...In the Summer of '69 ... I mean... twenty-ten.

Over the past couple weekends, we've explored the land and listened to some great music. Those of you who know me personally may know that I love Bon Jovi. So do all the middle-aged, single women in America, it turns out. But I already knew that. You should've seen the train we took downtown. Cougar town.

When my awesome husband saw tickets on groupon for $30-- gasp -- I couldn't believe it. That price included the ticket fees and everything. So for not nosebleed seats, we got to see a concert that people pay hundreds for! (If you haven't joined that website, it's basically a site that tells you great deals in your area for each day. Sometimes you can buy a gift card to a restaurant for 60% off, concert tickets, comedy club tickets, hotel stays, entertainment, baseball game tickets, broadway and off-broadway shows, spa visits... it's basically everything entertainment/experience based and you get a huge discount. But, once the deal for the day sells out, it sells out. And they always do...)

...while I'm on topic, I should mention Shop At Home again. I love this website because all you have to do is go to it, enter the store you want to shop for, and it automatically takes a percentage off the purchase and refunds you. Once you bank $20, they send you a check. I've been a member for 6 months and I've received two checks, totaling $60 on items I already shop for online. It's just a nice kickback for items you're already going to buy online. If you're anything like me, packages come weekly to our house. Especially with a baby coming, the crib and all things related have given us some nice extra cashflow. That 5% of $25 can add up quite nicely. Okay, done with rant. I love craigslist, restaurant.com and swagbucks, too.

Here's the man himself doing his thing.

Here's where we saw the concert... Soldier Field! I've never ever seen a pro football (or college football) game live, so this was as close as I've been-- in the Bears stadium! It was pretty sweet. Oh, and those people on the floor paid approximately 90% more than we did for our tickets. Hehe.

Kid Rock opened for Bon Jovi and during this opening... the Stanley Cup was presented for some reason. There was a big Blackhawks festival going on downtown that day and we're assuming that the Stanley Cup made its rounds to the stadium for publicity. You can't see it, but the guy in the middle is holding it. Sucks to have a crappy camera sometimes. Anyone have camera recommendations? We're going to be in the market for a new one soon... and please don't say Canon.

Bon Jovi and Kid Rock did a duet at one point (saw that coming, right?) and it was pretty cool... and also the clearest picture my camera could handle taking.

 Here's the man who makes my whole world a whole lot more exciting. <3

That was a fun night. We took the train downtown, walked to the stadium, had dinner, saw a concert, and walked swiftly back (sadly missing Livin' on a Prayer during the encore though hearing it outside the stadium and singing it loudly) to the train-- making it by 5 minutes! It was the last train of the evening, so we're sure glad we made it.

Somewhere in between concert going, we headed about 4 miles from our house for the "largest, free vegetarian festival in the state" or something like that. Basically, we think it was an outreach for some spiritual organization. We received the flier for the fest at an Indian restaurant we visited. Best sighting in our hour there was seeing a strange hemp lady in a turban and white yoga pants sitting in a tree. In a tree. Yeah. Reasons I don't like being associated with vegetarians out there... they are a bit on the "interesting" side and I don't know we have much in common aside from what goes on our plates during meal time.

After the Veggie Fest this past weekend, we headed to another stadium, the First Midwest Bank Ampitheatre in Tinley Park (read: middle'o'nowhere). Two weeks ago I was reading one of the many deal blogger's blogs that I read daily and they mentioned that Live Nation (formerly ticketmaster) was doing a $10 ticket promotion in many states for many shows. I had looked once before and nothing interesting was found in our area. Until, I looked again. Not only is this Brooks & Dunn's last tour ever, but they're awesome... and the tickets were $10! Sure, they were lawn seats, but the lawn is not nosebleed at this stadium like it is at the Irvine Ampitheatre in California. We were sitting maybe 30 feet higher than the people in seats on the ground level. It was awesome! Including ticket fees and shipping of the tickets to our house, we paid $20 for two people to see the concert! And... even better... parking at the FMBA is free! We immediately called our friends, Derrick & Liz, as they are also country fans. They bought 2 tickets and we had a great night. On that note... it appears that country fans are sparse here in the Midwest! Who would've thought? We have few friends who would actually enjoy this kind of concert. I guess the cool cats still think country isn't cool? Maybe that's why we were able to get $10 tickets! I'm not complaining about their hating. :)

Here we are listening to Gary Allen (I know, $10 tickets!) play before Brooks & Dunn came on stage.

...as if I could post anything about a weekend without a post about home improvement! Aside from Ray painting and staining the molding in our baby's room, he also tended to the walls downstairs, again.

We thought this wall of our new formal living room looked a bit funny with just the center photo. We love the photo, but it seemed to get lost in the room. We decided to print off two more photos we took from our Europe escapades (left: Venice taken from our hotel room; right: Gaudi Park in Barcelona-- both taken with our former Canon camera. Such great photos, not the longest lasting camera at 1.5 years of life) and get them framed. By get them framed... you should know by now that I'm all about the deals... so we found two frames last night at Target with matting that matched for $16.99 each. Score! All is complete.

By the way... I have been linking a lot more lately just because I think it's fun to compare former blog posts (since I have posted nearly a hundred) to what is going on with us now. It's fun for me to flashback.