pura vida!

it's finally time for some pics from costa rica! the beach was incredibly beautiful - really soft black sand, with small waves because we were situated in a bay. i took advantage with a little art work:
here we are on our first day in costa rica exploring the beaches:


this is where we spent most of the week - next to the 3 tier pool complete with swim up bar and snack hut!


this was one of our biggest adventures during the trip - zip lining! alex is a little afraid of heights, so this was particularly triumphant for him :) all told, we went across 11 lines and 3 suspension bridges. i even took one of the long lines upside down! here we are halfway through the trip on a platform above the tree tops:


we also took one night to escape the resort and explore a small town nearby. it was really fun to explore a little of the local scene, do some serious souvenir shopping, and eat some fresh seafood:


although we did have some rain during our trip, we also got some beautiful sunsets. here's the view from the balcony of our "bungalow":


the resort also had several restaurants to choose from and all of the food was delicious. here we are in the main restaurant on our last night:

that's just a taste of our incredibly relaxing and beautiful trip. more on costa rica next time...

my new last name

i know i owe you all pictures and stories of costa rica (don't worry, they're coming), but for now, i want to share a revelation with you. as you know or will some day find out, after you get married, everyone LOVES using your new last name. loves it. which is nice and fun and also totally bizarre. so far i've made the switch on facebook, but still need to do so with email, voice mail, the social security administration...you get the idea.

well, today my grandpa called just to say hi and when i picked up, he said "hi there mrs. heacock", pronounced "hee-cock". my boss had done the same thing earlier in the day. when i corrected my grandpa, he said, "oh it's probably because people are used to saying peacock".

apparently my new last name is just one letter off from the most pretentious of birds, and that is causing massive waves of mispronunciation. maybe most of you already noticed that, but i never did! who knew??

lots and lots of water...

and not in the awesome Brad Paisley song way. on friday, we had a HUGE storm come through and pretty much the whole chicago area flooded. lots of things shut down - people's electricity, the eisenhower expressway (the major east-west highway to the city...picture 66 being shut down from the Beltway to DC), the kennedy expressway (north-south highway...so add portions of the Beltway shutting down and maybe even 270), and even my parents' sump pump.

that's right, we awoke to about 3 inches of water in our basement saturday morning. bummer. although we had nothing compared to some folks - my office got 18 inches in the basement, the company down there lost all of their computers, and our AC is broken (80 degree office on a monday is also a bummer). then, when alex and i took the train into the city for a work event saturday, we saw people in row boats going down their street. that's right - row boats. some underpasses even became swimming pools for children of irresponsible parents. it was chaos.

here's a picture of the street in front of my office on saturday afternoon.
thankfully, it's all clearing up now and people are starting to recover. you can tell by the streets lined with old carpet for the garbage folks to grab :)

starting the "honey do" list

recently alex and i decided we were totally bored of the cream walls and white trim throughout our entire condo. since he's got some time before the wedding, we decided that we (meaning he) would get some painting done before i move in!

we've had lots of fun picking colors, and some of the names are really creative - so far he's painted the bedroom "mineral water", which looks like a pretty robin's egg blue, and the guest bathroom will be "grass cloth", a nice soft green.

any suggestions for our living room?? that's the next project we think :)

engagement pictures are up!

our photographers for the wedding are a young local couple that we've really enjoyed getting to know. they're fun, creative, and you can tell they love what they do. anyways, as a part of our package, we got an engagement session with them, which we did about 3 weeks ago. well, the pictures are edited and some of the photographer's favorites are up on her blog! check them out here and see what you think :)

as a side note, stephanie actually found these guys first and used them for her wedding, so keep that link to see some of her wedding pictures when they get posted (hopefully soon!).

plants update!

remember my baby plants that i told you about awhile ago? i was so proud that they were actually sprouting roots! well friends, i am here to tell you that either i have a green thumb i never knew about...or these are the easiest plants to grow ever. check out their roots now!

today as a reward for being such great plants, i cleaned the vases and gave them new water. what a productive friday afternoon :)

lots to celebrate!

i apologize for being a big time blogging slacker - the past few weeks have just been crazy, but they're settling back into a normal rhythm so it's time for some updates!

first, alex has moved into the condo along with all of his and my belongings! this has made for several days worth of work packing, cleaning, unpacking, sorting, and throwing away, but it's starting to come together. we are loving the 15 minute drive between us now, and we're getting to see each other nearly every day. it is awesome.

second, stephanie, my very best friend from high school, got married on saturday! the week was full with her bachelorette party thursday, the rehearsal and dinner on friday, and the ceremony saturday. a few highlights:

• the look on stephanie's face when trent (her husband) told her friday night about his family's brunch at 8:30 sunday morning...needless to say, i think she convinced him to bail on that, haha
• the opportunity to see where she and trent are moving - it's a tiny 1 bedroom apartment in the city (as in 500 sq ft or less) with 1 closet, but it's just steps from the lake and they've done some cute decorating to make it feel cozy
• getting to open her ceremony in prayer and ask God's blessing on their marriage along with her family and friends, such an honor
• listening as they each gave their vows, stephanie in tears, trent handing her kleenex...it was beautiful
• clapping as they kissed as man and wife...like 4 separate times :)
• dancing the night away with alex as we pondered our own wedding just a few short months away...

it was such a great week and all of the busy-ness was well worth it in the end!

PS - i was going to spell "busy-ness" "business", but that's the same as the regular business...odd and confusing.