Fight Broncos fight, Fight with all your might, Western win this game!

After racing home from the airport last night I was able to see WMU score their only two touchdowns in the Texan bowl; however, they still lost to Rice 38 - 14

There was a "Watch Party" at the Cubby Bear in Chicago with about 200 WMU alum there to watch the game. It was great being around all of the Broncos again! And I ran into some old friends!

On your mark.....get set...

Yikes, I just signed up for a half marathon! It takes place on May 3 in Eugene, Oregon which is approx 2 hours from Portland Oregon.

Um, why did I do this??

• I guess I just wanted to get in shape fast
• I wanted to train for something to accomplish
• Try something new!

If you are interested in signing up you can find more info at the following link. http://www.eugenemarathon.com/

Mom's Surprise Party

My mom turned the big "5-0" on Christmas Eve, but my sister and I threw a surprise party for her on Saturday night. There was a fabulous turn out! And my mom was so surprised, although, my sister and I had to lie to her the entire day! Here are some pics from the party.

After the surprise party the girls and I (Erin, Katie, Andrea, and Carrie) exchanged our Christmas ornaments. This year we all had to "go green" and make our ornaments from things around the house. So for mine, I traced my hand, made copies of our 6th grade pics and glued them on the hand, then added some cheesy glitter and some pipe cleaner for a hanger! Come to find out I glued the pics the wrong way so when you go to hang it they are backwards:-) Oops - that is what you get for home made though! I got Katie's ornament which consisted of an angel made out of cotton balls and tissue paper and a glitter halo with a baby pic of her for the face:-) It was so good to catch up with the girls! We may not see each other for a while but when we do its just back to normal.

Off to the airport at 315AM yesterday morning to come back to ATL to work yesterday and today. But I am looking forward to 6PM when I get to leave for the airport to FINALLY go home to Chicago to celebrate New Years!

Santa is coming to I-Town!

I can't beleive Chirstmas is not offically over. I woke up yesterday morning to my sister yelling at me to get up - - nothing changes around here:-)

We opened our Santa gifts first. Yes, we still get Santa gifts b/c our mom is awesome. My sister and I managed to get my mom the same book, oops! All of the gifts I got were great. My sister got me a book about useless knowledge, which I am super excited to read (I will be sharing it on my blog throughout the year) Here are some pics of Kiara guarding her stocking, she even got a little snipping when we tried to take it away.

We did all of our gift exchanges and then went to my nana and boppys for lunch and to celebrate. Of course the food was awesome, my nana cooks the best ham! I got my grandparents a digital keychain, so below are some picutres that I took to upload.

And always remember that the birth of Jesus is the reason why we celebrate Christmas!

Getting back to the mitten

My flight home to Michigan (from ATL) was a little eventful. In the morning, I had tried to get on a earlier flight (6:55PM) that day and no luck, I was unfortunately stuck with the flight at 9:40PM. But..... then I got a nice little phone call from Delta that I had been upgraded on the 6:55PM flight. I was super confused but then realized accidentally booked two flights that day, so oops! I was on the 6:55PM and that is all that mattered. Shocking, (not really), but my flight was delayed. The roads were terrible in Michigan at the time. My flight had landed, but my sister, mom, and cousin didn't get to the airport until about an hour after I landed. On the way home it wasn't much better, the roads were bad and we didn't get home until 4AM. Yikes, so I was travelling for 11.5 hours! Oh and we didnt have time to stop at Coney, so no Greek Salad for me:-(

In Christmas Eve day I had to finish some Christmas shopping and some wrapping (I know this is not surprising)

Our evening Christmas Eve plans changed a little when some of the family came down with the flu so we had to reschedule in January. Since Christmas Eve is my mom's birthday, we took her out to dinner. Then we went to the Church service at 11PM. The service was great and we sang my favorite Christmas song ("What Child is This?") so I was happy about that! Then we came home and called it a night b/c Santa was coming!!!!

Holiday Parties minues snow...fa la la la la la la la la

Garry and his roommates held a holiday party. Somehow, not sure how, but between 30 and 40 people showed up to the house. Even there was no snow, the night was still festive! And it was complete with egg nog and flippy cup!

So did Garry call Rich or Rich call Garry to let each other know what they were wearing? :-)

Saturday night was the Accenture Delivery Center holiday party. I found my perfect dress a few weekends before! When my mom and I went down to my Nanas to see what was in the estate sale, I saw the bridesmaid dress that my mom wore in my aunts wedding and thought maybe I could do something with it if i change it up a bit. The dress was warn in a December wedding so the color was perfect for a Christmas party. I needed to change the dress a tad, so I had it hemmed short (it was originally long). So, all I had to do was dress it up with some vintage-ie jewelry and voila. That day a friend from work and I went to go get our makeup done (we both said we were buying one thing from the store -- ha that didn't go far. I walked out of Nordstrom's with new lipstick and tinted moisturizer, but I love both of them so I can't complain. I would recommend the tinted moisturizer especially in the cold winter months.


I went home on Sunday and was in Chicago for a few days, but I had to work in ATL the following weekend as our systems were going live. Basically, we had to take the system down to make all of our updates over the weekend so it was up and running on Monday morning" - Sounds simple but its a little more complicated than that. It was a long weekend, I worked about 18 hours on Sat. I am glad it is over!!! After that weekend all I was looking forward to was coming home for Christmas! (and of course finishing my Christmas shopping)

Ugh...26, Really?

So the most important event that happened during the first part of the month was obviously my birthday.


The weekend of my birthday my mom and dad came into Chicago for the night. (It was part of their anniversary gift) During the day on Friday my mom and I did some shopping. For my birthday, my parents got me the Van Gogh "Almond Blossom" Painting, which I love.

At night we went to a Argentinian restaurant called "Tango Sur." After dinner we went to to Zanies. Both comedians were great! We got there (not late even) and of course we were in the front row. I know we all were a little nervous but we didn't really get made fun ofSaturday morning we had breakfast and then went downtownt to the John Hancock building and had drinks at the 96th floor signature lounge. I love it up there and I especially love to take people up there when they are visiting. After we ran other errands (including picking out a bookcase that Garry later carried down the street and put together:-) We also finished decorating the Christmas Tree! I wasnt home to enjoy it as much as I would like but I enjoyed putting it up with my mom.

On Saturday night my friends and I went to Quartinos for dinner. Quartinos is one of my favorite Italian restaurants in the city. It has alot of "small plate" dishes so everyone can try a little of something. Oh, and they also have the best house wine there!

After dinner we headed to Martini Park. I tried a few margaritas and I think the most unique was the Strawberry Basil. I would definitely recommend that one. Thanks John:-)

November Recap

Starting of November had me back in ATL for 3 weeks!

• Wake Forest Homecoming - It was time to venture to North Carolina to an ACC football game. Wake Forest is located in Winston Salem. It was a cute downtown and reminded me almost of the downtown of South Haven.













Blue Ridge Mountains - Eight of us ventured to the mountains of Georgia for the weekend for some time to relax and be with friends. The cabin was gorgeous! The first night we were able to start a fire but on the second night it had rained all day and unfortunately the fire was just not happening. We played alot of board games. Catch Phrase, Categories, and Sequence were all on the top of the list. I learned how to play Sequence and now I am addicted. All of the couples were in charge of one meal and it worked out great. Friday we had Crepes for dinner brought to us from Drew and Laurance and Sat Garry and I made London broil, chicken, and brushetta. (inlcuded a picutre just for mom)For lunch, Shama and Mike made homemade chili and breakfast was presented to us by the Mullens'.
























Thanksgiving - I went home on the 23rd for Thanksgiving and I was at home for a whole week. It was great! I love that I was able to spend that much time at home. I went to breakfast with my grandparents one morning at Big Boy. I love spending as much time with them as I can when I am home. Of course, it was my sisters first Thanksgiving when she was 21 so she went to the bar with me and my friends. It was so nice having her there!






During the time at home we had Melissa's baby shower. It was a great time and she got awesome gifts! We all can't wait for baby Joslynn (still TBD) to come!





Here are a few pics from decorating the Christmas tree back in ATL...

October Recap Part 2

• Leaving Detroit…. Well I guess I never thought that I would say this, but I was really sad that I had my last few days in Detroit. The week of 10/20 was my last week working in Detroit for the current project that I am on (which I have been on since 4/30/07) Its crazy to think that when I first was told that I was going to be working in Detroit, I didn’t want to come back. Working in Detroit has been great over the last (almost 2 years) I was able to see my fair share of Detroit Sport games, concerts, see my friends, enjoy a real greek salad from coney, drive my car (which I no longer have), and I have built new relationships (and one is my new roommate – who would have thought). What I won't forget is the great people who work in the RenCen/Marriott. Charles, the security guard, is awesome. I even saw him as I was walking in my last week and he gave me a hug and asked me where I have been. Another person is Pat who works for the Marriott front desk. When I call and ask for a wake up call she already knows I want two. (shocking -- I know) SAnd since I have been traveling to ATL and I am not in Detriot that much anymore, she always asks where I have been. And I really wont forget those poor bell boys who have had to knock on my hotel room a few mornings when I managed to sleep through my wake up calls.
  Well enough of that, I will still remain on this project until January and then I will be moving on, but who knows what project and what city..that is all the fun part! And I had to get pics before I left!


• My friends and I had a pumpkin carving party. All of our pumpkins turned out great! I carved the Lions logo (with a little help from my tee shirt and Jason. During the week I was at home and home for the week. Nothing too excited but I managed to finished the season of '24' and now I cant wait until the new season starts!





• Halloween - I was having a break down when I couldn't find a sash for my costume, but once again, my mom pulled through. She went to a friends at 10PM (oops I was on CST time and forgot about the change) to pick up her friends daughters vest to then over night for me! It finally came on Friday around 5Pm and we had to go to the Halloween party at 8PM so it was cutting it close a little. The vest was awesome and definitily original.