Family shower 7/9/10

This post is so overdue!! On July 9, my aunts and grandma threw me my bridal shower. It was hosted by Aunt Bev at her beautiful home in Yorkville. It was a gorgeous night so we were able to have it in the screen porch. My two cousins, Anne and Amy, came from the quad cities and Springfield and my Aunt Mary from Geneseo. Jason's mom and Mark came in from Iowa and the rest of my family from the west suburbs. My friend from childhood even came from the city since she had to miss my friend shower in June. Her mom, who was like a second mom to me growing up was also able to spend the evening with us. Aunt Shelby came up with some creative games and learned who knows me the best. My mom won but Anne and Amy were a second close! (and yes, you're all right, a horse really should have been my answer about my favorite animal!) Jason came for the gift-opening and we received some wonderful gifts! The night was perfect, it was very obvious that a lot of planning went into the evening!! Thanks so much Aunt Shelby, Aunt Bev, Aunt Mary and Grandma for a great evening with our family! Love to each of my cousins (and Katie) Melinda, Paulette, Tiffany, Karin, Judy and Mom for being there to celebrate!

New name!

So I guess with the move comes a new title. Wow how many, many, MANY things have changed since I started this blog about a year and a half ago! New home, new job, new career-path, an ALMOST new niece and new marriage status & last name!! Time for me to change the title to "Meanderings from the 3rd Floor Balcony." Easy fix, good thing I still have a balcony!
*I'll officially change the title as soon as I have Internet access!

Last Paper is Complete!

Do you have any idea how excited this makes me?? I can now write blog posts like the last one and can almost enjoy the rest of summer. I say almost because I still have to attend class tonight, next Tuesday and Thursday but my mind won't always be thinking about the paper/studying I should be doing! And wouldn't you know, I finished the paper last night and brought only my computer and devotional to work with me. Of course that would be the day Brandon sleeps the most and the internets not working! I have about 13 bridal magazines, 3 Real Simple, 3 Self, and about 6 books sitting at home waiting to be read, but nope, I decided only to get caught up on Internet-required type activities today. :) Isn't it amazing how much we (or at least I) rely on the Internet for our daily lives? Thank goodness for my iPhone so I can at least get caught up on my blog! :) so excited for a break from schoolwork! I already have my next few weeks planned with many outings with friends and Jason and lots of wedding planning to be completed! Yay summer!!

Ahhhhhhh, Sun!

I'm currently on a rooftop enjoying the cool breeze with Brandon. He's in the shade while I'm attempting to sun my very white legs and arms. Really should have brought a swimsuit today! Man if I lived here, I think I'd buy a kids pool to sit in. Then all I'd need is a beer in my hand and I'd be all set! Oh yeah, I'm babysitting, not too appropriate, I guess. One can dream and in the meantime I'll enjoy the windchime and blasting ghetto music and honking horns of the passer-by's...only 48 days until were on the beach preparing for our wedding where it'll be the real deal -sunshine, beach and ocean...and that beer!!

My New Permanent Home

Think it goes without saying that this summer's been too busy, right? Well I'm really excited to report that a HUGE weight has been lifted and the packing, moving and cleaning are complete!! And a huge thank you goes to Jason -- I have the best fiance in the world! A couple Sundays ago I was freaking out with how much packing I had left while I still had 2 papers to complete and a book to read for class. So he went out to the apartment and packed for me while I stayed home and researched and wrote my papers. Who does that, right? Such a great guy! Then this past week on Friday night my dad, brother and Jason all loaded up a U Haul trailer that Jason picked up while I was at Tiffany's baby shower. Saturday morning we still had some packing to do, but we had the trailer loaded up and headed downtown by 1:00. Took us just a little over 2 hours to unload everything, and then we headed back to Wheaton to clean and were back to the city by 10:00. Now if only the unpacking could be this easy!

these pictures don't do it justice...take what you see in these and multiply by 3. Goal is to have everything unpacked by the bachelorette party weekend!

Grad Papers

I have been freaking out the past 2-3 weeks because I have 4 papers I have to complete before the end of this 6 week class. Not a hard task to complete except with all the stuff I have going on with wedding showers, moving, and little Brandon. After many many many hours spent researching and writing, I have finally finished 3 of the 4 and am proud to report that I got an A+ on the first one! That's saying a lot for a girl who can count on one hand how many A's I've received. Needless to say it was the confidence boost that I needed to finish off this quarter! 2 more week, I can do this!

Hooky #2

A couple Thursday's ago we had tickets to go to the Cubs game with Uncle Dennis and Marilyn and we decided to get a couple extra tickets to bring my mom and dad for their Mothers Day and Fathers Day gifts. I was a little nervous about the weather holding out since they were predicting thunderstorms all day but it was a gorgeous night! The game was great too, they won 12-6, it was just hit after hit with a lot of action. It's always fun with Mom and Dad are at the game. And I think it was worth the 5 page paper I had to write to make up for missing a night of class! ;-)

not sure where marilyn in on this one and what the looks on uncle dennis and my dad's face means!

Hooky

Wednesday night I decided to play hooky from my Sign Language class. As I said in the last post, my vacation last week was anything but a vacation. I was in the mind-set that I had every day off from work and would spend those days at my apartment packing, catching up on wedding planning and just doing fun vacation-like things, but instead did my observation hours and had a paper due Thur night and was just crazy, crazy busy. So I decided that I would take off Wednesday night from my sign language class (it's a non-credit course...so no letter grades) but then Jason told me his work was going on some boat on Lake Michigan the following Wednesday and that I was invited, so it made sense to go to class last week so I could miss this week. Well sometime last week we found out the they weren't allowed to bring guests but I still decided I was taking my Wednesday off! I had the best evening! This will sound so silly, but I was able to get gas after work without having to rush off to somewhere, I went to Old Navy for flip flops, then I went home and ate my dinner on the balcony. Then I rode the el up to Diversey and ran home making a pitstop along the lake to pray and just take the night in. It felt so nice to not have to be somewhere and just stop for a night to enjoy everything that's going on in my life right now. Everything is happening so fast and I feel like I don't have time to think right now. I went from being so incredibly bored without a job or school and now every waking minute is filled with something so it was great to be able to recharge. If I can hold myself accountable for learning all the words each week (thanks to ASL iphone app that teaches me!) I may be taking the rest of Wednesdays off so I can enjoy whats left of summer and BEING ENGAGED!!

this was the view from where I stopped to pray and enjoy the night

Small Group Girls

Monday's are generally "date night" with Jason since we don't really get to see each other much during the week and our weekends have been jam packed with showers, weddings, packing, and everything in between. But this past Monday most of the girls from my old small group got together for dinner at Wells on Wells. We had a great time catching up! It will probably be the last time we all get together before Nikki has her baby girl - so fun!! There's something so refreshing after I meet with them, they're all such genuine, loving girls! Eleni, Andi and Emmy, we missed you! Love you girls and can't wait to do it again with 3 "plus ones!"

1/2 of my Summer Observation Hours

Last week I was on vacation from work but it was just as crazy busy as any other week because I had to do half of the required observation hours for my summer psychology course. I spent two of my days out at one of the schools in Tiffany s district in Romeoville. While I was upset for having to be out in Romeoville at 8am on two of my vacation days it ended up being a great experience. I observed a kindergarten class of about 10 kids who were all Special Ed. The kids were great and the teacher was really good with the kids. The teachers aides were also wonderful with the kids. There were three aides and one teacher so there were plenty of times when the aides could have been chatting it up with each other but were instead right there engaged with the kids. Even during recess, they were swinging their hips with the hula hoops or shooting baskets. I felt like I learned a lot in the 2 days that I was there by observing them. And as much as I love little kids, I didn't enjoy this age as a special ed teacher. I have so many more observation hours left to do before I graduate so I will have plenty of time to work with every age group to really decide what I'll enjoy the most but it was a good experience to learn that kindergarten probably isn't it! Thanks Tiff for letting me observe, especially on such short notice!

Hola from Puerto Vallarta!

The wedding planning (for Mexico) is complete and going to be beautiful! So excited to be married to Jason on the beach with our closest friends and family! 11 weeks from today I'll be Mrs. Lockwood! (I cannot believe it's almost here!) I'm off to the hottub before showering and out to dinner! Adios!

Happy 4 Month Birthday Brandon

Today marks Brandon's 4 month birthday. Happy birthday little one,

I love spending my days with you!

NaBloPoMo - July

For all you bloggers out there you're probably familiar with NaBloPoMo. For those of you who aren't, it's a website that encouraged people to blog every day. They give you a theme which is supposed to encourage you to write. Check out the website here. I haven't ever liked the theme and thought it was hard but I am going to give it a shot this month. The theme for July is "saved." I will share with you when I'm back from vacation what immediately came to my mind with the word, "saved." And then I plan to write every day about "saved." I think this one should be kind of easy, we'll see!