Happy Halloween!

We will be going to Madison, WI for Halloween weekend, so we decided to carve a pumpkin with Norah last weekend.

Here are Norah and Daddy trying to draw up some ideas for the pumpkin faces.

Here is Daddy hard at work...

Mommy got bored and was being silly...

Norah got bored too!

Here is the final product!!!

You can see the pumpkin better in this one.

This was Norah after she got a little booklet of stickers she ripped up every possible piece of the booklet and put it all over her face.

We will post pictures of her costume after the weekend!

What Not To Wear!!!

I officially applied to be on the TLC show 'What Not To Wear' and I'm so excited!!

I have never felt like a stylish person. I have always thought I was doing ok as far as my style, but secretly felt like it was not going so well. I have definitely had people along the way try to help out or bold face confront me.

My friend Angela in high school definitely tried to help out and I probably "shopped" with her the most. She plucked my eyebrows for me for the first time and she would put highlights in my hair every once in awhile. She would also tell me new make up tips she read about in magazines too. I would half listen and then later try to remember what she said and then repeat it everyday until...well today I guess! ;)

In college my roommates worked with me too. It was more natural in college because we all lived in a small space and could borrow clothes.

After college my friend Allie straight up confronted me about my wardrobe and we went shopping. I was pretty sure she was not going to be my friend though after we shopped. I usually get a headache as soon as I get to a mall or any kind of overwhelming store that has a million things to look through. I also get in a bad mood and want to leave as soon as possible.

My husband tries to encourage me to buy outside of my comfort zone and add a little color. That I have tried to do, but usually do not do so great.

In the application you have to put down 5 personal contacts. Here are the lucky chosen:

1. Josh - my husband
2. Amanda - my sister
3. Angela - my close friend from high school
4. Allie - my close friend/the one who confronted me! ;)
5. Marisa - my sister-in-law (She is going to freak out when she reads this!!! I did have one of my college roommates down, but switched to Marisa at the last minute because she is completely freaked out by the show and it is her worst nightmare to be contacted by them, so I thought it would be fun to put her on the list. Also, her husband wants to nominate her for the show too!)

Here are some questions from the application that I thought Josh's responses were so funny!

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How would you describe the nominee's style?

Boring. She wears clothes from the mid 90s to work everyday, because she thinks that the 90s are still in fashion. As soon as she gets home, she changes into pajamas. She refuses to show off her figure, because she is embarrasses by her extra baby weight. When she buys her clothes, she buys things that match the clothes she bought in the 90s. I tell her that she can show off her figure without showing her baby weight, but she thinks I'm crazy.

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Describe the nominee's worst fashion blunders.

umbros.

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Has the nominee always been a bad dresser? If not, what changed?

Yes, her friend Allie confronted her on her fashion and they went shopping. This was probably 5-6 years ago. Her coworkers tell her that they'll go shopping with her for new clothes as well.

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Why are you choosing to change the nominee’s style now?

Because it’s not 1993 anymore. She doesn’t agree that she can wear flattering clothes because of her shape. Instead, all she wears is bulky sweatshirts and pajamas.

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If you could give the nominee’s style a unique name, what would it be?

Casual Shleep.

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I answered this last question on my own!!

How would you describe the nominee’s make-up?

Plain…I always get asked if I wear makeup even though I apply the exact same makeup every single day!

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So there are some of the highlights! I'll definitely keep you posted if I hear anything from the show!

Norah's toddler bed and toddle outfit!

So we went to see my parents a few weekends ago and were randomly talking about how we needed to figure out what to do for a toddler bed for Norah soon and my dad said, "We have three toddler beds in the attic if you want one." Duh! I did not even think about the fact that my parents would have three toddler beds! So we jumped at the opportunity to have Norah use my toddler bed and my dad made it! Even better! We fit it in our car and brought it back to Chicago.

It turned out to be perfect timing because the next week Norah got her leg wedged in the crib slates and started screaming one night. We were not able to get her leg out without breaking the slates unfortunately. Josh had to punch out one of the slates to free her leg. It was a little scary but Norah was fine so that's all the mattered. I ended up finding out that our crib was recalled. Unfortunately the date was a month off but Josh contacted the crib company and they are actually going to investigate the situation.

So we decided that we were going to just transition Norah to her toddler bed.

We just set it up today so tonight will be the first trial! Here are some pictures of it.

I saw this outfit in Target the other day and it instantly reminded me of outfits my sister and I wore all the time when we were little and I could not pass it up for Norah. It's funny because everytime she wears it people say the same thing!

I thought the photo shoot was funny so I just included all of the pictures. (by the way our camera is still not working so I took all of these pictures with our laptop!)

Enjoy!

dropping rocks

So today I had to run to the post office to mail something. What I needed to mail was small, but I needed to bring my phone, the address, a pen and my debit card. Then I got to thinking...we have some rocks that we need to get rid of. No big deal, right? Well in the city it's a little more complicated then that, well probably not but I seem to find easy tasks more difficult I guess! In my mind the rocks needed to be "distributed to and fro," so as to not look as if they were "dumped."

Well, I got an old "CCO messenger" back out that I have and loaded my few small items and then the rocks that I needed to get rid of. There were three larger rocks and then about 20 smaller rocks. I put on my "peddle pushers" and headed to the bike room.

I got on my bike and headed down the street. I turned down a side street knowing of an alley that was coming up, reached into my bag and grabbed one of the large rocks. As I approached the alley I checked to make sure there was no one standing, sleeping or digging through the dumpsters. The coast was clear and I chucked the rock down the alley. Unfortunately it hit the corner of the building and rolled onto the sidewalk. I kept going! I was nervous!

So my adrenaline was pumping at this point so I rode for awhile before I attempted another drop since the first drop was not so successful. As I was headed down another side street I thought I would try a handful of the smaller rocks to see how I did with those. I reached in my bag grabbed as many as I could hold and then placed my hand on my handle bar as if I was holding on a one by one every few feet I dropped a small rock. It was a smashing success! I felt like the guy in Shawshank Redemption when he shook the rocks out of his pants pockets in the courtyard and no one knew!

So with my new found success I grabbed another handful of small rocks placed my hand on the handle bar and was about to begin dropping again when I realized a car was coming up next to me and I was approaching a stop sign. No problem...I reached with my opposite hand for the hand brake and DANG IT that's the brake that doesn't work and my other hand is full of rocks so I can't grab the brake!!!! I quickly head full speed for the curb, luckily I had enough momentum that I cleared the curb and then continued to fly out of control across the corner of the adjoining streets through the grass and just let myself come to a halting stop with the use of my foot!!! Whew!!! And I was still holding all of the rocks!!! I'm awesome!

I caught my breathe, thanked the good Lord that I made it through the drama and then grabbed one of the big rocks with my other hand and just dropped it since I was standing still and there was no one around. I then continued on my bike ride and dropped the rest of my rocks successfully and made sure the hand was free for the brake that worked!

I just thought it was a funny adventure and I thought it would be fun to share!

Doe a deer...

One Year!

We have lived in Chicago for one year now (June 7th)! It's crazy how fast it went. So much happened in that year too. Here are some of the highlights!

-Josh completed a year of grad school and learned Hebrew!
-I went back to work full time and as a mom.
-Norah was in three daycares...it was not easy, but we love her daycare that she is in now.
-I passed my social work board exam!
-I got my dream job as a hospice social worker and love it!
-We survived the worst Chicago winter! (Chicagoans are the ones claiming it was bad...maybe not the worst though)
-I have survived the biggest potholes ever, 2nd to those in Haiti that I witnessed.
-I have seen more men peeing in public then in my whole lifetime...never thought that would make the list but it is true...and I am still shocked every time it happens.
-I got my eyebrows waxed for the first time ever. (My friend Angela shaped my eyebrows for me about 12 years ago and I have been "maintaining" them ever since...it was time!)
-A black man became president...oh and he's my neighbor!


I can still remember when I was in the moving truck with Babs and Josh, Carrie, Wendy and Jay were in two cars behind us. We came over a big bridge and saw downtown Chicago and I thought I was going to pass out and I think I said or at least I thought, "What are we getting ourselves into?"

My directions were terrible to get to our apartment and we ended up in a bad part of town....We finally pulled up to the front of our new home and I can remember getting out of the truck and was so nervous and scared and thought to myself that our friends must think we are crazy and then Jay said, "This is awesome! This is so awesome! You are going to love it here!" I remember being so relieved. I don't know why I was so nervous.

As the guys were unloading the truck Carrie, Wendy and I were trying to get things a little settled in the apartment and in my mind I thought our bathroom was too small and the white walls were depressing and Carrie and Wendy just kicked into gear and set up the kitchen and kept reminding me that it will feel more like a home when we get pictures up and are more settled...

It seems like yesterday.

My parents brought Norah the next day. She was only 6 months old and just learning to sit up. She learned quickly because she only had a tile floor to land on if one of us did not catch her. Now I am chasing her around and she tries to bite our toes and thinks it is so funny!

We really love it here! Josh is taking his last final monday and then he will be a full time stay at home dad for the summer! Norah will be taking a break from day care until September. While Norah naps (hopefully) over the summer Josh will be gearing up for the fall learning German and applying for Ph.D. programs. Now I am so sad thinking we may need to move again in a year. I hope not, but we will do what we need to do when the time comes.

I know this post is all over the place, but I really wanted to blog on the one year anniversary for some reason. Our camera battery crapped out on us so I have not been taking pictures...I will look for some old ones to post.

This is one of my favorite pictures. This was Father's Day last year.

Now Norah has pigtails!

We really love her so much and cannot imagine life without her here. She is moving into the "twos" for sure even though technically we still have 6 months to go! She definitely has a spice for life like no other and I love watching her grow and learn.

Hope you enjoyed my year in review!

The Biggest Loser

It has been so long since I have posted. So much has happened and I wanted to post, but was too tired to take the time. I will post about alot and break it up so it is not one continuous sentence which I have been known to do in the past.

Work

I started orientation in January and began on my own working full-time at an inpatient unit on the south side of Chicago. Our hospice program (and pretty much any hospice program) sees hospice patients in their homes or nursing home that the patient lives in. The hospice that I work for has two inpatient units, one north and one south of the city. Basically our hospice program rents a wing of a hospital, remodeled it. The unit that I work at is very busy. I do not mind it at all. The day goes very quickly and my co-workers are crazy and lots of fun!

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Norah

Norah is my favorite! She is so funny! Just tonight we were walking home and we were crossing the street at a four way intersection and the car that was coming to the stop sign was kinda screeching to a stop as we were crossing in front of the care and Norah leaned forward and yelled NO! at the car! The lady heard her and started laughing so hard!

Norah is definitely learning to be mischievous. I can tell the way she looks sometimes that she knows exactly what she is doing. Norah has a little buddy Karla at daycare and they are a perfect match for each other! Karla actually loves, loves, loves Norah's cheeks and she runs up to Norah and pinches them! Norah then cries and Karla has to go to time out but I love it! It is the sweetest thing! Karla's mom and I are actually going to take the girls swimming together. It should be a lot of fun!

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Mother's Day

I had the best Mother's Day. Well Norah woke up at 6:45am which was crazy so Josh got up with her and let me sleep in. After we were all showered we went to Barack Obama's favorite breakfast place here in Hyde Park, which is a greasy spoon type place but oh so good! After that we headed downtown and Josh took me shopping! Now you need to know that I do not like to shop. I usually get a headache, feel bad about myself and get cranky! None of those things happened! Yeah! It was really fun! I really needed some work clothes, so it was really helpful.

After shopping we jumped in the car and headed to O'Hare airport. Our brother-in-law and sister-in-law were flying into Chicago after a two week trip to Europe. We went to surprise them to welcome them home. It worked out in some sense because they missed their shuttle to Madison and we got there a little late so we caught up to them and had about an hour visit!

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My cousin

In February I found out that my cousin Fred died in the plane crash in Amsterdam. He had a wife and two daughters. It was pretty awful. It was hard being away from home, but Norah and I did get to fly home for the memorial service in PA.

Fred was a fun loving guy who could talk to anyone and make you feel comfortable. He has wonderful parents and my heart breaks for them. They were all so tired at the memorial service as they had a funeral and memorial service in TX where he had lived.

The whole situation just shook me to the core. I think of my cousin's wife, daughters, parents and sister and brother-in-law often. I do wish I could do something more to support them.

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Josh

So Josh loves his classes and it is great! We could not want it to be any other way. He often tells me about his class material and I have a really hard time following him.

A funny thing happened the other day. He had to present a paper for class and asked if he could practice his presentation with me. I said sure thinking I'm a supportive wife no big deal, right?

Well we sat on the couch facing each other and the back of the couch was to one side. He began his presentation and instantly I felt very very tired. I slowly tried to lean into the couch thinking it would just look like I was trying to get a little more comfortable and soon my eyes were batting like they had never batted before, but the whole time I thought, I am playing this so cool, he has no idea I am tired. All of the sudden he said, "Could you at least sit up and pretend like you are paying attention?" I was busted! It was so funny to me though. I am getting really good sleep with him in this program. It's better than Exxcedrin PM!

After this incident awhile later he asked me to show him his flash cards so he could see if he was getting his vocab correct. I again became very tired and he was picking up on and was saying incorrect answers to see if I was paying attention...BUSTED AGAIN!

We laugh about it!

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The Biggest Loser

My favorite tv show that I watch regularly is The Biggest Loser. I have watched the last three seasons. I got hooked when I was 6 months pregnant and Josh had a meeting every tuesday night so I would watch the show. The show is like my sports team that I can't miss and have to see every show.

The 7th season finale is on now as I type. It took 2 1/2 seasons of me watching the show to finally start exercising! I always made the excuse that I do not have time. I did not want it to take away from my time with my family since I am working full time now and Norah is in daycare. So, I get up every morning at 6:15am and do "The Biggest Loser Yoga Workout" video!! Josh got it for me and I love it! Yoga has actually proven to be very helpful for me with my stressful job. I have noticed a big difference in just the way I feel. The video is workout yoga and that it is! I know I could be doing a more intense cardio video, but the yoga benefits are more important to me right now with my job. I did however go down a pant size so that's exciting for me!

So the show is inspiring to me and I love how the contestants lives are changed!

I will try to add pictures soon, but it was good to finally update this thing!