Our First "Date"

Six years ago today Louis and I had our first "date". For those of you who don't know the story I will take a little walk down memory lane for you. It was junior year of college and I had been hanging out with Louis and James a lot. One night we were hanging out in Melanie and I's room and James says "Jenny, Louis has something he wants to ask you". Then Louis, who was clearly embarassed and nervous says to me "Do you want to go to the Sigma Chi Halloween party with me?". Being the idiot that I am, I said yes but then asked if I could bring Melanie, Mary and Sam with me! Somehow I didn't quite catch on that Louis liked me and Louis ended up with 4 dates to his dance. Melanie and I dressed up as cowgirls (I can't find the pictures but I know they exist- Mel you are my best hope if you have them send them over!!). While at the dance a girl was totally flirting with Louis and I was started to get really annoyed. Louis was wearing my cowboy hat and this chick stole it from him as a way to flirt. Well my bff Melanie was not going to have any of that so she stormed off to get the hat back. She also had a little talkin to with Mr. Louis about how it was uncool that this chick was flirting with him in front of me. Needless to say-- I won that night!Louis was so sweet and offered to walk Melanie and I back to our dorm after the party but we declined. See, our plan that Louis didn't know was that we were going to another party with the Theta Chi boys-- hehe. Anyways...long story short that is how Louis and I's relationship began. I have never really been fond of Halloween but since it was technically our first "date" I do have a special place in my heart for the holiday.

Below are some other Halloween pictures of Louis and I.

Senior year

2006 in the city, gotta love the matching costumes!

Good Luck x 2

The first good luck is for Eric and the Bartlett High School football team. They have made the playoffs and tonight is their first playoff game. Good luck Coach Kramer and Katie-- bring lots of blankets to stay warm and cheer them on!

The second good luck is for Katie Utts (my lovely co-worker) who scored an interview with Northwestern tomorrow for their MBA program. Thats right peeps, Kellogg. I am sure she is going to kick butt and if all else fails she should just say "Jenny thinks I should get in" and that should do the trick!

Happy Halloween weekend everyone!

Unti Oktoberfest

Over the weekend my parents had an Oktoberfest party. They let Sign it With Love design their invitations and I think they came out super duper cute. The colors were cream, purple and goldish/orange. Perfect for fall. Since the invitation was so fabulous it was on display for the party!

In addition to making invitations my parents asked us to come up with favors and cute ideas. We decided to hand out bags of popcorn and candycorn and carmel. It was the best of all the fall goodies we love.
The favor tags matched the invitations, just in mini form

I also tried to get creative with the flowers. I went to Jewel and put together this arrangement. (Louis did help pick out the flowers)

A picture of my mom and me before the party. It took a few tries for my dad to get this cute shot.

P.S. how much alike do we look?

My dad's attempt at smiling.....

The flash kinda washed Louis out, but I still like the picture

Hubby and Wife picture.

Me and my business partner, BFF, second husband, the list goes on and on

James and Me. I was on my tiptoes and he still managed to look mega tall. I swear I am not that short

Overall the party was a lot of fun and there was tons of great food. I am thinking my parents will need to make this an annual tradition!!

GLEE-ful Tuesdays

Loyal Glee fans, tonight should be a great episode because its a Rocky Horror Picture Show tribute. I will admit I am not a huge fan of Rocky Horror but I am really curious to see Glee's interpretation.

To maintain my theme of telling you all something that makes me gleeful I thought I would share with you my love of country music. I find it appropriate since Glee is all about the singing.
I came up with this idea while I was singing along to some music in the car on my way home from class last night and some kid pulled up along side at me and was staring at me singing and rocking out. haha, it was 10:45 at night, what did you expect from me?

I love love love country music and this is why...
1. Its an actual story in the song (Louis hates this fact, but I am trying to convince him that "like a G6" isn't really good lyrics)
2. Anyone can listen to it. No worrying about age appropriate here
3. It puts you in a good mood
4. You can relate to it
5. Country stars are nice on the eyes (for the most part)

Some of my favorite bands/singers are:
1. Sugarland (sure they can sound a little twangy but I heart them)
2. Lady A (that is Lady Antebellum for those that aren't as familiar)
3. Carrie Underwood (I would die to have legs like hers!!!)
4. Brad Paisley (he sang Louis and I's wedding song-- Brownie points to Louis if he can actually remember the song)
5. Kenny Chesney (he has the dream life...I wish I was a Jimmy Buffet in training)
6. Country power couple Faith and Tim
7. Zac Brown Band (there tunes are catchy)
8. Reba (she is a classic and also my first CD purchase ever!!)
9. Martina McBride (her eyes are the coolest I have ever seen, plus she can rock it out)
10. Keith Urban (that accent is just hard to beat)

Slacker

I have lots of pictures and fun stories from this weekend that I planned on blogging about yesterday, however with homework and Louis using the computer to write papers I didn't get around to it. Instead, I figured I can direct you to some of my favorite peeps blogs!

If any of you are interested in learning how to knit or want to hear about a first time knitter (is that an actual word?? haha) check out Melanie's blog here.

For those are are into Sign it With Love and all fun things wedding/paper related check out our website here for a cute engagement party invitation here.

I did want to give a shout out to Erin and Jon who had Louis and I over on Friday night. Jon made a fire in the fireplace and we all hung out. There was a period of time though where Erin and I tuned out all of the Halo playing that was around us and chatted weddings! Thanks again guys!

More fun posts to come later this week, I swear!

Black Friday

I have recently starting getting into the Christmas mood. All of the stores have started putting out holiday decorations and this past weekend my awesome Vanilla Bean Noel was in stores. Every year I vow that I am going to think of something creative and fun for all of the gifts I need to buy and that never happens because I constantly struggle to think of ideas. My family is tough as heck to buy for which doesn't make the process any easier. I mean Louis and I went to Woodfield last weekend with the intention on buying presents and left with NOTHING! My dad always buys himself whatever he wants so it leaves my brother and I with very few options. My brother could be the pickiest and nosiest person I know when it comes to gifts so pulling something over on him requires dedication and determination. There there is the hubby, I have literally bought him everything I can possibly think of over the last 6 years so what the heck do I get him? My mom is kinda easy because I just find something I like and get it for her :)

While scanning the internet for potential ideas I realized that some stores already have their Black Friday ads out. Check it out the deals at Black Friday.

I will be the first to admit that I refuse to stand in line at 2am to fight off crazy people for a TV but I do enjoy the idea that so many people are out and about on that day and its the official kick-off of the holiday season. Its probably the only day out of the year that I am not mega annoyed at the lines at the checkout counters but Louis is still a work in progress.

GLEE-ful Tuesdays

I know that many of you are just as sad and upset as I am that Glee is not new tonight. To comfort you I have the ultimate thing that makes me Glee-ful this time of year. Bath and Body Works has pulled through yet again and has started selling their Holiday Scents!!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Vanilla Bean Noel. As soon as I saw it in the store I asked Louis if he would let me buy some (I acted like a kid in a candy store and gave him the puppy eyes) and of course he said yes so I snagged the Body Cream with my 20% off coupon. We also got the soap for the bathroom. I plan on going back to the store and stocking up before the end of the holiday season so I can have this lotion all through winter.

I also enjoy that the bottle is Christmas designs. It gets me in the festive spirit and makes me really excited to decorate the house!

I probably should look into jobs at Bath and Body Works because they probably have an employee discount!!

Husband & Wife Date Weekend

On Monday it will be Louis and I's 4 month anniversary. Since I have class on Monday we decided to celebrate early and have a husband/wife date weekend. We hadn't spent a lot of quality time together lately so we dedicated a whole weekend (well Friday night and Saturday because Sunday is homework day) to us.

Friday night we had dinner reservations at Biaggi's in Deer Park. Before dinner we had some time to kill so we hit up the shops. I picked up a really cute red vase at Crate and Barrel for Christmas (I am sure I will blog about this later). After dinner we saw the movie, Life as We Know it. I really enjoyed it and I don't think Louis hated it :)

I didn't know what the gameplan for Saturday was, I had told Louis to surprise me. When I woke up I gave him his Sweetest Day card (he had no idea it was Sweetest Day....not really surprised by that one). We started our day by going to the Oktoberfest in Long Grove. For those of you who have never been, I consider it the Door County of the Chicagoland area. We got there about 12ish and for those of you that know me know if I don't eat on a regular basis I will die. Literally, I will feel lightheaded and want to pass out. I just so happen to be feeling that way when we got there so I made a beeline to this store.....

That's right, I ran in and bought a bag of carmel popcorn (my fav!!) and some cookie and cream flavored fudge. Once I had my fix and didn't feel like I was about to die, we continued to walk around the fest.

Shops of Long Grove

We were sitting on the bench eating popcorn when Louis took this pic

It was so nice outside!

Yeah, thats right, we had matching outfits!!

Pumpkin Patch

More Fest pics

Beer tents (they had real Munich beer)

Long Grove was a lot of fun, and we even found a shop that sold Door County Christmas Wine (our fav!!) and got to pick up a bottle. After Long Grove we headed towards Woodfield Mall to look around. The goal was to get Christmas presents but that didn't happen, instead we got stuff for us! I got a sweater, Louis got new sunglasses and Louis spotted a cozy blanket for our bed in the CLEARANCE section at JcPenney's (booyah to a tall husband to see that!!)

To end the evening Louis made dinner reservations at Charlie's Charhouse. This was the location for our rehearsal dinner and we are really fond of the place. Everytime we go though, it always is a school dance and there are teenagers everywhere. I love it though because that is people watching at its best! I will say though that Louis and I felt old because we both agreed that none of those girls would have been allowed out of the house dressed like that if they were our kids!!

Here is the pic we asked the bartender to take. :)

Blast from the Past

Taking a page out of Katie's playbook I thought I would share a photo flashback. This lovely picture was from Halloween 2006. We went into the city. Check out the dark hair!!

Glee-ful Tuesday

Its time again for Glee-ful Tuesday.

Who isn't glee-ful for the Pottery Barn Christmas catalog? Its so cozy I can't stand it!!!!

Double Happy Birthday

No I am not talking about Louis and James birthday or even Kathy and Bill's birthday, today is my Grandma and cousin Darrina's birthday!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Darrina is in the center in pink!!

My grandma is on the right

Norek's Birthday

Today is Aaron's birthday (he is getting really old:) ) so last night he had a birthday party. I was really excited to hear that the party had a theme: Black and White Cocktail. Everyone had to dress in either black or white. I am pretty sure Aaron was trying to channel P.Diddy for this party. Since I am not a huge fan of Halloween this was a fun way to dress up to go out but not have a costume.

In classic Norek fashion he somehow managed to do very little for his own party. Tony made a whole bunch of food that was all super duper yummy.

The chocolate covered strawberries (made with Lindt and Ghiradelli chocolate!!)

Mud Pie (my personal fav)

Louis and James

Tony enjoying a Malic sandwich

Norek cutting the bread that Tony brought

Hubby and me!!

Louis, Aaron, Tony and James. Lets not forget Dutchess (she matched the theme!)

Hpnotiq Shots (This was probably the first shot I have done in years!!)

Norek's birthday shot

The entire group (minus Louis he was our photographer but we figured we had James in the pic so it really is like he is there)

James and Dutchess

I heart Cheryl

Thursday was Cheryl's last day at work. She is staying home to be a full time mom to Aubrey. I am going to be very sad because I heart talking to her and working with her, she keeps me sane a lot so I am going to have to vent a la email to her from now on. Don't worry though, we are going to plan lots of play dates to see her, Justin and Aubrey.

We had a happy hour for her and this is the only pic..

This is the cutie pie she is leaving me for....can you blame her??

He put a ring on it!

I wanted to give a big congrats to Kelly and Efren on getting engaged!! Now I get to live through both Irvin sisters as they plan their weddings. Woohoo to me, good luck Mr. Irvin :)

Since they live in Orlando (lucky buttheads) we can't celebrate in person right away but the next time they are in town we are hanging out to celebrate.

P.S. I facebook stole this pic :)

The Man Post

My brother so kindly pointed out to me last night that my blog was boring and lame. (Note: Sean's version of kindly is "Jenny your blog is boring and dumb" there is no sugar coating there). To counteract all the girly or "boring" things on this blog I thought I would dedicate a post to all things manly that are in our house. Enjoy!!

Exhibit A: The weight set in the basement

(in all fairness I am never in the basement to complain about this one)

Exhibit B: All of the Sam Adam's Oktoberfest Beer in the fridge

(there is also another 18 pack in the laundry room)

Exhibit C: The XBox

(this is probably the most offensive because its in our family room in plain sight lookin all nasty like that, not to mention a perfectly great IKEA chair is being under utilized)

Exhibit D: The Sailboat Painting in the upstairs landing
(luckily I made Louis pick a "happy" sailboat and not a depressing stormy seas one)

Before anyone freaks out to me saying that its Louis' house too and he should be allowed to have all of this stuff, I do not think all of this stuff needs to be removed (well, except the XBox, haha). Rather, we need to contain the man stuff to a man area that unfortunately our townhome does not have right now. Until then, feel free to come over play XBox, workout and drink a beer.

GLEE-ful Tuesdays

In honor of GLEE being on Tuesday nights I thought that each Tuesday I would share something that makes me gleeful!

Curling up under a blanket and reading a Nora Roberts book

(Guys, I know that is probably pretty lame to you, but I love to read)

Scents of Fall

For those that lay awake at night pondering what the Malic household smells like in the fall, well here is your answer: Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin. This candle is sold at Bath and Body Works and its pretty much the only reason Louis ever dares to venture into the store. He loves this smell and gets super excited when the time of year comes that he can light it every night. I think its ok but would much prefer Vanilla or Carmel or something that smells yummy. Bath and Body Works is actually having a sale on candles this week (go figure we bought ours at full price) so if you are interested go check it out!