PA trip

Last weekend Tom and i joined my mother in a trip to Guys Mill, PA to spend some time with Marie, Brandon, Patrick, Kipp, Stuart and Christopher. They boys have agreed to be our wedding musicians, and we are pretty excited about that. At this point we do not plan to have any "canned" (pre recorded) music. We are also having very little in the way of vocals, which is different than we had originally planned. I am finding that a lot of things about planning a wedding change and adjust as we go :)

We left on Friday evening, drove 6 hours (much longer with stops along the way!) and arrived in Guys Mill after 3 am. I had the privilege of sleeping on the top bunk, something I have not done since college.

Marie makes Apple Pie for Spoiled Tom

Tom repaid the favor by making Fried Rice

Christopher, Kipp & Stuart

Mom is making a table cloth for the guest book table

Stuart's hand

Brandon plays a little music

The ladies having some coffee

Note that my mom is still working on that tablecloth

Also note the leftover fried rice on the table :)

Stuart is an excellent pianist

Roadside Art in Meadeville

We had a great time in PA and it was great to spend some quality time with Marie and her family. She is a very special aunt! I haven't got to spend a lot of time with "the boys" over the last few years, its great to see them grow into young men. (I'm proud to call them family) 

The Dinner That Wasn't

This weeks goal is to try and use some of the food from our freezer - no need to purchase food when there is yummy stuff in the freezer waiting to be turned into dinner. SO... Monday was chicken ravioli with pesto sauce thanks to Tom. (very tastey) Tuesday was my turn. I decided on Crab Cakes with a sauce i concocted out of plain yogert, dijion mustard, white wine and dill. All leftovers or things we just had on hand. I added some butter, reisling, garlic and old bay seasoning to the frozen soup and preheated the oven. While the oven was heating I put some cloths away and watched some TV, thinking my timing was excellent as Tom was on his way over for dinner. *sniff* *sniff* What is that smell? The oven doesn't usually smell... I looked at the oven and realized there was smoke in my kitchen. But why?? Maybe I accidently turned on a burner and melted something? That seems to be where the smoke is coming from, the back of the stove. Nope, nothing. Stove is off, nothing is melting, flaming or otherwise burning.Theres nothing in the oven. Or is there? I opened the oven door and smoke billowed out. Just a word of wisdom - it is good practice to remove things like pans with drippings from the oven prior to preheating the oven. It was nasty smelling and the kitchen was cloudy. At this point I decided I could either get angry or I could see the humor. So, chuckling, I called Tom and sugested that maybe he would like to take his lovely wife to be out for dinner :)

We decided to try a sushi place just down the street -

Soft Shell Crab Roll

Taco Mexicano Roll

SOOO GOOOD

Eel

Always a favorite, but this was extra good

I was a little disappointed about dinner, but I did manage to make Tuesday's dinner tonight (Wednesday) and it worked out ok. The dijion sauce turned out really well. And since sushi is proabably my favorite food ever, I can't complain that I had to wait a day to serve my meal.

~Dori~

Meet Joe the Beagle

Tom and I decided that our house, yard and hearts are big enough to include a dog. We decided to adopt a 12 and a half year old Beagle named Joe. We thought about changing his name, but decided that at 12 + years he should probably be allowed to keep his name. Joe has been a wonderful addition to our family. He is well behaved, never makes messes or jumps on people or furniture. Initally we thought that his old joints would not let him climb stairs and gave him trouble getting out of the car. It seems though that hes a bit of a manipulater as he can't get out of the car when we want to leave him at home BUT is perfectly capable of going up and down stairs if he wants something or someone. We are very glad that Joe is a part of our family.

New Years

I would love to tell you all that I am so excited to blog about New Years, and I am. But in reality what i am doing is procrastinating the days goal of painting the downstairs bathroom and hallway to the garage. There’s just so many tiny corners!! I've been off most of the week, so on Monday I painted the upstairs bathroom. Its a pretty blue color that coordinates well with my warm brown Longaberger baskets (shhhh... don't tell Tom that i actually took my baskets into Lowes with me and stood there making sure our paint selection was the best color to coordinate with my baskets. I also wouldn't mention that the paint people were highly amused by my baskets. He'll role his eyes at me and probably shake his head too!) Tuesday was my first day at my new job and after lots of paperwork and a chat with my new boss I have decided that i think this job will be ok. That said, i actually have a cubical. A cubical!! I’ve always had an office (even if it was a shared one) or worked out of my car. I’m an office drone! Actually I’m not, I’ll be spending a lot of time out of the office doing visits with participants (that’s what my new clients are called, “participants”). Anyway, enough random speak of paint, baskets and new jobs…




Tom and I were able to spend a long weekend with my parents in Arthur over new years. Mom and I did a lot of wedding planning, a lot of revamping things we thought were set in stone. Over Christmas the topic of wedding came up at Grandma’s house and it was nice to hear other perspectives and ideas. We are very much a talking, discussing, planning family. Many big life events/decissions (or little ones) are brought to family and discussed or reviewed. This often takes place at grandma's kitchen table late in the evening. That said, the unspoken rule is, after you have been given a fair opportunity to share your thoughts, you are expected to not come back days or weeks later with a new view or thought you didn't share earlier :) The discussing is not open forever! So over New Years we took some of those ideas and re considered a few things about the wedding.

On New Years day Tom consented to be the chef and we had our 2nd annuel post Christmas fried rice dinner at Glen and Sue's. It all started last year when dad gave Uncle Glen a sample of Tom's fried rice. Later that weekend we decided to make fried rice for Glen, Sue, Todd and Shelby. That became a much larger group by the time it was all said and done - and a tradition appears to have developed. This year Brian came over to the house to have a fried rice lesson. Tom thinks nothing of making fried rice, but because we did not grow up with the ingrediants or style of cooking its a bit of a novelty. Plus, its really good!!

the cooking lesson begins

chicken fried rice - Tom says he never used chicken in fried rice before we specifically requested it last year. This year he marinated the chicken in some Tom Style concoction - it was really tasty

My Personal Chef  ;)

We had so much rice, we put it into crockpots - 3 really big ones

By the time it was done, we had 56 cups of cooked rice (before the meat and veggies were added)

There were leftovers, but not as many as you might think

Shrimp fried rice

I always think the eggs look like the difficult part

Our menu turned out to be quite eclectic - there was plenty of fried rice - chicken, shrimp and cabbage bacon (my favorite!) There was also apple and pecan pie with dad's homemade ice cream. Yummi!

~Dori~

Christmas 2009

We had a quiet Christmas this year; I worked on Christmas Eve and Tom came to the hospital and ate Christmas Eve dinner with me in the cafateria. Christmas day we spend relaxing at our house and Christmas evening i worked for a few hours. We did head to Nappanee for a day trip Sunday to spend some time with my family. As usual, we were not bored...

Getting packed up to leave - Joe decided that he A: wants to go to grandma's too B: is planning on driving

Best part was it took FOREVER to get him out of the car. He kept acting like he couldn't manage it.

Our thinking was that since he doesn't go upstairs or downstairs, his old joints must not do steps... More on that later!

Pulling into grandma's, looks like everyone is here!

The boys decided to see how high they could stack the boxes

They did manage to get it above the fan blades

"Think its gonna fall?"

This is a pic of them taking down the tower, it actually fell as i snaped the pic, their catching those boxes as the fell. Note the pile of boxes on the couch

Playing games

laptop time!

Just hangin out

Hey!

(Phil is demonstrating proper technique learned from growing up with 7 siblings)

Mom's Pretty Christmas Socks

Every year i buy her the ugliest christmas sockes i can find and every year she wears them!

Chistmas Buddy!

Changes and a New Year

Hi Everyone! Its been far to long since we have blogged, so I thought I had better give everyone a quick update. I (Dori) can't seem to manage the card reader for photos tonight, so i'll show you the detail of Christmas and New Years in another post. At the momment we are in Illinois enjoying "Christmas" with my parents. I started a job PRN (as needed) job at a local hospital in November, so i spent much of the actually Chistmas holiday/weekend on call or working in the ER. We did manages to squeeze in a day trip to Grandma's house in Nappanee over Chirstmas weekend, which as great.




Its been an emotional week. On Christmas Eve I received a job offer from an insurance company and although its not a job that I would have chosen a few years ago, after much thought and consideration I did accept the position and on monday I resigned from my current position as a consultant for long term care facilities. It was much harder to write my resignation than i ever thought it would be. As a social worker, I have always considered my job to be much more than just a way to earn money. I loved being a consultant and two years ago when i started the job was a great fit. I loved the travel and the constant change and even the chaotic schedule. I love being the person who has the skills and ability to access a situation and then fix the system so that it functions properly. I love being the person who puts out the fire. However, in the last year my life has seen a lot of change. All of it good! But change none the less. Tom has always been supportive of my career and very understanding of my travel, after hours phone calls and last minute schedule changes. However over the last several months it was becoming more and more clear that I am the one who was not OK with the commitment my job takes. As I thought about leaving the job that i always wanted and have loved every minute of for the past two years I realized that its not just the resignation that brings emotion, but the changes in my lifestyle that have brougth the resignation about. My fiance, house and furchildren need me (or at least, they really like when i'm around :) But in reality I am realizing just how much I enjoy the stability that they offer and the life that is promised within the walls of that house and the circle of what has become our tiny family. This is not to say that this transition does not come without complications and frustrations. Blending our different backgrounds and cultures is sometimes automatic and easy, but then at times it is suprisingly difficult. There have been a few times that we have just not been on the same page. Sometimes getting on the same page again means finding a compromise. Other times it means changing an outlook, mindset, perception or lifestyle. Those are a bit harder to figure out. But we do figure it out, because its vital and so worth it.



So thats whats going on in my life and in my head these days. Chistmas blog with pictures to come...
 
~Dori~

Christmas at Paddington Lane

We have done a little Christmas decorating, i'm big on after Christmas sales, so we are decorating with what we bought last year and a few things i've gathered over the years. Anyway, its been fun!

He stole my chair!!

(Thats my favorite spot)

ahhh, got my spot back

Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Dad had a huge furniture delivery in Canada, so he wasn't able to join us until Friday night. Because of this we decided to postpone the traditional turkey dinner until Saturday. We decided that Tom would try his hand at roasting a duck for Thanksgiving day. Tom started his duck prep in the morning. To those of you who don't know, Tom's cat is Ducky. She stalked around the kitchen for awhile, so i reassured her that we were most certainly roasting a fat chicken and of course we would never consider eating a duck! Also, if we said "duck" in her presence her ears would perk up and she would look at us :) Well it is her name! Anyway, back to the dinner. Tom prepped the duck and then roasted it for 4 hours, flipping it every hour and letting the fat drain into the bottom of the pan (he had it sitting up on a rack). Then he parboiled potatoes, browned them in duck fat and roasted them in the oven. Just before being served the duck recived a glaze (your gonna have to ask Tom about that, I'm not sure what went into that) Mom arrived just in time for our feast, which tuned out completely perfect. I really like duck as a meat, but i didn't grow up eating it. Aside from some very greasy fare years ago my mother had never really tried it. This duck was not greasy at all. It was tender and juicy and amazing.

Saturday was my day to test my skills in the kitchen. As usual, mine comes with a story to tell. Tom and I picked the Turkey several days before when we found them on sale. At that point I began to think about how I wanted to roast this years turkey (I've only done this once before and it was good, but I knew I could do better) I had heard of brining a Turkey, but had no idea how to do it. The day before Thanksgiving I was working in a nursing home doing some assessments. I met an 86 year old woman who had broken a hip just days before Thanksgiving. We were chatting about the holiday and I told her I was going to handle the turkey this year and I was a little nervous since I didn't have a plan (ask Tom, there always has to be a plan. Following the plan isn't required, I just need to know that I have a place to start:). She took pity on me and offered to share her favorite brine recipe that she promised would make the juciest turkey I had ever roasted (not hard since I had only made one, but still, it was a kind offer) So I used her basic recipe and made a brine that went a little something like this - equal parts vegtable broth and water, half a cup of my favorite herbs (more like a tablespoon each) 2/3 cup tender quick, minced garlic, a little bit of worchester and some real maple syrup (no fake stuff here!) Bring to boil, cover turkey with brine and leave to sit for 24 hours. Add some of moms party potatoes and my favorite pasta salad and steamed broccoli and you have Thanksgiving dinner. Except it wasn't on Thanksgiving day. Dad arrived the night before and Jen, Kevin and Nolan joined us for the meal. We were very excited to have a house full of guests for the meal. As promised, the Turkey was by far the best I had ever made. It was juicy, tender and flavorful. So good in fact that Tom has been waiting on turkeys to go on sale so we can roast one for lunch meat. Oh, and I almost forgot Mom's pumpkin pie. Also amazing.

Dad did lots of little helpful jobs around the house Saturday. At one point he decided that he needed to go to Lowes, however he neglected to take his loyal little dog with him.

Buddy sat there, looking out the window the entire time dad was gone

In the middle of all that Mom and I unpacked some 30 boxes and got our house feeling more like a home than a storage unit. We also went out shopping on Black Friday. We did find some great deals and after a year and a half of dreaming I finally own a Cricut (to those of you who do not scrapbook, its a machine that cuts all kinds of shapes and is perfect for my wedding planning)

Here we are, playing with the scrapbooking toys

~Dori~

P.S. As to the questions as to the last post about the day Tom proposed, it seems I did not provide enough detail :) He did get down on one knee. On the wet ground. In the rain. He said something profound and thoughtful about perfect days. I got a little distracted by the shiny ring and the emotion of the moment and  I sorta forget the details (sorry Tom).  And after that we walked back up the hill and it started pouring rain. Mr Prepaired had a giant umbrella, so it was fun. No one else was around, even though we were on a popular little wooden dock overlooking the koi pond (thats probably because it was raining!) Hope that fills in the details a little :)

My Favorite Weekend of the Summer

One of the nice things about moving is that you find some of the things you lost. I've been looking for my camera for months. Cameras are not fun to replace, but they are replaceable. The pictures on that camera were not replaceable. All the pictures from this summer were on that camera. On moving day I was a very happy girl when Erin found it buried deep in my couch! Hopefully i will be able to share a lot of those pictures and memories with you soon. I decided to start with my favorite weekend of the year ;)

It all started with Tom picking my up at my apartment one rainy Saturday morning in July. We were headed off to Bloomington, IN, a town i had never visited but that Tom had told me about several times. On the agenda was breakfast at the Uptown Cafe, shopping for books at the used/rare book stores and unique gift shops and wine tasting at the Oliver Winery. Now, at this point Tom and I had been dating for just over a year and I was quite sure that he had in his possession a ring that was soon to be mine. I was hoping he would present it at some point during this trip. Now this said, i was not completely sure that he had talked to my parents yet. Now before we could head out Tom seemed to think it was very important to stop by his apartment. And i began to wonder "whats he gots in his pockets?" (sorry if you haven't read the Hobbit, that probably didn't make much sense :) 

 

Breakfast was wonderful, i had creme brulee french toast, which was amazing! We also had yummy salmon and cream cheese bagels. Then off to the book corner!

This was a large used book store and i loved all the postings on the door, it was a fun little mom and pop place.

oliver winery

 

When we arrived i wanted to go feed the koi but it was raining. After out wine tour and tasting it was still raining, but we decided to go look at the koi fish in the rain.

See, its raining and my hair is damp, but it was fun! And then it got more fun, because Tom proposed, in the rain, on one of the nicest days i had ever enjoyed.

Afterwords we went back to town and wondered around a little more, visited a kitchen shop where we got busted for flirting and then congratulated on our engagement by the store owner and some other random strangers. It was funny! And then there was this cupcake at the local cake shop, with the best and lights frosting i have ever had.