West Chicago living
October 6, 2008 - 9:13 PM
Mike and I are living in West Chicago, IL for a while. Sorry for the lack of postings—I’ve started to write several, and then they haven’t panned out.
But this past weekend Mike and I went to the “pumpkin patch” down the street. First of all, it was a zoo. It was more like a carnival than a pumpkin patch (they had rides and you had to buy tickets, etc.) And as I was looking around, people were…looking very urban: hair meticulously done, high fashion, heels, make-up….
I remember my first day at Iowa State University. I saw so many guys walking around in wranglers and cowboy hats and boots; I thought to myself, “What’s up with this place?” And as I lived in Iowa for a while, I found that there is a culture where it’s cooler to look like a cowboy/girl than to keep up with the fashion. There’s also a decent Nascar culture. It grew on me (the former, not the latter.) It’s cozy and comfortable…down to earth.
When you go to pumpkin patches in Iowa, you’re going to someone’s home. You get out your jeans and your boots because you know you might get muddy. I know they have some pumpkin patches like this in Illinois. I honestly got a kick out of the urban pumpkin patch experience, but prefer the more rustic ones. We bought two tickets to let Joy run around the petting farm, which was frightening for her as sheep aggressively got in her face to see if she had food. She prefers the animals who are smaller than she is.
Speaking of Joy: what’s up with her? (Sorry I have to find the computer cord before I can upload pictures again.) She’s busy with self-appointed tasks—trying to flip things over in our Diaper Champ diaper trashpail (much to our chagrin, taking tissues in and out of the tissue box, trying on clothes—especially jewelry (she’s a girly girl to the max—all the way down to painted toenails)—by trying on clothes I mean putting them on or over hear head or around her neck, looking through books, looking for squirrels and dogs and ants outside, searching the dining room floor for old treats…such is the life of our happy toddler, who is approaching a year and a half in age. Oh yeah, and kissing. She's kissing everything these days, from the window to her chair to every picture of an animal in her books...to 3 young boys. That's right--Joy's kissed or been kissed by a total of 3 boys and she's not even 1 1/2! The first was because the guy had a cookie. The second was a guy kissing her. And the third was our former little mexican neighbor--it was mutual. erk.
We have enjoyed being around family, but are still adjusting to being away from our Ames friends. (Ames friends, we miss you!) We’ve been jogging, Mike’s been fishing, Joy and I have been librarying, I’ve been messing around with broken glass and mosaicing…
That’s all for now. I’ll try to do a better job of blogging and uploading some pics some time here.
But this past weekend Mike and I went to the “pumpkin patch” down the street. First of all, it was a zoo. It was more like a carnival than a pumpkin patch (they had rides and you had to buy tickets, etc.) And as I was looking around, people were…looking very urban: hair meticulously done, high fashion, heels, make-up….
I remember my first day at Iowa State University. I saw so many guys walking around in wranglers and cowboy hats and boots; I thought to myself, “What’s up with this place?” And as I lived in Iowa for a while, I found that there is a culture where it’s cooler to look like a cowboy/girl than to keep up with the fashion. There’s also a decent Nascar culture. It grew on me (the former, not the latter.) It’s cozy and comfortable…down to earth.
When you go to pumpkin patches in Iowa, you’re going to someone’s home. You get out your jeans and your boots because you know you might get muddy. I know they have some pumpkin patches like this in Illinois. I honestly got a kick out of the urban pumpkin patch experience, but prefer the more rustic ones. We bought two tickets to let Joy run around the petting farm, which was frightening for her as sheep aggressively got in her face to see if she had food. She prefers the animals who are smaller than she is.
Speaking of Joy: what’s up with her? (Sorry I have to find the computer cord before I can upload pictures again.) She’s busy with self-appointed tasks—trying to flip things over in our Diaper Champ diaper trashpail (much to our chagrin, taking tissues in and out of the tissue box, trying on clothes—especially jewelry (she’s a girly girl to the max—all the way down to painted toenails)—by trying on clothes I mean putting them on or over hear head or around her neck, looking through books, looking for squirrels and dogs and ants outside, searching the dining room floor for old treats…such is the life of our happy toddler, who is approaching a year and a half in age. Oh yeah, and kissing. She's kissing everything these days, from the window to her chair to every picture of an animal in her books...to 3 young boys. That's right--Joy's kissed or been kissed by a total of 3 boys and she's not even 1 1/2! The first was because the guy had a cookie. The second was a guy kissing her. And the third was our former little mexican neighbor--it was mutual. erk.
We have enjoyed being around family, but are still adjusting to being away from our Ames friends. (Ames friends, we miss you!) We’ve been jogging, Mike’s been fishing, Joy and I have been librarying, I’ve been messing around with broken glass and mosaicing…
That’s all for now. I’ll try to do a better job of blogging and uploading some pics some time here.
We've started disciplining Evie for taking the kleenex out. We let it go for way too long b/c it was sort of cute. It definitely became a pain though when she pretty much started doing it every day! I miss you guys!
I miss you guys too! Things have been way crazy here--I'll try to shoot you an email with the update soon. Do you think you guys will be going to Faithwalkers?
hey Jackie! I'm living in your old room at Wendy's and I love it! I remember the first time I went up there with you and thinking to myself "this would be such a cool place to live" and now God's made it happen :)
I love you guys and miss you.