Believe it or not I remembered to take a few pictures this weekend.

I have so many pictures to go through before I can get them all up on the Flickr, once I do if you see anything you'd like let me know and I can get you the bigger file, but I like to edit photos before I post them. most of our friends are blue eyed girls, so we get a lot of red eye.

The first pictures I've gone through are my pictures, and though I have none from the day of, I have some good ones from the days before and after that really remind me how much fun the whole weekend was.

I love this first picture of Murph, because it so clearly paints a picture of what life is like when we are busy at home. If Murph isn't getting our full attention, his tiny little brain never makes the jump that we just don't want to play with him, he thinks we just aren't interested in the particular baby he is trying to play with. So, one by one, he pulls all of his babies out of his toy box and arranges them around himself until someone notices.

Be careful what you wish for, Murphy might have been happier when we were ignoring him than when we were dressing him up in this outrageous bikini that josh and Mak picked up while they were out shopping for Mak's tux.

This was a scene I saw over and over again all weekend long. Everyone was so happy to see each other, especially those friends for whom these visits are rare.

Gina's so pretty... something about that glow...

Hey Ladies! And by ladies I don't mean Suz, Jill and Heather. I mean my rack. Yowza!

Micah, Josh and myself. My new family.

Sometimes when a picture is too fuzzy to look good, but too good to delete (like this one of Frannie, Jill and Suz trying to duck out) I'll put it through an effect filter. I use picnik because it's cheap, very user friendly, and kind of brilliant, actually.

That's what I'm talking about.

No wait, that's what I'm talking about.

How I wish this had turned out a little more in focus.

Sunday night, when almost everyone had gone Josh and I joined Sameera and Sauqib at Tsuki to celebrate Saquib's birthday. They have a fantastic pre fixe on Sunday nights, I really enjoyed this sort of Japanese-style fondue where we cooked our own fish, shrimp and scallops in bubbling brown butter. Yum, serious yum.

Chicago is cold, but LA is warm. That is why Maria bequeathed to me her fuzzy, warm faux fur hat. LOVE IT!!!

On Monday Josh and I were running around downtown completing our paperwork with the state of Illinois and Cook county to make sure we are for real married when suddenly it was lunch time. Josh, knowing my affinity for hot dogs Chicago style recommended a little joint called Mr Beef. Though a hot dog sounded good, I figured it was time to try a regional favorite a hot beef sandwich.

Revelation.

i am not joking, best sandwich I've ever had in my entire life, and I loooove sandwiches, I eat a lot of them. Hot tender beef, giardiniera, lots of jus, chewy, just-the-right-amount-of-wet bread. Oh my god, I just made my mouth water typing that sentence. Colorado might have tamale and actual honest to god good Mexican food, but we have no such thing as the hot beef sandwich.

The best shot of Mr Beef's "elegant dining room."

Jenna (Josh's mom) brought a ton of the flowers from the wedding over to our home Sunday morning, and now lurking in every corner are little pots of bright lilies, roses, irises and carnations. Lovely.

I've been pretty sick all week. I woke up on Tuesday morning, headed out to work, packed up my work computer and a bunch of data and promptly headed back home again. No need to get everyone else at work sick, and after taking a few days off for wedding stuff I had plenty to catch up on from home.

One of the benefits of working from home today, was that I was home for the delivery of our first major joint purchase.

We bought a big ass TV. We were going to purchase a modest TV, but this one is the 50 inch version of the 37 inch TV we were looking at, at 36% off. Which made it impossible to go with the small TV. It is huge. And I like it.

One thing we did this weekend- all the eating- we did really, really well.

Bin 36
Bin Wine Cafe
Catering by Bonsoiree
Tsuki

And that's just dinner. We also had breakfast at S&G and brunch at our house- I made a bunch of quiche and the baked french toast that everyone loves (just don't ask what's in it, you don't want to know).

You'd think we'd be tired of eating at this point, but i spent last night planning our plan of attack for Chicago Restaurant Week, we decided to maximize our adventure with out wiping out our bank accounts we're going to go every night, but order just one pre fixe and one salad. Hopefully this will keep us from getting fat and going broke.

The restaurants we've decided on include:

Farmerie 58
Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab
NoMI
Brasserie Jo
La Sardine
Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House
The Lobby
The Berghoff
Carnivale
Tizi Melloul
The Cape Cod Room

Now we're just saving our pennies. Yum!

Last Saturday Josh and I got married in a little bakery in Wicker Park. It was elegant and casual and sentimental and outrageous all at once. It was the most fun I've ever had and definitely the best day of my life so far.

I have a lot of pictures to share today, they were all taken by our amazing photographer Michele Wayman, whose praises I will never be able to sing enough.

Josh took care of the music and created the best dancing mix on his ipod. We saved a lot of money and had songs we know we love to dance to all night long.

My beautiful Jill gave a very beautiful Jill-speech. My favorite part, "We're the kind of friends who just sit around..."

It's true. We love to sit.

Seriously, I can't get over these pictures. I don' even remember her taking any of them, i just remember dancing and drinking and eating and having fun all night.

How sweet is The Josh? And handsome!

My dear friend Mak preformed the ceremony, and it was perfect.

He nailed it and had us in stitches.

Love it.

There was plenty to drink. I was worried we'd run out, but in fact we have so much left over wine Josh and I may never have to go to the liquor store ever again.

Lest you think we were all on out best behavior...

We were married at Lovely a bake shopon Milwaukee avenue. Brooke and Gina transformed their adorable bakery into the most perfect wedding spot. On top of that they bent over backwards to make sure everything was perfect for the wedding. I didn't have to worry about a thing. If you are looking for somewhere to have a wedding or even a party I can not recommend them highly enough.

And the wedding pies were out of this world.

One thing I don't have a picture of is the food. We had Bonsoiree cater this little shindig, Luke made the most amazing food, people were talking about it for days and Anthony went so far above and beyond any catering responsibilities he might have had. He was not only the catering coordinator, but he made sure I wanted for nothing, emceed the entire evening, and made sure my mom had fun as opposed to worrying about the details.

He was amazing and I would like to buy him a car. Sadly I can't afford that, but I will pass on his card to anyone who might ever need a caterer in Chicago. You will not be disappointed.

Le sigh.

The flawless Sameera took care of my make-up. She is a total pro and she did Suz and Tanya's make-up for their weddings too. I looked amazing if I do say so myself. If you need you make-up done in Denver email me and I'll put you in touch with her.

My handsome dad.

Michele, our photographer, caught Josh and I in the middle of our 30 Rock- Tina Fey shtick.

She also busted us dancing, we snuck away for a minute alone during dinner. At the time I was a little embarrassed, but look at this photo. Amazing.

Again, I didn't notice her take this picture during josh's brother's speech, but it's just awesome.

We also saved a lot of money by buying the flowers at Costco. My mom, Josh's mom and I spent the morning arranging the flowers. Gina tied up the bouquet for me and had it all ready to go. It was just beautiful- also- just $20 for the flowers, the wire and the tape.

Josh and I danced our little dance, my uncle was videoing on the day and this is something I can't wait to see.

The rest of the night was just dancing...

dancing...

and dancing...

It was perfect.

We kicked off the festivities last night with dinner with Gina and Carl. We met them at their hotel and headed out to Bin 36 for supper. The cheese and wine and food were all great, but I think I still prefer the closer, more laid back Bin Cafe in Wicker Park.

It was great to have these friends I see so rarely all to ourselves for a night before everyone else flies in today. It was so much fun and a great start to what is shaping up to be a great weekend. People are trickling in all day today, Josh and I are having dinner tonight with our families and meeting up with the whole gang for drinks later tonight.

Tomorrow is the big day, and I am so excited to spend it surrounded by friends and family. Rest assured if you weren't able to make it you will be missed. Love you.

Sometimes, when Murphy is bored and really, really bad he'll root around in the dirty laundry hamper and find my undies and eat them. Well, he doesn't eat all of them, just part of them, if you catch my drift. He then leaves them on the bed and skulks around shamefully when I get home from work until I yell at him.

Yes, it's gross, but he isn't the only undie eater out there. Dogs are just nasty.

Now fast forward to this morning. I'm at work. I leave my office and head over to the cantina to nuke some water to make some hot tea. One of the downsides of working in an environment like a steel mill is the occasional sexual harassment. This morning it was in the form of some douchebag wolf whistling and giving me he best sleaze ball "how you doin'? Mmmm..." Nasty men are worse than nasty dogs. Seriously? I'm just here to work and heat up the occasional cup of tea.

Unwilling to endure his lecherous gaze for the 4 minutes it would take to bring my water to temperature, I ran out to the bathroom. It was here that I realized that one pair of undies that Murph snacked on escaped detection, made it into the wash, through the dryer, got folded up and put away. Turns out that in my haste to get out of the house in the early morning hours (I get dressed in the dark, so as not to wake Josh) I pulled them on and off I went.

Now I'm wearing crotch-less panties at work in a steel mill.

Speaking nationally, there is so much going on today, and I am honestly, truthfully thrilled, optimistic and hopeful just like everyone else.

But I'm also tired. This weekend was busy, stressful and jam-packed full of last minute wedding to-do's. I had yesterday off, but what should have been one last relaxing day was really an emotional rollercoaster.

Now everything is ready and set to go, and for the rest of the week (the rest of my work week is today, tomorrow and Thursday) I just need to work, sleep and keep from picking at my face.

Tonight we head over to the lawyer's office then back home to clean the house, tomorrow night I'm making half a dozen quiche for Sunday Brunch and then at 4:00 on Thursday the fun begins with the early arrival of my girlfriend Gina and her husband Carl.

For now I'm just going to take a deep breath, sip some tea, and try to actually get some work done at work this week.

Ok. Now I'm excited. For the longest time I was super excited about marrying Josh, but the wedding just seemed kind of stressful and expensive.

I think I've been pretty good about not letting things get out of hand. To date I have not looked at one single bride magazine- who needs the pressure? I caved and I'm having my hair done, but my dress cost less than $200, so I'd like to think that balances out. The guest list got a bit out of control- but our idea of out of control is 50 people, so there's that. There are a few bride-y things that I've taken to which surprise me. We're getting rid of any religious and traditional ceremony elements, but we are still exchanging vows. We're actually dancing a first song dance at the reception, and my dad is walking me down the aisle.

And, drum roll please... I'm wearing a veil.

I know, go figure.

I am all for a non-traditional wedding, but to me that doesn't mean you have to throw everything out and start from scratch, it just means you keep what you like and get rid of what you dislike.

And I like my birdcage veil that I got for $5 on ebay and dyed to just the right off-white with tea I found in our cupboards.

So, yeah. I'm getting married in 8 days and I'm excited.

This morning when I left my house it was -9 °F. NEGATIVE 9 DEGREES.

Fortunately it should warm up next weekend for the wedding, but seriously, NEGATIVE 9 DEGREES.

I've decided to just not think about it. Instead I'll think about how nice it was in Vegas. How warm and sunny; how lovely the blue sky was. Speaking of Vegas...

Se the rest of the pictures from my bachelorette party here.

I really want to post Vegas pictures, and I will. I absolutely will. I am just kind of busy with work right now.

I would have posted some last night, but I was too busy buying a car.

An awesome car.

My new (used) car is a 2007 Prius, and it is tiny and quiet and it kind of feels like driving a computer. I was worried about how it would fare in the snow, but after driving my rear-wheel drive Volvo to Indiana and back, my commute in the blowing snow this morning was actually a piece of cake.

Plus, Josh says I look hot behind the wheel.

I am at absolute maximum red-alert stress levels today. The funny thing is that not one thing that is stressing me out is a bad thing.

I am getting married in 11 days. 11 days. 11 days. I can't stop saying it. I'm excited, I'm ecstatic even, but stressed.

I'm finally starting to get my sea legs at work. I'm in the middle of a good project right now. I'm enjoying working on it and I've even been able to work from home a bit, which is a really good thing because...

My car finally died today. I've been expecting it for a while, thought to be completely honest I hoped it had another year left in it. So I've been working from home and trying to decide what to do. Tow, shop, buy I guess. I've never had to finance a car before, I've always just paid outright, so even though buying a car isn't a bad thing it's just one more thing.

On top of all that I finally got my period this morning. Listen, I was almost seven weeks late, so even though I am sosososososo happy this is all happening before the wedding (am I right?) I am having unbelievable cramps and crazy PMS.

So yeah. Awkward Tuesday.

Barely. It was so fun. So, so much fun. Pictures to follow, but right now I actually have to work at work today.

I have the worst travel luck. Seriously, 2 out of three flights I'v taken in the past two years have been cancelled (snow, mechanical problems, freak flooding). This is a screen cap taken of the flight delay page from the FAA's website.

That's just great.

Despite the terrible weather and snow falling in Chicago I am optimistic that this afternoon I am off to Vegas. Rest assured I will be up to no good.

Last night, after dinner (pork chops in cherry sauce, my man can cook) Josh and I were dancing upstairs in our apartment. Last weekend our dance lesson ended with this instruction from Sarge, the instructor: Dance often, but only for a little while or you'll get frustrated.

Seems fair, so we put on our fancy shoes with our sweat pants, and Josh counted ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, and we practiced dancing for our wedding. Practicing for our wedding turned into a Michael Jackson dance party in our bedroom, both of us busting a move in front of the mirrored closet doors trying to outdo one another, and I had one of those epiphany moments.

This is why I am marrying this man

Just like that. Our dance party turned back into more dancing and next thing two hours had passed. We were laughing and spinning and dancing so hard we didn't notice the time fly, and we certainly weren't frustrated with one another. When we got a glimpse of the clock we hastily split up the tasks, I'll turn down the heat, you walk the dog, I'll shut off the lights, and you fill the humidifier. Dividing and conquering; lickety split we were tucked in and drifting off to sleep.

Josh turned to me and said "tonight was fun, maybe I'll go to yoga with you tomorrow." And when the alarm went of this morning at 5:45 he did. It was like a love letter given form, and it was an unbelievable way to end one day and start the next.

I know those of you who know me thought I'd never get married, and therefore you've been expecting me to get cold feet any day now, but I'm not the one. Josh came home from dinner with a friend last night in a mood. I was doing my own thing- sipping Nyquil, eating Chinese takeout, watching CSI- so I just ignored it. He went upstairs to read while I found out who the killer was (it was the stewardess, duh).

When I joined him upstairs to hit the sack he was still kind of snippy. Since we hadn't spent the evening together, I knew it wasn't about me, but it took a little prodding to get to the heart of the matter. When he finally spilled the beans, I, being the sensitive, loving woman I am, teased him about it and suggested a possible solution to this problem.

For the next three weeks we date other people just to be sure. He wasn't too jazzed about this idea, but at least he went to sleep laughing.

Anyone can send a card, but it takes a special kind of friend to make their own birthday greeting from an inappropriate picture taken at a friends bachelorette party and post it on the internet.

Josh's mom Jenna and her partner Ed are big on ballroom dancing so when they were over for Christmas we asked them for some tips for dancing at the wedding. Not only did they give us some tips, they gave us a dancing lesson with their dancing instructor.

We dipped.

We spun.

We spun.

We spun.

There was a lot of spinning.

It was fun, but I was starting to get sick. By the time we got home I was full on sick and I'm just now coming out of my NyQuil coma.

Did I say I'd post about the wedding once a week or once a month? Must have been once a week, but either way I really haven't been posting much at all because it has been really simple, and there hasn't been much to say. I have a feeling that I'll be posting more frequently about the wedding now because... the wedding is in three weeks.

I know, right?

All the big stuff is taken care of, now it seems like there are a thousand little things to do. Starting today. Josh and I are heading downtown to get our marriage license. SCARY. Tomorrow we're heading out to the suburbs for a super secret mission that I'll probably tell you all about anyway after the fact, especially if I get photos.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Just about everything. I mean, come on, I live in Chicago now, how did that even happen? I'm engaged, I work in a steel mill, 2008 was the year my whole life changed.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I sort of kept my resolutions. Well, my resolution. I resolved to eat dinner before going out drinking. What can I say, I used to drink too much and eat too little. Now I eat too much before drinking too much. Progress.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Beautiful, miraculous Emma was born. She is truly the most adorable baby I've ever seen, and I'm so sad I don't live closer so I could tickles her and give her the business more often.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes.

5. What countries did you visit?
I haven't been anywhere for ages.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Some savings in the bank and the willpower to work out regularly.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 20- the day Josh and I had our first date
September 18- the day Josh asked me to marry him

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I got a few great offers and accepted one great job.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Self control. My ass is huge. My metabolism has really let me down.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope. Bless.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My wedding dress. Super mega hot shoes for the wedding. A veil I picked up for $5 on ebay.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
There was a lot to celebrate this year. Emma's birth. Tanya and Suzie's beautiful weddings. COD FISH is always a reason to celebrate as was Jilly's new job. Sarah finished renovations on her new house and Nicki and Chip got engaged.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The majority of voters in California. George W. Bush. Rod Blagojevich.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Sadly booze. But that's just because we've been buying liquor for the wedding. And because we drink a lot.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Moving, the election.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
All of the songs in Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Josh and I watch and sing along all the time.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? So, so much happier.
b) thinner or fatter? So, so much fatter.
c) richer or poorer? Very slightly richer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Saving. I suck at saving money and I really, really need to buy a new car.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Spending money on cheese and wine. And cheese.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Eating, drinking and playing games with Josh and his family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Very much yes.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
I'm quite fond of Lost, Chuck and Heroes. Go NBC.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hating people takes too much energy.

24. What was the best book you read?
The Time Travelers Wife for about the thousandth time.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Pandora. If you haven't yet get thee to Pandora.com right away.

26. What did you want and get?
My job, my Josh.

27. What did you want and not get?
A smaller ass.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
I wasn't new, just new to me; The Graduate. Greatest movie I've ever seen.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 28 and celebrated with my friends drinking Moscow mules and watching a burlesque show.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I'm satisfied.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
On the Weekdays: Steel mill chic.
On the weekends: If it still fits, I'll wear it.

32. What kept you sane?
Skype. It made dating long distance doable and missing my mom bearable.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Olivia Wilde. She is so pretty watching her on House makes my face hurt.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Prop 8. Seriously, what the fuck happened there?

35. Who did you miss?
God, everyone. Jill, Suz, Kate, Mak, Tanya, Sarah, Ivory and Emma, Sammie, Kassie, My parents sooo much, Jill, Jill, Jill.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Josh. Duh.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Risk is so worth it. Nothing good ever happened to me until I put my feelings all on the table.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
And with a love like that, you know you should be glad