Stacy: Animal Rescuer

Well, bleeding heart that I am, I rescued a cute little animal from a certain tragic fate.

Tonight, on my way to the gym (no really, I was going to the GYM!), I saw this poor cute little animal sitting by the side of the road and I turned the car around and went back for it....wouldn't you???

Although he was wearing a tag, he was obviously abandoned. His name is "Ollie the Octopus" - I don't make this stuff up!

Ollie was put out for trash pickup and I saved him! Only on the North Shore of Chicago can you find an almost perfectly new kids rocker in the garbage! When I came home from the gym and SHOCKED Matt by telling him I paid nothing for this treasure, I went online and found out that this cute Octopus comes from rockAbye and retails for about $80!

Ollie still has one of his tags on him. He plays classical music and looks like he's never been played with. I do have to say that his biggest flaw is that his handles are missing. I wrote to the company, already, to see if they could send me new handles but I'm sure Matt could replace them if the company can't send us new ones. I'm not sure if we'll keep him or pass him onto a friend that will give him the love he needs.

This brings up one of my FAVORITE times of year that is just 12 days away...Winnetka Spring Clean Up Days! Adding to the joy of my birthday this year, Spring Clean Up starts the day before my birthday! Woohoo! This may sound silly but every year, Winnetka, the "village" we lived in about 4 years ago, has their Spring Clean Up event. For 5 days, residents in pre-determined neighborhoods can put WHATEVER they want out on the curb and the village will pick it up at no cost. The phenomenon of spring clean up scavengers, like myself, has been chronicled in many major news outlets like Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today and the NY Times! So I'm NOT the only weird-o out there!

One year, I found a pair of men's golf shoes in the garbage, brand new in their box, never worn and sold them on Ebay for almost $70! Even a few of our household items were scavenged from previous spring clean ups. I'll have to keep you all posted when I find treasures this year!

So as not to disappoint all of the Quinton fans out there, here are some pictures I took today, enjoy!

Tag! We're it!

One of our engagement pictures...

My friend who tagged me before, Liz, has tagged me again. This one is cute because it's about my husband, Matt.


What is his name? Matthew James Harker
How long have we been married? 8 years on May 19th
How long did we date? I think our entire courtship from dating to marriage was 18 months.
How old is he? 33
Who eats more? Hmm, this one is hard because he eats out for lunch a lot these days but I tend to snack all day.
Who said I love you first? Matt did. He was so noncommittal about our relationship, I wanted to make sure he said it first.
Who is taller? Matt...barely...when I'm not wearing shoes.
Who sings better? Pfft, MATT.
Who is smarter? Depends on the subject. I am smart about worldly things and Matt is smarter when it comes to some books and the scriptures.
Whose temper is worse? I have the shorter temper, but when Matt does get mad, he gets MAD. Actually, when he gets really mad, it makes me laugh because he hardly ever gets that mad and it's funny to me. Bad habit, I know.
Who pays the bills? Me, but Matt pretends he likes to do the "budget".
Who does the laundry? Me, but that's because Matt was banned from laundry early in our marriage after turning a few of my favorite pieces into doll clothes.
Who cooks dinner? Me but Matt is AMAZING on the grill and makes great food when we are camping.
Who drives when together? Matt, and he would say that I am the worst back seat driver. I frequently have a death grip on the side handles.
Who is more stubborn? Me. I think Matt says yes just to avoid a "discussion".
Who is the first to admit when wrong? Matt. I'm always right!
Who wears the pants in the family? I think that I do.
Who mows the lawn? Hmm, Tulsa was our first lawn. Matt and I fought to mow the lawn because it's actually kind of relaxing.
Who kissed who first? Matt kissed me first, I think, but he waited until our THIRD date to kiss me.
Who asked who out first? I used school stuff as an excuse to meet up with Matt in Salt Lake and we ended up going to a movie together, dutch.
Who proposed? Matt - I have the radio recording of it!
What is my favorite thing about him? I love that Matt is my best friend. Our courtship was long distance 99% of the time which gave us the opportunity to spend hours talking and share lots of emails and letters. He is the first person and I want to talk to in the morning and the last person I share my thoughts with at night. He is understanding, patient and a great communicator. Plus, he's dead sexy in Hilti red!


I will tag Rebekeh, Sarah and Erin...can't wait to see your posts!

Duluth or bust...You Betcha!

This weekend, we had the opportunity to take a road trip to Duluth Minnesota. Duluth? Yep, Duluth, where Matt's parents are serving a Mormon mission for the Church Education System. They are really enjoying the work that they are doing and I think Wanda, Matt's mom, is in her kind of heaven having the opportunity to learn, meet lots of new people and serve others. I know Ferrin, Matt's dad, is enjoying the opportunity to learn, study and serve others, as well.

It was also Wanda's birthday weekend and we were happy to be able to share it with her! We started off Friday morning, after Matt and I wrapped up a few loose ends with work stuff, for our 8 hour trip north. We went to Duluth by way of Milwaukee, Madison and Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It is really pretty country, even with trees not having any leaves. Matt took this incredible picture of the rainbow from the car! It turned out very well.

Quinton was a trooper the whole way! He was very patient with us while he watched a movie, played with Matt and ran around at every rest stop!

We stopped at one rest stop that had this giant deer statue...

...and this GINORMOUS orange moose...cause moose are orange, right? I think, since we were in Wisconsin, the moose was supposed to look like it was made of cheese or something. But even that is a weird shade of orange for cheese!

Quinton was funny, he wouldn't go up and touch the moose! Can you blame him?

Friday night, we stayed at a fun hotel that featured and indoor water park. We arrived so late Friday night, we weren't able to take advantage of the water park until Saturday morning. Matt's parents came over to the hotel and joined us in the aquatic fun. The place was PACKED with other families with the same idea, but Quinton couldn't have cared less. He LOVED the water and the water features.

One of Quinton's favorites parts of the water park was this kids water feature. At the top of this water jungle gym was a big bucket that would fill up with water. Just before it was going to tip over, a little bell would go off and everyone knew the waterfall was coming! Quinton became like one of Pavlov's dogs every time the bell started sounding. He would stop whatever he was doing and watch the bucket tip over. The picture above is the BEFORE picture and below, is the AFTER picture as the water started its descent. We must have watched the thing dump over a hundred times from a dozen different angles!

Quinton also loved the lazy river. After spending 2 hours and 45 minutes playing in the water, the lazy river was his favorite place to sit and relax!

Later that afternoon, we were able to drive around Duluth and go to the "beach". Lake Superior was pretty cold, although we hear it's thawed out quite a bit. It was a nice sunny day to enjoy the sights, though.

Quinton still a little tired from swimming, hangs on to Grandma for warmth and comfort.

Quinton is holding what's best described as an 'ice cube' from Lake Superior.

I took a close up of the 'ice cube' because it's form was so interesting. Cool picture, eh?

This is a view of the city of Duluth from a little island across the bridge.

Ferrin, Wanda, Matt, Me and Quinton enjoying our visit to Duluth!

Quinton trying to warm up on the beach. He's used to the beaches in Florida where I grew up but not this beach that had ice cubes floating around!

Matt enjoying some time with his parents.

Quinton and his Grandma enjoying time together.

Wanda and Ferrin's digs while they live in Duluth.

This was such a fun weekend!

We were sad to go on Sunday morning, but we were worried about a snow storm on it's way into Duluth. We had an uneventful ride back to Chicago (but we did stop at the Outlet Malls at the Wisconsin Dells...to stretch our feet and get some exercise, of course!). Lucky for us, the weather held up and we made very good time getting back home.

I was lucky enough to grow up near my mom's parents in Florida. I was also very fortunate to visit my dad's parents in Idaho often and spend great summers camping in McCall, Idaho with them. I love that Quinton loves his grandparents so much!

They are a wonderful blessing in our lives.

Local Tourists

This past Saturday, we treated ourselves to some fun downtown. We went to one of our favorite Chicago eateries, Harry Caray's. I had a yummy burger, Matt had some awesome pork chops and Quinton thoroughly enjoyed his spaghetti. I think the people at the next table got a kick out of watching Quinton slurp his noodles Lady and the Tramp style and then just shoving handfuls in! The bust of Harry Caray. Notice Oprah's picture on the right, above Matt's head.
Ye olde noodle slurper!

Q LOVES to make "foo faces", or funny faces to you and me.

We were able to go and see the famous "Cloud Gate" for the first time. Quinton thought it was too strange to touch so he looked at it from a safe distance.

Quinton running around with the Chicago skyline as his backdrop.

More of Q and the skyline.

It was such a fun afternoon to go and play downtown. We are waiting for a little bit nicer weather weekend to go to the museums and the aquarium. Maybe even for an out of town guest to come over for a bit of motivation to do more sightseeing (hint, hint).

Somebunny Loves You!

What a fun time of year!

The first day of spring meant about 6 inches of snow for us after enjoying about a week of no snow on the ground!

Just when we'd noticed buds beginning on the trees and green shoots coming up from the ground, we received a huge pile of snow! Last Friday, it was snowing so hard and fast that the DMV closed 2 hours early! I found that out when Matt and I made it there at 5 minutes to three and were told that they were shutting down! It has taken us a while to find the time to go and switch to Illinois licenses so I was pretty peeved about them closing early. I said, "I called two hours ago to make sure you were open on Good Friday and no one said you might close early. This is ridiculous." The man in the 80s polyester shirt behind the counter replied, "Ma'am, this snow is ridiculous." and that was then end of our conversation. So Quinton and I had the PURE JOY of spending 2.5 hours at the DMV, yesterday, registering our new car and obtaining my new Illinois license...that was sure fun! Especially when I took the "written" test on a computer and had to hold Quinton in my lap, squirming and yelling the whole time...yep, that's my boy!

Needless to say, we made the most of our wintry Easter weekend!

Friday night, we ended up having some friends over for some yummy and HOT tortilla chicken soup. Their little girl, Miss M and Quinton had a lot of fun decorating sugar cookies and bunny cakes. I enjoyed eating Quinton's creations!

Saturday, our church held a kids Easter egg hunt. I helped a couple of the other ladies put it together and it was a lot of fun. Quinton is quite the master egg hunter these days...I think I even overheard him talking to kids in an Australian accent saying, "Crikey, this one's a beaut!"

(Rachel, Rebekeh and me in our spring colors)

After the egg hunt, we went to our friend Kate's 1 year birthday party. It was lots of fun to spend time with friends from when we lived here about 4 years ago. After all of the sugar of the egg hunt and birthday cake, though, Quinton and Matt were ready to crash. I dropped them off at home and then ran around town making sure I had everything we needed for our big Sunday Easter dinner.

At church on Sunday, there were several great talks about the real reason for Easter, Christ's resurrection. My friend Rebekeh gave a great talk and it was nice to feel the spirit. Sunday was also my first day in my new calling to help teach the 4-5 year olds. Boy, are they an active bunch! It's so much fun, though, to see what Quinton will be like before I know it. I think I am going to like this calling!

After church, we prepped for our big dinner and at 4pm, our guests started arriving. I think it total, we had 12 adults and 7 kids under the age of 4 at our dinner. Luckily, the house we are house sitting has a giant dining room table and all of the adults were able to enjoy one another's company with more yummy food than we could eat! It was so great to sit around a big table and talk to friends. All in all, it was a great dinner!

Another exciting thing that happened this weekend is that Quinton has a new cousin! My older sister had her little baby girl a couple of weeks early. When I spoke with my mom yesterday, they still didn't have a name for Baby Girl Snow so I am anxiously awaiting to hear what her name is and see a picture of her! I hear that mom and baby girl are recovering from the early arrival and I know a lot about that! Congrats Alyee, Cliff, James and Winter!

On a side note, Quinton has taken to bathing TWICE a day just because he loves the master bath so much! He has some fun toys, we add a few bubbles and voila! He is in heaven! This picture is of him in the tub on Friday with LOTS of snow falling outside of the window.

Hip Hop Hi!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I think this year is a little confusing with St. Patrick's Day and Easter being so close together, I think I even saw Easter eggs decorated with shamrocks today! Ya hafta love the commercialism of it all!

Saturday was Quinton's first ever official Easter egg hunt! A local high-end retail plaza around the corner from us hosted the egg hunt at 8:30 am on Saturday! It was pretty cold but for Quinton's age group, they had the hunt indoors. This being Quinton's first hunt, I was worried about whether or not I had adequately prepared him. I read on a friend's blog that she had prepped her 2-year old by hiding eggs in the house and then letting her find them. Quinton and I hadn't really practised for this event and I was nervous!

No Worries!

Quinton is a natural in the art of hunting eggs and taking out the competition! Just kidding, he didn't take any other kids out but he did wag his finger with a severe, "No, no, no" at a little girl he caught trying to touch his basket of eggs! Quinton was one of the first kids off the line and immediately found a stockpile of eggs and loaded up. He did a great job of sharing, too, surprisingly enough! One kid's egg fell out and he didn't notice. When Quinton picked up the egg, I thought he would put it in his own basket (cause that's what I would do) but he ran over the kid and put it into his basket. Nice, huh?

It was a fun morning. We topped it off with a shy hello to an Easter bunny character and a yummy bagel from Panera. Matt was out riding his bike with a guy from church. He's trying to get back into a training routine for his triathlons.

Saturday night, we invited some old friends and new ones over for dinner. It was warm enough outside to cook a pork tenderloin on the grill, which came out perfect! And my friend Rebekeh (aka my twin) made these super-delish St. Patrick's cupcakes (here's the recipe link). It was a great time. Here is a picture of me and Rebekeh:

And one of her daughter, Miss M and Quinton:

Last Friday, we enjoyed a lovely day at the park. We were actually heading over to the Children's Museum but it was so nice out, we stopped at this great park along the way and played outside, instead. Quinton didn't even want to wear his coat, even though it was still a little chilly but what can I do? He has a mind of his own!

Well, I had better get back to Quinton, I think I just saw a naked bum streak past me!

New 'Do 4 Q!

Well, you'd think by the title, I'd be writing about Quinton's first professional haircut he received a couple of weeks ago at this cute place called Kidsnips. Alas, no, I write tonight about the hairdo he gave himself this morning while I was emailing a friend. He must have heard me talking about how dry the air is here because he comes waltzing into the office-area with a silly grin and as he turns his head, I saw nothing but white in his hair. It's a little funny because with a full head of white hair, I thought he bore a striking resemblance to his Great Grandpa Gardner with all of the white he had in his hair! Lucky for Quinton, though, it was only my lotion!

Talk about goopy!

I was in the process (sort of) of trying to get us out of the house on a beautiful (and sort of warm at 40+ degrees) morning to go on a walk. After wrestling him to wash his hair out in the sink, he was squeaky clean and had soft, silky hair!

We eventually made it on our walk...an hour of bliss out in the sun. Just me and Quinton walking to Panera for a yummy cinnamon crunch bagel (sorry, Dad!).

Our little family has been settling into life in Chicago pretty well. We are learning to live with frequent showings on the house we're house sitting in and Matt's new work environment (home and on the road). We even hosted a church playgroup here on Wednesday, which consisted of about 7 mommies, 2 babysitters and a zillion kids. I exaggerate, just a little. It just seemed like a zillion kids but in fact, was probably only 15 or so. Not too shabby for my first playgroup here! The best part of about it was having enough space and toys in the basement to keep most of the kids happy! I also enjoyed the opportunity to meet a bunch of new friends and hang out with old ones.

Last week, when it was REALLY cold, Quinton and I went to the Kohl Children's Museum. They have a special Clifford exhibit right now, which is one of Quinton's favorite cartoons. The place is so much fun! They have a water feature room, a mini-grocery store where everything is kid-sized, and all kinds of fun experiments. I really had to drag Quinton out of there at closing time!

We also hosted our first official guest two weekends ago! My Aunt Sheryl from New Jersey came into town for a job interview. It was so fun to have family in town! She and I were even able to get away from the boys and have a yummy lunch in downtown Evanston. On Monday, when she had her interview, we dropped her off at the train station. It was a rainy morning so she had an umbrella with her. So now, Quinton will occasionally ask, "Umbrella train, Sherry?" Translated, he's asking me where Aunt Sheryl is and he equates her with the train and umbrellas...what a funny kid! When she was here, he would walk around the house looking for her saying, "Sherry? Sherry? SHERRY?" I enjoyed the opportunity to visit with my Aunt and have Quinton get to know her a little.

Well, we have a showing tomorrow morning so I had better be off to bed so I can clean up!