functionally complete.

Our Final Fireplace Room To-Do List:

- fill all the nail holes with wood filler and sand smooth.

- put a thin layer of touch up paint over the nail holes and fingerprints.

- clean a few paint splatters off the brick.

- clean, paint, and re-install the air return vent covers.

     we actually bought new ones

- put up all the light switch and outlet covers.

- re-hang the light fixture in the nook.

- figure out what to do about window treatments.

and so, without further ado, it is my great honor and esteemed privilege to proclaim our fireplace room (finally!) FUNCTIONALLY COMPLETE!!! 

just as a reminder, here is a picture of the two-toned look this room was sporting from WAY back when, before any of this madness got underway:

and here is the room as she stands this very moment:

NOTE: the china cabinet is not going to live there forever, it just moved there temporarily to be out of the way in the front room.

A Comprehensive List of Things We Did: 
- replaced the 1/8" wood paneling with 1/4" drywall.
- covered the textured ceiling with 3/8" drywall.
- spackled holes and fixed some nail pops in the walls.
- primed and painted all the walls and trim.
- painted the fireplace doors.
- fixed the doorways to accommodate the drywall wall.
- put bigger crown molding around the fireplace.
- replaced all the switches, outlets, and all their covers.

and even though we're still curtain-less in there, Mark moved all the furniture from the rest of the house back into the fireplace room, serving the double purpose of making it look oh so cozy in there and also being the first step in prepping for paint in the front room and dining room.

no rest for the weary here folks, we plan on having the whole upstairs functionally complete by the end of the year... fingers crossed guys, (and your toes too if you can manage it) it's probably gonna be close, but we'll definately keep you posted.

our first scare.

my blog is about to go to a place where my blog has never gone before. its kind of personal, but i think we can all handle it. if you dont think you can, then just skip this post and come back later. i'll probably have something to say about grilled bananas or painting furniture thats a little more in line with what we're all used to getting around here.

a couple months ago, i screwed up my birth control system when i forgot to pack my pills before we left for vacation. no wait, thats kind of a lie, because i actually did pack them, but then in a fit of organizational awesomeness i unpacked them to take one the morning we left, and then forgot to repack them before we actually left. i guess thats what i get for trying to be prepared and pack three days ahead of time.

so i was off the pill for a while and yadda yadda yadda all of a sudden there's a chance i might be preggers. (i am not going to elaborate any further on that point because i trust that all my readers are old enough to know where babies come from. you're welcome. go ask your mother.) anywho, this all led to a two-and-a-half week period in September during which i overthought every thing i did or felt and tried desperately to figure out if i was indeed going to grow a little person inside of me. and since you weren't hanging out in my head at that time, i've provided a symptom-by-symptom account of those weeks purely for your enjoyment and a little bit of understanding of why and how i came to be a little ball of silent stress and anxiety.

Symptom: eating a lot of food. a lot of junk food. specifically ice cream.
What I Was Thinking: i am so hungry! its like i'm eating enough for myself and a whole 'nother person... i kind of hope i actually turn out to be preggo so i can justify this junk food binge.
What I Probably Should Have Thought: i do not really need this ice cream. didn't i say i was going to start eating healthy and working out so i wouldnt feel so fat?

Symptom: "i feel so faaaaattttt."
What I Was Thinking: bloating! thats totally an early sign of pregnancy!
What I Probably Should Have Thought: hur dur dumbbutt its probably cause of all that ice cream. and i should probably actually start working out more. and maybe eat a little less cheese.

Symptom: headaches in the morning and a sore back all day.
What I Was Thinking: (google google google) oh man. more signs of early pregnancy. i dont think i'm ready for this. i need to go hyperventilate somewhere.
What I Probably Should Have Thought: i should stop sleeping in my contacts, because i know they give me headaches. and what a good jazzercise workout! i love that sore all over feeling the next day.

Symptom: gosh, i am really tired. i do not feel like doing anything but laying right here on this couch.
What I Was Thinking: that crazy little maybe-baby is sucking all my energy!
What I Probably Should Have Thought: i need more sleep. maybe staying up late to catch the end of America's Got Talent and then getting sucked into the show after that too wasn't really the best plan ever.

Symptom: massive acne breakout. not like "oh look a few zits on my chin" but more like "my face resembles that of a 16-year old boy who refuses to wash their face and/or their sheets and by the way is that a zit inside my right ear?"
What I Was Thinking: (google google google) oh man i didnt even know that acne leads to babies! PANIC!
What I Probably Should Have Thought: um hello? remember how your face kinda sorta does this EVERY month? probably just PMS. chill out and wash your face a bit more.

Symptom: getting up to go to the bathroom like 6 times in 4 hours.
What I Was Thinking: OMG TEENY TINY HUMAN MAKING ME HAVE TO PEEEEE
What I Probably Should Have Thought: well, note to self: drinking approx. 96 oz of water in one day might be just a tad bit excessive. chill.

**SPOILER ALERT** i'm not pregnant. just a little stressed and out of shape and making less-than-stellar dietary choices. sorry to disappoint.

and no, i'm not really disappointed at the lack of babyness in mah bellay. we're honestly not ready for that yet, as evidenced by the fact that one of my main concerns had to do with fitting into the fabulous bridesmaid dress i just bought for Vic's wedding 9 months from now, and that one of the only positive things i could really think about having a baby right now would be having an excuse to get fat.

so yeah. no babies here yet. just thought you might like to know.

One, Part Two.

and/or How To Freeze Your Cake and Eat It Too. 

so i told you all yesterday about our super-special low-key anniversary plans. dinner at home, watch our wedding video, open our wedding jar, and eat the top tier of our cake. out of all these pretty standard anniversary events, one of the most anticipated was definately the cake. did it survive an entire year in the creepy downstairs freezer? would it be edible, or moldy, or frozen solid like a big cakey icecube? what did it taste like in the first place? (turns out neither of us ate any of the cake when it was fresh) did we ever actually take it out of the box and wrap it up? which one of us did that anyway?

only one way to find out. 

 we trekked downstairs to the far corner of the basement where the creepy old refridgerator resides. we opened the freezer door, and lo and behold - there was something wrapped in aluminum foil. a good sign.

we figured that whatever was in that package would thaw better if it were unwrapped, so thats what we did. after removing three pieces of clear packing tape (yeah i don't know why either) and the first layer of aluminum foil, we found ANOTHER layer of aluminum foil covering what we were assuming to be the top tier of our cake.

peeling back the second layer revealed a layer of plastic wrap...

...followed by a layer of wax paper. apparently whoever wrapped this thing up meant serious business.

and it turns out that inside all that wrapping was indeed the top tier of our wedding cake, just like we remembered it. and take a look at how good this thing looks after an entire year in that getup!

I transferred the cake from its plethora of protective layers onto a plate for mostly aesthetic purposes, and let it sit for a bit.

while we waited for dinner to finish, and the cake to thaw, we listened to our wedding music and opened our first wedding jar.

inside the jar was a plethora of good advice, a copy of the BFOTB's speech, a few reminders about the outcome of the football game that day, and not one but TWO warnings about the cake. specifically, not to even bother with it.

well that only made us more curious to see how ours survived its year in the freezer, so after dinner we decided to chance it and cut ourselves a piece. (and i would just like to say that i was pleasantly surprised to find that my cake-cutting skillz have greatly improved over the past year)

time for the moment of truth...

the verdict: it tasted like cake. not particularly good cake, but the kind of cake you would expect to get from a grocery store bakery. which incidentally is exactly where our cake was from. we each ate a whole piece, and since we're not puking our guts out today, i would have to call this adventure in cake-freezing a great success!

 additionally, i would like to take this opportunity to apologize to everyone who did eat cake at our wedding and then spent the rest of the evening with green teeth. my bad.

our only dilemma now that the cake turned out to be edible and reasonably tasty is that we're having a hard time justifying just throwing it out, which is what we were planning on doing. so you tell us: what should we do with the rest of our cake? feed it to my coworkers? have a second wedding reception? wrap it up and leave it on a strangers front porch? the possibilities are almost endless...

One.

so this is what a first anniversary feels like...

its a little bit...

well...

is 'normal' too harsh a word for such a supposedly special day?

i feel a little bad because i don't have anything really deep or insightful to say here. 

maybe its because my mind has been focused on other things lately and i haven't taken time to really reflect on the past 12 months. i mean, we've done a lot. we've travelled to some different places. we've had a lot of fun. there has been laughter and movies and snuggles and fights and reconciliations and surprises and projects and celebrations. and i loved all those things. i honestly wouldn't change anything about our first year of marriage. but on some level, it was just another year. another span of 365 days, just like the last one, just with different memories.

maybe its because we didn't make any huge plans. it is a Monday after all. and i was out of town all weekend. we plan to make dinner together tonight. we plan to watch our wedding video for the first time. we plan to eat the top layer of our cake. we plan to open our first wedding jar. and then on Friday, we plan to dress up fancy and go out to dinner somewhere nice. somewhere new. there may or may not be presents. i had lofty ambitions for an awesomely crafty gift for the hubs that would be heartfelt and let him know just how much i love him. and then i ran out of time. so instead i picked up a neat little something while i was out this weekend. i didn't ask for anything. i didn't really even hint about anything a lot. and is it too corny to say that i might not even mind all that much not getting something because i'll be happy to just spend time together?

maybe its because i've always just built it up in my head to be more than it really is. i mean, yes, its a big deal. its our first real anniversary after all. but i have celebrated a lot of anniversaries prior to this one. every month that we dated, every month that we were engaged, and every month that we've been married up to this point have all been major milestones for me and for us, and i celebrated accordingly, even if only in my head. so maybe i thought that when they all were added up into one big, full year that somehow it would feel bigger? but really it just feels like every other milestone.

but i know that its not. i know that this day is the one that matters. i know that February 15th, and March 20th don't even hold a candle to October 3rd. i guess there's just something about promising to love another person for "always and forever, no doubt whatsoever" and really meaning it that makes a day extra special. and i wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy FIRST Anniversary Mark! One down, hopefully at least 49 to go...

how to make the most amazing birthday cake ever.

a little while back, i mentioned my pinterest-inspired art project and how it turned out. this weekend, it was my sister's turn to attempt something that she had pinned for my niece's 4th birthday: the cake. it was quite an adventure, and we think it is only fair to everybody else who has pinned this cake that we share our experience of attempting it.   

8:00 pm - put the kids to bed. it's time to get your bake on! you have inspiration and a recipe and are ready to knock this thing out!

8:35 pm - realize that your organic from-scratch cake batter is looking more like cookie dough. this may not have been the best time to try a new recipe.

8:37 pm - consult with sister as to the best course of action.

8:38 pm - shrug, add some more milk, and carry on.

8:43 pm - gather every large vessel you own. split batter into 6 equal parts to dye all the colors of the rainbow with food coloring gel (except for indigo, because is that really even a color anymore?)

8:54 pm - abandon all now-dirtied large pots in favor of dirtying all the cereal bowls instead.

9:15 pm - put first four layers into parchment lined pans. cross your fingers and close the oven.

9:21 pm - ignore hubs inquiry as to whether or not he smells fire.

9:30 pm - confirm that something was indeed burning. but at least it wasn't the cake! make a mental note to trim the parchment paper to fit the pans next time... 

9:32 pm - express disbelief that this is really how your awesome cake is turning out. 

9:45 pm - try to determine how to proceed from this point. does a birthday party really NEED a cake?

10:05 pm - do not even bother to attempt to bake the final two layers. just trash it all. curse pinterest for putting this idea in your head.

10:14 pm - head to the grocery store.

10:22 pm - semi-seriously consider just buying a generic grocery store birthday cake.

10:23 pm - pick up boxed cake mixes and two cans of white buttercream icing. ready for round two.

10:45 pm - mix up cake batter in no time flat.

10:58 pm - use two cake mixes to make six layers of multi-colored cake. bake in oiled-and-floured pans in lieu of messing with parchment. they all turn out great.

11:45 pm - use both cans of icing to stack and dirty ice the cake. make a mental note to get more icing before the party.

12: 10 am - put cake in fridge for the night. vow to clean up the kitchen in the morning.

12:13 am - go to bed.

1:12 am - wake up, confused to hear a soothing woman's voice crooning something about BEEP BEEP BEEP CARBON MONOXIDE BEEP BEEP BEEP

1:13 am - turn off the detector. contemplate just going back to sleep.

1:14 am - figure it's probably in your best interest to call the fire department instead.

1:17 am - two firetrucks bearing some of New York's finest arrive. they inspect the house, and take readings to determine the source of the elevated CO levels.

1:23 am - the source is determined to be the oven. apparently extended baking with all the windows shut will elevate levels just enough to trip the alarm. stupid cake.

1:24 am - realize the disastrous state of your kitchen while the firemen wander about your house. kind of regret decision to clean up in the morning.

1:25 am - open all the windows and wait for CO levels to normalize. 

2:03 am - firefighters leave, looking a little disappointed that they didn't get to rip down any walls or anything.

2:05 am - go back to bed.

6:28 am - the kids wake up, because they somehow managed to sleep through all the midnight excitement.

11:45 am - husbands return from their morning excursions (on which they took the car with the carseats and ALL THE KEYS) with two more cans of icing, among other things.

12:03 pm - use another can and a half of icing to cover the cake. (that's three and a half total, if you're counting.) decorate with skittles, a detail you added yourself to give the cake more flair.

2:32 pm - light the candles. sing happy birthday. 

2:33 pm - the birthday girl makes a wish, and blows out the candles.

2:35 pm - cut the cake. jumping up and down while shrieking "ohmygosh it looks so great!" is entirely optional and might get you some wierd looks from other partygoers, but it's also completely appropriate behavior. honest.

2:37 pm - serve to the birthday girl with pride and ENJOY!

so the moral of this cake story is that it can be done, but you might want to have a backup plan. and plenty of icing. and a few hours to kill. and some firefighters on speed dial, just in case. 

so now that you know just how exciting a pinterest project can be, who's next?

apple picking.

the weather man said it was supposed to pour down rain all weekend.

i am so glad he was wrong.

Happy Birthday Claire Marie!

thanks for inviting us to share your birthday weekend.

craving.

you know what i could go for right now? some M&Ms.

I had this same feeling yesterday afternoon. Yesterday, i put a dollar into the vending machine and hit E5 an watched the M&Ms slowly inch their way forward as quickly as their twirly spiraled cage allowed them to because some kind soul had posted their $0.75 bail.

But apparently the vending machine was feeling vindictive, as though the M&Ms did not deserve to go free, and just as the M&Ms were about to escape, the machine grabbed them and held on.

I left a note on the vending machine that it was holding my M&Ms hostage, but no one returned them to me. and they're not holding on in there anymore.

somebody done stole my M&Ms.

Oh well, they probably were really doing me a favor. I guess i'll just eat my baby carrots instead.