Monday, February 28, 2011

Our Trip to Arthur

There are a lot of small towns around us that I get to visit on a regular basis because of my job, but since we don't leave C-U much, Taylor hasn't been to many of these. Well, a few months ago I stopped at this restaurant called Yoder's Kitchen with one of my co-workers after visiting a client, and it was so delicious. I came home that evening and told Taylor about it, and ever since he has wanted to go eat there! So last Saturday we didn't have much planned and decided it would be the perfect time to make the 40 minute drive down to Arthur.


Taylor was also craving an old-fashioned Cherry Coke so we stopped by a place called Flesor's Candy Kitchen, in another tiny town called Tuscola, on our way to Arthur! Here is Taylor enjoying his Cherry Coke from the soda shoppe! Their soda is really good because they make it the old-fashioned way with cola syrup, cherry, and carbonation. So now Taylor is trying to find a way we can make this in our house. Ha!


Here we are pulling into Yoder's Kitchen. This picture doesn't do justice to how big it is! It is Amish/Mennonite owned so they make everything by hand. They have all sorts of homemade jams, candies, breads, and peanut butter! Their fried chicken is what they are known for and boy is it delicious. Taylor absolutely loved it which I was happy about since I had talked so highly of it!


I mentioned that Yoder's makes their own peanut butter and it is soooo good! They are also known for their pies and here is a picture of their homemade peanut butter pie. O-M-G, I wish I could eat this every day :)


They even give you samples of their homemade apple butter and peanut butter to put on their bread they bring out to you!


As I mentioned, Yoder's is Amish/Mennonite owned. Here is a picture of the Amish buggy they have outside the restaurant, which is not unusual to see around the Arthur area. This is because Arthur is where a majority of the Amish live in Illinois. Even during our short time in Arthur we probably passed 10-12 buggies, and I have never been through there and not seen at least two or three.


I meant to take a picture while we were in town, but forgot. So this was the best picture we could get while driving out of town. If you look closely, right above the brush pile, you can see a horse and buggy. I think there are around 4,000 Amish that live in Arthur, so a lot of the businesses our stations work with in Arthur are Amish owned. This can make it tricky when you are developing marketing schedules for them because they are a lot of guidelines they have to follow. And in the News-Gazette (the C-U paper) every Wednesday, there is an article written by the Otto Family which is a prominent Amish family in the area. It is really interesting to read about their daily lives and the struggles they face. They even write the article in an older English dialect!

Well, that about sums up our trip to Arthur! So next time you come visit, we will have to make a trip to Yoder's :) Hope your week has started out well!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The TJ and Dave Show

Do you recognize these guys? Well TJ Jagodowski, the guy on the left, aka The Sonic Guy, performs an improv show every Wednesday night in Chicago that Taylor has been wanting to go see since we moved up here. So for his birthday last week, we decided to drive up and see the show! Our plans got a little delayed because of all the snow we got a few weeks ago, but we were able to reschedule our tickets and make it last week.


When we left C-U, I asked Taylor how excited he was for the show and this was the picture I got. Ha!


Before the show we went and ate at a Brazilian steakhouse called Brazzaz, which was delicious! Brazilian steakhouses are our favorite type of restaurant and this was one of the best ones we have been to. Not all cities have them, like C-U, so Taylor was excited to get all the meat he wanted!



Sorry these pictures are so blurry! It was freezing outside and Taylor just wanted to get back in the car :)


And yes, I did take a picture of the dryer in the bathroom, because look how cool it is! You just placed your hands down in it, and BOOM, they were dry! The whole restaurant had a really modern feel to it, but all the waiters bringing you the meat looked like Brazilian gladiators or something. It was pretty strange to see the difference! Ha.



Here we are at the show where they performed on the basement stage of the iO theater. This was really cool because a lot of famous comedians like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, and lots more have performed there too! And it is a really small venue, so they are literally performing right in front of you! I would say there were probably no more than 40 people in the entire room. Also, our friends that live up in Chicago came to the show too, so Taylor got some bro time on his birthday as well!


The show itself is really cool because they improv the ENTIRE thing! So they are just standing up there for an hour making it up as they go and it is so funny. The shows doesn't start until 11pm though, so we got back to C-U around 3am and we were exhausted. I wish we could have just stayed in Chicago that night, but I had to be at work Thursday and Taylor had class :( Sometimes being an adult isn't so much fun! Ha.

So that was Taylor's 23rd birthday present and I think he had a really fun time at the show! And aren't you all proud of me for actually taking pictures? As blurry and dark as they may be :) Hope everyone has a good Friday!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Overdue

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted! Life has just been kind of crazy lately, but we're back now :) The good thing is that I have been taking a lot pictures of stuff that's been going on, so I will have those to share over the next week or so.

But here is just a quick update of some exciting news that happened this evening...

A few weeks ago I posted this picture of Taylor crossing his fingers, and as my mom reminded me, I had not posted about why his fingered were crossed!


Well, that night Taylor and I had gone to look at this house in a neighborhood close to us that we were interested in renting. His fingers were crossed because another couple had looked at the house before us and the odds were they would get the house. The girl who is renting it said she would call us that evening to let us know where we stood in the renting process. So, to make a long and complicated story short, the other couple ended not being a good fit for the house so we were given the opportunity to apply!


So for the last couple weeks we have been going through the application process to rent this cute little house, and tonight we finalized the agreement! Yeeaaahhh! I cannot express to you how excited I will be to move into this house, and have a garage! It truly has been a blessing and God send that we even found this house. The neighborhood only allows so many rent-able properties and they don't come available very often. Ever since we moved to C-U, we have always thought it would awesome to live in this specific neighborhood (Taylor would even make us drive the neighborhood sometimes, just to dream! ha). So even though we won't move in until this coming summer, it's such a stress relief to know we don't have to look for a new place anymore.

And we will still have a spare bedroom so if you haven't been to visit, don't worry, we still have room! Well, we hope your week has been going well and I'll been updating on the past few weeks in the next couple days :)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Happy Birthday!

So I am a day late in posting this but... Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! Yesterday Taylor turned 23 and to celebrate we stayed at home, warmed up a frozen Poppyseed Chicken, drank Dr. Pepper, and watched old seasons of Parks and Recreation. I know, I know.. quite a wild night!


Here is Taylor enjoying his birthday dinner that I slaved over all day, and when I say slaved over, I mean I pulled it out of the fridge and popped it in the oven for 30 minutes :) (I'll do a post in the next few days about why Taylor has his fingers crossed! Haha) Our original plans were to drive up to Chicago tonight and celebrate Taylor's birthday by going to see The TJ and Dave Show and then out to eat at a nice restaurant. Sadly, due to the crazy blizzard that has landed in C-U, we had to postpone the trip until next week.


So instead we stayed in and instead of birthday cake we had birthday popsicles! I tried to make a homemade brownie recipe for him, but it didn't work out so we ended up having popsicles. I promised that I would get him a cheesecake in the next few days though!

Today we have had a snow day and I forgot to take pictures but I will try tomorrow and post them. I probably could have made it into work this afternoon, but when I came home yesterday I got stuck twice and just didn't want to risk it again. But since Taylor has been sick the last couple days, it was nice to just stay inside and do nothing really. We hope you all are staying warm!