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

The house entertains!

Sunday evenings in Stoughton, it is tradition to go to Aunt Kristi and Uncle Bill's house for dinner, along with all of the cousins. As soon as we moved out here from Ohio, they invited us to be a part of this tradition, and it's really been a great way for us to get settled out here. This week, we offered to host Sunday dinner, and (if I may say so) it was a huge success. We managed to get the house cleaned, put up a (WORKING) light fixture in the dining room, and make super tasty food. Alex made his chicken pot pie and I made some crazy tasty caramel brownies.

Part of the way through the evening, I turned to Alex and said, "Where in our old apartment would we have been able to put this many ten adults, a three year old, and a baby?"

Moral: House is wonderful. Family is wonderful. Food is wonderful. Have a good week.

The house itself

 It was brought to my attention that, while I've uploaded many pictures of the inside of the house, I haven't really uploaded pictures of the exterior of the house and the property. The picture above is the front of the house, taken from across the street. I now realize that it's difficult to take pictures of the front of the house without it being blocked by a tree, or just not being able to get the whole front of the house in the picture.

 This is the view from our back door. The back yard goes all the way to the yellow tree and red bushes. We will probably add some plants (see: trees, bushes, shrubs) back there to add a bit of privacy between us and the giant peach house.

And here is the back of the house and garage, taken from just under the yellow tree in the previous picture. It is a very pretty house, and even though it doesn't have the most interesting yard, it's got a lot of potential.

Biscuits and Gravy

I slept all the way until 7:10 this morning. This was the latest I have slept in in ages, and it felt lovely. So lovely, in fact, that I got up and made biscuits and gravy. My dad's recipe is so good that not even Alex is tempted to mess with it. (If he is tempted to mess with it, he is a good enough husband to know that he should not.) It was absolutely delicious, and gave us the energy and fortitude to work on unpacking and organizing. I mainly tackled the dining room, while Alex worked on the office. We both worked on the living room and master bedroom. The kitchen has been coming together through the week, though it got a lovely addition this afternoon.

These are all the boxes that were either emptied, or were already empty and brought downstairs.

 This is the left side of the office/craft room.

This is the right side of the office/craft room. 

This is the corner of the office/craft room, where the left and right side meet. 

 The master bedroom, plus one kitty.

The living room!

The hallway looks so much nicer with the new shelf over the oven. 

The dining room looks so much nicer without the boxes covering everything. 

The bookshelves are filled, and Shelob is guarding the wine. 

My pretty planters :)

Good looking shelf, island, and husband. 

A shelf over the sink, and a beautiful baker's cabinet! 

We picked this beauty up at our favorite antique store in town. It's the perfect addition to our kitchen!

And our pretty fiesta fits so well in our cabinet! 

It was a very productive day, and I am thoroughly exhausted, and looking forward to some tasty spaghetti and meatballs.



My Father's Recipe for Biscuits and Gravy:
1 stick butter or margarine
4 tablespoons flour
4 cups milk
1/2 lb cooked sausage, can do full pound if ya want extra sausage goodness
salt and pepper

In a medium sauce pan, melt the stick of butter 

Add flour, you can substitute 1 tablespoon corn starch for 1 tablespoon flour if you have it

Combine and cook over low heat for a minute or so... says to let it brown a bit, stir a lot
 
Slowly combine milk, stirring a lot
 
Use low to medium heat as you don't want to burn and stick stuff to bottom of pan
 
The longer you simmer it, the thicker it should get, stir often and don't let stuff stick to bottom.
 
If it does not thicken as much as you want, combine another tablespoon of cornstarch in 1/2 cup milk and add to sauce
 
Add cooked sausage, cook a bit longer to blend flavors
 
Salt and pepper to taste