Where Did My Kitchen Go?

The past two weeks have been busy ones and if I had to sum them up in two words, those two words would have to be…kitchen remodel! I knew when we started this whole process, it would take a lot of time and work, but even as I say that, I had no idea how much work it would actually be!

The "before" picture of the kitchen

The first week or so was spent shopping and picking things out like cabinets, countertops, lighting, appliances, flooring, and the hardest of all...paint color! I’m still working on that one but I only have a few days left, so I’m going to have to hurry! In the process of “shopping”, we also hired someone to do the kitchen demolition, the sheet rocking, the electrical, the plumbing and even someone to pull up the old flooring. I just wish we would have hired someone to take down the wallpaper too because that was one of the hardest parts of the kitchen demolition...and Hayden and I did most of it all by ourselves! I now know that I will never put up wallpaper again...and don’t even ask me to!

When it finally came time to get started on demolishing the kitchen, I thought I was ready for it...but I’m not sure I really was! Rod told me one day (Wednesday) that I needed to pack up the stuff in my top cupboards so that he could get them down and ready for the electrical guy to come on Saturday. I had some extra time that day, so by the time Rod got home from work, those top cupboards were completely empty and ready to go. Rod took that as a “go” and he immediately started taking my cupboards down. I thought I still had a few days to get used to the idea, but I guess not!

It's looking different without the cupboards

After the cupboards were gone, the electrical guy came and wired for all of our lighting. He even put in our new can lights and just with those, it already felt like we had a new kitchen. At the same time, Hayden and I had begun tearing down wallpaper and we quickly realized that it wasn’t going to be an easy process. In fact, it was going to take a lot of work...especially where there were double layers of the stuff!

Hayden helping me remove the wallpaper

This wall had the most wallpaper to remove

In tearing down the wallpaper though, we found a few treasures. Fourteen years ago when Rod and I put up the wallpaper and the wainscoting, the boys (and even me) signed the wall underneath where the wainscoting was going to go. Chris wrote “Alanis Morrisette rules”, Patrick wrote “Nirvana rules”, Jon wrote “Jon Mosher 1PP6” (he obviously didn’t know how to write his 9’s) and I just signed my name and the date, which was 9/09/96. It brought back some fun memories!

Somewhere in the midst of taking down the wallpaper, the electrical work got done and it was time for the soffits and the pantry to come out. We had hired a guy by the name of Rod (I named him “builder Rod”) to do that and the drywall part and he spent the last week working on the demolition and the drywall mudding and taping. With the soffits and the pantry gone, my kitchen suddenly seems really big...but it was also really dirty! I gave up on trying to keep it clean during the major part of the demolition, so we basically were without a kitchen for 2 or 3 days. Then on Friday night when everything was just about done, I took back my kitchen! With the drywall and the demolition part almost completed...I think the messiest part of this remodel is now over!

The kitchen with the pantry

The kitchen without the pantry

Remember that big wall with wallpaper? This is it after the wallpaper was gone!

This week we are having the shingles replaced on our roof and a new front door installed, so everyday my house changes a little. We’re also going to be preparing to start painting, and I’m not looking forward to that. The flooring is scheduled to get started on March 18^th, so I will have a kitchen until then…then it’ll be 2 weeks until everything is done! Thank heavens, we’ll be in Las Vegas with Rod for one of those weeks because he has to go down for a conference and we’re going with him. Then when we get back, we’ll get to be here to watch the cabinets be installed. It feels like the whole process is going to take forever, but I know I’ll be happy when it’s all done!

As for the boys, they’ve had fun being a part of the whole process...or at least Hayden has. Connor basically stays as far away from it as possible. Hayden has been right in the middle of everything though. He has helped me with the wallpaper, his dad with whatever he’ll let him do, and he was “builder Rod’s” right hand man! Jon has been a big help too, but he’s just not around nearly enough!

Rod decided to fix the Lazyboys - not our lazy boys, but the Lazyboy chairs

This chair improvised as our table for a few days

Aside from the kitchen, life has been going on as usual...we just haven’t noticed it so much because the kitchen has taken the majority of our time! The best part though, is that Spring is coming…and I can’t wait!

Happy Belated Valentines Day!

What do you do with a full bag of Cherry JuJu Candy Hearts that you bought specifically to make Valentine cookies...and it’s now the day after Valentines? Make the cookies anyway! That’s what the little boys and I did last night and guess what? They still tasted as good as they would have if we would have made them a day or two earlier!

Yummy cookies!

I would like to say that we had a memorable time making our cookies, but if I did, that might be stretching the truth a little. Now keep in mind that yesterday was a holiday and the kids didn’t have to go to school, so I had spent the entire day with them trying to keep them entertained and happy. It wasn’t an easy task! If you were to ask Connor how well I did, he would probably tell you that I did great...but Hayden had a much harder day! One minute he loved me and thought I was the nicest mom ever, then the next minute I was “so mean” and he was having a horrible day! I have a hard time keeping him happy, but it’s not that I don’t try.

One juju heart for the cookie...one for me!

By the time we started to make our cookies last night, it felt like it had been a terribly long day already, but I had promised the boys that we would make cookies and they weren’t about to let me forget it! I let them help me mix up the dough and I let them help me cut them out, but I didn’t let them do nearly as much as they would have liked to. However, when we got to frosting the cookies I threw caution to the wind and I let the boys help me without too much supervision…and we all did our part. I frosted the cookies, Hayden “sprinkled” them and Connor added the candy juju heart and even though they may not have looked perfect (which is usually what I’m aiming for), they tasted great! Isn’t that all that matters anyway? Now if we can only make them last until tomorrow!

Working together

Our taste tester!

The best part about making cookies is eating them!

You're invited...or let's go shopping!

This week was a week of celebrating, parties and shopping...and we kept ourselves pretty busy doing all three! And if I remembered, I had my camera with me snapping pictures so that we could remember all the highlights! It was a crazy week, but I think we all enjoyed it...but we’re also ready for a quieter week! Do you think we might be so lucky?

Throughout the week as I was partying with the boys at Connor’s 100 Day Party on Tuesday and Hayden’s Valentine Party on Thursday, I couldn’t help but think that there were so many other things I needed to be doing. However, whenever I felt like that, I would just remind myself that the only reason I quit work was so that I could spend more time with the boys...and what better way to spend time with them than by helping with their classroom parties? On the other hand, I’m sure that as I dragged the boys shopping with me to look at stuff for the kitchen remodel, they were definitely wishing that they could be doing anything else but shopping. In fact, on Saturday after a particularly long bout of shopping with Rod and I as we were looking at lighting for the kitchen, Hayden mentioned that he “hated shopping” and Rod had to agree with him. No sooner were those words out of their mouths than Connor piped up and said, “I’ve got you both beat dad and Hayden...I REALLY hate shopping!” I guess he had trumped them! As much as I normally like shopping, I was even tired of shopping that day!

On Tuesday, Connor’s class celebrated the 100th day of school by having their “100 Day Party”. They all brought 100 pieces of something edible to add to a 100 day salad that they were making for their treat. That was kind of interesting! It had cereal and chocolate chips and marshmallows and goldfish and crackers and skittles and M&M’s and Mike and Ikes (our contribution) and kisses and pretzels...to mention only a few things and it looked rather disgusting! The kids loved it though! They also made cowboy hats and bandannas with 100 dots on each. It was a way for those kindergartners to practice counting to 100, but none of them did it very well! One kid that I was helping count got to 20 and then every time we got to the next tens digit, he would say 90. Finally when we really did get to 90, I didn’t help him, thinking that he’d know the next number...and he said 30! I’m glad I didn’t have to help the entire class count to 100 or we might have been there all day!

Connor sporting his 100 day cowboy hat

On Thursday, Hayden’s class celebrated Valentines a day earlier than most of the other classes. Connor even had a Valentines party on Friday, but luckily I didn’t have to help with that one too. I was a CO-room mother for Hayden’s party, so I helped plan that party, which included a station where the kids played BINGO, a station where they played sculpture Pictionary, and a station where they decorated cookies...which were ultimately their treat! I went prepared to help wherever needed...but all I ended up doing was to take pictures! I couldn’t have asked for a better assignment! Connor even got to join us for Hayden’s party, so he actually got to go to 3 parties this week!

Doesn't my cookie look yummy?

Mmmmm! It really does taste yummy!

On Friday night, Paula and Pam were throwing a Surprise Party for their dad who was turning 75 years old that day. According to Pat, he’d never had an official birthday party in his entire life…so why not start at 75?! And with a surprise party at that? We did our best to surprise him, but he was so slow coming inside when he and Pat got home that I’m not even sure he heard us all yell “Surprise!” We scared Pat though...and she even knew we were doing it! It was fun to spend the evening with Rod’s family, even if it was for only a couple of hours!

We spent the majority of the day on Saturday shopping for kitchen things and Rod even found someone to do most of his demolition for him. Of course, it’s going to cost us money but I’d rather pay someone to do it than to have Rod hurt his back or something worse while doing it. We’ve even got someone to pull up the flooring, someone to do the plumbing and we’re working on someone to do the electrical. So much for “sweat equity”! The only thing that no one is going to help us with (that I’d really like help with) is taking down the wallpaper. That’s the one thing that I get to do, and it’s going to take a lot of work!

This past weekend, I ran in my first Winter Race circuit race and just like I knew it would be...it was a killer! It was only a 5K, but it was up behind Weber State University and it was mostly uphill! Despite how hard it was, I still beat my last year’s time by 9 whole seconds! Isn’t that cool? Our next race is next Saturday and it’s going to be equally hard...only this one is going to be a 10K! Wish me luck!

My and my crazy running buddies

Jon left on Friday night to head down to Disneyland with a few of his buddies. To say that the little boys and I were a little jealous would be an understatement, but we sure hope he has fun! At the very least, I hope he takes lots of pictures so we can enjoy it with him, albeit it vicariously!

Oh and one last thing…we hope you all have a

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! We did!

Here and Gone...!

How is it that you can look forward to something with anticipation and then in a blink of an eye, it’s over? I guess that could describe life in general, but for us, it’s the perfect description of this past week. Patrick didn’t get to spend Christmas with us, so he had made plans to come and visit us this past week instead...and we were truly looking forward to seeing him!

Patrick with Grandpa and Grandma Mosher

Patrick arrived on Monday shortly after his dad left for Boise but luckily, Grandpa and Grandma Mosher were willing to pick him up at the airport and bring him to Clinton so he could use his dad’s truck for the week. He was here with us for about an hour and we had a good time visiting with him…and then he was off to Salt Lake to spend time with everyone else that he needed to see while he was here and we didn’t see him again until Wednesday night when his dad got back home!

One of the family pics I took

On Thursday night, we took the whole family to dinner at Chili’s including Jenny, Chris’s girlfriend. It was the first time that we had all been together since July of 2007 which is when Patrick left for basic training and Jon was just getting ready to go on his mission. We had all changed a little since then but probably none of us more than Hayden and Connor. We had a fun time together and somehow I even managed to get some family pictures while we were all together...since it will probably be the last time for another year or two since Patrick is headed for Korea in just a month! I would have loved to get even more pictures, but according to Rod, I took way too many...in my mind though, it still wasn’t nearly enough!

All of the boys

The 3 oldest boys - Jon, Chris and Patrick

Chris and Jenny

On Friday night we had dinner with Patrick here at home…and then he was off again to go hang out with some of his buddies because they were giving him a go-away party before he leaves for Korea! We were glad that he got to see everyone he wanted to see while he was here, but when we didn’t get to see him again before he left, we were a little bummed! It felt like the week had literally flown by...and we didn’t even get to tell him goodbye because we were at church when he left! It was good to see him though and we’re glad he got to come and see us, even if it didn’t feel like nearly long enough!