Not Bad...

We had a productive weekend. Friday night we sanded and stained all the base cabinets. Saturday, we started out with a trip to Home Depot for a sink, a faucet, and some lumber. Then, we divided and conquered. While Gary installed all the base cabinets, I finished sanding and staining all the drawers and started the tedious process of hand-sanding the cabinet doors. (Gary's dad later lent us a power hand-sander when he found out I was hand-sanding. Yay!) I gladly stopped to make pierogies with a side of zucchini, yellow squash, and onions and the best yellow wax beans I have ever had in my life. I am in love with the garden!

Sunday, we did something unprecedented: we went to very early 8:00 a.m. mass instead of our usual 10:00! Afterwards, we went out for breakfast at Ike's and back to Home Depot for counter-top plywood and cement backer board. We worked for hours, then went BACK to Home Depot for plumbing pieces, two extended electrical boxes for under the sink, and countertop installation tools and sealer. Here's how far we got:

We decided a few weeks ago that my impatience from this do-it-yourself renovation is because I keep watching t.v. shows on HGTV or TLC where they re-do an entire house in 30 or 60 minutes. After we quit working, we ate frozen pizza and watched the Flip This House marathon. Not a good idea!

We took a short break on Sunday to meet Emily's new dog! Yes, Gary's parents got a dog!! She had a hamster, Pinball, but he passed away on Gary's birthday this past Thursday. Her name is Daisy, she is a 9-week-old Bichon/poodle mix and she is super cute. Emily and her mom came over because we wanted to see the puppy, and Gary's mom wanted to see our kitchen. Gary wanted to introduce our dogs to their new cousin, so they had a nice meeting in the backyard. Pippin was very gentle, and Frodo was really excited and wanted to play with her when she ran. Daisy has to grow a bit first! She should grow to 15 pounds.

The dogs followed Daisy around the yard the whole time. It was so funny.

Gary is having his double bunion surgery on Wednesday, so he's hanging up his tool belt for his recovery on the couch. I think he plans to watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy while he recuperates (he has the extended versions if you're thinking the ones you saw in the theater were long). He also has a J.R. Tolkien book that I bought for him a while back that he hasn't read. I saw a review for it in Time, and LOTR fans love this other book. We'll see how tired the painkillers make him. Maybe he'll let me take before and after photos of his feet for the blog...stay tuned!

Ratatouille!

Wow---the garden produced a monster basket-full of food yesterday night:

When we were telling my family at Tuesday dinner what we had just picked, Aunt Cindy suggested making ratatouille.

Here's tonight's dinner recipe for Ratatouille, modified from Cooking Light. They used tempeh instead of eggplant, but I'm using eggplant. I have the basil and parsley in the garden. I am so excited to use the stove--all we've made so far is frozen pizza.

Gary re-wired the thermostat last night so we could turn the air on, and he also re-connected the doorbell. Of course, I had to ring the bell a few times to test it. The dogs didn't bark like they usually did, because they could see me on the porch, and that's not exciting. Frodo figured out where the sound came from (on the hallway wall downstairs), so while Gary and I were finishing up the thermostat, Frodo sat on the stairs and hunted. Notice that Pippin couldn't care less--it was almost his bedtime.

Slow But Steady Progress

After a 3-day weekend's worth of work, our kitchen now looks like this:After much debate, I decided to do the wall-mount microwave. I wasn't sure I could reach it, but I am definately in favor of the saved counter space. Here's the opposite wall.We have 6 recessed lights and one central light fixture. There will be 5 undercabinet lights as well. Bright!

Well, we only worked for 2 days because we went to the air show at Selfridge Air National Guard Base on Saturday. We forgot the camera, and Gary would be the better commentator on this type of event. I did get to see a tank up close and personal, though. Gary's parents, Emily, Ashley, and her boyfriend Matt went, too. We all got sunburned. Next time I will pack sunblock. Afterwards, we went to my aunt and uncle's for an air show BBQ. We spent a nice afternoon/evening with Brian, Sarah, and Abby.

Tonight we went to my parents' house for dinner since my cousin's kids are down from the U.P. Here's some photos--I remembered to take the camera. The appetizers were a hit for the baby, because Abby loves cheese!

...and she loves Grandpa, who babysits one day a week.

My mom got an ice cream cake for my cousins' birthdays (9 and 11 years old). Kelli and Sarah made this message with the random leftover candles that my mom had (there were lots of vowels). The "A" on the end is read "eh" like Canadian/UPers say. (The kids live in the UP.)

Disarray

Whew! Gary was off from Tuesday to Sunday for the 4th of July, and we did some major kitchen work. We finished tons of tasks on the checklist, including all the electrical and plumbing updates, adding a gas line for a future gas stove, and insulating the exterior walls.

We also took several trips to Home Depot and Lowe's. We went to Lowe's on the 4th of July for undercabinet lights, and ended up buying this from the clearance section:

SOOO exciting. Now the future gas stove isn't years off, but weeks off. This is exactly the stove I wanted, and we got it for an unbelievable price because someone bought it, had it delivered, and then returned it. Thanks to Gary's dad and brother-in-law Craig for hefting it onto the truck and then lugging it into the kitchen.

We also got a great deal on granite tiles for the counters. The sales guy decided that we deserved the contractor discount and we paid 60% of the sticker price. Yay!


Our last big purchase will be cabinets, when we get to the point where we are ready for them. And I want a new sink..$79.90 online including shipping...not bad.

Now we just have to finish so I can start cooking! Here's where we stand as of today...

Gary is having bunion surgery on August 1, so that's our deadline! The dogs are already bored with our preoccupation with this project. They are being VERY good while we work--staying out of trouble so far. Our garden, however, is looking great. Angie saw it when she was in town for the wedding and told me that I HAD to blog it. Our favorite by far are the cucumbers. We don't have beans yet, which I guess is good since we don't have a working stove, although they would be delicious in the microwave.Here's what we picked today (plus the one cucumber I picked and ate while Gary was at work.)

Gainfully Employed!!

All this blogging in one day--how crazy!! Jeff just called me to tell me that he was just offered a math department position at the high school he student-taught at!!!!!! I am so proud of him AND so happy for him. He will make a great teacher!!!!!! He will sign his contract on Thursday. Now Jeff and Raquel will have MESSA, too, at least until the state decides that teachers should have cheap health insurance, when they will once again have whatever health insurance Raquel gets.

I will have to post some photos of their new house--maybe they can send me some??

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!

Happily Married!!!!

Meredith and Adam got married on Friday, officially making all of my college friends married! It is very strange to know that I am all done being a bridesmaid and will no longer spend a large percentage of summer weekends at weddings.
Their day was "fabulous" to quote the florist's promise. Meredith was absolutely beautiful. I just could not stop looking at her, or stop telling her how wonderful she looked. It wasn't even the MAC makeup artist or her hair stylist or the killer dress; it was her joy at being with Adam.The ceremony was perfect. Meredith's aunt sang a beautiful song about everyone gathering together that made Amber and I (the weepy ones) cry at rehearsal. Meredith walked down the isle, on her father's arm, behind two of her family friends, kilted, playing bagpipes. Her friend Carla (who also went to Spain with Meredith, Amber, and I) read a moving poem that she wrote called "You Just Knew." It echoed what Meredith has said to me so many times about just knowing that he was the one from the very beginning, even before they were officially dating. The pastor is a family friend, and he gave a very personal reflection about their relationship. He also talked about the three words for love in the Greek language and how our one English word "love" should incorporate all three loves in a marriage: romantic love, brotherly/sisterly love in Christ, and I can't remember the last one. Whoops! (Maybe Gary can add it.) Gary and I have loved this reflection on love since we first heard it when we were engaged in a Sunday homily by the priest who officiated at our wedding. Meredith's favorite part of the whole day came when the pastor asked her and Adam to turn around and look at all of the people who came to be present at their wedding. He had them make eye contact with the congregation while he reflected on our love for them. They exchanged vows in their loud teacher voices as they looked lovingly into each others eyes, while Amber and I wiped tears from our faces. Meredith's step-dad and long-time family friend Cindy sang a beautiful song called "The Prayer" while they lit their unity candle. The newlyweds exited the church behind the bagpipers. Very moving. The reception was super fun and it was gorgeously decorated with pink orchids. We had appetizers outside on the patio to the sound of steel drums by a live percussionist. I loved their head table--a HUGE round table that they specially rented. Of course, it was all decked out with orchids and candles. My favorite part of the reception was not her sister Chelsea's touching toast nor dancing with my friends, but was watching their first dance. Meredith is a dancer (her mom owns two dance studios) and Adam is athletic/coordinated. They danced to Louis Armstrong's "You Give Me Ideas" and her mom had loosely choreographed it. Meredith said they hadn't practiced it in a long time, but it looked like professional ballroom dancing. The dance radiated love and joy to finally be husband and wife. What made the wedding so special, though, was the phenomenal guy Meredith married. It made me so happy to see all four of our husbands together and know that I truly like them as people and consider them great friends. We are all so lucky to be friends AND to have such wonderful marriages. I wish we all lived much closer!!! From left to right: Gary, Kim, Brian, Angie, David (college friend), Meredith, Amber, Mitch. Adam isn't in this photo because this was taken before the ceremony in the bride's room. I love this picture of Adam about 20 minutes before the reception ended.

At brunch the next day, Meredith's bridesmaid Jen made two leis out of the orchids she took home from the reception. She made them at 1:00 a.m.!! Adam had already taken his off.

We didn't take many photos with our camera. My battery was dead before Gary came with new ones and we were taking a ton with Meredith's camera for her. Angie's blog has more--keep looking on her blog for a link to her husband Brian's flickr account--he took many photos and is going to post all of them online. The photographer's pictures will also be online.

Congratulations, Meredith and Adam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, happy 5th anniversary to Amber and Mitch on July 6th!!! They were the first in our group to get married. Their 18 month old son Nolan was in town, too, and you should see his sign language and hear him talk!! He is so big! We took cute photos of him but on someone else's camera.