Love

Moving On East ...Again

This is our big moving weekend. Mike finished up school and work last Friday and it feels like we have been organizing, cleaning, packing and tying up loose ends every day sense then. Moving is no joke, it's a lot of work.

Our plan is to get a Uhaul Sunday and hit the road Monday morning. We plan on staying in Chicago for 3 years at minimum. Mike was accepted at Loyola University, a really great school where he can complete an accelerated masters in social work program. We are hoping all the financials come through otherwise he will be attending North Eastern University. Cross your fingers everything comes through for Loyola!!!

Mike also said goodbye to his co-workers at the Vet Center here in Moline this week. I have to say, people LOVE my husband. I was reading through the cards he got for his birthday, good luck, and good-bye and they said so many nice things about him and are hoping he returns in a couple years to be a part of the staff. They even celebrated with an ice cream cake. YUM! AND the Evanston Vet Center is really excited that he will be returning. I have forgotten what it feels like to be valued at your job, so inspiring to me!

Bix Weekend

This past weekend was our last real weekend in Iowa before we move back to Chicago. We said goodbye on the biggest summer weekend in Davenport, Bix. The Bix fest celebrates the late, great jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke who grew up in Davenport, Iowa. During his short life, just 28 years, Bix was one of the leading names in jazz in the 1920's. Bix is actually buried around the block from where we currently live at Oakdale Cemetary.

One of my favorite songs by Bix, and of all time is "I'll Be A Friend With Pleasure" have a listen!



We had a great time enjoying all the street food and live music in downtown Davenport!

Almost One Year!

It's hard to believe that Mike and I have almost been married for one year. About this time last year I was blogging about our engagement session in Chicago. I still can't believe how fast everything came and went. It all hit me again this morning as I was running.

If I had to pick my favorite aspect of our wedding, besides the groom, I'd pick my flowers. I swear, I will be thinking of these flowers until the day I die. Damien, the florist I was lucky enough to work with from Milan Florist, went above and beyond my expectations. I could sense that he had it in him during our meetings but his diggs are very modest, so there was still a little bit of uncertainty.

One of my memories of picking my flowers was showing Damien pictures of what I liked. I tolf him I really wanted a garden themed bouquet, with lots of green and white and some purple accents. One of the flowers I chose was Queen Annes Lace. My Mom made a joke that it was a weed and for a moment I second guessed my choice but decided, I liked it, weed or not.

This morning while running on the bike trail I noticed all the Queen Annes Lace blooming. I sighed to myself and started replaying our wedding in my head and, thanks to technology, songs from our wedding playlist on my ipod. I finished up my run thinking how glad I was that I chose Queen Annes Lace because from now on and forever at this time of year, right around our anniversary, August 2, 2008, I'll look at the blooms and be reminded of my great day.

I Finally Got A Glimpse On Film!

Many of you have heard the unbelievable stories of our ginormous dog Finn. Finn has many insecurities and issues including his fear of water, rain, and thunder. Tonight we had warning that a storm would be hitting in the next 20 minutes. Mike quickly took Finn for a walk to get all the waste out of his body so it did not end up in our house. Once the storm hit our strategy was to just go along with our business and ignore Finn the best that we could. We've spent hours researching techniques to curb his fear of storms and the best thing to do is to just act normal and be playful with him and never, never, baby or cuddle him. Luckily tonight was a pretty calm display of his anxiety, but I managed to take a quick video on my camera. Check it out, it's funny and a little sad all in one. I say fear or no fear he's still a good lookin dawg. O, and Dixie makes a cameo too.

12 gifts that keep on giving...

Need I say more? Jeff and Mel sure know how to get a smile and a jaw drop out of Mike! They bought Mike a variety of specialty beers for his birthday. I must say this also put a smile on my face, followed by an ecstatic, "What the hell?" when I saw a few Abita brews included in the mix. Abita is one of my favorite breweries based in Louisiana. I actually called around a few months back to all the area liquor stores looking for Abita and no one stocked them. Apparently this is a strange coincidence or HyVee Grocery in Rock Island, IL really does listen to their customers! I sure do love those helpful smiles :) I even ordered Mike and Abita shirt for his bday that he's wanted since our trip to NOLA in May. Mike and I decided to test this gift out earlier this evening. Our first picks are below. YUM!



On a side note, to all the True Blood fans out there, next time you are watching, notice all the Abita merch at Merlotte's!

Birthday Boy Gets 31 Spankings

Last night we celebrated Mike's 31st birthday. I think 31 is a pretty big deal because it proves that life does not stop at 30 which is both good and bad.

We decided to try Hibachi for dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant Osaka. The sushi at Osaka is so great that we usually pass over the Hibachi without giving it much thought. Feeling adventurous and wanting to try something different we decided to go for it and the rest of the fam was down for it too.

For those of you who don't know what Hibachi is, it's when a chef prepares an array of steak, chicken, seafood, tofu and veggies along side some fried rice all your table on a flat top grill.



Our Hibachi guru's name was Tai Mai Shu, hahah get it? He was very skilled with his knife throwing skills, torching flames and sneaky tricks. I appreciated all of these except for the egg catching game. Tai Mai Shu went around the table and made everyone catch fried egg with their mouth straight off the flat top! I should add that I have a huge phobia of burning my mouth, and also a huge phobia of other people burning their mouths. I usually start of every meal with an obligatory, "Don't burn your mouth!" So I caught the egg with my hand, and asked everyone else who attempted to catch the egg if they burnt their mouth. I am happy to say no injuries were reported.



The dinner was great, and aside from the sodium, it leaned towards the side of healthy.



If you who live in the Quad Cites area the Osaka in Moline, IL has an awesome special Sun - Thursday. Steak or chicken Hibachi are 2 for $22. What a deal! The meal is also served with soup and salad.

Earlier in the day I stopped at a new bakery in downtown Davenport called Cupcakes, Muffins and More. I picked up a half dozen of these tasty treats. They were delicious and an insane bargain. One cupcake is only .75 cents! I was expecting them to be more in the $2-$3 range. A half dozen was only $3.99 and a dozen, $6.99, what a steal! We all managed to squeeze one of these in, more or less.




All in all we had a fun time celebrating my hubs birthday. Happy birthday sweetie! XOXO