What a productive weekend!! We finally got our Christmas tree up and loaded up the house with festive, sparkling decorations. Better late than never I suppose. Jim even let me listen to Christmas music ALL day yesterday. I also finished the wreaths for the front doors and made a little swag and pretty bow for under the front porch light.
I forced Jim into a little photo shoot in front of the house using the tripod and my new camera. I had all the best of intentions of using one of the pictures for our Christmas card and including our new address.
It was nice idea that just didn't work out. First of all, I'm not really in love with any of the pictures. There are obvious issues with the glass screen doors, which I expected, plus some additional problems because of where the sun was by the time we were able to get outside. I did pick out a few that were acceptable (see above and below) but the dimensions didn't work with any of the online photo card sites. I got too frustrated and just gave up. At least we have a few nice pics of us as happy new home owners.
Presents also got wrapped and only stocking stuffers and one hostess gift left on my list. The only holiday related task still left is baking some cookies. I had intended to get around to baking yesterday, but it just didn't happen...probably for the best.
With all the holiday parties and snacks at work, I've been getting a little lazy with my gluten free diet. I thought I felt better with limited gluten in my diet. But, last week I totally paid the price after splurging with garlic rolls, eggplant parm, and a huge pile of pasta at the neighborhood get-together last week, so I'm trying to get back on track. I am planning to make some holiday treats this week, but have included some gluten free items in the mix to keep my belly happy.
I went to the 14th annual Penncrest neighborhood ladies Christmas party last night. It was really the sweetest thing. All the ladies in the neighborhood have been getting together for over a decade. It makes me love our house that much more.
There are lots of older ladies and it made me remanisent of gatherings with my mom's family at this time of year. She was the youngest of six and a bit of an accident. I grew up with aunts old enough to be grandmothers, cousins old enough to be aunts, and second cousins as playmates. Every Christmas the sister would have a little gathering at my aunt Mary Ann's house. They were a funny bunch of ladies. Because of the age difference, my mother was the only one left with young kids so we were typically the only kids surrounding my a swarm of giggles and laughter in the kitchen from the women and man chatter about work, gardening, and hobbies in the living room from all the husbands. I suppose at the time I probably resisting going, but I look back on those little afternoon gatherings with fondness. And sitting amongst the sparkling Christmas brooches, embroidered poinsetta sweaters, and fresh pin curled hair dos last night just made me love those days even more.
...at least for me it is. I'm heading off to Ohio tomorrow for a long weekend and boy do I need it! This has been the longest short week ever. I'm still recovering from the weekend war of the doors that not only had us up in the middle of the night to apply a 2nd & 3rd coat of paint, but rolled right into my Monday night forcing me up way past my bedtime.
No sleep=grumpy Rachelle. No one likes grumpy Rachelle. Except for maybe the Folgers. Because I've consumed about 10 gallons of coffee at work this week. And you know I'm tired if I'm drinking Folgers anyways.
I even missed my morning workout yesterday. gast! Next thing you know I'm heading down the slipery slope from Thanksgiving right through New Year's and starting 2011 with an extra holiday 15lb gut.
Does it seem like I skipped right over Thanksgiving? Well, that's because Thanksgiving pretty much just skipped right over me. The day started with a little baking & green bean casserole preparation, followed by leaf raking until we basically got snowed out, then we hopped over the bridge to in-laws for dinner, aunts for dessert, then back home to get ready for work on Friday. You heard me, work on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Truly sinful.
Guess I should have just titled this post Wednesday is for whiners.
Our weekend was the exact opposite of a long, relaxing holiday weekend.
Involving endless hours of scrapping, sanding, & painting.
And those god damn front doors still aren't done.
Jim and I considered calling up our old landlord to see if we our old little, tidy, not under construction apartment is still available.
Seriously. I surrender.
On a brighter note, I love the color choices we settled on & we've already had a compliment from a neighbor. And I've mentally moved past actually finishing the doors and starting visualizing all the pretty wreaths I can hang.
Since I was a total slacker in the anniversary gift department, I told Jim I would make him a special dinner of his choosing last night.
kitchen sneak peak with our romantic kitchen island set for two
Tacos was first on his list (he's just so easy to please!). I decided to spruce it up a little bit by making fish tacos and boy oh boy were they delicious!
I started making these after having them at my friend Sarah's and realizing how simple they are. Just season up a few fillets of tilipia with garlic, salt, and a squeeze of lime (I think Sarah used a special Goya fish seasoning too) and cook in a skillet with olive oil over medium heat. Tilipia will start to flake apart once it's cooked, so just kinda chopped it until it's small enough to pile on a taco shell.
Last night I used small corn tortillas (gluten free!) and warmed them in a separate skillet with a wee little bit of olive oil to make them kinda crunchy (but you can always heat them in the microwave for a few seconds). In the past I've used the larger burritto size wraps but I actually think I now prefer the smaller crunchy corn tortillas.
Top with shredded cheese and gaucomole. heavenly!
For our side dish, nachos of course! Spread a layer of tortilla chips (I prefer blue) and layer with black beans, sliced jalopenos, and lots of shredded cheese. Bake at 350 until cheese is melted. Serve with remaining gaucomole and salsa. It was a feast.
more sneak peaks of our brand new countertops!
After 17 long days and nights with no countertops, sink, or working plumbing in our kitchen, our lovely new Silestone countertops in urban cream were installed last weekend. I love them. It's nice to see my vision starting to come together and the kitchen is down the tile backsplash and a handful of smaller projects. But, the way things tend to go in home renovations, one of those 'small' projects could turn into 3 weekends worth of work. Let's keep our fingers crossed for a new kitchen for Christmas!
ps. I'm a big fan of fresh homemade gaucomole, but the last couple batches of avacodos I bought were just no good, so this is a good option for the winter months.
We agreed on no anniversary gifts. We had planned on a Sunday brunch at the Valley Green Inn where we were married. But, you guessed it...we become completely consumed with plumbing, paint scrapping, and a long list of random things that will ultimate result in a sparkling new-to-us house.
I happen to catch the end of the Colbert report the other day. Martha Stewart was his guest and he teaches her how to prepare some of special snacks from his childhood...including mixing mayo with mustard and spreading it on saltines.
The Stidd family saltine spread of choice was margarine. The 'good' kind in the tubs (preferably Country Crock). Nothing else. Just a thick spread of clogged artery.
I made Jim try it once. We were at a diner and they served saltines with my soup, but I didn't eat them. As we lingered at the end of our meal, I shared with Jim this little delight from my childhood. He thought my story was ridiculous, even though I insisted that it was not so bad. This of course led to me asking the waitress for butter even though we had completed our meal at this point. Jim was practically crawling under the table. He really does find me quite embarassing.
WXPN-public radio station from University of Pennsylvania WHYY- NPR station WRTI-classical & jazz station A classic rock station & 2 other rock/pop stations
Reason I switch stations
Music that makes me sleepy and/or drowsy Commericals or advertisements Radio quizzes, contests, or call-ins Any mention of Sarah Palin
My head is always swimming with decorating ideas for the house. A entire house and I get to start from basically scratch?! Should be a dream come true, but it's been hard to keep a steady vision over the past six months. We're getting really close to actually putting furniture in the living room and kitchen. HOORAY!!!! This means I have to start making some actual decision on furniture, curtains, and decor.
This could be a nightmare. Just ask Jim how long it took me to pick out paint colors! I'm always seaching the web for ideas & inspiration and have bookmarked a few pages or put links to a few of them on the good ole blog to help me remember them later. My biggest problem is that I like too many things, as well as a variety of styles.
I recently discovered a cool website where you can browse through TONS of photos and ideas by room, decor, or metro area then store the one you like in custom created ideabooks. It's like a giant internet collage. I can't believe I didn't know about this sooner!
Even if you not undertaken an entire home remodeling project the site is efinitely worth checking out.
During the summer of 2005, Jim and I were living in Levittown, NY (god how I hate Long Island!) completing our clinicals for chiropractic school. Jim and a group of his (our) guy friends decided to go to the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee. To make a long story short...the girls (me) were banned from going. It was some crap about one last hoopla for the boys (even though there were going to be other girls there meeting up with them). Confused? I was. I even had to endure being quizzed about whether or not I could name 5 bands that would be playing that year, like some kind of entry exam! In the end I really didn't care that much nor did I want or have the money to spend on such shenanigins. It was more about the point...it's a huge festival and last time I checked it's a free country and I'll go if I want. And really did you boys think that you'd be shackin' up with a group of dirty hippie chics?
After returning from their little excursion Jim said that I should have been glad that I didn't go. It was really hot & humid, plus it rained making everything really muddy, and the camping was really squeezing your tent up between cars in a big open field. Jim was basically miserable (and probably not prepared with adequate supplies) and thought that I would have been equally, if not more, miserable. Our buddy Nicky Sienks disagreed. His reason, I'm adaptable.
Damn right Nicky Sienks!! Adaptable should be my freakin' middle name. You always were a smart man.
Currently the microwave is on the floor serving as a table for the coffee pot and toaster.
Half of my baking dishes are covered in dust and yuck and I am washing dishing in bath tub (on the 2nd floor) because we have no countertops and no sink or plumbing in our kitchen
Over the last six months I've endured, quiet gracefully I made add, the filth and inconvience of this home renovation. And at the same time I've managed to drag myself to work everyday, looking pressed & put together, keep up with the laundry and normal cleaning (sorta), and continue cooking healthy meals.
In exchange for a mild case of alcoholism. I'd call that adaptable.
(brand new puppy Sofee with her brand new puppy toy)
Five years ago she was born at the Philadelphia SPCA, after her mom was dropped off on the doorstep preggo. She was the last one to go home in the litter (lucky for us!) The day we found her she was sitting there shaking in her boots off with her last brother dog. He went home that day with his new owner, a seriously huge black man with a bum leg. They both looked so happy. Brother dog was mostly brown with black markings and seemed like a stuffed animal next to the man. We often wonder how they're doing now (considering Sofee is a complete spasm if she doesn't get at least 3 walks in one day, I'm not sure that Brother is doing so well having an owner with a bum leg...maybe brother is just not the spastic runt).
When Jim went back to pick up Sofee for her homecoming (she had to be spayed first--SPCA rules) he took the shirt right off his back and nestle puppy Sofee up on the floorboard of his big Bronco. She was the cutest lil thing with her floppy ears and soft puppy fur. She whined, whimpered, and cried until her cuteness got the best of him and he picked her up and let her snuggle up in his lap for the ride home....
She has been whiny, whimpering, crying and pushing her way onto our laps ever since...and we wouldn't have it any other way!!!
You are certainly our bestest pal.
Let me count the ways:
10) Your little Sofee body is the perfect size for squeezes and snuggles.
9) You keep me nice and warm at night curled up behind my knees.
8) I love the way you look so happy and content stretch out in a patch of sunshine. Every good dogs likes to sunbath.
7) You are still energetic and playful even at the ripe old age of five
6) and make us take you to the park for hikes even when it's cold and snowy.
5) Jim and I would probably be fat slobs without you.
4) You are a master stick jumper and give the best high fives.
3) You have the funniest expression of any dog I've ever met. I can always tell when you're nervous or sad just by your little doggie face.
2) That gosh darn cute lil' puppy face that makes everybody single person we meet on the streets or at the park love you instantly.
He also happens to be the original and only previous owner of our house. We actually bought it from his children a few years after he passed away. He was apparently a pretty popular guy in these parts. He was a teacher at the local high school and had a gymnastist school in the area. A lot of people actually asked us if we him and are always sharing little tidbits and stories about Mr. Baba. Jim came across this video when he was stalking the internet for further information about his olympic history.
The cute little family photo with this three daughters sitting on the stairs is absolutely the house. The picture is probably about 30 years old. I imagine the carpet to be soft and plush (which was not so much the case when we ripped it up. 30 years is hard on carpet. yuck!) The picture in a driveway in front of a white car is also obviously the house. There are also a few others with the kitchen in the background, but they're harder to pick out unless you really know what the kitchen use to look like.
So, thanks for a great house Joel Baba. I'm sure we will enjoy our years in it as much as you did. I really could've gone for a little updated after 1970, but I can see that you were a very busy man, so I guess I'll let it slide.
Way back in May.
Then the hot humid days of summer came.
As the dead of summer set in.
And for many months.
And as winter started to creep in.
