I took the opportunity before Jim’s birthday party to take a few pictures of the house while it was clean and primed for company, so that those of you who missed the housewarming and haven’t seen the house yet can take a peek.
Check it out!
The housewarming pics are finally up and edited! It was a really great time, everyone loved the house and the dogs, and the after party was a blast. 
Here are some of my favorite shots:
Laura teaches Ohio people how to dance like someone from NYC:
My grown sibs!
Adorable Amy (who I’m so happy I met in 2009), and Matt!
Laura and Brandice create Dance Party USA!
Our families were a huge help for the housewarming and it was a huge success. I’m so incredibly happy to be living in a home now, instead of a house!
Two weeks after the housewarming, celebrated Jim’s 30th birthday, Schnabel Bar-style. Click on the partygoers for the photo album!
Life is good in Brandice Land! 2010 is off to fantastic freaking start…
It’s snowing!! Right now the world is covered in snow from the #snOMG phenomenon of 2010, but these pics are from our last big bout of snow in January, when I packed myself into several layers of clothes and took the dSLR out with me to photograph Mae and Makai in their newly powdered back yard.
Once I had taken some pics, we had a ton of fun rolling around in the snow drifts, and this weekend has been more of the same, but I didn’t worry about taking the camera out with me, so you’ll have to imagine this plus several more inches of fun this weekend!
How magnificently pretty are these powder-loving snow beasts??
I’ve finally started editing photos from Christmas and my mother’s surprise birthday party for her 50th birthday… funny how moving and then unpacking will just eat away an entire month of one’s existence. It feels really good to be getting caught up this weekend.
Click on present-gleeful Damien and Ben to see my Flickr album from Christmas morning:
I don’t really remember much about Christmas, except that I was pretty exhausted and pretty thrilled to have a new house and two great dogs, and Christmas Day itself was probably the only time I wasn’t busily unpacking or shopping or household items or taking the dogs to the pet store or the vet. Holy whirlwind, batman!
Next up is my mom’s 50th, which I posted about previously. Here’s the photographic evidence that it was a completely spectacular evening (click on my mom and her sister to see the whole album):
The doggers had a busy, busy day today! First I took them to the vet, and then picked up my MIL (mother-in-law) and we took them to Moochies at the local mall, and then to PetSmart for some Greenies (holy CRAP do dogs love Greenies…) and other assorted things. The dogs basked in general passerby worship behavior, with dozens of people petting them and asking “what kind of dog is that?” and generally just loving them to death.
It was really nice to spend the afternoon/evening with my MIL as well. We plan to take the dogs out for happy times again soon. I can’t WAIT until it warms up and the dogs can go to the park and other dog-friendly venues! They’re REALLY well behaved in public… I’m thinking of going through therapy dog training with them so I can take them to work from time to time.
Wow, last night was strange. I went over to do a last vacuuming of our apartment before we hand over the keys, and it was like a flood of emotion to go through that empty apartment one last time.
So many big things happened in that apartment over the few years Jim and I lived there… It was our first place together, and as I walked through the apartment, all I could think about were the memories that were created there.
The big things accomplished or experienced while living in that little two-bedroom apartment:
- Jim and I lived together for the first time, and went through the process of learning to share a living space with a significant other (the battles over furniture placement, who does which chores, who gets the remote). [Pictured to the right is the painting our guests did at our apartment housewarming when we first moved in. ]
- I got my “timshel” tattoo, became an Apple/Mac convert, wrote four Nanowrimo novels, playing a LOT of WoW, became a tea junkie with a tea podcast, rediscovered comics, and bought (and fell in love with) my first dSLR.
- I decided to go back to school, and completed my Masters in Social Work, doing two internships, working and going to class full time for two years, and I survived.
- Jim and I decided to mine the stone for my engagement ring, and then got engaged, then got married.
- I went from doing inventory on brass ball bearings in Orrville, to working with kids age 3 to 5 with developmental disabilities, to being the Community Leader for Viddler.com, to working as a psychiatric social worker once I’d finished my degree.
- I published a book, which I had never had the balls to do, and I’m still really happy that I did it, that it was on my terms, and that I had a ton of support and encouragement.
- I grew up more in that apartment than during any other period in my life, spiritually, professionally, and emotionally. I’ve grown into some great friendships and I’ve grown out of some unhealthy ones, becoming more assertive and more sure of myself along the way.
What a ride! I’m not sure any other place I’ve lived on my own has had that many memories. As I stood in the apartment, I think the enormity of our decision to buy a house finally hit me, and I could feel a page turning, launching Jim and I into whatever is going to happen next.
I can’t wait to see what that is.
Last night finally felt like “New Years” for me… the officially closing of one chapter and really feeling fully launched into this one.
Join us for a housewarming! Everyone is welcome before 8 pm, and those who are prepared for a more rowdy celebration at the bar are welcome to stay later than 8 pm. Please feel free to come and go as you please throughout the day!
We don’t need gifts, but if you’d like to bring something you can always help us stock our new bar. Bring a bottle of something YOU like so that you’ll come back to drink it with us!
IMPORTANT: Parking on the street is prohibited in North Canton after 2 a.m., so if you need to crash at our place, email us. We’ll be working on getting permission to have guests parked overnight, but we’ll probably need to know how many people and how many cars.
Date: Saturday, January 30th, 2010, 3pm – 8pm
Location: Schnabel Residence
Address: 472 Hillcrest Ave. NW, North Canton, Ohio 44720
We’re enjoying the snow, the new dogs, the new house, and it’s been a great winter so far! Hope you’re having a wonderful season as well!
Here’s a slideshow of my 2009 pic highlights:
Click here if you don’t see the slideshow.
Highlights:
- 1st wedding anniversary
- Family time (birthdays, Damien’s first full year of existence, getaway weekend, Cedar Point/Put-In Bay, etc.)
- Getting a dSLR and getting into photography
- Publishing a book of poetry
- Podcamp Ohio 2
- Playing a lot of Settlers of Catan
- Ridding myself of a few relationships that weren’t really relationships anymore
- Finished my 8th (I think) Nanowrimo
- Switching positions with the psychiatric department at work
- Buying a house
- Adopting 2 dogs that I love love love
Plans for 2010:
- Get DPOA paperwork and a Living Will in place
- Continue to strive to be a healthy person
- Unpack
- Embrace whatever comes next
Here’s to whatever is coming next! I hope there are a lot of amazing things in store for all of us. xo
Holy smokes, life has been busy. We closed on the house on Friday the 18th and on Sunday, around 11:30, we brought our two adopted Tibetan mastiffs home.
My stepdad Jeff and my uncle Scott drove all the way to Virginia Beach during that awful snowstorm the weekend before Christmas (they drove THROUGH D.C., which was a disaster zone) to retrieve these two rescues from a Tibetan mastiff breeder who was fostering them with her other dogs.
Here’s some info on them from the rescue website:
These very sweet dogs are in need of a home due to the misfortune of their owner who has lost her own home. Mae and Makai were bred by Donald Davis, a US breeder who passed away last year, so Himalaya Tibetan Mastiffs and Sa Nashoba Tibetatan Mastiffs are working together to find them a new home.
Mae’s registered name is Mei Xiang Saje and her date of birth is Jan. 22, 2001. Her dam is Kyra Rose and her sire is Ely Tanuk. Mae is spayed and in excellent health. Her vaccinations are up to date.
Makai was never registered by his owner, but he is a brother to Mae from a later breeding. His date of birth is February 12, 2003. He is also in apparently excellent health and he is intact. Any prospective home will have to agree to have him neutered.
Makai is scheduled to be neutered on the 11th, per my agreement with the breeder, and he has the same birthday as Jim, which I thought was a neat coincidence. Mae is a little older (they’re both older, really) and is an older sibling to Makai.
They are small for Tibetan mastiffs, but still definitely fit into the large dog category, and they are SO FREAKING MELLOW. I mean, these dogs sleep, they walk around a bit, and then they sleep some more. They are genetically predisposed to love the cold (mountain dogs), so the most excited I’ve seen them has been outdoors (today with all the snow they were going completely bonkers).
Still working on the eating routine since TMs are wary at first and the most prominent evidence of this is that they aren’t eating a lot (TMs aren’t big eaters, despite their size, but still), and they also won’t set foot in the basement.
Bringing the cat over from the apartment went well (dogs didn’t care, cat is a little pissed), and my family has fallen in love with both Mae and Makai in very short order. My little brothers can tell them apart already, which is difficult for most people, and we took them to both Christmas celebrations this year (in-laws and my family) with no hiccups.
The most noteworthy part of getting these two dogs is that I am totally and completely in instant love with them. I mean, for the first few days I would lie on the floor next to them and just stroke their bellies or watch them sleep.
I knew when I met my first mastiff outside of a PetSmart several years ago that the breed was my instant favorite and that I really wanted to get one when I had a place that would allow a dog, but I was totally unprepared for falling in actual and immediate love with THESE two dogs.
Between the new house, two new members of our family, and a lot of family time over the past several days, this has been a truly amazing holiday season. I hope all of you had an equally wonderful holiday!