Last weekend I got to finally visit my favorite husband in Chicago. I got to check out his pad and his place of work, the place that keeps him from me.

I love the house and the vibe around it. As for the workplace, it was so stinking hot and humid in the offices, I nearly lost it. However, it was very cool to see everything and I finally have a visual.

He took me around the neighborhood, and we ate at a really good place, Moonshine, which is a brewery nearby. In fact we ate there for brunch on Sunday during the Bears game (which was great energy) and enjoyed the mimosas which were 90% champagne and 10% orange juice. Then after going downtown for some culture and shopping we ended back at Moonshine for dinner.

We also met up with Drea for her birthday, did a dinner and movie (Jerry’s sandwiches and 50/50). It was great catching up and hanging out.

Speaking of movies, since it is pretty much college but more civilized, we didn’t have much entertainment in Nick’s room. I brought cribbage (which he beat me twice, the student overcomes the master), but other than that it was movies. So we watched Love and Other Drugs & Away We Go. I would say my favorite was Away We Go. In fact, Nick said “there are very few movies that actually make me think about having kids and that was one of them”. It was just really good and I loved the dynamic of the main couple.

We walked everywhere (of course). I did not bring appropriate footwear for the trip. Though I did have a cute bag (if I haven’t told you about it, I love it! $44 Amazon). Speaking of shoes, yep, we found 70% men’s shoe rack at Macy’s, you should have seen Nick’s face.

I also flew, which was awesome. I’ll doubt I’ll be able to do that again, but for this time it was so worth it. Not worrying about driving, not confined anywhere (except for the hour plane trip) and on the way there I had no one next to me, read a magazine and by the time I was done, booya descending! The way back was a little different, first I took the 6:30am flight, which meant we were up at 3:50am and Nick, being the sweet man he is, rode the 40-minute train out to the airport and walked me to security. The actual plane ride was full of interesting people, I thought it would be all business people, but the 20-something girl next to me, who weighed maybe 120lbs, took up more room than me. She, at one point, was spread eagle with her foot on my side. The guy across the aisle from me took off his shoes and socks to really enjoy this hour long plane ride, wtf.

I lost my shit really bad twice, so that was not as awesome. Need to get my emotional side under control stat. So I started a journal, maybe if I pour all my emo crap into that I won’t feel the need to be a human fountain. We shall see.

I do want to take a moment to thank everyone: to those friends and family who have heard my pathetic whining and let me vent. And to my mother, who has helped me tremendously with Mollie and Evie. Who got me started in yoga and has been an ear when I can’t shut up. And finally to my husband who is putting up with more than I’m sure he ever intended to from me. I know it is also hard for him, I mean, who doesn’t want to be around this.

Last night I was fortunate enough to tag along with my friend Tia (Craig scored some free tickets) to the Janet Jackson concert. I was so glad I went. I had so much fun. She played all her hits including my favorites, Again, Nasty and If. Tia and I were dancing fools and the energy of the show was awesome. Between sets she played clips of her old TV show appearances, some old photos and clips from her movies, including one of my favorite scenes from Poetic Justice. Yeah, it was a pretty short concert, but I had to work the next day and she played everything I loved, so I was happy. The best moment though was If. I clearly remember trying to learn this choreography from the video in front of my mirror at home. I can only imagine what I looked like! She replicated exactly the dance from the video. Crazy.
Anyway, if you couldn’t tell, I had a great fair experience this year, complete with a veggie corn dog!

It was a fantastic weekend. period.

On Friday, we went down to the courthouse to get my birth certificate, our passports and the marriage license. It was a very easy, carefree process (other than my mini-breakdown during the name decision). I’ve decided (if you haven’t heard) to keep my last name and that’ll be another article later. After telling the lady who was doing our license that the courthouse should have a bar, we headed to Open Sesame with our witness, Kari and our witness’ husband Derek. After another delicious meal there, Nick and I did some East Village shopping. Later that night the boys went out as Kari and I enjoyed the night outside on their deck. Very nice night.

Saturday night was the Andersen/Leeper couple shower at the Red Monk. It was all themed around our honeymoon in London. The tables had fun facts about us and places where we are going to visit. The food was authentic english pub food and it was amazing. So delicious. We played a little trivia game, I did horribly, Nick did awesome. Then we opened gifts and it was much better with Nick by my side and drink in my hand. We got some great gifts and got to see a lot of people, in fact most everyone was there, so that is awesome. The cake had one of our engagement photos on it and it was a very yummy cake. Everything was totally us and we really appreciate all the planning that Nancy, Connie, Marsha and Kari did.

Here are the photos from me & mom

I just really wanted to tell everyone THANK YOU for making my 30th the greatest birthday ever!

I’m now 30 and one day old. Still loving life! Here is how I spent my 30th birthday:

My celebrating started on Friday, I took the day off and met up with Grandma & Grandpa for lunch and then headed to Williamsburg to the Coach outlet. Yep, found a cute bag(s)! Got back into town, got flowers from Mom & Tim, went shoe shopping and hung out with Drea, Tia & Kari.

Saturday, woke up to a doorbell and flowers outside the door from The Leepers. Had lunch with the fam (Tim, Mom & Chad) at Manhattan Deli, delicious. Then I headed to my spa day that Kari planned, it was amazing. We got our own room and Kari brought awesome snacks. We (Kari, Tia, Drea & Jen) all got different services. I got a wonderful massage and an hour long pedicure. It was great hanging out and getting pampered. After the spa we headed to Derek & Kari’s house for cake and drinks. Kari got me, of course, a fantastic champagne cake. And then the boys, who just got back from Omaha, joined us and we heard about their very amazing and inspiring weekend. Then off to dinner, to my fav, Dish and I was a little turned off at first by the loud music and weird standing-up crowd, but after a drink I was singing along to Pure Prairie League too. Had a great dinner with Craig & Tia, Ando & Jen, Derek & Kari and then went to Good Sons to finish off the night, met up with Brother and his date. Headed home to find flowers and a balloon from Dad & Brenda. And that ended my birthday. A relaxing, fun and perfect Nicole weekend!

Side note: Nick was of course the amazing boyfriend, the minute he got back into town Saturday he made my birthday fudge, surprised me with awesome jewelry, a trip to Kansas City and a hilarious card.

I can’t even begin to express the amount of shock I’m in that we are in mid May. I kept thinking, oh I’ll do that later, I have plenty of time and the BAM I’m less than two months away from the wedding. Oh…my…God! However, on the positive side to that, I’m only two months away from marrying this guy! So, I’ll take the little stress I have now and try to enjoy the moment.

With that all said, a lot of things have been going on. We are completely booked every weekend (except one) until the wedding. April was super fun and super short. The best thing was the trip to Minnesota to go shopping with some ladies in my life. Also, Nick and I took some very basic ballroom dances, which both of us really enjoyed. Who knew?

So far, May has brought some awesome events. We attended the ICADV Gala again this year, Nick bet on a golf excursion in the silent auction, but didn’t win. We celebrated all the May birthdays on my mom’s side. I had a mini-work bridal shower at Flying Mango and I had a mini-dad’s side shower at Centro, both were very awesome and very nice. Finally this weekend was Nick’s bachelor party and Mother’s day. Below is more of a break down on some of these events, with the corresponding pictures.

MOA Shopping Adventure.
Call us crazy, but 10 of us all headed to Bloomington to go shopping, particularly for those who didn’t have dresses for the wedding. 6 of us piled into Jan’s van. Lex and Deb drove up separate and Kari and Andie flew in from Illinois. This is where I get a little teary-eyed… it is truly amazing the love everyone has for Nick and I. And doing all these extraordinary things, it is so touching and I couldn’t be more happy and thankful. I’m truly grateful and blessed. And I think one of the greatest part of this wedding is bringing everyone we care about together and getting to hang out and spend time with everyone…I’m really going to miss that.

Ok, I digress…back to the MOA weekend. So, after getting slightly lost on our way there, we met up with the whole gang at the mall for dinner. At first we were going to eat at this Mexican restaurant and took photos in front of it, but then changed our minds and went to a Bar & Grill spot. Which was really good, or I was super hungry because it was around 9pm before we ate. Mom nearly died. After dinner we went back to the hotel and prepared for Saturday’s shopping. We got up fairly early and ate the pretty decent breakfast. Made a plan to all meet in the front of Macy’s and headed off. 5 minutes into Macy’s…5 minutes…Jan, Mom & Jen made jewelry purchases. We met up with the whole gang and the trying on dresses began. It was so much fun for me to watch. I really got to see Andie and Jen trying on stuff and they were finding such cute things. Jen (who already had a dress) found one she liked a lot better. Mom found a just a cute random dress. After Macy’s we all split up to meet back up at lunch. During the split up, Kari realized her wallet was missing. Hoping it was back at the hotel, we (kari, andie and I) headed back there. After some scary moments we eventually found it in Lexie’s car. Thank goodness! When we did find it, it was time for lunch, so we all headed to the food court. Refueled and split up again, some peeps headed to Ikea, I just traveled the mall looking for bargains. Then we all met up for dinner. Mind you that was seven hours of pure shopping. And everyone was pretty successful. Kari got a dress, Andie got a dress, Lexie got a dress, Joy got a dress, Mom got an ashtray, Dee got some accessories and I ended up with a purse, a ring and a pair of jeans (dee also got me a awesome ring)…I think I bought the less of everyone, go figure. We went to dinner at Ciao Bella and it was super good. Afterwards we did a little fashion show at our hotel room. It was a great weekend and being with everyone made it so special for me.

May Birthdays.
My mom’s side is really fertile in August/September. We have a lot of May birthdays. We were particularly celebrating Becca’s and Ella’s. We headed to Norwalk, had a pizza & salad dinner, played cards. Kim showed off her “cupcakes” and we hung out. And the twins were a riot.

Mother’s Day.
Dee put on a Mexican fiesta for all the mothers. It was super yummy, I love my mexican food. Mom showed up with cute, short, straight hair. LOVE IT. And Dee had the idea of all the mother’s get to wear the sombrero to get into the spirit of things.