Saturday, August 30, 2008

What else do you do for Labor Day weekend but labor?

It would be nice to actually take a vacation for Labor Day, but around here we stick to the true definition. This year, since we have a tile floor to finish, that's what we've been doing today. The idea was to get it all done over Labor Day...and I think we will!

And in true UTE fashion, we also watched/listened to the Utah vs. Michigan football game in THE BIG HOUSE. The score? UTAH 25 -- Michigan 23.

GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The I'm-tired-of-trying-to-think-of-a-catchy-title Title

So how is it that the kids have gone back to school, and MY brain is tired?

Things are rolling along as ever around here. Except for the backsplash, the main kitchen area is totally and completely finished. The installer was here and put in the toe kick and moldings around the pantry and peninsula. Everything looks really great. Jeff has laid almost all of the tile in the dining area as well, and as soon as he finishes that, I will get to grout it. I've learned that I have to take some Advil before I start, unless I want my back to suffer mightily in the process!

I didn't post about last Friday's interesting escapade. I had to have a repairman come out and look at my BRAND NEW DISHWASHER (yes, you read that right) and I was NOT HAPPY to have to do that! It's supposed to be a higher-end dishwasher, stainless steel with stainless steel tub, the whole bit. (The previous Maytag dishwasher we had was a piece of junk. We owned that thing for 4-5 years, and it was seriously lacking.) After the new one had been installed for a week, it started making a terrible racket upon starting it. Turns out that some little valve on the water line wasn't letting it fill all the way, so it took like 15 minutes for the repair person (is that more politically correct?) to fix it. Now it works like a charm. But needless to say, we weren't so happy about that one. I maintain a Consumer Reports account, and I research everything we buy before we buy it--so hopefully this was a little fluke and my new dishwasher will not have any other problem. (It better not!) I should have had my consumer reports account before we bought the Maytag!




Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Senioritis






Here is a small sampling of our new Senior daughter's fancy pictures! I dunno if I should be posting these...they are awfully gorgeous pictures! :)




Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Back to School


Here are Mia, Jake, Jared, and Sarah before they each left for school yesterday.

I wasn't ready to send them back yet, but oh well. Time, as they say, waits for no man. Or woman. Or a mother who misses her kids. :)

I'm sure that I'll get over it sooner or later. I still have my little buddy Libby to pal around with for the next year!

Monday, August 18, 2008

I'm back!

Which sounds kind of funny, because I didn't actually go anywhere. I just wasn't very good at blogging last week because I was too darn busy! I finished the grout in the finished part of the kitchen (translation: everywhere but the back hallway to the laundry room, and the dining area). I also started trying to get the kids ready to go back to school. This, I am surprised with. Normally, I'm pretty ready for them to go back, but this year, I'm not wanting to send them back just yet! Maybe it's because we've been so busy doing the kitchen that this summer has just FLOWN by and it doesn't seem like it's back-to-school time yet. Maybe I've sort-of-maybe-just-a-little-bitty-bit enjoyed having them around...who knows? Regardless, i've got to get them ready to go back.

As far as the kitchen goes, we're getting very close. The guys came today and installed the toe kick at the base of the cabinets, and the nice furniture molding around the peninsula and the exposed sides of the pantry and wall oven cabinet, so we're official with the cabinets now. Jeff's been working hard on the tile in the dining area, and is now working on the cut pieces for the perimeter. The back splash awaits, too. We did some of that already, as seen in the last picture, and that was pretty fun to do. It goes up quick, so we'll probably finish that in a day.

Once we finish this, our work is not done. :-( All the old cabinets (the ones worth saving) need to be installed into the storage room. The deck needs to have a ceiling put up before winter comes...it's going to become a screen room, but that part may have to wait for spring!

Monday, August 11, 2008

A fully functioning kitchen


Last Thursday, my DH took the day off and installed all our appliances! So now we have everything done, except the flooring on the dining room side, some of the grout in the kitchen area, and the backsplash. He also started the backsplash behind the range...you can sort of see the mosaic tile. We are going to get the installer back to put in the toe kick, so underneath the cabinets will look finished in the next picture I take.

It's been a challenge to remodel the kitchen while living in the house, but it's been fun too, and definitely it's been worth it!


Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The list for today

Okay, so today's post is probably going to be pretty darn boring. If you want to stop reading now and find another more interesting blog to stalk, that's okay. I won't be offended at all. Really. :-)

Today is going to be a relatively quiet day; at least that's how it looks at the outset. (A quiet day for me means no appointments I have to be to, no deadlines I have to keep, nothing on the calendar!) I've had days look that way before, and then they totally went to crap right before my very eyes! Anybody else ever had this experience?! You know, when one of your daughters crashes into another one of your daughters while riding their bikes, and the younger daughter literally gets her front tooth smashed to smithereens? Then you end up at the dentist for an emergency visit, and then said daughter has to go without a front tooth for a year until her permanent one comes in. (At least it was a baby tooth that bit the dust!) Or how about when one of your sons is playing at the neighbor's house, falls HEAD FIRST into a window well, and comes up with a 3-inch gash on the top of his head? You are then forced to run (translation: drive like a bat out of you-know-where) to the nearest facility capable of handling such emergencies.

What all this means is, anything can happen at any given time, especially when 6 kids are involved. :-) What I am hoping to do is to get some more stuff put away in my kitchen, and put the grout in the tiles under where the fridge, dishwasher, and range are going to go. Then I can finally have stuff put back where it goes.

Still reading? Wanna comment? Tell me what you thought of today's post. You can even share your quiet-day-gone-to-crap experiences!

Monday, August 4, 2008

A Sardine Weekend

Yes, I'll explain. :-)

We traveled to Boise on Saturday, along with Dad Sed, our sister Ann, brother-in-law Jim, and all the kids (9 to be exact). Dad rented a 15 passenger van (we all hated that thing! LOL) and rode up together, to save on gas. I wasn't quite sure we would actually save on gas, but we did. We split the gas with Ann and Jim, and each of us spent about $105 dollars. If we had driven up by ourselves in the Suburban, we would have spent $140 to fill up (ouch!) and we probably would have needed another third of a tank to make the whole trip. So it worked out for everyone's benefit, I think. Even though there were 14 of us, we were packed in there pretty tight! Ann joked that hopefully we wouldn't all hate each other by the time we got to Boise. :-) Shout out to Ann, who drove the whole way up, and part of the way back. You rock!

Our sister Holly lives in Boise with her husband Jeremy and twin boys, Justin and Josh. The boys were baptized Saturday evening, and then Holly and Jeremy put on a nice luau-themed dinner for us and a few of their friends. It was A LOT of fun! The kids got us to play them in a volleyball game....the kids vs. the "old farts." Let's just say the old farts had our moments, but I don't think we won! LOL I couldn't even hit the ball unless it came at me by surprise--then I got in some pretty decent saves. :-) I always have worked best under pressure! LOL

Yesterday we drove home and made it back about 3:30, after which we pretty much just veged out. It was so nice to get out of that van! We spent about 10 hours in that thing in two days, but it did save money, so it was worth it. And we don't hate each other! :-)