Scotch Comes for a Visit

Our friends, Mike and Laura, had to go out of town for a week and we excitedly volunteered to watch their weinheimer dog, Scotch. It was great to see how much this big dog LOVES to cuddle! You can sit on the sofa or on the floor and he would hop right up next to you, turn around 3 times and then collapse right on your lap! We noticed also, because he has thin skin that he gets cold easily. We started covering him up with blankets and old towels and he would nudge his head under the blanket, so we started covering his whole face and he would give a big sigh of gratitude and give almost a purr once he was completely covered from head to toe!

what is that bundle of blanket between AJ's legs...


Oh, it's a huge 85 lb weinheimer!!!



That isn't even the funniest part. Laura mention that Scotch likes to sleep in bed with them and at first we weren't sure, but as soon as we climbed in, Scotch leaped up on our bed and walked up to our pillow and nuzzled his head under the covers and slinked his way down to the bottom of the bed, UNDER THE COVERS, and curled up in a little ball and went to sleep. We kept lifting up the covers to see if he could still breathe... AJ couldn't stop laughing either! He actually stayed out of our way and we didn't feel him much over the course of the night except when he got too hot, and would get out of the covers, go lay on the floor for about 3 minutes and then get back up into bed and we'd lift the covers and he'd crawl right back under them to the foot of the bed.

Just to show you how big he is, even though he can curl into a tiny ball,... this is a picture of one of the kids of AJ's study buddies who wanted his picture with Scotch by our tree... this is as close as the kid would get! HA!

Too funny!!! Needless to say, we're washing, blankets and sheets today now that he's gone but it certainly was fun having an 85lb snuggle bear follow you around all weekend! The walks in 20 degree weather were the best.... I guess you could say, AJ and I had forgotten all the things you do for a dog. As my mother would say, "it's best to watch and barrow someone else's dog so then at the end of the day, you can always give it back!"

We'll miss you Scotch! Thanks for a very snuggly, well-behaved, doggy weekend!

Christmas Party #1

Yes, I say #1 because we have 3 planned for this month. The first one was with AJ's MBA study group. We had 4 couples over for dinner last night. So that meant that I had one week from our countertops being installed to paint the kitchen, decorate the kitchen, plan the meal, shop for food, get a Christmas tree, decorate the Christmas tree, cook the food and host the party! Needless to say this husband and wife team Bachmann are AMAZING together! We are the planners and when it comes to hosting or completely a project, we are there with bells on our toes!

Here are some pictures from the evening, including some of the new paint color we selected (from my little sister's suggestion) , the new countertops and green christmas accents! Needless to say the food was hot, bellys were full, and the house is feeling more Christmas-y by the day!

So, bring on party #2 next weekend!

First Snow in Anne Arundel County

While I was painting last Sunday I got a phone call from AJ from the coffee shop down teh street (he went to study) that it was snowing! I was standing right next to our porch doors but completely missed it! So while there was still some light I took a few pictures of our Thanksgiving pumpkins (still in great shape, by the way...) with fresh snow on them!

I'm soooo looking forward to more snow this winter!!!

Countertops are HERE!!!

So yes, we went through the 3 weeks long process of picking out granite, type, then color, then selecting our slab from the warehouse and then having it installed on Friday, December 5th! We were so excited! They look beautiful! The color we got was called white spring and has brown/tan tones on a white background with black marbled specks through it with of course lots of peral, silver sparkle.

Fastinating process to watch as well! The guys who installed it even let me take their picture!!

Giving Thanks, even for the little things

I just heard a sermon on this on the radio last week and I felt the need to share it with everyone. It's on the tpoic of giving thanks to God for even the exciting things and the bad things.

Luke 17:11-19 Ten Healed of Leprosy

11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[a]met him. They stood at a distance 13and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"
14When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.
15One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
17Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

CW's Commentary: This one man came back to Thank Jesus out of all 10 who prayed and asked Jesus to heal them. If we pray to ask God for a blessing and he blesses us in a way we expect or even in ways we don't expect, we should still praise and THANK him for answering our prayer in the way that is best according to HIM. It's not about what we want in life, it's about God's purpose for our life.

So during this thanksgiving season, don't forget to thank God when paryers are answered according to our will or according to God's. It's all apart of His plan for our lives. Set yourselves apart and BE THANKFUL!

God Bless!

Bachmann BOO BASH!

We didn't get to hold our 4th of July party this year with friends so we decided to have a HAlloween party which I've never done. In fact I hate all the decorations and things. I had the worst time at the dollar store picking them out and then I didn't even put them up until the day of my party because I didn't want to look at all the wired and funky balck and orange decor around my house every day. Only hours after the party was over, I took them all back down again!

We had TONS of food and everyone brought plenty of drinks! We had about 30 people totally show up and what made it fun was all the costumes!! We had some pretty creative ones! We had a bon fire in our fire pitt on the deck, we had a bunch of games going too that kept us awak until 3am! Here are some snap shots of the evening.

Melissa and Bob were from the movie JUNO. You should have seen Bob's shorts! HA!

The Maragni couple were Secret Agents for Laura Bush (GW Bush's daughter who lives in Baltimore)

And here is AJ, trying to do a skit while asking Brittany (the Penguine) to feed her some amazing Oero Pastachio Dessert she made.

The Delware Gals!

Somehow there was only ONE picture taken of my outfit... not the best, and I made the dress too!

New APPLIANCES!!!!

So, we have been wanting new kitchen appliances since we moved in the house. The current ones are the originals with the home (8 years old) and a "nice" almond color to match the counter tops. So I finally saved up enough money in my "house fund" and I did ALL the research to the features I wanted, the prices and where to buy it. I looked at Home Depot, Sears, Lowes and Best Buy.

I ended up with Frigidaire (made by Electrolux) from Lowes. So AJ was excited and we went to go see them in the store to make sure they looked ok and had the specs we saw online (of course, I went in with product numbers, and pictures and specs of EACH item and asked the guy to show me each one, he was impressed I was so organized!).

So AJ was so excited to take a before and after movie of our appliances (hope they work). AJ and his father took 4 hours to install everything themselves but it saved us about $800 instead of paying to have Lowes install them. Thank you, Honey!

Next step, granite counter tops, being installed after Thanksgiving with new warm colored walls (the stainless steal appliances and the mint green walls make it look too cold). Stay tuned!