my dreams and they are made out of real things

So it's been a few days.. or weeks since i blogged, karla absolutely have been enjoying my reading of your blogs, wish i was in LA when you and jason were...

Our glimpse of spring has been flooded by a flush of winter, i did not think the snow would stick when it first started, thinking myself an expert on winter now seeing as this is my third chicago winter. however the snow stuck and i was rudely surprised, it is winter and spring break is a five days away, how lame... but i guess i should suck it up this is how it is, seeing how this is my third chicago winter.

I have a headache, blah blah.

anyway this is pretty non eventful sorry.

xox

erin

Song of the Redeemed

Such a wonderful day today, its Friday. I had such a wonderful conversation with such a delightful professor. so inspiring.

Miles comes out today to check out North Park, Mike is so excited. Soccer and his brother make for such a good weekend.

And my sister and Melanie come out in March and April and then Michael and I head out to California for Dad's 50th Birthday extravaganza.

I had such a lovely chat with a good friend last night.

And when i see this friend i cannot help but think about first meeting her, and it was both our first semesters at North Park, we sat in her Ikea decorated dorm room, bewildered and faking our security, I was fresh from Mozambique and when I saw her, I could see in her eyes she was going to go somewhere bigger than a liberal arts university tucked in a cold corner of chicago. And she did, Bolivia in fact, and the girls we were are not the girls we are now, there is a certain sadness to the change but mostly a great accomplishment to the growth.  I can honestly say i am proud of her, I can say that time does that funny thing of moving us along, no matter our tears of remembrance, and the feet that drag and fight the change, there is the urge to look ahead, at least i always hope there is, i used to imagine life ended somewhere before it got too real, real as in it might not get wrapped up with a satin bow and slid underneath a tree politely, life is messy and far too salty sometimes, i think, but i see us, my friend and I, sitting, swatting at the beads of summer that drag down our necks, and I choose to smile at the people we have fought to become, and the crusty metaphor still makes sense now, through the fire the gold is made. 

I dont know if we are gold yet, but i know fire, and I know it's real. And we are ok, from moment to moment we live and sometimes we thrive and other days we survive and so on and so on and when all the regrets, success, scrapes, blood, tears and laughter piles up, i dont think we will care if we are gold, i think the silver edge of age will suit us all just fine...

take it easy and all that

it's a blasty blast-

ahh so sleepy... such a great weekend though, mike and i have a new reason to never forget valentines day- one because its a great day to be reminded how blessed one is for their significant other and what not, but as well as austin person and lisa d'agostino got engaged!

o what a great day it was!

It was suppose to be a surprise weekend for mike but we had to tell him for specific reasons so he found out- theeeen the weather poked its head down on our spring-ish weather and so then they almost didnt get to come because omaha got hit with a ton of snow, but they got out! just in the knick of time as well- 

so they arrived Friday after noon and that was wonderful!

we all ate dinner at noon-o kabob and said hey to mike and waited for him to get off work!

so he got off and we walked back to the apartment and the boys went off to celtic crown and lisa and i got to chatting. she told me how she knew austin had talked with her dad and they had found the perfect band that was only available oct 24, and she was pretty bummed that she might lose it... i tried to assure her that it would be ok there are always other bands and always other days but it was to no use, lisa was sad. 

so the next morning austin says as lisa goes to the restroom, alright cut the crap did you find a hotdog costume. i had and so the boys and i concocted a plan to keep lisa and i busy while the boys did their work. 

I convinced lisa that we should go shopping so we went off to forever 21 and the boys went downtown

mike and i texted thru out the day keeping each other updated.

Lisa and i came back, got dressed in our new dresses and met up with the boys, which was a feat in itself. Mike and Austin decided the perfect spot was on the water by shed aquarium surrounded by skyline. I had to figure out how to get down there and get parking, as the shed was closing so everyone had to exit the parking lot. We finally found the shed and i asked this parking attendant if we could park, he said no, so i got out and said basically, this girl is getting engaged down by the lake front there is a man dressed as a chicago style hot dog, give me 20 minutes and i will be back and move this car, i swear, the kind man agreed and let us park. lisa kept asking how much do we owe but i just kept pushing her off down toward the lake.

We eventually met up with mike and he led us up to austin i stopped and she continued while mike took pictures. it was an awesome moment!! austin was dressed as a weiner because that is a pet  name of lisa's for him.

austin thought to go funny because it was already valentines day so it shouldnt be all schmultzy.

anywho it was wonderful, after that we all loaded up in the car and headed to maggiano's had delicious italian and enjoyed our night!

Congrats austin and lisa, and here's to oct. 24!

anyway mike and i are quite sleepy now, we are both now just hanging out, watching some late night and having a blasty blast because we are both off work now.

my back aches a bit. i am off to bed.

Note to self: isnt it ironic

It should be duelly noted that the weather is fabulous today.

Chicago is melting like a soggy popsicle and its wonderful. I am wearing a light coat that had not been worn since the early days of fall. O this is lovely my friends.

Had a great weekend indeed!

Saturday i went shopping with the girls downtown and it was delicious weather as well!

Got a few items but not too much as Mike and I are saving up for Africa.

Mike found and joined a gym which he loves found some people to play basketball with and went both saturday and sunday. Mike gets irritable i think when he can not play any sort of sport or activity, he loves the work out so the gym is a genius for him.

Sunday was a perfect day as well, Mike and I went to church and that was really good message. we love this song but we cant seem to figure out who it is by and where to by it, its called your beautiful and its not by james blunt. Its so fantastic we love it. And they played it Sunday at church and the service got intense and Holy Spirit came down i feel like. 

it was great.

So then mike and i came home made food laughed smiled watched some the football pro bowl game wished we were in Hawaii and some basketball, Mike ran over to the gym i did homework we got the laundry done and called it a day!

Its funny kind of- I have this really great british lit II class on the 5th floor of carlson tower, but this floor is the nursing floor. Nursing propaganda line the walls of the hall way, and students in blue scrubs and white coats pace in between their classes, and since i first came to North Park  I would allow my self to wander up the stairs to that floor and walk around reading the job postings as  various hospitals, and different nurse-isms and i am sure my pale freckly face would have a green hues along the edges. I could not wait for it to be my turn to get up here. But this is not meant to be. I will not end my collegiate career crawling this hallway, but i cannot help but congratulate the delicious irony of the fact I am here on the 5th floor its just not the original plan of getting here, but i will say, I am here. And i am in my niche.

thanks.

Enjoy the weather my friends because its fabuloussss.

xoxo

(o and helloo Chloe if you are reading this!)

what i got

Just at school. 

In between classes, heavy eyelids waiting to present a painting i did for my shakespeare class. I had to pick a play we had discussed and then engage the dialogue in an artistic way, so I painted the madness in the woods, the very strange happenings of the forest, took me quite a long time to get it presentable.

It is not something i would paint really with out needing a decent grade, i guess i paint flowers and waves not so much the happenings of a shakespearean comedy.

Mike played the Rob Bell series while i painted so there was some good food for thought as i sat on the floor trying to perfect the head of a donkey...

The weather today has surprised me and is so lovely. Sun is out wind is gone and the day is mild, mild, mild. I am so happy. I miss the warm weather, i miss 75 degree winters or a cold day being 40 degrees so we must break out the uggs... 

Not sure what to do tonight, I am getting over that nasty little kidney infection so i am still quite tired, but the fever is gone so that makes such a difference!

Earlier this week was so rough... my mom called and I was in the throes of dry heaving at work because of the infection. Haven't thrown up in so long was not excited about the prospect of doing so at work...or at all period.

Something on my mind lately... I really wish i was a good public speaker. I am not. I freeze up so bad. I am so tired of panicing before presentations, I feel like such a fool up there, it's like i can hear the teacher saying to themselves, o she is so unprepared, but its not so, I promise, I am just terrified and so my information is brief and quickly spat out...

I just have to work on it i think, mike is so at ease with it. I am jealous of this peace.

just even having jealousy and peace in the same statement is a strange oxymoron into itself-

O my poetry teacher is doing a reading tonight down at UIC i am super stoked- her work is so cool, i just have to figure out how to get to UIC... i think it is somewhere in the southside.

Mike and I are deliberating about Kenya this summer. We want to go, dont know what to do, or how to do it. waiting to hear about it.

(photocred: Gavinwadephoto.com)

I think the sun has found his way over our way today...

o its so nice right now!

Mike and I had a fantastic weekend. I got sick unfortunately and it turned into a nasty kidney infection, which led to Dr. grandpa colago saving the day and me.

Kurt and Christy came over too which was so much fun to have them over and to show them the wedding video and all our pictures. They are 4 months until their wedding, which is going to be so awesome! We made lasanga and salad with some fresh sour dough bread... and as we were pulling the lasanga out of the oven it got dropped and spilled a lot of lasanga on the oven door...  we used some of our new china which was so fun!

I am trying to figure it out still how to legally change my name, which is not an easy task especially because we live in chicago and i am from CAlifornia.. not sure how all this works.

Mike and I burrowed into our little apartment for super bowl sunday. We rooted for the Cards and hoped kurt warner would get another ring... alas those steelers took home the win...

anywho school is marching along nicely, starting now on our 4th week back. cannot wait for this ride to be over, its so hard to get up for class!!

o man the weather is just great!

i love it so much!!

I got all our wedding pictures last tuesday and have been creepy about how much time i am devoting to them, i just cannot get over the day! and how fun it was, and how it was exactly what i could have hoped for, how great Mike looked and how beautiful his song was. ALl of it was so great, the candles, how much help my cousins and aunts were! my brother the wedding planner extordinaire! all the girls and how stunning they looked in their gowns!

ANyway i just love it so much so beautiful these pictures!

Now mike and i are trying to figure out this summer, our hope is to be in kenya for two months working at this awesome community but there are still so many loose ends to tie up... our apt, loan payments... God is so good and i believe he has a plan for us so i am not afraid, we just have to keep taking steps of faith to get there. 

Mel comes out soon and Mike and I are so looking forward to her! 

I really wish it were Friday again... i love our weekends.

Forever Young

The snow is falling around us in Chicago, feels like a thin blanket, and the wet flakes like chipped glass from the floor boards of the clouds. We sit and are buried and in that it is peaceful.

Started back to work today. The dorms are open but hardly any students are back, it is just the international students are arriving for a flash orientation to Chicago and North Park. 

So we opened the dorms and must have desk attendants... there are a few around so it works, everyone has long hours but its cool the extra cash is always nice. 

Mike is working too. 

It has been so nice, the last couple days Mike and I have gotten up early to do devotionals together and not try and rush through our day but really enjoy it. 

Mike's days are especially long, most of the time they vary between starting at 10:30 and 12:00 and vary between ending at: 10ish or 8:45 to 9. So when he gets home he is understandably exhausted so our time to really chat is tainted by yawns from both of us. So by starting the day a little bit earlier it is great to connect before work, it also allows us to pray and talk about the reading. We both really enjoy it!

Had my friend Eleanor over last night for dinner, did a little fettucine alfredo with salad and such, it was really great, we havent really gotten to connect since before the wedding.

And i really wanted to show her the apartment too! A few more changes happening in there so that is really nice, kind of getting more and more cozy. Which is great!!

And Mike likes it so that makes it even better.

Anyway just killing time here at work so i guess i should go.

Hope 2009 is as great as 2008 was for mike and i!

Mike and Erin Colago..i like the sound of that

hmm, it was such a lovely night tonight.

Mike and I since being back in Chicago have both been attacked by a vicious cold and i think we are on the tale end of winning now, so we finally left the apartment and went out on a dateski.

Went down to the always entertaining belmont to the brew and view took in a couple of flicks for $5 and then went to our favorite 24 hour diner and enjoyed some spinach and artichoke dip, which we seem to try everywhere...

I am laying next to my HUSBAND, which is so awesome to say, as he is in and out of snoring (poor stuffed up nose)... and I cannot sleep so awake i lie and type.

We have been married now for two weeks and that is wonderful.

It has been an amazing two weeks, and the time leading up to the wedding was jam packed with so much to do.

Mike and I this summer basked in the confines of wedding from a distance planning. Which meant really only stating what we envisioned for our nuptials but not doing the leg work to make it happen..our family handled the sweat of hard work and physical planning. (which i will never forget thank you!)

So when Dec. 13 finally came and mike and i boarded planes to fly out to our wedding we had no true idea of what lay ahead of us as far as what was left to do...

We were quickly baptized into the world of bridezilla's and her brood of perfection. SO much to do. But so many helpful hands and good hearts, it wouldnt have been done with you guys..I.E. Cheyne, Mom, DAd,  Aunt LIz, Meg,  Aunt Cynthia, Brittany, Brooke... and all the many others who ran around like crazies for the months preparing for our shindig.

I dont think i have tried to put into black and white what i felt as i waited in the bridal nursery (:) ) watching minutes slide down the canary colored walls. Each of the bridesmaids had been beckoned out to await their walk down the aisle with their respective groomsmen, and all that remained was meg and i. 

My heart beat, and i had to pee. how anti-climatic. But that was all there was at that moment. I asked meg to sing the 12 days of christmas with me. And maybe we got to the partridge and a pear tree. and then the door opened and my dad came in.

He started to cry, so we started to cry.

and we had to stop ourselves so our freshly done MAC makeup would not run down our finely colored cheeks. It was go time and there was no rocky theme song to warm up to. I just wanted to see Mike. I knew he was waiting down at the end of the aisle for me and i wanted to see the look in his eyes, the look that takes my breath away and the look that quiets my fears and slows my tears, the look that says i love you. 

I feel that i should take you back to Dec 19, the night before all our family and friends came over to the house after the dress rehearsal to work on making ornament boxes for each wedding guest to put their personalized ornament in, like little christmas elves they worked in assembly line structuring each box! thank you guys so  so so much!

My aunt liz, Brittany Aunt Cynthia Christa Lisa and Eleanor worked until 2am creating the centerpeices, roughly 15 to 17 red roses dashed with three white roses, (father son and holy ghost) surrounding a candle votive encased in glass. so beautiful and my aunts are genius for the creation!

we were all up at 7;30am and in thousand oaks at the reception hall Los Robles golf course to create the look for the reception.

My aunts did what they do best and painted a scene that i could only have hoped for. Staying so classy! we were there until 11:45 when my cousin and bridesmaid brittany knew i was not happy about the way the church looked called the pastor of this church and got him to come over and let us in!! so we rushed out to the valley to redecorate so i would be happy! i cannot believe how hard brooke and brittany worked to help get this place looking great!

when the three of us were done it looked like i had dreamed about, candles everywhere and feeling so intimate!

the piano where Melanie would play draped in ivory and covered in different sized candles.

My cousin finally told me to leave and get to my hair appointment which i did, driving my moms lexus on E. Showed up at the appointment with a half hour until my makeup appointment, so she quickly curled my hair and sent me to my makeup, they got that done and sent me back to get my hair pinned and had my veil put in. I ran into my mother in law LInnea and sister Marie while as i dashed in to get my hair done, they helped hold my veil away from me as i stuffed my face. 

It was insanity, my fabulous bridesmaid Christa brought me a sourdough jack to eat while i got my hair done and i promptly spilled it on my sweet bride jump suit but its all good the day was wonderful and crazy! I hussled to the church as i was running late, drove myself and was greeted by Christa, she smirked and said I would drive myself to my own wedding... it was perfect.

from start to stop.

Mike sang a capella to me a beautiful song which made me cry.

He looked so cute! i loved the way the baraongs looked by candlelight. Barongs are traditional Filipino attire and each of the Filipino men in our wedding wore one. Even though my dad really wanted to get in on the Barong action. It was so beautiful and the guys wore them proudly.

the night was wonderful!!!!

and so was the cake!

here are a few pics from the wedding, people i highly recommend you look into Gavin Wade photography, mike and i loved them, so professional and super fun and incredible work! so happy with their art!