PAWS

Last night I finally finished my Dog Town Level 1 training at PAWS. I'm so excited to be volunteering with this group!! We took one of the dogs for a walk last night and he was so excited to get out. Some of the dogs are a little skittish, but that makes you want to get closer with them! And don't get me started on the puppy room! Every two weeks or so they get a group of puppies in from an Oklahoma shelter, and right now they are down to three puppies (2 black labs and 1 that looks like a boxer mix). They were all so sweet and cuddled up to each other! It was hard not to put them in my purse and take them home with me! Can't wait to go back!!

College Sport Saturday

Before I begin this post, I'd like to start off with a little story...

Last fall Neil and I had been anxiously awaiting college football Saturday's, so we decided to start the season off with a bang. Mizzou (where Neil went) had an early football game, so we went to Sedgwick's (a Mizzou bar) and started with an innocent bucket of beers. Obviously, you can see where this story is going. It turned into an unnecessarily long day of drinking, bar hopping and eating and resulted in a two day hang over for me (record breaking). As we have moved away from the day, it's gone from "NEVER AGAIN!!" to "It wasn't that bad..." so we decided to do a modified version this weekend for the Mizzou vs. Kansas basketball game. One of the great things about the bars near Neil is that they allow dogs in the bar! So while most people watched the nail bitter of a basketball game, I giggled at the little terrier who barked at the TV every time he saw another dog in a commercial and commented on how he should have been wearing a Mizzou shirt like the one below.

Luckily, we did stick to our word to making this a modified version of the original CFS (college football Saturday), however we did manage to finish off a few pitchers of beer and eventually a pitcher of margaritas. Which, ironically, one drink into the margs Neil figured out he actually does not like margaritas, so it was up to me to finish the pitcher. Needless to say, my 8:15 bedtime was necessary!

Willow House Group

I've been a bit of a slacker when it comes to blogging lately, mostly because the last week has been pretty low key. In anticipation of a busy spring/summer/fall, Neil and I decided to make the last two weekends as low key as possible. However, I have managed to stick to my "year of doing" concept while simultaneously being lazy. Impressed, much?

Last Thursday I had my first Willow House group. There are a few different locations for W.H., and this week I attended the Chicago group, which is right around the corner from my apartment. We had a skeleton crew this month. I'm not sure if the impending snow storm scared people off, or if this is normal from the group, regardless, it was great to finally get started. I was able to work 1:1 with a little girl, and although she was more interested in the play house in the classroom (I'll admit, it was pretty sweet), then she was talking about her feelings, it was good to get a feel for how the groups will run.

If you live or work in the Libertyville, Arlington Heights and/or Chicago area, and know of a family who could benefit from this group please let me know! It's so helpful for these families to talk about their loss with people in the same, sad boat.

Italian Feast

In lieu of going out this weekend, Neil made an Italian feast to celebrate the fact that we were exactly 2 months away from our trip to Rome (and London)!! It started off with  parmigiana and pecorino roman cheeses accompanied with prosciutto and an assortment of olives. Very Italian.

The next course was home-made tomato basil soup (pictured below). This was so amazing! It had great consistency, taste and a beautiful presentation.

The last course was 4 mini pizzas (3 pictured below). They were; mushroom, artichoke, margarita, and prosciutto! They were all so great!! Neil has made home-made pizza before which is always amazing, but this was such a good idea to break them out to 4 mini pizza's. It was delicious!!

Thanks to Neil for making such an amazing dinner!! 

Side note, Friday I had a girls night with two of my college roommates; Mary Kate and Caitlin. We had such a great time and drank waaay to much wine and champagne, but what's better than a good old fashion girls night? Love you girls and I'm so lucky to have such great friends in my life!

Before I Go To Sleep

My friend Mary Kate sent me a book recommendation the other day, "Before I go to Sleep." Holy cow! This book was so great! It was suspenseful and a fast read. If you like the movie 50 first dates and are looking for a good page turner, I highly recommend this book! I hope they make a movie out of it!

Spring

Though this winter has been unseasonably warm, I am still ready for Spring! Below are some pictures that are getting me excited for the upcoming season

Ring a Ding Dong

Yesterday Neil and I went ring shopping (eeeekkkkk!!!!!!) Let me first say, he and I were previously scarred by our first venture into ring shopping. It was late summer and we were shopping on Michigan Avenue so we decided to pop into Tiffany to get an idea on the cut, bands, etc. The whole experience was like the scene from Pretty Woman where they refused to help her because she looked.... like she did. Now, I understand I was wearing shorts and tennis shoes (might as well have had a shirt on that said "I Heart Chi" because I looked like a complete tourist) and most likely sweating profusely, but who is this lady to not take us seriously?! Correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot of people looking at engagement rings are our age, so why would she automatically count us out? Obviously, I'm still healing from this experience.

So yesterday, we treaded lightly when walking into the store and approaching a sales rep. Thankfully, this experience was much different! We met with someone who was helpful, friendly, and fun. She talked us through all the different rings as I tried on pretty much their entire inventory. It was such a fun experience and made me even more excited to marry Neil one day soon!!

Perennial Virant

Neil and I celebrated Valentine's Day early this year by going to dinner at Perennial Virant (http://perennialchicago.com/). I have been wanting to go here for some time, just based solely on how cute it looks from the outside, especially in the summer! I loved everything about this restaurant! I was really impressed with how well spaced out the tables are, such an odd thing, but lately it seems every place we go to tries to cram in as many people as possible or has communal seating. That can be fun, but it was nice to not be sitting on top of the people next to us, too! The staff there was all so nice and friendly. We started off with a bottle of champagne (my fave!!!!) and the waiter was insanely knowledgeable on this particular champagne and  gave us a brief history on that bottle. What's so impressive about this is Perennial has a 3000 bottle wine cellar downstairs, so this guy really knows his stuff!!

For our food selectiosn we had a good range starting with the bar snacks (yum) and then moving to the
Werp farm parsnip gnocchi which had river valley mushrooms, sunchoke chips, ham hock and smoked apple butter sauce. This was accompanied with the Hillside orchard chestnut ravioli that had local spinach, candied fennel and orange butte inside. We finished the meal with Slagel family farm lamb cassoule, which had
smoked leg, sausage, navy beans and bread crumbs and the Q7 ranch beef shepherd's pie that contained
winter vegetables, potatoes, nordic creamery smoked cheddar.

I loved this place and would definitely recommend it to anyone!

The Bristol

Friday night, Neil and I went to dinner at The Bristol (http://thebristolchicago.com/) with my friend Mary Kate and her Fiance, Kirk. This was the perfect night to go there. It was freezing outside and the ambiance there is warm and inviting! The venue itself is compact, but toasty! As usual, we split a bunch of "small plates" so everyone can get a good feel for the menu. Some of the stand outs for me were (well, pretty much everything stood out) the duck fat fries, scotch olives which had pork sausage and lemon in them, whole wheat flat bread with white anchovy and braised kale, and finally the raviolo which contained ricotta egg  yolk and brown butte (Krista, if you're reading this, it was, in fact, called Raviolo's and when I said Ravioli he corrected me and added the "O" at the end. Thought you might appreciate that). Below are pictures of the Raviolio and Neil's main course which was the head on prawns with a la plancha, anchovy butter and tarrago (sorry for the quality in pictures).

The Bristol also has a great drink menu! We started off by splitting a bottle of wine and then moved to their Cocktail menu. I had the "Moscow Mule" which Mary Kate had encouraged me to get by telling me this is the drink Oprah and Gale drank on their camping trip. Sold. All of the drinks were really good and served in fun cups (it reminded Neil and I of the High West Distillery and Saloon in Park City, Utah). Overall, great food, fun drinks and wonderful company! I would definitely go back! 

We'll miss you, Whit

So sad to hear about Whitney. But I want to say thanks to Whit for making the world's dance parties that much better. We'll miss you.

Spacca Napoli

Neil and I have been to Spacca Napoli for lunch and dinner on two separate occasions now and both times were amazing! This pizza is very authentic (or so I imagine pizza tastes in Italy)! Everything tastes very fresh and hand made, which it is. The crust is made brick-oven style and home made sauce is a great compliment. We had the same waiter both times who was very knowledgeable and helpful when it came to picking which type of pizza we wanted. They have "Pizza Rosse" which is red sauce and "Pizza Bianche" which has no sauce. I'm a huge fan of their tomato sauce, so both times I had the red sauce. The first time we went, Neil had the Bianche style which was unique and very tasty. The atmosphere is nice and clean, with a fun family feel. Also, the price is very reasonable, $33.00 for two people to have a lot of pizza! If you're up north, I highly recommend checking this place out! It definitely got Neil and I ready for our trip to Rome this Spring!

P.S. I love you

Maybe I'm a sucker for a good romantic movie. Maybe I appreciate a good cry every once in awhile. Maybe I love any movie that revolves largely around Ireland. Or maybe, I just like seeing Gerard Butler singing with his shirt off, but this movie gets me every time! Last night, after feeling a bit under the weather, I popped in P.S. I love you. There something about this movie that makes me insanely sad, but also happy at the same time (so conflicted)!!
Some parts that break my heart are when Hilary Swank runs into the bar and cries to her mom. So sad and so well acted on both their parts! (Side note: every time I look at Hilary Swank I can't help but he reminded of the Office episode where they try to determine if she's hot or not). It also kills me when she receives the last letter from Gerry, knowing it's the end is so sad!!
However, there are some parts in the movie that are happy and uplifting, like when they show how Gerry and Holly met. That whole scene is so sweet and hopeful!
So the hopeless romantic in my comes out. In my eyes there is nothing better than a good romantic comedy to make everything else go away!

The Slurping Turtle

Saturday Neil and I went to the Slurping Turtle (cutest name and logo ever) with Neil's friend, Nick. This place was so great! The food was amazing and we had a few new foods I have not had before. The ambiance is super cute. They have a few booths and tables as well as a long communal table in the middle. Neil and I got there a little early but only had to wait about 10 minutes to get a seat. We had a drink at the bar, and the staff there was great. We had a bunch items from the "Bincho Grill" part of the menu. The scallops were amazing. One item I wouldn't order again was the Hatsu (chicken heart), but that's just a preference thing because Neil and Nick liked it. I'm actually still a little surprised I even tasted it, but again, Neil usually orders and I eat blindly before finding out what part of an animal I'm eating. The main dishes were also great and the place was packed by the time we left. I highly recommend it for something a little different in a fun neighborhood.
http://slurpingturtle.com/home.php

PAWS

Saturday I had my first meeting at PAWS to begin volunteering there. PAWS in a no-kill animal shelter and adoption organization here in Chicago (http://www.pawschicago.org/). During our introduction they brought out a dog, Elvis, who was so cute! It was hard not to take them all home! I can't wait to get my hands dirty (literally) and do more with this organization. One of the things I loved about this location is how clean it is! It smells good (weird, I know), but they put a lot of work into making people feel comfortable there as well as the animals. The people I met were all so nice and passionate about helping these adorable animals. Look for pictures of potential adoptions to come and don't forget to get your dogs and cats spayed or neutered!

Dang it, Phil!

6 more weeks of winter. Boo, Phil!

Cleaning Out My Closet

I decided to get into the Spring cleaning act a little early this year by gutting my entire apartment. Before I make that sound like too daunting of a task let me explain that I have two closets in my entire apartment; one for clothes and the other has turned into a storage unit. That being said it did take about 10 hours to get through my entire apartment and all cabinets/closets/draws/shelves. Sadly, the apartment does not look much different, but I know in my heart it is. Below are pictures of bags going to good will and another picture of the garbage pile. I suppose the metaphor of cleaning out the clutter and garbage can be used to go along with my "year of doing;" get rid of the unnecessary mess in my life!