Long overdue and just plain long

I've been neglecting this blog for a very long time now and as I was getting ready to blog, I kept finding more and more pictures I forgot to post, as far back as last fall. Soooo, get ready! Let's see if I can get everything in order.




Here is a lovely fall bouquet I gathered on a walk last fall, along with some pumpkins I picked at a local farm.






Later Chuck and Melissa came over and carved Jack-O-Lanterns. Chuck is so good at carving pumpkins, he can do it with his eyes closed!




Here are the finished pumpkins.





And the reverse sides.




And on to Christmas! Here is the cardboard tree we have had every year since we moved to Vermont. I can't believe this was it's fourth Christmas!!!




This year I made ornaments for everyone in my family, which means I made a lot of ornaments. Here are a few of them. Almost all the ornaments you see on the tree went to my family.




Presents. We mostly give each other a lot of little things we would have bought anyway but wrap them because it's more fun that way.




Christmas day I made verenika, fried potatoes, zwiebach, corn and pie (not pictured). I have to say, it was pretty delicious, but still not as good as Grandma's.




For New Year's Eve, Chuck and Melissa invited a few people over to the house they were house-sitting at (with permission, of course), and cooked some delicious food for a delicious potluck.




I think Melissa was trying to figure out which clock was right, since they were all different and we didn't have a TV.




Here's me and Amanda Ann. Isn't she cute?




A couple weeks later, we got to go to Kansas to celebrate a late Christmas with friends and family there. Here's my Mom.





And Dad.




Luke right after his bath.





And Timo. As usual though, I didn't get decent pictures of everyone, and I got a silly amount of pictures of Luke. He's such a little ham, he just demands all the attention.





Luke loves many things in life but three of his favorite things are hats, Veggie Tales, and Papa. Here he's got all three. He has made his usual demands of his Veggie Tales watching companions that they must always wear a hat. Unfortunately for Dad, my parents only own two Veggie Tales videos, which explains my Dad's glazed over expression.




Luke got this little cowboy hat for Christmas and promptly made everyone take turns wearing it. My head is a little too big.




Here is the only not-terrible picture I have from the Bartel Christmas. Grandpa reading the traditional story while everyone listens, takes lots of pictures and the kids act cute. It's so nice that they are able to "schedule Christmas" for when we are home and it's always great to see everyone and to eat waaaay too much verenika.




When we go home I sleep in my old bedroom. The first few mornings we were there, before I adjusted to the change in schedule, I woke up fairly early to see a beautiful frosty, foggy morning.




Another misty morning. I have some silly videos of Luke but I haven't uploaded them yet, so those will have to come later.




Back in Vermont, my aunt sent us this awesome quilt she MADE for us. I was pretty excited to get home from work to find such a great surprise waiting for me on the porch. This is the top.





Here is Mosley posing.




This is the bottom of the quilt which is lovely soft flannel, and which we use as the top most of the time, as Mosley finds the ties on the top very tempting to chew on. Thanks Annette!





Melissa and I have been going on walks lately since it has been really nice here the last couple weeks. We made this awesome diorama mostly out of things we picked up on our walk and a few other odds and ends.




It all started when we found these tiny little pine cones.




Meanwhile, Mosley has spent most of the winter being cute and snuggly.





And silly and snuggly.




And some more cute and snuggly.





I didn't bother to clean up the leaves this fall, somehow thinking some of them would blow away or something. Clearly they didn't and as the little snow we got quickly melted, our yard looked seriously horrible. I started raking a little before I remembered I wanted to take pictures so the flower bed in this "before" picture is already mostly raked. This is the front of the house.





And after.





House side before...





And after.




Garage side before...





And after. Clearly I didn't get all the leaves out. Some still were frozen together with chunks of ice/snow. Some were in places I don't care about and I figure some of them can decompose and help the garden out. It's sooo much better than it was though. It took a long time and Joseph helped me haul all the leaves back behind the garage, which was a huge job.




I knew some things were coming up but I was amazed at how much green stuff was hiding under all those leaves!




Last fall I dug out that long garden in the front of the house and lined it with bricks I dug out of the other garden (don't ask me why there were so many bricks in my garden). I planted all kinds of bulbs and they are starting to come up already! Here are some tulips.




And some crocuses! I also planted daffodils and miniature irises and they are coming up too. It's supposed to be pretty cold tomorrow so hopefully it won't set them back too far. I'm soooo excited about spring! Also, for those of you who care, I'll be at Winfield this year for the first time since 2004!! It's been way too long and September seems like a long way away still but I'm sure it'll be here before I know it!

Thanksgiving

We spent this Thanksgiving the same way we have the last few years. All the cartoonists, etc. who aren't going home for the holiday have a big potluck. My job gives every employee a free turkey every year but lucky for me, some of my friends volunteered to cook it and bring it to the potluck. There was a very large turnout this year and tons of delicious food.




Here is what we contributed to the potluck. I went a little crazy this year but I'm glad I did because almost everything was gone by the end of the evening. So back to front, left to right we have homemade applesauce from apples we picked, zwiebach (or rolls), pumpkin pie, blueberry jam from berries we picked, pecan pie, vegan apple pie, pumpkin chocolate chip pie (Joseph's idea, and a good one) and apple pie.




When I was little I loved watching my Mom make designs in the top pie crust and now that I make pies myself, I love the opportunity to personalize the pies a little bit. It's a little hard to tell, but this is my attempt at a turkey. He's facing left.




These are zwiebach. Some people think they are just rolls that are shaped funny but to me they will never be just rolls. They are zwiebach, which my Great-Grandma taught me to make when I was 9 and which I have been making ever since. Both my Grandmas make them, aunts and cousins make them. It's a family tradition. Another tradition is a meal called faspa which is zwiebach, cold cuts, jams, salads and dessert. We had faspa for our wedding meal and the pecan pie I made is from the recipe my Grandma Bartel made for our wedding.

It was a good Thanksgiving and we'll probably spend Christmas in a similar way. I'm already thinking about what I want to bring. Then in mid January, we'll be going home to Kansas for late Christmas celebrations. I'm really looking forward to it. Somehow no matter how many comfort foods I make, it never feels quite like Christmas until I'm at my Mom and Dad's house with my whole family around the table.

Speaking of Christmas, I've been working on making a little present for everyone in my family. It's a pretty large crowd by now and it's taking a little longer than I thought it would but I'm pretty happy with how things are turning out. As soon as I'm done I'll mail them home and once they arrive I'll post pictures but until then you'll just have to wait in suspense because I don't want to ruin the surprise.

Fall!

This summer flew by and was cool and rainy a lot of the time, but it was great anyway. I had a wonderful visit home that was the highlight of my summer. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. It was amazing though. I spent the first couple days helping my family put up corn from the garden and then we all drove to Colorado to go to Family Camp with most of my Mom's side of the family. On the way, we spent a couple days in Denver and got to eat some really good Mexican food that I miss soooo much living here in Vermont. We went to see the new Harry Potter movie (a long standing tradition with my brother Tim) and I really tried to like it. Ever since I read the books though, the movies are harder and harder to enjoy. We also went to the aquarium, which was really fun, and surprisingly good for something so far from any ocean. Also, they have tigers there. I thought they were amazing, but tigers? In an aquarium? Then we were off to family camp for lots of hiking and good family time (the best thing ever) and introducing my nephew to toasted marshmallows. That's right, I got him totally hooked. I'm such a good aunt. Also, I got to see an awesome thunderstorm (another thing I miss since moving away from the midwest) which then turned into a very brief snowstorm. I got tons of great time with my 1 1/2 year old nephew and I even got some hugs and kisses. He's such a sweet little guy and I love watching my sister and her husband with him.

My garden had it's ups and downs. The slugs slowed down a little eventually and I got to eat a few things out of my garden. Of all the flower seeds I planted though, I still haven't gotten a single bloom except for the morning glories climbing the front of the house. I'm hoping some of the perennial flowers will come back next year and actually bloom, but we'll see. I might have to bite the bullet and buy actual plants instead of cheap seeds.



This huge branch fell on my garden and although my landlord kindly came and got rid of it quickly, it landed right on my tomato plants, and they weren't too happy about it.




Sooo, I spent an afternoon digging up this garden in the front of the house, where the sun shines a little more, and planted a whole bunch of bulbs. 25 crocuses, 18 dutch irises, 14 daffodils and 14 tulips. I'm really excited to see them all come up in the spring. All the bricks that line this flower bed, I dug out of my main garden last spring. I don't know why there were so many bricks in there, but I'm glad I found something useful to do with them.




Also this summer, Joseph and I used the internet to teach ourselves to make sushi. It's really not that hard and it's awesome and way less expensive than going out to eat sushi.




I also internet-learned how to make a yummy vegan chocolate cake in honor of the births of our good friends Chuck and Melissa (their birthdays are a couple weeks apart). I used this recipe and it turned out so well that I made a second cake for us after we sent home most of the leftovers with Chuck and Melissa.






I got a couple of my friends to put layers in my hair and I'm very happy with my new haircut. Here is the back of it.





And here's the front.





Joseph goes to a lot of conventions and I usually have to stay home, but I try to go to SPX every year. He has to work quite a bit, but for me, it's just a nice little vacation from work and a great chance to catch up with a lot of friends I hardly ever get to see.




I spent very little time here, behind the table. It's busy and cramped back there and I'm just in the way anyway.




So I spent most of the convention time with my wonderful friends, such as Melissa here.




Kristen and Jacie and I spent an afternoon just napping in our hotel room. It was lovely.




We also went shopping with Emily and baby Gus. It was a great weekend and I'm already looking forward to seeing everyone again next SPX.


Now it's fall here and it's really beautiful. The leaves are all starting to change and this afternoon I went apple/pumpkin picking with Melissa (but forgot the camera) and it was amazing out. For some reason, fall always makes me feel like a total Susie-homemaker. Is that a term everyone uses or just my family? Anyway, I made two kinds of soup in one day, I made blueberry jam, apple blueberry pie, apple sauce, and apple butter. Next I'm making pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Maybe my body thinks I'm going to hibernate so it's just trying to fatten me up for the winter.




A new blog post just wouldn't be complete without at least one picture of Mosley. He got into a little trouble while we were at SPX but he didn't harm himself and he didn't destroy anything that can't be replaced. He just keeps getting bigger and now that it's getting cooler, he is getting even more snuggly, if that's possible. He likes to try to drape himself around your shoulders, like he's doing in this picture.

The biggest news in my family is that I have a new nephew!! James and Courtney had a baby boy on September 21. I haven't met the little guy yet but from the pictures I've seen and from what I hear, he's pretty adorable. I'm looking forward to meeting him when we go home next January.