Obama Nation

We are completely surrounded in Obama Nation living here in Chicago - luckily we like the guy. Last week after we voted we found out that we got tickets to his rally downtown. Even though I had to wake up for seminary the next day - we knew we had to go and witness such a historical event. The streets were blocked off and hundreds of thousands of people roamed the streets. It was an amazing sight to see. No violence, but a lot of hugging and crying of complete strangers - I didn't let anyone touch me though.. =)  We took some pictures and video of the rally - if you're interested in seeing them click on the link below to Ben's blog where he's uploaded all of them.

(if you watch the last video on his blog you'll hear a hollering woman yelling at a poor girl sitting on someone's shoulders... the yelling woman was me - caught up in the moment I suppose..)

Pictures and Video from Obama's Rally in Chicago

a chocolate chip cookie and a dang fine bottle of milk

I have a thing for dressing up as food products for Halloween. Years ago I was a box of mac and cheese and my roommate Kristen was a box of green jello. Then a year later she was jelly, I was peanut butter, her boyfriend (now husband) was a bag of wonder bread, and another friend was a buttering knife (we won for most creative that year). Then last year Ben and I were mustard and ketchup with a hot dog and hamburger hat.

These were our costumes last year (we won for most creative that year as well).

This year ( you can't see it very well ) the other fifth grade teacher and I were a bottle of milk and a chocolate chip cookie. 

Complete with nutritional facts on the back (accurate - straight off their website)!

Then that night we headed to a Chipotle restaurant for free burrito night (if you "dressed up" like a burrito) - they wrap all of their burritos in tin foil so as long as you have a little bit of that on then they're free! We did this last year - sweet tradition...

Our friends Eli and Krista ( I have no idea what they're doing ) - then we headed back to our place for an Alfred Hitchcock movie night.

My Day in Pictures (and small captions)

A friend of mine did this on her blog where she took pictures of her commute and I thought it was interesting.. but she also gets to hop on a train, go downtown, and walk across the river - so mine is nothing compared to her commute by a long shot. It might be interesting to some and completely bore others. Many of the pictures are blurry because it was dark and I was pooped.

This is actually the night before my journey begins by setting my alarm to 4:50 am (M,W, and every other F).

When I leave the house (M,W, and every other F).

The church before I enter - pitch black (I teach seminary on M, W, and every other F - by the way).

When I get out of seminary I always get to see the sunrise over the nearby graveyard - kind of trippy but always foggy and really pretty - I always picture listening to the birds and music playing in Pride and Prejudice at the end when Mr. Darcy is walking towards Lizzy - when I watch the sunrise in the mornings.

Then I arrive here where I teach the fifth grade.

My lovely classroom.

Time for the kiddos! And I know I haven't ever blogged about teaching ( I don't know why exactly ) but I LOVE my job. Absolutely love it! I have 24 10 and 11 year olds that are my little buds. This is my fourth year teaching and is definitely my favorite so far (no offense Sage Creekers). My students have a lot of obstacles in their lives and yet they try so hard to make the best of things and try their very best - (most of the time). 

Leave school usually around this time or a little later.

Come straight to this place M, T, W, Th, and sometimes F.

LOVE this gym - they offer a ton of classes for free like my faves - Turbokick (really fast Taebo-like stuff for an hour) and Group Power (weightlifting, squats, etc. for an hour). They also have t.v.s hooked up to most of their cardio machines (awesome for someone who doesn't have cable)!

Leave the gym and head home. I'm typically gone on seminary days for 13 - 14 hours and the rest about 12. 

*Sorry if this was extremely boring (and you're welcome if this was amazingly entertaining/uplifting/inspirational - HA just kidding) - but I just wanted to give you a glimpse into my typical day in Chicago!

painting and an aching back

Since we'll be living in Chicago for a few more years I decided last spring that I wanted to make it as home-y as possible.. and I love to decorate. A few months ago I painted my dining room a Tuscan-orange that I blogged about before. Yesterday I finally (I've had the paint for 5 months) painted my family room a lovely cappuccino. I thought it'd take me a few short hours since I was only doing two walls... oh no... I'm a bit of a perfectionist with certain things and painting is one of them. Every line had to be straight and perfect. So six hours later... and now I LOVE it!

before

in the middle of painting

huge wall that took me hours to complete (and Ben watching The Jetsons on his computer)

and AFTER (I need a huge mirror to replace that multiple-picture frame on the right-not a fan)!

AFTER!

love the woodwork - the white bullseye woodwork is throughout the entire house (sorry picture is sideways)

COMPLETE!

non-existent apples, cheese, a pal named Craig, hungry goats, and nipping raccoons - what a weekend!

This past Friday Ben and I along with some friends from med school went on a camping trip near Wisconsin. The trees are starting to change colors so it was a perfect time to go. Our first day we set out to an apple orchard to pick our own fruit and found out that the weekend before it had been picked clean.. niiiice... luckily this orchard had a few other incentives to come like their homemade apple cider that they taught and showed us how to make, frightening farm animals, and a Wisconsin cheese store - perfect. Afterwards we headed to a corn maze and realized once we were inside of this corn maze that 8 20-something year olds had to liven things up in a corn maze to make it fun. So we split up the map and had a race. Of course Ben and I won (we sprinted the entire time - thank heavens I work out at the gym). I love living in a big city like Chicago but I also love that we can drive an hour away and be out in the middle of nowhere.

This is my pal Craig. He was our cheese cutter. He gave us an abundance of information on the different types of cheeses and let us sample and sample and sample... what a pal. He even let me climb back behind the cheese counter for a photo op.

This pretty much sums up our feelings about Wisconsin cheese.

With my friend Craig again. 

These may look like harmless goats but they were vicious. They would stick their heads through the fencing and nip at everything. Here I was trying to take just a lovely picture with my pastoral friends and they kept nibbling at my hair.. ew..

This was right after we kicked tushy in the corn maze - we are way too competitive.

One of our friends never made it to station 14. We waited and waited and finally left this note telling him we were headed back home to the campsite. We later found out he had given up...loser...

After our full day of apple orchard, corn maze competitions, and nipping goats we settled back into our campground for a bevy of cheeses. All eight of us sat around this dairy buffet and gorged ourselves.. most of us took naps after that.

The nights were chilly. We probably burned an entire tree in the two days we were there. Here we were warming our fannies by the coals before we headed to bed. That same night one of Ben's friends woke up screaming (he was sleeping outside) because a raccoon started attacking his feet trying to see if he had anything in his sleeping bag to eat. AAAAHHHH! 

Hotel Hunting

In about 2 months, Ben and I will be celebrating our third anniversary. For each anniversary we've made a tradition to stay in a ridiculously nice hotel - gives us one night where we don't feel poor =).  A few Saturdays ago we went searching through Chicago for the nicest one. My favorites are the Palmer House Hilton  and the Drake. We had a fun time enjoying the cities architecture and a pizza place we've never experienced called Lou Malnatis. Totally beats Giordanos and Ginos East in my opinion.

Right at this intersection Ben found a store that sold bow ties straight from England... he was in heaven!

Chicago Board of Trade building.

Along the Chicago River.

A Bit of an Obsession...

About a week and a half ago I was searching through BBC movies that I have never seen before and came across this one. OH MY GOSH! If you're a fan of Pride and Prejudice or period dramas in general you will love this movie. It's about a girl from the south of England whose father (a former pastor) moves the family up north to an industrial town for work. Here she meets the owner of a cotton mill whose all hardened and anguished.... ahhh... love it! I bought it and have watched it too many times this past week. You can go on YouTube and see clips and actually the entire thing if you're interested! (don't mistake it for the Civil War movie called North and South though)