Christmas is coming...

Christmas is coming and we can't wait. We (especially Mike) are major Christmas fans. We put up our tree in November. We're going to CA for most of December so we put it up early so we could enjoy it while we are here.

My favorite part of our tree are the ornaments Mike and I made last year. We made them out of black and white pictures.

New paintings

I just finished two new paintings. Mike and I hung them last night.

Also, thanks Featherstone family for the birthday flowers. I've decided I always need fresh flowers when I paint. They smell so great.

Birthday

I don't think I need to comment much on my birthday. Suffice it to say I got really really sick and didn't get to enjoy it. But the night before (Fri) we went out with school friends to dinner, and the night after (Sun) we had some of our church friends over. So overall I guess it turned out okay. Thanks for everyone who cheered me up!

Happy Halloween

Our friends had a Halloween party Friday night. Our ward party was last night, but we didn't take any pictures because we were too busy running everything. But man, you've never seen such a great caramel apple stand!


Here are pictures from Friday night.



Here is the greek goddess with the GSB student (Mike came late due to a recruiting event)...

Boston & the Harvard Invitational

The winning Chicago GSB volleyball team!

We went to Boston last weekend for the Harvard MBA Volleyball Invitational. Mike played for the University Chicago, who came in second. We played surprisingly well until the very end. Chicago beat (in order of games played) Harvard, Wharton, MIT (barely), but then lost to Kellogg in the very last game. Mike was so upset they lost in the very last game to their own cross-town rivals.

We stayed in Cambridge with Katie and Christian (Erin's cousin) who were so sweet to let us sleep on their floor.

Of course since we were in New England, so I convinced Mike to let me order the $42 Lobster Bake at Legal Seafood ("Mike, you have to get seafood while in New England"). Keep in mind, the Lobster Bake is this GIANT pile of clams, oysters, and lobster.

I have never had most of these seafood items before. I took one bite and it was disgusting. It was so gross having to pick up a whole lobster to dig for its meat. It's like a real animal with eyes and antennae. Yuck. I pushed my plate away and refused to eat any more. So guess who ended up eating my giant $42 plate of seafood in addition to his own food...

Hopefully Mike wasn't too mad that I just wasted $42 bucks because I told him "Think how much money you're saving in the long run--I'll never order this again!" So Mike left overly full, I left hungry, but we were both happy campers (hey, I didn't have to eat the thing with eyes). Oh, the Legal Seafood saga...

The rest of the time in Boston we hung out with the Robinsons (church, etc), visited our old SLC friends the Whiteheads (we love & miss you guys--I can't believe we didn't get a picture), and walked the Freedom Trail.

My absolute favorite part about Boston is Beacon Hill.

We went to the oldest restaurant in America and ordered clam chowder. Now that's seafood I can eat. Yum.

Chicago Friends

(So I am a slacker at putting these pictures up. I have been so busy with work, that the last thing I want to do is sit in my office longer to post blog pictures. But finally I was inspired by Jon and Shae's baby giraffe posting...)

In September we had our new Chicago friends over to celebrate the BYU vs. UCLA football game. I made margherita pizzas for the crowd. We have met such seriously cool people out here--we love to get together every chance we get...Dinner parties. Dessert and game nights. Top Chef. The Office. You name it, we meet up for it.

To our Chicago friends...we love you guys!

Comment about the Elders: We have 8 in our ward. Yes, you read that right. Eight.

I am still missing pictures of us and the Larsens and the Patins. We will have to take some of those pictures and put them up soon.

Go White Sox!

Mike's school took the new class of 2009 to a White Sox game.

They even gave us $10 each to spend on food. We got hot dogs and beer of course...oh wait, no, just hot dogs. We took the L there with Simbo and Ade. Needless to say, it was the first time Erin had been to a baseball game in a long time. The last time she had been to a game was way back -- in CA with the Angels! Oh, the days growing up with "Mormon Night" at Angels stadium.

As you can see below, Mike is clearly the best on the team. Check out that pitch.

Adri and Alyssa visit

Adri and Alyssa visited from Colorado! They came when Mike was still in China, so it was girls-day-out every day. We had a blast: taking the free city trolley, seeing the Chicago sites (including Portillo's hot dogs--wow) and going to the beach. Alyssa is such a little cutie. I miss you both already!

Shanny and John visit (and decide to MOVE) to Chicago

Shanny and John were out last weekend--FUN. We seriously did everything we possibly could fit in--including finding them the best studio apartment Chicago has to offer. It sure is cozy. I can't wait until they move out here in October.




(Okay, this one needs a caption. We went to this greektown festival and wanted to try our hand at dancing like all the greeks. Pretty hot huh.)

The DC superstars visit

The famous superstar DC couple Zach and Alicia visited us two weeks ago. We had fun seeing Wicked, getting deep dish, and playing "Ticket to Ride." I swear, they were practically showing US the city--we are such Chicago newbies. We had so much fun with you two Zach and Alicia! Good luck with your next year of law school.