacy coordinated the entire event, from fake email invites to stealing my cell phone for contact information of college friends. She put a lot of hard work into making the party a success. My parents, sister and brother-in-law, Grandma and Uncle Earl all drove down from Joliet that day. Also, a group of college friends from Chicago drove in for the event. Add in the friends I've made in Bloomington the past eight years, and local cousins... it was a roomful!

Here is a slideshow of pictures my dad took (using the camera I brought to take pictures of Amy's party!)

Journey Retreat - Aug. 3-4, 2007

The singles group from my church, called "Journey", and the singles group from East White Oak Bible church (FIA) held a combined retreat at East Bay Camp the first weekend in August. We spent time around the campfire, had several sessions of worship/teaching time, and various free time activities.





Here's some of the girls during dinner. It was also Kera's birthday that day, so we celebrated with a Mrs. Fields cookie!






Landon and Frank leading worship


Pastor Rod teaching on deepening your spiritual walk

Jen's Wedding slideshow

My cousin Jill shared some of her photos with me. I snagged a few to post on my site. She was an amazing wedding coordinator and was right in the action for some good shots. I also grabbed a few pictures from Jen & Eric's camera that Juanita took. Enjoy!

Amy's Wedding

Congratulations Amy and Brian!

Amy and Brian got married at Eastview on Saturday July 28, 2007. Their reception was immediately following right at the church. It was a fun day for the girls to celebrate with her! Amy was beautiful and the ceremony was very nice. Now she and Brian are off to Niagara Falls!

Amy with the girls - Steph, Jessica, Stacy, Shanna, Heather, Amy, Julie, Tiffany, Kera, Erika, Christy

My first blog - Jen & Eric's wedding

Jen and Eric with flower girl and ring bearer.

Well, my little sister got married last weekend - July 21, 2007. It was a beautiful day and so much fun. We had a detailed itinerary of the day starting at 8 am and going through midnight. The ceremony was really nice. I got to catch up with a lot of old friends and family. I didn't take a lot of pictures so I'm looking forward to purchasing some from the professional photographer.

Here's Jen pre-wedding having some fun in the bridal room . My aunts picked up these sunglasses and gave them to her when we were outside doing family pictures beforehand.