Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

Translation: The Brookfield Zoo :)

Remember when I told you I got us free admission for 2 to the Brookfield Zoo from the library? (I still can’t get over how awesome that was…) Well, John took a day off from work today so we could have a little adventure!

We took the train over to the Zoo – it was only two stops away and cost us half of what it would have cost us to park there…and do you people have any IDEA how expensive gas is around here?!? Unless you’re in California, I’m willing to bet our gas is more expensive than yours. And so, the train.

But I digress. ;)

We were so excited for this chance to go to the Brookfield Zoo. It’s on our bucket list you know.

So excited for our adventure!
We were really impressed at how big the place was and how well maintained the grounds were.

And now, prepare to be inundated with pictures ;)

This Indian peafowl was just wandering through the zoo. There were several birds that just roamed free around the place.
This one was LOUD! He was trying to talk to another friend across the zoo…
Comparing our “wingspans” to that of an Andean Condor
The bears were so cool! This polar bear was pacing around the water, trying to decide if he wanted to get wet or not.

There was an underwater viewing area to see the bears as well. These two were chillin’ -  I thought that whenever they’d lean up against the rock, it looked like they were in a hot tub ;)

This one came right up close! We could get a good look at its loooong claws
The giraffes were awesome
Okay, this was one of the funniest things we saw. This is a wombat. Flat on it’s back asleep. Legs splayed out and in a state of total relaxation. It reminds me of my mom’s dog, Sandi.
Don’t you think? ;)

The zoo had a dolphin show, but we didn’t make it to that. We had a good time watching through the underwater tank though. The picture isn’t that great, but there was a diver in there and the dolphin would push the diver through the water by her foot. It was pretty cool!
We spent almost four hours and saw almost everything!

We took the train back home and are spending the rest of John’s day off relaxing. Ahhhhh ;)

That’s one more thing off the bucket list! We’re getting pretty close to getting everything, considering most of it’s been done in what, the last 3-4 months? Ha!

Running With John

So I don’t think I made it official on the ol’ bloggy here, but we’re officially going to be running the Warrior Dash on May 19th in Maryland. So If there isn’t any posting after that date, you’ll know that I probably died. Mostly likely from getting burned alive by the flaming hurdles.

I’m kidding.

KIDDING.

Anyway, so John and I have been training lots and lots and I think we’ve been doing really well. But endurance running isn’t my strong point. Neither are push ups, but that’s not the point of this post ;) So we’ve been running about 3 times a week and it’s been going really well. But endurance running is just so hard for me! And it’s not for John. Not really. Injustice, I know ;)
So we went running this morning. We usually run in the neighborhood surrounding our apartment complex, but to change things up a bit this morning, we went out to a forest preserve and ran the trails out there. John LOVES running out there. So while we’re running, I get to hear the steady stream of comments and thoughts from my running buddy. Because I’m already breathless and can barely respond to his (one sided) conversation.

John: “This is SO COOL! I LOVE it out here!”
“ahh…it’s so quiet!”
“I wonder what it would have been like to settle this area 100 years ago”
“Hey look! A woodpecker!”
“That’s a marsh!”
“This is AWESOME!”
“Oo, a creek! I wonder if that’s Salt Creek, or a tributary of sorts”
“Wow, look at that bird! It has a red badge on its chest”
“I wonder if early settlers used this as a canal”
“I LOVE running in the woods!”
I’d try to respond with at least a word like “oh!” or “cool!” or “yeah!”

Then I’d have to get back to concentrating on my breathing.

You know, so I wouldn’t STOP. ;)

Okay, so it’s not THAT bad, but you get the idea. And throughout this (mostly one sided) conversation, I’d be thinking to myself “HOW can he have the energy to keep talking?!”

Not that I minded one bit, babe.

Promise :)

But you better believe I was also thinking that I’d totally blog about it. Ha!
So there you go. For posterity.

Random Schtuff

Or an update of sorts ;)

The Weather

I came back from Branson to 70-80 degree weather. WHAT happened to spring?! I was really looking forward to my favorite 50-60 degree spring/fall weather. I think we’ve skipped spring entirely. Boo. I have so many cute light jackets I can’t wear unless I want to experience a fashionable heat stroke. No thanks.

*Update: When I was writing this post yesterday, it really was almost 80 degrees out. Today it has been raining almost all day and it’s back down to a lovely 63 degrees (according to the thermostat in here). I can open the windows again! Thank you rain!!!*

We have really loved this apartment we’re in but John and I are kind of glad to leave now that it’s getting warmer. Why? Because we don’t have central AC. This place was PERFECT for winter – the complex paid heating! Not so much for summer spring. We have a window unit in the office/dining room and with the way that the apartment is laid out, the bedroom is the hottest room in the apartment. yuck. We HATE sleeping hot. So we have come up with several ways to try to keep the bedroom cool. We close all the doors to other rooms so that the air can only go to one half of the apartment. But we had one entry to the living room with no door. Enter “The Barrier”

I basically stacked boxes and tubs we have hanging around and draped an old sheet over it all to keep the air from going into the living room.

Classy, I know. Our apartment is getting increasingly chaotic as the move gets closer. My barrier hasn’t done a whole lot in improving the temperature in the bedroom, but there is a slight difference. As in, enough of a difference for me to be happy to leave it up, blocking the doorway. The funny thing is that there is a random door hanging out in the basement where our extra storage unit is. I can’t even tell you how tempted I was to just take that up with me instead of my boxes ;)

Fun on a Budget

I am telling you, I love good deals. And free stuff. That’s even better. But I’m feeling pretty awesome because of some super deals we’ve gotten for some really awesome schtuff!

1. We got to see our friend Summer in a production of Legally Blonde at the Marriott Resort in Lincolnshire. (by the way, she’s like totally famous to me because she plays Queen Esther in the Liken the Scriptures series – so cool!) Because you know, “we know her” she got us discounted tickets! The show was super cute and it was fun to see her in it. Thanks again Summer!

2. Okay. Even though I fully recognize that candy has nothing to do with Easter, every year around Easter time, I eagerly await the arrival of starburst jellybeans in the stores. Love them. Don’t love their price tag. So I was super excited when I found a coupon deal to get them $1/bag! YES!…so I got 6 bags. What?! I might need that many… ;)

3. Best deal this week – FREE admission for two to the Brookfield Zoo! John has a comp day that won’t transfer over to his new job, so he’s taking a day off next week so we can go to the zoo! How did I accomplish this feat, you ask? The library! They have passes you can check out that are good for 7 days to different museums and cultural centers in the area, so I scored a pass that gets us both in FREE! Love the library!!! Loooooove me some free stuff! Can’t wait to go see all the animals!

Cupcakes

I had some leftover raspberry and lemon filling from the Relief Society birthday cake, so I decided to make some filled cupcakes.

Just kidding. ;)

But in all seriousness (ha!) I tried making filled cupcakes for the first time ever. I baked my cupcakes and then used a round cookie cutter to cut out the inside

What happened to the middles, you ask? I present:

Okay, so maybe you can’t tell in the picture, but they looked like tater tots. And were strangely addicting.

Anyway, I just piped the filling in there and then topped it with buttercream. Yum! They turned out pretty good! John had two when he got home yesterday. I need to get rid of these FAST :)
Yeah, my cake recipe makes 3 1/2 dozen cupcakes (I managed to give some away to my ESL peeps)…I’m now looking for willing eaters. Apply within. You think I’m kidding, don’t you ;)

And I guess that’s it for now. Counting down the days until we move!!! :)

It’s been a long time…

Since I made a cake :)

yep. I made a cake. I was asked to make one for the Relief Society (our church’s women’s organization) birthday celebration. 170 years this year!

While the theme of the Relief Society (and the party) was “Charity Never Faileth”, the service project was collecting dresses and professional wear for an organization in Chicago that helps women (who are often destitute) find jobs and get them off the streets (awesome, right?). So I did a dress themed/style cake.

I also made marshmallow fondant for the first time, because real store bought fondant is 1. gross, and 2. uber expensive. It was so. messy.
This is what I get for forgetting to put on an apron. I was just so ready to get going! oops.

While the marshmallow fondant will take some getting used to, it worked really well and I’m super excited to have an alternative to regular fondant (that I can afford). There are so many more possibilities now!

Okay, I’ll show you the cake now
**Warning: I’m about to critique myself for future reference, so don’t freak out, because I really am pretty happy with how it turned out.**
I should have given myself more time to plan the top. I knew I was going to do a pearl necklace (which I thought turned out GREAT! – I strung the ‘beads’ through thread, fyi), but then I realized it looked lonely and empty up there. I whipped up some flowers to add some dimension, but looking at the finished product, I have to admit it looks a little…um…unique.
I have to say my ruffles came out awesome. I had a vague idea on how to do them, but after a quick search on the internet (thanks You Tube!) I knew what to do. I felt very clever and resourceful when I managed to use cookie cutters to accomplish what the you tube video’s host did with a fancy pants tool.
I free handed the piping on the top tier. My free hand piping is getting better. Slowly (oh so slowly), but surely.
The effect I was going for on the bottom tier was something like a skirt opening up to show a ruffled petticoat. Could not find a You Tube video on that. Maybe because I couldn’t figure out how to put that in the search bar. I think if I were to try it again, I would make the opening (and the ruffled section) a little more triangular shaped, and roll the covering fondant thinner. I feel like my final result was a little thick and chunky.

Over all, I’m pretty happy with it. My fondant was nice and smooth on the cake, my piping wasn’t too bad, the ruffles were full and ruffly ;), and the cake itself was soooooo tasty – it was a white cake with layers of lemon cream and raspberry mousse filling YUM – and everyone at the event loved it. I guess that’s what really counts in the end, anyway :)

St. Patrick’s Day

One more thing checked off the bucket list!

One item on our Chicago bucket list was to see the Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick’s day. And we were lucky enough to have St. Patrick’s day fall on a Saturday this year, so we made plans to head downtown and see the spectacle. And a spectacle it was. Oy.

First, there were the thousands upon thousands of PEOPLE! In green. and drunk. Mostly. We could always tell when they were drunk. (They were the loudest and most obnoxious ;) We saw some crazy outfits too. John got this picture while we were walking, so the picture is super blurry, but we totally wanted to capture this outfit on film:

Full body shamrock suit. It covered her face too, which freaked me out a little. 

Over at Daley Square is a fountain that the city had dyed green. John had mentioned back at Halloween that it had been dyed orange for the occasion. They’re really into this dyeing the water thing…

We tried to watch the parade, but it was a TOTAL let down. When we finally found a place where even I could see some of the street (being vertically challenged and all), the traffic people came over and informed us all that the parade didn’t even come down that far. Because the parade only goes for TWO BLOCKS. Whose not-smart idea what that?! There’s no way you can fit all the people who were out for the festivities in two blocks! Why can’t they go a few more blocks? LAME. I mean, come on! Look at all the PEOPLE!

There were so many! They just kept coming! and coming! and COMING! whew! And that’s my two cents on the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day parade.

After that fiasco, we walked over to the Chicago River, seeing as THAT was the item on our bucket list. I gotta say, it’s pretty surreal ;)

John got a really cool panorama from where we were standing

I was surprised at how green it was!

From our spot you could also see that beyond the bridge to our right the water was still blue! Coooool.

Crazy, huh? (you like my helpful colored arrows? ;)

And that was our St. Patrick’s day adventure. I kinda got on the train home thinking “what the freak just happened?!” but we had a good time seeing the river and marveling at the sheer number of people that were out and about. Insanity.

Well, that’s one more thing off the list! We’re not doing too bad with our list now, given that we have ONE MONTH LEFT till we move!!!! :)

My Pillow Vision

At last! My pillow vision is complete! When I mentioned the term “pillow vision” to John, he asked “is that like television?”

Boys. ;)

No. It is NOT like television. It’s much more comfy :)

I found the perfect fabric on Fabric.com (which is a new favorite!) but that specific fabric has been out of stock for WEEKS! So I’ve been patiently waiting until they restocked it so I could get my lovely red chevron. I know. Chevron again. I’m a little late getting onto the chevron-is-uber-cute-and-trendy boat, but I’m here now! Anyway, I was showing fabric.com to my grandma while I was in Branson (because are verrrry few good fabric places there) and I saw that it was finally back in stock! So I got me a yard and a half and it came in the mail yesterday! So I got right on it, getting my lovely pillow covers put together. I covered the pillow inserts I got at IKEA the other week.

Ta Da!

LOVE.

I also revamped my white ruffle pillow cover that I made back when the couch slipcover came in. I didn’t have a pattern and I ran out of fabric so it ended up really small and I didn’t have enough layers of ruffles and it just wasn’t doing it for me. So I went with a different ruffle look: the gather

Ahhhh….so much better. :) And it’s a lot easier to sit with it there, instead of having to rearrange the ruffles on the old one to get comfy. And I really like the gathered look here. Looks so fancy ;)

And that my friends, is the pillow vision. Lovin’ it!
I have a second white/gathered one, but it’s going to live on the chair, and will look so nice when we get the chair slipcover.

I’m quite pleased with the way it turned out! I’m loving the pop of color the red brings. It helps that red is my favorite color :)

An Outing to the Ozarks

(oh yeah, love me a good alliteration)

Well, I’m back!

Oh, you didn’t know I was gone? That’s okay. I went to see my grandparents for a week. (John had to stay and work. boo) You know, the crazy ones that live in Branson. I figured I better go and see them before we move away, because we probably won’t be this close to where they are again. And then I’d never hear the end of it from my grandpa. ;)

Anyway, I went out for a week, I left last Thursday (at the unholy hour of 5:20AM – do you realize how EARLY we had to get up to get me to the airport?!) and after the extremely long 5 hour layover in Atlanta (I know, Chicago to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Branson…WHEN did that make sense?!) I flew into this little oddity of an airport:
Welcome to the Branson Airport ;)
It looks like a log cabin, don’t you think?

Grandma picked me up and we went back to their house so I could get settled. When Grandpa got home, we went to the IMAX theater and we watched a movie about the Ozarks. Given that it was on such a big screen, I didn’t mind that it was slightly boring. ;) (I get scared in movies easily) After dinner, we went to a show (of course!). We saw my favorite group from last time John and I visited: SIX. Six brothers. A Cappella group. SO. GOOD. Afterward I was so ready to go to bed. I’d been running on about 3 hours of sleep. I’m surprised I stayed awake as long as I did!

Friday is a bit of a blur. I don’t remember what we did. hm. All I remember is that we went to another show. It was called Pierce Arrow. Country and gospel music. It was pretty good, despite my dislike for country music. I had to get over it though, because everyone seems to love it down there. *Oh yeah, I remember now! Grandma and I went walking around another outlet store around the area. Grandma was looking for ramekins. We found this REALLY COOL restaurant supply store that was discounting everything because they are going out of business in June. AND I scored two dress shirts for John for $20 at Van Heusen because they were going out of business too!*

Saturday I was left to my own devices for a little while during the day because Grandma and Grandpa had yearly orientation for their jobs at Silver Dollar City, the theme park down there. So I got to work making the treats I’d promised Grandpa that I’d make. So I made a cake (it was boxed, but I only brought carry on bags with me – no room for fancy baking stuff) and my new favorite carmelita cookie bars, which were a big hit with Grandma. YUM

I am now going to tell you something about myself that from past experience, I’ve found that most people find really gross. But it isn’t. Not really. ;)

I eat cake in milk. Not cake WITH milk. IN milk. And my favorite cake in milk is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. IN milk. ;) Bowl. Cake. Milk. yes. I get it from Grandpa. So it was nice to have a fellow cake-in-milk-eater around. YUM

And Grandma totally thinks it’s gross ;)

I also played around with a new toy Grandpa gave me. This little flexible camera tripod. It’s pretty funny.
The legs are flexible, so you can wrap it around things to get a good angle when you need to rest your camera on something to get a good picture. I’ve started carrying it around in my purse. I have a feeling it could come in handy!

I also asked Grandma to teach me how to make these little dish scrubbies that she crochets. She taught me Friday night so that I could work on some while there were at their orientation. I made a couple and she was so proud :)

I was pretty excited! I’ve always wanted to know how to crochet something other than a single chain and a square! We also picked up some yarn and found a free hat pattern that I tried out. My best attempt at a crochet pattern. EVER.
And it has a POM POM! :)

The only “bummer” is that it’s now too warm to wear it…till next winter then… ;)

One night before a show we went walking along Lake Taneycomo over at the shopping mall, Branson Landing. They have a fountain/light/fire show to music that plays every hour or so. I caught a little on film. Grandma was trying to predict when the fire would shoot. And she kept getting it wrong. That’s why I’m laughing in the video ;)

Grandma and I enjoyed the show

We also went down to Arkansas a couple of times while I was there. I know, WHY on earth would we go to Arkansas of all places?! Well, they’d told me about a liquidation outlet that sold lots of stuff at crazy low prices. Well, you know me, I LOVE a good bargain, so I wanted to check it out. We went down on Monday, but they were closed Mondays! So we went back the next day. We also went to a bakery outlet, which was probably one of the weirdest things I’ve seen.
Grandma was excited to get her Ho Hos!
$0.99 Wonder Bread?!

Interesting place, Arkansas.

While I was there, I also wanted to freshen up on my tortilla making skills. Grandma had taught me a loooooong time ago and I had lost my copy of the recipe in the many moves I’ve made since then. So Grandma and I  made tortillas for a fajita lunch and I got to relearn the art of tortillas. And get some practice into making them round. I did much better this time around. They actually looked more round, and less like amoebas. ;)
My little dough rounds waiting to be rolled out…
So exciting! (John is super excited I’ve learned how to do this)
After they are rolled out nice and thin and round (hopefully round), they go on this flaming hot cast iron skillet (gotta get me one of those)…
And you have a beautiful tortilla!
Nom nom nom nom nom… These are the ones I made. Not too shabby, eh? ;)

We caught some more shows, namely the Hughes Brothers Show (which is a runner up new favorite to SIX!) and the Presley’s Country Jubilee. We also went to the Titanic museum, which was really cool, even though it was a little sad to think about the tragedy. They had a huge collection of artifacts from the passengers and parts of the ship and it was really quite amazing.

And that brings me to the end of my little trip. I miraculously managed to fit everything back into my carry on bags (though my duffel bag weighs significantly more than it did on my way here…) Before Grandpa took me to the airport though, we stopped at Wal Mart at my request because earlier this week, I’d seen that they had THESE:

Biscoff cookies!!!!!!!! I’d tried them at pastry school (they also make a biscoff spread – have yet to find that…) and they taste like a glorified graham cracker (basically)…but sooooooo tasty and so I had to grab a couple packages to take home, because I’ve never seen them at the store :) YUM!

And that is my trip! Thanks Mom for the plane tickets and thanks Grandma and Grandpa for having me! I had a great time!!!