What we've been up to

After seven months of hard work (meh, we took a three month break in there...and by we I mean G did a lot of the work) we finally finished these magnetic beauties

Hand cut, hand painted.  We love them and they're beautiful.

I have been working on perfecting my bread, because we all know that store-bought bread leaves something to be desired.  Several years ago my mom gave me a double loaf bread pan that is larger than regular loaf pans, which made for some squatty looking bread from a regular recipe.  After many different recipes and many variations on proportions and bake times, I finally feel like I've reached perfection

Large, lovely top, perfect crumb, holds up to sandwich making, and perfect for snacking (not to mention, 100% freshly ground whole wheat.)

We have the perfect sledding hill out back, which we the boys have taken advantage of a few times when the temperature hasn't been too frigid

I like watching all the birds that hang out in that bush and trees up there (it makes me feel like an old person saying I like watching the birds) but having come from Utah where birds are all brown and pretty blahzei, I've loved seeing all the cardinals (the lady cardinals are a favorite), blue jays and chickadees.  G got me a bird feeder recently which I'm looking forward to having out there so the birds (hopefully) come a little closer.  Unfortunately, the cardinals and blue jays are extremely camera shy (read: skitterish) and as soon as you get in the window with a camera they fly away.  I must say, I could do without the noisy crows though.

Food, glorious food

Looking back through our pictures, I realized that 40-50% of them revolve around food.  And since everybody likes to eat, I thought I'd share.

(In case you were wondering, we are on the gluten-based diet.)

Not wanting to be left out, the little man-child generally insists on his food being photographed along with the pretty stuff

And I thought that was cold...

Back in January I took this picture thinking it was cold

But then I took this one this week:

Needless to say, we don't get out much lately.  But when we do, we make snow ducks.

Good Intentions

After moving to Ohio, and far far away from family, I had every intention of blogging regularly on here.  And I still do.  It just hasn't happened yet.  I'll blame the little man-child getting sick every other minute, and me being exhausted for my lack of follow through.  But I'm totally planning on it.  So check back soon for some fun updates including: flying on an airplane with a puppy and a toddler (the puppy may or may not have been the toddler's favorite stuffed one...), our fabulous view, a first trip to Kirtland, why we love Ohio, and much much more!  And if it doesn't happen before Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hip! Hip! Hooray!

I feel like we've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting (etc, etc) to make a post on here with the wonderful news, "G has a job!" And we never posted, because it took this long for it to finally happen.  But....
G HAS A JOB!!!!!   It's pretty exciting (okay, its REALLY exciting) and we're really happy about the opportunity.  And the fact that we get to live in the beautiful Ohio!  For a gal who has always wanted to live on the east side of the nation, I'm pretty happy about that.  And maybe, just maybe, we'll do some exciting things, and have reason to produce more posts on here.....

It's kind of like...

.....dating.  Job hunting is like dating, folks, in case you didn't know.  G and I (well, mostly G) have been in the job hunting business full-time for a whopping three months, and I'm here to tell you that it is just like dating.

In the dating world (at least back when I was dating, since that was SO long ago), there's a girl, she talks to boys, tries to flirt, let them know she's AVAILABLE.  Finally, a guy calls, they set up a date.  The big date comes.  Girl is ever so excited, it's been so long since she went on a date, and this guy, he seems like he's going to be pretty awesome - just what she's looking for.  Guy picks girl up.  They go out.  And the date, well, sometimes the date is good, great even.  And sometimes it's just, well so-so; but it was a DATE.  Either way, guy says he will call girl again.  That's what he says anyway.  Nonetheless, girl gets excited, plans out their life together.  Days pass.  Weeks pass.  Months pass.  Guy Never Calls.  Lame. (I was never in this situation when I was dating...um...ahem....yeah. Just keep thinking that....stupid boys.)  Girl gives up on said boy and waits for another, and goes through the whole process all over again. every. single. time.

Looking for a job is just like this.  G sends out resumes.  G makes contacts with people that are connected to people he kind of knows, who work at companies he'd maybe be interested in.  Every now and then, a company actually calls and sets up a phone interview.  G has a phone interview.  Company says, "we'll get back to you."  (Meanwhile I look up where we could live, find the perfect house, in the perfect location and plan out what ward we'll be in, where I'll go shopping, etc. etc. etc.)  And then the Company never calls.  There are no other interviews.  And then the next company calls, and we (I think it's mostly me) get all excited again (just like in the dating world) and we do it all over again. every. single. time.  Because we (I) have to have hope and look forward to the day when there actually is a second date (I mean interview) and the process moves forward. The end.

Doctors, Christmas and other goings on...

Christmas this year (and December) have flown by.  G successfully defended his dissertation and is now Doctor G (congrats!).  It was a pretty big deal for us and meant that he would graduate and need a job.  So instead of decorating for Christmas like in years past 

with pretty sparkling ornaments and the usual decor

our apartment became consumed with moving boxes....

And on a very snowy day, we rented a Uhaul, filled it up and moved in with the in-laws while we wait for G to find a job (come on, Memphis!)  It was fun to spend Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa, especially for our little babe, who enjoys having so much attention from people besides Mum and Dad.  And we look forward to the coming year and all the adventures ahead of us.

 

Winter Wonderland

On our way home from Denver this week, this is what we saw looking out the window before take off

And on our taxi out to the runway the army of snow plows

I was pretty glad we were flying.

After we got above the mess I noticed a faint but nice little circular rainbow.  You'll have to look close to see it (G said the picture just looks like there's something wrong with the camera, so look for that spot.)

I missed taking a picture of the other airplane in the skies with us for awhile; it looked like a little toy airplane off in the distance.  And unfortunately, we only took a few pics while we were actually in CO, and they all have the babe in them, so no posting of those.  But needless to say, it was a fun trip and we hope we can go back soon!

Bread Elitists

I made some rolls/buns a bit ago (a pretty regular occurrence at our house) but I only used white flour.  Not the usual whole wheat.  G said he must be turning into a bread elitist because he actually prefers the rolls with the freshly ground wheat.  Seriously?  Who wouldn't like to chow down on some of this?

How we do Halloween

Not ones for a lot of celebration of Halloween, we simply carved a pumpkin this year and called it good.  We couldn't decide for the longest time what to carve, and it got put off until the night before Halloween.  G turned out to be the superstar designer for us this year and made us this beauty

He's so indulgent of me and my fetish.  Unfortunately, the candle wouldn't stay lit for very long with the lid on (lack of oxygen does that...)  But we did enjoy our work of art for a few days, until we noticed that it was turning into a living creature and trying to regrow itself...

We Are Everything

I have been loving this quote from President Uchtdorf

It only makes sense

...that my baby should start his own collection

I was pretty excited for some cooler weather and some clothes that matched so he could finally wear them.

And speaking of cooler weather, fall has brought an update to our wreath.

G and I celebrated our second anniversary a while ago and took this picture to celebrate.

The majority of G's time lately has been spent finishing up his dissertation.  Sometimes Baby likes to "help."

When Baby isn't helping, G prefers to be, well, comfortable while working.

And for our Friday night, we're about to enjoy some brownies from a...um...shake and pour container?  We'll see how that goes... (it was free; don't judge...)

The Deluge

I know, I know.  It has been a LONG time since we've updated this here blog.    Shortly after the babe was born I decided to "disconnect" from technology a little bit.

About a week and a half ago we got hit by a pretty massive thunderstorm, the likes of which I'm not sure I've ever seen here (Brasil, yes; here, no.)  The gutter out the front window overflowed and combined with some crazy wind and started blowing upward (the picture hardly does it justice).

Then we started noticing out the back window that the hill behind us was forming a mini mudslide.

So we kept watching it, and down came the tree.

And then we noticed there were actually two slides.

We had fun watching the crazy people drive up to check it out for the next two days.

After it got cleaned up, what was left is this massive scar on the hillside.

During the storm, I was working to finish some prophet puppets for sharing time in primary the next day (can you guess which ones they are?), and got to finish the last one by candlelight since the power went out for two hours.  I thought they turned out pretty good (though the kids made fun of my President Monson puppet; making hair for a balding man is hard!)  G has told me I should make puppets of the twelve apostles now, but on further thought said they'd all look the same.

Happenings

We've been pretty busy around here lately.

I made a quilt

G and I made sugar cookies (don't judge - it was our first time trying the "flooding" technique...not to mention I get bored after decorating about two sugar cookies)

We made a nightlight

I grew a baby

And four days after that picture gave birth to said baby (best workout EVER, if you wanted to know)

And then I needed something else to do, so I made this wreath

And tomorrow I'm going to make this bread for some fancy grilled ham and cheese sandwiches (that's caraway rye, just fyi)