Everyone loves a before and after

Whether it be a dramatic body before and after photo or a little less exciting home improvement before and after, who doesn't love seeing changes? And hopefully changes for the better?? It's like getting to take both roads in your journey and not just one with befores and afters. Think about it. We could have kept this kitchen as is and be pretty darn content with it, or we could change it up and see how it can change our lives. And let me tell you, my life is SO MUCH better now. My house is so pleased to experience a little plastic surgery. I am so much happier I now walk with a bounce in my step. My kids are singing all day and never a sassy mouth doth spout.

BEFORE
(so brown and sad)

AFTER
(light, airy and bubbly)

(our painted and glazed island)

You could call us lazy painters but I just call us smart and not wasting time with unimportant roadblocks. Here's the thing- we removed the hardware but didn't remove the cabinets, didn't take out the drawers or the stuff in them ( just threw a newspaper page on them if we remembered), didn't sand (but primed with Valspar sander primer) and about 16 hours and three coats we finished. How great is that? I know some people think it's sacrilegious to paint over wood, but we didn't burn it or anything. It's still in our kitchen, just covered with a nice coat of paint to keep it toasty.

Di, Ani and Is

Moving on.... summer has flown by with its softball, swim lessons, 4th and 24th celebrations, parades, family reunion, and good times of that sort. It has been great to have my sister Diana and her family come down for their yearly visit from NJ. We braved the stinky and algae-ful Salem Pond water last week (how did I ever swim in that pond?!) and enjoyed a little paddle-boat ride. This is a beautiful place though. I am always in awe.

Car bonding

yup, a real live picture

Well, this was it! Our first family vacation out of state in a looooong time. I wasn't super-excited about packing the kids in the car for 14 hours but with the help of a dvd player (I know- weak!) we eliminated any fun family singathons and alphabet car travel games and instead sedated the kids with Barbie, Elmo, and other equally numbing entertainment. And you know what? Bless it all.

Above is Snoqualmie Falls in Washington state. I thought the kids would be speechless at nature's death-fall but they didn't seem too captivated. Shucks. Took me back to "The Fugitive" with Harri Ford, my ol' buddy. Great movie.

On a ferry with R's parents to Lopez Island, one of the San Juan Islands. Some people actually live there, which came as a surprise to me! I always thought those little specks on the map outside WA were just for looks. Goes to show...

The pictures below were from a beautiful beach there on Lopez. We saw sea life--some starfish, a washed up jellyfish, and crabs.

Burying Isabelle's legs in the sand. Good wholesome sand fun.


Cute Liv. The girls brought home about 10 lbs of seashells. I walk into their rooms and am blown over by the smell of sea air and dearly departed fishies. We did bring the beach home with us!

Best hats ever.
Be assured that Sam had his fun too. How can sand +water+boy not equal true bliss? Things did go a little too far when his naughty big sister Iz dumped a handful of sand down his diaper. Poor Bud! That is a place where one needs no exfoliation.

Well, we had a good time visiting R's parents and family on our trip. Now back to figuring out how to hook myself up with a comfy hammock, an icy drink, and an uninterrupted reading hour in that hammock for the remaining days of summer....

Have I gone too far in my teachings?

This is the Friend. You know- the LDS kid's mag. Anika (7 1/2) came up to me last week, asking me a question about this particular game. The idea is to put a smiley or frowney face on each picture, depending on whether the kids in them were doing good/happy things or naughty/sad things. So Anika was stumped on the picture of the kids sharing an ice cream cone in the lower left corner. She asked me "is it a happy face because they are eating ice cream or is it a frowny because they are sharing each other's ice cream and getting germs?" I laughed inside but secretly felt proud that she knew sharing licks with friends is a big no-no in our home. I've been doing a good job in my germ awareness teachings! But I also felt a little sad that the editors at Friend magazine are not germ-correct. I mean, really- this is 2009! With herpes and swine flu and scabies and mrsa who dares swap spit with buddies anymore??

What I've learned about marriage

I knew I'd get everyone's attention with that title.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary in a whirlwind 28 hours. Who says that isn't long enough? It was like 10 regular dates right in a row.

Though I put that picture of me at Anthropologie to look cool, we did our best shopping at tried and true Old Navy and Target. It just feels easier to spend $$ at places where the overall prices are lower. Even if you end up spending more. Tricky Target.

The kids had fun with my good parents and R and I had a nice escape from It All. Of course we still had to watch the Lost season finale and it only made the trip even better. What a show...but just one more year of it, darn it!

Oh yeah- back to the anniversary. We'll have more than one season left of our marriage, I think. Kind of like tv- some seasons are better than others. But it's the whole storyline that counts, and if the characters are real and likable. Man, I'm good with waxing philosophical about tv and marriage! Parallels in everything guys...you just gotta look.
Keep thinking those deep thoughts.
Happy 10, R and Me!

Just enjoying my Spring

It has been an awesome Spring. We get the run of the gamut this time of year. Flying kites in the wind, washing the car with the rain, one last (hopefully) jaunt in the snow, being outside all day in perfect temperatures only to endure frigid cold the next day, it's all a part of moody Spring. And I like it. I have weather ADD. If it's rainy for too long, sunny for too long, or snowy for too long, I get a little bored. I'm one of those people who actually like talking about weather, not just because it's a safe small-talk topic. How I'd love sitting down with Mark and Kevin Eubank. If you don't know who those cool guys are, then you need to google them. Mysteries are so easy to solve with Google. Speaking of mysteries, I have always wanted to do one of those group Mystery Murder Nights. Has anyone done that? It'd have to be with people I know really well, though. If we did it with a random group I think I'd be afraid that someone in the party really was a psycho-in-waiting and just using the guise of the game to finally play out their murderous desires.
I took this picture with Sam in the baby bjorn as an admirable reference to the Best Buy commercial with the guy holding the man-dude in his baby carrier. I thought that commercial was funny. Just the idea of that hairy man being held like that walking down the grocery aisle is right up my humor alley. Plus I relate well- I use the BB faithfully the first 4 months of my children's lives. I'm like a kangaroo. So it was a fond moment to pull out the carrier and try it on Big Grumpy Clingy Boy (ear infection strikes again!). Sam is 15 months and 20 lbs, and yeah, it wasn't quite as comfortable as the days when he was half this size. Plus, if you can see, he didn't quite take to it.

A slight dash of hypochondria and loving healthy days

First things first. Happy Easter everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying some religious happiness and some ham today. And mini-eggs and pb eggs.

You want to know what desperation is? Trying to find Cadbury Mini-Eggs the week of Easter. Holy cow....I looked far and wide for them in 5+ stores. Not for the kids (might as well give them stale chocolate chips- they can't tell the difference!) but for myself, for the long months ahead when Cadbury doesn't produce these delightful mini-drugs. I'm a little selfish this way. Always looking out for numero uno...but what can I say? Good candy makes me a better person. It really does! So I looked on ebay, and there they were...40 oz. and all. I won't tell you if I bought them at double (ok, almost triple) their value but hey- someone's got to woman the house. And if it's going to be me, I've got to have premium gasoline to keep goin'.

Aren't big sisters the best? Bangin' some music

Finally getting to wear his cool moto jacket!

I just can't seem to master my health imagination. I know I've talked about this before, but it is a recurring theme in my life (as are mini-eggs). It's been a week of sick kids. Stomach flu, then some other weird things....then I'll get a line of thinking that goes this way: "hmm...he has spots on his belly that don't look like the other ones (drool rash)...aren't liver spots due to weakened kidneys? What if the reason he's been so moody and clingy is because he hurts, and has organ problems we didn't diagnose??" And then I'll hit the internet, looking up all the things that could possibly fit any given symptom. The same with Anika's cough that followed her flu. She wasn't getting better fast enough so I wondered if she had pneumonia, or meningitis... good thing about all of this is that I am learning a lot more about illnesses and I almost could diagnose a patient. Well, I'd probably over-diagnose the patient, but better to over-do than under-do, right?

humbled by the calming goodness of an oreo

Fun on the couch side-effects

This was yesterday. Have you ever seen a child more pleased than Isabelle about going to PCMC for a doctor appt? She's had the best attitude ever about her broken arm. (For all you that don't know- she broke her arm above her elbow falling off the couch last week. She fell all of two feet. Yes, they have that song "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed/Couch" for a good reason!)

Isabelle today, pre-surgery. Good attitude hanging on, even after a change into hospital attire. I'm a little jealous; when I stay at the hospital all I get is a blue faded drape that dons no ferris wheel or carnival tent. She also got cotton candy gas. Seriously good stuff. She is doing well and we're glad she's back home. Great job Is!