JDG * Chloe's Closet

I honestly thought it had been a week since my last post, but the blog is telling me otherwise. I guess it doesn't lie. Chloe was telling us today how she doesn't write stories with her blog, you only get pictures. I tend to write too much -- although I do take more than my share of photos. But today it's going to be nice and short, just a couple items of business:

Sophie got to cash in her birthday coupon I gave her. I told her I would take her to a Jessica Day George book signing. The only one we saw, since her birthday, happened to fall while we were in Albuquerque. Her latest novel had been released that week. I told Sophie I could still buy her the book and then just get it signed later, but she said she wanted to wait and get it when she met Jessica. Luckily, Jessica was doing a signing down in Provo on the 13th so I got to take her. She spoke for about an hour beforehand, and then we stood in line to meet her. Sophie was pretty happy, and I'm glad she's simple to please.

Remember that project I told you I was going to take on? Guess what, I completed it. I told you I would probably end up relying on my husband, and indeed he did help me, but only in the beginning. I just needed help getting started, and I needed him to help me with that top shelf. An 8 foot board is not an easy thing to lift up by myself. But after that I did it all on my own. She still has two areas that need some built-in shelves. I was planning to just let Brandon do them, but now I'm wondering if I can't do them myself. Hmmm, I just realized that we were talking today about getting the table saw put away. That's a really exciting thought, and with the snow coming it's probably time. Do you think Chloe can just wait a bit for those shelves? She may have to. But for now she has one side of her closet that is super cute!

Chloe finally got to have her sleepover with Elsie. She's been begging to have her cousin over for a long time, but I told her she just had to wait until the kitchen project was completed. Then it took us a few weeks to find a time that would work for both parties. We actually got to have Elsie for 4 days, so Chloe was in heaven. I didn't take a single picture the entire time, but Chloe took care of that. She did all kinds of photo shoots with Elsie. You'll have to check out her blog if you missed that.

What Have You Been Up To? Oh, Nothing.

Conversation I just had with my husband:

B: what are you doing?

C: I'm going to go blog?

B: about what?

C: about everything I've done since I last blogged?

B: Bud, we haven't done anything.

He may be able to pull that over on someone else, but it's not gonna work with me. I document things!

I blogged at the end of our vacation about how Shane was in town for some training. That required one more get-together. My parents came back down and Jason's family joined us for dinner. Plus, the day before Shane came and hung out at our place to get some laundry done. It was fun to see him for a little bit, and to remind my kids of what mean brothers I have!

BYU celebrated chemistry week with magic shows all week long. I took the girls to one of them. We got to watch a lot of things blow up, and the teacher really liked to set things on fire.

Then I took them to the Young Filmmakers of Utah conference. I had worked as a volunteer for it so that I could get free admission. The girls haven't ever really expressed any interest in becoming filmmakers, but I like to expose them to as many different things as I can -- and then let them decide how they feel about it. They were just excited to go and meet several of their celebrity heros: Dave Roberts (from Kid History), Jeremy Warner, David Nibley & Daryn Tufts. Paul from The Piano Guys was supposed to be on the schedule, but he must have backed out. Sophie was pretty bummed about that. So, we went and learned a few things. This was on Saturday, and then Monday morning I got an email from Sophie asking me if she could use the video camera, and explained the movie she wanted to make. Then there was a P.S.

P.S. there was no inspiration from the young film maker of Utah conference! I decided it would be fun for me and my kids to see all the awesome things I did.

Yeah, right. No inspiration at all. She just felt like it.

They ran out of time to do individual shots with the celebrities, so we just had to squeeze into a big group shot with Jeremy. Can you see them hiding away in the back, on the right?

Way back in July the library held a photo contest. You had to take a photo and then zoom WAY in on a section of it to create a "new" image. (The theme for the summer reading program this year was ZOOM!). We got a phone call that Chloe took 3rd place in the contest, and that they would be making a display at the Viridian Center around the first of October. We finally make it over to see her photo on display. They also created bookmarks with the winning photos on them, and you can pick them up at any of the county libraries.

On the way out to the parking lot our driver got a little mixed up. I had my camera on me, so you get to see my family having a little fun.

The girls first year of growing crops was an interesting experiment. Not much turned out, but they did get quite a few pumpkins. They were even able to sell some (Chloe sold 25 and Sophie sold 20). On Halloween they decided that since they still had some left over, they would just pass them out to any trick-or-treaters who might stop by (we weren't expecting many). We did get a few though, but you should have seen the excitement of the kids when we told them they got to choose a pumpkin. One girl lost her shoe running so fast to get hers!

Chloe finally got some dry ice. I think she's asked for it every year since she was like 7. It made her pumpkin smoke a little, but she wasn't terribly impressed. I guess it was no chemistry show.

But the important part of the day was celebrating this man. He is a wonderful father and husband (even if he thinks we don't do anything). I don't have any photos to show his hard work, but he's still working on my island and table. Sophie put her "un-inspired" skills to work and make a video of Brandon. She was a little sneaky and managed to get some photos of him from her grandma. That was really fun to see. At the end she filled the time with dancing. We were laughing so hard our faces got a little wet. It was a good birthday.

I am still painting the fence, but I got our ditch filled back in with all the dirt that was dug out to run pipe to the back of the field. The girls are helping me fill the rest with falling leaves. I made a small amount of progress on Chloe's closet, and she now has window coverings. All of our old appliances have been sold! I have a living room back. And I just sold the folding tables we had. They were being stored in the bathroom for some reason, so we now have a bathroom back -- and thanks to Chloe's awesome cleaning skills it even looks good. But then we start dreaming about remodeling that ugly old room. I told her we can dream, but no more projects for a long time.

Last night we had a ward chili cook-off. I made my yummy white bean chili. It was supposed to be outside, but the weather turned nasty so they moved it to the church. Brandon and I were at Lowe's when the wind went really crazy. Our licence plate flew off the van while we were loading our stuff. Lowe's lost one of their sheds -- the manager told us someone just came in and reported that they saw it blow away. At least my island top isn't going anywhere. Have you seen that thing? I wanted a moveable island, but just the top has to be over 100 lbs!

OK, Brandon, have I blabbed enough to prove that I did something?

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

I put Chloe in charge of planning our family vacation this year, and after telling her grandma that she was in charge Grandma found the perfect plan. She thought she should go to Albuquerque for the balloon fiesta, and that grandma and grandpa should tag along. They would get on Google hangouts every Sunday night for months planning it. She set up a couple of spreadsheets so they could share information (even though they never contributed to them!), but Chloe had fun doing them.

This is how the vacation played out:

My parents came down on Friday evening (Oct 3rd), so Chloe declared that the official beginning of the trip. Saturday morning all but Brandon and I went to pick up the rental car, since we no longer have a vehicle big enough to haul all of us (that is reliable). We stopped in Price for lunch at a Chinese place. They weren't big on vegetables, but we got filled up on grease. Then it was on to Bluff. We had to go back, my parents needed to see our film. There's a restaurant there in Bluff that has an awesome vegetarian section on their menu, but the first time we went we weren't there at the right time for dinner. This time it was perfect, so we headed over to find their doors locked. They had closed that day so their employees could attend the Shiprock Fair. When we got to Shiprock we learned what a big deal this fair was. Luckily, we were headed in the opposite direction, so the traffic didn't affect us. We drove all the way to Farmington, NM that first day. Chloe has an affection for Comfort Inns, and that was the closest one to Bluff. We got there in time for her and grandma to head to the pool.

Sunday, as well as Saturday, we enjoyed listening to General Conference in the car. We got to Albuquerque just in time to check into our hotel room. We got settled, and then headed to the balloon park for the evening festivities. No one knew what to expect, so we were just taking the advice of the official website. We got there early, and while sitting in the parking lot we saw balloons starting to inflate. We were afraid we were missing the show, but not so. Once we got inside we just wandered around, and then the balloons started to "glow." They all stay on the ground for the balloon glow, and about every 5 minutes they would all flash their "lights" (gas) at the same time. It was beautiful. And it was a perfect evening to be out. That went on for about an hour, and then the balloons all started to deflate. Once there was room we laid our blanket down and planted ourselves to watch the firework show.

Monday was our day to explore Old Town. That was my dad's one request. I'm not sure he enjoyed it near as much as my mom did. It was just a lot of shopping. We did get to go inside a church for a bit, and the town square had entertainment going on all day so we stopped and watched some hula dancers my mom was excited about. Dancing and purple outfits, how could she pass that up? Unfortunately, it was right at lunch time so the girls weren't nearly as interested. We took off just a little early to go find some food. They had 4 different penny smashing machines there, and Chloe had to visit them all. Well, she may have been happy after a couple of them, but she got someone else addicted (do we need to mention who?). All that shopping and walking wore us completely out. We went back to the hotel and crashed. It was nice to just lay down and do nothing. That hasn't happened for a long time, and that made it actually feel like a vacation. The girls got plenty of HGTV time in. I went and soaked in the hot tub while Sophie swam with Grandma. That felt so good, and I believe it helped me sleep really well.

Tuesday was another explore Albuquerque day. You can buy a combo ticket to get into the zoo, aquarium and botanical garden all on the same day. They have a train that takes you between the two locations (the aquarium and garden are right next to each other). We started at the zoo. Brandon was impressed. It was a nice zoo. They had suggested that we head over and do the aquarium first so that we would be able to take the train back before the last one left for the day. We actually split it up. We did about 1/2 of the zoo, went to the aquarium (not so impressive) and the botanical garden (it was a lot of fun), and then took the train back to finish up what we had missed at the zoo. It was another super fun but exhausting day. We got to eat at Panera that night for dinner. I still can't believe we only ate their once on our trip. When on vacation we try to eat there as much as possible -- and I didn't even get to cash in my birthday treat. They sent me the email for it the next day.

Wednesday we went back to the balloon park. We got up at 4:00 AM so that we could be there for the dawn patrol. That was kind of lame -- I think it was too windy or something. But then they did a morning glow. We froze nearly to death, or maybe it was just me. Someone asked me where I was from. When I said Utah she said she thought I was going to say something like Miami Beach. Can't people in Utah get cold? I've been cold my whole life. Until I moved to Utah, then I'm fairly uncomfortable from June to August! Wow, I'm getting off track here... so after the morning glow they immediately moved to the Flight of the Nations Mass Ascension. Someone else told us there are generally about 500 balloons that go up. I think it was probably less than that this morning, but some of the others could easily have been that many. Then we walked over to a museum they have adjacent to the park. Sophie did a treasure hunt. I warmed up. Brandon and Grandpa took naps (I'm pretty sure).

Thursday we got up early again, but we knew better than getting there way ahead of schedule. And we had already see a dawn patrol, so we didn't need to get up until 6:00. I think getting there after the sun was up kept me warm. It wasn't so bad this morning. We watched the special shapes rodeo. This was the kids favorite part. They loved all the fun shaped balloons, and there were a lot of them. Afterward, we went over and watched a chainsaw carving competition. That was a little loud, but it was fun to look at the bears that had been carved. Sophie has a special affection for bears, so it was mostly for her. Grandma told her if she wanted to pick one out that could be her Christmas present. She came and talked to me about it because she really liked the idea, but Sophie also really likes surprises. It would ruin Christmas for her if she knew what she was getting (she is not a snooper). So, we decided she would get one, but she wanted me to pick it out for her so she wouldn't know which one it was, and she and I have very similar tastes. She knew if I liked it so would she. But at this point we had already left the booth, and Grandma told her she could think about it.

That was pretty much all there was going on that morning, so then we went to check out the Petroglyph National Monument. There were several different sites you could drive to, but we just went to one. We climbed this hill, saw some petroglyphs, and that was good enough. We got what we needed out of seeing one site.

We took another little break back at the hotel, but then there activities going on again this night. It had been raining off and on all day so we weren't sure what to expect. We went out to dinner, and then not knowing any better just headed to the park afterward. Things didn't look right when there was more traffic headed the opposite direction from us, and then we got up to the point where we normally got our parking tickets and there were no agents there to take our money. We just kept going. When we got to the park the cops directed us into a different lot than we had been to before, and they informed us that the special shapes glowdeo had been canceled, so everyone was leaving at the same time. Well, still weren't clear what was going on, but we did want to get back into the park just so we could get that bear for Sophie, so we decided just my mom and I would go in (we didn't want to pay for everyone just to visit this booth), but when we got to the gate they weren't taking tickets either -- so we got in for free! We called the others and told them they could all come join us. Of course, by this time the bear I really liked was gone, so I had choose a different one for Soph. I hope she likes it! I was going to run it back to the car to hide it, but this crazy mess ensued, and we ended up just wrapping it in our blanket to keep it out of view. The cop had told us all they were doing was the firework show, so we thought we'd hang out for that. It wasn't scheduled to start for nearly another hour, but all of a sudden they started going off -- right in front of us. I don't think we could have been any closer. So, in the end, I think it all worked out for the best -- we got Sophie's bear, we got to see the fireworks from an awesome spot, and we didn't have to pay for parking or admission. And there weren't that many people there, so it wasn't that difficult getting out when it was over.

Friday we said goodbye to Albuquerque and headed down to Las Cruces. We all hung out with Brandon's grandpa for several hours. We ate at the cafeteria with him, and he gave us a tour of his village. We've seen it all before, but it was new to my parents. We had a good time visiting with him and hearing all about his life experiences.

Saturday morning we packed up and then went back over to say goodbye to Grandpa Fry. It was a quick goodbye, but we had a long drive ahead of us. We had to get all the way to Cortez. We stayed in the same hotel we did the last time we were there, because they have an awesome pool. They keep their water warm!

Sunday we debated quite a bit on what to do. We had planned to go to Mesa Verde (another reason we stopped in Cortez), but we didn't want to break the Sabbath and Shane was currently at Camp Williams (a few miles from my house) and planned to spend time with the family that afternoon. We wanted to hurry back to see him. In the end Mesa Verde won out. The fall colors were in full bloom so it was stunning up there, and I was very impressed with the cave dwellings. They were much more elaborate than I was expecting. Again, we only went to one of the sites, but I think that gave us a really good idea and gave us more time to hurry home. We arrived home to find two of my brothers waiting for us. We all got to visit (laying on the dining room floor) for a little bit before Shane had to head back.

Pictures below -- I was kind enough to cut all the balloon photos down. We took a lot!
Brandon tells me the slideshow won't show up for him, so if you are also having that problem try this link (sorry!)



Sophie, you're up next. I can't wait to see what she pulls together for our next vacation.

New Kitchen - Part 2

I sat down to think about what we've done since I last posted, and turns out we've pretty much just focused on the house. I hardly have any other pictures. We're so exciting. But the house... is getting SO close! More rain this weekend has put a damper on things, or I would say for sure we will be done by the end of the week. Chloe has moved into her room! We sort of have a family room back, and the guest room is getting cleared out. She got carpet this past week and it really pulled things together. I still have to do her closet -- the contractor just wanted to put up a bar and standard shelf. I said, "No, thank you. I can do something much more fun." And I really want a project of my own. I know Brandon will end up saving me, but at least I'm going to try. She also is getting some built-in bookshelves, and I'll let Brandon help with that.

My countertops came on Tuesday. The contractor was more anxious for them than I was. They were probably holding him up a bit, but I thought there was still plenty to do. They installed my sink along with the counters, and then Ted got right to work on the backsplash, outlets, faucet, and disposal. Brandon has been working like crazy on his floors. This is his pet project. We really loved the way they looked after putting the tung oil on, but we weren't convinced it would stay looking that nice. The floor we did in Centerville ended up turning darker, but this floor seemed to be getting lighter over time. He went ahead with the original plan and stained it. He had played around with different combinations for so long, but I'm sure he could spend a few more years doing that to perfect it. He spent the last couple days putting the finish on. After the first coat he was pretty frustrated. He ended up sanding it off and starting over. We camped out on Thursday night to avoid the fumes in our house, and then we went to work with Brandon on Friday to keep us out of the house. We had fun hanging out in Orem for the day. But rain was forecasted and we needed the yard mowed, so we came home a little early. I got the lawn mowed just in time and Brandon was able to get another coat on. Then it started pouring for the next 24 hours. We nixed our plans to camp out on Friday night. We were able to rescue all our things from the tent, but I'm sure the tent is a muddy mess. Chloe was super excited because we just moved our campout into her new room. The fumes didn't seem to seep into it, and it's large enough for all of us to sprawl out. No campfire, but it was a fun treat.

Yesterday I spent the morning shopping with the girls. Our kitchen is getting a new system. I've thought about this for so long (like everything I do, I way overthink things) but we bought new dishes. A different color for each person. Now no more guessing or blaming someone who doesn't clean up their dishes. And on top of that, they are cute!

I've been keeping a photo diary of the project on my google+ page, but I know most of you hate it over there so I'll post a few of the latest photos here.

A is for Aquarium & Apples

It's a new month. Must be feeling that pull to get some journaling recorded.

My girls came back from Grandma's. Boy, was that different having them home. I think it was really good for them to be gone during that crazy time, because it sure hasn't been easy trying to squeeze 4 of us into this mess. Chloe was only home for 6 days and then she was off on another adventure to California. Lark moved to Huntington Beach, so Chloe got to tag along to help with the move. It would have been fun for Sophie to go to, but she was already missing me pretty bad after two weeks away and she definitely needed a break from her sister for a bit.

Sophie invited her friends to come down and go to the aquarium with us. We had to fit one more activity in before school started up. We scheduled it for the same day that Chloe left for California, so she was able to come with us for a little bit and then my parents just picked her up at the aquarium. After spending all the time we could with the sharks and otters and penguins, we went and got some lunch and brought it to our house to eat. They got to see our mess and what our little world on the south end of the valley is like. We are really grateful for good friends and the fun time we were able to have together.

Sophie was scared to death to walk across this "tight rope" bridge they had. It was good to watch her face her fears, and see a little positive peer pressure in action!

And see how happy she is that she made it?

I'm just throwing this in to show what we do with most of our time. Sometimes I find it hard to blog about the everyday stuff because it just seems so rote. But here is Sophie thrilled (as always) to be doing her math. After having such a messed up schedule the last couple months, we finally got back in our groove...

For about a week. And then we had to work hard on the house. I had decided to do all the painting myself, so it was time to work on that. We had several days of pure exhaustion. Painting isn't too rough, but we were under a bit of a time crunch since our contractor was waiting on us.

Brandon started his new job this month. He now works for FamilySearch in Orem. I'm pretty stoked about what he gets to work on, and I have lots of advice for him, but he's back to commuting and I'm back to no car.

A few weeks ago I was feeling desperate for an activity that our family could all do together. We just don't get out and have fun together on our weekends like we used to. Sure, there's still plenty of recreation going on, but it's just different -- and a lot of times it's not just the 4 of us. I miss that. So... I had gotten an email about an apple harvest at Wasatch Mountain State Park. I picked a Saturday that Brandon wouldn't have to spend working on his gospel doctrine lesson and booked us a reservation. Then I realized it was the same day that Swiss Days was going on in Midway -- just down the street from the state park. What perfect timing! Only Brandon didn't exactly have time to do both, so he ended up staying home and working on the house and yard. We still had a good time picking apples. Then we went and stood in line for nearly an hour to get on the shuttle bus to Swiss Days. It wasn't too bad -- we thought we were going to get poured on, but it just drizzled a bit. Sure beat the heat I had to deal with the last time I went. I actually bought something this year -- some wrapping paper to justify our time we spent, but it was really just about spending time with my girls.

On the way home I had a scary experience. I needed to do my grocery shopping for the week while I had a car, and driving through Orem I saw a Winco. My friend had just told me they had a good bulk foods section, so I decided to stop and try them out. We spent an hour doing all our shopping, went to check out, but after the girls had put some of the food up on the conveyor belt I noticed a sign that said they don't accept credit cards. I shop pretty exclusively with my card, but I didn't think it would be a big deal. Then I remembered my debit card had just expired (I had called the bank just two days before to get a new one, but I had to go in to a branch (and that's a little hard to do right now) so I still don't have one. I thought, "I'll just write a check," but when I went to get my checkbook it wasn't in my purse. It is always in my purse. So I went and talked to the checker. She said she could just bag the food up and hold it for me until I could come pick it up, but I don't live near Orem and Brandon wouldn't be going until Tuesday. It wasn't a big deal, but I was extremely embarrassed to have to put all that food back (or just leave it for someone else to do), and overwhelmed at the thought of having to spend another hour to go and do my shopping at a different store. I finally realize I did have a little cash with me, so we ended up just prioritizing what I needed and had the checker watch the total carefully. We just cut it off where we had to. I've always been blessed to have the money to buy the things we need, so this was a bit of a reality check for me to see what it felt like for people who can't. Then when we went to the parking lot, the people parked right next to me had dropped a bag that had some dried beans in it. They were sitting there picking up every last one of those beans off the ground.

For our 5th Sunday yesterday we watched the video about John Rowe Moyle in our combined meeting. The youth were shown the same movie in their class. This man would walk 22 miles to get to his job to work on the Salt Lake temple. Then after an accident that claimed one of his legs, he made a wooden peg and went right back to walking 22 miles (one way) to complete his assignment. It's a great story, but to follow up with the lesson, for their activity on Wednesday the youth are all going to be walking to the temple. Yes, I know only in Utah (right?), and our temple is only 4.2 miles away, but I think the message is the same. I'm really excited for the kids to get to have this experience.

Reunions * Acting Part 2 * Rain!

What a crazy month this has been. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that I can plan my activities whenever I choose, but unfortunately I still live in a society where everybody else is trying to cram everything into the few short summer months. And having two holidays in July doesn't help either. So... I put my simple life on hold, and we went crazy for a bit.

I didn't have time to post about the Nicholls' Family Reunion. Luckily I could just post those photos on FaceBook so that the people who really care about seeing them could. We went to Laramie on Friday, the 18th, and just stayed at a campground there. We met some Amish people also staying there, and I was proud of myself for being courageous enough to talk to them. But, I'm going to be honest here, I was a little embarrassed to run my blow dryer around them, so I waited until they were gone. That's kind of silly, isn't it? They are from the same town as my mother, and she raised us to be well aware of Amish culture. So, Saturday we went to Grandma Rosemary's in the morning. It was nice to have some extra time to just visit with her. I had been translating some letters that her father wrote, and sharing them with my girls so I was able to have her tell them some stories about her family and my kids had a good reference point. I got a platter from Rosemary's "flea market" that belonged to her mother. When I told Sophie whose it was she was impressed. That's some of the cool part about sharing family history with your kids. After the reunion we went over to Cheyenne where we were able to camp in Nicole's backyard. The girls and their cousin, Cora, were awesome at setting up the tent. Brandon had a little buddy to play with, and I got to sit around and do nothing. Awww!

We had a few days to resume our routine before heading out again -- this time a mini-Bateman reunion. For Pioneer Day we went up to Star Valley. My dad reserved a guard station cabin for a couple days, and several brought tents to set up. The first night I froze to death, so the second night I moved into the cabin -- smart idea! We donated our tent to Lark so she could have an aunt party, and the girls all slept with her. On Friday most of us hiked up to Bailey Lake. Only a few made it all the way, but we did a good 8-9 miles. The girls had their grandma along to make it fun, but Brandon said they are now in trouble because we have proof that they can easily hike 8 miles. Then Saturday we packed up and headed home. Well, two of us. The girls convinced me that they needed more grandma time (and with our house under construction I'm glad to have them out of here), so they have been with her for the last two weeks.

I guess somebody must have gone to Bluff and noticed my amazing abilities at being an extra (or maybe not), but I got selected to be another extra in a Studio C skit. At first I thought I shouldn't do it because the girls would be so bummed about not getting to come with me, but then I found out no extra family members were allowed to be brought, so I was glad I agreed. I just hung out at a park with some of the cast (Natalie, Adam, Whitney, & Stacy) for like 4 hours. My acting part took a whole 5 minutes, but the rest of the time was just hanging out with the cast, listening to their hilarious stories. I actually got a speaking part this time, so you'll have to look for me in Season 5 this fall! [I don't know the name of the episode I'll be in].

It has been raining like crazy here. Not a typical summer for this area, for sure. I would normally welcome the moisture and cooler temperatures, but it's been causing a little trouble with us not having a roof! Our contractor spent yesterday working on a problem spot that was causing it to pour in our bathroom, but as soon as he got that taken care of the old kitchen area started to fall apart. It's plaster, so it's not crumbling, but I'm sure there will be extra work involved there. In spite of the rain, things are still moving along. We should have windows by the end of the week, the flooring has arrived and Brandon's started to try out different stains to see what he likes, and our dishwasher showed up -- way earlier than I was hoping for. They were supposed to call me to schedule delivery, but I just got a phone call that they were on their way (they blamed it on the new guy). Oh boy! At least it's a smaller appliance, so I made room for it.

So, crazy life makes for lots of blogging. Maybe that's a good trade off?? Who knows.

New Kitchen Update

This is my photo diary of our home addition. I took a couple more today that show what a mess our kitchen currently is in, but I'm too tired to upload them. It's been a lot of fun watching the progress -- until yesterday when the kitchen was torn apart. Now it's getting hard. We're washing dishes in the bathtub and have almost no room to walk around, everything is scattered between the bathroom and living room (although I must say I did a pretty good job of finding spots for everything without making my house look like a disaster). At least we still have the stove hooked up and can use it, we're not cooking outside yet! Anyway, I'm sure this is a fairly boring post, but it's just for my record.