Weekend Update

On Saturday I did something I've never done before! I had a garage sale! I had a couple big items and some smaller stuff that were cluttering up my house/garage/life and decided it was time for it to go. I'm usually much more apt to throw stuff away or take it to Goodwill. Occasionally I'll post it on craigslist and let someone come pick it up from my house. I've never bothered with ebay because packing up my junk and then driving it to the post office sounds about as appealing as a bikini wax. But for whatever reason I decided I was going to garage sale it! I talked to Jeni and she had some stuff to sell as well and we made a date for Saturday bright and early. And while we didn't see the throngs of people clambering to buy my sweet wicker wreaths and broken chair pads (from my lame attempt to decorate my kitchen in the Americana style), we were both able to sell a good bit of our stuff. By the end of the day we both had triple digit sales. Not bad. Sara, maybe you need to hold a garage sale to raise funds for your Pee Yay trip!!!!!!!!

Anyway, we kept the thing going until 3 in the afternoon before bringing it all into the garage to bring back out for a last ditch attempt this coming Saturday (before conference:)) to get rid of it all. After  digging it out, cleaning it up and putting tags on it I'd like to actually SELL the dang stuff!

 

After packing up the garage we made a quick trip to Lowe's to get the hardware for our kitchen so we could finally finish our stupid project! Chase worked late into the night on Friday to get the cabinet doors back on. We did paint the hinges, Chrysta, and it turned out really well! While I still hate my cabinet doors I hate them much less than I did before. And overall I really like my kitchen! We still want to put in a new backsplash, faucet, dishwasher and ceiling fan, but that's for another month (year) and another budget. See here to get a good idea of how I feel about budgets (right now, anyway). Oh, and I still haven't put anything up on the walls and I need valances. Again. Another time, another budget.

So, without further ado, here are some pictures of my kitchen! Hooray!

(The cabinet above the range hood still doesn't have doors on it because I have to order new hinges for those doors. So I guess we still aren't technically "done" with our project. Maybe by 2009 or so...)

Here's an oldie but a goodie. Since I got a bee sting on the bottom of my foot last night - which has rendered me swollen and pretty much useless...and I'm being a big crybaby about it - I have some free time on my hands. I was cleaning out my email inbox and found some old emails from '06. Specifically I found one where I sent out some newly-taken family pictures. In the email I said, "How cute is my family? Seriously, I want an essay from each of you. At least 350 words about how cute my family is and why you think they're going to change the world. It's due a week from Tuesday."
In true Alyssa fashion she actually wrote an essay.

How Cute is the Rawlins Family?

By: Alyssa Sage

Although it may be hard to determine a scale with which to measure “cuteness”, it is easy to see that the Rawlins family is, indeed, very cute by any standard. Dictionary.com defines “cute” as “attractive, especially in a dainty way; pleasingly pretty.” This definition has been used to create a cuteness scale based on units called “megasmiles”. The scale ranges from a score of “dismally unattractive” at the lowest end, to “maximally adorable” at the highest end. I believe that I can assign a score to the Rawlins family, indicating just how cute the Rawlins family is.

Judging by the photo evidence provided, the Rawlins family is composed of two somewhat dorky parents, and two outrageously adorable little boys. While the presence of the parents may seem to negatively skew their score on the “cuteness” scale, the ridiculous cuteness of the bouncing baby boys seems to balance out this factor. This places the Rawlins family in the category of “Highly, to Supremely Cute.”

Although the story seems to end there, we must take into consideration other mitigating factors. For instance, the alpha female appears to have dressed the family in matching outfits. Again, ridiculously cute. This adds at least 5.7 megasmiles to their overall score. Additionally, the alpha male appears to have positioned himself in a manner mimicking the actions of his offspring. This enhances the alpha male’s cuteness by association, thus increasing the score by yet another 4.2 megasmiles. Lastly, the photo depicting the playful relationship between the mother and her offspring shows that the Rawlins family is not only cute in appearance, but in their demeanor as well. This adds an astonishing 12 megasmiles to the overall score!

After careful calculation and examination of all evidence provided, I believe that it is safe to say that the Rawlins family falls neatly into the category of “maximally adorable”. The cuteness scale doesn’t lie, and megasmiles are not easily awarded. It is my estimation that fewer than 1 in 1000 families can achieve this rating of cuteness. The Rawlins family should be looked upon as a fine specimen of the human genome. The offspring (largely accountable for the high score) may even be the perfect specimen with which to create an army of ridiculously cute clones.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that the Rawlins family achieved a score of “maximally adorable” on the cuteness scale, based on their overall accumulation of “megasmiles”. I believe that the photo evidence provided confirms my findings and illustrates how the Rawlins family is supersaturated with cuteness.

Jungle Fever

(Insert vicious cat growl - think Pitt Panther, Nittany Lion, BYU Cougar - here)

Check out these hotties I got at the mall today. They aren't going to match my collared seasonal dress-up sweatshirts but oh well. Wearing them together will just make me even more of an ugly mom.

 

Aren't these crazy cute!?!?

If you haven't already seen this blog you need to check it out. Now.
http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/
This blog will be especially funny to you if you have ever lived in Utah.

You might be a Kilgore if...

So I was cleaning tonight and got to thinking about my family. I can't wait to go home for Christmas and see those who will be there. Anyway, as I was reminiscing I thought it would be funny to collect some classic Kilgore moments. So here are the ones I remember. Please feel free to add.

You might be a Kilgore if...

• You were reading spy novels and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. while your friends were still on Suess.
• You have one water cup that you use for an indefinite amount of time. You get mad if someone puts it into the dishwasher unauthorized.
• 15 minutes late = on time; 20 minutes late = not too shabby; 30 minutes late = late (this one doesn't apply to me because I've become obsessively punctual as a result of the aforementioned Kilgore Standard Time).
• You still silently count to three before starting any prayer.
• Your room growing up was styled after an Army barracks.
• You think lovingly of your mother whenever you pass a cemetery. And your mother is still very much alive.
• You can recall with great detail and accuracy the body shape and styling of a 1978 (79?) Chevy Impala.
• You still cringe whenever you think about Carl, Scott and golfclubs.
• If you were ever stranded in the middle of the wilderness you'd want Jerry there with you.
• You remember being served such culinary delights as squid, liver & onions and chinese pizza.
• Your friends quickly learned that when they called they could not simply ask, "Is X there?" because Dad would simply respond, "yes."
• Hershey Park and the Hershey Chocolate Factory are near-sacred institutions.
• Your family pets had very human names.
• Your "at ease" position is standing in the middle of the living room with your arms crossed, lightly bouncing on the balls of your feet.
• You learned about the "birds and bees" from an awkward cartoon rented from the library.

"But Mom I'm Five!" and other random musings...

After all the blog back-and-forth it is time for an update I'm skipping subheads and outlines and this blog will appear as one continuous sentence No grammar This should drive my sister Chrysta insane And frankly it's going to drive me insane as well I'm already getting a bit edgy So Cameron had his 5th birthday on the 12th as you all know because that day is highlighted brightly with giant arrows pointing to it in all of your Franklin Covey planners right yeah I'm not even using a question mark I'm dying here people ACK there should be an exclamation mark breathe Anna Okay so anyway instead of just having a single day to celebrate Cameron had several days First he had his actual birth DAY He got a happy meal with chocolate milk and I made him some cupcakes He was in Heaven Two days later on Sunday he got a family party that we shared with Aunt Jeni and Uncle Gare Bear I made him a couple ice cream cakes They were divine And it was potluck dinner Yum Yum Wednesday we shared cupcakes with our playgroup at the park Last year we had cupcakes AND Lemonade which I equate to giving kids crack This year being the smart and ugly mommy that I am I brought water for everyone Cameron was disappointed by the lack of lemonade Apparently I never give him anything ever But it was a wise choice The final birthday hurrah came on Thursday when we brought treats to Cameron's preschool class I think he's going to be a pretty popular kid from now on You're welcome Cam The day after Cameron's birthday we ran as a family in the American Heart Association Heart Start 5K Hurricane Ike was busy wreaking havoc in the southern part of the state and we were lucky to only get a little bit of rain We came prepared with our raincovers for both strollers and only needed to use one on Sophie The boys being the wild and crazy guys that they are opted out of their raincover I will say that we were quite a sight I'm pretty sure we were the only ones there with two jogging strollers and three kids We got a lot of stares And Sophie was a charmer in her I heart Hearts tshirt When we put the raincover on her people kept walking up to her and tickling her feet which were propped up on the inside of the plastic Speaking of the raincover at one point during the run it started to rain and the wind really picked up I was headed up a hill and looked down at Sophie who was asleep at this point She seriously looked like she was shrink wrapped It was hifreakinlarious Of course I pulled the plastic away to make sure she had lots of fresh air but it was a funny little moment  The other thing that I would like to mention about the 5K is about the breakfast Beforehand I told you about the usual pre race breakfast that is served at the corporate tent Well imagine our collective surprise when we showed up to find that they didn't do Corner Bakery this year Actually they didn't do ANYTHING I seriously need exclamation marks for this one because you need to understand that we showed up with two very hungry boys and two very hungry parents We dragged our butts out of bed at 6 AM and all we got were these lousy purple shirts Okay the shirts are actually pretty decent But where was the food I'm assuming that someone in the events planning department of the firm got a good talking to come Monday morning After the race we headed home to work on our kitchen That's right folks our kitchen is still under construction After we painted we realized it would take some time for the paint to cure enough to not stick Well it's taking longer than we thought plus we had to strip the hinges and repaint them So the cabinet doors plus hardware should be on this coming Saturday Anyway after the race we never actually worked on the kitchen because our friends The Beans came over to help us install our new ceiling fan I love the Beans And not just because of the ceiling fan but mostly because I just love them We spend oodles of time with them and consider them family So it was nice to have them help us Thanks again Matt and Stephanie So this past week we've been up to the usual We decided that it was time for us to join a gym so that we can stop getting fat I mean really when it starts to look like there is another person growing out of your bottom I think that means it's time to take drastic measures And for us paying to workout is a pretty drastic measure So last Saturday we went out gym shopping I had called around the day before and decided that 24 Hour Fitness was going to be a good fit for us because they were going to give us a good deal plus childcare is free So we made an appointment for Saturday morning to check the place out On the way we were giving the kids lots of warning and encouragement about them staying in the Kids Club area As I was going on and on about how fun it would be and how they'd be just fine Cameron interrupted me by saying in a rather petulant tone Mom I'm five I can handle anything Which brings me to my last topic Cameron is five Yes Cameron is five and he will tell you thirty or forty time a day that he is five It is usually used as an explanation for his behavior At quiet time when he's picking out a movie he'll point to Spiderman and I'll say Cameron that's PG 13 and you're not old enough And he'll say But mom I'm five At dinner when I want him to finish his food he'll look at me totally exasperated that I'm just not getting it and say but Mom I'm five So far I find it pretty amusing I just don't know if it would work for me But Officer I'm 28.

****Chrysta, are you still there? Has your head exploded? Or perhaps you've punched through your screen...

Subheads for my Subheads. I defy you to beat that, Deb.

Subheads

Why Subheads are so hot right now

Subheads are so hot right now because of Deb. She's the master of cool. Or maybe I'm cooler because I have subheads for my subheads. You be the judge.

Deb, huh? What does Deb backwards spell?

Bed

Alyssa

Wearing spandex is cool

But only cool if you're a high school/college athlete who was once asked to play for the National Handball Team.

National Handball Team

Come on, Alyssa. National Handball Team? Really? That's funny because I was once asked to play for the I-Totally-Made-That-Up National Team. Only the name of my team is more creative than the name of your team. Seriously, I can imagine you trying to come up with a name and all you could think of was your hand. And a ball. And thus the National Handball Team was born. Nice.

Random childhood memories

I really appreciate when my sister's share their childhood memories. Has anyone noticed that our brother's actually have NO MEMORY of (almost) any childhood event? Here's a conversation between me and Sam:

Me: Hey Sam, remember that time...

Sam: No

Side Ponytails

On 80 year-olds

Um, seriously? Shouldn't someone report that to the supervisor. It seems like unstable behavior.

On Me

Bringin' sexy back.

The Gym

I Don't Understand

So you're telling me that eating ice cream with hot fudge every night for the last, say, 28 years is why my butt looks like this? Crap.

Alright, already, so I'll join a gym

But explain to me again how that piece of paper is going to shrink my bottom? Wait, what? I have to GO TO the gym? And do what? On the what? Crap. Pass the ice cream.

Dogs

Dog spit

Look out, world. Dog spit. It's all the rage. Check for it in your local Penzey's or Williams Sonoma soon!

Dog Beating

Down with dog beating!

You saw it here first

I'm pretty excited to share the newest Olympic sport! It's neat because it's one of those combination sports, like some kind of -athalon. It's called "Trying to Walk Through My House Without Breaking a Limb." I'm hoping that as it catches on it will be known by the more commonly recognized names, like, "Watch Out, Watch Out, Watch Out!"; "Who Left THAT There?!"; "Ooh, I Think That's Gonna Leave a Mark"; "Freaking Toys!"; and the ever-popular "Didn't I Just Clean This Place Up?!"

The event begins with the Hurdle through the kitchen over the baby gate and moves right into the High Jump over the lego tower. Next is the 10 meter dash to catch the naked boy before he makes it to the mail box (to say hi to the mailman, of course), which goes seamlessly to the triple jump down the broken front stair. Gymnastics comes next as the athlete gracefully tumbles back through the front door after tripping on the muddy shoes (tripping required; missing the trip is a deduction) placed directly in front of the entrance instead of to the side as a reasonable person would do. After the tumbling portion the athlete will skillfully complete a cross-living-room-dive to catch the baby who was just pushed off of the ottoman (placed there, no doubt, by officials). The event comes to a close with the athlete scrambling to her feet for a soccer-style goalie maneuver to catch the truck that was launched at the TV screen.

The event will appear at the Winter and Summer Olympics.

Clearly, uniforms are not required.

I can see Alaska from my house...

In case you haven't seen it.

Click here to see the SNL opening skit. Seriously. Click here. Now.

Nicole, you may want to wear earplugs.

Everyone's Favorite Superhero

Cameron turned five on Friday so I want to give a shout out to my cutest little "big kid." It's amazing to me that it's been FIVE WHOLE YEARS since Cameron joined our family! I still remember the day (and night, and following day) that he was born and it's been a great journey so far. Cameron had a rough first few months but soon turned into a little sweetie. His temperament is very much a mix of mine (the quick temper) and Chase's (the easy, laid-back mellow-ness).

It's been my privilege to watch as he's grown and overcome obstacles, from learning to climb the ladder at the playground, to learning to share toys and get along with friends, and so many other things. I'm so grateful to have been there for almost every moment. Since his birth I have only spent 4 nights away from him! Granted, I could probably use more of those... But honestly I wouldn't trade it for anything. He's my buddy, my helper, my monster-slayer. He takes seriously his job as big brother and role model and does his best to show Miles and Sophia the ropes.

So Cameron, I want to tell you how much I love you. I love you bigger than the sky. I love you more than all the water in the ocean. I love you farther than the moon. I love you deeper than the Grand Canyon. I love you better than chocolate. I love you!!!!! Happy Birthday, Spidey!

 

 

This morning I had the privilege of sitting through 2 HOURS of church and listening to (almost) every minute of it. I'm pretty sure the last time that happened was about 5 years ago, so this was monumental.
We had a special Stake Conference with Elder Bednar presiding. Chase and I sang in the choir and our family were kind enough to watch the kids while we sat on the stand (about 10 feet away from Elder Bednar!). I can't begin to thank my family enough for this blessing because of all the meetings I've been to in the last five years THIS was the one I needed to hear. This was the one I needed to be able to focus on. So, family, thank you. A MILLION TIMES, THANK YOU! No, YOU rock, and you know it (line, anyone?).
Anyway, the reason I'm writing this blog is because of my experience this morning. It's not very often that I walk away from a meeting with a better understanding of my self, my worth in the eyes of the Lord, and a better vision of my divine potential.
I started to write a summary of his talk, but I just can't do it justice. And honestly the bottom line is this: the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Our time on this earth is a probationary period. Because of this we are given trials and tribulations. Some come as part of our mortal experience, and some are given to us individually to test and refine us. What matters in life is the priorities we set and the goals we are striving to accomplish. If we find ourselves making excuses for not doing those things we know we should do - and which will bring us true and lasting happiness - it is NOT because, "we don't have time." That's a lame excuse (those are Elder Bednar's very candid words). It's because we don't think those things are important to us. If we're not having Family Home Evening, scripture study and prayer, it's because we are simply choosing not to. If it's important to us, we'll do it.
On the flip side there is the message of hope. We can change. The atonement and saving grace of our Savior Jesus Christ is the one thing that can truly enable change in our lives if we seek after it. It often seems we are asked to do too much. Or we feel that our challenges and trials are just too great a burden to overcome. When we feel this way it's easy to forget that the Lord is there and will strengthen us and give us the ability to overcome ANYTHING. We may think no one else can ever understand our pain/weakness. But the Savior has overcome every trial and hardship and knows how best to succor our needs. In Him we can find true relief.
I could literally go on for days about how awe-inspiring it was to hear Elder Bednar speak today. It is truly wonderful to be in the presence (did I mention I was 10 feet away from him?) of an Apostle of the Lord, a sacred witness of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful I was able to be there. Moreover, I'm grateful for the strength I gained in my testimony of God's Only Begotten Son. I am filled with a knowledge that God our Father lives. He sent His Son to live on this earth and teach us a better way; a way that, if followed, will lead us directly back to live with Him. He has, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, restored the fulness of the gospel on the earth in this dispensation. Through this we are able to have the Priesthood, the literal authority to act in God's name. Through this sacred authority we can become families, united for eternity. I find so much strength, hope and happiness in this sure knowledge.
I love my Savior. I know that He loves me as well. If any among my readership does not have that knowledge I would encourage you to get on your knees and get back in touch with the Father who created you. Regardless of denomination I think we all can benefit from a relationship with God and His Son. May we ALL do what we know is right and live to the potential within us.

1. Apparently the trend du jour in my family is to write numbered blogs. And since I can't let anything die I have to jump on it.
2. If I ever figure out how to put people's blog links on my blog you would be able to blog-stalk my family and see why I am currently blogging in numbers. But I can't figure it out. Because I'm a moron sometimes.
3. The other day I was reminiscing about how far my cooking skillz have come. Sara, do you remember the first summer I was your au pair and I asked you how to make Minute Rice? You just looked at me.
14. If Bono can count like this, so can I.
15. I've taken to typing gansta-type. I like it. I think it's classy.
16. Today is Cameron's birthday. Big #5. There will be another post dedicated to my favorite 5 year-old.
17. Chase just walked in. It's only 4:30. Angels are singing.
18. Miles has spent most of the week naked. And he's averaging about 6 showers a day.
19. Tomorrow we're supposed to do a 5K with Chase's firm. We do this every year for American Heart Association. We get Grant Thornton team shirts but Sophie's won't fit her which is why I'll be crafting an "I *heart* Hearts" t-shirt for her tonight. I'm hoping to get her into the company newsletter.
20. The reason I'm MOST excited about the 5K tomorrow? The breakfast bar beforehand. Last year they had Corner Bakery cater it. Scrum-dilly-umptious. Though, I'm pretty sure the 'Death by chocolate" muffins are anything but heart healthy.
21. I've also been blog-stalking Nicole since Bird mentioned it. I'm obviously not as cool as Sara.
22. If Deb and Nicole throw us under a bus and run off I would cry. But mostly because I was just hit by a bus.
23. I'm almost positive I'm voting for Obama, but only because I whole-heartedly support his assertion that Sarah Palin is a pig who wears lipstick.
24. I think I'm going to go ahead and do 28 of these. one for every year of life.
25. The shirt I'm currently wearing smells a little bit. I think I left it in the washer too long before it went in the dryer. I hate that!
26. In the next month I need to buy about 6 pairs of shoes. Both boys need new sneakers and church shoes. I need new black pumps and Sophie needs new pink converse All Stars. I officially feel like I have a big family.
27. I think Alyssa makes an adorable pregnant woman even if her blog has had several pictures of animals on it lately. One of whom she talks to and has named "Arnold."
28. I'm pretty sure I passed another UMC milestone yesterday. It has to do with potty training, poop and the public restroom. I'll spare you the details but let's just say that maybe I should be president now?
Peace out ma lovelies. Fo shizzle!

Big week for the kiddos!

This week has been eventful for each of the kids. I need to blog it before I forget it!

Sophie is making big strides lately. First with the crawling, now with standing. She can pull herself up to stand on things. She loves to do it! She's working on getting down gracefully; she's only fallen over once. She also wants to hold our hands so we can help her walk around. She gets upset if we just sit her on the floor and try to do something else. She will whine until we grab her hands and hoist her onto her feet so she can get in some laps around the house. Miles thinks this is great and loves to run up and say, "BOO!" She laughs like crazy. And I have to admit I'm pretty excited for her to walk because I've been waiting not-so-patiently to buy these puppies for her!

SO CUTE!

 

Sophie has also learned to clap. Well, she could do it before but now it's a pastime not a skill. She'll be crawling around thinking about something and then all the sudden you can see she just remembered that she could clap. She stops whatever she's doing and sits there and claps with a big grin. I caught it on video!

Lastly for Sophia, she has a big mouth-full of teeth coming in. She cut her first tooth yesterday (bottom left-middle as you're looking at her)! And today she got it's companion. You can barely see them but you can feel them on her gums. If you look in her mouth her top gums are all swollen and you can see the teeth about to come through. So far she's done well with it - no excessive crankiness. I don't expect that to last.

Miles. The kid is doing really great with potty training! Today he was taking himself to the potty whenever he needed to go. Still a few accidents but all pretty minor. I'm still too nervous to leave the house with him but I can see the light at the end of the PT tunnel. Today we were in the kitchen and the gate was locked and he stopped what he was doing and told me he needed to go potty. So I'm hopeful.

(Sorry. No pic of Miles. Potty training isn't so pretty!)

Cameron started pre-school on Tuesday and he's so excited to be back. Being delayed a week was rough on him because he's been ramping up for a couple weeks. He was really happy when I dropped him off. In a couple of weeks we'll start Open Gym and Tumbling classes and that will be even better!

First day of school!

NOT COOL! SO NOT COOL! I hate dishonest people. And I really hate dishonest people who circulate their dishonesty and nastiness via the web. Grrrr! Now they've really done it!
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

Is it bad that I'm currently using the shower as a means of giving myself a few minutes of "me" time? I'm not IN the shower. The kids are. It's 3 PM and we just picked up Cameron from pre-school. It's day 2 of potty-training Miles and while it's going pretty well overall I had forgotten just how messy and EXHAUSTING it is! It's even WORSE when you have a baby crawling around! You have to be ON every minute the kid is awake. If you lose your focus for even a minute all the sudden the kid who "didn't need to pee" five minutes ago has developed an overly full bladder and is relieving it in every corner of the house...while laughing. Who says a 2 year-old doesn't understand the meaning of "spite?"
So in an effort to just sit down and relax for five minutes I put the boys in the shower and here I sit checking my email and writing a blog.
Only 4.5 more hours until we start the bedtime wind-down.
Okay, but seriously, I have to add that Miles is doing REALLY well. He's kept the REALLY messy stuff in the potty and had only minor accidents on the carpet. For that I thank him.

Pee pee and other random mommy moments

In the midst of the craziness with the house my children didn't give us any breaks. Sophie learned to crawl, Cameron's pre-school was delayed a week because the building was being used as an evacuation center for the Gustav victims, Miles was all about the pee pee.

Over the last few weeks Miles has been potty-training himself. He would randomly take off his diaper and head for the potty. Every night before tubbie/shower he would sit on the potty and pee and then get in the shower. If Cameron was running around in his underwear - as he is wont to do at times  - Miles likes to stand behind him and stare at the various superhero's starring on his backside. The kid is just a little obsessed. I know he's been ready to potty train and I've been avoiding it like the plague! It's so much work!

Sometime during this last week Miles decided to start parading around in Cameron's drawers. Usually with both legs stuck through one opening. So I gave up and allowed it here and there, but let him wear the underwear I had bought him. He insists on wearing it backwards (because that's where the cool pictures are, of course!). Eventually he would have an accident and I would decide we were done with underwear time for the day and he'd go back in his diaper. He would object but not too loudly and we'd move on.

Until this morning, that is. This morning Miles threw down the potty training gauntlet. It was a lovely scene, as most Sunday mornings are. Chase was gone for meetings and I was trying to keep the kids from killing each other (and me from killing them). Miles took a shower and when it was time to put on the diaper he took a stand. He didn't want anything to do with the diaper! He wailed, he gnashed teeth. He screamed so loudly I was sure the neighbors were, at that moment, dialing 911. I told him we just didn't have time for underwear at the moment. We're going to church and I can't deal with accidents in the pew at church. I won the argument for the moment; Miles wore his diaper to church. But Miles is winning the war. Guess who is getting potty-trained this week?

Baby Steps

It's been a long week since the last update. I'll start from the beginning but give you the Cliff Notes version.

Thursday and Friday: Dismantling of cabinets, sanding/scraping, more sanding and sraping. I swear I thought we were done sanding numerous times. Thursday night I emailed Steph and said, "we're done sanding," to which she replied, "You're an animal!" Well, yeah, we would have been if we were actually DONE! But no, it was late day Friday before we put the sandpaper and sander away. What a grisly, messy, laborious, terrible, horrible, no-good job! Friday evening we started priming cabinets and wainscoting.

Saturday: Priming. Over and over and over again we primed. That's DARK 70's wood under there, people.

Sunday: Our day of rest. It wasn't the most restful considering we had a demolition zone in the kitchen but oh well.

Monday: More priming, maybe even some more sanding in spots? By the end of the day we got to PAINT finally! The wainscoting was finished by the end of the day. Blinds were all taken down Monday as well. I don't know why, but I really love to spackle. Chase also got the cabinet doors painted which literally took 5 solid hours in our hot, sweaty garage. We didn't want to open the garage door for fear of dust blowing around - it was windy. Chase deserves major props!

Tuesday: Last day of Chase's vacation. We finished painting everything and got the new blinds up. After inspection we decided the cabinet doors looked good and didn't need anymore coats (much to Chase's relief).

Still to do: re-assemble cabinets. Texas is humid. Gustav came through at the same time as our kitchen renovation and made it even more humid. So the paint is taking awhile to cure. Once the paint loses it's tacky-ness we'll be able to put doors back on and drawers back in. I'm still living out of boxes and it's driving me insane. But it's worth it because I'm loving the results in our kitchen! Here are a couple before/during/after pics.

Before - notice the super mini-blinds and the weird color scheme. It was gray on bottom, white chair-rails/baseboard, beigey creamy walls and weird backsplash. Four different colors. All in flat paint. It got SO STAINED and gross from our kids spilling food.

Different view. Notice the 2 skinny windows with individual mini-blinds. Chic.

Day one of sanding.

Close up of the awesome flat paint.

Day 2 sanding scraping. Finished wainscoting and walls. Major improvement.

 

So while we were doing all of this disaster work in the kitchen Sophie was learning to do this:

Super convenient timing.