The Greenest Girl You Know!

As far as RECYCLING goes, I'm about the greenest one out there! Between last week's spring clean up in Winnetka and this week's spring clean up in the village directly north of Winnetka, in Glencoe, I am a 'recycling' fiend!

We had an open house yesterday, after church, so we had to be away from the house from 1 to 3 PM, so Matt made a picnic lunch while I finished cleaning the house and we headed over to the park. At the park, we enjoyed a nice lunch while Quinton played on the playground and then flew a kit on the beach, it was all very picturesque.

After all of that fun, Matt and I decided we would drive around to try and have Quinton fall asleep. Well, it worked! In the first 5 minutes, he was out! So we just kept driving up the road that parallels the lake. There are some gorgeous homes along this stretch of the North Shore. At one point, we saw this gorgeously manicured hedge with beautiful flowers and it was all almost TOO perfect. Matt made the comment that all of that landscaping alone cost more than our house in Tulsa! Sad thing is, I think he's right!

Once we hit the next town north, though, we both realized they were having their Spring Clean Up week so Matt humored me by driving around the area and he even HELPED me pick some stuff up! His favorite find was the soccer goal that shouts, "GOOOOOAAALLL" when you hit it square in the middle. Matt was such a trooper. Instead of watching TV at 8:30 pm that night, he went back out driving with me, hunting around in the dark where we scored again with treasure finds.

Below are a few of our finds from this weekend!

This is another all-time treasure of treasures find!

Matt made me pass this one up the first time we saw it but when we drove by it again, I MADE him put it in the car. He was worried about whether or not it would work.

Score! This Barbie four wheeler works like new, it even has the charger with it and the battery intact! Quinton has spent the better part of today playing on it! Matt was worried about the Barbie theme harming Quinont's budding masculinity, but don't worry, I let Quinton make Tool Time-esque grunts while he's riding it!

Another great find was this Kettler bike. Quinton now has three tricycles and one bicycle. Needless to say some of the finds might make their way onto Craigslist. It was too cute and perfect to pass up...can you believe people throw this stuff away?

Here is Matt's soccer goal, which Quinton loves!

At one of our stops last night, I noticed a tall box and it said, "Thomas Train Table" and I thought, this box MUST be empty because who would throw away an unopened Thomas the Train table top? Well, I wouldn't be blogging about it if it wasn't a brand spanking new train table top! Still in the box!

The train table top was a perfect fit for the train table I bought at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago! This is too perfect because the train table top that came with the table had some railroad pieces glued to it and Matt was going to try and pry the pieces off of the table. So now, we have a fresh clean table top for FREE!

Silly people, put out exactly what I need! I was just thinking that I needed to go and buy Quinton a life vest for playing at the beach this summer and VOILA, what should appear in the Glenoce Spring Clean Up but TWO Coast Guard approved life vests, one of the New With Tags! Woohoo!

Now, I don't NEED two Britax car seats but I can totally sell these on Craigslist after I clean them up a bit. Plus, I may keep one around in case any out of town guests need a spare!

The same pile we found the train table top, I found a stack of kids books! I love kids books but do not like their price tags, so FREE is the best ever!

Quinton saw me put these in the car and from the back seat, I hear him say, "Oh, Mom, keeeeewl!" What more can I say? This kid loves bubbles!

The one drawback to all of this is Quinton might start to expect new toys everyday! It's like Christmas around here with all of the toys, bikes and bubbles!

I found this Fisher Price car town in the Winnetka Spring Clean Up adventures last week and yup, Q loves it!

Another super find that Quinton loves, more Lincoln Logs! Someone gave us a starter set for his very first Christmas, I think, and he loves to play with them! Now, he can make a lot more stuff, all for the reasonable price of FREE!

Quinton couldn't wait, so we made the Lincoln Log Castle tonight!

Well, try not to be too jealous of my garbage scavenging skills, we all have different hobbies, right?

Spring Clean Up!

I LOVE this time of year, not because I like to spring clean MY house, but because I love when the Village of Winnetka - one of the more expensive zip codes around here - cleans UP and OUT!
Yesterday, Quinton and I were able to make an early start of Winnetka's Spring Clean Up days at 7:30 am...early enough to hunt for a good bit before the rain started. Call me odd, call me weird, but I was really excited to see what treasures awaited us on the streets!

I was not disappointed!

Check out some of the stuff we found yesterday and today!

This is my FAVORITE find of all time! This is called "The Learning Tower" and I have wanted one since Quinton learned how to walk but I just couldn't justify the $169.95 price tag. The Birthday Gods must have been smiling on me, today! I found this just as Quinton and I were heading home. My car was so full already that it wouldn't fit but there was NO WAY I was leaving this behind so I heaved it up onto the roof of the car and drove home on the 'side roads' since I didn't have a way to anchor it to the roof. No worries! We all made it home just fine!

I found this cool play structure complete with all of its tent rods. We found the Choo Choo tent!

We found this wagon yesterday, as well as the garden urns at the top of the picture. I can't wait to put flowers into them!

This Radio Flyer training tricycle was a great find! It will come in handy during playgroup at my house because Quinton has a similar one and no one will have to fight over it!

Some more fun toys I found.

These are baby items that I'll clean up and give away or keep around for the younger kids who come over to play.

Quinton will have HOURS of fun playing with his new basketball hoop!

Okay, I found this clock today and just couldn't believe how great of a find it is! It was still in its original box! I'm not sure if it works but even if it doesn't clocks are about the easiest thing to fix, ever!

These chairs I found today, too. They were too cute to pass up and they look great in the garden, don't they?

Last but not least, another great find! This is a fun bouncy toy that Quinton couldn't wait to try out! It looks brand new! By the time I found this yesterday, my car was pretty full but by rolling down the driver side window in the back seat, I was able to SQUEEZE it in and make it home! Yay for all my finds!

I'll keep you all posted about what the rest of the week has to bring!

New Addition to Our Family!

We are excited to announce the arrival of the newest Harker in our family:

Shark-Bait Aquarius Harker

Shark-Bait is a Betta fish (two Ts because he says it stands for Too Tough) and they are known as the Japanese Fighter Fish. The very helpful pet shop employee explained to us that the Japanese have Betta Fights like SOME rural americans and football players have dog fights or rooster fights.

Shark Bait won't be seeing any fighting action around here...unless he wants to go after Quinton for CONSTANTLY talking his tail off!

Hopefully, Shark Bait lives a long and happy life with us. If not, I refuse to post on the blog about his eternal flushing!

Kids Say the Darndest Things...

I just had to share something that a kid said at church in Primary, today.

The teacher was teaching a group of about 15 kids from about 4 years old to 8 years old about Moses leading his people out of the wilderness. She was telling them about Moses parting the sea for his people to escape to soldiers coming after them. We even used blue sheets and had the kids run through the sheets to illustrate the concept.

Then, the teacher said, "Oh, there is even a picture, at the back of the bible that shows Moses parting the sea."

So she opens the Bible to the picture and holds it up for the kids to see. One kid in the front says, "Wow! How did they get a picture of him doing that?!"

You have to love the literal understanding that kids have in what they see and hear!

The Week in Pictures

I hate to brag (or complain) but it seems like there's never a dull moment around our place. If I'm not working, playing with Quinton or prepping the house for a showing, there's any number of other things that pop up! One such thing was a FUN visit from Matt's second oldest brother, Shon, from Utah. Shon had some business to conduct in Chicago so we had the opportunity to host him this past weekend.

In preparation for Shon's visit, I thought it would be fun to take him out for a night on the town in Chicago. We secured a babysitter for about a GAZILLION dollars an hour (not really but they charge a lot more here than in Tulsa!) and tickets to Second City ETC for Friday night. Unfortunately for us, Shon was able to schmooze with a client Friday night and Matt and I ended up going on our FIRST REAL DATE since we moved here! The Second City show was so much fun! It is nice to sit in a room and laugh with lots of people...it makes you realize how much you don't laugh on a regular basis. Plus, my little brother, Jeff, is going to comedy school in LA at the Groundlings and I imagine he does skits and shows like the one we saw on Friday night. My little brother is H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S! I'm not biased or anything but I do have it on good authority that a whole SHIP full of people thought he was worth staying up late to watch him do karaoke...and that's only his singing talent!

Matt and I at Second City:

Saturday mornings, Quinton and I go to his new gym class at the community center while Matt goes to play soccer or go for a bike ride. This past Saturday, Matt was able to play soccer with Shon and they had LOADS of fun playing too long!

Quinton playing on the various implements in his class:

Quinton also loves this cool pit of foam cubes:

Quinton is also very good on the rings and LOVES to have me roll him all over the gym in this little tube!

Saturday evening, Shon flew back to Utah where his wife and 5 kids were eagerly waiting for his return. We were sad to see him go and Quinton still asks where Shon is...

Sunday, we were lucky enough to be invited to dinner at a friends house. They are super cool and we had a great time. They have two little girls and a big trunk full of dress-ups...too bad Quinton loves to play dress-ups! These pictures go into a little file called "BLACKMAIL Q: To be opened when he is 16 and dating!"

Before you accuse me of scarring Quinton, I'll have you know, Matt was right by my side laughing and commenting how cute a little girl Harker would be if Quinton's style was any indication!

Last but not least, here are a few more pictures from this week:

The fancy pants McDonald's two towns over. The entire restaurant is wood, nice stone work, tile and stained glass. They even have CHANDELIERS! I kid you not!

Quinton concentrating on driving his car backwards...

And at the park today!

Well, I hope you enjoy the pictorial on the past week!
Thanks for looking!

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!