A Day at the Indiana State Fair

Have you attended a State Fair Before?  Why did/do you go?

My top four reasons for going this year:

1. Seeing my little cousin show her Alpaca. (Not going to lie I want one)
2. The exercise you get walking around. (remember I am on a mission to lose weight)
3. Getting a funnel cake (not a part of #2)
4. Getting out and doing something fun

The Husband’s top four reasons for going this year:

1. Food
2. Food
3. Food
4. Food

Yeah, he gets a little expensive at the fair.  At least it is only once a year.

Overall I had a great time and I was definitely worn out by the end of the day.  Making a mental note to myself here that we will go back during the day on a week day again.  Lines are not as long and there are a lot less people there.  You are not competing to see things with people and can move along at leisure.  Plus you get a sweet parking spot.  We literally walked right in.
If you plan on attending the State Fair in Indiana there are some discounted days that you can check out, just be aware that there will be a lot of people on those days.  If you decide to go on a day that is not discounted you can still buy discounted tickets for $7.00 at CVS.  Just remember you will still also need to pay $5.00 for parking.

So if you are looking for something to do, then go and check out a state fair this summer!
Stay tuned for my future adventures.  I see painting pottery, a trip to Bloomington and a trip to Las Vegas in my future.  What kind of adventures are in your future?

Getting Back To Life & Adventures

It is time to stop feeling sorry for myself and over thinking what it is that I want to do with my life.  I need to stop being afraid of life and start living it again.  I took time off of work so that I could relax, get things together around the house and lose weight.  Not to sit here and worry about life and money.  And man do I worry.  I worry about everything and cannot let myself just enjoy this time.

So it ends here with this blog.  I am putting everything on the shelf and I will focus on the reason that I took time off for.  It is time to stop wallowing in self-pity and insecurities.

What am I putting on the shelf?

1. Money worries

2. Worrying about losing weight

3. Worrying about the future.

4.  Basically anything that I worry about

It is all on the shelf now.  I will take things down as I need to deal with them, if there are any issues.  For now I am packing everything away and putting it in storage.  NO MORE WORRIES!

Going forward we are going to get back to adventures, in and outside of Indiana.  

So stay tuned and thanks for helping me to put things back on the shelf!

The Accidental Housewife

I think I will start referring to myself as the Accidental Housewife.  Why not, that is what I am right?  I still struggle with how I got here.  How did I go from being an HR Manager and just passing my PHR this year to deciding to stay at home.  I never in a million years would have thought that this would have been a decision that I would make.  I was on a career track to move up in the HR world.  At least that is what I thought that I wanted.  Although, I am not giving up that dream completely, just putting it on the shelf for now.

There were a variety of reasons that led to this decision, lack of support, lack of leadership, lack of staff, working way to many hours, stress causing a medical issue and spending less time with family.  It got to the point where I dreaded going to work. When it came down to it I needed to make a decision.  What was more important? Ultimately my health and family won out.

I still struggle a bit with this decision.  Not because my health and family are not important but because I am ashamed to admit, I am a bit materialistic. I am not going to lie, I will miss the extra income.

I also struggle with what the future holds, will I go back to work eventually?  I know though that I need to focus on living in the now.

I ask myself who am I?  I defined myself by my career for so long and now that I will no longer be working I am at a loss of who I am .  What is my passion?  What will I do with my life now?

I started trying to find things to do right away but the Husband reminded me that I just needed to be and he was right.  I need to take this time to discover who I am.  I am lucky to have this opportunity, there are many who do not have this luxury.  I should appreciate it and take the time to do new things and have new adventures.

So many thoughts and ideas have run through my head, do I want to go back in to politics, do I want to be a foster parent, should we start a family, maybe I would like substitute teaching.  All of these are items and ideas that I have come up with.  Decisions will not be made right away.  For now I will focus on transitioning from being a career woman to staying at home.

My first order of business is to transition my responsibilities at work to other individuals and to get my butt back in to gear with my workout programs.  I have already singed up for some workout classes.

Until next time!  Keep on adventuring.

Becoming a Stay at Home Wife

Well I have an announcement to make...I am going to try staying home for a bit.  I provided my notice last Friday and May 23rd is supposed to be my last day at work.

I have very mixed emotions about this decision.  On one hand I am very excited about all of the opportunities that I will have doing this.  On the other hand I will miss the extra income and feel like I am giving up a piece of who I am.  I have always defined myself by my career, some will understand this and others will not.  I have worked hard to get to where I am at.  I probably have not shared in the past but I work in Human Resources as an HR Manager and this year I recently passed my PHR.  I love my job and have a passion for it but I am ready for a break.  I am ready for a new adventure!

I just keep telling myself that the world is my oyster.  There are so many different things that I can do now.  I can finish up projects around the house, cook more, focus on losing weight and volunteer.  Hopefully I will also get the opportunity to blog more.

Maybe I need to blog about a year in the life of a stay at home housewife.  A crazy HR lady housewife.

Maybe it sounds like I am ungrateful.  Many people would kill to be able to stay home.  I am grateful, I promise.  Sometimes it is just hard to envision yourself in another role.  Even though this is the role that I want to be in right now.

My Husband and I thought long and hard about this decision before making it.  So please continue to follow me here as I transition in to a stay at home housewife.

Let the transition begin and wish me luck!

Chicago, IL vs. Moline, IL

Which would you pick? You might be surprised by my answer but first let me give you some background information.

The Husband is spectacular at planning for birthdays, etc.  I really am quite jealous of his planning skills and wish I could be as good as him.  Shhhh...don't tell him I said that.

This year for my birthday, he decided he was going to get me tickets to see Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean in concert.  The closest he could find, that worked best with when my birthday is was tickets in Moline, IL for January 19th.  So being the great guy that he is he decided to purchase the tickets and then book a room at the Radisson, which is located right next door to the venue, this way we could walk over and not worry about parking, especially since it is the middle of January.  He then decided when it got closer to time I could choose where I wanted to go the night before, like Chicago or something.  Blech, doesn't he make you sick?  He really is that good at planning things.

CHICAGO

Of course, I decided that I wanted to go downtown Chicago, lately I have been focused on wanting to go to the Shedd Aquarium.  Not to show my age or anything but it has probably been 15-18 yrs. since I last visited the Shedd.  So we booked a room using Priceline.  Criteria 4 star hotel on/around Michigan Ave.  Come on Conrad...fail we were booked at the Sofitel.  No problem though I figured it would be a great hotel as well.  Wrong, it sucked.  Yeah, I said it the Sofitel SUCKED.  How the H E Double Hockey Stick did it get 4 stars?

Oh wait, I am getting a bit ahead of myself here.  Let's start from take off.  I wanted to actually leave earlier then we did but we finally were able to leave around 10:00 a.m. or so.  We dropped off in Lafayette to get some lunch and by the time we got back on it was snowing so hard and the roads were not that great but we soldiered on.  We decided to stop in Merrillville, IN at Albanese.  It is the candy factory and the Husband loves their gummy bears.  Yeah, it is my birthday but we need to make him happy as well.  So we were off again, driving in the terrible weather and paying ALL of the tolls, because they like to F you hard with the tolls.

We finally arrived downtown, with lots of traffic but I started to relax a bit.  I love to see the city as we drive in, every aspect about it excites me.  I just love downtown and looking around.  We pull in to the Sofitel valet parking (because of all of the snow and slush who wants to walk from a parking garage with their luggage.)  Look who just got F*ed even harder?  $63 for valet parking????  Are you kidding me?  I think I just threw up in my mouth a bit.  So they unload are bags (this is where they start to not impress me at all), they have maybe two people running valet and once they have unloaded our bags on a cart they are not even monitoring them, are you freaking kidding me?  We walk in to the hotel and I can tell it is not really to my taste but as long as they have hot water and it is clean I will be a happy girl.  We get checked in and things seem to be getting better, the valet shows us to our room, puts away our bags and hangs up our stuff.  Before leaving he shows us around our room.  After he leaves, we decided to find somewhere that is within walking distance to eat.  Since I just paid $63 to valet the car, I am thinking I do not want to eat anywhere super expensive.  Since the Husband has never had real Chicago style pizza before I decided that he needed to experience this.  Luckily Gino's East was not that far of a walk away, plus they actually had a Groupon as well.  We waited outside for about 20 - 25 min. and then about 10 min. inside, but it was worth the wait!  The Husband was impressed as well.  We then walked around some of the stores on Michigan Ave. (the ones that had not closed yet) and we had a good time.  The problem occurred when we got back to the hotel.  I had stripped down, because I was cold and my feet were soaked.  All I wanted to do was take a hot shower.  The Husband turned down the bed and guess what there were some stains on the sheets and hair on them too.  GROSS!  We called downstairs and asked them to have someone come up to change the sheets and explained the issue.  There were no apologies but someone finally came up to change the sheets.  See why I said this hotel sucks?  Again, how does it have four stars????

Sunday arrives and it is time to check out.  We get everything ready and head over to the Shedd Aquarium.  I am so excited and I can not wait.  We pay our fee, almost $70.00 for the two of us but I don't care, I know that it will be worth it.  I was wrong.  We did have a good time and it was neat, I really enjoyed seeing the belugas but it was just not worth the money and not as cool as the aquarium in Gatlinburg, TN.  It really just does not compare.  However, we did enjoy ourselves, so that is all that really matters.


The time had come to drive to Moline, IL to see the concert.  I was so excited but of course first we had to make a quick stop at Portillos to get some lunch.  You can not drive through the Chicago land area and not eat at Portillos.  That would be a crime.  I love their Italian Beef sandwiches, nothing compares to theirs.

MOLINE

We arrive in Moline a couple of hours before the concert starts.  This time the hotel is clean and honestly it is a lot nicer then the Sofitel.  We decide to order room service for TGI Friday's, since the wait in the restaurant would take to long.  We eat in our room while relaxing and watching TV.  The time for the concert arrives, I am so excited.  The facility is a hop, skip and a jump from the hotel.  We walk right over there and it takes no time at all.  Literally the venue is right next door to the hotel.

The concert was awesome.  Both Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean were great!  I am so glad we went.

The next day we decided to try out Johnny's Italian Steakhouse for lunch.  The atmosphere was great, the food was good and our waiter was entertaining.  Next we walked over to the John Deere Pavilion to look at the museum.  It had a lot of neat and interesting information plus all of the big tractors that you could climb on.  Seriously, the Husband and I are like little kids.

It was time to head out...There is actually quite a bit to do in the Quad Cities so I wish we could stay longer but unfortunately it was a bit of a drive back home, so it was time to head out.

It really was a great, early birthday weekend!  So which place did I choose as my favorite?  I chose Moline, IL.  Although I still love downtown Chicago, everything is so expensive and I just did not have as good as a time as I did in Moline.  Maybe it is my age showing...I mean I am almost 31.  :-)

Which would you choose?  Until next time...keep on adventuring...