Roaring 20's Party

So, my roommate Chrissy and I hosted a Roaring Twenties Party for our friends here in Chicago. Complete with flapper costumes, long cigarette holders, twenties music, o'dourves and a bouncer who only let people in with the correct password (snowdrop), our party was a huge hit. Thought I'd share some of our pictures. Most people didn't even recognize me.....

Scott was determined to prove to me that he could play at the wedding Mass. Brad decided that he had singing abilities too. I'll let you decide....

With a little quality time with my camera and her instruction manual, I managed to take these sweet pictures:

We're Engaged :)

Well, it's official!! Michael and I are finally engaged :) I went over to his apartment on January 2nd and when I arrived he had rose petals and candles on the steps up to his apartment and petals and candles all OVER the living room. On the floor spelled out in the candles were the words "Marry Me?". Of course I just started laughing. "What do you say we make this official?" he asked. I half murmered, half giggled a barely audible "mmmhhmmm." and he proceeded to put the ring on my finger. Unfortunately it was too small so back to the jewelers it went. We picked up the ring a week later and now I sport a dainty, gorgeous diamond from my husband-to-be. We then visited both sets of my grandparents and closed off the night with a lovely few hands of euchre against gramma and grampa, feeling good not only from our recent engagement, but their insistance that we celebrate with kaluha for the ladies and grampas expensive (scotch? wiskey? something nasty...) for the boys.

During my last week in Toledo, Mom, Mike and I were crazy with wedding plans and managed to get all the big stuff done before I returned to Chicago: hall, food, priests, church, dress (ahhh!!!), photographer, cake, music, dj, invitations....i'm soooo excited!!! October 24, 2009 here we come!!!

On the Road....Again

Phew!! Well, this is it! I officially only have ONE MORE SEMESTER to go until I'm a bonefied Campus Minister with a master's degree. Although I'm so proud of myself for truck'n it through schooling this past year and a half (a year and half ALREADY!?!?!?!?), I think I'm most proud of myself for experiencing Chicago and creating a life for myself here.

I attended our staff Christmas Party last night where everyone gets all dolled up and brings homemade food (I brought the delectible stuffed mushrooms that are gone in 20 minutes) and says nice things and all that small talk...eck. But it WAS delightful. Although...something hit me last night that I haven't felt yet before. As much as I adore all these people and love my ministry here and have made great friends AND can honestly say that I have made a HOME for myself here, it's not HOME HOME. And oh, how I miss my HOME HOME right now.

But, lucky me...I'm going to finish my coffee, pack the car, and hang out on 80-90 for 4 hours until I see that oh-so-loved sign: Maumee Exit 1 mile. mmmm......

See you this afternoon!!!!

Last Week!

Well, this is my last couple days in Chicago until the middle of January. I'm so excited! The ministry staff here threw a big Christmas/Hanukkah/Eid celebration for all of our 100+ students who are involved in leadership in any way. I spent almost 2 hours stringing Christmas lights around the ceiling perimeter of the 14th floor of a building on campus overlooking the lake, and the city that was dumped on by snow. I guess our 2 inches of snow don't compare to Jill/Pam's massive dumping though, huh?

I have a few more final meetings this week and then the Murphy Staff Christmas Party on Saturday evening. (Chris Murphy is the director of ministry at Loyola). He throws such a LOVELY gathering. I feel like it's straight out of a movie. So fantastic. Mike and I were able to go together last year....he can't join me this year though:(:(:( And then I make the lonely 4 hour journey back to Toledo on Sunday morning. I can't wait to be home for a whole month!!!

My roommate Chrissy is currently in Kenya for the next 2 weeks. She flew out with her fellow classmates on Saturday. She'll be working among the people and learning about the culture etc. I can't wait to see her pictures and hear her stories!!

I was in Cleveland this past weekend representing my degree program at a Youth Ministry Conference and had the WONDERFUL opportunity to meet the executive director of CCMA (Catholic Campus Ministry Association). We chatted all about the job I applied for in Wilmington, North Carolina. And it just so happens that his best friend happens to be the bishop of Raleigh, who's in charge of all the campus ministries in the area....ahhhhh!!!! He was giving me tips on interviewing etc. At the end he put his arm around me and mentioned something about having a feeling he'd be seeing me soon. CRAZY!!!! So now I've just been waiting for the 919 area code to pop up on my cell phone. Sigh. It's just the first job I've applied for though. I can't get all worked up at this point . My job market will arrive in Feb.-April....so we'll see what happens!!!

ok, back to emails.... :)

Thanksgiving :)

Oh my goodness. Thanksgiving was simply lovely. It was sooooo wonderful to just hang out with the family and Michael and see how big Andrew, Elizabeth and Justin have gotten. And, although we were squished like Sniadowski Sardines at Kelly and Rob's, I think it just made the experience all that much better. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love that people get together for the simple reason of eating, being together and giving thanks for where we live, who lives with us and our small and large blessings. Is there a better way of celebrating what it means to be human and be in relationship with those around us??!?! mmmm......

Mom and I spent all day Friday "shopping" together. It was wonderful. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful mother. Yes, she is perhaps the one person I butt heads with the most, but she also the one person who has been my best role model, most comfortable shoulder to cry on, the one in whom I recognize myself the most, and who has taught me not only to forgive, respect, comfort and love, but how to so authentically be a woman for others.

After Thanksgiving, Mom, Daddy, Mike and I went shopping for Christmas trees. Mike decided he wanted the most Charlie Brown looking tree we could find, so we hastily made our way to the reject pile at Andersons. The following pictures are of Michael putting his beloved tree together. I think the hardest part of the whole thing was learning how to put together a tree stand. He also insists that only ONE ornament (a snow boarding turtle) be allowed to grace the tree....oh brother.....

North Carolina

Well, I applied for my first REAL job yesterday! At the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. And then I proceeded to dream about it last night....something about since I'm a woman I was supposed to apply with some statement about not being good enough for the job because you're supposed to be a man...I don't really know. Blah Blah Blah.

Anyways...this weekend I will be in the books and writing. Grrr. I have 2 more papers for this sememster and I want them done before I go home for THanksgiving. I'm so excited about Thanksgiving! Michael arrives here in Chicago next Thursday for his birthday surprise. He turns 23 on Friday! Crazy! (he's a young boy). I have a few surprises for him on Friday, none of which I can talk about here in case he reads this. :):):)

Ok...to the books!!

More Pictures from the Obama Rally

My roommate's state.

History

Well folks, history was made last night. We finally have a black man in office. Amazing. Who would have ever thought that the day would ever come. What a fantastic election race. No matter what, history was going to be made...a black man or a woman. Fantastic. It's so beautiful that our country can look past these physicalities and move into the 21st century. Good work America! Good work voters!

I attended the Obama rally last night here in Chicago. What an AMAZING experience. I walked a couple miles from class last night to the rally in Grant park. The park was divided into two: to the right were the ticket holders (by the stage where Obama spoke) and to the left were the non-ticket holders (that's me!) where people sat all across the lawn on blankets (what a BEAUTIFUL November evening!!) and spent the evening together watching the polls come through. My roommates Chrissy and Danette and I sat with several of our other friends just enjoying the occasion. Cheers roared up from the crowds for every blue state that popped on CNN's screen. And then....Obama was announced the president elect. The cheers rang out loud and clear and long. People rose to their feet. The energy was so exciting!

And then about an hour later, Mr. Barack Obama stepped on stage. Even though we couldn't see him in the flesh, the chills ran through my whole body. We had large screens in front of us that projected his image and we watched him give his acceptance speech, right there where we were. On of the coolest things was being able to hear his echo bounce off the buildings around us. We could hear his actual, live words, ya know?

We thought that leaving Grant Park would be a nightmare. But it was probably the best experience of the whole evening. They closed down all of Michigan Ave and the thousands of us just took to the streets. There was no riot. There was no shouting. There was no intense celebration. It was such a peaceful and contented couple mile walk through the streets of Chicago. There were police officers on every street corner and snipers on the tops of hte buildings that surrounded us, but the walk was so.....peaceful. I'm not sure how else to describe it. It was amazing. Thousands of content and peaceful people walking through deserted streets. THe only real noise was "the wave" of cheers that would roll through the street. From a mile behind us we could hear a low rumble starting and it would travel up the street a mile ahead to where we were walking and then move beyond and ahead of us to the crowd ahead. Such a cool experience.

I was so happy to be a part of this history-making.