Halftime Show

Farmer Excitement #4: When you deliver a calf during halftime.

Tea for Fourteen

My mom visited last week and we decided to finally get the china out of storage and display it in our new china hutch. While we bought the hutch over a month ago, I hadn't quite gotten around to this step. That said, we only recently put the final touches on the new/old hutch as it needed a bit of work when we brought it home. 

We knew one of the doors rubbed a little, but upon further investigation the problem was more than just planing off the bottom millimeter of the door. We found a cracked middle support and the entire bottom of the hutch wasn't quite square. The Farmer couldn't quite figure out what had happened to it to create these issues until he recalled his days as a three-year-old climber. Yep...the bottom doors had been used as a stepstool from a youngster in previous days. So we took the back off. We re-squared it. We re-nailed it. We re-glued it. We added in another support in the middle. And we did plane off a millimeter from the bottom of the offending door.

And by "we" I mean The Farmer. I just held things. 

By the time we finished the hutch my mom was visiting in two weeks so I just waited for her to help me figure out what to do. Because, well, I have just a few pieces of china...

Disclaimer: Images may appear larger than in real life, but they really are this large.

Let me explain the drama around the "family" china.

My mother is the keeper of the actual "family" china. It is a cream design with raised scalloped edges and was a part of her father's family. Quite pretty. My mother remembers them from when she was little.

Until...

My great-aunt Jean visited from Texas one summer and she and my grandmother, Lottie, got into some sort of argument. My mother doesn't know what the argument was about - my grandmother never spoke of it. But the result was all the china was packed up and shipped to Texas. My grandmother wouldn't speak of the incident and no one was allowed to mention it. So the family china that was used for special occasions disappeared from the house until aunt Jean died and the china was shipped back.

It was stored in the back attic and never touched again.*

So where did this china come from? 

My grandmother bought it at an estate sale in the 1980s when she was in Arizona visiting her sister for the winter. 

I remember when this happened. Grandma made a big deal about it. While they were special dishes she didn't preclude anyone from using them on those special occasions. So yes, while I was merely a pre-teen I got to use the fancy plates. How fun!

She wanted them to be used, and while she knew she had 11 grandchildren (and a number of adult children) that might break them she wanted to enjoy them. So my grandmother declared that the first person who broke an item would inherit the china; an exciting yet scary proposition. You didn't want to be the first one.

My cousin Angie dropped the gravy boat the first celebration we used them. 

She inherited the lot. 

It was one of the few items specifically spelled out in my grandmother's will. 

Now the original set my grandmother purchased at that estate sale was not as large as what I have now inherited from Angie, courtesy of her daughter, Jennifer. 

But when Angie inherited the dish set it was missing a gravy boat and this was just around the time eBay started to emerge. And a lot of people were selling their gravy boats online.

The end result was a few more items that just a single gravy boat were purchased. 

Such as two gravy boats. (Just in case.)

So last week my mom and I unpacked:

41 dinner plates

26 salad plates

46 dessert plates

34 saucers

27 dessert bowls

17 large bowls

19 coffee cups

14 tea cups

2 butter dishes

3 covered dishes (1 slightly broken)

5 serving bowls

3 large platters

3 small platters

1 oval serving bowl

2 gravy boats

1 salt/pepper shaker set

2 sugar bowls

2 creamers

1 set of candlestick holders

and 

1 dinner bell

Lest you think I am greedy I decided to keep a reasonable number of these items as my china and the rest was packed up to be given back - as single items or in small sets - to family members. 

But thank goodness my mom was here because who knows how to arrange 27 dessert bowls in a china hutch?

My mom does.

So here's to you, grandma Lottie...

We're even using the correct cups.

And here's to you, dear cousin Angie.

We'll use the gravy boat and think of you every time.

*The mysterious argument was confirmed when my mom found the china in the attic after my grandma passed away. The boxes of china were all marked in my grandpa's handwriting, which was odd as they were the only items in the entire attic in his writing. And...all the dinner plates were missing. Hmm. I like to think those dinner plates never made it to Texas. 

I've Met My Match

This is our closet. After six long months after we "finished" the house renovations and over a year since we got hitched, we finally have a proper closet. 

After just one week of sharing a closet with The Farmer, I've learned some new things about him.

At first glance at his side you realize he has a lot of blue shirts. And red. Or, in his terms, crimson. And yes, these colors dominate his wardrobe. That said, even he found the number of blue button-up shirts he owned amusing.

From my side you note that yes, my clothing is in color-coded order. I fully acknowledge that I am anal when it comes to things like this. I fully acknowledge that I am an off-the-charts "J" on the Myers-Briggs Indicator. I once was the "example" of a "J" during a Myers-Briggs presentation. The question they posed to me (after looking at my results) in front of the class actually was for me to describe my closet. I think I got as far as "Well, all the hangers are facing the right way..." and the class burst out laughing. Doesn't everyone hang their clothes with the hangers the RIGHT way? Duh.

So, yes, the shirts progress white to black, left to right, and then the jackets, white to black, left to right. And yes, tank tops are on the left within the color section, followed by short sleeve, and then long. 

Hello, my name is The Brunette and I am anal.

As you look closer at my closet you will note that yes, all the hangers are facing the right way and yes, all of them are plastic. 

But (gasp!), they are all different colors! Why not all white? Or black? Or...?

There is an easy answer to this, my friend.

You see, if I just had white hangers and then for some reason had a stray blue on in the mix this would be torture. Plus...why white? What color do I choose? 

White...easy to find. Lots of them. But make sure they are white. Not cream. 

Green. A favorite color. But lots of shades. I'd have to stick to one shade to ensure uniformity.

And red. This would be even worse because one company might make the red color slightly different. And different from green where you could fake it and say you wanted kelly green and forest green and sage green, red is red. There are no shades. Horrible.

The solution? Keep the uniformity of the plastic and the same TYPE of hanger, but declare all colors are acceptable! The rainbow of colors solves all problems of the one sore thumb sticking out!

Problem solved.

I have taken this tactic to other parts of my home. 

This is why my dishes look this way. 

They match because they are all different. And random. There are three orange bowls yet just one cream one. I couldn't have the same number of everything because what if one broke? Or I had an extra of a color? Would I just have to hide the third-wheel of plate color?

I need help. 

(Side note...My sister E bought the cream bowl and plate because she wanted to use that color when she visits. The Farmer refers to these dishes as E's dishes. But yes, we use them when she's not around. And yes, she gets to use them every time she visits.)

But people, I think I have met my match.

Take a closer look at The Farmer's side of the closet.

Do you see them?

Look closer.

They are all the same type of hanger.

They all are hung the right way.

THEY. ARE. ALL. CRIMSON.

Be still my heart.

And watch out, Dear Farmer...

I just did the laundry. 

And these are your shirts.

You have met your match.

New Year's Resolutions (No Wonder We Are Tired)

The Farmer and I are coming up a bit blank on this annual question of New Year's Resolutions. Or rather, our goals for the year, as resolutions seems to be a recipe for disaster. I know they'll be broken by Sunday - tops - and so let's instead think of the things we want to accomplish this year. And yes, some sound an awful lot like a resolution. Potato...Potahto.

We are coming up blank because...well...we are tired.

Because this is what happened with our resolutions last year.

We bought a house.

We renovated said house.

We eloped.

And then we have our day jobs.

One of us farmed.

The other one recruited and traveled.

Oh, how'd that photo get in there?!?!??!?!!!

Don't tell The Farmer this was the day he was doing some big dirty icky job in the sleeting rain. 

Instead remind him I'm usually driving from high school to high school, seeking out Starbucks along the way, answering questions about how The College went co-ed in the late 1960s, so yes, we have boys. 

But as I look back on this past year, when I'm tired I try to remember...

We bought a house.

View from the road.

We renovated said house.

The original front entry. Inviting, yes?

The "new" front door.

Staining the doors was quite a project. Good thing The Farmer loves me.

Prepping for the new front porch.

Moving in the door!

Don't notice that it's not yet stained. We had to take it down right after we put it up.

The end result (OK, not really...we're going to wrap the porch to the side door next spring.)

The view from the old master bedroom (now the new front entrance).

This would have been the view from the entrance if we had only moved the front door. Thank goodness we decided the open plan bathroom was a bit much for a first impression.

The view from the entrance...a work in progress.

Drywall!

The new view from the new entrance (aka the old master bedroom). The beams denote the former walls.

Everyone wants carpet in the kitchen. And the refrigerator in the middle of the room. 

Down came the refrigerator wall.

We decided the carpet had to go too. Along with the pink/gray fan wallpaper.

Mummified in preparation for the messy drywallers.

The new kitchen!

Complete with all new appliances (that was a fun day at Home Depot).

The old view from the dining room. The yellow/green wall through the doorway is location of the new front door. 

That carpet had to go too (along with a few walls).

More drywall.

And the new (messy...someone should have moved that blanket before taking this photo) view from the same location (sorta) as the first photo.

The fireplace in the dining room. Before.

The in-progress view of the dining room from another angle. I'm standing where a wall used to be.

Flooring...because the old cork floor under the carpet just wouldn't cut it.

Note the new window frames too.

The old formal dining room, complete with pink carpet. And nowhere near the kitchen.

If anyone wants some pink carpet, we still have a remnant available. The Farmer will deliver.

My new office and craft room.

I've already removed the stickers from the floor mats. 

The left bookcase holds all my genealogy stuff...for my two other blogs.

A second fireplace in the massive living room. (It went away.)

The old front entrance is in the upper right corner.

We didn't like that carpet either.

We added a wall. The window through the doorway is my new office.

We painted. A lot.

Floors make the room.

And all new furniture to round things out. (More on the GDP of the window curtains later.)

The old master bath. This is a relative term, as you can see.  It was located behind the glass block half-wall you can see in the entry "before" photos.

Note the new front door behind the wall frame. The bathroom is in approximately the same location, merely "flipped".

The Farmer insisted on the jacuzzi.

I didn't argue.

Fun with tile.

The end result. 

Don't ask about the shower doors either. That was another GDP story for another time.

We saved two of the blue tiles from the upstairs bath. Why? I'm not sure. 

This bathroom is actually to scale. It is as small as it looks.

Fun with power tools. 

Yes, the tiny bathroom had a false wall. We had to keep the wall (plumbing ran along the base of the wall) but added a nook for storage. 

Still small, but much better. 

I don't miss the blue tile. At all.

One of us farmed.

We recruited and traveled.

(Photo deleted to protect the innocent.)

And most importantly...

We eloped.

What more could you ask for?

Well, if you have to ask...

A closet.

And these tiles in the middle of my bedroom floor to move.

And a finished laundry room.

It's a "choose your favorite color" laundry room!

Still in progress, but toned WAAAAAAY down.

I guess those are my New Year's Resolutions for 2013.

Pretty simple, I guess.

Oh.

And to have a successful one year anniversary party with family and friends.

Because we did elope. And a few people want to celebrate. 

And see the house we bought. And renovated.

Come see us soon!