Monday, April 1, 2013

Kitchen reveal!

BEFORE




I have some artwork to hang yet.

AFTER

Kraftmaid Layton Peppercorn cabinets. Frigadaire appliances. Behr Lemon Pound Cake Paint.

There are a few details to work out yet (glass doors, appliance garage) but for the most part it is done, functional, and we have so much more storage, organization and space!!!!!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Arizona vacation

For spring break this year we flew to Apache Junction and mingled with the snow birds!  We had a lot of fun packed into our long short weekend away.  We went Thurs.-Mon. but since Thursday and Monday were travel days we could only do things Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Besides visiting with my parents we visited
IKEA! (I had no idea that place had good cheap food! We ate TWO breakfasts!)
the Mesa Market Place Swap Meet
Filly's Roadhouse
Goldfield Ghost Town
and hiked the  Hieroglyphic Canyon TrailI recommend them all!!!

Superstition Mountain.  The trail we hiked is somewhere in there. 
At the beginning of the Hieroglyphic Trail


Desert picture near the top of the trail.  The scenery was breathtaking.  
Notice how rocky the trail was.  It is labeled as easy and I did see all ages on it but my dad and M did turn around about this point and one of the fell on the way down.  Be prepared and careful if you try this trail!!  However it is free and you can always turn around. I think it took is an hour to get up there and about 30 minutes to get back down.  We could've spent another 30 minutes enjoying the scenery at the top but we were on a time constraint.  
Breathtaking views.
At the end of the Hieroglyphic Trail.  Notice how you are just boulder climbing at this point.  
Goldfield Ghost Town
Tuckered out J on the plane ride home.

A few tips for flying with kids.  A Thirty-One cinch sack is a must (in my eyes) as well as a crossbody purse.  Less is more on the plane.  The kindles were enough along with the window seat.  The tylenol was necessary and  we did bring a pillow pet and it did come in handy!!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

J's 5th Birthday interview

How old are you?  
5

When is your birthday?  
 I don't know
 
What is your mommy's name? 
Manda
What is your daddy’s name?
Ryan

What does your mommy do all day?Laundry
What does daddy do all day?Nothing
What do you like to play with mommy? Nothing


What do you like to play with daddy?
Games

What is your favorite color?
Purple and Pink

What do you want to be when you grow up? 
A garden

Where do you want to live when you grow up?
In a museum

What is your favorite food?
Pop Tarts

What is your least favorite food?
Apples


Do you know what church is?
No

What is your favorite thing to eat at a restaurant?
Chicken Strips (and after the kitchen remodel she is an expert and partial to Arby's)

What do you like to play with M?
Nothing



Do you have any friends? Who are they?
Sam

What is your favorite thing to wear?
A dress

Where do babies come from?
Tummies

What is your favorite show?
Johnny Test and Tom & Jerry

What is your favorite toy?
Barbies

What is your favorite thing to help Mommy do?
Laundry ( I see a theme)

What is your favorite vehicle?
A scooter

What is your favorite thing to do outside?
Ride my scooter

Where do you like to go in the car?
To the store

Where do you live? Named our city

Saturday, March 2, 2013

A month in the life of the kchick, (February 2013)



.
Whew!! We accomplished a lot in the month of February. We worked on our house every spare minute of the day.
Feb. 1-  Drove 40 miles to pick up this desk I found off the local swap site.  This is for M's craft room, walk in closet.  I am so excited to have the mess contained! 
Feb. 2-  M's room was pained in January. Benjamin Moore, Fairytale Blue.  Egress window trim being finished.
Feb. 3- Groundwork being laid for extra outlets.
Feb. 4- Oh no!  Both girls have influenza!  With the flu shot though it was pretty mild.  This teacher took advantage of the sick days to catch up on laundry!
Feb. 5- Hubby is preparing to take over since I had to go do conferences.  I think he was a little afraid of getting sick himeself.  What do you think?
Feb. 6-  Hubby was more productive on his sick day.  Old desk spray pained and conduit outlets finished.
Feb. 6

Feb. 7- Shaw caramel carpet installed by Home Depot.

Feb. 8- Comp day.  Having coffee, staring at the geese one last time.  How often I did that the last 10 years.  I started dreaming of painting over them, followed by refinishing the cupboards, until they started to fall apart and then I started dreaming of a brand new kitchen!!
Feb. 9- Bed delivery and official move in to new room! M now has the newest, most comfy bed in the house. 
Feb. 10- Begin kitchen project, tear down wallpaper, remove appliances.  These were the 16th, 17th and 18th walls of wallpaper we've removed from this house since we moved in 10 years ago.  We've tried all the solutions, vinegar, DIF, fabric softener, steam.  What we have found works best is just soaking HOT water (from the Keurig) and a scraper.  A crew of 3-4 people is very helpful as well as a tall guy. 
Bare bones kitchen
Feb. 11--Putting finishing touches on M's desk. 
Feb. 12--After thinking about what Benjamin Moore paint color I wanted for 2 years, my hubbyt throws a wrench it my decision and says, "You need to buy paint from Home Depot and you need to go pick it out tonight."  What?!  I haven't researched Behr paint colors yet!  So M and I headed to Home Depot after piano lessons, contemplated for 30 minutes, decided on Behr Lemon Pound Cake.  Just to be sure I headed over to the cupboards and granite to make sure I liked it with them.  It looked great with the cabinets but not so much with ghibli granite I orginally picked out.  It was too peachy and after holding the paint up to the Venetioa Gold Slab here I told them to STOP MY GRANITE ORDER!  So I picked a paint and switched the granite.








Feb. 13-  Demolition day 1.  The contractor is moving in.
Feb. 14--Valentine's Day, loopty loo, twisty heart hair.

More chocolate than I can eat (which doesn't happen often).

Demolition Day 2
Feb. 15- Preschool Sing
Feb. 16- Begin Paint

Feb. 17- After 3 coats of Behr Lemon Pound Cake





Feb. 18-  A time of truth.  Pulling the cabinets out of the boxes and measuring. We learned that they didn't come flush to the windows so there was more scraping and painting to be done around the windows.  Also the drywall on the ceiling  needed to be patched. That all happened on Feb. 19.

Feb. 20
Feb. 21- SNOW DAY!  So I worked on these closetmaid cubbies in the basement so the contractors could work upstairs.
Since a lot of snow was predicted they had to pull all the cupboards in from our detached garage.



Feb. 22- bottom cabinets went in.



Feb. 24-  Someone is turning 5 (Feb. 25)
Build a Bear Party.  Simplest part I've ever had!

Feb. 26-  Utility cabinet/pantry/clutter hider wall.  I'm in love!!!

Feb. 28- Appliances!!  I LOVE my new fridge! Kraftmaid Layton Peppercorn cabinets. Frigadaire appliances.
  I'm tired just posting all that!!  Three weeks until the counters. Stay tuned.......