Interesting Night!

This is going to be a long story...

Last night (Friday) I was laying on the couch watching t.v. waiting for Kyle to get home from work . It was about 10:45pm and I knew that he should be home shortly. I heard what sounded like someone trying to enter a key into the lock of our door but really struggling. Sometimes Kyle fumbles around with the key because the lock can be hard to twist but this was kind of strange. I muted the t.v. and listened closely to what sounded like something other than a key being jiggled around in our lock. I quickly called Kyle and asked where he was, he said that he was driving home but traffic was a little heavy. I quietly explained in a panic that someone was at our door trying to get in. He told me to go make sure that the front and back doors were locked. It is hard to walk quietly in our apartment because the floors are so creaky but I slowly made my way to the front door and looked through the peep hole. (I was sweating so bad and I thought that my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I was definitely trying to figure out an escape route if necessary.) As I neared the door, I felt it inch forward a little like somebody pushed on it. Then I heard the dreaded noise, "Meow!" I hate cats! I tell Kyle not to worry, I think that it is a cat but he is still trying to rush home. When I finally see Kyle coming up the stairs through the peep hole I open the door. To my surprise, not one but three cats are standing outside the door and two quickly jet into our apartment. I scream for Kyle to get them out and hide in the bedroom. Then we start to wonder how three cats escape from an apartment without their owner knowing. We walk upstairs, cats in tow, and notice that the tenant's apartment door is open. It is now a little after 11:00pm so it is rather odd that her door is just hanging open. I knock loudly and yell her name...nothing. We notice that her t.v. is on, there are things knocked over in her entry way, and her t.v. cabinet is wide open. We start to think that maybe she got robbed and wonder if she is alright. Kyle knocks on the apartment across the hall to ask the lady if she has heard or seen anything and she says no. We question if we should enter the apartment but don't want to frighten anyone by walking in, on the other hand, we don't want the tenant to be hurt inside. So I yell rather loudly her name again. I hear, "Yeah, come on in." I tell her that her cats are out and her door is open. She comes around the corner with a blanket wrapped around her bottom half and says, "Hold on a minute, the door must have popped open". Kyle and I just pushed her cats inside and close the door. When we got back down to our apartment we laughed so hard because what started out as a very scary moment turned into something really weird.

Now we know why we hear so many things knock over up there...three cats prancing around! And you should see our Welcome mat. It is one of those scratchy ones that I am assuming the cats loved because there are shavings everywhere. Probably what I was hearing at the door.

I miss Christmas Break...

I made tons of great things over Christmas Break and really miss the freedom and time that I had for different projects. Is this semester over yet?

Not a great picture but it is a homemade pizza. I made a few batches of whole wheat pizza dough and it is very good!

Homemade Bread and dipping oil...I know you are jealous Dad!

Strata on Christmas Day morning. Maybe a new tradition.

Homemade Strawberry Jam in the bread machine. Delicious!

Kyle's favorite cookies: Cappuccino Crinkles
His mom gave me a book of all his favorites a few years ago and this was one!

Anyone hungry now?

Christmas in Iowa

We celebrated Christmas with our families last weekend back in Iowa. Although the drive is rather long, it was great to go back, relax, and spend some time with family. We hadn't been back to Kyle's parent's house since September 2007 and it was fun to play some games with them. We also got to visit my Lubinus grandparents and my two great-grandmas. After our trip with Kyle's family, we headed down to my sister's house for her birthday and then opened gifts with my dad and brother. Unfortunately my mom was near Chicago on a business trip...talk about planning that one out!

Here is my Grandma Lubinus, my Great-Grandma O'Brion, and myself. I have been told on several occasions that I am becoming more like my Grandma Lubinus everyday which is evident in our similar green sweaters!

Kyle and I got a kick out of the view from his parents house. Nothing like ours!

Celebrating Bethany's birthday at a local restaurant. Ethan wasn't too thrilled with the sombero and birthday song but the band continued anyway!

Ethan crashing through his block tower!

New Years Eve

We celebrated New Year's Eve at George and Liz's house (friends from small group) and were graciously joined by Reed, Bekah, and new baby Lina. It was fun to play some games and I thoroughly enjoyed my three tall glasses of Sprite (we never have it in the house so it was a great treat!).

Here is Kyle and Reed. We were playing Cranium Turbo and there is a part called 'sideshow' that requires one team member to act out the word by moving the other person's body. I am pretty sure that Reed was scuba diving.

Reed also brought 'Ricochet Robots'...don't ask me how to play, I just chatted

We also played 'Apples to Apples' which may be my new favorite game! I start school again tomorrow and am not too thrilled. Christmas break was not long enough this year, only two weeks, compared to the month and a half that I got off last year....blah!

Christmas Celebration and Walk

We decided to stay in Chicago for Christmas this year and go back to Iowa later in January due to Kyle's crazy holiday work hours. Our friends that we had over for Thanksgiving invited us over to their apartment for Christmas with their family. The weather had been kind of funky with a huge snow storm and then melting into massive puddles. Well....we just so happened to park in one of those puddles and walked out to our car on Christmas morning to discover that it was 'frozen' to the ground.

This is what our tire was in!

Here is Kelsey getting the ham out of the package.

On December 29th, my mom and I started our training for the Avon Breast Cancer walk in June. The walk is 39 miles over two days and I am pretty excited for it. The training is kind of intense but I know that if we keep working hard, it will definitely pay off in June. Kyle and I went for a five mile walk through Uptown and Andersonville the other day. If you don't remember, this is old 'hood'! I kind of gives me the heebee jeebees just thinking about living there again. I got him a new walking book for Christmas called 'Walking Chicago' since we have completed many of the walks from our 'City Walks' cards.

One of the three theaters in Uptown
Our old block: for real! The pictures does not show the history and details but let's just say we stick out like sore thumbs when we walk down this block. When they showed us our apartment for the first time, they took us around the block the other way so we didn't 'discover' this side of the block until the day that we signed our lease...hmm!
This was an interesting story. These are now condos but used to be part of the Edgewater Beach Resort before Lake Shore Drive took over the backyard. People used to come here for their vacation and the beach was in the backyard. There are a coral color but it was a downcast day so you can't see how bright they actually are.
Pretty church!