Perfect fall weekend

This past weekend was great! I'm so glad, especially because we had been in NC just a week ago, and it's easy to dwell on missing people. Luckily, the weather cooperated on Saturday, and we got to spend time outside. We were planning to go to the corn maze (we planned to do this once before, and it didn't happen that time either!), but it was closed due to (what else, St. Louis weather???) rain. Luckily we checked the website before we drove out there! So instead, we went to the Cahokia Indian mounds just over the state line in Illinois. Fun fact: the mounds are named for Native Americans that didn't actually build them, but stayed there later. The Mississippians were the actual mound builders. That's my takeaway from the lovely museum, which (to me) was way less enjoyable than wandering around and seeing the grounds. Ben might beg to differ. And he might have lots more information to share. But this isn't his blog, now is it??? :-)

A mound, for your viewing pleasure

Some beautiful fall foliage

Another mound

A view across the street of Monks Mound, the largest one!

One of the sets of stairs that leads up to the top of Monks Mound

View of St Louis from the top!

Prairie-like landscape

I had a lot of fun exploring, and the weather was just perfect! To top it off, on our way home we stopped and bought a pumpkin! We carved in on Sunday--I have pictures of that too, but I think I'll save them for next time. :-)

We went to Chicago

Like I said before, we did go to Chicago...oh about three weeks ago! But it was SO much fun, and I'm so excited to re-live our trip a little bit. We drove in on a Friday afternoon--it took about 6 hours to get there. Luckily for us (well, I take most of the credit, really :-), my awesome friend and old roomie lives right downtown. And her awesome boyfriend got us a pass to park in a parking deck near their apartments. So we left our car for the weekend, and walked everywhere!

We did all we could to see Chicago in a day, and I think we did a great job of it (in spite of the rain!! haha).

The view from Katherine's apartment...gorgeous!

I just have to mention my jealousy here....her apartment was gorgeous, in a huge, tall building (on the 32nd floor!), with windows EVERYWHERE, and she could walk to SO many things. It's a completely different lifestyle from the one we're living here, and this was the first time I've ever even wanted to live that way. I couldn't do it forever, of course. And I do love our little homey apartment here in the suburbs. Still, I did love every second of our visit!

One of the first things we did was visit Millennium Park, and see the big bean! Ben loved it.

All of us, reflected in the bean (see Katherine and me in the background?)

The bean itself!

We walked all around for a while in the nicer weather on Saturday morning. We saw the AWESOME library....huge huge huge with a new teen center. And a children's section as big as some library buildings. That was fun, but I didn't get any pictures!

We also saw the Chicago Tribune building which has pieces of famous places/buildings from around the world. That was another favorite of Ben's!

Katherine and I (most pictures of me this whole trip are this bad or worse--hence why you aren't seeing anymore...but I had to show one of me and my sweet friend who hosted us :-)

What else did we do?? It seems like hundreds of things! We rode the subway out to Wrigley Field right when a game was about to start.

Ben's favorite place ever

We rode a bus out to Navy Pier, right as it started to rain like crazy.

The rain had finally stopped here!

We walked the Magnificent Mile and saw all kinds of shops (including a huge American Girl store--the kind that has a restaurant, salon, etc. inside--I made everyone go in!). We ate the best stuffed pizza EVER. It just may still be my favorite part of our whole trip. We ate some yummy Thai food, too. We saw Lee Ann Womack perform at Chicago's country music festival--again in the rain. :-) And went up in the Hancock Tower at night--the views weren't great cause of the weather, and I may or may not have accidentally ordered $7 tea. Haha.

It was just a fun, whirlwind trip, and I am so glad that we went. We left pretty early on Sunday morning, but we sure made the most of our day in Chicago.

My favorite picture of the trip! :-)

Snapshots

We've been busy. It's been great. I have high hopes about job possibilities. Each of these subjects probably deserves its own post--and may very well get one someday. But for now...

We went to Chicago!

(Ben taking photo; me and Katherine in the background; all of us reflected in the bean!)

I decorated for Halloween

(and we have a real pumpkin now; and we're going to carve it!)

We went home to NC

(Words cannot express how much good it did me to see my wonderful friends and family)

In non-pictured news, when we got back from NC, there was a WONDERFUL care package waiting for me from my wonderful co-workers in Chapel Hill. I really should've taken a picture of it, but it had SO many goodies. Pink markers, sticky notes, regular note cards, pasta, pretty coasters, Tupperware, jewelry, soap, stickers, on and on and on. I felt so loved! :-)

We also got a sweet package from my wonderful mother-in-law with cute pumpkin towels and more gifts off our wedding registry--ones I was really wishing we'd gotten! It was another sweet surprise.

Also, my mother took me shopping while I was in NC--to buy clothes for interviews. And those very clothes got complimented at my first interview! Yay for that!

Lastly, I got my hair cut and highlighted right before we went to NC. My mother-in-law gave me a generous gift certificate to my salon, and my sweet mom pitched in when I decided to go for the (more expensive) highlights. I am so glad to have women in my life who appreciate the need for good hair. I am SO GLAD that I got my hair cut and layered--I thought my hair was a permanent tangled mess, but it turns out it was just the cut. Thank goodness!

Well, that's enough randomness for now, I guess. Although Ben and I did go to the Cahokia Indian mounds today. It was a beautiful day, and I took lots of pictures. Quite possibly another post to look forward to!!

It's been a while....

I've been in a funk lately, with the job search really getting me down in the dumps. But, I feel like I was losing perspective on a lot of things (the economy, the actual length of my search, etc.), and I am feeling much better about life in general and about job possibilities on the horizon. Granted, I have a few more hopeful possibilities than I had before, so that might have something to do with it. And, we have a fun weekend planned for this weekend. And my wonderful in-laws are flying us home for a visit VERY soon. So, all-in-all, things are looking up! I hope to be posting more again soon.

Fun things from lately:

Cutest things ever! You can edit the text and type in addresses. You can print them out on sticky paper, and have easy labels. Or you can print them out on regular paper and glue them to envelopes. If you've gotten any mail from me recently, you've seen them! :-) They're fun!

I found that site through this one. It's focused on weddings, but she posts tons of cute craft stuff that you can use for lots of different occasions!

Fall TV! Including, but not limited to, The Office (Pam and Jim have a wedding website, which I just learned about thanks to my friend Allison. FUN!), Project Runway, Top Chef (what is up with no new episode this week??), that new show Modern Family (I loooove it!).

OK, well I need to go get ready for this weekend! :-)

Ben's birthday weekend!

I made a cake! It's the white chocolate layer cake from my Southern Cakes cookbook. It looked pretty and tasted nice, but I personally found the white chocolate flavor to be a little lacking. Luckily, plain white cake with white icing is Ben's favorite anyway, so it worked out! And thank goodness his parents were here to help us eat it! :-)We all went to the arch on Friday morning. We had gorgeous weather on Friday and Saturday. We looked at the building where Ben used to work (the red one!).
And we oohed and aahed over the arch, of course!
Then we all rode to the top! I did get in, after I took this picture. :-)
We looked at the stadium (where we would be later that evening) from above
Then we went to Laclede's Landing and walked around. And gambled in the Lumiere Casino (for all of about 5 minutes, which is how long it took us to lose $10). Ben's mom won $1, though! :-) We also went to lunch afterwards. My picture-taking was a little spotty!

Cause later that evening, we went to the baseball game! Army people parachuted in--so awesome.
The Cardinals won in the last inning--also awesome! Unless you're a Cubs fan like Benjamin. Poor Benjamin.
On Saturday, among other things, we walked around Ben's campus. Very pretty.
We did lots of other fun things during the weekend too--like go the Busch family home, eat lots of yummy food, get stuck in traffic near the balloon race, etc. :-) Maybe I'll get some more pictures to share later, but it was a wonderful weekend. We so enjoyed having guests!

Ben is 25!

In honor of his 25 years, here are 25 things I love about him!

1. His sense of humor
2. How he makes me laugh, even when I'm mad
3. His strong convictions
4. His eyes
5. How he can remember the tiniest details about random things
6. His compassion
7. His kindness
8. His intelligence
9. How he always greets me the minute he walks in the door
10. How he manages to surprise me, even when I think I've got things all figured out
11. How secure he makes me feel about his love for me
12. His crazy dance moves
13. His unwavering support of me and the things I do
14. His thirst for knowledge (even if it does mean he has to look things up on his Blackberry all the time!)
15. How important his family is to him
16. His optimism
17. His enthusiasm
18. His determination
19. His ability to know when I really need a piece of cheesecake
20. His willingness to endure shopping trips with me
21. How he always thinks I'm beautiful, even when I'm not
22. How he drops what he's doing to help me when I need it
23. How bad he is at lying :-)
24. How particular he is about his laundry
25. How he still gets a kick out of calling me his wife

Happy Birthday, sweetheart!!

Birthdays and visits!

Ben's 25th birthday is two days away, and his parents are flying up that very evening for a weekend-long visit. We're so excited to see them and have our very first visitors up here! I've been busy the past couple of days trying to get things ready for both events.

Yesterday I went to Target to get a few groceries and pick out Ben's gift. I had some things in mind, but completely changed my mind when I saw a particular item(s) on sale. I'm very excited to give him this gift because I think he'll really like it.

Ben's gift, woohoo!

Of course my visit to Target had some mishaps along the way. I got a handheld basket instead of a cart (ALWAYS a mistake, but I never learn!). Every single time I go, I really do sincerely think that I will leave Target with a few small items. So there I was, lugging around the larger than I anticipated gift, a nice basket that for our bathroom (I have been looking at baskets, measuring baskets, thinking about baskets forEVER. And this one is the perfect fit and was also on sale! Now I want a couple more of them.), a flattened mailing box, plus a heavy basket full of stuff. Fun times, but I made it to the check out line in one piece and set most of my stuff down in the floor. Then I waited and waited and eventually got to lug my stuff over to another line. And then found out that my bag of chocolate chips had split open in the bottom of my basket! Luckily, I was able to grab another bag pretty quickly! It was just one of those visits. :-)

Happily, though, I got everything I needed for the gift, for our apartment, and for the CAKE I'm going to make. It's another lovely one from my "Southern Cakes" cookbook. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Today it's a little cloudy and gloomy, and I am working on getting small things in our apartment finished for our visitors. Things like making sure all the rooms have a lamp that will turn on when you flip the switch. And washing towels. And finding places for all of our random stuff! :-)