My Third Kitchen

I have realized that part of the thrill of home ownership is the fact that you own the home. Profound, I know. However, the delicious part of that, to me, is to my darling, a nemesis - because it means I get ideas that cause me to want to knock down walls and cut out doors at will, which as most of my family and friends know, I insist that my darling do. I would do it myself, but I am famous for just mis-measuring things by an inch or less and I am not as proficient with a sawzall as my firefighter husband is (And now that we speak of it, this project I missed by 10 inches, because it was never measured! Luckily it was in our favor, which usually it is not!). Now our latest project, and we have had quite a series of them throughout the history of this latest home ownership, has been our kitchen. You see, I cook - alot; Often three meals a day (except just recently I have managed to coax the hubband into taking over breakfasts when he is off - oh happy day), and our kitchen has always been awkward. It also has been redone - once. So this project has been referred to as my third kitchen. It will be my last, I hope. There are no more walls to move - a true bummer, but I still have the rest of the house!

The worst part of remodeling? The dust. I think I cleaned my cabinets out at least three times and finally gave up - it still needs a final round, but I am tired! It got so bad that I made The hubband install plywood behind the fridge and microwave and designed in a bit more granite for the wall, just to avoid the dust that finishing 10 square feet of sheet rock would create. We have almost completed our little project. All we have left to do to finish is the toe-kick, all of the trim, the deck, the soffit, the windowframe paint, paint on our red wall, the railing in the Lego loft, the lighting over the sink, the wall in the living room, the door paint, the laundry room wall... I know, you are wondering why we say we are almost done, but what would life be if we didn't have at least five tasks per project half completed, leaving us with something to do in the winter months? And the reason the Living room and laundry now need attention is due to the fact that the new kitchen door used to reside in the living room wall (it had taken place of the fireplace and chimney that the hubband and knight 1 knocked out years ago), and the door to the laundry, which I had dad and the darling chop out a few years back, needed to be closed off. Like i said, Home ownership is a beautiful thing!

Anyway, I love my new kitchen, all light and airy with loads of countertop space, an island the kids love to gather around, nearly everything in a drawer all properly put away, and a pantry cupboard in the kitchen, so the laundry isn't doing quadruple duty anymore, just triple duty! We all Love, Love, Love the results! The princess's new favorite place to play now is sitting on one of the island stools (the knights informed me they shouldn't be called bar stools as I won't be serving them beer) playing with my ceramic WSU coasters and beaded candleholders creating quite the sculptures, every so often demanding milk or food. And so I shall post some pictures!

Note the Door in the Background - Shown here in the Living room, but now moved into the kitchen. The boys, being quite industrious one year, planted around 100 seedlings, of which only four survived to production! We didn't bother with seedlings this past spring. This picture was taken two springs ago.

Notice the huge amount of junk on my counters - wait til you see the new pics! I have several progress pictures of this same corner, the NE corner of the kitchen.

Gotta love that work space accommodated kids at least!!

Here is where my beloved family is working as a team to bring to fruition, a larger, more spacious kitchen. Knight 1 and the Hubband are ripping out the porch in order to convert it to interior space, while my dad, inside, works on fixing the wiring issues. He came over for a week and added numerous junction boxes - the bonus? we have only blown a circut once since his appearance in July, rather than the almost daily occurence that it had become. In the winter, blowing a circut was a drag as the circuit breaker board is in a most inconvenient location - outside!

The old porch, now framed in and a large opening for the door that is relocating from the living room. The Tyvec is hanging over interior door openings in an attempt to limit the relocation of free, floating mounds of dust. It really didn't work, and it didn't keep the cats out either!

Old cabinets gone, new ones being installed. the NE corner for reference.

The new island, sans countertop.

Helping the big Daddy with hardware installation,

Ain't it pretty so far? Love the windows~

NE Corner - Isn't it lovely? Notice the lack of appliances and other debris on the surface? Just didn't have backsplash yet - a long story, but turned out well for us - That part of the kitchen was free!!

The Island, oh and see the plywood below the new microwave? And note the door and it's lovely window! There will be a deck out there soon! It is currently under construction!

There you have it, Our project that has kept us from travelling the majority of the summer and fall - well, now it is sports mostly, that keep us from travelling - Knight 1 is playing football and Knight 2 is playing soccer, but we can leave that for another time!

See you soon - oh say in about a month!

Kris

Catching up is hard to do...

So, a long while ago, I promised pictures... Someone suggested e-mail, but it never occured to me that I could actually e-mail my photos to myself from my phone, download them into my picture storage facility and then upload them into this blog. I mean right there are at least three different actions, count them - e-mail, download, upload - see, three, that I have to engage in, in order to get said photos from one machine to another, so why should I think of it? I digress - I will now attempt to photo essay through the last two months of activities, thus satisfying my sister who has let me know about my lack here in the bloggy world! Then and only then, will I commence to keeping abreast of current events within my immediate kingdom!

Memorial day weekend at Loon Lake -

 the princess and her retinue.

 The hostess, pausing from game playing...

 Warming on the dock..

 Entertaining Papa..

 Holding court in the Wall Tent!

Summer Baseball for the Knights - 

Knight 2, trying his hand at pitching. 

 Knight 1, waiting on 3rd base, wishing to get brought home...

Fourth of July week on Lake Roosevelt with the Lady-in-Waiting's side of the family -

 the princess and her grandpa,

 Grandma and a few cousins, including the princess's Best Friend Baby, on Grandma's lap

Water Fights with cousins,

The whole passel of them - all eleven in one spot and you can see their faces! Amazing!

 Helping move at the Auntie's house -

Soccer tournament - Placed second after losing in overtime!

Silverwood Theme Park - a summertime favorite!

The princess, between her vassals on the right, and her pop (the large guy in the middle) loving the new ride - the frog hopper, a mini panic plunge!

 Knight 1, finally convincing Knight 2 that he too, can accomplish the real deal! He loved it, but only once!

Phew - I want you to know, it took me three hours of intense concentration to get these posted, but wait, there's more - just later this week! Will post again soon!

Memorial Day Weekend

We returned home last night from a marathon weekend at our friends' lake cabin in Loon Lake. We brought our tent and our buddies brought their new wall tent and portable wood stove which were set up in the yard. We enjoyed a wonderful ambience in a tent that was bigger than all of our living rooms! Now we are all wishing we had such cool digs! But knight no. 2 was really nervous he wasn't going to get to sleep in his own tent. He woke up at about 2:30am crying - we were thankfully in bed by then - and when we tried to soothe him, we found out he just wanted to know if he was in his own tent, and then he settled down and promptly went back to sleep!

The adults pretty much commandeered the wall tent while the kids used the cabin, and we realized that three days of running, hide-and-seeking in the bushes, swimming, eating indiscriminately, noodle fighting, wrestling, texting, movie-making (kids these days with their phones and cameras are much more hip and high-tech than we ever were as kids), fishing, sand castling, etc. made them pretty much stink - there just was a really unusual smell wafting through the cabin when they were all hanging out in it in the evenings, and so, the minions were renamed gerbils for the weekend!

The schedule of events pretty much went as follows - eat, count kids - we had up to 14 at one point - watch them swim and shiver, eat, play Tichu, drink coffee, eat, count kids, group yardwork, count kids, play Tichu, drink coffee, eat, more swimming, more shivering, more counting, more eating, more Tichu, paint, eat, Tichu, coffee, count.... We did get some sleep in, but very little. Fun times had by all. There was very little yelling, except to remind the gerbils to keep their life jackets on. Even the littlest of the group, The princess and her retinue, got along famously with little in the way of spats and lots in the way of looking out for each other!

Sunday morning was a challenge met with smiles as we scrambled to get 8 kids and 5 adults ready for Sunday meeting with only one bathroom, but it worked and we were only 5 minutes late! Then we all meandered into the hills for a potluck with some friends and several others from church, at their log cabin. The gerbils claimed ownership of the yard while the adults enjoyed wonderful visiting. As we were getting ready to leave, the gerbils went to say goodbye to the cows. One of the calves wanted to just get a little closer, and then found herself stuck between the gate and a post, so two of our guys helped the farming folk unstick the calf. The gerbils were just so impressed...

We had such a great time... Can't wait for the next camp-a-thon! thanks to our friends for their hospitality! I am still working on getting the right technology for downloading my phone, but one of these days you are going to be pleasantly surprised by the plethora of photos added to this here blog! don't hold your breath though - it won't be happening for at least two weeks! Ciao

A bit about the princess...

I am supposed to be doing laundry.. I hate laundry.. the enormous pile facing me on the folding shelf shows it.. I am blogging instead :).

My darling girl is very determined and very independent. Her favorite saying is "I CAN do it!" Lately, though, she has been needing a little more adult time and her behavior is showing it. The last few weeks when she has wanted something and been told "no", she comes back with one or the other following phrases, saying either one with a sickeningly sweet, sing song voice - "I'll be your best friend" or better yet, "I'll give you some Tan-dy(candy)!" (She learned that one from her older brother which he uses when trying to get her to buzz off) Oh dear. It will be interesting to see how she behaves when she's old enough to ask for the keys!

The other night, my parents came for a brief visit and my mother very patiently, gave her some of that time she's been wanting. Mom read several books to her, and when she finished a book and asked her what they should do next, the princess would answer "I've dot a dood idea! Let's read it adain!" Thanks for the help mom!

Last night she was determined to hold her dad to his word when he said he would ride bikes with her if it wasn't raining. They got home from the store and as he was going inside she insisted it was nice enough to ride. He gave in, went out with her, and got his bike - in the rain. Her response to him was "See dad, it's not raining, only my head and my arms are detting wet, not my shoulders!"

With all of this attention though, she hasn't offered me any candy lately!

A little of this, and a little of that...

So last post I mentioned I might be better at this than journaling, but then I realized, maybe not. My eldest, Knight 1 or "P" asked me if I had updated "THE BLOG" and I had to let him down gently. Hmmm... So, whilst the Jester, My Hubband is working on a project when he should be in bed, I have decided to tap out a few memoried of that last little while - actually, I am just filling time until I figure out how to download the pics from my phone - pesky technology, just slows me down!

Let's see - the other day, the princess was giving Knight 2 a bad time - I think it was mutual - as when I told her to knock it off and leave him alone, she wailed - "but he's pussing my buttons!" I love how that girl talks - she rarely says the first sound in a letter combination, so some of her verbiage would go like this - "Mom, can i doe to de rochery store wif you to get rocheries?" or "come play in the rass wif me" or "P will you get me a lass of mewlk please?" almost everything is accompanied by a deet do, meaning Thank you!! and my fav, "mommy, I need to do my stoolwork please!" She has no idea she is only three!

Tonight as we were eating dinner - pizza to be exact, P gave a perfect rendition of how he thought a frog might look while eating. You see, we learned today that frogs eyes not only help them see because their eyes are on the top of their heads, but also that said eyes roll back and down into the head to help in the frog's swallowing process by pushing down the food while swallowing. This act of frog dramatization of course caused peals of laughter amongst all those watching - especially Knight 2.

Knight 2, he is our charmer, laid back, impish and almost always out to lunch! "J, go get your shoes" - "Can't find 'em" - "there in the middle of the floor" - "Really? Where?"  - "There in the middle" - "Oooh, there!" Imagine me - giant rolling of the eyes! - His favorite pastime is making music - constantly - and he doesn't care how. He sings incessantly, which is generally lovely, except when I can't get the tune out of my head. But the thing I love most is I can always count on him to play with his sister - usually doing what she wants to do, which is mostly sword fighting, but all good princesses need to know how to sword fight and he's glad to teach her!

one last thing, to tell you the order in our house and explain the reason behind the title to this blog. The other day, all of the school work was complete and they were playing quietly in their playroom. and G and I hear, "Honey, you sit dere, You honey, come hew, Honey, knock it off,"  "Honey, do dis fow me!" but the best was the chagrined reply of both boys - "yes honey - whatever!" She's going to be such a good mommy someday! Love those kids!

a beginning...

So, the princess has a fever, knight 1 and knight 2 have finished their school work for the day and I am finally succombing to the world of blogging. It has called my name for several years now. I am thinking I might be better at this than keeping a journal, and I can now call all of my internet time research for "The Blog"!! What else can one do when one is sitting still for hours on end rocking a princess? Next, I shall endeavor to figure out how to post pictures! Bye for now! K.