Spring inside but not outside

I am so ready for spring that I decided to pick up a little something for the house to make me feel better about all the miserable snow outside.

I was at Trader Joe's over the weekend and they had all these great potted plants. Lots of tulips and daffodils in pretty pots. They also had hyacinth, I never knew what these flowers were called but they smelled WONDERFUL so I went with it.

My favorite smell in the whole world is still the orange blossoms back in AZ but hyacinth is now a very close second! The plant makes it feel a little more like spring is coming but I know in reality there is probably still at least another month of this freezing cold...bummer.

LOVE

Ice Skating in Millennium Park

Happy Valentine's Day

Can you say BARGAIN

I bought this...Originally priced at this .....$1,449.00but I only paid this....$399.00

Oh how I love you C&B outlet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's a Natural!

He did it! Greg went snowboarding with me! Here he is, all smiles, before the "fun" begins. For any of you who have learned to snowboard, the first day is not typically a lot of fun. You spend a lot of time on your butt and sometimes it can be a little painful.

Greg took a quick lesson, and was going down the hill in no time!!

My hubby was such a good sport! I'm so glad we finally got to do this together!

I need a vacation

It is that time of the year here in Illinois. When winter has lost it's charm and I am very much ready for another season. Unfortunately, this is probably just the half way point. Last year it didn't warm up until April (maybe even May depending on your definition of "warm").

So...we are going to make the best of the snow. I am going to teach Greg how to snowboard. I brought my board with me to Illinois and just bought some new boots last weekend (Sports Authority was having a sale...I couldn't resist...pink Burton's, that's all I'm going to say). There are a few "learn to ski" hills here in Illinois. One is about 45 minutes north of us. Or we can go to a real mountain in Wisconsin which is about a 2 hour drive. I haven't made up my mind where we're going to go. All I know is Saturday is the day. I will take pictures, don't you worry. I've been waiting 5 years to see my honey on a snowboard.

This is not really much of a vacation, just a day trip. But, we do have a real vacation in our future and I am SO excited. Our good friends Carson and Meghan have made the brilliant decision to get married at a vineyard near Sacramento. The tickets are booked, we will be there in May. Every time I open my gmail account and see the travel itinerary staring back at me I know it won't be long until I'm back on the west coast soaking up the sun!!!

Until then....

They were 50% off, how are you going to pass that up?!?!

Slacking

I don't know why but I've been slacking on the blogging lately. It's not like I've been particularly busy or swamped with work, just lazy I guess. The cold weather does make you want to curl up by the fire and do nothing for hours. This morning I watched the snow fall outside our bedroom window for way way too long. It's my day off, I guess that's allowed.

Today I also took down all the Christmas decorations. It was very sad, I feel like the house is so bare without them. But the time had definitely come, our tree is very crispy... aka dead.

I never really posted any pictures from the holidays so here are a few. We did a split Christmas between Mesa and Tucson. New Years Eve was filled with sushi, board games, and friends here in Naperville. What can I say, we are so lucky and we've been having a great time. Happy New Year! I have high hopes for 2010 :)

Annual lunch turned dinner with my favorite ladies!

25...yikes.

Christmas, Polheber style.

All our nieces and nephews!

A little rock climbing

Winter, Arizona style :)

Books

Not every day is a busy day at CVS and I've finally had the time to do some reading. I was never much of a reader growing up. I never found the books that we were reading in class to be all that interesting. In college, my reading list was made up of what was required for class. After finishing my required readings I had absolutely no desire to read for fun.

Now that I finally have some down time, I've read some really great books! I just wanted to share my list. The books that have hearts next to them have been my favorites. I am also asking for suggestions, you'll notice I've just been sticking to authors that I like. I need a little more variety. My only requirement is the book be a page turner, other wise I lose interest quickly. If you have a favorite please leave me a comment! Thanks!

• While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky - current book (entertaining)
• Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert ♥ (slow start, wasn't sure I'd finish this one, amazing ending!)
• Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky (entertaining)
• Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin ♥ (page turner)
• The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert (story of Eustace Conway)
• Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert ♥ (probably my favorite book ever)