Happy Belated Birthday

My birthday was last Friday. Also on Friday we had Heather’s promotion, then our “Bon Voyage Bash” and then Andrew and I went out of town Saturday and Sunday. Memorial Day was spent sleeping in (until 7:15 for me!), getting the house ready for the inspection, a final Rita’s trip with Heather and Maggie, then a BBQ with friends. Tuesday was Heather’s goodbye lunch, then our home inspection, then goodbye to Heather (sniff).

So, basically what I’m saying is, I’ve only just now come up for air.

Emily’s birthday was last Friday, too. We’re “Irish Twins one year removed.” At least that’s what I’ve decided to call us.

Look! Heather was making cookies…yum!

OK, break for air is over. Next up: house-hunting trip in East Aurora!

Yard sale and late-night noshing

Our neighborhood held their annual yard sale yesterday. Why I participate in these things I don’t know. Seriously, it’s so much work and takes up your ENTIRE Saturday…is it really worth it? I suppose the $183.15 sitting in my “Holly’s Savings” envelope says it was. And we’re moving. And I’m a clutter-phobe anyway, so a yard sale is just a way to profit (literally) from my quirkiness.

All I can say is, mom, I now know why you balked at our cries to have “yard sales” (a.k.a. us kids trying to sell our stuffed animals for pennies in the driveway of our less-than-well-traveled street). They are a bunch of work! But, like all things worth doing, after the fact we can all breathe a sigh of relief and whisper to ourselves, “I guess it wasn’t that bad.” My mother used to say that God makes you forget the pain of childbirth, otherwise, you’d never have another kid. I think that’s true of yard sales, too. Otherwise, there would be no “annual.” There would be once.

But before we get to yesterday’s day-long money-maker, here is this:

Heather and my Friday night post-yard sale prep feast while watching Beaches. I’d never seen the movie and it’s a favorite of Heather’s, and very appropriate (a tale of deep friendship and loss–the friendship part, not the loss part, unless you count moving), so we popped that in after organizing, cleaning and pricing our junk in the garage.

We enjoyed wine (Muscato), hummus, figs, orange-flavored dark chocolate, goat cheese and crackers. And wavy Lays and french onion dip. We’re high class like that. Seriously though, it must have been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a good chip and dip. They weren’t kidding when they said you can’t have just one!

As usual, Heather fell asleep about half-way through, but I stayed up until the bitter end (literally and in the movie), shed a few tears and then cleaned up our mess.

The next morning, we were up at 6 a.m., enjoying coffee and Bible study together by 7 and out moving our wares to the driveway by 8.

Our hard work the night before paid off; we had everything set-up with more than enough time to spare! (A miracle in and of itself, really.)

We plopped down on some camping chairs armed with loose change, water bottles, a notebook and our Bible studies (that didn’t really get done, but a valiant effort).

Margaret did incredibly well and only shed a few tears as yard-salers started picking through her toys. Only one item was “un-yard-saled” (a purple bouncy ball) and brought back into the garage.

Hi Margaret!

We were blessed with great weather and all our big items went to new homes. We called it quits around 4 p.m. and donated our leftovers to a Susy, who is having a yard sale to benefit Team In Training.

And then, after dinners, putting the youngster to bed and taking Hadrian on a nice, long walk, we did what Heather and I usually do to celebrate no small achievement: we grabbed the remainder of our Muscato, heated up some spinach and artichoke dip, grabbed the blue corn tortilla chips, some Ritter’s dark chocolate with marzipan (a huge hit, by the way) and popped in a movie. And, as usual, Heather didn’t quite make it to the end.

I’m back!

I spent the weekend in East Aurora, NY, visiting Andrew and doing A LOT of house-hunting. I rode up with Andrew’s mom and sister, Abigail, who were returning from a visit to Carmel, IN, and then flew home today. Who knew a one-way plane ticket would be cheaper than renting a car?!

Here’s a recap:

Hi Abigail!

Andrew’s mom drove most of the way. I got to sit and read and talk.

That was a good thing, since I was SO TIRED. Can’t you tell? I had stayed up until 1 a.m. the night before to listen to one of our Bible study sessions. I almost fell asleep multiple times in the car.

As usual, we had Pasquale’s pizza and wings for dinner the first night there. YUM! I was never into Buffalo wings (I’m a mild kind of girl) until I met Andrew and was introduced to these wings. They are the perfect blend of buffalo flavor, hot sauce and a crispy crust. None of that gooey, slimy, overly spicy stuff here.

This is Andrew’s FAVORITE pepperoni pizza. He loves how the little pepperoni slices curl up and form “boats” to catch the grease. Yes, you heard that right. I have to admit, I usually have at least half a slice with my wings.

Here is the view from the Layer’s kitchen:

I love it. So scenic and quiet. They’ve lived on the same street for 20-something years. The deck is off their kitchen and this is the backyard and creek. Deer are regular visitors. Our cats have taken to hanging out here as well…

We went for a run Saturday morning. It poured Friday evening and the forecast called for rain every day, so I didn’t have high hopes for good running weather. Boy, was I wrong! We were blessed with a mild and dry morning to start the run, and then got drizzled-on about halfway through.

Look mom! I’m skinny now! Thanks to Abigail for letting me borrow her clothes since what I brought would have been too warm.

Aww! He loves me 🙂 Andrew was in a very good mood despite me kicking his butt the whole way. That, and we went AFTER he got to sleep in a little.

Andrew and Odie in their natural states:

Andrew and I scheduled a same-day showing of, apparently, our dream house (LONG story, but it was as if God himself wanted us to see it and designed it just for us). I’ll disclose more later if it looks like we have a chance to own it ourselves!

We went to Taste for dinner. It’s a relatively new (five years or less?) cafe with wireless internet on Main Street. It’s close to the open-air ice skating rink (also relatively new) and draws a crowd whether the weather is warm or cold. Don’t you love the steam coming up out of the mug??

Here’s the inside. Very cozy and comfy.

Here’s the breakfast menu–does it not look amazing?! Oh, and they have s’mores on their menu! You can get an order for two or four people, and it comes with grahams, marshmallows, chocolate pieces and a little burner to toast your own! This is, obviously, a hit in the winter.

I splurged and treated myself to a coconut cream pie latte. YUM! Since I’ve been watching what I’ve been eating, I’ve really cut back on the “froufy” coffee drinks. One benefit is that I’ve really lost my taste for the sickly-sweet beverages, and prefer them just slightly sweet. Sweet enough that they aren’t just plain coffee, but not overloaded with sauce and whip and flavor. Anyway, this drink was WONDERFUL. Worth every calorie!

To balance out my calorie-laden beverage, I ordered the “Nutty Albacore Salad.” Nothing to write home about, but I felt good eating light and getting protein with a hint of sweetness from the raisins. (Not sure why the picture is so blurry…)

Andrew got a roast beef sandwich on a bagel, no cheese, mayo or horseradish. That, in my opinion, is sacrilegious.

After dinner and our visit to our dream house, we joined the family for an evening showing of ‘Thor’ at the local theater on Main Street.

Check out the trash cans! Aside from being full of, well, trash, aren’t they just darling? I love this place.

Andrew and I went to breakfast Sunday morning. We’ve been to Charlie’s before and really like sitting on the porch, but the weather wasn’t cooperating, so we settled for a table inside. It was the worst table ever. Just not a good location. Good thing the blueberry pancakes I ordered MORE than made up for it! Seriously… BEST. BLUEBERRY. PANCAKES. EVER. Again, because I’ve been watching what I’ve been eating, I haven’t exactly been ordering pancakes or french toast or anything super “carb-y” at restaurants lately. However, I was having a craving and after staring at the menu for 15 minutes (yes, it’s true–I am the most indecisive person on the face of the Earth), I finally gave in. Blew Andrew’s french toast out of the water.

Andrew’s family had tickets to see “Wicked,” which was playing downtown, so they did that while we hit up a bunch of open houses. We didn’t come away loving anything, which was a good thing. And it wasn’t because we were comparing anything to our dream house, because I honestly wasn’t. Nothing felt like “us.” Thankfully, we have plenty of time.

We heard from our realtor last night and our open house here went incredibly well. To quote her, “it was grand central station,” so that’s a good thing. She said everyone loved the place and there were lots of babies. Let’s hope that means some second showings this week!

I flew home Monday morning after seeing Andrew off to work and going on a quick run. Two one-hour flights later, I was in the car with Heather and on our way to pick Hadrian up from puppy camp.

What a weekend! Even though Andrew is already in New York, this is still my home until we sell our house. East Aurora is starting to feel like home, especially when I go on my runs around his parents’ house. There just something about the back roads, the cute homes, the trees and the fresh air. And I’ve been going on runs there for the last nine years or so.

I’m looking forward to another jam-packed week of errands, odds-and-ends, working at the library and prepping with Heather for our Saturday yard sale!