29 Is Fine

Today is my 29th birthday. Now, anyone that knows me knows I have always LOVED my birthday. A lot. I get teased for how much I love it. It's the one day that the world stops and it's all about me. The montly countdown begins at the half way mark in April, and once October hits it's "26 days til my birthday, 25 days til my birthday", you get the point. And being that it's at the end of the month, let's just say it's a long October for anyone who has to hear it. But, I don't care. I love my birthday.

See, even back in the day I loved to get my party on.

Now I feel kind of weird writing my own birthday post, but there is reason behind it. This year, I'm not as excited about my day (gasp!). In fact, up until someone reminded me last week, I forgot it was coming. I think part of it has to do with everything going on with our house and moving and all that. Having a week off really messed up my concept of time. Part of it is probably that in 2 days it's my husbands birthday so everytime I count down he adds two days and does it too (I think it's to make me mad) and instead of having my own birthday celebration I have to share it. Selfish, maybe, but it took some getting used to while we were dating! But the big part of it is- holy cow I'll be 30 next year. A whole year from now, but still, it's close. My "timeline" I planned for myself when I was younger is not what it was and I'm still getting used to that. I was supposed to have one or two kids by now and getting settled into life forever. Now, I've barely been married a year, been in a house for two weeks and just starting to get ready to start a family. And I know this is all ok. I'm by no means old, and I just have to except that my plan is different now. Sometimes it's a hard pill to swallow, but most times I couldn't be more grateful because with the old plan, I wouldn't be with my husband and where I am now. So on this 29th birthday, I am just thankful for everything I have, the amazing people I'm surround with and just to be able to celebrate. Happy Birthday, Me!

You Capture- Orange

I love orange! And it is definitely plentiful in Chicago during fall. With so many options it was hard to decide what to include in You Capture- but I found 2 favorites.

First, I love these pumpkin candies. YUM. I wait all year for them. I enjoy all varieties of candy corn as well. Have you tried the caramel apple kind? Be sure to save me some at the store because they are delightful and you'll want to buy them all. Anyway...mmm tiny pumpkins....

 I love eating the green stems off first, but when I'm not feeling dainty, I pop the whole thing in my mouth.

This, is "Hungry" from the past Weight Watchers commercials. I've been a member for 3 years and it's still sometimes hard, but he sits on my desk at work as a reminder to not eat the whole bowl of pumpkins. However, sometimes it doesn't work (don't tell my meeting leader!)

Also, please note the orange pen in the cup- bonus capture. I have a slight obsession with pens. But that's a whole other post.

Head over to Beth's for more orange fun- can't wait to see more shots!

We Moved!!

I've been absent from the online world and out of touch with anything news related for pretty much the last week as we finally closed on our new house last Tuesday! It was a rough road with more downs than ups, but everything finally went through and we are homeowners. The closing process went surprisingly smooth and we were in and out in an hour. My always helpful brother in law met us at our new house with the truck of all our stuff (prepacked on Monday) and the unloading began. I can't believe how much stuff we have. We were so blessed at our wedding shower last year to receive so many nice things and we didn't really open anything because we wanted to save it for our new house- we just didn't think it would take a year to get! So it was like Christmas as I unloaded all kinds of new treasures. There was a lot of work involved in the last week and more to come, but we are living in our home and I love it. I still sit there like "is this really mine?!" It hasn't sunk in yet- and I think it will take some time- and furniture, but I'm so glad  everything is done. It's safe to say we won't be moving for MANY, many years! Pictures to follow- as soon as I unpack my camera!

Humbled

This week, I wanted to write a post about how difficult life is right now. House buying stuff, marriage stuff, etc. I don't want to be thought of as a complainer, but sometimes a girl just needs to vent and I thought blogging would be a perfect outlet. But so many other things have been going on and have come up this week with people in my life that are much more important- a child's health, their own health, serving our country, etc. and I am humbled and realize that no matter how aggravated and upset I get right now, that this that I'm going through- shall pass. And I pray fervently for those with more urgent things going on and that everything will work out. Sickness will heal, wisdom for doctors and protection for those at war. Peace for those who lost a loved one and those with unanswered questions and diagnosis. I know that everyone is entitled to have their bad days and to look for reassurance, but this week, I choose to move past it.

My blog journey has been short as I'm just diving in, but if it's one thing that I've learned from behind the scenes and just reading is that it is an awesome community of support, learning and so much more. Something I'm thrilled to embark upon. I'm sure one day I will write that venting post, but for today, I'm just thankful to be here.

You Capture- Faces

For as easy as this assignment could've been, I unfortunately didn't have a lot of time with my camera. Life got in the way, so I had to make do with my trusty cell phone camera. We celebrated our one year anniversary this weekend and we went back to the same restaurant we went to while on our honeymoon in Orlando. We were so excited when we saw they had one in Chicago and came up with this idea back then. I of course forgot, but my husband was kind enough to remind me, so off to The Palm we went. These are the faces of people excitedly waiting for their delicious meal:

Can you find any additional faces in these shots??


Give up???


There are some painted on the walls!!! Bonus! (The one to the right of my husband's head is Lou Piniella- Go Cubs!!) I wish I would've taken some better shots of some of them, but the ones I wanted would've involved me getting in the booth with some other patrons. I'm not sure if they would enjoy that.

Go get some more face time over here with Beth.