Toof

Yesterday was Katie's last day of school.

The kids brought their favorite stuffed animals to school for a "Teddy Bear Picnic".  Afterwards, they went outside and ate a picnic lunch including honey and jam sandwiches, potato chips, apple slices, grapes and Teddy Grahams.  After eating, they hit the playground and then played some games.

They all had such a great time and then BOOM it was time to go.  Katie yelled "Bye!" to every kid in her class as they all dispersed for bus and pick-up lines.

As we were leaving the school parking lot, Katie began to cry explaining that she will miss all the friends that she made in her class.  I think if it was up to her, she would just go to school all summer long.

She was SAD that school was ending.  Now, if that isn't the mark of the awesome job her teacher did this year, I don't know what is.  I'm so glad Katie had a great first year of school and hope that it can continue on that track.

After she had a good cry, she moved on to being excited about the various summer camps that she'll be attending this year.  "Now I get to meet more new friends!", she giggled.

After stopping at our pals Logan and Sienna's house to pick up Mikey, eat some popsicle and have some water-logged fun, we came home to chill on the couch for a snack and an episode of "Go, Diego, Go!".

Suddenly, Katie yells out, "MOM!  LOOK!  MY TOOF!" and holds out her hand with her little tiny tooth in it.

It fell out when she was eating tortilla chips.

She was just a tad bit excited about the prospect of a visit from,

"The Toof Faiwee".

If this picture doesn't say,

"OMG, Mommy!  I'm SO excited!"

I don't know what does.

UGH

So, our contractor was right.

Last week was THE WORST week.

We still have no sink.

This is where I do the dishes now.

The downstairs sink was too small to hold all the sippy cups.

The dry wall guys were here last week doin' their stuff.

They cordoned off the whole kitchen with these big plastic sheets.

At times, we couldn't even sneak through the plastic to get to the fridge.

We would have to open the garage door(our front door is still blocked with book cases),

and walk around the outside of the house to get to the fridge.

This made it very complicated, and a bit time consuming, to make

lunch and dinner.  But, I'm happy to report that we did

actually eat lunch at home most days.  And dinner was at home four out of seven days.  Yay us.

Sigh.

Last week, Katie had her "V.I.P." at school.

Mikey and I got to go in and listen as Katie did a presentation about herself - complete with an illustrated poster and book.  She then took questions from her classmates about herself.

"Why do you want to be a veterinarian?"

"Because I love animals.  Next."

She had an answer to every question.  No hesitation at all.  It was like watching 

a presidential candidate.

Then everyone sang "Happy Birthday",

and we passed out rice krispie treats and goody bags to all

her kindergarten buddies.

Finally, on late Saturday afternoon the dry wall dudes were done.

The result - pretty white walls.

Father's Day was spent driving all over - to swim lessons,

to the grocery store for lunch and microwavable meals for the next week, to the paint store to pick out colors (still haven't decided).

Finally we got home.

Huzbend grilled up some chicken for dinner and we ate

in our half way done kitchen on the kids art table.

On Monday, the flooring guys came and filled in the blanks.

And yesterday, our cabinets arrived.

Things are moving along now.

The granite people will be out on Friday to take measurements.

It will take them two weeks to do up our counters.

Those two weeks will be filled with detail work and such.

So, it seems as if mid-July is when all this business will be over.

Phew. 

TOOTH UPDATE:  STILL IN THERE AND EVEN MORE WIGGLY

A Transformation Update

 The work continues on the kitchen.

Here's the latest.....

We changed our mind on the counter tops - again.

We're back to a dark granite called "Mysore Black - Honed" 

It's kinda like the picture below - but a little greyer, I think.

(I don't remember)

The "honed" part means that it's not a reflective finish.

The wall came down between what was our "library" and the kitchen proper.

The kids loved this.  

There's a lot more room for dancing and fighting zombies now.

The next step was putting a hole in the wall between the kitchen and the

living room.

Here's a view of the hole from our living room.

And a view standing in the kitchen.

We decided that the hole was WAAAAYYYY

too big.  And, hoping the guys wouldn't hate us, we

asked them to make it a bit smaller.

Muuuuuuch betttttterrrrrrrr.

Next up, they put in some new windows and

removed our sliding glass door.

The kitchen sink is going against that far wall.

Now I will be able to look out at our moss covered deck everyday and

curse northwest wetness (and my laziness).

And then it was time to say goodbye to the rest of our

kitchen as we knew it.

One last look at what remained - the stove, microwave,

sink, dishwasher and a wall.

Bye, bye.

Hello, nothing!

We are now at the horrible point in the kitchen remodel when the only

appliances we have currently working are our

refrigerator and our toaster/convection oven.

(We might have to unbox our new microwave!)

We've purchased lots of paper tableware and silverware to 

last us through the next couple of weeks.

We're doing what little dishes we have in our downstairs

bathroom sink.

Yeah.  Ouch.

I never thought I would say this, but eating

out is going to get old really, REALLY fast.

With the allergy thing, we're kinda limited on where we can eat.

Sigh.

It's a pain in the butt to make the kids lunch.  I have

to prepare it first thing in the morning and put it in

a cooler so we can stay out of the way of the construction

during the day.  We have picnics in our own house.

The kids are taking it in stride.  The only time the

remodel thing bothers them is when they can't hear

their TV shows because the construction is too noisy.

On rainy days, it gets a little crazy.

Sometimes, we can't really be downstairs and thus the kids

run rampant through the bedrooms.

Things like this happen.

I don't think our crib was designed with this

weight in mind.....

I'm not quite sure how much longer we have till this is all done.

The contractor is supposed to stop by today to do some electrical work and I

guess we can talk then.

I do know that he told me on Friday that the "worst week of the whole

thing" is coming up next week.

UGH.

TOOTH UPDATE:  STILL THERE AND STILL WIGGLY.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

The bottom front left tooth that is pictured above is loose!

Our sources report hearing repeated screams of "YAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY" followed

by hysterical giggling.

The subjects sanity is in question.