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Last week the angry room and I sat down and had a little talk. We worked through its issues, got to the root of some problems, and made an agreement to work on bad behaviors that we discovered were the result of deep-seated dysfunction.

As you can see, we came to a very good place - many loose ends were tied up, peace was made with some ugly things, and happiness was achieved on several levels:

Although we worked very hard and got most of the details in order, like alphabetizing books and organizing and storing stacks of old papers properly, we do need to spend more time working to fill the newly organized space with happy things like pictures and curtains, more bookshelves and a proper desk, in order to avoid falling back into the bad behavior that it’s used to.

BUT we do have to work through one more major issue: a man. The man in question is a man with a good heart and a lot of love, but tends to be a dumper. If there isn’t enough time to deal with something, he just dumps, and the poor room is terrible at processing this man’s actions.

So, at the next session, I’m bringing in aforementioned man and sitting him down with the room to work out the last bit of issues:

And when that session is over, I can say with confidence that the anger in the angry room will be rooted out and we’ll be well on our way to complete restoration and a lifetime of healthy relationships.

I am an extremely good house maintainer. As in, I diligently maintain whatever state of cleanliness our house has achieved after initial unpacking. However, I can very easily find other, more interesting things to do rather than achieve complete housekeeping/unpacking/organizing perfection. Which is no big deal when Jeff and I are the only ones coming and going. It suddenly becomes a great big deal, however, when house guests are to be arriving.

So, although the bathrooms are cleaned, the kitchen is spotless, the carpet is vacuumed, and everything is more or less in place, the second bedroom, the bedroom the guests are to be staying in, looks like this:

Jeff calls this the angry room. He’s convinced it could make the cheeriest person angry and depressed within minutes. The reason this room has become the angry room is because it has a door on it that closes. So, as it became angrier and angrier, we could simply open the door, throw something in, and then close the door. Problem solved.

But now, as our Kansas guests arrive tomorrow, and then Jeff’s parents arrive in a week and a half, our angry room must be addressed. So I’ve devoted this week to making our house achieve a much happier, higher stasis. Because, you know, being a house maintainer means that window curtains and shower curtains weren’t part of initial unpacking, plus a few other things here and there, so what would normally have taken a small amount of effort to prepare for guests, now takes a whole week. So if you need me, I’ll be conducting angry room therapy. Hopefully with enough patience, perseverance and soothing words, I’ll convince the second room to change its temperament.

P.S. Jeff’s trip to Indonesia is still in the works. As in, I’m still working to get pictures from Jeff’s work computer to mine. Which hopefully will happen soon!

So, perhaps I was a bit too triumphant at the end of the last post. This week, how shall we say it, limped. Jeff’s cold ravaged on through the better part of the week, and despite my attempts to stay free and clear, I picked it up at the end of it. Today, Jeff is on the mend and I’m doing my best to keep the cold corralled with lots of water and Cold Eez (or however you spell it), and seem to be doing quite alright. So, in sum, that’s my excuse for not blogging.

I do believe, however, that it’s high time you guys were re-capped on our trips. For those of you who were so harshly left in the dark during my absence, Jeff’s company sent him on a business trip to Indonesia for two weeks. While he was gone, I took the opportunity to visit Denver since the last time I visited was four years ago. So, today is my Denver trip. My camera stayed behind, unfortunately, so I relied on my handy dandy Blackberry for a few pictures. It turns out the handy dandy Blackberry certainly is handy and certainly is dandy, but I only pull it out at times when something grave and disastrous happens like this church sign in Estes Park:

Yes, the Office Hours sign is taped on the inside of the glass, and yes, the ‘M’ in ‘Mass’ was covered up completely by accident.

Or, for example, when I started a new knitting project, I discovered that I cast on an enormous 15 stitches too many and have to tear out an entire 3 1/2 inches of work. It had to be done, so I took a picture of it so I didn’t feel like my time and hard work would be forgotten forever.

Or, when your friend pulls out a mustache memory game with mustaches so horrific and disgusting, it’s worthy of documenting for all posterity. Here’s my winning hand:

But there were a few times when I did remember to document the lovely things. This was our view from our hotel room in Estes:

Of course, a camera phone could hardly capture the amazing view we had, but I’m not certain a regular camera would have either. Estes is SO gorgeous and it’s completely surrounded by mountains and the sun shone for our entire time there. The Estes trip was an awesome surprise from Stephanie, my host for the Colorado trip.  We packed hiking boots, snow pants, and all our winter weather gear so we could go romp around in the wilderness, but instead, we ended up stumbling on a knitting shop and knitted and watched Lifetime (hey, it was Valentine’s Weekend, and during Valentine’s weekend when you’re with girlfriends, you watch Lifetime) all weekend. HA! Oooh here, I’ll show you my hat:

And here it is on.

I love the color, but it really needs a flower or else my head looks like a bullet. I have some dark green yarn and a pattern just waiting for me to get to it.

But perhaps the following photo is the most illustrative of the trip:

This is me and Stephanie at dinner with my mom. My favorite part about Denver is I’m so close to many of my favorite people. So even though Colorado’s an outdoor playground, I spent many many hours catching up with people I haven’t seen for years.  I even got in a quick trip to western Nebraska to see my grandparents with my mom. And I have to say it was one of the most encouraging, affirming trips I’ve ever been on. Sometimes adjusting to a new place requires a few remembrances of old places. Strangely, it helps steady the ground a bit. So now that I’m back in NC, I feel like I’ve remembered where I’ve been and am excited where I’m going. It was just what I needed and a perfect way to keep me occupied while Jeff was halfway around the world.

Coming up, Jeff’s trip to Indonesia!

Before every trip, we’re fanatic about leaving the house spotless. But after every trip a very curious thing takes place. Our fanatic clean streak sneaks out the back door and leaves it wide open for the Travel Monster. I don’t know if you guys are plagued by a particular Travel Monster, but our Travel Monster loves to climb inside our bags and scatter things throughout the house. Then he crawls up into our cupboards and pulls down bowls and spoons and cups and mugs, dirties them and leaves them on the counter tops. Once he’s done most of the damage, he encourages us to ignore it and watch a movie or two. And then make popcorn and leave the bowl on the floor. He’s chaos, he’s disaster, and he loves it when we travel.

I’ve documented the Travel Monster’s latest escapades. Here, he’s pulled out and dirtied as many dishes as possible.

And here, he’s ransacked our luggage and dragged the insides throughout the house.

And here, you can survey the extent of the damage.

This time the Travel Monster did his worst and took advantage of the nasty cold Jeff caught and the tough case of jet lag he’s fighting - neither of us are sleeping at night or doing much during the day. For about two days we were at the Travel Monster’s mercy, but today, day three, we finally took a stand and kicked him out the door. With a triumphal shout, we dusted off our hands and straightened our newly cleaned clothes and finally feel like we can approach our daily tasks again.

Whew! We’re back! Many apologies for the neglected blog! Jeff and I just spent two weeks very much away - Jeff to the Philippines and Indonesia for work, and me to Denver to visit some very dear friends. We got back late last night and just got out of bed about an hour ago (it’s 12:30…). We both have a lot to tell about our trips, but I think we need a day or two to recuperate. If it helps any, I thought about you guys here a lot…time simply seemed to elude me. So I’m back and will be checking in soon with some pictures and trip updates!

This weekend Jeff and I had our five year anniversary. We spent a fantastic weekend in Charlotte, and celebrated by ordering room service, sleeping in, and watching movies. What else could anybody want? And also to celebrate, Jeff got me a Blackberry. Now, I’ve never had any sort of desire to own a smart phone - I could easily see it ruining my life - BUT over the next couple of months he has to travel to Indonesia for work and I can chat with him for free with the Blackberry messenger system, which suddenly makes owning a Blackberry worth it. And for the seven days I’ve had it in my possession, I’ve sensed a growing fondness for it as it’s a one stop shop for all my electronic communication needs. I do believe I’ve entered the smart phone danger zone.

But, at the risk of getting sappy, it’s amazing to celebrate this small milestone with Jeff. We’ve had an outstanding five years of marriage and am so thankful for him and what we’ve grown together. It’s amazing how much God has blessed us and how good a marriage can be. It’s pretty cool and we’re definitely looking forward to many more milestones together.

It’s one thing to roast the body of a bird in an oven or a crockpot. It’s entirely another to prop it upright and stick a can up its hind end. I was afraid the carcass was going to do a little song and dance when I turned my back to do the dishes.

The south and ten inches of snow? No road crews and winter clean-up? Equals one giant mess. As Jeff discovered in the gas station yesterday, everyone is under the impression that the snow will melt and be gone by one in the afternoon. But ten inches of snow takes a bit to melt, so this morning the snow that melted yesterday is a nice compact sheet of ice. It’s been good for my entertainment, however, clutching a cup of tea and watching from my third-floor perch man and machine struggle against the icy elements.

Really, though, with a dose of caution, getting here and there isn’t too bad. We got out for church yesterday to discover that every church in North Carolina was cancelled. Missed that memo. So we drove around trying to find a place for breakfast simply to discover that when churches close, everything closes. Except Cracker Barrel. We hadn’t been to a Cracker Barrel for a long long time, so we had a nice slow breakfast and eased our way into the rest of the day. I feel like Cracker Barrel has that reputation - that they’re there for you through thick and thin.

Today is supposed to be in the 40s so I’m sure most of the snow will be gone by then and we can all go back to playing tennis and proclaiming how unusual this weather has been.

When it comes to eating and bathroom tasks, my husband is a multitasker. Which I think is gross. He will readily drink coffee or eat a sandwich or munch on a snack while in the shower. As for me, I spit out gum if I even think about crossing the bathroom threshold. The simple thought of bathrooms sends me on a mental race through the entire digestive process and whatever is in my mouth suddenly becomes incredibly unappetizing once I reach the end. HOWEVER, since I’ve embarked upon this whole new career path sort of thing, I’ve found taking a shower has become a monumental task. With an unstructured day, nowhere to go, and no one to meet, the point of showering gets a little fuzzy and I have to trick myself into making the effort… I know… Yesterday, at about 3 p.m. I still hadn’t showered and actually needed to get cleaned up to go out to dinner with Jeff’s boss. Nothing could motivate me from leaving the computer, so I made myself a cup of tea, put it in my handy dandy to-go cup, stared at it for a couple of seconds, and took it with me in the shower. Rocked my world. Not only did it make showering a very pleasant experience, but it got me past the gagging thing, which, it can be argued, wasn’t that big of a deal in the first place…anyway, so the moral of the story is, if you’re finding yourself stinky and unmotivated to change, try installing a minibar near your shower. You might find that change is just a beverage away.

For high school graduation, my mom made a really fantastic cookbook filled with all of our family’s favorite recipes. She typed them up, printed them out, and then organized them according to type in a three ring binder covered in pictures. So whenever I pulled out a recipe I’d see:

Jeff and me at senior prom on the spine of the book

a demented looking picture of my dog on the front

a picture with me and all my grandmothers (my great grandmother is the lady in the white) taken on graduation day, also on the front

and on the back, a giant 8 1/2 by 11 picture of Jeff and me before the graduation ceremony (by the way, ACK!)

Since one of my dreams for when I grow up is to be one of those people who are able to take pictures, print them off, and display them in frames around the house, I’ve really enjoyed this cookbook since it’s the only thing I have to show new friends pictures of my family. But, alas and alack, the plastic three ring binder has succumbed to its 9 year beating and has begun to fall apart. As a result, the recipes don’t stay in the rings very well anymore, so any additional recipes I print off, I just throw on top to save the notebook the hassle of coming undone and freeing dozens of well-loved recipes into the great unknown.

Notebook, I love you, but I’m afraid I have to retire you.

So, when I received my THIRD mortar and pestle for Christmas, I took it back to Sur La Table and found this:

This, is a brand spanking new recipe organizer book, marketed and manufactured by Bon Appetit magazine. I was dismayed that they used a personal cookbook organizer to be a mini-billboard, but, besides it being the only one they offered, the features were amazing.

First, there are sections for every aspect of meal-making, complete with a pretty picture and a corresponding recipe. They also have places for notes, folders for odds and ends, and inserts for new recipes.

But, the major selling point, is that it supports itself in the kitchen. The cover kicks its legs out and stands up for you! If that’s not service, I don’t know what is.

So, the other day, I held a memorial service for the old cookbook, stripped it of its contents, and laid it to rest. The new cookbook just barely contains the recipes, but it works, it’s beautiful, and extremely convenient to use. (In case you were wondering, the bottom half-inch stack of recipes is desserts. My mom’s answer to world peace is a stick of butter and a cup of brown sugar.)

And as for the photos, I’m thinking I’ll buy some frames and display the pictures around the house. But I might need somebody to direct me to the frame aisle…