My time at the Gym

So I joined a gym at the end of August. I had been talking about it for months and decided that it was time. I walked down to Ballys after work one Thursday (only half block from work) and walked out with a membership card. I have worked so hard to get where I am after my surgery and I am ready to make it even better! Right now I have a personal Trainer named Albert and he is amazing! He pushes me so hard and has confidence that I can do what he tells me. Good grief, last week he had me doing sprints!!! Never in a million years thought I would be doing sprints ever again, but I did! I have 4 more sessions with him and I am hoping to continue to work with him if we can afford it. Other than my one work out with him a week I have been going in 4 other days and doing my cardio on the elliptical machine and doing some weights. I actually look forward to going to the gym. That is something I never thought would come out of my mouth. So here is a picture of Albert and I! I can not thank him enough for helping me get on track with my life!

CUBS CLINCH!!!!

How Awesome is this for Chicago Cubs fans! 2 years in a row now the cubs have made the playoffs. The last time it happened 2 years in a row was in 1907,1908 when they ended up winning the series in 1908. It has been 100 years and it is OUR time!!! GO CUBS GO!!!

Saturday night (9/20) Shaun, David and I went down to Wrigleyville to party a bit with the fans. It was like 7 hours after the game ended and there were still hundreds and hundreds of people out partying! I love this city! We went into Bar Louie and had some drinks and a great time!


Dave and I
Shaun and I on the ride home. We were a little drunk :)

Family Visit

The weekend of the 19th-21st Shaun and I had house guests. My Grandparents and my Cousin came to visit. We had such a fun and busy weekend. Here are a few highlights.


We are a big game playing family! I was so happy to get to play some games while they were here because Shaun is not a big game player. We played a couple of card games and a new dice game I learned called "Farkle" SO fun!!!!



Saturday G&G, Shaun and I went to see the play Mama Mia. It was a great show with so much energy! Now that I have seen 2 different shows here in Chicago (Mama Mia and Wicked) I want to see as many as possible. I just enjoy them so much!! After the play we met back up with Davis and walked over to Millennium Park and then had dinner at Giordano's. YUM!

Sunday was game day. This was my 7th game of the season and it was the last home game of the regular season. By this time the Cubs had already clinched their division so a lot of the key players were off for the day but it was still a great time and we won the game so who can complain about that :) This was the farthest back we have sat. We were I kid you not 2 rows down from the TOP of the park!!! I think the seats were still great, just not as close as I am used to.

What a wonderful weekend was had by all and I hope they all come back and see us soon! I just love when family visits!!!

Carlos Zambrano is the MAN!!!

Because of Hurricane Ike the Cubs/Astros series was moved to Miller Park in Milwaukee. Tickets went on sale at about 9pm on Saturday the 13th. The game was scheduled for 7:05 PM on the 14th. Shaun and I decided what the heck let's go! 1:00 AM we had tickets printed and in our hands.

Miller Park is a nice park. It is definitely no Wrigley Field but there is only ONE Wrigley!!! We had great seats, 17 rows behind what was supposed to be the Cubs dugout. Houston decided they wanted to be behind 3rd base so oh well.

Carlos Zambrano was starting pitcher and he had been out for a couple of weeks so we were not sure how he would play. Well let me tell you this...He was frickin' AMAZING!!! he had a no hitter game which was the first for the Cubs in 36 years!!!!

The sounds of 23,441 Cubs fans screaming as loud as they can is deafening. Especially in a park with a closed roof. I still can not believe that there were that many fans since the tickets went on sale 22 hours before opening pitch! Us Cub fans are very Loyal to our Boys and we have faith!!!

As I type this our Magic number is 2!!! Hopefully our boys in blue will win tomorrow and the Brewers will lose and we will clinch the division! I am SO excited and I know they will do it. Hopefully they do not blow it in the playoffs this year but I have faith.

Here are a few Photos


Z's Final pitch of the night...what a beautiful strike!!

His reaction to that pitch!!!

I LOVE this shot! It shows his faith and that makes me have faith in them!

The way his teammates all ran onto the field after that last pitch brought tears to my eyes. These boys really are one big happy family. They deserve to win the world series. It has been 100 years and I think that it would be great for it to happen this year!!!

Happy Birthday Candace!

Tonight Shaun and I went out to celebrate Candace's Dirty Thirty! We met at Diversy Bowl were they did a bit of glow bowling. I am still sore from all my workouts so I just watched from behind. After they bowled several games and we all had cake we headed down to Lincoln Ave to Lions Den/The Apt. What a kick ass place!!! Downstairs is a sports bar where you can buy a YARD of beer. It is this ginormous glass thingy with a spicket on it!!! Craziest thing I have ever seen. Upstairs is the apartment (that is the name of the club) and it is laid out like an apt. It was way cool and they had some great music going. We all tossed back a few drinks and had a great time. I was sad to go because Candace recently moved to New Hampshire and I sure do miss her being here in Chi-town! Hopefully we will see her again soon!



The Birthday Girl and her new Fiance Eric. They are so darn CUTE together!!!

Cubs Game in Cincinnati

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Friday, Sept 5th Shaun and I hit the road headed to Cincinnati for the Cubs/Reds game. The ride there was good other than it rained the whole way. We were thinking positive because they said the weather was clearing up for the night. Well...they lied!!! It rained during the whole game. UGH! We did have amazing seats though. When I bought them I thought they were right behind the Cubs dugout. I was wrong and we were behind the Reds. It was OK though because were were 7 rows from the field! Way cool! It was wet and we got our asses beat but it was still a great time! Here are a few pics that I was able to grab the few seconds it was not raining.

This was before the game but it shows how great our seats were!

The Boys practicing for what was a horrible game!
Sorianno striking out!Our view inside the Cubs Dugout

Labor Day Weekend

What an awesome weekend! My Brother, his girlfriend Alyssa and Skyy came to Chicago to spend the weekend with us. We had a great time!!! On Saturday we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo for a few hours. It was a really hot day so a lot of the animals were not being very social but I did get a few great shots.

After the zoo we went back to the house to nap. I think we all slept for a good hour and a half. It was really nice and we were refreshed to head back downtown to Navy Pier for dinner and the Fireworks. We had dinner at Joe's Be-Bop. It was OK but nothing to great, it was the place with the shortest wait though. After dinner we went outside to watch the fireworks. What a great show set to some great music!!!

Sunday night Shaun and I babysat Skyy for awhile so DA and Alyssa could go out on a date alone. When they left Skyy was sleeping under the table (silly girl). Shaun went out and got us Subway for dinner and the three of us got comfy and watched Bee movie! We all really enjoyed it :)

We were sad to see them go on Monday afternoon and we look forward to having them back soon!!!

Dinner Cruise

August 23rd Shaun and I enjoyed our second dinner cruise aboard the Mystic Blue. We did this last year for our anniversary and really enjoyed it so we decided to do it again. This year we chose to do it on a Saturday so we could enjoy the fireworks from Navy Pier. We had a wonderful time. The food was amazing, the entertainment was great, the weather was perfect and most of all the company was great :) Here are a few of my favorite shots from the night.