Very, very small update

We've really done very little to the house since the last update. We finally took the second table back out to the front porch today, and the dining room is back to looking gigantic.

We finally hung up our big mirror. It's now over the radiator across from our bedroom. 

And we got this nice little shelf for the bathroom!

Other than that, the only work we've really done is shovel. There was a lot of snow this morning, and I swear every time we shovel the sidewalk it magically becomes wider. Still, through all this cold weather everything seems to be holding up well.

So about the beep. There's this beep. The only room we've heard it in is our master bedroom on the second floor. It is high pitched and electronic, and lasts only a fraction of a second. It is not loud, but it's loud enough that you can hear it even if your ears are covered with pillows. (I know this from experience.) We know it is not: a smoke or carbon dioxide detector, a wrist watch, an alarm clock, a cell phone, a washing machine, an oven, anything that is alive (Po has never reacted to it,) the exercise bike. It doesn't beep consistently in that there's never an exact amount of time between the beeps, and sometimes it sounds louder/quieter. If you have any other ideas, please keep them coming. We're pretty sure we still haven't figured out what it is.

Still! If one little beep is our biggest problem right now, all is pretty well. 

Let there be (kitchen) light!

We've been in the house for a couple months now, and as quickly as we moved in and unpacked, we have really taken our time with making the house ours. I personally think that it's because we've been under so much stress in the last year that it's been really nice to just come home, crash on the couch, and chill. The other day a coworker said to me, "So have you started decorating and really making it look like you live there?" I could tell by her face that she was not expecting me to say no. I wasn't offended, but it did get me thinking that maybe it was about time.

Last weekend Alex and I really went all out with our art. Our frames literally had not moved since we'd first put them out of the way, so it was really nice to A) get them on the walls B) reclaim some floor space. My proudest accomplishment was *finally* getting some of our wedding photos into the frames we'd bought for them, and getting them a good spot in the living room.

Perhaps someday I will take a better picture, but Po is sitting on my lap right now so I can't get up to take one

Yesterday we went to a couple new antique stores. We're rarely looking for anything in particular, but it's always fun to find things that fit in the house. We ended up finding a hippo, a really pretty candle holder, and Chelsey and Landis's house. (The last one wasn't in a store, we found it with our GPS.) Having found a few things, I thought we were done doing house related things for the weekend, but no! I had completely forgotten that we'd mentioned looking at the awful florescent lights in the kitchen to see what it would take to get those out. (Note: I just looked through my old photos so I could have before/after pictures, and realized that I hated the old lights so much that I very carefully made sure to never get them in a picture. You'll just have to use your imagination.

As it turns out, they were not at all difficult to replace. We accidentally bought three separate fixtures when we bought the one for the dining room, so now the two extra fixtures have a home!

One year in review, sappy, and only slightly house related

Somehow, Alex and I have lived in Wisconsin for one year. One year ago, as of the 28th, we first got into our teeny, tiny little apartment above the shop. Don't get me wrong, it was a lovely little apartment, but it wasn't great if two people wanted to... Oh I don't know, walk through the kitchen at the same time.

Oh, I feel claustrophobic just looking at it...

Within this year, a lot of good changes have taken place. We both started jobs where we are so happy, and well supported. Epic may be super-awesome, but Weebleworld has more slides and random dance parties, so I clearly win.

Fibonacci stairs are not cooler than awesome dance parties 

Of course, we all remember the biggest thrill of this summer. When I grew my own watermelon on the balcony of our apartment. 

Turned out surprisingly sweet and juicy!

Oh, and I got married.

Also very sweet, but considerably less juicy.

 I've got to admit, that was a very fun day. In fact, it's been a very fun three and a half years. If it weren't for Alex, I literally wouldn't be where I am today. He never fails to make me smile, has inspired me to start getting healthy, and is a generally wonderful person that I am so happy to call my husband.

 Since then, we've left the tiny apartment for the reason I started this blog, our very own house! It has it's odd quirks, but it's cozy and charming, and all ours.

Thank you again, Rebekah!

We've spent a birthday and Christmas in the house, and tonight will be our very first New Years as husband and wife. It will no longer be the year in which we got married, or bought a house, and we will be in our second year of living in Wisconsin.

Posey would prefer to never ever have to move again ever

Here's hoping the next year is just as joyful, but maybe a little less stressful.

Baking all the cookies!

This week was the last week of work before Christmas, and we were given an early present with a day off on Friday. When I say "given an early present" what I actually mean is that there was freezing rain Thursday night and the roads and sidewalks were very, very slippery. Walking home from the Pour House on Thursday night was... interesting... I used the day to finish crocheting a couple presents, and then celebrated being done making presents by making many, many cookies. I started by trying to make these but half of them burned to a crisp, and the other half spread out and are more square than circular. A couple dozen of these beauties later and my confidence was restored. They are surprisingly minty, and I can't wait to eat them. (I didn't sample any of these, I swear!) It wouldn't be Christmas without these and I honestly lost count of how many dozens we made. Finally, we whipped up two batches of these this evening and they made the whole house smell like brown sugar and raspberries. I am so glad the Rosenberg family is a large one, because there are so many cookies that need to be eaten.

Honestly, there is very little to report house-wise. The pictures still aren't up, and things are mostly as they were one month ago. (Apparently we have now lived here for two months!) We've discovered how long it takes to shovel our driveway, which really isn't very long, and we got a new drier that thankfully gets everything dry after only one cycle. (The drier that came with the house would dry clothes in about three cycles...)

Within the next couple weeks, we will have lived in Wisconsin for a whole year. It has been a very good year. This will be my first Christmas as a wife, and in my very own home. The Christmas season gets me very sentimental. There are so many good feelings and childhood memories tied up with Christmas. It makes me so happy to think that this year is going to be a source of more very good memories.

And on Earth, peace, goodwill toward men.

Home for Christmas

For the past two years, Alex and I have lived in apartments that have not allowed live Christmas trees. This might not be a big deal for some people, but I've grown up with live trees, and I really missed them. Yesterday, Alex and I finally cut down our first Christmas tree. We found a nice tree farm in town called Sunset Acres Tree Farm and we found a beautiful tree for only 25 dollars. Thankfully the weather cooperated and it was a balmy 5 degrees outside, so it was a good time had by all. The really fun part was fitting the 8 foot tree into Alex's ten foot car, and then getting me in to! We made it home safely, and I really couldn't be happier with the result.

Tree decorated, stockings hung with care, and the lights on the porch glow merrily. While there are plenty of things I wish I had to decorate with, I think I'll just try to build up my collection over the next couple years.

People have been asking what we want for Christmas, and honestly, we're fairly stumped. Having just gotten married this year, we're really set on good appliances and such. All of the things we *needed* for the house we bought right away. Alex set up an amazon wish list here and we've still got a few things left over on our registry. Gift cards are also very welcome, especially from Menards, Pier One, Amazon, or Ikea.

Sunday Post

I promised I'd write about my birthday, so I guess I'd ought to. When I got home from work, there was a big bag waiting for me on the coffee table. Alex told me it had something that would be obvious, and something that would make me feel better. After being completely confused, I pulled out the first bundle. Having picked it up, it started to jingle. The perfect kind of jingle. The kind of jingle that (for me at least) evokes images of horse drawn sleighs, bells on bob-horses, mugs of wassail, and Santa. Growing up (and even to this day) my parents would hang sleigh bells on the front door during the holiday season. They would jingle every time someone opened or shut the door, and my parents would always ring them Christmas morning to signify that Santa had been there, and that it was finally time to come see the tree. It is genuinely one of my favorite sounds, and there it was. Alex had found antique sleigh bells for me to hang from our door. That was the present he called obvious. The present to make me feel better was an electric blanket. (I'd been shivering when I came home.) It is a truly glorious thing, and no one should ever have to live in Wisconsin without one. That evening, we ate Alex's homemade moo shu and we watched Mulan and sang along to all of the songs. It was a very, very good birthday.

Today I felt weirdly productive, so we found some homes for some new friends,

 finally hung some art, installed a light fixture,

changed two dimmer switched to flip-switches, and I hung up seven strands of Christmas lights on the porch. They are very pretty, but it is still before Thanksgiving, so I will wait another week before having them on regularly. I will happily post pictures of the lights when it is not quite so bone-achingly cold.

Well that was fun

I had every intention of writing a blog post about how wonderful it was to have my birthday in House, and I still plan on doing so, but this deserves it's own post.

I got home, and walked in the back door. I'd noticed that the garage lights had turned on and off as I was pulling in. My assumption had been that Alex had turned the lights on for me, realized I was pulling in the driveway, and turned them back off. As I walked in the back door, I saw the little fishing net that the previous owners had left us on the floor of the stairs. Alex was in the basement. Apparently, he was looking for gloves so that he could try to catch the bat that was carefully avoiding Posey on the first floor.

So... bat. 

I'd heard before that laundry baskets are a good way to catch bats, and we just bought two new ones, and as I reminded Alex of that, the bat flew behind me and down the stairs to the basement. I followed it down, and Alex and I both grabbed a laundry basket. Luckily, the bat had flown into the "naughty child room" with only one exit, so it quickly flew back out again. And into my laundry basket.

So... the bat was in the laundry basket, on the floor of the basement.

Now, the laundry baskets that we bought have these really great handles on all four sides of it so that you can carry it any way that is convenient. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the bat to find the handle, and it was just about to crawl out. As I watched it crawl to the hole, I tried to guess how likely it was that we would be able to easily catch it again, versus how likely it was that a small bat would be able to bite through my new leather gloves, which were conveniently still on. I went with the gloves.

So I picked up the bat, walked up the stairs, went outside, walked away from the house, and let the little guy go.

Bat: 0 Kristin: 1