We got a Christmas card from our friends the McArthurs that said “looking forward to 2010. . .what? 2010, are we robots?”  Hilarious.  I will say 2010 is already shaping up to be a year from the future.  Crazy stuff has been happening here in Austin.  We made the news with this guy: Joseph Stark.  Yeesh.  Only in the future does a man get so mad at the world that he Blogs about it before hopping on a plane and driving it into a building.  It is so sad.  After that we had the most GORGEOUS Sunday of gardening in t-shirts and the first taste of a tan.  Two days later. . .Snow Day in Austin.  It was really weird, but more so, awesome.  So, no we are not robots. . .yet.

Not that our pictures of Snow day could compete with wrenandjane.  Our props just aren’t cute enough.  But still, here they are.

Dave spent a big chunk of his Sunday mowing and weeding (I helped, but he did most of it).  This typical homeowners stuff still makes us giddy.  Also, we both decided mowing a lawn gives a great sense of satisfaction.  Talk to us in a couple of years, we might be singing a different tune, but I hope not.

Part of Dave’s yard work was pulling some native, invasive elephant leaves.  The funny thing about these “weeds” is that i like them.  It was hard seeing Dave dig up these huge, prehistoric looking leaves.  The reality is these plants spread when a piece of them fall on the ground.  Yes, a piece!!!!  Can you imagine how they would take over.  Getting rid of them is like surgery!

We also have some pretty flowers popping up as the temperature is dropping:

Our rose bushes are going crazy, so crazy that I have no problems cutting them off and putting them in a vase.  Bountiful!

Dave brought these home the other day.  Not the cat! just the wine and the flowers.  He got me the Texas marigolds because they were orange and funky.  Love that guy.

Dave and I have been taking pictures of my latest kitchen creations.  Sometimes I go crazy!  Fish sandwiches!  yeah!  Kate got me baking my own bread with the artisan bread: 5 minutes a day.  Each one of these recipes use the bread in one form or another.  Pizza crust, croutons and of course sandwich bread.  So here are some pictures.

Pizza Rolls

Fish Sammies

Spinach Soup w/ garlic croutons

GO BREAD!

the other day our friend Kyle sent us this snapshot from his bible (a devotional one, the kind with all the little side stories and lessons).

The moral of the story is… “Don’t be tricked by Satan’s Ruperts”.  We’ll be back with more folks! Stay Tuned!

this post has had more than a few working titles: “life lessons from the kitchen”, “life lessons part 1″, “the contractor, the witch and the kitchen sink”, “uf! that’s smarts!”, and “d’oh: the chronicles of homeownership”.  but i chose this title to appeal to the internet meme audience.  the 1st lesson in this series of 2 lessons is really the only FAIL, the 2nd lesson is just a life lesson about spending money.

Before the floors went in, we scrambled to get 2 rooms of our house fully painted.  Thinking we were doing ourselves a favor by not priming the baseboards and trim.  ”We’re so fast!” we thought as we lied on the floor and sloshed on our semi-gloss ultra white.  Unfortunately, it dried as semi-transparent brush marks and scraped off at the slightest touch.  So instead of “Prime -> Paint”, we’re now now left with a “Paint -> Scrape -> Prime -> Paint” scenario.  Life Lesson #1 : Don’t take shortcuts.  It’s more work in the end.

2 weeks ago we had a neighbor, who is a contractor, and some of his guys come through and work on the house.  Before the contractors showed up, I attempted to follow the previous “amateur” plumber’s lead and added to a Frankenstein plumbing job that was a complete mess, a rat king of pipes and hoses.  Turns out it was leaking. The contractors came in told me my under-sink was pitiful, rearranged it, added new water lines, dropped power lines, and even added in the disposal (pronounced “dispose-all” by our neighbor).  I was extremely impressed by their work.  The underbelly of the sink is now one of my favorite places in the house because it’s so simple, beautiful and “done right”.  Life Lesson #2 : If you want a job done right, bring in the pros.

So those are the lessons so far.  I’ve now got to get back to salvaging a computer.  Wish me luck.

Dave and I are both pretty comfortable saying that we are made for each other.  We truly feel blessed by God to have found one another and had that epiphany: “ooohhhh, ok, now I get it. . . this is right.”  With that it mind it is pretty hilarious to think that, if we were made for each other, would we have known that when we were nine?  Were we made for each other starting at birth and just go through life like that until we find eachother, or do we change and move around until we lock in (like a slot machine)?

I am not saying I know the answer, but I am going to share some photos from Dave’s childhood that make me think, it was just a matter of meeting up.  Enjoy!~

I don’t think I would have ended up with the boy who had the “no absences” award, or the “best science experiment”.  However “doodle king” strikes me as attractive for one reason or another.

This is a grenade one of Dave’s friends gave him to communicate, “you are the bomb!”  I am not sure if this makes me like Dave more or the girl who gave it to him.  Can you imagine how cool it felt to be told you are the bomb with an actual hand grenade in 1996 or when ever he get this?  Either way, Dave was part of this transaction and that is endearing to me.

This one is a real heart stopper for me.  Maybe because I am pretty sure my little brother Tim would have been right next to him making a clay oozie.  It is comforting he would have fit in the family, even then.  The fact that Dave needed to clarify it was not just a gun, but a GAT, well, it just shows he is a man who strives for excellence and details count on important issues.

Last but not least.  His Cabbage Patch Cat.  He assures me that Xavier Roberts gave the cat a terrible name in true Cabbage Patch fashion (I got a CP cornsilk who’s name was Dorcus).  This cat has been loved, therefore I love this man even more!  Wouldn’t you?

I hope this post didn’t make anyone sick to their stomach.  I just took a romantic spin on some pretty hilarious stuff of Dave’s I just had to show you!  Really though, it does drive home the point that Dave is too perfect for me!

As Jessie mentioned in the last post, this move has been hardest on Moogs, our cat.  The ride over here was miserable for him, he meowed almost every 2 seconds for the first half of our 14 hour drive.  But he eventually broke and calmed down quite a bit.  We thought we had won.  But little did we know what the next week … nay, month! … would have in store for us.

The 1st week.

The first week in the new house Moogs was confused by the new space and spent most of his first day shivering away in the hall closet.  Then he started this new adorable behavior where he’d spend 14 hours a day burrowed under the covers.  It was a Cute Overload moment that could break the heart of Stalin himself…

Then came the nights.  Being completely nocturnal due to his 14 hours of mid-day slumber, Moogs was left to wander around the empty house alone at night meowing in fear, and then being scared by the echo of his own meow, only to run out of a room meowing, to find the same result in the next room.

He would try to use his cat instincts to stare out of the window, only to find the interested neighbor cats lazing in our yard looking back at him.  Causing him to meow… and freak out… and meow… and freak out… and … etc…

This kept Jessie and I awake all night as if we had a newborn.  Only, this newborn would resist cuddling & comfort.  And if held would spaz out and scratch the [cuss word] out of you with his razor-like claws -the killer extension to his advanced muscular system- which I assume most newborns lack.

The 2nd week.

Once it became “clear” that we were actually going to own the house (that’s another story!), we started demo’ing the kitchen because we had big plans to put new floors in our house.  We knocked out the 1960s era breakfast bar (sorry, Craig) as well as the noggin-offending cabinet above it leaving an knocked out portion of drywall where the cabinets were previously attached.

When Moogs first found this hideout, it was a blessing.  We had plans for workers coming in and out of the house over the next few days, and him being out of sight not running through glue was a great idea.

But what was first perceived as a blessing was really a curse.  His hideout enabled him to continue his 14hour+ sleeping schedule, and his incessant nocturnal bitching and moaning.

The 3rd week.

At the end of the 2nd week after the floors were finished being installed we had to go to Houston for a family emergency (another much sadder story). This put us out of the house for 10 days.  I can only assume it was filled with long hours spent above the cabinets, and meowing nights.

The 4th week.

We came home from Houston and just spent a few breaths in the house.  Moogs’ nocturnal nights turned into our nocturnal nights and we enacted an Anti-Hideout Family Policy.  We tried our darnedest to discourage his attempts by stuffing various articles in the hole, but to no avail.  He always broke through our defenses.

Before we left for our Burbank/Palm Spings/San Diego trip (that’s another story!) that Friday, we stuck a snare drum into the hole which prevented his attempts fairly well.

The 5th week.

I dunno.  I was in San Diego learning to boogie board.  (That’s another story!)

The 6th week.

We got back from San Diego only to find the snare drum on the ground.  On it’s 8ft plummet it gathered enough speed to put a sizable divot into the new hardwood floors.  Absolutely terrible and bothersome, but as we quickly learned, it’s the nature of hardwood floors to be scratched up and stuff.

The nights have been tedious, but we’ve chucked him in the garage a couple times.  We’ve tried various objects to sway Moogs away from the hideout, more boxes, old pieces of sheet rock, etc.  With only 1 break-in, we’re doing pretty good.  We’ve got a bucket and a box with one of those balance balls in it.

Moogs spent the first night yet outside last night, but has yet to return.  He’s either hiding somewhere and afraid to come in because of the neighbor dogs (likely) or he’s on his way back to California (hopefully not).  Hopefully we’ll hear a meow from him soon.  Otherwise we’ll have to canvas the neighborhood and bother our dear neighbors (that’s another story!) with a daily “Have you seen our cat?”  Hopefully he’s not getting himself into too much trouble.

PS

A special thanks to all our friends, The Rodens & Sean who took care of the hidden Moogs while we were out of town.

We are finally putting up a real post.  Not due to lack of trying, it just seems like everytime we start a post something comes up and then when we finally get back to it, it is OUT OF DATE.  I am not one to be, “so five minutes ago.”  so you will most likely never see those posts.  Enough apologies.

The HOUSE!  It is starting to feel familiar.  Moogs is still struggling, we have sleepless nights of hearing him meow for his old neighborhood (I feel you bro).

Dave and I have only made a few changes, but the house really feels like we made it our own.  The people who had it before us “made it their own” for 48 years so I find it surprising that new floors and paint can transform a house and make it seem new.  We are still in process in the kitchen, the demo was easy, but finishing it off has proved to be a struggle.

Come visit soon!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!!!!