Mini's recovery and house progress

Our little Mini is recovering nicely from her surgery on Friday. We finally had her taken to the vet to be fixed and declawed. I know, I know, all you cat-nail-preserver-people don't agree with me for doing this, but if you were used as a scratching post, and acquired new wounds every day from your feline friend, you'd have her declawed too. She was just starting to scratch on other nicer items in our house, so it came at the right time. All this is not to say that I didn't feel awful to watch her walk around every so carefully, because her paws were sore. I felt so bad, but she is getting better. She has gotten lots of rest, eaten and drank some, and is out and about watching flies in the kitchen.

As for the progress on our house, boy have things been busy! Every night this week, except for Sabbath, we had the crew (Jim, Gail, Jim Sr. and us) working on putting our hard wood floor in. In just less than a week we had the whole living room done! Even better news is that the piano is schedules to come one week from today! Exciting changes!!!! We have been waiting a while for this. The floor will continue down the hall throughout this week. Mom and Gail have been busy painting baseboard, and sanding our entry steps down to be re-varnished. They were even able to get all the yucky black off, from all the tracking in of the elements for years and years. Thanks guys! Then my Dad has been hard at work the past two nights putting our wood boiler together. All the plumbing for it is done, the jacket on, and its filled with water. Just some wiring, smoke-piping, and finishing things to do. :) Thanks Dad! Then Jim and Adam have been out working all morning splitting and stacking wood for the winter. What a beautiful day here in VT to do it too! It must be almost 60 degrees!

As for me, I have been checking on our patient periodically, baked some oatmeal cinnamon raison cookies, and two loaves of bread. :) I love baking!!! Looking forward to having turkey day here this year. This will be my first big Charlestream thanksgiving, so I am excited and probably a little overwhelmed as the day draws near.

Well, I guess thats it for now. I post more pics when we get the piano in!!!

Rain and Praise

The rain is coming down in a steady drizzled, continuing the patter that started this morning. Each morning I get up and check the weather, thinking this is the day I will bring out my winter Carhartt coat from the back of the closet, and dust off my work hat for another winter season in the plumbing business. But no, not today, or this week for that matter. Temperatures are still in that in between stage: 30s and 40s in the morning, and low 50s during the day. I think I ready for it to be cooler, but then again, when it comes I'm sure I'll regret that statement.

Last night brought about an exciting beginning of events for these two happy home owners. We have been hoping to get the wood to do our living room and hallway before Thanksgiving, with the intent of having Adam's families HUGE T-day at our house. The lumber we like from lumberliquidators was out of stock, and I just so happened to see some really nice oak floor at home depot for an amazing deal of $2.72/square ft! This was a whole dollar cheeper a square foot than what we originally wanted! God is amazing folks! With the knowledge that it would rain today, we went back to the house and got the truck, and bought the wood last night! Happy days are ahead my friends! Once we get the grout finished in the kitchen, we can begin that project, which means my piano can come soon!!! This is something we have been looking forward to throughout all the house finishings! God certainly does care about the needs and desires of His children!

Learning and Growing

I have been blessed in the past couple weeks by helping out with the depression seminar our church has been hosting. We are doing the series that Dr. Neil Nedley put out. What I didn't expect was that I would be benefiting as much as our guests are. ;) I guess that is always the case, always room for growing. God has been working on me to get me eating healthier. It might seem strange for me to be in such a place again, being a Nutrition major and with my past history and all, but yet, with all the temptatious foods out there, and my weakness for ice cream, it is very possible. Strangely, even though I have been studying nutrition for over two years now, the majority of my classes don't have anything to do with food, but other aspects of health and a health care career. I think it is just the way my schedule is set , but I am sure ready for the classes that actually focus on my field! I need it for my own health as well! I was reminded last night at our meeting of some foods that are especially good for the different nutrients our body needs, and for the seminar's case, those especially necessary for depression patients: Omega 3, B-12, Folic Acid, and another one which I am forgetting. Some of the highlighted foods were flax seed, walnuts, wheat germ, spinach, tofu, and brewer's yeast. We were also given some suggestions as to how to implement these foods in our daily diet. So I decided to give some of these tips a try. I had to make a late night stop at the grocery store anyway, so I picked up a few of the mentioned items. Then I made a smoothie this morning with orange juice, two fresh bananas, frozen strawberries, blueberries, a frozen banana, flax seed, wheat germ, and oat bran, as well as a little soy milk to make it creamier. It was amazing! Adam really like it too! A truly filling drink! After Adam left for work I went down to try out the elliptical machine I bought used the other day. After being invigorated by that, I came back upstairs for the rest of my morning activities. I also implemented the wheat germ on my cereal as well as walnuts (which I had already been doing).

The result.....I feel great! God's plan for our health really is the best! He wants us to feel healthy, awake, and alive! Its just a matter of listening to Him when He tells us something, and finding the means to implement the techniques!

Sabbath Adventure

Our adventure started on our travels up to the Little Rock Pond Parking Lot. We realized we needed to leave at least two cars up at the White Rocks to bring everyone back to the L Rock Pond parking lot. We then dropped off a few passengers at the rode to Little Rock Pond (it had started raining). Billy Towsley showed up unexpectedly, and was able to offer them a ride. Meanwhile, Dad, Jim, and I headed up to the White Rocks parking lot to drop off the cars. On the way, we say a truck that had fairly well marooned itself in a mud hole, trying to get out. It finally made it just as we were leaving, but not without getting covered.

We made it back to Little Rock Pond parking lot, and began our trek in fairly chilly weather. The weather continued to drizzle and rain and throw wind at us, keeping us from having lunch at the pond. We even went a little ways on the wrong trail before getting on the right one. Once there, we realized we were in for a lot longer hike than we expected! The sign said 6.7 miles to route 140, which was just a little bit from the White Rocks parking lot, so all in all, with out detours, we hiked around 10 miles.

We had a quick lunch under the shelter of a tree, careful to stand up and keep our backpacks on, lest they get wet and muddy. We then continued our gradual trek up to the White Rocks. We entered a new world on that mountain, full of evergreens and brown dirt paths (a relief from the wet, muddy ones previous walked on). We even came to a couple different "Rock Graveyards" as I call them (places where hikers leave their mark).

The weather told us the rain would let up by 2:00. Well, it was still raining at 4:00, and didn't stop until closer to 4:30 or 5:00. We made it to the White Rocks a little after 5:00, with many of the group saying we should just skip the lookout, since it was another 2/10ths of mile down. Ginny and I overlooked their misgivings, and led the group down to what turned out to be the best part of the whole day! The sky had cleared and the beautiful blues and sun shed an unwaveringly beautiful glow on the peak fall foliage below! It was as if God opened up the sky just for His children to have the blessing of seeing His handiwork on that Sabbath day. We were overjoyed with the result, even though it was cool and windy! The ending was well worth the 10 or so miles our journey took us! But boy were we glad for the heat back in the car! And I was sure glad I packed large lunches for Adam, Dad and I. Nothing like munchies after the end of a great hike! Thanks God for a beautiful Sabbath!

Windsday!

The weather continues remind us that we are nearing winter. This week has been filled with cloudy, bluster days. I can't help but think of the Whinnie the Pooh song (my person favorite Disney character), It's Windsday! Aside from some predicted rain showers in the morning, Sabbath is supposed to be beautiful. We are heading up to Little Rock pond tomorrow morning, hiking in and having lunch, and then taking the trail that continues up to the top of the White Rocks. Its going to be a beautiful Sabbath up there amidst God's creation and Christian fellowship! Can't wait! I even have the lunch menu all planned (frustrating to all you last minute people, I know). I made cinnamon oatmeal raison cookies last night to go in the lunches, which was fun. I didn't, however, read the directions that told me to cream the powders before adding the liquids, so the few bits of baking soda that escaped my wooden spoon strangled my taste buds in the few cookies that had them. Oh well. Adventures of a learning cook! Other than that, they were good!

I guess thats it for now, but I am planning on taking lots of pics up on the hike, so I'll post them later. Happy Sabbath everyone!

The Adventures of Sundays

Sundays are normally my catch up days, but yesterday was my designated paper day. Two important papers awaited my attention, and since I had hardly looked over either of them, I barely knew what they were supposed to be about. Bad procrastinator I know. But before I could even think about writing those papers, we had planned to go help the school teacher of our little church school move to their new house, her and her husband. We had planned on only helping pack up, but we enjoyed the fellowship with the other church members, so we continued on to their new house to help unpack. We finally ate lunch around 3:00p.m. after everything was all unloaded. Then we headed home. My motivation was still lacking when I got home, combined with the fact that the house badly needed cleaning. I plugged into it, though, while Adam went down to his parents to work on his snowmobile. Towards the end of my paper, my Dad called on his way down the mountain with Mom, saying the Jeep had gotten stuck on the way down and that they needed Adam's help to get it out. So I quickly called down to his parents....no answer. Called again....and again and again. No answer. In my frustration and desperation I finally decided to go down there. In my usual rush to back out of the driveway, I failed to see or remember that Gail had left her car in our driveway after picking up our truck, and just as I saw it in my rear view mirror, SMACK! Grrrr!!! Her car was fine thankfully. I had hit my breaks enough that it didn't hit too hard, but it got my car in just the right spot to smash one of the smaller tail lights. Thankfully, minimal other damage occurred, but it still added to my stress. Adam wasn't down there after all, and I had no way of getting a hold of him. He did finally get back after about a half hour, and we headed up to my parents. Dad and Adam rode the 4-wheeler up from their house to where the Jeep was, and spend the next couple hours getting it un-stuck. We didn't get home until just before midnight, but much to my gratitude, Dad said it was ok for me to sleep in a little. So even after all that, I had a good morning this morning, and thank God for keeping our men safe. (I am heading to Walmart this afternoon to buy Adam a track phone so that we can reach each other in the next emergency). :)

Cooking and Baking Adventures!

One of the things I am enjoying most about being a house wife, okay I work and do school as well,  so I am not just a housewife, ANYWAYS, I discovered I love to cook! I have picked up a lot of helpful tricks in these few short months, combined with my previous knowledge. I never considered myself a good from scratch cook, but I think it will come with time. I already experiment with my recipes a tad, and so far, Adam hasn't dislike anything I've made! In fact, I was complimented to be better at some things than his Mom. Shhhhh, don't tell her please! I respect her greatly, and there are still so many things I can learn from here. Though I did take a bit of pride in his lavish compliment. :) My latest accomplishment was my first apple pie! We know the man who owns Hemming's orchard in Bennington, and he lets us have free access to the drops, which most of the time are perfectly good apples that are really ripe! So basically we have a limited supply of apples, and I needed to start some apple recipes. Pie was a first attempt....and it was a success! Adam loved it! And presentation wasn't half bad either if I do say so myself. ;) Going to try making some more maybe on Thursday, for our parents. Then maybe I will venture on to cobbler, cakes, and other delicacies! Pictures to come....

A New Chapter in Our Lives

After recurring thoughts and requests about updating my blog, I decided it made more sense to create a new one. I looked into changing my blogger URL, which to my knowledge could not be done, and decided that with this new chapter beginning in our lives, it was also time to start a blog off fresh. So here we are, 2 1/2-month-married newlyweds, loving our new lives together and all that goes along with it. 


The wedding days itself was the day of our dreams. Actually, better than our dreams! We had been thinking of that day for years, and it did not let us down, or I should say God did not let us down! After all the rain we had this summer, we were relieved and ecstatic to have one of the most beautiful days all summer for our wedding. All through the planning, whenever we told people how many we expected to come, they called us crazy. For us, though, we couldn't imagine having anything but a big wedding. It was a huge day in our lives, and we wanted to share it with all those we love and care about. For all the hectic plans coming up to the wedding, the day itself went very smoothly, with only minor alterations. Even those seemed natural because of God's peace resting in our hearts.


Since the wedding, we have been enjoying the process of settling into our home, and learning to do life together everyday. We have learned many lessons in such a short amount of time, and appreciate each other more every day. God is so good, and we thank Him every day for putting us together!