Bad Weather and Free Stuff

So tonight I went to Whole Foods...not to grocery shop but to score some free samples from their "spa night". While pretending to be interested in cosmetics, soaps and lotions made out of every thing from bees guts to plants to dirt, the sky became dark and it started to rain. I don't mean a peaceful summer rain, I mean an all out God is mad thunder and lightening across the sky and the world might end kind of rain. I finished up with Miss Put Bee Guts On Anything And Your Skin Will Glow Like The Sun and hightailed it home. I felt like a terrible mother - my poor puppies were probably scared to death. I was right...they were hiding, so we cuddled on the couch and fired up all my gadgets to see what what up - phone? Check. iTouch? Check. Computer? Check. Cable? Nope - satellite was out. So I pulled up the news web sites, weather.com, and of course facebook and found out that yes, there was storm going on outside and there may or may not be a tornado in the area. I am thinking that the tornado siren was my first clue. Brett was stuck in the city because they had stopped the trains due to winds (and it is now after 9:30 pm and he is still not home and the train left the station at 7). So, the puppies and I got cozy and I started to browse craigslist for free stuff. I mean, you never know what people might be giving away. Here are the top five things that I found very amusing...

5. 1/2 of a bag of Aldi brand dog food

4. Felt

3. A box of food, leftovers to be exact

2. The contents of a man's trunk...he cleaned it out, left it by the door and welcomes anyone to come to his (provided on the Internet) address to walk away with his snow scraper, umbrella and probably his life.

1. A stripper pole...apparently her boyfriend gave it to her as a birthday present and she's "just not into that".

After the storm passed, the sky was amazingly bright, almost eerie!

Time flies when we're having fun!

So...what's been going on? It seems that life takes over sometimes and time just flies. After just sitting down and finishing up my posts about our fabulous vacation, it is hard to believe we've already been back for a few months. Looking at those pictures makes me wish we were still there since it was such an incredible time! Buuuut, here's what we've been up to lately.

Just a week after getting back, we went to see John Mayer in concert at the United Center. His concert was amazing as usual, but we didn't expect to be blown away by the opening act - Michael Franti and Spearhead!!!

On April 30, the Billing's family joined us for a "let's play hooky from work" day and went to the Cubs game. We had tons of fun especially when Brett tried to look like Jason with no neck!

On May 12, I went to Grant park for "Workout in the Park" sponsored by SELF magazine. What an awesome time! We did some interesting workouts including, a Bollywood workout, a hip hop dance workout (yeah, I can't dance!), a trampoline workout, and we did yoga with Mandy Ingber (Jennifer Aniston's yoga instructor). Maria Menounos was the host - soooo that was kind of cool!
The best part, however, was all the free stuff!!!!!!
And finally - school is out!The girls and I spent a record day partying in Wrigleyville! That's really all that needs said about that! Thanks ladies for a fun-filled, memorable day!

And less than two weeks ago, Brett and I traveled home to Washington, to celebrate with my brother Ben as he graduated from high school!

Mayan Adventure

After what could only be described as an "interesting" van ride into the jungles of Mexico (at one point I was POSITIVE we were being taken to have our organs harvested) we arrived at our destination for our Mayan Adventure. Our first stop was near an underground river where a shaman performed a Mayan purification ceremony. After the ceremony, we walked to another location where there was an underwater river. We were able to walk through parts of the river, swim through parts, and learn about the caves and cenotes. Next up was rappelling, I was a little nervous but very much looking forward to it!

Here is the cenote that we rappelled into - Brett taking the plunge! After rappelling into the water, we hung for a bit taking in the awesomeness of the cenote. The only thing I didn't like was that it was home to LOTS of bats!After drying off, we took a bike ride to the ziplines!

Helmets on and we're ready!
Hiking to the "high" ziplines!
Here he goes!!!!

And here's where we ate an authentic Mayan lunch cooked in this outdoor kitchen!