Our Fall Porch

       Hi. My name is Meg. I'm an absentee blogger. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on.
       
       On Friday, I finally committed to what Nolan & Quincy will be for Halloween (I have a real commitment issue when it comes to Halloween costumes; so many good possibilities, so few un-opinioned years), and I placed a few key orders online for the pieces of their costume that I needed (please note that I am already second guessing my costume choice, but at this time, I have to move forward). With that out of the way, I decided that I actually had some time to devote to some Fall decorations. So that's what I did this weekend. I was devoted to decorations.
       Here's where the story takes an interesting twist. Jon was out of town for the weekend, so it was just me and the kiddos. As I usually do on nights when Jon isn't home, as the sun sets, I lock everything up. All the doors. The windows. Pull the bedroom blinds. My car. You get the picture.  After bedtime on this particular night, I had a second wind so I did lots of picking up around the house. I figured my Saturday morning would be a happier one if the house was already in good shape. But oh no, I didn't stop there. I figured I should get a jump on my decoration projects while I had a few moments to myself, so I headed out to the garage to see what I had that I could work with. I had run into our neighbors that evening on a walk, and found out that I had free rein on lots of freshly felled trees in their yard, so I was basing my plans on incorporating some free stumps into the design. I walked into the garage, and decided I would use some spray paint that I already had on hand to spruce up a few things that were sitting on my shelves. Here are the inner workings in my head over the next few minutes:

"Well, if I'm going to spray paint (in the garage), I should close the door so that the fumes don't get into the house." Picture me then pulling the door from our garage to our small mudroom closed. 

"I should make sure that door (that I just consciously closed) is unlocked."

Imagine me then walking over to the door, attempting to open it, and realizing: Oh Crap! I just locked myself out of the house!

With the kids asleep inside!

At 9pm!

And it's 30 degrees out!

And I'm wearing flip flops!

       After I had a mild heart attack in the garage, and for a moment thought I might actually be trapped IN the garage (seconds later realizing that the garage door button was 3 inches from my shoulder), I proceeded to check all of our doors. Yep, locked, just like I thought they would be. Luckily, we have a little lock box with a house key in it. Unluckily, I couldn't remember the code to the box. No problem right. I could just walk to a neighbors house, call Jon, and find out what that code was. Oh wait...I don't know Jon's cell phone number either (5 years of marriage, and I cannot for the life of me remember his last four digits). For years, when I need to know his number, I refer to our checks which have them printed on them. That wouldn't work this time...those checks were inside. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Will I need to call a locksmith?
       Before I allowed myself too much time to freak out, I started checking windows. My first attempt was a bust, it was locked. Then I thought I could give our kitchen window a try. From the day we moved in I was frustrated that I could never get it to latch well. So I popped off the screen (which I didn't know that I knew how to do, but desperate times call for desperate measures), and gave the window a push. IT WORKED! Oh Lord. I have never been so happy to climb over a kitchen sink before in my life. When I descended into the kitchen, Blue was staring at me very concerned and confused. I on the other hand, was extremely relieved.
       And that my friends, is a long way of saying: Here's our Fall Porch set up.

       I'm pleased with myself to say that this cost me $4.00 + the cost of the pumpkins. I had grabbed the lanterns years ago for free at someones yard sale. They were brown and rusty. The thought has probably crossed my mind a dozen times that I should get rid of those dang lanterns, but I could never bring myself to do it.  A little gold spray paint later, and I'm loving them. 

The blue vase- that was a $4.00 clearance find at Michael's that I picked up on Saturday. 

I just wish I had picked up about four more of them.

The pine cones and leaves were all courtesy of our yard.

And all of the other knickknacks, I already had on  hand. 

They just needed some new life.

The view from our front door looking out.

       We're still hoping to make a big scarecrow to post on our front lawn. Crossed fingers that it happens this week!  Happy Fall Ya'll!   A little update soon on our Master Bedroom project, and where our house plans are taking us the next few months.    

Farewell Harvest

       Before the harvest is forgotten and snow officially takes over, I wanted to share pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch (of sorts). We wanted to take Nolan to pumpkin patch heaven, which is about 2 hours from us, but we've decided that our guy doesn't do so well on any drive over an hour so we stayed local. Our town hosted a pumpkin patch and harvest festival at the local community center and the ten minute drive suited us much better.

I really didn't want to buy our pumpkins at the grocery store, 

so we came home with two. 

There was lots of fall goodness to enjoy.

Like two boys in plaid shirts.

We ran in to so many people that we knew

(and so many people that knew Nolan- from daycare).

It made us feel old, and settled.

We have really been hitting the family photo jackpot lately. 

A friend that we ran into volunteered to take one for us.

It's a cold snowy November weekend here

and our pumpkins now have a coat of white. 

Now, holiday season anxiety is setting in. 

The other day I asked the clerk at the grocery store 

if she would kindly remove all of the Christmas goodies on the seasonal aisle. 

It makes my heart beat a little faster when 

I think of all of the things that need to get done for the holiday season.

Ready or not.

The Tortoise and the Hare

       It all started with a little 15 month old boy that was not yet walking. When we were mulling over Halloween costumes (and we have an ongoing list for future years), we were taking his love of crawling and lack of walking into consideration. So that my friends is how we arrived at the Tortoise (our slow and steady) and the Hare (insert Blue with a frown). 

After a few nap times spent cutting and hot gluing, our Nolan became a Tortoise

(here he is charging up with a graham cracker snack before we hit the town).

My poor hare didn't turn out quite as successful. 

In the end he had rabbit ears and a carrot around his neck.

When Blue's cheapo rabbit costume arrived in the mail, 

I discovered it was far too small

(Blue literally stood like this a dozen times for me while I tried to

re-piece it together to fit him).

Apparently I should have gone with the extra large. 

This Velcro was suppose to be reaching around under his belly.

So began my troubles with trying to salvage his costume.

The week of Halloween, 

Nolan surprised us and officially became a toddler.

So our tortoise was of the walking kind.

He walked, and walked, and walked.

Every once and a while, 

our turtle still needed a little lift from his dad.

It made for an amazing night for us

because it was the first time that he really got out cruising.

We strolled our downtown for some trick-o-treating, 

and we had a great family night at home.

We EVEN managed a family picture.

I love my tortoise and my hare,

but next year I am determined to make Blue

(be it with duct tape, staples or what have you)

a costume that he can wear all night. 

A Wedding in the Catskills

       Okay, let's disregard the fact that I have been very much an absentee blogger. I'm here, my kid is napping, and I've finally got some time to write. I've got lots to catch you up on so I'm going to work backwards, starting with my recent adventure.

Mama Milam got away last weekend to the 

Catskills in New York

to celebrate and be a part a very good friends wedding.

Maria and I met in Ecuador on Christmas Day, seven years ago
(yes, I had my nose pierced, and yes, we look greasy. 
That's Lake Titicaca behind us!) .

We had so many adventures together while we were there
(including trips to the hospital, lost passports, endless bus rides, 
learning to surf, dysentery, and the list goes on). 

(Now I'm thinking I need to do a few posts about our time down there).

Fast forward to the present
and  Maria was going to be walking down the aisle! 

They chose a rural Inn property for their wedding.

The location was picture perfect.

Initially the boys were going to travel with me too

and we were going to make a family vacay out of it.

But then we realized that our son

would have nothing to do with sitting in a plane for seven hours.

 The foliage was out of this world.

The property where the wedding was held

and where we all stayed,

was scattered with several old buildings and cabins.

I stayed in the main building on the grounds.

These old buildings just oozed character and charm.

I woke up to this view from my room.

There was a fire pit 

where everyone ended up after the rehearsal dinner.

And a stream traversed through the back of the property.

It was amazing to see Maria again, 

and meet so many of the friends I had heard about.

On Friday before the wedding

a few of us hopped in the car and found a small 

market where everything was made from scratch (even the mayo and mustard!).

We devoured some delicious sandwiches.

The location of the Inn was in an area affected by Hurricane Irene. 

When I turned on to the final road before the resort, 

I was greeted by these signs 

(which were kind of creepy at midnight after a long day of traveling).

I soon realized that the signs were in place due

to damage that the flooding had caused to the roads

(again, an eerie discovery on dark unfamiliar roads).

Sadly, this house was now nearly falling into the roadway.

It looks like the house is for sale now,

and they're willing to negotiate the price.

Just sayin.

Many of their neighbors in the area had similar experiences.

There seemed to be remnants of the storm 

scattered all over the area,

and the river was still running very brown.

The rehearsal dinner was held in an old barn on the property.

The morning of the wedding, 

I needed to grab a couple of things

 so I drove down to the nearest town,

about twenty minutes away.

Talk about small town charm.

It had charm to spare.

The actual wedding was wicked 

(that's a word I picked up out there), 

although I have very few pictures to prove it. 

The following morning my feet were covered in blisters

 and my ears were ringing (from the 7 piece band!).

  True signs of a great celebration!

I did manage to snap this picture of the new

 Mr. & Mrs. Haun.

Beauteous right?

Maria was glowing. 

As much fun as it was, 

I was so happy to get back to my boys. 

More to come soon, I promise.