Ohio Winter "Wonderland" Pictures...

Backyard blanketed in snow.

Cardinals and Blue jays make a winter home in the cherry trees.

Tala and Rusty like to eat the snow.

Nighttime christmas lights picture of the front of the house.  Three trees with lights.

Yes, I Am a Child of the 80's

You know you're a child of the 80's when....you geek out over Richard Marx....and really geek out when your husband buys you tickets to see him in concert!

Home project updates...

Stef and myself are still plugging along with renovations to the master suite downstairs.  You may recall this picture from one of our previous posts; mid-deconstruction. 

Here it is thus far.  Walls are now refinished, sanded, primed and painted a light blue.  We stenciled a diamond fleurdelis pattern on the wall where the bed will go.  We'll probably go with a white rod-iron bed setup.  Ledge is painted semi-gloss white.  Wainscoting and trim are starting to go up around the room.

Here you can see an in-room sink outside of the bathroom and walk-in closet.  Doors will be painted white.  Stef is in the midst of refinishing the sink.  Slowly coming along.

Here you can see the door-way (behind the lamp), which leads to the den where the fireplace is.

Annual Ginger Bread Project...

Layout of the Ginger Bread Farm House and Barn.  Card stock cut to size for ginger bread outlines.

Making a ginger-bread roof, grain silo and reindeer.

All the pieces of the farm are complete and cooling waiting for assembly.

Basic structure of the Farm is put together with Royal Icing.  Jolly ranchers are melted down to make windows.

Roofing added to structures.  Red ropes on the barn, and rolos on the roof.  Mike and Ikes on the Farm house, candy-cane porch, hershey kisses on the roof.  Andes Mints on the side of the Silo, redhots on the roof and hershey kisses hidden inside.

Stefanie making peppermint bark.

Pouring the peppermint bark into tile moulds.

Placing the peppermint bark tiles on the roof of the farm house and barn.

Base of the board is covered in royal icing.  Frosted mini-wheats, crushed, and sprinkled in the field to look like furrows of chopped corn.  Stef made a mould of a Truck for the Farm out of peppermint bark.  Reindeer have piped Red royal icing around their necks with gold sugar balls.  9 deer, one with red nose.

Final project.

New dogs...

Freshly minted graduates of doggy behavior reform school. Complete with corrective implements attached.

When we adopted Rusty back in April, we didn't realize he came along with a bit of a stubborness, growling and biting habit when he didn't get his way. It reached a bit of a pinnacle in August when he bit the groomer at Pet Smart and drew blood. Not acceptable. We brought him in to the Vet to see what we should do. The vet could not find any physical/chemical findings wrong with Rusty that might explain his behavior. The vet recommended Kelly, a behavioralist that trains the K-9 units for the NW Ohio area.

We made an appointment to have both Rusty and Tala evaluated by Kelly. We added Tala in because we really hadn't had any training for her before and she did have a bit of a confidence and anxiety problem. After the evaluation, we decided to enroll Rusty and Tala in a 12 day intensive course on appropriate doggy manners. The house was so empty for the 12 days.

Tonight was our first night back with the dogs in our house, and oh boy is it different. When you walk with them on the leash, they no longer pull and they walk at your left side. They stop when you stop, they go where you go. When I left the house to go out front neither dog barked at me while I went out the door. The dogs are no longer allowed to be on the couch now unless invited. No jumping or paws are allowed on the legs. It is much different now the dogs are much more subdued, and pay more attention now to commands.

Tonight we had our first hour long class learning how to use our new dogs. We learned appropriate dog walking technique, and appropriate corrective measures to modify behavior using a choker-chain and leash. You want to achieve correction, not inflict pain. If they exhibit a wrong behavior they get a firm no with a Snap to the leash for correction.

More house projects...

Starting work on redoing the down-stairs master suite and den.


Stef sanding down a wooden ledge that runs the periphery of the room down stairs in preparation for priming and painting. Below the ledge we will put wainscoting and above will be painted. As you can see the previous owners had a unique sense of style and color choice. This room currently stores the treadmill. Also in the picture is a bucket of TSP water that Stef uses to wash the walls and surfaces of the room before we paint.



Picture of part of the Entertainment unit downstairs. It will be repainted with semigloss white to clean it up. It currently is storing a mass of tools that I don't have any room to store elsewhere. What I'm particulary proud of, is that the fireplace is now up and running smoothly; no carbon monoxide or fire alarms going off. Just some finish woodwork left to be done on the unit before painting.

Happy Birthday Erin and Lauren...

I tried to bake you both a giant cupcake shaped cake for your birthdays, but I failed epically. It came together quite nicely, initially. Then I came back to check on it around midnight before going to bed and structural integrity problems had taken hold. I tried to fix it but it just crumbled when I tried to put the cupcake top back on the cupcake bottom. The following is the result.

Happy Birthday.