Let it...snow???

Welp, write it on the calendar, folks. The first snowfall of the 2011/12 season was on November 10th, and boy was it a doozy! They called for "flurries," but it snowed pretty much all afternoon and through the evening. There was even slush on the roads! (It sounds odd that I live in MICHIGAN and am reacting in SURPRISE at slush on the roads, but this is the first snow for crying out loud!) Anywho, early as it may be, it's a treat for the eyes, as always :)

Looking out our dining room onto the deck


Looking out the garage, down the cul-de-sac

Oh, it'll melt. Sunday it's supposed to be a balmy 55. Am I really talking about the weather? Immediate subject change.

Dan's workshop is coming together with his finishing touches. He might be irritated that I took a picture to display to the public with his "area" kind of messy, but he'll never know since HE DOESN'T READ MY BLOG. (I'm not bitter.) Anyway, the west wall (the one in this picture) used to be covered with pretty crappy drywall. He took it all down, insulated all four walls and installed OSB (completely different than SOB) in the whole space. I can't tell you how much less creepy it is without all the exposed spider webs and nastiness that resides under that OSB.

Good job, babe! :)


Last weekend Dan trimmed this window and added some cheap-o mini blinds. Looks SO. GOOD!

And now...because everyone's been on pins and needles...here's the newest member of our family!

Chester the chest freezer!

We'd talked about buying a big freezer for months and when we saw it at Costco for a steal, we jumped on it. (I mean, we didn't lit'rally jump on it...it was still boxed up in the store.) We're ones who love to stock up on sale items, but with our small, unorganized indoor freezer, it was impossible. So the saga continued - buying chicken and ground beef every week, usually at full price. This is how much we'll take advantage of this storage - within two days of purchasing this bad boy, there is now 12 1/2 lbs of ground beef in there. Shyeah.

I think the biggest, longest running disagreement of our marriage so far has been whether to get a chest freezer or a stand-up freezer. Gunning for organization and order, I had a STRONG vote for the stand-up. But in the end, I decided to compromise, on the condition that Dan wouldn't judge me for this idea: Attaching a white board (as seen in photo) to the top of the freezer so we can write down what's in the freezer and erase it as we use it. (You don't understand - Dan's parents have a chest freezer and I'm pretty sure that at any point in time, there are up to ten bags of shredded cheese and seven loaves of identical bread in it because they always lose track of what they have! I refuse to fall victim to this scenario...hence, the white board.)

Last night I went to a Christmas show at a wholesale dealer called Nordlie with my mother-in-law. Oh. My. Goodness. My decorating creativity will be unleashed with a near violent ferocity on my house this year. I purchased a few things last night...because Nordlie has the most authentic fake greenery that I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY 26 YEARS. I'm not giving any of my ideas and aspirations away because I want the pictures to be a surprise (because I know everyone reading this is just bursting at the seams to see what I'm doing for Christmas decor?...). At any rate, charming Christmas genius to come...on November 26th :)

Okay. Off to The Lob and Pier 1!...