Halloween 2014

When it came time to pick Ellie's costume this year, I knew I had a big task at hand.

For her first Halloween in 2012, she was an Elliephant. 

This brought me great amusement and I laughed at her all night.

Last year, she had just started walking and I chose a bee costume for her. Cause she was (and is) a very busy little bee.

However, she had no idea what was going on. And she also was annoyed by her antennae headband and refused to wear it.

I knew this year she still didn't know what Halloween is but I know she likes to dress up. And I know she would have an opinion and wouldn't wear just whatever I had picked out. I knew it had to be something she liked and would be proud to wear.

Which is why this year she is Minnie Mouse.

Words can not express how much she loves herself right now. 

This is a Shoe Saga

A few days ago, I was standing in my closet and realized that I officially do not own a pair of black high heels. How could this have happened? Doesn't every woman need some basic, black pumps? The thing is, I vaguely remember doing a closet purge about a year ago and my black heels were sooooo sad looking and the leather was tearing off and the heels were worn and I remember deciding that they looked too awful to wear so I tossed them and thought "I'll buy a new pair the next time I have an event that requires high heels."

Sadly, it's time to admit that I don't go anywhere anymore that is fancy. I don't wear heels anymore. Sometimes I wear heeled boots. And sometimes I wear a cute dress with flats. But I just don't go fancy places anymore. This is my life. The wedding season of my life has mostly ended. There were a few years there that we were literally invited to 8 weddings per summer, but that has died down and now we are in the never ending season of baby showers. And I can wear some cute flats to a baby shower. I used to wear heels to work almost everyday. Not so much anymore. My cowboy boots are the highest heel I get these days.

Today, while Ellie was at school, I decided to shoe shop for some black heels to wear on a date with my man this weekend. This search was a bit more in depth than I originally anticipated.

Stores I looked in:
Nine West
Aldo
Macy's
Dillards
Famous Footwear
Payless
Marshalls
Ross
DSW
Another Marshalls
Another DSW

I spent my whole morning driving all over kingdom come. It's a black pump, y'all. A BLACK HIGH HEEL. Could there be anything more generic and common?

I kept running into the same problems over and over again:

Problem #1: The shoes cost a million dollars. Okay, not a million, but close enough. I was not looking to spend hundreds of dollars. I was looking to spend tens of dollars. Oh, look! This shoe would be perfect! Oh, look! It's three hundred dollars.

Problem #2: Heel height. Look, I know the higher the shoes, the longer your legs look but a) I greatly value comfort and b) my husband isn't all that tall and so if I wear sky high heels then we look a bit like Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. I don't want one inch heels, but why is the next option 6 inches? WHY?

Problem #3: Sizing. Sigh. We've talked about this before. I wear a size 5 shoe. Yes, a 5. I know. I know it's small. Sadly, most shoe designers don't make their shoes in a 5. Most start at a size 6. And the ones that DO make their shoes in a 5 only make about 3 pairs of that size to go around the whole country. I can not tell you how many times I have found the perfect shoe and then I am told that it doesn't come in my size, or that it's sold out in my size.

WHY DO YOU HATE ON THE LITTLE PEOPLE, SHOE COMPANIES?!

Often times, when I can't find a 5, I will go to the children's section and find a little girl shoe in a size 3 (it's the same thing) but unfortunately that plan works better with flats rather than heels. There isn't a big demand for black pumps in a children's shoe store.

At the first DSW I found a shoe that they actually had in a 5.5 and it felt super snug and so I tried it on in a 6 and it felt fantastic. Hooray! I can wear a 6! Sadly, they only had the 6 in Beige and so I had to drive across town to another DSW and I bought the shoe and then I rewarded my diligence with waffle fries and a Diet Coke. I was exhausted.

Has this been the most boring blog post you've ever read in your whole entire life? My apologies. I just have some feelings about the shoes.

Anyways, here they are, Calvin Klein's in a size 6 from DSW:

See? Why was that so hard? Why did that have to be so difficult? There's nothing overly exciting about them or unique. For the love.

So Much Chicken Spaghetti

My darling husband does not have many flaws. He's pretty gosh darn wonderful. However, one big issue in our marriage is that he does not care for Chicken Spaghetti.

Let me just say that again. The man doesn't like Chicken Spaghetti.

Sigh. This is a problem mainly because CHICKEN SPAGHETTI JUST HAPPENS TO BE ONE OF MY FAVORITE MEALS OF ALL TIME. And I can't make it for us to enjoy together cause he really would prefer not to eat it. The horror, y'all. The horror.

Perhaps he feels the exact same way about my dislike for any kind of seafood. He feels I am missing out on some of life's greatest joys. And I agree on my end as well. Chicken Spaghetti is a gift from God and all he has to do is receive it. Why won't he receive it?!

So, when I found out that Grant was not going to be around much on Friday or Saturday, I decided to get my booty to the store to get the necessary ingredients for the glorious Chicken Spaghetti.

Grant was going Flounder Gigging on Friday night with his friend Ricky, and Ricky's darling wife Olga and their baby girl came over to hang out with me and Ellie. So I made the Chicken Spaghetti and there is SO MUCH LEFT OVER so now it's just sitting at the fridge, calling out for me for every single meal.

Fact: A few years ago, Grant was going to be gone for an entire week for work. On Monday night, I made a giant pot of Chicken Spaghetti and ate it all the week long to make up for all the lost time over the last year that I could've made it but didn't. I ate it 5 days in a row. That's how much of it there is.

Tonight we were talking about what we are going to do for dinner. Grant mentioned that he was fine to just eat leftovers and such. Fine by me. Tonight will be serving #4 since Friday of my delicious Chicken Spaghetti.

Here I am with the precious.

A little behind-the-scenes scoop: I handed my phone to Grant and said "I know this sounds weird... but I need you to take a picture of me with this Chicken Spaghetti." Before I could add "I'm writing a blog about it..." he jumped with "That doesn't sound weird. That sounds pretty typical."

Real life, y'all.

Also, I just ran 4.5 miles today and so I'm rewarding myself with carbohydrates galore. 

The bottom line is, this week is off to a fantastic start. 

I Really Need to Talk About This

Today, I used some of my childless time while Ellie is at school to do important things like get Starbucks and a pedicure with a girlfriend. And then I figured I should do some responsible things like go to the grocery store and vote.

I vote early. I always do. For a few reasons:

1. I am over eager because anytime an election is approaching we hear about it non-stop for the 8 months prior and I AM SO TIRED OF THE ELECTION COMMERCIALS AND FACEBOOK FIGHTING. Over. It. I feel like the quicker I vote, the quicker I feel like this could all end soon.

A few years ago, during the Obama/Romney election season, I remember Facebook was just nothing but people arguing over politics and taking unnecessary jabs at one another. Aside from the fact that I don't think anyone has ever changed political sides because of a Facebook argument, I also just get really irritated at everyone claiming they know everything about everything. Anyways, I remember I posted something along the lines of: "Hey, it seems like everyone is really passionate about who our president should be. If only there was a way we could take a vote....."

And I stand by that.

STOP YELLING AT PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK AND CALLING PEOPLE IDIOTS. IT ISN'T HELPFUL.

Jen drops mic, gets off soap box.

2. I vote early because if I wait until actual voting day, I run the risk of that being a day that Ellie is sick or I am sick or I have car trouble or whatever and then I don't vote and then if my person doesn't win I will wonder for that entire term if I was the cause of the other person winning. Look, I'm not saying it makes sense, I'm just saying that's where my crazy brain goes.

So, I went to vote today. Surprisingly, there was a line. It wasn't too bad though, and it seemed to be moving along pretty quickly. So, I stood there along with my fellow citizens. And then I started to look around me and I started feeling all warm and fuzzy because I was surrounded by someone of every age bracket, every socio-economic class, every gender, every race, and I started feeling like we're all in this together.

But then, I made another observation. First of all, the 2 men directly in front of me and the 2 men directly behind me all had mullets. Like, legit, Billy Ray Cyrus, Achy Breaky Hearts Mullets. It was a mullet convention in the early voting line. Secondly, we were all in a rather small hallway and SOMEBODY SMELLED LIKE BUGLES. AND ALSO GRASS.

I'm not lying.

It was Bugles. And Grass.

And that's all I have to say about that.