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!