Lots of Hustling and Bustling!

Life has been busy in the Kidder household! December has flown by! I (Sarah) can't believe that Christmas is six days away!

What have we been up to lately? Well there has been lots of coming and going, lots of studying and writing, lots of visiting and laughing. :)

Last week was very eventful, Tuesday night we went to a friends birthday party, Wednesday night was Awana, Brad was able to go to a Chicago Bears game with a friend on Thursday night (Which they enjoyed but froze their tails off!), and Friday night was the Moody Church Staff Christmas Party (Which was a ton of fun!). So needless to say, we were happy to get out of the city and spend the day together on Saturday. We went to Schaumberg, a suburb of Chicago, and ran errands and bummed around for the afternoon. We went to Ikea, Walmart (a major treat!), Barns and Noble, Panera (For a late lunch/snack of bagels - YUM!), Hobby Lobby (to pick up a picture we were having framed - Ill post pictures soon) and went to dinner at Houlihans. It was such a fun day! Sunday we went to church, helped run the bookstore afterwords and had Linsey over for the afternoon. We (she and I - Brad watched Football :) ) painted together and made cards - it was great to spend time with her as she is moving back home tomorrow :(.

This week has been a little more low key. Joel, Linsey's boyfriend, drove over from PA to help her move back home so he is staying with us for a few nights. We had them over for dinner last night and had fun playing Scategories. Tomorrow (Saturday) we are planning on finishing up our Christmas shopping and relaxing in the evening.

Yesterday I turned in my last paper of the semester - YIPPEE!!! I had two finals on Tuesday - it feels so good to be done with the semester. One down two more to go! :) It is wonderful not having any school work on my "to do" list. :) I have determined that I am going to read a fiction book over break - so excited! :) Brad realized the other day that when you are working and not in school - you don't get a Christmas break, which is a bummer for him... :) We are leaving on Wednesday at noon for MI and will stay until Sunday afternoon/evening - so he will get a mini vacation then. :)

Oh, Chloe is doing well - rambunctious as ever. :) She is excited (we are sure) to go to MI and visit with Alfie (Brad's parents puppy). They had so much fun with each other over Thanksgiving.

Ill post pictures of our Christmas decorations and house updates soon! :)

On The Day We Scavenged

Yesterday, the college group from the church Brad grew up in came to Chicago. We met up with them and participated in the group Scavenger hunt. :) Some of the items we had to capture were, a picture of the group with a shopping bag, A picture of at least one group member on a security camera ect... :)

After the scavenger hunt, everyone (20 young adults) came over to our place. They wanted to get Chicago pizza, but because the group was so large (and it was the Lights Festival last night - one of the busiest winter afternoon/evenings here in the city) they all came to our place, and we ordered the Pizza. :)

To say the least - We had a full house. But it was so much fun! There were people playing Wii Tennis and BS (the card game - aka bologna, liar, ect... ). And perhaps the most amazing part of the whole evening is that parking worked out perfectly! (a rare occurrence at our place) Lol, Brad had double parked in front of our apartment building earlier in the day, to hopefully save both spots for the huge church van - and it worked out!

We had a great time - and now feel as if our apartment is huge! :) We know we can have 20 people over. And that 22 fully grown humans and 1 cat (not fully grown yet) can spend time in our apartment together. :)

Thanks for coming everyone! :)

Someone Had A Birthday!!

Yesterday was the Sarah's first birthday as a Kidder!! :) and her 21st Birthday of Life!! I had so much fun shopping for all of Sarah's presents, spoiling my wonderful wife with everything I could think of and afford that she wanted!! We finished our day with a wonderful dinner at Texas De Brazil! For those of you who have never been to a resturant like this you must go. The meal is priced at a flat rate per person, for which you get acess to a 80+ item Salad and apitizer bar (compleate with sushi! YUCK) and an all you can eat meal of steak, chicken lamb and other fine meats served to from a saber, carried by an army of servers. Its a fun time and was a great place to celibrate Sarah's birthday! :)

"It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens." - Cynthia E. Varnado

Chloe is a people cat. She meets us at the door when we come home, likes to sleep by our feet when we are in the kitchen and enjoys curling up on our laps when we are watching tv, or playing a game. Chloe loves to cuddle! :)

Chloe loves to help me with Laundry! :)

However, She can be a bit of a nuisance when I am trying to fold laundry. One day I took a warm, fresh out of the drier, t-shirt and put it in her bed and she curled right up and fell asleep! She didn't get up for the next 3 hours! :)

Good Eats

Brad and I love this show!

Alton Brown - the Host, shows you the science behind food. Often getting very creative with food.

We learned lots from an episode about steak, so we decided to try out what we learned.

We bought a huge piece of meat from CostCo... (Chloe was excited about it too :))

Before....

During....

During.... (Brad is really happy!!!! :) Having a lot of fun!)

And here are the finished steaks!! Ohhhhhh.... they were so so so wonderful! (and cost effective too!)
We ate them with Brandon and Christy, celebrating Brandon's new job.
This was such a fun project! We can't wait until there is another fun occasion for us to get a hunk of meat again! :)

The Office!

So yes, it has been a while since the last update. I could tell stories of internet failures, computer problems and time crunches but the end point is that I am updating now... :)

Our office party was tons and tons of fun! Here are some pictures of our full house of friends.

Here is our dining room - rearranged a little to allow space for more people.

The Wii provided some fun entertainment before the Office started.

Wii Tennis!

Here are all our friends! :) We had so much fun with everyone! Thanks for coming! :)

We brought more home from Minnesota than just memories!

We had such a great time in Minnesota - visiting with family, going to the fair and of course eating lots of food! :) (Which tends to happen when you get a large group of people together :))

We saw this sign in the horse barn, at the fair, and could not resist.





Crazy hats at the Fair with crazy people.

(L to R - Brad, Molly, Sarah, Grant, Uncle John)


And on our way home with picked up Chloe from my Aunt Joy and Uncle Jason's. One of their cats had had a litter of kittens, and we are now the proud parents of one of them! :)

Chloe is a source of laughter in our home (and to be honest, frustration* at times). She has so much energy! As a very active kitten she loves toes, climbing up pant legs, batting at my backpack, sending/chasing jellybeans across the room and, if you get lucky, curling up on your lap for a nap. It has been so much fun to see her grow, in 2 weeks, from a timid kitten, trying not to be too scared of her new surroundings, to a confident (sometimes too much so) kitten (she is getting bigger every day!), making sure nothing gets in her way.

*We get a bit frustrated when she wakes us up at 2 or 3 in the morning wanting to play. :)

Life is ever changing at the Kidder house, work is going well for Brad, and work/school is going well for Sarah. We have realized that the summer is over :(, but are excited for some fun things this fall! We are having an Office Party next Thursday night, as our beloved show begins again. And in October we are looking forward to having Brad's parents and some friends come stay with us for a weekend as they explore Chicago. We are also headed down south mid-October for a trip to see Sarah's family.

Well that is all for now, we will check in again soon! :)

Surprise weekend away!

The first week of our new fall schedule has gone well, I have classes on Tuesday and Thursdays and then work M W F. We have been wondering what to do this weekend (Monday is labor day, and we don't have to work! :) ) and hadn't been able to think of anything that sounded worthy of the long weekend. But Brad texted me yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, while I was in classes, "I have a huge surprise for you!" That got my interest piqued! :)

When Brad picked me up after work, he gave me a series of clues:


My reaction: "We are getting new hubcaps?!?!?!" lol we have been missing our front two hubcaps for some time now, and it was the first thing I noticed when I saw this picture.... "No, not hubcaps" Brad replied with a smile...


My Reply: "Cotton Candy! That is not healthy!"


Now, after seeing this, I immediately thought Minnesota, "We are going to Minnesota to hear John Piper on Sunday - no, WE ARE GOING TO THE FAIR!!!" :)

We leave this afternoon at about 2, we are so excited! We will post some pictures when we get back! :)

Theology and Starbucks, Two Of My Favorite Things!!

For the past few days I have been spending my lunch hour each day at Starbucks, with a cup of black coffee and a good book. Today as I sat down to read I could not help but overhear two high school girls studying for a test. The girls were discussing the Protestant Reformation in Europe, and the various kings and queens that England had during that time. If there is any area of history that I have studied the most it has to be very era that they were discussing. The girls were quite confused... I listened to them struggle for a while before finally speaking up and asking from my chair 10 feet away, "Where do you girls go to School?" They responded "The Latin School" (which is a quite prestigious High School next to where I work) I said "I graduated with a Degree in Historical Theology, do you want some help?" They both laughed, and said "yes". I was relived that they realized I wanted to help and did not think I was some sort of pedafile or stalker! I proceeded to give a 10 to 15 minute lecture on the reformation, and was able to slip in a brief summation of the gospel! One girl was even taking notes on what I was saying! :) so I hope I had all my facts right! I was so thankful for the great teachers that I had at Moody, and just rememebered how much I love to disscus theology! If nothing else I think I at least got those two girls better grades!

Summer time - enjoy and improvise

This summer has been a lot of fun. We have really enjoyed setting up our home, having friends over, watching 24 :) and trying to beat our high score in Wii bowling - which can get a little competitive sometimes. :)

We love our apartment! It fits us so well, the only thing it is lacking is a back porch where we could put a grill, but we have improvised :). The broiler in the oven worked for hotdogs on the 4th of July! :) Brad is the grill/broiler master! :)

Here we go!!

For some time now there has been a little voice in the back of my head, saying "Brad, you should start a blog so all of our friends and family can see what is going on with our life's". This voice, of course, belonged to my lovely wife Sarah! And as usual, Sarah was right. Hopefully this will help all of you to follow what we are up to here in Chicago!
Below are several pictures of our apartment for anyone who wants to see!