Miscellaneous Stuff

Well I think I've finally caught up on the blogging. This weekend...after the rain stopped...we tried to do a little yard cleanup due to the mess we had from the 60mph winds we had Friday. We also had some clogged drains that were creating "Lake Tracy" in our backyard. Yesterday we installed a new garbage disposal ...thanks to everyone who gave us Lowe's gift certificates and cash for Christmas :) Our old garbage disposal was a wussy 1/3 hp and kept backing up. It would choke on potato peelings...even if it was from only 1 potato!! So now we have a hefty 1hp disposal that is SOOOOO much quieter than our old one could have ever thought of being and it chews up food with no problem. Here's the new disposal:


Of course it was new toy to Steve so he kept asking me what I had that he could throw down the drain to try it out. He tried a couple of whole manderins that had gone bad and it had no issues at all. He was still asking me this morning what I had he could throw down the disposal...what a big kid! :)

The Week at Home Part 4 - Christmas

Christmas morning we had our traditional breakfast of swedish tea ring, scrambled eggs, and chicken apple sausages. It was delicious! We talked to Susan via the webcam so we could see Leevi's family and my Grandma, uncle, and cousin could see Susan. Everyone thought it was a lot of fun. We also chatted via webcam with my Auntie Deborah and cousin Laura and her daughter (second cousin??) Alexis in Spring, TX. Alexis is a webcam pro and was keeping everyone entertained. After that we opened gifts.

Around 1pm my great aunt and uncle came up from Fortuna to have Christmas dinner with us. We had prime rib, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, breadsticks, grilled veggies, and pumpkin pie. It was so yummy! Steve liked it so much...I kid you not...I think he ate a third of the prime rib himself!! It was a lot of fun to enjoy Christmas with family. It was time for us to leave the day after Christmas. Even though we were there almost a week, it seemed so much shorter. Fortunately my parents will be back down here the end of January. We're looking forward to it! :)

The Week at Home Part 3 - Friends

Saturday night Steve and I went to Tomo's to meet up with Amber, Aimee, Alicia, and Rob. The food was great as always...and the company was even better! It was so great to see all the girls. Since we are all living in different places now, it is a rare occasion when we can all get together. And I'm really glad it all worked out. Tomo's actually closes at 9pm and our reservation was at 8:30pm. We didn't end up leaving the restaurant until sometime around 10:30pm!! I'm surprised they didn't kick us out...but instead they just went ahead started cleaning up and left us to visit. We could have visited for so much longer if we had the chance! I'm so grateful to have such great friends! Hopefully we'll all be able to get together again sooner rather than later! I'd post a picture of us, but I was the only one who forgot a camera...so if any of you want to email me a photo I would love it :)

Sunday morning the Damrons and Peters came over for brunch. It was great to see all of them. It seems silly that I don't see Adrienne more often since we only live 20 minutes away from eachother! We got to see the newest addition to the Peters family for the first time. Mason is an adorable little guy and he was so good! My Steve and Adrienne's Steve started playing Wii and were apparently have a good time since Julie, Angela, Adrienne, Mason and Aldo all left because it was time to feed Mason and Steve stayed behind to play a little more Wii! It's always great to see friends during the holidays. Again...no pictures. I think my mom took some...so Mom you should post some pictures on your blog if you have them!

The Week at Home Part 2 - Trisha's Baby Shower

Saturday the fun began. Carolyn and Stephanie threw Trisha a baby shower at our house in the afternoon. It was great to see all of them! Stephanie and Carolyn prepared all the food. Stephanie made some very cute cupcakes and yummy fondue. A lot Trisha's family and friends came to celebrate.


We played a couple of games...


Then Trisha opened gifts.











It was a lot of fun to celebrate the impeding arrival of little Anthony!

The Week at Home Part 1

We made the trek up to my parents on Thursday 12/20. It was pretty cold and a little foggy on the way up, but all in all it was a good trip. We ended up getting there around 9:30pm. Friday morning the whirlwind week began. After dropping Steve off to get a massage, we picked up my mom's car from the repair shop (see her blog if you don't already know the story), dropped my car off for Steve so he could get home after the massage, went grocery shopping for the week, and then started cleaning house when we got home....I made myself tired just typing all that!

Christmas

I can't believe it is almost Christmas already. We didn't decorate this year...I know isn't that horrible...since I (maybe we) are going to my parents for Christmas I didn't want to got through putting everything up this year, so it wasn't feeling very Christmasy (I don't think that's really a word, but you get my point). But it really started to feel like Christmas this weekend when I made the annual Swedish Tea Rings. Steve doesn't understand why I spend all day in the kitchen to make them...but I really enjoy it and it's tradition! Here's a picture of the 8 I made on Saturday.



I'm leaving on Thursday to go to my parents...hopefully Steve will be coming up on Saturday, but things are still up in the air. It seems like a lot of people will be home this Christmas so I'll have a chance to catch up with Trisha (again :)), Alicia, Amber, Aimee, and Adrienne. I'm really looking forward to it!

Finally Some Good News

Sam:

I think Sam is feeling better. It's been a week now without any incidents...and he's had a lot more energy. So it seems like the food change was a good thing for him. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this will continue...and hopefully I didn't jinx us by posting this :)

Fire Pit:

We got the granite capper for the fire pit last weekend. Steve wasn't so sure of the color when we picked it up, but once we got it home and placed it we both decided we probably couldn't find something that matched the colors in the pathway stones any better. Overall we are very happy with it and ecstatic that we are FINALLY completely done with the backyard!! I guess we'll have to find a new project now...preferably one that costs A LOT less!! :P


Dishwasher:

We have now successful washed 2 loads of dishes. I just can't believe it took 6 WEEKS to get it fixed...seems excessive. This repair place orders the part and has it shipped to your house...then they want you to call them when you receive the part and they'll schedule an appointment for a service person to come out and install it. Well we decided we didn't want to wait until Wednesday 12/12 when the part got here on Thursday 12/6 so we bypassed the installation call...it's not like a couple of screws and a ribbon cable take special skills to install!