Paddington Lane

Change is Good... Right?

2011-11-13T12:43:00.000-08:00

OK, so life is sure to bring about bigger and more important changes than this one, it certainly has in the past. But still, change is a process... This month's change - I am (gulp) leaving the world of paper scrapbooking and entering the world of digital scrapbooking. Actually its more of a hybrid since i still plan to add some real embelishments. Anyone who has seen my craftroom will have an idea of how significant this change is. But the reality is i just don't spend as much time crafting as i used to. And when i do enter the craftroom i use my time making cards and smaller projects. Lets face it, its been almost 18 months since our wedding and i have scapped all of 5 pages of it. Time to switch to something a little quicker. Tom uploaded his old copy of Photoshop CS3 and was been quite patient when trying to teach me how to use it. It certainly has a learning curve, but its what we had available and i promised myself that if i was going to make this switch it would not cost us money in the form of software and equipment. I have found many nice kits paper and embelishment kits online that are free. I thought i would share my first project with you. Actually, that was another reason for wanting to make the switch, so many of our family members are not able to visit our home (at least not often) and this is such a fun way to share our lives! Overall I am pleased with it. I wish I had made the flower smaller, it seems every time i look at the page that flower has grown larger! And i wish i had taken the time to figure out how to put an in edge so my photo's looked a little more "real". Other than that i am happy with my page.

The print is very small since this is actually a 12x12 page shrunk down to photo size for blogging purposes.

Our Second Year as Home Owners...

2011-10-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

We have owned our home for two years! When we bought the house we posted pictures of the painting process but since then we haven't posted much about our home. (or posted much at all really... sorry about that!) There are still many things I would like to do with our home - like tear out the carpet and linolium and replace it with hardwood and tile. All in good time...

I thought an update would be nice, so i will start with the "living room". It was the one room on the first floor i wasn't sure what to do with. Its turned into a sitting room of sorts and not so much a living room. I am sure that this room as well as other rooms in the house will evloved over time. For now i wanted the living room to share a story of sorts. I wanted there to be some Chinese influence - that part isn't as dominate as i would like - its difficult to find nice accents in Indianapolis that fit... :) Its a work in progress, but i like where its going. I need some things for the walls...

This view is taken standing near the front door of our house I have always loved the large squared shelf in the center of the room, but in this house it never found its place like it did in my apartments. We moved it into the living room and decided to fill it with things from our lives. I few of my favorites - the house on top is actually a card holder from our wedding. To the left of that is a picture Don took at our wedding. He custom painted the frame to compliment the picture and gave it to us when he visited in March. If you look closely in the shelf's squares you will see memento's from our wedding, craft projects, pictures of friends and family and pieces from here or there that we enjoy.

The nested shelves to the right of large large squared shelf - This is my favorite part of the living room - i stiched the beads on the lamp myself (they match the beads on the curtains, which my mom made for us) The dried flowers are the flower's Michelle carried at our wedding.

The table and chairs are borrowed from my mom, i'm hoping i can keep them for a long time :) On the table is the tea set from our tea ceremony.

The Library/Office

Originally this room was intended to be a dinning room. Tom and I decided to convert it into a library/office space. My dad made us the beautiful build in book shelves. I was startled to realize that once all the books were out of the boxes we had nearly filled our space! My mom made the window treatment and also covered the ikea chair with matching fabric. Tom installed the overhead light, which was part of last years birthday present.

I have always loved dogs, as has Tom. In the background are dog books, including 3 James Harriot books (thank you Aunt Karen for introducing me to this author many years ago) You will see that there is a leash and and neck tie on the shelf. Both belonged to Joe, who we miss very much.

Our library would not be complete without a tribute to space exploration - some of these items originated with Tom (like the Mercury figure and The Right Stuff book), however most of these items are mine - mementoes Tom has given me in honor of my love of the Apollo program and the Shuttle program.

Thanks for exploring a few rooms of our house with me!
In other, more important news - At long last tickets have been purchased for a trip to Malaysia/Singapore. We are soooo excited! Tom will be home for Christmas this year and i suspect i will get to meet a lot of family :)

A new way to use up coleslaw mix

2011-09-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

We haven't updated this in a while so I thought I'd add this little recipe that I'd make when Dori's in the mood for soup.

Got a huge bag of coleslaw veggie mix in your fridge but sick of coleslaw? Well, fear no more! Here's a healthy, hearty soup you can make out of it....

Grab:

6-7 stalks of celery

2 medium onions

6 carrots

Your leftover coleslaw veggies

Along with...

A can of diced tomatoes

A can of V-8 juice (8oz)

3 cans of beef broth (8oz)

1 packet onion soup mix

Raid the spice rack for....

Onion powder (2 tbsp)

Garlic powder (2 tbsp)

Black pepper (1 tbsp)

Cayenne pepper (1 tsp)

Parsley (1 tbsp)

1 bay leaf

Would be nice if you had....

A smoked ham hock or leftover smoked, pulled pork (About 2-3 cups worth)

And a 4-quart pot to put it all in.

So chop up the celery, onions, carrots and coleslaw mix and just toss it into the pot like you see on the Food Network. Toss in the ham hock or pork next. Then throw in the spices, onion soup mix, V8 and beef broth. Finally, pour some hot water over the the whole mix until everything is covered. Heat until boiling, stirring constantly, then cover, lower to a simmer and let it all sit for a an hour and a half.

Serve hot with a dash of Tabasco, more salt to your preference, along with buttered rye bread. Great for cold weather! Put the leftovers in some food containers and refrigerate for up to three days, and after that I'd recommend that you freeze the lot. The best part about this is that the flavors improve as long as they're in the fridge.

Alternatively, if you don't have coleslaw cabbage, use a head of fresh cabbage instead. Cut the core out and toss that in with the rest of the soup mixture. The cabbage should be chopped up into 1" square pieces.

walkin' in memphis - last day

2011-04-11T10:44:00.001-07:00

Sarah is all dressed up for an afternoon with the girls.

I can't believe my flight leaves tonight, our time went so fast! Today we are going for lunch, then a little shopping. And hopefully we will find some cupcakes!

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Walkin' in Memphis - Day 3 - Downtown

2011-04-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

Today Janelle, Sarah and I explored downtown. We had a great time eating lunch at Huey's, taking a peak at Beale Street and walking along the Mississippi River on Mudd Island. My time here is going by really fast!! Today Sarah let me hold her for awhile, that was a fun moment. Sarah prefers her momma, so there isn't a lot of lap time, but i get all kinds of smiles whenever I talk to her, so we are for sure friends! (Buster on the other hand is more than happy to sit in my lap!) We had dinner at Corky's BBQ, which was excellent. Now we are just chillin' in the living room, getting ready to watch a movie. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Who could help but love this baby?!

Momma and Sarah, ready for lunch at Huey's

Sitting up like a big girl in the high chair

Toothpick's in the ceiling - put a toothpick in the straw,

use the straw like a blowgun and stick the toothpick in the ceiling

3 kinds of sliders on homemade buns!

Beale Street

A very small part of St. Jude's

Downtown Memphis

Mississippi River from Mudd Island

Mudd Island River Walk

Houses on Mudd Island

Walkin' in Memphis - Day 3

2011-04-09T09:32:00.001-07:00

Holdin' myself up!!

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Walkin' in Memphis - Day 2 - best picture of the day

2011-04-08T19:25:00.001-07:00

Lovin' the stroller ride

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Walkin' in Memphis - Day 2 - Memphis Botanic Gardens

2011-04-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

Today we spend the afternoon at Memphis Botanic Garden, it was a little early in the season for some flowers, but it was still very pretty. We had a great time walking around and enjoying the weather. Sarah sat up in her stroller like a big girl! She did a great job, although there was a time or two that she got annoyed with us. So much fun to just hang out and have good girl time.

Sitting up like a big girl!

pretty

shasta daisy

in the "big backyard" kids garden

there was a great play area for kids

4 leaf clover

biggest clover i have ever seen

hi!

play house in kids area

swingin' with my momma

random funny moment - i wanted to use the "facilities."

To bad the giant window was stuck wide open!

Janelle and Sarah blocked for me!

took lots of pictures, she never once looked at the camera!

then we tried the white flowers for background

But Sarah did not like this like idea AT ALL!

dogwood

Japanese Garden

Random stack of target carts. No idea...

Walkin' in Memphis - Day 2 - Buster

2011-04-08T10:24:00.001-07:00

Meet Buster the Boxer. He is my newest fur friend! We have met before, but this is the first time we have really hung out and got to know each other. Now we are buddies! Buster is a sweetheart who has NO idea that hes a bit large to be a lapdog. I'm laying on the couch watching tv on my laptop. Suddenly there is a small calf.. err, i mean a boxer, making room for himeslf next to me on the couch. Except there isn't room, so he just tries to take a nap on me instead. I've also found he likes to "sneak" into bed for cuddles. Except he isn't very stealthy! Buster, please don't tell the crash cat i'm cheating on him with a dog. I'll be in soooo much trouble!

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Walkin' in Memphis - Day 2

2011-04-08T07:53:00.001-07:00

Starting out the day...

Today we are going downtown and to the botanical gardens. But first Sarah needs a nap. So mamma and aunt Dori are catching up on facebook, email, blogs and tv episodes. I'm enjoying a few days with no deadlines to meet and no schedule to manage and keep up with.

In the meantime Tom is playing host for our great friends, Eric & Karen. I'm so bummed to have both these fun weekends happen at the same time. But so goes life sometimes. Rumour has it that Tom may also be painting the master bathroom this weekend if there is time. Best Husband Ever.

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Walkin' in Memphis - end of day 1

2011-04-07T18:03:00.001-07:00

Buster is standing watch

I'm having a great time hanging out, can't wait to see what adventures tomorrow brings!

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Walkin' in Memphis - Day 1 - gettin' our toes done

2011-04-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

Girls day!! we decided to pamper our toes and get them all ready for tomorrows adventures. Sarah stole the show, so i thought i would share a few of those pictures...

trying out the massage chair with mom

I think i can handle this chair all by myself thanks!

this is fun

everyone thinks Sarah is great! She gets all kinds of attention!

oh yea, and we did get our toes done (these are Dori's toes)

Walkin' in Memphis - Day 1 - more Sarah

2011-04-07T11:07:00.001-07:00

This is Sarah wearing the new outfit Aunt Dori brought for her - she already had the headband but the skirt and onsie are new... maybe we can catch a better picture of it later, right now we are busy playing!

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walkin' in Memphis - Day 1

2011-04-07T10:08:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! I am spending a long weekend in Memphis, TN with Janelle and Sarah (and Brian too:) I just figured out that i can post pictures from my phone to the blog, so I'll try and keep you updated with pictures. My flight left at 6am. So i got off of work at 12am and was up at 4am. I did sleep on the second flight a bit so that was helpful. I'm so glad to get to spend some girl time and catch up with Janelle. Its good to have a cousin/sister/friend!

Here's Sarah!

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Sarasota, Fl - Days 5 & 6

2010-11-25T20:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday we spent a good part of the day at Mote Aquarium and its adjacent bird hospital and sanctuary. We had a great time wondering around and looking at the animals. The best part was watching them feed the sharks - no feeding frenzy, it was very organized. The sharks are trained, each type of shark feeds at a specific spot, designated by a target/sign that is lowered into the water. When the sharks see the target that signifies their feeding spot they swim up and take pieces of fish from a metal arm extended into the water. Very cool. There were also lots of fish and coral as well as manatees, sea turtles and two dolphins.

Today we slept in, grilled steaks and ate some veggies. Not very traditional food, but fun and yummy non the less. Oh, and pie. Lots and lots of Yoder's pie. The guys watched football and I read a book on the lawn chair. It was nice :) Then we watched pumpkin chunkin'. It was a very laid back holiday, a nice break for sure!

Nurse Sharks

feeding time

more sharks

touching a sting ray

Tom's turn

pretty

lion fish

cuttle fish

Coral

The cuddly dolphin - the trainers were just sitting by the pool chatting. We watched them for at least 15 minutes. That dolphin just hung out with his head in the trainers lap, begging for more scratches. Very cute!

Albino Sea Turtle - this one was at the bottom of the pool then suddenly came to the top and said hello. According to the volunteer this lady turtle rarely comes up to visit and was the most active she had seen her in weeks. True to her word, Mrs. Turtle stayed for about 30 seconds and then retreated to the bottom again.

Manatee - I had never seen one before

bathrooms at the bird sanctuary

prepping Thanksgiving meal

Steaks and Asparagus

Thanksgiving Meal

reading

Tom's new pie much and a slice of Yoder's pie

Sarasota, FL - Days 3 & 4

2010-11-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

We are truly enjoying our vacation. The last 2 days have been very laid back... Yesterday Tom indulged me in several hours of shopping on St. Armands circle. I even got a new pair of sunglasses (I rather like them, Tom thinks they look "snooty" :) Of course i looked for them all day, went back to the same store 3 times to try on all kinds of shapes and sizes. I finally found the perfect pair. And the sun promptly went behind the clouds and stayed there for the rest of the day!! Today we slept in, purchased supplies for Thanksgiving Dinner (no Turkey this year), had lunch at my favorite Sarasota lunch spot and went sailing. Good times!

Home of wonderful Sangria, Mojito's & 1905 Salad

the sandwich was good, but the salad was amazing

view from lunch at Phillipie Creek

Alpine steak house - home of Sarasota TurDucKen

Note the guy in the visor - he was on Diners,DriveIn's& Dives

Not so much afraid of people

off to go sailing!

The sunset cruise was amazing, loved it!!

Sarasota Trip, Day 2

2010-11-21T18:07:00.000-08:00

Today we kicked back and relaxed. We stated they day attendeing Church of Hope with Steve, then decided to try out a new sushi/Chinese buffet just around the corner from our current diggs. It was great, a huge selection of food and the largest selection of sushi i have ever seen! The best part was when the check came - it was 30% off because it was grand opening weekend and is very reasonable priced anyway. So our grand total was $20.20 for 3 people to eat unlimited food!! Then it was off to the beach, where we lounged around, slept off the food, played in the water and read our books. Currently we are waiting on our $10 pizza to arrive and watching the Colts play the Patriots (o. So not a really exciting day, but very relaxing!

Just Chillin' on the beach reading my Kindle. Note the rock star hair created by lotsa hind in my hair. No complaints there!

some shells Tom found today

This weeks ride :)

Sarasota Florida, Day 1

2010-11-20T16:46:00.000-08:00

The origininal plan for this holiday season was much different than what is actually taking place. But due to a buy out at Tom's work, we ended up not having nearly enough time off for what we actually wanted to do. Instead, we opted to spend Thanksgiving week in Florida, which happens to be where my uncle Steve has been for almost a year now. So here we are, a whole week off with no schedules to accomidate and no need to figure out how to fit all that laundery in between work shifts. No promises that i will blog daily, i can't even manage to blog monthly! But today has been so much fun I just had to share it. The real fun started a few weeks ago. We really wanted a convertible but wanted to be fiscally responsible too (I want furniture for my formal living room, its been empty for a year!). Finally we decided to give it up, it really was that much more espensive, and we were just going to get a regular car. We could always upgrade when we got there if we changed our minds. At the last minute I decided to try priceline. I had used it for hotels and airfare before and saved a little, not not a significant amount. So I put in a bid that was way to low, $5 more than the least expensive car you can rent (I had priced all the major rental companys) Well... We got it!! It was a Crysler and not the Mustang we hoped for, but hey, the top retracts, so i wasn't about to complain! So we have the plane tickets, we have a car and grandma let us stay at her house in Pinecraft, so we had a place to stay. We're ready for our trip...

Crash the Cat says "Excuse me human's, but it is 3am. Turn off the lights and go back to sleep!!"

Made it to the airport, parked the car, checked in, got through security with minimal issues, found our gate and now its time for breakfast. (Note Tom's early Christmas gift - Kindle)

In the air on the way to Atlanta - sunrise above the clouds

First views of Florida!!

To those of you who know grandma well, this is not her house: suprise # 2 of the trip (you will see #1 later) - Steve swapped houses with us, he gave us his current diggs with cable and a hot tub. He took the Pinecraft bungalo we all love, but has limited amenities. Thank's Steve (and Aunt Sue/Uncle Glen for ok'ing the swap!)

Suprise # 1 of the trip took place at the airport - it was not a crysler, but rather a 2011 Ford Mustang Convertible complete with a v6 engine. This is a very happy me in a very fun car!

bridges and palm trees - 2 of my favorite things!

This is a fully loaded Salty Dog, as seen on Man vs. Food - thats a 1/4 deep fried hot dog on a but loaded with 2 types of cheese, bacon, mushrooms, sourkraut - it was a once in a lifetime experience for Tom. I had a bite or four. It was pretty good actually. Found only at the Ol' Salty Dog, Sarasota Fl

View from our seats at the salty dog

More to come!!

Arthur Open House

2010-08-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

We were blessed to have an open house/2nd reception in Arthur, Il where I grew up. I love my home town and though we don't see our lives rolling back around to live there again, its a great place to be.

Tom and I with the second wedding cake :)

I wore the dress again briefly, but it was very warm that day, so we canged soon after.

I didn't expect gifts, we were given so many nice things!

Mom's wonderful friends

Briley & Sophie

yes mother, someday we will do our best to give you granddaughters :)

In the meantime, she borrows Aunt Sue's

Several of our family memberes gave us two weekends in a row of their lives, we have a great family!

We also had many great friends who made the trip to share this time with us, we have great friends!

Lots of work went into this day and we had a lot of help to make it happen.

I should specifiy, mom had a lot of help... Tom and i were in Brown County enjoying a few days away while most of the work was going on!

Individual Custard Cups... Yumm!

Again... Yumm!!!

Dippin' Dots - Marsha had to trek off to go pick them up.

Marsha spent the better part of a week helping mom get ready for the open house,

don't think we could have done it without her!

Prepping the potatoes

Apple Pie, Tom's favorite

Makeing sure the flowers are ready, mom watered and babied those flowers daily all summer long :)

And Dad build a deck!!

A little help with the finishing touches

complete with a fire pit

Even Buddy got all dressed up

Bridal Party

2010-08-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

I tried to list them out by name, but it got complicated because they are not really in a row...

Dori's top 5 wedding moments

2010-08-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

1. Seeing Tom for the first time in his suite. He looked so handsome, I was/am so excited to marry him. I cried, he cried, we laughed and cried at the same time. It was a good moment.

2. Dancing with my dad - its something we have done together very few times and it was one of the parts of our wedding i ws looking forward to the most. I chose the song "I Loved Her First." I knew the first time i heard that song it would be the one i used at my wedding if i ever met a man worth giving up singledom for. If you don't know the song or would like to hear it again, I haved added it to the blog, its located at the very bottom of the page in the form of a youtube video.

3. The old car - Initally I thought this was a silly idea, but that car was one of my favorite parts of the wedding, we rode from the church to the reception in it and i loved every mintue. It also looked amazing in the pictures. What a great time!

4.Wedding Reception - I loved the location of our reception, the food was great, the deserts were amazing and I had the opportunity to see so many of my friends and family. Tom and i chose to greet our guests at the reception by going from table to table and taking time to just sit down and chat. We had a wonderful time!

5. The Music - It was amazing and made our ceremony sacred and beautiful. Brandon and Marie guided the music and musicians that made for such a pretty ceremony. Left to my own devices i would have used more praise and worship and less traditional music BUT what Tom and I decided on together, with Brandon's help, fit both our preferences and personalities. And i got to walk out of the wedding to a very lively rendition of Blessed Be The Name. Yet another great wedding moment.

Ceremony Slideshow

2010-08-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

I put together a short slideshop of the ceremony, I with you could hear the music, it was amazing.

Pre Wedding Pictures - Bride and Groom

2010-08-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, i have taken some time to post some official wedding photos. Thank you to Accent Photography, Nappanee, IN for doing a wonderful job with out pictures! The following are pictures taken before the wedding. For this post i am covering only the bride and groom. I have over 400 pics taken by the professional photograher alone, so i thought i would break it up into several different posts.

Tom and I didn't want to keep our guests waiting at the reception, so we opted to take most of the photo's prior to the wedding. But we didn't want to lose the moment of seeing each other for the first time in out wedding finery... We will start there.

Groom. Inspecting the Unity Candles while waiting for his Bride

Bride. Stepping into the church, i can see my groom, but he has his back to me...

Psst... Right behind you!

Honey, we're gettting married today!

First official wedding picture as a couple... I think we're both still in shock, its out wedding day!!

love this picture

well, hello there handsome

More to come...

Wedding Set Up

2010-06-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

We did a lot of set up for the wedding - The smartest thing we did was start on Thursday morning - it made for a much less stressful day prior to the wedding. I knew that it would take a lot of help from friends and family, but i was humbled by all the time and effort that others put into our wedding day. A special thanks to our family, friends and bridal party for making this day happen.

The wedding set up was quite extensive, especially at the reception hall. It started out with a trailor and two car loads full of supplies and decorations.

Then came the unloading of the car - here are the bridesmaid bags being taken upstairs

here we are with several bridesmaids, groomsmen, father of the bride - the topic of discussion: lighting!!

putting curtains onto rods - yes, mom made curtains for the windows!

hanging the curtains

Nolan and Kevin

I designed the programs and we put them together

here is the finished product - hand stamped and ribbon bound

taking a much needed break - dad and the musicians

mom, begging me to let her do something i didn't like. Probably trying to convince me the pew bows were a good idea...

so as to not be confused by who sits where...

More to come, but probably not for a few days - we are off to a short honeymoon trip tomorrow followed by an open house/reception in my home town, Arthur IL on Saturday

Family Fun

2010-06-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

I am now Mrs. Choy. The cards are still Schrock, the identification is still Schrock, the bank thinks i'm a Schrock, but really, I'm a Choy! This has been an amazing week, starting off with meeting Tom's immidiate family and then introducing them to some of my extended family. We all had a wonderful time and I was informed by more than one aunt that I am luck and blessed in my in-laws. I agree!!

There are wedding pictures on facebook and there will be more here, but this blog will focus on our families and the pre wedding family introduction... Jo & JD offered to host dinner for Tom's family when they came to Nappanee from Indianapolis on Wednesday - we had a wonderful time!

Introducing Tom's Parents to my Parents and Grandma

The Bachlor Beard became a Gotee - Dad and Tom had a bonding moment

Hahahaaa... We love to laugh!

Congradulating Randy on this Baseball talents

Showing off Aunt Jo's garden

Teaching Michelle to pick strawberry's

I think they got confused - we're the newlyweds!!

Dispite my threats of bodily harm to any groomsman who breaks a bone or has a visable bruise...

The ladies

Psst... "Dori, I put a fake turtle by your mom... do you think she'll scream?"

She screamed :)

Aunt Jo with Joe & Lena

PA trip

2010-02-21T14:40:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Tom and i joined my mother in a trip to Guys Mill, PA to spend some time with Marie, Brandon, Patrick, Kipp, Stuart and Christopher. They boys have agreed to be our wedding musicians, and we are pretty excited about that. At this point we do not plan to have any "canned" (pre recorded) music. We are also having very little in the way of vocals, which is different than we had originally planned. I am finding that a lot of things about planning a wedding change and adjust as we go :)

We left on Friday evening, drove 6 hours (much longer with stops along the way!) and arrived in Guys Mill after 3 am. I had the privilege of sleeping on the top bunk, something I have not done since college.

Marie makes Apple Pie for Spoiled Tom

Tom repaid the favor by making Fried Rice

Christopher, Kipp & Stuart

Mom is making a table cloth for the guest book table

Stuart's hand

Brandon plays a little music

The ladies having some coffee

Note that my mom is still working on that tablecloth

Also note the leftover fried rice on the table :)

Stuart is an excellent pianist

Roadside Art in Meadeville

We had a great time in PA and it was great to spend some quality time with Marie and her family. She is a very special aunt! I haven't got to spend a lot of time with "the boys" over the last few years, its great to see them grow into young men. (I'm proud to call them family)

The Dinner That Wasn't

2010-01-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

This weeks goal is to try and use some of the food from our freezer - no need to purchase food when there is yummy stuff in the freezer waiting to be turned into dinner. SO... Monday was chicken ravioli with pesto sauce thanks to Tom. (very tastey) Tuesday was my turn. I decided on Crab Cakes with a sauce i concocted out of plain yogert, dijion mustard, white wine and dill. All leftovers or things we just had on hand. I added some butter, reisling, garlic and old bay seasoning to the frozen soup and preheated the oven. While the oven was heating I put some cloths away and watched some TV, thinking my timing was excellent as Tom was on his way over for dinner. *sniff* *sniff* What is that smell? The oven doesn't usually smell... I looked at the oven and realized there was smoke in my kitchen. But why?? Maybe I accidently turned on a burner and melted something? That seems to be where the smoke is coming from, the back of the stove. Nope, nothing. Stove is off, nothing is melting, flaming or otherwise burning.Theres nothing in the oven. Or is there? I opened the oven door and smoke billowed out. Just a word of wisdom - it is good practice to remove things like pans with drippings from the oven prior to preheating the oven. It was nasty smelling and the kitchen was cloudy. At this point I decided I could either get angry or I could see the humor. So, chuckling, I called Tom and sugested that maybe he would like to take his lovely wife to be out for dinner :)

We decided to try a sushi place just down the street -

Soft Shell Crab Roll

Taco Mexicano Roll

SOOO GOOOD

Eel

Always a favorite, but this was extra good

I was a little disappointed about dinner, but I did manage to make Tuesday's dinner tonight (Wednesday) and it worked out ok. The dijion sauce turned out really well. And since sushi is proabably my favorite food ever, I can't complain that I had to wait a day to serve my meal.

~Dori~

Meet Joe the Beagle

2010-01-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Tom and I decided that our house, yard and hearts are big enough to include a dog. We decided to adopt a 12 and a half year old Beagle named Joe. We thought about changing his name, but decided that at 12 + years he should probably be allowed to keep his name. Joe has been a wonderful addition to our family. He is well behaved, never makes messes or jumps on people or furniture. Initally we thought that his old joints would not let him climb stairs and gave him trouble getting out of the car. It seems though that hes a bit of a manipulater as he can't get out of the car when we want to leave him at home BUT is perfectly capable of going up and down stairs if he wants something or someone. We are very glad that Joe is a part of our family.

New Years

2010-01-06T10:05:00.000-08:00

I would love to tell you all that I am so excited to blog about New Years, and I am. But in reality what i am doing is procrastinating the days goal of painting the downstairs bathroom and hallway to the garage. There’s just so many tiny corners!! I've been off most of the week, so on Monday I painted the upstairs bathroom. Its a pretty blue color that coordinates well with my warm brown Longaberger baskets (shhhh... don't tell Tom that i actually took my baskets into Lowes with me and stood there making sure our paint selection was the best color to coordinate with my baskets. I also wouldn't mention that the paint people were highly amused by my baskets. He'll role his eyes at me and probably shake his head too!) Tuesday was my first day at my new job and after lots of paperwork and a chat with my new boss I have decided that i think this job will be ok. That said, i actually have a cubical. A cubical!! I’ve always had an office (even if it was a shared one) or worked out of my car. I’m an office drone! Actually I’m not, I’ll be spending a lot of time out of the office doing visits with participants (that’s what my new clients are called, “participants”). Anyway, enough random speak of paint, baskets and new jobs…

Tom and I were able to spend a long weekend with my parents in Arthur over new years. Mom and I did a lot of wedding planning, a lot of revamping things we thought were set in stone. Over Christmas the topic of wedding came up at Grandma’s house and it was nice to hear other perspectives and ideas. We are very much a talking, discussing, planning family. Many big life events/decissions (or little ones) are brought to family and discussed or reviewed. This often takes place at grandma's kitchen table late in the evening. That said, the unspoken rule is, after you have been given a fair opportunity to share your thoughts, you are expected to not come back days or weeks later with a new view or thought you didn't share earlier :) The discussing is not open forever! So over New Years we took some of those ideas and re considered a few things about the wedding.

On New Years day Tom consented to be the chef and we had our 2nd annuel post Christmas fried rice dinner at Glen and Sue's. It all started last year when dad gave Uncle Glen a sample of Tom's fried rice. Later that weekend we decided to make fried rice for Glen, Sue, Todd and Shelby. That became a much larger group by the time it was all said and done - and a tradition appears to have developed. This year Brian came over to the house to have a fried rice lesson. Tom thinks nothing of making fried rice, but because we did not grow up with the ingrediants or style of cooking its a bit of a novelty. Plus, its really good!!

the cooking lesson begins

chicken fried rice - Tom says he never used chicken in fried rice before we specifically requested it last year. This year he marinated the chicken in some Tom Style concoction - it was really tasty

My Personal Chef ;)

We had so much rice, we put it into crockpots - 3 really big ones

By the time it was done, we had 56 cups of cooked rice (before the meat and veggies were added)

There were leftovers, but not as many as you might think

Shrimp fried rice

I always think the eggs look like the difficult part

Our menu turned out to be quite eclectic - there was plenty of fried rice - chicken, shrimp and cabbage bacon (my favorite!) There was also apple and pecan pie with dad's homemade ice cream. Yummi!

~Dori~

Christmas 2009

2010-01-04T19:04:00.000-08:00

We had a quiet Christmas this year; I worked on Christmas Eve and Tom came to the hospital and ate Christmas Eve dinner with me in the cafateria. Christmas day we spend relaxing at our house and Christmas evening i worked for a few hours. We did head to Nappanee for a day trip Sunday to spend some time with my family. As usual, we were not bored...

Getting packed up to leave - Joe decided that he A: wants to go to grandma's too B: is planning on driving

Best part was it took FOREVER to get him out of the car. He kept acting like he couldn't manage it.

Our thinking was that since he doesn't go upstairs or downstairs, his old joints must not do steps... More on that later!

Pulling into grandma's, looks like everyone is here!

The boys decided to see how high they could stack the boxes

They did manage to get it above the fan blades

"Think its gonna fall?"

This is a pic of them taking down the tower, it actually fell as i snaped the pic, their catching those boxes as the fell. Note the pile of boxes on the couch

Playing games

laptop time!

Just hangin out

Hey!

(Phil is demonstrating proper technique learned from growing up with 7 siblings)

Mom's Pretty Christmas Socks

Every year i buy her the ugliest christmas sockes i can find and every year she wears them!

Chistmas Buddy!

Changes and a New Year

2010-01-02T20:20:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! Its been far to long since we have blogged, so I thought I had better give everyone a quick update. I (Dori) can't seem to manage the card reader for photos tonight, so i'll show you the detail of Christmas and New Years in another post. At the momment we are in Illinois enjoying "Christmas" with my parents. I started a job PRN (as needed) job at a local hospital in November, so i spent much of the actually Chistmas holiday/weekend on call or working in the ER. We did manages to squeeze in a day trip to Grandma's house in Nappanee over Chirstmas weekend, which as great.

Its been an emotional week. On Christmas Eve I received a job offer from an insurance company and although its not a job that I would have chosen a few years ago, after much thought and consideration I did accept the position and on monday I resigned from my current position as a consultant for long term care facilities. It was much harder to write my resignation than i ever thought it would be. As a social worker, I have always considered my job to be much more than just a way to earn money. I loved being a consultant and two years ago when i started the job was a great fit. I loved the travel and the constant change and even the chaotic schedule. I love being the person who has the skills and ability to access a situation and then fix the system so that it functions properly. I love being the person who puts out the fire. However, in the last year my life has seen a lot of change. All of it good! But change none the less. Tom has always been supportive of my career and very understanding of my travel, after hours phone calls and last minute schedule changes. However over the last several months it was becoming more and more clear that I am the one who was not OK with the commitment my job takes. As I thought about leaving the job that i always wanted and have loved every minute of for the past two years I realized that its not just the resignation that brings emotion, but the changes in my lifestyle that have brougth the resignation about. My fiance, house and furchildren need me (or at least, they really like when i'm around :) But in reality I am realizing just how much I enjoy the stability that they offer and the life that is promised within the walls of that house and the circle of what has become our tiny family. This is not to say that this transition does not come without complications and frustrations. Blending our different backgrounds and cultures is sometimes automatic and easy, but then at times it is suprisingly difficult. There have been a few times that we have just not been on the same page. Sometimes getting on the same page again means finding a compromise. Other times it means changing an outlook, mindset, perception or lifestyle. Those are a bit harder to figure out. But we do figure it out, because its vital and so worth it.

So thats whats going on in my life and in my head these days. Chistmas blog with pictures to come...

~Dori~

Christmas at Paddington Lane

2009-12-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

We have done a little Christmas decorating, i'm big on after Christmas sales, so we are decorating with what we bought last year and a few things i've gathered over the years. Anyway, its been fun!

He stole my chair!!

(Thats my favorite spot)

ahhh, got my spot back

Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-12-01T20:50:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Dad had a huge furniture delivery in Canada, so he wasn't able to join us until Friday night. Because of this we decided to postpone the traditional turkey dinner until Saturday. We decided that Tom would try his hand at roasting a duck for Thanksgiving day. Tom started his duck prep in the morning. To those of you who don't know, Tom's cat is Ducky. She stalked around the kitchen for awhile, so i reassured her that we were most certainly roasting a fat chicken and of course we would never consider eating a duck! Also, if we said "duck" in her presence her ears would perk up and she would look at us :) Well it is her name! Anyway, back to the dinner. Tom prepped the duck and then roasted it for 4 hours, flipping it every hour and letting the fat drain into the bottom of the pan (he had it sitting up on a rack). Then he parboiled potatoes, browned them in duck fat and roasted them in the oven. Just before being served the duck recived a glaze (your gonna have to ask Tom about that, I'm not sure what went into that) Mom arrived just in time for our feast, which tuned out completely perfect. I really like duck as a meat, but i didn't grow up eating it. Aside from some very greasy fare years ago my mother had never really tried it. This duck was not greasy at all. It was tender and juicy and amazing.

Saturday was my day to test my skills in the kitchen. As usual, mine comes with a story to tell. Tom and I picked the Turkey several days before when we found them on sale. At that point I began to think about how I wanted to roast this years turkey (I've only done this once before and it was good, but I knew I could do better) I had heard of brining a Turkey, but had no idea how to do it. The day before Thanksgiving I was working in a nursing home doing some assessments. I met an 86 year old woman who had broken a hip just days before Thanksgiving. We were chatting about the holiday and I told her I was going to handle the turkey this year and I was a little nervous since I didn't have a plan (ask Tom, there always has to be a plan. Following the plan isn't required, I just need to know that I have a place to start:). She took pity on me and offered to share her favorite brine recipe that she promised would make the juciest turkey I had ever roasted (not hard since I had only made one, but still, it was a kind offer) So I used her basic recipe and made a brine that went a little something like this - equal parts vegtable broth and water, half a cup of my favorite herbs (more like a tablespoon each) 2/3 cup tender quick, minced garlic, a little bit of worchester and some real maple syrup (no fake stuff here!) Bring to boil, cover turkey with brine and leave to sit for 24 hours. Add some of moms party potatoes and my favorite pasta salad and steamed broccoli and you have Thanksgiving dinner. Except it wasn't on Thanksgiving day. Dad arrived the night before and Jen, Kevin and Nolan joined us for the meal. We were very excited to have a house full of guests for the meal. As promised, the Turkey was by far the best I had ever made. It was juicy, tender and flavorful. So good in fact that Tom has been waiting on turkeys to go on sale so we can roast one for lunch meat. Oh, and I almost forgot Mom's pumpkin pie. Also amazing.

Dad did lots of little helpful jobs around the house Saturday. At one point he decided that he needed to go to Lowes, however he neglected to take his loyal little dog with him.

Buddy sat there, looking out the window the entire time dad was gone

In the middle of all that Mom and I unpacked some 30 boxes and got our house feeling more like a home than a storage unit. We also went out shopping on Black Friday. We did find some great deals and after a year and a half of dreaming I finally own a Cricut (to those of you who do not scrapbook, its a machine that cuts all kinds of shapes and is perfect for my wedding planning)

Here we are, playing with the scrapbooking toys

~Dori~

P.S. As to the questions as to the last post about the day Tom proposed, it seems I did not provide enough detail :) He did get down on one knee. On the wet ground. In the rain. He said something profound and thoughtful about perfect days. I got a little distracted by the shiny ring and the emotion of the moment and I sorta forget the details (sorry Tom). And after that we walked back up the hill and it started pouring rain. Mr Prepaired had a giant umbrella, so it was fun. No one else was around, even though we were on a popular little wooden dock overlooking the koi pond (thats probably because it was raining!) Hope that fills in the details a little :)

My Favorite Weekend of the Summer

2009-11-12T20:38:00.000-08:00

One of the nice things about moving is that you find some of the things you lost. I've been looking for my camera for months. Cameras are not fun to replace, but they are replaceable. The pictures on that camera were not replaceable. All the pictures from this summer were on that camera. On moving day I was a very happy girl when Erin found it buried deep in my couch! Hopefully i will be able to share a lot of those pictures and memories with you soon. I decided to start with my favorite weekend of the year ;)

It all started with Tom picking my up at my apartment one rainy Saturday morning in July. We were headed off to Bloomington, IN, a town i had never visited but that Tom had told me about several times. On the agenda was breakfast at the Uptown Cafe, shopping for books at the used/rare book stores and unique gift shops and wine tasting at the Oliver Winery. Now, at this point Tom and I had been dating for just over a year and I was quite sure that he had in his possession a ring that was soon to be mine. I was hoping he would present it at some point during this trip. Now this said, i was not completely sure that he had talked to my parents yet. Now before we could head out Tom seemed to think it was very important to stop by his apartment. And i began to wonder "whats he gots in his pockets?" (sorry if you haven't read the Hobbit, that probably didn't make much sense :)

Breakfast was wonderful, i had creme brulee french toast, which was amazing! We also had yummy salmon and cream cheese bagels. Then off to the book corner!

This was a large used book store and i loved all the postings on the door, it was a fun little mom and pop place.

oliver winery

When we arrived i wanted to go feed the koi but it was raining. After out wine tour and tasting it was still raining, but we decided to go look at the koi fish in the rain.

See, its raining and my hair is damp, but it was fun! And then it got more fun, because Tom proposed, in the rain, on one of the nicest days i had ever enjoyed.

Afterwords we went back to town and wondered around a little more, visited a kitchen shop where we got busted for flirting and then congratulated on our engagement by the store owner and some other random strangers. It was funny! And then there was this cupcake at the local cake shop, with the best and lights frosting i have ever had.

Fifty thousand things to do

2009-11-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

So the house is mostly painted, and stuff partially unpacked, and I've had some time to strike a few more things off the honey-do list, like work in replacing the light bulbs in the house, then mow the lawn, rake the yard (that took two days). At last estimate we had 11 trees, but after some thought I think those large trees at the back of the property might be ours too. Fortunately those two sit back enough back there that the leaves they shed just drops back into the foliage at the edge of the property line.

We finally have proper TV and internet around here. No more frustrating moments of sniffing out free wifi! We ended up getting a 6mbps pipe and 200-some channels including BBC and a whole slew of documentary channels, and a 4-channel DVR. We've already programmed to DVR to record a bunch of documentaries, because we're nerds. Unfortunately the service provider screwed up royally on the delivery - we were supposed to have it installed between 1-3pm but nobody showed up until close to 7, and the dispatcher didn't tell him it was a new install so he ended up doing the install til 9pm. He was pretty apologetic and quite professional, taking the time to do things right, but customer support will have plenty to hear from me on the pre-installation service.

Back to the house. This house is remarkably energy-efficient. The original owners had just about done everything right, from adding the insulation pads to the outlets on the "outside walls" to the nice insulated windows. The heater would kick in, heat the place up to its preprogrammed temperature, shut off and it'd stay that way for quite a while from there. I'm very interested to see how this house does during the winter, but I'm quite optimistic. I also replaced almost all of the light bulbs downstairs and in the basement with CFT bulbs, so that lowers our wattage from 60w to an average of 20w. Now if I could just get my hands on some solar panels we could really be making a dent in our power bill.

It's getting late now and I should get to bed since I've spent the last two days doing crazy house stuff, and didn't really get to do any "me" stuff. Come to think of it, I haven't really had a relaxing weekend since we got the house, but to be honest I really don't mind. Sure I spent the weekend raking the yard when I could be watching some TV, or working on a model, or reading that book Dori got me; but it's quite nice to be to be working on it. The alternative would be not having any home improvement to do at an apartment, which doesn't sound very attractive any more.

Moving Day and Other Fun Stuff

2009-11-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

Officially I moved into the house one week ago today. To date we have managed to unpack the kitchen, get the den furniture moved in and install internet and television. The master bedroom has my random collection of bedroom furniture, but we're done purchasing furniture for now (we're saving our pennies for a flat screen television, merry christmas to us). Both furchildren now live in the house. Crash (my baby) has decided to live upstairs and sometimes graces us with his presence on the first floor. Ducky (tom's baby) lives in the basement. Crash hid for a few hours but adjusted rather fairly quickly. Ducky is a little more high strung and we expected her to hide for days. Instead, she startled us by waltzing out of her travel carrier and promptly investigating her new home. She seems to approve since there has been no cat drama. I don't think either cat realizes he has a new sibling in the house :)

This weekend Tom spent a lot of time dealing with AT&T and dealing with fall in indiana - we have 11 trees, most of which have shed a pile of leaves onto our yard! I had a more leisurely weekend, shopping with jen and nolan followed by girls night. Fun times were had by all!

moving day

nolan isn't so sure about shopping, but he did so good!!

bad pic from my phone, but this is girls night at Erin's home

It was lots of girl bonding fun (we got pedicures!)

Its Starting to Look Like a Home

2009-10-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday I picked up some hours in a nearby facility so that i could add to my furniture/decorating fund. There is also a honeymoon fund, wedding fund, hardwood floor fund, glass display case fund, scrapbook fund, model airplane fund and on and on and on and on :) Anyway, I put in several hours and hurried home to work on the house. I knew the library needed at least one more coat of paint and then it would be on to the dreaded kitchen with all its tiny spaces and corners. I arrived home to find Tom and Matt painting our kitchen. I was so excited, what an excellent surprise! The paint covered really well (finally! a room that wasn't a two or three coater) and with three people went on very quickly. The main downstairs rooms are all painted. There is a short hallway and a bathroom that still needs some color, but i am totally stuck on ideas for those spaces, so they will have to remain as is for awhile.

The colors are giving the house more personality and i think once we get some furniture moved in it might start to sink in that i really get to keep this house! Tom and I spend a good portion of Sunday furniture shopping and did decide on a couch and loveseat set that we liked for the den. There is also an ottoman/coffee table and a small chair that i can't wait to sit and read a book in. I picked up a new book to read the other week and now i am saving it just for that chair. My little reward for getting my apartment packed up. Hopefully they will deliver the furniture before the end of the week! We would love a flat screen TV for above the fireplace, but that will have to wait until we have things to sit on, things to eat on and things to sleep on. Oh and something to dry our cloths in. Mom is gifting me her old washer, but the dryer is dead. That or its the one that made the horrid screeching noise all the way through the cycle.

My moving day is Sunday, awkward, but that’s the way it worked out with the elevator schedule. I don't think my apartment will be completely packed by then, but we will be able to move out all the furniture and large items. I can't wait to actually live in this house!

these are good men, i love them

thank you matt!!

library, the flash gives it a pink hue, its actually a deeper color, more of a plum or dark wine shade

my fantastic kitchen color, I am so pleased with how it turned out

someday i would love matching appliances, but these work and are in excellent condition, so no new matching stuff for me yet!

the dinning area and den

Please excuse the mess, its more of a work space than a home right now!

~ Dori ~

PS someday i promise to write about something that has nothing to do with our house!

Mowing the Lawn

2009-10-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, I grew up in tiny Arthur, Illinois, population 2100 (hey, that’s what the sign said as you drove into town). I am an only child and I lived in a small two-bedroom house. It had one little bathroom and it was heated by... well, I have no idea what kind of heating system it was. I just know that it blew hot air strait out the heater and I loved to sit in front of it, especially when my hair was wet or I was cold. OK, I’m getting distracted. This post is supposed to be about mowing the lawn! Anyway, small town life can get a little slow, especially in the summer when most of your friends live out of walking distance. My main chores growing up were 1. Fold laundry 2. Put laundry away 3. Wash the dishes 4. Clean the bathroom 5. MOW THE LAWN. I emphasis this because one summer, with my friends out of town, I developed a phrase my mother hated. "I'm bored." So my mother said, "Every time you say that you are going to either mow the lawn or wash the dishes" Now seriously people, there are only so many dirty dishes, and really how often can you mow a lawn? But let me just say, for the record: It is a BAD idea to test your mother. The dishes were always clean that summer. And believe me when I say, you can mow a lawn about every 3 days. No really, its possible! So I am good at mowing lawns. I haven't had to do this in a very long time, but believe me, it’s a skill you don't really loose over time. So, when we bought our new house, it became clear that Tom intends to be the man of the yard. Excellent, this works for me. I'm all for some good old-fashioned "man of the house" behavior.

Now, lets take a very brief look at Tom's background. He did not grow up in a small town, he did not grow up an only child and he did not have a yard (at least not one that took like two hours to mow with a self propelled push mower 3 times a week that one summer that I tried to test my mother). Now I know this about Tom and yet, it’s just not sinking in. He calls like 4 times when he’s trying to buy a mower to discuss what kind we should get. He debates the pros and cons. He researches different kinds, debates if he really needs self propelled or just a push mower. Now I'm not poking fun at Tom, I'm poking fun at myself. Because I am impulsive and I have what Tom calls a “devil may care” attitude. I prefer to reframe that like any good social worker. My reframe is this; I worry less than he does:) Tom thinks things through, researches, makes sure hes getting what he really wants and needs. (meanwhile I am still trying to figure out why this is so difficult, its just a mower) We finally get the mower and I’ve got to pack an apartment full of stuff so I want to go back to my place. And Tom is looking for the choke, and I’m half annoyed because I know you only need to prime the motor in an old lawn mower. And he seems to want me to stick around at least for part of this seemingly significant event. And then it finally hits me, what should have been crystal clear all along. He's never mowed a lawn before, at least not a big lawn that requires a self-propelled mower. Duh, he’s told me this, but it doesn't quite sink in until that moment. This is why what lawn mower to buy was something that required serious consideration. This is why he wants me to hang around for a bit. This is why a girl should really listen to her fiancé! So Tom got a lesson on how to mow a lawn and I got a reminder that, as a social worker, I really shouldn't need: Not everyone grew up in Arthur, IL and mowed the lawn at least twice a week growing up. So here are some pictures of my man and his mower!

Tom's bright shiny red mower

My handsome man working in his yard!

had to put this in here - please note the U of I hoodie!!

haha, busted sportin' the orange!

Finished product! Nicely done honey!!

Oh, and just one final note - I found out years later that because of that summer of constant yard mowing, the neighbor boys used to refer to me as "lawn mower lady" Thanks mom.
~ Dori ~

Fall Fun

2009-10-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

We are loving being homeowners, but with all the painting and packing going on we were missing out on fall in indiana. So we took a little break for some time with friends and pumpkin carving...

Originally we were looking for a pumpkin farm, but that was a little harder to find then we first thought, so we stopped at this roadside stand

Pumpkins selected! (notice the tiny one in Kevin's right hand; that's for baby Nolan)

Here's our loot! Pumpkins for Tom, Dori, Crash and Ducky. Spagettie and Butternut squash for eating, as well as some fresh green beans

I LOVE cooking in my kitchen, this is way better than apartment appliances!

Dinner; chicken and fresh green beans in front of our fireplace

It was a perfect evening!

may the pumpkin festivities begin!

Digging the junk out

Carving

Happy Pumpkin, with a great little tooth

(Tom drew my idea for me, i am not so artistic!)

Tom's Puking Pumpkin (ewe), but i have to admit, i laughed!

he had way to much fun with this

our porch pumpkins!

~Dori~

FYI...

2009-10-12T20:07:00.001-07:00

...the main hallway, formal room, stairway and upper hallway are done.

- Tom

House painting and family bonding

2009-10-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are a few pictures of the inside of our new home. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Steve and Grammy (I still can't believe that name stuck) our house is becoming a home that represents our personalities. We put in a LOT of work in two days and I am so very thankful my family took time out of their busy lives to help us get started on our redecorating mission! Tom and I went to Lowe's on Wednesday evening and got our first buckets of paint - base coat for the master bedroom, paint for the "formal" living room (there's also a den) and paint for the guest room. On Thursday morning I got up early and headed to Lowe's again, this time to pick up lighting for the kitchen and dining area. Tom had to work so he missed out on a lot of the fun, but hey, we gotta actually pay for the house :) By noon my family arrived and the painting fun began.

There is a leaf blower in my kitchen! (also, it looks like my mother is sitting on my fathers head)

Grandma and mom took one look at the ceilings and declared that a paint job was in order. Steve manned the roller and within two days ALL the ceilings were bright white and clean! In this pic Steve is painting what will be my craft room for scrapbooking, origami, card making and whatever else I end up playing with.

Yes, that's a leaf blower. It's set to vacuum mode and my dad is cleaning out the bathroom vent. He had way to much fun with that (Also, i would like to point out that once the house is painted and we are moved in, no leaf blower will be used as a household appliance! I don't care how much Dad and Tom beg!!)

"Thomas, get the camera out of the way before I mask it!"

"Wake up sleepyheads, we gots paintin' to do!"

Solution to sleepy slaves - provide coffee in large quantities

Ahhh, much better, the work continues with the master bedroom!

More trimming

Grammy is hard at work in the master bedroom. There is a small vanity outside the master bathroom which i am sure i will enjoy. The former owners left me a vanity chair. Its quite gold. Tom's gonna spray paint it black for me so it blends in a little better.

Steve is still painting ceilings

Dad is done with the leaf blower

Trimming the guest room

Guest room, coming along nicely (FYI - that color turned out much darker!)

Lunch time!

Rolling the wall in the formal living room - there was actually a giant paint run exactly where this picture is taken, probably i was making that mistake as the picture is being snapped. I tried blaming it on my mother, but seeing as i was caught on film roller in hand, i was totally busted (oops!)

Formal Living Room - this picture is taken from the entry way of the house

Dad is updating the lighting - he is rather proud of his work :) So am I, it looks great!

Our kitchen has become a work station. I can't wait to actually get paint on the walls, stuff moved in and actually live in this space!

Buddy, my parents dog. Hes guarding the steps :)

Steve, paint warrior!

That's it for the pictures! There were a few other really fun things that happened during these two days that we did not manage to catch on film. Tom and I treated the "slaves" to dinner at Kona Jack's (in case anyone is wanting some trivia, that is also where Tom took me on our very first date). It was a wonderful meal and I am very grateful that Tom thought of the location, I couldn't think of anything and we would have settled on a boring chain restaurant had he not thought of that. Also, UPS delivered Tom's laser level and the UPS man said "Is this the Choy residence?" Ok, its a small thing but I grinned like an fool for an hour. And finally, Jen and baby Nolan stopped by to say hi to my family and see the house. It was so fun to have just have someone drop in randomly. Again, a small thing, but a great reminder that we have a home and friends close enough to just make a quick visit. No planning or buzzing in to the building required!

Right now i am in Grand Rapids, MI for work. I miss working on our house and I feel bad because Tom continues to spend his evenings painting and fixing up while i hang out in a hotel room out of state. I am blessed with a fiance who is willing to keep working on stuff, even when he has to do it alone.

~Dori~

Paintingpaintingpaintingpaintingpainting.

2009-10-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

To prepare for moving in, we're painting the house first. It occured to us that the house felt like it had no personality for some reason and it finally dawned on us that it was because all of the walls of the house were white. Further investigation revealed that the walls were originally blue or pink upstairs, and bright red in the basement. I can't imagine what the other rooms were. Fortunately the white paint offered good coverage for our paint project.

Dori's parents, Grammy and Steve were kind enough to come by to help out with the initial painting on Thursday and Friday. Steve's being in town was also so that he could drive Grammy home for her surprise (while she spent the last week and a half at Cliff and Doris', Steve and JD had ripped out the linoneum in her kitchen and replaced it with some nice ceramic tile). She's going to have quite the surprise when she gets home!

In the last few days, I've discovered the following:

1) I hate painting ceilings;
2) I hate masking;
3) I especially hate painting stairways;
4) Paint is bloody expensive.

We did discover that our paint of choice is Valspar. It's about $32 a gallon but we're getting a $5 rebate per can, which is great since I think we've bought 10 gallons of various colors so far. As of writing, the front door is done, the formal room, main hallway, stairwell and guest room are done; the master bedroom is partially done (base color is complete but we still need to mask for the stripes), and the rest has yet to be started. The basement will be left alone as the flat white paint and flourescent light is a great combination for airbrushing.

We've also starting replacing the faux gold hardware throughout the house, such as the locks and the kitchen light. The dining area chandelier is being replaced too, though we haven't installed that yet. The old dining room, which will be converted into a library, will have that faux gold chandelier replaced with a Tiffany lamp, which would go great with the color we've picked and the built-in bookshelves that we've convinced Cliff to build for us.

So we've pretty much been at the house at one point or another ever since we took possession of the house, and four days since we really started working on it. Today was the "lightest" of the work days, with most of the day spent at Lowe's picking up the last of the paint, combing Craigslist for a lawn mower, spending some chill time watching football with Jen and Kevin, and 2 hours getting the stairway done. It's starting to feel like some progress is done as I'll be done with this color tomorrow, and I'll be able to start on the library Tuesday, and the den on Wednesday.

Alright, it's 1:15am, I'm exhausted, and I need to get some sleep. Hopefully all of that stuff I typed made sense.

-Tom

A Year In Review (well, more than a year really)

2009-10-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

October 6 was my 31st birthday. It slipped by without much fanfare this year for multiple reasons (it was on a tuesday, we had a wedding the weekend before, we're busy with home ownership, blah blah blah). Tom did take me to a local eatery which turned out to be not as nice of an environment for a quiet birthday dinner (bit more sports bar than we expected) BUT had fantastic food. And since Tom knew the chef we got to chat with the chef and owner for a bit, which was also very fun. As usual, Tom treated me like a queen and the evening was special and memorable.

At 31 your a bit old for gifts, but i might have to laugh about this years loot. Grandma gave me a lovely card and some money (thanks you Grammy!), Tom is taking me to Bloomington for some book shopping fun in a few weeks and (this is my moment of grownupness) my parents bought me a 6 foot step ladder. Now seeing as we are painting a house and had no ladder, this is a very practical and useful gift. At first, I must admit, i was a bit dissapointed. But then two things hit me. 1. those things are expensive and we really really need one 2. i'm getting married. Which means this is the gift that keeps on giveing. Tom can use my birthday gift for all kinds of things!! Hanging Christmas lights, changing light fixtures and light bulbs, cleaning vents, chasing cats out of trees, painting, washing windows and siding... the list goes on and on. (I am in SO much trouble when he sees this :)

I've mentioned before in this blog that it has been a very blessed year and hands down the best year of my life. I won't bore you with details, its pretty obvious just looking at this page that this is deffinatly a mountian year, not a valley year. I would however like to take a few moments, in pictures, to share with you some of the people who were with me and supported me in those years that were good in their own way, but not always as fun and joyful as this one has been.

krissa and i met in CA, while working in what is still the toughest job i have ever had. She became a life long friend and we shared many things, including being single longer than basically all of our friends. (she was one of the people who talked me into eharmony and was married the weekend before i met tom)

Meet Laura, (you know, Greg's wife, Laura!). I met Laura through her husband, who i worked with at Oaklawn. We quickly developed a friendship and for a long time we laughed because everyone called her "Greg's wife, Laura" Because we all new Greg, but Laura was new to us. She and Greg have moved to Kansas and I miss her lots! (Greg and Luke are featured in my last blog)

Meet Jen, mother of Nolan, wife of Kevin. I met Jen, like nearly all of my close friends, at Oaklawn. She is a women of much grace and compassion and I am blessed to call her my friend (and neigbor!) Jen has had a very busy year as well, she graduated with her MSW, moved into a new home and had a child within the last year!

This is Kevin on his 27th? birthday. I think it was before he was "officially" dating Jen. (he is pictured with Krista, who we miss because she ditched us for London!) Kevin is a man of intensity (and we love him for it!), as well as very supportive and understanding friend and somehow after a few years i once again find myself living within walking distance of his house.

Janellie!!! Ok, i'm the only one who calls her that. Meet Janelle, my cousin and wonderful friend. We have shared many fun adventures together including a road trip from San Fransisco, CA to Arthur, IL when i moved back to the midwest after spending some time in California. We also used to share "car issues" For several years, when she drove a neon and i drove a saturn, what happened to one would happen to the other. If she got pulled over, i was gonna get pulled over soon. I need new tires? So will janelle! Oh, and if one locks her keys in the car, the other better beware, it will happen within a few weeks! We now both have "healthy" cars. But we still drive to fast, get lost and lose our keys!

Phill!! I miss Phil! He used to live across the hall and within walking distance of my house. Then he moved and i moved and life went into fast forward. You can meet Phil at the wedding, hes gonna be an usher (i wonder if he would be willing to be the sound guy too?)

My mom and "sister aunts" (with Justin in the background) The older i get they more they become friends and sisters more than just aunts. They allow me to play "aunt" to their children and Karen is my "other mother" and is the one and only reason i ever had clean cloths during grad school

There are many people that i don't seem to have pictures of (i've crashed more than one computer, i think it was 5 in the last 3 - 4 years at last count)... Eric, Matt, Erin, Steve ("the uncle"), many family members and friends. the little photo review wasn't meant to be all inclusive. Its just a little walk down memory lane and a review of a very small percentage of the people who have blessed by life over the years. Thanks you.

~Dori~

PS It seems i forgot to download the pictures off of Tom's camera, so the latest updates on house paining will be blogged soon. Probably tomorrow or monday

Our New Home and Our First Visitors!!

2009-10-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if I can fully explain how excited I am about our new house. Its a quiet, almost unbelieving kind of excitement. Like if I get to happy about it, I will wake myself up from this wonderful dream. Then I realize that I still have a two bedroom apartment to pack and many walls to paint and unpacking and decorating and yard work and organizing and trips to Lowes, and colors to choose and rooms to designate and on and on. Yipes, now I am wide awake, this is for real! Oh yeah, and we're planning a wedding in here somewhere. And it is fun, frustrating, exciting and lots of others emotions and experiences. It took a very long time and a few tough experiences to get to this point in life, but it has been well worth it. I have no doubts that Tom and I were Intended to be together, and although neither of us saw it at the time, our life experiences, good and bad, have molded us into who we are today. I'm grateful for that.

Anyway, enough introspection! Tom mentioned our first meal, pizza and wine, the day we closed on the house. Thought you might like to see a picture of that experience. Don't be mislead, we didn't manage to stand still at all that night! We still have no table, chairs or any really functional items in the house. We take a car load of things each time we stop by and by Wednesday I plan to be painting. I'm off work this week (hopefully only this week, long story... tell ya later!) so my plan is to pack the apartment by Tuesday and be at the house painting by Wednesday so that when dad, mom and grandma visit on Thursday I have plenty to keep them busy. We'll see how my plan works out...

Tonight we had our first guests in our new home. Greg, Laura and Luke stopped in for dinner on their way home to Kansas. We were happy to show off our new home and they were very kind to willingly eat from the pizza box while sitting on the linoleum floor. Luke had a grand time running around the empty space and we had a great time watching his antics. What fun!

Its about time to log off and go to sleep, lots to do this week and i want to kick the week off with a strong start. Besides, Crash (my furchild) keeps sticking his pesky wet cat nose into my arm, which, along with an occasional paw on my arm, means "Pet me for cryin' out loud... i'm adorable!" Hard to pay what a cat would consider adequate attention while typing. Which brings me to the next big adventure... Introducing our FurChildren - Crash (my adolescent boy cat) and Ducky (Tom's elderly girl cat) have not met. The agreement is that both cats will move into the new house at the same time. I'll be sure to write a blog about that experience when the time comes. I am not sure what to expect, but a smooth transition is VERY unlikely as both cats have had the run of their respective homes for a good long time. We're open to suggestions!
~Dori~

Wonderful Weekend

2009-10-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

This has been a fantastic, if somewhat hectic weekend. Our friends, Matt and Erin, were married today (congrats guys, pictures to come!) I had the opportunity to introduce Tom to one of my favorite Goshen restaurants, the Southside Soda Shop. We had a great dinner Friday night, although we were too full to try dessert. Tom did have a Green River, which i think tastes like Sprite with green in it.

This is a view of the interior of the Soda Shop - I only had my cell phone, so the pics are not that great, but you get the basic idea

After dinner we went to JD & Jo's house to hang out. They taught us to play a new game, Settlers of Catan. Tom was a natural and won the first round he ever played (Yay!! Good job honey!) I was not a natural, but i got the idea eventually. It was a very fun game and we are hoping our Indianapolis friends might want to play sometime :)

As to Tom's "Honey Do List" seen below... He added most of those items himself. Not to mention he is quite excited to use his new leaf blower!

~Dori~

The Honey-Do list (so far)

2009-10-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

Rake the yard
Mulch the leaves
Get some bulbs
Fertilize the bulbs
Paint the door
Paint the bedrooms
Paint the den
Paint the kitchen
Finish replacing the door handle
Get shelving for basement storage
Replace bedroom doorknobs
Replace 80's era brass faux gold light fixtures
Replace ugly front porch light
Paint bedroom
Install cat door in garage
Replace old toilet seats
Figure out where the attic is

-Tom

Holy cow!

2009-09-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

So we bought a house! That's right, we're homeowners now. Holy cow! Although we've been running around it all day it really hasn't sunk in for us yet. At the moment it's all surreal. We're back in our respective apartments but out there there's a building that we actually own. Best of all it's near Jen, Kevin and little Nolan so we'll get to see them a whole lot more often!

This house has been the answer to all of our prayers. It's practically immaculate. They left us the appliances, which were modern and in excellent condition. They did all the repair the home inspector found. Even the fireplace is clean! We had looked into getting a three-bedroom house where we could raise a family and look for a larger house when the family grew, but with this house we'll never need to move. And with the way the housing market has been this was a fantastic deal.
God had been really good to us throughout this process, even when He really didn't have to be during the time we were freaking out over the mortgage process. The heart says to have faith but the brain says to freak out. We had hoped and prayed that this would be one, and while we knew that God heard all our prayers but didn't always say "yes" to all of them, we were totally glad he gave us a resounding "yes!" to this!

So we just moved in a few boxes of stuff we knew we wouldn't be using, ordered a pizza from Monical's (if you haven't tried them you should) and a bottle of wine from Oliver. Of course we were too excited to really do what we had planned, which was to sit down with the pizza and wine. We wound up munching on the pizza at the kitchen counter while figuring out what should go where. We looked in the back yard which was where I came face to face with the responsibilities of home ownership - the trees had started shedding - all six of them! So shortly after it was off to Lowe's to buy what Dori called "man toys" - a rake and a leafblower. I'm totally psyched about the leafblower. I have to admit that I never really got why people got excited about going to home improvement stores but I miraculously got the gist of it the moment I stepped in there this evening.

All in all this has been an interesting three months - I had gotten engaged to a most wonderful woman; I discovered what i meant to be a fan of Dave Matthews Band, I had an almost near-death experience and lost my trusty ol' Civic in the process, then wound up with the car I had originally wanted all along, and now this - my head is still spinning.

So we thought we'd just let y'all know - I'd write more but I'm simply exhausted. The adrenaline and stress are finally starting to bleed off and my head's starting to hurt a little. So I'm going to take an asprin, drink lots of water, and head off to bed while to dream of our life to come.

We'll see you there.

-Tom

Cheese Festival - Arthur, IL

2009-09-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Arthur, IL. Its my hometown and I love going back to visit. Every year we have the cheese festival. The main street and several side streets are closed down and food/craft venders fill the street. For the last several years my mom has set up a booth at the cheese festival to sell Longaberger products, so i usually go home to hang out and help out. This year was the first time i took Tom home for the festival. He had never been to a festival quite like this one and it was fun to see it through his eyes. Tom played photo journalist for the weekend and took some fantastic pictures...

~Dori~

Cheese Festival Mascots

Live Music

Note - my mother in the background... dad is BUSTED!

hello handsome

double trouble

its a lion puppy!!!!

Irish Festival - Indianapolis, IN

2009-09-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

I love irish pubs and irish culture, so i was really excited about the irish festival! We went with some great friends and had a nice time enjoying the perfect weather and all the great sites and sounds.
~Dori~

Lets start with dessert... blackberry cobbler with ice cream anyone??

Auntie Laura Beth and Baby Nolan

Mommy Jen and Baby Nolen

He did so good at his very first festival!

dogs!! I love dogs!

Giant Dogs!! (Irish Wolfhounds)

Bagpipes!

Dori Lunch

Corned Beef and Swiss on Marble Rye

Tom Lunch

Steak Sandwich with Carmelized Onion

Irish Dancers

Cute kid in kilt

just a few pics

2009-09-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

Just a fun pic i took downtown

Look close,

Its a reflection from across the street

Crash likes roses

Yumm!

~Dori~

Lazy Saturday

2009-09-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

I'm finishing off the weekend by reflecting on our peaceful Saturday. Tom and I both enjoy reading and the outdoors, so we decided to spend the afternoon at broadripple park enjoying the weather and a good book. We, err, I should say Tom, fixed a huge stack of sandwiches and a picnic basket full of other goodies. Now I think I will take this moment to point out that my dear Thomas still has a few, shall we say... bachelor, tendencies. I arrived in the kitchen to find him packing the freshly made sandwiches. The man was SMASHING the sandwiches into the container. I believe this was so that they would fit. He clearly stated that this makes the sandwiches chewier and thus tastier. I don't think I buy this... Anyway, the sandwiches were yummy and the day was wonderful. We also saw District 9, which was very intense and thought provoking. Think aliens and social justice. Odd, but interesting.
~Dori~

SAVE THE DATE!!

2009-09-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Our wedding date, after a bit of debate, is official....

June 19, 2010!!!
Goshen, Indiana

Its gonna be a fun celebration!!

~ Dori ~