Best 30 seconds...for a 2 year old

Took this video for Elias while he was napping one afternoon. He loves it! and will watch it over and over and over...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Finally- a house!

So Tom & I started looking for a house to buy the summer before we got married, almost 8 years ago! We started looking at condos and never really found anything so continued renting. We kept an eye on the market as we transitioned from one rental to the next, but our most recent rental was such a good fit and price for us, it was going to take a really good house to make us move on. After five years renting a basement apartment in lower Chautauqua, we finally found a place that we both liked.

The house went on the market Friday, we looked at it Sunday afternoon and were likely going to make an offer, but wanted to discuss it and sleep on it. Well, no sleep was to be had as we got a call from our realtor friend letting us know that someone was preparing an offer for the next day. If we were interested, we had to get the process going! We decided to go for it and our realtor friend got everything together for us even though he was on vacation. The offer was submitted by noon on Monday and we found out that evening that our offer had been accepted! Things moved along smoothly and we were grateful that nothing big came up during the inspection or any of the other deadlines. Yesterday was closing day and again it went smoothly. We know have a house!

The house is ranch-style, 3bd/1ba, with a nice laundry room addition, great backyard and in a good neighborhood. We're probably not more than a mile from where we are currently living! The previous owner was moving out of the country and selling all of her household items so we were lucky enough to be able to purchase her living room, patio furniture and she ended leaving her lawn mower, rakes, hoses, etc. it's so nice to not have to purchase all of those things up front, although regardless we've still been to home depot more times in the last week than the last few years ;)

We have a few things to do before moving in: radon mitigation, adding insulation, etc. but we should hopefully be moved in by the end of the month!

Here are a few pics:

Savory Beet Soup recipe

So, I needed to have this recipe online so I could link to it easily and thought maybe some of the 3 of you that follow would enjoy it too. If you don't like beets, this could be a good way to eat them since the flavor is mellowed out by the potatoes. Play around with the number of beets and potatoes until it has the taste and consistency you prefer. Enjoy!

Savory Beet Soup

Adapted from a Cooking Light recipe

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

¼ teaspoon fennel seeds

4 cup chicken broth

2 cup water

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground pepper

3 medium beets, peeled & halved

1 medium potato, peeled & halved crosswise

Dash of dill weed

½ teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Optional: 8 tsp sour cream

Preparation:

Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and fennel seeds; saute 3 minutes or until tender. Add broth and next nine ingredients (through bay leaf). Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes or until beets and potato are tender. Discard bay leaf.

To blend, use immersion blender in pot or place one-third broth mixture in blender or food processor; process until smooth. Place pureed mixture in a large bowl. Repeat procedure twice with remaining broth mixture. Return pureed mixture to pan. Warm soup over low heat for 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Optional: Combine ½ cup soup and sour cream, stirring with a whisk. Divide soup evenly among each of 8 bowls. Top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream mixture; swirl sour cream mixture using the tip of a knife.

Trick or treat!

We had a fun halloween this year. It wasn't too cold which helped. Elias dressed up as a frog.
We've been talking to Elias about what to do on Halloween. Knocking on people's doors, saying "trick or treat", etc. It took him a few houses, but he was soon saying, "another house?". Such fun!

Good-bye summer

With the first snow of the season under our belts, it's hard to believe that summer is gone and fall is quickly passing us by.
We've enjoyed a beautiful fall so far. I have loved the continued warmth with a hint of crispness in the air. What a surprise to wake up to 9 inches of snow this past week. It was fun to watch Elias figure out what all this white stuff was. He started out saying hello to it in the morning, but wasn't so sure about it once we were out in it. He definitely didn't care for walking in it!
Last weekend we went to a pumpkin patch and picked out a few pumpkins. Although he only seemed interested in the tractors at the time, he's been talking about picking out pumpkins all week.
Earlier this fall we got Elias a strider bike. He loves his bike and has figured out how to walk with it and is working on steering.
Let's see, Elias is talking up a storm these days. His words and sentences are getting more complex and complete every day. "trampoline" is a recent word that comes to mind. His memory is amazing (at times). He recognizes where we're going and remembers who lives there. I could go on...
Elias is getting closer to being (daytime) potty-trained, woo hoo! We started reading potty books a month or so ago, got a new potty, and a week or so ago he started to consistently and accurately tell us when he needed to go. We're not totally there yet, but the days of washing diapers are limited! Any tips on nighttime training?
Tom has kept busy this summer and fall with work at Qualcomm as well as some iPhone app development. In spite of that he's been able to enjoy some bike rides, lots of coffee outings and Saturday mornings at the farmer's market with us.
This summer/fall I completed the 51-mile Venus de miles bike ride. I trained most weekends with the full cycle ladies club and had so much fun. I never thought i'd be looking forward to riding my bike another season.
That's not everything that's been going on, but hopefully brings you somewhat up to speed on our happenings!

Good bye Uncle Jack

I just received news that my Great Uncle Jack passed away today. I never knew my grandpa (Uncle Jack was his youngest brother), but I like to think that my Uncle Jack gave me a little bit of a glimpse of him. Uncle Jack was a kind, caring, generous, hard-working and loving man who has always held a special place in my heart. He will be so missed.

Good bye Uncle Jack. I love you.

From South Dakota - July 2011

From South Dakota - July 2011

South Dakota Weekend

It's time for a summer post, but I don't have the time at the moment. Instead I thought I'd give a peak at our most recent summer adventure - a road trip to South Dakota!

With the exception of lack of sleep and the heat we encountered on our last day, we all had a really fun time visiting the Black Hills and seeing family. Can't wait to go back!