Weekend Recap

First of all, I have to say, once again, how much I love fall! Of course, this weekend in Chicago felt like summer with temperatures in the 80s, but the fall colors, leaves, and usual weather are just awesome.



So pretty!

This weekend was great, and boy did I need a great weekend after the tough week I had last week. It's like my friend Steph said last Thursday about having an off day. Well, I guess I had an off week so I was really looking forward to the weekend.

Friday night, I had to work at my university's alumni awards banquet. Wow - was it a fancy event. It was held at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago. The ULC is a beautiful venue, and has the second best display of artwork in Chicago behind the Art Institute. My role at the event was to be a greeter for the 400+ guests decked out in tuxedos (black tie optional but nearly every man was in a tux) and fancy gowns, and help them make their way from the 2nd floor registration and cocktail party to the 6th floor for dinner. I met some great people throughout the evening and caught up with some of my favorite alumni as well.

I was done with that around 7:30 (I didn't have to stay for dinner and the program) so I went home and Michael came over. We ordered Chinese and then crashed since we were both exhausted from our long weeks.

Saturday morning, I woke up and went to my usual Spin class. Note to self - no more Spinning in shorts. I just spent way too much money on them bought them at Lululemon and the girl behind the counter assured me she used the short, spandex shorts for both Spinning and hot yoga. Well, they will have to become my hot yoga shorts because they were not very fun to Spin in. I prefer my knee length spandex pants that do not move or ride up during class.

After Spin, Michael and I met his sisters and one their friends for brunch in my neighborhood. We went to Orange and it was pretty good. I had never been there before, and though it wasn't my favorite, I'd go back again. Between the five of us, we ordered three of the special pumpkin/pecan pankcakes (the girls) and two of the special eggs sandwiches (Michael and I). It was so much food. My favorite part of Orange was that they fresh squeeze all of their own juices. I got an apple-grape juice and it was VERY green and VERY good. Yum!

Juice making machine. We sat right by it so I kept watching it. It was cool!

Michael went up to Evanston for the football game that night, which left me at home to catch up on "life stuff." After four loads of laundry, cleaning my room and bathroom, and trips to two different grocery stores, I was feeling much better about my to-do list. I then decided I wanted to make homemade caramel rolls. I had never made them before but my sisters both have and I like to bake so I thought I'd give them a try. Good thing I did this on a weekend. It took forever! I started around 5:45 and finished them just after 9. Now I will say there is a lot of waiting that goes into caramel rolls so during one of the wait times, I went to the second grocery store and I was able to watch TV and do laundry during the process as well. They were a little more challenging than I thought they would be to make (the rolling and cutting being the only hard part), but they turned out DELICIOUS so I will definitely make them again. They are now in my freezer to enjoy for the next few weeks. Now if I can just get Michael to stop calling them sticky buns and start calling them caramel rolls...



Not the ones I made but they looked just like this!

I picked Michael up after the Wildcats lost in a depressing fashion on Saturday night. We went back to my place, ate a caramel roll, and went to bed because we were waking up bright and early on Sunday.

Sunday we walked through my neighborhood toward the lake to watch the Chicago Marathon. This is my third time watching the Marathon, and though I think it's awesome to watch, there is no way I'll ever run one. I just do not think I have the mental confidence to do it. Each year I have watched in a different place and this year was by far my favorite (maybe it was the company? <3). We were on a residential street in a shaded area around the 9 mile mark. Lots of spectators and many brought their pets so it was fun people AND dog watching (Michael and I still agree on the type of dog we want to get someday :-) ). We only saw two of my four friends that were running because there are just so many people. 38,000+ to be exact! But we enjoyed cheering for people and got many thank yous as we yelled out encouragement for people, especially those who put their names on their shirts. To anyone who ever plans to run a race like that someday - I definitely think you should put your name on your shirt. People will yell out encouraging words to you the entire race, and that has to feel good.

Yes, this is actually the start line at the Chicago Marathon. That is a LOT of people!

The rest of Sunday was spent being napping, Skyping with my family (Kaden is getting SO BIG!), and watching football, Hawaii Five-0, and repeats of How I Met Your Mother. We also made Buffalo Chicken Dip and it was delicious! It was another time consuming project because I use real chicken breasts, which involves cooking them one at a time on my George Forman and then shredding it, which is not an easy task. But I cannot stomach eating chicken out of a can so it was worth the wait and prep time. I think Michael fell in love with me a little more after the great food we made and ate this weekend. If anyone wants any of my recipes, please let me know!

Overall, it was good weekend and now I just have to make it through today since it's my last full day of work for the week. I have hopfully my last an eye appointment tomorrow morning and then Thursday afternoon and all of Friday off for some comp time. Yay for short work weeks!