let's start off today's entry with some pics of the kids for all you grandparents and cousins out there! here is hadley looking cute in her 4th of july dress.
what is it with kids and spaghetti? i cut it into small pieces in the food processor before serving and they still somehow manage to get it all over their faces.
alexander post-spaghetti. if you enlarge the picture, you can see the grubby little fingerprints all over the stainless countertop. i have to clean it constantly. if they just look at it, it gets smudged. stainless steel seemed like a good idea at the time....i'm just glad i have somewhere for them to sit in the kitchen instead of worrying about them spilling on the white carpet 3 times a day.
close-up of hadley spaghetti-face. she ate 3 bowls of similar size. i kid you not.
see? most of it even managed to go in her mouth and be swallowed. :)
now that kid cuteness is out of the way, let the real blog begin! boy have we been busy lately! our latest project was painting our kitchen, which we did this past saturday. it's amazing, the transformation a coat of paint (or 2 coats of primer and some paint in our case) can make! the best realization came as we began masking everything off -- our kitchen was the exact shade of blue as that painter's tape you buy. nice, eh? it took 2 coats of primer (3 in the corners) and one thick coat of apple green to cover the blue. it is more than a 100% improvement. i was going to wait for the before and afters until we got the new stove and microwave, but what the heck, here they are!
BEFORE
DURING: her i have managed one coat of primer. look how much blue is still shining through. also, see how happy i am to be getting rid of aforementioned blue?
obligatory fake painting shot. but the happiness is real.
here's alan doing some painting kung-fu! i love this photo! isn't he looking svelte? just between us, i think he's lost a bit of weight. ;) he looks awesome. oh, in this photo you can also see just how closely the old paint color matches the painter's tape. on the wall behind him, the blue to the right of the white stripe (next to the yellow) is tape. the blue to the left of it is all paint, baby!
AFTER!!!! (do you hear the angelic choir singing "allelujah!"? oh, also, not shown here is the cluttery free-standing pantry you can see in the bottom right of the before pic. alan attatched the doors for me and it makes an incredible difference to the overall clean feeling of the kitchen.
another angle...next to go is the hideous double-oven monstrosity. i will go from 11" of clearance above the burners to a whopping 19 1/2 "! awesome!
it is soooo much brighter in there, it's really incredible and it makes me so much happier to be in there cooking....and i'm in there cooking a LOT so that has been great.
it took us pretty much all day saturday with a few hours off for a bbq at a ward member's house complete with mentos and diet coke fountains for the kids. some of you reading this probably think it's a travesty to waste all that diet coke, but it was good fun for everyone. what we didn't anticipate was the kids choosing to frolic in the diet coke fountain, but what are hoses for, right?
i have to give major kudos to alan for putting on the final coat of paint late saturday night when i was just too tired to do it. i admit, when he started cutting in the green, i was a little panicked. it looked flourescent. i just stayed out of the room and read him the lesson for ctr 8 he had to sub the next morning. come morning, the color had dried to a much more doable shade, although i think i will darken it down a bit in the dining room. next project is the faux poop powder bath...
on top of all that, i have been getting frequent migraines again for the first time in years. i miss my minda! i could so use a massage right now! i've also been trying to get a yoga teaching job. i for sure will be teaching at hamilton fitness center sometime, though i don't know when or how often, or rate of pay...etc. i attended a yoga class at a studio and talked with the owner about the possibility of teaching. she wants me to come in and teach a class so she can observe me, which is fine, but still makes me nervous. as for her class, i hadn't practiced in literally months (at least not power -- i've been more of a restore girl when i get a chance at home) and she certified with baron -- so i was worried i would spend the majority of the class in child's pose...turns out, i did fine. the only time i couldn't stay with the class was when my hands were sliding off my mat from sweating and humidity. one of melinda's classes would kick this woman's butt! she did do a TON of sun salutations, but she didn't hold the poses too long and her ab series was a cakewalk compared to d'ana or melinda. not that anyone reading this knows what i'm talking about or cares, but she didn't even use uddiyana bandha, and as far as i can tell, never does. she did say to "exhale and draw in the belly", but it's hardly the same thing, so i'm wondering in my "interview" class whether or not i should reference it or not...melinda? opinions? i'm thinking it best to just bypass it in the instruction and if i get hired, introduce it then.
*sigh* in other news, hadley would NOT go to sleep last night and i was up with her until 2 AM! of course, she then got up before 8, despite being sick today. her and xander and alan all have sore throats and the kids both have a low-grade fever. hadley has a hoarse little voice and a cough, but other that, they both seem fine. we've been watching tv and playing little people all morning, though we did manage baths for them. i still need one. :)
the ward here is amazing and we are always getting invited to something or another. this week, i'm hosting a crochet class at our house -- it will be only the 3rd time i've had anyone over. i hope to finish the bathroom re-paint before then so i don't have to give everyone the "we didn't do that in there, it was like that when we moved in" disclaimer. the class is thursday and i am expecting about 7-8 from the ward plus 2 women from our court who want to learn. friday, i think we are heading to rochester for a mini family vacation-- shelley, i will call you about this tonight! :)
so, that's that! busy, busy, and more busy. but that keeps us from being too homesick. as always, comments are appreciated and show me you love us. *wink* emails and phone calls are fantastic and mail is a nice surprise. oh, and double-click photos to enlarge, as always. love you all! xoxox
candace
so, here is the moment you have all been waiting for! the repainting/de-pooping of the powder bath! this, of course, is the BEFORE picture. you can note the lovely, metallic-copper faux poops meticulously sponged everywhere in the bathroom. yes, even under the vanity and i found one near the floor behind the toilet! the artist was truly amazing in their commitment and thououghness. also, don't forget about the black and gold border around the ceiling, which should have really been photographed in detail so you could see all it's splendor. :) without further ado, i present, the AFTER! (scroll down)
ta-da! truly an incredible transformation, if i do say so myself. i really should have my own show on HGTV or Discovery channel, don't you think? and all it took was 3 applications of wallpaper stripper, about an hour and a half of taping, 3 coats of primer on the poops and 2 coats over the entire walls, plus a heavy coat of green paint. now, rather than an abhorrance and embarassment, my powder bath is a serene spa-like retreat. if only it were bigger i would spend lots of time there. it's quite relaxing and serene. :) why not schedule your reservation today and experience it for yourself!?
