On my mind

I've had some writer's block for a WHILE now (as you can tell by my serious lack of posts).  I don't know what my problem is.  I mean, I'm not depressed or anything.  Quite the opposite. I'm loving life.  I noticed that in 2011 I posted on my blog a LOT.  And most of those posts were about conversations with Peter or stupid things that I did.  I still do stupid things, don't get me wrong, but I just haven't been able to make a story out of them.  And I still have conversations with Peter.  All the time, actually, since we're roommates and all.  Maybe it's because we're having these conversations constantly that the ridiculousness just seems routine?  I don't know.  Anyways, the point is that I haven't known what to write about, so I haven't been writing at all.  There go my dreams of becoming an author.  (I had that dream in 3rd grade when I wrote books all the time.)

Things that have recently been on my mind:

- Homeownership is awesome.  Except when it snows.  Then it really sucks because you have to figure out how your driveway is going to get cleared.  And that's not fun.  So you should let your husband handle it.

- This little nugget of joy:

I could just eat her up.  Especially when she has massive bedhead after her nap.  We FaceTime with her often, and she is just so adorable.  She reads us stories, answers important phone calls, and carries on with her busy little life in front of the camera so we can see her.  She sings us songs, shows us her babies, and knows so many words.  It really is amazing.  My favorite is that she knows how to say cake.  She definitely has Vanderstappen genes if she knows that word already!

- Peter's parents got me a really nice diploma frame for Christmas.

(I don't know why it formatted itself into a square... It's rectangular.)

Peter has the same diploma frame for St. Norbert.  I was really excited to get this.  But there is one little problem... I can't find my diploma.  Anywhere.  The most expensive piece of paper I own, and I lost it.  I know exactly where it was sitting in our apartment.  I KNOW I put it in a box that was labeled "diploma", among other things, when we moved.  But alas.  I dug and dug and emptied boxes and re-emptied boxes and haven't found it.  I just sent a check to UW today for $50 and they'll send me a replacement.  In the grand scheme of things, $50 is cheap compared to what that piece of paper is actually worth.  Sigh.  

When I told my boss that I lost my diploma, he thought I "lost" my diploma.  

Boss: I guess I never checked.  Do you actually have a diploma?

Me: Ummmm yes? (I'm sure my confidence was really reassuring for him.)

Boss: Mmmmhmmmm....

That was really the main reason that I need to get that diploma, stat.  

- Our STUPID kitchen table.  Remember back at the end of December when I ordered a kitchen table?  I didn't blog about it... But in the tour of our house I mentioned that the table was damaged so we were waiting for the replacement?  

Damage:

I KNEW there were going to be problems right
when I saw the box...

This gouge is actually about an inch long and RIGHT
on the top of the table.  Sigh.  There is more damage too, but
this part was the worst.  And most noticeable.

After SEVEN weeks of calling at least once a week and being polite, I was finally mean on the phone (when I talked to the same poor lady the next day, I apologized for my rudeness), and we FINALLY got a new table sent to us.  

This is what the box looked like when it came:

Needless to say, I did NOT have high hopes for this table.  But Peter told me to not be so negative, so upon opening the box we inspected the table and it's miraculously undamaged.  It's not put together yet because we have to move the damaged table to the basement first, but alas, I am finally happy.

- Something that made me happier than the new table was THIS:

BLINDS IN THE KITCHEN.  So now at night I don't have to look into the scary, dark abyss and can instead look at blinds.  I feel MUCH safer now.  Because if someone comes to get me, they'll probably be like "OMG they have BLINDS so I'd better not get the people that live in this house."  I love them.

- I was in South Africa last week, and when I was boarding my flight I saw the MOST vibrant rainbow.  The picture doesn't do it justice at ALL, but you get the idea.  Then, when we took off, I looked back and saw the most amazing thing.  From up in the air, I could see an entire circle rainbow.  It was so beautiful.  I couldn't take a picture though because my electronics were turned off.  It was amazing.

- Another thing that I've been thinking about is babies.  No, we're not having any, nor will we for an unknown amount of time.  But that doesn't mean that we can't love on all of our friends' babies!  And that's like, better, because when they get fussy or spit up all over I can be like "Ok, here you go!" and give the baby back.  And I still get a full night's sleep.  It's a win-win because I can give them kisses and snuggle them, but then give them back when I don't want to deal with their crying.

We get asked all the time when we're having kids, and we've gotten to a point where we just say, "Oh, we're way to selfish at this point in our lives to have children."  Which is completely true.  We just weren't always so blunt about it.  And another thing (that I can only use for a few more precious months) is that we weren't even supposed to be MARRIED yet.  So there's that.  A lot of my friends that are moms are like "DON'T LET ANYONE RUSH YOU INTO IT."  I don't know if you know me, but I am not big on letting people tell me what to do.  So trust me, that's definitely something that will be a choice completely made by Peter and I.

Despite the fact that we aren't having babies yet, I get stuff in the mail ALL THE TIME.  Yesterday, there were the only two things in our mailbox:

The maternity magazine I understand because I Peter bought Jenna a really pretty maternity shirt for Christmas.  (Did I tell you that she's expecting #2 in June?  Yay!!)  Peter picked it out, but I paid with my card.  Which was obviously a mistake.

The envelope on top contains a sample of Enfamil formula.  Another day I got an entire box of formula.  I've been keeping it for my friends that are expecting twins in April.  But whenever anyone comes over I hide all of the formula in a cabinet because I don't want them to think things are happening that aren't happening.  Anyways.

Other than that, nothing's really been going on.  I leave for another trip tomorrow and will be gone for 9 days, so if you like to cook, you should bring food over to Peter.  If you like to iron, you can do that while I'm gone too.

A tour of our house! (finally!)

We had people over for the Packer/Vikings playoff game, so our house was really clean and presentable so I decided to take that opportunity to take pictures of our house.  But I just want you to know that our house is usually presentable.  You can do a pop-in to check!

I considered not putting up pictures of the inside of our house to encourage people to come and visit, but then I was like, meh, whatever.  No visitors means less cleaning.

A lot of times when we have people come over, we have them come in through the garage so that they don't have to walk outside in the freezing temperatures.  Welcome!

To the left we have (some of) our shoes, and then the two drawers have our gloves/hats/my scarves in them.  Peter always forgets that we have the glove drawer, and he can never find his gloves when I move them from the counter to the drawer.  But that's ok.  (Usually this is very disheveled, as we just kick off our shoes when we come in.  But I straightened it up for our company.)

To the right, we have the laundry room.  Also tidied up for the guests, there are usually clothes drying on the bar above the dryer.  As you can see, there's not a place for me to let the laundry pile up.  Which is definitely a good thing.

Walking further into the kitchen, we come to our patio doors, which I love during the daytime but hate hate HATE at night.  We reallyyyyyyy need to get some blinds for these doors because when I'm watching tv, when I look to my left I look into a deep, dark abyss that's really scary.  When Peter's not home, it's pure torture.

Also pictured is our new kitchen table that I LOVE, but it got delivered damaged.  We didn't see the damage until it was put together, so we put the plates on it for our party.  I'm calling to figure out what they'll do about that...

On the other side of the kitchen table is a painting that we're going to eventually put on the yellow wall.  I'm waiting to put it up until I find something decorative to hang on either side.

I LOVE our kitchen.  Favorite room of the house.  Usually the appliances aren't all shoved onto the far counter, but we served the food on the front counter, so I moved everything over.  

We LOVED all the Christmas love we got this year!  Seriously, what is the point of mail after December?  Also, on the counter where our beverages are, there is usually junk piled up.  And I get annoyed with myself EVERY TIME it happens, yet it continues to happen.  We also have our electronic charging station, with too many electronics always connected.  We live in a sick (but AWESOME) world. 

Walking out of the kitchen we enter the living room.  I asked Peter to take the Yoda down to the basement, but then when I came back in the living room, the Yoda had a snuggie around him.  So he stayed.  Furniture is compliments of my Grandma Ann's house.  Despite the southwestern Arizona look, it is quite comfortable... But hopefully going to be replaced within the next year...

We just got a new entertainment center, so we just moved the old one aside until we figure out what to do with it.  It wont' always look like this...  Also, Peter is DYING to mount the tv on the wall, which I think is going to happen in the next couple of months while I'm traveling.  Sometime in the next couple of days, the Christmas tree will be completely removed.  When the tree and old entertainment center are gone, I'll start brainstorming what to put on either side of the new entertainment center.  I'm in no rush to find something, though.

If you turn around, you see down the hallway.

To the right is our spare bathroom.

The counter top isn't usually this busy, but Peter hooked up his wireless speakers in the kitchen and bathroom so that no one would miss anything during the game while they weren't in the living room.

The first door down the hallway is the basement, which has this nice little lock on it so that when Peter's being bad he can be locked in the basement.  Just kidding (or am I?).  It was really installed because the previous owners had a cat named Tubby, whose litter box was in the basement.  So they could crack the door and not have any kids falling down the stairs.

I really hate our basement.  I hate basements that aren't completely finished in general.  I'm pretty sure that my fear comes from growing up with a 100+ year old basement that had rock walls and a lot of spiders.

When we saw the house for the first time, there were deer heads and stuff on the walls down here.  So that was scary.

Scarier though, is the little hole that's in the wall for Tubby to get to his litter box that is on the completely unfinished side of the basement.  I HATE this cat hole.  Because in my mind, it's a RAT hole, and I'm so scared that something it going to come running out at me.

Beyond the wood-paneled room is tons and tons of storage.  Tons.

More storage!  Peter has big plans of completely finishing the basement someday, which I am fully supportive of.  As long as I don't have to do it. 

Back upstairs and down the hallway, we come to the next door on the left.  The Packer room.  Now is probably a good time to tell you that we Peter only re-painted the master bedroom.  I have agreed to leave the spare rooms painted as we found them until we have kids.  Then, the Packer colors are DEFINITELY going.  This would be considered Peter's "man-cave".

This closet is where we put junk that we don't know what to do with.  I really should go through and just throw stuff away...  Like the Soda Stream.

Ideally, I would like to have a bookcase in the living room, but we're not going to finish the living room until we get new furniture.  So it's in the green and yellow room.

The next room down the hall is what used to be the Brewer room.  This room is currently used for: instrument storage, storage for decorations that I want to put up sooner than later, and Christmas presents that I moved from the living room to the spare room before our company came.

This spring we're getting a bed for this room, so things will get more organized.

And also the decorations that got misplaced when I decorated for Christmas.  Oh, and the dreaded clothes-to-be-ironed basket.

The previous owners forgot one of the Famous Racing Sausages decals above our china closet.  The sausage decals were all around the room when we viewed the house.  Do you think they like Wisconsin sports?

At the end of the hallway is a really big storage closet.  When we viewed the house, there were really nice shelves, but when we moved in the were gone.  So when I was out of the country Peter put holes in the wall up a shelf for me.  I'm hoping for a few more in the future.

The last room down the hallway is our bedroom.  I love the furniture and the tray ceiling.  This was the only room that was re-painted.  Peter was awesome and surprised me by painting it the color I had chosen while I was traveling.

Just a note: this is the furniture that started the whole house hunt.  We ended up getting the same furniture that Peter promised me we could get when we bought a house.  He really is the best.  He also makes the bed every morning.

Eventually we'll put pictures or something on the walls, but I'm not sure what yet.  

Behind the closed door is a walk-in closet that I chose not to show because it's where all of the laundry that can't fit in the laundry room is stored.  Just trust me when I tell you that it's nice.

And finally, the master bathroom.  The bedroom was originally the same color as the bathroom.

I'm boring and bought the same shower curtain for both bathrooms.  I just really liked the curtain! 

So!  That's it!  The house that we're tied to for the next 30 years.  We really found a gem when we started the house hunt that I was so hesitant about.  

I just adore it. 

Ultimate Packer Fan.

I use excessive profanity in this post.  Shield young eyes before reading.

Sometimes in life, you try so hard to not look like an asshole that you end up looking like an asshole.

Last year I bought a Packer jersey because Peter and I got tickets to a Packer game, and our seats were really awesome, expensive seats where if you don't have a jersey you look like an asshole.  So I bought a jersey.

THEN I realized that I was an idiot for buying a Packer jersey because I SHOULD have bought a Packer SWEATSHIRT.  On Fridays during the NFL season, we have NFL day.  What is better than wearing a hoodie to work every Friday for 5 months and not getting in trouble for violating the company dress code?  NOTHING.

So I bought a Packer hoodie.  And it's comfortable and I love Fridays even more now because I get to wear a hoodie to work.  

Because I'm the ultimate Packer fan, I assume that all games are on Sundays and that means all NFL days at work are on Fridays.  I deleted the memo that had the NFL day schedule.  Earlier this season, the Packers had a game on a Monday, which I'm choosing not to talk about in detail because I had a very upset husband after that game.  (The day after the Packers lost that game, Peter called me on his way home from work and he sounded really sad like he had a bad day, so I asked him what was wrong.  "Well, I'm just still really sad that the Packers lost."  I hung up the phone.)

Anyways, the Friday before the game I walked into the office with my Packer jersey on.  I had an old white t-shirt on underneath.  As I walked in, the receptionist, before saying good morning, said, "Wrong day, Sara.  Packers play on Monday, so Monday is Packer Day."  

DAMN.

So I rushed to my office before anyone else could see me and shut the door.  

What to do what to do what to do.

I took off the jersey.  Unfortunately, I wasn't wearing a tank top or even a white bra underneath the white t-shirt.  Black bra.  White t-shirt.  Definite violation of company dress code.  

I keep a heavy sweater in my office because most days my office is colder than the frozen tundra.  I could probably wear the same shirt to work every day of the week and no one would notice because I always have a sweater on.  

So I put on my heavy sweater over the white t-shirt.  And buttoned it to the top.  This sweater is not meant to be buttoned.  (I would find a picture of it on the internet, but it's really old, so it's not sold in stores anymore.  Just picture a chunky sweater with large, wooden buttons that is clearly not supposed to be buttoned.)

I walked around all day looking like an idiot because I was wearing a white t-shirt and a sweater that was clearly meant not to be buttoned, buttoned all the way to the top.  On the day that I wore my Packer jersey so that I wouldn't look like an asshole, I ended up looking like a huge asshole.  My co-workers were polite enough not to mention how horrible I looked all day.  

So the moral of the story is: don't try to blend in, and be yourself, otherwise you end up looking like an asshole.  (But if you're an asshole, you should probably try to blend in.)

Merry Christmas! Love, the Romeneskos

My mom writes a Christmas letter (almost) every year to update our friends and family about the goings-on in our lives.  I didn't write a Christmas letter because it's only Peter and I and we're really boring.  But then I was driving to work the other morning and thinking about our year, and I was like, "Actually, we've had the best year ever!!"  So instead of getting a Christmas letter in the mail, you're getting a virtual one.  

--------------------------

Darling friends, family, and people of the world,

Our year began as a newly engaged couple who thought they had 17 months to plan their wedding.  We took a trip to Las Vegas for a long weekend with our friends Kim and Stew right away in January to get a break from the cold, snow-less Wisconsin weather.  Great trip overall: I lost money, but Peter won money so in the end I didn't care because in 17 months our finances would be one in the same.  

My first cash-out.  I think that I put in $1.00 and came back with $3.41.  So that's good!

Also in January, we entered a wedding contest with LAKE 961 out of Lake Geneva.  We were one of the three couples chosen to be voted upon to win.  Listen to our interviews here:

Radio interview part 1
Radio interview part 2

Please don't judge us; we were trying to be lovable.  But if you judge us, I don't care because we won.

February came and we had to sell ourselves at the Winterfest in Lake Geneva to get people to vote for us.  That was fun and embarrassing, just how I like it.

The day before Valentine's Day, we found out that we won the wedding!  And that we were getting married in April!  14 months earlier than we originally planned!  Listen to the phone call where I found out we won here:

Winning phone call

Again, please don't judge me.  I was very shocked and surprised and I still can't believe that we won.

February, March, and April were all a blur with appointments, breakdowns, stress and excitement as we, along with the LAKE 961 listeners, our families and friends planned our wedding.  Monday mornings were highly anticipated, as we got a new piece of our wedding puzzle at that time, along with the rest of the planners.  It was really exciting, but at times I was ready to rip my hair out!  But then I would think about how I wanted my hair to look nice for my wedding, so I wouldn't rip my hair out.

In the midst of the wedding planning, both of us got promotions at work, so that increased our excitement level.  A lot.  A ton, actually.  

At the end of April, Peter and I got married and are still in awe at how perfectly everything turned out for the wedding day.  It was so beautiful, and I love everyone for helping put together the perfect day, especially all of the people that had to deal directly with me because I was horrible.  God bless Peter for still wanting to marry me after all of that...

We honeymooned in St. Thomas, which was just what we needed after 10 stressful weeks.   Lots of margaritas, pina coladas, and sun were consumed.  It was great!

A month after the wedding, we decided to start looking at houses, and at the end of June found our dream house and put an offer in.  The offer was accepted and we went through the paperwork and moved at the end of August.  We both love our house SO much, and want to be in it all the time.  I promise that soon I will put up pictures of the house so that you can see it.  It really is great.

Fall flew by, I literally can't even remember what happened to September and October.  In November I took a 3 week trip to South Africa and Brazil for work.  I learned a lot, met a lot of great people, and got to see a lot of amazing things.  I love my job.

Now all of a sudden it's December and we are closing out the year as a young married couple, and we are so beyond blessed that it isn't even funny.  I'm still a little dizzy thinking about our incredible year.

It's actually awesome that 2012 was the best year ever because the world is supposed to end later this week, so it worked out for the best.

But seriously - thank you SO much for voting for us to win our wedding and not de-friending me because I was so obnoxious about self-promotion.  I was annoyed with MYSELF.  BUT.  Without that change of plans in February, the rest of the year wouldn't have happened at ALL like it did.  2012 will be a tough one to beat, but that's ok, because I think that we'll need 2013 to fully soak in everything that has happened this year.  

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals.

Christmas is coming

I feel like everyone and their brother has started blogging about food and recipes and yummy things, and I'm sitting here like, "I like to bake, but not my own recipes soooooooooooooo..."  So if you still read this blog despite my two and a half month hiatus, I'm thankful for you and happy that you haven't given up on me.  Also, I'm still just writing about my life, so if you're looking for a blog about food you'll have to look elsewhere.  But if food will make you stay, here's a picture of a pizza that I made:

It's pepperoni, naturally rising crust, in case you're wondering.  

Growing up, my mom never did Advent calendars for us.  I think it had something to do with the fact that there were 7 kids and 25 days, and 7 doesn't go into 25 evenly, so that would have resulted in a lot of fighting and stuff that you shouldn't do around the holidays because you're supposed to love everyone and Jesus, and you know, get along. 

But then when we got to college, my mom was like "OH MY GOSH I DON'T KNOW HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT MY KIDS" so she bought these cute little houses and filled them with goodies for us and our roommates and it was wonderful.  I mean, I know she did it for my older sister Jenna and I, but the younger kids might have missed out since Jenna and I are the favorite children and had the best roommates ever my mom is busy and designates her holiday cheer towards things more important than deciding what 25 little gifts she should send to her kids.  Like Christmas movies.  And eggnog.  

My mom started a new tradition when Jenna got married.  For Jenna's first Christmas without the last name Vanderstappen, my mom sent Jenna a gift for each of the 25 days of Christmas.  I hadn't thought about my mom doing it for Jenna 3 years ago until Saturday.  On Saturday, I got a package in the mail from my mom, and I remembered what she had done for Jenna.

There were two packages wrapped in pink, one labeled "day 1" and the other labeled "day 2".  So of course, I ripped open the package and found this:

And was like, "Awwwwwwwwww I have the sweetest mom in the whole world!!"  And Peter was all pouty because there was nothing for him.  Then I used more self-control than I've ever used in my life to wait until Sunday to open my gift for day 2.

On Sunday morning right after I woke up, I went to the kitchen to open my gift:

These are those things that you put in a vase and are supposed to be decorative and not touched, but then you can't help yourself and you submerge your hand in the vase and it feels awesome.  Needless to say, I'm excited for my new springtime decoration.

Then, day 3 came along and I thought that my mom forgot about me because there wasn't anything in my mailbox.  But when I went out to the front porch there was a really big box out there!  And it was addressed to me!  And I was SO happy and excited!!!!  

And then I opened the box.  And plugged this in.  And stared.

But Peter was really happy, because he got his Advent gift, even though it was addressed to SARA Romenesko, not Peter.  So.  There we go.

In other news, we put up our Christmas tree over the weekend and it's beautiful and fun and exciting!  And it makes our house feel all cozy and warm.  But the problem is that it's a real tree and we don't have a watering can.  Yesterday I decided to water the tree by myself, and I actually didn't water it.  Because the water ended up all over the tree skirt and the rug.  So now that's Peter's job.

Also over the weekend, we took our Christmas card picture!

I made that wreath!

After many attempts, at a nice picture in front of our new house all decorated for Christmas, we decided on this one.

Can't you feel my love for him just radiating from my eyes?