Ridin’ in Style

Things definitely got a little crazy last night in the Windy City!

After sufficiently stuffing our bellies during the progressive dinner that had us eating from 1 to 7 p.m., we drove to my friend Kristen’s apartment in downtown Chicago to kick off the nighttime activities.

We walked into an apartment that was fully decked out in bachelorette party decor.

My sister made decorative wine glasses and pins for everyone which looked adorable!

After poppin’ open a couple of bottles of champagne, we started the lingerie party and I opened frilly lil’ numbers from all of my friends.

Then it was time for games!

Before leaving for Chicago, my sister asked Ryan a series of questions and I had to guess his answers!

For every one I got wrong, I had to take a Jello shot. For every one I got right, I had to give out a Jello shot to the person of my choice.

At first I avoided the yellow Jello shots, thinking they were lemon. When I learned that they were pineapple… well, that was a whole ‘nother story! 😀

I actually did pretty well guessing Ryan’s answers, but was stumped a few times as well.

It was such a fun game!

After enjoying a few more drinks and gettin’ a little silly, it was time to hit the town!

 

Little did I know that our transportation to the downtown bars would be so swanky…

My mom and sister made arrangements for our group to ride around in a limo for the night! Safety in style. 😉

We made stops at two different bars, the first of which was filled with people who were bustin’ moves on the dance floor. We weren’t about to let a good opportunity for some dancin’ pass us by…

Our next stop took us to a bar called John Barleycorn.

 

Apparently I attack my friends to show them how much I love them. 😉

At John Barleycorn, more dancing ensued, though I’m pretty sure this particular bar wasn’t really a dancin’ kinda bar. Well, it was a dancin’ kina place last night fo sho!

My camera’s battery died about halfway through our time at John Barleycorn, so the rest of the evening went undocumented and failed to capture our late night pig out on big pieces of pizza, including a pizza topped with macaroni and cheese!

We got to bed around 4:30 a.m. with bellies full of pizza and leftover cupcakes from the progressive dinner.

This morning we woke up and hung out at my friend Leah’s apartment for a bit before my sister and I had to head to the airport to catch our flight back to Orlando.

It was sad to leave all my girlfriends behind, but I’m so excited to see them in two months for the big day. (Michaela, Carrie, Leah, Kristen and Leslie, thank you all for making this weekend unbelievable. I felt so loved and grateful for such a great group of girlfriends. Love you all!)

Our flight to Orlando was quite turbulent, but that didn’t stop both of us from sleeping for the majority of our time in the air. We were pretty exhausted!

Once back on the ground, Ryan picked us up and took us back to our apartment where the three of us enjoyed made homemade pizza, using the 15-minute pizza crust recipe we love.

Now we’re relaxin’ on the couch before hopefully getting into bed a little early. I don’t want to fall asleep at my desk at work tomorrow!

G’night all. 😀

Back to Childhood

One thing that’s great about being an early riser and waking up before everyone else?

Ample time to blog! 😀

I am blogging from the comfy couch of one of my very best friends from elementary school. How surreal!

And We’re Off!

After work yesterday, my sister drove to Orlando to meet up with me and head to the airport to fly to Chicago for the weekend for Part Two of my bacherlorette party!

We said a sad goodbye to Ryan and Sadie before heading to our gate. We were able to sit next to each other (in the second-to-last row on the plane) and spend the entire flight gabbing away and entertaining ourselves with random activities.

First, we attempted to make origami chairs by following instructions we found in the Southwest Airlines magazines.

No such luck. We even got the guy sitting next to us and a girl across the aisle into it, but none of us could figure it out. It’s harder than it looks, trust me!

We didn’t let that get us down though and took our paper-folding talents onto a task we knew we could accomplish.

Remember these?

We used to make these little “fortune tellers” all the time in grade school!

Apparently flying to our childhood home of Chicago makes us want to relive our childhood!

Palatine

Once we arrived in the Windy City, my wonderful friend Leah picked us up at the airport and drove us to my friend Kristen’s house in Palatine, a northwest suburb of Chicago where we all grew up.

We were greeted by yummy food, drinks and an adorable bachelorette party weekend itinerary!

 

As you can see, we have a busy and fun weekend ahead of us!

A scavenger hunt + a progressive dinner + a night out in Chicago! Woop, woop!

After two of my other best friends, Carrie and Michaela, joined us at Kristen’s house, we spent the night catching up, reminiscing, talking and laughing about the bazillions of crazy memories we have together. I’ve been friends with all of these girls since elementary school, so just being in their presence makes me so unbelievably happy.

Kristen’s dad made all of us the most delicious mud slides to drink which tasted like alcoholic milkshakes and were delicious! Along with mah drink, I enjoyed lots of snacks, including multiple chocolate chip cookies and excessive amounts of Pringles.

It really did feel like childhood again! 😀

Now I think I hear some people stirring! I’m off to get ready for a fun day of exploring my childhood hometown, eating and drinking lots of food and partying it up with some of my favorite people in the entire world!

Catcha later!

(Side note: Ryan called me this morning saying he felt like quite the celebrity when he was walking Sadie this morning and one of you amazing  readers ran by him saying “I know you! I read your girlfriend’s blog!” I love you guys. Thanks for making Ryan feel awfully special. 😉 )

Boys Will Be Girls… Bachelorette Fun: Day Two

The bachelorette party fun continues!!!

Sorry I was out of commission yesterday and missed posting about our Bachelorette Party Weekend Day Two festivities. We’ve been busy packing a lot of fun into our long weekend!

As far as our main activity on Friday night is concerned, many of you guys guessed right.

Friday night’s bachelorette party fun led us to The Baton Club, a drag show in downtown Chicago!

We had such a great time before, during and after the show.

Our day yesterday began with an awesome breakfast casserole, made by my friends Ashley and Merri using a recipe they found from Cooking Light. (They know me so well. 🙂 )

It was delicious and I ate several servings.

Once our bellies were sufficiently stuffed, we walked a little over a mile to spend the afternoon at the beach on Lake Michigan. Though I absolutely adore Florida, it’s so nice to be somewhere where you don’t instantly start sweating profusely the moment you step outside. The weather here is warm, not too hot, and absolutely gorgeous.

Lunch

After fun at the beach (yes, we even brought our own boom box!), we walked home, stopping at Jimmy John’s for lunch along the way.

I ordered a turkey unwich with Provolone cheese and a giant pickle.

Loved it!

Once home, we yet again broke into the box of peanut butter bars that my friend Leah made for all of us. They are seriously addicting and so, so delicious. They’re healthy too, and are made with peanut butter, whole grain cereal, raisins and cinnamon. I will definitely post the recipe to share with you guys when I get a chance because I have a feeling you’ll swoon over ‘em too!

Friday Night Fun

According to the itinerary created by my friends, we were to be ready for some more fun at 6 p.m. When I walked downstairs after showering and getting ready with the girls, I was greeted by a gorgeous set up and more bachelorette decorations!

We popped some champagne and my friends threw me a lingerie party. I got some super cute gifts!

The Bachelorette Gang!

We sipped our champagne while enjoying some more bachelorette games before heading out to Sushi Samba, a sushi/Brazilian restaurant within a block or two of the drag show we’d be seeing.

Dinner

We enjoyed some wine and cocktails, my favorite being a cucumber martini that tasted fresh and slightly sweet.

For my entree, I ordered sea bass skewers with a side of grilled asparagus that was prepared in a balsamic glaze with sesame seeds. It was really delicious and I loved the taste of the char from the grill. Yum!

Dinner Gift from the Groom

As we were enjoying our meals, a waiter came to our table with a special delivery from someone very special… Ryan!

Ryan had arranged for us to enjoy a bottle of champagne on him, which was so thoughtful and definitely made me smile.

After finishing off our champagne, we scurried off to The Baton Club for a drag show at 10:30 p.m. We just made it in time!

Unfortunately photos were not allowed, but we did take a picture with one of the performers after the show concluded (if you’re looking at the below picture, she’s standing to my left). We were so impressed with how pretty she looked!

The show got out around midnight and we took our party to the Hangge Uppe, a large bar with a bunch of separate rooms with different kinds of music playing.

Our little group was like Dance Party U.S.A. We were tearin’ it up!

We left the club all sweaty and came home to enjoy some late night snacks before eventually making it to bed… at 6 a.m. It was one heck of a loooong night!

So much fun!

I’ll be back in a bit with a recap of today’s event… the big HALF MARATHON!!! 😀

Savin’ Them ‘Gs

I’m sure you’ve heard people refer to money as “g’s” before, right?

If Only My Blog Paid Me Like This...

Apparently I’m not well-versed in pop-culture slang, because I never knew what exactly “g’s” stood for when referencing money. Just in case you’re a super-blonde like me and never knew, it stands for “grand” like $1 grand = $1,000. Somebody, somewhere just rolled their eyes into the back of their head (Likely Ryan 😉 ).

I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson… Or will forgive me for telling you something you already knew and thought was totally obvious.

Annnyway, I have always been a g-saver and constantly look for great deals and ways to save my money.

A couple of months ago my friend Merri sent me a text message that changed my life. (Okay, not really, but it was still a good little nugget of information that she shared with me.)

Did you know you can get a polish change instead of a pedicure for $10?

Nooo. Actually I didn’t know this.

Ever since I got that text, I haven’t splurged on a full-on pedicure. I’ve opted for a simple polish change on my toes, which still looks great, but costs less than half the price of a pedicure at most nail salons. Score!

Polish Change Lunch Break

Aside from the price, a wonderful thing about a polish change is that you can often get in and get out of the nail salon in 20 minutes. That means you may even be able to cram it into your lunch break.

That’s exactly what I did today. I managed to save even more time by bringing my own polish since I often take an inordinate amount of time selecting the perfect color.

Self-Timer at a Stop Light! What, What!?

O.P.I Shade: A True Aboriginal

I was in and out and on with my life in less than 20 minutes! Sch-weet!

Lunch

Since I have a long day ahead of me involving a flight to Chicago and our first night of bachelorette party fun, I wanted to be sure to enjoy a filling and nutritious lunch.

I opted for my favorite combination of noodles, Barilla mushroom and garlic marinara sauce, steamed broccoli and freshly chopping spinach.

Noodles + Sauce + Veggies

Apparently My Camera Focuses Only On the Most Nutritious Parts of My Bites...

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Noodle Boooowl

I also ate a Colby-Jack string cheese on the side that went undocumented.

Tonight

I am an antsy-pants  girl this afternoon! I just want my weekend of fun to start NOW!

Tonight I will be arriving in Chicago around 8 p.m. and we’ll be kicking off this wonderful bachelorette party weekend by doing Lord knows what. No one is telling me anything about the whole weekend, so I’m looking forward to having a good time at the hands of my wonderful friends. 🙂

I’ll try to keep the ol’ blog updated as much as possible while I’m in Chicago.

See ya from the Windy City! 😀

Gourmet Nutrition Giveaway

Don’t forget to head on over to Jessica’s blog to see who won the Gourmet Nutrition Giveaway!

Of Possible Interest

• Are You Addicted to Exercise? Signs of Exercise Addiction (FitSugar.com)
• Can Surfing the Internet Help You Lose Weight? (Time.com)
• Top 10 Healthiest Vegetables (MyHealthPassion.Wordpress.com)
• Fun Facts about Peanut Butter & a Recipe for PB&J French Toast (ImAnOkie.com)

Question of the Afternoon

What did you do for your bachelorette party? If you’re not married, what would you want to do for your bachelorette party?