Indiana Trip!

Scott and I went to Indiana last Thursday-Sunday to visit friends and family.  It was super fun!  We did a lot in four days, and spent a lot of time in the car, but for me it was worth it.  We left Thursday afternoon to drive down to Purdue to meet Mandy and Beth.  We all ate dinner at Noodles, then walked around campus for a while.  Just being back on campus at Purdue made me so happy.  I really miss that place!

I spent a lot of time in the Union sleeping, eating, studying, hanging out.  I remember meeting Scott there when we were first dating.  Good times.

They finished Armstrong the summer before my junior year.  It's a pretty building, but sometimes I got angry at it because Scott spent so much time there.

 Hi Neil!!  Neil Armstrong...one of Purdue's many proud alumni!

I worked in the Civil Engineering building during junior and senior year (it's the one on the left), so I was in this area a lot:

 And the Bell Tower!  It makes loud noises frequently.

Our plan was to stay at Lorraine's apartment after we went out to the Cactus that night, but Lorraine didn't get off work until 11:00 so we decided to get ready in one of the Union bathrooms.  Fortunately this bathroom has a huge makeup mirror, and lots of electrical outlets so I was even able to charge my phone.  Mandy getting ready with my favorite Cactus cup!  For anyone who doesn't know, the Neon Cactus is a bar at Purdue, where every Thursday you can either buy or bring your big plastic cactus cup, and they will fill it up as many times as you want with cheap cheap alcohol.  Scott and I still have a bunch of them, and we actually remembered to bring them to Indiana with us.  This one is my favorite because it's purple!!

And Beth waiting for us slow people:

One thing I used to love about campus was the subwalks.  A lot of the buildings were connected underground, which was convenient when it was raining, snowing, or super cold, which it was a lot of the school year.  I traversed the subwalk between the Union and Hicks library many times.  FUN FACT:  All of Hicks is underground, so I guess the books are safe or something?  I don't know.  Downside: when you spend hours upon hours closed off in Hicks studying with no windows, it can get pretty depressing.  I studied there a lot my first couple years, but I started studying in Stewart library later mainly because it was prettier.

 We headed over to the Cactus; Lorraine and David met us there:

We danced until 2:30 or something along those lines, then headed back to Lorraine's, where she and I stayed up too late talking.  I was so happy to see old friends again!!!  It was a fun night.

I kind of forgot to take pictures the rest of the weekend, but we did a lot more.  On Friday when we woke up (around noon or so), Scott and I headed over to my grandparents' to visit with them for a few hours.  We talked about all kinds of stuff, and I showed them a lot of my pictures and stuff.  And it sounds like my grandparents are coming to terms with the fact that Scott and I live together and aren't married.  Hooray!

At 5:30 Scott and I headed over to campus to pick up my sister Amy, who is lucky enough to be going to Purdue!!  Her birthday was the Friday before (the day of Kelly and Mike's wedding), so we went out to the Olive Garden and had a yummy dinner to celebrate.  Scott and I were pretty tired from Thursday night still, so we all headed over to Wal-Mart and picked up Tron Legacy to watch.  We watched it with Amy and one of her roommates, and I fell asleep for part of it.  Oops!  I had seen it before at least.

Scott and I had talked about going out to the bars later on Friday with friends, but by the time we got back to Lorraine's it was almost midnight and we were all super tired, so we ended up just crashing.  On Saturday we slept in, grabbed some lunch with Lorraine, and then headed south to Bloomington.  We listened to the Wings game on the way down, and no one was home when we got there, so we caught the tail end on TV.  My mom got home, and then the three of us went to pick up my brother from his dorm (he is unlucky and goes to IU Bloomington).  We went and got some dinner, then headed back to the house and just got some relaxing family time.  We watched Tron for the second time in two days because my mom wanted to see it.

We also searched the garage high and low for my old baby photos, and Scott finally got to see me as a youngin.  I was a pretty cute baby, but was nice and awkward in my pre-teen years, so he had lots of fun making fun of me.  Thanks, Scott.  We read a bunch of old notes and journals from middle and high school, which was embarrassing but funny.

Before we left on Sunday I took a few pictures of the woods right behind my mom's house.  I really miss looking at trees in the backyard every day; everything is really ugly here in Romeoville!!

We then met my old BFF from elementary school, Sarah, for breakfast.  I was soo happy to see her, it doesn't happen nearly enough!  We ate at the Irish Lion, a yummy Irish restaurant.  After that, Scott and I went over to the Game Preserve to pick out a new game.  We settled on StarCraft the Board Game.  Since we had a four and a half hour drive home, we opened up the box to check it out.  The rule book is 45 pages long, so I read a lot of it outloud on the way home.  It's a pretty complicated game, I guess.  We still haven't played it, though.  That's this weekend!

Kelly and Mike's Wedding Weekend

I took a lot of pictures and stole some from Kelly R. and Sabina's facebooks to put here.  I am trying to pare them down so this post isn't ridiculously long, but I have a feeling it's going to be a massive amount of pictures.

Friday afternoon, Scott and I went and picked up Kelly R. and then the three of us headed off for Starved Rock State Park.  We had already booked our hotel room at the lodge there, so once we got there we headed to our room and got ready for the ceremony, which started at 5:00.  It was pretty chilly outside, but we decided to go wait outside where the ceremony was being held.  Sabina and Helen from work arrived with their respective husbands and sat with us.  Here we are, waiting for it to start:

Eventually the music started and the mothers were seated, and then the wedding party started walking down the aisle.  We saw Kelly coming in the distance, but I was not prepared for the change in music for her journey down the aisle.  It was the Imperial March from Star Wars.  I was laughing so hard when she was walking to Mike, which isn't something that usually happens at weddings!

 

They got married...  I only cried a little bit.  It was very happy and cute.  And check out that dress!

We moved over to the lodge for the reception... I took a lot of pictures of the food and decor.  They are all on my facebook if anyone wants to look at them.  Here is the most important thing, the cake:

Okay, so Scott and I play WoW with Mike and Kelly, and they invited a few people to the wedding that we have played with online but hadn't actually met in person before.  So we finally got to meet people we talk to and play with all the time!  It was so fun!  We got a picture with Irv, Odo, and Brooks.  Kelly and Mike were also there, obviously, and another WoW player, Becky, who was a bridesmaid.  But they were off doing wedding-related things when we took this picture, or it would have been a whole WoW reunion.  Ha!

Also, I just had to include this picture of Scott because it makes me laugh every time I look at it:

After dinner, cake, toasts, etc...we moved to an adjacent room that had a dance floor.  We danced and drank a ton, and took a break after a while to go to the other room and play a fun game called Telestrations with some fun gamer people (aka nerds like us).  After the party ended, a bunch of us went out to the lobby of the lodge and played (and drank) some more.  Here I am with both Kellys, Sabina, and Helen.  I'm glad I work with such awesome people!!

 

I am the epitome of grace.

The next day Scott, Kelly and I met up with the newlyweds for a hike.  We checked out the top of Starved Rock and then one of the canyons.  It was much warmer on Saturday, as is evidenced by my shorts-wearing.  In fact, after a bit of hiking, I was pretty hot and wished we had thought ahead and brought water bottles.

I would like to point out that in the next picture, I am standing on the step above Scott.  And he is still that much taller than me.  No fair!

It was such a fun time and I am so glad we were able to go.  Mike and Kelly are an amazing couple and they definitely deserve to be married to each other.  I am so happy for them!

Kelly & Mike's Wedding--Preview!!

I haven't had time to write a whole post about Kelly and Mike's wedding yet, but it was so much fun and I am so glad we were able to go to spend their special day with them!

 

Kitty Update/Baking

Kitty went to the vet yesterday afternoon to figure out what's going on with her.  She got her blood drawn for testing, but the vet called this morning and said everything they tested for is normal.  So Kitty at least doesn't have diabetes.  What they think could be happening is she is developing early arthritis in her back right hip.  The vet felt each of the joints in Kitty's rear legs, and she had the strongest reaction to moving that joint around.  She didn't really have any reaction to the others, but she started growling and getting pretty angry when her right hip was played with.  I guess even though she is only five, pets are starting to develop arthritis at a younger age.  Since she is so young and isn't having any major movement problems (she can still easily get into her litter box, for example), they suggested putting her on a prescription joint diet to see if that helps.

Scott and I talked about it, and we are not going to try the diet quite yet.  The arthritis diagnosis doesn't seem to explain Kitty's sudden lack of appetite.  She went from begging for food all day, to barely touching what we gave her.  Also, there seemed to be no build-up to her leg problems, it just happened one day.  I think arthritis could explain her desire to just lie around all day and some of her jumping problems.  But she has started eating a little more the past couple days, and is moving around a lot more already (not as much as she does normally, but more than the weekend), so we are waiting to see if maybe she was just a little sore from something else, or just had a little bug that was making her feel a little under the weather.  I am just glad to here her blood work was fine and there is nothing major wrong.

On the baking front, last night I made some oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert, then after Scott went to bed I made some Irish soda bread to have for breakfast today and tomorrow (and probably dessert tonight, too).  I grabbed some raisins after I got off work on Monday, so I was trying to think of things I could make with raisins!  I put a bunch of extra cinnamon in the cookies and they were super delicious.  The dough was pretty darn good as well.  I had never made Irish soda bread before, so I used this recipe from allrecipes.  I halved the recipe to make only one loaf instead of two, and I used extra raisins instead of using raisins and currants.  I also didn't include the caraway seeds, and instead of apple cider vinegar I just used white vinegar, because that's what I had available.  It turned out pretty good!!  Here it is, after I already ate a piece, with some of the cookies:

Yum!!

I recently read Food Rules by Michael Pollan, and am currently working on one of his other books, The Omnivore's Dilemma.  He talks a lot about the dangers of processed or "industrial" foods.  I mean, I already knew processed food in general isn't good for us, but this has been sort of a wake-up call that I need to try harder to make things out of real ingredients.  So here's hoping Scott and I can continue to improve in what we eat.  Hopefully as a side effect I'll be magically ten pounds lighter next month!  Just pretend I didn't eat a bunch of cookies last night.  Hey, at least I made them myself with real butter and oats.  :)

Poor Kitty

I have three pillows on my side of the bed.  They are all supposed to be for me to sleep on, but in reality, I get the front pillow, and Kitty gets the two others, like so:

The little white pillow in front is what I sleep on.  Now, normally Kitty is a very social cat.  She'll always greet us at the door, sit on the lap of whoever is at a computer, hang out with us on the couch when we're watching TV, etc etc.  She is also usually very vocal, starting the minute someone walks in the door.  She wants to be noticed and make sure everyone is constantly paying attention to her!  The past few days, though, since she has not been feeling so well, she's been spending at least 20 hours a day on my pillows, if not more. She's barely making any noise at all.  It's so weird.  I scheduled a vet appointment for her for tomorrow afternoon.  I hope nothing is seriously wrong with her.  Her walking hasn't gotten any worse, but she still seems to be having trouble jumping up more than a foot or so, and she always seems to be just slightly off-balance.

This is Kitty's pathetic "Mommy, I don't feel good" face.  She just lies with her face in the pillow like it would take too much effort to lift her head up.  She's been making this face a lot over the past couple days.

Poor Kitty.  :(

On a happier note, I took a picture of my new shoes.  They have about 3.5 inch heels.

 

Fringe!

The Past Week

Last Monday, I went shopping for a dress to wear to Kelly M.'s wedding with Kelly R.  (Too many Kellys!)  We started at the outlet mall, and I ended up with this dress from the J. Crew outlet store for only sixty bucks:

I also got some goldish T-strap wedges with a bit of fringe of which I'll have to take a picture this week.  At Target I got a plain white cardigan to wear outside during the ceremony since it's only April and I have a feeling I'm going to get cold!  I know you're not supposed to wear white to a wedding, but I figured since it was just a cardigan that it should be okay.  Also at Target I got some earrings and a necklace that are mostly fake silver with a few fake pearls.  Hooray for cheap jewelry.

 The middle portion of my week was pretty boring and normal.  Pretty much the only noteworthy thing from the week was that I was totally craving Ats-a-Nice Pizza and ordered it twice in the same week, only two days apart.  And on that middle day I ate leftovers from the night before.  Yum, pizza!  Friday night I was out again with Kelly R. for some Applebee's.  I ate way too much and had way too many margaritas but it was definitely fun.  We always have a great time!

Saturday night I went with Scott and some of his coworkers to a Wolves game (they're the AHL team here).  After the first period, the score was 1-1, but the visiting team scored 5 times in the second period so the Wolves ended up losing 6-1.  I had been to see them one other time last season with some girls from work, and the home team won that game.  It was kind of disappointing to be there for a loss.  During the third period, when it was clear they were going to lose, the camera focused on one girl chugging her whole cup of beer so she was up on the big screen.  Everyone in the stands had a great reaction, so after that the camera crew found several more people holding beer, and when each was on the screen, he or she chugged his whole cup, much to the delight of the crowd.  I guess you have to find joy somehow when your team is losing.  Also, during one of the intermission games, there was a surprise proposal that a guy had all planned out for his girlfriend.  It was pretty cute!  So overall it was a fun night even though the home team got stomped.

In other news, Kitty is feeling a bit under the weather so I am going to have to call the vet tomorrow even though she was just there a couple weeks ago.  She has hardly been eating anything and has been super lethargic, both of which are polar opposites of her normal behavior.  Starting on Saturday, she seemed to be having some trouble walking steadily, whether from being off-balance or being in pain I am not sure.  She seems wary of even jumping on the bed, so she tends to just stay there all day long, lying on my pillows.  I'm pretty worried about her, but the vet was closed for the weekend, and I wasn't sure if it was really an "emergency," so I decided to wait to call until tomorrow (Monday).  She just turned 5 last week, so she seems too young to have any major health issues.  Guess we'll have to wait a few more hours and see what the vet says.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

*Today was St. Patrick's day.  I didn't do anything wild and crazy, but after work I went to Chili's with Kelly and Suzie for some yummy food and drinks.  No green beer for me, but I did have some green margaritas!  They were delicious, but I always order them when I am there so I don't know if they count as anything special for the holiday.  Later on we went to go see Rango.  Since it was after 10:00 on a Thursday night in Bolingbrook, we were the only people in the theater.  This was probably a good thing because I was definitely feeling the effects of my margaritas and was laughing hysterically at the previews and most everything in the movie.

*Last year I started keeping track of all the books I read on goodreads.com.  I think my mom is my only friend on there, but anyone can be my friend if they want to be!  Mostly I just wanted to be able to look at a list to see how many books I've been reading or where I left off in a series.  One of my resolutions this year is to read more books than I read last year, which shouldn't be too hard since I only finished nine books last year (sad, I know).  I've already read seven this year; I think having the nook is helping, especially since I can check out e-books from the library website and I don't have to go to the library branch in Lockport to get the books I want.

*I don't really keep track of what movies I watch but I watch a ton.  I definitely see more movies than I read books.  There's not a lot to do close-by our apartment besides eat, shop, and go see movies, so Scott and I do a lot of that, either with just us or with friends.  I also have Netflix to watch even more!  Okay, so I'm just trying to justify the fact that in the past week I saw Battle: Los Angeles and Rango and watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World at home.  My favorite of the three was definitely Scott Pilgrim.  It was pretty awesome!