The very best weekend

What a fabulous time we had in Chicago. We got away, for the first time since Maia was born - probably a year and a half! - alone, without kids, OVERNIGHT. It was bliss. I missed them, of course, but knew they were in great hands with my parents, so we enjoyed ourselves fully. No glitches at all in the weekend. It was just perfect.

We did our escaping with Heather & Lee, our very dear friends. Heather, oh my goodness, she is the best. Truly one of my bestest friends in the world. She loves me for me, laughs at my not-always-so-funny jokes, and is never discerning. She, herself, is fabulous.

Saturday when we arrived, our tummies were growling, so we headed over to The Cheesecake Factory - one of our favorite places in the world. So we walk in, only have a 10 minute wait which is unreal for that place (I have had to wait 1-1/2 before!) and then all the sudden hear someone yell "VALERIE!". I look up and across the room is CERELLA!! OMG, ARE YOU FOR REAL?! What a fantastic surprise! I run over and she just arrived too, with her friend and co-worker, Sarah (owner of Bellasera Boutique). Cerella says "I knew it was you because of your hair!" And I said, "I knew it was you because of your hair!". Anyway, what are the chances?! Neither of us knew the other was going up. Just crazy, I tell ya!



Back to the Cheesecake Factory - splendid, as always. We had some very yummy drinks. I got one of my favorites from there, a J.W.'s PINK LEMONADE™. And while all of our food was to-die-for, we loved Neil's choosing the best (The CRISPY SPICY BEEF) and we all picked off his plate! (Neil is so good.) When we left TCF, the boys went to watch the Illinois game on TV and Heather and I shopped shopped shopped. I love H&M for my kids, so I found some great bargains there. Then we headed to J.Crew, one of our faves. Again, great bargains. I walked away with two cute pair of cargos (originally $68 each) and two comfy tank tops for $50 total! Then to Banana Republic we went, where we found great bargains yet again. Stocking hats for $5, and I got a pair of jeans and a pair of knee-length jean shorts, a cute white comfy tissue tee, and a matching undies set for $70 total - not bad. Seriously, if you have an H&M, J.Crew or BR near you, check out their sales right now. Excellent deals.

Lee had never been to Watertower Place, so we walked around there like looney-tunes because Lee and Neil, of course, drank 3 beers while watching the last 10 minutes of the game. But it was really fun. It was the best feeling to, once again, have no real responsibilities for a whole weekend. So we milked it for all it was worth.

Later that evening we headed over to the United Center. Lee had got us 5th ROW tickets to see the Chicago Bulls play Utah Jazz. What is so exciting about this is, not only did we have amazing seats, but we got to see some of our infamous Illinois players play! Well, we only saw one actually play but we did see them - Dee Brown and Deron Williams. Dee never played, but he did dress. Deron, however, started and then played the whole game till he fouled out at the end. While we were in Chicago and we do live just 3 hours away from where the Bulls play, we still rooted for Utah. You would not believe, either, all the orange and blue that was there. Probably a 1/4 of the crowd was in orange and rooting for our former Illinois players. It was neat to see.

Here is Dee and Deron both during warm-ups!


#8, Deron, Heather's "man"

Keep in mind that these pictures are not the best because it's just my point-and-shoot with limited capabilities!

We had the BEST time at the game. It was my 2nd NBA game; my first one was in Indiana to see the Pacers and we sat way way way up at the top. The 7 foot tall players looked like ants. So this was much more fun. Plus we were with Heather and Lee and we indulged in stadium food, which if you know me, you know that I rarely ever do that. But you only live once and I don't regret it at all. It was scrumptious! You can't beat nachos with lots of peppers, sweet potato fries and $6.50 beer!




So Utah came away winning. (I'm secretly saying "Yayyyyy!!!!") We saw a few other famous souls like Carlos Zambrano, the starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. He sat in front of us! And then a lot of former NBA stars, a few announcers for the next-days big Bears game, and the current Illinois head coach, Bruce Weber, was also there (we had better seats than he did!). It was just a really awesome time!

This is Carlos - a HUGE guy, he is 6'5" and 255 lbs!

Thanks guys for such a FABULOUS time! We will never forget it. Here's to our next adventure (- we're talking maybe a trip to a spa/golfing destination where the boys can golf and we can pamper ourselves!).


So now . . .back to my stay-at-home glory day. Back to reality!

I do want to add . . . we are going on another adventure tonight. I can't talk about it yet because I am not jinxing myself like I feel like I have done a lot lately, so cross your fingers for us that this (whatever "this" is) will work out so I can shortly tell all about it!