Let's go to the mall!

Big adventure day today.

I drove to work in Evanston and after a day of 5-year-olds I headed a bit northwest to Old Orchard Mall. I made my stop swift, not because it was raining or because there are enormous goldfish at the pond there (seriously, those could eat someone!). I got down to business at the mall, here's what I did:

• Clinique Bonus - A wonderful double-bubble. I got my favorite moisturizer and sunblock with a sweet bag (yes, I have like 12 other sweet bags, but I'll eventually figure out a use for most of them) full of goodies. This Bonus included a C (for Clinique or Criner!) keychain and a teeny-tiny sunblock.
  
• Free Birthday Gifts at Sephora and The Body Shop. I got a "Happy Birthday Beautiful" Philosophy bottle of soap (aww, shucks!) and a sweet grapefruit scrub for getting all the diabetes-related stickies off my belly. Just for turning 31!
• I headed a little further north to Wilmette to Bed Bath and Beyond. My MOM helped me figure out some household purchases including stools for eating at. B is still working on putting those together and they might not be The Stools of Our Dreams, but that's for another day. Sidenote: It's funny to watch B put things together.
  
• I also got a new shower curtain and a tablecloth to use on a project with my MOM this weekend.
  
• I also stopped in at a groc - who doesn't love visiting a foreign grocery store?!? (I love the grocery. I used to work within walking distance of two groceries and spend probably half my total breaktime from work visiting one or both of them.) I got a red pepper, some ground pork from a meat man, a bottle of Rex Goliath chardonnay for dinner.

Now I am home. And very happy. It's a pretty nice treat to get some goodies and some much-needed-house-stuff, right?

That's my Clinique favorite. I love it.

Birthday fun

Today I turn 31! Yikes!

10 years ago I went to Vegas where I sat by the Paris pool, drank from an Eiffel Tower jug, won a little bit at blackjack and was serenaded by an accordion-playing fella. Excellent!

Today I'm spending time with my niece (it's our usual Tuesday arrangement) - we're going to the splash area at the park, doing some shopping at Target and possibly picnicking along the way. This evening B and I are dining al fresco (how fancy!) at a restaurant we've walked by approximately 6,341 times but never eaten at. We have a Groupon and wine is half-off so this counts as our big celebration dinner for Loyola nursing and for my 31st. Awesome.

Work and stats are keeping me very busy, but I've got some big plans for the rest of this week. Hopefully these won't be thwarted by my new ice cream & sorbet making machine...

• Thursday after work I'm off to the mall. I work in Evanston, which is apparently close to a big mall where I can claim my birthday prizes from a few stores, hit a Bed Bath & Beyond for some household goods and maybe some just-for-fun shopping too.
  
• Saturday we pick up our produce and then B heads to work. That leaves me with the apartment to organize all by myself. This is huge -- I need to carve out a space for my school stuff, clean and get a bit more unpacked. We are still couch-less but we are making progress.
  
• My parents come to visit July 3 for Cubs-Sox for B and my dad, and fun for my mom and I. I've got to scout out what we'll do with our afternoon. Maybe some thrifting, definitely a crafty project (old headboard from garage sale + new fabric + staple gun = beautiful headboard for me!) and a stop at Amy's Candy Bar!

I'll post more - with an updated photo - later today hopefully.

A Day OFF?!?

Thursday I've got an entire day off. A day without class or work or any scheduled obligations. Holy Cow! What shall I do?

• Unpack more so I can pass along boxes on Friday to a family from my preschool class -- hooray for reuse and fewer boxes here.
• Write a few thank you notes (very belated) to awesome folks, including the California State Park Ranger who hooked us up with a marvelous campsite on our honeymoon.
• Do some Stats homework or studying.
• Cook! On the agenda: granola, muffins, salad, radish top soup. We also just started a few potted plants in the backyard. I'll water 'em so our tomatoes, jalapenos, basil and petunias flourish.
• Sleep a little late. Drink coffee from a mug, not a to-go cup.
• Clean the fridge and bathroom. Newsflash to B & me: Even our new clean apartment needs a little love in the way of cleaning.
  
• Pack for this weekend's camping and graduation party fun.

Sounds busy, but I promise I'll find time for a doze, a stroll to Amy's Candy Bar (a new shop in our neighborhood that sells chocolate seashells and gummy butterflies!), and maybe even a summer pedicure.

Another best Chicago day!

Did you know that there are multiple Best Chicago Days each year?

There are. Allow me:

• Sunshine, cool breeze.
• Outdoor seating at bar.
• Wonderful friends.

After an excellent baby brunch shower (brilliant idea!) we spent time with two Chicago-DC friends at Daily Bar & Grill. We chatted, laughed, caught up and ate guacamole. We had an awesome waitress (who brought us sunblock!) and an awesome afternoon.

Last weekend my parents came to town and we enjoyed a similar lunch-dinner then.

We've done this before -- and it's always sensational. Thank you Chicago -- these afternoons make you awesome.

Deadlines!

Our first houseguest is coming this weekend -- Thursday even! This means the box room or the pilot (pile-it) room needs to transform into a sleep-able place.

Surely this can happen.

B and I discussing mattress-purchasing tonight as we walk to the Cubs game (and pick up dinner along the way to bring in -- totally allowed. Really!) and making a decision. Our houseguest might have a box headboard, boxes for a bedside table and a box-lined path to the door, but she'll have a place to sleep.

In other new, so far stats is fine. I bring a lot of busywork for myself to do during class -- four hours of sitting in a classroom after a 9 hour workday! Yikes. I've got just 12 class meetings to go now and I'm taking that number very seriously. All my online homework and quizzes for stats are due July 25, so that's another deadline. I've already aced three homework assignments. Yay!

Go Cubs!

Home: it's where we live, actually

After work yesterday, B and I headed to the almighty Ikea in Schaumburg. Secret tip: Ikea is not crowded on Friday nights. We got some goodies: boxes, a replacement to a closet organizer that didn't survive the move, some kitchen stuff to make our shelves usable, a stepstool and a bathroom rug that appears to not clash with the bathroom floors. As I watch B put an Ikea shelf together (he doesn't have my Swedish know-how with furniture assembly) I actually feel like this is home. Sure, we've got no couch, several unpacked boxes, a camping chair used as indoor furniture and very little sensibly organization happening. But it's awesome here. We've had a few visitors already and tomorrow my parents come to check the place out and bring some garage sale finds to spiff this place up. I just did a little unpacking and it's possible our place will be ready for the beautiful DC duo of Cindy and Erin who are visiting next weekend. We're getting closer to making a decision regarding the couch situation, definitely have a workspace (for B and me - schoolwork, bills, blogging, B's work from home, etc...) and our kitchen already feels like the happiest place I've ever chopped an onion. Before next weekend's visitors we have a checklist though, and in usual Mandasaurus fashion, I'll share it:

• Clear out the extra bedroom so a bed can fit.
• Get a bed(!?!?) for our bedroom.
• Switch out our old mattress into the extra room, new mattress in our room.
• Or just get/borrow an air mattress.
• Find a shower curtains that looks right in the bathroom. (Possibly at Target.)
• Buy baby shower presents -- Cindy and Erin are visiting for a baby shower! My niece and I have a date to go to Babies R Us (the most confusing store ever) on Tuesday.
• Work
• School! OH! I passed the placement test so I'm now enrolled in a slightly miserable stats class. Bad news: It's stats, with an odd, chatty, joke-telling professor. Major bad news: It's stats. Good news: Jokes, oddness, online homework, classroom where eating is allowed, and only 14 total class meetings. That's 13 to go, if you're counting.
• Cooking - We've realized that our summer schedule -- with me working and in school, and B working a lot with a big project -- leaves us without much cooking time in the evenings. I'm planning to fix that by using weekends to bulk up on food choices for the week. That means Sunday night will involve pizza-dough making, muffin-baking and such.
  
• Getting excited about Loyola. This is on my to-do list for the rest of summer. Whenever I'm feeling frustrated with cooking, stats, hauling myself around far north Chicago, etc... I think about starting nursing school at Loyola. I'm so excited. It'll be 16 busy months, but completely awesome too. I've been working toward this for two years, and I haven't wanted to turn back once. I get emails from Loyola ABSN people now and it just makes my heart sing. It's not just awesome to have a plan for this whole becoming-a-nurse idea, but it's awesome to have an excellent program too. Go Ramblers!
  

Summeresolutions

Yes, I've made that into one word: Summeresolutions.

And I've got some. This is my summer before nursing school, after all. (Getting used to the fact that I am going to nursing school in August is this amazing, beautiful addition to my life. Me - a nursing student! Yes! Talk about working toward something... two years of science classes! I'm so happy!)

Here are my resolutions for this summer:

1. Run. I plan to sign up for the Fleet Feet Women's 10K -- it's a great run and B always comes along to watch the start. Because I'm so athletic, and because he likes to sight-see at this very womanly run. I'm really excited to do some running at my new park - Winnemac, just a few blocks away with windy paths, a track and a prairie-type area.
   
2. Enjoy Chicago like crazy. Fests, walks, the Brandi Carlile concert at Millennium Park this week, and even a picnic at Promontory Point!
3. Cook! Tomorrow is our first produce pick-up and I'm excited to use our goods for good stuff.
4. Math. Yes, I'm taking a stats class this summer, as long as I rock out my placement exam tomorrow or manage to sweet talk someone into letting me in.
   
5. Make our new place excellent. We've got houseguests coming mid-June so that gives me a good deadline for making this place un-crazy. We're getting boxes unpacked, stuff stored in our space and do a little beautifying. It wouldn't hurt for us to pretty up our lives a little -- an Ikea run and some art-posting are on the agenda too. Yikes!
6. Work. I'm working this summer to save up some extra dough for when I'm in school. Additionally I'm going to sign up for the Y's 100 Days of Summer to earn a few Y-prizes and work out in the air-conditioning as needed. Hooray.

That sounds like enough... back to studying math for me!

I will keep our standards reasonable and use the Hearst Castle as inspiration for my new apartment. :)