smithersen.

Posted in General with tags , , , , , on August 24, 2011 by Missy

CONTINUING OUR EPIC TALE. . . 

We sold the house on June 30th but left it on the 26th.  We didn’t have a new house to move into yet, so we needed a place to stay in the mean time.  It just so happens the Granger, Indiana is about 2/3rds of the way to Madison, Wisconsin.  It also just so happens that our very best friends the Smiths live in Granger, Indiana.  Due to their overwhelming hospitality and eager coaxing we accepted their very kind offer to have us stay with them while in “transition.”  This arrangement was appealing for several reasons. (1) We could take weekend trips to Madison and look at houses or apartments.  (2) Enoch would have three great friends to play with while we were homeless.  (3)  Team Smithersen!!!

We loaded up our 26′ moving truck as full as we could and set out on the road. Enoch rode with Chase in the truck and was in heaven.  I had Tessa in the car with me.  Every time we’d stop Chase would relay the conversations the two of them had along the drive.  The kiddo didn’t watch a single movie, talking to his Daddy in the front seat of the truck was all he needed.

We got to the Smith’s house and they made us feel right at home.  Thanks guys, looking back I realize what a stressful thing this moving business is and you made it feel a lot more natural.

Clayton was finishing up his last few weeks of school while we were there so it was mostly the little boys and Josie who played together during the day.  But one day Clayton’s class went on a field trip to the zoo, so we thought we’d tag along.  We went to the South Bend, Indiana Zoo where we found out how tall flamingos really are.  Notice Enoch’s pouty face?  Take careful note of it, you may find it becomes a recurring theme over the next few entries.

Enoch (4 yrs), Noah(4 yrs) & Josie (2 yrs)

One of the things the boys loved to do was ride their bikes, Big Wheels, scooters, etc. on the Dead End street.  Chase and I had been talking about it for a while and decided that because Enoch’s birthday is in November just as it’s starting to get cold, that we would splurge a little now and get him his first bicycle when the summer began.  He needed training wheels for the first several weeks, but soon discovered he could go quite a bit faster without them.  

The boy is still too short for this little bike and he can’t sit on the seat and touch the ground.  This makes stopping an interesting endeavor.  He’s learned to perform a controlled crash; he brakes to a stop then jumps off the bike before it falls down.  Seems to work for him.

So, a lot of bike riding and a lot of imagination play.  Here are the kids on one sunny afternoon:

. . . a lot of bike riding, imagination play, and a lot of “wrestling.”  At least, as much wrestling as four-year-olds can do:

I confess I didn’t take many pictures during this phase in our existence.  I did a lot of chatting with Ariane; collecting advice from her “wise-beyond-her-years” words.  I attempted, several times, to make dinner for the Smith’s as a sort of exchange of thanks to them.  However, they were rarely done on time and the children were made to eat left-overs while the adults ate dinner after the children went to bed.  Oops, my bad guys, sorry.  It was truly wonderful staying with them.  The children played with one another as if they’d never been apart.  We miss you and anxiously await your visit to us with Baby Quatro. (not-so-subtle nudge)

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cherries.

Posted in General with tags , , , on August 23, 2011 by Missy

Jumping back to the present . . . My opinion of first birthday parties has evolved over the years.  Where I once scoffed the over-indulgent people who celebrated the first birthday with magnificent presentation and outrageous expense, I now find myself guilty.  No, a one-year-old does NOT know how to party.  And despite how much one may want to believe it, she does NOT have friends yet and, in fact, may be experiencing the first signs of “Stranger Danger” making a party a very bad idea indeed. However. . . I love parties.  Birthday parties to be exact.  So without further ado, I present to you Tessa’s first birthday: 

The Theme: Cherries

The Smash Cake

The Footage

The actual birthday cake.

Strawberry cake with a chocolate gnash shell, covered with marshmallow fondant.

The Food

Fresh lemonade, chicken salad sandwiches, veggies, onion dip, ice cream, cherry tartlets (#2), cake, candy and of course CHERRIES!

The Presents

There was a lot of planning involved and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire drawn-out process.  Yes, I went overboard for a one-year-old . . . I’d do it again too ’cause it was fun!  So here are some bigger images of my favorite pics of the birthday girl.  We sure love you Tess!



Thanks to everyone who showed up and to all those who came in spirit, we know if distance wasn’t a factor you would have been here too.

Tessa’s walking footage will be posted soon, stay tuned.

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remodel.

Posted in General with tags , on August 22, 2011 by Missy

CATCHING UP. . .

As many of you know, we’ve done some extensive remodeling to our house.  I wouldn’t recommend remodeling a house while the major participant is going through medical school.  Turns out, remodeling takes a lot of time and TIME is exactly what students, of any kind, have none of.  I felt that because this project consumed the majority of our time, when we had any of it together, that it certainly merited a post.  Enjoy our before and afters.

Front Yard

Before:

After: 

Before (note the walkway to Nowhere):

After:

Chase put in hours of back-breaking labor to move each one of the stones in that terrace, but it made all the difference.

Kitchen

The kitchen was a big project.  It took us four months to complete.

Before:

After

Before:

After:

We washed our dishes in the bathtub and did all our cooking on the grill or in the microwave.

Before (Note the wall to the right of the fridge . . . ):

During:

 
 

After (No more wall!):

(This image taken before finishing touches)

I canned applesauce that year on a piece of sheet-rock that was laid over the cabinets as a temporary counter top.  You know those apple peeler+slicer contraptions?  They don’t clamp onto sheet-rock very well.

Before:

During:

After: I love this kitchen, I think it’s so beautiful.

Dining Room/Mud Room

Seems like a strange combination right?  We had a three-season enclosed room/porch that served us little use except as a refrigeration room in the winter (no heating or insulation).  We knocked out the wall between it and the house, insulated all around (ceiling, floor & walls) to make the dining room.

During:

Yes, that’s our little boy crawling between the floor joists with electrical wire hanging from above.

After:

 This is the only picture we have of the mud room in progress:

Chase had just ridden his bike home in a massive rain storm.  It’s a mud room though, see the umbrella stroller draped on the lumber?  The dining room is on the other side of the left wall.

Bathrooms

Regretfully, we never took any “before” pictures of the bathrooms.  For those of you who’ve been to our house in the early years of our stay in Vermont will appreciate the mighty difference though.  The upper bathroom was originally a half bath.  We turned it into a full bath:

We gutted out the bathroom but were fortunate enough to be able to keep the toilet and most of the drywall.  Porcelain tile replaced the linoleum floor, a 36″ vanity replaced the 22″ one and we added an entire bathtub . . . Chase did the tile work, design strip and all.  This is one of the few showers he can stand upright in and still have the water fall on TOP of his head.  He was sad to have to say goodbye to that.

The lower bathroom was the room that require the least work.  Tile, again, replaced linoleum and a bigger vanity replaced the old one.

     I love what a fresh coat of paint can do to a room!

Basement

Perhaps the larges project in the entire house.  The basement was unfinished; concrete floors, cinder block walls, floor joists visible in the ceiling, etc.  It was cold all year long and was an incredible producer of mold.  Chase spent three to four months finishing the basement to increase the square footage in the house from somewhere around 1500 sqft. to 1980 sqft.  By the time he was working on that, we had the baby and were exhausted with construction so very few pictures were taken during that process.  However, before we locked up the house for the last time, Chase and Enoch took a tour of the whole place.  If you have 15 minutes to spare, enjoy their cinematic artwork.

Inside Tour

Outside Tour

If you’re still reading this, I hope you’ve enjoyed it.  It’s good to see it all put together.  It was four years of work, sprinkled with camping trips, county fairs, birthdays and other fanfare.

Now on to our next adventure!

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one.

Posted in General with tags on August 22, 2011 by Missy

Tessa Rose turned one year old on the 12th.  We waited until the following weekend (20th), in order for Chase to be around, to celebrate it.  However, I did make cupcakes on the 12th and we let Tessa “open” a couple presents that were sent to her from grandparents. Thank you to Grandma Nancy/Grandpa Gaylen and Grandma Farrer for the wonderful birthday gifts.

Contessa Rose has been a delight to watch grow.  Her disposition is mild and pleasant.  Her only tantrums are based around basic needs such as food or sleep and are therefore easily remedied.  She sleeps well through the night, goes down for naps easily and gives amazing hugs for a one-year-old.  


Tessa is a great eater as well.  She loves broccoli just like her brother does.  She eagerly accepted drinking from a sippy-cup when the time came.
Her hair is growing, slowly but surely, which makes for cute little piggy-tails like the ones you see here.

Perhaps one year is still too young to make the call, but she shows no signs of being “girly.”  Chase and Enoch wrestle on the floor and as soon as it starts Tess has wiggled from my arms and crawled her way into the middle of the action.  She knows that if she flops on top of Chase while he’s laying on his back he’ll wrestle right back with her and she loves it.

“Ooooo,” says Tess when she finds something that interests her.  In this case it was the camera.By far the funniest pic I got of her that day.  We call this charismatic girl a “goof,” because she’s always making faces and her gap-toothed grin doesn’t help with the stereotype.


Tessa is a sweat ball of sunshine that becomes more interesting to get-to-know every day.  Her first steps came August 6th, just a week before her birthday.  Now she’s toddling like a champion!  We love you little Tessa Rose!

(Stay tuned for Tessa’s birthday party pics and her first few steps)

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tasting.

Posted in General with tags , , on August 19, 2011 by Missy

Now we will pause from playing “catch-up” to the present.

In preparation for Tessa’s birthday party I had come across a number of dessert recipes.  I wasn’t sure which one to do so tonight we held a taste test.  Here are our contestants:

 Cherry Tartlet #1

Cherry Tartlet #2

Cherry Tartlet #3 (adapted)

Cherry Tartlet #4 (combination of above)

Did you pick up on a theme?  Here are the willing judges.

We each tried bites from the different tarts and came to a conclusion of which was the most tasty.  Now you, my dear readers, cannot taste the tarts but you CAN vote on which one wins for the best appearance.  Consider before voting, however, that the photography may not have optimized their appearance.  We’ll tell you which tart won in the next post.

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