Pre-Thanksgiving Catch Up

I'm a little behind in my posts. So, this is a catch-up. I'm leaving my job soon and we decided it was time to sell our little white Rabbit. If you've ever had to commute a long distance for any extended period time (Barbie, surely you remember!), you know that you quickly become one with your car. So, it was a bittersweet good-bye!  The car was really in great shape, had been very well taken care of, and all its mileage was highway. So, we knew it was probably worth trying to sell it ourselves. We posted it on Craig's List and sold it within a week.

You might remember that on Labor Day each year, Neal and I take take a road trip up to Maine. Our final destination is Camden. There is a wonderful little shop in Camden called "Once Upon A Tree". As you might guess, everything in the shop originates in some form from a tree. This year while we were poking around, we saw this great piece of art and thought it would be perfect for the kitchen on the wall by the TV. It is called the "Tree of Life" and is handmade from steam-bent wood on copper. We really liked it so decided to have one made and it arrived this past week.

As you know, Neal is definitely the 'chief' chef in our kitchen. I say 'chief' because I do enjoy cooking, too, though my focus is soups and salads . I also enjoy baking desserts. Last weekend it was really rainy and cold and raw. So, I decided to spend a little time in the kitchen. After flipping through some of my cookbooks, I decided to make a soup from the Williams-Sonoma 'Soup & Stew' cookbook.

It was the 'Creamy Mushroom Soup with Velvet Chicken". It's a nice recipe and if you like homemade soups I recommended this one.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we spent some time getting ready for the arrival of "the Liv". She was going to spend a few days with Nonno and Nonna!!!  Nonno put away the Pack N' Play since Liv sleeps in a 'big girl' bed now.

And Nonna got some of her toys ready for her!

With all the rain last weekend, Neal was a little worried about a possible leak at the elbow in one of the pipes in the attic area. With the new ceilings upstairs, he decided he'd better just check it out before the winter. Since the only way to get up into the attic is through the cedar closet, we had to take all the clothes out - ughhhhhh!

There is only one door up into the attic and it's inside the cedar closet.

That door opening is only 12 1/2" wide. (Good thing we did this before Thanksgiving Day or we might not have fit!)

There is a 'ladder' up into the attic on the left side. The chimney is on the right side.

Before I take you up into the attic space, I have to tell you it's nasty up there. It's tight and dark and cold and dirty. But Neal never complained - he just made it happen. All with a smile on his face.

 So, he put on his gloves and headed up.....

and up....

and up

The culprit was this elbow. It looked pretty dry but Neal put some extra sealant on it just in case.

He checked out  all the rest of the area and the surrounding space to be sure it all looked dry and secure for the coming winter months and into the wet spring months.

Then he came back down and got some insulation.

He put fresh insulation around the area where he had done the repairs and some extra insulation around areas where he thought it might be a little bit thin.

Over the past year or so we noticed that some of the scent from the cedar closet had faded. We did a little research on how to restore the cedar scent and along with its effectiveness.While the closet was empty, we took the opportunity to lightly sand the cedar walls, ceiling and shelving to bring it back to life a bit.

So we're keeping busy getting ready for the arrival of the Liv, Thanksgiving and the winter by doing some work around the house. Hope you are all well. Coming shortly ..... Thanksgiving weekend!

Piano Recital

Here's a shot of the kids playing the piano at Liv's Birthday Party:

Home Again, Home Again!

We came home from Key West on Tuesday night. We had such a good time and the weather was so nice it was difficult to leave. We already have our tickets to go back and the Christmas tree is all set up and decorated so we have that to look forward to. This week, while I was working from home on Friday, the gas company came by to do an inspection. Much to our surprise, we had a gas leak. So, they dug up the front lawn and replaced the gas line that goes into the house. They did it right away and worked until 9:30 on Friday night to get it repaired.

While they were replacing the line, they moved the gas meter to the outside of the house.

One of the best thing about coming home from KW was that we got to see Liv and celebrate her 2nd birthday. On Saturday we packed up the car and headed up to Lee, NH.

Lots of friends came to celebrate with Liv. And everyone brought her a present!

Don and Marie were there.

Neal and Don got to catch up a little bit.

Aunty Debbie was there.

Matt and Amy were there, too.

Nonno and Nonna were there.

And lots of friends.

Andrea and Drew served their guests some wonderful food. They had cheese, dips and crackers.

And some wonderful hot hors d'oeuvres, too!

Andrea made a great sauce with meatballs that she served with a delicious lasagna.

Andrea must have been very busy getting ready. She also made and decorated cupcakes for Liv's birthday!

The kid's enjoyed their supper together at the kid's table.

After supper, Liv blew out the candles. I think she is a pro at this now!

Liv's friends loved the cupcakes, too.

After supper, cupcakes and candles, it was time for presents! All the kids are ready to help. And Mommy was going to try to keep things under control.....

Liv loved the great new outfit from Gramma and Grampa Mugherini.

She had lots of helpers at-the-ready in case she needed assistance opening all those birthday gifts.

Presents, presents everywhere! But you can't have too many presents!

After presents, it was time for a little piano concert on Gramma and Grampa's piano. Nonno stayed close by to keep things under control.

Another great thing was that one of Drew's friends brought a bounce house which they set up downstairs in the new playroom they are building in the basesment. The kids loved it!! They played together in it all day long. What a great thing!

This is how they got into the bounce house.

And this is how they got out!

This is going in and out at the same time.

Nonna gave it a bounce, too!

It was a really nice birthday party. Everyone had a great time! Thanks to Andrea and Drew for a really nice afternoon. On Sunday, we did car things. It was time to put the Mercedes Benz into storage before the snow. But before we put it away, Neal washed it all up.

When we put the Mercedes Benz away, we got the VW Rabbit and brought it home. Neal washed that car, too.

It was a beautiful Sunday, so after all the car washing, we took the Triumph out for a ride in the sunshine.

This is one happy guy!

After a nice, long ride we brought it back home and tucked it into the garage until the next sunny Sunday.

One other thing we celebrated this weekend was my 10 year anniversay with Fidelity. Can you believe it - 10 years! They gave me a really nice Howard Miller brass clock.

And they had it engraved on the back.

Despite the gas leak, it turned out to be a really nice weekend. Happy Birthday to Liv! I hope you all had a great weekend, too, whatever you did!