April travels, celebrations, and a tutu

Bart and I decided that a weekend getaway was just what we needed so we packed up and headed to Saugatuck, Michigan for the weekend.  The weekend was wonderful, lots of walking around, having some drinks, and catching up on some zzzzzz's was just what we needed. 

Our first stop was at the local brewery where we sampled all the beers and started our relaxation.

On the way to work the morning we left, our jeep's heater stopped working - the weekend was supposed to be chilly so we didn't want to risk no heat.  Bart took the jeep into the dealership and this is what they gave us to drive for the weekend... a BRIGHT RED MINIVAN!  Bart thought it was hilarious to consistently yell "KIDS QUIET DOWN BACK THERE" I guess he's practicing for the future?!?!

The shops in Saugatuck have some real interesting things you can buy.  While we didn't purchase either of these, Bart found them soooo hysterical that he had to photograph them.  Um... easily amused...

One of my favorite parts of the city is climbing the 13 flights of stairs.  You get to work off a couple of calories you gain while eating all the wonderful food this town has to offer.  Bart was not as amused with this little venture...

BUT WE MADE IT TO THE TOP :-)

After insisting on working in some exercising, we decided to stop for a drink.  This restaurant had paper and crayons on the tables... note the ghost that I drew with a "BOO" and then note Bart's Pacman coming to gobble it up :-(.  He also said I have a problem because I was drawing fruit... I think that's perfectly normal, I mean its circles - who can mess up coloring grapes????

I have no words for this picture...

We had a wonderful weekend away, returned home and got our Jeep back (had to pry that red minivan out of Bart's hands though... he was really starting to like that thing). 

The next weekend was my friend Crystal's bridal shower and bachelorette party.  We had a shower during the day and then met up for dinner, drinks, and a crazy bus ride that evening.  The best part is it was 80's themed... I love love love me a themed party!!!  Not only was my outfit AMAZING, it was also quite bright out in the sunlight...

I know you're impressed... I was too!  Those leggings will make an appearance again... maybe at the gym and that tutu... a forever Halloween costume.


The next week we were able to catch up with friends at RPM Italian.  RPM has quickly become one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago.  It is owned by Guilanna & Bill Rancic and is small plate Italian so you get to order a lot of different dishes and try them all!  This was our 2nd time there... each was about a two month wait to get a reservation... both were totally worth it!!  I strongly recommend it!

Bobby, George, me and Bart

Izik is one of my good friends and has appeared in a couple of my blogs now (for those of you fans out there).  I love getting the opportunity to hang out with Izik and Matt, we always know we will have a great time!  We gathered together for a Friday night happy hour to celebrate Izik's birthday.

Matt, Izik, Bart & I - terrible picture but its all we had :-)

Afterwards we stopped at Toby Keith's bar - it was actually really awesome!  I can't wait to go back and listen to some good ol country music!

New Friends... Same family... and one ugly beard!

So much has gone on since my last blog - I'm going to attempt a quick re-cap and not to bore you with all the details.  I've been crazy busy at work lately with and haven't felt like my typical whitty blogging self - so bare with me.  I'll walk you through some of our crazy life.  I wouldn't change a second of it.  Sometime Bart and I get worn out from consistently having plans but really we just love seeing our friends and going through all these experiences together!


After my last blog of Mom and Joe coming to visit us - we got a bonus visit!  My sister in law went to NY to see her sister so my brother, Josh, piled my BOOGIE (aka. best nephew in the existence of the world) into his batmobile and drove home to Iowa.  Josh, Charlie, Mom, Joe and I spent the weekend together.  It was WONDERFUL to get the bonus time with my wonderful nephew (ok.. and my brother...).  Below is a pic of us in a friendly sibling snowball fight.  I'm sorry to say that Charlie has a better arm than I do... wonder where he got those genes...

To celebrate St. Pattys day, our friend James joined us in Chicago for the festivities!  We started off at Sunrise with breakfast to give us a good base.  Then we met up at the river with Rick, Izik and Matt.

After the freezing trip to the river, we hit up a nice and cozy Irish pub (I mean where else would we go?!?!)  Take a look at Bart's beard below... he took that from someone at the bar and has insisted we keep it for next year.  Lord... help me to accept the things I cannot change....



 Izik, Matt, Monica, Bart (in a hideous beard)

 Me and my boo

 What?!?!

James and Monica

Some of Bart's college friends were gathering in Milwaukee, we made the jaunt up to have dinner, drinks and story telling hour(s).  This was such a great group... we had so much fun!  I can't wait to see this group again!  Thank goodness for Bart's love for driving because when we got in the car at midnight for the 1.5 hour drive home, I promptly feel asleep and woke up about 5 minutes before we got home.  Thank you baby for getting us home!

Jen, Tony, Jason, Bart - squirly group!!

The next weekend we made another trip to Milwaukee for Easter.  I attended my first Sitarski/Scott/Murphy Easter.  We ate too much had had some great laughs!  We are so blessed to have two wonderful families!

Cousin Pic!



In the spirits of friends and fun, Bart and I had a great dinner with Dan and Amanda Donato.  Dan is one of Bart's groomsmen and I had yet to meet him!  Dan and Amanda are such wonderful people!  I'm sooooo happy they are a part of our big day!  I look forward to many many more nights with the beautiful Amanda and having these two to teach us all of the family life lessons!

The beautiful Donatos: Amanda & Dan

Dan & Bartosz

All in all February and March were very busy and entertaining months!  Welcome to the craziness of our happy lives :-).

Wedding Planning and a Pub Crawl

Last weekend my parents came to visit!  We always know it is going to be a fun time but this time we needed to finalize some important business!  I took time prior to my parents coming to prepare for our family meeting and while I had the four of us in the same room, I wanted to tackle and finalize some of the wedding details.  I had print outs and a plan... cuff them to the chairs and fill them full of booze until everything is completed!!

Mom and Joe got to the city about 9pm, we quickly poured our drinks and got down to business.  The first topic was guest list.  I would have to say the guest list has been the most stressful part of the wedding planning thus far.  Our venue (and budget) allows for a wedding that is on the smaller side.  This is not an easy task when you are combining families and friends of two very social people.  I must say my step dad was the cutest man ever during this process.  He had his little glasses on the end of his nose and took notes of everything!  I just loved it!!  After tackling that daunting task, we moved onto the alcohol list - this was much more fun!  Then, I brought up all the little projects I need help with.  My plan was to give the tasks early giving plenty of time for completion - it worked :-)  We now have lots and lots of projects over the next few months.  When all was said and done, I even got a "thanks babe I really felt like I had a say in our wedding planning" from Bart - SUCCESS ALL AROUND!

With that out of the way, Saturday we decided to make into a pub crawl!  We made it through 5 bars and about 10 hours.  First we stopped at Half Acre Brewery and checked out their tap room.

Next, we stopped for some nachos at MacNamaras in Iriving Park and then headed to the High Dive - the place Bart & I got engaged.  All four of us did cram into the photo booth - ask us to see those pictures some day... they're freaking HILARIOUS!!!! 

A trip to the Beetle to sit by the fireplace and then onto Archies before making it home.  It was a really fun day with lots of laughs!  Sunday, Joe went home to work (poor guy) and Mom, Bart and I laid on the couch and relaxed for the majority of the day.  Monday we dropped Mom off at the Trump towers for a meeting.

Its always soooooo great to have Mom and Joe around and its always sooooo hard to say goodbye and sad when we all leave each other!  I'm really looking forward to this year and all the things we have planned... hopefully a trip to Springfield, Iowa engagement party, Iowa City for a Hawkeye game, the wedding and hopefully much much more!!

Its.... A NEW CAR

Bart and I made our first big purchase... A NEW CAR!  Since we work together and live together we rarley ever used one of our cars... so we made the BIG decision to trade in BOTH and only get ONE!!!  Bart did so much research before making any decisions, I now know what it feels like to be Bart listening about the wedding!  I will say that I've missed having an SUV and when we make trips to Wisconsin or Iowa (especially around the holidays) it will be nice to have the extra room!  Welcome to the family Betty the Black Beauty :-)

New Year, New Roommate, New Project Plan

Happy New Year everyone!!  Bart and I had a wonderful first New Years together!  We worked from home that day and I made a big spaghetti dinner to ensure a good base before a long night of drinking.  Our friend Nicole came over to dine with us and we toasted some delicious bubbly from our friend Amanda (great holiday/engagement present Amanda!!).  After dinner, we took off to hit the town.  We met up with Crystal, John, Ashley, Jason, Jenn and the crew in Wrigleyville.  They throw such a great party by renting out the top of a bar... no lines... no cover... no crowds!  Bart and I tore up the dance floor before heading out to Robert's party.  We made it all the way until 4am!  See this old almost-married couple can still party!  The next day was pretty rough but a fun way to start out the New Year regardless!

Speaking of almost-married... the wedding planning is in full force!  I decided we are having fun planning this wedding and my mother has made it her mission to make this as stress free as possible!! We have secured our venue, DJ, photo booth, photographer, Save the Dates ordered and I GOT MY DRESS!  The big things left are the caterer, florist and decorations.  One month, an incredible project plan and almost done planning... SUCCESS!

So.... wedding dress shopping... of everything on my list the dress is the one thing that I was dreading!  I mean sample sizes are a SIZE 8... I am not a size 8... and I've been in so many weddings and seen so many of my beautiful friends in amazing wedding dresses... how the hell would I ever find one dress that stood out from all of those and in my budget and that doesn't make me look hideous.  I've been non-stop watching "Say Yes to the Dress" for a month to get ideas.  I went into this appointment with zero expectations of anything.  Mom drove all the way here on a Sunday to go shopping with me.  The attendant let us pull dresses and Mom was on a ROLL... she was pulling beautiful dresses that I would have never known to pick. 

I was probably the most unemotional bride trying on dresses and to tell you the absolute truth... I could have gotten married in 5 of the 10 dresses I tried on and been completely happy!  Mom just kept saying WOW with every dress I tried on.  I quickly began to pick apart every section of my body in the mirrors.. in my head I just kept seeing big love handles and flabby arms and hips.  When I first put on the dress I bought I really liked it, it was nothing like I would have thought I would have bought but as I tried back on the other dresses I liked, nothing compared to that dress.  My dress kicked every other dress' ASS!  Its a Carry Bradshaw dress.. its a wow dress... and its nothing like any dress I've ever seen.  They even had a sale, 20% off, $75 off alterations, and a free veil!  I love getting a good deal!  Mom and I made a promise that we would be the only people that see the dress (or me in it) until the wedding :-).  Best.Mom.Ever!

In other news, Bart moved the rest of his stuff into the apartment - my home is officially our home and it feels so good!  We even opened a joint checking account to pay bills from, so grown up of us :-).  I'm so in love with that man.  The other day he was super sleepy and looked at me and goes "you're my best friend"... it was the CUTEST thing I've ever heard!  I'm so lucky!  Oh and I'm so excited... I'm a HUGE Guilianna and Bill Rancic fan and we're going to RPM Italian for our 6 month anniversary!  We have had this reservation for like 3 months!  I'll let you know all about it!

I think 2013 is going to be the best year ever!!!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This year's Christmas celebrations were filled with family, travels, fun and laughter.  Being our first Christmas together we got to learn each other's families traditions.  Christmas is my favorite time of year and its great to add more people to celebrate it with!

Friday night we ventured out to the suburbs to enjoy pizza and pasta with the McKay family.  It was great to make Tamara laugh and to be a human jungle gym to some of my favorite little munchkins!  Bart brought new beers to try out with his new "man-friend" Rob. 

Saturday morning we packed up, enjoyed some coffee and hit the road to Milwaukee.  We arrived, checked into our hotel and headed to the Sitarski residence.  Bart's mom, Marzena, had the place all decorated and the food all prepped.  I got to help set the dinner table which (as dumb as it sounds) is really sentimental to me because I always set my mom's table at Thanksgiving - isn't funny how the littlest things make us feel like family?  We took a quick tour through a speciality car lot with Bart's dad before celebrating the festivities.  The rest of the Sitarski/Scott/Murphy clan joined us for a wonderful celebration.

At dinner I learned some Polish traditions - first, its a tradition to eat seafood at Christmas - if you know me you know what seafood does to me, Marzena broke the tradition and had some non-seafood options for yours truly (THANK GOODNESS)!  We also did a "toast" with a wafer called "Oplatek" where you give Christmas wishes and break off a piece of each other's wafer.  The Sitarskis also always set an extra place setting just in case someone doesn't have a place to go and a mystery guest appears.  My family is constantly inviting people along for holidays so I really love and appreciated this tradition.  The other thing I learned about this family is their ability to SPOIL each other at Christmas.  Anna played "elf" and passed out all the presents and it was a crazy free for all - tissue paper flying, people yelling in excitement, lots of kissing and thank yous - it was a wonderful experience!  I cannot that the family enough for making me feel so included.

 Bart and his parents.

 Ciocia and Wojek (aunt and uncle)

 Laura and Andrew had a dance party

Sunday we went to breakfast with Bart's parents and then hit the road towards Iowa.  Mom and Joe were eagerly awaiting our arrival.  Mom and Joe had a couple of engagement surprises for us - including an adult sized blanket mom made - I've been asking her for one for awhile and have used it every night - sorry Bart and Tabby but I've claimed it!  After a couple engagement cheers, we headed to see the family at Kyle and Kelly's house, so glad we got to see them prior to their Texas Christmas.

We met up with Crissy and Jeff at Courtside where my sweet MOH was one cave-in down.  I love love love my Crissy after a couple of drinks :-)  Something about being with that girl makes me feel like I'm 10 years old again!  A "quick" stop at the Durango Depot and we headed home.  Next time I MUST be better about taking pictures - I can't find my camera... can you tell???

Now for Bart to learn a couple Christmas traditions...  Since 1990, we've had this tradition where the first person to wake up on Christmas Eve morning can shower and then wakes up everyone else to go to Perkins for breakfast.  Over the years I think I've been awake first maybe NEVER and honestly I've give up trying.  Mom, Bart and I went to Perkins and had our traditional breakfast.  When Joe got home from work we opened presents at Mom's.  Unlike the Sitarski residence, the O'Meara residence has a very strategic way to open presents, we go youngest to oldest (guess who made that rule) and open one present at a time so we can each see what each other got!  Bart could not believe the amount of presents and how giving my parents are on this crazy holiday.  Mom ALWAYS goes way over board and spoils the crap out of us!  I was lucky and got TWO little blue boxes this year as well as many many other perfect presents.  The best part about Christmas is being together and spending time with family, but there is NOTHING better than the look on someone's face when they open their presents that you took so much time to find (or click "add to cart").



 Me and my fiance

 Mom and Joe

We headed into Grandma and Grandpa Neumann's house for another celebration!  We ate prime rib and played a few games of "Right, Left, Center" and "Shit on your neighbor".  We then went on our traditional tour of the Dubuque lights including the festival of lights.  A quick skype with Josh, Alice, and Charlie (God my Boogie is the CUTEST little nephew) and Ty, Lauren, Kyle, and Kelly made our holidays complete!

Another round of presents left our trunk quite full!  Christmas morning we woke up to a gift from Santa and then hit the road back to Chicago.  We cleaned up all the decorations, put everything away, did laundry and then headed to Chinatown for a anti-Christmas dinner.  There is nothing better to me than being home for Christmas, like every year, its so hard for me to leave and I think I spent the rest of the day being crabby that I had to go back to Chicago.  Bart and I talk a lot about Christmas in the future and I keep saying "well you can come with me or we will spend it separate" which I know isn't fair (and typical bratty Monica), we will find our balance in the future but I'm so happy it worked out this way this year and we got to see everything and everyone, experiencing each other's traditions and enjoying the holidays.

A big thank you to everyone and I can't wait to see you all again soon!!!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Saturday afternoon we stepped out as our first time as an engaged couple to an Ugly Sweater Party!  We had been planning our outfits for weeks and were so excited to finally show them off! 

Yep ladies - this is my fiance :-)

Not that I look much better...

Crystal and John - they're always so adorable and crafty - each made their tops!!  I <3 these="these" two="two">

We won the award for "Best Couple" :-)

This is Comer and Bob - I think they could have given us a run for our money in the "best couple" department!

This is where the ironic part comes in!  If you read my previous blog: Holy Shit! I said Yes!, you will have read about a couple on their 3rd date that was sitting in the booth next to us when we got engaged...  we walk into the bar InnJoy for the party and guess who is there????  ERIN AND MATT!!  This is so crazy!  We apologized over and over for how we could have ruined their dating life but they quickly informed us they were happy for us and loved being apart of our story.  They had even been sharing our story all day with their families and friends - its such a small world!!!

Sweet Crystal!

At some point Bart changed hats and Crystal wanted to snuggle with us :-)

It was such a great night with great friends!  Happy Holidays everyone!