Most nights this week we've been working to get ready for our family party this Sunday.  I would so much rather do a little bit each night than be completely overwhelmed and have to whip things into shape in a day or two.  Last night, I compiled all the recipes and make my grocery list while Jack volunteered to clean both of our showers.  Normally, I clean the bathrooms as my mom used to tell me that I could make a bathroom sparkle, and Jack handles some chores that I can't stand (like dusting), but who am I to turn down an offer for him to clean the showers?!  He did a great job and really saved me some time and work.  In the words of my mom, "I am pleased but not suprised" that he could do it. ;)

I was a little nervous about the noise we might cause our neighbors, since we have discovered that the insullation between the units is not great.  On top of that, our neighbors downstairs have their condo for sale and we didn't want to cause them any problems in case they have any showings.  Jack emailed them last night to let them know, so hopefully they'll be understanding about it and it won't bother them too much. 

Next up in the preparations are the grocery shopping, condo cleaning and some cooking tomorrow.  Today is our 6 month anniversary, and although we talked about going to dinner, I think we might spend it at CostCo and Dominick's.  Nothing says romance like picking out meat and produce!

In and amongst our preparations, we are going out tomorrow night to celebrate our friend Jen's birthday.  We are heading for a show at Improv Olympics and then out for drinks.  Happy Birthday Jen!

And Happy 6 month Anniversary, Jack!  I feel so lucky to be your wife.

We have had just general life stuff going on lately.  Last week seemed kind of long since it was our first week back at work after our Hawaiian honeymoon.  We made it through though and were glad when the weekend arrived.  It was a pretty busy weekend overall - I went out with some girlfriends Friday night, Saturday we worked around the condo for a while and then I had a wedding shower in the evening.  Since the shower was out in the suburbs, I stopped to see my mom for a bit on the way home, which was really nice.  I love our life in the city, but I miss my family sometimes.  On Sunday, we went to church, went to the Merchandise Mart for a furniture sample sale (we didn't buy any furniture, but I bought 2 pieces of jewelry) and then we did a TON of work around our condo for the rest of the day.

Not that there isn't always stuff to do at home, but we are particularly in high gear with house work these days because we are having both of our immediate families over this Sunday for our first "party" at our condo.  We wanted to have a get together like this before the wedding since our immediate families didn't know each other much, but since that didn't work out, we figured no better time like the present.  We keep a pretty clean house, but when you are having guests, suddenly you see your place with different eyes, so we have been working hard to get ready.  We are very excited though to have everyone over!  It should be nice and cozy too since we'll have a total of 14 adults and 5 kids in our place all at once, plus Bentley who we'll need to keep separated from the bunch part of the time because my nephew is scared of dogs and despite his friendly intentions, Bentley can be a little too much excitement for some. :) 

All of our family generously offered to bring something so the burden wasn't on us, but I really wanted to host everyone so we are providing all the food.  I have come to like cooking and would like the chance to provide a meal for those close to us.  I better start praying now that it all turns out OK!  I am not going to list off what I have planned because a) it is not TOTALLY finalized and b) some of those coming read this blog and although I am not making a 5-course fine dining meal, I still want it to be a bit of a surprise.

That's all for now.  Love to all!

We didn't want to blog about the fact that we were leaving for our honeymoon since we are both very cautious as to what info we post online (just for security reasons), so I apologize for the long delay in our blog postings, but let me tell you, it was a FABULOUS trip!  We left exactly two weeks ago and were in Maui for 7 glorious nights.  We did a couple activities, drove and explored the island, slept, spent some time on the beach and ate and drank our way through Maui.  It was wonderful!  I could probably blog about all kinds of different things from our trip for a month (and I just might). :)

My parents let us borrow their really nice camera, so we found that we enjoyed taking pictures together, almost as a possible new hobby.  Because of this new found interest, we took over 800 pictures.  We know there are a bunch that are duplicates or some that did not come out that great, so it'll get widdled down a bit, but we'll be sure to share some photos on here soon.

I can honestly say now that there is really something to be said for a RELAXING vacation.  I have gone on plenty of wonderful trips in my life, but none with just the intention of relaxing and enjoying whatever came our way quite like this one.  I truly felt refreshed and refocused when we came back.  And it was funny, we seemed to find a great pace to our days while we were there and really just enjoyed spending time together.  We never listened to the radio even when we were in the car - we just enjoyed the fresh air blowing and all the scenery around us.

To say the least, I am ready to go back anytime!  And mahalo (thank you) to all those that patiently waited for new posts while we were gone. 

Wow, I can't believe that Bentley is 5 years old today!  (Yes born on St. Patrick's Day, go figure)  We've got plenty of things to update everyone on, especially our FANTASTIC honeymoon to Maui, but that will require a little more time.