The Quest is OVER!

Okay so most of you, if you know me, have heard me rant on about my ongoing plight with jeans. I have had an ongoing issue with said garment for years. Bitterness has built, foul words have been shared, tears have been shed. I am not proud. But then, like the rays of sun breaking through the stormy clouds, I found them, after a long exhaustive, emotional search, we united and joined forces to make the perfect fall outfit. I have found the perfect jean.

Okay - I couldn't resist having a dramatic opening, and I am not normally such a "girl" about things, but here's the deal. Last weekend I was up north for a cousins wedding, I stayed at my dad's and Ryan stayed back with the kids. It is a rare, yet beautiful moment that I get to shop alone with kids and with my dad. See my dad has always been my shopping buddy (mostly because he had the money, but also because he genuinely has good taste and enjoys to shop right along side of me) so when we got up on Sunday and had the whole day ahead of us. We stopped off at Kohl's to shop for the kids for Christmas (yes my dad is as bad as me when it comes to finishing his Christmas shopping months in advance). Along the way I thought I would try on some jeans because as I mentioned they are the bane of my shopping experience. Dad had come down for my birthday and we had already tried on jeans at The Loft, Express, Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, Black and White, JCPenny's, Ann Taylor, Eddie Bauer, Boden, JCrew and countless others ( he can be a patient man when he has too). At this point dad told me I might have to hire someone to custom make my jeans because clearly the world was against me and my ample bottom. I walked into the dressing room with fourteen, yes 1-4 pairs of different jeans. I tried on the first pair, Lee Slender Secret. As a child I was really slim, so Lee was the only jeans I could find to fit, then I had kids, and well things aren't exactly they way they used to be, ah, I digress...

I looked in the mirror and actually LIKED what I saw and liked how they fit and felt, so I tentatively walked out to get dad's opinion, perhaps I was delusional or was in a manic state that messed around with my vision or perhaps Kohl's installed fun mirrors by accident in their dressing room. But alas no, dad agreed, these not only fit, they fit well, no gap in the back to see my underwear, no super clingy thighs and super flared ankles, they did not drag on the floor, they were, dare I say perfect? I could hardly believe it, so I went back and tried on the same type, but in a trouser fit, lo and behold they too fit, and gave a more polished, dressy look. I proceeded to try on the other pairs of jeans, only to walk out triumphantly with the two that fit the best. I then decided that if this was a temporary phenomenon that I should consider different washes. You see since the trouser fit was very popular two years ago and I only had one really great pair and figured I could get more when I wanted to. Now that ship has apparently sailed and all you can find is matchstick jeans or ultra skinny fit jeans. That being said I felt the need to stock pile like a squirrel for winter. Oh and did I mention the best part? These jeans were all 26.99$ each! HELLO??? I mean I was looking at 150-200$ jeans just so I could expand my search - but apparently designer jeans stop at size 6 - if you are bigger - they just aren't interested in you. Ah well, I'm not interested in them either!

So I purchased three pairs of jeans for half of what I would have been willing to buy ONE good pair of jeans. I am happy and so is my husband, because now I'll stop bitching about jeans, for a little while! Let me rant a bit about this skinny jean phenom. Now I promise you this is not the ramblings of a thirty something that is bitter about her weight - no, I am utterly confused that huge (pardon the pun) portion of our nation is overweight, yet the most of the jeans on the market are skinny fit, or better than that, ultra skinny fit, or matchstick, um does anyone see a discrepancy here? I am happy for companies like LEE that are trying to make affordable, good looking jeans, not mom jeans, not tapered leg bad eighties and nineties jeans, but jeans that fit and look nice on a WOMAN'S body. I know I'm not perfect, but I will not be banished to a hell of school t-shirts and sweatpants - I won't. I also have made peace with my curvy and athletic body. Would I like to be a few LBS less, sure, but I'm not going to starve myself either (that and when I get low blood sugar it gets ugly).

Okay - so there you have it, my review of my new perfect jean. I recommend if you've had trouble before, go give them a try. They make work for you or they may not, but they are at least worth a look!

Thanks!

It's hard

It's hard to maintain two, no three blogs. It's crazy really, I mean my Indy Star blog is about my community, but of course in my typical fashion, I interject my own stuff. Then there is the elementary school blog - which is very low maintenance, but still requires a bit of thinking once a week. Then there is my Penny Pickles blog - which hasn't been very Penny Pickley lately, just all about me and the fam. Which if you interested in that, then you've enjoyed whats been here - if not, then you probably aren't even reading this. That being said I do have some upcoming Penny Pickles stuff - I AM (now that Ryan is home and done with his kitchen remodel side job) going to finish Penny's skirt and Meredith's top. AND I have three jumpers that I am about to start for three ADORABLE sisters. I am really excited.

What's been taking my time up? you might ask. Well, since Ryan's side job, I've been working overtime and doing all the practices, games and household everything (except the grass, I refuse to do the grass). That and I've really been enjoying volunteering at the school for Jon's classroom and the PTO. This week I am working busily on a grant for our school and helping out the fun run. Oh and Jon made the swim team so we'll be adding that to our repertoire too.

What I have been able to do is squeeze in a little fun with my little people. My girlfriend Meg and I took our little ones to a local apple orchard to pick apples. We had a blast. The week we went was good for Jonathan apples, which happens to be one of my favorites, plus Jon gets a kick out of an apple with his name. We went, we picked, we had fun. It will definitely be something we do every year from now on. Only next time, I'm bringing Jon - he'd have fun too. So enjoy our day, as we did and I'll be posting Penny Pickles stuff soon!

Thanks!

Paige and Drew - they are so adorable!

love

Apple pickin' Penny

The fruits of our labor!

Happy Birthday to Me!

If you didn't know (or you live under a rock) yesterday was my birthday. My 33rd. If you know me, you know I love to celebrate my birthday - I try to spread it out over a week or two as my own Annukkah celebration. This year was a little less festive, Ryan is doing a side job with our old neighbor remodeling a kitchen. It's a big job and it's taken a few weeks. So that left me with the kids during the week - and for some long days for both of us. By Thursday I wasn't feeling very good and at the end of the day I sent out an S.O.S. to my knight in shining armor and Ryan stayed home on Friday.

After sleeping in Friday I was able to go to Jon's school and have lunch with him and hang in his class for a bit - I headed home in the afternoon and my dad came down to visit and stay the night and celebrate. We had a nice dinner and cake (orange angel food from Taylor's Bakery - my favorite) then dad and I were able to head out to Town Center and enjoy the quiet and some shopping minus small people. So nice, so very nice. I didn't buy much because I wanted focus all my birthday money on a new bike that you'll see in a minute. I did manage to get a couple pairs of shoes (God Bless DSW and my wonderful dad!) and scored these sweet kicks:

and an awesome, totally impractical pair of heels (that are miraculously comfortable), that I wore last night.

Saturday we had soccer in the morning and football in the afternoon and date night in the evening. It was a full day to say the least. The plan was to clean up, zoom out the door and get to Matthew's Bicycles down on Pendleton Pike by 5:30 because they close at 6. I wasn't so optimistic that we'd find a bike and get it all done in thirty minutes. Well, we did. It is awesome. It's a Trek 1.1 WSD - don't ask me what it means, I don't know. I mean hell, I showed up in heels to buy the damn thing. I am sure the salesperson didn't think I was worthy, but he still took our money. Here it is:

Of course I had to get a helmet - now if you don't know this little known piece of information - do with it what you will, I have a freakishly small head. So small that I fit into all my kids baseball hats, the fitted ones, and I needed a child's helmet, I also have been known to by children's frames for my reading glasses and would really love it if they would make hip child's sunglasses, but I digress... I was geeked because they had some fun pink helmets to choose from, instead of the severe red or blue they had for adults. The salesfellow at Matthew's was skeptical, but once he put it on my head AND had to tighten it, he agreed it fit very well. So I walked out with my shiny new bike, a new helmet, water bottle and holder (which after my first ride this morning, I can not drink and ride at the same time, but I am optimistic I'll get there). We were on the road by 6 pm.

We went out to dinner and thinking that a Saturday night would be busy, we thought we'd have a long leisurely meal. Not so much, the restaurant was dead and we were done appetizer to signed check in one hour. The worst part was that we TRIED to drag dinner on, but the food was good and we had fun, that's all that matters. We walked the mall a bit and then headed home, got in our jammies and watched the premier of Glee, since Ryan hadn't seen it yet. It is a damn good show.

I took my bike out for it's maiden voyage this morning and despite the fact that it took a whole block to get my foot in the toe strap, it went great. I love my new bike, I look forward to my many rides solo, with friends and with my family. I was really, really spoiled with this gift! One might wonder what I am to do with such a bike. I have wanted to do a sprint triathlon for a couple of years now, well I can swim and I can run, but I didn't have a bike and that kind of put a kink in the whole triathlon thing. So now I do and I can't wait until next spring!

Move over Lance

Last, but not least I got one of the quirkiest, coolest gifts from my darling love. For those of you who aren't familiar there was a grocery chain back in the forties, fifties and maybe even sixties called A & P. Do you know what A & P stands for? Ann Page!!!! I have a jar that my mom stored buttons in that once held Ann Page pickles. How cool is that. So a month ago I started scouting ebay for Ann Page goodies and came upon some awesome 1940's ads for Ann Page goods. I forwarded the ads to Ryan who gave me this yesterday:

The bottom ad is from 1942 and it has a woman in an officer's uniform - doing her duty - feeding her family well. It is from Ladies Journal and it is a riot! This little gem is now proudly hanging in my kitchen. I couldn't have been more surprised or more pleased with how cool Ryan pulled it all together.

Today is the Colt's game, I have been told I need to change into my jersey and my husband, as part of helping me out, went grocery store on Friday and not only bought what was on the list, but enough football snacks to feed an entire suite of people. Needless to say we invited the neighbors over to break in the new TV room (pics to follow) and eat up some of our snacks - we really can't (or shouldn't) eat 120 pizza rolls. So my birthday weekend is coming to a close, I still have few things coming up this week, dragging Annukkah out a bit more. Thanks for all the birthday wishes, the cards, presents (thanks Brooke for my posters of "Edward"- girls eat your hearts out, we are so ready for my New Moon Party in two months!) and more. I feel loved and happy - I just don't get why people don't like birthdays!

Take care and thanks! - Oh and GO COLTS!!!!!!

A little labor on labor day...

So we had our weekend away - my goodness time away flies. I can't believe here I am on Tuesday, drinking coffee and starting another week.

Since we haven't taken any big vacations this last year we decided about a month ago that a get-away was a must for our family's sanity. The kids were also craving 100% daddy time and when we're home the temptation of work around the house, real work, side work and of course the kids playing with the neighbors spreads us thin and disconnects us at best.

So Saturday we headed north to meet up for an early lunch with my dad at Portillo's. If you haven't eaten at a Portillo's and you find yourself up in the Chicagoland area - I recommend you stop. Yum, yum, with a capital "Y"! My dad, of course, has started to channel my mom and had a goody bag of sweet treats or "snacks" as Drew calls them for each of the kids, not to mention crackers, cookies and of course swedish fish and gummy bears for Ryan and I. After lunch we headed to Schaumburg, Illinois. If you know me, I love this area - not just because my dear friend Jill lives there, but also because it is home to IKEA and the Container Store. Ah, how I love thee. This time around our focus was on the kids and we went to Legoland. This place is really fun and the kids had a blast. We got to see all sorts of cool lego models, the had a lego ride, 4D movie (which mom and her motion sickness tolerated at best) and how legos are made. Then the kids built models and raced them and Penny and I made towers out of toddler friendly foam legos. The best part was the gift shop where the lessons of financial budgeting took place. The kids had spending money, we recommended they spend half at the lego store and then save the other have for the rest of our weekend. In the mind of a seven and four year old, the possibility of something greater than what is right in front of you is unfathomable. But better judgement did prevail and everyone left happy.

Happy Shopper

My neurotic weather boy LOVES rides - he's an interest character, he is

Ta-da

I've scared my husband out of smiling in pictures because I always tease him about his squinting and his cheeks, it's too bad really...

We went to our hotel and decided to go for a swim - the pool was outside and it was damn cold and the water wasn't much warmer. We splashed for about ten minutes and then mom and dad decided that blue lips and chattering teeth weren't going to do anything for small immune systems and the constant threat of the pig flu. So we headed back up to our room, we bathed and went to sleep.

Sunday morning we got up and headed to downtown Chicago - day two of our adventure took us to the Museum of Science and Industry. At the museum was the exhibit, "Harry Potter: The Exhibition." We started reading these books this summer. Jon is on book two and we take turns reading chapters. He loves reading about Harry's adventures and to be honest, I do too. We have all the books (and the movies), they were my moms. She read all but the last book - I love the fact that Jon and Drew are so into the stories, it ties them to their Yia yia because I know she loved the stories so much herself.

Prior to going to the exhibit, I purchased wands for each of the kids - I mean you can't exactly go to the Harry Potter exhibit without a wand - that and I was tired of losing all my chop sticks to battles in the backyard or finding sticks around my house from the outside. Not to mention really not wanting to pay ten times more for them at the exhibit - my rare, frugal side came out for this event.

The exhibit did not disappoint. They had so many cool artifacts from the movie sets. We snuck a few pictures, but got busted and had to delete them - the little punk security guard was so uncool and truth be told I could have been his mom (albeit a teen mom) for how young he must of been. I did manage to sneak a touch of Cedric Diggery's robes -when Ryan saw me he said, "Are you touching those because he did?" meaning did am I touching them because Rob Pattenson wore them. My response was, "Absolutely!" I mean when am I going to get that opportunity again?

Happy Harry

Mom and Drew

Annie and the Harry's

This was the best picture of the three of them at the museum - grandparents note - it will be slim pickin's for the calendar this year...

The major fun was in the gift shop where once again the concept of money had to be reestablished and negotiations got heated. In the end the boys exited with Gryffindor winter hats and HP glasses, chocolate frogs and book marks for their books. Penny was happy with a purple t shirt and Ryan and I bought the exhibit guide, since Mr. Joykill made us delete our pics. We enjoyed the rest of the museum and then headed to our hotel. We decided to order room service for dinner because we were all tired and the thought of dragging the kids to a restaurant and then arguing about sitting still and eating, was so very unappealing. Everyone was very happy to just sit and eat and then we headed down to the pool.

We, like all good parents before us plopped our children down in front of the TV with fries and ranch, in order to enjoy our own dinner. Go ahead, judge.

On Monday we took our time and swam and then headed our to Navy Pier to eat our picnic lunch we purchased from the local grocer. It was a foggy day, which stressed out Jon to no end. We still got to see some yachts and sail boats and of course seagulls. We used our left over bread to feed our feathery friends and honestly the kids had more fun doing that than anything else. We fed those silly birds for the better part of two hours and got some amazing pictures. We retreated to our car after lunch for our journey home.

Looking out at the water

Stressed by the fog

Lil' Miss Big Hair

A rare, yet beautiful moment

Stealing mom's sunglasses

We arrived around dinner time yesterday - Penny fell asleep for good (but woke this morning at 5 raring to go- my midnight bedtime bit me hard in the bottom), the boys happily playing with their new legos, Ryan cut the grass and I had to go to the grocery store. We went to bed too late last night, but it feels so good to be home.

Today feels a bit like a hangover, not like I ever have those, but I've heard... I have laundry to do, a house to clean, mostly because Cyd, whom our neighbors graciously pet sat here at the house, pulled his best Goldilocks act and tried out every piece of furniture he knows better than to touch while we're home- so the Dyson will be getting a workout this week. On to a very full week - PTO meeting, Salsa making, sport practices, my Dad visits and then the best part of the week is my birthday on Saturday! I can hardly wait!

Well, I hope that everyone had a bit of rest this holiday weekend and a bit of fun too! Thanks again!

just wanted to share

Okay so I'm pretty geeked out right now because I received my statistics for August on the Star. Now, I'm in no way a super star blogger, but I've got the most hits out of all their community bloggers. The person closest to me is still 500 below my numbers. Pretty cool, eh? Not too bad for not being advertised at all - which they informed me they are working on so that we get a bit more face time so people can see there are actually community blogs to follow. So I'm pleased, especially since I have only been writing for three months and some of my peers have been doing this for a year or more. So other than to shamelessly brag about the fun I am having and the fact that people outside of my friends reading my Star blog, I don't have much more to say. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend and I'll be back next week to report about our first day of preschool and our mini-vacation this weekend.

Thanks!