Last night, we went to see Billy Joel perform at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee and it was amazing! Although he didn't play my favorite song (Uptown Girl), he did play some great hits. Here's his setlist, and a short video of him playing his instrumental song "Root Beer Rag" from Streetlife Serenader. Check out the other pictures I took (they're a little grainy from zooming.)
Billy Joel Setlist - Milwaukee 3/2/08
Prelude/Angry Young Man
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now
The Entertainer
Billy The Kid
Allentown
New York State of Mind
Zanzibar
Root Beer Rag
Movin' Out
Don't Ask Me Why
Captain Jack
Always a Woman
River of Dreams
We Didn't Start the Fire
It's Still Rock & Roll To Me
You May Be Right
(encore)
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Only the Good Die Young
Piano Man
9/29/07
On September 8th, we traveled to Rockton/South Beloit for James and Michelle Hudzinski's lovely wedding! Ever since then, things have picked up for us. I started the MBA program at DePaul. Goodbye free time, hello homework. Drew has also been super busy, working long hours and is studying for his final CPA exam. My dad has recently left the Midwest after 23 years and headed to Flagstaff, AZ for a career change (and a change of scenery!) He's part of an exciting project for the Discovery Channel - he's helping engineer an enormous telescope at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. Julie, Milo and Mojo have accompanied him, of course. Let's hope Mojo steers clear of the prairie dogs!
7/27/07
Over the last month, we've been pretty busy - as we always are this time of year. Drew celebrated his 26th birthday and we attended the wedding of my friends from high school - Sara and Brady DeNio. It was great to see everyone. We just got back from our annual family reunion in Missouri. This year we had a fish fry (the guys caught the fish themselves from the Grandparents pond) and Drew's cousins had a barbecue contest (the best I've EVER tasted!) We also went to St. Louis and toured Grant's Farm and the Anheuser-Busch Brewery and went to a Cardinals game! It was a great trip for our last vacation of the year!
6/29/07
Our professional wedding pictures are up online! Check them out!
6/24/07
It's been almost a month since our wedding and as you can guess, we've been very busy! Our wedding went great and its still hard to believe its all over! Check out our pictures taken by family and friends. If you took any pictures at our wedding, feel free to email them to us and we can put them on our website for all to see! Our honeymoon to Greece was amazing and we took tons of pictures there too! We've also recently attended the wedding of Drew's coworker John and his wife Kim in Morrison, IL. We're enjoying the summer as much as we can despite the swarm of cicadas. I've officially changed my name, but I'm sure it will take a while to switch everything over. Drew's been working long hours so we haven't had too much time for fun. We're looking forward to having a little time off at the fourth and celebrating Drew's 26th birthday!
5/9/07
Wait, what did you say? It's May 2007?? OMG - I'm getting married this month!!! Can you believe it's less than 20 days until the big day? I can't. The countdown has ticked on - 430 days...266 days...184 days...73 days...now less than 20!! I don't need to go into how busy we are right now. One major event that tells us we're getting close - Kari is finally home from Africa! She arrived over the weekend and brought her cat Nanaa, who braved the journey quite well. They'll both be adjusting to life in the US.
This weekend I'm attending a bridal shower! No, not for me. For my friend Sara who's getting married on 07/07/07. Its my last weekend before wedding festivities begin (with my bachelorette party officially kicking it off.) If anyone has any travel tips for Greece - email them to us!
4/17/07
Less than 2 months until the wedding, and counting! Over Easter weekend my mom and sister threw me a bridal shower - I had the best time! My friends did a great job making wedding dresses out of toilet paper. Then we had a relaxing Easter and played some sports (on the Nintendo Wii.) We've also recently celebrated both of our mom's birthdays (I won't disclose the ages...) and Drew and I had one of our last outings as an unmarried couple - we caught the Chicago Bulls game against Charlotte (the Bulls hit 100 points exactly - free Big Macs for everyone!) The next couple weeks will be pretty busy for us. Tux, check. Gown fittings, check. Hair-do, check. Centerpieces, check. Never knew how much I loved to check things off lists before. Wait, yes I did.
3/3/07
If you are attending our wedding from out of town and want to plan some more fun in Chicago - check out the right panel of our wedding page. I've listed some restaurants and other suggestions for what to do downtown. Feel free to start booking your rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn under the DeGroff/Browning block. Fathers, groomsmen, and ushers can begin getting fitted for their tuxes at After Hours Formalwear.
2/15/07
More weddings! Now that 2007 is officially in full swing, our wedding date is moving closer and closer. If you are interested in booking hotel rooms for our wedding, do so soon. The information is in the right pane of our wedding page. We have 2 weddings to attend so far, in addition to our own. My friends Sara and Brady are getting married on lucky 07/07/07. No, not in Vegas, although that is where they got engaged! Also, Drew's high school friends James and Michelle are getting married on September 8th. Who knows...there may be more! We've been keeping busy lately with all the smaller details. We stormed one minor wedding disaster already - the restaurant where we booked our rehearsal dinner (months ago) is closing and had to cancel our contract! Luckily, we found a worthy substitute that may work out even better. Drew's been working day and night as usual during busy season. I've been working more lately as well and trying to get through the Grad school application process (hoping to start in the fall.) My sister (and Maid of Honor) is recuperating from a skiing injury from a few weeks back - she tore her MCL and ACL and is awaiting surgery. Obviously, she'll have a lot of time to knit my lacy wedding shawl!
1/1/07
Happy New Year! We've finally reached the year of our wedding. 2006 was a busy year for us and it flew by. Over the holidays, Drew's aunts threw us a family wedding shower - our first wedding event! Drew's mom put together a "Drew and Leigh Ann Jeopardy" game. It gave our families a chance to get to know us a little better. It was great to see everyone around Christmas and finally have my family meet Drew's. Last night we celebrated the new year with friends at Schuba's where we saw Catfish Haven and The Redwalls perform - great fun! Tonight, we're off to see The Hold Steady perform at the House of Blues in Chicago. This will be the 3rd time Drew and I have seen them live - so we know it will be a great concert. In wedding news, we finally booked our honeymoon! We'll be flying to Athens, Greece to sight-see for a couple days and then spending six days on a beachfront resort on the island of Crete (southernmost and largest Greek island). We're both so excited to finally do some foreign traveling! Hope this year brings as much happiness to you all as it will for us!
11/12/06
Wow - we've been busy! Both Drew and I have been using our spare time recently to study - him for the CPA exam, and me for the GMAT. So wedding planning has slowed as of late, but I'm trying to do a little at a time. We're finally closing in on a honeymoon plan!
10/7/06
On Saturday, we attended the wedding of my high school friends, Tiffany and Luke. It was our 6th and last wedding of the year. The bride looked beautiful, the food was delicious, and we did a lot of dancing! We had a great time! Next wedding we'll attend will be our own!
8/24/06
Our Engagement pictures are here!
Click here to view the proofs from our Engagement photo shoot. The password is jordan. You can order any prints you like right off the website.
8/14/06
Drew and I had our engagement photo shoot yesterday at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle. We met Jeff, who will be photographing our wedding. He did an excellent job and was very efficient. From what he showed us on his camera, the pictures looked pretty nice. Hopefully in a few days the proofs will be online and we can share the link. You can order any prints you want! We also picked out our wedding cake at Rolf's Patisserie in Lincolnwood. Its a great little french bistro/bakery that has done cakes for Oprah! We tasted a bunch of different cakes, frosting, and fillings and chose a very tasty combination. We were able create any design we wanted for the outside. I can't wait to see the finished cake, although it won't be until the wedding! Drew and I also celebrated our 6 year anniversary on Friday by dining at one of our favorite restaurants, Wildfire.
8/7/06
This past weekend, Drew and I attended Lollapalooza for the first time - and survived! It was an awesome experience, despite the usual drawbacks of a packed outdoor summer music festival. We've never been so packed into a crowd before in our lives. We were literally leaning on people and had more of their sweat on us than our own! But once the music starts, you forget how sore your feet are. We saw some of our favorite bands: The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, The Hold Steady, Ryan Adams, Wilco, and a bunch of others. Check out the pictures I tried to take by holding my camera over my head - some actually turned out! Overall, it was a great weekend and we'll definitely go again next year!
7/31/06
This past week, Drew and I went to the Lake of the Ozarks for the annual Rapp family reunion (Drew's mom's side of the family.) This was my sixth year in attendance, but first as his fiancee! We started out the week by staying a night at Drew's grandparents house in Boonville, Mo, where we enjoyed a delicious steak dinner complete with Cakebread Pinot Noir!
We then headed to the Lakeview Resort in the Ozarks where the rest of the family met us (over 40 people!) There we boated, shopped, swam, and played plenty of tennis. We also saw a Country Music Show at the Main Street Opry - which was great fun. There is a great outlet mall in the Ozarks that we shop at every year.
Another event of note was Drew's dad's 50th birthday! We celebrated in the Ozarks by going to dinner at The Blue Heron. Thursday night we threw a surprise birthday party for Steve with all the family, and some of his brothers at the Bull Pen restaurant. Steve was very surprised!
My favorite story from this past week has to be when I got attacked by a cicada. If you don't know what kind of bug that is, count yourself lucky. It is the largest, creepiest black bug I have ever seen, and apparently they like to attack. Barb and I were walking back to the cabin late one night and as I opened the door, a cicada came swooping onto my back and attacked me. By "attack" I mean it fluttered its big black wings while hitting me in the back and head and screamed out the most eery high pitched squeal I've ever heard. Based on that, I immediately thought it was a bat, because of its size and noise. Of course, I screamed (and woke a lot of people!) I ran out of the house just as Barb saw it fly up to the top of the fridge. It took Drew's dad and two of his aunts to find it and kill it before I could safely return to the cabin. Everyone agreed that the insect had the most horrific squeal they've ever heard - I cannot even describe it. I had the creeps for the rest of the night, but I was ok the rest of the week because I figured something like that can't happen twice in one week!
This was the first reunion with the 4th generation - the first great-granddaugther! Aubra (8 mo) is the adorable daughter of Michael and Cheri Timmons. Another great-granddaughter was born in June - Lauren Brooke Rapp (daughter of Brooke and Tim Rapp). Another two great-grandbabies are on the way. So there will be plenty of little ones running around at the next reunion! View our pictures from the week!
We arrived back in Chicago late Saturday night and capped off the week with a Cubs/Cardinals game at Wrigley Field. The Cardinals got swept, but our awesome 4th row seats definitely made the game worthwhile!
7/9/06
On Saturday, we attended our 5th wedding of the year - the wedding of Nadine and Ian Finn - in Aurora, IL. She is the first of Leigh Ann's high school friends to get married, and there are 3 others (including us) that are engaged. It was great to get all the Byron girls together for some dancing.
7/4/06
Happy Independence Day! We also celebrated Drew's 25th birthday on July 3rd with a little homeade cake and ice cream (compliments of Drew's mom.) Leigh Ann has recently ordered her wedding dress and finalized the bridesmaid dresses. We've also booked a wedding cake tasting with the bakery - they've made cakes for Oprah! We're currently searching for rehearsal dinner locations and honeymoon destinations! After a nice long holiday weekend, we are looking forward to Nadine and Ian's wedding on July 8th.
6/11/06
Our friends Mark and April got hitched! We got to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while and dance all night!! Anytime Drew and his buddies get together, craziness ensues - as evidenced by their impressive dance moves. It was our fourth wedding so far this year. Two more to go!
6/4/06
We attended Matthew (Leigh Ann's cousin) and Nicole's wedding in Daytona Beach, FL. We stayed right on the beach, which gave us a chance to spend time on the beach. Their wedding (6/3) was lovely and provided a great way for us to see some of the Tennessee fam!
5/30/06
Leigh Ann, her mom and sister went wedding gown shopping over Memorial Day weekend while Lisa was in from New York. So many to choose from! Leigh Ann expects to make a decision soon!
5/20/06
We traveled to Boulder, CO for Emily (Drew's cousin) and Aaron's lovely outdoor wedding. The weather was awesome and we had some time to sight-see and drive up into the mountains. Downtown Boulder is a neat area - we even got to see David the Zip Code Man!
5/15/06
We've moved! We bought our first home! We recently moved to a condo in Wheeling, IL, a little northwest of where we used to live. We have been busy unpacking between our weekends traveling. Our new address is:
715 Astor Ln Unit 401 Wheeling, IL 60090
2/26/06
Drew and Leigh Ann traveled to Boonville, Missouri for the wedding of Chris (Drew's cousin) and Amy. The weather was surprisingly warm for being the end of February. It was great to see Drew's family and do some dancing!
1/15/06
Weddings galore...
Along with planning our wedding, we have six weddings to attend this year! First up - Drew's cousin Chris is marrying Amy in Missouri. In May, Drew's cousin Emily is getting married in Colorado. In June, Leigh Ann's cousin Matthew is marrying Nicole in Florida. Also in June is our friends Mark and April's wedding, for which Drew will serve as a groomsman. In July, we will attend our friends Nadine and Ian's wedding. And to round out the year, we'll attend the wedding of our friends Tiffany and Luke. Needless to say, we will get a lot of ideas for our own!
Our Mailing Address:
715 Astor Ln Unit 401
Wheeling, IL 60090
Lisa, Leigh Ann's sister, is an avid knitter and blogger in NYC
2007 |