Snowballing!

For those of you who don't know Jeff and I are doing a few house projects at the moment. What started out as a small remodel on our main floor 1/2 bath has turned into a bath/kitchen/hallway remodel. Yikes! Once we started demoing the bathroom we decided that we needed a new floor and me being the ever optimist thought that laying ceramic tile would be easy (mostly because Jeff would be laying it) and would look great. Once I decided that was what I wanted, my dear hubby informed me that we couldn't just lay tile in the bathroom since it butts up against ugly linoleum in our hallway that extends into the kitchen. He said the only way he'd lay a new floor is if we also did the hallway and the kitchen. Silly me I figured, "sweet what a great way to get the hubby to lay all of the ceramic tile at once." What I didn't figure is what a pain in the ass laying ceramic linoleum in that entire area was going to be. For starters we had this ugly ridiculous avocado green garbage disposal in a corner of our kitchen where a garbage disposal was never meant to be. To make matters worse the doorknobs that put the disposal in (which has never worked by the way) decided it didn't look right without a cabinet over it (even though there are no other cabinets on the entire wall). This was a great example of, just because you have a space doesn't mean you have to fill it with crap! So last week when Jeff decided to pull out the disposal and the cupboard we learned that the ugly paneling that was put all over the kitchen walls was not placed behind these areas, thus we had to pull all the paneling off the entire back wall and replace it with sheet rock. Okay, wanted to do that anyways so I wasn't too freaked out about that. It was also at this time, however, that we learned that some idiot (probably the same one that put the avocado green garbage disposal in) laid asbestos tile all over the floor that linoleum was placed on top of. So we've got like one inch of flooring laid down that will cost us roughly four grand to get properly removed - awesome. It was at this point we decided we would leave the entire floor down and lay the tile on top of everything. Which, on the bright side, is kind of nice because we don't have to rip the linoleum up but we are going to have to get creative in transitioning from the ceramic tile to the wood floors that are in the rest of the house. We also figured that since the floor was going to be new in the kitchen our yellow circa 1970s counter top just wouldn't fit in anymore. Did they ever?? That's when we got the bright idea that we could create concrete counter tops like our friends Robin and Trev did (their's look awesome). This is very exciting but adds to the workload. To top everything off, Jeff wants to lay the tile over New Years since we both have four days off. That means we have to get the underlayment down, the sheet rock up and perphataped and I'd love to get the walls painted all before the deadline of December 28th. It's at this time that I have to remind everyone that I don't have all of my Christmas crap done. So no stress what so ever in the Kline household. What cracks me up is how we bring this all on ourselves. I do have hope in the fact that all past projects have turned out great, minus a few fights between my darling hubby and I during the process. So wish us luck with not only getting everything done but with not having nervous break downs or divorce procedings along the way. Now do you see what I mean by snowballing:)

PS - no panic attacks yet from the excitement of Christmas so at least I've got that going for me!
PSS - pictures to follow!

Pics that didn't make the cards.

So we got our Christmas cards out to most everyone with a few exceptions (tracking down addresses) but here are a couple of pictures that didn't make the cut, but are still pretty darn cute. Our camera is going on the fritz so the pics aren't the best quality - might be time for a new camera. But you get the jist. Oh and we did manage to get a ton of Christmas related stuff done last weekend. The lefse's made, a ton of presents wrapped and we baked a few batches of cookies. I'm giving up on getting lights up this year. I figure this late in the game, what's the point. Plus it's been really cold here! Although I feel like a little bit of a putz since a couple of our neighbors have kick ass light displays up. Oh well, that's something to strive for next year huh! We'll be back in Great Falls for the holiday. We're doing Christmas with Jeff's Dad Sunday, my family Monday and Jeff's Mom's family Tuesday. Busy but fun and I'm getting excited for it. I'm also hoping Jeff and I can squeeze a movie in. I really want to see, " No country for old men." I just love the Coen Brother's movies. With no family in Butte and my craziness with letting anyone else watch Avery, we don't get the chance to go out much without the kid. If we go I'll give a little review!! Oh and I just wanted to tell Chris to try and talk Tonya into going back so we can see you guys too :) If that doesn't work out, then we'll have to hook up again soon. Okay that's it for now. 12 days and counting!!

PS Avery's latest cute thing = roaring (I think she learned it at daycare) it's hilarious, she growls too :)

Great Risotto recipe

Last night we went to dinner at a friend's house and she made the best Risotto. She put rosemary, bacon and kidney beans in hers and it was awesome. Definitely worth making. Here's the recipe.

Basic Risotto—Microwavable

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 c. minced yellow onion (can substitute celery for some or all if you prefer)

1 c. Arborio rice

3 c. chicken broth

2 tsp. Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Heat butter and oil in a 10” quiche or deep pie dish, uncovered at 100% for two minutes.

Add onions and stir to coat.

Cook uncovered for 4 minutes.

Add rice and stir to coat.

Cook, uncovered, for 4 more minutes.

Stir in broth and cook uncovered for 9 minutes.

Stir well and cook another 9 minutes.

Remove from oven and let stand, uncovered for 5 minutes to let rice absorb remaining liquid.

Stir in salt, pepper and parmesan, as desired.

From Barbara Kafka’s Microwave Gourmet

To Tweak it:

add some fresh, chopped rosemary

a little chopped bacon

cooked beans—cranberry/kidney/snowcap

add the rosemary when you add the broth

add the cooked beans when you start the second round of 9 minutes for the broth

add the bacon when youre adding the salt pepper and parm.

Christmas Decorations

Here's some pics of what I've gotten done so far.

Our entryway with the Christmas town.
Our tree

We still need to get a stocking for Avery!

You're kidding right!

Okay so I just had a slight panic attack. I was checking out my day planner to see what needed to be done at work this week and it dawned on me that there are only three weeks until Christmas (literally) I'm not joking. Three flipping weeks. What happened to four weeks until Christmas? For some reason four weeks sounded doable but three well that's just not enough time to get everything done! So I've been sitting here contemplating everything that I still need to do. Luckily I've got a great start on my present buying, although I still have a couple of people that I have no idea what I'm getting them. I haven't baked a darn thing and for those of you who know me well, that is a rarity. So I've decided that this weekend is going to be my "finishing up the Christmas crap weekend!" I know there are probably some of you out there who think I'm crazy and think that there is all the time in the world left, but I like everything done at least a week ahead of time. So wish me luck in staving off a true panic attack! I'll update you next Monday on how the plan to get everything done this weekend went. Here's wishing all of you a panic attack free and hopefully productive three weeks before Christmas! There should be a law that mandates the week before Christmas as a Holiday so women with high expectations for the Holiday can get everything done.