First Impressions

I have been in Illinois for exactly one month now. I figure that calls for another blog update, yes?

First thing we did when I arrived was go to Oberweis dairy. Now let me tell you a secret. Oberweis is the BEST place to get ice cream. Hands down. When we were kids, we would go there for "grade shakes." It was a reward for doing well in school. (remember how I grew up about 20 minutes away from where we live now...?) The night I arrived it was our reward for being reunited. And it was just as good as I remembered, plus extra goodness cause I got to share it with my sweetie.

The next day was Sunday. Church was smashing--I met tons of people, recognized one or two faces from Provo of all places, and enjoyed hearing Jared's stories about his nursery kids. Ask him about his puppy game, it's hilarious. One less thing to stress about knowing we are part of a good and welcoming ward.

Our apartment is about 5 miles away from the campus, and I decided that first day that even though I didn't know where anything was, I needed to stay out of the apartment and figure stuff out or else I would lose my nerve and never learn where anything was. Off I went and had a great day getting some stuff to beautify the home/ make it liveable, getting to know the area and exhausting myself. Now I'm glad I did that because I know where most everything important is. Note for mamma here: I finally found the closest McDonald's to our place. So when you come again we won't have to drive all over to get you a drink. ;)

Jared is loving school. He comes home from his clinical days so amped up about the work he gets to do on teeth. His other classes are hard, but he feels that BYU really prepared him well. He has made lots of friends (of course) and is already doing very well in all his classes. I'm even more excited about what the next few years will bring.

Italian Beef dip sandwich. The best comes from the Midwest. 

Chicago Hot Dogs. The ONLY way to eat a dog. 

We both love it in Chicago (although truthfully we are in the nearby suburbs). We live in a place called Westmont, about 20 min by train from the city. It's close to the airports also so anyone who comes to visit will be greeted in style by yours truly. Westmont has a cute little downtown about 3 blocks from our house, where the train station is. Downer's Grove, another suburb, is even cuter downtown and has quite a few more restaurants, we've sampled two so far and they are amazing, but of course, Chicago is famous for the food.

PORTILLO'S 

Speaking of, here's some photos of our first "date night" to a place called Portillo's. Classic Chicago style decor and food--we love this place, as you can tell from our faces. We've also gone for deep dish twice. It's a special occasion food. Special occasions are pretty much anytime a friend comes to visit. We've had quite a few special occasions.

I'm sad I haven't gotten pictures of them, but we've made a few friends here already, and the funny bit is that so far, they have been friends with other friends of ours. Some we saw only at church-Jeff and Sara here's to you, come again! Others, Austin!! we enjoyed pizza and ice cream with. We were so sad Steph couldn't make it too. Also Mamma came to visit! She has most of the photos, dagnabit, but we have the memories.

In sum: we love it here, the people are fabulous, the food is going to make us fat, the weather is PERFECT. (except Saturday when it was 37 and snowing and only the first weekend in October). The leaves are just starting to change colors, I'm busting out all my biggest sweaters, and still busting out of them--good thing this pregnancy is almost over. We are happy happy happy.