Charley at the Beach

Charley had her first trip to the beach in Beverly Shores, Indiana on June 20th!  Her first sleepover, too - we were at Lex's dad's house.

Look at those little pink feet sticking out!

Olive LOVES rolling over and over in the sand!

Lenny and Olive had a great time, too!  I haven't seen them that happy - well - ever!

City dogs need to be reminded to take their flea and tick medication. We found one on Olive a week later, and I found a HUGE tick on her just 2 days ago!  Whoops!

Just some photos of Lenny loving winter.

Lenny and Olive

Although they can be a pain in the butt, I sure love these pups of ours.  Lenny has decided its fun to destroy window air conditioner units....yea!  But they're still pretty cute.

Small Medium & Large!

Hello February!

Man it is FREEZING outside!  Like so cold that after our garage door broke (bad and old sensors) the actual door to get into the garage froze!
When it is this cold all I want in life is soup, and I found an awesome recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I'm a sucker for chard, sausage and garlic - as well as lentils so it is totally in my wheelhouse!

And the dogs are saying chill, too:

 Doesn't Lenny's paw look like it has an angry rooster face?  Or is it just me and too many Daisy Cutters?

Olive was totally over our dance party last night:  Bill and I are up to 5 action packed hours of sweet jams for our Valentines Day Party!

Summer, oh summer.

I feel like at least 60% of this blog is about how slowly or quickly life is moving by.  Its pretty lame.  So I'm just going to enjoy the 100 degree days we have had, hide my sadness of summer being half over (ahem) and be looking forward to everything else.
Coming up:  Mackie, Amy, Mom, Dad, Joshie and Sammie and heading to Milwaukee on Friday for an old fashion Ford Family trip!  It should be super awesome, I'm stoked.  We're going to the Sprecher Brewery for a tour, then to Art Smart's Dart Mart Juggling Emporium, not because I juggle but because its rad, then to Maders Restaurant for lunch.  Then on Sunday Mackie, Mary-Frances and I are taking our first ever girls trip!  We're going to to Wisconsin, and heading to Lake Lawn in Delevan, WI.

I wish Bill and I could afford to go somewhere this year, but once again its out of the question.  It sucks.

Anyway,  here are some thing that have happened this summer, all in photos, of course.

 My CSA from Angelic Organics - Yum!

 Some crazy chick on the back of a motorcycle on the Kennedy - WTF!

 BINGO with my neighbor friends - super fun!

 Lenny and Olive, cute as can be!

 Grilling with my neighbor Kyle - July 3rd 2012

 The loves of my life - my gorgeous, happy and healthy tomato plants!

 The most awesome pretzel ever at Genes Sausage Shop in Lincoln Square!

 Cute Face Lenny Alevizos!

 My first encounter with fancy ass doughnuts from Do Rite Donuts.

 Lex - looking dapper.

 Bill at Pitchfork.

 The good old Roseanne Family.

Planning meeting for Women In Film - the events I'm planning.

And there goes summer!

How on earth, is it that when you feel like as a kid that summer goes so fast, but as an adult it goes faster? Well, I lost my cord for my camera, and it was a teeny, tiny cord, so I had to do some fast magic to download these pictures.  Anyway, here is the rest of the summer is summary.
Work was mellow during the summer, now we have two new creative liaisons that started in the portfolio center and thus far, barely two weeks it seem to be working out ok.
However, here is the real reacap on life.

My lovely friend Amanda's birthday party!  She's third from the right and one of the coolest people ever.

John & Kadima's engagement party at the Bristol Renaissance Faire....amazing as you assume.

Bill and I at the Ren Faire, what a great and awesome engagement party!

Our lovely Christian and his girlfriend Jackie moved to Miami, and this was his going away party. He is a crazy talented cinematographer, and just a wonderful guy.  He worked at Sip Coffee House and we have known him for at least 5 years.  Hell of a guy, super sad that they moved.    But they're doing well in Miami, for now!

 Oh how I love Denise and Colleen, our downstairs neighbors.  This is Denise at her birthday party, straight off the trolley.  We are honestly blessed to have instant, awesome and amazing great people right downstairs.  It made the summer even funner, and makes it even harder for us to move!

Mr. Bob Sage was in town, Bill's best dude.  He's awesome, and a lovely man who is crazy smart and a wonderful person.  It was so great to have him around for a few days, Bill was over the moon with him in town!

 Ryan and Harper about to eat their birthday cake!

 How are these girls so grown up?  Sofia and Zoe with little Jimmy.  How in the world is Zoe a freshman?  I'm not ready!  I'm not ready!

 News flash!!!!! This hat is going to be on everyone's Christmas list this year!  I mean, how can you not want an Alevizos hat!!!!!!!

Our little bunny Jimmy.  check out those smudge legs!  I love him!  What a joy he is!
Hmm....anything else?  Lets see.  Work. Summer. Love.  Oh wait, sleeping dogs!

How can you not love those faces????

Summer is already half way over?

This month always goes too fast.  I love the heat and stickiness -  believe it or not - but this the month for West Fest, Pitchfork, Dad's Birthday, and the Bristol Renissance Faire. 
As I write this, West Fest has come and gone, along with Lex's "Rager" that coincided.

Frankie, Shipwreck, Me + Lex

The Carmona's were in town for a week for David's Grandma's memorial, but they had so much family stuff I only got to spend an hour with them.  They did have a great trip, and I'm happy I got one hour, its better then zero!

Carmona's

My dad's birthday was  too mellow, just went to lunch in Naperville at Schmaltz's.
Olive got extremely sick and $2500 later thank god she is ok.  She ate 1/2 a bottle of ibuprofen which can cause kidney and liver failure.  Thank goodness the vet called today, and she is 100% a-ok.  It terrified us, and it was all our fault for leaving it on the counter.  I'm also grateful for pet insurance.

Olive relaxing.

Pitchfork was fun, we had VIP again this year, but I mainly ran into co-workers, which was fine, just unexpected. 

Hipster at Pitchfork. They're everywhere.

Next up is John & Kadima's Engagement party, which will actually be at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. 
Todd, Mackie, Darren, Bill and I are going, and I can't WAIT.
I need this kind of fun, especially since they are selling our house, and Bill and I don't have a lease, and if someone wants to buy it we're on the street.  Oh, Our Lovely Home.  We went through the steps to get a pre-approval for a mortgage, but its just not for much money.  I wish we could predict the future so we knew if just an investor was buying it and we didn't have to rush, or if a house we bought was a total money pit and we should rent, or if we can just relax for once and know how long we will be there. 

I think the focus of the rest of the summer is just relaxing.  I have a wonderful yoga class Wednesdays that I totally embrace, I love my Summer CSA of Veggies, I have great friends and fun things coming up, and everything is ok.  For my final photo, please enjoy Olive + Lenny in the giant hole he dug, laying butt to butt.

Lenny and Olive laying Butt to Butt!