week with friends

this no school thing really has it's perks. it's totally allowing me to be a bit more spontaneous and to enjoy weeknights again. last week was jam packed with friend time. on tuesday the shaklees came up for dinner and we got a lot of quality time after their trip to the planetarium. we had so much fun with meg, ry & their girls. wednesday i got to have dinner with tara & ryann before tara and i took a dance class at the joffrey. thursday we had an alumni volunteer outing at PAWS and my friend/fellow alumna, nicole came to help out. we didn't get to catch up much but it was still great to see a familiar face. on my way to the train i ran into tara & shalva who were grabbing tea close by. what a great surprise! on friday my friend leah let me know she was at a bar across from our place so i was able to swing by and catch up with her and her boyfriend before heading to dinner with our friends dan & kate. i couldn't help thinking how lucky i was to have such a friend filled week! the rest of the weekend was great too! on saturday rob and i went to an indie bridal fair and saw our friends val & chris and jen who was with another friend from high school. great running into so many people there! after that i got to grab tea at the sofitel with ryann and later we went to dinner and a depaul women's bball game with my parents and after that i met caitlin & mary out for drinks and dancing. seriously a great day! the next day we got to skype with the liebls and see all of luke's new exciting tricks like twirling and jumping off a chair :) such a cutie. then we went and picked up foster kitty #10 - fairy. she's a total love bug and we're so happy to have her!

truly one of the best weeks and weekends i can remember! i'm so lucky to have more time now to see friends and family.

Saugatuck Getaway

For graduation, Rob got me us an overnight in Saugatuck at a B&B. It was such a nice treat and I've been looking forward to it for a long time. When we booked it I assumed it would be snowy and that we could do snowy activities like snow shoeing or cross country skiing but there was no snow so we just had to go with the flow! We stopped for lunch at Crane's Pie Company and it was not only adorable but super delic. I had a turkey burger and Rob had a burger with grilled apple. For dessert Rob had apple pie and I had cherry. It was so yummie and I'm really glad we found the place! Then we made our way to the B&B which was pretty much completely empty except for a few couples. We checked in and rested for a bit and then took off to enjoy the downtown area. We did some wine tasting (Rob bought his first bottle of wine - I always am the wine drinker), bought some Michigan craft beers, some peanut butter fudge and then we went to a coffee shop so I could read the Hunger Games which I couldn't put down the whole weekend and Rob could catch up on email. We went for an early dinner at Phil's which is the top rated spot in downtown Saug. Rob got the Lake Perch and I got broasted chicken which I thought would be sort of healthy - turns out broasted basically means fried. I barely put a dent in half but it made for a great lunch the next day. After dinner we went back to our empty b&b and took advantage of the big screen tv in the common room to watch the Bulls game. We watched 3 bball games in a row before retiring to our room. The next day we enjoyed a very tasty breakfast and enjoyed views of Kalamazoo Lake. We originally planned to stick around for awhile but we decided to hit the road right away and make our way to St. Joe's. Unfortunately nothing was open since it's winter and it was a Sunday so the only stop we made was to Jimmy John's so I could get a diet coke and use the bathroom. Sad! We got back in the car and made our way to Michigan City so I could do some shopping at the outlet mall. I really lucked out and got 2 new pairs of work pants, 1 pair of workout pants, my favorite lotion from bath & body and a new dress. When we got back to the city we made a quick trip to the grocery store and when we got home I decided to tackle my clothes and do a new year's purge. I am really proud of myself for filling 2 garbage bags and getting Rob to part with some items too. I also organized our medicine cabinet & our entire bedroom closet. Everything is organized much better now and it's a great way to start the year. It was a great way for me to end a lovely weekend. I'm so glad Rob and I had the chance to have so much quality time together after such a busy time of my life came to a close. The rest of the month is going to be very busy so I'm glad we were able to squeeze in some relaxation!

2012 Goals

i take my resolutions pretty seriously but this year i came up with goals rather than resolutions and i have a lot of them. i'm writing them down because i know that increases the likelihood of me actually achieving them. last year my resolutions were to allow more me time and to be more spontaneous. i think i was a bit more spontaneous and definitely allowed more time for myself.

1. Scrapbook. I used to do this a lot before I started grad school and I love looking through all of the ones I've made. I'm going to work on my France trip next and possible a 2011 one.

2. Draw. In college art was a huge part of my life. I was constantly inspired and loved drawing. I haven't drawn in a really long time and I miss it! I bought a new kneaded eraser and some charcoal before Christmas. Now I just need to be inspired!

3. Exercise 4-5 times a week. I will never ever exercise on the weekends. I just know it so I can only shoot for working out during the work week. I'm usually pretty good about getting to the gym 3-4 times a week but I'm going to make 4 my minimum goal this year.

4. Try new recipes. I've slowly become more adventurous in the kitchen and I hope to keep it up. Rob and I have a tendency to just heat stuff up and not actually cook so i really want to try new recipes and create some new staples for our diets.

5. Take more pictures. I have really been slacking on this lately. Considering how much I love looking at old pictures, I should really try to take more of them!

6. Work on my finances. This is always a resolution. Now that school is done I should really be able to save a lot more for the wedding.

7. Spend more time in the suburbs with family & friends. Now that I don't have class during the week I have a lot more free time which I plan to take advantage of - especially to make trips down to the suburbs.

8. Patience. It's not my strong suit - a work in progress always.

9. Organize. I love organizing but our apartment is not the most organized place at the moment.

10. Try to be a better listener & interrupt less. Total culprit of interrupting!