Congrats Lynn!!!

Lynn (andy's aunt) was diagnosed with breast cancer in late feburary/early march of this year. she has undergone 20-some weeks of chemo, surgery, and 5 weeks of radiation. on friday, she finished her last radiation treatment.

Lynn you are amazing!!
We love you!

Operation Front Door: Update #5

Complete!
Well, at least operational. we've still got some trim work to do ... and i need to peel off some green tape. :)

check out the happy couple! (can you believe it's still snowing?!?! this is andy's fault you know.)



we've sent erik home, cleaned up, and freed the kitties!


it's still snowing ....
(erik made it home safe and sound.)

Operation Front Door: Update #4

well, the boys are on the 3rd trip to lowes for the day. i've turned on music something other than andy's 3 christmas albums (ahhhhh, that's nice). the fire is still burning.

outside temp: 37 degrees

inside temp: 68.3 degrees

a few snowflakes stuck to andy's car while i was out on the last lowes run.

the kitties are hudldling for warm in our bedroom, where they have been trapped all stinking day. they have actually been really chill. amazing.

oakley has been hanging out by herself in this kitty bed everytime i've gone back to check on them.

i've destroyed the kitchen again creating a gigantic pot of lentil soup and some yummy smelling pumpkin (read butternut squash) spice bread.

andy's been working on the hardware. i guess that's a good sign that the end is near. they left for lowes muttering router bits, screws ... i dunno exactly what they are up to. but there hasn't been much swearing, so i assume things are going pretty well. :)

Operation Front Door: Update #3

The moment of truth! Test Fit. IT FITS!

andy is proud that he has mastered his tape measure skills.

toasty fire in the fire place.

Operation Front Door: Update #2

the boys got some plastic sheeting up over the front door opening. i got a fire going in the fireplace, and the house is actually pretty warm out here in the kitchen/living room area now.

erik did something fancy with concrete to make a base for the new door to sit on.

the boys having a pizza break for lunch while the concrete dries.

P.S. andy's prediction -- snow -- yes, we are having snow flurries this afternoon. can you believe it?

Operation Front Door: Update #1

the boys have been fed.
the kitchen is mostly cleaned up.
the boys are on their first trip to lowes.
my toes are cold.
i might have to actually put on shoes, instead of my standard fuzzy socks and birks.

Operation Front Door: Predictions

weeks and weeks ago .... when it was looking like we might actually get the new door installed before christmas .... andy predicted, "you know, whatever day we schedule to install the door, it's going to snow .... ".

well, it's not snowing, there's not a foot of snow on the ground ...


but it IS the coldest day we've had so far this winter. thank you cold arctic blast from the north ... i love being bundled from head to toe in my kitchen.

andy's friend erik was over here bright and early ... they have finally gotten started. i promised them breakfast of waffles .... so i better get started. a photo first .... more updates later ....

it's cold in here!

someone (me) is lazy about turning up the heat in the house -- go put on a sweatshirt!

the kitties snuggle for warmth.

yoga second impressions

so, i gave yoga a second chance. this time entering the room with the attitude that i was going to stretch, relax, and let go, rather than going to exercise.

i was a total wreck trying the half moon pose with my little block. my sense of balance was greatly challenged ... anyone who has followed me down the trail on a mountain bike will have no problem believing this.

so i suck. i'm challenged. yoga is now interesting to me.

andy says, "you are so predictable."

me and grandpa

a couple pictures from my recent trip to "the motherland" as andy calls it.

Indiana, that would be.

mom and i spent an afternoon hanging out with grandpa and helping him put together this ridiculously difficult puzzle.

being ornery and giving folks you love a hard time runs in the family. no question really where i inherited that from.

i remember when i was maybe 5 or 6, my grandpa had dentures. he thought it would be funny to pop his teeth out at me. it scared the crap out of me. he was laughing, i was crying. i remember running and hiding in the shed where the riding mower was stored. i think my mom came and got me; and grandpa apologized, probably calling me honey.

yoga first impressions

after much encouragement from lots of different folks .... i finally tried my first yoga class last night. my doc has been suggesting it as a way to relax and let go of stress. i've always thought it sounds kind of boring, and not active enough to really be considered exercise.

i finally stepped out of my little box and went to a class last night. can't say all my pre-conceived notions were shattered. i didn't break a sweat (can it be exercise if you're not sweating?) i did feel pretty mellow & relaxed and my muscles were all stretched and noodley. today i'm feeling some arm and back muscles, but i think those have more to do with getting back in the pool for a swim on monday, or the yard of bark mulch i moved yesterday afternoon for my real exercise.

i'll give it a few more tries. it's just not very competitive; i haven't figured out how to win. :)

... on life and health ...

"When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied." ~Herophilus 300 BC

feel like i have been living this simple quote for the last year. fighting my way back to good health ...

Stupid Cats

... somebody dumped a glass of water into my laptop. when i discovered the damp carpet next to my computer, i turned on the laptop and all seemed to be fine .... however the next morning was another story....
stupid cats. they are lucky they are so damn cute. and one of them is very lucky i don't know who to blame.

The Front Door Saga Continues

This is what the front door to our house has looked like since we have moved in (in JANUARY!).



Yes the barricade was already in place, we didn't do that! When Andy tried to change out the locks right after we moved in, we discovered the old door was not very secure, had probably been kicked in at some time in it's past, and new locks weren't going to make much of a difference.

Since we were still making two mortgage payments, we decided to wait until the old house sold before investing in a new door. That finally happened in June .... so we had sucessfully avoided this front door issue until then .....

Andy and I pretty much agreed on the style of door we wanted .... fast forward through more time and space .... we finally got some quotes .... cool, let's double check the size of the opening we are going to fill with this new door ....

o.O

Rough opening too small for any of the standard 36 inch door with sidelights that we had picked out ..... fast forward through more time and space .... we were back at square one .... and busy with life .... frustrated with the door ... but have happily been coming and going through the garage for how many months now?!?

We finally ended up going with a custom door from Simpson which we ordered through Home Depot. We finally got the thing ordered in Sept ..... custom door = 6+ weeks for delivery .... that is delivery to Home Depot ..... then we had to find a dry Saturday in October to go collect it .....

Simpson wanted another $1000 to finish the door, so we ordered it unfinished. For a thousand bucks, I can figure out how to stain and finish the door.


I finally started working on the sanding, staining, sealing this week. It's really not been difficult or challenging work ..... it's just sort of a timing nightmare of do one side let it dry, flip it over, do the second side, let it dry .... blah blah blah

here's the door, side one, which has been sanded, pre-conditioned, stained, allowed to dry, then sealed, allowed to dry 4-6 hours, then sealed again .....


Now this has to dry for 24+ hours ..... then repeat sealing on side 2 .....

ah, yes, when the "door itself" is done, i get to repeat all of this on the frame containing the 2 sidelights .....

then we'll have to figure out how to install it .....
maybe some day, i'll be able to let company in the front door.

gluten free!

i've been eating gluten free for several months now. i still have much to learn, but i'm getting more brave in my gluten free cooking. i've also been trying to eat more of the in-season harvest, which this time of year has been more squash and pumpkins. :)

i baked 2 sugar pumpkins last week. the first one was my inspiration to make a Three Sisters Stew.
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/three-sisters-stew-recipe.html
i didn't have pinto beans in the pantry and used 1 can of black beans and 1 can of a 3 bean mix. and i used the can of diced green chiles.
i wasn't overly impressed with it the night i made it, but the leftovers were incredible! the 1-2 hours of rest time suggested just wasn't enough to let all the flavors do all their flavor things.

the second pumpkin was converted to cookies!!



i modified a squash cookie recipe that i had loved last fall. i used bob's red mill gluten free baking mix. actually the whole measuring process became a nightmare of a math test covering fractions. my recipe called for 1.5 cups of squash and i had 2.5 cups of pumpkin i wanted to use .....
i most certainly would have flunked the math test, but the cookies turned out awesome! i added dried blueberries, dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. they have almost a muffin top texture. mmmmmm!

hide and seek!

no one will ever find me under here!

Link has never been the sharpest crayon in the box, but what he lacks in brains, he makes up for in looks....such a pretty kitty ....

Happy (belated) Halloween!

This is the first pumpkin i really remember carving myself. i remember painting pumpkins as a kid, but i couldn't pull back any memories of actual carvings.... so we deceided we needed to carve pumpkins this weekend. so i started out nice and simple. :)



Lynn and I were designated as pumpkin gutters. Look at us smile as we do the dirty work! :)



Andy carved a tractor!

Tia's bicycle pumpkin, Lynn's cat pumpkin, and Barbara was the only one who could create a normal pumpkin.

pumpkins all lit up!

Welcome to the Family!

Meet Murray!
We adopted him in October. Murray is 14, which is like an insane 72 in cat years. I hope i'm as flexible, playful, witty, and lovey when i'm 72. (yes, this makes 5 cats. but i'm not a crazy cat lady!)