Tepefy (tep i-fai)

The cold bounced back a bit and we are above 0 again. Saturday was a beautiful day and even hit the 40's. This gave a chance for things to melt a bit, which the driveway needed. Lola loved it, she got to go out and wander around a bit. The snow appears to be an interesting barrier to her, containing her to the concrete and wood of the deck and patio. Either way she knows how to work Matt who is usually the one to give into her and let her out. She hasn't gotten brave with the birds since her brush with catching one.

The floor is finished! The contractor finished on Wednesday. It's been an adjustment because of the feel and how the light is reflected. Lola is struggling also as she can't seem to gain traction and occasionally has a spinout when she tries to take off.

The floor is taking the place of a winter blues trip. Matt is still bumming and stir-crazy that we aren't going on a trip soon let alone have anything planned either. He's pitched trips, cruises, long weekends, younameit. I don't blame him. It'd be good to get away a bit into the sun but we'll have to figure out something else later on.

In regards to the weekend it was pretty quiet. Saturday was spent in one of my favorite ways... puttering around the house. Picking up things here, cleaning things there, shifting and organizing. Felt good after a couple weeks of things in limbo with all the construction. We also did the first little bit of canning for the year. I had a ton of peppers in my basket so we made a green chili salsa. We ended up using the pressure cooker to seal the jars. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. On Sunday, we went out to the farm. Matt and I chopped wood for their fireplace and then we helped a bit with the cows. Was good to take things a bit slow.

Best meal: Impromptu date night at Fireflour where we had a traditional peppy (pepperoni) with chili oil as well as an Umbria (with a fennel sausage). Was good to get out of the house and their pizza is so good.

Name of the week: Joy
Cravings: milk and Dugout nachos (restaurant I worked at in college, closed now), KFC twister wraps (discontinued), Taco Bell baja chalupas (baja sauce is discontinued too).
Pregnancy symptoms: lack of sleep, night sweats, weird dreams, larger belly, minimal sciatica nerve pain,

ALR calls MJR at work: OH MY GOSH. Do you know all the things we are going to need to buy?
MJR: Yeah, I've been thinking of that.
ALR: We will need to buy bottles and cups and all sorts of things.
MJR: Why?
ALR: What do you mean, "why"?
MJR: Can't we use what we have?
ALR: No. What are we going to do? We can't just pour milk onto a plate.
MJR: Why not?
ALR: Because she's NOT A PUPPY!
ALR hangs up phone.

Respit (res-pit)

Sometimes you need to getaway... We've made annual trips to Grand Forks for the past couple years. The trip usually involves fun meals, great conversation, and good friends. We also always try to incorporate Sioux Hockey in it too. The kicker is, whenever we go it's colder than heck! The highs on Saturday were -8. That's without the windchill. This coming week is suppose to have a warm up and we get above 0.

We started off the trip with a stop in Fargo. I love the Wurst Bier Hall's pretzels. We had a nice snack out of that before running at errands at Fleet Farm and Babies/Toys R Us. Good thing the pretzels were a high spot, as I was thoroughly disappointed in what Toys R Us had to offer in regards to baby items. If that's how all their stores are, I don't think I need to go to another again,

Upon arriving at Grand Forks, we ate a light lunch at Bonzer's, ran some errands, checked into our hotel, and then headed over to Kim and Jon's aka Scraperville. We thoroughly enjoy this friendship as they enjoy food and traveling like we do and their kids are fun to visit with. Whenever we leave their house, Matt looks at me and says, "I could talk to them for hours." And what always makes me chuckle inside is that usually we do!

They shared their seats with us at the game... they are amazing seats. Fourth row, center, behind the team. Matt loves it because about the second period you can start to smell the players. I'm always amazed because of how fast the game goes from this view point. This was the first time we had experienced the backlash to the new mascot name. It's been an ongoing process to get to Fighting Hawks and I would say that they aren't anywhere close, actually.

After an amazing breakfast the next day, we took off home. We had to prep the house as this coming week is New Flooring Week! When we moved into the house, Matt had definite reservations because it lacked the modern look that he was hoping for. After many conversations and 2 more views, I convinced him that we could give it the look that we wanted. It's been a slow start but 2016 has really kicked this into full speed with all the things we've done in the kitchen. So there we were working with a contractor to take the tile out of the foyer, the carpet out of the dining, and prepped the yellowed linoleum in the kitchen to be covered in cortex.

We snapped a few before pics. And also snapped some phase 1 pics of the completed demo work. The best part whenever we've had someone work on our house is how well they tell us it's made or kept up. That always makes me feel good about our decision to take a chance on this house and make it our own.

The only other big news of the week was the amazing blinding pain that slowly crept up my sciatic over the past week. By Sunday evening, I could barely walk and had had a few personal pity parties. On Monday, I called the chiropractor and headed in. Best decision of the week, by far.

Best meal: Red Pepper... usually I have a grinder but I thoroughly enjoyed the heck out of the tacos this time. Such a good food buzz!

Name of the week: Susan Hockey Remynse - this name was provided by Scraper. We'd, of course, call her Sue. Thank you for your contribution.
Cravings: Milk, chips and salsa, Mexican anything (despite Matt's hope... he was hoping the cravings would be more Chinese in ethnicity)
Pregnancy symptoms: lack of sleep, runny nose/irritated sinuses, larger belly, sciatica nerve pain, missing belly button, weird dreams.

Driving home after the game...
ALR: Have you ever noticed how similar sports and religion are?
MJR scoffs: What?!
ALR: No serious-there are rituals, sayings, interactions, a congregation, and understanding from those within the following. I'm not trying to be blasphemous.
MJR now considering with seriousness: I hadn't thought of it this way.
ALR: Think of a church service where you have the pastor or priest. They say something and those within the flock respond in a manner. That happens during the entire sports game. When they introduce the players....
MJR: Ahh, I see, they say "Who's he, he sucks sh.."
ALR: Right. Or when the announcer says, "One minute of play remaining.
MJR: And the crowd says "Thank you"
ALR: And the announcer responds back to the crowd even and says "You're Welcome." I mean it's the little things but there is a camaraderie between those attending just like what people look for in a congregation. Especially those that attend regularly. Those that wear the appropriate gear. 
Think of the student section even like the chorus where people enjoy responding to them. 
MJR: I see what you mean.
ALR: I just find it interesting.   

Flummox (fluhm-uh ks)

I’ve lost my belly button. It’s official. I looked at it where it should be over the weekend and it’s no longer present. I’m a little concerned that a torso nose is developing in its place but I don’t know how to combat that advancement.

Other than this new development, the past week was rather slow. We’ve had a North Dakota cold snap with highs in the 0 and lows in the negative. So glad the furnace got repaired before the temps really plummeted. My biggest goal was to stay warm, toasty, and well rested this weekend. We got to sleep in a bit, I napped once, and the kitties seemed overall content with the activity. We did take Rick and Shantelle to the airport on Saturday morning so they could go to Florida. Matt’s a little bitter about that as he finished the backsplash and had key lime cheesecake instead of partaking in the real thing.

We also had our first big culinary flop of 2016. We attempted to make pasta. We are not good at pasta. We tried two different recipes and both were mildly a disaster. Maybe we tried to take on too much too fast and skipped the basic noodles to head right for ravioli. We had all sorts of problems mostly related to too much flour or not enough flour. We got butternut squash all over the rollers. Matt tried to make purple but it came out brown. And then to top it off when we went to cook it the next night, I didn’t realize that I hadn’t dried it properly and they all combined together into a huge ravioli ball.

Best meal: Chicken tortilla soup...just hit the spot. Sorry, it wasn't the pasta disaster.

Name of the week: Sloan
Cravings: Milk, tootsie rolls, chips
Pregnancy symptoms: lack of sleep, runny nose/irritated sinuses, larger belly, sciatica nerve pain, missing belly button, weird dreams

MJR and ALR setting table for supper.
MJR takes plate out from under bowl to put apples and cheese on it.
ALR grabs another plate from cupboard and puts it under MJR’s bowl again.
MJR: I don’t need a plate.
ALR: Yes, you do.
MJR: Why is that, it’s just dirtying another dish.
ALR continues to set table: well, you are a little sloppy. 
MJR stares at ALR
ALR: But I love you.
ALR pulls milk from fridge to put on table.
ALR drops gallon of milk (1/4 full) on floor.
Both stare at floor.
MJR: You are really lucky that wasn’t more full.
ALR: No kidding, and that the lid stuck.
MJR: And I’m sl---
ALR: I’m pregnant, they warned us the klutziness was coming.

Onerous (on-er-uh s)

New year, new blog look. We've gone from the blue dots that were reminiscent of the 635 wallpaper to this more subtle color to highlight the upcoming year. I'm also trying something a bit different in the titles too. Last year it was a "how to" this year I'm going to simplify.

Matt ended the year how he would have wanted to. Laying on the ground calling out to geese. He went with my cousin, Logan. Matt had the best time not only because he was finally out hunting but because him and Logan limited out. Just in the nick of time too as the season has come to an end. TonyDanza will be disappointed as he liked the bird cleaning part the best.

Okay, let's get to the new year happenings. It's always a joke with Matt and I if we can make it to midnight. This year we didn't. We had more stuff going on! We were in full revamping mode. We had a crew lined up and holy crap can they change a world! I've never felt more loved as Sunday when I looked around my beautiful house and saw all the changes that Randy, Michele, and my mother accomplished. I'm getting ahead of myself.

I through it out there jokingly that for Christmas I could stand for
 wallpaper to get ripped down out of my house... well between the three of them, they made my Christmas wish come true. Michele was ready to work when she showed up New Year's Eve. I wasn't so sure but suddenly there we were ripping the brown wallpaper off the wall. Only to discover that under the brown crepe paper look was more wallpaper. It was like Dickinson déjà vu.

On Friday, we hit it hard. We put the backsplash up in the kitchen, ripped down the glue under the original wallpaper, textured the kitchen wall, and taped everything that was ready to be painted the next day. We also went and purchased the nursery set, which should come in 6-8 weeks.

Saturday, we had the big crew. Here's all the things that got accomplished that were on our list. Backsplash grouted, kitchen wall primed and painted with 2 coats, nursery painted with two coats and effectively trimmed out, and the kitchen wiped down after sanding the texture off the kitchen walls.

What we got for bonus was even more amazing...both the upstairs bathroom and the master bath are rid of their yucky glass shower doors. AND the master bath no longer has a scrap of wallpaper in it. I'm exhausted just rethinking it. These projects and I would have taken Matt and I a month of weekends but because of our family, we were able to accomplish it all in a weekend.

Sunday, after seeing Michele and Randy off, we took it fairly easy. We put pictures up in the kitchen, put curtains up as well. Finished off rooms with face plates and piddered around cleaning up and organizing a bit. I think we were still in shock of seeing all the work. It's like a brand new kitchen!

By the way, I could mention that the furnace was out all weekend, which resulted in heating the house with the fireplace. The cats loved that part. Good thing it was pretty temperate all weekend.

Best meal: chili in our new kitchen! Was nice to be done for the day and just stare at everything while relaxing with family.

Name of the week: Imogen
Cravings: Milk
Pregnancy symptoms: lack of sleep, runny nose/irritated sinuses, larger belly, sciatica nerve pain, baby movements which I described to Matt as that feeling that you get in your limbs when they are beginning to fall asleep. That feeling that if you don't move, they'll go completely asleep.

ALR: Well I've got my crew working unsupervised upstairs. Don't let your surly staff pester them. They are doing good work!
MJR: I'm trying my best here, he goes rogue on me every once in awhile.
ALR: Well, if you wouldn't have stopped at JL's and taken a break, you may have an easier time.
MJR: We didn't take a break.
ALR rolls eye.
Later finds out that they did take a break as well as went to Target through Scheels (opposite ends of the mall) because they don't have guns to peer at in Target.