What I'm Loving

This Wednesday I am Loving:

1.  My Grade on my Pre-calc exam!  I got a "B" which is much better than I thought.  We are also doing a lot of trig in the current chapters. 

2.  I FINALLY got my hair cut and my eyebrows waxed yesterday!  They look so much better now!

I had to take awkward car pics because it was raining and I wanted a pic before it got messed up!

3.  Zumba!!! I went again last night and will be going again tomorrow! It is so much fun and such a great workout!  My class is an hour long and usually at the end I'm like, seriously? its been an hour?   Highly recommend some Zumba!

4.  I paid off Josh's wedding band yesterday! :) 1 payment down 1000000 more to go haha!

5.  The new key holder I got from Kohls!  I am forever misplacing my keys, so Josh loved when I brought this home!

6. Finding out that I have more money then I thought left on my Kohls gift card : )

7. Some Pinterest finds this week

  

8. Josh has the next two days off :)

9. And of course I'm loving him :)

Travel Tuesday: Chicago

This is my first Travel Tuesday post!  I really hope to keep up with posting my past travels!

Chicago, IL

In 2004 the youth group at my church went on a missions trip to Chicago, IL to work with a group called Jesus People USA (JPUSA).  What a great organization!  We went over the summer, though I cant remember what month anymore, for a week.  Part of that week involved a road trip!  Yes, we drove from MD to IL.  We stopped somewhere around Sandusky, OH for sleep. 

When we got there, it was not what I expected.  It was in a bad neighborhood in a run down building. I had never really been in a city before (except Baltimore but we only went to the harbor) so it was kind of a culture shock for me.  I didn't grow up privileged but not as bad off as a lot of the people we were working with.  Until that point I didn't realized how bad poverty was in America. This was a huge learning experience for me and majorly put me out of my comfort zone.  I don't remember any series of even or anything because I didn't keep a journal on this trip (my only regret) but I can remember some experiences.

One of the things our youth pastor had us do was go to a clothing store that was like Good Will but only for clothing.  We had to find the best outfit we could for $5 or less.  When we got back to where we were staying we had a fashion show and voted on the best outfit.  I think a girl named Christina won, but I really can't remember.

Winner

Girls from my room

Another thing we were doing was putting rubber tire shreds down on the playground that the kids from JPUSA use.  They wanted that instead of mulch because it is safer.  The day we were supposed to do it we had a problem, there was still wire in the tire pieces so we had to wait for a delivery the next day.  When that finally came we got to work.  I remember we counted the buckets by this one black bucket (the others were white).  I don't remember how many buckets we passed through our line but we did reach 100 and got a picture.

Picking through the bags ... we gave up shortly after this

Right after the new tire pieces were delivered

100th Bucket

Our Group with Bucket #100, I'm in the white holding the bucket

I only remember a few other random things. One being an assignment given to us by my youth pastor.  We had to go up to the top floors of the building, knock on some doors and hang out with some elderly people.  We went in groups of three or four.  I went with my friends Liz, Brittney and Christina.  The first door we knocked on was unsuccessful, we got yelled at but the second guy was a man named Lenny.  He was the sweetest guy and he had a HUGE doll collection and so many stories to go along with them.  It was a good learning experience for me because before that I had a hard time talking to elderly people that were not my family. This experience helped me out big time in Europe (more on that later). We also helped the kitchen people cook and do other odds and ends around the building.  One more that I can remember was going to a halfway house that JPUSA runs and helping to clean.  4 of us got to go do that and the others stayed and helped out at the main building.

On the last night I remember going into the city of Chicago and seeing the Sears tower and some other sights and eating some deep dish pizza.

The Leaders and Our Youth Pastor

 Last few pics

Walking from our place to the main building

Our place that we stayed in

That is all I have for Chicago, like I said, my only regret was not keeping a journal so I could remember the trip better almost 10 years later. 

Tidewater Grille: Havre de Grace, Maryland

Josh and I wanted to try something new for one of our dates night last year.  We were actually going to go to the restaurant next door but the menu at Tidewater looked better.   I am so glad we did!  It was amazing and I can not wait to go back!

The Tidewater is located in Havre de Grace, MD and overlooks the Chesapeake Bay.  We were seated right by the water so our view was great.  Also, our server was so nice and everything came out perfectly!  I could rave about this place for hours!  Josh got the jumbo lump crab cakes which were amazing and he loved the asparagus. I got Crab and Chicken Dijon.  I wanted to try something that I wasn't sure I'd like just to try it.  I am SO glad I did! It was so delicious!  I recommend it to everyone who goes there!  I also got a drink called a Wildberry Bellini which our server recommended and it was delicious! 

I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone in the area. 

Before we went to dinner we walked along the promenade in HDG (a little boardwalk on the water) here are some pictures from that :)  The pictures are in no particular order. They are also from my phone, so sorry about the quality!