3rd Annual Mexican Getaway

We just got back from our third annual trip to the Mayan Riviera. It was such an amazing and relaxing trip! Our days consisted of: mojito, beach, mojito, read a book, mojito, pool, mojito, and so on. We can't wait to go back next year!

Look closely for our lizard friends.

The view from our balcony

John having a cigar on the balcony

Kindlemania!

If you're wondering why we haven't posted in awhile, it's because we've been reading up a storm on our kindles. What's a kindle, you ask? It's this dorktastic e-reader sold exclusively by Amazon. You can buy most books for cheaper than the "real" version, and there are tons of free books to download, too. I bought mine first, and of course John had to get one, too. Now we're both completely hooked. This little gadget has been great for our commute to and from work, and John even reads lots of blogs on his. We highly recommend the kindle, but just a warning: you will get addicted!

John's fave, Sherlock Holmes, on e-paper.

John configured his kindle to make it even more dorky --

like a Star Trek nerd scanner thingy.

Field Museum Field Trip

We are finally updating the blog! We really haven't done anything blog-worthy these days. The winter hasn't been that bad, but we just haven't felt like venturing out into the dreariness. However, we made it out today to the Diamonds exhibit at the Field Museum. The exhibit featured all sorts of boring educational information about how diamonds are made. Who really cares about that -- just show us the goods! There was the famous Tiffany yellow diamond, and we saw another diamond that was more than 400 carats! After looking around at all the fun sparkly stuff, we perused the other areas of the museum. Nothing to cheer you up like a bunch of taxidermied animals! The Field Museum has a dead and stuffed version of pretty much every animal ever made. It was definitely nice to get out and do something besides errands. The gloomy Chicago winter weather makes it hard to avoid the winter blues, that's for sure.

We have lots of cool plans for the upcoming weeks. In looking at my calendar, I'm not finding any free weekends for lazing around the house anytime soon. We have both been pretty steadily busy at work, and we are really looking forward to our upcoming annual trip to Mexico. Next weekend is our annual Oscar movie marathon (aka butt-numb-athon) at the AMC downtown. And the following weekend my mom is coming in town for all sorts of fun girl stuff. Bring on Spring!

Dirty gross snow and lots of fog - not a nice day here in the Windy City.

Nothing like dead leopards killing an already dead deer to brighten the day.

Standing in front of a fake beach, practicing for the real thing in a few weeks.

Checkin' In

Well, it looks like we totally blew the New Year's resolution related to updating this thing with substantive posts. The problem is, we really haven't done anything substantive to post. January has been relatively uneventful for us. John ventured to Scottsdale last weekend to play golf with his dad, and my mom came up to help me paint the extra bedroom -- it is now a much less obnoxious neutral. Whew!

Back to the resolutions. John is really doing well on the gym part; me, not so much. BUT, I will be getting better and even have plans to hit a class tomorrow morning. The resolution we've been best at holding up is cooking at home. We've eaten at home most nights this month, including weekends. I'm even more serious about this commitment now that I watched Food, Inc. This movie was incredibly eye-opening. I am shocked at the low standards the government sets for our food. It is clear that the government supports big business more than setting healthy standards for its people. So, corn is now considered poison in the Beck household! I've been an avid Whole Foods shopper for awhile, but I'm even more committed to shopping there now, since it's one of the only grocers committed to selling free-range grass-fed beef, cage-free poultry, and other responsible food items. While Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) is a bit more pricey than the regular grocer, our health and wellness is entirely worth it!
Does that count as a substantive post?

Big Resolutions

We've decided to start the new decade afresh with some great resolutions that we hope will become permanent life changes.

1. Eating at home. We eat out far too much. While we usually try to make healthy choices at restaurants, nothing from a restaurant kitchen is as healthy as what you can make at home. There are lots of hidden fats and other mystery grossness in restaurant food, not to mention that its SO much more expensive to eat out. So, we are resolving to limit our dinners out to once per week.

2. Exercise. We have been really great at exercising this year. John is religious about his gym routine and even took up running (I'm thrilled about that). I am reluctantly going on a running break but hope to get back into it later this year. In the meantime, I'm going to really focus on yoga and some other types of exercise that are easier on my body. I will really miss running, but I can live vicariously through John -- hopefully he will compete in some races this spring and summer and I can cheer him on at the finish.

3. Balance. I really need to work on a good work-life balance. Last year I let work completely take over my life at the expense of friendships and other things I like to enjoy. While I seriously doubt that I will have less work this year, I definitely think there are better ways of budgeting my time. For one, I am going to try to get to work earlier so I can get an early start on the craziness -- the earlier I get in, the earlier I can leave at the end of the day. Not only will my mental health benefit from this, but John and I will be able to spend more quality time together (hopefully without the incessant buzzing of my Blackberry).

4. Blogging. We will be blogging about more interesting things this year. While I'm sure our moms think that what we do on the weekends and the latest cat hat we purchased is titillating, I really don't think the other readers so much care. So, we are going to blog more about goings on here in Chicago, maybe some politics here and there, and put up more pictures. We will just have to see where this takes us.

Well, wish us luck on these goals. While they may sound simple, it's always easy to let busy schedules get the best of us, causing us to abandon our resolutions. Happy New Year friends and family!

Get Out of Here, 2009!

I can't really put my finger on it, but for some reason 2009 has really stunk for us. We are really looking forward to a fresh start in 2010 - a new year, a new decade! So, as I've been doing for the past couple of years, a recap of what happened to us in 2009:

1. We still have our jobs! We weren't really worried about it (neither of our respective workplaces laid anyone off), but people were being let go left and right, so we are definitely very thankful to remain gainfully employed!

2. I ran a total of 111.28 miles worth of races, 68.5 of which were half marathons. I took up running last January when I was inspired to run the P.F. Chang's Rock n Roll half marathon in Phoenix. I'm taking a brief sabbatical from running but am looking forward to getting back into it later this year. I even got John to run some races with me!

3. We've done a pretty good amount of traveling. We went to Mexico last February to escape the cold Chicago winter. Then we headed to Seattle in June and San Diego in September. John and I took separate trips to D.C. and Vegas in December. We are hoping to do a lot more traveling this year and are currently trying to figure out where to go!

4. I continue to be bummed about Michael Jackson's death. Boo.

5. I saw one of my favorite singers in concert - Cher. It was awesome!

We are hoping for big and wonderful things in 2010. Happy New Year!

The Christmas That Kept on Going!

We are finally back in Chicago after a week in Tulsa. This was sort of an atypical Christmas. Maybe it was the snow, but the holiday did not feel the same as it usually does. It's so nice to be home at our condo. It was great seeing family, but it seemed like we spent the entire week running around and seeing different family members. Both John and I are off tomorrow -- John's office is closed, and I have decided not to go in. Literally three attorneys were in the office today, and literally less will be in tomorrow. So I figured that there is really no point in working -- I will have a fresh start on Monday in a whole new year! Below are more pictures of our various Christmas and family activities.

John celebrating an awesome bowling move. Notice there

are no pictures of me doing such a dance...

Steph and me doing Jello shots at the bowling alley.

Travis and me (although he's barely noticeable what with the camouflage).

The annual picture: Justin, me, and Travis