April 19, 2010

Calligraphy Adventure


Lately, my creative side has been trying to get out a bit more. I've always loved calligraphy, and I've recently helped friends by writing calligraphy for their weddings, and so I've decided to expand this into a side job! I just love writing. I have particular fonts that I always choose immediately when I sit down to the computer (this is not one of them, although it's not too bad),and I've just always been fascinated with beautiful handwriting. So... new blog:

Please pass on my information to anyone who mentions special events and may be interested in calligraphy. I think I'm priced pretty reasonably, compared to what I've seen and heard, mainly because I love doing it and I want people to ask me!

February 7, 2010

Chips, Dip, and a Mexico Trip!

Cancun was amazing! I need to think of another word for "amazing," because I use it all the time. We loved our trip. It was the first vacation we've taken together, aside from our honeymoon, which was more of an afterthought since the wedding was the main focus. We stayed at the Excellence Playa Mujeres resort, which surpassed our expectations by far. The weather was perfect, 80-85 degrees and sunny each day. We spent the majority of our time on the beach, talking, reading, laying, drinking pina coladas and pi-yis (not sure how to spell that, but they were really good!). We tried to be adventurous once by going snorkeling, and soon realized we're much better off on the beach. The first destination had waves about 12 feet high, and immediately two people came back to the boat very very seasick, another man had gashed his knee open, and an older gentleman was breathing like he was going to have a heart attack. After that, the riskiest place we went was the spa for Swedish massages and hydrotherapy.

One thing I love about my husband is his love for reading, which has only increased since we got married. Between the two of us, we read six books during our vacation, and they were all really good. Reading on the beach, in the warm sun, or on the bed on our balcony (below in pictures) is heaven to me, and I was thrilled to spend so much time doing my favorite thing! To a lot of people that sounds dull and boring, but I can't imagine anything better, and I'm so grateful to have a husband to share the joy with! One of my favorite parts of the trip was talking to Bill about the books we were reading. We traded a few books halfway into the trip so that we could read what the other was talking about.

The Excellence, as people who have gone there before know, has amazing service. While we were there, Bill and I bonded with one waiter in particular named Enrique. If you are going to that resort, please try and find him. He is an amazing server and has such a great, generous, happy personality! He was one of those people you meet and immediately love. We were lucky enough to have him as our server during the middle of our trip and then again on our last night. In addition, the mariachi band at the resort is awesome! And, we also met the new resort photographer, Jaime Torres, who took all of the pictures below with me in the pink dress (compliments of Kelly Hyman's bachelorette party - thank you!). We were approached by his staff one afternoon while we were laying on the beach and asked to sign up for a free half hour photo session, all you have to do is pay for the pictures you like, if you like any. I said yes before they even finished their first sentence. I've heard about resorts with in-house photographers, but didn't think Excellence did it because they didn't have one on our honeymoon. Needless to say, we took the opportunity and I'm so so so glad we did. We had never gotten engagement pictures, something we were recently saying we should do and pretend they were from our actual engagement, 5 years ago (although I think we're looking a little older than 23 and 20), and when this came up, I was thrilled. 2 1/2 years into marriage pictures!!

The only bad part of our vacation was leaving, and it was actually a pretty bad trip home. I got thrown up on while waiting to board the plane, and then when we were mid-flight, not only was there a lot of turbulence, which really freaks Bill out, but there was also a terrorist on our plane. This man, and yes, I was racial profiling, but only because of his suspicious behavior, kept standing up and reaching into his overhead compartment, pulling out a little black "device" (I could not tell what it was, which made it scarier), and using it for 15 seconds, then putting it way. Then, repeat. Over and over throughout the flight. He was a row behind me, and on the aisle, and I was crouched in my seat and ready to pounce at the flicker of a flame. I hate that you honestly have to worry about that, and I've never been afraid of flying in the least, I always think, once you're on a plane, it's out of your control, but this, because of all of the things that have happened, had me terrified on the plane. And that, I suppose, is the point of terrorism.

I do not want to end on that note! We had a great time and want to go back every year :) Doubt that will happen, as we are not rich and we have other travel goals as well, such as a trip to Portland, Oregon to visit Tyler and Kara, during which we want to fly to San Francisco and go down to Napa Valley, a trip to New York City, since we've never been, during which, I'd love to rent a car and drive down the coast, and, most excitingly, a trip to Europe to visit Paris, London, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, and more. Until then, I will leave you with pictures from Cancun:

A Jaime Torres shot. Us on one of the beach beds you can lay out on and read :) HEAVEN!

So in love with this man!

My favorite - a professional shot on the beach, I love that we have this
One of my pictures - morning sunshine in Cancun




More professional photos



I love the sun in this picture

I love this one

Serenades

Lunch at Lobser House



Our room

Beautiful room

The jacuzzi - it opened up to the balcony/patio too

Our outdoor bed!!!!!! When I move to the south, I am going to get one of these and read on it during the rain, the summer, fall, "winter," and spring.

Beautiful

January 1, 2010

Oh Indiana, we're all for you!! (dum dum) IU!

Bill & I went back to IU over break to meet up with his good friend, Tyler, and his family for a basketball game. It was a great time and a great game - IU won by 48 points! We did play against the worst-ranked team in the country, but a 48 point victory was fun to watch nonetheless.

It was great to visit with Tyler and his family. Tyler just received the great news that he is cancer-free after undergoing surgery and chemotherapy since finding out he had cancer this past July. We are so thankful. It was shocking and scary to have the sickness in Tyler's life. We have increased our gratitude for having the gift of good health in our lives, something we've really taken for granted, and we're so grateful that Tyler once again is healthy as well. Tyler and his fiancee, Kara, will be married this upcoming April at the Indiana State Capitol in Indianapolis, and we are very much looking forward to celebrating with them!!

Tyler's entire family went to IU, and they are all very dedicated IU sports fans. They have fantastic basketball seats, and we sat with Tyler and his mom for the first half in their 5th row seats, then moved to their even better seats, court-side, for the second half. Our feet were on the court, a foot behind the in-bounds line, vibrating with the pounding of the players' shoes and the dribbling of the basketball. I was constantly thinking of how I would need to shield myself if a player crashed into us chasing after a ball - luckily that didn't happen to us, although it happened a few seats down. And we saw our best player break his knee cap in half... so close that we could see the broken bone. That was a little stomach churning. Aside from that, it was a great time! It's always fun to go back to IU!!

Tyler, Bill, and I

Court-side seats!

Championships. Maybe we'll get to see one happen?!

Cheerleaders! So fun! I want to be one!

December 27, 2009

We wish you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

This Christmas flew by! Both of us worked through the 22nd, which I guess is the same as always, but made Christmas fly by. On the 23rd, we went out for our annual Christmas Eve Eve date, which has previously been to a play or musical and then out to dinner, but this year we felt more like seeing a movie, so we saw Up in the Air (not uplifting! but good) and went to dinner at a new favorite restaurant of ours called Chilam Balam, a traditional Mexican tapas restaurant on Broadway and Wellington. The chef is a previous sous chef of Rick Bayless'. Rick Bayless owns Frontera, Topolobampo, and Xoco, which are all great restaurants, and he obviously taught his sous chef's well because Chilam Balam is fantastic!

On Christmas Eve, we usually have our families over for dinner, but both of our parents hosted Christmas for their families this year, and we decided to post-pone our Christmas Eve celebration to the day after Christmas so they could prepare. Bill and I had a romantic dinner on our own, beef short ribs with a raspberry glaze (my fav), mashed potatoes, and brussel sprouts, purple califlower, and two kinds of squash that I don't know the names of. Yum! Then we watched our all-time favorite movie, Love Actually. Our place is so festive and romantic right now with our Christmas tree, candles, and other holiday decorations, my favorite thing is to be inside, cuddled up on the couch with Bill or a book.

Christmas Day was especially nice because we got to go to both of our parents homes to celebrate. We spent the afternoon at the Soukups' and the evening at my parents' house. It was very fun! We got great gifts from everyone that we have used all of at least once by now. My mom made stained glass angel ornaments for everyone that came over (and if you know my family, that's a TON of people), which were really special and so pretty. I love Christmastime.

I love this place! That nook in the couch, where all of the pillows are... the best spot.
Bill's delicious Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas Shopping Day with the Soukups in early December! Everyone gets money to go shopping with and we all come back for dinner and share what we bought.
A Soukup Tradition!



November 14, 2009

Just one class left in 2009!

I am finally there (almost). One class left this year, one short and simple paper to write! Just in time for the holiday season. I love that DePaul's quarter system has everyone finished with classes before Thanksgiving, letting students enjoy enjoy enjoy. Preschool fall evaulations have been completed and handed out to my childrens' families (6 pages per child - a lot of work!), parent/teacher conferences are next weekend, and then it's just regular old work to occupy my time! And FUN STUFF :) What a treat.

November 1, 2009

January Vacay!

Bill and I have booked a Mexican vacation for a week in January! We are looking forward to it SO MUCH! For our honeymoon, we went to the Excellence Resort in Riveria Maya, and it was a-maaaaa-zing. The resort was so beautiful, peaceful, yet fun; the seven resaurants were top quality; amazing service, beautiful beach, wonderful spa, etc, etc, etc. A new Excellence has opened in Cancun, and we are going!! It is so nice to have this Mexican vaca to look forward to while I spend fun weekends like Halloween home doing homework (and writing blog posts :) ).

Pictures from our honeymoon:
what we have to look forward to and more!



Massages on the beach!
Loved the hammocks


Trying Bill's Mango Daq :)

Bit of a stormy day at the beach, still so nice

How do they do this?!

CAN'T WAIT!

October 12, 2009

Marathon: We finished!

We did it! We finished! It's over! We could not be happier about that third part!!!

The beginning of the marathon was amazing. SO MANY fans were there cheering all of the runners on. And running through downtown and Lincoln Park was especially beautiful. They sure are the best areas of the city, in my opinion. We didn't even notice the miles flying by.

At about mile 7, my lungs started to cramp up, or at least that's what it felt like. I could only breathe into the top part of my lungs; the bottom part felt like it was rejecting the air. We had to stop while I took my inhaler, and then walk.

After I caught my breath again, we ran. At mile 11, the same thing happened, and then we started back up with the running. Then every two miles, I lost my breath. At about the 15, right after we saw Megan, Kelly and Peter at the best possible time, Bill's legs started cramping up, and continued to do so each time we re-started running. We had trained all year to run the whole time, without walking, and so his body was very confused about why we kept starting again after walking. Usually when we walk, it's because we've finished.

The last 8 miles were especially hard, as I started losing my breath every mile, and so Bill's legs cramped up every mile as well. The marathon was by far the worst run we'd had, which is frustrating, but makes the accomplishment of crossing the finish line feel all the more significant. I was uncontrollably crying when we finally ran across that finish line; I was so so relieved for it to finally be over, and to have finished. We immediately decided never to do it again, but already today we are thinking that we want another shot, to have a good marathon experience. We will see...

Here are some pictures Kelly, Megan, and Peter took! If we can, I'll post the professional pictures too when they're out. THANK YOU EVERYONE for your love and support throughout the marathon, especially this week!


Stretching while we talked to Meg, Kel, and Peter. SO GLAD THEY WERE THERE!!!
15 mile mark. Run run run

October 5, 2009

Marathon: The Final Countdown!

The marathon is 6 short sweet days away! We can't wait to run it! It's been a great, hard, fun, not fun, rewarding experience, and we're really looking forward to finishing it and accomplishing the goal. Bill has been training really well all the way through, and has been the best training partner I can imagine. I'm so glad we've been able to do this together. The end has been a little more stressful, as I've been a bit sick...

I just got back from the doctor, who cleared me to go run. I have had a sinus infection that turned into bronchitis, and it morphed into this new thing I've never heard of called Reactive Airways Disease (it's not a disease - sounds scarier than it really is). That basically means that when you're sick, you could have a less-scary version of an asthma attack, where your breathing passages suddenly swell up. This happened to me on our last long run, two weeks ago, and was a bit terrifying, especially since we didn't know what was going on and it came seemingly out of the blue. Luckily, I have a great doctor who helped me quickly get back on track. So, MARATHON HERE WE COME! Now, let's work on the weather... it's supposed to be 30's and raining... yuck!

September 1, 2009

About To Blow Up

Today marks the first day in a week-long break I have before my life explodes. Next Tuesday, I start school-year lead teaching at preschool and 3 nights of grad school classes/week that will get me home at 9pm, in addition to the last month of marathon training and trying hard to be a good wife. Lucky for me, my husband holds this ship together even when I'm not doing all this crazy stuff, so I know he'll be amazing and supportive. He is the only reason I can keep going and power through! It's going to be nuts though.. I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving Break.

We had our in-service day at preschool today, and setting up the classroom with David and Courtni to make it our own really made me feel like I am taking charge of the classroom. I'm so excited to start with these new but familiar "friends" (that's what we call the kids - instead of kids, students, children, etc.). I got to make our Welcome Board, and I just had so much fun doing it. I love those kinds of projects. I always loved painting signs for cheerleading, making scrapbooks, making projects for school and family and friends. I always knew that the creative part of teaching was for me, I just didn't realize how much I'd love the rest of it too.

Welcome Board!!!
It's based off of the children's book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," a favorite at LPP:

August 23, 2009

Tyler & Kara


One of Bill's best friends from college, Tyler, and his fiancee, Kara came to visit Chicago last week. It was wonderful to see them! They live in Portland, Oregon, where Tyler works for Intel and Kara just completed the Bar and will be beginning a prestigious clerkship in the fall while her full-time job waits for her to complete it. They're getting married next April, and Bill's going to be one of Tyler's groomsmen. He's so excited! While they were here, Bill and Tyler went to a Cubs game, and we did a lot of eating great food and catching up. We can't wait to see them again, hopefully before their wedding.