Pictures

I haven't posted any videos on this blog so far, even though I have been considering it for some time now. I am attempting to upload a few onto Youtube, so we'll see if I can post them by the time I am done writing this. One of the videos I hope to post is the snow we have had outside our window for a long time now. It started snowing yesterday around six and hasn't stopped since. In fact, it's gotten much worse and our county is under a Winter storm watch advisory. It's not as bad as it sounds though, we only 3 1/2 inches or so. It is supposed to keep snowing until six tonight though, so we might have a good amount by then.

We've been busy applying to jobs and schools still, although I have kind of lost the ambition I had just a few days ago. I keep putting off the things I really should be doing and instead finding lots of different ways to avoid essay writing. In some ways that's not too bad, the house is cleaner than it has been in a long time, I have a whole pile of clean laundry, and I have managed to watch a few more tv shows than usual. Sad thing is, ten days into 2009 and I am already breaking one of my New Year's resolutions by wasting all of this time. Oh well, I'll start again tomorrow ;-)

Two days ago, G surprised me after work and ordered food from my favorite restaurant, Penny's. The picture to the left is what I usually order, it's their vegetarian bowl. Tons of sliced carrots, cabbage, cilantro, bean sprouts, peanuts, lettuce, lime, and sweet seasoned tofu on top of a bed of rice noodles. I like Penny's because it is fairly healthy and you really do get so much for your money. The vegetarian bowl is about $5.00 and usually lasts me two or so meals. We have been eating there a lot lately because the snow and cold has kept us from venturing too far from our warm apartment. The other day I walked in and one of the waitresses said, "Hey Allie!" Disgusting, I know. At least we aren't well known at the Macdonalds just down the street.

This is going to be more of a picture post than anything, I haven't been able to get my card reader working for a while. Last night it started up again though, so I can finally post all of those pictures I have been taking with my new camera. Here's a few....

Steve and G fixing the car:














The swing band we saw at the Horseshoe:














Chicago sunset from our apartment window:


Thunderunderus show at the Elbo Room:


The camera case I sewed with my new sewing machine!


Tonight we went to G's band practice at the Slim Dixon practice space. Because of the snow, we decided it would be best to take a taxi out. For the most part, Chicago taxi drivers are friendly and fast...I've really only had a few bad experiences so far. Today we must have gotten one of the worst, I couldn't believe some of the things he was yelling at us. G told him where we needed to go and how he could get there and the guy had the nerve to say, "Well, thank God you aren't a taxi driver, because you would be horrible at it you would get a lot of complaints". See, he was super angry that G had given him directions, when he really wanted to drive his way of choice. G said, "Well, I'm sorry you are so upset, but I just didn't want you to u-turn and get stuck at the light, which would have cost us more money and time." Then the jerk said, "Oooooh, you were just looking out for my best interest. You are too too kind and I am truly touched. Awwww, thank you sir." I was pretty close to telling him off, or at least calling in with a complaint of some sort. I mean, if we were in any other situation that would not have been acceptable. We are customers, we at least deserve a bit of respect. At least ingore us and listen to your radio, or talk on your cell phone instead of chewing us out for no reason. By the end of the taxi ride I had come to the conclusion that he was probably having some kind of really crappy day, and who was I to make it worse for him. I mean, the chances of us crossing paths in the future is incredibly slim so better to just deal with his sass than to waste the time possibly ruining his life or even just his day.

Last night I had a dream that G and I were renewing our vows at this huge party. My friend Tarah from high school was getting married at the same party and we both wanted everything to be perfect. I needed to have my stuffed animal from childhood with me, just because she had hers with her so I spent half of my dream searching for Kermie. Once I found him, I realized that the party had started and my mom was crying because she wanted Tarah and I to have our own special days, and instead we were sharing them. I wanted to fight Tarah because my mom was so sad but I felt bad because she had a baby and I also hadn't seen her in so long. In the end I had instead pushed the huge cake off of the table and crashed the party. While I'd like to interpret this dream as something really deep, I sadly have to admit that I am pretty sure this all comes from seeing the movie advertisement for Bride Wars like a million times. Yuk.

Bands/artists I need to listen to more often:
1. Elton John
2. Crosby Stills and Nash
3. The Hollies
4. Early Rolling Stones
5. Drive-By Truckers



I'm not sure if the video I tried to post above even works, but if it does then it's the promised recording of snow coming down outside. It is still snowing (it's almost 10 pm here) but it has died down quite a bit.

Transitions.

So yesterday was my first day back at work, after a pleasant two week long vacation. Transitions are difficult for everyone and it has been hard getting back into the groove of things. Carly has taken my being back quite hard and it has been slow going trying to get her to warm up and be my little buddy again. Today was better than yesterday though, so I know it can only get better. Megan gave us a chocolate milk mixer for Christmas. It's about the size of a large cup and works like a miniature blender. I brought it to work as sort of a peace offering and you should have seen Carly's eyes. She mixed that chocolate milk until it was nothing but foam. At least I have the milk mixer going for me! Yesterday Carly and I watched Mamma Mia together and she sang almost every song until she fell asleep on the couch. I think dancing your heart out to "Dancing Queen" can be a tiring task when your legs are so small.

I'm not sure how many of you have seen the movie, or know what it's about. Basically, this girl is getting married and she doesn't know who her father is. So she sneaks into her mom's diary and finds the addresses of the three men she is certain her mother slept with around the time of her conception. She writes these guys and tells them to come to her wedding...without telling the mom (of course). SO I told Carly, "I'm probably not going to get to see the end of this with you so can you tell me right now which one ends up being her dad?" And she simply said, "She has three dad's Allie." I love the way preschoolers think.

It snowed again yesterday and although I have seen more snow this Winter than usual, I still couldn't have been more excited. Finally experiencing a Washington snow did make me realize how crappy the snow here is. It's pretty, don't get me wrong. It's just too cold to enjoy it. You can't build a snowman, or go sledding, or walk to the store because it is 15 degrees out. There are also no parks or lawns so all of the snow is either muddy or contaminated with Chicago's famous mixture of chemicals and salt. Lately it hasn't been too cold though, so I have been walking to work...which is always a fulfilling activity.

I can't believe I am even still awake at this point. I need to stop giving in to my newly discovered love for art blogs.

New Year's Resolutions for 2009

1. Read more books.
2. Waste less time.
3. Love more.
4. Be more understanding and patient.
5. Call friends and family more often.
6. Eat healthier.
7. Dust off morals I've lost over time.
8. Tease Bunz less.
9. Craft more.
10. Practice letting go and not caring.

Multitasking.

Today has been totally busy, thank god I didn't have to work. I was able to get so much done, including printing most of my graduate school documents and writing my main essay for all of the applications. I have always loved writing, it just takes me so long to get back into the swing of it...especially when it isn't something I am writing for fun. How do you express your passion for teaching on two pieces of paper without sounding incredibly cheesy?! I have been trudging through this school stuff for quite a while now and putting that essay off for way too long. Today I finally picked up my feet and made myself do it. Of course, it took me a while to get into it as expected, but once I started writing it I almost couldn't stop. In fact, I even had to erase a few paragraphs. I'm going to have Garrison edit it later, we'll see if it's really as good as I am hoping it to be. For now it just feels good to have accomplished something that has been weighing on my mind for two months. I am going to sleep so well tonight :-)

I haven't had time to accomplish as many projects as I was hoping to get to. But I guess its better to get the important things done with first. Our friend Steve's car broke down outside our apartment on Saturday so he has been over here every day since then. It's been really nice just having a friend around the apartment while we both work on our school stuff. It's a nice distraction anyway. AND Steve is a pretty awesome guy so it's been tons of fun having him here. You should have seen us all trying to get his car started on Saturday. Four of us (Steve's lovely girlfriend Rachel was there too) each trying the same number of operations, hoping that one of us had the "magic touch" to get the key all the way around. No luck though, so we finally just gave up and called a tow truck to take it to a mechanic. At least they'll know what they're doing.

Steve's broken car adventure reminded me of my own broken down car, Ruby Tuesday...which is still at my parents house (thanks mom and dad). It would always suck to have to see your car being towed somewhere and it was always worse when you had to pay for it. One thing that car taught me though was to fight hard for something that you want, and learn along the way. That car broke down more times then I can count, but I loved it so much I kept putting the time and money into fixing it back up. AND thanks to ol' Ruby, I probably know more about car engines than your average girl. Looking at Steve's car, I was able to figure out where most of the parts were. When his car wouldn't start, I was able to narrow down the sounds and parts enough to know what the general problem was and where it was coming from. Someday I will have my car up and working again, but in the mean time thanks so much to everyone who has helped me with that car...I couldn't have owned it, fixed it up, and continued to fix it up without my family and friends. And again, thanks mom and dad for keeping it for me. Wait until I win the lottery, it will be the best looking car you've ever seen.

Saturday night we went to a show with Steve. It was a 30s swing band (I think that's how you'd label it). The lady singing was beautiful and sang with a loud broadcasting voice and sang into an old fashioned microphone. She wore her hair much like Rosemary Clooney in the movie White Christmas. The band was composed of a stand up bass, a keyboardist, a saxophone, and a guitar. Everyone was dancing to almost every song. Someone was having a birthday party as well so it was a bit packed and kind of weird. This older man kept snapping pictures of Garrison and me, usually when we would hug or take a sip of our drinks. I think he thought we were part of the birthday crowd. Hope we looked good!

I have been making the best bagel sandwiches in the world, which I will describe in a later post (this one is getting so long!) G and I have been trying to eat healthier since we got back to Chicago, but it is incredibly hard with so much good food right downstairs. Also, these delicious bagel sandwiches have not been helping me whatsoever.

I was pretty excited about downloading a bunch of pictures that would go along with this blog post, but something frustrating is going on with my card reader. I dropped my computer pretty hard last night and I'm hoping this has nothing to do with that. I think that might be a sign that I need to stop staying up so late watching mindless reruns of Sex and the City and Friends. I'll get them up as soon as I can. Until then, you can click on anything written in yellow letters and it takes you to a picture (if it even works, I haven't tried it yet).

Wow, look at me wasting all this time so that I don't have to do anymore school related business. I guess a long blog post is better than no post at all. So much has happened lately I could just write and write for hours. I'll spare you the pain and just leave you with a list I have been creating in my head for days now....

CHICAGO THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE WE LEAVE

1. See a Broadway in Chicago show (hopefully Jersey Boys or Dirty Dancing!)
2. Eat Ethiopian food again.
3. See a symphony show on the lawn at Grant Park, on a summer night.
4. See the inside of the Catholic church down the street.
5. See the aquarium, the science museum, and the planetarium.
6. Visit Melissa in Iowa.
7. Drive by Tomper's forest preserve.
8. Figure out which building on the skyline has that weird blinking light.

Nine and ten are coming when I remember them. I know that there is probably more than just ten anyway.

Time to get back to things more productive.

Allie

Beginnings.

Today when I was connecting the TV cord to the VCR (we we're hoping we get free basic cable with our rent) I found one of my all time favorite movies, The Wedding Singer. I thought we had pawned in all of our movies, but apparently we kept the best of our combined movie collection. I was super happy to be able to dust off Almost Famous, Igby Goes Down, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, The Jungle Book, and The Little Mermaid. Oh, and thanks to Lindsey, Gremlins (so good) has recently been added to the very small list of movies we still own. So we are snuggled on the couch watching The Wedding Singer and eating Digiorno spinach, mushroom, and garlic pizza.

Today was such a beautiful day. It was incredibly sunny out and not too cold, finally, so we decided to walk around and explore a bit. I love the way the air feels when it's crisp cold and so fresh feeling. It really inspires me to pursue the creative projects I keep putting off and to listen to music I haven't listened to in a while (like Simon and Garfunkle).




I also took the bus over to Joanne's Fabrics and bought a ton of fabric for quilting and pillows. Also, my huge obsession with felt has not yet ended and they happened to be having a sale on every color patch of felt. I went a little crazy. Now I have enough projects to keep me going for the next six months and so many ideas my head is throbbing. I love this feeling. A mind full of plans and a bag full of the supplies needed to accomplish every single one of them. Thanks to G, I have the most perfect sewing machine now. Over 35 different stitches and a little extending table. If you have a birthday coming up within the next year, you can probably count on getting something sewn...ha ha.



Look at all these project babies!!



My little sister Carly made me the most beautiful pillow I have ever seen. I will most likely be calling her up for some sewing advice. The colors, the pattern, the size...everything about it is so perfect! Some day I will be as talented as my 11 year old sister :-)

I found out I was pregnant on June 1st, 2009...just two days before my birthday!

The first belly picture! (14 weeks):

22 Weeks:

Growing so fast! (27 weeks):

Almost there! (36 weeks):

He's seriously still in there? (40 weeks!):

Henry (finally) arrives on January 19th, 2010. He was a whole week late...8 lbs, 21 inches.

1 week old:
2 weeks old:

3 weeks:
4 weeks:
5 weeks:
6 weeks:
7 weeks: 8 weeks:

9 weeks:

10 weeks:
11 weeks:

Alliehallmarr (at) yahoo (dot) com.

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Getting it Together.

I realize that I'm probably the worst at communicating with family and friends consistently so I am hoping that by setting up this blog, I might actually sit down and write about everything before it escapes my mind and is lost forever.

Traveling back to Washington recently has especially made me realize how easily I forget memories, which is strange to me because in the past I have been the type of person who holds on to memories more than (in most cases) is probably healthy. I could feel my head full of thoughts I needed to share with family, but when I tried to communicate them the words and full pictures just weren't there. Life seems to just get more complicated and busy the older I get and I find myself having less and less time to sit and focus on things of the past. I wish everything would just slow down so that I could savor every moment of my life, both the good and the bad.

Which reminds me...This holiday season whooshed by and really left me wondering what happened to my pure love and fascination for Christmas and everything related. In the past I've been cheese-ily into the whole Christmas hype. I'm talking, Christmas music loving, gingerbread house building, tree buying/over decorating, Christmas-shoppers-don't-even-bother-me, kind of love. But this year was the first it has all ever been different for me. It's like I was trying so hard to get the same feeling every past Christmas has given me, but it just wasn't coming naturally. I had to force every second of it. Even the gingerbread house was more of a pain to construct than it was fun. (CARLY: Chicago gingerbread house...NOT Oak Harbor gingerbread house).

Maybe it's because I started listening to Christmas music waaaay before Thanksgiving when usually I tell myself to not give in to my totally corny obsession until at least the day after. Maybe it's that I was forcing something that wasn't meant to be. Maybe it's that I miss family way too much.

Maybe it's that I'm just getting older.

Is this what kids feel like when they really want to believe in Santa but in their hearts they know that the stories just don't all add up??

Speaking of wishing that everything would slow down just enough for me to place the memories in my heart and in my head, the welcoming of 2009 was perfect. When I was thinking ahead, trying to plan what we would do and who we would be spending December 31st with I pictured us surrounded by our newly made friends and friends we've been fortunate to know for the past year and a half. But sometimes you can create the most perfect scenarios in your head and it ends up being the things you were the least prepared for that end up meaning the most. 2009 found us snuggled warmly in our apartment. Just G, Allie, and Cat. Strangely enough, I couldn't ask for any more than this. These are the type of rare moments I constantly crave.

Happy 2009 friends,

ALLIE and her lovely, tiny family.

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