Magnificent Mondays: Magnificent Blogs 52

TaDa Creations is one of those blogs that I have been following for quite some time now.  Angel has a wonderful creative spirit and she's living her life for our Heavenly Father.  What more could you ask out of a blog???  Not only does she have great creations, but she also has some great tutorials.  

If you're looking for a push to learn to/try your hand at appliquéing, you must take a look at Angel's tutorial.

She also designs children's clothing and sells them on Etsy.  Can we all agree on how ADORABLE these are?!

Angel is obviously a skilled sewer, and she's offered up advice for us novice sewers out here.  

There is SO much inspiration and information waiting to be discovered at TaDa Creations, so don't wait another second and go check it out for yourself!

Happy Blogging!

A look into what's been going on around here...

Do you remember this little 'beaut that I picked up outside a private Jewish school this past summer with my friend Amy???

It sat in our apartment for months and months and months while I was waiting for the inspiration to do something with it...

This past weekend, JoAnn's had a President's Day Sale and all their upholstery fabric was 50% off...I found all the inspiration I needed there:

I fell in love with this fabric for a multitude of reasons.  First off, It's a little bit different than what I have going on right now, while incorporating all the colors of our family room.  Secondly, I've been wanting to add in some shades of blues into our home - this does the trick!  Lastly, I fell in love with it because JoAnn's had it there in the store.  I walked up (more like took a number and waited in a really long line) to the cutting desk and they cut away at it.  I went home a happy camper!

This is a little bit of what my chair looks like right now - except for it's looking even more rough now.  All the fabric is off (except for the front of the back) and I've managed to pry off the criss-cross wood design on each leg.  My only regret?  That I didn't pick up two of these free chairs when I had the chance!

I've got an itch and I can't help but scratch it!!!

p.s. I officially hate little staples.

Bon Appetit: Chocolate Chip-Me

A couple of weeks ago, I found some chocolate chips under the microwave that I had bought awhile back. I was preparing for the arrival of my friends Ryan and Carly so I decided to use up those chips and make some yummy chocolate chip cookies.  At the time, I was on the phone with my bestest friend, Doni, who just so happens to bake as a hobby.  We were both talking about how much of a bummer it is that homemade chocolate chip cookies never taste or look as good as the break and bake cookies.  She told me to look up the Mrs. Field's recipe and maybe that would help.  I did that, and I was so excited to see some things on the ingredients list that I had never used before (a 1/2 cup of oat meal finely chopped up into a grain-ish substance).  I just knew that this recipe with different ingredients would make some killer cookies.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  While the recipe was good, it still wasn't what I was looking for.  Although the crowd (Ryan, Carly and Stephen) enjoyed my efforts, I was somewhat baffled (not too baffled - this is just a cookie recipe we're talking about here).  How do I get the ooey-gooey perfection that is the break and bake?  How do they do it?!

I was sharing my frustration with Ryan and Carly while (appropriately) stuffing my face with the cookies.  And that's when Carly mentioned a to-die-for recipe involving (prepare yourself for a little bit of a cringe) butter AND shortening as well as vanilla pudding.  As she continued talking, I just knew I needed to get my grubby little paws on it.  That's where my good friend, Google stepped in.  I'm a big googler - I google everything.  As I clicked upon the link that held the "secret" to the most amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe, a light from heaven shone down and a choir of archangels sang in the background - ahem!  Just cookies.  But, needless to say that after making this recipe once, it's a recipe that I plan on using over and over and over and over and over....

and over again :)  Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Chocolate {I'll Be Your Chip} Cookie.  (yes, yes, I made that name up because evidently I have nothing better to do)

Ingredients:

*2 1/4 cups flour

*1 teaspoon baking soda

*3/4 cup packed brown sugar

*1/2 cup butter, softened

*1/2 cup shortening

*1/4 cup sugar

*1 (4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding

*1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*1/8 teaspoon almond extract {I didn't have it and Aldi didn't sell it so I didn't use it}

*2 eggs, beaten

*2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

*Preheat oven 350 degrees.

*Combine flour and baking soda.

*In a large bowl beat brown sugar, sugar, butter, shortening, pudding mix, vanilla, and almond extract.

*Mix until well blended.

*Add eggs and mix well.

*Beat in the flour mixture.

*Stir in chocolate chips.

*Drop by rounded teaspoonful and bake 10-12 minutes.

*Be prepared to give out the recipe

Somehow, in all of my excitement, I forgot to take a picture of the final product. Here is a picture from the website where I found the recipe - my cookies looked just as good as these:

So pretty, so perfect, so gooood!

Seriously - go get baking right now!

This recipe and the picture were borrowed from Food.com

A Tribute to the Weekend

There's something about the weekend that makes me happy and giddy and feel as if I'm in elementary school again.  There's something about Friday, knowing that there's "freedom" in the schedule, or at least "fun" things to do in the next few hours and days.  I love the weekend.  I love the time that I get to spend with my husband and friends.  I love the time that I get to spend with my church family and my sweet small group gals.  Did I mention that I love the weekend???  Here lately, I've been loving the weekend even more as my schedule has gone haywire on me, leaving me out of breath, looking both ways and wondering what just happened.  You might've caught on to that feeling if you've visited around here lately - you came and all you saw was...nothing.  All you heard were...crickets.  Stinks.  There are LOTS of things I have my mind set on, with little time to do them.  Boo-hoo.  Yeah, I know, a "shut-up, Kari" is in order.  Hold on a sec, I need to go get my big-girl pants on.

Okay, I'm back!  So, because I haven't been here to talk about my great weekends, today is the day.  A couple of weeks ago my good friends, Carly and Ryan came here for a visit.  This was their first time coming to visit Stephen and I and it happened to be the weekend after my sister and her husband came and the week same week of the blizzard.  Snowcalypse 2011 didn't stop Carly and Ryan (they're brave souls ;)  ) and I'm so glad it didn't!  To be honest, I was a little apprehensive of having weekend visitors back-to-back.  Especially after coming off the Food Weekend, 2011 we had the week before.  When my sister and her husband were in town, we successfully ate our weight in greasy Chicago food.  I was worried about what the weekend would bring with a second set of out-of-towners...would I be eating Chicago-stuffed pizza again?  While my mouth watered, my thighs shuddered at the thought.
All that time I was unsure of what the weekend would hold for me and my dear friends, and the worrying ended up being a waste of time!  Turns out that Ryan and Carly's visit happened to be the most low-key visit.  Ever.
They came in on Thursday night.  All the snow had fallen on Tuesday and Wednesday but Carly and Ryan weren't scurrd.  We ended up having to shovel a spot to nestle their car in for the weekend as the streets were still covered in snow.  After successfully tucking their car in for the night, we went in and enjoyed a little time catching up.
On Friday, there was no rush or hurry - no agenda...well, except maybe for Stephen - he had to work.  We just woke up whenever and hung around the apartment, spending time filling each other in on life and just sharing ideas, thoughts and stories.  It was great!  Ryan really wanted to get sushi for lunch.  While Stephen and I love sushi, it's one of those things that we go to in All-You-Can-Eat style (I married a human vacuum) and I was in the market to try something new.  I yelped a sushi place close to our apartment and we had SUCCESS!  We went to a little place on Clark, called Toro.  With 485 reviews and an average of 4.5 stars, I was sold.  The sushi was great and the price tag was little.  YA-HOO!  After lunch we walked around (which ended up being a big workout considering all the snow everywhere) a bit and then headed back home to hang out before dinner (did I mention their visit was low-key?).  We then headed off to Zed451 where we met Stephen for a Brazilian steakhouse dinner.
I bet you're thinking that our weekend must've started to pick-up the pace on Saturday.  You couldn't be more wrong!  We spent more than half the day hanging out and playing a very long game of Settlers of Catan before we realized that it was probably good for all of us if we got out of the apartment before we ate any dinner.  That's when we rode down to Michigan Ave, took a little stroll and then headed back to Lincoln Park to enjoy a wonderful dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Basil Leaf.
Ryan and Carly split town early on Sunday morning to get back to Lexington for the Big Game (Super Bowl Sunday was that day) and we were sad to see them go.  We really enjoyed our time with them.  I was grateful for this time as it gave Stephen the chance to really get to know some of my sweet friends.  The only regret I have from that weekend was that somehow we managed to not get a picture of all of us...HOW'D THAT HAPPEN?!  Oh well.  That's just a good reason to get them to come back to the city :)

*******

This past weekend, Stephen and I enjoyed some low-key time together.  On Friday night, we had the privilege of babysitting for one of my good friends, Shea's baby - Naomi.  This baby is a cutie with a little raspy cry that you can't help but chuckle at!  We really enjoyed being able to take care of her, and she proved to be a good personal trainer, as the next day my arm hurt :).  On Saturday, we got to catch up with our friends Matt and Amy.  This was a blessing because we haven't really been able to spend a lot of time with them lately.  It was fun to just sit over lunch and catch-up on life.  That night, my sweet husband treated me to a "fancy" dinner for a belated birthday gift.  Stephen had made reservations for the Signature Room on top of the John Hancock Building.  Here are some views from our night:

A view of the southern part of the city

Navy Pier

My handsome husband

My handsome husband believes in equity.  If there's a picture of him, there must be a picture of me.

{please forgive the darkness...I didn't want to flash out the restaurant}

We had a wonderful time in intentional conversation and enjoying each others' company.  It was nice to talk without the possibility of one (if not both) of us falling asleep on the couch, which so often happens!

So, there's my tribute to the weekend.  What about you - did you do anything fun this past weekend?  Or, do you have some fun plans coming up in a future weekend?

Be Patient!

I have lots of things/projects/fun times to share and just Z.E.R.O. free time to do it in.  BE PATIENT!  It's coming! :)

Soup Lovin'

On Saturday I told you about my husband's love for soup.  I told you how he could eat soup if it were rainy and chilly or sunny and humid.  It doesn't matter, he's all for a good bowl of soup!  Today, Tidy Mom launched her Soup-a-palooza where people can link up their soup recipes starting today until Sunday.  If you're looking for some good, new soup recipes (as I am) then Soup-a-palooza is for you!  If you have a good soup recipe to share, you should definitely do so, that way myself and everyone else can benefit from your soup lovin!

Magnificent Mondays: Magnificent Blogs 51

Adrianne and her husband have a lot of cool things going on over at their blog, Dream Book Design.  There you'll find out a little bit about them and their projects that encompass them renovating their 1952 ranch.  I love their design and their spunk.  I also love their obvious love for the Lord.

How cool is this project?!  As soon as I saw it, I thought of my sweet friend, Angie :)

I also really like their style with this simple spray paint makeover.  I feel like Sherry from young house love would definitely swoon!

Do you remember how much I love fall?  I almost love this just as much :)

Go check it out for yourself - go stop by Dream Book Design and let me know what you love!

Happy Blogging!

Bon Appetit: Tortellini, "Come-to-Me," Soup

I've been wanting to write this post for sometime now and I've continuously put it off...tonight's the night!
Stephen LOVES soup...a lot.  I'm one of those people that likes soup a lot when it's cold outside.  Stephen, on the other hand, could eat soup no matter the temperature or the humidity level.  The idea of eating soup in the middle of summer makes me sweat, it makes him smile.  He also loves pasta, which explains his love for Tortellini Tomato Spinach Soup.  There's nothing fancy about it except for the fact that it's quick and easy - that's fancy to me! :)  Now, onto the recipe...

                                                                                      What you need:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup minced onion (about 1/2 small onion)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 to 6 cups broth, chicken or vegetable
• 1 (14-ounce) can whole tomatoes, crushed through your fingers or coarsely chopped
• 1 (9-ounce) package fresh tortellini or 4 servings dried tortellini
• Coarse grained salt and cracked black pepper
• 10 ounces fresh or frozen spinach, defrosted and chopped
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, very loosely packed

What you do:

In a 3-quart soup pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Saute the onion and garlic, stirring often until onions are translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add broth and tomatoes, turn heat up to high, and bring to a boil. Add the tortellini and cook according to package instructions. When tortellini is almost done, add spinach and taste, adjusting seasonings with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.Garnish each serving with a sprinkling of Parmesan.

What you get:

A great soup that is quick and easy.  It requires very little ingredients and can be good for even your vegetarian guests.  I like to serve ours with either grilled-cheese sandwiches (gourmet, I know) or just some plain old cheese and crackers (again, I'm pulling out the big guns here!).  

Enjoy!
(This recipe was hijacked right off of the Food Network website.)

If the Good Lord's Willing and the Creeks Don't Rise

That was one of the many memorable sayings that used to come out of my Grandma's mouth.  Another one that comes to mind when I think of her is, "I'll swannee..." (who knows if I've spelled that right)!  And one of the last sayings that I'll never forget her repeating was, "Amen, Brother Ben!" - I have no clue where she got that one!
Stephen and I headed to Louisville on Monday when we heard of my Grandma's passing.  It was one of those things that we had anticipated and knew could happen at any point, but still one that I don't think we could ever be ready for.  I know my feelings of sadness are ones that are normal and healthy, but are also selfish.  You see, my Grandma was 93 years old and her body had just worn out.  For her, death brought life and I know that she is in a MUCH better place, living it up with our Heavenly Father.  I just wish that I could still see her or talk with her on this side of Heaven.  In a totally healthy and non-morbid way, I look forward to the day where I get to join her and see her again.  Until then, I'll celebrate the life she had and the woman she was and try not to let my sadness get in the way.

Who wouldn't love a Grandma that would go along with the "Ugly Face" picture?

Stephen and I giving Grandma some loving :)

My sweet, sweet Grandma,

Thank you for being such a great Grandma; you were the perfect balance of love and discipline.

I hope to serve God and my family the way you did, day-in and day-out without a complaint leaving your lips.

I love you a ton and look forward to seeing you again someday...

....that is, if the good Lord's willing and the creeks don't rise!

Love,

Kari

One Happy Fan

I'm sure that you remember how much of a Steelers fan my husband is.  With that being said, we were all ready to host our second Super Bowl party, and we were even more ecstatic that the Steelers were in it this year!  Stephen and I are both in our own small groups through our church that meet on Sunday nights.  His small group meets at our apartment every week while my small group takes me to my friend, Laura's apartment.  We decided that this year we would combine both small groups (and their significant others or friends) and watch a fantastic football game together!  Let me tell you that we went as far as to get a new television for this event.  It went a little something like this...
me: "Don't you think that the Steelers deserve to be watched on a big screen in their 2011 Super Bowl debut????"
Stephen: {in awe} "yessssssss..."
We did a bit of research, talked with some friends and finally made a decision to purchase a great flat screen T.V. from amazon.com.  I was SUPER pumped...until the Blizzard of 2011 kept our television from being delivered on time resulting in us canceling the order altogether {crash. burn.}  Thankfully, Stephen has a great friend who agreed to letting us borrow his T.V. (did I mention that he's a great friend?) so that Stephen could see his beloved Steelers on the big screen.  I started decorating early and got off to a good start, but the apartment needed more.  Here are some shots of our party preparations:

Stephen has a plethora of Steelers shirts!  We used some of them for decoration :)

The Steelers beach towel that I got him as a wedding gift came in very handy as part of our decor

Proudly holding up one of his many terrible towels

Inside our china hutch you will see the official terrible towel from the 2009 Super Bowl where the Steelers triumphed over the Cardinals.  You will also see some of Stephen's Pittsburgh Steelers mug collection and his empty box of Champion Crunch Cereal featuring Hines Ward.

When you got to our apartment door, you were greeted by the Steeler's daily trivia question regarding Stephen's favorite player: Troy Polamalu

We hung up Stephen's laminated Pittsburgh newspaper picture of the team praying from a previous season.

No Super Bowl party would be complete without a Steelers cake!

and when you cut into it...

black and yellow, black and yellow...

Now, for my favorite picture of the night....

That's right ladies and gentlemen...Troy Polamalu showed up at our Super Bowl Party!  WOO HOO! Much to Stephen's dismay, I ordered this wig on amazon and it showed up at our apartment on Saturday afternoon.  Stephen went along with my madness and wore it to answer the door and greet new arrivals to the party.  He also wore it on and off during the game.

Here we are after the game.  You might be wondering why we're still smiling so big, even despite the outcome?  Here's Stephen's thought process on the whole thing: there are 32 teams in the NFL, which means that there were 30 teams that did not even make it to the Super Bowl. The Steelers did.  Not only did they make it but they had a huge season: AFC Champs and the Best Defensive Player of the Year award.  Despite the Steelers losing the Super Bowl, Stephen was so proud of his team and the nail biting game that they offered their fans.  Did they play their greatest?  We don't think so.  Did they have a great season?  That they did!  One thing my husband is: a Steelers super fan.  One thing he is not: a poor sport.  He is proud of his team and he's already looking forward to next season!

Just for a little fun:

Magnificent Mondays: Magnificent Blogs 50

Kalleen at Second Street comes from a family of creative people.  When I was perusing her blog I saw a lot of post on handmade gifts that she and her family had made to give to one another for Christmas gifts.  Let me tell you, these gifts were awesome!  If you have time, you must just click away over at Second Street and see what kind of goodies you can find!  Here are some of the treasures that I laid my eyes on:

This etched window is amazing!  How beautiful is this, and I'm sure it was time consuming but Kalleen makes it look like cake!

This "On-the-Go" book is a great (and seemingly easy - with the help of Kalleen) book to give to any kid in your life - I'm sure their parents would be grateful!

You know how much I love fall, and with that love of fall comes a love of Thanksgiving, so naturally I would love this Give Thanks banner.

Head on over to At Second Street and be inspired!

Happy Blogging!

Enjoying some time with family

My sister (Laurel) and her husband (Justin) ventured to Chicago last weekend for their first trip to visit Stephen and I here in the big city.  While we didn't do anything crazy or what others might consider "super cool", we did eat our fair share of food!  Laurel and Justin arrived on Friday afternoon.  We didn't waste any time getting down to food business!  You see, Justin is a HUGE lover of the very gourmet pizza cuisine.  He loves it so much that we got him a book for his birthday that featured different pizzerias and types of pizzas in America.  You can imagine his excitement when we told him that we would be venturing for some scrumptious Chicago, deep-dish pizza as his first meal here.  We headed to our favorite Chicago pizza joint: Giradano's. After the waitress did her part of trying to convince us not to, we proceeded to order 2 large pizzas.  Because the waitress was "challenging" our capabilities (at least this is how Stephen saw it), we "had to" finish all the pizza.  Do I need to remind you that this pizza was DEEP DISH?  Stephen and Justin did their share of inhaling at least 6 pieces of pizza each.  (side note: when we arrived at home Stephen was offering everyone cupcakes that he had brought home from Crumbs....ugh!) Can we say human vacuum???

Here they are, ready to take on that deep-dish pizza!  Justin's 6'5" and Laurel's 5'2" and it makes for great pictures!

After the food was finished and our food comas wore off, we started our Saturday with a nice home cooked breakfast (yes, we actually were hungry again at this point).  We were then ready to take on the city (and a bag of Garrett's popcorn!)!  We hit up State Street, walked around Millennium Park, made sure not to miss The Bean all before our little bellies began to remind us of their existence (I know, how could we possibly be hungry for more???).  We anxiously hopped on the CTA blue line and headed towards Greektown to partake in an amazing gyro lunch from Greektown Gyros - and as Justin would say it, those gy-ros were good! :).

They've got this public transportation thing down!

Laurel's little feet hanging from the seat on the bus :).  She's in good company, after I took this picture, I sat in one of these seats and my feet didn't touch the ground either.  

And for good measure: more proof that Stephen can sleep anywhere...as if you ever doubted it after reading this!

I wish I could actually remember what we did in between lunch and dinner but I think at this point I was beginning to lose my mind to my stomach.  The food had set in and there was a haze in my brain.  All I remember is somehow finding myself sitting in Chinatown ready to enjoy my favorite, Joy Yees.  It's really funny to think that at the time, all these food choices seemed like a good idea; now when I look back on it, I begin to feel sick to my stomach!
On Sunday, we managed to lug our growing bodies out of bed to head to church and hear another fabulous sermon given by Dr. Lutzer.  (side note: if you've never heard him preach, I highly suggest you going to Moody's website and listening to one of his sermons - he's great!)  I'll give you one guess to try and figure out what we did after church...you guessed it!  We ate some more food (I'm sensing a pattern...)!  We hit up mine and Stephen's favorite Italian restaurant that is right down the street from our apartment: The Basil Leaf Cafe.  They have such amazing tomato basil soup and their hot out of the oven rolls are to die for (especially when dipping them in that great olive oil!)...I'm beginning to feel my arteries harden just by writing this!  Again, my memory gets foggy between lunch and dinner, although I do know that we made a staple stop at Pocket Puppies in Lincoln Park to hold smaller than average puppies and gawk at their thousand dollar price tags.  Stephen had small group at our apartment on Sunday night so I headed out to enjoy MORE Chicago-style pizza with Laurel and Justin.  This time, we went to Lou Malnati's where we didn't eat half as much pizza as we had the previous night.  After we paid the bill and had the waitress roll us out the door, we found ourselves groaning and wondering why we had put ourselves in as much food misery as we did.  You would think that with that mindset we would've fasted or only eaten bread on Monday afternoon.  Instead, we foolishly made the decision to enjoy Portillo's for lunch.  Like I said, at the time these all seemed like great decisions.  Now, my jeans are mad at me and my clothes cuss me out as I try to squeeze them on!
Laurel and Justin managed to make it out of Chicago on Monday, right in time before the crazy weather came our way and altered our universe.  I was sad to see them go, but my thighs breathed a sigh of relief.  Maybe I would start to treat them better now that I wasn't smothering them with mozzarella cheese and Italian beef!
What about you?  What's your favorite thing to eat in Chicago?  I'd love to hear of some new places to take my guests when they come to visit.  I think my pants just ripped....

We're ready for the Super Bowl!

In honor of my husband's deeply rooted LOVE for the Steelers (for more evidence of that click here and here), we are decorated and ready to go for the BIG game on Sunday and the party that we're having!

 I made the banner simply by using different colored card stock from the local craft store.  I printed out the emblem for both teams and then used it as my guide to trace all the different pieces.  I used a green Sharpie to trace around the "G" for the Packers flag.  I then hot glued each flag onto a strand of ribbon.

 Using a couple of pieces of poster board and my colored Sharpies, I got to work!  I used the whole pencil and string method to draw my circle and to border off the outside of the circle.  I printed off a big diamond from the original Steelers emblem and traced it onto my board.  I then colored them in accordingly.

 I made 2 other matching banners to adorn either side of our doorway into our dining room/family room.

And just for good measure, here are some pictures of little baby Stephen and little boy Stephen proudly wearing his team's "uniform":

Out of love: GO STEELERS!!!

Snowcalypse, 2011

Here is video footage of Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel reporting from Chicago last night, Tuesday 2-1-11.  Stephen had told me before about it snowing so hard here that it thundered and since then, I'd always wanted to hear it for myself.  Well, not only did I get to hear thundersnow last night, but I also got to see some snow lightening.  Evidently I've turned into a huge weather dork because the whole thing fascinated me!  

The one thing throughout all of this that scared me was the wind.  We had horrible winds (I believe they could be classified as hurricane winds) throughout all of Tuesday when the blizzard started into the early hours of Wednesday morning.  When I tell you that it was windy, that is the understatement of the year.  Our third floor apartment (which is located in a 4-story, walk-up) was shaking.  I went to bed on Tuesday night to my bed shaking.  I was so afraid that I would be awakened to us falling through the floor or the ceiling caving in on us.  The biggest problem with this wind is that it caused waves (15-20ft) on Lake Shore Drive making LSD nearly impossible to drive.  As a result, they closed the street and hundreds (I believe somewhere in the 400 mark) of cars were left abandoned (including city buses and plows) to stay the entire night and into the next day before they were towed off.    I ventured out on Wednesday and got some great pictures of the action:

Scenes from our street

 Would you like to take a seat on this bench in the park?

 People just walking down Fullterton, a usually busy and traffic-y street

 Right outside the zoo

 Lake Michigan

 Scenes from Lake Shore Drive - looks like something out of a movie!

Lake Shore Drive

Stephen went to the gym on Wednesday night and when he got home he was like a kid, so excited to tell me that WGN was filming on our street.  Below you'll find the video we took of the news report on our camera.  You'll also hear an excited Stephen saying, "that's our street!" and what sounds like an annoyed me with , "stop!".  Don't worry - I had a huge smile on my face when I said that because I was laughing at how excited he got.  Anytime the news reporter is standing in front of a side street with large amounts of snow and talking about how there is still so much snow to be plowed, he is standing in front of our street here in Chicago...WE'RE FAMOUS!!! :)

Remember all that wind I was complaining about earlier?  Well it did work out in our favor!  On Tuesday, when Stephen got home from work and before it got too bad outside, we moved our car to an open parking spot on the end of our street.  Something you should know about our street: it's a wind tunnel, especially at the end of the street where we happened to park.  Because it's so windy where we parked our car, the snow couldn't fall to the ground in time to accumulate before the wind blew it off.  As a result, our car looks like it barely snowed.  SCORE FOR US!

I can honestly say that I'm so happy that I was living in Chicago during this crazy storm - what an experience!  And it even brought my friend, Amy, TWO snow days!  You should check out Amy's blog to see some of her cool pics of the blizzard.  She's got a swanky camera and a good eye, causing some great pictures!

If you're interested in reading more about it, click here to read what the local news has to say about it!