celebrations and weekend things

Farmers markets, super hero crews, an evening with our favorite little boys,

 undergrad classes finished, and a first (kinda....) Father's Day.

Little one and I have the grossest of colds so the celebrations have been little affairs,

but we're just tickled to be celebrating these sweet achievements and milestones.

The little moments of acknowledging gratitude for where God has us

and what He has brought us here to do are so sweet to us.

We are so so blessed.

So until further notice we'll be in bed with the sniffles 

doing this

and watching Little One karate chop his way across my belly.

It really is the weirdest/coolest thing!

Now if only he would perform when the camera is out.....

Snow, Summer Dress, & Countdowns

~Its snowing again and its absolutely beautiful
It is beautiful each and every time.

~We ate at Bang Bang Pie the other day and it definitely
lives up to all the hype! And they have the coolest outdoor space,
cannot wait to spend time there in the summer.

~Little man and I have been going to the Conservatory a lot.
Poor guy has been sick and the warmth and clean air
(and plenty of space to run :)) really help him.
And the warmth and sun always make me feel so much better
and makes me think about gardening.... again.
Maybe.

~We've been eating breakfast.
Can you hear my Mom praising the heavens?
Ha.
One day a couple weeks ago I hadn't really slept
and just was not ready for the day and our sweet roommate Patience
was making breakfast so I sat down and joined her
and it made the day SO much better!
So now I have a little toast with blackberry jam and a cup
of tea before heading out to the craze of the day
and it has been such a lovely change of pace to my daily rhythm.
So yes, Mom, you were right and I should have started eating
breakfast when you told me oh 10 years ago (;

~I've been hanging out at the Art Institute
and I just get lost in the beautiful art and sunlight of that
amazing space

~We are in love.
Forever and always.

~I bought a summer dress.
Why did I do that?!
I was dreaming of summer days in the park with my little men
and next thing I know I've bought this dress on ebay!
I guess it was a good investment of Christmas $,
but considering how I have all but 4 pairs of socks without holes
that would have been a much better purchase.
But I don't want to buy socks.
I apparently want to buy summer things.
So no more browsing ebay and dreaming of summer at the same time.

~ Ireland. 9 days. Florida. 27 days.
EEEEEEEEK!


xoxo,
lyss

Catching Up

 Our days have been so lovely and full.

Full of working hard, enjoying those around us,

and exploring this and that in our beloved city.

We are so richly blessed (:

A friend and I went exploring in the culture centre 

last week and as we were wondering around

we tried to open a door to find it locked.

As we went to walk away some men

working came up and asked if we would like in

"its the best view in the whole city"

they said as they let us in

and asked us to just close the door when we were done.

And oh it was just beautiful!

You could see all of millennium park with a 

backdrop of the sparkling lake.

We tried to take pictures,

but none of them did the view any justice (:

Sometimes when I catch an exceptionally 

beautiful moment or when I look up at the skyline

and cannot believe we get to live here

and enjoy this everyday with my best friend.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

We're off apple and pumpkin picking

and all sorts of other fun plans (:

xoxo,

lyss

Just give me a moment....

Tonight a guy at Trader Joe's asked me how I was

(are they instructed to do that? is it in the "working at Trader Joe's manual"

or something? because they ALWAYS ask)

and I thought about it a moment and then said

"I'm tired" 

he looked up at me, laughed, thanked me for my honesty and then when I asked how 

he was doing, he responded with the same.

And then all of the sudden we were friends (:

But truly,

we are a very tired worn out pair over here lately.

I guess there's a lot of little reasons 

(heatwave, not sleeping because of said heatwave, 

stress from school, little stresses, etc)

but as a whole its just been a stressful tiring week.

So tonight we'll set the timer for an hour,

grab a root beer, put on Nat King Cole's "That's All",

sigh about stupid heatwaves and allergies,

and then when the timer goes off,

we'll get back to work.

Because sometimes we just need a moment

from the craze in order to keep going.

Just keep going and going and going (;

xoxo,

lyss

Picnics and self portraits

I'm not sure why this is the first picnic I've blogged.

We have them all the time

I guess from biking and desiring to carry as little as humanly

possible in the attempt to only sweat as much as necessary,

I don't carry the camera with me very frequently and hence don't

get pictures of these very frequent picnics.

Anyway....

on Monday I hopped on a train after work and

met Josh where he was working up north 

and then we grabbed some Thai 

and went to our favorite secret spot.

Where we talked about how unseasonably cold it was,

how we need to learn how to make Thai food so we stop ordering it,

how enjoyable riding the L is when you can sit down,

and other random things.

And then we attempted to get some pictures of us.

Which never works well,

either my nose is in focus, or his forehead is,

but hardly ever are they both in focus.

Oh well.

We'll just keep trying anyway (:

In other news,

 this happened last week 

One of husband's birthday surprises,

I feel so edgy now (;

xoxo,

lyss