So although this has been a really busy past couple of weeks, Blake and I took our first step towards buying a condo by interviewing a couple different buyer's agents here in Chicago.

Two of the guys were really great, which made it hard to finally make a decision on who to go with. We pretty much decided to go with the one who appears to have his realty business run like a well-oiled machine, since we want to be quick about it and find a place by the time our lease is up on October 1st.

Sometime later this week we're going to get in touch with a couple mortgage brokers and check out their rates, and then let them handle everything so they can find us the best deal on a loan. We really have some amazingly good credit between the two of us, so I am hoping that we will still get everything we want from a bank, even in this skittish economy.

I'm excited and looking forward to going around Chicago and checking out the places that are up for sale. Yay new home! :D

The Jolie-Pitt boys sure love those Xs:

Maddox
Pax
and now baby Knox Leon.

And the other twin is Vivienne Marcheline!

Everyone kept saying the twins were both going to be girls, but I think it's kind of cool now they have three boys and three girls. Congrats to them for creating more beautiful babies to take over the world! :)

Babble

I couldn't get Blingee to work, so here is my attempt at a birthday Mothra for you. Hope you have some fun!! :D

THAT'S RIGHT.

To celebrate our Government Sanctioned Day Off (TM) we went for a hike today at this cute little park just North of Chicago. It's been so long since I've had a chance to walk around on a trail in the woods, I really enjoyed it.

Then we went to this Indian food place called Ghareeb Nawaz which has the reputation of being completely awesome where all the taxi cabbies pull up to eat. It was totally worth it and we got this huge chicken biryani and naan to snarf down.

There are constant fireworks outside our window to keep us up all night, and so we've been watching the To Catch a Predator marathon on MSNBC. It goes until 4AM!! I will never, ever get tired of Chris Hansen.

Hope everyone had a nice and relaxing holiday!

As of this week, we have officially paid off all our credit card bills that were accrued during our move to Chicago in October! Seeing that $0.00 balance is a thing of beauty.

At this point, the only debts we have left are my student loans, and those aren't going to be paid off for awhile so we're not too worried about them.

Now with our totally awesome credit report we are ready to move forward and seriously start looking at buying a place. Luckily we have our very own personal mortgage consultant with enderkal so we're optimistic that we'll be able to get a reasonable deal and be moved in by the end of September when our apartment lease is up.

Being a first time home buyer is a little scary, but it's also exciting and I'm looking forward to finding somewhere that both Blake and I really love. Wish us luck! :D

Thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes! I had a nice relaxing 30th birthday.

I got a manicure and pedicure on Thursday, so that was really a treat for me. HOT PINK TOES!

On my birthday we went to Flat Top Grill for make-your-own pancakes and I got to have some chocolate-peanut butter-pecan-coconut-almond-butterscotch chip pancakes. AWESOME. *^_^*

After that we scoured some garage sales for old boardgames and came up with Probe and Word Thief. We really don't have anything around the house, so it was cool to pick up some things for a dollar that we can play with our friends.

For dinner we got some sushi and some amazing gelato - half chocolate and half pistachio.Oh man, I totally want some more of that!

Then we hung around the house and watched a movie and played video games and I didn't have to think about anything or do anything because I got to be treated like a princess all day. :D

I think I only had a few moments during the day where my brain freaked out a little bit about the 30 thing, but it quickly passed. My mom was all telling me "Now you can't say that you 'Can't trust people over 30' anymore because you are 30 now!" ... um, I've never said that, but whatever. ;)

Thanks again everyone!

The big 3-0 is coming up on Saturday. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do. So far I've just figured out MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF PANCAKES in the morning. From there it's still a mystery.

What did you guys do for your 30th? Any suggestions?

I forgot to say yesterday....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, kwakhed!

I just woke up from sleeping over 12 hours, so I was totally out of it and exhausted yesterday. Please pardon the lateness of this birthday greeting. O_O

I just spent three and a half days with my brother, Tim, his wife, Judi, and my niece and nephew, Claire and Teo. They have been living in Costa Rica for the last few years, and they made a stop in Chicago during their summer vacation driving across America. Here are some of the highlights!

• We watched Kung Fu Panda and then Claire had a great time wrestling with my huge stuffed panda at our apartment. She's been taking kid karate classes and knows some great moves!
• The next day we went to the Shedd Aquarium and got to run around and see all the fishies. Claire particularly liked the komodo dragon in the lizard exhibit.It was nice to walk around the museum area and see the beautiful lakefront there.
  
• For lunch on Friday we went to Kitsch'n on Roscoe and took some time to walk around the cute neighborhood streets in Roscoe Village. I had some waffles and fruit and got to play with Claire and Teo some more. It's just good to spend time with them and be an awesome aunt.
• Finally we had to say goodbye today as they headed down to St. Louis and then over to Kansas City to see the rest of my family there. I'm so happy that they stopped over and I hope I'll get to see them again soon!

Now it's time to take a nap. Phew!

SRSLY?? :o



Strawberry Shortcake gets a makeover? Thanks, ONTD!