and then we attempted to make him a hipster

So Nate slept through Halloween night. We went to Gigi's house (sans costume) and he hit up a few houses with his cousin Stone early in the evening. After that, our plans collapsed as he CRASHED OUT in the car around 6. We thought about waking him but he was exhausted from the weekend and hadn't a nap so we let him sleep. He made it all the way until morning so I'm glad we did. He must have needed it.

On Thursday, we attended a Halloween Party at Karl's office. We thought we'd experiment with a costume and decided to make Nate a hipster. We gave him ...

Glasses without Lenses.
Skinny Jeans.
A striped T.
A skull scarf.

The scarf and the glasses both received a "No Thank you Mommy" when we attempted to put them on. I even attempted bribing him with candy.

Here's how well that went over:

We figured a lot of people wouldn't get it anyway so we just let him run around in his normal clothes. No one seemed to mind. I guess he can dress up next year if he wants. It was one of those battles that just wasn't worth the fight.

AND on the topic of skinny jeans for little boys:

Conversation with girl at The Store (I won't name any names but it rhymes with Schmap) as I was paying:

Me: These skinny jeans are maybe the cutest thing ever.
Her: I know! My niece has three pairs.
Me: They're for my little boy.
Her: Oh. (insert disdainful look here)

BUT LOOK HOW CUTE THESE ARE:
I fully support the phenomenon for both sexes. Karl refuses to wear them but even he admitted they looked cute on our tall and skinny child. Plus, they are one of the few pairs of 2T pants that don't fall off his skinny little waist.

Pumpkin Patch pictures to follow.

a biker, a princess and a bricklayer walk into a bar

In case you all were wondering (I know you were!) the soup party was excellent DESPITE the tornado sirens going off at 5:30 (food was due to eikon at 6). So I took a pause from cooking to hang out in the bathroom/bathtub with Karl, Nate and both dogs until the sirens stopped their nonsense and we could safely deliver the goods. No one complained and the soup was all consumed and no one appeared to be POISONED so I'd say = SUCCESS!

On an unrelated note, I still have no idea what Nate is going to be for Halloween - he refuses to wear any hats or anything else near the face so the bearded- garden gnome costume is totally out. Damn. Right now I'm leaning toward the biker/rocker look - ripped up jeans, tats on the arms/muscle shirt, spiky hair? Yes? No?

I visited a certain store this evening to look around. I won't name any names (Schmarget) but CLEARLY they underestimated my power of procrastination! WHO BOUGHT ALL THIS STUFF?!? WHERE ARE ALL THE COSTUMES?!?

I really wanted to make my own temporary tattoos (and you can apparently buy paper to do so with your home printer but, alas, I can find the paper nowhere in Little Rock. Sigh. Shopping on the internet isn't always good for procrastinators!) In fact, I couldn't find any temporary tats anywhere in the Targ. Luckily, I ran into some friends on the way out the door and they had some temporary tats leftover from a recent party and are leaving them in their mailbox for me to pick up tomorrow.

We'll see. I'm open to other costume suggestions (of the SIMPLE variety.) I believe one of my favorite costumes from my own childhood was She-ra (princess of pow-er y'all) which I vividly remember being AWESOME but which, in reality, was a tin-foiled crown and gypsy-like tablecloth shawl thingey for a skirt. (What isn't awesome about THAT costume I ask you!?) Then there was the year I was (wait for it): A bricklayer. That costume was, um, a flannel shirt and a trowel. (For the record my grandfather's profession = bricklayer so it wasn't a TOTALLY crazy costume concept. STILL. I would have liked to see my parent's expressions when I told them of my costume selection that year.)

What costume do you remember most from your own childhood?

this is what is happening in my kitchen right now

I am cooking a community meal for about 30 tonight.

Beef stew, chicken corn chowder and a vegan/veggie mix.

They smell good.

Now how the hell am I going to transport them?

NERVOUS!

words words and more words

Nate has decided that all water fountains and waterfalls are called 'water mountains.'


In fact, he confuses a lot of words as he navigates this whole COMMUNICATION thing. Most of them are hilarious.

I don't understand why the English language is so confusing:

(I know you appreciate the PEE IN A CUP visual!)

And:
And, completely unrelated yet awesome, while I was searching istockphoto for the T-shirt image I found this stock art gem:It is titled "Beautiful Girl Demonstrates Sexier Way to Eat Breakfast Cereal, Milk" which, clearly, is how we should ALL enjoy breakfast. STOCK ART WIN!!

follow up: race for the cure

Apparently, based on my blog comments about the Race for the Cure you all hate supporting cancer causes. I'm teasing... I got quite a few names from the blog, emails, twitter and Book of the Face from those who felt comfortable sharing.

See for yourself:

I stenciled it myself (what you can't tell?!?! HA.) Definitely NOT professional but that's not the point.

Survivors / Current cancer-fighters on the front (please note there are people that have been through breast cancer multiple times... I noted their number by their name if that was the case):
'In Memory of' on the back: I walked the race this year with these lovely ladies:
This is Jaime and her daughter, Sadie Kate. Jaime lost her mom to breast cancer when she was an itty bitty infant. Jaime was breastfeeding Sadie in her carrier as we walked across the starting line which was amazing.

Here is an image I snapped with my iPhone but it doesn't really do the sheer NUMBER OF PEOPLE justice. (Yes, those are ALL women as far as you can see!) I think the final number wound up being 45,000 to 50,000 participants. I was attempting to find an online local news coverage to link to but the newspaper you have to pay for the full article and the news stations don't seem to have updated info or pictures online yet.

So you get my crappy iPhone pictures instead!

There were A LOT of strollers. I don't know how or why you would push a stroller in a crowd of 50K all packed in but people did. This woman decided her dog needed its own (seriously this whole dogs in strollers thing has GOT to stop. OR someone at least needs to create a website dedicated to making fun of the phenomenon.): After the race we headed to The House b/c they were donating 10% of brunch profits to the Foundation. I'm no foodie but THIS THING (the B.A.T.M.A.N.) was amazing. Bacon Avocado Tomato and some herb-mayo slathered on wheat toast. I added an egg over easy per our waiter's suggestion (nice and runny) and almost died from the deliciousness. For real. Little Rock is stepping up its brunch game.

We also had some mimosas which Sadie Kate seemed to find highly entertaining.

So that's it. Thank you to everyone who shared names for the shirt. It was an emotional day and event. I can't wait to do it again next year!

chicken wings? boobie tassles?

This weekend is Little Rock's annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K. It is a HUGE event in this small town.

I am participating, and as in years past (and in true Kat-fashion), I shall be making my own t-shirt. Once again I will be racing for my grandma and my aunt and my mom's best friend (and, clearly, all other women battling or beating breast cancer).

Unlike in year's past, I would like to open up my shirt to names that YOU suggest (if you want to). If you have anyone you want me to run for, let me know in the comments or send me an email. I'm making the shirt tomorrow evening.

Here are some flashbacks:

2008:

This race was a few months after Nate was born and I felt the need to also discuss (on my shirt) my own milk-producing boobies (reducing my own risk for breast cancer and making others aware that breastfeeding could reduce cancer chances; surely something to brag about, yes?). It seems sort of silly now that I put it on my shirt but I was damn proud of that boob juice.

Additionally, this year I designed my shirt AROUND MY BABY SLING. HAHAHAHA. I'm ridiculous.

But look, I swear there was a baby in there:

This was 2007 when I didn't realize (because I am an idiot) that the survivors wore pink (not this shade but pink nevertheless) and made my shirt pink. I still wear this shirt to the grocery store and around town sometimes (and by sometimes I mean pretty frequently!). I always wonder what people think when they see GRANDMA PAT scrawled across my chest. Let me know if you have anyone you want me to scrawl on there this year! You can have premium placement.

damn you angry birds

This is what I should be doing: (Read: Creepily holding my keyboard to my face and smiling strangely while I claw you out a new blog post. HAPPY HALLOWEEN KIDDIES. CACKLE CACKLE CREAKY HAND POINTING AND MORE CACKLING. Ahem.)

Instead I am doing this on my phone: (Yea, Yea, I know I am late to the Angry Birds party/obsession).

(By the way, how the hell do I beat this level?)

SOME PERSON I know (hi little sister!), when informed I had finally crossed over to the Angry Birds dark side, MAY have gone into a lengthy discussion about the number of hours she and her coworkers compete daily via Angry Birds. (They pause when one of them has to (and I quote) 'do work.') Then she started talking about Golden Eggs and Pig Protective Helmets and I had to hang up on her so I could clear Level 12.

More cackling and creepy fingered blogging soon, my pretties.

that's the deal

Wellllll heeeeeeeeeyyyyy. I've missed you! Have you missed me? (Say YES or that's it: punch to the head. I will not tolerate your LIES.)

I've been, uh, working a lot. In offices. With people. And a desk. And this thing called a phone, which, it turns out, you use to CALL PEOPLE... you know, to "touch base" and "check in" and "follow up." Which is strange. Yesterday at my Tuesday Thursday gig, I sent out 56 emails. Most of them got a response. With words. That mostly made sense. I find myself more patient listening to people's cryptic voicemails and emails after understanding things like "biwwwda mixa" mean I WANT TO WATCH BOB THE BUILDER RIGHT NOW AND NOT THE ONE ABOUT SCOOP THE BACKHO THE ONE ABOUT DIZZY THE CONCRETE MIXER (DAMNIT!!) (I often imagine Nate would add that to his whine sentences if he knew what it meant!).

ANY-way you might ask 'WHAT IS SHE DOING?!?' (I know you are all wondering... most likely followed by the questions 'Has she officially gone NUTSO?' after that whole Bob the Builder tangent.)

The answer: I'm not sure!

Mostly, I found this job through a friend on The Twitters. (I know you are all SHOCKED.) (I find a lot of things on The Twitters. Don't judge.) A friend on Twitter pointed me to one of her friends (Not on Twitter - THE HORROR.) who was looking for some part time, day time help. I sent her my resume on a Friday via email, got a response within 10 minutes and had an interview on Monday! (Followed by an offer on Tuesday.) The company is a PR and event planning kind of place (small office w/ 2 or 3 people in it... if you are a Little Rockian and dying to know the name, ask me IRL or email me; I'm not sure yet how much I want to share here). The hours are killer - part time and with plenty of time to drop Nate off and pick him and up and still have mornings and afternoon time to play. The pay is decent for the hours and it's looking I'll be working three days a week to start. Mostly I will be doing some web content management, some press release writing and some conference planning.

I am not sure how much I should discuss since I am currently working there on Mondays and Wednesdays and finishing up my maternity leave business on Tuesdays and Thursdays. THAT, my friends, has been the hardest part. I am feeling like I can't fully commit to new job b/c of old job and feeling obligated to old job b/c, well, I promised and I already cut my time there shorter than originally planned. (BUT HOW WAS I TO KNOW!?!) Plus, finding childcare has been NOT THE FUN. I hate disappointing people, so I've been straddling b/w the two places but that will end soon and, well, we'll see I guess!

Mostly, I am just cautious about the whole thing. I must admit, though my hours have been few thus far at the new place, I am enjoying it. I feel like I'm struggling with the never-ending BALANCE/IDENTITY quest. I like working so I should do that, yes? I like playing with Nate so I should do that too. I like hanging out with Karl so I should do that too. I also like my girls and my bookclubs and supperclubs and my church friends. (CUE JESSIE SPANO'S TIME SPEECH!)

(Or a speech about how I often feel these aren't 'REAL' problems but I struggle with them nevertheless.)

Per the norm, I shall keep you posted.

phrases i never imagined could be

We can't bring your combine into the bathtub.

But he can watch.

::arranges combine properly on toilet to observe bathtime::