Hall of Fame

My husband and I have a tradition- we go to White Castle on Valentine's Day. I could care less to do something big and fancy on that day- I never really had any use for it. I've always found it hilarious that White Castle advertises to make reservations for dinner there every year. So, for our first one together in 2008, we went there and now it's something we've vowed to do forever. He wanted to have them at our wedding reception for a late night snack, but the hall said we couldn't bring anything in. My brother-in-law, the rule breaker, paid no mind to that and had my niece leave to go get them. Our wish was fulfilled- and they were a HUGE hit.

Who would've thought this would lead him to be inducted into the 2010 White Castle Hall of Fame?! (Also, who knew there was such a thing?!) On a slow day at work sometime after the wedding, he decided to write to them and tell them his/our story. When he was little, he and his late dad used to go fishing and get White Castle and his dad would order extra pickle- he was the only one he knew that ever ordered extra pickle. Until he met me. He immediately thought of his dad and how I must be a good match for him and here we are today. He submitted the story and the picture of us above and he is now one of 13 people being inducted. In two weeks, we'll fly to Ohio for the induction ceremony where we have to dress fancy and he'll have to give an acceptance speech. He's been interviewed on the radio and has been contacted to give more to other stations and newspapers. I can't help but laugh about this whole thing- it's so fun! I love how something so little (but apparently much bigger than I thought) can bring so many memories. I can't wait to tell our future children and grandchildren about their "famous" daddy.

If you're interested, click here for the interview he gave yesterday.

One Year

One of my favorite pictures

Today, my husband and I have been married one year. I can't believe it! How does time fly so quickly?! It feels like yesterday we were spending an amazing day of love and fun with our family and friends. Almost everything went perfectly, and what didn't was quickly forgotten because of the rest of the joy surrounding us (and a quick trip to Jewel by my matron of honor to buy flowers to fix the bouquets). The day was just wonderful- I still remember every detail and I hope that never fades away. The weather was nice, even though it drizzled a little bit in the morning, but when it was time to take our pictures outdoors after the ceremony, it was absolutely beautiful. The mood was a mixture of nervousness, joy and a little touch of sadness- mostly because I couldn't believe I was old enough to be someones wife. I spent the morning with my mom, aunts, bridesmaids and hair dresser and there were some tears, but mostly from laughter.

I can't even find the right words to express our first year of marriage. I'm not going to lie, the first few months were rough. Everyone warned me of it, especially since I did not live with him before we got married, but I never believed people. At least I knew to try not to feel bad if there was a rough patch because everyone of my married friends went through it too. But the love, laughs and joy we've had so far? Nothing can compare to that. I feel very lucky to have found him and that he chose me. And to think this is just the beginning. I can't wait to see whats in store for the next 50 years! My matron of honor said it best in her speech- I hope we look back on our wedding day as the day we loved each other least and that our love just continues to grow. And so far, it's true.

And now, I will bombard you with pictures of our special day.

I was so nervous!

Officially man and wife!

In case you're wondering, yes, the vests are navy blue and ties are orange for the Chicago Bears. (I can't believe I agreed to it)

I'm a Cubs fan, he's a Sox fan. Baseball season is rough on a marriage.

I wish I had more cake than I did- YUM.

The gem of the evening (and can you believe that ridiculous sweater vest?? A Mike Ditka replica- ugh.)

Movin' On Up

Well, down rather. This past weekend we moved out of our 3rd floor condo. Oy. To be truthful, it went MUCH smoother than I anticipated, thanks to my take charge brother in law. After spending the week packing numerous bins and boxes (where did all this stuff fit?!?!) I was sure I was in for a horrible moving experience. To say I was freaking out was a small understatement. I never moved a full house before- only moved some stuff to my husbands from my moms so I had no idea what to expect. My husband threw out his back a few weeks ago and has been sick for the last couple weeks as well- perfect timing. We didn't have as much help as we imagined because of changes in work schedules and the fact that I didn't want to use all my resources this time as hopefully we'll be moving again soon when everything for "our" house goes through. And of course, the weather was calling for rain Saturday morning after days of nothing. But, everything worked out great and after starting at 10am the majority of our things were out by 1:30! So for now we have stuff everywhere-my moms, his moms and a storage facility. Sunday we went back to finish taking everything, clean and fill a few nail holes in the walls. That part of the process took longer than the move, but at 8:30 that night, we opened a bottle of champagne and made a toast to the memories we had there and to looking forward to the future. I'm not going to lie, I cried. I may have only lived there a year, but we started dating 2007 so I spent plenty of time there over the years. It's so nice to be out of there, but it's still a little hard. And now, we close on the sale of the place tomorrow!! I'm going to be so excited to have that done with. What a huge weight lifted! Here's hoping everything goes just fine!

Goodbye condo!! Thanks for the memories!!!

On the Hunt

One of the biggest things going on in our lives right now is house hunting. My husband and I will be married for a year on the 26th, and to be truthful I never thought we'd still be without our first home. After marriage I moved into his condo that he's had for five years. It's perfectly nice and I'm grateful we had a place to call home- but we both knew we wanted to get out soon. And- it's full of boy stuff. Because I didn't think we'd be there forever, I never really added much of my own taste to the place. Don't get me wrong, I've introduced Yankee Candles, vases full of flowers and picture frames to the home, but nothing extreme. We have plain white walls as we repainted right before I moved in. It went from this:

See boy stuff. To this:

(Please excuse the mess and the fact that I forgot to cut my head out!)

To say I married a sports fan is an understatement. Now, many will think that I made him remove these things since I was moving in- this is not true. The decision was made solely to make sure all the holes (and there were a ton) were covered so we can paint before putting the place on the market. The condo went on the market in November and after a very slow few months, we're hopefully closing on the sale very soon. In fact we're moving out this weekend to go home. That was a whole other life lesson- buying a house is not easy. We're on house #3 since March, but we're confident this one will go through. The first house we put an offer on in March was a short sale and fell through after 5 months of waiting. Not something I ever want to deal with again if I can help it. House #2 we found and put an offer on the weekend after the first house fell through. After 2 weeks of back and forth with a previous contract they promised would be terminated, they chose to cancel our contract instead and try to move forward with the other buyer even after a host of problems. House #3 we found the next day (apparently we are good at finding houses and agreeing) and we're in the midst of waiting for the appraisal. So we're hoping the third times a charm! Fingers crossed!!! Even though it's been a rough road, we're excited to have our first home on or around our first anniversary!