Just Stroll-ing Along . . .

Anne Hathaway AND Steve Carrell? This makes me soooo happy!

we had a lovely long weekend, spending time with family. i've been sick since saturday night, so i'm a bit miserable right now, but at least i'm back to work.
still cruising right along with our adoption stuff; we passed our fire inspection with flying colors; next up is physicals.
back to work lovelies. hope everyone had a happy holiday.

it's been busy at the stroll house as usual. the holiday season is upon us & that always makes things busier. family get-togethers, packaging of gifts, baking, cosying up with loved ones, newsletters. i always like to see things settle down so we can actually enjoy all of the festivities. this year i am hoping to make more time. more time for family, more time for friends. more time for things that matter, like loving & encouraging my husband and keeping loved ones uplifted.
this thanksgiving is the first for us in our new house & it is one thing for which we are truly grateful. we moved in on christmas eve last year & i can't believe it's been so long already. we're thankful for the memories we've made in it - birthday parties, romps in the snow, our first flowers planted, the hours of painting we've done. it's not a perfect house, it's not even in a great location, but i love it. i love the creaks of the wooden floors, the airing deck off the back. i love the pretty radiators and the coved ceilings and i love how we've made it our home.
i'm also thankful of how far we've come in our adoption process. the last few months have been a wild learning experience. God has truly blessed us with our supportive family & friends. i get emotional when i think He could be blessing us with children soon ... i don't deserve it. as much as it scares me to think i will be responsible for little people, physically, emotionally, spiritually ... i am so excited. and i'm so thankful that i have been given this heart that can love & want children that aren't of my own flesh and blood -- and thankful that my husband was given the same heart, too.
i'm even thankful for the job that i have to get back too now.

this thanksgiving, give God the glory & thanks for all the blessings He's given you.
much love to all, xoxo.

We picked up our kitten last night. He is sweet & velvety & very rotund. We're naming him Mister Darcy, although the names Bennet, Matrix, Spike & Lord Pottsworth were also considered. Zaney is absolutely terrified of him, which is very cute, and he just stands in front of MD and barks. The other dogs are worried, but not too much. We bribed them with food & they were happy.
I am glad we have him, swollen eyes, closed throat & all.

i just got two front row tickets to see josh groban.

um.



i'm a little excited.

a quick update:
our first homestudy went fantastically well on thursday night & we're scheduled for our individual interviews tonight. after that -- fire inspection, physicals & a *last* visit by our caseworker. then we're all set. scary. we were shown pictures of "our" girls - they are so very sweet. obviously nothing is set in stone, and actually through the end of the month they are trying to adopt them with their brothers, but they will most likely be adopted separately. i suppose i can say now (and i really have been waiting so as to not get up my hopes) that these little girls are ages 2 and 4, of african-american descent. the other child we've talked about, who was 12 -- and is now 13, we are still interested in her, but things are a bit more sketchy & so i don't have much to say about her at this point.
my tia's 40th birthday was saturday & she flew in for a few days, so we had a big party at gramma & papa's house. there were little kids & kitties & lots of food involved (and of course the funnest tia in the world).
friday night we saw stranger than fiction, and i loved, loved it. it was smart, but not too smart, and funny, but not slapstick funny. sweet & charming. and i *heart* will ferrell.
i am getting my Christmas lists together & worrying that it is not too far away. i think this coming weekend will be prep time for me, but i need to go thrifting during the week so i can pick up some needed-prepping items. sounds intriguing, doesn't it.
i made banana, cherry & white chocolate cupcakes yesterday & a gooey chocolate stack for tia's birthday party. all from domestic goddess. hubby is LOVING that book.
happy week, everyone!

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

josh groban's new album is wonderful.


i'm off to vote!

we picked out our kitten. he's very shiny, black & grey with a black stripe down the middle of his back. he's staying with his sisters through the weekend & then he is coming home to us & our puppies :o) he has no name yet, but i'm thinking of calling him "cat."
ps, i want his sisters, too. they are so very sweet.

Our new lamp from IKEA.
One thing I love about IKEA is that y'all get to put everything together. I put that light fixture together in like 10 minutes. It's awesome.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contes
t79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour (not the WHOLE tour)
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears (does tongue count?)
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you (does jewelry count?)
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

last week, after a long long wait, my boss became a grandfather for the first time. christian allen was born at 9:49 on thursday night. the love that this little guy is surrounded by is great indeed. he has been wanted for a long time and now that he's finally here, well, his grandpa just couldn't be any prouder.

Brian & I had a very eventful weekend, not eventful in a yay-this-is-fun, but more like I'm-gonna-rip-my-hairs-out kind of eventful. First of all, let me just say that we have neighbors now. Oh joy. The house next to us has never been on the market & it's been fairly (and I said fairly because the owners have been moving things out for a long time) vacant since we moved in to our house almost a year ago. Last weekend we noticed quite a bit of traffic in & out over there and just figured they were getting the house ready to sell. Well during the middle of the week we saw several different people moving things into the house. Then on Thursday, around 2 am, a U-haul pulls up and a couple of guys & a girl start unloading. No big deal, except they're a little loud & our bedroom is next to their driveway. Fast forward to Saturday at 2 am. The people are back, unloading more crap (and it is crap, because they left it most of it in the backyard), and they brought their big dog with them, which isn't bad, except that he barked. the. entire. time. Which meant that our dogs barked. the. entire. time. They've got what I think is a Boxer/Pit bull mix and even though they have a fenced in yard, they have him chained up 24-7. So Sunday 2 am (I don't know if they have odd work schedules or if they have stuff they don't want us to see) when they're moving more stuff in, he was barking again. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep over the weekend. On top of that, Saturday was just a bad day, I was feeling quite under the weather and the restaurant we went to for supper was freaking cold and - on Sunday I saw a little mouse run across the dining room floor. After suffering what I believe was a STROKE, I gathered my wits, called KD for solace, and drove to the store where I proceeded to buy 12 sticky traps. Brian set them out when he got home & this morning when we woke there were two teensy mouses, mices stuck on one trap and - in an odd move for an animal lover as Brian - he took the trap out back & crushed them with a cinderblock.
My hero.
And that, my dears, was my sleepless weekend.
Tonight we're hoping to get a little kitten from my grandparents. And I will name him Killer & he will hunt all of the mouses everywhere and I will reward him with fishes & cream.

The lovely Ms. Lawson says in her book How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking & the Art of Comfort Cooking about her Butterscotch Layer Cake:

This is the sort of cake that people label "very rich" but then go on to have three slices with languorous ease. Yes, it is rich, but the gorgeousness is never palate cluttering or cloying. It makes a comforting dessert after a wintry kitchen supper of something like meatballs or roast chicken and leeks.

If that doesn't make you get out your pots & pans, I don't know what will. You can count on me spending Sunday afternoon roasting our supper & drizzling caramel across this delectable sounding dessert.

It may sound strange that I find her passage so attractive - I know some people who dislike fancy verbage, but I find it beautiful. Her book is full of so many pretty passages - it is just like reading a novel, not a regular cookbook, and I love it.