The towel bar fiasco:

We have a very small bathroom. Like closet-sized. As a space-saving measure, the previous owners (before Dad), installed a 2-tiered towel bar. It stuck out pretty far, and the weight of freshly dampened towels over the years pulled it loose. Easy fix right? I bought a new towel bar and set out with the best of intentions to remove the old bar and install the new one. 10 minutes and several gaping holes later, I removed what seemed to me to be a not so expertly installed towel bar. Installing mine would be simple. The bar came with wall anchors, so I carefully avoided the studs and drilled my holes. 20 frustrating seconds later, I determined that my stud-finder was broken as I flattened my wall anchor against a stud. Awesome. It was then time to pull out the big guns. I wall-dogged it. Wall-dogs are massive screws on steroids, designed for anchoring into studs or drywall. They did not disappoint, and the towel bar is still hanging. After several coats of Spackle, the walls are even mostly patched. It’s important to note also that Shannon gave me explicit instructions not to attempt the towel bar installation after my first fail. Instructions that I promptly ignored. Had the wall-dogs failed, I would have been in trouble. I love to live dangerously.

The flood of 2011:

On Black Friday, while strategically avoiding humanity at it’s worst by chilling at home, I was washing some dishes and my foot got soaked. I discovered a  plumbing problem that could not be fixed without parts. Off to Home Depot. Fortunately, most of the shoppers were gone, and I was able to pick up a new connector for the drain for $1.99. I even picked up a higher-end toilet seat to replace the cheap plastic one opposite our newly installed towel bar. The sink repair went perfectly, and has been holding since. I also must mention that this was shortly after I successfully installed a saddle-valve and connected the water line to our refrigerator ice/water dispenser. Apparently I don’t suck at plumbing.

Yard-Crashing:

I’m an awesome raker. Our yard was consistently one of the cleanest on the street this fall. After a weird lull in November and December, I’m now making a name as a driveway shoveler extraordinaire. I gotta give props to the man-plow for this. The man-plow was a conciliation prize after I chickened out on buying a snow blower at a pre-thanksgiving sale. It’s essentially a small plastic plow blade with a lawn-mower style handlebar. A man (or woman, of course) can get behind this plow and push lots of snow. It’s cut down my shoveling time by, I would guess, 25%. Plus, I get to announce that I’m going out to “man-plow.” I’m not super-excited about the fact that I’m now writing this post to avoid man-plowing for the 3rd time in less than 48 hours, but I guess it was inevitable.

Laundry:

This is just funny and stupid. Right now, I’m waiting for a load of laundry to finish washing for the 2nd time. I had a load of dirty clothes, plus a load in the washer and dryer. I emptied the dryer, transferred the washer to the dryer, then proceeded to load the dryer with the clothes I had just taken out of the dryer. Worse yet, I didn’t realize it until I had folded almost all of the basket of dirty clothes that I brought back upstairs with me from the basement laundry room. Nice work Mike…nice work.

All in all, it’s good to be a homeowner. A sort-of, not really, quasi homeowner.

I think folks who don’t blog themselves tend to not understand what a measly little comment can mean to a blogger. Blogging has very much become a one-way street: you write, putting all these things out there, and supposedly people read what you’ve written, but you rarely hear from these readers. It’s like a conversation where you blab on and on, and then the other person stares at you blankly. I’m sure everyone can relate to how awkward that is in real life, and it’s kind of the same in blog life. When we write something, it means the world to us to get a response. Silly maybe, but it’s true.

A lot of people have told me “I don’t have anything good to say!” Trust us, even a simple “That’s so funny” or “I like that idea” is like gold. So I guess this is my pathetic way of encouraging (asking? begging?) you to help make this a two-way conversation in 2012. Let us hear from you! I know it seems like a lot of work when you’re speeding through a million websites at once. I’m guilty of being a lazy commenter on other blogs for that very reason. But it makes us happy, and the more we know people are reading and interacting, the more we want to write.

In return, I promise to be a better commenter in 2012. Mike doesn’t really read blogs, but I read a lot of them, and I’m going to do a better job of taking a second to let people know I’m there, I’m reading, and I want them to keep writing.

And with that, I’d like to say a special thank you to the four people who left us the most comments in 2011. You gave us the motivation to keep this little blog alive!

1. Daytime Night Owl with 36 comments.

2. Nanette with 22 comments.

3. Kate with 8 comments.

4. Angela with 7 comments. (This one didn’t have a link, but I think I know who this is!)

Thanks to all of you! I wish we had some special prize we could give you. Our undying adoration?

Happy new year everyone!

Basically, we thought a lot about what kind of adoption experience we wanted to have. Being two people who have no previous parenting experience, we became less and less confident about our ability to parent, right out of the gate, an older child from the foster care system. We began to see a future for us where our first child is an infant or young child, and once we have some parenting chops under our belts, welcoming an older child or two into our family. But see, that first step, that infant or child, that’s not an easy thing to accomplish.

Immediately we began saving, in a separate account from the one that paid for our Europe trip. But with all the ups and downs of life, after a year, we have not made it very far at all. We’ve saved very little. Every time we get ahead, we fall behind again, and it has been very discouraging. Then when November rolled around and I realized it had been a year, I got even more discouraged and decided it was time to take some initial steps. I needed forward motion – just saving money wasn’t active enough to feel like we were making progress.

So first I got in touch with an organization called DA Blodgett. They specialize in foster care placement of older children, but they have a small foster to adopt program for younger children. Unfortunately you have to get on a waiting list to even join the program, to even get on the list of people they call when a child is available. So we’re on the waiting list to be on the other waiting list.

The next thing I did was contact Greater Hopes, the organization that we were incredibly eager to work with. I wanted a refresher on the process, to know what the first step was and how much it cost. We don’t need to save ALL the money we’ll need for an adoption before we start, we just need enough to get started. Unfortunately I chose to contact them right when the holidays hit, so I haven’t heard anything yet. Hopefully soon after everyone gets back into the swing of things we’ll hear back and maybe soon we’ll be able to apply to get started.

Forward momentum!

And then, who knows. We cross our fingers and hope we can become parents as quickly as possible.

Then the next year we decided not to do the usual “we got married!” holiday card, and opted for something a little more fun.

This year, we had a few ideas for how to do something fun or funny again, but while sorting through Shutterfly‘s card templates, I saw one called “2011 Highlights” and I started thinking, ya know, we had a pretty awesome year. Let’s show off a little. And so instead of silly, we did this:

In case you can’t tell or can’t read it (it’s a screen shot, so real fancy), it’s 9 different pictures and the bottom describes each of them. The first six are from the six major cities we visited on our May European excursion: London, England. Paris, France. Lucern, Switzerland. Venice, Italy. Florence, Italy. Rome, Italy. The last three are other fun things we did: skydiving, whitewater rafting (in Montana), and Yellowstone National Park.

Seeing it all laid out like that, we really did have a freaking sweet year! We’re so grateful.

We only ordered 25 cards though, and I have a massive family, so those went quickly. We would have liked to send many more, but probably not enough to order 50, the next minimum. So if you didn’t get one, we apologize, but know you’re in our thoughts!

We hope you all have a very happy holiday season!

MEXICAN MONDAYS

Taco/fajitas – these were kind of a hybrid.

Beef & bean burritos

SALAD TUESDAYS

Cucumber, red pepper, deli turkey, apple, feta, croutons and catalina.

Turkey, cranberries, soynuts, cheddar and french.

Romaine, carrot, green pepper, red pepper, cranberries, pinenuts and catalina.

Carrots, bleu cheese, soy nuts, cranberries, cucumbers, orange pepper and french.

Can you tell we like French and Catalina dressings? Mike mixes it up more often, but these two are pretty standard for me.

PASTA WEDNESDAYS

Spaghetti

Crockpot Italian chicken pasta (with a garden salad) from this recipe.

Hot Dog Squid!

(Can you believe we actually made these as a legitimate meal? We saw them on Pinterest and thought they were too hilarious to NOT try. Mike made a homemade cheese sauce to go over the squid (squids?), so it was kind of like grownup mac n’ cheese.)

PIZZA FRIDAYS

French bread pizzas

MEAT SATURDAYS

Turkey meatloaf, glazed carrots and mashed potatoes.

Turkey burgers and glazed carrots.

SOUP/STEW SUNDAY

Homemade broccoli cheese soup with french baguette.

MISC MEALS

BLATs: bacon, lettuce, avocado and turkey.

DESSERTS!

Homemade lemon cheesecake and homemade raspberry sauce for my Mom’s birthday. So Good!!

We traditionally take a photo in front of a giant apple at the usual orchard. Observe:

So this year, we didn’t have a giant apple, which is weird. I mean what orchard doesn’t offer a giant apple for family photo opps? But we improvised and took a picture in front of a giant tree instead.

We go around the same time every year, but notice how last year we’re all in coats and hats, and this year it was downright warm! I’m not sure we’ll be going back to this place again though. They were crazy and charged for EVERYTHING! Oh you want to sit on that side of the fence to eat your donuts? It’s the only place we put any picnic tables, but we’re going to charge you $5 just to cross the threshold. You need extra paper cups for your cider? There’s a charge for that.

We still had a good time though. Mike played a little gourd…

And the babes loved all the pumpkins.

All in all, good time. I’m still hanging on to Fall – I’m not really ready for winter yet. NOOO SNOOOW!

I spent the last month or two creating some inventory, and last week I spent some time photographing and listing everything. I’ve been doing hand-stitched embroidery for a very long time, usually making personalized gifts for friends and family. Then I started to realize people were selling the simplest embroidery projects on Etsy for ridiculous amounts of money. I figured I should get in on that game, and maybe if I listed my stuff for less than what I was seeing, I might even sell a couple.

I’ve got listings for custom orders, like these baby bibs that can be personalized with any name, colors, designs, etc.

But I also pre-made some stuff. Some of it’s is schmoopy-ish:

And some of it is silly:

We’ll see how it goes. If you know anyone who needs a fun Christmas gift though, feel free to send them my way!

I’ve waved to the guy across the street who always sits on his porch for a smoke. And Mike has acknowledged the next door neighbor when they were both doing yard work. At Halloween, one couple introduced themselves, while trick or treating, as the folks who live down the street, and I was practically gushing I was so excited to be exchanging pleasantries with a neighbor. But we haven’t spoken to them since. In fact, I was driving home the other day and saw the guy raking his leaves and I dared to wave hello, and he cleary had no idea who I was, and then I just looked like a crazy person. Or like I was flirting with him. From my car. Either way, awkward.

But here’s the more specific issue, beyond just wanting to know our neighbors in general. I want to specifically meet this one adorable family. On Halloween, my mom and I sat on the porch to hand out candy while everyone else trick or treated. After awhile, she pointed out a family walking on the other side of the street and said “I think those are your neighbors. They came out of that house across the street and stopped by earlier.” (When I had briefly stepped inside apparently.)

Well, they were adorable. A young couple with three kids, two of which appear, at least, to be adopted. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to meet them ever since. I saw them walking around the neighborhood recently and begged Mike to help me think of a reason to run outside and casually bump into them. But I panicked and it didn’t happen.

I really just want to become friendly with them, and then maybe learn a little more about their family, find out if they did indeed adopt any of their kids, and share our interest in doing so, as well. But what’s the first step?

I know in the movies people just knock on doors and introduce themselves, maybe bring baked goods or something. But I can’t do that, it just seems so intrusive. What if they’re eating dinner or in the middle of a fight or disciplining a child? What if they’re taking a family nap or watching a movie? What if they’re doing it! Then suddenly I show up at their front door and I’m all “Hi I’m your neighbor, let’s get to know each other! By the way, did you adopt those kids?”

Maybe next time I see them taking a family stroll (how sickengly adorable right?) I will walk out to check my mail! Except our mailbox is the kind that’s attached to the house, not the kind on the street. So I’d have to yell to them from my porch. “HELLO! DO YOU LIVE AROUND HERE?”

It’s all so awkward and uncomfortable, this socializing stuff!

So I don’t want to knock on their door and the mail ploy isn’t going to work. What else you got?

Did get some pics though!

The famous da Vinci horse.

Mike with Fred & Lena Meijer themselves!

They were kind enough to pose with me, too.

Wall o' Flowers

I think this should be our new logo.

After exploring the gardens, we went home (well it wasn’t home yet, Mike’s dad still lived here and we were crashing for the night) to change, then headed downtown for ArtPrize. It’s an art contest that takes over the city for several weeks, and because we didn’t live here yet, we almost missed it this year. As it is, we hit some of the larger venues and called it good.

I want this dude in my backyard.

Mike's big boy chair

Shrapnel giraffe

Creepy!

We think his wife, Penny, is great, and we’re very glad to have her in our family. The wedding was a very nice affair — just family and some close friends. And they found a way to involve all of us. I got to pin on all the boutonnieres.

And Mike was a best man, along with his brother. Mike held the rings and Brian signed the marriage license.

Penny is quite a bit shorter than Steve, so they totally stole our idea with the step stool.

Sorry guys, but I still think ours is cuter.

Here’s the happy couple cutting their cake:

And here’s another happy couple from the wedding:

All in all, a happy occasion.