Home Improvement

Our little house was in great shape when we bought it. Although it was originally built in the mid 1950s, previous owners had done a lot of upgrades in the late eighties, early nineties. So, the house has many comforts, but some of the design is a bit dated. The bathrooms are the two rooms that really scream 1989, so we decided to change things around a bit.

A full bathroom remodel is out of our budget right now, so we are going for the next best thing: cosmetic upgrades. Mike started work on the guest bathroom this week. He tore out all of the existing fixtures, including the vanity. The towel bars and the sliding glass shower doors are all gone - thank goodness! What really dated the bathroom were the gold fixtures - so just having all the gold removed from the room makes it that much easier on the eyes.

He is working on painting the room, in a chocolate brown. We thought it was going to be a bit milkier, but the end result is quite pretty. I am hoping that with new lighting, possibly a new vanity, and brushed chrome fixtures, the bathroom will be sufficiently spruced up. I will post pictures once I have a few to post!

I am still here!

Wow, has it really been over a month since my last post?? I think that I am nearing the 2-month mark, actually!! It has been a busy holiday season, with trips to Simi Valley and San Diego. I have a bunch of pictures to post, and hopefully will get to that in the next week! I am still catching up from being gone for a little more than a week - both at home and at work.

The big news around town is that we got a Wii and a Wii Fit for Christmas. I have a few games that I've played and I love it! The Wii Fit is a kick in the pants, and gets me moving! I am trying to get in some activity each day - I guess a resolution of sorts.

Stay tuned for some more pics in the coming weeks!

Are you a follower?

In the spirit of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, I thought I'd post today about the Follow gadget on this here blog. I have to admit, I got the idea from the blog of my highschool friend, Jon.

So, feel free to sign up as a follower of this here blog - it is on the right-hand sidebar. Check it out!

Tuesday, November 4th - I Thougth of You

I crawled out of bed,
ready and eager for an early morning walk
(I thought of you)

I drank a warm cup of tea
after casting my vote
(I thought of you)

I drove into work,
finding comfort in my morning commute
(I thought of you)

I listened and learned,
building skills to help others in need
(I thought of you)

I prepared dinner,
chatting with Daddy as I sautéed and chopped the chicken
(I thought of you)

I watched as officials counted votes,
witnessing history as my heart filled with hope and joy
(I thought of you)

Would my belly still be full with baby?
Would my heart ache with impatience for your arrival?
Would you already be here, cuddled in my arms?
Who would you have looked like?
Would you have smelled like fresh-baked cookies?

Little one,

These are the things I wondered today; on the day you were due to come into this world.
These are the thoughts I had as I pushed through my day. You are my precious bean that stayed with us for only 6 weeks. Some people would dismiss that short of time, but I remember seeing your little heart beat. Thank you for sharing that with Daddy & me. We both were so excited that day. I sent pictures to the whole family. Everyone was so happy for us, and we all couldn’t wait to meet you. For reasons beyond my understanding this just wasn’t going to be our time for meeting you, though. I know you are with us, and I know that someday, we will snuggle you and love you the way we imagined.

All my love,

Mommy

Oh My, So Domestic!

Mike had an overtime job yesterday and spent the day at work. Literally. He worked a twelve hour shift, so I was left to my own devices. A good portion of my day was spent working on our finances, sorting out random mail, and fooling around online. In addition to the household stuff, I managed to spend some quality time in the kitchen.

I haven't been doing too much cooking since I started my new job, mainly because my schedule change has me coming home later in the evening, and what with all the new learnin' I have going on, I've been pretty much out for the count once I get home. So, yesterday I made both a loaf of bread and a yummy dinner.

I used my bread machine and a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. I decide to make the Light Oat Bread, mainly because I had all the ingredients on hand. I used steel cut oats instead of rolled oats, and I added about 1/4 more flour because when the machine was kneading the dough, it was pretty sticky.

All the ingredients - see my nice little pile of yeast in the middle?


The finished loaf!

We had some of the bread this morning with breakfast, and it turned out pretty yummy. It is pretty hearty and a bit on the doughy side - so I have to look into ways to make it a little less doughy and a little more fluffy.

The bread making was just the beginning of the kitchen goddess phenomenon that took place at this domicile yesterday. A couple of weeks ago Mike & I were flipping through the channels on TV when we landed on the Food Network. I had never seen Rachel Ray, but we ended up watching her prepare Buffalo Sloppy Joes. Needless to say, by the end of the episode both Mike and I were drooling. And the recipe looked so easy! So, yesterday I looked up the recipe online, jotted down the ingredients, and made a quick trip to the store. Within an hour of returning home I had dinner ready.

Here is the sloppy joe filling, in the pan and ready to be dished up!

The final product. I served the Joe with diced up dill pickles and bleu cheese crumbles!
A side of coleslaw compliments the Joe!

And just as I was preparing to eat dinner solo, Mike pulled up, home from a very long day at work and starving to death! To go with the Buffalo Joes, I made up some Coleslaw, using a recipe from a blog that I follow. You can get that recipe here. The sour buttermilk tang of the coleslaw was a wonderful compliment to the spiciness of the Joes.

Let's hear what Mike has to say about this meal:

(please ignore the suggestive tongue-licking at the beginning - he thought I was snapping a picture of the yumminess. I tried to edit it, but it wouldn't upload properly! Boo. I promise you my husband is not a creepy perv!)

Raising Awareness for Pregnancy and Infant Loss

Wednesday, October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Please take a minute to check out this link:

http://www.october15th.com/

Including myself, I personally know six women who have been directly impacted by pregnancy loss. It happens more often than we are aware of. Please take a moment on this coming Wednesday to light a candle, and/or remember the women who have been touched by pregnancy loss.

We carry the remembrance of our little ones with us always, even though we may not always express our grief outwardly.

Busy busy!

It is amazing to me that two weeks have passed by since I last wrote. It feels like yesterday that I was writing about our ongoing hot tub adventures and the garden of geranium hell. Here we are, two weeks later. A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks.

For one thing, I managed to survive for an entire month at my new job. I decided that I am not going to go into too much detail on this blog about the work that I do, in part because the nature of the field in which I practice social work demands confidentiality. In addition, I guess that I believe that less is the better choice when it comes to reflecting on my profession in such a public forum. What I can say is that I find myself enjoying my work more and more as the weeks pass. I feel challenged and rewarded each day in the work that I do, and I am learning so much right now.

Four years managed to fly by in the time since I completed my MSW, and I am so lucky to say that each job I have had (this is number 4, yikes!) has been a new and unique learning opportunity. This new job included! I am also excited by the fact that I am 2/3 of the way done with accruing hours for my license in clinical social work. So, if all goes well, by this time next year or early 2010 I should be sitting for my exams. The journey to getting my license has been a long one, and not alway a road that I willingly or eagerly traveled, so it is a relief to see an end in sight. My resistance still does not make complete sense to me, but I hold onto the belief that everything happens in its right time and trust that one day this will all come together to form a clear picture.

The other thing keeping me busy lately was planning a baby shower for my sister-in-law. We had the party yesterday, and apart from a couple of snafus with the weather and a garbage-can lookin' cake that was made all wrong, the event was a success (the cake was fixed, thanks to my, ahem, "assertiveness" with the bakery). The theme of the shower was "Lil' Pumpkin", so I converted our backyard space into a mini pumpkin patch with bales of straw and pumpkins and everything. I have pictures, but have yet to download them. I will post those later.

On a totally unrelated note, it just occurred to me that it has been just about a year since I last saw my brother and his family in Vermont. Mike and I went out to visit, see the fall colors, and meet my new little niece, Clarabel. She was just about three months old at the time. My sister was there, too. It feels like a long time since we were there, and I find myself counting down the days until Christmas, when I get to see them in Southern California. So, here are a few pics from that trip.

Mike & Clarabel


Dan & Veronica

Dan's greenhouse

Fall colors

Veronica & Aunt Tracy, hanging out

Sebastian

Dan, playing on the swing

Well, I hope you found a bit of enjoyment in these pictures. It is now late, and I must get some sleep. So, if there are typos or other grammatical errors in this post, I am too tired to edit right now. Have a great week!