March madness

Sunday:

Thursday:
I don't know if you've seen this on the news wherever you are, but Denver got hit hard yesterday. We have about 2 feet of snow in our backyard. It snowed all day long. All day. To someone from Virginia, where it will snow and then as soon as you notice it is snowing, it stops, to someone used to that kind of sporadic snowfall, yesterday was amazing. Jonathan and I are used to the weathermen predicting 1 - 2 inches of snow, and that is usually rounding up. So when the weathermen here were telling us to expect between 7 - 16 inches, I was amazed. That is a huge discrepancy. Not 7 - 10 or even 15 - 16, but 7 - 16 inches. And we got it. And every time I caught a glimpse out the window, I stopped what I was doing to just watch it fall.

Jonathan took the kids and Mabel outside to play for a little while. But it was just falling and falling and the kids got very cold. So for most of the day they were inside and we were all driving each other a little crazy! I took advantage of Jonathan working from home to get some more painting done. And the kids watched a movie and ate popcorn. And played in the basement. And colored pictures for everyone we know. And we made a batch of cupcakes to celebrate Lion finally pooping in the potty! And then we decorated them. I had no ready-made frosting so I whipped up some buttercream frosting. That frosting immediately brings to mind every birthday cake my mother ever lovingly decorated for me. Needless to say there are only 3 cupcakes left.

Thank goodness the snow is melting pretty quickly under the bright Colorado sun because I am out of things to do to keep everyone from yelling at each other! Jonathan managed to shovel the driveway and sidewalk today (it took him a few hours) so he could go out and get some work done. But for the most part, everything: preschool, bodypump class ... was canceled. Which is unfortunate considering the number of cupcakes I ate today.

6 utterly unnecessary things

I used to make up little lists of six things (because when I tell myself to name five things, there is always one more that pops into my mind to torment me) a while ago and I have decided to start up again. Maybe I'll use them on days I cannot think of anything else to blog about. I did a list once of six necessary things, so how about

6 utterly unnecessary things:
1. litter (find a freakin' trash can, people!)
2. country music
3. mosquitos and/or poison ivy
4. shoes that cost more than $100
5. diarrhea
6. Keanu Reeves

weekend update

Jonathan (and I, a bit, but not as much) worked in the yard this weekend. It is looking a lot better, a lot cleaner out there. There is so much work to be done on Glenbogle house, inside and out, that it is overwhelming. But the upside of it is that every little thing we do makes a huge difference. Blue was a big helper out there, too, even if we did have to remind her (several times) to not dig up the grass with her shovel.  Lion also helped, but spent a lot of time sitting on his potty since we are really, really trying to get this pottytraining business sorted out.

Jonathan grilled some chicken Saturday night and I made ambrosia salad and roasted potatoes and a yummy Greek salad. It was so delicious to sit down and stuff our faces after being out in the sun all day. I think Blue had four helpings of the ambrosia salad! Then we gave the kids a bath and put them to bed and Jonathan and I watched "Rachel Getting Married."


I thought it was a very good movie, very well-acted, but very difficult to watch and therefore I will probably never watch it again.

I made some smoothies this weekend that were very good and Mom asked me to post the recipe. I got it off of one of those free recipe cards they give out in the produce section of Super Target. These are supposedly pretty healthy, but I think they taste just like Orange Julius so I could care less how healthy they are! I recommend not using light yogurt, since I used that in today's batch and the smoothies were way too sweet. I also recommend drinking them out of a tall glass with a straw, out in the sunshine while admiring all of the hard work you've been doing in the yard.

Creamy Orange Smoothie
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1 (6 oz.) container vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups ice

Blend until smooth. Makes 4 servings.

anniversary

Ten years ago today I had a miscarriage. I have talked about it before. So there isn't really anything new to say. But I can't seem to just let this day pass by unmarked.

Knitting

After three months
Of silent stitching
In that private rocking place
What finger let slip
What growing row of cells
Unravelled, loosing life and
Leaving the lap empty?

Amy Olson-Binder

I'm going to go bite my pillow!

People are so snarky! I submitted photos of the kitchen cabinets to apartment therapy and they posted them! I was so excited and then I stupidly clicked on the comments tab. Ouch. There were only 2 comments but they were both mean. Sigh. I'll stick to my own little blog where people like me.

blah blah blah

I really don't have much to say lately. I am feeling dull. Uninteresting. Even the gorgeous springy weather outside isn't lifting my spirits. Even with the Lion's morning glories already starting to sprout up out of the dirt. Blah blah blah.

I need to get out more. I saw an old friend of mine last night for dinner. He is in Denver this week for work. We went to Rock Bottom and talked and talked and talked. It was wonderful. He kept staring at the mountains in the distance and talking about how beautiful they are. And it made me smile. The mountains are beautiful. I love looking at them and I still do every chance I get but I have stopped pinching myself when I see them. I guess the novelty wears off. I'm just glad the wonder hasn't.

perfect day

What a wonderful, wonderful St. Patrick's Day! Jonathan and I made the kids green eggs and ham (and green milk) for breakfast this morning.


Pretty gross, but they ate it.


Then he went off to work and the kids and I got busy. First Lion had to put on his new sous chef uniform that he got from Uncle Andrew and Auntie Teresa for his birthday:


Then he and Blue helped me make Irish soda bread. And we threw together some jell-o salad. It is an old recipe I found in my mom's recipe box. Aunt Lonnie's Tasty Salad. Sounds tasty, right? It is. Here's the recipe, but I plan to double it next time since there was none left over.

Great-Aunt Lonnie's Tasty Salad
1 box lime jell-o
1 cup boiling water
3 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces ginger ale
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained

Dissolve the jell-o in the boiling water. Break up the cream cheese and beat into jell-o mixture until it dissolves. Add the ginger ale and pineapple and mix well. Chill for several hours.


This was so good. Light and refreshing and the ginger ale makes it sort-of fizzle in your mouth, like Pop Rocks or something. I will definitely make this again. Thanks, Mom, for the recipe.

So the kids and I had hot Irish soda bread for lunch topped with honey butter. So. Good.

Jonathan finished work a bit early and since the weather has been in the seventies, we piled into the car to go check out the garden center at Lowe's. There isn't much there yet. Which is a shame because we are just itching to get the yard in shape. There was a super nice lady working at Lowe's who told us to wait until mid-April to plant anything. But she sold us a nice big seed starter tray with a plastic lid that acts as a little mini-greenhouse. So we each chose a type of seed: Jonathan chose poppies, Blue picked Shasta Daisies, Lion got some bright blue Morning Glories and I picked out some forget-me-nots.

Then Blue had dance class tonight. So while I was there with her, Jonathan made a delicious Shepherd's Pie for dinner and we had that and the soda bread and Great-Aunt Lonnie's Tasty Salad. And limeade. With tons of green food coloring added to make it really, really green.

After dinner we planted our seeds in the new mini-greenhouse. The kids had a lot of fun sticking the tiny seeds in the dirt. I can't wait to see their faces when our flowers start sprouting up out of the dirt. Lion really wanted to get some pumpkin seeds, but we talked him out of it. For now. We plan to turn the existing sand box in the backyard into a vegetable garden this spring, so we will be sure to get him a pumpkin plant then. I am just so tired of the sand getting tracked into the house and there are lots of cats that roam the neighborhood and I am convinced they are probably using the sandbox as a large litterbox... Gross.

I loved watching the kids dig into the dinner tonight, knowing they helped make it. So maybe helping to care for the vegetables in the garden and watching them grow will make eating the vegetables more fun. We'll see. I'm going to go now and watch tv with my lovely husband. Or read the new P.D. James book I got at the library while he watches tv beside me. Sigh. What a perfect day.

grammy and papa shel

snow

It snowed last night. But most of it has completely melted away. Last week it was in the 70s all week and we ate dinner on the patio. Today, snow.

We took the kids to Olde Town Arvada on Saturday. It's about ten minutes from our house. And it is adorable. Who knew? There are some great coffee shops and an old bookstore and even an amazing German bakery. But it was pretty cold and by the time we finally found the cool playground with a dragon we had been told about, it began to snow!

our blue kitchen

Finally. Finally. Some photos. Jonathan gave me a new camera for my birthday, so today I washed the dishes and moved my clutter into the dining room and took some photos of the kitchen at last. I tried to get some of the same angles as the very first time we walked through the house so you can really see the transformation. Here we go:


I haven't found counter stools that I like yet. But eventually we will have stools there.

I had to post a close-up of my new pantry knobs I bought at Anthropologie. You can't really see them in the kitchen photos and I am just so madly in love with them.

And I just had to post this crazyass "during" photo. My mixer and baking ingredients are pulled out right next to a can of paint in the background. And there are Oreo balls in the foreground right next to a mini Christmas tree. I was making Christmas cookies for the neighbors right in the middle of all of this renovation madness!

Can you see the little white Dixie-cup dispenser mounted on the wall by the kitchen sink? Classic.


I guess we never took a photograph of the original stove. But that is okay. That thing was so old and gross. We ripped all of the appliances out right away. Here is a shot of Jonathan helping the delivery guys install the microwave over the stove. It is very handy having such a tall man around the house!

This next photo makes me smile. Because this is how we lived for a few weeks while I got organized and finished painting the cabinets. There are piles of appliance registration paperwork and delivery receipts in all of the cabinets and then in one kitchen cabinet: my purse, jammed in with everything else. I refused to put any dishes in those nasty cabinets until they were primed and painted.
We still need to rework some of the wiring in the kitchen because there is no electrical outlet up above the stove. So the microwave cord hangs down in front of the cabinet and is plugged in down below. Once Jonny installs a new outlet, we will nail a piece of plywood up there above the microwave and paint it to match the rest of the cabinetry, to hide that nasty hole up there. He'll get it done, eventually. It seems everywhere we look, we see more projects needing to be done.

Here's a shot of the new countertops (you can see where the old backsplash was attached to the walls) and the old dark cabinet finish sanded away:

And then a shot of the cabinet base primed. I still needed to prime and paint the inside, so you can see, still no pots and pans put away:

A funny photo of me busily priming and painting away. I have no idea how many hours I spent crouching on that plastic and cardboard. But I was determined not to rush the job. So this was what our family room looked like for several weeks. Sigh. We have a lot of cabinet doors.

And then, voila, the doors were hung and the knobs attached and the kitchen is (almost) finished!

What do you think? I think our wind-up Mario likes it: