Why I Fell In Love With Vermont

I just love living in the mountains!  When I was younger I would have never thought I'd be here and enjoy it.  It was always in my plans to live down south in the warm and close to the beach.  And at times, like now when it's snowy and cold, I still think of how nice it would be.

However, there is nothing like driving by this view every morning.  Even when I'm cursing that winter is still here and spring has yet to arrive, this cheers me up!

Baby When the Lights Go Out!

One of my favorite things is when the power goes out and I have to light candles all over the house.  I know that might sound strange.  Maybe it's the same thing that causes me to enjoy bumping around in the dark looking for ghosts.  Something about creepy darkness and candle light that gets my adrenaline going!  All of Danville lost power for about an hour or so and I lit a bunch of candles and made the house look like a seance was about to happen lol.  Too bad the power is back on but I did enjoy my hour of creepiness!

Home Tour : Kichen

Here's the kitchen.  This was probably the first room completely unpacked and done but I've just been waiting to take pics until it was clean and not filled with dirty dishes.

This house as built in the late 1800s and was recently completely remodeled.  This is the original sink and I just LOVE it! 

A Big Lesson from Such a Big Tragedy

Just about an hour away from my hometown a tragedy struck a high school in Chardon, OH this past Monday.  Three innocent kids died from a school shooting while 2 other were seriously injured. I guess realizing that this happened so close to where I grew up, really hit me hard.  Plus it's also a town that I went to for church camp when I was younger. The tragedy of a school shooting, I feel, hits everyone hard.  It's the place you expect to see your kids safe and to get an education.  Just thinking of my little boy who is at home and safe now really gets me thinking about how difficult it will be for me to let him go to school for the first time.  I've even questioned about home schooling.  I know, however, that eventually when he's an adult I will have to cut the strings and let him make his own choices and his own way in life.  It just saddens me to think that tragedies like this can happen at such a seemingly innocent place.  Not just here, there's also the Kent State shooting, Virginia Tech, of course the Columbine shootings, and more. 

Today I was reading an article and in it the mother of one of the victims made statements that really hit home with me.  She actually FORGIVES this troubled person who felt the need to create these tragedies.  When asked what she would say to the kid who committed these murders she stated, "I would tell him I forgive him because, a lot of times, they don't know what they're doing. That's all I'd say.".  She continued, "I taught Demetrius not to live in the past, to live in today and forgiveness is divine. You have to forgive everything. God's grace is new each and every day," she said. "Until you've walked in another person's shoes, you don't know what made him come to this point."   It's just amazing to me that someone who lost someone so close and special to her can actually say she forgives.  Not that I don't think she should because I definitely agree that God wants everyone to forgive everyone no matter what.  It's just it seems easy to say that you would but when and if something this extreme happens, how will it really be?  I know for me it would be near impossible.  At least at first.  I mean to be honest, it's hard not to get angry and upset over the person who cut you off on the road, or the cook who forgot to cook your food all the way through.  Even more, I think of how many times I get angry at family and/or friends.  I've gone days without speaking to some because of something they did or said that upset me.  I eventually forgive, but even then it sometimes takes me a couple days.  I can't imagine how I would feel under these circumstances. 

After reading this, it made me take a good hard look at how my outlook on life has been.  I need to focus my life on those that matter most and forgive as often as the lord would.  I know being human and sinner such as myself that it will not always be easy, but I will definitely try.  After all everything is in God's hands.  I may not always understand or agree with what happens, but I need to trust God.  I also need to try my hardest to live the way our Lord would.  Which means to forgive even when it seems like the last reasonable thing to do.

Thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the Chardon shooting.

You can read about the article I referenced here

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Andy's Chicken Dinner

Last night Andy made me such a delicious dinner.  Being that he's a sous chef, many think I eat like a queen all of the time.  That is far from the truth.  He's at work Tuesday through Saturday until late which means I eat dinner alone and I eat whatever I manage to put together.  On the days he's off, the last thing I want to make him do is something he already does for 8 hours straight five days a week.  So I usually put something together for dinner when we can actually sit down together to eat.   

I am very far from the cooking level as a sous chef.  So when Andy does get a chance to make something, it's very special.  Last night he made his version of chicken scampi.  I just learned that scampi actually is the name of a small kind of lobster.  This dish, however, had no lobster.

I told Andy that if he cooked like this for me all of the time that I would end up as large as a whale.  I devoured this.  No correction, I inhaled this.  It was SO good!

Sunday Accomplishments

Yesterday was quite a productive day at the DeMasi house.  Excluding the fact that Andy was successful in helping to get his dad's car from being stuck at the end of his driveway, we both managed some minor tasks. 

Since we weren't able to get use of his dad's truck, we have yet to get our new bed.  I did however get a couple things done for our room.  I got our new bedding ordered.  I guess we're going with a sage, cream, and brown color.  It's got me thinking a chocolate brown or a sage would be nice for Andy's old dresser.  I also got a braided rug to lay in front of the bed. I was trying to decide on what to do on the wall above our bed, and finally decided on putting some pictures up.  I got a black and white picture of Andy and I from the day we met (which I still can't believe we didn't have a printed copy of before now) and a black and white picture of Noah.  I put these in matching frames and hung them up.  Small tasks but it's a start.

Again with my poor photography skills and this crooked picture taking result.  The pictures ARE level in person, I promise.

One of the biggest issues I have had since we purchased our used couch and loveseat was the awful pillows that came with them.  The, what you would call, decorative side was some weird looking black circle design.  I would flip them over to their tan side since the black circles depressed me.  The problem with the tan side was that it was very boring, bland, and to me made the room and furniture lifeless.  Well I FINALLY did something about it.  I found some cheap throw pillows at a local store.  I also found 3 chair cushion covers from the dollar store (I love random finds at those places) which I used with the padding from our previous pillows to make new pillows.  So now the loveseat and couch have new life brought back into them.  That simple change from the old dull pillows to the new brighter pillows really made the room feel much brighter.  Definitely not the most glamorous change, but with the primitive look glamour is not priority.

Our boring couch and loveseat before:

After:

I bought this metal thing with hooks because it matched some things in my kitchen.  I thought it would be perfect to hang coffee mugs on.  The problem, however, was that one of the hooks wasn't wide enough to hang a mug on it.  Instead of wrestling with the idea of trying to increase the size, I made a new plan of attack.  With 3 black and white wallet sized family pictures, some index cards, decorative paper, and the tie backs from my curtains cut into skinny strands I made this.  Again, not the fanciest of all things, but a nice place to display some more photos.  It took me a little bit longer than I originally thought to make.  Mostly because the concept of me and measuring things out before doing them just doesn't exist when I'm eager to have something done.  All in all though I feel like it turned out pretty nice. 

The most important tasks yesterday was completed my my sweet hubby.  He put together this AWESOME piano toy seat thing for Noah.  Once Noah's bigger and can stand/walk, we can remove the seat and he can just play.  Noah LOVED it!  I'm sure that in the middle of stomping the piano keys with only his big toe and singing a song in his cute baby voice, he was thinking, "What a thoughtful daddy I have!"

And finally after our day of success and Noah's musical production, Andy, Noah and I went to Andy's parents to watch the Academy Awards.  Noah and I almost made it all the way through without sleeping, but failed in the last half hour or so.  Once we were home and Noah was sound asleep, Andy and I enjoyed some much appreciated snuggling on the couch watching some King of Queens on Nick at Nite. 

I'd definitely say that was the perfect ending to a very great and productive Sunday!