Me: Honey, we need some antacids.

Yooper Stewart: They were 75% off!

We won’t have indigestion until 2015.

For most of my life I avoided coffee. Like any good college student I binged on it during  finals weeks to push me through, but as soon as the semester ended I left the caffeine behind. Coffee was a means to an end, nothing more.

Enter Yooper Stewart.

When you find the perfect travel mug, stock up.

I met my hubs at a coffee shop. We both stopped by to visit a mutual friend who worked there. He arrived with a cup of coffee already in hand. I ordered a frozen blended peanut butter chocolate concoction with as little coffee as possible. Eight months later we were married and coffee entered my life for ever.

Yooper Stewart drank decaf because he liked the taste but not the jitters. My family also drank decaf for the same reason. I didn’t realize, however, that the execution could be so completely different. My parents bought quality coffee, brewed it strong, then added a dollop of cream or dash of sugar and enjoyed it. YS drank gas station coffee laced with 4-6 flavored cream cups until it was tolerable.

Why is it perfect? The non-slip ring keeps the mug in place.

When we got married I decided to try enjoying the coffee with the hubs. That meant I had to decide what kind to buy. As poor newly weds we went for cheap with creamer.

Bleh!

It didn’t matter how much of the toxic, chemical laden creamer I added – the “coffee” soiled my mouth. When Yooper wasn’t looking, I grabbed some of the good stuff – dark roasts, exotic blends, even some flavored stuff. He didn’t realize the switch until he went shopping, and bought himself a $3.99 can of grounds. Once you go organic french roast decaf, there’s no going back.

Now Yooper Stewart also looks for the good stuff (and sometimes the clearance stuff too). With the world of coffee opened up to him, however, he sometimes has impulse control issues. This isn’t the coffee we’re drinking – it’s our back-up. We have even more in the cupboard above the coffee maker.

House hunting with Yooper Stewart really amplified our differences. He loved dilapidated houses with lots of out buildings. I wanted something with a working bathroom and windows. While we could both imagine the finished home, we couldn’t agree on how we wanted to get it. He once spent a month without a kitchen as he microwaved meals in the bedroom and washed dishes in the bathtub. I don’t mind the thought of renovating, but I flat out refuse to live in home where the cat lives more luxuriously then me. Put everything in its place, then I’ll move in.

With that in mind, here were are – a half finished Web site. I’m THRILLED to have dropped the .wordpress.com, but we haven’t quite worked out all of the bugs yet. Some day soon I’ll know how to italicize and add pictures, but right now I’m back in the land of the Commodore 64 and dot matrix printer – I get what I get, no frills or ribbons.

As much as I hate an unfinished house, I can deal with it (for now). I have a drive full of pictures and stories to share as soon as I can get them to you. In the meantime, thanks for your patience. If you need to use the bathroom, YS has a nice private spot behind the garage that you can use (we’ll get that fixed – I promise!).

this is a test post. Ignore..

Photo Credit

This past September Yooper Stewart and I experienced a first in our married life – we got cable. As soon as we did, my dad called, “You’ve got to watch Duck Dynasty…YS will love it.”

I wasn’t convinced, since YS isn’t a duck hunter, but I decided to give it a try. Oh dear Lord – I think I’m married to the lost Robertson. Let’s compare, shall we?

– Facial hair: they all like lots of it (lucky for me, YS gets bored easily and likes to shave to change things up).

– Heavy equipment: for crying out loud, Phil owns his own front end loader. If we could afford one, I’m sure Yooper Stewart would find an excuse to buy one. As it is, we have commercial grade lawn equipment for our 1/8 acre yard.

– Short attention span theater: like the guys in the duck call building room, YS is easily distracted by shiny, moving things. I can’t imagine how much these guys could accomplish if they stayed focus, but – look, an ATV!

– Camouflage: these guys share the same taste in clothing. Don’t believe me? Check out my previous posts here and here.

– At home outside: the Robertson’s can’t seem to get outside fast enough. In northern Michigan it’s not as easy to go out year round, but YS makes do – he sometimes opts to sleep on the couch “because it sort of feels like camping.”

– Family: Miss Kay asks for something, her boys respond. My mother-in-law calls, YS answers. Love and respect – sexy.

– Faith: Phil and my father-in-law have it together, but the Robertsons seem to have the same understanding that my husband does – that our we owe it all to our Heavenly Father.

The similarities between my husband and the Robertsons amazes me. Sometimes I watch that show and wonder if somehow YS ended up with Duck Dynasty DNA. Other times I watch it and pray that YS will miss an episode so he doesn’t get any crazy ideas!

Yooper Stewart says deer hunting is no excuse not to get into the holiday spirit – ho, ho, ho!

We were recently blessed with a rare 78 degree day in October. It was a great excuse to get outside and do some yard work. After a hard day of work, however, some people need to relax a bit between jobs. On this beautiful fall day, we had some company, so Yooper Stewart did a little male bonding when he got home.

It’s like they’re twins.

After the bonding ended, I put YS back to work. Three trees, a leaf blower, and YS = instant fall clean up.

Can you believe there are still leaves on the trees?!

Just another day in paradise!

Sorry for the unplanned vaca. Not to worry – we’re back. Today Yooper Stewart starts a new topic: fun with binder clips!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-rpW8Wyjt0]
Check out the final results here:

Here’s a peek at Yooper Stewart’s sensitive side – one of his many lilies.