A well overdue post.........

Last weekend I went up to spend my birthday weekend with my dear college roommate Michele. Her husband was out out of town that weekend and she graciously invited me up to spend a couple of days with her and Miss Mia. I had the best weekend. I couldn't have asked for more! I had Chicago deep dish twice, the best pumpkin spice cake, a 90 min. massage, a visit to the Oswego Farmer's Market, and 2 days with one of my best friends and her beautiful daughter. What a wonderful life long friend I have in her. It's amazing to see your friends turn into wonderful mothers. Thank you for such a beautiful weekend. Love and miss you both!

Mia, snug as a bug in a rug. I have found that

swaddling is as good as chocolate to babies

and Shush..Shush..Shush...Shush...with bouncing up and down motion.

A picture of the 3 of us, Mia was obviously uninterested...Mia during party time in the bouncer seat, wearing the bib I made!! Sunday morning.. all snuggley. Both of us without any makeup on!! Beautiful Michele and her daughter

She was soooo... over picture taking... Don't you love the jeans?

Leaving the amazing farmers market in Oswego

Getting harder.........

It's almost been a week since Little Kitty has been gone. I stare into the woods at night wondering if he is out there somewhere. We call his name outside at all hours of the day. It's getting harder to be positive. I'm sick to my stomach thinking that he might not return this time. Oh God, please let him come home safe.

My 29th Birthday.........

Today I turned 29. My last birthday in the twenties. I can truly say that today was the best birthday I can remember. Minus of course that Little Kitty is still missing..... I want to wish a happy birthday to my very special Aunt Barb who lives in Washington. Although we can't celebrate together, we know we are thinking about eachother throughout the day. I love you! Also Happy Birthday to Beth! This would be our 9th birthday together!

The day started off with breakfast with Katie. She got me a awesome monogrammed tin water bottle and a new beautiful Coach bangle bracelet. Simply stated, she knows me. I have been wanting one forever. But I would never buy it for myself. Leave it to Katie to always remember what I mention. She was the first person today who made me cry...

I then get a phone call from my office saying that I have a "delivery".
My friend Courtney sent me a beautiful fall arrangement for my birthday. I called and yelled at her because Beth, Courtney, and I all agreed, NO GIFTS! We spent way....... too much money in NYC. But being the sneaky and thoughtful friend she is, she sent us both a beautiful reminder that she loves us. So the next time my friends say, "Okay, no gifts this year". I'm going to just ignore that statement!

We had my birthday dinner at my house on our back patio. It was beautiful!! I can't remember the last time we celebrated my birthday with jackets on! The food was excellent and having my family here was wonderful. I posted a lot of pictures so my family could save the pictures. Thank you to everyone who made today the best birthday I can remember. Thank you for the phone calls, the texts, the kisses over the phone, and for coming to dinner. It was because of you all that reminded me how lucky I am to be blessed with such wonderful friends and family.

My bracelet
My flowers

My cupcakes! I wouldn't let anyone bake me a cake.
I had to have these! They were beautiful!Here is a close up of mine. It was a gigantic cupcake. I can't bear to cut into it!Making a wish...... Lovely ladies enjoying dinner... For some reason the men sat at the other table.

Getting ready to open my amazing gifts

Me and the moms

Me and the Grandmas
Me and the Grandpas

This is why I have wrinkles already, making faces like

these. I couldn't believe how beautiful Victoria's Secret

gift card packaging is these days. It was amazing,

if you couldn't tell by the look on my face!

My new beautiful Cuisinart!

My parents got me The Magnolia Bakery cookbook!!

I had no idea there was one!

My sneaky mother made me cry when I opened my parent's gift. While at an antique store one day we ran into this serving ware that I loved. The price was outrageous and I thought I could possibly buy them piece by piece. My mom thought that my Meme had some in her china cabinet. My mom found one relish tray that I actually used tonight. When I opened the boxes I found 8 plates, 8 fruit glasses, a chip & dip tray, a vase, and another serving set. I was so touched that they bought these for me. I now will think of my Meme everytime I use them because my first piece was her relish dish.

The set, minus the vase. I forgot to put it in the picture.
Yoga time! My new mat and 2 yoga blocks

Me and the dads. These two are a pair when they are together!

Missing my Cat

This weekend one of our cats, Little Kitty, was let out by accident Saturday night. I arrived home from Chicago on Sunday evening to hear the bad news. If you recall, he also was let out 2 years ago in December during our ice storms and was missing for 2 weeks. I'm thankful that the weather is better but I'm still broken hearted. Our cats are our family. It feels lonely in the house without him. Think positive thoughts for his safety and his return. Thank you blog family.

One of our many rocking sessions.

Football season is here.........

Listen carefully and you can hear the death march signaling Football season is here. I say this because my life as a widow will start any day now. Ryan lives, eats, breathes, and whatever else there is, FOOTBALL.

Tivo is set for every single game, fantasy football drafts along with all the trash talking has insued, and my husband is gone. Crazy yelling at the tv, laptop attached to his lap, maker of little post it notes with crazy football player names for "trades" left everywhere around the house, would sell his kidneys and mine if he could see the Bears play this season, man has arrived replacing my husband. This weekend is the ever popular Fantasy Football draft. It's basically Mr. Rogers make believe land all over again only with adult men and minus the puppets. I am making a quick exit to Chicago this weekend to escape this party which is being held at our house. If you too are in my shoes this "season" I feel for you.

****Disclaimer: I LOVE my wonderful husband very much. ; )

New York Recap.......

This past weekend I traveled with two best girlfriends to New York to celebrate our birthdays. The three of us became friends while working together at our junior college almost 10 years ago. Since then we have gotten our degrees, gotten married and 3 children have joined our group.

Our weekend was jam packed with activities and we rarely got time to eat breakfast or lunch! The weather was mostly beautiful with a few rain showers. All in all it was a wonderful time spent with two good friends enjoying my favorite city in the U.S. The highlight of the weekend was seeing Wicked and eating at Magnolia all in the same night. Truly, I couldn't have been happier if I tried.

Beth & I with Matt Lauer

The Cupcake Mecca of NYC, one of the four locations has a

bouncer there due to the high amount of people visiting each day! Love this picture! On our way to dinner and then on to see Mama Mia!

Mama Mia on Broadway
We are enjoying $29.00 worth of drinks here. This was a martini I was drinking. Worst one I have ever had.

Dean & Deluca where we ate breakfast.

Beth surprised us with having cupcakes delivered to our room for our

birthday. They were delicious. I ate more than my share.

On our NYC movie and tv show tour.

Dinner before WICKED!! The owner of this Italian restaurant was kind enough to drive us to the Gershwin Theater in his fancy suv!!

WICKED!!!!!

I have seen Wicked 6 times now. Beth 3 and Court 5. We love

this show and already have plans to see it next June!!After Wicked we went to Magnolia for cupcakes! I had been looking forward to this stop all month!! I bought a Pumpkin Pie & Banana Cream Pie Cupcake. Ridiculously good.

We sat at the Rockefeller fountain and enjoyed the view as we scarfed these down!

We finished the night at the Empire State Building at midnight. Due to the lack of our subway skills we made it home that night to the hotel at 2 a.m. I HATE the subway!

Living it up in NYC!!

Here's just a quick post! We are having a FANTASTIC time in New York!! Here is a picture of last night at dinner before we saw Mama Mia. Tonight we are seeing our favorite musical in the whole world, WICKED!!! Combined we have seen this show over 15 times!! Believe me it's worth it! The show was sold out all weekend and we scored some tickets for this evening!

4 days and counting........

My girlfriends and I are leaving for NYC on Thursday to celebrate our birthdays. Does anyone have any suggestions for resturaunts? If you do drop me an email or comment! Thanks!!

Winter of 2006 in NYC the day we got engaged!

It was so stinking cold!

Lush

My sister told me about Lush cosmetics. This weekend I went up to St. Louis and ran into the store to check it out. Lush uses only organic vegetables and fruit with essential oils in their products. They make every product by hand and a sticker is placed on each product with a picture of the "maker" and their name. Their line is super fun and the smell is amazing. I did some research on their site before I went up their because they have so many products. I wanted to try out their Coal Face Cleanser and choose a mask. The sales associates were super friendly and very knowledgeable about the products. I purchased the Cupcake mud mask and Elaine gave me lots of samples to try out this week. Unfortunately you can't buy Cupcake online because it has to be refrigerated and must be used within 3 weeks. I tried the mask last night along with Skin Nanny moisturizer. This morning I used the Ocean Salt Cleanser. I loved the mask. The mask smells like brownie batter.

I also am interested in trying the new organic line that Origins has out. Has anyone tried Origins? Let me know if you have. I have always been an Este Lauder user. But I'm ready to try

something else.

Here is the mask. My skin felt tone and

very smooth once I washed it off. I'm not going

to lie, I tasted it. You would have too, if you would have smelt it.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

One of my favorites blogs is My Mama Made It.

She recently had a giveaway with a "catch". She completed her first sewing pattern and was giving it away for a couple of bloggers to try out. I love this top and was so excited to enter. I recieved an email this morning saying I was one of three who will be getting my special project in the mail. I then have to attempt to re-create it with her pattern. I'm super excited to get my package. Stay tuned for my attempt to make this fantastic shirt. Stop by here blog. Her projects are amazing!

Let's call it "networking".............

Tonight I met up with some girls from college who were also in the social work department with me at SIUC. We had a great time catching up with each other and discussing whats currently going on with our jobs. All of them stuck with social work with the exception of myself. My current job involves the social work field but my position is more directed at marketing. We had a great time and already have plans in place for another "networking" meeting!

Courtney & Whitney

Lyndsey and I

(my bra looks like it made an apperance as well! Nice!)