Happy Thanksgiving!

This has been a big year for us, and we are thankful for the many blessings that we have had in our lives this year. Buying a new home. New jobs. The addition of Buddy. Making new friends. Nice visits from family.

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving in Philly - just a quiet day with the two of us. In case you felt like you missed us, I made sure to take plenty of pictures!


The first step is conquering your fear of opening the package and having to remove gross things that someone decided to euphemistically call giblets.


The spice rubbed bird is stuffed with lemons, oranges, onions and herbs.


This is as close as Matt got to the turkey before it was on his plate.


In the oven - finally.

As Buddy is demonstrating, waiting for a yummy turkey can be an exhausting activity.


Mmmm - looks yummy! At this point, we are still hoping that it actually is edible. Looks can be deceiving!


Master carver - not so much. Unskilled butcher is more like it.


Isn't my dinner so pretty looking. Take a close look at this picture - you'll notice that someone else thinks it looks pretty yummy.


Buddy gets some turkey dinner too, and he definitely was thankful!


I win. My reward for cooking a great Turkey Day dinner :)

Casserole Recipes Please!

Our new parish, St. Bridget's, helps out a local men's shelter by cooking casseroles once a month. I have decided that I would love to help out in this way, but I am in need of hearty, filling, easy, and inexpensive casserole recipes. The shelter puts recipes up on their website, but to be honest most of them don't seem very appetizing. If you want to help prevent the men from having to eat the Beef Macaroni Casserole pictured below, then please send me recipes!

That is a very large pot filled with a mildly gross amount of macaroni and hamburger.


Somehow the macaroni and beef don't look much better just because they are in a tray with pieces of American cheese melt on them.

Please help! I need recipes!

Happy Halloween! (a bit late)

Even though I've owned a few Halloween decorations for several years, this is the first year that I've actually been able to find them and easily access them without having to dig into the depths of a closet to find them. The joys of having a basement!


This was also the first time in our many Halloween's together that Matt and I have carved pumpkins together. We had a lovely evening and went over to our wonderful neighbors', Brandon and Chaci, house to carve pumpkins. Then we watched the Phillies play the Yankees in a World Series game. We feel so blessed to have amazing and fun neighbors, and we had a great time that night. Plus, we had some great results with the pumpkins.


Matt and I posing with our pumpkins (and Brandon's) in their pretty dining room.


Our pumpkins are very, very scary! Don't you agree?!?


Buddy also was happy to dress up this year for Halloween. In our opinion - he is one Hot Dog!

Fall in Philly!

Fall is a beautiful time of year here in Philly, and it is nice to have a real autumn. The leaves are beautiful and the weather is enjoyable. It is not the cold coat-weather that we had become accustomed to in Chicago, and that means we've been able to enjoy being outside a bit more. Plus, Buddy loves going on walks and the weather has been wonderful. The pictures below are from the bike path that runs along side the Schuylkill River less than a mile down the hill from our house.

We DIY

We recently tackled one of our first big DIY projects. We put up a new privacy fence in our backyard. Considering we had no idea what we were doing, we are totally happy with the results. We purchased the panels (6' x 8') at Home Depot and then brought them home on the roof rack on the Camry (thank goodness for that rack - it is a lifesaver!!). After battling rain and cement deep in the ground, we were able to put our fence up. Then after battling more rain, I was able to get the fence painted. While I was at it, I also painted an ugly fence that was already existing.

Here are the results:

This is the spruced up fence that once was an ugly shade of painted brown.


After many days and hours of hard work, OUR FENCE! Now we have something nice to look at instead of an overgrown easement for a utility company.


Cute puppy with a pretty fence (I couldn't resist adding it)!


Buddy tried to help painting. Enough said.

This was the result of his second attempt at painting. I tried to warn him that sitting on the fence doesn't really make for great results.

Update Time!

Finally, I'm organized enough to start posting again. Organized meaning that we have a computer and I found the cable for my camera to download my pictures.

Let's see - over the last couple months a lot has remained the same. I am still babysitting for the family with two kids under the age of two, but I'm only babysitting for the baby now. The two year old started back to "school" five days a week which means that I won't be taking care of her any longer. Even though my days are a lot easier now, I miss taking care of her because she certainly kept things interesting. Instead I will simply be watching her little brother who is eight months old now. When I first starting taking care of the kids, the little boy needed to be propped up in his high-chair and couldn't roll over. Now, he is crawling all over the place and is pulling himself up on anything that he can. He is the happiest baby I've ever met and is a pleasure to take care of. All of that said, I might have lucked into an interview for an attorney position. So please keep your fingers crossed that I actually get the interview and then maybe even can get the job. It would be a huge relief for us if I was making a true salary again. I sure would miss the childcare lifestyle though! It is nice working three days a week :)

Matt is still enjoying his job. We actually planned a get together for all of the residents and significant others in his residency class. Unfortunately doctors are not the most organized bunch (in my experience), and it all fell apart after I had started prepping food. Instead we went out to dinner with two other couples. It was a great time, and I look forward to getting to know these people over the next few years. Matt's rowing has slowed down, as usual in the fall, but he is still training and is happy with where he is.

Buddy is the sweetest pup in the whole world! (We are not biased at all!!!) He is still a puppy though and is still learning his manners. He is growing by the day. The other day we were looking at pictures on some of our older blog posts and could not believe how small he used to be. He is over 35 lbs now, and when we first brought him home he only weighed 13 lbs. They say that puppies are at about half of their full grown weight at four months, which we are hoping is true as he is now four months old.

Two weeks ago Buddy graduated from puppy school. He now knows how to sit, stay (sometimes), come (sometimes), shake, down (of the laying down variety), leave it, off (occasionally). He does not know is that jumping up on visitors is obnoxious and that counter-surfing is unacceptable. Despite that, here's the proof that he actually graduated:

Just in case you've missed seeing pictures of our dear Buddy - here are some of our favorites in no particular order!

This is Buddy's everyday look - quiet staring.


What is this a picture of, you ask - Buddy. More specifically, Buddy when he tries to eat the camera when you take his picture.


Buddy likes to raid our recycle bin - his treasure this week, peanut butter. But he couldn't quite decide between his two favorites: a stick or peanut butter.


Eventually, the peanut butter won. No surprise, the tummy always wins. And yes, he did eventually manage to get the jar open!


How could you not love this puppy?!?


Buddy's first bath. He obviously is a bit skeptical that it is going to be an enjoyable experience.


He clearly decided that bath time is not his favorite time! His next bath went better - apparently he only likes warm water!


Buddy loves his elephant and puppy. Unfortunately, the puppy is no longer with us. Buddy de-stuffed him!


My two favorite boys love to curl up together. This is how you will find them almost every night.


Mr. Stoic. That's our Buddy.


This was the best purchase we ever made for Bud. Buddy curled up in his bed about 0.2 seconds after he told him that he could. If he's not curled up with Matt, he's probably in his bed.