Three Cheers For Bissell

As you may know, our precious little house has hardwood floors. Not laminate, not pergo, but the original hardwood floors that were built with the house in 1951. When we bought the house in 2002, the previous owner had done a quick DIY job of refinishing them, but missed some major worn areas. No worries, though, because I have always felt they give the house more character. Plus, over the years as we have dropped things or scratched the floor accidentally, I don't feel as bad because I am not ruining perfection -- I am adding to history. Anyway....sometime early on in our married life I decided that I loved big, white area rugs. So I have constantly fought the battle of "keeping the white rug clean." Over the past few years we had taken to renting the big carpet shampooer from Ace or Lowe's every few months, but it was such a hassle to just clean one area rug. Go to the store, rent the machine, load it up, use it, take it back to the store, etc. Those things aren't small or lightweight! So I decided to look into getting our own upright, at-home carpet cleaner.

You wouldn't believe what I can acomplish on Facebook! Within one day of posting an inquiry asking for carpet cleaner recommendations, I had someone offer to sell me their brand-new, once-used Bissell steam cleaner for just $100. This was fantastic news, because I had a list going of all the "pre-baby purchases" we wanted to make and a carpet cleaner was on it....and this one was half the price!

So yesterday, amid all of our other chores and errands, we put our new Bissell to the test. I must say we were VERY pleased with the results! And with the convenience. It took less time to clean the rug, even though the machine is smaller, because you save the hassle of driving back and forth to the store. And now we can clean (even spot-clean) it more frequently because the Bissell sits in the garage just waiting to be put to use. Below are some pics to complete our Bissell testimonial.

Reunited With Our German Friend

Back in 2006, before this blog began, Chad and I went to Germany & Austria with the Unruh parental unit. Our itinerary included a few nights in a small town called Spaichingen (which is about half the size of Reedley), so that my dad could visit some business contacts there. This tiny town is not known as a tourist attraction, and one morning we sat in our hotel's restaurant struggling over the menu and trying to place our order in German. A cute and friendly young lady (who also spoke excellent English) was sympathetic to our plight and came over to us, offering to help translate (she had worked in the restaurant and was visiting a friend there). We introduced ourselves and invited her to sit down and chat with us, and a wonderful long-distance friendship was born! We spent several hours with Susanne ("Susi") that day, had dinner together, met her family and friends, and have kept in touch since via email, Facebook, and Skype.

Now, more than 4 years later, Susi has come to visit us for a month! She's staying with my parents and having all sorts of fun experiences as she prepares for her final year at the University of Trier. Her parents arrive on September 28th and they will spend 3-4 weeks together traveling around California. In the meantime, we're having FUN with her around and planning some special excursions -- stay tuned for details!

What's great about Susi is that she is positive, outgoing, easygoing, silly, fun, sweet, kind, generous, and just beautiful inside and out. She fits in so well with our family, and we are thrilled to have her here with us!

2009 Photo Book, Etc.

I finally just finished dealing with all of our pics from 2009 -- I made a fabulous photo book at Kodak Gallery. Lucky me, they are offering 25% off orders of $30 or more, so I didn't have to wait for a sale to purchase! Love love love that I can make photo books.

After I discovered the sale, I was inspired to "do something" with all of my pics from the Bellalure Jewelry days. Many of you know my friend Andreana, and know that I was very involved in her jewelry business for several years (which she "retired" from in early 2009). I was lucky enough to be the photoshoot model for several Bellalure promotions between 2005 - 2008, and thanks to Andreana I have some great pics of myself that I can show my kids someday (to prove I wasn't always old and boring).

Many friends and family have asked me which is the best online photo site to use. Well, it depends on what you want to do. If you want a basic photo book template that's easy to use, with affordable products, use Kodak Gallery. Some of my more artsy and talented friends use Picaboo and the books are beautiful, but definitely more expensive. I see great books from Snapfish and Shutterfly as well. But for me, I stick with Kodak Gallery because I began uploading all my pics to their site years ago (so it has all of my history), and I can make a book of the same size/format for each calendar year and have them look uniform on my bookshelf.

On a slightly different note, my current favorite photo website is Picnik, where you can upload and edit any photo for FREE! They have lots of great tools & effects, and you can even post edited pics to Facebook.

I also love Flickr -- especially their "randomizer" page. It's so amazing to see all the different types of pics people are taking, and each photographer's unique eye!

Photography is by far my favorite art medium. Bet you couldn't tell!

Making Peppernuts....What?!

Every year at the holidays, the women in my family make "peppernuts." (This is the Americanized way of saying "pfefferneusse," which is a word that may be familiar to some of you.) Basically it's a bite-sized, pop-in-your-mouth bit of gingerbread-ish goodness... some say they're from Russia, others say from Germany, and a quick Google search pulls up a Dutch recipe. For our family, it's part of our German Mennonite heritage.

I think all the "Unruh women" have a copy of this little cookbook (pictured below), full of different types of peppernut recipes. It seems like the different women in our family have adopted their own "signature" recipes, too... my Aunt Gloria's peppernuts are always soft with a citrus flavor; Grandma's peppernuts are darker with a molasses flavor; and I think Aunt Debbie makes a couple different batches every year. Learning how to make peppernuts is a rite of passage for any good Mennonite young woman. When I got engaged, Grandma had me over to teach me "how to make peppernuts." When you make the dough, you roll it out into long "ropes" and put them in the fridge or freezer to harden. Then you cut the ropes into little pieces before baking.

Well, I should have practiced more. This year I decided to make peppernuts, and let's just say they didn't turn out like the picture above*. I picked the recipe that had lemon & orange zest in it (I wanted them to turn out like Aunt Gloria's), and the recipe came from Anna Unruh, which was my great-grandmother's name. The dough turned out too dry, and so when I tried rolling it out it was just a crumbly mess. Thankfully, Chad came to the rescue and salvaged it -- I got so frustrated I had to leave the kitchen, but somehow he managed to get the dough into the long, smooth ropes ready for baking. In my excitement to see how they'd turn out, I cut the dough but didn't space the pieces out enough. So while they do taste GREAT, they came out all stuck together. So I am calling this batch my "trial run." Stay tuned for an update on how the second batch turns out, assuming the first batch gets eaten and I am not too busy eating my way through the holidays to give it another try! Someday I will attempt zwiebach...

*I totally stole this picture from Google, because, as I indicated above, my current batch of peppernuts are not going to win any photography contests. I'm curious though, why is it that when I search Google images for peppernuts, pictures of Bert & Ernie from Sesame Street come up?

For you Facebook enthusiasts, there is a Group dedicated to the tasty treats, and it's called "Peppernuts are NOT nuts with pepper." Ha!

Connecting With Old Friends & New Family

This past weekend Chad ventured down to the L.A. area for the state speech and debate tournament. I decided to take a little road trip of my own, and went to Thousand Oaks area to visit with some friends and family! On Friday night I reconnected with my childhood best friend, Judy Turner. Judy and I hadn't seen each other for probably 5 years, and had been out of touch for 2 or 3. We got back in contact through Facebook and I had a great time catching up with her! Judy and I met when we were barely 4 years old, so she has known me longer than anyone who isn't family. It's a friendship that will always be there, and will always be a blessing. I hope to see her again soon!

On Saturday, I hopped over to Simi Valley to see my cousins Bruce, Jaimie & Sabrina Watson. They had just returned from Ethiopia the weekend before where they picked up the newest member of our extended Watson family: Lucas Alan Tegegne Watson ("Teg" - their son!). You can read more about their journey here. It was so wonderful to see this beautiful baby that the family had hoped and prayed for for almost 2 years! Valerie met me there so that we could meet Teg together and get all gaga over our newest baby cousin. Bruce and Jaimie also let us watch the video of their trip (which included 2 days in Dubai). It was strange to think they had just been there 5 days ago, and when they left they did not have Teg....now he is a permanent part of our lives and family! The video was so touching, as we got to see the orphanage and "transition home" where Teg had been living, the nannies who had been caring for him, and the (extremely emotional) first time he was brought out to meet Bruce, Jaimie and Sabrina. Bruce and Jaimie also shared openly about the adoption experience -- the faith journey (aka the really long wait!) and the testimony of God's love and grace that they will share with people who meet them and Teg. Teg is slowly making the rounds, meeting all of the Watson clan, and we all adore him! As you can see by the picture below, he's a very happy baby....and who could resist those gorgeous brown eyes?