Winter has begun!

Snow..... yes, snow. It is the first one of the season. Thanksgiving, I was able to walk the dog outside without a coat, and now I'm about to bring out my "sleeping bag coat" so that I can keep warm. My sleeping bag coat is my down coat that comes down almost to my ankles and is about as shapeless as anything you can imagine. It might not be the most attractive thing, but it certainly is warmer than my others. The only thing it's lacking is a hood, which at the time I purchased it, didn't seem like that big of a deal - I was wrong. Ha. Unfortunately they are expensive, so I have yet to upgrade to the hood. I'm hoping to be able to do that before the Bears vs. Packers game that we are going to on January 2nd. Apparently it might be upgraded to a night game which means that it will be even colder than I thought it would be.

Sorry, I digress. The point of this is to just acknowledge that winter has begun. The snow is sort of, almost, maybe sticking... and the wind is blowing.... and I'm already beginning to wonder why it is that I love Chicago. Okay, so not completely, there are plenty of reasons to love this Windy City - but the bright flush of my cheeks when they are wind-whipped into numbness is not one of them.

One thing I do like though - people that wear their hunting camouflage winter coats in the city. Is that really the only winter coat that you have?? You realize that unless your camo is of concrete, granite, and stone that you are much less camouflaged than the people surrounding you in black wool coats, right? I just find it amusing. Again, staying on point -

I know it's starting to really get into the Christmas season now that we have our Christmas tree up (it look so pretty in our bay window!!! - we just need new blinds to make it look even better).... the snow is starting to fall, Drinksgiving is a week and a half away.... and I'm finally starting to think about presents to get for everyone on my list... I can't wait!!

Happy holidays everyone!!!!! :)

Our family has expanded....

We have decided to foster a dog.... It's super exciting!! Her name is Sheeba, she's from PAWS Chicago - a no-kill shelter organization that I have volunteered with a couple of times (okay, only once, but I have MEANT to volunteer a LOT more...).

She's 3 years old, a shephard mix (clearly German, you can see from her face) and apparently cattle dog (I guess you can tell by her snout... I should get up to beat with my dog identification).... She's really pretty. She's a little big chunkier than I think they would like her to be, but nothing a few brisk walks around the neighborhood couldn't fix... and let's be honest I'm a little chunkier than I would like to be these days so it's something she and I can work on together! She also has to wear a muzzle at all times when outside... That's the downside, and the reason she's in foster and not adoption mode. She apparently has had some freak-out moments with other dogs, so we just have to be careful... And we will absolutely be careful.

So, if all goes well, we might have a permanent addition to our familly... but if we don't think she could be a good addition to our life forever, then this will be just such a wonderful experience to help such a wonderful dog and hopefully help her find her forever home. :)

Without further adieu - here are the pictures of Sheeba...

She smiled for the camera.. :)

Looking like she's already pretty comfortable...

Already enjoying her new cow toy... I don't think it will last long. :)

So, wish us luck with her. I hope that she loves our home, and that we can really provide a loving home for her, and make her feel safe and calm and happy. She really is a lover already... waiting for us to rub her, and then if you rub just right, she immediately rolls over onto her back for you to rub her belly. I can't wait to see the progress she can make away from the hustle and bustle of the boarding place she was at. I think it can do a lot of good for her to be away...

Pumpkin Patching circa Halloween 2010

It's that time of year again.... Fall. It's my favorite season ... the trees changing colors, the crispness in the air.. and of course pumpkin carving and costume making. My friend KG and I went pumpkin patching out in Malta, IL. For those of you as unfamiliar with anything outside of the Chicago metropolitan area as I am.... take the tollway... and drive, and then drive some more, and then drive even farther. You'll pass an outlet mall, you'll pass about a million farms... and then you're almost there. We found out where Northern Illinois University is (DeKalb). Then we entered the town of Malta, population 1000. It is home to the pumpkin and apple farm that we went to though. I was disappointed as the apple launcher seemed to have not been part of the activities for the day we were there. Although, it was a great place to pick up apple butter (my grandpa's favorite), apple pie, and go pick your own pumpkin from the pumpkin field.

It was a bit of a gloomy day, but the rain had stopped and it was unseasonably warm. It was made all the warmer by the fact that we were pulling the pumpkin cart in deep/slippery/stick to your shoes and wheels of the cart mud. KG made it look easy, when I took over I realized that was a ruse and it was NOT easy. Ha. But I took my turn and pulled it once we loaded apparently 500 pounds (equal to 6 pumpkins) of pumpkin onto the cart.

I have documented my first pumpkin patching experience in a long time for as long as I can remember below...

The apple orchard (that a few weeks earlier could have allowed us to pick our own apples). Next year.

The vast expanse of pumpkin patch. Had we been earlier (read post above about apples) we probably would not have had to walk up to the top of the ridge to find attractive pumpkins while pulling a cart... due to our late arrival, we had to do just that.

KG dutifully pulling the pumpkin cart out to the pumpkin patch. I promised to pull it back once we had pumpkins on it. I didn't realize that was a bad idea.

Our first pumpkin!!!! It was 3 for $10, so we clearly had to buy 6....

1 pumpkin for each of us!!!

This was a weird pear pumpkin... okay, it was probably a gourd but it kind of creeped me out...

That's our cart with our pumpkins in the middle of the field with the windmills in the background. We were searching for our last one. :)

All of our pumpkins on the cart. That was a TOUGH pull back to the end of the patch. Lucky for us, we were the most eligible (read "of age ladies without children") so the driver of the tractor waited for us and assured us that the walk back to the front was going to be made worse by the gravel getting stuck in our mud caked tires... We took him up on his offer and probably got back to our car about 30 minutes earlier than it would have been if we had walked it. It was a really good idea to take the tractor...

A giant rocking chair.. KG is displaying all of our delicious farm goodness that we bought. Apple raspberry pie (oh my goodness was that delicious), apple cider, and the fresh baked bread. We also snagged some apple butter.

I am drinking a thing of milk in the giant chair... It makes me feel like a kid, so I'm going to act like it. (Confession: I drink milk all the time, so this isn't that peculiar.... I'm really just acting like me... so I must just be a kid)

We went to a bar in "downtown" DeKalb .. We went to O'Leary's Bar and Grill and there was a cow (not a real cow I assure you - although I wouldn't mind a cow at the hostess station, I feel that could add some serious interest to a bar in DeKalb) at the front door dressed in fireman's boots and a ghost costume. I thought it was pretty awesome. (Disclaimer: Mrs. O'Leary's cow is rumored to have started the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.)

Then we finally made it back to the big city.. to go to such wondrous places as Target, the Halloween Store, and Sports Authority to finish off our costumes... Which are previewed below (I have included my costume things as well as our friend Dani's shirt - Mann Slaughter)... I will award extra points to the person that figures out the "theme/idea" of our costumes for this Halloween.... :) I am very excited by them.. Good luck!!

Happy Halloweening to all! I hope you get adorable trick-or-treaters at your houses... (or have adorable trick-or-treaters that you take out to other people's houses)...

Time flies when?

Here it is, the eve of our 2nd anniversary.... I can't even believe it. I sit here, drinking a glass of wine while John sits next to me playing the latest and greatest video game... It is pretty cool (nba2k11 I think it is?... it has Michael Jordan and the

Bulls so I'm not surprised that we now own it).

Here is a snapshot of how we got to where we are... I feel so lucky to have someone like John... He makes me laugh, he calms me down when I get a little crazy (okay, a LOT crazy)... and he just is the best balance to my life that I could ever ask for.. :) I am such an incredibly lucky lady to have someone as awesome as John (and he would totally back me up with that).

Right before moving to Chicago.. :)

On the roadtrip to moving to Chicago from Arizona. We covered 8 states, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois... It was amazing!

Seeing John at the end of the aisle was what made everything worth it..

"I do"

"We did"

I like this one, because I feel like I give this look a lot.. ha.

Cheers to us!!!

Mr. and Mrs. McDonald

First picture on the honeymoon. John has his eyes closed, but it still works.

I want to always go to Europe on the fall from now on.

Notre Dame... quelle belle!

What an amazing trip. :)

We look fantastic. :)

News Year's 2008!

How often can you say, "we both wore tights for Halloween"??

Happy New Year's ... again... :)

We even survived a Texas wedding!! Big hair and thick make-up, John still loves me he just doesn't recognize me.. :)

And now we have a house... How exciting!

It's amazing to think of how fast these 2 years have gone. While I'm happy they have gone so quickly, because to me it means that nothing so crazy has happened to make it feel long.. I'm sad that the time has gone so quickly that I don't feel that we have captured all the moments that make it so exciting and wonderful. I can't wait to celebrate so many more, and I know that we have plenty of amazing things waiting for us in the future.

Happy 2 years... and happy many many more :)

(Wedding pictures courtesy of Kevin Weinstein Photography and Chris Sommers... Thanks you guys for such wonderful pictures!!!)

House Stuffs

I'm a little behind in my postings on all the fun things we have started with our house, so I have decided to take this time to update...

We began this process with cabinets over the peninsula in our kitchen, a blue wall around the fireplace, and your basic white walls.... Over the last 2 months we have removed the cabinets, changed the blue wall, and painted it a new basic white? haha.. But, it is so much more our style. It's a gray/blue/white instead of a yellow/cream/white... which makes ALL the difference. We have taken down old bronze chandeliers and replaced them with track style lighting... We have pendants and shelves... mounted surround sound, and wires hidden behind the fireplace. And some of the best part is that we finally have all of our furniture!!! How exciting, is that? We have a couch (which over the last 2 months we have broken in), a love seat (same color), and a chair (in orange!!!). The orange chair is better than I could have thought. Not going to lie.. I'm super excited. I was a little nervous to introduce so much color into our living room... and it's not so much a "small" chair. But, it makes it feel fun, funky, and makes me feel stylish.. whether other people think so, I don't know... :)

So I'll walk through the changes we've made - some of the fun things we've done.. and a very exciting surprise at the end!!!

The painting is beginning.... Everything is draped, and the blue wall is hiding behind the primer!

Our new fan!!!!!! I love it. :) We need a floor lamp to make up some light, but it's so pretty - and we can turn it on without the noise and unevenness as before.

Our ceiling paint.. :)

From this I'm standing in the living room looking at our modified track lighting. You can also see the new lighting under the cabinets.

We ended up rolling up extra chords on the pendant lighting so they aren't hanging down in some sort of nouveau art fixture...

These are our "flying saucer" light fixtures. They are great over the table and the bar.

The flying saucer over the bar...

Just a more updated picture of the kitchen with the lighting. I'm excited about it.

Our living room complete with all of our furniture. Our chair hanging out in all of its glory.

We finally were able to hang the shelves into the alcove and put our stuff up there. We had some interesting work to do with supporting the shelf with L brackets... 11" is apparently a little shallow for the new blue ray player.

A better view of all the shelves - we are going to reign in some of the cords, but that's for a different day.

Our chair with our new light fixtures. Awesome.

Oh... I guess I promised a surprise didn't I....

Oh yes... That's ME, holding my PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING LICENSE for the State of Illinois.... :) My application was accepted!!!!!!!!

So things are going good... Our living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway are painted (walls and ceiling)... we need to work on trim but that's not too bad. We need to work on our bedrooms next and probably bathrooms.. but that's all in good time. We are now going to just enjoy living here a little bit. Try to get the motivation to get some more done.. All that jazz. :)

Official Residents

Wow, 2 posts in 2 days.. I don't know what's going on here! I'm getting into the blogging spirit I guess... But really, this will be short. I just wanted to share that we are official residents to our building!! They have put our name on the front door and on the mailbox. Super exciting :)

Yeah - that's our name on the buzzer! We are no longer Kindred.

Mailbox!!! I think I'm going to have to leave a note that Hoyt mail still comes here.. otherwise our mail person doesn't deliver... Or I could just finally get around to changing my name for everything...

So there you have it! It's like we own the place or something! Haha..

Random Thoughts

I have decided to take a break from my now "regular" postings on our house living and present to you a couple of random thoughts ... I know that I have promised more pictures of the condo, but those will have to wait as I am a bit busy (and let's face it lazy with getting pictures downloaded from the camera, to the printer, posted onto the blog)...

So here goes - the random things living in Chicago has brought to my life...

1. I have yet to understand why there are people sitting on the benches at the Washington/Wells platform in the morning after I get off the train... There is only ONE color that goes to that side of the station - so it begs me to wonder: are these people confused and trying to wait for the purple, orange, or pink on that side of the tracks? Or are they just enjoying the freshness of the morning next to the booming voice of the CTA trains saying "this is a brown line train to Kimball...next stop is Quincy.. doors open on the right at Quincy.." I mean, nothing relaxes me more than train operators screaming through overloud speakers in the morning...

2. Can I be jealous and judge skinnier/prettier/more put together women than myself if I am standing in line at the Walgreen's buying a Monster Energy Drink (roughly 5 million empty calories), a Kashi bar (a few hundred calories that would be acceptable had I not been buying a Monster), and thinking about lunch at Potbelly's or Chipotle? Knowing full well that I will not be going to the gym that evening because I am instead choosing to go to happy hour? I would say no, but if I really dig down deep, I don't feel that bad for judging them...

3. How many plunging necklines, hiked up skirts, and various other things that shouldn't be appropriate for a work day can I see before and after work? I know that it's hot.. I'm sweating more than most, but I'm still at least covering up what should be covered up and wearing what is at least appropriate, albeit not necessarily trendy or fashionable. It makes me think that 1/2 the people that work in the City must be high priced call girls (or in the case of many, very low priced ones judging by what they are wearing).... Is it so hard to wait until the weekend to wear those revealing dresses?? I certainly don't want to see it on my way to work....

4. I might have seen the best thing the other day walking home down Halsted Street... No, it wasn't a fabulous drag queen, or some "lady" adjusting her package walking down the street (these are common and not worth the extra blogging)... but a woman in stiletto sandals walking her BIKE across the street. She could barely stay upright on those heels (picture to be posted shortly)... so I don't know how she would pedal a bike.. but I certainly waited around long enough to see if she would in fact be getting on the bike (which would have lead to MORE pictures)... alas she parked her bike on a bike rack and presumably headed down Halsted taking little steps and hoping she didn't break her ankle.

5. Finally - this is just for good measure and to kind of top off my 5 random musings of the summer... Cub's fans that are in from out of town... I have heard multiple rather hilarious conversations while getting off at the Addison stop on the way home. I often don't check the game schedule which could allow me to miss some of the insanity that is the Addison Red Line Stop just before game time... but then I would miss things like these intelligent comments.. FIRST: A man getting off of the train right in front of Wrigley, looking at the ground, surrounded by about 300 fellow Cubs fans in Cubs gear - goes up to the Wrigley Field Ambassador at the train stop and says "Where do I go? I'm trying to get to Wrigley, which way do I go once I'm down the stairs?" To which the ambassador managed to suppress a smile and say "Sir, you'll go down the stairs, take a left... honestly, just follow the rest of the people and you'll figure it out." he could have also said "hey dumby - why don't you just look up and you can SEE THE FREAKING STADIUM FROM HERE"... and that's why I'm not an ambassador... SECOND: I was exiting the platform behind two girls who were roughly 18-19 years old. One was clearly from out of town (we'll call her OOTG - out of town girl) and learning about Wrigley Field and the other girl was from what I will assume had to be a northern suburb of Chicago (we'll call her NSG - north suburb girl) ... the NSG was explaining to the OOTG the ins and outs of where people sit and things... pointing out where people were walking up to the rooftop bleachers and said "ohhh, remember those when we get onto the street - those are the illegal bleachers that are on the rooftops here. there are real ones inside where we are sitting". The OOTG's response was "oh really? They're illegal? That's so crazy.. I think I've heard of those" .... And that's how viral lies start.. you know somewhere on a facebook page this OOTG took a picture of the rooftop bleachers and is calling them illegal and spreading this around to her 5 million friends...

6. I realized that there was another one... I know you were getting disappointed that I was at the end - never fear, there are far more weird/crazy/stupid things that happen in this fair city.. I just can't think of them all at once. But this one was pretty fantastic.. A new (read beautiful, life changing) Target opened about 1/2 a mile from us.. John and I went there on Saturday to return something and buy a phone (yes, we have a land line... it's bizarre - we reverted back to 1995). We were leaving the store and this girl was walking her dog down the sidewalk. This new Target for all it's shininess lives in a very UNshiny neighborhood... and this random homeless/weird guy walks behind the girl with the dog and goes "WOOF"... the dog keeps walking but the guy keeps talking now in his apparent 2nd language (aka English) and says to the dog "you know what I said.. you know what I said"... at this the dog pauses (presumably because he wants to protect his young female owner from the weirdo walking behind them??) and the man says "no, you go with her... it's okay... you know what I said".... and the dog keeps walking (the smell on the concrete that he was smelling probably lost interest)... and the man seemed very satisfied...

Hopefully you now either feel grateful for where you live and who you deal with... or jealous that you can't partake in some of THIS absurdity (while I'm sure you encounter your own)...