We finally bought the kids some real bikes last night! They were SO excited!

Unfortuantely, I think we're going to have to take Amara's back and get her a smaller one. This one is just a hair too big for her and it makes it somewhat dangerous -- in other words, she won't ride it if I'm not holding both her and the handlebars. Kind of defeats the purpose of a bike! She's really scared of it because of the size -- and that's not how we want to kick off her bike riding experience!

Dominic, on the other hand, is a man on wheels. He loves his bike. It fits him well, and he rides it well. Now he just needs to remember to look FORWARD so he doesn't crash. HA! We went to the bike trails and he kept riding right into the grass, because he was worried about Amara catching him and kept looking backwards.

Do you like Amara's getup? She saw the knee and elbow pads and asked for them. Knowing her gracefulness, I thought it probably wasn't a bad idea. Jon thought it was overkill. But wouldn't you know that the FIRST thing she did when she got on it to take a picture -- was tip it over into the bush! While on it! So that's why her photos have her standing NEXT to the bike. After the topple, she wouldn't get on again if we weren't standing right next to her.
Yep -- smaller bike, coming right up!

Amara's class graduated from Pre-School this week. However, since Amara makes the Kindergarten cut off by only 10 days, we've decided not to start her in Kindergarten this fall and rather wait until next year. The result: her class graduated, but she and a handful of others didn't. They had a big ceremony and party after school on Tuesday. We didn't go to the ceremony, because we didn't think Amara would do well seeing her friends up there and she couldn't go. She's already saying "My friend and I won't be friends anymore because she's going to Kindergarten and I'm not" -- some days she even cries that she's losing her friends. So we just didn't think her attending the ceremony would be a good idea.

Instead, we tried to convince her that "Graduation" was going out to eat to a special restaurant all dressed up with your family and getting a bike. We started to do all of that...but she wasn't convinced. She really wanted to go to the party.

So we gave her the option of "party" or "bike" on Tuesday, assuring her that she would get a bike -- it just wouldn't be that night. She chose the party. So we went back to the school and went to the party -- which was actually very good -- much more than I expected!. They had ponies, balloon clowns, face painting, bounce houses, a dunk tank, and then the kids got to share their rooms / open house style with us. It was really nicely done.

The kids had a blast. I'd share the bounce house photos -- but they're awful blurry! Instead, you'll have to settle for their first ride on a horse. They thought that was pretty cool! And their balloons -- Amara's is a butterfly (which happens to look identical to the bat the clown made for a little boy), and Dominic's is a pirate hat. Um.... OK. :) They popped by the time we got to the car, so oh well!

OK, so I know that technically Saturday WASN'T Memorial Day, but the way we spent our day felt like what Memorial Day celebrations should feel like.

We spent the day out at the lake with friends. Their kids are the same age as our kids and are in the same Day Care class as our kids, too. The kids love each other, which makes for a much more enjoyable day for the parents!

As you can see from the kids' pictures, they thoroughly enjoyed the day -- Dominic's assessment is "thumbs up!"

The water temp was around 75 degrees. That was too cold for my blood. Eric and Thea both got in and skiied/tubed. Jon and I preferred the sunshine to the cold water. However, the kids enjoyed jumping off the boat and climbing up the ladder. Dominic got up the gumption to jump in to Thea who was waiting to catch the kids. Amara never got up the courage. She did, however, get brave enough to climb down the ladder. I even was able to convince her to let her feet float out and eventually let go with one hand and both feet. She wouldn't let go with both hands though. On her terms, she'll get there -- but the more I force her to "be brave" in the water, the more scared I know she'll be. As a water lover myself, it's hard to give her that independence when I want to just say, "SWIM!" but I know that in the long run, giving her the space she needs to discover it for herself is really the right way to go.

The kids also got to play in the tube when it was blown up. We placed them in it from the boat and Eric spun it around and around in circles. Giggles abound! That was as good as actually tubing for the kids. They also enjoyed watching Eric and Thea tube -- the waves bounced them all over the place (as is the nature of tubes), and the kids thought it was a ton of fun.

We had a blast. It was a perfect "start to summer" day. Rain threatened in the forecast, but only occasional sprinkles broke through to cool us off. I got a nicely reddened set of shoulders out of the day, but the rest of the family was more diligent about their sunscreen. The storms did come later in the day, so we were glad to have finished our day of fun! The kids were worn out -- fell asleep before we even got home. And they slept well last night, too! Can't beat that!

Let me first say I really do prefer to fly than drive if it's over 4-5 hours away. Especially when it's for work and I don't have to foot the bill. But there are times when flying is SO frustrating. Last night was one of those nights. Hilarious, too, but very frustrating! I'm glad I was with 12 of my coworkers -- made it much more fun and bareable...and entertaining!

So we had 2 flights -- a short one to Chicago, and then the flight home. Our first was at 4:00EST, our second at 5:35CST. As we entered the first airport, all of us had a phone call on our cell phone -- so 12 people answer their phone simultaneously to hear the message, "Your flight from Chicago to home has been cancelled." Great. Well, at least our first flight was on time, so we can straighten it all out in Chicago.

Then we found out that we've already been rebooked on the next flight in Chicago -- we'll only get home about an hour later. No biggie -- actually, probably better, because now we have time to grab a bite to eat. Cool.

We board our first plane. The entire flight is seated and ready for take off. They shut the door. *clunk* They shut the door. *clunk* They shut the door. *clunk*

Yeah... the door isn't shutting. There's a "collar" (!?) stuck in it. OK. They call a mechanic. All the mechanics are off site about 1 hour away. Nice.

So we all get OFF the plane. As we do, we learn that we need a NEW plane, and we're now delayed to the point where we will miss our connecting flight in Chicago.

Again they rebook all of us. A handful get on the 7:00 flight home. The rest of us (myself included) are on the 9:40 flight home. That means getting into the airport at 11:15. Guess I shouldn't have told Amara I'd be home to tuck her in. Oops! They put all of us on the 9:40 flight on standby for the 7:00 flight, since many of the 7:00 fliers are on standby for the earlier Chicago flight. Cool -- we're feeling reasonably good about our chances of getting in at 6:15 and hoofing it to our 7:00 gate connection.

We're feeling even better about our chances in the air, when we learn that our gates are only 6 apart from each other and in the same terminal. Sweet!

But then we land... 10 minutes early... and there's another plane at our gate. Nice. So we sit on the tarmack for 10 minutes. We start moving, because a gate's available. But then we stop -- there's a mechanical problem with that gate and it won't open. Again... Nice. So now we've been sitting on the tarmack for about 30 minutes.

We finally get to our gate, get off the plan, run to the 7:00 flight gate -- only to realize it's taken off and we're minutes late. Ugh! So much for standby.

But wait!

Our *original* 5:35 flight has been delayed til 7:30! It's still here and leaves in 20 minutes! Let's get it! So we get to the gate, everyone waving their boarding passes.

But you remember the beginning of the story? The part where they rebooked us all on later flights because we wouldn't make our original? Yeah.... we no longer had seats on our original flight. Nice.

So we went to the Macaroni Grill and chilled. And got home at 11:15.

But.... the next part of the story (as if that weren't enough). Remember the earlier post about my car being in the shop? Well... it's still in the shop. I got a call Tuesday saying it's done and that they'll drop it off on Wednesday at the office.

But I never got the call from the office saying they had my keys.... hmmm...

So one of my coworkers who lives up by me gave me a ride to the office. I didn't know if the keys would be at the front desk, in my mailbox, on my desk... or locked somewhere that I couldn't access them. We got to the office.... drove around... no van. Great! They didn't drop it off!!! Ugh!!!

So my coworker had to bring me all the way home -- again, glad I asked him, because he's the only one who lives even close to my vicinity! The glitch to this plan -- every possible way I have to get in my house is, you guessed it, in the van!!!

Jon's fast asleep. We've disconnected our phones. We keep our cell phones in the kitchen overnight. There's no way to wake him up, despite numerous calls. So I'm dropped off -- try the truck (locked), try the front door (locked) -- try every single door in the house. All locked. Of course, this included traipsing to the back of the house in the PITCH BLACK using my cell phone as a guide light praying there were no skunks, possums, armadillos, snakes, coons, etc, to greet me. Thankfully, there were none.

I make my way to the sliding door by our bedroom (running into the grill and the patio table on the way). I debate how best to knock on the door without completely spooking Jon (and knowing that I would anyway). I'm grateful we have no weapons in our room! I opt for a jovial, bouncy, and continuous knock with my cell phone light pointed up at my face so he can see it's me.

What a nice wake up call, eh? :)

And what a fun trip! :)

Oy!

We came home from work on Thursday to find that the floor support boards had been installed. Yippee! The room is starting to take shape. The kids loved to see the "ladder" of sorts that were displayed in the floor boards. Jon put Dominic in the middle of it all, so we could share his cute little face in the midst of our living room chaos.

On Friday when we came home from work, the subfloor was nearly complete. I think there's the second layer that needs to go in where you see the black paper -- that's where it stopped and needs to continue. Also notice that the ceiling's hole is patched. Yippee again!

Jon spent ALL day on Sunday tearing up the cement floor where he's standing. For some reason, they laid about a 1.5 inch layer of cement UNDER the porcelain tiles that were in the entryway. So not only did he have to tear up porcelain tile, he also had to tear up concrete! It was a long and dusty process. Look at our table in the foreground of the photo -- all that dust was just from that day. You can even see where my cell phone had been laying. I'm quite sure we should have been wearing a mask. I came out from folding laundry, and my comment to Jon was, "I just made cement in my mouth." Literally, the dust combined with my saliva, and I felt like I had just licked the driveway! GROSS! And very unhealthy, I'm sure.

Another observation I made (several times) during the day: a garbage can full of concrete rubble is HEAVY. Very. And it's even heavier when it's in dust form rather than in the bigger chunks. And the 5th barrel is much heavier than the first one -- even if it's not as full. My biceps are burning today!

That said... I'm sure Jon's in pain! He's the one who slaved over it. He commented at the end of the day that "weak in the knees" is a saying that he can identify with completely. He wasn't certain his knees would support his weight. He was just plain wiped out. Mission accomplished though, and we're excited to see the next step!

 
I spent the better part of the weekend listening to "The Backyardigans" on DVD. One of their songs is all about catching a whopper. Well... here's Jon's whopper!

He had the opportunity to go out fishing with one of the FLW Anglers on Saturday morning. He had an absolute blast. Put him in a boat, give him a pole, and he's in heaven.

The angler who took him out was from the Northwest and happened to be from a rival (across the border) school from Jon's. What a small world. He thought that was pretty cool. They didn't know each other personally or even competitively, but it was fun for Jon to find the commonalities. The angler even offered to take our whole family out fishing if FLW approved it. Apparently they didn't, because we didn't get the call -- but still pretty cool.

Jon caught between 5 and 10 fish -- he said more than 5, but less than 10. There were two good sized bass (this is one of them) that the angler commented, "Man, if I'd have caught those two fish, I'd still be in the running for the tournament!"

Perhaps Jon's just found his bi-vocational position.

Saturday night we were on our way home from a day of parties. Jon had gotten back into his truck, which we left parked at the birthday party location. I was driving the kids home in the van. As I came to a stop, I heard an awful grinding sound. I turned off the radio, listened again -- it was still there. I'm sure Jon thought I was nuts, riding my brakes the way I was.

As we pulled into the driveway, I got down on my hands and knees, sniffed around (literally, because there was a funny smell), and tried to diagnose the problem. This is funny, considering I know nothing about cars... except that they're not supposed to sound the way mine did.

Sunday morning, we piled into the van to leave for church. I told Jon not to turn on the radio, so that he could hear the noise, too. We got to the top of the hill and there was the noise. He looked at me, said, "We're not taking this thing anywhere!" and turned back down the hill to take his truck instead.

This morning, I was a chicken when it came to driving. I sent the kids with Jon, because I didn't trust my vehicle. I called the service center, who came and picked it up for diagnostics.

They just called:
- Front right brake is metal on metal
- Front rotors need replacing
- 3-5 days to get parts in

They told me they could bring it back to my office, but only if I promised not to drive it and only to get my belongings out of it! Yikes! I told them I didn't need my belongings that badly and Jon will pick me up from work.

Like I said... Sometimes it's the Little Things... and Praise God that He's in them! That "little thing" could have become a "big thing" if He wasn't.

We walked into the house on Friday to this!!!

Amara saw it, stopped dead in her tracks, gasped, and said, "Look Mommy!" It's even better than we thought it would be with the wall gone. We're SO excited to get to this point, and can't wait to get the floor built up so we can put in hard woods.
Jon had some work to do this weekend -- he finished pulling up the rest of the tiles in the entry way. We also need to pull up the carpet in the dining room. Actually... we need to pull up the hardwood in the living room, and the carpet in the hallways and bedrooms too. But we'll get to that. For now, we're happy that the walls came a-tum-ba-lin down. Yes -- I'm singing "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho." Sing it with me! :)

We had a full weekend of parties. Amara had a birthday party for one of her friends, Malea, who turned 5. We went to a bounce house place with a bunch of her day care classmates. She wasn't too keen on the big one they're sitting on -- it was too big and too fast. But she loved the place as a whole, had a blast, and has declared that she wants her party at "Jump Stone" -- it's actually Jump Zone. You can see her in the photo below in the back left with the pink and teal striped shirt.

For Mother's Day, we didn't have wonderful weather, but the rain didn't hit too much. We were going to go outside to have a popcorn picnic -- actually, I needed to clean the van, and that's how I bribed the kids to come outside with me (they wanted to watch "Backyardigans.") Of course, at the time we were ready to start our picnic, that's when the sprinkles started. So we had a picnic in the back of the van. The highlight of our picnic is our neighbor's dog, aka Penny puppy, came back. They have been wintering in Florida until just recently, so the kids haven't seen Penny since around November. They were SO excited to see her again. She's even better than having a dog -- because we can play with her, she greets us with kisses and a big ol' wagging tail, yet we don't have to clean up after her, pay for her food or vet bills, and we can send her home at the end of the day! Dominic actually cried when we went inside because he missed Penny puppy and didn't want to leave her.

That was it for our weekend. It was definitely full! We missed our Moms and wished that we could have spent the day with them. Happy Mother's Day Moms and Grandmas! :) Love you!

I blogged about this a few days ago, but the more I watch, the cooler it gets. Go check out my friend Hugh's Mother's Day Gift to his wife on her first Mother's Day. Specifically, watch the video. It'll get you. And if you're able, please make a donation for Breast Cancer.

To summarize: Hugh's wife Amy was born in 1980. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was pregnant with Amy, and was told she wouldn't survive if she didn't terminate the pregnancy. She refused, giving birth to Amy. She celebrated Mother's Day that year, but died of breast cancer the very next day.

My Mom later told me that she knew Amy's Mom and was on her floor in college -- described her as a darling, fiesty girl whom everyone adored. Small world, eh?

As a Mom, I can understand how you can love your child so much that you would give your life for theirs. In honor of Amy's Mom who gave her life, in honor of my own wonderful Mother, in honor of my wonderful Mother-in-Law, in honor of my Grandmothers, in honor of all the other amazing women who have influenced my life -- I share this link and request with you. Please go check it out!

I saw a "Kitchen Tour" on a few blogs this week, and thought it would be fun to join in the fun... except (1) my kitchen is hideous, and (2) it's under construction.

So rather than show you exactly what it looks like, I'll show you what it's GOING to look like.

A bit of history: The house was built in 1982 by a couple who moved here from California to retire. At that time, their money went a long way, so they basically did everything right when they built the house. They spared no expense. She had beautiful taste as well -- however, it was the taste of a 60+ year old in the 80s. Needless to say, despite being "perfect" then, it hasn't been updated since, so we've got our work cut out for it.

When we toured the house in December '07, we fell in love with it. Truly, the bones of it and the location of it are about as close to our dream house as we can come without building it ourself. We saw the HUGE potential, but also realized it would (and will) be a lot of work.

The work, as you've seen in posts past, has begun!

Here's what our kitchen looked like when we toured it.

Notice the "beautiful" wallpaper. That's all gone. The hanging lamp is gone, as is the fan, replaced by a much nicer one from Restoration Hardware. The tile is just ridiculously gross -- white tile with brown grout. Yuck! Also, the porcelain tile floor. It's very nice, but it's also very boring. Below are examples of what we'd like to do to change it up.

The bottom right photo is what we'd like to do for our floor -- it's 4 different colors of tile in a variety of sizes that will liven things up a bit. The other 3 photos in the collage are some of the granite slabs we're considering for the island and counters. We really want the slab to be a "piece of art" and not just a slab of rock. My brother has the most gorgeous slab of granite on his island -- our goal is to match him! (OK, it's to beat him...) :) Right now, we've got a long way to go!

Another thing we really loved about the kitchen is all the cabinet space. We have SO much storage, which is a common complaint. They're all oak hardwood -- no veneers, no "cheap stuff." That's both good and bad. It's great that it's all hardwood. It's bad that it's oak -- at least in our opinion.

We have heard that oak is coming back in, so we hope that's true! We do plan to replace that old JennAire stove -- still works alright, but it's actually about half the size that it appears, and I'm sure is completely energy INefficient. We've removed all that wallpaper as well, and have put a side-by-side stainless refrigerator in the appropriate opening. We MAY stain all the wood a darker color -- but realistically, there's so much in the house, that it may be a never-ending task (yes, quite literally).

Our first attempt will be to replace all the door hardware in the house with something more modern, such as the pulls shown here. Hopefully that will update them sufficiently, so that we don't have to paint the entire house.

Next is a view of the sink area. We'd like to pull out the whole soffit above the cabinets. We think it's hollow, but aren't for sure. And we're not sure how to get rid of it, raise the cabinets, paint it -- or really what to do with it. We think that the soffits make it feel dated as well (especially with the wallpaper, which is no longer there. The sink needs a good update, too. And that island, we think we may extend it into a "table" -- so add another 5 feet or so onto the end closest and put bar stools around it. We aren't positive on that, but that's where our mind is right now. Oh -- and the lights -- yes, those are going to disappear, too. Ick!!! :)

Next is the desk area. You can see it here, and I thought I'd enjoy this feature. But really, it became a junk catcher, and was never used as it was intended. If you flip through a few recent posts -- you'll see it's now GONE and you can see straight into the LR/DR area. Yippee!!!! One note on the stained glass panels: the former home owner MADE all of them. They're all over the house, and she has a stained glass workshop in the basement -- she even left us her grinder (yay for us!) We won't be using them in our new kitchen, so if you'd like them, let me know. :)

And last but not least, our favorite part of the kitchen... the view! Peace. I love coming home and just looking out the window. All the stresses and worries of the day melt away, and I'm transported into a different, much more peaceful place. There are even bald eagles that frequent those trees -- so cool!
That's it! Welcome to my kitchen. :)

Well...

Jon and I were both kind of dreading this weekend. Our big goal was to get the last cabinets removed. We knew it would be challenging and heavy.

However... look what we came home to!!! Yes -- that's the KITCHEN that you're now able to see from the front door! Yippee!

The contractors were here (steel beams were delivered yesterday), and they removed them for us! We were happy to see that we could just relax tonight. On the other hand, we'll probably end up paying them for that. *sigh* Oh well.

The only thing we've now got to be ultra careful about are the nails lying around. We haven't moved to the basement, so the kids' bedrooms are still beyond the living room (as is ours), and the kitchen upstairs just works better than the kitchen downstairs. We've already instilled a "you must wear shoes in the house" rule, but it's super important to follow that rule. I'm glad the kids don't sleep walk!

When we were removing the drywall and other cabinets, we had some missing nails, too, but we were pretty diligent to find them. Tonight, I did a once-over of the floor and found a whole handful. They were everywhere -- around the wall, through the doorways, even under the kitchen table. Maybe we do need to rethink moving to the basement.

Anyway, since the cabinets are out, I guess our project for the weekend will be cleaning up the kitchen and laundry room. And maybe pulling some weeds. One thing we discovered about renovating (or have I already said this?): there's NO TIME for cooking, cleaning, and yardwork. As if we had time for that before!!!

I'll leave you with a final photo of the cabinet-less wall. Yay! The space feels SO big. I can't wait!!!