all kinds of count downs

photos are from the week before last when we ventured out into the cold for roughly seven minutes before our ears started to freeze.

chugging on to february and it's still cold.  i've found a lot of freedom from frustration by no longer allowing myself to feel entitled to doing things.  is that sad?  probably.  whatever, it makes the serendipitous moments of entertainment all the more enjoyable for now.  besides, in-climate weather apparently cut the chicago murder rate in half briefly.  frosty silver lining?

the groundhog saw his shadow in pennsylvania a couple days ago, which in these parts usually signifies roughly 12 more weeks of winter. still, when "leaving the house for reasons other than sustainable income and survival nourishment" is a rare treat, and when you find yourself saying "goodness me, eighteen degrees has never felt so warm," you start to look for light at the end of the tunnel.

having perfected the art of making chili, and having knitted enough things to start googling carpel tunnel syndrome, i'm thinking it might be time to make an excess of decorative paper count-down chains.  we've got so much (matrimony) to look forward to, and hey, all the trees look dead already!  when life hands you frozen lemons make kindergarten crafts (and a supplementary lemon drop will probably take the edge off too).

so how much paper are we going to need?  hmmm... let's make a list of the biggies:

sarah's bachelorette party in san diego: 87 days

paige's wedding in iron mountain:  95 days

sarah's wedding in ann arbor:  137 days

[insert ambiguous number here to signify our move]

our wedding in gull lake:  221 days

our honeymoon in greece: 224 days

hope everyone else has fun on the horizon!

insta-dump and fupdates (aka fun updates)

hello hello blogland!

we got blasted with a LOT of snow over the weekend.  those of you from pleasant homelands where weather minimally impacts your life may not be aware, but when the multiple feet of snow hit michigan it actually severely impacts day to day life.

more specifically it turns us into homebodies, which may not sound like a big deal to some of you, but steve and i are antsy folks; we get a pretty irked when we're all cooped up.  on the one hand it means our holiday decorating is totally off the chain and steve has turned into a magical housekeeping fairy.  on the other hand, it is pretty unappealing when the balance of life is reduced to jobs and stress-cleaning.

the bright silver lining to everything, however, is the exciting news about our upcoming relocation (it's hard to be TOO mad at the snow when i might be spending my next few winters in the desert).  as usual our specific information is limited, but at the moment it's terribly fun to speculate whether our new home will be defined by surfers, starbucks, mountains or cacti, and it's definitely reassuring to have a mental picture of our extremely irregular 2014 timeline.

to add to the fun my boss is leaving (apparently i'm a rough person to supervise... everyone keeps quitting the job of 'becky's boss') at the turn of the new year.  there's no question about it-- the stir crazy is here, change is coming, and i can't wait!

here's to the start of many insane weeks ahead.  happy tuesday y'all!

word count:  36,443

well it's winter now

steve apparently got fed up with the black garbage bags of dirty laundry that have been sitting in our bedroom since we moved (what gives bebay?  don't you like that living-in-a-landfill look?)

so the big news is:  we're officially completely moved in!  (well, unless you count the contents of my plastic drawers and the bike basket full of odds and ends... i'm not a great unpacker.  sue me.)

our weekend was, as usual, packed (we went to see our old high school's musical in honor of my former teacher's retirement.  those auditorium seats were pretty surreal, let me tell you).  we also humiliated ourselves at football (by "we" i mean brady hoke and devin gardner mostly), played with my parent's dog, and reunited with some more college friends (they keep showing back up here like we live in a tourist town or something... wait we totally live in a tourist town).

we're busy in a good way right now, while we get ourselves settled in for winter (and while work keeps me going like a mad lady).  i'm looking forward to premiering my hopefully attractive christmas stockings, which i am knitting for me steve and bert.  we're also gearing up for the thanksgiving/steve's birthday/anniversary madness that rolls around this time of year.  on the whole, great things around here.  just not a lot of time to talk about them on the blog unfortunately.

oh and also, it snowed.  i'm not that into it.

word count: 33,709

a few more vacation pictures

getting our noses back to the grindstone has been very very time consuming and busy.  sadly this means i'm holding out lots of vacation photos on you, but i will be getting things posted as soon as i can!  here's a little preview: our first day (aka 15 hours in the car).  not a lot of interesting shots from day one, but i swear the good stuff is coming!

don't worry though, i've got a fun little announcement for you very soon.  just need to get my ducks in order before i spread the news, so check back soon!

bits and pieces (snow and cats)

so we are literally buried in snow right now.  like dig your car out to get to work, dodge falling trees, and let jesus take the wheel when you're driving, buried in snow.  the photos are misleadingly tame looking.  this is some extreme IRT weather.

as a result steve and i were cooped up inside last night so we ordered in delivery for dinner and i busted out the sewing machine steve bought me for christmas.  bert had an absolute field day and would not let me get at my pretty linen fabric until i distracted him with the elastic.  i'll post more about the skirt i made soon, but i want to shorten it a bit first.

speaking of honeybooboobear (ok i give my cat creepy nicknames) he and his bff are about to be separated.  my sister and roommate is moving across the country next week and bert is about to be very lonely (and me too)! my sister's cat erwin is bert's homeboy and boyfriend.  hopefully steve and i can shake off the snow and move somewhere where they can be reunited for play dates more easily.

no we don't live in siberia

one of my favorite ways to get through the miserable freezing unpleasantry that is winter has always been going to the beach on lake michigan.  it is so beautiful and peaceful to see the snow and ice along the shore, covering the pier.

surprisingly we weren't the only ones out there!  it was a really rejuvenating weekend trip... and... my good ol car hit the big milestone turn over of 100,000 miles!  we have a lot of great memories with this old girl, but there probably won't be too many more (i'm shopping around).

hope everyone had a as great a weekend refresher as we did!

photo recap

photo recap

 

my signed peter doig print broke the bank, but looks incredible in its frame.

steve created the most awesome chocolate-cinnamon sticks with the remaining trader joe's pizza dough.

i discovered the best delivery sandwich in town.

i got lunch delivered to work because it looks like this outside.

steve sent me a happy surprise picture of himself and bert while i was working.

and.... i'm only a lot obsessed with these sunglasses.