Memorable Quotes by Dean Today

I love you so much. I love you more than a monkey loves his momma.

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Wow Mom (looking around the kitchen). You sure have a lot of work to do.

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Tonight I'm going to dream about Skateland, monkeys and happiness.

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On special occasions, the sun goes down slow and comes up fast. And that happens to Jack sometimes 'cause he told me. And Jack's my best friend and I don't want to lose him ever. He's my favorite Jackie in the whole world. And I wish he was my brother when I was 67 years old.

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The Moment You've All Been Waiting For . . .

Because I like to tease, first look at some pictures of the dining room! Remember there used to be a door in the middle of that wall. Also, there was a chair rail with really old, stained wallpaper on the bottom half and really old, stained walls on the top. Now it has a fresh coat of olive green paint and the trim is a cream color. We also painted the beams a dark chocolate brown but left the natural knotty pine alone. We still need to stain or paint the table but that's a project for another day.



Ok, so here's the stove side of the galley kitchen. Remember the backsplash used to be brick and there was a brick box to the right of the stove which could only be used to hold a microwave. We demo'd that and bought a new cabinet for the space. It's a pretty good match to the original cabinets, wouldn't you agree? We donated our old microwave and got a new one that was installed over the stove. It's not called a spacesaver for nothing. We also added new pulls. The microwave is the only new appliance. We may opt to tile behind the stove but we're still thinking about it.

And here is a shot of the sink side of the galley. We opted for corian countertops with a corian sink. The sink is molded into the countertop so it's completely seamless and because it's corian it's virtually indestructable which is good when you have 5 year old twins. Please ignore the curtain - we still haven't found one we like. It's strange that one silly little curtain is the last thing we need to purchase and we're having the hardest time finding one we like!


Here's a closeup of the sink so you can see the fixtures. I love these fixtures - you don't see water spots on them at all and corian is so, so, SO easy to clean. Most of the time soap and water does the trick. Every now and then I have to bring out the heavy duty abrasive - baking soda. Really. Please ignore the curtain.

This shot gives some perspective on how it all flows together. We painted the walls in the kitchen a creamy, pale yellow with white trim. The trim in the dining room is a shade lighter than the walls in the kitchen so it all kind of flows together. The green of the countertop works well with the green on the walls in dining room, too.

So, there you have it. There is so much more to do but with this major stuff out of the way, we can take our time with the rest. I'm loving my kitchen - it's amazing how these changes have made it so much more efficient and pleasant.

What do you think?

Easter Eve

It's late and I should be getting their Easter baskets ready but I just finished painting my nails and I have to wait for them to dry so why not spend some time on the internet?
Plus, I had to wait for Jack to fall asleep. He wanted to go to sleep on the couch just in case the Easter Bunny came and didn't know where to look for the egg that Jack left for him. He would hear him and show him where the egg is. He asked me to leave him a note that says if he can't find the egg to please wake up Jack and he'll show him. I can hear him now though - he's finally asleep.
And poor Dean is sick. He coughed all day yesterday and then in the evening he didn't eat dinner and he just wasn't himself. Although, he did perk up when Peter and Julian gave him a new pair of shoes for Easter. The cutest little black, pink and blue plaid Chuck Taylor's. Dean loves shoes. True to form, he spiked a fever and has been residing in misery-ville ever since. I slept between them last night and, consequently, didn't sleep too well. I really hope he wakes up feeling better tomorrow, with no fever, so we can all go to the Sullivans for Easter brunch as planned. He'll be so disappointed if he won't get to go.
And now, I must go fill baskets.
Happy Easter!

One More Thing

Oh, I forgot to mention that I will be participating in NaBloPoMo for April. The theme is LETTERS.

So, that's exciting, right?

Falling in Love

You're not going to believe this but I've fallen in love with my house again. It's amazing what a little sweat and a fresh coat of paint will do. I find myself exclaiming OH I LOVE MY HOUSE at really random moments. And it's true, I do. Anyway, I don't think I told you about this:

I'm sure I've mentioned before that the person who owned our home before us was a brick layer and whenever he had leftover brick he just built things with it. Hence, we had a brick box in our kitchen that could serve no purpose other than house our enormous microwave. Another similarly useless thing he built was this brick square that sat in our front yard. Apparently, he meant for it to be a post for a light fixture but he never bothered to run conduit through it or anything sensible like that. So, Tom borrowed Alex's sledgehammer and went to it with a little help from the guys.

Here is a picture of Dean priming the new trim in our dining room. Here is a picture of Jack staining our TV cabinet a deep, rich brown to match the rest of the furniture in the living room. He did an awesome job.

This is me filling all the nail holes in the new trim in our living room , prepping for paint. You can also see the color our living room walls used to be and in this photo it's not too bad. In person it's almost highlighter yellow. This is also me without makeup. I'm just keeping it real, yo.Here are the boys enjoying a rare moment off from work.

And here is a picture of the boys relaxing on our new couch. You can also see the new color on the living room walls - a soft gray with white trim. I LOVE IT.

I had hoped to have pictures hung and everything put away nice and neat before posting photos but just haven't had time. I have the day off tomorrow and intend on cleaning up the kitchen, putting away all the odds and ends, fixing up the living room a bit and then, finally I will take pictures of everything and post them here. I still don't have curtains but am slightly afraid to go shopping for them again for fear I'll pick out a new bedroom set.

What? It could happen.

A Load Off

• 3:30am. That's when I finally went to bed. Sheesh.
  
• I just sent an email to the current President to tell her I'm flattered but I cannot be President for the next term.
• Corned beef is in the crock pot. Hope it's good.
• Got Keynote but don't see what the big deal is. It's just like powerpoint but on a mac.
• Got candy and flip flops for the boys' Easter basket. Need to find the plastic eggs at home.
• Still love the color of my living room walls.
• Adore my new furniture.
  

The Ramblings of a Crazy Person

I can't sleep. Too full on corned beef, cupcakes and coffee. We went to the Sullivans for dinner tonight and it was delicious. But, after 2 glasses of wine I thought it would be a good idea to have a cup of coffee and, well, I should have known better. Still, after days and days of subsisting on 5-6 hours of sleep each night I really didn't think one little cup of coffee was going to keep me up tonight. That's what I get for thinking. So here's a sampling of what's rattling around in my head right now.

1. Crap! Easter is on Sunday and I haven't gotten anything for the boys yet. Must do that at lunch this week.
2. I still need to get curtains for the kitchen and figure out what we're going to do with the dining room window.
3. I had a dream about Heather Armstrong last night. That's weird.
4. I'm thirsty.
5. Work stuff. Maybe I should get Keynote to help me brainstorm our space restructure? Will request from resources tomorrow.
   
6. Oh! I skipped my resources meeting today and didn't call them. Must call them.
7. Can I make corned beef in the crock pot?
   
8. I have to make a decision about curtains in the living room, too.
   
9. Wow, I really love the color of my living room.
10. I need to start running again. I'm worried about my knees though which didn't much like all that bending down I was doing to paint the living room.
11. The Mother's Day Brunch is coming up soon and I need to request a donation from work this week.
    
12. SFVMOMC wants to nominate me for President for the next term. I don't want to be President but feel guilty about that.
    
13. I can't be President! I am already way over scheduled and that doesn't even include activities for the boys! And they start school in the fall. What if I want to join the PTA?
14. How much of a time commitment is it, really? It's only two Tuesdays a month. How bad could it be?
15. There's also two State conventions each year that the President has to attend. And not just the fun part - the boring meetings, too! And, the President has to go to every single function from the Get Acquainted Teas to the holiday parties, skate party, and every other event there is. And don't get me started about the financial responsibility of being in charge of a non-profit organization.
    
16. But there's already such a strong executive board in place for the next term. And, I'd have the strongest Parliamentarian ever because she's been a member for years and past President several times.
17. Absolutely not. Kelsi, you cannot take this on.
18. I'm still not sleepy.
19. I am still thirsty.
20. I love my new couch.
    

Weekend Highlights

Gosh it seems like ages since we last talked! Please do note the time. It is late on a Sunday night and I think this is perhaps the first time I have sat down all day. Maybe all weekend. It's been a busy one. At last I'm sitting in my brand new chair and I have to say, it's doing right by me.

This has been one heckuva long week prepping for the arrival of the furniture. Starting with the systematic removal of the old furniture, prepping walls for paint, painting, painting and painting some more. Then? Another coat, just for good measure. And while we have the brushes out are there any other spots that need to be touched up? Hey! Let's paint the door! And the threshold! Oh, let's paint Kelsi tired.

Some highlights from the weekend that didn't have to do with painting - we took the boys to see Horton Hears a Who. That was fun and I got to sit down for almost 2 hours! We went to Peter & Julian's for breakfast this morning. We had homemade blueberry pancakes, l'il smokies, and egg and potato scramble with fresh squeezed orange juice. So good. And about a hundred espressos. I used my kitchen aid stand mixer for the first time on Friday night. That was fun. I cut Tom's hair.

Ok, so enough about that stuff. I love my new furniture! While the boys spent a few hours at their friend Frank's house, we rearranged the furniture. It feels good. It's open and inviting and just the right amount of pieces. I took some pictures but I'm too tired to post them. But I will soon. And I'll also post pictures of the kitchen soon even if we don't have curtains on the windows. You've waited long enough.

Heartburn

Dean: Ohhh, my heart is burning.
Me: Why?
Dean: Because of Amanda (teacher at school).
Me: Your heart is burning because of Amanda?
Dean: Yes because she sings such beautiful songs.

Our Dean the romantic.



Happy Birthday Eddie!!!!

MarBlo and Lists

So, I had every intention of trying to post every day in the month of March but here it is March 2nd and I've already missed a day.

I also had every intention of posting pictures of the kitchen today but it isn't quite finished. Tom touched up the paint in a few places and it looks great. He still has to install the lighting in the dining room and then we still need curtains for the kitchen window and the dining room window. We had every intention of getting the curtains today - it was on our list - really the only reason we went out today. In fact, our list went something like this:

curtains for kitchen and dining room
look at lighting

We purchased lighting and new living room furniture.

Do you see living room furniture on that list? No. But, Macy's was having a sale and it ended today and we fell in love. I mean, so in love. And it will be delivered on 3/16 so now we need to pick paint for the living room and paint it before the new furniture gets here. I'm not going to describe it though. I'll take a picture after it gets delivered and you can see for yourself. And I promise I won't drag it out like I am the kitchen. Two weeks from today - you'll see it.