Sunday Recap - Six Months!

So as of Sunday, Tim and I have been together six months!! I know everyone says this, but it's strange - sometimes it feels like we've been together forever and sometimes it feels like I only just met him. My life with him in it has changed so much, and so much for the better. We're really close as friends, we have a great relationship, we have a loose plan as to where we're going together, and we both love where we are right now. 

Tim and I are one of those couples who just really clicked. When we met each other we were both seeing other people, but neither of those relationships lasted very long. Once we started dating each other, we just never separated. I never wanted him to leave, so he basically lived at my house. It was less than a month before we started to look for places together. It was only a couple of months before he told me he loved me - I knew well before then that I was crazy about him, but I was too scared to say it first!! It's not that we don't bicker, we certainly do, but we get along exceptionally well. Even when he's driving me crazy, I admire and love the person that he is, which is the reason why he's driving me crazy. Plus I can't ever stay mad at him, it's impossible.

 I'm so happy that Tim and I met. I'm completely crazy about him (it might be part of him driving me crazy). This first six months was wonderful - I can't wait for the next six months, and the six after that, and the next . . . LOVE!

To celebrate Sunday morning, Tim finally popped the cork on the champagne his parents gave us when we moved in. 

We had mimosas with blueberry and lemon scones and lemon curd on the deck - it was lovely. We live a bit of a charmed life. I had slept in until 11:00 before this because I didn't get home from the concert in Toronto (more on that later) until 3:00 am. After we had breakfast on the porch, I'll admit I went back to bed from about 1:00 pm until 2:30. Tim woke me up then to get ready to head to his parents' place for Sunday dinner in honour of Father's Day (not that we ever really need an excuse to go hang out at Dean and Wendy's).

We had a lovely dinner of barbequed chicken and steak, potato salad, corn on the cob, asparagus, and sweet potatoes. Sooo  much food, and it was all delicious. I put too much on my plate (a common problem of mine) and couldn't finish it. As always, we had a wonderful time. I miss my own parents so much - I tried to call and talk to my Dad, but they're social butterflies and I couldn't get a hold of him. Probably still on their fishing trip to Leamington or over at Shannon's with the baby. It is nice to have Dean and Wendy as my surrogate family here in Peterborough.

Life Lessons According to Tim and Dean - coming soon to a local radio station near you.

No clue why Tim suddenly decided to put his foot behind his head. No clue why Tim suddenly decides to do most things. 

Awww, LOVE! Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dads out there!

Sociable - Thanks For Helping Us Move Dinner

So we moved into the new house June 1st. Our entertaining schedule since then has been this:

• June 1st - dinner with Angel, Mike, and Jess
• June 3rd - dinner with the Rollwagen clan
• June 8th - dinner with Sarah
• June 9th - breakfast with Sarah, dinner with Sarah, Brad, and Matt
• June 10th - breakfast with Sarah, Kendra, Hayley, Charlie, and Claire
• June 15th - dinner with Josh, Kyle, and Angel
• June 16th - breakfast with Blaire and Nate, dinner with Phil, Elise, and Myles
• Planned June 19th - dinner with Cait

Did I say we loved entertaining? Apparently I really meant it!

On Friday we were having Josh and Kyle over for dinner for their help with the move, not that we ever really need an excuse. Angel stopped in when she was out for a walk, so she stayed too. I had prepped and pre-cooked the ribs Thursday night, as well as made the BBQ sauce then. Luckily the guys weren't coming by until 7:30, so I got to relax on the porch after work with Tim and have a drink!

Not too shabby on a Friday afternoon!

To round out dinner I made baked potatoes and Emeril's Kicked Up Corn Maque Choux, which is always wonderful. It's kind of a really flavourful creamed corn, although I think that makes it sound gross when it's really delicious.

Kyle approved of the BBQ sauce.

After dinner we watched Nik Wallenda make his record-breaking tightrope walk over Niagara Falls. I was shocked by how calm he was. Notably, he was tethered, but I can't believe he was carrying on a regular conversation while he did this. And he finished so fast!! I was so impressed - this guy is incredibly talented.

After the tightrope walking, Kyle and Josh convinced Tim and I to head up to Riley's to the rooftop patio with them to meet the girls, who were all out because their friend Emma had come to town to celebrate finishing her exams to become a physiotherapist. It was a beautiful night and the patio at Riley's is always so nice. It was great to see everyone!

Josh and I

Tim and Caitlin

Alana, Emma, and Rachel

Mmmm, Jager - not. Kyle, I have to say, is CRUSHING this shot cheers. 

Bad Habits - Nail Biting: Five Weeks

I have nails!! I haven't bitten in weeks now, although I haven't been good at putting on the bitter polish. It's to the point where I have to file my nails every time I paint them. I think they're getting a bit long even then. I broke one on the weekend after I took this picture, so I might actually cut them all back down to match.

This is Essie's Turquoise and Caicos with a topcoat of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear In the Spotlight on my ring finger. 

Last Night's Dinner - Bacon and Tomato Sandwiches and Dilly Potato Salad

Tim is finally done his evening job for this year!! We're both super excited about it. Him because it means his evenings are now free for ultimate frisbee and me because it means we can stop going to bed at 11:30 every night. Laura < 8 hours of sleep = Oscar the Grouch. Last Thursday was the first night he could play a full round of ultimate frisbee games, so in celebration I let him cook me dinner. Generous, I know. 

He made bacon and tomato sandwiches - my favourite! - on a twelve-grain style bread with a dilly potato salad conjured out of the depths of his brain. I'm not usually a big dill fan, but he must be affecting my psyche, because I really loved this.

The New Place - The Dining Room

Back to the house tour! 

I had a pretty good idea in my head when we were talking about a dining table as to what I wanted. I wanted counter height, and I was thinking square so that there would be lots of room in the middle to serve family-style meals when we had company over. The table we found at the Brick I absolutely love, even though it's rectangular. It very comfortably seats six right now. We just pull the table out from the counter it butts up against on the left and put the sixth chair on that end. 

The sixth chair causes a little bit of a storage problem when it isn't in use, though. We were storing it in the basement, but the chairs are really heavy and the stairs are really narrow. Given how often we entertain, it just is too much of a hassle for Tim to be dragging the extra chair up and down the stairs. Right now it's tucked in beside the mantle, which makes for a bit of a narrow walkway to the stairs. 

Honey-Do List - Mostly Woodworking

Tim is surprisingly talented at woodworking. He altered and refinished our coffee table and he built his dad an absolutely gorgeous Muskoka chair. He's really good at figuring out how to make things work. As long as I'm not in the room while the assembly is taking place (there generally seems to be a lot of temper tantrums), I love the finished product of what he's done. Admittedly I was skeptical at the beginning when he said he was handy, but he has proved me wrong.

Once I realized that he wasn't all full of hot air - on this particular subject - I started dreaming up projects for him. He's a teacher, he has two full months off this summer . . . He must have time to do a couple of teensy little projects for me, right? Apparently he has other ideas about how his time is to be spent. Camping trips with Evan, beers on the porch, water skiing with friends. We'll see. I think there is a compromise to be had here. In the meantime, my wishlist keeps on growing. Here are a few of the things I would love to see happen in the near future:

The creation of some kind of bench/table for the patio. Tim has picked up a bunch of antique crates, but right now they're an ugly forest green. I'm hoping he comes up with something to do with them. If not, a nice cedar chest like the one above would look lovely in that space!

Last Night's Dinner - Texas Caviar

I love cooking for Tim because Tim loves food. Well, technically, Tim loves life and food just happens to fall under that umbrella. Things that I'm critical of generally tend to be things that are the BEST Tim has ever had (in just precisely that moment). It makes me feel good about my cooking. More than that, it makes me want to try making new things to see whether he'll like them. We certainly eat well, partly because of this. 

On nights that Tim cooks, which are few and far between (Tim added this) everything is an adventure! Like last week when he made a Mexican bruschetta-type mix that he calls Texas caviar and roasted chicken. We were eating extras of the dip with tortilla chips for days and it was delicious every time. Tim says that he'll often take this as an appetizer to parties with tortilla chips and it's always a hit. I liked it best with the substantial toasted ciabatta toasts. It was good with tortilla chips, but the ciabatta made it more of a meal. 

Mmm, fresh, bright, delicious flavours of corn, pepper, tomato, and avocado.