Happy May Day!!!

Today I spent the entire day with my bestest friend, Ginger!!!

I picked her up last night at O'Hare.  A couple funny moments to remember....

1. Circling arrivals 8 times.

2. Circling times 2 & 3 ~ I saw a young man wearing green {Think Crayons green} skinny dress pants that bordered on cropped pants.  It wasn't manly nor right...at all.

3. There a beautiful pink tulips near the Hilton signs.  The first sign has pale pink tulips and the second sign had two-toned tulips.  They were soo springy.

4. No matter how loud you laugh and carry on at Jason's Deli at 8 o'clock at night, they will not kick you out.  I feel as though our purpose for being there was to brighten their evening.  We shined!!!

This morning we had pedicure appointments at 9 a.m. which would've been fine and dandy had we not stayed up until the wee hours of the morning covering nearly every topic known to mankind.  { And I am a terrible friend to not take into consideration the time change for poor Ging.  Two hours.  7 a.m. felt like 5... } We kinda treated the sleepover like we were high schoolers at summer camp.  When the alarm went off at 6:30...well, let me just say there were some mathematical adjustments made because 7 a.m. was just fine.

Our nail appointment was at Phoenix Salon {formerly known as Serenity Salon}.  They got two new pedi chairs.  Massaging pedi chairs.  We soaked our feet and grabbed with our wonderful nail techs.

We opted for a matching coral-ish color. 

After pedicures, we decided to go see a movie...perhaps the new Muppets movie or Jonah {to critique it} or whatever else looked good.  The movie idea sounded like a good idea - however the theater isn't open during the weekdays until circa 12 'noon.  We were over an hour early and didn't feel much like waiting around so we ventured back to apartment where we chatted, had a snack-ish lunch, opened my birthday present, and watched Pride & Prejudice {the one with Kierra Knightly and that dreamy Matthew guy who played Mr. Darcy}.  Ginger had never watched Pride & Prejudice.  I, on the other hand, could probably quote it. 

After the movie wrapped up, we went out for a late lunch at Beef-A-Roo.  Pure yumminess for fast food. 

We made a quick stop at the health food store to try to find something for Ginger's plugged ear.  The health store guy was so nice and I like to think we {two crazy gals who have been separated by many-a-miles} made his day a little brighter and / or scared him.  Not really scared him...I don't think anyway.

We laughed.  We chatted.  We shared.  My cup runneth over...

What a lovely sort of Saturday....

What do you need to have a fabulous Saturday?

1. Your favorite girlies

2. Picnic lunch

3. A large body of water

4. Sunscreen (because we are smart girlies)

5. Laughter

6. A driver who is directionally challenged

Come to find out...said driver always stops 

at the Marathon because it seems that she has 

missed the lake.  Today we did not stop at said 

gas station to inquire about the whereabouts 

of the lake.  No worries - for the next trip, Miss Angie 

is well aware that the turn-off is IL Route 12!!!

I love Lake Geneva and I love that I had the opportunity to share the day with my favorite girlies.  :)  We laughed.  We people-watched.  The girlies taught Miss Angie that the white birds flying overhead are NOT called "Sea Gulls"....they are officially called from now until forever "Beach Chickens."  

The beach was under construction so we found a nice spot (semi-shaded) in the park adjacent to said beach.  It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday.  

Kind of a busy week...

The curly-haired girl has had kind of a busy week.  Who would've thunk?  I mean, her being single and all...

Actually I've had a GREAT week!!!  The first few days flew by in a blur...Monday and Tuesday went like this:  wake-up, work, pick up Ruthie, laugh while driving to the gym, work-out, take Ruthie home (laugh some more on the way to Emerald House), go home, sleep, wake-up....so on and so forth.  Wednesday had a little excitement - after work, I spent several hours with Jackson and Reagan.  FUNNY STORY:  Sooo I tell the munchkins, we have church tonight.  Reagan goes around saying "Ch-uch" (remove the "r") like a little parrot...over and over..."Chuch, Chuch, Chuch!"  (It was super cute, by the way.)  Jackson starts to get excited when I mention they are still watching those Creation videos....  We get shoes on, faces washed, and open the garage door only to discover NO KIDS SEATS!  Jackson looks up at me and I said, "Well, we are going to be staying here tonight."  He replies, "What a bummer!"  I love that kid!!!!  It was a bummer...but alas, we had a nice quiet evening. 

Thursday was really my Friday at work...as I had declared Friday, June 24th my first official summer mental health day!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It's not that I don't love my job because I really do.  It's just that I had alot going on for the past couple weeks...I just needed a weekday off!!!!  

Thursday night was coffee and pedicures.  Because here's the truth of just how much I love both of those...I will gladly babysit for pedicures and coffee.  And you see -- it's really win-win because Gloria gets both of those too!!!  I love it!!!!  Oh - I should tell you....in case you don't happen to see my fabulously painted toes -- they are ELEPHANTASTIC PINK!!!!  And truly they are the epitome of girly-girl pink!!!! 

Friday morning...oh bliss.  Slept in until 5:30.  Oh yes, 5:30 because some adorable little song bird thought it necessary to perch outside my bedroom window and sing me a song.  I was delighted when I felt Mags pounce of the bed and leap into the windowsill and meow like she was going to hunt that little bird for breakfast.  Apparently the bird could see the screen and knew it was not in immediate danger, so it kept right on singing.  After about 10 minutes of laying there and wishing an evil death to said bird (and I know birds can get gout which I imagine would suffice as an "evil death"), I got up.  It's not worth it to lay there and hope to fall back to sleep.  I clicked the coffeemaker on and began my day.

Since I was up sooo early, I determined to go to the gym first thing.  I made my way there around 7:00...my machine (like my name is on it or something) was available.  Yeah!!!!  Did you know that your body really only needs 30 to 40 minutes of cardio every work-out?  I never knew until the personal trainer informed me.  Yeah -- cut out 20 to 30 minutes of my time at the gym daily?  SWEET!!!!!

I'm the kind of girl that would much rather do cardio and some weights...I don't like working-out to the point of pain.  I read in Eat Right for Your Bloodtype that each bloodtype has a type of exercise that works best for its individual body.  My A+ bloodtype likes low-key exercise which is most beneficial.  By "low-key" they mean walking, yoga, light cardio, etc.  I love it that God gave me a bloodtype that benefits from doing the type of working-out that I LOVE TO DO!!!!!  He's sooo wonderful.  :)

After working-out, I came home and got ready for lunch over in Freeport.  My friend Barb had a free lunchtime and I suggested we have lunch on my mental health day.  Freeport is about 25 miles from Rockford.  It was a nice drive over there on 20.  I got to her office about quarter - to - 12.  I got a quick tour of her office -- and saw how absolutely nice her office really is.  (wink-wink)  We enjoyed a nice light lunch at Higher Grounds.  I did splurge once more on a small Iced Strawberry Delight Latte -- it's the one from last week when I went thrifting/garage sale-ing with Sara.  It's a good thing Higher Grounds is not in Rockford...lest I be tempted to fall off the NO SHUGGA diet for the love of that Strawberry Delight. 

After lunch, I made a quick stop at the Freeport Goodwill hoping against hope that the brown Dress Barn dress that I left hanging on the rack would still be there...  As soon as I got to the door and saw that yellow tags were half-off, I knew the dress was gone.  For some reason, I remember that the dress had a yellow tag because last week, I thought to myself, If only yellow tags were half off, I would totally purchase this dress.  But $6 for a dress that's going to hang in my closet and not be worn every Sunday....I will let some other fabulous girl get this gem.  Well, she did.  And I left the thrift praying, Lord, that dress wasn't meant to be.  Please lead me to a fabulous dress for Lauren's wedding.  Amen. 

Upon returning to Rockford, I immediately headed out of town, the opposite direction, with Ruthie and Shirley.  We went to the Aurora outlets.  They each had items to return and I just went along to windowshop.  It was quite fun!!!  Those two are hysterical.  Ruthie and her coral shoes and how everything would match them.  Shirley and I just cracking-up at Ruthie and those shoes.  I didn't find one thing that I couldn't live without.  After shopping we went to this cute restaurant, Ack-N-Lou's.  It was an Italian hole-in-the-wall.  Too be honest, I was totally nervous about eating there....but the lady behind the counter, reassured me that their crust had a minimal amount of gluten and unprocessed wheat in the dough.  I took a chance and had the BBQ chicken personal pizza...and was it ever deeee-lish!  It didn't make me feel too bad.  It did kind of react with my system but not with a migraine.  I was extremely thankful!!!! 

We got back to Rockford around 9-ish...I picked up coffee creamer and came to the cottage with a thankful heart for my wonderful mental health day!!! 

I love it that I'm the kind of girl that likes to take random days off.  I don't have to take an entire week to enjoy myself.  I just need a Friday where I can work-out, do a little stalking, enjoy lunch with a new friend, and spend time with old friends laughing.

I'm soo thankful for my simple sort-of life. 

~ Angie

P.S. I just realized that NEXT WEEKEND IS A LOOOOONG WEEKEND TOO!!!!!!!  It's exhausting being this fabulous.  :)