Two Peas - in our pod

Everything is calming down a week before Christmas. I've been up since 4:00 a.m. trying to get over strep and a troublesome sinus infection. Over three days I've just finished my second box of Puffs Plus with lotion. (Oh thank you for making these!)

It has been an incredible November and December. Besides the water incident, Abby and I hosted her family and friends for Thanksgiving. Eight of us gathered around our table on Thanksgiving day and enjoyed an awesome meal and fantastic fellowship. A great time was had by all as we played games, went on walks, and do what we all do very well: eat.

Two weeks later my sister, parents, brother, niece, and nephew came into Kansas to visibly confirm that I had, in fact, received my PhD from Kansas State University. Yup, it is real. We all traveled to Manhattan, Kansas for the event. It was two days of an incredible time visiting with great friends, fellow grad students, some very patient faculty (they had to deal with me A LOT), close family friends and some really nice in-laws (I think I hit the lottery with the Abby's clan).


Saturday my family traveled back to our house and we hosted an informal Christmas since we will not see each other until sometime next year. Again, great food, joyous times, and fun by all. Abby and I got to spend time with Stella and Shane our niece and nephew. I got to spend time with my sister, who I really miss and enjoy being around.

After all had left, Abby and I came to the realization that our two families are incredibly different. When my family was here it WAS LOUD and bustling and busy and people tended to congregate around each other. When Abby's fam was here it was subdued, quiet, and people tended to find quiet spots to read or study or chill. The contrast was evident even when we played games as a family. Abby's fam is (mostly) patient and quietly observant. My fam is definitely louder (we like to verbalize our moves to all involved) and much more animated.


When all is finished - I think that it is safe to say that all had a great time. Abby and I are happy and enjoyed hosting all of our visitors. It was fun. The house is finally back to normal with our messed up floors and walls. I think the ones who miss all the action the most are Autumn and Sam. They miss all those extra hands petting them and lavishing attention onto them.


If we do not get to see you, please know that we wish you a Merry Christmas and a holiday experience that rivaled ours!


Oh - and GO STATE!

Fountain Update

Well - the water mitigation people just left. Four spent their Monday morning with me at two-fifteen. The picture above is the kitchen. A lot of floor ripped out. It didn't have a vapor barrier under it - it had sheets similar to the backing of cheap shelf kits one buys from Wal-Mart. It sucked up water faster than a ....

Water traveled from the kitchen sink to the hall closet and down the wall into the laundry closet.

The drywall and insulation behind the machines had to be removed. The pad under the carpet had to be removed and the carpet was still wet. I know - since idiot here decided to start a load of laundry with only socks on.

They removed the laminate in front of the garage door and under the wash machines. Finally, they removed the baseboards in the family room, kitchen, and basement and drilled holes into the walls so air would be able to circulate behind them.

This is good news. Everything will be operating during Thanksgiving. The basement will be available as a bedroom and a bathroom. Now - Abby and I have to get some cleaning done!

I wish all of you a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I believe it will be a joyous one here at two-fifteen!

Indoor Fountain!

Abby and I came home from an awesome UCM volleyball match. We stepped on our family room floor and splashed each other. What the heck? We found standing water on our kitchen and basement floors and steady streams falling from our basement ceiling. It was quickly diagnosed as the hot water pipe to the kitchen sink failed. Water was quickly turned off, towels procured, and we went crazy just trying to get the water off the kitchen floor. (No pics of that since that was the first thing we did.)

I then - foolishly - asked Abby to go to Wal-Mart and buy a wet/dry vacuum. She looked at me blankly and asked if it would be a better idea to call the insurance company. Duh.

Now - I don't want this to happen to anyone. It really sucks. But USAA was awesome on the phone. Less than two hours after calling we have a water mitigation/restoration crew from Kansas City that came to Warrensburg.

As I sit here typing this at 12:30 a.m. they are in the basement and family room cleaning and drying things off. Abby is asleep in bed and I am listening to the HUGE vacuum motor that is attached to their truck.

So what's the final damage? Not sure yet. We'll find out late tomorrow. But it sounds like the kitchen floor will have to be replaced, the exterior walls have to be opened to get to the wet insulation, and the basement's gonna be out of commission for a while. It sucks - especially less than 5 days until Thanksgiving and we're hosting family. But we're safe, the dogs are safe, and the house is in - generally - good shape.

We'll keep you posted....

Dinner with Awesome Friends

Abby and I headed into KC to visit with Paula, John, and their new son: Tripp. What a cute addition!
We met at Garozzos in Overland Park for some great food, a lot of fun, and some awesome company! Paula and John - we've missed you and meeting Tripp was so awesome!

Safe travels back to Texas! We look forward to seeing the three of you again soon!

Speaking of Frost...

It has Frosted more than once here.  During the day it's getting 60-70, and it's not frosting every night.  Apparently no one told our garden that frosting is the end.  Matt picked all of these today.  Hurray tomatoes!

Gnocchi? Gno problem!

We had potatoes from Aldi which were not looking that awesome yesterday, so when I had extra time before work, I peeled all of the potatoes leaf in the bag.  I covered them with water and put them in the fridge.
When I got home from work I cut them up and boiled them and mashed them.  Then I added flour and kneaded the very hot result into a dough.  It made more than I thought it would, so I'm not really sure if I got the potato to flour ratio quite right, but it all seems to have worked out. 

After rolling the dough into finger sized rolls, one cuts them and then presses the pieces with a fork.  Flour is key during this whole process.

I wouldn't tell Matt what I was making, here he is eagerly awaiting dinner.  He doesn't look that eager, but the devil eyes are hiding it.

The next step is boiling water to cook the gnocchi in.  This part is really technically tricky- put the pot on the burner and the water in the pot.  With salt.

It'll look about like this when you have it right.

Then the gnocchi goes in the boiling water about twenty at a time.  When it floats, it's ready.

My next plan was to brown the boiled gnocchi in some sage butter.  I underestimated the amount of gnocchi I wound up with.  Next time I will not put it all in the second pot at the same time.  Although, it was all kind of sticking together so I'm not sure I could have only put part of it anyway.  Maybe the key to make more gnocchi before you start to boil them to make the whole process smoother?  I dunno. 

 Here is Matt, eagerly serving himself.  He was excited when I finally told him what I made for dinner.  Gnocchi, sage butter and peas!

Matt says the texture was good, but they seemed a little squishy in the pan.  Again, I think this might be something avoided by less gnocchi in the pan for browning.  I hear an overcrowded pan is the enemy of browning. 

Fulton MO visitors

Ben, Emily, and Stella stopped in on Friday to take Abby and I out to dinner. We went to a local hangout and enjoyed nachos and burgers! Then we all sat down to Toy Story 3 in our family room.
Saturday morning Abby made some so-delicious biscuits and turkey sausage gravy. We all sat down and enjoyed breakfast together. The food was SO GOOD that no-one was talking. Good food, good coffee, and great people make for the bestest Saturday mornings!
After cleaning up we let Stella try out her new bike - see below - and visited a local hot-spot, the largest thrift shop in Missouri. Then Ben, Emily & Stella were off to Fulton to get ready for the Mizzou/Baylor game! It take A LOT of prep for them to get ready for a fun game at home. (I know this first-hand just between the nachos, wings, and more!)
It was AWESOME seeing you!

Happy Halloween!

Matt and I continued a tradition we started last year again this year.  (I suppose it counts as a tradition on the 2^nd anniversary.)  We got a fire pit and invited people over to sit around the fire and hand out candy in the front yard.  Unfortunately, we did not have many trick-or-treaters; Matt was especially disappointed-he got excited every time the doorbell rang.  The final number was around twelve- I think next year we’ll buy a smaller bag of candy.

In addition to fire we also had apple cider, brats and German potato salad, all of which was declared delicious by attendees (all three of them).  I found a recipe for spiked apple cider in Glamour, of all places, and I was surprised at how delicious it was.

Halloween Apple Cider of Amazing and Surprising Deliciousness (this is not Glamour’s name, but it should have been):

½ gallon apple cider

4-5 sticks of cinnamon (I found cinnamon sticks at the store, but I did not want to pay $6 for them, so I used ground cinnamon)

4-5 cloves (again, I used ground)

¼ t nutmeg

1 vanilla bean split lengthwise or 1 T vanilla extract (surprise, surprise I used the extract)

3-4 T honey

Measure everything very carefully just like I did (ha!) and bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to low and add 3/4^th bottle Gewürztraminer or other white wine that’s not too dry.  I found a Gewürztraminer pretty easily for about $6.  Don’t bring it to a boil again or the alcohol will evaporate and ruin the whole point of spiked cider.  Add 1 cup or so of fresh cranberries or diced apples and simmer for a few minutes.  It says the extra simmering is to “enhance color”, I suspect that’s when one is using cranberries, which I didn’t, so this step could probably be skipped.  It doesn’t taste or feel alcohol-y.

I had to make a second batch of it for the 5 of us (although we did not make much of a dent in the second batch).  I probably should have taken a picture.

I hope everyone else had a good Halloween!  I also hope that you make this cider, because you won’t be sorry.

A frost's a-comin'! by Abby

So the local meteorologists say that a frost is likely tonight.  While this is exciting news because cold weather and fall and cardigans and blankets rock, it is not good new for our garden or our 6 tomato plants heavy with green tomatoes.  Apparently frost (which I keep trying to capitalize) is not good for vegetable gardens. 

After work I picked a bowl and two pockets full of green tomatoes, peas, squash and some red tomatoes.  I had no idea what to do with green tomatoes besides fried green tomatoes or some sort of chutney- neither of which appeals to me- so I googled for recipes and found a green tomato cake recipe.  I did not follow the recipe as it was written (who does that?), but I think the cake turned out pretty well.  It has diced green tomatoes and raisins and nutmeg.  The recipe called for pecans or walnuts, neither of which I have, so I didn't add any.  I am not sure how Matt feels about the cake since I burned his tongue on the second bite I fed him. I made lots because we had/have lots of green tomatoes and this way both Matt and I can take some to work.  Yay cake!

Pretty Prairie Weekend

Short, quick, and finished before you knew it are how I would describe this last weekend. Abby's grandparents, Otto and Dottie along with her sister Wendy and brother-in-law Randy all stopped in for the night before we all left for Pretty Prairie Kansas on Saturday morning.

Abby and I took on Otto and Dottie in a match of Rumikub (they called in Rumi-cube which I had never heard) while waiting for Wendy and Randy to arrive. Glad to say Abby won round one and I won round two. We gave tours of the much-cleaner-than-Wednesday house and all settled in for some nice conversation.

Saturday morning the water heater had enough hot water for all (YES!), we enjoyed Abby's freshly baked zucchini (from our garden!) bread, cereal, good coffee, and more conversation before leaving for Pretty Prairie. 

Abby rode with Wendy and Randy, Otto and Dottie took their car and I was left with two smelly dogs, one with some BAD gas, for the 4.5 hour trip. Had a great drive and I got to enjoy the convertible top down once it warmed up to 65. This also helped my sanity and air was much more pleasurable than before.

A great time ensued. We all enjoyed a fantastic lunch upon arrival to Abby and Wendy's parents and a relaxing afternoon was then enjoyed by all watching college football. Wendy and Abby created multiple appetizer-like dishes that we enjoyed into the evening. My evening ended on the couch watching a GREAT K-State football game! The clan was mightily impressed with my differing vocal octaves while I was yelling and cheering throughout the match. 

Around 5:45 a.m. Autumn, our German Shepherd, decided to leave us a wonderful gift on the carpet at the end of the bed. I don't get it. Sam, our Basset/Lab mix lets us know when she's not feeling too hot or really has to go.  Autumn has perfected the "I am SO sorry and feel SO guilty for doing this to you" look. Abby's mom saw it and commented: "Well, you're getting ready for kids" or something to that effect which we hope to be true, but doesn't sound good at 5:45 a.m. 

We cleaned it up, but couldn't fall back asleep afterwards so I vegged in front of the tv watching K-State highlights and Abby did a productive walk around the property. We all enjoyed some awesome French toast made from Beth's homemade zucchini bread and homemade fresh peach syrup! Oh-Yeah! The men-folk settled into their veg-like state while the women-folk got gussied up and left to do some shopping around Wichita. Randy and I watched some Rams/Packers football, I washed the dogs (yes, they REALLY needed it), and then we took off to meet the women for an early dinner at On the Border in Wichita. 

Abby and I arrived home around 9:00 Sunday night. I have to say this was an awesome and relaxing weekend. Thank you to all who made it so enjoyable!

Welcome to Life at Two-Fifteen

Just like we are starting out in Missouri, we have chosen to document our story as we adapt to our new surroundings, home, make new friends, and enjoy a new university.

Abby continues to go through notes from her new job at a local bank. Being the perfectionist that she is, she wants to make certain customers loans are processed and things go as smoothly as possible for them. I continue to learn my new assistant professor position at the University of Central Missouri. What a great group of students and an incredibly supportive department.

We're looking forward to a great weekend with Abby's grandparents Otto and Dottie coming into town for a visit! PLUS Wendy and Randy will be joining us from Chicago! We get to show off the new home, the new furniture, the fact we've really cleaned the place for their visit, and hang out with an incredible group of family! Then we are off to the rents homestead in little Pretty Prairie - so named cause it is "a pretty prairie".

Well, I'm closing this post out with a lot of anticipation of a great weekend even though I face two more evenings of cleaning before everyone gets here.