Our kitchen: before and after

Over the summer, we did a little refresh of the kitchen. Not a full gut job by any means, but a nice update.

It all started when my friend Mary Catherine got new granite countertops, and when I heard how reasonable they were, well, I wanted granite countertops. (When I came home and told George, he merely pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.)

Ten years ago when we bought our house, the kitchen was a sunny yellow. Sponge painted, if my memory is right. With royal blue trim. It was okay, but not my style. Especially the tiled pelican “artwork” behind the stove.

So before we moved in, we painted the kitchen, um, lime green. Okay, maybe not the wisest choice.

Screenshot 2014-07-27 10.53.46 — There’s that damn pelican.

A couple of years later I was already sick to death of it, and went in the opposite direction. Dark brown. I actually loved it for a long time. The contrast against the while cabinets was nice. We also tiled over the stained white laminate with large beige ceramic tile. It was fine, but definitely an amateur job. Over the years, it cracked near the sink, and I hated that I couldn’t roll out dough on the countertop.

By this point, we’d already replaced all of the appliances with black ones, and I was itching to get rid of our range. It was a slide-in one, which is expensive to replace, but the oven was small and off by at least 25 degrees, and it was just yuck. I knew that replacing the stove would have to wait until we got new countertops, which I always assumed was a pipe dream.

But it turns out it wasn’t! So this summer, we decided to change them out, paint the kitchen, get a new stove, and FINALLY GET RID OF THE PELICAN! (Confession: I made most of the decisions while George pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.) (Not really. He was very supportive.)

The kitchen should have been done weeks ago, but I started losing steam when we got to the backsplash tiling part of the renovation. I was all ready to grout, but then I went to Mexico, and then I had my triathlon, and finally I just bit the bullet and finished. Whew. Here’s the finished product. I’m so, so happy!

SAMSUNG CSC — The new stove (with a chicken nuggets button!) to replace the yucky old small one. And look! No more pelican!

Nothing on top of the cabinets. Clutter-free! (Well, mostly.)

New undermount sink and lovely new faucet. Heaven.

It’s not perfect (don’t look too closely at the backsplash, okay?) but being in the kitchen and cooking is so much more pleasant now. Particularly chicken nuggets.

365 in 2014: 07/24/14

Hard to believe I took that picture four years ago! It’s still one of my absolute favorites.

Three to the three!

14289757420_6a23937a24_k — The only photographic evidence of my swimming you will ever see.

The countdown is on! Three days until my friends Maggie and Heather and I do the Rocketchix Triathlon. (Huh, three really kind of is my number, huh?)

When I signed up for this, I was very nervous about the swim. Now I’m feeling pretty good about the swim (it’s amazing how fast you can improve with swimming) and it’s the run I’m nervous about. Funny, considering I’ve completed two full marathons, 11 half marathons, and dozens of shorter races. But I’ve never done one after swimming and biking for an hour. At least the run is only two miles. And even if I walk it won’t take that long.

I’m not looking forward to wearing so much black spandex, though. Shudder.

If anyone wants to come cheer us on at the end, that would be great! Just remember. No pictures.

I’ll be thinking of the Guinn girls as I finish this race. Girl power!

365 in 2014: 07/18/14

SAMSUNG CSC

Miles and the cast of characters from his latest movie.

This is kind of what I imagine it was like for the boys in utero.

Things ‘n’ stuff

It’s been a while since I’ve written a real blog post with more than like fifteen words and a picture, and I’m feeling kind of neglectful of my poor blog. Ironic, considering my job!

The boys went to the beach with my mom and Larry while I was in Mexico. And by all accounts, they had an amazing time. I got pictures and videos from my mom throughout the week, which was nice. Kind of cool to think they really weren’t that far away, as the crow flies.

Some pictures that may or may not have made me tear up throughout the week…

IMG_1010-1024x768 — There was a room with bunk beds, but I guess they liked sharing a bed better. *sniff*

But the best part about their trip was the email my mom sent me when it was over. Every time I read it, I teared up.

One of the most touching times we had was walking down the beach with them at night and them finding sand castles that others had built and just being awed. Last night they saw a tiny crab on the beach and played with the crab for several minutes.

Miles woke me up in the middle of the night one night to tell me we forget to have dessert. The next night they had enough brownies and oreos to make up the missing dessert.

Kristina’s coming in a couple of weeks and we’re taking them back to Orange Beach for a few days, so now I’m extra excited about it. But they’ll probably be dismayed to learn that I won’t be stuffing them with brownies and Oreos there. That’s a grandmother’s job!

In other news, my friends Heather and Maggie and I are doing our triathlon in a week! I had a week off of swimming (I’m guessing being lulled by the waves at the beach or floating in the pool with a glass of wine doesn’t count) so I’m trying to get back to where I was before my trip (i.e., not flailing across the pool for the entire 200 yards.) I think I’ll be okay, even if it means doing a length or two of breaststroke while I catch my breath. I also need to not forget about the twelve mile bike ride and two mile run after that swim. I know I can do those on their own, but after the swim? And then the bike ride? Hmm. We’ll see!

We just got new gutters this week. They are pretty. This has definitely been the summer of Home Improvement, what with the kitchen, the gutters, and the bench that’s being built in the dining room. Good stuff!

We also had a super fun awesome playdate the other day with one of Miles’s kindergarten classmates. Miles got to play with his friend alone for a few hours while I ran some errands with the other two, and then we all hung out together and went and had dinner. It was so nice! And the boys were really into impressing Rajan’s mom, because they ate strawberries, seaweed (!), rose petals (!!), and some other new things. I said I was going to be dropping the boys off at her house for food training.

One of the errands I had to run that day was to drop off the heart monitor I’d worn for the previous 24 hours. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with my heart (I had it looked over plenty before my surgery last year) but I do get palpitations sometimes, and better safe than sorry, right?

Super tough job I have

It may not be totally obvious from the photos I’ve already posted, but my trip to Playa del Carmen was for work. We were there to learn what tools other Happiness Engineers use while working, and developed resources for our colleagues to learn more about those tools. But it’s not like sitting around laptops makes for scintillating photos. Nevertheless, I made a video recapping our week.