HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Our first Halloween in Naperville had big shoes to fill.  HUGE, even.  I mean, no matter how awesome this place is, there's only one Mike Kane and only one John Deere hayride around Edgewater Drive.  And sorry, but nothing's going to replace that. 

But Halloween Naperville-style did not disappoint!  We have new traditions to celebrate here, from the school-wide costume parade, to the incredible pumpkin farm unlike anything we've ever seen, to the neighborhood parade (which turned into a "sprint-or-treat" due to the overwhelming amount of boy energy involved) to the daylight trick or treating which was straight out of my daydreams....it was a totally spook-tacular Halloween season here.

HALLOWEEN

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SIEGEL'S PUMPKIN FARM

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Because this is so rare...

I am officially 45 minutes EARLY for something!!!! If I let Ben nap today,
he would have been groggy and cranky when I'd need to wake him to go to Jack
and Molly's Halloween parade. So I left the house an hour early and
drove him around for twenty minutes with the heat cranked up until he passed out .

We were THE FIRST ONES HERE!!!!!!

Edited to add: he slept through the entire parade and the ride home!  And he's still wearing his costume - that may have to rot off his body before he gives it up willingly.

Somebody's Looking Mighty THREE-ish Around Here

Ben had a rather ORNERY day today.  But a Happy Meal at noontime did its job.  Here he is practicing with his new number in his spiffy new shirt from Auntie Trecie.

The orange drink umbrella was extremely important for some reason.

This boy is serious about that umbrella.





Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kiss.

The fangs crack me up.  No doubt the others are a smidge pushed forward from prolonged Binky use.
We're totally okay with that, for the record. 
Whacked out teeth are a small price to pay for the utter bliss Binky brings this boy.

More giggles from Count Ben-cula.

I think he looks like Uncle Paul here. 
Not that Uncle Paul walks around with a giant booger in his left nostril, but you get the idea...

When you stomp, they blink red lights.  Who could ask for more?

Okay Mom, I'm pooped!

I am THISCLOSE to having it all together...

I can see "having it together" out ahead of me, and it's really pretty hilarious how on a daily basis, I think I'm going to grab it.  And then, just like Charlie Brown as he approaches the football, it's whipped out from under me and I fall flat on my head.

At least I can laugh about it, and BLOG about it for posterity.  It's only Wednesday, and I have three prime examples of my almost having it together.  But being that I started this post yesterday and I don't quite  have it all together, I can only remember two.  So that's what you get.

EXAMPLE ONE:
Yesterday, we got up, I showered, dressed, started the laundry, got the kids dressed and fed.  Teeth were brushed, hurry, hurry now it's getting late!  Jackets on, hurry, hurry, let's go!  Out the door, go! go! GO!  The bus is probably almost here, quick, get the trash out on the curb.  Grab the recycling, let's go, let's go!

Finally, standing at the bus stop, heaving a big sigh of relief, but wondering where everyone else is...8:33am is the time we need to walk out the door to get to the bus stop in time for the bus at 8:40 because it comes 10 minutes late on Wednesdays (the teachers have a planning meeting).  Out loud I said "We left the house at exactly 8:33, I don't know what's going on!" 

That's when Jack says "Mom, it's TUESDAY!!!"

We'd missed the bus!  And put the trash out on the wrong day!

Soclose.

EXAMPLE TWO
This morning, tired of rarely being able to get dinner together in the evenings, I decided to put my crockpot to use.  I researched recipes, went to two different stores to find the right ingredients, and was ready to go.  I browned my roast, chopped my veggies, deglazed the pan, put it all in the crockpot and was ready to go by 9:30am.  Tah-Dah!!  It's not even lunch and dinner is ready.  I ROCK!!

Then the doorbell rang and it was my lovely friends, the Jehovah's Witnesses, who wanted to come by and share some good news.  And because my front door is glass, I couldn't pull the patented "Nancy Egan" duck and cover maneuver to avoid them.  I'd been seen. 

So we chatted about faith, and differences, and I gave them the opportunity to do what they felt called to do because I'm not good at being rude and they are awfully nice ladies, Vivian and Pam, just like Dottie and Gertrude were back in Pembroke (they came to visit every few months, but I was better at hiding from them because I could see them coming from down the street).

An hour later, we said goodbye and I went back to check the crockpot.  It was cold as a stone!  I checked the plug - FINE.  I checked the setting - FINE.  What in the world was wrong???

Then I noticed the toaster sitting next to the crockpot.  The toaster with the black cord.  Next to the crockpot with the black cord. 

Yep.  I plugged in the toaster.  D'oh!!!

Soclose.

Luckily, it all tends to work itself out, even with the added mayhem and laughter.  I drove the kids to school, and we were late enough that we were last in the car line, saving oodles of annoying waiting in line.  They also felt super special to be able to get driven to school.

And eight hours after the toaster mistake, Marc, Jack and I were saying to each other with full mouths "Wthimklwermkl mkltrhiwhrt?"  Which roughly translates into "How is it that we've never tried pot roast before??  Man this is GOOD!!"

Pot Roast - it's a GOOD thing!

38 is....

If I could go back to visit my sixteen year old self, I would look deep into her eyes and tell her "You are BEAUTIFUL!  You are AWESOME just the way you are!  You are smart and strong and engaged in every major sport, extracurricular activity and job a person your age can be - Don't EVER let your psyche or some rude comment from a peer make you feel like you're not good enough for anything!" 

If I could go back and visit my 25 year old, newly married self, I would shake her by the shoulders and scream "GIRL!!! 105 pounds??  You will NEVER see this AGAIN!  Strut around in your bikini 24 hours a day and go find some gorgeous light so your new husband can take 1000 pictures of your fabulous self!

You live and you learn.

Today I turned 38 years old.  I loved every minute of 37 (except maybe the first few days of our move and some other random, vomiting or coughing or constipated illnesses on the part of my dear children.  Oh, and two Sundays ago - that one was a real beast of a day!). 

So for the most part, I adored 37.  But 35 into 36 was awful, until I learned the lesson I needed.  Life is what it is, but how you choose to view it makes all the difference in the world.  It is what you make of it.  And you never get it back.  That moment right there?  Gone.  And this one?  Like the wind.  If I curse any of those moments with negativity, pessimism, darkness, hostility, anger, self-loathing, apathy, misery, self-pity...then I am cursing myself and my family with wasted time and a darkened spirit. 

Good begets good.  Light begets light.  Let a little shine in, and more will follow.  And the reverse is true as well.  So from the depths of what is the closest to depression I ever hope to come, to the bright sunlight of today, I pulled myself, willed myself up, by forcing myself to follow the "fake it till you make it" protocol.  Meaning that even if I would rather have hidden under my pillow or immersed myself in Facebook to avoid dealing with whatever the day brought...I forced myself to get up, paste a smile on my face (sometimes I literally had to take my fingers and force the corners of my mouth to turn up) and go about my daily work,  shunning negativity, forcing myself to take note of the joyful moments around me.  And little by little, practice after practice, it became second nature, until it actually WAS my nature.  The nature I'd taken for granted my whole life, until it wasn't there anymore.

Once the goodness started to flow, it was like a snowball effect!  The flood of happiness and goodness, the incredible people and opportunities that have come our way over the last 12 months can only be described as divinely inspired. 

So today, for my birthday, I wanted to have some pictures to look back on when I am 68 so that my 68 year old self won't want to come back to visit me in the here and now and slap me silly.  To show her that I GET IT!!   I celebrate it!  I can celebrate myself!  Yes, I have flaws - LOADS!  I am starting to wrinkle.  I am pudgy.  Lord am I pudgy!  I am too often short-tempered with the kids.  I yell.  I hate yelling, but still, I yell.  I stay up too late.  I am too independent sometimes and slack at taking care of Marc.  I can be cold and judgemental (harsh, but true). 

Even so, life is GRAND.  Totally imperfect, and totally wonderful at the same time.  So I got my camera and tripod out and fiddled with the self-timer until I got the kind of pretty picture that I always take for everyone else. 

This is ME.  This is TODAY.  And I thank God for every second of it!

I also thank God for my awesome sister-in-law who baked me a birthday cake from SCRATCH!  With icing that takes 7 minutes to whip!  And two layers!!  And chocolate shavings!

It's so pretty I think I need to go have another bite...

 And I thank God for my team of professional candle blower-outers...

A rag-tag, cute as can be bunch.

And for gorgeous October days, just like the one Marc and I were married on!

And for giving us such a cool place to live, with so many fun things to do nearby, like the Morton Arboretum! Not many places in this world that you want to return to the second you leave - this place was amazing!  Our family membership was my birthday gift to myself.  Yay!

And I thank God for beautiful flowers sent from London and Massachusetts and delivered by crazy Chinese drivers who made for great storytelling later in the day!  And for family and friends who sent so much love to me today, through cards, emails, phone calls...what a lucky lady I am!

So far, 38 is GREAT!

Mystery Ride to Starved Rock State Park

Our Edgewater Drive neighbors, the Kanes, had a habit of taking their girls on "mystery rides" for fun.  I always loved the idea, but was never able to pull it off with our nosey nellies...until now!  I've been on a mission to find the best foliage Illinois has to offer, so we booked two nights at a resort near Starved Rock State Park, in Utica, IL.  It's about 80 minutes west/soutwest of us, and this was their "Fall Color Weekend".  We stayed at Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Resort (no joke on the name) and it was pretty much HEAVEN for kids.  With an indoor water park, sweet shop, indoor arcade/carnival, 18 hold mini-golf, and a train that rides around the property all day long...well, it made up for the fact that there wasn't much COLOR to the foliage!

We did find a few pops of color that rivaled New England, but everything seemed either past peak (as in brown and on the ground) or not yet turned (as in green and still on the trees).  It was still fun to get out and see a different part of our very FLAT state - we even went uphill, for the first time since we'd moved here!

Here are a few of the highlights...

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One more thing to love about Illinois

Edited To Add: They have the doodads that hold the trigger, so that your gas pumps itself!!
(in Massachusetts, where they assume all people are incapable of pumping their own gas properly, they disable the doodads and make you pump every last drop with your own hands.  Kind of a massive PAIN in the dead of winter!)

BOO!

It's getting to be that time of year again!  Molly, Ben and I whipped up some goodies while Jack was at school.  And then while Ben napped, Molly and I decided to fashion a gift basket to sneak over onto our neighbors' doorstep.  Of course, she felt compelled to then TELL this neighbor what we'd done, even though she clearly understood the whole TOP SECRET aspect of doing the boo-ing.  Her conscience just wouldn't let her!  (Dear Lord, if you could just keep that embedded honesty intact throughout her teenage years, I'll be very grateful!).

Since our neighbors don't read our blog, we can share some pictures. 

CONTENTS: Repurposed Tray, Seasonal Baking Mix, Halloween-themed paper cups/plates/napkins, plastic googley glasses and vampire fangs, 9 boxed mix Halloween cupcakes with confectioner's glaze and colored sugar sprinkles. I probably spent less than $10 on the whole thing, but in my opinion, anything in a decorative box, wrapped in cellophane with curling ribbon ribbon looks like a million bucks!  We werent' trying to break the bank, just spread a little fun, especially since our neighbors have been so good to us these last two months.


 



These were just plain ole white cupcakes that we dipped in a super simple glaze (1 cup confectioner's sugar and 3tsp water stirred until smooth) and attacked with sprinkles (orange, green and black - spooky!)  Then we stuck seasonal toothpicks in them ($2 at Walmart, including matching muffin liners!) and voila! 

The paper products are all from Target - I knew there was a reason I had to have them!  And the silly halloween accessories are perfect for the Nelsons and their three boys.

BOO! 

The air is cool, the season Fall,

Soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...

Tricky witches at your door.

The spooks are after things to do,

In fact a spook brought this "BOO" to you!

The excitement comes when friends like you,

Copy this note and make it two.

Your neighbors will have big smiles on their faces,

No one will know who "BOO"ed whose places!

Take a day or two to work your spell,

Keep it secret, hide it well.

Please join the fun, the seasons here.

Just spread one "BOO" and some Halloween cheer!

It's going to be a good day

Our new sectional, which proved it's worth when Marc christened it by falling asleep with red wine in his hand.  Eight years ago he did the same exact thing to our days old butter-yellow twill sectional and sadly, it never recovered.  But we'd spent so much on it we couldn't get rid of it...until now!  Yee HA for getting rid of ancient, tattered, worn, really quite embarrassing furniture and bringing in something waterproof, child-proof and blessedly, even Marc-proof!

Our new fence has arrived!  The perimiter is SECURE and El Destructo is once again CONTAINED!

After two months of making seventyeleven daily trips to the garage with my recycling, I finally decided to find a way to fit it into the kitchen!  Now if I could only stop walking to the garage before I remember it's in the kitchen, I'd be getting somewhere!

These are three of my biggest headaches, SOLVED.  The weight off my shoulders feels amazing!

Fall at the Garden Center

One of the bonuses of buying our house in Kinloch was the farmstand on the corner.  We could walk to it if we were in the mood (not that we have, but we could).  We got here at the raggedy end of the summer season.  The corn was MOUTHWATERING, but the rest of the place was kind of empty.

And then FALL hit!!!  It was painful having to wait for the end of September to buy mums for my empty, languishing, front door urns, but I knew if I bought too early they'd be toast by mid-October.  But then one warm fall day, I could take it no more, so off my trusty sidekick and I went.  We came home with two lovely yellow mums that perk up the front door considerably. 

Is it totally not cool

To cry in a home accessories store? Well, then I'm the queen of the
uncool. I also MUST recreate this.

This is a big deal.

Eight YEARS it has been since I was able to use bleach on our whites.  When we moved to Pembroke and I got my very own washer and dryer, I figured that the reason our whites seemed dingy was because I wasn't using enough bleach.  So I kept using more.  And more, and MORE.  Until one day Marc went to wipe his brow after a hard workout and burned his face with all the residual bleach that was in the towel.

Oops!

But our whites were still dingy!  A year later when we had to replace our pool liner and filled the pool back up with water from both a truck and our hose, the pool guy finally solved the mystery when the new liner turned BROWN.  He said, "You must have a lot of iron in your water.  The chlorine in the pool shock causes it to rust and turn brown."

Aha!  Chlorine Bleach + Iron heavy water = rusted iron = rusty whites.

So for eight long years, we either wore dingy whites, or no whites at all.  Oxy Clean became my go-to, but it required so much soaking to get the iron out of the clothes that it was a pain to have to use it on a regular basis. 

When we were moving, this became one of my top ten things I was thrilled to leave behind.  But I must say, I'm a little shy now to use the Clorox, it's been so long.  And there are all those memories of favorite clothes bleached by accident when I was a kid (things always seemed to hide in my Mum's white loads!).  I know it's only a matter of time before I ruin something important.

But today is the day.  I can't wait to see the sunshine a little Clorox is going to bring into my life!

Poop and Pancakes

The Mallett Children spell happiness with four letters...

Being the lucky recipients of some gift certificates to this Mallett-Friendly establishment (Thanks Nana!), we enjoyed a lovely dinner this evening of pancakes and sausages, eggs and bacon, and a whole boatload of maple syrup.  It turned out they had an "unlimited pancake" deal, which was all my 46 pound 8 year old needed to hear.  Four strips of bacon, two sunny side up eggs, two sausages and four plate-sized pancakes later, he was finally satisfied. 

Here he is in all his pancake-eating glory.

JACK THE PANCAKE MASTER

There was also loads of entertainment.  For example, the small mountain of salt poured stealthily under the table while Mom wasn't looking (Ben), the syrup down the sleeve trick (also Ben), the scream bloody murder chorus (Ben again), the "I think I have to poop!" surprise (Molly) and the contagious pooping cascade (Jack).

I can't decide which was the more hilarious moment - Molly, completely topless on the toilet (due to her relentless phobia of her dress 'falling in') pooping her first non-Miralax-induced poop in the last five years while Ben (who insisted on tagging along) rolled around on the disgusting, filthy, nasty-beyond-measure floor.  When he got bored of coating himself in the stuff of a germophobe's nightmares, he would grab the door handle and yank on it mercilessly, slamming  the door, and it's attached wall partition as if there were an earthquake.  Oh, and the screaming - because when you find a good echo, you've gotta roll with it, ya know?

Or maybe the more hilarous moment was when we got back to the table only to have Jack look up and decide he needed to go too.  Only he was terrified to be in the bathroom alone, so I had to leave Molly and El Destructo at the table, leaning my head out the ladies room door, while keeping my feet inside where Jack could see them.  He was done pretty fast, but then the wiping began.  The wiping, and wiping and WIPING... I think the child went through a whole roll - I was imagining certain flooding of the toilet and couldn't stifle my own laughter, so ridiculous was the scene.

At this point, Ben began screaming because his eggs weren't cut to his liking, and the sweet, saintly, angelic teenager waitress looked at me and said "I'll hang out with them so you can concentrate on what you're doing".  There is a special place in heaven for that girl.

...and wiping, and wiping, and MORE wiping...

Finally, I went into my purse back at the table, got out my travel wipes case, and slapshotted it under the stall to the sound of a very relieved 8 year old.

"Thanks Mom, you're the BEST!"

The night was clearly destined to be a poopstorm, because the couple+toddler who had just sat down at the booth next to us turned out to be uber-chatty with a side of TMI.  "Are all of them yours?" They asked.  Why, yes, my dozens of babes?  All THREE of them?  Yes, they're all mine.

"Can I ask you a question?" said the dad, apparently sensing that I might be experienced at my job.

"At what point do you start to worry when your kid hasn't pooped?  Like, one day?  Three days?  Four?  And what do you do?  Do you just wait?"

Seriously.  SERIOUSLY?

Thus began a twenty minute conversation about constipation-relieving techniques, during which I kept repeating "You know, you might want to call your pediatrician."

Finally we were able to escape with a "Good Luck!  Hope everything turns out okay!" and a sprint out the door, leaving our new best friends behind.

Poop and Pancakes.  Who knew?

It's 1:12AM...

...and I have totally lost it.  I can't seem to stop this vicious cycle of poring through Google images and blogs and home decor web sites trying to find the answer to all my burning questions.  My eyes are bulging out of my head and yet still here I am trying to solve these mysteries.

What color armchairs should I buy for the living room?
What type of entertainment center will work on the TV wall?
What colors should I pick? 
Why do I want to take an ice pick to the almond painted trim all over this house ?
(What was so wrong with WHITE that you had to go and paint it DIRTY white?")
How many Pottery Barn Logan bookshelves is too many?
Where can I find cheerful rugs that are not made of scratchy wool and don't cost a fortune?
Where can I find a 33" demilune occasional table or bombe chest for my entryway?
What color should I paint my entryway?
What color should I paint...well, everything?

And tonight's most pressing need: What size pictures should I order for my "picture wall"?  Should I even have a picture wall?  Should I put them on ledges?  On the fireplace mantel?  Should I get canvas or not?  Black and white or color?  Big, bigger or so big it makes people gasp?

Oy.

I did at least find some pretty inspirations to work from, Google is always good for that.

 Tara Whitney.  Swoon!

 I have no idea where this one came from.  Bad copyright infringer, BAD!

 Pottery Barn.  I love this because it's so soothing, even while it's quite busy.   And this one would be totally do-able for me because I have many similar components lying around looking for homes right now.


My Sweet Savannah.  I have stalked, er, idolized Melaine since long ago on HGTV's Rate My Space.  She painted each and every letter on that wall by hand.  It goes without saying that if I choose this route, my Cricut will be doing the work for me!

Exposures.  The day I found one of their catalogs thrown in the recycling bin under the mail cubbies in our Beacon Hill apartment was a lucky day indeed.  I adore them! 

And lastly, MARTHA.  Need I say more?

Now I am going to go drag my sorry self to bed, where I will appropriately spend the last thirty seconds of consciousness chastising myself for not going to bed sooner, and for wasting YET MORE TIME on my current home decor obsession.  Really, it has to stop.  Just as soon as I have these pictures on the wall.  And the entertainment center installed.  And the rugs down.

And does anyone know a good Chicagoland electrician?

UPDATE!  I just checked out my friend Emily's blog, you know, to see if she had any good picture wall ideas?  And lo and behold OUR LITTLE FAMILY is on her little BLOG!  Hot diggity dog!  If she wasn't such a darn good photographer, I wouldn't be agonizing over which pictures to order and how enormous to get them!