Bring it on December

We did it.  We set up our first Christmas tree.  Is it a little Charlie Brownish?  Okay maybe.  But it works for our small apartment.  We decided the Charlie Brown feel is fitting for our lives rights now.  

Hmm...where to begin?

Wait! Where's the tree?!

See...Charlie Brownish.

 
                     

Lights!

Bulbs

Angel!  This was my parents' first angel on their tree too!

Mission complete

Front windows for some holiday cheer.  Aren't the people who live across the street lucky to have such a pretty view?!

Each new month proves to bring some challenges, but along with that comes special moments such as today.  So, bring it all on December! We can't wait for all the Christmas cheer you will bring and the warm temperatures too! (Monday is looking like 67)  

Analogies

Many of the students I work with have done or are working on analogy lessons so I thought I'd try my own.

Eating is to Full Stomach as Our Radiator is to MY DEATH

This is what the living room monster looks like

The beast started up about the middle of November.  At about midnight each night the beast wakes up and bangs over and over till about 5 or 6 am making it impossible to sleep. It's called water hammer and I would say that is quite a perfect name because that is exactly what it sounds like.  Someone banging a hammer over and over and over and over and well you get the point.

They have tried everything to fix it.  One of the maintenance guys finally admitted to me today that it probably won't get fixed till "the season is over."  Oh. My. Goodness.  So, as you crawl in bed each night this winter we're asking to send a little prayer up for sweet dreams.  I'm so nervous about how long this winter will feel with no sleep.

Filed under: when I was your age stories to tell the kids

Holiday #1 in the books

Well our first holiday together as a married couple has officially become history. I thought I'd give the rundown (and some awesome pictures) of our Thanksgiving weekend.

Wednesday = Day of torture.  The plan was to leave Wednesday morning.  Sylvan did not give me the two hours in the evening off so therefore we were forced to wait till I was done at 6:00 to start off on our at least 6 hour trip.  Our attempt to get out of Chicago proved to be impossible and thus we were set back another hour so our 6 hour trip quickly became 7.  Mix that with my motion sickness almost the whole ride...yup not my idea of how this holiday weekend was suppose to start.

Thursday = Happy Thanksgiving.  We spent Thanksgiving at the Sullivan house this year.  There ended up being 9 of us!  It was a busy and fun house filled with lots of food and cheering for the football game.  After the game ended the aunt, uncle, cousin & boyfriend headed for home or other places and then it was time for the Sullivan tradition.  MoViE!  Our goal was Lincoln at 6:10.  After getting up to get our tickets we discovered it was sold out.  We ended up settling for the 7:15 showing.  In our spare time we decided to play a few games.  After learning that the games gave out tickets we quickly turned into kids.  We figured out which games were giving out the most tickets and played them the most.  Our hour of waiting went by very fast.

Friday = BLACK FRIDAY!  Mom and I decided to go out early Friday morning instead of shopping in the middle of the night since we didn't have any specific things on our list.  We hit the mall at 7:30 am and ended our shopping at noon.  We had an awesome time and got some great deals.  My list involved getting our first Christmas tree.  I got the tree and everything to decorate it for $50!  I'm sure there will pictures soon to follow since I'm going to put it up this afternoon!  I can't wait.  The evening ended up being pretty chill at the Sullivan house.  The boys out numbered the girls 3 to 2 so we did have to sit through Expendables 2...hmm boys who are impossible to destroy.  Why was I watching this?  I can't say I would recommend it ladies.

Saturday = Winner Day.  In every way.  First we went with the Shupert family to Costco...I fell in love.  I am so jealous all you Rochester people who have access to such greatness! We ran out of there with a trunk full of groceries that I feel will last us forever! Costco is a winner for sure!  After hanging out all afternoon it was time to get our game faces on for Matthew's hockey game.  The Jaeger family ended up joining us for the fun.  Matthew's team kicked butt!!!  The score was 11-0.  Matthew got 2 goals and 1 assist.  We had a great time.  Of course I got many pictures!  Matthew is number 37 with the red laces.

Breakaway!!

Final Score

Future hockey player?

Fun with Friends!

Lakin was their biggest cheerleader

Bennett was snuggled up with dad, until he realized what was happening and then he wanted to be in all the action.

Look at my M&M's!!!

No sleeping for this little guy.  He only got upset when he couldn't see the game!

Sunday = A day of goodbyes.  The Bro-in-law took off for the airport early Sunday.  We headed to church with my family and enjoyed a very good lunch at HuHot.  After letting our lunches settle we took off back to Chicago at 2.  If it had not been for some bad accidents mixed with lots of cars on the road, we would have made the trip in record time!

Although the weekend did not start off how I might have liked, I quickly realized this weekend how lucky we are.  Both our families accept us as another kid in the bunch and we have so many good times with both.  Once we finally got to MN, our trip was so relaxing and fun.  A much needed vacation for all :) Family and Friends led to a whole weekend of Fun!

fix - (verb) to detroy

I guess the rule for fixing something is to make a bigger mess first right?  Well that is exactly what happened in my kitchen yesterday!

I had a small heart attack when I saw this...apparently they had to knock part of the ceiling down to let it try before they could repair it.

After they knocked the ceiling down it just kept falling.  These little ceiling chips were all over my kitchen.  The sky really was falling.

Notice the open window...it was freezing in here while in the process of fixing it.

As if we weren't already cramped for space in the kitchen!!  Oh well I was protecting that table I worked so hard on with MY ENTIRE LIFE!

The painter (who spoke very little English) told me once it dried there would be no line...yeah right.  This is not the greatest picture, but if you look closely you can totally see a line.  In person you can see the square they painted perfectly. 

My dad would have died if he had seen these guys repair the ceiling.  Let's see there was some slapping on plaster, no need to sand, and finally slathering on paint as if there is an endless amount.  He would push the roller into the corner as hard as he could so he didn't have as much to paint in the corner (which he painted last not first dad).  Oh well, I'm thankful that it's fixed and that my kitchen is back in order. How about something doesn't break today?

Chicken Little was right!!!

The sky IS falling...well at least in my kitchen.

I went downstairs to go inform them that the apartment above us was about to be in my kitchen and when I came back upstairs (2 minutes later) I found this...

OH MY GOODNESS WHAT IS GOING ON?!!!! Our apartment is falling apart bit by bit!  Okay so maybe the maintenance guy is fixing it as I speak, but it sure felt like I should start throwing my valuables in boxes...Thank goodness I don't have a shoe rack yet and all my valuable shoes are still in a bin!!! :)

P.S. I guess that crack in the ceiling was from the radiator leaking above us and will be fixed tomorrow.

City Girl Newly Defined...

What I believed to be the definition of a city girl..."One who is a female that likes shopping, is stylish, and knows the ins and outs of the bus system".

My new definition..."One who is a female that can scream while killing a cockroach at the same time".

I hate bugs...specifically beetle type bugs with large antennas.

I mean, I really hate bugs...especially cockroaches.

I go into my spice cupboard to get a spice needed for the muffins I was attempting to make (yes i'm on a weird muffin kick) and facing me eye to eye was this....

Don't let the measurement in the picture fool you...this thing was huge!!!

The following events occured

Scream
Yell
Scamper like a cartoon character going no where
Do I wait till Patrick gets home? No that's not for another 4 hours.
Do I get maintenance? No they will think I'm a chicken...wait I am
Get three tissues out of the tissue box so I don't have to feel it
Empty out everything till I find the thing hiding in the back of the cupboard
snatch it quickly
run to the bathroom
flush the toilet
throw in the enemy so he has no chance of survival.
breath...it had been awhile

Luckily for me the guy was found in my spice and tupperware cupboard so everything was sealed and nothing had to be thrown out...just sanitized to NO END! All the spice were cleaned on the outside and then all the tupperware was thrown into a SCALDING hot water soapy bath to sit for a very long time.

Part of the reason I freaked out so much is because every other time we have found one it's been in the bathroom.  I can deal with that.  My kitchen...YUCK!

So, that was my afternoon.  I just pray the rest of the day is much less eventful!!!!

Good days start a little like this...

Cinnamon sugar muffin goodness.  These muffins seems to have become my good luck charm the past two days.  (Oh, and they're pretty darn tasty too!)

Thursday, I got a phone call from Huntington Learning Center.  The lady that called did a phone interview with me on the spot and ended by "promising that I would receive another phone call soon".

I highly underestimated her use of the word "soon".

Friday went as follows
Ring Ring Ring
phone number is Huntington
"Hello"
"Hi this is ____ with Huntington Learning Center.  I would like to offer you the position".

I never thought I'd be writing...

I GOT THE JOB AGAIN!!!

I had to not accept the position right away as I have to go about things the appropriate way and make sure I can get my hours shifted around at Sylvan to make this second job work (prayers will be appreciated tomorrow as I have to go about this) but Huntington said they could be flexible with my hours as need be too.  How nice!

I can't believe how fast this has all happened it still doesn't even feel real!  So it seems I am being blessed once again.  I am so thankful!!

12 Hours

Today 12 hours is the amount of time Patrick and I will have spent apart.  This means that my husband, who couldn't cook a thing to save his soul, was going to be on his own for dinner.  This creative wife had to come up with a plan.  

Thank you God for creating the person who made a crockpot!  1 meal that can be eaten at different times.

However, how was I suppose to relay the message to my husband of what exactly was for dinner and where was everything located in the kitchen?  I guess a simple text message would have worked, but that just seemed too easy.

You may have seen on pinterest that you can write on your refrigerator with a dry erase marker and it comes right off.  I used this tonight to give my hubby the run down. 

I got quite a sweet message in return.

Isn't being married fun? :)

Halloween Bust

I don't ever want to be "that" house.

After growing up in the country I see no more living in the country in my future.  This means that I believe I will see my fair share of cute little halloween costumes in my future (they don't exactly treat-or-treat like crazy in the country).

The style of treat-or-treating in the city with mostly apartment buildings is that the kids go trick-or-treating in their building.  I know crazy! I guess most apartments post a list of the apartments with candy.

I saw no list.

In my effort not to be "that" house (the one with crappy or no candy) and my desire to be "THE" house (the one with the good candy)  I made sure we had candy on hand just in case we had a trick-or-treater  But not just any candy...good candy.  The one kids trade for.  So after some searching I found this bag of laffy taffy candy.  Yumm!

So, last night with my bowl of candy in hand and my little sign on the door that welcomed little trick-or-treaters I sat.  And sat.  And waited.  And waited.  And maybe snuck a few pieces of candy from the bowl.

It was a bust.

The only candy that left the bowl was what Patrick and I ate.  Maybe next year we can be "THE" house to go to.

My cheery little sign.

Obviously taken at the start of the evening with high hopes for a few kids.