Homeowners Again!

We are once again homeowners; this time in our hometown of McLeansboro.  The seller is having his auction this Saturday for all of the furniture left in the home, and we intend to do a few updates before we move, so the actual move in date is TBD.  I will post pics (before's & after's) and contrast the buying experience vs. our first home in another post.  But for now, I am just looking forward to living in town, close to allllllll the conveniences of the "city"!

I'll leave you with this photo of what happens when I selfishly decide I have to get myself ready to go somewhere...

Look what happens when you don't pay attention to me!!

WORLD CHAMPS!!!

An Autumn Day

Pumpkin Pickin' 2011

We got to take a trip with our monthly playgroup to Organ Farms' pumpkin patch.  Now, I'm a little partial to our (my) favorite pumpkin patch that we began a tradition of visiting annually in Tennessee, Oakes Farm.  But without driving 6+ hours with two toddlers, this one did the trick.  Especially when their favorite part was playing on the jungle gym/slides which we can do anywhere.

At first, Jalen didn't want to do the hay ride on the wagon, because he imagined the tractor was like Frank the combine on Cars and it was going to get him.  But once we got on and got going he liked it.  Tess, on the other hand, was ready to get off the longer we went because she was just getting antsy.  Then we got to have a popcorn snack and a drink, pick out a pumpkin, and that was it.  Oh, we got to see some farm animals at the beginning, too.  Overall, I think it's a nice place to have around here.

St. Louis Zoo



A very lady-like pose, I know.

I'm so happy that we live close enough to my sister now to go visit without needing a plane ticket.  We love St. Louis and everything there is to do for the kids (and for us too).  Brianna and I recently took J and Tess to the zoo.  First of all, it was Columbus Day (no school), and apparently everyone with kids was at the zoo.  We had to drive around FOREVER to find a parking spot.  When we finally walked the two miles from the car to the zoo, it was lunch time.  So eventually we got into the zoo.  We explored as much as mine and Bri's feet could handle and drug ourselves back to the car.  Sis wasn't feeling 100% that day and we were, of course, off schedule.  Jalen just wanted to go back to the car to watch Cars.  He actually asked if he could watch it in the stroller, and I told him they didn't make strollers with built-in dvd screens...yet.  (Next million-dollar idea??)  Anyway, hopefully the kids enjoyed it.  I just enjoy going to the big city.

Two mile* walk back to the car
*maybe an exaggeration

Takes a while when he insists on pushing the stroller himself

J's First Cardinal's Game

Waiting for the next train

We got to take Jalen to his first St. Louis Cardinals baseball game a few weeks ago.  This was during the series against Philadelphia.  Bri was also going, so we got to meet her and ride together on the Metro.  Or the "choo-choo train".  Heading over, we pointed out the Arch and asked Jalen if he would want to go up in it.  He  wasn't interested, and didn't think we had a ladder high enough to get up there!  We went to Fredbird's play area before the game to burn some energy.  When we got to our seats, we got to watch the Clydesdales run by, and a couple of innings before little man passed out!  He got a power nap in, and was so good the rest of the game.  They gave out rally towels to swing around, so he had fun with that, and spent most of the game wondering about and watching for Fredbird.

Everyone needs a Big Swig at the ballpark

Fredbird's play area

Cheeeeeeese-ing!

Clydesdales

Power Nap!

Mule Days

Let's play a little catch up.  First off, here are some pics from one of our nearby fall festivals -- Mule Days.  Mule Days is in my Grandma's hometown on the first weekend of October.  I love it.  I think it is just that I love that it's fall and it's October, the weather is usually beautiful and cooling down, sometimes it falls on my Momma's birthday, and Grandma always has an array of soups cooked that I can gorge myself on. 

J waiting for some candy

Watching the parade

There's our crew

Happy First Birthday, Tessa Kate!

Happy FIRST Birthday to Tessa Kate!  (On Saturday, the 24th, of course)  Until I get around to uploading pics and video from the party, let's reminisce about this day one year ago.  Tessa's Birth Story

She has been our Turkey, Sis/Sissy, Diva, Miss Priss, Stinky, Garbage Disposal, Ornery, Princess, Rotten, and Smiley.  But she is a really good girl who loves to give hugs.  Just don't cross her when she's hungry.

A Blanket Full of Blessings

Last Friday, the kiddos (Jalen, Tessa, & Mace) and I had our first picnic.  It was a beautiful day; still warm, but nice and cool in the shade, with a nice breeze blowing.  One of those days where you forget all your problems, just relax, breathe deep, soak up the sunshine, and thank God for your many, many blessings.

I don't remember if I've ever had a picnic.  I probably have, but we'll just say this is our first since it was for the kids.  I have a lovely and very practical picnic basket, given to us by our friends Rachel & Eric, but since this was a spontaneous moment and the picnic basket was in the basement, I went for the closest food-hauling contraption I could find.

As you can see from the pictures, Mace RSVP'd for the event, but he was very well behaved.  He is a pretty good pup even if he is stinky.  Miss Priss did ok as well, my #2 concern after the dog, although if she ran out of goldfish (fishies) on her plate, she was up wandering over to the basket to see what she could dump out.  And her "plate" full of fishies didn't last long; the entire blanket was pretty much her plate.  Jalen also did very well, staying to finish his PB&J before dismissing himself from the table/blanket.  It probably helps that it was nearly 2:00 by this time, so I'd guess everyone was pretty hungry!

In Recent News...

It's Official.

I just made a pot of my favorite soup, bellybutton soup. And now I am pining for autumn days. Thinking about our favorite pumpkin patch. Those AMAZING & amazingly simple pumpkin muffins my friend/enabler Katie got me hooked on. Searching for fall decorations. Waiting for the beautiful mums to bloom. Football season starting. Hoodies, jeans, the leaves changing, weenie roasts, Halloween..... oh, I am so ready. COME, FALL, COME!

Home Sweet Temporary Home

As I sit here waiting for the state of Illinois to grant me a cosmetology license, (they told me it could be 3 more months but that is a whole 'nother story) I thought I would share our new digs with you. You may or may not know, Devan took a new job with White Oak Resources, LLC in McLeansboro. We loved Bowen and Knoxville, but were searching for a way to shorten our 6+ hour drive to see family. Devan sent his resume to White Oak on a whim, as they were looking for a mining engineer, which he is not, but they liked him anyway and the rest is history. We never dreamed we would have an opportunity like this to live in our hometown without being farmers or working at good ol' General Tire, so this turn of events was completely unexpected. We had just a couple short weeks to look for a place to rent here while our Knoxville house is on the market. We ended up with two, yes TWO, renting options, and chose the one that didn't have a leaky basement. As stubborn as I was moving in, I have come to appreciate everything that this temporary house is for us.

It was probably built in the late 1960's - early '70's, I'm guessing. Every interior wall is paneling. The kitchen cabinets are dark, with outdated hardware and layers of gunk. They also don't stay closed. The wall oven is T-I-N-Y. There is NO disposal and NO dishwasher! There have been, however, several mice. The carpeting is original. None of the outlets have a hole for the third (grounding) prong, so we've had to use adapters for everything which kinda makes me feel like we are testing the electrical and the house is going to go up in flames one day. There is no garage door, so everything in the garage is covered in dust. Our bedroom is barely big enough to fit our furniture, so on one side the light switch is almost hidden behind our headboard, and on the other side is about 6-7 inches between the bed and our closet.

HOWEVER, there are many great things about this house that I have come to appreciate after living here for three months. First, as I've discussed before, I'm very thankful for our unfinished basement. As scary basements go, it's not bad. Our laundry is downstairs, which has thrown me for a loop, as what I need to wash is not down there when I am, and when I'm upstairs I forget about it. There are toys everywhere, Jalen's tv and bean bag (a.k.a. The Man Cave), oodles of storage, and I've set up a makeshift haircutting area for family members. The "shower" area is a great place to dump out poopy water from a bucket of soaking undies and not have to worry about messing anything up! And a few times during this miserable summer heat, Mace has been able to come down and chill on the concrete where it's at least 30 degrees cooler.

One of my other favorite places is the living room. It is sort of an odd shaped room, (well, it's a rectangle with the front door in the middle on one side and a hallway in the middle on the other side) so it's split into two sections which completely work for us. On the north side is the tv area with the couch and loveseat, and the south side of the room is the toys/computer area. So we can all be combined yet separated while doing our own thing.

Another benefit is, I have overcome my fear of buying curtains. All of our bedroom blinds are about an inch short on each side so they don't cover the entire width of the window. Jalen had to have some sort of curtains, as his room saw the sun come up, and the beach towel over the window wasn't cutting it! I thought this was the perfect opportunity to practice buying and hanging curtains, and it went great. I hung them myself and am pretty proud of them.

But I think the best part of this house is outside of the house. The house sits back from the road on a hill ("the house on the hill" as local people refer to it) with abundant grass to run in without kiddos getting in the road or the dog pooping in someone else's yard. I did chuckle when we first moved and everyone was talking about the house on the big hill, because in Knoxville everyone's house is on some sort of a hill! Our backyard looked just like the front yard here only STEEPER! While the garage doesn't have a door, it does have a built-in closet that runs the length of the garage, so we can keep some things in there with a buffer from all the dust. From the garage to the front porch is a narrow sidewalk; a perfect road to ride your bike on or to push Sis in her stroller. The front porch is a giant canvas for all sorts of sidewalk chalk drawing. As a sidenote, Jalen so far hasn't tried to jump off the porch, however, Mace did knock him backwards down the steps the other day.

Some yards away, I don't know how to measure yards....a couple minutes of walking..... is a pond that we are welcome to use, so we walk down there and throw the ball in the water for Mace a few times a month. Usually, he is needing a bath because he rolled in something that smells like you would NOT believe!

When we want to take a walk, while we don't have a subdivision to cruise around, we have a church nearby with a playground. It is completely unheard of to try to take a walk without stopping there. In fact, "take a walk" is synonymous with "go slide" to Jalen. We are down the road from Devan's parents, about 10 min from my dad, around the corner from my two cousins, and about 15 min from town or the interstate. And when we look out the windows....all we see is corn. I must say, it's a simple life, and it's a good life.

The sunset a few nights ago

The shop we share a driveway with - these are the farmers who own the house

A view of the sidewalk from the garage to front porch

The porch. Jalen is coloring

Front of house view from our road

View from the garage looking West at the pond

View from the house to the North...See all the corn? That was all under water when we moved in. Now our lake view is gone, but I like this view too.

From the blacktop up the "big hill" to the house