Taste of Chicago

Tuesday, Murray and I both had a day off work so we decided to head downtown to see what all the talk was about. Ever since we moved here we have heard everyone talking about the "Taste" and how great it is. Since we will hopefully be living somewhere closer to home this time next year, we thought we better see for ourselves this summer or else we may miss our chance. Murray and I couldn't believe all that we saw & definitely gained a few pounds in the process!



The Taste of Chicago basically consists of tons of restaurants throughout the city all coming together to set up booths in Grant Park. The area is really neat because it is all right by the Buckingham Fountain. You buy tickets and then you can get food (full portions or samples) with your tickets. There is live music, some carnival rides, lots of yummy food, and tons of people. You wouldn't think on a Tuesday night there could be so many people out, but we were wrong!



Murray tried a boneless rib sandwich, a bowl of crawdaddies, and homemade frenchfries, and I had roasted corn on the cob, a shrimp skewer, chocolate dipped strawberries, and we split a funnel cake. I have to admit that I now understand what everyone has been talking about! We had a blast just walking around and seeing all of the different food and the different people. Haha. Not to mention, neither of us minded sampling a lot!

This weekend we are heading home to spend time with my family at Pickwick and with his in Huntingdon! Other than the approximate 20 hours in the car, we can't wait! Definitely check back for pictures from our hopefully sun & fun filled weekend! Happy 4th of July!!!

Slow Post Week...

So I know I haven't posted much this week. Really nothing super exciting has happened. Murray has been working a lot, but we actually have gotten to see each other every night since I keep getting cancelled from work. I am glad that the babies are being born healthy, but I could definitely stand getting paid for my normal hours. Oh well! Haha. I am supposed to work tonight so we will see.

Actually, the thing taking up most of my time this week and keeping me from having anything fun to post about has been trying to correct all the mess created by my wallet getting stolen. For those of you who haven't heard, I had to go down to work last week to get recertified in CPR. After the class was over, Katie (a friend of mine from work) and I went to eat lunch at a restaurant nearby. I hung my purse on the chair like I always do, but this time when I got up to leave, my purse was much lighter than before. Somehow somebody managed to get my wallet out of my purse without me or Katie even knowing.

Before I was able to cancel my cards, they had charged about $350 on my debit card and $1500 on my Macy's card. Luckily both the bank and Macy's have been great, but I have had a lot of paperwork to fill out besides reporting it to all the identity theft people. Unfortunately I was one of those people who didn't pay attention to the part on your social security card that says DO NOT CARRY IN YOUR WALLET. So, the thief potentially has my ssn which means I have had to do all kinds of stuff to protect my credit, etc. Seriously, if you ever have your wallet stolen, call me. I am the pro at knowing the steps you need to take to remedy the situation!

The most annoying thing to me is that the person who stole my wallet will probably never get caught and is walking around with almost $2000 of new stuff. Very frustrating! The Macy's affidavit asked if I would be willing to help them prosecute... FOR SURE! Haha. I doubt that day will ever come, but it would be a happy one in my book. I know God says vengeance is his, but it would just be nice to have justice here too!

Anyway, just thought I would post this so that all girls out there who have the tendency to hang their purses on their chairs when they go out to eat will have the chance to be spared the "fun" week that I have had!

Wonderful Weekend

So, Murray and I have felt a little disconnected the last few weeks. He was gone to St. Louis, and, when he got back, we were so happy to have Neesha come stay with us and then to head home for Kelsey's engagement and my parents party. However, unless you count about 18 hours in the car (which can be pretty entertaining when we start getting delirious), we haven't had very much fun just Murray & Erin time. This weekend we finally got some! It was wonderful.

Not to make anyone sick with my mushiness, but I seriously have the best husband ever and am constantly reminded why he is so perfect for me. This weekend we thought about going away just the two of us, but we decided to just stay in town and do fun stuff here. So Friday night we went to eat at this cool little Italian restaurant that we happened to walk by in downtown Evanston, watched Semi-Pro (Murray's choice), and were just pretty lazy really.

Saturday we slept in together for the first time in I can't remember, got up and went to the beach, went for lunch and icecream at this homemade ice cream place, walked around & shopped a little downtown, grocery shopped (actually really fun when it's the 2 of us), and Murray grilled us 2 awesome steaks for dinner. We went for a walk through our neighborhood with Duke, and we saw a momma bunny with at least 6 baby bunnies! It really was the neatest thing. The babies were SO tiny- like little hamsters. When we got back home we played guitar hero for a while too.

Sunday, we went to church, ate lunch, talked to our dad's, and came back for a Sunday afternoon nap. Not much beats those! Haha. After we got up, we took Duke for a walk in a park that runs along the beach. We stayed out for a pretty long time because Duke was worn out after it! We had the fabulous supper of Chicken Noodle Soup to try to help Murray's allergy-stricken throat feel better and finished up with some awesome pie that we had gotten at the lunch restaurant. We watched the Bucket List (my choice), and actually took another walk before we went to bed because the weather has just been so perfect here.

Of course we hated to miss Father's Day with our very special dads, but it truly was just nice to have the weekend off. Murray makes every moment fun and special. He made this weekend feel like a vacation without having to go more than 2 miles away at any point! He makes every love song you hear on my playlist come true in our lives! I am one lucky girl!!!

30 years of love!

In my last post I mentioned that Murray and I headed home for my parents surprise 30th anniversary party. Kels, Logan, and I had worked hard on getting decorations, food, and invitations together so we could help our parents celebrate 30 years of a great marriage. We had originally picked June 14th for the date, but had to send out change of date cards because we realized that there were 2 huge weddings that night at the same time we had planned our party. Little did we know that our really cute change of date cards would fall apart so that people would mysteriously get blank postcards. We ended up spending countless hours on the phone trying to get a hold of everyone to make sure they knew the right date and time for the party. It was well worth it because we had about 50 of my parents' family and closest friends through the years show up for the party.

My parents were a little worried about our deceptive abilities because they had absolutely NO idea! Even Neesha knew for about a week before the party and didn't spill the beans. So, here is the tangled web we wove...

Murray & I said that we had to spend part of the day with his family out in Germantown because his extended family that lives there was throwing a family reunion.
Kelsey & Smith had to go into my dad's office (Kelsey's summer job) to catch up on some of the filing that was piling up.
Logan headed to the music store to see if they had anything new for his drum set.
Neesha stayed home so they wouldn't suspect anything really weird with all of us being gone.

Later, Kelsey, mom, and I ran to look for wedding dresses. Logan went with dad to pick up a transmission for the rat rod they are building together. And wonderful Murray and Smith took care of getting all the food cooked for the party while we were distracting our parents. Neesha helped too by helping load and unload the food and also making a great sign for the party.

The plans for getting them to the party were that my whole family was going to meet Murray's for dinner out in Collierville by the new mall. It was "some place Mrs. Jennifer saw when she was shopping with some of her girlfriends. I don't remember the name, but I know she said it was kinda a nice place so we should probably dress kinda cute." On the way to the unnamed restaurant in Collierville, Kelsey asked them to stop at White Station Church of Christ (where the party was) to have them help her pick out a room to use for her gymnastics camps this summer.

*If anyone wants their kids to get to go to her camp, let me know. She was an awesome level 10 gymnast, went to nationals, and is great with kids!*

So Murray & I had left earlier by saying we were going to do some shopping and spend a little extra time with his family before dinner. That let us go to the church to do the last minute stuff. A BIG thanks to Murray's family and my grandparents for helping us! Logan also left early to "pick up his girlfriend for dinner" because he really had to pick up Neesha's friend from down the street that she had invited to the party. :)

So everyone arrived, my parents came in to help pick a room, and they were completely shocked. How we pulled it off I have absolutely no idea, but it was so fun doing it! I do have to say though that I felt much better after this final secret was out of the bag. For someone who isn't so great with secrets, Kelsey's engagement and this party were tough for me to keep!

Here are some pictures from the party. Thanks mom & dad for setting such a great example for all of us and for creating the wonderful, loving, Christian home that we have been blessed to grow up in. Every kid should be so lucky! I love you!


Table for people to write my parents a note for their memory book.


Right after they walked in.


The drink table with cokes, water, and pink lemonade.


We had salad, lasagna, ravioli, bread, and cheesecake for dessert.


Everyone eating and watching the slideshow we had put together.


Our whole family after the party was over.

Kelsey & Smith are ENGAGED!!!

So my sister, Kelsey, has been dating a guy named Smith Hopkins for about 2 years now. They met at Freed, started out best friends, and became pretty much inseparable. We have all been waiting for a while for the big question, and Friday night it finally came!!!

Actually the whole process began for me on Thursday afternoon when he called to see what time Murray and I would be getting into Memphis. We were coming home for a surprise 30th anniversary party that we were throwing my parents (post & pictures to come). I pretty much knew as soon as he called me why he wanted to know. He went through his plan, asked me and Murray to be there to take pictures, and sounded appropriately nervous. Haha.

Needless to say I was about to bust from excitement. I even danced a little jig alone in my living room. Anyone who knows our family knows we don't keep secrets very well, and I was supposed to tell NOONE!!! Of course, I ended up talking to Murray and my mom about it. Sorry Smith. =) I did keep it from Kelsey at least, and I actually helped him out quite a bit when she was being difficult.

Well when we got into town Friday, we all went out to dinner at TGI Fridays. Smart Smith played it really cool and casually asked if she wanted to go get dessert just the two of them. She did so he took her down to the Cheesecake Corner downtown. (After her asking why they couldn't just stay at TGI Fridays, why they had to go so far, and if we could all go shopping at Target first. The girl had no idea what was coming!)



After eating their cheesecake, a horse-drawn carriage pulled up in front of the restaurant for them. It took them all around downtown to different places they had gone on dates together. He had made a card for each place that talked about what they had done there and what the memories meant to him.







The final stop was at the Orpheum theater. He had her walk across the street with her back to the Orpheum. When they got to the park across the street, he read her one last card that told her how much he loved her and wanted to spend his life with her. At that point he had her turn around to see the Orpheum sign that said...



When she turned back around, he was on his knee with the ring. Of course she said yes, and everyone that was around started yelling congratulations and honking their horns.






So like I mentioned earlier, Smith had asked me and Murray to be down there to secretly take pictures while he was proposing. We had the perfect spot picked out to get a good shot until we realized that they were crossing the street towards where we were. We took off for the bushes, but we couldn't see anything from there. SO... we army-crawled through the grass to get close enough for decent pictures. The result is the slightly blurry pictures above, lots of mosquito bites, and tons of laughs. Thanks so much Smith for letting us be involved in y'all's special night!

Without further ado... I give you... the RING!!!

Catchin up...

So it has been a little while since anything new was posted, but boy have we been busy! Look forward to a couple of new posts over the next few days. It may take me a little time to get them done and pictures added, but there are some new ones coming.

First I will go back to the end of May... Neesha came to stay with me and Murray for about 5 days. She had a list of things she wanted to do while she was here. (Have a wrestling match with Murray topped the list- cute, right?) We got most everything checked off before she left, and then we tried to catch up on rest after she went back home.

Here are some pictures of all that we did.


We had a picnic on the beach downtown. It was still pretty cold up here that day!


We went to Lincoln Park Zoo and got to see tons of animals. This was the coolest picture though.


Neesha had the great idea to surprise Murray with a candlelit dinner when he got home from work. The tacos were very romantic. =)











Fun times at the library. Murray was studying hard.


Heading downtown on the train.












American Girl Place & Hershey's Factory


Navy Pier with our friends the Smiths












Day at the Beach... much warmer!

Well, there were many more memories and fun pictures, but hopefully this gives a little taste of our fun week with Neesha!

For those considering a dog...

First I have to preface this with the fact that Murray and I love Duke very much and would be so upset if anything happened to him. BUT... sometimes he is the dumbest animal alive. We actually were in such a good mood that we were able to laugh about this, but, if we hadn't have been, Duke may not have survived the night!

So, for those of you who have known us for a while, you know that Murray and I play around a lot! Remember those good ole days in the game room and student center at Freed? Well, we still like to rough house every now and then.

The other night, we were playing around, and Murray pinned me. While I was lying there plotting my next attack to get away or hurt Murray (haha), Duke decided to jump off the couch and onto Murray's back. He always wants to be in the middle of everything. Next thing I know, Duke runs of Murray's back, over his shoulder, and over my head. I got a really bad feeling in my stomach when I felt a drop of something hit my forehead. Yep... you guessed it... our crazy dog had peed all over Murray's back and on my face.

Luckily it was just one drop on my face, and the clean-up was easy since Murray just had to take his shirt off. Still though, Duke definitely spent the night in his kennel! So if you are considering getting a dog, just remember it's not always going to be that adorable little puppy you fall head over heels for... one day it is going to be a grown dog that pees on your face.

Biggest "Biggest Loser" Fan

So... I know you all have been anxiously awaiting this post since I told you a good one was coming. Sorry it took so long, but I had to wait on the pictures to be sent to me. For those of you who don't know, I really got into the reality tv show "The Biggest Loser" this season. I liked the show anyway, but this season my co-worker's son was one of the contestants. If you watched the show, Bernie is her son. Naturally I was rooting for him and his partner Brittany. Well, Bernie and Brittany got eliminated eventually, but Bernie came back to win $100,000 for being the eliminated contestant who lost the largest percentage of body weight. Everyone at work was SO excited.

Memorial Day weekend was my scheduled holiday to work. Usually I dread holiday shifts, but this time I am so glad I worked because guess who showed up in our NICU?!?! Bernie & Brittany!!! When I met them, I played it cool of course because I didn't want to seem like the psycho fan or anything. Then as soon as they left the room, I immediately ran to the phone to call Murray. He told me I had to get a picture with them. I felt really stupid to do that until then another nurse wanted to get a picture too, and she had her camera here.

We began hunting for them all over the NICU. Forget that I had a baby that needed to eat... I needed a picture with Bernie & Brittany. How many chances will I get- you know? So we finally find them, and I felt totally ridiculous asking for a picture with them. BUT... here they are in all their glory. You can be jealous. Haha. I am putting a before picture so you can see how great they did!

My first week of Ortho Trauma is over

So, my week has been super busy, but I have seen and done some really cool stuff in the OR. Let me run you through a typical day of mine in Ortho. I will try to make it interesting. For the past week, and the coming week, I am on Ortho Trauma. We have clinic, but for the most part (90% of the time) I will be in surgery. That's great for me because I'd much rather not have to deal with clinic. I guess it's all personal preference. I think I am just too exhausted to ask all the "where does it hurt" questions when you know the answer is going to be "all over, doc." But that is part of it and most of the time I really don't mind. I would just rather be in surgery if I had a choice at this point.
4:45am - I get on the train in the North Suburbs. We are a LONG way from Stroger Hospital, which is on the southwest side of "the loop" (what they call downtown here). It takes me just over an hour to get there, which is fine since I need ever bit of that time to wake up! That picture is what the train station looks like a like 5 in the morning!

6:30 til 5:30 - surgical cases. A lot of knees, ankles and basically any type of leg fractures. The coolest thing I've seen up to this point is a patellar fracture. It was cool for me to see how they fixated it since we don't get that kind of stuff in podiatry. The coolest thing I've done is one of the residents let me do a BKA (below the knee amputation). It was awesome. I will spare all of you the details, but it was a pretty exciting moment (well, hour) for me.
Quick funny story: I am a walking zombie about 90% of the time, so I have been saying some pretty stupid stuff. I actually feel like I am still in St. Louis for some reason about half of the time. On Tuesday we were all in the OR and the surgeon was paged. He said tell them to call 847-something. I emphatically said "HEY! That's a Chicago Number!!!" When I realized from all the crazy looks that we were IN Chicago. I said, "I never have gotten used to the area codes since moving from Tennessee." The resident then replied, "haven't you been here for like 4 years?" What could I say to that?
Here are a few pics of the old hospital with the new one barely visible around the corner. It's tough to realize how big it is in the picture because it extends several blocks back, but here ya go.
Murray

My boys...

Just wanted everyone to see a picture of my handsome honor graduate brother. So smart! =) He is heading to Harding University this fall, but he better come home every time I get to come home! Haha. We all know how freshman year is so we will see if that actually happens.










Murray and I had this picture made at Six Flags while he was in St. Louis. Here is the perfect Murray quote to go with it... "Erin, you grew up wanting to be a wife and a mom. I grew up wanting to be a cowboy." Now he can never say I didn't let him be what he wanted to be! ;)

Stay tuned for another exciting post soon. Just waiting on the pictures, but I've got a great story to tell!

New Poster in the House

So, it's Murray. Erin is kind of wanting me to post on this thing, and I figured today might be a decent day to start since I don't have much to do. Tomorrow I begin an "interesting" two month stretch at Cook County (Stroger) Hospital in downtown Chicago. For you Tennesseans reading this: it is the place where the show E.R. is based. The only difference between the show and real life is George Clooney is replaced with about a billion crazy people. I will be on General Surgery, so hopefully most of the people I come in contact with will be sleeping! I think I am going to take a step into Erin's world with the whole "downtown" thing, since most of my life up to this point has been in the suburbs. Unfortunately, unlike Northwestern, Stroger is a pretty nice area (if you're in a gang). So I will be taking the train and getting the real city experience. It sounds kinda crappy, but I am actually excited. Should be a WILD couple months, and hopefully I can share some ridiculous stories and maybe even sneak in a camera...

St. Louis Trip

For those of you that don't know, Murray is in podiatry school. Since he has started his 4th year, he is required to do different rotations each month. Some months he is in different hospitals throughout Chicago, but some months he is out of town. In the long run, we know it will all be worth it, but for right now the out of town months are not so fun!

The past 4 weeks he was in St. Louis on a rotation there, but he just got home this weekend!!! Luckily with my work schedule, I was able to go see him some. I also got to go home for Logan's graduation! I can't believe that he is done with high school and will be off to Harding University in the fall. It's really crazy! Logan came to spend a week with my after graduation so that I wouldn't be so lonely with Murray gone. Isn't he a great brother? =)

We stopped in St. Louis to see Murray on the way back to Chicago and made a trip to the arch. Unfortunately the trips to the top were sold out for the day so we just got to look at it from the bottom. We also spent some time inside the history museum under the arch. Have fun looking at some of the pictures from the trip.

Wishing we were at the top.

Waiting to go into the museum.

Murray acting like the buffalo.

First Post!!!

So it is only right that my first post be one to thank my wonderful friend Audra! Apparently I am more technologically impaired than I wanted to believe because I had the worst time trying to create my own blog page. Now I have a very cute one thanks to Audra. =)

I don't know how interesting this will really be. If Murray would ever actually post, you would be laughing non-stop I am sure. At least that is the effect he has on me most of the time. Our life is never dull with him around so hopefully I will be able to bring you bits & pieces of the fun through this blog page.

For those who haven't kept up, we are living in Chicago where Murray is in podiatry school, & I am working in a NICU. I love my job, and Murray is mostly just ready to be done with school! He is in his 4th & last year! Yay! We love our home & our Yorkie, Duke.

We feel really blessed to have made great friends up here & to have a wonderful church family. Overall life is good!

Well, I will post more later & hopefully add some more pictures. Thanks again Audra!