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!

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.

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!

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

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!

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:

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.

Marathon Update

We ran a whopping 20 miles yesterday. It was murder! Our previous long runs, 16 miles and 18 miles have been smooth and uplifting. Not so for the 20 miler. During the last four miles, I tried to think of possible ways to cheat on the day of the marathon. My best idea was to skip the western leg and just cut from the north loop to the south... if you see that we got a sub-3 hour time on the big day (Probably just me, not we. Bill's too noble.), you'll know that my bad side won. I'm hoping it was just a fluke and that our next long run of 23 miles will somehow be easier.. we will see.

Good Eats

Bill loves to cook and I love to eat! A match made in heaven. Here are some pictures of delicious dinners he's made for us lately. I'm so proud of my husband for being so great in the kitchen!

Braised beef short rib ravioli

Grape gazpacho, mussels and Spanish chorizo
Snow pea, bell pepper and chicken stir fry

I always secretly loved salsbury steak for elementary school cafeteria lunches, so Bill recreated my fav. It was much better than I remembered

Prosciutto and cauliflower soup

Chicken tortilla soup

Mu shu pork

Mexican chorizo empanadas

Seared cod with spinach and orzo

Lobster pasta with snap peas and a champagne sauce

Chorizo stuffed cubanelle peppers

Bill's famous guaca!

Fish, mussel and cannelini bean stew

Red chile pork tamales

Mole verde with sea bass

Zuppa Tuscana

Chicken pot pie

Kung pow chicken

Tomato basil w. goat cheese and Spanish chorizo w. red pepper pizzas

Beer battered artichoke hearts, bacon-wrapped chorizo-stuffed dates, and manchego cheese tomato bread

Pear salad

Tacos!

Taquitoes

Ceviche

Beer cheese bacon soup

Sashimi

Salmon avacado maki

Lentil salad with shrimp and scallops

Cheese tortelloni with sundried tomatoes, asparagus and pine nuts

Corn and cashew chowder

The Future's So Bright We Need Shades

I love the title of this post for a potential Welcome Board slogan my preschool class might have in the fall. I'm thinking of slogans because this Monday, I was offered and accepted a lead teaching position at LPP! I will be moving up a class to the 3's & 4's, and I'll be co-teaching with Mr. David, who is an amazing amazing teacher. He's incredibly creative, I love being creative, and now we get to be creative together!! I'll be transitioning from part-time to full-time, getting much more teaching experience, making more money, and reducing my free time by a lot. I'm thrilled!!

I'm excited beyond words to be a lead teacher. I didn't think I'd have the opportunity until after I graduated from grad school (which will be next June), but the situation presented itself, and everything fell into place. What I am most excited about is that the 2's & 3's I taught (and loved!) this year will be in my 3's & 4's class this fall. Half of them already moved up this summer, so I'll get to enjoy spending my days with them again starting July 27th. It's a great birthday present :)

I've absolutely loved working with Patty and Keri, the teachers I have been with all year in the 2's& 3's. We were a cohesive, loving team, and our class ran so smoothly. I hope I can implement a lot of our strategies in the 3's & 4's class. They've taught me so much, and I'm glad they'll still be right next door for me to turn to for advice.

I will be teaching in the 3's & 4's class until March, when I will need to leave for 12 weeks to complete my student teaching to fulfill my masters requirements at DePaul. As soon as I graduate, in June, I will return to my teaching position with the 3's & 4's. LPP is being very flexible to work with me, and I really appreciate it. I can't wait to begin!

Happy Birthday America

Bill and I are both on day 4 of a glorious 4-day weekend. We relaxed together all day Friday. One benefit of living in Des Plaines is that the area has so many great parks, most of which have playgrounds for children, and some that are perfect for picnics. During a walk, we discovered a peaceful grassy park with lots of trees and flowers and decided to have a picnic there on Friday. We read, talked, ate and laid on the blanket until the sun started to set. It was wonderful! It was a perfect day off with my babe.

We started the Fourth of July off with a 13 mile run, which really boosted our spirits about the marathon! We were only planning on running 12, the longest run we've had so far this year, and we felt so good at the end that we decided to go the extra mile and do half of the marathon distance. It was inspiring! We thought we would be completely exhausted after the run, which would have been sad because we had night plans too.. but we felt fine! It's so hard to imagine though that it was only HALF of the distance - that if we had been running the marathon, we'd have to turn around and do it all again. Yikes!

On the night of the Fourth, Megan and her roommate, Elizabeth had a rooftop party at their apartment in Wicker Park. Once the rain stopped, everyone was able to party on the roof while vagabonds set off fireworks in every direction. Megan's Charleston friends were in town and are always so much fun in their cute southern dresses and southern drawls. They make me really want to move below the Mason Dixie line.

Sunday, I went to the Cubs game with all of the Brodericks and Meg's visiting friends. We had seats on a rooftop, something I haven't done before. It was very fun! We spent the whole time talking in the sun and didn't watch the game too closely except to cheer for runs (the Cubs won 8-2). When I got home, exhausted, my wonderful husband asked what I wanted for dinner, went to the grocery store, and made dinner for us while I laid and watched Friends. He had spent the day with our nephews, going to Crystal Lake's 4th of July parade and playing with water balloons. Such a fun weekend.

I wanted to ice my knees after the run, but there was no time. Bill helped tape the ice packs to my knees while I wrapped bacon wrapped dates for Megan's party

Bill & I at Megan's Party

Kelly!!! Where's your dress?

Us with the Newlyweds! They're so in love

Charleston friends

Meg & I

My friends are Beautiful!

The Broderick girls

Cubs Rooftop