Yet Another Friend Dinner! TiVo friends, local friends, worlds colliding!
YAFD
Category Archives: House & Home
Roasted cumin lamb skewer!
They weren’t the best but they weren’t bad!
Console table delivery attempt #2!
FAIL.
We are pretty sure this was the exact table they tried to deliver the first time. Now we get to wait another 6-8 weeks and cross our fingers that they don’t try this again.
Cookies with Papa!
I cannot understand how this happens.
When we moved in, I sorted and organized ALL the Tupperware and got rid of ALL mismatched pieces. Fast forward to now and after sorting, this is a FRACTION of the mismatched pieces.
How? How the hell does this happen? I am missing like six bottoms of one type of container. SIX! That’s not just misplaced or accidentally ruined. And some of the missing pieces are sets I literally just bought within the last two months. GRRRR.
One word: kids.
Ted Lasso biscuits!
They aren’t in a pretty pink box but we ate Ted Lasso biscuits tonight. Super easy and super tasty. We’ll be making these again!
- 2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 ⅓. cup confectioner’s sugar
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 ¾ cup ap flour
- ½. (scant) teaspoon kosher salt
Step 1: Heat the oven to 315F and pan spray an 8×8” baking dish.
Step 2: In a medium bowl, mix the butter and sugars together vigorously until smooth.
Step 3: Stir in the egg yolks.
Step 4: Add the flour and salt, mix just until the dough comes together. The less you mix the dough, the more posi vibes your biscuits will have.
Step 5: Press dough into an even layer in the pan and bake at 315F for 45 minutes until a thin, golden brown layer forms on top.
Step 6: Cool completely before cutting into 2 even columns and 6 even rows.
A whole lotta yum.
It could only be better with everything bagels (I used Hawaiian) and red onion!
48th Birthday Adventures
As you just saw, my birthday started with an amazing rainbow eye look to match my tie dye outfit. Plus the crown of course.
But the actual adventures actually started with heading with my bestie to pick up my other bestie and then head to Kenosha!
Trying to find catchers equipment for Owen and backup mitts for Evan at Play It Again Sports. What you do when it’s your birthday and wearing a crown and a mask.
Next birthday adventure stop: lunch at Frank’s Diner! It’s been two long years since we’ve been here and it was as delicious as we remembered!
Next? Crumbl—this will be birthday desserts for us with the kids instead of cake. They didn’t have my fave cornbread ones this week, though. And yes, we ate a few bites straight from the trunk!
I caught Anna sneaking some bites in the car!
Now birthday adventures are on a hiatus but I’m cuddling with my doggo so all is well.
Birthday adventures, mom style: taking Katie to physical therapy! Ha.
Birthday adventures, kid style: watching a movie!
The last birthday adventure! A margarita by the fire…with Tom and Anna and David. With an Ozzy Man Reviews topper. It was chilly so I had my sweatshirt on and they thought it looked like a queen’s cape!
All in all, a great 48th birthday!
DANGER! DANGER!
Crumbl!!
So after seeing Crumbl cornbread cookies mentioned TWICE yesterday on my Facebook feed, when Heidi and I found ourselves right down the street from one (by Costco in Kenosha), we had to try it. Some other choices jumped in the box, too.
Of course we dug into them as soon as we got to the car. And um, holy shit. The cornbread cookies are TO DIE FOR! They suggest eating them warm and I can agree wholeheartedly. The churro was good but REALLY sweet.
I posted on Facebook and guess what? I learned that Gurnee is getting a Crumbl, too! This could be dangerous!!
If anyone wants to check it out, grab the app!
So this is happening again.
Yes, this is the same spot it leaked from before. And we tore apart our shower and fixed things. And tested it for a month after with no leaks. And now suddenly this?! UGHHHHH. This means there’s a new problem.
Tom said the area where the water was pooling and dripping was fixed. And we did fix the cracked tiles we found that we thought we the only problem.
But! He’s pretty sure ALL of the grout is bad…so there are tons of tiny holes all over that are allowing the water to soak through. Yesterday was just the breaking point of the pooling water.
I don’t even want to think about this. They don’t make the tile anymore. We will have to likely redo the whole thing. Then do we redo all the tile (tub, floor?)? How do we make it look decent if we just do the shower? And of course we have zero money now. But we have to fix the shower.
And apparently all the houses from this era are having the same issue. At least three of our friends in this neighborhood are having the same issue and are redoing their bathrooms.
Mexican Chicken Tomato chips?!
Continuing with the Asian chips we bought on our anniversary…
Smells like Chicken biscuit crackers, tastes like tomato soup. Weird. Not bad, not great. Passable.
Damn kids and squirrels!
Tom went into the gazebo for something and scared out a squirrel! Then look what he discovered…
The damn critter had been locked in the gazebo and had been trying to chew his way out! The kids had left the sliding door open for who knows how long and then Tom eventually noticed and shut it—obviously locking the damn thing in.
Just what we want to deal with.
Smoked cream cheese? Yes, please!
OMG Y’ALL. Smoked cream cheese.
- Spicy Lime Chili
- Brown sugar/smoked paprika/smoked garlic
- Everything bagel seasoning
Needless to say they were delicious and the five of us finished off all three bricks. My fave was the everything bagel.
The recipe is easy: coat a brick of cream cheese in your favorite rub/flavorings of choice and then put on the smoker at 225° for two hours.
We’re Illinois official!
It’s official! We are full-time 100% residents of Illinois! We own a house, transferred our plates and registrations yesterday, and got new (temp) licenses and voter registration cards today! (We haven’t had to do this the last 20 years in all the states we’ve lived in since being military lets you keep your home of record for those things.) We waited this long because Tom needed his VA disability confirmation and they have been a shitshow since the beginning.
The best news, though? We were in and out of the DMV in 30 minutes! And we didn’t have to take the written test!
Anna’s birthday lunch!
The TOTALLY unbelievable ottoman saga.
It started waaaay back in July. We ordered two pieces from The Roomstore on July 3 with delivery on July 10. Easy, right?
Except that the ottoman was damaged—it had a cracked foot (that fell apart when unwrapped) and a badly ripped corner.
Okay. Crap happens, we get it. So we scheduled another attempt—just thankful they had more in stock since in-stock furniture is hard to come by. So they attempted again on July 13 (#2) and…it was ripped on an edge.
Our friends told us to just cancel it but it’s soooo pretty—it’s the perfect color and perfect size, plus it’s a storage ottoman. We asked for a discount and they refused, saying they’ll just exchange it.
On July 16 they attempted again (#3) and this time we made them unwrap it before they even brought it in the house. Nope. Two of the “squares” were so unbelievably discolored it was ridiculous that anyone looking at it for a second would assume it was good to deliver. I don’t have a photo of this one.
The next exchange (#4) was scheduled for July 20. This one was actually the least damaged of them all but the colors were off. Again. Not as bad as the first one but still unfit to accept.
SURPRISE SURPRISE—delivery attempt #5 on July 23 was a fail. Damaged. The inside edge was really scratched. It wasn’t visible, but the piece was expensive, so we figure it should be perfect to start with. Right? But we told the customer service person that we would accept it at a big discount and she offered us $50. On a $1100 ottoman. Um, no.
They told us it would be another month for delivery because they are getting one straight from the manufacturer to hopefully avoid any issues. UGH. At this point I really just wanted to be done with them, but it’s the perfect color, shape, size, etc.
Previous to this, Tom had talked to managers a few times and they assured him that we would be getting white glove service—that someone would be in the warehouse and looking it over first before it got loaded on the truck. Yeah no. That never happened. As evidenced by the continued arrival of damaged ottomans.
But then! We got a call saying they were going to deliver again. How? What happened to getting one straight from the manufacturer? Honestly at this point I don’t remember all the lies but I do know that they cancelled a few attempts because they discovered before or while loading it that it was damaged. I have texts from 7/28, 7/31, 8/11, 8/12, and 8/19—all of which I think were attempts that got cancelled. So maybe now a manager was actually checking them?!
So, fast forward through almost a month of attempts and cancellations and reschedules and talks with Customer Service (and Tweets!) that accomplished exactly nothing. (Oh wait! Tom had talked to customer service a few more times and they ended up giving us a $75 store credit and another time they refunded our $199 delivery fees. They then turned the store credit into an actual $75 credit but we never saw it on our account.)
8/19 — No idea what actual delivery attempt, but it was a FAIL. The outside had had packing tape on it, so when they ripped it off… OMFG… the color ripped off.
Tom tried to get store managers and it proved to be near impossible. He did finally get one and they basically told him they’d just keep trying. I want to give up but I want this damn ottoman because I haven’t found anything else this size or color or with storage in my search (and I’ve been searching)!
8/25 — Surprise surprise. Ottoman delivery attempt FAIL. It was scratched in two places and when the delivery guys went to try leather conditioner to fix it, it took the color off!
We decided enough was enough and even though it was a perfect size/shape/color, we couldn’t have something that got ruined that easily. (We had also noticed that we were scratching it just in daily use.) So we decided that we wanted to send both pieces from them back. Why both? Well, we bought them together (to go together) and if we couldn’t have one, we didn’t want either. Also? The loveseat turned out to be really crappy and was already getting deformed. We technically don’t need it since we found our real one elsewhere (after) and are just waiting for it to come in.
Well of course they fought it. Tom said if they refuse we will tell them we expect an ottoman delivery every Saturday from here on out until we’re happy…or they take both pieces. It was just ridiculous. Had they just given us a respectable discount to keep a less-damaged one, we would have been done with this in July. I mean, how much time and money did they waste attempting delivery of like nine ottomans?
After like 10 minutes on hold, the manager came back and said they will pick up both pieces! YAY! But also boo because I loved this ottoman. So now we are on the hunt.
Chinese Sauerkraut or Pickle Fish?
Soooo on our anniversary we stopped at an Asian grocery store and I splurged on like 10 different bags of awesome sounding potato chip flavors. Except… Some don’t have names on them—just photos.
We tried this nameless flavor tonight that we decided was some type of soup with broth and mushrooms and peppers…? They were definitely yummy but I really wanted to know the flavor. I reverse image searched and googled to no avail so finally went to friends on Facebook and learned that the translation must not be exact because it was listed as both Chinese Sauerkraut and Pickle Fish. But others translated the actual language on the bag and got salted fish and Laotian pickled cabbage fish flavor.
Then there was this exchange:
Lordy, taking a closer look—no, those definitely aren’t mushrooms!
But I liked them so all was well, whether they were salted fish or Chinese Sauerkraut!! I can’t wait to taste the other flavors!
So I finally took pictures of most of the newly redesigned house.
FYI We have had a few changes since these pics—that teal ottoman and gray loveseat are gone (long and sordid story that ends with us telling you to avoid Roomplace like the plague) and we have a leather loveseat on order. Missing rooms are the dining room and front room because we’ll need to rearrange that furniture again. I finally got around to taking the pics specifically because the ottoman was going away.
My friend Jodi Van Leer (J Van Leer Designs) was amazing in helping us figure out what we wanted, shopping for things, and pulling everything together. We trusted her implicitly and we couldn’t be happier!
Tom got to play woodworker and built:
- the walnut mantle surrounds
- the cabinet doors
- the birch forest (using trees we brought home from my parent’s house in the upper peninsula!)
- the stacked wood wall in the bar (my Pinterest idea)
- and new built-in shelves for the liquor in the bar (so now he finally has his “me room” (and not just a me wall!)—which we’ve named Ground Control)!
Other changes include:
- a new ceiling fan in the living room and a huge chandelier in foyer
- new fixtures to replace contractor-grade boob lights
- a new dining room fixture
- a new foyer table coming this weekend
- new bar footrails
- and a new fireplace tile surround and flooring…
We absolutely love everything and when it’s picked up and free of kid shit it’s freaking amazeballs. It was a shit ton of work and expense and we pretty much got it all done in two months to be ready for the big party! But we finally have our forever home that looks put together and adult!!
P.S. Here’s a Before and After!
Y’all. This is what I look like today.
I could barely move by the time I went to bed last night (but I did remove my makeup!) and I literally fell into bed and didn’t move most of the night. So this day of relaxation is 100% necessary because we are DEAD exhausted. So I’m relaxing with my feet up (and wearing gel socks and Heel & Elbow cream because my heels are super cracked after wearing flip flops for multiple days all day long). We did a lot of cleanup last night and a little this morning but the rest of it can wait.
Maggie must even be exhausted—she hasn’t slept up here since the last house!
Sunday morning slide!
Epic Paloozafest Blowout
Y’ALL, IT’S TIME TO PARTY!
We’ve all been cooped up with Covid and missed ALLLLLLLLLL the excuses to party…and you know we like to throw a house party…so we’re doing them all at once!
- Post-Covid Celebration
- Cascade Housewarming (7/2020)
- Tom’s USMC retirement (6/2021)
- BFF Anna-versary (8/2021)
- Our 20th Anniversary (8/2021)
- End-of-Summer/Back-to-School
Saturday morning and the Jello shots are here and ready thanks to Angela (she took the assignment when I ran out of time). But look at how well they fit in our garage fridge? It’s like it was meant to be.
About an hour before the party and I wasn’t even dressed yet. You think “Oh there’s only a little bit to do” but all the little things add up! Angela came over to help with a bunch of it and I’m eternally grateful. (Anna was picking up my kids from a class and getting the cupcakes.) It takes a village to throw a big party!!
Getting closer—getting the mixed drink dispensers ready! Peach Bellini, Rum Punch (empty), Vodka and lemonade, Beergarita, Bahama Mama.
David making his famous Trinidad rum punch! Yes that’s two full bottles of rum going in.
I forgot to take a pic of the food table but the dessert table was insane so I did takes a pic of that! We wouldn’t have needed to buy cupcakes at all! We had a few different kinds of cookies, two smoked cheesecakes, a German chocolate cake, a white cake, mini cupcakes, and Sam’s Club cupcakes!
Local-ish TiVo peeps!
We had to do at least one LipSense selfie!
The ribs were a hit. The pulled pork was amazing. And we have a ton of leftovers!
The only pics I snapped outside during the party!
The slide was a huge hit as expected. A few adults did go down towards the end of the night—butb it was actually cold by then so it didn’t last long.
David ended up making drinks for people at the bar…
And as we were saying goodbye to people, I discovered someone left a fern in our empty pot! (I had wanted to get succulents planted in it but never got to it with all the house stuff.) Turns out it was Ava, one of my gardener friends!
We just have great friends—from everyone who offered to help to the ones who loaned us things to the ones that jumped in to help before, during (putting away leftovers and doing the first round of kitchen clean up, and after (cleaning up the yard and house)… Thank you. We had a great time and I think everyone else did, too! Now to clean up some more and relax…
Prepping the butts!
Tom already had multiple racks of ribs smoked and in the sous vide for a day, but the butts are more last minute! This means we’re getting close to party day!
Phew, the slide fits!
This yard is much smaller than the one we had at the rental so we were worried the waterslide wouldn’t fit…but it did!
We invited some kids over to use it and they had a blast!
And now for the high ladder work!
We had a generic white ceiling fan in the living room but wanted something with a bit more pizzazz since we were redoing everything else…and with the high ceilings we also needed help! This is our electrician Jorge (he’s been doing jobs for us since we moved to Gurnee four years ago)!
We also got a new chandelier for the foyer…which also required Jorge.
So now I’ll take a minute and tell you some backstory: I found this chandelier on Facebook Marketplace back in May. It was expensive but was being offered at less than half price (I googled). But it was exactly what I wanted. Something I would have only dreamed of getting but never would because of the price.
So we discussed and decided yes. We offered $750 but she declined saying they paid full price. We still wanted it. But we had to borrow a truck and then we just couldn’t connect and then she was on vacation for six weeks… But we lucked out in that we were able to pick it up the day before Jorge was scheduled to come.
We went to pick it up and the lady was super nice. We chatted and told her we were military, this was my dream chandelier, etc. and she offered to buy the bulbs too thank us for our service! Wait, what? Seriously? We knew the bulbs were going to be a couple hundred dollars (we needed 36 and they are specialty bulbs) so we asked again to make sure. Yes, she was sure!
We chatted more and I ended up inviting her to our upcoming party, and she said she would order the bulbs ASAP and drop them off at the house!
We then shared a few texts picking out the bulbs we wanted (we had the same ones in both our carts) and then she even dropped off four bottles of Prosecco for our party! So the whole thing just went off perfectly.
Anyway. Back to the install.
Since it was so big and heavy, Tom and I even had to help!
Getting it to this point took two days and about four hours! It took a bunch of trips into the attic to reinforce the bracket and do the wiring and who knows what else.
And then it was time to install the lightbulbs!
And holy crap. It was just a little bright.
The light was obviously meant to be in just a bit bigger room. Or maybe a bigger non-enclosed space? Or less-bright lights? We all got a good laugh out of it regardless. And long story short, the bulbs are dimmable so we will eventually change one of the three switches to a dimmer.
But it’s perfect and I love it.
The family house on Eagle Harbor
Linda’s Aunt Carol’s house right across from Eagle Harbor. The kids have been there more than we have!
The little house for changing and showering.
Eagle Harbor Light House
Our birch forest is done!
I saw these ideas on Pinterest years ago and knew I wanted to do something similar at some time in some house in the future. Well, it turns out now is the time and this is the house! And I’ve been collecting trees and branches from my dad’s property in the upper peninsula on various trips so we were finally ready!
Tom built the box for the trees and screwed the individual trees/branches into pieces of wood which are then screwed down to the inner frame of the box itself! There’s 1-2 trees per piece—which is about the max weight Tom wanted to have to lift up the ladder!
Lined up waiting to be installed!
Done!
Our designer said we should add uplights. (I need to get a better pic — this was during installation.)
Katie’s Room: Done
We pulled out two bags of garbage (sooooo much paper and candy wrappers and broken crayons), did about four loads of laundry, and removed two garbage bags of outgrown clothes. I cleaned the carpet TWICE (but alas it will never be clean because Katie loves to play with makeup and dye and markers and God knows what else and it has permanent stains).
She got a new ceiling fan, curtains, and princess netting, plus we finally hung her initials. Tom will eventually build a window seat with bookshelves IF she can keep it picked up. If not, the new rule is “If you don’t keep it picked up, I will remove the things so you don’t have to worry about it.”
And we have a new fireplace surround!
Step 1: Demo
Step 2: Floor tiles
Step 3: wall tiles
Step 4: Done! It’s stunning! (Tom painted the brass doors black and put on new wrought iron handles.)
And a before and after — without a real before photo. I didn’t take one so had to hunt through random photos and this was the best I had!
Next house project underway!
Tom is working on my birch wall while I try to finish the kids’ rooms. I think he has the better end of this deal.
