2012 Recap & Hopes for 2013

I realize it's been a while since I wrote (I apologize). This year has been PRE-TTY cray-cray.

There's been lots of fun with great friends through festivals, bbq's, trips and lots of sports.

March 2012: BF & I hosted a killer St. Patrick's Day party, which almost resulted in a noise violation, Darby O'Gill on loop, a keg of green beer, biscuits & gravy, and awesome memories:

Sometime in Spring? My good friend Sarah S. came to visit for some fun:

 We went to Tipsy Paint, a BYOB painting studio I found via LivingSocial. We got to enjoy our J&J Wines and get our creativity on! If you're ever in the area, the owners are very welcoming, and it's even better when you bring hors d'oeurves!

I'm so excited, she's coming in this weekend again and we're going to go see The Book of Mormon! 

Ok, Ok, I realize this may be taking things a bit far, and recapping a whole year in one post might be someone crazy (actually moving backwards...).

So here's the cliff notes: 

May: 

• Kentucky Derby/Cinco De Mayo Shenanigans in Old Town
• Avengers Movie Preview

June:

• Wells Street Art Festival & Karaoke Party
• Visit to Richmond to Sarah & Jimmy!
• Chicago Summer Fest
• L.A.T.E Ride

July:

• BF's Birthday Boat outing
• Jen's baby's Baptism
• Kicked off 3rd year of Happy Hour Flag Football
• Sarah S. Comes to visit
• Lisa's Baby Shower
•  Pirogi Fest/ Big Ten 10k

•   Oh yea... did I mention Adam Levine came to work?

•   Sister's 21st Birthday

 August:

•  Mom & Dad came to visit
• Kenzie & Tim's Wedding

•  Air & Water Show
• Movies in the Park: Wizard of Oz in Oz Park

•  BF does his 2nd Chicago Triathlon

September:

•  Myrtle Beach with the Family

• Visit Richmond
• WWE Smack Down with Work 

 October:

•  JLKD 5k & Fun Run
• Purdue Homecoming

•  Ladies Luncheon at the Swan House
• GREG & LJ'S WEDDING  (LJ Please let Greg know I mentioned y'all, otherwise I may never hear the end of it... ;) XOXO LOVE Y'ALL! )

November:

•  Caught up with Aunt Julia
• JLKD Book fair
• (More) Tipsy Painting (I SWEAR THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!)
• Oh and then Matt Forte came to work...

 December:

• Lots of Christmas Parties
• Lots of Presents
• Great Friends & Family memories (I promised BF I wouldn't go into detail... but trust me when I say it's a book in and of itself).

 NOW!

That's a lot more than I remember. Sorry I don't have pictures for everything. I realized this year, with not blogging, I didn't force myself to have pictures from everything, which makes me feel like I missed out. It's another reason I wanted to start again.

My Hopes, Wishes, and Goals for this year:

Keep in touch with more friends.

Token-work-out-more resolution (and eat 'healthier'... maybe)

Discover more opportunities and expose myself to new things.

I hope that by blogging, I can meet new and wonderful people, find exciting products and places, and be a better, kinder, stronger person.

How YOU can help:

1. Introduce yourself!
2. Recommend things/places you think I should check out and feature
3. Tips on how you think I can better myself and this blog

I love getting to know my readers and providing something you enjoy as much as I enjoy writing it. I hope to hear from you soon, and cheers to a great new year!

XoXo, the Prep

Calling All High School Seniors: Scholarship Opportunity!

Hi Y'all! My Junior League offers a few $1000 scholarships each year for High School Seniors in Kane & DuPage Counties in Illinois.If you know of anyone who would be interested and qualifies, please have them check out the opportunity at:

WWW. JLKD.ORG

JLKD is an organization of over 160 women from throughout DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties which focuses on improving the quality of life for children at risk in the community by providing critical resources and programs through our trained volunteers.

For more information, visit www.jlkd.org, like us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/JLKDServes and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JLKDServes.

Weekend Recap - Volunteerism & Porkchops

This past weekend was one of my most relaxing in a really long time.

Friday, BF was super kind to come over and collect my new chair for delivery!  That evening we went out to dinner and decided to try a restaurant long recommend to me by a former co-worker and good friend: Yu's Mandarine.

BF was especially excited because he's been talking non-stop about how they make noodles ever since we saw and episode of Chef vs.City: Atlanta where they had to make noodles with a long piece of dough basically hitting hit and pulling it like taffy till it took shape. We got way too much food, and the 'Noodle Show' was kind of a let down, but overall it was nice to get out on a 'date'.

Saturday my Junior League hosted an event at the Naperville Barnes and Noble. We had crafts and reading to kids, and handed out fliers so that a portion of the purchases went towards our Book fund. We collect donations of funds and books to disperse books within the community to increase literacy.

While I was participating in this event, BF spent the afternoon watching PURDUE KICK OSU BUTT! YES! And make homemade Giardiniera.... Ok, for those of you who don't know what this is (everyone not  from Chicago or of an Italian heritage), it's basically a spicy oil based relish of peppers that people put on everything from hot dogs to Italian beefs and salads. BF wants to make it to hand out this Holiday season. He got the bug from me last year with my spiced tea and Olive tapenade (recipe per Testa's which they were kind enough to give me over the phone and has become a staple in my holiday cooking and hosting.)

After the event, I made my way to BF's parents (where he and his dad were cutting up the ingredients to the giardiniera) for an afternoon/evening of football and laziness. 

Sunday was spent relaxing and watching a Muppet's Christmas carol & football, but also being a cleaning machine (much needed). I also made a Sunday Supper for the two of us which included:

Mustard Marinated Porkchops

Mashed Potatoes

Fresh Green Beans (sauteed with green onions and garlic)

Apple & Vidalia onion relish for the chops

I got the Porkchop recipe from the cookbook we received at the wedding last weekend! Who knew that chops were so cheap! (seriously they're so much cheaper than beef or chicken).

Sadly, I was unaware that partially due to his college nickname and partially due to how fraternity houses typically over-cook food, BF is not a huge fan of porkchops. He said mine were pretty good though, although he says that doesn't mean he wants them every night. 

And even though the Blackhawks and the Bears won, I think BF and I can agree the biggest win was the Ohio State game. Overall a great weekend!

What'd you do this weekend? Are you getting ready for Thanksgiving?

Weekend Recap - FALL!

It is most definitely fall, as evident by the sharp decrease in temperatures over the weekend. Saturday was the first annual Junior League of Kane & Dupage Counties Readers on the Run. The race was held in Batavia, IL and ran along the river.

I was volunteering and was supposed to be running interference with any Press that showed up, being the PR Chair and all. As such, we had to be there at 6am, which required me leaving my apartment at 5am, which means I got up at 4am... yup...4am...

After setting up lots of tables and assisting in organizing, the 8:05am start quickly approached and I was a last minute back up for the 1 mile marker:

And darn it, I cheered my little heart out for all the runners!

We had 90 runners register and 30 kids. With it being so cold, I think maybe only 50 people showed up, but I think that's pretty good for a first year! And all proceeds went towards books for Smart Steps & Mooseheart. We also collected at least 2 laundry baskets overflowing with books!

BF ran and is sporting his AWESOME Knockaround sunglasses! (PS, thank you for all your support, you'll be getting more pictures soon!).

The goodie bags had amazing deals from tons of local sponsors, that well overvalued the cost of the entry, a rare thing with 5K's these days, at least those that I've experienced.

We had at least 30 volunteers outside of the Junior League show up, most of whom are wonderful students from NIU. We've been working with NIU on a special project revamping our website: www.jlkd.org.

These are the awesome kids who are working our website! They videoed all day to get some great PR footage.

After the run, BF made his way back into the city to catch the Purdue game (we won't even begin to start going into that depressing thing). I cleaned up at home before coming in to hang out with E.S.

We explored the Lincoln Park Zoo, boutiques around Lincoln, and worked up a bit of an appetite.

We stopped at the MeatLoaf Bakery:

BF had told me about this place before, but I haven't had a chance to go visit until yesterday. The basic synopsis is that they're meatloaves shaped like cupcakes and have mashed potatoes as icing!

They had these little baby ones that only cost $5 for 3, so E.S. and I split them so we could taste them.

Afterward we stopped by Molly's because got to thinking about cupcakes:

E.S. on the swings with our cupcakes.

Today we woke up to a raining morning, and grabbed a bite to eat at one of our fave restaurants, Wishbone. I headed out to the burbs, in the hopes of meeting some dude off craigslist to get my couch... no such luck. I'm DESPERATE now, as my furniture is getting delivered on Thursday.
BF & I made a stop at Kmart to purchase stuff for our Halloween costumes before heading to his parents for his dad's birthday dinner; he made incredible homemade pizza!
BF & I stopped at Mollys (I know... twice in the same weekend, don't judge) and got cupcakes for the celebration:

Overall it was a fabulous weekend, with the exception of not yet getting rid of my couch. I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather!

Weekend Recap - Meet Me In St. Louis

This past weekend BF had a conference in St. Louis, and I got to tag along as co-pilot. We didn't get away until late Friday evening, which meant a long night of driving. We made it within 10 miles of the city, and passed an awful accident that involved a life-helicopter... pretty insane.

Finally got to the city.. you can kind of see the arch.

 Then I woke up to this. Pretty incredible view!

BF had to leave pretty early, and I was left to fend for myself for the day. I did some research while having breakfast and got some tips from the front desk before heading out.

The hotel was right next to the park that's part of the Arch. I got to walk over (less than half a mile) when it opened.

PS it opens at 9am, and it costs $10 to take the trip to the top.

You ride up in these little claustrophobic cells that act as a cross between a roller-coaster and a Ferris wheel. It was build over 50 years ago, and it made clicking noises on the way up AND down...

It's really short up there...

The stairs to the pods to come down.

But the views are pretty spectacular!

 After my little journey to the top of the Arch, I discovered St. Louis public transit and made my way towards the section of town known as the 'Central West End'. It's a really nice neighborhood that boarders their huge park and has tons of antique shops, restaurants, cafes, and boutiques.

I found one such cafe at the recommendation of one of the antique store owners.

Yummy B.L.A.S.T. (Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Sprouts, Turkey) sandwich, and french onion soup... not to mention a mimosa!

After a bite, I took public transit again towards the St. Louis version of Central Park or Millennium Park, Forest Park. It's actually bigger than Central Park by 500 acres! It contains most of the city's museums and the zoo all of which are FREE! Although I was sorely tempted by the Monet exhibit of Water Lilies, but I made my way to the zoo. 

Family of elephants... WITH A BABY! I've never a baby elephant and it was adorable!

Hippo exhibit! I've never seen them up close like this before.

This zoo was so cool, and it was amazing for being a free zoo. I even got to see the otters being fed!

My phone was dying though, and I called BF just before and he met me at the penguin exhibit. Afterward we drove around the city... kept being told about this area that supposedly had a ton of shops, but was a bit hipster and didn't have as many things as I was led to believe. After some freshening up, we went out to dinner at this place called Mollys in Soulard. Some of you may not know this, but St. Louis is the second largest Creole population in the US.

The restaurant had this beautiful beer garden and had excellent Cajun food!

The... MY SORORITY SISTER C.G. met us! She's originally from St. Louis and met us to go to the Soulard Oktoberfest. 

 The festival was right across from the Anheuser Busch grounds. 

There was tons of live music and the grounds were disgusting... typical Oktoberfest.

This morning, BF and I made our way back to Anheuser Busch for the official tour.

Some of the largest beer steins I've ever seen!

The Clydesdale paddocks.

Clydesdale tack room.

Mash Room

One of the incredible chandeliers they had around the 100 acre facility.

 After an hour and a half touring the facility, we enjoyed some wonderful samples in their hospitality room and watched the start of the first few Sunday games.

Then we grabbed some lunch at a local place recommend for it's BBQ... I was sadly under the misunderstanding that St. Louis was known for BBQ.... apparently not, although what we found was mighty tasty.

We made it back, albeit late. It was a wonderful weekend! I wish BF had more conferences so I could explore more cities!

We had originally wanted to go apple & pumpkin picking, but ran out of time. I hope to maybe do it next Sunday.

If you're in the Chicagoland area, next Saturday is my Junior League's first annual Readers on the Run. 

It's in Batavia, IL, there will be a 5k & Kids run along with lots of games & crafts. It's at 8am at the Fox Valley River trail. You can read more at www.jlkd.org I hope you can come out an help us support childhood literacy! We'll also be collecting books to donate towards Mooseheart & SmartSteps.

January 2011 JLKD

Check out the lastest activities from my Junior League!