Before and During

Before

Day 1

Day 2

Now that the plumbing is complete, and the new tankless water heater is in place, the guys began on the kitchen.
I was left with a functioning kitchen over the weekend, but Sunday night I needed to empty every cabinet. I have stacks and stacks of dishes in E3's room. Luckily, the weather has been nice so he hasn't played in his room at all.
The decision about the countertop was the easiest yet. The trip to the slab warehouse was fun. The kids accompanied me... and luckily, they didn't break anything... not even close. Although the girls fought over who got to carry the small sample of soapstone on the way home. They took turns every ten miles.
The "before" picture definitely looks better than the other two photos right now. I can't wait to see the "after".
As you can see in the "before" pic, my cabinets began protesting when they heard about their impending doom. Drawers broke, shelves fell out... it was a conspiracy. Similar to the range's recent protest.
I'll keep you posted...

Checking in

I have started a post more times than I can remember... but I am finally going to finish this one (I've said that before too).
It's been a bit busy around here. In the last few weeks we have gone through two nasty viruses, one stomach, and one cold... and I caught both. Things don't move smoothly when mom gets sick.
We just returned from walking around the neighborhood delivering Girl Scout Cookies. (Butterfly Wife, yours will be in the mail tomorrow). We lucked out and all but one person was home.
It's a beautiful day today. In the 80's I'm guessing.
Stuntman is working his butt off cleaning out two rooms that are in the path of demolition this week. We are doing some house remodeling that involves moving Stuntman's workbench and the laundry room. It also means cleaning the playroom in order to access everything. It's amazing all the crap that can collect in 13+ years.
Next week, I'll need to find a place to put everything in my kitchen while it is remodeled. I can't wait to say goodbye to my pink kitchen tile! I didn't even know they made pink grout.. seriously... who special-orders that?
I don't do well when there are too many choices... it took me two hours to pick out the color of white that I wanted for the cabinets. Many more choices, and my head may explode in the next month. Wish me luck, I'm going to the slab warehouse tomorrow to pick out the countertops. It is very likely that my head WILL explode.
I'm also in the midst of creating a new website for the girl's school. It looks great so far, if I do say so myself. (don't judge by the looks of the blog, I haven't put my best effort in it, sorry)
OK, I must post this now. I need to go back to helping Stuntman before he tries to move the washer and dryer by himself... like he did with the freezer.

Better late than never

We finally ordered prints of all of the photos that Stuntman and I took over the last 2 years.
The one above is my favorite one that Stuntman took last year. To me, it looks like some other planet with multiple sunsets... or maybe it's sunrises, I'm not sure.
I ordered a large print and now I need to find a frame and a place to put it.

Ugh

Looks like my plans have changed today.
I'm sitting home with E3, who pukes every 30 minutes (luckily he mostly hits the bowl) and E2 who has a bout of diarrhea.
I hear that it's been going around school for the last few weeks... it was only a matter of time until it hit our house.
Stuntman drove E1 to school. I needed to brief him on the strict drop-off procedures since he had never done so... which driveway to drive in, where to open the door, where to drive out, etc..

On another note, looks like a few of the moms at the school will be taking on a big project. I'm excited about it. If you want something changed, sometimes you just need to do it yourselves... and convince those in authority that it needs to be done.

The worst commercial

Buck was recently commenting on the stupid Valentine's day commercials out there and I just saw this commercial again on my TV. It's not for Valentine's Day, but must be the worst commercial ever. The quality isn't that great in the embedded version, but I think you can still see that if you go to 5-minute pawn, you can buy a motorcycle to impress the skanky ho with the monstrous bags under her eyes.

Rain?

Looks like rain.
I just love the rain... always have. I love it even more since I live somewhere that rain is rare. It'll be a nice change of pace from the 80 degree weather that we've had for the last week or so. I REFUSE to wear shorts in February... downright refuse to. No, I'm not complaining about the outrageously beautiful weather here, it's what keeps up here, I'm just looking forward to the rain.
I have beef stew in the crock-pot, and a frozen loaf of bread dough thawing and rising on the countertop. Should be a good day for it.
I'm heading to the Red Cross to donate blood today. It's been over a year since my tattoo, so it's go.

Also here is a E1's sure-fire sales pitch to Grandma...
E1: "Grandma, would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"
Grandma: "of course I'll buy a few"
E1: " You know, Barbara next-door bought 8 boxes"
Grandma: " OK, I'll buy 10"

the neighborhood

Stuntman and I bought this house over 13 years ago. We know our next-door neighbors very well. The ones on either side of us and the ones that share the driveway we know well enough to leave our keys with each other when we are out of town.
The rest of the neighborhood.... not so much.
We've never met anyone across the street. We have waved to each other as we drive our separate ways, but never actually spoken... until now. It's Girl Scout Cookie time, and E1 wanted to sell door-to-door. I walked with her and we met some very nice people. Almost everyone has lived here a very long time. It seems as if once you move to this street, you stay here.
We didn't walk the entire street though... I didn't care to meet anyone that lived in the house with the kite-man (he flies tiny little kites in the street and looks a bit like Bozo the clown)... and we didn't make it all the way to the guy-who-walks-around-in-his-robe-and-hasn't-shaved-or-bathed-in-10-years' house either.