Day of Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

This picture was taken last year, but I think it is too adorable to not be revisited, (it probably will be next year as well!)

It is easy to let days pass by without acknowledging all of the blessings of our lives and it is nice to have a day that is dedicated to celebrating the joys we are able to experience. I hope that we will all take advantage of that chance.

Freebies? I love Freebies

Okay - so there is a drawing being held at

http://www.unlikelyletters.blogspot.com

Need a cool, different, fun gift for Christmas?Check this out http://unlikelyletters.blogspot.com/

Our House : The Kitchen

Previously on "Our House", the family room was reviewed. All the comments were appreciated, and in a shameless effort to solicite additional pats on the back, here are some pictures of the kitchen.

The kitchen went through 2 phases of renovation. The first was during the no money / new baby on the way phase. that took us from this:

to this:

This was the basic paint on the cabinets, chip out and re-grout the white ceramic tile countertop and scrub the crap out of 1970's, original to the house, kitchen faucet until the chrome shined. All the same appliances except for the refridgerator. That had to go. We still had the terribly sick color of light from the flourescent lighting (gives me a headache).

Then we grew tired of this and opted for a "new" oven / microwave combo. Craigslist.com is the best.Then we had to have new floors. The 16" white ceramic tiles with grey grout was unacceptable. Totally hideous and totally showed every speck of dirt. So, the tile had to be chipped out. It was awesome.This was about the time that I realized this was a stupid idea.

So then the floors were laid. My dad came over and helped me get the floors installed. After that, it was countertop time. We should have done this in reverse order but whatever. We had the money for floors before countertops. I tore out the old crappy tile tops and had the stone company install the new ones.We added subway tiles to the walls from the oven around to the refridgerator. This one feels like the most significant change. It added a ton to our kitchen. We then glazed and varnished our cabinets over the green paint that we had originally done. Added hardware from IKEA and they were done. We also changed the light box to 5 directional lights to get rid of the terrible light color.

After all of that was completed, you get this:

SO....Hooray. This is a great kitchen for us and it is all worth it now.

Halloween has come and gone and the kids had a great time. This year they got to pick what they wanted to be. Can you imagine that! I didnt care if they matched, I know it is a big step for me.
We visited Target yesterday morning and Caitlyn helped pick out her costume for next year. I'm taking the lazy way out, no sewing, gluing or assembly of any kind. Luckily for me, she picked out something that I could match Nathan really easily too. I can now have a big sigh of relief :) but I cant tell what the costumes are.... you'll have to wait 'til next year.

Nathan wanted/wants to wear this all the time. He loves the muscles. Thanks to Lanae for letting us borrow it, and thanks to Jessie for lending us another suit too! We had plenty of help with this one, but in the end we didnt know how skinny this kid actually was and had to go with the smaller size!

Can you guess who? I'll give you a hint, we would never let our daughter dress up as Brittney Spears.

Don't ask me twice

So we had some requests to see pictures of our house. To be honest we had one request, but I did read it several times.

Before I post the new pictures, I want to either show for the first time, or remind people what we moved into. This will only be about the family room. That is all that I felt like cleaning right now.

Here goes.

Take notice of the gross slump block fireplace over there looking a tad 1965-ish.

Make sure you soak in the beauty of the exposed beams in the ceilings. Make sure you also relish in the luxurious "popcorn" ceilings that have marinated in the smokiness of 2 disgusting foremer owners

Finally here is a small sneak peak of the kitchen from the family room. You can only imagine the destruction that took place in there.

Now, hold on to your hats. Here come the afters. This is the current state of our family room. I hope that you find it a little fantastic.

Here is the corresponding picture to the first one posted. Notice the remodeled foreplace complete with flagstone seat. Notice the lovely carpet and repainted walls. But, make sure that you absorb the most significan undertaking. Recessed lighting in a flat roofed house. (Flat roof houses do not have attic space.)

Oh how soothing are the warm colors that flow from the overhead lighting. With the popcorn ceilings removed you actually get a reflection of outside light back into the room from the ceiling. Oh and the french doors are totally new too. Those were easier to put in than I thought they would be.

Finally the sneak peek into the kitchen. We worked hard on this room, and we are totally happy with the way it turned out. Hope you like the new look>

Chad

What used to be fun

Painting. When we first got our condo, back in the day, I couldnt wait to paint. It was fun to see our little place transform just by picking a new color; putting our stamp on the place. I have now decided that a lifetime retirement from painting is in my near future.

We are so happy to finally have our ceilings done. Looking at holes for a couple of years has not been a highlight of our house, but painting these new ceilings has been draining. Everyday they are staring me in the face, taunting me until I finish them. Today I am working on this -what feels like - a never-ending process.

We worked really hard on Saturday and Chad and I finished the painting in our family room. What an accomplishment! Yeah! our room feels home-y and inviting. Its a breath of fresh air! It made me so excited that I am anxious to finish the rest of the house so we can actually wake up on a Saturday and not already have our day planned with house work. I know that is Chad's dream too :)

So, enough with the complaining. Its time for me to get to work. Plus, I just bought some cute drapes for my dining room and I cant hang them up until the ceiling is painted. There's my motivations for the day.

One Final Push

(Picture of the kids at Zoo Walk 2007)

Autism Zoo Walk is tomorrow! We are excited to go, but we need some donations. If you can spare even a small amount to this great cause we would be appreciative.

Just click on the link to the right, under Zoo Walk. When filling out the form in the memo box put "ASU Research Foundation". This makes sure that your funds stay local and are put back directly into our community.

We are really grateful for all that we have received so far from our family, friends and the community. For all of love, support and service that has come to us and into our home, we will be forever thankful. By participating in the walk we feel that it is our chance to give back to a community and honor those who have given so much to us.

What was yours?

Who gave your favorite talk during conference and why? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Mine was Elder Corbridge - in the Saturday afternoon session. It was a talk that was completely different to me. I appreciated his plainess in speaking. He had no stories (not that I dislike stories - Im always glued when President Monson starts talking) and his sentences were short and to the point. If you didnt get to see it, I highly recommend looking it up. If you can get video feed of it I suggest that to. There was something in his delivery that I was completely drawn to. I really appreciated his words about reaching high standards and how life teaches us that if the bar is set high, we learn that only a few choice people can reach it, but how that earthly lesson does not apply to spiritual greatness.

Conference

If anyone would like to have an activity packet for children. Let me know I have a great packet that a friend sent me for General Conference that I would be happy to forward to you. Just leave me your email!