Which Season is it?

The Northeast seems to be getting peculiar weather this year. First an earthquake, then a hurricane, and now a record breaking snowstorm in October. There have only been 5 days in recorded history in which snow has fallen here in October. Our 6.8 inches was definitely an all-time record for October! A lot of people are still without power, luckily we only lost ours for about 9 hours total. The trees don't usually have leaves by the time it snows, so tree branches were snapping off left and right bringing a lot of powerlines down with them. A lot of places are running on emergency power now or have no power at all. Lehigh cancelled classes Monday and Tuesday due to lack of power (no heat...brrr), but we didn't have internet so Justin still showed up because he didn't know!

Last week I had planned to go out on the weekend to take pictures of the pretty fall leaves, but what I got was a little different than I expected! Saturday was really quite a beautiful day. We are at the peak of fall colors and to see that mixed with white snow flakes was really a rare chance. I wish I had gotten more pictures!

Saturday morning

I planned to take pretty fall photos of these trees..oh well

Saturday night.

Sunday morning. Snow is melting.

This picture doesn't depict the fact that there are branches everywhere!

Really Cheap Halloween candy at Target

Still need candy for trick-or-treaters? Just thought I'd pass this along real quick. Target has a really good deal you can get right now for some candy.
Use three $1.50 off any mars candies product (snickers, twix, milkyway etc) from coupons.com. The coupon has "walmart" printed on it, but that is just advertising and it can be used anywhere manufacturers coupons are used. The coupon says 1 per purchase (that means one coupon per item so you can use all 3 coupons in the same transaction). You can only print off two of the same coupon per computer, so you'll need access to at least 2 computers to print 3 coupons, but it's still a okay deal to only use 2 coupons too.
Also you can stack a target coupon on top of that deal. Target has a coupon for $1 off when you buy 3 bags of mars snack-size candies. Target has these particular candybars on sale for 2.49 for a 11 oz snack-size bag so it's a pretty good deal!

Buy 3 bags of Snickers (or whatever mars candy you want) at 2.49 each ($7.47 - no thank you!)
Use 3 ($1.50/1) coupons from http://www.coupons.com/couponweb/offers.aspx?pid=15493&nid=10&zid=yn07
use 1 ($1.00/3) target coupon from http://coupons.target.com/
Total price for 3 bags: $1.97 (.66 cents a bag - ah, much better!)


Have a spooktacular day.

Home Sweet Home - Stairs

I've been pretty neglectful of the work needing to be done on the stairs. They still aren't done, but now they are on my almost done list instead of my to do list. They've come a long way from their original condition. We were going to carpet them with the rest of the upstairs but did not like the price tag so we opted to stain and paint them once we saw that the wood underneath was in good condition. It's been fun to take on home improvement projects and see the final results. Well, really it's just more fun to look at the after pictures and just tiring during the process.

Mmm looks real clean right? Cat hair central.

Our stairs were furry like a muppet monster, but not in a cute way

Goodbye carpet. Hello cat hair in the air!

Justin makes ripping out this carpet look easy. But it was not. The little sticks attached to my body couldn't even come close to helping. Thank goodness for my awesome husband!

3 months later...
Pull out staples, sand, vacuum, wipe, stain, finish, sand, wipe, finish, prime, spackle, sand, vacuum, wipe, paint! Just 15 easy steps!

Nadine started the handiwork

Almost there

Maybe someday I will finish...

Still on the to do list is to finish the railing then paint the tops and bottoms of the spindles. Another project is tackling the upstairs railing that you see in the first picture. I'm really looking forward to having that done, but not so much doing it!

Bethlehem Doggie Day Parade

It really feels like we've been here a year now that we're starting to go to the same events again. One of my favorites is Bethlehem's Doggie Day Parade. People dress up their dogs and parade them around! What could be better? There were so many good costumes! Here are some of my favorites.

They caught a little shark

Red riding hood, woodsman, wolf in grandmothers clothing!

Squirrel with an acorn!

Smokie's new friend made this dog look small

I <3 little poodles

There were 8 or 9 little chihuahuas on here!

Smokie's new friend

awkward...

Foster Care Update

I was hoping to already have started doing foster care by now, but buying a house that needed some renovations set us back a few months on our schedule. Where are we in the process right now? Not very far. We've switched agencies and sent in our new application. The first agency we picked out did not work with children under 5 very often. The new agency we are going through said they definitely have a need for foster parents for young children. We're just waiting for our application to be approved and then we'll continue the rest of our meetings and training. It's looking like we won't be able to make it to this next round of training's in November due to a conflict with one of Justin's classes. The next training's aren't until after the new year sometime. So we still have quite a bit of time left. When we started thinking about foster care we were planning on just taking 1 foster child. However, after quite a bit of thought we are now hoping for sibling groups of 2. There is a greater need for homes to accept siblings. We are hoping for one sibling in elementary school and one under 5. The agency we are going through does do emergency foster care so we may get short term placements of just a few days or weeks or we may have the same children with us for more than a year.

We've made it pretty close to our budgeted goal of getting everything needed for a child (or two) birth-5, though we still have a few things to get. We hadn't planned on taking older children so we had not budgeted for a twin bed. That will definitely put us over even though we found a great deal for a new mattress.

Some of my favorite budget friendly finds include: quality clothing for 13 cents a piece, free changing table/dresser, free baby monitor courtesy of grandma Cindy, water table for 50 cents.

This weekend we also got a good deal on a little play house ($25), though it is tied for 4th place as one of the most expensive things we've bought so far. It was worth it! I can't wait to put a kiddie pool at the end and make a water slide!

Yum Yum Falafel Recipe

I had never thought to make my own falafel until I saw it on this website. I tried it, and yum! I don't make it in the crockpot though because it just takes too long for my liking (I also left them in too long one time and they turned into little rocks. oops). I fry mine in a pan and they turn out wonderful. I just made a big batch and I'm planning on freezing half. Next time I think I'll also add in some vegetables like carrots or peas. 

Falafel Recipe

• 1 15oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas)
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 T dried parsley
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 egg
• 1 t kosher salt
• 1/4 t black pepper
•  2 t ground cumin
• 1 t ground coriander
• 1/4 t cayenne pepper
• juice from 1 lemon 
• You will also need breadcrumbs later

The original recipe says to smash your chickpeas with a fork until it's a mushy paste. But because I like to take the easy way I just throw everything in the blender. The original recipe says not to do this, but mine have turned out fine. Blend everything together. Then add breadcrumbs until it's not as sticky and you can form it into balls (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup breadcrumbs). I also used italian breadcrumbs for added tastiness. After you've formed them into patties you can brush each side with a little oil and then fry until golden on each side. (Or I suppose you could just put some oil in the pan). Serve with pitas and a cucumber/yogurt dipping sauce. 

Home Sweet Home - A New Kitchen Floor

You may remember this...

And this.....

But with a little of this.....

And a very generous coating of dust throughout the house (yes, we cut all our boards IN our house)
And several tricky cuts later and late hours
it now looks like this.....

And this...

All thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Aokis! Thank you so much! Carl was a pro at mastering tricky cuts around radiator and door frames. Nadine and I crafted paper patterns for the radiator cuts, layed the underlayment, and installed the easy boards. Justin was a pro at doing homework upstairs in his office (so he claims).

Yet to come for the kitchen is a new coat of paint. And a chalkboard wall for kiddos which will look very similar to this one! (Picture from http://www.nestofposies-blog.com/)

Love the rats