Just Stroll-ing Along . . .

we have been making our plans for the kitchen update - i'm very happy with what we've decided! although it's probably quite a ways off, it's still exciting to know that eventually we are going to remodel our kitchen and have it looking just the way we like. so all i have to say is, God bless IKEA! we haven't officially decided on the exact model of cupboards, but we've picked out a few we like, and have picked out the sink, which is a white porcelin farmhouse sink. i do dearly love my 9 in deep stainless steel sink, but my gosh the farmhouse sinks are beautyful! anyway, as much as we'd love to do the kitchen now, we don't really have the money and we'd also like to be able to put in our extra bathroom at the same time (which may or may not be an actual addition to the house) ... so it'll have to wait. but we are having so much fun planning and talking and picking things out. gotta love it.

So I haven't been tagged, but I'm going to fill out the survey since it's on everyone's blog.

Four jobs I've had:
Gallery Guard @ the Toledo Museum of Art
Bread pusher @ The Anderson's
Accounting schlub @ Consultants in Laboratory Medicine
Accounting schlub @ Noral Asset Management (current position)

Four movies I could watch over and over:
Elf
Pride & Prejudice
Finding Neverland
any Owen Wilson film

Four books I could read over and over:
The Catcher in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
Girl Meets God
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Four places I’ve lived:
Genoa, OH
Northwood, OH
Springfield Township, OH
Toledo, OH
(that is all really sad)

Four TV shows I watch:
Gilmore Girls
The Office
CSI (original version)
Overhaulin'

Four places I've been on vacation:
Missoula, MT
Savannah, GA
Williamsburg, VA
St Louis, MO

Four websites I visit daily:
Yahoo! mail
A selection from my blogroll
MSN news
Google.com

Four favorite foods:
Boursin with sea-salt bagel chips
Italian grilled chicken with creamy mashed potatoes
Mindy's refried bean dip
Room temperature cheese, preferably cheddar

Four places I’d like to be now:
on an Alaskan cruise with my hubbin
lying on a beach with a good book (and my hubbin)
sampling gelato in Italy with my hubbin
at the point in my life when all our bills are paid off and I never have to work again!

i'm over sitting with mar, while dad is gone this afternoon. it's so nice to have her back! i stopped at the store for some "soft" foods ... all kinds of puddings, cottage cheese, yogurt, instant mashed 'taters. grammie is bringing some veggie soup over tonight and aunt lynne is bringing over wonton soup on tuesday night - it is so nice having people help out when needed! tomorrow night i think i am going to make butternut squash soup (which i stole from yum-yum for the tum-tum) for mar.
i'm glad for the weekend and that mar is doing better. thanks for the prayers!

marmee's home!

You scored as Sookie. Sookie 88% Lane 75% Lorelai 75% Luke 63% Paris 63% Rory 50% Kirk 50% Michel 50% Emily or Richard 38% Jess 25% Do you belong in Stars Hollow? (Which Gilmore Girls character are you?) (New and Improved) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Lorelai. Lorelai 88% Lane 75% Sookie 63% Luke 63% Rory 63% Paris 63% Kirk 50% Emily or Richard 50% Michel 50% Jess 25% Do you belong in Stars Hollow? (Which Gilmore Girls character are you?) (New and Improved) created with QuizFarm.com

life's been moving at an incredible rate the past few days ... and i feel like i'm living in my car.
mar's doing better today, i think - at least her color is back. the dr finally came in this morning while i was there and said he thinks she might be able to eat some solid food today (her first food since SATURDAY). those doggone nurses keep trying to make her walk around all the time and it's really making her upset - mostly because when she moves, she vomits (from lack of food) and the anti-nausea meds they're giving her are apparently not working. anyway, i gave her a little bath this morning and she was sitting up when i left ... so hopefully she is on the road to recovery .... but i don't really expect her to be going home before sunday.
my mother in law, who is a nurse, told me that the reason mar's back was hurting is because they fill up the stomach cavity with carbon dioxide to do the surgery, so they have room to move around, and then it gets in your system and makes everything hurt. i certainly did not know that before! i love having smart people around me.
i'm supposed to go to my cousin's house tonight for pampered chef party ... i'm not sure if i'm going to go. i really need to spend some time with my husband and our menagerie. plus i think i might fall asleep during the presentation.
back to work ... gotta start closing the books on january.

check out buyolympia.com - i just ordered their "reading is sexy" tshirt (alexis bledel wears one in an episode of gg) ... but they have lots of fun, unique items.

ran into ryan kasza last night! it was so good to see him. he hasn't changed a bit!
he was like, "you're MARRIED?!"
yeah ... it shocks a lot of people.

the surgery went as well as was expected and despite being in excruciating pain, mar seems to be doing ok. they ended up taking out 15" inches, instead of the 4" or 5" that they previously thought was diseased. her surgery was supposed to be at 1, but they didn't take her back to the o.r. until 2, and it was about 7 before we could see her. even being in pain and on drugs, mar still had her sense of humor. brian was patting her hand and she asked who it was, and i said, "your favorite son-in-law" and she said, "oh, brandon's here?" and cracked a smile. good ol' mar.
i was pretty surprised when i saw her surgeon ... she looked like she was about 30 years old. i'm not sure why that surprised me, and maybe it wasn't really surprise, but i was just expecting an older person. but she was very confidant and obviously did a job well done.
i'm the only one at work today, which is crap, because i wanted to leave early and go up to the hospital. i guess this is what i get for working at place that only has 3 employees. oh well.

we had a surprise 31st birthday party for kelly last night ... what good times we are able to share with our friends! while the majority of our friends are not believers, i still feel so blessed to call these people mine. i know i can say they are all searching for something, because i see it in them and i hope that brian and i have been able to show them God and His wondrous glory in our lives. we both would admit that we have not always done our best to do that, but daily we pray that God changes and softens our hearts in that area especially.


little joey d is walking! brian talked to his brother franklin earlier this week and the little tyke (who will be 1 on march 17th) started walking already. while brian has been to oklahoma twice to see joey, i haven't been yet, and i am so anxious to meet him. as i am with all little people, i'm sure i'll fall in love and want to bring him home with me. frank & julie are supposed to be coming up here maybe next month, but they can't make it, we'll probably make a trip down there this summer.


speaking of trips, i'm happy to say that i believe we'll be celebrating Easter in philly with mindy and brandon! as excited as i am about this, i wish we were going a week later for the Spring celebration at longwood. :o) however, i was doing a bit of research and found that the delaware symphony will be @ longwood on the 16th ... um ... maybe we could go, guys? i'll bribe you with jam!


alright, must finish some stuff here for mar, and then head home with my sick hubby and sick puppy (now that his kennel cough is cleared up, i think he has a cold - kelly says it's most likely from thunder licking his ears all up yesterday and being outside. oh, i guess i should say i'm talking about zane, not brian) and put them to bed. i'm picking up schuyler tomorrow morning, taking him to the vet, and then bringing him to our house for the next 3 or 4 weeks. we are definitely going to have a full house!


continue praying for mar. i'll post an update when i get into work on tuesday and let everyone know the outcome of the surgery.

Anne Sexton

There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry "hello, there Anne"
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.

All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,
dies young.

Howard Nemerov

Two universes mosey down the street
Connected by love and a leash and nothing else.
Mostly I look at lamplight through the leaves
While he mooches along with tail up and snout down,
Getting a secret knowledge through the nose
Almost entirely hidden from my sight.

We stand while he's enraptured by a bush
Till I can't stand our standing any more
And haul him off; for our relationship
Is patience balancing to this side tug
And that side drag; a pair of symbionts
Contented not to think each other's thoughts.

What else we have in common's what he taught,
Our interest in shit. We know its every state
From steaming fesh through stink to nature's way
Of sluicing it downstreet dissolved in rain
Or drying it to dust that blows away.
We move along the street inspecting it.

His sense of it is keener far than mine,
And only when he finds the place precise
He signifies by sniffing urgently
And circles thrice about, and squats, and shits,
Whereon we both with dignity walk home
And just to show who's master I write the poem.

i'm sitting here at work, thinking about my mar's impending surgery, and i am nervous. less nervous than she is, i'm sure, but still nervous. please pray for my mar this weekend and on monday, while she's in surgery. she's in a lot of pain, because she's not allowed to take her pain pills (damn those blood-thinners) and she fell on the ice last night, hurting her already sore hip and knee.


oh my mar.
nobody loves her like i do.

i've been trying to come up with a part-time business i can do from our home. i am in the process of looking up regulations and all that jazz so this summer i can start making and selling home-made jams, jellies and lots of other goodies. if anybody has any ideas, experiences, or info on a business like this, please feel free to share!

edit: bonnie and i have been brainstorming all afternoon and we've come up with a few ideas for my home business. i've been printing new recipes and pricing things and trying to come up with a name & logo ... any suggestions? i'm thinking about actually starting this weekend and bringing a few jams and/or jellies into work on monday for my co-workers to try. sounds delicious!

Zaigne Fitzgerald Stroll.

we had the golden globes on in the background last night, while making dinner and cleaning up ... i was so happy when steve carell won for best actor in a tv comedy for the office. what a great show.

zane is on some antibiotics for his kennel cough and little ear mites. when dr lloyd saw him she said, "um yes, he is not pekapoo or any kind of poo, he is massive and only 8 weeks old ... i'm thinking he's a newfie mix, because well... just look at him!" it's true. he's a bruiser. maybe i should change his name to sweet bruiser.

juan valdez was so good on saturday when we were helping kd move. he was in the car for about 10 hours and did so well ... he mostly slept (and crapped on the seat, but we cleaned it up) and ate the doughnut that kd's dad fed him. he had a fat, full belly and a warm place to sleep, so he was a good boy.
kd's apartment is, to borrow the words of peter griffin, "FREAKIN' SWEET!" it really is. and it is BIG, with a gorgeous view. we had a good time with her and her dad and it was sad to leave, because she is further away now and we won't see her as often. but she will be so much happier there, with school, and since it's meijer-town, the meijer is so much better than the ones here, even the new one.
yesterday was mindy's birthday, and i guess it was a good one, because she never returned my phone call after we left her a singing message. how rude.
and today is mi-mu's birthday... she is 3 today! oh that amelia grace. she is sweet and wonderful and so smart. i could only dream to have children as beautiful as she is. last night my mar gave her an old white dress of mine, for her to play dress-up in. she put it on and twirled and asked her mom if she could go to "the wedding." cutest thing i ever saw.
i'm leaving work now to take juan valdez to the vet ... i think he's got kennel cough. poor guy was having a hard time of it last night. but he's still waggin' his tail and nippin' at the other boys. what a trooper.

we're calling him zane fitzgerald, although we're thinking about changing it to juan valdez.

his breath smells like coffee :o)

and kelly thinks he's part cocker spaniel, and looks nothing like a pekapoo, which is what they originally told us he was. but who cares. he's sweet and cute.

since i won't have access to my blog on sunday, i am going to post mindy's birthday song today.




happy birthday to YOU
happy birthday to YOU
happy birthday to-the-best-sister-in-the-world
happy birthday to YOU!

i love you! hope you have a fun and fabulous birthday!

We have a new family member! He doesn't have a name yet, but he's a black & tan, 8 week old, wavy haired mutt (probably pekingese & miniature poodle & who knows what else!) and we love him. Name suggestions are welcome, but don't be offended if we don't use them :o) When we get photos of him I'll post them!

i just have to say that i have the best grandparents ever :o)


and tia is coming today!!!!!!!!

well i talked to mar and we'll be changing the date for our family get-together, because dad has to work ... so once i find out what days he has off, i'll post the new date & time.

we went to lowe's (again) last night and bought paint for our laundry area. i picked out "tulip" which is a lovely yellow. we are going to mop the floors and get all the nasty spider webs down tonight and tomorrow we will paint! we also looked at prices for privacy fences ... we definitely need one. our regular fence is okay, but i'd be more comfortable with the dogs and all if we had a higher fence. anyway, we'll have to wait, because we figured it'd be about $1000 for that.


rice family:
we'd like to have everyone over to our house before mom's surgery, so we're thinking early afternoon on sunday, jan 22. we'll probably just eat, sit around & play games.

if anyone knows of a part-time i'd be interested in, evening or weekend hours, let me know.

we think mabel is dying. she seems to be bleeding internally ... a red spot is growing on her upper back (back? do fish have backs?) and swims erratically at times. last night i was reading on the couch and overheard brian upstairs with storm ... "stormie... i think mabel is dying. she looks very sick and we can't do anything for her. she's a part of our family and it will be very sad when she is dead."

yeah i pretty much wanted to squeal because it was so cute.
and frightening.
but mostly cute.

strangely enough, i have been enjoying cleaning my new home. it's still a bit difficult, since there are boxes crowding the entire upstairs, what with the work going on in the bathroom and not having unpacked my office yet. anyways, so i spent some time cleaning on saturday, but i mostly got caught up on some movies and went shopping with mar while brian was helping out at a & a's new digs. OH - best thing about our weekend - mar and dad surprised us with a BRAND-NEW washer and dryer! it's being delivered on thursday and i absolutely cannot wait. i'm thinking about washing every article of clothing, every washcloth and dishtowel, every sheet and blanket we own, just because I CAN. now i have to paint my little laundry area in the basement. i'm thinking a nice yellow, with some cherry print curtains (if anyone has seen any vintage fabric with fruit, let me know) and my little yellow table.
i've been enjoying my reading ... i've been trying to spend more time reading than pretty much anything else lately, because i feel like i'm so behind. in addition to all the books previously listed, i am also going through this book, which was a christmas gift from my grammie ... it's awesome ... one of the best books of poetry i've ever read.
also been trying to cook more. i got out of the habit while we were packing & moving & signing our lives away. made some DELICIOUS chickens yesterday, with the usage of parmesan and italian bread crumbs. yum. this weekend if we have any money leftover after paying bills, i think i might head out to the grocery store. gettin' kinda tired of ramen noodles.

i just found out that pride & prejudice is released on march 14th
yay :o)

I am loving our new DVR ... last night after CSI was over, I was able to watch The Office, and fast-foward through the commercials. Yes, I am loving technology.

Currently reading:

Birds of a Feather
Jacqueline Winspear

The Most of P.G. Wodehouse
P.G. Wodehouse

Peril and Peace
Volume 1: Chronicles of the Ancient Church
Mindy and Brandon Withrow

Real Simple, February 2006

I have a new favorite author - Jacqueline Winspear. I finished this book last night and I am dying to read the next two books in the series. Note to self: Stop at Books-A-Million on the way home from work!

we didn't get the tiles down, but the painting is almost finished and brian is working on new wiring for the light fixtures. i've been trying to decide on colors for towels and things ... pale yellow ... pale green? it's all a mystery to me right now.
we've been enjoying our new satellite and our new tv. we weren't planning on getting a new tv, but we were able to get 0% financing for it. boy, is it nice. nice and big. and flat.
so my boss is trying to convince me to go to the dr for my stomach, since i've been having so much trouble lately. i know i probably should, i just hate taking the time to make the appt, and i haven't been to my regular dr since before b and i got married, so i'll have to change all my info with them. what a pain. but i guess i'd better do it. i think al might fire me if i don't.

I am going to a Tastefully Simple party on Tuesday night. Food!

So many things are happening, I'm not even sure where to start ...

I guess the first thing is that KD's grandpa passed away on Saturday. He had been in the hospital with pneumonia and was going in for surgery to repair a broken hip and femur.
It is so hard when something awful happens to someone you love and you can't be there to comfort and grieve with them. KD, we love you and we are always here, whenever you need us.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I will be sick for the rest of the Winter and, most likely, the Spring. Apparently our insurance company had a problem with ProMedica facilities and broke ties with them, so now we're not sure where we're supposed to go! I have been taking Nyquil tablets and chewing Zicam strawberry things (Mindy can tell you what they taste like :o) and I have been feeling better during the days, but my evenings aren't so great.

Yesterday, with the help of my Dad and Brian's Dad, the tile in the bathroom was pulled up and a new floor put in ... we're going to put down the new tiles tonight after we paint. We had to special order the drain and trap for our new sink, which won't be in until early next week, so for now we still have our old sink. I'm so anxious to see what it will look like after it's all painted and the new stuff is installed. Almost everything is new ... new sink, new mirror, new light fixtures, new shower head, new floor, new paint!

We're getting a dish installed today - by Adam. Brian's been going nuts not being able to watch the news or hockey and I miss my cooking shows!

We had a big New Year's Eve party. We mostly just ate and played Mad Gab ... for like 5 hours. Kelly & Craig brought a TON of food, and hundreds of Jell-O shots. I ended up making veggie pizza, pesto torta, potstickers, cookies & brownies and they brought popcorn chicken, cheesey dip, cheese & crackers, summer sausage, veggies and cookies. There was so much food leftover, but not too many Jell-O shots were left. Then Sunday morning we had a big breakfast at my parent's with M & B, and then brunch at Dad & Vicki's ... so much food was consumed over the weekend. Last night we had pizza and tonight I'm making sausage chili & cornbread! And then I think I won't eat for like ... maybe 4 hours.

Must go and actually start some work.

06 - Party @ Francie's
10 - KD starts classes @ Kendall College
10 - Harold's birthday
15 - Mindy's birthday
16 - Amelia's birthday
18 - Kelly's birthday
19 - Eoin's birthday
21 - Vicki's birthday
22 - Schuyler comes to stay with us for a while
23 - Mar's surgery