Cereal Buffet

Every 2 weeks we are lucky enough to get the feed our local missionaries dinner with my sister's family. Last time we found ourselves sitting around joking about what the missionaries' (two 19 year old guys) favorite meal would be. We laughed as we sat and invented the Cereal Buffet with endless kinds of cereals and every type of milk. You could mix and match to your heart's content,  and if course there'd be plenty of mix-ins like fruit and nuts to further the experience.

The more we talked about it the better it sounded.  And suddenly everyone wanted to do it for real.

So tonight was the night. We didn't quite get the whole imagined spread,  but we had a pretty good selection.  We spent the evening feasting on tiny customized bowls of cereal (tiny so we'd have room to try lots of combos)

I think my favorite was the Cookies & Cream cereal in chocolate milk.  Or maybe Great Grains in coconut milk... it's really hard to decide.

It was probably the most fun I've had while eating a meal in a long time. I think this might be the beginning of an amazing tradition. :)

This is what happens when you don't drive your car for 2 days in Ohio.

We've started planning enough time in the mornings to scrape the ice off our cars. We've found we need to plan extra time in case it's cold enough that we have to scrape the ice off both the inside and outside of the windshield.

Even with those plans, Doug was late to work this morning because my car was so cold,  the door wouldn't shut. (Who even knew that was a thing?!)

He's driving my car because our neighbor slid on the ice and bashed into Doug's car while it was parked in front of our apartment.

It was snowing so much after the accident that we had to shovel the car out of the snow for the insurance guy to come look at it on Tuesday.

And after all that shoveling, this is what it looks like today.

Winters in Ohio are pretty awesome.

Happy Birthday to Me

(I'm not sure if you guys have noticed this, but sometimes I go a little over board with party planning...)  

Every year for my birthday, Doug makes me a fancy meal and we get all dressed up to eat it. (I like to have an excuse to pull out my cocktail dress and wedding jewelry.)  This year we decided to make it a family event, so we threw a little cocktail party complete with virgin mojitos, a french macaroon cake and photo booth.  Everything was perfect, even down to our lipsticked R2D2. :) 

Ohio Life

I think we are actually getting into a routine in our new, Ohio life.  Sure, it’s been 5 months since we’ve moved here... but the first 3 months were stolen by pneumonia (after the last post, Doug’s pneumonia got bad enough that he was in the hospital for a bit... and then he came home and I got pneumonia... and so you see where those 3 months went.  Because pneumonia lasts FOREVER), and then the holidays set in so I feel completely validated when I say that we're just now settling in. J   

Witch's Tea in October!

I've been getting to know the local sewing world and introducing my patterns to the area.  Doug's liking the project he's working on at his new job.  We've both really loving Solon- it's the perfect sized city in my opinion. (Big enough we're close to stuff, but not big enough to be overwhelming.)

Showing off my patterns at a local Quilt Shop's Christmas Tea event

We've had a few fun, big ticket events with family- a trip up to Ann Arbor to see my brothers before Christmas and several fun parties with Marika's family and my parents down here.  

It's a little harder to explain how we've spent our time on the day to day events.

BLT with an entire pound of bacon.  Good eating in MI :)

Like I said before, pneumonia really did put us into survival mode for about 3 months so those don't count.  But what have we been doing with our spare time all during December and January??? I guess we've just been settling. It's funny how you work your life around certain things that you don't even realize are important until they're gone.  Like a brand of whole wheat bread, some pre-prepared foods that every Costco in the world really should carry or a favorite restaurant that you totally took for granted.  I can't tell you how many times I've looked for a replacement Kneaders (I've officially given in and realized we just need to appreciate the amazing pizza and subs that we have ALL OVER and are so amazing.  But it was so sad to go through an entire October without one Kneader's Pumpkin Steamer) or how many loaves of whole wheat bread we've tried.  (Oh, Aspen Mills, how I miss you!  I should just give in and learn to embrace the rye and pumpernickel that are so prevalent here but I just can't quite make myself take the leap...)

Thanksgiving at the kid's table that I got to decorate (yes, I sewed that ship centerpiece for the occasion.  Because I'm crazy.)

It's nice to finally feel like we've got our routine.  Sure, we still can't find a loaf of whole wheat that worth eating, but there's this ice cream shop a few minutes away that makes my mouth water just thinking of it.  The Italian and Jewish cuisine really is amazing here, and our local grocery store is so nice that I actually get a little sad if I don't get a chance to each week.  (who knew?) 

Give us a few more months and we're bound to be a pizza loving, pumpernickel eating, Ohioan family.  I can't wait.

Christmas Village with a old fashioned Christmas Train ride with the Michigan family

Welcome to Ohio

I've been planning out a little 'Welcome to Ohio' blog post in my head ever since we got here.  It was going to open with a shot of the adorable 'Welcome to Solon' signs along our city's limits, and would definitely include a photo of Doug and me standing in the quaint Solon City Gazebo.  I was going to review the local bagel bakery and maybe say a little something about the amazing house made pickles from our local grocery store.

Ah, yes.  In my head, this transition period was going to go so well.  I mean, people do it.  They get a new job, sell their house, move on to a new place and post about things like fresh made pickles and local bagel shops.  It happens all the time, right?

I kept putting it off until I got a super cute photo gallery all ready to go.  But, you know, between my big post-move crash, trying to maintain and sell our house from the opposite side of the country while moving into an apartment here (anyone want to buy a house in Orem???), and Doug having a 104 fever for an entire week because he got PNEUMONIA (yeah, that's happening.) we just haven't had a ton of time to take all the cute 'We Moved To Ohio' pictures that I'd planned on.

Not a picture of the Solon Gazebo

Such is life, eh?  I do have to say it still feels pretty awesome to live in Ohio.  Fall is in the air, the billions and billions of leaves are turning and the pickles really are amazing.

But still... no fun pictures... at least not yet :)  Maybe in a few weeks?  (if only I could find a quick cure for pneumonia between then and now...)

Cue the Hallelujah Chorus

We (finally) made it out of the Jello Belt.

Happy Birthday Doug!

Doug's birthday was pretty low key this year, but we were pretty excited for our birthday cake idea!  It's basically just a fruit salad- layered pineapple and honey dew held together with a yogurt/pudding mixture.  Yum! (and hooray for not splitting a whole cake between 2 people!)