signs you've been remodeling for too long

the refrigerator is in the living room...still.

along w/ALL the contents of kitchen drawers, doors & cupboards.

chicken nuggets from McDonalds are starting to be a "staple"

AND even worse? starting to taste good.

The front of my fireplace is now a makeshift table/kitchen/MESS!

You may, or may not, find a microwave in the bathroom

when you walk in to use "it".  "It" = the bathroom that is,

NOT the microwave.  Two for the price of one, right?

Kitchen cabinets remaining to be hung sit in my bedroom.

Along with decorative kitchen cake stands and glass bowls.

There is a stove top sitting forlornly in my daughters bedroom.

Waiting patiently for it's new home.

Tile samples can be found all around the house, if you look

closely--or even if you don't--you will find them.

in other news

Eliza shaved both of her eyebrows off.


Don't even ask...


Yes, it was an accident.


We have laughed our heads off since Sunday.


The good news?


She is so fair and light of hair that you
can hardly tell...unless you look closely.


And well, then YOU might have a good laugh too.

92

In a perfect world my children would always

be/do/say/act like I want them to.

However, we don't live in a perfect world, 

and in any case I have to scratch my original

statement anyway.  I don't think I would want

my children to be/do/say/act like "I want" 

them to all the time.  Right? Right!

In reality it is THEIR life.  Theirs to live

and choose and fall and get up again.  I am 

here to love and support and be here for them.

If I'm doing my job right, I am here.  Not

dictating.

(Ok this is sounding WAY too 
serious for my post).

Speaking of choices (were we speaking 
of choices?) my 18 year old son informed 
me that:

a) he is 18 and can do whatever he wants 

(true that brother!)

b) was going to the W.W.E. when it came to SLC

with all his homies.  (wrestling for those

of you who don't know...)

(sounds like a dream day to me...not!)

c) and FAILED to inform me (us) that it was ON
SUNDAY(!!) until about the week before.  (or I

can fault myself for not checking into things

more thoroughly).

d) he went.

We were awful & mean parents and made him go

to sacrament meeting before he went off to 

break the Sabbath day.  




Balance in all things, right?

Ironically halfway through Primary Kyle came

into the room with his phone.

From Josh:  "Got a ticket on the way here!"

Along with a picture of the fight.

From Kyle:  "Well that's what you get for

going on a Sunday!"

From Josh:  "Well I was blessed for getting

a ticket on Sunday since I was going 92 
(NINETY FREAKING TWO!!!) on the freeway in 
a 65 zone and the cop only wrote me 
up at 10 over (75)."

Yup, nice policeman.

He said to the boys (I am imagining him with 
a hand on his gun belt, a swagger in his walk,
him chewing on a piece of straw in his mouth
and a southern drawl for some reason): 
too many movies right?  straw, seriously?

"In a hurry fellas?"

I'll say.




And in case you're wondering....and I KNOW
you are...he's paying the ticket. 

  

what a difference a day makes!

 the hole again

 starting floors on Saturday am

new over old

halfway point

we apologize in advance for all the dust in our home right now.

SORRY!

coming together...oh YIPPEE!

Most of the floor is in (kyle is leaving
me a sink and dishwasher until the end...
when he can transfer in one day the
"old" to the "new".)  Most of the
cabinet bases are in.  It's starting
to feel like a kitchen again.


Although our refrigerator just happens
to be in our living room along with
all the boxes from our old cupboards
still.


I LOVE the wood floors!  We finally
decided on countertops (remember this
is NOT a $20K kitchen...we didn't have
$50 (and UP!) a square foot for
counters and so it was a very hard
decision since most things (granite,
quartz, cement, butcher block,
well, ALL solid surfaces start
in that price range.)  We wanted to 
find something that was more in the
$5/6 a square foot which made it 
hard.


We finally found a "cement looking"
tile in a very dark grayish black.
It is an 18" square tile so that
leaves very few grout lines (which
was a worry) but they will be filled
in with dark grout too which will
help on cleaning and kyle can do
a 1/16" tile spacer which will make
for a smaller grout line and easier
cleaning.


I keep telling myself, "not your dream
kitchen Dor!  HOWEVER, a huge HUGE HUGE
upgrade from the plywood you just left!"




It's coming together and if all the
tile pieces arrive via UPS, we could 
have new counters done, a sink back 
in place and (our old) appliances 
workingby next weekend or early
into the next week!


My kids are getting sick of cold
cereal.


In other news (going along with the
theme of "what a difference a day 
makes...")  


I was released from Primary President
yesterday.  Bitter/sweet.  Glad to
be done w/the responsibilities and 
heavier things that rested on my
shoulders.  SOOOOO sad to leave
the kids, my dear sweet counsellors
and a sliver of my heart which stays  
in that funny long skinny Primary 
room of the Olympus 3rd Ward.


It was a good gig and a good run with
some very wonderful people, experiences
and blessings in my life!


Somethings always changing.

should i be worried...

that my son keeps talking
in a fake... (how do i say 
this politically correct?)


..."hispanic american" voice?


pretty much all day. every day.
lately.  especially when playing
COD (oh so like i said, "all day.
every day.")


he has the accent down 
really well.


and well, what with the 
large number of boys his 
age being called to serve 
missions in CHILE (or S.A.)
maybe he's practicing 
for his future.


...although I have my money on
New Zealand.  If I had any money
OR any say. (like i do, right?)


he does do a nice Aussie accent
as well though.  so maybe he
should give up all his college
dreams and just go in to 
some sort of stand up comedy 
act, or do impressions for a 
living.


i'll say one thing, the kid
has talent.

kitchen update....there's a hole in the bucket dear liza, dear liza

Well the HOLE is in my living room,

and my kitchen.  Here is why we missed dinner

group on Saturday night~

 Living room side of wall before removal 

 the only remaining chunk of my kitchen ...but hey! I 

still can do dishes and have a dishwasher that runs.

 This is what my living room looks like now.  UGH!

 Even UGLIER and older linoleum floors under the ugly and old

floors that were there.  LOVE the stripes!!

 Kitchen view of wall before removal (looking into Living Room)

 Tearing up linoleum and subfloors

 It's a fun job--thank goodness I have Kyle to do it!

 Looking towards the stairs--Living Room wall to be

removed is on the right side of picture.

 Just more messes.

 Preparing to say "good-bye"

 Pictures down, food table moving

 Say "good bye" wall.

 Ah, my manly man--he rips into walls!

 One picture from the living room side.

 Don't even ASK how much dust and dirt this made! :(

 Everyone helping.... actually I'm taking pictures
and Puddy is eating.  That's all she ever does...Eat.

 Wall down, 2x4 braces up so the house doesn't cave it.

(It WAS a load bearing wall he took down after all.)

 Looking from kitchen through to Living Room, new hole.

 Getting ready to put the beam in to hold up our house.

And it's DONE!  

Now for mudding, taping, priming, painting, texturing, trimming, flooring...

Well, lots more to do.

With the help of Kyle, myself and his parents we had the

house cleaned up in something like 2 1/2 hours--the next

day the dust had settled again and it looked like we

hadn't done ANYTHING.  This week Kyle laid

new subfloor, finished lots of loose ends and will lay

NEW HARDWOOD FLOORS THIS WEEKEND!!!

Can I get a HALLELUJAH????  (the subfloor

is giving us splinters when we walk on it!)

A little closer...to being done.

And we're loving the hole!

Grace

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE!!

The BIG 1.5.

Do you realize what this means?

She can get her learners permit...

Lock your children safely away.

Grace we love you and are so glad

you're in our home.

The above pictures say it ALL.

She is FUNNY and silly and

gorgeous and FUN and loves

to be a part of a crowd and is loud

and laughs and lives life to the 

fullest.

All of her parent teacher conferences

start with, "Grace sure is a great student,

but she has a little trouble with talking....."

To which we nod knowingly and tell

her to "hush" for something like

the ONE BILLIONETH time.

She adds sparkle to the room

and lights up our family.

She is our one thousand watt child!

Make it a great 15 Miss Gray.

Love your family.