Ichabod

While our blog is titled "Sleeping in the Doghouse", we do have other animals in our family. This is our cat, Ichabod. He is so named because he is black and we got him about a month before Halloween. Also, John thinks it is funny to call him "Icky".

Like most indoor cats, he spends any time he's not asleep looking outside. He has gotten out a few times, but always comes running back in because it's too scary out there in the "real world".

When we got Daisy, he became a living squeaky toy. She likes to pounce on him and chew on him until she finds the spot that makes him meow. Icky doesn't like this very much, but he's so gentle that he won't fight back. He just meows until we pull her off of him. Poor kitty!

But his most favorite thing to do is groom his Daddy. He will sit for hours licking and trimming John's hair.

Although he is a gentle indoor kitty, this is how he really sees himself:

Don't they all?

Our beginnings

We were introduced by our respective roommates (who happened to be dating at the time) in February 1999. After the usual ups and downs of a college romance in the midst of studying, we were engaged in February 2001.

This is graduation day, May 2001:

We were married on August 10, 2001 at 7pm. The ceremony was at my home church, Faith Chapel, in Billings, MT. Pastor Rob Griggs officiated.

We had our reception in my parents' backyard just a mile or so from the church. The yard was amazingly decorated; it was truly magical.

Our cake was huge! We had a working fountain in the center and real roses were abundant on the main and "satellite" cakes.

This is my favorite picture of the whole day. It speaks volumes about how a dad must feel.

John refused to say where we were going on our honeymoon, except that it was tropical. It wasn't until we were at the gate in Minneapolis that I knew we were going to Kaua'i! We had a great time, even though we lost most of our pictures.

Thank you so many times over to all the friends and family who made that day very special to us both.

Hot Chocolate...the right way!

We had wanted to make this hot chocolate for Christmas, but by the time we got around to it, we were too stuffed to enjoy it.

The recipe:

1/4 lb. chocolate (We used a 71% cacao bar from Trader Joe's)

1/4 cup-ish sugar

2 cups milk

2 cups cream

Heat slowly in a small pot over low heat, just to melt the chocolate. Stir to heat evenly and to dissolve the sugar. Do not boil, or the milk will scald. Enjoy!

This is enough for 4 people, or fewer if you want it to be your one meal for the day.

For breakfast this morning we made scones and served them with pear butter from John's parents, strawberry jam from a co-worker of mine, and blackberry preserves. With hot chocolate to finish it off, we were stuffed! (At least until it was time to make our sourdough pizza!)

Welcome to Our Blog

Thanks for coming to our blog! We're hoping that this will be a way for us to keep our friends and family updated about what's happening with us. We would like this to be a more expansive way to post pictures, videos, recipes, etc., than Facebook will allow. Hopefully it will be worthwhile for all of us!