Kitchen Cabinets--April 4, 2011

So April 1-3 we ripped out our old cabinets and countertops. And started the install on the 4th. The 1 day install took two days then they had to finish up on Sat. Even with the extra days we had to wait another two weeks for drawer banks that went on either side of the stove. Which meant that we couldn't put in our countertops. And of course no countertops meant no sink, no sink meant no dishwasher which of course meant we flushed cereal down the toilet and washed everything in the bathroom. For some reason it just doesn't seem as sanitary to me.

Luckily our cabinet installation guy totally rocked and I spent the time while he was here kickin it with him and when he came in on Sat to finish up he and the granite guy had a surprise for me. They decided to brace the countertops with 2x4s so we could install the sink and everything. They also moved some of the clients around that they didn't like so that they could do the granite a week earlier than they thought. They were amazing!!! They are a cherry wood with antiqued black pulls and the granite is called Verde Butterfly. It guess it's a Grade C level of granit, but my guy had bought a bunch of big slabs and sold it to us for the Grade A level and only charged us for what we used rather than two slabs with the extras tossed to the side. Plus he upgraded my edge so I have a double beveled edge. I LOVE it!

In the middle of the cabinet installation my van decided not to start. i called Warren and he thought it sounded like a fuel filter and I decided I would be able to change out the fuel filter. So I got a ride to AutoZone and spent by $20 on the new filter and armed with a socket wrench thought I found the right thing. Warren said I would hear a his as pressure released and to step back b/c it could spray a fine mist of fuel. So I started loosening the nut and sure enough it started hissing and spitting with released pressure. I let it blow out for about 10 mins before I decided I maybe loosened the wrong thing...turns out it was the AC thing and now in addition to getting the fuel filter fixed I would have to take the @#$ van in anyway to get the AC recharged. I decided to laugh...really is hilarious...right?...right?!? So I put the couple of things that I moved around back and got a friend to tow the van to the shop. Turns out it was the fuel filter AND fuel pump for $800 and the AC recharge was $200 and I decided with summer coming on that we should get the fan fixed so we have more than a high setting, luckily that was only $50. Nothing like a $1000 worth of car fixing in addition to redoing a kitchen.

Teresa in New York

A friend of mine had a conference for work there and wanted to hang out in the city. The hotel was covered and she wanted to know if me and a third friend could go do NYC with her. My answer was OF COURSE! I had frequent flier miles that I used so the cost of the trip was only my food for 2 meals a day and all the playing and shows that I wanted to hit. Luckily I have been substitute teaching a ton and had a tidy little sum to put toward my super fun trip!!

We left Thursday morning early and landed in NYC around 5pm. We had bought tickets online to the opera La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera House. So by the time we got to our hotel and got settled we had to throw on our clothes and headed out for our show. It was so beautifully done and amazing. I was worried that I would be so tired that I would sleep through the whole thing, but I stayed awake the whole time. Unfortunately we were in such a rush that we didn’t grab anything to eat and it was 11pm by the time we got out of the opera.

We caught a taxi back to our hotel and he dropped us off at the top of the block right in front of a New York pizza place. They had those huge slices with tons of different types of pizza and so many delicious desserts that I was in HEAVEN. I got a slice of something and was so proud of myself when I folded it in half and ate it just like the New Yorkers. I usually think that’s gross but it was awesome! Then I had a chocolate dipped canolli. I don’t know if you’ve had a canolli before but it was light and delicious. I’m usually not a cannolli fan, but man I ate one of those almost every day I was there! After dinner we headed up to our room and totally crashed. Our room was on the corner of the hotel and looked directly down on Time Square. That big Coke sign was right outside our window. SO COOL!!!

The next morning we headed to the Statue of Liberty. It was the perfect day to be out on the water. It was 64 degrees so we just walked around in our tshirts and jeans with a light sweater to throw on when were were out on the water.

We bought our tickets early and were able to get tickets to the Pedestal but not up to the crown. You have to book tickets up to the crown about 5 months in advance. While it was too bad, it was still so amazing to see her and walk around inside. I’ve seen about a million pics of the SofL but it always blows my mind to see things like that in real life. We kinda blew through Ellis Island. I wasn’t super interested in it. I’ve never really been interested in the research end of genealogy, but it was cool to walk around the building for a bit.

Sat. morning we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They had a great Egyptian exhibit and had some amazing artists on display. Van Gough’s Starry Night on display. So it was really neat to see those. I really enjoyed the Monet section. I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of his works at the different museums I’ve been to. That night we weren’t able to get into a musical so we totally crashed. It was nice.

Sunday we spent the day walking around to all the different fun stores. We went to FAO Schwartz which is a super cool toy store that had 4 levels of different types of toys. It was so fun to wander around and look at all the different types of toys that they had. All of the toy stores were about 4 stories tall. I couldn't believe everything they had. My favorite display was this huge Transformer.

We also walked around at Tiffany’s. SO amazingly beautiful! I wanted to get on charm made out of silver and it would have been $250. Needless to say I didn’t get anything from there. We got tickets to the matinee called Chicago. What a disappointment. The dancing was ok the voices were ok and the stage was blah. Totally felt like a high school production instead of a Broadway show. After the show we spent the rest of the day walking around the different stores and looking at things. That night we went searching for dinner at a local place. We found a pub that had AMAZING burgers and fish and chips. It was so good. We had asked a street worker and he sent us there. It was totally better than anything they had in the tourist traps on the square!

I’m surprised at how much NYC reminded me of my mission. The smell of a big city and all those people who get grumpy with you just because you’re walking down the street was a trip down memory lane. We rode the subway and it totally took me back in time! It’s funny how you forget little things like that when you’re not around it.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed my long winded trip to NYC. I know I sure did. I really appreciate my husband and friends for helping out with the kiddos while I was off raising a ruckus!

Happy Birthday Eva!!!

This year Eva got to choose how to celebrate her 7th birthday. We let her decide if she wanted to invite everyone and have a party at the park or if she wanted just a few friends and we'd go get mani/pedis then go to Red Robin for dinner. She chose the mani/pedis. It was the easiest birthday party EVER! It was only $10 per girl and they got to sit in a chair for an hour and get pampered by other people. I even got one too! I didn't have to yell at the girls once! Red Robin was a lot more noisy and giggly, but it was still super fun and easy (and cheap!) to do the whole thing!

Happy Halloween 2010

I have decided that Halloween is my second favorite holiday. You just can't go wrong wearing glitter, crazy hair colors, funky clothes, and all the candy you can eat! It's AWESOME!!

This year the kids all dressed as rockstars! The loved it! Dave had a lot of fun covering them with tattoos and teaching them phrases like, "Where's my doobie?" Needless to say he got a lot of eye rolls with that last one. For trick or treating on Sunday, Eva decided she wanted a second costume and settled on Rapunzel. She put on her princess dress up clothes and put her hair in a ponytail. I was worried she was going to feel bad about her 1 inch long pony, but she said, "It's OK Mom, I can just pretend it's really long and lays all over the floor. The entire time we were trick or treating, she proudly told everyone that she was Rapunzel. Everyone glanced at her hair then would look at me and smile. Eva felt so beautiful and I was so proud of her great imagination!

I dressed as a Mad Hatter-ett. It was so fun! Dave went as Tobias Funke. If you know the TV character you will never stop laughing, if you don't it's best not to think about it too much.

We went to a totally rockin' Halloween party with some friends of ours and we were a huge hit!!

Grass Castle

One of the "perks" of living in Arizona is that we get to plant grass twice a year. Part of this process is mowing the current grass down to dirt, spreading seed, spreading fertilizer (steer manuer), and watering like crazy. We personally end up spending the rest of the season slacking and not mowing our lawn. The neighbors love us! ANYWHOOO....I mowed the back lawn today and after filling the big black garbage can and 6 big bags with the clippings, I just started dumping it in a pile. Ivy was thrilled and spent the day admiring my "Grass Castle". Evertime I dumped a pile of allergy inducing grass clippings she would clap really loud and say, "Good job Mommy!" She's great with the positive reinforcement!

Week 4: Rexburg, Idaho

The second week at Grandma and Grandpa Powells we went camping at Meadow Lake. It has great fishing and still had a bit of snow on the ground. It was nice and warm in the sunshine, but VERY cold in the shade. The kids loved riding to the campsite in the motorhome with Grandma and Grandpa and all the cousins. It made for a great ride for Mom because she just got to ride with Ed and Rachel. It was a nice relaxing ride...for us at least. Luckily Grandma could just take out her hearing aids and she didn't mind all the noise the kids made either!

This glacier-fed lake made for great fishin', but cold swimming. It didn't stop the boys from going in it though!

Week 3: Rexburg, Idaho

Our time at Grandma and Grandpa Powell's house was definitely our busiest. The kids disappeared for the entire day playing in the ditch, jumping on the tramp and out of the swings, hunting turtles and skunks, and "helping" grandpa with all his projects out in the shop. By the time everyone came in for the night, they had big purple circles under their eyes and swore that they weren't tired and still had more to do before they went to bed.

Grandpa had moved the swingset out of the back yard to plant some pine trees. The grandkids all missed playing on that big swing set so they talked Grandpa into moving it to the front. I didn't realize moving the swing set involved the tractor. Next thing I knew Grandpa and Porter on his lap and they were driving that swing set around the backyard to test the different spots where it would work the best. Once the swing set was settled Grandpa let Porter drive the tractor back to the field. Porter was thrilled and I was scared to death which made Grandpa love it even more! I think he loves his bit of revenge on all the years I spent scaring him to death.

Amber has a reputation with the girls in the family. Anytime you need a little "Princess Time" she will always help you look your best. At 6:00 in the morning the girls all decided that they needed mani/pedis. So they hunted down Amber and pried her eyes open long enough to convince her to help them. Amber got out of bed and spent a good chunk of time helping them look their best. Not only did everyone get to choose their own colors, but they got to put stickers on as well. It was so awesome!

Growing up, we had a small ditch that ran the length of our driveway that we used to water the garden. Sometimes it would flood the driveway and we'd have a "pig party". We'd spend the day building mud pies, riding our bikes through the puddles and just enjoy the dirt. The irrigation ditch isn't there anymore, but Grandma Powell still understands the importance of dirt. Whenever the grandkids come over, Grandma will put the hose in the driveway so everyone can enjoy a good "pig party" just like old times.

We love that we get to spend the 4th of July in Idaho where it is MUCH cooler than Arizona. This year, it was a little too cool...You'll notice in the picture that the Arizona kids aren't the only ones in coats and wrapped in blankets. It was very windy and cold throughout the entire parade. The best part about the parades in Idaho is that they still throw candy and let the kids stand in the streets. In AZ they won't let us do that anymore due to the risks involved. It's nice to have a small town to go enjoy the fun things in life.

Speaking of enjoying things in a small town...we bought some simple fireworks for the kids to play with and all the dads kept taking them and setting them off. We wasted quite a few fireworks throwing them in the ditch. For some reason these brilliant men thought they could light a firecracker and throw it in the ditch and have it blow up underwater...it didn't work so well. We ended up having to take away all the firecrackers from the big boys and let the kids have a turn playing with them.

Of course no 4th of July celebration is complete without a bbq and rides on the 4 wheeler!

Week 2: Rigby, Idaho

After Shaun's, we drove 5 hours to stay with Billie and Russ in Rigby. We were so pumped to spend time with Zach, Christian, and Bleak. Porter was especially excited to get some time in with the guys. After the first day, he was running around with Christian saying things like, "Duuude..did you see that?!" and "Duuude...check this out!" It was so fun to see him pick up on the big kid stuff so fast.

The had their trampoline right next to their deck. So, the kids spent almost the whole time doing crazy tricks on the tramp of sleeping on it.

One night we had to bring the tramp sleepers inside because there was a huge rain storm. Everyone was more than willing to tough it out, but the parents had to give a definite "no" on that one! They still had plenty of fun sleeping on the floor of the living room.

Summer 2010

The last couple of years I have abandoned Dave to the heat of Arizona and took the kids North to visit family and friends. We usually spend 4-6 weeks jumping from one house to another. The kids have so much fun that I feel like I don't see them the whole summer! Here are some pics and short stories of our travels this year.

And we're OFF!

The kids were super excited to be able to fly out this year. We even brought Snickers on the flight. In the middle of take off Snickers nosed the zipper on his carrier open and hopped up on Porter's lap. Porter knew we'd get in trouble so he quickly hid Snickers under Ivy's blanket. Snickers was thrilled and settled down and was great in his little hideout for the rest of the trip. Everyone loved the flight and were so well behaved. I was proud of my little family!

Week 1: Boise, Idaho

First stop was Boise to visit Shaun and Kelly. We spent about a week there playing with our fun cousins Addie and Rachel.

One of the kid's favorite parts about staying with Shaun and Kelly is that they all got to sleep on the floor. Every night was a sleep over party. We'd put them down and spend the next hour yelling at them to quit playing. Sadly it was Rachel and Ivy that were the most disruptive and kept tickling the older kids. Those two year olds are so funny and cute that it made it hard to get really mad.

Shaun just finished his commercial helicopter pilot's license, so we all got to go on a helicopter ride. It was so much fun! Eva and Ivy were a little too nervous to give it a go, but Porter has found a new hobby! Since we've been home, he casually refers to Shaun's flying abilities whenever he wants to impress someone. It's really funny and cute!

The kids got excited when it rained one day. Kelly broke out the umbrella so they could enjoy it even more. Silly Arizonans!

All of the cherries were nice and ripe on Kelly's cherry tree. So for a fun morning activity we sent Porter and Eva up the tree to pick the cherries. It looked so much fun that I soon hoped up there as well. We got a BIG bowl of cherries and made a delicious cherry pie for dinner. The kids were so proud of themselves and so happy to get to climb a tree. It's one of their favorite past times.