Surviving like a gypsy:)

While we're having our home raised, we both have been living a bit crazy since we can't really stay at home. I've been bouncing around my Mom and Dads and visiting my Grandmoms while taking care of the pups, while Martin has been going to work and sleeping in our treehouse of a home! He got showers at his job and actually stayed/slept in the house before they were able to put the temporary staircase in, he used a ladder! And there was no electric and no water! I call him Mr. Survivorman:) I made sure to pack all of our food from the fridge in a cooler with ice and icepacks so that it wouldn't go bad while they were actually lifting the house. The electric is back on now, so when we stopped by the other day, I checked everything and was able to load the good stuff back into the fridge. I carried a cooler that I packed before I turned off our fridge with some goodies to cook around with me while I gypsied from family to family (which by the way, they were just amazing, I swear after this experience I don't know what I'd do without family, I am just so grateful for them).  Now we're in Brooklyn, visiting my amazing inlaws who are letting us use our old apartment until the house is raised. Martin loves having an actual working shower!!! :)  Here is a picture of our house raised up, they are supposed to start with the cement block walls tomorrow!

Talk to you soon!

What a fun start to Summer!

Hope you all had a great Fourth of July weekend! This past weekend was so much fun for us. It was filled with family, fun, food and DRIVING! lol:) Sometimes driving all over the place gets tiring, and it was, but it was so worth it to see all of our family in Jersey. First my sister and her fiance, Stef and John, came to the our lakehouse in North Jersey. They got there late at night, and we wanted to make sure Lealu would be okay with new people, so for the first hour, we had a muzzle on her. She did good, with the occasional time of trying to pull it off! Once she sniffed Stef and John and was comfortable with them in the house, we took it off and she was okay! It was a great relief because weshe can get really protective with new people. We had some food and lots of wine (well me and Stef had lots of wine, John and Martin had lots of beer:)) It was great just spending time and watching movies. That Saturday we first went to a little down called Sugerloaf, where there are ll these cute little artsy shops. One we went into I thought was a clothes store but it turned out to be a crochet shop that sold handmade crocheted items! So after speaking to the owner for alittle while, I mentioned to her that I'd been crocheting scarves and hats and shawls and I asked her how I'd go about and if it was even possible selling them there and she said yes! Because they are warm heavy yarn though, she said it would be good to sell them at the October fest at her store and see how we did then. Its so funny, that just kind of happened! My artist sister said she'd make me some labels to go on them:) Next, we stumbled upon this environmental art museum, which has sculputures built into the earth using earth. It was beautiful, one part had an installation that was actual waves made into the grass~ it looked like wavepool of earth! I forget the name but I will find out and type it in tomorrow. Then we cooked dinner at home and the next day went to my aunt debbies for my dad and my grammom's birthday (so exciting she's going on her first trip to Cali on the 13th with her girlfriend!) Next we went to my dads (poor lealu was driving all over the place with us) and stayed over there, and finally the next day went to my moms and had an early dinner. After seeing everyone and lots of hugs and kisses and talking, Martin (I'm so grateful that he drove for us) and I and Lealu headed back home to Brooklyn. It was a great and exhausting weekend:) Here are some pics (more to come when Stef emails me them, which could be a very long time!) (Celina was my model with the scarves I made!)

Easter and cleaning challenge!!!!

Eggs Martin and I made! I felt like a kid again:)

(A plant Martin's mom gave us for Easter from church:))

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all had a great holiday celebrating with friends and family:)

Just wanted to share an update for the Cleaning challenge and an update on Easter pics! We had a great Easter, made Easter eggs and had dinner with Martin's parents and their friend from down the block. Martin's mom made a great oven stuffer chicken with sweet potatos. I made dessert (a lime pie with cool wip:)) and me and Martin made eggs for everyone to take with them:) I have to say Easter was wonderful to be with Martin and family and talk to my parents and sister, but it was missing something without going to church. We have been to the Unitarian Church and both Martin and I really liked the idea of it and the people and the sermons...but the church we love (the Manhattan one, the Brooklyn one is nice too but not has good feeling) is far away, its at least a half hour drive, not considering parking or traffic so, after my long walk with Lealu to the park, the idea of cleaning, and this weekend it was also packing for our trip next weekend to Mexico...and also cooking alittle for Easter, and the idea of relaxing one morning (I have school on Saturday mornings) was too good to pass up. We did do some meditating together, which was nice and felt great:) But there is something about going to church with everyone in their Easter dresses and saying hello and just being at a church that I miss. Anyways, Martin and I are going to start going to the Lutheran church around the corner (its literally around the corner where Martin used to go when he was little to Sunday school and stuff) and while its not a Methodist church and I don't particularly "love" the sermons by the woman preacher there (you would think I would, she's a woman! lol), maybe its not about that so much, maybe its just about being there ya know? so..forgive my rambling but I may be converting to Lutheran soon:)

Recipe for Lime Pie (with purchased cool wip:)) -

Will need - 1 1/3 cup sugar in raw (or regular sugar), 1 1/2 cup water, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 4 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of butter, (graham cracker crust...which is just graham cracker food processored up with half stick butter melted, combine and bake for 10 minutes), 1/2 cup of lime juice.

Mix flour, water, sugar and salt. put in pan until boiling. Continue to mix.

while that is heating up, whisk egg yolks and keep in separate bowl.

Take heated mixture and pour only half in with yolks, mix.Then pour

mixture of egg yolks in with rest of mixture. Put over stove and heat for 1 minute.

Stir in butter and lime juice. Mix. Take off stove after heated and mixed in, and put into

pie shell. Put in fridge to cool for at least two hours.

There are pics below! Everyone loved the pie and ate the whole thing lol:) I was so happy!

Now for....

So here is my list of spring cleanings:

Sweep and mop behind fridge and stove. (DONE)

Wash doorknobs and drawer pulls. (DONE)

Vacuum behind heavy furniture and other hard-to-reach places. (DONE)

Clean under sinks in bathroom and kitchen. (DONE but have NOT scrubbed can out yet eh)

Clean curtains and drapes. (DONE!)

Sort files. (DONE)

Clean microwave, toaster oven, and other small appliances. (DONE)

Replace shower curtain liner. (hopefully with washable one as per Laura! DONE but have not gotten a washable one yet)

Wash windows inside and out. (DONE!)

Vacuum and rotate mattress. (DONE!)

toss expired dry goods.swap summer and winter wardrobes. (DONE see pics below)

above are winter clothes all bagged up!

Above is Martin's crazy amount of clothes that we're donating, way too much for any one man to have!

Clean oven. (DONE!)

Throw away rarely used or expired toiletries (will donate them as per Danielle...don't really have too much of that...but do have old dishes that we haven't used and am donating them!)

Clean upholstery. (DONE! or will be done tonight when I get home and take out drying laundry!)

and I've added one! clean dust off fans or light fixtures! (DONE!)

a House of Family

Living with extended family has been a trend in my family for as long as I can remember. My grandparents on my dads side did it, and my parents did it (well lived next door to my grandparents) and I have to say it was so great growing up and being so close to my great grandmother to just be able to run nextdoor and go visit. It was difficult seeing my grandparents on my moms side and it kind of saddens me (we are very close now) but how much time and experiences I feel like were missed. I never thought I would have that or be able to give that to a family that I will one day have. I'm sure most of you know this, but Martin and I live together in a two family house with his parents below us. We have our own bathroom, kitchen etc but we do run into eachother pretty frequently and share a laundry room and they help us alot with taking care of our puppy lealu while Martin and I are at work. I have to say the first year or so was very difficult for me to get used to. It was like living with new roomates, only these roomates Martin had known all of his life and I had just met, so it seemed to put alittle divider between us sometimes. However after getting married for some reason, it has solidified our life together in such a way so that family has just seemed to be become "family" to both of us, with us more at the center of the family. And although there are times when I want to scream because there always seems to be someone around, (which could be what my grandmother and mother went though!) I have to say that I've somehow, and I really don't know how its happened just woke up one morning and it suddenly wasn't such a bother but more of a comfort. I've grown a bit used to having that type of living situation, where some family is always around and it is such a help as well as a comfort. Maybe I never felt this way before, because I didn't really consider, before we were married, his parents "family". They've also seemed to become more special to me than the "shoulds" of life...(I always think about the shoulds, should move out, should do it on your own, should be self sufficient, should not depend too heavily on others). For example, I'm going to one of my best friends bridal showers this weekend and Martin is going to our lakehouse with his parents and his mom has asked me if there is anything I'd like her to do while she's up there...so I asked her to organize something for me that I wasn't able to get to while up there last weekend or...she'll help with the laundry if I forget to take it out of the washer and throw it into the dryer, or if I'm running late, Martin's dad will drive me to the train...or for our birthdays, it was so nice when having dinner with them just meant going downstairs and having a few glasses of wine just to have to walk upstairs instead of driving an hour away. All of this things that I'm so grateful for. I feel like I've also gained more of a respect and friendship with elderly people. Before living with them, (and I'm just being honest here)I felt like I didn't really want to spend time with elderly people because they weren't a part of my life and were a part of this whole grouping of people who I just deemed having, well, all the traits you consider elderly people of having, and now I feel like I've learned more about how to look at each person as an individual special person instead of a grouping. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm surprised that this feeling of difficulty has, on its down, changed into something that I'm now appreciative of. Isn't that funny? When something you thought was a bother and now is a joy to be a part of?