August = Hard Work!

August 2-4:

Laundry Room Makeover

Our out-of-date laundry room needed an overhaul, so we took an entire weekend (plus a few days after work) to make it over.

Here's some before and after pictures (pardon the bend in some pictures - fisheye lens!):

Our laundry room also doubles as a small kitchenette complete with coffee maker, mini-fridge and sink (sink pictured above - it's a utility sink, but sink nonetheless).  This room is directly next to the guest room, so it's like a little guest suite when people come to stay.

 Shannon's Birthday:

After a long weekend in the laundry room, I met up with friends from Lville for Shannon's Birthday.

I gave Shannon a crepe pan, spreader and Nutella (since she and I *loved* our Nutella crepes in Paris)

The Girls - Shannon, Jenn, Me & Gina

August 7:

Date Night!
We went to see the new Star Trek movie.

August 11:

Another family 5K!

Back: My Dad

Middle: My Mom & Brandon

Front: Brandon's Mom & Me

The girls walked & the guys (who look ready for action) ran.

Brandon's parents brought us a house-warming gift:

We also celebrated my Dad's birthday!

August 17:

Move - Round 2

After our big move out of the duplex in May, we still had to gather more of our my stuff from my parents house.  While we lived in the duplex, we stored several things in their attic & basement (from combining our two households).  Plus, I was excited about finally moving my piano to our house (even though it was technically mine it had always lived at my parents house).  Along with all that we had stored at their house and picking up the piano, I decided it high-time to get all my old childhood toys and memorabilia out of their basement too.  This was no easy task as I was a BAD pack rat as a child and am still trying to recover from those tendencies.

Getting everything that was mine out of my parents house actually required a big box truck!!

Yikes.

 

Our "Happy Helpers"

My Dad and my cousin, Jamie

Mike & Shannon (and us)

The piano and another big piece of furniture we moved at their new home (although the piano would be moved later that week to the upstairs).

August 25:

Granny's 80th Birthday

My Granny is quite a remarkable lady. Turning 80 hasn't slowed her down one bit.  She's still an avid painter, incredible cook, active member of her community and she never turns down a request to spend time with family or help out in anyway she can.

She requested no presents, instead, she wanted each of us to write her a letter.  I've included mine below, because there's no way to really describe Granny in just a couple lines.  And even my letter to her doesn't seem to capture all that she is.

"Granny,

Happy 80^th Birthday!!!  What a special and extraordinary person and grandmother you are.  I know of no other Grandma’s like you!!  With all your talents and hobbies, your involvement in the community, your journaling and memoirs, your knack for beautiful things, but yet without pretention; your passion for cooking and baking, your stories of travel, your unique way to savor special moments, your ability to see the good in everyone and accept people for who they are, the way take pleasure in the smallest parts of life, your activeness of life in general – you simply amaze me and I strive to be like you in so many ways.  You really LIVE life.  You don’t just let it pass you by, but you’re an active participant, soaking in every Kodak moment and relishing each person in your life.  When I tell others about my Granny, they can’t believe all that you do and how special you make everything.  

 I love that I have a Granny Art Gallery in my house!  Everyone that comes over comments on your art work and when I tell them my Granny is the artist – they stand in awe.  I treasure my hand-written cookbook and although I feel I can never make things as good as you do, I love that I have your recipes to try!  You are such a wonderful gift-giver, each present fits the person you are giving it to so well and there is such specialness in the way you have thought-out what to give them.  I LOVE coming to visit you and getting to spend time talking and learning from you.  And between your yummy meals, vintage décor, thoughtful hospitality and open spirit, I feel like I’m at a Bed & Breakfast every time I stay the night!  

  

Some of my favorite memories growing up are coming to your house for the week with Katie.  It was so fun and special.  What other Granny would take her grandchildren all gussied up like they’re from the 20’s out to a restaurant, but you did!  You just make everything special and fun and memorable.  I love that.  And I love you.  I’m so blessed to be your Granddaughter!!  So,  on your 80^th Birthday celebration, I just wanted you to know how special you truly are, how much you enrich the lives of everyone you meet and how thankful I am that God made such a tender-hearted, gracious and genuine Granny for me to love!

Melanie"

Granny with all her children (my mom is back row far right):

Chicago with Two Weddings

April 26-29, 2013

Brandon's friend from his Purdue days, Priyanka, was getting married to her long-time beau, Patrick, so that meant one thing.......

.....a road trip to Chicago!

We left on a Friday morning and stopped in Indy for lunch.

We ate at a place called Rock Bottom.

They have an a-ma-zing soft pretzel appetizer.

(I've blogged about this before - they're *that* good!  Or at least *I* think so)

We arrived in a suburb of Chicago and settled into our hotel.

Upon checking in, we received a favor bag with goodies & an itinerary for the weekend's festivities.  Priyanka is from India and Patrick is from the US, so they would be having two weddings in one day - an Indian ceremony and a Western ceremony.  So, Saturday would be a full day!

We took it easy on Friday night after driving all day and before a busy next day.

Early Saturday, we got up and ready to attend the morning Indian ceremony.  Brandon, having been to India and actually been a part of another friends wedding ceremony there, owned a Sherwani and wore it to the ceremony....while I opted for a more traditional look (I don't own any foreign duds).

Brandon's good friend, Barrett, & his main squeeze, Kara, were also attending the ceremony.....and Barrett was on the same trip to India with Brandon and had his own Sherwani too!

Aren't they too cute?  And don't you just love Barrett's sparkly shoes to match?  (Brandon opted not to wear his matching shoes).

The beautiful, decorated bride

Luckily for us, they had a narrator for the ceremony since it was all in another language.  They also shortened the usually very lengthy ceremony down to about 45 minutes.

After the Indian ceremony, we had a few hours to kill before the Western ceremony.....so we found the nearest Giordano's and had some awesome Chicago style deep-dish pizza!!

We just so happened to be in the same area of Chicago as the Billy Graham Center, so after lunch, we went and toured the museum and campus of Wheaton College where the center is located.

We arrived back with enough time to get ready for the evening Western ceremony, which took place at the hotel where we stayed.

A brief, but sweet and meaningful ceremony took place.....

....and then the newlyweds opened the dance floor.....

....while the guests blew bubbles in their direction.

Us not-so-newlyweds with the new newlyweds!

We danced the night away - and even learned some new Indian dance moves!  Even though we stayed quite late, the reception was still swinging when we left. 

We checked out of our suburban hotel on Sunday morning and drove to downtown Chicago and checked into another, much smaller cozier, hotel.

We set out walking and just enjoying the day

This was our first trip to Chicago as a married couple! The last time we were in Chicago was when we got engaged!

We *LOVE* Chicago!!!

Buckingham Fountain:

Pritzker Pavilion:

Cloud Gate (aka The Bean):

After walking around a while, we hopped on the train.....

.....and went to meet friends for lunch.

We met up with Shaun and Andreea, more friends of Brandon's (and recent newlyweds as well!) and Barrett and Kara (they had stayed in the city with Shaun and Andreea).

Shaun, Brandon and Barrett:

Mel, Andreea & Shaun, Brandon

After lunch, we ventured to a restaurant called "Twin Anchors".  Not to eat, but to see the set of my absolute favorite movie, "Return to Me."  The restaurant was the primary setting in the movie.


Here's the outside:
(How we saw it on the left and how it looked in the movie on the right)

The restaurant is located at the corner of Sedgwick & Eugenie, but for the movie, they wanted it to feel like it sat in the middle of a city block.  So, they actually constructed a building facade to the left of the building where in real life there is a street.

Here's the inside:
 (How we saw it on the left and how it looked in the movie on the right)

These are the best screenshots from the movie I could get to compare the shots I took inside the actual restaurant....although I wish I had taken them exactly at the same angle they were shot in the movie....but I think that would have been hard!

Only watchers of the movie will appreciate these next pictures.....this is the sink where Grace poured the water out of the bottle:
(How we saw it on the left and how it looked in the movie on the right)

You can also see the sink/waitress stand a bit in the picture on the right below.  

These pictures are looking back in the other direction towards the door of the restaurant:

(How we saw it on the left and how it looked in the movie on the right)

It was SO FUN for me to go to the restaurant/set!  I LOVE that movie and it was a bit of tangible Hollywood.  :)

After exploring the restaurant a bit, we ventured over Navy Pier.

It had turned into a very foggy afternoon by the lake.....

.....but we had previously scheduled an architectural boat tour and - foggy or not - we had already paid for it, so whether we could see anything or not, we were going.

The fog seemed to get lower and lower....

.....and we really wondered if we'd wasted out money!

But, as we came in off the lake and got closer to the buildings.....

.....the fog started lifting and we could see buildings!

Here are some of my favorite shots of the tour:

After the boat tour, we walked around Magnificent Mile for a while.

One building that really peaked my interest was the Chicago Tribune Building.

The building had several "attachments" from other historical sites around the world.

Including one from Kentucky!

That handsomely cute thing standing there on that bridge....that's my Hubby!! 

Something we had seen in Europe was people "locking" their love by placing locks onto a bridge railing.  I hadn't seen it in the US before, but apparently it's catching on here too.  We saw a few locks on the bridge....including this one that made us laugh.  "Cleetus John & Puggsly Pooh"

After roaming around Chicago a while, we had dinner at Uno's - the same place we ate the night we got engaged.

And of course for dessert we went to the Grand Lux - which is where we got engaged!

And we had Strawberry Shortcake like we did, you guessed it, the night we got engaged!

Can you tell I was being uber-nostalgic about being in Chicago and going to all the places we had gone when we got engaged?  Brandon was such a trooper as I tried to recreate that evening!  I'm just too sentimental sometimes! And it was just so special to be back at all those places.

The next morning, Monday morning, we stopped in a couple stores before hitting the road back to KY.  We visited the American Girl Doll Store first.  I snapped a couple pictures and picked up a couple catalogs for my nieces - they LOVE American Girl Dolls.

One really neat part of the store was a "Doll Hair Salon" where girls can get their doll's hair done - cute, huh?  If you look really closely, you can see little pink beautician chairs along the top of that counter for the dolls to sit in.

 

Right next door to the AG Doll Store was the Lego store.

My nephew LOVES Legos and we grabbed him a catalog in there too.

By day he's Brandon, by night - Batman?

What a fun-filled, jam-packed long weekend we had in Chicago - from watching Pri & Pat get married twice, to visiting with good friends to exploring the city and re-living favorite memories!  Thanks Chicago!  Until next time.....