My Brute online mini-game thingy

My sister introduced us to this the other day, and it's actually kind of fun. You just put in a name, and click on people to fight them. The frustrating thing is that you can only do a few each day.


My person is
http://chi-ri.mybrute.com

Mel is
http://rymel.mybrute.com


Go to one or both and enter a new person's name to create someone and then fight us. No email or personal information required! Just pick a name and click fight!

Maybe we'll make it a challenge between me and Mel to see who can get the most to join? Pick me, pick me!!!

Lincoln Park Zoo!

The weather has really started to warm up, so on Saturday Ryan and I went to the zoo! It was a lot of fun just to be outside walking around and looking at all the animals together. Here are some of the animals to be found in Lincoln Park Zoo:

I hope you can tell what most of the animals are even if the pictures are somewhat small. It was a really great time to visit, most the animals were outside since the weather was so great. Ryan posed by a couple different animals: the warthogs and the monkeys (his choice! But kind of funny considering he has quite a bit in common with both:)

The Endangered Species Carousel.

Ryan and Mel at the Lincoln Park Zoo!

Rain, Rain, Go Away! Come again another day.

It's been raining in Chicago for the past 3 days. I know the saying goes "April showers bring May flowers!" but enough rain already. Okay, admittedly I don't mind the rain that much.

What I do mind is having to keep buying umbrella's. Because it's so windy here in Chicago, most of our umbrella's have been ruined by the wind. And those that I've managed to keep in good condition, I lose on the bus:(

I guess I'm just ready for all the changes May will bring. Not only the change in weather, but our move to Alexandria and Ryan finishing school. This is actually Ryan's last week of classes, ever! He's done an amazing job with his education and will do an amazing job with his career.

Happy Easter!

We hope everyone had a Happy Easter yesterday. We definitely miss being close to family, especially around the holidays. This weekend we had our Easter Dinner a little early. We went out Friday night to the Cheesecake Factory! It was delicious. Mmmhmm!

We had a great Easter Sunday. We went to stake conference, then came home and dyed eggs. Here are a few pictures of our colorful eggs:)

Update

Well, we got our apartment situation figured out. That means we will indeed be moving to Virginia the end of May AND have a place to live! It's nice to have that taken care of, now we just need to pack, clean, get a moving truck, change our address, cancel utilities and other things, say goodbye to friends, etc. And that's just the stuff to do before we leave- we'll have just as much to do when we get there. I never knew there were so many things that go into moving. I guess we are picking up our lives and taking them somewhere else. But no matter the hassle, we are both very excited to move.

Now onto more important news:
I am the winner!!! I won the NCAA bracket against all the Crockett's! Ha! Though my team didn't win the championship, at least they were in the championship game:) I had 44 picks right:) Booyah! I'm number 1, I'm number 1!

In other news:
Ryan passed the MPRE exam.
Both Ryan and Melanie are training to run the Wisconsin half-marathon on May 2nd.
And Mel only has 27 more days of work!

Safety First!

I received the following email today at work:

Security Alert

At 5:05 p.m., Thursday, April 2- A man, 18, standing on the sidewalk with several acquaintances on Cottage Grove Avenue between 61st and 62nd Street was fatally shot by an unknown assailant.

At 8:50 p.m., Friday, April 3 - A woman, 18, her male companion, 18, and a one year-old child in a car stopped at a traffic signal at 61st and Cottage Grove were shot at by the unknown occupants of a white, 4-door Pontiac Grand Am that pulled up next to their car. The shot shattered the rear door window, but no one was injured.

At 12:40 a.m., Saturday, April 4 - A man, 28, was fatally shot in the street near his residence, just south of the UCPD patrol area, on Ingleside between 64th and 65th Street.

Police are seeking suspects in all three cases at this time. Police believe at least two of the cases are gang-related.

And it continues on. I usually get an email like this one at least once a month, sometimes more. It's kind of scary because it's a common occurrence and I usually don't think twice about it, and am sure most people don't unless they know the victim. The areas named are close to my work and our apartment, but life goes on as normal. In fact, I probably wouldn't even know about these crimes that happen other than the security emails I get at work. It really is frightening how often things like this happen and how people are so evil to take another's life. And how easily it's accomplished. I can't decide if it's a good thing that most of us live in ignorance. I mean, how real is an email saying this happened compared to seeing it happen, or being the one it's happening to? It's a good reminder to always be smart and put your safety first. Hopefully I'll continue to live in ignorance.

Spring Break- Washington D.C.

For the second half of our spring break, Ryan and I went to Virginia. Since we're moving there in May, we wanted to find a place to live. We looked around at a lot of different apartment complexes and found one that we really liked and that fit in our budget, The Aspen Apartments. We applied for the apartment and paid the holding and processing fees. We thought we were all set, until I faxed our latest pay statements and Ryan's job offer letter, proving we have appropriate income. That's when they informed us that they cannot hold the apartment for us and cannot let us move in until we are actually employed in the DC area. They won't let us move in for June and July because Ryan's job doesn't start until August. Even though Ryan has a really good job starting August and we've offered to pay in advance until then, they just won't let us move in. They said we are welcome to apply for an apartment for August, but they just can't make exceptions to their policy. Whatever! I just want to know if anyone has ever heard of this before. Or why in the world you would have such a policy when we are obviously good for the money and will have a job there in 2 short months after we move in. Any advice?
They did tell us that we could have a co-signer that isn't employed in the DC area as long as they make 72 times what our rent is. Um, that's quite a bit of money and I'm not sure I know anyone who makes that much. Or at least know them on a "Hey, want to co-sign for an apartment" kind of way. Anyway, we're in the process of talking with them and trying to figure it out. Yes, it might just be easier to move elsewhere, but we like this place and are no longer in Virginia to look elsewhere. And we'd lose money in the process since some of what we paid is non-refundable (though we should get everything back because we never would have applied for an apartment we didn't qualify for if they'd informed us of such a stupid policy in the first place). Okay, rant over- on to the rest of our trip.
We were also able to meet up with some of Ryan's family. His brother John was in town on a business trip the first night we were there. And his sister Amy is going to George Mason University, so we were able to meet up with her. We went to downtown DC and did some sight-seeing. Here are some pictures:

We really like DC and the buildings there. It's nice to have buildings that are spread out a little bit and not quite so tall. We're excited for our move!


The 3 smaller pictures are of us by these rectangular shapes in the middle of a plaza, that are actually the roof of some underground building/passage way or something. But we had fun taking pictures of our reflections:)

These last pictures are at the Washington Dulles Airport. We thought the shuttles looked like some space-age transportation. They took us from one terminal to another and would rise up to the doors, then lower back down in order to drive. They were weird, but entertaining.

Spring Break- Walt Disney World

Ryan and I started our spring break by going to Orlando, Florida. We stayed at a place called Calypso Cay, played in the swimming pools, and went to the Magical Kingdom. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

This was Ryan's first time going to Disney World (at least that he can remember). He loves theme parks and was so excited!

We only made it to the Magical Kingdom (stupid budget)! But we still had a great time. The Magical Kingdom is definitely the main Disney experience, but next time we plan to make time for Universal Studios too.