One year ago...

At this time in the evening one year ago today, I was laying in a hospital bed waiting for the orthopedic surgeon to read my xrays and determine if I was having surgery that night or the next day.

What a difference a year makes!

This afternoon as Rob and I headed out on our walk, I commented that it was about that time that we'd been setting off on our bikes (my last bike ride, by the way) and on what would turn out to be the night of my big wipe out. Here's what I wrote about the accident last year.

My co-workers always remember that I had surgery on April 1 -- they thought it was a joke when I called in. I tried convincing them today that the whole bit has been an extended April Fools joke from last year -- the cast, crutches and scooter were all an elaborate hoax. ;)

New House!

Now that we'd found a place to move and all of the kinks had been worked out of the deal, we began the looooooong task of packing. My goal was to pack a few boxes every night, so that in the end, we wouldn't be rushed with trying to fill boxes at the last minute. I'm glad we stuck to the plan, because even with all the time we had, we still seemed busy busy busy.

Our first decision was that we needed to hire movers. Our friends will no longer schlep couches for free pizza, and our bedroom furniture and living room stuff were way too massive to move on our own. We interviewed three companies and chose one to do the work. BTW - moving is expensive.

We decided to move some stuff on our own, like our china and lamps. I figured if the china got busted, I'd have nobody to blame by myself. And, the movers charge $35 per lamp to box it up and move it, so we figured we could save some money there. We got the keys to the house on Sunday, moved small stuff all week long, and the movers took almost nine hours to pack the truck, drive to the new place, unpack and set stuff up the following Friday.

I'm glad we weren't doing it. I was exhausted just watching them!

During the week before we moved in, we also had some painting done and I replaced all of the liners in the kitchen drawers and on the pantry shelves. We ordered a new refrigerator and figured out what was going to go where.

We've been in now for a little more than two weeks. We are still unpacking stuff, but it's livable and we are really liking it! Our parents came down last weekend to see it -- we are glad they did!

I'll post a picture or two when we are all set up and there aren't moving boxes lining each wall. Thanks for reading along!

House Search

(Sorry for the lag in telling this story!)

Since our house sold so quickly, we accelerated our new house search. We honestly thought we'd have a little more time to really look!

Our real estate agent connected me on the Web service that updates the MLS listings all day long. Every morning I would get an e-mail of new houses on the market that fit our criteria, info on open houses and news on price drops or increases (yes, believe it or not, there were some increases!).

I had my heart set on a particular neighborhood, and every day I'd look for something in that area. Nothing! After a few days I conceded that we better widen our search or else we'd end up putting our stuff in storage and renting. That was really not an ideal option.

On a Sunday afternoon, we went with our agent to see two different places. One was way below our price range, but I could tell from the listing that it need a lot (A LOT!) of work. The second was a bit above our price range, but the realtor thought we'd have some wiggle room with the sellers.

First we went to the lower-priced one. I knew when we pulled up that I hated it. Turquoise shutters, a plain cement porch, no landscaping, etc. The kitchen needed gutted and floors replaced, there wasn't a window blind in the place and the basement was a weird mish-mash of discounted tile all slapped together. It was terrible! Rob tried talking me into seeing what we could do to fix it up, but all I saw were headaches and dollar signs floating out the unblinded windows. After I agreed not to rule it out completely, we moved to the second one. I admit, that agreement was a total lie. There was not chance I was buying the turquoise-shuttered house. ;)

We'd looked at the second house online back in December, but it was out of our price range. And, we'd actually driven by it when we went to look at another house in that community for sale. I'd commented then that I really liked it, and lucky for us, the sellers had lowered the price.

As soon as we walked inside, we both were impressed. Wide crown mouldings, nice glass doors to the library, high ceilings and a huge kitchen/living room combo wowed us. My only concern was the bedrooms -- I thought they were a little small, but not terrible (I grew up in a house with big bedrooms and have a slanted view). We agreed to think about it and talk to our realtor the next day.

We ended up meeting her back at the house that next day (Monday) and decided to make an offer. We did, the sellers countered, we re-countered and so did they. After four attempts, we came to an agreement and signed the paperwork. Hooray! The timing was great and we'd be able to move from one house to the next.

A few days later, it all started to crumble. I won't go into specific details (you never know who's reading!), but the sellers wanted to back-out of the deal. We said no to canceling the contract and sat on pins and needles while they came to peace with their decision to sell. Our realtor said she'd never seen that happen after paperwork was signed -- lucky us! It was stressful and I had quite a few nights of worry, but it all worked out for everyone.

Moving dates were set in place and we began packing, packing, packing!

Next up: the actual move. To be continued!

Moving On....

... to a new house! Yep, that's what's kept me too busy to faithfully blog the last few weeks. We are up to our ears in cardboard boxes and newspaper, and every afternoon and evening has been devoted to packing up our lives into approximately 150 boxes.

Let's start at the beginning.....

Last November, we started talking about whether or not it was a good time to look for a larger house. Our townhouse is terrific (and the location can't be beat), but we definitely could use more closet space, a bigger kitchen, a two-car garage, etc.

And, since interest rates are low and housing prices have dropped (although they are still RIDICULOUS in the D.C. area), we thought the timing was right. The only catch would be selling our place. We've had friends who have had condos and houses on the market for weeks and months, so we were a little hesitant.

Our first step was to meet with our realtor (the lady who helped us find the townhouse) to see what she thought we needed to do to our place to make it the most attractive to buyers and what was available on the market in our price range. We ended up visiting about five or seven houses in December, just to have a feel for what was out there.

In January, we decided to test the waters and put our house on the market. Our house really was in good shape, so we only had to do some general clean-up and pack up a few boxes of stuff. We went live on the market on Friday, January 29.

We got two offers on Saturday, January 30.

Whaaaaaat??

We had about 15 people come look at the house and got a total of four offers. One dropped out at the last minute, so we had three to choose from. We couldn't believe it!

Next up: our house search. To be continued!

Catching Up

My pledge to be a better blogger was short-lived, I'm afraid. I promise to try harder!

Lots has been going on here with us -- so much so that it all deserves its own post. I'll get to that soon. I know I promised that last week -- stay tuned!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for spring. This winter has been for.ev.er. Most of our 30+ inches of snow is melted, although there are some piles that I think will be here until June!

In the meantime, I spilled coffee grounds near my laptop and now my keys randomly won't work. I think the grounds that slipped in between the keys are wreaking havoc!

Are you watching American Idol this season? I'm not impressed with anyone, really. I keep waiting for someone to pop out at me, but nothing yet. I guess my favorites are Katelyn and Alex.

This was a totally random blog!

What will people remember?

I've been really moved during the last few weeks by Jenny's story. I didn't know Jenny or anyone in her family, but we have friends in common and the news about her sickness has infiltrated circles in blogland and Facebook.

Jenny died this week following a two-week battle with sepsis, which developed from a strep infection. Her family and friends are crushed, naturally, and she leaves behind a husband and young daughter. She was my age.

My age. How could someone my age pass away from such an illness? How does this happen a healthy, happy wife and mom?

In reading about Jenny on friends' blogs, it's evident that she was a wonderful daughter, sister and friend. She put others before herself and was the kind of friend a friend would like to have. I'm 100% sure she wasn't perfect, yet the joy in her heart is obvious in her photos and in her own words.

That's what people will remember about Jenny. They'll remember the happiness. The love. The JOY.

It got me to thinking: if the unimaginable suddenly happened, what would people remember about me? Would they remember times of laughter? Years of good and loyal friendship? Cheerfulness in times of trial?

Or would they remember hurtful words said in haste, or moments when I didn't have time to be a friend?

I want to live the kind of life that lets people remember me with joy, too.

Jenny, you'll be missed by many, but the story of your life has made a difference to at least one.

Hello, out there....

January has not been a good month for blogging. Work picked back up, crazy as ever, and we've been doing some stuff around the house. Busy!

I'm glad to say that my back is doing much better. It's still not perfect, but at least I can move without wincing. Rob thought for sure that our neighbors were going to call the police since I was practically screaming every time I tried to stand up. It was terrible! I've been trying to take it easy, but stuff still has to be done. Ugh.

I don't think I mentioned that Rob and I went to see a play in D.C. during our time off from work. It is based on the C.S. Lewis novel, which is actually the first gift Rob ever gave me! To be honest, it was really weird and kind of dark, but it was really fascinating, too. We both liked it, although it kind of haunted me for awhile. It made me want to read the book again, so I need to dig that out.

Nothing more to update from my end. I'll try to be a better blogger!

Holiday Wrap Up

I've been slacking on posting on the blog, since Rob and I took off from work this week and there's been much to occupy my time. We had a nice holiday visiting with both of our families and friends.

Among our top favorite gifts was a food processor. Rob's delighted that I can now make a pie crust from scratch, and he used it last night to slice up the onions for his famous French Onion Soup. Both were delicious!

Unfortunately, I irritated my sciatica a few days before Christmas and it's only gotten worse (maybe I shouldn't have been moving heavy boxes or a dresser, but whatever). Anyway, it was so awful yesterday that I went to urgent care, they xrayed to make sure that a bulging disc wasn't pressing on any important nerves, put me on some muscle relaxers and pain killers and ordered me to rest. That is VERY tough for me! But here I am, sitting on the bed with my lazy cat and trying my best not to think about everything that is unaccomplished around here....

Hope your holidays were happy!

Cake Classes

A few weeks ago, my friend Leann and I embarked on the first Wilton cake decorating classes, and boy did we have fun! My goal was just to learn the skills and techniques to make pretty birthday cakes, learn how to do a design with icing and, of course, perfect that delicious buttercream frosting. :)

Here are a few photos of my cake creations...

Cake #1: learning stars and zig-zags, plus learning how to write with the icing.

Cake #2: learning shell borders, figure-piping (aka creepy clowns), practicing roses and other flowers. A mish-mash!

Cake #3: roses and sweetpea flowers. The roses are a lot trickier than they look, but I'm getting the hang of it!

Next up, we are teaching ourselves how to do the basketweave design. Now I need an excuse to practice my skills!

Snowstorm of 2009

We bundled up and headed out on a snowy walk. So far, we have 10-12 inches,
and it's supposed to keep snowing for another 8 hours!


Rob enjoying the falling snow!


The view of the snowy pines in our backyard.


Check out the stack of snow on the table.


Everybody loves a snowstorm!

Catching Up

I've been a bad blogger these last few weeks.... Christmas shopping, busy work and more have kept me too preoccupied, and I haven't made time to sit down and catch up in blogland.

I've started Wilton cake decorating classes with my friend Leann, and we are up to lesson 3 this week. It's really been fun, and I love having the tools and the (developing) skill to make pretty cakes! I don't want to be Duff, but I would like to know how to pull together an attractive cake. We did stars and zig zags last week; tomorrow we work on roses and figure piping.

The downside is that I now know what ingredients go into that delicious buttercream frosting we all love so much. Needless to say, anything with the words "butter" and "cream" in the title is just as bad for you as it sounds. I've been making two batches per week for my class and can feel my arteries hardening with each one. I wish it didn't taste so good!

Most of my Xmas shopping is finished, and the majority is wrapped. I'm waiting for one more thing to arrive. Our Xmas tree is faring okay... kitty still attacks it occasionally and probably continues to climb up and down the thing while we aren't watching. We didn't brave any ornaments this year. :)

Hope your holiday season is going well so far... I'll look forward to reading all about it!

Date Night

Rob treated me to a night on the town on Friday. We headed down into D.C. after work, parked our car near the Kennedy Center, where we had show tickets for later.

As it turns out, we'd both forgotten to grab some change before we headed out, and we needed it for the parking meter. We were near George Washington University, so I stopped three co-eds and asked them if they knew of anyplace we could get change. They just started handing over their quarters and dimes! Rob gave them $2, we fed the meter and set out on foot to dinner. How generous of those girls!

We had a dinner reservation at a popular D.C. restaurant we hadn't tried, but we'd heard lots of good reviews from friends. Excellent! We shared appetizers of skillet corn bread and blue cheese/bacon wrapped dates. The dates were delicious -- sweet and tangy, and not anything I'd ever try to fix at home. Rob had the three-cheese ravioli with herb butter, and I had the rustic chicken pot pie. We were too stuffed for dessert.

After dinner, we set back out for the 10-block or so walk to the Kennedy Center to see A Streetcar Named Desire (the Tennessee Williams play). We'd gotten the tickets months ago, and I'm so glad we did because the play was terrific. Cate Blanchett played the lead role of Blanche DuBois, and the other actors all really stood out too. I really didn't know much about the story going in, so that made it really interesting.

Thanks to Rob for treating me to the show and dinner!

Happy birthday to me!

Today is my 33rd birthday. Wow! I guess I should feel old, but 33 still sounds good to me and I don't feel old.... yet. I've never been the kind of gal to feel a crisis coming on about a birthday, so why start now?

I celebrated today by taking the day off from work, running a bunch of errands, having lunch out with my hubby and looking for a new dishwasher. Tonight we are going out to dinner and opening gifts. Love low-key celebrations!

I'm Back

I flew home yesterday from five days in Chicago for a work conference my association hosted. Those days are looooooong days -- down to the staff office or prepping for the breakfast sessions by 6 a.m., and not back to my room until 10 p.m. or later. It's really exhausting!

The conference went well, the sessions I was responsible for running went smoothly and we managed to have a little bit of fun -- and a lot of good food. :) Dinners at N9NE, Gibson's and Volare were good treats and enjoyable time away from the madness of the meeting.

Unfortunately, I didn't get out of the hotel much more, so I wasn't able to see as much in Chicago as I wanted. Plans to walk to Millennium Park were canceled due to rain, but I did manage to get down Michigan Ave for some window shopping on my first day in town.

It's pouring rain here, but Rob decided to head out to do some geocaching this morning. After pancakes, he took off and I hit the market, Costco and Home Depot. I started today on the guest bath upstairs -- peeled all of the wallpaper border and plan to paint it a soft cream color. I've already picked out a new shower curtain and am ready to get it finished, so we can put it to good use when I start our master bath renovation.

Tomorrow after church, we are going to brunch and then taking a fall baking class at Williams Sonoma. I'm looking forward to it!

Hope you are having a nice weekend. To come, the recipe for the yummy corn chowder I made for dinner tonight.

Long time, no blog

I've been a negligent blogger the last few weeks. It's not that I don't have anything to say. In fact, I think of things throughout the day that I plan to blog about, but somehow I never get to it.

So Labor Day is over, which means summer is grinding to a halt. Boo! We spent this weekend at the lake with Rob's family, and we saw my parents on Friday night for dinner. We had a relaxing few days of cook-outs, walks and sitting by the lake. Despite the clouds and chilly temps, it was a fun weekend.

Work has been getting busier and busier as we approach the fall conference season. We are headed to Chicago in a few weeks, and I'm looking forward to it.

We are having some friends over for dinner this week, so I tested out one of the side dish recipes I'm fixing: 5-Minute Individual Potato Gratins. Yum! It's a total winner, so easy and very good! I saw this on the Next Food Network Star and recommend you make them too.

I am in a vacation planning mood and might start looking around the Web for ideas and deals... who knows where we'll go next?

PT

I started physical therapy yesterday. My orthopedic surgeon thought my ankle was still a little too stiff, and I have the most trouble going down the steps and doing little things, like kicking off my shoes. My toes are too weak! (Sounds pitiful, doesn't it??)

So I met with the PT group yesterday and they gave me some new stretches. Plus, they'll do some massage therapy and work on getting the skin around my incisions back to normal (it's super dry, mainly because I'm too chicken to really touch it). I'll go twice a week.

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Thanks to those who share good recipes for all of the veggies we got from the CSA. I ended up making a delicious gratin with the potatoes, grilled squash marinated in the herbs, and Erin's cabbage recipe with olive oil, butter and a diced apple. Delicious! I'm still munching on the cucumber, and last night I used the last four potatoes to make cheesy smashed potatoes, using the Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese wedges. I'm glad we used all of the veggies.


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I'm reading "Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress" by Lee Woodruff. Recommend it for short chapters covering different areas and stories in her life. Some are super funny, and some are super moving. It's a good read so far.

I have a giant stack of books to get through in the next few weeks: After Etan, The Time Traveler's Wife, Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult, and about a half-dozen more.


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We had another stellar experience with Lowe's in-store pick-up this evening. Rob placed an order at 10:45 a.m., and we arrived to pick it up at 5:30 p.m. They looked at us at customer service as if we'd walked up to the counter and ordered a Big Mac. Totally confused. After 15 minutes, they finally tracked down the item and brought it to the customer service desk. This is the item that was supposed to have been ready for pick-up at 12:45 p.m....

Catching Up

This has been a busy couple of weeks, with us being gone for my grandfather's funeral and the fourth of July last week, and a busy week of work and appointments this week. I'm finally sitting down, and I'm delighted that the premiere of Big Brother is tonight. It's a total train wreck every year, but we still love watching it all unfold.

Tonight we went to Manassas to pick up a bag of fresh veggies as part of a community supported agriculture (CSA) group. Our friends actually belong to it, but they are on vacation this week and offered their week's share to us. We got a head of cabbage, a giant squash, a cucumber, 10 potatoes, an onion and a bunch of herbs. We are glad to try it out to see if we'd like to participate in one, maybe next year. Now I need to find some good recipes -- anyone ever buy a cabbage before? I never have!

My dear friend Kelly got engaged two weeks ago, and I'm happy to be her matron of honor! I'm meeting her tomorrow for dress, cake and invitation shopping. Bring on the cake samples!!! :)

I should update on my ankle... I went to the orthopedist last week, and he thought it all looked good. He would like me to do 6 weeks of physical therapy, so I start that next week. I also bought some scar cream to put on my two slices --- both are pretty dry and itchy, so I'm hoping that the cream will help.

This weekend is a picnic with good friends, and not much else on the radar. We are all bringing a dessert to share at the picnic, so I'm bringing peanut butter chocolate-dipped rice crispy treats. YUM!

Hope you are having a good week --

Monday again....

I've got to get in a better habit of updating this blog! I think the summer-time makes it too easy for me to come up with an idea of doing something else, but I promise I'll try. :)

We had a fun weekend -- so fun, in fact, that I didn't shake my sinus headache/sore throat. Ugh. But, I suppose the fun outweighs the discomfort of my aching head.

Saturday, we celebrated with a dinner in honor of my parents fortieth anniversary (I know you are reading this, Mom!). We went to the B&B where Rob and I had celebrated our first anniversary, but we just did dinner and didn't stay the night this time. The chef/owner was a chef in France, and the food is sooooo good. The dinner is five courses -- here's what I had: risotto with spring vegetables; seared Hawaiian tombo (fish); sorbet; Waguy ribeye; and a dark cherry tart.

And I'm pretty sure this is what Rob had: mussels; seared scallops with caviar; sorbet; Bluenose (butter fish); and a peach/chocolate tart with lavender honey ice cream.

Needless to say, we were stuffed when we left. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for celebrating with us! We had a great time.

Sunday was the market, church and laundry laundry laundry.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Good Weekend

We are wrapping up a fun and easy weekend. We didn't do much, but that was a-okay. Rob went into work both Saturday and Sunday, so that gave me some time to hit the Talbots Outlet (everything an extra 40% off!) and run some other errands. We headed to Reston Saturday night for dinner at Jackson's, which is always yummy.

We watched the movie Milk last night, and I was really moved by the story. I didn't know much going in, and the subject matter is a little outside my wheelhouse, but the acting and the story of this activist/peacemaker's life were both really good.

So excited that the Next Food Network Star starts tonight! I would love to be a contestant on this show. :)

Friday!

Today marks the start of "early Fridays" in my office. We close two hours early on Fridays in June, July and August. Add on my lunch hour and I can head out at 1:30 p.m. Whoo hoo! This afternoon I plan to run some errands and try to get ahead for the weekend.

Rob's been working like a madman on a big project, so I anticipate him putting in some office hours this weekend. Another co-worker and I are hosting a baby shower mid-week next week, so I plan to do some baking and make a "Name that Co-worker" board of baby photos for a game. Hope it turns out okay.

Have a great weekend!