Michigan vs. Purdue

For Christmas, Ryan and I got tickets for Mom and Dad and us to go to the Michigan vs. Purdue basketball game. Great seats... row 9! I only wish that the outcome was as good. But no luck there. However, Ryan was quite excited!

Offer... Accepted

We received some great news on Saturday - very unexpectedly too.  Our realtor called us Saturday afternoon and asked if we were going to be home so she could bring over on affer we got.  WHAT?  An offer!?  No way!  We were so excited.  Ryan, so much that he couldn't stop pacing after we got the call.  Our realtor showed up and presented the offer... low, but workable.  We countered, and they countered and agreed.  We had accepted an offer.  OH MY! 

So now more praying that the inspection and appraisal goes through and we have no glitched.  Here's hoping!

Meeting the caterers

So yesterday, Ryan and I went to taste some of the food from the caterers for the wedding.  They are great.  Actually from Belleville and have quite the set up.  We met the owner and he's great.  You could just feel his passion for food - which I have as well.  And the food was wonderful too, especially the cookies and brownies!  However, it was so wonderful that we are now starting to rethink the menu and maybe want to add some more cool things.  I'm trying to think back to some of the most memorable food weddings and what we all ate.  Most poeple have very "normal" items - beef, chicken, potatoes, etc.  But since Ryan and I aren't exactly normal or at least that's what we like to think... that maybe we want to shake things up a little.  Like maybe having a pig roast or popcorn machines or ice cream stand.  Fun stuff.  If nothing else, we love food a lot and want it to be awesome. 

After marrying Ryan, I think the most important things to me at the wedding are... outstanding food and lots of dancing :-)

So back to the drawing board.  What would you add to the menu??

No cold water... WTH?

So for the past few days, we really haven't had much cold water.  Yes, I said it.  Cold water.  You turn the water to cold and it's lukewarm, and sometimes it just hot.  Really?  Is that possible?  So Ryan calls up the water people and have them come out.  We are worried that something is broked.  So after lots of pipe tracing and examining.  They find the cause.  It turns out that our air conditioning that runs have circulating cold water through the pipes, has a valve that needs to be turned off.  So in nutshell, we were actulaly cooling the water first, and then circulating it through the pipes and making it hot.  Sounds real effiicent, huh?!  But we turned the valve off and now we have cold water again.

Filing cabinet make over

I got crafty again! This time I gave our old black metal filing cabinet a face lift... Without painting it. I could this great stuff at Joann's that is like contact paper but can be easy removed or adjusted. So check it out....

Before

And after

Valentine's Day

So our first Valentine's Day!  And it was perfect.  We decided to not get each other gifts and instead bought an awesome new chandelier for our kitchen.  Yes, we finally replaced the hideous light that had been there.  I laugh because I swore that was the first thing I was going to replace and here - 6 months later it was still there.  But now it's gone and our kitchen is complete!

After work, I headed home to make our Valentine's Day dinner.  I was greeted with beautiful red roses and a card and a fire.  Great thing to come home too. Then I made a yummy dinner of filets (thanks to Dad's gift of Omaha steaks) with a rich balsamic glaze  and lemon risotto with asparagus.  We were so full that I totally forgot about the cheesecake in the freezer.  Oh well - we'll save that for another day.

Baking with yeast

So after stopping at Mary's on my way home from Indy this week, she treated me to a butterhorn that she had made.  And it was soooo good I decided it was time to try my hand at baking with yeast and make the famous Mrs. Zender's butterhorns. 

As I prepped for my baking day, I called Better Crocker (more commonly know as Mary Welden) to make sure I was buying the right yeast - fast or active.  Really why do they need two kinds?!  I'm still not sure. But I got fast because that is what Betty used.

Then home to start making the dough and activating the yeast.   As I started to mix the wet and dry ingredients together, I noticed that it looked very dry.  So I called the Better Crocker line again and this time sent a picture. 

Well I think in my old age of 31, I also might need glasses.  As the recipe clearly called for 1 and 1/4 cup of milk mixed with the yeast, and I decided that only 1/4 cup would be good enough.  And the result wasn't so good.  Through the laughter, Betty said to add the 1 cup of lukewarm milk that I forgot from before and it should be okay.  I wasn't convinced and decided to send another picture to Betty.

She said the dough looked good.  So in the frig it went.  The recipe said to leave it overnight, but I didn't want to wait that long.  So I gave it a few hours and then started to roll them out. And up until this point... everything was great!  Then you are supposed to let them raise in a warm room.  Okay, really?  It was 3 degrees outside yesterday with the wind chill... so no warm room.  So I turn the oven on and open the doors a little and let them raise.  Well - maybe it was too warm.  But I successfully made the biggest butterhorns ever!

They taste wonderful but I have some work to be done at baking with yeast and raising the dough.

Wood burning fireplace

So after having a not functioning gas fireplace for a couple months... Ryan took on the challenge (per my request) and converted the fireplace to a wood burning one.  And the best part... it has gas ignitor.  So you turn the key, light the gas burner, which then lights the logs.  No more working to get it lit.  It's so great to have the fireplace back and the best part it doesn't cost us money to run it!  Nice work Ryan!

Marriage Counseling 101

So Ryan and I started marriage counseling with Pastor Rob.  Luckily for us, I know Pastor Rob, who is my Mom's cousin Dawn's brother-in-law and married both Mary and Julie, so I knew his personality but wasn't sure what to expect.  We spent a couple hours together talking so he could get to know us better.  He asked about our families, how we met, what we liked about each other, difference between men and women and relationship,and most importantly the role God plays in marriage.  We talked about the boundaries of marriage and establishing them and how to be creative within these boundaries.  If you both are in the same boundaries and know that no matter what, neither one will leave, your marriage will grow strong.  It's when one person decides to leave or stay in the boundaries and not take an active role in the marriage that the marriage fails.  Marriage is definitely not a passive thing.

I think one of the things I appreciated the most was Rob talking about his marriage.  He has been married to Debbie for over 30 years and he didn't paint this perfect picture.  But he gave wonderful examples of dealing with situations and also knowing each other's love languages.  Ryan and I had actually already taken the quiz to figure out what our love language is... mine is affirmation and Ryan's is physical touch.  Rob told us what his and Debbie's were and how they use that love language to strengthen their relationship and make sure the other person knows how important and loved they are.  He said that men most want to be respected by their wives, where woman most want to be loved and cherished by their husbands.  And I definitely agree. 

So our next session is going to be at their house.  He and Debbie are going to have us over to hang out, have a few beers and play games.  One game he says he plays with all this couples that are getting married that year is Compatibility.  In the game, couples pair up and are given a topic and then search through their identical photo decks for cards that they think best fits that topic. Rob said it's a great game to play to see how your partner answers questions.  And I love games... so I'm thinking this will be lots of fun!

I'm excited for our journey through our marriage counseling.  I just want to take everything in that I can so I can be good wife and child of God.

Spring Cleaning in February

So we started spring cleaning in February because it was over 50 degrees out!  So nice... the sun was shining, very little wind.  Perfect day in February.  I even joked that if we would have know it would have been so nice we could have gotten married outside today. 

Cleaning mission #1... the garage.  Our poor garage has taken a hit since we've moved in.  If we didn't know where to put it, and it didn't really belong in the house, it ended up in the garage... and as a result we had a disaster on our hands.  Ryan couldn't even got out of his truck on the one side because there was so much stuff in there.  But after a day of cleaning and organizing.. the end result is awesome!  What a different a 6 foot shelf and some sweeping and vacuuming can do.  There is virtually nothing on the floor and if we didn't know what it was from or what to do with it, we pitched it. 

Cleaning mission #2... the workshop.  Although not nearly as bad as the garage, the workshop could use some cleaning and organizing too (especially after our last crafty project).  Ryan built the second big shelf and then started organizing and cleaning.  What a huge difference!!

The before pictures...

And after (we still need to paint over that sign and get our RAD Farms sign up)...

A very successful day!

Wall Art Complete

So I found this really cool art project on pinterest (my obsession).  It involved plywood, scrapbook paper, and mod podge.  And I'm so happy to say that it turned out awesome!

We started with a sheet of birch plywood that my handy man cut up into 12 by 12 squares (which is all I asked him to do).  But since he loves woodworking, he took that up a notch and used a router to make the edges rounded.... fancy!  And perfect!  He then added a recess in the back, which is like a cut out area so that it lays flush on the wall.  Then I sanded them so they were nice and smooth.  (Luckily for me he is sitting next to me as I write this and giving me the technical term... my wording would have been, he cut the wood... really fancy!)

Next step, prime the wood with spray paint primer.  After that we used Rustolium textured spray paint in brown.  My handy man gave it two coats just to be sure.  Then we let that dry overnight - it might have been longer just because I didn't have time to start the next steps. 

But once I did, I put a coat a modge pog on both the scrapbook paper and one the wood.  Then once I set it in place, started smoothing it out.  Be sure you have enough mod podge on both so that it sticks.  Once you have smoothed it out for about 5 minutes, put a coat on the top of the paper, lighter coats work lots better than thicker ones.  And do not be alarmed when it starts to bubble up.  It will do that and yes I promise it will smooth out.  I put five coats on about 20-30 minutes apart.  And then let it sit over night and by morning, everything had smoothed out.

Ryan then hung them over our bed, spaced out 1.5 inches.  And ta-da!  The masterpiece is complete and we love it!!

Wedding Plans finalized, I think?!

So Ryan and I have been working to get our wedding plans in place... and I think we are there!  We have decided to have a one day even vs. two day.  This way more of our family and friends can be part of our ceremony - especially the ones that have to travel quite a ways to get here.  Then we are hiring a catering company to do the food.  They will BBQ and provide a grill man and a server.  Perfect!  I think things are finally coming together. 

Ryan has started working on laying out the big part and the lighting... great to have an engineer as your future husband.  And I am working on the decorations and the invitations.  And we are meeting with our photographer this weekend for the first time.  Should be great.  Can't wait to hear about her ideas!  :-)  We also start our marriage counseling next Saturday with Pastor Rob.  I'm really looking forward to this.

So less than 4 months and it's time to celebrate!

Disappointment

Well I got some disappointing news yesterday... I didn't get the job.  I guess God must have bigger and better plans for me.