dust and more dust

Our beautiful, custom cabinets, which are not only built like brick ______ houses, but ended up being more economical than anything we looked at in Lowe's and Home Depot.
The deck is our new "dumpster". Pretty, isn't it?
Keith kept the dishwasher in the room to serve as a countertop. We have no sink, no cabinets, and no appliances. Living the Dream!
This was before we took out all the cabinetry.

SURPRISE!!!

There's really no need to explain these photos as everyone except my brother's family and my cousins from Nevada and California was there. Brian worked harder and more stealthily than I would have ever given him credit, and Mom outdid herself on the cake. And I thought sewing my wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses was a stress.







Family... friends... food. What more could a 40 year old girl ask for?








Some great shots of the wonderful people I'm blessed to call friends. Friends who helped my incredible husband in the conspiracy that was my 40th Surprise Party. And boy was I surprised. Didn't really expect to see over 70 of my closest friends and relatives at the celebration of my friend's book release. God bless that Brian Hanrahan!

Easter 2010

When Gramma first told me they were thinking about coming over for Easter, my heart sank. What? We're without a kitchen. And most of our kitchen is now in our living room(or bedroom). Notice the spatulas and knives behind the couch? Little did I know that they needed to be here for a certain surprise-more on that in a later blog. So we all dressed up and had a great Easter, seeing many of the people we'd partied with the night before.

The one battle I have chosen to not fight(trust me, I choose a lot of others) is the hair battle. Logan wants it long, and so far, he's actually taken care of it--washing, conditioning, brushing, etc. Our deal is that it goes if his school marks go down or if he doesn't take care of it.

State Fair Project

Logan' Challenge class was assigned a "state fair" book report project: read a book and research the state in which it takes place. Logan read The Fighting Ground, which, fortunately took place in New Jersey. Se he wrote to his super cousin Emma, who came through for him swimmingly!

living through the remodel

This is a shot from our dining room, looking into the kitchen. Keith keeps finding cool things in our walls: church program from 1920, a Country Gentleman Journal,complete with Norman Rockwell cover from 1921, and a grocery receipt from 1919. Too cool.

On the other side of this wall is the staircase to the upstairs.

And yes, this is again from the dining room: a new doorway. Not really. Keith had to bump the wall back a few inches to fit the new frig, and as a bonus, he's making us a new wall. Yay! New grounded outlets, drywall, the works.