The (very) Windy City- Part One

Last week we ventured off to Chicago so Justin could attend the ACHE conference.  It stands for American College of Healthcare Executives.  Justin, Dave, Ben, Ryan and Scott (all in our ward and MHA students) all went to the conference and Natalie and I tagged along to go play in the city.  Our trip started on Tuesday the the 24th.  We left early in the morning for the airport and flew into Chicago at about 8.  We stayed at the Hilton is Chicago, it was VERY nice.  Our room had two bathrooms in it! I could not get over it!  The boys all looked so nice in their suits and looked like actual business men as they checked in to the hotel.

The boys stayed at the hotel for their conference and Natalie and I went out to explore the city.  We first went over to Millennium Park to check out the sculptures.  There was the lovely art with the huge moving faces of chicago natives

Then we went over and checked out the "bean".  It is this really cool sculpture that reflects you and the skyline of the city.  We had fun taking pictures there.  

Try to spot Natalie and I in the pictures.  Hint: I am wearing blue.

After the park we headed to the "Magnificent Mile" to do some shopping.  We found some lovely little treasures along the way.  There was this huge foam sculpture of the famous painting "American Gothic"

and as we were walking down the street Natalie got this look on her face and was like look at that window! This is what I saw

but as we walked past the window you could see in the hole and we went from being grossed out, to laughing our behinds off.  This is what the free peep show turned out to be.

Behind the other holes there were little scenes set up with peeps as characters.  It was pretty fun and it totally made our day.  

We spent the next few hours shopping, but mostly trying on funny things and laughing way too hard.  Here we are pimping out some awesome headbands at Forever 21.  Do people actually wear these things?? Cause I think we totally pull them off.

As we were out in the city we realized why they call it the WINDY city.  At one point the wind was so bad that we were walking all hunched over with all of our strength because the wind was so strong it was pushing us back. It didn't help that we couldn't stop laughing. Lets just say that our hair was awesome and more then a little tangled after that.

After lots and LOTS of walking around we met back up with the boys to grab some lunch.  After lunch at an awesome little deli we took them back to Millennium park.  Here are a few more pics.

 

On our way over to the park the funniest thing happened.  We were all walking down the street and this guy comes up to us with a cup asking us for donations for the poor. We were kinda walking past him and he was like come on aren't you guys LDS.  We were all shocked.  He saw four clean cut boys in suits and thought they were Missionaries or something.  It was funny. 

After all that we went back to the hotel.  The boys went to more meetings and Natalie and I watched Rachel Ray and took a nap.  It was awesome.  Then they boys came back and we all went out and got some Chicago deep dish.  We all had a blast at dinner.  The food was great, the company was hilarious, and I don't think I stopped laughing the entire time. 

Here is the group. Justin, Me, Ryan, Natalie, Dave, Scott and Ben.

Please check out Ryan's face.  It made me laugh for at least 10 minutes when I saw this picture!

After dinner the boys went to some receptions at the hotel and Natalie and I were going to go sit in the hot tub, but we ended up getting in our pjs and watched the biggest loser and dancing with the stars.  When the boys came back we all had some girl talk and watched basketball.  It was a great and LONG day.  This post is getting long so I will post day 2 of our trip tomorrow.  It is mostly pictures from the Shedd Aquarium so check back tomorrow.

27 Years

1982

2009

Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad.  27 years ago they were married in the Jordan River Temple.  

Now today, 4 kids, 2 weddings, 1 son in law, 1 daughter in law, and one grandbaby later they are still in love and happy as ever.  

Guess where we are moving......

For Justin's MHA program he is required to get a summer residency.  He filled out tons of applications and has done interviews and we waited and waited to see where we would end up for the summer.  With the economy the way it is, it has been a hard year for the residency program.  We figured that with the circumstances that we would most likely have to stay here and find somewhere but on a hope and a prayer Justin applied for a residency at LDS hospital. We really wanted to be in Utah and we would LOVE to have Justin work for Intermountain Health Care. Well..... He got it! We will be moving to UTAH this May as Justin completes a residency for LDS Hospital and Intermountain Donor Services.  We are SOOOOO excited to be going back home and be close to family and friends! We are very grateful for this opportunity and I know that Justin is going to do an amazing job.  He is such a hard worker and IHC is lucky to have him!  

Utah here we come!!!!!!

What's one more Year?

Congratulations to Justin for being accepted into the MBA program at the Carlson School of Management.  What this means for us is that we will stay in Minnesota for an additional year.  We are really excited about this opportunity and we really are loving Minnesota and we are excited to have another year here.  So here's looking to the year 2011!

Winners!!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

14 2 

Timestamp: 2009-03-14 05:36:35 UTC

Comment 14 

Alanya/Ally said...

Leaving another love comment! Thanks for always posting!!! Got to run... Enrichment starting soon... also working on burning 75 CD's for the primary! Ah!!!

Comment 2

Jane said...

Sending love your way!!! Can we be related to you and still win??? Here's more LOVE!!!

Congratulations to you both!  I picked these numbers by using the random integer generator at random.org.  Thank you all for leaving comments!  I love to hear what you have to say.

And to my winners..... send me an e-mail at jesso22@yahoo.com with what you would like and with your address (if I don't already know it) and I will get you your winnings!

Wednesday's Read

Once upon a time I was a Junior in high school and I had to read "To Kill A Mockingbird" in my honors Literature class.  From that day on it has been one of my favorite novels and I own it and have read it about 5 times.  I was recently reunited with it again as it is the book for this month for my wards book club.  It is one of those books that I just assume that everyone has read and I am surprised when I realize that not everyone has read this amazing story! 

I have been surprised to learn that "To Kill a Mockingbird" was Harper Lees only published novel, and not only was it her only novel, but it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and in 1999 was called the best novel of the century by the Library Journal.  Have I convinced any of you yet that have not read this? 

 To give you a quick plot that contains no spoilers, the story is about a family, Atticus Finch is the father and he is raising his two children on his own Jem and Scout.  Scout is the main character, she is a tom boy and very mischievous. They live in Alabama during a time of depression and racism.  Atticus is a lawyer, and one of my favorite characters in any novel ever written.  The story follows Scout and her adventures, troubles, and life lessons learned.  Many have said that the novel was an autobiographical piece and that there are many similarities between this and Harper Lees life.  In fact her best friend Dill is said to be based after her real life friend Truman Capote.  This story has great symbolism and depth.  This is one of those great novels that takes you on a journey where you laugh, cry, feel scared and excited and most of all it makes you think.  Every time I read this, I realize again why I love it so much.  It is one of my all time favorite books and I think everyone should at least read this once (if not the 20 or more times I will most likely read it in my life).  

I think one of the reasons that I love this novel so much is that I first read it when I was about 16 and it made a huge impression on me.  It is one of the reasons why I love reading so much.  I know that it is always a book that I can turn to.  I hope that if you have not read it (gasp) that you will give this one a shot.  Even if it doesn't change your life, it will make you think and it will make you feel.  

I know a lot of you out there have read this?  Do you love it as much as I do? It's okay if you don't........really. 

What have you been doin lately?

So I have not really blogged about what we have been up to as of late.  Mostly Justin studies and works and goes to school (sleep, arise, repeat) day after day, and I usually work and run errands and occupy myself with television, internet and books while the hubby studies.  However we have had some fun little adventures mixed in there too. 

* We went to the Minnesota vs. Wisconsin game with Dave and Nat last week.  Before the game we went to an awesome little pizza joint called "Mesa".  They had really unique pizza.  I had mac and cheese pizza (amazing) and Justin had philly cheese steak pizza.  Dave had southwest taco pizza and Nat had the ever surprising cheese ( she lives on the edge!) It was really yummy.  Then we headed over to the game to watch the Golden Gophers battle their big rivals the Badgers!  Quite the ferocious prairie dwelling mascots we have here in the Midwest eh? It was an incredible game, we almost lost it at the end but pulled through with a big win! It was a fun night and we had a blast with the Henriksons.

* Justin had been working incredibly hard with a group on a case for his Clarion competition.  Clarion is a prestigious competition where if you are chosen, you work in a team of 4 chosen from Administration, Medical, Pharmacy, and Nursing students on a medical case.  You prepare a presentation and present in front of a board.  They choose the top 3 out of 9 groups and they are awarded prize money and fame! Justin was in a group and so were Dave Henrikson and Ben Smalley, some of our friends in our ward.  All the boys worked REALLY hard on their cases and even though their groups didn't win I am proud of them all!  It is an accomplishment to just have worked on a Clarion Case.  The awards ceremony was held at the coolest restaurant I have ever been to. It is called the Loring Pasta Bar.  We had incredible appetizers and there was an open bar so we drank Shirley Temples until we could drink no more.  The dinner was delicious and the key note speaker was really interesting to listen to.  It was a great night out and Nat and I told the boys that even though they didn't win, at least their months of hard work got them a free nice date with their wives!  Totally worth it right?  I think so.  Justin is still on the fence about it.

* We finally went and saw Taken, which everyone said was good.  It was pretty intense.  I hope that if we ever make it to Paris that I do not get kidnapped by the Albanians.  It does not look like fun!  We also got "Hancock" from netflix.  Some people told me that they did not like it.  I really liked it!  I thought it was a really good movie.  Our other Netflix recent activity includes the new Brian Regan DVD "The Epitome of Hyperbole".  Sooooo funny! We love that guy! We also recently saw "Henry Poole is Here."  I am not so sure about that one.  It was not bad, it was not great.  It just was.  It surprised me by being kinda religious and such.  We have also been watching the first season of "How I met your Mother" that my parents gave us in our Valentines Day package.  That is a funny show.  And for all of you judgy types...... we really are busy and we really are not lazy but seriously, it is freezing here and in the little bit a free time that we get together we decide to chillax and watch some shows.  So judge away, but leave us, our netflix, and our bowls of ice cream  out of it. 

* We have been recently reunited with an old friend.  The Sun.  We never thought we would see you again.  Thank you for melting away the piles of snow in our parking lot.  Thank for allowing me to not wear my puffy coat today.  We have missed you a lot! Stick around this time okay!

* We bought a new bookshelf tonight that only took Justin 1.5 hours and me 2 friends episodes and the Leno monologue to get through. It is so lovely and I am really excited about it!  It is made of mostly REAL wood.  That is something to get excited about since the majority of our furniture is made of particle board.  We are quite the grown ups now aren't we.  Slowly phasing out our college pieces with actual furniture!

Other then that, work and my church callings are going well.  Justin is doing great with work and school and his calling.  We are still loving Minnesota and having a great time together and with friends.  

That is all from us!

Seacrest Out!

(I am soooo excited about the top 13 this year on American Idol!)

(okay, now I am done!)

( seriously)

100th Post!!! (and a giveaway!)

This is officially my 100th post! 

 I started this blog about a year and a half ago, but it wasn't until about 7 months ago that I REALLY started blogging.  I LOVE to blog!  I think blogging is a great medium to share ones daily musings, thoughts on the world, and photos so those that are far away can see how lovely we are.  Justin and I moved from Utah to Minnesota almost 7 months ago for school.  We are equally 20 hours away from our family in Utah, and our family in Virginia.  This had been such a great way to make sure that our moms know that we are alive and well.  We love seeing pictures of our nephew and niece and siblings and parents on their blogs, and we love catching up and seeing friends both old and new in the blogging realm.  

I just want to give a shout out to those of you who read our blog and leave us awesome comments!  It is great to hear your opinions and kind words and thoughts.  

In honor of this being the 100th post, and in honor of the few that may actually follow this blog, I am going to do our very first blog giveaway. 

You will have three items to choose from if you win. 

I have been a little sick for the past couple days and whenever I am sick I feel like watching some of my favorite movies.  These are movies I used to always watch with my mom when I was little, so in honor of all these great movies, I chose 2 that you can pick from. They are,

And since of course I love scrapbooking, you can also have the choice of one of my favorite tools ever. The Xyron sticker Maker!

This little guy will turn anything into a sticker.  I think that even if you don't scrapbook, but have kids at home that this is a great little tool!

All of the items are brand new and once drawn the winner will have their choice of the above mentioned items.

So what do you have to do to win? You have to leave us some comment love. And that is all.  I know there are people who read this blog that I don't know or that I do know, but I don't know they read it.  This would be a great time to leave me a comment and let me know who you are and possibly win something!  So don't be shy, let us know who you are!!

 

You can leave one comment per day until Friday March 13th at 12 p.m. central time. Then I will pick a random number, maybe even 2 and post the winner/s on Saturday the 14th.  So leave us a comment every day to increase your chances!

Good Luck and thanks again for reading our blog and sending us some love while we are out here in Minnesota!