mr. nye’s birthday, and other happenings

This post was originally supposed to just be about Mr. Nye’s birthday get-together (which was Sunday afternoon), but so much has happened since then! Note: This post is in no way chronological.

(Edited to add: Yet again, I’ve delayed a day… It’s now Saturday morning and mom arrived last night to visit. We already made a Bed, Bath and Beyond run for a couple small items–blast! Andrew took my coupons in the Pilot on his trip to Ohio this weekend–and are planning lots of house-y things today. We’ve already reorganized my small kitchen appliances and it’s not even 10 a.m.)

And speaking of the Nye’s… I took Hadrian on his first walk in the village yesterday–I can’t believe it’s taken almost a week–to their house to stop by their yard sale. I walked away with a well-loved cookbook of Mrs. Nye’s in which she marked some muffin recipes. Those are always the best kind to have–the marked-up and splattered ones.

Getting him in the shot was surprisingly difficult…

This…

…and this is what you see when you round the park (which is across the street) on your way to the Nyes’ house.

What a beautiful view! I started off in a sweatshirt (can you believe you can wear sweats and pants here in summer?! I LOVE IT.)

In other news, we put our bed together. (I use “we” loosely here; I mostly watched.) And in true pet-fashion, Hadrian had to be in the middle of everything. We had to force him out of the bed so Andrew could finish putting the slats in!

Check out this pint glass. I LOVE pint glasses with fun logos and things, except that I need to curb my habit of ‘collecting’ things I love; my mug, glass, scarf and Le Creuset collections are getting dangerously large…

Anyway, I bought two of these at Hallmark (I much rather would have liked to have found them at some neat store or Goodwill or something, but oh well, Hallmark does have cute stuff) LAST SUMMER almost as soon as we moved into the hotel. I couldn’t bear to break them out until we were in our “forever home,” so they’ve been living in a paper bag shoved in a bin ever since.

I busted them out the other night as we ate leftover pizza and celebrated getting both the extra fridge and freezer into the basement. (There I go again with this “we” business; I had no part in that victory. Andrew, his dad, and a couple other engineer friends from Moog graciously helped move our appliances this past week.) And a victory it was! They had to take the doors off both of them, plus the basement door AND doorframe, and even get a special tool. But I’m happy with them in the basement, which is all that matters 🙂

Now, onto the party!!

We’ve been ‘adopted’ by the Nyes, especially since Alex had to go and move to Pittsburgh, just as we moved back to EA. We find ourselves over there once every week or two–invited or not–and Mrs. Nye force-feeds us homemade cookies and Kone King ice cream she keeps stocked in the freezer. We have it rough, I know.

So, when we heard Alex would be in town for his dad’s birthday and that his little get-together would be Sunday afternoon–as in, the Sunday we were in the middle of moving–there was no question we’d be taking a break to attend. These celebrations are always ‘intimate’ affairs–late lunches in which family (immediate, cousins and grandma) and Andrew and I–crowd into the eat-in kitchen. This time we feasted on steak, pork, potatoes, green beans, rolls and fruit.

I know posting this picture of Andrew is dangerous–what with the Nye boys being loyal readers and all–but I had to. Let’s just hope it doesn’t end up on a blanket!

We sang and Mr. Nye blew out his candles before we enjoyed some of the best chocolate cake (or should I say best icing) I’ve had in awhile. Mrs. Nye, I’m (almost) ashamed to admit that I single-handedly ate all the leftover cake you sent home with us…in one sitting. Do you have more? I might need some soon.

And the event wouldn’t be complete without one of Adam’s ‘Andrew creations.’ This time, Andrew’s blanket presided over us, hanging from an upper window, akin to a poster of Kim Jong Ill or something.

You just never know what you’re gonna get with Adam. You just never know.

carolyn’s wedding

I know, you’ve all been waiting for the pictures…and here they are 🙂

I started this blog Saturday morning at the rental, but was stymied by my lack of upload storage space, and then the move happened. And kept happening until, well, now-ish. There is still MUCH to do, but as of yesterday, I actually felt like we began living in a home as opposed to a box collection center.

Oh, and I found the coffee table! It was hiding behind a tall box under a pile of the NEW bedding for the guest room. I had a draft post with pictures of said bedding in the queue here, taken in the rental house, but never got around to publishing it. Guess I’ll have to just scrap it in favor of a photo here in the new house 🙂

Back to the wedding…

Close to 9 a.m. Friday morning at the salon:

I loved my hair and makeup! The makeup artist there is funky with her makeup like me, so I gave her permission to go a little wild. I had purple and light blue (sounds weird, but it totally worked) up top, and a green/blue combo for a liner on the bottom. My hair got curled and pinned back, half up, half down. Why in the world did I not do this for MY wedding day??

The flurry of activity at the Roycroft where we all got ready:

In the limo on the way to get pictures:

Jill entertained us by playing the piano on a child’s toy in the nursery while we waited for our cue:

In the car afterward on the way to reception:

Beautiful cake by Butterwoods! And so good–definitely some of the best wedding cake around. Carolyn chose chocolate with raspberry filling–very memorable.

Mom Layer, Abigail and grandma:

Megan (Abigail’s best friend and also our hair stylist) and Andrew:

Great dancing! Luke, with his his around his head:

And, to prove I actually danced, here are some photos:

The three of us shut down the dance floor, if you can believe it. (Well, Carolyn and Abigail are naturals; I’m the one who might need a little liquid courage every once in awhile…)

It was a really great event; the church was well decorated, things ran smoothly (for the most part), the rain held off (thank goodness!), the food was good, the dancing was better and everyone seemed to have a great time.

For more photos, try these links:

Professional Photographer’s “previews”

Mom Layer’s Facebook Album

moving: the highlights

Once again, I wish I’d taken more pictures. Of course, my hands were tied up hauling boxes to-and-fro, so I suppose I have a valid excuse.

In 25-words-or-less (as my dad would say): We moved last weekend, in a whirlwind of trucks and SUVs, immediately following Carolyn’s wedding. I was totally unprepared.

I’m thrilled to report that everything we own is in the house (or the garage), which is awesome, but I’ve never felt so disorganized in my life. I had all these grandiose plans to be completely organized, sorted, packed and cleaned before we started hauling things over… Not sure HOW I thought I was going to get all those things done with a big wedding around here…a girl can dream. Sigh. Long story short: Mom Layer and grandma showed up to help me pack a few things, Andrew and his dad arrived and started loading the trucks and before I knew it–stuff was flying out the door left and right.

I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get a post up; the truth is that even more debilitating than moving is a LIMIT ON ONE’S BLOG “space.” Well, in true Murphy’s Law fashion, I exceeded my upload space while working on Carolyn’s wedding photo blog (forthcoming!), and thus could not post anything more until I purchased a space upgrade. Of course. Because, you know, I have loads of free time in which to do THAT.

I bit the bullet this morning and clicked “purchase” so I could get these photos out to you! And, once I have a minute or so, I’ll post some of Carolyn’s wedding photos, as well as links to better ones on Facebook.

And here is the move:

Dishwasher! For the first time in a year–ran all the dishes in a few loads yesterday. Welcome back to the world of technology 🙂

Organizing the kitchen…

I still have a bunch of boxes in the dining room since we anticipate getting a buffet soon (did you hear that Andrew? SOON, as in, can we order it within the week??) and I have loads of serving/entertaining/misc stuff that would be stored there. As well as my pride and joy–the cookbook collection.

The bedroom…

The closet–hey, at least my shoes are organized!

The ‘extra’ room: crafts, ironing, storage.

The office, sort of. It’s really just random furniture now (none of which actually belongs in here!), but I’m hoping to get the actual stuff upstairs today.

Built-in linen closet–LOVE IT. This is one half–for toiletries and meds. The other side will probably be more for sheets and towels.

A view of what will be the ‘formal’ sitting room…once we figure out the furniture situation. Speaking of furniture…I’m missing the coffee table. Has anyone seen it? (Seriously, though, how does one lose an actual piece of furniture??)

And my gold star from yesterday: the spice cabinet!

Points for it NOT being directly next to the stove/oven (close, but not next-to, although I had to put the oils and vinegars above–where else do people put those??) despite knowing heat isn’t the best for them. I have one of those corner upper cabinets that has all this wasted space, so I went with two spinners (top) and an additional stair-step organizer (below). Salts, peppercorns and cinnamon (ground and stick) are above on the left, seasonings are on the right above, and below all the spices are organized alphabetically, with all the peppers (ancho chile, chipotle chili, chili powder, etc…) grouped together as well. The back corner is for sesame seeds, paprika (oddly shaped and used often), and misc spices in bags, like miso, herbs de’ provence and cardamom pods. Whew! THAT was a big job.

Speaking of BIG jobs: Andrew, his dad and some of his buddies from work (all engineers, I mean, could you be in better hands??) moved both our extra fridge and freezer down into the basement yesterday over lunch. Let’s just say it was a minor miracle the freezer made it down there, let alone the larger fridge! They had to take all the hardware off everything on the way down, disconnect a light, remove the basement door and doorframe (!) AND both appliance doors. If that isn’t hubby love (or outright stubbornness), I don’t know what is! I fed them Pasquale’s pizza and pepsi (and shared my Edible Arrangements from Emily and Dan!) in gratitude.

Today’s to-do: more postcard stamps (moving announcements are out!), more changing addresses, more unpacking and ONE LAST TRIP to the rental to retrieve a bunch of empty boxes…except that I have no idea what to do with them…

Andrew was a lifesaver last night and disposed of all the empty, rain-soaked boxes I’d piled up on the back porch, AND he moved both dressers up to the bedroom himself. ALONE. Props for his big muscles, but I wish he’d let me help–I felt terrible when he announced he’d done it already.

Also: must get to Lowe’s to buy a trash can! (In addition to all the other things less pressing…)